Introduction to BJJ: How To Progress Fast in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

Here's a very short post I've been meaning to write for a long time.

Every jiu-jitsu practitioner should, as compulsory reading, download and study this free resource.

A Roadmap for Brazilian Jiu-jitsu

About the Author, Stephan Kesting:

BJJ / Grappling Tips: Open Guard Passing with tips from Stephan Kesting, David Onuma and Rico Vieira

Pass the open guard!

Dealing with the open guard in jiujitsu is a challenge, but it's also an inescapable challenge. Without a guard passing game, there is no jiujitsu.

In this first video, Stephan Kesting of GrappleArts.com share his 4 top tips to passing any guard. These tips are:

1. Grip fight, Grip fight, Grip fight.
2. Don't be a one trick pony
3. Be fast for mobility or heavy for pressure
4. Stabilize the pass



Stephan is a great jiujitsu communicator and his words and video really sum up his valuable grappling advice very well.

BJJ: Don't follow Keenan Cornelius' routines!

I was recently listening to a great in depth interview of competition phenom Keenan Cornelius by BJJ black belt and the man behind Grapplearts.com Stephan Kesting. Stephan is an expert journalist and really presses his interviewees for thorough and detailed responses. I liked a lot of Keenan's answers and it's always enlightening to hear what competitors in the top echelons have to say so expect many more posts inspired by that interview. Nevertheless, he said a few things that I disagreed with and want to bring up here.

GrappleArts Sale: Stephan Kesting has got an amazing BJJ sale on!

I've always liked Stephan's work and general attitude and these products are great investment, especially at these prices!

Check out his current sale.

Here's a handy introduction to the Berimbolo sweep by the man:



Seriously, check out his current sale and you'll thank me later.
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ZHOO ZHITSU IS FOR EVERYONE!

Liam "The Part Time Grappler" Wandi

Proudly sponsored by Predator Fightwear: Built for the kill and Brutal TShirt: Made By Grapplers For Fighters

BJJ App review: Escapes and submission defence by Stephan Kesting

Watching Stephan Kesting's fantastic iPhone grappling / BJJ app: Submission Defence: How to Tap Out Less Often, I thought I'd do an experiment and watch all the 36 submission defences but not in the usual fashion - trying to learn the jiujitsu material provided. Instead, I watched them with the intention to find the common denominator between all the submission prevention strategies and filter them to a submission prevention posture or postures. Basically I wanted to answer this question:

Where should my arms, head, hips, feet...etc. when grappling be to avoid getting submitted with a choke, armbar, shoulder lock or leg / foot lock?

Put differently, what is the safest Submission Prevention Posture or Postures?

I love doing things like that, simply because I'm no expert and I don't usually have the opportunity to train often enough to learn all the possible techniques that full timers do so what do I do? I focus on learning the most important common denominators between all the important postures and pressures in Brazilian jiujitsu.

The 12 submissions Stephan covers in the £2.49* app  are:

1. Armbar from guard
2. Armbar from top position (mount or side control)
3. Triangle choke from guard
4. Omoplata shoulder lock
5. Guillotine choke from guard - Kesting guillotine choke defence YouTube
6. Arm triangle choke
7. Rear naked choke
8. Americana / V-armlock
9. Kimura from guard
10. Kimura from top
11. Kneebar
12. Straight footlock

Here's a nice clip: Defence and escape from the Rear Naked Choke:

BJJ DVD Review: How to defeat bigger, stronger opponents II? Brandon Mullins shows the way

So How DO YOU defeat a bigger, stronger opponent?! Stephan Kesting teams up with Brandon “Wolverine” Mullins (BJJ world champion) and bring us a great sequel to "How to defeat the bigger, stronger opponent" but this is not any old sequel. These 5 DVDs (4 instructional plus 1 bonus) are a turbo charged BJJ set that should guide any blue belt and above through the treacherous world of surviving (and perhaps defeating) the big grappling bullies.

In the first DVD (1hr 40min) Brandon covers the top game from every position: How to survive in the guard, how to grip fight from standing and (my favourite) how to work with an opponent who has the opposite lead (orthodox vs. south paw!). We are introduced to takedowns; guard passes and mount stabilisation tactics. I was also happy to see that there was no overlap with the brilliant first series which featured Emily Kwok.

BJJ / Grappling tips: Fixing the Most Common Armbar Mistakes

Hip movement is the heart and soul of Brazilian jiu jitsu and grappling in general. When trying to lock a submission such as the triangle or the armbar or even the triangle armbar (serious ninja mystery!) then the most important factor for success is getting your engine (the hips) aligned to the joint you're trying to attack (the elbow (armbar) / the neck (triangle))

When attacking with an armbar from guard, use the foot on the hip
to align your hips with the elbow you're attacking

Question: Where does red in the second picture need to move the hips to put on a triangle-armbar?

Answer: You're hips are always chasing the joint you're trying to break, in this case the elbow, so to his / her left.

If you're countering the posturing escape against the triangle choke with
an armbar, it's very important to move your hips out and align them with
the elbow you're attacking

In the first instance, get your foot on the hip, or on the mat if you have long legs. That's not the main issue. Why you put the foot down is. You put it down so you can: chase the elbow, both by rotating but more importantly to bridge your hips up into the armpit to trap the elbow, while the second leg climbs and clamps on their back. Which way do you move your hips? You chase the elbow. If it's their right arm you've trapped, you scoot your hips to their right (your left) and both align yourself behind the elbow and make sure it’s high on your body and not almost out past your groin.

Always chase the elbow, or whichever joint you’re trying to lock. Everything else should fall into place from there.

I will leave you an excellent video from Mr Stephan Kesting on correcting arm bar mistakes:



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ZHOO ZHITSU IS FOR EVERYONE!

Liam "The Part Time Grappler" Wandi

Proudly sponsored by Predator Fightwear: Built for the kill and Brutal TShirt: Made By Grapplers For Fighters

BJJ Tips: Butterfly Guard Sweep a la Stephan Kesting

http://www.grapplearts.com/Blog/2012/04/the-basic-butterfly-guard-sweep/

"The ‘basic’ butterfly guard sweep is anything but basic. It is an extremely powerful and sophisticated attack that is difficult for your opponent to resist. In addition, this sweep has many followups and recounters, which can make life unstable and unpleasant for your opponent."

The words above are the first paragraph from Stephan Kesting's fantastic article on the basic butterfly guard sweep. I strongly suggest you do three things:

1. Watch my very popular Butterfly Guard Sweep Platform video:


2. Read Stephan's article and practice all the small details he covers. The man is a genius!
http://www.grapplearts.com/Blog/2012/04/the-basic-butterfly-guard-sweep/

3. Invest the $2 it costs to buy his Sweeps from the Guard app. He's having a sale and it's time to take your guard sweep game to the next level!

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Liam "The Part Time Grappler" Wandi

Proudly sponsored by Predator Fightwear: Built for the kill and Brutal TShirt: Made By Grapplers For Fighters

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BJJ tips: half guard sweep - depth vs breadth of game part II

One of the grappling techniques taught at the recent CFS BJJ seminar was the "Classica" or "Shaolin" Sweep from half guard. This sweep was, to my knowledge, made popular in 1997 when Vitor "Shaolin" Ribeiro ripped people apart with it at the Mundial. Here is an old video of Shaolin sharing his sweep with us:



The way we were taught this half guard sweep, by Roger Gracie black belt Nick Brooks, was as an alternative to another half guard sweep so the set-up and grip are slightly different to Shaolin's version but the way I learn (or love to learn) is by taking something and really digging into it. I like to research the living hell out of something so I have many details on it's versions and variations. I like to learn many entries to the same position so I was therefore very happy when I found this video by the fantastic Stephan Kesting where he visited Shaolin at his New York BJJ academy and got him to breakdown the details of the sweep that bears his name, 14 years after he got the mundial silver medal in 1997



Now, drill drill drill :) No knowledge is true until you can execute and that can only be achieved thru drilling against progressive resistance.

If you know another great breakdown of this sweep, I'd love to know about it so leave us a comment.


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Liam "The Part Time Grappler" Wandi

Proudly sponsored by Predator Fightwear: Built for the kill and Brutal TShirt: Made By Grapplers For Fighters

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BJJ / Grappling tips: 3 Mistakes to Avoid in the Butterfly Guard - a video by Stephan Kesting

Here is a great butterfly guard video by the always awesome Stephan Kesting. The video was released very recently and I really enjoyed it for a few different reasons:

1. Stephan is a very good grappler with a black belt under Marcus Suares (7th degree black belt from Carlson Gracie himself) and a ton of experience under the founder of Combat Submission Wrestling Erik Paulson.

2. Stephan is a very good and experienced teacher, with multiple acclaimed instructional products under his name (BJJ roadmap, Dynamic 1/2 guard, High Percentage Leg Locks and, more recently, "How to defeat the bigger, stronger opponent" with (Two time world champion Emily Kwok). If there are any possible mistakes out there, Stephan's made them and most likely learned from them.

