Mixed martial (MMA) arts is the official title of the popular style of fighting that is used throughout many of the cage fighting companies. MMA is a combination of traditional fighting styles such as kickboxing, boxing, wrestling, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Kickboxing, boxing, and wrestling all have weight classes that prevent certain body types from competing against one another, but Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu allows even the smallest individual to become more than a competitive match for their opponent. Throughout MMA gyms across the United States there are woman training side by side with men.
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is not a “boys” sport; it’s a sport which everybody can do. There are many different moves that involve rolling around on the ground and getting nice and sweaty, creating a great workout. Next time you are hanging out with a brother, friend, or boyfriend here is a great little move to show that they might not be the toughest ones in the room.
- Maintain Guard Position
- The Guard Position is when your opponent is on top of you and you have your legs wrapped around their waist, hook your feet together in order to keep them under control.
- Firmly grab a hold of the opponent’s wrist.
- Pin one of the wrist to your chest, either left or right.
- Unhook feet and drop one leg to your opponent’s thigh.
- Use the leg that is on your opponent’s thigh and kick it out so that they are no longer on that knee.
- Bring the leg you use to kick the knee out and place it on the shoulder.
- With the wrist that you firmly grasped opposite of the leg that you chose to kick your opponent’s knee with, and put it on the outside of the leg.
- The leg that is on the shoulder should go over the neck, to the point where the back of the kneecap is on top of the back of the neck.
- Now the wrist that is pinned to your chest should be pulled across to the far end of your chest and put the leg that is wrapped around the back and put that leg over the ankle of the leg that is over the neck.
- Finally with the opponent’s arm properly underneath their neck, put both hands on the back of the head of your opponent and raise your hips, this will stop your opponent from breathing.