July 28, 2025 • 20 mins
You may think your lack of mobility only holds back your guard retention, but they could be wrecking your passing as well. We are going to give you 5 bits of information on target areas that will help you improve your guard passing tremendously.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
A good martial artist does not become tense but ready
.
Essentially, at this point thefight is over, so you pretty
much flow with the goal.
Who is worthy to be trustedwith the secret to limitless
power?
Speaker 2 (00:27):
I'm ready.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
The five mobility qualities you need for better
guard passing in modernJiu-Jitsu.
Now, modern no-gi Jiu-Jitsu isa very dynamic thing.
I've witnessed it firsthandfrom some of the best passers in
the world and what I'veobserved is they have certain
movement qualities and itrequires a lot of mobility and a
lot of you are not necessarilyaware of what that is.
(00:54):
So we're going to break it down.
We're going to go through thesefive movement qualities, how
they relate to modern no-gipassing and also the exercises
you need to improve them.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
You know what I think is tricky about identifying the
deficiencies you might have inthese positions they don't stand
out to you in the moment, likecoaches are like hey guys, we're
working on this and you give ita try and you, whatever, drill
it for a few minutes or a fewrounds and you just often end up
being like this position justfeels shit, for me, it doesn't
(01:24):
work.
Yeah, you often don end upbeing like this position just
feels shit for me, doesn't work.
Yeah, you often don't link itto oh, it's because my
hamstrings are super tight orbecause my adductors are fucking
tight, like I can't actuallyget into a good position.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Yes, but I think I agree with you on that.
But I think when you start tolook more closely at videos of
people who are very good atpassing and you look at the
positions they get into, you'relike I need to be able to do
that.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Well, that's, that's right.
For those who are, you know,switched onto that you're like,
oh shit, how do I get actuallyhas really good hip flexion, or
actually has really good hipextension, or whatever.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
And.
But the thing is, most peoplein jujitsu don't talk about it
in those terms.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Coaches don't often go hey guys, we're working this,
check it out.
You will struggle with this ifyou can't touch your toes.
Yeah Right, they're just likehey, we're doing fucking J point
.
Yes, Everyone do this.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Yeah, you know, yeah, and so that's why I wanted to
talk about it, because I thinkthe first well, the number the
first this isn't process oforder in terms of like this is
the number one thing.
Lateral movement is one of themost essential things when
you're looking at, like outside,leg passing, leg dragging, this
kind of thing.
Lateral movement is reallydictated by your ability to
(02:31):
stretch through your adductorsand get into a very low squat
position or like a split stanceposition.
So the Cossack squat theCossack squat is absolutely the
best movement you can use toimprove, like lengthening
through the adductors, deepflexion of the knee, uh,
dorsiflexion of the ankle, likegetting into that low squat
position.
(02:51):
Whether you're doing a knee cutor you're doing a leg drag,
like you need to be able toimprove your base in this
position, yeah, and so this issomething that we've.
I, you know, I guess Cossackcame to me more from my kind of
Taekwondo background, but justidentifying it as a really bang
for your buck gets your hip andknee and ankle strong and mobile
(03:14):
but also helps loosen up theother side.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
I love it for that Cossacks yesterday and um, the
yeah like lower body legstrength, but really that whole
lengthening and strengthening ofthe the straight leg side on
the inside of the hip there,which is the adductors that
we're referencing um is kind ofpivotal to that style of wide
base, like wide stance, lateralmovement, um.
(03:41):
I think that, yeah, the mainthing there is, if you don't
have some capacity in thatlateral movement, then you are
basically you've got a handbrakeand you're basically not going
to be able to maintain base whenthat structure gets threatened.
But if you can, then you'recomfortable there.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
And here's the interesting thing, because this
is it's interesting youmentioned that, joe.
This has come up a lot recentlyin different discussions around
, like the principles or theideas behind sweeping and
maintaining like posture andbalance for passing, which is
destabilizing.
This is this is something thatthe less impressed, more
(04:19):
involved has talked about GregSouders has talked about.
He's talking aboutdestabilizing someone's
structure in able in order foryou to be able to sweep them and
come up, and so if you lackmobility, stabilization is much
harder.
You are far easier todestabilize because you can't
hold the position and it will beharder for you to maintain your
(04:40):
balance switching side to side,yeah, and so by improving your
mobility, you are much harder todestabilize in that context.
And so number two then is whenwe look at leg pummeling and
knee cutting, and so whetheryou're kind of into the cord and
rind, kind of hand basing andcutting with the knees, like the
(05:03):
kind of floating, passing hip,internal rotation is what we
want to look at there, as muchas you need to be able to bring
your knee over, or the Fion kneecut, fion knee cut, and so
really, the stretch or themovement I like for this is the
kind of 90-90 kind of shin boxtype.
