the traditional X guard.Leo's Page
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Marcelo’s One legged X guard
First, let me say that this is name that my training partner, John Davis, and I named it. If Marcelo has a name for it I have never heard him use it.
I think this is the best kept secret of his guard game, and if you watch his matches closely you will see that he has used this sweep much more in the last couple of years then he has the traditional X guard.
He said the reason for that is because he could set it up with either an under hook OR an over hook on the leg he is attacking. Once people became used to his X guard game, they began working really hard at defending the under hook on the leg, effectively defending the X guard.
From the one legged X guard position Marcelo can control their base, sweep them, switch to the regular X guard, or attack with a foot lock (though he rarely does.)
He can set up the one legged X guard from almost any position from bottom including seated guard, half guard, or butterfly.
This is the technique as he taught it:
1. From butterfly, slide one leg between their legs (assume your left leg.)
2. Bring that knee up between their legs, and throw that foot over his right leg and place it tight against their side.
3. Pinch the leg that you now have controlled between both of your knees, keeping hard pressure on the leg.
4. Make sure that your knees are above their knee.
5. Extend your hips forward and lift them to finish the sweep.
Here is a clip of Marcelo using this against Diego Sanchez. He goes for this position 3 times in the first minute of the match. The first two attempts are defended well by Diego. At 52 seconds you can see Marcelo attempt to set it up by pulling Diego forward by the legs and you can see the position very well with Marcelo’s legs extended before Diego escapes.
Then, at 1:04, Marcelo sets it up again only this time from an arm drag. He finally gets the sweep at 1:16 with an over hook on the leg he has controlled to take top.
Here is an example of Marcelo vs. Xande. At 1:10 Marcelo escapes Xande’s mount as he goes to the one legged X guard to get the sweep.
In both examples of the sweep you see Marcelo just needs to force the opponent back slightly to get top. Once their energy is no longer moving forward he can attack.
In this gi match against Damian Maia, at 2:50 Marcelo actually goes from a takedown attempt where he ends up on bottom to the one legged X guard. In this example he has an under hook on the attacking leg. Again, the advantage to this sweep is that you can do it with an under hook or an over hook on the leg, unlike the regular X guard.
I think these matches also point one of the things that set Marcelo apart from a lot of other people. He is always attacking. He doesn’t escape mount to guard, he escapes mount to the sweep. He attempts the takedown, ends up on bottom and keeps attacking to get the sweep.
Thread on UG forum regarding this article here
The Rolling Game (Or Omaplata as a Position Part II)
Last week (I am writing this on Christmas weekend, hanging out on the couch, watching history channel and eating lots of things that are bad for me) one of my students asked me, "Will you teach me your rolling game?" What he was referring to was the game that I have been working for the last several months from the Omaplata Position.
It is incredible how this game keeps growing for me. If you read my other article, "Omaplata as a Position," I explained how the omaplata has progressed for me through my bjj career. I will once again thank those people who have made it possible for me to play this game: Luis Gutierrez, my first BJJ coach, who taught me the omaplata, Stephen Kesting, who produced a fantastic instructional that introduced me to many aspects of the omaplata that I was not aware of, and Marcelo Garcia, who has taught me most of the game I now use.
But it was Marcelo's Instructional, "Marcelo 4," that really opened my eyes to all of the possibilities of the Omaplata as a game. If you are interested in some of the things I post here I suggest you buy his tape. Believe it or not he is much better at it than I am : )
I had been reluctant to teach this game to my students. I have worked it a lot with Ralph, a blue belt and a good training partner, and have really seen his game improve because of it. But I had trained with Ralph for a couple of years and knew it would be a good game for him. When I thought of introducing it to the entire class I had a couple of concerns. I thought there was too much information for the white belts, and a couple of purple belts that train with me are bigger guys. I wasn't sure all of the rolling around that I do would fit their games very well.
The student who asked me to teach my "Rolling Game" was a very good white belt (who was just promoted to blue belt last week) and I decided that it might be good to introduce it to him and a couple of other students, but instead I decided to teach a couple of classes on it for the entire gym. I was pleasantly surprised. The beginners picked up the drill really well and the purple belts loved the game. One of them said It was the most fun he had had in BJJ in years. Neither purple belt had used the omaplata very much in their games prior to this.
What I have done here is film a couple of clips to show how you can stop some common omaplata counters, then film the drill that I have used in class to help the students understand this game.
Then I have included a couple of clips of the students drilling the Rolling Game. This was only the second class that I had taught on the Rolling Game and I was very happy with the way the students responded to the drill.
The two things to keep in mind when you are playing this game are:
1. Keep the arm. You have done a lot of work to get it. It is now yours and he can't have it back.
2. Relax. If you keep the arm and don't panic, once the opponent begins to roll or hop over you or post a leg or stand you will probably have an answer for what he does.
This is a clip that Matt Kirtley filmed when we trained together last month. It will show a setup from Marcelo's seated guard and a couple of tips I have discovered about controlling the elbow. I also have a counter that Marcelo uses when they leap over your body with both feet.
In this clip I show what normally works once the opponent tries to stand or post a leg. I learned this sweep from Edson Diniz and it has worked very well for me:
In this clip I show what I do when the opponent tries to get under the leg and come up on the other side. I used to have a lot of trouble with that until I learned to turn to my knees and forward roll. But note that I really only have to come to one knee. I need to turn and roll quickly to get my position back.
In this clip I show that you can stop a counter when the guy tries to sit out and roll you over him before you can attempt a submission:
The next two clips show the live drill I have used to introduce the students to the
concepts of the game and teach them to keep control of the arm regardless of what happens:
Note that often I will just grab the pant leg. This will help me slow them down and keep them from getting that leg over my head. A couple of times I throw my arm over their leg. I never want to keep it there or overhook the near leg because they can get their own omaplata on me. You should underhook their leg if you want to control them tightly.
