The first comicbook style instructional I did was super-popular, so here’s my latest creation…
The Three Fundamental Kneebars You Need to Know!
Check it out – it’s 100% free.
And here’s my official permission to share this PDF on Kneebar Entries any way you want. This includes Facebook / Twitter / Email / Forums / Blog Posts / Website. No charge; it’s free! Now and forever.
Erik Paulson is an MMA Master Coach. He’s trained tons of fighters competing at the highest levels of Mixed Martial Arts. And he held the Shooto light-heavyweight title in Japan for 5 years.
He’s also my friend and a mentor.
Recently I asked my newsletter readers if there was something in particular you wanted to ask Erik. (Hey, if you were signed up for the FREE Grappling Tips newsletter you’d have been able to ask questions too!).
Anyway, within 5 minutes the email floodgates opened and the deluge of questions started. At last count there were more than 500 questions in the queue…
We just finished getting the interview ready for you! Here’s just a bit of what Erik shares:
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There’s at least three ways you can listen to this interview:
1) Hit play on the video below, and/or
2) Right click on this link and select ‘save as’ to download the mp3 file to your computer, and/or
3) Subscribe to the Grapplearts Podcast in iTunes.
Thanks and Merry Christmas!
It doesn’t matter if your goal is casual recreation or if you wanna be the next UFC champ, what I’m going to talk about applies whether you practice BJJ, MMA or submission grappling… Regardless if you’ve got three pairs Chuck Liddell signature series UFC gloves, or you wouldn’t be caught dead in a Tapout beanie…
You’ve GOTTA have a basic idea of how to defend strikes on the ground!!!
(This grappling stuff is a lot of fun, but it is still a martial art. And that means knowing how to apply your techniques in a self defense situation when someone might be trying to rearrange your face with wild haymakers).
Click here to open our comic-format instructional on how to defend strikes on the ground!
This is an important subject presented in a kinda fun way. The direct link to the PDF is
Here’s my official permission to spread this PDF on Strike Defense any way you want.
This includes Facebook / Twitter / Email / Forums / Blog Posts / Website. No charge; it’s free! Now and forever.
I got some good feedback on the last post (Advice for a Frustrated, Clumsy and Uncoordinated Grappler) and want to share a couple of tidbits with you today.
Here’s what one anonymous Australian BJJ student in his thirties had to say:
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Hi Stephan,
Thanks for that cool post on BJJ for non ‘natural athletes.’ I think he’s come to the right place – that post should help him.
I too was a natural ‘unco’ as we say in Australia (i.e. ‘uncoordinated person.’) High school sucked in many ways, but into my 20s and 30s, mindful training helped me overtake some of those former athletes, many of whom – now in their late 30s – are looking like Homer Simpson…
A BIG thing that helped me was ‘functional’ strength training, ie incorporating useable movement patterns and ‘instability training’ that challenges stabilizer muscles. This included:
All this training is designed to correct the movement dysfunction created by a lifetime of chairs and playstation or video games (I was more of a reader).
And as you said, consistently following a program is super-important!
The main thing I want to get across is there’s so much ‘smart’ training information out there that can help people. Scientific flexibility, functional strength, Tabata protocols, viking warrior conditioning, yoga etc… I try to take a ‘Jeet Kune Do’ attitude to digesting it all – absorbing what is useful, discarding what is useless.
Strength and athleticism is TRAINABLE !!
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And here’s what Christopher said about plateau-smashing on the Grapplearts Facebook Page:
“This article really put things in perspective for me. Thanks!
I trained 1-2 times a week for a good while, having tons of excuses etc, for over 2 years back and forth. Stagnated. Also frustrated to see classmates advance and me not because of the lack of commitment. My own doing.
This week I have hit 3 classes and have 1 more to go. I am already feeling myself move better and seeing how things link quicker. I didn’t put in the mat time. I have mastered a craft off the mat and I can attest it took me about 8 years of every day, 10-12 hours a day to get there.”
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You can click here to follow all the discussions on the Grapplearts Facebook page. (And while you’re there, hit ‘Like’ too!)
——————- A Question ——————-
Hi Stephan
I’ve recently started learning BJJ with some friends at their garage. I am by far the slowest student. We’re following a DVD series with very clear & thorough breakdowns of techniques.
I know that in BJJ, you drill, drill and drill some more, but it feels like everyday is my first day in class. We have classes at least twice a week, and each class, a technique I had memorized a few days before I can’t pull off. Or a technique we just watched for that matter.
Have you taught any students like this? Do you have any advice for me? It’s very frustrating. Also worth noting, I’m pretty clumsy and uncoordinated. Thank you for your time.
Sincerely
G.