Side to side, you're keepingthe shoulders square internally,
(05:23):
internally rotating the hip,externally rotating the other
hip, while keeping the torsovery square.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Yeah, I, I find this is a very easy movement to do
and it'll show you straight awayif you're lacking internal
rotation of the hip yeah, yeah,I really I like that a lot, for
I like that a lot for internalrotation, I like for external
rotation, which which is, youknow, rotate the other way,
obviously for people listening.
I like probably something thatyou know, I feel like you can
(05:51):
get more leverage on, say, theactive pigeon or box pigeon or
something.
But I do think that general hiprotation for people is a really
overlooked facet of movement.
We kind of don't really thinkabout it.
You know, a lot of people haveswitched on to like, oh, I
should lengthen my hamstrings, Ishould stretch my hip flexors,
yeah, but we don't think aboutthat rotation piece.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
I think for most part , if people do jujitsu
consistently and they play guard, people will do a bit of glute
stretching right they will.
They will open up to theirglutes a bit, because external
rotation is very helpful forpummeling from guard.
But what is most lacking forjujitsu guys is hip internal
rotation and this is a keyunlock for knee cutting and leg
(06:32):
pummeling and passing.
And so.
I feel like spending a bit oftime doing that.
Not only will that help yourpassing, but also help your
knees, because folks who lackhip internal rotation tend to
cop knee injuries as well.
Yeah, so there's that toconsider.
And then we're going to go tonumber three, which is forward
(06:52):
flexion.
So when we go to outsidecamping that kind of J-point
camping, the hip and knee post,like gordon ryan, joseph chen,
like a lot of the really goodmonday passes you want to do
that.
J point.
You know what move you need,joe you need to be able to
fucking touch your toes, bro, jcurl, j curl for j point.
(07:14):
Oh yeah, oh yeah.
So what are we talking abouthere?
Because you need to be able tohave your head low, hips high,
and you need to be able to staymobile and move.
And you, yeah, and you want,your, you want to stay mobile
and move.
And you, yeah, and you wantyour, you want.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
like, what you see with a lot of these guys is
their feet are kind ofunderneath them.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Yeah, they're not, they're not way back, Not too
far.
Yeah, and, and, and it's theirability to keep their head in
down like back pretty straight.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Because they want to keep a good structure there and
really moving around yeah, likereally being able to move around
there and maintain goodstructural integrity at this
flexed position and for the bestpart, most jiu-jitsu folks they
might try to touch their toes,but it's rare that you'll see
people do a loaded stretch.
So the J curl will have youstanding on a box or a step of
sorts will have you standing ona box or a step of sorts.
(08:01):
You might be holding a smalldumbbell or a light kettlebell
and you're going through thisflexed position, legs straight,
toes on the edge of theelevation whatever it might be
box or step and slowly loweringyourself down through this full
spinal flexion and trying to getas low as you can into that
flexed spot and then workingyour way out with control.
(08:23):
You say hip flexed right Hipflexed like torso close to the
spine, and then yeah, yeah, it'sa, it's a real centerpiece.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
I mean it's, and that that position I mean like all
these positions has also hugeapplication to a bunch of other
jujitsu positions, right, butyeah, specifically in the realm
of passing, I find that again,it's kind of one of those things
where if you don't, if youcan't really go down and like
touch your toes or you know, ifyou, if your range is limited
(08:51):
there, it just takes away a lotof movement options from you
generally.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
And what we know.
Going back to your point beforeabout destabilization as a
precursor to sweeping, you know,like, when you've got someone
in your guard like you'replaying open guard and you can
tell they're really tight in thehips sweet, it's not hard to
knock them off balance.
Yeah, is it?
No, you know, um.
And so, yeah, it fucking buysyou a lot of time, but also,
(09:18):
like, it buys you security to beable to mount your pass or your
defense.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Yeah, and it just sweeps that you think would work
.
If someone's flexible andmobile, they find a way to
balance.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Yeah, and you're like ah, like, when I fucking try to
X guard sweep you, what's goingto happen?
Every time I'm like why thefuck did I do this again, this
again?
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Well, I mean it's.
I mean, this is where we canget into the.
I'll swap it around.
Let's go number.
This was number five.
We'll make it number four,which is front split.
Front split is exceptionallygood as a movement quality for
countering X guard and leg locks.
Now, why do I say this?
I've trained front split sinceI was very young because I did
(10:00):
Taekwondo and it's one of thosethings that has paid dividends
in jujitsu, because if you canrest in a dancer's version like
a dancer's split, where yourback leg is bent I actually
witnessed PJ Bartsch at IEGAusing that as a defense against
single leg, where they're tryingto split your leg, and he's
just based with his back legbent oh wow, and he really uses
(10:21):
that to not which just makes thefront leg super heavy, heavy
and they can't pull it around.
