I recently became a moderator on reddit.com/r/bjj so I could reboot their Technique of the Month project. With help from the redditors, we came up with a new format for the TOTM that would encourage more discussion and community participation.

March is Mad Flow Month, focusing on chaining techniques into submissions. Here’s the video I shot for Week 2: Sweeps into Submissions:

Here are the weekly topics:

• Week 1: Guard Passes into Submissions
• Week 2: Sweeps into Submissions
• Week 3: Submissions into Submissions
• Week 4: Escapes into Submissions

Join in over at reddit.com/r/bjj! Upcoming TOTM themes include…

Fighter of the Month: Marcelo Garcia, Roger Gracie, Andre Galvao, anyone noteworthy fighter.

Get Your Mind Right: Gameplan building (flowcharts, mindmaps, etc.), building good habits, keeping a training log, reverse engineering your problems to find solutions, etc.

Posture and Pressure: Solo drills (balance ball, army crawls, etc.), P&P while passing, P&P while on dominant positions.

Operation Backpack: Taking the back (armdrags, rolling back takes), upper body control (seatbelt, figure-four, one-on-one, grip fighting) and lower body control (one-vs-two hooks, body triangle, positional control), submissions (RNC, bow-and-arrow, armbar, etc.)

Houdini Month: Escapes from side control, escapes from mount, escapes from rear mount, escapes from anywhere else.

BudoVideos.com put up a 26 minute highlight reel of submissions from the 2007 Pan Ams. Here’s my tally of techniques.

TOEHOLD Toehold countered with an even better toehold.

TRIANGLE Reverse triangle from rear mount.

ARMBAR Knee on belly with gift wrap, try to mount but fall down to guard and get armbar.

ARMBAR Closed guard sweep to belly down armbar when they try to push back.

KIMURA to ARMBAR to REAR COLLAR CHOKE Kimura grip from side control, switch to armbar, take the back when they get on top, finish with a double lapel choke.

ARMBAR Cobrinha dances into knee on belly and spins behind when they turn in, takes the kimura grip for an armbar.

OMOPLATA Very mean omoplata where he pulls the far foot all the way behind the head.

REAR COLLAR CHOKE Double lapel choke after some work.

LOOP CHOKE Sliding loop choke while opponent has double under pass grips so his arms are trapped.

5:00

BOW AND ARROW CHOKE from rear mount by Edson Diniz.

REAR COLLAR CHOKE by Eduardo Telles from belly down rear mount.

COLLAR CHOKE with overhook/whizzer from guard.

TRIANGLE from side control, finished on the bottom.

WRISTLOCK from mount. Aikido wins again.

AMERICANA from top of half guard.

REAR NAKED CHOKE from belly down rear mount.

ARMBAR from guard with legs in triangle positioning.

ARMBAR Kyra Gracie gets an armbar from guard after losing rear mount.

ARMBAR from top after having foot trapped in half guard.

KIMURA from top of half guard.

10:00

ARMBAR In my favorite sequence, Marcelo is passing half guard by switching between cross knee and sitout passes several times, then grabs an armbar from the top of deep half guard.

CRUCIFIX ARMLOCK / CHOKE by Marcelo.

CRUCIFIX ARMLOCK Marcelo traps the arm for the crucifix from top of turtle, then gets a belly down armlock with it.

ARMBAR Mario Reis gets a kimura grip from north-south and switched to the armbar.

AMERICANA from side control.

CROSS COLLAR CHOKE from mount.

TRIANGLE Lavato Jr. jumps into a triangle when his opponent tries to stand up with a sweep from half guard.

BRABO CHOKE WITH LAPEL Lavato Jr. pulls the lapel around to pass half guard. He keeps it in knee-on-belly and finishes the brabo by crossing their arm and pressing his chest to it.

BRABO CHOKE WITH LAPEL Lavato Jr. gets the brabo choke from knee-on-belly and hangs on to it even when they stand up. He falls down with the choke to make it even tighter but ends up on top again when they try to roll.

NORTH-SOUTH CHOKE

CLOCK CHOKE

15:00

COLLAR CHOKE Robson Moura gets a collar choke by trapping the arm with his leg and circling all the way around north-south. Unclear what grip he used.

BICEPS SLICER from top of side control. The guy on bottom has his arm in a position that people often try to use to escape knee-on-belly.

ANKLELOCK? The top fighter is in the middle of passing guard with his knee in. He grabs the heel of a foot that has a butterfly hook and turns it against his body for a tap. It looks like the heelhook where you reach down between your legs to counter leglocks, but he didn’t get DQ’d so I guess not.

REAR COLLAR CHOKE Saulo takes the back from top of turtle and gets a double lapel choke.

ARMBAR Saulo gets a farside spinning armbar from knee-on-belly.

REAR COLLAR CHOKE They get the collar grip from rear mount but ultimately finish it from side control like a loop choke of sorts as the opponent escapes the hooks.

ARMBAR Spinning armbar from knee-onn-belly.

REAR COLLAR CHOKE Tiago Alves literally hangs on the rear of turtle with his legs out in the air, then leaps forward over them to roll them into a rear collar choke with no hooks in.

TOEHOLD Alves grabs a toehold while in a mess of tangled legs in open guard.

LAPEL CHOKE Abmar Barbosa passes both his own and his opponent’s lapels around from mount before wrapping his around the neck a bunch and winning with that.

LAPEL CHOKE from side control using your own lapel like Jacare made famous.

ARMBAR as they are being bridged out of mount.

20:00

PAPERCUTTER CHOKE by Bill Cooper.

BOW AND ARROW CHOKE by Bill Cooper.

TRIANGLE from closed guard.

TRIANGLE from awkward upside down position.

TRIANGLE / ARMBAR by pulling guard and climbing right into it.

REAR COLLAR CHOKE Single wing choke as they try to turn to escape rear mount.

COLLAR CHOKE Kron Gracie gets a (collar?) choke that looks like a Peruvian necktie.

KNEEBAR Kron defends a sweep by balancing back and forth before falling into a kneebar.

REAR COLLAR CHOKE Kron gets a double lapel choke from technical mount.

REAR COLLAR CHOKE Single wing choke from rear mount.

KIMURA / ARMBAR from rear mount.

TRIANGLE from guard.

25:00

REAR COLLAR CHOKE Kayron Gracie gets a double lapel choke from rear mount.

ARMBAR Kayron gets an armbar while overhooking the arm from butterfly guard.

REAR COLLAR CHOKE Kayron gets a double lapel choke from the back.

REAR COLLAR CHOKE Kayron gets the same choke after doing an overhead sweep to mount and taking the back.

ADCC 2009 -66kg Brackets and Results

Rani Yahya vs Kouhei Yasumi

Circling and hand fighting. Yasumi gets a Russian 2-on-1 grip but Yahya pulls guard. He stands back up to the clinch and tries to shoot. Yahya hits a fireman’s carry, but Yasumi sticks to his back for an awkward crucific. Yahya walks over the Yasumi’s legs and circles to free himself and take side control. Yasumi tries to turn into him, and Yahya shoot his arm through and jumps to the mount then side control with an arm triangle.

Yahya wins by arm triangle.

Jeff Glover vs Timo-Juhani Hirvikangas

Glover leaps up in the air for the flyingest of flying guillotines and scares Hirvikangas into siting to guard. Glover passes around to side control/north-south, almost kneeling on Hirvikangas. Glover gets a kimura grip and spins behind to take the back. He switches to the harness. He has one hook, then gets the second, then goes to body triangle as he works on the neck. Glover gets a RNC with a lot face/chin in it, then swims his other arm in to RNC the other side.

Glover wins by RNC.

Rubens “Cobrinha” Charles vs Hiroshi Nakamura

Cobrinha sits to butterfly guard then immediately takes reverse de la Riva (RDLR) and underhooks the shin to spin under and through the legs, sweeping Nakamura. Nakamura gets half butterfly guard. Nakamura tries to kick away and stand, but Cobrinha has amazing timing as he jumps around to the harness and does a rolling back take.

While Cobrinha tries to get his hooks, Nakamura escapes and Cobrinha slides down to closed guard. Nakamura stands and Cobrinha opens to sitting butterfly guard.

As soon as they make contact again, Cobrinha goes to a RDLR spin under and takes the back. He has the harness and one deep hook (with the other foot cross behind the butt.)

