it’s basically distal (far out) control for leg locks but applied to all types of grips

we define jiujitsu as a process of creating constant pressure over time, getting access to control the torso and hips, and then isolating the limbs and neck in order to strangle and break

put simply, it’s various forms of control, with isolation and submission being the very end of that control

if you look at how most submissions are achieved, a good proportion of them seem to come from reverse sequencing, where we control the limb we’re attacking first, and then figure out the rest afterwards

this idea of distal control is not new — lachlan used this concept in his historical 2019 adcc run, specifically with heel hooks

so, we’re seeing a heel catch first, then lachlan configuring his body around for the break

in each case, there’s literally 3-5 seconds where the break is NOT on, which gives the defender a false sense of security

what’s an example of normal sequencing for the legs?

in gordon ryan vs pedro marinho, gordon achieves centerline exposure, shoots to single leg x, breaks pedro’s base, forces a reap, and finishes an outside heel hook via diagonal ashi

this traditional path limits mobility, focuses on center mass control first, and then isolation leading to the finish

another example — cross ashi (saddle), is a very common way to first control hip mobility and achieve leg isolation before exposing the heel

another traditional sequence to finishes is the backtake, which leads to a rear naked strangle

we overwhelm our opponent with enough pressure that they show us their back

we control the torso, limit rotation, and then isolate the neck and limbs for the strangle

mounted attacks that lead to the back, to armbars, counts too

same traditional pattern — limit mobility, isolate necks and limbs while maintaining control

there are rare instances where we lock in a rear naked first and then look to control the rest of the torso (reverse sequencing), but honestly, it’s a bit rare

just controlling the neck doesn’t control rotation well enough, and that’s enough for them to start squirming their way out

hooks help in that regard

flip it

flipping the sequence presents sneakier opportunities to hit submissions and breaks because when the grip is established, it doesn’t feel like a threat sometimes

it’s almost easier to get the grip first, while everything is loosey-goosey, and then configure your body around them to remove mobility and cause a break/strangle

i think of it like how a key depresses pins to open a lock 🔐

traditionally, you insert the key, and it depresses pin 1, then pin 2, then pin 3, all the way to pin 5, where you secure the submission from all of them being depressed — think of it as stepwise increases in control to a submission

reverse sequencing is kind of like holding pin 5 down, and then achieving pins 1-4 in quick succession (and maybe not even in order)

here’s a great example of traditional versus reverse sequencing

if we’re using this lock analogy, elijah’s got pretty much 3-4 pins depressed, he’s got some form of ashi, is rolling to expose pj’s heel, and is looking for the final break

pj counters by getting distal control first (heel catch, pin 5), then figuring out pins 1-4 (controlling movement, rotation, and configuring his own body for the break) all at once for the finish

where else do we see this?

any kind of shotgun / short / kguard armbar

grip first, then a quick inversion and isolation with the legs and hips to cause breaking pressure

again, that tricep grip doesn’t feel threatening, but then all of a sudden, everything clicks in, you can’t move, your arm is isolated and the break comes on like that

guillotines are a great example of a naturally reversed sequenced submission

control the head and shoot the grip, and then finish the configuration around the body to crunch chin to chest — namely breaking posture, trapping the head on the mat in certain cases, blocking their cross body step, and restricting lower body movement

marcelo does this perfectly

grip first, the threat is on but not locked in, he bides his time, configures his own body or lets his opponent configure it for him for the finish

traditional sequencing works too for the guillotine (i’m thinking closed guard guillotines) — even then, there’s a loosening while we collect the head and insert something (forearm, wrist, hand) underneath the defender’s chin

peruvian neckties, darces, basically any head and arm is subject to the same thing — grip around the neck (and/or arm), then bring the entire lower body in

paddy’s recent sub in the ufc is a perfect example

head and arm collected — at first, the shoulder is in the submission, it doesn’t seem threatening

but right after paddy throws his legs into the mix, he forces benoit’s chin over chest

you can see at 0:13 that the right shoulder disappears out of the choke, it’s all carotid pressure from here on out

lights out

another interesting example is lachlan’s reverse choi bar

this was his 2024 adcc take — another distal addition from the velociraptor

initially, he’s inverted north south with no threatening connections

he first gets an outside to inside grip on the tricep (that is “pin number 5”, from our earlier lock analogy)

that is the beginning of the end

once that grip is established, he keeps it while he:

• breaks his opponent’s posture

• isolates the arm

• forces a roll

• immobilizes

and takes it all the way through an arm saddle to the armbar finish

lachlan again — similar thing with this choi-roll

this is something i’ve always wanted to hit but rarely do so (i can’t get the tension right)

so cool

oh look another example, baratoplata inversions from miyao

seemingly innocuous grip, until the offensive man inverts straight into a baratoplata

goodbye rotator cuff

also, how the hell do people find this shit? 😂 (reverse sequencing? maybe?)

this reverse sequencing kind of game requires a firm understanding of a lot of things in succession — breaking mechanics, isolation, and mobility control all under resistance and pressure

if you understand that armbars are just a form of breaking at a fulcrum, then you understand you have to get your grip first, then configure yourself appropriately to set a fulcrum behind their tricep and immobilize head and shoulder movement

same with heel catches, bending the knee, and tearing the ligaments in opposite directions

or even, baratoplatas, 90 degree bent arm, head immobilized, elbow as the lever to bring the shoulder beyond its range of motion

so reverse sequencing is finishing grip first, and then finding a way to achieve all the necessary conditions for the finish

how you do that with your body type and your partner’s body type is up to you

so, lots to understand and execute — but the rewards are infinite

experiment

try this in your training

if you have a some kind of favorite submission, go grip first, and then look for the remaining conditions

you might get passed

you might get smashed

it might not work on everyone

but if it does, it can lend itself to a very strong counter offense game that can turn defensive cycles into offensive cycles very quickly without any neutral ground in between

once you figure some stuff out, keep playing with it and mitigate the risks along the way (don’t get passed, keep your frames in, get better at isolating, etc etc)

i guarantee you’ll find some creative entries along the way, and also, a firmer understanding of the submission you’re trying to hit

if you enjoyed this post, share with your friends ✌️

sources

1. flograppling yt channel

2. adcc official yt channel

3. pgf yt channel

4. polaris championships yt channel

5. ufc yt channel

6. bjj focus camps yt channel

7. @lachlan_giles ig

8. @dubious_dom ig

i had this thought after training today that “improvement follows emotion”

and that your weaknesses also arise from this exact quote

for example

those who have trained with me know that my late escapes are good (halfway decent)

that’s because in the past, encounters with submissions have triggered some kind of emotion (maybe exasperation, annoyance, sadness lol)

that funnels into curiosity and improvement in a specific area

submission defense is probably one of the easier examples

getting subbed sucks, so it sears it in your brain until you figure out a solution to it

because you’re most likely working backwards, you learn late escapes, then earlier escapes, then finally, super early prevention

either way, the emotion garners energy that leads to improvement, and getting subbed is a clear emotive event

this is why i think competing makes you adapter faster — losing sucks

investigate the flatlines

this is a heartbeat analogy

when you look at an ekg (a readout of your heartbeat), there’s obviously places where your heart is beating and rebounding, and then places on the graph where it’s flat, where your heart is in a refractory period and pausing

if we map this analogy to your jiujitsu game, the flatlines are basically all the other shit that happens before the higher-emotion, higher-stakes positions like avoiding deep submissions or trying to finish a strong position

it’s imperative that we investigate what happens during these flatlines

that little exchange you have in bottom knee shield half guard and they end up chest to chest and you’re like “ah whatever, they’re still not pass my guard” — yeah, this is a flatline — it’s not the most exciting thing for either player, but shit, you just lost a huge battle for space

or you’re passing and all of a sudden you find yourself in a leg entanglement — “ah whatever, i’m not in danger” — yeah, not in danger … YET

you still lost the chance to enter the guard on your terms

even something as simple as losing head position can be a flatline — it’s so innocuous, until it’s not and they’ve gotten a huge angle on you and now you’re getting your back taken

which brings me back to my point of investigating these flatlines

what i’m really asking for people to do is to not make any assumptions about what you think is “okay”

question it

the tough part

the tough part is finding some way to evoke emotion during those flatline periods, so you’re sufficiently motivated to get better at it

people are naturally more invested when there’s skin the game

wins and losses is one way to do it, so competing — then studying your matches in detail

a very specific goal in a constrained game is another way to do it

but sometimes, that’s not even enough

like, how do you design something to evoke emotion when you lose head position without strapping on a shock collar to remind yourself?

an increasingly constrained game? and a very willing training partner to punish you for your mistakes? (never underestimate a good training partner)

but this is why jiujitsu is hard — developing that awareness of when things start going wrong so the flatlines don’t look so flat anymore

what you should seek in the training room are also really good opportunists, training partners who are specifically excellent at a taking little fuckups and screwing you over

good jiujitsu players expose these flatlines

but you can also prompt them very specifically on what you’re working — “hey anytime this space becomes available, i want you go chest to chest”, so that they know and can help be the punisher for you during that round

preventing chest to chest in half guard is just as important as late escapes

preventing leg entanglements against good leg lockers is also just as important as knowing how to detangle yourself from entanglements

the handfight is just as important as the complete backtake

one is usually obvious, the other, not so much

the battle starts earlier than you think

check your flatlines, it’s an underrated part of your game that needs more mastery

this was probably about a week ago

a training partner said that to me, right after they caught me in a sub

it stirred up something nasty in me

i turned it up the next few rounds

but in all honesty, it was a little sloppy

and after the fact, i was angry

maybe not outwardly so (maybe a little)

the whole situation in general just didn’t feel right

because in the training room, it’s not about that

it’s not about catching people

getting someone back, whether it be me or someone else means that to some extent, we’re all keeping score

which is technically, the wrong game to play

is it? yes and no, it’s a version of cope, and not

both can be true, and mostly — it shouldn’t matter

my reaction in the moment was not great

turning it up and getting sloppy was not smart

annoyance and disappointment in myself — also not the right move

emotions got in the way of facts

it’s been awhile since i saw this side of me, years into the game

it happens

containment to intention

there is no “leaving the ego at the door”

it doesn’t exist, i will fight anyone on this

we all carry it onto the mat

it makes us human

the difference is how we direct that energy

into emotions ❌

into steely intention ✅ — i call this my version of “flowy problem solving”

it’s natural to be annoyed if you get caught in something

the pro level version of this is just to have almost no reaction, internal or external

slap hands, bump fists — next

if you’re one to feel those emotions, i say, you’re allowed a few seconds to take it in

but after those few seconds of spiraling, bullshit, annoyance, whatever — take that energy and put it into directed intention

you take that energy into problem solving mode

seek out where things went wrong to play with other solutions — a slight shift in the body weight, winning the grip fight, something

what happened right before the sub? what position were you engaged in? what grip fight? play it out again, see if you can make the facts play out differently

i think a lot of our problems can be solved by running towards them with some mental flexibility

maybe we have a tendency to avoid certain positions because you know something bad will happen

well, there’s a solution somewhere in there

and the only way you’ll figure it out is to run straight into it

addressable problems

this will be a relatively short post, but i think a lot of us on this jiujitsu journey will have run into this one way or another

everyone’s different

but i think the universal thing that leads to more skill acquisition is converting to problem solving mode as quickly as possible

sure, turn it up, increase your speed, keep it even, whatever — but make sure you’re addressing the problem with intention, and trying new solutions and ways to tackle the issues you’re facing

gordan ryan made this point before

it’s natural for every good athlete, when they lose or get caught, to be frustrated to no end

but top-level athletes immediately redirect that energy to finding solutions to the problems they encounter, so it no longer happens

he says “the day you don’t care whether or not you lose or get subbed is the day your athletic career is over”

i’d add a clear addendum that you are allowed to actually not care about the sub or loss itself, but it should fucking annoy the shit out of you that someone posed a problem that you were unable to solve

a good athlete takes the mental and physical energy to address these problems and upgrades their game

remember, we are dealing with literal body mechanics

there is a solution

these are addressable problems

because it’s so difficult to achieve back strangles

you’ll undoubtedly have to mix in other strategies

rear triangles, armbars, shoulder mangles, routolotines

if you think about what’s happening with neck strangles, we’re primarily dealing with isolation of the head limb, specifically the neck

we have all these elaborate strategies on isolating the neck — let’s trap the arm, let’s do cross grips, let’s write an entire post about it 😂 — and we have this because successfully attacking the neck allows for complete unconsciousness (if they don’t tap)

but the strangle is the golden trophy, and it’s tough to get, so we gotta have other options

we can turn it on its head instead

with other strangles, we’re looking at isolating a combination of a head and arm or just the arm (and shoulder)

here’s jason rau isolating the shoulder using a figure four kimura, and then getting his legs to form a closed loop around the head and the arm

here’s aaron milam and jin showing similar strategies — isolate arm, push defender downwards, form closed loops around the head and the arm

so think of these non-purely-neck strangles as just isolation of different combinations of body parts, starting first at the shoulder, using that control to push your opponent down, and then forming closed loops around the head and arm

armbars are similar

you might not be forming a closed loop but your legs are connected to their upper torso as a counterforce to isolate their entire shoulder and arm

here, ethan loses back exposure as he breaks down nick, but gains isolation of the arm

and here, nick postures back up, which makes the back an opportunity again for ethan

aaron milam has some seriously nasty stuff as it pertains to isolation of the arm in the back position

knowing when to transition to and from these non-neck strangles is an important part of attacking the back

mica galvão does this wonderfully

he is known for his backtake to armbar finishes

he aligns himself with the back, isolates the arm using 2 on 1s or push grips to the chest — anything to get one arm and one head ready for isolation

he then forms closed loops or strong connections with his legs to capture the head and one shoulder girdle while simultaneously breaking posture and limiting movement

mica also uses back control as the bait for movement

as the defender looks to escape, he takes advantage of the opportunity by getting his lower body involved

again, gets his legs involved to capture a head and arm and breaks tackett’s posture while isolating the arm

key things happening

• isolation of a shoulder by controlling/exposing the elbow

• closed loops around head and one shoulder or strong push connections of legs to upper torso

• breaking posture

• limiting movement

seeing the opportunity

to train seeing these types of opportunities, we can play some games — depending on the room, we can explore many other paths as well, these are just some examples

• defensive man wins by getting their back flat to the mat or turning to face the offensive man

• offensive man can threaten chokes, if they get under the chin 3x, the game is over

• offensive man can also win by getting any type of figure four control to isolate the arm, without the head — kimura, americana, 100% with figure four, with elbow down (kimura style) or elbow up (mangle)

what i’m looking for in this game is the ability to retain some degree of control of the back while releasing the head (through control of one arm)

ideally, to do a good job, they’d have to release the head (or the defensive player attempts escape) and maintain some degree of back control on their partner with a 2-on-1 figure four

this helps us begin the setup where they can start to setup alternative attacks

progression

start with whatever 2-on-1 figure four control the offensive player wants

• defensive player wins again by getting their back flat to the mat or turning to face the offensive man, if they’re in a submission, play it out until they get subbed or achieve a neutral position

• offensive player has to achieve 1 of 3 positions

  • create a closed loop with their legs, capturing a head and arm and create a closed loop with their legs (triangles)

  • connect both legs to the torso while maintaining elbow to elbow connection (spiderweb)

  • or split their opponent’s knees apart using their entire body (truck), offensive player has to hold for 3 seconds

i’m looking for advancement of position when the player knows that they can’t finish the back strangle, and understanding that to continue their submissions, they have to get to these types of positions that involve alternative leg connections to the upper torso

alternative paths

some alt paths you can take:

• start in spiderweb, isolate the arm

• start in rear triangle, isolate both elbows above the head

• progress to submissions

• or transition backwards (or forwards?) to the back with control

• or if you want to be like mica — you can only finish the armbar, defender must get out of back control in 30 seconds (to force action and the opportunity)

• etc, you can be hella creative

progression

start with whatever 2-on-1 figure four control the offensive player wants

• defensive player wins again by getting their back flat to the mat or turning to face the offensive man

• offensive player must achieve a submission by rear naked choke, triangle, and armbar, in any order

  • if the submission is not the last one, then return to a defensive position and continue

  • so rear naked choke, return to seat belt with back control

  • rear triangle return to ankles crossed head and arm or hand on shin closed loop

  • armbar return to spiderweb position

  • tap if you’re caught, have control in your subs

this is probably the most advanced, least constrained game, i’m looking for many abilities here:

• transitions and dilemmas

• control and connection

• isolation

• finishing mechanics

infinity and beyond

obviously, these games can be as exhaustive or as general as you’d like

the key is observing the training room and having your students talk to you about what they’re having trouble with

someone said “hey i’m having trouble even getting out of the body triangle to begin escaping”

so, we play from body triangle, defender wins by getting it back to hooks

observe the room, chat briefly, show some solutions to problems, play again

progress from getting to hooks to one hook out or the entire hipline out

progress to completely escaping

ok, awesome

now let’s go back to arm isolation games, but now you’ve played somewhat with being successful with getting out of body triangles

👍 ✌️

hope this helps

it’s not a new concept — this has been a known line of thinking for a very long time

if your opponent isn’t facing you, it’s hard to know what’s coming, making this position difficult to defend

finishing strangles from the back is an art form — there’s many high-level grapplers who struggle with this, simply because everyone’s defense has gotten so good

knowing how to keep and finish back strangles with a 90%+ finish rate is a world-class skill

my latest few classes have been focused on strangling strategies

strategies for finishing the choke

i’ll talk about some maybe lesser known ways of obtaining neck strangles

let’s go

straightjacket arm trap (this is more well known)

using the straightjacket and trapping the arm is always a good idea — the less arms the defender has to interrupt your choking arm, the greater the chance for a finish

if you can do this without allowing your opponent to rotate, it’s almost universally a good idea

gordon ryan is especially good at this

notice that gordon catches the arm then locks his feet and shimmies it down to the wrist for the strongest leverage

this fully prevents the arm from re-pummeling out

hand-assist to get a body triangle

and it’s pretty much over at this point

the trojan horse

i learned this one from my coach, alan sanchez

sometimes he hides the choking arm in the armpit, sometimes he just grabs across at the tricep

it’s alluring because you don’t feel the threat on your neck until you feel the offensive hand slipping upwards, and by then, it’s already covered by the bicep into the rnc

“oh, no threat, all good”, but in actuality — you’re being set up

the flyswatter

i learned this from jozef chen when he nearly choked the bejeezes outta me at belgium camp

i was saved only by a gooseneck grip over his thumb line, and him being nice and not choking me through my hand lol

basically he loads his choking arm near the collarbone, but uses his secondary hand to constantly swat away any defending arms

it’s pure chaos and “intensity is the strategy”, but it works

i’ve used it successfully in the gym, but if the defender has already grabbed the thumb line of the choking arm, it’s tough

you might have to combine strategies with this technique

like this — ethan crelinsten demonstrates both the trojan horse and flyswatter at the same time

double overhooks

craig jones shoots double over hooks, using the “real” choking arm on the bottom, while the defender is busy grabbing the decoy arm on top

rinse and repeat in an infinite loop until you lock it up: real choking arm on bottom becomes decoy arm on top as the other arm comes under as the real choking arm

the key to making this work is to stop the lower body from rotating, so you better have a good body triangle or some method of stopping rotation, otherwise you can lose the whole thing

the second part is ensuring that the threat on top is REAL

double overhooks does allow the shoulder line to turn to some extent

the “neck breaker”

i remember watching pgf season 6 while i was living in france

andy varela utilized this choke after the mandible strangle failed

so a two for one here — “anything below the eyes is the neck” (did nicky rod say this? can’t remember)

mandible strangles are pain taps, but at later stages (after your jaw breaks), they also can end up to be blood chokes

the way varela finishes this match is body triangle lock side down, with overhook on the top side

instead of seeking to be under the chin, he uses the chin as a lever for turning the head down towards the mat, shifts his forearm over it to trap jamie’s face down, and starts the rotation of the head even further and behind, into the mat

this basically makes your neck feel like it’s gonna snap due to rotation, like some bullshit steven seagal stuff, except this shit actually works

of course, i made up these stupid position names while writing this 😂

games you can play to try this stuff

1. warm up — offense maintains the back only, defense looks to get back to the mat or turn to face

