Controlling Opponent in Closed Guard (Breaking Posture / Arm Drag)

OK, he's in guard.  Now what?

 Breaking Opponent’s Posture in Guard:

-         Start with opponent in your guard

-         Grab both of your opponent’s lapels and pull him down

-         When you feel your opponent start to push into your hips with his hands, pull both of your knees up as close to your forehead as you can.  At the same time, pull both lapels up as high as you can.

-         Opponent should fall forward with both hands on the ground.

Yay, broken posture!

Arm Dragging Opponent in Guard:

-         Start with opponent in your guard

-         Grab both of your opponent’s lapels and pull down as a distraction

-         Slide one hand down to opponent’s wrist, put the other behind opponent’s elbow (of the same arm).

-         Pull opponent’s arm up over your head, to the opposite side (opponent’s right arm moves to your right side, etc).  It seems more natural to just pull to the side that you want, but then you end up in a tug of war that a stronger opponent will win.

-         Bring your legs up high to keep opponent’s posture broken for this movement

-         From here look for arm bar and triangle setups.

Pulling Guard to De La Riva:

De La Riva guard, rear sweep position

Pulling Guard to De La Riva:

-         Grab low on opponent’s collar with opposite side hand.  Pull collar open.  Use same side hand to secure a high collar grip.  Release low collar grip.

-         Using free hand, secure four finger grip on opponent’s sleeve near their wrist.

-         Pull opponent towards you.  Use leg on the side of the sleeve grip against the front of your opponent’s hip.

-         Use the leg on the side of the collar grip to go in between the opponent’s legs and hook up under the inside of his lead leg.  (Half spider guard.)  You should now be on your side.

-         Bring both feet to the front of your opponent’s hip.  If possible, release collar grip and use the 4 finger grip on your opponent’s other sleeve.

-         Take one leg and hook up under the outside of your opponent’s lead leg.  Use your other leg to push on your opponent’s inner thigh to spread him out.

-         Take your hooking leg and push it deeper to hook on your opponent’s far leg.  Use your other under the hooking one and cross them to make an X.

Both feet on hips and both sleeves grabbed when transitioning to the DLR guard.

Gi Wrap Cross-Choke From Guard

Image shows your regular cross choke.  In the gi wrap version the lower hand in this choke will be gripping the left jacket lapel that has been fed up and over the opponent's shoulder, the upper hand will have a solid grip on the material at the left shoulder or the left lapel.

Gi wrap cross-choke:

-         When pulling guard, try to kick opponent’s gi behind him.

-         Break opponent’s posture, pulling him close to you.

-         Take the hand that is on the same side as the free gi collar and grab it (or grab with opposite hand and feed to same side hand).

-         Use this collar to keep opponent’s posture broken by pulling down.

-         Take your free hand, reach behind the opponent’s head, gripping on his shoulder.

-         Move the shoulder gripping forearm under your opponent’s chin, flare out both elbows and pull your opponent down towards your head for the tap.

Defense Soap Review (An ongoing effort)

Skin infections and BJJ are just a fact of life (I may do a blog entry on them later).  I don't care how clean you keep the mats at your gym.  Thirty minutes into a hard class and there's sweat, blood, spit, and scraped skin somewhere on them.  It helps to keep your gear clean, shower immediately after each class, and always try to keep the mats clean of course . . . but sometimes infection is unavoidable.

Diseases in grapping come in three basic forms: Bacterial (including MRSA, regular staph, impetago, etc), Fungal (ringworm), and Viral (herpes).  Defense soap claims to work against all three on their website.  The big question of course, is does it work?  Defense soap is expensive to buy (6 - 7$ per bar) and pretty hard to find in local stores.  I found out that it's much cheaper to buy if you get several bars . . . so I'm the proud new owner of 12 bars of defense soap.

First impressions . . . well, it looks like soap.  Kinda has a medicinal stinky sort of smell that's not awful but not really awesome either.  Lathers up pretty well, and seems like it's a little less drying to the skin than the Dial antibacterial soap that I had been using.  So far I've used it after one class.  This is where the 'ongoing effort' comes in.  Every couple months I'll update this article to let people know if I've caught anything or noticed anything different about the soap.  Just to have some full disclosure here . . . I use KS Skin Cream, wash my gear immediately after every class, and shower before going home after each training session.  (You would think that that alone would keep me from getting infections . . . sigh.  Why does this awesome sport have to be so gross sometimes?)

Rear Naked Choke and Mount Escapes

Turning to the side and pulling the choking arm

Basic Rear Naked Choke Escape:
- Turn your head so that the chin is in line with the choking elbow.
- Put both hands on the choking arm and pull down for space.
- Bridge up and onto your opponent's chest, then turn to the side that the choking arm is on.  Try to get on your shoulder and one foot.
- Use your higher foot to push the opponents lower hooking leg off of you and to the ground.  Keep your weight on it.
- Slide your lower leg through the space created between your upper leg and the opponent's pinned leg.
- Push your weight back and onto the opponent's chest while walking both legs around and towards the opponent's head.
- Once your body is perpendicular to the opponent, spin towards his legs and land in side control.

