“HE WHO CONTROLS THE SCRAMBLE HAS THE EDGE”

    This essay is a follow up on “Mental Revelations of The Progressing Grappler.” I am pleased to announce that the initial list was not exhaustive (though I never purported it to be), and even as I have continued to progress, my eyes are continually being opened to new features and aspects of grappling. My prayer is that you are exposed to this revelation at an earlier stage in your training than I was and therefore are able to tailor your training to make your grappling as sharp as it can be.

Nature and Existence of “Scrambles”:

A scramble is a period of time within a match/roll where movement is opened up, neither participant has full control, and the apparent pace of the match quickens noticeably.  Scrambles happen by accident, intentionally, and often unexpectedly by one or both parties. Scrambles can appear chaotic and without form, but the truth of the matter is: one can control a scramble when his/her mind is focused on the right principles. Controlling the scramble will lead to advantages within the match; both physical and psychological.

Having come from very traditional Jiu Jitsu roots, it was far from my mind to focus attention on “scrambles” because of adherence to the philosophical belief that BJJ should function at its purest form such that athleticism is overcome by technique. Upon reflection, such an adherence ignores the chaos of a “real” fight and the actual necessity of the less athletic person to take advantage of moments of opportunity.

Scrambles can be frightening for an untrained grappler to negotiate. A larger grappler might feel as though he is losing control while a smaller grappler might feel as though he is he is affording movement to his adversary. An older grappler might feel as though he will be outmatched with speed, while an younger grappler might feel “tricked” or “out smarted” by an older grappler during a scramble. What is clear though is that regardless of your attributes, a scramble can be an opportunity; an opportunity to lose control, or an opportunity to gain control.

Should scrambles happen? That is unclear. However, scrambles DO happen so understanding them, training for them, and finding ways to utilize them seems prudent.  In  sport BJJ/submission grappling, scrambles have led to some of the most exciting and surprising  matches in history. A classic “David v. Goliath” match-up ccurred when Marcelo Garcia was paired against Ricco Rodriguez in the Abu Dhabi Submission Grappling tournament in 2005. Garcia, outweighed by nearly 100 pounds, used elevator hooks and arm drags to create scrambles. He was able to take the back of the larger Rodriguez several time and was ultimately the victor in the match.

In the 2011 Abu Dhabi Submission Grappling super fight, Braulio Estima and Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza engaged in a fluid battle. The turning point however was a scramble that allowed Estima to take the back of the formidable Jacare. What these examples prove is that scrambles happen, that they happen not just for the sloppy or inexperienced, but they occur at the highest level. Further, these two examples illustrate that he who controls the outcome of the scramble can control the match.

Training to improve your “Scrambles”:

Understanding that scrambles exist and are an important part of any potential match, how does an athlete, fighter, or mere BJJ practitioner deal with the nuance of chaos. Simple answer: Train the principles.

Principle 1: Left Brain – Right Brain Confusion:

If you poll people right after a scramble and ask the person who “lost” the scramble what was going on in his/her mind throughout, you will often get the answer, “confusion.” They are not confused about where they are or who they are grappling against, they are confused at the direction of the movement. Why is that? In a scramble your body is reacting to directional motion. While our brains are wonderful tools, data processing functions hemispherically and once the commands from the brain are sent to the muscles to move in a certain direction, there is noticeable work that needs to occur to shift sides of the brain to direct the body in another direction. This concept is not alien to other sports. The “Juke” of a wide receiver in football or a basketball player is used to cause misdirection and mis-reaction by confusing the hemispheres of the brain.

In BJJ, postures and defenses are often side-specific. If I feel as if someone is attacking my right arm with a mounted armbar, it is critical that I keep the vulnerable arm as safe as possible. I engage my left brain hemisphere and go about defending. If the attacker quickly shifts to attacking my left arm, it (the left arm) will start out of position, I will be be required to use my right brain hemisphere to get the left arm to safety. Of course, the less time between my recognition of the change in attack and the isolation of the arm, the more probable that the attack will be successful.

In a scramble, the same is true. If, I want to take advantage of a scramble, it is important that I look for opportunities to switch directions and stay ahead of my opponent’s movements. There are many drills that one can do to train this behavior. A great resource for such drills is “Drill To Win” by Andre Galvao. The “Knee Cut Transition” on p.178 and “Side to Side Knee on Belly” on p. 190 are drills I use regularly to hone this principle.

Principle 2: Finding the outer edge:

If you are squared up to your adversary, the position will likely remain the same. So, if you are scrambling but the outcome is a zero gain, it would appear you have wasted your energy. However, if one approaches the scramble from angles it becomes easier to defend, counter, and mount an offense.