Cobrinha gets a kimura grip and switches to an armbar. Nakamura gets on top, and Cobrinha fights for the armbar from guard. He finishes it by spinning belly down.

Cobrinha wins by armbar.

Joel Tudor vs Nicolas Renier

Tudor sits to butterfly guard, then as they make contact, he switches to half guard, then DLR, then closed.

Renier gets a tall posture in guard and keeps reaching back with one arm to pry at the ankles. He almost gets triangled, but he saves himself with good posture, and continues to try this guard break. Joel does different things to break posture like underhooking a leg and putting a foot on the hip, or sitting up and hugging the shoulders. Joel sits up and wraps the head for a guillotine but Reneir pops out. They play this guard game for a while.

Tudor sits up for another guillotine and breaks Renier’s posture down. When Renier grabs the wrist to defend, Tudor climbs to the triangle. This time he keeps both hands on the head to break posture while adjusting and tightening the legs.

Tudor wins by triangle.

Rani Yahya vs Jeff Glover – Quarter Finals

They clinch and Yahya jumps to closed guard. Glover reaches back and grabs the heel to try to open guard. After a few tries, this works and he goes for the double under pass. Yahya avoids the pass by turtling, and Glover goes for an arm-in guillotine. Yahya defends, and Glover ends up on bottom.

Glover has half/half butterfly guard with a grip on the far ankle. Yahya is working to pass by reaching down between the legs with cradle grip. Glover goes to deep half guard (DHG) and out the backdoor, almost taking the back with a grip on the hips, but Yahya turns and sits to guard.

Yahya’s turn to have DHG. Jeff tries standing to a cross knee pass then switching to a backsit pass (reverse half guard), but they square up to normal DHG again. Glover sits over Yahya’s head and front spins to reverse half guard. He tries stabilizing the position and freeing his leg, but switches to a heelhook/kneebar. Yahya defends by sitting up, so Glover lets go and gets on top again. Yahya is still in DHG. Glover almost jumps forward into mount but his ankle is stuck.

Yahya works up to a single leg takedown. Glover takes a kimura grip, but Yahya avoids trouble and passes to side control. Glover turns away, and Yahya gets a cradle between the legs.

Glover almost returns to guard and grabs Yahya’s neck in a guillotine in the scramble (like how he beat Robson Moura in 2011), but Yahya stays out of trouble and gets the cradle again.

Yahya gets the harness and sits in against the back with no hooks. Glover turns away, and Yahya goes to knee on belly (more the ribs though.) Glover rises into a slow sort of seoi-nage/toss that gets him on top but Yahya back away and stands. Glover jumps to closed guard then the timer rings.

Yahya wins on points.

Rubens “Cobrinha” Charles vs Joel Tudor – Quarter Finals

Cobrinha sits down and immediately goes for a RDLR spin under to standing up to a single leg from behind.

Tudor gets butterfly/half guard and makes room to stand up.

Cobrinha sits to RDLR and spins through the legs. Tudor tries to ran away and pokes Cobrinha in the eye. The ref pauses the match while Cobrinha recovers.

After restarting, Cobrinha hits a RDLR spin under sweep and gets on top. Tudor has open guard, and Cobrinha is trying to work standing cross knee passes. Tudor spins to a heelhook/kneebar but Cobrinha defends.

Cobrinha pushes Tudors legs down for a smash pass. His leg is entangled (from the earlier heelhook/kneebar) but he eventually circles his foot out, then hits a cross knee pass. He quickly jumps over Tudor to the opposite side, then takes mount and then the back as Tudor tries to turn over.

After hand fighting for a little, Cobrinha gets a RNC on the other side that he first attempted.

Cobrinha wins by RNC.

Rani Yahya vs Rubens “Cobrinha” Charles – Semifinals

Clinch and hand fighting. Cobrinha sits to RDLR. Yahya works for an over-under pass, forcing Cobrinha to turtle, then sit straight back into closed guard.

Yahya reaches back with one arm to pry at the ankles. Cobrinha quickly opens and armdrags to almost take the back, then mounts as Yahya tries to face him. Yahya traps a leg for reverse half guard. Cobrinha stands and tries to cross knee pass, putting him in normal DHG.

From the top of DHG, Cobrinha gets a kimura grip and sits above Yahya’s head, trying to scoot around and take the back. Yahya rocks him back to DHG a few times but Cobrinha keeps moving behind the head. Yahya tries to get on top and stop Cobrinha from taking his back, but Cobrinha spins with the kimura to finish with both legs over the back.

Cobrinha wins by kimura.

Leo Vieira vs David Marinakis

Nicktie clinch and grip fighting. Vieira gets a Russian 2-on-1 to double leg takedown and immediately passes to side control, but Marinakis turtles. Vieira takes the front headlock. Marinakis tries to pull guard but Vieira surfs over his legs and keeps the front headlock. Marinakis pulls guard successfully and goes for a leglock but Vieira stands up and pulls out.

Back to feet. Marinakis pulls guard, then stands again when Vieira doesn’t engage. More hand fighting for a long time.

Vieira hits an armdrag to single leg that lands him in open half guard. When Marinakis sits up and turns in, Vieira grabs a guillotine grip and jumps forward with it. He either thinks he won or felt something I can’t see, because he suddenly releases it, jumps up and goes running across the mat, then spins back to keep fighting. Marinakis is standing now.

Marinakis pulls guard again, and Vieira gets a low posture to work on leg drag/leg pin passes. Marinakis tries to get up, and Vieira gets the front headlock again. Vieira cranks a ten finger guillotine and finishes it even with Markinakis rolling them both to their backs (so Vieira is just hugging the neck to his chest while facing the ceiling.)

Vieira wins by ten finger guillotine.

Ryan Hall vs Jeff Curran

Hall quickly sits and starts butt scooting versus a standing Curran. Hall is intent on inverting and spins upside down several times when Curran gets near. He ends up pulling closed guard.

Curran has a low posture (head down, hands on biceps) and keeps trying to put Hall’s arm behind his back to trap it. Hall body triangles and frees his arm. Curran keeps working from this low posture, trying to step over the leg any time Hall opens to adjust. Hall is working on different grips to control posture, including taking London at one point.

Curran stands with his butt up, and Hall underhooks a leg. Curran drops back to his knees. Hall opens guard and goes inverted and spins into 50/50. Curran tries his own heelhook and they start rocking back and forth in 50/50.

Hall gets on top and untangles his leg for a leg drag/smash pass. Curran gets open guard then drives up for a double leg takedown. Hall falls back right into an omoplata that earns him a sweep to side control, where he quickly takes the back.

They grip fight with Hall on the back until Hall switches to mount. Curran shrimps out and Hall stands. Curran stands. Hall sits to guard and inverts, then stands again. Curran shoots for a double leg takedown, but again it is met with an immediate omoplata. Time is called.

Hall wins on points.

Rafael Mendes vs Jayson Patino

Mendes sits to butterfly guard and shoots up into a triangle when Patino kneels. Patino stands and lifts Mendes up into the air over his head. Mendes lets go and gets thrown down to the ground.

Mendes plays intervted RDLR but ends up with closed guard. He works on neck and wrist control while climbing his legs.

Mendes’ guard opens and Patina stands. Mendes goes from butterfly to RDLR then shoots up to a triangle again. Patino tries to pick him up again, but Mendes hangs on him and keeps adjusting and attacking the armbar. Patino walks out of bounds and seems to be hoping the ref will reset them. They are bumping into the foam wedges that display the sponsors’ posters and the ref pushes those out of the way. Mendes keeps on the triangle/armbar for the tap.

Mendes wins by triangle/armbar.

Baret Yoshida vs Justin Rader

Yoshida sits to butterfly/half guard and spins to a leglock position but doesn’t try any submissions. Rader keeps incredible pressure on him now and throughout the fight.

Yoshida tries standing into a single leg, but can’t get up, so he sits to guard and leglock again. Rader’s balance and pressure keeps him on top. Yoshida tries to stand, then tries to sweep. They end up with dueling banjos in 50/50, heelhooking each other. Rader stands to get out. Yoshida spins to leglock again, then back to half guard.

