Bernardo Faria & His Hip Escape Details

By Corey Kuropas, December 14, 2016

The hip escape is single handedly one of the best escapes in all of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. The hip escape works as a mount escape, side control prevention and the motion is the basis for most Jiu Jitsu techniques. It is day one stuff. In your first few BJJ classes that you’ve done, you probably learned the hip escape. But there are some important details, and one in particular that can change your escape for the better. BJJ world champion, Bernardo Faria has these details and if you follow them, your hip escape will become high level.

The first key detail is to keep your arms in close. Too many people like to extend their arms out and reach when drilling the hip escape. But this is no good. When you reach out, you’ll still be able to do the escape, but it is just not realistic. For example, if you try to escape mount and extend your arms, you’ll probably get arm-locked quickly by anyone that has some decent BJJ skills. Keep your arms tight and drill that so in the heat of the scramble/escape, you don’t get caught in something silly.

The next important element is to get a good strong post with your leg. For this type of escape, if you do not have a strong post, your hip escape will be weak and ineffective. By putting your leg down, and making it your anchor, when you go to hit the escape, it will be strong and will keep you in the safe zone. While it seems small, this is quite necessary.

Finally, the last detail is one that Bernardo points out specifically in the video. The leg that is not posting for the escape, needs to be straight and flat to the ground. Some people make the mistake of tucking that leg instead of keeping it straight. What this essentially does is stuff or crunch up your escape. It makes the escape weak. Hip escapes are supposed to be explosive and powerful. Also along the same line as the leg tuck, people will actually try to escape off of the leg that they tuck. That is wrong. The posted leg is what you will need to base off of and get that push.

Bernardo knows escapes. He has won his many championships not only with his world class offense, but also with his world class defense. The hip escape is one of the best defensive techniques in Jiu Jitsu to avoid some truly bad positions. Bernardo has a whole DVD set on his best escaping techniques.

Click here to see Bernardo Faria’s Escapes From Everywhere!

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