No desire to learn anything remotely fancy

I don't think Maia and jacare use any 'fancy' stuff in their mma fights.

And I thought everyone in this section was on the older side. Aren't you guys too injured to go inverted anyway?

I sometimes still play the berimbolo game when I roll against somebody way lighter than me, but I've stopped spamming it carelessly against anybody regardless as I used to do in the past, more as a prevention than anything since except from the casual soreness I haven't had any serious related back problems due to it..

but that said I'm 32, I want to practice jiu jitsu for as much as I can and honestly being stucked on your back when you invert in general brings potential dangers I prefer to entirely avoid (same reason why no matter what I don't defend anymore the guard pass by risking to being stucked on my neck double under style).
 
I sometimes still play the berimbolo game when I roll against somebody way lighter than me, but I've stopped spamming it carelessly against anybody regardless as I used to do in the past, more as a prevention than anything since except from the casual soreness I haven't had any serious related back problems due to it..

but that said I'm 32, I want to practice jiu jitsu for as much as I can and honestly being stucked on your back when you invert in general brings potential dangers I prefer to entirely avoid (same reason why no matter what I don't defend anymore the guard pass by risking to being stucked on my neck double under style).

I've been struggling with neck issues in the last few weeks, I tried to roll out of an omoplata and my opponent had a better grip on me than I thought and I'm out for a week for it. I don't know when I will have the guts to try this again.

I also avoid a lot of guard submissions because I can't stand having people defending triangles and armbars by putting pressure on my neck with all their weight. If I'm not able to make them fall to the side quickly I'll just let go of the submission has soon has they start to pressure me.
 
I've been struggling with neck issues in the last few weeks, I tried to roll out of an omoplata and my opponent had a better grip on me than I thought and I'm out for a week for it. I don't know when I will have the guts to try this again.

I also avoid a lot of guard submissions because I can't stand having people defending triangles and armbars by putting pressure on my neck with all their weight. If I'm not able to make them fall to the side quickly I'll just let go of the submission has soon has they start to pressure me.

Yeah I understand you. I love to death the armbar from guard but as you do I'm super careful with who I attack it and when to let it go.

Generally, lately I completely embraced the whole butterfly/SLX/X-G family with some half guard here and there, I think it's the safer bottom game for your back (at least compared to the rest).
 
Yeah I understand you. I love to death the armbar from guard but as you do I'm super careful with who I attack it and when to let it go.

Generally, lately I completely embraced the whole butterfly/SLX/X-G family with some half guard here and there, I think it's the safer bottom game for your back (at least compared to the rest).


So you are either flat on your back or almost sitting, it's a good idea to avoid pressure on the back, neck and shoulder.

I also rarely do the high closed guard stuff, it's super efficient and useful but if the other guy get on his feet I'm way too high on my neck and shoulders and I can't stay there long enough for the basic sweeps and subs. I just go for any sweep or sub attempt as fast as possible and most of the time it's botched and I have a really low success rate on it
 
Deep half guard is life. I use it to slow down quicker guys who might sprint around to my back, and its my best tool for sweeping bigger guys.

Look at Faria's game - multiple time world champ.

I don't really consider it "fancy" but since you brought it up, I couldn't imagine my BJJ without it.
 
Full guard, half guard, side control, mount, back control and reluctantly a bit of de la Riva for emergencies are all I ever put any time into and all I have any passion to learn.

Seriously, anything other than that, even spider or deep half, I find mundane. Show me some lapel-worm trickery and I might fall asleep.

Is anyone else (other than Roger) the same?

FWIW, Roger knows all that stuff because he has to deal with it. It's not his competition game plan, but believe me, if Roger wanted to wreck people with deep half he could.

If you're reluctant to learn something as fundamental to BJJ as DLR guard, you're doing it wrong. The key isn't to say 'this position is fancy, therefore I'm not going to learn it', the key is to find ways to play every position that make sense to you and then you can use them or not depending on how they fit into your game. DLR can be played as a very classic sort of open guard just looking for situp sweeps and omoplatas, or you can go full berimbolo and spend all your time upside down. Find what works for you, but don't write it off as too fancy to be worth learning. If nothing else, as you improve you'll have to be able to pass these guards and if you've never seen them you're going to have significant problems doing so.

