Don't read this if you like Brazilian Jiu Jitsu or want to be a better grappler.

In the context of this post BJJ or Brazilian Jiu Jitsu will be treated solely as sport art. A famous quote in regard to the nature of BJJ: “if you use strength you tire, if you tire you die.” Why? Who says if you use strength you tire? Everyone has had a time when they completely gassed out and was so tired they couldn’t move. A clear solution to this problem would be to simply train for stamina while grappling. If the human body can be trained to run for 26 miles than surely you could train it to grapple for 25 minutes without completely gassing out. So now that we have covered the one single disadvantage to utilizing ones strength while grappling lets cover the advantages. Look at all the grappling games of fighters in the UFC that are focused on submitting their opponent. How often these fighters are not able to impose their BJJ based grappling games because their opponent stands up, powers out or just refuses to go to the ground? Often. Don’t get me technique is one of the most important aspects of grappling and nearly all styles of grappling contain the same techniques simply because there are only so many ways you can twist and turn a human to make them break. There’s nothing wrong with the technique of BJJ it’s the manner in which they are applied that makes it pretty much ineffective when facing other styles. “Helio grabbed me in both lapels, and attacked me with O-soto-gari and Kouchi-gari. But they did not move me at all. Now it's my turn. I blew him away up in the air by O-uchi-gari, Harai-goshi, Uchimata, Ippon-seoi. At about 10 minute mark, I threw him by O-soto-gari. I intended to cause a concussion. But since the mat was so soft that it did not have much impact on him. While continuing to throw him, I was thinking of a finishing method. I threw him by O-soto-gari again. As soon as Helio fell, I pinned him by Kuzure-kami-shiho-gatame. I held still for 2 or 3 minutes, and then tried to smother him by belly. Helio shook his head trying to breathe. He could not take it any longer, and tried to push up my body extending his left arm. That moment, I grabbed his left wrist with my right hand, and twisted up his arm. I applied Udegarami.” that is a telling of his match with Helio Gracie by Masahiko Kimura himself. Kimura was huge believer in strength and power training and did 1000 pushups a day. Kimura would go on break Helio’s arm with the udegarami lock which would be nicknamed the Kimura lock after him. Another example is Kazushi Sakuraba also known as the Gracie Hunter. Sakuraba would fight against multiple masters of BJJ in his career as an MMA fighter. He didn’t win his matches because he had better technique than his opponents but because of the way he applied his grappling techniques. Sakuraba came from a Catch Wrestling background which has a very different opinion on the use of strength. A finial and third example is the Matt Hughes Royce Gracie fight. Hughes is not a better grappler than Royce. He better at takedowns due to his wrestling background but once it hits the octagon floor Royce is way superior technique wise. Yet Hughes mopped the floor with him, why? Because instead of drilling technique and rolling all day he trained his butt off and got some strength and stamina. Next time you grapple limit your submissions only to the Kimura lock, rear naked choke and the straight ankle lock move as fast as you possibly can and go for the tap with all the strength you have in you. If you disagree with this post feel free to post a comment I’d love to have some discussion about the matter.