Atos

Misery Guard: Defence and Pass

April 26, 2017

Getting stuck in collar sleeve can be quite a difficult situation to deal with and being stretched out and controlled so well only leads to being submitted quickly.

In situations where earlier efforts to better your position have failed we have to start risking more to get out or just stay safe. In the case of the featured video we risk a sweep after giving up the top position to try break grips.

It’s important to recognise the risk you are taking in these situations and try to minimise it if at all possible. However, after you achieve your goal of either escaping or taking pressure off, it is even more important that you capitalise on the moment and go back to attacking and imposing your game on the other person.

In most cases where you have been in a bad position and successfully recovered to a better position, your opponent will try to attack again. If you reward yourself with a rest after a recovery action then you are setting yourself up to be back in a bad situation – keep fighting until you’ve reached a point like top side control or back where you can take a bit more of a calculated rest and control the fight at the same time.

The Domoplata: Developing the Position to get the Submission.

April 21, 2017

The ‘Domoplata’ is a mounted shin choke (Gogoplata) named after Marcelo Garcia black belt Dominyka Obelenyte, the 2015 female black belt world champion (weight & absolute) who is well known for her use of this attack.

At first glance the Domoplata may appear to be unnecessarily complicated when compared to other mounted submissions due to the numerous positional adjustments involved in its setup. This relatively high level of intricacy can seem overwhelming and may even lead one to the conclusion that the attack is impractical or unrealistic.

However, given the fact that one of the world’s best female grapplers is frequently able to apply this technique against male and female opponents of the highest calibre, as students of BJJ it is important that we look deeper into the details of the technique so that we can begin to understand why it is so effective despite its complexity.

One of the most common mistakes committed by lower belts when in an attacking position such as mount is to rush to the submission attempt before first negating their opponent’s ability to escape. For example, they will attempt an Ezekiel choke without first establishing a grapevine to control their opponent’s hips and be easily reversed by a basic bridge and roll; Or they will recklessly fall back for an armbar without first dominating the armpit, and find themselves on their back with nothing but an unsubmittable forearm in their crotch and a relieved opponent on top of them.

In contrast, advanced grapplers understand that although attacking positions generally guarantee our safety from the risk of submission, against skilled opponents these positions must typically be further developed in order for us to safely attack our opponent without the risk of allowing an escape or reversal.

With this concept in mind we should observe that, in isolation, every step of the Domoplata setup stands as a relatively achievable and maintainable development of our mounted position. Therefore, we should not view the Domoplata as one big exotic move but as a series of small conservative moves that will enable us to transition safely into a dominating finishing position.

The Kimura Trap & Positions of Transition

April 18, 2017

The Kimura Trap leads to an excellent series of transitions and submissions. It has been popularised by David Avellan and frequently utilised by such names as Andre Galvao, Keenan Cornelius, Andris Brunovskis and Dominick Cruz.

It is also an example of one of the most difficult positional concepts to understand in Jiu Jitsu: A Position of Transition.

Positions of Transition are positions where control is not exerted in a traditional pinning or riding fashion.

Pins are dominant positions in which control is exerted by restricting and controlling the opponent’s movement and Rides are dominant positions where control is exerted despite the opponent’s movement.

A Position of Transition’s primary method of control is the gateways it creates to other positions or submissions. However, unlike pins and rides, the ability to remain in these positions is comparatively limited and these gateways are created almost exclusively through the opponent’s choices.

In this example it is easy to see how the attacker’s options are essentially dictated by the choices of the defender and it is equally easy to see how the attacker has little means to force any particular choice upon the defender.

Why is any of this important?

Well, despite being easily entered into from a variety of situations and allowing a series of extremely powerful actions, Positions of Transition are comparatively under utilised. And they are not uncommon – Kimura Trap, Harness, Two on One and Seatbelt are all Positions of Transition if used correctly.

Secondly, realise that due to their action/reaction type nature, Positions of Transition take significantly more drilling than more conventional positions to make use if their full potential.

The Keys To Progressing In Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

November 17, 2016

Recently I was listening to social media entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk talking to an aspiring entrepreneur. He posed the question, “Are you losing belief, or do you just wish it was happening faster?” I instantly applied this question to my own BJJ journey, and the kind of thoughts I know many people who train also have.

BJJ is full of ups and downs, and you often spend a great deal of time thinking, “why am I not progressing?” Or how you can feel good one week about your game, but the next feel much worse.

