A small adjustment to an old fan favorite

  • April 20, 2016

The push pull triangle was the one of the first attacks I ever learned from closed guard. It’s simple, and it works.

That’s what makes it great.

But no matter what the technique, or how simple it may seem, there is room for improvement. Small adjustments can made to improve the technique and make it work better.

And I’m going to give you some little tips on how you can improve this particular entry to the triangle.

Push Pull Angle Adjustment

There are two fundamental objectives when it comes to attacking with the standard triangle from guard:

  1. One arm must be inside of your legs while the other is outside.
  2. You must break posture and maintain that control.

Our focus when doing the push pull entry is to accomplish those two objectives in the most efficient and effective manner possible.

And that can be accomplished with a small adjustment of angle.

Instead of pushing and pulling the arms straight back and forth, cross the arms. That seems super simple, and it is. But it will will do two things for you immediately:

  1. It’ll make it easier to get your legs over one arm.
  2. And It’ll help you control posture since it forces your opponent to bend forward more.

Shoulder Ride

Beyond the angle, there is also a specific movement that you must develop for the push pull triangle.

You have to be able to elevate your hips to the sky.

In your mind, imagine that you’re crocodile treading the water. Your stomach is growling, and just above the water’s edge a bird is gliding low through the air.

It’s not going to come to you.

You have to go to it, and to do that you must shoot out of the water, clamp down and then drag it back into the water’s depths.

Your legs are just like the jaws of a crocodile and your hips are the head. You MUST elevate, and using your opponent’s body to help you elevate will make the task easier and more efficient.

Demonstration

Growth minded competitors can’t be stopped

  • April 11, 2016

A grand challenge lies before me, and there is one person more than anyone else who will decide whether I succeed or not. At birth, we shared the same name. And even now, there is no one that I know better because that person looks back at me in the mirror everyday.

That’s why I will make the following commitment: From this point forward, I will take PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY both for the effort I put forth and for the results I achieve.

Any time the slightest desire to make an excuse or blame someone else enters my mind, I will kill the thought in its infancy. It is unworthy of me, and I will not tolerate it.

Only by focusing on what I can control will I pave the way for my success.

And that starts long before I ever step on the mat and see my opponent standing before me. It starts today, with the decision to begin where I am, use what I have, and do what I can to improve every day even if it’s only 1% or less.

It is not the day I compete that is the most important; it is all the days that precede it. The results of the tournament will just be a reflection of what I have done in preparation. And on that day, I MUST be absolutely sure that I have done everything in my power to prepare myself for the challenge that lies before me.

If I have that certainty, all that remains is these commitments:

  1. Regardless of how many people are in my division, I will see only the match in front of me. Nothing else matters because that is the match that I control.
  2. Every minute, every second, and every moment, I demand of myself full attention on my task. For the full duration of the match, I will drive forward, impose my will, and give not an inch. My effort MUST be worthy of my own respect.
  3. I will be COACHABLE. Whenever possible, I will adjust tactics to align with the cues of my coach, while never allowing my mind to be distracted from the work that must be done. And once the dust has settled, regardless of the result, I will listen not only about what I have done well but also about what I must improve.
  4. Once the tournament has ended, I will go back to the lab and improve on at least one thing. For that purpose, I must tape all of my matches if it’s at all possible. And when I watch myself in action, I must do so without judgment.

Overall though, my focus must always remain on improvement above all else. It is for that reason that I challenge myself. And the possibility that I may fail is something I embrace because it means that I am stretching myself and forcing myself to grow.

That’s what it means to be a GROWTH MINDED COMPETITOR.

Signed

__________________________________________________________________

The turtle bites even when the guard has already been passed

  • March 27, 2016

Would you like to increase your ability to escape from side control by adding more tools to your arsenal? If so, this is the right place to be.

Turtle guard has traditionally been used to prevent guard passes. But it’s still possible to transition there even if you’ve lost the battle to retain your guard, and once there, the turtle can bite.

This is what you’ll learn today:

  • How to escape to turtle guard from side control.
  • How to reverse the position and land in top of side control.
  • How to hit a sneaky shoulder lock from the bottom of turtle guard.

Watch the Techniques in Action

Additional Details for the Individual Techniques

We’re going to watch the video together in a sense, because as I write this, I’m watching it. And I’ll share with you some details that deserve to be emphasized more.

Side Control Escape

  • The thumb in grip with your far arm will give you additional space creation and distance management.
  • Stepping out with your outside leg will increase the leverage of your bridge and allow you to create more space.
  • The bridge is not a bump. Let me repeat that. The bridge is not a bump. It’s an elevation. You stay elevated until you’re ready to transition to the next step.

