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I totally agree with tallgeese on all his points. I would add that preventing your partner from having good head control (when they hug your neck to have shoulder pressure on your face) will make all your side control escapes much easier (i.e. replacing guard, coming to knees to double leg, etc.). The fact that they are hugging your neck and having shoulder pressure on your face is most of the problem. Since side control is usually a result of someone passing your guard, work on your guard skills with guard maintenance with drills like this one, A good preventitive method is to place your hand on the bicep of the arm that is trying to hug your neck. If they do hug your neck take your same side hand (the side of your body he is on) and place it behind his elbow, turn away from him as you shrimp and pull peel the arm off from behind your own head. This will remove his arm and create space for your to start and move and open up your escape. This one is hard to expalin. If you want to see a video of this tecnique let me know and I can whip something up.

This is good for really tiring your opponent out and taking the breath out of them. But, not always an option for some as you have to either have longer legs or going against someone with a smaller wast.

The writer of this article is a good friend of mine. I totally agree with all his points. Leg attacks are often overlooked in a lot of bjj schools. Safety is key. As a black belt, in our academy we generally teach students as as their corresponding belt rank would allow them to use the attacks in a competition. The main reason to teach is minimally understand how to defend them.

Just as a note, if you lace your opposite leg over his leg that you are attacking (as he demonstrated) the pressure will be more of a twisting motion which will put pressure on his kneed as well and if you use your same side leg to lace with it will tend to be more of a straight ankle lock pressure.

It totally agree with tallgeese. As a current black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu I began teaching others out of necessity so that I could even have a training partner. This was way back in 1994 in North Carolina. Back then you were considered advanced at blue belt. I received a black belt in tae kwon do and karate and then started taking up Wing Chun Kung Fu. Our instructor moved away after a year and that was when UFC just started. I was hooked ever since. Back then I would have to drive to other states just to learn. Learning directly from the Gracies was incredible. There are so many options now as the art of BJJ has spread drastically over the last 15 years. Blue light87 be sure to check out academies personally as I'm sure you will. Ask them who they're associated with. There are many qualified instructors who may have trained under some of the Gracies (or Machados) directly or someone who was directly under a Gracie. You tend to find less options in shear number of instructors/academies in more rural areas. Just be sure to keep in mind what kind of emphasis you are looking for in a school. Some schools have a strong slant toward sport technique, some towards self defense, and some (as I try to do) try to encompass both.