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!

BJJ Technique: What makes a BJJ technique?

We hear sometimes that Brazilian or Gracie Jiu Jitsu has hundreds of techniques*. But what constitutes a BJJ technique? If you lift the hood on a sweep, a submission or even a positional escape what do you see?

Having done some research into what different black belts think** I propose the following components to a jiu jitsu technique:

• Placement and Positioning
• Mechanics
• Attributes
• Timing

Or PPMAT

Placement & Positioning: in Brazilian jiu jitsu, placement (your head and limbs) and Positioning (your body and angle) is not just where you put your grips, feet, head, limbs and hips, but also how you place them in relation to those of your opponent. Grappling is not a solo performance. My opponent could have the best P&P to do a butterfly sweep, kimura submission or armbar from closed guard but if I change my own P&P I could potentially ruin his set-up and technique. Learning as much as you can about optimal placement and positioning, both in offence and defence, will help you gain the most leverage when grappling.

Mechanics: when it comes to mechanics, Roy Harris is king! I remember reading an interview with August Wallén, BJJ black belt under Mr Harris and head of Shooters MMA amongst many other accomplishments, where he was talking about his influences and he brought up how Roy changed his view of the game to another technical level.

me and Mr Roy Harris after one of his seminars in Gothenburg, Sweden hosted by August. That's a Karate blue belt (and gi) so we're talking ol' skool!

Understanding BJJ: Linking Grappling Techniques

“See Construction”

Please read the above phrase 5 times in your head.

Now please read it again 3 times loud enough for you to hear your own voice (but not necessary loud enough to alarm innocent bystanders, or sitters)

What does it mean?

Do you want me to help you a little? OK, I will put it in a sentence that has Brazilian Jiu Jitsu / Grappling / MMA context:

“As a BJJ athlete, I have travelled the world to see construction!”

I’m sure most of you fine; intelligent people have figured this out by now. If you haven’t, it’s not your fault. It’s a trick. Pesky me!

Now read this:

“As a BJJ athlete, I have travelled the world to seek instruction!”

“See Construction”
“Seek Instruction”

It’s an easy mistake-a to make-a.

Now take that and think about all the moves you’re struggling to make work in BJJ / Grappling. Have a think about that flower sweep you just can’t pull off or the armbar that people seem to escape at will. After you’ve examined it properly and ensured all the technical details are adhered to (and you still can’t make it work) then start thinking about the set-up or the move you do just before.

1. Are you breaking their posture before entering your technique?
2. Are they stationary or are they in motion, generating momentum that you can perhaps use?
3. If you’re linking two or more BJJ manoeuvres, is it very obvious that the first one is just a fake? My Karate sensei always stressed that the first move should always carry enough of a threat to warrant their reaction.

Before initiating the flower sweep, break their posture then release so they posture up and raise their centre of gravity.

If you can’t keep the arm in place to armbar, attack with a deep; threatening palm-up palm-down cross choke and watch them chase you with that arm trying to block the choke.

Basically, if you can’t see the construction, you should seek some instruction.



Here is Gracie Humaita black belt Mr Raphael Lovato Jr. talking you thru the Flower Sweep. Watch and learn from the best!



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BJJ Analysis: Heel Hooks and Foot Locks. My hates = My biggest weaknesses.

Last night's BJJ session at the Labs focused on a least favourite area of mine: heel hooks. At least the biggest chunk of the session was around using sound BJJ principles to prevent, counter, thwart, unravel and finally escape heel hooks. It made me think a lot about why I dislike this subset of BJJ / submission grappling.

Heel Hook City!

BJJ Video Tips: Finishing Straight Armbars from Spider Web / Mount

I have decided to make and post more videos. They really help me get my point across but more importantly, they help start a discussion from the blog readers.

Here is a short video I made with my brother Mr Sam Wandi demonstrating how a weight management principle I picked up in Yoga can be applied to positions and submissions in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. To demonstrate the point, I use the straight armbar. Please let me know what you think:



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Dealing with Frustration in BJJ / Grappling

We've recently introduced a rotating curriculum for the fundamentals sessions at the Labs-BJJ. Last- and this week's themes are mainly techniques from the guard* on the ground. That means that at the end of next session, our white belts would have learnt and - thanks to the I-method - practiced against live resistance up to 6 Brazilian Jiu Jitsu techniques from the closed guard. Going out on a statistical limb, I'd say that's a lot more than 95% of the country's population knows, with BJJ / grappling being a relatively small community.