3. Quality of production: today's BJJ instructional market is quite competitive and there are many excellent products on pretty much every aspect of grappling (with or without the gi) out there. Stephan always puts his best into producing high quality instructionals.



I really like the "3 mistakes" format because by the time these three mistakes are chosen the author usually has to think really hard and filter out the 3 BJJ mistakes that make the biggest difference. It's all about the most results for the minimum effort. Treat this video as a 5 minute lever that will raise your game more than hours of random rolling with no focus.

P.s. here's my own humble butterfly video which looks into entries and adding an element of aliveness to the guard game. I am very happy, and surprised, to say it's had over 1,400 hits!




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Liam "The Part Time Grappler" Wandi

Proudly sponsored by Predator Fightwear: Built for the kill and Brutal TShirt: Made By Grapplers For Fighters

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BJJ Review: 'How to Defeat the Bigger, Stronger Opponent' by Stephan Kesting and Emily Kwok

In a recent email from Stephan Kesting he said:

“If you've already purchased 'How to Defeat the Bigger, Stronger Opponent' then CONGRATULATIONS! You've made a great decision and will be getting a ton of great information that can totally transform your game.”

I tell you what, the man is not lying!

The people behind these BJJ instructional DVDs are highly qualified:

-Stephan Kesting (BJJ black belt under Marcus Soares and the man behind Grapplearts.com, Beginningbjj.com and a number of great BJJ & grappling educational products)

-Emily Kwok (BJJ world champion, No Gi world & PanAm champion, MMA fighter and currently a student of Marcelo Garcia)

The name of this BJJ instructional set of DVDs is "How to defeat the bigger, stronger opponent" and it stretches over 5 DVDs (3 instructional plus 2 bonus ones)

BJJ / Grappling Interview: Ryan Hall by Stephan Kesting

Stephan Kesting recently sent out an email advising he will be interviewing Ryan Hall of 50/50 BJJ() and asked if we had any questions we'd want him to ask at the interview. Ryan, a black belt from Brasa, has become a known BJJ household name in the BJJ community both during his rise to fame as a student of Lloyd Irvine Jr and also in more recent years as he has grown with his grappling journey, training with Bruno Fazzato, Marcelo Garcia and others.



I've always liked Ryan Hall, not because of all the amazing things he can do on the mat, but because his success never seemed to faze him. He always came across as very humble and centred young man.

The question I sent in, I am quite sure I was one of many who sent this in, was about the ratio Ryan Hall employs between drilling and sparring. Luckily, Stephan does manage to squeeze the question in and the answer was actually a little surprising. The whole interview is really awesome and I recommend it highly.

Here is a link to Stephan Kesting's interview with ADCC 2011 competitor Ryan Hall:

http://www.grapplearts.com/ryanhall/index.php



Liam "The Part Time Grappler" Wandi

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BJJ / Grappling Techniques: Controlling from Side Control

How to control a strong opponent from side control in BJJ? This is one of the key questions within the art of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and MMA too. Stephan Kesting, BJJ black belt and the man behind BeginningBJJ.com and GrappleArts.com and many top notch Grappling DVDs and iPhone Apps, gives us here 5 tricks in a fantastic video on how to control your opponent from side control.



What is your best tip for side control top?

Liam "The Part Time Grappler" Wandi ----Did You Like This Article?--- Click here to add The Part Time Grappler to your Favourites / Bookmarks

BJJ Tips: How to Open the Guard from Standing

In this post, I will show you two versions of the same closed guard opening in BJJ.

The ever fantastic resource of BJJ and Grappling, and friend of the Part Time Grappler Blog, Mr Stephan Kesting consults with Numerous World BJJ, MMA and ADCC champion Vitor "Shaolin" Ribeiro on guard passing in a video called "A BJJ World Champion's Perspective on Guard Passing"*. The discussion between the two is worth gold, but I'll leave it to you to watch and take what you take. What really caught my attention was a small move Shaolin did at 6min 44 sec which immediately solved a problem I've been having with opening the closed guard from standing. Can you spot what I'm talking about?

That's Why We're Called the Lab Rats.

Last night's BJJ sessions at the Labs were amazing, mostly because I wasn't teaching. With Martyn off on holiday in the far east for a couple of weeks, BJJ, No-Gi and MMA coaching responsibility has been passed on to The Labs purple belts. We have our curriculum to work from, but we also have wide margins of freedom within it.

