Ryan Hall Guard Flexibility Techniques

as helpfully compiled by Journey BJJ

Training Day: Monday

The fact that I've spent the past hour eyeballing Ryan Hall's Back Attacks DVD over on eBay at a nearly-too-sweet 30% discount tells you much, but not all, of my training on the first training day of the week.

To the good, Prof Carlos had us working on the standing guillotine off a double leg defense, the counter to the standing guillotine, and a variation of the running escape from side control.  The latter was especially good for me, having struggled from this position in recent days against larger and/or stronger opponents.  Ironically, I had spent Monday morning watching the volume of Saulo's classic DVD series that focuses on the crossbody position, specifically, chapter 13 which dealt with the running escape.

Live training gave me the opportunity to test out my side control escape on at least one occasion to positive effect.  But my rear mount defense has really deteriorated over the past year and repairing it has become as critical as developing a Unified Field Theory of Guard Passing was a year ago.  Hence, me, Ryan Hall, and the eyeballing over at eBay.

Some say bend at the waist to pin the leg, shuck the leg, wide step and hipscape in (Saulo).  Others insist on getting your back to the mat as the prime directive (Marcelo).  Still others advocate a theory of "relative hip height", insisting that the key is to avoid having the attacker's hips at the small of your back at all costs (Hall).

So obviously there are plenty of ways to escape the back mount.  What I need to figure out, as I did for the guard and have begun to do in earnest with the guard pass, is the way of movement to escape that best fits the way my body is most likely to move - especially under duress - and to move that way for a while until it sticks.

More rear mount escapes/counters from Robson Moura and Kurt Osiander.

On Hall in Houston

One of the most impressive things I've seen all weekend was Ryan Hall's performance at the IBJJF Houston Open.

Down 2-3 (takedown - guard pass), Ryan finds himself on top against a deep half attack. He goes right to the move that he shows on his DVD: grabbing the leg and crunching to break the guardplayer's posture, then slipping into a watchdog top position against a regular half and setting up the rolling back take.

I count six separate times in less than 45 seconds that Ryan goes for this move. Full roll and kicking. No go. Half roll and searching for leverage. No go. Adjust. No go. Complain to the ref. No go. Start over. Full roll, half roll, angle, leverage, momentum ...

On the SEVENTH try, he gets the reverse to take the back. With seconds left, however, Ryan loses the match because, in crossing his ankles, he was not awarded four points for taking position. Time runs out before he can readjust his ankles from crossed to hooks.

Ryan was not amused by the decision (though he was respectful to his competitor). And there's sure to be all sorts of petit controversy on the interwebs.

But all I'll say is that the fact that we were denied a J.T. versus Ryan final is a far greater outrage than the ankle-crossing rule for getting points after taking the back.

Ryan Hall Post-ADCC 2011 Interview

Every time I hear Ryan Hall talk about training, competition, and jiu-jitsu, I feel like I hear something that I've never really heard from anyone else. Maybe it's just the way he puts things. But he is truly one of my favorite guys to watch and listen to.

Ryan Hall Interview with GrappleArts' Stephan Kesting

Here's an extended interview with American BJJ superstar, Ryan Hall. At the risk of sounding like an ass, the more I read interviews with Ryan Hall, the more interested I am in interviewing him myself. But it's always nice to hear from Ryan, who is truly one of the good guys in a great martial art. And the discussions on developing your guard as a game of range, as well as the sports psychology stuff (excerpted below) are certainly among the conversation's keepers.

Ryan Hall on BJJ, Submission Grappling and MMA

Stephan: Now, I guess this awareness really only comes with experience. Maybe first you go in at too high a state of arousal, burn yourself out, and not be able to think. And then you might go in at too low a state of arousal and not being able to capitalize or use the 'agro' energy when it might have helped you in this situation... So you'll be trying to dial it up and down as your experience level grows, which is exactly what you were doing, it sounds like...

Ryan: I’ve been on the wrong end of both of those, actually, and I still am every now and then. There have been certain tournaments where win or lose, I still don’t really feel like I performed well. I'm not like “oh man, the other guy was really tough but I somehow just expected to walk through him.” Instead it was more like, “man, I just didn’t really feel sharp,” or felt like I was too amped up, or just felt not into it. And that can be for a variety of reasons, but even now, I find myself on both ends of that.

