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BJJ

MANIFESTO Techniques are useless without the right Strategy

Copyright © by Matt Arroyo and Rob Kahn. All rights reserved.

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Table of Contents

Forward...........................................................................Page 3

Introduction......................................................................Page 4

Chapter 1 “Three Ways To CreateThe Mistake”...............Page 7

Chapter 2 “Structure Of Training”.....................................Page 16

Chapter 3 “Position Specific Strategies”...........................Page 21

Conclusion........................................................................Page 41

List of all Videos................................................................Page 42

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Forward

Please note that we decided to film the videos in a No Gi

format. The strategies we discuss in this book work well in both Gi

and No Gi situations, but we feel work EXCEPTIONALLY well in No

gi. So we decided that showing theses strategies in No Gi would

add more value.

The videos in this book are not meant to be a detailed, step by

step instructional. They are video examples of the strategies that

we are teaching in the book. As a FREE bonus we included 3

Detailed Instructional videos on the “Goofy Guard,” Advanced Back

Attacks, and the Guillotine Choke. These 3 videos are also a

sneak peak of our instructional videos coming out in the near

future.

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Introduction

The effectiveness of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is undeniable. Jiu-Jitsu

has truly shaped mixed martial arts- competing without it would be

suicide. If you watch any MMA event, you’re going to see the clear

influence of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. While the number of successes

achieved by this sport are too many to name, we can begin our

study with the originator; Royce Gracie.

Royce Gracie comes from the family who invented

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. The result of their ingenuity can be seen across

the globe as BJJ simply would not exist were it not for their

genius. Royce would be the first to tell you that he does not

possess the strength of a world class athlete. If Royce was trained

in any other art, I think it would be safe to say he would not have

won three out of the first four Ultimate Fighting Championships. It

was Royce’s mastery of his family’s incredible martial art that

caused him to win three UFC titles, against bigger and stronger

opponents. If you think about the number of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

practitioners around the world compared to other martial arts, the

number is very small. However; when examining the fighting styles

of champion MMA fighters, BJJ is often a common thread.

If you look at the techniques of Jiu-Jitsu, you’ll notice that

Judo and Sambo share a lot of the same techniques. They

possess a similar Arm Bar and Triangle choke, among other

common moves. With so many similar techniques, how is Jiu-

Jitsu different from Judo? The difference lies in the strategy.

Everything in Jiu-Jitsu is about the “mistake” – creating or allowing

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your opponent to make a mistake and then capitalizing on it. This

is the main reason why BJJ is so successful. To be successful in

most other martial arts requires a higher level of athleticism.

Although athleticism will always help, success in Jiu-Jitsu is

dictated by technique and the ability to play a physical chess i.e.

outthinking your opponent and your ability to cause your opponent

to make a mistake.

There are three primary ways of causing your opponent to make a

mistake:

(1) Wait for a mistake.

(2) Trick your opponent into making a mistake.

(3) Force the mistake.

I want to emphasize that Jiu Jitsu does not work when forcing

the TECHNIQUES. The techniques of Jiu Jitsu work best when

applied based on the MISTAKE of your opponent. That is the most

important difference, and will be explained throughout this book.

This book is unique because it is about the STRATEGY.

The amount of technique explained in this book is minimal.

Techniques are a dime a dozen. There are millions of opportunities

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on the Internet, DVDs, and instructionals to find Jiu-Jitsu

techniques. Countless Jiu Jitsu instructors are putting their

techniques out for the world to see. To understand and learn the

techniques without having an understanding of the various

strategies is less than half the game. This book will be a

complement to any technique out there, whether you want to buy

Marcelo Garcia’s or Royce Gracie’s book. The strategic

explanation of how Jiu Jitsu works is more important than the

technique itself.

Let’s get started with Chapter 1. We’re going to discuss

three ways to create mistakes in Jiu Jitsu. They are TRICKING the

mistake, WAITING for the mistake and (our favorite), FORCING the

mistake. If we were to sum up the overall strategy in Jiu Jitsu, it

would be that we don’t force techniques. We capitalize on

mistakes.

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CHAPTER 1

Three Ways to Create the Mistake

Wait For the Mistake

The first strategy is to wait for the mistake. This is the

most basic of all Jiu-Jitsu strategies. When going up against

somebody who doesn’t know Jiu-Jitsu, it’s probably the safest,

simplest, and easiest one to use. The greatest evidence we can

point to is Royce Gracie’s dominance in the first three UFCs.

Royce knew that he was going up against opponents who didn’t

have fundamental Jiu-Jitsu knowledge, and he knew that, given

enough time, they would all make certain mistakes that he could

capitalize on. Being the Jiu-Jitsu master that he is, he decided that

the best course of action would be to wait for the mistake.

