Here are my notes from last month’s Carlos Machado seminar.

After running us through a warm-up, Carlos talked about the different ranges of attack and control you have from open guard, starting further out and getting closer and closer:

1. Wrists
2. Elbows
3. Shoulders
4. Hips/belt

The first techniques of the day start with wrist control since you can usually grab it right away.

Double wrist control hook sweep

Start in closed guard. Grab both sleeves at the wrist. Step on their hips and scoot back, pushing on their elbows with your knees as you cross their wrists. Since you will be sweeping to your left, cross their left hand over top of their right hand. Carlos calls this the “cuff.”

Now you are in open guard with both feet on their hips and their wrists crossed so they can’t grab you. Scoot your hips to your right, then your shoulder, switching back and forth until you have changed the angle so you are out at a diagonal to them.

Step your left foot on the inside of their right knee and kick it out as you put in your right butterfly hook and flip them. Make a little circle with your hands (like you’re turning a clown car) to add rotation into their shoulders so they tilt into the sweep. You can come up into side control or whatever you want.

Double wrist control hook sweep by switching sides

Do the same as the last technique, but when you go to sweep, they step up their right leg to post and prevent you from sweeping them.

Put your left foot back on their hip and push off as you swing your shoulders around to your right. As you swing around you can turn your hands like you’re turning your clown car to the right and recross (re-cuff) their wrists the other way (Carlos said this isn’t totally necessary but it helps.) Push with your right foot inside their knee and put your left butterfly hook in and sweep them the same way as in the last move, only to the other side. It may be even easier because they will be leaning into it after trying to prevent themselves from falling the other way.

A great detail Carlos added was that if they step their leg up to prevent the sweep but keep their shin/knee turned in tight to you, it can be hard to lift them with the butterfly hook under their knee. Instead he drops his hook down to their ankle and open it outward, then swoops it up into the sweep. The motion is like writing a cursive J. This was my favorite detail of the entire seminar and you can apply it to almost any hook sweep.

Double wrist control sweep with your feet on the hips

To illustrate the importance of changing the angle by scooting your hips and shoulders out to the side, Carlos had us do the first sweep again but this time instead of using a butterfly hook you just kept your foot on the hip. Instead of using the hook to flip them, you just push their hip over as you twist their wrists around and kick their knee out.

He also showed another way to beat them putting their knee to stop the sweep. He just took his foot and stepped on top of their knee and pushed it back down to the ground and repeated the sweep.

Engaging from knees

Carlos showed a way of engaging from the knees. He put his elbows by his sides and his hands in front of him like he is holding a tray. When they reach in to grab you, just flip your hands over like you are playing slaps and grab their sleeves, then sit into butterfly/open guard and do your sweeps.

“Shakey shakey” hook sweep with back grip

Carlos talked about imagining your opponent has a compass over their head, with arrows pointing forwards and backward and left and right. He said he wants to spin the compass a little and get them going to the “in between” angles. He also wants to put it off level, doing things like tilting their shoulders up and down or making them lean in awkward angles.

Carlos said he may be bad at making up names but that you will remember this as the “shakey shakey.”

You are sitting in butterfly guard and they are keeping their hands in, making it hard to get a good control over their wrists. Scoot in as you reach around their shoulders and grab their gi in the middle of their back, making a big wrinkle in the fabric to hold on to (Carlos joked “Who says you need their belt?”).

“Steer” left with your arms to tilt their right shoulder down as you swing your head around to their right side. Lower and squeeze in your elbows to trap their arms inside so they can’t post. Don’t fall back, but instead throw your head as though you want to fall down behind them as you kick your right hook up to sweep them.

They will base back and lean away from the sweep to not get flipped. Maintaining your momentum, swing your shoulders around in a big arc to your right and sweep them again to your right, taking them over this time.

Sit up into armdrag drill

Carlos had us do a drill where we started laying down with one butterfly hook and one foot on the hip. You use your hook to help you sit up into them as you grip their arm for an armdrag and tug it across. He had us do this quickly 10 times on each side.

The Skirmish

Carlos talked about how what he calls “the skirmish,” the grey areas between solid positions where you are both still fighting for dominance. The example he used was when they are passing your guard and you are somewhere between defending side control and still doing guard. He talked about how in these situations you may even lose the battle (like getting your guard passed), but even if you do, you should have made them pay a toll so they spent more energy than you did. Then as you put them through more of these skirmishes, they will come out further and further behind until you gain the advantage.