And then, when everything comes together and you have a great performance, it’s usually when you find that optimal level of arousal, not only for the sport but for the moment and for that day. Everything seems to be clicking. And when I’ve been able to find and maintain that state of mind once then I’m able to find it again. And that’s one of the big things that I think that constant competition gives us.

For instance, if I compete only once every 6 months, I kind of lose touch with the proper frame of mind. It’s easy to have all these other things going on, these little voices in your head telling you what you need to be doing. But if you’re competing all the time, not only will you be getting experience, but you’ll be getting experience psychologically preparing yourself to perform at your best, and I think that’s absolutely critical.

Ryan Hall: Mini-Interview and End of Diego Sanchez Match

Ryan Hall in Liverpool

Ryan Hall Seminar - MMA Academy, Liverpool, Feb 2011 from stuart cooper on Vimeo.

Houston Open: Rader and Hall

Here are the adult black belt featherweight and lightweight finals from the Houston Open this past weekend.

Justin Rader v. Gustavo Carpio (featherweight)


Ryan Hall v. Bruno Rocha (lightweight)

Ryan Hall Interview at Grappling Weekly

An excerpt:

BD: You had mentioned to me that you believe guard passing is your best skill, if you were to go back a few years and look at the forums and see all the hits for Ryan Hall and your success with the triangle and inverted guard and what not, it’s completely different with your mentality now. You’ve gone through a transformation and have changed since then. Your whole jiu jitsu philosophy has changed. How did his all come about?

RH: I agree with you on your statement about my change in Jiu-Jitsu mentality. I feel like my game was developed improperly at the beginning. I’ve had to do a lot of fixing and tinkering with my game, but I’ve always looked at the best guys to see what they are doing and why, basically try to become more like them. What’s really allowed me to improve is developing a deeper understanding of all of the movements I know and how they fit together into a cohesive framework and strategy–this has been the key for me. I was forced into introspection when I had surgery on my wrist in the end of 2008, keeping me off the mat with no training for 8 months.

Read more Interview with Ryan Hall

Ryan Hall Runs My Voodoo Down

All of the jiu jitsu positions are going to flow together ... The more you train, the more high-level you get, the more skilled you become, the more you are going to see all the inroads and all the transitions and passages between these different positions. And in order to be truly effective, you have to develop them. So I can't just be like, 'Oh, I've got a great half guard but, man, my back control is terrible.' You're going to have a really hard time.

--Ryan Hall, Deep Half Guard: Advanced Deep Half Attacks

Bloody Elbow's Judo Chop: The Evolution of the Guillotine

Holy Mother of God, Judo Chop does it again.

Judo Chop: C.B. Dollaway Gets the Elbow Lift Guillotine

The elbow lift accomplishes a few things. It prevents the opponent from bulldozing into you to relieve the pressure. That works with the old-school full guard Guillotine, which I haven't caught anyone with in forever, and I do think it will be phased out as time passes. The elbow lift can also be used to help keep someone on all fours if you are on your knees setting up the choke. Leo Vieira did this beautifully against Ryan Hall at ADCC 2009. Ryan was on his knees in the front headlock, and Leo was on his knees. He lifted the elbow up and over Ryan's back so Ryan couldn't posture up. Then Leo threw the leg over the shoulder and the tap came almost immediately.

Friday Night Fights: Ryan Hall v. Hermes Franca

A lot to like in this video of Ryan Hall and Hermes Franca. But the back-take around 2:40 is probably near the top of the list.

Marcelo e Ryan: Flow

New Interview with New Black Belt Ryan Hall

Arte Suave style!

More Thoughts On the Ryan Hall Interview

I've had the chance to get both Cindy's and Rodrigo's thoughts on some of the sentiments expressed in the recent Ryan Hall interview. Rodrigo's comments in particular resonated with things he has said before about the difference between many good American jiu jitsu artists and their Brazilian counterparts.

I thinik there are some parts of Ryan's thesis that are not supported. For example, the armlock and triangle from mount remain viable positions even if the risk is "giving up position" as Ryan says in his rejection of those techniques. For me, the issue is the risk/reward. If you have a good triangle or armlock from mount - if you are better from those positions than you are from the cross choke or transitioning to take the back, then it would be ridiculous to forgo your best technique out of a Unified Jiu Jitsu Theory that says you can not ever risk losing position.

