How to Use YouTube to Get Better at Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

YouTube might be one of the best free resources ever created for learning Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

When I first started training, we didn't have anything remotely like what exists today. You learned whatever your instructor showed you, maybe bought a VHS or DVD, went to a seminar, or tried to remember something another grappler showed you.

Then YouTube came along.

In the early days, the quality was all over the place. There was plenty of questionable technique being demonstrated by people who probably shouldn't have been teaching it.

That has changed dramatically.

Today, some of the best competitors, coaches, and minds in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu are putting excellent material on YouTube for free.

The problem isn't finding BJJ information anymore.

The problem is figuring out what information you need, who you should listen to, and how you should use it.

Don't Just Watch BJJ Videos — Solve Problems

One of the biggest mistakes you can make is opening YouTube and randomly consuming technique videos.

Armbar.

Guard pass.

Heel hook.

Sweep.

Back take.

Another guard pass.

Three hours later you've watched 25 techniques and probably can't remember three of them.

Instead, use YouTube to solve problems you are actually experiencing in training.

If every round you're getting flattened from bottom half guard, search:

"How to stop getting flattened in half guard."

If people keep passing your guard with a knee cut:

"How to defend the knee cut pass BJJ."

If you can get an underhook from half guard but don't know what to do next:

"Half guard underhook attacks."

Now your YouTube study has context.

You have already seen and felt the problem.

You're looking for possible solutions.

That makes the information much easier to understand and retain.

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Technique vs. Concepts

There are generally two different ways you'll see jiu-jitsu taught online.

Technique-Based Instruction

This is basically:

1. Put your hand here.

2. Move your knee here.

3. Grab this.

4. Turn this direction.

5. Finish the technique.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with learning this way.

In fact, I think it can be extremely valuable when you're starting.

Sometimes you simply need someone to show you the thing.

I compare it to learning to fly an airplane.

When you're first learning, you don't necessarily need an hour-long lecture about aerodynamics before touching the controls.

Sometimes you need:

Pull the yoke back and the nose comes up. Push the yoke forward and the nose goes down.

Great.

I can work with that.

Later, once you're more comfortable flying the airplane, understanding the aerodynamics behind what is happening becomes much more useful.

Jiu-jitsu can work the same way.

Concept-Based Instruction

Conceptual instruction attempts to explain why something works.

Instead of simply learning a half guard sweep, you might learn about:

• controlling inside position

• managing distance

• creating wedges

• controlling your opponent's center of gravity

• getting underneath their hips

• denying crossfaces

• winning the underhook

• manipulating weight

• creating dilemmas

Now several techniques begin fitting together.

John Danaher's instruction is probably one of the most recognizable examples of this extremely detailed, conceptual approach.

His material is excellent.

But it can also be a lot.

There is a reason people joke about watching Danaher instructionals at 1.5x or 2x speed.

For some students, that detail is exactly what they want.

For others, especially early in their development, they would rather watch:

"Here's the problem. Here's the fix. Let's go try it."

Neither learning style is necessarily better.

You need to figure out which helps you learn.

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Your YouTube Searches Should Change as Your Jiu-Jitsu Changes

One thing I think is really interesting is how your use of YouTube naturally changes as you become better at jiu-jitsu.

White Belt: "Why Is This Happening to Me?"

White belts usually need answers to immediate problems.

Your searches might look like:

• Why do I keep getting smashed in side control?

• How do I escape mount?

• How do I stop someone from passing my guard?

• How do I break closed guard?

• Where should my hands go in side control?

• Why do I keep getting caught in triangles?

• How do I survive bottom half guard?

This is a great stage for short instructional videos.

Find one or two solutions.

Bring them to the gym.

Try them.

See what happens.

You don't need 37 different mount escapes.

You probably need one mount escape that you understand well enough to actually attempt.

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Blue Belt: Start Connecting Techniques With Concepts

Around blue belt, something starts changing.

You've accumulated a decent number of techniques.

Now the question becomes:

How does all of this fit together?

Instead of only searching for individual techniques, you start studying concepts.

You might start asking:

• Why does this passing system work?

• What reactions am I trying to create?

• Why does someone choose this guard instead of another?

