Jiu-Jitsu Is Easy (You Make It Unnecessarily Hard)
After 20 years on the mats, I've learned that the best practitioners aren't the ones who know the most techniques. They're the ones who've learned to subtract.
Three things happen from closed guard. Three. Not seventeen. Not "it depends."
Three.
Understanding this changed everything for my students. Here's why most people overcomplicate jiu-jitsu—and how to stop.
The Problem With Modern BJJ Education
Every week, YouTube suggests another "game-changing" technique. Instagram shows another highlight reel finish. The message is clear: more techniques, more success.
But here's what I've observed after coaching world medalists, UFC fighters, and complete beginners: the athletes who dominate aren't collecting techniques. They're eliminating them.
"I spent 25 years learning to subtract. What's left is The Formula."
The Three Things Framework
From any position in jiu-jitsu, only three things can happen. That's it. Once you understand this, the chaos becomes clarity.
From Bottom Position
When you're on bottom, three things can happen to you:
- Guard passed — They advance to a dominant position
- Back taken — They take your back
- Submitted — They finish you
From Top Position
When you're on top, three things can happen to you:
- Swept — They reverse position
- Back taken — They take your back
- Submitted — They catch you from underneath
Top is winning. Bottom is losing. Away or on your side may be okay. That's the hierarchy.
(In MMA or self-defense, there's a fourth option from both positions: you can be struck. But in pure grappling, it's always these three.)
Every position. Every exchange. Three things. The framework doesn't change—only the specifics. (And if you're wondering whether the framework changes between gi and no-gi, it doesn't.)
The Three-Word Question: "Am I Safe?"
This is the ultimate question in jiu-jitsu. Not "what technique should I use?" Not "what's my next move?"
"Am I safe?"
That's the question you're always asking: Am I safe from these three things?
- From the bottom of closed guard: "Am I safe from having my guard passed, my back taken, or being submitted?"
- From the top of mount: "Am I safe from being swept, having my back taken, or being submitted?"
- In any situation: "Am I safe from (insert situation here)?"
If yes, keep going. If no, address the threat immediately. If you have to pause and think about it? The answer is no.
The beauty is that this question simplifies everything. You're not trying to predict what they'll do. You're assessing whether their options are neutralized.
The Layers Come Later
People focus on additional details too early. They want to know every specific escape from mount, every variation of guard retention, every counter to every attack. But that's putting layers on top of a foundation that doesn't exist yet.
Master the three things first. Understand the framework. Then you can add the layers:
- From closed guard, your opponent can also stand or disengage
- From mount, they might attempt the upa, elbow escape, or heel hook specifically
- In a specific situation: "They're attacking an armbar—am I safe?"
These are refinements. Important ones. But they come after you've internalized the core question. Start with the framework, then add complexity. Most people do it backwards.
Why This Matters Beyond The Mats
This isn't just about jiu-jitsu. It's about how we approach any complex skill.
Most people drown in information because they lack a framework for filtering it. Every new technique feels essential. Every variation feels necessary.
But everything works—in the right context, at the right time, for the right person. The question isn't whether a technique works. The question is: Does it work for me, right now, in this situation, against this resistance?
Think about what "this resistance" actually means:
- Your training partner — Their body type, skill level, energy, strategy
- The environment — Competition pressure, the clock, the stakes
- Your own state — Your fatigue, your injuries, your mental clarity
- Your own mind — Are you overthinking? Hesitating? Second-guessing?
That last one matters more than people admit. Sometimes the resistance isn't external at all.
Every situation is unique. It only happens one time. Yes, you may do many similar situations—many guard passes, many sweeps, many submissions. But when you add in time, space, and everything changing, you never do the same rep twice. You never have the same situation twice, given the experience levels, the fatigue, the stakes, the partner.
The Amplification Effect
Here's what most people miss: jiu-jitsu is an external amplifier of someone's internal persona.
Your training partner reveals things about you. The environment—competition, stress, exhaustion—reveals things about you. This is why the same person can tap out a training partner one day and get dominated by them the next.
But amplification isn't always external. Sometimes it's internal:
- Stress — You're worried about something off the mat, and it shows up in your game
- Overthinking — You're so focused on what might happen that you miss what's actually happening
- Ego — You refuse to tap, refuse to play defense, refuse to accept where you actually are
What changed between your best day and worst day? The amplification changed—external, internal, or both. And sometimes what gets revealed is this uncomfortable truth:
Are you beating yourself?
In the beginning—and even at higher levels under pressure—you lose more than your opponent needs to win. You give them freebies. You make unforced errors.
Don't beat yourself. That's the first rule. Before you worry about what they're doing, stop helping them.
The challenge is that "beating yourself" is often invisible — even to you. That's why I created Ready, Set, Talk™, a diagnostic drill that makes internal processing audible. When an athlete goes quiet mid-roll, I'm not hearing silence — I'm hearing the edge of what they can process.
The Path Forward
Here's what I tell my students on day one:
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Don't beat yourself. In the beginning, you'll lose more than your opponent needs to win. Stop giving them freebies. Reduce unforced errors.
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Ask better questions. Not "what technique should I use?" but "Am I safe? What's the immediate threat?" Ask a better question, get a better question—not necessarily a better answer, but a better framework for finding one.
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Let your training partner tell you what it is. Stop forcing. Take what they give you. We're at the buffet, and the other person is the one that serves us.
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Control yourself before you try to influence someone else. You can't submit someone if you can't control your own body first. Power is nothing without control.
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Recognize when you're the amplifier. Your opponent isn't always the one revealing your weaknesses. Sometimes the mat is. Sometimes your ego is. Sometimes you're the external force working against yourself.
Jiu-jitsu is inherently simple. Success comes from eliminating unnecessary complications and focusing on proven, reliable techniques.
The hard part isn't the techniques. It's doing them against resistance—including your own resistance—for years, through the changes, while continuing to separate yourself from everyone else.
Isn't it time to separate yourself from everyone else, including the one person who gets in your way the most—you?
I've done that for 20 years. Now I can show you the simple path.
Jiu-jitsu is easy. You have the ability to make it so unnecessarily hard.
Ready to stop making things unnecessarily hard? Book a session.
George Samuelson is a second-degree black belt under Dante Rivera and Ricardo Almeida (lineage: Renzo Gracie). Known as "Dante Rivera's First Black Belt," he has coached IBJJF World medalists, UFC fighters, and practitioners at every level. He has promoted two black belts himself, including a world champion. George teaches at Ocean County BJJ in Forked River, NJ and Dante Rivera BJJ in Howell, NJ.