Back to basics with Roger Gracie!

Nine matches. Nine submissions.

Pass guard. Mount. Choke.

It doesn't get much simpler than this!

Roger Gracie took a leaf out of Rickson Gracie's approach to jiu jitsu and showcased to the world that you can't beat the basics. Made to look effortlessly easy, Roger submitted all in his path with the most basic of submissions, with none of the flashy zig zag/octopus/platypus style guard attacks that happen to be in vogue at the minute.

Roger is a shining example of the fact that you just cannot beat the basics; at the Mundials up against the cream of the crop black belts in his division, Roger stuck to the basics and racked up two more gold medals, one in his weight division and one in the Absolute, taking his tally up to six times winner in his weight group and two times Absolute champion.

If the basics are good enough for the likes of Roger Gracie, then surely they're good enough for us mere mortals? You just cannot get enough of them, drill them out every session and every time you hit the mats over and over again until you get sick to death of them. Then do some more. Basics are the cornerstone of jiu jitsu, the building blocks of the game, get proficient in the basics and you will become a far better player/competitor and it all comes down to hard work and diligent practice/drilling, it ain't gonna happen overnight but if you stick at the basics, one day you'll hit the mats and surprise yourself!

Pix courtesy of Graciemag.