Veterans of Storm Find Relief in CombatStory by Leslie Eaton
Photo by Cheryl Gerber.
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Friday, May 18, 2007
Marcelo's North South Choke
This one is so simple that I can't believe I couldn't figure it out just from competition footage.
Click to enlarge.
The choke is the most decisive finish in all of martial arts--moreso than even the knockout. It is probably no coincidence that the best pound-for-pound jiu jitsu guy on the planet finishes as many fights as he does with a choke.
Click to enlarge.The choke is the most decisive finish in all of martial arts--moreso than even the knockout. It is probably no coincidence that the best pound-for-pound jiu jitsu guy on the planet finishes as many fights as he does with a choke.
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Sports Psychology and "Match Architecture"
Here's a quote from judo and jiu jitsu champion Rhadi Ferguson.
This was taken from the message board at MMA TV. The topic was BJ Penn's conditioning in the rematch with Matt Hughes. Rhadi blamed it on HLA during BJ's attempt to submit Hughes with a reverse triangle choke. But Rhadi digresses to talk about an interesting topic: match architecture.
I remember reading somewhere that Mario Sperry's theory of tournament fighting was to score as many points as possible as early as possible so as to put your opponent in the worst possible situation of having no choice but to win by submission. The risks your opponent would likely have to taken in that instance would open up opportunities for submisssions of your own.
This makes sweeps and takedowns/passes critical elements of tournament fighting, it seems to me. In the same way that Rhadi talks about top mixed martial artists being most effective after the first 10-15 minutes, it seems to me that in a tournament match you want to spend the first minute or two pressing the action by either getting the takedown or pulling guard and getting the sweep as soon as possible. Anything that happens after that happen with you ahead 2-0.
From their it's all about getting the dominant position--mount, rear mount, knee on belly--or passing, depending on where you are coming from, and more points. Get ahead 5-0 or 6-0 in the first two or three minutes. The pressure on the other guy to take risks in order to avoid losing will become intense.
There are some training implications. You've got to be able to go at nearly 100% for two or three minutes to get to that 5-0 or 6-0 place. This is where the Chuck Liddells of the world have already scored their first few overhand rights, where the Minotauros have gotten mount, where the Marcelos have once again taken the back ... From there, it's all a matter of the opponent making the necessary mistake within the time allowed.
One of the things that caught my eye in the "Meeting Marcelo Garcia" post was the guy's observation about how hard Marcelo trained. A lot of the time I feel as if I'm training hard if for no other reason that the fact that I'm tired. But there is quite a bit to be said, especially in the context of what it means to succeed in a five, six or even ten-minute fight, for pushing oneself to perform the right techniques in the right way every single time. There will be plenty of time to feel sore once I'm done.
From what I've been reading, the 2-3 minute zone is all about glycolytic energy systems--someplace between the instant demands of a powerlifter and the continuous, steady-state, energy demands of a long distance runner. The five-minute jiu jitsu Tabata and the Berardi complexes are geared to streghtening just this "location", so I'm looking forward to seeing how my conditioning improves over the balance of the year.
This also means that Berardi was right about hydrating with a "sugary" drink during and immediately after training. I remember reading an article where Helio Gracie had recommended his sons eat honey while waiting and in between matches during tournaments. Honey is a a fast-to-medium releasing sugar source, which is ideal for evening out glycogen levels over the course of a long afternoon. For what it's worth, I tried honey during my last Copa tournament and it really seemed to help. I think Rhadi mentions glycogen in another post in this thread, also.
This was taken from the message board at MMA TV. The topic was BJ Penn's conditioning in the rematch with Matt Hughes. Rhadi blamed it on HLA during BJ's attempt to submit Hughes with a reverse triangle choke. But Rhadi digresses to talk about an interesting topic: match architecture.
I would recommend that EVERY fighter who has to go 5 five minute rounds take a very good look at the way that Sylvia, Liddell, Randy, Hughes and others begin their fights. They start them very slowly, because a 25 minute match is a war of attrition and the moves that you can pull off when somebody is tired is different than what you can pull off when they are fresh. Especially when the 2 individuals are equally matched. You have to wait fro 10-15 minutes to pass so that you can impose your will. It's very hard to do so against a fresh competitor. You will also notice that 5 five minute rounds favor the striker - NOT THE GRAPPLER!!! If you stall in Greco Roman and freestyle wrestling, they put you down. If you stall in MMA - they stand you up. Very different. That means (drum roll please..........................) that the way you should practice your transitions if you are an MMA fighter is to roll super hard in practice for 45-60 second blasts on the floor, followed by 2-3 minutes of boxing. (this is when you are prepping for 5 five minute rounds). Am I giving too much away or should I stop now? And make sure that you understand this.- IN A 5-5 fight everything doubles. Meaning your takedown attempts, punches and everything doubles - UNLESS you are smart enough like Hughes, Sylvia and Liddell to the point where you are the Champ so you don't have to bring the fight to the other person - you only have to win rounds 3-4-and 5. And while the other guys is coming out like a house of fire - all you have to do is weather the storm and not get knocked out - which is easy to do when you are the champ. It takes a lot less energy for Matt to run and dance with BJ in 2 round than is does for him to really attack him for 2. Now don't get me wrong, Matt was working, but he didn't hit full tilt until it was time. The champs have found a way to take the same energy expenditure necessary for 3 3 minute rounds and use it for 5 5's. BJ was in shape though. He could have definitely benefitted from some individuals with a better background in sport psych and match architecture.What is interesting about this are the implications for jiu jitsu tournament fighting, and the way to be most effective in a five-minute match.
I remember reading somewhere that Mario Sperry's theory of tournament fighting was to score as many points as possible as early as possible so as to put your opponent in the worst possible situation of having no choice but to win by submission. The risks your opponent would likely have to taken in that instance would open up opportunities for submisssions of your own.
This makes sweeps and takedowns/passes critical elements of tournament fighting, it seems to me. In the same way that Rhadi talks about top mixed martial artists being most effective after the first 10-15 minutes, it seems to me that in a tournament match you want to spend the first minute or two pressing the action by either getting the takedown or pulling guard and getting the sweep as soon as possible. Anything that happens after that happen with you ahead 2-0.
From their it's all about getting the dominant position--mount, rear mount, knee on belly--or passing, depending on where you are coming from, and more points. Get ahead 5-0 or 6-0 in the first two or three minutes. The pressure on the other guy to take risks in order to avoid losing will become intense.
There are some training implications. You've got to be able to go at nearly 100% for two or three minutes to get to that 5-0 or 6-0 place. This is where the Chuck Liddells of the world have already scored their first few overhand rights, where the Minotauros have gotten mount, where the Marcelos have once again taken the back ... From there, it's all a matter of the opponent making the necessary mistake within the time allowed.
One of the things that caught my eye in the "Meeting Marcelo Garcia" post was the guy's observation about how hard Marcelo trained. A lot of the time I feel as if I'm training hard if for no other reason that the fact that I'm tired. But there is quite a bit to be said, especially in the context of what it means to succeed in a five, six or even ten-minute fight, for pushing oneself to perform the right techniques in the right way every single time. There will be plenty of time to feel sore once I'm done.
From what I've been reading, the 2-3 minute zone is all about glycolytic energy systems--someplace between the instant demands of a powerlifter and the continuous, steady-state, energy demands of a long distance runner. The five-minute jiu jitsu Tabata and the Berardi complexes are geared to streghtening just this "location", so I'm looking forward to seeing how my conditioning improves over the balance of the year.
This also means that Berardi was right about hydrating with a "sugary" drink during and immediately after training. I remember reading an article where Helio Gracie had recommended his sons eat honey while waiting and in between matches during tournaments. Honey is a a fast-to-medium releasing sugar source, which is ideal for evening out glycogen levels over the course of a long afternoon. For what it's worth, I tried honey during my last Copa tournament and it really seemed to help. I think Rhadi mentions glycogen in another post in this thread, also.
Monday, May 14, 2007
CC Grinder: Why Follow the Arm
When escpaing the triangle choke, it is natural--and sometimes effective--to move away from the trapped arm. I've seen no gi fighters get out of triangles this way.
Clearly, the lack of friction is a plus for this escape--which explains why it is more effective in bare-chested no gi and MMA competition than in gi or real-world situations. If there is one mistake I have seen in triangle chokes over and over again, then that mistake has been when the attacker has gotten "too much shoulder" into the choke."