Why am I mentioning this? Because it's very easy to forget when you are sweating buckets and working your butt off against other BJJ players and grapplers at various levels of experience.

If you're having a hard time getting your new techniques to work against people with a couple of years of experience on you, I beg of you to remember that they are the top 5% of the country's population** and give yourself a nice, big pat on the back. The other 95 are practically clueless to how to defend a properly executed scissor sweep, let alone defend a follow-up technique (e.g. palm-up palm-up choke). By playing this game, you are already part of the elite.

BJJ is a wonderful art.

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*Every session starts with techniques from standing.
**Not exact figures of course and doesn't take into account age...etc. Having said that, 1% of Britain's population is 600 thousand people and I doubt that many people in Britain have ever tried BJJ.

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: Rolling with Beginners

I taught Saturday's No-Gi session at the LABS, covering for Anna. Traditionally, these sessions have a free sparring portion even though some beginners come to them and it's a great chance to roll with complete newbies. I showed two techniques to transition from side control / Reverse Kesa Gatame to mount and the Kimura option if the hand presents itself.

During a roll with a very tall, strong beginner I got to mount using exactly the techniques showed earlier, except he reached up and got me in a headlock. I made sure I thank him after the session and here's why. Only a beginner will do that.

Anyone with a few months of BJJ / Grappling / MMA under their belt will know not to. Which means if you never roll with complete beginners, you'll never work your headlock counters from the mount. Even if you're not training for self-defence, you need to know what to do when someone bigger and stronger puts you in one with full intent to reverse you. Enter Mr Beginner. Thanks!

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BJJ Tips: Using Your Belt to Pass the Half Guard

I wrote a quick post a couple of days ago about unorthodox use of the BJJ belt. It was just a silly joke but I thought I may as well make it up to those who clicked on it expecting some functional BJJ knowledge.

Here is a quick video I shot yesterday at the LABS: Fighting Fit-Manchester of a neat trick where you use your belt to create a leverage that immobilises the opponent’s top arm in half guard, affording you more time to work your guard pass to side control.

The inspiration to this move is Sensei Kashiwazaki’s gem of a Judo book: Osaekomi




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Fedor v Fabricio breakdown by the Gracie Academy

All BJJ / Grappling advocates around the world enjoyed how Fabricio Werdum brought the great Fedor to submission.

The Gracie Academy in Torrance, California went a step further and made a small video presenting their analysis of what went down. You can find that here.

I really enjoy these analysis vids and it would be awesome if more instructors did similar ones.

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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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BJJ Comunity: Who Do You Train With?

Last Friday I had an amazing open-mat session with Glyn and Chris, two of our best players. We set the timer on 3 minute rounds and rotated. Needless to say, I got royally owned! To paint you a picture, the highlight of the session was escaping side control a couple of times on each one!

But it wasn't all pain. Half way thru the session, Glyn gave Chris and me 2 gems that I know are going to transform our guard passing skills to another level. Not just that, he actually took the time to explain some of the details and gave us each an opportunity to practice and drill them both on him and on each other while he coached. Now it's important to remember that this was an Open-mat session. Glyn was under no obligation to give us any moves he obviously paid considerable energy and sweat, and possibly cash, to learn and earn. He simply did it because it annoyed him that we couldn't pass his guard. He raised the bar for everyone on the mat.

Towards the end of the session, I showed Chris something goofy and he showed me a butterfly pass that he felt would suit my body type and the way I usually pass. I train with generous, giving people and for that I am very grateful. I know that my level of knowledge is not as high as theirs so when I showed my anti-gravity concept to them, making Glyn say: “Huh, I never thought of it that way!” it gave me hope.


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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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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.

 

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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 Details: Two Inches!

Two inches! I was watching the fantastic Saulo Ribeiro this weekend teaching the reverse scarf half-guard pass when I realised my bottom knee has been 2 inches off all this time.

I love this crazy game.

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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.

What Are The Fundamentals in BJJ / Grappling?

Martyn posed a great question on Facebook yesterday about how BJJ may resemble a tree. After many a silly answer (thanks Jake!) it came clear that he was hinting to the support the branches receive from a strong and sturdy trunk (the Foundation). Manik also made a very smart, out-of-the-box contribution that, to me, sounded very Avatar-inspired.

