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Archive for the ‘submission grappling’ Category

Trapped Flat in Half Guard? Do This!

Wednesday, January 25th, 2012

The half guard can be a powerful attacking position so long as you stay on your side and maintain your mobility.

However if your opponent gets his grips, flattens you out and drives all his weight onto you it really sucks. And then it’s only a matter of time till he passes your guard…

But even if you get flattened out, don’t give up hope. There is something that you can do that not only gets you out of trouble, but often puts you on top as well.

Here’s a video clip in which I teach the ‘Kamikaze’ half guard sweep for that exact situation. Plus I also show you a hidden detail that is often overlooked. And finally I introduce you to a related, very powerful sweep I learned from a top BJJ competitor.

Posted in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, half guard, submission grappling, sweeps, techniques | No Comments »

Ahem I actually have three apps right now…

Tuesday, May 17th, 2011

A funny thing happened to me at training today…

I was finishing up drilling some new guard passes when someone came up to me and said “I’m a big fan, I read your newsletters and I have both your apps…”

First of all, I want to tell you that it’s always nice when readers come up and introduce themselves. So please come over and say ‘hi’ if we’re ever walking down the same street together.

But it was also a wake-up call for me that I haven’t been doing my marketing well…

You see, this was the third time in two days that someone has come up to me and told me that they love both my apps.

There’s only one small problem…

I don’t have two apps: there are actually THREE Grapplearts apps not two!!!

Here’s what I’ve got for your iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch:

1) Grapplearts Submissions.Learn how to do the most powerful submissions in grappling, including the key details that allow you to tap out bigger, stronger opponents.

2) Grapplearts Sweeps. Covers 29 powerful sweeps from closed guard, open guard, half guard, spider guard, butterfly guard and X guard to get you from the bottom to the top in any grappling match.

3) Grapplearts Pin Escapes. Easily escape bad positions and get back in control of a match…

If you have an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch, you should totally pick up these three apps. There’s an entire DVD’s worth of information on each app and using the indexing system you can get access to the exact technique you need anytime.

(Well, maybe looking techniques up while sparring would be a little awkward, but you can still can look up what you should have done in the locker room afterwards…)

Seriously, at $3.99 each these apps are a great value. Get one, get ‘em all!

Posted in armlocks, guillotine, half guard, iphone, leglocks, no gi, omo plata, positions, submission grappling, sweeps, techniques, the guard, triangle choke | No Comments »

Erik Paulson; an MMA Master Coach Shares His Secrets

Wednesday, December 22nd, 2010

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:

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!

Posted in Brock Lesnar, classes, competition, concepts, conditioning, contest, D'arce choke, Denis Kang, drills, Erik Paulson, Fedor, gi, gracie, grappling history, ground and pound, half guard, Injuries, inspiration, interviews, kesa gatame, leglocks, martial arts, MMA, no gi, older grapplers, physical attributes, podcasts, seminars, sparring, striking, submission grappling, teachers, training, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Grappling Concepts Course Re-Released!

Wednesday, November 17th, 2010

I’ve just reopened registration to the Grappling Concepts Course!!

In the past I’ve been worried about about running out of time to properly deliver this course – it is my flagship instructional product after all – which is why I’ve only opened it up for short periods of time (despite getting rave reviews from participants).

But I’m going to try making it available again, along with the five bonus DVDs you can’t get anywhere else.

If you’re thinking about signing up do it soon, because I really have no idea how long I’ll leave registration open.

Click here for more info about my most powerful grappling instructional product: www.grapplearts.tv. This material took almost 30 years of research and a solid year of product development to get ready to share – and I’m very proud of it! It really is my flagship instructional product.

Posted in bjj, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, concepts, grapplearts, Grapplearts DVDs, MMA, no gi, submission grappling, teaching, training | No Comments »

Tips for Female Grapplers

Tuesday, April 13th, 2010

Recently I’ve received a flood of emails from women and smaller men, wanting to know how to deal with larger, stronger opponents.

The thing is that – at 200+ lbs myself – I’m NOT the best person to address these questions. Of course I’ve had to deal with a few huge steroid monsters who outweighed me by 100+ lbs, but those were the exception, not the rule.

So my solution was to draft the ever-eloquent grappler Krista Scott-Dixon from Stumptuous.com. Weighing in at a massive 113 lbs Krista deals with larger stronger opponents almost every time she steps onto the mat. And to figure out how to survive and thrive on the mats despite this inequality she’s picked the brains of some of the best smaller grapplers in the business!

Over the last couple of days Krista has put together a really good piece called Tips for Female Grapplers for you. It’s got tips, techniques, principles and lots of practical advice for the smaller grapplers among us. I really enjoyed it, and I’m sure you will too!

Posted in bjj, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, submission grappling, women | 1 Comment »

Successfully Dealing with Claustrophobia in Grappling

Monday, January 11th, 2010

Once upon a time I had an MRI.

