Langes MMA Artarmon. About 35 attendees. Started at 6 pm and finished about ten to nine, and then only because Anthony suggested some of us might have had jobs to go to in the morning. Great seminar, loved every minute of it.
MAT FIVE!!!
Posture in Closed Guard
“Thumbs up” – Forearms on his body, loose vertical fists with thumbs up. This structure prevents him from grabbing the collar and pulling you down, breaking your posture.
Standing Guard Pass
If you face him front on, it is easy for him to control you. So start working to get an angle, facing one of his shoulders rather than facing him directly.
If he has his R hand in your R collar, shift your weight slightly to the left and take a circular step out with your R foot and post on it. Don’t step up on your L foot, instead turn to your L and let that movement pull your L knee off the mat. Use your R knee to drive into his hips and make him uncomfortable, stressing his ankle lock and starting to open the legs. Your arms are still in thumbs up posture.
“Shakey-shakey” – small lateral steps from side to side as you move slowly back. Elbows remain in. You can maybe push on his R knee with your L hand but keep your elbows in tight. When his legs open, drop to the “holding the tray” posture – elbows are in on the thighs, palms up as if … holding a tray. This prevents him getting his feet on your hips, pulling your arms out, etc etc. You can now start to set up your pass.
This method of standing up in the guard should place very little stress on your lower back.
As you have restricted a number of his options, a common reaction on his part will be to try and work to de la Riva guard on your R leg (because you are at an angle, your L leg is too far away for him to try DLR guard on it). He will grab your R foot and start coming around. Use “The Rapper” to stop this – your elbows stay on your knees, but your hands and forearms pivot up and down and around. Your L hand blocks his R leg, preventing its foot from pushing on your knee. You can either push it down, or hook it with your L arm and lift it. You might even be able to weave your head underneath it. The R hand reaches down between your legs to block him getting his L de la Riva hook in.
From here, two passes:
Keep blocking his DLR hooks with The Rapper. Lift the toes of your R foot and turn the knee out, pivoting on the heel, with the body following. He may adjust and you may take a few attempts. Once you reach “3 o’clock” change your level, dropping down on both knees, with your R knee going over his L thigh, pinning it to the floor. You should be able to work the knee-through pass from here.
Trap the back of his L calf in the crook of your L elbow. You can angle your head away to your L. Lift his R leg and cause it to straighten by pushing on the knee with your R hand – you need to consider angles as he may be turning his knee inward to make it more difficult for you to lift the leg. Flaring the elbow out while lifting the leg also greatly helps. Keep lifting and stepping clockwise into him with your L foot until his leg is straight and you can push your hip into it. From here you should find it fairly easy to pass around/under his L leg. If you need to free your R foot from his L grip to complete the pass, grab his grip itself with your R hand, then kick/pull your foot free. You should now have passed.
Also try to get double underhooks on both legs, which obviously sets up the double leg pass.
Side control
In side control, “tame the beast” by getting the crossface and far underhook. Turn the hands to face up. As he attempts to hip escape, lift both his head and far shoulder, and keep chasing his hip with yours. It’s not how hard you pin his upper body but how well you control his hip with yours that makes for good control on the side.
If he gets the far underhook (in this example you have side control on his R and his L arm is underhooking your R), pin his neck and head to the floor with your L elbow, and try to swim your R arm so that you now have the underhook. Then return to “taming the beast”.
Getting the mount
From side control, you need to get a “broken wing”, separating his near side elbow from his body, so he cannot do an elbow/knee escape. You could then slide a knee across his torso in preparation for going to the mount.
If he is blocking your knee through with his leg(s) when you have side control on his R, use “the controller”. Your R arm comes back from the underhook position to slide back over his hips, with your elbow on his L hip. This creates a buffer to create space for your R knee to get in. Moving it in (slightly toward his head) then back out will give you the best chance of forcing your R knee in. You can bring your L knee up as well to get a double knee ride and to force the broken wing. but drive your R knee to the floor, then slap the shin to prevent his getting half guard. If your shin gets stuck on his hips by his legs, free it by taking your head over to his right, which will then allow you to rotate it out and shin slap on the mat.
Control the far elbow and pull it up and you transition to the mount to prevent elbow/knee escape
He may turn completely away from you to avoid the kneeride and mount. If this happens, bring your L elbow in front of his face and use it to pull his head back towards you. Put your chest on his near shoulder to flatten him out. Grab his far knee and straighten him up as you step over to mount.
Choke from mount – jackhammer, elbow slice, angle, unequal grips, head position, dealing with “judo man”, stopping the B&R, if he rolls you, tell the secret, pull the rope
If you feel unstable when you get mount, the best way to stop the guy from getting you off him is to keep him fully occupied with unrelenting attack.
Cross Collar choke from mount
If he is protecting his neck tightly with his hands, it can be difficult to get them in. Get both hands on a leopard paw / ginger fist and “jackhammer” them through the defence, driving both hands through his hands one side at a time repeatedly until you can get grips on the collars. Get the first hand in, fingers inside, the second hand over the top, thumb inside. Drive the jackhammer from the shoulders, not just the biceps/triceps.
As with the guard pass, you do not want to stay square on to the guy. Take your head off to the side at an angle, the side that your top (thumb in) hand is pointing to. The pull with the arms should not necessarily be symmetrical either. Put your head on the floor off to that side. You can come up slightly on the foot on the other side for better base.
If he blocks the choke with his arms so his elbow are up, use your chest and shoulders to move them away. Get your head closer to the floor so you do not face or head plant too violently if he tries to bridge and roll.
If he does try to bridge and roll, he should only be able to go one way, because your weight is off to the side. You can stop him from rolling you by pulling hard on the collar with the underneath arm and posting on the fist of the top arm.
If you get your R hand in first, fingers in, but he blocks you getting your second hand in by blocking his L side of his neck with his L hand, use the “elbow slicer” to remove the hand. Take your L elbow under his hand and slice it back, pulling the hand across to your L, giving you the space to get your R hand in to complete the grips for the choke.
Some guys will cross their hands to stop you getting the choke grips, a configuration Carlos calls the “judo man”. In this case, with his R hand on top, put your L hand on his elbow, R hand on the wrist, and drive put with bodyweight as if going for the figure 4. This should allow you space to get the first hand into his collar.
If he does manage to roll you while you have choke grips, do not lie flat, instead use your arms to pull your head up close to his ear and “tell him a secret.” He will find it much harder to get posture.
From here, instead of trying to finish the choke the usual way by pulling your elbows back and down, Instead, “pull the rope”, pretending you have a loop of rope around his neck and you are pulling the ends outward to try and straighten it and choke him.
MAT FIVE!!!