Rader takes an underhook, so Yoshida ties an omoplata with the overhook, but is pressured out of it. Rader aggressively attacks with an arm-in guillotine from the top. He uses the grip to pass guard, but Yoshida recovers. Rader keeps a grip on his head, but Yoshda is able to spin half guard to the heelhook again. Rader stands and pushes Yoshida’s legs down then jumps out.

Yoshida has butterfly guard hooks behind Rader’s legs and is grabbing the back of the knees. Rader tries a jumping pass but Yoshida circles his legs back in to prevent it.

I’m going to stop my play by play here because it’s repeating variations of this routine: Yoshida tries to play butterfly/half butterfly/half guard and go for sweeps, while Rader keeps driving his knee in and lunging in for guillotines and smashing Yoshida. At one point though, Rader does successfully pass guard with a guillotine grip, which looks really painful for Yoshida until he gets out when Rader tries to mount.

They stand up a few times, and Rader hits a blast double at one point.

Yoshida looks like he’s staggering from exhaustion by the end, and after the timers buzzes, he has to sit for a moment before he can stand up for the hand raising.

Rader wins on points.

Leo Vieira vs Ryan Hall – Quarter Finals

Hand fighting. Hall shoots in, but instead quickly sits to guard, then stands. Hall sits and inverts. Vieira engages by grabbing Hall’s ankles. Hall hits his signature spin to triangle and nearly gets it. Vieira postures and yanks out.

Hall inverts again, then goes back to butterfly guard. Vieira uses a posture that you’ll see throughout all his matches, where he cross grips an ankle, lowers his head, and goes to one knee with a wide base.

Hall armdrags and almost takes the back but falls off the front when he can’t get hooks. He recovers butterfly guard, then they both stand.

Hand fighting. Hall shoots like he wants a takedown but pulls guard again, then inverts and spins all the way around to butterfly guard. This inversion repeats, and Hall keeps pulling guard and inverting to defend many near passes by Vieira.

On time as Hall spins, Vieira is ready and gets double under pass grips. He stacks Hall for a while and slowly passes with pressure. Hall rolls backwards to his knees and pulls guard.

Even more inverting and spinning and near passes. They are both working hard.

They end up standing and Vieira shoves Hall straight out of bounds.

Hall shoots for a takedown that actually goes so deep that he flies between Vieira’s legs and comes out the other side. They both seem surprised.

Time is called with no points scored so they go to overtime.

More of the same guard work by Hall. Vieira gets another double under pass. This time when Hall tries to roll to turtle, Vieira controls the speed and gets a harness grip. Hall manages to pull guard.

Hall stands into a single leg but Vieira backs out of it.

Hall shoots on Vieira from standing several times, but gets stuffed. Vieira spins behind to a rear body lock, but Hall forward rolls to inverted guard and almost spins to a triangle.

Hall shoots a final time and Vieira gets a ten finger guillotine grip, and this joins his hands and throws an elbow over the shoulder for the finish.

Vieira wins by guillotine.

Rafael Mendes vs Justin Rader – Quarter Finals

Mendes pulls butterfly guard, then does a DLR spin behind to get on top. He grabs an anaconda choke from the top of half guard and taps out Rader.

Mendes win by anaconda choke.

Leo Vieira vs Rafael Mendes – Semifinals

Mendes pulls butterfly guard to closed guard after standing to hand fight for a while. Vieira stands to open, and Mendes hangs on him like a koala. Mendes jumps to his feet and they are standing again.

Mendes sits, then stands, then sits again. Vieira drops low (one knee down, other leg posted out wide) and pins an ankle down with a cross grip. He uses this throughout the fight, but it isn’t clear what his plan is because it leaves the other leg free to step over and block him. He just keeps pressing his head/chest against that leg. Maybe he’s working for a leg drag pass but it never materializes.

Mendes hits an armdrag to single leg to rear body lock. Vieira pulls half guard. Mendes nearly front flips into an arm-in guillotine then switches to an anaconda. Vieira squirms to survive, manages to free his head and gets half guard on the other side. They go out of bounds in an awkard side-by-side position and there is a funny restart. The ref moves them to the center and doesn’t pay much attention to making them restart with the same grips. The ref starts them again, but they take a moment to correctly regrip before they start fighting.

They end up with mutual guard, both sitting with their legs tangled. Vieira goes for a 50/50 heelhook, but Mendes gets out.

They Indian leg wrestle for a while until Mendes stands. Vieira stands too. Mendes hits a single to double to rear body lock. Mendes jumps up to take the back, but Vieira perfectly times it and ducks backward to send Mendes flying all the way over and almost face planting.

Mendes recovers to guard. Vieira works his same passing grips. Mendes inverts, but no results. Vieira is still on his passing grip but going no where. Mendes goes to RDLR and hits a spin under and stands into a sort of double leg from behind to put Vieira down, then jumps on to the hips for a rear body lock.

Timer buzzes and they are reset for overtime.

Vieira shooots for a single leg. Mendes drops down and turtles, then rolls to inverted RDLR, spins through the legs to the back. Climbs on to the back with a hook trapping Vieira’s arm. With only one hand to defend, Vieira eventually submits to a RNC.

Mendes wins by RNC.

Jeff Glover vs Ryan Hall for Bronze

Glover pulls his low butterfly/half guard. Hall works the cross knee to smash pass, then tries to take Glover’s back. Glover blocks the hooks and escapes to get on top. Hall has guard. Glover stands and Hall follows.

Glover pulls half guard around the ankle. Hall steps over Glover’s head from standing, but Glover puts him in DHG. Hall stands to pass and steps all the way around the head again. Glover sits up into single leg guard. Hall tries forward rolling into a guillotine. They scramble to their feet.

Glover sits to butterfly guard and takes grips on and under the legs. He goes to x-guard for a sweep, then to a leglock, then to half guard and spinning under for the back, but Hall maintains composure and defends it all. Jeff goes back to butterfly guard with a leg underhooked. He inverts, spins to butterfly, then to DHG. Hall works to pass. Glover goes to inverted to butterfly to DHG again. For a while, Glover plays DHG while Hall works on cross knee passes.

Hall passes and tries to take the back when Glover turns away, but Glover is able to spin to guard and get reverse DHG. Jeff stands and they hand fight.

They are restarted for overtime.

Glover shoots for a single to a double, spins all the way through the legs, back to the single, to rear body lock. Hall rolls forward to get inverted guard. Shoots for a triangle but gets nothing.

Hall has open half/butterfly guard. Glover tries a cross knee pass but Hall inverts, then spins back to butterfly. Hall drives up into a double leg, spins behind to the rear body lock, then climbs up to get the harness grip and one hook. Glover reaches down to block out the second hook as he turtles. Glover almost gets a backdoor escape through the legs, but Hall gets the second hook.

Hall wins on points.

Rubens “Cobrinha” Charles vs Rafael Mendes – Final

The first 20 minutes of this match is the most intense nonstop back and forth action. My notes for this match are almost as many pages as all the other matches combined. Unfortunately, the second 20 minutes of this fight (it goes to double overtime) are… boring. Cobrinha and Mendes fight their hearts out and the are both running on empty by the end.

Cobrinha hits several armdrags to single leg, and each time Mendes gets deep anaconda chokes that make Cobrinha frantic to escape.

They both put on a RDLR and 50/50 guard clinic, often tit for tat, as they sweep each other only to end up in the mirror position. My notes look like a mess of “RDLR to inverted RDLR spin under to 50/50, back to RDLR, sweep. Other guy does RDLR, invert, stand into sweep. Back to RDLR…” Watch this match if you want to see how RDLR is done.

They both go for many 50/50 inverted heelhooks and it’s cringe inducing to watch them fight it and roll around to defend. Mendes rolls out of bounds 2-3 times in a row to escape a single heelhook that keeps getting reset in the middle of the mat (like how Avellan got his knee wrecked by Paul Harris).

During all this inverting and heelhooking, they also catch each other in “bear trap” calf crushes, but can’t get the finish. Mendes improvises a kimura from some strange leg entanglement position but can’t finish it.

Once the fight goes to overtime, both of them seem beat and it becomes a lot of hunched over hand-in-hand clinching. Cobrinha seems a little more aggressive, still going for shots. With about a minute left in double overtime, Mendes takes the back in a scramble to win on points.