But when, yeah, like if someoneputs you in X guard, whether it
be single X or full, X guardyou can just kind of front split
into that and feel very stable.
But then also, if someone startsto attack your leg and you need
to turn out and throw the nextleg away and turn your hip,
having the flexibility throughyour hips and your hamstrings
(10:41):
actually really helps, yeah, andso that's the thing you can
feel very stable, even though itlooks like your base is very
narrow.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Yeah, and you know I, you know there are a bunch of
choices out there for yourstrength and mobility training,
and when it comes to choosing aprogram, it's really hard to
sift through what's good andwhat's not.
One thing I can guarantee youis that the Bulletproof for BJJ
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prioritize time on the mat,which means you're not spending
(11:10):
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But you also want the biggestreturns in terms of your
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The Bulletproof for BJJ app hasyou covered.
You can take a two-week freetrial right now, and if you go
beyond that and you commit to asubscription and you get a few
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We give you a 100% money backguarantee.
(11:31):
So nothing to wait for.
Jump into the two-week freetrial right now.
Go to the app store, searchBulletproof for BJJ and we'll
see you on the inside.
Well, and that I mean for that,for that x guard thing
specifically.
Um, you the whole idea, right,and I've been working this with
the guys on mondays but thewhole idea.
With the x guard swimsuityou're trying to for the person
attacking, you're trying todrive their weight onto the far
(11:53):
leg and pick that leg up yeah,and and so thereby making the
leg on your shoulder light.
Yeah, but if you drop into afront, split your leg that's on
my shoulder gets fucking heavy.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Yeah, and I'm like I can't sit up with this thing,
you know, and there'sopportunities there where you
can kind of roll the leg overand kind of hip over and pass,
and I've been playing aroundwith that for a long time and
there's lots of opportunitiesthat present.
So, even though you might notthink, oh, I'm not a gymnast,
I'm not a fucking ballerina, whywould I work on my front split
by opening up through thehamstring and opening up through
(12:24):
the hip flexors, it actuallydoes a lot to take a lot of
pressure off your lower back anda lot of people underestimate
that that having tight hipflexors and tight hamstrings
loads up your lower back.
So if you're someone who doesget tight in the lower back and
you're struggling with yourpassing, spending some time
working on that front splitposition, you're struggling with
your passing, spending sometime working on that front split
(12:45):
position.
Now, actually, let's say, frontsplits impossible for you.
What would you say?
Joe is a good halfway step.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Well, let me just add in before that the concept here
that applies to every grappler.
Yes, Because there's going tobe people listening like, well,
that's super advanced, I'm nottrying to do front splits, I
just fucking my hamstrings suck.
Like I'm not fucking with thathere.
Like if you're really bad atmobility, then what you want to
do is get some more range inyour hamstrings, get some more
(13:11):
range in your hip flexors.
Right, this is going to giveyou some.
This is going to help to startopening up your hips Over time
as you get more advanced to that.
The stretches or the drills thatyou did to open up from in that
really tight position, they nowdon't do anything for you Cause
you're actually, you knowyou're getting somewhere.
You position, they now don't doanything for you because you're
actually, you know you'regetting somewhere, you feel good
.
So we've got to up theintensity of these drills.
(13:33):
So when we say front split,we're talking about, like, the
front split being the pinnaclemovement that is an expression
of excellent hamstrings andexcellent hip flexors.
But going back to the other endof the spectrum, your shit at
mobility you can still beworking on the front split, but
just at a very beginner level.
Sure Right, and it's notactually about getting you to a
split.
It's about addressing yourhamstrings and your hip flexors,
Of course.
(13:53):
So to that point I meanJefferson curl, as we mentioned
before, for the flexion, alsogreat for the hammies, right For
a beginner stride stance.
Good morning, yes.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Yes, good morning.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
We got that in all of our programs Elephant walk.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Yeah, elephant walk really good for opening up
through calves and hamstringsand flexing forward.
If you struggle with that, whatabout hip flexors, hip flexors.
So this is actually going tokind of lead me into the next
point Long lunge pulse, I think,is a great one because it's
just really getting you deep andopening up to the hip.
But you're still working there,you're still stabilizing Super
(14:31):
loaded and you can do I forgetthe name, I apologize.
You know the ones we're usingwith the sticks.
You've been doing that for alittle while.
Is it just like a supportedfront split?
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
Yeah, it's where you take that even a step further
and you slide the back leg backand you kick the front leg out,
but you're using, um, twosupports to kind of take the
weight out a little bit.
