Brazilian Jiu Jitsu: Back Control Demonstration

Mike Martin, Owner of Strong Heart Academy, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Phoenix Arizona, and third degree black belt, demonstrates back control.

Back mount, Brazilian jiu jitsu, hooks.

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Watch the video below:

Back Control: Simple Explanation

So we're gonna do a very simple, uh, explanation of back control from seated position. So when I sit, uh, when I take someone's back, the most important thing is getting my chest glued to their back. So my hips can be farther away if I'm taller or shorter. That's okay. Um, but I don't want my head by his head here. I'm gonna get headbutted intentionally or accidental. We don't wanna break our nose or our nice teeth we wanna have here. Some people say second head. I can put my cheek on their shoulder. So even if he were to a forward roll, his head would hit. And not mine. If I'm kind of sagging off, I get, you tend to get loose. I don't wanna cross my ankles if he puts his feet over, he's gonna break my ankles. Okay. It feels correct. Unfortunately, it's not correct.

In Detail: Back Control

So we wanna hook with our feet and squeeze with our knees, my hand position. I'm gonna go one arm under and for you right-handed guys, we're gonna go over here. If I can get my armpit over the shoulder, it's gonna be much tighter versus just my elbow over the shoulder. Okay. Because I, my arm is not as long for the chokes and things I want to do for attacking. I wanna get my armpit over a classmate, my hand, Gable grip again, no thumbs fingers attached, and then I'm gonna tuck my cheek and my elbows are gonna pull tight here. So, uh, just from now, we're not really attacking. I just want you to understand when I say taking the back, what is, what is the position gonna look like from the seated position? You can also do this from knees. It's the same exact thing. It's gonna be a lot easier to see on camera, uh, from our, butt.

Thank you.

Strong Heart Principle: Balance

View all 8 Strong Heart Academy Principles here.

The third thing is balance. This is the hardest, okay. Balance for me is hard. Uh, I really try to balance my life as much as I can. And this is like all aspects. Like people think sometimes when I say balance is like, oh, can, are you on balance? Like, um, athletically? And that is important too, because that is, uh, balance is a aspect of athletics. And, um, you know, some people will only go to strength, training, endurance, training, stamina up, but I think sometimes flexibility, but balance is huge. Um, huge for Jitsu, uh, huge for almost all sports, really. So that is an aspect of it, but I'm talking about the balance of life.

You know, we try to talk about kids like, you know, and even adults really honestly, uh, is with, you know, video games are video games bad. Absolutely not. If you're playing eight hours a day. Yes. I had a student one time, years ago that, uh, he lost his job because he was playing world of Warcraft, uh, until like four in the morning had to go to work at like six or seven. And he would call in his work, his work dropped, and then he ended up losing his house. Um, you know, these, these are, that's a dangerous thing. You're not having balance in your life, you know, like you need sleep. And that's the thing thing too, like not just video games, but sleep, sleep is a part of balance. Part of the health too, is a healthy person, is someone that gets their sleep.

You know, you work X amount, you, you have X amount of time with your family. You know, sometimes for myself, I, I struggle with, you know, a small business, uh, staying with my family and, and making sure that they're giving time. My kids, my wife is getting the time that they deserve. Uh, and then I also have to work, you know, like if I'm just only hanging out with them and I'm abandoning my, my school, my, my business, it's gonna start to degrade, not do as good. So like, it's constantly like checks and balances of balance in your life. You know, work it out all the time. Your body will break down, you need rest. That's part of the balance. And, um, you know, with school, like you gotta study, you know, if you're not gonna study, then it's gonna be difficult to get good grades and achieve the things that you're trying to achieve.

Um, so, so that's kind of my, my, my take on balance is you need to be wor thinking about it. You can even write it out, like what you're doing. If you write out your day, like at the end of the day, what did I do at this time? What did I do at this time? You'll start seeing the hours of the day. We only have so many hours of the day and you know, you gonna have to get your balance down. What, what are you gonna do? And there's gonna be sacrifices as far as balance of concerned. You know, there might be one month, like I gotta work a little extra hard, but you need to make sure that you're gonna come back and work with your family, see your family, you know, maybe take a weekend off with your family, something like that.

Okay. Um, but these things are important. So even with jiu jitsu, like I'll tell people set the days they're gonna do jiu jitsu. Okay. Sometimes, uh, our spouses are like, why are you always with these people? You know, like, but it'll make you better for your family because you get this, um, respite in doing jiu jitsu and you're being healthy and doing something positive. And then you're gonna go back to your family. And I promise, you'll be a better person. You need to explain this balance to your parent, to your spouse, but your, you also need to be with your spouse. So like, if you're training every day, six times, you know, if I'm training twice a day, five to six times a week, and maybe you're not seeing your, your, your, your spouse, this could be a problem. Okay. And you know, a lot of the champions that I've known in my life, their balance is a little off.

And a lot of times families, um, take the brunt of that. And, and professional athletes is the same thing. You know, the door horse rate is so high because their balance is outta whack. And so to, in order to achieve the levels that they need to achieve, there's a lot of sacrifice. And sometimes, unfortunately, the family is the first thing to sacrifice. So if you're a competitive athlete, you need to be asking yourself, are you willing to make these sacrifices to be the champion? Is it worth the sacrifices? And then, you know, I've known some people that they find out that later, it's not, it's not worth it. You know, like, man, they look back and like, I, I didn't see my kids. I didn't see my wife. And now I'm, you know, I had these gold medals, but what does that mean? Um, so it's a tough one.

It is a tough one. And, um, work and balances for, for me is the toughest on this list, the toughest on this list.