I was watching an IFL mixed martial arts fight with Fabio Leopoldo and another guy, a tough, wrestler-type with good slams. Leopoldo won the fight, though it was closer than it needed to be because while Leopoldo achieved excellent submission positions--especially involving the triangle--he failed to finish any of them.
In particular, Leopoldo missed with numerous triangle chokes. His mistake was attacking straight on, and not getting an angle--something I think of as being able to look down the line of your choking knee. His opponent was powerfully built in the shoulders and was never in any danger because too much of his shoulder was involved in the choke. This prevented the necessary arm-to-neck pressure that makes the triangle a finishing move.
Attempting to escape the triangle choke by "pulling the arm out" actually gives the attacker a chance at getting an even better position because in pulling your arm out, you are taking your shoulder out of the equation and making it easier for a proper triangle choke to be set.
It seems counter-intuitive ("If I give him more arm, then he'll just transition to an armbar!"), but I think this is why the CC Grinder triangle choke escape is effective. As long as you remember to keep the hips in check, you can create a lot of pressure on the attacker's legs as you circle around in the direction of the arm, keeping the guy's hips low enough to ward off a realistic armbar attack, smashing the triangle.
Clearly, the lack of friction is a plus for this escape--which explains why it is more effective in bare-chested no gi and MMA competition than in gi or real-world situations. If there is one mistake I have seen in triangle chokes over and over again, then that mistake has been when the attacker has gotten "too much shoulder" into the choke."
I was watching an IFL mixed martial arts fight with Fabio Leopoldo and another guy, a tough, wrestler-type with good slams. Leopoldo won the fight, though it was closer than it needed to be because while Leopoldo achieved excellent submission positions--especially involving the triangle--he failed to finish any of them.
In particular, Leopoldo missed with numerous triangle chokes. His mistake was attacking straight on, and not getting an angle--something I think of as being able to look down the line of your choking knee. His opponent was powerfully built in the shoulders and was never in any danger because too much of his shoulder was involved in the choke. This prevented the necessary arm-to-neck pressure that makes the triangle a finishing move.
Attempting to escape the triangle choke by "pulling the arm out" actually gives the attacker a chance at getting an even better position because in pulling your arm out, you are taking your shoulder out of the equation and making it easier for a proper triangle choke to be set.
It seems counter-intuitive ("If I give him more arm, then he'll just transition to an armbar!"), but I think this is why the CC Grinder triangle choke escape is effective. As long as you remember to keep the hips in check, you can create a lot of pressure on the attacker's legs as you circle around in the direction of the arm, keeping the guy's hips low enough to ward off a realistic armbar attack, smashing the triangle.
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Thursday, May 10, 2007
The New Due Date
Tuesday, May 22nd is my target return-to-the-mat date.
My goal is to train twice a week from late May until early August when the book is done, and then kick things back to the way I used-to-do in time for my two-year anniversary in jiu jitsu.
2007 hasn't worked out as planned. But there is plenty of time for a strong finish in the second half. Having the book project behind me will help. And I've got to believe that whatever healing my eye needs to do will be farther along in the process in the second half of 2007 than it was in the first. I want to try the "pirate" eye patch that I'd been avoiding trying--it will limit my vision somewhat, but it will completely free my movement. So many times in the past few months I'd been afraid to move to escape or attack for fear that I'd catch a finger or a sleeve or whatever in my eye. It had gotten to the point where I would be driving to the academy muttering to myself "just don't hurt the eye ... just don't hurt the eye ..." and that kind of preoccupation is no way to roll.
With the patch I've got about 66-75% vision peripheral vision to my left without turning my head. As long as I don't have to worry a fight with new king of the head kick, Gabriel Gonzaga, then that should be a pretty minor limitation. The upside, though, is huge because I'd be able to move (read: escape) without fear of re-injury.
So that's the plan. Back on the mat in just a little over a week. I've managed to keep my weight down whilst sidelined and though I haven't worked out as regularly as I'd wanted to, the little jiu jitsu drills I've put together (my "Unplugged" series of guard techniques, for example) have helped me see some basic mechanical problems with some of the moves I've been trying (or, more accurately, avoided trying for fear of looking stupid.) We'll see. The truth, as they say, is in the tatami ...
My goal is to train twice a week from late May until early August when the book is done, and then kick things back to the way I used-to-do in time for my two-year anniversary in jiu jitsu.
2007 hasn't worked out as planned. But there is plenty of time for a strong finish in the second half. Having the book project behind me will help. And I've got to believe that whatever healing my eye needs to do will be farther along in the process in the second half of 2007 than it was in the first. I want to try the "pirate" eye patch that I'd been avoiding trying--it will limit my vision somewhat, but it will completely free my movement. So many times in the past few months I'd been afraid to move to escape or attack for fear that I'd catch a finger or a sleeve or whatever in my eye. It had gotten to the point where I would be driving to the academy muttering to myself "just don't hurt the eye ... just don't hurt the eye ..." and that kind of preoccupation is no way to roll.
With the patch I've got about 66-75% vision peripheral vision to my left without turning my head. As long as I don't have to worry a fight with new king of the head kick, Gabriel Gonzaga, then that should be a pretty minor limitation. The upside, though, is huge because I'd be able to move (read: escape) without fear of re-injury.
So that's the plan. Back on the mat in just a little over a week. I've managed to keep my weight down whilst sidelined and though I haven't worked out as regularly as I'd wanted to, the little jiu jitsu drills I've put together (my "Unplugged" series of guard techniques, for example) have helped me see some basic mechanical problems with some of the moves I've been trying (or, more accurately, avoided trying for fear of looking stupid.) We'll see. The truth, as they say, is in the tatami ...
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
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.
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.
ADCC 2007
ADCC 2007 Results
ProElite.com provided a live, streaming broadcast of the event from Saturday morning to Sunday afternoon. Unbelievable. I had a bunch of writing to do and some yardwork--as well as shopping for Mother's Day presents!--but I'm glad I popped for the $20 bucks for the broadcast anyway. I managed to see a number of nice matches including some matches featuring Leozinho, Drysdale, Marcelinho, Galvao, Pe de Pano, Werdum, Avellan ... I saw Rani's division-winning submission of Leo Viera. I saw Marcelo Garcia beat both Rolles Gracie and Cacareco en route to a second place finish in the Absolute ... I saw Cindy lose a close, close match to the woman who went on to win the division ... I even got to see Eric Dahlberg--who I didn't know was competing--make top contender Pablo Popovitch work hard for a decision win.
Mike Fowler, Saulo Ribeiro, Renzo Gracie ... I saw Roger Gracie and Jon Olav Einemo in a very fun superfight (Roger won on points).
I'm sure there are a number of fights I got to see that I can't recall right now. Suffice to say that it was a great weekend of jiu jitsu, and major props to everyone who competed.
And thousand thanks are due to On the Mat and ProElite for making this event available on the Internet.
I thought--and still think--that the ADCC 2005 dvd was worth every penny I spent on it. And if I find myself in a momentary lapse of discipline, I'm likely to pick up ADCC 2003, also. But let there be no mistake: ADCC 2007 should be up there with the Submissions 101 series and Laimon's No-Gi Remix in terms of "must own" jiu jitsu DVDs.
ProElite.com provided a live, streaming broadcast of the event from Saturday morning to Sunday afternoon. Unbelievable. I had a bunch of writing to do and some yardwork--as well as shopping for Mother's Day presents!--but I'm glad I popped for the $20 bucks for the broadcast anyway. I managed to see a number of nice matches including some matches featuring Leozinho, Drysdale, Marcelinho, Galvao, Pe de Pano, Werdum, Avellan ... I saw Rani's division-winning submission of Leo Viera. I saw Marcelo Garcia beat both Rolles Gracie and Cacareco en route to a second place finish in the Absolute ... I saw Cindy lose a close, close match to the woman who went on to win the division ... I even got to see Eric Dahlberg--who I didn't know was competing--make top contender Pablo Popovitch work hard for a decision win.
Mike Fowler, Saulo Ribeiro, Renzo Gracie ... I saw Roger Gracie and Jon Olav Einemo in a very fun superfight (Roger won on points).
I'm sure there are a number of fights I got to see that I can't recall right now. Suffice to say that it was a great weekend of jiu jitsu, and major props to everyone who competed.
And thousand thanks are due to On the Mat and ProElite for making this event available on the Internet.
