Last night was fun in a sado-masochistic way. Directly after spending a week in Vegas, where I trained twice with master Cavalcanti, I got sick, spending two weeks on my ass. I came back for a week and trained a few nights, mostly kickboxing, then spent another two weeks on call. So I was out 4 of 5 weeks. Naturally this got me my ass kicked in royal fashion.
My conditioning needed to come back after being sick, but work got in the way. Plus I've been studying for work and for fun, so my mind has been out of the game. This equated to my being fuzzy-headed and unsure of my next move, while at the same time feeling sluggish and fat. I got tapped three times by guys I've beaten numerous times, not really coming close to beating them at all last night.
So the lesson. The techniques were review, but that was fine. They also were about 70% gi-centric, meaning they could work no-gi, but would be much harder to pull off.
Assume you have your opponent in your guard and you want to trap his left arm underneath your back. Grab his left sleeve with your left hand, break his grip and swim your arm over your own head, bringing his wrist with you. Once you do a pinwheely loop you can tighten your right arm and squeeze his left bicep/tricep between your arm and ribs. Now with your right hand reach across his throat and grab his right lapel. You can feed it with your left and get your grip a little tighter, meaning your right hand is higher up next to his throat, even behind his neck a little.
Once you have that grip he's pretty well stuck. From there you want to drop your left leg to the mat and use it to swivel your torso (remaining in place, just changing angles) and grabbing his gi jacket right next to his left jaw muscle. Now swivel back, grinding your left forearm under his jaw for the choke.
If you can't score that choke, which isn't that easy since he likely knows what you're up to, you can armbar him. With his arm trapped, use your left forearm to create distance between his head and you, while using your feet to do the same on his hips. This should straighten his arm out a bit, though I got in a little trouble by slacking the grip on his upper arm with my arm/ribs. If that loosens at all he can just twist his arm and nullify the move. Once you've got distance and his arm is pretty straight, you can use your left foot to push his right knee backward and make him kiss the mat. Even if that doesn't work you can still finish by moving your right knee over his left elbow (the trapped one) and using it to straighten his arm out.
Finally you can sweep from the trapped-arm position. Just swivel around and grab under his right leg with your left arm, then roll him over. You've already got his left arm trapped so he can't stop you by posting. He can, of course, just base out or move his knee back so you can't grab behind it. At that point you can jerk his torso up toward your head and sneak your feet down from a closed guard to just inside his ankles. From there you can straighten his legs out pretty uncomfortably. If you get that far, try to trap the second arm, even clumsily, then move both feet to rest under his inner thighs as hooks. If you score the hooks and control the arms you can just hip out to one side and he'll practically dump himself over to one side, letting you sweep and mount him.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Vegas lumps 2
I went back to Master Cavalcanti's class last night for the gi class. He wasn't there, but we were in the hands of a black belt student of his with over a decade of experience, and as per the norm in BJJ I never once felt like a black belt was unsure of anything. The standards of belt promotion in this style are rigourous and based on an instructor's intimate personal knowledge of his student's capabilities. There is no system to game.
I also realized last night right before I tapped out in my third match that I was facing a brutal opponent. The elevation in Las Vegas is about 2030 feet, whereas little old West Hollywood is about 230 feet. Even during the warmup I could tell something was off. I was winded where I'm usually not even breathing through my mouth. I learned quickly that performance is often dictated by how much gas you have in the tank and I've since maintained a pretty high level of cardio, but this was a great reminder of the ramifications of getting lazy. I could tell what my opponents were doing, even anticipate their moves, but I couldn't do anything about it. If I ever travel to compete I'll take elevation into account.
At any rate the instructor asked me if I had any requests since I was the guest. I had watched UFC 108 that afternoon while doing some dum-dum work at a coffee shop and seen a reverse triangle, so I asked for that (I anticipated the question :) ). It turns out I already knew how to toss a triangle that's very similar.
Starting out underneath in side control (assume your opponent is on your right side), you want to place your left arm across his throat. The other recognized "safe" place to have your left arm would be underneath his right armpit, keeping it away from armbars, kimuras, etcetera, while threatening a different escape. But for this move you want to push his head up a little and create space so it has to be across his neck. Pushing your forearm that's across his neck upward will force his head up and be pretty uncomfortable; if he's positioned correctly (looking away from your face) this will cut off one of his carotid arteries, which won't really do anything but annoy him. If he messed up though your forearm might well end up up across his windpipe, which helps force his head up.
After pushing up and getting a little space, you need to bend a rule of BJJ and turn away from the attack a little to free your right arm, at which point you flatten back out. Once you have the ability, you need to use both hands to push his head southward toward your feet, then loop your left leg over his head. At this point you need to keep him from pulling his right arm free. Grab it and keep it. Now you have an arm and a neck, and your right leg is sitting underneath his torso looking bored. Use it by flinging it over your left foot and locking the triangle.
This isn't a simple move. The guy I watched use it in UFC 108 didn't finish with the triangle, but he locked it tight enough to incapacitate his opponent, at which point he took the arm and hyperextended it for the win.
I also realized last night right before I tapped out in my third match that I was facing a brutal opponent. The elevation in Las Vegas is about 2030 feet, whereas little old West Hollywood is about 230 feet. Even during the warmup I could tell something was off. I was winded where I'm usually not even breathing through my mouth. I learned quickly that performance is often dictated by how much gas you have in the tank and I've since maintained a pretty high level of cardio, but this was a great reminder of the ramifications of getting lazy. I could tell what my opponents were doing, even anticipate their moves, but I couldn't do anything about it. If I ever travel to compete I'll take elevation into account.
At any rate the instructor asked me if I had any requests since I was the guest. I had watched UFC 108 that afternoon while doing some dum-dum work at a coffee shop and seen a reverse triangle, so I asked for that (I anticipated the question :) ). It turns out I already knew how to toss a triangle that's very similar.
Starting out underneath in side control (assume your opponent is on your right side), you want to place your left arm across his throat. The other recognized "safe" place to have your left arm would be underneath his right armpit, keeping it away from armbars, kimuras, etcetera, while threatening a different escape. But for this move you want to push his head up a little and create space so it has to be across his neck. Pushing your forearm that's across his neck upward will force his head up and be pretty uncomfortable; if he's positioned correctly (looking away from your face) this will cut off one of his carotid arteries, which won't really do anything but annoy him. If he messed up though your forearm might well end up up across his windpipe, which helps force his head up.
After pushing up and getting a little space, you need to bend a rule of BJJ and turn away from the attack a little to free your right arm, at which point you flatten back out. Once you have the ability, you need to use both hands to push his head southward toward your feet, then loop your left leg over his head. At this point you need to keep him from pulling his right arm free. Grab it and keep it. Now you have an arm and a neck, and your right leg is sitting underneath his torso looking bored. Use it by flinging it over your left foot and locking the triangle.
