I was lucky to have caught some of these new BJJ matches that happened this past weekend out in Cali.
One thing I noticed was that half guard was full tilt (Philly jargon for used a lot)! That of course makes me happy because I preach so much half guard stuff on this site so when you see it in live action it gives me some backup.
The BJJ half guard used and applied in the matches below come from more of the shallow half guard. Shallow half guard is the most common style and the easiest of the 3 styles to master.
I was surprised in the first match to see deep half guard wizard Jeff Glover using more shallow style half guard. But, like I said above, it does tend to be an easy style and system to use/work with.
In case you’re wondering, I teach 3 types of half guard to my students.
They are:
Shallow (Easiest)
Deep (Intermediate level)
Lifting (Advanced)
Finding a style of half guard that works for your Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu game is a matter of taste and body type. I tend to use all 3 but I lean a bit more to the lifting style myself. That’s because I have short thick legs and that body type works well for the lifting stuff.
Anyhow, check out the videos below. The first is what’s sure to be called a classic match. It’s Jeff Glover vs. Caio Terra. It’s just an amazing match to watch and will make you wanna train some Gi BJJ as soon as it’s over.
The other match is with 2 BJJ Black Belt killers. Lucas Leite vs. Rafael Lovato. Some good half guard here as well!
Flexibility is one of the most important yet often overlooked areas of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
I should add that you might overlook it while young but man when you get older you sure do wish you had more of it or had worked on it more!
Lets avoid that shall we?
Being flexible is a huge advantage to have. It makes it much harder for people to score on you with sweeps, takedowns and guard passes, among other things.
Look at all the top BJJ’er in the game right now, most if not all have much better then average flexibility. Guys like:
The Mendes Brothers
Cobrinha
Marcelo Garcia
Rodolfo Viera
Jeff Glover
And really that’s just naming a few. There are more, many more.
How do you get flexible? I’m sure you know the answer to that. Lots of stretching. A yoga class or two can’t hurt you either.
I’m not saying you have to dive full tilt into yoga or anything like that but if you need some help that wouldn’t be a bad start.
For me personally I don’t do Yoga or anything like that because I don’t have the time or patience for such. I will stretch most often after my running workouts and after training. The only stretching I do pre training is dynamic type stretching, nothing holding a pose or anything like that.
Make sure to do a good warm up before you stretch out. That way your muscles are nice and loose and you don’t injure yourself, which could happen if you stretch out while still “cold”.
Add some basic stretching into your routines and believe me it’s gonna pay off. Check out the videos below and you’ll see where being flexible comes in handy…
Like I was saying yesterday, control the grips and you control the guard.
Keep in mind that by controlling the gripping you can control much more then just the guard. Takedowns, guard passing and back take stuff all fall under the good gripping umbrella.
IMO the best grip to use for BJJ, at least from the guard is what we call a “cat paw” grip. Below is a photo of the grip.
That grip was a game changer for me. No one even taught it to me either. I learned it by watching Fabio Gurgel roll around after a seminar he gave in NYC. From that point on I used it.
I like the cat paw grip most people you can do a lot with it and it’s a very flexible grip. It’s very common in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
Remember that just getting the right grips from inside the guard isn’t enough. You’ve got to use your whole body. Using your feet as hooks and pulling on the opponent will do nothing be great things for sweeps and submissions.
You can do other things outside of the BJJ practice room to better your grips. Things like:
Rope climbs
Towel pulls ups
Towel rows
Gi rows and pull ups
Wrist rollers
Gripping machines (little hand held ones)
Hammer style curls when weight lifting
Tug of war!
Get creative people!
When you first start getting into grips from the guard (or anywhere for that matter) your grips will be weak and need work. You’ve got to build them up and that’s totally normal. Just stick with it and keep working on grabbing and holding, your grips will be ridiculously
strong!
Here is how I look at gripping from the guard. First, just get a control the grips (crawling), then start to use them to sweep opponents (walking) and then the big one, submit people using them (running).
