Andrew Huberman's first jiu jitsu class with Lex Fridman

This video is of Andrew huberman taking his first Jiu Jitsu class with me at 10th Planet in Austin, Texas. Gabe Tuttle, who you see explaining the techniques, is a head instructor there. Jiu Jitsu is a martial art and a fascinating game of human chess. Sometimes it is practiced with a gi, sometimes without the gi like in this case. It involves using detailed techniques to attain dominant positions that allow you to control your opponent's body and then to apply submissions, like breaking their arm or choking them unconscious, but stopping right before that as your opponent taps twice to designate that they give up. This double tap, performed thousands of times in a Jiu Jitsu journey, is the dismantling of the ego that I think is a very powerful tool for the development of the human mind, scientific and and otherwise. Here Andrew learns how to take his opponents back with an arm drag and submit them with a choke. I wanted to capture this moment because hopefully it's inspiring to see a world class scientist like Andrew take on something new and difficult with a beginner's mind. Maybe this will inspire you to try Jiu Jitsu as well.

I honestly have no idea what I'm doing, Lex.

Zero fortune favors the bull, so good luck.

So we're going to start off in the butterfly position. First one we're going to be working is our dominant arm here.

Okay.

We're going to be working to the back first. Attach your chest to that shoulder. Now we can move and I can either come to him or pull down into me. So watch this. He doesn't move real quick, so I can hit my arm drag here. Looking for lap control. And here I want to actually mirror my hand, so I just scoot out here. And I'm keeping good tension with my elbow here as I pull Lex down. And then I can set my bottom hook. I come right in to attack my seat belt. Sometimes we can attack the net straight away from here.

Is he going to try and stand up or. It's always.

Because the arm drives still works from standing. Even if Lex pops up and he's like in a standing position. I can still.

Yeah, sure.

I want to see.

This is this claw. And he swims the other one over and it's this squeeze. But he also brings out his chest like that. Right, so. And then you tap on me. Yep.

Twice.

Sorry, twice.

Okay.

I forgot that you don't know how to tap. So this is the universal sign.

You get two.

Twice. I'm good.

Got it.

I had enough. Okay, one more time. He's swimming this through and it's choke like this. He's also saying if. If your chin is all the way down, this is also like. You feel the crush. I have a lot more crush work. That's. That can either break the jaw or still choke you. No. Yeah.

Off to the side.

See it?

Right. Boom.

Perfect.

So this, the claw, like that's perfect right there. And swim that through.

Squeeze.

And expand your chest.

Yeah. Okay. Nice. What's that?

That's perfect. You're built for this joke.

I don't know.

So rather than try and flip him on his back.

Correct.

Yeah. I'm going under the armpit. Now reach for the far side of the neck. So now from here, once I get control the neck, I can let the arm drag up. That arm comes all the way around and I'm just pinching the back of his head with my elbow. This guy's gonna just go straight. Turn your elbow up. Find your. Now you can kind of ratchet your grip in deeper. Feel that? So just turn that elbow back up. This guy stays up.

Okay, there it is. I see. So there's a logic there. Basically you're trying to get into a place where you can use your own.

Your own mus work. Blood choke. Also forearm on the far side. I'm pushing your shoulder into the neck.

I like it. I can see how this would become addicting. Oh yeah, it's just cuz there's so many.

Especially like if you're a very like, cerebral guy. Like you are like.

Yeah, you got it.

There we go.

And then curl your left arm. Yeah, just.

You just.

Boa constrictor.

Yeah, boa constrictor. I mean, when you get. Maybe you know about this. Actually, I don't know what the visual. Why is there butterflies when you start to choke out?

Yeah, because your eyes are part of your brain and they get. They demand so much blood and glucose all the time. You're cutting off blood supply of the eye.

But why the visual artifacts? So.

Oh, why do you get the little. Oh, just spontaneous transmission of neurons in the eye.

Oh, cool.

Yeah, just.

Yeah, it's cool when you see stars. Like if you get hit hard and you see stars, it's because you're spontaneous firing of cells.

Yeah, I get that with the choke. Like I just got that now.

Oh, really?

There's stars.

There it is.

So it's this shoulder going in there. That's the one blood. And then my hand on the other side.

Yeah, you can feel the world just start to tunnel up. Is that too fast? Did I cinch him too fast?

No, that was perfect. That's just really tight.

Okay.

Sorry, sorry. I'm.

I don't know.

This is what I was saying, like, sparring with somebody who knows how to do it because they can. The butterflies are back.

Yeah.

I mean, he's being kind. Lex Freedman is strong.

I was worried I'd be going to sleep.

Strong.

That Russian grip is insane.

So, yeah, if you. If you stand up, that's exactly the game that we. The other side of the game that we looked at today. So we looked at arm drags, but those only work when you're coming in. When you're coming. If you're going away, I'm gonna threaten you by coming up, and then you're gonna want to push him down that down. And you'll be a little bit more nervous about me coming up, so you're gonna pressure yourself into me.

I see.

And that leaves the under. Like, that's the yin and yang, the push and pull.

This is.

We're in this choke position here, and we's pressuring this way.

Yep.

That's called head and arm choke. That's Rogan's favorite choke. So it's this. This.

Yeah. That feels very helpless.

Yeah. And I could just like, sit here, relax for a while, and just make it very unpleasant for you.

When you talk about relinquishing the ego, it's like, yeah. You have to be willing to let someone get real close to you, like, mount you, flip you. It's, you know, it's not something I'm.

Used to on a.

On any basis. It's really a beautiful sport.

How do you feel first class in jiu jitsu?

Love it.

It's amazing.

I think I'm hooked up.