This clip shows Ralph doing the drill on me. I am working to pull my arm free:
Now I will show a couple of clips of my students drilling. In this article I have not spent a lot of time on setups or submissions. Stopping counters and the rolling drill is my main concern here. But in these clips you will see that they are starting with the cross guard. I first learned cross guard through a tutorial that my Friend Matt Kirtley posted with his training partner Trog. Trog works cross guard a lot and I have found it really fits my game well. After training with Robson Moura, who has a great cross guard, I really began to add it to my game.
Check out Matt and Trog's tutorial here:
In these clips you will notice a great tip that Trog mentioned. I was having trouble underhooking the opponent's leg when he based out. Trog said that he used the other knee to lift the opponent and create enough space to get the underhook on the leg. I have found that this works great. This is what I had just taught the students and you will see how they do that and then go into the rolling game from cross guard.
The first clip is my son Matt. I think cross guard and the rolling game will be great for him. He is 6'1" and 190lbs and 15 years old. He will be able to transition into triangles much easier than I will from this game.
Here are a couple of purple belts. Even though Mark is a big guy who never used the omaplata a lot he is starting to pick up the Rolling Game pretty well.
Hope everyone enjoys this. My normal disclaimer: There are better people out there than me. Find them. But never be afraid to share what you know and give credit to those who deserve it.
My Guard Passing Strategy
When I am serious or when I compete my game plan is very simple:
Hand fight to try and stop the guy from clinching, work for an arm drag, (which will normally lead to a take down for me if I do it right), avoid closed guard at all costs, and get a fast guard pass to attack from top.
Here is a clip of my Pan Am final match. Not exciting at all but it does demonstrate the above strategy. My opponent is a purple belt and great guy named Lawrence Calleros who trains at Tito Ortiz’s gym in Southern California. He did a good job avoiding the submission attempts and mount.
At about 2:25 into the match Lawrence is on his back with his right hook in and his left foot on my hip. I am working to get both hooks inside so I can set up my bread and butter pass, the Leaping Marcelo Pass. I manage to do this by moving my right leg out and getting his hook inside to leap for the pass.
This clip shows Marcelo doing the leaping pass at 3:14:
You will note in this clip that Marcelo sneaks his left hand down to push on the opponent’s knee as he leaps, making it hard for the opponent to follow him up with the hook.
I started working on this pass after seeing it in his first instructional set, but it took me a long time to get it down. It is as much about feel as anything else. You need to leap far enough to clear the hooks but not so high that you somersault over his head (though that is a guard pass in itself.)
Check out the clip then buy the set if you haven’t already:
Now that I am fairly successful at this pass some of my training partners are very good at keeping me from putting them on their back. If they stay seated my second favorite pass has become a very quick, very aggressive, knee over the thigh pass.
You will see the pass at 2:15 of this match:
When Marcelo taught this pass he emphasized that the knee that is coming over the thigh must come all the way through with power and speed. It is almost as if you are sliding into first base. In the class he demonstrated by going all the way to north/south as he completed the pass because of the power of the movement. This made the biggest difference for me when I started working on this pass.
When I first learned the knee over the thigh pass I seldom did it because I never did standing passes. Standing always seemed to get me in trouble when they played De la Riva guard or spider guard. But I noticed something the last time I wrestled Robson Moura when he did standing passes and I realized that Marcelo does the same thing that Robson did. So I went back and started watching clips of Marcelo standing to pass.
Watch the above clip again and the clip below. What both Marcelo and Robson do is stand right above the opponent. They do not back up at all. It is hard for the defending guy to get grips or hooks because by the time he does Marcelo is stepping around or through or even over to take the opponent’s back when he tries to grab his leg. (A very cool move that he did to me three times in one match.) But if you note in the clip below what makes that work is that he is standing right above the opponent.
After sweeping his opponent Marcelo stands up and never backs away, even when the opponent sits up and attacks his legs.
Once I realized how Robson and Marcelo both made this work on me and I began to analyze it, it completely changed my passing game. Now I try to stand right above them and control their knees and work a pass. I don’t think about a technical pass at all. I play the game as if it is a drill. I just stand and step over or through or around.
One more note on guard passing. It is interesting being 46 years old and trying to train with guy’s like Marcelo since I will never have his speed and power for extended lengths of time like he does. So there are still some “go to” guard passes that work well for me when I am tired or just lazy. One is the reverse scarf pass that Marcelo uses over and over again and I have made it a big part of my “Old, tired, guy passing game:”
At 2:40 there is a great view of how Marcelo triangles his legs before going for the pass. I have found that to be a tremendous help. It helps control their hips and often they will try to break the guard and get away once they feel you start to control them.
It also keeps them from inserting the free hook and lifting you for butterfly half guard or lift you into X guard. Once Marcelo drives under the far elbow he has the pass. I find I can get into the reverse scarf position once I am under the elbow and rest and work the pass while controlling their hips. I always watch their legs because often they will quickly let go and try to roll me and that is what I am watching for.
With the gi I have found that I can often grab my own gi pant leg and pull my leg out to pass.
The other pass that I have used for a couple of years is the only thing in BJJ I claim to have invented. Yes, yes, I know that there are probably hundreds of people using it. But since no one has taught it to me and it has worked very well on some good people I still claim it as my own. So I will leave you with the shin pin:
Seated Guard
“Never let your opponent impose his game on you.”
-Marcelo Garcia
I have been training in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu for about six years. I can only remember two things I have heard during that time that I would say actually changed my entire game and the way I train.
One was in Grappling Magazine a few years ago when Royce said if you really want to improve quickly, work the things you are bad at. I went from playing top game all the time and forced myself to play guard. I got passed, got crushed, and got tapped until I felt I could at least hold my own with my guard game.
The above quote was the other thing that changed my game. Marcelo said over and over in his first instructional, “Don’t let him impose his game on you.” (As a side note, if you watch his instructionals, pay close attention. He divulges his entire BJJ philosophy while he is teaching the movements. After training with him several times I often go back and watch the tapes now just to listen to Marcelo’s thoughts on training and competition.).
A little more from Marcelo on the same subject:
“The more you attack, the more your opponent will make mistakes.
The more you attack, the more he will have to defend. You shouldn’t be defending all the time. Anytime you defend you are losing the fight.”
After finally getting the opportunity to train with him I saw first hand exactly what he was talking about. And finally we have arrived at the subject of this post: The seated guard.
Before I started playing this game I was fine with half guard, closed guard, and butterfly unless they controlled my feet or legs or if they stood up. And then I was defending. Even playing spider guard against a good bjj opponent I often found myself defending until he passed or until I got lucky enough to sweep him.
So this is the seated guard that I have developed mainly from Marcelo’s instructionals and seminars. In addition, I have thrown in a little JJ Machado because his game works very well for me. I also had to watch some footage of Marcelo in action to get a key component of how he plays this game.
1. Do not play from your back.
2. Keep your weight over your feet. This is vital. Even keeping your head back a couple of inches too far will enable him to grab your ankles or gi pants.
3. Hand fight. Keep your hands up, try to control his hands and do not let him grab your feet or pant legs.
4. If he stands, move in to get butterfly hooks or the shin to shin position to attack.
Here is a clip of me demonstrating the seated guard position with my weight over my feet and hand fighting. In this example the opponent in on his knees.
Seated Guard
So I first hand fight and work for an arm drag. I do not go into all of the details of the arm drag here, but it helps set up many other things. One of my first attacks is the X guard. Here I demonstrate the seated guard entry into the X guard:
Entry to X Guard
So what happens when they stand up? The first thing I try to do when someone stands is the X guard. But like everything else, that doesn’t always work. And my training partner, John Davis, (seen in the above clip) is great at attacking with standing passes. One of the things he was always able to do to me was to stand and quickly put a foot between my legs and pass with a very aggressive “knee over the thigh” pass.
I had a lot of trouble defending that against him and then I saw this ADCC match with Marcelo and Shinya Aoki:
Marcelo V Aoki
Watch at 42 seconds of the match. Aoki is standing and steps one foot between Marcelo’s legs. Marcelo just replaces the hook. He does it again, keeping both hooks between Aoki’s feet. After watching this match I started doing the same thing when John would stand to do his aggressive pass. Sometimes I would have slide back a little.
So when he stepped forward I would slide back and replace the hook, he would step forward and I would do the same thing. Then I started using a sweep I had practiced several years ago and had forgotten about. I saw it in on a JJ Machado clip. It worked perfectly with the Marcelo seated guard.
Here is a clip showing what I have just described: JJM sweep
This is the seated guard game that I have been having a lot of success with against advanced players thanks to Marcelo and JJ Machado. My standard disclaimer: These guys are better than me. If you can, learn it from them. But don’t be afraid to seek knowledge from anyone and never be afraid to share your version with others.
I learn from everyone but I always remember what Mark Twain said: Do not let your schooling interfere with your education.
The Omaplata as a Position
When I first learned how to do an omaplata it made no sense to me. I Just couldn’t get the hip switch. And if I did I couldn’t control the arm to keep them from pulling it out. And if I did control the arm they would just roll out of the submission. So I gave up on it.
Then I watched the Nogueira/Dan Henderson Pride fight.
It seemed that every time Henderson was on top Nogueira was attacking with omaplatas. It made me realize that I was missing something in my game. The first thing I did was order Stephen Kesting’s Omaplata and the Dynamic Guard DVD:
Omaplata and Dynamic Guard
This DVD did a great job of breaking down the omaplata, explaining set ups, entries, submissions, and sweeps. I made the omaplata an integral part of my guard game after watching this DVD. As a matter of fact, I had a pretty bad guard game until I studied this instructional.
I went along that way for a couple of years. I would normally get omaplatas when they gave them to me by over hooking a leg. Stephen Kesting called this a “trigger position.” I submitted some people but even if I didn’t get the submission I normally swept them to take top. One of the things that Kesting said in his DVD was that in the beginning you might not get the submission, but you could get the sweep. I find that to be true for most people who have just begun to make the omaplata part of their game.
Then at the end of 2005 I trained with Marcelo Garcia for the first time. I noticed a whole different Omaplata game from Marcelo. It seemed that every time I tried to put him on his back I was caught in an omaplata. I couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong.
Then in a private he showed me what he was doing. Anytime I got an under hook I gave up the the omaplata. He would just get space with a foot on my hip, throw the other foot over my shoulder as he pushed on my face and go into the omaplata.
Here is a clip I did showing how he sets up the omaplata with a foot on the hip:
While this was very frustrating, I found there was more to his omaplata game than that. He could get them from cross body, from mount, and from a number of positions during the scramble. I was constantly defending the omaplata when I wrestled him.
The next time I did a seminar with him he taught what I refer to as the Marceloplata (or maybe it was my friend Matt Kirtley who coined that phrase.) In the Marceloplata he throws a foot over the face, stretches you out and sits beside you to do an incredible shoulder lock. This is a clip I did of the Marceloplata:
He also gets the Marceloplata when they defend the omaplata by controlling the bottom leg. All you have to do is put the foot across the face, come up on your knee and force him to roll over. If he doesn’t he will tap. Here is a clip I did of that:
The Marceloplata helped me to make huge leaps in my omaplata game. It gave me the answer for what to do when they control the bottom leg and do not let me switch my hips. Now I hope they do that so I can attempt the Marceloplata submission.
Then I watched this training tape of Marcelo:
Training
Note at 1:00 how Marcelo sets up the omaplata as they are escaping cross body. You will see how he pins the guy’s arm to him when the opponent gets an underhook to escape bottom, then just rolls back into the omaplata. This is how he taught it in a seminar.
Notice that he is not trying hard to submit the opponent, but doing as he says in the clip: Loosening up, letting him move, and watching what he does to escape.
At 1:35 he attempts the Marceloplata but the guy sits up with him, not allowing him to finish the submission. Marcelo just goes with the movement and rolls back into the omaplata.
This is the game I have been playing recently and have found I can get omaplatas from many different positions, play a relaxed game, and really enjoy the match while I am learning.
I have stopped looking at the omaplata as a submission and started looking at it as a position that will lead to submissions, sweeps and transitions. And it is fun.
And as a disclaimer…I would never pretend to be able to do these things as well as Marcelo, Stephen Kesting, or many other people. But if you can get something out of this then that’s great.
The Best Kept Secret In BJJ
(in my humble opinion)
Probably the quickest advancement in my game in the last two years has occurred because of something I learned last fall in a Marcelo Garcia seminar.
I was wrestling Marcelo, playing guard and trying to keep him from passing, having little success, when he said, “Control my hands. They pass guard with the hands, not the legs.”
It was like a light bulb went on. After that seminar I did what I normally do: Watch competition footage of Marcelo. I noticed that he controls the hands from every position. In one of his instructionals I remember him saying that he did not like to clinch. He liked to control the arms. From here he will arm drag or shoot. But if he lets them clinch or grab his neck they can take him out of his game. He can no longer attack and he needs to defend. I had recently started doing that and it had worked well for me, but once he told me to control the hands to keep them from passing I realized that it was a key part of his whole game.
Now if I am training in the gym, I will often sit in butterfly and hand fight. It is fun to watch someone’s reaction when they begin trying to pass your guard and find themselves working to free their hands first.
Hand fighting will often lead to arm drags or when they are pulling away I can take top. One forum member that recently began doing this said it was the most important lesson he has picked up on-line. He explained it better than I can when he said that it made him much more aggressive without actually playing a more aggressive game.
Marcelo Drills
First there are a couple of different things you want to do, so I would do two separate drills and then combine them. The first one you will find on Marcelo’s first set, though it is not taught as a drill.
The pass/defense drill is a warm up that I have always liked to use before class. One guy is standing and the other guy is sitting up defending the pass. The goal is to push off and not let him control your hips.
In this version of the drill I want to lean forward, keep both hands in front of me and work to get my hooks in between his legs. If he pushes on my head I want to ignore it and keep working to get the hooks in as I scoot forward. I cannot let him control my ankles or knees. The drill is tougher since I have been training gi now because I have to be better at stripping the hands from my pants legs. But it makes it a better drill and much easier when I do it no gi.
So as I scoot forward I try to get my feet between his legs, and then kick both legs out to bring him down and get underhooks. But the changes I have added recently are:
Concentrate on his hands. Instead of just stripping them when they try to control my legs, I now want to grab both wrists, one wrist, gi sleeves, whatever I can. I want to make him defend the wrist grab instead of be the aggressor. This will often lead to arm drags, or make it easier to get my hooks.
Scoot back if he tries to step between your legs and get the foot on that side back between his legs. This will keep him from passing with a knee over the thigh. If he keeps stepping forward, keep scooting back and put the hook in. I like to work takedowns like the JJ Machado shin to shin sweep from here, but that I would add to the drill later. At first just try to control his hands and stop him from controlling your legs or stepping into a pass.
Note: How far you are leaning forward will make a major difference in the success of this drill. A couple of inches too far back and a good standing passer will be able to pick up your ankles or control your knees. Lean forward with your hands reaching for his hands and your feet no further in front of you than your arms if possible.
The next part is the drill from the knees:
The secret to this is how fast you can get one hook out and put the foot on his hip when he tries to control your hips or put you on your back.
Marcelo has this great way of controlling distance. He wants to get close to play his game, but if he is threatened he moves back with a foot on the hip.
One way he taught this was just let the guy try to put you on your back when you are in butterfly, then as you are going to your back just pull one foot out, put it on the hip and push off. This movement sets up the submissions that I mentioned.
So work on that movement until you are comfortable with it then add the attacks:
The attacker will put a hand on your neck. You have to do two things at once:
Pull the hook out and push on the hip as you take the opposite arm that he is using, cross it over your chest and put it on his elbow. Turn the elbow in as you push off with the foot and lie back. This will stretch him out and you can use both hands now on his arm for the inverted elbow lock for a submission.
Then add the omaplata.
The attacker will put a hand on your ribs as he attempts to push you on your back. Pin that hand tight to you with your arm, use the same foot on hip movement to push yourself back with the opposite leg of the side he is attacking with, and then throw the other leg over his arm as you fall back. This omaplata requires you to be all the way on your side to get the leg over the arm.
Also, practice this by letting him put you on your back, but before he gets your hips controlled completely, pull a hook out and put it on his side to push off. At the same time you can get the omaplata by pushing on his face as you throw the leg over his arm.
Timing is very important. If he has your hips controlled it is hard to get the foot out. So you must practice getting that foot out and on his hip before that happens.
The final drill is to let him start from his knees, but he can stand to pass or do any of the above attacks and you will attempt to control his hands, get arm drags, and push back for the inverted elbow lock or the omaplata. And then later add the takedowns
Robson Moura
Tonight my training partner, John Davis, and I did a 2 hour private with Robson Moura, a BJJ Black Belt.
Really can't say enough about the guy. I have trained and rolled with black belts but I have never seen anyone that truly understands the concept of non-attribute BJJ like this guy. Of course he is maybe 5'6", 145 lbs so he really has no choice. He says he plays a faster no-gi game, but with gi it is all technique.