——————- My Comments ——————-
Hi G.
First of all, congratulations on training at all. I’m a huge supporter of garage training as well as learning from non-traditional sources like DVDs and the internet.
Of course it’s frustrating to compete with natural athletes (damn them all) but I’ve also seen some incredible transformations over the years. People who originally had two left feet can and do break through to the next level, often reaching a very high level of skill.
Someone with a high level of athleticism has a head start on you for sure, but often these people don’t have the discipline to actually continue training for very long. They get bored or distracted by the next shiny object and stop training.
It’s like the fable about the tortoise and the hare – stay the course and often you (the tortoise) will end up overtaking all those pesky natural athletes (the hares).
It’s also possible that the way you’re training and absorbing information might not be optimal for you. Check out this article on learning styles in grappling and see if it gives you any insight into the best way for you to process and absorb information.
Here are two more suggestions…
First: try to train MORE often. Three times a week would definitely be better than two. You’re trying to wire your body and your brain to do a new activity, and the more hours you spend on a mat the better. (Malcom Gladwell – the author of “Outliers” – contends that it takes 10,000 hours of mindful practice to master a new activity. So take heart; this stuff takes a long time but it’ll be worth it in the end.)
The second piece of advice is to slowly add conditioning to your weekly training regime. If you’re clumsy and uncoordinated then I’m guessing that you also avoid activities like weightlifting, running, soccer, XC skiing, etc.
Here’s a few insights on conditioning to get you started…
Getting more physical will have several benefits. Your endurance will improve and that will allow you to better retain your mental game while sparring. It will also improve your general athleticism which will help you close the gap with those pesky natural athletes!
Good luck with your training!
Headlocks are often overlooked in BJJ – they’re not considered to be a very technical pinning position.
But not training your headlock escapes is a HUGE mistake!
First of all, when an untrained person ends up on the ground, then nine out of ten times he’ll wrap his arm around your head and hold on for dear life.
And because this is that untrained fighter’s ONLY strategy he’ll be ferociously single-minded about hanging onto the headlock. This determination in itself can make escaping the headlock quite difficult.
Just like everything else in BJJ, in order to get good at something you need to do it ‘for real’ in sparring.
Since you hardly ever encounter headlocks in BJJ class dealing with them can be awkward. You might not know what to do and won’t be used to dealing with that particular energy.
Also there are other grappling arts (like Judo, Sambo and wrestling) which DO have pinning positions that look a LOT like headlocks. These positions may have fancy names like ‘kesa-gatame’ or ‘head and arm pin,’ but they’re basically just headlock variations.
(What’s even worse is that there are lots of ways to choke, armlock and leglock somebody from kesa-gatame. In fact, if you know what to do from there and your opponent doesn’t then it’s like taking candy from a baby…)
You ABSOLUTELY NEED NEED TO HAVE some good headlock escapes you can rely on!!!
Here’s my very favorite headlock escape. It also works against kesa-gatame and most headlock variations. If you know all the details and do it correctly you can send a larger, heavier opponent flying!
Make sure to practice the technique in this video below!!
P.S. Check out my Unorthodox Positions and Attacks DVD to find out what your OFFENSIVE options are from the headlock and kesa gatame postions!
P.P.S. If you own an iPhone, iPad or iPpod Touch and haven’t downloaded the three Grapplearts apps yet then what are you waiting for??? Each app has a ton of top-notch video instruction, and at only $3.99 each they’re an incredible value!!!
Knowing the little details behind escaping the side mount is critical if you want to be able to deal with Side Mount, arguably the most common pinning position in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, submission grappling and MMA.
A while ago I shared something about the two fundamental techniques and the three most important movements for escaping side mount (click here for the original blog post).
Both of those fundamental techniques referred to in the post above are among the escape techniques broken down for you in my third iPhone app: Grapplearts Pin Escapes. (This video-based app made it to the number one spot in the sports apps category almost immediately upon release.)
Thanks to the miracle of YouTube and streaming online video, here’s Jennifer Weintz and myself demonstrating the first of those super-important side mount escapes.
Here’s a breakdown one of my favorite techniques: the sitout from turtle position.
It’s a very versatile move: you can use it to finish a pin escape, or recover after a failed takedown attempt, or to get the upper hand during a scramble. It gets you out of trouble and into a dominant position.
But – like most techniques – there are some very important details. And if you ignore these details then the technique will completely fail. So watch right to the end of the video, because that’s where I show you the critical details that make the difference between success and failure.
P.S. This is an excerpt from our number-one selling sports app, Grapplearts Pin Escapes. If you have an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch you really should download this app – for the amount of information that’s in it I think it’s a fantastic value!
