This is Part 2 of a 7-part series. If you haven’t already done so, familiarize yourself with Part 1.
Sound defensive posture supports technical development.
The instructions we give to the defender during drilling can radically alter the outcome of practice. Too often, the defender is given no instructions at all and so they think their job is to be “nice and compliant”.
This is a mistake. If your drilling consists of the attacker always being given easy access to everything they need, then both players are committing poor technique to muscle memory and shouldn’t be surprised when they’re unsuccessful in live rounds.
There is a sweet spot in practice: Challenging, Yet Successful. Too realistic resistance = not enough success. No realistic resistance = not enough challenge. The common practice of complicit drilling is insufficiently challenging and doesn’t transfer well to live rolls.
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Prioritize defensive posture as the very first basic and there will never be confusion about what the defender should be doing during drilling.
If the drill consists of securing a pin and it begins with the attacker already having one armpit control point, then the defender’s job is at minimum to limit the attacker’s access to a second control point (other armpit or head). A more advanced version of this drill would entail the defender also attempting to remove the attacker from the initial control point.
If the drill consists of finishing an armbar and positional control has already been secured, then the defender’s job is at minimum to not allow their posture to be further compromised (arm extended away from body). A more advanced version of this drill would entail the defender attempting to reassert sound defensive posture by getting their elbow back in contact with their rib cage.
If I am the coach, and you know your defensive posture, I can make up a near infinite number of drills that consist of the following formula.
Start attacker and defender in [insert position here]
Instruct attacker which direction to progress the position (if they’re beginner/intermediate) -OR- instruct attacker to progress the position in the direction of their choosing (if they’re advanced/expert)
Instruct defender to maintain current level of postural integrity (easier on attacker) -OR- instruct defender to reassert a more-optimal defensive posture (harder on attacker)
“But wait?!” you might ask, “How is the attacker ever going to get a successful rep without a complicit defender?”
When both players understand defensive posture and neither player is being complicit, they can still modulate their intensity. By modulating intensity, the defender can still afford the attacker some success if that is the aim of the drill. He won’t give away his defensive posture for free. But he doesn’t have to fight tooth and nail for it either.
So, wait. . . What does defensive posture consist-of again?
In Part 1, I spoke about defensive posture in the abstract. I made the case that it should be universally applicable (i.e. can be implemented regardless of attack, defense, top, bottom, standing, grounded, etc.). I also made the case that it must take into account the underlying structural strengths and weakness of the human body and how the opponent will use those strengths and weakness with the intention to control and submit you.
I find the best language for describing this has to do with “control points”, which I’ll dig into more deeply in Part 4 of this series. But for now, recall that I said in Part 1 that we have 5 main control points: one under each armpit, one behind each knee, and one behind the head.
If we know that these are the 5 most important places that our opponent wants to access, then we know our defensive posture should minimize access to these points.
Let’s look at these control points in practice.
Wherever the head goes, the body follows.
A collar tie can quickly lead to a snap down, or more subtly can establish an advantageous angle allowing for progressing position.
One of the primary mechanisms of almost any strangle is the “can-opener” pressure that drives the chin toward the chest. This is achieved in diverse ways by exerting force on the back of the head.
Power is transmitted through the torso via rotation.
The hips do the power generation, front to back, but the torso rotates in order to modify the direction of that force.
Imagine a torso without arms. It’s a cylinder. It rolls freely and easily. Now add the arms. They inhibit the rotation of the torso. Depending on their angle, they inhibit that rotation to a lesser or greater degree.
Thus, controlling the arm (in particular making it stick out away from the body) controls the torso’s capacity to rotate.
Athletic power comes from the legs driving into the ground
Lifting a leg free of the ground limits it’s athletic potential (it can now only generate force into the ground by way of generating force into the attacker)
The knee is relatively powerful in extension-flexion and relatively weak in any lateral orientation
The knee “wants” to be facing the opponent. If the opponent inhabits space beside or behind the knee, the torso has to work extra hard in rotation to transmit force toward the opponent.
Put more simply:
The head influences the opponent’s balance.
The armpits influence the opponent’s rotation.
The knees influence the opponent’s power production.
Defensive posture as regards the head
Head over center of balance
When standing, this means the head stays over the feet. Exactly where the head should be depends on the stance, but if the head gets in front of, behind, or outside of the feet, the body is off-balance.
Cervical spine in neutral or slight extension
The spine is isometrically very strong but if someone gets a grip behind your head and forces you to look downward, you’ll need more than just strength to get back to neutral.
Leading with your sternum can be helpful because the spinal extension created by that big, open chest posture serves as a reflexive brace.
Aim the bridge of your nose toward your opponent’s head or chest. This will keep you from looking down, making it harder for an opponent to force you to look down.
Defensive posture as regards the armpits
This control point is actually much larger than just the armpits and includes the whole area along your side between your knees and your elbows. An advanced attacker can exert minor control by pushing or pulling on your thighs, even more control at your hip bones, and quite a lot of control at your elbows. But since all of these points control rotation in the same fashion and differ mostly in their degree of control, they are all lumped into armpit control because the armpit is the most dominant version of the rotational control.
In its simplest form, defending this space entails “keeping your elbows tight” to your rib cage. But performed as a static posture, this is insufficient since the space is so big.
Instead, the entire control point from knees to elbows is defended by actively clearing the space using your hands, forearms, elbows, and knees, while keeping the elbows tight.
This is accomplished by sliding the elbows along the rib cage while turning the torso.
An example: the torso rotates to the right, the left elbow slides up and forward to the center of the rib cage, bringing the left hand up to defend the farside armpit or the neck, while the right elbow slides down and to the back of the rib cage, bringing the right hand down to defend the hip.
This mechanism can be further accentuated by bending the legs to “connect” the elbows and knees.
The arms are stronger the closer they are to the torso. Your job is to learn to use range and rotation to bring the fight to your hands rather than reaching your hands out to the fight.
If you learn to do this well, you’ll see that your hand-fighting has a mechanical advantage because you picked the place where the fight happens, and perhaps most critically, you don’t have to expose your armpits in order to engage in the hand-fight.
Defensive posture as regards the knees
Your athletic power comes from your hips, and your knees determine the direction that your hip power can be projected. Keep your hips, and thus your knees, pointed at your opponent.
Secondarily, if you are losing, and cannot easily point your hips at your opponent, an intermediate benefit will be to point your hips at the ground. This will allow you to be more athletic and, given sufficient knowledge of escapes, allow you to apply that athleticism to regain a more-defensible position.
You may often find yourself where your knees seem to be pointing in the correct direction but your opponent has an arm or a leg hooked around behind them. In this instance you must consider that knee controlled because whenever the opponent is ready (i.e. they get their other grips where they need them) they will be able to push or pull that controlled knee in order to get beside or behind it
Can we simplify these ideas into BASIC coaching cues?
Don’t stick your head out in-front-of (or beside or behind) your center of balance.
Don’t accept grips on-top-of or behind your head and keep the bridge of your nose pointed toward your opponent’s chest
Hand-fight where you have mechanical advantage without exposing your armpits by rotating your torso and sliding your elbows along your rib cage.
Keep your knees pointed at your opponent and if you cannot, due to a losing position, get them pointed toward the ground as an intermediate step.
Hand-fight or leg-pummel to clear any hooks or grips behind your knees/heels.
The goal in understanding defensive posture is to be able to implement it on as close to a reflexive level as possible. This means we must take these abstract ideas and present them to the practitioner in actionable cues that are as universally applicable as possible.
These five cues are about as close to universal as we are going to get in a game as dynamic as jiu jitsu, but let’s address a few position-specific cues.
Specific Case #1: When both players are standing, you must be prepared to defend the shot.
The most common defense to the shot is the sprawl, and good reflexes honed through hours of practice can lead to success in this technique almost regardless of posture. However, lacking that refinement, you can use defensive posture to afford you more time on defense by way of the downblock.
In the simplest sense, the downblock puts something in between your opponent’s shot and it’s target (your leg).
In a more advanced sense, the downblock gives you a head start in the fight for underhooks.
By taking the shot, your opponent is selling out for control of your legs and in the process they’re exposing the back of their head and their armpits. It’s a calculated risk, and often well worth it. But just because your opponent likes to shoot and has confidence in their technique doesn’t mean you should make it easy on them.
In defense of the shot, our additional cue when both players are standing is:
Downblock — either passively (in front of your lead leg) -OR- actively (matching their lead leg).
Specific Case #2: Defensive hip orientation looks different during leglocks
Leglocks, similar to shots, emphasize the control point behind the knee (and by extension, control behind the heel).
The attacker will orient their hips toward your knee(s) in various ways depending on which submission they’re attacking, so it can seem harder to generalize defensive posture for leg entanglements. But consider the following two cues.
Keep your hips/knees pointed toward the opponent or toward the mat, especially early in the defense, and where possible, keep your feet in contact with the ground.
Generally, leg submissions are finished with the loser’s hips pointed upward or where they have limited ability to generate force into the ground.
A notable exception is the belly down straight ankle, but note that the setup could have been defended by keeping feet in contact with the mat and hips facing down/toward the opponent.
When in doubt, rotate to face your hips downward (without going into the attacker’s heelhook) or leg pummel to get your hips facing toward your opponent. They may still be able to cause threatening pain with a tight grip on your foot but they’ll have less breaking leverage to force the tap.
Keep your opponent’s legs out from between your legs.
If you follow this principle to the letter you won’t have any counter-leglocks and you won’t have any guard. So the more skill you develop, the more you’ll need to apply this cue in a nuanced fashion.
Almost all leglocks require a 2-on-1 control which requires the attacker to get one of your legs between their legs (which means that one of their legs is between your legs).
Control in leglock positions exploit asymmetries, so if you lack the skill to know where those asymmetries lie, emphasize escape anytime one of your legs is between your opponent’s legs.
When in doubt on which way to escape, look to cue #1, get your hips facing down and your feet in contact with the ground.
Now that we know what defensive posture is. . .
Let’s talk about what it isn’t.
It isn’t frames.
It isn’t escapes.
It isn’t recovering guard.
It isn’t “just turtling”.
And maybe, technically, it isn’t simply posture, at least not in a passive sense.
Defensive posture is the self-awareness that underpins those other defensive actions. You might use frames or escapes or guard recoveries to re-establish your defensive posture. But, if you perform those techniques without awareness of your defensive posture, you’re almost certain to expose yourself to unnecessary risk.
If you frame too far out from your body and your opponent changes angles, they’re likely to drop into armpit control.
If you attempt an escape without clearing grips on your head, your opponent is likely to simply follow wherever you go.
If you try to recover guard with movement alone (consider the classic coaching cue to “Keep shrimping!”) you’ll burn way more energy than your opponent who needs to simply retain the control they’ve established behind your knee.
And yes, defensive posture is on some level “just” a more mobile/active form of the classic turtle position. But with sound defensive posture, you can do so much better than simply commit to your defensive position and never move again.
I’ll reiterate. Defensive posture is about awareness.
If you often find your offense being countered, try to be aware of how much you’re exposing openings in your defensive posture as you attack. Shore up those openings and you’ll see yourself countered less readily.
If you’re in an unfamiliar position and don’t know what to do, assess the quality of your defensive posture and seek to improve it. You’ll naturally move yourself into a more familiar position.
If you have good awareness of your defensive posture, you can use it in any position. You’ll freeze up less in losing positions. You’ll give away fewer opportunities in transitions. You’ll have a better grasp of how to progress your winning positions. If all you knew was defensive posture, you’d know how to control your opponent and how to avoid being controlled. Apply that knowledge through self-aware practice and you’ll have a solid foundation on which to build any combat skill set. This is why defensive posture is the first among basics.
Good Hunting,
Charles