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Rear Mount

Rearmount from A to Z

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The newest Grapplearts instructional was officially released today, and it's called 'The Back Attacks Formula!' And it's one of the very best instructionals that I’ve ever been involved in or have seen on the market. Not surprisingly Back Attacks Formula about taking the back from every position, staying on the back no matter how your opponent tries to escape, and then submitting your … [Read more...]

How To Do the Bow and Arrow Choke

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The Bow and Arrow Choke is one of the top ten most successful submissions in BJJ. And when you get to the upper ranks - purple, brown and black - where people really know how to prevent and counter many of the 'easy' submissions - the Bow and Arrow is one of the top three submissions in BJJ competition. My point is that if you do BJJ you've gotta know how to do the Bow and Arrow Choke! In … [Read more...]

Can You Cross Your Ankles in Back Mount?

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"Never cross your ankles when you're in back mount!" This rule is often taught as gospel to BJJ beginners. Truly, it's not a bad rule of thumb to start with.  But there are exceptions to every rule, and that's what this article is all about... The back mount is one of the very best positions in Brazilian jiu-jitsu.  From the back you can submit your opponent with some very powerful … [Read more...]

How to Take the Back from X Guard

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It's almost impossible to use the Butterfly Guard without also using the X Guard... When you attack with the Butterfly Guard your opponent is going to be doing his absolute best to shut you down. For example, that means that he'll be posting hands and feet all over the place to stop you from sweeping him. When he posts his hands or otherwise gets them out of position it opens up … [Read more...]

Powerful Options and Variations for the Berimbolo

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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...]

How To Do the Twister the Easiest Way

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The Twister is a flashy and hellishly effective submission made famous by Eddie Bravo. It's now illegal in IBJJF competition, but it shows up sometimes in submission grappling and you're even starting to see it in MMA! If you catch your training partners in it - carefully and gently of course - then you get major bragging rights and some instant 'mat cred.' There are lots of advanced ways … [Read more...]

The Highest Percentage Rear Mount Escape

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There's one specific rear mount escape you'll see more than any other in high level competition... It's also the one that I use all the time when I'm sparring with tough training partners... And to top it off, this technique works with the gi, without the gi, and in MMA! It doesn't matter if it's the BJJ Mundials, a main event at the UFC, or the ADCC finals; when a world-class grappler … [Read more...]

Clark Gracie Shares Some Rear Naked Choke Tips

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I recently did a podcast interview with Clark Gracie at a friend's house.  After the interview we were talking about the rear naked choke and I realised two things: A) my friend had mats, and B) I had a camera in the car. This was a great opportunity to pick his mind some more, so we quickly set up shop and Clark shared some really great tips about setting up and amplifying the power of the … [Read more...]

The 3 Steps of Berimbolo

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Sometimes the best way to really understand something is to teach it. When it comes to jiu-jitsu, breaking a technique down into steps (not too many, not too few) and finding the best way to convey the underlying principles often helps clarify things in your mind. I've been doing a lot of this with the berimbolo sweep recently. For example, yesterday I was training with my friend Chad. He's … [Read more...]

What Do White Belts Need to Learn in Their 1st Year of BJJ?

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by guest author Mark Mullen I'm currently in Rio de Janeiro doing a little training in BJJ. While here I have met a number of white belts at the Connection Rio BJJ hostel. Sitting around the pool or over acai after training, inevitably the topic of conversation turns to BJJ and the struggles of the white belts trying to find their way in the art suave. … [Read more...]

A Reverse de la Riva Guard Tutorial

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The de la Riva guard is an open guard position in which you entangle one of your opponent's legs with your own leg.  It was popularised years ago by Ricardo de la Riva, and has since become a staple of gi and no gi jiu-jitsu. But a related position, the Reverse de la Riva guard, is still a mystery to many grapplers... … [Read more...]

How to Maintain Rear Mount, Improve Guillotines, and Thwart ‘Combatives’ Experts

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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 Stop Your Opponent from Turtling During Your Guard Pass

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I was recently asked the following question: "Hi Stephan, My biggest problem on the mats right now is people turtling and going to their to knees when I'm about to pass their guard. Once they're in turtle they either roll back to guard or stand up and all the hard work I did to pass their guard is for nothing. What can I do to prevent this from happening?" This is a really common problem. … [Read more...]

Hidden Techniques for Maintaining Rear Mount

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When people teach the rear mount they often show you how to get your hooks in to achieve the rear mount, and then they teach you a couple of submissions from the back. Their idealized flowchart has two steps: Get your hooks in, Submit your opponent. Oh, if only life were so simple! … [Read more...]

How to Attack Super-Defensive Opponents

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It's a fact: big guys don't like losing to smaller guys. That's why sometimes, when a bigger guy realizes he's not going to be able to actually win a match, he changes gears and uses all his strength and size for only one thing... ... to stall, stall, stall and hope for a draw! It can be super-frustrating when an opponent absolutely refuses to engage with you. Especially when the damn guy … [Read more...]

“Comedy’ reverse omo plata from rear mount

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Thanks to Matt Kirtley for submitting this technique.  For more information, or to contact Matt, please visit Gracie Barra Clearwater - Stephan Kesting. While this entry into the reverse omo plata may seem like a comedy option (especially when I obviously have the choke in all these photos) I have actually used it when someone is defending their neck really well, especially when they have a gi … [Read more...]

How to Finish the Back Climb from Half Guard

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Taking an opponent's back is a fundamental attack from half guard, but once your opponent has been caught in it a few times he will start blocking your back climb. Most typically he will wrap your arm with an overbook, also known as a 'whizzer.' Here's one way of my favorite ways to counter his counter and come out on top and behind your … [Read more...]

A Roadmap for the Rear Naked Choke

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The Rear Naked Choke, or RNC, is one of those fundamental techniques. Choking someone from rearmount is an incredibly effective and efficient tool in the jiu-jitsu arsenal, but I only acquired it relatively late in my grappling career. Instructions on how to do the RNC are in the first martial arts books I bought when I was 12 years old. I also learned how to do it in Judo class at about the … [Read more...]