The seminar was held at Langes MMA, North Manly.
Escapes
Escapes happen either before the position is locked in, or after.
Side control survival position
You are underneath his side control. He is on your right. His L arm is under your head. You should bring your feet up toward your butt and lift your heels off the ground. Grab around the top of his L arm with both hands so the blade of your L forearm will dig into his throat and cause him to choke himself if he gives you too much downward pressure. Your R elbow digs into his L hip a bit as well. Per Kit Dale / Nic Gregoriades’ “Porcupine” concept.
Running Man Escape
He is on your right side and back trying to consolidate a side control. You are on your L side facing away from him. For the purpose of practice, both his arms are behind you.
Your R hand is under the L side of your jaw protecting your neck against his attempt to grab your collar with his L. Your R elbow is tucked in tight, R knee is drawn up, L foot in front of R foot otherwise your legs will get tangled in the next move.
Crunch your L elbow and L thigh together, them bump, pushing your L knee away from him, pushing with your R foot. Bring your R foot over the top with a big step and turn face down, going to your knees. Your R hand should be in a good position to grab a wrist or other part of his anatomy to keep him under control.
Dealing with the arm, getting the underhook
Same starting position as above, but now his R arm is in front of your body, perhaps looking to control your L elbow so you cannot go to your knees. You are going to underhook his R arm with your R arm, but you need to drop the side of your head to the floor to stop his L hand grabbing your collar before you can take your R hand away from your jaw.
So, drop your L ear to the floor as you grab his R arm with your L. Move his R arm away with your L so you can get your R arm under his. You can now bump as before but also use the R underhook and shoulder to push him up over your head to clear more space for your running escape. The movement with your R arm to shuck him overhead is like looking at your watch or the Bon Sao from Wing Chun.
Do not be afraid to use multiple bumps to improve your position and corrode his before finishing your escape. You should be able to come to your knees holding onto his R arm.
You can also push on his R hand with your L in a sort of “chopping” motion to move his weight off you even more effectively. Be careful not to hurt your training partner’s arm.
If he is pressuring too tight for you to get the underhook, just roll onto your back a bit, creating enough space to sneak your R elbow through to get the underhook. Then get back on your side and continue with the escape.
If he has you flat
Assume the survival position mentioned above. Push/pull his head or whatever you can grab (more below)to create enough space to get on your L side facing away from him, feeding your R arm through to achieve one of the facing away positions described above. Proceed with the running escape from here.
If he is passing your guard
As he comes around to your R, turn on your R side to face him and assume the “Machado Bruce Lee” position – R hand near your R cheek to stop the crossface, L hand down near the knot of your belt with the elbow tight to your L side. He will then fall into side control with your arms in perfect position to claim the underhook on his R arm.
Machado Bruce Lee – because the arm position is quite similar to that of Bruce Lee’s “small phasic bent knee stance” from the Tao of Jeet Kune Do.
From here, on your R side, use the underhook and your L knee to bump him overhead, multiple times if necessary, until you have enough space to post on his hip and move your hips away to go to your knees, or reestablish your guard. You can also bump with the other knee or both knees. Sometimes you think you have a great position after one or two bumps, but an extra bump will make it even better.
If he wizzers to counter the Machado Bruce Lee
If he tries to counter your underhook with a wizzer (by overhooking your underhook, hide your L hand by putting it near your L hip. Clamp down on his arm with yours, use your R knee to move his weight up over your head, roll onto your back taking him over the top of you so you finish on top. You need to hide your L hand so that it doesn’t end up trapped under him when you roll him onto his back. Hiding the hand also help keep the underhook tight so he can’t pull his arm out, and also helps prevent the Darce choke.
[Carlos didn’t mention this, but Peter King told me that when Carlos was demonstrating the previous move with the underhook he grabbed Pete’s gi on his back really tightly – which prevented any wizzer attempt. I don’t think you can keep this grip and do the escape properly, but it will stop the wizzer]
Pulling half guard
Once you get the underhook as above, you have the option of “hiding” your R handon the inside of his R knee and grabbing his pants. Now if you bump him with your top knee, you may be able to lift his weight off his R knee, lift his R leg with your R hand, and wrap your legs around it to pull half guard.
Sweeps from half guard
You use the “bump” with the top L knee here as before to move him up and over your head, but if you combine it by by scissoring the bottom R leg down at the same time for a “scissor bump”, the effect will be even more pronounced. Several scissor bumps will get him in a great position to grab his L foot for either the “Old School” sweep (knocking him over to your R), or the “Twist Back” (rolling him over the top of you to your L).
There is of course a whole gamut of other techniques from here – electric chair, stoner control / vaporizer, dogfight, drowning wizard, etc. etc.
Attacking the Turtle
He is turtled. You have side/back control on his R side.
Grab his R ankle with your L hand, his R knee with your R hand. Drive your head between his torso and thigh, in deep. Get a Gable grip around his R knee, pull in tight, drive into him with your L shoulder. Use any push back to set up the next move. Move your feet toward his and roll him over the top of you onto his back.
If he posts to stop the roll you may be able to grab his far knee and push him over onto his L hip.
If he spreads out with his hands and L foot so you cannot roll him, keep spinning under him and pop out between his legs behind him, keeping control of his R leg.
Stopping the guard pass with the cross grip
He is passing around to your R. Get a grip on his R sleeve with your L hand. Meeting his arm using a backfist movement with your open hand, then turning it over to get the grip, seems to work well. Use a stiff L arm stay on you R side, and keep pushing his R hand down between his legs. This makes it very hard for him to put his weight on you.
From here, pin his R hand to the may, crunch and get your R elbow on the ground. Post on that elbow and move your hips away so you can either go to your knees or reestablish your guard.
There is also a reversal from here where you spin your head underneath him, grab his belt and roll him over you.
Pull and push
If he gets in close grab an arm or something with both hands, pull in hard then push away. Follow with several small hip escapes to create space to reestablish your guard. Depending on his reactions you may also be able to push him onto his back or over your head.
Scrambler’s recipe
As he passes your guard to your R, get the cross grip on his R sleeve with your L hand.
From here, you can go to your knees or reestablish guard, or …
If the opportunity arises, you can pass the R sleeve to your R hand as you underhook his R arm with your L. From here, the whole Machado Bruce Lee set of options are available, underhook escapes, pull half guard, etc.
If he jumps or spins to the other side so he is behind you, you are in position to work your Running Man escapes.
If he gets in close, pull and push.
If he gives you space, grab the cross grip again.
And you can keep switching between these options, depending on what he does.
Boss grip
The Boss grip is a same side grip on his lapel, e.g. grabbing his R lapel with your L hand.
He is in your closed guard. Push him away with your legs, then pull him back and get the Boss grip on his R collar with your L hand, and grip his L sleeve with your R hand. Push away again, release the grip with your ankles but keep squeezing his waist with your knees, and get both feet on his hips. Push with your legs now to move your hips away from him and sit up.
You can keep pushing and pulling him back and forth, which will help set up the next moves.
Modified Basic Sweep
Following the moves above, if he finishes with his head even slightly ahead of his hips, you can sweep him. Crunch and fall onto your R shoulder, at the same time dropping your R foot to the mat outside his L knee. Push his R hip back with the ball of the L foot and push his L knee across to your right, so that the legs still scissor like the regular basic sweep, pull with the R arm and push with the L boss grip, knocking him over to your R.
If done properly his pelvis should turn around its vertical axis. (Vertical if he was standing, that is)
You can also put your R foot on the front of his L knee and stomp it directly back – but the properly executed sweep will still involve the rotation of the pelvis as described above.
Push forward and knock him over
If you are unable to pull him forward off his base and his spine remains vertical, keep the boss grip, but instead post on your R hand (crunch on your R side, come up on your R elbow and then your hand), put your R foot under your butt and use the posting R hand to push forward, rolling over the R shin, coming up onto the L foot and standing up, and using the boss grip to knock him over to one side. His head position will decide which side is best to push him towards, though often using a backfist type motion to push him over to your L is less anticipated than the other side. You would need to watch out for armbars here … though these too are maybe harder for him to grab if you push him to your L rather than to the R.
Observations
None of these techniques require speed, strength, flexibility or athleticism. They are not complicated. Pretty much anyone could do the movements. They are simple, almost to the point where you can’t believe you never thought of them before. This is in my opinion the essence of Jiu Jitsu.
The seminar was extremely information dense and went about 45 minutes over time. I may have missed a few important points. Please contact me and let me know if you think I missed anything.
Love Carlos Machado's seminars. This is gold, thanks Andrew!