How to Tie Your Jiu-Jitsu Belt: A Step-by-Step Guide by Strong Heart Academy

Welcome to the Strong Heart Academy blog! As a premier Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu gym in Scottsdale, Arizona, we're committed to providing you with the highest-quality instruction and resources to help you excel in your martial arts journey. Today, we'll be covering a fundamental aspect of BJJ training: how to tie your Jiu-Jitsu belt correctly.

Having a properly tied belt is not only essential for maintaining a professional appearance, but it also ensures that your belt stays in place during training and competition. Let's dive into our step-by-step guide on how to tie your Jiu-Jitsu belt the right way!

Step 1: Find the Center of Your Belt

To begin, locate the center of your belt. Hold the belt out in front of you and make sure the ends are even. The middle of the belt will be the starting point.

Step 2: Wrap the Belt Around Your Waist

Place the center of the belt on your stomach, just below your navel. Wrap both ends of the belt around your waist, crossing them over in the back. Bring the ends back to the front, ensuring that the layers of the belt lie flat against your body.

Step 3: Cross the Ends Over

With both ends of the belt now in front of you, cross the right end over the left end. Make sure the belt remains flat and snug against your body.

Step 4: Tuck the Right End Under the Layers

Take the right end (now on top) and tuck it under all the belt layers wrapped around your waist. Pull it up and out, making sure to keep the belt tight.

Step 5: Make a Knot

Grab both ends of the belt and ensure they are the same length. Fold the end that is on top (previously the right end) over the bottom end. Then, take the bottom end (now on top) and thread it through the loop created by the top end. Finally, pull both ends tight to secure the knot.

Your Jiu-Jitsu belt should now be tied correctly, with the knot lying flat and horizontal across your waist. The ends of the belt should hang down evenly.

Additional Tips for Tying Your Jiu-Jitsu Belt

• Always ensure your belt is clean and in good condition. If your belt is frayed or damaged, it's time to replace it.

• To prevent your belt from coming undone during training, consider using the super lock knot technique for added security.

Wrapping Up

Now that you know how to tie your Jiu-Jitsu belt, you're one step closer to mastering the art of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. At Strong Heart Academy in Scottsdale, Arizona, we're dedicated to helping you reach your full potential in martial arts. Check out our class schedule and join us for a session soon!

Kids BJJ Day: Demonstration

CHILDREN’S BRAZILIAN JIU JITSU LESSON

Mike Martin, Owner of Strong Heart Academy, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Phoenix Arizona, and third-degree black belt, narrates various grips, holds, and more. Demonstration for children’s BJJ and adult BJJ.

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Kids Day, BJJ Demonstration

Transcript - Kids BJJ Demonstration

Footwork and Cross Stepping

All right, drop Sandia. I'm gonna show with some shoes, some footwork you can do cross stepping and then your other leg is gonna try to stay within your partner's, uh, legs. You don't want to go too far outward outside of the legs. Now, if they're smaller, you can go a little bit. It's not as bad, but try to stay within and then, uh, squat or drop to your knees. Uh, we tend to teach dropping to our knees. It's a little safer, some more footwork gripping at the elbow, lifting the elbow and cross stepping. Lifting at the elbow, allows the other leg, the other arm and grip to come inside.

Making Room for Grip

You're making room for your other grip. Now I'm gonna show cross gripping the various grips we can use, um, lifting form or, uh, form goes inside. So form goes inside the armpit and my other foot is gonna step behind. So cross step form goes inside and squat. Now you could do the full San AGI from standing or the drop sayNo. We tend to do the drop. San AGI just is a little safer for everyone. Now, this is just a self defense, uh, practicing of gripping. If they're overhand, I'm showing 'em like, if you had something in your hand, like a hammer or whatever, stick, it doesn't matter. It just open Palm out as a stop. And then you're gonna reach in traditional gripping underneath.

Body Positioning: BJJ

So it's easier to practice if you partner a square, meaning both feet are equal. Open the elbow cross step. Now opposite arm comes in. It's the same grip. You wanna make sure you get high in the armpit and not in the middle of the bicep. Pull the hand down. So it's hard to finish you head down and follow through leading him forward. Before you drop will help get him on his toes. And the throw is much easier to finish lifting the hand with the sleeve grip and dropping. You need to get underneath the arm, uh, armpit, and you need to get lower. So if you're a taller person in your opponent, you have to squat lower than your opponent. This is the traditional grip, but his arm is straight so that he cannot curl and go for rear naked, choke and jujitsu. They're gonna try to choke you and put hooks in. So you also, another reason I like to draw it to my knees. It's harder to get the hooks in, to follow through.

Armbar from the Guard

All right, armbar from the guard, gonna pull the arm underneath, pull it across. Same foot will go on the hip cross grip on his shoulder arm that you're attacking. That foot goes on. The hip. Other foot goes high and turning him high on his back high. As you can almost touch your knee, he possibly can push the face, hand slides to the wrist. I step over pinching my knees and curling my legs. Lifting hips. Wrist must stay on your chest to finish this time. When I do the arm bar, I come underneath, I pull the arm across, I step foot on the hip. We step over like a normal arm bar, but they're going to pull their arm out. When they pull their arm out, I'm going to drop my left knee towards the mat. As I hip escape, I hip escape, dropping my knee, clear the arm to the far side, and now I'm tacking the other arm, lifting my hips to step over the head heel to toes.

Securing Wrist and Finishing Armbar

Make sure you secure the wrist to the chest. Finishing the armbar. This last one is a Kyle armbar, which I call Kyle armbar. He has control of my lapels. I'm going to break his grip. We've worked earlier videos on breaking his grips. I lift the sky, switch my grip over the wrist and grab his tricep material at the seam with four fingers Palm up. I'm gonna maintain that hand on the tricep. Do not let go of that. Just like a normal armbar, changing the angle. We're gonna go over his shoulder with my thigh pinching my knees. Many times I can lift up. Do not take your hand off his tricep lift finish even better. Step over. Keep your hand on the tricep and lift your hips for the finish.

