January 25, 2009
Getting Back to Your Feet From Guard
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.
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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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January 11, 2009
Why I Started Martial Arts
Normally I use these posts to focus on one particular aspect of grappling. In previous tips I've covered everything from the anatomy of chokes (here, here and here) to post-workout nutrition (here).
Well not this time...
I'm still overwhelmed with the release of the BJJ Roadmap Package, and so I decided to put a video onto Youtube that I've been meaning to post for a while now. It's not about technique at all; instead it's just me sitting and talking about what got me started in martial arts, which instructors most influenced me, and so on.
If you're interested in that sort of thing, you can watch it below, or else you can scroll on and get to the 'good stuff'
bookmark this! del.icio.us | Digg it | reddit | Yahoo MyWeb | Google | StumbleUpon
Well not this time...
I'm still overwhelmed with the release of the BJJ Roadmap Package, and so I decided to put a video onto Youtube that I've been meaning to post for a while now. It's not about technique at all; instead it's just me sitting and talking about what got me started in martial arts, which instructors most influenced me, and so on.
If you're interested in that sort of thing, you can watch it below, or else you can scroll on and get to the 'good stuff'
Labels: self defense, teachers
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February 17, 2008
Survival Story
An anonymous person contacted me recently and shared a story of how a female friend had used a few months of BJJ training to escape from an assault and/or attempted rape situation. Using BJJ she managed to escape a pin, stand up and then run away and get help. She probably just used very basic pin escape movements, but pulling them off under emotional duress, with limited training and a large size and strength disadvantage points to the effectiveness of both the techniques she learned and the training methods used to ingrain them in her.
Arguments about the relative importance of grappling in MMA go on and on, but women's self defense is not MMA. Virtually all rapes end up on the ground, and I think that some form of grappling is critical for women everywhere. This takes us back to the article written by the female readership of this newsletter entitled 'Why Should Women Grapple" - it's an article that is still very relevant and I'm proud to have it on my site. Please feel free to forward this article to the women in your life, it might just make them a little safer.
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Arguments about the relative importance of grappling in MMA go on and on, but women's self defense is not MMA. Virtually all rapes end up on the ground, and I think that some form of grappling is critical for women everywhere. This takes us back to the article written by the female readership of this newsletter entitled 'Why Should Women Grapple" - it's an article that is still very relevant and I'm proud to have it on my site. Please feel free to forward this article to the women in your life, it might just make them a little safer.
Labels: self defense, women
bookmark this! del.icio.us | Digg it | reddit | Yahoo MyWeb | Google | StumbleUpon