'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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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.

A post shared by Artemis BJJ (@artemisbjj) on Feb 28, 2018 at 12:46am PST

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.

A post shared by Artemis BJJ (@artemisbjj) on Mar 1, 2018 at 1:01am PST

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. :)

24/02/2020 - Teaching | Closed Guard | Posture in guard (top)

Teaching #941
Artemis BJJ (Easton Road), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 24/02/2020



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.


______________________
Teaching Notes: This lesson feels like it's a good summary now. Posture stuff, then into grip breaks. Sleeve grip break, then I go through the collar grip approaches: either neutralise by putting your arm over the top, break it off with both hands, or grab and stand. I can mention breaking a grip on your trousers too, but that's not as essential for beginners. I'll check the time when I next teach it, shouldn't be more than 5 minutes ideally. Though I guess this is important, so maybe 6 or 7 minutes is still ok? I'll see. :)

26/06/2019 - Teaching | Closed Guard | Single Underhook Pass

Teaching #884
Artemis BJJ (Easton Road), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 26/06/2019



One of the first guard passes most people learn is the single underhook, sometimes known as a smash pass (although confusingly, there is also a completely different pass you might see called the 'smash pass'. The joys of BJJ's non-standardised terminology). After you've opened their guard (this can also work off a failed armbar or triangle attempt on their part), you need to get one of your arms under their leg. Your other elbow – and this is absolutely key – must not slip in front of their other knee. If it does, then you're at risk of being triangled: they simply need to pull the arm forwards to move into a triangle set up, as your first arm is already out of the picture.

You don't want to leave that first arm under their leg, as unless you're much bigger, their leg is always going to be able to outpower your arm. Therefore you need to get their leg up onto your shoulder, either bumping it up with your arm, or dropping down to put your shoulder in place behind their knee. At that point, drive forward so that you're shoving their knee into their face. When you've got them stacked, reach your stacking side arm around their leg and grab their collar. I tend to go four fingers in, but a thumb in grip sets you up for a simple (if somewhat crappy, so it's mainly for distraction) forearm choke. You can also try grabbing their opposite shoulder.



Establish a wide base with your feet, pushing off your toes. As is generally the case with jiu jitsu, stay off your knees. Otherwise, you're transferring the pressure into the floor rather than into your partner. Keep on driving forward, turning the shoulder you have behind the leg downwards. Combined with your forwards pressure, that should slide their leg out of the way.

Although it's tempting, try to avoid lifting your head to get past their legs, as that could provide them with space. Instead, you want to rely on your weight and pressure, finishing with that slight shift of your shoulder. To further enhance your stack, you can grab the back of their trousers, or alternatively put your other knee there as a wedge.

A post shared by Artemis BJJ (@artemisbjj) on Mar 9, 2018 at 1:40am PST

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Teaching Notes: More on the switch to leg pin backstep? Other than, feeling good on this one. Should also review that class Mauricio taught on it a while back, he did it slightly different. I guess I could also talk about lifting them up with a trouser grip, putting the knee in? There were some Leuven Camp classes on that, IIRC, also worth double checking those videos.

24/06/2019 - Teaching | Closed Guard | Stand in Closed Guard

Teaching #883
Artemis BJJ (Easton Road), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 24/06/2019



Start by shoving their sleeve/wrist into their belt knot/belly button. With your other hand, push into their sternum, but be careful you aren't tempted to lean forward as a result. Keep your posture upright. If you can't get the sleeve, then simply grab their collar with your chest bracing hand (you have the option of grabbing a sleeve with that hand too, it doesn't have to be the hip hand: just make sure it's always the same side). If they grab your collar, grab the sleeve of their gripping arm and then simply stand up in the same way you normally do.

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Raise your knee on the same side as your sleeve/wrist gripping arm, stepping forward with that foot. Basing off your hands (again, don't lean forwards), stand up into a crouch, then stand right up, thrusting your hips forward. Pull up on their sleeve/wrist (again, if you've lost it, grab their collar, if they are wearing a gi). You then want to push their knee off your hip on the other side, stepping back with your leg on the non-sleeve/wrist gripping side to help.

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If you're having trouble getting that knee off, try bouncing your hips to open their ankles, like you were struggling to take off a tight pair of jeans. At the same time, splay your hand by the knee you want to shove (Roger Gracie calls this 'making his hand big') in order to help push down. You can then progress with the leg pin pass, as per the below embedded video, in two parts (only a minute each though, as these are Instagram:

A post shared by Artemis BJJ (@artemisbjj) on Mar 6, 2018 at 12:32am PST

Part Two:

A post shared by Artemis BJJ (@artemisbjj) on Mar 7, 2018 at 12:35am PST

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Teaching Notes: Need better vid of dangling from a collar. Also, want a vid of the hip shake to dislodge, noting potential for them to just sit up and step back.