Starting with Grips from Half Guard

I'm gonna start with grips from half guard, thumb in his neck, gripping his wrist shin in his chest knee towards my hand. So there's an angle there. Here's the other side, my feet. I like to keep in tucked. You need to hook his bottom knee. So he does not knee cut slice. You, you have to hook your inside leg cannot be on the ground. So kicking him off of an angle and then hand follows my knee. As I kick forward to do like a sit up, my ear goes on his belly button or as low as I can. The lower, the better makes it hard for him to re underhook you. I have the under hook. We need to maintain the under hook coming up to my knee and getting ready to sh him to take his back is the first option. If they do not wizard. Now, the easiest thing to do is to get back to close guard. Now, many people wanna play half guard. This is fine, but you should always understand, pull their hand out and then lay comes out. You couldn't turn this into a scissor sweep as well, but we're just gonna turn my hips, relock my guard, go back to clothes guard.

Strong Heart Principle | SERVICE

View all 8 principles here.

So the first one is service and the way we talk about this is service to others. You know, I try to encourage the kids to, do community service and, and understand that you are part of a community as humans and helping the people around you.

So we give pins out, awards out for 10 hours, community service. And the goal is just to get you in the service mindset. And I know for myself, all the service things that I do, I mean, they hugely impact my own life. Not the people that I help. Like obviously they help the, the people that I help, but I get something out of it. There's something about being a human and helping others. And, what it does for yourself. Like you have a sense of gratitude, for the things that you have that maybe others don't. And, it sets a community, you know, when you're working with others. So we highly encourage service. I encourage this with adults too. And you know, my, we, we even say that, you know, I allow for these community hours of community service, some of 'em don't like, what, what can I do as a kid?

I'm like, you could pick up trash in a neighborhood. Sometimes we think if it has to be like this complicated thing, it really doesn't, you know, you can go at school, you could pick up trash around the playground afterwards, just ask for a bag. I guarantee you, the teachers will say, absolutely, I'll give you a trash bag. You go out there, wash your hands afterwards. And, and, and thank you. So these are just things that we, we try to encourage, encourage, encourage, you know, be a part of the community, help your community, help people around you. And I think that's something that we're missing right now in, in society is everyone's very me, me, me, me, and you're encroaching on me. And, and it's like, how about us? You know, us? And the other thing I encourage kids is to help their grandparents.

You know, America has a, a very strange relationship with grandparents. Um, you know, they're separated like a lot of countries in the world, grandparents live with you. Okay, now, now grandparents live separately. Either they have their own place or they're maybe at a, a nursing home. So I encourage, you know, helping your grandparents, wash their car, pick up dog poop at their house, help them with their laundry pick weeds. Um, there's many things that kids even young as four can do and get these, this, this helping your grandparents out. And, um, you should be, and your grandparents will love it because you're hanging out with them. Um, it's kind of the way I believe that things should be okay.

Thank you.

Children's Jiu Jitsu: Demonstration Lesson

Children’s Brazilian Jiu Jitsu: Demonstration of Moves

Mike Martin, Owner of Strong Heart Academy, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Phoenix Arizona, and third-degree black belt, narrates various grips, holds, and more. Demonstration for children’s BJJ and adult BJJ.

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Watch the video below:

Mike Martin, Children’s BJJ Demonstration. Moves, Holds, Grips and more!

Transcript: Children’s BJJ

So pulling guard have sleeve grip and lapel grip. I wanna step forward and my right leg is gonna go toes out on the hip. As I fall to one butt cheek, and then I'm gonna grab his ankle. My other foot needs to step, uh, hook behind his knee and pull so that can backstep and start passing series. If you fall on your side, it's easier to reach the ankle that you're aiming for. Here's another angle. They'll slow you down. As you could descend, bend one leg and then you'll have our sleeve. And then my other leg, my hand goes right to the ankle. Now you can turn this into a million guards. This is just a nice, simple, open guard. I usually turn into a sickle sweep, uh, but this is the way I like to pull guard.

Intercept Hand and Grip Fighting

All right, we're gonna work on changing levels first here and elbows in hands out. So thumbs are in hands are out. It's easier to intercept, uh, hand and grip fighting, but he feeds changing levels. I have to change levels with him and that's the whole point. My head level is gonna go at his level. I'm showing how to clear his hands, cuz his hands in front. So I'm going to change levels, knee pound and blast double. Now here's the more sophisticated, double leg changing levels. My knee goes to the ground. Head should stay up better than that. I like to grab the calves step and then I'm gonna lift one leg, head up and walk towards my ear. My head is turning him. I'm tapping his knee and walk in a circle will always keep you on bounds and you'll gonna get this side control position. Most likely instead of getting stuck in guard, the blast double will get you stuck in D uh, closed guard. If they know what they're doing, they're it's great for a street fight. It's um, good for MMA, but uh, for jujitsu tournaments, you don't wanna be stuck in the double leg and there's uh, a little bit faster. You really can't do it this

Arm Bar from Guard

Slow either, but uh, showing you how it should look. All right, armbar from the guard. We're gonna pull the arm underneath, pull it across. Same foot will go on the hip cross grip on his shoulder arm that you're attacking. That foot goes on. The hip. Other foot goes high and turning him high on his back high. As you can almost touch your knee, he possibly can push the face, hand slides to the wrist. I step over pinching my knees and curling my legs. Lifting the hips. Wrist must stay on your chest to finish this time. When I do the arm bar, I come underneath, I pull the arm across, I step foot on the hip. We step over like a normal arm bar, but they're going to pull their arm out. When they pull their arm out, I'm going to drop my left knee towards the mat.

