tallgeese

Awesome! Glad you liked it, let us know how it goes.

Bottom side is one of the worst positions we can end up in while on the ground. Besides bing controlled to a high degree, you're very vulnerable to striking. Further, with the increase in MMA and its skill dissemination it's becoming more and more common to see people taking it rather than working for full mount. So, last week was all about defeating this position. In our recap, we look at a really unique sweep to change our position: Check it out. What benefits do you see in the motion? What possible complications?

7/13 Drilled gaining bottom half guard from standing pass and kneeling passes. 30 min free roll. PTK- multiple strike form. Distance then technical sparring.

That's really cool!

Never get tired of hearing any response! In regard to tuite in the takedown, how are you utilizing it? Small joint manipulation to posture break?

7/10 Drilled escaping bottom side. Wrist locking from side mount. 45 min free roll.

This past week, we spent time working on a critical component of ANY ground fight- getting the fight to the ground in the first place. Here, one of our purple belts and wrestlers walks us through the double leg takedown: Wrestling tactics are one of many avenues open to the BJJ athlete, or any other grappler in this day and age that accomplish this mission. Some other great options are judo throws, and trips. Heck, even pulling guard isn't off the table in my mind. So, what take downs do others use to control the position of the fight? What family of arts do you go to to fill this gap? Why?

7/8 Drilled escaping bottom side by turning away. Sweeping via two different arm isolations. 30 min free roll. PTK: Footwork. Bridging. Multiple Strike form followed by integration into bridging.

7/7 Body weight circuit.

Welcome aboard!

7/6 After a week of being away for school, and being swamped with off hour work the rest of the time, I'm back at it. Drilled escaping bottom mount by rolling to face the top guy. Positional rolling 30 min free roll PTK Footwork off the reverse triangle, diamond and into bridging. Multiple strike form off the lead side. Application.

Very nice work!

I strongly encourage it at my place, to the point that I've just about made it mandatory. A rashguard or tee is fine, I wear both. From a BJJ standpoint, at some point, you're going to be in close (very close) proximity, stuck to the ground while someone crushes you. I don't like un-impeded sweat being smashed into my face skin to skin. I know it's not traditional, but I just don't. For grappling arts, I really like a rashguard or undershirt on.

Solid post!! Yes. Do this. It's important to see how you fit in the culture of each gym.

Really great article. Personally, I hate this term. Largely because everyone that uses it has no idea what it means. Go figure. No one else seems to either. It's gotten almost embarrassing in BJJ circles as well. You hear it all the time, and we're doing a variation of a variation of an art. Like two steps removed from the country of origin and, in the US at least, two languages away. Why do we throw this thing out?

Congrats! Nice work!

Awesome, Brian! Glad it's useful!

This week we spent a ton of time reviewing Prof. Akins material from last weekend. This revolved around defending choke and deadlocking attacks. As this is his material, I wanted to be respectful and not use it for our recap. Luckily, before we defend these attacks we need to get familiar with the attacks themselves. Hence, this week's recap breaks down the attacks that we'd spend the week defending. Here is our take on the Guillotine Choke attack. My coach, Mike Budnik was in town this week and we sat down and went over not only the fundamentals of the attack, but he breaks down an advanced option. Check it out: So, how does everyone use the Guillotine in their game? Experience with the variant at all? Discussion welcome!

Really cool! Way to go!

Great question, and one that I constantly tell people to ask themselves as they go thru training. I started for the fight. Period. I wanted that. Then, I grew to love certain aspects of it, moved thru a fitness phase, into competition, back to just staying in shape. Always keeping an eye towards to combative. My job makes sure that I always keep that in at least the back of my mind. But, it's not really the primary reason any more. Now it's about the art of it. I think that at the core that art must inform drive your combative, but if all I were still interested in was the "fight" aspect I would have been done a long time ago.

Excellent video! Transitions are so often overlooked. It's good to seeing people really focusing on that aspect of the game.

I think the second is the best of the lot myself. I've never beed a fan of the "defense only" thing myself. But it depends on the precise definition of the word. But that's another discussion.

6/21 2 hour private and rolling with Prof. Akins. 6/22 Review of seminar material in class. PTK- knife patterns and sd drilling empty hand 6/23 1.5 mile run Bodyweight routine

Hey all, this past weekend my school hosted Henry Akins, one of the very few black belts that Rickson Gracie has turned out. It was a great seminar and training session with him. He was nice enough to sit down with us and talk about jiu jitsu, etc. I actually get as much out of conversations like this as I do technique I think!

6/19 Final night of butterfly guard work. Sweep to ankle attacks followed by transition to X Guard. 40 min free roll 6/20 Seminar with Henry Akins. Absolutely amazing stuff.