Category: Training Methods


Turn Your Open Mat into a BJJ Laboratory

Filed Under: Headline, How To Study Jiu-Jitsu, Training Methods
Dec.10, 2009

I’m going to make a bold assumption: You want to get better at BJJ. (I must be a mind reader.) Open mat can be a secret weapon in your training if you use it right. These tips will help make sure you do.

Go in with a purpose

What makes open mat good is also what makes it bad: you can do whatever you want. Without someone running class, it’s all too easy to waste time, goof off or simply not know what to do. Go in prepared giving yourself a goal.

Examples:

– Improve move X.
– Improve my escapes.
– Improve my conditioning.
– Try out this new guard.
– Review my basics.

Try picking a topic—a certain position, submission, guard or even concept—and set your mind on exploring and learning it in depth. It’s easier to stay focused when you know what you’re focusing on.

It’s time to experiment

Now is your chance to put that encyclopedic knowledge of every BJJ instructional to use. Is there a move that’s been making waves in competition that you want to learn? You could bring a laptop or iPhone to watch instructionals then drill them.

Forget this piece of advice if it doesn’t line up with your goals. Sometimes drilling those same basics you’ve known forever is the right thing to do (at least it’s never wrong.)

Don’t get technique overload

Just because you’re free to do whatever you want doesn’t mean you should pull out every technique you’ve ever Youtubed. Get two experienced guys on the mat and it can quickly turn into technique show and tell (“Hey, check this out!” “That reminds me of this…” “You gotta see how I do it…”) Keep your goals in mind and don’t get too far off track (unless it’s really something worth checking out.)

Put in the reps

Once you’ve figured out what you want to work on, start drilling. Then keep drilling. Discipline yourself to put in a healthy number of repetitions. No skimping on your reps because you don’t have an instructor keeping his hawk eyes on you. I’m sorry if this is boring but it’s good for you.

Find the right training partner

Who you train with can make or break an open mat. If they aren’t as motivated as you, it’s a pain to force them to drill when all they want to do is talk and spar a bit. You’re better off with a white belt that has a good worth ethic and is eager to learn than a lazy purple belt that doesn’t really feel like breaking a sweat. Finding the right person to team up with can give you a serious boost and make grappling R&D really fun and rewarding.

Do live drills

Take whatever you working on and make up live drills AKA isolation sparring for it. This is an fantastic training method that a lot of people overlook. Your drills can be as simple as starting from a specific position over and over again to running a series of situational exercises that increase in complexity as they go. (Message me on Facebook if you want some example drills.)

Take sparring seriously

Nothing bugs me more than two guys rolling for 1 minute before someone taps then spending 2 minutes talking about it. Save the discussion for later. Quick bits of advice or showing someone how to stop a move they’ve got caught in a couple times is OK. But you’re there to spar. Now is a good chance to push your endurance and forget time limits and go until you are absolutely dead.

Film your sparring

If you’ve got a camera and a tripod (or a willing third person), try getting your sparring sessions on video and watching them afterward. You’ll often be surprised by the things you do (and don’t do) that you never realized.

Want more tips? Add me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter.

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/giosp/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

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Three Rules for Good Jiu-Jitsu

Filed Under: Featured, How To Study Jiu-Jitsu, Training Methods
Oct.08, 2008

Eduardo has three rules for good jiu-jitsu:


  1. Train hard.

  2. Eat right.

  3. Sleep well.

That’s it.

Let’s assume you have quality instruction already. (If you don’t, you’ve got other issues). You can fuss over the details: what and how to study, gi or no-gi, drilling versus sparring, top game or bottom first, basic versus advanced and so on into infinity. But whatever combination of those you choose, you can’t get away from needing to put in serious, focused time on the mat and racking up training hours. That’s a no-brainer, yet people still miss it while searching for the secret easy path to success.

Diet is always important but especially when you’re an athlete (and that’s what you’ve become if you’re training hard). Nutrition is well researched and there’s a wealth of information out there. I’ll leave it to you to find what’s right for your body.

The importance of sleep is easy to overlook (which is why I asked if you’re getting enough). Your body needs time to rest and recover after working out. But there’s also a mental aspect that you may not be aware of but that scientists are learning more about. The superb radio program Radiolab (iTunes) did a show on sleep that you should listen to. It explains the topic better than I can. Scientific American Mind also has good articles and podcasts on sleep and its effects on learning:

If you want to discuss the details of “the secret easy path to success”, or if you have any more good sources on nutrition and sleep, leave a comment or send me a message.