Jiu-Jitsu is very counterintuitive. It is based on common

reactions that we KNOW our opponent will make, giving us a

distinct advantage to submit them even though they may be bigger,

stronger or faster. Mounting an opponent and him trying to lift his

arms to throw you off resulting in a very easy Arm Bar or your

opponent rolling to his stomach trying to stand up resulting in a very

easy Rear Naked Choke are examples of capitalizing on mistakes.

Jiu-Jitsu shines when going up against somebody who doesn’t

know the art. Great examples of this can be seen in UFC 1-4 with

Royce Gracie’s astonishing dominance over bigger stronger

opponents. Click the video below to see an EXTREME example of

waiting for the mistake, lol.

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Click the Play button or the link on the bottom to view the video.

http://www.bjjmanifesto.com/waitforthemistake.html

Wait For The Mistake

Forcing the Mistake

Forcing the mistake usually comes into play when your

opponent is knowledgeable in submissions. They’re not going to

make the simple and basic mistakes that you want them to make.

Forcing the mistake relies upon pain compliance or discomfort.

The two main techniques we use to accomplish this are the “What

Time is It” Grip and Shoulder Pressure. The What Time Is It Grip

is used primarily in the mount and side-mount position. You apply it

by cupping your opponents shoulder and using the blade of your

forearm to attack the back corner of his jaw bone. When applied

properly, it looks as though you are looking at your watch; hence

the name, What Time Is It Grip. When done right it is extremely

uncomfortable and causes your opponent to turn in the direction

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you want him to turn. Forcing him to turn in a certain direction

causes him to expose one of his arms making it very easy to

attack. Shoulder Pressure is applied from mount, side mount, and

half guard. This technique is applied by reaching under your

opponent’s neck and aligning your shoulder with his neck/jaw area.

The pressure is then applied by pushing ACROSS your opponent’s

body (not down.) This causes extreme discomfort and in some

cases it is an actual blood choke. The benefit of using shoulder

pressure is similar to the What Time is It Grip in that it causes your

opponent to expose a mistake while he is trying to resist the

pressure of the move. An added benefit of Shoulder Pressure is

the incredible control you have over your opponent when properly

applied. It is almost impossible to escape underneath or on the

receiving end of well executed Shoulder Pressure. Shoulder

Pressure and the What Time Is It Grip are incredibly valuable tools

that anyone at any level can add to their game. Besides all of the

already mentioned benefits of both grips, an additional attribute is

that they change the dynamic of the position (mainly top mount and

top side mount.) Instead of planning an escape, your opponent is

now forced to deal with your pressure. Without these moves, most

people spend most of their time in a dominant position only working

to stay in a dominant position. When using these techniques, you

will spend less time and energy trying to keep your opponent from

escaping and more time formulating a submission. We realize that

this may be confusing so we added a video show you the grips.

After you watch the video, come back and read this paragraph

again.

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Click the Play button or the link on the bottom to view the video.

http://www.bjjmanifesto.com/whattimeisitgrip.html

What Time Is It Grip

Click the Play button or the link on the bottom to view the video.

http://www.bjjmanifesto.com/shoulderpressure.html

Shoulder Pressure

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Going against people with Jiu-Jitsu or grappling experience, there

is no other strategy that is more useful than forcing the mistake.

Again, we want to emphasize that it’s forcing the MISTAKE; not

forcing the TECHNIQUE. For example, when in the mounted

position, we do not pull our our opponents arm up to armbar him,

we use the What Time is It Grip to cause our opponent to put his

arm in the air on his own to relieve the pressure. What we are

talking about is creating a situation of discomfort. It’s creating a

situation of pain compliance where he moves his arm for you. He

puts his arm in a bad position even though he knows he shouldn’t.

He does it anyway because; at the moment, his priority is avoiding

the pressure, not avoiding the submission. We do not force

moves. We force mistakes.

The opponent might even know what we’re up to, but at

some point, his tolerance for pain and discomfort is going to

overwhelm his need to keep his elbow in the right spot. It will

overwhelm his need to keep his positioning the way it should be.

Everybody has their own breaking points. What we look to do with

pressure is find them.

One of the key points in using pressure is PATIENCE.

Without patience, pressure would not work as a strategy. The

better the person you’re rolling with, the more likely he has a certain

tolerance for pressure. The more likely he has a tolerance for pain

and the more likely they have a better idea of the big picture. Even

though you’re creating this pain, pressure, and uncomfortableness,

they might not succumb to it right away. One of the things we have

learned in our experience is that everybody has a pain threshold. It

might take five, ten, or even fifteen minutes to reach it, but

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everybody has a threshold, and it’s your job to use PATIENCE and

PRESSURE to reach it.

