Recently I did a video about Half Guard and getting out of a flattened out situation. Many of the comments in that video said the technique was helpful. But I did have 1 that said the video was too complicated.

In the comments section Assaf wrote: “Way too complicated. I got lost. Can you break it down to separate videos. One technique per video. And slower. This is fundamentals. This is where I always get lost. I’m so bad with all these rules. Show each rule. Don’t just say the rule. Please. Thank you 🙏”

So I wanted to do this video to share with Assaf, and anyone like him, how I digest information and fight against things being overcomplicated.

In this video I’ll share the key habit which is rewatching and re-attempting to put the information to use over and over again. I won’t watch a video once. I’ll watch it over and over again for multiple days. I’ll become almost obsessed with that technique until I either get it working or decide to move on.

Hopefully the story I share in the video illustrates this point well enough and helps you with your own consumption of BJJ instructional videos.

Btw, here is the Half Guard video I referenced in case you want to watch it:

Thanks for watching.
-Chewy
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In this video I share a cautionary tale about talking during rolling from when I was a BJJ White Belt. I share the story from my Brazilian Jiujitsu training because I received a question about talking during rolling. I know this will not be the most groundbreaking question and answer video I’ve ever done, but I do have a fun story to share with it and I hope you enjoy the video.

When it comes to talking during Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, it’s going to happen. Part of the reason why so many of us stick to Jiu-jitsu is the bonding that happens on the mat. We are in a place where we train and exercises. But it’s also a place where we get to know each other in person, not digitally, and become friends.

I know that one of the reason I’ve continued to train for so long is 100% the community of people inside the gym.

With that said, ever gym is different. In my gym we talk shit to each other constantly in a fun and laughing way. Some gyms don’t do this. So ultimately look to the leaders of your gym to figure out what is acceptable.

But I hope you find the story entertaining and enjoy the video. And if you have a question about talking during BJJ training then I hope it’s useful to you!

Thanks for watching!
-Chewy
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Half Guard is one of my favorite Brazilian Jiujitsu positions to play from on the bottom. I love the ability to get sweeps even against bigger stronger opponents. But one of the most frustrating problems with Half Guard (at least early on) is getting flattened out on your back when someone is passing.

When you’re flat on your back you Half Guard is useless and is more of an offensive position for the BJJ practitioner on top.

In this video I’ll show some basic grip fighting options that will prevent your Half Guard from being wrecked in BJJ. Along with the grips I’ll also show you how to go with the power to escape a strong squeeze on top when you’re flat in Half Guard.

If you’re struggling with Half Guard in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu because you get stuck flat on your back then I hope this video is useful to you!

Thanks for watching the video!
-Chewy

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Have you ever dealt with a big strong spazzy White Belt in BJJ, or have you ever been called a spaz? If you struggle with this situation in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu whether you’re the spaz or you’re the person frustrated with a spaz in your gym, I hope this video is helpful with your training.

In the video I start off by talking about my own spazzy beginning in Brazilian Jiujitsu as I was probably the most reckless, explosive and wild roll in my gym, and probably the craziest I’ve ever seen.

I also talk about how as a coach I’ve ever become frustrated with spazzy new people in the gym.

With that in place I talk about how I deal with spaz type people during BJJ training and why you should learn to use your skill against someone like this. It’s an important test to how your techniques work against an untrained person. I also talk about how I overcame my ultra-intense beginnings to get a handle on my wild rolling.

I hope that for all the Spazzy types and people frustrated with them that the video will give you some useful perspectives on how to handle the situation.

Thanks for watching the video!
-Chewy
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If you’d ever like to train with the team and I. Check out my gym Derby City MMA in Louisville,KY.

In this video I’m going to show you 4 different ways to roll to improve your Brazilian Jiu-jitsu if you’re not interested in drilling your techniques. I did this video because many people want to improve their BJJ techniques but they don’t engage in any sort of specific deliberate training.

So in the video I explain how I found the idea of deliberate training back when I was a Brown Belt which had a big impact on the way I trained myself and my students.

Here’s the book I talked about:
Talent Is Overrated: https://amzn.to/2MG4Kck

4 Types Of Rolling Deliberately

1. Rolling With A Purpose
This first idea is simply to focus on hitting a specific technique to work on while rolling.

2. Positional Rolling
This is keeping the rolling into a specific position you’re trying to improve like me trying to pass my partners guard while my partner tries to sweep or submit me from bottom.

3. Rolling From The Weak Side
If you’re good at a position or technique. Try doing the same thing from the weak side.

4. Mimic Rolling
To improve against certain types of people you might have your training partner mimic a particular style.

I hope this video is helpful by giving you some ideas to use for your BJJ training.

