E D D 1 E BRAY 0 wlth Erich Krauss

Contents

Foreword by ]oe Rogan, Host of Twist Back .................................. 36 NBC's "Fcar Factor" ................ ix Hal( allCI Ha1(. ............................. 38

Acknowledgments ........................ xiti Hal( a ne/ Twist ........................... .40 About This Book ............................ xv Hal( Quarter/Jack Sweep ............. .42

Quarter Twist Back ..................... .44 Introduction .............................. 1 Half Guard Part 2: X-Guard ......... .46 My Evolution .................................. 1 X-Guard Sweep ........................... .46 The Proving Grou nd ........................ 8 Double)( .................................... 48 2003 Abu Dhabi Qualifiers ............ 13 Half Guard Part 3: Submissions ...... 50 2003 Abu Dhabi World Apollo (witf1 Sweep) .................... 50

Championships ...................... 18 Kamikaze Calf (,rank .................. 54 The "Gi Versus No-Gi" Ken Sllamrock Toehold ................ 56

Controvcrsy ............................ 22 Electric Chair witll Sweep ............ 58 lOth Planet Jiu-Jitsu ...................... 24

2 Rubber Guard ...................... 61 1 The Half Guard .................... 27 1 ntroduction to the Full Gua rd ...... 61 Introduction to the Half Guard ...... 27 Rubber Gua rd ............................ .. 63

Key Concepts .............................. 28 Key Concepts .............................. 64 Lockdown .................................... 29 Mission Co nt roi .......................... 65 Double Under-Hooks .................... 30 Rubber Guard Part 1:

Half Guard Part 1: Sweeps .............. 32 Mission Control .................... 67 Old Scllool .................................. 32 Over-Hook Triangle from Plan 8 ........................................ 34 Mission Control ...................... 67

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Over-Hook Omoplata from Mission Control ...................... 70

The Duda .................................... 72 Rubber Guard Part 2:

New York ................................ 73 New York .................................... 73 Triangle Choke from

New York ................................ 74 Left Arm Bar from New York ........ 75 Omoplata from New York ............ 76 Omoplata to Inverted Arm Bar .... 78 Ornoplata to Straight Arm Bar ...... 79 Omoplata to Tria11gle .................. 82 The Go-Go Plata .......................... 84 Invisible Collar ............................ 85

Rubber Guard Part 3: V1

Spider Web ............................ 87 Basic Arm Bar to Spider Web ........ 87 Arm Crush to Arm Bar ................ 90 Triangle Arm Bar ........................ 92 The Slide .................................... 94 X-Break ...................................... 96 Silverado .................................... 98

3 Twister Si de Control.. ...... 101 1 ntroduction to Twister

Side Control ........................ 101 Key Concepts ............................ 103

The Twister .................................. 104 The Banana Split .......................... 108 The Crotch Ripper. ....................... 111

The Calf Crank ............................ 115 Ki mura Off Twister Side Control .. 118 Plan C (Near Arm Bar Off

Twister Side Control) ............ l20

4 The Mount .......................... 123 Jntroduction to the Mount .......... 123

Key Concepts ............................ 125 Monkey Mount .......................... 126

Slow Triangle ................................ 127 Ar rn Triangle ................................ 130 lnverted Arm Bar. ......................... l33 Arm Bar from the Mount ............ 134 Loco Plata .................................... 13 7

5 The Back .............................. 141 Introduction to the Back .............. 141

Key Concepts ............................ 143 Basic Re ar Naked Choke .............. 144 The L 00 Percent .......................... 14 7 Marcelo ........................................ 150

6 Passing the Guard ............ 153 Introduction to Passing

the Gua rd ............................ 153 Key Concepts ............................ 155

The Underpass .............................. l56 Staple Gun .................................... l 58 Tornado ........................................ 160 Twister Pass .................................. 162 No-Iland Pass .............................. 164

7 1 ransitions .......................... 167 Batk to th~ Twhter ...................... 17() lntrou l ior to Ira mit iom .......... 16 )\\ im \1ove: Jnvhible Collar to Ninj.t: lwistcr Side (ont roi to Spidl'r Wlh .......................... 17

foreword

Martial arts have been a round for thousands of ycars, but for some reason most styles of martial arts have improved very little n thal time. When you walk into a traditional karate or kung fu school today, you'rc very Jikdy to be taught the same tech-niques that wen. used back when Columbus was sai ling.

Now, the world of jiu-jitsu is very different than most traditional martial arts in that you can tracE' a very dis-tinct evolution in the art back to the Gracie family in Hrazil. lt's very clear thal the contrihulions of Carlm and Helio Gracie, along with ali of their sons and sludcnts, have forevcr changed the concepts we had of hand-to-hand combat. They took an exist-ing martial art and advanced it far past its roots into the most complete and effective form of fighting known to

man-whal we now know as Bra7ilian jiu-jitsu.

There are many people who have learned this slylt. and became very gond at it, but few have actually con-Lributed Lo the evolution of the art. There are a few who add something; a particular sweep th at they 've inwnted, a new way to get a certain collar chokt: ... but even with the most innovative guys, it usually involves just one or two moves !hat are altrihuled to them. Most of what is in the ir game are the sa mc technique.\ everyone ehe h u::.ing.

And tllat h what's so ::.pecial about my good friend Eddie Bravo. Ile ha::. invented \O many techniques and improved upon so many traditional moves that he has literally crcated a completdy scparate style of jiu-jitsu.

Eddie i~ an nrredibly creative guy, easily one of the most crt"ative people

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l've eVl'r met in my !ife. His main out-let for that creativity most of his life has heen music. He make.~ very cool electwnica-styic music, and one of the more inlerLsting things about Eddie's music is that he is involved in every aspect of it. Hc's not just a musician who does one thing weil, ~uch as play-ing the guitar or the drum~. Ile actu-ally writcs and edits the music and play~ ail the instruments. Now thcre are a lot of musicians out therc, but there arc very few who can do everything. Even fewer can do it and have those songs actually be cool to listcn to.

lt takes a very ~pecial kind of brain to gct good at ali those facets of music, and actually have the creativity to combine ail thosc skills and come up with something your ears and your mind Jock on to. Now what\ real/y rare, is to take someone who has that very special kind of creative mind, and have them plug that same unusual thought process into coming up with new ways to strangle people. lt usually jmt doe-~n't happen.

Most musiciam are just concentrat-ing on makng their music, and durng their tme off they' re partying. Very few of them have the dhciplnc to becomc really good at grappling wth people and getting them to suhmit just with thcir bare bands, and even

fewer have the m;piration or the abil-ity to come up with new ways to do it. lt's a very, VE'ry rare situation.

With this unusual combination of an incredibly creative mind combned with a passion for submitting people, Eddie has come up with a very unique approach to martial arts. lf you've ncver seen him fight and anm't famil-iar with his moves, you will be com-pletely !ost as to what hE''S doing to you, right until the point whcre you tap out. I'vc seen it firsthand many, many times during the year~ that l'vc known him. Tough guys with years and ycars of grappling experience who spar with hm wind up twisted in knots with a confused look on their faces, completely baffled as to what's going on.

His approach is so nnovative and so unusual that it literally is a com-pletely separa le branch of the jiu-jitsu trec. And it's not just differE'nt-it's actually bettcr. M11d1 better.

Another thing that rnakes Eddie so special is that he's willing to share these innovations complctely and without reservation with anyone who will listen. What took hm years and years to develop and retine, can now be your~. ln this book, he allows you to eut through ali the trial and error that he had togo through to develop

thl''l' techmques and givcs you his exact thought process through cver} a'pcct of them. He provides not just \\a\, to 5ubmit people, but en tire p.tths to gct therc.

\\hat you are about to read in }iu-jitw Unleaslml is, in my opinion, the future of the art of jllljttsu Year'> from now the techniques you see on thC\l' pages won't just be different or optional, they'll be standard. They'll be what ali the cornpetilors will use, not because they're new techniques or because you can catch people off guard with them, but bccausc they'rc

truly the hest tcchmques, especially for jiu-jitsu w1thout the gi.

We're very lucky to have a guy likc Eddie in the worltl of martial arts, and even luckicr thal he's wllling to leach what he know'>. 1 truly belicve that when ali is said and done, this book w1ll become one of the mmt Impor-tant books ewr written on martial arts. So bud..le up, strap yourself 1n, and prepare to absorb Eddie Bravo's very own lOth Planet Jiu-Jitsu in }i11-}itsu Uttleaslled: A Comprel1ensive Gui1le tv tlle World 's Hotte5t \.fartial Art\ Diw ipline.

JOE ROGAN, host of NBC's "Fear Factor"

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Acknowledgrnents

First and forcmost I want to thank from the bottom of my heart, my master, Jean jacques Machado. He is the one who guidcd me along this path of ever evolving jiu-jitsu. He was the one who made me realize what confidence really is and just how cru-cial it is for succcss not only in jiu-jitsu but life as weil. He was the only one who was there time and time again to help me break through the roadblocks of jiu-jitsu.

I would also like to thank my two best friends, ]oe Regan and Laurence Zwirn.

]oe, for being the first to call mc a phenom, for giving me my first com-puter, for my hernia surgery, for forc-ing my talent down people's tluoats, for making me laugh harder than any other person on the planet, for the thousands of mcals, and for just being

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the best friend anyone can ever hope for. Joe rules.

Laurence, for buying ali my mats, for constantly hooking me up with girls, for the thousand meals, for the cr azy times in Vegas, for the 1 i fetime supply of supplements (Naturc's Purest rules), for al\ the financial hclp you have given me, and for just chillin' day in and day out. Ehhhahhhh!!!!!!!

A very special thanks goes out lo the Gracie family. Though we have dif-ferent vicws on the gi, I do appreciate tremendously what you did for the world of martial arts and my world.

Thank you Helio for being the war-rior and innovator that you are. Who has tougher sons than you? No one.

1 hank you Carlos Sr. for takmg in the Machados as sons of your own and introducing them to the fascinating world of jiu-jitsu.

