Oh my god! What! What! What!

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Stephan Kesting emailed me last week to let me know about a freeBJJ/grappling DVD he is releasing and I wanted to pass the word along to everyone. You can watch a preview here or sign up to get the DVD here. I own all of Stephan’s DVDs and have been a big fan of him and his sites (Grappleart.com and the newer BeginningBJJ.com) for years. It’s awesome that he is putting out this DVD since his original instructionals remain some of my favorites.

For those of you wondering, my knee is healing up…

Rickson once said he admires Nino Schembri for “how he looks at positions in new ways”. (He also might not have said that. The quote is probably inaccurate since I read it years ago and can’t find the source any more.)

That idea stuck with me. As a beginner at the time it struck me, “How many ways can you think about a position? When is mount not just mount? When is guard not guard?” Those questions have become a kind of mind-clearing Zen koan. It opened me up to thinking…

This is a technique from Gracie Barra Clearwater’s website. My instructor Eduardo and I made this tutorial for the reverse omoplata. I’m putting it up here since I’m referencing it Rethinking Position.

If the crucifix is underused, then the reverse (or inverted) omoplata is almost unknown or at least considered an exotic novelty. Hopefully, this instruction will help change that.

A possible reason for this is that one of the hardest parts of the reverse omoplata is simply having faith in it. When most people are taught it, they blow it off as…

Three techniques to counter the under-over pass from the bad “half butterfly guard” position.

My instructor Eduardo emphasizes the first two guard returns because they develop skills he considers among the most important for a good open guard: creating space by shrimping, creating space extending your body, and circling the hooks back in. You’ll see him use these over and over again every time he fights.

(Also available on Youtube and Revver.)

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Shrimping hook return: You can grab your foot and pull it in front of their face if you need to. Keep your…

Been enjoying putting together exercises routines and running class warm-ups that are outside the standard running, push-ups, crunches and shrimping.

I really like ones that make me feel uncoordinated and off-balance at when I first try them. There’s probably some neurophysiology reasoning I could make up about the brain and body struggling to adapt to a new movement and how this develops reflexes and “body awareness” or whatever, but really they’re just fun.

Bonus points if the moves makes you look stupid. Get a room full of guys Indian leg wrestling or crab walking and you’ll put them in a more relaxed mood.

Videos after the jump.