Unlike takedowns and guard passes, sweeps are harder to categorize. Fighters have highly developed guards that often blur the lines between textbook positions and straightforward sweeps. What starts as a hook sweep from butterfly guard may end as a backroll from half guard. A fighter may move from half guard to DLR to sitting up guard to butterfly guard to a hook sweep then standing into a single leg (and all that in about 3 seconds.)

This “blending” becomes a defining aspects of most sweeps. They are rarely “one shot” moves (though some are), but the result of off-balancing and dynamic motions in many different directions before finishing.

Here is my tally and my best attempt at categorizing the moves:

• HOOK Marcelo in reverse half guard (top guy switched base to face legs) gets a hook sweep.
• OVERHEAD Braulio gets an overhead (tomoe nage) sweep from DLR (like he did as a brown belt in 2003 Pan Am.)
• STANDING UP (LEG ON SHOULDER) Half guard with waiter sweep positioning. Wedge in rear knee to standing with leg on shoulder.
• HOOK / BACKROLL  Hook sweep from half butterfly guard to backroll sweep.
• Telles gets a weird sweep from under turtle by stepping out behind the top guy and circling behind as he stands up and tosses his opponent down.
• HOOK / SINGLE LEG Butterfly hook sweep to single leg with wrist passed between legs.
• STANDING UP (PICKING UP ANKLE) Marcelo doing one-legged (leglock) guard, rocking back and forth until he stands up with a grip on the ankle.
• HOOK Marcelo going from half to half butterfly hook sweep, landing in mount.
• STANDING UP (PICKING UP ANKLES) Marcelo going from butterfly to x-guard, rock them back and standing, holding their legs in the air.
• BACKROLL Roger does a backroll sweep from half guard on Marcelo and lands in mount.
• Roger Gracie gets several of his sweeps versus combat bases where he has his guard locked and he just twists them back and rises. They often try to leglock him (like Marcelo tries) but it never goes far.
• Roger is finishing a cross knee pass with a collar grip, and Marcelo rolls him over like magic.
• OMOPLATA Cross grip to omoplata backspin sweep (backwards somersault with hips to shoulder).
• UNDERHOOK LEG Closed guard sweep by underhooking the leg and twisting as they stand, landing in mount.
• SPIN UNDER / STANDING UP DLR/RDLR to invert between the legs and stand up in the scramble.
• BACKROLL Backroll sweep from half guard.
• STANDING UP (PICKING UP ANKLE) Butterfly guard/sitting guard to standing up with the ankle.
• SPIN UNDER Yuki Nakai does RDLR to spinning between the legs and taking the back before anyone knew how cool it was.
• HOOK / STANDING UP Hook sweep from butterfly guard with grip on the knee to standing up.
• UNDERHOOK LEG Closed guard, opponent stands, twist and underhook far leg and sweep.
• Butterfly guard to anklelock and getting on top as they defend.
• Marcelo rising up into a double leg from sitting butterfly guard.
• Marcelo does a shin sweep (grabbing the ankle) from butterfly.
• HOOK Xande gets an overhook and grabs the belt while standing, then sits into butterfly guard and hook sweeps.
• HOOK SWEEP / STANDING UP Half guard to butterfly hook sweep to standing up and running them over.
• SINGLE LEG Two half/quarter guard with underhook to single leg.
• BACKSPIN DLR backspin sweep to the outside.
• BACKSPIN DLR spin, get sat on, get on top while defending loose kneebar.
• OMOPLATA Omoplata by pulling ankle over face, cranking the arm by hand until they roll, end sitting on the arm.
• HOOK Half guard to DLR to sitting guard to hook sweep.
• Terere gets a triangle on a big guy and underhooks the leg to sweep when they posture.
• OMOPLATA Terere gets an omoplata from double sleeve open guard that turns into a sweep.
• STANDING UP Terere gets feet on biceps and spins around a lot until they are off balance and he can jump on top.
• Inverting from butterfly guard to kneebar sweep.

Here are the lessons I’m taking from this:

1. If you have the chance to stand up, do it, and take their legs with you.

Sometimes this is more deliberate, like working up to a single leg from half guard. Other times it’s just spotting a split second opportunity to jump up in the scramble and run them backwards.

2. Play your guards in combination.

Be able to easily move between a series of guards that share grips and strategies. These guards need to have answers for the major guard pass strategies like the over-under and cross knee.

3. Do your sweeps in combination.

Similar to the last point, be able to switch between sweeps (and even guards) in the middle of a sweep. Make them worry about many directions at once, and be ready to commit to the sweep when it’s time (or just stand up.)

4. Fear of submissions makes your sweeps easier.

Omoplatas and even some leglocks make for good sweeps because they contain an element of “this can end the fight.” People will concede sweeps if they are afraid of a submission. Like the earlier points all stress, you need to see the right moment to get on top rather than staying on the submission (or possibly doing both.)

This is the final highlight of best moves from Mundials 2004. Here’s the tally of submissions:

• CLOCK / BOW AND ARROW CHOKE Clock choke to bow and arrow choke when they try to roll.
• (2) ARMBARS from guard.
• (2) TRIANGLES from guard.
• TRIANGLE Triangle from lasso/arm wrap spider guard.
• ARMBAR Knee-on-belly to nearside armbar.
• ARMBAR Braulio gets two armbars while sweeping with the far side underhook as they stand in his closed guard.
• EZEKIEL CHOKE Roger gets an ezekiel from mount.
• REAR COLLAR CHOKE Roger gets the double collar choke from the back on Tozi.
• CROSS COLLAR CHOKE Roger gets a cross collar choke from mount on Terere.
• ARMBAR Jacare gets an armbar from Nino Schembri mount (sitting with both legs forward.)
• CROSS COLLAR CHOKE Cross collar choke as they do the cross knee pass to quarter guard.
• KNEEBAR (Didn’t show enough to see where it started.)
• ARMBAR Armbar from rear mount.
• LOOP CHOKE They get a loop choke as the guy on passes guard and he ends up unconscious on top of side control.
• REAR COLLAR CHOKE Rolling back take to single wing choke.
• (2) BASEBALL BAT CHOKES
• PAPER CUTTER CHOKE
• BRABO CHOKE WITH LAPEL Xande gets a brabo choke by pulling the lapel out while passing half guard.
• (2) ARMBARS from top.
• REAR COLLAR CHOKE Single wing choke with no hooks.
• ARMBAR Spinning armbar from side control with underhook.
• KNEEBAR / TOEHOLD Rolling kneebar to toehold.
• ARMBAR to TRIANGLE Terere attacks with an armbar from rear mount and switched to a triangle as they escape by turning into him.
• REAR NAKED CHOKE The camera angle was unclear, so it could have been some kind of collar choke instead.
• KNEEBAR / TOEHOLD Spin to kneebar from top of half guard to toehold.
• (2) AMERICANA Both from side control, but one ended in mount with the ankle stuck. I must confess that second one came after what may be the worst performances I’ve ever seen by two black belts.
• KNEEBAR / TOEHOLD Attack with toehold and kneebar, finish with toehold.
• CLOCK CHOKE Textbook.
• REAR COLLAR CHOKE Megaton attacks chokes and armlocks from the back until he gets a single wing choke.
• REAR COLLAR CHOKE Marcelo passes guard, they turtle and he takes their back where he ultimately gets a bow and arrow choke.
• ARMBAR Marcelo does a reverse half guard pass (from the sitout position) and immediately hits an armbar once he’s out.
• REAR COLLAR CHOKE Marcelo does a spinning armbar from side control, but ends up belly down. After hanging on the arm for a bit, he switches to rear mount and works on collar chokes until he gets a mix of the bow and arrow and single wing choke.
• TOEHOLD Roger ends up in an awkward north-south/reverse mount position and grabs a toehold.
• TRIANGLE Jacare is sitting on an armbar after an omoplata. He keeps a hold on the sleeve and spins into mount to get a triangle.
• KOMLOCK Butterfly with overhook/whizzer to straight armlock (AKA Komlock).
• BOW AND ARROW CHOKE Saulo does for a bow and arrow but finishes it by stepping over the head and rolling into a much meaner version of it. (He teaches this in his DVDs.)
• TRIANGLE Rear mount to triangle as they turn into to escape.
• TRIANGLE Jump to closed guard, open to double sleeve open guard with feet on hips, foot up to triangle.
• REAR COLLAR CHOKES / BOW AND ARROW Double lapel choke from the back, switching to single lapel choke and ultimately ending with bow and arrow.
• REAR COLLAR CHOKE Xande takes the back from turtle and finishes with a single wing choke.
• REAR COLLAR CHOKE Terere takes the back and gets a double lapel choke.
• KIMURA From the top of half guard, they almost get a pressing armbar (hugging the arm to their shoulder) but switch to a kimura when they defend.
• LAPEL CHOKE Jacare gets his famous lapel choke from top of side control.
• REAR COLLAR CHOKE Xande gets a single lapel choke from the back.
• FLYING TRIANGLE to OMOPLATA to KNEEBAR I guess they wanted to end in style.

Armbars and rear collar chokes (double lapel, single lapel or bow and arrow) were the top submissions, especially when used in combination while attacking the back. Spinning to the farside armbar from side control was common, as well as armbars from mount. Triangles and various collar chokes are next, followed by kneebars/toeholds, then assorted other armlocks and chokes.

I didn’t see a single rear collar choke finished from traditional rear mount with two hooks. Fighters would get the two hooks when needed (and to earn points), but the finishes came from being far up on one shoulder (like how you angle off for the bow and arrow.) This also made it easier to switch to armbars and even triangles (by stepping over the arm as they tried to break grips for the collar choke.)

Like usual in the black belt divisions, the submissions were often blends and combinations of different attacks, like threatening a collar choke, armbar and triangle at the same time to overload their defenses. When they do hit more straightforward submissions, it’s usually because they surprised them by combining it with the end of a sweep or guard pass or other transition.

This is my tally of guard passes from the highlight reel on the 2004 Mundials DVD. It’s rapid fire, switching from fight to fight quickly, so I didn’t write down who did what.

• 7-9 cross knee passes (depending on how you want to define it)
• 7 over-under passes
• 2 Sao Paulo passes to half guard performed by Roberto Godoi himself, ending in cross knee pass
• 2 leg facing half guard passes (like Marcelo does)
• 2 half guard passes with the underhook that ended in the cross knee
• 1 knee-pin/knee-through pass
• 1 stacking pass
• 1 smash pass
• 1 “step over and sit on it” pass to an x-guard position
• 1 bull fighter by dropping the shoulder into hips

There were a few misc. passes that didn’t fall into any specific classification, but they were usually something involving grabbing the knees and circling around the legs.

Not all cross knee passes or over-under passes were the same. They happen many different ways, and often in combination with each other, as well as other passes. Some started from standing, some from kneeling, some in open guard, some in half guard (and in Godoi’s case, even closed guard.)

Cross knee passes from standing often started with knee grips followed by a collar grip or underhook. If they started in half guard, they had the underhook and worked their trapped knee out until they could cross knee pass.

For the over-under, they grips were usually on the knees or sometimes the end of the pants, and/or an underhook to grab the belt/hips. This grip sometimes goes to the end of the pants.

Notice that very few passes go under the legs, like a stacking pass. Almost all go over or around, even if they use a grip that goes under the legs.

This is my reply to The Pareto principle and progress: playing the percentages in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu by The Jiu Jitsu Laboratory. Read that first to get what I’m talking about here.

If I understood it correctly, the Pareto principle states that 80% of the jiu-jitsu techniques are owned by the wealthiest 20% of Italians…

I liked Jiu Jitsu Laboratory’s article overall, because it raises good points about how to make the most of your training. It is easy to go flying off in every direction, and sometimes you need to be brought back down to the ground.

Jiu Jitsu Lab shares my skepticism of the 80/20 “rule” truly being a rule. Like he pointed out, it’s overreaching to apply an economic ratio for Italian wealth to every other aspect of life, BJJ included. It may have been an accurate description of the situation at the time, but it’s not a scientific principle that can be applied to everything. Hey, maybe we can make up a 99/1 ratio thanks to the current Occupy movement! Someone get Malcolm Gladwell’s agent on the phone!

What is more valuable is the idea that a small percentage often has a greater effect than the majority. Applying this to BJJ, it encourages you to find those moves that give you most of your success and investing time and attention in them. No one is going to be able to make full use 100% of the techniques they learn. They are better off finding what works for them most of the time, and then finding what details in those moves they can further improve.

Jiu Jitsu Lab’s point about the definition of “the basics” being nebulous is a good one. Everyone “knows” what the basics are, but no one can completely agree on them. We all get that some moves are more important than others, and some are better to teach to beginners than others. Maybe they are what Helio laid out as his curriculum, or maybe they aren’t.

Let’s look a move that is taken for granted as a basic in all grappling arts: the bridge. As universal as it’s assumed to be, you can find different opinions on it.

At the Carlos Machado seminar I attended, he confessed he never used the upa escape from mount. He just didn’t like it and felt it was too much work. He did a mount escape that rolled the guy over, but it was based more on sideways hip movement (circling under them) and a little bump, but not truly bridging.

Rickson, per what I’ve been shown by a few of his students, does the complete opposite. He wants them bridging all the way off the top of their head like a wrestler. This is in line with his “connect your entire body to the movement” philosophy. (Personally, my back and neck aren’t strong enough to do this.)

Like Carlos, Michael Jen made similar statements about his personal grappling system not really using a true bridge. To quote him:

You can definitely become proficient without a strong bridge. You need to be able to do a general bridging motion as far as just lifting your hips. However, you do not need to have the power bridge to bail your opponent over in order to have an effective game.

In fact, my BJJ game does not rely on strong bridging ability. It hate bridging and avoid doing it if possible. I had a bulging disc in my low back and I really lack flexibility in my back as far as bridging. When I try to arch back, my wife teases me and calls it a “broken coffee table” rather than a bridge.

When it comes to my side mount escaping system, I never bridge my opponent over. I only use small bridging motions to create space or momentum.

…

Yeah, I do wish that I made a better bridge. That is just like how I wish I could put both of my feet behind my head. Though developing flexibility like that would be very beneficial, I prefer to spend my time developing technique that is less attribute oriented.

Roy Harris (another Joe Moreira black belt like Jen) is the complete opposite, claiming the upa is the most important fundamental move that he built his grappling around.

Roy Harris once wrote an interesting article about how he doesn’t believe it’s possible to train without attributes, though he includes sensitivity and timing as attributes (which some debate.) Michael Jen, a peer of Harris’, makes similar points about how no one truly trains with zero strength and flexibility unless they are a corpse. The goal is, of course, to limit and reduce the amount of strength, flexibility and other physical factors as much as possible.

One definition for “the basics” that people aren’t always aware they are using is “those moves I learned first.” I actually have no problem with this approach as long it’s successful. It works if they were good moves and your instructor knew what he was doing. But it doesn’t answer why you learned them first. Did your instructor have a thoughtful reason, or was it just what he learned first too?

Leo Kirby, a brown belt under Marcelo, has a funny story about that. He had a white belt end up training with him at his “work on DVD moves” open mats because that the only time they could make it. He warned them that the techniques wouldn’t be “basic”, but they didn’t care. So they learned x-guard, armdrags, etc. from Marcelo DVDs. (Helio turns in his grave.) But later when Leo saw them in a normal class, they were doing x-guard fine against other beginners. That’s when he decided that “the basics” were just whatever you learned first.

A BJJ teacher once posted online about how he teaches the butterfly guard to beginners for their first trial class. This was controversial, but his argument was that it was less awkward than making them close guard on strangers, and it taught them to make space and safely stand up, which he felt was an important lesson especially if they never came to another class.

My perspective is that as long as a technique is built on the “true” basics of leverage, positioning, momentum, timing, balance (or off-balancing), etc. and it deals with situations that would realistically come up, then it is as basic as you want it to be. I’ve had white belts doing the reverse omoplata with no problems. They just need to understand how and when it works (and when it doesn’t work). Of course, just because they can do it, it doesn’t mean it’s the most important skill for them to be learning at the time.

Now to turn my logic on itself, I can’t teach “basic” concepts like momentum and leverage by standing in front of a class and saying “F = ma! M = Fd!” We’re not doing a physics class, we’re doing jiu-jitsu. Students need something to do, and that’s going to be practicing a technique (or at least a “movement” of some kind.) As an instructor, I can teach those techniques I feel best impart an understanding (or at least a practical application) of these concepts.

