MartialFighter.com - Combat Martial Arts Training and Fighting

We all know how important grip is for fighting, martial arts and for overall strength. It can greatly improve the way you fight and aid in strength training lifts such as heavy deadlifts, shrugs, rows, etc.

For grapplers and jiu-jitsu fighters, grip is crucial. For any martial arts, grip is very important. These are some videos I found that I think play a direct role in improve grip for fighting. Some are more inspirational, some are for actual training.

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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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Many of heard you praise The GrapplerGuide.com and Jason Scully. This is an article that I really liked by him. Check out his site for more amazing articles and videos.

21 Tips to Improve Your Grappling Game

By: Jason Scully  
Goal oriented training Have a specific technique or area of focus for each rolling session. For example, I will come into training thinking "Today I am going to work on passing the butterfly guard". You may even want to let your training partners know this and start in those positions.
Consistent Training
Make BJJ a priority in your life, training 3-5 times a week EVERY week. It’s no coincidence that the best guys in class also have the best attendance.
Set a schedule for yourself and don’t let anything that isn’t really major interrupt it. Some guys get good really quick, but the best guys have all put in countless hours to get there. You will never see your game improve as fast as it should if you are missing classes or weeks of training.
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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 »

Ground-and-pound is a ground fighting tactic consisting of taking an opponent to the ground using a takedown or throw, obtaining a top position, and then striking the opponent. Ground-and-pound is also used as a precursor to attempting submission holds.

This style is used by wrestlers or other fighters well-versed in defending submission
holds and skilled at takedowns. They take the fight to the ground, maintain a grappling position, and strike until their opponent submits, is knocked out or is cut so badly that the fight cannot continue. Although not traditionally considered a conventional method of striking, the effectiveness and reliability (as well as recently-developing science) of this style is proven. Originally, most fighters who relied on striking on the ground were wrestlers, but considering how many fights end up on the ground and how increasingly competitive today’s MMA is, strikes on the ground are becoming more essential to a fighter’s training. Ground and Pound first came into the spotlight by 2000 Pride GP winner Mark Coleman.

Skills needed for Ground and Pound are…

• strong wrestling and takedown skills
• Good ground control and base
• Powerful ability from ground position
• Endurance to keep striking hard and fast
• Good jiu-jitsu submission defense

Tips for effective Ground and Pound

The Takedown

• Wrestling takedowns and throws are necessary.
• Work on high percentage takedowns
• Leg Trips, Double-leg, Single-leg takedowns:
• Drill MMA takedowns with partner throwing punches at you
• Your partner just throws punches while you work for the takedown
• Just wrestle – only go for takedowns when you spar.  Once someone goes down, start again

Positioning on the ground

• Next most important aspect of ground and pound training is gaining and controlling top position
• Work on just controlling the person in knee on stomach, side mount and mount.  Have your opponent try to escape while you just try to keep him down
• In guard, work on keeping your posture up and high.  Don’t let your opponent control your arms or head.  Work on creating distance to strike.

Striking on the ground

• Once you are comfortable controlling your opponent, work on striking and transitioning from different positions.  If you are in side control, work on transitioning from side control to mount and striking in all positions.
• Work on trapping opponents arms in side control and mount so you are able to strike without them blocking.  Matt Hughes does this to effectively.
• When striking from guard, work combinations to the body and head.  Don’t just be a head hunter.  Striking the body can cause a lot of damage.

Here are some training and sparring videos related to MMA ground and pound training

Tags: arts, association, boxing, brazilian, cage, champion, fighting, grappling, how, jujitsu, jujutsu, kickboxing, learn, martial, mixed, muay, shoot, shootfighting, stick, stickfighting, thai, to, ufc, wrestling Author:expertvillage View count: 7384 Rating: 4.43
	Mixed Martial Arts & Cage Fighting Basics : How to Ground & Pound in Mixed Martial Arts Description: How to ground and pound in mixed martial arts in this free mixed martial arts video from Brazilian Martial Arts master Ed Wedding….

Ground & Pound Training Description: Our ground & pound class using introduction, isolation and integration as the training method… Tags: Arts, Barred, Fighting, Ground, Holds, Martial, Mixed, MMA, No, Pound, Rules

Author:RobMcIntyre View count: 4299 Rating: 3.67

Ground & Pound Drills - H2O Martial Arts Description: This video technique series features H2O Martial Arts Instructor, Richard Ho, demonstrating a series of “BJJ Positioning Drills” & “MMA Ground & Pound Drills” using the floor bag…. Tags: &, arts, bjj, ground, h2o, ho, martial, mixed, mma, pound, richard, school

Author:filmricky View count: 13080 Rating: 4.33

Josh Schockman Ground and Pound class Description: UFC 65 Josh ‘The War Hammer” Schockman teaches the effective way to ground and pound your opponent at Nashville MMA…. Tags: ‘The, Hammer”, Josh, MMA, Nashville, Schockman, UFC, War