For those of you who’ve never had this diagnostic procedure, you start by lying down on a narrow board. Then they slide you into a narrow hole within a gigantic donut-shaped machine. And then you lie there, very still, for a long time while the machine scans your body using a gigantic magnet.

Have you seen the movie Avatar? It’s like the little pod from which the hero pilots his alien. Except the space inside the MRI is even smaller, and nobody has any furry blue tails.

After the procedure I chatted with the MRI technician. One thing she mentioned was that about 3 in 10 people have problems with claustrophobia in this machine, and about 1 in 10 people freak out and are unable to complete the procedure.

So if somewhere between 10% and 30% have problems with an MRI, then how many people have problems with claustrophobia in grappling? I’d guess it’s roughly the same number…

I’m not claustrophobic myself, and so this topic was largely off my radar until I found out that a friend and fellow grappler used to struggle with claustrophobia on the mats. And then a reader contacted me with the the same problem. And then I found out that I had a SECOND training partner who was also claustrophobic.

I did a bit of googling, and found out that there wasn’t too much sport specific advice on the topic. So I asked the Grapplearts readership for tips and advice on dealing with grappling-induced claustrophobia, and was stunned by how many other people face the same challenge (read the whole article on how to deal with claustrophobia in BJJ and grappling here).

But here’s the cool part: BOTH of my claustrophobic training partners have tackled this problem head on. And mostly dealt with it. And both of them have done very well in high level grappling competition. And both of them competed successfully in MMA, each with 10 fights or more!

From all accounts, claustrophobia is a horrible feeling. But I’ve seen first-hand that it CAN be overcome.

Not everyone is claustrophobic, but it’s fair to say that we ALL have our fears, challenges and perceived limitations. I’m proud to know these grapplers. They’re an inspiration to me.

Posted in bjj, claustrophobia, submission grappling | No Comments »

The Most Important Thing For Improving Your Grappling

Tuesday, September 29th, 2009

You know, I used to think that if I just learned enough ways to pass the guard, mastered enough submissions, memorized enough pin escapes, pick up enough guard sweeps, received enough tactics and just had enough techniques at my fingertips, then… someday… I would master the art of grappling.

Techniques, techniques, techniques! I was pretty sure that these were the critical things to learn. Well, guess what? When I look back on my grappling journey it’s obvious that my greatest successes and most exciting breakthroughs all had one thing in common.

And it was never about learning a new technique.

Instead the biggest leaps forward were those suddent insights when, all of a sudden, you see that a whole bunch of different and seemingly unconnected techniques are just different expressions of the same underlying principle.

Some people call these ‘ah ha’ moments. The light goes on, something falls into place, and you can never look at something in quite the same way ever again.

Breakthrough moments like these have been on my mind a lot recently. (In fact this is the main reason I put together my online Grappling Concepts course. What I’m doing in that course is distilling my most important ‘ah ha’ moments in grappling, and passing them on to you.)

But regardless of whether you sign up for that course or not, today I want to talk to you about the power of concepts.

By the end of this email I want you to be convinced that concepts and principles are FAR more powerful than individual techniques. And that figuring out these concepts is the single best thing you can do to become a better grappler.

————————————————————–
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then

A concept is worth a thousand techniques.
————————————————————–

Why is concept-based learning so great when it comes to submission grappling and Brazilian jiu-jitsu? Here are five good reasons:

REASON #1: There are LOTS of techniques in grappling. Hundreds and hundreds of techniques.

You’ve got your bread and butter techniques. Then there are the techniques that are you use once in a while. And then there are the techniques that you’ll never use yourself but that your opponents will try to use on you. There’s no getting around it: you’ve GOT to learn a lot of techniques to get good at this grappling stuff. And that can seem overwhelming at times – memorizing all this can be hard work.

But guess what? Those hundreds and hundreds of techniques I was talking about – they’re made up of thousands of little steps that make the difference between success and failure for each technique

But the good news is that there are a lot fewer concepts than techniques in grappling.

And it’s much easier to remember a few core concepts than it is to remember hundreds of techniques with thousands of steps and details. Techniques are just applied concepts. A single concept can be applied to many different techniques, in different situations, and using different parts of your body.

REASON #2: A concept makes you understand WHY you have to do certain things in a specific order for a given technique to work properly. Concepts make sense of a technique, and it’s a million times easier to remember things that makes sense.

A concept also makes the techniques you already know more powerful. Once you understand the underlying principles of the armbar, for example, then you’ll also know how to tweak and adjust that submission for maximum effectiveness.

REASON #3: Another limitation of technique-based learning is that a specific technique applies only to a specific situation. And it’s completely unreasonable to expect to know a different technique to deal with each and every situation you might end up in on the mats.

