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Techniques, Tutorials and Gear for BJJ, MMA and Submission Grappling

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How to Develop a Killer Knee Ride in Only 17 minutes

October 3, 2024 by Stephan Kesting

How to Develop a Killer Knee Ride in Only 17 minutes

The knee ride is the most soul-crushing position in all of jiu-jitsu! It puts HUGE pressure on your opponent, which gives you tons of submission opportunities because of all the stupid things he'll do in his desperation to get out. It’s also a tremendously mobile position that allows you to take advantage of his mistakes, jump on submissions, spin to the back, and more. Here’s a FREE … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Grappling Techniques, Self Defense Tagged With: Cal MacDonald, Drills, Knee Mount, Sparring, Video

Half Guard Leg Position Drill for BJJ & Submission Grappling

September 20, 2024 by Stephan Kesting

Half Guard Movement Drill

The Half Guard is a very powerful position from which to sweep or submit your opponent.  But just like all other forms of guard, it's really important to know how to move your hips and your legs correctly. No movement = no guard!!! Here's a half-guard drill that teaches you the basic leg and hip movements to manoeuvre into position to apply your techniques and prevent him from passing your … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Grappling Techniques, Training Tagged With: Drills, Half Guard, Positions, Techniques, Video

Tipping the Triangle: A Principle to Make Your Pin Escapes MUCH Easier

September 15, 2024 by Stephan Kesting

Tipping the Triangle Escape Principle

If someone is pinning you effectively then they probably have pretty good control over both sides of your body. This can make escape very difficult. Your escapes are made much easier if you off-balance your opponent before escaping, which is an application of kuzushi. If your opponent is off-balance, then he'll be focused on getting back into good position instead of submitting you, and also … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Grappling Techniques Tagged With: Concepts, Escapes, Humour, Mount Escape, Video

From Underground Bareknuckle Fights to the Biggest MMA Stage in the World, with Denis Kang

September 8, 2024 by Stephan Kesting

Denis Kang, MMA fighter

In the early 2000s Denis Kang was one of the top MMA fighters in the world with wins over Minoru Suzuki, Murilo 'Ninja' Rua, Akihiro Gono and Marvin Eastman. In this interview, Denis opens up about: The mindset shift that took him to a 22-fight undefeated streak... How he dealt with the death of his fiance while competing for the biggest MMA organisation in the world... How … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Interviews, Mixed Martial Arts, Podcasts, Training Tagged With: Denis Kang, History, Interviews, Martial Arts, MMA, MMA training, Pride FC, The Strenuous Life BJJ Podcast with Stephan Kesting, Training, Video

The Bridge and Inversion Escape Movement in BJJ

August 28, 2024 by Stephan Kesting

Solo Escape Drill

Most BJJ practitioners know about bridging and shrimping. But I bet not one in twenty knows about bridging and then turning into an inverted tripod position. That's too bad because this movement is the basis of my most successful mount escape, hands down.  That inversion allows you to build extra height, break your opponent's contact with the ground, and then scoop under him to regain your … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Training Tagged With: Cal MacDonald, Escapes, Mount Escape, Solo Drills, Video

Ramsey Dewey on MMA Training and Self Defense

August 26, 2024 by Stephan Kesting

Ramsey Dewey on The Strenuous Life Podcast

Ramsey Dewey is an MMA coach now based in Shanghai, China. I really enjoyed our conversation, including How wearing headgear in sparring actually makes things WORSE for your brain His controvesey with Master Wong Why China could take over MMA What self defense 'experts' get wrong What happens to martial arts that don't spar Ramsey's experience on The Ultimate Self Defense … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Interviews, Mixed Martial Arts, Podcasts, Self Defense Tagged With: Martial Arts, MMA, MMA training, Ramsey Dewey, Self Defense, The Strenuous Life BJJ Podcast with Stephan Kesting, Training, Video