Author:spydergracie View count: 1604 Rating: 3.75

totalperformancesports-Ground and Pound Abs variation Description: CJ Murphy of TPS demonstrates a full arm extension of Ground and Pound bs using the Blast Straps from EliteFTS. This is a superior exercise for improving your punching power in the “Mount” position for MMA…. Tags: ab, and, fights, functional, ground, mma, performance, pound, sports, total, tps, training, ufc, ultimate

Author:Totalperformance1 View count: 1225 Rating: 5.00

Gina Carano vs. Laticia Persova - Girl Ground n Pound Description: World Extreme Fighting Gina Carano vs. Laticia Persova Summer 2006 - New Orleans… Tags: and, Carano, chicks, Extreme, Fight, Fighting, Gina, Girl, Girls, Ground, hot, Laticia, MMA, Persova, Pound, WEF, World

Author:toshtego View count: 269419 Rating: 4.56

beginning ground & pound Description: nick(on top)during his first day of MMA sparring and Tom during his third day!… Tags: &, fng’s, ground, jitsu, jiu, mma, pound

Author:jmtii77 View count: 1153 Rating:

Dan Severn Teaches Ground & Pound for NAPMA Description: Dan Severn Teaches Ground & Pound for NAPMA… Tags: Arts, Business, coaching, Edge, fighting, Fu, Karate, kickboxing, kung, Marketing, Martial, MMA, Muay, NAPMA, School, Thai

Author:NAPMAvideo View count: 5427 Rating: 5.00

Dan Severn Teaches Ground & Pound for NAPMA 2 Description: Dan Severn Teaches Ground & Pound for NAPMA… Tags: Arts, Business, coaching, Edge, fighting, Fu, Karate, kickboxing, kung, Marketing, Martial, MMA, Muay, NAPMA, School, Thai

Author:NAPMAvideo View count: 2722 Rating: 5.00

MMA light spar- Ground n pound Description: Ground with strikes, PMA Highlands Ranch… Tags: MMA, PMA, PremierMixedMArtialArts

Author:rguerr10 View count: 1663 Rating: 2.00

How to ground and pound Description: Me doing my ground and pound routine on a defenseless heavy bag. This is an older video where pride was still an organisation so I was training delevering knees to the head which is now considered now as a foul. Always put your weight on top of the bag, and switch sides. Putting your knee on the stomach is a powerful position that to make you develop groud punching mecanics…. Tags: combat, grappling, groundandpound, mma, mmatraining, nhb, nogijiujitsu, submissiongrappling, ufc, ultimatefighting, ultime

Author:figthersdreams View count: 5575 Rating: 3.89

Frank Trigg’s Ground ‘n Pound Description: One of the world’s most well known mixed martial arts competitors breaks down the fighting strategy know as “ground ‘n pound.” Volume 1 features kneeling and wrist positions, plus foot control. Volume 2 demonstrates advanced ground ‘n pound strategies including the surfboard stand-up, heel hooks and knee bars, plus review of positions and posture. To order thisup-publications/ProductDetails.aspx?I… Tags: arts, frank, grappling, insidekungfu, martial, publications, trigg, unique

Author:insidekungfu View count: 800 Rating: 5.00

I am sure you have heard me mention the name Luigi Mondelli 8 million times over the past few months. He is an American Top Team 2nd degree black belt, and one of the most technical and nicest Super Heavyweight BJJ champions in the world. He is a 4x PanAm Champion as well as an accomplished instructor at Best Way Jiu-Jitsu in Connecticut.

Luigi will be competing in the BJJ World Championships in the beginning of June. The tournament will take place on June 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th in California State University Long Beach, Long Beach, California, USA. The World Jiu-Jitsu Championship 2008 will be organized by the International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation.

This is the official, biggest and most prestigious championship in the world. Athletes from all over the world compete in this event. In the last edition over 1,000 fighters signed up to fight in the Worlds.

The worldwide media coverage is ample. Magazines such as Gracie Magazine, Tatame, Martial Arts World, Ultimate Grappling and others are always present as well as sports channels (ESPN, SporTV, Premiere Combat/Brazil and others ).

Luigi is coming off of a big win at the Pan-American Championship recently and is poised to do very well at the Worlds. He is looking to raise some money to help him get there and compete.

Expenses:
Air Fare: US$ $412 + $28 taxes & fees = $440 per person
Lodging US$ 285.00
Car Rental: US$ 88.00 + US$ 60.00 insurance = US$ 148.00
Registration Fee: US$ 105.00
Total: US $890.00

I would take it as a personal favor and Luigi would be very thankful if some of you would be willing to throw in a some cash to help Luigi get there. If you are looking for something in return, such as a link to your website, a blog post, etc. Let me know.

Thank you, and I appreciate it!
Please use the donation button to send a sponsorship donation directly to Luigi.

The second part of the long distance and deep half guard videos.

Pass prevention: scissors, hugging, stacking and reverse scarf (Marcelo) pass counters. Backroll sweep.

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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