BJJ guys

[Jacob Creutzfeldt]

Focus on posture at first. It's BJJ's equivalent to Kickboxing's footwork. Most attacks require good posture and good posture simultaneously creates submission defense.

 

[shootfighter1975]

First thing you should work for is maintaining a dominant/favorable position. Work things like guard passing as well. You can know all the submissions in the world but you will not be able to apply them if you are constantly mounted or stuck inside someone's guard.

Good luck man!

 

[Kane Fan]

you can sub someone from open guard

 

[Yarg!]

ya man just learn those subs, and remember position before submission and pretty soon you'll develope your own style. after 9 months, i just sort of gotten used to what i can and i cant do with my body type and now my style is fighting alot off my back- triangles, omoplatas, armbars, sweeps etc and u develope a sub u really start leaning towards (for me its triangles). tho that doesnt mean u wont be able to fight from other positions, but rather, youd just develope a favored one- this is the beauty of bjj: everyones unique.

 

[rfowler]

I look at bjj and mmabjj different even though they are the same. For example at when grappling only I love having someone in my guard, I feel safe and can usually get a submission pretty easily, however when we train mma I do not enjoy having someone in my guard because of the intense training that all mma guys are doing in relation to throwing elbows from the guard. Now when I get rocked sparring I will pull guard and hold on just to recover, but my ultimate goal in fighting is to get side mount and pin a shoulder with my knee I then drop elbows and that will either end the fight or loosen my opponent up and I will take the arm bar for a submission. As for the question asked I would do as the guys are saying, learn a submission, drill that submission, and then when you grapple tell your partner I am going for heel hooks all night, that way he knows whats coming thus making it harder for you. When you can heel hook an opponent when they know its coming then you are ready to move on to another submission. Someone earlier made the most valid point of bjj....DO NOT FEEL BAD ABOUT TAPPING....its just part of it. Teammates wont judge you for tapping because they understand its practice. I get tapped all the time, I also have been choked to sleep for not tapping.....it was great.

 

[Kane Fan]

rfowler that is a good post I like it a lot : o )
the only thing about possition before submission, I agree with it, but it's not suitable for every situation
I am fairly dangerous when someone is on my back
if I go to get out of that possition sometimes I wind up in thier closed guard, where I am actually less dangerous
for straight sub hunting
P b4 S is probubly more important in MMA where strikes are involved

 

[Jacob Creutzfeldt]

you can sub someone from open guard

Hell yah! It's far easier to barrage someone with subs from open guard. In open guard you have more hip mobility than closed guard. With open guard you can set up far more sweeps also. Closed guard is generally a defensive posture used to keep someone from rising and pounding you with strikes.

 

[1392477]

I'm a fairly large guy (6'3", 240#) with a muscular build. I have found it very easy to submit bug guys like me as they have so much mass in the shoulders/neck/chest that chokes come real easy. Now little skinny guys are a lot more difficult for me to finish as they can squirm around more and I have less to squeeze.

Obviously from a power standpoint I can dominate them, usually picking them up for a slam or just bench pressing them off me. When in practice I try to use skill over power so that I can really learn the subs. We specialize in no-gi BJJ specifically for MMA. This helps also as we don't get used to grabbing collars and sleeves, but on sweaty bodies. A lot of the techniques we learn I just mentally pass on them as it's too difficult to move my long limbs to make the move happen. Other skills we learn are better adapted to my body type and I ambrace those and drill them.

We have different instructors at my school and different teachers may be more suitable to your style. I have noticed that Eddie Bravo is tremendous at techincal BJJ and is very flexible and lean - he can pull stuff off that I could only dream about. Bas Rutten on the other hand has simplified some of the moves to make them more suitable for a MMA competition where getting a quick sub is more important than setting it up with positioning.

As others have said - you need to learn a few basic moves in various positions and learn them well. The more you train the more you will pick up.

Good luck.

 

[kickboxer195]

I have come a long way since that first post...............I TOTALLY agree with 1392477, there are some moves I look at and think 'they look pretty, but ain't no way I'm doing that' (bravo choke being one of them).

Now I just pick the moves that I like, and drill the hell out of them. And I could give a shit less about getting tapped, so I'll try some crazy shit out in practice just for the hell of it.

 

[rfowler]

1392477 I am in your boat with size and "beef" and this is definitely a plus and minus for us, of course the strenght differential is great in fights and practice but more importantly I learned from my instructor to use my larger than normal delts as a submission especially in fights. When you are more muscular than your opponent you can tap people by smothering their face and nose with your delts/ and or sweaty bis. Theres nothing worst than being gassed and getting a moutful of some big bastards delts when hes in your half guard. When tired shoulder pressure is essential, I use it all the time but in later rounds pressure can mimick submissions, when your opponent is breathing heavy by covering their mouth and nose with your bis, delts, or rash guard makes them feel smothered, and this can end a fight. So I totally understand where you coming from when you talk about being larger. When sparring, fighting, or grappling smaller quicker guys I am with you I try to use more skill especially is practice.Practice in my opinion is where bjj and mmabjj seperate. In bjj you practice like you compete for tournaments etc, but in mmabjj I go into practice expecting to get tapped because thats where i take my chances because again its practice. If someone one your team has to much pride to be tapped then I question there ability to get better. When we train mmabjj punches are constantly being thrown, not hard enough to hurt but theres enough on them to get your opponent to move, this is when the new guys realize whether or not mma is for them or if they want to just grapple, not that theres anything wrong with that I say in all honesty I would rather right for 15 minutes than straight grapple, 15 minutes of grappling is bruttle, I got nothing but love for straight jiu jitsu guys, my worst injuries have come more from grappling than from a fight anyday.