I think in these situations Gary’s question, “Are you losing belief, or you just wish it was happening faster?” is the perfect question to ask yourself in order to help get over those humps and stay positive. I’m willing to bet that a majority of the time you just wish you were better, and didn’t have to worry about being swept, missing opportunities, getting subbed, and other BJJ woes.

So how do you speed up the process? Its simple, more mat time! Get to the gym more, and spend as much time as you can in that environment. If you’re already living at your gym, then concentrate on smarter training. By this I mean apply yourself in class, and study the techniques the coach is teaching, both inside and outside the gym. Spend time at home watching matches and techniques, going over techniques, moves and sequences in your head.

BJJ is unique in that I don’t think it takes very long for someone to go from just starting and doing one class a week, to then filling out all their spare time with classes and investing a lot of time into improving.

So if you’re doing all this and still feeling frustrated, there’s one other key aspect to focus on, and that’s developing patience.

Stay patient and believe in your training and keep positive. If you put in the time you will see the rewards! Its only a matter of time, and patience.

Don’t get down about it, keep training and doing the best that you can, and everything you want in your BJJ will appear, but you have to keep training. If you slow down in a slump, or take some time off, you’re only going to make it harder on yourself if improving your BJJ is something you truly want.

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Things you can say at BJJ, but not to your partner

October 1, 2016

I’d totally tap him.

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I love it when they submit.

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How much do you weigh?

Can I have a trial session?

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I prefer to start standing.

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I’m actually going with Simon next, but you and I will go first next time.

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Can you do that inverted?

Come here – I just saw this new move on YouTube.

Senior grades get to go first.

I usually try to come twice a day.

BJJ In Canberra: My 14 Year Journey To Black Belt

August 31, 2016

2002 – 2005 – White Belt

I was a 21 year old who had just begun a philosophy degree at university. The local video store had allowed me to see the first five UFC events and, inspired by the exploits of Royce Gracie, my friends and I began ‘training’ in a garage. A few months later, a customer at the shop I was working at alerted me to the existence of a Machado BJJ club in the area, and so I went to have a look. Keen to test my garage sharpened ‘skills’, it was in May of 2002 that I showed up to my first class in my grass stained, low budget judo gi ready to roll.

Needless to say, I was soundly handled by everyone during sparring that night, but the roll that really captured my attention and imagination was the one I had with the instructor. Michael was only a blue belt, and he was a little bigger and stronger than me, but the way he handled me was such that at no time did I feel like anything I did mattered. He could have been a ten year old girl and the result would have been exactly the same. The dude was water. This was what I wanted to do.

The main thing I learned at white belt was to relax. Most of the guys I trained with back then were much bigger than me, as they were mainly guys with professional martial arts or security backgrounds, and so I quickly learned that pushing, pulling, or grabbing harder never really helps, but it does always tire you out and sometimes leads to injury. Once you can get that super-chill breathing going with a super heavyweight sitting on your face, then you can focus your mind on positional maintenance and problem solving in any situation.

2005 – 2008 – Blue Belt

Still at uni. One of only a handful of blue belts in a sea of white belts.

Cocky. The move collector. The cutting edge, half guard/hooks guard phenom.

You know JJ Machado? I roll like him.

“Stupid purple belt instructor is living in the past, man. Saulo Ribeiro and Marcelo Garcia are changing the game and this dope has us doing closed guard sweeps? Bleh. I’m off to the corner to do my own stuff with the other cool blue belts.“ – Me ‘07

Anyway, I was pretty deluded as a blue belt. Don’t get me wrong, the stuff we were doing on the side was good stuff, but my attitude towards moves I ‘already knew’ was misled. At that time, I thought the key to the game was simply to know more moves than your opponent, and that knowing a move was a simple matter of getting to the point that you could demonstrate it.

However, as I got closer to purple belt I started to understand that the new school stuff I had been doing was only particularly effective for me because of how much work I had invested into learning how to use it. This reality check made me see all of the techniques I had previously learned in a different light, and I started to move my training focus away from the acquisition of new techniques, and towards the sharpening of existing ones.

2008 – 2011 – Purple Belt

Public Servant. Instructing the no gi Saturday class.

“To be the man, you gotta beat the man.” – Ric Flair

More than half the rolling I did as a purple belt was against one brown belt. He was about my weight and one of the best brown belts in the country, and so I had made it my mission to get to the level needed to credibly compete against him. I adopted Saulo Ribeiro as my surrogate instructor by watching his three instructionals to the point that I sounded like Saulo, and then used these teachings to sharpen my defensive postures and escapes to the point that I was eventually able to give ‘the man’ a run for his money through sheer defensive capability.

