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...]
Collar Sleeve Grip
An Amazing Triangle Choke Setup from Open Guard
The triangle choke submission is one of the most powerful attack from the open guard. Your opponent should be continuously about this technique when he's in your guard. However too many people just 'shoot' the triangle time after time without any kind of setup and hope for the best. Yes, a setup-free triangle can work if your opponent is inexperienced or asleep at the wheel, but it's not … [Read more...]
3 Ways to Get a Great Control Grip from the Open Guard
One of the most dangerous times in jiu-jitsu is when you're in the guard with opponent standing above you and no way to control him. In this situation he's only one explosive move away from blasting past your legs and establishing a dominant position. To minimise the chance of him passing here (and to keep yourself safe) you don't need amazing reflexes, you don't need incredible flexibility, … [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...]
What are the Collar-Sleeve, Collar-Spider and Reverse de la Riva Positions?
Today we're going to talk about the fourth brand new instructional app in the Spider Guard Masterclass series, and cover a few new positions in the process. And in the process we're going to talk about some very powerful open guard positions... The app is called Spider Guard Masterclass Volume 4: Next Level Spider Guard, Part 2, and it focuses on three powerful variations of Spider Guard: … [Read more...]