Grappling Tips Newsletter

Getting stuck in traffic is a fact of life when you live in a big city, and usually it's a giant waste of time. For the last couple of years, though, I've been using a secret weapon that makes my time in the car much more enjoyable - downloadable podcasts.

Podcasts and portable mp3 players have totally changed my commute and significantly increased my quality of life. Certain time slots, which used to be mind-numbing and boring, are now interesting and intellectually stimulating.

I listen to a wide variety of podcasts covering topics from MMA to history to science to current events shows.

You can listen to all these shows on your computer, but if you have an iPod or other mp3 player then you can upload these files to it and listen to the the shows at any point.

Here are some podcasts to get you started. You can check out hundreds of thousands of categorized episodes using iTunes or other podcast aggregators.

SHERDOG RADIO

Grapplearts was featured last weekend on the Sherdog Radio Network (which consists of several different shows).

In the MMA Sunday School segment I chatted to Scott Holmes and Rodney Dean about the genesis and inspiration for the Grapplearts iPhone application. If you're interested, my segment is at about the 31 minute mark.

FIGHTWORKS PODCAST

I also have a soft spot in my heart for the Fightworks Podcast, at least partially because they've had me on the show a couple of times.

The first time was a Stephan Kesting feature interview, and the second interview was specifically about leglocks in BJJ, MMA and submission grappling.

MMA RING REPORT

Arnold Lim from MMA Ring Report has conducted some great interviews with MMA fighters, promoters and trainers.

TVO BIG IDEAS

I don't only listen to MMA podcasts. In fact, I'd say the majority of what I listen to is only indirectly related to MMA. One of my favorites is TVO's Big Ideas program, which broadcasts some really good lectures too on a variety of topics.

In a recent Big Ideas podcast, for example, I really learned a lot about the science of stretching, stuff that's directly applicable to improving my grappling skills and remaining injury-free.

As we've discussed before, it turns out that the benefits of stretching aren't exactly as cut and dried as your High school football coach would've liked you to believe.

Stretching probably only improves performance in sports that require flexibility; the classic example being gymnastics or figure skating. However our sport - grappling - also requires a lot of flexibility and thus stretching is probably a very good thing.

HARDCORE HISTORY

I've also got to mention Hardcore History by Dan Carlin. This podcast has nothing at all to do with grappling or MMA (other than having a strong focus on military history).

I like it so much that I've been trying to think of a clever angle to talk about this show in my newsletter, but I couldn't come up with a plausible connection. For now I'm just going to tell you that it's really good.

My favorite episode in that series is Episode 12 - Steppe Stories, which takes a look at the long and bloody history of the Scythians, Mongols, Huns, Turks and other peoples who came rampaging out of the Central Asian steppe

ONE MORE

Do yourself a favor and check out some TED Talks on a topic that interests you (they include science, arts and design, politics, education, culture, business, global issues, technology and development, and entertainment).

You can download TED Talks either in video or audio-only format.

YOUR TURN!

I'm interested in finding out what you guys are listening to - maybe I'll discover something new.

So if you have a favorite MMA, BJJ or submission grappling podcast then send me then link. I'll post reader favorites in a future newsletter.

Labels: Brazilian jiu-jitsu, MMA, podcasts

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OK, I admit it. UFC 97 did have a few boring fights.

The worst, hands down, was the debacle between Anderson Silva and Thales Leites. (I find it hard to blame Leites, because he was outclassed by an opponent who clearly didn't want to engage or push the pace of the fight).

But it really doesn't matter who was to blame: I'll just never get those 25 minutes back...

Despite the incredibly lame title fight I was very excited by UFC 97. That's because this was the first time that I'd personally trained with more than one of the competitors fighting on the same UFC event.

The first fighter was Denis Kang, who I first met at more than 10 years ago. He now trains mostly in Florida and Montreal, but before that we logged a TON of training sessions together (click here for an early profile of Denis with MMA techniques).

Unlike his first fight in the UFC - which was hampered by a serious ankle injury - in UFC 97 we saw the 'real' Denis Kang as he took on and dominated a very dangerous opponent (Xavier Foupa-Pokam).

