The First Six Months
Brand-new practitioners in their first months on the mat.
This path walks through the ideas a beginner meets first, in an order that lets each one support the next. It favors staying safe, surviving on the bottom, and understanding a few positions well over collecting many techniques. Work through it slowly and return to earlier steps whenever a later one feels shaky.
Tapping and training safety
The communication habits that keep technical learning available tomorrow.
Why now
Start here so every later round stays available. Tapping and release habits are what keep learning going tomorrow.
Base, posture, and connection
The three-part check that makes every position easier to read.
Why now
This is the diagnostic you will use in every position after it. Learn to read base, posture, and connection before adding technique.
Hip escape (shrimp)
The fundamental hip movement that creates space and underlies most bottom escapes.
Why now
Most bottom escapes are variations of this one movement. Drilling it cleanly now makes those escapes feel familiar later.
Frames
Skeletal structures that preserve usable space and redirect pressure.
Why now
Frames are how you keep space when someone is heavier or on top. They pair with the hip escape to rebuild guard.
Closed guard
A guard configuration built around leg connection, posture control, and angle.
Why now
Your first home base off your back. It rewards the posture and connection ideas you just met and sets up the sweeps and attacks ahead.
Side control
A family of chest-to-chest and hip-control pins with many valid alignments.
Why now
Understand the pin from both sides before trying to escape it. Knowing what the top player wants tells you what to protect.
Side control escape to guard
An escape that uses frames and hip movement to recover guard from under side control.
Why now
Now use frames and the hip escape together to get back to guard. This is the escape you will need most in early rolls.
Elbow to knee mount escape
An escape from mount that reconnects an elbow and knee to recover guard.
Why now
Mount is the next pin you will face. The same frame-and-bridge habit recovers guard from here too.
Scissor sweep
A sweep that uses a knee shield and a scissoring leg action to tip a kneeling opponent.
Why now
Your first reversal from closed guard. It turns surviving on the bottom into getting on top, which changes how a roll feels.
Cross collar choke from closed guard
A collar strangle that closes two forearms across the neck while closed guard holds the posture down.
Why now
A first controlled submission from the guard you already know. Set both grips before any pressure and practice releasing on the tap.
Technical stand-up
A protected way to move from seated alignment to standing base.
Why now
A safe way back to your feet when you would rather reset than stay on the ground. It also prepares you for standing work.
Half guard
A position where one leg traps a partner leg, read from both the bottom and the top.
Why now
A middle position you will land in constantly. Reading it from both sides rounds out your first months and points toward what comes next.