Modified Scarfhold Submissions

Posted on October 28, 2009 by Aesopian

(Watch on Youtube.)

Thanks to Rupture Clothing for the fight shorts and rashguard and MMAOutlet.com for the grappling tights.

Leave your comments below and let me know what you want to see next!

Stephan Kesting’s Free BJJ DVD

Posted on September 17, 2009 by Aesopian

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 fairly well and I’ve been easing back into training. Not 100% yet but it’s doing as well as I could hope. Leave a comment and let me know how your training has been going!

BeginningBJJ.com by Stephan Kesting

Posted on November 18, 2008 by Aesopian

Stephan Kesting

Stephan Kesting of Grapple Arts just launched an awesome new BJJ resource, Beginning Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (beginningbjj.com).

Signing up for the e-course gets you a free e-book, A Roadmap for Brazilian Jiu-jitsu. After reading it, my first thought was “I wish I’d had this when I started.” It’s a superb starting reference, presenting the right lessons and concepts for a beginner. The e-mails that come with the e-course are the same great quality all of Stephan’s work is.

If you run a gym, this would be a perfect to give to new students. I’m thinking of printing out a copy and bring it into the gym and telling the beginners to check it out. It presents the right mindset for learning and improving as a beginner.

Check out www.beginningbjj.com.

Bad Half Butterfly Guard (Pass Prevention)

Posted on October 5, 2008 by Aesopian

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.)

Extra Details

Shrimping hook return: You can grab your foot and pull it in front of their face if you need to. Keep your hand near your foot as you bring your butterfly hook in and it’ll give you a little safe path to get the underhook too.

Bridging hook return: You can see this movement—crunch then explode—in a lot of situations and from a lot of grips and guards. “Bridging” may be the wrong word to describe it though; you’re not just lifting your hips, but also extending your body to push them with your knees.

Shrimp to crucifix: I failed to mention that you don’t just want to push their head to the side but also down to the ground so they can’t posture up and turn towards you.

Please let me know what you think through the comments here or on any of the video sites (Revver, Vimeo, Youtube) or through my contact form.

BJJ Warm-ups and Exercise Videos

Posted on September 5, 2008 by Aesopian

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.

Here are the best drills I’ve found online so far.

Komodo Dragon Crawl