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The Sucuri
Grappling has been around for thousands of years. In that time, every way of possibly contorting an opponent will have been discovered.
As a result, I never say I invented anything. Instead, I prefer to think of rediscovering something that was lost or fallen out of fashion. This is exactly the case with the Sucuri.
The Sucuri is a submission / position I started using when my training partners got good at defending my attacks from the back. Unlike a lot submissions from the you don’t realised the danger until its too late and the damage is done.
The nice thing about the Sucuri is if your opponent does realise the danger, their way of defending will lead to either an arm bar or choke. Check out the video below to discover exactly what the Sucuri is and how you can use it to your advantage:
Warning: The Sucuri is a powerful submission when done correctly and puts a huge amount of pressure on your opponent. Please be careful when using it in practice as it can easily injury your training partner.
If you’d like to see the Sucuri in action, check out this breakdown of my first sub-only match
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Lessons Learned In Revenge
When I first started, Jiu Jitsu professional BJJ competitions were a dream. Honestly, I never expected them to become a reality, let alone be invited to fight in them.
So, when I was approached by the guys at the Tuff Invitational I jumped at the chance to compete in a professional Sub-Only competition. Plus I would get to settle a score with an old rival, Paul Bridges, after nearly nine years.
The Arm Bar
Paul is one of the pioneers of UK BJJ, and I had the pleasure (or misfortune) to fight him under MMA rules back in 2006 on a UKMMA show.
This was really the early days of the UK MMA scene, and the competitors were nowhere nearly as well rounded as they are today.
Side note: Paul and I’s fight took place in one of the first cages in the UK. If you watch the video closely you’ll see there is a 3-inch gap between the cage and canvas, and the canvas was actually canvas, it hurt like hell when you grappled on it and left you with severe friction burns. Fun times.
At the time, I was primarily a Kickboxer, although I had done a fair amount of grappling and wasn’t afraid of the ground or to wrestle.
Paul, on the other hand, was already a purple belt and one of the top guys on the UK BJJ scene having won most of the comps available at that time.
It was a classic striker vs. grappler match up, that unfortunately for me, went the same painful way striker vs. grappler matchups go.
Check out the fight below:
This fight and Paul’s beautiful armbar are the main reason’s I got so heavily involved in Jiu Jitsu. I realised if I wanted a future in MMA I’d need to develop my BJJ skills to avoid situations like this happening again.
However, along the way I developed a love for Jiu Jitsu that overtook my desire to compete in MMA and be punched int the face. The rest, as they say, is history.
Unfortunately, I never had the opportunity to compete against Paul again. He was always ahead of me in belt rank, and by the time I’d caught up he was focusing on his academy.
I thought I’d never get to test myself against him again.
So, when the guys at the Tuff Invitational asked me who I’d like to fight, Paul was the first person I thought of, and thankfully he agreed.
The Rematch
My preparation for the match against Paul was a little strange. I’d just competed and won the No Gi Worlds for the second time and was in good shape. But I had a distinct lack of high-level training partners and it was still a 6-weeks out from the event so needed to stay in shape.
So, I did what I could and I found a few great people to train with around Devon (which meant a lot of travelling but hey-ho). And when I couldn’t roll, I supplemented with more strength and conditioning sessions.
By the time the fight came around, I was in the best shape I could be in and I had a solid game plan.
That’s an important lesson, many people miss. When you’ve done everything you can in preparation for a fight, you will feel more confident. This is why training camps are essential for creating many people’s positive mindsets.
So, how did the fight go? Well here’s a complete breakdown of the match
The Lessons
Personally, there’s tonne of things I took away from this event, including: not rolling for 40-minutes before a match, fighting on a platform feels like a deathmatch, and several other things.
And there are also a couple of important lessons you can take away from this it too. Here’s four of the most important:
1) Don’t keep driving forwards if you head gets caught during a takedown attempt. Instead, shuck your head out by turning towards your head towards the body. Here’s Braulio Estima demonstrating the technique:
2) Don’t wait when you’re passing guard. Instead, immediately go on the offensive and start to pass. This forces your opponent to defend your pass not whatever you did to get there.
3) Put yourself in a position where your opponent is forced to defend multiple things. Your opponent can only really defend one thing at a time, so if you have two attacking options, they will have to give you one.
This is the reason I was able to submit Paul. I forced him to defend the armbar, Sucuri, and his neck.
You may never have seen this submission before, it’s a little unusual but the Sucuri is incredibly painful. You can learn The Sucuri HERE.