We started out with butterfly guard passes. He had several combinations of passes but the main concept was to control one leg and step over the other one. Luis posted a guard pass clip much like this last week. But regardless of how he controlled one leg, what made the passes work was kicking the leg on the side you are passing really high to clear that hook, then blocking their hip in hard with your knee to complete the pass.
Then we worked his guard game. This is where I began to understand how a small guy can play open guard from bottom without using strength and power to keep from getting crushed.
He started in butterfly but went to one hip, something I have seen. I saw John Frankl teach that on a seminar dvd, as well as many others. I have never really been good at it though.
But what Robson did was sit to one side, then X guard the leg on that side. So he was on his side with an underhook or overhook, whatever they gave him, X guard on that thigh with the legs pushing out with some pressure, then it was the game that they played that determined what he did.
A couple of points here. I have been playing X guard for 2 years, trained with Marcelo twice, two private lessons with him, all of his dvd's, as well as Kestings X guard stuff. But it was never this easy.
The thing I have heard over and over is: how do you set up x guard? I have always waited for them to post or stand then go for the underhook on the leg, X guard the other one. Or lift them from butterfly or butterfly half guard, then underhook the leg.
The way Robson plays you can underhook the leg but you don't need to. When they work to free the leg, post a hand, put a hand on your knee or grab the pant leg you sweep them a number of ways or take their back.
He then went into gi control from this position with the lapel or by pulling the skirt out and wrapping it over their shoulder or back. He had combinations for an overhook and switching the grip a number of ways, then sweeping or finishing with a choke.
It was pretty amazing that while you are on your side, his thigh in the X guard position controlled by both your hooks, you have pleanty of time to play with his gi because if he trys to stop you you just lift him with the hooks and sweep him.
He can play the same game no gi by controlling the wrists, but he really has a preferred no gi guard game which is maybe what I keep hearing called an upside down guard. He starts with his feet on their hips, underhooks one leg and reverses his body as if he is going for a knee bar. He locks his hands together so he now has both arms wrapped around that leg. And again he sees what they give him.
Normally they will defend the knee bar, so he has combinations of omaplatas or arm bars that he sets up as they try to free themselves from the guard. One of the things I keep hearing people say about him is how flexible he is. That may be but I tend to think that has as much to do with the way he plays this guard and how much hip movement he has. It made him seem flexible I think because he was always moving his hips from side to side, much further than anyone I have trained with before.
We rolled with him for quite a while. His game is incredible...slow, and very technical. He is great at GI chokes and gets them just as you think you are passing his guard.
All in all the best two hours I have ever spent in Martial Arts. I love training with Marcleo, but when you roll with him you know you have been in a fight. And after training with him I started working the fast game that he is so good at and that at 45, I am not sure I can play for more than a few minutes at a time.
After the class with Robson, John and I started rolling/drilling on our own and it just made me want to get proper position, slow down, and see what he gave me.
There is a chance he will stay in South Florida. If so I will train with him as often as I can. If anyone has a chance to train with him do so.
Marcelo Garcia Seminar
I just finished a two day Marcelo Garcia seminar so I would like to share some of the information with you guys. I thought about how to present it and decided to let my friend Matt Kirtley put it into words as he does so well so here it is. For more outstanding information from Matt, check out www.aesopian.com
Enjoy!
Day One
The theme for the whole seminar was giving Marcelo a chance to teach the material he uses in his everyday training but rarely gets to teach since most people only want him to do seminars on his signature moves. Marcelo said he was grateful to get to take a break from teaching the standard armdrags, RNC and x-guard. He said he never holds anything back, but there are aspects to his game that he doesn’t get to teach much since he’s still developing new material that people don’t know to ask to learn. This was especially true of the second day, which revolved entirely around omoplatas, which is a game few people realize he plays.
The first day focused on taking the back and finishing the RNC, which you’d expect from a Marcelo seminar. But what made this different than usual was that Leo Kirby, the host, asked Marcelo to go into aspects of his game that aren’t given as much fanfare, like the crucifix and the finer points of using his hooks and maintaining back control. Leo has been to four previous seminars and as many private lessons with Marcelo, and yet almost everything in this one was brand new to him.
Here are my notes so far. I know at least one person at the seminar was glad I was there so they wouldn’t have to take their own. “I’ll just read yours online.”
Pulling guard from clinch to butterfly guard sweep
You’re in the clinch with your right hand underhooking (palm on the back) and your left hand cupping the elbow. Your knees are slightly bent and your hips are a little bit back.
Pull them down and sit into butterfly guard and immediately try to sweep them to your left. Sit to the right and rock back on your left side. Lift your right hook as high as you can.
Ideally, they can’t post with their right arm since you’re holding the elbow and have their hand trapped in your armpit and they go right over.
But let’s learn how to do it when it’s not that easy. Instead of being swept, they’re able to post with their right arm and leg.
Keep your right hook up, lifting their left leg so it never touches the ground. Scoot your shoulders back and to the right to create space. Step on their right thigh with your left foot.
Lift their thigh with your left foot, taking their foot off the ground. Make sure your foot doesn’t slip off their thigh. Keep your left elbow pinched to your ribs to trap their hand.
With both their feet in the air and their arm trapped, they’ll fall over and you’ll come up into side control with an underhook on the far arm.
Taking the crucifix as they escape side control to RNC
When you have side control, you want to underhook their far arm. If they have the underhook, it’s easier for them to turn into you and come to their knees. But let’s say that happens…
You have side control on their right side (so their head is to your left). They underhook your right arm and bridge and come to their knees to try to get a single leg takedown.
Keep pressure on them with your chest as they turtle. As soon as you feel them grabbing your right leg, and before they can get a deep grip on it, kick it up and away. Your knee comes completely off the ground and your foot points to the ceiling.
