This makes him very unstable – think of the difference between
1.    standing on the floor beside one of those stability balls, and
2.    trying to stand on top of that same stability ball.

Obviously option 2 is a lot less stable.  And that’s exactly how your opponent feels when you invade the space underneath his hips. (Somehow that just sounds wrong, doesn’t it?)

So here are two great drills taught by Emily Kwok that teach you how to get underneath your opponent

Drill 1 teaches you how to use your hooks to control the distance between you and your partner (and is a KILLER core workout at the same time).  Here’s the direct link to it on Youtube or you can watch it below:

Drill 2 teaches you how to get underneath your opponent and explosively lift him off the ground.  This is another move that Marcelo Garcia uses to launch people, all the time.  Watch this drill on Youtube or on the video below:

Try both these drills and leave a comment below how they worked for you!

These drills (plus many more drills, techniques, strategies, and tips) are from the How to Defeat the Bigger, Stronger Opponent 5 DVD set that I made with 3 x World Champ Emily Kwok. Check ‘em out!  I’m clearly biased but I think they’re really good!  Plus you get a 365 day unconditional moneyback guarantee, so you really don’t have much to lose…

So I’d say he’s got some pretty solid credentials…

On a recent trip to the Big Apple I crawled out of bed at 5:00 am.  This was pretty brutal, especially because I was still partially on West Coast time, which meant that biologically I was getting up at 2 am.

Why was I getting up this early?

You see, before heading to the airport I wanted to take Shaolin’s 7:30 am BJJ class.  So after showering, eating and packing I dragged my butt to class.  But despite the early hour it was totally worth it!

First of all it was a great class.  We worked some cool guard passes and guard pass counters, and the sparring was fun too.

And then after training Shaolin talked about what kind of guard a BJJ newbie should work on first.  He also shared some very interesting drills, concepts and details that are important for ALL skill levels, from brand-new beginner to seasoned black belt.

This was super-cool stuff, and I thought it would be great material for you!  I grabbed my video camera and started filming.

Here’s a unique 10:36 video in which this World Champion shares his approach to teaching the guard to beginners:

And while we’re on this topic, here’s a different article I published in Grappling Magazine a few years ago.  It breaks down four killer drills Shaolin uses to get ready for competition

]]> http://www.grapplearts.com/Blog/2011/04/best-type-of-bjj-guard-for-beginners/feed/ 0 http://www.grapplearts.com/Blog/2011/02/a-drill-you-can-use-for-any-guard-sweep-technique/ http://www.grapplearts.com/Blog/2011/02/a-drill-you-can-use-for-any-guard-sweep-technique/#comments Fri, 18 Feb 2011 06:57:24 +0000 admin http://www.grapplearts.com/Blog/?p=822 Today I’m not going to talk about a technique per se.  Instead I’m going to share a cool training method with you. (Training methods are the ways in which you practice, hone and internalize the techniques you’re learning.  They are as important, if not more important, than the techniques themselves!)

OK, so I’m sure you’ve heard it a million times: repetition is a critical part of getting better at BJJ…

But the problem is that repetition can be boring, and requires a certain type of stick-to-it-ness from your training partners.  People like this can be tough to find – apparently there are a lot of bright, shiny, and distracting objects in most BJJ classes…

So anything that makes repetition easier and faster is a good thing, right?

Well I just shot a short, guerilla-style video on a training method you can use to rep the crux move of any guard sweep you like.  I use this exact same drill all the time when I’m trying to get learn a new sweep, or blow the dust off of an old favorite.

Give this drill a try the next time you’re on the mat!

P.S. Are you at a loss about what guard sweeps you should be working on?  Well I’ve produced an entire guard-game-in-a-box you should check out.  I get feedback on these DVDs all the time, and I know for a fact that they’ve helped a LOT of grapplers!

