'Superhero Landing' posture inside guard

I have completely gotten out of the habit of posting up classes on here, as I've been using a spreadsheet since last year instead. Much more efficient! But I do want to keep using this blog to collate Instagram videos like in previous posts, especially as Instagram has gotten increasingly annoying about listing all the vids on a hashtag. ;)

First up, I wanted to save the vids I took of my classes on the 'superhero landing' posture inside guard. I labelled it as 'superhero pose' on the vids, as that's one syllable less: not sure which one I prefer yet. The former is more descriptive, the latter is quicker to say. Anyway, I learned it from Chris Paines at the Artemis BJJ München Camp 2023 (I'll most likely do more camps there, in which case you can book them here). It is a posture I can remember Priit showing at one of his mega long weekend seminars at Chris' gym a few years back. As it was Priit, I found the explanation confusing and it never really stuck, despite several hours of Priit lectures.

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Chris is an excellent Priit translator. In the space of about a minute, he was able to condense that down and make it very easy to understand. I've tried to continue that process, so I'm slapping a hopefully evocative name on it, with a few simple points to explain the mechanics. I called it superhero landing because it looks much like the pose you always see superheroes do when they hit the floor after flying in to stop the villain. Specifically, that's a three point landing (I guess technically four, but mainly three): hand, foot, knee. You can argue the foot of the knee leg makes it four points, but there isn't much weight on the foot back there.

That same position works surprisingly well inside guard, with a few tweaks. Imagine there is a stick running from the top of your head to your tailbone, that needs to stay in alignment. You also want to keep everything pointed forwards, particularly your knees. The hand on the ground breaks the usual rule of guard top that you don't put your hand on the mat. However, because of the positioning and alignment, you are putting all your weight through that arm, meaning it way less vulnerable to kimura and the like.

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The hand also doesn't have to be on the mat (I'll often base off my fist, that feels more comfortable). You can put that hand on their collar, or probably the best of all, on their arm pinning it to the mat. Another good option is getting that arm by their head, if you manage to move up their body enough. You can then effectively cross-face them by placing it tight enough to their head to drive their ear towards their shoulder, misaligning the spine.

Chris told us at the camp that he's had his gym do this and pretty much nothing else for about 2 years. That has resulted in everybody having to get much better at guard, because you have to work harder to break it down when somebody gets good at using this posture. I'm planning to incorporate this into my classes on passing, eventually I'll work it up into a seminar I can teach at camps. It combines well with how I already teach my passing intro, so I think there's plenty of scope to play with it more.

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28/09/2022 - Teaching | Closed Guard | Posture & grip breaks (top)

Teaching #Evening
Artemis BJJ (Easton Road), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 28/09/2022



First thing I wanted to cover was posture. Stay upright, with your head up, thrusting your hips a little forward. Curving your back slightly, arching it like a cat (so, convex rather than concave), can help too. Avoid them bending your arms, also trying to put your weight through one arm into their hip. It is important to control their hips, as they need to angle off to attack effectively (though there are other methods, like Christian Graugart's 'samurai sword' grip, where both arms are near the chest). Your other hand is ready to push them down if they attempt to raise their torso towards you, or more typically, gripping both collars and keeping their back on the mat.

Be aware that you don't want to extend that arm too far or they can break your posture: it's also likely that they will primarily be looking to dislodge your arm and gain control of it, so be ready to disengage and then quickly re-engage the grip. Having said that, there are numerous other ways of posturing up, so it's good to experiment.



For a strong base, widen your knees, sitting on your heels. Alternatively, you could try squeezing your knees to their hips to stop them moving, but that will result in a less sturdy base. Make sure you do not put your elbows on the outside of their legs: keep them inside, or they can start kicking up into your armpit for triangles, armbars, flower sweeps etc.

A key detail is to come up on your toes. This will feel uncomfortable at first, but it provides you with much better base than having your insteps flat on the floor. With your toes up, you can resist their attempts to pull you around. It also enables you to drive forward and improves your mobility.