• How does this competitor maintain inside position?

• What makes this person's half guard difficult to pass?

• How are these techniques connected?

This is where conceptual videos and match breakdowns become extremely valuable.

You're no longer just collecting moves.

You're beginning to construct a system.

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Purple Belt: Build Systems

At purple belt, you'll often begin developing recognizable areas of expertise.

Maybe you have:

• a strong half guard system

• a front headlock system

• a leg entanglement system

• a pressure passing system

• a back attack system

Now watching competition footage becomes much more useful because you understand enough jiu-jitsu to recognize what is happening.

You're not simply thinking:

"That was a cool sweep."

You're thinking:

"Why did he move the opponent's weight there before entering?"

That's a very different way of watching jiu-jitsu.

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Brown and Black Belt: Study the Game

At the advanced belts, I think YouTube becomes even more interesting.

Now you can watch complete matches and start identifying things that haven't necessarily been turned into instructional videos yet.

You can study:

• reactions

• setups

• transitions

• timing

• hand fighting

• weight distribution

• decision making

• sequences

• tactical choices

You might watch the same exchange ten times.

Eventually you start producing your own breakdowns.

You're essentially reverse engineering someone's jiu-jitsu.

At this point, you're not simply learning techniques.

You're analyzing games and systems.

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Some BJJ YouTube Channels Worth Following

There are thousands of BJJ channels now, but here are several that I think are worth exploring.

This isn't meant to be a ranking. Different channels are useful for different reasons.

Lachlan Giles / Absolute MMA

One of my personal favorites.

Lachlan does an excellent job combining technical detail with concepts and systems. Guard work, leg entanglements, passing, retention, escapes — there is a huge amount to study.

He is also a good example of someone who can explain why something works without making every explanation unnecessarily complicated.

Lachlan is the head BJJ coach at Absolute MMA and has an extensive body of instructional material.

Jordan Teaches Jiu Jitsu

Jordan's channel is especially useful if you enjoy conceptual learning.

You'll find material covering guard retention, conceptual guard passing, wrestling for BJJ, rolling analysis, and broader jiu-jitsu theory.

This can be especially useful once you're trying to understand the connections between techniques rather than simply collecting more moves.

Jon Thomas BJJ

Jon Thomas is another excellent resource, particularly for guard development, guard retention, passing, and technical positional details.

If you're trying to understand how small details create larger systems, this is a good channel to explore.

Knight Jiu-Jitsu

Eli Knight has produced a massive amount of accessible BJJ instruction.

This can be particularly useful when you have a specific problem and just need to find a clear explanation or another way of approaching a position.

Knight Jiu-Jitsu continues to maintain a dedicated YouTube instructional channel.

TeachMeGrappling

Coach Brian Peterson's TeachMeGrappling is particularly good if you're interested in the intersection between:

wrestling + grappling + Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

Peterson has coached and competed across wrestling, BJJ, and MMA, which gives his instruction an interesting perspective for grapplers trying to improve their takedowns, scrambling, control, and transitions.

BJJ Fanatics / Bernardo Faria

BJJ Fanatics is useful because you aren't getting one person's interpretation of jiu-jitsu.

You're getting techniques from a huge variety of competitors and coaches.

That's valuable.

Look up the same position from five different high-level instructors and you'll frequently see five different approaches.

BJJ Fanatics has built a very large instructional catalog across guard, passing, escapes, submissions, positional control, and other areas, while Bernardo Faria's own channel contains thousands of pieces of BJJ content.

BJJ Globetrotters

BJJ Globetrotters has produced a large amount of seminar-style instruction from different instructors.

This is great for exploration because you'll occasionally stumble across someone teaching a position or concept in a completely different way than you've seen before.

B-Team Jiu Jitsu

If you train no-gi, B-Team is absolutely worth following.

Beyond instructional material, watching high-level athletes train can itself become educational once you understand enough jiu-jitsu to recognize what's happening.

This is especially valuable for blue belts and above who are beginning to analyze live applications instead of only demonstrations.

Art of Jiu Jitsu

AOJ is another great resource for seeing extremely polished modern jiu-jitsu.

Students interested in modern guard work, passing, movement, transitions, and competition jiu-jitsu can find a tremendous amount to study.