Hip Escape and Arm Bar

As I hip escape, I hip escape dropping my knee, clear the arm to the far side, and now I'm taking the other arm, lifting my hips to step over the head heel to toes. Make sure you secure the wrist to the chest. Finishing the armbar. This last one is a Caio armbar, which I call Caio armbar. He has control of my lapels. I'm going to break his grip. We've worked earlier videos on breaking the grips. I lift the sky, switch my grip over the wrist and grab his tricep material at the seam with four fingers Palm up. I'm gonna maintain that hand on the tricep. Do not let go of that. Just like a normal armbar, changing the angle. We're gonna go over his shoulder with my thigh pinching my knees. Many times I can lift up. Do not take your hand off his tricep lift finish even better. Step over. Keep your hand on the tricep and lift your hips for the finish. So we're gonna do guard break. Um, when you're in the guard. So the person in white is gonna roll his two lapels, put 'em together and roll them up like a burrito. And then he's gonna keep his hand. So his thumb is still up. And when his partner comes up, he pushes him back down and stiff, arms him back down to the ground.

Working Breaks

He rolls the gear back up and his hand goes to the hip. One hand on the lapel. When he push comes up, he pushes him back down. So we're gonna work breaks today. Uh, when he's grabbing your sleeve, you're gonna grab his knuckles and pull your hand out. We're gonna do some of these a couple times and you can see he dabs. If you'd like grabs and knuckles and pulls a hand out and then you can pin their hand. The second one is lapel. So that's your lapel. I'm pointing to when your partner grabs the same side lapel, and you're gonna make a V with your hands and break the grip. So he takes his hands. Two hands, hand breaks this time he cross grips. So meaning he grips across the other side of lapel, not the same side. You're gonna loop your head underneath and posture up hard. I helped him by pushing his head over that time. We cross grip, loop our head and posture up and you can break also with your hands as you posture up.

Open the Guard

Now we're working to open the guard up. So you have your burrito grip. You have your hand on the hip. The hand, the knee is gonna go right down the middle and other knee is gonna go wide and you're gonna turn your chest. And he already opened his guard here, but many times they don't thumb inside the knee to push down, to open up and break the guard open. And that's our whole goal knee on the middle step over, keep your leg nice and straight while your hand is on the knee.

Thank you.

Strong Heart Principle - HEALTH

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The next one is health. And you know, this is kind of mixes with balance. A lot of these mixed together, which I think is important too. But health is, you know, eating right, sleeping, exercising, and mental health as well, working on mental health. We have a serious mental health issue in the country right now. Um, and so I think jiu jitsu's a huge help for it, but it's, it's just an aspect of your mental health. You need to be working on other things and ex, and be a, be a person that self examines yourself and be brutal with yourself.

You know, am I working on the things that I need to do for my mental health? You could have anxiety, depression, um, you know, you know, how are your relationships? That's part of your health too. Okay. Stress leads to physical ailments. It's proven. Okay. So dealing with your stress in a positive way, instead of drinking or drugs or medicating, you know, everyone's so many people taking Xanax. Oh, it's legal. Okay. But, and, and maybe you need it if you're having severe panics. Okay. But you need to deal with the root cause. What is causing the anxiety and maybe therapy might be a thing that you need, okay. Or a psychiatrist or psychologist maybe read on these subjects. Is there something that, a book that might help you, you know, faith, um, I think is a huge part of this too, you know, like not everyone has faith, but I, I believe, um, a good part of balance and health is your mind, your body and your soul.

And, um, health, I think is an important part of that. You know, that Trinity of, of health and balance, um, uh, so, you know, making, making sure you're, you're eating properly, you know, myself, I have a, I have a sweet tooth, you know, and I, I drink way too much soda. And, uh, our doctor, you know, I, I drink, uh, pop, whatever you wanna call wherever you're in the country. Uh, I call it soda, but, um, it's not good for you. It's not healthy. I need to be drinking. I drink a lot of water, but I need, I would like to cut out as part of my thing. Like my list, you get cut out more. Um, I'm trying to cut down on my carbs a little bit. I'm decent at that. You know, my, my, my, uh, my food intake is probably where I suffer the most.

I, I do exercise. I do have, I am a man of faith. I do work on my mental health. Um, I am very conscious of my mental health. Um, and all those things are struggles. You know, not, no one's saying that any of this stuff is easy, but it's, if you don't work on things, um, they don't change.

Reverse Half Guard Knee Bar: Demonstration from Third Degree Black Belt

Reverse Half Guard Knee Bar

Mike Martin, Owner of Strong Heart Academy, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Phoenix Arizona, and third degree black belt, demonstrates reverse half guard knee bar.

Response When Opponent Defends

In reverse half guard, attacking the knee bar then switching to a foot lock when the opponent defends.

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In reverse half guard, attacking the knee bar then switching to a foot lock when the opponent defends.

Transcript: Reverse Half Guard Knee Bar

So I'm in, uh, I'm trying to attack this knee bar. So when I come in, sometimes he grabs the sleeve or I just can't get it out. So when I come and I roll here, I'm going, I can't extract it. I'm gonna take this foot instead. Okay. Now I'm gonna reach through if I can grab it. That's fine. Many times you can't grab it. You're just gonna grab the toes. Top of the toes are gonna pull the heel, pull the heel to your chest and push it in. Or if you can reach at this point, you can get your, your, your foot lock. Okay. But depends on the size of the guy's foot. How strong he is to finish the toe hold. If the foot he starts coming out, I'm gonna use this as a lever again, and pull out catching with my head and finishing.

Thank you.

Strong Heart Principle to Live By | HEALTH

View all 8 principles here.