You’ve got to crawl before you walk and walk before you run!
Just start out keeping people from passing your guard and then build from there.
Below are more great videos that showcase BJJ gripping at it’s finest.
Yeah I know, Danny Ives done been slacking! I haven’t been blogging as much, my excuse: I’m working on moving into a new facility for my MMA/BJJ academy and that’s been just murdering my time to write!
But I’m on it today and I wanted to talk about some key things that will help you get more sweeps, more submission holds and at the very least, stop cats from passing your guard!
With the gi on, when you first start learning about the guard, I feel that learning and understanding grips should be priority number 1. Bottom line, if you control the grips you control the battle.
Controlling the gripping might not mean you sweep or submit the guy/gal right away but it does give you time to think and in the end the best part is they don’t pass your guard.
I’m a big believer that when you first start learning BJJ and the guard game your number one goal when working from the bottom shouldn’t be to sweep or get submission holds but rather to stop the person on top from passing your guard.
Look at it this way, if you have the best sweeps/subs in the world from the guard but you can’t keep the guy on top in your guard then what good is it?!
I will admit that gripping is tricky and it takes time to learn. Truth be told I didn’t understand a darn thing about grips until I came to train with Master Lloyd Irvin here in Maryland. He opened up a whole new world to me and made my BJJ game 10 x’s better. All because of simple gripping.
I’m going to make this a 2 part blog post only because I want to get all my point across. For today, check out the videos below. I picked these ones mostly because they show high level gripping from the guard and you can see the results you get from it.
Also, the Jimmy Pedro Judo video is a must see and will help you understand grips better. I’m telling you guys reading this, if you learn the grips and because good at getting them and breaking them you’re going to be very very tough to beat!!!
My good friend and Muay Thai Kickboxing instructor, Jose “The Pistal” Villarisco, told me a long time ago that the more Kickboxing you do, the better your Jiu Jitsu game will become.
Interesting I thought, but that doesn’t make sense at all!
How in the world would doing a martial arts like Kickboxing, help my BJJ if their so very different….like night and day different???
I tested this theory out myself. I remember it well because I was training with Master Lloyd Irvin at his school in Maryland and of course they offer Muay Thai classes.
I had a pretty normal schedule of 5 to 6 days a week of BJJ training, including but not limited to drilling, situations and live rolling.
This is what I did: I cut out 2 of the BJJ days and replaced them with Kickboxing training. Nothing crazy, I was just taking the normal Kickboxing classes with all the other students.
A few things happened that were both cool and interesting at the same time.
I got in better shape…fast. Why? Because my body is so used to BJJ training and I can sort of “coast” through workouts. Not so with Muay Thai! I had to work much harder because I wasn’t used to the training. hence, I got in killer shape and as I’m sure you guessed, that helped my BJJ a ton.
Look, I don’t know why or how, but I’ll be darned, my BJJ training was much better and my technique was 10X’s sharper.
My theory on that is this:
BJJ is my first love. So when I took myself away from that and was doing kickboxing classes more I missed BJJ and wanted to do it, rather then making myself train.
Also, I started sparring in Muay Thai on Friday nights and was getting my butt whipped pretty good. That also got me in great shape but really I couldn’t wait to get back to BJJ where I was good and didn’t take beatings (at least not much)!
So my advice to you:
Train some freaking Muay Thai Kickboxing, Boxing, heck even some Karate will do. Change gears, cross train with the striking and watch, just watch, your Brazilian Jiu Jitsu will get better.
This is, and I’m not joking, a BLACK BELT PRO TRAINING TIP! Take advantage of my experiences and learn from them.
I wouldn’t tell you guys and gals this if I didn’t care. I hope and want you to be a beast at BJJ and the tips and tricks I talk about on my blog are tried and proven!
Below are some kickboxing videos. Study them because they rock!