Another way they'll be looking to disrupt your base is to angle their hips away. To prevent that, you can simply follow them, making sure you keep squaring back up so they don't have that attacking angle anymore. You could also try caging their hips by squeezing your knees together, but that can result in a less stable base.

In order to attack, they are going to want to disrupt your base and break your posture down. The first way they'll probably do that is to establish a strong grip, on your sleeve and collar. You don't want that, so try to strip grips before beginning your pass. Not to say that it's impossible to pass if they've got grips, but you'll find it easier if they don't.



If they grab your collar, you can use both of your hands to grab either side of that sleeve or wrist. Push it forcefully away from you, while simultaneously leaning back slightly. Another option is to put both your hands on their gripping arm, trapping it to their torso. Posture up forcefully to break the grip. Alternatively, you could try simply re-establishing your grips on their collar and hip over the top of their arms, meaning you can press your arms into theirs. That way, it's possible to use arm pressure to loosen their grips to the point they become less effective.

By contrast, you can also use their grips against them. If they grab your sleeve, adjust your hand to grab their sleeve too. You can then pull up on it and stand up, putting your leg forward on the trapped sleeve side. Similarly, if they grab your collar, you can use your same side hand to grab them back on their sleeve, then again stand up.


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Teaching Notes: I tried a slightly different format this time, which I want to do again next time, but with more structure. There is too much detail in the current version, but most of it is important. A way to split it would be high energy output vs low energy output, which I think would have enough to them to make a separate lesson.

For high energy output, I can go through the gi grip breaks, meaning sleeve push/pull (mentioning the Gragugart "they grip, you grip back" thing), two hands to strip the collar grip and the leg grip break. It's important to mention that while this is risky because it leaves your posture vulnerable, if you do it quickly enough you can get away with it. Also, always establish a grip afterwards. Either you are pinning with one hand, or if you end up with a cross-grip, switch to grabbing with both hands so you can free up an arm to push down on their leg when you need it (the same side grip will be pulling up o the arm). More I could add here, possibly.

For low energy output, that's the re-establishing your arm over the top. If they break you fully down, safety position with head in arms. If they get your arm across, put up your same side leg to recover your arm (never the opposite side leg, or they will sweep you). I think there is more that I could add here, something to think about for the next time closed guard month comes up. These are the vids I have so far, so watch these before next time:

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28/07/2021 - Teaching | Closed guard | 2-on-1 grip break to back take

Teaching #962
Artemis BJJ (Easton Road), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 28/07/2021

When they have the standard grips from closed guard, with one hand grabbing your collars by your chest and the other back by the hip, the two-on-one grip break is a good one to try. Gather their sleeve in your fist (i.e., a pistol grip), then your other hand goes underneath their arm, grabbing your own wrist. The positioning here matters: you want to get the sleeve grip with your arm on the inside.

With that configuration, you can either punch straight up to break their grip, or angle your hips away slightly. Make sure that you maintain your grip on their sleeve, straightening your arm. You want to push their arm across their body, while simultaneously pulling in with your knees. The intention is to collapse them on top of their arm. Due to the grip configuration, your outside hand can reach around to their far armpit. Hook your fingers in for a solid hold, then twist your elbow in firmly. Combined with your stiff-arming sleeve grip, that should rotate their torso and make it hard for them to turn back towards you.



If their head is on your chest, that's the time to go for the swivel kick sweep. If you've dropped them by your armpit, the back take is a better option. You can then shrimp slightly away from them, keeping your bottom foot in tight to act as your first hook. Make sure your chest stays glued to their back, while your hips move away to create a space to drop them into. If shrimping isn't enough, use the heel of your top foot to dig into their hip, spinning them into back control. Also be sure to leave enough space by the hips for them to drop into, while also staying tight with your chest to their back.

If for reason you can't complete the back take that way, you can also try coming up and swivelling around onto their back. Another alternative, from Andre Anderson's old SWEEP DVD, is to base out on both your hands. Walk those hands back, which will put you straight into technical mount. You already have the hook due to the previous position, which becomes the leg blocking their hip in technical mount.


