Recently I taught a seminar on Unorthodox BJJ Positions. The success of this seminar inspired me to write a series of newsletters on how touse unusual positions to confuse, frustrate and ultimately submit your opponent. … [Read more...]
Unorthodox Strategies
The Reverse Mount; Another Unorthodox BJJ Position
The first time I saw the Reverse Mount I was at an Erik Paulson seminar. My reaction was something like "yeah, right...." I honestly thought that Erik had run out of high percentage things to teach and was now just making stuff up. … [Read more...]
Offside Kesa Gatame has an Judo Name
OK, it's official. The collective intelligence of the Grapplearts readership is awesome. Thousands of people people receive my newsletters, and many more read my articles on the website, via RSS feeds, etc. If we all got together and combined our knowledge we'd make Rickson Gracie look like a three-stripe white belt. … [Read more...]
‘Offside’ Kesa Gatame: Another Unorthodox BJJ Position
Today I want to look at another unorthodox position. It's so unique that - to the best of my knowledge - there aren't any formal names for it. For now I'm calling it the "Offside Kesa Gatame" … [Read more...]
Stirring Up a Hornet’s Nest
Boy, was there a lot of feedback after my last post! When I wrote about Kesa Gatame being both a valid and an unorthodox attack position, long heated discussions broke out on several grappling forums and quite a few people even contacted me with quite a diverse set of responses: … [Read more...]
Kesa Gatame in BJJ – An Unorthodox Position
Kesa Gatame (what the guy in the white gi is using in the photo above) is the Judo name for a position that is also known as the Scarf Hold or the Head and Arm pin. Some people will object my calling this an 'unorthodox' position, because it's a staple pin in Judo, Sambo and Freestyle Wrestling. That's true, but while it may be common in other grappling systems, it's underutilized and … [Read more...]
An Unfair Advantage – Unorthodox BJJ Positions
I've said before are six major positions in Brazilian jiu-jitsu: 1. Guard (including closed, open and half guard) 2. Sidemount, 3. Kneemount, 4. Full mount, 5. Rear mount, 6. Turtle. … [Read more...]
An Alternative To Pulling Guard When Grappling On Your Knees
Many grapplers start their sparring sessions on their knees. From this starting position usually one of two things happen: either the two combatants push and pull each other until one falls over, or someone pulls guard and starts looking for sweeps and submissions. … [Read more...]
The Twister Vs. The Toehold
Q: You've previously discussed dangerous submissions. Do you think that the twister spine lock is a dangerous submission? How dangerous is the twister compared to other submissions, say something like a toehold? A: The quick answer is that both submissions (the toehold and the twister) are dangerous. If you were to collect injury statistics, you would probably find that more people have … [Read more...]