“Trouble shooting and problem solving to make progress”
Any kind of hand to hand combat, be it BJJ, Muay Thai, Wrestling or MMA, requires a lot of mistakes made along the way to get better and in the end, “master” it.
As you train more and more you learn to figure things out on your own. By that I mean if you try and technique and it fails you, you sit down and assess the situation and find a solution for that program.
This is something that’s soooo very important for your half guard game (and overall BJJ too of course!).
I’ll use myself as an example.
When I first starting learning half guard I ran into all types of issues. I couldn’t get the underhook or I couldn’t get under the guy and so on.
I would learn techniques and try them out in live rolling. Whenever something didn’t work I would try and figure out why it didn’t work.
Too many students will try and technique one time after having learned it in class, maybe drilled it a few times and the move fails them. Rather then sitting down and assessing why it failed they just say “this just doesn’t work for me!”.
Now, just to be clear, not every technique will fit into your game. However, many will fit in if you find what you did wrong with it (problem solve) and fix that issue.
Also, remember that nothing comes over night and it takes time to learn Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
Learning BJJ is anything but easy and problem solving is a huge part of it because there is a ton of stuff that goes into it. You’ll make mistakes sure, but learn from them and figure out what made the techniques fail.
As you get further into your training problem solving becomes much easier because you’ll know a lot more. All in time my friend…
God I remember when I first started to learn pressure style guard passing. I must have screwed that up 5000 times before I got it right. I would just go home,
study my notes, look at what I thought went wrong and go from there.
**Good tip here! Have someone film you rolling and after, study the footage. You’d be surprised how much you can learn about yourself from seeing what it is that you actually do!
**Side-note regarding watching films of yourself, DON’T BE A HARSH CRITIC OF YOURSELF!
So, next time you have an issue with a technique and it’s just not working for you try and figure out why it’s not working and make any adjustments needed.
If you find that you can’t come up with a solution don’t be so fast to give up! Ask your coach or another training partner to help you see what’s wrong and you can both work together for maximum. That’s the best way to fix techniques, remember the power of the mastermind? (Read “think and grow rich for more on the mastermind)
Remember, have fun with your training and understand that becoming a master of Brazilian JuJitsu and earning your black belt is a process and takes time. In that time believe me you’ll be doing a TON of problem solving and trouble shooting.
Btw, a note book helps a ton with problem solving so if you’re not using one and taking notes you’re shooting yourself in the foot. Go out and buy a notebook and get to work!
Oh yeah and below is a pretty sweet video of my friend and longtime training partner, Brad Court, showing some sneaky stuff from Half Guard. Check it out!
To be honest, I just kind of thought of this only because I was wondering If anyone would ever ask this question.
This is the thing, as most of you know, I run an MMA school out of Maryland called Ivey League Mixed Martial Arts. I get all sorts of people coming in to take classes in stuff like Gracie Jiu Jitsu, Muay Thai Kickboxing, Wrestling, MMA and of course children’s martial arts classes.
Every now and then I get the one guy that is insistent on everything being “for the street!” and not for sport. Meaning, he only wants to learn moves that can and will be used out in the alleyway of the nightclub.
I don’t fault these people as I can certainly understand wanting to only learn the street useful techniques.
I teach BJJ half guard at my school a lot (shocking right?) and in all my years I’ve never had someone say it seemed “sporty” or that it wouldn’t work on the streets. But in my mind someone will ask this one day and I’m not even gonna wait for that day, lets tackle this topic right now on my BJJ Half Guard site.
Question for you? Have you ever been in a real street fight/self defense situation?
I ask this because you’d be shocked to know that most martial arts school owners haven’t. Nope never a “real” streetfight.
If you have been in a fight, and you got into that fight knowing some BJJ then you know how almost stupidly easy it is to take untrained people out. Easy to the point where it’s not even a challenge.
So this is my thing with half guard and a real street fight.
