Ground Fighting Basics I - Master Your Foundation

A house built on a poor foundation…is bound to collapse and fall into ruin.

Our martial skills are no different.

• Gain core strength.

• Improve mobility and program your reflexes.

• Master the building blocks to win the day.

The problem with a subpar foundation in any martial art is that it leads to failed technique and a breakdown of applying our skills effectively and efficiently.

When we’re on the ground, this is exacerbated by the weight, strength, and will of larger opponents coupled with gravity keeping us stuck and unable to move. Even a smaller opponent with a higher skill level can prevent us from being able to escape.

Failure to adopt solid basics can cause our brain to stop in the middle of a bout, attack and have to think what to do next.

Take the Shortcut

The short path to a better ground fight game, is to master the basics of Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Programming your body to know how to respond properly to external stimuli. How to react with fluid and natural movements.

Confused moments, or lack of knowledge costs us precious seconds that we need in order to gain position and win submission on an opponent.

As I began learning Brazilian jiu-jitsu I found many of my natural instincts from training other martial arts for over a decade, were wrong. Dead wrong.

The natural reactions and movements I had for striking, kicking, and throwing arts caused me to end up in worse positions on the ground, and to ultimately tap out. Even before getting my black belt in BJJ, I strove to make the process easier for my students. To remove some of the guesswork. To help them build a solid bedrock to grow their art.

Start off on the RIGHT foot

In this course, I’ve assembled the foundation you need to improve your ground fighting skills. The road to mastering your ground fighting game lies in these key movement patterns that will come to save you time and time again from devastating loss.

These drills and exercises are perfect for solo practice while building strength, conditioning, muscle memory, and solid kinesthetic movement patterns.

The training tools of champions. Building these into your training routines will provide large gains on the mats while giving you an incredible core workout.

Let's get started!

Course includes:

• Easy to follow video lessons breaking down each of your necessary skills.

• A pre-planned training mission to take the guesswork out of what to train and how to practice these necessary skills.

• FREE PDF doc Basics of BJJ - breaking down the art of Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Making it easier than ever to understand what your goals are, and how to understand not only the overall objective, but the terminology to navigate the art.

How and When to Stand Up in a Fight

Team Note: I know many of you who train with me will enjoy this video. Truth be told, I wish we had done it years ago because it is so fundamentally important. There isn't enough time in the day to practice everything, so feel free to take this and practice it whenever you can, and as much as you want.

Video Description: Whether we like it or not, sometimes we end up on the ground in a fight/altercation, or just a dangerous situation. When and how we stand up, can mean the difference between success and fail. Here are some tips for standing up when someone is waiting to pounce. 
 

Stop Your Opponents Crushing Side Control

Do you hate being crushed in your opponent's side control? Here's something I've been working on in my game that will hopefully help your game. Building a mountain under your opponents crushing side control can give you space and mobility for countering their attacks, and possibly bringing us to a better position.

I'm Not Ready For That.

"I'm not ready for that." is a healthy approach to training things that overwhelm us.

Here are a couple of counters to the standing guard pass to help your game. Years ago I learned the second of these moves at a workshop with Renan Borges. I was still a white belt at the time, and even though I really liked the move, it wasn't something I was ready for. 

I filed it away in the "I like this, but I'm not ready for it right now. I'll do my best today, and someday I'll come back to this." A few months ago, it started reappearing in my rolls and here's how I integrated it and hopefully you can too. When you are ready.

Sickle Sweep - place the feet in the hips as they stand up. As they push the leg down, rotate your foot inside to help with leverage. Not necessary, but it can give a good bite on the hip. 

Use your other arm to attack the ankle with an underhook. Push up with the foot in the hip, and slice the back of the ankle with your leg as you hold the other ankle. 

Deep Pass Defense - when they step through more aggressively, it is difficult to get the leverage to apply the sickle sweep. Here we shoot the arm through the leg following with our head and shoulder. Think of the hand as the tip of the arrow, and the head is the feather.

Place the back of the tricep on the back of the leg to help finish rotating through. No need to pull the leg all the way through, and it is faster to use the shin with the other leg. Grab the ankles and leverage up. 

You can then take the back, or attack the ankles.