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BJJ Warm-ups and Exercise Videos

Filed Under: BJJ Instructional Videos, Jiu-jitsu Techniques, Training Methods
Sep.05, 2008

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

Monkey Run

Backward Dolphin

Armadillo

5 Partner Exercises

Individual Exercises

Milanimal Workout Series

Grappling: les bases. Les drills seul.

Les Drills à deux en JJB

Arte Suave – Andre Galvao

Open Door Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Warm up

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Questions to Ask Yourself and Things to Try

Filed Under: Featured, How To Study Jiu-Jitsu, Training Methods
Aug.24, 2008

This list is a tool I made to help keep myself motivated. It’s split into two parts: questions to ask yourself and things to try. Together they give you something to be thoughtful and introspective about and something to get out there and do. The idea is to turn to it each week (or when you’re in a slump) and see if it can’t help you improve.

Try this:

Pick out a random question and give it serious thought. Be objective and honest with yourself. Write down your answer if you need to. Did you have any new ideas?

Pick a random thing to try. Follow the instructions as well as you can. Write notes on how it went. Did you learn anything new?

If you type up your answers to the questions or if you have an interesting experience trying one of the ideas, tell me about it here in the comments or by email.

Questions to Ask Yourself

How good is your hip movement on the bottom?

What part of your game needs the most work?

What position gives you the most trouble?

What do you need to improve next?

How good is your posture in guard?

How can you improve your diet?

Are you getting enough sleep?

Is there a move you “should know” that still gives you trouble?

How well can you open the closed guard?

What is your favorite position?

What submission do you have the most trouble escaping?

Do you keep fighting from your back when you could get to your knees?

Are you confident with your closed guard?

Could you keep playing the same game if you were less athletic?

How much of your current game will stay the same as you age?

Are you confident with your open guard?

What positions do you avoid that you shouldn’t?

What moves can you do on one side but not the other?

How many rounds can you go before you’re gassed?

If your armbar fails, where do you go from there?

Are your legs really too short for the triangle or are your mechanics off?

Do you do something that goes “against the rules” (e.g. submissions from bad positions)?

What was the last submission you got caught with?

What causes you the most frustration?

Are you ashamed to pull guard?

Do you train takedowns enough?

Can you do your favorite throw while moving in different directions?

Do you prefer to pass from knees or standing?

How good are your standing guard passes?

If you had to start over, what would you do differently?

Are you making the best use of your training time?

Are there “basic” moves you wish you were better at?

Are there moves you never tried because you worried they were “too advanced”?

How can you use less strength?

How can you use less flexibility?

How confident are you with the gi?

How confident are you without the gi?

How different are your gi and no-gi games?

Are you aggressive enough?

Are you relaxed enough?

Are you too passive?

Are you too defensive?

What parts of your game could you simplify?

What submissions do you never try?

Have you surprised yourself lately?

If your triangle fails, what’s your backup plan?

Why didn’t you do karate instead?

Do you hold your breath when you shouldn’t?

Do you know of a black belt with your body type to watch?

Do you use the omoplata much?

Do you have a favorite finish from each position?

Whose guard do you really admire?

What does your belt mean to you?

Why are you afraid of competing?

Are you still worried about self defense?

How good are your headlock escapes?

Is your guard “too open” and loose?

Do you have a “go to” move for each guard you use?

What’s your main attack from mount?

What is your worst skill?

How do you measure your performance?

How much have you improved in the last six months?

Where would you like to be in 6 months?

Do you really want to compete?

Can you visualize moves and positions as simple geometry?

Do you use the americana much?

How often do you get the cross collar choke from guard?

How good are your side control escapes?

How far can you push your endurance?

What is your proudest moment?

What do you regret?

How many of the people that started with you are still training?

Do you remember what it was like to be a white belt?

What would be the simplest and quickest move from each position?

Are you overlooking simpler solutions?

Do you do moves just because they look cool?

What is a “basic” technique?

How do you define the fundamentals?

Would doing things differently be wrong or just different?

Is there a move you always wished you could do better?

Are there moves you just never seem to remember when you need them?

How do you keep yourself motivated?

Are the health risks worth it?

Do you drill moves on both sides?

Do you really need that many instructionals?

Do you try a move in sparring the same day you drilled it?

Do you find drilling boring?

Do you put in enough repetitions?

How is your half guard?

Do you just stall in certain positions?

Are you always looking for the finish?

Do you worry that lower belts are catching up to you?

