What makes someone’s open guard impossible to pass in BJJ is their ability to invert or their ability to play half. 

When I was at Gokor’s I remember some of the best guys, their guard were impossible to pass and looking back on it today I started to get really obsessed over it. They don’t invert, they don’t have a half guard game, they either played closed guard or open guard and that’s it. Basic classic BJJ almost. So what made it so hard to pass?

First of all they would either put their shin or their foot right on your hips, which is scary because of leg locks for most, but they never feared leg locks so that’s where they put it, to always monitor your hips.

Second they would never let you grab their legs ever. They would call it egg beaters. Circle their legs so that you could never get a grip.

All their positions worked their way into getting closed guard again or getting a leg lock. Hopefully I can roll with one of my buddies from there again and see more about what he is doing. He’s currently got a fight lined up in the WEC.

Royler Gracie Black Belt and Head instuctor of the EKBJJ Association is back on the road teaching Seminars and focus groups for the EKBJJ Association and other Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Schools Across Europe.
If you are interested in hosting an EKBJJ Seminar,Focus Group or wish to introduce Gracie jiu jitsu to your school please contact
teamkone@yahoo.co.uk

Sunday 28th febuary 2010
13:00
EKBJJ North, Rotherham
Coach – Mark Bottom
Unit M1
Croft’s Complex
The Crofts
Quarry Hill
Rotherham
S60 2DN

www.ekbjjnorth.blogspot.com
www.ekbjjnorth.com

Tuesday 2nd and Wednesday 3rd March 2010

ATHY BJJ
The ARCH Coumunity Hall
Athy,
Co. Kildare.
Dublin Ireland.
www.athybjj.moonfruit.com

Friday March 19th 2010

Absoluto BJJ, Bucharest
Coach – Tudor Mihaita
Complexul Steaua din Calea Plevnei 114
Bucuresti
0723 522 445
www.absoluto.ro

Saturday 20th march 2010

contact -Tudor Mihaita
Ciprian Sora Fight Academy
str. Caminului nr.
6, sect. 2, Bucuresti.
tudor_bjj@yahoo.com
0723.522.445.

www.antrenamentmma.ro

After reading the results of the gi survey from last year, a reader sent me an interesting series of emails about running an analysis of the data. Here’s what he had to show and tell:

I stumbled across your gi survey a while back and came back to it this weekend as I was looking for a new gi to buy. I decided to have a quick crack at analysing your dataset (actually just the question about favourite gis).

Continue reading →

 This is straight out of the National Academy of Sports Medicine’s book on Sports Performance.

The goal of cardiorespiratory training:

"To improve performance. A primary purpose of training is to delay the onset of fatigue during competition. Although a sports performance professional can teach an athlete various skills, these abilities are of little use if fatigue diminishes skilled performance when it matters most.

To reduce mental anxiety. With fatigue comes a loss of concentration and confidence in critical components of performance."

The old adage, if you hit a black belt he turns to a brown belt, if you hit a brown belt he turns into a purple belt isn’t quite as true as the statement…

An extremely tired black belt will fight like a white belt. It’s tiring to get hit in the face.

Some of the best matches by our athletes in Lisbon last January. Matteo Mena 1st Match: 2nd Match: Valerio Ubaldini 1st Match: 2nd Match: Final: Mattia Macchelli 1st Match: 2nd Match:

Watch the Highlights video of the African Trials for Abu Dhabi BJJ Pro 2010. The event happened on 5th of December, 2009 in Johannesburg, South Africa and qualified 5 athletes from the African continent to the Abu Dhabi BJJ Pro World Cup, a competition to be held next April with more than Us$ 150 thousand [...]

I was in Thailand just around the CNY break to go hang out at Bangkok BJJ and attend a seminar put on by Roger Gracie black belt, Nicolas Gregoriades. I stayed at the Golden Palace Hotel, I really like that place. Super location, great restaurant, very friendly staff and a BJJ/CMD gym. What more need be said?

You know how sometimes people say, I caught him in a transition or I can only catch them in a transition. Well what does that really mean? Let’s break it down because it really makes no sense and it’s misleading.

You typically always catch them while they are moving, and there are no moves that are not an actual move. I think what people really mean is this, they catch them when they make a mistake of undercommitting. I myself am notorious for this. I think mainly because my jiu jitsu game is known for being efficient but at the same time often lackadaisical and lazy.

I get caught when instead of let’s say pushing too deep or not going in at all, I push shallow. Or instead of coming high or low, I come in the middle.

For instance when I am playing bottom half guard instead of coming into them high with an underhook or really low to get their leg, I come somewhere in the middle and sometimes it works, and sometimes I get d’arced or guillotined.

So when these "transitional" submissions happen, they aren’t really in any transition. It’s when one player undercommits and moves in between 2 moves. Like I catch it a lot when people drive into me and they don’t come with their head high or low, in the middle and I get a guillotine on them. They think it was a scramble and so did I, but if it’s a scramble, you just say oh it happens and there’s nothing to fix. But there are no scrambles in BJJ, everything happens and exists. You just happened to undercommit and do a move that’s inbetween moves, just being sloppy.

When do you get caught in closed guard? When you are neither postured or smothering them. When can a good player take advantage of this? Time it so as you are coming up but still somewhere in the middle he catches you with an up and over or a triangle. Those are the only times you get caught in transition, but it takes really good timing.

My buddy Mike turned me on to a very interesting thread on a forum. It’s worth a read HERE. Essentially the concept is that we all get older, and there is a tipping point in terms of BJJ performance. While I think there’s no doubt our bodies decline i…