Learn from the Original Gangster, Kurt Osiander

Have you heard of Kurt Osiander?  If you haven’t you may have been living under a rock.  Kurt is one of the biggest faces and names in bjj.  He is one of the few bjj competitors and teachers to put Jiu Jitsu on the mainstream radar.  Kurt was featured on the CNN show “Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown.” This is one of the biggest shows on CNN and it is also on Netflix. Kurt has been traning bjj for well over a decade and is a black belt under the infamous Ralph Gracie.

Ralph Gracie is notoriously one of the toughest instructors around.  Ralph has no slouches, he is the coach and instructor to the famous BJ Penn.   Knowing Kurt’s lineage, it is much easier to understand his personality.  Kurt is a gritty, funny, and old school bjj bad ass.  You have probably seen the meme of Kurt saying, “You F***** Up a Lon Time Ago!”  That is Kurt’s favorite answer to a lot of questions.

Kurt is one of the funniest and best instructors there is, he probably is tough on his students, but it is all in good fun.  Today we are going to look at some positions with Kurt and break them down.  Kurt is a big supporter of “old school” and “fundamental” bjj.  Let’s take a look at some fundamental techniques with Kurt below.

Kurt Osiander’s Move Of The Week: Movement Drill

We are going to take a look at a basic movement drill with Professor Kurt.  These are the types of things that he emphasizes and puts a tremendous amount of detail into.  Kurt truly believes that having a solid understanding of the fundamental techniques and movements is one of the best ways to progress in bjj.  Kurt comes from a lineage that encourages their students to learn basic, basics, and even more basics.  You learn them so much that you start to see details that no one else is familiar with and you develop high level fundamentals.

As you can see above this is a basic drill, but it is imperative to be able to use these movements successfully.  At the highest levels of competition there is one factor that remains consistent with all the top-level competitors, they all have the moves they do as instincts.  If someone is trying to do something they have drilled and done their moves enough times that they know all the reactions that they may encounter and are prepared.

In the video above Kurt gives a lot of very important details to something that many of us will encounter when we roll.  If you are in side control and someone is trying to turn into, you must be able to capitalize on this and take their back.  Notice how Kurt distributes his weight and his pressure.  The way he does this movement allows him to go slower than many people who try and do this fast.  Kurt wants his opponent to be stuck turning on their side.

He uses his shoulder and the fact that his hip is low to drive weight into his opponent, once he starts to circle around them he uses his hand to push on their shoulder because they are going to want to bring their shoulder back to the mat, they made a mistake and you don’t want to let them fix it.  From this position, before you even take the back you can easily attack so many submissions like the bow and arrow, arm lock, kimura, and others.  This is a basic movement and it is so easy to learn.  Let’s check out some more technique with Kurt.

Kurt Osiander’s Move of the Week: Arm Bar From Mount

This is yet another advanced take on a move that many of us learned on our first day of bjj.  Kurt is going to breakdown the basic arm bar from the mount position.  One of the most tried and true techniques. We probably all think how can the arm lock from the mount be advanced?  Well it is the little things that differentiate the best from the rest.

So as you can see above Kurt has a tremendous amount of pressure, he is able to isolate the arm completely.  Although the move is basic, there are things that you can’t see in the video.  He is probably keep is hips very very heavy, his isometric strength is probably crazy and it probably feels like there is a boulder on you.

Once he solidifies the S mount and isolates the arm, he will continue to keep the pressure and fall back.  There are far more details and Kurt does an excellent job of breaking basic positions like this down so all of us simpletons can take in more details.

Kurt Osianders Move of the Week: Lapel Choke

Now we are going to take a look at a little bit more fancy and dynamic move with Kurt.  Although he is huge on the basics, Kurt still understands modern Jiu Jitsu and still has some tricky stuff up his sleeve.  This is one of those moves.  It is a lapel choke from the turtle position.  Kurt is actually demonstrating this technique on Anthony Bourdain, the famous show host and chef from CNN.

This lapel choke is super sneaky, and it is very effective.  It is really similar to the Peruvian neck tie.  Kurt is utilizing the lapel and taking advantage of the fact that his opponent is turtled.  Sometimes when your opponent is turtled it can be a good opportunity to capitalize on a choke.  Using your own lapel is never a bad idea because it makes it very difficult for your opponent to defend.

Kurt is not Keenan Cornelius and is not playing worm guard, but he does have some lapel game. This is a super good choke and not many people are familiar with it.  Make sure you don’t fall back prior to getting that lapel in the neck.

If you want to learn more from the great Kurt Osiander check out his infamous seminar DVD that he made with Sean Roberts where he teaches all his favorite techniques.  This is one of the best seminars that is available on DVD.  Kurt teaches practical techniques that work for everyone.  Not fancy stuff that requires athleticism, flexibility and youth.