A squadron of white belts at the Jiu-Jitsu Pan / Photo: Ivan Trindade/GRACIEMAG.com

Every UFC champion has been through it—dealing with their first amateur competition. Entering a gymnasium awash with Jiu-Jitsu fighters and the deafening ruckus of cheering sections is enough to make you tremble at the knees. When they call you to weigh in, your heart speeds up and the adrenaline dump starts to transform you.

When it’s time to hit the mat—that’s when the pressure builds. Yes, the first time is no walk in the park, we know. But GRACIEMAG.com is always watching out for Jiu-Jitsu fighters, from white belt all the way to success at black. Here are some pointers for you, who are about to stick your neck out in competition.

1. RULE NUMBER 1: IT’S NOT AN OBLIGATION

Participating in a competition gives you butterflies in your stomach, that feeling of being overwhelmed. But ever since your first class, Jiu-Jitsu has taught you to muster up the calm you need to evaluate your best exit route. Don’t put demands on yourself, keep calm, imagine the match is just another roll at the academy, and put what you’ve learned to practice without overthinking things.

2. KNOW THE RULES

Ask your Jiu-Jitsu professor about them, discuss them at the gym, and read up on them on the internet. To win, you need to be up to date on competition rules, which moves are off limits and whatnot.

3. SCORE POINTS, THEN FINISH

When you make it to an advantageous position—like the mount, for instance—, make sure you stabilize it before all else. Firstly, so you don’t go off halfcocked. Secondly, so the ref will award you your points. Attacking right off the bat will put you at risk of losing the position too soon and leave you without precious points.

4. ALWAYS KEEP A MOVE UP YOUR GI SLEEVE

Make an effort to practice move variations. Having two or more options for the same attack, sweep or pass are of the utmost importance. And don’t forget to practice your defenses for the moves.

5. DEFEAT DOESN’T MEAN THE END OF YOUR CAREER

If you’ve never been successful, don’t bow your head in woe. Pick yourself up and seek to correct your mistakes. Have a talk with your Jiu-Jitsu professor, pick up on tips, ask about where you went wrong and what you can do to improve. For sure next competition will go differently.

6. GET CLUED IN TO THIS BASIC DOUBLE ATTACK

When the going gets rough, a double attack may be your saving grace. Pay attention to how important it is to distract the opponent’s attention before applying the choke. Out of concern for his neck, he ends up leaving his arm attack prone.

Bibiano Fernandes (in white) against Jonatas Tagarela at 2006 Worlds. The Amazonas native is now part of a select "team" of 11 Jiu-Jitsu and MMA monsters. Photo: GRACIEMAG.com.

A Jiu-Jitsu champion of the world in 2003, ’05 and ’06, and the Dream bantamweight GP winner in 20011, Bibiano Fernandes is the latest gentle-art ace called up by the UFC. The thick-skinned shorty who swiftly dispatches opponents with double, sometimes triple, attacks already has a date and location for his octagon debut. The bantamweight from the Amazon will be taking on another Jiu-Jitsu whiz in Roland Delorme (8w, 1l) on July 21 at UFC 149, which will unfold in Delorme’s homeland.

Brazil’s “The Flash” is the 11th black belt IBJJF world champion in Jiu-Jitsu to enter the Ultimate Fighting Championship ranks, joining the likes of Amaury Bitetti, Fabio Gurgel, Roberto Traven, João Roque, Marcio Pé de Pano, Murilo Bustamante, Frédson Paixão, Gabriel Napão, BJ Penn and Fabricio Werdum. (Not to mention Sérgio Moraes and Delson “Pé de Chumbo”, who have done battle in the octagon, but only in TUF Brazil, so far.)

In the video below you can get a glimpse of Bibiano, now representing Carlson Gracie Canada, and his multifaceted attack. In less than a minute, he sinks an armbar, goes to the triangle and switches back to the arm. Learn from him, and share your prediction: Who takes it, Bibiano or Delorme, in the UFC this July?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4mhU3cjmYI

Thiago Maia sets up an attack from side-control. Photo: GRACIEMAG.com.

In Jiu-Jitsu there’s a plethora of attack variations from side-control. Thiago Maia, a black belt on SAS team, took the time to demonstrate one of the most effective attacks from the position, exclusively for GRACIEMAG.com readers.