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Thank you Rorion for producing the UFC; without you the MMA industry would not exist and l would be still deejaying in clubs.

Thank you Royce for having the courage to step up and fight in eight-and sixteen-man tournaments just to prove the effectiveness of jiu-jitsu. You will always be a Iegend.

Thank you Rickson for being the superman of the jiu-jitsu world. There is no one I would rather see in the ring than you.

And thank you Royler for being you. Without you and your unbeliev-able accomplishments in the grappling world, this book would not exist.

A very special thank-you to Larry Goldberg for being the most crucial picce of my literary career.

And last but not least, a very special thank-you to my top student, Gerald "The Finishing Machine" Strebendt, for belicving in me and my techniques and for being my MMA prototype to prove to the world the effectiveness of lOth Planet jiu-Jitsu.

A special thanks also goes out to Glen Cordoza, who spent hundreds of hours on the mats and behind the computer helping to write this book. If not for your talent as a writer, fighter, and loyal friend, this book could not have been written.

About This Book

In 200:1 1 entend the i\hu Dhabi World Championships, the largest and most respected no-gi g:rappling tour-narnent in the world, and tapped out Royler Grade, lhe most accomplisllE'd jiu-jitsu player in the worltl-renowned Ciracie family. I managed such a kat not because l'rn a jiu-jitsu phenom born to grappk, but because 1 did what no one cise dared to try-broke ju-jitsu down and devdoped a system that didn't requin.' holding on to your opponent\ uniform for control or

whtns~ions. ln traditional Hrazilian jiu-jitsu, the

g has almost become a holy garment. Players use the collar and sleeve or their opponent's uniform to sel up submissions, sweeps, and pa\Sl'S. This works wonderfully for regular grap-pling tournamenh where compt'l itors wear agi, but it does not tramlate weil for no-gi grappling tournaments or

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mixed martial arts (MMA} competi-tions such as the U\timate Fighting Championship (UFC). If a tradition al jiu-jitsu p!ayer who ba~es aH hi\ tech-niques on holding ou to his oppo-nent's uniform step\ i11t0 a ring or cage with a competilor who is not wearing a uniform, he irnmcdialcly !oses al! of his offensive setup\. lie is forced to play defense, and this often costs him the fight.

1 did not want to have to relearn jiu-jil\u or break a bunch of bad gi habits if 1 one day decided to enter MMA cmnpet ition, so in 1 ')96 1 started developing a sy.\tem of jiu-jitsu that was not bascd on the gi, tesling each technique in competition before pcr-manently adding il to my g:arne. 1t i\ a system that you will fi nd nowhere else but in thi.\ book. What 1 have laid out on the following pages is not a ran-dom pile of rnoves. Each chapter b

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[inkcd to the next, and each technique is described in detail through narra-tiVl' and stcp-by-step photos. There are no hidden steps. There are no movcs that haven't been proven time and ag ain in 1 he highest lcvels of com-petition. Unlike most jiu-jitsu black belt instructors, l am not afraid of divulging my secrets. Perhaps this will come hack to haunt me in competi-tion, but sharing ali my knowlcge is the only way 1 know how to teach.

Soif you want to learn a ~ty\c of jiu-jitsu that is MMA- and street-ready, I sugg:cst you read on. Whether you are a beg:inner or an advanced player, 1 also suggest that you start with Chap-ter 1 and thl' half guard, which is exactly where I started. Once you have a good gnsp of the half guard, move to'the next chapter, which is the full

guard. By the ti mc you have mastered ail the techniques in this book, you'Il have a leg up on marly ail traditional jiu-jitsu player~ in no~g:i grappling tournaments and MMA competition. While your opponent i~ busy search-ing for the collar and sleeve that i~n't there, you'llland ~ubmissions utilizing over-hooks, under-hooks, and head control.

You'll also begin to see that I haven't thought of everything, that despite what traditional black belt jiu-jitsu instructors want you to belicve, jiu-jitsu is stillcvolving. Just like my current student\ you'll start coming up with techniques on your own. And, as you do, you will understand thal it's the grapf1ling that makes jiu-jitsu the most dominant martial art in the world, not the uniform.

Introduction

My Evolution Shortly after moving lo Hollywood in 1991, T signed a two-year cuntract al a local health club. As a twenty-year-old singer and guitarist in a rock band that was going to make it big time, 1 didn't want to be standing up on stage look-ing like a slob. Hut de.\pile all my good intentions, l only went twice. 1 paid the monthly dues each and e\'E'ry month, yet 1 only went tvvice in two whoil' year\. Aftl:'r spending the major-ity of high school hiding in the shad-ows whilc the rest of the wrestling tearn hit th(:' weight room, 1 ~hould have known that 1 despised pumping iron.

I stil! wanlt'd to get into shape, sol put 1 he brain to work, asking myself what 1 could possibly do to Jose a few pounds, and then Bruce Lee sprang to mi nd. He was the toughcsl man on the planet-rippcd to the bonc-\o 1

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dccidcd to take sorne ki nd of karate or kung fu. 1 didn't know rnuch about the Eastern martial sl school, and then headed down tllere.

The instructor's nanw was Professor Phillip Skornia, and wlhln fiw min-utes 1 becamP certain he could ki li any-one wlh a single strikc. He had a black belt in cverythng-aikido, judo, tae kwon do, shorin-ryu karate, fivc-animal kung fu. fie wa~ even somc kind of ordaned monk at the Shaolin i.'mpil'. 1 remembcr thnking, "Oh my God, the stars mus[ be alignl.'d! There were over fifty ~rhools I could have choscn from, and 1 picked the ultimate one!"

So 1 ended up studying Zen Du Ru Karate, which mcans "the style of inncr strength," or something like that. lt was Professor ~kornia's very

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own styk. He had laken lhc hest mows from cad1 of the discirlincs he'd mastercd through the ycars and combined them into the most savage martial art. A fier six months, 1 had a green .\tripe on my whitl' belt

an overhand knifc strike? He would have punched me square in Lhc nose and I would have gone down. The inci-dent would have bccomc one of tho se painful stories thal my friend.'> alway~ bring up when we p;ct togcther every five years. 1 can just see it, ali of them rolling a round with laug:her, chopping ridiculously at the air wh ill' l sleek off to sorne corner in shame. I would have been hearing about how 1 got my bu tt kicked in a karate stance until the day 1 died.

The only good that could have come out of getting my butt kicked is that I would have realizcd sooner that I was being scammcd, taken for a serious ride. I slill hadn't learned that yet, so 1 continued with perfecting my overhand knifl' strike. J really got into karate, but because they didn't have telcvised karate lournaments, l watched the next best thing, which was boxing. 1 became a boxing fanatic. Although 1 rehearsed with my band every night of the week, 1 would tape "Tuesday ]"..;iglll hghb" on the USA Network. When 1 popped one such tape into the VCR back in 19'=U, 1 saw a commercial for the lJltimale Fighting Championship (UFC). They didn't have any highlights because il was the first event, so instead they showed a karate guy sparring with a kung fu guy in a gym. They kt>pt saying, "The

Llltimatc Fighting Championship, NO RULFS HGHTING!"

A few of my friends wanted to ordcr iton pay per view, but 1 talked them out of il. 1 thought il was ~orne type of pro wrestling and thaleverything wa~ going to be fakl'. Thl' event pa~~ed without any of us ~eeing it, but then one day a friend came to my house totally out of breath. 1t looked like he had run severalmill's.

"Dude, you know that Ultirnate Challenge thing," he sa id, huHing and puffing.

"Yeal1." "Dude, it was real!" "lt was real?" "Yeah. Thcre was sorne Iranian guy,

and he was choking pl'oplcout. He wa~ just grabbing their lrachcas and their throats, and ht' was ~queezing their necks."

"Somf:' lranian guy h grabbing peo-ple's throats?" 1

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1 couldn't believe it. No malter bow many people told mc what had hap-pened at the event, l stiJl couldn't belicve it. 1 was brainwashcd, soI put it out of my mi nd and continued learn-ing from the professor. i\pproximatdy six months la ter, as 1 was gctting ready togo to a party, a friend ca lied up and said UFC 2 was on thal night. 1 lold him to order it and tape it. By that time, l'ct heard the name Royce Grade at \east a hundred times, and 1 comid-ered it a persona! 3\\ault on my style and my professor. l wanted to see what this jiu-jitsu stuff was ail about.

The ncxt rnorning 1 ended up watching UFC 2 on tape. Gracie, a "ISO-pound Hra7ilian, was the bad guy. 1 wanted him to Jose. 1 wanted him to gel his head knocked off. 1 hoped it wou id he a karate guy l hat did it, but at that point it didn't really matter. l jus1 wank hm to Jose so that his nanw would go away. So when he fought Minoki Jchhara, a traditional karate practitioner from .Japan, 1 found myse1f screaming, "Come on lchihara, beat him up. Kick hi~ ass, karate!" flut by the time Gracie stcppe inlo the finals to face Patrick Smith, a tac kwon do practilioner who looked more \ike a street brawler, my loathing towar the Hraz1ian ha completdy vanished. I could see that he was the real deal, and

1 found mysdf wanting to know the \ame things he knew. After ali, 1 had wrestled for two year\ in high school and H seemc somcwhat simlar to this

suhmis~ion stuff. lmmediately 1 began thinking about the Twister (see C:hap-ter :1), the only movc I had wa\ked away with after two yc

"What did you think?" the instruc-tor asked after class.

"Why aren't you guys doing that much ground work!" I asked, but wh at I rea!Jy wanted to a~k wa~ J-low mme you guys are wmring black 1111i(orms?

"You must be thinking of that Gra-cie jiu-jitsu stuff."

"Isn't this the same thing?" "No. That is mostly ground work.

We only spend about 1 5 percent of the time on the ground. But Clracc's cousins, the Machados, have a school out here in LA. 1 could gel you the ir number."

"No, no," 1 said, not wanting to offend hi m. "1 don't want to do that other stuff, I want to do this stuff." But the wholc ti mc wc wcre tai king, 1 kept thinkng to mysclf Machado, Machado, MacfliJdo-don't frget-Machado, Machado.