This isn't a simple move. The guy I watched use it in UFC 108 didn't finish with the triangle, but he locked it tight enough to incapacitate his opponent, at which point he took the arm and hyperextended it for the win.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Vegas lumps
On the bright side I'm pretty much healed up. Having patiently waited until my finger was ready, I can now tape it to the next one over for support and it works fine.
I'm in Vegas this week. I woke up early to drive out since it's about 5 hours (in my shitty old VW) versus about the same time to fly due to all the security nowadays. Just not worth the hassle. But the important thing is I'm here, which is disruptive to my workout routine and diet. To make the best of it I asked my coach on Saturday for a name of someone to train with. He gave me two, one of with was Ricardo Cavalcanti, an old friend of his from Brazil (these Brazilians all seem to know each other very closely, which I believe is why a blue/purple/whatever belt is a blue/purple/whatever belt, regardless of which coast you're on or which teacher you're under - the skill level is about the same).
Ricardo was super friendly, he cut the weekly cost to train almost in half and was really nice, introducing me to all of his students. We trained no-gi, which I prefer but haven't trained in in over 2.5 years. First I took a year off to study for a professional certification, then I blew out my knee and had surgery, and since I came back I've just never happened to do it. Shame really because I love the fast pace of the no-gi game.
At any rate, Ricardo taught us about 5 techniques, one of which was extremely clever (well, they were all clever, this one just happened to strike my fancy). If I have my opponent in my closed guard, I can try to sweep him by opening guard, sitting up, putting my right arm over his right shoulder (so he's staring at the back of my right shoulder), and push him over to my left in a circular motion. It's a common sweep, taught to all white belts. One of the most obvious mistakes that you drill to get past in the early days is to put your right arm over his left shoulder, essentially capturing his head as well. You don't end up with the same leverage and he's far more likely to just push you back down.
Ricardo's clever move saw me sitting up and performing this basic sweep ... wrong. I deliberately capture the head as I sit up and try to sweep him. If I get it great, take the sweep, which can easily end with me mounting him. What's more likely is he'll push back, forcing me down on my back again. My trick at this point is that as I start pushing for the sweep I pull my left leg out from around his waist so it's free and clear. Now as he pushes me backwards I slide it back in, but this time *over* his right arm. Just before falling backwards I throw my left leg up and over his shoulder, reaching around with my right hand to grab it behind his head. I fall backwards with my leg wrapped behind his head and pulling him down with me. His left arm is still between my legs. What's all this mean? I just let him push me backwards, setting himself up for a triangle (or as Ricardo puts it - "dah tree-angle" :) ).
From there it's a standard triangle finish. You're going to have to fight to close it while keeping his head down and making sure you don't get stacked. His left arm is on the wrong side, but that's no big deal. Just lock the tree-angle first and lift your hips up as you shove his arm to the side you want it on. I'd detail that more but I'm running late and it's a basic move that's pretty hard to resist, and even if he manages to resist it you just crank the elbow in an armbar so you're all good.
I totally flaked on blogging last week about my kickboxing experience at the boxing gym up the street from my apartment. It went pretty well and I may be competing soon. I'll post again soon, probably this week since I don't have that much to do for work here and will try to spend a lot of time on the mat, gaining that fresh perspective you get from a different teacher (who, like my current one, probably has 25+ years grappling).
I'm in Vegas this week. I woke up early to drive out since it's about 5 hours (in my shitty old VW) versus about the same time to fly due to all the security nowadays. Just not worth the hassle. But the important thing is I'm here, which is disruptive to my workout routine and diet. To make the best of it I asked my coach on Saturday for a name of someone to train with. He gave me two, one of with was Ricardo Cavalcanti, an old friend of his from Brazil (these Brazilians all seem to know each other very closely, which I believe is why a blue/purple/whatever belt is a blue/purple/whatever belt, regardless of which coast you're on or which teacher you're under - the skill level is about the same).
Ricardo was super friendly, he cut the weekly cost to train almost in half and was really nice, introducing me to all of his students. We trained no-gi, which I prefer but haven't trained in in over 2.5 years. First I took a year off to study for a professional certification, then I blew out my knee and had surgery, and since I came back I've just never happened to do it. Shame really because I love the fast pace of the no-gi game.
At any rate, Ricardo taught us about 5 techniques, one of which was extremely clever (well, they were all clever, this one just happened to strike my fancy). If I have my opponent in my closed guard, I can try to sweep him by opening guard, sitting up, putting my right arm over his right shoulder (so he's staring at the back of my right shoulder), and push him over to my left in a circular motion. It's a common sweep, taught to all white belts. One of the most obvious mistakes that you drill to get past in the early days is to put your right arm over his left shoulder, essentially capturing his head as well. You don't end up with the same leverage and he's far more likely to just push you back down.
Ricardo's clever move saw me sitting up and performing this basic sweep ... wrong. I deliberately capture the head as I sit up and try to sweep him. If I get it great, take the sweep, which can easily end with me mounting him. What's more likely is he'll push back, forcing me down on my back again. My trick at this point is that as I start pushing for the sweep I pull my left leg out from around his waist so it's free and clear. Now as he pushes me backwards I slide it back in, but this time *over* his right arm. Just before falling backwards I throw my left leg up and over his shoulder, reaching around with my right hand to grab it behind his head. I fall backwards with my leg wrapped behind his head and pulling him down with me. His left arm is still between my legs. What's all this mean? I just let him push me backwards, setting himself up for a triangle (or as Ricardo puts it - "dah tree-angle" :) ).
From there it's a standard triangle finish. You're going to have to fight to close it while keeping his head down and making sure you don't get stacked. His left arm is on the wrong side, but that's no big deal. Just lock the tree-angle first and lift your hips up as you shove his arm to the side you want it on. I'd detail that more but I'm running late and it's a basic move that's pretty hard to resist, and even if he manages to resist it you just crank the elbow in an armbar so you're all good.
I totally flaked on blogging last week about my kickboxing experience at the boxing gym up the street from my apartment. It went pretty well and I may be competing soon. I'll post again soon, probably this week since I don't have that much to do for work here and will try to spend a lot of time on the mat, gaining that fresh perspective you get from a different teacher (who, like my current one, probably has 25+ years grappling).
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Healing and high crotches
My finger is almost back to normal, meaning I can almost make a fist. I should probably wait until I can do so without pain to go back to sparring or I'll just re-tear the tendon, though I think if I can focus on kickboxing with 16 ounce gloves they'll stabilize the finger enough to avoid re-injury. Here's to hoping. Either way I don't plan to even try to spar until Monday night or later, based on how it feels.
