I thought I’d point out that one of the things common in the power shrimp, side shrimp, and power bridge is the fact that both in the beginning of the movement and throughout the movement your heels/heel stay off the ground. This provides the foundation for power by enabling you to maximally push off your feet and get as extensive range of motion as possible.
Go try to do shrimps, side shrimps and bridges first with your heels/heel on the ground and then with your heels/heel off the ground and I’ll promise that you’ll feel the difference for yourself.
A third fundamental movement in BJJ is the bridge. Everybody knows how to do the basic bridge (if you don’t, look here), but in my experience not many people seem to appreciate that there are things you can do in order to make your bridges a lot more powerful. Now, you can’t really power bridge while trying to create space underneath mount (because it leaves you out of posture) or while trying to create space in half-guard (because you just can’t use your legs like that), but you can and should power bridge while trying to create space underneath side control.
Power Bridge
1. Walk your heels as close to your butt as possible (heels off the ground!) and lift your hips up so that there’s no space between your lower abdomen your opponents chest.
2. Bridge explosively over the near shoulder into your opponent!
Here’s a demonstration by Marcelo Garcia:
It doesn’t really matter whether you have an underhook or a frame under the throat. It works exactly the same way in both cases. Follow this up with some side shrimping and you’ll have pulled guard or come to your knees in no time.
Enjoy!
P.S There’s a lot of talk in the Youtube commentary of Garcia’s clip about how people get mounted when they try this.This shouldn’t happen. The key is to walk your heels to your butt and lift your hips off the ground so that you’re glued to your opponent. If you do this, then in order to mount you your opponent needs to create some separation between his/her body and yours, and as soon as (s)he does that you should be able to sink your hips and pull guard.
Another fundamental movement in BJJ is the side shrimp. While the regular shrimp is necessary for escaping mount and retaining guard, the side shrimp is essential for escaping side control. Nevertheless, for some reason it isn’t really taught all that often (apart by those who’ve trained with people from SBG, or Rickson or his students, as I hear…). It just might be that the trade secret Ryan Hall has replaced the shrimp with is the side shrimp, given the influence of Rickson and all, but we’ll never really know until he tells us. In any case, here’s how to do it:
Side Shrimps
Start from the Corpse Position (both shoulders and both hips on the ground = you’re dead).
One, post a leg (heel off the ground!), push off of it and move your hips sideways, trying to get on one cheek; two, pull your near shoulder back, trying to get on one shoulder.
Again, one, move your hips a bit more, two, pull your near shoulder back more.
Repeat until you are in the Fetus Position (on one hip, on one shoulder = you’re about to be born).
The key to the movement is maintaining a one-two rhythm in moving your hips sideways and pulling your shoulder back.
Here’s a video of my students Vince and Seth demonstrating a good basic partner drill that helps one to learn how to do side shrimps:
After doing this drill for a while, you should be able to do side shrimps on your own. In future posts I will cover how to incorporate them into side control escapes.
One of the fundamental body movements in BJJ is the basic backwards hip movement known as the shrimp. I’ve found that the way shrimps are usually done and taught leads to lazy shrimping and poor bodymechanics over time. I therefore do and teach shrimps a bit differently, emphasizing power, full hip movement, and control over one’s body.
Power Shrimps
Push off both of your feet (heels off the ground!) and lift your hips off the ground. (Provides the foundation for power)
Turn on your shoulders and move your hip to the same line as your shoulders are. (Emphasizes full hip movement)
Keep your hips off the ground for a moment and maintain the position. (Teaches control over one’s body)
Return to, or move into the starting position.
Here are two videos of my student Seth demonstrating power shrimps without and with movement:
Now, to avoid confusion and internet battles, I don’t think that one should always use power shrimps while escaping the mount or trying to retain guard. This won’t happen and it is not necessary. Rather, I think that power shrimps are a great tool to practice shrimping on one’s own and the best tool for getting beginners to move their hips correctly and with power as fast as possible.
Here’s an instructional clip by Martin Aedma on guardwrestling or pressurepassing the guard. He shows the style of guard passing many competitive black belts use (but no one teaches…) and explains the principles behind it. It is one of my goals this year to get good at passing like this.
The clip was shot by Christian Graugart of Zhoozhitsu do Graugardo for his blog during our summercamp this year. Thanks go out to him.
Here’s an instructional clip by Jorgen Matsi on the elbow knee escape. He shows some really crucial details on proper posture, explains the escape, shows a nifty detail, and gives ideas for drilling it:
Warming up is important in getting you both mentally and physically ready for training. If done well, it should lead to:
a raise of pulse
an increase in body, muscle and blood temperature
an increase in the range of motion around key joints
certain beneficial hormonal changes
becoming mentally focused on the training that is to follow
In my opinion it is therefore best to avoid the extremes of either doing a hardcore 30-minute conditioning session or not warming up at all/light rolling. Doing the former can drain you of the energy you need for training and fails to prepare you mentally for what’s to come while doing the latter doesn’t really prepare you for anything at all and makes you more prone to injuries.
Here’s the warmup I’ve been using with small modifications here and there for 3-4 years now both myself and at the beginning of my classes. It is based on Martin Rooney’s warmup routine in Training for Warriors with extra things thrown in that I’ve picked up from here and there. It should take about 15-20 min. and should get you slightly sweating (the links are provided just to give a very general idea what the exercises look like):
Running (Forward, Right Side Run, Left Side Run, Backwards) + 50 Pogo Jumps ~ 4-5 min.