The second fighter on the card that I was very eagerly watching was T.J. Grant.

I've met and trained with T.J a few times when I visited his home town of Halifax, Nova Scotia. To call him an "up and coming fighter" would be to do him a disservice. His opponent was Ryo Chonan, who has defeated MANY high level fighters.

Both my friends put in great performances and I think it's a real shame that their fights weren't televised in North America.

And their fights were made all the sweeter by the fact that both of 'my' guys won.

Congratulations!

Labels: MMA, UFC

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A few days ago I foolishly did a strength and conditioning workout late at night. I ALWAYS find it impossible to get to sleep right after strenuous training, so to relax I sat down on a treadmill and talked to a video camera.

I wanted to share something I've noticed that many of the top MMA fighters, coaches and schools have in common (and also how it applies to submission grappling and Brazilian jiu-jitsu training).



Here's an overview of the main points I discuss in the video.

Mixed martial art (MMA) training has three main areas:

1. Striking (typically boxing or kickboxing).
2. Takedowns and clinching (typically freestyle wrestling, Greco-Roman or judo).
3. Groundfighting (typically Brazilian jiu-jitsu).
   

To improve in MMA you have to train each of these areas individually AND blend them together.

Some people training in MMA just want to do full MMA sparring every time – but I think that’s a big mistake.

It’s my observation that most good MMA fighters, coaches and gyms combine everything all together (i.e. full MMA sparring) only a couple of times a week. Most of the time they SEPARATE the sparring into the different component areas.

By training the disciplines separately you:

1. Work on each discipline separately and find your weaknesses.
2. Improve the quality of your sparring partners.
3. Lessen the chance of injury.
   

This is also true for high level athletes training in other sports (in the video I talk specifically about baseball and the decathlon).

Grappling and BJJ are the same, in the sense that they require you to get good at different techniques, positions and strategies (e.g. guard passes, submission, pin escapes, submission defense, sidemount control, etc.).

Following the examples of mixed martial artists and other athletes, you should train each of these areas with targeted sparring, AND also mix everything together into free-form sparring sessions.

P.S. If you want to know the Youtube url for this video it's www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XBI6SnLwH8

Labels: Brazilian jiu-jitsu, MMA, training

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A few weeks ago I wrote how a friend of mine was going to train with Ricardo Liborio at American Top Team in Florida. Many of you sent in questions on the relationship between BJJ and MMA for Mr. Liborio. The plan was to publish that interview on Grapplearts.com

We HAVEN'T forgotten about your questions; due to circumstances beyond anyone's control this interview has been delayed. I'm going to make sure you get your answers from one of the living legends of BJJ, but it's just going to take a little bit longer than I was hoping for.

Thanks for the questions and sorry for the delay!

Labels: MMA, teachers

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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.

Labels: MMA, self defense, the guard

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I'm green with envy, because in a few weeks my friend Don Whitefield is traveling to Florida on a BJJ training trip. He's going to be training with some big names there, like Marcelo Garcia, Ricardo de la Riva, "Boca" Oliveira and Ricardo Liborio.

Ricardo Liborio has been in the news a lot recently, because he's the co-owner and head instructor for the mixed martial arts powerhouse known as American Top Team (ATT). He's also one of Carlson Gracie's most famous black belts. He won the 'most technical fighter' award in the 1996 BJJ World Championships, has competed at the highest levels of submission grappling, and has now turned his attention to producing MMA champions.

ATT has fighters in almost every UFC. For example, Denis Kang (who is fighting this weekend in UFC 93) calls ATT home, and raves about the quality of training there.

So here's the thing...

Since I can't go to Florida myself, I figured I'd ask Don to ask Ricardo Liborio some questions for me. I'm particularly interested in how BJJ has to be adapted to work in MMA, how competitors should balance different aspects of their training, and what a typical 'work week' looks like for their fighters.

But I'm also going to open the floor to you guys. Do you have questions about BJJ, MMA, or the relationship between the two. If you do, use the site contact form in the next few days and send me your TOP QUESTION. No promises, but I'll do my best to get an answer for you.

Let's get together ASAP and figure out ATT uses BJJ to dominate the UFC and MMA! (Sorry, I couldn't resist...).

Labels: MMA, teachers

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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!

Labels: MMA, the guard

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One of the worst organized MMA shows I ever saw was a small local show, back in 1996. Before I talk about that particular show though, I have to set the stage: UFC 9 had just happened. That UFC was 'special' because at the last minute the rules had been changed to ban punches with the closed fist to the face (more on the event and the backstory here).

Some of the fighters in that UFC ignored the no closed fist rule and merrily punched their opponents in the face (incurring minor financial fines along the road to victory). Other fighters apparently took that rule seriously and only slapped their opponents. Almost of the fans, myself include, were confused by what was going on.

So now let's get back to that particularly putrid local MMA show.

A friend of mine was coaching one of the fighters, so I was privy to the pre-fight rules meeting. I was interested to see what they would allow at these fights. This was before the athletic commissions got involved in regulating MMA so every event had a different set of rules governing the legality of headbutts, elbow strikes, knees on the ground, wearing of gloves, closed fist punching, etc.

Are you ready for the rules meeting? It was one sentence long: "OK, like it's total UFC rules".

That's it.

After that, the fights themselves were a gong show. Some guys were doing Pancrase-style open hand slapping. Other people were throwing repeat headbutts into their opponent's faces and trying to punch them in the balls. The referee, the same guy who had delivered the oh-so-concise rules meeting, seemed completely out of his depth as he tried to manage the mayhem.

The climax of the show occurred when one fighter knocked down his opponent near the ring ropes. He then grabbed the bottom rope, stood up and stepped on the neck of his opponent. With the full weight of his body and the tension of the bottom rope pressing down on his opponent's neck and pinning him there he started stomping his victim on the head.

And the ref did - nothing. He was useless anyhow, but this tactic so stunned him that he stood there and watched.

Finally the victim's corner stormed into the ring and bull rushed the aggressor off of their fighter. A near riot broke out, and eventually, after much yelling in about 3 different languages, the stomper was disqualified and the stompee, somewhat worse for wear, was declared the winner.

Of course this entire schmozzle was almost entirely the referee's fault (who was also the organizer and promoter, by the way). If I had been a politician, and this had been my introduction to MMA, I would have knelt down and made a vow that my life's mission would be the eradication of this brutal bloodsport. Not amateur MMA's proudest moment...

So what does that have to do with us today? MMA is much more regulated and standardized now, but jiu-jitsu and submission grappling tournaments still use widely varying rules. Some allow suplexing throws, others do not. Some allow certain leglocks, others do not. Some award points when you use the turtle position to reverse an opponent, others do not. Some allow neck cranks, others do not.

Even if you never compete, it's still worth clarifying the rules when you're about to spar with someone you've never rolled with before. If you're operating under the assumption that heel hooks are forbidden, but it's the bread and butter move at that other guy's home club, then things could go badly in a hurry. No matter whether you compete or not, make bloody clear that you know what the ground rules are; your ACLs will thank you for it.

Labels: Injuries, MMA

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Most of my text message communications to my friends are pretty short and mundane. Recently, however, I had a very interesting conversation with MMA fighter Denis Kang, partially over the phone but mostly using text messages. Despite the limitations of this conversational medium I came away with some great insights into MMA conditioning.

Denis has spent the last several months in Montreal Canada, both to help George St. Pierre's with his pre-UFC training camp, and also to prepare for his own upcoming title defense in the Spirit MC organization. Denis has worked with a great number of top conditioning coaches, but he told me that while working with coach Jonathan Chaimberg his strength and endurance has jumped to new levels.

One of the things that Denis and George St. Pierre do are circuits which incorporate heavy low-repetition exercises (like weighted pullups) followed by explosive plyometric movements (like medicine ball slams). This combination of weight training and plyometrics is called 'complex training'

To illustrate what complex training in a conditioning circuit might look like, Denis put one circuit, a small part of his workout, onto Youtube and agreed to let me tell the Grapplearts readership about it.



If you think that this circuit might be tiring, then imagine doing it several times in a row, with far too little rest in between. Oh, and before you even hit the weights, make sure you first 'warm up' with some leg-shredding and heart-pounding Tabata sprints on a steeply inclined treadmill!