I thought--and still think--that the ADCC 2005 dvd was worth every penny I spent on it. And if I find myself in a momentary lapse of discipline, I'm likely to pick up ADCC 2003, also. But let there be no mistake: ADCC 2007 should be up there with the Submissions 101 series and Laimon's No-Gi Remix in terms of "must own" jiu jitsu DVDs.
Monday, May 07, 2007
Gumby's Critical Thinking Series
Have I posted about this before? Gumby of On the Mat.com has been writing a series called "Critical Thinking in Jiu Jitsu" that is insightful and definitely worth reading.
Gumby does a good job of breaking jiu jitsu--or, rather, the learning of jiu jitsu--into some of its most basic elements of mentorship, the supremacy of safety and position and, most recently in episode four, what could be called the value of rolling in the other person's gi from time to time ...
Critical Thinking and Jiu Jitsu, Part IV
Critical Thinking and Jiu Jitsu, Part III
Critical Thinking and Jiu Jitsu, Part II
Critical Thinking and Jiu Jitsu, Part I
Gumby does a good job of breaking jiu jitsu--or, rather, the learning of jiu jitsu--into some of its most basic elements of mentorship, the supremacy of safety and position and, most recently in episode four, what could be called the value of rolling in the other person's gi from time to time ...
Critical Thinking and Jiu Jitsu, Part IV
Critical Thinking and Jiu Jitsu, Part III
Critical Thinking and Jiu Jitsu, Part II
Critical Thinking and Jiu Jitsu, Part I
On Mount Escapes, Part II
Roy Harris is a very interesting black belt. He wrote a nice "guide to belt levels in jiu jitsu" that was posted over at bjj.org back in the day, and remains one of my favorite belt-by-belt breakdowns explaining what those training in jiu jitsu should focus on at different levels in their development.
These are a variety of mount escape techniques from Harris that I found on You Tube. Some of them remind me of the sort of tricks that Cindy has talked about, attacking the legs as a way to set up an escape or a sweep.
Footdrag Mount Escape
Low Single Mount Escape
Footdrag Mount Escape #2
Foot Turn Mount Escape
These are a variety of mount escape techniques from Harris that I found on You Tube. Some of them remind me of the sort of tricks that Cindy has talked about, attacking the legs as a way to set up an escape or a sweep.
Footdrag Mount Escape
Low Single Mount Escape
Footdrag Mount Escape #2
Foot Turn Mount Escape
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
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.
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.
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.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.
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.
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.
Friday, April 27, 2007
"The Strategic Acrobat"
I remember many, many months ago a student asking Rodrigo who he thought the best jiu jitsu guy was out there. Before he could answer, a couple of people shouted out some of the usual suspects: Marcelo Garcia, Jacare, Roger. Rodrigo acknowledged that he thought that Roger Gracie was probably the best from top to bottom, beginning to end. But added that he thought that Leo Viera, also known as "Leozinho," was somebody who needed to be considered in that group also.
I had never heard of Leo Viera. But after getting a hold of the seven-DVD set of ADCC 2005, I tried to make up for lost time. Viera is an under-66 kilo competitor (i.e., about a 145-pound limit) and has won his weight division in the last two Abu Dhabi competitions. He is also very accomplished with the gi.
Here is an interview Gracie Magazine did with Leo that was initially published back in February 2007. There are a few choice excerpts--such as Leo saying that he coaches a "start out winning on the scorecards" approach to being a "strategic finisher".
But one excerpt is especially worth highlighting insofar as Leozinho brings it up more than once.
I had never heard of Leo Viera. But after getting a hold of the seven-DVD set of ADCC 2005, I tried to make up for lost time. Viera is an under-66 kilo competitor (i.e., about a 145-pound limit) and has won his weight division in the last two Abu Dhabi competitions. He is also very accomplished with the gi.
Here is an interview Gracie Magazine did with Leo that was initially published back in February 2007. There are a few choice excerpts--such as Leo saying that he coaches a "start out winning on the scorecards" approach to being a "strategic finisher".
But one excerpt is especially worth highlighting insofar as Leozinho brings it up more than once.
Has Vieira the athlete changed with the appearance of Veira the coach?Enjoy!
Yes, in one aspect that I suffered to learn. It was with my defeat at ADCC 2001 that I learned. After that loss to Leo Santos, I started to see that, if there are rules, the strategy will prevail. The fighter can go in with all the desire and technique in the world, but that will only be an addition. After I realized strategy was so fundamental, I changed my thinking and way of fighting and managed to go unbeaten in my weight division since.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Notes on the Half-Guard: Outside Leg Uber Alles
It only took me a few minutes of studying the snapshot of Jean Jacques Machado working half-guard against Dean Lister's pass to see a few things that I've been ranting and raving about when it comes to the half guard.
The pass that Lister uses is really a guard opener. Jean Jacques basically has Lister's leg figure-foured, and Lister is using the leverage of his outside leg to press down on the locking leg, Jean Jacques' inside leg.
The problem is one that I've been spotting in half-guard work: relying on the inside leg to keep the guy's leg trapped.
The only time this seems like a good idea is if you are going for the Ichiro sweep or the Jeff Glover take-the-back move (the Glover Split?). Otherwise, you want to use your outside leg, with your foot pressed down or near the mat, to trap the leg, and use your inside leg to either come up on that knee (for a tackle sweep) or to use to help escape your hip out for a twist sweep.
Even then you've got to be careful not to get flattened, which is far more likely if you are using your inside leg to trap the half guard rather than the outside leg. Using the outside leg makes it much easier to take-the-back, tackle or twist, but most importantly, it helps keep you on your hip and better able to react to changes in the movement from the guy in your half guard.
The pass that Lister uses is really a guard opener. Jean Jacques basically has Lister's leg figure-foured, and Lister is using the leverage of his outside leg to press down on the locking leg, Jean Jacques' inside leg.
The problem is one that I've been spotting in half-guard work: relying on the inside leg to keep the guy's leg trapped.
The only time this seems like a good idea is if you are going for the Ichiro sweep or the Jeff Glover take-the-back move (the Glover Split?). Otherwise, you want to use your outside leg, with your foot pressed down or near the mat, to trap the leg, and use your inside leg to either come up on that knee (for a tackle sweep) or to use to help escape your hip out for a twist sweep.
Even then you've got to be careful not to get flattened, which is far more likely if you are using your inside leg to trap the half guard rather than the outside leg. Using the outside leg makes it much easier to take-the-back, tackle or twist, but most importantly, it helps keep you on your hip and better able to react to changes in the movement from the guy in your half guard.
Jiu Jitsu Solitaire
This AVS DVD player I installed on my PC lets me take snapshots from DVDs, something I could never get Windows Media Player to do. With that, here's the latest installment of Jiu jisu Solitaire featuring, once again, the half-guard!
This is a superfight between Jean Jacques Machado and Dean Lister from ADCC 2005. Machado works from the half-guard and butterfly guard with overhooks for most of the first half of the match. This picture comes from the second half, just as Lister is starting to wear down Machado's guard.
This half-guard pass is a common one, one that I've had to deal with a lot when working from the half. I've been looking for a good picture of it to study and this one is as good as any I've found.
Monday, April 16, 2007
On Teh Shelf
I've decided to take a break. After another bout of eye injuries left me missing work, sedated in the dark, I've decided that clearly my eye has never fully healed from the original injury back in October.
I was pretty optimistic earlier this year when the doctor suggested that my continuing problems had to do with dehydration. That explained why I would sometimes get a scratched cornea even when I was pretty sure my eye hadn't been hit or even brushed.
So I upped the water as directed, started gobbling fish oil pills like M&Ms, and dropping droplets of artificial tears in my eyes all day and during breaks in training. When I accidentally got kicked ("heeled" to be specific) in my eye shortly after the new treatment approach, I shook it off as just a little irony: sure, the main problem is dehydration. But I'm still going to have to be ready to take my knocks--even in the eye.
But that last eye poke at GB Seattle in late March really put me over the edge. I stopped training and sat on the sidelines talking with Mike and trying not to look up as I waited for my eye to click back into focus. Things got worse over the course of the evening and Friday morning, I couldn't see and the pain was splitting. Sitting under the bright lights of the office and staring at a computer screen was out of the question.
I was better by late Friday evening, and through the weekend. I didn't train that Monday, partly to give my eye more rest and partly to save myself for Cindy on Wednesday. Wednesday came and though there were a few times when I'd feel contact, like when I got armbarred from the mount and felt the leg pressed across the top of my face, I managed to roll the whole evening and went home very glad for the training. I'd been feeling more than a little misanthropic given some family stuff ("extended" family, I should add), and that evening at Demon seemed to really do the trick.
I woke up Thursday with my eye on fire. As bad as it was, I know the drill by this time. Call in, unleash the co-codamol, turn out the lights, cover your eyes. And wait.
By Thursday night I was feeling better. Made it into work Friday a little hazy, but good enough to go.
In retrospect, I was probably fading all day. I was ducking into the vault (the office used to be a bank; the library is in one of the vaults) to escape the lights ever ten minutes or so. I'd write in the dark, and then slip back to my computer and quickly type up whatever I'd hand-written in the vault.
By about 2 p.m., I was losing it fast. I had a couple of hours to burn, so I was luckily scheduled to leave at about 3:15 p.m. I thought about having Rebecca come pick me up. But my eye felt like that scene in La chein andalu where they drag that razor across the woman's eye right after showing that image of the cloud slicing through a full moon. I had to get out of there.
Driving home was one of the stupidiest things I've done since my irresponsible 20s back in Arizona. I had one hand over my eye, tears streaming down my face as I'm closing the other eye for a few seconds at a time when on familiar streets just to keep the razor feeling from shooting through my head.
Fortunately I made it home in one piece (hell, fortunately I only live 15-20 minutes from the office!).
It was a bad day, and my eye felt as bad as it ever had been. I ended up missing work on Monday and it wasn't until relatively late in the day before I could open my eyes without pain.
So I'm climbing on the shelf. I can't afford to keep missing work, and I can't keep taking these shots to my eye. The only thing that makes sense is that I just never gave it enough time to heal in the first place. When I went back to the doctor the first time after a week, the doc told me that it looked as if it had healed up. I took that as an "all clear" to resume training. Might have been my bad on that one.
I'm giving myself a month. A month where I don't have to worry about missing work, a month where I can let my eye heal, relubricate, whatever the hell it needs to do in order to get better. A month to make more than a few glasses of lemonade out of the current basket of C. x limon that have been delivered to my doorstep.
My goal is to be back on the mat, non-contact, by the first week of May, and doing contact work by mid-month. I've got the rest of my life to get to where I want to in jiu jitsu (a third degree black belt by the time I die). Losing a month or so here or there is little more than a speed bump.
It does bug me that I'm not able to continue working with Cindy as she prepares for Abu Dhabi. One of the things I'd hoped would happen when I started training was that I'd get to play the role of training/sparring partner for the younger and/or better teammates who were stepping up to face the toughest competition in the sport. It's fun, and for me it's even a little flattering that more advanced teammates think of me as a serious student of the art and worth making a (small) part of their preparation.
So it sucks that this first great opportunity is shot. That, more than anything else, bugs me about climbing on the shelf for a few weeks. But in the end, it's a move I've got to do until I've got some sense that the mean season of the eye is over.
I was pretty optimistic earlier this year when the doctor suggested that my continuing problems had to do with dehydration. That explained why I would sometimes get a scratched cornea even when I was pretty sure my eye hadn't been hit or even brushed.
So I upped the water as directed, started gobbling fish oil pills like M&Ms, and dropping droplets of artificial tears in my eyes all day and during breaks in training. When I accidentally got kicked ("heeled" to be specific) in my eye shortly after the new treatment approach, I shook it off as just a little irony: sure, the main problem is dehydration. But I'm still going to have to be ready to take my knocks--even in the eye.
But that last eye poke at GB Seattle in late March really put me over the edge. I stopped training and sat on the sidelines talking with Mike and trying not to look up as I waited for my eye to click back into focus. Things got worse over the course of the evening and Friday morning, I couldn't see and the pain was splitting. Sitting under the bright lights of the office and staring at a computer screen was out of the question.
I was better by late Friday evening, and through the weekend. I didn't train that Monday, partly to give my eye more rest and partly to save myself for Cindy on Wednesday. Wednesday came and though there were a few times when I'd feel contact, like when I got armbarred from the mount and felt the leg pressed across the top of my face, I managed to roll the whole evening and went home very glad for the training. I'd been feeling more than a little misanthropic given some family stuff ("extended" family, I should add), and that evening at Demon seemed to really do the trick.
I woke up Thursday with my eye on fire. As bad as it was, I know the drill by this time. Call in, unleash the co-codamol, turn out the lights, cover your eyes. And wait.
By Thursday night I was feeling better. Made it into work Friday a little hazy, but good enough to go.
In retrospect, I was probably fading all day. I was ducking into the vault (the office used to be a bank; the library is in one of the vaults) to escape the lights ever ten minutes or so. I'd write in the dark, and then slip back to my computer and quickly type up whatever I'd hand-written in the vault.
By about 2 p.m., I was losing it fast. I had a couple of hours to burn, so I was luckily scheduled to leave at about 3:15 p.m. I thought about having Rebecca come pick me up. But my eye felt like that scene in La chein andalu where they drag that razor across the woman's eye right after showing that image of the cloud slicing through a full moon. I had to get out of there.
Driving home was one of the stupidiest things I've done since my irresponsible 20s back in Arizona. I had one hand over my eye, tears streaming down my face as I'm closing the other eye for a few seconds at a time when on familiar streets just to keep the razor feeling from shooting through my head.
Fortunately I made it home in one piece (hell, fortunately I only live 15-20 minutes from the office!).
It was a bad day, and my eye felt as bad as it ever had been. I ended up missing work on Monday and it wasn't until relatively late in the day before I could open my eyes without pain.
So I'm climbing on the shelf. I can't afford to keep missing work, and I can't keep taking these shots to my eye. The only thing that makes sense is that I just never gave it enough time to heal in the first place. When I went back to the doctor the first time after a week, the doc told me that it looked as if it had healed up. I took that as an "all clear" to resume training. Might have been my bad on that one.
I'm giving myself a month. A month where I don't have to worry about missing work, a month where I can let my eye heal, relubricate, whatever the hell it needs to do in order to get better. A month to make more than a few glasses of lemonade out of the current basket of C. x limon that have been delivered to my doorstep.
My goal is to be back on the mat, non-contact, by the first week of May, and doing contact work by mid-month. I've got the rest of my life to get to where I want to in jiu jitsu (a third degree black belt by the time I die). Losing a month or so here or there is little more than a speed bump.
It does bug me that I'm not able to continue working with Cindy as she prepares for Abu Dhabi. One of the things I'd hoped would happen when I started training was that I'd get to play the role of training/sparring partner for the younger and/or better teammates who were stepping up to face the toughest competition in the sport. It's fun, and for me it's even a little flattering that more advanced teammates think of me as a serious student of the art and worth making a (small) part of their preparation.
So it sucks that this first great opportunity is shot. That, more than anything else, bugs me about climbing on the shelf for a few weeks. But in the end, it's a move I've got to do until I've got some sense that the mean season of the eye is over.
Physical
My convalescence training schedule for the few weeks of mornings.
MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, SATURDAY:
Jiu Jitsu Tabata / Berardi
TUESDAY, THURSDAY:
Jiu Jitsu Tabata / Beaster
SUNDAY, FRIDAY
Off
*
Jiu Jitsu Tabata
20 seconds work / 10 seconds rest
sit-outs
bicycles
hip splits
arm drags
leg lifts
jawhawks
hip bumps
crunches
drop steps
pushups
Berardi
6 rep / 3 set circuit / 1 minute res
upright row
deadlift high pull snatch
dumbbell thruster
BUDRs
deadlift high pull snatch
lunge
side lunge
reverse lunge
calf raise + shrug
Beaster
24:00 minute treadmill cardio / 250:75
MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, SATURDAY:
Jiu Jitsu Tabata / Berardi
TUESDAY, THURSDAY:
Jiu Jitsu Tabata / Beaster
SUNDAY, FRIDAY
Off
*
Jiu Jitsu Tabata
20 seconds work / 10 seconds rest
sit-outs
bicycles
hip splits
arm drags
leg lifts
jawhawks
hip bumps
crunches
drop steps
pushups
Berardi
6 rep / 3 set circuit / 1 minute res
upright row
deadlift high pull snatch
dumbbell thruster
BUDRs
deadlift high pull snatch
lunge
side lunge
reverse lunge
calf raise + shrug
Beaster
24:00 minute treadmill cardio / 250:75
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Friday, April 06, 2007
Histoire de l’oeil
An inadvertent eye-poke a week ago Thursday and a follow-up pop or two on Wednesday night while training with Cindy over at Demon Jiu Jitsu and I’m back in the dark, missing classes and missing work.
