Qurbit Blog
Slaying My Laplacean Demon
Workout 3/11/08
Mar 13th
Tuesday’s workout was very similar to Monday’s. We did some killer warmups and then worked on our takedowns. Instead of working the single leg at the end however we worked the High Crotch.
High Crotch Double Leg
Contrary to what the name would lead you to believe you are actually not attack the crotch at all. The move used to be performed that way, but outside of traditional wrestling that is less effective as you can be guillotined and other such nasty things. The point of the High Crotch is that you initially perform your shot with your shoulders perpendicular to your opponent’s waist (not parallel) and thus can pass their defense if they are posting on your shoulders.
Step by step:
- Control your opponent and T them up (as you would with a regular double leg)
- If you have inside ties, throw their left arm (your right arm) over your head, and put your right hand in your butt pocket to prevent them from underhooking you
- As you do the above step, twist your shoulders perpendicular to your opponents hips, drop on your left (lead) leg, and wrap your left arm around their left leg down at the ankle. This is used to prevent them from sprawling.
- If you have performed step 3 and 4 correctly, you have a clear angle to step up with your right leg and switch your hands and finish like a normal double leg.
Note that the point here is to twist your shoulders to get inside, prevent the underhook or your rear arm, and grab the ankle to prevent a sprawl. Your standard keep your head up neck tight advice applied here.
On a personal note, I need to make sure on all of my doubles that I clear the lead leg that I’m attacking so that it doesn’t get caught in between my own legs. I know to do this but am just sloppy sometimes. I just need some more reps.
When we hit the mat we worked our standard side control flow. One thing I noticed was that on the straight arm bar (step 2), it helps a lot if you pinch your elbows together to prevent them from having room to roll their arm over.
Rolling was good, I did not get tapped, but was admittedly working with people worse than me. I rolled with a really big guy from the army for a while. He was new so he really just had his strength going for him. The more experienced guys I rolled with were much weaker than me and I had to consciously fight the desire to just muscle in an Americana from mount. I had a lot of success with arm bars in transition.
Workout 3/10/07
Mar 11th
So its been quite a while. Work had gotten crazy and I was putting in ~70 hours the past two weeks, but back to normal now. Aside from both of my big toes being in constant pain still, the time off was good for my body and I don’t think I sacrificed too much cardio. To date I’ve lost a little over 10 lbs now. I’m no longer sticking to the Tim Ferris diet, but am just eating smart. I know what I should and should not be eating and am just trying to exercise some discipline. Body fat percentage is around 18% now.
Yesterday’s workout was a normal BJJ day. We started with your standard Double Leg Take down. For completeness’ sake I’ll post the steps here, but this is one of the few things I’m pretty good at, having wrestled 
Double Leg Takedown
- Position yourself so that your opponent is facing you squarely. That is, your lead leg and their two legs make a T. This makes a big difference as they have no support when they get pushed back. You can do this a variety of ways, head control, etc.
- Drop low on your lead leg, into a sprinter’s stance almost. Keep your back straight and head up! This is essential, as it makes sprawling significantly more difficult and prevents the easy guillotine on you.
- Fall to your lead knee and bring your rear leg up behind and to the side of your opponent, you should be on your left knee and right foot (if you had a left lead), on your opponent’s left side.
- Keep your head tight and look AROUND their back, looking down. You should literally be able to look into their opposite butt pocket of their jeans. My instructor claims that head position on this move is the difference between good and bad wrestlers. Windshield wiper your left leg so you are facing their side now.
- Hand behind their knees, pick up and drive.
This is pretty straight forward, I just need to remember to hunch my shoulders and look up. I know that I drop my head from time to time.
After this we worked the power double. This technique goes as follows:
Power Double
- Start the same as a regular double leg takedown, force a T and step with your lead (left) leg.
- Drop low, but NOT all the way to the ground with your lead leg.
- Keep you head tight and up and drive HARD into your opponent’s solar plexus with your forehead.
- Grab the back of their knees and explode forward.
If you keep your head upright this is a very low risk move. It is hard to sprawl, cross-face, etc. The worst that happens is you stand back up.
Finally we hit the mats and worked on adding a choke to the end of the side control flow that I previously posted on. Once you have attempted to switch to the Kimura andyou cannot step over their head because they are blocking you with their free arm, try the following:
- Lever their body up, head off the mat with the Kimura. We will assuming you are attacking their left arm.
- Instead of stepping over their head, step behind their head and pinch it between your quadricep and left tricep. Keep it very tight. Their right arm should be extended behind you and tight in your left hip.
- Slide your left arm deep and tight around the back of their head as if you were going to try and pin them with a half nelson.
- Keeping all of htis tight, lower your weight on their chest and slowly walk around their body (clockwise). You want to walk their right arm across their neck (as you are going to finish this as a side choke), guiding it with your left knee.
- Ultimately if you can get them on their side, you arm and theirs should be in place, you’ll be in north-south position and you finish the choke.
