Today we did a fun flow. I’ve had exposure to all of these techniques before but as per usual, I identified dozens of things I’ve been doing wrong. I’m just going to jot down the pointers I need to remember, rather than go through some long-winded explanation of each move.

Standing Guard Pass

• When you step up with the first leg, keep your foot close to your opponent’s body and engage your hip-drive so your back is very straight.
• Swivel the second foot out at an angle and twist your hips forcefully when you step up.
• Don’t just lean on your hand.  Your opponent can knock your hand away and force your posture down.  Hold your arm straight with light pressure so if he tries to sit up he has to sit up through your arm.

Head and Hip Side Control

When you complete the guard pass you naturally end up in head-and-hip side control. Rather than scoop the head and go knee-on-belly you can just

• Place your bicep over your opponent’s far bicep (this keeps you heavy on his chest)
• Scoot your hips back to isolate his near arm
• Push down on his knees
• “Stomp a bug” on the far side of his body to complete the mount.
• Walk your hands over to stabilize the mount

Mount

• When you scoop under your opponent’s head, then also shift your weight to crank his head over
• Pry his arm up by walking your hand up underneath it with little movements rather than a violent jerk

S-Mount

• Your knee has to be at least as high as your opponent’s head
• If you straighten your arms you will lift up your opponent’s head preventing a bridge. This also makes it easier to get your other knee under his shoulder. Make sure to get the knee under and not just your calf or foot
• Don’t be afraid to just sit on your opponent’s chest to stabilize the S mount

Arm Bar 1

• Lean towards your opponent’s feet to make it easy to swing your leg over his head
• Do not try to straighten his arm unless you can get your foot over his face. Otherwise he’ll just sit up in your guard.
• Try to touch the soles of your feet to the mat

Arm Bar 2

• If he counters arm-bar #1 by grabbing a bicep then snake your hand over his arms and grab the other arm at the elbow
• Lean way forward and stabilize by putting your hand on the mat
• Pendulum your hips by kick-standing up on your foot so that you are facing the other direction. Swing your other leg over your opponent’s face. Then arm-bar the other arm.

One of the things I enjoy about Hollywood BJJ is Shawn Williams’ ability to make me comprehend “simple” techniques on a whole new level. We’ve been doing mount drills all week which seems about as exciting as a stick in the mud. But Shawn keeps dropping little biomechanical tips that have enabled me to keep my mount much better. This is not a glib statement. Last week I was being bucked and swept on a regular basis by guys who weigh 50 pounds less than I do. (I weigh 215 today) Today I managed to keep mounted on a guy who weighs 250. That’s progress!

Chest on Chest/Hip on Hip
I had a tendency to support my weight on my arms making me “light” on top of my opponent. It’s okay to posture up if you’re going for a submission but if you are trying to maintain mount you should place your chest squarely on your opponent’s chest and your hips squarely on his hips. Your hands should be above your opponent’s arms spread wide but with elbows slightly bent. I started doing this and immediately felt the difference. My partner’s breath started to grow labored and he was plainly in discomfort.

Knees Wide
I tend to keep my knees close to my opponent’s body in mount. I started doing this under the misguided notion that it was helping me to track my opponent’s body. The unfortunate result of this is that if your opponent tries to bridge your knee can get trapped between his hip and the mat. You are deprived of a fulcrum and you go over more easily. Shawn taught me to keep your knees wide apart like the hulls of a catamaran. Catamarans are incredibly hard to capsize.

Hook Feet…sometimes
Shawn showed three different ways to touch your feet. Ordinarily you can just touch your feet together or lay one on top of the other. If your opponent controls your hips and tries an uppa you can hook your feet which makes you “stick” to him. If you keep chest-on-chest contact, it’s very difficult for your opponent to finish the uppa.

Grapevine
If your opponent gets an overhook and tries to bridge you over, you can grapevine his power leg (the one on the opposite side of the overhook) and stretch it out. This effectively takes the power out of his bridge. If you 1) shift your head across your opponent’s head on the opposite side of the overhook and 2) stretch out your hand on that side as far as it will go you will multiply the weight your opponent is trying to lift. Combined with the grapevine this is an awesome counter to a bridge attempt.

Knees + Crossface
Sometimes your opponent will get a gable grip around your back and keep your posture down. Matt Hughes just did this to Georges St. Pierre in the last UFC. If you just push yourself up you’re basically doing a combined benchpress of your weight + your opponent’s weight. If you try to use your lower back muscles, you can’t match your opponent’s arm power. Instead, if you scooch your knees forward a little you can straighten your back by driving your hips into your opponent’s hips. Then you can cross-face and push down on your opponent’s trap and re-establish mount.

