Mikey Musumeci is one of the greatest competitors on the planet and any BJJ opinion he has is worth it’s wait in gold, especially if it’s on the first thing to learn as a white belt. He’s the record-holder for the fastest submission in an IBJJF world championship finals match, and is responsible for some of the most exciting matches in IBJJF history. He’ll actually have a chance to show just how dominant he is in the lighter weightclasses in the upcoming Who’s Number One Championships, where he will compete in the 155lbs division against seven other elite competitors.
According to Musumeci, he believes that framing against and hooking on to your opponent are two of the most fundamental concepts of the sport and they go hand in hand. This makes sense seeing as they make up the general ability to keep your opponent away from you, and the ability to pull them into you:
“The first thing you need to learn is how to frame somebody. Framing is just placing a part of my body on him so he can’t come into me. Keep your hands on his body. That’s the first thing to learn as a white belt. Then, what we do is, we learn how to pull somebody in. A hook is when I make something exceed his body. So when he backs away from me, it’s hard for him to move away. So in jiu-jitsu we have to learn how to do both of those things, and that’s how we’re going to control him.”
The video of Mikey Musumeci explaining the first thing to learn as a white belt was uploaded to the official YouTube channel of Pedigo Submission Fighting, as their competitors had spent the week in Las Vegas training with him:
