Female Instructors of BJJ Fanatics!

There’s a rapidly growing number of women in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu releasing instructional material. These successful practitioners, competitors, and titans of the sport are beginning to share some amazing secrets with the masses. BJJ Fanatics has been fortunate to work with some of these female technicians and we’ve been treated to some excellent sneak peaks of the content. Let’s take a look at some technique from some of these women who have been working tirelessly to elevate the game! 

The lasso guard has evolved to be one the most common forms of the guard on the competition scene today. And its for good reason. The lasso guard offers a ton of control and it’s a pathway to hundreds of different reversal, submission, and transitional options. If you’ve ever been on the other end of a good lasso guard, it can be incredibly frustrating, making you feel like a puppet in some cruel game.

Andressa Cintra

So, I can’t think of a better way to kick of this piece than with a highly effective lasso guard pass from Andressa Cintra. Fresh off of a 2019 Worlds Gold performance, Cintra is going to give us some insight on how she chooses to dismantle and pass this frustrating form of guard. Check it out! 

Starting with the cornerstone of any good guard pass, Cintra must maintain good base. With the lasso guard in place, she begins to plant her knee into the back of her partner thigh. She couples this with a grip on the collar as well with the same side hand. This limits the guard players ability to extend and push Cintra away, giving her more control over the scenario. On the opposite side, Cintra secures a grip on the pants near the knee and employs a stiff arm to keep her grip in tact and keep her partners leg at a distance. 

Backing up a bit in order to drop her weight down, Cintra lowers her shoulder and begins to remove the lasso hook from its home base. Stepping out to the left with her left leg and pinning her partner’s leg with her right knee, Cintra switches her shoulder pressure form the left side of her partner’s body over to the right and blocks out the knee on the leg that’s working the lasso. Finding a grip on the belt or the pants, Cintra now uses her elbow as a wedge to break the lasso grip and bypasses the legs. With everything in her favor, Cintra now simply drops her left knee to the mat and finishes the passing sequence. 

This is a super technical, step by step guide to dismantling the lasso guard. I really like how Cintra waits until the end to break the lasso grip. She waits until she has more than superior control over the situation and rids herself of the grip with tremendous leverage. Amazing stuff!

Luiza Monteiro

Let’s move on to some instruction from Luiza Monteiro. Here, she breaks down an omoplata to knee bar transition. This is incredibly technical with lots of great details. Check it out! 

 

Beginning in an open guard setting, Monteiro sets up her grips and positions her herself to begin attacking. With a collar sleeve grip set on the left side, she plants her left foot on the hip, and looks to also anchor herself on her right side with a foot planted in the shoulder area. As she pushes her left leg through the space between her partners ribs and arm, she creates an angle and begins to attack an omoplata. As her partner stands to defend, he closes the gap between himself and Monteiro, bringing her body closer to his leg. Monteiro finds some elevation in her hips and then switches to a knee bar attack, swinging her right leg to the backside of her partner and biting the backside area with her heel. She uses pressure from her legs to force her partner forward. As he collapses, she rolls to her right, staging a knee bar set up position. 

Monteiro hugs the leg and brings her head to the top side of It as she transitions her leg to join the other one on the backside of her partner’s hips. As she controls the heel, she pinches her knees together, and applies some hip pressure causing the tap.

The omoplata is a super versatile submission. IF the attack itself doesn’t come to fruition there is a whole host of other options from the set up itself that we can take advantage of.  I love the idea of switching from upper body to lower body attacks. This is a great way to throw curve balls at your opponents and keep them guessing. Amazing technique here from Luiza Monteiro!

Kayla Harrison

With Olympic Gold and an undefeated MMA record making up her list of accolades, Kayla Harrison has proved to be one of the most successful females in combat sports. Here, she demonstrates a choke sequence as well as a pretty awesome method of getting her partner to the floor. Check it! 

 Harrison begins with securing her partners sleeve and drags the arm across her body, stopping at her hip. She then looks to reach around to the far side of her partner and acquire a grip on the hip. Her goal here is to remain very heavy and to keep her partners posture compromised. As Harrison turns and aligns herself, facing the same direction as her training partner, she then uses a kickstarting motion to chop at her partner's leg this causes him to collapse and move to a turtle position. 

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Harrison Is now in position to begin to pursue the choke. As she reaches under her partner’s chin, she takes a thumb down grip in the collar. As Harrison explains, your partner may tuck the chin a bit here to avoid the choke, but this doesn’t stop Harrison. With a flick of the wrist and a bump of the nose, she’s able to set that choking hand with ease. This may not win you any politeness points, but it certainly looks to be effective. From here, Harrison then posts on the opposite side of her partner’s body and employs a kickstand so that she can sit out, placing all of her weight on the back of her partners neck and shoulders. As her partner begins to circle to recompose himself, Harrison simply mirrors his movement, staying with him and continuing to apply pressure to the choke. 

If the tap isn’t being produced, Harrison blocks the far hip and begins to come up to her knees, scooping the head with her knee and adding even more pressure to the strangle. A third contingency finds Harrison leaving the choke behind to secure an under hook and solidifying side control. 

This is a great sequence and looks to be very reminiscent of the clock choke. Great stuff here from this very accomplished combatant! 

I love how detail oriented these techniques are. The amount of technical observation here is just amazing. Its been a joy to study the material and break it down. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!  

Update your Fundamental Foot Locks with Luiza Monteiro! These footlocks are 100% IBJJF LEGAL! Leg locks aren’t just for No-Gi. Use your open guard to set traps and land SUBMISSIONS!

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