Now you have an insider's perspective on what these athletes go through to mold their bodies to be ready for the rigors of combat sports. Isn't the life of a professional fighter appealing?

P.S. Click here for examples of other MMA conditioning routines.

P.P.S. Here is Denis teaching the Anaconda Choke, a submission he has used to great effect in MMA competition.

Labels: conditioning, MMA

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Like many of you, last Saturday night I sat transfixed, watching Brock Lesnar maul Heath Herring at UFC 87. While I was watching, a friend leaned over and asked me if I'd injured myself recently: I had gotten so tense while watching that my neck was all stiff and my shoulders were creeping up to somewhere around my ears.

My tension (and interest in the fight) arose for at least three reasons.

Firstly, as you've probably noticed, Brock Lesnar is a very large human. He actually has to cut weight to get under the 265 pound limit for heavyweights. The combination of huge size and great athleticism makes for such fascinating viewing that if one of those Pacific Northwest earthquakes had hit while I during that fight I probably wouldn't have noticed.

Secondly, my friend and mentor Erik Paulson was in Lesnar's corner. Brock Lesnar was very happy with the training he'd received from Erik Paulson and Greg Nelson for his debut fight against Frank Mir, and so, despite a disappointing initial loss, decided to stick with his coaching staff. From personal experience I know just how good an instructor Erik is, but it's always nice when someone famous agrees with you.

Thirdly, I was fascinated by how disciplined Brock Lesnar was. He didn't get greedy or overreach, he just stuck to his gameplan and methodically continued the beatdown. He paced himself and never used dipped too deep into his anaerobic reserves. Also, when Lesnar was in mount and Herring turned to his belly, Lesnar DIDN'T put the hooks in and move into rearmount as most MMA fighters would do. Instead he dismounted, leaving Herring turtled beneath him. Years of amateur wrestling have made Lesnar very comfortable in what is basically a modified referee's position, and it worked great for him.

The point here is NOT that you shouldn't take rear mount if your opponent gives it to you - I love the rear mount and always take it if given the chance. The point is that you shouldn't change horses in midstream, especially if the horse you're on is taking you the right way anyhow. Lesnar had a strategy that had worked for him in wrestling and had worked for him in MMA training, and now it worked for him in the UFC.

Here are some links and resources relevant to some of the topics I discussed today:

• Brock Lesnar on his coaches and training to prepare for Heath Herring
• How to cut weight for MMA
• How to apply the Rear Naked Choke, my favorite rear mount submission

Labels: MMA, teachers

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I trained with Denis Kang for the first five or six years of his MMA career. At some point during that time he became very, very difficult to sweep. Partially this was due to his increasing technical knowledge, but it was also more than that. He started refusing to accept getting swept, and would keep on scrambling and fighting the sweep from its initiation to its very end. Even when I managed to complete the first 90% of a sweep on him I could usually never finish the last 10%: at the very last instant he would bounce, twitch, roll and scramble, ending up back on his feet again.

Needless to say, this was VERY frustrating.

Refusing to concede a sweep has a lot of advantages. In MMA the bottom position is almost always a bad place to be, because your opponent can use gravity and land some very heavy blows. In BJJ and submission wrestling getting swept costs you points which could lose you the match.

Some grapplers, however, give up too easily when fighting a sweep. Often this is particularly noticeable for grapplers who love the guard position: they are almost relieved to be swept because it means that they can retreat to their comfort zone and start working their own guard game. Probably their jiu-jitsu would improve faster if they tried to keep the top position and worked on their guard passing skills.

Some people might argue that high-speed scrambling uses up too much energy, but think of it this way: if you do get swept and pinned then how much energy are you going to have to use to escape to a neutral position? It's probably a lot better to use some energy up front and prevent the sweep from getting finalized, rather than ending up in a bad position and having to settle in for a long, hard, and defensive fight.

