Grappling Tips Newsletter

A bunch of people have recently emailed me, basically asking if I'm still alive. I haven't been sending out my normal volume of grappling tips and beginner lessons recently, and they want to know why!

You see, I've been working like mad on the Online Grappling Concepts course that I'm delivering at my new site, Grapplearts.tv. I'm really enjoying creating those lessons, but it takes a lot of time to write, film, edit and encode each weekly lesson. And the 15 to 25 page PDFs that accompanies each weekly lesson. And the occasional bonus video.

Anyway, that's the reason I haven't been posting quite as much recently. Thought you might want to know why!

But I HAVEN'T completely forgotten about you. That's why I want to talk about an easy way to prevent injury.

This tip comes from my heart, because I learned this lesson first hand when I injured my first BJJ teacher (and friend) Pshemek Drabchinsky.

Once upon a time we were grappling. I was on top and things seemed to be going well (this was unusual at the time because he was way more skilled than I). However on this day I almost had him pinned! Pshemek is one of those Daddy Long Legs kind of grapplers, and he was trying to put me back into his guard using his long, flexible and agile legs.

He was pushing on my hip with his hand to make enough room to bring his legs into play.

To thwart his defense I twisted my hips: this is one good option, because changing the angle of your body this way often collapses your opponent's arms.

Unfortunately this time I did it a little to abruptly and a little too fast.



There was pop!

And he gasped in pain.

His fingers had got caught on my body and when I twisted my hips he couldn't get his hand out in time. In effect I had applied a hard, uncontrolled wristlock on my training partner without meaning to do so. His wrist took more than a year to heal completely, and I felt bad about it the whole time.

There are eight small bones, and a lot of ligaments and nerves in the wrist. Unfortunately if something is broken in there, then the fractures is often missed by a non-specialist looking at an X ray. (So if you or someone you know severely injures the wrist, or if a nagging wrist injury just won't heal, then get hand specialist to take a look at you, and not just the regular ER doc...).

Anyway, I don't mean to scare you you, but I hope I've made my point that wrist injuries are not to be taken lightly.

If someone is pushing your body then go ahead and use the body twist to neutralize his arms. Just don't do it super-abruptly and with a lot of weight on his hands.

And if you're pushing from the bottom then be aware of the dangers. Be aware of the angles and positioning of your wrists and hands, and be ready to collapse your arms in before you get inadvertently wristlocked. Better to live and fight another day from the bottom of sidemount than have your training cut short by a hyperextended wrist.

Train safe, because as BJJ black belt David Meyer says, "Injury is the enemy!"

Labels: Injuries, positions

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The first time I saw the Reverse Mount I was at an Erik Paulson seminar. My reaction was something like "yeah, right...."

I honestly thought that Erik had run out of high percentage things to teach and was now just making stuff up.

Knowing Erik though, I really shouldn't have doubted him...

As soon as I used the reverse mount in sparring I realized that my opponent had no clue about what to do. In addition, the pressure on his diaphragm turned out to be quite intense, making it hard for him to breath.

This is an application of choking your opponent's diaphragm instead of his neck.

Difficulty breathing = panic = doing something stupid = easy submission! I finished my partner with a submission and that was the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

After that I started using it fairly regularly. I even won the a BJJ tournament with it: I started in North South, jumped up and forward to get to Reverse Mount, and then sunk in a kneebar (a breakdown of that finish, and a video of it, made it into my Dynamic Kneebars DVD).

It's funny, before you identify something as a position it just looks like a wacky tangle of legs and arms. You think to yourself "how could I ever end up in that silly position?"

But after you isolate it and give it a name you start seeing it much more often. Grapplers may not mean to end up there, but they do anyway.

And you see this position even at the highest levels: I remember watching two top ranked fighters in Pride end up in this position and stalemate there for what seemed like hours (in reality it was probably only a few minutes).

It's so unusual that the vast majority of people trapped on the bottom have no idea how to escape from here or even what kind of submissions to expect

(To my loyal readers I'll spill the beans and tell you that most of the attacks from here involve leglocks, but don't tell anyone...)

Knowing how to apply a few so-called 'specialty' positions can be an absolute ace up your sleeve!

Labels: competition, leglocks, positions, teachers, unorthodox strategies

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OK, it's official. The collective intelligence of the Grapplearts readership is awesome.

About 5,000 people receive these newsletters, and many more read it on the website, via RSS feeds, etc. If we all got together and combined our knowledge we'd make Rickson Gracie look like a three-stripe white belt.

A few days ago I talked about one of my favorite unorthodox positions: Offside Kesa Gatame. I also said that, to the best of my knowledge, there aren't any formal names for this position

Well Chris Beaver from Canada and Pierre Henry from Belgium both wrote in to tell me that Judo DOES have a name for this position, namely: "Makura Kesa Gatame."

The funny thing is that, before I wrote the article in question, I'd asked about 5 Judo black belts if they'd ever seen that position and they all said no.

After I got those two emails I did some additional research and found out that there are a couple of variations of Makura Kesa Gatame. One of those variations is very similar to what I call Offside Kesa Gatame.

It's a bit of a digression, but one thing to keep in mind is that while some Judo players may use this as a PINNING position, knowledge of the submission potential of this position will be more rare. In Judo the pin itself can win the match, so why risk going for a position and losing the position.