Reversal

  • The first crucial element is your grip on their wrist. That HAS to be tight, and you want to hug the arm to your body. The stronger the connection, the smoother the technique.
  • The next crucial goal is to shoot yourself under them. That gives you leverage. And leverage is POWER.

Shoulder Lock

  • Now you want to space with the grip, so instead of pulling them arm close, you have to push it out slightly. That is the hole you will use to come out from under.
  • In the last transition, the focus is on moving your hips around and over their shoulder. If you do that right, your head will naturally move in out from under them. And from there, the submission is easy.

 Enjoy and feel free to share with others who would benefit from adding these techniques to their arsenal.

Taking it back to the old school with a solid mount flow

  • March 27, 2016

Do you want to improve your finish rate on top of mount? If so, this is the right place to be.

We’re going to do a deep dive on an effective and basic offensive system for mount. It cycles through the cross choke, armbar and triangle in a flow that makes sense. And I’m going to break it down for you beyond what you can learn just by watching the video.

Watch the Techniques in Action

Deep Dive on the Individual Techniques

The Cross Choke

Several years ago, I learned this variation on the cross choke, and it blew my mind. The elbow position on the first grip changes everything.

  • It shifts your palm to the sky, creating a better connection between the blade of your wrist and their neck.
  • It stabilizes you in the position, so that it will be hard to rock or roll you.
  • It aligns your elbow with the side of your opponent’s rib, and once there, you can make their life a little more miserable.
  • It pulls their head off the deck, creating space for your second grip.

The Armbar

There are a couple of things to note in this variation:

  • The threat of the cross choke gives you opponent incentive to make their arm vulnerable (and it is vulnerable whenever there is space between their elbow and their side).
  • Leaning slightly forward to their head will make the transition to S-Mount quicker and smoother.
  • When you fall back for the armbar, there is always a small opportunity to escape. The size of that opportunity varies depending on skill, but it is better to finish on the top.

The Triangle

Of all the techniques in the series, the triangle from the top will probably be the ones that gives you the most difficulty, but there are some important tidbits to keep in mind.

  • You must elevate the head to create space for your leg to slide under.
  • You must pin the arm so that you can create space so that your leg can go over it.
  • Once your leg is over their shoulder and under their neck, you must angle your body towards that leg to make it easier to lock the triangle.
  • Keep twisting your body so that your head moves towards and past their hips. That will apply an almost corkscrew like pressure to their neck.

Think of the adjustments you make on top in the same way that you think about the adjustments that have to made on the bottom. There is very little different, it just seems so because of your position.

Enjoy and feel free to share with others who would benefit from adding these techniques to their arsenal.

A little bit of logic when it comes to all the dominant positions

  • March 17, 2016

I hope you’re ready for this.

There’s a lot to absorb, but if you invest the time, you’ll receive a conceptual framework for learning all the dominant positions in Jiu-jitsu.

It’s geared, of course, to beginners. But all conceptual learners will find a tidbit that can be used to improve their training.

Learning Objectives

  • Top
    • Positional Control
    • Submissions
    • Transitions
  • Bottom
    • Escapes
    • Defensive Posture

There are common elements in all of the dominant positions, and you can break down what must be learned into categories that can be applied across the board. Above is that framework. And it can be used to guide your learning process.

For  the top positions, you start by focusing on positional control.

Learn the tricks of how to stay in the position once you get there.  Then you add submissions and transitions on top of that to develop a solid foundation. All of them can be and probably will be learned together, but being stable in the position must be a priority.

For the bottom positions, you start with defensive posture.

Understand how you can be attacked and minimize the risk, and then develop your escapes from the position.

Positional Control on Top

Positional control is an extensive topic.

There are many tricks for shutting down escapes and maintaining dominance. And it can easily and quickly become a very advanced discussion. But here are some tips and drills to get you started on the right path.

Tips

Rear Mount

  • Always glue your chest to their back and your chin to their shoulder when you’re directly behind your opponent. The connection you create between your body and your opponent’s will give you control. And the majority of your control comes from the control of the upper body. The hooks are helpful, but they’re a weaker control mechanism. Your focus must always be on the upper body first.
  • Always angle your opponent towards your choking hand. That angle opens up the armbar and bow and arrow choke. It also makes it harder for them to escape, which makes your position more stable.

Mount

  • Sitting heavy on the hips can make it easier for someone to roll you. That seems counter-intuitive. You want to be as heavy as possible, right? Wrong! You want one of two things: Hip immobilization or disconnection.

The primary ways that you immobilize the hip is by:

  • Dropping your hips slightly lower on their body and crossing your ankles.
  • Grapevining their legs (it’s when you hook their ankles with your feet and stretch them out in opposite directions.)

