Felipe Grez is a first degree black belt. He is the owner and head instructor at Jiu Jitsu Kingdom. He has been training, competing and coaching for over two decades, here and overseas, including living and training in Brazil.
He has an interesting Youtube channel, and is also on Facebook. (And maybe elsewhere on social media).
The seminar was held at The Roof at Lange’s MMA.
Conceptually Speaking
The seminar was all about escapes.
A few concepts and principles applicable to Felipe’s Jiu Jitsu, and the material he taught.
Centreline – as a general rule, our ideal orientation to our opponent is where the centreline of our body is facing him, but his centreline is facing away from us. when defending in guard, our head should be as far away from him as possible, spine straight, not twisted or bent. We want a “strong shape”, per Nic Gregoriades on “Beyond Technique 2”, where are eyes/head, shoulders/arms and hips/legs, are all facing the same direction, usually directly at the opponent.
Frames – we want to use frames to control the distance, not muscular strength. Structural and skeletal alignment. We do not bench press our opponent away – we are at our strongest with our elbows in close. Felipe got Nusreen to demonstrate how, with thee same arm forward as the foot, framing at the elbow, hand vertical with fingers played, she could keep the much heavier and stronger Ben Cordony at a distance. Ar bent greater than ninety degrees, nose over the toes. You can hold a big guy off like this, whereas bench pressing him away is much harder.
Pedro Sauer’s maxim here is something like “You do Jiu Jitsu with your bones, not your muscles.”
We control space and “real estate”. We never allow our opponent to grab our head or control the space under our armpits (with underhooks, etc.). Elbows in tight, the bottom one hidden beneath us where possible.
We try to be proactive and control the game, not merely reacting to our opponent’s moves.
We can escape early, on time or late – early is obviously preferable.
We never “accept” the pass or the control position, and allow the opponent to establish controls and flatten us out. We are always poised on our sides or on “opposite corners”.
“Opposite corners” – we never lie flat on our back, but always try to be on one shoulder and the opposite foot, often posted in a “kick stand” formation, turned into our opponent.
We are always trying to achieve that defensive position where he has to work very hard to try and pass, flatten us out, etc., while we are staying tight and using comparatively little energy.
Kuzushi – unbalancing – we continually “test” our opponent’s balance and try to exploit any imbalances we can cause. We want our opponent to always feel uncomfortable and under threat, even if he is in an ostensibly dominant position.
Hip Escape
We started working the hip escape. Felipe’s escapes all rely heavily on good structure and positioning.
If we are hip escaping on our R side, we need to employ the concept of “opposite corners”, our R foot posted on the ground behind us, the weight on that foot or toes and our L shoulder. Our R leg performs the function of a “kick stand” – more on this later. Our L leg should be flat on the ground, as in these methods we are often looking to slide in under the opponent’s leg to effect our escape. Our elbows, particularly the L elbow are kept in tight.
We affect the hip escape by lifting our hips off the ground and moving them back and to our R by extending the R leg. Our R (top) hand reaches for our L foot. Our L hip should be off the ground, and we should be able to easily slip our L elbow under and behind our rib cage. Our R shoulder should be in front of our L shoulder, top shoulder in front of the bottom shoulder as we face the opponent, our elbow pulled in close and underneath us as much as possible, depending on the next move.
When we bring our L knee back in, as if to go to guard and turn more face up, we bring the knee inside our L arm. Our L knee must occupy the space between our armpit and hip, so our opponent cannot. Dave Camarillo calls this area the “battle zone”, as whoever gets to occupy it usually wins.
The SUB Half Guard
Felipe teaches what he calls the “SUB” half guard. SUB is an acronym.
- S – get on your Side
- U – get the Underhook
- B – Block the crossface
We should not be flat on our back! Ideally, we are on our side, top shoulder in front, bottom elbow pulled in and kept beneath us as much as possible.
Say we are on our R side, half guard on his R leg.
Our top L arm is welded to our side in preparation for taking the underhook when appropriate. A good underhook from this position has the top of our shoulder under and behind his armpit. Grab that underhook too shallow, say with only our bicep behind the armpit, and he can kill it fairly easily by dropping his weight on it. The classic move from here is to “shot put” with our arm over his head, so we can get our head out under his arm and go to his back. Try it without the shoulder behind his armpit and at best you will probably fail, at worst do damage to the small muscles around your shoulder.
