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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Watch the video below:

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.