Capitalizing on the opponent slipping up with his arm, he latches on to it and rushes to to position himself over his opponent’s head. From there he can slap on a Kimura or drop back for the armbar.

“The trick is to push his hand towards his back. If you prefer, you can fake going for the Kimura and then stretch out his arm.”

Vitor Belfort celebrates after knocking out Wanderlei at 1998 UFC in São Paulo. Photo: Juca Martins/GRACIEMAG archives.

In the wake of the success of “5 Jiu-Jitsu matches with unforgettable starts,” GRACIEMAG.com follows up with a fistful of MMA classics that had fans spring out of their chairs in the early action.

Revisit the fights and comment after, gentle reader. What’s your favorite start to an MMA fight?

Fabricio Werdum vs Fedor Emelianenko – Strikeforce – 2010

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBK7LT5A9wo

Vitor Belfort vs Wanderlei Silva – UFC 17,5 – 1998

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAGertFgB04

Royce Gracie vs Ken Shamrock – UFC 1 – 1993

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=So_czhvwhT0

Mauricio Shogun vs Quinton Jackson – Pride GP – 2005

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJppfgTIKrM

José Aldo vs Cub Swanson – WEC 41 – 2009

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yms7uXyqDZ4

Renzo Gracie vs Oleg Taktarov – Mars – 1996

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBcwq3e_vfc

Heath Herring vs Yoshihiro Nakao – K-1 Dynamite!!! – 2005

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIYO_Nh2vRc

We’re talking about the double attack, a tactic Clint teaches here as applied to gi Jiu-Jitsu, more specifically the guard pass.

Or better still, it can be a pass or back mount, whatever you (or your opponent) prefer!

In February 2009 GRACIEMAG published the cover story below, unraveling the most important aspects of this position so essential in the rings and on the mat. Check it out, read it and subscribe to GRACIEMAG for more articles like this one, ones that will take your Jiu-Jitsu, and your reading, to a whole new level.

Rilion teaching the guard to students in Miami. Photo: Ray Santana.

Yes, you don’t remember it, but you were born playing guard. If you stopped practicing it for awhile that’s your doing. After all, the position, Jiu-Jitsu fighters’ eternal savior in the ring, has been around for ages. Years. Centuries.

Anyone to peer at the oil-painting masterpiece “Fight at the Cock Inn,” by Francisco Goya, can observe the following scene: a bar fight, Spaniards beating each other with clubs all over the place. At center canvas, a guy seems to have a superior position… passing the guard! Well, you may need a little imagination to see that.

But creativity has always been linked to the guard. In an obscure book, found on the shelves of scholarly Gracie Barra professor Márcio Feitosa, one can read a theory according to which African pigmies, in hand-to-hand combat, valued a technique of maintaining their legs between their ferocious aggressors and their noses. Flailing legs, therefore, have always been one’s salvation.

Goya's 1777 painting is on exhibit at Madrid's Prado Museum.

It was Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, though, that further explored and valued the guard, as an art of defense on the ground and one to even out the weight difference between the aggressor and the aggressed upon. More than judo, sambo or any other art.

But, what about the Japanese? Weren’t they the ones to create the technique? Aren’t there schools that prioritize grappling in judo, the thing they call newaza? Yes, it’s true. So then, we’ll ask a specialist like Carioca Flávio Canto, owner of the most attacking ground game in world judo, his view on the question.

“I think Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is exceptional. Its great contribution to world newaza, and to the guard game, was to align a great number of practitioners with Brazilian creativity. From there the whole array of positions and unprecedented situations, today a mainstay, came to be,” says the Athens-2004 Olympic medalist. “The spider-guard, for example, I’d never seen before anywhere, it’s a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu thing. Another positive aspect of the art is to land playing guard and always facing your adversary, after all no one has eyes in the back of their head. That’s the reflex missing for a lot of judokas and wrestlers.”

Stone by stone, the ramparts

When he entered port in Brazil in the 20th century, Japanese master Count Koma didn’t just bring with him an effective leg game, steadfastly learned by Carlos Gracie. He also taught oriental lessons of discipline, health and honor that abide in the family’s history forever. Seeking to spread the art he benefited so greatly from, Carlos began to make history – and to himself scribe the history of the guard. “He was the first westerner to overcome an eastern champion, in 1924, at a time when Japanese thought westerners to be a bunch of degenerates,” recalls son Rilion Gracie, considered to have the best guard in the family. It was against Geo Omori, when the grandmaster pulled guard and applied a tomoe-nage, the ever-popular “circle sweep,” and landed in the mount. So the Gracie popped the arm of the valiant Japanese, who ordered the fight to continue with the ligaments of his arm in shreds.

