MMA strategy – Under Mount
Opponent is on top, punching.
- SHELL. open hands or closed gloves in the forehead, elbows down and close together, stopping him moving up to your armpits, keeping him low on your hips. Crunch up to reduce the area to be covered and keep the head off the floor. Hands must remain on the head and the structure kept tight so that it cannot be disrupted by sideways blows, etc.
- BUCK. Bridge hard, bucking him overhead so he puts his hands on the floor.
- LASSO. Encircle one of his arms with both of yours. As he comes back to try to regain punching posture, pin his elbow to your chest and trap his foot in the same side with yours.
- ROLL. Standard bridge and roll reversal, ending in his closed guard, with proper posture.
MMA strategy – Under Guard
Opponent is on top, punching. You hold him in closed guard.
- SHELL. As for the mount.
- PULL. Pull him in and onto your shell with your legs. DO NOT OPEN THE SHELL UNTIL HE HITS YOUR ELBOWS WITH HIS CHEST. Premature unshelling may open gaps you will get hit through.
- SWIM. Your arms over his upper arms to get double overhooks. Keep it tight – this is the only control point once you open your closed guard.
- STRETCH. Place your feet on the floor between his and underhook his insteps with yours. Stretch his legs and hips out, either pushing his feet away or pushing your body back until he is flat on his stomach on you.
- HOOKS. Get your hooks in, feet under his thighs, probably one at a time.
- SWEEP. When he moves to try and regain posture, sweep him with your hooks to mount.
Drill both mount and guard strategies as a continuous drill, using bark commands (below).
Bark Commands
Bark commands are single (2 at most) syllable commands which are used to describe a move in sequence.
Used by the military for weapons procedures – why not defensive tactics also?
E.g. for the MMA strategy under the mount, then guard described earlier:
SHELL / BUCK / LASSO / ROLL – SHELL / PULL / SWIM / STRETCH / HOOKS / SWEEP – …
The advantages of bark commands are:
- Allows easy recall by students, mnemonic device
- Avoids the “Chinese Whisper” syndrome when the same thing is taught by a succession of teachers
- Works at the “Speed of Life” – meaning it can be drilled at fighting speed
- Allows the pacing of the class to be handed over to any student, while instructors can move around and address individual issues
- Allows higher work rate and number of repetitions, encouraging both skill development and cardio
It is important to move out of the slow, interrupted drilling and detailed explanation phase into “life speed” ASAP. For every rep you do at the slow unrealistic pace, you need to do 8 life speed reps to “undo” the habits.
Is not a model that can be used for everything but certainly fits a lot of things very well. (I found it worked very well for sweeps, not so good for armbars from the mount). Works for Wing Chun and other standup as well.
Arm Triangle/Darce choke
- Against side control escape
You have side control on his right side. He is attempting to escape by turning toward you. Thread your right arm under his left armpit and neck. Grab the back of his head with your left hand and pull, helping you get your right arm through under his neck as deep as possible. His left arm should now be under your chest, your right upper arm wedged into his armpit. Slide your left elbow over the back of his head and drive it down and in until you can grab the crook of your left elbow tightly with your right hand. Put your left hand on his back, and sprawl on his shoulder while squeezing tightly with your arms for the choke.
- From head to head
You have sprawled on top of him. Slide your right knee outside his left elbow to prevent the sitout/switchout when you slide your arm under his chest. Turn to face his left side as you slide your right arm over his left arm, under his chest and coming out under the right side of his neck. Reach over the back of his neck with your left hand and grip your right hand with your left in a gable grip. Drive and turn him with your arms to put him on his right side facing you, in a similar position to 1. Your right hand is already in position; grab you r left elbow with it and finish the choke as in 1.
- From crossface
Get the crossface with his right arm trapped between you, perhaps from front control, getting your elbows in his armpits and then moving around to side control on his right, dragging his left elbow with your left elbow and then sliding your left forearm under his head to complete the crossface. Allow/encourage him to turn toward you to relieve the pressure, and when he does slide your right arm under his left arm and neck as in 1. Complete the choke as in 1.
- From failed kimura
You have got the kimura on his left arm from front control, but he has grabbed his left hand with his right to counter/stall. Keep hold of his left arm with yours, but slide your right arm between your chest and his left upper arm, then under his neck, while moving to side control on his right. Your right arm is now in position for the choke – complete it as in 1.
- From guard pass counter
He is passing your guard around to your right. Sit up and overhook his left arm with your right, while grabbing under his neck with your left arm like a front choke. join your hand in gable grip and cinch in tight. As he keeps coming, run your feet anticlockwise and roll underneath him, rolling him over the top of you like a rolling reversal. Keep rolling until you end up in side control on his right; your right arm will now be in position to apply the choke as in 1.
- From failed guard pass counter
You attempt the reversal as in 5 above, but it stalls with him in the top position. No matter, your right arm is still in position to apply the choke from underneath.. Pull his head down with your left to drive your right arm through, drive your left elbow in, grab the crook of your left elbow with your right hand, place your left hand on his back and squeeze to apply the choke.
The Hourglass and Showerhead teaching models
A common teaching model used in BJJ is the “showerhead” model; You start off in a single position and learn multiple moves from there. For example, start in X guard and show a variety of sweeps. The problem with this model is that no one gets shown how to achieve the starting position, X guard, so the students have little opportunity to apply the moves in sparring.
The Hourglass model, on the other hand, shows multiple ways to get into the initial position … and then maybe one sweep or finish from there. This way students are much more likely to attain the position in sparring, and then get to use the cool sweeps, finishes, etc. Once they get good at achieving the position, then show them more moves from there.
More on the Hourglass teaching model:
http://bjj-australia.blogspot.com/2007/07/hourglass-training-model.html