The Butterfly Guard Examined

Over the next few posts, I'd like to focus on the Butterfly Guard as it is one of the most effective guard positions and one that is critical in all aspects of grappling be it Gi BJJ, no gi, or MMA.

Most all of the subscribers know of my views on the guard, for those who don't please refer to the Transitional Guard post.

The true beauty of the Butterfly guard is the many options and possibilities that it presents.

For those who don't know the position, here is an excellent video of a Butterfly guard sweep. Basically the butterfly guard involves both legs hooked with the ankles in between the opponents legs in a V shape, against the inside of the opponents thighs. It's important to note that the opponent is controlled using not only your legs but just as importantly your arms as well.
This guard lends itself beautifully to my strategy of the transitory nature of the guard as it forces you to act fast being that your opponent can free an arm and pass if you aren't very focused and busy at keeping him off balance.

The position itself will enable you to pull off fast and powerful sweeps as it lets you easily keep your opponent off balance and this is also one of the reasons why it is very useful in MMA as it makes it easy for you to take and keep your opponent off balance, preventing him from passing without having first to re-establish his posture as well as preventing him from hitting you with much power as he is off balance and will further sacrifice his balance and position if he attempts to strike.



The end of the video shows Rodrigo Gracie performing the sweep without the gi as well in competition. Watch for the slight variation he uses without the gi. As always you'll need to watch the video at the blog by clicking the link above.

Also due to the success of my free dvd promotion, I'd like to extend it for the Train Fight Win, Aggressive Guard DVD which covers the Butterfly guard extensively. Be aware though that the dvd covers no-gi technique.
It is an excellent training supplement that shows some great Guard work for developing an aggressive and dangerous Guard game. I highly recommend it!
And for a limited time while I discuss the Buttefly Guard I will offer everyone who purchases the DVD or download version of The Aggressive Guard from the Banner ad above, any DVD off of Jiujitsuuniverse.com of your choice absolutely free, (I'm even paying the shipping and handling!)
Just let me know which dvd you want with your mailing address by forwarding your email receipt to info @ jiujitsuuniverse.com (just remove the spaces).

I loved the emails about all the success everyone is having with the D'Arce choke DVD. Keep em coming!

Here's An Anaconda Choke Counter To A Takedown.

This week let's look at another excellent choke for countering the double leg takedown.

The Anaconda choke is an excellent alternative when your arm is catching your opponent over the top of his shoulder and crossing the front of his neck, grabbing underneath his arm pit.
Whereas the Brabo is applied from your arm catching your opponent underneath his arm across his neck with your hand coming over his opposite shoulder.

Great Response And Last Chance!

The offer for the free DVDs is almost over with 7 left. The response last weekend was amazing.
Anyone still thinking of picking up one of the free dvd's of their choice just has to order the Brabo choke dvd from the banner ad above and email me your receipt number along with which ever dvd you want, I'm even shipping them for free so get in now.
The last seven should be gone by tomorrow so email me first if you want.

Brabo Choke Used As A Counter To A Shoot.

Here is an excellent example of the brabo choke being used as a counter to a shoot. It occurs around 2:05
The video has music added to it that some find annoying but it's a great video of two champion level competitors, so check it out.
I'll be getting into some more detail in the next post.

Brabo = D'Arce Choke

Since I've received many inquiries on my new sponsor concerning the banner ad for the Brabo/D'Arce DVD above I'll answer the questions publicly here on the blog since many of you have the same questions.

I'll give a quick overview of the D'Arce DVD offered at www.trainfightwin.com/d'arce

As many of you know by now, my reviews are always as honest as can be and I always include the bad with the good and it has to be at least 80% good for me to even mention it.

The true value of this DVD are the clearly explained technical details for setting up the D'arce choke from many positions, including the open guard, side control, side control bottom reversal, the guard pass, as well as a really useful counter to a back attack to counter the rear naked choke.

The DVD is over an hour long and shows about 22 different strategies in technical detail for setting up the the D'Arce/Brabo choke clearly demonstrating the versatility I've been discussing and showing why this choke so often takes people completely by surprise when they least expect it if you know how to set it up properly.

It is definitely a high percentage choke.

That said the affordability of the video download version is great as you can watch the video right away and at $25.00 it can't be beat.

The one draw back of the video is that it lacks some of the basic detail of some of the positions making it not as useful for beginners and that's a shame because there are some very useful tactics for beginners to catch more advanced grapplers with.

The fact that's it's missing some positional details makes it ideal for Blue belts and above but I feel that with some more details on the positions involved, even white belts would have profited from the DVD. That's why anyone below a blue belt level should wait on this one.

So anyone who's above blue and wants to add a serious submission edge to their game, definitely pick this up!
Within weeks you can be landing the D'Arce choke unexpectedly.