Anthony explained in class the next day how the basic headlock escape helps us to understand the proper shoulder positioning for the more advanced underhook from side control, and how getting really good at at an escape means you don’t need it anymore, as your escape will already have been completed before our opponent gets a chance to even apply the headlock. This ties in with Felipe’s advice on escaping early and not letting our opponent get the control sunk in. And also, the importance of denying our opponent the opportunity to control the bottom elbow and get Kesa Gatame.
Our bottom hand is used to block the crossface. We can initially place the palm on our forehead as if doing a boxing cover against punches. I like to call this the “facepalm”.
As he tries to grab our head with his L arm. we can open our bottom R hand and use it to cup his bicep, using a thumbless grip, and using more the heel of the palm and the wrist to control his arm, rather than the palm and fingers. Use your elbow, kept close to your body, and sensitivity to keep your arm between his and your head. Should he manage to get past it, immediately bring your top hand into play to block it, replace the bottom arm in itsw proper position and return to the SUB half guard.
Do NOT reach out with your arms to try to either block the crossface or get the underhook! These are classic mistakes. It will be too easy for the opponent to grab your blocking arm, pulling it up and flattening you out. place his knee on it, or to pummel under either arm and establish either the crossface or underhook, or even worse, both. If he is not trying to grab you, you do not need to reach out and block.Wait for him to come to you. If necessary.
If he pulls his arm away, DON’T chase it with your hand. Just return to the facepalm.
He should be working harder to break your position and pass, than you are, just keeping that defensive position.
Felipe is adamant that all three elements – on your side, underhook, blocking the crossface – must be employed while learning this style of half guard. There is only one way to learn it properly. If you lose one of the three elements, you will be likely to lose all three.
This position and concepts – side, underhook, block the crossface – form the basis for all the escapes.
Mount Escape
Ideally, our escape will come BEFORE he is able to even achieve the mount.
Lets say he has passed around to the R and has side control. He could have our head and an underhook, for this escape it is not too important. If we are able to get on our side, top shoulder in front, bottom elbow hidden and have blocked his crossface attempts, it would be better.
We have our L foot back behind us, in the “kickstand”. The L lower leg should be angled so that the angle of the shin, and structure, rather than muscle power, have our L hip and shoulder on the floor. Our R leg is flat on the ground.
He may bring his R leg over us to mount in a few different ways – step over and “kill the fly”, slide the shin across like a knee ride followed by the foot, etc. It shouldn’t matter to us too much.
As he goes to mount, there will be a moment where the weight shifts onto his R knee, and off his L leg. It is at that moment while his L leg is light, that we slide our R leg underneath his trailing L leg, turn on our R side, and quickly establish our SUB half guard. We may need to manipulate his L leg with out hands and/or the L foot to assist getting our leg beneath his. From here we can work various sweeps, take his back, or work back to closed guard or other guards.
If he gets further along and establishes a mount, we do not want it to be a good one. We immediately establish “opposite corners” and get our L foot back behind us in the kickstand, getting us up on our R side. Our R leg ideally is flat on the ground, though this is not essential. Our elbows are in but ready to move, sensitive to any attempt he may make to pin our elbow with his thighs.
Getting on our side and raising our L hip should take his R knee slightly off the mat, or at least very light on it. WE want him to feel off balance and uncomfortable.
We are framing with our L elbow blocking his R hip. Our R elbow, is, as always, pulled into and almost. under our rib cage so he cannot grab it, and so we can use it to block the inside of his L knee.
The fact that his R leg is light, and ideally off the mat allows us to escape our hips toward it. His leg being unweighted will make this very hard to resist. We want to start getting a knee out here, pulling it toward our bottom elbow or chest – top knee, bottom knee, or both. His mount is weakened, if necessary we could do the same hip escape to weaken it further. One a knee is out, we can look to establishing our centreline and a decent guard. Top knee escape will probably lead us to butterfly guard, bottom knee to closed guard or single X, but there are many possibilities, dictated to a large degree by the opponent’s reactions.