Would you really even need to use it? I mean, I know I haven’t. Most street fights are pretty black and white really. Guy goes to punch you, you bodylock/double leg him to the ground, mount, rear choke…fight over!
Half guard works in high level MMA like the UFC so yea if you needed to use it in a street fight it would be there and work. But again, you’d have to be facing one tough/skilled cat to even need it.
Funny story about street fights how to deal with people that don’t know anything or much.
My old friend Joe D’Arce (Renzo Gracie Black Belt) told me one time that he was testing out all these really high level techniques on a bunch of white belts in training. He said he was actually having a hard time not only getting the techniques, but with the white belts!
So he said the next day he came in he told himself he was just gonna do the old school “GRACIE BASICS” on the same white belts. He said he killed everyone. Then he said that the lesson for the day was that when dealing with guys that don’t know much, don’t over complicate things, just stick to the basics because in the grand scheme of things….do you really even need to dig into your back of advanced tricks? Food for thought…
So that’s my take on half guard for self defense. If you need it it’s there but given the fact that you more likely then not know more then the guy you’re fighting, stick to the KISS principle, which goes like this: K – Keep I – It S – Simple S – Silly
Basics for street fights. Plan and simple.
Danny Ives AKA The Half Guard Guy, Showing His Kids How To Do BJJ Shallow Half Guard
I’m feeling good today so here are some new videos, enjoy!
Weight training to better your half guard and overall Brazilian Jiu Jitsu game (MMA Too).
I talked a little bit about this in my email list (click link on right of page to opt in) and I thought we’d talk about this some more via this blog.
I think if you do any kind of combat martial art like BJJ, Judo, Wrestling, Muay thai and so on you should be hitting the weights in some way, shape or form.
I wasn’t big into weight training at first, but thanks to my second BJJ coach, Ricardo Almeida, I was pretty much forced to lift weights.
It’s funny now because I love lifting and do it at least twice a week. And believe me it does make a difference, both mental and physical.
When I started training under Master Lloyd Irvin I was also “forced” into the weights. I say forced but really I wanted to do it. Master Lloyd showed me a lot with circuit training and I still use many of his routines today, great stuff!
The point about weight lifting is this, the stronger you get the better your BJJ will be. Anyone that says it’s all technique is kidding themselves. You look at guys like my former training partner, Bruno Frazatto, roll with him for a few rounds and tell me he isn’t strong! Another guy that comes to mind is JT Torres, very freaking strong.
Both Bruno and JT are big weight lifters and it shows in their training.
I’m not gonna bust out any routines because there are soooo many out there. The key is to pick one that works for you and stick to it. Consistency in the weight room is the most important thing by far.
As for weight lifting for your mind…
When you lift weights, and lift hard and have good workouts you just feel better. It’s weird but it’s almost like mental therapy. I know when I lift a lot feel much better about myself and in turn I fight a lot less with my girlfriend at home, Haha, it’s win-win!
Getting stronger will make pulling your opponent on top of you for either deep or shallow half guard much easier. Trust me, if you have trouble getting into half guard a little lifting certainly won’t hurt.
Of course I’m sure you guess that technique is the most important thing, both for half guard and everything else. However, it sure doesn’t hurt to have some strength to back up your techniques a la JT Torres and Bruno Frazatto!
So start lifting 2-3 days a week. You can do whatever, circuit training, power stuff, body building stuff, JUST DO SOMETHING IN THE WEIGHT ROOM!
If you know nothing about weight lifting at all it’s totally fine because nether did I. Buy some books and start there and if need be hire a trainer, maybe a CSCS certified one (because they’re the best).
Remember you can always ask people at your academy questions. Find the strongest, best conditioned dude at your academy and ask him what he does in terms of lifting. I’m sure he or she will be more then happy to help.
Also, in regards to trainers, don’t be afraid to hire a girl trainer. There are lots of girls out there that know there stuff and many guys won’t hire them based solely on the fact that it’s a girl. Don’t be stupid, if the girl knows her stuff then by all means hire her to train you!