18/06/2019 - Teaching | Closed Guard | Sit through pass (aka Sao Paulo, Wilson, Tozi, etc)

Teaching #882
Artemis BJJ (Easton Road), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 18/06/2019

This pass breaks all the rules: you don't even bother opening the guard before you start. It can be effective, but it is also easy to miss a detail and end up getting swept or worse. The goal is to create that supine twist: their upper body going in the opposite direction to their knees. Begin with a deep underhook, grabbing the back of their collar and pulling it towards their same side hip.

Your head then goes into their armpit on the other side, driving forwards slightly. Walk towards that armpit, as far as you can. Once you've gone as far as possible, go a little further, then sit through. If you've walked enough, then there should be enough tension on their ankles that a push from your elbow or hand breaks their guard open. Be careful on your arm positioning for this: if your elbow is up high, they can potentially hook it with a foot or a hand.



Also don't be lazy with your underhook. Any space and you risk not only losing the pass, but you're open to omoplatas and the like. Once you've got the guard open, you've got a few options for keeping it open in order to pass. The classic method is to simply step over the leg. Often this will result in half guard, but at least it's a half guard where you have an advantageous position due to your high head position in the armpit along with your underhook.

Alternatively, push your shin behind their leg and do a big step. Finally, you can quickly staple their leg with your other shin, giving you time to roll your hips over for the pass. Be careful you don't leave their hip free, or they can re-establish their guard. Block it with your hip, or if necessary your hand.

______________________
Teaching Notes: There is a meaner version of this where you push their head to their shoulder with your elbow, but I'm not a fan as that's quite neck cranky. I'm also not comfortable stacking people, though that is also something that can help make this pass more effective. The big thing is getting people to walk enough and properly sit through. The typical mistake I was seeing is people trying to open too early.

Make sure your head is right in their armpit too, as otherwise you're taking off the tension and giving their hips room to move. When people were trying this on me in sparring, I tended to find that either my upper body wasn't locked enough, so I could adjust for a sweep, or the lower body was given too much space, so again I could sweep.

17/06/2019 - Teaching | Closed Guard | Posture in guard (top)

Teaching #881
Artemis BJJ (Easton Road), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 17/06/2019

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.
______________________
Teaching Notes: Nothing to add, this is feeling good as a class now. Emphasising that you should just stand up is useful. Also, "if they grip you, grip them back" is a handy general rule as well, I could answer a lot of questions during drilling with that. :)

09/01/2019 - Teaching | Closed Guard | Stand in Closed Guard

Teaching #829
Artemis BJJ (MYGYM Bristol), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 09/01/2019

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Start by shoving their sleeve/wrist into their belt knot/belly button. With your other hand, push into their sternum, but be careful you aren't tempted to lean forward as a result. Keep your posture upright. If you can't get the sleeve, then simply grab their collar with your chest bracing hand (you have the option of grabbing a sleeve with that hand too, it doesn't have to be the hip hand: just make sure it's always the same side). If they grab your collar, grab the sleeve of their gripping arm and then simply stand up in the same way you normally do.

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Raise your knee on the same side as your sleeve/wrist gripping arm, stepping forward with that foot. Basing off your hands (again, don't lean forwards), stand up into a crouch, then stand right up, thrusting your hips forward. Pull up on their sleeve/wrist (again, if you've lost it, grab their collar, if they are wearing a gi). You then want to push their knee off your hip on the other side, stepping back with your leg on the non-sleeve/wrist gripping side to help.

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A post shared by Artemis BJJ (@artemisbjj) on Jan 23, 2019 at 11:32pm PST

If you're having trouble getting that knee off, try bouncing your hips to open their ankles, like you were struggling to take off a tight pair of jeans. At the same time, splay your hand by the knee you want to shove (Roger Gracie calls this 'making his hand big') in order to help push down. You can then progress with the leg pin pass, as per the below embedded video, in two parts (only a minute each though, as these are Instagram:

A post shared by Artemis BJJ (@artemisbjj) on Mar 6, 2018 at 12:32am PST

Part Two:

A post shared by Artemis BJJ (@artemisbjj) on Mar 7, 2018 at 12:35am PST

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Teaching Notes: Head up, push off back foot for stand. That feels like the key detail on how I stand, though some people still can't do it. For them, the hop up and inward twist of the knee could be a good alternative. I also need to be careful of not demonstrating for too long. I didn't mention bouncing to open their guard if they cling on, that's worth mentioning as it will happen.

Again, I didn't show a pass, I just focused on how to stand. Particularly as you can also show how you can still stand by grabbing their collar, or grabbing their sleeve if they grab your collar.