Originally published by Stephan Kesting in Ultimate Grappling Magazine Marc Laimon is one of the foremost grappling coaches for mixed martial arts fighters. Not only was he a coach for the hit Spike TV show "The Ultimate Fighter," … [Read more...]
Closed Guard
Detailed, Advanced Omoplata
In the past few years I've made some big changes to my omoplata armlock attacks. The omoplata has always been one of my bread and butter moves, but these racent changes have doubled my success rate, especially when going against bigger and/or skilled opponents. But now I'm going to let the cat out of the bag... Click here for a 10 minute detailed tutorial video on the advanced omoplata. … [Read more...]
Countering the Double Leg with a Sitout & Switch
I respect most grappling arts, not just BJJ. Freestyle and collegiate wrestling, in particular, have a lot to offer to submission grapplers and BJJ practitioners. Obviously we can get a lot of good throws and takedowns from wrestling, but we can also 'steal' some very powerful moves on the ground as well. … [Read more...]
Free Book About the Guard for Grapplearts Readers
Heres's a really cool resource for you, something that I've received a TON of positive feedback on. It's a free, downloadable book that breaks down the many different variations of the Guard position with detailed descriptions and lots of pretty pictures! And you can grab it super easily, for free... … [Read more...]
Gi? No-Gi? Self Defense? MMA? No Problem!
There's a long-standing debate in the grappling community whether training with the gi helps your no-gi skills. My personal preference is to train both with and without the gi. … [Read more...]
More on the Unpassable Guard…
Recently I published a short article on how I improved my guard pass defense. Shortly thereafter I received an interesting and informative email from 'Scott' who trains at Colorado Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in Denver CO. … [Read more...]
The Unpassable Guard
A few years ago Denis Kang and I published an article in Grappling Magazine about passing the guard in MMA. In that article we said there are three stages of getting past your opponent's legs: … [Read more...]
One more Von Flue Choke
As you know, in the last few newsletters we've been discussing body position for guillotine chokes and using the 'Von Flue' choke to recounter the guillotine. If you missed them you can click to see the first post here and the second post here. Well, thanks to Shaldag on the Sherdog.net forums I recently I found yet ANOTHER example of a the Von Flue choke being used in competition. This one is … [Read more...]
Everybody Was Von Flue Fighting…
When people first learn the Von Flue choke they often find that their opponent can bridge them over and then they end up on the bottom. If this is happening to you and you're getting rolled into a bad position when trying this choke then first check that your legs are perpendicular (i.e. at 90 degrees) to your opponent. If his head is pointing to 12 o'clock, then your legs should either be to 3 … [Read more...]
A Glossary of Guard Positions, or Lumping vs. Splitting
When it comes variations of the guard position grapplers tend to fall into one of two categories: 'lumpers' and 'splitters'. … [Read more...]
An Alternative To Pulling Guard When Grappling On Your Knees
Many grapplers start their sparring sessions on their knees. From this starting position usually one of two things happen: either the two combatants push and pull each other until one falls over, or someone pulls guard and starts looking for sweeps and submissions. … [Read more...]
Short Legged Guard Work
A while ago I gave some suggestions about dealing with the open guard of long-legged and flexible opponents. In the interests of fairness and balance let's address some options for the opposite situation, namely what to do if you have shorter, inflexible legs. … [Read more...]
16 Tips For Your Closed Guard
Here are 16 fantastic tips from guest contributor Jason Scully. Jason is a teacher and competitor with 12 years of grappling experience. … [Read more...]
What is Caging the Hips
Everybody says that that hip movement is the most important thing in BJJ... "Boca" Oliveira, a de la Riva black belt, recently told me: "the hips are 90% of jiu-jitsu, and position is the other 10%". … [Read more...]
Wrestler’s Base in Guard
Have you ever grappled with a high-level wrestler and been frustrated by their uncanny sense of balance? You might be trying to use a guard sweep and just about have them swept over. Suddenly – pop – they somehow manage to end up back on top and driving into you again. … [Read more...]