BJJ / Grappling tips: Jiu-jitsu works, always!

Positional sparring is a fantastic way to sharpen your execution of a technique. Way more important than Free Rolling and that's not just my opinion. It's the opinion of practically every single world champ or Gracie family member I have ever interviewed.

For those not familiar with the term positional sparring: The instructor introduces three triangle fundamental escapes (for instance) then you drilled them in isolation (against progressive resistance) and then you roll, but every roll started from inside your partner's triangle set-up position. This is an excellent way to learn fast and learn well!

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.

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

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.

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

I Stole A Technique. Can You See It?

Here is a match between Kron Gracie and Pedro Bessa.

at exactly 10:42 Kron does something with his left leg to block the Mount escape. Can you see it?

I have never been shown, taught or even visualised this. This is something I completely and utterly stole and I'm so chuffed.

Let me know what you think.

 

----Did You Like This Article?---
Make sure you add The Part Time Grappler to your Favourites / Bookmarks
---------------------------------

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!

----Did You Like This Article?---
Make sure you add The Part Time Grappler to your Favourites / Bookmarks
---------------------------------

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.

----Did You Like This Article?---

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

----------------------------------

*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.

BJJ Strategy: Riddle me this…Riddle me that…Who’s the cleverest on the BJJ mat?

Here is a statistics-influenced riddle (ok ok I may have seen it on an old NUMB3RS episode!)

You are asked to rig a room. The room has 4 doors and you are given 4 identically designed traps that can be attached to the doors. Each trap, however, only has a 25% chance of working and 75% chance of failing. Your victim wants to go into the room and there are no windows so she has to choose one of the 4 doors. What’s your best strategy?

If you want to see the answer, scroll down. It’s past the silly (or clever, if you believe Georgette!) cartoon.

Ok it’s a bit of a trick question as it has a piece of information missing. The doors are lockable. But then again that’s an important part of today’s post theme.

All other factors remaining equal, your best bet is to lock three of the doors and attach your entire arsenal to the 4th one. Your victim needs to go into the room, and you’ve just stacked the odds heavily in your favour.

BJJ / Grappling is, or at least should be, the same. It’s a series of traps and mazes and the beauty of it; your opponent WANTS to go into the room. They WANT to SWEEP you. They WANT to pass your guard. They WANT to go to mount…etc. But how does the analogy above ink into this?

Two ways:

1. In any situation on the mat, each player will have a number of options. A number of possible manoeuvres. How many depends on the situation: When someone is inside your guard you have many more possible things you could do than when they have go back with hooks on you with one of your arms trapped by their leg. Statistical analysis advises that to increase your chances of success, limit your opponent’s possible options. Don’t give them a room with 4 doors, give them a room with 3 locked doors and one unlocked door, with a small bag of cookies dangling from the handle and a trail of crumbs leading into the room.

Offensive example: When someone is in your closed guard (for example) they can place their hands in a variety of postures and positions, offering them a spectrum of support levels. Why not open your lapels, eliminating the(double lapel grab). Also work to control their wrists or at least push them off your chest/ribs area but keep pulling their torso into you with your knees. Effectively, you have given them only three options to pick from: To tuck their pelvis under them and remain upright (in which case you can sit into them and work the hip-bump/Kimura/Guillotine series), to place their hands low on your torso (which shouldn’t stop you from breaking their posture and possibly wrist locking them) or to post on the mat which just opens up a can of whipass of attacks. Place your traps only where the open doors are.

Defensive example: You’re in someone’s closed guard and your tuck your pelvis in and remain upright, hardly really touching them with your hands (use them to deflect their grips. That narrows their options to either opening their guard and sitting up for the hip bump/Kimura/Guillotine series or start playing open guard. You just zipped what you need to defend against from several unknowns to a few knowns.

2. The Doors are lockable. I didn’t tell you that in the initial riddle for a reason. I wanted to make a point about this strategy: Not many people know it!

Not many people I know actively use this strategy and it’s, I’m guessing here, because no one ever told them that the doors are lockable so they keep searching for more traps to buy/learn/download.

There are postures in BJJ / Grappling that eliminate certain attack opportunities for your opponent and I’d rather spend my time learning/working at those than learn 1-2 counters to each of these potential attacks. To me, that’s the essence of great BJJ.

The wild buffalo cannot butt its horns against him, The tiger cannot fasten its claws in him, And weapons of war cannot thrust their blades into him. And for what reason? Because in him there is no room for death.


----Did You Like This Article?---

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

BJJ Tips: If you're under the guard, consider yourself losing

I don't have my book infront of me but the concept is echoed around Renzo-Danaher's book Mastering Jujitsu

Yesterday saw the first session at the BJJ LABS, and Martyn couldn't have chosen a better topic: The Guard.

