Strangle From Behind: 61-Min Grappling Technique Class

So we're going to start, top player, double knees down. Bottom player, we're going to start in the half guard position. We talk about half guard when we're just referring to any guarded situation where two legs wrap around one. The specific orientation we're going to start in is with two legs wrapped around one, but both of our knees are going to be pointed in front of our partner.

Now just like in a standing game, our first focus is to work at least one of our arms in between, outside or underneath our partner's shoulder. Now we have three ways we can win this game. Once we get in between under or outside an elbow, the first way is to, while holding this or while maintaining the connection, to get both feet in the middle and sit up. Both knees around the waist, excuse me, both legs around the waist or make any closed hand connection around the hips or shoulders.

I don't care what you choose to do. It's up to you. One more time. In between, under or outside while maintaining that connection, feet to the middle, sit up, legs around the waist or any closed hand connection around the shoulders or hips.

Easy enough? Top player. You have to stay double knees down, but your job is to move your partner's knees out of the way and try to connect your hands anywhere from the hips to the shoulders while being under at least one elbow. You guys understand?

Let's work. In between underneath or behind an elbow, just carry on or was that still a win just for getting through closed hands? Let me clarify. Guys real quick, the way I'm designing the game today is not scaled appropriately for any level because I don't know what level I'm facing.

So I'm giving a wider view than I typically would because of the possibility of levels in this room. For the rest of the day as I keep going, based on the tasks and win conditions I give, choose what's most appealing to you. Just try to stay within the frame. That's all I ask.

So again, if I give a bunch of different possibilities, just choose one that sticks out to you. You don't have to do them all. The one that you find most interesting or that makes the most sense to you. In the previous game, the only conditions that had to be met.

So in this is where sometimes the clarification could have been my fault. You had to first win arm position inside under outside and while keeping inside outside under arm positioning, you had to work towards feet on the inside or the closed guard. But let's say I got my legs and he like pulls. That's fine.

I got to where I wanted to go. Getting the arms out of the way first. I'm gonna say one more thing and I'll be quiet and we'll go right on. Why do you think I started with the hands?

Any guesses? They're the closest and the first thing in my way. We have a general idea like a little heuristic. A grip never leaves its position until it's done doing its job.

If something's in front of me, I have to move it out of the way so it's not gonna affect where I'm going. I do nothing with the arms and I just attempt to move my legs. You guys see this is why it was designed in that specific order. Does this make sense?

Fantastic. All right. Same situation. Now this time, same thing in between behind or under.

But this time when you get connected. So if I get connected from where I start, so for example, I get my partner's hips, I have to use my connection to get behind or on top. And my hands have to be closed when I'm behind or on top. If I get connected to the shoulders, my feet have to be inside or around.

But here's the deal. The order right now does not matter. So if I get my legs around and I don't have a connection, I don't win until I get connected to the shoulders. Same thing one more time with the waist.

Even if I get connected to the waist, I don't win until I'm where. Perfect. You guys got it. Top player.

Your goal is the same as it was before. Get the knees out of the way. Lock your hands anywhere, hips to shoulders. Easy enough?

Yes, sir. Yes, you just have to. So yeah, exactly. You get stuck there.

You're literally stuck there. If your partner opens up, then you have an opportunity to win. So maybe I'd avoid going between the legs. Maybe that's why it's designed that way.

Yes, top player, you cannot stand up. That's what I'm saying. Hey, if that's it, think about it. What is that highlighting?

Can you use your legs? So like triangle, one in one out scenario, like so we're connected, but we're also under. Right now, I want the focus to be on the arm connections. This is not how you have to do it.

This is the way I'm choosing to do it. You got it. Yeah. Does everyone feel comfortable with what I'm asking them to do?

All right, let's work, y'all. All right, guys, look to the center. Maximillian. Now we're leaving guarded situations and we're going into pins.

We're going to start with the top player, same double knees down, but this time they're going to start on the past your legs next to your hips. Bottom player is going to start on your side. Now bottom player, you're going to have one arm across your partner's shoulders and the other arm anywhere on the arm that you are looking at. Anywhere.

Now top player, he just draped both arms across my body. I just dropped that. Yeah, good. Okay.

Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Now bottom player, your goal is the same as it's been all day. Use your arms to stay in between under or this would be amazing.

Outside of the elbows, but we're going to use inside under or outside to keep our partner's hands from connecting around our body. While we're doing that, we have three different ways to win the game. Both feet, I'll get the guards first, both feet in front, knees in front half guard, feet in the middle sitting up or legs around the waist. One other way, hands connected behind or on top.

So again, inside under if you're all gods outside, hands connected or knees in front, feet in the middle or legs around the waist. Now top player, your job is to try to connect your hands around the shoulders under one elbow, chest to chest or I'm going to give one more task to the top player. Once you're connected, you have to cover the hips. It could be two legs open, closed one leg covering the hips with one or both legs wins the game.