Is there something you always wished you were better at?

What part of competing makes you most nervous?

How can the last technique you learned fit into your game?

Do you have one really good training partner to work one-on-one with?

Do you need private lessons?

What sweeps and submissions go together?

What part of the mental game do you need to improve?

How do you deal with anxiety?

Are you afraid of losing?

Things to Try

Pick just one submission to focus on for a week.

Concentrate on how your hips are moving while sparring.

Find a way to make your hips as heavy as possible while passing.

Drill a sweep you didn’t like the first time you learned it.

Take two different positions and figure out how to transition between them.

Pick one position and work on it for a month.

Try a new move today.

Pick a move you don’t use enough and drill it before class for a week.

Draw a diagram of a move that explains its mechanics.

Write down how to do the last move you learned with as much detail as possible.

Draw a flowchart of the positions you use and how you transitions between them.

Try a new move just because it looks fun.

Almost let a white belt tap you today.

See how long you can hold a “strange” position while sparring.

Let people pass your guard so you can work on your escapes.

Pick your least favorite position and work on it.

Teach your favorite move to someone who doesn’t know it.

Put together a three move combination and drill it.

Fight from top as much as possible for a week.

Don’t close your guard in sparring today.

Find a “fancy” move and see if it really is that fancy.

Drill the escapes to the last submission you got caught in.

Make a combination of three guard passes that have you go over, under and around the legs.

Ask a lower belt for his perspective on something.

Try to stand up from guard more often.

Try to take the back from everywhere.

Watch and study higher belts sparring.

Figure out how much your game changes with and without the gi.

Stretch before and after training.

Play guard as much as possible for a week.

Replay a round of sparring in your head as you’re going to sleep.

“Steal” a good move from someone else.

Coach two white belts against each other.

Make your intentions obvious and see if you can still get the move.

Focus on controlling your breathing.

Set a faster pace than normal.

Set a slower pace than normal.

Move slowly and deliberately while sparring today.

Move fast and light with sparring today.

See how long you can hold mount.

See how many transitions you can do in one round.

Find a high level competitor with your body type and try to emulate him.

Stop halfway through a move and see how long you can maintain control.

Try a dumb move today.

Spar with your eyes closed.

Try sparring two people at once.

Hold knee-on-belly for as long as you can in sparring today.

Stand to pass guard this week.

Don’t use one of your arms today.

Work on your rear mount escapes.

Try holding side control on a balance ball to develop pressure.

Compare where you are now to where you were 6 months ago.

Try not using your arms at all while sparring today.

Drill level changes and penetration steps today.

Take a minute to do as many repetitions of the armbar from mount as possible.

Do a full round of sparring from under side control.

Train transitions instead of positions.

Figure out a way to improve your scramble.

Draw a picture of how you think of a certain movement.

Pick the toughest person at your gym and spar with them.

Only use moves you learned as a white belt today.

Put in extra repetitions on your bad side.

Be single-minded in going for what you learned and drilled in class today.

Fine tune your chokes with feedback from your training partner.

See how long you can hold the triangle position without finishing the submission.

Put yourself in submissions and see if you can get out.

Approach old moves like they’re completely new to you.

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Bridging the Gap

Filed Under: How To Study Jiu-Jitsu, Jiu-jitsu Techniques, Teaching and Coaching, Training Methods
Sep.06, 2007

As I’ve said repeatedly, this journal is a reflection of my personal interests. If there hasn’t been much new material posted, it’s because I’m not working on new techniques. Rather, I’m returning to “old” stuff and working on it again, a process I started months ago.

I’ve also been working on aspects more fundamental than revisiting techniques: the training methods themselves. I’ve been giving a lot of thought to how to train. I want to make the most out of the time I spend on the mats.

In a previous article, I talked about how to get the most out of drilling. But drilling will only get you so far. There is still a gulf between these static repetitions and using these moves in sparring. Making this connection, being able to get techniques in motion, can be one of the biggest problems faced in learning, especially in the beginner and intermediate levels.

Most leave it up to mat time, experience and determination to solve this. Keep showing up, drill and spar enough and it’ll sort out. That’s as it should be.

But is there an easier, smoother way to do this? Can you engineer and control this process? Make it less mysterious? Can you ease students into it without lowering standards of performance?

I think so. That’s what you’ll about read below.

But before we get into it, there are a few terms and ideas I want to review, since they’re important to understanding this topic.

