What Makes BLAST MMA’s Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Program Different?

There are a lot of good Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu schools. Most have good instructors, good training partners, and plenty of techniques to teach.

So what makes BLAST MMA different?

For us, it comes down to how we approach learning Jiu-Jitsu.

We don't think the best way to learn BJJ is to show up three times a week and learn three random techniques. That's how you end up knowing a lot of techniques but not really knowing what to do when someone actually resists you. Instead, we built our BJJ program around a few basic ideas:

We Actually Have a Curriculum

Our beginner BJJ program is 104 lessons over 24 weeks (6 months).

That might not sound particularly exciting, but it's important.

The lessons aren't just a list of techniques we happened to put together.

The curriculum moves through the major positions in Jiu-Jitsu and builds from one area into the next. The idea is that you're gradually building a framework for understanding Jiu-Jitsu.

You're not just learning an armbar.

You're learning where the armbar comes from, what happens when your opponent defends it, and what you can do next.

That's a big difference.

We Don't Expect You to Remember Everything the First Time

One of the biggest problems with learning BJJ is that there's a lot to remember.

You learn something Monday. By Wednesday, you've already forgotten half of it.

Then three months later your instructor asks you to demonstrate it and you have absolutely no idea what he's talking about.

That's normal. It's also why we use spaced repetition in our curriculum.

Techniques are deliberately brought back into class after increasing periods of time. Something you learned recently gets reviewed again. Then it comes back a week later. Then two weeks later. Eventually, it gets revisited much further down the road.

This isn't busywork.

It's how you actually build long-term retention.

You're constantly getting exposure to older material while adding new material.

The goal isn't to see how much information we can cram into your head.

The goal is to make the important stuff stick.

We Teach You What to Do When Your Technique Doesn't Work

This is probably the biggest difference. Anybody can teach you a technique when the other person is cooperating. BJJ becomes much more difficult when your training partner starts defending. That's why our curriculum isn't built around memorizing sequences.

We want you to understand the relationship between techniques.

Take closed guard:

• You might attack a scissor sweep.

• Your opponent defends it.

• Now what?

• Maybe their reaction gives you a hip bump.

• Maybe they post and create a different opportunity.

• Maybe they defend the sweep and give you an arm.

• Maybe they posture in a way that creates a submission opportunity.

The point isn't to force the scissor sweep because that's what you practiced that day.

The point is to recognize what your opponent is giving you and adjust.

We use the same approach throughout the curriculum.

• Mount has an attack system.

• Back control has an attack system.

• Guard passing has an entire decision-making system.

• The wrestling portion teaches you to chain attacks together rather than simply shooting one takedown and resetting when it doesn't work.

We're trying to teach you how to make decisions, not just how to memorize techniques.

You Don't Just Drill. You Have to Use It.

Every class includes positional sparring.

If we're working on escaping side control, you're going to start in side control.

If we're working on a sweep, your partner is going to be trying to stop you from sweeping them. If we're working on passing, your partner is going to be trying to keep their guard.

This is important because drilling and actually using a technique are two completely different things. A technique can feel easy when your partner lets you do it.

It feels very different when they're actively trying to prevent it.

Positional sparring gives you a chance to work on the specific problem we're teaching while still dealing with resistance.

That's where the learning starts to transfer from drilling into actual Jiu-Jitsu.

Then We Roll

Every class also includes live rolling.

This is where you get to put everything together. And no, you're not expected to successfully use the technique from that day's class every single round.

That's not how Jiu-Jitsu works. You might spend the entire round stuck in half guard.

You might get your guard passed. You might get submitted.

You might completely forget what you learned 20 minutes earlier. That's fine.

The purpose of rolling isn't simply to win.

It's to develop the ability to recognize positions, make decisions, stay composed, and keep working when things don't go according to plan.

Over time, things that used to feel chaotic start becoming familiar.

You start recognizing positions.

You start seeing opportunities.

You start understanding why something worked or why it didn't.

That's progress.

The Goal Isn't to Collect Techniques

There are thousands of techniques in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

You could spend the rest of your life learning new ones.

We don't think that's necessarily the best way to become good at Jiu-Jitsu.

At some point, you need to stop thinking about Jiu-Jitsu as a collection of individual moves. You need to understand how the pieces fit together.

• A guard leads to a sweep.

• A sweep leads to top control.

• Top control leads to a submission.

• The submission gets defended.

• That defense creates another opportunity.

• Your opponent escapes.

• You transition.

• They react.

• You adjust.

That's what Jiu-Jitsu actually looks like.

Our curriculum is designed to get students thinking that way from the beginning.

So What's Actually Different About BLAST?

It's not that we have some secret technique that nobody else knows.

We don't. The techniques we teach are techniques you'll find throughout good Jiu-Jitsu programs.

The difference is how we organize and teach them.

• We have a structured curriculum.

• We use spaced repetition.

• We deliberately connect techniques together.

• We use positional sparring to give you specific problems to solve.

• We finish class with live rolling so you can learn to apply those skills against a resisting opponent.

We're not trying to make you memorize 104 lessons.

We're trying to make those lessons eventually feel like one connected system.

That's the real goal.

**Not knowing more Jiu-Jitsu. Understanding Jiu-Jitsu better.**