Bernardo Faria is one of the most experienced BJJ competitors on the planet and as a four-time IBJJF world champion, you’d be forgiven for thinking there’s any technique that he hasn’t learned yet but here he shows the best thing he was shown by Gordon Ryan. The technique in question is not actually a convoluted sweep or submission but instead, is as simple as just a slightly different method of gripping your opponent’s arms when you have them mounted. This minor adjustment might not mean much to anyone new to the sport but to the more experienced grapplers, small changes to their game like this can have incredible effects by opening up greater opportunities to use the attacks they already know.
The grip itself is something that Gordon Ryan has spoken about before, and he can be seen putting it to great use in a number of his matches against elite opponents. As Faria himself says, he’s never seen anybody quite like Ryan from mount in no gi, particularly because it’s a position that’s very under-used when the gi is removed. The technique also gets likened to attacking the collar-choke in the gi because it allows you attack either side of the opponent and take advantage of small gaps they leave when you force their reaction.
The two have been friends for quite some time now owing in no small part to the sheer volume of work they’ve done together, as Ryan has released multiple instructionals on Faria’s platform, BJJ Fanatics. The video of Bernardo Faria detailing the best technique that he has learned from Gordon Ryan was uploaded to the official YouTube channel of BJJ Fanatics and will be part of an ongoing series that he will be producing, explaining the coolest techniques he’s picked up from the top competitors and coaches that he works with. The full video can be seen below:
