A friend recently complained that his training partners were forever just "running around" his guard. We got onto the mat and figured out that this wasn't the whole story. It turned out that his opponents were first pinning both his feet to the floor and then running around his guard, essentially a variation of the toreando pass. There are late stage defenses to the toreando, but - as … [Read more...]
Three Cheats for Escaping a Tough Mount
The basic mount escapes like the elbow-knee and upa escape are classics for a reason, but if you go back to the well too often, then your opponent inevitably gets wise to it and figures out how to shut it down. That's why you need to be able to mix things up. Start with one escape, then switch to another. Jab, then cross. Fake east, go west. Here are three unexpected techniques for … [Read more...]
Countering the Armdrag
Arm drags from the guard went supersonic when a little-known brown belt named Marcelo Garcia choked out four-time world champion Vitor "Shaolin" Ribeiro at ADCC 2003 in São Paulo, Brazil. It was over so quick! Here's the whole match... Marcelo winning this match (and then the whole division) was such an upset that thousands of grapplers, myself included, immediately started working on … [Read more...]
BJJ in the Nineties, a Time Capsule!
It was the late 1990's, I was a purple belt, and my friend Allan had one of those gigantic $3,000 consumer cameras that recorded directly to a book-sized VHS cassette. He wanted to film some jiu-jitsu, and I wanted to show a few friends some material I'd been working on. So we went down to his condo's fitness room and shot a 12 minute "instructional" for some of my friends. The running joke at … [Read more...]
The 4 Most Common Errors For The ‘Upa’ Mount Escape
The 'Upa' (or 'Bridge and Roll') is probably the very first mount escape that a beginner ever learns. It's taught as part of the basic curriculum for a very simple reason: it works! You see this escape in MMA, submission grappling, and BJJ competition with the gi. I've used it as a white belt, blue belt, purple belt, brown belt and black belt. Contrary to what some people will tell you is … [Read more...]
A New School Knee Ride Escape
Every once in a while, a new way of doing things comes along that is so much better that it has to get added to your repertoire right away. The Uno Reverse Card Escape vs the knee ride is one such technique! You start on the bottom of the knee ride, unable to breathe as your opponent spears his weight into your diaphragm... ...then, a few simple moves later, you spin into a leglock and/or … [Read more...]
How to Develop a Killer Knee Ride in Only 17 minutes
The knee ride is the most soul-crushing position in all of jiu-jitsu! It puts HUGE pressure on your opponent, which gives you tons of submission opportunities because of all the stupid things he'll do in his desperation to get out. It’s also a tremendously mobile position that allows you to take advantage of his mistakes, jump on submissions, spin to the back, and more. Here’s a FREE … [Read more...]
How to Become a Professional Grappler, with Chris Wojcik
As a first-time ADCC competitor, Chris beat the odds and came in fourth, beating a couple of legends along the way. In episode 410 of The Strenuous Life Podcast with Chris Wojcik, we cover... The qualifying process for ADCC, the Olympics of Grappling Training with a herniated disk How to go from enthusiastic amateur to dedicated professional What natural athletes need to do … [Read more...]
Half Guard Leg Position Drill for BJJ & Submission Grappling
The Half Guard is a very powerful position from which to sweep or submit your opponent. But just like all other forms of guard, it's really important to know how to move your hips and your legs correctly. No movement = no guard!!! Here's a half-guard drill that teaches you the basic leg and hip movements to manoeuvre into position to apply your techniques and prevent him from passing your … [Read more...]
Tipping the Triangle: A Principle to Make Your Pin Escapes MUCH Easier
If someone is pinning you effectively then they probably have pretty good control over both sides of your body. This can make escape very difficult. Your escapes are made much easier if you off-balance your opponent before escaping, which is an application of kuzushi. If your opponent is off-balance, then he'll be focused on getting back into good position instead of submitting you, and also … [Read more...]
What is a Crossface in BJJ
The crossface is one of the keys to a brutally effective side control. You can use the crossface to turn his jaw into a lever to turn his head and limit the directions he can turn. This makes it so much harder for your opponent to escape, tires him out, and kills his will to fight. A properly applied crossface is a tool you can use in the gi, no gi, and MMA to double how heavy you feel on top; … [Read more...]
How to Reset the Back When Your Opponent Has Almost Escaped
Being on someone's back is the crown jewel of BJJ. From this position, all your weapons are pointed towards his throat and all his weapons are pointed away from you. Life is good! The trouble is that once you're on the other guy's back he's going to do everything he can to escape. He'll try technical escapes like going to the weak side and using the ground to scrape you off of him. And if … [Read more...]
Gold Medal Judo Techniques that Work in BJJ
I've previously written about why you probably shouldn’t use the top-scoring judo throw - Seio Otoshi - in your BJJ practice. (To recap, this throw requires a TON of reps, potentially exposes you to back takes, is gi-dependent, and there’s a high chance you'll roll over your opponent to end up on the bottom.) But don't throw the Judo baby out with the bathwater!! There IS a heck of a lot … [Read more...]
DON’T Use This Top Judo Throw in BJJ!
I came across something really neat recently. Someone called DrSeioNage did a TON of data analysis and looked at 5850 elite judo matches to identify the top-scoring techniques. The highest-scoring technique of them all during the time period studied was a throw called Seio Otoshi. This throw involves turning your back to your opponent and is often performed dropping one or both knees … [Read more...]
Revolutionary Omoplata
A Technique that Bridges the Gap between Sweep and Submission By Stephan Kesting Originally published in Grappling Magazine in 2002. The omoplata is all the rage these days: it's a submission, a sweep, and a setup for other submissions and sweeps. If you go to a high-level grappling competition tomorrow, you will almost certainly see it used multiple times. The omoplata is a little bit … [Read more...]
The Most Annoying Grip in BJJ
When I was a bluebelt in the late 90's we had a visitor to class. This guy was a purple belt, trained at a well-known school in California, and had a very tricky game. One day I was in his spider guard and he caught me in a grip I had never seen before. All of a sudden, I had no use of my left hand. Then he secured the same grip on my right sleeve, and now I had no hands left to grip him … [Read more...]
Controlling and Submitting from The Crucifix Position in Jiu-Jitsu
Being on someone's back in rear mount is incredibly dominant position, but I think there's a good argument to be made that having him in the crucifix is even better. You see, finishing a skilled opponent from the back is much easier if you trap one of their arms with your legs so that they only have one hand left to fight the choke. But in the crucifix you're using four limbs - both your … [Read more...]
Train the Kimura as a Position, Not Just a Submission!
The Kimura is a powerful bent armlock that primarily attacks the shoulder joint, but in addition to being a very powerful armlock it's also a control position. Here's the condensed form of this argument in video format. Check it out and then scroll down for many concrete examples of new ways to use the Kimura. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/B-XT1JfhTF4 The Kimura is Both a Submission AND a … [Read more...]
How to Do the Von Flue Choke
The guillotine choke is the second most popular submission in MMA (after the rear naked choke) and an omnipresent threat in no gi grappling and gi jiu-jitsu, so you need a solid guillotine defense game! But the only thing better than defending against a guillotine is reversing it and using his choke attempt to set up a submission of your own. That's where the Von Flue choke comes in! This … [Read more...]
Kneebar from Side Control
If you've got your opponent in side control then you're definitely dominating the match, but if he's being defensive then it can still be hard to finish from there. A smart opponent will keep his arms in and protect his neck with his hands, making it challenging to catch an armlock or force a choke. This is where deception comes in. You've got to lure your opponent into a trap by giving him … [Read more...]