Old People BJJ

Old People BJJ Simple, structured, and sustainable Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

Led by a 4th-degree black belt with decades of experience in grappling, strength, and conditioning—focused on longevity, efficiency, and staying healthy on the mats.

06/26/2026

Most older grapplers don’t need more exercises—they need to protect the physical qualities that keep them effective on the mats.

These are three of my favorites:

🏋️ HINGE – Trap Bar Deadlift
Create pressure, generate force, and confidently move another person.

🚶 MOVE UNDER LOAD – Offset Carry
Build posture, balance, and stability while moving under resistance.

🦵 STAND UP – Landmine Squat
Build your base, improve balance, and stay athletic. If ankle mobility is limited, elevating your heels on a slant board can make this movement much more comfortable.

These aren’t the only exercises that work—they’re three movements that consistently give older grapplers a huge return on their training time.

▶️ Full breakdown now on my YouTube channel.

06/20/2026

The Arm Drag Detail Older Grapplers Need

Many older grapplers struggle with arm drags because they rely too much on pulling with the upper body. When strength, speed, and explosiveness start to decline, the arm drag often gets stuck halfway through and the opponent squares back up.

The detail that made the biggest difference for me was combining an angle change with a simultaneous knee kick and arm pe*******on. Instead of trying to drag your opponent across your body, you’re creating movement from multiple directions at once. That makes the arm drag much harder to stop and creates cleaner opportunities to take the back.

This has been one of my highest-percentage arm drag details for years.

06/16/2026

Bad Hips? Train These 3 Hip Qualities

Katie is a BJJ black belt and academy owner who understands the importance of maintaining strong, functional hips for long-term performance on the mats.

Many grapplers focus exclusively on stretching when their hips start feeling stiff, sore, or restricted. While mobility is important, it’s only one piece of the puzzle.

In this short, Katie trains three essential hip qualities:

✓ Stability – the ability to control the hip and pelvis during movement, balance, and changing positions

✓ Hinge – developing efficient movement through the posterior chain while reducing unnecessary stress on the knees and lower back

✓ Extension – building strength and power through the glutes and hips for standing, bridging, driving, lifting, and athletic movement

These qualities contribute to guard retention, hip escapes, maintaining base, standing up from the ground, takedown defense, and overall movement efficiency on the mats.

As we get older, the goal isn’t just flexibility. It’s building strong, stable, functional hips that continue to perform year after year.

Train for longevity. Train for durability. Train to stay on the mats.

06/09/2026

This choke gives you two chances to win.

If the choke is there, finish it.

If not, you’ll often end up in a strong half guard position where you can continue attacking instead of starting over.

That’s one of the reasons this has become one of my favorite collar chokes from seated guard.

Simple. Efficient. Old man approved.

Full breakdown now available on the Old People BJJ YouTube channel.

06/06/2026

Ready to Roll? Try This Before Training 👊

A lot of grapplers asked for a shorter version of my warm-up routine, so I condensed it into a simple 10-minute mat-based series.

The focus is on the areas that tend to matter most for jiu-jitsu:

✔️ Hip mobility
✔️ Thoracic mobility
✔️ Core activation
✔️ Stability and movement control

No running laps.

No exhausting drills.

No wasting energy before you roll.

Just enough movement to help you feel better, move better, and get more out of your training.

The full 10-Minute BJJ Warm-Up is now available on my OldPeopleBJJ YouTube channel.

What do you do before class to get ready to roll?

👇 Let me know in the comments.

06/05/2026

2 More Quick Submissions With Almost No Movement

This is another low-movement submission chain from dominant cross-body position.

When the Americana attack gets defended, the arm crush is right there. If they defend again by dropping the arm to the mat, you can stay tight, keep rotating, and slide directly into the north-south choke.

The goal is simple:

Stay heavy.
Keep control.
Attack the next opening.
No reset needed.

This is simple, efficient, pressure-based grappling for real people.

06/02/2026

Banged Up Knees? Try These 2 Leg Exercises

Strong legs still matter, even when your knees, hips, and back have accumulated a few miles.

One exercise I’ve been using is the slant board Zercher squat. Elevating the heels helps reduce the ankle mobility requirement and allows me to stay more upright while training the quads through a comfortable range of motion.

For my hinge pattern, I’ve been using landmine RDLs. Compared to many traditional deadlift variations, the landmine’s arc can provide a more comfortable loading pattern while still challenging the glutes and hamstrings.

The goal isn’t to avoid hard work. The goal is finding exercises that let you continue building strength and staying on the mats.

Because longevity is a skill too.

05/31/2026

Want More BJJ Longevity?

At 63 years old, Dee is still training, still improving, and still getting stronger.
A Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt, Dee recently deadlifted 201 pounds for 5 reps at approximately 108 pounds of bodyweight while continuing to train consistently on the mats.
There are many factors that contribute to BJJ longevity, including technical efficiency, recovery, sleep, nutrition, injury management, and smart training decisions. However, one factor that is often overlooked is supplemental strength and conditioning.
The goal of strength training isn’t to replace jiu-jitsu. The goal is to support it.
Maintaining muscle mass, building strength, improving conditioning, developing stability, and preserving movement quality can all help keep you training at a high level for longer. The exercises shown here aren’t magic, but they represent fundamental movement patterns that help support durability, resilience, and longevity on the mats.
For many grapplers, the goal isn’t to move like you’re 25 again. The goal is to continue showing up, continue improving, and continue enjoying jiu-jitsu for years to come.

Simple. Structured. Sustainable Jiu-Jitsu.

05/25/2026

3 Quick Submissions With Almost No Movement

Older grapplers don’t always have the speed, explosiveness, or mobility to constantly scramble for submissions.

This is a tight pressure-based submission chain that allows you to attack multiple submissions from one dominant position with very little movement.

The sequence:
• Americana
• Wrist lock
• Arm crush / armbar

Each attack flows directly into the next while maintaining pressure and control instead of sacrificing position chasing submissions.

Full breakdown now live on the channel.

05/19/2026

Old Man Arm Crush

A lot of top-position armbars rely heavily on speed, hip mobility, and swinging movement. As many grapplers get older, that combination can become harder on the hips, knees, and low back — especially when trying to move quickly without losing pressure and connection.
That’s why I like this “old man” style armbar.
This setup is built more around pressure, control, and connection than explosiveness or flexibility.
Instead of creating space and swinging hard over the head, the goal is to stay heavy and connected throughout the finish:
• keep the wrist tight between the ear and shoulder
• maintain heavy upper body pressure
• control the head with the top leg
• combine hip extension with pulling the arm in tight
• stay connected instead of losing pressure during the transition
This allows you to create a much tighter armbar finish without needing a large amount of mobility or speed.
Simple. Structured. Sustainable jiu-jitsu.

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