Atos

Atos produces another valuable window into high-level competition jiu-jitsu.

Pay attention not only to the techniques being demonstrated but also to how elite competitors actually use positions during live rounds and competition.

Chewjitsu

Nick "Chewy" Albin has been creating BJJ content for years and does a particularly good job addressing questions that newer students actually have.

That includes techniques, training questions, gym situations, mindset, competition, and the strange things that inevitably happen during someone's jiu-jitsu journey. Albin continues to publish BJJ material through the Chewjitsu channel.

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If You Like Match Breakdowns

This deserves its own category.

Once you have enough knowledge to understand what you're watching, breakdown channels can dramatically change how you see jiu-jitsu.

Less Impressed More Involved BJJ

This is one I particularly like for modern no-gi analysis.

Instead of simply showing a technique, breakdowns can show you how high-level competitors are building entire sequences around positions.

The channel continues to publish detailed analysis of current no-gi athletes and positional systems.

BJJ Scout

BJJ Scout produced some excellent studies of high-level competitors and their games.

There are breakdowns of athletes such as Adam Wardziński, Keenan Cornelius, Demian Maia, Leandro Lo, and others.

Even older breakdowns can teach you how to watch jiu-jitsu analytically.

That's an important skill by itself.

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Don't Look for "The Right Way"

This may be the most important part.

You're going to see instructors teach things differently.

I might show something one way.

Another black belt might show it completely differently.

That doesn't necessarily mean one of us is wrong.

Think about two grandmothers making a pie.

They might have made that pie for 40 years.

Neither one is following exactly the same recipe.

One does something because that's how she learned it.

The other discovered another method through experience.

And maybe you like one grandma's pie better.

Jiu-jitsu is similar.

I've been doing this for decades.

Other experienced coaches have been doing it for decades.

Over that amount of time, we're going to develop preferences.

I'll give you guys crap about K-Guard.

I'll give you crap about lockdown.

That's part of the fun.

But if you use K-Guard effectively?

Great.

If your lockdown works?

Great.

The important question is:

Does it work for you, and do you understand why?

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Your Jiu-Jitsu Should Change

Don't become overly attached to the idea that:

"This is how I do jiu-jitsu."

Your game should change.

Sometimes it changes every few years.

Sometimes every six months.

Mine certainly has.

You might find an old video of me teaching something completely differently than I teach it today.

That doesn't necessarily mean the old video was terrible.

It might mean I spent another five years training, experimenting, coaching students, running into problems, and eventually found something I think works better.

That's learning.

The same thing happens with every good coach.

And it should happen with you.

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A Simple Way to Use YouTube for BJJ

Instead of randomly watching BJJ videos, try this:

1. Identify a problem from training.

"I keep getting crossfaced from half guard."

2. Search that exact problem.

Don't search "half guard."

Search:

"How to stop crossface bottom half guard BJJ."

3. Watch several instructors.

Don't immediately decide the first person is correct.

Compare solutions.

4. Pick ONE idea.

Not seven.

One.

5. Try it during training.

Now you're conducting an experiment.

6. See what happens.

Did it work?

Did your opponent create another problem?

Great.

Now you have your next question.

7. Go back to YouTube.

That's how YouTube becomes part of your actual learning process rather than entertainment disguised as studying.

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Explore Jiu-Jitsu

That's ultimately how I want you to approach all of this.

Use YouTube.

Use our lesson plans.

Watch instructors.

Watch competitors.

Watch matches.

Try techniques.

Ask questions.

Compare approaches.

Find things you disagree with.

Figure out why you disagree with them.

Then go back onto the mat and test your ideas.

At first, you're trying to understand what's happening to you.

Then you're learning techniques.

Then you're connecting those techniques with concepts.

Then you're building systems.

Eventually, you're studying other people's systems and creating your own.

That's part of the natural evolution of becoming good at Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

And we live in a pretty incredible time for learning it.

You have access to some of the best jiu-jitsu athletes and coaches in the world for free.

Take advantage of it.

Just don't spend so much time watching YouTube that you forget to actually train.

And yes, if you dig far enough back through my old YouTube videos, apparently there was even a time when I had hair.