Ep. 1: Alignment

This is our first episode! Matt and Steve dig into Alignment, the unified theory of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu as described by Rob Biernacki from Island Top Team.

[@awakenotwoke6930]

Around the time I became a blue belt I started feeling overwhelmed with the plethora of “techniques” thrown my way. I came across Rob at BJJ Concepts and bought a membership to his archive. Man oh man did the world open up😂😂. My game got crazy better over night after I grasped that jujitsu is simply the immobilization of an opponent, leading to a pin or “submission”, by breaking his alignment, through the use of frames, levers, and wedges. This podcast is gold. Excellent content!! PS I am a purple belt under Relson Gracie. The entire curriculum is built off of techniques that have specific applications. It can be very overwhelming. I learn techniques to level my rank up, but I allow free expression of movement as often as I physically can in my academy.

[@brendonrichey]

Commenting to boost algorithm awareness of this amazing asset.

[@kasskoulle]

Wow, I think I just hit a goldmine of information. How are there less than 100 views on this?

[@bjjmentalmodels]

Thanks for the kind words! The answer to your question is that we're new to KZbin. BJJ Mental Models is well-established as a podcast, but we're still relatively new on this platform. At the request of our listeners, we recently uploaded all our episodes to this platform.

[@stayingsaneamidtheinsanity2499]

Great video. 👍

[@jessethody4561]

Awesome!

[@alonsofrias5745]

Good stuff!

[@yeeba194]

Hi there, I'm new at BJJ and really drawn into the science of it and great podcasts you're doing here. Would you please consider your future podcasts to be shorter, and bite chunks? It would help in digesting it especially when we don't have an hour of spare time. Thank you .. !

[@bjjmentalmodels]

Thanks for writing in! BJJ Mental Models is intended as a longform, in-depth discussion of a new topic each week, so our running time is generally around 60-70 minutes. That said, we've been experimenting with shorter form content on our Patreon, with targeted episodes that are sometimes as short as 5 minutes long. I'd be curious to see if those are more in line with what you're looking for? You can join here: patreon.com/bjjmentalmodels

[@bjjreelz]

According to the podcast: "Posture" is a strong position of the spine. Structure is a strong position of every other body part (lever). Difference is really vague. So it seems you can just have Posture and Base, not Posture, Structure, Base. Explain please why do we need a third concept?

[@nopnopnopnopnopnopnop]

You said that in an armbar, the opponent doesn't have posture. I don't see how that's true though - his spine can be perfectly straight and it isn't bent or compromised in any way. And you defined posture as the alignment of your spine. Could you explain this further so I can understand?

[@bjjmentalmodels]

Sure thing, happy to explain. Posture means you can effectively use the power of your spine. If you're doing an armbar right, you've immobilized your opponent by creating wedges on both sides of their head. In the standard armbar, this means your butt on the near side and your foot on the far side. In this situation, your opponent's spine is immobile, and that immobilization means their posture is broken. Consider what an armbar would be like if you failed to place wedges against both sides of your opponent's head. They'd be able to rotate and use the hitchhiker escape or bridge escape. It is the immobilization of their spine - the breaking of their posture - that forces your opponent to stay in place while you apply breaking pressure. Does that answer your question?

[@nopnopnopnopnopnopnop]

@@bjjmentalmodels I think so, yeah! Thanks!

[@user-hd9fy3dj5y]

@@bjjmentalmodels Great explanation！