Mini Ep. 87: Opening Salvos

Speaker 1: Hey everybody, before we get started this week, I just want to let you know, we released a new mindset course featuring Rob Bernaki from Island Top Team and BJJ Concepts. It's called Mindset for Betas. It's an amazing resource that breaks down a new way to build a resilient jiu-jitsu mindset. It's part of BJJ Mental Models Premium. I will spare you the full sales pitch because you can try it for free. Just go to BJJmentalmodels.com/beta. I will give you a free month, you can check out the course and if you decide that it's not worth your money, you can cancel, you won't have to pay a cent. I've already been told by subscribers that this is the most valuable piece of jiu-jitsu content they've ever received, so I hope you like it too. Speaker 2: Hey everybody, welcome to BJJ Mental Models. I am Steve Kwan and BJJ Mental Models is your guide to a conceptual and intelligent jiu-jitsu approach. In this mini episode, I want to talk about the importance of how we open a match. The first sequence that you enter into in a grappling match is one of the most important because whether you succeed or fail there will create ripple effects throughout the rest of the fight. For the purposes of this conversation, we'll call this topic opening salvos. Now, your opening salvo is not a concept that is unique to Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Other martial arts have this as well. In boxing, for instance, often your opening salvo will be a jab. Your jab is used to set up power punches like hooks or uppercuts. In jiu-jitsu, we need a similar concept, something that we can do to enter into an engagement in a fight without overcommitting ourselves and without taking on undue risk. There's a saying in wrestling, I score first or no one does. This is a philosophy telling wrestlers to make sure that they are the first people to put points on the board. If your opponent scores before you do, it puts you at a disadvantage for the rest of the fight. Now, you have to come back from behind and you have to react to your opponent. The psychology of the match changes because now you have to score just to get even. If the score does not change for the rest of the fight, you lose. So the pressure is on you to make up for the score and then eventually to overcome your opponent. That means that you have to take risks that you might not otherwise want to take. Being ahead on points is a great position to be in in a fight sport because you have the advantage at this point. Your opponent is forced now to take action just to get onto even ground with you, and that means that they might have to take risks, make mistakes, or do things that they don't want to do. So in jiu-jitsu, we need to always be very careful of this. When we're standing up, of course, there's different ways that you can enter into a low commitment engagement. Some common examples that will come up are things like arm drags or collar drags, because these are techniques that you can attempt and the consequences of failure are usually not that high. So we would call these low commitment techniques. Now, that's not to say that you can't or shouldn't use higher commitment techniques, but just be aware of the risks of these techniques and make sure that if you're going to try them, that you're likely to succeed at getting them. Common examples of this would include a double leg takedown. If you fail a shot and your opponent sprawls on you, now you've gone from a relatively equal position, which is you're both standing on your feet, to a position where you are now turtled on the ground and your opponent is on top of you. Sacrifice throws from judo have similar consequences. If you fail an Ippon Seoi Nage or a Tomoe Nage, then you've given up position. These are situations that you often want to avoid. So that's not to say don't do these techniques, but it's to say, don't do these techniques as Hail Marys. Make sure if you're doing a high commitment technique, like a sacrifice throw or a double leg, that you have set the table to ensure that you'll succeed. In the case of a double leg, that would mean clearing their hands and getting in close enough to their legs that with a penetration step, you can connect with them. These are things that you got to make sure if you're going to attempt a high commitment technique. But like how a boxer would use a jab, make sure that in jiu-jitsu, you've got low commitment opening salvos that you can use to get your opponent to react and manage the distance. Now, these are not exclusive to stand up. These also happen when you enter into someone's guard or they enter into your guard. You may have heard us talk about the different phases of guard, the first being the engagement phase, the phase where the guard hasn't really settled yet. People are still trying to sort out the grips and where they're going to put their bodies. This is a really important part of guard play and often overlooked. Whoever wins the grip fight in the engagement phase is going to have a big advantage in the rest of guard. So the idea of an opening salvo doesn't just apply to stand up. It also applies to other positions on the ground where your opponent is attempting to engage with you. The big lesson here is that when you are in a position with a lot of variability, such as stand up or entering the guard, these are situations where it's hard to predict what can happen and the consequences of failure are pretty high. They can set you back for the rest of the match. So make sure that when you are in these positions, you have an opening salvo that is either A, low commitment, or B, you're just good enough to make sure that you know how to execute those techniques and create the situation where they're going to work. So again, in the case of a double leg, that means you don't just shoot a Hail Mary double, but rather you create the opening first. You clear their hands, you get in close enough to their legs that a double is likely to be successful. If you want to use a high risk, high commitment technique, one of the most important things is creating an environment where that technique is likely to succeed. So think deeply about opening salvos, especially in positions where there's a lot of variability, like stand up or guard engagement. This is a really important concept. We talk about this stuff a lot on BJJ Mental Models. If you hit BJJmentalmodels.com, you can get many more mini episodes like this, plus longer form episodes featuring some of the best minds in Brazilian jiu-jitsu who go into much more depth on these concepts. All of that plus our newsletter is at BJJmentalmodels.com and it's all free. I also encourage you to consider leveling up with us and joining BJJ Mental Models Premium, the world's largest audio library of jiu-jitsu master classes on strategy, tactics, concepts, mindset, and philosophy. You can get a free trial and cancel if you don't like it, no cost to you. All of that is at BJJmentalmodels.com and I'll put a link in the show notes. Thanks for listening and I'll talk to you soon.