It has been 2 weeks since I last trained, I tried to come in last Wednesday but they were testing. Rodrigo ran warmups and taught the first technique, then Greg finished up the rest of the class. It was great to take a class from him again, it has been years (literally). He is such a technical teacher and has such great anecdotes that really bring his lessons to life.

This day (and the next couple weeks apparently) was devoted to “bad positions”. So we worked a counter to a hip throw and how to work out of a failed shot.

Hip-Throw Counter

This technique was supposed to be used if your opponent attempts to hip throw you from a standing position.

1. Start in a standing tie-up, one hand on lapel, the other on the elbow.  Your opponent steps in, shoots his hand around your back as if about to throw you.
2. Counter by immediately clamping down your arm around the arm he shoots in with.  This is very similar to a wizzer, except instead of cranking down, keep your head tight and grab your own lapel with the wizzering arm.
3. Grab their lapel (the other one) with your other hand.  Then transition your hand on your lapel to your other bicep.  You should end up with a figure-four around their arm holding their lapel.
4. Take your far leg and put it behind their knee as your fall to your back.  Use your leg and your arms to roll them over you.  You should end up in side control.

While this move is a little hard to describe it felt very natural.  Just falling was enough to get my partner (about my size) to roll over me even when he resisted.  The hand transitions can be done pretty slowly if you lock down tight, use your head and create friction between the gis.

Failed Shot

Sprawl reversal

This was the first of 3 techniques that you might use from a failed shot.  When you shoot and fail, the first thing you want to do is control an arm to prevent them from taking your back.  This technique assumes that you have control of an arm.

1. Start with your opponent sprawling on you, you’re on your knees.
2. Grab control of one of their arms and pull it tight underneath you.  You want to put your shoulder into the middle of their bicep, this is important to prevent the guillotine.
3. Drive hard into this arm, post up the opposite leg and use it to roll your opponent (think russian arm drag for how to use their arm).  This will roll your opponent when you get the angle correct.
4. As soon as your opponent rolls, control his near leg.  Always control the near leg to prevent them from taking (re-taking) guard.  Then plow them until they are on their back.  You should have their arm and near leg and side control when you are done.

Opponent takes your back

This technique is done if you cannot take control of their arm and they take your back (referee’s position).  This is very similar to the chicken wing in wrestling.

1. Hook whichever arm is below your shoulders.  Keep it very tight.  Your opponent cannot choke you with just one arm, so keep control of one of them.
2. Grab your opponents pant leg with your other arm (behind you)
3. Roll over your partner on the shoulder of the arm that you control.  This is very important, otherwise you roll right into a choke.  Roll over your clear shoulder.  Use their pant leg and your arm control to prvent them from basing out.
4. Keep control of both limbs and plow into them to roll them flat.  You know have side control or scarf hold, etc.

Opponent has one hook in

If you oppoenent takes your back and manages to get one hook in you are in trouble.  This technique is another roll that attempts to clear you out of that.

1. Control an arm and try to get it under your own.  Hook behind their elbow if you can and keep it tight as in the above technique.  If possible control the arm opposite the hook so you can grab the pant leg of the leg hooking you, but this is not necessary.
2. Roll on the shoulder of the arm that you are controlling.  Control your opponents leg with your other arm.
3. Work your way out of the hook while controlling your opponents leg and then roll over guard, side-control, mount, etc.

This technique felt very similar to how you escape from 2 hooks, except its way easier to base out and using a hand if you can spare one makes it easier to shed the hooks.

We didn’t roll at all during this class, but thats ok, I was pretty gassed.  Greg talked a lot at the end of the class and it was really helpful, a few takeaways that I had:

• Always control your opponents near leg when you are in side control, they really can pull guard then.  Straighten your arm if possible.
• Always turn toward the legs in a scramble.  This is where positions are made or lost.
• Your opponent can’t choke you with one arm, just control one solidly.
• Gi action is much slower.  Just try to win inches.  Inches add up, so if you can gain an inch and hold, gain an inch and hold you will end up in a good position.
• Always be deliberate.  This is a very very important one for me.   I think that is why I have been having a tough time improving (aside from lack of practice ).  I need to always know what the outcome of my next move will be.  Stop creating scrambles.  I like to create scrambles because I am fast and strong enough that I generally end up in a good position when the dust settles, but that is keeping me from improving.  If I always know exactly what I think the result of each technique will be I can do a few things:
  • If the technique succeeds then I can become more strategic and hone the array of moves I use, when I use them, etc.
  • If it fails I can figure out why.  Was I in the wrong position?  Bad technique?  Too weak?  Knowing the answer to this is how you get better.

All in all, I really enjoyed it.  It was fun to work with Greg again and I think the advice about being deliberate will really help me going forward.