BJJ / Grappling tips: Passing the half guard: Dealing with the Underhook

The half guard used to be viewed as a position of weakness, especially if strikes are available as a weapon. Partly, the top player is almost past the guard players defenses and partly it allows the top player to lock the bottom player's hips in place and deliver damage.

Naturally, the half guard player has many attacks at their disposal and by becoming a subject matter expert within that narrow field, they can learn to manipulate the top fighter's weight and sweep, submit or take their back. To stop them, we need to first neutralize their most valuable asset: The underhook.

Picture courtesy of grapplearts.com 

The best option to defend the underhook is to have the underhook first. The half guard will not suddenly materialize out of thin air so anticipate your opponent's intentions to steal it and get there first.

If, however, they get there before you, here's a strategy that my professor, Mr Eddie Kone, learnt from his teacher Master Royler Gracie that has given me much success over the years.

and you can see the same technique explained by legendary jiujitsu fighter Sensei Saulo Ribeiro:

Lineage in the Martial Arts is something I am very passionate about, for this simple reason. No man is an island and we are all connected. Use this technique to re-gain the underhook from the half guard top.

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ZHOO ZHITSU IS FOR EVERYONE!

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BJJ / Grappling tips: escape the triangle choke from guard

How to escape the triangle choke from guard:

Moving upstream is a marketing term. It can easily be explained with the analogy of a river. If you walk past a river and spot a problem (pollution, stagnant water...etc.) you can either address the immediate problem or simply walk upstream trying to understand the origins of the situation at hand.

What does all this have to do with BJJ/grappling? Everything! Prevention is the best solution in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and by moving upstream we solve problems we didn’t even know we had.

Are you getting caught in triangles in the closed guard? Want to learn how to avoid that in the first place? Let’s move upstream step by step:

Don’t let your opponent close their guard around you, and earlier than that…

Don’t leave your arms one in and one out, and earlier than that…

Don’t let your opponent control your head and posture, and earlier than that…

Don’t let your opponent place their foot (feet) on your hip(s) in open guard, and earlier than that…

Don’t let your opponent control your sleeves

The way I see it, the deeper you get into the rabbit hole, the harder it will be to get out and the more likely that you will get caught. Your chances of you getting caught in a triangle are higher if you let them place their foot on your hip than if you use your knees and elbows to control their thighs (even if they manage to control your wrists) and they are higher still if they control your posture (from your head or collar).

The beauty of moving upstream is that if you don’t let them control your sleeves your will avoid triangles, omoplatas, armbars and most sweeps.

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ZHOO ZHITSU IS FOR EVERYONE!

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BJJ tips: Double guard pull berimbolo armbar triangle

What to do when you pull guard and your opponent pulls guard at the same time? This is the famous double guard pull hated by many of the sport's and the martial art's legends such as Xande and Saulo Ribiero:



If I ever find myself in a position like that, I either attack immediately or just get off my butt and work to pass. If I get swept or passed, then the guy's guard is better than my passing / attacks and it highlights a weakness in my game I need to work on, but hey that's just me.

Obviously, not all double guard pulling is stalling. Check out this neat attacks from people who know far more than you and I:

Here's the best instructional ever on how to do the Berimbolo attack:

How to escape the mounted position I

Rickson Gracie focuses on teaching escaping mount in his seminars. The escapes traditionally taught are simply the Upa and the Elbow-Knee escapes. Nothing fancy, I hear you say, but who wants fancy escapes? All I want is escapes that work.

For any escape (or BJJ / Grappling technique, for that matter, but we're focusing here on the elbow knee escape) to work, it needs to have 3 elements:

1. The correct start
2. The correct execution
3. The correct conclusion.

This usually the first thing shown and, ironically, the first thing people forget. The correct start involves:

BJJ and the Cycle of Action

You didn't think Helio rolled competitively every day did you?

BJJ works, but that of course goes both ways.