Thanks for watching!
-Chewy
—————–
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If you’d ever like to train with the team and I. Check out my gym Derby City MMA in Louisville,KY.

Today’s questions is a unique situation where our Blue Belt friend Marc is able to effectively hit the Triangle Choke on most people he rolls with inside his gym. His worry with this is that because he is always using the Triangle Choke submission his BJJ game is going to become 1 dimensional. So in this video I talk about sharpening up is Triangle attack while keeping his Brazilian Jiu-jitsu techniques diverse.

When I was a Purple Belt I went through a specialization phase with my Half Guard. I began learning how to sweep almost anyone I rolled with and it’s still one of my best Guard positions in Brazilian Jiujitsu. What was important about this were the lessons I learned to develop a razor sharp game that I could then take and implement for every other technique and position in my BJJ training.

In this video I talk about how Marc can diversify his attack and create more options that will help him specialize similar to how I did as a Purple Belt.

If you’re in a situation like this or even if you aren’t I believe it’s a sound idea to take into your BJJ training.

Thanks for watching!
-Chewy
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If you’d ever like to train with the team and I. Check out my gym Derby City MMA in Louisville,KY.

One thing almost everyone wants to do in BJJ is add more top pressure to Side Control and Mount positions. I’m sure you’ve know the saying “position before submission” and you’ll also learn (if you don’t already know) that the better you hold position the easier the submission comes. So adding a extra pressure from top is not only important for control it’s also crucial for your submission game.

In this video I answer a question from someone who says their coach tells them to, “Add more top pressure to make the bottom person uncomfortable.” But he’s curious, how do you add more top pressure in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu.

So in this video I share a tip that’s been useful to me. And to be honest I didn’t really absorb this lesson till I was probably a Black Belt. So if you get it sooner than me, you’re off to a better start than I was.

The Brazilian Jiujitsu lesson is really simple. It involves being aware of your bodily positioning. Sounds easy, but often there are a lot of moving parts to each position and the actual connection to the other persons body happens without much conscious thought.

So if you’re wanting to add more pressure to BJJ positions from top then I hope this video is useful to you in your BJJ training or competitions in the future.
-Chewy
—————–
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If you’d ever like to train with the team and I. Check out my gym Derby City MMA in Louisville,KY.

Today’s BJJ Q&A video is a little different as it comes from the question of a Brazilian Jiu-jitsu gym owner who has a student leaving under less than optimal terms. In this video his question is about accepting a student back.

In this video I share a story that started when I was a Brown Belt and ended when I was a Black Belt. It was where I had a friend and a high ranking belt leave the gym to open up another gym.

It happened under less than desirable terms and so I had to tell the student he couldn’t train. Sometime later the BJJ gym he had started closed down and I share how I invited him back.

Every situation is different but I believe people make mistakes and I won’t choose to hold it against anyone if they are willing to move past them.

And as I’ll also talk about in this video. If you’re a gym owner and you have other people in the area talking trash about you. Use that negative energy that’s put towards you to drive you in being a better coach to your students.

Thanks for watching the video.
-Chewy
—————-
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If you’d ever like to train with the team and I. Check out my gym Derby City MMA in Louisville,KY.

Recently I competed at the IBJJF 2019 Summer Chicago Open tournament. During this BJJ competition I was able to hit several of the techniques I teach through my Youtube videos and in my gym.

During the highlight video you’ll see a mixture of guard passing, top pressure and takedowns where I was able to win triple gold at the BJJ tournament. The medals were 1 gold in my weight class (gi) then gold in my weight class (no gi) and I won the open class (no gi).

These matches took place in the Masters 1 division.

If you’re not familiar with what Masters divisions are in Brazilian Jiujitsu. They’re divisions for us “old” guys. Haha.

Truth be told I still compete against younger guys in various tournaments but I prefer the shorter match times of 6 minutes. This match duration allows me to play aggressively without worrying about running out of steam.

Enjoy the video and I just want to say thanks again to all of you who showed your support during the competition.

Oh and it was great meeting many of you who were there!

Thanks for watching!
-Chewy
—————–
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If you’d ever like to train with the team and I. Check out my gym Derby City MMA in Louisville,KY.

In class recently I was teaching what my BJJ students and I jokingly call the Spoon Choke. Which is just a rear naked choke that ends in the “spoon” position you might be in with a your significant other. And one of my White Belts asked a good question. Is position before submission a myth?

She asked this because the position we were attacking from is not part of the Big 3 most commonly awarded points in competition and focused on during training. These Brazilian Jiu-jitsu positions being Mount, Back Mount and Side Control with Knee On Belly being used as well.

I told her that position before submission is not a myth. Our ability to dominate position gives us the ability to control our opponents effectively and setup a submission with predictable effectiveness.

That said, there are submissions everywhere in Brazilian Jiujitsu and they don’t happen only after you gain dominant position.

In fact, for me one of the things I’ve found that has been helpful for back mount is by attacking the submission early, even before I establish the hooks and everything.

I still have dominant position even if it’s not the normal positions we are accustomed to.

By doing this I catch the person off guard while they’re fighting for position and I am able to secure the submission.

Check out the idea and maybe it will be useful to you.
-Chewy
—————–
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If you’d ever like to train with the team and I. Check out my gym Derby City MMA in Louisville,KY.

When I compete in BJJ tournaments and competitions I’m not really focused on getting the gold medal. Do I want to win my matches? Of course, but I’ve found that when my mindset is fixated on winning or losing, or getting the gold medal, I lose sight of what I have to do to win. Which is COMPETE and use my Brazilian Jiu-jitsu game to the best of it’s abilities.

I bring this up because our friend who is a new Blue Belt send a question in about losing the gold medal/winning mindset.

Basically, he took 2nd place as a White Belt and ever since then he’s been itching to get back after it and have a chance at winning a gold medal. So in pursuit of this goal he’s been training his butt off.

And with only 6 weeks prior to his competition his coach decided to promote him. Now, this would be a great thing, but now he’s worried about competing at a higher level.

He said that he’s lost the “I’m gonna go for the win and the gold medal” to “I’m just going to survive.”

Now we all want to win our matches in Brazilian Jiujitsu tournaments. It goes without saying.

But in this video I’ll explain why I personally don’t like to compete with a fixation on winning.
Hopefully it’s help with your mindset in BJJ competitions.
-Chewy
—————–
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If you’d ever like to train with the team and I. Check out my gym Derby City MMA in Louisville,KY.

In BJJ there is a move that inexperienced White Belts will do from dominant positions. I jokingly call it the “White Belt Hug.”

The White Belt Hug is where someone just grabs your upper body and squeezes. This typically makes it worse for the person on the bottom in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu because they are pulling the person’s weight even more down on top of them.

So now you have their top pressure combined with your arm strength pulling them down.

Now while the technique is absolutely terrible for escaping. It can be really irritating because it gets in the way and slows things down.

In this video I show a couple of simple options to counter this technique when someone is in Mount..

The 1st is a simple forearm in the throat to create a frame. Pay close attention to how I use my whole body to break the grip.

The second is a simple option where i go to S mount to setup an armbar.

Again, not a complicated technique, but this was the question I was asked so I hope this helps.

-Chewy
—————–
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If you’d ever like to train with the team and I. Check out my gym Derby City MMA in Louisville,KY.

In this BJJ rolling video from my gym you get to watch me roll with some of my Brown Belts and Purple Belts. In addition to seeing me work for Back Mount you’ll also see me get caught in some bad spots.

My Brown Belt, Joe, starts the rolling off with a guillotine choke. My Brown Belt, Jeff, later on blasts past my Half Guard pull.

As I talk about in my videos on Youtube. It’s a good idea to focus on a particular position, technique or movement for a period of time. During this Brazilian Jiujitsu rolling session I was focused on getting to Back Mount.

This was from one of our Brazilian Jiu-jitsu training session focused towards rolling. I hope that you enjoy the video and the sneak peek from inside of our gym.

-Chewy
—————–
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If you’d ever like to train with the team and I. Check out my gym Derby City MMA in Louisville,KY.

Want a few tips on finishing the Triangle Choke in BJJ whether you’re a tall lanky person or a stocky thick legged person? Then this video should be helpful to you!

Recently my good friend, training partner and “little brother” Chad Hardy was in town teaching a seminar at my gym. And while he was here I wanted to do a video with him. And if you know anything about Chad, he’s got a killer triangle choke. And he’s got a ton of tricks on finishing it.

In this video we use our buddy Chris as the uke and Chad and I show different options to help you finish your Triangle Chokes. We show them from the vantage point of being a little shorter with thick legs. I’m not short by any stretch. But I’m also not blessed with long legs. I actually have a fairly long torso.

Then Chad comes in and shows how a tall lanky person in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu could finish the submission and gives a few easy to implement details.

If you’d like to see more of what Chad is up to, head on over to his channel at:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuauqeukQLtUrucpitF4OGQ

While we don’t go over any setups, I think that anyone who gets into the Triangle position but is unable to finish will find some helpful tips in this video. They’re easy adjustments you can immediately throw into the mix.

Hope this video is helpful!
-Chewy
—————–
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If you’d ever like to train with the team and I. Check out my gym Derby City MMA in Louisville,KY.