Moving on, the wrestling class on Tuesday night was really small, which worked in my favor. The only other guy there had no wrestling experience either, so for about 30 minutes (when a couple solid wrestlers showed up) we had the coach to ourselves. Good thing too, because the high-crotch takedown is deceptively tricky.
The high-crotch is a pillar of wrestling. Along with single- and double-leg takedowns, the high-crotch is considered a fundamental opening that leads to dozens of finishes. The problem is it also shares the same other characteristic of those other "pillar" moves - you have to nail every single detail perfectly because it's so important. Not a big deal, but it takes work. Specifically it takes thousands of reps drilling to get it not just correct, but fast and fluid. I literally spent 45 minutes drilling the high-crotch (heh) Tuesday night and probably performed about 60 reps, all on a single side. I feel like I kind of get it. There's absolutely no way I'd shoot in for a high-crotch in sparring right now. After the fluidity and quickness in execution, you have to learn through hours on the mat where the move fits in your game. I.e. when to go for it.
So the move. We drilled it as beginners, so starting from a wrestling clinch. My right foot was forward, feet closer together than I'm used to as a striker, my right hand behind his neck pulling his head slightly down, my left hand cupping his right tricep, my torso hanging forward at the hips so I leaned against him somewhat. The first order of business was the level change. I dropped down to a crouch before shooting forward. I didn't have to go straight down and then straight forward at a 90-degree angle, but it was definitely a pronounced downward crouch to ensure that my momentum was moving forward as opposed to down. This has multiple repercussions. For one thing, if my opponent evades my shot I can recover because I'm moving forward and can scramble, versus going downward and kind of splatting into the mat or ground. More importantly, if I move forward my knee just lightly taps the mat. If my momentum is heading downward my knee smacks. Not super hard, but a lot harder. If I was to practice this wrong and keep that smacking up all night I would probably have to stop practicing the move long before I gained proficiency.
As I dropped down in the level change, I had to give his tricep a little upward push to get his arm up. This, along with the drop in level, helps me slip my head under his armpit and get behind his back. As his arm goes up and I go down, I twist my torso, leading with my right shoulder. My right hand comes down from behind his neck and my forearm shoots between his legs, with my right hand grabbing the back of his right thigh. My forearm is now high up in his crotch, leading to the unfortunate name of the move. At no point am I supposed to crack him in the balls.
If I've performed this correctly I'm now down on my right knee, with my left foot planted to the outside of his right foot, but a little bit in front of it. My left hand is still on his tricep after pushing it upward, the back of my head is arched against his tricep after having ducked under it, and my right hand is gripping the back of his right thigh. Now I need to turn the corner. I grab my right wrist with my left hand as I push myself up via my left foot, keeping a tight hold on his leg the entire time. If I get this I know there are tons of finishes, but I don't know many yet and this post is plenty long already.
Some common problems that I ran into:
- I tend to squat straight down. This is bad; it allows my opponent to just shove me backwards
- I need to keep constant pressure against his arm with my head. It prevents him from re-composing his arms around me in a defensive manner or doing some other nasty shit I don't know about yet
- When down on one knee, I need to lean into him. If my shoulder slips out he can shove his arm between himself and my armpit, underhooking me and ruining the move, maybe even turning it against me
So back to the mat tonight.
Moving on, the wrestling class on Tuesday night was really small, which worked in my favor. The only other guy there had no wrestling experience either, so for about 30 minutes (when a couple solid wrestlers showed up) we had the coach to ourselves. Good thing too, because the high-crotch takedown is deceptively tricky.
The high-crotch is a pillar of wrestling. Along with single- and double-leg takedowns, the high-crotch is considered a fundamental opening that leads to dozens of finishes. The problem is it also shares the same other characteristic of those other "pillar" moves - you have to nail every single detail perfectly because it's so important. Not a big deal, but it takes work. Specifically it takes thousands of reps drilling to get it not just correct, but fast and fluid. I literally spent 45 minutes drilling the high-crotch (heh) Tuesday night and probably performed about 60 reps, all on a single side. I feel like I kind of get it. There's absolutely no way I'd shoot in for a high-crotch in sparring right now. After the fluidity and quickness in execution, you have to learn through hours on the mat where the move fits in your game. I.e. when to go for it.
So the move. We drilled it as beginners, so starting from a wrestling clinch. My right foot was forward, feet closer together than I'm used to as a striker, my right hand behind his neck pulling his head slightly down, my left hand cupping his right tricep, my torso hanging forward at the hips so I leaned against him somewhat. The first order of business was the level change. I dropped down to a crouch before shooting forward. I didn't have to go straight down and then straight forward at a 90-degree angle, but it was definitely a pronounced downward crouch to ensure that my momentum was moving forward as opposed to down. This has multiple repercussions. For one thing, if my opponent evades my shot I can recover because I'm moving forward and can scramble, versus going downward and kind of splatting into the mat or ground. More importantly, if I move forward my knee just lightly taps the mat. If my momentum is heading downward my knee smacks. Not super hard, but a lot harder. If I was to practice this wrong and keep that smacking up all night I would probably have to stop practicing the move long before I gained proficiency.
As I dropped down in the level change, I had to give his tricep a little upward push to get his arm up. This, along with the drop in level, helps me slip my head under his armpit and get behind his back. As his arm goes up and I go down, I twist my torso, leading with my right shoulder. My right hand comes down from behind his neck and my forearm shoots between his legs, with my right hand grabbing the back of his right thigh. My forearm is now high up in his crotch, leading to the unfortunate name of the move. At no point am I supposed to crack him in the balls.
If I've performed this correctly I'm now down on my right knee, with my left foot planted to the outside of his right foot, but a little bit in front of it. My left hand is still on his tricep after pushing it upward, the back of my head is arched against his tricep after having ducked under it, and my right hand is gripping the back of his right thigh. Now I need to turn the corner. I grab my right wrist with my left hand as I push myself up via my left foot, keeping a tight hold on his leg the entire time. If I get this I know there are tons of finishes, but I don't know many yet and this post is plenty long already.
Some common problems that I ran into:
- I tend to squat straight down. This is bad; it allows my opponent to just shove me backwards
- I need to keep constant pressure against his arm with my head. It prevents him from re-composing his arms around me in a defensive manner or doing some other nasty shit I don't know about yet
- When down on one knee, I need to lean into him. If my shoulder slips out he can shove his arm between himself and my armpit, underhooking me and ruining the move, maybe even turning it against me
So back to the mat tonight.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
A cool guillotine defense, and choking the turtle
Last night was my first night back. It seems like I'm saying that an awful lot lately, with injuries, sickness, holidays and work joining forces to turn me into a mediocre, overweight gamer. It'll never happen. This two-week hiatus was for the on-call rotation at work, and now I have about six weeks before that crap hits again, though I skipped kickboxing since I can't make a fist. Last night was a really small class, to which Marcus remarked, "I hate when the Lakers play at the same time as class." So another guillotine defense came up after we went over the turtle position. I'll hit that first and then turtle up.