When I’m rolling competitively I'm always initiating attacks. Always. It might feel like I'm just laying on you in side mount or just holding your head in my guard but believe me I'm actively working to kill your arms in the former and rocking your balance (kuzushi) in the latter to initiate a flower sweep or a back take. At the very least, I'm working to create a posture deficit to my advantage. This is something I've worked hard to develop over the past few years. To me, this is one of the strongest links between BJJ and MMA*.

But as I said above, this goes both ways. The other person is doing the same thing. They are constantly defending and negating my actions, trying to set up their own. This places the following three sets of demands on you:

Mental: As Saulo says in this clip, the only thing that differentiates us on the mat is the heart, and for this style of BJJ you need a huge heart. It's not easy. You're constantly working. Constantly flowing. Constantly in the moment.

Technical: You need to know your techniques inside and out. If your takedowns are getting stuffed and your passes ending with you getting swept then you will eventually stop doing them or at least hesitate to initiate them. Your momentum will be turned against you and you will start freezing.

Physical: I put this last because even though I acknowledge that BJJ, MMA or any combat sport places physical demands on you (strength, cardio, balance...etc.) these can never overshadow technical knowledge and having a big heart.

Start today. Grab a piece of paper and write down three attacks from each position you know and work out how to link them. The next time you roll competitively**, start from one of those positions and just machine-gun those 3 attacks in succession at your partner and watch your progress rocket***! Speed is not essential. Technical knowledge, heart and flow are.

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*Martyn, our coach at the LABS - FIGHTING FIT MANCHESTER, has always kept the MMA mindset with us. He couldn't care less if we ever compete (whether in gi-jiu jitsu, submission wrestling or MMA) or if we are just training for fun or self-defence. To him, you always keep to the positional strategy and hierarchy of BJJ.
**I don’t roll competitively often at all. I do it every week or two just to stay sharp and more nearer *the rare) competitions.

***Roy Harris wrote a classic article on Progress in Jiu Jitsu and the different belts.


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Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Tips: Balancing Control and Mobility

Put a basketball on the ground. On it put:

A. A plank of wood.
B. A wet towel*.

Sometimes in BJJ / Grappling you need to be the plank of wood (projecting gravity through a small contact area with them which frees your limbs for mobility and attack) and sometimes you need to be the wet towel (maximizing friction, minimizing your own efforts, unifying both masses into one). Leverage hunters will master the plank version (constant pressure from the side control, half guard and mount top which can be tiring for both) and muscle-heads the wet towel version (constant closeness, perfect tight control but don't dare attack fearing the well-timed escape).

High quality Brazilian Jiu Jitsu players I've rolled with fluidly switch between the two almost without working up a sweat. It's not that they smother the submission out of you, which is still a valid grappling strategy, but rather the submission seems to come when you least expect it. They don't chuck you out of the frying pan into the fire. You walk into it voluntarily. That's BJJ.

*The Wet-towel analogy came to me from an excellent Roy Harris article on using Space in BJJ.

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Key Moo Raa, and Other Bent Armlocks in BJJ / Grappling

Bent armlocks are by far the most available attacks from any position in BJJ / grappling for many reasons:

1. That's one of the best positions to protect yourself on the bottom
2. The bigger the opponent, the tighter their shoulders are (usually)
3. To escape, they usually give you something else just as good (a straight armbar or a choke)

Manik did a great session around entry from side control top into a variety of bent armlocks during yesterday's BJJ fundamentals session.

I suppose calling them armlocks is a misnomer strictly speaking since they actually affect the shoulder joint but that's what they are called.

To me the greatest value in them lies in the words of the awesome Saulo in Revolution 1 series: you either protect the neck or you protect the knee in the belly... And whichever you choose, you open yourself up for a bent armlock.

Knee on belly to Kimura opportunity

Breadcutter choke to Americana opportunity

If you've been reading this blog for a while you probably know that my number one priority from side control is to mount. Yes I attack the arms and the neck but primarily because I want that knee in the belly or step over to the mount. There transitions are, in my eyes, the essence of part-time grappling. Get on top and the rest will follow.