Once you're connected to the shoulders and you have to cover the hips with your legs, if both conditions are met, top player you win the game. Correct if they get your shoulders, you can still fight bottom player to get in between under outside while we either come up, get on top or feet middle, feet around. Yes, sir. There is no order as long as the conditions are met.

The focus is at the arms. Right, so initially, yeah. Correct. Top player must stay double knees down.

If your hips are covered with one or both legs, while connected at the shoulders, bottom player loses the game. Let's work. Top to bottom every time somebody wins. We always regulate the rhythm of the fight.

Give you guys a minute like I promised you. Thank you, sir. Welcome, sir. Behind the elbow.

Oh yeah, that's amazing. It's like you put all of their stuff over here. It's like, what are they going to do? Yeah.

Okay now same situation, but we're going to scale it up a little bit. Now before I get to the next rule, I just want to say one thing. In the previous game, the order in which you fulfilled the condition did not matter. If in the next one you don't understand the order, just ask, okay?

Sometimes it can be slightly confusing. Oftentimes we'll say first focus, second focus. This doesn't mean it's sequential. This just means this is where we're looking to solve the problem.

Does that make sense to you guys? So partner, start past your legs. Yep, but this time bottom player, you're going to start flat, but you're going to start with one arm underneath, but the other in front. So we're starting with the farthest arm where my partner's head is underneath and the one that's near our head inside.

All right. Now our job is the same as before. We're trying to stay in between, under, we're for really good, outside. We're stopping our partner from connecting their hands while we try to do the same thing as we did before, but now we have an added difficulty.

We have to try and use our arm position to get to our side so we can move more effectively. But again, the win is the same. Feet on the inside, sit up, legs around the waist, two knees in front or connected behind, connected on top. Do you guys understand?

You can see how it all comes together. Fantastic. Now top player, this is where I'm going to try to add in a little bit of what we've already done this week. Yes.

All right, top player, you have two ways to win this game. At any time, at any angle, you have to achieve a figure four grip. So we're looking to capture our partner's wrist and get around it under the elbow to make the connection. Even if the hand is on the body, if I make the grip, I win the game.

Even if I turn, Max makes it, it's a win. Second, head and arm. But specifically, the arm has to be touching the head. This.

Do like a front headlock so you can see. You guys got it? Let's work. When the bottom player gets the guard, they still need an upper body connection.

So say one more time. When the bottom player gets the guard, they need it up. Excuse me. Yes.

One more question. Yes. You remind me of the military. It's crystal clear the destination where we're going.

If there is any questions where we're going to meet, then we will have a lot of confusion and people will die. You make it crystal clear where you want us to go. But we can take any bus, metro or whatever to get there. It's not important to hold it like this.

The goal is we know the end destination. Correct. And then depending on the level of the group and many different factors, you can make it a very short one or very many, you know, you can fly, you can take a metro. Is that the correct interpretation?

Yes. All paths lead to Rome. But we need to know exactly where Rome is. Exactly.

We at least made it seen Rome once. Because if we have no other metric, we could just follow roads, but we'd end up anywhere. But if we've seen Parthenon, maybe we like, oh, I know what it looks like. I'm going to look.

Oh, there was a tree behind it. Oh, there's the tree. You see? And then you can actually wander, but you can wander towards the center.

And if I gave you a road direction, you have to take three steps forward. Then one step. People are not going to remember that. All right.

If it's correct. Yeah. It's not the way to get people there. Because that's not what we're using to perform.

That information is like, if I'm cooking and I don't remember how the ingredients go, since the fish isn't jumping out of the pot, I can let it simmer for a minute. Or as I read the directions. The fish is jumping out of the pot. I have to wrangle it.

And there's no order in which I have to wrangle that fish because I don't know where it's going. Does this make sense? So I need to be open enough that I can adjust to the stuff that I can't plan for. List making and explicit planning does not work well in fast moving, complex games.

Compare it to somewhere where it does work. So we have a frame of reference. Weightlifting. Weightlifting.

The bar is not changing. Yeah. I know where I want it to go. It's very serial.

Bah, bah, bah. Right? Right. If the bar was like suddenly moving, moving, moving, it would be like, I got, you know what I mean?

Yeah. If I can't predict the change or anticipate the change, I have to have some other way to know where it's going. Memorization fails completely in those situations. Memory, as we talk about it, like step, step fact, doesn't work well to orient our behavior in complex environments.

And complex just means lots of new things we can't predict or lots of change. Does that make sense? Perfect. Yeah.

Cool. Yeah. Sorry to interrupt your coffee. I don't mind.

Most instructors in anything, Jiu Jitsu or anything, they tell you what. What? You need to get the grip here, you need to get the grip here, you need to get the grip here. What's different about this is it seems like the way that you present it, you also, like you don't tell us how to learn it.

This is how you learn it. This is how everyone learns it. Most people stop. Here's what you learn for practice, but they don't show you how to actually learn it.

Sure. It seems like the design of the parameters and the constraints is designed not just to teach them what, but like, because you don't learn it with your ears, you learn it with your body. You learn it with your whole self. Yes.

