What Lies Just Beyond the Horizon

  • December 4, 2012

Take a moment and look at this picture.

Do you see how the sun’s light just breaks through the clouds? Or maybe the contrast between light and shadow reflected off of hundreds upon hundreds of hills?

Perhaps you even see something that I simply can’t. That’s quite likely actually.

The key thing is that you can see everything in the picture. You may focus on different things, but there’s nothing stopping you from experiencing a sense of wonder at what nature is capable of.

Now what if you were at that location, but there was no light? It was pitch black, and you could barely see anything in front of you.

Would you be able to appreciate it then?

Perhaps. Perhaps not. It depends, right? The main factor would be whether or not you’ve already been there or you’ve already seen what’s possible.

The Brazilian Jiu-jitsu Connection

On the first day, when a person steps into a gym with the slightest inclination of training, it can often be like that pitch black environment.  Wondrous sights and possibilities exist around them, but they can’t see it.

It’s too dark.

Often that initial period is difficult. They’re introduced to countless new movements, and some of those may feel quite unnatural initially.

It’s that period where most people quit.

The shame is that they often do it right before dawn. Right before the light of the sun breaks through the clouds. Right before they hit their first breakthrough and received a true sense of what they could possibly achieve.

A shame, indeed.

The beauty of Brazilian Jiu-jitsu lies in the possibility of creating your own expression of it. It’s when you make that shift from simply trying to memorize to attempting to innovate. It’s when you bring your own insight and mix it with tried-and-true concepts and movements in order to create something that is truly unique.

But the only way to get there is grind through all the obstacles thrown in your path.

A Conceptual Blueprint for Preparing to Teach

  • December 2, 2012

A Conceptual Blueprint for Preparing to Teach

If you teach or want to teach, you have to do more than just regurgitate information. The best instructors create experiences that are rarely forgotten.

You might’ve even had such experiences yourself, especially if you’ve been training for a good amount of time. It’s in those moments when you pay absolute attention because you made the decision that the information was extremely relevant to you.

The question is how do you create such experiences when you teach? To answer that, I want to offer you a suggestion.

I recently read a book called As We Speak: How to Make Your Point and Have It Stick. It focuses on the many different aspects of effective communication, and for some odd reason, it just happens to be well-written too.

One section of the book focuses on a conceptual blueprint for preparing content. We can apply that to Brazilian Jiu-jitsu instruction, but let’s start with defining the blueprint itself.

The Conceptual Blueprint

At a fundamental level, there are three components in the blueprint:

  • Outcome – Define your outcome. What do you want to achieve?
  • Relevance – Find the relevance. Why should they care?
  • Point – Clarify your point. What’s your message, in one memorable phrase?

Those three components can then be expanded into an outline where you write out the following information:

  • Who will be in your audience.
  • The outcome you desire.
  • The knowledge you want your audience to learn.
  • How you want your audience to feel.
  • Reasons why they should care
  • The central message in one clear statement.

Brazilian Jiu-jitsu Application

Now we’re going to use that conceptual blueprint to outline a class, just as an example. Let’s get started!

Who is listening?

  • BJJ Basics Students (Mostly white belts)

Step I – Outcome: By the end of this class, they will….

  • Understand the concept of the triangle and how to effectively finish it.

In order to achieve this they need to know:

  • The four stages of a triangle choke as a foundational concept.
  • The importance of attacking with the hips.
  • How to control angles and posture in the position.

In order to achieve this they need to feel:

  • Confident that they will be able to master the submission in time.

Step II – Relevance: Why should they care?

  • Because the triangle is not only a submission, it’s also an effective position where you can launch many attacks.
  • Because the concepts you learn from developing an effective triangle can applied all over the place.
  • Because the triangle can be found in all kinds of positions.

Step III – Point: What’s your message in one sentence?

  • The triangle is a strong submission that can be used in many effective attack sequences and loops.

Give It A Try

I highly recommend As We Speak. It’s worth studying because effective communication is valuable in all areas of life. I only showed you a small sliver of what you could learn.

I just wanted to give you an example of how knowledge can be applied.

It’s entirely likely that you may read this book and focus on something entirely different then apply that knowledge in a way that I never imagined. That would be a wonderful thing if it happened.

Transitions between Half Guard and Closed Guard

  • November 30, 2012

halfguardarmbar

Half Guard Transition to Closed Guard

Details:

  • There are two different grip combinations that you can use for this transition. The one I showed is cross collar/far sleeve. The other one that you can use is far sleeve/far knee. I recommend the first grip simply because there are more options off of it.
  • For the transition, it’s essential that your bottom leg is mobile. In order to create that opportunity for yourself, you can use your top leg to elevate their hips like a forklift. That will allow you to bring the foot out easily.
  • Once the foot is out, go foot to the hip then shoot into closed guard.