2. offense starts with seatbelt, defense starts with both arms defending — offense must connect forearm or elbow pit to the defender’s adam’s apple three times, defender has to protect their neck, get their back to the mat, or turn to face

   1. offense starts with seatbelt, defense starts with both arms defending — offense must immobilize all arms by arm trap and wrist grips for 5 seconds, defender has to remain mobile, get their back to the mat, or turn to face

3. offense starts with seatbelt, defense starts with both arms defending — offense must maintain and strangle only using neck strangles, defense has to protect their neck, get their back to the mat, or turn to face

   1. offense starts with one arm choke, defense starts with both arms grabbing on the forearm, same rules

   2. offense starts with one arm choke, defense starts with gooseneck thumbline grab, same rules

   3. start in varying worse positions for the offensive man, same thing, maintain back and strangle only with neck attacks

4. offense starts with seatbelt, defense starts with both arms defending — offense must submit using anything except neck strangles (armbars, head and arms, triangles, wrist locks, anything), defense has to not get subbed, get their back to the mat, or turn to face

5. ebi overtime rounds, everything available for subs

with game number 2 and 3, there’s a variety of outcomes and situations you could start in to make things harder or easier for the attacker: trap arms, touch neck, start with deep single arm choke, start in fully locked rnc, whatever

with game 4, we also practice the complete opposite — this trains us to look for other opportunities when the neck is not available (another post to come!)

short post today, hope this helps!

sources

1. ebi 26 alan sanchez vs chris wojcik & nathan haddad

2. belgium camp with jozef chen & jason rau

3. ethan crelinsten’s back attack dvd

4. @bondiasss ig

5. @submissionjitsu ig

6. pgf season 6 andy varela vs jamie carnall

i didn’t like it

i just wanted to play guard

which made my guard pretty good, but my standup was awash

only in the past 1-2 years have i really started to enjoy standup

“but i want to do jiujitsu”

yeah, same

but i think of this using a swimming analogy 🏊‍♂️

if you’re doing the 100 meter race, you’ll notice that 25 meters of that 100 is literally the swimmer propelling themselves off the diving board and into the water

even before they break the surface and start stroking, they’ve already completed 25% of the distance through the dive alone

wrestling is the dive

you get your wrestling good, it makes all the resulting jiujitsu much easier — you’re on top, you’re pressuring forward, you’re hard to take down, you’re ahead, your defensive weight distribution is on point, and you know how to disrupt your opponent’s weight

there literally are no downsides to working wrestling into your grappling game

it’s a never-ending puzzle that i am trying to figure out

i wanna share some distilled thoughts that helped me

overthinking

i remember when i started i had really bad instances of analysis paralysis

“wait, what foot should be forward?”

“so … never switch your feet?”

“ok head, hands, hips, feet”

“this foot forward when doing this shot, and opposite for the other one?”

i basically had collections of poorly linked moves and no real conception of setups and smooth movement on the feet

i decided to tear it all down and start over

epiphany #1 - light on the feet

as i started watching more wrestling footage, i realized wrestlers were always in motion

they didn’t have heavy feet

that reminded me of the boxer, vasiliy lomachenko — lightning fast feet while being able to generate force off the ground to jab and cross

you can’t generate force off of the mat if you’re in the air

i did learn some boxing fundamentals alongside jiujitsu when i first started — i also did breaking (bboying) for almost a decade before i started jiujitsu

so, i had the potential to be light on my feet

my boxing coach at the time, showed me how small changes in steps and angles allowed my feet to shuffle quickly but also remain connected to the ground to generate force

bopbopbop—shuffle—bopbopbop—shuffle—body shot—gone

if we translate this to wrestling, footwork turns small angles into big advantages, allows quick weight shifts to avoid takedowns, and makes for powerful shots alongside meaningful feints

movement is really important — if you stay in one place, you’re gonna get hit and taken down

if someone is very new to wrestling, i recommend sorting it out on the feet first

it is your number one way to manipulate distance

when i’ve taught this, i generally have them imagine that there are magnets on their feet — watch loma’s feet, they’re always meaningfully apart — good base, yet still mobile

this means shuffling around without crossing your feet, small shuffles to the right, so small that he remains connected to the ground — push left move to the right

you see at the end he does cross his feet a little, but only because he’s out of range with his opponent

another common movement is making L-shaped movements to move laterally towards your rear leg — right leg moves back, and the left leg “magnetically” moves away, loma moves off the left

you can see it here near the virgin insignia on the mat, and then at the end of the scene before the feet cut out

ok ok, so wrestling isn’t boxing, but there are stance similarities

wrestling you’ll be more head down for blocking shots and changing levels

but another footwork thingy from jflo, similar to the magnets concept

when taking a shot, he aligns his power-generation foot before taking the shot for maximum alignment

right foot goes towards left to achieve straight line alignment, right generates force off of the mat and left comes forward

you can build this into your lateral movements to generate angle to singles

regardless, the point is that being dextrous with your feet opens up opportunities and gets you unstuck

get your feet in order, it’ll help

epiphany #2 - win the handfight

i don’t think i understood this until very late

it’s about simple things, done right

trust me, i’m one to love overcomplicating things

i know “win the handfight” is stupidly simple advice that’s probably much easier said than done

the unlocks for me were dan vallimont’s clearing ties dvd

1. get your grips to move your opponent

2. use those grips to get your opponent to

   1. break or make posture

   2. step up or step back

   3. open their elbow away from ribs or tense up

3. use those changes in position to

   1. access your partner’s limbs/head as levers (underhooks, overhooks, collarties, snaps)

   2. get in grabbing distance of their legs (singles, doubles, ankle picks)

   3. expose center mass for upgraded control (throwbys, body locks, power twists, armdrags, deeper under/over hooks, etc)

4. repeat with continuous grip fights and motion

let’s check out what i mean

dan gets his grips and then starts manipulating the head (posture), and generating circling movement

he does the same for other grips — 2 on 1s to russians, as an example

i tried not to follow too hard on the “strong side”, “weak side” philosophy

and more looked at what was actually happening

1. he got grips

2. he moved his partner using grips

3. exposed center mass for singles, timing the steps for ankle picks

jozef is huge on handfighting

he has an entire dvd on it

he handfights from everywhere — passing, seated, standup, guard

“gripping in nogi is mostly about chaining grips”

this leads me to my next point about winning the handfight

epiphany #2 - my grip is my grip, your grip is my grip

during covid, i had a training partner who constantly reminded me that any connection has the potential to be YOUR connection, based on positioning even non-inside dominant positions (the og morning enforcer, i’m looking at you 👀)

if someone has an underhook on you, it’s not that you don’t have anything

you have an overhook

question is, is it YOUR grip or your partner’s grip?

craig’s overhook

jflo’s underhook

one key thing to look out for here is the space between the elbow and the rib

as you pull down on an overhook, it gets stronger because your elbow gets closer to your rib

it’s why the underhook is a naturally strong position — you literally have a wedge between their elbow and rib, and can open that space up to use their entire shoulder as a better lever to control the body, or expose center mass

ben rosen specifically talks about elbow positioning in his posts, i found him through chris wojick, really recommend giving his stuff a read too

PUSHPULL Grappling

Why Your Techniques Don't Work (And the Rules That Fix Them)

Most wrestlers I work with don’t struggle because they forgot the steps to a technique…

Read more

6 months ago · 16 likes · 2 comments · Ben Rosen

how else can we turn their grips into ours?

we welcome back mr. chen (not me, the other one)

1. you can break grips and get your own

2. or you can negate it (position them or yourself in a way that makes it your grip)

simple grip break from bottom — not wrestling but can work when standing too

nicky ryan negates a collar tie by getting more connected, blocking the space for a snap and also getting an outside elbow tie

then uses it to generate movement and possibly expose legs

gordon ryan also talks about constantly breaking and re-establishing your own grips

if you master this, all the setups belong to you

epiphany #3 - play with angles, beating the elbow and knee

arm drag comes to mind first

pass the elbow, wedge on the side of the head and shoulder, keep the angle by getting more connected, then pass the same side knee

it can all happen quickly

we’re building off of the previous epiphanies too

how do these armdrags happen?

1. won the grip fight

2. won the elbow space

3. light on the feet

sweep singles count too

danis pulls away from a grip, giving tonin the angle, he comes in to pick up the single and dumps danis

1. tonin creates a handfight situation, causes danis to react

2. angle and leg exposure is created

3. tonin goes for the sweep single

this leads into our next epiphany

epiphany #4 - attacking quadrants

we continue to build off of the first three epiphanies

get your grips, start attacking different quadrants in order to get them to react

mix things up by attacking top, middle, bottom, left, and right quadrants

the key is the reaction — you get advantageous grips or movement, you cause a reaction

when they defend one reaction, something else opens up

we already saw an example of tonin - go for middle quadrant body grips, pullback reaction, gives up angle and a leg, attack bottom quadrant for a sweep single

go for the single leg (bottom quadrant), they step back, leaving space underneath their head, snap their head into the space (top quadrant)

feint to get hands up (top quadrant), go for the superduck, achieving angle and leg exposure all at once (right bottom quadrant)

this one is pretty cool, dan finds himself in a 2 on 1 russian, he steps away, neutralizing the strength of the grip, and because his partner is connected, he starts getting pulled too

level change into a double

win the grip fight, move your opponent, attack the lower quadrant

jozef wins upper body control

as owen adjusts to try and get his upper body back (reaction), jozef attacks the upper quadrant, using the grips to do a throwby

remember, we are building off of our previous epiphanies

jozef talks about the footwork being important — remember vasiliy? keep it light

bring it all together

owen goes for the armdrag (left middle)

grippo runs away and faces (reaction)

owen ankle pick sweep singles the leg behind (left bottom)

grippo goes down

similar thing here, just elbow pass (win middle right quadrant) to single (bottom right quadrant) and scrambly counters

epiphany #5 - feeling weight while finishing takedowns

singles, doubles, and footsweeps are still probably the most dominant form of leg attack that we see

for finishing takedowns, the only question is — where is their weight?

if they’re keeping stable by posting or leaning on you — you’re carrying their weight, so move yourself with them to disrupt their base

if they’re framing you and their weight is off of you — cover the distance and disrupt the leg they’re basing on

jozef gives an example of moving yourself with your partner when they’re leaning on you

here’s another one — he tries to run the pipe, his opponent moves his weight to the far leg

jozef instead connects to his opponent more using a waist grip for a weight-on situation, then slides forward, moving his opponent’s base out from underneath him

in a situation where your opponent frames and they’re keeping upright away from you, you have to find a way to disrupt their base leg, usually by covering distance and then disrupting the base leg

here, jozef does it by ankle pick or by footsweep

here, nicky ryan fails to finish the single, can you tell why?

here, nicky finishes a cheeky little trip and leg pick

the weight is off of nicky, they’re just standing — it’s just a grip fight — he wins the underhook

nicky covers distance and steps behind the far foot

underhook push and nearside leg grab to push their center mass over a base they cannot readjust

jozef makes a last point here

if you can’t take them down, it’s probably because you misread the situation

in this situation where he slides cross body for a double — it only works if your opponent’s weight is sufficiently connected to you

otherwise, they stay up because they’re not using you to stay up and you have to switch to something that disrupts their base leg (usually now the far leg)

for more judo-like footsweeps, the concept is simple, you’re removing or preventing base on a moving opponent — the timing is what’s hard

1. as they are about to put their foot down you kick it away

2. or, as they’re about to readjust, you block their ability to do so

3. because it’s more upright, their weight is almost never going to be “on” you

4. so it’s up to you to win your grips, move your opponent (or move around them) and as they readjust to you, you’re sweeping their base away or preventing them from readjusting while pushing/pulling on the upperbody

but, i’m no expert on this — i highly recommend all things jflo and max schneider for footsweeps — they’ve got amazing content on this

this will be worth a revisit when i stop kicking my partner’s shins and actually start sweeping them 😂

epiphany #6 - be a dogggg, undeniable intent

in some instances, you can’t “just be more technical” than your opponent especially if both of you are pretty good

i mean, it’s highly technical, but sometimes you just need some “umph”

at some point, “intensity becomes the strategy” — win the handfight, expose center mass, grab a single, finish the fucking thing

“weight on or off, i’m gonna bowl you over”

one of my training partners told me “frank, when you’re working this stuff, there are times you just gotta be a fucking dog about it”

corbe says it here too — maybe you agree, maybe you don’t

the takeaway might be practicing undeniable intent, whether you’re seeking a leg lock from guard or looking to ground an opponent

unlike some parts of jiujitsu where you find yourself grappling in less athletic positions, wrestling is the movement from standing to knees/hips/torso to the ground

this means you’re dealing with high athleticism and a strong ability to adjust balance on the feet, and fighting momentum on the feet from the posterior chain (hamstrings, butt, lower back)

that’s lots of force — this is why weight distribution is important, so you’re not fighting more weight than you have to

your first, second, even third attempt may (and probably will) fail against good people

be a dog about it

i’m not an expert

but i hope this helped

i try to systematize these things in a general enough way to understand what’s going on, so that i can use this framework to win the body physics but also stay creative

i’m still working on it too

see you in the training room 🙏

sources

1. boxing free fights yt vasiliy lomachenko

2. dan vallimont’s clearing ties and creating action wrestling dvd

3. jozef chen patreon & nomadic grappling online & seminars

4. jflojudo yt channel

5. @onejudoka ig

6. push pull grappling by ben rosen

7. the grappler’s diary by chris wojcik

8. gordon ryan’s attacking the open guard instructional

9. garry tonin’s shoot to kill instructional

10. polaris owen jones vs. gianni grippo

11. polaris garry tonin vs. dillon danis

12. flograppling wno

13. ufc fight pass

instead of covering class this time, i went to help coach a bunch of our team that competed at grappling industries

i hadn’t reallllly coached before, so this was new to me

maybe i was in the coaching seat a couple times here and there when i competed more frequently back then, but it was never really a whole day focused completely on coaching

shit was fun — i wanna talk about some of the things i learned

learnings

1. your athletes are adults so they should be responsible for their own pregame things, but because it’s a stressful environment, sometimes they need some reminders and just a little bit of help

“hey drink water”

“hey warm up”

“hey be here in five fucking minutes and not in the bathroom emptying your guts otherwise you’re gonna get disqualified”

“you feeling good?”

“what can i do for you”

“your match is coming up in 15 min”

i generally keep it super present — not even a “you got this bro”, just because i feel like it takes athletes out of the moment

they know they got it — the best thing i can do as a coach is to stay in the moment with them

2. if you are not competing that day, the athletes are your end customer, so pay attention

before one of the athletes stepped on the mat, he turned to me and said “so i usually turn around a give double fist bumps before i go out”

my brain got sort of scrambled for a split second

and then i realized — end customer — i am there for him

i smiled — “double fist bumps, right here — you got it”

as someone who has competed before, routine is important

be an enabler

help your teammates establish their own routines

3. during the match it’s 1% coach, 99% athlete, preparation on both sides should have already happened, trust is the main thing now

most of the preparation at this point should have already been done

no amount of coaching will fix bad preparation, so in a way, the pressure is off

in another way, the work of coaching similarly happens before the match too — you want to know somebody’s game, you talk to your athlete, figure out a little bit about what they’re gonna do

you’ve also probably rolled with them so you should have some idea of their tendencies

nevertheless, some in-game coaching helps too

4. simple is better than complex, loud and clear trumps quiet and muddled

like i said before, these comps are chaotic and it’s fucking LOUD

you have to be loud so your athletes can hear you

but not the annoying kind of loud, where everything is an exclamation or a fight to the death, it helps when the other side’s coach isn’t screaming their head off with stupid shit like “NO, NO, GET OUTTA THERE, ESCAPE THAT, NO”

seriously, that’s not helping anyone, although i guess it’s so annoying b/c i can’t hear myself think and that’s probably good for them 😂

i prefer a tone between serial killer danaher and a firm assertive voice that has undertones of everything being chill

some callouts that i found worked

at the beginning of the match, when competitors are both on the feet:

“let’s have good wrestling posture”

“let’s think about 2 on 1 grips”

“let’s get on the hands” (stole this from corbe)

“let’s change levels and angles”

nothing crazy specific, just helping them bring out what they already know

if things get crazy and they lose position or get reset, it’s always positive effort:

“excellent work, let’s reset”

“let’s breathe, back on the hands and feet”

“all good, let’s create space and movement”

depending on the specific position, i might give pointers to help them maintain or progress positions and warn them of possible dilemmas:

“patience, let’s cover the shoulder line”

“left knee to left armpit, move up”

“let’s watch for grip traps and hip bumps”

“let’s keep those elbows nice and tight”

“make space, knee to elbow”

i say maintain just because i think the tendency in a competition is impatience — slowing things down methodically helps keep pace

and then lastly, just reminders about the game/clock:

“down by two, let’s think about sweep and pass”

“three minutes to work”

“up by seven, let’s think about limb isolation”

overall though, just being positive, calm, and clear helps alot

i’m sure there are more strategic things to do but we’ll get there

5. it’s not about the winning, (sort of)

my coaches were never disappointed if i didn’t win, and i’ll gladly pass that along to anyone i coach in the future

of course people want to win — you wouldn’t compete otherwise, but i’d be more happy if you learned something regardless of the result

with grappling industries, it’s an interesting psychological game because you go round robin with the same people

if you lost, you have to figure out different ways of adapting, especially if you’re going against the same person

if you won, you can’t sleep on your opponent either

one of the things my coaches told me is that at the very least, you need to believe that anything can happen

if you delve on the fact that someone has beaten you, then it’s easy to just think that way for the next match

in reality, matches are independent events — what has happened before doesn’t necessarily have to happen again

the key thing to focus on is to go out there and do beautiful jiujitsu

overall

the team did great, stoked for them, really great display of adaptive jiujitsu — they put in the work and deserve all the credit 👍

we might be missing 1-2 golds in this picture b/c they bounced lol

here’s a little introspective review, all experiences my own

setting the stage

for the past few years, i’ve wanted to see asian fighters succeed more

in the west, where the ufc dominates, asian fighters are under-represented — though, it’s changing

we have productions like one championship giving asian fighters a platform to showcase their art, and off the top of my head, fighters like korean zombie, zhang weili, and song yadong now have real presence in the ufc

exposure is getting better 👏

so naturally, back in 2023, when hearing about a half-taiwanese grappler named jozef chen — same last name no less — tearing up the jiujitsu scene, i wanted to find out more

i began a little friendship inception tour by signing up to his patreon

making that connection was only possible because our lives are so online now, which lends itself well to bonding over mutual interests, chatting, and eventually transitioning to irl

i am, after all, part of the “aol online” generation 😂 — clearly, i took full advantage of that

jiujitsu tourism is something i genuinely love for this reason too: you meet new people, see old techniques in new ways, discover new movements, and get exposure to different styles and body types

it makes your jiujitsu better

personality as a precursor to culture

to understand nomadic requires you to understand what jozef is like, and the best way to do this is to have a meal (or multiple meals) with him

one thing you’ll find very quickly is that jozef likes to eat

he’s known to get more than one entreé, which honestly, is the way — especially if you have the appetite for it

i similarly have a black hole for a stomach, so aside from jiujitsu related things, food was one of the things that we connected on

growing up in asian(ish) households, there were naturally going to be culinary overlaps in our pasts — glutinous rice stuffed with pork, soup dumplings, fatty pork rice, deep fried oil sticks with porridge, scallion oil pancakes — and cultural similarities too, like forced feeding expressed as love 😆

jozef also loves beverages, which works nicely for him, as beverage variety in asia is on another level

we were standing around at manner coffee (think accessible shanghai third wave coffee) after stuffing ourselves full of crab dumplings and noodles

“whatcha getting?”