Keep This In Mind If You’re Going to Train BJJ When You’re Tired…

August 22, 2024 by Stephan Kesting

Training BJJ while Tired

Years ago I used to hang with a bunch of hardcore MMA fighters. They’d party in the clubs till dawn, then still drag their asses in for hard training in the morning. Their ability to go without rest was impressive. Only later did I realise they could only do this because they were young and fueled by a devil’s brew of steroids, stimulants and painkillers. Not surprisingly, all of them later … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Training Tagged With: Overtraining, Training, Video

What is a Crossface in BJJ

August 22, 2024 by Stephan Kesting

How to do the BJJ Crossface

The crossface is one of the keys to a brutally effective side control. You can use the crossface to turn his jaw into a lever to turn his head and limit the directions he can turn.  This makes it so much harder for your opponent to escape, tires him out, and kills his will to fight. A properly applied crossface is a tool you can use in the gi, no gi, and MMA to double how heavy you feel on top; … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Grappling Techniques Tagged With: Cal MacDonald, Sidemount, Techniques, Video

How to Reset the Back When Your Opponent Has Almost Escaped

August 10, 2024 by Stephan Kesting

how to reset the back after an attempted escape

Being on someone's back is the crown jewel of BJJ.  From this position, all your weapons are pointed towards his throat and all his weapons are pointed away from you. Life is good! The trouble is that once you're on the other guy's back he's going to do everything he can to escape.  He'll try technical escapes like going to the weak side and using the ground to scrape you off of him.  And if … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Grappling Techniques Tagged With: Rear Mount, Rolling Backtake, Techniques, Video

Three Big BJJ Lessons Learned on a Solo Trip in the Arctic

August 5, 2024 by Stephan Kesting

Lessons Learned in the Arctic

Earlier this summer I completed a beautiful and difficult 19-day solo canoe trip in the Canadian Arctic. There's a lot of time to think on a trip like this, and here are the 3 big lessons I learned... You can order my new book "Perseverance, Life and Death in the Subarctic" on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Indigo/Chapters, or your local bookstore! Three Big BJJ Lessons Learned on a Solo … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Health & Nutrition, Miscellaneous, Podcasts Tagged With: Canoeing, Conditioning, Fitness, Injuries, Outdoors, The Strenuous Life BJJ Podcast with Stephan Kesting, Training, Video

DON’T Use This Top Judo Throw in BJJ!

August 1, 2024 by Stephan Kesting

Top 20 Scoring Judo Techniques, January to June 2024

I came across something really neat recently. Someone called DrSeioNage did a TON of data analysis and looked at 5850 elite judo matches to identify the top-scoring techniques. The highest-scoring technique of them all during the time period studied was a throw called Seio Otoshi. This throw involves turning your back to your opponent and is often performed dropping one or both knees … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Competition, Grappling Techniques Tagged With: BJJ, Competition, Judo, Rules, Takedowns, Video

Get My Next Jiu-Jitsu Instructional Free – Seriously!

June 16, 2024 by Stephan Kesting

Perseverance, on Amazon

After 4 years of writing my book, Perseverance, Life and Death in the Subarctic is now available for pre-order. This is an adventure story about my 1,000-mile solo trip from the boreal forest to the windswept tundra of the Arctic after a life-saving kidney transplant. Bears, forest fires, rapids, storms... it all happened on that trip. Early reviewers have been unanimous in their praise … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Instructional Videos, Miscellaneous Tagged With: Books, Grapplearts, Grapplearts DVDs, Perseverance Book, Stephan Kesting, Video

How Has MMA Training Changed Since the First UFCs?

