the guard « Grapplearts Blog

Archive for the ‘the guard’ Category

The Three Most Common Butterfly Guard Mistakes

Monday, February 20th, 2012

When most people start using the Butterfly Guard in BJJ (Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu) and/or submission grappling, they make one or all of these 3 mistakes.

The first mistake in the Butterfly Guard is to lie flat. Although a few very talented people CAN play guard in this way, you are much more mobile and powerful when you’re sitting up, and your guard is also much harder to pass.

The second most common Butterfly Guard mistake is not gripfighting. Anytime you allow your opponent to get a grip on you, you give him an opportunity to control you and pass your guard. So, regardless of whether he’s grabbing your feet, legs, head, wrist or lapel you should gripfight, gripfight, gripfight.

The third most common error is not having a plan for each range of the Butterfly Guard. You need to know how to be offensive (i.e. which primarily means having sweeping options) at long, medium and close range.

Once you fix the three mistakes in this video your guard game will improve by leaps and bounds, and you’ll be sweeping opponents all over the place.

Posted in butterfly guard, sweeps, techniques, the guard | No Comments »

Pulling Guard in MMA

Saturday, December 31st, 2011

Q: Hello Stephan,

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

Posted in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, guard passes, MMA, the guard, training, Uncategorized | No Comments »

How to Defeat the Bigger Stronger Opponent NOW AVAILABLE

Thursday, November 3rd, 2011

I have 600 complete sets of “How to Defeat the Bigger, Stronger Opponent” in stock, and they’re ready to ship right now.

Emily Kwok and I have been crafting this 5 DVD set for a long time, and it’s one of the best instructional sets I have ever seen.

There are 5 DVDs – three main DVDs with more than 5 hours of instruction, and two unique bonus DVDs, for a grand total of more than 7 hours of instruction…

Every aspect of these DVDs is devoted to techniques, drills, strategies and mindset to defeat the bigger, stronger opponent on the mat.

This set is normally going to sell for $150. But because they’re brand new and I don’t have any testimonials yet, I’m pricing these first 600 sets at $97 and throwing in free shipping anywhere in the world.

To keep things manageable the reduced price will apply until the 600 DVDs are gone, or Thursday November 10th, whichever comes first.

Click HERE for the complete story and all the details.

Take care
Stephan Kesting

P.S. I’m also giving an unconditional money-back guarantee on the DVDs. Don’t like them? Don’t want them? Didn’t help you? Let me know and I’ll happily refund your money. I believe that these DVDs will help you and that’s why I’m taking ALL the risk, not you!

Posted in Emily Kwok, Grapplearts DVDs, teachers, techniques, the guard, the mental aspect, women | No Comments »

How To Stop Someone From Passing Your Guard

Monday, October 24th, 2011

*** A Grappling Question from a Reader ***

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!

Posted in concepts, grip training, guard passes, MMA, no gi, techniques, the guard, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Gi vs No Gi: Solved Once and For All?

Monday, May 9th, 2011

Gi vs no-gi, I don’t think the debate will ever die.

I wrote about this topic first in 2004, arguing that most gi-based grapplers should do at least a little bit of no gi grappling, and visa versa. In sports, as in life, spending time outside your comfort zone really accelerates your growth!

Then I came back to the subject in 2009 and suggested that grapplers with an interest in both aspects of the art but with limited training time should focus on making most of their game as transferable as possible between the two disciplines.

And just yesterday I uploaded a new video with a concrete example of a class of techniques that translate very well between gi and no-gi. And I share the most common mistake people make when attempting this otherwise high-percentage guard sweep.

The whole gi vs no gi thing is pretty clear in my mind: do both and develop a game that’s somewhat transferable from gi to no gi. But no matter what I say, this gi vs no gi debate will probably go on forever.

Share your current thinking on the whole gi vs no gi debate in the comment section below the video!

Posted in bjj, butterfly guard, gi, gi vs no gi, no gi, the guard | No Comments »

Marcelo Garcia Chokes Me Out (Repeatedly)

Tuesday, April 19th, 2011

As you get better you’ll run into the turtle position more often. That’s because it gets harder for your opponents to put you back into guard, which encourages them to go to their knees in order to escape a bad position. So knowing how to attack the turtle effectively is a key skill in both BJJ and submission grappling.

