In a no-gi match if you are locked up (over, under) with your opp and you are pumbling for position….When you’re pumbling you are looking to get double underhooks….

1. Whichever hand you just pumbling inside you want to step that same leg forward, deep between your opp’s legs….as you drop your level

2. As you pumble….you are going to acheive the double underhook position and clasp your hands around the lower back of your opp.

So you now have your hands gable gripped behind your opp’s back and you have one leg stepping deep between his legs.

3. Now just pull his hips towards you as you walk thru him taking his down to his back….and just walk up to full mount.

Tip: Often times a pumble becomes a give and take…you pumble inside with one hand only to lose that control with the other hand, bc your opp also pumbled……so whichever hand you already have inside control with you want to jack that shoulder UP (keeping your shoulder tight to your opp’s) making it almost impossible for your opp to pumble his hand inside. This should ensure you get the double underhooks.

It is always important to remember that when you opponent is turtled that you need to keep you weight above his hips (unless he is turtled after your sprwal then you would have a front headlock position) otherwise he can roll back to guard.

Starting with you over you opponents hips….

1. Get one arm inside and grab your opp’s forearm (for this example let’s say your left arm)

2. Now circle the opposite way, to your right, to the side of his body and get your left knee inside his knee and his elbow. Your left foot is based out for balance.

3. Use that left knee to pull his elbow away from his body a little bit….now hook your right foot around his arm and circle back around towards his hips. This will pull his arm back behind him and it will be stuck between his own body and your leg. Now lock your instep around the inside of his ankle.

You are now back with your weight over his hips but his arm is now trapped.

4. Now roll to your left (the side that you have his arm trapped) and immediately get your left hook in.

5. From here you can either Pull your right foot down and lift your hips to put your opp in a straight arm bar

or

5. You can get your right hook in, which traps his arm inside your hook…making it much easier to finish the RNC bc he only has one arm to defend.

6. RNC

 I just put in Ryan’s new Triangle DVD series. It is very weird to see your boyfriend’s face on the cover of a DVD, even if it isn’t a very flattering pic…(sorry babe but it’s true, LOL).

Ari Bolden, of www.submissions101.comrecently asked me to comment on my perspective of the relationship between MMA and BJJ. He asked me if MMA will make BJJ obsolete? He also wanted me to address differences between MMA grappling and BJJ. This post will try to address these issues as well as set an argument for the [...]

The father of MMA and BJJ is dead today at 95. Not to be sad though for he lived a full life. I have been thinking about Helio a lot lately. All the interviews of him I have read. Previously, years ago I just saw him as a crazy old man who thought he was invincible and that MMA was around before him and that Carlos Gracie invented BJJ yada yada.

But lately I have been thinking about the black belt and what it means and I kept thinking about Helio. Carlos learned Ju Jitsu first but Helio was the one who brought the guard. Without the guard Jiu Jitsu would be Ju Jitsu. Meaning all the stand up and wrist locks and throws. He was the original smaller man. Like me who got bullied around on the mat and had to get good at the guard to have a chance. When I think of what a black belt is, the guy who takes the guy down mounts and finishes or the guy when taken down only uses closed guard and finishes. That’s Helio.

He always complained nowadays that people have lost touch with the closed guard and mount and I thought he was behind the times but he was right. He used to say in interviews before rolling with people, that he doesn’t think this person can beat him. Even if its Rickson or whomever. I thought that was just old man arrogance. But he never said he would beat them, he just said they wouldn’t beat him. That’s the foundation of Jiu Jitsu. When you are out of position all you should think about is not making any mistakes and not getting submitted. On the bottom of a dominated position, make no mistakes. On the top of a dominant position, make them make mistakes.

He was the true grandmaster. He to prove his concept created modern MMA. I don’t care what you say or who did what first or pancrase or what not, but MMA as we know it today was because of the work of Helio and the creation of Vale Tudo and now modern MMA.

Also today I found out from Ivan, thanks for the link bro. That some of my blog articles have been reposted on some BJJ sites. First Felipe Costa (Leader of Brasa and Mundial Champ) posted it on his Facebook.

http://pt-br.facebook.com/pages/Felipe-Costa/38914574774

and also on All BJJ News.

http://www.allbjjnews.com/?page=2

and other literary Jiu Jitsu Blog sites.

http://www.thejiujitsufighter.com/2009/01/thoughts-on-jiu-jitsu-belt-progression.html

It is a sad day. And a cool day. Before Helio died he passed on his jits to us, and eventually to me and now all I talk about on here is his Jiu Jitsu.

107 days til GQ..

So after much hooting & hollering a friend and I decided to show up at the new 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu location in Riverside. If you do not know about this branch of BJJ it has a pretty damn interesting story: Eddie Bravo, a pothead yet grappling visionary enters the Abu Dhabi grappling tournament and beats the legendary Royler Gracie-as a brown belt. He starts his own branch of jiu jitsu and advocates throwing out the gi and being more aggressive. He has developed his own series of moves with names like “Mission Control”, “Crackhead Control” & “The Rubber Guard. He may be the most polarizing figure in BJJ due to his cult-like devotion from his followers and satanic-like hate from his detractors.

Anyways, we check it out. From outside, I see this muscular asian woman kicking like “Tong-Po” in Kickboxer (awesome Van Damme movie-check it out) and already I know this place is legit. Since it’s so new, there are only 6 people in the class. 6. That is awesome. It’s like you are getting a 1 on 1 seminar from the instructor, Jeremy. We do some basic stretches and begin to roll…which is a change. Most places I have gone to start with some cardio before we go into whatever it is we are working on.
We start on the lockdown:

See how the guy on the bottom is relaxed yet confident? I was neither and paid the price. The guy I rolled with literally beat the hell out of me for 30 minutes. Eventually we moved on from that and began to spar. I sparred with the same gentleman, who took great pride in choking me, then guess who I drew: “Tong-Po Girl”.
I eyeballed her and figured that there was no way she could weigh more than 130 lbs. Not only did she weigh more, but she was bigger, stronger, faster and meaner than me. She twisted me up like a pretzel and ate me alive. She took great pride in emasculating me in front of my girl and my friend. She would let me get so far then crush me like a little cocktease. The worst part? Her breath smelled like milk. I hate milk. I eat beef only because cows make milk and must be punished for it. After we were done, she patted me on the ass like I was a 2 dollar hooker and sent me on my way.

It was a great place, but not for me. It had nothing to do with anyone or any grappling animal that raped me. I just miss the old place I went to- the Gi, the smell, the bowing and gamesmanship at the end of class. See ya on the mat at Pinnacle Jiu Jitsu in Norco!

1 hour of Jiu Jitsu

It is with great sadness that GRACIEMAG.com announces the passing of Grandmaster Helio Gracie. At 95 years of age, the great icon and one of those most responsible for Jiu-Jitsu’s success in Brazil and the world died this morning, at Beneficencia Portuguesa Hospital, in Petropolis, mountain region of Rio de Janeiro  Click here for rest [...]

Today the whole martial arts community is sad. Grand Master Helio Gracie passed away in Itaipava. I confess that I have no idea what to say about it, just that he will be missed by all of us that had the opportunity to meet him personally, and also by many that realise how much he [...]