It also begs the question - can't a person going for the cross choke from mount get reversed? Can't a person trying to take the back from mount (for example, using the S-mount transition Rodrigo showed us earlier this week) miss the moment and end up back on the bottom?

There are no inherently more or less "safe" techniques in jiu jitsu. As the saying goes, jiu jitsu is perfect, it is the human being who makes errors. Travis Lutter failed to submit Anderson Silva by armlock from the mount because he waited until the third opportunity to try - and even then Anderson had begun to disrupt Lutter's balance by the time he moved. It wasn't because the armlock from the mount - or the triangle from the mount that Ryan rejects but Demian Maia was able to use to finish Chael Sonnen - was in and of itself inferior.

Ryan's game came to represent an extreme version of jiu jitsu - and there's a lot of sense in his rejection of it. To the extent that he wants to compete against the bset in the world, he knows that he'll have to do more than try and lure opponents into the lethal octopus garden of his legs. And I wonder what the implications of Ryan's theory have on similar top American guard players like Jeff Glover.

In jiu jitsu, when the going gets tough, the not-so-tough often start thinking about wrestling ... I'm as guilty of that as anyone and it has been helpful - very helpful - this past week to have Rodrigo spend so much time on the more aggressive, back-tacking, pummeling, base-disrupting aspects of jiu jitsu. I think there's a little of this in Ryan's thinking, which as Rodrigo's training this week has shown, might be too affected by a "jiu jitsu = guard playing" hegemony (sorry I can't think of another way to put it) that he himself has lived - and succeeded with - for years. In other words, the antidote to guard playing isn't wrestling, it's a more balanced diet of jiu jitsu.

I don't want to sound overly critical of Ryan's view of things. I've along been a Ryan Hall fan and, to the extent that his view of things is his view of things, I wish him nothing but luck. But as an general analysis of what we're likely to see - or should see - as jiu jitsu evolves - I'm no more convinced than I was hearing Marc Laimon say many of the same sorts of things three or four years ago.

The greatest innovations in jiu jitsu are still coming from Brazil, in my opinion. And the recent performance of Brazilians at the ADCC 2009 gives lie to the notion that the gi is the only place where Brazilians continue to outpace the rest of the world. (Brazilians won 7 out of 8 divisions including women and absolute at ADCC 2009. In the men's divisions, two out of every final four included Brazilian competitors.) I don't have a clue what we'll see next. But my eyes are on the Mendes brothers, who seem to be at the forefront of jiu jitsu innovation right now in terms of both innovation and achievement.

From Tatame:

Who is the responsible for your technical changes so fast, besides your talent?

I think this evolution isn’t just talent, because if the person only has talent and isn’t determined, it will reach a place, but not the highest. If you have determination and talent, then you can reach the highest place of the podium. The most important isn’t the talent, but will, determination, overcoming, training every day, maintaining an intense training and the union of my team that is essential.

Not surprisingly, Rodrigo's been keeping his eye on the Mendes brothers as well. The other day after training, Rodrigo was showing Andrew and Stephen this Mendes Bros. move from the top of half guard.

Interview with Ryan Hall

A great catch by Griff (Towtruck) e-mailed to me this morning. I've already torn through the article and made it mostly through the actual transcript of the interview that article came from.

Lockflow Interview with Ryan Hall

The whole key is saying, ‘Look. I don’t want to beat regular people. I don’t want to beat guys that are kind of good. I don’t want to beat hobbyists. I don’t want to pull out a sweet highlight reel full of backflips and wacky nonsense.’ You know who has a sweet highlight reel? Roger Gracie. If something doesn’t work against the top 1% of competitors, I don’t want to do it. If you fight for a living and you have a lower standard than that, you have to be out of your mind ...

My suspicion, as I wrote Griff in a thank you e-mail, is that Ryan is mean reverting with a little more velocity than he might otherwise, having been so supersaturated with guard play for so many years. It seems like jiu jitsu guys go through phases from time to time in which the typical virtues of "wrestling" seem to outshine the virtues of "jiu jitsu".