Scrambling out of sweeps can be taught and trained. What you need is a training partner who will sweep you at 50% to 70% of regular speed, and then takes his time finalizing the sweep by coming to the top position rather slowly. He has to give you the time to scramble and get your legs back underneath you, rather than jumping on top of you and squishing you flat. It can be difficult to find someone who is willing to help you this way, but the results of this sort of training can be very valuable.

IMPORTANT CAVEAT: I don't want to end on a downer, but I have to point out that refusing the concede the sweep is not without its own dangers. If you're trying to stop a very high-energy sweep, or if your opponent is heavy (or heavier than you), then the consequences of posting an arm out could include a sprained wrist, a hyperextended elbow or even a broken bone in the arm. The basic rule here is that it is OK to scramble but it is NOT OK to post on the ground with a straight arm. Better to concede the sweep than end up with your arm in a cast for six weeks!

Not having your arm straight and posted on the mat was also discussed in this previous tip: www.grapplearts.com/2008/02/simplest-way-to-avoid-injury.htm

Finally, some people take the principle we're discussing a step further and apply it to their standup wrestling, which is to say that they refuse to concede the takedown even after all their technical counters have failed. This approach is valid and has won a lot of matches, but the danger level of doing this is very high. I know several people who have broken their arms or dislocated their shoulders posting on their hands while fighting a throw, and every decent size Judo tournament features multiple visits from ambulance crews to pick up and cart off yet another Judoka who was doing all sorts of silly things while trying not to get thrown. Do it if you want to, but consider yourself officially warned!

Labels: Injuries, MMA, positions, the guard

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My friend and coach Erik Paulson was recently featured on the MMA Podcast Carson's Corner. It is a very interesting interview in which he candidly discusses his recent (triumphant) return to the ring, why he wasn't allowed to compete in the early UFC, and coaching such fighters as Ken Shamrock and Josh Barnett.

Labels: MMA, teachers

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A video review blog called White Collar BJJ recently managed to link Frank Mir, the Spanish Inquisition and yours truly into a single coherent post. Check it out the article here.

Labels: Grapplearts DVDs, MMA

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Last weekend I got to train with one of my coaches and friend Erik Paulson, who was hosted in Seattle by Chris Clarke of Northwest Kali. As usual Erik covered an amazing amount of material that I'll be digesting for long time. It was great that several seminar participants came up to me and introduced themselves as readers of this newsletter. Sometimes I forget how big this mailing list has become, and so it's still a thrill to put faces to email addresses and realize that there are real actual people reading these newsletters!

Labels: MMA, teachers

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Concussions are an ever-present possibility in grappling, especially if you do a lot of takedowns or striking. This article on post-concussion syndrome is well worth a quick read just in case you, or someone you know, suffers from headaches, dizziness and trouble concentrating after a blow to the head.

Labels: Injuries, MMA

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I am very happy to announce that my once-training-partner Denis Kang has advanced further in the Pride Survival Middleweight tournament! To move to the semi-finals he decisively took out Amar Suloev, no mean feat given that Suloev had dispatched veteran BJJ fighter Murilo Bustamante in the first round of the tournament. You can see the fight on YouTube.com.

Once again, my BJJ coach Marcus Soares was in Denis' corner. After I saw the unorthodox one-armed rear naked choke that finished the fight I teased Marcus about showing Denis "secret techniques" that he wasn't sharing with the rest of us. Marcus laughed and said "it's no secret; first you break the guy's nose and make him bleed a lot, then you can do that choke".

Labels: MMA

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The following question was submitted by a subscriber of the Grapplearts newsletter.

Q: For self defense would it be better to study the grappling arts or the striking arts?

A: Obviously it is best to have a background in both striking and grappling, but if you could only study one type of art then I believe that the grappling arts are superior for self defense. Rorion Gracie said it best: most real fights end up on the ground. For women the situation is even more extreme, as virtually 100% of rapes end up on the ground.

Another advantage of grappling is that it allows people to spar at close-to-full intensity with a relatively minimal chance of injury. This gives the average grappling practitioner a chance to apply his or her techniques under adrenal stress on a daily basis. To do the same thing with striking would be difficult and unappealing to most people. The average recreational striker doesn't want to getting blasted in the face with a full power right cross, or heave up their lunch after getting kneed in the ribs, as a regular part of their training.

