The back-mount position can be one of the most difficult places to establish good control. In my opinion the back is probably the best position to acquire, but it takes loads of skill to keep someone there. If you can master the controls...

Attack From The Mount, To Get To The Back! The mount is easily one of the most dominant positions in fighting and grappling. Not only is it extremely for a mounted person to hurt their attacker, with adequate knowledge, the mounting grappler can...

Establishing Hooks and Rear Mount - Near Side Entries Part 1 by John Danaher Who is John Danaher?  For a long time he was the best kept secret in grappling. He was known as the coach to MMA fighters and champions of the...

Straitjacket System - Preliminaries: Left Right Control by John Danaher Who is John Danaher?  For a long time he was the best kept secret in grappling. He was known as the coach to MMA fighters and champions of the highest caliber. Fighters like...

 Even a back take can have a silver lining What's that old cliche about teaching an old dog new tricks?  Recently during a visit to Carlos Farias' academy in Arizona, Bernardo Faria met Parker Lapp and that cliche was turned on its head...

The Easy Berimbolo...The BABYBolo! The Da Liva Guard in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is one of the most popular and most utilized positions when someone is playing from their back. The numerous transitions, sweeps, and submission potential makes this guard dangerous even against skilled...

Stay on the offensive when they turtle up The turtle position in Jiu Jitsu is a unique circumstance in that many people will utilize it to escape various positions and even though it subjects them to a very high risk of getting their...

Turn your closed guard into the danger zone for your opponent Closed guard sometimes gets a bad rap.  It can be perceived as just a stalling position if the person on bottom is just holding on and not trying to reverse or submit. ...

Butterfly guard is one of the longest existing classic open guard positions in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.  Sometimes referred to as "hooks guard", it consists of using the insteps of the feet, combined with curled toes to keep a constant connection to an opponent. ...

BJJ Fanatics is excited to release the long-awaited instructional from one of the true young guns of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and the only American to win a world title at black belt twice, Mikey Musumeci.  With his release of Power Switch Guard Retention...

The back mount may just be the most dominant position you could hope to achieve in BJJ. Consider the perks. All of your opponent’s defenses are facing away from you, making escapes and counters difficult. From a self-defense perspective, it can be a...

Half guard is one of the most effective tools today to control our opponent's guard passes, maintain good distance, and also absorb a great deal of pressure easily and still be fairly mobile.  From half guard there is a growing number of sweeps...

We spend a lot of time working techniques in the laboratory that is the training mats at our academies against training partners who are essentially allowing us to work out technique.  Very rarely does the execution of a specific technique or submission look...

Do not let the smile and the friendly demeanor fool you… If one were to do a poll throughout the jiu jitsu community about whom the all time pound for pound king of competition jiu jitsu is, chances are Marcelo Garcia would be in the rankings.  The humble, intelligent Alliance black belt has become one […]