SoI took his paperwork knowng that 1 would never come bac k. An hour latcr, 1 callcd information, got the addrf:'...,S of !hf:' Machado Academy, and headcd ovcr therc. l was so excitcd whf:'n 1 walkf:'d through the door 1 could hardly contain myself. But that excitement quickly drained away when 1 found out how much il cos! lo be a student at the Machado Academy. It was $ 125 a mont hl 1 didn't have $125, so 1 left. Karate had heen ~~Jattered in

my eyes, and with the secrets of llraLil-ian jiu-jitsu too l'xpemive to afford, l decided to ~tudy Jeet Kunc Do, the style oftlw only man who slll seemed toughcr than Gracic-Hruce Lee.

did that for six months, workng on kicks and punches, and then 1 landeda job as aDJ at a nightclub. For thf:' firs\ lime since l'd come \o Holly-wood, I finally had somc moncy in my pocket. 1 liked what 1 wa\ learning in .Jecl Kune Do, so instcad of quitting, 1 derided to spi urge and start ta king jiu-jitsu from the Machados as weil. Doing both would make me a complete war-rior. 1 would have punches and kicks for the initial flurry, and if things weren't going my way, 1 rould take my opponent down and fini\h hirn off wth a \uhmi.\sion.

1 kept it up or two and a half years, spending e\ery Tuesday and Thursday on stand-up and Friday on the ground. But my dream of becoming the com-plete warrior didn't materialize as 1 had hopcd. Grappling just mw day a vwek wasn't enough to get me anywhcre. The nPw guys who were training five days a week would be able to tap me out after just a few mont hs of training. Thal\ when 1 decided lo qut training stand-up, pick it up at a later date, and dedicate ali my Lime to working on jiu-jt\u.

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l becamc obsessed, but according to jean Jacques Machado, 1 wa~n't ob.sesscd with the right stuff. During practi, 1 kept going for 1 he Twister. 1 tried to Ll'll him that it was a wrcslling move, but he didn't helicve me. Ile thought 1 had made it up. "Y ou have to startlearning basic ju-jitsu," lw said to me one day. "Your basic jiu-jitsu is ter-rible. Vou kecp trying thh crazy Twister lhing. You alrcady know thal. Now you must start ex pan ding your game. You have to start playing regu-lar jiu-jitsu."

1 listcned to what he hall to say, but didn't give up on the Twister. ln wre~tling, it was an casy move to exe-cute becausc people were always giv-ing me thcir backs. No one gave me the ir bach in jiu-jitsu, nol by choicc anyway, so 1 knew that in order to rnake it work l would have to find sorne other way to slap il on. I learned it was easier to get an opponent in side control than taking his back, so that's when I came up wilh a Twister setup from sid~' control. l:)y the ti me l became a blue belt, 1 was catching guy~ witl1 the Twister al\ the time. lnstead of doing it off traditional sidl' control, howcver, l id it off this new and mproved side control position l'd corne up wilh, which 1 named Twister Side Control. 1 realized thal my ba.~ic

jiu-jitsu still stunk, but l also realized that many of tlw basic move~ wouldn't work for mL. 1 ~till hated lifting weights, so 1 wasn't al\ that strong. Every lime 1 went for guillotine~. kimuras, leg loch, or toeholds, my opponent woulli simply power out of them and then to~~ me around. ln order to rnake 1 hosl' movcs work, 1 fig-ured l had to be just il\ strong a'> my opponent, if not ~tranger. So insteact 1

focu~ed on little man moves, such as the rear naked choke. ~.ven a 220-pound musde-hound practitioner can't power out of a rear naked choke, not once you have it locked in. 1t just didn't rnakc SL'll.~C lo me to practicc

rnove~ that WL'ft' on ly going to work on a weaker opponent, espccially becausc 1 wa~ one of the weakest guys in the gym.

Despite my reluctance to follow the tradilional paUl, iiu-jitsu became the center of my universe. 1 watchcd every UFC:, and cach Lime a jiu-iit'>u practi-tioner stepped into the infamous Oeta-gan to do battle, l'd slap my friend in the dwst and point to the television. "Watch this," l'ct say. "The jiu-jibu guy is going to have his opponent scream-ing in pain in a matter of minute~." Most of the time it worked out just that way, which fueh.-d my confidence that traditional jiu-jitsu was the ultimate

fighting style on the planet. But thcn, as the years began ta pass, the jiu-jitsu players entering the UFC stopped being such an opposing- force. They stiJl took their opponents to the ground, and they still captured their opponents betwecn their legs in the guard, but then they woul just lie there, defending against punchcs. Their inactivity had nothing to do with their skilllevel. lt had to do with the fact that every kickboxer and wrestler in the event ha learned just enough jiu-jitsu to avoid getting caugbt in su bruissions. Hack whcn Gra-cie bad first ~tcppc into the event, be'd bad it easy. No one knew how to defend against chokeholds or arm bars, and he'd cleaned house. Thal just wasn't the case anymore.

I thought it would only be a matter oftime bef ore my fellow jiu-jitsu play-ers competing in the UFC bcgan changing thcir gamc to adapt to this new dcvdopment. But they never did. They continued to just lie thcrc, hold-ing on to their opponent wh ile trying to avoid punches. Just as I began to wonder if perhaps jiu-jitsu wasn'l the best fighting style on the planet, it dawned on me why they were having so much trouble. lt wasn't that they didn't know how to grapple, but rather that they didn't know how to grapple

when their opponent wasn't wearing a gi. They bad based ali their sctups, suh-missions, passes, and swccps off hold-ing on to their opponent's cailar and sleeve. If their opponent didn't have a slccvc or collar to grah, ali their tech-niques went right out the window.

lt made perJect sense. In arder to land suhmhsiom in a no-gi tourna-ment, you bad to practice jiu-jitsu techniques that didn't requirc holding on to your opponent's uniform. Nearly aU the jlu-jitsu competitors compcting in mixed martial arts (MMA) latched on to their opponents' anns using over-hooks for defense, but then they would let go of the over-hooks togo for a submission and take the risk of getting punched in the face. lt only seemed Iogical for them to !carn how to submit to their opponents while maintaining the ovcr-hook co nt roi hccause then they would not only be in a defensive position, but an offen-sive one as well.

1 suggested this strategy to a few of my fellow jiu-jitsu practitioners, and they ne arly bit my head off. How dare 1 suggcst something as ludicrous as learning how to grapple without the gr! They wcrc hrainwashed lke the rest of the jiu-jitsu world, but that didn't stop me from continuing with my plans. My intention wa,~n't lo dcvclop

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my own style. I didn't want to be the guy inventing his own maves. Hut with 99 percent of the jiu-jitsu schools teaching maves based on the gi, it began to look more and more as if that was what l would have to do. As it turned out, I didn't have togo far to get the help I needed to do that.

My instructor, Jean Jacques, was 50 percent better than most of the tra-ditional jiu-jitsu instructors when it came to techniques that didn't require holding on to the gi. It wasn't that he was against wearing a unform; he wore one ali the time. He was 50 per-cent better be cause he had no fingers on his !dt hand. He couldn't grab the collar or sleeve of his opponent's uni-form with that hand, so he would use it to SL'Cure an over-hook. That'~ part of the reason he blew through the competition in the late 1990s whcn he began ente ring these big competitions. Even though Jean Jacques still p1ayed the traditional game with his rig:ht hand, gripping at hb opponent'.-.. col-Jar, 1 cou1d see just how much the tac-tics he cmployed with his left hand had hdped him in these no-gi tourna-ments. 1 was going to follow his 1ead, on1y I wasn't going to grab my oppo-nent's uniform with either hand. That way, when 1 began entering thcse big competitions, 1 would be 100 percent

more prepared than those who had been training with the gi, which was just about everyone.

Jean Jacques guided me throug:h the process; as a result, his fingerprints are ali over my style. 1 mig:ht have carved my own way, doing: what no one else was doing al the lime by developing a highly individualistic style bascd on no-gi techniques. But without Jean Jacques's help, I never would have been able to put it ali together. He helped mc figure out the hcst move-ments in every no-gi position. He helpcd mc decide where to place my hands for defense and how my legs should get involved. He helped me put every limb to work so that wh ile l was de fen ding agai nst punches I could still be gai ng for a submission. We went through many frustrating years try-ing: to rein vent the wheel, bul it began to pay off. I started smoking people in the gym, getting one submission after the next. lt gave me a sense of accomplshment, but the ultimate test would he to see how it held up in competition.

The Proving Ground They're pretty rnuch the same animal: competition and real fighting:. Stand-ing out in the street just before a fight,

you fee! the same stress you do when standing in a warm-up room prior to a tournament. You get a sin king sensa-tion in your gut, your mou th dries up, and your palms begin ln sweat. wasn't looking forward to thosL' feel-ings, but 1 knew that if 1 L'ver wanted my style ofjiu-jitsu to work out n the street or in MMA competition, 1 had Lo get used to the pre~sure. Slappng a new technique on -~omeone in the gym and rnakng him tap was easy. Il was much harder to slap thal ~ame technique on someone who has his pride riding on the line n a compt'ti-tion. 1 knew it was going to be the ulti-mate proving ground because one way or another 1 would walk away not only knowing if 1 had wh at it took, but a ho if the ~tyle 1 had be en deve1oping was worth a damn.

Two years after l had frst walked into Jean Jacques's Academy n April 1996, 1 entered my first ju-jitsu com-petition, which was held at a police academy near Dodger\ Stadium in LA. I was a blue belt at the lime, and 1 smoked through my first two oppo-nents. Because 1 hadn't taken my instructor's ad vice to train in the basic maves, ali 1 rea li y knew how to do was capture my opponenl in my half guar, establish the Lockdown, flip my opponent over wlh an Old School

sweep, and then hold him dawn on lhe mat until ti me ran out. (See Chap-t er 1.) It had worke so wdl that 1 decded to Lry the same tbing in the finals with Jack McVicker, who is a black hl'!t now. Hut he had been watch-ing me ali atternoon and had caught on to my technique. Once 1 secured him in my half guard, he blncked ali tny sweeps. Ile just smothercd me for an cntire six minutes. Neither one of us scored a point. but because he had bcen on Lop the whole ti me, the judges gave him the decision. !Ug,an Machado, who rl'fereed the match, seemed disappointed. Never beforL had he seen such a boring match.

