Here is a short tour of the 5-7’s Kids BJJ Curriculum and how to use the site.
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The Egg
A Simple Way To Develop Water-Tight Defences
I remember when Alex started training Jiu Jitsu. He was athletic, good at scrambling, and had the heart of a lion.Because of these attributes, if he got on top, he would often catch his training partners in submissions or
However, the moment he got stuck on his back defending, he turned from a mat monster into something more like Bambi skating on ice. His arms and legs would be everywhere, and he’d try and bench press his partners off instead of using a solid technique.
Inevitably his opponents would pass his defences like butter and end up in a strong attacking position.
And at some point in your Jiu Jitsu journey, I’m sure you’ll have experienced this too. You got stuck on the bottom, and no matter how hard you fight your opponent breaches your defences and squash you like a bug.
Often the problem is not your ability to sweep or submit your opponent, instead, the problem is you are exposing your defences and making yourself vulnerable to attacks
A few years ago, I noticed this was a common problem in my beginner students. So set about creating a way to help teach them basic positional defence and guard recovery.
Enter The Egg Drill
After a little trial and error, the Egg was born (maybe laid is apter)
The fundamental principle behind the egg is to create a defensive shell. To do this you keep your elbows and knees tight to your body, and your chin tucked.
If you do this correctly, it becomes incredibly difficult for your partner to attack you regardless of the positionthey are in plus they will find it tough to stabilise any dominant position.
Now, before we go any further, this is just a drill or concept. It is not supposed to be specific technique, and if you’re sparring I would not advise you using this as your primary form of attack
However, if you are continually getting your guard passed or easily submitted, practising this drill will be of great benefit to you.
Essentially, there are three parts to this drill with each part building on the last. The drill starts by teaching you how to keep your defences tight, then progresses with how to recover guard, and finishes with how to you can use the concept in sparring situations.
Below you’ll find the thought process behind each part of the drill and video outline how to perform it.
Part 1: Understanding The Egg
The first part of the drill is simply getting used to keeping a tight defensive and demonstrate how easy it can be. To do this, you have to keep your elbows and knees tight to your body and keep your chin tucked in tight.
There should be no space for your partner to get inside of the frame and they shouldn’t be able to separate your limbs from your body.
When you can do this effectively, it becomes very hard for you opponent to set up any submission opportunities or stabilise a dominant position.
The video below shows how to perform part 1 of the Egg drill. The first time you do this, it’s a good idea to start slowly and gradually increase the pressure as your partner develops the defensive capabilities.
Part 2: Defending The Egg
Once you get comfortable with the defensive position, the next step is to stop them getting around your guard.
It is impossible for your opponent to be attacking both sides of your body at once. Consequently, you can use the side they’re not attacking to defend your opponents pass attempts or recover guard.
The second part of the drill is the start of integrating the Egg concept into sparring. Check out the video below to see exactly how to do part 2 of the drill.
Part 3: Opening The Egg
Obviously, keeping your hands connected to your shins and your legs tucked into your body isn’t an effective way to play Jiu Jitsu. Consequently, the final part of the drill is all about how you use the Egg concept within your Jiu Jitsu.
The video below shows how to perform part 3 of the Egg drill.
How To Become One With The Egg
Like almost technique or concept in Jiu Jitsu, you need to practice the Egg to make it instinctive and be able to use it when you need to.
However, this is relatively easy. Simply take some time before or after your regular Jiu Jitsu training and practiceeach of the drills in order.
A short training plan (less than 15 minutes) could look something like this.
The Egg Part 1: 2 x 1 min rounds (alternate attacker and defender)
The Egg Part 2: 2 x 1 min rounds (alternating)
The Egg Part 3: 2 x 1 min rounds (alternating)
Remember, gradually increase the intensity as your partner improves, and if your partner is struggling to take the intensity back a notch.
If you did this plan for a month I can guarantee your guard retention and defence would increase dramatically. This short training plan also at as a great warm up for any guard training or defensive work.
If you enjoyed this article or found it useful, leave a comment below and let me know. I always appreciate the feedback.
To get your FREE copy of Performance Drilling and discover how to train like a world champion click the button below.
Scramble Athlete Review
Buying a new Gi is serious business for most BJJ players. Inevitably, some important questions will cross your mind.
How much will it shrink? Will I look cool? Which one is best for competition?
To try and help you make an informed decision, in this video, I compare the three versions of Scramble’s latest Athlete Gi (The Athlite, The Athlete, and the Athlete Pro).
Enjoy and if you want to get one of these awesome Gi’s, they’re available at https://scramblestuff.com/
Filming Instructionals Is Dangerous!
You might not believe it, but filming a Jiu Jitsu instructional can be a dangerous business. I certainly didn’t believe it.
A short while ago, I was recording some additional content for the Lapel Guard Passing Course with one of my students Ash. During one of the demonstrations, I accidentally put Ash to sleep!
This was completely unexpected as I was demonstrating a pass, not a choke. Apparently, my shoulder pressure is just that powerful.
Ash completely recovered within a second or two of me realising the pressure, but as it’s pretty funny I thought I’d share the clip with you.
Do you hate getting tangled up in lapel guards?
You might want to check out the Lapel Guard Passing Course. It covers everything you need to know to dismantle and pass the most common lapel guards.
For a limited time, you can get the Lapel Guard Passing Course at a massive discount. To learn more and get instant access, click the button below:
Simple Tip To Learn New Techniques Faster
As you start to learn techniques that are more complex— or you’re moving into positions that are unfamiliar to you— there are going to be times when a position you’re watching just looks overwhelming. The reality is, however, that most of the movements we use in BJJ are simple. Complex movements have room for error, and the weirder a position is, the less applicable it’s going to be to the average practitioner. What makes positions look or seem complicated is the addition of an opponent.
When you’re learning a new position, even if it’s unfamiliar, it’s really important to look at what the person performing the technique is doing. We always tell our students not to make things too complicated, and it’s absolutely something that you should keep in mind when watching new positions. In the video, we’re talking about the crazy dog pass initially, but this is true of nearly every position we teach. Simple movements are strong movements. Nearly all of BJJ stems from a few strong movements and positions— that’s why we do our animal drills at the beginning of each training session.
Of course, it’s also important for the opponent to do the right thing during the drilling session. BJJ is a sport that includes resistance, so you need to integrate resistance into the drilling session. We’ll do another video on being a good drilling partner as well. For the most part, though, instructions for opponents in a drilling session should be relatively simple.
The crazy dog drill we were doing involved the opponent opening the knee in the crazy dog position and having active frames— and that’s it. Small movements that are easy to remember, but also movements that are likely to occur in a sparring situation. Most of us can remember a few instructions with relative ease, so after a few repetitions of the technique, you should be almost completely ignoring the opponent and focusing entirely on the person performing the technique.
This will likely change how you see Jiu Jitsu— you’ll start to see patterns of similar movements emerging all over the place. It’s so much easier to learn generalized movements and apply them in a variety of situations than it is to learn a technique for every possible iteration of movement. Imagine trying to memorize every possible sentence in a foreign language versus learning a collection of verbs, nouns, adverbs, and adjectives and then applying those known words to new situations: one method is clearly going to produce superior results.
Do you want to learn more essential Jiu Jitsu concepts like this? Escapology Online has a dedicated “concepts” section. Each of these concepts, while simple, can have a dramatic impact on the effectiveness of your Jiu Jitsu.
You can learn more about Escapology Online and get your £1 trial by visiting https://escapologybjj.com/online/