Aliveness

Whether or not you use (or even like) the neologism coined by Matt Thornton, the concept of aliveness is one of the most important aspect of learning Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu or any combat sports. And while I’m not a fan of making up new words by adding ”-ness” to them, I am willing to forgive it in this instance since the term is very useful for my purposes.

Aliveness tends to be ham-fistedly summed up as “resistance” or “sparring”, but that’s a crude way to look at it. It is more accurately defined as “realistic timing, energy and motion that does not follow a set pattern.” For deeper descriptions and discussions of the topic, you can read What is Aliveness? and Why Aliveness? or watch any number of videos, all by Matt Thornton of the Straight Blast Gym.

If you’re already doing an “alive” art like BJJ, it’s easy to take aliveness for granted. It’s built right. You simply show up at class, follow directions, spar and away you go. Nothing terribly wrong with that.

Where it becomes valuable to understand aliveness is when you want to explore the learning process and refine or improve your training methods. That’s what we’re doing here, so take the time let the idea sink in. Once you grasp the roles timing, energy and motion play in learning, they open up a lot of possibilities for creating new drills and coaching methods.

I-Method

Straight Blast Gym has a few other terms and concepts I’ll borrow. Again, they’re not new inventions, but they never claimed to be. If you find yourself thinking “But that’s what we do already”, you’re probably right. It just happens that SBG used the clearest terminology to describe this process, so I’m going to stick with it for ease of description.

The I-Method is a way of teaching material in stages, each of which is conveniently an “I” word: Introduction, Isolation and Integration. They break down as follows:

Introduction

Teach the technique and explain how it works. Repetitions without resistance until the students understand the move and can do it smoothly.

Isolation

Have the students do live drills that focus on the material they just learned and begin adding aliveness. Work the student up through several levels of difficulty so he grasps how to apply the move against a resisting opponent.

Integration

The students are free to spar and try whatever they want (within the rules) but with the encouragement to incorporate the skills they just learned.

Of these three stages, the one most relevant to our interests (and my favorite) is Isolation. This is what fills the gap between drilling and sparring. “Reps with resistance” as some call it.

Isolation training is a simple idea, which is both good and bad.

The bad is that it’s easy to overlook, undervalue or take for granted. Like how basic techniques get blown off because there’s “not a lot to it”, this concept can get ignored. You may need to take a serious look and put it to use before you appreciate it.

The good is that with its simplicity comes versatility, making it a very powerful learning and coaching tool. With flexible thinking and creativity, you can apply it to almost anything: techniques, positions, transitions, submissions, attributes, strategies and concepts.

Once you’ve got a firm handle on it, you’ll likely find you can use the isolation stage to create drills that focus on skills that are otherwise difficult to develop. You’re able to handpick the material you want to train and quickly come up with a way to drill it against resistance.

To get the most out of this though, it helps to have several more concepts in mind.

Progressiveness

Inherent to the I-Method is the concept of progressive resistance. Each stage naturally builds up into the next. The training partner goes from supplying little more than a warm body to offering limited amounts of resistance and ultimately all-out sparring. This can be divided into further stages of resistance.

This concept of gradual increases can also be applied to the other factors of learning and training, such as complexity, difficulty, athleticism, etc. You want to start low on the scale and ramp up, which each stage building nicely into the next.

Before we get to exploring how isolation training and progressive resistance go together, I want to first illustrate a few points.

Graphs

I have found it useful to visualize the learning process as a line graph, and so I’ve plotted several below. Keep in mind that these are rough approximations but they’ll give you the general idea.

Imagined Ideal

This first graph gives an imagined ideal for how training should run.

Imagined Ideal

The training starts at a zero of complexity, resistance, difficulty, etc. then rises at a steady pace. It starts simple and easy then keeps getting more and more demanding. The dashed lines are meant to show the potential for variation, up and down.

The problem with ideals is how often they don’t translate to the real world. So while this is a useful way to think about teaching, don’t get too hung up on seeking “the perfect” way. Keep it in mind, use it as a guide line, milk it for all its worth, but don’t stress out over it.

Common BJJ

With the “ideal” as our frame of reference, we can now look at how BJJ is normally taught.

BJJ

Training starts low but quickly advances into high levels of resistance. This steep cliff face is usually what makes or breaks beginners, where they have to suffer through it or quit. While it is a ruthless enforcer of natural selection, I blame this for the high attrition rates in BJJ.

There’s an argument to be made in favor of this. Many instructors and students take pride in how hard BJJ is, how it’s not for everyone. It’s a trial by fire and only the best and the toughest stick around. To do it any other way seems like a cop out, especially if you paid your dues this way. Why should anyone else have it easier? We don’t want to lower our standards.

