The Twister is a flashy and hellishly effective submission made famous by Eddie Bravo. It's now illegal in IBJJF competition, but it shows up sometimes in submission grappling and you're even starting to see it in MMA! If you catch your training partners in it - carefully and gently of course - then you get major bragging rights and some instant 'mat cred.' There are lots of advanced ways … [Read more...]
Rear Mount
The Highest Percentage Rear Mount Escape
There's one specific rear mount escape you'll see more than any other in high level competition... It's also the one that I use all the time when I'm sparring with tough training partners... And to top it off, this technique works with the gi, without the gi, and in MMA! It doesn't matter if it's the BJJ Mundials, a main event at the UFC, or the ADCC finals; when a world-class grappler … [Read more...]
Clark Gracie Shares Some Rear Naked Choke Tips
I recently did a podcast interview with Clark Gracie at a friend's house. After the interview we were talking about the rear naked choke and I realised two things: A) my friend had mats, and B) I had a camera in the car. This was a great opportunity to pick his mind some more, so we quickly set up shop and Clark shared some really great tips about setting up and amplifying the power of the … [Read more...]
The 3 Steps of Berimbolo
Sometimes the best way to really understand something is to teach it. When it comes to jiu-jitsu, breaking a technique down into steps (not too many, not too few) and finding the best way to convey the underlying principles often helps clarify things in your mind. I've been doing a lot of this with the berimbolo sweep recently. For example, yesterday I was training with my friend Chad. He's … [Read more...]
What Do White Belts Need to Learn in Their 1st Year of BJJ?
by guest author Mark Mullen I'm currently in Rio de Janeiro doing a little training in BJJ. While here I have met a number of white belts at the Connection Rio BJJ hostel. Sitting around the pool or over acai after training, inevitably the topic of conversation turns to BJJ and the struggles of the white belts trying to find their way in the art suave. … [Read more...]
A Reverse de la Riva Guard Tutorial
The de la Riva guard is an open guard position in which you entangle one of your opponent's legs with your own leg. It was popularised years ago by Ricardo de la Riva, and has since become a staple of gi and no gi jiu-jitsu. But a related position, the Reverse de la Riva guard, is still a mystery to many grapplers... … [Read more...]
How to Maintain Rear Mount, Improve Guillotines, and Thwart ‘Combatives’ Experts
Rear mount seems like such a simple position: I mean, you're basically just piggybacking on your opponent, right? Well, success in jiu-jitsu usually means doing simple, fundamental things with a high degree of sophistication and attention to detail. And rear mount is no different - switch your grip by a couple of inches, have your hand open instead of closed, do the wrong thing for even a … [Read more...]
How to Stop Your Opponent from Turtling During Your Guard Pass
I was recently asked the following question: "Hi Stephan, My biggest problem on the mats right now is people turtling and going to their to knees when I'm about to pass their guard. Once they're in turtle they either roll back to guard or stand up and all the hard work I did to pass their guard is for nothing. What can I do to prevent this from happening?" This is a really common problem. … [Read more...]
Hidden Techniques for Maintaining Rear Mount
When people teach the rear mount they often show you how to get your hooks in to achieve the rear mount, and then they teach you a couple of submissions from the back. Their idealized flowchart has two steps: Get your hooks in, Submit your opponent. Oh, if only life were so simple! … [Read more...]
How to Attack Super-Defensive Opponents
It's a fact: big guys don't like losing to smaller guys. That's why sometimes, when a bigger guy realizes he's not going to be able to actually win a match, he changes gears and uses all his strength and size for only one thing... ... to stall, stall, stall and hope for a draw! It can be super-frustrating when an opponent absolutely refuses to engage with you. Especially when the damn guy … [Read more...]
Rear Mount to Armbar
by Vitor "Shaolin" Ribeiro The rear mount is a great position in BJJ, submission grappling and NHB. Normally one uses a choke to submit an opponent from the rear mount, but here Shaolin shows an alternative finish with several innovative touches. … [Read more...]
Taking the Back
by Vitor "Shaolin" Riberio Passing the guard and taking an opponent's back in a Brazilian jiu-jitsu match is a huge advantage. Here Shaolin shows you one way to do it: … [Read more...]
“Comedy’ reverse omo plata from rear mount
Thanks to Matt Kirtley for submitting this technique. For more information, or to contact Matt, please visit Gracie Barra Clearwater - Stephan Kesting. While this entry into the reverse omo plata may seem like a comedy option (especially when I obviously have the choke in all these photos) I have actually used it when someone is defending their neck really well, especially when they have a gi … [Read more...]
How to Finish the Back Climb from Half Guard
Taking an opponent's back is a fundamental attack from half guard, but once your opponent has been caught in it a few times he will start blocking your back climb. Most typically he will wrap your arm with an overbook, also known as a 'whizzer.' Here's one way of my favorite ways to counter his counter and come out on top and behind your … [Read more...]
A Roadmap for the Rear Naked Choke
The Rear Naked Choke, or RNC, is one of those fundamental techniques. Choking someone from rearmount is an incredibly effective and efficient tool in the jiu-jitsu arsenal, but I only acquired it relatively late in my grappling career. Instructions on how to do the RNC are in the first martial arts books I bought when I was 12 years old. I also learned how to do it in Judo class at about the … [Read more...]
A Cool Trick for Finishing the Rear Naked Choke
When you’re attacking with the Rear NakedChoke (aka the RNC) you’ve got to have answers for when your opponent buries his chin in his own chest to hide his neck. Here’s a simple trick that Erik Paulson recently showed to me to get your opponent to lift his chin so you can sink the Rear Naked Choke properly. (And here’s a link to the original 10 minute tutorial on the RNC) Give it a try. … [Read more...]
How Marcelo Garcia Defeats Larger, Stronger Opponents
There's nothing quite like watching a smaller, lighter, weaker person use their technique to defeat a bigger, heavier, stronger opponent. And when it comes to tapping out bigger, stronger, heavier opponents there's nobody quite like Marcelo Garcia. Not only is he a four time world BJJ champion and three time ADCC champion in his weight class, but he's often fought in the absolute division … [Read more...]
Marcelo Garcia Chokes Me Out Repeatedly
Marcelo Garcia is maybe the very best person in the world at attacking the turtle position. But before I tell you how I know this first hand, I should point out that as you get better you'll run into the turtle position more often. This is because when you're pinned by an advanced player it's pretty damn hard to put them back into your guard. And the other main escape option is to go to … [Read more...]
Two Rear Mount Secrets
Usually getting better at something like the Rear Mount in grappling is a slow process, requiring thousands of repetitions and many hours on the mat to master a technique. But sometimes transformations occur overnight! In the video below I share two 'secrets' that will double the effectiveness of your rear mount. These tweaks will make it much harder for your opponent to escape, and leave … [Read more...]
Submission Grappling Choke
Here is a modern way of applying the Rear Naked Choke, which had it's origins in Classical Japanese Ju-Jutsu. (This technique is from the Submission Grappling vs. Classical Ju-Jutsu article on Grapplearts.com) Stephan controls his opponent with the butterfly guard. He grips his opponent’s triceps with his right hand… … and pulls him forward while simultaneously moving his … [Read more...]