How To Counter The Straight Arm Bar?

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Countering a move is not about waiting for it to go on and then doing something else, to counter a move properly, you should be feeling it going on and then doing something to stop it progressing further.

This is probably true as much in the cross over arm bar is it is in any other move you’ll do.If you get to a point where your arm is straight and they are sat back, that’s it, you’re in a lot of trouble. What you should be doing is feeling what is going on then attempting to counter, before it actually gets to them swivelling into position, or at the latest as they are moving.

We have gone through one way of getting into cross over arm lock, there are others, and in time we’ll have a play with some of those as well, however, one step at a time. So, you should, if you have practised these previous moves thoroughly, when someone is going to try and get this move on, if you feel one hand trapped, then prepare for a cross over arm lock coming, done right, this is a very fast transition. There are a number of things you can do to try to prevent it.

Firstly, try taking hold of your own wrist, arm or hand, you have something then to stop your arm being straightened. Not a particularly good counter, it’s very passive and easy to counter in itself…!You can try grabbing your own Gi with your defensive hand, it can give you a couple of seconds relief whilst you think and break their flow, however, it becomes a contest of strength, and relativly easy to counter as well!

A Third option, and my preferred one, hence the new paragraph! As they move to get their legs around your arm, push your head through as well, this gives you a bit of breathing space, but we’re not quite finished, what you should find is that you’ve given yourself a bit of slack, use that and push upwards towards your attacker with your elbow, aiming to move your elbow to their side, increasing the bend in your arm, closes the distance between the two of you and makes it harder for them to apply the lock.

If you are both on the floor, it is possible at this point, to turn into them and move into their guard turning a defensive position into an attackign position.

Have a play, and for future reference I’ll see if I can get some videos put together on it, always helps as sometimes these descriptions can be hard to visualise.

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How To Transition From The Mount To Arm Bar?

OK, so we’ve described the mount as being a good position to be in, we’ve also described the Cross Over Arm Bar and what a good finisher it is, but how to get from one strong position to another strong position?

First off, it’s all about looking for the right opening, over the course of the sites development I’ll go through a number of moves and different ways of getting into them and then you can train them so that you can react when the appropriate opening presents itself.

The first thing then is to look for them pushing you off, you are bound to get it, especially if you give them the opening, for example by raising up higher instead of keeping your weight low, this will allow them to get their hands in and the natural instinct to take over and stop you invading their personal space by pushing back.

Once you have their hands up, or even just one hand, you have something to work with, if they push the right hand up, then using your left arm, trap their arm to your chest, you can do this by taking hold of your Gi with your left hand and dropping your elbow, you don’t need to keep hold for long. With your right hand, push down on their chest, this serves two purposes, it lifts you up, and it distracts them and causes pain/discomfort.

Once you have lifted yourself, you need to move your left leg over the top of their head and push your body weight up and over to your left and on to your back, taking their arm with you so you finish up on your back at their right hand side, with your left leg over them neck and your right leg over their body, keep your shoulders back, your knees together and raise your hips off the floor as you pull their arm across your right thigh.

If you get your timing right and your technique right, its a very slick, fast move, I’ve seen it work quite a few times, and used it myself to good effect.

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How To Perform Cross Over Arm Bar

Hi, this is an excellent finishing technique in ground work, you’ll often see people trying to go for this move, most often performed with Uke on their back however I’ve also seen it done with Uke standing!

There are so many variations on how to get into this move that to cover them all would take a long time and I’d never get any posts out, so what I’ll do is break it down so that this, the first post covers how to actually put the lock on, and what it is.