So it's not as fucking crazilyintense, not as heavy still
awful but but it still allowsyou to develop a degree of um,
uh, familiarity there.
(15:02):
I wouldn't say comfort, it'snot comfortable, but you get
familiar.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Yeah, and just like with any strength work, it's um,
it's.
It's allowing you toprogressively increase the load,
isn't it?
Speaker 1 (15:11):
Yeah, and you take.
You take the weight out of yourhands, you take more of the
load in the hammies and the hipflexors.
But I wanted to go to hipextension because when you're
looking at squashing thesquashing the hooks, someone's
trying to false reap orsomeone's trying to butterfly a
hook and you're looking atsprawling and and really trying
to turn the hip slow, like uh,joseph chen is really good at
(15:34):
this.
You see him going from likedown in a flex position to like
opening up to the chest andreally kicking the hip through.
Yep, squashing the hook,turning the hips.
If you don't have hip extension,you're going to struggle.
Yeah, so if you're someonewho's really tight through quads
and hip flexors from a lot ofguard work, but you haven't done
much of the opening up of thehip, you're not going to be able
(15:55):
to express this dynamic kind ofmovement.
And it's not that it'sunattainable.
You just have to spend a bit oftime opening up through the
front and that's where somethinglike the couch stretch or the
kneeling wall stretch, shin towall, is very helpful, very
effective.
Yeah, absolutely, hanging Cobra,hanging Cobra, definitely, if
you're a bit more advanced youcan get into the hip flexors and
(16:18):
the rest of the spine there,definitely, and I think, even if
you're not someone who'snecessarily familiar with all
these different styles ofpassing, if you just were to
reference a video, say you were.
I want to go have a look at avideo of Joseph Chen passing.
He is doing all of thesemovements.
(16:38):
He won't say to you oh, youneed hip extension or you need
this amount of hamstringflexibility, but you can see the
kids made of like black magicand rubber, like he moves so
well and we want you to see the,the kid's made of like black
magic and rubber like he movesso well, yeah, and we want you
to do the same and it isattainable, but you've got to
kind of come in at certain entrypoints.
And so, when it comes totightness through the front of
(17:00):
the hip, the couch stretch,which is the easiest, most
attainable way to start openingup to the front of the hip,
that's really good and even likea little bit of a if we're
talking about an active exercise, it's like a reverse Nordic
yeah, like to stretch out thequads, stretch out the hip
flexors, but also get the quadslike around the knees working,
(17:22):
yeah, and load them up, and loadthem up.
And so I think, when you lookat all of this, most of the time
people don't think aboutmobility related to guard
passing.
They think about it probablymore around guard and inverting,
but when you look at all thebest guard passes, they move
exceptionally well.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
So you need to be able to think about like um
think about some of thosescrambles that we saw um Cade
Ruotolo and Andrew Tackett atCJI right it was just like two
fucking Panthers, yeah, justyeah.
And like I mean the Ruatolosoften go into a split position.
Yeah, you'll see, like in their, when they're playing because
they're always, almost alwaysplaying on top, they're always
(18:04):
like side splitting, frontsplitting, just because they're
refusing to concede a sweep orwhatever, or a takedown, and
you're like you don't have tohave that capacity.
But you see, with people thatmove like that, ah, like when
there's no restriction on mymovement, there's so many
options.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
And majority of people listening to this will
have a lack of options becauseof a lack of movement capacity.
This is just what happens toour bodies as we get older and
we do a fucking sport likejujitsu.
So unless you're working on it,you're probably you're probably
being held by, you're probablybeing held back by this to a
point.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
Yeah, and you don't realize it until you put a
little bit of time on it andyou're like, oh, that skill is
easier, whereas a lot of thetime I think for the best part
we think, oh, I just suck atthat, oh, that's not for me, and
then look, it's easy, I'm goingback to half guard.
It's easy to fall into thattrap mentally, but for you folks
, definitely you can unlock it.
(19:00):
It's just a matter ofidentifying what is the right
technique for you, putting a bitof work on it and then chipping
away and you will get betterwith the modern day guard
passing.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Well, you know what, just quickly we've been talking
about it.
We've been redesigningstandards.
We have it will be coming outsoon I've been running the level
three standards this week formyself oh nice.
And I've not been doing muchmobility work in the last six
months.
Okay, I've been doing like bareminimum, if that.
And um, the new level threestandards program has two days
(19:31):
dedicated to range oh okay, andthey're short workouts but it's
like it's deep like you're going, you're going to and I'm like,
fuck, I feel so good having hitall five sessions this week.
Nice, I'm like man so good, likeI was doing deep.
I did cossacks yesterday, deepjefferson's.
I did backbend earlier in theweek.
Yeah, it's fucking sick.
So I think for the people thatare already on this tip and been
(19:52):
working on some of our previousstuff, they're going to love
the new release of this.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Awesome.
So there it is, folks.
If you want to unlock thatmobility, check out our new
standards program coming verysoon.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
See you.
A good martial artist does not become tense but ready
.
Essentially, at this point thefight is over, so you pretty
much flow with the goal.
Who is worthy to be trustedwith the secret to limitless
power?
Speaker 2 (00:27):
I'm ready.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
The five mobility qualities you need for better
guard passing in modernJiu-Jitsu.
Now, modern no-gi Jiu-Jitsu isa very dynamic thing.
I've witnessed it firsthandfrom some of the best passers in
the world and what I'veobserved is they have certain
movement qualities and itrequires a lot of mobility and a
lot of you are not necessarilyaware of what that is.
(00:54):
So we're going to break it down.
We're going to go through thesefive movement qualities, how
they relate to modern no-gipassing and also the exercises
you need to improve them.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
You know what I think is tricky about identifying the
deficiencies you might have inthese positions they don't stand
out to you in the moment, likecoaches are like hey guys, we're
working on this and you give ita try and you, whatever, drill
it for a few minutes or a fewrounds and you just often end up
being like this position justfeels shit, for me, it doesn't
(01:24):
work.
Yeah, you often don end upbeing like this position just
feels shit for me, doesn't work.
Yeah, you often don't link itto oh, it's because my
hamstrings are super tight orbecause my adductors are fucking
tight, like I can't actuallyget into a good position.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Yes, but I think I agree with you on that.
But I think when you start tolook more closely at videos of
people who are very good atpassing and you look at the
positions they get into, you'relike I need to be able to do
that.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Well, that's, that's right.
For those who are, you know,switched onto that you're like,
oh shit, how do I get actuallyhas really good hip flexion, or
actually has really good hipextension, or whatever.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
And.
But the thing is, most peoplein jujitsu don't talk about it
in those terms.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Coaches don't often go hey guys, we're working this,
check it out.
You will struggle with this ifyou can't touch your toes.
Yeah Right, they're just likehey, we're doing fucking J point
.
Yes, Everyone do this.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Yeah, you know, yeah, and so that's why I wanted to
talk about it, because I thinkthe first well, the number the
first this isn't process oforder in terms of like this is
the number one thing.
Lateral movement is one of themost essential things when
you're looking at, like outside,leg passing, leg dragging, this
kind of thing.
Lateral movement is reallydictated by your ability to
(02:31):
stretch through your adductorsand get into a very low squat
position or like a split stanceposition.
So the Cossack squat theCossack squat is absolutely the
best movement you can use toimprove, like lengthening
through the adductors, deepflexion of the knee, uh,
dorsiflexion of the ankle, likegetting into that low squat
position.
(02:51):
Whether you're doing a knee cutor you're doing a leg drag,
like you need to be able toimprove your base in this
position, yeah, and so this issomething that we've.
I, you know, I guess Cossackcame to me more from my kind of
Taekwondo background, but justidentifying it as a really bang
for your buck gets your hip andknee and ankle strong and mobile
(03:14):
but also helps loosen up theother side.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
I love it for that Cossacks yesterday and um, the
yeah like lower body legstrength, but really that whole
lengthening and strengthening ofthe the straight leg side on
the inside of the hip there,which is the adductors that
we're referencing um is kind ofpivotal to that style of wide
base, like wide stance, lateralmovement, um.
(03:41):
I think that, yeah, the mainthing there is, if you don't
have some capacity in thatlateral movement, then you are
basically you've got a handbrakeand you're basically not going
to be able to maintain base whenthat structure gets threatened.
But if you can, then you'recomfortable there.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
And here's the interesting thing, because this
is it's interesting youmentioned that, joe.
This has come up a lot recentlyin different discussions around
, like the principles or theideas behind sweeping and
maintaining like posture andbalance for passing, which is
destabilizing.
This is this is something thatthe less impressed, more
(04:19):
involved has talked about GregSouders has talked about.
He's talking aboutdestabilizing someone's
structure in able in order foryou to be able to sweep them and
come up, and so if you lackmobility, stabilization is much
harder.
You are far easier todestabilize because you can't
hold the position and it will beharder for you to maintain your
(04:40):
balance switching side to side,yeah, and so by improving your
mobility, you are much harder todestabilize in that context.
And so number two then is whenwe look at leg pummeling and
knee cutting, and so whetheryou're kind of into the cord and
rind, kind of hand basing andcutting with the knees, like the
(05:03):
kind of floating, passing hip,internal rotation is what we
want to look at there, as muchas you need to be able to bring
your knee over, or the Fion kneecut, fion knee cut, and so
really, the stretch or themovement I like for this is the
kind of 90-90 kind of shin boxtype.
