Week 2: 🌪️ Rolling Kimura
It's a hard move to master, but the gains are much larger than just knowing another move.
Preamble: Feel free to scroll down to the technique and training plan
By mastering this specific move, you'll learn good first principles and correct fundamentals that can be transferred to other places. You'll need to develop a lot of proprioception, learn to play with Kuzushi(or unbalance your opponent) and generate reactions proactively, and get into an offensive mindset and offensive cycle even from neutral positions.
It's a hard move to master, but the gains are much larger than just knowing another move.
Why learning something this fancy is actually great: Learning the Macro from the Micro: The principle is depth over breadth. In Josh Waitzkin's words: "The learning principle is to plunge into the detailed mystery of the micro in order to understand what makes the macro tick."
The goal is to learn the Micro (in this case, the technique and the intricate details needed to make it work) and then be able to use those learnings in other techniques and scenarios. This is often called "Transfer of Learning" or "Thematic interconnectedness."
It is great for controlling stronger/bigger opponents
Kimuras appear everywhere: Counter-wrestling, bad positions like bottom side control, half guard.
Psychological bonus: Just like any flying technique, it's a bit humiliating when you get caught in one, so it adds the psychological bonus of making your opponent less confident and more desperate... which usually makes them do stupid things and create big reactions that lead to openings (like the back take we're going to study below)
I know that was long, but I need you to understand the hidden importance of this technique to make sure you invest the required time to master it 😂
What is a Rolling Kimura?
We are going to break up this breakdown into 3 parts:
Setup or Entry: The best way to set it up from top passing position
Rolling Kimura: How to do the roll without breaking your neck or ending in a worst position than you were
Finishes: How to proceed depending on their reaction
1. Setup or Entry:
Step 1: The first requisite is to get one of your feet between their legs.
To accomplish this, you have 2 options:
Option 1: You can just step in (Harder with better opponents)
Option 2: You can create an angle by stepping past their hipline with both legs giving them no choice but to recover their angle, giving you the desired inside foot position.
Step 2: Create Kuzushi
The goal is to create kuzushi in order to gain tempo and make your opponent separate their arm from their body.
With a V-grip on their shoulder, push them toward the opposite side
2. Rolling Kimura
There are many different ways of performing the actual roll, but I think Gordon's is probably the easier and safest way to do it.
Post your hand on the floor and bring your head to the outside (Over the opponent's elbow).
Here comes the roll! You're going to roll over your inside shoulder (The one closest to your opponent) Without locking the kimura. You're going to keep Your external hand on the mat and hug the arm with your proximal arm.
As soon as you land, you need to lock the Kimura (T-Kimura in Danaher's lingo)
3. Finishes
The Kimura trap has many possibilities and is a great controlling position. I'm going to give you 2 options. The one you use will depend on your opponent's reaction. Other than that, you can do whatever you want, and I encourage you to study the kimura trap since you're going to be landing here way more often if you master this move.
Option 1: If your opponent sits up (Most common reaction)
Watch J. Danaher's left knee here. That's the most important part. As soon as they lift their torso, use the kimura to pull yourself towards their back and insert your knee under their bottom hip.
Option 2: Kimura finish
Kimura Related Resources
Watch it in action
Garry Tonon vs Lachlan Giles EBI-5 (UFC Fight Pass)
Vagner Rocha
Ethan Crelinsten
Best Kimura Players to Study
Vagner Rocha
Ethan Crelinsten
Garry Tonon
Ryan Hall
Gordon Ryan
Rafael Lovato Jr.
Sakuraba
Training Plan for the Week
I train 3-4 days per week (I drill at home with a dummy almost every day). In order to make it easier for you and everyone else to adapt this plan to their training schedule, I'll divide the week in 2 parts.
First Half of the Week (Training sessions 1 & 2 of 4 for me):
This is one of those techniques that require much more drilling before you can try it successfully and not break your neck. So you need to drill it before you try it. Drill it 10x more times than you think is needed. If you can, record yourself and watch it in between tries so you can iterate and improve. Be mindful and present, and don't drill for the sake of getting reps. Build a dummy, or get to class earlier so you can drill!
Next, you're going to focus on flow rolling playfully with people who are not 1st-day beginners. You don't want to try this for the first time on a spazzy white belt that doesn't even have common reactions to what you through at them.
Remember, the first half of the week is meant to get reps and some feedback on the things that you are doing wrong and how to fix them.
Second Half of the Week (Training sessions 3 & 4 of 4 for me):
Gradually start picking better and better opponents until you cannot perform the move anymore. Once this happens, start going down and picking less skilled opponents until you get to a sweet spot where you are performing the move more than 50% of the time you try it.
Make sure you test all the finishes and not only one.
Try to finish your week performing the move as flawlessly as possible with someone, no matter how low their skill level is: You want to make the last rep as perfect as possible; that's the repetition we internalize the most when we leave the training room.
NOTE: At the least, you should be drilling at home with a homemade dummy for 10 min almost every day in order to take advantage of your real training time at the gym and maximize your learnings.
If you are interested in learning how to drill better, here is a great resource from BJJ Mental Models: https://mailchi.mp/bjjmentalmodels/bjjmm-4261024?e=bbcee722ea
That’s it!
PS. I'd love to hear your feedback on this newsletter. Please reply and let me know what you want to cover next week. I'm thinking Gordon's Shoulder Crunch. Do you like that idea?
How was last week's training with the Platinum Worm Passing? Any questions?
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