The past few months I’ve been working on attacking this position with mixed success. Some things worked, some things didn’t, and I had a few questions.

It was definitely time to check in with the master of attacking the turtle: Marcelo Garcia in NYC.

Marcelo is probably the best person in the world at taking the back and finishing people from there. He’s done it over and over at the highest level of competition for years now, both with and without the gi. That’s why he’s a four time world BJJ champion and three time ADCC champion. (To fight at this level, for that long, both with and without the gi is pretty amazing!)

Marcelo is known for having an incredible rear mount. He proved it the very first time he caught our attention and captured our imagination by tearing a swatch through the competition at the Abu Dhabi Combat Championships in 2003

But in recent years he’s also developed his variation of rear mount known as the ‘crucifix.’ In the crucifix you remove one of your opponent’s arms from the equation, allowing you to use two hands to neutralize his one remaining arm and then attack his defenseless neck

Marcelo seems able to magically slap the crucifix on just about anybody and finish them from there. It’s an awesome combination with the more traditional rear mount position.

On my recent trip to NYC, deciphering Marcelo’s turtle attack strategy was a top priority item.

The best way to understand something is to experience it first hand. I wanted to see how exactly he took the back. I wanted to feel how he countered my escape attempts. I wanted to know how he locked in his infamous variation of the ‘crucifix’ position.

So I started our sparring session in turtle position and returned to it every time he got me with a submission. Now maybe starting in the turtle position against a guy who arguably has the best back attacks in the world might not have been the great idea if the goal had been to survive and launch my own offense. But the goal was to learn!

I’ve been told I have a pretty tight turtle game and that it’s hard to catch me in something from there, but not for Marcelo. Somebody call Greenpeace, because he slaughtered my turtle again and again.

I experimented with different initial hand positions. Tap tap.

I tried some of the moves I’ve been frustrated by when trying to get the crucifix, but Marcelo had the answers. Tap tap.

I tried denying him his initial knee and foot position and rolling him over. I thought I was out, but he countered with a beautiful backroll counter. Tap tap.

I tried linking my hands together and turning towards his legs, the same way my training partners have sometimes been escaping. All to no avail – he countered easily. Tap tap.

So now I have my answers! All I need to do now is repetitively drill them and then use them in sparring. Training partners: watch out!!

If you haven’t already used up your free trials at mginaction, then you’ll be able to see some of the video clips from Marcelo’s academy:

1: Here’s the guillotine technique he taught in class before we sparred. And yes, he caught me with that exact move in sparring a couple of times.

2: Then here’s me sparring Marcelo Garcia! Watch how he takes my turtle apart and nails me with choke after choke.

3: And this third clip is cool. Marcelo taught everybody the exact moves he used to counter my best crucifix escape attempts. Although shown as a guard pass counter these are the same moves he used at the 0:21 and 4:06 mark of our sparring session. Another cool thing is that he taught this technique in the context of training with the gi, but used it without the gi in our sparring match. Obviously this stuff translates well between different platforms!

(If you end up at a sign-up page instead of a video when you click these links it’s probably because you’ve already used up your free visits to the MGinaction.com site. Sorry!)

So if you’re visiting NYC I highly suggest dropping in at Marcelo’s school. It’s currently at number 25 West 36th street, on the sixth floor.

But if you can’t train there, then the cool thing about the school is that the camera is running whenever Marcelo is teaching, sparring, or helping students with a technique. Then they edit, label and tag all that video and upload it to his website so that you can easily move from one related technique to another.

MGinaction has close to 5,000 techniques and sparring clips on it, with more being added daily. There are techniques for both gi and no gi. You can learn strategies, tactics and principles. You can go back and forth between seeing a technique taught and Marcelo using it in sparring.

It’s a pretty amazing site, but DON’T take my word for it! If you sign up as my reader then you automatically get a 7 day free trial period. If you don’t like it, or if the techniques don’t work for you, or if you don’t think it’s worth the $$ then just get in touch with them and they’ll refund your entire fee.

No pressure, but it really is one of the best values for a grappling instructional site.

Finally, my most sincere thanks to Marcelo and his crew for making me feel very welcome at the academy!

