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...]
Elliott Bayev
The 10 Second Choke Fix (or How to Tap Out More People)
How many times has a sparring partner told you "Man, I was SO close to tapping" after you'd been squeezing their neck like crazy in a desperate attempt to choke them, but then decided that it wasn't working and gave up on the submission? Frustrating, isn't it? Or have you ever held a choke for so long that you completely burn out your grips and have to fight the rest of the match with jello … [Read more...]
Guard Pass Prevention in BJJ
Maintaining your guard and defending the guard pass are incredibly critical skills in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. It is the guard that allows a smaller opponent to control and defeat a bigger attacker. And the guard allows you survive when you're on the bottom - if you're underneath your opponent in any other position then basically you're losing. Preventing the guard pass doesn't necessarily … [Read more...]
Are my legs too short to apply the triangle choke?
The first time I ever saw the triangle choke in action was in 1994, during the last match of UFC 4. Royce Gracie had just squared off against Dan Severn, a seemingly unstoppable wrestler with a huge weight advantage. I remember thinking, 'There's just no possible way that Royce is gonna win this one.' The fight went to the ground quickly, and after 15 minutes of getting manhandled Royce … [Read more...]
Dealing with Big, Strong Wrestlers in Your Guard
I got the following question on Twitter where I hang out as @stephankesting. I think it's a question worth exploring because a lot of people find dealing with strong, large and aggressive wrestlers very difficult. Question: Hi Stephan, I’ve been training BJJ for a few years now, but I get frustrated when I roll with one particular bigger, stronger whitebelt coming from a wrestling … [Read more...]
How to Stop the Leg Shuck Pass
The leg shuck pass has become a very popular, very powerful way to pass the guard. This pass is applied from the feet against many types of open guard. It involves an angle change, hipping in, and pushing your opponent's leg out of position. If all goes well then you end up in a very good position on your opponent's side. You should definitely be familiar with the leg shuck, especially if … [Read more...]
Does the Spider Guard Translate At All to No Gi?
TONS of top BJJ practioners use the spider guard as their primary form of guard from the bottom. This position has won many BJJ tournaments, from local competitions to the Mundials. And although you'd think that these champions would be completely lost in no gi submission grappling competitions like ADCC that's usually just not the case. Even though there aren't any sleeves or collars to hold … [Read more...]
Flying Armbar Guard Pull
Some people will tell you never, ever to pull guard. "Fight from the top," they tell you... In general that's good advice, but what if you run into someone with vastly superior takedown skills? Or someone who is good at defending takedowns and determined to fight a completely defensive battle? It's good to have some takedowns in your arsenal. But it's also good to have some other ways to get … [Read more...]
My Favourite Spider Guard Variation and Triangle Choke Setup
The Spider Guard is a very diverse position. Normally you start with the Double Feet on Biceps variation, but after that there are a TON of variations (including the Leg Lasso, de la Spider, Reverse de la Spider, Spider X, Collar-Spider, and Collar-Sleeve variations). Of all these Spider Guard Variations the Collar-Spider is probably my very favourite. We'll go into more detail about it in … [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...]
What are the Leg Lasso and Spider X Variations of Spider Guard?
We've been talking a lot about the instructional apps in the Spider Guard Masterclass series... And today we're going to take a look at the third app in this series. It's called Spider Guard Masterclass Volume 3: Next Level Spider Guard, and it focuses on the Leg Lasso and Spider X variations of Spider Guard. This app covers a LOT of the techniques used by the top competitors in the world … [Read more...]
Spinning Triangle Choke from Leg Lasso Spider Guard
The first time I saw this triangle choke setup was about 15 years ago when I was still working as a field biologist. At the time I was on a contract 3,000 miles away from home, and living out of a motel. To stay in shape I went for runs and lifted weights on alternate days, but once a week I would drive for 2 hours each way (4 hours in the car total) to go to the nearest BJJ school. Training … [Read more...]
Powerful Options and Variations for the Berimbolo
The Berimbolo is an incredibly powerful technique in modern BJJ. It's both a way of finalising a sweep and completely bypassing your opponent's guard with a single technique. Imagine not only being able to easily sweep your opponent from your open guard, but NOT having to fight your way past his guard. Instead you directly teleport to a dominant, match-ending position such as mount or rear … [Read more...]
Understanding Spider Guard – the Critical Fundamentals
Today is the release date for the first of the five brand new Spider Guard instructional apps from Grapplearts.com. The name of this app is "Understanding Spider Guard, The Critical Fundamentals." This may sound like a boring topic but I promise you that it's anything but!! It's super-useful, super-applicable, and super-important information. … [Read more...]
A Spider Guard Triangle Choke Setup for No Gi
A lot of people think that Spider Guard is only applicable to BJJ with the gi. They're kinda right, but they're also mostly wrong. You see, it's more complicated than "no gi equals no Spider Guard..." First of all, if you get good at something as intricate and technical as Spider Guard then it develops your sensitivity, leg dexterity, coordination, strategic and tactical thinking like … [Read more...]
A Super-Powerful Omoplata Finish
If you grapple then you have to use the omoplata. After all, it's one of the 'big five' attacks from the guard (armbar, kimura, triangle, guillotine and omoplata). Much of the time the omoplata ends up functioning as a sweep - your opponent rolls out of it to escape, you follow him, and get to the top. That's not a problem - you're now on top after all - but wouldn't it have been nice to get … [Read more...]
The Easiest Move in Jiu-Jitsu
This is the easiest move in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. It's a move that you can learn today and use tomorrow (especially if you've been drilling your triangle choke details that we covered in another recent blog post). Hint: it's from the Double Biceps Spider Guard. Check out the video below - Elliott reminds me of a trapdoor spider exploding out of it's lair when he slams it on. Then give the … [Read more...]
The Key to Dominating from the Spider Guard
Today's video clip is about a rarely-discussed but absolutely essential aspect of the Spider Guard. It's the secret sauce of the Spider Guard. And it comes down to pressure... Pressure is one of those things that can be hard to see if you don't know what you're looking for. But there's no mistaking pressure when you feel it! … [Read more...]
How to Adjust Your Triangle for Maximum Tightness and Effectiveness
Some techniques just require a bit more tweaking than others... For example, when I was a whitebelt the armbar was fairly easy to learn. The triangle choke, on the other hand, was relatively easy to apply, but hard to finish, (which was very frustrating). It took a lot of experimentation, coaching and adjusting before I was able to successfully choke out even cooperating, non-resisting … [Read more...]
Spider Guard Masterclass is Now Live
After almost 6 months of planning, filming and editing Spider Guard Masterclass is now ready for release! I'm biased of course, but I think that this is an absolutely amazing project. It's an A to Z reference guide for the Spider Guard, which is arguably the most dominant form of open guard in modern BJJ. Checking out this instructional is also risk free: if you don't absolutely love it, … [Read more...]