The counter-argument is that BJJ should be for everyone. How is it supposed to work for the smaller, weaker man (like we always hear advertised) if he’s being crushed and driven away by the rougher guys at class? Is “pride” really worth a gym that limps along with just a couple “tough guys” instead of a large student body of normal men and women? But how do you have it so each type of student can train together?

With any luck, intelligent use of isolation drilling, progressive resistance and gradual increasing difficulty can create a training environment where the competitor and the everyman can learn and improve alongside each other.

Gradual Stages

Gradual Steps

Here we fill the space between drilling and sparring with fleshed out isolation training. This is where we give the students a chance to try what they’re learning against a moving person and run them up through several levels of difficulty and resistance before they get to sparring. They can work on their coordination and timing and get a feel for the move before moving to a higher level.

The “steps” up through the isolation stage show how you can use a series of drills (or the same drill in multiple ways) to build up to sparring.

For example, you can simply make them start from the position you’re learning that day and tell them to start at 25%, with the person doing the moves told they can only really try what they learned that day while the training partner moves around but pretty much lets them do the moves. Then tell the training partner to go up to 50% and not let them get it as easily. Then bump up to 75% and get them both really fighting for it. Then finish out at 100%.

The success-to-fail ratio I go by is 7 out of 10, meaning the person should be able to get the move around 7 times out of 10 during the easier learning stages of isolation training. Lower and it’s too easy; higher and it’s too hard. The 7/10 ratio means they’re having enough success to get a feel for the move but still getting realistic resistance (for the stage of learning). If you see someone only getting a move only 2 or 3 times, you should probably lower the resistance or difficulty until they get it, then ramp up once they get it.

Simplicity vs Complexity

The slope of these graphs is affected by many factors—more than I’ll try to pin down right now. Simply think of all of the things that can make training easier or harder.

Two related factors can sum up a lot of variables: simplicity and complexity. These are opposite ends of the same stick (to steal another Thorntonism). You can account for a wide range of skill levels by creating drills of varying levels of simplicity or complexity.

For example, a class full of beginners should probably be kept towards the simple end of the spectrum, not just in what they learn but in the types of drills they do. They’ll most likely lack the sensitivity to go at a lower level of resistance and so (picture the graph here) the difficulty rises rapidly. You can get a handle on this and push the graph back down by limiting them to simpler isolation drills. This way you can worry less about them going ballistic since they’re not allowed to go off into strange or awkward situations (which is when many injuries occur) and their training partner can keep learning.

Specificity and Scope

People (especially beginners) sometimes have trouble sticking to the isolation drill. They get to fighting and things get crazy and they just keep going. They might get a good position or almost have a submission and not want to give it up. Likewise, someone (often a higher belt) may “fail” at their goal for the drill but keep fighting out of pride, not wanting to “lose” to a lower belt. In any case, they’re missing the point.

This isn’t sparring yet so you can keep them on a leash. Stress the purpose of the drill and the specific positions or skills it is developing so they know what they’re working on. When they start getting into strange positions, have them ask themselves “Is this within the scope of the drill?” Restart if it’s not.

Don’t be afraid to reset the position repeatedly. “Winning” and “losing” isn’t a big deal and don’t give them time to mope or gloat. Just restart and go again and again.

That said, there are times when something unexpected may happen that’s worth letting run out. It may be a new position you hadn’t thought that shows potential. It may be that someone put themselves in a bad spot and you want them to suffer a bit so they know to not do that again. Use your judgment.

More Graphs

Since I became enamored with making graphs, I drew up ones for a few more scenarios.

Traditional Martial Arts

Traditional Martial Arts

Stances, solo repetitions, forms and katas, one and two-step sparring, and highly restricted point sparring. While these can get quite complex and difficult, they don’t involve realistic amounts of resistance so they don’t reach the same level.

Flow Rolling

Flow Roll

Flow (or slow or tempo) rolling is when both training partners agree to spar at a lower intensity. They usually don’t hold on to any one positions for long, feed each other sweeps, hang out in funky positions, release submissions, etc. The idea is (as the name implies) to learn to flow, relax and explore new things. It can be a useful training tool, since it makes for a good warm-up and it’s a safe way to roll when injured. But taken to excess it can lead to sloppy technique and bad habits.