The next one is health. And you know, this is kind of mixes with balance. A lot of these mixed together, which I think is important too. But health is, you know, eating right, sleeping, exercising, and mental health as well, working on mental health. We have a serious mental health issue in the country right now. Um, and so I think jiu jitsu's a huge help for it, but it's, it's just an aspect of your mental health. You need to be working on other things and ex, and be a, be a person that self examines yourself and be brutal with yourself.

You know, am I working on the things that I need to do for my mental health? You could have anxiety, depression, um, you know, you know, how are your relationships? That's part of your health too. Okay. Stress leads to physical ailments. It's proven. Okay. So dealing with your stress in a positive way, instead of drinking or drugs or medicating, you know, everyone's so many people taking Xanax. Oh, it's legal. Okay. But, and, and maybe you need it if you're having severe panics. Okay. But you need to deal with the root cause. What is causing the anxiety and maybe therapy might be a thing that you need, okay. Or a psychiatrist or psychologist maybe read on these subjects. Is there something that, a book that might help you, you know, faith, um, I think is a huge part of this too, you know, like not everyone has faith, but I, I believe, um, a good part of balance and health is your mind, your body and your soul.

And, um, health, I think is an important part of that. You know, that Trinity of, of health and balance, um, uh, so, you know, making, making sure you're, you're eating properly, you know, myself, I have a, I have a sweet tooth, you know, and I, I drink way too much soda. And, uh, our doctor, you know, I, I drink, uh, pop, whatever you wanna call wherever you're in the country. Uh, I call it soda, but, um, it's not good for you. It's not healthy. I need to be drinking. I drink a lot of water, but I need, I would like to cut out as part of my thing. Like my list, you get cut out more. Um, I'm trying to cut down on my carbs a little bit. I'm decent at that. You know, my, my, my, uh, my food intake is probably where I suffer the most.

I, I do exercise. I do have, I am a man of faith. I do work on my mental health. Um, I am very conscious of my mental health. Um, and all those things are struggles. You know, not, no one's saying that any of this stuff is easy, but it's, if you don't work on things, um, they don't change.

BJJ Mount: Simple Mount Demonstration by Third Degree Black Belt

Simple Mount Brazilian Jiu Jitsu | Demonstration

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

simple mount, mount, Bjj, Brazilian jujitsu, strong heartbjj

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simple mount, mount, Bjj, Brazilian jujitsu, strong heartbjj

Transcript:

Okay. From mount position. I wanna tuck my feet under their butt. My hand is gonna come under the head. I want my shoulder into his face so that he looks at my free hand. My other hand's gonna go wide. All we're doing is just, this is we're gonna call home base or Mount. Okay. You can lock your feet onto the butt. And I wanna put my hips into him for pressure.

Mount Position

You should never be up like this in Mount. We'll lose the position. Okay. If I have my hand here and my arms out here, he can end up rolling me this direction. So I want his head, this direction facing, looking at my hand posting with my hand. So right now we're not worrying about submissions. We're just worrying about understanding what, when I say Mount, what does it look like? Sitting on their chest feet locked under the butt or tucked under the butt.

Bjj Mount - Feet Wide:

If I had my feet wide and he pushed on my hips, I'm gonna fall off. Yeah. So especially for smaller people, we gotta make sure that we're tucking our feet under the butt. If you push on my hips now I don't go anywhere. And he tires himself out. If we were to push on my chest, okay. From the beginning we could arm bar him, but the beginning, I wanna learn how to swim, swimming through. So he pushes on my chest. I swim through, he pushes on my hips. I grab the head. He pushes on my knee and I'm gonna push his head away. Lift up on his hand, pushes on my other knee. I Push his head away lift up.

Thanks.

Strong Heart Principle #4 - INTEGRITY

View all 8 Strong Heart Principles here.

Okay. The next one is integrity for me. This is the easiest one. Uh, for a lot of people, it's it, it's hard because sometimes you're gonna have to, um, when you're doing what's right, it's sometimes it's gonna be painful. And this is just, uh, I'm fortunate that the way that I was raised, I, I, this is just part of my, the way I was raised. So I, I I've always had integrity. Um, and for me, my, uh, reputation is very important. Um, and not a false sense of reputation, a, a real reputation. Um, I try to do what I say I'm going to do. Um, and that's why I try not to, you know, I I've expressed this as a biblical concept for me, that I, that very few people I think talk about, but, you know, Jesus used to say, make your, yes, your yes and your no, no.

Don't make promises. Don't make proclamations, you know, it's yes. If you say, so, I'll say, let me think about, let me, I'll try to do it, but I try not to say yes or no, because I, I want to try to do it. And I don't want to give you a false, you know, I know certain people, I tell them, don't tell me they're gonna be there unless you're gonna be there. If you're not gonna, you know, I give people a lot of breaks, but after like three I'm like, I don't don't tell me you're gonna be here. Okay. Just be here. And then I'll, I'll be thankful that you showed up or Mike, I'm gonna do this thing. Great. And then they don't show up and kids really, this is a big one with kids. If you're a father or a mother, you know, you tell them you're gonna be somewhere or do something, you, you know, this you'll lose trust with this.

Okay. So integrity is about doing what you say you're gonna do, even if it's gonna be painful. Okay. And, um, and honesty is, it's part of the honesty. You know, I have integrity. I'm not, I'm not gonna be, uh, dishonest with people, you know, you know, and if you do, you need to apologize and take and, and make amends. And part of our current zeitgeist is a problem with, um, forgiveness right now. Um, but, uh, it's, I think we need to bring it back. And, and with honesty, if, if people are honestly, um, uh, you know, apologetic and they wanna make it right, then you should be willing to have forgiveness because understanding that you make mistakes as well. But, um, you know, there's a level of trust when someone has integrity and you see someone and like, man, I know, you know, Mike, he says he is gonna do it.