In looking at this strategy of forcing a mistake, it can be

broken down to a formula. It’s Pressure + Patience = Mistakes =

Submission. Your focus should be on creating pressure and

discomfort, not looking for submission holds. The submission

comes after the pressure. So when you get to a dominant position

– mount, or side mount, your outlook is not to start looking around

for submission holds. You need to start looking for ways to create

pressure. Again, the two ways that are the most consistently

successful are Shoulder Pressure and the What Time Is It Grip. So

when you get to a dominant position, start applying pressure

immediately. Eventually this pressure will get to your opponent and

will cause your opponent to reach or flip the wrong way. We make

certain assumptions that a skilled opponent is not going to make

these mistakes without you creating pressure or discomfort. In

conclusion, everybody will eventually make a mistake if you put

enough pressure on them.

Trick the Mistake

This is a more advanced strategy for setting up the

submission in Jiu-Jitsu. This makes the assumption that your

opponent is an advanced player. He is someone who understands

the art of Jiu-Jitsu, the nature of submissions, and is not going to

easily walk into a submission hold.

Tricking a mistake entails multiple strategies. One of the

more popular ones is setting up one submission to get to the other

(i.e., Guillotine Choke from the Guard to get to the Triangle).

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Another example is going for the mounted position Cross Choke.

When the person pushes off to defend the Cross Choke it leaves

him open for the arm bar. It’s the same thing from the mounted

position when going for the Americana Lock, the person blocks the

Americana Lock, leaving himself open for the Armbar submission.

This one/two punch idea greatly enhances your chances of

submission and minimizes you telegraphing your attack.

The number of attack combinations is endless and can

take the shape of the personality of the person using them. Every

person will have certain combos in their arsenal that work better

than others based on their body type and style.

You always want to mask your movements and

submission holds with a series of faints and gestures, and not let

your opponent know what your true intensions are until the last

possible second. Telegraphing your move will give the experienced

opponent the advantage in stopping your submission attempts. In

this video we will show you a few examples of tricking the mistake.

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Click the Play button or the link on the bottom to view the video.

http://www.bjjmanifesto.com/trickthemistake.html

Trick The Mistake

Setting Patterns and Breaking Them

When talking about some of the greatest boxers in the

world, the names Manny Paquiao and Floyd Maywether come to

mind. What makes them better at boxing then you and me? Do

they know more punches? The answer is NO. They are obviously

much faster, but the one thing they do better than all others is they

set patterns and break them. As an example, they will use the jab

or a certain combination over and over again until they have you

believing that the same combination is coming again. Once you

believe that the same combination is coming, you start to anticipate

with your defense. It is then that they find you open for a different

combination and they change the pattern on you. These are not

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magic punches, it’s just better use of the punches and mastery of

combinations. The same could be said for Jiu Jitsu. We can set

patterns and get our opponent to believe certain techniques are

coming and get him to anticipate, then change the pattern or

technique and catch him out of position. This strategy is more

common in striking but certainly has plenty of use in Jiu Jitsu. To

illustrate this strategy, here is a video example using the Americana

shoulder lock.

Click the Play button or the link on the bottom to view the video.

http://www.bjjmanifesto.com/settingpatternsandbreakingthem.html

Setting Patterns and Breaking Them

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CHAPTER 2

Structure of Training

Jiu Jitsu has always been analogized with chess. The

attributes of a great chess player are having high problem solving

ability, an ability to stay relaxed under pressure, and an ability to

think several moves ahead. The same can be said for a Jiu Jitsu

player. The first step is to RELAX RELAX RELAX! This allows you

to analyze the game of your opponent, save energy, and most

importantly, you can see the whole picture this way. Staying

relaxed should be a primary goal of rolling, especially in bad

positions. It’s in bad positions where you need your wits about you

the most. Jiu jitsu is a very cerebral art. All the movements and

processes are complex and there is no way to anticipate or perform

them the way you need to if you’re not relaxed. Another benefit of

staying relaxed is the IMMEDIATE improvement to your

endurance. Most people fatigue in a fight not because of poor

cardio condition, but instead it’s because their mind is not in a

relaxed state letting fear, anxiety, and stress get the best of them.

We can take Lance Armstrong and exhaust him in minutes rolling

on the mat, because he is not comfortable being there and his

nervous energy will get the best of him very quickly. There is

almost nothing we can think of that has more influence to your Jiu

Jitsu skill then your level of relaxation.

