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Kneel Or Stand to Pass the Guard?

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I once drilled technique with a big, strong rock climber who had a grip from hell and tenacious isometric strength. I noticed how much he liked controlling my gi, breaking my posture and attacking with collar chokes. Since I knew we were going to spar soon I formulated a simple sparring strategy: I told myself that as soon as I ended up in his guard I would stand up and not go back down onto my … [Read more...]

Podcast Episode 125: Reilly Bodycomb on Sambo, Leglocks, MMA, Jiu-Jitsu and No Gi Grappling

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I loved doing this interview with Reilly Bodycomb. Reilly is a Russian sambo and leglock expert who has competed in a TON of different rulesets including BJJ, no gi submission grappling, MMA, Russian Sambo, and Chinese San Shou. He is the Pan-American Sport SAMBO Champion (2016), USA Sport SAMBO Champion (2016), Dutch Combat SAMBO Champion (2016), recently competed in Japan and is a BJJ black … [Read more...]

Podcast Rant: Why You Have to do Jiu-Jitsu, and How to Get Good at It Fast

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Here's a quick 10 minute audio rant I released on my Strenuous Life Podcast recently. I start out by talking about why you absolutely have to train some form of grappling if you consider yourself a martial artist. Then we go into the 6 basic position of traditional BJJ - the positions that you'll be spending 80% of your time in when you're rolling around on the mat. And then I cover the … [Read more...]

The Main Positions of Modern Leglocking

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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...]

On Starting Sparring from the Knees…

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A reader writes: Hi Stephan, I've been doing BJJ for about 6 months and am wondering if you have any advice about what to do when you're starting on the knees? I find that most wrestling-style takedowns are very difficult to do from the knees, especially because my opponents are really good at sprawling. And if I get my grips then inevitably my opponent also gets his grips and the whole … [Read more...]

Five Tricks to Tighten Up Your Sidemount

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There's nothing worse than weathering the storm in someone's guard, passing their guard by fighting your way past their legs, finally getting to sidemount, making one tiny mistake and then - boom - you're back in their guard. It's tiring, demoralising, and leaves you open to getting swept or tapped out. No!  After doing all that work you want to stay in sidemount, make them pay for giving … [Read more...]

How to Defend Strikes on the Ground

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You're walking down the street, someone bumps you, words are exchanged, you get pushed to the ground, and now some big gorilla is trying to knock your teeth down your throat.  No matter how focused you are on the sportive aspects of grappling you've still GOTTA know how to defend strikes on the ground!!! It doesn't matter if your goal is casual recreation or if you wanna be the next UFC … [Read more...]

How to Stabilise Mount Against a Bigger, Stronger Opponent

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Many smaller grapplers avoid the mount position because they feel it's too easy for a larger opponent to simply throw them off or roll them to the bottom. It usually takes a TON of work to get to the mount, and it really sucks when some big doofus simply sits up and rolls you to the bottom where you have to start all over again! … [Read more...]

How to Defeat a Smaller Opponent

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Smaller opponents can become big nuisances, especially if they have legitimate skills. You would think that the very fact that you're bigger than your opponent means you should be able to go full-Conan on them every time... Mongol General: "Conan! What is best in life?" Conan: "To crush your enemies, see them driffen before you, and to hear the lamentation of their vimmen." … [Read more...]

What a Spider Guard Fail Teaches You About How to Train Any Technique!

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Today's tip comes was inspired from some training I did with a smaller grappler, let's call him 'Stu.' Stu wanted to learn some sweeps from the Spider Guard (an open guard position where you control both of your opponent's sleeves and have one or both feet on his biceps). Anyway we worked on what I call the Baiting Sweep.' (Those of you who have purchased the Spider Guard Masterclass … [Read more...]

4 Mistakes That’ll KILL Your Half Guard…

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Whether you want to or not, you ARE going to end up in the half guard! Some people simply use the half guard as a last resort when their guard is being passed. Their opponent is blasting around their guard, so without even thinking about it they lash out with their legs and trap one of his legs between their own. … [Read more...]

A Glossary of Guards Part 2: The Open Guard

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By Stephan Kesting and Elliott Bayev Principal Photography by Keith Haist Originally Published in Ultimate Grappling Magazine This is the second of three articles discussing variations of the Brazilian Jiu-jitsu guard position. In this article we are going to focus on the Open Guard, where your legs are NOT locked around your opponent’s torso (the other articles cover the Closed Guard and the … [Read more...]

Double Threat Attacks from the Bottom Position

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In grappling, sometimes a submission can be more than just a submission.  Let me explain… There is no shortage of different submission attacks from the bottom position. Most typically you'd attack from the closed guard, open guard or half guard position, but you can also use submissions if you're turtled under your opponent, or even pinned in side mount. Of course if you finish a … [Read more...]

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