It's gonna do it. You don't even, people have a tendency to just believe them because you've built up integrity. You've built up a, a level. And it's kind of like a fuel tank, you know, like, you know, you, you, you, every time you don't do what you say, it goes down and down and down and down, and you start looking at your fuel gauge. You're like, mm, I don't know. There's not much there. Um, you know, you want to trust that someone's gonna do what they say, and it's a big one for me. Um, and it's, I judge people a lot for this one. You know, this is a big one for me. So it's easy for me. I know some people might be a little bit harder. Um, but I, I, I, it's a principle that you should be work working on that if someone, if you were to die tomorrow and they're at you at the funeral, they would say, you know, John DOE, he was a man of integrity.

Jane DOE. She was a woman of integrity. Um, that is something that I want said when I die, but, but an honest version, you know, I wanted to say it. And they mean that I actually had integrity, not just because I'm, I'm dead and they wanna, you know, make me look good. I, I wanna earn, earn that.

BJJ Positions: A Simple Explanation by Third Degree Black Belt - Strong Heart BJJ

BJJ - Jiu Jitsu Positions

Mike Martin, Owner of Strong Heart Academy, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Phoenix Arizona, and third degree black belt, explains BJJ positions.

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Transcript - Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

We're gonna do a quick run through all the positions today in Brazilian jiu jitsu or basic positions from fundamentals. This is standing position. My leg is forward. You could also be square. My elbows are in very much like wrestling. We are in guard, closed guard. My legs are locked. I have two separate grips, uh, many various grips we can use he's on his knees. His knees are widening knees on his toes. If possible his posture is up, not leaning on me and his hips are low on his feet. This is half guard. My leg is between his legs. I am framing with my arms so they cannot put weight. And my shin is on his chest. This is Mount position. My arm is wide. One arm is under the head and my legs are locked under his hips. I stay low my chest on his face. He needs his knees up. It's easier to escape from the position.

BJJ Positions

This is side control position. My hand is arm under his hips under his arm. Under his head. My shoulder is in his jaw. My head is turned sideways. My knees are wide and touching him. You cannot see in the photo. So my hips are as low as possible. You can see my back is almost flat, so my butt should not be up in the air. It's easier to get rolled. His knees are up and one knee is up towards me. So it's not easy for me to Mount. He's also framing with his arms. One arm on my neck. One is on my hip. This is case kata position. I'm a little bit high here. Usually I like to get my armpit near his armpit by where I'm gripping his arm and my legs are wide to not get rolled. I'd also put my head lower. If he is, uh, flexible, uh, to hook my head. This is neon belly position. Uh, you would hop up on here from a side control normally, or a guard pass. Um, I have two grips to stabilize myself in my, my leg must be straight out by his head

North south position. My knees are wide. You can also sprawl on a north south position. Uh, he's not in a good position here. This is used many times for attacking, but also contr, uh, moving from side control to the other side, without hopping over the body. We go north south and transition to the other side or attack. This is wrestler's position or turtle position. I'm actually in a wrestler's position. It's not very good for jiu jitsu. He can actually escape from here. I usually sit behind the hips instead. Um, he's not in a great position either, but I'm going to work to attack or get my hooks in for a back control. This is back control. I get my hooks in, meaning my legs in between his legs. My head is tucked and my cheek is on his shoulder. So I don't get headbutted in the face. I have a grip over an under grip or seatbelt grip with my hands at a Gable grip. Now we're on the side, same position. This is actually better, easier to attack. I can also transition to a Mount position. Uh, my hands are gripped and I do not lock my legs. That is all.

Thank you.

Strong Heart Brazilian Jiu Jitsu - Student Principle #2: LOYALTY

View our 8 Strong Heart Academy Principles to Live By

So the second, uh, the second one that we do is loyalty and loyalty. I'm not gonna say a ton about loyalty, but loyalty is, um, earned, just kind of like respect is earned and I'm not, um, one that is, um, forces people to be loyal to strong heart.

You know, we, I allow people, you know, I don't own, my students is the way I look at it. There's a lot of schools that are like, you don't, can't go to any other school or whatever. You know, I, I, I encourage them to be part of the community of jiu jitsu as well, go to open mats, go to seminars. Um, you know, there are certain things where look, if you're competing, you have to be a little bit careful with what you're going out and showing others, because just like any team, the sons don't hang out in practice with the Lakers or whatever, you know, whatever team they're opposing team, you just don't do that. So there's that, but the loyalty aspect is kind of an earned thing. Kind of like trust is earned. You know, if you would be loyal to strong heart, if I, if you think that I am worthy and you think strong heart is worthy of your loyalty, that's how loyalty works.

And then, you know, if we've built trust over the years, if I were to make a mistake, um, you would give me a little bit of, uh, wiggle room. If I'm, you know, if apologetic about something, um, to keep your loyalty and you, you know, you're loyal to your family, you're loyal maybe to your country, to your school. These are, these are not a bad thing. Um, sometimes we get confused with nationalism and it's like, oh, it's a bad thing. And not necessarily we are, we are a people groups. Um, and there's nothing wrong to be loyal to a certain group, but it needs to be deserving of the loyalty is the way I would, I would say that. So, um, you know, you're lo loyal to your relationship with your spouse or your girlfriend. Um, but until that relationship, the loyalty is gone. If there's a cheating aspect or someone that's trying to ruin your, your, your life alive, you know, you shouldn't be loyal as much as like it's time to separate from that person.

And, um, and I, I, I, you know, if you expect people to be loyal to you, you need to be the, understand the same concept. Like, am I worthy of loyalty? Okay.

Side Control BJJ - Strong Heart BJJ

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

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

Jiu-Jitsu Side Control

side mount, side control, maintain, Bjj, brazilian jiujitsu, jiujitsu, Jits, Gi

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side mount, side control, maintain, Bjj, brazilian jiujitsu, jiujitsu, Jits, Gi

BJJ - Side Control Submissions

Okay for side control. Uh, we're gonna go top and bottom. So from bottom position, we're just talking about hand position. He needs forearm on my hip. It's gonna prevent me from changing sides. Other hand is gonna be on my shoulder, forearm underneath my neck. My knees are as wide as I can go in the beginning. We're gonna start with our hand under the hips and one hand under the head. I want my hips as low as I can. Either sitting on my, um, heels. You could be on your toes as far or feet can be flat. Same as Mount. I wanna push his face with my shoulder and hand underneath his hips. My knees need to be touching. I do not want to sprawl. It's too easy for him to get away. So on my knees, my butt is low as I can, and I can actually push my chest to make it tighter shoulder pressure in the face.

BJJ

From here, we can transfer. My hand comes underneath the arm and I'm just gonna clasp my hands. This is called a Gable grip. No thumbs go over and same shoulder pressure, but I'm not flexing at all. I'm just pushing my shoulder forward. Many people make a mistake of like, try to squeeze as hard as we can. We're just wasting energy. Let gravity do the work for us from side control. From his perspective, he needs to be flaring his elbow up and making it uncomfortable for him to hold me and then pushing on my hip so that eventually he would get his knees inside to the fanning and try to pull guard again.

Thanks.

Strong Heart BJJ - Student Principle #1 - Service

View all 8 Strong Heart Academy Principles to Live By.

So the first one is service and the way we talk about this is service to others. You know, I try to encourage the kids to, do community service and, and understand that you are part of a community as humans and helping the people around you.

So we give pins out, awards out for 10 hours, community service. And the goal is just to get you in the service mindset. And I know for myself, all the service things that I do, I mean, they hugely impact my own life. Not the people that I help. Like obviously they help the, the people that I help, but I get something out of it. There's something about being a human and helping others. And, what it does for yourself. Like you have a sense of gratitude, for the things that you have that maybe others don't. And, it sets a community, you know, when you're working with others. So we highly encourage service. I encourage this with adults too. And you know, my, we, we even say that, you know, I allow for these community hours of community service, some of 'em don't like, what, what can I do as a kid?

I'm like, you could pick up trash in a neighborhood. Sometimes we think if it has to be like this complicated thing, it really doesn't, you know, you can go at school, you could pick up trash around the playground afterwards, just ask for a bag. I guarantee you, the teachers will say, absolutely, I'll give you a trash bag. You go out there, wash your hands afterwards. And, and, and thank you. So these are just things that we, we try to encourage, encourage, encourage, you know, be a part of the community, help your community, help people around you. And I think that's something that we're missing right now in, in society is everyone's very me, me, me, me, and you're encroaching on me. And, and it's like, how about us? You know, us? And the other thing I encourage kids is to help their grandparents.

You know, America has a, a very strange relationship with grandparents. Um, you know, they're separated like a lot of countries in the world, grandparents live with you. Okay, now, now grandparents live separately. Either they have their own place or they're maybe at a, a nursing home. So I encourage, you know, helping your grandparents, wash their car, pick up dog poop at their house, help them with their laundry pick weeds. Um, there's many things that kids even young as four can do and get these, this, this helping your grandparents out. And, um, you should be, and your grandparents will love it because you're hanging out with them. Um, it's kind of the way I believe that things should be okay.

Hip Escapes - Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

BJJ Hip Escapes

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

Hip escapes, movement,shrimps, Bjj, Brazilian jiujitsu

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Hip escapes, movement, shrimps, Bjj, Brazilian jiujitsu

Overview of Hip Escapes:

So now I'm gonna go over hip escapes. Uh, every class we do, we're gonna do hip escapees. They're not super exciting, uh, part of jujitsu, but they're really important for defense and offense. So when you're on your back,

Hip Escapes: Positioning

I'm gonna put one knee up and then my hands elbows are gonna be tied to my body. I wanna turn on my side and I'm gonna lift my hips by putting my weight on my shoulders. And I'm scooting my hips away. Some people call it shrimping, like you're moving like a shrimp or snaking. Uh, but it's a hip escape. I'm escaping my hip. So I'm pushing my hip away. I straighten myself out. Then I would go to the other side, leg, comes up, turn on my side and hip escape. One of the mistakes that people make is they stay flat and they try to scoot sideways. Okay. So what we want is on our side, pushing away from the person, it could be their body coming towards us, could be their legs towards us, but it it's really important to master this movement of moving my hips away from my opponent. We would do this all the way down the mat.

Drop Falls

Uh, drop falls is another thing that we need to work on, uh, so that we don't hurt ourselves when we do take downs. Um, honestly I think all sports should learn drop falls just to reduce injuries. Uh, we could start from seated position first. So we're gonna cross our arms and I'm gonna tuck my chin.

Hitting the Ground: BJJ Falls

When I hit the ground, I slap the ground and my hands, my, my hands are straight. I'm not crying. Chopping don't wanna hit my knuckles, my arms about a 45 degree angle. And I don't want to bounce my head off the mat. So two things that we wanna work on when we're doing drop falls is not falling and posting an arm,

Cuz It's either gonna hurt my wrist, Elbow or shoulder. Something's gonna give, I don't want to go. Uh, also don't wanna hit my head cause I get knocked out and all my bones are

BJJ Falls: Body Positioning

On top. So my knuckles are on top. My wrist is on top. My elbow's on top. If I go Palm down, I'm actually gonna hit all the bones on the ground. So imagine if I fall on concrete, I don't wanna hit bone on concrete. I want the fatty parts of my arm. Okay. Some of us are a little fattier than others slapping the ground. Okay. It should sting, but it's not gonna be hurting. It's not bruising or breaking is what we wanna avoid. So start from a standing position. We would stand up, cross my arms, tuck my chin squat.

Technical Standup: Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

When my bum hits slapping the mat. When we get better, We would just jump, Breathe out. Now a technical standup is how we stand up properly. In the movies, when I was a kid, usually this cool Kip up, but in truth, someone's just gonna stop kick like a soccer ball. Okay. So the proper way to do a technical standup is I'm going to also, don't like to do sit-ups.

Side Roll: BJJ

See, I'm gonna roll over to my side to my elbow, to my hand, posting my hand, defending myself. So if someone wants to kick me or punch me or throw something at me, I have my hand up. I have my foot up. I can kick post my foot, tuck my other foot to my butt. I'm gonna lift my hips. So this the first step is just learning how to lift my hip. So you can lift your hips. Then you've created the space to get to your knee. You've created the space to get your foot behind you to stand up properly. So we would drop fall technical, stand up, drop fall technical stand up.

Thank you.

Strong Heart Principle: COURAGE

View all 8 Strong Heart Principles here.

Okay. Uh, so last one is, uh, courage and courage is another great one, especially for today's generation. I'm finding, um, you know, the isolation of the pandemic and just the way that kids interact now, more online versus in person with people.

Um, courage is becoming more difficult to do things that are difficult. Um, and people get confused with courage that it's like a lack of fear. It's actually the opposite. It's doing something in spite of your fear, because you know that it's worth it and, and worthy of your courage. Um, you know, it's not that firefighters aren't, uh, afraid to go into a burning building, only psychos. Aren't afraid, you know, only people that, um, don't respect their own life or others. It are not afraid of things. And, um, you know, you could be a level of fear for sure. And, and, you know, my, my father used to say, I'm not afraid of dying because I, I, I, I try to live my life where I, that I know I'm where I'm gonna go when I die. And I always be like, man, always like, man, I'm afraid of dying.

You know, when I was a kid, I was like, I'm, I don't wanna die. He's like, I don't want to die. I'm not afraid to die. Um, I have courage in my life, the way I live my life with courage and, um, and the way that I live, I, I, if I die, I'm not afraid of where I'm going to go. And, uh, you know, an atheist might say, well, it's, it's P you know, there's no, there's nothing, but we hang on life. You know, the Buddhist would say the same thing. Don't hang onto life. Um, but, um, courage is not the absence of fear it's, um, doing what is right. And facing your fears, even though you have fears. And, uh, competition is great for that. Public speaking is great for that. Um, you know, sometimes I try to get the kids to speak in front of the other kids in class.

It's one of the number one fears is public speaking. Um, we collect a tennis card. Sometimes I allow certain kids to collect tennis cards. I make sure they shake them at everyone's hand and look, 'em in the eye because this's a skill that a fine is going away in society. Again, you know, when you do a zoom meeting, you meet someone in zoom. There's no shaking hands, but people will re go back to the list. Again, respect is gained off of a first appearance, shaking the hand, looking me in the eyes and speaking clearly. Okay. And sometimes that takes courage. Like people have anxiety meeting, two meeting, new people. Okay. Even the simple thing is that there's some people that are having difficulty leaving the house. The anxiety levels are so high and I encourage to have courage. Okay. Attempt, attempt it, small steps. Okay.

And it's not big steps like, oh, I'm gonna go out and speak to thousands of people. No, but like a small step. Can you speak to three people at a time, you know, two people at a time, um, because it's important. If you have something to say that you're heard, and if you don't have the courage for that, that could be a problem too. Um, you know, for job sake, it's important when you're doing sales. It's important when you're leading with a team, you're working with a team with your job, it's important. Okay. And you know, you, you, people don't wanna be, look like a fool. It's, that's the fear. Okay. Same thing with competition. People don't wanna look like a fear in front of their peers and family. You know, what if I lose, what if I lose? First of all, everyone loses is what I try to let everyone know.

You know, Caio Terra's a 12 time world champion. He lost he's lost. Okay. Now not a lot, but it happens. Okay. And those are just mistakes and we work and we fix mistakes and we go back out again. That's the way you look at it. Okay. And as far as like the, the real courage of, of someone that has to go to combat or fire or saving someone, you know, understand that if you do perish, you know, you are doing what is right. And someone might be saved because of your actions. And it is a worthy case for courage. It is worthy of your courage to do those things. And people hopefully will honor you in that. And, uh, at least your family will honor you in that. And that's a, you know, that's worthy of your courage. And again, courage is, is not the absence of fear, but your ability to do something in spite of fear. So that's all I have for today. Uh, those are my eight, um, principles. Someone say, why do you have eight? Well, uh, you know, the octopus is a logo. So I kind of broke it down into eight principles, uh, distilled them down. We still have this that I don't think I've ever talked about is my 21 truth. So jiu jitsu, but eight principles. And those are just, uh, principles to live by, um, in your life.

And so hope you enjoyed it. And peace.

Back Control BJJ - Demonstration by Third Degree Black Belt

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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Mike Martin demonstrates back control, back mount, hooks.

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.

Arm Bar Demonstration by Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Black Belt

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

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armbar, guard, closed guard, Bjj

Okay. So basic armbar that we're gonna go from the guard is everyone needs to know from the very beginning is if I wanna attack this arm, I'm gonna come underneath his other arm and grab across, pulling the elbow to the hip. Same side foot goes on the, off the arm I wanna attack.

So I come on me grabbing behind the tricep versus arm. If I grab arm arm, he pulls his arm back and it's nothing. So I want to grab behind that tricep and control the wrist, and then I'm gonna pull it to my far hip. So center line's okay. But if you get it to the far hip, you're gonna have a lot better arm bar. Foot goes on the hip. I don't want any gap. I wanna squeeze my knee. I grab the far shoulder. Other leg goes high. It's gonna give me a nice angle. If I could see in his ear, then my leg can come over. I do not wanna cross my ankles cuz my knees tend to flare. So you wanna pinch your knees together and try to pull your heel to your own butt. And from here, like even just his wrist, close to my chest, he's gonna be very close to tapping.

