Below, you will find my notes summarizing and reflecting upon the stand-up grappling practice that I led at Fit Factory Jiu Jitsu, 3814 Boyd’s Creek Highway, Sevierville, TN on February 26, 2024.
Fighting from the feet is chaotic
Even “solely grappling” from the feet is chaotic. And that’s a big step down in complexity from worrying about punches, kicks, and the wide array of other strikes.
I think this is why jiu jitsu beginner’s programs always start on the ground. It reduces complexity. It reduces speed. It reduces risk.
. . .
We want our learning environment to be challenging yet successful. And it is pretty fair to equate chaotic with challenging. But we can’t simply ignore the standing portion of grappling.
So how do we reduce the complexity and increase the feeling of success?
We used two separate approaches tonight.
Chaos Reduction Approach #1: Narrow the win condition
I love the ADCC approach to takedown points where you must get them down to a hip to score, but the scramble potential makes for a lot of chaos.
So we played the following win conditions.
Lift your opponent off the ground equals a win
No need to finish the mat return
Cause them to put two extra limbs on the ground equals a win
One hand down is acceptable. One knee down is acceptable. One knee and one hand, or both knees, or both hands is a loss.
We also kept the duo inside the circles on the mat (something like 6-8 foot diameter, I’ll confirm how big they are sometime soon) which helped encourage people to engage instead of framing for distance and backpedaling which turns into a shot-fest.
Chaos Reduction Approach #2: Limit the allowed techniques
We didn’t explicitly prohibit any techniques tonight. Though in the past we’ve done stuff like Greco rules (no grips below the waist).
Instead tonight, people were primed to focus on certain techniques.
We emphasized handfighting instead of shooting, looking at the available grip orientations and looking to get our palms connected to the backs of our opponent’s hands.
We emphasized using the collar tie to create movement with the snapdown and showed the risks of simply hanging on a person’s head in a “stalling fashion”. A couple of too easy 2-on-1 grips later and we saw the whole group handfighting their way into underhooks and single legs with very few shots from distance and very little collar-tie stalemating.
Single legs are easier to get than they are to finish
We did a short dive into how to think about the situation and saw some creative solutions arise.
3 separate but overlapping principles for finishing single legs
Get their leg above their hip joint.
This is the classic “tree-top” finish and its many variations. We played with a few grips and paid special attention to getting a grip under the heel so the defender cannot hamstring curl themselves back into a safe posture.
Control the initial leg while attacking the second leg.
Transition the single leg into a double. Or a knee tap. Or a foot sweep. Etc.
Take the knee into the space behind it.
This is your run-the-pipe finish, though I find thinking of the low-single finish to be interchangeable. Either way, dropping the person into the hole where their leg should be standing gets the job done.
The coolest solution we found was to get the opponent partway into the tree top finish, with the defender’s heel cupped in the crook of the attacker’s far-side elbow, and then reach to the elevated knee with the near hand and externally rotate it for a very smooth variation on the run-the-pipe finish.
. . .
Hopefully we’ll see practices like this become more regular in the weeks to come.
Good Hunting,
Charles