The reason I like the choice of topic is for two reasons: the way he taught it and the reason behind why he did it the way he did. Martyn treated the guard as a transitional position between being under someone in a disadvantageous position (mount, side control, knee on belly) and having the upper hand in a scramble.

The way he focused the session was on the get-up strategy. Get the hell up and out from under your opponent. If along the way they give you a present (an arm or the neck) then take it. It's a great strategy that we just didn't drill at all before, which leads me right into the second reason I really like it.

On the same mat we had white, blue, purple and brown belts rolling and learning. Some had their main interest in MMA, some in gi/no-gi BJJ and also some just do the art for fitness and health purposes AND THEY ALL GOT IT! The principle of getting off your back and out from under someone in a fight is universal and Martyn captured that perfectly in our first session at THE BJJ LABS.

Yes you can sweep from the guard. We covered three options off the get-up.

Yes there are some excellent submissions. We covered two of these as well.

Did everybody pick up the same details? Of course not. It’s ridiculous to expect white belts to pick up the same details of techniques as the brown belts. They just haven’t developed the awareness for it yet.

Did everybody pick up the strategy and the postures, pressures and possibilities available from that strategy? Hell yeah!

We all learned something new about the art of BJJ, and we also got the chance to conduct our own mini-experiments within the session.

Do you see where I’m going with this last bit?

THE BJJ LABS just made their mark on the map.

----Did You Like This Article?---

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

Tips on Arriving at Solutions in BJJ / Grappling: A Question of Coaching Methods

I was reading Cane's excellent post on Frames and Postures from Side Controll Bottom when it occured to me that one of the great beauties of training in an alive, uncensored and healthy manner is that with enough testing, you should be able to arrive at correct conclusions.

I had written about similar ideas to Cane's back in October of 2009 but more from the perspective of Half Guard bottom rather than Sice Controll and apparently Priit had worked this a good while ago. It's all good. Minds are coming together.

The gym is going thu some very exciting times at the moment and it feels great to see how these coaching methods can expand the mind and evaluate ideas and theories.

Oh, and this is the 100th post. Yeay!

----Did You Like This Article?---

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

BJJ Tips: More on Goal Setting in BJJ / Grappling II

Wow. What an amazing response the last post on goal setting received on Facebook and via email. I opened my inbox and had 30 emails waiting. I didn’t get that when I got married! Thanks peeps.

Firstly, let me define goal setting so we are all on the same wavelength: The goal setting I’m against (in business, sports, relationships…well, life!) involves establishing specific, measurable and time-targeted objectives (as is suggested in Wikipedia).

An acronym often associated with goal setting is SMART, standing for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant/Realistic & Time-framed.

I used goal setting for many years. It worked. That was the problem. Allow me to explain.

I set a goal, usually a SMART one, and then built a gradual plan that lead towards the realisation of that goal. I overcame hardships and kept my eyes on the prize and got it in the end. Unfortunately, that was all I got. I missed out on a million beautiful experiences. I literally got what I asked for and an inescapable sense of hollow victory that was always casting a shadow like a dark cloud over my parade.

I couldn't figure it out at the time. I did some research into it and found that it was a common phenomenon, (1 and 2) so I convinced myself that it came with the territory. I convinced myself that it was simply time for new, bigger goals. Nicer, shinier trophies and the cycle continued but alas achieving a bigger goal brought with it a bigger let-down. A bigger, darker shadow. When was I to be happy? When was I to feel contended?

That is when it hit me: Now.

I can either be happy now or never. The verb "to be" can only describe the now. That was the first clue. The first card that fell, and the whole house followed soon after.

I was refusing to live in the now and hence committing the following mistakes:

1. Making decisions based not on facts of the now but rather part my emotional knee jerk reactions to my perception of the now and part some imaginary future state of mind I had convinced myself coincided with the planned goals.
2. Kept my eyes on the prize and totally missed a gazillion opportunities to be happy.
3. Most importantly I started identifying with either the goal, the mission, the obstacles, past memories, feelings and reactions and even sometimes with other people.

Can you have a game plan? Yes.
Do you need one? No.

Q. Without some kind of game plan for getting out from under the mount you're just lying on your back covering your head and feeling sorry for yourself until you get armbarred.

A. When an untrained person is mounted, they will do something to get out from under the mount. The person on top will react to that. That will change the dynamics and geometry of the two bodies.

Will the person on the bottom get armbarred and otherwise subbed a few times? Yes. But there will come a time when the penny will drop and they will learn not to stick that arm out.

Will the person on top get reversed? Yes. But there will come a time when the penny will drop and they will learn how to distribute their weight.

How soon will the penny drop? As soon as they each live in the moment. No later and no sooner* and the lesson will be theirs forever.