When ‘the man’ got his black belt from Anthony Perosh, he gave me my brown.

So what did I learn as a purple belt? Teaching is a good way to figure out that you don’t know shit about a move. White belts will ask perfectly valid questions about your favourite move and you will not have an answer, and begin to question whether you yourself actually do the move correctly. However, hopefully this will lead you to find the answers to these questions, which will then further your understanding of the move. At purple belt I learned that furthering your ability to teach a move is the final process of developing your own mastery of it.

2011 – 2016 – Brown Belt

Tried to be a real estate agent in 2012. No training for 18 months. Came back out of shape in 2014.

“Wtf just happened? The little kid is a beast.” Me ‘14

Before my 18 month hiatus, I had shared many rolls with one particular teenage blue belt, and had always had an easy time beating him. I once subbed him sixteen times in a minute during a grading roll. Anyway, while I was away, not only had he grown from a blue belt boy into a purple belt man, but he had also made two six week trips to AOJ in San Diego, where he had trained six days a week.

I came back, and the kid destroyed me. He took vengeance for that sixteen sub exhibition I had laid on him back in the day, and it wasn’t pretty. Not only that, but he was using techniques that I was largely ignorant of. As I previously noted, I had stopped collecting moves back when I was a purple belt, but as a result I had not kept up with the newer tactics as I had always thought that my ‘brown belt fundamentals’ would see me through. Convinced that it must be the new moves that were allowing an inferior grappler to defeat me, I scrambled to learn about every berimbolo, single X, curu curu, fifty fifty, whateverty doo-dah I could find, only to arrive at a far scarier realisation.

It wasn’t the moves. The kid had just been training way harder than me, and was now a better grappler than me.

The colour of my belt together with all my additional years of experience didn’t change the fact that I threw everything I had at this kid over and over and never came close to getting an attacking position. I had been resting on my laurels, and now the student had become the master.

So I started training harder, and seeking more knowledge with clearer goals in mind, and slowly I began to close the gap. The kid’s a freak so I don’t think I’ll ever have the edge on him again, but at 36 I’m happy just as long as I can give the top guys a good competitive match. It seems dumb to learn it so late, but at brown belt I really learned that goal-focussed mat time is what leads to improvement in BJJ, i.e. train as often as you can, know what you are there to work on, and work on it.

It was in 2015 as a brown belt that I accepted a coaching position at the new Atos club in Canberra.

2016 – Black Belt

Here’s me in 2016

I’m still coaching at Atos Canberra as the women’s instructor and assistant instructor to the main class. I am enjoying my BJJ training as much as ever, and I am looking forward to continuing my BJJ learning long into the future.

So, that’s my BJJ journey so far. Thanks for reading, and good luck with your training.

Here’s a video of me getting promoted to black belt by Professors JT Torres, Antonio Mota, and Ben Langford at Atos Canberra.

Fundamentals of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

July 28, 2016

One thing I consistently notice when training with different Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) coaches and instructors, is that everyone has a different opinion of what techniques are considered fundamental. It got me thinking about the idea of fundamental positions vs fundamental techniques, which really made sense to me.

I recently started using this concept while teaching, to help beginners learn and understand BJJ more intuitively.

Fundamental positions like closed guard, open guard, side control, mount, and back control are positions we encounter in every roll, and in most cases are easily recognisable for either person in the fight, or even a spectator. With this recognition of the position, we can use this as a sort of a cue to then get people thinking about the techniques they should be doing, and better understanding the situation that they are in.

As for the fundamental techniques, I honestly do not believe there are any. Techniques vary too much from gym to gym because they’re often based on what that instructor feels comfortable teaching and showing. This is either because they have a particular type of strong game, or they teach how they were taught when they were learning.

This of course leads me into the whole berimbolo debate – specifically, where we see a lot of people complaining about white belts learning berimbolo before other ‘fundamental’ techniques.

I never quite understood this argument. The berimbolo itself isn’t too complex, and its pretty easy to grasp which situations to use it in. In this sense it’s no different than any other technique. As long as students understand this, I don’t see an issue in teaching it as a fundamental. If they struggle to understand it, they can try other techniques to achieve the same result.

The same rules apply for every other technique. There is always a situation associated with it, and it’s followed by a reaction or lack of a reaction. Once people understand this it will help them use it in sparring.

