One of the biggest changes in the modern approach to leg locking is the emphasis on controlling the underlying leglock positions rather than going straight for the submission. In some ways this is an old approach; jiu-jitsu been preaching Position before Submission an this is exactly the same philosophy applied to leglocks. I've put together free PDF book for you with a checklist of the 12 … [Read more...]
Open Guard
The Modern Leglock Formula is Out!
The Modern Leglock Formula is finally out and it's the best leglock instructional that I've ever seen. Rob Biernacki, the star of The BJJ Formula, has outdone himself. In this 10 volume set he has created a step-by-step guide to the submissions, positions, transitions and strategies that are make up the lower body submission game that has become so popular and so powerful in modern … [Read more...]
Old School Closed Guard Pressure Pass
In the era of the inverted inside-out de la worm guard it's sometimes easy to forget how brutally effective the closed guard is. Until someone puts you in it, shuts down your guard passes, chokes you silly and armlocks you until you want to rip your belt off and throw it across the mat. The closed guard is old school but it still works. And for self defense and MMA it's still an incredibly … [Read more...]
Your Open Guard Options vs. Standing Opponents
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...]
A Simple Drill to Shut Down Your Opponent’s Guard Pass
I don't usually have to spend a lot of time sitting around and dreaming up new crazy techniques to put onto my Youtube channel... Typically all I have to do is look back at the last couple of training sessions I've done and something obvious to talk about pops right out at me. In the case of today's video, I was working with a friend who was having trouble with his guard getting … [Read more...]
How to do the Armbar Without Crushing Your Balls
It's a question that I get from BJJ beginners all the time, "How do I do the armbar without crushing my balls in the process?" And it's a legitimate problem for people starting out their BJJ career. In fact, it's a simple equation... Elbow + Groin = OUCH!! Now you could wear a cup, but most intermediate and advanced players don't do that unless they're training for MMA. Instead of … [Read more...]
A Trick to Set Up the Grips You Need to Pass Your Opponent’s Guard
One of the keys to passing the guard effectively and efficiently is controlling the grip battle. But a quality opponent always be trying to block your grips. Not only that: he wants to attack you with sweeps and submissions so at the same time he'll be trying to ensnare you with his own set of grips. As a result, when you're passing the guard you'll often end up in a pseudo-symmetrical … [Read more...]
Blocking Headbutts in the Guard
As I've said many times before, BJJ is a fantastic sport and fitness activity but at it's core IT'S A MARTIAL ART. And that means you have to keep an eye on how this stuff would work in a real fight. Someone recently asked me what you can do to prevent getting knocked out if someone on top of you is trying to headbutt you into oblivion. Good question. It's an important topic: before they … [Read more...]
The BJJ Self Defense Experiment
Have you ever wondered if your BJJ would stand up in a self defense situation against an opponent determined to clean your clock with his fists? By the end of this article I'm hoping you'll have a much better idea of what to focus on to sharpen your BJJ skills for self defense purposes... The self defense implications of grappling are important to me (click here to see my other posts on the … [Read more...]
The de la Riva Guard
By Don Whitefield and Stephan Kesting We asked BJJ legend Ricardo de la Riva to show us the Five Most Imporant Techniques from the 'de la Riva Guard! Here's what he showed us, and we'll go through each one of them! The Basic de la Riva Sweep The Reverse de la Riva Sweep The Entangled Leg Sweep The Back Trip Sweep The Cross Knee Guard Pass Counter Ricardo de la Riva is a slight … [Read more...]
How To Use Moves You Already Know to Do Advanced Techniques
We've just launched the latest Grapplearts BJJ instructional mobile app with my friend Brandon 'Wolverine' Mullins. It's called Advanced BJJ Fundamentals. The name of this app isn't accidental, because it's all about using the fundamental building blocks of jiu-jitsu to make learning easier, to amplify the effectiveness and reliability of your techniques, and to build an advanced … [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...]
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...]
9 Rules for BJJ Self Defense
I recently worked with a female friend to teach her a little bit about jiu-jitsu for self defense. Obviously I believe that jiu-jitsu is super important for self defense in general, but when it comes to women who want to defend themselves, well, it's completely indispensable. We can argue all day about what percentage of real fights end up on the ground (like the Gracies I believe it's very … [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...]
The Complete Spider Guard Gameplan Mindmap
OK, this is one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen… I recently did an interview with Elliott Bayev on how to build BJJ gameplans. One of the things that Elliott did for this project was to create an in-depth mindmap showing his entire Spider Guard gameplan. And you can get that gameplan completely for free right now. Of course this gameplan covers the ‘regular’ spider guard (both feet … [Read more...]
BJJ Self Defense Part 4: The Technical Standup
Today we're going to look at and learn about one of the most fundamental movements in all of BJJ. It's the "technical standup," and make sure that you're doing it correctly. The technical standup is used ALL the time in BJJ, submission grappling and MMA. This exact move can get you out of trouble in scrambles, prevent guard passes, and finish sweeps for you, but first and foremost the … [Read more...]