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Finishing Armbars from Guard in BJJ / Grappling

One thought I always keep in the background when I'm rolling / drilling is: is this the most efficient way to do what I'm doing? While that certainly sounds nice, it can be interpreted in more than one way.

Am I using my whole body?
Am I using too much or too little muscle?
Am I using the right ones and only them?
Am I working 3-4 steps ahead or am I simply reacting to my partner?

And so on. I urge you to come up with a few of your own interpretations.

I was watching an old video, Arm-Locks, and Mr Harris showed a beautiful way to use your whole body and principles from weight lifting (the leg press to be exact) to finish the spinning armbar from guard against the stack. I share that with you here.

They've stacked you and hugged your head. Your back is not strong enough for your legs to push their weight away from you, but your hands are not being utilised

Use both hands on your knees to help you with the difficult first couple of inches. Utilise a popping motion to help push their weight off you.

From there you have a choice of straight-armbarring the near-side arm by pressing down the elbow or just going back to your original armbar on the far arm (with or without throwing them on their back)

Where else in BJJ / Grappling are you leaving a hand or a foot (or a hip or a shoulder or even your head) without use?
Oh, don't forget to visit the Crazy-Ass BJJ Gi Design Challenge Blog and submit your fab designs! Over 1200 visitors can't be wrong.

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The Fastest Way to Learn BJJ / Grappling

Last Monday, one of our up and coming BJJ white belts said to me: why do you place more importance on awareness than on techniques? I was very chuffed to hear that of course (it means somebody is reading this blog). The reason to me is quite simple: I do it because I'm a part timer and you learn, at least, twice as much by working your awareness than when you are hunting particular techniques.

What I mean by that is I don't pay too much attention to memorising exact sequences of limb placement and call them a pass, sweep or submission. Instead, I learn and practice the fundamental postures and pressures that make or break the position and take it from there.

For example, I don't always cross the arm when I'm triangle choking my partner. The make-it-or break it detail is to close their arteries with my hamstrings on one side and their shoulder on the other and that's the posture and pressure I focus on achieving.

What do I mean when I say that I learn more BJJ faster this way? What I'm referring to is those translatable fundamental postures and pressures. I've said many times that most of what works in e.g. mount will work in guard and Martyn always tries to link ground work to wrestling against the cage wall. So rather than learn 12 ways to pass the open guard I'd rather work on the safe way to approach someone's open guard, the postured that will put them at a relative disadvantage and start feeding them pressures from an advantageous position.

The beautiful thing is, if I lather, rinse and repeat I will quickly end up learning all those aforementioned 12 passes without consciously trying AND those fundamental postures and pressures will translate automatically into better mount escapes and back takes! Double BJJ bonus!

I'm a part time grappler. I've got stuff to do. I'm outta here!

Now remember the Crazy Ass Design Your Dream BJJ Gi Challenge available here: http://crazy-ass-bjj-gi-challenge.blogspot.com/

There are already some awesome ideas on it. Go there, download the blank canvas and give it your most creative of juices!

You too could be the proud winner!!!

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BJJ / Grappling Tips and Strategy: What’s Your Core game?

I just read two blog posts back to back and they inspired me, in two separate ways, to write this one. First, I read Rob’s article about BJJ and The Butterfly Effect and then I read John’s Making the Connection (I recommend you read those two articles first. Click on them and they will open in new windows so you won’t lose this page)

For those of you who don’t want to read the two articles first (shame on you!) I can summarise that Rob was talking about how Jonathan Torrez’ near fanatic focus on set-ups and grips in the beginning of his BJJ / Grappling career helped catapult him to his current level of slick smoothness in a mere 4,5-5 years. John’s article on the other hand talks about how having a solid core game will make learning new moves easier and remembering / recalling them becomes faster if they are attached to a pre-existing core game. But seriously, read the articles as the guys express it way better than I do.