I mentioned in an earlier post that being caught in a guillotine and the closed guard at the same time was a pretty serious thing, but I didn't realize how bad it can turn out for the attacker. Taking the point of view of the guillotine-ee (versus the guillotiner), the first move is predictably enough to grab the wrist or hand that is choking you. Assuming your opponent uses his right arm, you use your left hand to grab his right wrist and pull, giving yourself room to breathe. Now reach your right hand over his left shoulder and hug him. Really reach as far down into the middle of his back as you can. After you get a good grip stand up inside his guard; you'll look like a bipod from the side with your head and feet stuck on the ground. Now cram your right shoulder under his chin and drive it into his throat. Bam. Weird that scoring a solid guillotine on someone can work against you, but it's pretty brutal. After feeling it in practice I can tell you that if this was applied effectively against me I'd most certainly give up my guillotine and try to get the hell out of there, even if it meant giving up side control.
Now on to the turtle. The turtle position is kind of a fetal position but instead of being on your side you're on all fours trying to cover up and minimize damage. It's not a good place to be because you have almost no offense, and if strikes are allowed (MMA or street) you have virtually no chance of covering all targets effectively. You have to get out. However in wrestling and grappling the turtle is a position of relative safety. You aren't exposed to a pin, your arms and legs aren't extended, and your hands are within easy neck-defending position and range. But at the same time no one ever wins through defense - eventually you have to do something.
From the attackers perspective there are a range of options, but before you attack you need to make sure you've achieved complete positional dominance. This means he isn't going to get out or sweep/reverse you, let alone land some type of armlock or choke (there is an armlock from the bottom position...). The most common thing that gets the top player in trouble is leaning too far over their opponent's back and getting rolled. Assuming you're on your knees to the right of your opponent. You want your left hand ideally on his wrist, but that's far less important than keeping your weight low and far enough off to his right that he can't clamp your left arm/wrist/hand in his left armpit and just roll over his left shoulder, taking you with him.
It's not the end of the world if you can't reach his wrist, just grab his lapel if he's in a gi (or sport's coat :) ), or clasp your hands together in no-gi. Some guys will slowly creep their hand out to get you to over-extend yourself, so you end up with the wrist and you get flipped immediately. If you clasp your hands together, with your left arm underneath his armpit wrapped around his chest and your right arm over his right shoulder, it's a very quick and sneaky move to wait for the right moment and just slip the right hand up to the throat. You can finish sloppy or go for a full-blown rear naked choke.
Another option is to move your left arm from over the top of his back, slipping it under his right armpit with your hand coming out right next to his left ear. From there you move slightly in front of him and use that left hand of yours to grip your own right bicep, finishing with a rear naked choke ... upside down with an arm, but the arm doesn't get in your way since your wrist bone is against his throat. Weird, but just as potent as the normal one. The risk on this move is that by moving the arm you have over his back to underneath his chest, you relinquish your positional dominance in the transition. You can maintain it to some degree by leaning your weight on him with your chest, but it's less stable.
The more common finish for turtled opponents is the alligator roll. You keep your top arm where it is and just move around the front so you're sprawled out on top of him. From there slide your right arm through the gap underneath his left ear, with your right wrist coming out underneath his right armpit and grabbing your own left bicep. This is a lot like the previous choke, reversed and a little less effective because now instead of your wrist being against his throat it's your right bicep, which is less bony. That's ok, to tighten the choke/crank, tuck your head as far underneath his right shoulder as possible and roll him over to his right (the tuck is to avoid rolling 200 pounds over your own head). Once you both end up on your backs it's easy to tighten the hold.
Another finish that's so obvious it just might work is to turn the turtle into a quasi-guillotine. Do this by spinning around to his front like in the alligator roll, then slide your right arm through, again like the alligator roll, but stop half way. Reach under his right armpit with your left arm and link hands. Your right wrist should be on his throat at this point, and you can stand half way up and sit back down into guard, effectively putting your hips under him and then planting at least one leg over his back to prevent a rolling escape.
I know there was at least one more attack, and a few defenses, but that's enough for now.
I mentioned in an earlier post that being caught in a guillotine and the closed guard at the same time was a pretty serious thing, but I didn't realize how bad it can turn out for the attacker. Taking the point of view of the guillotine-ee (versus the guillotiner), the first move is predictably enough to grab the wrist or hand that is choking you. Assuming your opponent uses his right arm, you use your left hand to grab his right wrist and pull, giving yourself room to breathe. Now reach your right hand over his left shoulder and hug him. Really reach as far down into the middle of his back as you can. After you get a good grip stand up inside his guard; you'll look like a bipod from the side with your head and feet stuck on the ground. Now cram your right shoulder under his chin and drive it into his throat. Bam. Weird that scoring a solid guillotine on someone can work against you, but it's pretty brutal. After feeling it in practice I can tell you that if this was applied effectively against me I'd most certainly give up my guillotine and try to get the hell out of there, even if it meant giving up side control.
Now on to the turtle. The turtle position is kind of a fetal position but instead of being on your side you're on all fours trying to cover up and minimize damage. It's not a good place to be because you have almost no offense, and if strikes are allowed (MMA or street) you have virtually no chance of covering all targets effectively. You have to get out. However in wrestling and grappling the turtle is a position of relative safety. You aren't exposed to a pin, your arms and legs aren't extended, and your hands are within easy neck-defending position and range. But at the same time no one ever wins through defense - eventually you have to do something.
From the attackers perspective there are a range of options, but before you attack you need to make sure you've achieved complete positional dominance. This means he isn't going to get out or sweep/reverse you, let alone land some type of armlock or choke (there is an armlock from the bottom position...). The most common thing that gets the top player in trouble is leaning too far over their opponent's back and getting rolled. Assuming you're on your knees to the right of your opponent. You want your left hand ideally on his wrist, but that's far less important than keeping your weight low and far enough off to his right that he can't clamp your left arm/wrist/hand in his left armpit and just roll over his left shoulder, taking you with him.
It's not the end of the world if you can't reach his wrist, just grab his lapel if he's in a gi (or sport's coat :) ), or clasp your hands together in no-gi. Some guys will slowly creep their hand out to get you to over-extend yourself, so you end up with the wrist and you get flipped immediately. If you clasp your hands together, with your left arm underneath his armpit wrapped around his chest and your right arm over his right shoulder, it's a very quick and sneaky move to wait for the right moment and just slip the right hand up to the throat. You can finish sloppy or go for a full-blown rear naked choke.