Open guard retention with the skirmish idea

Carlos had as do a drill where we would get double sleeve control and our partner would stand over us and start passing our guard by trying to run around. Our goal was to control their wrists and keep pushing them in or twisting their arms around or doing anything we could to keep them from grabbing what they wanted. If they got further around and came down close to us, we’d let go of one of the sleeves and grab the back of their head, using our forearm to block their shoulder and turn their head down and play with their balance. While we are doing this we are also bringing our knees and hooks in and getting back to guard. The goal isn’t really for the top guy to pass or the bottom guy to sweep, but to spend time in the skirmish, making the top guy spend more energy and effort than the bottom guy.

He repeated this drill except the bottom guy didn’t have wrist control and the top guy was almost all the way past your guard. You grabbed their shin and their knee with each hand and pushed and pulled at the same time to make their balance and movement unstable as you brought your knees back in and established some kind of guard.

Muscle memory drill

To end the seminar, Carlos had us all trot around in a big circle as he called out moves he had taught. You and your partner had to drop down and each do a rep of the move, then get up and keep jogging. He said Rigan made this up so people would get the moves in their muscle memory.

This was a great seminar and Carlos is a lot of fun to talk with so you should fly him out to teach or visit him in Dallas if you have a chance.

After reviewing the Kikskin grappling spats, I figure I should review the no-gi shorts I wear over them to keep from looking like a creeper in a nuthugging leotard.

Nick, the head guy at Rupture Clothing, sent me a pair of their Signature blue/white MMA fight shorts to try out and review. Here’s that review.

First up is durability, the most important point to consider in any gear review. I have been wearing my shorts 2-3 times per week for the past 1½-2 years and machine washing and drying them between classes. And despite that constant abuse, they still look almost brand new. So big points here.

The shorts are thicker and softer than the Sprawls I have worn, making them feel more natural and comfortable. Everything is heavy-duty triple stitched and reinforced. They have a little pocket for a mouthguard and the split-seams so your legs can move freely for Muay Thai and flexible guard work, so they hit all the bells and whistles you get with the bigger MMA short brands.

Aesthetically, the design is a little plain but talking with the guy who created them, he admits that he purposefully steered away from the SO YOU WANNA BE A FIGHTA!!! style you get with brands like Tapout (spoiler: no camo and barbed wire) so you would be less embarrassed if you had to wear them outside the gym.

So far the only wear on the shorts is cosmetic and minor compared to the gaping holes I’ve had ripped in other shorts. For example, I washed them without closing the velcro fly and found out the rough side of velcro sticks to the stretch fabric inseam and it roughed up the elastic material when I yanked it off. But aside from that, all of the seams are still 100% intact and nothing is tearing or fraying.

What I really respect about Nick and Rupture are the lengths they have gone to keep their gear American-made and not use cheap, foreign labor. It is easy to get your logo slapped on generic gear coming out of Pakistan or China (I get spam about it all the time) so it’s impressive that Rupture has managed to keep their fight short price down at a fair $30 without resorting to sweatshops. Talking with Nick, he’s told me about all the trouble he goes through to find American suppliers and manufacturers for all their t-shirts, fight shorts and rashguards (the best I’ve even worn by the way, and that’s before their newest version, but that’s another review.) You’ve got to respect a company that puts principles above profit, especially these days.

Overall, Rupture’s fight shorts are top of the line and the best price-to-quality you can buy. I’ve been recommending them to people at my gym for a while now and I’m sure anyone reading this would be happy with them too. Support a good company and buy a pair.

Pros

• Awesome fight shorts that aren’t made in sweatshops.
• They’re half the price of Sprawls.
• You don’t look like a Tapout douche bag.

Cons

• Nothing really… I guess I wish they came in more colors and patterns.

TL;DR: Great fight shorts, get a pair, they are cheap and the company is cool.

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 some impossible technique without even giving it a chance.

You have to be willing to take a “leap of faith” when you first start trying it. Once you get it a couple times, you’ll find that it’s not as wild as you thought, though it does require confidence in your movements, which will come with drilling.