It went on like that for some tirne. ln the gym 1 was on fire, calching peo-ple in my infamous Twbter submission and making them yelp, but whLn I entered a competition l turned lnto a tamed beast. 1 played everythng cau-linus, never putting rnyself out on the lirnb, so rarl'iy did 1 catch anyone in my homemade submhsions. Then one day 1 just snapped. J got sick of watch-ing myself on videotape, holding my opponent in my half gua rd. My friends had heard whal an animal l'd becnrnL', but when they came to watch me in tournaments they wondered why 1 would ju\t lay on my back the whnle ti me without trying to do anything. 1

9

10

convinced myself that if ttlE' Twister worked in the gym, there wa.\ no rea-son wh y it slwuldn't work in competi-tion. 1 just had to fi nd the courage to pull il off.

1 found thal courage at a corn-petition 1 enlered in Santa Cruz, California. 1 was grappling with my opponent, oing the sarnc boring thing 1 al ways did, and tlwn suddenly 1 went for tl1e Twister. To my surprise, 1 caught him imtantly. With hi~ spine cran ked out of wluck, IH' beg an pounding his hand in subrnission. Jt was sucil a higll th at l used it aga in and agai n in competition, and it al ways blew my mi nd !hat no one ever caught on. lt wasn't some superhurnan suD-mission. It was just a move t hat r had learned in high school wrestling with an added twist.

With some victories under my bdt, )ean jacque.~ and l dccided il wa.s ti me to take it to the next leve! and I entered the Relson Gracie TournanH'Ilt in Uawaii. Aggre~sive attack~ had worked for me as of Iate, ~o 1 decided to .~Uck with that rnind-set. After beatng my

fir~t opponent with a triangle chokc (sce Chaptcr 2) and my second oppo-ncnt with a Kamikaze Calf Crank (see Chapter 1 ), 1 fou nd mysclf in the finals. I was told to come bak in an llour for the final matdl, but befon.' 1 made it out the door lhe prornoll'r

flagged rne down. Ile told me a con-testant hd C"ame la te and thal in order to make it nto the fnab r had to tight the guy. l was about Jo argue

idea. I had been doing well as a blue belt, and now 1 would be going against more experienced campel tors. As 1 had feared, once 1 got my purple bell 1 fell back into my cau\ ious mode in competition. Every time I climbed onto the mat, I thought l was so out-matched that survival hecanll' my on! y goal. This went on for a year or Iwo, and then 1 realized just as 1 had bl'fore that these guys weren't th at good, thal if a blue belt could fall victim to my maves, then so cou id a purpil' belt. As a matter of fact, I realized this right in the middle of a match. 1 on! y had two minutes left Lo do sornething, so 1 went from half gu

Guard (see Charter 2) on the Internet, hegging competitOr.\ to takc a look. !t jmt s

was knocking people out ali the time because he took chances, but hy taking chances he opened himself up for shotsand would gel knocked out hi rn-self from time to time. 1 figured that in order to be a phenom, y ou had to he more like boxer Pernell Whitaker. He wasn't knocking anyone out, but he also didn't get knocked out hi1melf. For him, it was defense first. 1 guess ali the times I took chances in the gym and got caught had led me to believe 1 wasn't ali that good. I'd set:n B. j. Penn train a few times, and he never got tapped. But after hearing Rogan tell me over and over just how lethal my style was, 1 began to think !hat per-haps there was something toit after ali. Perhaps a weak, 155-pound wanna-be rock star from Orange C:ounty couJd make it to the big time. That's when 1 first locked my sights on Abu Dhabi, the largest, mo\t respected no-gi grappling lournament in the world.

2003 Abu Dhabi Qualifiers The mort: 1 focused on perfecling tht' Rubber (1-uard and other no-g Lt:ch-niques, the more 1 felt rnyself separate from the rest of the crowd. 1 fgured I had a leg up on traditional jiu-jilsu pr

'4

the Enter the /Jragon of submi~~ion wrestling.

Traditionally the events were hl'id ewry ycar in /\bu Dhabi, but after 9/11 promolers turncd it inlo a traveling show bec a use they worried about com-petltors not wanting to come Lo the 1\!iddk l:ast. 1t was dccided that it wou id be held in l he only other logical plan.', the birthplace of modern day jiu-jihu-Brazil. Thal suted mc just fine. 1 couldn't think of anything bC:'I-ter than beating ali the Brazilians on the ir home turf. 1 got ovcrly excited, daydrcaming about what it wou Id be likc. But 1 also knew that gel ling thcrc would not be easy. Before 1 could qual-ify for th L'event, I first had to win the North American trials.

1 had a lot riding on the line. About a ycar prim, the promotcr from King of thL' Cage, a popular MMA competition, began ta king jiu-jitsu tessons at Jean jaLques's Academy. Wc bcgan talking one day after clas~, and 1 told hi rn th at if he needcd sorneone to conduct post-fight interviews, 1 wa.\ his man. 1 went to his office the next day, and 1 Jeft wit h the job. 'l"tl .\how how appreciai ive 1 was, l began going to his bouse every Saturday to givc him private le\\ons. Fach time, 1 brought a slcw of video-tapes of MMA competitions trom ail ovcr the world, giving him a hlow-by-

blow description of the action going on. After a few weeb of this, he asked me if 1 wantcd ln be a commcnlator at hi\ events. 1 told him 1 didn't know anything about commentating, and that if 1 took l he job 1 was going to cali it like 1 saw it. In my mi nd, 1 saw it as the perfect opportunity to talk about ali the flaws of traditional jiu-jitsu in MMA.

The promotcr ag-reed to my \tipula-tiom, and for the nex.t sevcr

, {

Abu Dhabi Trials. I hadn't been therc for ten minutes when this guy who trained under Matt Hume, a fa mous MMA trainer, began talking trash. His name was Mark Ashton, and he had sorne mouth.

"We're going to be the firsl fight in the tournament," he sJid. ''l'm going to blaze right through you. You won't even last two minutes."

"J don't know, l tl1ink you're under-estimating my defense," l said. "My jiu-jitsu is pretty tight. I think L'Il he able to survive at !cast tluee minutes on the mats with you. Maybe even four."

J guess the guy didn't likc me play-ing along, be cause he continucJ to say just how badly he was going to dcstroy me. As he was jahbering away, 1 saw Alan Teo, who was one of the favorites in the event, walk past. 1 kcpt my eye on him, tryng to ~ize him up.

"You don't need to worry about Alan Teo," Ashton said. "I have lo worry about Alan Teo because you won't rnake it past me."

"You're prohably right," 1 said, grown~ tin.'d of him. "Since wc're going to be fghting each othcr n a couple of minutes, why don't we warm ur togcther?"

1 nevcr thought he would go for it becausc it was such a crazy idea. Who

would warm up with an opponent they wcre g-oing lo face in les~ than ten minutes? I had never heard of any-thing: like that hdore, and 1 was half-kiddng. But he thottght it was a great idea, so we hit the mat.

1 just jumped on him. l swcpt the hell out of him and caught him in an a rra y of arm bars. Then 1 took his back and choked him. 1 basically did what-ever 1 wanted by utiH7ing the system r bad devi~ed, and you could imagine what thal did for my confidence. Ju~t as we were winding down, the pro-moter came into the wann-up room and ca lied our nanw~.

1 cou\d tell Ashton was nervous wh en we got out therc, and 1 kncw th at 1 could beat him at any moment. Hut 1 didn't want to just beat him, not after the way he had talked. 1 wantcd to catch him in the Twister to give cvl'ry-onc watching a demonstration of my style. 1 had hcard that they'd made

~pin

16

Jock. You must release the hold!" The same thing had happened tome when 1 caught Regan Penn in a toehold, and after l'ct bcen forced to rclease the hold, Penn bad jumped on me and caught me in a choke. This time, how-ever, 1 had come prepared. Because l had been doing the Twister so much in competition, I'd invented severa[ tran-sitions l could move directly into if the Twister didn't work out, and I used one of those maves now. l took Ashton's back and theo sunk in a rear naked choke. The boy who had been so cer-tain he'd beat me within two minutes tapped his band in suhmission.

Ashton tried to save face after we got off the mats. He told me that things would have been different if we had met in an MMA competition, and I told him he was right. I said 1 would have kicked his bu tt in the ring instead of on the mat. He tried to say more, but 1 didn't have time for it. If I wa.-. going togo to Brazil, 1 had to focus on my next match, which wa\ against the Canadian champion.

The kid was twice as strong as 1 was, but 1 just played my game. 1mmedi-ately 1 pullcd half guard and theo swept him. Although the Twister was an illegal move, I planned to catch him in it, show everyone that I could tap him out if I wished, and then let him

go. My plan wa.'. to catch and release hm like a .~ca bass. So after 1 swept him, 1 went for the Twister. He saw it coming, but in the process of defend-ing against the Twister, he opened himself up to the mount. 1 slippcd on top and began setting up an arm tri-angle. just a~ l was locking it in, he bucked me off and 1 ended up with h im in my guard. We were back to squarl.' one.

l had just donc some scrious work, and technically it should have bcen eighl to nothing in my fa v or. The only problem was thal in Abu Dhabi they don't start counting points for the first five minutes. So il was stiJl zero to zero. 1 had thi.'. guy in my guard, the judges had ju.'.t started counting points, and l was complctely spcnt. 1 wanted to play my Ruhber Guard, show ali those in atkndancc what no-gi grappling was re ally about, but the guy was really strong. If 1 got him in a submi:-.sion wh ile on my back and h(;' pulled out of it, l would just have wasted severa[ nlinut(;'S and much energy. 1 just wanted Lo beat him and go to Brazil, so 1 didn't take any chances. From full guard 1 wcnt to half guard, swept hi rn, passcd his guard, and then .'.et up for the Twister again. After sorne .~truggling, 1 caught hi rn, let evcryone sec tlnl 1 could end the

fight, and then let hlm go. 1 knew 1 \\JS ahead on points, so 1 dldn ' t take his bad. and lock ln a choke. 1 could ha\e done it, bu t 1 was spent. Al i t hat tru!) mattered was 1 hJd gotten the 1\O

11 \\ras a good move, because the last match in the tOurnament was twenty minutes instead of ten. And instead of not counting points for the firsr five minutes, the judge didn't cou nt them for the first ten . 1 wasn' t half as confi-dent as 1 had been agal nst Ashton because 1 was to tall y out of ga . And my opponem , Alan Teo, had run through his first two opponents in no tlme at ali. He looked as if he'd just woken up from a refreshing nap.

