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I lost my keys one week. I kept having to borrow my wife’s. Every morning I would say, ‘Bah, don’t where my keys are.” I would then grab my wife’s off the table and go to work. Every morning my wife would say, “Have you looked for them?” to which I would respond, “No.”

That’s simple, isn’t it? Of course I haven’t found something that I’m not looking for. Sure enough, once I actually looked for them it took me about 5 minutes to find them. 

A couple of months ago I decided to do a study on the guillotine choke. Now, if I were to ask you where a guillotine choke is put on from most would probably say from guard. That’s not a wrong answer, but it’s not an accurate one either.

The mechanics of the technique allow it to be done from almost any position. But, if I believe that it can only be found from guard what is the likelihood that I will find it in other places?

Minimal.

Why? Because I’m not looking for it in other positions. If I’m not looking for something am I likely to find it?

No.

If I never look for the keys that I’ve lost it doesn’t mean that they’re not there. They could be right in the middle of the lounge floor. But, if I have come to believe that you can only find missing keys in the cushions of a couch, I will only look there. I won’t look in the middle of the lounge floor.

So, what if I decided that I wanted to find a certain submission from every position? I learned the mechanics of the technique, understood what was needed to make it work, and just went hunting.

From that ‘couple of months ago’ the guillotine has became my go-to submission. If I just really want to tap someone, I go to the guillotine. It’s become quite reliable. In the past month here’s where I’ve gotten them from.

Head to Head, Closed Guard Bottom, Open Guard Bottom, Turtle Top, Side Control, Half Guard Top, Mount, and Knee Ride. I also have figured out how to transition into them from Side Control Bottom, Mount Bottom, and Back Control.

That’s not counting the same mechanics used from north-south (north-south choke) and the back (gable grip rear naked choke).

My favourite place to get the guillotine is from half guard on top. But, I never would have found out that you could do it from there if I believed that it was just a guard submission.

I didn’t just open my eyes and look around the house when I couldn’t find my keys. I thought about it. I started looking in the places where I know they could have ended up. The couch, desks, tables, chairs. The top of the fridge, behind my bedside dresser, gym bag. Places that they would have likely been.  I used analytical thinking to determine the places it could have been.

It’s the same with the guillotine, and just about every other technique in BJJ. Pick and technique and start seeking it out from everywhere.

John Will writes about this in an ebook he has about luck. It’s a great read. Check out my blogroll for John’s blog.

All Roads Lead to Rome

I’m still exploring escapes in my rolling. This week I came to a new revelation. It has to do with a concept that I like to call “Mission Control”.

One BJJ session a while ago my instructor was going over some attacks from side control with an underhook. He talked about how side control with an underhook is his “top position mission control”. What he meant was that he defaults to that spot if he ever gets into trouble.  He feels comfortable there. He likes to attack from there, and is comfortable keeping the position.

That got me thinking about where I most want to be. Where is my mission control? The answer to that will be different for everyone.

Think of Marcelo Garcia for instance. Watch him roll with guys at his academy. You’ll notice that his mission control is the seated butterfly guard. If he gets his guard passed he escapes back to there. If he loses control in mount he goes back to there. If he misses a submission he just goes back to there. All roads lead back to the seated butterfly guard. Then, you start going through his moves and you realise why he defaults back to the seated butterfly guard. He has a great game from that spot.

So, where am I good? Am I good from the combat position going head to head with my opponent? Am I a guard player that loves to be in closed guard? Do I love taking the back? Do I love side control? Where am I best? Where am I the most comfortable?

The answer will help me determine what escapes I use.

In my study of escapes I’ve realise that there are many, many escapes from each position. So, how do you pick which ones to use? Well, understand my mission control spot, and the escapes are picked for me.

There’s a guy that I roll with at the club that always looks to get back to his knees. He loves fighting from there. So, he’s always escaping to his knees, then retreating to reset the fight. There’s another guy that always wants to get back to guard. He’s a guard player, so that’s where he wants to be. He pulls guard from the start. He understands that he wants to be there. Another guy loves being on top, so he generally only uses escapes that give him top position.

