What's the most common problem (aside from getting caught under side control) facing the BJJ beginner? It's probably feeling overwhelmed by the staggering number of techniques that Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu contains! There are a thousand variations of sweeps and locks and chokes and pins and escapes and guard passes. It's enough to make your head spin! So where then do you start? Which … [Read more...]
Guillotine Choke
The 6 Steps of a Good Submission
Did you know that there's an actual physics and biomechanics-based procedure that'll definitely help you tap out many more people in BJJ? At a high level there's so much more more to getting a choke or an armlock than simply seeing an opportunity and jumping on it. That approach rarely works against good people. Instead it's about gradually manoeuvring your opponent into worse and worse … [Read more...]
5 Tips for Switching from Gi to No Gi
If you've mostly been grappling with the gi on then transitioning to no gi submission grappling can be difficult. In fact many people find the process super frustrating and end up walking away in disgust. It DOESN'T need to be that way!! Here are 5 tips that will make the transition to no gi much easier... The 5 Tips in Video and Podcast Form Here's a video from my youtube channel with a lot … [Read more...]
The Strong and Weak Sides of the Guillotine Choke (And How to Use Them for Offense and Defense)
OK, today we're going to talk about something that's both very simple and incredibly important. I've explained this to SO many grapplers over the years it's not even funny, and most of the time the reaction is a "Doh! I should have known that!!!" Here's what I'm talking about... The guillotine choke has a strong side and a weak side. Attacking with a strong sided guillotine is MUCH … [Read more...]
The Ultimate Guide to the Guillotine Choke in BJJ
The guillotine choke is a powerful submission in BJJ, no gi grappling, and mixed martial arts. At first glance it seems like a simple submission - you just wrap your opponent's neck with your arms, pull up and squeeze, right? Not so fast... There are a LOT of subtleties that you need to master before this submission starts being reliable for you, especially if you don't spend 4 hours a … [Read more...]
Standing Guillotine Choke Escapes
Standing guillotine chokes are really tough to escape, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't try to get out! I recently met up with my friend Ando Mierzwa, and we shot something on the topic of guillotine prevention and escape for his martial arts oriented Youtube channel. It's a video in 3 parts... The first part of the video is about guillotine prevention. It's always easier to … [Read more...]
Flying Guillotine Choke Submission
The flying guillotine is one of the most surprising submissions in BJJ, no gi grappling and MMA. You and your opponent are both circling each other, looking for an angle to shoot or initiate grips, when suddenly you jump for his neck, lock on the guillotine choke and before you know it he's tapping out - it's all over! But it's a little more complicated than that... The best way to attack … [Read more...]
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...]
10 Key Techniques and Tactics of Marcelo Garcia
Marcelo Garcia is probably the most dominant jiu-jitsu athlete of the last 15 years. When he was competing he owned both the gi and the no gi divisions (4 x ADCC champion, 5 x Mundial World Champion). As if that wasn't enough, his amazing performances in the absolute division against giants like Ricco Rodriguez have ensured his place in grappling history. It’s always a good idea to … [Read more...]
How to Maintain Rear Mount, Improve Guillotines, and Thwart ‘Combatives’ Experts
Rear mount seems like such a simple position: I mean, you're basically just piggybacking on your opponent, right? Well, success in jiu-jitsu usually means doing simple, fundamental things with a high degree of sophistication and attention to detail. And rear mount is no different - switch your grip by a couple of inches, have your hand open instead of closed, do the wrong thing for even a … [Read more...]
How to Counter the Armlock from the Underhook
If you have any exposure to standup grappling then you know the power of a standing underhook. It allows you to dominate your opponent, move him around, and set up lots of throws, takedowns and other moves. In fact, at every single UFC event you hear some cornerman yelling "underhook, Underhook, UNDERHOOK! But have you ever gone for an underhook in the clinch only to have your opponent wrap … [Read more...]
How Not to Break Your Neck Doing Takedowns
There's no getting around it, all contact sports are inherently dangerous. And it's hard to have more contact in a sport than in MMA. Now it's true that MMA might not be the most dangerous contact sport - that dubious title could arguably go to boxing or pro football - but in the past few years there have still been been some very, very serious injuries in MMA related to takedowns... … [Read more...]
Chris Brennan’s 10 Finger Guillotine
Originally published in the December 2006 issue of Ultimate Grappling The 10 finger guillotine is a curious technique. There has probably been more speculation about how to properly apply this guillotine than just about any other technique. It is the Loch Ness monster of grappling – everyone knows someone who has seen it, but nobody can even agree what it looks like. You might have seen … [Read more...]
Never Get Guillotined Again!
OK, I have to admit that I’m exaggerating with the whole “never get guillotined again” title, but it’s almost true. If you incorporate principle that I’m about to share with into your grappling two things will happen: you’ll tap out to many, many fewer guillotine chokes, and you’ll really increase how often you manage to finish your opponent’s with the same choke. I was very happy when … [Read more...]
Marcelo Garcia Chokes Me Out Repeatedly
Marcelo Garcia is maybe the very best person in the world at attacking the turtle position. But before I tell you how I know this first hand, I should point out that as you get better you'll run into the turtle position more often. This is because when you're pinned by an advanced player it's pretty damn hard to put them back into your guard. And the other main escape option is to go to … [Read more...]
One more Von Flue Choke
As you know, in the last few newsletters we've been discussing body position for guillotine chokes and using the 'Von Flue' choke to recounter the guillotine. If you missed them you can click to see the first post here and the second post here. Well, thanks to Shaldag on the Sherdog.net forums I recently I found yet ANOTHER example of a the Von Flue choke being used in competition. This one is … [Read more...]
Everybody Was Von Flue Fighting…
When people first learn the Von Flue choke they often find that their opponent can bridge them over and then they end up on the bottom. If this is happening to you and you're getting rolled into a bad position when trying this choke then first check that your legs are perpendicular (i.e. at 90 degrees) to your opponent. If his head is pointing to 12 o'clock, then your legs should either be to 3 … [Read more...]
Never Get Guillotined Again!
OK, I have to admit that I'm exaggerating with the whole "never get guillotined again" title, but it's almost true. If you incorporate principle that I'm about to share with into your grappling two things will happen: you'll tap out to many, many fewer guillotine chokes, and you'll really increase how often you manage to finish your opponent's with the same choke. I was very happy when … [Read more...]
Submissions as Sweeps
Submissions end fights, and sweeps take you from the bottom to the top. At first glance they seem like very different types of techniques, but this week I'm going to discuss how they sometimes merge into one another. There are times when you lock on a submission but sense that you won't be able to finish it - maybe your opponent is too strong, perhaps you don't have it on quite right, or maybe … [Read more...]
OK, Enough Already, I Get It!
Lessons in grappling (and life in general) repeat themselves until learned. Sometimes there are techniques or principles that you learn, take for granted, teach to others and then slowly forget … [Read more...]