**Side Note*** I had a female trainer for a while and she was great! I also lift more of the time with my girlfriend Teresa Russin and student Jeaneo “Black Eye” Binney.
Alright well for today I thought I’d toss up some weight training videos. This is just some stuff I came across that I liked. Find a routine you like and stick with it, it’s only gonna help!
When working on your half guard sweep game it’s key to make sure you’re always looking for the best angles and moving around to find them. This of course is all at the same time you have to control the opponents leg so you don’t get your guard passed.
Below are some things listed that will help you with the angles:
Moving to the side while fighting for the seat belt
Underhooking the near leg better
Diving under your opponent
Scooting down to the leg
Meeting opponent in the middle
Now, you might not understand any of what I listed, it’s ok you’ll learn.
Step one, BUY MY UPCOMING DVD SET! Kidding, that was just a thought although I admit it couldn’t hurt…
The stuff I’m talking about is pretty hard to make you understand via writing. You need to watch films and see how the best half guard players get to the position and at the same time find all the right and best angles to attack from.
Oh and I almost forgot, it’s not just angles but also adding different techniques to the half guard package.
To make the most of your half guard game be sure to practice attacks from both shallow and deep half guard as well as lifting techniques like the “Saulo Sweep”.
The move you can do the more dangerous your bottom game will become.
Remember, for good half guard there are 3 main areas that will always need work and they are:
Shallow HG
Deep HG (Most common)
Lifting style (Least common but great)
Master those 3 areas and you’ll be one scary pup on the mats.
Today I just posted a bunch of videos. So study up and as always any questions can be emailed to me at: info@iveyleaguemma.com
Danny Ives Hard At Work and Dedicated To Half Guard Of All Levels!
First Video is of half guard legend Celso Venicius. I admit there is no half guard but it was still cool to see him fight MMA and do so well.
The next video is also of Celso, It’s choppy and crappy but the angles he finds for deep half guard are very nice. Also study his guard passing, very powerful!
The last video is very interesting to me because you have Bill Cooper, who is amazing and known for beating half guard players going against half guard poster boy Lucas Leite. Very cool (and loud) match!
I’m always amazed at the stuff people come up with. Stuff like the 50/50 guard and the reinvention of the “clock choke” back in the 90′s. The point being, BJJ is always changing and that’s why it’s important for you to stay ahead of the game and study. Making changes to your own Jiu Jitsu game as needed.
One of the things that’s getting really big is this style of feeding the gi under the leg or around the arm from half guard. If done right it’s very hard to stop (been swept with it, I know).
Now, when I say “new” I don’t mean it came out last night or anything. This style of half guard has been around since around 2005. First used by Celso Vinicius, who I wrote about last blog post, and now used by many.
Now, there are many out there using this style but the best right now by far is a fellow named Bernardo Faria. In Fact, Faria is so good at this style of half guard play that I even named some of my sweeps after him.
Bernardo Faria is from Team Alliance in Brazil. Funny as it may be Alliance isn’t known to have half guard BJJ players, however, Faria is a bit different. Not just for using half guard but also because he’s very tall and most taller guys like closed guard. Those things alone make him different from the pack, and of course very very good at BJJ.
One of this sweeps, the one I call the “Faria Sweep”, is unbelievably hard to stop. I first saw this back in 2005 when training with my close friends Jared Weiner and Wilson Ries. Wilson is also known for this technique so his name should be in here as well.
Anyway, the Faria sweep comes from deep half guard, you feed the bottom sleeve of your opponents gi under his leg and all or most of the sweeps come from here.
Below is a clip of Faria hitting this technique.
He’s so good at half guard and what’s funny is I’ve never seen him use anything else! Just half guard, that should tell you something right there about the power of a good half guard game.
Study and learn! That’s today’s lesson.
This sweep will be included in my new DVD set, releasing soon. You guys will love it!
