Yuri Simoes: Bio & Top 3 No Gi Techniques

Yuri Simoes Bio

If you are not sure who Yuri Simoes is you may have been living under a rock.  Yuri is one of the best Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Black Belts in the world, and he is arguably the best No Gi competitor around today.  Yuri has won the ADCC 2x, competed at Eddie Bravo Invitational, Fight To Win Pro, Five Grappling, and he is an IBJJF Black Belt No Gi World Champion in both his weight and the open weight division. 

What constitutes the arguments for Yuri being the best no gi grappler today is the fact that he is so dynamic.  He is not a one trick pony who only does sub only and he is not a point fighter who only does IBJJF.  Yuri will compete under any rule set against any opponent on any given day.  He is able to pass, smash, play guard, take you down, submit you, and do everything in between.

What makes Yuri so good?  He trains with 10x No Gi World Champion at Black Belt, Caio Terra who is also a 2x Black Belt World Champion in the Gi.  Caio is a rooster weight so he has to use technique for everything he does.  Caio is infamous for saying “Technique Conquers All.”  This is because when you are 130 pounds, you need absolutely perfect technique.  With a teacher like this, the 200 pound Yuri does not only have strength, athleticism, and tenacity, he also has perfect technique.  Although Yuri possesses all of the qualities of a professional athlete, he relies on his technique to perform. 

Yuri Simoes Techniques

Here at BJJ Fanatics we had the pleasure of shooting a DVD with Yuri on his No Gi game, it was one of the best DVD’s we have ever produced.  Today we are going to share with you 3 free techniques from this DVD set below, without further ado, let’s have a look.

Double Over Pass From Half Guard by Yuri Simoes

Our first free technique is going to be a very useful pass that can be applied from many open guards, half guard, and butterfly guard.  Yuri refers to this position as the “Double Over Pass.”  In this position Yuri is focused on controlling his opponent’s legs and hip mobility.  You can see Yuri use this pass very often if you get the chance to watch high lights of him competing at the ADCC or the IBJJF No Gi Worlds.  Let’s take a look at the pass below.

So as you can see above, Yuri looks to be primarily controlling his opponent’s legs.  He makes very good points when he tells us to make sure that our opponent’s knees are stuck together, this is what nullifies their guard and leg movement.  What is also very important to note is Yuri’s head placement.

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The reason Yuri is keeping his head very low is to avoid being pushed, choked, and he is also using a combination of his head and his shoulders to control his opponent’s hip mobility.  Guard is all about being able to have hip movement and distance control.  If you can nullify hip movement and close the distance, these are the fundamental steps to passing many guards. 

Obviously there are more elusive guard passing movements that require timing and agility, but the fundamental principle behind passing the guard is to control the hips and to close the distance.  Even if you apply elusive passing like the Mendes Brothers, eventually to solidify the pass you will have to close the distance.  For instance, the leg drag can be timing based but to solidify a leg drag you will eventually close the distance.  Let’s take a look at another pass with Yuri.

Butterfly Cradle To Backtake by Yuri Simoes

This is an interesting pass, especially for Yuri to demonstrate.  This is because Yuri has been accused of having some type of wrestling experience countless times.  When you watch Yuri compete, one thing really stands out, his wrestling.  People have accused him of being a collegiate wrestler or something of the sort several times but Yuri has never wrestled.  He said wrestling just makes sense and in this pass he uses a lot of positions that are popular in wrestling and catch wrestling.  Let’s have a look.

So as you see above Yuri is putting himself into a cradle position from the butterfly guard.  He does not initially set up a cradle, his first attempt is to get himself into a guillotine.  The guillotine is one of the best submissions and control positions in No Gi.  

Once Yuri is able to secure the head and arm position, he will proceed to over hook his opponent’s leg, therefore, putting them into the infamous cradle.  If you have ever been in a cradle then you have surely felt the misery of being on the receiving end of this position. 

Yuri will use this cradle to turn his opponent so that they are on their side, once they are on their side, he will start to walk to the side that they are not facing (the side that exposes the back).  Once he is able to pass the guard, he keeps pressure so his opponent cannot get both of their shoulders back on the mat and he continues to attack the back.

This is an excellent sequence and it is extremely high percentage.  This is by far one of Yuri’s favorite places to be, it is safe and it is great to nullify leg locks.  When you control the head it is next to impossible for your opponent to start going for your legs.

High Crotch Single Leg by Yuri Simoes

Alas we get to see at least one takedown from Yuri.  Takedowns are Yuri’s bread and butter.  He had a match against the infamous Travis Stevens, who is an Olympic Judo Silver Medalist and World Class Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Black Belt.  Everyone thought that Travis Would rag doll him standing and Yuri was actually able to take him down.  It was an incredible match on both of their parts.  Let’s take a look at Yuri’s single leg.

So as you can see it all starts with the hand fighting, Yuri will fight to get inside arm control that way when he flares his elbows, he can open up his opponent so that he can shoot.  Getting inside control is a critical part of wrestling, especially when we are discussing no gi. 

After Yuri establishes his control, he does a penetration step and gets into a single leg position.  If you notice Yuri does not like the traditional single leg, he likes to use the high crotch grip.  Unlike many people, he does not use the high crotch to elevate his opponent.  He uses this grip to be able to keep his head glued to their upper body allowing him to have upper body control. 

After he gets this grip, he uses his head to drive them to the mat.  Yuri has many variations off of this position and this is only one of his attacks.  If you want to learn more of Yuri’s no gi game, takedowns, submissions, passes, and more, check out his new DVD set below which is also available ondemand.  You will get the content immediately after placing your order.  This DVD set will accelerate your no gi game to levels you never thought possible.  Yuri just knows stuff that other people don’t and he is capable of relaying information extremely well.

Yuri Simoes doesn’t mess around when he grapples... he takes his opponent down, he passes, he submits. He has 2 ADCC Championship Gold Medals – which are the equivalent to 2 Gold medals at the Olympics of Grappling, held only every two years.

Yuri has faced the best of the best and been able to implement his game on almost everyone. Yuri Simoe’s has finally revealed his tried and true methods in his news series High Efficiency No Gi Jiu Jitsu: Top Game and it will accelerate your No Gi game tenfold!

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