Countering the Kimura The Kimura is one of the most powerful submissions in BJJ, and having your arm cranked by one can lead to serious injury if you don't tap out in time. Therefore you need some Kimura defenses you can rely on. Here are five of my favorite Kimura escapes. Not only do these techniques get you get out of danger, in the course of the escape they ALSO teleport you to your … [Read more...]
Counter
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...]
The Best Omoplata Defense
Let's look at the low angle cartwheel, one of my very favorite counters to the omoplata armlock submission, which is a very powerful upper body attack used extensively in gi and no gi jiu-jitsu these days. First we'll go through the counter step-by-step including the training methods and drills to make the move smooth and instinctive. Then we'll go further and examine 4 very specific ways to … [Read more...]
How to Finish An Opponent Somersault Rolling Out of Your Omoplata Attack
The omoplata is one of my very favorite attacks and submissions (hey, it was the subject of my first instructional after all). You can hit it from almost any position, and finish it in a huge number of different ways. But just as with any successful attack there are a lot of counters your opponent can use, and you need to know how to react to those counters. One of the most common … [Read more...]
Last Ditch Matador Guard Pass Defense
The use of frames is key when you're defending against the Matador Pass, commonly known as Toreando or Bullfighter pass. If you engage in a battle of strength versus strength, then whoever is stronger will win. But if you can use frames to negate your opponent's strength then you can defeat much bigger and stronger opponents. Here's a video I filmed with Rory Van Vliet on defending the … [Read more...]
How to Defend the Leg Weave Guard Pass
When you're learning BJJ basics you've got to become familiar with the most common techniques first - they are the low hanging fruit and also the techniques that you're going to face most often on the mat. The Leg Weave Guard Pass is one of the most typical ways to pass the Guard so you better have a good answer for it! Here's a simple and effective way to stop, and then counterattack, when … [Read more...]
How to Set Traps for Your Opponent in BJJ
Today I want to talk about setting traps for your opponent in BJJ. The idea is that you force your opponent into a position or a situation where he only has a limited number of possible responses. Because you already have a pretty good idea of what he's going to do as soon as he uses one of those responses you spring your trap and go to the next pre-programmed move. This concept allows you … [Read more...]
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...]
My Favourite Omoplata Escape
The omoplata is one of my very favourite techniques - it's a submission, a sweep, and a setup for other sweeps and submissions. That's why I've got a ton of articles about this technique on Grappearts! But much as I love the omoplata I absolutely HATE getting caught in it myself. I want to show you my favourite omoplata escapes right now... First of all though, let's talk about the … [Read more...]
Advanced Omoplata Finish
Jiu-jitsu is so cool! As you might know, the omoplata armlock is one of my very favorite techniques. But even after 10 years of studying this position, I'm still learning new stuff about it... Today I want to share a variation of the omoplata that I learned this summer working with Brandon Mullins. Of course this finish works great on larger people, but even though I'm 6'2' and 215 lbs I'm … [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...]