Are you flailing around in your guard, trying to react to your opponent, without a clear plan of what to do? If so then this video and podcast episode is for you! When you're using the open guard there's a definite series of steps and strategies you should be using. Here Rob Biernacki of No Gi de la Riva Formula fame, taking you through the 3 stages of open guard and shows you specific … [Read more...]
Butterfly Guard
An Easy Armdrag Defense
OK, this is a quick post because it's only a short video that I filmed right before training today... If someone tries to armdrag you they're usually gripping your triceps area with their cross hand and pulling you hard, trying to either get behind you or elicit a pulling reaction. And it's a legit threat, because a good armdrag can set you up for a number of things, including... The rear … [Read more...]
The Butterfly Sweep from Half Guard
The half butterfly guard is a variation of half guard where you entangle one of your opponent's legs with your inside leg and then insert a single butterfly hook under his thigh with your outside leg. As such this position combines aspects of both the traditional half guard AND the butterfly guard. Two of the most popular attacks in the half butterfly position are Sweeping your opponent … [Read more...]
A Surprise Triangle Choke from Butterfly Guard
This transition from butterfly guard to triangle choke is one of my new favourite techniques. I learned it from BJJ black belt Rob Biernacki and it starts sitting up in the butterfly guard, and fighting for the powerful two-on-one grip. In the two-on-one I use both of my own hands to control one of my opponents arms which then isolates that side of his body. The next step is to kick out one … [Read more...]
Getting the Underhook in BJJ
Getting the underhook in the guard, especially in positions like the Butterfly guard and the Half guard, is incredibly important. Entire matches have changed momentum just because the guy on the bottom got this one grip! The underhook gives you a huge amount of control over your opponent's body and also gives you a route to his back. But your opponent won't just give you this grip - he'll … [Read more...]
How to Train BJJ with an Injured Neck
Necks are delicate things. Seven small stacked cervical vertebrae protecting all the nerves in your spinal cord and held together with a multitude of flimsy ligaments and muscles. Yet in BJJ we stress the neck continuously. We attack it with chokes, crucifixes, and cranks. We stack our opponents, turn their heads with crossfaces, and scissor his head with our legs. We also use our head … [Read more...]
An Easy and Effective Guard Retention Drill
There are many guard retention techniques you can use to stop someone from passing your guard, but just like any other technique they require drilling and repetition to become automatic. So that's what we're going to start with; an easy line drill where you can warm your body at the beginning of class and also get in lots of repetition for the 'frame and hip escape' guard retention … [Read more...]
On Starting Sparring from the Knees…
A reader writes: Hi Stephan, I've been doing BJJ for about 6 months and am wondering if you have any advice about what to do when you're starting on the knees? I find that most wrestling-style takedowns are very difficult to do from the knees, especially because my opponents are really good at sprawling. And if I get my grips then inevitably my opponent also gets his grips and the whole … [Read more...]
3 Fixes for Sore Fingers in BJJ
So I got a question the other day from someone looking for advice about the pain and inflammation they have in their fingers from training BJJ. I sent them back a super-quick email response with 3 suggestions, but now want to elaborate on my suggestions in hopes that this info will be useful to someone else too. First, here is a video I shot about exactly this … [Read more...]
Your Open Guard Options vs. Standing Opponents
If you end up on the bottom with your opponent standing up and detached from you then be prepared for a very frantic and dangerous scramble. Unhindered by your grips and hooks he can deploy his favourite Open Guard passes on you without having to feel endangered by your own attacks. Now of course one option is to use the separation and stand back up to your own feet using the technical … [Read more...]
Getting to Guard Against a Standing Opponent
It's a bad situation when you're on the bottom, your opponent is standing up in front of you, and you don't have any grips or hooks established on him... When he's on his feet like that he's super-mobile, and if he's fast then he can sprint past your guard in the blink of an eye. What you really need to do is some sort of grip and establish some sort of control over him. Something to slow … [Read more...]
My New, Favourite Butterfly Guard Pass (Step-by-Step)
Here's my new favourite guard pass! It uses opposite corner control (shoulder and knee) to rotate the body of your opponent plus a kick to disengage his hooks and prevent him from following you. I call it the 'Kung Fu' or the 'Punch, Pull, Kick Pass'. I've been pulling this off consistently for a couple of months now, both against butterfly guard and also against some other forms of open … [Read more...]
A Simple Drill to Shut Down Your Opponent’s Guard Pass
I don't usually have to spend a lot of time sitting around and dreaming up new crazy techniques to put onto my Youtube channel... Typically all I have to do is look back at the last couple of training sessions I've done and something obvious to talk about pops right out at me. In the case of today's video, I was working with a friend who was having trouble with his guard getting … [Read more...]
10 Key Techniques and Tactics of Marcelo Garcia
Marcelo Garcia is probably the most dominant jiu-jitsu athlete of the last 15 years. When he was competing he owned both the gi and the no gi divisions (4 x ADCC champion, 5 x Mundial World Champion). As if that wasn't enough, his amazing performances in the absolute division against giants like Ricco Rodriguez have ensured his place in grappling history. It’s always a good idea to … [Read more...]
Butterfly Guard: Get Up, Sit Up, Get Up Off Your Back!
The Butterfly Guard is a very powerful sweeping position where you sit on your butt, leaning slightly forward, with both of your feet inside your opponent's legs (click here for a quick intro to the butterfly guard on Grapplearts.com). However you do NOT want to be flat on your back when you're playing butterfly guard. When you're lying back like that you almost all the power behind your … [Read more...]
Butterfly Guard Sweep Counter
The Butterfly Sweep is one of those fundamental moves that you see everywhere. In every dojo and at every major tournament there's someone who specialises in the Butterfly Guard. And every Butterfly Guard specialist uses the basic Butterfly Sweep as one of their bread and butter moves. This sweep just plain works. It can be used in gi or no gi. It can be used against small, fast people or … [Read more...]
The Reverse Armbar from Closed Guard
I was a white belt when I first saw the reverse armbar from closed guard (also known as the 'arm crush', the 'razor lock, and the 'cutting armbar'). At first I was pretty skeptical. I had all kinds of reasons why it probably wouldn't work. And then I started running into more and more people who had been submitted by it... And then I started getting caught in it too... And then I … [Read more...]
How to do the Reverse Butterfly Sweep
I talk a lot about the butterfly guard around here; it's one of my very favourite guard positions. It's powerful, it's mobile, and it's fun. There's no doubt that the workhorse of the butterfly guard is the 'basic' butterfly sweep. It's a tool that newcomers to jiu-jitsu can learn quickly, but is still being used by the top BJJ competitors on the planet. Now there's a move called the … [Read more...]
Finger Pain in BJJ and What to Do About It
"My Fingers Hurt..." I get a lot of emails, tweets and messages from BJJ practitioners about fingers hurting all the time. For example, I asked a question about BJJ hand pain on Twitter got a ton of responses (click here to see them on Twitter), including a disconcerting number of white belts who had this problem. So it's a real problem, and not only for people who've been doing the sport a … [Read more...]
How to Take the Back from X Guard
It's almost impossible to use the Butterfly Guard without also using the X Guard... When you attack with the Butterfly Guard your opponent is going to be doing his absolute best to shut you down. For example, that means that he'll be posting hands and feet all over the place to stop you from sweeping him. When he posts his hands or otherwise gets them out of position it opens up … [Read more...]