I’m lucky to work in an office where my absences this year haven’t caused too much controversy. I’ve got the sick time, so it isn’t so much a matter of that. But sick time is one of those weird aspects of 21st century employment in America: just because they give it to you, doesn’t mean they don’t mind when you use it. Even if the work output remains the same—or, as is often the case with me in my current gig, increases—during a health-related absence, there is a “Being There” quality that most employers seem to prize above almost everything else.
So I’m here Friday morning, squinting and blinking my way through the first few hours of the day—grateful both for the fact that I’ll be able to leave a little early (courtesy of extra time spent at the desk earlier in the week) and that the weekend is only a few hours away.
Much of this overshadows some interesting discoveries I made Wednesday night about my half-guard game—discoveries that were largely confirmed after watching some more ADCC matches since then. Most important of these observations is a basic one: use your outside leg to hold the half-guard in place, not the “center” leg.
By using the outside leg mostly to “overhook” the guy’s leg when in half-guard, you accomplish a couple of important things. The most important of these things is that it helps keep you on your hip rather than flat on your back, which is a likely result of using your center leg to hook “inside-to-outside.”
Another problem with using the center leg to try and trap the guy’s leg is that it doesn’t allow your hips to move effectively, again making it easier for the guy on top to flatten and stretch you out. Theoretically if you’ve got the center leg in place, it can become the first hook if you are able to move to the back. But most of the time I see guys trying to keep their half-guard in place by using mainly the center leg aren’t trying to take the back, they are hanging on for dear life, often figure-fouring the guy’s leg in attempt to stave off the pass.
Figure-fours can be effective. I’ve seen guys like Anderson Silva use figure-fours to lock up his closed guard. And figure-fours from rear mount are increasingly common. But the problem with figure-fours is that they completely monopolize the legs. There’s nothing else you can do with them—unless you release the figure four. In my opinion, figure fours are great “holding” patterns before moving on to a more constructive (and traditional) use of the legs.
The idea of using the outer leg primarily when in half-guard is that it both allows you to easily shift your hips to the outside (i.e., plant the center leg and elbow escape) or even to come up on the inside knee as when doing the Old School sweep (which I was able to do more effectively than ever Wednesday night—albeit not so much against Cindy!).
Twists also go better with the outside leg overhook than the center leg hook. I’m still getting the hang of it; you want to make sure that the foot of your outside leg stays pinned to the mat so that the guy’s leg doesn’t slip out, allowing hip to hop easily into side control. But if you do it right, then by the time you need to worry about moving your outside leg, you’ve already ducked down, controlled the leg on the other side, and are likely turning the guy up and over into the twist. And there are really only two options for the guy to be able to stop the twist: either bracing with an arm or a leg.
The arm threat is usually eliminated by the overhook you’ve got on the sweep side. The leg-brace threat is eliminated by the overhook you’ve got with your outside leg. Get your grips (overhook the arm, underhook the leg—or grab the pants at the knee), plant the center leg and, with your outside leg trap set, pivot and elbow escape off the center leg and twist the guy over. Don’t release the outside leg hook until the guy is well on his way over the top.
I’m lucky to work in an office where my absences this year haven’t caused too much controversy. I’ve got the sick time, so it isn’t so much a matter of that. But sick time is one of those weird aspects of 21st century employment in America: just because they give it to you, doesn’t mean they don’t mind when you use it. Even if the work output remains the same—or, as is often the case with me in my current gig, increases—during a health-related absence, there is a “Being There” quality that most employers seem to prize above almost everything else.So I’m here Friday morning, squinting and blinking my way through the first few hours of the day—grateful both for the fact that I’ll be able to leave a little early (courtesy of extra time spent at the desk earlier in the week) and that the weekend is only a few hours away.
Much of this overshadows some interesting discoveries I made Wednesday night about my half-guard game—discoveries that were largely confirmed after watching some more ADCC matches since then. Most important of these observations is a basic one: use your outside leg to hold the half-guard in place, not the “center” leg.
By using the outside leg mostly to “overhook” the guy’s leg when in half-guard, you accomplish a couple of important things. The most important of these things is that it helps keep you on your hip rather than flat on your back, which is a likely result of using your center leg to hook “inside-to-outside.”
Another problem with using the center leg to try and trap the guy’s leg is that it doesn’t allow your hips to move effectively, again making it easier for the guy on top to flatten and stretch you out. Theoretically if you’ve got the center leg in place, it can become the first hook if you are able to move to the back. But most of the time I see guys trying to keep their half-guard in place by using mainly the center leg aren’t trying to take the back, they are hanging on for dear life, often figure-fouring the guy’s leg in attempt to stave off the pass.
Figure-fours can be effective. I’ve seen guys like Anderson Silva use figure-fours to lock up his closed guard. And figure-fours from rear mount are increasingly common. But the problem with figure-fours is that they completely monopolize the legs. There’s nothing else you can do with them—unless you release the figure four. In my opinion, figure fours are great “holding” patterns before moving on to a more constructive (and traditional) use of the legs.
The idea of using the outer leg primarily when in half-guard is that it both allows you to easily shift your hips to the outside (i.e., plant the center leg and elbow escape) or even to come up on the inside knee as when doing the Old School sweep (which I was able to do more effectively than ever Wednesday night—albeit not so much against Cindy!).
Twists also go better with the outside leg overhook than the center leg hook. I’m still getting the hang of it; you want to make sure that the foot of your outside leg stays pinned to the mat so that the guy’s leg doesn’t slip out, allowing hip to hop easily into side control. But if you do it right, then by the time you need to worry about moving your outside leg, you’ve already ducked down, controlled the leg on the other side, and are likely turning the guy up and over into the twist. And there are really only two options for the guy to be able to stop the twist: either bracing with an arm or a leg.
The arm threat is usually eliminated by the overhook you’ve got on the sweep side. The leg-brace threat is eliminated by the overhook you’ve got with your outside leg. Get your grips (overhook the arm, underhook the leg—or grab the pants at the knee), plant the center leg and, with your outside leg trap set, pivot and elbow escape off the center leg and twist the guy over. Don’t release the outside leg hook until the guy is well on his way over the top.
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Half Guard Hell
Here's a picture of what lurks in the nightmares of every half-guard player: the sit-out.
Xande is a little ambivalent about whether he wants to hook the head with the outside arm or throw his upperbody over; he does both while working to pass the half-guard in this ADCC match. The key thing I want to focus on are his hip and leg positioning. What is the best way to control his hips, and then exploit his position for the sweep?
Xande is a little ambivalent about whether he wants to hook the head with the outside arm or throw his upperbody over; he does both while working to pass the half-guard in this ADCC match. The key thing I want to focus on are his hip and leg positioning. What is the best way to control his hips, and then exploit his position for the sweep?
Monday, April 02, 2007
The Art of Jiu Jitsu, Part 2
"Meu Jiu-jitsu é arroz com feija, na tem muito movimento ninja"
--Margarida
Counter to Scissorhands
A treasure trove of techniques and tips, MMA Library is ...
Guard Pass from Scissor Position
From here, the trick is to raise your hips--almost a full pike position--and walk around to the sweep side and move into side control. Keep the pressure on the legs and the grip on the sweep-side sleeve as you come around.
Guard Pass from Scissor Position
From here, the trick is to raise your hips--almost a full pike position--and walk around to the sweep side and move into side control. Keep the pressure on the legs and the grip on the sweep-side sleeve as you come around.
Simplicity
A small point, but a point worth remembering and emphasizing came up as someone in one of the forums was trying to describe a bicep slicer move that he kept referring to as a “keylock.”
The post spurred my interest because (a) the guy who posts is a serious trainer in jiu jitsu so what he has to say is usually worth reading and (b) his query was titled “keylock from the guard” which is, for better or worse, one of my most effective submission attacks.
But the move described was too complicated for most others to follow, leading to cries of “simplify!” within only a few responses. As one poster put it:
And still yet another:
Marcelo wins with chokes and the occasional armbar. Roger wins with the same stuff. Jacare wins with ankle picks and kimuras. Attack the neck. Attack the arms.