Cross Over arm lock, I’ve heard it called Step Over lock as well, but I’ll continue as Cross Over! I normally start to teach it from a throw, as it gets them in the right position to learn it all in the best order. The best order in my opinion with this throw is to have Uke on their side, then, if they are on their left hand side you pull up on their right arm and with your right foot, kick them in the kidneys, and leave your foot there. .(Some clubs do this differently and this foot goes over the top, I don’t like it that way, it’s too easy for Uke to turn and face you, so starting to attack you, this way they have to roll up your leg if they want to turn and that puts an extra obstacle in the way) With your left foot you now stamp through Uke’s face/throat, sounds nasty, and it would be. Pull your left foot back into Uke’s throat now you are going to sit down with your backside as close to Uke’s shoulder as possible, when you go down you go down at a 45 degree angle to Uke going out above their head. With their elbow on or above your leg you pull back now on Uke’s trapped arm over your right thigh, as you do this you squeeze your knees together and raise your hips off the ground, Note: keep your shoulders back and resting on the ground. Also squeeze it on, if you just pull back in training then you’ll damage your partner, it’s surprising how quickly it goes on if you get all the bits right.
You’ve not finished, remember this is a practical martial art not a sport and in reality people bite! Your calf is very close to Uke’s mouth, reach down with your left hand, put your fingers underneath Uke’s jaw at the front, as you pull up keeping the mouth closed the heel of your hand should fall nicely onto Uke’s nose, press it down it’s very uncomfortable and restricts breathing.

This is the ideal way I would go about doing it, I know in reality nothing ever actually works like that, and quite often you don’t get at 45 degrees, the biggest thing is that in a roll around you don’t often get your leg under their back, and you end up with them turning on to you and rolling into your guard. There are some really good continuous flow excercises around this and we’ll go through those in time.

Have a try and we’ll go through some other ways to get into it.

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Ground Work Basics

Ok, first thing we’re going to look at is the terminology. Throughout it all you’ll here all sorts of stuff about positions used and wonder what the heck it’s all about, so before we move on to actual techniques we’ll go through naming and positions.

The Mount

This is a position that you’ll see most people strive to achieve in the course of back to back, and it is a very powerful position to be in. You are on top of your opponent,squarely on top of your opponents torso, with your legs at either side of their body facing their head, your hands are used to either attack or base yourself.

The Cross Mount

Again you are positioned with your opponent on their back on the floor with you on top, covering their torso, this time though you have your torso on theirs with your legs out to the side of them. There are a lot of people who just don’t like this position but it is still a good strong position if you train it. you can defend, counter and attack quite readily from this position.

The Guard

This position involves one person being on their back with their legs open and the other person in between their legs facing them. The advantage is still with the person on top in between the legs, but not so much, it’s relatively easy to control the distance of your attacker and defend then counter attack from this position.

You will see also some people when on their back like to have their legs around their opponents torso, crossing the ankles at the back and squeezing, others prefer to place their feet in between the attackers legs and tuck them underneath their shins giving them some control, called putting the hooks in.

You will hear terms banded around like being in the guard or having them in your guard. It’s the same position the difference being whether you are the one on your back or not!

Giving Them Your Back!!

Pretty descriptive really, you’ve turned your back to your attacker, this is bad! you have no means of attack and limited defense, try to avoid this at all costs!

The Half Guard

Very similar to the full guard, apart from you only have one leg in between your attackers, you’re both in the same position really so the only point of any sort of favour is, who’s on top!

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These are the main positions you’ll find yourself in as you’re rolling around, what we’ll cover in the future of this site by myself and others I hope is the transition between them and submissions from them.

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Chokes vs Strangles

It’s seems odd to me still when I get people from different arts coming in and don’t know there is a difference between a choke and strangle.

Wrong on my part I know, you’re never going to know unless you are told, and why would you be told if you don’t do the things?

There are many arts that don’t strangle people, and many people just starting out who think it really odd that we do, though it is funny to see their faces when that all too familiar choking sound is forced from your Uke’s throat, there is that initial reaction where they jump back panicking and let go.

Anyway, the difference between a strangle and a choke.

A strangle cuts off the blood flow and a choke cuts off the air supply. Very simple really. Both have their benefits, both are effective and will take someone out in very short order if done correctly, but one thing to bear in mind, if you are choking someone then you will get a panic effect, it really is sharp and causes a sudden adrenalin rush to the person on the receiveing end, this gives them a sudden burst of strength, the bodies natural defense that if you’re not ready for it can cause you trouble.

A strangle is a more gradual thing and even though it’s not slow it feels like nothing until just before you pass out and you start to feel your eyes bulge, but you don’t get that same violent reaction.

