One thing that I believe gets us all in trouble when we train BJJ is the belief that we must be attacking at all times in order to be "doing something". That mentality causes us to overlook all the yummy and delicious aspects of BJJ, and focus more on the fancy setups and sweeps that I like to call Youtube Chic.
Don't get me wrong, after you master the fundamentals (good luck with that) you can spend all the time you like scouring the web looking for options.
But what is a fundamental? A fundamental, according to my coach Matt Thornton, is:
1. Something every BJJ player needs to know.
2. Something everyone will do in essentially the same way.
3. It's something everyone who plays BJJ will need to do viscerally while rolling in order to play the game well.
To help me remember this I broke them down into 3 V's: vital, visceral, and viable.
One thing that I have begun to realize lately is that according to SBG's P-Method...the one thing that stands out as a fundamental is posture. There is a lot of debate about the existence of fundamentals and advanced techniques in BJJ, with majority of people believing there is no such thing. Well they are wrong, as posture is clearly a fundamental.
This explains why a lot of people have terrible posture, because they learn it within a series of techniques, rather than giving it separate thought.
As I mature in BJJ, I start to realize that in order to be a great black belt, I must be comfortable in every position. From guard to turtle to back mount. What most people think when I say this is that I need to have a move or trick from every position, but that is far from what I mean. In fact, I think that is a horrible way to approach the game and it is usually the basis of most BJJ school's curriculum. Sad.
One definition of comfort is described as a state of ease and satisfaction free of pain and anxiety. I teach my white belt students to always get to a position of comfort. Over time as I instill posture in their mind, eventually every position becomes comfortable (once this happens, you are able to explore your options because you now understand what your opponent wants). We can immediately see when someone is not in their comfort zone, it usually involves a look of confusion, flailing, and/or heavy breathing. I am convinced this is caused by a lack of knowledge of the correct posture to either be in or get to when stuck somewhere.
Posture is everything, without it there is nothing. If you find yourself stuck in a rut, it is not the time to add lapel guard, a sneaky choke, or a rolling back take to your game. There is always something in your posture you can focus on. That is all I have been thinking about lately as there is nothing ambiguous about posture...either it is right or it is wrong.