Side to side, you're keepingthe shoulders square internally,
(05:23):
internally rotating the hip,externally rotating the other
hip, while keeping the torsovery square.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Yeah, I, I find this is a very easy movement to do
and it'll show you straight awayif you're lacking internal
rotation of the hip yeah, yeah,I really I like that a lot, for
I like that a lot for internalrotation, I like for external
rotation, which which is, youknow, rotate the other way,
obviously for people listening.
I like probably something thatyou know, I feel like you can
(05:51):
get more leverage on, say, theactive pigeon or box pigeon or
something.
But I do think that general hiprotation for people is a really
overlooked facet of movement.
We kind of don't really thinkabout it.
You know, a lot of people haveswitched on to like, oh, I
should lengthen my hamstrings, Ishould stretch my hip flexors,
yeah, but we don't think aboutthat rotation piece.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
I think for most part , if people do jujitsu
consistently and they play guard, people will do a bit of glute
stretching right they will.
They will open up to theirglutes a bit, because external
rotation is very helpful forpummeling from guard.
But what is most lacking forjujitsu guys is hip internal
rotation and this is a keyunlock for knee cutting and leg
(06:32):
pummeling and passing.
And so.
I feel like spending a bit oftime doing that.
Not only will that help yourpassing, but also help your
knees, because folks who lackhip internal rotation tend to
cop knee injuries as well.
Yeah, so there's that toconsider.
And then we're going to go tonumber three, which is forward
(06:52):
flexion.
So when we go to outsidecamping that kind of J-point
camping, the hip and knee post,like gordon ryan, joseph chen,
like a lot of the really goodmonday passes you want to do
that.
J point.
You know what move you need,joe you need to be able to
fucking touch your toes, bro, jcurl, j curl for j point.
(07:14):
Oh yeah, oh yeah.
So what are we talking abouthere?
Because you need to be able tohave your head low, hips high,
and you need to be able to staymobile and move.
And you, yeah, and you want,your, you want to stay mobile
and move.
And you, yeah, and you wantyour, you want.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
like, what you see with a lot of these guys is
their feet are kind ofunderneath them.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Yeah, they're not, they're not way back, Not too
far.
Yeah, and, and, and it's theirability to keep their head in
down like back pretty straight.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Because they want to keep a good structure there and
really moving around yeah, likereally being able to move around
there and maintain goodstructural integrity at this
flexed position and for the bestpart, most jiu-jitsu folks they
might try to touch their toes,but it's rare that you'll see
people do a loaded stretch.
So the J curl will have youstanding on a box or a step of
sorts will have you standing ona box or a step of sorts.
(08:01):
You might be holding a smalldumbbell or a light kettlebell
and you're going through thisflexed position, legs straight,
toes on the edge of theelevation whatever it might be
box or step and slowly loweringyourself down through this full
spinal flexion and trying to getas low as you can into that
flexed spot and then workingyour way out with control.
(08:23):
You say hip flexed right Hipflexed like torso close to the
spine, and then yeah, yeah, it'sa, it's a real centerpiece.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
I mean it's, and that that position I mean like all
these positions has also hugeapplication to a bunch of other
jujitsu positions, right, butyeah, specifically in the realm
of passing, I find that again,it's kind of one of those things
where if you don't, if youcan't really go down and like
touch your toes or you know, ifyou, if your range is limited
(08:51):
there, it just takes away a lotof movement options from you
generally.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
And what we know.
Going back to your point beforeabout destabilization as a
precursor to sweeping, you know,like, when you've got someone
in your guard like you'replaying open guard and you can
tell they're really tight in thehips sweet, it's not hard to
knock them off balance.
Yeah, is it?
No, you know, um.
And so, yeah, it fucking buysyou a lot of time, but also,
(09:18):
like, it buys you security to beable to mount your pass or your
defense.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Yeah, and it just sweeps that you think would work
.
If someone's flexible andmobile, they find a way to
balance.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Yeah, and you're like ah, like, when I fucking try to
X guard sweep you, what's goingto happen?
Every time I'm like why thefuck did I do this again, this
again?
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Well, I mean it's.
I mean, this is where we canget into the.
I'll swap it around.
Let's go number.
This was number five.
We'll make it number four,which is front split.
Front split is exceptionallygood as a movement quality for
countering X guard and leg locks.
Now, why do I say this?
I've trained front split sinceI was very young because I did
(10:00):
Taekwondo and it's one of thosethings that has paid dividends
in jujitsu, because if you canrest in a dancer's version like
a dancer's split, where yourback leg is bent I actually
witnessed PJ Bartsch at IEGAusing that as a defense against
single leg, where they're tryingto split your leg, and he's
just based with his back legbent oh wow, and he really uses
(10:21):
that to not which just makes thefront leg super heavy, heavy
and they can't pull it around.
But when, yeah, like if someoneputs you in X guard, whether it
be single X or full, X guardyou can just kind of front split
into that and feel very stable.
But then also, if someone startsto attack your leg and you need
to turn out and throw the nextleg away and turn your hip,
having the flexibility throughyour hips and your hamstrings
(10:41):
actually really helps, yeah, andso that's the thing you can
feel very stable, even though itlooks like your base is very
narrow.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Yeah, and you know I, you know there are a bunch of
choices out there for yourstrength and mobility training,
and when it comes to choosing aprogram, it's really hard to
sift through what's good andwhat's not.
One thing I can guarantee youis that the Bulletproof for BJJ
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prioritize time on the mat,which means you're not spending
(11:10):
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But you also want the biggestreturns in terms of your
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So nothing to wait for.
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see you on the inside.
Well, and that I mean for that,for that x guard thing
specifically.
Um, you the whole idea, right,and I've been working this with
the guys on mondays but thewhole idea.
With the x guard swimsuityou're trying to for the person
attacking, you're trying todrive their weight onto the far
(11:53):
leg and pick that leg up yeah,and and so thereby making the
leg on your shoulder light.
Yeah, but if you drop into afront, split your leg that's on
my shoulder gets fucking heavy.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Yeah, and I'm like I can't sit up with this thing,
you know, and there'sopportunities there where you
can kind of roll the leg overand kind of hip over and pass,
and I've been playing aroundwith that for a long time and
there's lots of opportunitiesthat present.
So, even though you might notthink, oh, I'm not a gymnast,
I'm not a fucking ballerina, whywould I work on my front split
by opening up through thehamstring and opening up through
(12:24):
the hip flexors, it actuallydoes a lot to take a lot of
pressure off your lower back anda lot of people underestimate
that that having tight hipflexors and tight hamstrings
loads up your lower back.
So if you're someone who doesget tight in the lower back and
you're struggling with yourpassing, spending some time
working on that front splitposition, you're struggling with
your passing, spending sometime working on that front split
(12:45):
position.
Now, actually, let's say, frontsplits impossible for you.
What would you say?
Joe is a good halfway step.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Well, let me just add in before that the concept here
that applies to every grappler.
Yes, Because there's going tobe people listening like, well,
that's super advanced, I'm nottrying to do front splits, I
just fucking my hamstrings suck.
Like I'm not fucking with thathere.
Like if you're really bad atmobility, then what you want to
do is get some more range inyour hamstrings, get some more
(13:11):
range in your hip flexors.
Right, this is going to giveyou some.
This is going to help to startopening up your hips Over time
as you get more advanced to that.
The stretches or the drills thatyou did to open up from in that
really tight position, they nowdon't do anything for you Cause
you're actually, you knowyou're getting somewhere.
You position, they now don't doanything for you because you're
actually, you know you'regetting somewhere, you feel good
.
So we've got to up theintensity of these drills.
(13:33):
So when we say front split,we're talking about, like, the
front split being the pinnaclemovement that is an expression
of excellent hamstrings andexcellent hip flexors.
But going back to the other endof the spectrum, your shit at
mobility you can still beworking on the front split, but
just at a very beginner level.
Sure Right, and it's notactually about getting you to a
split.
It's about addressing yourhamstrings and your hip flexors,
Of course.
(13:53):
So to that point I meanJefferson curl, as we mentioned
before, for the flexion, alsogreat for the hammies, right For
a beginner stride stance.
Good morning, yes.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Yes, good morning.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
We got that in all of our programs Elephant walk.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Yeah, elephant walk really good for opening up
through calves and hamstringsand flexing forward.
If you struggle with that, whatabout hip flexors, hip flexors.
So this is actually going tokind of lead me into the next
point Long lunge pulse, I think,is a great one because it's
just really getting you deep andopening up to the hip.
But you're still working there,you're still stabilizing Super
(14:31):
loaded and you can do I forgetthe name, I apologize.
You know the ones we're usingwith the sticks.
You've been doing that for alittle while.
Is it just like a supportedfront split?
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
Yeah, it's where you take that even a step further
and you slide the back leg backand you kick the front leg out,
but you're using, um, twosupports to kind of take the
weight out a little bit.
So it's not as fucking crazilyintense, not as heavy still
awful but but it still allowsyou to develop a degree of um,
uh, familiarity there.
(15:02):
I wouldn't say comfort, it'snot comfortable, but you get
familiar.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Yeah, and just like with any strength work, it's um,
it's.