For the purposes of this discussion, we’re going to

break Jiu-Jitsu into offense and defense. Offense is much more

complicated, much less natural, much more detailed and much

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harder to learn. Because of this, when you’re structuring your

training, you need to focus more attention on your offensive training

than your defense. Defense is more natural.

The most common structure of a Jiu Jitsu class starts with

a technique lesson followed by drilling and sparring. It is in the

sparring or rolling where structuring your training properly will

derive the most benefit.

When you walk into a boxing gym, you’re typically not

thrown into the ring to spar with a pro. Most boxing trainers will

have you work on a heavy bag to develop your punches, speed,

power, timing etc. Then they move you to the focus mitts. Why?

Because the mitts are more interactive and mimic the back and

forth action of a boxing match. Only after hours and hours of mitt

and heavy bag training to develop your skills will a trainer put you in

the ring to spar.

In Jiu-Jitsu, one of our shortcomings is we don’t have

heavy bags or focus mitts with which to train. The nature of Jiu-

Jitsu training doesn’t allow this. So what we have for our “heavy

bag” is less experienced grapplers. This gives us the opportunity to

work out the minutia, the timing, and techniques of Jiu-Jitsu. You

can roll with all of the advanced grapplers you want, but to truly

succeed with your offense you need that “Heavy Bag” training with

less experienced grapplers. Becoming good at the Armbar,

Triangle, Oma Plata etc. takes thousands of repetitions. It is

impossible to get those repetitions by only rolling with the more

advanced guys in the room. Don’t get us wrong. Rolling with more

advanced players is very important to developing your defense and

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overall game,. BUTIto develop offense, there is nothing more

important than that heavy bag training.

Repetition of Moves

The most important barometer you can use for each and

every roll you have is not winning or losing, but it is the repetition of

moves. Repetition, repetition, repetition! ALWAYS judge success

by repetition. A very common trap that newer students fall into is to

judge success during a roll by not getting tapped by a more

advanced grappler. This is the recipe for stalling your improvement

in Jiu Jitsu. In order for the newer student not to get tapped, he

usually relies on slowing the match and limiting the transitions.

Getting better in the art quickly is dependent upon being in as many

transitions as possible. Focusing on not getting tapped is a very

hollow victory because it limits your transitions, repetitions, and

growth. It’s better to get tapped 10 times while trying 25 different

techniques then to not get tapped at all because you’ve tried

nothing.

Let’s take two scenarios, with the same guy in each

scenario. In the first scenario, the guy worries about winning and

losing. He doesn’t go for any moves, but he doesn’t lose the

match. Let’s say he has 200 matches like this. At the end of the

200th match, if you look at the amount submission holds he has

tried, it’s going to be minimal to zero because he focused most of

his training time worrying about always winning or not losing the

match.

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In scenario two, you have a guy who doesn’t care much

about winning or losing, only about getting repetition of moves out.

In each match, maybe he gets caught 10 times, but he also gets at

least 10 attempts at various submission holds. In the 200-day

scenario that we talked about earlier, at the end of the 200 days, if

he had 10 attempts per day he’d have 2,000 submission attempts.

It’s very easy to see, based on these scenarios who would progress

the most. Clearly, the guy in scenario number two with 2,000

attempts sees the most progress in his training. Again, the most

important thing about structuring your training is your outlook as a

student. It should be about repetition, repetition, repetition. If

you’re focusing on winning and losing, you’re dooming yourself to

mediocrity. Leaving your ego at the door is a good mantra for new

Jiu Jitsu students.

Assessing Strengths and Weaknesses

Another thing to focus on in our training is assessing our

strengths and weaknesses. People get in the habit sometimes of

getting very good at one or two moves, and then continually

running and attacking those moves over and over again because

they’ve had success with them, never really broadening out their

game. This is not a bad idea for a competition strategy but we are

talking about a training strategy. A key aspect for the Jiu-Jitsu

student is to assess your weaknesses, and then spend plenty of

training time on them. If you spend most of your time on top, your

top game will develop but your bottom game won’t. A smart

grappler will focus a good chunk of his training time on working the

bottom game and bringing it up to balance with his top game.

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Set Artificial Limitations

Another way to improve your game in structuring your

training is to set artificial limitations on your rolls. In other words, if

you’re rolling with a less experienced grappler, a good way for you

to get a positive training experience out it is to limit yourself to only

a certain move from every position. For example, you can only go

for an Arm Bar or a Triangle from any position. Another way to set

artificial limitations is to go for techniques on your weak side.