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Tags: jujitsu, jujitsu choke, jujitsu strangle, jujitsu technique, jujitsu training

How To Back-kick And The Differences

I’ve been shown a number of different ways of doing this kick over the years and i’ll go through a couple of them now.

They both start out the same really, you step across on your base foot, this is your none kicking foot, it goes across your body and you use this step to set your distance for the strike. If you are further away from your opponent than stepping across with the front foot will allow for, then step forwards and across with the rear leg continuing to pivot round. It’s important that you keep your eye on your opponent for as long as you can, as soon as you’ve lost sight of them then they can do whatever they like and you can be left with the proverbial egg on your face. So turn quickly and turn your head even quicker, get your eyes back on your opponent as quick as you can. As you turn then use the impetus to start to generate the speed of the strike, some people like to use the blade of the foot for this strike.

Now, not being a particularly good kicker I’ve never been particularly good with this, I usually end up turning it into a spinning back kick rather than a straight forward back kick, purely because of the angles of feet and whipping the head round to look throws me out, the other thing was that I’d end up missing the target!!

Then my sensei showed me this next way of doing the kick and It finally started to make some sense.

The start is the same really, you can use either leg to step across, all depends upon your distance, now the difference starts, use your opponent as your guide, if you make an exagerated step with your foot placement and line it up down the outside of your attacker, then as you turn, if you thrust straight back with your leg, kicking with the base of your foot, you are pretty much guaranteed to make a hit, it’s the best method for me I’ve found so far.
One thing, you need to make sure you need to follow through and turn quickly, pivoting on your feet, so that you will finish in your fighting stance facing your opponent.

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Tags: jiujitsu, jujitsu, jujitsu techniques, jujitsu training, martial art

Sidekick, How To?

There are two ways that I do side kick, technically the execution of the kick is the same, it’s just that one is off the front leg and one is off the rear leg.

So I’ll go over the rear leg first; with your front foot, turn your toes out, now move your body weight through on to your front foot, turning sideways on to your opponent, keeping your guard up all the time.

Now bring your kicking foot up to your knee, push out your kicking foot towards your target thursting through and pushing with your hips right through. The key is your striking area, you are striking with the blade of the foot, thats the outside edge of your foot. A little trick to help you with this - push through with your heel, pull up with your big toe and push down with your little toe. Sounds odd, feels odd, but it does help you to get the right angle with your foot. A common target area for this is the knee, if you’re flexible and like kicking then I’ve seen people do this to the jaw.

The other version, is kicking with the front leg, from the normal fighting stance then this would be the front side snap kick, if you take a step back from a block, then you can do the side kick off what will now be the nearest leg, the technique is exactly the same, you will just lose some of the power. It can still work as either a distraction, or I used to train with a guy who had a knack for always getting you with it as you moved in during sparring.

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Tags: jiujitsu, jujitsu, jujitsu techniques, jujitsu training, martial art

The Front Snap Kick

Not a kick we actually practise as much as we should, this is the jab of the kicking world. It’s with the front foot, it’s not meant to be massively powerful, it’s meant to be fast and light and it’s aim is to distract your opponent long enough for you to folow up with something else to finish them off.

From your short fighting stance, as was described earlier, you should be able to lift your front foot off the ground without telegraphing your intentions to your opponent, lift your foot up, and bring it to your rear knee, doing this, should point the knee of your kicking foot so it is aiming just above your target, this is pretty important, if you don’t do this then the angles are wrong. Think about it, for most people, your lower leg does not go past the straight line when you point it, and if your knee is pointing lower than your target, it cannot physically reach the target, so lift your knee, and the kick comes out from the knee.

Point your toes, for this target area, the groin, you are striking upwards, going in between the legs, so by pointing your toes you’re striking with your instep, flicking your leg up fast, like the jab this isn’t a power strike, this is light and fast, don’t forget that as you’re training it.

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Tags: jiujitsu, jujitsu, jujitsu techniques, jujitsu training, martial art

Hypnotize yourself for the Martial Arts!