This logic not only applies to escapes. It also applies to sweeps, submissions, passes, and takedowns. Know where you like to be, and design your game around getting to there. If you love keeping mount, you’re not going to be an armbar guy. If you love keeping side control you’ll likely be a figure 4/kimura fighter. If you’re a sweep player your top game will be very fluid and attacking because you’re more than happy to reset with a sweep from the bottom if you miss.

With escapes you prioritize. If you love attacking the back you’ll prioritize escapes that put you on the back of the opponent. If you’re a guard player you’ll want to prioritize escapes that put the opponent back into guard. Better yet, if you’re happy in both places you will happily combine escapes to the back with escapes to guard.

Understand where you want to be. Design your escapes (and your entire game) around that.

Or, think of it like this. If you’re in Rome, you’re where you want to be. If you’re not, design a game where all roads lead back to Rome.

Posture in Position

I’m still working to become a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu escape artist. This means that in my training, I am spending a lot of time underneath. I’m not fighting too hard to keep guard. I’m not looking to sweep or attack too much either. If I end up on top I usually give away sweeps like they’re the gross pieces of candy that always end up at the bottom of the bag becasue nobody wants to eat them.

My new revelation from this method is this:

Any position is only as strong as the posture that holds it.

My instructor teaches that BJJ is like realestate. The key is location, location, location. So, thinking about that- Who cares how good location is if you just put up poorly built house. In BJJ we want a solid building, not something like what’s pictured above.

One of the distictives of BJJ is the ability to fight from any position. Not only posture from the top, but posture from the bottom.

My posture is the most important aspect of my escapes.

When someone passes my guard and ends up in side control I need to ensure that my posture keeps me safe. After all, you can’t attempt to escape if you’re dead.

My ideal is that before they get an established control I am on my side, chin tucked, bottom arm tight, and in contact with my bottom knee. My top arm tucked across my abdomen.

If they catch me flat I tuck my far arm across my abdomen, as deep as I can get it. If I give up the underhook, they can attack. If they attack, I have to defend. If I’m defending my escapes are delayed and limited.

I block the cross face with my other arm. If they control my head, they control my upper body to a good degree. If I’m too late for that, I block the hip.

I put the near side knee in the opponent’s hip. This blocks the knee-ride and mount. However, I was very lazy on this last class. Got caught a few times giving up mount.

This posture allows me to be safe while underneath side control. Therefore, the opponent has to transition to another position, which opens space for an escape. Or, the opponent has to sit up to try to get the hidden arm. That, obviously opens up a ton of space for escapes.

It’s the same in mount. Posture dictates survival, which dictates the ability to escape. I turn onto my side, block their hips with tight, protected arms. I open up one side of my collar, but completely block the other side. I’m relatively safe with my posture. That makes the oppenent have to take a risk to make something happen.

Basically, in any position, know what your opponent needs to attack, and hide it or protect it. Also, know what transitions your oppoent has available, and prevent the more dangerous ones. I’m happy for someone to transition to north-south, but I’m not happy for them to take knee-ride, mount, or the back.

So, position is only as good as the posture you take while in it.

Establishing roots

After gaining an overall understanding of Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, which tends to be the recognition received when a first stripe is given, I have now decided to focus my training a bit more. I am starting from the bottom.

My focus over the next weeks, or perhaps months, will be to solidify my place with my back stuck on the mat. I want to become an escape artist. I will go about that in a few ways.

1- I will be studying escapes. YouTube, books, articles, instructors, and whatever else I can find.
2- I will be drilling escape movements every day. When breaking down a specific escape you’ll start to notice certain movements. Bridges, hip-outs, sit-outs, pushing with the arms, and stuff like that.
3- In sparring I will pull guard with no intention to keep it. I feel that one of the most important parts of being an escape artist is anticipation. It’s almost a matter of escaping before control is even established. So, I’ll let the guys blow past my guard and work my escapes from there.
4- Map my escapes so as to create depth as well as width within my game. There’s a great Roy Dean video that shows how to base a game plan around the ‘what ifs’.

Wish me luck.