I've seen a lot of material online, but the person who has helped the most is Prit Mikhelson, defensive bjj. His stuff instantly gives direction. It's hard to put your training partner in a bad position, but it is easy to find yourself with your back taken. As a white belt, the thing that I now suck the least at is back escapes. If I mess up, I'll instantly get feedback in the form of a choke. His material provides a framework in the form of postures. If you can be completely still in one of these positions, then you're on your way to building a framework.
I really like using the reverse classroom approach. I decide what I want to work on on my own and take a very academic approach of studying film or instructional content to learn everything i can about it. I then take it into the gym and workshop it there with my training partners.
A decade into grappling now, and I often feel ashame to mention about Priit Mihkelson cause 99% of students only roll with an offense indset. So I don't talk about my goals. I am your most difficult defensive student to submit (not my word, but from my instructor). Priit is too defense, so I'll defend but I keep a sweep or a counter submission hidden under my sleeve, cause I cant defense the way he does, I'll end up injured and eventually it will take its toll on my health to roll.@@Bradley9967 What has helped me is to map out on a giant chart, my whole game and add or subtract from it as the years go by. My problems are often about how to get out from under a 300ish pounder student.
Watching actual jiu jitsu. Lol, who would have thought? Sometimes the environment we're in isn't ideal for the vision we have in our hearts for our jiu jitsu. Nowadays, there are people educating without much experience, and that is like the blind leading the blind. It passes in small towns with no competition from Brazilians, no IBJJF events in the region, and an aging population but if you've ever wrestled, or you've relocated from a more densely populated area, or you've trained with Brazilians you know if the club is weak, if people are receiving promotions that they can't defend outside of their little pond...or even in their pond but everyone stays hush cause they have nowhere else to train, or they're also just chasing "merit." Watch jiu jitsu online, pick a fighter or three and copy their style. Have defense like one, offense like another, and B game like another. I generally alternate between two influences for my offensive style but my defense is mostly from one influence. Watch matches, get involved in the outside community, and prioritize acquiring skill over learning technique. You can know 1000 techniques but if you don't have the fundamental skills and principles, it's useless to you live against people who do have great fundamentals.
Appreciate the response! I accidentally deleted my comment but that’s actually right, im more of a strength athlete but i study bjj like crazy. Its pretty easy to wrestle and control positions, but i still get reversed by an occasional technique i don’t understand. Putting myself in more losing positions and working up more often makes sense. Should i be more focused on the broader concepts of escaping positions, or the individual controls and techniques?