(Back when I did Judo going for a submission from a good pinning position in competition would have been considered insane).

I've often said that we should look beyond the borders of our own specific martial arts for additional information. Chris and Pierre helped me do just that!

Thanks!

Labels: competition, judo, positions, unorthodox strategies

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Today I want to look at another unorthodox position. It's so unique that - to the best of my knowledge - there aren't any formal names for it. For now I'm calling it the "Offside Kesa Gatame", because it resembles normal Kesa Gatame except that you're applying it on the 'wrong' side of your opponent's body.

The first couple of times I ended up here were complete accidents, as I was frantically trying to hold down a bucking opponent. At that time I had no clue that I was actually in a position with submission potential.

Since then I've been formally shown this position by two separate instructors - it's one of Erik Paulson's favorites, and also the late Carlson Gracie showed it a seminar he did in Vancouver back in 2005

I can guarantee you that 99% of grapplers caught in Offside Kesa Gatame will be taken completely by surprise. This can give you a huge advantage, because your opponent will often do the wrong thing to get out and give you an easy submission.

When you're applying Offside Kesa Gatame you trap your opponent's head and FAR arm (instead of his near arm). His head is elevated off of the ground by resting on your thigh.

The photo at the top of this post shows the positioning of my legs (spread wide) and my right arm (trapping his head and left arm). I'll tell you more about the positioning of my other arm in a minute...

But first I've gotta tell you something very important...

The big danger of Offside Kesa Gatame is getting bridged over backwards. In order NOT to get bridged I normally do TWO things

1. I keep my legs spread very wide apart. If your feet are close together then you're going to go for a ride, straight to the bottom
2. I keep my weight forward. That's why - in the picture just below - my head is down and I'm grabbing my shin with my hand.

Once you shut down the possibility of getting bridged over backwards he may still manage to escape by squirming, but the chances are that you'll still be on the top in some variation of side control.

You can slap Offside Kesa Gatame onto your opponent in a number of ways.

The most common entry is probably when you have Side Mount on your opponent with his far arm underhooked. There are other entries as well though - my most recent discovery is how to surprise your opponent by switching to this position from an under-over grip on this back when you don't have the hooks in yet.

Once you're in Offside Kesa Gatame there are a variety of very effective armlocks and chokes available to you, most of which keep you in the top position.

As I alluded to earlier you can also end up here completely by accident. Even if you have no intention to make this a bread and butter position, then at the very least you should know how to transition back into a more familiar top position.

So give this position a try. Start with isolating Offside Kesa and work on maintaining it with a semi-cooperative training partner. If you like it then begin incorporating it into your sparring.

I don't feel the slightest bit sorry for your opponents when you start busting this move out on them - it's their punishment for not reading this blog and being subscribed to the Grappling Tips Newsletter!

Labels: kesa gatame, positions, unorthodox strategies

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Boy, was there a lot of buzz after my last post! When I wrote about Kesa Gatame being both a valid and an unorthodox attack position, long heated discussions broke out on several grappling forums and quite a few people even contacted me with quite a diverse set of responses:

• A lot of people agree with me (which is always nice to hear).
• Others insist that Kesa Gatame is easy to counter (I can only say that they've never had it applied on them 'in anger').
• Some people argue that it's not an unorthodox position at all, and that it's a fundamental Judo position (true, but it's NOT a typical BJJ position).
• And there's a selection of grapplers who are upset with me because I've spilled the beans about one of their favorite positions (what can I say, that's my job...).
  

Oh well, I wonder what they'll all think about my next post on "Offside" Kesa Gatame...

Labels: positions, unorthodox strategies

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Kesa Gatame (what the guy in the white gi is using in the photo above) is the Judo name for a position that is also known as the Scarf Hold or the Head and Arm pin.

Some people will object my calling this an 'unorthodox' position, because it's a staple pin in Judo, Sambo and Freestyle Wrestling.

That's true, but while it may be common in other grappling systems, it's underutilized and generally frowned upon in BJJ. (I think this is because of the common belief that it's too easy to have your back taken from here, but that's easy to counter if you know how).

These other arts have honed kesa gatame as a pinning position. The only problem is that they don't use or teach very many submissions from here.

In those sports the submission is redundant - if you pin your opponent for 3 seconds (wrestling) or 25 seconds (Judo) you win the match. Given these rules, why risk going for a submission?

BJJ is different - the ultimate goal is to submit, not pin, your opponent. And if submitting your opponent is your goal, then Kesa Gatame actually has a lot to offer!

I first learned about the submissions you can apply in Kesa Gatame from Shootwrestling, as taught by Dan Inosanto and Erik Paulson. It turns out that you can submit your opponent using a whole gamut of submissions, including:

• straight armlocks
• bent armlocks
• chokes
• neck cranks
• leglocks

Personally I now use Kesa Gatame all the time in sparring. It also has a special place in my heart because, many years ago, it saved my butt in a tournament. I was behind on points, managed to secure Kesa Gatame, and then transitioned into a kneebar which won me the gold medal.

So no matter what anybody says, I know that Kesa Gatame works in BJJ.

And it's not just my opinion. Several of my teammates - most notably Benito Segura, now a Marcus Soares brown belt - have refined this into an absolutely deadly position. And yes, I've been caught in it. And tapped...

When it comes to Kesa Gatame you don't necessarily need to make it your primary position, but you've GOT to learn a little bit about it.

This is an area of grappling that BJJ and submission grappling people could actually learn a lot from Judo, Freestyle Wrestling, Sambo, Shootwrestling and all the other styles for which Kesa Gatame is a bread and butter position.

Labels: Brazilian jiu-jitsu, kesa gatame, positions, unorthodox strategies

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After my last tip about unorthodox BJJ positions I had some people contact me and tell me that I'd left out the North South position from my list of the 6 fundamental BJJ Positions.

I've actually addressed this issue in my Beginning BJJ Package, and so I'm just going to quote from there:

"The boundaries of the positional variations we've just discussed are a bit vague, and some people might classify certain variations as separate positions. For example, some people might consider the North-South position to be sufficiently distinct from Side Mount to deserve its own category, as opposed to what I've done in this book (i.e. calling North-South position a variant of Side Mount). The terminology isn't too important; to quote Bruce Lee, "...it's just a name, don't fuss over it."

The bottom line is that no classification system is perfect. It doesn't matter if you're dealing with biology, economics, chemistry or grappling: sometimes the things you are trying to classify will absolutely refuse to be forced neatly into a convenient niche. To deal with this problem I encourage you to eventually create your own classification system, and use this system to describe the unique subset of positions, techniques and strategies that YOU use when YOU grapple."

So that's the north-south position cleared up (I hope). I consider it to be a form of side control, but you can call it whatever you want!

Labels: Brazilian jiu-jitsu, positions

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Here is an excerpt from a soon-to-be-released book that I've been working on called "A Roadmap for Brazilian Jiu-jitsu":

Keeping the top position is a contentious issue. To illustrate the debate, let's consider the one of the classic BJJ techniques: a straight armbar from Mount. If you manage to pull it off and apply the armbar then that's great, the match is over. If your opponent manages to defend against the armbar, however, then you will typically end up on the bottom, in Guard. Going for that armbar means that you are accepting the risk of trading a superior position (Mount) for a neutral position (Guard). Some instructors and coaches will encourage you to go for that armbar, while others find the risk of losing top position unacceptable.

As with all attempts to balance risk and reward balancing acts, however, everyone has their own comfort zone. Some BJJ practitioners are perfectly happy to abandon top position to pursue a submission, whereas other, more conservative, practitioners prefer submissions that don't yield the top position if the submission attempt fails.

If you are competing in mixed martial arts (MMA) or are in a self defense situation then I would think long and hard before abandoning the precious top position. Any time you end up on the bottom in a context that includes striking there is always the chance that your opponent, with gravity on his side, could slip some heavy punches, elbows or headbutts through your defenses. If, on the other hand, your emphasis is more oriented towards sport BJJ or submission grappling then you have a more latitude about ending up on the bottom. Being on the bottom in a sport BJJ context isn't so bad if you have a good Guard game.

One of the decisions you'll have to make at some point in your BJJ career is where YOU stand on the issue of keeping the top position. Even if you become a die-hard top position player, there are still several reasons why you should still learn and occasionally practice submissions with an inherent risk of you ending up on the bottom.

First, it may help your athletic development, and make you feel more comfortable in scrambles where positions aren't so clear cut and the role of the combatants (i.e. top vs. bottom) changes very rapidly.

Second, an opponent may reverse you and send you to the bottom against your will - feeling comfortable with these techniques may allow you to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat en route to the bottom.

Finally it will allow you to better counter these techniques should an opponent try them on you; because the best way to learn to counter a technique is to know how to apply it yourself.

Labels: positions

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A large part of jiu-jitsu is using your weight to immobilize your opponent; "crushing the bug" as it is sometimes referred to. When done properly, the application of your body weight from the top position can be enough to submit your opponent by making it impossible for him to breath. Even if your opponent doesn't actually tap out, one of these diaphragm chokes can take much of the wind out his sails and reduce his will to fight.

A barrier to learning the nuances of body positioning and weight distribution necessary for this level of pinning is that most people have no way to gauge the effectiveness of what they are doing. In today's newsletter I'm going to share the ABC method of teaching weight distribution, a powerful way to get immediate feedback on the effectiveness of your pins.

Imagine being back in school and writing a test, with a teacher standing right behind you. Would you score higher on that test if your teacher were to give you encouragement, saying "yes, that's it", whenever you started writing down the right answer? Of course you would - getting immediate feedback always helps your performance.

So try this:

Start out by pinning your partner in side mount or knee mount - these are the two easiest positions to initially apply this in. Now get your partner to slowly recite the alphabet, saying "A, B, C, D...", out loud. If he is able to speak easily then there is something wrong with your positioning; most likely you are putting too much weight onto the mat instead of onto your opponent.

Now adjust your position: try getting off of your knees, lifting your elbows, shifting your weight from his belly onto his diaphragm, etc. When it becomes hard for him to breathe and his recitation starts to sound labored - "A ..... gasp .... B ..... gurgle ........ c-c-c ....." - then you've got it right!

If you're an instructor teaching a class then give the ABC method a try. It makes for a very effective demonstration, because it leaves no doubt in anyone's mind that the pinning position is, in itself, an offensive weapon.