When the two of us hit the mats, he caught me in head and arm control, which meant thal 1 couldn ' t secure el ther the over-hooks or under-hooks and was basically helpless to sweep hlm. As the minutes pas~ed with hlm lying on top of me, 1 started thlnking about my Rubber Guard and ali the other techniques 1 had devlsed, and my confidence bega n to g row. llis head was right by my ear, and 1 could hea r from his breathlng that he was nervous. He was ly ing on top o f me, not tryi ng fo r any submiss ions. Per-haps he was waiting for the ten-mlnute mark, 1 didn't know. A li 1 knew was

t ha t i f he wasn't expending any energy, then neither was 1.

By the time ten minutes had gone by, 1 felt so confident that 1 could take this guy that 1 whispered in his ca r, " Vou ready to play?" A second later, 1 fought his control and secured the under-hook, and then 1 racked up sorne poi nts by sweeping hlm with Old School. Eight minut es were left, and 1 decided not to do any thing more. 1 was just going to hold him untiltime ran out. That is not the sty le thal 1 norm ally play, but ali 1 could think about was Brazil. 1 was so close 1 could smell it.

lt was easy to contro l him for six or seven minutes, but then ali that ho ld-Ing began to take Ils to ll. 1 start ed to get rea lly tired, and he started bucl,ing and thra hing, trying to shake me. He caught me ln what he thought was a gui llotine choke, so 1 started ma"ing fake choki ng and gurgling sounds. He didn ' t have it, but l knew il wouldn't be ali that difficult for him to sweep me from our currem posit ion and rack up sorne points of his own. So 1 let him think he wa~ on the ve rge of choking me unconscious. And it worked. He kept squeezing on my neck, and 1 kept mnking the fal-.e noises. lt was the most borlng match ever, but everyone ln the audience wa~ screaming. Sorne

,g

yelkd, "Alan, gel him, choke hirn." Olhcr.s shouted, "Eddie, you've only got a minute, hold on, ynu're going to win!"

When time ran out, Tco was slll trying for the choke. The referee sepa-rated us, and T hopped up srniling. 1 wa\ going to Brazil. There wa~ also a good chance that 1 would face the notorious Royler Gracie whilc there. 1 wasn't sure how to fcd, ecstatic or terri fied.

2003 Abu Dhabi World Championships Wh ile Rkkson was con~iden:d the best jiu-jitsu practitioner in the world-renmvned Gracie fJmily, hi\ younger brother Royler was hy far the most accornpli.\hed. He'd competed against ali the top jiu-jitsu practitioner.\ in the Mundials, the world jiu-jitsu gi cham-piomhips, and walked away the win-ner. He'd a\so won the Abu Dhabi Championships the three years he'd entcred. ln fact, he had been .\o domi-nant in Abu Dhabi no hody ever scored a point against him. His skills had been tc\tcd ti me and again, and he al most always ~tood in the winner's circle at the end of the night.

1 wanled to fight him. I didn't care .\o rnuch about winning the entire tournament. Ali 1 really cared about

was climbing onto the mat and defeat-ing the infarnous Hoyler Gracie. If 1 could do thal, beat the man the whole worlcl respected and fearecl, it would be bigger than winning the Abu Dhabi Championship\ five years in a row. And 1 didn't want to beat him just any old way-1 wanted to he at hi rn with the Twi.\ter. The move was illegal in the Abu Dhabi Championships, just as it had bcen illegal in the trials, but 1 clicln't carc. 1 was going to slap iton hi rn and make him tap. Of course, 1 cou id get di.\qual i fied for performing the move and Royler would most Jikdy go on to win the entire event, but the controversy would he huge. I would know, just as the world would know, that I had defcatcd hi rn with my tracte-mark rn ove.

1 hegan training harder than J ever had in my !ife; J even hroke down and started lifting weights. Although my .style wasn't strength dependent, 1 knew I needed all the leverage 1 could get. Hy game clay, May 17,2003, 1 felt strong, ready to take on the world. My

nerve~ didn't kick in until 1 stepped into the Porra Arena in SJo Paulo, Hrazil. With television cameras St'\ up around the arena, broadcasting the action to grappling fans throughout Bra7il, 1 knew right then that thi.\ was my ultimate test. 1 wa\ about to cam-pete in the biggest grapplill)!; tourna-

l

ment on the planet. Wou id 1 grab l he bull by the homs and show everyone what my no-gi style was ali about? Or, would 1 revert back to the sc a red com-petitor J had been severa! years bef ore, too timid to do anything but hold his competitor in his ha if guard?

J Jearned the answer real fast when I stepped onto the mat with Jiu-Jitsu World Champion Gmtavo Dantes in my first match of the nighl. lmmedi-ately I pu! led half gua rd, swept hi rn, and then set him up for the Twister. I knew r couldn't Jock it in bec a use then r would be disqualified bl'fore 1 faced Gracie, so as he began to defend against the Twi.~ter, 1 took his back and secured a rear naked choke. The easy victory made an impression on every-one in attendance, and when 1 wc nt backstagc a small crowtl gathered around me. They were curious about my Huhber C uard, so l started givi ng them a demonstration. lt turned into quite a little seminar. The only people who secmed disinterested wcre a cou-ple of Rrazilian jiu-jitsu players. l could tell by tht'ir sinister looks that thcy were thinking, "How does a brown belt know wh at works? 1 il'\ an American, what does hl: know?"

1 got so caught up in showing peo-ple how to perforrn the Hubber Guard that 1 !ost track of ti me. Then ali of a sudden the promoter was hackstage

calling my name. 1 was up to fight Gra-cie. i\s if my body wa.\ working on autopilot, l stood ur and headl'd out into the

wonderi ng if it was e\'en possible to nvent a move while grappling wilh Royler Gracie live on Hrazilian TV in the Abu Dhabi World Championships.

Go (or il, a voice in my head whis-pcred, so 1 did. 1 wa.\n't sure if it was going to work, but then I saw him gong over. I couldn't bdicvc it. 1 didn't have much lime to relish my ingenu-il y, however, because now 1 was stuck in Gracie's guard. Ile tri cd slapping on a triangil' choke, but 1 broke free. I didn'l llke the feeling of being so dose to my demise, \O l 4uickly searched the arsenal of wcapons 1 had stored in my mi nd and ewrythng pointed toward sweeping him with a move cal led the 100 Percent (see Chapter 5). To exe-cute the move, I backcd out of his guard, baiting him. He rahed up to grab my legs just as I'd hoped, and that's when 1 made my move. Tht' goal of the rnovc is lo roll your opponent ovcr so you can take his back, and the reason 1 ca!Ied it the" 100 l'creent" is because if done correctly it should work 100 percent of the timc. Weil, 1 did it correctly, and the rnovc didn't work. I had beard thal (Jracie's shoul-ders were double-jointed, but l never thought he would have heen able to escape the lOO Percent.

After thal littlt' f!urry, I was once aga in lying on my back with (Jracie in

my half guard. If 1 was going to win Lhis, 1 decided, I was goiug to have to pull out the big gum, so 1 transitioned from half gua rd to fuJI guard. l knew Gracie had grappled with hundreds of competitors through the yt'ars, but 1 douhtcd he had grappled with anyone who llad trained so hard for no-gi competition. 1 thrcw my Rubber Guard at him to sec how he handled it. My original intentions were togo for an Omoplata (sec Chapter 2), hut then I hegan thinking about his shoulder. If he was flexible enough to c\capf' the lOO l'creent, then he was most cer-tainly flcxihle t'tH.1llgh to escape an Omoplata. The next best option, 1 thought, was togo for a triangle choke.

Wh ile 1 scooted my legs up his body in hopes of securing the triangle, !mm, he slid his knee through and passed my Rubber Guard. lnstant!y 1 wenl for jailbreak, which he slill hadn't caught on to. lnslead of gong back to half guard, however, I pulled l:hrttcrfly Guanl, a pmition where both of your legs are inside your opponent's hips. 1 snatcht'd the over-hook with mv !l'ft arm, and as soon as l scized hh wrist with my right hand, I thought, ''!Jude, you can set the triangle up from hl' ft'. lt wou id be perfcct." Without thinking it through, 1 fakcd a sweep to the right side so that he would defend and open

up his Jeft side. StiJl controlling his wrist, 1 threw my leg over his head, secured a triangle choke, and cinched dawn.

Immediately Gracie tried to stand upto break my hold, .~o l over-hooked his left leg and sent him crashing back down on top of me. The only thing l worried about at that time was running out of lime. 1 didn't want Cr a-cie to be able to last until the bell, so ta keep my hold from becoming un-cinched, I grabhed my left foot with both bands, something 1 had never done before. 1t was ki nd of a freak-out move on my part, but with Gracie now at my mercy, l didn't wanl to tal..;e any chances.

1 squeezed my il'gs together a:. tightly as l could, thinking hL was going to tap. But he didn't. He had probably been lrapped in hundreds of triangles ovcr the years, and he knew hmv to ride them out. 1 could hear joe Rogan in the background, screarning at me to pull Gr.1cie's head down. 1 didn'l want to do that for fear he would escape, but eventually 1 ju:.t went for it. Only seconds after 1 pulled hi\ head down, Gracie tapped his ham!.