Posted in bjj, butterfly guard, chokes, classes, concepts, crucifix position, gi, guillotine choke, marcelo garcia, no gi, rear mount, sparring, techniques, the guard | No Comments »

A Super-Important Concept for Your Guard

Tuesday, February 1st, 2011

I shot a new video about a super-important concept that was a major Aha! moment for me. And you should be using anytime you’ve got your opponent in your guard.

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:

Posted in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, butterfly guard, concepts, drills, gi, judo, sweeps, the guard | No Comments »

How The Kneebar Saved The Day!!

Wednesday, December 29th, 2010

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.

Posted in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, ground and pound, half guard, kneebars, leglocks, MMA, no gi, techniques, the guard | No Comments »

How to Defend Strikes on the Ground

Tuesday, December 21st, 2010

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

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.

Posted in bjj, concepts, escapes, ground and pound, martial arts, MMA, no gi, omo plata, positions, self defense, striking, sweeps, techniques, the guard | No Comments »

Detailed, Advanced Omo Plata

Friday, May 28th, 2010

Today I’ve got something really cool for you!

In the past few years I’ve made some big changes to my omo plata armlock attacks. This has always been one of my bread and butter moves, but these changes have doubled my success rate, especially when going against skilled opponents.

But now I’m going to let the cat out of the bag…

Click here for a 10 minute detailed tutorial video on the advanced omo plata. It’s almost 10 minutes long, and I share the biggest change I’ve made to make the omo plata more effective. Plus I also threw in some cool recounters for when your opponent just won’t let you get your legs into the right position for the ‘traditional’ omo plata.

The best thing is that, once you learn what these changes are, you can add them to your game quickly and easily.

Posted in armlocks, omo plata, sweeps, the guard | No Comments »

How To Sweep A Larger Opponent

Wednesday, May 12th, 2010

I’ve recently featured a fair bit of content from various guest authors. And that’s a good thing, because different perspectives are critical to your improvement; after all, no single person can show you everything you need to know about grappling.

Today’s contributor is Jennifer Weintz, a skilled brown belt who has won gold at the Pan Ams twice and also medalled at the Mundials (the BJJ world championships).

In this video she shares her two favorite sweeps to use on bigger, stronger opponents. (I should mention that I’ve also used these sweeps successfully on smaller, weaker opponents, so they’re definitely multipurpose techniques that should be in your arsenal if you’re doing BJJ).

P.S. While we’re talking about fighting larger opponents check out the 5 DVD set I filmed with 3 x World Champion Emily Kwok. It’s full of techniques, drills, strategies, and tips to Defeat the Bigger, Stronger Opponent. I’m clearly biased but I think it’s really good!

Posted in bjj, spider guard, sweeps, the guard, women | 2 Comments »

Countering the Double Leg with a Sitout & Switch

Monday, May 10th, 2010

I respect most grappling arts, not just BJJ. Freestyle and collegiate wrestling, in particular, have a lot to offer to submission grapplers and BJJ practitioners. Obviously we can get a lot of good throws and takedowns from wrestling, but we can also ‘steal’ some very powerful moves on the ground as well.

One of these techniques is called the ‘switch.’

The first time I ran into the switch was incredibly frustrating. Years ago I was sparring with a wrestler who was getting ready for an MMA fight. Every time I came close to passing his guard he’d sit up, reach over my shoulder, and completely stalemate my guard pass using his arm. This must have happened 5 times in the course of our sparring that day!

I know this move is effective, so today I’ve recruited Dave Scholten, 3 time Canadian wrestling champion, to take you through the technique. In this 1:41 video Dave uses the switch as a counter to the double leg takedown in an MMA context, but you could use the exact same technique to stop a guard pass in submission grappling.

P.S. If you liked this or my previous Youtube videos then I strongly suggest that you go to my Youtube Channel and subscribe. It doesn’t cost anything, and it means you won’t miss my future Youtube videos!

Posted in Denis Kang, guard passes, takedowns, techniques, the guard, wrestling | 1 Comment »

A Video Tutorial on the X Guard

Wednesday, September 16th, 2009

I’m just drowning in email right now, because my new Grappling Concepts course has just launched. I’ve never seen a response this intense (maybe it’s because of the limited number of DVDs available).