June 14, 2024 by Stephan Kesting

Sport Specific MMA Traning

I was honoured to talk MMA with Denis Kang, an MMA pioneer with 55 fights in organisations ranging from Pride FC to the UFC. In this conversation, we covered how fighting off the wall, sparring with small gloves, and doing more sparring and less conditioning before a fight has changed MMA training. How Has MMA Training Changed Since the First UFCs? - Audio Only This conversation was also … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Mixed Martial Arts, Podcasts Tagged With: Denis Kang, MMA, MMA training, The Strenuous Life BJJ Podcast with Stephan Kesting, Training, UFC, Video

The Most Annoying Grip in BJJ

May 30, 2024 by Stephan Kesting

Sausage grip 1

When I was a bluebelt in the late 90's we had a visitor to class. This guy was a purple belt, trained at a well-known school in California, and had a very tricky game. One day I was in his spider guard and he caught me in a grip I had never seen before.  All of a sudden, I had no use of my left hand.  Then he secured the same grip on my right sleeve, and now I had no hands left to grip him … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Grappling Techniques Tagged With: Collar Sleeve Grip, Gripfighting, spider, Video

Controlling and Submitting from The Crucifix Position in Jiu-Jitsu

May 21, 2024 by Stephan Kesting

The Crucifix Position for No Gi 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...]

Filed Under: Grappling Techniques Tagged With: Crucifix Position, Gripfighting, Kimura, No Gi, Omoplata, Video

What Happened to the UFC?

May 15, 2024 by Stephan Kesting

What happened to the UFC with Luke Thomas

Luke Thomas is one of the most influential MMA analysts in the game and the host of The Morning Kombat Podcast. I was delighted to talk to him on my own show, The Strenuous Life Podcast, today.  We covered... How the sport of MMA has changed The rise of Eastern European fighters Why is the terrible behaviour of MMA fighters tolerated Can other MMA organisations ever rival the UFC … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Mixed Martial Arts, Podcasts Tagged With: Luke Thomas, MMA, The Strenuous Life BJJ Podcast with Stephan Kesting, UFC, Video

Train the Kimura as a Position, Not Just a Submission!

May 6, 2024 by Stephan Kesting

Kimura Control

The Kimura is a powerful bent armlock that primarily attacks the shoulder joint, but in addition to being a very powerful armlock it's also a control position. Here's the condensed form of this argument in video format. Check it out and then scroll down for many concrete examples of new ways to use the Kimura. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/B-XT1JfhTF4 The Kimura is Both a Submission AND a … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Grappling Techniques Tagged With: BJJ, Brandon Mullins, Concepts, Drills, Elliott Bayev, Guard Passes, Kimura, No Gi, Rob Biernacki, Submission, Video

How to Do the Von Flue Choke

April 30, 2024 by Stephan Kesting

The Von Flue Choke as a Guillotine Choke Escape and Counter

The guillotine choke is the second most popular submission in MMA (after the rear naked choke) and an omnipresent threat in no gi grappling and gi jiu-jitsu, so you need a solid guillotine defense game! But the only thing better than defending against a guillotine is reversing it and using his choke attempt to set up a submission of your own. That's where the Von Flue choke comes in! This … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Grappling Techniques Tagged With: Chokes, Escapes, Gi, Guillotine Choke, MMA, No Gi, Techniques, Video, Von Flue Choke

Use BJJ Mentality to Get Through the Tough Times

April 13, 2024 by Stephan Kesting

How to Use the BJJ Mentality to Get Through the Tough Times in Life

On an instagram Q&A (@stephan_kesting) I was recently asked, "What is the most unlikely yet fortuitous place jiu-jitsu has come in handy for me?" You might think that the answer was using it to subdue an opponent in some crazy streetfight, but actually my antagonist was far more deadly than that; polycystic kidney disease... Here's the video of me answering this question in … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Health & Nutrition, Podcasts Tagged With: BJJ, Kidney Transplant, The Mental Aspect, The Strenuous Life BJJ Podcast with Stephan Kesting, Video

Kneebar from Side Control

April 13, 2024 by Stephan Kesting

Kneebar from Side Control

If you've got your opponent in side control then you're definitely dominating the match, but if he's being defensive then it can still be hard to finish from there. A smart opponent will keep his arms in and protect his neck with his hands, making it challenging to catch an armlock or force a choke. This is where deception comes in. You've got to lure your opponent into a trap by giving him … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Grappling Techniques Tagged With: Kneebars, Leglocks, Sidemount, Strategy, Techniques, Video

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