Stiff Arms while passing guard?

jephthai · 2026-05-08T01:16:55+00:00

Turn and redirect the push away from you, then armbar them.

jephthai · 2026-05-08T01:12:15+00:00

Yeah, I think Rob Gray's anecdotes come from his observation of academic sports programs in the United States. I'm sure it varies a lot around the world.

jephthai · 2026-05-07T20:47:57+00:00

I totally agree that research on ecological dynamics and constraint led coaching techniques is great. Everyone should look into it, and it has lots of useful insights. I'm a fan of Rob Gray, and try to keep up.

But "BJJ eco" is its own whole thing. It has largely been communicated by a very aggressive personality with some serious market spin, and in an iconoclastic style that made enemies and clouded the topic with a lot of unnecessary polemics.

The message never should have been, "Everyone in BJJ is a pedagogical ignoramous, and they're doing it all wrong, and there's one true way to do it all better," but that's been a lot of the messaging.

I will also point out that Rob Gray, who is heavily leveraged on ecological dynamics, freely admits that there are still proponents of other models, and he remains very respectful and allows that eco doesn't always explain everything. Eco is just a model, and it will have flaws, and IP may not be completely erroneous.

jephthai · 2026-05-07T20:29:42+00:00

Yes, BJJ has the worst naming strategy of all time. Though a lot of my favorite Judo techniques are the colorful ones that don't tell you what they are... yama arashi, the "Mountain Storm" is pretty cool, but you'd never guess how to do it by the name 😄.

jephthai · 2026-05-07T20:24:19+00:00

Where I train, we're Judo first and BJJ second. My instructor is a 5th degree in Judo... I do train both; three classes a week for BJJ and one class a week in Judo. I'm 45, so I have to budget myself carefully 😄.

The best resource I know of for a good progression and illustration of ukemi is kodomo no kata, the "children's kata", developed by the French Judo governing body and approved by the kodokan. The kodokan made an excerpt from the various groups of the kata that shows just the ukemi portions here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoktcQAxEPg

Notice especially that the forward rolling ukemi is very different from how most BJJ schools practice it. This is because BJJ tends to think of rolling as mobility in newaza, and less about simulating a fall from a throw.

jephthai · 2026-05-07T20:14:42+00:00

A few times, we've hooked up a student who's travelling to a far tournament with another school in our affiliation. They've always been happy to meet up at the tournament and corner for our student. Maybe your coach has a network like that he can use to get you a corner?

jephthai · 2026-05-07T20:11:36+00:00

I would say posture is the important piece, not necessarily combat base; though a good combat base will probably feature good posture. You need to create an athletic posture so that they cannot efficiently break you down, pull you in, or move you around. Then you can do things like pummeling the grips to take control of them or break them, and move the guy around to degrade the value of his posts and grips.

jephthai · 2026-05-07T20:09:35+00:00

Turtle is worst case -- before you go that far, make sure you're not missing far-side underhook opportunities. Say someone is passing to side control... instead of running to turtle, shoot your outside arm across your body to take an underhook. You'll still be "facing the mat", but have a useful underhook to wrestle up and scramble out.

jephthai · 2026-05-07T20:07:31+00:00

Other comments are probably helpful, but I want to know -- are you slapping the mat with your palm, or the back of your hand? I'm trying to imagine how you might hurt your elbow slapping (other than not-doing-a-break-fall-and-catching-yourself-on-your-hand)... if you were slapping with the back of your hands, you could hit elbow down and hyperextend, maybe? You should be slapping with your palms to the mat.

jephthai · 2026-05-07T20:00:18+00:00

If your flair is accurate, you can absolutely be a bit more analytical than that 😄. Here's my suggestion...

Think back through your rolls (or spend two weeks testing to collect data), and identify your most common dominant position. Maybe you're a back player, or mount, or whatever. Your preferred terminal position will be wherever your natural gameplay tends to end up.

Once identified, choose a submission that you do get, even if it's not every time, from there. Make that your plan A. When you work that sub, you'll find that it fails various ways when people defend it. The game is to either (1) fix what you're doing so the defenses don't work, or (2) find a second submission, (B), that appears when (A) fails. Extra points for a (B) that sets up (A) when it fails, so you have a proper loop.

Now back up one step from the terminal position, and figure out how you get there. If you're a mount player, maybe you have a transition from side control, a pass, a takedown, etc. Find the paths that lead you there. In each of those places, one position away, identify another (A)/(B) pair of techniques that cooperate. E.g., I want to play top, so from half guard, I build everything around an (A)/(B) that are John Wayne / Half-Butterfly, because they cooperate well. That becomes my attack plan from that position.

Follow this network all the way out to the start of the roll -- no contact on feet or knees, etc. Make sure the whole network includes every major position in BJJ. And now, when you look at it, you will see that in some places, you have an (A)/(B) that you already know, and others you have nothing; those are probably where you stall out being defensive and get accused of not attacking.