“flat white, probably”

jozef squints at the menu and points — “hey, 澳白 (ào bái, ‘flat white’), that’s the same character as 澳洲 (ào zhou, ‘aussie state’ = australia)”

“i learned from declan that the flat white came from australia … i don’t drink coffee though, so i don’t know why i know that”

“i guess i don’t know why he knows that either — you know he studied to be a marine biologist? somehow ended up doing jiujitsu 😂”

we talked more about the beverage scene in asia, which somehow carried us to taiwan, and taipei, and then — identity

“you know, i don’t quite identify as culturally taiwanese”

“i guess in some ways, i don’t feel chinese either”

and he’s for sure … not american

i was surprised to hear that jozef didn’t feel like he necessarily belonged anywhere

so in some way, he’s got a sort of amorphous identity

yet, i got the sense that in the grand scheme of things, it didn’t particularly matter to him

for some people, that kind of rootlessness is discombobulating — but jozef seemed settled in a way that had nothing to do with geography — authenticity mattered more to him than nationality or ethnicity ever could

whether or not this is where “nomadic” in nomadic grappling came from, we’d have to ask him — but this is my interpretation of it

this “authenticity” is as a characteristic trait — authenticity to himself and his interests

it’s basically why his jiujitsu journey unfolded the way it has — being obsessed with training, convincing his mother it was a viable career path, and finding a way to make it work

it also comes out in the way that he teaches and the material he chooses to investigate

many students have asked him how he picks what he focuses on

he shrugs — “i just pick things that are interesting to me”

perhaps it’s a simplification, a tldr kind of response, but that kind of uncluttered clarity is pretty on-brand for jozef

underneath that simplicity, there's real substance — his curiosity stems from first principles, which helps keeps boredom at bay

hospitality is another thing you should understand about jo

there’s this desire in him to want to share his life and experiences with others — food being a primary channel, jiujitsu being another

he wants to genuinely bring you into what he's into

during the course of my stay, it wasn’t uncommon for jozef to order for us at the table

“i’ll order what’s good, yeah? i want you guys to have what i’m having”

“it’s bomb, trust me”

it wasn't so much about picking up the tab, it was about making sure you had the right thing — the thing he would've wanted if he were sitting where you were

coming from some experience in the hospitality industry, this is the stuff of life — i want everyone to experience it, and ideally, be able to give it too

it’s probably more headache for jozef since he’s juggling ten orders, but he doesn’t seem to mind — he loves it

i have friends who operate on a “i’ll get you this time, you get me next time” wavelength, but that’s slightly different from hospitality

it’s less about the money and more about curating a tasteful experience

that care feels good to give, and lovely to receive

it's motivated me to be more intentional about that back home — sharing special coffee beans with my nerdy coffee peers, bringing my partner to places i've already been just to be with her as she experiences it for the first time, or grabbing an extra carnitas burrito from my favorite spot for a friend

as a society, i think we’re better off like this

one thing i noticed with jo is that he’s quite close to his friends — and that he’s ok with touch

you see him wrestling with kenta in random supermarket stalls 😂, playing around with armdrags with his students, and casually leaning someone’s shoulder mid-conversation or while explaining technique

i think it’s just normal for jozef

it wasn’t for me when i first started jiujitsu — there was this uncomfortable feeling around touching another person, didn’t matter who

it was weird

over time, i got over it (clearly) — it’s normal for me now

maybe some of it is the residue of toxic masculinity you see in the states

men seem to have a difficult time hugging another man or expressing affection

and honestly, i didn’t grow up in a particularly expressive household either — most asian households don’t say “i love you” or even hug on any consistent basis

maybe it’s changing, (or it’s normal and i had a love-less childhood), i don’t know

(and for the record, we’re absolutely not talking about inappropriate touching here 😂😬 — have to add this disclaimer with all of the jiujitsu drama going on)

but watching jozef be genuinely relaxed and comfortable with everyone around him seems to help create a gym culture where people feel like they can show up as their actual selves

it’s disarming, in the best way

and that gets built right into the culture of the gym

all things considered

it might feel like none of these mini-stories have anything to do with the gym itself — but in some funny way, it does

to understand nomadic (and honestly, most gyms) you have to understand jozef (and other gym owners)

the gym is an extension of jozef’s authentic self: his openness, his hospitality, his curiosity

on the surface, it’s fair to say what he says all the time — “it’s not that deep” — he’s just being himself

but i think with these kinds of things, being purposeful matters

like in michelin restaurants, there’s no part of the experience that wasn’t carefully considered

a gym owner who has someone coming to visit their space should think the same way

“i want you to have what i’m having”

“i want you to have a phenomenal experience”

i caught jozef in the background at one point, quietly figuring out the placement of the merchandise near the front of the gym

no small feat

in michelin speak, you’re observant — particular about things, but it’s in service to truly understand your guests

and that’s what it feels like walking into nomadic — a simple double door entrance, a front desk placed just right, a tea-inspired hangout room, free bathroom slippers, smiles and handshakes, and a culture that promotes safety and inclusiveness

not an explicit description so much as a feeling

we used to do these walkthroughs at michelin restaurants: upon entering, what is the guest worried about? parking? were they late? do they look stressed? how are we greeting them? do they want their coat?

what does the lighting, music, and temperature feel like? is it too dim? too loud? too cold? what do they smell first when they walk in?

what can we immediately take care of for them?

menu — preset

payment — handled, before they even arrive

and look — some bubbles and a metaphorical red carpet for them onto the way to the table

it’s about more than the food

just like how it’s about more than the jiujitsu

you know, all things considered

people have asked me “is it a good place to train?” — yes, of course, but not only because the jiujitsu is good

it was bright, clean, and tasteful

onboarding was easy, the facilities were cozy, and there were good interactions and genuinely inviting people on and off the mat

i wanted to stay and hang out

the instruction is probably the last thing to be worried about — we all know it’s going to be good

it’s all the other little things that matter too

building people up

i asked him at one point, “what’s the next competition coming up for you?”

he shrugs — “nothing immediate, i want to be here to grow the gym”

i’ve known jozef as someone who travels constantly to experience different grapplers and different rooms

even a year ago, in belgium, he mentioned that the travel life was pretty tough

“it’s not all cracked up to be — i think you’re glamorizing it”

i believe it

having roots somewhere — a homebase, reliable training partners, friendships, a community you’re building, routine, and the same goddamn place for laundry 😂 — probably feels nice

as athletes, professional or not, there’s a period of time where we can be a little selfish — we’re working on our craft, and that’s fair

i still remember a time where my objective in the training room was to get as many rolls in for myself as possible — because that was the fastest way to get feedback for improving

in the years after covid, that started to shift — more conversations post-roll, more time on the sidelines answering and asking questions

it’s that exchange, that giving back, that makes jiujitsu what it is

seeing someone reach that point tells me something about them

that they have an eye for others, not just themselves

they understand they’re part of an ecosystem

i want to see these kind of leaders at any gym i train at long term

there are days i see my own coach not rolling — just observing — because he gets it too

he wants to be building

closing thoughts

i wrote this mostly as a way to look back on my trip

i had no complaints — everyday, for a week, it was: wake up, get coffee, train, eat an obscene amount of food for lunch, train some more, eat another insane dinner, sleep

i’ll definitely be going back sometime this year

some of this post was also inspired by others doing similar things — daniel tay’s post on his nomadic visit is quite a good read too

it’s made me want to do this for more gyms: local ones, destination gyms, and my own gym/coach (when he decides to expand)

there’s a vibrant backstory to a lot of these places and people, and they deserve to be heard

sources

1. jozef chen, his family, and trusted friends who graciously included me in the opening week shenanigans

2. nomadic grappling ig

3. jozef chen patreon now nomadic grappling online

4. the making of nomadic yt video

5. daniel tay’s post on his experience at nomadic

the past month or so i’ve been teaching turtle games and also front head games for students

especially with lots of adcc type rulesets coming up, the turtle position is especially important, since you don’t get scored on if you’re able to take this position

you can avoid complete takedown attempts, because if the defender turtles up, there’s no score for the takedown

you can avoid guard passing and pinning attempts, because if the defender turtles up, it’s clearly not a position where the shoulder and hips are pinned to the mat (no side control), and you’re not past the legs (no mount), so not a dominant top position, no points

and you can even use turtling in failed wrestleups, if a defender turtles after stalling a shot, it helps to avoid reversals or sweep points

obviously, it’s not the best position because you’re wildly exposing the back, but i’d much rather fight from turtle than side control or mount or any kind of scrambly position where i end up with my shoulders and hips to the mat

even if you don’t play the adcc or points game, you literally have more athletic ability in turtle, so it’s imperative for someone to understand how to create more offense and similarly, breakdown a good turtle player

that being said, here’s some of the progressive games i made up in order to help students get better at the turtle

feel free to steal, modify, and improve on these — i stole some ideas from bodega jiujitsu too to gamify some fronthead attacks

starting

the first game i play involves the person in turtle to start on their elbows and knees

i give the explanation that this is a transitory position, we end up here when our guard starts getting passed or we got taken down and we turn to turtle in order to build athletic base

in rare cases you might be a glutton for punishment and go straight to turtle because you’re eduardo telles and you like to fuck people up from there 😂

so why turtle? it’s the first position you take if you’re about to stand up and you don’t want your back facing the mat

with your elbows and knees down, you can begin to build base

so, the first game

the offensive player starts hip to hip to the turtle player, and the constraint is that they CANNOT lock their hands and they CANNOT submit

they can grab and insert on any of the body’s leverage points — feet, ankles, shins, knees, hands, around the armpit, back of the head, hip pocket, whatever, to control the turtle player

why no locked hands?

many times when rolling, you’re going to have imperfect grips, so get used to it — in some cases, i actually prefer to stay connected but not TOO connected

one constant condition they have to maintain is keeping sufficient pressure on their partner so they can’t simply stand up and leave the turtle position

the winning conditions for the offensive player:

1. knock the turtle player’s hip to the mat — if it even touches the mat for a split second, the game is over

2. rotate 720 degrees around the turtle player, e.g i start at the head, make my way to the back, back to the head, and do it again, the game is over

that means the defensive player is trying to keep base and not get knocked down to a hip, and stand up, whenever possible

and also, stop the offensive player from rotating around them too much — stopping the traversal from head area to back area, blocking them with their head and arms

the winning conditions for the defensive turtle player:

1. at any point, if i can stand up, disconnect, and walk away, the game is over — my partner did not put sufficient pressure to keep me from building further base

2. if i can reverse the situation and make the offensive player’s hip touch the mat

so, top player, looking to use grips and weight to destroy base, can’t connect hands

bottom turtle player, keeping base, trying to stand, using grips to slow traversal, and reverse the situation

progressions

in the next iteration, we add to it

the offensive player wants to do the same thing — keep pressure, destroy base, but now they can connect their hands in any way they wish, but their win conditions are a little more progressed

the winning conditions for the offensive player:

1. chest to upper back alignment with hands connected with one hook in the hip pocket, so basically, an-almost backtake

2. or shoulders to mat pin, past the legs

the winning conditions for the defensive player remain generally the same:

1. at any point, if i can stand up, disconnect, and walk away, the game is over — my partner did not put sufficient pressure to keep me in turtle

2. if i can reverse the situation and make the offensive player’s hip touch the mat

3. we also add the ability for the turtle player to pull guard, so if they do try to pin and in the scramble a guard is attained by the turtle player, that’s a win for the turtle player

you can add or remove constraints as you feel is necessary if you want a slower progression

with the second game, i emphasize the main trilemma in turtle:

1. pressure down

2. knock to a hip

3. penetrate the inside space

trying to stand up exposes inside space

adjusting limbs to absorb force when people try to knock your turtle over exposes inside space for inside control or backtakes

keeping tight and protecting inside space narrows the base and leaves you susceptible to getting knocked down to a hip

and on

when you shut something down, something else opens up

some additions

because we’re playing games of position, i usually add a couple of dynamic games that help the players understand the scramble

the scoring hook game

the first game involves the offensive player starting with whatever upper body grips they want, with one hook in and the other foot planted on the floor

the defensive player is in turtle with their respective defensive grips in

offensive player wins by submission or by a full backtake with two hooks in or body triangle

defensive player wins by turning to face, back to the mat, or completely disconnecting

what we’re working on here is scoring based on getting that last hook

for the offensive player, they need to understand how to maintain alignment with chest to upper back and hip to lower back, while looking to penetrate hip space with their last hook, by using strangle dilemmas and arm traps

for the defensive player, they need to figure out how to physically block that hook from coming in, rotating their body to begin escaping turtle and the back, and destroy alignment and connection

takedown avoidance

the second game specifically trains the wrestle-takedown-turtle scramble

offensive player chooses a takedown

the second contact is made with any part of defensive player’s lower body (knees, hips, waist, etc), the game begins

defensive player wins by getting to turtle or standing up and completely disconnecting

offensive player wins by takedown to guard or pin

make sure there’s lots of space for this game 😂

passing avoidance

the third game specifically trains the passing-turtle scramble

offensive player looks to do outside passing

defensive player looks to retain guard

offensive player wins by passing to a pin, or passing and getting upper body grips with one hook in

therefore, it’s advisable for the defensive player to retain guard for as long as possible, or turtle if needed to prevent the pass

if turtle is achieved, the defensive player wins by maintaining turtle with hips off of the mat for three seconds with no hooks, if the hip touches the mat during those three seconds, the clock resets

adding the fronthead position

remember in the very first turtle game, the top player could win by doing two full rotations on the bottom player?

this was to reinforce two things:

1. if you’re on bottom, you can’t just ball up (well you can, but you’ll probably lose 10/10 decisions if you do that)

2. being able to shut down that transition from fronthead to the back can save you some backtake headaches down the line

achieving fronthead from standing

i stole this game straight from bodega jiujitsu

both players start standing

one player is looking to pick up a single and finish a takedown with connected hands, the other player is looking to get chest over head with connected hands

getting to the fronthead involves a battle of getting above your partners head to put pressure into their upper back, and then connecting your hands

this exercise helps them figure out how to time their movements so they can achieve that position and also move their hips in a way to nullify any single leg or double leg grips

you can progress the conditions of this game in any way you wish — maybe the single leg player has to take their partner down completely, maybe fronthead player has to drag their partner’s hands to the mat, etc

the backtake strangle dilemma

we start in fronthead, one player in turtle, another on top with hands disconnected on the triceps

player on top wins by either achieving deep locked hands (like pre-guillotine grip, with hands at the shoulder line), or getting hip to hip — if hands are connected but low because the turtle player is fighting them, no dice, keep going

bottom player wins by having top players hip or butt hit the mat for even a second

this game emphasizes the dilemma between protecting your neck and stopping your partner from getting to the back

top player is looking to break alignment by rounding the corner and getting hip to hip, or penetrate inside space to achieve a guillotine-like position

bottom player is looking to maintain alignment, keeping their partner in front of them while looking for connecting to break their partner to the mat

this emphasizes the backtake-strangle dilemma

maintenance

this game focuses on the ability to keep aligned with the turtle player

once you get to fronthead, you don’t want to lose that shit, so you want to be able to put pressure on top, and also stay relatively straight on

top player will maintain chest over head connection for as long as possible — more experienced members can switch between grips and even roll their partner through, add or subtract subs as win conditions

bottom player is just looking to disconnect or break alignment (get hip to hip, dump top player to their hip, reverse the situation, stand up and walk away)

fronthead attack entries

so, for something like entries to the anaconda or darce, the attacker has to lock a figure four around the turtle player and knock them to a hip, either by rolling or off balancing them

turtle player just has to stay up and make it hard for the offensive player, or disconnect completely and get out

the next game we start both facing up with a chinstrap and tricep grip, and the game now is to achieve locked hands and then a submission

we can also switch it up and start in fronthead, with the offensive player’s goal of constantly maintaining chest of over, keeping alignment and distance, and looking for submissions the entire time, guillotines, anacondas, darces, seated head and arms are all fair game

defensive player just has to disconnect from the fronthead position

the problem i see with very general submission games is that it doesn’t exactly explain anaconda or darce mechanics very specifically

we could make the game even more specific and start in a perfect strangle and let them play from there, or we could do some traditional teaching — “these are the mechanics, this is what’s happening, these conditions need to exist for the strangle to work, and the defense is the opposite, etc”

let them work a little on those conditions, then play a specific game of trying to hit that submission live, resetting frequently if their partner escapes or prevents it

the difficulties of the ecological method

one of things i’m finding difficult for ecological is how i would explain very specific mechanics (e.g heel hooks or any number of fronthead chokes)

to do this in an ecological manner, we would take what souders calls invariants — physical things that are occurring regardless of athlete and body variation, nomenclature, or other abstractions, and design games around them

for any kind of fronthead choke where there’s an arm and a head involved, there are physical things that always present (e.g carotids cut off on both sides using elbow pit and own arm, rotational squeeze or compression of the chin to the chest, etc)

the configurations might look slightly different for darces, anacondas, head and arm, seated head and arm, and arm-in guillotines, but essentially all these “techniques” are basically you moving your body to fulfill these invariant conditions in some manner

the ecological way is to play multiple extremely constrained games around those things — start in an anaconda position with a figure four locked, and find configurations to to cut the carotids off and compress chin to chest

without tell them anything except the starting position and their final task, they get to organically figure out how to choke

this is the ecological way — the instructor gives the what and the why, and the student figures out the how

“what” — closed connection around head and arm, cut off carotids off with either your connection to their neck or their own shoulder/arm connection, compress chin to chest with body part under the chin

“why” — closed connections with carotids cut off are blood strangles, chin to chest compression achieves blood and trachea chokes

“how” — figuring out the execution of the what is what “technique” is

i think normal teaching does get the “what” and “why” part right, when an instructor explains a mechanic, they should be talking about what is happening, and why it works

and the “how” is where people run into trouble because it fails to account for variation

students look to copy the instructor exactly (left foot here, right foot here, etc), which doesn’t account for variation all that well — maybe they put their hand in the correct place but because of body variation, they fail to actually cut off a carotid

by playing a game and giving them specific goals that fulfill the correct “what” conditions — “technique”, the way they do it with their partner (and other partners) will organically arise

this leads to more creative solutions

however, i still think a little mix of both teaching methods helps to shorten the process

i could just say figure four, block carotids, body part under chin and chest, compress, go and figure it out — those are invariants

but, i choose to give a little more detail, get the elbow up for anacondas, rotational finishes for extra compression, capturing the lower body to disallow posturing and relieving compression, etc — i go a little bit into the “how” but it’s always in service to the “what is happening” and “why it works”

if i can help shortcut solution some of the problems they’ll run into, why not?

i dunno, maybe i’m wrong, comment below?