We spend all this time training the body, years, but in a fight, or even sparring, the mind can get you into so much trouble, yet many people fail to train this aspect of their arsenal and without it, all your years of training could go out of the window completely.

There are many ways you can do this, put yourself in the stress situation time and time again in order to condition yourself to it? Valid, and used by a lot of people, I’m not going to knock it, unless it’s having your life threatened and your family attacked, your wallet stolen, do you really want to put yourself through that time and time again to get used to it? No, unless you’re nuts, though some people work the doors as a way to test it, some prefer sparring, some prefer tournaments, I’m not going to comment on them, not for me, I’ve thought about it, especially the doors, but discounted it, I’ve got another job that probably wouldn’t work well with me being on the doors, competitions have rules and makes it a sport, and that’s not why I do it, if you do, fine, I personally have no issues with that.

An extreme example I know, you could just spar on a regular basis, and when it comes to that time, when Sensei says sparring, go and pick yourself the highest grade, or the one you know will challenge you and work with them, then you’ll learn something, then you’ll start to learn and deal with the fear factor.

One way to deal with the mind is self-hypnosis, I tried it myself and whilst being skeptical at first, especially as the book was from the 70’s and the pictures were hilarious, I thought, I’ll give it a go, and it worked for me so I’ll go through the details of it and see what you think.

You do this, just before or rather as you go to sleep.

• Firstly, most people have a position that is most comfortable to them that they normally get into to sleep, get yourself into that position.
• Second, touch the index finger and thumb of each hand together.
• Third, focus on your breathing, you should be going for full regular breaths, in through the nose and out through the mouth.
• Fourth, With each outward breath just focus on another area of your body and relax it, I like to work upwards, so feet, legs, torso, shoulders, arms, neck. You can break this down to really help you relax, for example I do one leg at a time.
• Fifth, By this time, everything should be nice and relaxed, and if you’ve done it right then almost at the point of drifting off. If not, then you need to do it again, do it properly, and probably focus more this time on not letting your mind wander during this process.
• Sixth, Now your relaxed, your breathing is steady, you still have your finger and thumb together, take a breath in, count 10, then on your outward breath just say to yourself in your mind, (My Ju-Jitsu is improving, my punches are faster and stronger) This is an example by the way, you can focus on any specific of your choice, but just one, if you have too many then you run out of breath!
• Seventh, Breath in and count 9 then on the outward breath, say the same thing as before.
• Eighth, you get the idea, same thing, each time, counting down each time to 1.

By the time you get to 1 you should find that you are tired, and in fact after a couple of weeks, you probably won’t get to 4, this is the best way, at this point you are really getting these positives into your sub conscious.

Now when it comes to your sparring sessions, and you are in your stance, you feel the adrenalin pumping, touch your finger and thumb together, this should now trigger a sub conscious association between finger and thumb, positivity and relaxation.

Sounds odd?

Worked for me.

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Tags: jiujitsu, jujitsu, jujitsu techniques, jujitsu training, martial art

Punching Principles - The Jab

This is a fast strike, it’s done with your lead hand, the one that’s closest to them, and is not deigned to knock them out, too often I see people try to put all their power into this strike and unless you’re Bruce Lee then it’s not going to damage them too badly.

The aim of the jab is simple, it’s a distraction, and a range finder!
It’s designed to take their mind of what’s coming next, If you’re really fast and light on your feet then you can get your body weight behind it as you jump in, but more often than not it’s a fast flick out with your lead hand, aim for a specific target, I prefer the nose, it’s nice and easy to break, and if you make contact then it can be pretty distracting, lots of blood flying, making their eyes water, all things designed to really take their minds off what you are going to do next. It may even finish the fight there, but don’t put your money on it.

Learn to use the jab, keeping it nice and relaxed, always remember, it’s a fast strike, and the best way to keep it fast is no tension in your muscles. Practise different combinations, throwing a number of jabs in quick succession.

Try both stances as well, left hand forwards and then right hand forwards, feels odd, until you’re used to it.

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Tags: jiujitsu, jujitsu, jujitsu techniques, jujitsu training, martial art

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