BJJ / Grappling tips: How to prevent the guard pass and improve your triangle choke

Are people passing whenever you attempt to triangle choke them?

Not cool. The triangle choke is an iconic attack within grappling arts and if it didn't work unless you had long skinny legs, it would never had become a part of judo, a martial art and sport created by the Japanese.

It's all about creating the right angles and applying the pressure at the right time.

Here are a few details I've encountered over the years from the great Renzo Gracie and his nephew Ralek Gracie. I love these details as they allow me with my stocky legs to finish the triangle choke on big, muscly opponents I'm likely to find in my weight category.

Create a straight arm frame against your knee:

Renzo Gracie:

Dominate the arms within the triangle choke and shoulder walk:

Ralek Gracie:



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ZHOO ZHITSU IS FOR EVERYONE!

BJJ in South Africa: The Part Time Grappler visits the Renzo Gracie academy in Cape Town

As you all know, I recently visited Cape Town - South Africa with my wife and naturally while there, I was going to visit the local jiu jitsu schools and academies. I did some research and found two BJJ schools is Cape Town: Renzo Gracie Cape Town and the Gracie Academy Cape Town. I made arrangements to visit both and made my way to Renzo Gracie Cape Town on the Tuesday at 6pm for the advanced Brazilian Jiu Jitsu session (marked as Purple on their schedule here).

I was greeted at the academy by three people: a tall white belt named Rob, another white belt named Henric and none other than chief instructor Mr Kurdt George, brown belt under jiu jitsu legend Renzo Gracie and BJJ teacher extraordinaire John Danaher. As a matter of fact I tell a lie. The first thing that greeted me was a Renzo Gracie logo on a side door on Hout Street (just off Buitengraght Street - right above "Build It") and as I climbed the stairs I met a lovely South African flag next to the famous poster of Helio Gracie doing a flying kick at his brother Carlos Gracie. If that doesn't tell you you're in the right place then this will:

Friendliness. The more of Kurdt's students I met, the more I was wowed by how fantastically friendly everyone is! I tried to make an effort to go around and introduce myself to everyone but they wouldn't even let me...they were coming to me, shaking my hand and welcoming me to their club. It was very easy to see where all that was emanating from as Kurdt was Mr Nice himself, something I am sure he found in common with his teacher the charismatic Mr Renzo Gracie in New York. Everyone at the advanced BJJ session immediately learned my name and was using it as if they'd known me for years on end. During the post BJJ session stretching, Wesley, the purple belt who lead the warm-up and was my partner for the drills, rounded everyone up and told them who I am and a little about my blog. People were very curious about the visitor and this blog he writes and when I explained my suspicions were immediately confirmed: everywhere you go in the world to train Brazilian jiu jitsu and grappling we, the part time grapplers, are the majority and we need a voice. I doubt if Stefan, a very technical blue belt who trains at Renzo Gracie Cape Town with his 14 year old daughter, or Henric the white belt I mentioned earlier, a barrister by trade, has time or energy to train 2ce a day 6 days a week. But do they train as much as they can and leave their heart on the mat? You bet they do!

Technique: as I mentioned, Wesley lead a very thorough warm-up before head instructor Kurdt took over and I will definitely be incorporating some of his exercises in our own warm-ups down at the BJJ Labs when I get back. The advanced BJJ session was 90 minutes long (6-7.30 pm) and centred around the mounted positions. We alternated between drilling positions and attacks and working against resistance to escape, maintain and submit from mount (we at The BJJ Labs would refer to these as Introduction and Isolation drills) before finishing the session with a couple of rounds of sparring. The attitude on the BJJ mat at Renzo Gracie Cape Town was one of learning and while many BJJ academies claim that, this one was honest. When I asked my rolling partners where they wanted to start, some were comfortable (and focused) enough to have a plan while others said "you're the higher belt dude so you're the one who will be teaching me". That really left quite an impact on me. Head instructor Kurdt George's charisma is only matched by his teaching skills. He taught us an armbar switch from mount that I had learned a year ago from Brazilian Top Team black belt Italo Nunes but since Kurdt is a lighter BJJ player than Italo (and naturally has a better command of English) he taught us some very interesting details on how to stay really tight and heavy from mount top while switching armbars which I'm sure Martyn and gang will love. This was high caliber Gracie Jiu Jitsu where technical detail is king and strength and other attributes are used to fuel the techniques.

