Troll Creek Jiu-Jitzsu is a cartoon created by Ola Lanteli. He and his son train together, and this started as a fun project for the two of them. Soon there were drawings of troll jiu-jitsu everywhere and Ola started a training blog for the trolls here.

Jean Jacques Machado is a true Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu legend. When he's got something to say on the topic of jiu-jitsu it's worth your time to stop and listen. This book is a follow up to the popular Grappler's Handbook but with a focus on defending submissions. Although defending yourself is perhaps even more important than attacking in BJJ, it gets overlooked many times because people like to focus on and learn new submissions.

This week Vincent Junior shows us a really nice sweep option for when you are stuck in bottom side control. This sweep is great because you aren't risking much when you try it, and it's really difficult for you opponent to stop it if you get the set up right. Make sure to walk your feet towards your opponents head and keep your heels close to your but to give you enough leverage to finish the sweep.

3rd degree De La Riva black belt Vincente Junior shows us a method for breaking your opponents posture from guard, with a bonus choke. They'll never see this one coming and you'll probably be able to use it a few times at school before they figure out what you are doing. This is a very sneaky choke!

What can you do if you want to train but can’t find a club within convenient distance, can’t afford regular training sessions, or the club where you usually train has shut down?

We got a chance to take a look at an X-Guard Killa Bee Kimono recently. I asked my friend Khalil Habib to put it through the paces and let me know what he thought. Here's his response after test driving the gi for a few weeks. (See pictures below the review.)

Since we are featuring Marcelo Garcia this week in the newsletter, the butterfly hooks seemed like a perfect compliment. This cartoon is the first in a series, enjoy!

Phil Migliarese has been in the Jiu-Jitsu game for a long time. He's a 4th degree blackbelt under Relson Gracie and has over 20 years of experience teaching Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. He runs Balance Studios, a very succesful school in Philidelphia. We heard a rumor that some folks in the BJJ community in Philly were pretty upset with Phil though, and we decided to give him a call to hear his side of the story.

Ricardo De La Riva shows us how he sets up a basic DLR sweep from guard. Notice how he moves his hips outside of his opponents leg to make room for him to slide in the DLR hook. If you don't make space by moving your hips you may not be able to get the hook set properly.

This week the Trolls are taking some practice with a DLR guard sweep (specially modified) in honor of this month's expert, Ricardo De La Riva!