Labels: Injuries, MMA

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On June 4th Denis Kang did it again. Fighting in the Pride Middleweight Grand Prix he took on feared striker Murilo "Ninja" Rua from the Chuteboxe Academy. The fight did not go long: he KO'd Ninja in 12 seconds! You can see this video below or at www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0kuV96Zlaw



If you watch the video you see Denis connect with a right cross that causes Ninja to lose his balance. Denis senses an opportunity to end the fight and chases Ninja across the ring and then to the ground, all the while throwing bombs with both hands. It's hard to tell exactly how many punches were thrown, but it was at least 15 or 16 power punches in less than 10 seconds!

Now throwing 15 power punches in 10 seconds is a good way to tire yourself out, UNLESS you are in great shape and are pretty sure that this flurry is going to end the fight. Denis knew Ninja was in trouble and made sure that he never recovered. Great fighters have a well-developed ability to go piranha on someone when they taste blood in the water. This ability to seize an opportunity and end the fight is partially instinctive and partially the result of countless hours of training.

The same killer instinct can be applied to submission grappling and Brazilian jiu-jitsu: suppose you have your opponent pinned and he escapes, but exerts an enormous amount of energy to do so. If you do nothing, you allow your opponent to rest and recover a little bit. If you use this opportunity to advance your position and finish with a submission - despite being tired yourself - then you have just successfully used your inner piranha!

Labels: MMA

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Last Saturday night Matt Hughes decisively defeated Royce Gracie in a much promoted UFC matchup. One of the most interesting things about this fight was that mixed martial arts have come full circle, with Matt defeating Royce using a strategy first popularized by Royce himself.

Matt Hughes used a positional strategy straight from the jiu-jitsu playbook: takedown to sidecontrol to rearmount, and then finishing with strikes from rearmount. This approach to fighting comes directly from Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Rearmount is not a pin in wrestling and it doesn't win a match in Judo: the dominance of this position is emphasized by jiu-jitsu to an extent not found in other martial arts.

This fight goes to show the HUGE influence the Gracie family has had on mixed martial arts (and martial arts in general). Their techniques and strategies are now out in the open, and have revolutionized our approach to fighting.

Kudos to Royce for igniting the grappling explosion by dominating the early UFCs. Huge respect to Matt Hughes for his continuing dominance in an incredibly tough sport.

Labels: MMA

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Congratulations to Denis Kang who defeated dangerous striker Mark Weir at Pride Bushido last Sunday. The fight ended at 4:55 of the first round after Denis landed a devastating series of punches and knees. Denis is now undefeated in 16 consequtive fights, and is 3 and 0 in Pride!

A pre-fight interview with Denis is available at the ADCC website. Denis's DVD My Mixed Martial Arts covers many of the techniques and strategies he used against Weir and is available at the Grapplearts website.

Labels: MMA

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There is a relatively unknown choke that has been making waves in MMA for a couple of years now: it is a rolling head and arm guillotine, otherwise known as the “Anaconda Choke”. This is the choke used by such fighters as Antonio "Minotauro" Nogueira in Japanese Pride, Randy Couture in the UFC and Denis Kang in Russian M1.

I started using this choke in sparring about a year ago: occasionally it would work, but often my opponent would counter or escape. Then Denis and I filmed his soon-to-be released instructional video, called “My Mixed Martial Arts”. One of the many things he wanted to show was the Anaconda Choke – he had just choked out Alexei Veselovzorov with it.

I was directing the action from behind the camera, but even watching through the viewfinder I learned at least 3 details that I hadn’t previously been aware of:

1 – dipping my shoulder when initially sinking the arm across the throat
2 – getting my hand well past the bicep when locking your arms
3 – putting my head to the side of the body during the roll, NOT on the back

Adding these details made this a far more powerful and effective choke for me. If you already know this technique you might be able to learn 3 entirely different details just by watching Denis teach this technique, so check out the QuickTime movie at www.grapplearts.com/My-Mixed-Martial-Arts-Download.htm. If this is a new technique for you then your training partners might be in for a surprise the next time you hit the mats!

Labels: chokes, MMA

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