Facilities: Renzo Gracie must be very proud of the fantastic facilities that hold his name in Cape Town South Africa. The academy is huge and spacious. In fact, they have two separate mats, so the BJJ beginners' session started at 7 while our session was still running. Renzo Gracie Cape Town has toilets, a small office with a pro-shop, separate gents' and ladies' changing rooms with hot showers and the training area is covered with huge windows. In fact, even before the warm-up, the first thing Kurdt and the whole gang did was gather around and watch part of the sunset as Kurdt said: "Welcome to Brazilian jiu jitsu Cape Town style Liam."

I can't wait to visit them again. In the meantime, I will have to just follow them on Facebook :)

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John Danaher Rolling with Renzo and Ryan Gracie

I was doing some research for my next BJJ lie and I came across this video of Renzo and Ryan Gracie rolling with John Danaher. One of the comments advises it's from Renzo's documentary "Legacy".



Liam "The Part Time Grappler" Wandi

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BJJ / Grappling Tips: Learn By Watching, Learn By Listening!

In the above clip, Marcelo Garcia (what a legend!) shows the bridge escape from side control (while Kid Pelligro if I'm not mistaken gives us the audio breakdown).

It's a great clip. Marcelo is a great competitor, practitioner and I've heard many describe him as a great man and teacher. Awesome stuff. I have no illusion that he is trying to short change me.

But, If you listen to the description and follow the instructions, you will do something that he himself doesn't do when he actually does the move in full speed at the end of the clip. Can you see it? It's a small contradiction but it's there nonetheless.

Well, here it goes.

At 3.13 the instruction is very clear: Bring your right (near-side) leg and cross it UNDER your left leg to come to your knees. Marcelo then goes on to demonstrate what he means. This instruction is repeated again in both words and actions at 5.01. Everybody with me so far?

The thing is, and here is the thing. In keeping with Brazilian Jiu Jitsu DVD Mantra, the two slow explanations are always followed up with a "and now, in full speed" where the BJJ / Grappling transition, submission or whatever is shown in...full speed. This is what it looks like when done with automation that comes from years and years of practice to perfection. This reflexive action. This is the Shizaaam.

But when Marcelo...ehm...shizaaams, he VERY CLEARLY crosses his left (far-side) leg OVER his right to get to his knees. When performing the move as he would at full speed, Marcelo does the exact opposite of what he just explained, advised and instructed.

Now, there are more ways than one to skin a cat, but he is not showing us two moves, nor does the audio make reference to that. These are two different approaches and if you disagree, go try it with someone on the mat. Crossing under gets you at a 90 degree angle and is more likely to lead to a snake-belly approach (ala Saulo in Jiu Jitsu University and Roy Dean's Blue Belt Requirements) while crossing OVER will most likely put you in a more parallel position closer to their back (ala the Full -speed version above) or even roll them if they stay connect to you (ala Joao Crus).

My Karate sensei once told me: "You have to use your eyes, ears and body to not just learn what you are being taught, but also steal as much knowledge as you can".

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Ps. Renzo Gracie and Craig Kukuk show something that looks like a bit of a hybrid between the two. I don't like that, but who am I to argue with them :)

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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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On Inspirational Leaders

Nothing to do with sensei above, I love Renzo Gracie. Not just for being a Quote-Machine, but I think the man is awesome for stepping into the UFC Octagon at his age and the fact that he's been dedicated enough to lose over 25lb for the fight just pushes my respect to him a couple of notches.

I can't wait for next year to go meet him and have a roll at his legendary academy.

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