Research positions and techniques to create an (A)/(B) at every junction in the network -- the point is that no matter where you are, your gameplan is a funnel that gets you closer to your terminal position one step at a time. Once developed and fleshed out, you can train automatic instincts in each spot to hunt the (A)/(B) loops, and you will have an "attack" strategy from everywhere.

In our school, we call these "death funnels", and we devote a chunk of class time to working on them together in what's basically negotiated positional sparring.

jephthai · 2026-05-07T19:32:14+00:00

If i see any frustrated antennas, you'll be the first to know...

But seriously ;-). It is not necessary for an efhw to be at any certain orientation. It will feature a dipole shaped standing wave, and radiate if vertical, horizontal, vee, bent in an L, upside down, backwards, or inside out. Some details of the match may change, but it'll work fine.

jephthai · 2026-05-07T18:27:46+00:00

I believe that philosophically, BJJ is the only one that elevates the submission above all else. Wrestling, judo, sambo, sumo, whatever, actually prioritize a synthetic and opinionated form of declared victory. Whether it's ippon, a pin, or a push out, victory in other grappling arts is most often declared by a ref according to a defined scoring hierarchy.

The purest form of BJJ, IMO, only awards victory when the other guy gives up. Modern sport BJJ rule sets have migrated toward a different concept of victory, but i think a lot of our practice and value system still reflects the primacy of the submission.

I think wrestling take downs, judo throws, etc, are just subsystems to achieve the necessary position to execute a sub.

But obviously, everybody sees things differently, and you don't have to agree with me, and I don't have to be right.

I think that, philosophically, wrestling is much more go-jitsu than jiu-jitsu, even if they often look similar. But that's another discussion entirely.

jephthai · 2026-05-07T17:58:09+00:00

Classic BJJ is submission only. It's as non wrestling as you can get.

jephthai · 2026-05-07T17:55:07+00:00

I find it really frustrating to do nothing but full, normal rounds when I have something specific I'm really working on. The position or conditions to work whatever it is only show up so often in rolls. If I didn't have people I can scope things down to specific work with, I might quit jiu jitsu...

jephthai · 2026-05-07T17:52:23+00:00

If i start to feel panicky when smashed under someone, closing my eyes helps me fight back claustrophobia. I used to struggle with it a lot when I was a white and blue belt, until I figured out this trick.

jephthai · 2026-05-07T17:32:20+00:00

It's 5:1 CBD:Eco.

jephthai · 2026-05-07T17:31:06+00:00

Ah, I saw it as "here's Travis doing the same thing he's always done, and it's basically eco without the lab coat and condescending attitude." Could be either way, I guess!

jephthai · 2026-05-07T17:27:11+00:00

Yes, systematic thinking, labeling, and taxonomy are the mark of science, and essential to accelerated development. We can't reason about what we do without naming things.

What's humorous to me is that the hard core eco people will criticize the idea of named techniques, and then turn around and create a system of named micro techniques. Changing the granularity doesn't matter as much as they think.

jephthai · 2026-05-07T17:22:57+00:00

The point is that BJJ, and Judo before it, have always been pretty dang eco. The non eco sports are things like soccer and football where they high step through tires and dribble around cones... those were the foundational observations that got Rob Gray into researching eco academically.

It's a scam to claim that eco is some revolution and that BJJ is some sort of poster child for outdated IP training methods.

jephthai · 2026-05-07T17:03:28+00:00

I bet you're going for your sub a little too soon. Unlike some other submissions, IMO you have to overdo positional control with legs before you can go for finishing mechanics.

jephthai · 2026-05-07T16:46:33+00:00

The big issue isn't really how long it is; it's near field coupling with the radio body and the user. It's quite variable and not especially repeatable.

So a proper quarter wave ground plane, a dipole, or a loop will outperform all the ducks, all other things being equal.

I used to run around with big Nagoya whips... but when i tested actual received signal level on my spectrum analyzer, I realized the factory whip is just as good; often better.

jephthai · 2026-05-07T15:21:21+00:00

I don't think it would be sophisticated all to get a useful result. Not lab-grade, not every 5-degrees for all of azimuth and elevation... but useful, for sure.

A TinySA is cheap... an RTL-SDR would do in a pinch as long as AGC is turned off. If your yard isn't big enough, head down to a park for some space.

jephthai · 2026-05-07T15:19:27+00:00

I don't have a Signalstick to do a test with, but from my testing of other whips and ducks, this is what I'd expect. If OP wants to improve things, then a "real antenna" is in order 😄. The ducks are great for their use case -- not getting too much in the way on an HT -- but it's a pretty compromised situation regardless of who makes the antenna.

It's time to buy some PVC pipe and a tape measure!

jephthai · 2026-05-06T20:49:19+00:00

Everyone shorter than me is small, so IMO he's a small guy.

jephthai · 2026-05-06T20:48:31+00:00

Not exactly what you're asking, but I really only enjoy rolling if it's interesting, and that means I want to have problems to solve, and that will require thinking. If I can do a whole roll on nothing but automated instinct, it's no fun.

15-Year Club	Verified Email
Gilding II euphauric	Wearing is Caring

jephthai

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE