Issue 034
For black belt Dino Costeas, a BJJ technique is useless if it doesn’t work in MMA. Below he and his student, pro Muay Thai fighter and BJJ purple belt Said Hatim, demonstrate three Brazilian jiu-jitsu techniques that will work for you when the cage door closes.
1: OPEN GUARD SWEEP ONE
"Back in the day, people liked to close their guard up and wrap their opponent up. But now it’s more about defending the punches and reversing position,” Costeas says. The key thing is always going to be maintaining connection with your opponent and not letting them get a dominant position.
1. Hatim (top) starts punching and Costeas uses a double forearm block, trapping the arms to stop the punches and set up a sweep.
2. Costeas uses a push-pull motion on Hatim’s arms. He pulls in with his hands and pushes out with his shins, against Hatim’s arms. That pushing outwards with the legs and pulling in with the hands is what makes you strong from this open guard position.
3. Costeas transfers one shin to Hatim’s body and uses that to help him cut an angle and get to his side.
4. Costeas only releases his grip on Hatim’s hand when he manages to tuck it underneath his opponent’s own leg, in order to stop Hatim from using that hand to strike. Costeas continues to use his push-pull motion while pulling Hatim’s other hand underneath his own body.
5. Once Costeas has Hatim’s hand hidden, he releases his grip there and grabs a foot. The left shin does a lot of the work in chopping down while he pulls on Hatim’s right arm. Costeas uses his right hand on Hatim’s left foot to help. Costeas takes Hatim over with the sweep and pulls himself up to mount, and kills Hatim’s near-side arm with his own left shin.
6. Costeas then digs in his far-side underhook to keep pressure down on Hatim and to help prevent him from turning in to Costeas to defend and get back to his knees or feet. Costeas uses a Gable grip with his hands to lock up the far-side underhook and head control. From this dominant position, Costeas can start to throw strikes securely.
2: MOUNT ATTACK INTO ARM TRIANGLE CHOKE
“Back in the day people might just punch and swing around for an armbar from the mount but these days fighters are worried about giving up position to go for an armbar from the mount,” Costeas says. Prior to the move below, Costeas uses punches to soften up Hatim and get him to raise his hands in defense. From there, grips Hatim’s arm with two hands, pressing it down to the mat at a 90-degree angle, feigning the americana.
1. Hatim (bottom) turns on his side towards Costeas and reaches with his other arm to defend the shoulder lock. From there, Costeas releases his grip on Hatim’s left arm and walks his hands and arms underneath Hatim’s other arm and head.
2. Costeas once more uses a Gable grip with his hands. He bends down and goes to a knee-on-stomach position to begin applying an arm triangle choke. The reason Costeas stays in the knee-on-stomach position to complete the choke is so he can prevent Hatim from defending the choke by grabbing his own leg.
3.Costeas maintains a solid base from knee-on-stomach and then squeezes with his arms and his head and neck against Hatim’s own arm and neck to get the tap.
Remember: The reduced friction in no-gi grappling makes it easier to escape subs.
3: OPEN GUARD SWEEP TWO
“This is one of those reliably effective techniques that hasn’t changed over the years,” Costeas says. Hatim stands and postures up in Costeas’ guard. As he does, Costeas breaks his own closed guard on his own terms.
1. Costeas first uses a double forearm block to shield himself from punches. Costeas’ knees are pinched together.
2. From there, Costeas puts one foot on Hatim’s hip and pushes away, to create a staggered stance in his opponent and keep him away. His other foot is hooked on Hatim’s near leg.
3. Costeas maintains a blocking posture with a forearm in front of his face to deflect punches. From here, Costeas reaches behind Hatim’s near foot on the heel and pulls the heel off of the mat completely while pushing on Hatim’s hip with his other foot.
4. By pulling his opponent’s heel up completely off of the mat and pushing on the hip, Costeas sweeps Hatim and then gets up to a top position. From there, Costeas uses his own head to press on Hatim’s biceps near his arm pit as well as getting a far-side underhook.
5. This prevents Hatim from going for any type of kimura or shoulder lock from his side. Costeas steps over and slides through Hatim’s half guard and gets to the side, where he uses his own knee and shin to kill Hatim’s near-side arm.
6. From this position Costeas can securely throw strikes down at his opponent.