Whatever your weak side is, that’s the only way you’re allowed to

go. Another limitation is to control the intensity and aggressiveness

of each roll. One roll can be extremely aggressive and offensive;

the next roll, no aggressive behavior whatsoever, only trying to

counter your opponent. This very specific training will allow you to

flush out weaknesses and sharpen your strengths.

Although more time should be spent on offensive, we don’t

want to neglect “defense specific” training. The most useful tool to

accomplish this is to put yourself in bad positions. This will allow

you not only to practice the defensive techniques, but also allow

you the ability to stay calm in bad situations. For example, the only

way a student can be comfortable on the bottom of a position like

side mount or mount is to practice being there for many hours. This

amount of time is necessary for a student to develop the ability not

to panic so that they can escape using technique, timing, and

strategy.

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Chapter 3

Position Specific Strategies

All the main positions in Jiu Jitsu have strategies very specific

to them. The main positions top and bottom are: Mount, Side

mount, Back mount, Half guard, and Guard. We are now going to

highlight our PROVEN strategies that have worked successfully in

grappling and MMA competition.

Top Guard (guard passing)

First and foremost is posture. Posture by itself can

minimize your chances of being submitted. Making a mistake in

bad posture can guarantee a submission against you. Making a

mistake in good posture will minimize the chances of that mistake

costing you a submission. Also for MMA purposes of striking, it’s

clearly advantageous to be postured up in the guard because it

allows you to start raining punches down with more power because

of the additional space created.

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Click the Play button or the link on the bottom to view the video.

http://www.bjjmanifesto.com/postureintheguard.html

Posture in the Guard

One of the common things that top and bottom guard

share is that typically the person who initiates it is at a

disadvantage. Initiating from the top generally assumes a guard

pass. Initiating from the bottom assumes an attempt at a

submission hold or sweep. Both positions are more successful as

a “counter position.” Don’t get the wrong idea and think that the

person who goes first is always going to lose. That’s certainly not

the case. But all things being equal, the person who goes second

has an advantage over the person who goes first in a guard

passing situation.

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Again, this is not a universal rule. This is not absolute.

Think more along the lines of how plenty of people go to Las Vegas

and win money, but typically, the house wins most of the time. So

now that you have the choice would you rather be the house or the

player?

First, start off with good posture. Next, entice the person

on the bottom to initiate first with either a sweep or submission.

Fundamentally, the guard is a countering tool. When you force

your opponent to initiate, you create a situation that is much easier

to pass the guard because your opponent is being aggressive and

attacking and not focusing on defending the guard pass.

In situations where you are waiting for your opponent to

initiate, but he is not complying, a good way to ensure that your

opponent initiates first is to bait a submission hold i.e.. Armbar,

Shoulder Lock, or Triangle. This is not the easiest topic to write

about, so we will show in this video the three best ways to bait a

submission to create a very easy and uncontested guard pass.

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Click the Play button or the link on the bottom to view the video.

http://www.bjjmanifesto.com/baitthesubmission3ways.html

Bait the Submission 3 Ways

Bottom Guard

There are many different types of guard i.e. Butterfly,

Open, Spider, 50/50, Goofy Guard etc, but no matter what the type

of guard, the strategies are all the same. The most effective way to

use the guard is as a countering tool. I want my opponent to initiate

either the pass, or to try to strike me to open up submission and

sweeping opportunities. We are not saying that you can’t initiate

first in the guard and be successful. But it does lower your chances

and open up easier opportunities for your opponent to pass your

guard. As mentioned earlier, there are many different types of

guards, but a good rule of thumb is if your legs are not closed in the

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full guard, at least one of your feet if not both feet should be on your

opponents hips at all times. This “foot on hip” position will allow

you to create space at any given moment and make passing the

open guard VERY difficult.

One of the most tried and true strategies of setting up

submissions is using the “foot on hip” position to defend the guard

and frustrate your opponent while he tries to pass you. Eventually

when frustration builds up enough it causes mistakes (such as bad

posture) which we can now take advantage of to submit or sweep.

If your feet are not on the hips in the open guard you have no ability

to control distance and severely limit your chances of stopping your

opponent from passing your guard. As a bonus we will show you a

video of how the “foot on hips” works to control distance and also

show you the best drill in the world on how to develop your “foot on

hip” open guard.

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Click the Play button or the link on the bottom to view the video.

http://www.bjjmanifesto.com/openguarddrill.html

Open Guard Drill

Mount Position (Top)

The mount position is considered one of, if not the MOST

dominant positions in Jiu-Jitsu. This position is dominant because, I

can submit you but you can’t submit me. I can strike you but you

cannot strike me.