1 jumped to my feet once the referee pulled us apart and slrutted around the mat with my hands up in the air.

After making a fcw L:qJ~, 1 huggcd Gracie to show my respect. When we pullt:>d a part, H just hit me. That wa\ ail 1 had evcr wanted to do-tap out Royler Gracie. 1 had wantLd to defeat him by using the Twister, but now 1 knew this wa~ far better. 1 had beaten him on the up-and-up. He had becn training jiu-jitsu since he was two years old. 1 bad been training !css th an ten years and was only a brovvn belt.1 lt made those thousands upon thou-sands of hour\ l'd spent VI'Orking on no-gi techniques worth it. hom ti.wt point on, no one could clairn that training witllout the gi didn't work because l had just proved !hat il did. 1 fel! to my knees and slarted crying uncontrollably.

lt wasn't until severa! minutts later that I nalized 1 haLl two more matches to win in order to take the entire tour-narnent. Even before 1 stepped back out onto the mat,! rl'a1izcd tllat such

"

United States with something much more valuable.

The "Gi Versus No-Gi" Controversy Back in 1993, Rorion Grade created the first Ultimate Fighting Champi-onship and forever changed the mar-tial arts. After Rorion's brother Royce had choked a string of karak and kung fu praLtitioners uncomCious in the first couple of events, millions of fg:ht fans worldwide got to see that the Eastern fighting styles were not irlVin-cible, that in fact the ullimate self-defeme discipline was grappling. Attendance levds in karate schools across the United States dropped, and thme that kept their doors opened re lied primarily on uninformed moth-ers signing their children up for classes. But once those children were old enough to search for the truth in fighting and self-defense on their own, most of them were steered toward some type of grou nd fighting. And it's ail because of the Gracie family. If it weren't for them, I would probahly be giving karate !essons rather than run-ning a jiu-jitsu school tllat turns out some of the fercest grapplers on the planet. ln my opinion, the Gracies are the family of the milknnium.

But no matter how much 1 owe them or how proud I am to havt.' a black belt in Hrazilian jiu-jitsu, l refuse to put on the blinders. Their system is flawed because they have stopped evolving it. They insist that in orderto get good at grappling with no-gi, you first have to he a ma~ ter grappling with the gi. Hut that just isn't true; my stu-dents are living proof. They only say !hat because thal\ what they teach. They specialize in the gi, so they are very fearful of people starting to train without it. 1t would he the same thing if you were a specialist at fixing Volks-wagens. If people started buying Mer-cedes, even though it h a beHer car, you would try to convince tllem to drive Volkswagens bec a use that is wh at you know how to fix. Vou might be okay at fixing Mt>rcedes, but it is not your fortt>.

rear of losing mo ney is the only rea-son why black belt jiu-jitsu instructors keep perpetuating the lie thal in or der to get good without the gi you first have to get good at their style. I don't biarne them because everyone's natu-ral instinct is to want to be in control. And with the gi, they are uttcrly dom-inant. lf you were to dress your aver-age college wrestler up in a gi and have him grapple at any one of the Gracie schoob, he is going to get tapped out

ten times by everyonr in the joint. nut ifyou take the gi off him, tho~e ten tap outs might grt whittled down to jmt a few. Soit changes things, and the ju-jitsu instructors don't !ike the change.

ln an attempt to prove the impor-tance of training with the gi, tradi-tional jiu-jitsu practitioner~ often cite history. They pull out the record~ from Abu Dhabi, the Jarge~t no-gi g:rappling tournament in the world, and ex plain how Brazi!ians who trained with the g:i have won the majorty of them. My answer is, "Of cour~e they won!" flack in 1997 there were virtually no ~cho

why .\ellie for somcthing that is mediocre whcn therc are a handful of guys out there, like mc, willing lo leach moves th at arc actually geared for no-gl grappllng? Tf you go the tra-ditional route, you'll develop bad habits that will haunt you once you get into lhe cage. You will waste much of yom tirne karning stuff thal nevcr comc5 up in a no-gi competition. So if you allow sorneonc to convince you th at in order to get gond at no-gi grap-pling you first have to !carn how to fight with a gi, you'vc been brain-wasllcd. Vou are going lo learn basic balarKt', but you arc not going lo !carn any truc setups nor how to finish sorneone if you spend ali your time holding on Lo the sleeve and collar.

Despitc l10w f:'arth-shatteringly obvious this sef:'ms tome, rcality really ha\r1't sun ken in \Vith the majority of ju-jitsu playcrs. 1 tried lo get the word out by traveling down to the birth-place of modern-day jiu-jitsu and tap-ping out Royler Gracie in the biggest no-gi tournament in the world, and stiJl they give mc no respccl. Tt Wa\ the most historie match in Abu Dhabi his-tory, l he biggest up.\f:'L 1 didn't win by points; 1 forced (Jracie to tap his hand in submission. Rut it ail boils down to fe ar. They see wh at l have to off er com-ing over the horizon, and they don't

likc it one bit. They took jiu-jitsu to a certain point, and now l'm takingit to a wh ole different leve!. Jkspite the ver-bal ba tt le.\ Roy !er (; racic and 1 have had, l rPspect what hh family has do ne. 1 t hank them for the arm bars, the triangles, and the rear naked choke off of the back, but I will never see the gia.\ a sacred piecc of cloth. 1 sec it a) the problem.

lOth Planet )iu-)itsu A couplf:' of years agu 1 came across the writings of l"rngui~t and hlblical scholar named Zccharia Silchin who said that humans WNE' crcated as slaves to mine gold for a supcrior humanlike race th at live~ on a 1 Oth planet in our solar system. 1t wa.\ quite a theory to absorb, but it got me think-ng. If the re rcalty was a race advanccd enough to crcate humans for the sole purpose of mining gold, what else could they achicw"! T~w Japancse had invcnted jiu-jitsu, and then the BraziJ-ians made it bctter. But how crazy wnuld grou nd fighting he on the 1 Oth planet?

1 likc to think !hat it would resem-ble what 1 had come up with, full of po~itions like the Ruhber C1uard and Twister Slde Control. lt's not that l'm a revolutionary thinkf:'r; it\ just tilat

1 ve always been open to the fa ct th at flu-jitsu lsn't done. In order to improve something, you have to keep evolving lt. Vou have to keep working on your setups and submissions, ot herwise people will eventually begin to catch on. Unfortunately, the majority of jiu-

jitsu instructors don't fcel the same way. They look at mc as if l'm from another planet, and that always brings a smile to my face. 1 might not have been born on the lOth planet, but l'd like to think that my style of jiu-jitsu certainly was.

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Author Eddie Bravo (in White) in the Half Guard

1

The Half Guard

Introduction to the Hall Guard You can be an expert at climhing: on top of your opponent and grahbing submissions from the mount. Y ou can be a master at taking your opponent's back and slipping in a chokehold. But if you don't have a strong half gua rd, chances are you're not going to get into those positions as often as you'd like.

The half guard is the most impor-tant position in jiu-jitsu, the trce lrunk of my system, because that's where the majority of fights take place. Most ju-jitsu players prefer the full guard, but it's often quite difficult to trap your opponent between bath of your leg!>. It's much easier to pull half guard and trap just one of your opponent's legs.

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And most of the tlme your opponent will willingly faU into your half guard because they think it will eut down on their work-all they have to do is free their one kg, obtan side control or mount, and then finish with a submis-sion. But it's not that easy, at il'ast not with ju-jitsu players who study my system. lnstead of wasting ali our energy just tryi ng to maintain control of our opponent's il'g, we lock it in place using the Lockdown. Instead of spending all our ti me on defense, we use douhle under-hooks to gain con-trol of our opponent's upper body, which allows us to set up swccp~ and submissions. By utiliLing two simple techniques, we have turned a neutra! position into an offensive one.

Key Concepts The half guard should be mastered first becausc whether you arc a begm-

ner or an advanced player, you will eventually find yourself on your back. Once there, trapping one of your opponent's legs between your legs in a half guard is much easier than trapping your opponent's entire body between your legs in a full guard.

When your opponent has you trappcd in an advantageous position, such as the mount or side mount, the half guard ls always just one step away. By hooking one of your opponent's legs between your legs, you can regain control of the fight.

By utilizing the Lockdown, under-hooks, and sweeps in the half guard, you can turn what most practitioners bclieve to be a neutra! or weak posi-tion into an offensive one.

Never look at the half guard as your opponent is half-passed your guard; look at it instead as you are halfway to getting a sweep or taking your opponent's back.

No one swcep from half guard is the answer. Every opponent will move and react differently. The system of sweeps I dcscribe is designed to react to this, moving from one sweep to the next so that you are always thrce steps ahead.

Mastering the haJf guard allows you to be more aggressive in the mount and side mount because the fear of getting reversed and placed on your back is gone.

Lockdown 1 he 1 ockdown allows you to conserve energy, as weil as dis ru pt y our opponent's base and balance. In addition, the higher up on your opponent's leg that you secure the Lockdown, the more pressure you'll put on his calf muscle. With your opponent djstracted by pain and trying to recover his balance, you can now focus on getting the double under-hooks.

To secure the Lockdown, 1 first bring my left leg over Joe's right leg.

1 bring my nght leg over the top of my left foot as 1 hook my right foot under joe's right ankle.

1 complete the Lockdown by stretching out, extending Joe's right leg and taking away the right side of his base.

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Double Under-Hooks The answcr to turning the half guard into an offensive position is the dou-ble under-hooks. Once you have the double under-hooks and the Lock-down secure, you control your oppo-nent's body. Sweeping your opponent and gaining a more favorable position, such as side mount or mount, is only one step away. It should be noted, however, that obtaining the double under-hooks is often quite a battle. The opponent on top needs at !east one under-hook in order to pass your guard. If he tries passing without one, you can simply take his back. The key

to winning the battle for the under-hooks while on the bottom is distract-ing your opponent by stretching him out in the Lockdown and continuing to pummel for position.

