Tag Archives: Video
Two Drills on Video to Improve your Guard Sweeps
Many of the most powerful guard sweeps rely on your hips being underneath your opponent’s center of gravity.
This makes him very unstable – think of the difference between
1. standing on the floor beside one of those stability balls, and
2. trying to stand on top of that same stability ball. (more…)
How bad do you want it?
I found this short Youtube video and voice-over really inspiring and wanted to pass it on.
It has nothing to do with martial arts.
But in a way it has EVERYTHING to do with martial arts! Plus the sports-specific training footage is pretty cool too, and might give you some good ideas for your own conditioning!! (more…)
There’s nothing worse than weathering the storm in someone’s guard, fighting your way past their legs, finally getting to sidemount, making one tiny mistake and then – boom – you’re back in their guard. (more…)
How Many Guard Passes Do You Need in BJJ?
How many guard passes do you think a four time world champion and an 18 year veteran of BJJ uses?
If you can put up with rough guerrilla-style audio in the video below (it was shot at the last minute) then Vitor Shaolin’s answer might surprise you… (more…)
When the Closed Guard Fails...
A reader writes:
Q: Hi Stephan,
I recently received and read your email with the video link about the closed guard in the Beginning BJJ newsletter.
However my instructor is quite thick and muscular, (more…)
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. (more…)
Fancy Yet Effective: The 'Shaolin' Half Guard Sweep
Normally I advise against flashy techniques. Generally speaking it’s rock solid basics and non-fancy fundamentals that win sparring sessions, tournament matches and MMA fights.
But I have to make an exception for this technique… (more…)
How Marcelo Garcia Defeats Larger, Stronger Opponents
There’s nothing quite like watching a smaller, lighter, weaker person use their technique to defeat a bigger, heavier, stronger opponent.
And when it comes to tapping out bigger, stronger, heavier opponents there’s nobody quite like Marcelo Garcia. (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…)
Today I’m not going to talk about a technique per se. Instead I’m going to share a cool training method with you. (Training methods are the ways in which you practice, hone and internalize the techniques you’re learning. (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.
Usually getting better at something like the Rear Mount in grappling is a slow process, requiring thousands of repetitions and many hours on the mat to master a technique.
But sometimes transformations occur overnight! (more…)
How To Escape the Headlock and Kesa-Gatame
The common headlock is often overlooked in BJJ – it’s just not considered to be a very technical pinning position.
But not training your headlock escapes is a HUGE mistake! (more…)
I’ve received lots of email recently, so today I thought I’d dip into the mailbag and share a few emails. I’ve also quickly jotted down some quick comments, and some links to a few relevant articles. (more…)
Is Grappling Still Relevant to Self Defense?
I’ve been wanting to get something off my chest, so I just put a new video up onto the Grapplearts Facebook page. In it I break down:
- why we’re seeing more knockouts and less submissions in modern MMA (more…)
Toby Imada's Amazing MMA Triangle Broken Down For You
A lot of people thought that Toby Imada’s triangle choke was the best MMA submission of 2009. And they may be right – it was a stunning display of quick thinking and ‘sticktoitness’ on Toby’s part. (more…)
Five Triangle Chokes You Should Know
There have been a lot of triangle chokes in MMA recently, including those used by Fabricio Werdum against Fedor Emelianenko, Chris Lytle against Matt Brown, and Brock Lesnar against Shane Carwin (more…)
An MMA Mount Escape and a New-To-Me Sweep
The last time I hung out with Denis Kang we shot a series of short videos on MMA techniques.
It’s rare to get an MMA fighter who wants to show you all his best techniques, but Denis is an awesome teacher as well as a great fighter. (more…)
Detailed, Advanced Omoplata
In the past few years I’ve made some big changes to my omoplata armlock attacks. The omoplata has always been one of my bread and butter moves, but these racent changes have doubled my success rate, especially when going against bigger and/or skilled opponents. (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!
MMA Ground and Pound
Here’s a short MMA video I recently shot with my friend Denis Kang. He’s a very knowledgeable fighter, and I wanted him to share some insights on the ground and pound aspect of MMA. (more…)
How To Sweep A Larger Opponent
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. (more…)
Countering the Double Leg with a Sitout & Switch
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. (more…)
The Double Leg Takedown in MMA
I recently had the opportunity to meet up with my friend and professional fighter Denis Kang. I wanted to pick his brain about some MMA techniques. He shared a lot of stuff, and because I had a video camera with me I can now pass that information on to you. (more…)
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