Concepts

The Ladder Concept

Have you ever rolled with someone who seems to have a tractor-beam-like attachment to you? No matter what you do, you can’t keep their weight off you, and it feels like you’re slowly drowning in concrete.

Braulio basically does this to me every time we roll, and I can assure you it’s a terrible feeling. By feeling it so many times (and asking him), the concept behind how to become a human tractor beam is pretty simple and can be used by anyone.

I call it the Ladder concept and want to share it with you now.

A lot of people think about passing (or any technique) as a single technique, but it’s not. A better way to think about passing is that you have to win a series of small battles.

Each battle is a rung on the ladder that finally gets you to your goal.

If your opponent prevents you from climbing to the next rung of the ladder, you stay there until you break through their defences. And if they break from one of your attacks, you only want to fall one rung of the ladder rather than to the bottom.

To illustrate the ladder concept, I want to share a short clip from the Cradle Masterclass where I talked about this concept. Check out the video below to watch it now:

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The Submission Transition Game

One of the first instructionals I got was Erik Paulson’s Game Development. This short instructional covers 8 ways of training to develop your grappling.

One of those ‘games’ was attacking by transitioning from submission to submission. The idea being if you master this you’ll create an inescapable web of destruction for your opponent.

Throughout my Jiu Jitsu career, I’ve regularly practiced this game (and the other 7) when sparring, and it’s greatly helped my understanding of submission and how to connect them.

Along with improving my understanding of submissions, there is another benefit to developing this skill.

If your opponent refuses to tap you can transition to another submission without causing injury.

This is incredibly important in training, as you get to develop your technique safely even if your opponent is being an idiot or doesn’t realise the danger. To give you an example of how this looks, check out this short video.

In the video, you’ll see I catch my opponent in a triangle, he defends and I transition to an arm bar.

That arm bar is on, but as my opponent doesn’t tap, which leaves me with two options: push harder and risk injury or transition to a tighter submission.

I chose option two and switch to a K-Arm Bar. At that moment my opponent knows there is no escape and taps.

This is a great example of training smart and training safely. Give this training method a try next time your sparring and let me know how you get on.

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Killing Frames

The start of any escape in BJJ or submission grappling comes from your opponent making (or maintain) their frames. If you can kill those frames, your ability to control your partner and submit them will become much easier.

This short video covers three ways you can neutralise your opponent’s frames from side control. Although the video is taken from a No Gi class, the same principles work just as well in the Gi too.

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How To Develop Smooth Transitions In Your Jiu Jitsu

Jiu Jitsu is a dynamic art. You’re continually adjusting position and transitioning between different techniques. Your ability to connect techniques together can have a big impact on your performance.

The difference between skill levels is not the number techniques you know. Instead, it’s how well you know those techniques and your ability to recognise what’s happening and respond accordingly.

This is the reason a blue belt can submit a black belt. The blue belt may not know as much Jiu Jitsu, but if they are better in a particular transition they will catch the black belt.

And it’s pretty easy to develop this technical proficiency and transitional speed. You just need to practice transitioning into your game a lot.

In recent months, I’ve been using a simple concept to help my students develop their transitional speed and their Jiu Jitsu. I’m calling it Free Flow Drilling. It’s based on the Flow Drilling I talked about in Performance Drilling.

In case you’ve forgotten, Flow Drilling is simply connecting a sequence of techniques to create a continuous flow of technique. The difference in Free Flow Drilling is I don’t dictate the sequence. The students complete the technique they’re working, then add the next logical step based on their game.

For example, let’s say I’m teaching a sweep. I’ll demonstrate the technique, then have my students drill it but adding on whatever pass and submission they like to use.

This means they learn to transition instantly from a sweep to guard pass to submission and they get to practice their game. To give you a better idea of how Free Flow Drilling works watch the below.

Leave a comment and let me know what you think.

3 Essential Concepts To Defend Any Submission

Every Jiu Jitsu player knows the feeling a split second before they get caught in a submission. It’s the moment you realise you’ve made a mistake and there’s nothing you can do about it. Your only option is to tap and nurse your battered ego.

Don’t get me wrong, getting submitted in training is a good thing. It means your training in an environment that will help you improve and that you’re expanding your comfort zones.

When Should You Tap?

Before we go any further, I want to share my thoughts on when you should tap. I see a lot of people pointlessly get injured because they try to fight out of a submission that’s locked on.

Once a submission is locked in tight, completing it has little to do with technique. Finishing a submission is mostly just strength. Consequently, once a submission is locked in tight, there is little you can do about it except either tap or break.

Personally, I’d like to be able to train the next day, so I fight with everything I have until a submission is locked tight, as soon as that happens I tap. And I advise all my students do the same.

Timing Is Everything

Ok back to defending submissions. Regardless of whether you’re a seasoned world champion black belt or a brand new white belt, how you react in the moments before a submission is locked in tight will dictate whether you tap or not.

And as with any bad situation, prevention is always the best option. The longer you allow a bad situation to progress the worse it will become.

Where a lot of people go wrong is they react too late. They only start defending the submission once it’s locked in. That should be your last line of defence not your first.

If you think about it, there are several things your opponent has to do before they get the submission. They have to set the right grips. They have to create the right angle. They have to open your opponent’s defences. And they have to transition into the submission.

At any of these points, you can stop their submission attempt in its tracks and force them to change their attack. In this article, we’re going to look at three key concepts that will allow you to defend against any submission.

Concept #1: Killing the Angle

Most submission attacks require your opponent to create an angle on you.

Take the triangle, for example, if your opponent is square on to you then it will be much harder to finish the attack as the pressure on the neck will be wrong.

The same applies to goes for armbars, leg locks, chokes, and just about every other submission.

Consequently, if you can kill the angle before your opponent starts the submission attack, you’ll never need to defend it. The video below explains this further and covers a few examples.

Concept #2: Centre Line Control

Controlling the centre line is very closely linked to killing the angle. Anytime your arms cross the centre of your body or your opponent’s body; you’re putting yourself at risk of submission.

An excellent example of this is the arm bar from closed guard. To apply an armbar effectively, your arm must be in the centre of your opponent’s body. If you stop this, there is little risk of the submission.

If you can control the centre line, you’ll be in an excellent position to avoid countless submission attacks. Check out the video below to see exactly what I mean.

Concept #3: Lines of Defence.

The final submission defence concept I want to share with you is lines of defence.

When I think about defending submission, I look at it as though there are three different times to defend.

Firstly, you can defend before the submission ever happens (we talked about this earlier with killing the angle and centre line control)

Secondly, you can defend during the submission. That would be something like hiding your arm as your opponent tries to armbar you.

Your final line of defence is a split second before you’re forced to tap. This could be something like the hitch-hiker armbar escape or pulling the knee open during a knee bar. This video covers what I mean:

Be Safe Before You Escape

To close, I want to share one final thought about submission escapes.

Keep in mind whenever you’re defending a submission your primary objective is to escape the submission NOT to sweep or submit your opponent.

Sometimes your submission counters my result in a reversal or submission opportunity, but these should are by-products of your defence, not your goal.

Always remember, you have to be safe before you can escape.

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