Another option is to move your left arm from over the top of his back, slipping it under his right armpit with your hand coming out right next to his left ear. From there you move slightly in front of him and use that left hand of yours to grip your own right bicep, finishing with a rear naked choke ... upside down with an arm, but the arm doesn't get in your way since your wrist bone is against his throat. Weird, but just as potent as the normal one. The risk on this move is that by moving the arm you have over his back to underneath his chest, you relinquish your positional dominance in the transition. You can maintain it to some degree by leaning your weight on him with your chest, but it's less stable.
The more common finish for turtled opponents is the alligator roll. You keep your top arm where it is and just move around the front so you're sprawled out on top of him. From there slide your right arm through the gap underneath his left ear, with your right wrist coming out underneath his right armpit and grabbing your own left bicep. This is a lot like the previous choke, reversed and a little less effective because now instead of your wrist being against his throat it's your right bicep, which is less bony. That's ok, to tighten the choke/crank, tuck your head as far underneath his right shoulder as possible and roll him over to his right (the tuck is to avoid rolling 200 pounds over your own head). Once you both end up on your backs it's easy to tighten the hold.
Another finish that's so obvious it just might work is to turn the turtle into a quasi-guillotine. Do this by spinning around to his front like in the alligator roll, then slide your right arm through, again like the alligator roll, but stop half way. Reach under his right armpit with your left arm and link hands. Your right wrist should be on his throat at this point, and you can stand half way up and sit back down into guard, effectively putting your hips under him and then planting at least one leg over his back to prevent a rolling escape.
I know there was at least one more attack, and a few defenses, but that's enough for now.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
More guillotines and more Gracies
I'm on backup on-call duty this week, so I can't train again because I still need to be able to respond to work issues within about 10-15 minutes (if the primary on-call guy's phone dies or something I get the call). That and my finger is still splinted and mending. Next week I'll be back in the gym for conditioning and technique, but sparring will probably have to wait another two weeks. I really don't feel like re-injuring this stupid finger 90% of the way to healed. Especially since I want to move to primarily kickboxing for a little while and I can't make a fist right now.
So the guillotine. Last week I talked about Cesar Gracie's guillotine tips that help you apply it correctly. This week I want to examine the defense for the standing guillotine as demonstrated by (I think) Rener and Ryron Gracie over at the Gracie Academy in Torrance, CA.
Getting caught in a standing guillotine is pretty dangerous if you don't know what you're doing. Most people don't, and they'll in fact almost put themselves into a standing guillotine if you punch them a couple of times. Typically this comes via a football tackle attempt, I've seen it at parties and it's amusing. At any rate the point is the guillotine is so simple that someone might accidentally catch you with it. So, rather than get choked by some noob, try the Gracie techniques below.
The first thing pretty much everyone always advises in guillotine defense is to hook your hand on the wrist that's choking you (you'll know which one as it's handily attached to your throat) and pull. Obviously this is geared toward giving you room to breathe, but alone it's just a stalling technique to buy you time to get out. Staying there holding the wrist is lame, and you might end up getting choked anyway.
Since you're standing up, assuming you opponent is using his right arm to choke you, after you grab his right wrist with your left hand and start pulling, reach over his left shoulder with your right hand. If there's a gi or shirt grab it. Now move around to his left. This last part is another standard guillotine defense - move your body to the side opposite the choke. If my head is stuck under some dude's right armpit I want my hips to be on his left. As the Gracie brothers point out in the video, trying to go the wrong direction results in a NASTY neck crank.
So you've got a hand on his wrist, a hand over his shoulder, and you've walked around to his left. Great, now bang on the back of his knee to buckle him and bring him down, making sure to fall to his side. If you can't buckle him down, use your heel to smack the back of his leg near the ankle to start a takedown.
But how do you avoid the closed guard on the way down? The short answer is any way possible. That's not snide, it's an indication that a properly-applied guillotine couple with a closed guard is something to be feared. If you can get your hips past his then the guillotine is pretty much over and you're safe. The long answer in this case is to put your left hand on his inner right thigh, and your right hand on his outer left thigh as you're going down. This means exposing your neck on the way down, but it's critical to not get caught in the closed guard (and being choked out in half a second probably isn't going to happen). Once your hands are in place shove the legs to the side and jump to the other.
In the video Rener (I think) actually does almost a flip with his head still in the guillotine, but he's just twisting his head a little. I've done this before and there's very little strain. Even if you don't get completely clear, ending up in half-guard is about 10x better than landing in full guard, where you are almost guaranteed to get stretched out, cranked and choked.
So the guillotine. Last week I talked about Cesar Gracie's guillotine tips that help you apply it correctly. This week I want to examine the defense for the standing guillotine as demonstrated by (I think) Rener and Ryron Gracie over at the Gracie Academy in Torrance, CA.
Getting caught in a standing guillotine is pretty dangerous if you don't know what you're doing. Most people don't, and they'll in fact almost put themselves into a standing guillotine if you punch them a couple of times. Typically this comes via a football tackle attempt, I've seen it at parties and it's amusing. At any rate the point is the guillotine is so simple that someone might accidentally catch you with it. So, rather than get choked by some noob, try the Gracie techniques below.
The first thing pretty much everyone always advises in guillotine defense is to hook your hand on the wrist that's choking you (you'll know which one as it's handily attached to your throat) and pull. Obviously this is geared toward giving you room to breathe, but alone it's just a stalling technique to buy you time to get out. Staying there holding the wrist is lame, and you might end up getting choked anyway.
Since you're standing up, assuming you opponent is using his right arm to choke you, after you grab his right wrist with your left hand and start pulling, reach over his left shoulder with your right hand. If there's a gi or shirt grab it. Now move around to his left. This last part is another standard guillotine defense - move your body to the side opposite the choke. If my head is stuck under some dude's right armpit I want my hips to be on his left. As the Gracie brothers point out in the video, trying to go the wrong direction results in a NASTY neck crank.
So you've got a hand on his wrist, a hand over his shoulder, and you've walked around to his left. Great, now bang on the back of his knee to buckle him and bring him down, making sure to fall to his side. If you can't buckle him down, use your heel to smack the back of his leg near the ankle to start a takedown.
But how do you avoid the closed guard on the way down? The short answer is any way possible. That's not snide, it's an indication that a properly-applied guillotine couple with a closed guard is something to be feared. If you can get your hips past his then the guillotine is pretty much over and you're safe. The long answer in this case is to put your left hand on his inner right thigh, and your right hand on his outer left thigh as you're going down. This means exposing your neck on the way down, but it's critical to not get caught in the closed guard (and being choked out in half a second probably isn't going to happen). Once your hands are in place shove the legs to the side and jump to the other.
In the video Rener (I think) actually does almost a flip with his head still in the guillotine, but he's just twisting his head a little. I've done this before and there's very little strain. Even if you don't get completely clear, ending up in half-guard is about 10x better than landing in full guard, where you are almost guaranteed to get stretched out, cranked and choked.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
The guillotine according to Cesar Gracie
I'm on-call this week (Friday morning to Friday morning) so I can't train. The on-call guy for our team is expected to be within about 10-15 minutes from logging in to a machine at work to start working in case there's a problem, and somehow that doesn't really jive with being called in the middle of a match. I can't spar with my torn finger tendon anyway so it's not that big a loss, I just go a little harder on the calisthenics and mix in some weights. It turns out that medicine ball workouts are great for finger injuries since you just wrap the fingers in a gentle curve and hold them there the whole time (minus throwing exercises).
At any rate the guillotine has been bugging me for a long time. Obviously it's a powerful move, and simple to apply at a generic level, meaning anyone can slap it on and get it if the other guy is dumb or not paying attention. But there are a few details that take this simplest of techniques to a whole new level of ass-kickery. So where does this tie into Cesar Gracie? Well, since I can't train I fired up his excellent BJJ DVD and started watching his no-gi guillotine section (DVD #3, 30 minutes in).
My beef with the guillotine is simple - I think that most the time we see it thrown it's not really a submission attempt as much as it is an attempt to make up for a poor takedown defense. Guys find themselves on the bad end of a double-leg and know they can't stop it so they reach down and try to get a forearm across a throat. The result is almost always the aggressor passing the guard to the side opposite that which his head is stuck and negating the crappy, desperate guillotine while sliding easily into a position that the bottom guy could have at least made him work to get if he wasn't trying to go for a sloppy guillotine. I guess that's a problem with the application of the technique rather than the technique itself.
But Cesar (rather than call him Gracie, which is ambiguous in BJJ conversations...) has two tricks for this. The first assumes you're paying attention, and that you want to stay on your feet (you can always go down later). As your opponent charges in you want to stop his momentum with your hands on his shoulders if possible. It's important to sprawl a little, but to get a standing guillotine you don't really want to sprawl on him entirely because there's a good chance he'll stumble or otherwise go down.
If you can stop his momentum, slide your forearm down the side of his neck (rather than a big, looping lasso of a movement) and cinch in the guillotine, while moving your hips under him a little. If you don't move your hips under him and he's tall you won't have the room to choke or crank him properly; you'll be yanking his neck on your tip-toes and he'll be fine. With your hips under him you change the angle. Now you pull up on his neck and you can actually get him to dangle his entire body weight from his neck alone, which even if it doesn't choke it hurts like a bitch.
The second trick Cesar demonstrated was for those times that you're just plain going down and want to grab the neck. You know, those scenarios I just complained about above. His technique changes the order of operations.
Cesar falls back on the ground without grabbing the neck at all, and immediately closes guard so his opponent can't just walk around to side control. From there to apply the guillotine he opens guard, puts his hands on the floor behind him to push himself up to a 90-degree sitting position, THEN he wraps the guillotine. After it's wrapped he closes guard and leans backward again. Now that's a choke. He also mentions that in case it doesn't land quite correctly you can't pull the head to the right (assuming you used your right arm to lock the guillotine). Now it's a painful crank.
This is a beautiful set of details because I so often see people trying to land a guillotine from closed guard. It's sure safe - you never opened guard so you didn't risk anything. But you can't get the correct angle with your forearm under the neck unless you open guard and sit up, so you're not just wasting your time, you're burning energy and arm strength with almost zero hope of submitting your opponent.
At any rate the guillotine has been bugging me for a long time. Obviously it's a powerful move, and simple to apply at a generic level, meaning anyone can slap it on and get it if the other guy is dumb or not paying attention. But there are a few details that take this simplest of techniques to a whole new level of ass-kickery. So where does this tie into Cesar Gracie? Well, since I can't train I fired up his excellent BJJ DVD and started watching his no-gi guillotine section (DVD #3, 30 minutes in).
My beef with the guillotine is simple - I think that most the time we see it thrown it's not really a submission attempt as much as it is an attempt to make up for a poor takedown defense. Guys find themselves on the bad end of a double-leg and know they can't stop it so they reach down and try to get a forearm across a throat. The result is almost always the aggressor passing the guard to the side opposite that which his head is stuck and negating the crappy, desperate guillotine while sliding easily into a position that the bottom guy could have at least made him work to get if he wasn't trying to go for a sloppy guillotine. I guess that's a problem with the application of the technique rather than the technique itself.
But Cesar (rather than call him Gracie, which is ambiguous in BJJ conversations...) has two tricks for this. The first assumes you're paying attention, and that you want to stay on your feet (you can always go down later). As your opponent charges in you want to stop his momentum with your hands on his shoulders if possible. It's important to sprawl a little, but to get a standing guillotine you don't really want to sprawl on him entirely because there's a good chance he'll stumble or otherwise go down.
If you can stop his momentum, slide your forearm down the side of his neck (rather than a big, looping lasso of a movement) and cinch in the guillotine, while moving your hips under him a little. If you don't move your hips under him and he's tall you won't have the room to choke or crank him properly; you'll be yanking his neck on your tip-toes and he'll be fine. With your hips under him you change the angle. Now you pull up on his neck and you can actually get him to dangle his entire body weight from his neck alone, which even if it doesn't choke it hurts like a bitch.
The second trick Cesar demonstrated was for those times that you're just plain going down and want to grab the neck. You know, those scenarios I just complained about above. His technique changes the order of operations.
Cesar falls back on the ground without grabbing the neck at all, and immediately closes guard so his opponent can't just walk around to side control. From there to apply the guillotine he opens guard, puts his hands on the floor behind him to push himself up to a 90-degree sitting position, THEN he wraps the guillotine. After it's wrapped he closes guard and leans backward again. Now that's a choke. He also mentions that in case it doesn't land quite correctly you can't pull the head to the right (assuming you used your right arm to lock the guillotine). Now it's a painful crank.
This is a beautiful set of details because I so often see people trying to land a guillotine from closed guard. It's sure safe - you never opened guard so you didn't risk anything. But you can't get the correct angle with your forearm under the neck unless you open guard and sit up, so you're not just wasting your time, you're burning energy and arm strength with almost zero hope of submitting your opponent.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Another lump, another triangle trick
I made my triumphant return to the gym Tuesday night, which naturally means I'm out for another few weeks.... My finger is the one thing that really didn't heal over the holiday break. I was hoping it would, but within the first 30 seconds of my first gi match Tuesday night I grabbed some guy's pant leg and he yanked his leg back - my finger pretty much exploded in pain. Wednesday I went to the doctor, and within about a minute of looking at the x-rays he told me I had torn the tendon.