I myself prefer what I consider to be a relatively simple game, but I couldn't have gotten to where I am had I not learned the whole repertoire. There are small pieces of almost every fancy thing I've learned that are useful in certain situations, and it's often those small details that let me beat blue and purple belts effortlessly. Until you're already pretty good it's hard to know what you will or won't need to know as your game coalesces, so learn everything.
 
I wonder if the judokas have the same problem?

The parallel in Judo is the old way of gripping mutually and using core body movement, similar to the "Invisible Jiujitsu". Nowadays people tend towards dominance gripping and one handed attacks.

I don't think it's so good in this case either, as you miss fundamental principles that work beyond limited scenarios including outside your sport. And certainly principles you need to adapt and create.
 
The more I learn and that I actually see the techniques the less I find them fancy.

I also realised that because people just sitting in your guard is rare, DLR, X guard, butterfly guard and other stuff are not just fancy but are essential when the other guy is on one knee or on is feet.

Last week we learned a slick sequence with a DLR sweep, going berimbolo and then taking the back. So if you add the berimbolo move you are able to take the back and if you don't use it you are in half guard if your Lucky. I think it Worth the 10 minutes it took to show it to us.

I had the same experience also, coming from Judo with zero open guard knowledge. After a while, I realized they were really just the same thing, just a way to keep a control hook depend on where your opponent is. And they flow from one to another. Grip, off balance, and sweep.

Then it becomes much easier, over trying to remember what each position is, what grips you need to take, and what sweep/subs are available.
 
Half guard you say? De La Whosa? I, too, have refused to take on new information since my first six months of training, and I'll have you know that here in 2006 those are fancy-schmancy competition techniques that don't work in nightclub fights. The only thing a white belt needs to know is grimly clinging to closed guard until someone gasses.

Grimly clinging to closed guard since 2006. I can't lose if nobody moves and I will NEVER lose.
 
If it works well I want to learn it, basic or fancy.
 
As someone coming back into it, I just started learning deep half and love it. It seems almost intuitive now that I have some of the basics. And I am a big fan of the basics.
 
Full guard, half guard, side control, mount, back control and reluctantly a bit of de la Riva for emergencies are all I ever put any time into and all I have any passion to learn.

Seriously, anything other than that, even spider or deep half, I find mundane. Show me some lapel-worm trickery and I might fall asleep.

Is anyone else (other than Roger) the same?

Roger is not the same, he teaches and trains everything
 
Roger is not the same, he teaches and trains everything


Roger Gracie has a lot of tricks and fancy stuff he uses in the rolls he posts on his website.
He uses the newer stuff from ~2010 when he competed but he was focusing on mma so it didn't make sense to work that much on berimbolos etc.
Roger would be a killer with the berimbolos etc as he is excellent at back attack and does crab rides etc really well.
 
its easier to take this approach if youre in the heavier weightclasses. On the smaller end youre doing yourself a disservice not knowing all the "fancy" stuff.
 
If you approach all technique from a positional, transitional/"types of movement" and conceptual basis rather than a just learning techniques.. the "fancy" or "advanced" stuff quickly becomes simply combining all the basic stuff like building a house
 
being able to execute the basics in an unstoppable fashion might come off as quick/fancy, but i consider it dedication.

once you understand the basics of things like throwing and passing, you start realizing that 90% of the execution follows the same concepts, with only slight variations.

if the ingredients are good and the pizza is well-made, the toppings are almost superfluous
 
I am a bread and butter practitioner.

But.

Deep half is bad ass. And once you get the hang of it, you see it everywhere.
 
So you are either flat on your back or almost sitting, it's a good idea to avoid pressure on the back, neck and shoulder.

I also rarely do the high closed guard stuff, it's super efficient and useful but if the other guy get on his feet I'm way too high on my neck and shoulders and I can't stay there long enough for the basic sweeps and subs. I just go for any sweep or sub attempt as fast as possible and most of the time it's botched and I have a really low success rate on it

You really shouldn't ever be flat on your back in any of those positions. Or in almost any position, actually. Flat back is lack of mobility. Flat back is getting inability to compete for underhooks. Flat back is death.
 
As someone coming back into it, I just started learning deep half and love it. It seems almost intuitive now that I have some of the basics. And I am a big fan of the basics.

I consider deep half a basic, in the sense that it doesn't rely on any particular physical attribute, can work pretty much against anyone regardless of size disparity, and there are several common situations where it's the best, most efficient answer to the problem at hand. Which is pretty much my definition of a 'basic'.
 
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