139. DECA Principle

Ever experienced that frustrating moment in a Jiu-Jitsu match when you attempt to escape a hold, only to find yourself submitted? It may be because you are skipping a critical phase in the DECA principle - Defend, Escape, Control, Attack. In this captivating discussion, I unravel this instrumental Jiu-Jitsu principle that completely transformed my approach to the sport. By encapsulating the DECA principle within the analogy of four distinct rooms, I delve into the pitfalls of bypassing stages, a common blunder amongst beginners. 

Illustrating the concept of DECA in Jiu-Jitsu, I stress the paramount importance of identifying which stage you're in during the match and acting accordingly. With a keen focus on defensive actions, I emphasize how crucial it is to ensure your opponent can't advance before planning your escape. On the more offensive side, I discuss the necessity for control before launching an attack. This thought-provoking episode is a treasure trove of strategic insights for all Jiu-Jitsu practitioners eager to enhance their skills and game strategies. So, get ready to reframe your perception of Jiu-Jitsu and step up your game with the DECA principle.

Ask me questions on IG @rozdzynskibjj, I will personally respond to you and record the episode with an official answer.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:08

Jimmy sends me a message. I've heard you talk about DECA a few times. Can you elaborate what that means and what it stands for? Deca is a known principle in Jiu Jitsu. It stands for Defend, escape, control, attack.

Speaker 1: 0:27

I was introduced to DECA actually a little bit later in my Jiu Jitsu journey. I'm not sure why I discovered it earlier. However, it changed the way how I think about, particularly about escaping and defending. As I mentioned, the first step of any escape, of that matter, is defending, making sure that my opponent is unable to make any progression forward towards him attacking. So, essentially, I am removing his points of control in order for me to be safe. So, whether that is protecting your face from beginning hit, or protecting your neck from getting choked, perhaps hiding the elbows from getting submitted with arm bars, it is the actions that you are making, intelligent decisions that you are making in order for you to execute, actions to defend yourself. Now, the moment you are defending, the moment that you feel quote unquote safe, where there is no immediate risk of somebody attacking you, that's when we can escape. Once we escape, we complete the escape. We need to gain control. We need to be fully, fully in control before we start attacking.

Speaker 1: 1:43

The tricky part behind this is that I look at this whole concept as four different rooms, and I encourage you to think about it the same way. There is no hallway between them, there is no gray area. It's four different rooms where you open one door and you cross to another room and the door closes behind you. And what I mean by this is if you are escaping, you are not defending. If you're defending, you're definitely not in control, you're not controlling. If you're controlling, you're definitely not attacking. If you're attacking, you're definitely not defending or escaping. So, acknowledging which stage you find yourself in and this particular point of time is critical to the actions that you will be taking in order to achieve that specific action. So, translating this into some tangible examples that you might find yourself in, let's just say that you on the bottom, your partner is on top, you are beginning on quote unquote escapes, however, you are pushing and you're trying to get out of there at any given point and somehow you get submitted.

Speaker 1: 2:55

The million dollar question at that point of time is where you're defending. Before you started to escape. Technically, if you were defending, you were not supposed to get submitted. And this is the interesting part about this whole concept is if I say if anybody says I am defending right now, that means my partner should not be able to submit me. If they are submitting me while I'm defending, that means my defense is not efficient. I definitely should not be escaping if I am not defending.

Speaker 1: 3:32

So the I think the tricky part not even interesting, but the tricky part behind this whole thing is the fact that oftentimes we find ourselves in a tough spot and we're trying to get the hell out of there at any cost. We try and remove ourselves from the situations without thinking that are more important, and the first step is for us to defend ourselves in the circumstances we find ourselves in. If we flip this to a little bit more offensive side, let's just say we escaped, we defended, we escaped and now we are, let's just say, on top and we're trying to put an end to the match. We're trying to submit and oftentimes we're trying to submit without being in control and that's what our partner escapes. I think this is even more visible at the very beginnings, when we are very, very submission hungry. We're trying to submit and catch our partners, execute chokes or arm locks. However, we don't understand the points of control.

Speaker 1: 4:34

Oftentimes you will hear black belts or seasoned judizu practitioners saying position over submission, or they might be saying submission is a consequence of your setup. All these phrases fall into the deck. Meaning control is first you need to be in charge in order for you to submit, in order for you to attack. An attack doesn't always even mean submission. Attack could be a reversal and the attack could be a sweep. An attack would be even opening a guard. It could be an attack.

Speaker 1: 5:12

Attack, in my mind, is something that is is a tangible action to move you forward in order to put your partner at risk. So it doesn't necessarily need to be submission or a finish. It could be just offensive, offensive steps forward. So if you wrap all this up, it is, in my mind at least, a critical part of Jiu-Jitsu to really understand which segment or which room you find yourself in in any given time. We might think we are in control, yet our partner submitted us. So the question is were you really in control at that point of time? Explore this. This is interesting and, like I said at the beginning, it changed the way how I think about particularly escapes, but about a whole Jiu-Jitsu in general as well. So I'm hoping this will help you and it will paint pave a very nice path right in front of you to make your Jiu-Jitsu journey even more effective. Peace, keep on training.