The good news is there's no surgery needed, the bad news is twofold: I need to keep the finger in a splint for a few weeks so no training, and the finger will probably never be 100% again. Meh. So my knee recovery hits the 1-year mark in about a week, at which point I'll be wearing a splint on my hand.
Anyway I managed to learn a couple of cool new details Tuesday night before shit went ouch. There were only three students when class started so Marcus asked us if we had anything specific bothering us (more people showed up later, LA traffic makes this pretty routine). I had been trying to figure something out so I pounced.
I have long, thin legs and excellent flexibility. In other words I'm practically MADE to throw triangles. The problem is a lot of guys wait for triangle attempts and use them to pass by twisting their torso into into the triangle leg and flipping that leg over their head, passing into side control. This makes me hesitate to throw it.
So how to avoid this? I thought that maybe (assume I throw my right leg up and over my opponent's neck) if I hooked my left leg inside his right thigh I could avoid that pass because he would be dragging me in circles, getting nowhere. Technically that's right, but when I tried it before class with a partner I quickly realized that now my foot was stuck - I couldn't count in getting it out again which meant I would never be able to lock the triangle. Also, I had no power in the hooking leg; my opponent could easily push my left knee (which was horizontal) down and step over.
So my answer sucked, leading me to ask Marcus. He showed me two details. Neither was a super-clever silver bullet to stop someone from passing, but they sure helped.
The first tip was to clean up the technique. Specifically people can pass your triangle attempt when you fling a leg up and they're able to posture up and/or twist their torso. The answer is to not allow them to do either if possible, but definitely not both. To stop the posture, make sure the leg you shoot up leaves *no* room between the back of your knee and his neck, then form a strong L-shape and pull him down. Grabbing your own foot helps this.
Now he can't posture, but there's a good chance that if he twists his torso he can get out. Imagine you throw up your right leg. Before you can lock, he twists so his right shoulder comes back while his left shoulder stays in place. He's now removed a lot of the pressure on his neck and is in a good position to try and stack or pass. To stop the twist, squeeze you left knee as tight as you can against his right tricep or shoulder. Remember that you only need this to hold him for a second while you lock the triangle.
Ok, so either you lock the triangle or are about to, and he stacks you. Now what? If you don't react there's a good chance you're going to lose the pressure on his neck, and eventually your legs will pop open. The answer is ridiculously simple - walk backwards on your shoulder blades. As he comes forward on his knees you can outpace him while either locking the move or continuing to squeeze. There's a great chance he'll end up falling on his face with your triangle on his back, which actually sucked more than the normal triangle - it hurts the neck, back, everything really, just a really unpleasant feeling and you're still being choked. I haven't played with the move much but I suspect you can compound the effect by walking backwards to one side on your shoulder blades instead of just going straight back. I'll have to try it out.
The good news is there's no surgery needed, the bad news is twofold: I need to keep the finger in a splint for a few weeks so no training, and the finger will probably never be 100% again. Meh. So my knee recovery hits the 1-year mark in about a week, at which point I'll be wearing a splint on my hand.
Anyway I managed to learn a couple of cool new details Tuesday night before shit went ouch. There were only three students when class started so Marcus asked us if we had anything specific bothering us (more people showed up later, LA traffic makes this pretty routine). I had been trying to figure something out so I pounced.
I have long, thin legs and excellent flexibility. In other words I'm practically MADE to throw triangles. The problem is a lot of guys wait for triangle attempts and use them to pass by twisting their torso into into the triangle leg and flipping that leg over their head, passing into side control. This makes me hesitate to throw it.
So how to avoid this? I thought that maybe (assume I throw my right leg up and over my opponent's neck) if I hooked my left leg inside his right thigh I could avoid that pass because he would be dragging me in circles, getting nowhere. Technically that's right, but when I tried it before class with a partner I quickly realized that now my foot was stuck - I couldn't count in getting it out again which meant I would never be able to lock the triangle. Also, I had no power in the hooking leg; my opponent could easily push my left knee (which was horizontal) down and step over.
So my answer sucked, leading me to ask Marcus. He showed me two details. Neither was a super-clever silver bullet to stop someone from passing, but they sure helped.
The first tip was to clean up the technique. Specifically people can pass your triangle attempt when you fling a leg up and they're able to posture up and/or twist their torso. The answer is to not allow them to do either if possible, but definitely not both. To stop the posture, make sure the leg you shoot up leaves *no* room between the back of your knee and his neck, then form a strong L-shape and pull him down. Grabbing your own foot helps this.
Now he can't posture, but there's a good chance that if he twists his torso he can get out. Imagine you throw up your right leg. Before you can lock, he twists so his right shoulder comes back while his left shoulder stays in place. He's now removed a lot of the pressure on his neck and is in a good position to try and stack or pass. To stop the twist, squeeze you left knee as tight as you can against his right tricep or shoulder. Remember that you only need this to hold him for a second while you lock the triangle.
Ok, so either you lock the triangle or are about to, and he stacks you. Now what? If you don't react there's a good chance you're going to lose the pressure on his neck, and eventually your legs will pop open. The answer is ridiculously simple - walk backwards on your shoulder blades. As he comes forward on his knees you can outpace him while either locking the move or continuing to squeeze. There's a great chance he'll end up falling on his face with your triangle on his back, which actually sucked more than the normal triangle - it hurts the neck, back, everything really, just a really unpleasant feeling and you're still being choked. I haven't played with the move much but I suspect you can compound the effect by walking backwards to one side on your shoulder blades instead of just going straight back. I'll have to try it out.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Back at it ... take two
So after taking two very necessary weeks off to heal (well, mostly because the gym closed for Xmas and New Years) I came back and got sick after one workout. Meh. My throat then started hurting AFTER I got better, so I felt like crap, then got better but had a sore throat. Meh. So back tonight, with everything feeling pretty much intact except my right ring finger. It's just a little sore, but it's been the exact same "little sore" for over two months now - it's not getting any better. So tomorrow morning I see a doctor in case there's some fluid trapped in there or something.
Enough of that crap, a cool technique has been stuck in my head today. I only have about 10 minutes before I need to shut down and head to the gym so it'll have to be a quick post.
So you've got your opponent in side control, but he's turned into you. Hmmm. Normally we try and flatten him out, or even push him until he's facing away from us. So aside from cramming your head into his shoulder area to flatten him out, what's available here? A pretty cool armbar it turns out.
Assume you've passed his legs by going to your left, which means in side control your left arm is the one around his neck. He's turning into you, meaning his left shoulder is up off the mat. No problem. While maintaining tight downward control and pressure on his torso like normal, move your right arm so that your right armpit is cupping his left shoulder. It's a strange move, because at this point you're kind of twisting at the waist and looking away from him. From there, slip both your hands down his left arm and hyper-extend it. If you've managed to keep proper pressure on his shoulder he won't be able to escape, or resist at all for that matter.