Ironically, this is playing out a little bit in training as Rodrigo has been working us especially hard on the physical aspect of grappling: more butterfly guard, more back-tacking, more pummeling. About a week ago, while we were in the midst of the drilling fury, Rodrigo was pointing out that he wanted us to avoid going to our backs too eagerly, to be more ready and able to fight for top position.

Of course, it's all jiu jitsu, the wrestling v.s. jiu jitsu divide becoming less and less apparent everyday. But clearly there are aspects of jiu jitsu that are being called upon with more and more frequency these days and those aspects do seem to increasingly favor guard passing and taking dominant position over submissions from the back.

A very good read, especially if you've followed Ryan Hall's jiu jitsu career since his days as a the provost of Ryangle University (I bet he would groan out loud if you said that to him today!)

A last look at the "old" Ryan Hall? Here he is in competition with another top up 'n' coming American, Joel Tudor.

Ryan Hall and the FightWorks Podcast Interview

What is most interesting in this interview with Ryan Hall is how much his current thinking reflects a sort of "back to basics" movement, focusing on the essential jiu jitsu that has become somewhat obscured as the popularity of the art has exploded over the past five years or so.

I felt it when I read Saulo's book, Jiu Jitsu University. As Ryan does in his interview with the Fightworks Podcast, I've always said that the essential question for everyone who trains jiu jitsu is this: why is Rickson Gracie considered the best jiu jitsu artist of all time?

Father Helio said it was his "impeccable timing". Saulo answers that same question very early in his book, pointing to Rickson's fundamental understanding of the physics of the human body. I've long thought that if you could master those two elements - timing and leverage - your jiu jitsu would make surprising leaps and bounds.

So it is great to hear Ryan Hall - often criticized for his "special attributes" like exceptional flexibility and ability to master a single submission (arguably to the exclusion of other valuable techniques) - echo many of the things I have been thinking and feeling over the past few months.

I've always been a huge Ryan Hall fan - how could you not be? - and am looking forward to hearing and seeing his development in the art over the next several years.

Ryan Hall on the FightWorks Podcast

Thursday Night Training

Rodrigo was still out sick on Thursday, so Shawn led the gi class.

After a really vigorous warm-up, Shawn had us working on the half-guard passes some more. I think it might have been the third or fourth day in a row (for me) that we worked on these passes. But I'll be damned if I don't have them pretty well burned into my muscle memory.

What is especially nice about the two passes - the Royler and the Switch - is that they are very different from my current standby half-guard pass. This gives me three solid options - not including standing out of the half guard. The trick, of course, will be to integrate all three into my game so that I feel comfortable switching to whichever one looks most appropriate for the moment.

Cindy's no gi class was also a review of sorts - again, no complaints on my end. We worked the duck-under, the arm-stuff triangle and the omoplata. Doing the arm-stuff triangle, I actually started to have visions my myself actually being able to use the triangle choke in sparring.

Visions - or delusions, perhaps. I've been watching a lot of Ryan Hall stuff of late, looking for different set-ups: the chicken wing, the shin/chin smash ... But one thing I realized Thursday night was that if I just focus on getting the basic triangle leg lock in place and then grab my shin with my opposite hand and "fit" the triangle into position, I might actually be able to start pulling them off.

I have a pretty good sense of the mechanics of the triangle AFTER I've got that basic leg lock in place. I've just done a poor job of getting to that initial step. A large part of it, I know, is my perennial inability to break posture from the closed guard, which means that I'm really just throwing my legs up in a vain attempt to catch the guy.

In any event, I'm not going to make the triangle a big part of my game all of a sudden. But it is something I want to at least have as a credible threat.

A little sparring afterwards. Nothing too remarkable. I'm getting increasingly comfortable with north/south as a dominant position and the kimura as a finish. I need to start turning those kimuras into armlocks and those north/souths into take-the-back. But so far, so good.

Nate Diaz v. Ryan Hall

Arguably two of the top American purple belts in the lighter divisions competing against one another ...

Lost Ryan Hall Video

Ryan Hall in the Advanced Welterweight Division of the East Coast Grappling Championships

The guillotine--crossover--kickover triangle choke combination in the second match is especially nice.