But before I get back to taking orders and answering emails, here’s a link to an online video X Guard tutorial that I’m using to promote the Grappling Concepts Course

Posted in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, butterfly guard, drills, sweeps, teaching, the guard, x guard | No Comments »

The ‘Fundamental Five Guard Sweeps’ from the de la Riva Guard

Sunday, September 13th, 2009

Ricardo de la Riva is an incredibly nice and humble man, but don’t let that fool you – this man is a BJJ legend. (I mean, how many people have a popular guard position named after them?)

De la Riva started training with Marcus Soares, and then continued under Carlson Gracie at the legendary Carlson Gracie Academy in Rio. He taught Rodrigo “Minotauro” Nogueira, and has had a long and illustrious competition career himself.

He is on the cutting edge of BJJ technology, and could show you fancy techniques until your brain ached and you begged for mercy.

So when I trained with him a while ago I had a seemingly strange question. I asked “what are the five most techniques techniques from the de la Riva Guard?” (I figured that this would be a great starting point for dissecting his elaborate and effective guard game.)

So he showed me his fundamental 5 moves. Then he let me photograph these techniques, step by step… And then he agreed to let me put them online for you guys.

So here are CLICK HERE for the five most important de la Riva Guard Sweeps, as taught by the man himself!

Posted in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, de la Riva, sweeps, the guard | No Comments »

New Book for Grapplearts Subscribers

Monday, June 8th, 2009

I publish a lot of stuff on this blog, but I save some of the best stuff for the people who are subscribed to my newsletter.

I just added a new resource – a single book that breaks down the different variations of the Guard position. It’s called A Glossary of Guards. After you download it you can read it on your computer or print it out and take it with you anywhere.

If you want to get your hands on it then just sign up for the Grappling Tips Newsletter (it’s free and you can unsubscribe anonymously at any time). Then I’ll immediately send you a link where you can download some really cool, readers-only stuff.

Posted in grapplearts, the guard | No Comments »

Gi? No-Gi? Self Defense? MMA? No Problem!

Sunday, May 17th, 2009

There’s a long-standing debate in the grappling community whether training with the gi helps your no-gi skills.

My personal preference is to train both with and without the gi.

And for what it’s worth, MMA super-coach Ricardo Liborio believes that anyone just starting out should train with the gi, even if their ultimate goal is to fight in MMA. (This is discussed further in BJJ Secrets for MMA, a resource available to Grappling Tips newsletter subscribers).

But today I actually want to focus on something slightly different…

Let’s assume that you’re interested in BOTH gi and no-gi. Or that you’re planning on doing some MMA sparring at some point. Or that you’d like your BJJ skills transfer well in a self defense situation

In this case you should be aware that some styles of BJJ translate much better to no-gi than others.

For example, the traditional sleeve and collar grip from closed guard works great in gi-based BJJ, but translates very poorly to no-gi. You just don’t have the same handles available to you when you’re wearing a rashguard and board shorts.

A lot of great BJJ players have gotten pounded in MMA, because they were so reliant on the gi. Without their familiar handles were unable to control their opponent’s posture in guard, and if you can’t control posture and distance in the guard then you’re to get smoked in the head for sure!

Now there’s nothing wrong with gi-dependent moves, so long as

1. You’re focusing on gi grappling or gi-based competition, or
2. you have enough time to develop a no-gi game that looks entirely different from your gi game

If you don’t have the time to develop two entirely different games then what you want is a game that works both in gi and no-gi contexts. For example, maybe specializing in a double-sleeve grip spider guard might not be the best idea…

Instead using grips like the underhook, the overhook and head control would much better. That’s because these grips work great both with AND without the gi.

The point is to make most of your game as transferable as possible!

So here’s your homework.

If you train with the gi more than 50% of the time, then go through your best offensive and defensive moves for each of the fundamental BJJ positions. Now ask yourself whether those moves are gi-dependent or gi-independent.

If more than half of your moves are reliant on the gi then I predict that making the jump to no-gi grappling could be a rough and difficult process.

In the end, of course, it’s entirely YOUR decision how reliant you want to be on the gi. Just be conscious about the consequences of your decision, that’s all…

Posted in gi, no gi, the guard | No Comments »

Box a fighter, fight a boxer

Saturday, May 16th, 2009

“Box a fighter, and fight a boxer.” This old saying isn’t only limited to boxing – you can use the very same principle in grappling, jiu-jitsu and MMA.