I have written other tips and articles on this topic, which you can check out by going to these additional resources:

• Crushing the Bug
• Choking the Diaphragm
• How to make side mount heavier
  

Take care
Stephan Kesting

Labels: positions

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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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When fighting from my half guard I often recall something that Chris Brennan told me: "one of the secrets of the half guard is to bring your knees to your chest". This advice, simple as it is, can add a whole other dimension to your half guard attacks.

To help visualize the movement think about doing a hanging knee raise - it is basically the same movement, just in a different plane. Here's a good video on how to do that exercise.

OK, so why would we want to do that movement from the bottom half guard? In that position my legs clamp one of my opponent's legs, and when I bring my knees up to my chest my opponent will be moved up, over top of me. If you've seen my Half Guard Sweeps DVD then you know that many powerful half guard attacks start with moving DOWN your opponent's body to get access to his feet, legs and hips. Chris Brennan's 'secret' accomplishes the same thing by a different mechanism: it moves his body UP, rather than your own body down.

There is a pre-requisite to using this move: your opponent can't be clamped down onto your body or head with his arms (which would kill your ability to move him up over you). Accordingly you have to grip fight and time the execution of this move to take advantage of those transitional moments in the half guard when his weight isn't settled and his arms aren't holding you too firmly. Do that and your opponent will be well on his way to getting swept

Labels: positions, the guard

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A few weeks ago I was practicing technique with a big, strong rock climber who had a grip from hell and tenacious isometric strength. I noticed how much he liked controlling my gi, breaking my posture and attacking with collar chokes. Since I knew we were going to spar soon I formulated a simple sparring strategy: I told myself that as soon as I ended up in his guard I would stand up and not go back down onto my knees until I was past his guard.

Why did I do this? The answer should be obvious at the end of this article.

A coarse classification divides guard passes into either standing or kneeling guard passes. If you wanted to break it down a bit further you could say that there are standing and kneeling methods of opening a closed guard, and standing and kneeling methods of actually passing an opened guard. Both standing and kneeling methods have their strengths and weaknesses - I use them both, but I try to choose the appropriate approach for the situation.

Kneeling in your opponent's guard makes you a little harder to sweep because your center of gravity is closer to the ground. If you are kneeling in an opponent's guard your arms and neck are more easily available for him to attack, but it is quite difficult for him to leglock you.

If you choose to stand in order to pass the guard you make yourself a little more vulnerable to sweeps and leglocks. The advantage of standing passes is that you are more mobile and that it is harder for your opponent to attack you with chokes and armlocks.

How can you use this information?

If you have both standing and kneeling guard passes in your repertoire you can tailor your game to avoid your opponent's strengths. If your opponent specializes in chokes and/or armlocks then get to your feet whenever you end up in his guard and try to work your standing guard passes. If your opponent is a leg locking machine then consider engaging him on your knees.

Additionally, guard passing methods vary greatly from club to club. In some clubs kneeling guard passes predominate, whereas other schools tend to mix standing and kneeling guard passes. Schools that do a lot of MMA or no-gi grappling tend to use more standing passes, although few schools use standing methods exclusively.

If you know that your opponent is from a school that uses only kneeling guard passes then you could try only using standing passes against him: he is unlikely to be as skilled at defending against a standing opponent and you could soon find yourself past the guard.

Good luck with this concept!

Labels: leglocks, positions, the guard

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As we've discussed in previous posts, achieving good posture when pinned under your opponent is the first, and often the most critical, step in the escape process. Today we'll address how to achieve good posture on the bottom while your opponent is doing everything he can to prevent it.

Most of the time when I am on the bottom I use one of two strategies to get into proper posture:

1 - Use your bridge. The bridge is an important escape motion, but it is also a useful tool to create space, allowing you to move your hands, forearms and elbows into position.

For one example of this concept, let's say that you are trying to get to the following position (more more fully described in this tip):

To do this posture correctly you have to get your left hand under your opponent's armpit by sneaking your hand between your chest and your opponent's chest. Too much friction and too little room can make this a difficult task. One solution is to do a series of short little bridges, one right after the other: every time you bounce your opponent his chest pressure lessens momentarily, and that means you can sneak your hand a little bit closer to its goal. Of course you should save some energy, because as soon as you get to your posture you need to do a big bridge to throw your opponent up and come out the back door!

2 - Posturing during the pass. In every successful guard pass there comes a point when the person on bottom realizes that getting pinned is inevitable. THIS is when the bottom person should start fighting for posture, NOT once the guard pass is finalized and his opponent's position is stabilized. It is much easier to establish posture in the final few moments of the guard pass than it is to fight to get your limbs into position under a tight side control.

It takes beginners a while to grasp this concept because they don't know how to posture, and also because they have difficulty recognizing the point of no return in a guard pass. The solution to this problem is time on the mats.

Intermediate-level grapplers - roughly blue belt level in BJJ terminology - sometimes also have problems grasping this concept, but for different reasons. These grapplers have learned many things since they were beginners, including:

1. how to prevent common guard passes, and
   
2. how to relax while pinned on the bottom.
   

However in this case, 1 plus 2 equals premature relaxation; they settle into 'being pinned mode' a second or two too early, instead of fighting to establish posture in the final stages of the guard pass.

If you are grappling someone who relaxes prematurely it goes something like this: you battle to get your grips and establish posture, you finally figure out a way to uncross their ankles, you control the legs and hips with difficulty, you force the guard pass as they try to wriggle out of it, and then, all of a sudden, they just give up and lie on the mat like a starfish. The solution lies in their training partners recognizing the problem, printing out this tip and giving it to them.

Set your escapes up early by fighting for posture before your opponent has stabilized his position: you won't be sorry you did. If you are already pinned then try to imagine yourself as a ratchet: every time your create space, or are given space by your opponent, your limbs move into better posture and never give up the ground you've gained.

Labels: positions

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Practitioners of grappling in general, and BJJ in particular, quickly learn about the importance of posture, most typically in the context of being in an opponent's guard. If you have bad posture in the guard you will get swept and submitted all the time; by adopting good posture you can stabilize the top position and get ready to try your own techniques (i.e. guard passes).

Back when I was a blue belt it was a revelation to me to learn that the concept of posture can be applied in other positions as well. I was watching Michael Jen teach pin escapes on video, and he started talking about the importance of posture when trapped in sidemount. If I remember correctly, he went on to explain how correct posture would make your escapes easier and also make it much harder for your opponent to submit you. This changed my way of thinking when it came to setting up my escapes from bad positions.

Posture is important anytime you're vulnerable to submissions, including when you're trapped on the bottom. If you're trapped in the mount, for example, bad posture might include having your hand on your opponent's chest, making yourself vulnerable to the armbar. Good posture in the mount might consist of having one leg straight and turned outwards, the other leg bent and based on the mat, your body turned slightly towards the straight leg and both elbows tight against your ribs. In this position you're much less vulnerable to the quick and easy submissions and much more ready to start your own escape.

Most of the time good posture on the bottom will help create some maneuvering room by pushing on your opponent using the stronger parts of your body (elbows, forearms, knees) while limiting the ways in which he can anchor onto your body or limbs. Achieving and maintaining good posture while on the bottom against a skilled opponent isn't easy, however, because he will be doing everything he can to disrupt your defensive posture. If you're skilled at your pin escapes then the primary battle often lies in achieving good posture, and once you finally get to your posture then the escape happens almost by itself and without much effort.

Labels: positions

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A Reader Asked:

I keep getting trapped in side control. Sometimes I can't even get my hips loose to attempt an escape. Some of the guys I train with are really good and get so tight, epecially trapping my hips between their knee and arm, that I can't move my hips at all. I keep bridging but to no avail. I know a few good escapes that I usually have a lot of luck with, but I wanted to know if there are any little tricks for loosening up the guy on top. How can I loosen the knee and elbow from my hips?"

My answer:

It sounds like your opponents are controlling you in side mount by sandwiching your hips with a knee on one side of your hips and an elbow on the other. This is a good pinning position, and I use it myself fairly often.

First we'll review a bit of theory:

TWO ESCAPES

There are two fundamental escapes from sidemount:

1. Putting your opponent into your guard
2. Coming to your knees (aka turtling).
   

THREE MOVEMENTS

To set up these two escapes you have you have 3 basic hip movements

1. Bridging (lifting your hips up and/or into your opponent)
2. Shrimping (moving your hips away from your opponent)
3. Turning (moving your hips so they face the mat)
   

MANY POSTURES

In order to use these 3 movements to set up the 2 escapes efficiently you need to fight for posture on the bottom. One of the most important postural issues is where you place your hands and arms - call it gripfighting for the positionally disadvantaged. Posture on the bottom is a huge topic, and all I'll say here is that you need to do things like hide your arms so they aren't susceptible to jointlocks, but ensure that they are in position to push your opponent to make room (e.g. by placing the lower part of your forearm on his neck or on his hip).

SOME STRATEGY

OK, now I've given a crash course in sidemount escape theory, let's try to look at your situation specifically.

First of all I'll give you some bad news: at a higher level bridging or shrimping rarely work in isolation. It is the bridge that sets up shrimping, and shrimping that sets up bridging. In practical terms it means that you might bridge HARD into your opponent, and then move your hips away and try to come to your knees or place him in guard.

Secondly, reading between the lines it sounds like you are focussing on putting your opponents back into the guard. It might be time to diversify your escapes by trying to come to your knees more. If his elbow is low enough to control your hips then it should be possible to turn belly down. If he was keeping his arms higher and concentrating on locking down your upper body and arms, then turning to turtle might be a lot harder.

It is true that coming to your knees exposes your back and that you may end up rear-mounted, but the turtle can be a good thing too. Many people go to turtle and then immediately pull guard from there - they don't really hang out there, just pass through it briefly on their way to pulling guard or half guard. If you are more adventuresome you can also try sweeps, takedowns and submissions when turtled: Sakuraba is a fighter who did this very successfully at various points in his MMA career.

Labels: positions

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Last week we started a conversation about how to make yourself feel heavier while pinning your opponent. One way to do this is to take any weight you're placing directly on the ground, and to place it on your opponent. An example will help illustrate this strategy.

Suppose that you have your opponent pinned in side control. You are on his right side, your left arm is going under his head, your right arm is going through his far (left) armpit and your hands are clasped. Your legs are bent and your knees are beside his body.

Let's look at what parts of your body are touching the ground. The list probably includes:

1. your left elbow
2. your left hand/wrist
3. your right elbow
4. your right hand/wrist
5. your left knee
6. your left foot
7. your right knee
8. your right foot

It is important to realize that each time a part of your body rests on the floor it removes weight that could be placed on your opponent.

Suppose that you slightly lift your elbows and hands off the floor by pulling them towards your own body. You're not trying to squeeze him with your arms, only to remove weight from the floor. Suppose you straighten your left leg out behind you so that only the ball of your left foot is making contact with the mat - you are also driving off left leg to pressure into your opponent.

In this scenario you're only touching the mat with the following body parts:

1. your left foot
2. your right knee (placed at his hip to prevent reguarding)
3. your right foot
   

With these changes your opponent now has to carry a great deal more weight. If you are doing it correctly most of the weight transfer will occur where your left shoulder is driving into his neck region, a most uncomfortable scenario for the guy on the bottom.

Now there are MANY variations of sidemount, and MANY different ways to make yourself heavier. I am giving you ONE example to illustrate what I am talking about; please don't take it as the only possibility.

I realize that photos might make this explanation clearer, and those will have to wait until I write a full-fledged article on the topic. The exact placement of your hands and arms and feet and knees isn't actually all that central to this discussion; the important thing is the principle of taking weight off the mat and putting it on your opponent. If you understand this principle you can invent your own limb placements and pinning positions.

Labels: positions

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Sometimes when you're grappling you might want to play 'crush the bug', totally immobilizing your opponent with your bodyweight and making it difficult for him to even breath. Obviously this is easier to do if you weigh 300 pounds, but most grapplers don't position themselves properly to maximize the bodyweight they do have. In the next few weeks I will give you a few pointers that might make you feel 50 pounds heavier when you are on top.

To start with I am going to ask you a few questions:

1. When you are pinning your opponent in sidemount, what is supporting your body? What parts of your body are placing weight on the mat and/or by your opponent?
2. What is supporting your weight when you are in mount?
   
3. What parts of your body are carrying your weight in kneemount?

Now that you've thought about that I will leave you with one final question: what can you do in each of these positions to ensure that you are putting more of your weight on your opponent and less on the mat? The answer to this is one of the keys to playing 'crush the bug' successfully.

Next week I'll give you some of my thoughts on the specific things you can do to make yourself heavier.

Labels: positions

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If you try contesting a larger, stronger opponent using your strength against his strength you will probably lose. You need to fight the battle on your own terms, and two effective (and somewhat related) strategies to do this include:

1. move quicker
2. tire him out.

These strategies may sound obvious, but it is amazing how many grapplers forget this and use power against power.

Moving quicker: if a larger, stronger grappler gets the chance he will play Godzilla and pretend that you are a small Japanese army jeep.

One way not to play his game is to move the heck out of the way! You have less body mass to accelerate than he does, so in most cases you will be faster and more nimble than him. Start moving and don’t stop until you end up in a good position, like in full rearmount.

You may get lucky and catch him in something right off the bat, but even if you don’t you will still frustrate him and tire him out, which leads us right to…

Tire him out: if you think that your endurance is better than his it is time to start a battle of attrition. Force him to move around and respond to your movements and technique.

You’re not necessarily trying to catch him with all these techniques you're trying; you just want to force the action and keep him moving and moving and moving.

Don’t let him rest – many big guys like to fight in small explosive bursts, taking rests in between these sprints (think of how a bodybuilder trains in the gym). Deprive them of this rest and they will usually slip deeper and deeper into the lactic acid zone, which is where you will finally be able to finish the fight on your terms.

This second strategy can be summed up as “survive first, win later”.

Labels: positions, the guard

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Escaping pins is never easy: if you get pinned in a match, then chances are that your opponent is either pretty good (relative to you) or that you are tired. Either way, escaping pins is almost always difficult and tiring, but a few simple principles can make it a little easier.

What I want to talk about today is fact that most pin escapes rely on the same three motions, either alone or in combination. These motions are:

1. Lateral hip movement (shrimping)
2. Bridging
3. Turning onto one's knees

For an example, let's suppose that you are pinned in sidemount. Putting your opponent back into your guard using lateral hip movement is an example of the first escape method. Bridging your opponent over so that you are on top and he is on bottom is an example of the second method. In the third method you turn into the turtle position underneath him (obviously you still have to know what to do from this position too).

Usually you only see one of the three methods employed if both grapplers are beginner level, or if there is a big skill discrepancy between the two grapplers in question. At higher skill levels, however, escapes have to be set up, and it becomes important to use the three methods in combination. For example, you might create some space by bridging, then try to put your opponent back in your guard, and finally escape by turning onto your knees as he reacts to the previous motion(s).

Obviously there are other escape methods, but I bet that 80 to 90% of all pin escapes in sparring and competition fit into these three categories. For your 'homework' try thinking about the pin escapes you use most often and try to figure out if/how they fit into these categories.

Labels: positions

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Last week we discussed something you should (mostly) avoid while rear mounted on your opponent. This week I just want to go over some fundamental tips that may help you maintain rear mount on an opponent trying to escape.

