It was the late 1990's, I was a purple belt, and my friend Allan had one of those gigantic $3,000 consumer cameras that recorded directly to a book-sized VHS cassette. He wanted to film some jiu-jitsu, and I wanted to show a few friends some material I'd been working on. So we went down to his condo's fitness room and shot a 12 minute "instructional" for some of my friends. The running joke at … [Read more...]
Omoplata
Revolutionary Omoplata
A Technique that Bridges the Gap between Sweep and Submission By Stephan Kesting Originally published in Grappling Magazine in 2002. The omoplata is all the rage these days: it's a submission, a sweep, and a setup for other submissions and sweeps. If you go to a high-level grappling competition tomorrow, you will almost certainly see it used multiple times. The omoplata is a little bit … [Read more...]
Controlling and Submitting from The Crucifix Position in Jiu-Jitsu
Being on someone's back in rear mount is an incredibly dominant position, but I think there's a good argument to be made that having him in the crucifix is even better. You see, finishing a skilled opponent from the back is much easier if you trap one of their arms with your legs so that they only have one hand left to fight the choke. But in the crucifix, you're using four limbs - both your … [Read more...]
Don’t be that Peaked-in-High-School Jiu-Jitsu Practitioner
I don’t think we can deny that jiu-jitsu is evolving really fast. Whether it’s the false reap, the buggy choke, the Aoki lock, the berimbolo, the roadhouse choke, or the upside-down-inside-out-caterpillar guard, new techniques and strategies are popping up all the time. Even if you don’t want (or can’t) learn the berimbolo (or whatever) shouldn’t you at least know how to counter it? So … [Read more...]
The SOS Position, The Rosetta Stone of the Omoplata
The omoplata is a very deep position. There are so many different entries, transitions, defences, escapes, and recounters; it can get a little overwhelming. To bring sense to a scramble it helps to recognize intermediary positions. Positions that repeatedly and reliably occur, often fleetingly, as people engage in what appears to be a chaotic series of transitions. For the omoplata one of … [Read more...]
A Quickstart Guide to the Omoplata in Jiu-Jitsu
This step-by-step guide is designed for you to quickly incorporate the omoplata into your game and build a solid foundation for more advanced omoplata techniques. The omoplata is an incredibly versatile technique in jiu-jitsu that serves as a submission, a sweep, and a setup for other sweeps and submissions. Fundamentally it uses your legs to force your opponent's arm behind his back into a … [Read more...]
BJJ Trigger Positions
A trigger position is an alignment of your body and your opponent’s body that immediately invites a specific technique, be it a sweep, submission or guard pass.. Once you're there, all you need to do is pull the metaphorical trigger and - BOOM - you're deep into the attack. This concept makes it easy for you to know when it's time to attack in jiu-jitsu. Knowing the Trigger Position for a … [Read more...]
Lasso Spider Guard to Omoplata
The spinning omoplata setup using the lasso hook is one of the very coolest spider guard attacks. In this attack you go from controlling one of his arms to a match-ending submission in the blink of an eye. No only does this move make you feel like superman, but it's actually a very high technique if you understand all the details and the correct timing for applying it. Here's a … [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...]
The 5 Main Omoplata Entries from Guard
I just put a video onto Youtube breaking down the 5 main ways to get into an omoplata attack to either sweep or submit your opponent. Just to be clear, these are not the only entry mechanisms for the omoplata; there are definitely others including rolling entries, spinning entries, entries from the top, etc. That being said, at least 70% of all omoplatas come from one of these 5 styles of … [Read more...]
The 20 Year History of the Omoplata 2.0 Instructional
I was first exposed to something resembling the omoplata when learning a martial art known as Indonesian Silat from Dan Inosanto. A move where you use your leg to bend your opponent's arm behind his back is often used in Silat as a finishing move after taking someone to the ground. It turned out that this move (with slight modifications) also worked in the jiu-jitsu and judo training that I … [Read more...]
A Deep Dive into the Technical Details of the Omoplata
In this episode Steve Kwan from the BJJ Mental Models podcast grills me about the omoplata, the most versatile submission in all of jiu-jitsu. Here's the conversation. We go pretty deep and get quite technical! And while I've got your attention, check out my latest instructional, Omoplata 2.0, at https://www.grapplearts.com/omoplata. This represents 20 years of research on my part … [Read more...]
Every Triangle Choke Setup is ALSO an Omoplata Setup!
Every entry into the triangle choke is ALSO a way to get into the omoplata armlock. Now it's true that the two techniques look very different when they're finished: in the triangle choke you wrap your legs around your opponent's neck and one of his arms, and in the omoplata you're essentially performing a Kimura armlock on his arm using your legs. But for both submissions you have 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...]
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...]
Cartwheels in BJJ and Submission Wrestling
So I saw something spectacular the other day... It was a clip from a wrestling match in which 125 lb Ronnie Bresser from Oregon State cartwheels himself over his opponent in a move called 'the Flying Squirrel' to get to a 15 point advantage and win the match by technical fall (thanks to "i like to wrassle" on reddit for giving me the proper name for it)! Here's the move: Of course … [Read more...]
3 Spider Guard Drills to Improve Your Sweeping and Submissions
The last time I had a filming session with my friend and training partner Ritchie Yip who runs a BJJ school in Vancouver, BC, he showed me something really cool... It was a series of 3 drills to improve your spider guard sweeps and submissions. The first drill is a relatively easy one to that develops hip mobility and leg dexterity. Spider guard is NOT a static position; as your opponent … [Read more...]
3 Ways to Apply the Omoplata Armlock Submission (and Stop the Rolling Escape)
The omoplata is one of my very favorite armlocks. There are so many opportunities to get to this submission from almost every guard position, the top, in scrambles, etc. And because you're using the strength of both of your legs against his arm it has the potential to be an ultra powerful submission! Trouble is, against better opponents the omoplata often turns into a sweep: your opponent … [Read more...]
A 4 x World Champion Teaches the Omoplata from Closed Guard
In this video my friend (and 4 x world champion) Bernardo Faria takes you through the old school omoplata armlock from the closed guard. I have seen Bernardo tap out everybody, from white belt to black belt, using ONLY the omoplata armlock at one of his seminars. It was incredible. So needless to say he's really bloody good with the omoplata and a great person to study for this attack! As … [Read more...]