MartialFighter.com - Combat Martial Arts Training and Fighting

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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I’ve been training a lot lately and have gotten a lot of videos for posting and review. Here is what I have ready to go soon:

1. Attacking with overhooks in guard
2. Guard scarecrow drills
3. Knee on stomach positioning and transitioning.
4. TONS of live rolling footage and good techniques matches.

Be back soon!

Oz “The Wizard” Pariser vs Tim Gillotti

So Oz’s third fight was this weekend in Plymouth Massachusetts. The early
scouting report on his opponent, Tim Gillotti, made it seem like it was
going to be a walk in the park for our friend, but it turns out Oz had
another war on his hands. What his opponent lacked in skill and speed, he
made up for in toughness. This kid’s head is so solid it should be half
buried somewhere on Easter Island (look it up on Wikipedia, that joke is
fucking funny!). He kept taking was Oz was dishing out and coming back for
more, albeit a little slower than before!

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The other night we worked some breakdowns from an opponent posturing in guard. I found this drill from a series of techniques on grapplersguide.com which has just become one of my favorite new websites.

Posturing in Guard

When you are in top guard position, basically your main goal (in a grappling scenario) is to pass the guard. There are very few submissions from the top guard position. Most of them are leg locks, heel hooks, or kneebars. Though all of those are great techniques and can be used, they should be used at a higher level. After you are first able to pass the guard.
Control the hips - when you want to posture up in guard, you want to control the person’s hips. Hip movement is key to the person in bottom guard. The ability to rise, maneuver, and switch hips is vital in the bottom guard position. So the person on top wants to take away this ability and pin the opponents hips to the mat. We accomplish this by placing our hands on the person’s belt or pelvic area and drive back
Head up high - while you drive back with your hands, you want to keep your head up high and your shoulders back. This creates space for you to start passing, but also limits the options a person has to break down your posture and negates some submission attempts such as the triangle, guillotine, etc.
Note: I am going to bring camera to class again soon and will demonstrate some of these positions.

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The Ura Nage is another one of my favorite throws. It is a great takedown when you have your opponents back. It works both in gi and no-gi situations. It is also meant for people of all sizes. The judo versions I have seen a different. They seem to actually take a suplex approach to this technique. They we execute is different, and I think more effective. Demonstrated in the video I show one of the entrances to the ura nage, while Ryan shows another. It just depends on what you are more comfortable with and where you are fast.

If you are unable to see the difference in the steps, I forgot to explain it. I started to, but my stutter got in the way… When I do this technique (attacking left side) I take a step with my left leg, bring my legs together, then step with my left leg again to get his back. Ryan steps with his right leg first and does a drop step. He then pivots and comes up to take the opponents back.

Once your have the person’s back. You eliminate all space and get a tight grip on their waist. From there you can walk forward a couple of steps to off-balance then, and then sit on your right heel while sticking your left foot out right behind their left foot. Hold on to them and sit down. They should fall over your left leg which allows you to come up on top.

If you would like another video clarification and breakdown let me know.

The Osoto Gari is one of the more popular judo and ju-jitsu throws, but also one of the hardest to actually execute during an actual fight or randori session. I think the biggest problem people have with executing this throw is actually setting it up. In this video I, yes the bearded dude with a little extra weight is me, quickly demonstrate one of my favorite ways to execute this throw. My uke is one of our top guys Ryan.
I wrote another post here about Osoto Gari along with some videos I found related to the throw here: Ju-Jitsu Training - Mount Drills, Scissor Sweep, Kneeing People and Osoto Gari
I use a same side sleeve and collar grip. I take a big step with my lead leg to off-balance my opponent, then execute my osoto gari sweep.

Mount Drills - Escape Training and Warmup

Last night we had an interesting training session. We ran around the dojo for a good 15 minutes doing various rolls and basis throws during the run. I heard someone call it the “Central Park Run”. It was a great warmup and actually a lot of fun. After that the class broke up into pairs and did live drilling on escaping from mount. This drill was actually a lot of fun, and a great one to work on for both people. The person on the top needed to work on keeping mount, while the guy on the bottom has to get out. I think for some people they realized its harder to keep mount then excepted, and for others they realized its a pain in the ass getting out of mount…. especially when you have someone who out weighs you a great deal. While thinking about getting out of mount, it reminded of a video I saw. It’s a simple mount escape like most of us do by bringing your elbows to your opponents knees and shrimping. But instead of trying shrimp back a great distance, you use your far leg to trap your opponents leg and transition to half guard. I think Ryan was trying a variation of this technique last night.

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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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Its been a couple weeks since I’ve announced my grip strength quest and I think this is a good time to post my latest update. So here is what I have been doing.

• Thick handled bar Sumo Style Deadlifts
  : I started doing my training on sumo style deadlifts a couple weeks ago, but decided to add a variation on the lift. Since my shoulder will tear if I add too much weight I decided to use one of thick handled bars at the gym and a 20-rep or as many reps I can do of sumo deadlifts for 5 sets. It would serve multiple purposes - getting my sumo technique better, improving my grip and holding strength, and get a good physical workout, and be mentally challenging. I have REALLY enjoyed this exercise. It is freaking tough to hold on to that thing especially in the last sets when I get over 12-15 reps. You really have to squeeze and hold to keep from losing the bar. Your fingers come into play too.

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Picture from SHERDOG.COM

Strikeforce middleweight champion Frank Shamrock fought San Shou star Cung Lee in an amazing MMA Fight on Saturday.

Frank promised to stand with Cung Lee and beat him on his feet. Shamrock remained true to part of his promise. He stood with Cung Lee for 3 rounds, but was unable to continue after the 3rd round because Cung Lee broke his arm from a kick! After the fight Frank Shamrock was humble and said the following: “Cung Le broke my right arm, I could feel the bones clicking together. Anyone who says Cung Le doesn’t know submissions … he put one on my arm.”

After a great first round, the tides slowly start changing in favor of Cung Lee. He continued to punish Shamrock with kicks, especially side kicks, and even caught him with a kick, spinning back fist combo. Cung Lee also nailed a freaking cool leg sweep that wipe the smile off of Frank’s face.

The third round actually showed the possibility of Shamrock coming back to him. He rallied late in the round and almost looked he could finish Cung Lee. But somewhere in the round, Cung Lee kicked Frank Shamrock in the wrist and broke it. At the end of the round Frank went down in his corner and called the fight.

Here are the videos of the fight, get them now before they’re taken down!

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