I’m happy to say that I do have a core plan. I shamelessly stole it from the BJJ positional hierarchy as outlined in Renzo’s Mastering Jujitsu (Co-authored by the amazing John Danaher) and Royler and Renzo’s Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu: Theory and Technique Co-authored by Kid Peligro. It’s the same plan outlined by BJ Penn in his No-Gi 101 video.

This is always, always what I’m working to do. I’m always looking to survive, escape, pass, secure, advance, secure, advance, secure, lather, rinse and repeat.

If I learn a submission along the way, it needs to fit in this BJJ / Grappling pattern. I.e. I will not go to triangle from mount if it means I need to roll back to guard to finish it. I seldom go to armbars from guard unless I have a quick detour back to the core game waiting (always combine my armbars with sweeps) and my favourite attack from side control is always, always to mount.

But that’s just me. I roll with a number of different people who play a different core game. Only this morning I was watching a short video of me rolling with fellow purple belt Mr Graeme Kidd and his triangle transitions straight from falling (after I bridge him off me) are nothing short of lethal. He is very sharp with catching them.

Here's a Time Management Tool you can use to help filter thru your moves:

And here's a BJJ adaptation* of that:

What’s your core game? What is your BJJ / Grappling backbone?

*Naturally, this is not for everyone and it's not extensive by any measure. Go do your homework :)

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BJJ and Self Defence

This is inspired by the current poll at the Fightworks Podcast: "What Percentage of Sport Jiu-Jitsu Techniques Are Street or Self Defense Applicable?"

BJJ is a great fighting art. That's all the early UFCs proved.

What did challenge matches and the early UFCs prove? All over the BJJ / Grappling media you will see claims that the early UFCs and the Gracie Challenge matches proved that Brazilian / Gracie Jiu Jitsu is the most effective martial art for self-defence. But what does that exactly mean and to what extent does that even matter?

Patrick McCarthy is a karate instructor who opened my eyes years ago to the simplicity of combat thru his books, articles and interviews. He explained early on that Karate and several other martial arts, were initially devised for specific purposes and had drills that addressed specific, commonly reoccurring acts of violence.

There was indeed a time when attacks on our person consisted on hair-grabs, strikes, chokes and takedowns (not to mention dirty tactics such as biting and eye gouging). Some say that was last century, some say that was the 1950’s and 1960’s. I prefer to call it the 6th grade.

Seriously, how often do adults attack each other with punches, chokes, kicks or throws in a one-to-one environment? Without any (visible or concealed) weapons? Don’t just give me a (at best, educated) guess. Ask a police-statistician. Consult some government statistics online. Very very few!

The way I see it (and I may be wrong here) the only cases of person-on-person violence that doesn’t involve weapons are:

1. Rape attacks
2. Child bullying
3. Domestic violence

For those, Brazilian (Gracie) Jiu Jitsu (physically, mentally, spiritually) is beyond good. It’s great. It’s fantastic. It’s amazing.

The picture that the above-mentioned statistics paints is very different from what you see in the UFC (irrespective of old or new) or your average Jiu Jitsu session. Real violence involves weapons, gangs and mob mentality, premeditation, surprise element and in some cases even range and distance. It would be unfair (or even crazy) to pretend that BJJ / Grappling equips us for that.

I read somewhere a quote by Helio Gracie along the lines:

“If a big guy fights a small guy to a draw, the small guy wins!”

If you survive, you win.


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Applying Kotler's Model to BJJ / Grappling Training

When I was studying this morning I came across the Kotler model for classifying products and services in my Social Marketing course book. Philip Kotler is a great Business and Marketing mind and in this model he pits immediate satisfaction against long-term well fare.

Of course the goal is to fill our lives with the Soc called Desirable Products (DesP) and minimise the Deficient Products (DefP).

As always, my mind wondered to how this correlates to BJJ / Grappling.

Desirable Strategies/Techniques/Movements are those that give us high scores on both Immediate Satisfaction and Long-Term Welfare, while Deficient ones would score considerably lower on both scales.

Here is a simple attempt on my behalf to fill in the model:

What would you put in the different fields?


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First BJJ / Grappling Session

I remember reading an interview in Ultimate Grappling years ago with Ryron and Rener Gracie where they explain that a beginner should not feel totally exhausted from training the first couple of weeks.

I also remember thinking to myself that that was too soft. I filed it under “marketing” or “McDojoism” but I’ve come to change my mind recently.

I have a passion for the mat. I love stepping into the LABS and seeing my friends’ faces. I love putting the gi on and rolling and drilling. Most importantly, I love the way it makes me feel. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu makes me happy.

I spent an hour last Friday teaching my 14 year old brother the upa escape and a couple of mount maintenance techniques ala Gracie University. I had a great time and so did he (at least he said he did). He worked against progressive and suitable resistance and when I checked on him on Saturday, he wasn’t aching or too exhausted. He is asthmatic so I made a point to check that he was OK.

Yesterday, a completely new guy walked into the LABS. His name is John and it was the first time he'd ever stepped on a mat. Order of the day was Side Control Escapes. Martyn covered all the details of getting to a better survival position before working a number of escapes. He made sure everybody was on the same page and walked around the room correcting details during the drilling portion and ensured the resistance was progressive and suitable. It was an hour of work. Technical work, but work none the less.

I paired with John for the first couple of rounds and then he paired up with another player for the remainder of the session. He worked hard and struggled a little with the new geography, the long-forgotten muscles and the other usual suspects. He did, however, pull off a few moves against the appropriate resistance. What was the most important thing, however, was what he said after he got changed and was heading out of the door:

“See you all on Wednesday”

The magic is in the long-run and I’m in it for the magic.

I thank Allie and my brother for inspiring this post.


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The Quickest Way To Improve Your BJJ / Grappling

On Friday I had my first private BJJ session with a new client. These are always very exciting for me because I'm always working on new ways to improve my teaching curriculum and methods but most importantly because I get to spend quality time doing something I love with someone who's obviously very keen on the same topic: getting better at Brazilian Jiu Jitstu.

As with every first session of the introduction pack, we spend a few minutes talking before the session to establish background in BJJ / Grappling but also general athletic background and time they can realistically dedicate to training. We follow this with a 5 minute slow roll where I'm mainly working out the client's energy and pressures. At this stage, I'm not really interested in what they can do from, for example, guard, but rather in HOW they play guard. That's where I see my contribution to be useful. Not in feeding someone new techniques, but rather in giving their existing BJJ game an M.O.T. test!

Naturally, what I discover in those first 5 minutes can vary depending on whom I rolling with but the one most common denominator is often commitment. Roy Harris talks about using your attributes to FUEL your techniques. I like thinking in terms of commitment: Commitment to the position. Commitment to the transition or sweep. Commitment to the armbar, choke or leg lock. Of course, I'm not talking about forcing your way thru muscular strength or speed or power. I'm talking about committing your directional energy and weight and sensitivity. Applying yourself wholly to each and every move. The quickest way to improve your BJJ / grappling experience is to commit your full and undivided attention to it.

Are you playing guard? Don't let your partner settle in your guard. Move their weight around. Deny them their posture or base and watch them give you the armbars, chokes and sweeps.

Are you on side control top? Let them carry your weight. Free your hands and use sensitivity and the outside of your knee to monitor their guard retrieval attempts. Don't just grab hold and squeeze, a little like an ostrich with its head in the sand, but rather apply yourself to what you are doing! Keep you jiu jitsu alive by staying committed.


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Invisible BJJ Details: Tips on the Palm Up Palm Down Cross Collar Choke

I covered for Martyn last night, coaching both the Fundamentals and Advanced BJJ sessions. I had planned the first to evolve around the art of getting a deep cross collar grip and the options that that can present (chokes, armbar, back take...etc.) and the second session around preventing stalling in a competition scenario. The second session was hard physically. Very hard, actually. One of our blue belts is competing at the Gracie Invitational this weekend and I had designed that session with him in mind, but I will get back to that in another post.

The first session covered details that you don’t usually see and it was inspired by a quote from John Will’s blog: “Notice what no one else notices and you’ll know what no one else knows.”

There are very few secret moves in BJJ / Grappling nowadays. The real secret is and will always be in your application of the moves and your commitment to the level of detail. The Cross Choke from guard is a great example because when done correctly (with three rotations/shrimp movements and the correct wrist action) it will go on so fast, you’ll tap before you even realise you’re tapping. When done with any less than 100% commitment to the technique, it can still work (of course it can – it’s a choke and even a heavy shoulder bag can choke you!) but it will need a lot of muscle and much longer to set in.

It took me at least 20 minutes of repetitions to convince the whole group of exactly how deep I wanted the first hand needs to go into the collar. I mention that for two reasons:

1. They all saw me demonstrate the move a number of times and they all understood what I was saying, but they had probably seen the move so many times before that their eyes were on autopilot. I had to go around to each training pair and say: “Good. Now push that hand at least 2 more inches in. Crunch up and push that hand in and behind their neck”

2. I don’t remember this level of detail being shown to me in a BJJ / Grappling class. If it was, it wasn’t afforded the time it needed to sink into my slow brain. I had to re-learn this choke by rewinding matches and digging into lots of DVDs until I found it and I’m sure that this is the situation for most players.

The way BJJ / Grappling classes are taught at most schools nowadays*, everybody wants at least 3-4 moves from the instructor or they tell you that the class was boring. Well I can put my hand on heart and tell you that when we rolled in the second hour, every single one of those white and blue belts had a much deeper** and more threatening Cross Collar Choke. They learnt something so well that they could apply it successfully in the same day.

Look for the invisible detail. When you find it, drill it against progressive resistance. That’s the easiest and fastest way to gain a deeper understanding of the BJJ / Grappling game.


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*Carlos Valente, 6th degree black belt under Rickson Gracie, talked about this in a great interview on the Fightworks Podcast back in 2006.



**Stephan Kesting lays down the law on deep collar grips in this excellent and concise article.

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Passing The Open Guard. Pit Stops, Awareness and the 3P

I watched some old-ish footage of a Joe Moreira and Roy Harris seminar on open-guard passing during this Easter break just gone.

Joe Moreira wasn't really showing any particular techniques that I wasn't familiar with which was a bit odd, mainly because I have this image in my head of him showing 12 ways to drink a glass of pineapple juice! (After all, the man released a book with over 100 techniques just from Side Control!) What he did instead was something much, much more valuable.

He gave his take on the 3P model. He never called it that but hey...pineapple juice is pineapple juice no matter what else you call it. What he did was:

1. Got rid of and constantly fought against any meaningful contact or pressure exerted by the guard-player on him and instead established his own meaningful grips (posture) and
2. He fully turned on the pressure. Pressure pressure pressure! Now for those of you who haven't seen what Mr Moreira looks like, he's not a big man by any measures, but once he had the postures and grips he wanted, he was in the zone. The pit-bull zone! Pressure pressure pressure! I swear at one point it looked like he was going to fall out of the TV screen! That would've been awkward. "Hey Joe. How's it hangin'? Pineapple juice?"
3. The third P- the possibilities- kind of took care of themselves. I mean you can either pass over, under or around the leg(s). Which one ends up depending on what the poor guard player “gives” you.

Yesterday, I taught a private session on passing. I showed 2 techniques (the double under and the bull pass) and entry to a good pit stop (See my drawing above) and we spent a lot of time working on the necessary awareness to clear any obstacles (hands, hooks, knees...etc.) and Pressure pressure pressure! It was emotional.