Be aware that when attempting this escape if the opponent grabs your hand he will likely throw a leg over your and attempt to mount.

Hooking the leg with your heel

Hooking Leg Mount Escape:
- If your opponent has high mount on you, put both elbows against his thighs and push down.  Walk up with your legs at the same time.
- Once your opponent is closer to your hips, Upa to one side.  Using the space created by the Upa, turn slightly to one side.
- Reach your higher leg over your opponent's leg and drag the leg back towards you using your heel.
- Once the opponent's leg is caught between your legs, frame hard on your opponent and switch your hips over to get to half guard.

Open Guard: Guillotine to Head and Arm Control

Yesterday we were working more of a wrestling move than a Jiu-Jitsu one.  This technique is used to transition from a defensive position (you sitting in butterfly or on your side with your opponent standing and free of your guard, trying to pass) into an offensive one.

You want to keep a more upright posture than the guy on the bottom here

Snap Down to Guillotine
- Use one arm to stiff arm and push your opponent away, pushing around the shoulder area.
- If your opponent starts to lean in to grab your feet or to collapse down on you, use this pushing arm to cup the back of his head.
- Pull his head straight down.  Take your other arm and place the edge of your wrist under his neck (thumb up).
- Lock the technique in by grabbing your wrist and pulling up, while pushing his head into your chest.

Typically you would start to fall back for the guillotine at this point, but keep yourself more upright.  The goal of this neck attack is to surprise your opponent and get them to raise their hands to defend the choke.  Once their hands start rising:

Pushing the choking arm through and locking it - Just like working an anaconda

Guillotine to Head and Arm control:
- Push your choking hand deep under the opponent's neck and past his arm.
- Use the bend in your other elbow to lock in the choking hand (as if you were attempting an anaconda choke)
- Lean your chest pressure on your opponent and escape your legs so that you can come up to your knees
- Twist the elbow/hand that you have locked together deep under your opponent and walk backwards to flatten your opponent out.
- Now you can work towards his side or back from a more dominant position.

Eddie Bravo's Half Guard Game (Old School + Electric Chair)

Yesterday in our nogi class we went over the first set of moves in the half guard chapter of Eddie Bravo's 'Mastering the Rubber Guard'.  There are definitely some little things that aren't well explained in the book that you need to figure out to do the moves.  By the end of class stuff started to make a whole lot more sense to me.

Lockdown (pulling opponent back)

Lockdown: 
- You're in half guard and have been completely flattened out, opponent is putting pressure on your jaw.
- Clamp your knees together around the opponent's trapped leg and square up your hips (without squaring up your hips sometimes it can be really hard to wrap your legs to the lockdown position.
- Take your outside leg and wrap it over the opponent's trapped leg.
- Take your inside leg, and wrap it over the opponent's trapped leg and your other leg.
- Hook your inside leg under the opponent's ankle.
- Squeeze your legs tight together

Jaws of Life:
- You have the lockdown on your opponent and only one underhook.
- Take your (not underhooked) arm and frame it in front of your opponent's face
- Push up and quickly drop your elbow down into the free space created to secure your other underhook.

Whip Up:
-You have both underhooks and the lockdown on your opponent
- Release the underhooks and bring your hands to your opponent's armpits, rib cage, or (if you're really deep) waist)
- Try to lift your lockdown as high as possible in one quick jerk (knees to your head if possible).  At the same time, push up and over your head with your hands.
- In the space created, secure a deep underhook, and turn up on your other elbow.

You usually want your head tighter to the guys chest than in this picture.

Now you can either ditch the lockdown and go to the Old School sweep, or maintain the lockdown and go to the Electric Chair sweep/submission.

Foot grabbing action

Old School Sweep:
- You're in half guard, with lockdown and a deep underhook.
- Reach under your opponent and grab under his foot (palm up)
- Put your head to the ground.  Use it to base and stick your ass up in the air.  This allows you to get to your knees.
- Pull the leg towards you and push with your head towards the opponent's chest to complete the sweep.

Electric Chair submission position

Electric Chair Submission/Sweep:
- You're in half guard, with lockdown and a deep underhook.
- You reach for the Old School sweep, but the opponent bases his leg out wide.
- Dive your head in towards the leg that's based out.  Grab under it with the hand that's on that side.
- Take your other hand and grab under the opponent's rib cage and pull him up on top of you.
- Wrap one arm around his leg and squish it to your ear, while stretching your opponent out with the lockdown.  This is the electric chair submission.
- If that doesn't work, unhook the lockdown and keep driving forwards towards your opponent until you have his back pinned to the mat with the leg you've trapped next to your ear.  You should be able to step over his remaining leg easily into side control.