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How To Become a Master in YouTube-Jitsu

How To Become a Master in YouTube-Jitsu

Guest post by Masafumi Matsumoto, a BJJ brown belt from Japan who has been travelling the world, training, competing and working as a translator. ‘Masa’ is known for having a very good guard, especially his spider guard. 

Being a master of YouTube Jitsu is no joke.

YouTube Jitsu is a relatively modern phenomenon, compared to old school styles of learning, such as books, video tapes, and even DVDs.

And it’s nothing like learning from your own coaches and training partners, which is the most traditional method, and quite frankly, outdated.

If you secretly or openly identify yourself as a follower of YouTube Jitsu, you know why it’s such a great way of learning, let’s say, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

You teammates (if you still have them around you, that is) may only be half-hearted, but you realize that you’ll be able to know everything you need to know about Brazilian Jiu Jitsu through YouTube. It’s the great grandmaster, after all.

People often underestimate YouTube Jitsu for being ineffective, claiming that it doesn’t work. But, you know it does, and you want to pursue this gentle art of YouTube.

In this post, I’ll introduce you to 4 tips on how to achieve the prestigious rank of the 10th Dan in YouTube Jitsu.

Each tip is followed by some quick words on what not to do in relation to the tip, because it’s important for you to avoid making these mistakes if you want to master YouTube Jitsu.

Are you ready? Let’s go through each tip now.

Tip #1 – Spend More Time On The Net

This is absolutely critical.

If you wish to be better at the art of YouTube, you must spend more time on the net than anything else. If you just watch a 3 minute BJJ video clip once or twice in a week, then you will never be good at YouTube Jitsu, though it’s OK if you just want to be a hobbyist of YouTube Jitsu. People have different needs and desires, you know.

What Not To Do: Make sure not to spend more time on the mat. Come on, are you crazy? Why would you actually drill the techniques you’ve seen on YouTube when you could keep watching more videos and learn finer details of these moves by spending even more time on the net?

Tip #2 – Quality Matters Too

Tip #1 was about quantity. If you spend more time watching BJJ videos than others, you will definitely get better at watching BJJ videos than your rivals.

But, you need to make sure that you don’t spend those hours of YouTube Jitsu training without any purpose. So, use your time wisely by being selective.

What I mean by being selective is … well, when it comes to YouTube Jitsu, how it looks in videos is really important.

So, forget about those world champions who have boring techniques that don’t look good. You want to focus on flying omoplata and stuff like that.

What Not To Do: Now, this is not strictly about what not to do, but understand this is an advanced tip, which is to watch videos on fundamental concepts and all these things that don’t really focus on how it looks.

The reason why it’s more advanced is because you need to spend more time when you watch these videos where folks talk about concepts rather than showing specific moves. And you will look like you know some stuff when you are able to talk about concepts. You see?

You can impress people with cool moves, but when you seem like you know what you are talking about by talking about concepts, people will be even more impressed.

Among experts, this specific focus on concepts rather than moves is known as Invisible YouTube Jitsu.

Tip #3 – Teach Others

If you still go to BJJ classes so you can show off flashy moves you learned from videos created by random jiu jitsu players around the world, make sure to spread the gospel of YouTube Jitsu.

You might find it easier to catch an unassuming white belt and start coaching him/her with your vast stock of knowledge rather than senior belts. Teaching others is a helpful act, after all. It not only boosts your ego, but also helps others!

So, obviously, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t do it.

What Not To Do: Don’t be scare to point out mistakes made by senior belts, including brown belts and black belts (if you are a blue belt, for example). They may have a brown or black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, but the chances are, they are not as dedicated to YouTube Jitsu as you are.

Tip #4 – Compete

Don’t be quick. I don’t mean to compete at Brazilian Jiu Jitsu competitions like your local tournaments or IBJJF tournaments or what have you. These are for people who want to be good at Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

Remember, you want to be good at YouTube Jitsu. If you want to be better at YouTube Jitsu, you should compete in YouTube Jitsu, you know?

Now, when it comes to YouTube Jitsu, the comment section of a YouTube video or even a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu related Facebook post’s comment section is your competition arena.

The rules are quite complicated, and often people try to win by holding onto an advantage or two (“, let’s drill this” and “Good move” are common examples of such comments that get you an advantage), but you really should go for win by submission.

Again, there are various ways of achieving a submission victory, but some of the common techniques include referring to another similar video that was posted way earlier than the video in question (implying that you had seen something similar before and thus demonstrating that you have more YouTube Jitsu experience).

What Not To Do: If you are afraid of competing and don’t challenge yourself, you are not going to get better at YouTube Jitsu. You can always start small. While it sounds like a chiche, focusing on learning experience is more important than winning or losing in YouTube Jitsu competitions.

If you follow these 4 tips and work hard on improving your YouTube Jitsu skills, you will become the 10th Dan in YouTube Jitsu eventually.

(Disclaimer: I’m sure you realize this is a satirical post, but in case you didn’t realize it until now… well, it’s a satire.

I do think there’s some value in using YouTube to aid your BJJ learning, but it can’t replace actual training IF you want to get better at BJJ.

Go and spend more time on the MAT and actually drill and spar and learn from your coaches as well as training partners. See you on the mat!)