Wrestjitsu is a term i made up to describe an harmonic blend of WRESTling and brazilian jiu JITSU. Here in Estonia, we sometimes jokingly say that we don’t practise anymore bjj but wrestjitsu.
The incredible Hulk – a true icon of Wrestjitsu
The idea itself is hardly new or revolutionary. I remember Jake Shields saying that he’s doing american jiu jitsu, which is a mix of wrestling and bjj. And so have countless others come to the conclusion that adding wrestling to your bjj arsenal makes a very powerful combination. This post is about further popularizing this concept. I will bring up several situation where and how exactly is wrestling beneficial in bjj.
- Aggressiveness (byproduct is conditioning) – this is the single most important thing and it also enables all the following
- Fighting for top positions / not giving up in scrambles and accepting getting swept or be taken down
- Turning sweeps into take downs
- Confidence to stay standing and fight for take downs
Dan Gable on aggression
When you watch a wrestling match, its almost always a war. Both wrestlers really trying to push the pace, constantly working, pushing and pulling, grabbing and shooting in. Its really intense, constant movement, nobody giving up a single thing and pushing hard to take down the other guy and doing all this throughout the entire duration of the match. And not only this, physically, when you look at wrestlers, how well they are conditioned, they just put you in sort of awe. They reek of toughness!
When watching wrestlers compete, i just simply admire them. I admire wrestling. Those guys are animals, they are the incredible Hulks. There minds are strong, they go in the match really trying to win, push ones own will and not allow the opponent to do anything. A quote from the movie 300 seems appropriate about now. As persians were going in for the first wave of attack, Leonidas shouts to hes men „Give them nothing, but take from them, everything“.
A very interesting documentary about IOWA wrestling
Now in contrast, i sometimes watch bjj matches and shake my head in disbelief because of how „mellow“ the athletes are. This is seen less at higher levels, but still not a rarity. They’re stand up wrestling looks awkward, you can literally see very abnormal body postures for standing wrestling. Knees too straight, back arched, no tight pressures and arm pummeling, goofy grip fighting, awkward and without any setup take down shoots. And as we move to the ground i see people not fighting against being swept hard enough, they sort of “accept” it. ” Oh OK, i guess he swept me so ill just lay back and play guard then, no worries” – that kind of thinking is rotten on the inside :) Instead of really trying to maintain balance on feet, keeping your legs under you, constantly fighting and scrambling for top, not giving up.
When you are on the mat and about to compete against a guy, who has been wrestling for the past 15 years, you know your not gonna have a pillow fight.
Wrestling demands high levels from all the 3 main attributes – strength, speed, endurance.
Late Rolls Gracie wrestling
First, you got to have strength to move around, correction, toss around someone the same size as you. A 70kg wrestler needs to be able to pick up, toss, throw, jump around with, roll, fight against, grab, mop the mat with another 70kg body. Not only is there strength involved, but to execute shoots, throws, duck under’s… all that requires power, being fast, those things need to happen in a blink of an eye. So here is your strength and speed requirement. The endurance component comes because not only do they have to fight for 15 seconds, but minutes. A wrestler needs to apply hes strength and power throughout the entire duration of the match, minutes. Being able to do all that requires an aggressive mind and a very powerful “engine” to drive that mind. And this is something, that needs to be a part of any good grappler – an aggressive mind and loads of work hours to push oneself to have a powerful “engine”.
In upper row you can see Rolls Gracie, Rickson Gracie, Mauricio Gomes (Roger’s father)
What i recommend, is that more people start wrestling! As soon as you do that, good things happen to you. All the areas i mentioned will start improving. And your bjj game will go a notch upwards.
So today’s take home message is this – You need to have an aggressive overall attitude towards grappling, to be able to do that you need a train engine and adding wrestling classes to your schedule is a step in the right direction.
Part 1 was more about giving a general idea across on how wrestling is good for bjj.
Part 2 will focus on more specific situations and i will make some video clips to go with it.
Little clip i compiled from several of my competition videos to illustrate this topic. Pay attention to 2 things, when you see me getting swept … i wont get swept, ill still end up on top and i wont accept going to bottom. And secondly, when i am sweeping i will sit up, if i have to, and finish the sweep as a take down. Adding wrestling will improve those areas of your game.
Regarding sweeps, that’s how its done nowadays :
1. Setup – Bjj is the setup
2. Transition – going from setup to an offencive take down entry
3. Take down
All this, more in depth, in part 2.
Martin
Dec 24 Grappling 5 Comments
Oh yeah!
“My kind of jiu jitsu!” – Martin always commented when saw me in shirt that said with grac(i)eful letters “Rolls Gracie”.
So true.
Nice work buddy, iv been watching you since Kurt posted your guard passes from hell over at shogun hq. He mentioned you showed him some stuff on wrestling as guard sweeps but hasnt elaborated, glad im finally gona find out haha
GREAT ARTICLE!! THANKS
Great article and you ‘re doing a good job, could you send me by email the adress of BJJ school in estonia because I think I will be this summer in the north of Europe and I would like to train in Estonia
Cheers Sebastien
Mail sent