Just Sparring

Just Sparring

This graph illustrates what I consider the biggest problem with how self-instruction is done in clubs and garages. It’s usually a quick and sloppy show-and-tell of techniques from books, DVDs, the internet, etc. then a ton of sparring. While this can be quite athletic and gives you enough experience to deal with someone who knows nothing, it skips most of the learning process.
—-

That’s it for now. Let me know how you’re able to apply this to your training and teaching.

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Positional Sparring: Mount and Rear Mount

Filed Under: Training Methods
Aug.10, 2007

Your dream has been realized: I’ve got a video camera.

And after fighting with cables and software, I now have the means and knowhow to edit and share movies.

One of the subscribers to my journal had emailed me some questions and I’d been offering advice. He asked if I could film any of it and I said I don’t have a camera. So he sent me one. Big thanks to Dale.

While I’ll get to shooting techniques soon, I wanted to shoot test footage first. I’d already been planning on keeping a video training log, filming myself sparring so I could review it later.

I like to put in a lot of isolation training of escapes and bad positions, working out of worst case scenarios. I figured that’d make a good test video.

Me and two training partners got together to run these drills on Sunday. We ran it with rotating partners like this:

Person A starts under rear mount. Person B starts on top. They go for 3 minutes. Then Person C switches in on top for another 3 minutes. Now Person B lays down and Person A starts on his back… And so on. This way, we each spent 6 minutes in the inferior position and the other two training partners spent 3 minutes in the superior position.

We ran through mount and rear mount this way. We filmed each round, for a total of 36 minutes of footage below. I wrote notes for what I did in each video, since I’m watching to see myself spar, which I’ve never done until now.

Round 1

John was the first person to spend a round in rear mount while Ray and I each got a chance on his back.

– I get a figure-four grip on his arm (like a kimura from the back) then spin out to an armbar. He keeps ducking his head under my leg and trying to come up to his knees (which would put him in my guard) but I have control of his near knee so he can’t get up. I rock around and try to break his defensive grip. I end up coming into mount and getting an americana. – I grab his leg and spin out, shoving his head so I can pass my leg over and get an armbar. – I’m riding around as he spins around. I get the figure-four grip again and get to an armbar position. I end up with some strange grip on his far arm (not the one that looks like it’s being armbarred) and he finds space to pull his arm out as he comes to his knees. – I work on a RNC for a bit, getting a palm-to-palm grip and “palm striking” his

Round 2

Ray’s in the hole this time.

– I lose the first armbar because I don’t have a good grip on the arm when I spin so he’s able to turn into my guard. I should have kept the arm holding his leg so he couldn’t get to his knees. – I accidentally tap him with a jaw crush while setting up the RNC. – I get a better grip on his arm this time, using one-on-one grip to control his wrist at first. He keeps bridging and spinning and I follow him, trying to get the armbar. Spend a moment in technical mount, about to go to spider web, but he spins and put my hooks in again. When he turns to his knees, I climb my leg over his arm and into a triangle. He has his hands joined so the choke isn’t clean, but I keep the position and wrist lock him. – I roll him belly down and flatten him out. I’m going for the RNC but he keeps turning until he’s under mount (which resets this drill). – Almost have a RNC but I don’t feel like it’s tight and he spins under mount. – Spin to an armbar as the timer rings.

It’s now my turn to be in the hole: 6 minutes of me escaping rear mount.

I don’t think I have a lot of tricks for escaping bad spots. Early on in BJJ, I accepted that escaping inferior positions is hard—that’s the whole point of the positional hierarchy. You’ll have to work and suffer and get out by the skin of your teeth. It takes just putting yourself there over and over again, getting tapped a lot, until you gain enough experience to survive and escape. It may not be easy or pleasant but it’s reality.

Round 3

First half (3 minutes):

