game changers

machomang

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Every once in a while, you'll watch a dvd or attend a seminar and walk away with a small little detail of a gem that changes your game. I used to always end up in an arm triangle position but never liked finishing from there because I always felt like I was always cranking and over-muscling it. Watched Seph Smith's take on it and my finishing rate has sky rocketed. Another one is finishing the armbar with one leg hooking under the head and the other leg over the head. What is it for you guys?
 
Getting the underhook deep in the hip from half.
Learning to use the shield on bottom of reverse de la riva to reinforce the hook leg.
 
My first instructor told me that even if you're technique is perfect, if you do it at the wrong time, it will fail. Such a simple lesson but I think about it at least once a month for 7 years now.
 
Yesterday I learned to use one butterfly hook to help transition from half guard to full x. Pretty elementary but made it 100x easier.

also when I realized that sweeps from single x worked with the same principle as a low single takedown (same outward pressure on the knee) I suddenly could sweep from single x whereas before I would get to that position and immediately transition to full x because I wasn't comfortable.

I'm a noob so these revelations are very basic, but they meant a lot to me!
 
Getting the underhook deep in the hip from half.
Learning to use the shield on bottom of reverse de la riva to reinforce the hook leg.


idk why some guys like to underhook the back in half guard maybe n gi cause u can grab the cloth and extend your arm but no gi i think its much better to underhook the leg or underhook the far shoulder extending my arm so it kills there whizzer underhooking the leg compeltely stops a whizzer or any attempt at a guillotine or darce like how drysdale does here


 
If you do enough positional sparring rounds from the low underhook your shoulder gets strong enough the whizzer stops being a problem.
With a deep underhook if I'm in any trouble I can just pull him over and off balance him.
Drysdale is using the lower under hook in a sloppy crappy manner so he is not moving the guy. You need to have it super low. In the gi I grab the pants, if I can't I try the hip bone.
From the on the leg grip if you hip in you can extend their leg and extend it.
I'll try getting up with the single leg grip dunno why I never even thought about trying it.
 
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my go to in hf is coming up to a single so hooking the leg is much better for me helps me get up to my base easier
 
Dogfight is a lot better then going straight to a single. You have still to finish it. Against say heavy weight wrestlers and judo guys it's not that easy. In bjj competition people will try to hop out of bounds.
Shelving the leg from the dog fight is super good tho.
 
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When Roger Gracie told me that he never had to deal with modern guards because he passed low.
 
what are the best ways to explode to the inside to take down your opponent with a reach advantage?

for roman Greco what is the best leverage you have if you are shorter then your opponent but heavier?
 
My first school wasn't very competitive or competition focused. There were people that competed occasionally. The instructor had a different approach to rolling. He told us to treat it more like a game and not to be very intense. When I changed schools the intensity level in training changed as well. Realizing it was OK to roll hard was game changing for me and took a couple of months.

Other than that, watching Ryan Hall's triangle DVD was probably one of the things that had the biggest impact on my training.
 
I visited a school run by a BJJ world champion and learned the importance of drilling. They didn't do any warm ups, just 8X2 minutes of constant drilling of basic movements. By the end, you couldn't help but know the move. There are only two techniques taught, then roll.


Everything previous had been standard GB warm ups followed by three disconnected techniques then roll.
 
As far as techniques:
1.) In SLX to have the inside foot hook the opposite leg. Made all the difference for me.
2.) Danaher's tip of shifting from centerline to get the choking arm deeper for front chokes. Prior to that detail I always thought my arms were too short for front chokes.

As far as concepts:
1.) Best way to improve is to take responsibility for your improvement and having the discipline to stick to a strategic plan for improvement. Pick a specific technique/position and own it. Stay with it until you are a specialist of it. The best way to accomplish this is to watch footage of the best of the best using it,specific train to build instincts,use the technique in rolling, and assess ways to improve the technique afterwards. Stay with it until you feel like a specialist then move on to a different technique. IMO most people just go to class seeking to just get better overall from rolling but it is far more efficient to approach BJJ from the aspect of mastering BJJ in chunks rather that an overall approach.

2.) Engaging the hips and shoulder blades more.
The quote that "most good BJJisin the ass" is very correct.
 
Every once in a while, you'll watch a dvd or attend a seminar and walk away with a small little detail of a gem that changes your game. I used to always end up in an arm triangle position but never liked finishing from there because I always felt like I was always cranking and over-muscling it. Watched Seph Smith's take on it and my finishing rate has sky rocketed. Another one is finishing the armbar with one leg hooking under the head and the other leg over the head. What is it for you guys?

Follow Brandon McCaghren on instagram. His 1 minute jiu jitsu hacks always give sweet little details that will likely improve upon things you already knew. Also, he's just a cool guy all around.
 
Can you be more specific? You mean like on his knees?
Roger uses a variety of passes but he generally tries to close the distance and get to half or butterfly. Low means like on your need or a tripod rather than standing tall and running around.
 
Roger uses a variety of passes but he generally tries to close the distance and get to half or butterfly. Low means like on your need or a tripod rather than standing tall and running around.

Thanks. I remember when I first started bjj most people passed on the knees. Nowadays most people seem to pass on their feet. I would imagine that's why DLR and RDLR got so popular.
 
Can you be more specific? You mean like on his knees?

He's basically never on his knees. Most good pressure passers pass very low line but aren't actually hardly ever on their knees (Faria, Murilo, Roger, etc.). He's just very low in on the hips driving forward taking up space. Watch his match vs. Romulo Barral if you want to see what I think is the clearest example of how he passes:



If you're that tight and low you basically never have to worry about ending up in DLR, spider, etc.
 
He's basically never on his knees. Most good pressure passers pass very low line but aren't actually hardly ever on their knees (Faria, Murilo, Roger, etc.). He's just very low in on the hips driving forward taking up space. Watch his match vs. Romulo Barral if you want to see what I think is the clearest example of how he passes:



If you're that tight and low you basically never have to worry about ending up in DLR, spider, etc.


Basically pressure passing?
 
Basically pressure passing?

Yeah. Nothing fancy. The reason it was game changing for me is it made me reassess my passing paradigm. I was spending a lot of time figuring out how to pass modern guards, and he basically was saying 'pass low and you don't have to worry about any of that'.

I don't really like the phrase 'pressure passing' though because all passing requires pressure. Even 'fast' passing requires pressure to get a reaction to pass against. No one just jumps back and forth and passes elite guards, you have to bring pressure and then you can either play off that with side to side or redirective passes ('fast' passing) or you can just continue the pressure by changing the angle somewhat ('pressure' passing).
 
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