Q: “Hi Stephan. Will you analyze Palhares’ sick heelhooks and combinations or is it more thanks to his bull strength that he’s so successful. Or maybe do already you teach that in your leglocks DVD. Thanks for all your stuff and for responding my previous mail! Jonathan”

A: Thanks for an interesting question Jonathan!

UFC fans might be familiar with Rousimar Palhares because he recently showcased his skills in UFC 142, tapping out Mike Massenzio with a slick heelhook in round 1.

This is a relatively common occurrence in Palhares’s fights.  In fact, he has 14 MMA victories, 7 of which are by leglock.  And he’s not limiting his exploits just to MMA either: in 2011 at the most prestigious submission grappling competition in the world – the Abu Dhabi Combat Championships – Palhares finished 3 matches in a row with heel hooks!

So his leglocking credentials are impeccable.

As you point out he is an absolute bull.  In fact, his nickname in Brazil is Toquinho, which is Portuguese for “little tree stump.” He’s covered in slabs of muscle, and could probably compete successfully in bodybuilding if he wasn’t ripping people’s legs apart in MMA.

Both Palhares’s physique and his single-minded pursuit of the submission are evident in the highlight video below:

The idea of someone as powerful as Palhares using all his strength to twist your leg, shredding the tiny ligaments that hold your knee and ankle together, should send shivers down your spine.

We’re talking serious, permanent, damage here folks…

(At this point I have to belabor the obvious and point out that heelhooks really are dangerous.  But if you want a relatively safe way to get better at heelhooks, first work on the basic ankle lock!  Doing this will build your heelhooking foundation, because it teaches you how to control your opponent’s foot and leg in a relatively safe position.  Once you’ve mastered the ankle lock, upgrading your attacks to the heel hook will require only relatively small modifications.)

OK, so now we’ve talked a little bit about Palhares.  But there are actually TWO currently-active MMA fighters changing the game with leglocks…

In fact, you can’t discuss leglocking in modern MMA without also talking about another leg locking master: Masakazu Imanari.

Fighting mostly in Japan, Imanari has 24 wins in MMA, 9 of which come from a dizzying variety of leg locks attacks.

He has an insane ability to jump onto someone’s legs and then relentlessly pursue the leglock finish. No wonder that his nickname is “Ashikan Judan” which, in English, means “10th Dan of Leglocks”

For a quick taste of Imanari’s fighting style (and some fantastic leg locking combinations) check out the highly entertaining video below

So there we have the two undisputed best leglockers active in MMA today: Palhares and Imanari…

Isn’t it interesting that these two fighters have such different body types?

Palhares, as I’ve said, is an absolute powerhouse who could probably do well in bodybuilding contests.  Imanari, although obviously fit, is much slimmer and lankier.

Two entirely different body types.  One identical, relentless strategy.

The fact is that heel hooks work for all kinds of bodytypes, physiques and strength levels.  Palhares’s athleticism and ability to benchpress 400 lbs certainly doesn’t hurt his ability to finish the heelhook, but it’s NOT the major thing he’s got going for him…

It’s technique!

Some people write off leg locks as not being lowbrow techniques and not very technical…

But clearly, both Imanari and Palhares are ultra-technical.  They both use basic leg lock entries as the foundation of their game, and then build on that to apply some truly spectacular spinning, jumping, upside-down leg lock attacks from unexpected angles and positions.

If you’re a grappler you’ve GOT to be familiar with the most common lower body attacks (ankle locks, toe holds, heel hooks and kneebars).  You don’t necessarily need to be an expert leglocker, but you’ve got to have played with them a bit, understand the mechanics, know how to counter them, etc.

First of all, if someone attacks you with a leglock you don’t recognize it, and don’t know how to counter it (or even realize that you should be tapping out) you could be in a world of hurt…

And also consider this: heel hooks are the great equalizer.

Strength and power are nice to have of course, but you DON’T need much strength to finish larger, stronger opponents with a heel hook.

In fact, if I was facing someone 100 lbs heavier than me I’d be thinking about two main submissions: the rear naked choke, and the heel hook!

Before I wrap up I have to throw in an important caveat!

The sad fact is that when it comes to submitting much larger opponents, not all leglocks are created equal.

I love the kneebar.  But if your opponent is a LOT bigger and stronger than you, then kneebars might not be the best submissions to use.

With the heel hook you’re mainly attacking the small and vulnerable cruciate ligaments of the knee.  Even someone as large as Brock Lesnar is still going to have relatively small cruciate ligaments, making the heel hook a perfect tool with which to bring down a Goliath.