In a competition, or a ‘serious’ match you DON’T want to play the other guy’s game. His game is what he’s good at.

Your goal, instead, should be to change the rules of the duel.

Here are some concrete examples and suggestions to illustrate what I’m talking about:

Does your opponent have a killer guard game? If so, then maybe YOU should pull guard on HIM, even if that’s not your normal gameplan. Alternately you could start setting up a leglock attack.
Is your opponent super strong and powerful? Maybe it’s time to switch to a mobility-based game.
Does he come from a ‘traditional’ BJJ school? Well then leglock him silly, or use positions that come from other grappling arts.
Maybe your opponent is known for his powerful grips and collar choke attacks – if so, I would strongly recommend standing guard passes.
Etc.

You’re probably getting the idea by now. Sometimes it’s NOT about using the techniques you do best. Instead it becomes all about doing what’s worst for your opponent.

Usually this will also be a technique or strategy that he doesn’t expect, or a situation that he isn’t faced with in training very often.

Hit ‘em where they least expect it. And where they leastdefend it!

Posted in leglocks, the guard, unorthodox strategies | No Comments »

Can’t Get Underhooks in Butterfly Guard?

Saturday, April 18th, 2009

Underhooks in the butterfly guard postion are super important!

I was on a popular BJJ forum this afternoon when a thread about one of my favorite BJJ positions – the butterfly guard – caught my eye. As it turns out, someone was having problems.

Here’s what he said:

“In the last few months I have really been concentrating on trying to get a solid butterfly guard. I bought Kesting’s Butterfly and X guard DVD (which is excellent) and have been working on it every class. While I definitely feel that my butterfly is getting better, I am still having a very hard time establishing the guard.

What I mean by that is that if I can get one of the good butterfly positions (for me they are: 1) an underhook and an overhook, and 2) double underhooks). I can work some sweeps and pass prevention pretty well from there.

The problem is that I have a very hard getting into these positions and it’s quite frustrating. It seems that while I fight for those clinches my opponent will generally just grab my pants (I only do gi BJJ) and runaround or just push me down and flatten me out.”

Now I feel this guy’s pain, because these are legitimate problems. I struggled with the exact same concerns myself for a long time until I found some answers.

The thing is, after you’ve swept a training partner with the ‘basic’ butterfly guard sweep 10 times in a row he’ll figure out that you want the single or double underhooks. Then he’ll make it his mission in life NOT to give those positions to you.

Usually this means that he’ll back up, and that’s when he starts grabbing for your legs.

Letting your opponent control your pant legs in the butterfly guard is not a good idea. If he does this then you have to stop everything and strip his grip off of your pants RIGHT NOW (unless you’re setting him up with specific advanced sweeps).

Now on to the solutions…

If you’re fighting with the gi, then sometimes you can attack with the same basic sweep using an overhook, especially if your overhooking arm also grips his cross lapel to keep everything tight. I hear that Jean-Jacques Machado is very good at this.

But if you can’t get close enough to grip then the armdrag is a great help. If he’s pushing you away then he’s giving you the arm to attack. And if you’re always armdragging him then he usually stops pushing you…

Another strategy that works is to use one arm to stiffarm his neck/collar bone area. This is long range butterfly guard with a stiffarm is basically what some people call the “Sitting Guard” (click for a description).

One good attack from here involves gently pulling with the gripping hand, and then – suddently – changing directions, pushing forward with that hand while grabbing his heel with the other hand.

Another great technique involves pushing slightly with the stiffarming hand, waiting until you feel resistance, and then yanking him forward. You pull him down to the ground while shifting your hips out to the side.

When you get the timing for this move right he just falls on his face and then you can scramble and get on top.

Just watch out for flying armbar and triangle attacks when you’re using the stiff arm long range butterfly guard!

I also REALLY like mixing up my butterfly guard with the X guard, both vs. standing and kneeling opponents.

If you’re not using the X guard then you’re really limiting the power and versatility of the butterfly guard.

And here’s one final idea

I often like starting in ANOTHER position with the underhook already secured and then moving into the butterfly guard.