Now despite all that, why did I still show two techniques? Not because these specific two are the be-all-end-all of passing and not because they are my favourites, but simply because they served as good demonstrations of the principles.

And the pit stop? Well, it’s all in the pit stop baby!

Oh by the way, Cane did an excellent piece on Guard passing. Highly recommended reading!

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BJJ Concepts: Why the Cross Face?

We covered half guard principles in yesterday's BJJ fundamentals session. Martyn focused on the bare essentials of success for both top and bottom and then we did a series of progressive resistance drills to experience it all in an alive manner. He actually made clear that showing any more passing details at this stage may confuse beginners and falsely encourage them to forget the essential set-up details and get lost in the intricacies of passing, only to get their backs taken or swept.

After the session, someone asked me about my previous post about just that, the bare minimums. I always get so chuffed when someone actually reads my stuff. The question was about why I gave the bottom player a priority that was something other than simply the opposite of the top player's, specifically for the half guard. To be exact, if I think that the minimum the top player needs to do is flatten her partner, why do I not simply recommend that the bottom player fights to stay on her side and off her back? Why do I instead recommend that they focus on fighting the cross face? Well, for number of reasons:

There are many ways to get flattened on the bottom and the cross face is one of the best so essentially you are fighting to stay on your side by fighting the cross face. Preventative action and all that jazz.

But also, I wanted to stress that sometimes it's ok to take a step back in order to jump two steps forward. When the top player tries to get the cross face to flatten you and fails, he can still flatten you with other tools (circle walk, far under-hook, near elbow control and more elaborate ones) but you, the bottom player, can recover from them much more reliably than from a well-placed cross face. Like Saulo says, you have to assept that sometimes the other guy is better than you or at least was earlier than you. So what's the first thing to recover from/protect against? The cross face.

What if we get flattened while fighting off the cross face? Assept that, then bridge and shrimp to turn back onto your side. Why can you get away with that simple move, because your face is NOT crossed!

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BJJ Concepts: Fundamentals = The Least You Can Do

You'll see a lot of people going on about "concept" vs "technique" and nowadays you can get fantastic sets of DVDs that will show you both. In HD!

The way I see the two:

Concepts are the first thing you need to concern yourself with in any position. They are the make it or break it detail. They say you can't make an omelette without breaking some eggs. Bingo! That's your concept.

Techniques are means to an end. They are sets of steps that lead to a destination or outcome. Usually that end is a new concept or at least an extension or a variation on a previous one. A basic egg cracking one is when you use both hands and a flashy advanced one is when you do it single handedly. Any one else getting hungry?

Here is my list of concepts for the most common situations in a roll.

Mount Bottom:

Keep your elbows glued to your ribs (unless strikes are allowed)

Half guard Bottom:

Prevent the cross-face

Side Control Bottom:

Keep your elbows in posture

Turtle Bottom:

Shut one side and guard the other

Turtle Top:

Let them carry your weight

Inside Closed Guard:

Keep them flat on their back and in front of you

Inside Open Guard:

Keep your elbow(s) connected to your thigh(s) to block their hooks

Half Guard Top:
Get them flat on their back

Side Control Top:

Make them carry your weight

Mount Top:

Remove obstacles and climb your knee(s)

Closed Guard:

Get your body off-centre

Open Guard:

Entangle their leg(s)

This, of course, is not all you need to do, but you'll struggle to do anything productive if you violate these. There is a variety of ways to achieve these concepts. Those are techniques. You can spend a lot of money and time learning techniques but chances are they won't work* unless you observe the concepts first.

Furthermore, if you run into a situation where your techniques aren't working or they are taking a whole lot of energy/strength/speed to do so, check your underlying concepts.

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*You can violate a concept intentionally, setting a trap. This, of course, is not advised early on but you will see the advanced players do it now and again.