You hear what I want you to look for. You see what it looks like and where I want you to go. And you have a focus on how to practice it. Yeah.

It's all encompassing and it's quick. Doing after being told what or what kind of area we should do it in is how we start to learn. Yeah. You know, like it's not about remembering everything I say.

It's just, I'm giving you a frame to work within. Yeah. And then your work within that frame will expose you to learning opportunity. Yeah, because it doesn't matter how hard you try to hammer something home by saying, this is important.

This is important. Yeah, because we don't use that to move. Right. Does that make sense to you?

Yes. That's why, that's why the importance doesn't stick because what's important to your system, when you're actually doing it, is not the same thing that's important to your intellect. The way I hear you say that is that you give people a chance to do all the mistakes without you telling them, don't do this. Well, mistakes are not, mistakes are learning.

We can't learn without mistakes. Yes. Like, going in the wrong direction helps us find the right direction more accurately. And when you try to, when you try to prevent things from happening or you're trying to, you know, talk about every possible scenario, that's really inefficient.

It's better for two people trying to just figure it out. Correct. But it's not, it's not all over here. Like, you're putting the constraints so that it's very likely, the probability of that lesson happening is very high when you, when you design the restraints correctly.

Correct. We're putting them near an opportunity that can be realized once they interact. You use the word, but do you think about it, like, I normally think about the framework like instead of how, but the product is like what, what, what, when, where and why are fine, how is not good. Here, just think about this real quick.

Everyone talks about all the new AI stuff. Here's what's interesting. The previous AI models, they were told explicitly what to do, how to do it by downloading all of our thoughts into it. The new models are only told the rules and asked to play each other and they use their own data.

The models that play themselves and use their own data far outperform the models that try to collect all the information first and then act upon it. We work in similar ways. Before we move on here, I just want to point something out. You can tease me for it after I do it.

When people ask me, when people ask me like on podcasts and things are done, they said, well, how does your hour class go? I was like, I do six sixes. I do 90 seconds of talking and I always end around the 55 mark. I'm just saying I did my job.

Just teasing men. Oh, but yeah, so we can make an hour very efficient if we follow a few simple rules. Think about how much different jujitsu we got to experience today. Lots of stuff from the feet, lots of stuff from guards, lots of stuff from pins.

We got to experience the precursors of submission. We got to guard recover. Man, we just 55 minutes, right? 36 minutes of actual work.

And look, you guys are sweating, you're tired, you feel satisfied. Okay. And imagine if you did this four days a week, five days a week, six days a week, over a year, two years. Think about that compared to somebody who has to listen to someone talk about the knee cut for 30 minutes before they can try it once.

You see how imbalanced these traditional training styles are with these more contemporary training styles. Yeah. Now, a couple of small things and then we'll chill. So we're done with the practice, like the physical practice right now.

We're going to transition to some question and answer. You guys can take this wherever you would like. We can talk about the class you just experienced, or we can talk about things that are just ideas connected to class structure, whatever you want. I'm going to let you take it where you want.

Two more things and I swear I'll shut up. One second. One, you don't have to listen to me speak. If you're tired, you want to go rest, feel free.

If you're not tired and you want to grab Max and show him how not tired you are, take him into the corner and make him beat you up. Oh yeah, and John will take you all out. So go get her. Last thing.

I got some feedback this week that my speaking could have been a little bit confusing to people who aren't very good with English. I apologize for this. I've only been over here to like a multinational place a few times. So I really like to make up for any of the mistakes I've made in my speaking or any confusion I might have caused with the way I speak.

So if you guys are having trouble understanding what I'm saying, you're more than welcome to call me over and I will clarify as much as I can anything that has confused you. You guys got it? Yeah? Cool.

So let's come in a little bit. Let's get to work if you want to. Whatever you guys want to do. You're good.

I know you don't talk to kids anymore, but you do. Like if you're, let's say you're some of English is the main language. Would you like to speak to them more like you would to kids? Like to make it like really simple?

Yeah, but I don't want to, I don't want to. I don't want to. I don't want to. I don't want to.

I don't want to. I don't want to. I don't want to. I don't want to.

I don't want to. Yeah, but I don't want to, I don't want to. I don't want to treat you like. It's like that intention is focused on the individual, the day, the week, the month or the task.

So yes, it's always, there's something, there's always something we're focusing on. The tasks are the vehicle to help us understand what that focus is. Does that make sense? So you're asking, do I specifically have a tactical task like work to the Kimura each week or?

It's more like the other, it makes sense, but for the regular classes, there's some stuff where he gets more, um, better than other things. Yes. For example, getting the weird naked strength is more important than for example, crystal. Submissions are the most important thing because that's the game we play.

We center a lot of the classes around submissions that are most likely to occur, not in the meta, not in theory, but when two bodies interact, that's why we classify them as naked strangles, arm in, twisting, straightening locks. That's what we teach. So we don't teach the Kimura, so to speak. We teach twisting locks.