sources

1. bodega jiujitsu patreon

2. standard jiujitsu yt channel

sounds like a cool job, honestly

i think there is a lot we can learn in jiujitsu from what they talked about

what is a game

we’ll first start with the definition that thi gives:

playing a game is voluntarily taking on unnecessary obstacles to create the possibility of the activity of struggling to overcome them

you know something is a game when there’s an easy way and a hard way to achieve your goals

thi gives some common examples:

running a marathon is a game because you’re taking on the unnecessary obstacle of running 26.2 miles, non-stop, without the aid of anything except your legs — it’s a game because the easy way is to just ride on the back of a golf cart / skateboard / car or find a shortcut somewhere in there to get to the finish line

climbing a mountain is a game because you’re taking on the unnecessary obstacle of figuring out how to use the wall to get to the top — it’s a game because the easy way is to just use a helicopter or vehicle to ride your way to the top

fishing is a game because you’re taking on the unnecessary obstacle of tricking the fish into biting your lure — it’s a game because the easy way is to just use a net or blow the fish out of the water using dynamite

jiujitsu is a game because you’re taking on the unnecessary obstacle of trying to pass frames and limbs and getting control of someone’s torso in order to break or strangle them — it’s a game because the easy way is to punch them silly, poke them in the eyes, or hit them with a car

i think you get the point

my point is to help you see that we’re choosing to engage in these games, which is distinctly different from accomplishing goals in the easiest way possible

i would push these game definitions only so far as to help you recognize the games that you’re playing, either consciously or unconsciously

as much as we want, we want to be purposefully choosing the games we play in jiujitsu (and in life)

measurement

so clearly you’re reading this post, which means you’ve chosen to play jiujitsu

when we decide to play with others (because most games are multiplayer), there has to be a way to measure how someone “wins” or “loses” at the game

what naturally arises is scores, or metrics within a game that the players can agree on

for the game of school — it’s grades

for fishing — it’s how many fish or how big or what type of a fish you can catch

for chess — it’s the ELO ranking and who you beat

for marathons and mountains — it’s time, mountains you’ve climbed, and maybe it’s also how hardcore you are (e.g climbing mount everest without the aid of oxygen)

for jiujitsu — it’s belt color, what competitions you’ve won, and the caliber of people you beat

these examples i’m giving are only some of the ways we can measure these games — there can be infinite ways to measure

the primary point is that these measurements do two things:

1. they compress information into something easily understandable

2. the way you measure must be agreed upon, otherwise it’s just a different game

grades, for example, are pretty straightforward — an A student more or less means you’re getting more things right than wrong, and means you’re probably understanding the material in a class, B less so, C, even less so, and on

climbing mountains — the more eight thousanders you’ve climbed, the better mountaineer you are

same with jiujitsu — the higher your belt color, the better the jiujitsu

the commonality here is that these metrics compress information into something that’s easily understandable — snap judgments, if you will

a brown belt automatically confers some compressed information — “they probably have decent flow, understand 95% of most positions, probably have 1-2 really good parts of their game, and can control the pace of the roll pretty well”

for these examples, we must agree on how we’re measuring too, otherwise it’s a different game

for fishing, if you’re catching fish based on the lure being on the top of the water versus the lure being dragged at the bottom of the river — it’s not comparable — it’s two completely different games

“how many mountains did you conquer” is different from “how fast can you climb this mountain” is different from “how many mountains can you conquer without the aid of ropes and/or oxygen”, and on

same with jiujitsu — ibjjf champion is different from adcc champion is different from ebi champion is different from notoriety by submissions

this is why we have standards and rulesets — so we go by the same measurements when we play games together

at the same time, we don’t need official rulesets and competitions to make a game

within jiujitsu — you play bottom, i play top is a game, earning colored belts is a game, only looking for leg locks can be a game

or zooming outside of jiujitsu, climbing a career ladder, trying to get social media followers, and keeping up with the joneses are all games

when the game is different, the metrics are different

if you want to play together, you have to agree on how you measure

the problem with games

first off, games aren’t real — they’re all just made up — so keep that in mind

the big problem is that the very thing you agree on that helps to keep score is the very thing that boils out the variance in people

thi and david talk about this in a movie sense:

if somebody asks me about a movie, rather than give them commentary, i can just say, well, it got 92% on Rotten Tomatoes — it’s much easier

the metric itself is boiling all of the variants out of the signal here — it’s kind of flattening things and one-dimensionalizing things

that 92% tells us that we’re more than likely to give that movie a chance but it discounts personal variance — maybe i don’t like comedy and action, but really like documentaries and thriller dramas, so 92% to me could be “awesome” or “holy hell this was boring af”

some more examples:

an A student could be composed of very different things — maybe someone just memorized the entire textbook and are good at regurgitating, but actually doesn’t understand how things link together — so they win at school, but later, they’re a robot and employers don’t like them

it might very well be the C student that sees the matrix and how everything connects together, but he/she just doesn’t do well with lectures, and the way things are taught doesn’t jive — they land interesting jobs, but fail at the game of school

maybe the guy who has conquered all the mountains did so with supplemental oxygen — does that make him/her less accomplished than someone who has conquered less but has done so with no extra equipment?

maybe one mountaineer is really good in inclement weather, and another is good with ropes — the metric of “mountains conquered” doesn’t fully account for this

we all know jiujitsu to be a high variance sport

most athletes are well rounded, but everyone’s got specialties

• jozef chen - guard passing

• alan sanchez - fronthead and coyote half guard

• ethan crenlinsten - winning scrambles and back attacks

• mica galvao - choi bar and armbar

• nicky ryan - wrestleups and standup

• gordan ryan - wrestling scrimmages and leg locks

• garry tonin - escape everything and leg locks

• lucas kanard - kguard and leg locks

• lachlan giles - 50/50 and leg locks

• taylor pearman - outside ashi and leg locks

• giancarlo bodoni - pressure passing and back attacks

• ben eddy - closed guard

• pj barch - wrestling and leg locks

• miyao brothers - bolos all day

• jason rau - rdlr and leg locks

there’s variance between mountaineers, students, and jiujitsu athletes, so games don’t tell the whole story

while it allows groups to compete and participate together, the very nature of how we measure the winner and loser of a game boils out the variance because we need a way to compare

this is why people argue about rulesets all the time

“so and so” got robbed because they dominated the whole match, but lost by one point or by judge’s decision

that’s straight up, an example of variance being boiled out

you can absolutely murk your opponent, but if you don’t follow the measurement (achieving points by position), then you’re not playing the game very well

so was the loser really the loser, and the winner really the winner? by the rules, yes, but if we account for athlete variance, maybe not

lachlan giles got bronze in the 2019 absolute adcc — he didn’t get 1st by adcc measurements, but he was the people’s champ

his variance shone through — he used a new leg lock meta to dominate and submit opponents much larger than him

he lost the adcc game and won the submission game against unlikely odds (which translates to the social media highlights game, which means profit 😂)

clearly, he was looking to win 1st at adcc — that was the game he was trying to play, but of course, there are many other smaller games going on too

tempo, control, dominance, initiation, defense, and even submission can be smaller games within a competitive ruleset — it’s just that a competition (a particular game) only grants awards in a certain way (inevitable compression)

this brings forth more subjective scoring systems like we find in cji — three rounds, 10 point scoring system that helps to account for more variance

did the athlete initiate, dominate, and attack in the positions they were in and with their strengths?

these kind of rulesets preserve player variance a little bit better

(you’ll still find that people will complain about them, but eh, i think we’re moving in the right direction)

more about mini-games

an example is that adcc rules force you to stand, because pulling guard in certain situations result in penalties

therefore, the wrestling scrimmage and the turtling game are important in preventing getting scored on

because an athlete is trying to win adcc, they must have competency in winning these smaller games too

or in ebi, if you don’t submit in regulation, you better be good at the back and the arm

again, not all athletes have the same skills — it’s a high variance sport

just because you’re the number one leglocker in the world, doesn’t mean you’ll win the adcc game, ebi game, or even the mini games within

in fact, you might actually lose, or have a really hard time

so what’s the point?

if you’re going to play the game, know how you’re measured and use your strengths to your advantage to win that game

outside of the game, understand that we’re all multi-dimensional human beings — we’re good at stuff, bad at stuff, and can improve on stuff

unhealthy loops

focusing too much on the game can trap you in some unhealthy loops

this is because compressed metrics remove context

first, some non-jiujitsu examples

i played the grades game all the time when i was a student

what perpetuated was not a genuine curiosity in the course material, but stupid machinations and obsessions with “will this be on the test?”

“will this be on the test” is a classic sign that a student is too focused on how they’re being measured

as a teacher, i’d be annoyed that a student only cares about material if it’s on a test — that tells me they’re looking for the grade, not the comprehension

when my only goal was to do well on the test, i would play mini-games like:

• figuring out the likelihood that something would be on the test

• wasting time finding decades-old test examples on the internet

• straight up memorizing something if i didn’t really understand it

• and for some, go so far as to cheat (not me though)

because the grade was the only thing that mattered, things like building skills, curiosity, and comprehension (variance & context) mattered less

for some time, i lost out on the opportunity to develop my values — what i liked, what i disliked, and how i actually learned

when i finally embraced the game of curiosity and comprehension, a side effect was also doing better on tests

i also discovered that i liked topics such as architecture and virology

both paths can lead to an A, but the game you choose to play changes the journey and the outcome

another example

i’ve been playing around with my diet for health reasons since 2011

in the beginning, my metric was the scale — let’s lose weight

only the number on the scale mattered

this led to:

• eat less, eat less, eat less

• trying vegetarianism because that’ll cut the calories even though i looked like a skeleton

• religiously counting calories, carbs, protein, or fat

• almost inducing rhabdomyolysis by working out too much

i literally was caught in an unhealthy loop with this compressed metric of “weight” as my guide

however, as i learned, i anchored off higher variance context — the game of health, instead of weight

• how did i feel, look in the mirror, and perform?

• what was my hrv, blood glucose values, cholesterol, and markers of inflammation?

• what does my recovery look like?

• etc

and if you look to health, the weight might actually pile on as muscle mass

the weight number starts looking like a metric with too much compression and not enough context — 5 pounds of visceral fat is different from 5 pounds of muscle

what about jiujitsu?

when starting, it’s easy to get caught up in the belt system, getting taps, and winning competitions

i certainly was not a stranger to this

this is why they say “the belt doesn’t matter and it does” — it offers compressed information, and for some, an important goal and milestone

but again, it can lead to some fixed mindsets — “oh no, what does it mean to get tapped by a lower belt?”

to say they’re better than you is too disingenuous — that’s a low variance answer based on the game that tapping your opponent is the ultimate goal in that moment

but yes, in that particular moment, position, timing, and day — they caught you

you lost the game of tapping, but if you’re playing a different game, a game of skill, experimentation, playfulness, and curiosity, the tap is just information

in the long run, you gain a ton of skill playing specific games in specific positions, not just a tap — maybe it’s control, pinning, keeping people down, constantly off-balancing people — all things that can lead to taps as a side effect (not that it matters because that’s not the game you’re playing)

again, similar to the example above, playing games that align with your values (up-skilling, helping others, figuring out how you learn, etc) provides better long-term results and less suffering

constantly chasing accolades is another common game that people get stuck in

the most extreme version is that their compressed metric is winning gold — anything other than that means they’re bad

the way out is to understand that it was a game you chose to play, and that YOU EXIST outside of that game

you might’ve won or lost, but you still have strengths and weaknesses as an athlete in all sorts of situations — you have variance, worth, and value

focusing too much on the win or the accolade can be psychologically damaging and in the long run, hinder development

your attention narrows towards very specific things you have to do well to win the competition, which can lead to lopsided skills — fine in the short term, but not super great long-term

many of us who go through jiujitsu care about the skills, connections, and laughs we pick up on the way rather than the medals and taps

both are valid, as long as you know what game you’re playing

that’s not to say that looking to achieve these types of goals are bad or should be avoided, but merely that we have to understand how we’re being measured when we engage in any particular game

it’s also important to understand human variance exists, regardless of the game you’re playing — it’ll make you better at some, worse at others

play what you want, but you ALWAYS have a choice in what game you play, and what game you play determines measurement, goals, and how you discover things about yourself

putting it together

1. you always have a choice, pick the game you want to play

2. understand how that game is measured

3. understand you are a human being with variance

4. understand the way the game measures you is likely compressed

5. play the game and do your best to win by the way it is measured, with all your strengths and faults

6. did you like it? do you still want to play the game? what does it say about you and what you value?

7. what other games would you prefer to play?

8. back to step 1

this works for large things like playing the game of competition, all the way down to the smaller things, like maintaining a front head lock

1. i choose to compete in the adcc ruleset

2. it’s measured by the adcc rulesets and points and things

3. based on my skills, i am good at leg locks, standing up, and turtle

4. adcc rulesets lean heavily on wrestling and scoring by pins, this is just their way of measuring

5. if i lose, it simply means i lost the adcc game, but it could mean i was better than my opponent in the positions i played in — anything could happen

6. yes/no to this game, “i suck” (toxic) vs. where can i improve my strengths to better fit this particular game (skills)

7. maybe i’m bored / don’t like these positions and want to mess around with constant pinning (maybe you try some freestyle wrestling as a game)

8. rinse and repeat

and something smaller:

1. i choose to play only in front head lock and turtle to improve my skills

2. it’s measured by keeping my opponent’s posture broken or take the back

3. i’m good on my toes and keeping chest pressure

4. the metric here isn’t all that compressed, either you can keep their posture broken, or not

5. if i lose, it just means i need to tighten up on my skills, there’s no judgment about me as a person

6. “i suck” (toxic) vs. let’s try shifting my weight this way and causing off-balances (skills)

7. ok im bored of this position, let’s do backtakes instead

8. rinse and repeat

takeaways 🥡

thi nyguen reiterates:

one of the crucial concepts from a lot of theorizing about games and play is that games are weirdly detached from the rest of the world

basically, GAMES ARE FAKE, so don’t take it all so seriously

which makes it even more important that we choose the games we WANT to play and that affects the scoring systems we engage with

this is not to say that there’s more to life than jiujitsu, but it’s also kind of saying, yeah, there is more to life than jiujitsu, and life itself is full of games as well

you always have a choice

play stupid games, win stupid prizes

play good games, win good prizes

sources

1. bankless podcast

2. the score by thi nyugen

if you can see the back, you can take it

this was the cue that was taught to me

it’s comically simple but knowing what you need to do to get to and maintain the back helps too

after all, we can’t just see it and teleport to the back, we actually have to do something

initial conditions

what deandre talks about here are literally the conditions necessary to initiate a backtake:

• rotating around/under the elbow to face the upper back

• rotating around/under the knee to face the lower back

• getting the back off the mat (if applicable)

this is why armdrags work

jozef preloads claudio’s arm cross body — this sets up rounding the corner on the upper body

notice jozef’s good head position — he’s starting to get around

as he initiates the rotation, the upper back becomes available

now that jozef sees the upper back, he can maintain the angle by attaching himself to the far hip or trap

jozef beats the lower body by hanging off the upper body and swinging around

claudio starts granby rolling to face the back away from jozef

it’s like if your opponent was a flat page, and we were using the elbow and knee as points to help turn the page

another example

rear body lock is a good example of beating the elbows on the upper body, but seeking lower body position

mohammed steps around jozef’s knee to prevent further exposure of his back but is countered by jozef parrying and rotating around outside

this completes the upper and lower rotation, and the backtake is available

jozef fails to maintain alignment, but the entry is what we’re focused on here

beat both the elbow and the knee, and the backtake is there

if mohammed had succeeded in his initial step through, jozef would’ve likely ended up on bottom

craig demonstrates this on nick

no backtake for nick available because nick hasn’t beaten craig’s knee

let’s do more examples

larry hope from workshop bjj in honolulu demonstrates the same thing from octopus half

larry’s octopus guard game is some of the best i’ve experienced

he beats the elbow, sees the upper back

scott has the same thing on top

so it becomes a battle for knee position — who can come around the outside and rotate around?

in these guard positions, it’s sometimes the bottom player that has the advantage

even though scott has the same ability to pass the elbow and the knee, he is going into the mat, which is much more difficult than larry going into open space

if scott beats larry’s left knee, he still has to keep the back off the ground to take the back, hence the third condition of getting the back off of the mat

larry on the other hand, beats the knee, and just hips shifts a little to align himself to the back

here, gordon ryan hip switches past a seated guard to the back

gordon hip switches past casey’s legs, passing the knee

you can see casey’s left elbow framing in gordon’s hip, but gordon uses the momentum of rounding the corner to beat casey’s elbow

the back is now available, only if the bottom player’s back is off the mat

unlike the last scenario, where larry kept his back on the mat, casey sits up to build base

gordon uses a right collar tie to keep casey seated, exposing his back off the mat as he takes further angle

casey can’t sufficiently carry gordon’s weight in the seated position and can’t hide his back supine because of the collar tie

so, he starts turtling as gordon rounds the corner into the beginnings of a backtake

commonalities?

get around/under the elbow, get around/under the knee, get the back into open space, off the mat = backtakes

the rest of a backtake

once the initial conditions are fulfilled:

1. rotating around/under the elbow to face the upper back

2. rotating around/under the knee to face the lower back

3. getting the back off the mat

you’re facing the back in some way

the rest is basically:

• aligning the front of my body to my partner’s back, more specifically, my chest to the upper back, my hip to the lower back

• we do this by using the levers of the defender’s body (head, arms, pits, legs) to improve alignment or control the movement of the torso

underhook dlr backtake from jason rau

• elbow isn’t really in range, don’t have to worry about it ✅ 1

• rotating around the knee to face the lower back ✅ 2

• we can see the back ✅ 3

• jason uses hip grips and leg hooks to kill posture and rotation and align the front of his body to his partner’s back

• a little hip escape to align the chest to the upper back, hip to the lower back

kguard under the legs backtake (70/30 position)

• already behind the upper torso (pushing them away) ✅ 1

• passes the knee cross body and over to face the lower back ✅ 2

• we can see the back ✅ 3

• adam uses hip grips to build base and align the front of his body higher on his partner’s back

waiter guard example

• the upper torso isn’t really in range ✅ 1

• inverting under the knee to face the lower back ✅ 2

• we can see the back ✅ 3

• lachlan uses the connections with his legs to pressure the backside of his partner’s legs and hips away

• as he pulls on his partner’s hips down as a counterbalance

• his partner lands right in front of him — aligned

dogfight from garry tonin

• garry beats the elbow via underhook, but still needs to get his head past ✅ 1

• garry starts rotating behind, also achieving the angle to get his head by ✅ 2

• he can see the back ✅ 3

• garry uses his connections (seatbelt and hook) to break chris’s posture down and aligns the rest of the backtake

turtle backtake

• gordon is already chest to upper back, but is side on — beat the elbows ✅ 1

• as casey sits away, gordon uses his advantage of mobility to ride on casey’s hip and flick his right leg around, beats the knee ✅ 2

• sees the whole back ✅ 3

• and at the same time, aligning his hip to casey’s lower back

scramble backtakes

• mateusz is already behind taza ✅ 1, 2, 3

• all movements now are looking to gain connection so mateusz can align his chest to taza’s upper back and his hips to taza’s lower back

• this includes hips grips

• this includes two-point hooks on the legs to push taza out and down

• this includes trap grips to climb the body

• this even includes a little bit of crab ride, using two-point hooks to stack taza’s knees to his chest to re-expose the lower back

closed guard

• helena has beaten loewenthal’s right elbow and has the body triangle on ✅ 1, 2, 3

• all movements now are looking to fully align chest to upper back and hips to lower back

• helena uses a far armpit grip to pull herself up as she loosens and tightens the body triangle over and over again to adjust