Here’s the link for more info:  www.grapplearts.com/Guard-Sweep-DVDs.php

It applies for both the closed guard AND the open guard, both with the gi AND without the gi. Plus I show a cool little drill I haven’t seen anywhere else.  So check it out:

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:

• What training with the Gracies in their ‘garage days’ was like
• How wrestling can improve your BJJ, and visa versa
• The theory of the jiu-jitsu wheel
• The strategic and tactical differences between catchwrestling and BJJ
• The key to rapid-fire submission attacks
• Erik’s philosophy on training with and without the gi
• What’s the best time to attack with leglocks
• Leglock safety tips
• How to develop a fighter’s gameplan
• Tips for defeating larger, stronger opponents
• What training with Brock Lesnar is like
• The best conditioning exercises for fighting and grappling
• A glaring weakness (and fantastic opportunity) in today’s MMA game

-

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!

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:

• Kettlebells: for me the hype’s been 90% true. (backed up with solid programming, of course)
• Yoga – mainly Iyengar and Ashtanga Yoga
• Scientific stretching: PNF work, Pavel Tsat’s techniques: great for plateu busting
• Sandbags
• Gym rings- basic
• Basic gymnastics, handstands, rolls, judo rolls, tumbling
• Floor-to-ceiling bag
• Rope-climbs – especially for grip work.

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!)

Case in point: a friend recently called me up, wanting to do some sparring.

He’d just been training with Marcelo Garcia in NYC, and had a whole bunch of new techniques and strategies in his arsenal.  He wanted to see how this brand-new technology worked on a new victim.  I volunteered, and a few hours later we were on the mats sparring.

Well things didn’t go exactly according to plan, and  I ended up absolutely crushing him that day.  None of his new material could touch me at all

So what’ s the deal.  Does Marcelo Garcia’s material suck?  Is he a terrible teacher?  Am I invulnerable on the mats?

No, No and No!!!

It’s all just part of the normal learning progression.  When you learn something new it just takes a while to integrate it into your game.  The new techniques won’t come out as smoothly or as instinctively as your ‘normal’ game.  If you’re really giving the new material a chance then your performance will usually suffer, and you’ll get schooled by people you can normally hang with.

After our sparring session I told him: ” I can totally feel that you’re trying to incorporate new material.  You’re hesitating and moving a bit awkwardly.  I’m sure this will change – let’s see how you feel in a week.”

When we sparred the next time I had a much tougher time with him.  He had been drilling those techniques (including lots of targeted sparring).  Lo and behold, all of a sudden those new moves he’d learned became genuine threats on the mat.

So when you see a technique that you really like, don’t just try it once and then throw it out if ‘it doesn’t work.’  Accept that you might get worse before you get better.  Be patient, stick to your guns, keep on drilling the technique and your game will thank you for it!

In this guest post, strength and conditioning coach Brendan Chaplin talks about some specific drills to train your skills under pressure.

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Training MMA Skills Under Pressure, by Brendan Chaplin

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One of the main areas in rugby league strength and conditioning training I utilize is the concept of ‘skills under fatigue’. This is very simple: the athlete performs the key game related skills and tactics under fatigue.

How do we train for this?

Well one of the ways is the integration of skill training with conditioning. When I am training my fighters I always try to utilise this concept within my sessions. So for example I will have fighters do circuits with general movements included within them such as powerbag throws, tackle bag drives, sled pulling, high pulls etc and also key movement skills such as jab and shoot, floor based movement with the bungee cord, clinching and pummeling and other key areas.

I also think there is a clear progression to this conditioning work. That is the clear integration of the technical and conditioning coaches work. So within a technical session you may be isolating some technical striking work. After 8 minutes you might move to a med ball circuit emphasising power development for 5 minutes duration. You would then switch straight back to more integrated work perhaps some jab sparring, before again switching back to conditioning work using ladders and hurdles to emphasise footwork.

I think this is the future for high level strength and conditioning for fight sports. Quick and smooth transitions between the sessions to allow the athletes to develop skills whilst under fatigue. I do believe this type of training is more appropriate for advanced athletes as clearly the beginners need to develop the physical literacy and the skill sets separately, build their work capacity over time, before being put into this type of training session.

I think the positives of this work are huge!

Lower volume of separate conditioning sessions required therefore more recovery time, greater specificity of training and also opponent specific training. You will also get greater athlete buy-in as well in most cases.

The cons?? This type of conditioning requires a greater understanding of the sport by the conditioning professional, so look for someone with a good MMA background as well as sound strength and conditioning background!

