Techniques Drills Phase 1

Here are the Techniques we practiced, drill them in your mind, understand why we do each movement. Note the various starting positions.


Pull Down Take Down:
Arm drag to side of opponent, place leg behind him, pull him down, follow up to the mount.

Open Guard Sweeps...

The D Special Sweep: Same side grip, grab the heel, hip out, switch feet direction, drop one leg down to kick the other heel out, pull yourself up to mount

De la Riva Sweep to Back: Opponent steps forward, Cross grip, grab heel, weave outside leg behind and through, weave other leg behind knee, leg go of heel and grap belt, kick out and pull belt to take the back, choke.

Closed Guard Sweeps...

Flower roll: arm drag, pull with legs, trap him down, hip out to T up, swing leg to roll to mount

Sissor Sweep: hip out, pull him on top of you, get under him, control the posting arm, kick him over to mount. Do this if he kneels with one foot up too.

Arm bar to Triangle choke to kimura to triangle to armbar with crossed legs to omoplata. Remember to lift the hips to move the arm and to use sticky hands.

Armdrag pull to half guard to taking the back Marcelo style

Closed guard pass: Standing Knee in butt, press leg down and step back to take away brace, keeps legs open, pass without getting leg caught by crossing feet.

Open guard pass: Marcelo Exorcist pass

Gi Choke from back: Over under basic, behind head basic, cradle, cradle from turtle

Back Control/Choke to Armbar to Mount: Use figure 4 grip to control elbow

Kimura Escape from Bottom of 1/2 guard: Straighten arm, use knee to break grip, heave ho to double elbows in ribs, arm drag to modified scissor sweep.

Half Guard Tip: Keep underhooking arm/elbow above shoulder height, place weight on opponent with underhook.

Marcelo guillotine: Both hands reach up, elbows close, body over head, watch the neck crank, attack from tie-up position.

BJJ Mantra for Competitions

Here is the Mantra I use to keep me focused during a BJJ competition, I have most of it memorized and I repeat it in my mind throughout the competition whenever doubt or worry creeps in.

Here it is:

Make em Tap, Hours of Study and Practice, Make em Tap, Show em What You've Got, Make em Tap, See What's There, Make em Tap, You Against Him, Make em Tap, You Against Her, Make her Tap, Attack-Attack-Attack, Make em Tap, Use All You Know, Make em Tap, Go-Go-Go, Make em Tap, On the Mat, Make em Tap, Lay That Trap, Make em Tap, Just React, Make em Tap, Give it All, Make em Tap, Stay Relaxed, Make em Tap, Break His Will, Make em Tap, Love the Pain, Make em Tap, Stay Aware, Make em Tap, See the Easy Path, Make em Tap, Force the Reaction, Make em Tap, Look and Feel, Make em Tap, Be Smart, Make em Tap, Use That Flow, Make em Tap, Super Speed, Make em Tap, Herk and Jerk, Make em Tap, One-Hundred Percent, Make em Tap, First Place, Make em Tap, Get That Gold, Make em Tap, Tap em All, You're as good as you are.

Introduction to BJJ Concepts

Welcome to Fightknowledge,

I have been asked before “what are you thinking about when you roll?” That is a very good question.

When you talk, do you think about the sounds you need to make? Or do you think about the concepts and ideas you are trying to convey?

When I fight, I am not thinking about steps, I am thinking about my objective at that specific moment. Your objectives will change depending on what is happening in the fight, but they all lead to your final goal, a submission.

The concepts of BJJ presented here give you the knowledge that you need to adequately defend against BJJ attacks, and learn to create new attacks, counters, re-counters and a path to a submission.

You will need to develop good habits, but first you will need to know what those habits are.

The principles presented in the BJJ Concepts DVD show you how to watch a technique and understand why it works, or doesn’t work.

Through this process you will be able to analyze fights, discover new techniques, refine old techniques, and develop good habits for BJJ.

Enjoy.

Progression in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

This is an article that I go back to time and again. Today it has inspired me to write Five Steps to BJJ Problem Solving to help speed up the learning process.

Find it here:

Roy Harris article - Progression in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
http://www.onthemat.com/articles/Progression_in_Brazilian_JiuJitsu_10_13_2005.html

Five Steps to BJJ Problem Solving

1) Start with a goal in mind: The mind is goal oriented, give it a goal and it will find a way. Break up a generalized goal like "escape side control", or "submit my opponent" and make it more specific or mechanical like, “move/roll/push/pull from position A to position B”.

2) Use the Concepts to Find Solutions: First discover the basics of what to do, why and when. This can be done through in-person instruction, DVD's and videos, books, tournament videos on video.google.com and experimentation with a partner. Remember to focus on what you see, rather than what the person is saying. If it is a DVD/video, write up a summary to study so you don't have to watch it all over again, or watch it in fast forward.

3) Physical and Mental Practice: Train solutions into your memory by repeating a few techniques from a similar starting position with a non-resisting partner and move onto slow rolling with perfect technique, keep notes of the techniques so you don't forget any and utilize mental rehearsal by re-reading and memorizing your notes. Important: during practice think about why you are going through these motions (eg: to make space).

4) Turn the Concepts into Goals During Rolling: Once the technique and purpose is ingrained into you you shouldn't have to try remember your techniques, just think of your goals. Challenge yourself with full-on specific training and full-on rolling, focus on your goals.

5) Build on it: Discuss problems and solutions after rolling, write down what you learned, continue to build on what you know with physical and mental practice. Once you are satisfied with your performance in this area, start at #1 again.

Frustration: An Opportunity

Losing is tough on the ego, but good for the skills. Frusration is just a sign that you know you can do better. Thank your opponent for giving you this excellent problem for you to solve. Focus your energy on the solution. You have figured things out in the past, you can do it again. I believe there will always be ups and downs. If you train with the same people all the time each of you will have alternating phasing of winning and losing. If you are winning all the time your learning curve will have slowed down. You will be refining your techniques, which is fine, but you could be solving bigger and better problems.

If you are winning all the time, look to raise your standards, try to win faster, try to win with new, different and crazy moves, and try to win with less effort. Try to win with select submissions on select body parts (eg: kneebar left leg from guard).

Most importantly, if your frustrated, don't forget to ask for help.

Recommended BJJ Videos

Stephen Kesting: excellent technical knowledge in an organized format
Dynamic Kneebars
Omoplata and the Dynamic Guard
Dynamic Sweeps Vol 1 : The Butterfly and X-guard Guard

Richard Salamone: learn to apply the techniques of wrestling in BJJ and MMA
Wrestling Plan for the Jiu Jitsu Man Series

Michael Jen: excellent technical knowledge in an organzied format
All DVDs including:
Ultimate Guard Passing
Ultimate Escapes Series
Ultimate Back Escapes
Ultimate Half Guard

Marcelo Garcia: A master of submissions
Series 1
Series 2 (best)
Series 3
Series 4

Excellent Websites

Subfighter.com
Everything BJJ, MMA, Submission wrestling, UFC, Pride, and street fighting from Techniques to a HUGE forum

Onthemat.com
Includes a huge technique database and tons of free tournament videos

mma.tv
The largest underground martial arts forum on the web, find an instructor, school, tournament or seminar.

A Little Positive Thinking

Focus on your successes, remember them, ingrain them into you, don't let yourself forget them. A notebook is perfect for this!

Don't focus on your failures or defeats, learn the corrected action and focus on that.

Don't allow yourself to worry or fear, you are imagining yourself losing. This is like practicing/drilling a technique and having your opponent reverse you every time. It's the exact opposite of what you want to be instilling into your system. Instill success.

Mentally drill your techniques working, especially your newly invented ones, be sure to know they work, and reinforce them with mental drilling. Imagine the feel of the gi and the mats, the stink of your opponent, the timing of the movements, from start to finish.

Kill negative thoughts with a mantra, Mine his here.

Focus on One Concept At a Time

In order to ingrain the concepts into our systems, I believe we need to focus or train one concept at a time. Today I focused on taking the path of least resistance. Even when fighting from the top, or fighting less experienced opponents, I focused on finding the easiest path, I imagined that each opponent was HUGE, and strong. Once on top I used two arms against one, and used my body weight to help trap his limbs. Several opponents make the mistake of turning there back on me, I just let them move and then clamped on and set my weight on them. I found myself experimenting with different positions while looking for the easiest path.

Some example concepts to focus on during rolling are:

• Incorporating the use of momentum and herky-jerky motions while rolling

• Forcing your opponent to react with feints (fakes) and exploiting their reactions

• Intensely deflecting pushing motions, or breaking grabbing actions of your opponent
  

Lifestyle Changes

It's been 23 days without sugar, alcohol, and TV. Some of the benifits to date are increased stamina thoughout the day (no need for naps), less sleep required during the night, and quicker recovery during BJJ class, almost instantaneous. I feel stronger and healthier.

Less TV has made for more productive evenings, including time for reading and self development, researching the internet, and spending time with friends and loved ones in person and on the telephone. Increased patience, and a desire to dream and plan a fantastic life.

Less Television also means more time to cook and plan meals, saving cash and eating healthier the next day.

Not going out drinking with the boys also means I wake early on weekends and have a more productive day including training and studying BJJ, cooking, cleaning and spending quality time (not hungover time) with loved ones.

Motivation to exersice on my own time has also increased due to a greater feeling of health and a desire to beat my toughest opponents.

Three Escapes, Three Attacks.

Today my toughest opponent was Alex my BJJ instructor. He is a purple and I am a blue belt. I am his senior student and have been with him for five years now. I believe if I am able to consistently escape his side control and mount I will begin to find ways to tap him more often.

Today I was tentative from the bottom of half guard (lockdown) to make moves to escape because I felt if I released he would slide back into mount or side control.

I should have just moved and anticipated his movements and continue to try other escapes. It's the same philosophy I came to once before about non-stop movement. I am going to begin applying this when escaping. Anyways, instead I relaxed the lockdown for a split second and he moved to side control at his timing, not mine.

Lesson learned: When attacking, think attack-attack-attack, when escaping, think, escape-escape-escape. Three in a row. Not just one escape or attack, but three.

I will use specific training with Alex from now on, I will let him sweep me, or pass my guard so I can practice escaping his pins.