When you feel their hands slip off your right leg and touch the floor, circle your knee over and drop it behind their arm (between their elbow and knee). Turn the corner and come to sideride and get the harness grip.
As always with the harness, the hand that goes under their far armpit covers the hand that goes across their chest/neck. This is because the hand of the arm that does the choking is the most important one, and they’ll be trying to grab it to defend.
Keep your chest pulled tightly to their back. Keep your knee deep behind their elbow so they can’t hide it.
Step over their left forearm with your left foot and drag your heel in to pull their arm into the crucifix. Triangle your legs on the side nearest to their legs (so your left ankle behind your right knee).
Grab their right wrist with your right hand. They now have no arms to defend their neck. Crawl your left hand up their shoulder and shake your forearm to dig under their neck. Keep getting deeper and deeper until you can’t go any further. The crook of your elbow shoulder be right below their chin and your hand on the back of their shoulder. Now take out your right hand and slide it behind their head for a RNC.
Lean forward and touch your head on the ground to the left, putting the weight of your chest on the back of their head. Finish the (very mean) RNC.
Sit into crucifix and armlocks
You have sideride but they are trying to bring their elbow around your knee and tuck it in. Sit though, sliding your knee deeper. Pull them back as you lean back and sit. This exposes their arm, so you can throw your left leg over it and get the crucifix. Triangle your legs per above.
Keep pulling them and sitting until your back touches the ground. Don’t do this until you’ve got their arm trapped. They’ll fall back so they’re laying on your chest. Keep your harness grip tight so they don’t slide their back to the ground and start escaping.
Touch the toes of your right foot to the ground and open your left knee (the one closest to their head) as much as you can. Their wrist should be trapped under your calf or heel. Bridge, keeping your left knee pointing out, to elbow lock them.
If they turn their arm (like doing a thumbs down) to avoid the pressure, turn towards them, getting on your right side to find the proper angle again. Make sure their wrist didn’t slip out from behind your left heel. Bridge to armlock them again.
Crucifix to guillotine
They are turtled and you have the crucifix. They are defending their neck with their free hand so you can’t get the RNC.
Release the harness and turn towards them. Wrap their neck with your left arm, getting your wrist/forearm under their throat. Lean so your weight is on their head. Slide your right hand between their shoulder and your chest/stomach and grab your left wrist. Pull your left arm and punch it deeper, getting the crook of your elbow below their chin. Pull your elbows to your body.
Sit and throw your right leg as high over their back as possible (over their shoulder if you can). Torque your body towards their head and finish the guillotine choke.
Reverse omoplata
They are turtled and you have the crucifix. They cross their trapped arm back so it’s around your right leg, pointing towards their own knees.
Switch your triangle so it on the side closest to their head (right ankle behind left knee).
Release the harness and bring your right arm to the near side of their head and do a forward roll. Give your training partner a chance to roll too or you’ll hurt his shoulder.
As he lands on his back, sit up and reach across his body with your right arm.
Hold his chest down as you bring your right leg back and lift your hips for a shoulder lock.
Sideride to rear mount with arm trapped
You have sideride but are unable to get the crucifix since he’s grabbing your choking side arm with both hands and tucking his elbow.
Use your harness grip to pull him back at a diagonal. Don’t try to take him straight backwards, but back and towards you.
As he raises up, bring your left foot up and step on his left forearm with your heel. Kick it down to break his grip and trap it under your leg.
Keep pulling him back so he falls into rear mount. With your left leg pinning his arm, put your foot in his groin like a normal hook. Your top hook can go in like normal or do whatever else you feel like.
Grab his right wrist with your right hand to trap the other arm too. Walk your hand up his shoulder and dig and shake under his neck. Get your arm as deep as you possibly can before taking out your other arm and finishing the RNC.
Sideride to rear mount, cobra stretch to two hooks
You attempt the previous move but are unable to trap his arm. You are able to get the bottom hook in, but he touches his right knee to his elbow to block the top hook.
Get your bottom hook (left leg) really deep and cross your ankles behind him. Like this.
Stretch him out by bringing your legs back, bridging your hips in, arching your back and upper body. Keep your harness grip tight with your chest on his back.
With him stretched out, throw your right hook in.
Keeping him on the choking side
You have rear mount with the harness and both hooks. You want to keep them turned to the same side as the arm that will choke them, but they’ll usually try to prevent this.
Let’s say your right arm in the choking one. They bridge and get to the left side and drive their shoulders to the mat to try to escape. This stretches out your arms and breaks the harness grip.
Take your right hand and reach behind their head, grabbing your wrist with your left hand (which is still underhooking their armpit). This creates a frame behind their neck and locks their shoulder so they can’t continue the escape.
Take out your left hook and throw your right leg all the way over their stomach. Keeping your upper body grip, twist your body like you want to come up into mount. This creates a ton of pressure behind their neck and shoulders. Swing yourself behind them again and turn them to the right with the frame. This puts them back on to their right side, where you want them.
Release your special grip and go back to the harness.
Roll them belly down and mean RNC
You have rear mount. They are grabbing your arm with both hands and bridging on you, but not really trying to escape. They just want to stall out.
Bring your right hook out enough to put the sole of your foot on their thigh. Take out your left hook and post on the ground. Push on their leg with one foot and bridge with the other to roll them.
Follow them over and quickly throw your hooks in before they go totally belly down.
They’re now face down, but they still have your arms trapped.
Put your toes on the ground so your heels lift their thighs and legs entirely off the ground. Explosively drive your hips into them and arch your back up as you rip your arms out. Maintain this pressure on their back. Don’t lessen it by posting on the ground with your hands.
Grab their forehead with one arm and pull it up to expose their neck. The pressure of your hips in his spine makes it easy to lift their head. Drive your other arm across their neck. Get a gable grip and bring your elbow behind their back. Get the crook of your elbow in the middle of their throat and finish with a harsh Dan Severn RNC.
