Nowadays you often see the Deep Half Guard at the highest levels of BJJ and submission grappling competition. But there are a lot of important details to the Deep Half Guard that you need to know before it becomes a powerful sweeping weapon. Because I saw this position working again and again, several years ago I decided to add it to my repertoire. It's a bit like regular half guard except you … [Read more...]
Drills
A Drill to Rescue the Armbar from Guard
At a seminar I attended, martial arts legend Dan Inosanto once distinguished between the techniques used in a martial art, and the training methods used to develop those techniques. These are different things! … [Read more...]
A Video Tutorial on the X Guard
The X Guard is a really powerful open guard position that creates a whole world of trouble for your opponents. Here's an excerpt from my DVD "13 Techniques You Can Use On The Mat Today" which takes you through the most important points of the X Guard... … [Read more...]
A Great Half Guard Resource!
If you haven't seen this video yet then you're in for a treat! Here Indrek Reiland and Jorgen Matsi take you through the Half Guard Position, covering the basics of both the top and the bottom position. … [Read more...]
Study Time for Intermediate and Advanced-Level Grapplers
Today I want to talk about a very useful tool for intermediate and advanced-level grapplers. The idea is to create study blocks where you focus on a single topic. During this time you basically take one aspect of grappling, and beat it to death with a large stick! … [Read more...]
Miracle Cures for Grappling Problems
I first truly realized how powerful drills can be about 15 years ago. At that time I was I was teaching a self defense class. One of my students was of average size and strength with severely below-average punching power. … [Read more...]
Coming Back from a Training Layoff
Coming back to training after a layoff is a tricky thing. There is a real danger that you jump back into full intensity training and re-injure yourself right off the bat (especially if you've been gone for a while and/or are coming back from an injury). … [Read more...]
How to Master Any Grappling Technique in 100 Words (Honest!)
I set a challenge for myself while compiling, editing and contributing to the book Mastering BJJ. Inspired by the mini-article World Class Fitness in 100 Words on the Crossfit website I wanted to encapsulate my strategy for refining new techniques. … [Read more...]
Online Grappling Drill Videos
I think that grappling drills can serve an important function. Not everybody agrees with me about this: some people think that movement repetition outside the context of a resisting opponent is 'dead' training and a waste of time and energy. … [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...]
Training with an Injured Wing
A grapplearts reader writes: Q: How can I still train if I have an injured hand, wrist, arm or shoulder? A: Being injured is super-frustrating when you want to train. But there are things you can do to keep your skills sharp even if you've got an upper body injury... … [Read more...]
Half Guard Leg Positions
Someone once defined insanity as "continuing to do the same thing and expecting different results". This applies to grappling as well as the rest of life, and it is very true when you are in the half guard position. … [Read more...]
The MOST Important Training Gear
Over the last couple of months I have written about various pieces of training gear, ranging from wrestling shoes to mouthguards. Looking over these tips I realized I had left out the single most important, completely indispensable training gear of all: your partner! … [Read more...]
A Workout Challenge for You
This week I added a new article to the Grapplearts library called The Drills of Shaolin. In this article renowned BJJ and MMA fighter Vitor 'Shaolin' Ribeiro show four of his favorite drills that he uses for conditioning and sport-specific skill development. … [Read more...]
Static Bridging – a Common Mistake in Sparring
There are two fundamental ways to escape from most pinning positions: escapes based on ‘shrimping’ style hip movement, and escapes based on bridging. One common mistake I see among beginners is that they hold the bridge position for far too long. … [Read more...]
Double Ankle Control Position for Footlocks
Today’s topic is a slightly unusual control position for footlocks. Control positions are methods of positioning your legs while you are attempting a leglock. The purpose of a control position is to control your opponent’s legs and body while you set up and execute your leglock. First check out the below (taken at Grapplemania Seattle. January 29th 2005, by Jermiah Armstrong). In this … [Read more...]
Competitive 2 Person Drilling
We've talked about solo drills and partner drills. There is a final category of drills I'd like to talk about: competitive 2 person drills. When you do this type of drilling you are training a specific aspect of your game against a resisting opponent. … [Read more...]
Some Examples of Solo Drills
When solo grappling drills are used properly they can improve a grappler’s coordination, endurance, strength and speed. They can be used as part of a warmup session or to specifically improve aspects of your grappling game. … [Read more...]
Three Types of Drills
As some of you might know, I've released a video on drills for submission grappling and Brazilian jiu-jitsu (subtle marketing alert!). This has led to some interesting online and offline conversations with people on the topic of drills, which in turn has inspired me to write on the topic of drilling. … [Read more...]
Targeted Sparring Concluded: Bad Positions
In this last installment on fine-tuning your sparring time I would like to talk about starting your sparring sessions from bad positions. Starting out in a bad position is a good way to rapidly improve your pin escapes and submission counters. It is also a great way to challenge yourself, particularly when sparring lighter or less experienced people. … [Read more...]