Hi, Welcome to BJJ101. My Name is Elliott Bayev

I’m a 3rd degree Black Belt with more than 25 years of experience. I’ve competed and coached athletes to the highest levels, studied with many legends of the art, and have run my own school, OpenMat MMA in Toronto for nearly twenty years.

I’ve helped hundreds – if not thousands – of people get started on their BJJ journey and know that if you’re new to BJJ, it can be one of the most exciting, empowering, and fun experiences of your life. But it can also be one of the most confusing – for two main reasons.

The two biggest frustrations of beginners in BJJ

Not “Getting It”

You'll find yourself going to a class, learning amazing techniques taught by excellent instructors, but often still feel lost and overwhelmed, unsure of where what you're learning fits within a bigger picture. Techniques are awesome, but they are almost useless unless you understand the theory, concepts, and strategies behind Jiu-Jitsu.

No Structure/Direction

Few schools offer a structured curriculum - and those that do have very few (50-150) techniques. Sure, you can get to a blue belt level eventually without a structured curriculum, or by only knowing 50-150 techniques, but you'll still find yourself in basic positions and have no idea what to do.
BJJ - Ilana Badass

To solve these problems

I created two courses

covering the exact material i take my own new students through.
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Intro To BJJ Beginner's Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Course

The ultimate beginner's introduction to Brazilian Jiu-JItsu, giving you the conceptual frameworks necessary to actually understand Jiu-Jitsu - perfect for absolute beginners and those who have never had the theory behind Jiu-Jitsu explained.
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The BJJ Blue Belt Curriculum

The world's most comprehensive blue belt curriculum, covering more than 300 self-defence, takedown, and ground-based escape, control, positional improvement, and submission techniques in an innovative, easy-to-learn format.
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Hear What Others Are Saying

Professor Elliott Bayev showed me his Intro To BJJ Course and BJJ101 blue belt curriculum I was blown away. It was exactly what I had been trying to achieve for so long. The level of detail along with the clear-cut guidance through the belt system is, in my opinion, above anything that I have ever seen in my twenty years in Jiu-Jitsu. We implemented the Blue Belt Curriculum as our school's curriculum in September 2019 and the feedback has been amazing and for me as an instructor, it has solved one of the biggest challenges I've had.

Chris Wellstood

Hayabusa Academy
Chris
I like the Blue belt curriculum very much. It has allowed me to see connections where before I was stuck.

Eladio Rivera

Stephan
I’ve done jujitsu for many years and have trained at many different schools around the world. I have to say without a doubt that Coach Bayev and his other coaches are second to none.

Charlie Bern

BJJ Purple Belt
Charlie Bern
Elliott is one of the most skilful and thoughtful teachers of jiu-jitsu that I’ve ever met. Not only is his knowledge of the art encyclopedic but he’s able to convey difficult concepts and techniques in a conceptual way that makes learning fun and easy. I highly recommend training with him.

Stephan Kesting

GrappleArts
Stephan

Intro To BJJ Beginner's Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Course

You'll Learn:

  • The core strategy behind all of Jiu-Jitsu
  • How to protect yourself against a bigger, stronger, faster person in a self-defence situation
  • How to escape the most dangerous position in a self-defence situation
  • How to adapt when things go wrong
  • The four basic positions
  • The secret to being untappable
  • The positional hierarchy – the architecture behind Jiu-Jitsu
  • What submissions are, the two different types, and how they work
  • and more!
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BJJ Blue Belt Curriculum

You'll Learn:

  • How to protect yourself in real self-defence situations
  • Systems of escapes in each of the four basic positions
  • How to control people from both top and bottom
  • How To attack and improve position once you have control.
  • Systems of submissions from each of the four basic positions.
  • How to take people down – gi and no gi.
  • How to submit from both top and bottom.
  • Complete gameplans for competition success.
  • and more!
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Frequently Asked Questions

I would start with the Intro to BJJ Course. It's something I want my students to see before they step on the mats. It will help you feel like you know what you're in for when you actually do step on the mats and even give you a leg up on others who just jump into classes.

Absolutely! That's why it was designed. And more, it will help you better understand where what you already know fits into the bigger picture.

Yes - if you have never had the theory and concepts behind Jiu-Jitsu explained. It will give you a new perspective on why what you know works.

It depends. If you already have a good conceptual understanding and want to have reliable systems of escape from each position and equally reliable simple submission gameplans from dominant positions.

Absolutely! Self-defense is the foundation of Jiu-Jitsu and the foundation of the Blue Belt Curriculum.

Absolutely! Not only does it build self-defense skills that work in the real world, it offers a complete set of gameplans for winning on the competition mats, including gi and no gi, takedowns, guard pulls and attacks, heavy top pressure, and aggressive submission attacks which works at the highest levels of comption, but are simple enough for a white belt to implement.

I do work outside of martial arts and knew I wasn't going to be there in person full time, but I wanted to make sure all of my students had an incredibly solid foundation in BJJ to one day get them to black belt, but it had to be designed in a way that I could implement it in a class rotation. It's what I have my teachers teach at my school.

See What's Inside

Intro To BJJ Beginner's Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Video Course

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See What's Inside

The BJJ101 Blue Belt Curriculum

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