Learning To Crush The Bug

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A large part of jiu-jitsu is using your weight to immobilize your opponent; “crushing the bug” as it is sometimes referred to. When done properly, the application of your body weight from the top position can be enough to submit your opponent by making it impossible for him to breath. Even if your opponent doesn’t actually tap out,  one of these diaphragm chokes can take much of the wind out his sails and reduce his will to fight

A barrier to learning the nuances of body positioning and weight distribution necessary for this level of pinning is that most people have no way to gauge the effectiveness of what they are doing. In today’s newsletter I’m going to share the ABC method of teaching weight distribution, a powerful way to get immediate feedback on the effectiveness of your pins.

Imagine being back in school and writing a test, with a teacher standing right behind you. Would you score higher on that test if your teacher were to give you encouragement, saying “yes, that’s it”, whenever you started writing down the right answer? Of course yo would - getting immediate feedback always helps your performance.

So try this:

Start out by pinning your partner in side mount or knee mount - these are the two easiest positions to initially apply this in. Now get your partner to slowly recite the alphabet, saying “A, B, C, D…”, out loud. If he is able to speak easily then there is something wrong with your positioning; most likely you are putting too much weight onto the mat instead of onto your opponent.

Now adjust your position: try getting off of your knees, lifting your elbows, shifting your weight from his belly onto his diaphragm, etc. When it becomes hard for him to breathe and his recitation starts to sound labored - “A….. gasp….B…..gurgle……..c-c-c…..” - then you’ve got it right!

If you’re an instructor teaching a class then give the ABC method a try. It makes for a very effective demonstration, because it leaves no doubt in anyone’s mind that the pinning position is, in itself, an offensive weapon.

I have written other tips and articles on this topic, which you can check out by going to these additional resources:

Crushing the Bug
http://www.grapplearts.com/2006/03/crushing-bug.htm

Choking the Diaphragm
http://www.grapplearts.com/2005/07/one-more-thing-about-choking.htm

How to make side mount heavier
http://www.grapplearts.com/2006/04/how-to-make-side-mount-heavier.htm

Take care
Stephan Kesting
www.grapplearts.com

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UFC 95 full online sportsbook lines and props by 5 Dimes have just been released. 5 Dimes is the only online sportsbook that offers great mixed martial arts betting proposition bets.

This UFC fight card the money line odds are not worth betting but there are some interesting props bets that minimize the investment. For example if you think Demian Maia  will win the fight -265 is not worth the bet but wagering on Maia to win by inside the distance  -150 is a much better bet to make. If you read our MMA matchup report we suggested a Chael Sonnen upset at +225 but if you want to bet on him ot KO Maia within the distance it pays out  +436.

Also betting on Josh Koscheck to win is a no brainer but shelling out -515 to win 100 is not worth it. For the fight to not go the 3 round distance  at -170 is a much better bet to make than at -515.

The UFC betting lines are not the greatest for this event but one fight the staff do like is the Rory Markham fight at -120. He has very good odds and you will not have to bet a lot to win.

For all UFC 95 odds check the lines out below.

 
 

Chael Sonnen  +225
Demian Maia  -265 

Sonnen/Maia goes 3 round distance  +220
Sonnen wins inside distance  +436
Fight won’t go 3 round distance  -280
Not Sonnen inside distance  -707 
Sonnen wins by 3 rnd decision  +462
Not Sonnen by 3 rnd decision  -785 
Maia wins inside distance  -150 
Not Maia inside distance  +110 
Maia wins by 3 rnd decision  +460
Not Maia by 3 rnd decision  -780 
Sonnen/Maia draw  +6500 
Fight not a draw  -16500

Rory Markham  -120  
Dan Hardy  +100 

Markham/Hardy goes 3 round distance  +280 
Fight won’t go 3 round distance  -400

Wilson Gouveia  +230 
Nate Marquardt  -270 

Gouveia/Marquardt goes 3 round distance  +210
Fight won’t go 3 round distance  -290

Paulo Thiago +410 
Josh Koscheck -515

Thiago/Koscheck goes 3 round distance +130
Fight won’t go 3 round distance -170

Brian Cobb +200 
Terry Etim -260

Stefan Struv  +240  
Junior Dos Santos -300  

Neil Grove -105
Mike Ciesnolevicz -125

Evan Dunham +140  
Per Eklund -170 

Troy Mandaloniz +260
Paul Kelly -350

Joe Stevenson  +260  
Diego Sanchez  -320 

Stevenson/Sanchez goes 3 round distance  +155
Fight won’t go 3 round distance  -185 
Stevenson wins inside distance  +415 
Not Stevenson inside distance  -635 
Stevenson wins by 3 rnd decision  +630 
Not Stevenson by 3 rnd decision  -1290
Sanchez wins inside distance  -105  
Not Sanchez inside distance  -125 
Sanchez wins by 3 rnd decision  +248 
Not Sanchez by 3 rnd decision  -320 
Stevenson/Sanchez draw  +6500  
Fight not a draw  -16500 

Bet on UFC 95 at 5 Dimes 
 

for all MMA matchup reports and handicpaping preview see below

Diego “Nightmare” Sanchez (-300) vs. Joe “Daddy” Stevenson (+240)

Demian Maia (-275) vs. Chael Sonnen (+215) Nate “The Great” Marquardt (-260) vs. Wilson Gouveia (+210)

Josh Koscheck (-410) vs Paulo Thiago (+330)

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UFC Fight Night 17 betting odds are out and you can bet UFC parlays and UFC prop bets at 5 Dimes.com

Best bet of the night is the Luigi Fioravanti  vs Anthony Johnson  fight. Johnson is a -350 and mostly because of his fight where he KO’ed Kevin Burns at the TUF 8 Finale. Belvie me Luigi Fioravanti  is a very good fighter that can take Johnson to the ground where he is very weak.

At +260 at most sportsbooks this is a fight the odds maker got way off. Fioravanti  has fought top level competition like Jon Fitch and Diego Sanchez while Johnson has fought no one.

Another great bet to make that our staff recommends is for Mac Danzig to beat Josh Neer. Neer is tough and a game fighter but Danzig is smart and will win this fight on the ground.

For all UFC Fight Night 17 betting odds check out 5 Dimes.com

 
 

Rob Emerson  +180
Kurt Pellegrino  -240

Steve Bruno  +115  
Matt Riddle  -145 

Derek Downey  +180
Nick Catone  -240

Matt Veach  +120
Matt Grice  -150

Gleison Tibau  -120
Rich Clementi  -110

Luigi Fioravanti  +260  
Anthony Johnson  -350

Jake Rosholt  +160
Dan Miller  -195

Josh Neer  +110
Mac Danzig  -140

Denis Stojnic  +430
Cain Velasquez  -625 

Jeremy Stephens  +145
 Joe Lauzon  -175

Stephens/Lauzon goes 3 round distance  +450 
Fight won’t go 3 round distance  -750

 
 

Bet o the UFC at 5 Dimes.com

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Condolences

As you’ve probably heard, on January 29th Helio Gracie passed away at the age of 95. Without him and his sons this sport would not be where

it is today. My sincere condolences to his family, friends and students

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Strategies to have Great Private Class

Training in a group setting under the watchful eye of your main instructor is a good thing. Hopefully he cares about your development as a grappler, knows where you’ve been and is helping you progress. (And if that’s not the case then you should find a new school.( Seriously)

However if your game has gotten stale, then a private class might be just what you need to break you out of your rut. Of course you can take a private with your main instructor. But sometimes taking a private from a different instructor can give you new insights. In extreme cases, it can even lead to having a major breakthrough for a

technique, strategy or training method.

For the sake of this article, let’s assume you’re thinking about training with someone new. Maybe a famous BJJ competitor is coming through town on a seminar tour. Maybe you’re traveling and discover that you’re in the same city as a well-known instructor. Either way, before you plunk down your hard-earned cash you want to do a few things..

FIRST, TRY TO GATHER SOME INFORMATION!

If you don’t already know the instructor, you want to do a bit of a background check first. You can ask your training partners if they’ve heard anything him, or you can post a question (”What Are Instructor X’s Privates Like”) on one of the big forums like MMA.tv or Sherdog

Keep in mind that you can get a pretty good sense of someone’s teaching style from watching their instructional DVDs or Youtube clips (if they have them). The important thing is that his teaching style matches your learning style.

Here are some things you might want to find out before you reserve your slot.

* Is there a specific format to his private classes? For example, is he open to questions? Will he spar with you (or is that ALL he ever wants to do)?

* If you’re from another school or team, is this going to be a problem?

* How much will it cost? Do you also need to sign up for his organization? Is it extra if you bring someone else to be your training partner?

* Can you film the session? Most people will say no, because they don’t want their material to end up on Youtube in an uncontrolled manner. Some instructors take it so far that they won’t even allow you to take notes, which would be a deal-breaker for me.

THEN HAVE A PLAN

Have an idea of what you want to learn. What do you want to walk away with after the session?

My suggestion is to focus on a specific technique or area of your game. Let’s take something as ’simple’ as the armbar from the guard. If you’re working with someone who really understands that technique you can easily spend an hour on it and not yet have covered all the principles, entries, counters and recounters.

Another approach I’ve used is to have a list of questions on different topics. I did this for my first private with Erik Paulson many years ago - I wanted his opinion on different leglocks, the application details of the rear naked choke, setting up shoots, etc. It made for a bit of a scattered session, but I came away with answers to a lot of questions that had been vexing me for a while. For this approach I like to write my list of questions down, just so I don’t forget.

Don’t be afraid to be specific. Asking “what can I do from butterfly guard when my opponent is keeping his elbows back” is a hundred times better than just going in there and just saying “show me some stuff because I need to work on everything.”

WHAT TO COVER (AND WHAT NOT TO COVER)

Now I’ll talk about something that’s obvious in retrospect, but easy to screw up on.

Is this teacher known for certain techniques and positions? Is he an open guard wizard, for example? Does he have a killer clinch game? Can he hit leglocks from every known position? This is important to know, because you want to learn from the instructor’s strengths, and not force him to teach from his weaknesses. (And yes, everyone has weaknesses).

Once I made a hash out of a private with a very good instructor by breaking this rule. At the time I was mostly working on my bottom game, so I had lots of questions for ‘Instructor X’ about the half guard, the half butterfly and the deep half guard (he was famous, so I figured he had to know the answers, right?).

Well ‘Instructor X’ showed me a lot of half guard stuff. The problem was that most of that material didn’t ‘click’ for me in sparring later. It took a few months, but I eventually figured the problem - he was a top player and didn’t like the half guard! He didn’t want to disappoint me in the private and tried his best, but his answers

lacked the depth, sophistication and perspective he would have been able to offer had he been teaching one of his strengths.

If we had stuck to passing the half guard I would have come away with tons of good stuff, I’m sure.

Finally, also try figure out how YOU learn best. Do you need new techniques broken down verbally? Does a Q-and-A format work for you or do you just like to have material presented to you? How much repetition do you need to remember a new technique? Do you learn fastest if you physically feel someone doing it to you? Do you have to try something in sparring before you ‘get it?”

You’re paying the guy for his time and knowledge, but some of the responsibility comes back to you to make the most of your session.

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UFC 94 Salaries

I see their payouts as particularly low for the “biggest fight in UFC history”. With all the hype that went into this match, I’m very surprised at how low the salaries are for Penn and GSP. How can both fighters make so littel comparableto how much the UFC made on the pap per view. Penn only get $125,000? That isn’t right. His and GSP’s fame/talent are what sold most of the pay-per-views and the gate, so unless they get a % of the PPV’s.

Salaries for UFC 94 main event winner Georges St. Pierre led the way with a $400,000 payday while TUF alum Matt Arroyo brought up the rear with $8,000. The total discloses salary total for UFC 94 was $1,057,000. UFC 94 attracted a sell-out crowd of 14,885 for an estimated live gate of $4.3 million.

Not withstanding the Pay per view numbers nad merchandise sales which will put the total profit for the UFC above 300 million by most estimates.

Here are the complete figures according to MMAWeekly.com:

• Georges St. Pierre: $400,000 ($200,000 to show plus $200,000 to win)
• Lyoto Machida: $185,000 ($60,000 to show; $60,000 to win; and $65,000 for “Knockout of the Night”)
• B.J. Penn: $125,000 (would have earned an additional $125,000 had he won)
• Clay Guida: $105,000 ($20,000 to show; $20,000 to win; and $65,000 for “Fight of the Night”)
• Nate Diaz: $85,000 ($20,000 to show and $65,000 for “Fight of the Night”;would have earned an additional $20,000 had he won)
• Karo Parisyan: $80,000 ($40,000 to show and $40,000 to win)
• Chris Wilson: $80,000 ($15,000 to show and $65,000 for “Fight of the Night”; would have earned an additional $15,000 had he won)
• John Howard: $71,000 ($3,000 to show; $3,000 to win; and $65,000 for “Fight of the Night”)
• Jon Fitch: $68,000 ($34,000 to show and $34,000 to win)
• Thiago Silva: $29,000 (would have earned an additional $29,000 had he won)
• Akihiro Gono: $28,000 (would have earned an additional $28,000 had he won)
• Dong Hyun Kim: $26,000 (would have earned an additional $26,000 had he won)
• Thiago Tavares: $26,000 ($13,000 to show and $13,000 to win)
• Stephan Bonnar: $22,000 (would have earned an additional $22,000 had he won)
• Manny Gamburyan: $14,000 (would have earned an additional $14,000 had he won)
• Dan Cramer: $16,000 ($8,000 to show and $8,000 to win)
• Jon Jones: $14,000 ($7,000 to show and $7,000 to win)
• Matt Arroyo: $8,000 (would have earned an additional $8,000 had he won)

Bet on the UFC at Bookmaker.com

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