Pedro Mello in absolute final at 2012 South Brazilian Championship / Photo by Ivan Trindade/GRACIEMAG

Pedro Mello, a professor at Gracie Floripa, is calling on one and all to stop in at his Southern Brazilian academy. But first he wants to teach the following sweep that he always pulls off at championships;

It starts from open guard and from there things just get worse for his opponents, as he demonstrates. Keep an eye on his grips and the right moment to get on top.

What do you make of it?

Bantamweight Bibiano Fernandes on bottom against Gustavo Falciroli in One FC 5 main event / Photo: ONE Fighting Championship

A little guy with a massive arsenal of techniques, Bibiano Fernandes, 32, was overjoyed after winning a unanimous decision over his countryman Gustavo Falciroli in the One FC 5 main event last August 31 in the Philippines.

Besides a round of applause from the crowd and the promoters, the Amazonas State native got a hearty embrace from his old black belt chums Renzo, Rolls, Igor, Gregor and Roger Gracie. “Renzo caught up with me and said that I’m one of the most beloved Jiu-Jitsu guys around, that there isn’t anyone who doesn’t like me… Can you imagine that?” said the three-time World Championship-winning light featherweight (2003/05/06) with a chuckle.

In a conversation with Roger, Bibiano was asked about a special move he used early on in the third round, when “The Flash” got hit with a takedown and, woosh, he materialized on his opponent’s back. Check out the move, starting at 16:30 in the following video.

“I explained to Roger that I learned that one in wrestling training in Canada. I plant my foot and pretend I’m falling, and the guy thinks he’s taken me down. But I have a hook in his leg. So I spin over him and land on his back. It’s really efficient,” explained the champ.

What about you, do you feel the move is useful?

Hannette celebrates winning her seventh World Championship, in 2011. Photo by Ivan Trindade/GRACIEMAG.com.

Our GMA and one of the leaders of the Chicago chapter of team Brazil 021, black belt Hannette Staack will be teaching a seminar at RCJ Machado academy in Dallas, Texas.

The class is exclusively for women and costs 50 dollars.

For further information, email info@fenomkimonos.com.

As an appetizer, check out the video from the 2011 Pan below. You’ll learn to get the takedown, pass guard and mount with plenty of self-control. After that you’ll see how Hannette finishes with a choke from the mount.

Note how she buries one hand in the collar first before clutching the neck and squeezing for the tapout.

Note how he takes the hooks out of play and gets his opponent sideways before blocking his arms and making it to side-control.

Erick Silva flattened and choked out Charlie Brenneman yesterday in Florida at UFC on FX 3. Photo: Josh Hedges/Zuffa.

There were two submissions at last night’s UFC on FX 3, and both were rear-naked chokes. The one earning “Submission of the Night” honors was former soccer player Erick Silva’s on Charlie Brenneman, earning him a first-round win and a 40,000-greenback bonus for displaying the most efficient Jiu-Jitsu of the night.

Executing a rear-naked choke like Erick does may seem simple but there are some tricks of the trade involved. GRACIEMAG.com put together a list of just some of them. Got any of your own?

1. HOOKS, ONE AT A TIME

According to Jiu-Jitsu black belt Ricardo “Cachorrão” Almeida, one of the most common mistakes in launching a back attack comes when sticking in the hooks; that is, placing your feet between the opponent’s legs. “I see a lot of blue belts losing the position by trying to get both hooks in at once. The right thing to do is pull the opponent on top of you and put one hook in at a time,” expounded the Jiu-Jitsu professor living in New Jersey. That was precisely what Erick did, and one by one he sunk his hooks before ultimately arriving at the decisive chokehold.

2. DON’T CROSS YOUR FEET

You can fasten your legs around your opponent’s waist with a figure-four—it works well for some. But when it comes to open hooks, don’t cross your feet. Dig your hooks into your opponent’s thighs; that way when he tries to turn, you turn with him and maintain the pressure.

3. HEAD

When teaching how to get a choke from back control at his New York academy, Renzo Gracie puts it like this: “Always get your head right up against your opponent’s ear, as though whispering a secret to him.” That way you shore up the hold and leave no wriggle room. Heed how Erick closed the gap with his head before applying the final squeeze.

4. ELBOWS ALWAYS TOGETHER IN JIU-JITSU

When setting up the hold, bring your elbows together and pull them to you, at your opponent’s belly. Don’t exert all your strength at once or you’ll tire.

5. REAR-NAKED CHOKE ARM PLACEMENT

To Marcelo Garcia, the big secret to the rear-naked choke is in being flush up around the opponent’s neck. “I don’t even need to squeeze too hard. If I’m coiled around the neck there’s no escape, and the pressure’s enough to make him desperate and tap out,” the submission wizard explained.

UFC on FX 3
SUNRISE, FLORIDA
JUNE 8, 2012

Sean Pierson defeated Jake Hecht via unanimous decision
Henry Martinez defeated Bernardo Magalhaes via split decision
Buddy Roberts defeated Caio Magalhães via unanimous decision
Tim Means defeated Justin Salas via technical knockout at 1:06 min of R1
Dustin Pague subbed Jared Papazian via rear-naked choke at 3:21 of R1
Matt Grice defeated Leonard Garcia via unanimous decision
Seth Baczynski defeated Lance Benoist via split decision
Mike Pierce defeated Carlos Eduardo Rocha via split decision
Eddie Wineland knocked out Scott Jorgensen at 4:10 min of R2
Mike Pyle knocked out Josh Neer at 4:56 min of R1
Erick Silva subbed Charlie Brenneman at 4:33 min of R1
Demetrious Johnson defeated Ian McCall via unaninmous decision

Bonuses (40,000 dollars):

* Fight of the Night: Eddie Wineland vs Scott Jorgensen
* Knockout of the Night: Mike Pyle
* Submission of the Night: Erick Silva

To help him further improve, Lucas Leite received a copy of GRACIEMAG as a prize upon winning the WPJJC tryouts in NY. Photo: personal archive.

The black belt Lucas Leite snapped up one of the free travel packages up for grabs for the the April World Professional Jiu-Jitsu Championship (WPJJC) in Abu Dhabi, overcoming five opponents last Sunday at the event tryouts in New York. Following the achievement, he had a word with GRACIEMAG.com.

“My performance came down to the training I did with my partners Pancho, Lapela, João Assis, Bochecha, Sharpei, Yuri and all my students. Not a lot of people know it, but we have same hard core training going at CheckMat here in California,” he said.

Every good competitor knows how each match, besides the adrenaline, brings worthwhile lessons. The current world middleweight runner-up and No-Gi world champion derived his own. “You know, all the belt is for is to tie your gi up, because the browns are just as tough as the black belts.”

BACK-TAKE JIU-JITSU ROUND ROBIN

The bearer of a frenetic game, Lucas is big on launching assaults from his opponents’ backs, and he didn’t hid his hand when GRACIEMAG.com asked him to teach readers how to get good at this aspect of the grappling game.

“To get good at attacking from the back you should do lots of round-robin back-training sessions. It’s like specific training; you start body clinching your opponent on all fours, and you only switch positions once you’ve gotten your hooks in.”

The black belt also pointed out something else that made a major difference in his career. “The watershed for me was when I swapped the São Paulo nightlife for professional training. People think it’s easy to say no to parties and night clubs, especially when you’re 21 years old, but therein lies the secret. If you want to stand out you have to forsake a lot of things. But that’s one’s personal choice,” he reflected.

Now learn from Lucas Leite in practice, in one of his matches from the New York tryouts for the April WPJJC event in Abu Dhabi.

A scene from 2011 Jiu-Jitsu World Championship, Kyra Gracie attacks effectively from back control. GRACIEMAG archive photo.

Carnival in Brazil has drawn to a close. While many spent the days reveling in merriment, others took the off time to rest or keep up the pace in training in preparation for upcoming competitions, like the fledgling San Francisco Open or the Chicago Winter Open, on February 26 and March 3, respectively.

And GRACIEMAG.com too kept the ball rolling, but in teaching the gentle art. Today, we bring you a back-mount escape position to add to your game.

NEVER TURN YOUR HEAD TO THE SIDE OF THE LAPEL PULLED ACROSS YOUR NECK

In the video, SAS team’s Thiago Maia shows how important it is to defend your neck and never look in the direction of the lapel that’s bothering you, as well as to bare your weight backwards and remove one of the hooks. That done, you can slide out your hip to the side of the remaining hook and remove it.

What’s more, he teaches how further along you can even take your opponent’s back and finish with a calf crunch.

Bruno Frazatto attacking from back control in sport Jiu-Jitsu / Photo de Ivan Trindade

Another European Jiu-Jitsu Championship comes to a close, and yet again the most oft-used finishes were chokes from back mount, as basic as they are effective.

If you’re into mixing it up in competition, it’s worth keeping in mind that getting back mount is worth four points in sport Jiu-Jitsu—that is, when an athlete puts both hooks in at the opponent’s thights after gaining back control.

The basic escape for this recurring technique is well known. You have to protect your neck, bridge backwards and remove one of the hooks, slipping your hip out to the side where the hook was removed.

What about when it goes wrong?

GRACIEMAG.com took the back of three wizards of the gi, who were swift in intercepting the attack, and they asserted: nothing is more vital than to defend the neck with care.

Check out how they go about doing that:

1. SIMULTANEOUS MOVES ARE A SALVATION IN JIU-JITSU

“My pointer for you,” Vinicius Cruz (Carlson Gracie) begins, “is to move your arm, the arm of the hand on the side of the hand holding your collar for the choke, to the other side of the neck. At the same time, you need to remove the hook with your other hand, keeping in mind that you have to bare the weight of your hip down on the opponent’s leg, and creep your back out to the side.”

2. EVEN WHEN DEFENDING, MAKE YOUR OPPONENT UNCOMFORTABLE

“The important thing is to cause your opponent discomfort by baring your weight back on him, never letting him feel at ease. And defend your neck the whole time. Then it’s all about getting one of the hooks out and trying to flounder out,” recommends Thiago Maia (SAS-Ceará).

3. DON’T TURN YOUR NECK IN AGAINST THE LAPEL

To wrap up, Abraão Amorim (Evolution) put together a video showing how he escapes back control. He recommends never turning your neck towards the lapel pressing against it, and shows a hip move often used by Kron Gracie.