It’s the equivalent of having a good jump shot and a solid to-the-basket move in basketball. Sure, there are a lot of fancy maneuvers out there. And with the NBA playoff season getting near, we’re sure to see a lot of them. But if you’ve got a dependable jump shot, and can take the ball to the hole, you’re going to do just fine (offensively at least) on any court you walk on to.
The same is true with jiu jitsu. The way to get to “roll-with-anybody” status is to have the best possible foundation of basic moves. I was thinking about this I was going over my half-guard work. I realized that there are really only three basic things I want to do from half-guard: tackle, twist or take-the-back. When I’m in half-guard, I need to be constantly keeping this in mind: is he vulnerable to the tackle? Is he vulnerable to the twist? Is he vulnerable to getting his back taken? 1-2-3, all the time, rifling those options through my head as I test the guy’s balance and reaction.
Like Marcelo said, stay on the attack. I was watching some of the Ultimate Fighter season three marathon yesterday and heard repeatedly “don’t just hang out!” The point was don’t just sit or lie there. You might think you need time to rest or to think or whatever. But you are also giving your opponent time to rest or think or whatever. Keep the pressure on and keep the attack on.
And one way of being able to do that when you are tired is to keep your attack sequence simple—as opposed to some huge, complicated mental puzzle that you’ve got to unravel every time you find yourself in a new position.
The post spurred my interest because (a) the guy who posts is a serious trainer in jiu jitsu so what he has to say is usually worth reading and (b) his query was titled “keylock from the guard” which is, for better or worse, one of my most effective submission attacks.
But the move described was too complicated for most others to follow, leading to cries of “simplify!” within only a few responses. As one poster put it:
there is only a small place for these type of moves in an elite game, when was the last time you seen marcelo, glover, fowler, jacare, or roger win a match with thses types of moves, STICK TO THE BASICS AND DRILL THE sh*t OUT OF THEM!
And still yet another:
The upper echelon bjj guys typically aren't trying for flying submissions, crazy setups, or anything like this. They use the stuff that you learn in your first six months of training. Armbars, triangles, RNC, etc. The difference is that they see these submissions from any position.
Marcelo wins with chokes and the occasional armbar. Roger wins with the same stuff. Jacare wins with ankle picks and kimuras. Attack the neck. Attack the arms.
It’s the equivalent of having a good jump shot and a solid to-the-basket move in basketball. Sure, there are a lot of fancy maneuvers out there. And with the NBA playoff season getting near, we’re sure to see a lot of them. But if you’ve got a dependable jump shot, and can take the ball to the hole, you’re going to do just fine (offensively at least) on any court you walk on to.
The same is true with jiu jitsu. The way to get to “roll-with-anybody” status is to have the best possible foundation of basic moves. I was thinking about this I was going over my half-guard work. I realized that there are really only three basic things I want to do from half-guard: tackle, twist or take-the-back. When I’m in half-guard, I need to be constantly keeping this in mind: is he vulnerable to the tackle? Is he vulnerable to the twist? Is he vulnerable to getting his back taken? 1-2-3, all the time, rifling those options through my head as I test the guy’s balance and reaction.
Like Marcelo said, stay on the attack. I was watching some of the Ultimate Fighter season three marathon yesterday and heard repeatedly “don’t just hang out!” The point was don’t just sit or lie there. You might think you need time to rest or to think or whatever. But you are also giving your opponent time to rest or think or whatever. Keep the pressure on and keep the attack on.
And one way of being able to do that when you are tired is to keep your attack sequence simple—as opposed to some huge, complicated mental puzzle that you’ve got to unravel every time you find yourself in a new position.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Three Things I Learned at Demon Jiu Jitsu
I spent Wednesday night over at Demon Jiu Jitsu in Tukwila, helping Cindy get ready for Abu Dhabi in May. Demon Jiu Jitsu is run by Eric Dahlberg, who is one of Mamazinho’s more recent black belts.
The academy is located in an industrial park, and from the outside reminds me of many of the karate schools you see dotted around cities. Inside, it is a pretty nice little facility with a changing room, a huge blue mat, some heavy bags, speed bags and other fight stuff scattered around. The mat was a lot more firm than the wrestling mats I’m used to over at Tully’s. But after an hour or two of rolling I don’t remember feeling much of a difference.
I also rolled with one of the young wrestlers there. I forget his name, but he was a strong athletic guy who had only been training for a little while. Cindy said he had a great takedown game, but I didn’t get to see much of it since we all started from the knees when we sparred.
Rolling with Cindy was fun. She’s always fast and aggressive and, like Tommy, damn good with a triangle choke. She has a particular set up where she sets the triangle up from mount and then either goes with the roll as you try to escape or finishes the triangle from on top. I was a little hesitant to try and use CC Grinder to escape because of my knee, so I tried the Midget Slam, which seems to be more effective when going against somebody in a gi. I didn’t manage to escape consistently with it, but it does seem like a better option than CC Grinder when rolling no gi.
But what did I learn? I learned that Crimson works, and is quickly becoming my “go-to” sweep from the closed guard, gi or no gi. I also learned that the elbow shove and leg kick portion of Dig Dug also work to get rid of one of the hooks when rear mounted. I spent a lot of time fighting off Cindy’s RNC last night, so I got plenty of time to try and work a variety of different escape attempts (emphasis on “attempts”). I liked what I was able to do with Dig Dug, even if it didn’t result in a complete escape.
Lastly, I learned the importance of getting small when on the bottom in half-guard. Eric had been watching us and coaching Cindy, interrupting once or twice to show exactly what he meant in a given situation. One time he came over and gave me a tip on the half-guard—namely, on the importance of getting as small as possible, and to go from a simple underhook to hooking your arm around their hips to help you get behind them. I’d been telling myself that I needed to focus on getting smaller when on the bottom in half-guard; it was nice to get confirmation that this was exactly what I should be doing.
The academy is located in an industrial park, and from the outside reminds me of many of the karate schools you see dotted around cities. Inside, it is a pretty nice little facility with a changing room, a huge blue mat, some heavy bags, speed bags and other fight stuff scattered around. The mat was a lot more firm than the wrestling mats I’m used to over at Tully’s. But after an hour or two of rolling I don’t remember feeling much of a difference.
I also rolled with one of the young wrestlers there. I forget his name, but he was a strong athletic guy who had only been training for a little while. Cindy said he had a great takedown game, but I didn’t get to see much of it since we all started from the knees when we sparred.
Rolling with Cindy was fun. She’s always fast and aggressive and, like Tommy, damn good with a triangle choke. She has a particular set up where she sets the triangle up from mount and then either goes with the roll as you try to escape or finishes the triangle from on top. I was a little hesitant to try and use CC Grinder to escape because of my knee, so I tried the Midget Slam, which seems to be more effective when going against somebody in a gi. I didn’t manage to escape consistently with it, but it does seem like a better option than CC Grinder when rolling no gi.
But what did I learn? I learned that Crimson works, and is quickly becoming my “go-to” sweep from the closed guard, gi or no gi. I also learned that the elbow shove and leg kick portion of Dig Dug also work to get rid of one of the hooks when rear mounted. I spent a lot of time fighting off Cindy’s RNC last night, so I got plenty of time to try and work a variety of different escape attempts (emphasis on “attempts”). I liked what I was able to do with Dig Dug, even if it didn’t result in a complete escape.
Lastly, I learned the importance of getting small when on the bottom in half-guard. Eric had been watching us and coaching Cindy, interrupting once or twice to show exactly what he meant in a given situation. One time he came over and gave me a tip on the half-guard—namely, on the importance of getting as small as possible, and to go from a simple underhook to hooking your arm around their hips to help you get behind them. I’d been telling myself that I needed to focus on getting smaller when on the bottom in half-guard; it was nice to get confirmation that this was exactly what I should be doing.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Double Armbar???
Could the mystery armbar attack that Fabricio Werdum uses against Matt Lindland in their ADCC match actually be a double armbar?
There are a couple of things that make me think so. One is that it is clear in the Werdum fight that Fabricio has double wrist control. It's also clear that it's not just some feint, as some over at the Sherdog Grappling Forum were suggesting. He is trying very hard to get his right leg up over Lindland's left shoulder.
What I wonder is if Werdum is trying to do a double armbar one leg at a time or not. The picture above is from a technique description over at BJJ Fighter, and the guy in that description seems to talk only about putting both legs up over the shoulders at the same time.
