Foundationalism: When I taught philosophy courses at Columbia university, we often talked about the doctrine of Foundationalism as it applies to human knowledge. When it comes to a sophisticated theory of human knowledge, I am not a foundationalist; but when it comes to jiu jitsu, I am. Just as no builder would ever think of beginning the construction of a new house by working on the roof and attic, but instead digs deep in the earth to lay down secure and strong foundations upon which he sequentially builds the house from the bottom up, with each layer providing a strong support for the layer above it – so too, we must build our jiu jitsu in a similar vein. Just as any failure in the foundations of a house will immediately imply weakness in every other part of the house, so too, weakness in the foundational aspects of our jiu jitsu can never be covered up by fancy flourishes in the other areas of our game. Often students come to me asking to learn aspects of our style that they see in competition. I always tell them the same thing. It is far easier for me to teach my leg lock system (or any other part of our approach to the game) to a person well versed in the traditional foundations of the sport than it is to someone who wants to skip steps and jump straight into it. There is a lot to be said for a sequential approach to learning jiu jitsu where the foundational skills of CONTROLLING movement – both my own and my opponent's -comes first and the more esoteric elements come second. Here, the squads youngest member, ten year old Mikey Wilson, learns the foundational elements of control to Kuzushi through the x guard/ashi garami complex as a precursor to the submissions game from the same positions.