The Kimura may be the specific example of how we get people to understand this. Does that make sense to you? Are you sure? Yeah.

All right. All right. When you have to go to such a kind of store and you're like Deandre, do you have an issue with him almost guiding the culture in the gym and then people trying to bottle their style and all that? I think that's happening by accident.

Because Deandre is a very quiet, focused, he doesn't try to influence anybody. He's actually a very loner. He comes and goes. People are really inspired by him because his focus is so good, he works so hard.

So I think that's intriguing and people inadvertently just copy him. I was talking about this the other day. If you were to walk in and just stand in the back of my room and watch the competitors guard pass, they all kind of look like him. We have one athlete specifically that looks like almost a replica.

He's not trying to replicate Deandre. He's only just focused on the games. Sometimes you might be a debt to a new player. Sure.

So I might just have her switch the legs. So in between us and just switch the legs. The reason I gave big because I don't know who's in here. So whatever sticks out to you, I want you to find.

I wasn't criticizing. No, no, please. I don't mind criticism. For sure.

Yeah. Your point is correct. Yeah. That it could be a lot.

Yeah. From a business point of view, when you have beginners and you have a beginner's course that has an end date, 10 classes or eight classes, 16 classes. Yep. What's that?

You have to prioritize and you have to prioritize so hard. 100%. People are choosing between the pitch of a paddle or running or gym. Completely agree.

How do you make your best effort to design those classes so that they have mostly fun, sweat like hell and also feel like they're learning something valuable like self-defense? This is not good advice, but unfortunately I don't care about that. I'm not looking for that type of consumer. So my program is designed for a specific type of consumer.

I want the person who's not intimidated by the chaos and struggle of the room they're approaching. So if the course is not, if it seems too vague, if it seems too difficult, if it seems too scary, Yamasaki Academy is right down the street. That's the sacrifice I'm making because everyone markets, right? So what you're asking is a very good way to scale and market beginner experience, which I think that idea is wonderful.

It's great. I don't want to do that. It's like sometimes if people come in, sometimes I don't even say anything to them. I wait for them to come up to me.

And the reason I do this is I want them to have courage to involve in what they came here. I want you to not be afraid and be like, Hey, excuse me. Like, Hey, what's up, buddy? And you know what I mean?

Like I like those kind of like, you have to kind of step over the threshold to get into the thing that feels really difficult because I think that's the hardest thing. And if you're courageous enough to do that, you're one of us. Think about it. Like even in a male dominated environment, think about how hard it is for a female to walk in and come up and they never fail to do this.

And when I think about them, I'm like some big dude who wants to be like handheld. Man, it's not for me, man. You know what I mean? I don't know.

But that's exactly why you would have a beginner's course and not the class. You're talking about the class. I'm talking about a specific. Oh, you mean actually, yeah.

Transition into the... Sure, sure. I think this is good business. I think this is a really nice way to on-ramp people.

This is just not something that I'm deeply interested in. Not because I think it's wrong. Just I have these ideals that I follow that I probably I shouldn't and you know, it's just me trying to be honest and consistent. You guys are all right, man.

You look so sore. You know how to turn them on and everything. Yeah, we have the same mics at the moment. Can you fucking...

Yeah, of course I can. I'm saving a tie for my friend. There you go, Max. Thank you.

Is that good? I'm going to be on your back. Oh yeah, yeah. Perfect.

You'll be on my back. Never on my back. You have to let me. I'm in charge.

Okay, guys. Sorry. Mic issues. In case you don't know, today's session is going to be focused around naked strangles.

I'm going to make the same joke I always make in my beginners program. We're keeping our clothes on. It's naked in the sense that it's only our arms attaching to our training partner's neck in order to squeeze together. So, we're going to start off with rear naked strangles.

In the session today, especially with the rear naked strangles, I'm going to assume intermediate to more advanced level in the room because I think that kind of fits the bill for most of the people here. So, obviously, rear naked strangles are a relatively simple submission in some sense. So we're going to just show some ways that I like to create some games, create some novel situations that can build skills that I think can make us better at getting through naked strangles. Okay.

This game, we're going to start on our training partner's back with a body triangle. If you cannot lock a body triangle on your training partner because of knee injuries, short legs, whatever, big training partner, we can use this configuration instead. Okay. So, either body triangle or this, and we're going to start just on our training partner's back.

Okay. Attacking player, our objective is going to be to take whatever connection we start with on one side, find a way to stay attached to our back and switch it to the other side. So if I was using this one, it would be here, using body triangle, I switch to a body triangle. So we have to switch the side of the lock first.

Okay. Then, and only then can we start to attach the rear naked strangles. So we need to stay behind our training partner, switch the lock of our legs from one hip to the other, and then, and only then can we search for a strangle. Strangling from behind using our arms.

Defensive player, I want you to turn to face your training partner. Doesn't matter how you do this, and it doesn't matter whether you end up in the pocket or mouth, anything like that. You've now faced your training partner, you win the game, and we switch over. Okay.

Yes. I have to switch the one side of the back, which is the, my leg if you were asking me. You have to switch, so if you, so I just chose, I showed this beat crossed for people who are not able to lock a body triangle. So I assume you can probably lock a body triangle, you know, you're young.

So you're going to go body triangle on one side, switch the lock to the opposite side before you search the strangle. Is it clear? Awesome. It's okay, the connection at the bow?

Yep, so start with your arms connected around the shoulders, anywhere that you want. Just bear in mind you cannot strangle them until you switch the side of the lock with your legs. Until you can just... Yes, I want you to make them tap.

Alright, let's go. Alright, in case they ask me, are you finishing your strangle? Yes. Yes, sir.

So even though sometimes it's good to ask about the games individually, sometimes it's good to ask about how they fit together as a whole, and we'll be able to do that better at the end anyway. And then only the people who are interested about knowing can stick around and ask about that if they want to. So, next up, we're going to work from a turtle position, and we're going to start, I don't know, from a turtle position. But our chest is back behind your training partner's elbows.

If you want to connect your hands, you don't want to, I don't know. The objective is going to be to find a way to stay attached to your training partner's back around your training partner's hips. Once you've done that, you can look to strangle your training partner. So again, we have a flying condition, a condition that we have to satisfy first, which is to attach to the back, connect our legs around our training partner's hips.

Once we've done that, then we can move on and look for the strangle. So we are looking to do it in a specific order in this game. Defensive player, your objective in this game is going to be to turn to face your training partner. One thing that we can do to scale the difficulty slightly, if you want to make it slightly easier for the top player, the bottom player must turn to face without allowing their back to touch the mat.

If you want to make it more challenging for the top player, the bottom player can escape to turn to face even by their back hitting the mat. Okay, so I leave that for you and your training partner to decide. And it could be different for each player, right? So if one of you feels really confident attacking the back, the other less so, you don't have to choose to do it the same way.

So just communicate with your training partner which version you're going to play each time. But that's going to be the only thing that changes. Can their back hit the mat as a defensive player? Yes or no.

Otherwise, again, your partner's elbows, step back. My objective, stay on the mat, connect legs around the hips. Then look for the strangle. Defensive player, turn to face, decide whether your back can touch the mat.

The turn to face, do you need to have your both elbows back or can the elbows still be? This is a good point. So I would say if you find the elbow in any way, keep going. Yeah, really good to make that point.

Thank you. Any other questions? Yeah. Sorry?

Yes. Yeah, okay, yeah. Same thing that we said, just a good point to remember. We're doing no jumping of any kind whilst we're training here.

So as Greg just mentioned, if someone stands, if I'm looking to wrap my legs around. I'm not going to jump on my training partner to do that. Is that clear for everyone? Yes.

Clap. Yes. Okay, let's go. Thank you.

You're welcome. Yeah, exactly. Okay, so final day. One last push guys.

I know we're all tired, but still with this session, I'd like us to just like to keep us all working. If you're tired, what I really recommend is working a group of three. Okay, I know we say this a lot and then no one does it. Just get a group of three.

Honestly, it will be better for you and better for your training partners probably. If you're feeling fatigued, please work in a group of three. Okay, we're going to start off. This session is focused on underhooks or just generally getting underneath our training partner's elbow.

That's going to be the common theme that runs throughout the whole session. First thing we're going to do is actually a game very similar or if not the same game that we played with Greg already. You're going to start on your back for me. We're going to start in the chest to chest pin.

We're going to start anywhere we want chest to chest under one or both of our training partner's elbows. All I want you to do is stay underneath your training partner's elbows for as long as you can. The bottom player, your objective is going to be to connect your arms back inside. Okay, so the arms are back connected to your body.

You win the game, you switch over. Top player, your condition is continuous. There is no way for you to win the game. Just maintain this condition for as long as you can.

Doesn't matter how you change position. You could be in front of them, behind them. Does not matter as long as you stay under at least one of their elbows. You can close your hands if you want to.

Yeah. Okay, let's get to it. Flowing. I have a game.

Why not? I'll just show you now quickly. A game that I like to play. If the focus is on flow, I assume that means we could call it.

Some people call it dynamic pinning. Being able to move through pinning positions. If I wanted to make, I sometimes play a game around that. I might not necessarily have the under elbows as an explicit condition that people have to maintain.

Just rather than focusing on too many different things. But I'll just start them like chest to chest on one side for example. And I'll give them different ways to hold their training partner down. Chest to chest, shin to hips on both sides.

Covering hips. Okay, and then obviously the chest to chest on the opposite side. Which essentially creates like five different positions that we're aiming for or targets, whatever. Five different ways of pinning.

And their job is to stop the person from getting on top. So stay on top and stay ahead of your training partner's knees. Whilst you try to collect as many of those five as possible. And that, if I wanted to encourage people to switch between positions whilst holding someone down.

