The Cyborg Flow

Being a heavy weight does not mean you can not move like a light weight.  Introducing The Cyborg Flow – How a Heavy Weight Can Move Like A Light Weight.  As a heavy weight it’s easy to use your size and strength to your advantage, especially when training with smaller or weaker training partners.  While this method may work in the short term, especially if you are someone who does a lot of strength training and tend to be stronger than most, eventually you will meet your match.  Eventually you will come up against someone of equal or greater strength, and in that match, technique is what will be the difference. The question then becomes how do us big guys learn to smooth out the techniques and flow through the transitions with the speed and grace of a light weight.  The Cyborg Flow is a series of drills designed to do just that. Check it out here!

The first drill broken down in The Cyborg Flow starts in side control.  Unlike a typical side control position, Cyborg prefers put his thumb in the collar under the opponents’ neck and “staple” it to the mat while keeping all of his pressure driving down across the opponents’ hips.  Once in this position, to execute the drill of switching side to side, Cyborg then places his head on the mat near his training partners’ rib cage. In this position he can now kick the leg closest to his opponent into the air, followed immediately by the second leg creating what looks like a headstand position.  It’s important to remember the pressure should still be on the training partners’ hips, not on your head and neck.

Once both legs are in the air you can then begin switching sides by placing the lead leg back on the ground on the opposite side. Make sure to leave space, your second leg is going to need space to land between your first leg and your training partner.  When you land, you should be in side control, just as you were before, but on the opposite side. Now your lead leg switches to the leg closest to your training partners’ hips, and you repeat the process, switching side to side leading with the leg closest to your training partners hips each time. The purpose of the drill is to learn balance and control of your body. Rather than focus on speed, focus on controlling your body weight working to obtain so much control that you can hold yourself in the “headstand like” position for a few seconds before carefully placing your legs back on the mat.  

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Out next drill is a very similar movement, but starting from the butterfly guard instead of side control.  To get in position we need to get in our training partners butterfly guard. From this position, we use our head pressuring into our training partners’ torso to help pin them to the mat, looking towards the opposite side we plan to pass to.  We then over hook the leg on the side we plan to pass to, cupping the thigh, or getting a grip on the Gi pants. From this position it’s the same concept as the first drill we lead with the outside leg (the side we are passing to) kicking it up into the air, followed by the second leg and carefully place them both in side control on the outside of our training partners legs.  From here the training partner needs to hip escape and replace their butterfly guard, enabling us to do the drill again. Just like in the first drill, it would be wise to do this to both sides. While this drill is easier to focus exclusively on one side if you’d like, it makes sense from a balancing perspective to train the drill on both sides.

Now for The Inverted Flying Cyborg Pass.  It’s a cool as it sounds. Imagine doing a forward roll directly up your training partners body, like a steam roller.  Starting off standing with our training partner laying on the mat playing open guard. We first grab the insides of both pant legs, near the ankles.  We then place our head between our training partners legs beginning to tuck our chin, so the back of our head is facing our training partner.

This drill requires continual movement.  That being said, as soon as we start to put our head between our training partners’ legs, we need to push off our feet and initiate our forward roll. We should land with our back on our training partners’ chest, feet planted near our training partners’ head, and maintaining our grips on the Gi pants.  Now we can let go of the pants and move to gripping inside the thighs. Now we move our head to the outside of the opponents’ legs. Whichever side our head goes to, we circle to the opposite side, always. We begin to circle to the opposite side our head is on and after a few steps towards becoming perpendicular we can switch our hips from facing upward to facing downward by taking a big step without leg closest to our training partners’ head, and making that leg the leg closest to their hips.  Once we settle into side control we can then stand up, reset, and do the drill again.

Another drill that Cyborg shows in this flow is starting from the back to chest position we land in when executing the previous drill.  He shows moving to one side, stepping over as if you were going to go to side control, but instead he then just steps back and begins circling to the other side, remembering to switch his head to the opposite side when his body is parallel to his training partner.  He shows just doing this drill side to side a few times to get used to the feeling of maintaining pressure on your partner and understanding the flow of circling and stepping over.

The last drill shown in The Cyborg Flow is a forty five jump over.  This drill is very much like the first, however instead of landing somewhat parallel to our training partner, he is working to land out at a forty five degree angle from his partner and then using the step over from the previous drill to get to side control.  To clarify if his training partners head is at twelve o’clock Cyborg is landing at ten o’clock and two o’clock depending on which side he is going to.

At the end of the video Cyborg shows the true “flow” capability of mixing all of these movements together.  He recommends working to chain them together when possible, enabling you to keep moving and truly learn to flow.  One of the most noticeable things I notice in Jiu Jitsu is that regardless of size, the higher level training partners always seem to flow from one position to the next with ease and it feels smooth and natural.  Doing drills like this will help you to develop that same capability.

Cyborg closes the video saying ”Jiu Jitsu keeps people young forever”, “exercises like this (The Cyborg Flow) keep you moving”.

 

Flow: The Top Game By Roberto “Cyborg” Abreu looks to totally revitalize your top game. In this 4 part series Cyborg covers all of his favorite guard passes, transitions, and back takes. On top of that he shows YOU how to connect them.

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