While showing this move once, Eduard told the class, “You’re all looking at this and thinking ‘Oh, that’ll never work—that’s crazy.’ But ask any of the brown belts in the room, and they’ll tell you I get them with this all the time.”

So have faith and practice, and it’ll come to you!

You have side ride on a turtled opponent, similar to how you set up the clock choke. Your chest is across his back, and you’ve got a one-on-one (one hand grabbing one wrist) on his far arm. Your outside leg is posted away from him for base.

To take the crucifix, you need to expose his near arm. Do this by driving your knee under his armpit and pushing his arm out.

Step over his arm with your outside leg and drag it back, trapping it between your kness. If he is trying to hide his arm, you might have to dig some with your foot to get your heel to catch it.

All of the normal rules of the crucifix apply. Keep your knees pinched tight and your hips close to his shoulder so he doesn’t have room to pull his arm out. Your free hand posts on the mat in front of him to keep base if he starts trying to take you down.

At this point, you could roll to the traditional crucifix like we did before, but we’re going to take another route.

Pay special attention to the next two steps. They are tricky to get even with live instruction, and even harder to show in still photos. You’ll need to experiment with this part to get a feel for the footwork.

Cross your right knee over your left leg, bringing his arm back. Your goal is to pass his arm from one leg to the other. Your left heel will need to trap his arm so you can uncross your legs without his arm coming back.

When you uncross your legs, his arm should remain pointing back, stuck behind your left leg. Opponents will often hug this leg and try to take you down, not knowing what’s in store.

When people see this for the first time, they almost always ask “What’s stopping him from just uncrossing his arm?”, since it looks like it would be really easy to do.

Luckily, it’s not.

All you have to do is keep your left leg bent, and your heel will block his arm from returning to the other side. He can never straighten his arm (which is what he needs to do to free it) further than you can bend your leg to block it.

With his arm crossed back in the right trigger position¹, let go of your one-on-one and bring your entire upper body to his right side. You’re going to dive your left hand underneath his near shoulder as you roll over your left shoulder.

As you start rolling, reach back with your left hand and grab his knee, and triangle your legs to secure his arm.

Contine rolling, still holding his knee and triangling your legs.

He’s probably already feeling the pressure on his shoulder, and if you do it fast enough, it’s possible to submit him from here. But because we don’t feel ballistically ripping your training partner’s shoulder off, we’ll continue the move with control.

Walk your shoulders towards his knee as you pull it to your head and hug it. This is to help you control three possible situations:

1. He rolls to escape the pressure on his shoulder.
2. You want to roll him to finish him on his back.

A mix of both.

It’s easier to finish him on his back if he’s too strong or flexible to finish upside down, or if he’s defending by holding his belt or grasping his hands together.

The easiest and most direct way is to keep rolling until you can sit up, lifting his knee and cranking his arm with your shoulder. He’ll often go right along with this to relieve the pressure and avoid the submission.

If you’re having trouble rolling a heavy guy, you can untriangle your legs and swing your right leg out like you’re doing a pendulum sweep, while rocking up and lifting his knee. This adds more momentum to the roll and can tip the balance.

If he resists rolling by posturing up, you can often take it the other way by sitting back into him and knocking him backwards instead of forwards.

He might also try stepping over you, in which case you can roll belly down and sweep him like a normal omoplata sweep.

Whatever happens, just get him on his back without losing control or letting his arm slip out.

While drilling, just stick to rolling him forward.

One way or another, you’ve now rolled him on to his back.

Keep holding his knee to maintain control and stop him from rolling out, and keep your hips tight to his body so he doesn’t get the space to pull his arm out.

Reach across his body and put your left hand in his far armpit. Lay across his upper body to pin and block him from sitting up. This position will feel natural if you’re familiar with reverse scarf hold.

Before you start trying to crank his arm, scoot your hips back to take the slack out of his shoulder—you won’t have the leverage to finish otherwise. This will also break any defensive grip he has such as holding his hands or belt.

Finish by posting with your outside leg and bringing your inside leg back like you’re doing a technical stand-up (your leg going under your hips).

¹ A trigger position is when your opponent has some part of his body in a position that prompts you to do a particular move, such as someone pushing on your chest from under mount being a “trigger” for an armbar.