Fundamentals Program Goals

The main goal of our fundamentals program is to build well-rounded grapplers who are respectful to their training partners, fun to play with, and have enough conceptual knowledge of grappling to guide their own learning going forward.

Our secondary goal is to develop a strong practical foundation built on concepts and common movement pathways rather than memorized techniques, so you can dynamically problem-solve in any grappling situation you find yourself in.

These goals aren’t independent of each other. A student who understands frames and levers will figure out more in a live round than one who’s memorized ten techniques. A student who’s fun to roll with gets more reps, better partners, and a longer career on the mats.

Part 1: Culture and Character

Safety and injury prevention

You cannot learn if you’re injured, and neither can your training partner. Safety isn’t a rule we follow reluctantly. It’s what makes long-term development possible for everyone in the room.

Tap early. Tapping when caught is not losing. It’s what allows everyone to train tomorrow.
Calibrate your intensity to your partner. Read the room. A brand new white belt and a four-year blue belt are not the same training partner.
Never try to muscle out of a late-stage submission. The math doesn’t work.
If you’re uncomfortable for any reason (safety, pace, attitude), use your words or tap and reset.
Physical escalation is never acceptable. If a round is going somewhere bad, tap and have a conversation.
Stopping the round is always an option, in sparring, in games, even in drilling. Be your own safety advocate.

See Safety Rules for the complete safety reference.

Being a good training partner

This is the most important goal. Technical skill matters, but a student who’s ego-driven and unpleasant to roll with is a net negative for the gym. A student who’s playful, kind, and easy to train with makes everyone around them better and gets more out of their own training in the process.

Being a good training partner is partly attitude and partly skill. Both can be developed.

Attitude

Be here for skill development, not to stroke your ego
Train to learn, not to win practice
Be kind to training partners, to newcomers, to people who are struggling
Use your words when upset. Don’t escalate rounds.

Movement Quality

Be playful. Explore, experiment, take risks.
Control your breathing
Grapple with your legs, not just your arms
Have submission awareness. Know when you’re caught.

Calibration

Adjust intensity and complexity to your partner, never both at the same time
Recognize when you’re going too hard and dial it back without being asked
Give newer students a real but manageable challenge. Don’t shut them down completely.
Play on the losing side of a game without immediately reverting to your comfort zone
Make rounds useful for both people, not just yourself
Understand that growth and performance are opposing goals. Working new skills means losing more, and that’s the point.

See How We Train for more on playfulness, investing in loss, and the growth mindset.

Community membership

Joining GJJ isn’t just joining a gym. It’s joining a community with a specific culture. Part of graduating fundamentals is understanding what that culture is and actively contributing to it.

Take care of new students the way someone took care of you on your first day
Represent the gym well when visitors come in. Show them how playful we are, not how effective we can be on them.
Understand that the gym’s culture is maintained by everyone in the room, not just the coaches
Know that a tap is a full sentence. No explanation needed, no pressure to continue.
Know that “no” is a full sentence. You don’t owe anyone an explanation for not wanting to train with them, and you shouldn’t pressure anyone who says no.
Treat every training partner with the same respect regardless of their size, belt, or background

See Community Standards for the full cultural expectations.

Part 2: Knowledge and Skill

Self-directed learning

A fundamentals graduate shouldn’t need a coach to tell them what to work on. You should have enough of a map to ask good questions, identify your own gaps, and use available resources to keep developing.

Know what you don’t know. Be able to say “I’m weak in top pins” rather than “I don’t know what I’m bad at.”
Use the curriculum to study positions between classes
Ask coaches specific questions rather than general ones
Watch your own rolls with something to look for, not just passively reviewing footage
Understand that improvement happens in the gym and between sessions, not just when a coach is watching

Conceptual knowledge

We teach from concepts down, not techniques up. The goal isn’t to give you a library of moves. It’s to give you a framework you can apply everywhere.

Alignment

Jiu jitsu is a game of preserving your base, posture, and structure while attempting to break your opponent’s. Every technique should be evaluated based on how well it preserves your alignment and breaks your opponent’s.

The alignment scorecard: score each player 0 to 3 based on whether they have effective base, posture, and structure. Whoever scores higher has the superior position. When your opponent’s score reaches 1 or 0, it’s time to submit.

Base: a platform from which to apply and absorb force
Posture: effective positioning of your neck, core, and spine
Structure: efficient use of your limbs

See Alignment for the full breakdown with examples.

Core mechanics of grappling

All techniques in jiu jitsu are combinations of frames, levers, wedges, clamps, hooks, and posts. You don’t need to memorize every technique. You need to understand these six mechanisms and recognize them everywhere.

See Core Mechanics for detailed explanations of each.

Core concepts

These concepts appear across many positions. You’ll encounter them throughout the curriculum.

Inside channel control: control the space between your opponent’s arms and legs
Elbow-knee connection: keep your elbows close to your knees for defensive integrity
Force vectors: identify the angle of incoming force; meet or redirect it
Controlled breathing: maintain a deliberate, relaxed cadence of breath
Staying loose: only tense to finish an already successful attack
Regulated tension: knowing when and how much to tense vs. relax
Pressure and timing: using bodyweight and positioning to restrict your opponent; when to initiate vs. wait
Stability vs. mobility: the trade-off between holding position and creating movement
Placeholders: don’t abandon one point of control until you’ve replaced it with another
Head position: controls distance, improves posture, minimizes attack vectors
Limb coiling: keep limbs coiled close to your core, ready to engage
Critical control points: only a handful of control points really matter per technique

Positional engagement concepts

When on bottom, your primary focus is to increase frames and off-balance your opponent.

When on top, your primary focus is to prevent framing and turn your opponent’s frames into levers.

When passing: understand the relationship between knees together, knees apart, legs straight, and feet to butt.

When wrestling: outside elbow and hands to mat to get to the torso. Beat the head and arms to get to the legs.

Submissions

Submissions are the ultimate goal of grappling: the ability to end an exchange. But we teach them differently than most gyms. We start with control, then mechanics, then finishing.

Submissions as positions

Before learning to finish, learn to control from submission positions. Maintaining the position, preventing escapes, and recognizing when to attempt the finish vs. when to improve control. Position before submission, applied at the submission level itself.

Kimura control: maintaining the kimura grip as a control position; transitions between variants; when to finish vs. when to hold
Armbar control: maintaining armbar position as a control; managing escape attempts; transitioning between variants
Triangle control: maintaining triangle position as a control; managing posture and angle; when to squeeze vs. when to adjust
Guillotine control: maintaining front headlock/guillotine as a control position; grip management; when to finish vs. when to transition
Omoplata control: maintaining omoplata as a control position; preventing the roll; using it to sweep vs. submit

Breaking mechanics

Understanding how submissions work mechanically allows you to recognize threats, understand why positions are dangerous, and troubleshoot finishes that aren’t working.

Linear: hyperextension through the normal plane of motion (e.g., armbar, kneebar)
Rotational: twisting a joint beyond its range (e.g., kimura, heel hook)
Compression: crushing tissue against bone (e.g., calf slicer, bicep slicer)
Hybrid: combinations of the above (e.g., heel hooks involve both linear and rotational force)

The 3 joint rule: limb control requires dominating 2 of 3 joints; submissions require 3 of 3.

Choking and strangling mechanics

Not all chokes work the same way. Understanding the mechanism helps you recognize what’s happening, apply finishes correctly, and know when to tap.

Blood chokes: compressing the carotid arteries on both sides of the neck (e.g., RNC, triangle)
Air chokes: closing the trachea (e.g., cross collar choke, Ezekiel)
Cranks: attacking the spine/neck structure (e.g., can opener, twister)
Hybrid: combinations of the above

Submission requirements

RNC: understand and be able to finish from a fully locked position against a resisting opponent
One other submission of your choice: it can be anything, as long as you have one other submission you can reliably threaten

Practical grappling knowledge

The goal

A fundamentals graduate is not someone who knows a lot of techniques. You’re someone who can be dropped into any grappling situation and figure out what’s happening, what your options are, and how to improve your position, even if you’ve never been formally taught that specific scenario.

This comes from three things, in order of importance:

Awareness: can you read what’s happening? Can you identify your alignment and your opponent’s? Can you perceive threats and opportunities as they emerge?
Problem-solving through play: can you play our core games with a range of training partners and use the conceptual framework to solve problems dynamically rather than relying on memorized sequences?
Concrete skills: do you have a baseline of practical ability in each major area of grappling, enough to orient yourself and start building?