Later on, in 1951, when brother Helio Gracie closed his guard and, with his wrists (powerful to this day), put extraordinary judoka Jukio Kato to sleep, with a collar choke, the art of the guard came to eminence. And ready for further development, thanks to the ingenuity and sweat of other Gracies, Barretos, Hemetérios, Machados, Vígios, Gomes, Behrings, Alves’, Virgílios, Duartes, Penhas, Jucás, Castello Brancos, Góes’, Vieras, Santos’ and Silvas. And even a Stambowsky. Every new faithful adept at the guard went adding their contributions, depositing a stone here, spreading cement there, and helping to build the guard’s reputation as being the essence of Jiu-Jitsu.

The metaphor of building, in fact, is no gratuity. To Carlos Gracie Jr., the guard position is like a fortress providing the fighter security. You don’t necessarily lose a war just for not having solid ramparts, but it certainly helps. Including for, from atop them, posting your arsenal of attacks: “The guard is the Jiu-Jitsu fighter’s fortress. You choose whether to fight with it open or closed,” he teaches.

“In a war, what’s the most intelligent thing you can do? Start the war with your gates closed. In the closed guard, you are waging war with your enemy from within your walls. If the guy opens your closed guard, he knocks down your drawbridge. It’s a threshold position, which obviously demands a new strategy. If he invades, or in other words, passes your guard and makes it to your side, the battle starts to unfold within your domain, with you much more exposed. It becomes complicated, you’ll need to use thrice the strength to defend yourself, but that doesn’t mean there’s no way out.”

The shield becomes a weapon

In Rio during the 1950’s, Jiu-Jitsu was already famous for giving any old little guy the chance to be his own fortress. Thus, it was Carlson Gracie’s time to add his contribution to the guard – first during his days as a fighter, then with his students. Competitive to the extreme, Carlson would have his students specialize, to win championships. Those were the days when he would bellow: “You’re either a guard player, or a passer.”Should a reader inquire as to who were some of his best pupils, four good guard players surely make the list: Cássio Cardoso, Ricardo de la Riva, Sergio “Bolão” Souza and Murilo Bustamante.

“There’s a myth Carlson only trained guard passers. But besides De la Riva, he had another student, Marcelo Duque Estrada, the Octopus-Man, now a judge, who had an incredibly elastic guard,” comments red and black belt Master Redley Vigio. “Cássio Cardoso, for example, was good all around. But his guard really left an impression: all Jiu-Jitsu students should watch his one-hour fight with Marcelo Behring, from1988. Marcelo too had a phenomenal guard, and the end is sensational; it’s all on Youtube.”

Both big for those days, at around 76kg, Cássio had in the Rickson Gracie student his greatest rival, and the one-hour battle between the two was their decisive bout, held in Lagoa, Rio de Janeiro. “Carlson told me to pull guard and tire him out. I even used a sweep I learned from Marcio Macarrão, but at the time it didn’t count on the score. In the end, I passed his guard three times and he passed mine once, 6 to 2 on the scorecards at the time. Today, it would be more like 21 to 5,” Cássio, 46, comments.

Up until 1994, it was not enough for the fighter on the bottom to reverse the fight and land on top to earn points from the sweep – he had to do it using recognized moves, like the tomoe-nage, or foot-on-crotch, or the classic scissor. With the reform of the rules, proposed by the newly-inaugurated Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Confederation, all guard players had to do was pass and go on top to score points. Now they were given their due prestige. And were ready to surprise.