Essentially, regardless of the technique shown and weather you consider it to be fundamental or not, I think its important to link these with positions and situations, to help people understand and recognise when its appropriate to use the techniques they’ve been taught.

Thoughts About BJJ

January 8, 2016

To master Brazilian Jiu Jitsu the training must be severe

This doesn’t mean that the training must necessarily be physically demanding (although it often is), it means that your training must constantly remind you of the areas of your game that need improvement. Severe training shows you where you are weak and tests you where you are strong, it strips away the comfort of self delusion and replaces it with daunting truth. This kind of training is hardest on the mind and the ego.

Train for the short term

As self evident as this sounds, it apparently bears repeating: the goal of your training is to make you better at Jiu Jitsu. Not more mobile, or stronger or even ‘better’ in some esoteric kind of way. Better at BJJ in an immediate, concrete and measurable fashion. As such, 80 per cent plus of your training time should be spent doing the things that result in this kind of improvement. Modalities like positional work, isolation sparring, rotation training and rolling are your best bet here.

Train for the middle term

Middle term training requires both a time investment and a decent foundation built by short term training, before you see much of a pay off. It is important to begin developing this area early on though, as the actual techniques of Jiu Jitsu (submissions, sweeps, escapes, etc) belong to this category.

Train for the long term

Training for the long term is probably the trickiest to do well. It improves your ability to train for the short and middle term, and as a result it is at least one level removed from improving your actual fighting skill. Because of this, it can be hard to tell if what you’re doing is bullshit or actually useful. Movement drills and slow flow rolling are great options.

Position, position, position

In BJJ circles it’s a sadly frequent occurrence to hear an instructor say something like “position before submission” before teaching 16 omaplata variations and a flying armbar guard pass. The postures, pressures and objectives of positions are rarely explicitly taught. More often, these techniques are left to the athlete to develop via the traditional “time on the mat” route, which is stupid as the main difference between levels is ability and understanding of positional control. In short, work on achieving, maintaining and pressuring in every position and your abilities will sky rocket.

Train all the aspects of Jiu Jitsu

BJJ is an art made up of many aspects: gi, no gi, takedowns, ground work, self defence, Vale Tudo and sport. Developing each is important not just for its own sake, but for the many flow on effects that occur. For example, training takedowns improves your base, grip fighting, scrambling and power across the board and training Vale Tudo results in greater facilities in control, distance management and stress management.

Isolation sparring is the fastest route to a strong game

The quickest way to strengthen your game is to isolate a position, for example, side control, and a goal, such as a submission or escape. You then roll starting in that position with the express purpose of achieving that goal. As soon as either player reaches their goal, you reset and go again.

Early specialisation leads to short term wins and long term stagnation

An easy way to get a competitive advantage early on in your Jiu Jitsu career is to specialise to the exclusion of your other skills. Deep half, 50/50 and inverted guards are popular choices, but so are guillotine and triangle chokes. While this does tend to lead to some comparatively easy wins, whenever you encounter someone who can deal with or simply avoid your specialisation you have no recourse.

Focus on the process

The process is the only part of training that you have any influence over. You can’t change the past (successes or regrets), and you can’t control the future (outcomes), so you should focus on the present (the process) and get as much as you possibly can out of each and every moment.

Enjoy the results

When you do achieve something you’ve worked for, whether it’s the next rank or nailing that sweep you’ve been drilling, be sure to take a moment and enjoy your success. Too often achievements are passed over in the race to reach the next goal and after a while this can suck some of the passion out of your practice. So next time you achieve something, celebrate and then get back on the track to your next goal.

Play is the way

Animals, including humans, learn and discover best through play. You never see a pride of lions line up and work on their ‘paw swipe to throat rip’ combination; instead they swat and wrestle each other while quite clearly having fun. A play ethic allows creative and continuous development free from judgement or expectation.

Time on the mat makes up for a lot

Poor quality coaching, lousy training partners, bad attitudes to learning, and practically anything else that gets in the way of effective skill acquisition can be made up for with sufficient time on the mat.

Use your time on the mat wisely

Regardless of whether you train 3 times a day or just twice a week, you should strive to use your mat time wisely. Time is a non–renewable resource so you should train with that in mind. The more you can get out of every minute of training the greater your understanding, skill and enjoyment of this art will be.

