Smaller opponents can become big nuisances, especially if they have legitimate skills. You would think that the very fact that you're bigger than your opponent means you should be able to go full-Conan on them every time... Mongol General: "Conan! What is best in life?" Conan: "To crush your enemies, see them driffen before you, and to hear the lamentation of their vimmen." … [Read more...]
Emily Kwok
The Secret Subversive Power of BJJ
by Valerie Worthington, Emily Kwok, and Lola Newsom Groundswell Grappling Concepts We have a hypothesis about some women who grapple. We may be projecting, but our wholly unscientific data collection and analysis supports it. Namely, Brazilian jiu jitsu affords women who are looking for such things a mechanism for subversion. … [Read more...]
The Seated Guard and the ‘Idiot Sweep’
Here's a video in which Emily Kwok uses me as a dummy to teach the fundamentals of the Seated Guard and also one of my very favorite sweeps: the 'Idiot Sweep.' (I call it that because it's so simple and so effective that when you catch your opponent with it, he feels like - well - an idiot.) … [Read more...]
High Level Pin Escapes
How many times has someone almost gotten past your guard... ...You're just about pinned; it's just a matter of time... ...So you mentally relax, concede the position and prepare for the battle to get out of sidemount using your pin escape techniques. This approach can work, but it's very much the hard way of going about things. To make your life on the mats MUCH easier watch the video … [Read more...]
Two Drills on Video to Improve your Guard Sweeps
Many of the most powerful guard sweeps rely on your hips being underneath your opponent's center of gravity. This makes him very unstable - think of the difference between 1. standing on the floor beside one of those stability balls, and 2. trying to stand on top of that same stability ball. … [Read more...]
How to Defeat the Bigger Stronger Opponent NOW AVAILABLE
It's here! The How to Defeat the Bigger, Stronger Opponent DVD set is in stock, and ready to ship right now. Emily Kwok and I have been crafting this 5 DVD set for a long time, and it's one of the best instructional sets I have ever seen. … [Read more...]
How to Defeat the Bigger, Stronger Opponent
Today is a very exciting day! For the past few months I've been working like crazy to get my new DVD series finished. In these videos I'm collaborating with my friend, and former teammate, Emily Kwok. She's one of the best known competitive grapplers out there! For a lot of different reasons. … [Read more...]
Some recent pics; see me get choked!
Emily Kwok is a BJJ black belt who has trained with some of the best people in the world. And she's been very successful at the highest levels of competition in BJJ, Submission Grappling and Women's MMA. And she recently choked me silly for the camera... … [Read more...]
Podcast EP5: A Woman’s Jiu-Jitsu Journey from White Belt to Black Belt
In this feature interview I talk with Emily Kwok who is a very smart, very talented jiu-jitsu practitioner. She's been involved in the woman's competition circuit for a long time, having competed both with and without the gi, and in MMA overseas. Her ability as a teacher of jiu-jitsu - to both men and women - is proved every time she steps on the mats at her BJJ Academy in Princeton, … [Read more...]
Dealing with Ludicrous Strength
A reader writes: Q: "Do you have any advice on how to deal with guys who are ridiculously strong? I'm not necessarily referring to grapplers who are bigger than you, I'm referring to guys that are so strong that when they grab you it's like a death grip." … [Read more...]
The Larger, Stronger Opponent
If you try contesting a larger, stronger opponent using your strength against his strength you will probably lose.You need to fight the battle on your own terms, and two effective (and somewhat related) strategies to do this include: 1, Move quicker 2, Tire him out. … [Read more...]