One angle pays greater dividends than any other in a scramble, the angle that exposes you to an outer edge. Imagine the body as an open cardboard box. The space between the arms (chest, abdomen, hips) and the space between the legs (inside of the feet, inside of the lower and upper legs) comprise the inside of the cardboard box. Any other point on the body (e.g. the back of the arm, the back, the back and outside of the legs) are the “outsides” of the box.

Working to move your body to the outside is helpful in controlling the scramble. An arm drag is achieving this end. When an arm drag is done properly, the opponent is moved across the body and the outer edge of the arm and back are exposed. Many De La Riva guard techniques function to attack an outer edge (e.g. Berimbolo attacks). Thus, a great way to condition your body and mind to find the outer edge is to drill arm drag movements from various positions and to drill Berimbolo movements. For examples of great drills to help, check out Andre Galvao’s book, “Drill to Win.” On p. 180 you will see the “Knee Smash Pass,” on p.232 there are drills to help with arm drags. One of the best drills for training the outer edge movements is found on p.250 with the “Half Spin.”

Once you see that during a scramble you want to keep your opponent in front of you while you strive for an outer edge, you will notice more successful outcomes from your scrambles.

Principle 3: Deciding when and how to apply pressure:

Pressure  is a beautiful part of BJJ. So many things can be dictated by the way you control your pressure. At some points in a scramble you want to keep your pressure low so that the motion can continue and catapult you to a dominant position. At other points, you want to increase your pressure to thwart movement and maximize your ability to maintain or control a position you have succeeded in gaining. Imagine an arm drag from butterfly guard. If you are initiating the drag, you will apply pulling pressure to the arm, but you will keep your hips and chest away from the opponent at the beginning. Once you have exposed the “outer edge” it is beneficial for you to increase your chest and hip pressure so that the opponent does not pull their arm back or turn and face you. If successful, you will limit the duration of the scramble and succeed at taking the back.

Flip the coin a bit. Say you are going against a good open guard fighter and you choose to use a Toreando style guard pass. As you circle the legs there is a point where you are likely in a scramble. The opponent is going to be working to shrimp back and keep you in the box, while you are battling for the outer edge. How you control your pressure will dictate the success with which you secure the pass.

Learning how and when to apply pressure is easily drilled and once focused on makes a grappler very dangerous. Having rolled with some of the best in the world, I can assure you that at times they feel like a cloud floating around you, but regardless of their size, they eventually feel like piano dropped from 3 stories right on top of you.

Conclusion:

Scrambles happen. To the victor go the spoils. Should scrambles happen is a question of BJJ philosophical disagreement. But given they DO happen, a grappler who wishes to progress would benefit from studying them and it never hurts to win them. May your mental revelations come quicker than mine and give you the satisfaction of progression.

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October 15, 2011 will be the next Andre Galvao seminar at Small Axe!!!! Come check it out!

  Andre Galvao travelled to south central Indiana to lead his second seminar at Small Axe Jiu Jitsu, but his first seminar at the school as its affiliate leader. Eager jiu jitsu practitioners of all levels gathered early to see what techniques would be taught.

   Many in attendance were veterans of Professor Galvao seminars and so expectations were high. Professor Galvao began the seminar with a welcome to all who attended and explanation of his philosophy of always seeking the submission and working to advance to the most dominate position and not just ride an advantage to victory. After his brief intro, he led a thorough warm up focusing on loosening and stretching all the joints of the body. Then the seminar began.

The focus of the seminar was on attacking the back. I had asked Professor Galvao a question in the car shortly after picking him up from the airport and he told me the seminar would answer my question. IT DID. Look at what we did:

1. Attacking Turtle-ing Opponent (Proper position, arm placement, hip placement, elbow blocked)

2. Methods of impeding the “turn in” by a simple elbow push.

3. Drilled sensitivity and movement when and if bottom guy turns in.

4. We learned how to take the back when the opponent turns into us.

5. Rear Naked Choke details

6. Breaking a defensive Grip that is preventing RNC.

7. Sliding Collar Choke, Galvao Style! Critical details that make the choke faster, tighter and harder to defend.

8. Transitioning when guy escapes over your bottom hook.

9. “Digital Clock Choke”… analog is out of date!!!

10. Transitioning to Digital Clock Choke from the on-side back position (kicking leg away).

   After the technique portion, Professor Galvao fielded questions from the students. Every question was answered to the student’s satisfaction.

Throughout the seminar, I mingled around, trained, and talked to the participants. More than one came up to me and told me that one technique or another was worth the whole price of the seminar. I heard students say, “that is a game changer” and others praise little details by saying, “why didn’t I learn this years ago?”

   After all the rolling, teaching, and training was done, several of the Small Axe/Team Atos students were awarded stripes on their belts and several of the youth students moved up into new belts. A new tradition for the Small Axe students was implemented and each new belt came with a throw from Professor Galvao and Instructor Tim Sledd.

   Small Axe Jiu Jitsu was happy to host grapplers from many different regional academies and is grateful to Professor Galvao for his open mindedness and leadership.

Andre Galvao and Tim Sledd

GALVAOBJJ/ATOS LEADER

ANDRE GALVAO

IS COMING!!!!!!

DATE: 2/26/11

TIME: 1-4

LOCATION: SMALL AXE JIU JITSU

DETAILS: Multiple time World Champion, Andre Galvao will visit is First American Affiliate on February 26th, to lead a seminar and offer promotions to the Small Axe/Atos students present.

Questions? E-mail: smallaxebjj@gmail.com for answers.

Tim

It is my distinct honor to report that Andre Galvao and Tim Sledd agreed that Small Axe Jiu Jitsu would be a great affiliate for Professor Galvao! We look forward to more great instruction from Professor Galvao and will strive to help spread the Atos message!

Promotions

Blue belt         1998 by Caique (with Gracie TA), Bedford seminar
1st stripe blue        2-26-06 by Caique, IU seminar
2nd stripe blue        9-23-07 by Caique, IU seminar
3rd stripe blue        2-23-08 by Caique, GMA seminar
4th stripe blue        10-24-09 by Caique, IU seminar

Purple belt        11-13-10 by Caique, IU seminar

Competition Experience

10-20-07         Extreme Grappling Open, Indy:  Master Blue light-hvy    3rd gi 

12-1-07           Michigan Open:  Master Blue light-hvy            DNP   

6-13-09    Hoosier Open:  Master Blue light-hvy            1st        

9-26-09    Michigan Open Master Blue middleweight     2nd    

10-2-10    Michigan Open Master Blue Middleweight    2nd   

Hopefully you would look around the room. If so, seated quietly near the entrance watching some guys playfully sparring, you would see a highly decorated World Class competitor, smiling. If you haven’t lived under a rock in the BJJ community for the last 8 years, then you would quickly recognize the guy as Andre Galvao, and something tells me you would quickly put your gi on and tie your belt.

The seminar began with a brief introduction, not only to Professor Galvao, but also to his philosophy and that of Atos Jiu Jitsu. What a way to set the mood for the day! This was not going to be a seminar of thuggish ruggish ego-centric testicular explosions; this was defined early as a seminar of sharing love of the art.

Following the introduction, we did a brief but comprehensive warm up and the first indication that Andre is a methodical instructor became evident. He started from the top of the body and warmed every joint imaginable down to the little toe.

Next, we jumped into some drills which led into techniques, which spawned counters and various submissions. Professor Galvao periodically tied the techniques together to remind us that we were on a path of progression and merely exploring a small set of options for each situation. The seminar included but was not limited to the following techniques:

• Open Guard Pass Drill (variations on blocking the hip)
• Andre’s Method of holding a tight cross-side from said guard pass
• Using your hip to prevent an elbow escape, using your head to prevent a roll away (this section alone gave me significant material that I could add a whole new “Hip Control Video” tutorial)
• Ezekiel from opponent turning away
• Triangle from cross-side (new variation for Small Axe)
• Nifty triangle finish detail using a head turn!
• Guard Replacement drill (from open guard “thread the needle” pass) Roll under
• Guard Replacement to triangle
• Triangle defense to Omoplata
• Omoplata detail clean up! (leg squeeze, far lapel grips, ankle grip, hips away)
• Clock choke if guy is flexible (I obviously wasn’t)
• Belly down armbar from omoplata –>rolling if necessary to variations of the traditional mounted armbar.
• Drilled Guard Retention –>triangle–>omoplata–>clock choke–>armbar
• Two variations of taking the back off a defended omoplata
• Armbar off of back take attempt! (very tight and fast armlock… I think I yelped once during the demonstration)
• Last was an armbar from omoplata control while parallel. Bringing the inside knee in to transition to the armbar.

Once the technique portion of the seminar was done, Professor Galvao began a meet and greet (another way of saying he picked people to spar with). He chose kids, women, black belts, purple belts to roll and he gave lots of different energies and utilized the techniques he had just shown many times. What a pleasure to watch.

Overall, I would describe this seminar as “concept driven”, beginner to advanced, and tons of fun. Andre is very approachable, willing to answer questions, and constantly surveying the participants to correct details. I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND an Andre Galvao seminar. There is an old saying, “Some people can teach, some people can do.” Andre Galvao can do BOTH!

Valeu Andre!!!!!