One excellent position to do this from is the half butterfly guard. Start there, pushing your opponent away with your butterfly hook (or move your hips away) and end up in the butterfly guard.

All the while you’ve maintained your underhook while moving everything else into position. And when your legs finally get there – boom – you’re ready to sweep him!

The funny thing about all of this is that if you’re attacking your opponent with armdrags, stiff arms, heel picks, etc. then he’ll often give you the opportunity to get the underhook (or underhooks) that you wanted so much in the first place...

Posted in butterfly guard, the guard | No Comments »

Getting Back to Your Feet From Guard

Monday, January 26th, 2009

In the early days of MMA fighters who took someone down tried to keep the fight there. They’d stay on the ground even if they couldn’t pass their opponent’s guard or mount an effective ground-and-pound offense.

Then the game evolved. I still remember how surprised I was the first time I saw a fighter stand up out of his opponent’s guard, back up 10 feet and invite the guy lying on his back to stand up too.

Then the game evolved AGAIN. Strikers figured out how to get back to their feet when they were on the bottom. They’d use the guard to survive but also immediately start to work for the standup. The first big name fighter I saw get back to his feet repeatedly from the bottom was Chuck Liddell. He could even do it multiple times against the same opponent, which speaks to how well he’d developed his guard standup techniques.

It’s easy for grapplers to forget this, but there are still hundreds of thousands of martial artists with ZERO knowledge of the ground game. The funny thing is that most of them have roughly the same strategy as Chuck Liddell (just without the skills to back it up).

“I’ll just get back to my feet and use my super-duper kung fu pressure-point punching technique to finish off my opponent,” they say. What they don’t realize (and probably never will until they get in a real fight) is how difficult it is to stand up when a skilled opponent is holding you down.

Please notice how I said it’s “difficult,” not “impossible,” to stand up.

We do difficult things in grappling all the time. Proper technique and training strategies make difficult things possible. Train standups the same way you would train any other move: first learn the correct technique, drill it, and then try to use it against people who are trying to stop you from standing up.

This topic was on my mind when I interviewed Marc Laimon a few years ago (he was coaching on The Ultimate Fighter TV show at the time). Afterwards I published an article with Marc showing two specific ways how to stand up out of guard in Ultimate Grappling Magazine, but I’ve only just now made it available online.

So if you’re interested in more information (and two step-by-step techniques) on standing up out of guard please check out the How to Stand Up from Guard article on Grapplearts.com

Even if you NEVER intend to fight MMA, you can’t guarantee that you won’t end up on the bottom in a streetfight. Hanging out in the guard on the street isn’t a great idea, so either sweep the guy, submit the guy, or get the hell back up to your feet.

Posted in MMA, self defense, the guard | No Comments »

Tips and Tricks for the Unpassable Guard

Sunday, January 4th, 2009

Last December I wrote about why you shouldn’t let your opponent control your hips if you want an unpassable guard. The following week a few readers wrote in with their own advice

In the next newsletter I asked if anyone else wanted to share the tips, techniques and concepts about preventing the guard pass. I have taken the best of those reader contributions and compiled them into an article. You can find it at the following link:

The Unpassable Guard: Tricks, Concepts, Techniques and Drills to Prevent Opponents from Passing Your Guard.

My sincere thanks to EVERYONE who wrote in! I’m sure that each and every piece of advice will help someone out there looking for grappling answers out there in cyberspace.

Posted in the guard, training | No Comments »

Slaughter on the Mats…

Monday, December 29th, 2008

Today my BJJ sparring was a battle for survival.

Maybe you think it’s because I sparred with a bunch of high-level black belts… Sorry to disappoint you, but that’s wasn’t the case at all. In fact, I was barely holding my own against blue belts with only a couple of years experience. And they were all lighter than me…

Let me tell you why this happened.

Yesterday I got back from 6 days of rustic living in a simple cabin with family and friends. At the cabin – between cross-country skiing and chopping firewood to ward off the minus 30 degree night-time temperatures – I was thinking about Brazilian Jiu-jitsu and grappling (surprise, surprise).

One of the BJJ-related things I was thinking about was a new guard pass I’ve been working on. It’s still in embryonic form, so I’m not going to go into too much detail, but the Cole’s Notes version would be: “pin his hips to the floor with one arm, post up onto both feet, and then circle left or right to pass the guard.”