We list concrete skills last because they’re the output of the first two, not the input. A student with strong awareness and good problem-solving habits develops concrete skills faster than a student who memorizes techniques but can’t read a live situation.

1. Awareness

The most important practical skill is perception. Before you can solve a problem, you have to see it.

Reading alignment in real time

You should be able to evaluate the alignment scorecard for both yourself and your opponent during play, not perfectly, but as an active habit. This means noticing:

When your alignment is compromised: “I’ve lost my base” or “my posture is broken” or “their frames are controlling my structure”
When your opponent’s alignment is compromised: “they have no post on that side” or “their posture is broken, I should attack”
When the alignment score shifts: recognizing that transitions happen because someone’s alignment changed, and that your job is to be the one making those changes

Perceiving threats and opportunities

This is the perception-action coupling that our games are designed to develop. You should be building the habit of:

Noticing when a submission threat exists before it’s locked in and responding early
Perceiving when an opponent has lost base, posture, or structure and recognizing that as a window to attack
Feeling when your own alignment is about to be compromised and acting to prevent it rather than recovering from it
Asking “what do I see?” rather than “what move should I do?”

Knowing where you are

At a minimum, you should be able to identify what position you’re in and what that position generally means, even if you don’t yet have a sophisticated game from there:

Recognizing when you’re in a guard, a pin, a scramble, a submission position, or a leg entanglement
Knowing whether you’re in an advantageous, neutral, or disadvantageous position
Understanding the general goal from that position (e.g., “I’m being pinned, I need to create frames and get to guard or standing” or “I’m in their guard, I need to manage my alignment and work to pass”)

2. Problem-solving through play

Our primary tool for developing grapplers is games, specifically FYJJ and its variants. The goal isn’t to win games. The goal is to develop the habit of dynamically solving grappling problems using the conceptual framework.

The FYJJ mindset

Self-handicap to keep games interesting and productive for both players. If you’re winning every exchange instantly, you’re not learning and neither is your partner.
Invest in loss. Working on new skills means losing more. That’s the point. Growth and performance are opposing goals in the training room.
Treat every game as an alignment problem. Whatever the specific rules, the underlying question is always the same: how do I improve my alignment scorecard while degrading theirs?
Use concepts to solve novel problems. When you encounter a position you’ve never been taught, ask yourself: “Where are the frames? Where are the levers? What’s my base? What’s their posture?” and generate a reasonable approach.

Core games

You should be comfortable playing all of the following game variants and understand how self-handicapping works in each:

Guard play FYJJ: developing guard offense (sweeps, submissions, back takes) and guard posture/passing
Guard retention FYJJ: developing the ability to maintain and recover guard against passing attempts
Pinning FYJJ: developing pin maintenance and pin escapes
Leg spaghetti: developing basic leg entanglement awareness, control, and safety

3. Concrete skills

These are the baseline practical abilities a fundamentals graduate should have. They’re not technique checklists. They’re areas where you should be functionally comfortable enough to play, orient yourself, and continue developing.

Guard

You should have experience playing from at least one guard type in each category below and understand what makes them different.

By leg position:

Outside position guards (both legs outside opponent): butterfly, DLR, seated open guard. Mobility and angle-creation, but less direct tethering.
Inside position guards (both legs inside/around opponent): closed guard. Strong control, limited mobility.
Half guard (one leg in, one leg out): knee shield, clamp half guard, half butterfly. Elements of both control and mobility.

By distance:

Long-range guards (frames and feet): seated open guard, DLR, knee shield. Managing distance with skeletal frames.
Mid-range guards (hooks and grips): butterfly, X-guard, SLX. Dynamic sweeping and leg entanglement entries.
Short-range guards (clamps and body contact): closed guard, clamp half guard, deep half. Maximum control through closed kinetic chains.