That seems like a good way to do it. You could potentially add chest to back contact as an automatic win condition as well if you wanted to. Okay. Right, next up we're going to work from standing.

We're going to work on creating the condition of being under elbows. Okay. One thing that I want you guys to focus on. Obviously we can just come in and directly fight to bring our arm underneath our training partner's elbow.

But one thing that I want you to pick up on is as someone reaches to you. This creates space underneath their elbows. Okay. And so we can punish reaching with underhooks.

Getting on the elbows. Okay. So this game is going to give you opportunity to look for these and try and act on them. So one player is going to have the objective to connect to their training partner's head and trap it underneath their chest.

You can trap your training partner's head under your chest and keep it there for three seconds. You win the game. The other player has the objective to get under at least one of their training partner's elbows and maintain this for three seconds. So we have starting from the same position, but we have different goals.

Okay. It should be pretty hard for us both to achieve our goals at the same time. Okay. Which is good.

Right. That's important. Take it in turns. Who's playing each one?

So I'll just say I'm front headlock guy. You're underhook guy. Right. And then I'm trying to look for a front headlock.

That's too good. He got to the underhook. Okay. But now I get to be on the hook guy.

He's front headlock guy. Okay. Yeah. Okay, guys.

Right. So next up, we're again going to be looking to find ways to create conditions of being underneath our training partner's elbows. In the previous game, we were looking at punishing reaching because that brings our training partner's elbow out and away from their body, creating opportunity for us to get underneath the elbow. In this next game, we're going to play top player, both knees down, bottom player in a guarded position.

The top player is going to have the objective to connect their arms, connect their hands around their training partner's hips and waist, hips or waist. Okay. They connect their arms around that and nothing else. They win the game.

As the bottom player, we're going to look to connect our arms with our at least one of our arms underneath an elbow. Okay. So it can be on the both, can be on the one. Doesn't matter, but we must connect our hands and we must be underneath at least one elbow.

The option or the top player is going to be encouraged to reach by the task that they're trying to solve. But one other thing that we can look to punish is a posted arm. Okay. If we can make our training partner somehow post an arm on the mat, there will be some space underneath the elbow that we can start to look to exploit.

So as we play this game as the bottom player, we can punish reaching or we can actively try to create posted arms, which we can also look to punish. So we want to create and punish posts and punish reaching. Does this make sense to everybody? Okay.

If at any point the top player becomes the bottom player and falls down, you lose. Okay. We must stay on top as the top player. As a bottom player, we must stay in a guarded posture as the top player.

I want you to stay knees down. Everyone got it? Okay. Let's go.

This game is just maintaining the condition of being on the elbows. Second, the next two games were focused on creating opportunity to get underneath elbows. Now we're going to start underneath an elbow, looking to work to improve our position from there. And we're going to do this initially from standing.

So you're going to start with an underhook and your second arm is going to hold on to the far side of your training partner's upper body in some way. Okay. You could go, you know, hip, wrist, tricep, neck. I do not mind.

Okay. Take some sort of grip on the opposite side of your training partner's body with your free hand. Not a second underhook there. Okay.

So starting from here, my objective is going to be to work towards a few different connections, which I think are better than the one that we start with. Okay. At least when it comes to being in a standing position. So first thing that we could do is if we're able to connect our arms completely around our training partner's body, in front or behind, we win the game.

If we are able to trap our training partner's head underneath our chest, we win the game. If we're able to pick up one of our training partner's legs, we win the game. Okay. If at any point your training partner falls down, you also win just by default.

Okay. As the defensive player, I want you to get both, stay standing and get both of your arms back in front of your training partner without them underneath your elbows. If you achieve this, you win the game. So a couple of things to think about.

When we're working from this scenario, the benefit of being underneath an elbow is that we can manipulate our training partner in a number of different ways. We can push, we can pull everything down, and we can also move them beyond us. Okay. Using these different threats in combination is going to be helpful for you looking to achieve one of your goals.

Okay. Moving them in different directions makes some of your different targets more available than others. Okay. So try to link the directions of moving and manipulating your training partner with the target that you have in mind.

Okay. Okay. And as they defend against one, the other ones, one of the others will probably become more available. So starting here, getting to the leg, to the body, to the head.

Defensive player, freeing yourself, facing your training partner, staying standing, arms in front, not underneath your elbows. Any questions? Okay. And by getting under the elbow, we remove this frame from keeping us away.

Okay. By controlling the other side, we might be removing one of those frames as well. Is there anything that Greg can still put in my way to create some space between him and me? The head, right?

Okay. So bear this in mind for both players. I want the attacking player to start in a way that does not immediately allow the defensive player to put this extra frame in the way. Okay.

And as we work, if I'm attacking, I should be thinking about how can I prevent those frames from coming in? And as the attacking or defensive player, how can you stop to put those frames back in place? Even the head can be a good frame. Okay.

Let's go. That was good, guys. I don't know if it was just me once seeing what I wanted to see, but I felt like people were doing an even better job with the attacking position that second time around. So really good work, everybody.

Next up, we're going to start back in a guarded scenario. We're going to go and start where the previous game finished. So we're going to start arms connected. It's going to be like this, this, this, or this.

Okay. So under at least one elbow, arms connected. And we'll start with both of our legs inside our training partner's legs. Top player kneeling on the ground.

Starting position makes sense to everyone? Cool. So from here, we're going to have a couple of ways that we can win as the bottom player. Okay.

So if you want to either become the top player, or I want you to connect to your training partner's leg or connect your legs around your training partner's head and arm. Okay. We've worked on a lot of different skills during the camp so far. So these next two games are going to be more open and give you opportunity to search for different conditions that we've looked for throughout the camp as a whole.

Okay. So starting here, feel free to try to become the top player. You can, if you're maybe as you're trying to knock your training partner over or for whatever reason they start to stand up. We can start to connect the legs either in some form of entanglement or just any way so we can start to lift it up off the ground.

So if you entangle a leg or lift a leg off the ground, you're going to win. And then the other one is going to be any opportunity to lock legs around head and arm. For the purpose of this game, I will just consider getting behind your training partner as the same thing as getting on top. So when I say get on top, get on top or behind your training partner, both are going to win.

So get on top, behind, connect to a leg, entangle it or lift it off the ground or like a trap triangle. And then don't worry the top player, you've got a lot less things to think about. All I want you to do is stay on top and find a way to connect your arms around your training partner's waist. So top player, you have the same goal as you had the previous time we started in a guarded position.

I'll give you a choice of two different starting positions. You're going to be on your back Greg. So one of them, I'll be in between my training partner's legs, so like a half guard and he will have an underhook. I'll be right over the top of him.

The other starting position would just be same thing, but leg out to the side. So as the bottom player, you're the one who now starts underneath the elbow. Bottom player's objective is going to be to use this connection or anything else to help them get on top or behind their training partner and connect their hands around their training partner's hips or waist. So if Greg finds a way to get behind me or on top of me and connect his hands, he wins.

We mentioned this from standing, there's lots of different ways that we can use underhooks to move our training partner over the top of us can often be very useful. This generally creates opportunities to get to the back and also to get to the legs. So if you have this underhook, you can use it to try to bring your training partner over you. This will make the back or the legs more available.

So bottom player, that's your objective and that's something that you can think about. Top player, what we're going to look to do is we're going to look to create some of the submission prerequisites that we've looked at already during the camp. So if you are able to connect your training partner and arm together, that's going to be a win. If you are able to create some sort of armlock prerequisite, which is going to look like hips connected to shoulder and something underneath that elbow.

So this could be with the figure four grip that we looked at before with hips connected to shoulder or could be something here where we're connected to the arm and have my leg underneath. Some sort of triangle where I'm connected to the arm would also satisfy. Does this make sense to everyone? So we're looking for connection to the arm and the shoulder where we're underneath an elbow or we're looking for head and arm condition.

I think you all know this already, getting underneath an elbow is going to help you to get towards those objectives. So starting position, either in the half guard or the side control. Starting here, bottom player, get behind her on top, connect your hands. Top player, create those submissions.

I really, really enjoyed it. It surpassed all my expectations and I think the thing that really contributed to it the most is all of you guys that came. I think it's, I don't know, for me it's rare to have a room full of this many people in grappling and for it to feel like the vibe is so, so good where everyone's just here to help each other and get better. Yeah, so yeah, thanks to you guys basically.

I really appreciate it. And maybe one more thing, I just want to say thank you to Greg basically. I know I'm going to speak for myself but I think I speak for a lot of the other coaches here in the room at least anyway. The only reason that I'm teaching in this way is because of Greg.

Because I would not have known about it. That was the way I got exposed to it. I would not be trying to do what I'm trying to do now were it not for you and the content you put out and I wouldn't be as good as it now. It wasn't for the time that you've given me.

And I think there's a lot of people here that share that sentiment. So I just want to say thanks to Greg as well. Think about what I would do. I told you to compare this.

If I show you what to do, anything that's not it, you probably shouldn't go near. So if I think about how many knots there would be. So if I give a general area and you can exist in variable ways or different ways in that area, this is more effective for the way we see. But if I say not, that's going to trigger thoughts of what might not be.

So if you spend, is that it? Is that not it? You lose the exchange that you're experiencing in real time. This is what I think anyway.

Yeah. I thought it was very much positions to win. For me it was a little bit too much. Maybe I can call it guard retention with significant guards.

If you want to use like a bit, like if your students already know what those words mean, this is good. We transition to this to kind of encompass information. If they don't know, they may need like since three weeks, they say like this, like this, like this. Sure.

So listen, this is that's why I said whatever sticks out, go towards that. So if you're a two day guy, a three week guy, a six month guy, you're going to be actually seeing what's happening in a different context based on your previous experience. So day one guys like, sorry, I got you, I got you. Day one guy, he may only see arms, but if I can convince him to focus on that small bit.