Last night's BJJ fundamentals session covered the postures, pressures and possibilities of the weird and wonderful world of the open guard*. Manik did a great job at controlling the pace and parting with his knowledge. You could tell that here you had:

1. An experienced teacher- by day Manik is a maths teacher.
2. Someone who's just come back from a training holiday in Brazil :)

The second session saw Graeme first delve into the smaller details of a sub-segment of the BJJ open guard, namely the spider guard before drilling escapes and guard passes. I was very excited about this for a couple of reasons:

A, I'd never been shown spider guard properly.
B, I suffer from it often.
C, I hate spiders

Graeme is very good at it. What we have here at the Labs is a fantastic pool of knowledge and we're getting really sharp at the craft of teaching and sharing it. We all have relatively different games, favourite techniques and strategies, not to mention body types and general movement patterns and we all feed into each other’s and everyone else’s pool of knowledge and THAT’S why we are called the Lab Rats.

More than once I heard people rolling next to me on the mat saying: “oh yeah Graeme’s sweep work great with that grip Mike gets on the sleeve”, “the two variations from the scissor sweep we learnt a couple of weeks ago fit right into spider guard” or “Liam is so awesome!”.

Just kidding. I don’t hate spiders.

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*For a quick breakdown of spider, de la riva and other types of open guard, check out Stephan Kesting’s excellent article on the subject.


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Tips For Smaller Female Grapplers

That's the title of Stephan Kesting's last Newsletter email (which in it's own right is awesome and should be made compulsory reading!)

You can read the article itself on Grapple Arts, and you can (and should) visit the original author (Krista Scott-Dixon)'s own blog.

While we're on the subject or reading, here is a fantastic little article called the Jiu Jitsu Triangle (but it has nothing to do with the famous choke!)

Happy reading!

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The Part Time Grappler makes Stephan Kesting's Grapplearts Blog List

I have been an avid follower of Stephan Kesting's articles, blog posts, products and podcasts for quite some time.

It all started with this article which was originally published in the August 2005 issue of Grappling Magazine and his stuff has been just getting better and better. I mean I still think that his RNC Tutorial on YouTube is the best one EVER!

I'm not just passionate about BJJ / Grappling learning, but also coaching methodologies and was very happy when Stephan emailed me saying that he's added The Part Time Grappler to his BJJ-MMA-Blogs list. He comes across as a top notch guy and his material speaks for itself and the reviews are raving.

If you want to check out Stephan's stuff, the first step is to check his Beginning BJJ site which is dedicated to beginners and includes an excellent FREE BOOK! His free newsletters are full of great tips. I couldn't recommend it enough. I actually think that free book should be manditory reading if you want to join a BJJ / Grappling school or gym.

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Drop me a line on parttimegrappler@ymail.com or explore some of the recommended past articles on the right...

BJJ Mechanics 101: Levers

Helio Gracie did not invent leverage. He did, however, implement them and ingenious ways in jiujitsu.

There are three important points to remember in the study of levers:

A: The point where you affect your force.
B: The point where the object is affected by your force.
C: The fulcrum about which where two rotate.

Naturally that means that there can be 3 general types of levers, depending on the arrangement of these three elements:

How well the lever performs depends on two factors:

1. How much force is used?
2. How long is the distance to the fulcrum?

In simple terms, the longer the distance, the less force you need to generate the necessary torque. Of course, we all know this from our childhood. If you've ever played a game of Seesaw with someone much bigger or smaller than yourself, the bigger person always sat closer to the fulcrum

How does this translate to BJJ / Grappling? The answer to that can fill volumes and volumes of books and if you are not using levers and leverage properly, in my opinion, you are not really doing Gracie jiujitsu. Here is an example that springs to mind:

The armbar defence counter:

Picture borrowed from the amazing LockFlow website

You are in armbar prep position (coined Spiderweb by Eddie Bravo - see above) .

You can see that the point where you affect your force (low on his forearm) is much closer to the fulcrum (his elbow) than the point where the object you want to affect by your force is (his grip).

A smart way to break his grip from a mechanical perspective is to make the distances more favourable to you. Don’t yank at the elbow, but pull his hand instead!

Instead of yanking at a, you should
shift to a' for better leverage

Now go and jot down a few levers that you recognise from your training. When you feel spent, think about an area where you are currently struggling and think about where and how you can use levers to offer a solution.

Here are a few super cool ways to finish the armbar from the Spiderweb, courtesy of Stephan Kesting and Grapplearts.com.



ps: (These two together give you the torque= Force x Distance)

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