If you’ve done any sparring at all, then you know that two determined grapplers can end up in some downright weird situations. In these tangled positions each grappler will be wondering what the heck they should do next.

Unfortunately the ‘dial-a-friend’ option ISN’T available when you’re in the middle of a grappling match. But most of the time you can figure out the right thing to do by apply the correct concepts. I know this, because going back to ‘first principles’ has saved my butt many times in sparring.

REASON #4: You can use the same concept in many different grappling arts.

Rules can change from art to art, but the laws of physics, anatomy and psychology stay the same. That means that the concepts you’ll discover when you did a little deeper are much more universal than the techniques of any given art.

The same concept can apply in Brazilian jiu-jitsu AND submission grappling, With the gi AND in no-gi. In mixed martial arts AND in self defense. In Judo AND Sambo AND wrestling

REASON #5: Understanding the concepts of grappling allows you to adapt and even invent techniques on the fly.

Just think about music for a second. Understanding the principles and underlying rules of music allows a musician to improvise and create great sounding music. In exactly the same way, knowing the principles and underlying concepts of grappling allows you to adapt and innovate new techniques as needed, and even ‘on the fly.’

This approach to the martial arts also frees you up to continue learning when your instructor isn’t around. The most important thing my instructors did was TEACH ME HOW TO LEARN!

————————————————————————–
Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a day.
Teach him HOW to fish and you feed him for his whole life.

————————————————————————–

You can probably tell that I really believe the number one thing you can do to improve your overall grappling is develop a ‘conceptual’ game.

So take a look at the vast number of grappling techniques and get serious about finding the universal themes, the underlying principles and the most important concepts that make those techniques ‘tick’.

Eventually I hope you’ll agree that a concept is worth a thousand techniques.

P.S. For a few more days only, a two week free trial of the Grappling Concepts course, plus a free DVD for all signups, is available at

===> http://www.grapplearts.tv

Posted in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, concepts, submission grappling, techniques, the mental aspect, training | No Comments »

The Grappling Concepts Online Course

Saturday, September 19th, 2009

I’ve been hard at work in ‘the lab’ cooking something up something new…

And now it’s finally ready: the online ‘Grappling Concepts’ course.

This is a 26 week web-based course. Every week I’m sending participants a 15 minute to 30 minute video lesson tackling a fundamental grappling concept. The motto of the course is “If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a concept is worth a thousand techniques.” (I toyed with the idea of calling the course ’26,000 Techniques” but then came to my senses…)

The course material is very different from the regular old deluge-of-techniques type of DVD. And I’m also doing the marketing very differently as well.

In this era of over-hyped products I think the next evolution might be seeing exactly what you’re getting, BEFORE you pay for it. I don’t want to ‘trick’ anybody into joining the course – I’d much rather you try it out and see if it’s for you.

If you like the material – great, I’ll be glad to have you onboard! There’s a very cool ‘ethical bribe’ waiting for you at the end of the course.

If you don’t like it then that’s also cool. Just let me know and I’ll cancel your subscription right away. That’s why the course billing doesn’t start for 14 days (i.e. there’s a free trial) and everybody gets a free DVD just for signing up. If you cancel, no problem, you still get to keep the DVD as my gift.

Here’s the initial free DVD:

And here’s the ‘ethical bribe’ you get if you complete the 26 weeks: the “Advanced Techniques and Tactics” 4 DVD Set.

For more information about the free DVD and the 14 day free trial please visit www.grapplearts.tv

Posted in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, concepts, grapplearts, Grapplearts DVDs, submission grappling, the mental aspect | No Comments »

BJJ & Submission Grappling Competition: Everything You Ever Wanted To Know!

Wednesday, August 26th, 2009

“Everything you ever wanted to know about Brazilian Jiu-jitsu competition but were afraid to ask!”

That’s a strong statement, but it’s almost even true. In my latest podcast I talk extensively with David Meyer, author of Training for Competition: Brazilian Jiu-jitsu and Submission Grappling.

We cover a TON of ground in this interview, ranging from why you might want to compete at all, to physical conditioning for competition, to specific strategies you can use against certain types of opponents.

This is one of the best interviews I’ve ever done. There is so much good information here that it’ll be very useful for anyone who trains in BJJ or another grappling art, even if they don’t compete.

And you can listen to the whole interview right here using the player embedded at the bottom of this post.

If you want to download future episodes of my podcasts and interviews automatically then click here to sign up for Grapplearts Radio in iTunes – it’s completely free and totally simple.

Click the player below to listen to the whole 1 hour, 20 minute interview on BJJ and Submission Grappling Competition (or right click this link: http://media.libsyn.com/media/kesting/BJJ_Competition.mp3 and select “Save Link As…” to save the mp3 file to your computer)

Posted in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, competition, podcasts, self defense, submission grappling, the mental aspect, training | No Comments »

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