Held at Langes MMA, North Manly.
Passing open guard
You are standing, he is controlling both your sleeves. Bring elbows in to your thighs and rotate the palms up – as if holding a tray. This should stop him getting his feet in your hips.
Squat and go heavy on him with your hips, pressure forward. Drop down to one knee, still heavy on him with your hips. The other knee should be flared out so he cannot get an outside hook.
To get grips on his pants at the knee, move your head away from the targeted knee and “look at your watch” with the hand on that side, raising the elbow and getting the grip, then the other side.
If he is strong and you cannot easily get the grip, use the knee on that side behind his hamstring to drive his leg to a position where you can get the grip. Then the other side.
If he gets a foot on your bicep, either from underneath or over the top, “hide” your hand behind his calf, turn the head and upper body and roll your elbow over the top of his shin, then use the forearm to push his leg down on top of the other to pass. You may need to reinforce this with footwork, taking small steps toward that side until your hip is pushing into his leg along with the use of the elbow.
Passing closed guard
You are kneeling inside his guard, he is controlling both your sleeves again. Move your head and upper body to the right, making it possible to step up on your left foot, right next to his hip. Use your hip and knee to torque against his guard, restricting his movement. Stand up on the other foot, slightly staggered to avoid the back sweep. Use posture and climb your hands back until you can grab his belt or his pants near his hips. Step laterally to either/both sides to put extra pressure on his guard. Don’t move straight back, zig zag. If his guard remains closed, go back to your knees, but do not allow him to pull you in closer and lose the ground you have gained. Move side to side, “zombie”-fashion, and keep pressure on his guard.
You can alternate between standing and kneeling as often as necessary. Be patient, do not rush.
Once his legs open, you can move your head to one side, creating a gap to get your elbow in on the other side., and then perhaps getting a knee up. Drop that knee to the floor and start setting up a knee through pass. Do not rush. drive your head forward into the “tunnel” per the previous Carlos seminar and start working the pass. Control the hip on the other side to the knee with the arm and hand on that side. Wait for his reactions and steadily improve your position. Don’t worry about the grips, just keep him under control using your weight. My practice here indicates you want to try and get an underhook … eventually. Just so he can’t grab your legs and start working half guard chicanery or similar. If he has a half guard death grip on the other leg, you can push on his legs with the ball of the knee-through foot to free it. But work slowly and patiently, no big or drastic moves.
Hook flip from butterfly guard
He is kneeling in your guard. Open your guard, take your head over to your left. come up on your left elbow and get your right hand in his right collar in the “Who’s the boss?” grip. Get your left foot on his right hip, right foot on his left thigh. Swing your head and torso to the right, pulling him down and past you to the right with your right hand grip, at the same time reaching over his shoulder and around his back and grabbing belt or cloth, and get your left hook inside his R thigh. His face should be close to the mat and you on your right side with him to your right. Your R hand now moves to grab his left collar. Lift with the hook, “walk” to your right using your right foot and pull and or push on his collar to sweep him.
If he posts on his left hand, move your right hand to his elbow and “chop”, pulling his elbow in and removing the post. Continue with the sweep.
If you still can’t sweep him this way, you can move your hips to your right, get on your left side and use your right hook to sweep him back the other way.
Carlos has released a streaming video called “Unstoppable – secrets of the hook flip” or similar, which goes into this move in great detail at
He has another video called Domination there as well, which is about wrist control, and is excellent as well. Each costs $19 US to rent for a year.
Survival attitude from the bottom
Keep your elbows and hands in. Get a grip on whatever limb he gives you with both hands. Pull him towards you rather than push him away. Breathe slowly. Carlos recommends a three count exhalation or 1-2-12. If there are no openings, jut lift your hips off the floor and “walk around” a bit using one foot. This is very hard to explain, better just trying it out.
Top game, extracting the arms
You have side control on his right side. Hips are heavy on his right arm, immobilizing him. you can use head drive or similar techniques to extract the left arm.
Walk around from side control through front control to the other side and back, pressuring his arms and trying to create a gap. If he pushes you away with one arm, say the right, swim your right arm under his armpit and reach toward his head with your hand. Move around to side control, facing toward his head so that his right arm is now trapped between your torso and right arm with your weight on it and his upper arm pinched in your armpit. He cannot use his right arm now. You can forearm choke him with your left thumb in his collar from here. You can also hold his left arm down with yours to stop him turning towards you and come up in a short base, flipping your right foot up toward his ear, setting up the snap armbar with his right wrist trapped in your right armpit.