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Teaching Notes: As ever, emphasise moving hips back as you're shifting away with your legs to get the back. You need to drop into that space, so have to create it with your lower body, while still keeping your chest tight to back. You don't want to drop them onto your leg. Could spend more time on tech mount switch, also swivelling to the back.

26/07/2021 - Teaching | Closed Guard | Armbar from 2-on-1 grip break

Teaching #961
Artemis BJJ (7 Easton Road), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 26/07/2021

An armbar is one of the various options you have off the standard 2-on-1 grip break. For that grip break, gather their opposite sleeve in your fist (i.e., a pistol grip), then your other hand goes underneath their arm, grabbing your own wrist.

With that configuration, you can either punch straight up to break their grip, or angle your hips away slightly. Make sure that you maintain your grip on their sleeve, straightening your arm. You want to push their arm across their body, while simultaneously pulling in with your knees. The intention is to collapse them on top of their arm. Due to the grip configuration, your outside hand can reach around to their far armpit. You would then normally hook your fingers in for a solid hold, then twist your elbow in firmly. Combined with your stiff-arming sleeve grip, that should rotate their torso and make it hard for them to turn back towards you.

For this armbar, you will instead grip firmly around their back, swimming your other arm under their same side armpit. That means you can lock your hands behind their back, in order to keep their arm firmly stuck. Push off their hip to swivel, angling your body perpendicular to them. From here, you can then push their head out of the way with your head/collar grip. That should make it easier to bring your hip-pushing leg over their head. At this point, you can switch to grasping their wrist with your hand if necessary, or wrap over the top with your arm. Squeeze your knees together, lift your hips and pull down gradually on their wrist for the tap

A common problem is that your partner will 'stack' you up onto your shoulders, making it difficult (though not impossible) to finish the technique. This is a common problem with the triangle too. To prevent that situation, push with your legs, as well as really knocking your partner's posture when you kick across with the armpit leg. You can also 'walk' back on your shoulders to recover a more extended position if they are squashing you. Finally, angling the leg you have by their head can help (like on Adam Adshead's old DVD), as that makes it tougher for them to push into you.

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Teaching Notes: I haven't taught this particular set up for the armbar before, but it feels like a handy additional option off the 2 on 1 grip break I often teach. The tricky bit is the rotation, to position yourself perpendicular. I found that looping your same side arm under their arm bit with the other around the head made for a solid control, leaving your legs free to push and swivel you into position.

21/07/2021 - Teaching | Closed Guard | Swivel Kick Sweep

Teaching #960
Artemis BJJ (Easton Road), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 21/07/2021

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What I've so far been calling the windscreen wiper sweep is something I was first shown by Ciaran at the Belfast Throwdown. That's also the terminology he used. I next saw it demonstrated on Andre Anderson's closed guard DVD, where he called it the 'Rey Diogo sweep', naming it after his instructor. John Will does something similar he dubs the 'bearhug ankle lift', except that his grips are different. I think I'm going to start referring to it as a 'swivel kick sweep' from now on in the interests of being descriptive. It also highlights the part of the sweep most people forget to do, so hopefully calling it that will help students remember the important bit.

You have various options for grips, but I tend to start by grabbing their same side trouser leg. Another common variation is off the two on one grip break. It starts much the same as the back take from the same grip break (and indeed combines well, you can switch between those techniques). Gather their sleeve in your fist (i.e., a pistol grip), then your other hand goes underneath their arm, grabbing your own wrist. The positioning here matters: you want to get the sleeve grip with your arm on the inside.

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With that configuration, you can either punch straight up to break their grip, or angle your hips away slightly. Make sure that you maintain your grip on their sleeve, straightening your arm. You want to push their arm across their body, while simultaneously pulling in with your knees. The intention is to collapse them on top of their arm. Due to the grip configuration, your outside hand can reach around to their far armpit. Hook your fingers in for a solid hold, then twist your elbow in firmly. Combined with your stiff-arming sleeve grip, that should rotate their torso and make it hard for them to turn back towards you.