Also, this is a position where you can really start putting

pressure on your opponent. You can create a sense of panic and a

sense of urgency by applying pressure. As explained in chapter 2

“Pressure” in a Jiu Jitsu context always begins with head pressure.

The assumption going into this strategy is that my opponent knows

Jiu-Jitsu, and knows what mistakes not to make.

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When you have the mount, your opponent, left to his own

devices, will not stick his arm up in the air so you can arm bar him.

He will not roll to his stomach so you can rear naked choke him.

Again, we’re talking about a skilled opponent here. But that same

skilled opponent, when given the right stimulus (i.e., the ‘what time

is it’ grip or the “shoulder pressure”) it is not “If” they will make a

mistake, but when. How long it will take depends on their pain

threshold.

Every opponent has a pain or pressure threshold where he

will knowingly put his arm or neck in harms way in exchange for

releasing some of the pressure you are inflicting. At that moment in

time, your opponent is broken and he’s given up the mistake that

you’ve been waiting for.

For this strategy to work, you need to truly believe in it and

use pressure and patience as your friends to break your opponent’s

will. The only variable, again, is time. Every opponent has a

threshold. Constant pressure and patience will yield the results

you’re looking for and create the mistakes you were waiting on.

(Refer back to the "What Time Is It" video to see this mount

strategy)

Top Side Mount

Top side mount, in terms of strategy, is fairly identical to

the top mounted position. Again, it is a dominant position. Instead

of being straddled over my opponent’s torso, I am lying on top of

him perpendicular. To properly control your opponent in side

mount you must either shut down the movement of their hips or

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control their head. There will be times, usually just after passing

the guard, where you will NEED to control the hips first, but once

established in the position, using head control is far easier and

efficient. In comparison to the mount there are more submissions

available in the side mount position. Where the side mount lacks is

in its ability to allow you to deliver devastating strikes because you

have to stay tight to control the position. Much like the mounted

position the ideal strategy is to use pressure to create a mistake

and then to capitalize on that mistake to submit or advance your

position. Remember, there are so many techniques available to

you in the side mount but you will not have the opportunity to

use them if you do not control your opponent with head

pressure. (Refer back to the "Shoulder Pressure" video to see this

side mount strategy.)

.

Top Half Guard

Again, it’s going to sound like a very common

theme with the top positions, but what I’m looking to do is secure

head pressure first. I don’t like to think of passing the half guard as

getting my leg out from between my opponent’s legs. I like to think

of it as creating so much pressure that my opponent is forced to

release my leg. This is done almost exclusively with the shoulder

pressure. We don’t use the ‘what time is it’ grip very much from

here. It’s all about shoulder pressure, and being consistent with the

shoulder pressure.

The only thing you need is pressure and patience. If I get

put in a half guard, I look to secure my pressure, I look to lock them

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down with my shoulder and I look to push across their face to turn

them away from me. This does many things. One, it keeps them

from using the half guard position to sweep me. Again, it creates a

sense of discomfort, a sense of pain, and even a sense of choke (a

true blood choke.) No matter how strong you are, no matter what

type of pain tolerance you have, no matter what your resistance is,

this position will start to wear on you. Eventually, you’re going to

turn enough where I slide right into the mounted position.

We can spend all day going through different techniques to

passing the half guard, but we feel that this is the best strategy.

Locking down pressure, letting pressure do the work, and then

advance your position. One thing to keep in mind is that pressure

and patience are always your friends on top.

Click the Play button or the link on the bottom to view the video.

http://www.bjjmanifesto.com/shoulderpressurefromhalfguard.html

Shoulder Pressure From Half Guard

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Bottom Mount

The bottom mount is certainly an inferior position. Again,

like every position, one of the things you have to ask yourself in the

bottom mount is, is it beneficial for me to go first or second? In the

bottom mount, it’s always better for you to go second. You don’t

really have the cards in your hand when you’re on the bottom of the

mounted position. The guy on top is holding all the good cards. All

things being equal: size, strength and other physical attributes, if

you try to be aggressive about getting out of the mount, if you try to

bump your hips, turn, or force the elbow escape, you’re probably

going to walk your way into a submission hold.

There are two stages of somebody mounting you that you

need to be concerned about. They are the Holding Mode and

Attack Mode. Holding Mode is when somebody gets mounted on

you then tries to hold you down. He has no intention of submitting

you and is content to stay on top and neutralize any escape

attempts. Attack Mode is obviously when your opponent is less

concerned with holding position and starts to open up with

submission attempts.

If you’re on the bottom and start fighting hard to get out,

the person on top is never going to leave the Holding Mode stage of

the mount. He’s going to do everything he can to hold the position

and not really ever try to submit you. Remember, he has a lot of

advantages in the mount position and one of them is that if he

decides to do nothing but hold, it will be almost impossible to get

out. Even an opponent of lesser experience can be extremely hard

to get out of the mount if his only intention is to hold the position.

