Pretzel Foot Pass
This is an open guard pass to use when your opponents has their feet on your hips and a same side collar sleeve grip set.
Start standing. Your opponent is on the on the ground, feet on your hips, gripping your right arm, with their left, and your collar, with their right.
1. Grab their lapel with you right (trapped) arm.
2. Stuff their foot on your free side between your legs and prepare to smash their knees down. -grab their foot above their toes -step back with your leg on that side as you push the foot down between your legs. -When their foot’s between your legs, clam them together so it doesn’t pop out.
3. Smash their legs down. grab the top of their knee with your free hand as you drop your right knee down, stapling their left leg. Keeping your lapel grip with your right hand, move yoru elbow so that it is up on top of their knees, pinning their knees down to the side. Next, slide your left knee up behind their knees. Once you’re heavy, on top of their knees, reach around and grab the back of their jacket with your free have.
4. Free your trapped right leg by kicking it back as you keep your other knee, your left knee, up behind their knees.
5. Pretzel time. (This details is awkward, but important and protects you from ending up in half guard or back in guard.) while keeping your left knee behind their knees, rotate your left foot and ankle over and across both their feet so that you ar stapling them down.
6. Finish the Pretzel. Now move your right knee (this was the trapped leg) up and over their legs. Placing your right knee down between their knees and your left knee.
7. Unstaple and roll them back to side control. Keep your lapel grip. kick your feet around. sag heavy on their chest as you roll them back towards you with the lapel grip and establish side control. (the lapel grip stops them from turtling away from you.)
Rumino Sato is a legend in MMA and submission Grappling know mainly for his dynamic and flying attacks. Here is a highlight and a recent match. Don’t try this stuff at home…….
Starting in Closed Guard – to attack their right arm, your left side
1. Swim with hands and lift knees forward to pull them down onto you
2. Over hook left arm, bicep check right arm as you hip escape back onto your right hip
3. Immediately kick your left leg up across their shoulder to keep them from posturing
4.From the previous position, the trigger position, hit the Oma Plata by kicking the left leg over in front of their face. Post on their hip with your other foot, your right foot to help you rotate and continue to trap the arm you are attacking by pulling their elbow down onto your hip with the over hook hand.
5. To flatten them, kick your attacking leg straight.
6. Figure four your legs and switch the hands so that your right hand is pushing thier trapped hand against your hip.
To Finish
1. Sit-up over their back
2. Grab their far arm with both your hands (you can let go of the hand now)
3. lift your hips.
To Sweep to side control (If you’re having trouble sitting up or if they are too tall)
1. Grab their pants below the knee with your left hand (you should now both be flat. they are belly down, their head by your feet. your are belly up, your head by their feet.)
2. Stay straight and roll them over your body.
3. Walk your legs towards you, away from their head, and establish side control.
Posture is key when escaping a closed Triangle Choke. Here is a series of counters to escape, based on how tight the triangle is and where your body is.
Escaping the Loosely Closed Triangle:
If your opponent has just shot the triangle (perhaps you were just in their closed guard) the first thing to do is get posture by pointing your head up, and scooting your hips forward. You should be your head and hips should be in a striagh line and perpendicular to the floor. Form this safe position, you can open the triangle by grabbing your opponents front knee or their front hip with both hands and pushing out to open.
Escaping the Tighter Triangle:
If the triangle is tighter and your head is lower and closer to their hips you’re in more danger. From here, if your opponent is pulling on your head, remove their grips off the back of your head with your free arm and then work to frame your arms. (Framing your amrs means you are sliding your trapped arm’s forearm across your opponents hips and clasping your hands and pushing down to create space. Structurally, this is like a “frame” and provides a brace for you against your opponents hips. )
To Frame:
Push the their grips off the back of your head (mentioned previously above.) Next, before they can get the grips back, hold their bicep on the side of your free arm. Pull your trapped arm across. Let go of the bicep, frame, and immediately posture.If you can frame and make distance, then go for the escape above,
If You Cannot Frame:
It’s not over yet. Push off the grip. hold their bicep. on the bicep side, reach you foot forward to pin that arm, placing your foot in their armpit. Flop onto your hip on that side. kick your other leg over as you arch back to break the triangle. Now that those feet are in your face, maybe hit a leg lock?
Survival Secrets from the Griffiths Files:
From the Triangle Master come these little known tips for survival in the face of a tight and menacing triangle. This insight has mainly to do with breathing and maintaining enough space to breath. If you’re in a really tight triangle, and your arm is flat across your neck, this trapped arm will be putting pressure on your neck, making it hard to breath. The more this arm is flexed, the more pressure it will exert on your neck. So, relax the trapped arm and turn your head to face your elbow. If you’re relaxed with your head turned, it will be very hard for the guy to finish you. From this stall position, try to get lock hands and slide your framing forearm across your opponents hops so you can start to fight for posture. Once your arms are in the proper position to push up to frame, the triangle may still be very tight. Again, try to relax the trapped arm and this time turn your head towards you trapped shoulder as you attempt to push up to frame.
Here Kenny Florian shows a creative finish from the back in the gi. Kenny gave Josh Griffiths his Black Belt, is the number 1 contender in the UFC, and is currently teaching in Boston.
The clean and press is an excellent compound movement for jiu jitsu practitioners. Here Jiu Jitsu Inc Strength and Conditioning coach and owner or High Performance Fitness, Clay Burwell shows this lift.
Awesome match with Andre Galvao from the recent ADCC trials.
Check out at 0:45 and 7:48. Really cool stuff
Clockwork BJJ is conveniently located by Union Square in NYC and prides itself as being New York’s premier ego free BJJ training facility.
At Clockwork Jiu Jitsu we want to pass on the many benefits of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) and Submission Grappling. We offer programs that help everyone from the total beginner to the advanced student looking to take their game to the next level.
We are also proud to announce the start of our kids BJJ program. Learn more about our kids martial arts classes in NYC.
Josh Griffiths, the head 
instructor at Clockwork Jiu Jitsu – is known for his quality instruction, accessibility, and being able to create an ego free learning environment.
A black belt instructor is always on the mat teaching and answering questions that come up in class.
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Josh Griffiths
Here are the 2 techniques to open the closed guard from class this week. The first one, the “Lunge” does not require the player inside the closed guard to stand up. the second on, the “Sleeve ‘n Stand”, does.
“The Lunge”:
Grab the gi above belt and hold. you don’t need to apply pressure. (Keep your elbow on the inside of your opponents leg to avoid an oma plata.)
With your other hand, grab your opponents waist above their hip, and place your elbow inside their thigh. (This hand will be opening the guard and checking their hip.)
Nest, put your knee, on the gi grip side, next to their tailbone.
Open the guard by kicking the other leg back, like a “lunge”, posting on your toes on that leg, and then rotating your heel down as you twist your hips and push with the tailbone knee to pop the guard open.
“The Sleeve ‘n Stand”:
Start this pass by securing the lapels grip, but this time turn your palm so that your knuckle face your opponent and your palm is down. You will be using this hand to keep them down, should they try to pop up as you stand.
With your free hand, grab one of their sleeves by rolling your fingers under the outside of their sleeve and turning your palm up as you close your fist.
Pull this sleeve grip up to your hip, keeping your elbow inside their thigh.
Stand by rocking laterally and planting your sleeve-grip side foot and then stepping up with the other one. (Always step with the sleeve-grip side foot first to avoid the sweep.)
Once you are standing, release the lapels and grab the inside of their knee with that hand.
To open the guard, lean away from the knee as you straighten that arm. Once the arm is locked, lean down on that knee to pop the guard open.
*You must maintain posture or neither of these will work.