I’ve been experimenting with this style of guard passing for a couple of weeks, but have ONLY used it on whitebelts and some brand-new bluebelts. Up till now it’s worked great against the relatively unsophisticated legwork of these junior grapplers.

Today I wanted to bump it up a notch and road test it against some more experienced opponents. So I warmed up by rolling lightly with some whitebelts, and then went against some good blue belts and purple belts, always starting in their guards.

Well, the most charitable interpretation is that there were mixed results…

Sure, sometimes the guard pass worked, and sometimes I ended up with a dominant side control position (and then went back into the guard). Most of the time, however, I was frantically defending (and barely escaping from) armbars, collar chokes, omo plata armlocks, triangle chokes and guard sweeps.

Basically I was on the run for about 70% of these matches.

Strangely enough, I consider this training session a HUGE SUCESS!! By getting my butt kicked, I learned about the vulnerabilities of this strategy. Now I can go back to the drawing board and try to come up with technical answers to some of the problems I encountered. Then I’ll try it out on the same guys, and maybe this time it’ll work better.

Will this guard pass eventually become ‘the bomb’ – once I iron out these technical kinks?

The truth is that I have no idea. Maybe this technique will eventually become my bread and butter guard pass, or maybe I’ll drop it off in the graveyard of stupid BJJ ideas. I’ve had a lot of ideas in my day, and only a small percentage of them turned out to be great ideas.

The reason I have so much material to share in my newsletter, website and videos IS BECAUSE I’VE MADE SO MANY MISTAKES!

So give yourself permission to make mistakes, go down blind alleys, and try stuff that nobody thinks will work. Test your ideas, evaluate the results, modify your ideas, and test again. As I recently asked someone, “do you think that the very first airplane built by the Wright Brothers actually worked?”

Posted in the guard, training | No Comments »

More on the Unpassable Guard…

Thursday, December 18th, 2008

Recently I published a short article on how I improved my guard pass defense. Shortly thereafter I received an interesting and informative email from ‘Scott’ who trains at Colorado Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in Denver CO.

Scott wrote:

“I just reviewed your article on the Unpassable Guard. My instructor David Ruiz (Rigan Machado BB) in Denver, CO has 3 rules that he teaches that really changed the guard game for me, and specifically the open guard game.

Always maintain a maximum of 90 degrees between your torso and your thighs. It can be less (i.e. knees pulled tighter into your chest) but it can never be more than 90. For example if you opponent goes for a bull fighter style pass by pulling/pushing your legs to one side, you must sit up to maintain your 90 degrees.
Always maintain foot controls on either side of your opponents body (e.g. a foot on either side of the hips, on his shoulders, spidered around one arm & one hip, legs X’d on either hip, etc.).
Always keep your knees bowed/flared out. This makes passing around the guard much more difficult and leaves the best option for the opponent to pass through the center where your arms and grips can come into play more effectively.

I find when someone passes my guard, inevitably, I have broken one of these 3 rules.”

Thanks Scott!

I’ve said before (in A Roadmap for BJJ) that the guard is the most complicated position in grappling. Learning how to shut down and defend against your opponent’s guard pass attempts is critical at all stages of your development. Since it’s a complicated position every tip or insight helps, so I’m sure that your three points will help someone else take their guard pass defense to the next level too.

Posted in techniques, the guard | No Comments »

The Unpassable Guard

Friday, December 12th, 2008

A few years ago Denis Kang and I published an article in Grappling Magazine about passing the guard in MMA. In that article we said the following about the three stages of getting past your opponent’s legs:

“If your opponent is using a closed guard (i.e. his ankles crossed behind your back) then you first have to open his legs. Once his legs are open you have to establish some sort of control over his hips and legs, and then finally you have to pass over, under or around his legs.”

Now, if you think about it, the reverse also applies. Here’s what I mean…

Let’s suppose that your opponent is in your guard. As long as you consistently block him at one of these three steps (opening the legs, controlling the hips, passing your legs), he’ll never be able to pass your guard.

After that article got published, ANOTHER training partner (with a very good and difficult-to-pass open guard) explained his secret strategy to me.

