Grapplearts: An Unfair Advantage: Unorthodox Positions

[Stephan Kesting]

Hi there

I've said before are six major positions in Brazilian jiu-jitsu:

1. Guard (including closed, open and half guard)
2. Sidemount,
3. Kneemount,
4. Full mount,
5. Rear mount,
6. Turtle.

These are the bread and butter positions. Everyone who grapples
should have a good idea of how to maintain these positions, attack
from these positions, and escape from these positions.

That being said, I think it's also a great idea to sometimes go and
explore other less-well-known positions.

The topic of unusual positions has been on my mind for the last couple
of weeks, because I was getting ready to teach a seminar called
"Unorthodox Positions and Attacks" at Dynamic MMA last weekend.

Since I've never before taught this as a distinct topic, I spent a
fair bit of time organizing the techniques and strategies I use in
these types of positions. I wanted a coherent and teachable
curriculum.

Some people will say that you don't need to go beyond the basic six
positions. Other positions - they argue - are merely novelties that
distract you from perfecting the basics.

Now I completely agree that perfecting the basics is important -
that's a no brainer. But I also believe that there are at least three
important reasons to study positions that aren't part of regular,
normal, day-to-day Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

First of all, it's a HUGE advantage to pin an opponent in a position
that he's never seen before. Because he's unfamiliar with the
position, odds are that he won't know the right way to escape and that
he'll do something stupid, thus giving you the submission. The best
part here is that he'll never see the submission coming.

Secondly, being familiar with an odd position is invaluable if YOU get
caught in it yourself. If someone puts you into an offside kesa
gatame hold then hopefully you've been there before, and have some
idea of what to do (and what not to do). We are most scared of things
we don't understand.

Thirdly, you could end up in these unorthodox positions by accident.
Strange and convoluted positions happen all the time in grappling.
Having a large variety of positions in your grappling rolodex helps
you when you end up in something really weird. It's a huge comfort
whenever you're able to relax and remind yourself that you've already
been in similar positions.

In the next few posts we'll take a look at some of my favorite
unorthodox positions, and see how they can be used to give you an
unfair advantage in submission grappling and Brazilian Jiu-jitsu.

Stephan Kesting
www.grapplearts.com