4. Do your best to prepare for a match. Even if you don’t have a lot of time, or training partners, or whatever, the knowledge you’ve done everything you can to prepare for an event is incredibly beneficial to your mindset when competing.
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The Egg
A Simple Way To Develop Water-Tight Defences
I remember when Alex started training Jiu Jitsu. He was athletic, good at scrambling, and had the heart of a lion.Because of these attributes, if he got on top, he would often catch his training partners in submissions or
However, the moment he got stuck on his back defending, he turned from a mat monster into something more like Bambi skating on ice. His arms and legs would be everywhere, and he’d try and bench press his partners off instead of using a solid technique.
Inevitably his opponents would pass his defences like butter and end up in a strong attacking position.
And at some point in your Jiu Jitsu journey, I’m sure you’ll have experienced this too. You got stuck on the bottom, and no matter how hard you fight your opponent breaches your defences and squash you like a bug.
Often the problem is not your ability to sweep or submit your opponent, instead, the problem is you are exposing your defences and making yourself vulnerable to attacks
A few years ago, I noticed this was a common problem in my beginner students. So set about creating a way to help teach them basic positional defence and guard recovery.
Enter The Egg Drill
After a little trial and error, the Egg was born (maybe laid is apter)
The fundamental principle behind the egg is to create a defensive shell. To do this you keep your elbows and knees tight to your body, and your chin tucked.
If you do this correctly, it becomes incredibly difficult for your partner to attack you regardless of the positionthey are in plus they will find it tough to stabilise any dominant position.
Now, before we go any further, this is just a drill or concept. It is not supposed to be specific technique, and if you’re sparring I would not advise you using this as your primary form of attack
However, if you are continually getting your guard passed or easily submitted, practising this drill will be of great benefit to you.
Essentially, there are three parts to this drill with each part building on the last. The drill starts by teaching you how to keep your defences tight, then progresses with how to recover guard, and finishes with how to you can use the concept in sparring situations.
Below you’ll find the thought process behind each part of the drill and video outline how to perform it.
Part 1: Understanding The Egg
The first part of the drill is simply getting used to keeping a tight defensive and demonstrate how easy it can be. To do this, you have to keep your elbows and knees tight to your body and keep your chin tucked in tight.
There should be no space for your partner to get inside of the frame and they shouldn’t be able to separate your limbs from your body.
When you can do this effectively, it becomes very hard for you opponent to set up any submission opportunities or stabilise a dominant position.
The video below shows how to perform part 1 of the Egg drill. The first time you do this, it’s a good idea to start slowly and gradually increase the pressure as your partner develops the defensive capabilities.
Part 2: Defending The Egg
Once you get comfortable with the defensive position, the next step is to stop them getting around your guard.
It is impossible for your opponent to be attacking both sides of your body at once. Consequently, you can use the side they’re not attacking to defend your opponents pass attempts or recover guard.
The second part of the drill is the start of integrating the Egg concept into sparring. Check out the video below to see exactly how to do part 2 of the drill.
Part 3: Opening The Egg
Obviously, keeping your hands connected to your shins and your legs tucked into your body isn’t an effective way to play Jiu Jitsu. Consequently, the final part of the drill is all about how you use the Egg concept within your Jiu Jitsu.
The video below shows how to perform part 3 of the Egg drill.
How To Become One With The Egg
Like almost technique or concept in Jiu Jitsu, you need to practice the Egg to make it instinctive and be able to use it when you need to.
However, this is relatively easy. Simply take some time before or after your regular Jiu Jitsu training and practiceeach of the drills in order.
A short training plan (less than 15 minutes) could look something like this.
The Egg Part 1: 2 x 1 min rounds (alternate attacker and defender)
The Egg Part 2: 2 x 1 min rounds (alternating)
The Egg Part 3: 2 x 1 min rounds (alternating)
Remember, gradually increase the intensity as your partner improves, and if your partner is struggling to take the intensity back a notch.
If you did this plan for a month I can guarantee your guard retention and defence would increase dramatically. This short training plan also at as a great warm up for any guard training or defensive work.
If you enjoyed this article or found it useful, leave a comment below and let me know. I always appreciate the feedback.
To get your FREE copy of Performance Drilling and discover how to train like a world champion click the button below.
The most powerful submission in the world!
In my humble opinion, there is one submission position above all others that is the most powerful. I know that’s a bold statement, but it’s true.
When you slap this position on your opponent, you have a plethora of submission options to choose from, but it’s insanely difficult to escape. Even better, this submission position works just as well in the Gi, No Gi, or MMA!
So what’s this wonderful position I’m talking about? Check out the video below to learn it now…
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