Beginning Brazilian Jiu Jitsu - Punches

Jeremy Lefreniere: This is Jeremy Lefreniere with Capital Jiu-Jitsu. We are now going to talk about slipping punches.

So, we are in a striking range of combat, ultimately, I would like to close the distance, especially, if I am up against somebody who is much larger, or much stronger than me. By closing the distance, I am going to minimize the attack opportunities that he has. When he throws that jab, go ahead, throw it. My goal is to use that as an opportunity to move forward. I am going to follow that jab right back to his body. He throws that jab, and I am going to move forward. Before I move forward, though I have to set myself up to move forward, without getting hit, and the way I do that, is I am going to turn his shoulder to protect my jaw, and my hand goes up to protect my face.

Think about it like this, I am using my left hand to reach into my pocket, the far pocket. My right hand goes up to protect my face. A common mistake is that people push the hand out of the way, thats not something that we are going to do. So, from here, he throws that jab, and I am here, reaching into the pocket, protecting my face and moving forward, slipping the punch.

So, we are here, he goes, and so do I. I am going to close that distance. When I close the distance, now I am going to get into a clinch. My hands are going to wrap around his body. I am going to take the blade of my form, and I am going to slice up and into his floating rib on the far side of his body, like this. My ear goes against his shoulder, and my shoulder is up, underneath his armpit tight. My elbow is down. This is the position that I want to end up in. Notice how my legs are also perpendicular to his legs and I am on the outside. So, its going to be very difficult for him to inflict any punishment on me, but its going to be easy for me to inflict punishment on him, whether its knee strikes, hand strikes, or a throw or take down.

One more time, so we are here, he throws that punch, and I slip the punch. My hands wrap around the body, I cut up and into his floating rib, and I take up all the space, my ears against his shoulder and my shoulder is up and underneath his armpit. Keep my hips forward and tight against Stuart or my opponent.

Thats it for this discussion. The next piece is going to be a take down.