Leo Kirby's Page

My favorite Marcelo Garcia translator's page is here. Some critical insights into Marcelinho's game from someone who has been studying that game for years.

Good Glute! On Strength Training and Mount Escapes

Bret Contreras, "The Glute Guy," is someone I ran across over at TMuscle.com. His series, "Inside the Muscles" uses a quantitative approach to determine how to get the best mean and peak activation from the main bodyparts based on different lifts. If you are at all into strength training, Contreras' articles are worth a look.

Inside the Muscles: The Best Back and Biceps Exercises

Contreras also has a blog that I was reading earlier this evening. Here's one entry that especially caught my attention.

More Random Stuff

10. The Barbell Glute Bridge is Huge for MMA

I keep meaning to write an article on strength training for MMA purposes but I never seem to get around to it. As many know, I’m really strong at barbell glute bridges. In fact, I can currently barbell glute bridge 545 lbs for 6 reps.

How does this help in MMA? I could go on for an hour about how glute strength and glute power will increase striking, clinching, take-down, submission, and take-down defense abilities, but one specific situation is worth mentioning; the full mount.

Needless to say, I've added glute bridges to my strength training routine starting in August. This is about much more than mount escapes. Getting your butt off the ground is critical for just about every submission from the guard - armbar, triangle, omoplata - and this is probably one of the main reasons why my closed guard is so weak relative to my other guards.

Meeting Marcelo

If it weren't for the fact that Marcelo Garcia is reputedly a great guy--in addition to obviously being one of the best jiu jitsu people on the planet--then some of these "OMG! I rolled with Marcelo Garcia!" blog posts would be downright ridiculous.

As it is, I love reading every single one I can find.
You can't shoot hoops with Michael, go biking with Lance or trade baseline shots with Martina. But if you love jiu jitsu, there is a better than one-in-a-million chance that you could someday roll with Marcelo Garcia.

The Best Roll Ever.

On Mount Escapes, Part I

Jason Stoll, a blue belt who has been training for about as long as I have (since July 2005), shared an interesting anecdote over at his blog, GotJitz.

A few weeks ago I was in a roll with a pretty slick fighter with good mobility. He got mount and I was unable to upa or bump him off, well for a little while. I found myself pushing him up and off me, straightening my arms in the process to make space giving him ample opportunity to arm bar me. A beginner white belt mistake.

After class, Professor pulled me aside asked me to take top mount on him. He escaped like butter. I mounted high on his chest, got my hooks in from a low position, postured up from a middle position and pressed down on his hips; each time nothing would stop him from escaping with simplicity. He then mounted me and asked me to escape. I was tired after the rolls, but that is no excuse; my mount escapes were weak, useless, and almost non-existent.

I love my Upa, but that only works when the conditions are in line. Professor then told me that someone who cannot escape from mount should not have a blue belt around their waist. I agreed. I was embarrassed and ashamed that there was such a gaping hole in my game. But it was what it was and needed to be fixed.

I’ve been in Stoll’s shoes before, both as an advanced white belt and as a brand, spanking-new blue. I’ve got a bump/upa move I call the “pole vault” because of the hand positioning that is very effective against the mount—at least when it is very effective. Other times, unfortunately, it is almost worthless. And I have found myself bumping and bumping pathetically under the mount of a larger or more advance opponent, wasting energy instead of focusing on the specific techniques that will allow me to improve my position.

The key to escaping the mount, so it seems, is a combination of bumping and escaping the hips. One approach by itself is not likely to work against a talented opponent. So in the same way that we need to push and pull to get a sense of our opponent’s (path of least) resistance, so do we need to raise our hips and move them from side to side to create space for an escape attack.

I suspect for most people with mount escape difficulties, the problem isn’t the bump, or the bump ‘n’ roll, it’s in escaping the hips. I know that’s the case with me. One problem I have in general with jiu jitsu is that I tend to give up after trying a given technique instead of fighting to make a certain technique work and then only giving up when it is clear to me that the technique will not work AND I’ve figured out something else, something better to do.

This is one of the things I love about watching that Werdum v. Lindland ADCC match from years ago. You can see exactly what set of techniques Werdum has decided to use against Lindland. First the double armbar/windmill sweep combination. Then after a number of attempt to catch Lindland with the submission or the sweep, Werdum switches to a “King Crimson” strategy of kimuras and crossover sweeps. In the process, Werdum sees an opportunity to take Lindland’s back. From there, it is RNC and rear mount armlock until Werdum gets the finish with the latter.

So I need to attack with the bump, but also to attack with the elbow escape—in both directions—when mounted.

Another key is similar to the fundamental rule when in the half-guard: get on your side. Getting on your side makes it possible to bring up a knee—top knee or bottom knee—and wedge it up between your hips and your opponent’s hips. There are both butterfly/Cobra guard recoveries (if you bring out the top leg first) and half-guard/closed guard recoveries (if you bring out the bottom leg first). So it is probably good practice to train bringing both the top and the bottom legs first.

The hip escape moves are especially worthwhile if the guy on top has his legs relatively wide to defend against your bump/upa. If he’s tight with his thighs pressing your legs together, then the bump is a better bet—or even the bump-to-butterfly move. As you can see, the bump can help create space for the hip escape, and if he tightens up to close off space you can transition back to the bump ...

In part 2, I'll show some Roy Harris videos that I came across on You Tube that describe some interesting mount escape options.

Almighty Aesopian: The Marcelinho Guard

Aesopian's Totally Awesome Journal is simply that: the best jiu jitsu blog in the known universe. I've mentioned Aesopian before, and am delinquent in putting a link on the main page. But his blogwork is most deserving. Hail the mighty mighty Aesopian!

The latest cause for celebration is this breakdownof my favorite guard, the Marcelinho guard as practiced by the greatest pound for pound jiu jitsu competitor around, Marcelo Garcia.

I've been bumbling about for the past few months with an improvised Marcelinho guard stitched together with my most basic impressions of Marcelo Garcia's game. This breakdown (for whom much credit goes to jiu jitsu colleague "Leo" as to Aesopian for some of the hardcore analysis work) is a godsend for those of us looking to add aspects of Marcelo's guard game into ours.