Grab either the outside of their knee or the lower part of their trousers (keeping in mind you don't want your fingers inside the cuff of their trousers). Be careful, as if your opponent knows this sweep, they may post their other leg out to stop you. Put your same side foot by that other leg, keeping it tight so there is no room for them to wriggle. If you can get their wrist up in order to grab it and pull the arm around their head (known as a gift wrap), that will make the switch much easier, but it is possible to do the sweep without.

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To get an optimal angle for this sweep, swivel your body perpendicular. You should end up looking into their ear, in a similar motion to Ryan Hall's triangle finish, or the armbar. You can then kick your leg into their side, fitting with Hall's theory of bringing larger muscle groups to bear rather than small ones. You are kicking directly forwards, using your hamstring, rather than swinging your leg over, which would use your abductors. Lift their leg (either a trouser grip or hooking under the leg, if they step up) and roll into mount.

You should end up in a solid low mount. I'd suggest immediately staying low and grabbing their head, focusing on solidifying the mount before you continue. Keep hold of their leg, as well as the sleeve if you gripped it earlier, extending that sleeve forwards. Holding the leg makes it hard for them to bridge, while holding the sleeve and straightening the arm could lead directly into a submission, such as an americana. To further help with that, slide your knee up on the sleeve grip side, so they can't bring their elbow back to their side.

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That's the variation I find works best for me, hence calling it swivel kick. It works well off the leg clamp too, as well as off other ways of getting to a back take from closed guard.

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Teaching Notes: Nothing much to add, I'm pretty confident about this one. As ever I'm emphasising the gift wrap, so for next time it would be good to practice other grips a bunch, as well as follow ups when things go wrong. I'm going to teach an armbar from that same position, that should bring up some more stuff to think about for next time.

19/07/2021 - Closed Guard | Maintaining | Breaking Grips & Posture

Teaching #959
Artemis BJJ (Easton Road), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 19/07/2021




To attack the closed guard, you are generally going to have to break down your opponent's posture first. That begins from your positioning in the closed guard. Bring your hips up into them to take away space, making it harder for them to start opening your guard. Keep your knees up into their armpits if possible, walking your legs up their back when you can. Your legs are much stronger than your arms: make sure you're using both to break their posture. Alternatively, to make it hard for them to stand up, you can bring your feet down while they're locked behind their back.



If they have managed to get their hands on you, the most basic method of breaking posture is probably pulling their elbows out and then towards you. This is particularly handy if they've got both hands on your hips, or something like that. Using your legs is key here, to help you pull them forwards. If they have one elbow digging back into your leg and you can't pull it back with one hand, reach across with both, then yank that elbow back. This could have the added advantage of enabling you to pull that arm to the other side of your body, very useful for attacking.



The same applies if they want to stand. Carefully time the right moment, then as soon as you feel their bum rise away from their heels, pull your knees towards your chest. That should knock them back onto the ground. It could also put you in a better position than before, as they may end up falling into you, meaning you can get superior control. Ideally, they'll make the mistake of posting on their hands, as that means you can go for various attacks, like the kimura. As Jason Scully advises, you don't have to just pull straight towards you: twisting can knock them right into an omoplata, or at worst help you to start creating angles.

If you want to maintain closed guard, then you need to stop them setting up their pass. If they try to pass from the knees, the first thing they normally do is put a knee into your tailbone, or somewhere else on your bottom. The easy way to scupper that is to grab onto the gi material by their knee and shift your hips back over to the middle. That can be very frustrating for the person trying to pass, which is good for distracting them and working an opening to attack. On the downside, it can consume a fair bit of energy, as you might find yourself doing it repeatedly if they're really persistent. Another option is a very simple sweep from Henry Akins, where you just pop your hips over to the opposite side and knock them over.

When they have the standard grips from closed guard, with one hand grabbing your collars by your chest and the other back by the hip, the two-on-one grip break is a good one to try. Gather their sleeve in your fist (i.e., a pistol grip), then your other hand goes underneath their arm, grabbing your own wrist. The positioning here matters: you want to get the sleeve grip with your arm on the inside. With that configuration, you can either punch straight up to break their grip, or angle your hips away slightly.