– Throughout the drill, I’m bridging and trying to drive my head and shoulders to the mat and turn towards them. I know he can’t choke me if my shoulders are on the mat. – I start with my hands by my face. I fight his hands and control his wrists to defend the choke. – I get the first escape by grabbing his choking hand with both of mine and putting his arm on the other side of my head, then spinning into his guard. – I keep stripping the arm off my neck and getting wrist control. I’ll swim his arm back under my armpit so I can trap it where he can’t close the RNC. – I see his feet looking vulnerable so I try a crossed-foot lock. – He almost closes a RNC but I shove his arm up and away from my neck. – Pay attention to when I turn to my knees. I feel his weight to the right side, so I mule kick my left leg, removing his left hook and crossing his right one. I pull his right arm down so he’ll slide off as I walk sideways on my knees to bring him square to me, putting me in his guard. This is a great escape that I don’t see a lot of people do. – You’ll see that once I get my shoulders on the mat, I’m not very worried about my neck. I’ll reach down and push on the legs to remove the hooks as I scoot out. My arms come back to defending my neck when he turns me so my back isn’t touch the ground any more. – Double wrist control on the choking arm and crossing it to the wrong side of my head (for him). Shoving his leg between mine and turning my hips hard to escape to half guard as he tries to take mount. – Keep putting one of his arms under my armpit so I can determine which arm he tries to choke me with. That way I also determine which side I’m escaping to. – Try for another footlock when I think his body triangle looks like it’s exposing his feet. – Keep kicking my legs until his hooks pop out and I come out to some odd position. – Drive my shoulders to the ground, pop his bottom hook out and catch his top leg in half guard. Immediately assume good long distance half guard posture.

Second half, partner change:

– I try to bridge and turn into guard but he gets a tight body triangle as I spin. We’re both fighting to come on top. He almost gets mount when I fall back on my butt. I keep posting and pushing him and lifting my hips until I get on top. Afterwards it felt like he’d crushed my intestines with the body triangle. – For a chance of tactics, I try the Saulo escape, where I slide down, trying to scoot low and kick my legs so his hooks pop out. His legs are too long so it doesn’t work because he’s grape vining behind my knee. I’ve seen guys get their knees blown out from this and I don’t want to hurt him so I go back to the bridging escape. He takes mount before I escape and the drill restarts. – I’m trying to control the choking arm but he gets it pretty good and starts closing the RNC. I switch arms and grab his other wrist so he can’t close the lock and put his hand behind my head. I swim my arm through and put his arm back under my armpit and hold it there for a second with a figure-four grip, then keep one hand on it while the other goes back to protecting my neck. – I just started doing this recently: To get his arm off my neck, instead of pulling down, I tuck my chin and shove his elbow up. I duck under it as I drive my shoulders to the mat. – He feels me escaping and takes mount, but I twist and elbow escape into half guard before he can settle into position. – Hand fighting, defending my neck, trying to kick hooks out. He turns me to the other side and I shove his leg between mine and escape to half guard.

Round 4

John under mount. I’m on top in the second half.

– From mount, I hug the head with one arm and turn their face with my shoulder. I lean to the opposite side and post my hand out. I hook my feet under their butt. By turning their head, I prevent them from bridging in that direction (you have to be able to look the direction you’re bridging to get any power) which is important since I’ve given up my base (my arm) on that side. Even if they do bridge that way, I’m leaning the other way to compensate. Plus my feet under the butt makes me cling to them. – I scoot my knees up under their armpits until I can put my feet on their hips. This pushes their elbows up and exposes them. – My free hand grabs their elbow and pulls it up (so it’s not pressing inside my knee) to prevent the elbow escape. – I step up to go to s-mount and he bumps me so I drop down again, changing which shoulder is crossfacing him. – I reach around his exposed elbow and join my hands then pressure his arm up towards his head. – He overhooks my arm and tries to upa me. I ride it out and stay on top, keeping the underhook. – It looks like I get in an armbar position (which I am) but I’m actually trying to setup a reverse armbar. He turns to his knees while I work on the arm. – I keep pulling on his arm until I have room to switch to a kimura grip. I keep control of him with my leg on the back of his head. He tries to roll out but I stop him with my leg across his back. – I get high mount the same way. He’s worried about his exposed elbows and hugs around my waist. I take a big step up with one leg, pinching my knee in to trap his arm. I shove his head down with both hands then pass my foot over his face. I sit out to the side, scooting my hips towards his head and stretching my leg on his face. This is the Marceloplata AKA monoplata, a shoulder and/or arm lock. – I turn his head away with the crossface then slide my knee up behind his shoulder. My other leg steps up to technical mount and I grab his thigh. I work on his arms and get a figure-four grip on the top one. I climb into a triangle. He’s defending the choke so I look to go to the armbar but the timer rings.

Round 5

My turn under mount.

Part 1

– Basic posture: elbows in (try to get them against their inner thigh), hands by face. I’ll trap the one of their arms to my chest for the upa, or I’ll push on their knee for the elbow escape. – Bridge and twist to create space, shrimp and bring my knee through, escape to half butterfly guard with an underhook. – He’s going to s-mount. I bridge and twist to create space, elbow escape to half guard. – He goes to s-mount again. I bridge and twist, he tries to step into a triangle, I defend by joining my hands and framing under his knee, creating space to go to a heelhook. – I try to do a heel drag escape but he pulls his leg forward. But this let’s me push his knee up and elbow escape to butterfly guard. – I wait until he’s really high and going for an armbar with my arm gift wrapped. I get my arm back by grabbing my trapped wrist and pulling my arm over my head. – He grabs my wrist again. But as he tries to step into technical mount, I shove his knee down and get a butterfly hook. I grab his ankle and put my other hook in for a sorta x-guard. He’s still got my arm wrapped so I stretch and rock him until I manage to toss his over my head. – I let him get really high mount, then do the backdoor escape, throwing my legs up and trying to hook his armpits as I scoot out through his legs. I wiggle out and spin to side control.

Part 2

– I start by going for the heel drag escape. He hides his foot by stepping up into technical mount, hoping to land in a triangle. I shove his knee away with both hands then join them and frame with my forearm under his knee. He falls and I switch to a leglock on the other side. – He starts holding my wrists so I’m anticipating a triangle, so I join my hands. He can’t get a triangle if he can’t separate my arms. When he steps up for the triangle, I frame under his knee and go to a leglock on the other leg (just like before). – I push on his knee with my elbow and his thigh with my opposite hand as I scoot up. I catch his foot with my heel and pull his leg between mine. I shrimp HARD to get on the correct side for half guard. – He gets into technical mount and almost has an armbar. I defend by figure-fouring my arms and waiting for him to pass his leg over my face. When he does, I grab his ankle with my free hand and keep his leg off. I turn to my knees as he falls back and I drive into his guard. – He tries to step over, I join my hands and frame his knee again. I let go and he almost triangles me but I pull my head out and hug his leg. – He goes for the armbar but I pull my elbow out. He goes for a triangle, but I manage to twist and throw my leg across his waist. I get my head out and hug his leg so he can’t triangle me again.

Round 6

Last round. Ray, the heavy-breathing old man, on the bottom.

– Crossfacing, turning his head, then switching sides. Hooking my feet under his butt. Sliding my knees up. Throughout the round, you’ll see me constantly plucking his elbows, pulling them up to kill his elbow escape. – Going to technical mount for a second to avoid the heel drag escape. – Swiveling my hips to technical mount when he tries to bridge me over. Sitting back and holding his leg to prevent him from rolling my over, landing in s-mount. – I worry he’s going to trap my foot between his legs so I pull him into rear mount. – He does a good job of escaping by bridging and turning into me and coming to his knees, so rock my legs to throw him back and I spin to mount again. He almost comes on top but I’m able to bring my hips around come on top. I get the crossface again immediately to kill his bridge and my free arm posts so I don’t get rolled. – It’s quick, but you’ll see me cross my feet under his butt for a second when I feel him pushing my hip/knees for the elbow escape. Then I slide my knees high again. – Grape vining behind his knees when I feel his elbow escape getting good. Switch sides and crossface him the other way out of his elbow escape. – Rather than work his elbow up (I know he’s good at keeping them tight), bring my left elbow to the opposite side of his head and block it. I shove my right fist through the crook of his elbow and dig for an underhook. I join my hands and trap his arm by hugging it. – There’s a reverse armbar I want to get. I swivel my right leg so my shin is across his chest, kinda like I’m moving to knee-on-belly (but I’m not). You’ll see me kneeling on his chest, sitting on his head. – The position didn’t feel right for the reverse armbar so I switch my grip to a kimura. – He’s trying to pull his head out and turn his knees so I keep following him and trying to keep his head trapped while I work on the arm. He tries to turn to his knees and I knock him down again with the kimura grip. He keeps getting his head out so I’m trying to step over it and trap it again. – I keep my hips closer, with my belly behind his head and shoulder, while he’s laying there with his head out. – I step over his head and trap it again but he turns hard to his knees again. I fall over, but swing my leg over and thread it through his armpit as I do. I spin around his arm and chop my calf into his face, knocking him over. I land in an armbar/triangle. With a few quick adjustments, I’ve got the choke and tap him with the armbar. – I trap his head to the side and dig for the underhook the same way. He’s keeping his arm tight and starts to bridging and shrimping. I see his head sticking up and wrap it for a guillotine. I’m twisting into his head and arching my back and leaning to the side, trying to finish it, when the timer rings.
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Next week I want to do side control (including north-south and knee-on-belly) and turtle (front headlock and side ride). Then it’ll be half guard and closed guard.
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