Closed Guard Transition to Half Guard

Details:

  • The grip combination is cross collar/far sleeve.
  • The initial entry is just like the scissor sweep. You shrimp your hips out to one side and bring your knee across your opponent’s body. Then you can either go for the sweep or switch things up and go half.

Transitional Armbar

Details:

  • If you’re thinking about this, it’s really important to bring whichever arm that has the sleeve grip back until your elbow is near your side. Your arm will be more structurally strong in that position. It will also make it harder for your opponent to pull their arm back.
  • Also it’s nice to push the cross collar grip into their shoulder. It helps to keep the arm exposed and it compromises their position to some degree.
  • Now in the transition from half guard into closed guard, you’re just skipping closed guard altogether and rotating around for the armbar. That’s the easiest way to think of it. All the common guidelines about closed guard armbars apply.

Timing

Generally, the focus in these transitions is more on grip dominance than in timing. Your opponent can help you though by leaning forward, which will free your leg for you.

Origin

The first piece of this is the transition from half guard to closed guard. I picked that up from Jimmy Harbison at a seminar he did with JT to help fund the Team Lloyd Irvin Kids Program. It was a great seminar, and I remember everything he taught that day.

After that, I reverse engineered the technique to come up with the transition back to half guard. Also in the process of playing with both transitions, I started to see that armbar possibility.

Brazilian Jiu-jitsu Teaching Experiment II

  • November 28, 2012

Recently, I taught a class at Evolve Academy. I had a simple vision. I wanted to create a focused lesson that reinforced the technique in different ways.

What we’re going to do here is go back and try to highlight what was good and bad about that approach.

Class Structure

  • Free Form Drilling – 10 minutes
  • Technical Instruction and Practice – 25 minutes
  • Situational Rolling – 25 Minutes

Free Form Drilling

The warm up for the class was just drilling. There were no conditions set on it. They just grabbed partners and worked on whatever they wanted back and forth.

There is a reason that I do that in this particular class. The main one is that at least a good five minutes after class starts there will still be students trickling in. One factor behind that is that there is another #brazilian jiu-jitsu class right before this one, but there is a parking lot that separates the two classes.

They could all do better on rushing over though.

Anyway, there’s clear benefit to drilling but in this case it didn’t help reinforce the lesson. That is something that can be addressed.

Technical Instruction and Practice

There was one technique taught. It was split up into two parts. In addition, there was also a drill shown. It focused on maintaining the dominant position that the technique required.

The first part of the technical instruction focused on establishing the grip and details about applying pressure. Then the second part was all about execution and finishing.

Situational Rolling

Let’s set the stage.

There was a set position, and we were doing one minute rounds with 15 seconds in between for resets. Also the initial form of rotation was top-bottom-out.

Basically, someone would come in on top. Then they would have another round on bottom. Then they would be out.

The key advantage of this format is that there were many opportunities to work the technique against resistance.

Overview

In hindsight, I think it would have been a good idea to show the drill first and use that as the warmup. Then progress from there.

Overall though, it was a good class structure that really focused on teaching a small subset of Brazilian Jiu-jitsu.

How to Hit a Sneaky Triangle Choke from Half Guard

  • November 22, 2012

Some time ago, I put a little informal technical lesson on video and shared it only with those who have signed up for the BJJ Canvas Newsletter. Generally, I prefer to do that over posting technique, but I’m making an exception here.

Half Guard Triangle Entry

The technique is a transition from half guard into the triangle. I’ve used quite a bit, and it has definitely surprised people.

Let’s start off with highlighting some of the details.

  • That first movement is all about shooting your hip down. It forces your opponent to straighten their leg and also puts you in a more offensive position. It’s not only easier to hook the leg but it’s also easier to transition to deep half there.
  • Once you hook the leg and come up to your knees, the simple and effective kneetap sweep is generally there. But there are times, when you can’t get it. Maybe your opponent is driving into you or their far leg is based out. In those situations, this triangle is a great tool. Once you decide to go for it though, your underhook has to go up to their collar and you want to shoot your outside leg as high as possible onto their back.
  • The higher your leg is on their back, the more of your weight that they will have to carry. It will make it harder for them to move, while also making it easier for you to move your other leg.

Timing

One of the best times to hit this is when your opponent drives into you after you come up to your knees with the underhook. If you time it right, they’ll actually just fall into the triangle. Then you can put them in that fundamental offensive loop of triangle<>armbar<>omoplata.

You don’t need that reaction to hit the triangle, but it makes it easier.

Origin

I picked up the triangle entry piece from Caio Terra’s 111 Half Guard Set. The only thing I changed was the initial entry. That little hip movement is very useful, and if you take nothing else away from this, I think that that will help you a lot in half guard.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask.