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Stephan Kesting has been practicing mixed martial arts for 24 years, starting in Judo when he was 12. Since that time he has trained with some of the foremost instructors in North America, including Dan Inosanto, Marcus Soares, Erik Paulson, Philip 'Sled Dog' Gelinas, and many others. He trains at various mixed martial arts gyms in Vancouver BC and currently goes to Marcus Soares where he trains with top ten middleweights in the world Denis Kang from the Pride Bushido organization. Every second week Stephan puts out a Grapplearts newsletter for beginners, novices and experts in the world or submission wrestling, jujitsu and MMA.

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Aug 11, 2008
A Jiu-jitsu Secret
OK, draw the curtains, turn down the lights, turn off your recording devices and come closer. I want to share a principle with you that Marc Laimon calls "one of the secrets of jiu-jitsu"...read more

Aug 1, 2008
Refusing to Concede the Sweep
I trained with Denis Kang (www.deniskang.com) for the first five or six years of his MMA career. At some point during that time he became very, very difficult to sweep...read more

July 22, 2008
Jiu-Jitsu, A Game of Inches
One of my favorite expressions is that "jiu-jitsu is a game of inches". Sometimes a whole match can be decided by the battle to move your hand one inch forward...read more

July 3, 2008
Paulson's Podcast, and Slumps vs. Plateaus
My friend and coach Erik Paulson was recently featured on the MMA Podcast Carson's Corner. It is a very interesting interview in which he candidly discusses his recent (triumphant) return to the ring, why he wasn't allowed to compete in the early UFC, and coaching such fighters as Ken Shamrock and Josh Barnett...read more

June 7, 2008
A Glossary of Guard Positions
When it comes variations of the guard position grapplers tend to fall into one of two categories: 'lumpers' and 'splitters'...read more

May 26, 2008
The Stiff Arm in Grappling
The stiff arm on the Heisman Trophy is an iconic posture in football, and it is used by players in every single game (e.g. http://tinyurl.com/4txowv). In Brazilian jiu-jitsu, however, the stiff arm has a bit of a bad rap...read more

May 13, 2008
Half Guard, Half Guard and More Half Guard
When fighting from my half guard I often recall something that Chris Brennan told me: "one of the secrets of the half guard is to bring your knees to your chest". This advice, simple as it is, can add a whole other dimension to your half guard attacks...read more

May 3, 2008
Podcasts and Smart Recovery
I recently had a great discussion with Dan and Caleb from The Fightwork's Podcast about the role of leglocks in Brazilian jiu- jitsu. We discussed a lot of things leglock, including how to train them safely, how to use them to help augment your guard passing game, and how their role has changed and evolved within the sport...read more

April 14, 2008
Leglocks, Congratulations & Problem Solving
I'm delighted that Oleg Taktarov recently stepped back into the cage and defeated Mark Kerr with a kneebar, which has always been one of Oleg's signature moves...read more

April 3, 2008
Persistence and Adaptation
I recently came across a great quote on marketing by Seth Godin, but it is equally true for grappling training: "Persistence isn't using the same tactics over and over. That's just annoying. Persistence is having the same goal over and over."...read more

March 23, 2008
The Art of the Tap
Many Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and submission grappling students look down on tapping to your opponent. Surely, it signals submission. Some see that submission as losing- a loss of face, a diminishment of your stature in your academy hierarchy, proof that the person you just wrestled is "better than you."...read more

March 17, 2008
Leglocks and a Pinch in Time
Grappling uses muscles that don't normally get a lot of attention in the gym. As evidence of this I'll point to the muscle soreness in unexpected places that otherwise fit people experience when they grapple hard for the first time...read more

March 11, 2008
Senior Brazilian Jui Jitsu Fighters
Stephan's note: todays's tip is brought to you a guest columnist, my friend Don Whitefield (www.jiujitsulife.com). It is good advice for the older BJJ player, but if young punks were to adopt some of the advice I guarantee they'd get better faster...read more

February 23, 2008
Game Building, Injuries (again) and Three Times a Week
Thanks to all those readers who submitted their favorite action grappling photos last week! I encourage other readers to send in their own favorites and sharing them with the grappling world by going to the bottom of the page at:...read more

February 18, 2008
Survival, Photos, Sitting and Injury Feedback
An anonymous person contacted me recently and shared a story of how a female friend of theirs had used a few months of BJJ training to escape from an assault and/or attempted rape situation. Using BJJ she managed to escape a pin, stand up and then run away and get help. She probably just used very basic pin escape movements...read more

February 5, 2008
The Spanish Inquisition and Always Injured
Q: "I'm in my forties and and started MMA training a few years ago. Since then I have had many injuries including a shattered elbow, a torn knee, separations in both shoulders, and many, many more minor injuries. A sane person would stop training MMA, but i just can't give it up...read more

January 28, 2008
Jiu-jitsu and Physical Attributes
Physical attributes are things like balance, neck strength, limb length, explosiveness, leg flexibility, and percent body fat. Your physical attributes are the foundation of what you can do with your body, and are influenced by genetics, training, age and injuries...read more

January 16, 2008
Training with Erik Paulson
Last weekend I got to train with one of my coaches and friend Erik Paulson, who was hosted in Seattle by Chris Clarke of Northwest Kali. As usual Erik covered an amazing amount of material that I'll be digesting for long time. It was great that several seminar participants came up to me and introduced themselves as readers of this newsletter...read more

January 7, 2008
An Alternative to Pulling Guard
Many grapplers start their sparring sessions on their knees. From this starting position usually one of two things happen: either the two combatants push and pull each other until one falls over, or someone pulls guard and starts looking for sweeps and submissions...read more

December 19, 2007
Golf and BJJ
I don't like golf. I'll probably receive a large batch of irate emails because of saying this, but I don't like playing golf, I don't like watching golf, and I'm befuddled by its current popularity. I do think, however, that grapplers can learn at least one thing from golfers: intense analysis of basic posture and movement...read more

December 11, 2007
Running and Confidence: "I Can't Run" - Excuses Between Me and Maximum Condidtioning
If you are a longtime reader of this newsletter you know that I think very highly of running as a conditioning method. Long runs, sprints, hill runs - as you can see from the following articles I think that they are all great....read more

December 04, 2007
Open Guard Strategies for the Short-Legged Grappler
In the last newsletter I gave some suggestions about dealing with the open guard of long-legged and flexible opponents. In the interests of fairness and balance let's address some options for the opposite situation, namely what to do if you have shorter, inflexible legs...read more

November 22, 2007
Christmas, Flexible Opponents and Two Dangerous Submissions
I'm hearing Christmas music in the stores and seeing lights starting to appear on the houses, and that means it's time to start up the annual winter sale at Grapplearts.com. The Grapplearts Video Catalog includes DVDs on sweeps, submissions, MMA training, conditioning videos, etc...read more

October 22, 2007
Monitoring Morning Heart Rate
Longtime readers will recall that I've written about overtraining, under-recovering and exercise-induced illness before: e.g. http://tinyurl.com/3xjjrd and http://tinyurl.com/2omws5. It sucks to have a streak of hard training sessions interrupted by the flu, and being overtrained makes catching that flu almost inevitable...read more

October 12, 2007
Gripfighting (Using Your Legs)
Grip fighting is very, very important in grappling. Getting your preferred grip and preventing your opponent from getting his grip is a key component of setting up throws with the gi, takedowns without the gi, sinking chokes, passing the guard, sweeping your opponent from the guard, and so on ...read more

October 1, 2007
OK, What About a Hard Bodyweight Conditioning Workout?
Someone asked me recently "if the bodyweight conditioning routine shown at http://tinyurl.com/ed9js is an easy workout, then what does your BJJ coach, Marcus Soares, consider a hard workout?...read more

Sept 17 , 2007
How to Stand in the Guard
Last week I discussed the differences between standing and kneeling guard passes. One thing I pointed out was that some schools tend use only kneeling guard passes whereas other schools tend to mix up their guard passing and use both standing and kneeling passes...read more

Sept 12 , 2007
To Kneel Or Stand?
A few weeks ago I was practicing technique with a big, strong rock climber who had a grip from hell and tenacious isometric strength. I noticed how much he liked controlling my gi, breaking my posture and attacking with collar chokes. Since I knew we were going to spar soon I formulated a simple sparring strategy: I told myself that as soon as I ended up in his guard I would stand up and not go back down onto my knees until I was past his guard...read more

Aug 30, 2007
16 Tips for Your Closed Guard
Today's newsletter is brought to your courtesy of Jason Scully, a competitive grappler with 12 years experience who also runs www.grapplersguide.com. In his article Jason discusses how to make the closed guard a dangerous and uncomfortable place for you opponent. Previous tips and articles that are relevant to this topic include...read more

Aug 22, 2007
Preventing & Escaping the Rear Naked Choke
Q: "How do I escape the Rear Naked Choke - I've tried all sorts of things and they don't seem to work"

A: The Rear Naked Choke (or RNC) is one of the top finishers in submission grappling and MMA. Once applied, the odds of an equally skilled grappler getting out of it successfully are very small, probably 5 to 10%. You have two general options: 1) Prevent it from being applied, and/or 2) Escaping it once it is applied...read more

Aug 14, 2007
Online Grappling Drill Videos
I think that grappling drills can serve an important function. Not everybody agrees with me about this: some people think that movement repetition outside the context of a resisting opponent is 'dead' training and a waste of time and energy...read more

July 30, 2007
Circuits and More Conditioning
When people think of conditioning they often imagine people doing cardio and strength training separately. In this paradigm you might run in the morning and then lift weights in the afternoon, or go lift weights for 45 minutes and then finish up with 15 minutes on the stairmaster. In today's newsletter...read more

July 23, 2007
A Game Of Inches
I was recently helping someone with their sidemount escapes, and of course we had to discuss posture when trapped in side mount (which I have previously addressed in this newsletter:...read more

July 18, 2007
Guards and Necks and Weaknesses
There are three parts this week:
1 - Don't have a flat guard.
2 - More non-compressive neck trainings.
3 - Hard come, easy go: how training layoffs affect your physical and technical skills...read more

July 9, 2007
The Pros and Cons of Bridging
Neck bridging is an exercise that is unique to the grappling arts. It is also controversial. Broadly speaking, there are two main ways of bridging: the backwards neck bridge or a forwards neck bridge...read more

July 3, 2007
Defending the Heel Grab with the Kick Out
Today I want to talk about a little move that has probably saved my butt at least a thousand times. I call it the Kick Out and if your game includes any standing guard passes I think it might deserve a place in your repertoire...read more

June 18, 2007
Caging the Hips
It is a truism in BJJ that hip movement is the most important thing.
"Boca" Oliveira, a de la Riva black belt, recently told me: "the hips are 90% of jiu-jitsu, and position is the other 10%". Most instructors would agree with the spirit of his statement, because the hips allow you to escape bad positions, throw opponents, pass the guard, and apply armlocks, leglocks and chokes...read more

May 19 , 2007
Cutting Weight: A Rant
Today I want to write about a practice I don't like and don't endorse, but that is probably here to stay: cutting weight to get into a lower weight bracket for competition. Whether you do it, want to do it, or just want to understand it, more information is better than no information, so I'm going to share some of what I know and then point you in some directions for your own research...read more

May 10 , 2007
Grappling with Competition Anxiety
I don't do a lot of competition these days, and I do miss it (and the wonderful focus it adds to your training). One thing I DON'T miss, however, is the stomach churning anxiety that accompanied competition. Basically on the day of a competition I became an emotional wreck: moody, grumpy, nervous, and asked myself again and again "why am I doing this"...read more

April 29, 2007
Armbar Escapes and Berserker Attacks
Q: How do I escape the armbar when my opponent is crossing his ankes?A: Crossing the ankles during the armbar is controversial, but is an effective way to shut down many of your opponent's escapes...read more

April 19, 2007
Butterfly Crash Course
As I was heading home from a workout recently, someone mentioned that the butterfly guard just wasn't working for them. I didn't have a lot of time but I put down my bag, got back on the mat, and started trying to metamorphose his butterfly guard...read more