It's allowing you toprogressively increase the load,
isn't it?
Speaker 1 (15:11):
Yeah, and you take.
You take the weight out of yourhands, you take more of the
load in the hammies and the hipflexors.
But I wanted to go to hipextension because when you're
looking at squashing thesquashing the hooks, someone's
trying to false reap orsomeone's trying to butterfly a
hook and you're looking atsprawling and and really trying
to turn the hip slow, like uh,joseph chen is really good at
(15:34):
this.
You see him going from likedown in a flex position to like
opening up to the chest andreally kicking the hip through.
Yep, squashing the hook,turning the hips.
If you don't have hip extension,you're going to struggle.
Yeah, so if you're someonewho's really tight through quads
and hip flexors from a lot ofguard work, but you haven't done
much of the opening up of thehip, you're not going to be able
(15:55):
to express this dynamic kind ofmovement.
And it's not that it'sunattainable.
You just have to spend a bit oftime opening up through the
front and that's where somethinglike the couch stretch or the
kneeling wall stretch, shin towall, is very helpful, very
effective.
Yeah, absolutely, hanging Cobra,hanging Cobra, definitely, if
you're a bit more advanced youcan get into the hip flexors and
(16:18):
the rest of the spine there,definitely, and I think, even if
you're not someone who'snecessarily familiar with all
these different styles ofpassing, if you just were to
reference a video, say you were.
I want to go have a look at avideo of Joseph Chen passing.
He is doing all of thesemovements.
(16:38):
He won't say to you oh, youneed hip extension or you need
this amount of hamstringflexibility, but you can see the
kids made of like black magicand rubber, like he moves so
well and we want you to see the,the kid's made of like black
magic and rubber like he movesso well, yeah, and we want you
to do the same and it isattainable, but you've got to
kind of come in at certain entrypoints.
And so, when it comes totightness through the front of
(17:00):
the hip, the couch stretch,which is the easiest, most
attainable way to start openingup to the front of the hip,
that's really good and even likea little bit of a if we're
talking about an active exercise, it's like a reverse Nordic
yeah, like to stretch out thequads, stretch out the hip
flexors, but also get the quadslike around the knees working,
(17:22):
yeah, and load them up, and loadthem up.
And so I think, when you lookat all of this, most of the time
people don't think aboutmobility related to guard
passing.
They think about it probablymore around guard and inverting,
but when you look at all thebest guard passes, they move
exceptionally well.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
So you need to be able to think about like um
think about some of thosescrambles that we saw um Cade
Ruotolo and Andrew Tackett atCJI right it was just like two
fucking Panthers, yeah, justyeah.
And like I mean the Ruatolosoften go into a split position.
Yeah, you'll see, like in their, when they're playing because
they're always, almost alwaysplaying on top, they're always
(18:04):
like side splitting, frontsplitting, just because they're
refusing to concede a sweep orwhatever, or a takedown, and
you're like you don't have tohave that capacity.
But you see, with people thatmove like that, ah, like when
there's no restriction on mymovement, there's so many
options.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
And majority of people listening to this will
have a lack of options becauseof a lack of movement capacity.
This is just what happens toour bodies as we get older and
we do a fucking sport likejujitsu.
So unless you're working on it,you're probably you're probably
being held by, you're probablybeing held back by this to a
point.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
Yeah, and you don't realize it until you put a
little bit of time on it andyou're like, oh, that skill is
easier, whereas a lot of thetime I think for the best part
we think, oh, I just suck atthat, oh, that's not for me, and
then look, it's easy, I'm goingback to half guard.
It's easy to fall into thattrap mentally, but for you folks
, definitely you can unlock it.
(19:00):
It's just a matter ofidentifying what is the right
technique for you, putting a bitof work on it and then chipping
away and you will get betterwith the modern day guard
passing.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Well, you know what, just quickly we've been talking
about it.
We've been redesigningstandards.
We have it will be coming outsoon I've been running the level
three standards this week formyself oh nice.
And I've not been doing muchmobility work in the last six
months.
Okay, I've been doing like bareminimum, if that.
And um, the new level threestandards program has two days
(19:31):
dedicated to range oh okay, andthey're short workouts but it's
like it's deep like you're going, you're going to and I'm like,
fuck, I feel so good having hitall five sessions this week.
Nice, I'm like man so good, likeI was doing deep.
I did cossacks yesterday, deepjefferson's.
I did backbend earlier in theweek.
Yeah, it's fucking sick.
So I think for the people thatare already on this tip and been
(19:52):
working on some of our previousstuff, they're going to love
the new release of this.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Awesome.
So there it is, folks.
If you want to unlock thatmobility, check out our new
standards program coming verysoon.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
See you.
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