Marcelo Garcia Seminar Day Two
I’ve seen Marcelo criticized for teaching the same seminars wherever he goes, so that if you’ve been to one, you’ve seen them all. I don’t think this is his fault. Most people want to learn his signature moves and that’s what they pay him to teach, so he’s stuck showing nothing but armdrags, taking the back, RNC and x-guard. They’re all excellent techniques, but it can get tiring to teach the same stuff over and over again.
For example, at the first seminar, I had a chance to watch part of his private lesson with the hosts. They were asking him about techniques straight off his DVD. They also got to choose the topic of the seminar, so he mostly taught material I’d seen in his instructionals before. It was all great material, and it was nice to have him personal teaching it and correcting you, but it seemed somewhat redundant.
Having trained with him so many times now, Leo Kirby knew how much more Marcelo has to offer. He knew first-hand how he has an incredible omoplata game, a fact that’s only now getting noticed in recent footage of him rolling at a seminar, his training footage in Arte Suave and his match with Lovato Jr. It was this omoplata game that Leo asked Marcelo to show.
At the start of the second day, Marcelo said he was happy to get to teach us what he does in his everyday training. He said that it’d get boring to just do armdrags, x-guard and taking the back in sparring. He said he’s also always working on expanding his game into new areas, so he can improve and evolve to have other skills fall back on if his main ones fail.
Counter double leg takedown with omoplata
You’re both standing and they shoot for a double leg takedown. Ideally, you sprawl and break their grips and defend it, since you don’t want to give up the 2 points. But here’s what you can do if you can’t stop them.
As you’re resisting the takedown but feel yourself about to go down, note which side their head is on. Let’s say to your left.
Shove their head to the side with your left hand. Squat and sit to the right (so you turn to face to the left), opening your legs wide. Swing your right leg over their back, bringing your heel towards the back of their head for the omoplata. Make sure their arm is wrapping your thigh with their wrist by your right hip.
Continuing the same motion, drive your right knee to the ground, putting as much weight in your leg (and their shoulder) as you can. Escape your hips slightly to the left. Force their shoulder to the floor.
I watched Marcelo going over this with the guys next to me. He made a point of throwing his hips forward on to their shoulder like he wanted to sit on it, so as much body weight as he possible drove it down.
Sit up and grab over their back before they can roll to escape. Reach under their far armpit with your right hand. Reach behind their neck and over their shoulder with your left hand. Join your hands however you can or just grab their far shoulder. This grip prevents them from rolling out or posturing up.
Fold your legs to the left so your feet are on the floor near each other. Lean forward and try to stand to get the submission.
Marcelo showed how you can do this to any double leg, regardless of if it’s from standing or them escaping side control or coming up into it from guard.
Omoplata from butterfly guard
You are sitting with butterfly guard and they are kneeling. You are playing the normal game of hand fighting and getting underhooks for sweeps.
You get an underhook with your right arm and grab their elbow with your left hand so you can sweep them.
They counter by pummeling their left arm in and getting double underhooks and driving in, starting to put you on your back.
You need to get a foot on their hip and push them away before they’ve flattened you out entirely. You want to create enough space to work your game but not so much that they are too far away.
Let’s say you step on their hip with your right foot. Push them back enough that your right knee can come up behind their armpit.
Keep their arm trapped in your armpit by grabbing their triceps just above their elbow and pinching your elbow to your ribs to trap their wrist.
Push their head to the left with your left hand. Swing your right leg over their back and into the omoplata. Drive the weight of your leg and hips into his shoulder and touch it to the ground. Finish as described before.
Armlock from butterfly guard
When you go for the last move and they feel you’re about to go for the omoplata, they’ll straighten their arm and try to posture up to pull their arm out.
As they start to posture, bring your other foot to their hip too. Pinch your knees, squeezing their shoulder between them. Keep a good grip on their elbow/triceps and pinch your elbow to trap their wrist and prevent them from turning it. Bridge really, really high to elbow lock them.
If they are able to turn their wrist and bend their arm to defend, just switch back to the omoplata.
This is a speed move that takes very good timing, so you need to drill it a lot to get it. You have to hit it as they try to pull their arm out, so you’ve got to be fast and throw your hips really high.
Marceloplata from butterfly guard
You’re going for the omoplata from butterfly guard. They try to stop your omoplata by grabbing your bottom leg so you can’t turn out all the way.
Stretch your right leg so your foot and ankle are across their face. It’s important that you keep this pressure and contact throughout the move.
Turn your body to the left and try to come to your knees. By turning to your knees, you create tremendous pressure on their shoulder and force them to roll. Be careful with this so you don’t hurt your training partner.
Hold their elbow with your left hand and post with your right to maintain control of their arm and stay tighter as you turn over.
You need to make sure you keep your leg stretched with your ankle across their face throughout all of this turning and rolling. It tends to get loose if you don’t pay attention to it and you’ll lose the submission.
Keep rotating as they roll over so you come to an “armbar” position as they land on their back. What makes this different than an armbar is that their arm is still bent around your hip, which changes the mechanics of finishing it.
Make sure your right ankle is still on their face. Your left leg is across their torso. Hold their elbow with your left hand to control it. Post on the mat with your right arm (the arm that’s on the same side as their head).
To finish, grab your right knee with your left hand and pull your knee to the left. Switch your hips so you’re sitting towards their head. The strength of this submission comes from sitting towards their head so your hips and torso are cranking the arm. Stay tight to their shoulder and don’t try to lay back like in an armbar. They’ll submit to a strong shoulder lock.
If you did slip down their arm some, it may be an elbow lock instead. If their arm comes out from being wrapped around your hip, you’ve still got a plain armbar sitting there.