After today’s class I noticed that I basically never utilize hip-drive to exert downward pressure in mount. I am going to work on that tomorrow and see if I can do any better.  By the way, I cut the end off my mouthpiece so my bad tooth doesn’t come into contact with anything.  This has enabled me to resume classwork.  Also I’m taking a lot of ibuprofen which is probably killing my liver but what can I say, I heart BJJ.

One of the most breath-taking moments in UFC history was during Penn-Hughes II when BJ sits up from guard and takes Hughes’ back and then puts Hughes in an arm-bar triangle. I rewound this on TIVO and watched it about 30 times before my wife made me stop. Yes, BJ Penn is a two-fisted ass kicker and I’ve been following his career for a long time, so it was hard to resist buying Mixed Martial Arts: The Book of Knowledge. Now, having spent some time with the book I must say it totally rules.

Basically the book is split in two. The first part covers the stand-up game. The second part covers the ground game. Both the stand-up and ground sections are logically organized by common fight situations. For instance, the stand-up game has a section on the clinch as well as an entire section on takedown defense. The ground game has a section that discusses guard techniques and a separate section that deals with mount. Each page has high-quality color photographs that detail a given technique step-by-step. All of the techniques are shown from alternate angles so you don’t have to guess what’s going on. There is no fluff, or advertising, or any other form of boring crap. Basically the book is a 300+ page brain dump of BJ’s bread-and-butter fighting techniques. BJ Penn fans will definitely recognize BJ’s game in this book. For instance the electrifying sequence in his battle with Matt Hughes is laid out in pages 192 and 294 where he shows “Sit Up Guard To Back” and “Triangle Arm Bar From Back”.

Since this is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu blog I should add a few thoughts for people considering buying this book. First of all, this book is not a BJJ primer. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsokas will find that some basic white belt techniques are omitted from the book. Since this book functions as a compendium of BJ’s go-to fighting techniques, this shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone, but it bears mentioning.

Second, since this book is focused on MMA all of the ground techniques are no-gi and some of the ground techniques incorporate striking. For instance, BJ shows how to incorporate strikes to pass the guard. I kind of liked this aspect of the book because it made me think about techniques in a different way, but for a total BJJ noob I can see that it might be a little confusing.

Finally, I should mention that you won’t get as much out of this book if you just look at the pictures. BJ really drops science in the text and you have to read the text to fully understand the context of each move and how to string them together into a sequence. For instance, the sit-up sweep, guillotine, and kimura are detailed on consecutive pages so you might guess that these moves can be strung together in an attack sequence. But the text really explains how one move sets you up for the next.

I used to think martial arts books were a waste of time but that opinion was based on the many low-quality books on the market. This book is in a class by itself and has caused me to change my opinion about book-learning.

While no book is an adequate substitute for mat time Mixed Martial Arts: The Book of Knowledge can really help you raise your game. In BJJ you win with your mind. Putting together a grappling sequence requires an exercise of the intellect as well as coordinated physical execution. Reading this book helps me “get my head in the game” which has really improved my rolling. Additionally, I have actually applied some of the techniques in this book. For instance, I always had a hard time passing half-guard, but after studying the no-hand pass in this book I started trying it on the mat and now I do it all the time.

I have a crazy bad toothache and I need to see an endodontist for a root canal. I can’t bite down on my mouthguard without agonizing pain. The last class I went to I almost blacked out when I put in my mouthguard. So I’m thinking I won’t go to class until I get my mouth repaired. Since I can’t go to class I’ve been doing more conditioning which isn’t as fun as skill training but I’m less likely to grit my teeth. In my current condition if I grit my teeth I think I might just drop dead on the spot.

Anyway, I have a new system for my rounds training. Basically at the top of the minute I ask my trainer (wife) to tell me how many reps I did of that exercise during the last training session and then I try to beat that number by two reps. Also I asked her to tell me when there are ten seconds left in the minute so I can be mentally ready to transition to the next drill and don’t get caught sucking wind and feeling sorry for myself. So far this system has been working. On December 27 I moved 1042.1 pounds per minute. Last night I moved 1207.89 pounds per minute over three five minute rounds with two minute rest periods.

BTW - while my kettlebell training has been better, my weight is much worse. I can only eat soft foods until my surgery so I’ve been eating pasta and smoothies and enchiladas. It’s surprisingly difficult to find mushy food that won’t make you pack on the pounds. Yogurt would be good but it hurts my stomach for some reason. I can’t wait till my tooth is fixed so I can go back to eating celery and raw almonds.