Side Control
He is passing our guard to our R. We employ the concept of “opposite corners” again, kick stand with our L foot, L hip off the ground, turned on our R side toward him, L shoulder forward of the R, Lhand on your forehead in the facepalm or blocking his attempts to crossface. Your L elbow on top is tight to your chest, the lower arm across your stomach, ready to grab an opportunity to undergoing if/when it appears. Engage the core so he cannot twist of easily extend out body.
He should find it very difficult to flatten us out, grab your bottom elbow, or get an underhook or crossface. You may have to make small adjustments to your position perhaps shifting your L foot, grabbing his pants, framing with the top hand, or fending off the crossface with your hands. Ideally he will be exerting lots of energy trying in vain to flatten you out and complete the pass, while you are expending very little energy keeping your defensive position successfully. When he gets frustrated and reckless and starts overextending or overcommitting, will be your time to execute your escape. We want to create space. Sometimes moving our hips first, sometimes moving our shoulders away to allow us to then move our hips. If the opponent is crowding our upper body, move the shoulders away first, then hip escape.
We also employ the SUB concepts, getting on our R side facing him, our R elbow in tight under our rib cage with the hand facepalming or blocking the crossface.
He moves to Front Control
He may conclude that his efforts to flatten you out are in vain and change tactics by moving to front control. As he moves overhead, go quickly to your knees. Do not go flat on your stomach and then go to your knees. He can sprawl and crush you. You should leave your L kickstand toes where they are and bring your knees in under you as you thread your R leg under your L, finishing in turtle. You will probably need to drill this to make it smooth and fast. Felipe says he teaches students having difficulties with this by placing his foot behind their kickstand foot when they practice the move, his foot preventing them from going flat, and having them finish in the correct turtle position.
Once we have gone to our knees, we should immediately try to grab one of his wrists with both of hands, two on one, pinning it to the mat. You can move away from him and he cannot follow. Nor can be easily grab your neck with any authority. You should now have the better options for achieving a dominant position.
If he tries to spin around your head all the way to your back, and is too fast for you to get to your knees properly, just fall into the opposite corners position on the other side, with the SUB concepts in place. He will have spun around your head only to find himself in the exact same situation but on the other side.
Who is expending more effort? It should always be him.
You are practising “lazy man’s Jiu Jitsu” – or, to be fair to Nikki, Nus, Le Binh, Summer, Pip, etc. – “Lazy person’s Jiu Jitsu.”
He may overcommit himself to the spin and leave himself open to you taking his back as you move, also.
If he goes to Kneeride
He may get tired of dealing with your side Control defence and elect to jump to kneeride.
Keep the same defensive position with opposite corners, kickstand, etc.
Assume he has kneeride on your R side.
Reach down with your top L hand and cup it over his R heel, connecting his instep to your R hip or thereabouts. Roll to your L so you are flat on your back, and at the same time bring your R knee to your chest, so your R shin is under his L thigh. You now have the beginnings of a guard, which you should immediately work to consolidate, turn into a sweep, etc.
You need to roll flat so that you lift his R foot off the ground, allowing the gap necessary to bring your knee through and under his L leg.
He may use the kneeride as a way to go to mount. You already know what to do. As you his weight shifts onto his R knee, slide your R knee under his temporarily unweighted L leg and claim half guard, just as you did when he was transitioning from side Control to mount. Get your SUB half guard on immediately.
Conclusion
Felipe answered a few questions afterward and expounded on his philosophies of Jiu Jitsu. He likes an “old school” sort of game, heavily based in strong fundamentals, per Rickson Gracie, Roger Gracie, Chris Haueter, Marcelo Garcia, etc. Precise technique with strong attention to detail is what will allow you to prevail as you train into your golden years.
He believes you should never be so reckless as to injure your training partners. On the other hand, if you do get injured, you probably did something wrong yourself.
I recommend watching Felipe’s YouTube videos to get some idea of his philosophy of Jiu Jitsu.
I enjoyed this seminar and the time I got to spend with Felipe. He obviously enjoys teaching and the company of people who enjoy Jiu Jitsu as much as he does. I would recommend everyone take a seminar with him.
Thanks to Anthony Lange for arranging such a fantastic seminar and offering it to the students at the best price ever.