But this other description over at Lock Flow shows the same double armbar one leg at a time ...
The Lock Flow version makes a point of getting into the high guard before putting a leg over the shoulder, though Werdum just seems to launch his leg up as soon as he's set. Another detail is that here she pulls the arms outward to the side as she raises her hips. I read over at the Austin Jiu Jitsu website that turning your wrists inward is one way to relieve the pressure of a double armbar, so this detail of pulling the wrists outward as you apply the lock makes a lot of sense.
We'll see if I can work this into a routine. If I've got it right that Werdum is attacking with a double armbar, then it definitely looks as if the double armbar/windmill sweep is a combination worth considering.
There are a couple of things that make me think so. One is that it is clear in the Werdum fight that Fabricio has double wrist control. It's also clear that it's not just some feint, as some over at the Sherdog Grappling Forum were suggesting. He is trying very hard to get his right leg up over Lindland's left shoulder.What I wonder is if Werdum is trying to do a double armbar one leg at a time or not. The picture above is from a technique description over at BJJ Fighter, and the guy in that description seems to talk only about putting both legs up over the shoulders at the same time.
But this other description over at Lock Flow shows the same double armbar one leg at a time ...
The Lock Flow version makes a point of getting into the high guard before putting a leg over the shoulder, though Werdum just seems to launch his leg up as soon as he's set. Another detail is that here she pulls the arms outward to the side as she raises her hips. I read over at the Austin Jiu Jitsu website that turning your wrists inward is one way to relieve the pressure of a double armbar, so this detail of pulling the wrists outward as you apply the lock makes a lot of sense.We'll see if I can work this into a routine. If I've got it right that Werdum is attacking with a double armbar, then it definitely looks as if the double armbar/windmill sweep is a combination worth considering.
Three Ways
Thinking about Mamazinho's lessons on Scissorhands and the new half-guard sweep that Tommy showed me Monday night, got me looking at simpler ways to understand what I'm trying to do when I'm trying to sweep.
My opponent can be induced to move forward, move backward or to remain still. In other contexts--like the half-guard--I think of the same concepts as tackles, twists and take-the-back. Mamazinho's Scissorhands suite includes the scissor sweep, which draws the opponent inside and over, Flipside, which draws the opponent outside and over, and take-the-back, which exploits the opponent's lack of movement.
Having three ways to go in any sweep gives you a lot of options. I really want to focus on this Scissorhands sweep suite as one of the three "legs" of my guard game (along with King Crimson and the Cobra guard suite). Working on the techniques Monday night they all felt very natural and easy to do. My scissors sweep still sucks eggs. But maybe in the context of the other two attacks/sweeps, I'll start to find the range and begin to hit it.
Tommy showed me a half-guard sweep last night that seemed ridiculously straightforward--so much so that I almost want to try it on somebody else to see if it really works as well as it seems before writing about it. If I can get it to work consistently, then it may be the perfect compliment to Bravo's Old School sweep.
Even though I'm not hitting Old School like I should, I do understand it and have had some success with it. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for any of the "twists". I have a hard time controlling the trapped leg and every time I go to the Twist I just end up helping the guy move into side control.
I still want to work on Bravo's twists, but Tommy's sweep is something I'm dying to try during the next few practices.
My opponent can be induced to move forward, move backward or to remain still. In other contexts--like the half-guard--I think of the same concepts as tackles, twists and take-the-back. Mamazinho's Scissorhands suite includes the scissor sweep, which draws the opponent inside and over, Flipside, which draws the opponent outside and over, and take-the-back, which exploits the opponent's lack of movement.
Having three ways to go in any sweep gives you a lot of options. I really want to focus on this Scissorhands sweep suite as one of the three "legs" of my guard game (along with King Crimson and the Cobra guard suite). Working on the techniques Monday night they all felt very natural and easy to do. My scissors sweep still sucks eggs. But maybe in the context of the other two attacks/sweeps, I'll start to find the range and begin to hit it.
Tommy showed me a half-guard sweep last night that seemed ridiculously straightforward--so much so that I almost want to try it on somebody else to see if it really works as well as it seems before writing about it. If I can get it to work consistently, then it may be the perfect compliment to Bravo's Old School sweep.
Even though I'm not hitting Old School like I should, I do understand it and have had some success with it. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for any of the "twists". I have a hard time controlling the trapped leg and every time I go to the Twist I just end up helping the guy move into side control.
I still want to work on Bravo's twists, but Tommy's sweep is something I'm dying to try during the next few practices.
Stephan and Hank Hill
Stephan taught class on last Wednesday while Mamazinho worked with a small crop of white belts. Mostly we worked on techniques from knee-on-stomach (“Hank Hill”): an escape for the defense and a pair of chokes. I would have preferred two escapes, because I’m always getting caught in knee-on-stomach and would like as many escapes as possible. But the escape Stephan showed us is certainly a worthy one. Additionally, I tried my “running man” escape during the specific drills and Stephan pointed out a mistake that I was making that was allowing guys to take my back. So, in a way, I got two escape techniques out of class, after all.
The first escape involves a couple of basic principles. It is an elbow escape, at root. But what is important is hand positioning. For one, you never want to put a hand on the knee that is pressing into your stomach, no matter how tempting it may be. Doing otherwise will make you very vulnerable to an armlock.
Instead, you want to put one hand in the center of the stomach, grabbing the belt if possible. The other hand you want on the knee of the OTHER leg. This is a far more effective way to attack the base of a guy in knee-on-stomach than trying to push against his knee. The knee has a much lower center of gravity and has all of the guy’s weight behind it (or most of it). By pushing on the belt and the other knee, you challenge the guy’s balance much more AND, by pushing his body backward are taking some of the pressure of the knee-on-stomach off of your solar plexus.
As you begin to move him backwards a bit, you want to come up on the inside knee (sort of an elbow escape to the knee) and, while still pushing against the belt, grab the ankle of the leg you were pushing. Come up to standing, still pushing against the belt and pulling upward on the ankle.
The chokes were the same ones that Mamazinho instructed us in a few months back, chokes I’ve called “Hank Hill choke” for the basic collar choke and “Babe Ruth” for the baseball variation. Stephan had some interesting ideas about the baseball choke (actually for both chokes) that I’ll just list as rules to remember.
1. Keep your wrists straight. Remember that you want to choke with the blade of your wrist or lower forearm. Curving your wrist takes a lot of the bit out of your choke and it can be difficult to get the wrist straight once you’ve got the choke on and are applying pressure. Take your time, thread your hands into position and get a good, proper, deep grip.
2. Stephan used a sort of knee down/leg out stance when he was applying the baseball choke (“Babe Ruth”). The inside knee would be down while the outside leg would be out, making it easier to pass around toward north-south.
3. From the north-south position in Babe Ruth, Stephan got low and went chest-to-chest to increase the pressure. He kept his head to the side, looking in the direction he’d just moved from to help stay as low as possible.
4. Another, somewhat small detail. When going for the choke, don’t hesitate to grab some material as well as the collar. All you are trying to do is anchor your arms in such a position that when you bring your elbows in, the twisting action of your forearms will close a loop that will end up in a choke. So get deep, grab as much material as you can handle, keep those wrists straight and bring those elbows in tight.
The first escape involves a couple of basic principles. It is an elbow escape, at root. But what is important is hand positioning. For one, you never want to put a hand on the knee that is pressing into your stomach, no matter how tempting it may be. Doing otherwise will make you very vulnerable to an armlock.
Instead, you want to put one hand in the center of the stomach, grabbing the belt if possible. The other hand you want on the knee of the OTHER leg. This is a far more effective way to attack the base of a guy in knee-on-stomach than trying to push against his knee. The knee has a much lower center of gravity and has all of the guy’s weight behind it (or most of it). By pushing on the belt and the other knee, you challenge the guy’s balance much more AND, by pushing his body backward are taking some of the pressure of the knee-on-stomach off of your solar plexus.
As you begin to move him backwards a bit, you want to come up on the inside knee (sort of an elbow escape to the knee) and, while still pushing against the belt, grab the ankle of the leg you were pushing. Come up to standing, still pushing against the belt and pulling upward on the ankle.
The chokes were the same ones that Mamazinho instructed us in a few months back, chokes I’ve called “Hank Hill choke” for the basic collar choke and “Babe Ruth” for the baseball variation. Stephan had some interesting ideas about the baseball choke (actually for both chokes) that I’ll just list as rules to remember.
