Crossface alternative when opponent gets on his side

Here is something I use all the time, when I am either passing the guard or in sidecontrol, and my opponent manages to get on to his side to escape. It is a little thing, but as always, little things often makes big differences in scrambles :)

In my head I always think of it as a three-step move to get him from his side to flat on his back. Roll him over -> build structure with leg -> underhook and get crossface.

Hope you can use it :)

My new approach to sidecontrol escapes

As you might have read in one of my recent posts, I am trying to force myself to focus more on escaping sidecontrol, since I think it is the biggest weakness in my game.

I was trying to make an agreement with myself, that I would do at least five escapes every day of training. It worked pretty well in the beginning, but along the way I caught myself forgetting it and not doing any escapes some days. So now I am trying something else. My 1000 flighthours project has been a really good way for me to set a goal for my training, so I have decided to do something similar with my sidecontrol escapes.

In my top secret BJJ notebook, I have made a little table, where I set an X every time I succesfully have escaped sidecontrol in sparring:


My first goal is to reach 100 escapes, then see where that takes me. I will also keep track of the counting here in the blog (look in the right coloumn).

Triple attack series by Christian Montes

I think most people who train in sports like BJJ find certain training partners along the way, who they "click" really well with both in training and socially. One of mine is Christian Montes, whom I met in his New York gym, Ronin Athletics, back in 2004 when it was very small with less than five guys on the mat. It was immediately obvious, that we had a very similar approach to BJJ training, and whenever I train with him, I always get a ton of little details to take home and implement in my own game. Although I only go visit for few days every year, I consider Christian one of my very best friends and I feel that our almost parallel careers and development of technical level within BJJ, provides us with some unique sparring that is really worth a lot to me, both on the mat and business wise.


Since my first visit to New York, I have been coming back every year to train and hang out with my friends in the small gym, that has now grown to a full size, full time place in the center of Manhattan. I know there are many world class instructors just around the corner, and I always plan on going there for training as well, but every time I end up just hanging out with all the guys at Ronin. Training there reminds me so much of training at home in my own gym. The vibe and people are very similar and I really enjoy it, which is always the number one reason for me to train. NEXT time though, I will go visit Renzo and the other gyms... maybe ;-)


What that said, here is a short clip I had Christian Montes do for this blog. His offensive game from cross sides top is pretty similar to mine, but I think he has quite a few cool details that are worth checking out. Enjoy the video and stop by Ronin if you are in NYC! :)

Shogun's Sidecontrol Series

Ok so here is a short video on my primary offensive game from the sidecontrol position. It is very simple, and there is not really anything revolutionizing in it. Just thought it would be good to outline it in a video and flowchart, mostly for my own sake, but if anyone out there can get anything out of it, then that would be cool too :)


Hope you enjoy it! As always, comments, ideas, questions, suggestions etc. are more than welcome :)

Armtriangle / Heartattack setup

This is a basic tutorial on how I like to set up the armtriangle/heartattack submission from sidecontrol. For me, the most crucial detail to make this setup work, is how I utilize my entire body to move his arm into place instead of just my head. It is almost like a deadlift motion, which btw is an awesome excersize :)


Next up: Scramblepass to RNC

Alternative armbar from cross sides

A kind of different way to take the armbar from cross sides that I came up with.


Ok this is a move that I have been playing a little with lately. I came up with it a few weeks ago and have been pulling it off in sparring almost every class so for me it works quite well. If you try it and have any input / improvements, please let me know!!



I don't have pics of it so here is a videoclip where I pull it off a couple of times during some light sparring with one of my students.

It might look a little sloppy and without the details but I was just playing around with it so please don't mind :)

1) From cross sides (or reverse kneeride) I switch my hips so I am in the position where I would normally mount from.

2) I distract my opponent by making him (her :)) think I am gonna mount (or kill the near side arm). Then I take the kimura grip on her arm. This is easiest if the opponent tries to turn into me a little.

3) From there I keep the grip, make a little distance, then spin all the way around my opponents head for the armbar.