Think about it. Mount bottom is not that horrible, in the grand scheme of things. How many people have died or got permanently injured from being under someone’s mount for 2-5 minutes in training? Most likely zero. What’s the worse that could happen? You will get frustrated and bothered. But what if you decided to suspend judgement? What if you decided to experience the position rather than label it as horrible/pleasant/frustrating/elating/sweaty/tight…etc.? You start living it. You start feeling it.

Krishnamurti said once: "If you begin to understand what you are without trying to change it, then what you are undergoes a transformation." Apply that to everything, starting with the mount-bottom.

Setting a SMART goal by default means you are going to invest in it. Commit to it. Hence, you WILL put the blinkers on and you WILL get caught up in it.

Q. What’s wrong with seeking a “better” position/job/life…etc.?
A. That’s not SMART goal setting. Actually, most coaches will tell you that’s not goal setting at all. “Better” is a judgement. Something is good/better/best is only so in comparison to something that is deemed bad/worse/worst which comes directly out of not living the now. That’s another story that I won’t go into here.

Q. What’s wrong with having a focus in training?
A. Absolutely nothing. I’m a huge proponent of focus. You can’t live the now without having a focus. Focus and Goal are not the same though. Focus is a healthy tool and I find that putting my focus on living in (not for) the moment puts me in a happier and healthier state of mind. An excellent example of that is when passing the guard.

Passing the guard is getting past the legs and they aren’t usually static. By taking that to heart, I’m always moving forward with pressure and soon passing.

Q. Isn’t this reactive? Doesn’t a proactive approach give you more of an advantage?
A. It’s alive. It’s a film, not a picture. The way I see it, “reactive” and “proactive” are photograph-like descriptions of a fluid reality and they depend on when the shutter closed. Going back to the guard passing, I’m always keeping in posture and putting pressure. I don’t need a goal or a plan to tell me to press the action. Half the time when people are doing nothing in someone’s guard, it’s because they are trying to think of what to do and that’s the opposite of living the moment.

Here is another example. You feel hungry. You can make a goal and plan: to go to the Supermarket to get something to cook/eat. This is of course because you have judged the feeling as negative and you must get rid of it. But things change. Feelings and sensations, such as hunger, are in constant movement. Understand the urges by living the now and feeling them. You will soon notice that your hunger will either go away or you won't oversee the 5 healthy snacks you walked by.

Once again though, thanks for reading.

----------------------------------
*(unless someone from the outside tells them to!)


----Did You Like This Article?---

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

BJJ Time Management: More on Goal Setting in BJJ / Grappling

Graeme, one of our toughest guard players in the blue belt gang, made a comment yesterday about my aversion to goal setting. His comment was along the lines: if you're under the mount, it is important to set the goal to get out of there. Not his exact words but I believe he felt the goal helped give focus.

Now, while I agree that being under someone's mount is never a great day at the office, I still disagree with Graeme and here is why.

Firstly, you don't need* a plan or goals to tell / remind you that getting out from under the mount is your focus when you get put there. All you need is to BE there, to live and experience the MOMENT. Mount-bottom will tell you that. It sucks!

Secondly, the goal setting process as it widely used both in both sports and business presumes full, or at least sufficient, knowledge of the options at hand and potential outcomes and turns of the situation. You're not supposed to pick a goal out of thin air, but unfortunately that's what you end up doing most if not all the time. I'll build on Graeme’s example. Let's take someone who's only been training a short while and as for mount escapes, he's only familiar with the upa. Now he knows the upa. He really knows the upa. But the problem is, you and I know that the upa isn't perfect. No technique is. Techniques have counters. A very simple but effective counter is shifting your weight to the opposite side and raising your weight about half an inch.

Now the goal-setter will probably set his SMART goal to be: Upa as many times and as hard and technically as possible to get out from under the mount in 10-15 seconds (Specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, time-framed). The problem is not whether or not this will work; it is the detrimental effects it may have in either case!

-If it DOES work, it will take too much energy but the player will think he did the right thing!
-If it DOESN’T work, it will take too much energy and the player will get very frustrated and may lose faith in the technique or even think (s)he has been miss-taught.

By living the moment, by just being under the mount and performing the upa and getting countered, the player will sense the change in weight distribution. If they don’t, a good coach will tell them to slow things down and focus on that feeling. Once they get that connection, that feeling, learning the elbow-knee and shrimping escapes, becomes a much easier and more natural progression.

Don't think, feel! It is like a finger pointing away to the moon. Don't concentrate on the finger or you will miss all that heavenly glory.

- Bruce Lee

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Yes goal setting can work. No disagreement there. It’s just neither healthy nor necessary.


----Did You Like This Article?---

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