1. Keep your wrists straight. Remember that you want to choke with the blade of your wrist or lower forearm. Curving your wrist takes a lot of the bit out of your choke and it can be difficult to get the wrist straight once you’ve got the choke on and are applying pressure. Take your time, thread your hands into position and get a good, proper, deep grip.
2. Stephan used a sort of knee down/leg out stance when he was applying the baseball choke (“Babe Ruth”). The inside knee would be down while the outside leg would be out, making it easier to pass around toward north-south.
3. From the north-south position in Babe Ruth, Stephan got low and went chest-to-chest to increase the pressure. He kept his head to the side, looking in the direction he’d just moved from to help stay as low as possible.
4. Another, somewhat small detail. When going for the choke, don’t hesitate to grab some material as well as the collar. All you are trying to do is anchor your arms in such a position that when you bring your elbows in, the twisting action of your forearms will close a loop that will end up in a choke. So get deep, grab as much material as you can handle, keep those wrists straight and bring those elbows in tight.
More from Mamazinho: Scissorhands Suite
Monday night was a good-sized class, the biggest I’ve been to in months. They say the warm weather brings people out, which seems a little counter-intuitive to me. I’d think that the nice weather would make people more inclined to do something else other than spend an hour and a half sweating in a thick 5-pound all-cotton (i.e., perspiration-absorbing) gi on the third floor walkup warehouse room in the industrial part of town. But that would be incorrect. At least so far.
Mamazinho had us working out of what I call the Scissorhands Suite, though his emphasis was more on the scissors than the hands. He reviewed with us the basic set-up for the scissors sweep, and then showed a sweep to take the guy in the other direction and then a move to take-the-back. I’m calling the sweep “Flipside” because you kind of just flip the guy to the outside, using your leg as a lever. As usual, the “take-the-back” part of the move will be called “take-the-back.”
Start from the scissors sweep position. You’ve got the cross collar grip and the same side sleeve gripped. You’ve escaped your hips out—not too close, not too far—and brought your leg, shin-first, up in between the two of you, with your foot hooking his side. The other leg is out, ready to scissor back and undercut the guy as you pull him toward you and over into the scissors sweep.
But for some reason, the guy isn’t going toward you or over you. Maybe he manages to post with the arm you should be controlling at the sleeve. Maybe you’ve just got a bad angle. In any event, here you can switch to Flipside.
1. Reach across and get a cross grip on the sleeve instead of the same side sleeve grip. Do not let go of the collar until you get this cross sleeve grip.
2. Once you’ve got the cross grip, release the collar and reach over and behind the guy to grab his belt.
3. Pull the guy on top of you with the belt grip. At the same time, lift the leg that is between the two of you.
4. As that leg comes up, flip the guy to the outside, pulling up on the cross sleeve grip and pulling down on the belt.
5. Roll over on top into side control. Remember not to let go of the sleeve in case you’ve got an instant armbar opportunity.
The take-the-back move flows right from Flipside. Say you can’t move the guy enough to sweep him for one reason or another. Starting with the cross sleeve grip and the behind-the-back belt grip, you want to kick the far side knee out from under the guy as you pull him hard toward you by the belt. Pull on the cross sleeve grip arm also to help get the guy to duck his shoulder. Your kick leg will be the first hook for rear mount. Swing the other leg over and around as you move to take-the-back.
Mamazinho had us working out of what I call the Scissorhands Suite, though his emphasis was more on the scissors than the hands. He reviewed with us the basic set-up for the scissors sweep, and then showed a sweep to take the guy in the other direction and then a move to take-the-back. I’m calling the sweep “Flipside” because you kind of just flip the guy to the outside, using your leg as a lever. As usual, the “take-the-back” part of the move will be called “take-the-back.”
Start from the scissors sweep position. You’ve got the cross collar grip and the same side sleeve gripped. You’ve escaped your hips out—not too close, not too far—and brought your leg, shin-first, up in between the two of you, with your foot hooking his side. The other leg is out, ready to scissor back and undercut the guy as you pull him toward you and over into the scissors sweep.
But for some reason, the guy isn’t going toward you or over you. Maybe he manages to post with the arm you should be controlling at the sleeve. Maybe you’ve just got a bad angle. In any event, here you can switch to Flipside.
1. Reach across and get a cross grip on the sleeve instead of the same side sleeve grip. Do not let go of the collar until you get this cross sleeve grip.
2. Once you’ve got the cross grip, release the collar and reach over and behind the guy to grab his belt.
3. Pull the guy on top of you with the belt grip. At the same time, lift the leg that is between the two of you.
4. As that leg comes up, flip the guy to the outside, pulling up on the cross sleeve grip and pulling down on the belt.
5. Roll over on top into side control. Remember not to let go of the sleeve in case you’ve got an instant armbar opportunity.
The take-the-back move flows right from Flipside. Say you can’t move the guy enough to sweep him for one reason or another. Starting with the cross sleeve grip and the behind-the-back belt grip, you want to kick the far side knee out from under the guy as you pull him hard toward you by the belt. Pull on the cross sleeve grip arm also to help get the guy to duck his shoulder. Your kick leg will be the first hook for rear mount. Swing the other leg over and around as you move to take-the-back.
Pimp My Kimura!
For a top player, one of my biggest problems has been finishing kimuras. Whether from side control or top in the half-guard, I don’t think I’ve gotten a kimura submission in many, many months. This is a little frustrating because my Americana or keylock attack from just about every position remains solid, and a part of me feels that if my keylock is good, then my kimura should be at least decent. Which it is not.
I posted a Cry for Help over at the jiu jitsu gear forum, and I’m convinced that I’ll get some good responses there. But I’ve already picked up one thing that might be a problem after watching a clip of Minotauro demonstrating a “Tip of the Week” for MMA Weekly. (See the clip here).
I think the mistake I’ve been making is mostly with my underhook. In the same way that you can get too much shoulder into a triangle choke, making the choke harder to finish, I think you can also get too much shoulder—or, at least, upper arm—in the kimura, making it hard to complete the kimura grip, let along get the submission.
After watching Big Nog explain the set up for his “inverted Americana” as he calls it, I can see how he makes sure that his underhook comes just above the elbow. Another way of putting it is that you want to wrap the elbow more than you want to wrap the upper arm (to put it bluntly, you really don’t want to wrap the upper arm, at all). Not only does this bring your two hands closer together, making it easier to secure the kimura grip, but also wrapping the elbow gives you leverage against the guy’s attempts to straighten his arm.
He still might be able to straighten the arm—in which case you can switch to Nog’s inverted Americana by releasing your wrist grip with your underhook arm and grabbing the bicep of the south-most arm instead, then shooting the hand of the south-most arm back up to cup the elbow of your underhooking arm, squeezing the guy’s elbow between your arms tightly as you prepare to walk around to the head, sit out and then tilt your locked arms up and away from the head.
But this should go a long way toward helping make my kimura attack a much more credible threat.
I posted a Cry for Help over at the jiu jitsu gear forum, and I’m convinced that I’ll get some good responses there. But I’ve already picked up one thing that might be a problem after watching a clip of Minotauro demonstrating a “Tip of the Week” for MMA Weekly. (See the clip here).
I think the mistake I’ve been making is mostly with my underhook. In the same way that you can get too much shoulder into a triangle choke, making the choke harder to finish, I think you can also get too much shoulder—or, at least, upper arm—in the kimura, making it hard to complete the kimura grip, let along get the submission.
After watching Big Nog explain the set up for his “inverted Americana” as he calls it, I can see how he makes sure that his underhook comes just above the elbow. Another way of putting it is that you want to wrap the elbow more than you want to wrap the upper arm (to put it bluntly, you really don’t want to wrap the upper arm, at all). Not only does this bring your two hands closer together, making it easier to secure the kimura grip, but also wrapping the elbow gives you leverage against the guy’s attempts to straighten his arm.
He still might be able to straighten the arm—in which case you can switch to Nog’s inverted Americana by releasing your wrist grip with your underhook arm and grabbing the bicep of the south-most arm instead, then shooting the hand of the south-most arm back up to cup the elbow of your underhooking arm, squeezing the guy’s elbow between your arms tightly as you prepare to walk around to the head, sit out and then tilt your locked arms up and away from the head.
But this should go a long way toward helping make my kimura attack a much more credible threat.
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