Train with everyone

While it is important to have a regular instructor and training partners, it is equally important to expose yourself to a variety of styles and techniques. The best way to do that is to train with a large variety of people from different academies. Visit gyms when you travel, go to seminars, take advantage of open mats, and roll with people that have different grappling backgrounds.

Don’t train with douche bags

No matter how good they are or what they know, it’s never worth it. Training with or learning from douche bags is the fastest way to ruin your enjoyment of what should be a positive martial arts experience. The training partners you actually like will steadily leave, you’re way more likely to get hurt and the more time you spend with douche bags, the more likely it is that you will become one yourself.

Strength training helps but don’t let it get in the way

Strength training is a very useful accessory to BJJ. But if fatigue, soreness or even the time commitment begins to negatively impact your Jiu Jitsu training, you need to reevaluate. Ultimately you need to decide if you are a Jiu Jitsu athlete who lifts weights or a weight lifter who does some Jiu Jitsu, and then prioritise accordingly.

Consistent training is better than hard training

Consistency is the greatest determining factor in skill acquisition and in achieving high performance. As such it is much better to train 6 days a week at 70-80 per cent than three days a week at 100 per cent.

Rolling is about learning not winning

If every time you roll your main objective is to win, then you are significantly limiting your development. Rolling to learn allows you to explore new positions and scenarios, try different techniques, and experience all kinds of scenarios. Rolling to win on the other hand typically results in trying to impose the same game every time, and experiencing very little outside of that.

It’s all about hips, grips & trips

Correctly positioned hips are the keystone to good Jiu Jitsu, enabling you to apply superior leverage. Dominant grips let you use that leverage to maximum effect, and keeping your opponent off balance (trips), both physically and mentally, limits their ability to fight back.

BJJ Rank – Progression and Training.

September 30, 2015

A recurring question from students throughout all the learning stages of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) is “What should I be working on?” While this can be a highly personal and specific question knowledge of the general goals of each belt can help with this problem immensely.

White Belt

The purpose of white belt is to learn the underlying theories of Jiu Jitsu and the mechanics, goals and primary transitions of each major position. That is, guard top and bottom, side control top and bottom, mount top and bottom, and back top and bottom.

A white belt’s personal mantra should be “Do what it takes to learn not what I think it takes to win”.

The end goal of white belt is know what to do, how to do it and why you do it in each major position.

Blue Belt

A blue belt in BJJ should be focused on getting really good at everything they learned at white belt and developing a consistent level of performance. As previously stated white belt is really just about learning what to do in each major position and against anyone who doesn’t know what to do this can make even a white belt in BJJ disproportionately effective. A blue belt should be training to become consistently effective against skilled and knowledgable opposition.

Blue belt is also the last major stage of technique acquisition. As BJJ is a constantly evolving martial art there will always be something new to learn but after blue belt this should largely be a case of adapting existing knowledge.

A blue belt’s personal mantra should be “What can I do better?”

The end goal of blue belt is to be able to deliberately execute the core transitions and purposefully apply pressure in each core position.

Purple belt

The purple belt stage of development is about getting good everywhere. Learn what the goals are in every position, every transitional position and every situation and get good at executing on them.

This is also where you should start being able to apply and adapt specific strategies to help deal with specific kind of opponents and situations.

If this sounds like a lot of work that’s because it is.

As a purple belt is already a reasonably formidable grappler it can be difficult for some people to leave their ego at the door and risk the short term drop in performance caused by exploring the positions, techniques and strategies that they are less skilled in. As a result it is not uncommon to become “stuck” at this level.

A purple belt’s personal mantra should be “I will turn my weakness into strength”.

The end goal of purple belt is to be able to bring game regardless of where the fight goes.

Brown belt

A brown belt should be legitimately dangerous to every grappler they ever touch hands with. Someone at this stage of their journey should be developing a consistent game that is a true reflection of their body type and personality.

While rolling a brown belt should be seeking to impose their game regardless of their opponent, situation or position.

A brown belt’s personal mantra should be “Can I do it again?”

The end goal of Brown belt is to be able to consistently execute a unique and truly personalised game against an opponent of any calibre.

Black belt

You’ll often hear people say that once you’ve achieved your black belt you will then be ready to truly start learning and when I achieved my black belt I was super pissed to find out that those people are 100% correct.

Black belt is about starting all over again but with the advantage of all the knowledge you have painstakingly earned. A black belt returns to all of the previous stages but their pre existing knowledge and skills permits a level of attention to nuance and detail not previously available.