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Attempting to escape at this time will also gas you out while your

opponent is resting in their holding mode.

The key to escaping the mount is to put your opponent in

Attack Mode. When he opens up with his attacks he is also going

to create more space and give you your best chance to escape the

position. It is a risk, but a necessary one if you want to be able to

consistently escape the mount. A further benefit of this strategy is

that it allows you more practice at “feeling” the transitions and thus

increasing your “Jiu Jitsu awareness”. Maybe when you first start

employing this strategy you will get submitted often, but it is one of

those situations where you need to go two steps back to jump five

steps forward. Being passive and letting your opponent start

“attack mode” is far from something that feels natural. What feels

natural is to fight to get out of there but that will consistently keep

your opponent in Hold Mode and thus make it VERY hard to

escape. Sometimes you have to take big risks to get big rewards.

So, remember during training, fight the urge to go ballistic when you

get mounted and relax. Sit back and watch your opponent switch

“modes” and watch what he is trying to set up and sure enough, in

time, you will start to see easy opportunities to escape that you

would never get by being aggressive and going first.

When we talk about opportunities for escape, we’re really

talking about two specific escapes. They are the Upa and Elbow

Escape. The Upa is the basic bridge and roll. We are looking to

trap our opponents arm and leg on the same side and roll them

over into their guard. This technique is far less useful then the

Elbow Escape. The Elbow Escape is the only escape that

consistently works against high level grapplers. It involves

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shrimping your hips backwards to put your opponent inside of your

guard. Although you stay on the bottom, you are in a vastly better

position than being mounted.

Bottom Side Mount

Much like the mount, I find that when you’re on the bottom

side mount the most important part of the strategy is to never go

first. If you start exploding trying to escape, the person on top will

go into a hold mode, stall the position out, hold you down so you

wear yourself out and eventually take advantage of the position.

The smartest strategy from the bottom is to get into a proper

position. Make sure your hands are in the proper place with the far

side under-hook and have your other elbow glued to your nearside.

If you can not get the far side under hook then the only other

position your under hook arm should be in is underneath your

opponents chin. Then you must wait for your opponent to get out of

that holding mode and into submission mode thus creating more

space for you to escape.

(Far side under hook is the ideal position)

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(If you can’t get the under hook then place your forearm under your opponents throat. Notice

how his inside elbow is underneath the opponent.)

(His right elbow is glued to his hip and his left arm is in the under hook position)

Any opponent, no matter their skill level or how long they’ve

been training, when they release you and try to submit you, they

always create space for you to escape out the back door or on the

inside with the elbow escape. In Jiu-Jitsu a lot of positions have a

limitless number of techniques. The guard position, for example,

has a limitless number of techniques and we could spend all night

talking about them, but when we get to the bottom side mount there

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really are only two techniques for you to escape; the Elbow Escape

and the Upa with the under-hook. The key variable is WHEN you

use it, that is going to be the deciding factor on whether you escape

or not. If you are too aggressive and try to force the escape from

the bottom, more often then not, you’re going to fail. However; if

you’re bigger and stronger than the person you’re fighting,

sometimes you can force the escape. The problem comes when

the person you’re fighting is bigger, stronger, and more skilled than

you. You will need to wait for your opportunity. You need to get

your arms into position and relax. Then, wait for that moment in

time when he stops holding and start trying to submit you, because

at that time he opens a nice space giving you an opportunity to

elbow escape or sneak out the back door.

Bottom Half Guard

Half guard is a tweener position. It’s not guard and it’s not side

mount. In a submission grappling context, a lot of people actually

enjoy the bottom half guard because of the various sweeping

opportunities. But in MMA or self defense, half guard should be

used as a position of last resort to stop your opponent from

establishing side mount. Playing in the half guard too long will

eventually get you pounded because you don’t have the ability to

control the distance. If you’re on bottom and have no ability to

control distance, you’re going to get hurt.

The most important strategy in the bottom half guard is

understanding WHEN the position is turning from full guard to half

guard. When this happens, you must make sure you are on your

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side and get the far side under hook. Without these two

components in place your opponent will probably pass and

establish side mount. When we say being “on your side” in bottom

half guard we really mean being almost face down having our

shoulders 45 degrees to the floor. This will prevent your opponent

from flattening you out and passing and give you your best

opportunity to sweep or return to guard. Look at the pictures below

illustrating what we mean by being on your side and having the far

side under hook.