“As soon as I feel that my opponent is controlling my hips I go into emergency mode”, he said. “At that point I push his head, I bridge my hips, I kick my legs… I do whatever I need to do in order to get my hips free again”.

I’ll admit that, up until that conversation, I’d been a bit complacent about allowing opponents to control my hips. Sure, I’d try and block the guard pass, but I’d only start fighting hard during the very final stages of their guard passing efforts, rather than ‘getting serious’ about it a step earlier (during the battle for leg and hip control).

Since that day my guard has improved. I think that most of the improvements are due to fighting for leg and hip freedom earlier, and trying not to allow my opponent to move forward and impose his guard passing plan on me.

Don’t let your opponent control your hips!

Posted in MMA, the guard | No Comments »

The Give and Take of Jiu-jitsu

Thursday, December 4th, 2008

I remember seeing a small magic show at a local library when I was about 10 years old. At the time I thought that the magician had a pretty good act, but I had no idea that I was also about to learn a valuable jiu-jitsu lesson.

There was this other kid in the audience (really, I swear it wasn’t me), who kept on yelling bonehead things like “I know how you did that,” and “that trick isn’t so hard.” The audience was irritated, and I’m sure it was driving the magician crazy, but he kept his cool and prepared his solution to the problem.

Eventually the magician asked the kid if he would help him on stage. The kid was beaming – he wanted the attention after all – and ran up into the limelight.

The magician produced a short piece of string and asked him to hold onto it…

…and then turned his back to the kid and proceeded to perform his next three tricks. He never used the string or his helper for anything; he just left him standing there, expectantly clutching onto a stupid little piece of yarn. He then took the string back, thanked the kid, and watched as his humbled ‘helper’ slunk offstage. Not surprisingly there were no more comments or cat-calls from that direction for the rest of the show.

So to bring today’s tip back to jiu-jitsu and grappling: the lesson is that sometimes you need to give your opponent something to hold onto in order to get what you really want.

By doing this you get his mind focused on something irrelevant – the illusion that something is bothering you (when it really isn’t), or that he’s making progress in some area (when you’ve actually got other plans for him). All the while you’re setting up your own cunning evil plan.

You might, for example, ‘allow’ him to fight his way past your guard in order to get the position and momentum that you need to set up a half guard sweep. In order to set this sweep up you first have to give him something to hold onto, namely the illusion that he’s defeating your guard.

Another situation might involve ‘letting’ him go from side mount to full mount, when your real plan is to push his trailing leg between your legs, achieve half guard and take his back.

We’re coming to a season of giving and receiving. Sometimes you need to give your opponent a little something before you snatch it away and receive a whole lot of goodies for yourself.

Posted in the guard, the mental aspect | No Comments »

The Deep Half Guard

Tuesday, November 25th, 2008

The Deep Half Guard is a position that I’ve been working with for the past year or so. I often end up using it to counter various guard passes to the ‘regular’ half guard.

In the Deep Half Guard you jack your opponent’s leg up onto your shoulder. Your hands and legs can do different things, depending on the type of sweep you’re trying to set up.

In the first photo (with the gi) my right arm is hugging his top hip and my legs are triangled.

In the second picture (no-gi) my right arm is controlling his bottom thigh and my left arm is buried under his leg. I am controlling his leg by sandwiching it between my right instep, and left calf.

If you play this position then you really have to watch out for two main submissions:

Your opponent stepping over your head and putting a kneebar on your bottom leg
Your opponent attacking your bottom arm with a Kimura

The main defense for these attacks is – you guessed it – awareness. The best way to develop this awareness is to grab a partner, get on top, and play around with these attacks yourself. This will really tune up your spider sense for these attacks; you’ll eventually be able to hear your opponent thinking about these attacks and adjust your game accordingly.

Another way to defend the big two Deep Half Guard submissions is with leg and arm position. The position of the legs in the second picture provides some protection against the kneebar; try it and see! The positioning of the left arm in the second picture (i.e. buried under the thigh) also makes it a lot harder for your opponent attack you with the Kimura.

Does that mean that you should always use the arm and leg position from the second photo? Not really. If you did that then you’d really cut down on your number of attack options.

Speaking of attack options, below are some of the better clips I’ve found on Youtube for using the Deep Half Guard to sweep your opponent.