Baseball Choke a la Graugardo

Here are a few details on how I like to set up and finish the Baseball Choke. I really like this submission, because it can be set up from many positions almost without notice. Also, it works like a charm both with and without the gi.

Notice how I again utilize the principle of weight placement when I set up the submission from mount and sidecontrol. Weight is on my hands while the legs are moving into position, then the weight transfers to the legs so I can finish the choke using my arms.

Please don't mind that small part of the video that I forgot to edit out LOL ;)


Next tutorial coming up: Double under pass stiffarm counter setup.

The flipover guardpass/mount move

I have made a tutorial on the front flip guardpass by request from Halph in my little commentbox here on the blog (hope you find it usefull :)). It is a pretty simple (yet flashy!) move, that I use very often when I roll. You can see me pull it off several times in the 969 flighthours sparring clip (1:42, 3:13, 5:14, 7:50, 17:00 and 24:36) I posted a few months ago. Even though it doesn't look very basic, it is a very solid move for me and I consider it - and variations of it - a part of my a-game.

I do it most of the times directly from a takedown. The example I show in the video with the takedown sucks a bit, as I really need the opponent to sprawl on me to gain the momentum for the move, but you get the idea.

The most important detail needed to be successful with this move is understanding the correct weight placement. I need to keep my weight on my opponent at all times, both to keep him from moving me but also to make my leg-movement lighter and faster. Check out the small video on weight placement first, if you have not seen it yet.


Next tutorial coming up: Baseball Choke a la Graugardo.

Visiting United States Sep. 18th - Oct. 9th

I have been visiting the United States every year since 2003 and I thought this year should not be any different. So together with a friend from my gym, we are taking a three week trip over the atlantic, just because we can :) Our plans are pretty loose, but for now they look something like:

Sep. 18th
Arriving in NYC to meet some of my very good friends there
Sep. 21st
Going to L.A. to meet my friend Søren and his american girlfriend
Sep. 22nd
Watch the UFC 76 in Anaheim, CA
Sep. 24th
Driving to Las Vegas and staying there for a few days.
Sep. 26th
Driving back to L.A. to fly to New York again
Sep. ??th
Going to Tampa/Hollywood, Florida to visit my blogfriends Aesopian and Leo Kirby.
Oct. 9th
Going back to Denmark

We don't really know what to do yet, so we'll just take it one day at a time. If any of you have some good ideas for what we should do, let me know! Also, if you live close by where we are going and want to hook up for some training, sightseeing or just plain heavy drinking, write me!! :D I'd love to visit as many gyms as possible during the trip, always a good way to meet new friends.

As we say in Denmark... Ses vi? Det tror jeg nok, frisør!

Weight placement principle

Here is a very very simple principle that I think can help people understand movement a little better in BJJ. It is one of those things that I have always done, but never thought about. The principle is simple:

Whenever I want to move one part of my body, I need to place my weight on another part.

That makes the part you are moving light, and thereby easier to control and move. I teach this to beginners from day one in my gym.

If you watch some of the very fluid moving grapplers like for instance Jacaré, you can see that every time they make a move that seems impossibly fast or fluid, they always have their weight placed on another part of their body than the one they are moving.

I make a few examples in the video, but there are really tons of situations where this apply. I encourage you to look at your own game and see if/where understanding this simple principle can improve your movement.


Next video coming up: The front flip guardpass.

Clinch takedowns video

In the recent 6 months or so, I have started to grow a bigger interest in standup wrestling. I think that there is a sad tendency in Jiu Jitsu to neglect this part of grappling, especially in this part of the world, where we have no real wrestling traditions in schools etc.

Your ability to fight on the ground is only as good as your ability to take the fight to the ground!

I have shot a small video of my current clinch takedown game, so that I have a refence to my development in that area in the future. I know I still have lots to work on, but compared to my very simple game a few years ago, I have gotten much better at this and also developed a much deeper understanding of positions, tieups, setups and takedowns.

This video is a reference of the clinch techniques I use in sparring in my game today. Everything I do in this clip is moves that I pull off with full resistance on a daily basis:



I don't know if any of you can get anything out of this, but if you see anything you want me to show in detail, just let me know and I can shoot a small tutorial on it.

No guard pulling allowed!! :)

Learning by imitating

I am back from a few weeks of vacation. It was really nice to get some sun and warm weather, we haven't had much of that here in Denmark this year.

I have not been sleeping much those two weeks. I have been lying awake for hours every night just thinking about moves that I needed to train and try out, I guess I have a big overload of training in my head everyday that I need to get out in the gym so my brain can realax afterwards :D


I have a LOT of material that I am planning on shooting on video within the next few days to post here. During my sleepless nights, I have thought of so much stuff I want to put up here on the blog, so finally some new material is gonna be here :)

One thing I have thought about a lot lately is how my process of learning has evolved over the last few years. I rarely have someone show me a new technique or detail that I then apply to my game. Mostly, I learn by watching other people roll and try to see the small details that makes their techniques work. It can be watching video of matches online or just watch someone in the gym roll. Anyone really, even the whitebelts teach me something now and then, probably without they know it though :)

I can highly recommend to just sit down and watch someone roll with the purpose of analysing their moves and find out WHY they work. Not just WHAT they do. A good example is my study of Marcello Garcias armdrags from videos, now it is a bread and butter move of my clinch attacks. I just took the time to watch that clip in slow motion about 50 times before I could see and understand the details of how he set it up and executed it. I am sure he could teach me tons about armdrags, but he is not really around here so that is not an option :D

And that is another thing. I don't have and never have had an "instructor" to teach me Jiu Jitsu on a daily basis. Maybe that is why this imitation/analysis of others game has come so handy in my own development of my game.


Look out for the video updates to come here soon!

More outdoors Jiu Jitsu in the beautiful Copenhagen summer

Today, during the Cultural Harbour 2007 event we put out some mats on the Islands Brygge harbour in Copenhagen and rolled for about three hours. The weather was perfect and we got a lot of good sparring with many interested spectators walking by. It was a beautiful place to train and also a great opportunity to hand out some flyers for the gym.

I am going on vacation to Bulgaria soon, and I am gonna miss training a lot. It was great to get three hours of rolling today, especially after watching all the other guys fight yesterday without being able to participate :)

See all the photos from today here: http://picasaweb.google.com/graugart/Kulturhavn2007

Battle on the Beach today!!

Today, I arranged the 10th Openmat Submission Wrestling tournament here in Denmark. Because it was number ten, I wanted to do something special, so we held it outdoors on the beach. It was super nice weather and a ton of people came by to watch. There was A LOT of very exciting matches and all in all it was a perfect day with beautiful Jiu Jitsu!!

Se more photos from the event here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/graugart/Openmat10
http://www.23hq.com/Trolle68/album/2281062