We can apply different reasoning to what makes certain moves “advanced” or “basic”. Let’s take Danaher’s rules for what he calls a basic technique:

1. the technique must work for anyone at any proficiency level
2. the technique must work for anyone who is competing at any weight class
3. the technique must work for any body type

Per those three points, the heelhook is a basic move, at least in an abstract sense. But at the same time, few instructors would recommend teaching heelhooks to beginners because “it’s a basic”. We understand it takes a sensitivity that beginners don’t have (unless we don’t care about injuries.) To qualify as basic or not, do we need to consider more attributes like balance, coordination and timing?

I consider standing up to break closed guard a “basic” technique because I learned it my first day (as many white belts at my gym have), but it took me almost two years to be able to perform it without getting swept for trying. This breaks Danaher’s first rule, but I bet he teaches a similar move anyway (or has a way of arguing that it doesn’t break his rule.)

We could also say that a basic move should be one that is going to be needed in more fights than a nonbasic move. But then we need to look at context. Are we talking about a street fight? White belts in sparring? Purple belts in a tournament? Black belts? MMA fight?

Headlock escapes are basic moves that are needed in street fights and white belt matches that are never needed in any of those other situations.

Can an advanced move still have “basics” to it? People will call x-guard advanced, but it’s really just about using butterfly hooks and shifting your hips under their base. Does that justify teaching it to beginners or not?

The traditional standard of teaching moves that work for a weaker, smaller person against a bigger, stronger opponent is one I agree is valuable. But what are its limits? How much smaller and weaker or bigger and stronger are we talking about? Everything breaks down at some point.

But maybe we just worry about this stuff too much as nerdy white guys. Most black belts don’t care about this. Maybe they can explain underlying theories, or maybe they can’t. They just teach what they know works, and no one can argue with results.

The 2004 Mundials DVD has highlight reels of the best takedowns, sweeps, passes and submission. Here is my tally of the takedowns:

• 8 Single leg takedowns
• 7 Double leg takedowns
• 2 Single to double leg
• 1 Armdrag to single by Marcelo
• 8 seoi nage, including 1 with double sleeve grip
• 4 Kouchi gari (Jacare’s favorite)
• 1 Kouchi gari to ankle pick by Jacare
• 3 Fireman’s carry (kata guruma)
• 1 Single/fireman’s hybrid (started like a single but followed through like a fireman’s)
• 2 Uchimata, 1 as a counter to a single leg
• 1 Suplex as they tried to stand out of turtle
• 1 Snapdown to front headlock
• 1 Duckunder after shooting and being sprawled on
• 1 Sitout from the front headlock
• 1 Ude gaeshi

The influence of wrestling on BJJ is obvious. Single and double legs are the most common takedowns. If you count single legs that were initiated from guard (as seen in the best sweeps highlights), you can add at least 5 more to the count, and a few more double legs too. (This is not including the many sweeps that end by standing with a grip on the ankle or an underhook on the leg which aren’t exactly single legs.)

Some of the takedowns (especially singles and doubles) seemed too easy as the guy on the receiving end quickly resigned to pulling guard.

Singles and doubles were setup many different ways and varying distances. Some came from the gi clinch, usually with a snapdown and dropping to the legs. Others came from shooting from the outside. The experienced wrestlers like Drysdale used more dynamic movement and footwork to shoot in, similar to how armdrags are done.

The single leg in particular stands out as the most used and versatile takedown. This mirrors what Marshal Carper wrote after working on Marcelo Garcia’s newest book:

3. The single leg is the most important takedown in jiu-jitsu.

As a slight disclaimer, Marcelo never actually says the above, but it is evident in his game.  Opportunities to execute single legs abound from all positions: from standing, from the butt scoot, from arm drags, from guard, and from guard pass counters.  Marcelo uses the single leg constantly, and it ties in perfectly with his arm drag system, creating a hyper-aggressive path to the back or to the top.  To be honest, I thought I would never learn to wrestle, but transplanting Marcelo’s system into my own style opened my game to new possibilities.  Suddenly, I was confident enough to stand with wrestlers, and I was hunting arm drags and single legs from a variety of positions.  If you have not begun to work on your single leg, you will after reading this book.

Judo also made its mark. The high number of seoi nage and fireman’s carries will be a surprise to some, since the usual theory is that they expose the back, but they worked for the guys who went for them with good timing and full commitment. (We don’t have a highlight reel of the ones that failed though.)

This was the second Mundials/World tournament by the Confederação Brasileira de Jiu-Jitsu (CBJJ), the Brazilian counterpart to North America’s IBJJF. I am still working to get my hands on the the first Mundials from 1996.

My notes may be a little off, since I watched about 6 hours of competition footage in one night, and my notes aren’t exact play-by-plays. Thankfully, I have found many of these matches on Youtube, so you can watch them yourself.

Robson Moura vs Armando Conde

Conde pulls guard, which Moura immediately passes around. Conde tries to turtle to escape side control and pulls butterfly guard. Moura hops over a hook sweep then quickly mounts for an armbar.

Rony Rustico vs Saulo Ribeiro

Rony pulls guard and ends up with half guard. Saulo sits back and low, underhooking the leg and works to a smash pass. Rony recovers to butterfly guard before points are scored. Saulo works to pass and gets the underhook on the leg again as Rony brings his knee across like z-guard. Saulo sprawls back and almost passes again, then switches to the cross knee pass. Rony defends by turtling and Saulo spins to his rear to sprawl on his hips. Saulo drags him over to nearly get side control, then almost takes the back when he resists, but ends up in mount, where he’s quickly put back in half guard. Rony goes for something like a helicopter sweep, but ends up just turtling. Saulo gets double lapel control, tries to take the back again, but like before, Rony turns to be mounted and quickly escapes to half guard.

Saulo wins on points.

Marco Aurelio vs Vitor “Shaolin” Ribeiro

Marco pulls closed guard right away. Shaolin stands to open guard, but Marco just hangs and keeps trying to pull him down. Shaolin pushes him down until Marco jumps to his feet and tries to rush into an outside trip takedown. This fails so he quickly pulls butterfly guard.

Shaolin nearly passes around the guard with grips on the knees, but Marco recovers butterfly guard and no points are scored. Marco grabs the pants at the knees. Shaolin pushes a knee down and jump directly into side control, but Marco turtles and pulls butterfly guard.

Marco gets a grip on a knee and a sleeve, pulls his feet out and shoots up for a triangle. Shaolin defends with his knee in combat base. Marco plays open guard with his knees on the hips until Shaolin grips the knees and stands. Marco goes to De la Riva, then inverts by spinning through the legs, but can’t come up into any real sweep, ending up in butterfly guard again.

Shaolin tries to pass with a cross grip on the pant leg. Marco turtles to defend, so Shaolin get a hook and take the back. He can only get one hook, so he triangles his legs on one leg.

Marco escapes by getting his back to the mat and removing the hooks as he turns in. Shaolin moves to side control before Marco escapes to open guard with a sleeve grip. Marco tries to get a triangle again, but Shaolin defends with his knee in combat base.

Marco gets DLR guard and tries to spin around to the back, but Shaolin sits on him and squares up again. Shaolin tries to pass with a cross grip on the pants again and Marco recovers back to butterfly guard.

Shaolin wins on points.

Fabio Gurgel vs Daniel Simoes

They grip fight for a little before Gurgel snaps down and drops into a single leg, then spins to the rear body lock as Simoes turtles.

Simoes rolls forward and goes to guard. Gurgel ties to pass over, but Simoes fights to his knees and stands.

More pushing each other around on the feet, getting into the BJJ stance of bent over head-to-head with butts out. Gurgel does a no commitment foot sweep and later tries for ouchi gari.

Simoes jumps to closed guard. Gurgel stands to open with a grip on one sleeve. When the guard opens, Gurgel succeeds with a cross knee pass with an underhook. Simoes bridges likes crazy to get back into half guard, but he’s crushed by Gurgel’s crossface and underhook.

Gurgel wins on points.

Marcio Feitosa vs Leo Vieira

Feitosa opens with a strong attempt at uchimata but Leo stays up.

Vieira pulls butterfly guard but ends up in half guard. Feitosa gets an underhook and sprawls low. Vieira goes for a sweep and moves to butterfly guard. Feitosa goes for an over-under pass that switches to a leg weave. Leo turtles, and Feitosa goes for a single, but Vieira jumps to closed guard.

Feitosa gets both lapels and stands with a wide base but never opens Vieira’s guard. This happens for the rest of the fight while Vieira goes for every kind of sweep and grip. He ties sit up sweeps, pendulum/flower sweeps, cross grips, guillotines, ezekiels, eventually just opening his guard and kicking all over and pushing off the ground over his head. Feitosa just keeps pinning him back down, dropping to his knees and sprawing back but never seems to try a real pass.

Feitosa wins on points. He runs and jumps into a section of the crowd full of Gracie Barra guys while the Alliance fans (I assume) are booing. After Feitosa gets his hand raised, Gurgel comes out and raises Vieira on to his shoulders to parade him around while Alliance fans cheer.

Soca vs Megaton

The video cuts to Soca in butterfly guard, switching to single leg guard as Megaton stands, then spinning under to get a shin sweep with a grip on the ankle and an underhook on the leg. He steps around Megaton’s guard right away.

Megaton returns to guard, but Soca does an over-under pass to side control.

Soca tries to jump to a near side armbar, but Megaton pulls out and scrambles to his feet. Soca pulls guard.

Megaton almost passes with the bullfighter, but Soca twists up into a single leg, then sits into single leg guard.

Megaton sits down with a loop choke grip and Soca spins around to escape. Soca gets his head out and ends up with butterfly guard.

They go out of bounds and are reset standing. Soca pulls butterfly guard. Megaton stands. Soca crosses the arm and grabs the belt, pulls Megaton down for a sweep, but ends up pulling closed guard.

Soca underhooks a leg and knocks Megaton back on his butt. Megaton sits with both legs forward for a while, but Soca is never able to get on top. Megaton gets his leg back and fixes his base and posture.

Megaton stands to open guard. Soca drops to single leg guard, then spins between the legs for a shin sweep. Megaton lands with butterfly guard, but Soca quickly passes. Megaton’s foot gets stuck in the back of the collar, which saves him for a second until the ref knocks it off, allowing Soca to finish the pass.

Soca immediately moves to north-south, then sits in to take the back. He gets hooks and grip fights with one-on-ones while trying to get the collar.

Megaton defends, and the video cuts to Soca moving to side control probably because Megaton got rid of his hooks.

Soca moves to north-south again, then 100 kilos and knee-on-belly as Megaton tries to escape. Megaton throws his legs up and does an upside down guard spin to recover guard as the whistle blows.

Soca wins on points.

Alexandre Paiva vs Nino Schembri

Nino jumps to half guard with an arm wrap. He tries to spin between the legs and do a stand-up sweep with the leg underhooked on his shoulder, but Paiva scrambles to stay on top. Nino does an upside down spin to DLR guard with a foot on the biceps. Paivo tries a fast, aggressive pass, but Nino’s legs open wide and he swings back to guard.

Nino ends up with Pavia low in his half guard, underhooking his leg. He bridges to recover butterfly guard but they go out of bounds.

Restarted standing. Nino jumps to closed guard, and Paiva stays standing. Nino drops to his feet for a takedown but no luck. He jumps guard again and gets DLR with an arm wrap on the other side. He switches to butterfly guard and rises into a single leg takedown. They scramble, and Pavia ends up on bottom, so he pulls half guard.

Nino does an over-under pass to 100 kilos. He faces the legs, picking them up and putting his knee up under the thigh. He switches to knee-on-belly when Pavia turns into him. Pavia escapes to open guard. Nino gets a combat base and they end up out of bounds. Time is called right after the reset.

Nino wins on points.

Roleta vs Anderson Xavier

Roleta pulls closed guard by jumping to it from a long distance. He gets a cross grip.

Xavier stands, and Roleta underhooks the leg and opens to cross guard, swinging his leg out wide. Xavier grabs the knee, and Roleta grabs the back of that arm and tries to snap it into an armbar. Xavier pulls his arm out, but Roleta uses his underhook of the leg to rise up into a sweep. Xavier tries to avoid it by going to all fours, with his hips high, so Roleta jumps on to his back. Xavier turns to be under mount.

From mount, Roleta reaches back to grab the knee and pick the leg off the ground. He uses this grip several times whenever he has mount.

Xavier tries to bridge him over and is almost successful switching to the hip escape, but Roleta keeps his legs smashed. When Xavier turns and ties to pull his legs free, but he almost gives up his back, and instead allows Roleta to advance to mount again.

Xavier tries to bridge again, but even when it looks close, Roleta nearly takes his back with two hooks instead.

Xavier finally succeeds with an upa escape that rolls Roleta to closed guard. Xavier does what would later be describes as the Tozi or Sao Paulo pass, getting an underhook and sprawling out. Roleta takes the overhook and spins out to a pendulum sweep position, but never gets anything. Roleta opens his guard and Xavier grabs double under pass grips as the whistle blows.

Roleta wins on points.

Leo Vieira vs Renato “Charuto” Verissimo

Leo really wants to pull guard, and drops to his butt then stands up to do it again with better grip. He gets double sleeve control with both feet on the hips, then sits to butterfly guard when Renato backs away. Leo pulls to closed guard.

Renato stands to open guard, but Leo just hangs on him. He finally drops down to DLR where tries to backspin to the outside, but Renato stays on top in the scramble. Leo gets butterfly guard, goes to DLR with the intention of doing the same backspin but never getting very far. He sits up to single leg guard and passes the near hand between the legs. He spins between the legs, rocking back and forth as Renato balance, then spins back out to the single leg takedown.

Renato lands with guard and Leo throws him up on his shoulders, forcing him to turtle. Leo jumps for the back, and Renato forward rolls to nearly go between Leo’s legs. Leo keeps trying take his back and Renato keeps going to upside down positions where he ties to roll under.

Renato recovers back to guard, but in a split second, Leo cartwheels completely over and puts him in side control with a deep underhook. This seems to short circuit Renato’s brain because he keeps triangling his legs for no reason while pinned.

Leo steps over the head and sits on it while focusing on Renato’s underhooked arm. Renato bridges out, but Leo is on the rear of turtle again. Leo gets a hook and hangs on his back for a while, but Renato removes it and fights to stand up.

After a break to retie their belts, Leo pulls butterfly guard. Renato grabs a loop choke grip and the knee then front flips. He’s laying with the choke while Leo kicks his legs to break the grips and get out. They scramble and Leo ends up on top of turtle and nearly takes Renato’s back again. While they are laying in a strange position, Renato back flips over to escape and gets a front headlock. Leo ties a double to sitout to single leg, but they go out of bounds and are restarted standing.

Leo pulls butterfly guard, then switches to DLR and succeeds with a backspin sweep. As Renato tries to get to his knees and stand, Leo cartwheels over him and lands behind him with hip control. Renato rolls to a sort of upside down guard that Leo stacks.

Leo wins on points.

Gordo vs Mario Sperry

Before the fight, the ref pulls them in close to give a serious talk, during which Mario blows each nostril and wipes with his sleeve.

Gordo pulls half guard, but Mario immediately gets the underhook. He passes to quarter guard. Gordo gets an underhook, and Mario tries to whizzer and get a collar choke.

The video cuts to Gordo coming on top after a sweep. He goes straight into a smash pass, then leaps to the opposite side. Mario recovers butterfly guard with an overhook before any points are scored.

Gordo flattens him out and works for sprawling over-under passes. Even with the leg underhooked, Mario just twists belly down and ties to turn to his knees, which keeps making Gordo back off the pass. Mario gets half butterfly guard. Gordo tries to pass again, but Mario grips his outside knee and twists up to sweep him. Gordo falls to butterfly guard.

The video cuts to Gordo with closed guard before going to half guard. Mario gets an underhook and succeeds with a cross knee pass.

Mario wins on points.

Egan Inoue vs Filipe Lira

Filipe pulls butterfly guard and goes straight into an overhead sweep that almost lands him in mount, then rear mount, but Egan scrambles out to his feet.

