Top: The Ultimate Jiu-Jitsu Commandment

Beginners and pros alike should obsess over dominating from top, avoid the guard's temptations, and embrace toughness.

“Do not be seduced by the allure of the guard.” -Chris Haueter

One Word Changed My Jiu-Jitsu Game Forever: Top

I’m currently training jiu-jitsu at Renzo Gracie’s in NYC. (I’ll write a review soon.) They have an interesting, and I think really good, policy: White belts need to be “sponsored” before they roll. That means they stand to the side off the mats and an upper belt selects them before they roll.

I always make sure I sponsor two of my five rolls. Before each roll, I ask, “Do you have a plan?” I’ve yet to hear a white belt with a good plan. I hear silliness like, “Arm bar you,” or “Choke you out.” I invariably say, “That’s a bad plan. I am going to give you a plan.” It’s the exact same plan I give white and blue belts everywhere in the world, and is summarized in a single word: Top.

Take top. Hold top. Secure top. Submit from top.

Here’s what that looks like in practice:

If you’re trying to pass guard, and you pass, take top and hold top. Secure the position. If you fail and they sweep you, escape to top.

If someone is trying to pass your guard, and they succeed, escape to top. If you sweep them, immediately take top and secure the position.

Do not fuck around on the bottom. Period.

It is like a multiple-choice test that has only one answer: Top. It’s retard-proof and admits of no exceptions.

Personal Trainers and Rubber Balls

If you’ve ever spent any time at weightlifting gyms, you’ve undoubtedly seen personal trainers who work with clients on ubiquitous large balls. But when the same personal trainers do their workouts, they never use those balls. Instead, they lift weights (usually to the point of exhaustion).

Similarly, I’ve seen so many misguided BJJ lessons where instructors spend time teaching truly crazy techniques from bottom, like submissions from mount bottom. But invariably, when I roll with them, they are rolling for top. Almost never does someone who’s highly skilled attempt to tap me from bottom.

This does not mean that you don’t need a guard game. You do. You need to know what to do if you cannot sweep someone and you’re trapped on bottom. Any bottom, including guard bottom, is a really bad place to be. Especially if you’re in a street situation or if you’re rolling with someone who’s bigger, stronger, more technical, or more athletic than you. And there is always someone who’s bigger, stronger, more technical, or more athletic than you. Always.

On that note: You should be rolling with everyone in the gym. Everyone. Kids. Women. Steroid guys. Midgets. Old people. White belts. Black belts. Everyone. (The only time you should not roll is if you feel unsafe.) When you roll with different bodies and people who have skill sets, you can test for yourself what works and what doesn’t. And I predict you will quickly learn one thing: Top is king.

Fuck You

Years ago, when I was a purple belt, I went to a gym and there was a young man who had “Fuck You” tattooed at least 50 times into his body, with a huge FUCK YOU scrawled across his chest in Old English.

Matt Thornton (left)

I was scared. I thought he was mentally unstable, and if I rolled with him, he’d do something crazy like not release a submission once I tapped. But then I remembered what my primary coach, Matt Thornton, taught me, “Tough is not how you act, tough is how you train.” Tough is not tapping from exhaustion. Tough is having tenacity, grit, and will. Tough is slapping hands and continuing immediately after you get tapped. Tough is not quitting. Tough is enduring.

I was surprised, to say the least, when we rolled to a draw. He was half my age, far heavier, and far more athletic. Up until that moment, I always had a tinge of fear when I saw someone covered in tattoos, especially radical tattoos, and his certainly qualified. But tough is not how you act. It’s not bravado. It’s not telling people you’re tough. Tough is how you train. Tough is not giving in. It’s not quitting. It is, oddly, taking a beating and immediately going back.

And that is a disposition. Tough something that cannot be learned, but it can be cultivated.

I always feel bad for people who lack the disposition to cultivate the skill set. And far more people than not fall into this category. In older men, you can see it in their bodies. It’s conspicuous in how they carry themselves. Slovenly and weak. Potbellied. Poor body habitus. Sad, but it is what it is. It’s a willful choice, an explicit decision to not place oneself situations that demand relentless endurance.

Tom Nash

I’m genuinely privileged to say that Tom Nash has become a friend. I met Tom when I was on his show, Last Meal with Tom Nash.

Tom’s a truly good guy who looks like he’s been hit by an IED. He has four hooks, and his body is in tatters. When I first met Tom, I had the fleeting thought: He cannot do jiu-jitsu but yet he does he does jiu-jitsu every moment of every day.

Tom is a man who does not tap from exhaustion. He’s resilient, alive, and tenacious in a way that I don’t know if I’m capable of being were I in his shoes.

Tom told me that some people are afflicted with a similar malady and fold. The exact opposite happened to Tom. He’s a black belt in life. He’s taking top and holding it.

Top

So don’t fuck around on the bottom. Take top. Secure top. Stay on top.