Oh yeah. So do you see? Yeah, it's okay. And that's fine.

This is going to happen sometimes because communication of course, is it perfect and asking. So that's why we constantly have to adjust until you understand what's being asked. Yeah. So let's imagine I set this off and I look around and you guys are just all over the place.

I'd be like, all right, come here, Alex. Guys, next time we're just going to focus on staying in between as long as we can under as long as we can outside as long as we can choose. Go play. Sometimes we have what's called a verbal athlete.

These are people who can very easily abstract information. So maybe I like talking and I want to hear what Alex thinks. But what do you think? And that exchange helps me in the learning process.

I'd encourage that. But maybe I'm not. Maybe I'm just a gorilla who wants to bang. So you come over here and like, Hey, Greg, what do you, let's have to practice.

You know what I mean? Because that might not be for me right there. Right. So as long as you feel that it's emotionally helpful, I think this is good.

If the exchange, whether it's all physical or all verbal, if it gets in the way, you might not want to do it. There's no hard answer. It's what you feel is helping you most. To that point, in my kids class, after the games, I asked somebody, not like an epiphany, but something stood out.

And sometimes they would tell a story or something is advisable for grownups. Yeah. So kids are actually worse because like, it's funny that kids will just divulge into like whatever's going on in their little brains. So like if you have a kid a question, he'll say something and maybe he'll make an accidental sound.

Like what I and the kids like, ah, you farted. This kid's like, I farted his face earlier. I'm going to fart in your face next. And then you just lose the whole class.

So adults don't usually do that. But I like to separate the talking from the work so that we can focus on what we're doing here and then we can discuss it afterwards. The way that we structured things today. The comp class is centered around the needs and demands of the competitive experience.

Sometimes we're preparing for a 20 minute W and O match. So the way we structure is going to be relative to what we're preparing for. If we're doing a 80cc where there's six and then three, we are going to use that time in that class. The competition class also focuses on the needs of the competitors personally.

I'm not telling you to do this, but what I've done is I've used DeAndre as the centerpiece as the comp because he's the highest level guy we have in the room. And all the classes were designed on him and the other guys were just benefiting from everything he was experiencing, whether they needed to or not. So the way I do it is focused on the needs of competition and the needs of the individual competitor. There's no ideal.

It's more online. It's more alive. It's more iterative. You know what I mean?

Because they know how to play the game. They just need to get better at it. No more skill about that. No, there is.

It's just like very specific to their latest experience. You know what I mean? It's much more like just like we all know where we are because there's no gaps. Like one guy might come for like three weeks straight in the basic class and I'll see him for two more weeks, but not the competitor.

They're there every single day so we can move at a rate and focus on things that are like always happening. So it's much more like in the mix, so to speak, you know, there's no like this must be done and this must be done. It's nothing like that. Yeah, I'm going to go around.

Okay. You mind? Yeah. My gym doesn't ever close.

We don't even lock the doors. So you can come into standard Jiu Jitsu whenever you would like to train. Our mats are always open. I never ask questions.

If let's say I set up a basic class and some guys like, hey, coach, man, I don't I don't want to do class. Can I roll with whoever in the on the other side? Yeah, good. Don't care.

As long as you're a member of the gym, the gym is for you. You're not here to let me perform in front of you. You're here to get what you need. Right.

So and also if you give that freedom, what's interesting is people don't take it. I'm like, yeah. Yeah. Yes.

We'll do something like this. But guys, the old mats are open. Go roll. People are leaving.

You know what I mean? The competitors have multiple sessions a day. So they have one in the morning. So they typically go home because they've already trained for two hours.

But some of the guys who train one class, they just go home. You get to watch them. When I'm when I'm running the class. Great.

I grade them based on the performance of anything they are doing. If they're live rolling like open, I look at how they're performing. If they're doing a regular round or situation, I watch the situation out performing. We we always do one regular round a day.

Always. Yeah. But I mean, as far as like and then sometimes we'll do two, three weeks where there's no constraints at all. Guys, regular round tonight.

Six, six is that we're going home. You know, like if I feel like I need to assess because I haven't seen enough of something, I might do more of that. It's all iterative fellows. You kind of like have to mix and match as you see fit.

My last class. It's been very clear. The classes have been one of the absolute best seminars I've ever attended. Yeah, you're welcome.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Where am I?

Who am I? Where am I going? Where am I going? After the professional, therefore, we need to find class and practice.

Today I felt I assumed the goal was getting more eventually and getting at the option. We're looking for this whole week. We design practices, let's say for a week. Do you put like an end call for the end of the week or for two weeks or is it every session a different one?

We decided on looking at the class. Oh, you're good. It's funny. This is interesting because this is a great argument for how no matter what you say, and I'm not insulting you at all.

He said, do you always have a goal for the class like for the week? Do you start with something that you build towards throughout the week? So people always think the clarity of what people say that goes into memory becomes how you build skill. But every time we have I talk to people that you can see this isn't true.

The very first thing I see.