1 start pummeling, getting my left arm under Joe's right arm on the same side as the Lockdown.

Using my right forearm, 1 control Joe's left arm as 1 reach through with my left arm.

1 secure the double under-hooks.

1 grip my hands together, wrapping my fingers around the outside of my thumbs. This handclasp is known as the Gable Grip.

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Half Guard Part 1: Sweeps

0/d School By securing both the Lockdown and the double under-hooks, you make it very difficuJt for an opponent to pass your half guard. But that doesn't nec-essarily mean you want to stay there. Although there are submlssions you can go for in the half guard, there are a lot more submissions you can go for in both the side mount and mount. One way of getting to those superlor positions is by utilizing a sweep. The first sweep that l invented, which I stHI find to be the most effective, is called Old School. 1 use it whenever possible

because it's a very high percentage sweep that works on a wide range of opponents.

l've established the Lockdown position with double under-hooks, squeezing my hands tightly into the soft spot just below Joe's ribs and above his hip.

Circling out to my left, 1 release the Lockdown and get up to my right knee.

To complete the sweep, 1 use my under-hook to push forward and pull joe's left leg out from underneath him, collapsing his base. Once joe is swept, 1 make the transition 1nto s1de control by back-stepping out with my right leg, making sure to keep my weight on joe to avoid a scramble.

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Plan 8 Although Old School works a large percentage of the time, it can easily be countered. If your opponent over-hooks your left armand throws ali his weight into you by posting on his left leg, it makes it nearly impossible for you to get up to your knees and grab his foot. But just because you can't grab his foot doesn't mean you can't sweep him. With ail his weight press-ing into you, you can sweep him in the opposite direction using Plan B.

l've established the Lockdown with lhe double under-hooks.

joe posts on his right leg and drives ali his weight into me, making it impossible for me to get to my knees and grab his foot.

Feeling ali of joe's weight being placed on me, 1 fall back and put my right hand on the inside of joe's left thigh. At the same time, 1 trap his right arm with my left arm to prevent him from posting out and potentrally stopping the sweep.

Using the momentum of joe's weight, 1 release the lockdown and post with my right leg, pushing off the ground. As 1 do this, my right hand lifts Joe's left leg, rolling him over.

Twist Back The Twist Back is a really good sweep to use if you can't get Old School and your opponent's base is just too low to be countercd with Plan B. rt's a great sweep because you don't have to release your under-hooks, and you're still using your opponent's weight to your advantage.

l've established the Lockdown with the double under-hooks.

1 place my right leg under Joe's right leg, hooking under his knee.

Here l'm doing three things at once. With my right leg, l'm pushing up on Joe's knee. 1 use my left leg to pull his ankle down to the mat, and 1 use the double under-hooks to power him over.

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Half and Half The Half and Half is a hybrid sweep taken from Old School and Twist Back. This sweep is set up exactly like Old School except you are not grabbing your opponent's foot. Instead, you are using your weight and the power of the double under-hooks to tackle your opponent over. The double under-hooks, as with most sweeps, are the key elements to making this move a success.

l've established the Lockdown with the double under-hooks.

1 post my right elbow on the ground so 1 can get to my knees.

Keeping my left hook deep around )oe's body, r base out on my right knee.

Circling out to my left, 1 stand up and quickly reestablish the double under-hook body lock.

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Half and Twist If any one move worked 100 percent of the lime, you wouldn'l have to learn any-thing else. Unfortunately, no such move exists, so every jiu-jitsu player needs as many moves as possible to get to their desired goal. Although the Half and Half is a good sweep, it can be countered. If you are able to base out on your right knee but your opponent counters by balancing and pushing his weight down on you, the Half and Twist is t he perfect sweep.

Once again, l've established the Lockdown with double under-hooks.

Once l've based out on my knee and re-established a tight body lock, l'rn back in Hatf and Half, attempting to tackle Joe to the mat.

1 post on my right arm. As 1 attempt to get to my knees, 1 keep my left under-hook nice and deep around Joe's body.

As Joe fights the Half and Half by balancing and pushing his weight back into me, 1 sneak my right foot to the outside of Joe's right knee.

1 push on the outside of )oe's knee with my right foot and pull on his nght ankle with my left leg. With each of my legs moving in an opposite direction, it creates a scissorslike motion. At the same time, 1 fall toward my back and use the double under-hooks to power )oe over the top of me.

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Half Quarterback Sweep This i!l a rnoVC' thal doc.>s not necessar-i ly take plilce in your half guard. lt takes place in a posi tion 1 cali the " quarter guard," which is whcrc your opponent is ab le to frcc h is leg from the Lockdown and al most pass your haH guard- excc.>pt you arc able to e. A lot of jiu - jit!>u players give up i n this position a nd let thel r opponent pass, but th at doesn ' t have tu be the case. As long as you can hold o n to your opponent 's foot and maintain the double under-

hooks, you st ill have the power to sweep your opponent.

)oe was able to free his leg from the Lockdown and almost passed my guard, but 1 w

Once on my knees 1 quickly reestablish a tight body lock around joe's waist.

Using the power of the body lock, 1 squeeze my arms in toward my waist while at the same time pressing into joe with my head and shoulders, folding him over just as in Half and Half.

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Quarter Twist Back The Quarter Twist Back is another option from the quarter guard. When your opponent presses his weight down on you, making it difficult to get up to your knees, you can use his weight against him by employing this move. It is very similar to the Twist Back because you're twisting your opponent's knee to help pull him over. As 1 mentioned before, it's important not to givc up when your opponent is almost past your half guard. As long as you can trap his foot with your knees

and hold on to the double under hooks, there's always an option.

Once again )oe was able to free his leg from the Lockdown and almost passed my guard, but 1 was again able to catch his foot with my knees in the quarter guard.

While )oe presses the majority of his weight down into me, not allowing me to get to my knees, 1 maneuver my left leg up to )oe's right ankle.

Once 1 have joe rolled over, 1 move up to establish side control.

Half Guard Part 2: X-Guard on the outside and avolds your leg~. The X-Guard Sweep, however, is the

X-Guard Sweep perfect strategy to use in this situation Sorne jiu-jitsu players like to stay close Once you have executed the first can-to their opponents' bodies when they ple of moves, your opponent has onl) atlempt to pass the guard, while oth- two options-get swept over to his ers Jikc to stand up and dance around. back or drop down to his knees to When dealing with the latter, it is counter the move. If he counters by important that you find sorne way to dropping to his knees, the move has close the distance and force your stiJl been a success. You are now in a opponent to commit so you can either perfect position to pull your opponent land a submission or go for a sweep. into your half guard and begin setting Thi!) can often be a daunting task, up one of the other submissions or especially with an opponent who stays sweeps describe

Alter scooting between joe's legs, 1 place my left leg on joe's right leg and under-hook his left leg with my right arm. This gives me control of his lower body.

1 grab the outside of joe's right ankle with my left hand, making il so joe can't counter by walking forward. Al the same time, 1 sneak my right leg up and place it on the right side of his crotch.

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Double X The Double X is another move that can be cmployed against an opponent who is trying to pass your guard in the standing position. Your opponent can counter the move, just as in the X-Guard Sweep, by dropping down to his knees. But then you will be in a much better position to pull him into your half guard and begin setting up one of the other sweeps or submissions described here.

]oe hovers above me, waiting for the perfect opportunity to sneak through my guard.

After scooting between joe's legs, 1 place my left leg on joe's right leg and under-hook his left leg with my right arm. This gives me control of his lower body.

1 bring up my right instep and place iton Joe's right thigh. At the same time, 1 grab the outside of his right ankle with my left ha nd.

Now 1 drive out, pushing with my legs while pulling with my arms, sending joe to the mat. Once Joe is down, 1 come up to establish the side control position.

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Half Guard Part 3: Submissions

Apollo (with Sweep) Submissions from the half guard are rare, but they do present thcmselves from time to time. One such submis-sion is the Apollo Arrn Triangle. When you cinch down on the Lockdown, your opponent will occasionally get distracted and look back to see why h is leg is in pain. lf you have your oppo-nent's right leg in the Lockdown, he will look over his right shoulder. As he does this, his left arm wHI corne up toward your head, leaving it extrernely vulnerable . That's when you should trap it and go for the Apollo Arm Tri-

angle. Sometimes, however, you can't get your opponent to tap. Arm Lrian-gles work the best when you are on top because you can use your weight to assist you. If this is the case, you can still use your positioning to set up the sweep.

l've got joe in the Lockdown with an under-hook on his right side.

1 trap joe's left arm by making an S-grip behind my head.

1 move into the arm triangle by putting my left hand on my right bicep and my right hand on my right ear, squeezing.

1 squeeze the arm triangle, but Joe refuses to tap. Knowing 1 need to sweep joe to the right, 1 work to get my left foot to the inside of joe's right hip, which is known as a

52 Butterfly Hook.

Posting my right leg on the mat, 1 drive up with my lett leg. Because joe's left arm is trapped in the arm triangle, he can't place it on the mat and stop the sweep.

Once on top, 1 continue to squeeze my arms, only now l'm using my weight to add pressure, forcing joe to tap in submission.

Kamikaze Calf Crank This is a sly submission from the half guard that you can apply without the use of your hands. After 1 discovered it, 1 used it ali the time in the gym to get my opponents to tap. lt worked so well r decided to start using it in com-petition, but 1 didn't have the same type of success. 1 saon realized the reason why. ln competition, my oppo-nents were ail hopped up on adrena-

tine, which meant that they were more tolerant to pain. Because of that, I usu. ally go for the higher percentage sub-missions first. If they don't work, l'li try for the Kamikaze Calf Crank. The worst possible outcome is that you make your opponent very uncomfort-able, and while he is trying to escape the hold, you can work on setting up either a sweep or another submission.

Releasing the lockdown, 1 move my right foot over joe's right leg.

1 use my right leg to push out while curling my left leg into my body, putting exlreme pressure on joe's calf.

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Ken Shamrock Toehold This is one of the fi rst submissions 1 learned from the half guard, and it works really weil on opponents who like to post their legs high up near your head. If you are able to grab a foot, the submission is pretty much yours. Getting your opponent to tap, however, can often be difficult, espe-cially in tournamcnts where your opponent's pain tolerance is increascd duc to an adrenaline rush. Neverthe-

nothing else is working, you can stil\ pull this one off.

less, it is a good move to learn because Here again, l've established the Lockdown when you're down in the dumps and with the double under-hooks.

1 slip under joe's left arm and grip the top of his left foot with my right hand.

1 reach around joe's leg with my left arm and grip my right wrist.

Rolling to the left takes away joe's base and puts him on his back. To secure the hold, 1 push his foot down toward the mat with my right hand while pulling his ankle toward my head with my left arm.

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Electric Chair with Sweep The Electric Chair is another submission that should be utilized when your oppo-nent posts his outside leg hlgh up near your head. If you can get an under-hook around his leg and then stretch hi rn out wilh the Lockdown, you lake away hi~ base. Then it's only a matter of turning your opponent belly-down so you can stretch him out even further and put an enormous amount of pressure on hts legs. Sorne guys have the flexibility to take the pressure, in which case you just follow through with a sweep.

As 1 secure the Lockdown with double under-hooks, )oe posts with his right leg and presses his weight down into me.

1 release the body lock and scoop up )oe's left leg with a deep right under-hook.

Keeping joe's right leg secured in the Lockdown, 1 roll my weight forward and put joe on his back. 1 then secure his head and arm by clasping my hands together in a Gable Grip as 1 make my transition into side control (below).

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Demonstration of Rubber Guard

2

Rubber Guctrd

Introduction to the Full Gua rd When 1 first started training jiu-jitsu, 1 avoided the full guard like the plaguc. 1 thought my legs were too short to capture an opponent betwecn my legs and land submissions, sor spent ali my time learning how to sweep an oppo-nent from half guard. l became so good at it that I began to belicve the half guard was the answer to fighting from your bac k. Then a mmcle-bound guy who had never before trained jiu-jitsu came to practice. l thought 1 was going to destroy him from my half guard, but 1 couldn't do anything. lt

wa~ his fir~t day training jiu-jitsu ever, and l could not catch him in one sin-gle subrnission. After twE'nty minutt's of grappling, 1 cliJnbcd off the mat and hung my head in .\hamc.

1 thought the guy had to be somc sort of phcnorn. But th en five minutes

later 1 ~aw a good friend of mine, who is my exact size and had heen grap-pling an equal a mount of ti me, ahso-lutl'iy estroy the same guy in his guard. ln just a couple of minutes, my friend had made the brute tap stvcn

Lime~ with triangle chokes and arm bars. 1 knew right then that 1 would never he a complete fighter until 1 lcarned how to fight from the guard. So the very next day, 1 had my frien show me the basics, slarlng with the ann bar.

Up until that point, 1 was simply holding on to my opponent 's arm and going for the submission. Although such a tactic worke with bcginncrs, advanced player\ would sec the sub-mission coming and pull their arms free. 1 thought there vvas nothing 1 could do to prevtnl thal from happen-ing, but then 1 lcarned Lha.L if 1 placed my leg over my opponcnt's shoulder,

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locking il in place, 1 eliminated his abi!ity to pull his arm frce. Once becarnc good at that technique, startcd landing arm bars ail the ti mc from the guard. 1 feil in love with the position, just as 1 had fallen in love with the ha!f guard.

Rut then 1 ran into some probkm.~. When 1 tried loc king the shoukkr and going for the arn1 bar on bigger and stronger opponents, instead of lrying to pull thcir arrns free, they presscd ali thcir weight down into me, ma king it ncarly impossible for me to eXh'nd their arms and Jock in the .\ubmission. lJnabk to f1nd a solution on my own, I wenl to my instructor jean Janjues Machado and asked him wlwt to do. He told me tl1at with larger opponents 1 shouldn't be at tempting to Jock out the arms from my back. Instcad, 1 should lock their slloulders and then sweep them imteatl of trying to finish them. Once they are on their backs, they can't use tlwir wright against rne and the arm bar is much easier.

Tt worked so weil on lhc biggcr opponent.\, l started using the tech-nique on everyone. 1 becamc so confi-dent in tlw guard that every time 1 watchcd the Ultimate Hghtlng Cham-pionship (UJ

to the sleeve and collar. They fake a collar choke to set up for the ann har or they fake the coll ar choke to set up the triangle. If you take away their opponent's collar, they have no setups to transition into the submission. 'l'hen they just le the re on their backs like a fish out of water.

Jt became evident that what bad worked for Gracie back when no one knew anything about submissions wasn't going to work in this day and age, not with virtually ali MMA corn-petitors Wi\e to suhrnission defense. 1f they wanted to start getting lnishing holds again, they would have to start training withoul the gL They needed to devdop \etups that wcren'l hased on the collar and the sll'eve because setups are everything in fighting. Every wnstler knows how ln execuk a single- and double-leg takedown. Fvery hoxer knuws how to thruw a jah and a cro~\. But what allows them to be .~ULTC'S.Sful with tho\e techniques is how weil they sel them up. If a jiu-jilsu p1aycr bases ali his selups wh ile in the gu

Key Concepts If you train jiu-jitsu with a gi and then enter a no-gi tournament, you'-;e

just lost ail your handles and setups that utHize the collar and sleeve. Therefore, you must learn how to control your opponent using the over-hooks, under-hooks, and head control.

Hip movement and hip control is the most important element in jiu-jitsu. You can use your hips and legs to control your opponent and keep him off balance, forcing him to focus on regaining his base rather than passing your guard.

It 's easy to lose control of a fight if you don't know how to relax while fighting from your back. The only way to get comfortabJe fighting from your back is to drill and practice from there as much as possible.

Havlng a tight guard game eliminates your fear of going to your back, which gives you more confidence when attempting submissions from the top.

Utilizing setups from the guard are key to finishlng your opponent. Use the positions given to you in this chapter to help set up submissions.

Always move while in your guard to keep your opponent guessing. just lying still and holding on will never gct you anywhere.

lt takes time and a lot of practice to get the flexibility needed to play the Rubber Guard. Don't get discouraged and give up. Have patience and drill as muchas possible so you feel comfortable working from these positions.

Mission Control Utthzing the Mission Control position afi'~WS rou to be both offensive and delensive from the guard. Locking your Ieg high up on your opponent's baLk keeps your opponent's posture broken down, guards you from puncbes, and frees up an arm that can be used to hunt for submissions.

laurence postures up in my guard.

ln order to be offensive, 1 need to break laurence down into my guard. 1 unlock my legs into the open guard so 1 can come up and wrap my arms around Laurence's body.

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1 pull Laurence down mto my guard by falling back, keep1ng my gnp n1ce and tight.

To keep Laurence from posturing back up, 1 immediately bring my leftleg up, place my nlle on the back of h1s neck, hook my rght wnst und er my ankle, and then fock my hands logether by forming a Gable Grip with my right palm facing down. Now l've got Laurence 111 Miss on Control.

Rubber Gua rd Part 1: Mission Control

Over-Hook Triangle from Mission Control Once you've established Mission Con-trol, you'll probably find that most of your opponents choose Lo keep their hands on your chest for defense. Jn order to be offensive from the guard, however, you need to bring one of your opponcnt's hands down to the

mat. This can be hard to achieve wh ile playing the traditional guard because you're using all four limbs to control your opponent, but that isn't the case with the Rubber Guard. You cao use your frec hand to force one of your opponent's hands down to the mat, and then keep it there by over-hooking your opponent's arm. Wilh your opponent's arm isolated, numer-ous submission opportunities open up, including lhe triangle choke.

l've broken Laurence down into Mission Control.

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If 1 want to be offensive, 1 need to get Laurence's hand to the mat. 1 can achieve this by reaching under his right arm with my left arm, punching it through. Wh ile 1 do this, 1 maintain Mission Control by holding my ankle in place with my right wrist.

Once 1 have broken Laurence's grip, forcing his right hand to the mat, 1 quickly secure a tight over-hook on his right arm to keep him from putting his ha nd back on my chest.

Now that 1 have a tight over-hook on Laurence's right arm, 1 let go of my leg and use my right hand to grab Laurence's wrist.

1 push Laurence's arm back, throwing my leg over his left arm and wrapping it across the back of his neck.

1 make a figure four with my legs by throwing my left leg over my right, and 1 clasp my hands together using a Gable Grip behind Laurence's head. 1 lock in the choke as 1 squeeze my knees together and pull dawn on his head.

Over-Hook Omoplata from Mission Control Anytime you are able Lo gel your opponent's hand to the mat, you've got an opportunity to execute an Omoplala.

l've broken Laurence down into Mission Control.

1 work to get Laurence's hand to the mat by reaching under his right arm with my left arm.

Now that l've broken Laurence's grip and forced his right hand to the mat, 1 quickly secure a tight over-hook on his right arm to keep him from putting his hand back on my chest.

1 use my right hand to bring my left leg down ln front of Laurence's face.

Pushing off Laurence's hip with my right foot swivels my body slightly in a clockwise motion. While 1 spin, 1 bring my left leg over his shoulder to isolate his right arm between my legs. To secure the hold on his arm, 1 place my right leg over my left.

Bringing my right leg back for base, 1 reach around Laurence's body and pull myselr forward, putting tremendous pressure on Laurence's right shoulder and forcing him to tap.

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The Duda It can be quite a battle trying to get your opponent's hand down to the rrat because most jiu-jitsu players know they'd be opening themselves up for a num. ber of submissions. If you have a larger or stronger opponent in your guard 1nd you just can't get his hand down to the mat, the Duda is the perfect submiSSion

Once again, l've broken Laurence down into Mission Control.

Laurence keeps his arms gripped tightly together, ma king it difficult for me to punch my arm through