Being able to feel your opponent’s intent and react to it even before he moves (like when he’s trying to bridge his way out of your mount) requires sensitivity.  In fact, sensitivity is one of the most important physical attributes in grappling.

So let’s talk about some ways to develop this mysterious attribute called “sensitivity.”

The tried and true method to amp up your sensitivity is simply to spend more time on the mat.  If you’re working with real-live opponents and dealing with real-live pressure and resistance on a regular basis then you will eventually develop sensitivity.

But if you want to specifically work on your sensitivity you can try sparring with your eyes closed.  By relying on feel, rather than vision, your sensitivity and spacial awareness will develop much faster than if you were always using your eyes.  (I often use this to handicap myself when I’m sparring with someone who has much less experience than me).

Another great method is to do drills with your eyes closed.

For example, check out these four relatively simple technique repetition drills that can all be done with your eyes closed (just be sure not to impale your partner with your knee during the guard passing drill!).

Maybe the most effective application of this idea is to do reaction-based drills with your eyes closed.

For example, let’s say that you’re trying to train your defense to a specific attack.  The specific type of attack almost doesn’t matter – it could be an armdrag from butterfly guard, an armbar from mount, or a standing guard pass.  The important thing is that your partner can apply it to you on both the right and the left side.

Start with your eyes closed – your training partner will start his attack, but you won’t know whether he’s going to your left or right.  You have a single, specific counter in mind, and as soon as you feel  the attack you respond with the counter on the appropriate side.

The idea of this drill is to bypass the normal circuit of first seeing the attack, then thinking about your counter, and then deciding to initiate your defense.

With severely limited options (i.e. right or left) and your eyes closed you feel the attack and then go directly to your counter.  I was using this training myself the other day with my good friend Ritchie Yip and it really helped solidify the arm drag counter we were working on.

If you’re looking for ideas on how to train this way, then take a look at my classic Grappling Drills DVD – almost all the exercises on this DVD can be ramped up a notch by doing them with your eyes closed!!

The rules of flow sparring are very simple: you have to keep moving and you can’t use strength.  You can’t hold a position for more than a couple of seconds and you have to move, even if it means you’re going to lose a good position.  And you don’t finalize submissions; you can go for leglocks, chokes and armlocks, but you put them on loosely so that it’s relatively easy for your sparring partner to escape.

The whole goal of this kind of sparring is to create movement, lots of it!  And by continually experiencing movement for the entire sparring session you’re improving your ability to scramble.

Scrambling is really important in grappling.  It’s the transitional twilight zone between established positions, and if you become comfortable in these transitions then you’ll start to see more and more opportunities to apply flash submissions, or find unexpected ways to lock yourself into rock-solid pinning positions.

(In his excellent book ‘A Fighter’s Mind’ Sam Sheridan describes Marcelo Garcia – the best pound for pound grappler active today – as “the king of scrambles.”  Watch some of Marcelo’s matches on Youtube and tell me if this isn’t true!)

Now I’ve actually heard some people say that flow sparring develops bad habits, and that one should concentrate instead on holding positions.

Of course the ability to hold good position is important, but fast-paced, seemingly chaotic transitions are always going to be part of the game. If you can maintain total positional control over your sparring partners at all times then your sparring partners simply aren’t good enough to challenge you.  If skill levels are closer then there will be moments when there is no position and everything is just a giant scramble.

Flow sparring is just a training method.  In an important match you wouldn’t fight this way: you might scramble, scramble, scramble, get a good position and then crush your opponent while incrementally ratcheting your submission tighter and tighter.  That approach combines the very best aspects of a mobility-based game with a positional game (this topic is further broken down in my mobility vs position blog post here).

A lot of people don’t understand the concept of training methods. Think of it this way: almost every martial arts instructor in the world has his or her students do pushups.  Does that mean that they advocate standing square to an opponent and repeatedly pushing them with both arms at the same time?  Of course not!

Pushups are a training method to develop strength and endurance in the arms and chest.

And flow sparring is a training method to become comfortable with transitions, to recognize opportunities in the midst of movement, and to develop that elusive ability to scramble effectively.