And the primary ways that you create disconnection is by:

  • Pinching your knees against their hips and elevating your hip slightly.
  • Transitioning into high mount (it’s when you drive your knee into their armpits and sit high on their chest).
  • Switching to butterfly mount (ask me about this).
  • Switching to s-mount.

These are all small adjustments you can make to secure your position. And the longer you stay in mount, the more success you’ll have to finishing from mount.

Side Control

When you’re on top of side control, there’s one thing that you can be absolutely sure of. Your opponent wants nothing more than to escape. They don’t want to be there. They want to somewhere where they’re comfortable.

Your job is to disappoint them. That starts with understanding where you have to control their body. And I’m about to give you a massive yet simple concept.

You have no control if you don’t control the head, hips, or both.

Nothing else matters. And if you lose those elements of control, you must transition to a different position.

Think about this concept and take note of what happens when people escape from your side control.

Drills

Rear Mount

  1. Find a training partner before or after class. Get back pack control (over/under grip) without any hooks. Then see how you can control the position with just upper back control as your partner moves and tries to escape.
  2. Now try the same drill with your hooks and feel the difference.
  3. Then try it with just hooks and no upper body control. The goal is to give you a better sense of how important upper body control is and finetune your senses there.

Mount

  1. Mount your partner with your hips squarely over their hips and see how long you can maintain the position as they try to escape.
  2. Now transition to a high mount with your knees under their armpits. See how they move to escape the position and try to hold control as long as possible.
  3. Lastly, go low and either grapevine their legs or lock your ankles below their hips (low mount). Then do the test again.

Side Control

  1. With your partner, establish whatever side control you know and test your control. The goal is to increase the time it takes for them to escape everytime.

These are all simple drills. Their goal is to reveal problem areas. You want to seeing the holes in your game so that we can address them. And problem solving is most powerful when you see the problem before the solution is revealed.

Submissions on Top

Rear Mount

  • Rear Naked Choke
  • Bow and Arrow Choke
  • Armbar

Mount

  • Cross Choke
  • Armbar
  • Americana

Side Control

  • Armbar
  • Americana
  • Kimura

For those three positions, these submissions are the most common attacks. You must know them, because someone is going to try them against you. And the better you understand them, the easier it will be for you to prevent them.

In addition to that, it’s a great starting point.

Learn all of these submissions as soon as you possibly can.

Transitions

The most important thing that you must know at the basic level is how to transition between the dominant positions.

You must know how to get from:

  • Rear Mount to Mount
  • Side Control to Mount
  • Mount to Rear Mount
  • Mount to Side Control

Those four are the most important transitions to learn as soon as possible.

Defensive Posture

These are all little tricks for staying alive in horrible situations. I’ve given tips in this area, but we’re going over this more in class. A lot of this comes down to awareness because some of the rules can be broken.

Rear Mount

When someone is on your back, you must do two things right away:

  1. Bring your chin to your chest to close the path to the choke.
  2. Keep your elbows tight so your arms aren’t isolated.

After that you want to start attacking the angle of the position. Your goal is to move your body away from his choking hand (the arm that is over your shoulder). That will increase your safety in the position and also makes it easy for you to escape.

Another option would be to scoot down and create a disconnection between your back and their chest. That also weakens their position and opens the door for any escapes you want to try.

Mount

The key on the bottom is to keep your elbows tight to your side (it makes it hard to for your arms to be attacked) and block the path to your neck (it makes it hard for you to be choked). There are of course times when you have to break rules in order to escape. When you do that though, there’s always a risk involved.

Side Control

Ideally, you should never allow your opponent to control your head. Accomplishing that will make any escapes you attempt easier. And you prevent that head control by gluing your ear to your shoulders and using your hands to frame against their neck and arm.

In the absence of those barriers, you have to frame against their hip, and look for underhook or neck frame with your other hand. There’s a sequence of good defensive postures, and every escape becomes harder the further you go down the list.

Escapes

It’s simple.

If you’re in a bad position, you have to get out. And the more time and effort you devote to honing your escapes, the more success you will have. Specific tips and tricks for escaping positions will wait for another article.

Drilling Suggestions

Tips and Tricks

  • Every week, give yourself a learning focus. Pick a technique or position or anything you want to improve at it. And every day, find some way to make an improvement. If you come to class, drill it a few times. If you can’t make it, pull up something similar on YouTube and imagine yourself doing it.
  • When you roll, give yourself an objective. It could be getting to a position. It could be setting up a specific submission. Or it could be anything else. The objective will give you increased focus.
  • When you drill, start with one technique and then try to connect another technique to it in flow. It will help you start seeing combination possibilities will lead to better fluidity of movement.