Egan gets a takedown and Filipe gets guard. Filipe fights for a sweep that turns into a takedown that runs them out of bounds, but Egan falls hard on his shoulder. There is a pause while Egan looks to be in a lot of pain and people are checking him out. It looks like they reset a dislocated shoulder, but the angle is unclear and people block the camera.

Whatever happened, Egan returns and they restart standing. Egan immediately shots in for a single leg and duck under, but doesn’t get it. He tries a sacrifice throw where he lays down to blocks the foot with his thigh, but it fails and he gets his back taken. He stands up with Filipe hanging on his back and jiggles him until he jumps off.

Filipe pulls butterfly again and goes for the same overhead sweep, but it fails and Egan quickly does a bullfighter pass to knee-on-belly, then drops to side control. Filipe gets half guard, but Egan has an underhook and passes.

Egan wins on points.

Amaury Bitetti vs Fabio Gurgel

Gurgel jumps to closed guard. Amaury wants to get control of a sleeve, and Gurgel can tells, so he keeps putting his hands over his head. This repeats for a while. Gurgel eventually tries to climb his guard, and Amaury stands.

Gurgel opens to double sleeve grips and feet on the hips. Amaury tries a standing pass, so Gurgel switches to sitting butterfly guard. Amaury cartwheels to pass, but Gurgel keeps guard. After Amaury ties to pass again, Gurgel gets to his knees for a double leg but gets sprawled on for a while until they both stand.

Gurgel jumps guard. When Amaury stands, he opens his guard and drops to a double ankle sweep that almost works, but they both end up standing.

Circling each other. Gurgel ties for a single but fails. More downs, then jumps to guard again.

Gurgel wins on points.

We picked a DVD at random and it was Mundials 2004, Disc 1. It contains the final match of each weight class and the absolute. If this seem scrambled, it’s because I’m mostly going off memory (and a few scribbled notes) of close to 4 hours of fights.

Galo – Gabriel Moraes vs Gerenias Maia

Unfortunately, I don’t know who is who since they didn’t line the names up with the fighters due to a strange camera angle. We’ll just say blue gi and white gi.

After a guard pull by white gi, blue gi passes the single leg guard (sitting up on one leg) by stepping around the outside, though white scrambles back to guard before points are scored. Here is Rodolfo Vieira teaching the same pass:

Blue gi passes by getting a leg lace (threaded between the legs) with a grip on the pants of the bottom leg. Then something funny happens. White is struggling to escape side control, and blue quickly backs off to standing and lets white get up. Blue immediately pulls deep half guard sweep, gets an underhook on the leg by the head, wedges his knee in and gets a sweep.

Blue gi ends up standing in open guard, gets grips on the knee and passes over the leg. White turtles, so blue spins to the back but never gets hooks.

Blue wins on points.

Pluma – Bibiano Fernandes vs Fernando Vieira

Bibiano shoots for a single, but quickly drops into half guard instead. He sits into single leg guard when Vieira stays standing, then stands up into the single leg takedown after all.

Vieira lands with guard. Bibi almost passes with an over-under pass by switching his “under” hand (the one that’s usually below the hips to grab the belt) to the end of the pants to stretch it away. (Pe de Pano did this too in the 2003 Pan Ams I watched last week.)

Bibi tries passing by switching back and forth between grips on the knees and double under pass grips. He never gets there.

They end up one their feet and there is a hilarious double guard pull. I don’t remember much else but some scrambling and Fernando Vieira is somehow marked down as the ultimate winner by points.

Pena – Mario Reis vs Fredson Paixao

At this point I think I just started taking notes of the most interesting moments, so forgive me if I don’t remember every second of the match. This match is going to seem especially disjointed because the ref restarted it a lot and interfered with the flow of positions by resetting them in different positions. This gets bad enough that at one points a fighter just stares at him incredulously and the ref yells at the crowd for booing him.

Fredson gets closed guard. When Mario stands, Fredson gets the “underhook” on the opposite ankle (so his right arm reaches all the way across to the outside of Mario’s right leg). He arches to sweep Mario, but can’t, so he opens his guard and drops to reverse DLR guard.

Later, Mario is standing above Fredson’s open guard. When Fredson sits up, Mario snaps him down by the collar (so his face nearly meets his feet) and spins behind to get back control, bypassing all normal guard passing.

Fredson gets back to guard. Mario goes for a cross knee pass, then does a backstep pass while standing. Then he just keeps squatting over him. This goes on for an unusual amount of time.

Mario eventually passes to reverse kesa gatame. Fredson is trying to catch his legs. Mario hooks the near leg from below with his near leg, giving him a clear path to mount.

Scramble to half guard that ends in a single leg that goes out of bounds. Weird reset back in sitting single leg guard. Backroll sweep that turns into a scramble to the back that never earns points.

Mario wins on points.

Leve – Daniel Moraes vs Rodrigo Magalhaes

This match was so boring. Most of it has them standing head to head, grabbing the gis, bent over at the waist with their asses back. It’s the kind of BJJ match that makes judoka and wrestlers scream. Even watching it in fast forward, it just looks like they are standing in front of each other and barely shuffling their feet up and down. I think the ref issued 2-3 warning for stalling, and I thought he was going to double DQ them. What’s funny is when he’d break them up to issue the warning, they’d start posturing like they were about to launch into battle and kill each other, but then they’d just glom on and do nothing again.

Rodrigo finals goes for a snapdown to shoot, but Daniel reacts by throwing him bodily to the floor with an underhook. I think Daniel tries to pass guard but they end up on their feet where Daniel fails another attempt at muscling the throw. Honestly, at this point I was more interested in the pidgeon I had noticed making a nest in the rafters of the gymnasium.

Daniel wins on points.

Medio – Marcelo Garcia vs Cassio Werneck

Marcelo gets pulled into guard IIRC. He starts passing half guard with an underhook and heavy hips. He switches to his textbook “face the legs” pass when he runs into resistance. He gets his foot out after a few minutes of trying and immediately circles to north-south then the far side.

As he circles back to the original side, Casio tries to get to his knees, but Marcelo still has the arm blocked by his body, giving him a clear path to take the back. They roll out of bounds while Marcelo is getting his grips for a choke, and they are restarted standing in the middle.

Nothing else really happens and Marcelo wins on points.

Media Pesado – Braulio Estima vs Jacare

Braulio walks out alone and gets his hand raised because Jacare’s arm was broken in the Absolute match with Roger.

Pesado – Xande Ribeiro vs Jefferson Moura

Jefferson pulls a loose guard that Xandre immediately passes around. Jefferson manages to recover to half guard. He spends a lot of time trying to get a waiter sweep to work, but Xande has good base and prevents it, even with Jeferson almost all the way out the back door.

Xande wins on points.

Super Pesado – Roger Gracie vs Comprido

Comprido goes for a weak single leg, and Roger gets a whizzer and just slams his hips forward like he wants to run forward into mount. In the scramble, Roger is able to spin to the back. Comprido gets flattened out belly down with his legs totally straight. He eventually turns to be under mount where Roger attacks with collar chokes. The camera angle makes it hard to tell what happens, but Comprido gives up his back again and the fight ends. I’m guessing he got choked and tapped.

Pesadissimo – Terere vs Werdum

Terere is doing his crazy Terere thing by fighting three weight classes up. Werdum is gigantic compared to him.

Before the match, there’s a delay, so Terere does this strange little dance of shuffling around and shaking his arms and wringing his hands. Werdum kinda dances around with him. Voodoo.

Terere runs around a lot but Werdum mostly throws him around and squashes him when they really engage. They go crazy. At one point, Werdum gets side control as they go out of bounds. The ref tries to pause it, and Werdum pushes Terere down into side control again, so Terere shoves him the face.

On time when they are coming back inbounds while standing, Werdum bum rushes Terere and the ref has to break it up for a proper restart.

Later, Terere circles behind the referee to put him in the way.

Werdum eventually wins on points, and then they are hugging and raising each other’s hands, and Werdum carries Terere around the ring.

Absolute – Roger Gracie vs Jacare

This is the famous match where Roger loses on points after breaking Jacare’s arm. You can watch it here:

Highlights: Roger goes for an armbar from guard that gets his guard passed and his back taken. He escapes and ends up in 50/50 guard of all places. He gets back to closed guard where this time the armbar works and breaks Jacare’s arm. Jacare spends the rest of the fight running out of bounds to avoid the takedown so he wins on points.