• as she loosens, she’s essentially doing two things — hanging her body weight off of her top leg so she can rotate just a little bit around loewenthal, and also use the armpit grip to come up on top

• the giftwrap grip is the true killer here, it disallows loewenthal to turn to face and recover the elbow

• as loewenthal generates movement, you can see helena always has the lower body controlled using the body triangle — at some point she even loses complete connection to the upper body, but uses the lower body connection to get it back

this leads us into:

retaining the back

if you can’t hold it, you can’t finish

retaining the back is a constant repetition of:

• aligning the front of my body to my partner’s back, more specifically, my chest to the upper back, my hip to the lower back

• then, using the levers of the defender’s body (head, arms, pits, legs) to maintain alignment and stop rotation of the torso

i’ll add a third one

• use lower body alignment to recover upper body alignment and vice versa, otherwise, you don’t have the back (like helena did)

studying ebi is a good place to start, since there’s just hundreds of hours of back footage here

gordon ryan recovers upper body control using lower body control

the use of the body triangle traps rotation of the hip and keeps the hips aligned behind the lower back, keeping lower exposure

this disallows the entire back to be put on the mat

casey does try though, his upper back hits the floor for just a second

but gordon uses a variety of upper body levers, trap grips, head grips, and armpit grabs to realign casey’s upper back with his chest

sometimes, if the body triangle is really tight, you can just hip in and bump their entire body up into space

here, gordon ryan recovers lower body control using upper body control

gordon uses a combination of seatbelt and kimura grips to prevent rotation and keep behind casey’s upper back

he begins throwing hooks but casey slips down, which eventually leads to the kimura trap

if you freeze frame at 0:44, you’ll understand why the kimura trap is so powerful

gordon turns casey’s shoulder and elbow into a lever, constantly maintaining a pressure that forces casey’s elbow towards his centerline (beating the elbow)

casey can’t base up using that elbow, can’t turn towards gordon, and gordon constantly beats it around the corner, exposing the back

because casey’s base is compromised, gordon begins throwing his hooks in at the hipline

upper body grips leading to lower body recovery

an example of losing the back too can demonstrate the same concepts

as casey turtles, gordon slips upwards, casey’s right trapped arm pushes gordon’s right foot off, causing gordon to slip off at the left

this messes up alignment both at the lower back and the upper back

gordon goes for upper body control, but fails to break casey’s lower body posture down

casey postures out and gordon ends up on bottom

in cases where we start slipping off, it’s better to use your hands to realign yourself on the back

like gordon does here

gordon abandons upper body connection to shift downwards, using a combination of basing on his own head, pushing on casey’s head, and pulling himself downwards on the armpits

the goal is to align hips to lower back, chest to upper back

some more concepts — here’s alan slipping the back from wojcik

immediately alan shifts off to the left, placing his upper back on the mat

wojcik has to recover now, otherwise he’s going to lose the position — even the body triangle starts looking a little off-kilter

what do we know about backtakes?

gotta get past the elbow and get the back off of the mat to realign chest to upper back

also, use lower body control to regain upper body control

alan’s doing the opposite — he’s trying to get his right elbow onto the mat, keep his upper back on the mat and then turn to face wojcik

alan wins the gripfight, turns to face, and it’s over

it ain’t easy

another way to think about it

another way to think about it is seeing yourself and your partner as planks

you want the planks to line up flat, right up against each other

you don’t want rotation in two planes (losing upper/lower or rotating away like turning a page)

not shown here is the combination of losing the upper/lower AND rotation out of the page, but the solution stays the same:

use the levers of the defender’s body (head, arms, pits, legs) to improve alignment or control the movement of the torso

the counter to this diagram is that best escapes utilize rotation away plus lower/upper misalignment

ethan shows it here, just like what alan did at ebi above

he misaligns his lower body, then starts to rotate his body and turn to face

ethan is particularly good at misaligning the upper/lower and also rotationally at the same time

take note that getting your elbow back is key for rotational recoveries, just like how the offensive person wants to beat the elbow

here, craig ruins both upper and lower body control by rotating and moving downwards

craig then rotates to turtle

then rotates again to face

a standard chair sit is a classic lower body recovery using upper body control

craig unlocks lower body control and uses the head and arm to reposition himself behind gordon

notice he makes sure that he is still past gordon’s elbow, which is critical in re-exposing the upper back

let’s do some examples with the body triangle

the body triangle prevents misalignment of the lower body, however, it’s weakness is that it doesn’t necessarily stop rotation

the side of the lock stops rotation quite well, but the side of the knee can be loose enough for the defender to rotate

here ronin has the lock mat-side, which means it’s difficult for taza to rotate his lower hip

combined with double underhooks from ronin, it’s going to be very difficult for taza to initiate rotational escapes

however, taza strips the topside upper body control, and that means his entire topside can rotate like a door

he turns into the mat, and eventually rotates through to face

here’s craig demonstrating a body triangle escape

the side of the lock is tight

the side of the knee is looser, craig starts his rotation there

as he rotates into the mat, lachy has to get up and over to follow the back

but he’s stuck, because craig is laying on his arm and leg — he can’t form base

craig rotates through, and he’s safe

here’s taza recovering from a body triangle escape

again, the knee side of a body triangle allows rotation because it’s difficult to tighten that side

with certain body types it might be different, but generally it’s true

ronin turns in, but taza again, has good head position and is a quarter-turn ahead of ronin, making sure to beat his right elbow

ronin fails to escape his upper body as taza begins to use head and trap grips to realign himself

here’s an upper body recovery

alan creates upper body misalignment and pablo immediately recovers by scooping his head back

failure to stay behind the inside elbow means either the back is wedged up against the mat — no exposure

or, the defender can turn to face you — escaped

pablo loses the left elbow here

here’s a close backtake

at first glance, taza’s got all the advantages — completely misaligned, upper and lower back to the mat

as alan looks to step into mount, taza lifts his hips to stop alan

he fails to do so, and then starts turning into alan

the back is again exposed, but on the other side

alan’s already got the mount so no knees to worry about on the lower body

alan preloads a far tricep grip, slips the elbow and the back is again there for the taking

taza is able to fight the grips and turn to face, but it was close

here’s a good example of alan creating diagonal control with body triangle lock facing down, and an underhook on top, creating a situation that makes it difficult for taza to turn

as alan pulls taza on top he turns again into the mat, this time on the knee side of the body triangle

alan follows taza a quarter turn behind the back but still has his chest wedged behind taza’s right elbow

this means back exposure is still on, even though it doesn’t looks like it

if alan had found a way to start moving towards the back past the elbow again, the backtake would be available

here though, alan adds a few cheeky seconds to his ride time

hopefully you get it

here, alan turns on the knee-side of the body triangle, start lower body misalignment

taza attempts to stop rotation by switching the lock bottom side

it’s too late — alan’s facing up, taza’s facing left

alan begins shifting upper back to the mat, and escapes his elbow

once you understand what takes or loses the back, it’s easy to get creative

here, alan has a body triangle on, and loops the secondary leg through taza’s legs, further inhibiting rotation

taza has to extend and strip that to start rotating

alan follows and relinquishes an arm to purposefully stop taza’s lower body from rotating

he uses taza’s legs as a lever to slow his rotation down enough to transition to an armbar

very cool

recap

we look for backtakes by:

1. rotating around/under the elbow to face the upper back

2. rotating around/under the knee to face the lower back

3. getting the back off the mat

we take and maintain the back by constantly:

• aligning the front of my body to my partner’s back, more specifically, my chest to the upper back, my hip to the lower back

• we do this by using the levers of the defender’s body (head, arms, pits, legs) to maintain alignment and stop rotation of the torso

• using what you got — use upper controls to get lower controls back and vice versa

again, the doors analogy can help — any combination of these can cause misalignment

losing the lower and upper gives the opponent more space and leeway to start rotating, getting their elbows and knees back in front

i hope this helps you spot, retain, escape, and finish more back attacks

✌️

sources

1. legion_ajj ig account, deandre corbe

2. aisan adcc trials 2026

3. polaris 26

4. craig jones just stand up instructional

5. jozef & craig in singapore? seminar

6. workshop bjj honolulu and portland

7. ebi 14

8. jason rau patreon

9. adam benayoun kguard instructional

10. garry tonin escape the system instructional

11. ebi 19

12. ethan crelinsten back instructional

13. craig and lachlan seminar somewhere in europe

i’m also getting over a nasty cold, so no better time to study a fuckton of footage

i’m gonna do what i always recommend to people when they see something new

how does it work?

how does it fit, upgrade, or deepen my existing mechanical understanding?

and rip it on some unsuspecting white belts 😂 jk jk, play with it and make it my own

there are match spoilers below, so if you want to watch lachlan giles vs marcelo garcia on amazon prime first, do that and come back after

do you even understand the leggy locks 🔧

before we get further, let’s review the conditions necessary for a successful heel hook

1. a booted foot (heel dorsiflexed and caught, 90 degree angle foot to shin)

2. knee bent

3. immobilized hip and/or leg

mechanical movements:

1. turning of the foot as a lever to rotate the shin, tearing the knee (rotational finish)

2. pushing the upper leg in the opposite direction, putting opposing force into the knee (lateral force)

jason rau demonstrates the mechanic using nick’s leg, pretty much a verbatim combo of all the points

we just have to figure out how to use our body to do these things

rau goes through specific mechanics on keeping the foot dorsiflexed (booted) — this may vary for people, but in my opinion, the two most under taught details are:

• actually pinching between rib and elbow on the shoelaces, and moving the pinch towards the hip, shifting your torso over the foot

• bottom of the foot almost parallel with your forearm

these same two movements (with some adjustments) have also made my straight ankle locks much better because the pinch removes space

mechanical action number 1 — the turn of the upper body, rotating the foot upwards to rotate the shin

and mechanical action number 2 — the opposite turn of the lower body, downwards, in the opposite direction

in the case that your mechanics on the booted foot are very tight, in some cases you don’t even need to turn the lower half the leg, you can just immobilize and hold it

the most devastating breaks utilize both lateral and rotational forces with the heel pinned to the mat

inside heel hook, same mechanic

jason rau with an outside heel hook again, this time facing up, same thing

an outside heel hook from mr. eddie cummings, our favorite leg lock ghost

same mechanic — the heel is so tightly trapped that he doesn’t even need to rotate his lower body downwards all that much

just a little rotational lift of the heel towards the chin seals the deal

backside 50/50 from ryan hall, both in training, and also against bj penn

different leg configuration, but pretty much all the things in the list are true

leg extension and pressure to the back of the knee kills mobility here and keeps the knee bent in the right configuration

and against bj penn

ok enough review

it’s always good to review mechanical understanding — it’ll help us analyze the lachy lock

let’s first watch some footage from submeta

these three examples all involve rotating around the leg with the side-on chest control of the foot, killing rotation of the hips, and having a slight bend in the knee

this one is most similar to a backside 50/50, same mechanic, arguably stronger grip

what do you see?

• heel booted, molded side-on to the chest

• the knee is bent and pressured into with lachlan’s far leg — that same pressuring leg loops to the inside in between the defender’s legs to immobilize rotation of the hip

• turning of the torso with a molded foot as a lever to enable the rotational finishing mechanic

from the velociraptor himself:

when lachy removes himself and uses his hands to demonstrate the rotation — that’s basically what jason rau was demonstrating earlier in this post, just a different configuration

same thing going on though

notice it’s the turning of the foot as a lever — when a foot is booted, we can turn the shin using the heel, the toe, or both

the interesting detail here is the side-on chest to foot mold that lachy uses — it does two things:

1. the chest acts as a wedge that prevents them from turning away, they must keep side-on, it makes it much more difficult to turn away and also to face

2. by molding the side of the foot to the chest, you’ve literally turned the foot lever into the plane of your torso, which is much easier to control

the lachy lock heel hook and the backside 50/50 are essentially the same finishes, the grips are just different

backside 50/50 uses a heel catch to make the boot — pressure and extension into the hamstring keeps the knee bent and stuck, and rotation of the heel into the mat turns the foot and tears the knee

the torso does turn down as well, but that is perfect finishing mechanics, it’s contingent on keeping your heel catch arm connected strongly to your torso

the lachy lock uses a chest hug, caught on the inside of the leg, molded side-on to the chest, chin and chest creating the boot

pressure to the back of the knee and a rotation of the torso towards the defender, simultaneously bringing the toes pointing up and heel pointing down, tears the knee in the same place (inside, mcl)

still can’t see it?

this is backside 50/50

lachlan starts with combat stance kguard, brings a leg cross body, and brings his right leg over to put pressure into the back of the knee

he has a topside straight ankle grip, which switches straight to a heel catch after grounding the knee

lachy lock, same type of position, but a scoop grip on the bottom instead, and before he throws pressure to the backside of the knee, he catches the side on grip on his chest instead of bringing the entire foot to the topside like in backside 50/50

however, the finishing mechanic is pretty much the same, just a different configuration

what’s most important is that all heel hook conditions are met:

• turn a booted foot

• knee bent

• hip/leg sufficiently immobilized

followup to the lachy lock knee bar

lachlan hits the knee bar follow up in his match with marcelo

he does this by keeping the grip and rotating around to the 90/10 position for a over-rotated knee bar

this comes from keeping the lachy lock, rotating around the leg and ending up side on to marcelo’s leg (90/10 position)

the result is not only lateral knee bar pressure but also a hyper rotated leg that adds rotational force to the knee bar, making it even more devastating

no leg bent here, just a knee bar followup

the important detail is the chopping leg — it loops around to the far hip to limit rotation of the hip

advantages of the lachy lock ☝️

1. one advantage of the lachy lock is that it prevents the backstep

   1. if you go back and watch the videos, having someone’s chest molded side-on to your leg pretty much prevents you from turning effectively

   2. backside 50/50 prevents the backstep to an extent, but rotation of the foot between the elbow and the ribs is a common occurrence, and if your chest is at all facing up, they will backstep to defend

   3. again, ryan hall vs bj penn is a prime example of good finishing mechanics — because ryan’s catch is strong and his torso was also facing down, the backstep is a bad idea — bj penn goes for it and pretty much tears his own knee

2. for the lachy lock heel hook, i’ve seen folks say that “no knee capture is necessary”, which is true, but some degree of immobilization still needs to happen

   1. immobilization is still necessary, just not in the traditional “capturing the knee within your knee line” sense — that’s only one way to achieve immobilization

   2. for the lachy lock heel hook, we immobilize through pressure to the back of the knee and through keeping your opponent side-on to limit their front and backstepping options

   3. in the case of the lachy lock knee bar, the pressuring leg loops around to stop rotation of the hips

3. the side-on mold limits the mobility options your opponent has, leading to better dilemmas

   1. turn away, get finished in the lachy lock heel hook, get your back taken, in some cases, end up in the lachy lock knee bar

   2. turn into, lose hip height, end up in the lachy lock knee bar

fuck me man, how to defend? 😭

if you look at the list of mechanics, disruption of any of those basically renders the leg lock less effective or removes the threat altogether

no booted foot? they’re probably pointing their toes like a ballerina — you’ll probably pop your partner’s ankle first, and the break would not be severe enough to warrant a tap, the forces through the foot don’t transfer through the shin to knee

no knee bent? the entire leg now just turns in the socket — normal range of motion

no immobilization? good luck, watch your partner run away, rotate, whatever

if those aren’t present, a rotating foot lever won’t be effective on my knee ligaments

also, can’t rotate the heel? well, you’re just holding them now, you might as well hug and be friends if that’s all you’re gonna do

some of lachlan’s training partners do escape, marcelo does once as well

marcelo punches his foot above lachy’s shoulder line, which allows him a degree of external rotation, this closes the backside of the knee (remember pigeon pose?)

it also allows him to step on the mat and increase the angle between the inside side of his leg and lachy’s chest, disrupting the side-on connection of the lachy lock

he gets perpendicular right after he disrupts the grip

another view of one of lachlan’s training partners doing the same

he forces the foot up to the neck where there’s space to rotate his knee outwards

of course, lachlan adjusts for this, repositions the foot back in the center, kills rotation, and succeeds

another angle, you can see lachlan’s training partner punches his heel to the mat, allowing him rotation to externally rotate his knee

again, this ruins multiple things at once:

• no more lever to turn the shin

• harder to expose the back of the knee

• increases mobility

he then continues fighting lachlan’s feet with the hands to extricate

giving up the back so the heel turns upwards is also viable — but the goal is the same, kill the side-on connection

however, the tradeoff is back exposure, just like in backside 5050

i’m sure there are plenty of creative ways to prolong the escape window

i think taking the time to really intercept the chopping leg as it comes around is also critical to keeping your hips free

meaning, don’t let the chopping leg come between your own legs — you know it’s there to immobilize and control rotation

some modifications i’ve played around with

i find that when i wrap my scoop grip for the lachy lock, i also grab the toes with my scoop hand, resting my chin on top of the toe grab hand

that means without my secondary hand, i can actually force a pretty booted foot with my scoop arm

1. elbow catches at the achilles dimple

2. pinch on chest

3. i grab the toes to force a boot and reinforce with my chin

4. optional and (probably recommended) secondary hand heel grab to finish the grip

pressure to the back of the knee also helps to secure the lachy lock grip, as it helps me mold more of their leg onto my chest

for late stage defenses, especially if they’re already looking to rotate around my leg, i keep a hand ready to strip the pressuring foot that loops around to stop the rotation of my hips — similar to butterfly ashi, i want to grab the toes and push them off to increase my mobility

i’m still experimenting around with it though ✌️- i will update this post as i figure out more!

credit where it’s due

obviously, lots of hard work went into the making of all of these instructional videos on submeta, various patreons, and youtube

none of what i’m investigating or writing about would be possible without the artist-athletes who spent their entire lives and careers investigating and creating new stuff

i highly recommend paying to access these services to get the full scoop (i do — the athletes deserve it)

my goal is to present the information as i understand it and help folks see broad patterns and cues that help deepen their understanding in any grappling topic

i hope this was useful, take what works and make it your own ✌️

sources

1. submeta by lachlan giles, kguard courses — i’ve been on the submeta train since it started — if you would like an invite, apparently i can send three! DM me

2. lachlan giles’s 50/50 instructional

3. ryan hall’s 50/50 instructional

4. jason rau’s patreon

5. bjj hacks tv youtube channel

6. one championship on amazon prime

7. ufc youtube channel

i was watching margot ciccarelli vs ffion davies and thinking to myself

man, i do a lot of the same things that margot does while on bottom

(nice to see i’m doing something right in the training room 😂)

margot has some seamless transitions to turn inside guards to outside guards

in her polaris match, she does this transition frequently — moving the bottom foot in an inside guard (half, knee shield, rdlr) to the far hip to take outside control

it’s essentially a loose closed guard — it kills ffion’s knee cut, it kills fast flanking, and it introduces another limb ffion has to remove to progress

for myself, it’s been a lifesaver against larger and faster opponents

there is a tradeoff though — we lose inside positioning to go for certain leg entanglements

however, it offers us the option for good distance management, mobility to rotate around our partner for back exposure, and also a good ability to carry the weight of our opponent for sweeps

in this freeze frame, margot uses a keymaster guard to suck away ffion’s base for a second

notice when the bottom leg comes to the outside it marks ffion’s upper body as margot pulls ffion’s leg closer, making a nice push pull action that can result in sweeps

the configuration above carries weight REALLY nicely

ffion distributes her weight very well so she stays planted in front — if she had driven in margot would’ve carried her over towards her head, and entered the legs

here’s another view — knee shield, transition of the bottom foot to outside position, in preparation for inversions into kguard attacks

again, the lower foot comes to the hip to kill the knee cut and free up margot’s upper body to either frame or initiate farside or nearside arm attacks

ffion denies all k-related entries, strips the foot, pressures in, and margot chooses to go rdlr with a foot cleanly inserted into the hip pocket for distance management

this is the second thing that i like to do as well — this foot in the hip pocket thing

the detail here is actually curling the foot and “grabbing” their thigh, almost like a hand — this way, it resists being stripped

i interplay between these two forms of distance management — top foot thigh grab, bottom foot to outside hip, and vice versa

the third interesting thing margot utilizes is this deep lasso — not only on the bicep, but all the way to the opposite hip, which makes inversions into reverse closed or inverted triangles all good possibilities

i’ve traditionally reached this position when they begin flanking me, and instead of a normal high pummel, i grab my own foot and swim my connected hand-foot frame across their body as a combined frame to keep my guard, exactly what margot is doing here

an interesting thing to think about here is what bringing my leg cross-body achieves

for the top player you generally don’t want your limbs to be across the bottom player’s centerline, because that means you’re getting your ass arm-dragged and you’re exposing your back

but flipped, it’s the same scenario, if i’m on bottom and i bring my limb cross-body, it has a dual function of keeping my hip space protected, and once i invert, it right sides up to outside guards and attacks — reverse closed guard, north south, inverted triangles, and armbars

the risk is i mismanage the pressure and end up in turtle, so some degree of flexibility, self-framing, or awareness is helpful

not everyone has this degree of flexibility, but it really closes off the top hip space so no degree of penetration is possible — think of it as an advanced high pummel

another angle

again, ffion tries to pass, but alas, there’s a leg there

i will warn folks that if you don’t play this right, there is the risk of lcl overextension — if your knee hangs outside while your foot gets crushed downward, it can pop your lcl

some ways to mitigate this is to hug or self-frame your pummel leg, which is what margot does here to help counteract ffion’s pressure

pushing in only gives more weight for margot to carry and invert under

you can see at the end of this sequence reverse closed being a possibility

i wish i saw more offensive attacks from margot, but this was really nice showing from both athletes — savage guard paired with savage passing ✌️

defeating distal control

i’ve briefly talked about distal control before

there were some great displays of both control + finish and also control + escape

here’s an example of mateusz using distal control first to capture the foot, then snapping in the configuration of his legs for what looks to be a woj lock

he’s fluid in this discovery in what the final finishing position will be — it starts as an inside heel hook, transitions to a cross body straight ankle lock, and finally, finishes in a woj lock

in the first 10 seconds of the video, the announcer doesn’t say “distal control”, but he also knows what’s going on

so, how do we deal with this?

mobility and rotation disrupt control of the leg, the fulcrum, and the grip at the foot

let’s look at some examples where attackers took on a threatening straight ankle grip, only for the defender to turn towards their free hip and heist up (and possibly invert)

owen throws a straight ankle grip in and begins a slight outside reap

kanard turns downwards towards his free hip, heisting up, rotating his trapped foot, and changing the control and fulcrum parameters — they reset

and again, with a better angle

this time kanard stays heisted and opts to invert into north south

owen switches to pass, but we’re out of the leg entanglement

but it’s just freeing your knee from the attacker’s knee line, no?

freeing your knee is just a subset of this concept of disrupting control — mobility and rotation do the same, just in a different way

if we choose to stay in the leg entanglement, we need tools that don’t involve running away

okay, so i keep a leg free and rotate, because if my mobility disrupts the parameters necessary to break my foot, they won’t get it

why not rotate the other way, towards the hip of the trapped leg?

mostly because it limits mobility

it sort of reminds me of guillotine setups

as an attacker is setting up a seated guillotine, they’re neutral or slightly on the hip opposite of the clasped head, making space to capture the head

once they tie up the head, they finish by limiting mobility — elbow to ribs, legs immobilizing the lower body, side crunch, and head lever for the finish

danaher does that entire sequence here

going the way of the straight ankle grip basically puts you further into the submission

here, it happens in the standing position, where going into the straight ankle does not yield a positive result

mohammed essentially goes the way mateusz wanted to for a belly-down finish

i understand mohammed was going for his own inside heel hook counter, but by dropping his hips all the way to mat, he drastically decreases his mobility

same thing with guillotine right, if you go deeper towards the guillotine (because you have no other option), you better be framing and fighting the hands/hips and generating movement, otherwise you end up here

game over, insert coins

if you do move into the direction of a straight ankle grip, handfighting to remove foot controls or changing the fulcrum breakpoint is necessary because you are going to be controlled at the hip

a high degree of external hip rotation also can help

external hip rotation adds mobility that takes the knee out of alignment, helps you to heist, threaten the back and put pressure into your partner so they let go

hold this thought though, we’ll talk about external hip rotation in the pigeon pose section below

this is not to say that moving towards the free foot is a surefire escape

remember what i said about breaking finishes? control at two points plus fulcrum plus lever action=/__u/longformjiujitsu.substack.com/finish%3C/p>

if a defender preserves their mobility, there is a greater chance that control isn’t optimal at one of those points

the converse is also true, even if you do this “turning towards the free hip” thing i’m talking about, if you are still getting controlled, the finish is still there

igor rotates towards his free foot but mateusz keeps pressure (control) to the back of the knee using a butterfly ashi

igor almost taps, moves towards the trapped foot, handfights an outside heel hook and resets the position

in both cases:

rotating towards the trapped foot, puts you deeper in — you will have to deal with straight ankle, possible aokis, and you lose mobility, with the exception of really good external hip rotation and/or hand fighting

rotating towards the free foot — you will have to deal with outside ankle attacks (outside heel hooks and the woj lock), but you gain hip height and mobility

the turn towards your free hip offers mobility advantages because you’re building base on your secondary leg

the cues i think about are simply:

• what is required for them to finish?

• what can i do to increase my mobility to disrupt at least one of those finishing conditions

  • it can be freeing the knee

  • it can be heisting up

  • it can be rotating towards the free hip

  • it can be rotating towards the trapped hip and freeing the knee through external rotation or handfight

  • it can be slipping the grip, slipping the heel, slipping the toes

  • it can be any non-exhaustive combination of the above

taking another look at this distal control clip

tommy does fight mateusz’s legs and frees his left leg, but he doesn’t use it to heist up

part of it looks like it’'s because his left leg is trapped on the wrong side, which might necessitate tommy to first move his hips away in order to initiate the rotation

if he had done that, i’d surmise he would’ve changed the angle of mateusz’s grip so that he could increase his mobility and extend his escape window, since mateusz would have to readjust

🤷‍♂️ i can only guess based on what i can see, perhaps it was impossible to turn that way, i don’t doubt that mateusz’s catches are all very tight

but generally, this is why any form of secondary leg control is a good idea

it kills hip mobility and therefore rotation, which confers better control for finishing mechanics

even if you have both legs controlled, it still is possible to generate movement

pearman snags up double trouble and puts a threatening grip on the secondary foot

hejraat inverts towards his primary leg, generating just a tiny bit of rotation to offset alignment on his secondary leg, and uses that opportunity to strip controls and come up

pearman’s control of the primary leg was also probably looser than he wanted — less saddle, more beartrap

pigeon pose 🐦

less impressed more involved just did a quick short on this

what is this? and what kind of benefits does it confer

we see this several times at polaris in different contexts

the first one is in the context of leg locks, where externally rotating a hip (bringing the knee outwards) brings us into pigeon pose

this is most commonly seen when our partner is attempting a belly down ankle lock

we’ve seen this one

and another

earlier i talked about the risks of rotating towards your trapped leg, going deeper into a leg entanglement — this helps us avoid the submission

so why is this effective?

externally rotating the knee messes up the alignment necessary to finish leg attacks

by externally rotating the knee, the second control point is no longer at the hip — it moves

without that second control point, there’s no significant lever action — that’s also partly ruined by your opponent sitting on top of you

for the bottom player, the ideal control point begins to be at the knee or below (the tren lock), because that would bring the control points back into alignment

however, the bottom person is not in a position to achieve that when the top person is crushing them

let’s illustrate this using another example

one of my own coaches (adam big red sachnoff) does this really well — his flexibility is rare for a bigger grappler

here he is at quintet 2, defending a straight ankle by coming up, externally rotating his hip, and smashing into top position

in this aligned situation:

• ⭕️ marks the second control point necessary for the finish

• red lines indicate where adam’s legs are

• the first control point is the straight ankle grip

• the fulcrum breakpoint is the achilles

• and the lever is the hips

everything is nice and straight, which can lead to a break, but doesn’t, because adam handfights, but generally, this is an aligned finishing position

a misaligned situation thanks to pidgeons 🐦:

• when adam externally rotates his hip and brings his knee outward, the control at the hip ❌ is no longer in alignment for a break, the bend at the knee makes it so the controls are no longer in a straight line

• ⭕️ marks a new point where andrei needed to control in order to achieve alignment for the finish — basically control at the shin (like a tren lock)

yeah … not gonna happen at this stage

as he gives it up, he gets his back taken

you can also say “externally rotating the hip brings the knee out of your opponent’s knee line” but i prefer to think about it in alignment terms

there’s more straight ankle alignment examples here

ok ok what else about pigeons 🤗

having a strong pigeon pose closes off access to the back of the knee

if the attacking player can’t put pressure into the back of the knee, they can’t break lower body posture, and they can’t expose the back

it’s been mentioned multiple times that jozef has superpowers in his hips (dem hips don’t lie 😂)

kanard looks to throw backside pressure from kguard, but jozef points his knee to face the oncoming leg to close off the backside access road

the kguard to backside transition completely fails, kanard inverts, and jozef floats to the other side

this happens to a lesser degree in de la riva, where you point your knee outwards to stop the backtake

same concept though, just less extreme — we shut off access to the back of our bodies by facing the front of the knee to our opponent’s attacking limb

jozef hips chen talks about it here with lin

jozef at it again with kanard

externally rotating his hip denies any backside exposure for the seated dlr bolo hook

and having that flexibility lets you pigeon pose out of a fucking single leg, which jozef does here

by sucking his knee outwards and back, jozef avoids mohammed controlling more of his leg

this mobility at the hips that leads to pigeon pose ultimately gives you more degrees of freedom to generate movement and bring your body out of alignment in regards to attacks

ok fuck this post is getting way too long

one more thing to relate it all together

in the pigeon pose section i talked about how the second control point shifts to being below the knee, in order to get all control points in alignment for a finish

this leads us to…

tren locks

the tren lock is just a leg break that achieves alignment mechanics below the knee, that’s it

1. controlling the toes and the top of the foot

2. fulcrum placement at the achilles

3. control of rotation at the shin using the knee pit and a kneebar type action

4. lever action with lifting the hips

jozef catches a tren lock on hejratt

he does some bonus wedge defense right before the finish — i talk about the wedge as a strong transition position in another post

another image analysis

⭕️ marks the control point at the shin — no degree of rotating the hips will help here, especially if jozef’s knee pit holds hej’s leg in place

in a way it’s similar to the caio terra footlock

here’s craig jones doing it to richie martinez

same control parameters — wrap the foot, fulcrum at the achilles, controlling just below the knee using the same side leg, hip in for the finish

it’s kind of funny to think about

these subs get more and more peripheral, which makes it so relatively new people to jiujitsu can achieve submission success very quickly

greg souders defines jiujitsu as this game where we’re essentially getting past peripheral limbs (arms, head, legs) to control the torso (shoulders to hips), and then we maintain that control as we move back out to the peripheries to attack (neck, arms, legs, etc)

leg locks skip the step where we control the torso, and instead replace it with a smaller, easier part of the body to control, the legs (as extensions of the hip)

we skip all that frame fighting stuff and go straight for submission threat first through distal grips (heel catches, shotgun ankle grips, etc), and then finding control points that prevent rotation and movement

some brief summaries in conclusion

outside guards like kguard help to better manage distance, slow fast mfs down, and still offer backtakes and a great range of upper body attacks — you just sacrifice inside leg entries

distal control of the body is easier to initiate than full control of the torso — we fight less frames to get to a foot

in some sense, it’s all the same — whether you’re looking to control rotation of a leg or rotation of the torso in something like top half guard — limiting movement funnels your opponent to pins and submissions

the opposite is true too — the path with more mobility is the less risky option for a defender

hip external rotation gives more degrees of freedom for your knee to escape alignment and hide the back of the knee for backtakes, which defeats straight ankle locks and outside guards like dlr and kguard

and we’ve come full circle

this is why jiujitsu is fascinating to me — you think you’re dealing with some kind of isolated movement, but wa-la! 🪄, it’s all connected

there was also some good passing that i wanted to get to, but then this is just like writing a fucking book, so we’ll stop here

i hope you learned something

as always take what works and make it your own ❤️

sources

1. polaris 34 ufc fight pass

2. john danaher’s enter the system front headlocks instructional

3. ebi 22 ufc fight pass

4. less impressed more involved yt channel

5. quintet 2 ufc fight pass

6. jozef chen patreon

7. quintet 3 ufc fight pass

alan’s wrestling has gotten good in the past few years

good distance control, flicking into overhooks from overties, shoulder pushes and feints, cross body armdrags, and some nice throwby setups

most people talk about getting underhooks, but with a good underhook comes the possibility for an overhook — never underestimate a good overhook

alan gives peynado the underhook, knee frames the lower body so he can’t really close distance, and turns that underhook position into an attacking overhook guard pull

from this arises a grip fighting philosophy that i utilize for myself:

my grips are my grips

i’ll find a way to turn your grips into my grips

if you touch me, you’re really just giving me my grips

it encourages me towards creative movement, rather than fighting grips head on all the time

jflo advocates for similar things — instead of making everything a head-on battle, learn to concede, it surprisingly gets you further sometimes

ksoto hooks — alan sanchez vs kevin beuhring and vs brayan peynado

right now we’re playing with the fronthead / back dilemma here at 10th planet san jose 🌀, taught by mr. sanchez himself — the ksoto hook made an appearance

i wrote about my love of ksoto hooks a while back — ksoto hooks prevent opponents from turning back into you, and at extreme reaping angles, destroys base

alan pulls a nicky rod here — guard pull to wrestle up

as he shoots his underhook, he collects the leg while gluing his shoulder to kevin’s hip

kevin knows he cannot turn back in, so he attempts a granby roll, which alan follows beautifully to the truck, then to the mount

it all starts with massive angle

with peynado, alan tries to catch the arm side of the front head lock, jukes back to a snap to get peynado’s hands to the mat, then immediately floats over for the ksoto hook while cinching up the headlock

just a wonderful use of the fronthead-back dilemma

leg sequence — kevin beurhing vs jose armenta

i love a good heel hook and kevin is a very competent leg locker

a strong heel catch leads straight into an inside heel hook

what’s impressive is that jose’s knee is way outside kevin’s knee line

if you understand the concept of distal control (control of the limbs away from center mass first), not having the knee initially doesn’t matter because the extension of the attacker’s body captures the knee line in two ways:

1. kevin traps jose’s foot between elbow and rib, and the pull of elbow to hip plus the extension of upper torso away from the legs physically sucks jose’s knee towards kevin’s hips — this elbow to rib motion is very strong

2. extension of kevin’s legs increases the space between his hip and knees, opening the available range to control the knee in that area — jason rau talks about this in the outside reap, extending as you roll to not lose the knee and then contracting and pinching as you land heel to mat for a devastating break

many heel hook finishes come about like this — strong, threatening grip coupled with legitimate defense from your partner, and then rotating/inverting/adjusting around your partner’s body until the lower body puzzle pieces fit and the break “lands”

it’s not magic though, you still need to know the mechanics and feel them out

duck under — jonathan wilson vs juan pablo usma

occupy hands, shoot for a duck under straight into the claw

just slick timing overall

mount escapes — derek rayfield vs fernando tello

fernando does a cool mount recovery

it’s a one-arm frame get up — fernando first turns to his side, creating space by marking a hip frame using the top arm, creates base by swinging his legs and propping up on his bottom arm, and then attempts a pull on rayfield’s leg to reset the angle

unfortunately he gets put in a triangle, which is one of the main risks of doing this escape

i only caught this because alan showed this to us about a month ago 🌀

he used it himself to recover from a similar situation against fabricio andrey

the key difference was winning the pulling grip on the leg — rayfield breaks fernando’s posture for a second and wins that grip fight so he could slip his leg straight to the carotid

if you can mitigate the risks, then it’s a nifty mount escape

add it to your kips, bridging over, and leg collection escapes

gogogogogo — alan sanchez vs osvaldo cañamar

the 10th planet name for this is the gogo-clinch, but the mechanic is basically closing the carotids off on both sides — so, side-on strangle?

osvaldo’s posture is broken and his right arm is getting isolated using the curl of alan’s leg — on his right side osvaldo’s got the shin pushing into a carotid and on the left side, the forearm pulling in

the key to setting this up is to read your opponent’s reactions correctly

alan frames osvaldo’s face away to make inside space to slip his left leg in and then immediately loops his left hand behind to grab osvoldo’s chin, keeping the posture broken and the face turned away

that chin grip is nasty, but is very useful in fronthead situations to control the way your partner is looking — be warned, you won’t make many friends using this in the training room 😂

osvaldo pushes the foot in to relieve pressure, but alan uses the opportunity to close up the far clasp grip wrapping over his left leg to protect his lcl — for a second, the shin is off of the carotid but once the second leg comes in to reinforce the push, it’s over 🙅🏻‍♀️

cranks or blood chokes are accepted here as forms of payment, capitalize on the pushing and pulling of your opponent to profit

leg sequence — jonathan wilson vs. andy granados

here we see persistent leg hunting from granados

granados starts in a double outside ashi leg entanglement and wilson attempts to expose his back

for the attacker, this usually leads to two paths — turning to re-face your opponent and abandoning the heel catch, or turning to further catch the heel

by rotating around the leg so that the hips face the knee, you ensure that your opponent can’t hide their heel

robert degle talks about that here

you might give up the back though doing this, so no solutions, just tradeoffs

granados does two things here, he turns his hips to face the knee AND he also inverts, which allows him to transition effortlessy from double outside ashi to the cross ashi position

as he does this, wilson turns away to hide his heel and granados transitions the foot from cross body to same side, ending up in a diagonal ashi attacking an outside heel hook (legs locked inside, looking at outside of the foot)

pretty fucking threatening, honestly, but wilson strips some grips and recovers back to outside ashi

granados takes distal control on the ankle and does three things to achieve finishing mechanics

1. he takes his outside leg and reaps inward putting pressure on the outside of wilson’s knee

2. stomps on that reap to keep wilson’s knee bent and leg/hip immobilized

3. slips the heel out of the straight ankle grip to click straight into the aoki

what did i say earlier about distal control and then figuring out the lower leg puzzle pieces? just another example 🤗

twister battle — alan sanchez vs kevin beuhring

this example showed up in my wedge post, so check it out the direct link right there

the tldr is if you want to use the twister hook to win the truck, the early bird does NOT get the worm, you’re actually better off countering than initiating using a twister hook

backtake — alan sanchez vs derek rayfield

it started off as a wedge — usually the top person initiates the roll if they want to utilize the wedge to do a rolling backtake

but rayfield gets hip height and starts to invert

alan follows with the wedge, but eventually loses the angle and opts to hover his legs near rayfield’s hips

the sneaky detail here is alan preloading a left hand overhook as he chases the back (just like when you’re rolling someone over with a seatbelt)

as the position right side ups again, alan has seatbelt control with his feet in position for hooks

some fucking top gun maverick shit going on here, i think brandon mccaghren agrees with me too

that’s all folks, hope you enjoyed it and learned something

i’ll probably do a favorites from polaris 34 too, because there was some great leggy locks in that one, so look out for that

get out there and train ✌️

also, catch alan sanchez vs renato canuto dec 11th on ufc bjj

sources

1. 10th planet san jose 🌀🦈 come train with us

2. justin flores on the bjj fanatics podcast

3. eddie bravo invitational 26 the welterweights

4. jason rau patreon

5. robertdeglebjj free yt seminars

6. craig jones invitational 2 on bteam yt

"for clothes too dirty for the closet but too clean for the laundry, we have … the chair”

the chair is basically a transient purgatory: it carries weight of all types regardless of cleanliness — you can drape stuff on it, drape yourself over it, sit your butt down, do your workout dips on it, whatever

not everyone has the same chuckle when they see this meme (mainly because i make fun of my partner for this one) — the amount of clothing on this office chair right behind me is comical

hey frank stay on topic, what does this have to do with jiujitsu lol

the analogy here is that the wedge is a important transitory position for back offense — there are many examples where the wedge is used to access your partner’s lower back (and eventually the entire back) through the use of their legs as a lever

mechanics

let’s talk about mechanics first and what cues you need to understand to really make use of the wedge position

the wedge is basically … a see-saw

your partner is the plank, and the knee in their hip pocket serves both as a base and fulcrum to rotate around

the outside free leg makes connection, with the leg/shin/foot pressing down on your partner’s leg, and well, their torso comes up, rotating around that planted knee

lachlan has arguably one of the best wedge/truck instructionals out there on submeta.io (get it) — you can see this lever-see-saw action here:

there’s some additional rotational forces (pointing your knees away, etc) that help you bring your partner’s back to you, but the basic mechanic of the see-saw holds

whoever wins this battle of depressing the leg lever and raising the hips to expose the lower back, gets the truck/cross body ride and wins the advantageous position

even in positions where you have too much distance, the same things apply — lachlan looks adjust hip to hip, creates a fulcrum in the hip pocket, and depresses jacob’s leg to raise his hips

lachlan also shoots his arm back to get a trap grip for a headstart on taking the back

it’s up to you to figure out how to position your body to turn them into the plank of the see-saw — here’s lachlan wedging the fucking world into backtakes

trust me, it’s worth a few watches

where else bro, where are these purgatory positions

get better at the wedge, and these open up for you:

if you hate side control and wanna go for complex backtakes

it makes your berimbolos better — once you invert, you’re in the wedge

you can utilize it in a stack pass

it’ll give you the option to take the back in turtle without a huge fight to get complete inside control — once you have the wedge, perpendicular positioning with chest to lower back wins you the truck

or, if someone inverts on you from reverse de la riva, look for that knee to hip, and that trailing leg turns into your lever

also, passing kguard — knee in pocket, trailing leg becomes the lever

the wedge leg turns into twister hook and vice versa if you wanna fuck around in that position

crab ride also transitions to wedge which transitions to twister hook (but we won’t talk about that today)

the knee holds the tension in the crab hook on the side of the thigh, slips to the hip pocket (wedge), and then switches to the twister hook

don’t be intimidated though, the mechanics are all very similar — we’re using our partner’s leg as a lever to raise the hips — this is the pattern

where else bro continued, the leggy lock edition

the wedge is also used as one of the slicker leg lock counters out there

anytime your opponent decides to engage in a leg entanglement — they are giving you a connection, and therefore, a possible lever

rau uses it to counter the false reap here

lachlan counters the cross ashi by backstepping all the way to the wedge

you can do the same in 50/50, like craig does here

he stacks and backsteps for the angle to insert his fulcrum (knee in hip) in the air, then falls down for the see-saw

more passing through leg entanglements — single leg x forward roll wedge

passing single leg x using a backstep to wedge, just like the cross ashi backstep, with an extra step or two

the pattern is rotating your body to look for insertion of the knee wedge, which then puts you in position to maximize using the leg lever to lift the hips

but is the wedge the truck?

the truck is a position — the wedge or the twister hook is used to get there

the twister hook is stronger at holding the position

if you lock the twister hook in and their hips are on top of your stomach in a 90 degree configuration, this is the truck 🛻

the twister hook is just a switch of the legs, from the knee wedge — remember this:

a note of caution

the twister hook is the 50/50 position of this see-saw battle

because both parties have a single leg connection, both parties can depress the lever

which is why i personally like using the wedge, as it offers asymmetric gains — i have a lever to depress, and my partner does not (he/she has to execute more steps in order to achieve the same thing)

the twister hook is good for holding, bad for initiating

lol i’m talking about depressing levers like a slot machine — ding! you get the back! ding! you get the back 🎰

lachlan agrees, the twister hook is better used once you solidify position, otherwise, you risk getting flipped

i waited for ebi 261 to happen, and lucky for us — we got some truck footage in the alan sanchez versus kevin beuhring match

in the above video, lachlan says, “whoever shoots for the twister hook usually gives up a counterattack in which they could potentially lose”

this is exactly what happens when beuhring goes for the truck using the twister hook first

twister hook goes in and immediately, it’s a 50/50 position

alan knows this and uses the calf slicer + kamikaze wrap as an attack AND a lever to win the truck battle

beuhring is no pushover so his calf lives to fight another day, but to escape the leg attacks, he gives up the back

would it have gone differently if beuhring deepened his left leg connection and remained in the wedge? maybe, we’ll never know — but for sure the calf slicer wouldn’t have been there

ok i’m over this casino 🎰 how the fuck do i get outta here

with the wedge, there is no re-flipping without undoing their grips and getting your fulcrum and leg lever in

because we discussed the mechanics above, reverse-engineering it gives you preventative and corrective solutions

it’s a see-saw right? if you can’t depress the lever, there ain’t gonna be any hip-lifting today

jozef blocks lin’s lever with his own foot

you can also push it off

if you don’t have a fulcrum or base for the see-saw, there ain’t gonna be any hip-lifting either

jozef demonstrates this by pulling the bottom leg away

this has a dual-function where it dismounts jozef’s hips as well, no more hip height, no more see-saw — the playground is broken

in the most recent polaris, jozef does the same, and then messes with the angle of the lever leg to try for a cry-angle

hejratt does a good job of getting his hips in close — a very lachlan-esque scoot, but that doesn’t matter when jozef pulls away his base

the hips come off, the fulcrum is gone, the lever is ineffective — go play somewhere else

jon calestine does the same

if you don’t close the distance on the hip, there ain’t gonna be any hip-lifting or backtakes today either

remember the first video, that little nifty shifty shifty lachlan does? he’s getting his hips closer, just like hejratt above

what’s the opposite? swim an arm frame inside and escape the hips away

the fulcrum is then out of place, as with the angle of the leg lever — it’s going bad

lachlan goes further by pummeling behind the knees to lever jacob’s lower back up for a backtake

of course you can also undo everything and just come up on top because “eff your leg lever slot machine”

remove connections, shoot your leg across and either face away or face towards your opponent

lachlan faces away

ethan does some of his famous spazzing and uses the momentum to turn and face his opponent

the straightening and turning of the leg and body is particularly important, because it makes his opponent’s lever push much less effective — pause it and look

as ethan does this, all angles on the fulcrum and leg lever get messed up and he comes up on top

remember you’re not just memorizing these things

if you understand the physics behind what’s actually going on, you have hundreds of ways to think about screwing up or perfecting those physics, and that’s defense and offense

intermezzo!

mateusz recently talked about inversions into the bolo and the differences between face-rolling and inverting

it was about bolos, but really, it’s an application of the wedge

the difference between the two types he talks about is mainly distance and partner reaction

inversion allows you to get under but if you watch what inversions do, they actually pull the knees away from your partner a little bit, which makes it tougher to form that hip grip we talked about top initiate the wedge

this was actually new to me, i’m one of those assholes that usually only inverts because i have no bones

face rolling helps to maintain closeness, but it only works when they’re backing off

so, face roll to keep closer distance to the hips provided they aren’t driving into you

inversion to get under them and carry their weight as a way to counter them driving into you — even though your knees pull back, it still works because they’re driving into you, reducing distance

i’ll have to play with this myself before i make further comments on it, but again, a condition for the wedge is upper leg and hip connection — the deeper you are, the less work you have to do to take the back

but, like many things in jiujitsu — these are dilemmas and two sides of the same coin — you have to play off each of them

i hope this post helps you in wedge purgatory ✌️

sources

1. submeta.io by lachlan giles

2. absolute mma st. kilda yt channel

3. grappler’s guide by jason scully - berimbolo system by nick salles & dan maira

4. jason rau’s patreon

5. jason rau’s outside ashi intructional

6. craig jones 5050 instructional

7. jozef chen’s patreon

8. ebi 26 alan sanchez vs kevin beuhring

9. bteam yt channel

10. brian glick yt channel @ nyc workshop bjj

the instructors were jason rau and jozef chen, and they did all things passing

awhile ago, i wrote about hanging out with more young people in their early to mid 20s, specifically those who decided to pursue mastery in one thing (jiujitsu or combat sports or anything, really)

they’re an interesting case because these focused young’uns seem to have developed a different kind of maturity based on mastery and possibility rather than what happens when you delay that with the standard “education + job + hobbies” route (not that there’s anything wrong with that)

being a millennial myself, we were the last of the analog generation, growing up without the use of cellphones, 24/7 screen usage, youtubing everything, and the information superhighway, but we still took part in the analog to digital switch, so we kind of have a perspective on both worlds

if you watch stranger things, we’re kinda like those kids — just add being increasingly online in the next 5-ish years for them

my opinion is based on small observed sample sizes and my own millennial experience (so don’t flame me if you don’t fit this)

to me, older folks that grew up in the analog world feel more like structured process types — we seem to want to force a probabilistic world into a deterministic container — i.e we follow some dictated path to get to a certain outcome

most of my friends seem to have gone this way, including myself — college educated, got a job that’s kinda okay, “settle down” (ish), and do good by best practices — not a bad life by any means, but i think we really lacked imagination

the genZ-ers i know (young people) have this sort of high experimentation, shock-and-awe type of mindset that feels borderline degenerate but surprisingly leads to decent outcomes — they follow their curiosities and don’t necessarily take a traditional life path

they have an easy, intuitive feel with manipulating social media, understand what clicks and sticks, are ok being fools (and making viral videos in the process), and consider it normal to have a variety of odd freelance jobs to support the arts and crafts that they deeply love

you frequently see this kind of high experimentation mindset in silicon valley too, regardless of age:

we released v1 of this app last week

it looks like users hated app feature X, conversion sucked ass

but hey, it looks like they were incorrectly using that feature for Y, let’s tweak and pivot, and re-release

oh shit we just 4x’ed our users, and our servers crashed

let’s go into debt and buy more servers and figure it out later

also yeah, release that slightly offensive marketing ad, it’s perfect

and on

this mindset and being young are not mutually exclusive but the probability that they’re found together is higher

this skill of manipulating and keeping up with the internet information superhighway calls for a different skillset, one that is equally powerful with handling information in the real world

young folks seem to be less concerned about pre-ordained, previously successful processes — they’re seeking possibility (and cool stuff) in a probabilistic world, and they were born in the deluge of information

what is it that bane said?

“oh, you think the darkness is your ally, but you merely adopted the dark — i was born in it, molded by it”

jiujitsu is a really good playground for developing and testing those skills because it’s inherently a high information and high variability sport

so, the skill gap to me, feels like:

1. insatiable curiosity over how it was or has been done before

2. intelligent ignorance to standards over set conventions aka knowing when to break rules and not look like an asshole

3. iteratively experimental over getting things perfect or right

*breathes like bane* — i feel sufficiently cool now, so let’s move on

yes i know, i was supposed to talk about the camp 🙄😆

we were drilling some of rau’s half guard passing stuff at the focus camp, and i ended up doing some drills with jozef

he did the move, but quickly introduced a dizzying array of other options

“what happens if you angle the elbow this way?”

“frame on me, this way — is that how you’d do it live?”

“can you move your leg?”

“what happens if i do this, how would you react?”

“oh i didn’t expect you to pull your knee up like that, hm”

all of this happened in the span of a minute or two

he’d sit there quietly, do it again, his eyes clearly indicating that he was deep in thought

“hm, I don’t like the risk I’m taking here” — he’d explain his reasoning out loud

high experimentation, high curiosity, at high speeds — jozef was trying to understand heuristics, reactions, and cues — i don’t think these kind of athletes think anything is egregiously stupid, as long as it’s fiddled with so they can gather evidence

i see the same thing with my coach when i ask him questions about a certain position — his responses make it clear to me that he’s fucked around with that similar high-experimentation-curiosity type of mindset

“yeah in my competition with taza i did this and it worked because xyz”

“stay in combat stance, can you counter this?”

“you can also do a cheeky backtake here if they give you this reaction, but now, try falling to a hip, does it still work?”

“what happens here? hm … not sure, let’s try it”

“some people like to do this weird frame here, but i actually think this one is better”

imagine how much you could learn in just one hour, if you did this kind of adhd stuff everyday in training

this hyper-curious mindset was probably the most inspiring takeaway for me — sometimes i feel life can beat it outta people in their older years, and it’s not necessarily even jiujitsu-related

clearly, i can’t turn back time to be young again, but what i can do is color over what’s already been colored in

as we grow older, we internalize things like embarrassment, shame, and guilt — this is certainly not confidence inspiring

resisting those emotions kills curiosity and creates blackout curtains to a carefree soul

it’s my belief that this curious/experimental/degenerate rule-breaker “mode” exists in everyone, and as jiujitsu athletes, we’d all be better if we started rattling the cages

cool kids care, and also, mess around

this doesn’t mean you go completely off-base and start talking back to your instructor and training partners — degenerate curiosity is not the same as outright disrespect

it also doesn’t mean that instructionals, seminars, and advice are bullshit — they’re just … information — a look into the process of other grapplers

early in our journey we might start off a little bit too tight, too uncompromising, and as time goes on, we learn, and sort of let loose, and start looking at the world from a more probabilistic standpoint

it’s not that a move is ever “impossible”, it might just be difficult

it’s not that you’ll never beat a dude that that’s beaten you 10 times, there’s always a non-zero chance (big red told me this)

rules are rules for a reason but also, rules can be bent and broken, learn both

the world is actually different shades of colors and greys, not just black and white

i see you

it’s cool to see this kind of attitude in many of my training partners

it surfaces as interesting tics in their game

they might be bending the rules or outright breaking them, but perhaps it’s to create a certain reaction later down the line that benefits them 🔨

or, they discover a grip that works and they’re just screwing around with it, and it presents a new problem for me 💪

it even extends to experimental mindsets — “there is no guard” or “i’m doing this bullshit move that doesn’t work” (but obviously does in some way) — you know, weird thoughts that help change mat behavior and open the possibility space 🧠

not giving a shit is one of the best ways to unlearn

forget “winning” in the training room 🧠

try a bunch of adjacent alternative stuff while drilling, and hell, while rolling with others 🙃

feel no embarrassment in the mind, no red hot glow on your face while getting tapped in dumb places 😌

try weird things in even weirder positions, and see why they do or don’t work ⭐️

but make sure it’s not senseless though — all experiments have parameters and so, some of that millennial process-driven thinking is nice too alongside of curiosity, experimentation, and degeneracy

don’t overthink it

it reminds me of a book i read recently called “why greatness cannot be planned: the myth of the objective” by kenneth stanley

the title kind of spoils it, but it’s a fascinating read on how some of our most creative solutions, accomplishments, and discoveries are born from non-objective thinking and high experimentation that inherently dodges deceptive stepping-stones that lead nowhere

the last piece

take the time to talk to your training partners 🎶

communicate with them, please

we’re already hugging each other for christ sakes, talk to each other about how you’re hugging, ya know? 😂 they’re not just ragdolls

all in all, focus camp was awesome and quite rejuvenating, learning tech was probably the very least that i learned

i’m looking forward to more experimental training

remember, this can also be applied beyond jiujitsu

for myself, i think it drastically increases my rate of learning for anything, and find it keeps creativity high — all good things for longevity

make jiujitsu fun again (if you’ve lost the fun-ness) ✌️

sources

1. @bjj_focus_camps with jason rau and jozef chen

2. @rhesusbel 📸

3. 10th planet san jose (alan sanchez)

4. 10th planet san mateo (adam sachnoff)

5. why greatness cannot be planned by kenneth stanley

my own coach is particularly good at this, he’s displayed it at a high level

once alan gets an angle using an underhook, he switches his legs so the top hook stays connected and the bottom comes out for base as he goes for even more of an angle

what we can really do with this top hook though, is pull the foot out and internally rotate the knee, to the point where we can start to disrupt their base

because alan is back heeling his left leg and reaping nathan’s leg outward, nathan can’t effectively turn into him — if he does, he’s basically breaking his own hip

you can see that nathan tries to go for a headlock for a split second, but … he can’t because he can’t turn to face

at the extreme end range of this motion, pulling the leg out means their hip has to move away in order to account for the reap

it’s basically a leg kimura — you’re using the leg as a lever — a 90 degree bend at the knee contributes to the hip turning (the fulcrum)

if they stay in that position, their hip will hurt, so they fall away or straighten the leg, which relieves the pressure

once that mechanic happens, the sweep is right there and alan has the base and angle necessary to run nathan over — beautiful

another view from the back with lachlan — he does the same thing, but he also hips in a little bit to keep two points of contact — you’ll have to jigger it around with your specific body type, but you want tension throughout

this ksoto hook type movement is advantageous not only in half guard but turtle

bottom man can’t turn to face and finds it difficult to move because we’re sucking away base on one side

we can use the same reaping motion from the inside — craig comes from behind (i don’t like any sentence that starts with “craig comes from behind 😂”) and pushes the foot outward, just from the inside — his opponent collapses inward on himself because he can’t keep a strong base

this opens up opportunities to get hooks in and penetrate the space between the elbows and knees

the ksoto hook is also great in the front head position, which is proximally related to turtle

craig slows their rotation to achieve greater angle, and in most cases, even helps turn the situation around by again, sucking away their base

the key is we’re limiting their mobility and destroying base

one of my training partners also showed me this half-fishnet-esque sort of sweep that starts from a ksoto hook

you can also ksoto hook with your arm too in a turtle reversal situation, just be careful about your training partners knee

in a competition where there’s something on the line, all bets are off

because inside space is so highly coveted, i sometimes don’t want to go head-on looking for that space, so instead, i go outside, where it’s less crowded, and use a ksoto hook to start pulling limbs out

in the early stages, it prevents your partner from turning into you

in the later stages, it mechanically is a reap and makes your partner fall away or react to relieve tension, disrupting their base and opening opportunities

easy move, really good advantages — i’ve been messing with it more with people who like to pass on their knees

i pull a limb out and use their reaction as a way to switch back to inside control

play with it ✌️

sources

1. ebi 22 alan sanchez vs nathan haddad

2. absolute mma st. kilda yt channel

3. craig jones power ride instructional

4. bteam yt channel and @grapplingscenario on ig

i heard it first in the entrepreneurial tech space, but i think it’s really applicable in grappling

there are no absolute solutions, just tradeoffs

when people ask me questions:

• why can’t i keep this kimura grip?

• why so hard to get my turtle hooks in?

• why no armdrag here?

• how do i retain the back in this position?

• any version of — “why isn’t this working”?

without knowing the specifics, it’s most likely:

the situation has changed and an alternative solution is better

there are no absolute solutions that will work in all situations, there are only tradeoffs given a particular set of conditions

you can start answering a lot of your own questions like this, or start asking better questions

this is where knowledge plays into jiujitsu:

do i have the conditions necessary to [maintain/retain/escape/survive/accomplish a goal]

or

have the conditions sufficiently changed that i have to move onto the next thing that will help me [maintain/retain/escape/survive/accomplish a goal]

more succinctly:

🎶 should i stay or should i go? 🎶 😂

or pj’s quote:

what can i afford to do given the circumstances?

i’ll give a few examples:

craig switches to the spiderweb given the angle and decides to forgo the back to continue the attack — tradeoffs

with an arm extended, getting broken is much easier, but gordon takes advantage of this position to use a free hand to fight the wedges over his head and shoulders so he generates enough movement to get out — tradeoffs

mica goes for an omaplata and immediately switches to an armbar because that’s one of his strongest attacks, and also, because the situation changed (kenta straightens his arm) a better attack was pursued

mica intuitively understood that the omaplata was “gone”, so he moved onto the next adjacent attack — tradeoffs

giancarlo does not accept the mount position and opts to stay on the back

he even abandons a rear naked choke to stay on the back — tradeoffs

defend the choke or the back?

defending the choke exposes the back, defending the back exposes the choke — tradeoffs

let’s rewind this gordon barbosa match just a little bit

hulk has a rear body lock with waist grip and gordon stands

can hulk bring gordon’s hips to the mat, or does he need to move on to the next thing?

gordon begins to strip the grips, and hulk still tries a mat return, but does not achieve a shoulder pin, gordon uses the mat return to face hulk, and it’s the beginning of the end — tradeoffs (with a very small margin of error)

could hulk have scored? maybe, if he chose a different style of takedown (low double?), but we’ll never know

both sides are managing tradeoffs

again, there are no absolutes — one is not better than the other, it’s only what the circumstances dictate, and personal preferences (your game) play into this

this is where the idea of dilemmas come from:

the attacker’s goal is to put your opponent in a dilemma when they have to pick between multiple reactionary paths in a given position — ideally, all paths are bad for them

as you learn the various positions in grappling, you’ll see that every position has its strong and susceptible points — these are where tradeoffs arise from

if you manage these tradeoffs well, and understand how they connect, then you create dilemmas

the weakness of one move is usually the strength of the other — if they move left i can use x if they move right i can use y, if they spaz i can use z

these reactions will continue from both parties, and that’s basically what jiujitsu is — this dance between two people putting each other in positions of strength and susceptibility, with good and bad dilemmas playing out to the next position

these “windows” of strength and susceptibility get smaller as the level gets higher, and the windows get really fucking small

when i roll with my coach, there’s some millisecond window in there that i have to react to him

sometimes i intellectually know — yes i need to free my far shoulder to rotate, but my coach got there a half second ago and by the time my body is executing it, i’m already being finished, which leads me to react to shittier positions and tradeoffs until it’s unrecoverable

it’s like a game of billiards — if you make the 5 ball but your cue ball is out of position and the angle is all wrong for the 6, you have to perform more difficult and dicier shots in order to get back into position for the 7, 8, and 9, which increases the probability of missing

at the highest levels, just a couple of millimeters changes the trajectory of where your cue ball can go — you often see professional competitors shaking their heads, knowing they missed that narrow margin and now have a tougher time ahead of them

this is why your reactions to what is happening on the mat is important, there’s nothing “right” or “wrong” per se, just more or less optimal

timing

ok so we have this knowledge layer where we understand the conditions necessary for certain positions or submissions — it helps us to know if we want to recover or move on

these positions have strong points and weak points and linking them together creates dilemmas — we want to constantly funnel our opponents into shitty situations

timing can be simply explained as “when something should be done”

it’s the hardest of the three to articulate how to get better — it’s the execution of knowledge and setups (for dilemmas) at the right time

the way i like to think about improving timing is understanding conceptual cues — a sufficiently abstracted knowledge layer that one can recall it very quickly

it’s sort of sounds like awareness as well, and you’re not wrong

you and your coach probably know the same move, but what makes him/her better comes down to reacting to conceptual cues

let’s say you go for a truck roll, there’s a period of time where it’s essentially 50/50, either of you can get the cross body ride

to win you want to lift your coach’s hips off the mat, but they shift their hip out just a little and escape their knee and all of a sudden, you’re in danger

as you look to counter, you suddenly realize they’ve also trapped your near arm, and as you start to address that to avoid a twister, they solidify the truck position

it’s not that you didn’t know the twister was a possibility, or you didn’t know how to counter the truck or get the cross body ride yourself, it’s just that your coach has fine-tuned the cues that were necessary to win that position

sometimes your coach’s level of understanding is better/different than yours, or perhaps it’s a fine-tuned sense of feel (down to a couple degrees) that makes all the difference

your coach also used the threat of the dilemma to progress that position, and together, it’s seen as executing the right movements at the right time to always keep themselves in a position of strength

at the highest levels, these conceptual cues are internalized simply as feelings and reactions, and that takes a lot of mat time to internalize

you can’t just study it, you have to do it (but studying does help!)

it’s also the reason why certain competitors don’t make good teachers — they can’t really backtrack and explain what’s going on in their head, it’s just so ingrained and is usually taught as pure knowledge, which isn’t the entire story

doing it

knowing is only a third of the battle — another third is understanding complements, the strengths and weaknesses of each position that comprise dilemmas, and the last third is timing — intelligently executing knowledge with strategy at the right time

jiujitsu is not easy

this can be situation dependent, so as always, i recommend playing around in positions both from an offensive and defensive standpoint using constraints and goals

when rolling, spend specific time in positions that interest you, don’t just roll randomly

when drilling, communicate with your partner, ask them to give some reactions, don’t just be a dead fish

maybe you play offensive turtle, and set the goal of getting a pin, or taking the back — you’ll also encounter more specific scenarios involving four point or one hook in scenarios

then play defense, so you learn how to counter the offense

then do it again, with varying body types and skill levels

maybe you study some instructionals and film (knowledge of strengths and weaknesses)

and you run it back, increasing the scope of how you’re interplaying between attacks and control (dilemmas)

all the while, you’re sharpening up execution by experimenting on the mat (timing and putting together a system of cues for yourself)

next week, you start working the back, and you add that positional option to turtle

tada, you’re getting better in all the right ways

✌️

sources

1. roaming rolls yt channel & jozef chen patreon

2. ufc fight pass? (whatever ebi is on lol)

3. flograppling (gordon vs hulk adcc 2019, mica vs kenta wno)

4. bteam yt channel (giancarlo vs ronaldo cji 2)

understanding breaking mechanics is important to how you untangle those mechanics for escape success

let’s go into depth about the straight ankle lock because it’s had a resurgence

conditions

🎶 break me off a piece of that kit-kat leg 🎶

these conditions have to be fulfilled to achieve a straight ankle break

1. fulcrum placement (closure around the achilles tendon)

2. getting and maintaining a plantar flexed foot (point your toes like a ballerina)

3. rotational control above the ankle (knee, leg, and/or hip)

get and maintain all three, and you have a break

disrupt at least one of these three, and you can leave with your feet

fulcrum

let’s first talk about fulcrum placement

we’re looking to target the achilles tendon, right above the heel

right where the heel dimples down to the achilles is where you want your fulcrum to be, whether it’s the forearm, wrist, elbow pocket, whatever

why there? physically, the heel acts as a stopper, so you can shallow out your grip on the achilles tendon until you bump into it — it’s also directly opposite from the ligaments you want to break in the top of the ankle

this is why when adjusting your grip, many high-level straight ankle lockers will loosen up their legs and actually push their opponent away with a slight hip escape, a butterfly ashi hook, or a straight push using their own hand on their opponent’s shin

it feels like you’re going to slip out, and then all of a sudden the heel gets caught in your grip, and you can rotate your grip up to your chest while simultaneously pinching your elbow to your rib — the grip itself should feel threatening

they’re doing that to adjust the fulcrum to that point on the achilles right before it hits the heel

when the fulcrum is as close as possible to the end of the lever (the foot), the concentration of the lever action (hipping in) focuses on a very small breaking area

this is why booting works as a defense, when you boot, you fuck up the fulcrum (maybe it moves up to the calf), and when you hip in, you’re trying to break the shin, which usually is uncomfortable, but not breaking, ya know?

plantar flexed foot

second part is the foot side of the see-saw

given that we’re trapping a very shallow fulcrum

we want complete closure and a strong wedge to trap the foot in a position where the toes are depressed so when we start our breaking mechanic, all the force is transferred into hyperextending the ligaments on the top of the foot

one of the best ways to do this is to use a combination of the side of your ribs and elbow, reinforced with a hand on the shin, like szczeciński does

it accomplishes the same thing — it keeps the fulcrum in place, and offers plantar flexion with a rib-elbow wedge at the bottom of the foot, so no booting can happen

from mr. szczeciński himself, again

jozef also talks about it here in a bear trap video, same mechanic

there’s also two dimensions that the foot can turn — inwards towards the big toe (which is more natural) and outwards (towards the pinky toe), which feels tighter and more awkward — try it on yourself right now

you can certainly finish by attaining perfect finishing mechanics and hipping in with the toes turned inward, but we can achieve even more devastating breaking pressure if we go the way the foot doesn’t want to turn, which is hipping in with a slight angle to bring the toes to the outside, towards the way the foot doesn’t turn

szczeciński takes about five seconds to talk about it here but i think it’s actually a very important part of achieving devastating breaks (you know, turning things the way they shouldn’t turn, lol)

take these things into account when positioning both the fulcrum and foot control

rotational control above the ankle

the last point of control is the hips, thighs or knees, anything on the other side of the foot and ankle (the other side of the seesaw)

obviously if you don’t have these controls, hipping in will just cause the force to extrude out this end of the seesaw, and your finishing forces will be dissipated due to your opponent moving

if you don’t put weight down on one end of the seesaw, you’ll never break it at the fulcrum, that side of the seesaw will just come up and absorb the force

leg entanglements fulfill this condition, outside ashi, butterfly ashi, single leg x

feet on the hip (outside ashi here) with weight put through them fulfill this condition

the tren lock, a triangle locking over the shin, fulfills this condition

yes, varying degrees of rotation can still happen in each of these positions, which may lead to disruption, but that’s where the fun is — being able to maintain these conditions under resistance

there are no absolute positions in jiujitsu — there’s a way out for all of them

why legs tho

leg locks in general are a very effective way to get good fast because it leverages two things:

1. smaller size differences (the leg of someone bigger than you is still easier to engage, maintain, and finish compared to their total mass)

2. control is focused on the leg itself, eliminating the need to pin entire torsos — if your straight ankle, aoki, heel hook grips are very strong (distal grips), you can very effectively suck your opponent into finishing leg positions

a great example is lachlan giles’s 2019 adcc absolutes run, where he took out a number of giants using the 90/10 position and inside heel hooks

that being said, i fell into the trap of “fuck it, let’s fall back for a leg lock”, which basically stunted my growth until i consciously took it out to develop my wrestling and passing game (still a work in progress)

don’t let getting lots of taps via the legs fuel your ego — it’s fine to be a leg locker, but i would recommend rounding out your game

let’s study some examples

will it blend? break?

pato vs malachi

1. shallow fulcrum right above the heel ✅

2. foot pinched between elbow and rib ✅

3. tren lock over-the-shin style leg control plus a wrist grip to prevent rotation ✅

✅ submission

kenta vs rod

1. fulcrum ❌ (a little too much on the calf, imo, and nicky rod being an absolute fucking beast ✅, and 1 mil on the line ✅)

2. because the fulcrum was out of place, the foot also looked loose, ideally we should almost see only a little bit of bottom of the foot, which tells me it was mostly lower calf crank ❌

3. 50/50 belly down hip control ✅

❌ no submission

dante vs mica

1. sufficiently shallowed out fulcrum, kimura grip ✅

2. foot really pinched between elbow and rib, side on ✅

3. double outside ashi crossed on the hip, maintaining side on through the rolls ✅

✅ submission

these side ankle locks are quite interesting, because usually when the foot is turned like that, an outside heel hook is what we’d want to look for

however, just based on how much mica is turned, i can almost guarantee that there won’t be the right type of finishing tension needed for an outside heel hook, plus, his knee is straight

which perfectly sets up the conditions for something like a side ankle lock

musumeci vs pato

1. sufficiently shallowed out fulcrum, kimura grip ✅

2. foot pinched between elbow and rib, side on ✅

3. outside ashi, belly down ✅

✅ submission

no thanks to the referee that blocked out 80% of the view 😒

junny vs musumeci

1. sufficiently shallowed out fulcrum, kimura grip, pushing and pulling on the shin to adjust ✅

2. foot pinched between elbow and rib, heel slips out ever so slightly so the attack starts first towards junny’s pinky toes, but then junny starts rolling so mikey switches to a side ankle lock finishing towards the toes ❌

3. butterfly ashi to outside ashi, to rolling ❌

❌ no submission, junny maintains a degree of rotation at the hip and is able to change the angle of how his foot is controlled

pato vs owen

1. tight grip on the left achilles ✅

2. foot pinched between elbow and rib ✅

3. both legs criss-cross trapped, with a tren style over-the-shin lock, reinforced with a triangle ✅

4. unnecessarily obscene gesture by pato ✅

✅ submission

craig vs martinez

1. tight grip on achilles ✅

2. foot pinched between elbow and rib, reinforced by the mat ✅

3. caio terra type lock (de la riva configuration reinforced by the mat), also like a same-side tren lock over the shin ✅

✅ submission

i probably missed hundreds of other matches but if you know any others — pull them up!

see if this system makes sense for you

adjust it to make your own

sources

1. flograppling yt channel highlights and cji2

2. ibjjf yt channel

3. ufc yt channel quintet 3

4. bteam yt channel mateusz szczeciński ankle lock seminar

5. jozef chen’s patreon

i sort of stick to a similar position for about two weeks and then transition off to a adjacent position, so over time, students can start to see how everything is connected

gamifying mount

the most important thing when in bottom mount is to get out, whether it’s by recovering guard or reversing the situation

the most important thing in top mount (feel free to argue me on this) is maintenance

if you can’t maintain the mount, you can’t expose grips and limbs, and advance position for submissions — you just get bucked off, rodeo-style

even if you can’t submit, boy, it’s good to be able to secure the position and make an uncomfortable time for your opponent

the initiation point is different from top and bottom, so i’ll play two games to reinforce the goals for each person

for the top player, we’ll play a game of simply maintaining mount, no submissions allowed — you can expose elbows, crossface, surf, and eyepoke 😂 — i expect them to shift their weight accordingly and begin feeling out how to distribute their weight and when to be tight and loose depending on what their partner is doing

during this time, i’ll observe what people are having trouble with — it’s mostly:

• being overly tight, and not loosening up at the right time to absorb hip extension from the bottom player

• space management — not redirecting frames that can carry weight, being too loose when they should be tight, having their center of mass being carried instead of offset (e.g when someone bucks to your right, you can either loosen up so the force is only partially transferred or shift your center mass to the left, like in smount to maintain the top position)

for the bottom player, we’ll play a game of starting with two elbows up, and also one elbow up, with the goal of getting elbows down to the ribs

strong frames that help manipulate weight start with getting elbows down to the ribs, so finding paths to do so even in the worst of positions is key

i’ll also play an extra game where the win condition is to get elbows down and also collect a foot (quarter guard), which sets up the conditions for even more escapes

some observations here:

• some suffer from erroneous timing, there’s some patience involved in waiting for the right moment to create directional off balances

• some forget to use those moments of off balance to turn to the side to use the entire body as a frame, to create space, get an elbow down, a knee through, or some kind of foot pummel and capture

through these games i want to impart the beginning of feeling out main starting goals for each position so we can progress to actual escapes and actual finishes

progression

from the spiderweb stuff we did last week, we also did backwards progressions into smount, which ties really nicely into mount, so if the students are doing a good job maintaining mount, then naturally, we can setup a game where their goal is to progress to one or two elbows up into perpendicular smount for any variety of armbar and triangle attacks

isolating elbows and limbs also opens up the possibility of americanas, kimuras, and giftwraps

so, the next series of games is limb isolation — i add this condition onto the condition of maintaining mount as well

once again i observe, and then show some tech as to how i would approach it:

• stripping grips using the weight of an extended arm, shoulder girdle, and gravity to do the work instead of using pure strength

• using the straightening of my elbow, chest, and shoulder motion to wrench limbs upwards and expose the space underneath the ribs

• these are all forms of using leverage to make your life easier

completing mount escapes

standard weight shift escapes

i’ll tack on completing escapes after they get their frames back, whether its progressing completely to half guard, achieving any forms of knees to chest and in front of their opponent, or disconnecting completely back to open guard, or reversal

shift weight to one leg or another, leaves the other leg light

use a hip escape to generate even more space, shoot straight into single leg x or get your knees in front of your attacker

leg collection escape, which i stole from alan sanchez because he does it so well

• cross collection and pinch to quarter guard

• frame and turn all the way to your other hip to fully collect the leg to half guard

• as you rotate, your body becomes a frame as well

• fucking commit to this because if they free your foot and pass you again, they’ll get 7 points (pass from quarter mount = 3, to mount = 4, do not get stuck in this points farming position)

i also utilize a sneaky under pummel with the same cross foot if they’re being really stingy with their foot position, and then i quickly switch back to capturing the foot once i push their leg out to a more favorable position

submissions

once they’ve gotten the hang of figuring out limb extraction, we move onto submissions

this is where i explicitly start to show options from head and arm, and also triangle setup mechanics — we covered armbar mechanics from spiderweb and smount

i’ll do some traditional teaching on head and arm and triangle setups + mechanics, let them do some drilling for 10 minutes, and then setup games from late stages so they can practice finishing mechanics with live resistance

if the students are good at maintaining mount and then isolating limbs, then the setups become much more accessible

of course, when i do show them the mechanics, i explain what’s going on from a submission standpoint as well (closure on the carotids, preventing rotation, rotational squeeze, not just flexing and popping a zit)

head and arm mechanics

details for the head and arm is a combination of things i learned from big red and alan sanchez

i also added some details from gordon ryan and craig jones as well

notable items:

• sinking the shoulder back and down to achieve tighter closure

• jacking the elbow close and removing space for tighter closure

• lifting the entire shoulder girdle to properly position the closures on the carotids

• draping the foot over the hip to limit rotation

• rotational choke mechanics with head pushing temple with the shoulder sinking down

mounted triangle

if you haven’t watched john danaher’s triangle series, do it, it’s great

triangles are similar to head and arms, which are similar to darces and anacondas and any one arm in one arm out with closure situation

same things apply:

• achieve one arm in one arm out situation with your legs

• closure on both carotids, one side with your opponent’s bicep, the other with the pit of your knee

• achieving angle to eliminate the shoulder from the equation and improve closure mechanics

• mount is a pretty dominant position, so preventing rotation is pretty easy

• base on your head for more stability, it sets up the proper space to bring your hips down

• any combination of back heel, hip-in, pull up on the head to finish the strangle

• if your partner is being particularly difficult, break their arm using the armbar

once the students start looking pretty good, the games i setup become much more broad

attacker starts in mount with no grips, defender starts with hands over chest, and we connect all the dots — attacker must finish by maintaining, isolating, and submitting, defender must reverse, achieve guard beyond quarter guard, or disconnect completely to open guard

next week, we’re headed towards the back, so we’ll start with games involving the giftwrap 🎁

sources

• john danaher’s enter the system triangles instructional

• gordon ryan systematically attacking from mount instructional

• alan sanchez of 10th planet san jose 🌀

• big red adam sachnoff of 10th planet san mateo

• bteam yt channel

• standard jiujitsu yt channel

• craig jones power ride instructional