I don't even need to lift my hips. If I'm lifting my hips, I'm actually breaking the arm. So again, I have his hands. I come underneath, I grab this tricep or behind the elbow. I pull to the far hip. I grab his shoulder, whatever arm I'm attacking. That foot goes on the hip. My other leg goes high on his back. I step over pinching my knees together, pulling my heels down, gripping the wrist, pulling to my chest. If I'm having issues with his, turning his wrist, then I need his thumb towards the sky. Gripping his wrist with two hands. So I transfer from his tricep to his wrist, pinching my knees. You can slightly lift your hips if they're very flexible and maybe it's not as tight, but if you're curling your heel down, you're gonna have a very, very, very tight armbar. If I want him to fall over, I wanna take my knees, my knees go down towards the ground. Now it's very tight. If I get his hand even close to my body, he's gonna tap. If it touched my body, I'm probably gonna break his arm off. If I lift my hips, I can take his arm off and feed it to him. So at that point so quick,

My knees, I come underneath, I finish with my arm bar.

Triangle Choke (Judo Style) from Turtle Position: Demonstration

With 19 years of Judo experience, Grant N. demonstrates his judo style triangle choke from turtle position, with Mike Martin, third degree bjj black belt and Owner of Strong Heart Academy, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Phoenix Arizona.

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Grant teaches the Judo style triangle choke from turtle position.

This is Grant N.

I've been doing judo for about 19 years. Been practicing here of strong heart for about eight months now. And, I'm gonna show, my judo style, triangle choke.

So, in general this will happened from, if you get behind their back. First what I like to do I'll come under his arm and I'll grab his wrist, even grab the wrist or the hand. I prefer to grab the hand like this. I'll bring in right into his hip and then I'll put my shoulder right in the middle of his back. And I, as I'm spinning around, put my free hand my, and my grab the back of his elbow and pull it up by itself. And then I'm gonna turn my wrist and thumb up like a hitchhiker and paste it right to his head. Then with my free leg, I'm gonna bring it right into his, behind his armpit. And I'm gonna roll on my side. Before I secure the arm, I'm gonna secure the arm I had right to his hip, either his belt or his Gi pull it tight. If you do not control this, he's gonna be able to just roll into you and you just completely waste the move. So make sure you control this arm first.

Once I've controlled this, but grab and his elbow, pull it, his arm towards me and kick out my top leg. And my bottom leg is gonna just become a pillow for his head and I apply the triangle.

This is what it's gonna look like full speed.

Thank you.

Leg Locks from Half Guard: Demonstration

Mike Martin, Owner of Strong Heart Academy, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Phoenix Arizona, and third degree black belt, demonstrates leg locks from half guard.

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Leg Lock from Half guard taught by Mike Martin From Strong Heart Jiu-jitsu

Yeah.

Okay. So we're gonna go in between the legs, reaching his heel with both hands and I need to push his knee under my armpit.

So it's not my chest. It's here. Use your, I like to use my foot to push into him.

Okay. I have more strength this way. Sometimes I'm out here, he might roll me that way or it's more of a scramble.

When I come here, I'm gonna take his foot.

As I fall, I'm pulling his foot outward. Okay. Now when I catch it, I catch it with my head.

My arm comes underneath and I'm securing with my Gi.

Now, instead of hips, pulling your legs back and arching your back for the finish.

So he locks it up.

I dive in.

Thank you.

How to Tie Bjj Belt

Mike Martin, Owner of Strong Heart Academy, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Phoenix Arizona, and third degree black belt, demonstrates how to tie a belt in jiu jitsu.

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How to tie a bjj belt:

1. Make sure it’s equal,

2. Close your Gi on your stomach,

3. Pull through,

4. Make sure the sides are equal,

5. Right left over tuck under,

6. Both pull till you’re comfortable,

7. Left down right over and goes through,

8. Pull it, tight.

Thank you.

Cross Choke Demonstration: Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

Professor Mike Martin of Strong Heart Academy, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Phoenix, Arizona, shows off his version of Cross Choke from close guard.

As a third degree blackbelt, Mike will show off the mechanics of this fundamental technique and how to use it from close guard.

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Professor Mike Martin shows his version of Cross Choke from close guard.

We’re gonna do a quick breakdown today on a very simple, fundamental technique. That's super effective. And I feel a lot of people do incorrectly. So we're gonna work off of a cross choke, but generally people, stay square when they cross choke. So when I go in like this, I'm generally putting the side of my arm instead of the bones in, in the neck, on the corotid artery. So when I'm here in closed guard, if I go in straight, which is most people do, the flat part is on the neck and you have to like really twist to get the bones in. So what I like to do is I grab the tricep material foot on the hip is if I'm gonna set up an arm bar, when I place my hand inside, I get the bone on the neck automatically. I don't have to turn my hand around.

I get it. And when I get deep, I start to curl this hand here. Even if the arm is inside, I like to keep it there. I come, like I'm gonna saw his head and I grab material. I don't like to fumble by getting my thumb inside. I like speed. So when I grip, it's saw, grip. As I square back up, it's gonna get tight just by squaring up. I'm not even curling. He's already turning colors. I would pull my knees in, crank my head. So again, we go for here. I would open the Gi also, so that it's quick and easy to get my hand inside, hand comes over, square and pull.

It's important that I'm pulling with my legs and tightening with my abs. As I pull elbows down, we should never be here. But again, it's all really honestly the angle that gives me the grip. You can pull your wrists towards you. So wrists towards the elbows. Okay. Will also tighten the grip.

Thank you.