Marceloplata from half guard pass
These next three build on the way Marcelo teaches passing half guard in all his instructionals. Being familiar with those passes will make these much easier to learn, since they assume you’re already somewhat comfortable with them.
You’re on the top of half guard. Let’s say your right leg is trapped. They have double underhooks, so you’re in danger of them taking your back.
Hug their head with your left arm and crossface them with your shoulder. Turn towards their legs. Switch your base so your left knee is bent under their butt and your left toes are on the mat (to keep them from bridging you over). Your right foot is on the ground near their butt with your knee pointing up.
A good tip on maintaining this position is to grab their ankle with your right hand so they can’t open the triangle and bridge.
When you feel they’re not going to bridge you over, let go of their ankle and push their thigh down until your right knee slips out. Once it does, turn towards them again and drive your knee over like you want to come into mount.
You now almost have mount, except your right ankle is still trapped between their legs. They also still have double underhooks.
Take a big, strong step forward with your left leg. Your foot should end on the ground behind their head. Your shin comes up behind their neck and shoulder. Press your knee to the right, towards their head.
Pinch your left elbow to keep their arm trapped. Push their face to the floor with your right hand and pass your foot over their face. Sit to the ground but stay tight to their shoulder and don’t fall away. Finish as described above.
Marceloplata from reverse half guard pass
You’re on top of half guard and they have double underhooks. This time they reach down with their right arm and try to underhook your leg, like this want to come underneath your hips.
Crossface them and sprawl your leg back before they grab it too deeply. Post on the mat with both hands to support yourself. Switch your hips and swing your left leg around so you end up sitting on their other side.
This takes your left leg away from them so they’ll switch to double underhooks on your upper body again.
Your right leg is still trapped. Your left leg is posting out to prevent them from bridging you over. Your hands are still on the mat with your chest facing their chest.
You need to get your knee out of their half guard. This will happen two ways.
First, for them to come to their knees, they need to open their legs. When they start to, slide your knee out and bring it to the mat. It doesn’t matter if your ankle is trapped still.
The second way is just that some people will slide down to your ankle on purpose since that’s how they play half guard.
As soon as your knee is out, swing your left leg back over and come into “mount” as shown in the picture above. Finish the submission as usual.
Marceloplata from spinning half guard pass
Marcelo wasn’t sure he should teach this, since he thought it would confuse too many people, but he did anyway since he felt it was important to really understand what he’s doing with this half guard and Marceloplata game.
As in the previous move, they have half guard and are underhooking your leg. This time they are able to get deep under you like they want to go out the backdoor before you can crossface or sprawl out.
Post with your right hand on the mat for balance. Push their shoulder down with your left hand. Step over their head with your left leg and swing it forward. Spin to your right, going almost 180 degrees as you turn to face them. Unless they want their arms to be trapped (in which case you just pass like normal), they get underhooks again. So you end in the same position used in the last move.
This time your knee will usually come out as you spin, since they have to open their legs to get the momentum to rock under you.
Once your knee is out, step over into “mount” and finish like usual.
Omoplata as they escape side control
You have side control on their right side but they get the underhook. As they bridge into you and turn on their side, quickly throw your right leg over into mount. Step with your foot behind their neck, similar to the picture above (only this time you’re not in half guard).
Reach back with your right hand and grab their wrist to push their arm down so it’s wrapping your hip.
Fall to your right, throwing your right leg over their head as you go. Put a ton of pressure into their shoulder with your leg to first force them up to their knees and immediately down so their shoulder touches the mat. Sit up and finish like a normal omoplata as per above.
Marceloplata as they escape side control
The same side control situation as above. This time when you step over into mount, they push your left foot into half guard. Just make sure to keep weight on your left knee so they don’t put it in too, then proceed to do the Marceloplata like usual.
Omoplata as they force the side control escape
This time, you’ve got a big guy who is going to force his way up even if you get mount. As you step over, he just keeps getting to his knees anyway and bowls you over. Simply fall backwards and omoplata him like usual.
Hello
When Darren said he was going to do a Leo Page for his web site I thought he was joking. But I am very honored that he was serious.
Darren and I "met" a couple of years ago when I made a thread on the SBG website about a half guard game I was playing. We found out that much of our BJJ game had been developing in the same way. We began sharing e-mails, videos, (well…he did. I promised him one for about 6 months before I first started doing video clips) and discussing training and competition and other aspects of the Martial Arts. His information has made a huge impact on my game.
During these discussions I also found that much of our Martial Arts backgrounds were similar. I spent years in traditional Martial Arts (Kempo and Kempo-Jui-jitus with some basic Judo training) as did Darren before discovering 'live arts." For me it was kick boxing, Shootfighting, and then finally Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, which I have been training in exclusively for the last 6 years.
But more importantly I found that our training philosophy and beliefs were alike. Especially this, which was taken from the question and answer section on his web site:
"Go ahead and train with whomever you choose. There is just one condition……if you learn some cool stuff, bring it back and share it with all of us."
This is my belief also. I think a person should train where he or she wants, take what he or she can, and share with as many people as possible. This makes you a better Martial Artist and helps this sport to grow. In the end there are no "secrets" anyway.
I am fortunate enough to live in South Florida where there is an over-abundance of BJJ instructors. I train at a gym with 3 black belts. The head instructor is Edson Diniz, a 2nd degree black belt and 1999 world BJJ champion and he has held two titles in MMA.
I have also spent the last 2 years training with Marcelo Garcia as often as possible. I have attended 5 of his seminars, and taken 5 private lessons with him, hosting the last one at our gym.
Since Darren was nice enough to give me my own page I will share everything I can from my instructors, from Marcelo's seminars (both past and in the future) and from any other source that I can find. I feel like I am Darren's Combat Base Representative in South Florida and I am happy to call him my friend.
Leo