The Jiu-Jitsu Guard »

Last night at no-gi jiu-jitsu training, we went over the popular flower sweep. This can be done with or without the gi, obviously last night we did it without. Here is a video version of the sweep.

I’m gonna go over his head, grab his neck. This hand is gonna go under and between his legs and I kinda want to get side. Right here, boom, and I’m rolling him up on that leg to the sky. Alright. We’ll do that at a different angle so you can see it. Over, up, this hand goes under between his legs. I’m using the momentum to kick this leg as far as I can over. Kick forward, and using that to come up on top. I’m really heavy. The whole thing with sweeps are that submissions are right there and I usually end up in a more comfortable position for myself.

From my class, here are the key points to remember.

Flower Sweep

1. Since I have longer legs, I need to create some distance first to get my foot on his hip. I typically would have right hand head control, and left hand wrist control. I maintain my grip on his head and wrist, but you my hips and legs to push him back a little. I can also bait him into creating the space for me by being heavy on his head so he postures up hard.
2. Once I get my left foot on his hip, I want to pressure his shoulder and arm with my left leg. Keep him close and tight.
3. I then shoot my right arm under his thigh like a dagger. Make your hand small.
4. I turn my body to be a 45 degree angle and drive and turn my right leg across his shoulder blade.
5. From here I drive and hip up with my right leg, and lift with my hand under his thigh to sweep.

Flower Sweep setup to Armbar

1. Follow steps 1-4 with the sweep, but instead of driving forward, if they don’t protect their arm, swing my left leg over their head.
2. I can do 1 of two things. If they don’t defend or protect their arm, I take the hand out from underneath their leg, and put it on his elbow and go for the armbar.
3. If they do defend, I can still sweep from here, and you end up in the armbar position.
4. Fall at a 45 degree angle towards their head to break the grip, then finish the armbar.

Flower Sweep to Omoplata

1. Follow steps 1-4 for the flower sweep
2. When you get to the flower sweep position, they pull their arm out (the one you would attack for an armbar, and leave the other arm behind.
3. From here, you would attack omoplata. Click here for some Omoplata videos for reference

More Flower Sweep videos

from Grapplers Guide or Jason Scully - Amazing resource.

This is a video of the basic flower sweep done without the gi on. The biggest point is how you go about trapping your opponent’s arm when establishing the sweeping position

What I really like about this video is the simple little armdrag to setup with sweeping position.

Flower Sweep to Omoplata Sweep

Here’s a video showing the transition to the Omoplata at about 1 minute in. We did this in class, yet finished the armbar instead of going for the Omoplata sweep. We’ve trained the sweep from the Omoplata position before, and it works sporadically.

This is a post from www.aespoian.com - one of the best grappling and jiu-jitsu blogs! As I continue to play and learn half guard from a beginners perspective, I found this post and video very useful. Like I said, from a beginners perspective, getting underneath in half guard has been the only way I feel like I can be offensive, rather then defensive.

Getting underneath in Half Guard

Hip movements for going underneath: backroll, swinging and pendulum.

Try drilling the leg and hip movements solo and with a partner to get a feel for them. You’ll find that when they resist one direction, they usually leave themselves open to the other.

I had a private lesson again with Luigi last night. It was a great lesson, we reviewed some of my problem areas in seated or butterfly guard. When I just have one hook or one foot on my opponent and I’m seated, I have been getting passed very easily. One of the key points was to keep my foot as a hook in the crook of his knee. In my best Brazilian accent - “Monkey Paws, not pudding foot”.

I was having a tendency to put my foot just on the hip, which allowed my opponent to move around and pass very easily. Just putting my foot in the crook, changed a lot of things. I played with this later during a great rolling session and I instantly felt improvement.

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Drilling is one of the best things you can to do improve your grappling game. There are even some great solor drills you can do with a stability ball, or even just rolling around on the mat. Here are some of my favorite grappling drills videos Read the rest of this entry »

Private Lesson with Luigi - Gi Jiu-Jitsu Training:

Last night I had a private lesson with Luigi Mondelli from American Top Team, then attended his No-Gi class after. I have been to his no-gi class before, and its an amazing experience. All of his class and students have an amazing attitude and all are extremely friendly and helpful. It’s a great learning environment. One thing I noticed (which I failed to do) was that once someone entered the mat, they walked around to everyone shaking their hands and saying hello. I thought this was a great way to start the class and get to know your fellow students.

During my private lesson(s) with Luigi I have been greatly trying to improve my basics in guard and overall… basics. He knows so many small details that completely change the way you grapple. In the grand scheme of things, my guard sucks monkey nuts. So I wanted to start working just the basic closed guard, and some attacks and transitions from there. I also use the scissor guard and wanted to work that with him as well. We have a similar body type - over 250lbs, over 6′2″, and longer legs. So our grappling game “could” be similar. My grappling game fails in comparison but he is the perfect person to learn from and model my jiu-jitsu techniques after.

Cross Grip Lapel and Gi “Coat Tails” Control from Closed Guard

One of my questions was what sort of attacks can I do from closed guard given the length of my legs and my fatassness. One of the coolest things we did was actually using the person’s lapel and the bottom of the gi (like the coat tails) to control. You first get a cross collar grip in their lapel, and put a lot of pressure to make the person uncomfortable. Then you start to pull the persons gi lapel out from their belt so it is completely un-tucked. From there, you wrap it around and isolate the person’s arm. This gives you a great deal of control of the person, which allows you to start working you hips out, but also allowing you to setup a freaking cool choke!
The choke is Kata Juji Jime. In Kobukai Ju-Jitsu we do a couple different variations, but this one is great using that extra label control. How is works is that I bring the person down closer to me with my legs and lapel control(s). Assuming that my right hand has the cross collar grip and my left is controlling the label, I pass my left hand over their head and sink in the choke. It’s hard to describe with text. I’ll try for some video this weekend.

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Arm Drags from Standing or Wrestling

Training class was just Oz, Ryan and I. Oz is a professional MMA fighter and amazing grappling, Ryan is a brown belt in Kobukai Ju-Jitsu and is one of the smartest and technical grapplers I know. These two are constant training partners. Last night we decided to focus on arm drags from standing and in guard. We drilled a few arm drag techniques from standing. I found this video showing a good drill which actually sparked a memory from my old days of wrestling. We used to arm drag to take the back or attack a single leg, then we also used it to setup a body lock.


I also liked Marcelo Garcia’s arm drag wrestling series as well.

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Sometimes when I drive into work, I just turn off the radio and let my mind wander for those 30 minutes. I think about my goals (far too many to count), finances, the internet, and martial arts. Most of the time my mind wanders towards my “martial arts and strength goals”. Where I would like to be, what I would like to accomplish, and how I am going to get there.

There a few factors which cause my mind to go there a lot….

1. I am completely obsessed with martial arts, particularly jiu-jitsu and strength. I’ve always had this problem where I just want to do it ALL.
2. I am about to turn 31. I had set a lot of goals for 30. And besides one, (I thought I would be an internet millionaire by now), I would say I am right on track. But I also realize I am getting older, and I cannot do it ALL. My wife and I want to start growing our family and I have to be realistic about what I want to accomplish in the next 4-5 years. 35 years old is my next benchmark. So, I have been trying to analyze what goals are truly feasible and most important to me.
3. I am injured right now. 5 weeks after surgery and still a shoulder that is about 40% of where I want to it to be… or let me say it should be. If its where I want it to be, it would probably be around 10%. So, because I am injured it has been causing me to refocus my goals. Its also brought the fire back into me for some things.
4. I have been reading a lot… Strength, Grappling, Martial arts, etc

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