Tag Archives: Concepts
How to Defeat a Smaller Opponent
Smaller opponents can become big nuisances, especially if they have legitimate skills.
You would think that the very fact that you’re bigger than your opponent means you should be able to go full-Conan on them every time…
Mongol General: “Conan! What is best in life?”
Conan: “To crush your enemies, see them driffen before you, and to hear the lamentation of their vimmen.” (more…)
In December, 2008, I sent out a Grappling Tip Email with a tip about not letting your opponent control your hips (see the first tip below). I asked readers to share their best tips for preventing or blocking the guard pass…
BJJ Video Tips for Beginners
In the spring of 2009 I asked my readers to send in video tips to help BJJ beginners. The idea was to augment and complement the work I’m doing with the BeginningBJJ.com site. (more…)
The First-Ever Grapplearts Q & A Podcast!
Hey guys!
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. (more…)
High Level Pin Escapes
How many times has someone almost gotten past your guard…
…You’re just about pinned; it’s just a matter of time…
…So you mentally relax, concede the position and prepare for the battle to get out of sidemount using your pin escape techniques. (more…)
Sports Psychology for BJJ, MMA & Submission Grappling
*** A Sports Psychology Question from a Reader ***
Hi Stephan,
I was listening to your interview with Ryan Hall and I was wondering about which Sports Psychology Books you had read or would recommend. (more…)
How To Stop Someone From Passing Your Guard
A reader writes: Hi Stephan,
Thank you for the newsletters! I started training BJJ and MMA about 5 months ago – it’s been life changing for me. (more…)
How to Defeat the Bigger, Stronger Opponent
Today is a very exciting day! For the past few months I’ve been working like crazy to get my new DVD series finished. In these videos I’m collaborating with my friend, and former teammate, Emily Kwok.
She’s one of the best known competitive grapplers out there! For a lot of different reasons. (more…)
What's With 'Sensitivity Training' On The Mat?
There’s just no way around it! Physical attribute are important in grappling. Some of the most important ones include speed, strength, balance, endurance, and flexibility.
But there’s another physical attribute that’s often overlooked: sensitivity! (more…)
Best Type of BJJ Guard for Beginners
Vitor ‘Shaolin’ Ribeiro is a four time World BJJ Champion. In MMA he held the welterweight title in Japanese Shooto. And he has the Cage Rage lightweight championship belt proudly mounted on the wall too… (more…)
Marcelo Garcia Chokes Me Out Repeatedly
Marcelo Garcia is maybe the very best person in the world at attacking the turtle position.
But before I tell you how I know this first hand, I should point out that as you get better you’ll run into the turtle position more often. (more…)
I shot a new video about a concept that makes it so much harder for someone to pass your guard. Figuring this one out was was a major “aha!” moment for me.
And it works in the closed guard AND the open guard, both with the gi AND without the gi.
Erik Paulson; an MMA Master Coach Shares His Secrets
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. (more…)
How to Defend Strikes on the Ground
You’re walking down the street, someone bumps you, words are exchanged, you get pushed to the ground, and now some big gorilla is trying to knock your teeth down your throat. No matter how focused you are on the sportive aspects of grappling you’ve still GOTTA know how to defend strikes on the ground!!! (more…)
Flow Sparring
Black Belt Concepts Course Live Again
The Black Belt Concepts Course is finally live again!!
There’s no doubt in my mind that this is my very best instructional product; after all, it took an entire year of all-out work to create. (more…)
The Deep Half Guard (video)
Nowadays you often see the Deep Half Guard at the highest levels of BJJ and submission grappling competition. But there are a lot of important details to the Deep Half Guard that you need to know before it becomes a powerful sweeping weapon.
Passing the Guard with the 'Twitch Pass'
Let me share the ‘Twitch Guard Pass’ with you today – it’s one of my highest percentage, bread and butter, go-to moves, so I’m sure you’ll like it!
The Most Important Thing For Improving Your Grappling
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.
I’ve been hard at work in ‘the lab’ cooking something up something new…
And now it’s finally ready: the online ‘Black Belt Concepts’ course. (more…)
Tricks, Concepts, Techniques and Drills to Prevent Opponents from Passing Your Guard
In December, 2008, I sent out a Grappling Tip Email with a tip about not letting your opponent control your hips (see the first tip below). I then asked readers to share their own top tips for preventing or blocking the guard pass.
Below is a selection of reader contributions on the topic of making your guard ‘unpassable.’ I find it the diversity of suggestions very interesting, and I’m sure that you’re going to learn a lot about developing a better guard.interesting that the (more…)
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. (more…)
The Unpassable Guard
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 there are three stages of getting past your opponent’s legs: (more…)
On Keeping the Top Position
This is an excerpt on one of the most important sections from my book ” A Roadmap for Brazilian Jiu-jitsu” (more…)
Last weekend I had the pleasure of learning from Dan Inosanto at a seminar. As he often does, he stressed the importance of adapting techniques to make them work for you, regardless of whether those techniques are Filipino stick disarms, Jun Fan kickboxing or BJJ submissions. (more…)
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