But to apply a kneebar you have to overpower a relatively larger muscle in your opponent’s leg: the hamstring.

Most of the time this isn’t a problem, because if you do the kneebar correctly you end up using the power of BOTH your legs AND your body against your opponent’s one hamstring. These are pretty good odds, and that’s good enough to finish the kneebar on 90% of the opponents you’ll encounter.

But if someone is much stronger than you then you’re going to run into the upper limit of kneebars…

Consider one of the most exciting fights in MMA history, Antonio Nogueira’s epic battle against the Bob Sapp in Pride.  Nogueira was outweighed by at least 100 pounds, and at one point he spun under Sapp, getting into the kneebar position.   Mainly because there was such a big strength and weight difference, Bob Sapp basically ignored the kneebar and then punished Nogueira with a huge drop knee to the face.

You can see that kneebar attempt and Sapp’s Neanderthal counter just after the 11 minute mark of  this video here:

Nogueira’s inhuman toughness and tenacity not only allowed him to survive this fight, but eventually earned him one of the most tenacious victories of all time (watch part two of the fight here).

To wrap up, looking at both Imanari and Palhares competing in MMA leads you to a few different take-home messages…

The first take-home message is that leg locks are just as technical as any other aspect of the sport.  It’s NOT just about grabbing someone’s leg and twisting!  There are specific techniques, drills, principles, counters and combinations that you need to know if you want to get good at leglocks, just like any other submission.

Secondly, there are a lot of leglocks – heel hooks in particular – that can be a devastating part of your arsenal, regardless of your body type.  Short or tall, muscular or lanky, strong or weak: the heelhook can finish just about any opponent.  This makes it a must-have technique, an ace in a hole that can instantly finish just about anybody in a submission grappling match, an MMA fight or a street self defense situation!

I’m a big fan of your website – I’ve been following it since 2009.  I compete in BJJ and No-Gi submission wrestling.

I’ve also been training MMA with hopes of having my first amateur fight within the year.  I’ve been very successful working my guard when I compete, and I’ve been able to often score submissions from there when I spar MMA.

With some MMA fighters pulling guard I was wondering if there’s a particular guard pull that works well in MMA (I’m not as comfortable in the half guard yet).

Thanks
Jerry

A: Hi there Jerry,

Thanks for your kind words about my website.  I never thought it would grow as big as it has become when I started it way back in 2002!

Now, with regards to pulling guard in Mixed Martial Arts competition…

The simplest thing to say is: don’t do it!!!!!!!

With one exception, I’m completely against pulling guard in MMA!

If you manage to successfully pull guard (and successfully pulling guard in MMA is definitely not a given) then the simple fact is that you’re on the bottom and your opponent is on top.

This gives him at least three advantages…

First of all, he can rest his weight on you.  All things being equal, that means that you’ll get tired faster than him.

And getting tired in MMA is a very bad thing.

As I said in my very first Grapplearts blog post ever, if you’re tired then you’re not fast, you’re not strong, you’re not explosive and you’re not even smart!

Secondly, he’ll have gravity on his side and that means he’ll be able to hit you much harder than you can hit him.

It’s true that sometimes your opponent trying to take your head off with his fists and elbows does opens up submission and sweeping opportunities.  But against a knowledgeable opponent in the slippery and sweaty world of MMA that can be a long shot.

(It’s also possible that your previous successes with submissions from the bottom during MMA sparring came, in part, from your training partners not punching you full force. Don’t underestimate how much getting punched in the face really hard will mess up your submission game!)

I don’t know what the exact statistics are, but I’m guessing that for every successful submission from the guard in MMA there have been three times as many KO’s and TKO’s resulting from the guy on the bottom getting pounded by the fighter on top.

Not great odds…

Finally, should your fight go the distance, most judges in MMA will give the fight to the guy on top because he’s supposedly being the aggressor.  Decisions don’t tend to favor the person on the bottom.

Now, there’s one important exception to all of this…

Let’s say that you’re totally outclassed in the striking or takedown department.  The fight isn’t going well and you’re gonna get knocked out on the feet, or end up completely exhausted by your opponent stuffing your takedown attempts.

If you know that you’re a better grappler, then your only option might be to get the fight to the ground quick. And the only way to do this might involve pulling guard.

So let’s talk about the right way and the wrong way to pull guard, regardless of whether you’re competing in BJJ or MMA…

Many people pull guard by falling backwards to the ground in a lazy kind of way.

This is dangerous because it gives your opponent the option of standing back and disengaging, in which case the referee will probably force you to get back to your feet again.  Or, even worse, he’ll take advantage of your lazy butt-flop and pass your guard, which could be disastrous in a real fight!

So you want to be sure that your guard pull works!

One option is to tie up (clinch) with your opponent and shoot your hips forward ultra-dynamically in an attempt to to get the closed guard.

Think of hitting him so hard that you knock him over backwards.  In all likelihood you won’t knock him over, but you probably will get to the closed guard.

It would also help if you had a solid half guard game.  Many times when you don’t get the full guard you end up in half guard.  And the half guard CAN work in MMA: watch the sweep that Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira (Big Nog) did on Tim Sylvia in UFC 81.

One final option I’m going to talk about today is something that I’ve seen work in both MMA and submission grappling.  Namely jumping to a leglock attack and/or to the single-leg X guard from a standing position!

This is a very surprising attack, with strong followup potential…

The goal is to submit your opponent with the leglock.  But even if that part doesn’t go according to plan, you still get to the ground, often ending up on top as your opponent tries to escape the submission attack.

Here’s a clip from my Leglock DVD taking you through that specific jumping leglock entry:

Before we get carried away talking about the specific techniques to pull guard, let’s make one thing really clear.  Regardless of the technique you’re using, if you’re even thinking about doing this in MMA then you’d better practice it first in sparring!

Here’s a drill that might help you (I previously taught this in “Lesson 4 – Escaping in Transition” of the Grappling Concepts Course).

This game is good for both partners.  It develops: A) effective guard pulling, and B) effective guard passing during the transition.

You and your training partner start on your feet.

Each person only has ONE way of scoring points in this game.

The first person’s goal is to pull guard.  If he can secure a guard position (any guard position, open or closed) for 3 seconds, he gets one point.

The other person’s DOESN’T want get caught in the guard.

His goal is to avoid getting entangled in the guard or half guard, and pass to a dominant position (side mount, kneemount, full mount, etc) as the other person transitions from standing to the the ground. If he passes the guard and maintains a dominant position for 3 seconds then he gets one point.

This is sparring with very limited parameters.

All one person is trying to do is get to the ground and maintain guard (or sweep him) for 3 seconds. All the other person is trying to do is not get caught in the guard and try to pass it even before it gets established.

After a pre-determined length of time you switch roles.

If you want pulling the guard in a match to be a last-ditch emergency option then this drill might be a good starting point for you.

But if your emphasis is MMA then you might want to mix it with some light boxing and/or clinchfighting with takedowns.

Also, you might want to award  the non-guard-pulling person ONE point if he breaks free of your guard and gets back to his feet, and TWO points if he passes your guard (this would reflect the severity of ending up in a bad position in MMA).

One last thing…

We’ve talked about pulling guard as an ace up your sleeve when nothing else is working.

Alright, we’re in agreement that it’s good to have a backup plan…

But if you want to fight MMA these days you need to have a striking game, a takedown game and a ground game!

Of course you’ll always be stronger in some areas than others – that’s completely normal, and is true even for the very best UFC fighters.

But if you only feel comfortable in one range then your opponents will eventually figure this out and clobber you.

Just remember, concussions are bad for you, and dental work is very, very expensive!  Train so that you got some options in all three areas of the game!

Take care, and good luck with your training!

Stephan Kesting

www.grapplearts.com

There were lots of exciting matchups, but THE fight of the night was the much-anticipated rematch between heavyweights Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira and Frank Mir.

This fight displayed the highest level grappling ever seen in the heavyweight division of the UFC!  As soon as the match ended I looked at my good friend and training partner Ritchie Yip and said ‘we’ve GOT to make a video breaking down this match for people.’

And that’s exactly what we did early Sunday morning.  Check out the video below for a blow-by-blow, and submission-by-submission analysis of Mir vs Nogueira at UFC 140, including the SHOCKING end of the fight.

Here’s something different: in November of 2011 I answered questions from my newsletter readers (sign up for free here) on the first ever Grapplearts Q & A Podcast.

Find out how how to taper for competition, what to do when you’re getting crushed all the time, what to do when your wrestling coach wants you to stop doing BJJ, and how to remember all these bloody techniques…

You can listen to, or download the audio by doing one of the following:

1. Hit play in the middle of the black bar (the audio player link) at the bottom of this list, 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 (and also listen to previous audio interviews).

Wait for it, wait for it… A black bar with a play button should appear right below this text in just a second or two…

Hi Stephan,

Thank you for the newsletters!  I started training BJJ and MMA about 5 months ago – it’s been life changing for me.  Do you have any tips for keeping someone in your guard and not letting them pass?

Sincerely,
R.W.

======== My Answer ========

Hi R,

First of all, congratulations for jumping into such a challenging and hugely rewarding sport.  Most of the people around the office water cooler only talk about the MMA, but you’re actually doing it!

With regards to stopping your opponent from passing your guard: there are at least two answers to your question….

First, there are specific TECHNIQUES that you need to know.

This means having specific technical answers to the specific technical problems that you encounter most frequently when you’re using a specific form of guard…

For example, let’s say that you’re using the closed guard and your opponent stands up.  You keep your legs locked and your entire body gets hoisted off of the ground

It would look kind of like the picture immediately to the left…

So in this case your specific technical problem is that he’s standing up, your guard is closed, and you’re hanging off of him.

If you stay there for long enough (especially if he gives you some added physical ‘encouragement’) then your legs will eventually open, you’ll flop to the ground and he’ll be in a standing position ready to rocket past your guard.

Now there are MANY different technical answers to this problem.

There are techniques to break his posture, to submit him, and/or to sweep him and get yourself to the top.

(Click here to get a specific example of a really simple and very technique solution that worked on me in this situation.)

So there’s no getting around it: getting good at BJJ and submission grappling does involve learning lots of techniques…

And to “keep someone in your guard and not let them pass” you’ll need to add specific techniques for specific situations in specific guard positions to your arsenal…

But there’s something EVEN MORE POWERFUL than knowing a bunch of techniques…

Which brings us to a second solution to keeping someone in your guard…

Techniques are good. But strategies, concepts and principles are better.

If you’re using a concept, or are being guided by a strategy, then the specific details of a technique you’re using (e.g. precisely where to put your hands, exactly how to move your hips, etc.) become less important to memorize, and the original move becomes a lot easier to execute.

So I’m going to share a STRATEGY that you can use anytime you’re in the guard, and with any type of guard.

Ready?  It’s GRIPFIGHTING!

A key part of the battle to keep someone in your guard is constantly fighting the gripfighting battle and never conceding the grips that your opponent is trying to get on you.

Many people only think of gripfighting in the context of standup Judo or pummeling for a good position in wrestling…

But gripfighting is JUST AS IMPORTANT in maintaining the guard and attacking effectively from there.

It’s critically important to constantly fight for the grip, whether you’re doing gi or no gi… With or without striking… For the closed guard, the open guard, the butterfly guard, the inverted guard, spider guard, and every other guard position out there!

Grips are everything.

If your opponent has good grips then you can’t attack, and he can make posture and start the guard pass.

If you have good grips then you can break his posture, attack him with sweeps and submissions and dominate the fight.

Never concede the grip!!!!

Hope this helps!

And she is officially amazing!

I just did an in-depth interview and podcast with Sarah and grilled her pretty hard (I hate interviews where you don’t actually learn anything about the fighter or about the way they train).

But the information she gave out went way, way beyond what I was expecting.

You can listen to the audio, download the mp3 or read the transcript by clicking right here.
If you check out this most recent of Grapplearts interviews you’ll find out:

•    how a top level fighter manages to fit boxing, jiujitsu, kickboxing, wrestling, conditioning and recovery into a training week,

•    how she deals with sore muscles and joints created by her insane training volume,

•    specific drills to train the transitions between ranges,

•    how fight camp is different than regular training

•    the truth behind cutting weight, and how much a weight a fighter gets back between the weigh-in and the fight,

•    a super-cool post-fight ritual that led to an amusing encounter in a hotel hallway,

•    and the one specific thing that separates a champion from an chump.

It’s a great interview, and I’m sure you’re going to enjoy it.  Go here now to download the audio and/or read the transcript:

www.grapplearts.com/Sarah-Kaufman-on-Female-MMA.php

Are MMA fighters doomed to decline after 9 years in the sport (regardless of what age they started at, or how many times a year they fought)?  What are the implications of this career lifespan for up-and-coming fighters?  And is Georges St Pierre really on his last legs?

Check out David William’s article on this topic at The 9-Year Rule: A look at career lengths in Mixed Martial Arts
]]> http://www.grapplearts.com/Blog/2011/06/is-gsp-on-his-last-legs/feed/ 0 http://www.grapplearts.com/Blog/2010/12/770/ http://www.grapplearts.com/Blog/2010/12/770/#comments Wed, 29 Dec 2010 05:41:40 +0000 admin http://www.grapplearts.com/Blog/?p=770 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.

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!

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

http://tinyurl.com/2b72w2f

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.