How To Do The Technical Stand Up In Jiu Jitsu

Posts In This Series

1. How To Block Punches From The Jiu Jitsu Guard Position: Part 1
2. How To Block Punches From The Jiu Jitsu Guard Position: Part 2
3. How To Block Punches From The Jiu Jitsu Guard Position: Part 3
4. How To Block Punches From The Jiu Jitsu Guard Position: Part 4
5. How To Do The Technical Stand Up In Jiu Jitsu
6. How To Block Punches From The Jiu Jitsu Guard Position: Part 5

Why You Need To Learn The Technical Stand Up

In other videos, I’ve been talking about the guard and about how to block punches from the guard. But what about when you are down and your opponent is standing? How can you protect yourself then? This is actually range 5 of the punch block series but before we learn how to deal with this kind of situation you need to first learn a very important and fundamental technique in jiu jitsu. It’s called the technical stand up.

The technical standup technique is used all the time in jiu jitsu in many different contexts, but the basic idea is this.

The technical standup is a simple way to get from the ground back to your feet in a safe and balanced way. People who don’t know this move will stand up in all sorts of ways that leave them exposed to a strike or easy to push over.

The reason we need something like this is obvious. Sometimes you are on the ground and you need to get to your feet so you can either fight from there or run away. The technical standup is the best way to do this because it blocks your opponent’s strikes and by the time you’re standing, you’re already set to fight.

Let’s take an example. You’re at a park, sitting on the grass. Some guy walks up to you and starts to get aggressive. You’re sitting down and need to get to your feet quickly. This is where the technical stand up would come into play.

Step 1: Get In The Proper Starting Position

For this move, you need to be sitting with one knee up, the other leg down against the ground. Your arm should be on top of your leg. It’s a good idea to build this as a habit anyway. That way, if you’re sitting on the ground, you’ll always be seconds away from getting to your feet and dealing with the conflict. So if you’re sitting on the ground and some guy walks up to you, and one thing leads to another, and you can see that for whatever reason, a fight is about to take place.

Step 2: Protect Your Face And Post On The Ground

Bring your arm up to protect your face. Your other hand is going to post on the ground. This is so you can protect your face with one hand while placing all of your weight on the other to stand up.

Step 3: Drag The Bottom Leg Back To A Standing Position

From here, you’re going to pick your leg that is on the ground and swing it back behind you. As you do this, you’ll be resting your weight on the hand on the ground as well as the leg that hasn’t moved. Now, your leg is free to go behind and plant firmly on the ground. You are able to stand up from here and will already be in base and ready to protect yourself

Just remember to always protect your face at all times when doing this movement.

How To Easily Drill The Technical Stand Up

Many years ago, Royce Gracie told me that his father made it a requirment that every time you get up off the ground, you have to stand up in a technical stand up. At that seminar, if Royce caught anyone getting up without using this move, he, like his father, would make them drill the technical stand up 100 times.

From that day on, this is how I get up off of the ground every time. It doesn’t matter what I’m doing. Getting up on the mats or just getting up from the floor from watching TV or playing with the kids. So you can do it too!. If you drill this often and make a habit of sitting on the ground with the knee up, leg down, and arm over the knee, you’ll be always prepared to do this movement naturally under stress.

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