Make sure that you maintain your grip on their sleeve, straightening your arm. You want to push their arm across their body, while simultaneously pulling in with your knees. The intention is to collapse them on top of their arm. Due to the grip configuration, your outside hand can reach around to their far armpit. Hook your fingers in for a solid hold, then twist your elbow in firmly. Combined with your stiff-arming sleeve grip, that should rotate their torso and make it hard for them to turn back towards you. You can now shrimp slightly away from them, keeping your bottom foot in tight to act as your first hook.

Shrimping away may be enough to drop them into back control. If not, use the heel of your top foot to dig into their hip, spinning them into back control. You can also use that same grip break to move into the overhook guard. Pull the sleeve behind your hand, bring your elbow from inside to outside. Reach through for their opposite collar and lock in your elbow, then you have lots of attacks from that overhook guard (overhook choke, triangle, sweep, pressing armbar, etc).



My favourite option builds on the simple posture break, as I like to weave my hands into a shoulder clamp. When you pull them down, reach one hand under the armpit, the other around their head. Lock your hands palm to palm (this is known as a 'gable grip', clamping down on their shoulder. When the time is right, loop your arm over their head, tightening your grip even more firmly by their shoulder. You can now start to angle off, rotating your hips in the direction of that shoulder, bringing your knee up their back to press their head down. This sets you up for pressing armbars, omoplatas, backtakes, etc. Swimming through to an overhook is another option.

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Another option, which I made up a while ago but I am sure I'm not the first to use it, is to bend that arm in a different way. Grab their collar, then weave your same side arm inside, aiming to bend their elbow. You can then switch directly into a shoulder clamp.



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Teaching Notes: Wow, I did NOT expect it to be over a year and half later until I could teach normally again! Today social distancing has been dropped, which certainly makes teaching much easier. Naturally there are various other major worries, given how utterly incompetent the mendacious bunch of arseholes in the Tory govt are, but in terms of training at least, I'm confident we can get back to almost normal in a way that is relatively safe (we have lots of measures in place, like the beefy ventilation system I had installed).

Class went well. I spoke too long (10 mins, I usually aim for 5 mins), but then this was the first one back and there were a bunch of new beginners. Next time, I can cut down the amount of chat about closed guard as a theory etc, concentrating more on the posture breaks.

26/02/2020 - Teaching | Closed Guard | Opening from kneeling

Teaching #942
Artemis BJJ (Easton Road), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 26/02/2020



The basic method of opening from the knees starts by setting up your own grips, grabbing both collars with one hand, by their chest, your other hand by their hip. Dónal has a handy tip about twisting up those two collars, rolling them over each other so that there is no slack when you grip, though that may sometimes be tough to secure.

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Also try to jam your palm or fist into their sternum to lock it in place. Regarding your hand on the hip, measure your gripping position by bringing your elbow back to their knee. Once your elbow gets to their knee, grab whatever trouser material is then under your hand, pressing your weight through that hand into the mat to try and pin their hips.

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From there, get your knee underneath their butt cheek, meaning they are slightly raised up onto your leg. Your other knee slides out to the side, so you're now making a right angle with your two knees. Still keeping your back curved, slowly wriggle backwards, shifting your sideways knee back and continuing to wriggle until you can pop open their ankles. As soon as you do, immediately shove their leg to the mat with your elbow and/or hand, then begin your pass.
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Teaching Notes: I could do with a better high quality vid, so the one at the top could be replaced. However, the instagram vids still work, definitely must watch those before I next teach to see if I could do it any better. Donal's break is decent, although I do still often find that hard to get. The tricky part is stopping them shuffling towards you, when you're trying to hold them in place to create the tension against their ankles.

I'll keep practicing. Things like maximum weight through my hip hand could help, also checking BJJ Library etc. Of course, standing is always going to be better, but I'd like to keep improving this lesson too, so there's a good kneeling option as well. :)