Let’s start with the feet, also called your ‘hooks’. Your hooks should not be in too deep or too shallow: if the back of your knees are resting on your opponent’s thighs then they are too deep. If, on the other hand, your feet are touching the inside of your opponent’s inner thighs then they are usually too shallow. Experience, gained from actual drilling and sparring, will teach you the positioning and maneuvering to best maintain contact with your opponent using your hooks.

Your hips should be square with, and slightly above, your opponent’s hips. Many of the escapes he will want to use involve twisting his hips and creating an angle between his hips and yours. A fundamental part of maintaining rear mount, therefore, is continuously shift your body so your hips stay lined up with his.

Finally we will discuss hand and arm positioning. There are many variations of how to place your arms, especially with the gi. I will just discuss just one of my favorites, which I teach to beginners on their first day and also use myself when sparring. Start with your right arm going underneath his right armpit and your left arm going over top of his shoulder. Link your hands together, palm-to-palm, with your right palm facing upwards and your left palm facing downwards. Your arms form a big loop, encircling his head and one arm. Usually your head is to the right side of his head. Your left arm is ready to choke him if he gives you even a moment’s opening.

The rear mount, properly executed, is one of the most dominant, devastating positions in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, submission grappling, and MMA. Hopefully some of the above concepts have either taught you something new or reinforced something you do already.

Labels: positions

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The rear mount is arguably the most dominant position in grappling. When you have rear mount you can apply some very powerful chokes and locks. In MMA or self defense you can administer severe punishment without your opponent having the ability to strike you back.

The positioning of the legs in rear mount is very important because your legs allow you to follow and control your opponent’s movement. One common mistake in rear mount, made mostly by beginners, is crossing the ankles in front of the opponent’s legs: this is considered a huge no-no in BJJ and submission grappling.

Crossing your ankles and feet while rear-mounted is frowned upon because your opponent can catch you in a simple, and very painful, leglock. If he crosses his ankles (or figure 4’s his legs) on top of your ankles he can tap you out by arching his hips forward. Depending on exactly how the legs are arranged the submission may result from a pain-based Achilles tendon crush, a foot hyperextension, or a foot/knee twist. Regardless of the actual mechanism getting caught in this submission is a painful and embarrassing experience.

All this being said, I occasionally DO cross my ankles when rear mounted on an opponent. Under certain circumstances crossed ankles increase your control over your opponent (which is why people do it instinctively). I never do this for more than a second or two and always maintain a state of high alert in this position. I try to release the crossed ankles as soon as I can, returning to a more conventional rear mount position. To further minimize the risk of getting leglocked I try to cross my ankles high on his body and, if possible, slightly off to one side.

When rear-mounted you should follow the rule of not crossing your ankles at least 99% of the time. Intermediate and advanced level grapplers can sometimes break this rule, but not for very long or without a good reason!


MMA fighter Joe Doerkson displaying good form in rear mount (i.e. NOT crossing his ankles)

Labels: leglocks, positions

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The last two weeks I have talked about solo drills and partner drills. There is a final category of drills I'd like to talk about: competitive 2 person drills.

When you do this type of drilling you are training a specific aspect of your game against a resisting opponent. Essentially you are severely limiting the options available to you and your partner, and from this limitation comes refinement of existing techniques and innovation of new techniques.

The aspect that you are working on could be very general (e.g. passing the open guard) or very specific (e.g. getting a certain grip or maintaining a certain kind of posture). The level of resistance that you opponent/partner gives you can vary from about 10% to full out 100% sparring.

This definition of drilling leads to a truly staggering number of possible drills. The best thing for you to do is to try to develop various drills that will develop your game. Consider the process of taking someone's back and submitting him. If this was an area that you wanted to develop, then here are some of drills you might want to experiment with. Depending on what your strengths, weaknesses and strategies are you may end up retaining some of these drills for a while, in order to hone your ability to attack the back. All these drills start with your partner in the turtle and you on top of him - your goals, however, vary from drill to drill.

1. He tries to put you in the guard, you try to keep him turtled using your bodyweight and moving around him
2. Your goal is to obtain your favorite grip, be it linked hands under-over, double lapel grips through his armpits, or whatever your favorite control grip is. You restart in the same position if you get your grip, or if he puts you in the guard, or if he stands up, or if he rolls you.
3. Your goal is to get both hooks in - restart if you succeed or if he escapes to a safe position.
4. Start with one hook in: your goal is to insert the second hook. His goal is to remove your hook and to prevent the second hook. Go for a defined time period (e.g. 2 minutes) and then switch positions.
5. Your goal is to keep the back and submit him: restart if you submit him from rearmount, or if he escapes, or even if you end up pinning him in any other position than with your chest on his back.
6. etc.
   
7. etc.
8. etc.
   

This is just scratching the surface, and you should now be able to see that you could do similar drills for virtually every position and every submission. All it takes is some honesty and perception on your part to know what your weaknesses are, and some inventiveness to create the drill(s) to fix that weakness.