A lot of weight is placed on the fundamentals of BJJ, and of course rightly so. But what are they? What are the fundamental techniques of BJJ?

The first time I saw a good list of fundamentals was on Mr Roy Harris' website (which has a wealth of infromation and articles free for all to access. The man is a genius!). The funny thing is, when I saw that list back in the day, I didn't really understand much of it! Adding to that, I wasn't really doing much BJJ / Grappling at the time so I had no training partners or coach to ask and in 2001, the internet wasn't as overloaded with BJJ information as it is now.

Nevertheless, a day or two has passed since 2001 and I have come to re-arrange Mr Harris' list into my own progression which is what I use as a guidline both for my own training and for private sessions.

Basic BJJ Moves:
-Bridge
-Shrimp
-Sit shrimp
-Roll over your shoulder
-Box Drill
-Flip hips over
-Flip hips under
-Light legs

Guard Bottom
-APE-principle
-Breaking posture
-Shaking base
-Working towards the back
-Arm wrap pit stop
-Head and arm posture
-Knee Shield posture
-Biceps ride posture
-Harness control
-Scissor Sweep – Standard variation
-Scissor Sweep – Knee push variation
-Hip Bump Sweep
-Flower / Pendulum sweep
-Technical standing from guard
-Triangle choke
-Cross choke(s)
-Guillotine choke
-Kimura
-Straight armbar(s)
-Omoplata

Half Guard Bottom
-Stone Squirrel Posture
-Getting to your knees (dogfight)
---Knee tap
---Plan B
-Pull Guard

Half Guard Top
-Circle to flatten
-Underhook to flatten
-Wizzer
-Tight knees
-Cross Face
---Escrima pass

Mount Bottom
-Survival posture
---Elbow knee
---Back door shrimp Escape
Mount Top
-Low Mount
---Mount maintenance
---Americana
---Arm triangle choke
-High Mount
-Technical Mount
---Arm wrap pit stop
---Arm bar – Wing choke – Americana Triple attack
---Back take

Back Bottom
-Survival posture
---Turn to face escape
---Shrimp down escape
---Mount Awareness

Back Top
-Hooks and Harness
---Transition to mount
---Bow and Arrow Choke
---Arm triangle Choke
---RNC

Side control Bottom
-Survival posture
---Bridge, Shrimp and Connect: BSC
---Pull guard
---To your knees
Side control Top
-Weight awareness
-Position 1: Far Harness: Cross face & Underhook
---Knee on Belly to Mount
-Position 2: Modified Scarf Hold
-Position 3: Reverse Scarf Hold
---Mount
-Walk side-to-side incl. North/South

Passing
-Guard posture and breaking
-Base and posture
-Standing in Guard
-Sitting guard break
-Standing guard break
-Defence against:
---Triangle choke
---Cross choke
---Guillotine choke
---Kimura
---Straight armbar
---Omoplata
-Combat base Low
---Double under
---Knee-thru Pit stop
-Combat base High
---5 Passing energies

Stand-up
-Posture
-Stance
-Grip fighting
-Pummeling
-Arm drag
-Head snap
-Duck under
-Faint
-Defense
---Stuff-Underhook-Sprawl
---Walk past the guard pull
-Offense
---Double Underhooks
---Leg hook trip
---Fold over
---Knee Tap
-Over Under
---Leg attack combo


Of course, there are loads more techniques that some may consider as essential fundamentals and I'm sure some will look at my list and think "I don't agree that that technique should be there". That's cool.

Once again, to me, the techniques are just stills from the moving picture that is BJJ. Put two grapplers together and they will form postures, exert pressures and open up a number of possibilities and the way I look at what makes the cut for the fundamentals list is simply "Which techniques will enforce the best overall habits, using the least energy, creating the biggest posrture deficit with the opponent and open up the best possibilities?"

The much-discussed Gracie University looks at the fundamentals in a somewhat different light. Their Gracie Combatives Course define them as: The 36 techniques that are most likely to save your ass in a no holds barred fight (my words, but the gist is there). It's a very refreshing view that simplifies many things in BJJ (to open the guard of an a non BJJ schooled attacker, simply punch his face once or twice) but of course leaves a number of questions unanswered with regards to sport BJJ or Submission Grappling. Slideyfoot did one of the best reviews I've ever read on the Gracie University material.

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