There's a reason why Fabio Gurgel has successfully coached over fifty Black Belt World Champions and is a 4 time BJJ world champion himself! He's an amazing teacher, able to simplify complicated techniques so that they work for everyone... Fabio's top pressure is unbelievable. No matter if it's the closed guard, spider guard, butterfly guard, half guard, or some type of newfangled … [Read more...]
Fabio Gurgel
A Heavy Knee Cut Pass vs Butterfly Guard
The butterfly guard is a very dangerous position. It offers your opponent the ability to come after you with powerful sweeps, guillotine chokes, triangle chokes, leglocks, and many other attacks. If you're doing jiu-jitsu then you absolutely need to know how to shut down the butterfly guard and make your opponent regret even thinking about using it on you! The way to do that is with pressure … [Read more...]
The Folding Guard Pass for No Gi and MMA
The folding pass is a bread and butter guard pass that everyone should know. That's because the folding pass can be used in BJJ with the gi, submission grappling without the gi, and in MMA where guard passing is often mixed with ground and pound. Here's an excerpt from The Pressure Passing System with 4 x World Champion Fabio Gurgel breaking down how this exact pass can be used in no gi … [Read more...]
How To Do the Over-Under Pass
The over-under guard pass is one of the classic pressure passes in BJJ. In it you absolutely kill your opponent's hips by coming over one of his legs and under his other leg with your arms. Then you spike your shoulder into your opponent's belly which pins his lower body the floor and puts a tremendous amount of weight onto him and makes it hard for him to breathe. This pass has changed … [Read more...]
“Jiu-Jitsu Nowadays Is Much More Effective”, Fabio Gurgel on Old vs Modern Jiu-Jitsu
In this clip of my epic talk with BJJ black belt legend Fabio Gurgel on The Strenuous Life Podcast he talks about whether old school or modern BJJ is more effective in competition, MMA, and in a real fight. He argues quite convincingly that new school jiu-jitsu is now MORE effective than it's ever been, that there are now MORE submissions in competition, and that reminiscing about the good old … [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...]
How to Pass Closed Guard with the Stack Pass
If you're caught in the closed guard against a skilled opponent then you're in serious trouble. Give him time and you'll find that he's wrapped up your arms, broken your posture, and is getting closer and closer to tapping you out with some choke or armlock. That's why the closed guard is NOT a place for you to hang out. Instead you should immediately and determinedly start passing the … [Read more...]
Passing and Smashing Inverted Guard, by Fabio Gurgel
Passing the guard of an extremely flexible player can be really annoying. You get close to passing and they simply flip upside down, put their feet on the floor, and taunt you from their strange inverted guard position. Some gumby players go even further and develop an entire attacking game from this inverted guard, sometimes also known as the tornado guard. It may look strange but it … [Read more...]
Does Pressure Passing Work for Small Guys?
"Does pressure passing work for small guys, or is it just for the big, heavy guys at they gym?" I'm getting this question a lot now that I've released The Pressure Passing System instructional with 4 x world champion Fabio Gurgel. And it's a good question! First things first, let's define what we're talking about... The Styles of Guard Passing Fundamentally there are two styles of guard … [Read more...]
No Gi Butterfly Guard Pass
The butterfly guard is a very popular guard position in no gi grappling because it doesn't rely on fancy sleeve and lapel grips. So if you're going to be competitive in no gi you definitely need to know how to deal with the butterfly guard, how to shut it down, and how to pass it. There are some very athletic speed-based passes for butterfly that involve jumping, spinning, floating, … [Read more...]
How to Crush the Younger Grappler
One problem with fighting younger guys is that they're like the Energizer bunny - they keep going and going and going... How can you beat them? To beat them you first need to wear them down and then break their will to fight. This is all well and good in theory, but how exactly do you do this in reality? Think of the young punk's gas tank as completely full. However unless you're in … [Read more...]
Podcast Episode 195 -Guard Passing Strategies and Tactics with Fabio Gurgel
Today's episode is PURE GOLD for BJJ practitioners and No Gi grapplers. Fabio Gurgel - 4 time BJJ Black Belt World Champion (and trainer of more than 50 other world champions) - talks about his approach to passing the guard, including How to connect your moves, The evolution of guard passing, Advice for older grapplers, When you should stop halfway through a guard pass to tire the … [Read more...]
Fabio Gurgel on Fighting Vale Tudo in Brazil, Training BJJ World Champions, and More…
I was thrilled to meet up with multiple time BJJ world champion Fabio Gurgel and get him on my show for you. We talked about everything from his experiences in old school Vale Tudo matches in Brazil to the details of running Alliance and creating a team of world champion BJJ killers. Also front and center was the debate between traditional vs modern jiu-jitsu, why the level of BJJ right now … [Read more...]