Often when we teach a new group of people who are already involved in the martial arts, we let them begin in the bottom of the mount and ask them to demonstrate how to escape. This is our way of defining their level of experience in the ground game in a blink of an eye. If the first thing they do is striking or eye gouging, we know we have a lot of work to do.

Stability balls are, in my opinion, the best tool for developing specific movements for ground fighting skills in jiu-jitsu when you haven’t got a training partner. I’d even go as far as saying that there are movements you can develop on a stability ball, that you can’t with a partner. Stability balls can’t get injured, don’t get tired, don’t complain and they’re always ready to train day or night. You can do what you want to them.

In jiu-jitsu, your core strength and conditioning is paramount to your success on the mats. Just about every movement extends from the core or uses muscles that form part of the core. For example, from standing, every throw, takedown, sprawl utilises the core. Every use of your hips (e.g. shrimping, hip bumps), each escape, every submission and just about all movement that generates any leverage, whether you’re on top or bottom, stems from the core. So if your core is weak, you are going to have problems when rolling and your jiu-jitsu is not going to grow at the rate you expect or want.

In this article I want to talk about the origins of the TRX or how a Navy Seal's mistakenly packed jiu-jitsu belt launched a home fitness revolution. A deployment that lasted way too long and a fortuitous stowaway gave Randy Hetrick the chance to create the now-beloved TRX.

This is an excellent article posted on JiuJitsu Times by Averi Clements about why women should train jiu-jitsu. As the Head Instructor at Fundamentals Jiu-Jitsu, I could NOT agree more.

This article is about why every grappler needs to foam roll. If you’re really dedicated towards becoming better in jiu-jitsu, then you should already know that it’s not just the training that will get you there. You need to incorporate other things as well; such as watching instructionals and analyzing footage, cross-training, taking care of the nutrition and getting enough hours of sleep, rehab and prehab work… There’s a lot to take in and a lot to do – but nothing is too much for when you want to become the best!Therefore, it’s about time that you start enjoying the benefits of foam rolling as well.

Police Self Defense training is very specific. Police officers have to learn self defense for both armed and unarmed situations. They need to use a martial art that can subdue a criminal suspect without harming them. Grappling arts are essential as they can control the suspect without striking them.

With over 5,000 years of history, yoga is one of the favorite forms of exercise for active people today. A mix of movement, breathing and meditation, this ancient set of techniques can and will help you with your conditioning for a better performance on the mats. We went after yoga instructor Angela Kent and black-belt Flavio Almeida and they shared the following eight ways yoga can help your jiu-jitsu training.

When we talk about ‘fundamentals’, we are not talking about what’s most basic – we are talking about what’s most important.  You can't build a house on sand. In any art, whether ballet, cooking, drawing/painting, carving, jiu-jitsu or any martial arts (just to name a few), proof of knowledge of the basics, and the learning of fundamentals is paramount before a student can be considered for entry into deeper levels of the art. This is different than a skill, in which there are basically just different things to learn how to do. Skills are things like running, weight lifting, reading, or kayaking. This is in fact the difference between art and skill; art is something that you can never stop improving on and learning about, skill just means the ability to do something well.

For me practicing martial arts has always been the search for truth. Over the past years Fundamentals Jiu-Jitsu has evolved from a more traditional way of training and teaching to a very modern and realistic approach to self-defense and fighting in general. It is not about the style or the techniques. It is all about how you train that makes it (more) functional. Aliveness is the epistemology of functional martial arts. It is the self-correcting mechanism that allows us to adjust our form to align with function. It is a truth seeking method. 

The Guard makes Brazilian Jiu Jitsu distinct from all other grappling disciplines. Providing one with the ability to control distance and disrupt their opponent’s base, the guard is crucial for self defense, sport and combat. The ability to reverse roles from attack to defense- change positions from bottom to top- is a cornerstone in making the art as effective as it is.

Let's look at the golden rules of grappling according to Chris Haueter.