You should understand the three phases of guard:

Engagement: initiating grips and establishing your guard from a neutral position
Maintenance: attacking from an established guard (sweeps, submissions, back takes)
Retention: surviving and recovering your guard when it’s being passed

Guard Retention

Guard retention is its own skill, separate from guard play. You should understand the basic retention concepts against the three main types of passing:

Around the legs (toreando, leg drag): retention through hip movement, facing your opponent, re-establishing foot contact
Through the legs (knee cut, smash pass): retention through frames, inside position, preventing your opponent from clearing your knee line
Under the legs (stack, over-under): retention through posture management, preventing the fold, creating space to re-guard

Guard Passing

You should be comfortable in at least two of three passing ranges and understand the three phases of passing (disentangle, control, pass):

Loose/distance passing: standing, managing grips, working around the legs
Mid-range passing: engaged but not committed; knee cuts, leg drags
Tight/pressure passing: bodylock, smash, under the legs; heavy on top, controlling space

You should understand waypoints in passing: staging positions where the passer has good base, multiple options, and can rest or redirect without giving up position.

Headquarters: straddling one of your opponent’s legs; staging point for knee cut, smash pass, and near-side knee through
Split squat: one knee down, one foot up with inside position established; staging point for most kneeling passes
Leg drag: opponent’s leg controlled and dragged across their body; creates a severe angle
Double under: both arms threaded under opponent’s legs, controlling the hips
Over-under: one arm over and one arm under opponent’s legs; high-pressure staging point
Bodylock: arms locked around opponent’s torso or hips; eliminates hip movement

Pinning

You should be able to maintain a pin using concepts (not just holding on) and understand the three types of wedging pins:

Arm-based wedging pins (e.g., crossface + underhook side control)
Leg-based wedging pins (e.g., mount, knee on belly)
Hybrid wedging pins (e.g., kesa gatame, north-south)

Pinning is about controlling your opponent’s alignment, removing their ability to create frames, generate base, or maintain posture. Not about laying on top of someone.

Pin Escapes

You should be able to escape pins to at least one of two destinations:

To guard: re-establishing frames and recovering a guard position
To standing: creating enough space to disengage and get to your feet

The escape destination matters. The right choice depends on context, not habit.

Wrestling: Standing

You should be comfortable engaging from a standing, disconnected position and be able to safely work your way into a connected position where you can affect your training partner’s base and balance.

The core game is the Circle Game: start standing and disconnected, each player wins by connecting their arms around their training partner underneath the armpits. This develops:

Distance management: how to safely close distance from open engagement
Grip fighting: how to establish meaningful contact and work toward dominant tie-ups
Transitions to offense: how to go from a connected position to a takedown attempt

Wrestling safety principles:

Don’t fight takedowns at 100%. When an unstoppable force meets an immovable object, something breaks.
Reserve the right to fall. If you can’t change your mind about a takedown attempt, you shouldn’t commit to it.
Takedown vs. throwdown: bring them to the mat, not at the mat.
Prioritize playfulness over winning the exchange.

Wrestling: Kneeling

You should be functionally comfortable in the three core kneeling wrestling engagements:

Turtle: attacking and defending; understanding the goals (back takes, front headlock) and the dangers (neck, knee safety)
Dogfight: the transitional scramble position; understanding how underhooks, base, and elevation determine who comes out on top
Front headlock: attacking (guillotine, snap-down, go-behind) and escaping (posture recovery, clearing the head, standing up)

You should be comfortable in at least one late-stage finishing scenario from standing, meaning you can finish a takedown when you already have a significant positional advantage.

Submissions

From a practical standpoint:

Be able to control from at least two submission positions (e.g., kimura and armbar) well enough to maintain the position against resistance for 10+ seconds before attempting a finish
Be able to finish an RNC from a fully locked-in position against a resisting opponent
Have at least one other submission you can reliably threaten (it can be anything)
Recognize when you’re caught in a submission early enough to tap before damage occurs

Leg Entanglements

Leg entanglements are not a fundamentals-level offensive priority, but basic awareness and safety are essential because you will encounter them in live rolling.

Safety: understand that many leg locks don’t cause pain before ligament damage. Tap to tightness, not pain. Don’t explosively resist. Don’t spin the wrong way (ask a coach if you’re unsure which way is safe).
Vocabulary: know what straight ashi is. Recognize when you’re in a leg entanglement. Know the terms “primary leg,” “secondary leg,” and “knee line.”
Basic offense: be able to attack a straight ankle lock from straight ashi. This is the first leg lock everyone should learn and it’s legal at all belt levels.
Game comfort: be comfortable playing Leg Spaghetti at a basic level (one attacker, one defender).