(Notice how the bottom guy has the under hook on the same side of the leg he is trapping.

This is the far side under hook.)

(Notice how he is on his side almost 45 degrees towards the floor belly down.)

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Due to the fact that the bottom half guard strategy is simple,

we decided to include our favorite half technique system we call the

“GOOFY GUARD” as a Free Bonus. Enjoy!

Click the Play button or the link on the bottom to view the video.

http://www.bjjmanifesto.com/thegoofyguard.html

FREE BONUS VIDEO: GOOFY GUARD TECHNIQUE

Back Position (Offense)

When you’re on the back position, the key strategy is to

lock in the seatbelt grip (one arm over your opponents shoulder and

the other under their opposite armpit connecting your hands at their

chest) and hooks and wait for the person to panic and try to

escape. The one who wins in the back position is typically the

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person who goes second. If you’re on your opponents back and

have your hooks and seatbelt locked in, you need to be patient.

Your opponent will first protect his neck. After being passive long

enough, your opponent will go from protecting his neck to reaching

down to clear your hooks. While one or more hands start reaching

down, it will leave his neck unprotected and much easier to sink in

the choke.

(Seatbelt Grip)

(Hooks: Feet inside of thighs)

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You would not think that this is the best strategy while being in

such a dominant position. Naturally you would think that getting

aggressive and going for the finish as soon as possible would be

the right strategy. While it is counterintuitive to be in the back

position with your seatbelt locked doing nothing but waiting for the

person to reach down for the hooks, it is a very consistently

successful strategy.

If you would like to see a great example of someone who

consistently uses this strategy then watch some of Marcelo Garcia's

matches.

Click the Play button or the link on the bottom to view the video.

http://www.bjjmanifesto.com/backpositionoffense.html

Back Position Offense

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Escaping the Back

There are many techniques we can use to escape the

back position. None of them are very effective if you have the

wrong strategy. One of the biggest strategic questions you should

ask yourself is if you should go first or second. As mentioned

before, escaping the back is definitely a position where it is better to

go second. If someone is on your back with a “seatbelt grip” (one

arm over your opponents shoulder and the other under his opposite

armpit connecting your hands at their chest) it’s next to impossible

to escape; therefore, there’s no reason to even try. If your

opponent is not skilled enough to use the seatbelt grip, the back

position is very simple to escape from. Assuming your opponent

has the “seatbelt” grip, the key is to stay relaxed and keep focused

on that seatbelt grip. While the “seatbelt” is locked you don’t have

to worry about him submitting or choking you, BUT you also can’t

escape. Your opponent needs to release their seatbelt grip to

attack a submission. At this moment is your ideal time to start your

escape. Although this is a book about strategy, in the

accompanying video we are going to show our favorite technique to

escape the back along with the strategy we just described.

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Click the Play button or the link on the bottom to view the video.

http://www.bjjmanifesto.com/escapingtheback.html

Escaping the Back

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Conclusion

If your strategy is right then many techniques will work, but

if your strategy is wrong it doesn’t matter what technique you try, it

will probably fail. Jiu Jitsu isn’t just about learning a collection of

techniques. Jiu Jitsu is equal parts STRATEGY, TECHNIQUE,

and STRUCTURING YOUR TRAINING properly. Focusing on only

one of these parts while neglecting the others is a recipe for failure.

You need to think not just about what technique you use but why

you are using it and what is the best way you can become proficient

with it. This book is a helpful guide to understand the strategic

aspects of Jiu Jitsu along with how to structure your training to be

as efficient as possible in a world where not everyone can focus all

their time on training. Life, jobs, family etc. all have a way of cutting

into the amount of time you would like to train. If you are not

focusing on the strategies and training structure in this book, you

are wasting valuable training time. Best of luck in your training and

we will see you on the mat!!

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LIST OF ALL VIDEOS

To view any of the videos please go to the following links

http://www.bjjmanifesto.com/waitforthemistake.html

http://www.bjjmanifesto.com/whattimeisitgrip.html

http://www.bjjmanifesto.com/shoulderpressure.html

http://www.bjjmanifesto.com/trickthemistake.html

http://www.bjjmanifesto.com/settingpatternsandbreakingthem.html

http://www.bjjmanifesto.com/postureintheguard.html

http://www.bjjmanifesto.com/baitthesubmission3ways.html

http://www.bjjmanifesto.com/openguarddrill.html

http://www.bjjmanifesto.com/shoulderpressurefromhalfguard.html

http://www.bjjmanifesto.com/backpositionoffense.html

http://www.bjjmanifesto.com/escapingtheback.html

http://www.bjjmanifesto.com/thegoofyguard.html