There are other details to this one, but I haven't been training or posting (stupid holidays always mess me up *shakes fist*) so I wanted to bang this out real quick. I'll re-visit this with more details soon.
Enough of that crap, a cool technique has been stuck in my head today. I only have about 10 minutes before I need to shut down and head to the gym so it'll have to be a quick post.
So you've got your opponent in side control, but he's turned into you. Hmmm. Normally we try and flatten him out, or even push him until he's facing away from us. So aside from cramming your head into his shoulder area to flatten him out, what's available here? A pretty cool armbar it turns out.
Assume you've passed his legs by going to your left, which means in side control your left arm is the one around his neck. He's turning into you, meaning his left shoulder is up off the mat. No problem. While maintaining tight downward control and pressure on his torso like normal, move your right arm so that your right armpit is cupping his left shoulder. It's a strange move, because at this point you're kind of twisting at the waist and looking away from him. From there, slip both your hands down his left arm and hyper-extend it. If you've managed to keep proper pressure on his shoulder he won't be able to escape, or resist at all for that matter.
There are other details to this one, but I haven't been training or posting (stupid holidays always mess me up *shakes fist*) so I wanted to bang this out real quick. I'll re-visit this with more details soon.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Back at it ... kind of
So the holidays are over, and I took two weeks off. Totally off. I figured this was the time I would spend healing away from the mat, so I might as well totally relax and come back in anxious and ready to get going. It worked ... kind of. The day before my day back I did a light calisthenics routine so I wouldn't shock my body the next day. Then my morning back I did another light routine with my medicine ball for the same reason. That night I spent 90 minutes grappling and 60 minutes kickboxing ... then got sick overnight.
It's not that well known that an intense workout can degrade your immune system for up to 72 hours. I knew that, and I knew my wife was sick, but I figured I'd risk it. Kind of stupid in hind sight. Probably should have been stupid in *foresight*.
At any rate it was fun to finally use my legs in the kickboxing class. Up until Monday night I was just doing hands only because I didn't want to stress the graft I have in my knee from ACL reconstruction January 2009. It takes a full year to get 100% and tai kicks pull directly against it.
Pulling kicks out of a kickboxing workout sounds like it should take away roughly 50% of your arsenal, but it's closer to 75%. The fact is when you learn to use your knees, elbows, feet and hands together you come to use each for feinting and setting up other moves. Once you yank a piece of that holistic pie it kind of wreaks havoc. You can really feint with a low kick when you explicitly asked your training partner to just box for the sake of your bum knee. Neither can you work one kick a few times and then change it up to throw him off. Pure boxing was surprisingly boring, though I leave room for the possibility of that stemming from gigantic 16-ounce gloves making most attacks easily blockable.
I remembered quickly how much I rely on my lead leg. Specifically I love to snap out those lead-leg push kicks, but instead of bringing the knee up and shoving outward in a push, I snap the ball of the foot upward into the stomach. The former is a technique to keep people away from you, and it might hurt. The latter is an attack. I accidentally dropped a guy with it, and I really did pull the kick.
The BJJ class was interesting as well. I worked with a new student. Only four classes prior to Monday night, but with the caveat that he literally weighed about 100 pounds more than me. It's helpful to work with huge guys sometimes for a variety of reasons. Monday night it was helpful in that it made me focus on minutiae of basics - things that work against a 200 pounder don't work against a 260 pounder. You really have to nail the technique, and even then certain things just aren't going to work no matter what you do.
As retarded as it sounds, I was doing the most basic hip escape from mount incorrectly. After about 4 years of BJJ I was performing something I learned the first month wrong. /sigh The key to getting your legs back between you and your opponent with this escape is to leave one leg (right leg for this description) flat, and use your left foot to reach across your flattened right leg and hook your opponent's foot. Then pull his left foot over your right knee, THEN bring your knee up. Once you get the first side done you'll be in half guard and can hip out real quickly to get your second knee free and replace guard.
I was trying to use my right elbow to create enough space to force my right knee up between my opponent's legs and get to half guard. This tends to work ok against people my size, but as I mentioned above, against someone about 100 pounds your senior ... this sloppy garbage just doesn't cut it.
It's not that well known that an intense workout can degrade your immune system for up to 72 hours. I knew that, and I knew my wife was sick, but I figured I'd risk it. Kind of stupid in hind sight. Probably should have been stupid in *foresight*.
At any rate it was fun to finally use my legs in the kickboxing class. Up until Monday night I was just doing hands only because I didn't want to stress the graft I have in my knee from ACL reconstruction January 2009. It takes a full year to get 100% and tai kicks pull directly against it.
Pulling kicks out of a kickboxing workout sounds like it should take away roughly 50% of your arsenal, but it's closer to 75%. The fact is when you learn to use your knees, elbows, feet and hands together you come to use each for feinting and setting up other moves. Once you yank a piece of that holistic pie it kind of wreaks havoc. You can really feint with a low kick when you explicitly asked your training partner to just box for the sake of your bum knee. Neither can you work one kick a few times and then change it up to throw him off. Pure boxing was surprisingly boring, though I leave room for the possibility of that stemming from gigantic 16-ounce gloves making most attacks easily blockable.
I remembered quickly how much I rely on my lead leg. Specifically I love to snap out those lead-leg push kicks, but instead of bringing the knee up and shoving outward in a push, I snap the ball of the foot upward into the stomach. The former is a technique to keep people away from you, and it might hurt. The latter is an attack. I accidentally dropped a guy with it, and I really did pull the kick.
The BJJ class was interesting as well. I worked with a new student. Only four classes prior to Monday night, but with the caveat that he literally weighed about 100 pounds more than me. It's helpful to work with huge guys sometimes for a variety of reasons. Monday night it was helpful in that it made me focus on minutiae of basics - things that work against a 200 pounder don't work against a 260 pounder. You really have to nail the technique, and even then certain things just aren't going to work no matter what you do.
As retarded as it sounds, I was doing the most basic hip escape from mount incorrectly. After about 4 years of BJJ I was performing something I learned the first month wrong. /sigh The key to getting your legs back between you and your opponent with this escape is to leave one leg (right leg for this description) flat, and use your left foot to reach across your flattened right leg and hook your opponent's foot. Then pull his left foot over your right knee, THEN bring your knee up. Once you get the first side done you'll be in half guard and can hip out real quickly to get your second knee free and replace guard.
I was trying to use my right elbow to create enough space to force my right knee up between my opponent's legs and get to half guard. This tends to work ok against people my size, but as I mentioned above, against someone about 100 pounds your senior ... this sloppy garbage just doesn't cut it.
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