About a year ago, I started to work on an instructional with the crew over at Artechoke Media. It has been an amazing experience. After nearly ten years of grappling, I felt I had a unique take on certain positions that I felt could benefit some grapplers, so breaking them down and diving deep into them was a fascinating process. The product has been out for a bit, and It’s gotten positive reviews from people I really look up to. If you haven’t checked it out yet, maybe you will be interested by end of this blog.


The book starts with takedown section, my takedown game has been deeply influenced by time cross-training and competing in wrestling, judo, and sambo. I have been fortunate to train with excellent practitioners on all three disciplines. In the instructional, we focus on a series of takedowns set up from Russian grip, my favorite single leg finishes, and a few details to make Seoi Nage throws work better in BJJ contexts.

The next chapter explores how I set up the folding pass. I have been working on this pass since I was a purple belt. We explore how to set it up to attack different guards, how to maintain the passing position once you get there, and three different finishes. I believe this pass should be in everyone’s arsenal as it matches up really well against the modern jiu-jitsu game, which is full of inversions and lapel tricks.

Then we flip the script and breakdown closed guard, starting with the armbar which is the basis to everything I do from the position followed by attacks from the 2-on-1, which mirrors principles we studied in our takedown chapter. Back takes, sweeps, and sweeps against standing opponent are explored alongside some omoplata attacks to give us a different and dynamic angle of attack.


From there, we transition into shin-on-shin guard. I felt this position does not get the recognition it should. It’s an amazing launching place for different sweeps, changing levels into takedowns, or transitioning into leg control. Yet again, the principle of committing multiple resources, a leg and an arm against a leg in this case, come up.


Finally, we cover some esoteric half guard positions. Half butterfly and reverse half guard are only used by a handful of practitioners but to a great degree of success, and I believe they deserve a spot on anyone’s game. These have become my go to sweeping positions against an opponent on his knees.

You can check out the instructional here, and you can browse the first chapter for free (18 videos and some 36+ GIFs). I hope you enjoy it and find a spot in your game for some of the techniques. I am really proud of this work, and I am looking forward to making a no-gi version sometime in 2018.