“The guard, which up until 1994 had been a shield, became a weapon and could decide the fight. I remember having seen in the gym, in 1987, Renzo Gracie playing spider-guard for the first time. As he was a guy with a lot of resources, he didn’t use it much in competition. Me, being skinny, I loved the invention and surprised a lot of people with it,” recalls Vinicius “Draculino” Magalhães, 37. The guard player show was taking off. The same year, with his confusing outer hook placed with his broad and ductile foot, Ricardo de la Riva managed to stop the impetus of the practically unbeatable Royler Gracie, and gained a guard named after him. Now Sérgio Bolão, with a peculiar guard (lying, with a knee drawn back at the bend in the adversary’s elbow, while the other leg would remain free to stand up; the sleeve was held on the bent knee’s side, and the other grip was placed at the knee, creating a pendulum and sweeping to the side of the knee pulled back), he made history and, in good cheer, inspired a generation of sweepers.

With a “bunk knee,” as he remembers it, Roberto “Gordo” Corrêa was obliged to improvise and also made his mark on the art. “The half-guard, which until then could be considered a position favoring the athlete on top, almost as good to attack as having side control, is today the perfect position for the guy on bottom to attack from. There’s no two ways about it, Jiu-Jitsu carries on in sheer evolution,” Carlinhos Gracie observes.

Stiff legs? That’s fine, you, too, can be a great guard player

It’s tough talking about the position’s evolution without citing two other out-of-the-ordinary fighters. Roberto “Roleta” Magalhães, the engineer of the sweeps, influenced a generation with new moves, unlikely traps that would lay waste to, in World Championships, aces of several generations – from Wallid Ismail (1996) to Zé Mario Sperry (1998), to Amaury Bitetti (1999) to Fernando Margarida (2000). Not without cause, the three owners of the most admired guards in present day – Rubens Cobrinha, Bráulio Estima and Roger Gracie – consider him, Roleta, the best they’ve ever watched fight. Another extraordinary guard player, with surreal finishes, was Antonio “Nino” Schembri, who also breathed a new rhythm into attacking Jiu-Jitsu – in this case, his idol Elvis Presley’s rock-and-roll.

Malleable, with strong and flexible legs, the duo from Gracie Barra helped reinforce the myth that an effective guard is elastic, almost magical. Not necessarily so. The referee in the battle between Roleta and Wallid, at the 1996 Worlds, policeman Sergio Ignácio was fed up training with the best guards at Gracie Barra. A passer of the best kind, strong, adept at the squashing game, he ran into a dilemma at brown belt: “I either learned to play guard, or Carlinhos wouldn’t promote me to black belt. That’s when I revealed my problem to Renzo, and he provided me the way off the plateau that dispelled my fear of playing guard: good guard replacement doesn’t demand elasticity, flexibility in spreading the legs – all you need is to not let the guy past the line of your knee. This lesson makes it a lot easier to replace.”

Sergio Ignácio didn’t just learn to play on bottom, but earned his black belt. The sensibility Renzo demonstrated, though, is an attribute one can develop as a guard player, in figuring out what works for his or her self. What most unleashes this sensibility, of course, is flight time in the gym. But there are shortcuts. “Jiu-Jitsu is body and mind,” Redley Vigio conveys. “When training, you use mostly your body. That’s why it’s fundamental that one converse after training, and take notes – even if just mental ones. It’s when you ask your training partners: ‘At that moment were you trying this, when I blocked you? Or was that what you were trying for?’ It’s when you go over the positions in your head and draw on your instinct and sensibility.”

Starting there, your guard will begin to gain wings. As revealed by Bráulio “Carcará” Estima: “When I attack, I do it from back to front. First I block my adversary’s defenses for my attack, and only then do I go for the fatal assault. They’re tiny adjustments. The first thing is to break your opponent’s posture. Then I work on him and try to annul his defense, before actually attacking. Thus, if I attack with a triangle but the guy defends, an arm ends up hanging out. These days, a good guard player is not one who defends his adversary’s best pass, but one who doesn’t even let his adversary begin to go for his best pass. You can’t let him develop his best game. That’s what being one step ahead is.”

For you to arrive at an advanced stage, though, never forget to build a solid foundation, for your ramparts not to crumble: “Anyone wishing to have a good guard should learn and practice all phases of the guard,” says Fabio Gurgel, leader of Alliance. “First closed, with the adversary on his knees, then with him standing; after that the classic foot-on-crotch guard and its variations. Insist on the basics, as later your body type and style of game will surely define what’s ideal for you.” There you have it, now you are ready to flail your legs, this time doing it with class.

GRACIEMAG.com contacted the Strikeforce star to find out how his recovery from a recent injury is going, and how he recently celebrated his… two birthdays.

“My father’s a military man,” laughs Werdum, recalling the story (first published in GRACIEMAG #98), “So despite my having been born on July 30, 1997, he only registered me on August 24, because it’s a commemorative date for the Brazilian army. My birth certificate says I was born on August 24, but I was born in July! He really did that! If I were to count both my birthdays, I’m 66 years old! So I only celebrate the one in July. The problem was when I’d go to the pizzeria I had to explain my birthday was a problem. To take my friends and not pay my part of the bill, I had to go again on August 24! It made things somewhat complicated, these days I don’t explain that much and just go by the date on my ID.”

Submitting Fedor. Photo: Esther Lin

Check out the conversation with the GRACIEMAG cover fighter:

What did you think of Anderson’s triangle (against Chael Sonnen) at UFC 117, where he also won with a double attack from the triangle? Who has the better triangle, him or you?

(Laughs). You guys are too much! I saw that Anderson, too, adjusted the triangle with his hand on his shin. Everyone saw that I used the double attack, varying between triangle and armbar. So now, for what my win is worth, everyone is aware of the effectiveness of this attack. I feel I motivated folks to do the position.

What happened  in your encounter with Oscar-winning actor Forest Whitaker after your win at Strikeforce?

He was there to watch my fight with Fedor and then went to visit me in the dressing room. I gave him one of my T-shirts; I was really happy because I’m a fan of his. He told me he really liked my fight, that he knew Fedor was favored to win. He celebrated there with us. A friend of mine shouted, “Werdum time,” then we sang “Forrest time” for him and he jumped around with us. It was really cool. He was surprised by my win, congratulated me.

How is your recovery from the operation on your arm coming?

Recovery is going great. I operated with one of the best specialists and I’m already driving and everything. I do more than two hours of physiotherapy per day. It was no simple procedure; I had to have seven holes drilled in my arm to get out all the detritus. But the doctor did such a good job I didn’t feel any pain. It always hurts a lot after surgery. With this one I didn’t even take painkillers. The doctor gave me a prescription, but I didn’t even need it.

Photo: Esther Lin

Readers who have already gotten their hands on GRACIEMAG 161 have a number of lessons at their disposal. To provide another one to web surfers, what’s the trick to squeezing out the triangle, especially against a fighter of Fedor’s caliber?

The trick to the triangle in MMA? Man, first, if you check out my MMA fight’s you’ll notice that I get hit a lot on the bottom. I even say in seminars not to close the guard. The progressive guard we do these days, with the details we assimilate, facilitates the triangle and the omoplata, among other things. The thing with the triangle is to keep your foot on the guy’s crotch to control his distance. In closing, put your hand on your shin, which helps not to slip. A lot of people don’t do that, but it’s what gives you time to adjust the triangle in the end.

I want to thank GRACIEMAG for the support it gave me. I made the cover of GRACIEMAG and NOCAUTE, everything! I want to thank you guys a lot. I’m going to frame those covers and put them on the wall at my gym for the gang to see. Thanks a bunch!

Big John disarms the triangle as soon as Werdum is finished with Emelianenko. Photo: Mike Colón

If Fabricio Werdum made history with his double attack on Fedor, last Saturday Anderson Silva proved the tactic is useful in the UFC, so it’s due time you understand this concept so important in Jiu-Jitsu.

To get the double attack down pat you need to draw your opponent into your trap of choice, no matter what situation you find yourself in during the fight – yes, because the double attack works standing, too.

And that’s what you’ll learn in this month’s GRACIEMAG, on its way to bookstores throughout the United States!

Check it out, learn, practice and comment here on GRACIEMAG.com.

Subscribe here.

To order individual issues, click here.

Werdum lifted up by trainer Rafael Cordeiro. Photo: Mike Colón

Inspired by Fabricio Werdum’s sensational win over Fedor, this month’s issue of GRACIEMAG endeavors to teach you once and for all to get the submission according to what your opponent offers.

To always have your plan B in a fight, one must first understand the concept of the “double attack,” the topic of a special GRACIEMAG report. Don’t miss it!

As a bonus, here’s a double attack to learn from our GMA Felipe Zicro of Alliance Tallahassee, a well-taught submission on a rainy Florida day.

Get your GRACIEMAG subscription here.