High Level Attack Chaining

...I forgot about this concept until last week

Good morning to all of you who like to exploit big opportunities.

Today’s email explores a big attack opportunity that people rarely see but is always available.

Here’s a quick summary:

• How I caught a New Wave athlete off guard and how it inspired today’s post (no, I didn’t finish it lol)

• Attacking a single limb is easy and easily defended. Real jiu-jitsu happens when you learn how to sequence your attacks together

• Everything is connected, as are the upper and lower limbs.

  • By the end of this article, you’ll have some great ideas on how to chain upper and lower body attacks together.

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“Wow, good transition… I wasn’t expecting that.”

I was training with a friend of mine from the New Wave team and managed to catch him off-guard with a transition (which he successfully defended).

I was attempting a guard pass, attacked a guillotine. When he successfully defended the guillotine, I chained an attack to his legs getting into a saddle position.

It caught him by surprise. When he defended it, he stopped for a second to comment on that transition.

His comment caught me by surprise.

Up until this point, I had forgotten about the idea of chaining lower body and upper body (and vice-versa). It’s something I do in practice but I probably don’t articulate it as much as I should since, admittedly, I don’t attack the legs as much as I should —which I’m starting to come back to a little more since this training session.

The idea of chaining upper body and lower body was fresh from another context. I don’t remember if it was ADCC or CJI but I do remember one of the coaches yelling to an athlete to keep transitioning from wrist control to the ankles from the guard position.

Essentially, the message was, if you control a wrist and your opponent removes the control, grab an ankle. In other words, if the upper body gets defended, the lower body is exposed.

Below you’ll get some more ideas on chaining upper and lower body together. I’ll start with the idea of control (hands and legs) and work into “wrestling up” because I think the idea of wrestling up from guard offers a HUGE advantage as a guard player (and one I exploit a LOT).

Then I’ll offer a couple of screenshots from some instructionals with Gordon and Nicky Ryan as well as John Danaher highlighting some excellent chains from kimura and front headlock into the legs.

Level up your attack chains now and upgrade if you haven’t already.