This sort of drilling is very similar to what I call 'targeted sparring'. For more information on targeted sparring check out these other tips of the week':

• Targeted Sparring: Mobility
• Targeted sparring: Position
• Targeted Sparring: Limited Technique
• Targeted Sparring: Bad Positions
  

Labels: positions, training

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Two-person drills are important training methods to develop skills on the mat. They can be used to warm up at the beginning of your training session, as part of your conditioning program, or as a finishing exercise. You can do these drills to improve your bridging power, refine your hip movement on the bottom, speed up your submissions, or to develop many other skills and attributes.

Today I will give you two examples of two-person drills. Keep in mind that not every drill is useful for every skill level or body type, so there is an onus on every grappler to choose appropriate drills. My ultimate goal is that you will use these examples to develop new drills, specific to your body, your game, and your grappling goals.

In the "kneemount spin armbar drill" (click here to download a QT preview) you are doing repetitions of the 180 degree armbar. This is a fundamental attack in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and submission grappling, but requires lots of repetition to make it smooth and fast. This drill is one way to get lots of repetitions, in a fairly painless manner.

In the final drill, "turtle flips" (click here to download a QT preview) you are developing the back arch, spatial awareness and athleticism. Turtle flips are easier to do if your partner is wearing a gi, but I first saw this exercise in a Shooto class, so it is possible to do them without the gi. This is obviously a fairly advanced drill, and requires that you have put in your time with more basic back arch/bridging drills.

Have fun with these drills.

Labels: positions, training

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There is nothing worse than tapping out to a smother. It is one thing to get caught in a nice technical choke and having to tap out, but it really sucks to get slowly smothered as someone covers your nose and mouth with some part of their body. It's slow, it's frustrating and it's undignified. Sometimes the guy doesn't even know that he's doing it to you, which doesn't make it any better...

Here is a simple, but not commonly known, technique to survive the smother. When you feel like there simply isn't enough air coming into your mouth and nose, open your mouth as wide as it can go. Most of the time the increased intake area will allow enough air to get into your lungs to survive and start plotting your escape and revenge.

This is particularly relevant when you are doing gi-jiujitsu (although it is occasionally useful in no-gi submission grappling as well). If your face is covered by someone's gi and your mouth is just a little bit open, then you are trying to suck air through a relatively small area. If you open your mouth wide then you double or triple the area of gi you are breathing through, making life much better for you.

Labels: breathing, chokes, positions

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In this last installment on fine-tuning your sparring time I would like to talk about starting your sparring sessions from bad positions. Starting out in a bad position is a good way to rapidly improve your pin escapes and submission counters. It is also a great way to challenge yourself, particularly when sparring lighter or less experienced people.

Here are some potential ways to start your sparring:

• Your partner pinning you in mount, side mount or rear mount. He should make sure that he is attacking from that position, and is not just holding on for dear life. The sparring round ends when you tap or you escape into a neutral position (e.g. guard).
• Your partner in the armbar position with you clasping your hands together.
• You in the turtle position and him on top of you, with the grip of his choice.
• You in your partner’s guard and in a loose triangle choke, his legs crossed at the ankles.
• You standing and your partner grabbing both of your legs behind your knees, as if he’s just shot in on a double leg (you could also do similar drills from a single leg, high crotch or low single position). His goal is to take you down, and your goal is to escape or counter his takedown.
• Any other bad position you can think of, particularly ones that you have difficulty escaping from in sparring.
  

There are three ways you can do this drill. First: you could simply start your sparring session in this position, and if you escape then just continue sparring until the round ends or someone taps. Second: when you escape from your positional predicament stop and immediately go back to the same position. Third: you and your partner can change positions after each submission or escape, so that you can both get the benefits of being on top and on bottom.

These drills also benefit your partner. For example, while you are working on your mount escapes he is working on maintaining the mount position and attacking from there. No matter who taps, everybody wins!

Letting your sparring partner start in a dominant position is not a training method for people with fragile egos. Understand this: if you let people start in a dominant position you WILL get tapped out more often in training, and you WON’T catch your partners in as many submissions yourself. On the other hand, your ability to defend against submissions and escape from bad positions will skyrocket, and when you do get caught in a bad position it’ll be just another day in the office rather than a reason to panic.

Labels: positions, training

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A 'position game' is usually characterized by tight transitions between positions, an emphasis on maintaining a position while attacking, and lots of pressure while in a top position. How does one become better at this game?

One good method is to spar and make all your transitions slow, tight and methodical. If you are in your opponent's guard, then use a guard pass that doesn't rely on speed and explosiveness - for example the 'leg on the shoulder' guard pass. As you go through the guard pass pause after each movement and let your opponent try to fight his way out of it: if your technique and pressure are correct he should be unable to resist, even though you are essentially doing it in slow motion.

You can train this way using all sorts of techniques, including submissions, transitions and even some escapes. It is best to initially stick to training with people either lighter, or less experienced, than yourself. If you pick someone who really challenges you then it will be more difficult to try out a new game. After you have perfected your slow motion crushing guard pass, or the unstoppable armlock from sidemount, then you can try it out on your normal grappling partners.

The ability to lock into a position and feel unmovable to your opponent is central to this game. Think of yourself as a ratchet: once you gain an inch of territory you refuse to give it back. Accordingly, some isometric strength is useful for a position-based game in grappling. You don't need to be able to deadlift 400 pounds to do it properly, however; good technique can make you feel twice as heavy as you actually are.

Labels: positions, training

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