Two Paths to Blue Belt

In this article we are going to go over the two most effective and efficient paths to blue belt. The main difference between the two lies in whether or not you want to compete before you get your blue belt.  That decision changes your focus. If you are not interested in competing you can take a more generalized path to mastery. But if you are interested in competing you have to be laser focused to give yourself the best possible chance to succeed in a competition setting. That means doing some of the mental work and actually making decisions about your Jiu Jitsu game. This can sound daunting but don’t worry. You can do it. There aren’t really any WRONG decisions. The only wrong decision is the decision not to decide. Other than that there are merely more efficient and less efficient choices. 

The world of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Guard Games breaks down roughly into three categories; Closed Guard, Open Guard, and Half Guard. Eventually you want to be proficient in all three phases of guard work, ie Defense in Depth. If your opponent passes your open guard you catch them in your closed guard or half guard where you have another chance to attack. If your opponent passes your closed guard you catch them in your half guard. Where again you have another chance to attack. But that will take time. For now you just need to pick one. 

How to Choose a Guard Game

The two main ways I’ve seen students choose a guard game are; 1. Passion and 2. Practical. The passion project is the one you fall in love with.  Ie your favorite competitor is Leandro Lo. You love his use of Lo Guard/De La Spider and you would move heaven and earth to be able to do the same thing. It may or may not be a great fit for your physical and mental make up, but if you are passionate enough to put in the work. You can become proficient at most any guard game given enough time and effort. 

The more practical path is answered by the question; “What (guard) position do I end up in over and over again?” If you are getting stuck in half guard over and over again, you might as well have some techniques to try out while you are there. Focus on mastering the techniques in the Fundamental Curriculum. All of them. But pay special attention to the techniques that are from the guard that you choose. There are loads of other ways to take in new information on Jiu Jitsu. Youtube is free with an internet connection. Here’s some examples from half guard. “Half guard sweeps, Coyote Guard, Deep Half Guard, Half Guard replace, Half guard replace” etc. The more you watch the more you understand about what is possible from that position. Use your filter and a little skepticism. There are some less than stellar instructors online. Look for high level competitors. Their techniques are battle tested and they will often show you some of their very best stuff online for free. Long gone are the days of traveling halfway across the continent, climbing up to the top of a misty mountain, to study at the feet of some Grand Master to only find out ten years later that their Five Finger Exploding Heart Technique is bs. There is a wealth of information at your fingertips. Take advantage. 

The Competition Path = Pick a Guard Game

If you plan to compete you need to focus on learning a Guard Game. Picking a Guard Game allows you to focus on one area, and develop a speciality. You can reasonably quickly (within 6 months to a year) develop a relatively deep understanding of one sub-position or “Game” in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Let’s pick the classic Brazilian Jiu Jitsu closed guard game; Front Choke, Armbar, Triangle, to Omoplata to use as an example. Let’s say that you come into class 3-4 days a week. If you are a little disciplined and spend 10 – 15 min before class and 10 – 15 min after class drilling different variations, sequences, closed guard pulls, etc. In six months that’s 26-52 hours of time spent on the subject. Your opponent in a tournament will have spent nowhere near that amount of time learning how to defend that sequence. This puts you at a huge advantage to win the match. 

How to pick a guard game? 

• Pick a game you are familiar with, that “makes sense” to you
• Pick a game that you are passionate about

The exception here is if you have enough wrestling or Judo experience that you are reasonably confident that you can enforce a top game via takedown or getting your opponent to pull guard.

It’s hard to over emphasize how powerful it is for you and your Jiu Jitsu to have a Game. It serves as your home base. A place where you can breathe and calm yourself down for a moment. It becomes a lens through which you look Jiu Jitsu. It also becomes your road map. It becomes how you plan out the rest of your Jiu Jitsu Journey. For example when you start to have success with certain sweeps, your opponents will react to those sweeps in a couple common ways. So drilling and applying a pass after your favorite sweep based on the most common reaction you see is an incredibly powerful way to take your Jiu Jitsu to the next level, build on your success, and start to get to the point that Jiu Jitsu flows from one piece into another. Probably most importantly, developing a speciality will give you success. The more success you have on the mats, the more you want to keep training and have more success.

Non Competition 

If you aren’t planning on competing you can take a more well rounded path to your black belt. Pick one move from both top and bottom of the 5 major positions;

• Mount – Learn/master one escape from bottom and one submission from top
• Back – “
• Side Control – “
• Closed Guard – Learn/Master one way to open and pass from top and one attack, either sweep or submission from bottom.
• Half Guard – Learn one pass, and one sweep.