The seminar was held at Rick Spain’s gym, in Redfern.
I was unable to attend as I was refereeing at a Machado kid’s Jiu Jitsu competition at the Northern Beaches PCYC at Dee Why.
These notes were compiled by Matt Klein, with assistance from Pete McKay, and March d’Atalia. Excellent job. I can tell you that taking and transcribing notes really helps you retain and absorb the material. I do this out of enlightened self-interest.
General
The trouble with escapes is that we look at our situation as a static problem. It is, in fact, a dynamic problem. As we work our escapes, a good opponent will change positions, and the better they are, the sooner they will do it, making our escapes much harder. It is like “our tennis match all of a sudden becomes a rugby game”, in John’s words. He uses the example of Khabib Nurmagomedov in the UFC. He is the best, because he is so good at fixing the problem of dealing with your escapes, and going back to punching you. He does this better than anyone, in John’s estimation. To be good at escaping, we must assume our opponent is going to move. This is easy, but nuanced.
We also need to go above and beyond the ability to use it for self defence. We can use most of our techniques very successfully against an attacker on the street, but to really master them we must be able to use them against higher level BJJ practitioners. It is very unlikely that someone on the street can mount you, but on the BJJ mats if someone is mounting you, they are likely to be at least as good as you. You must train for this. You must ask the question, “When I do escape, what will happen next
Mount Escapes
Upa Escape
Opponent is riding low on our body, as we were pre-emptive and kept our elbows in, so they cannot move up higher into high mount. They attack our neck with their right hand for a choke. We grab it at the wrist with our right hand. We knee them in the back with one of our legs to drive them forward, and as they come forward we trap head by hooking our left hand over their neck.
Now we are becoming the attacker, and it will be hard for them to escape that position. He had us test this by having the guy on top try to escape from it, and it was difficult.
Next, we hook O’s right foot by bringing our left foot over their lower leg. We want to flare our left knee out to the left, further trapping his right leg with our knee and thigh, to make any attempts he makes to free his right foot much more difficult. From this point we only must flatten our left leg to the left a bit and do a small upa, to throw our opponent to the side of us.
John made it very clear we are not to come to the top right away, because we want to be in a better position than merely being caught in their guard, which is what generally happens when we continue rolling to top.
He then explained that the guy who was $100,000 in debt was very proud because he got out of debt, but in essence he was still behind, because he spent all that effort to get merely where he should have been at the start. We need to go one step further.
So, instead of rolling to the top, we stay on our side, and drive our right knee between O’s legs, and as you start to come up on top look for the underhook with your right arm. Turn your knee towards your left without rising up (I made this mistake and it gives O room to escape) by just turning your hips from right to left, so you are then on your right hip instead, and you are now in position for cross knee cut, which you do by sliding your knee through to your left at about 45 degree angle.
Finish not in scarf hold or modified scarf hold, but in side control.
Leg Drag Escape To Guard Recovery
We are in mount, and our O has kept their toes together as they should, making the upa much harder as they are locked on to us.
To create space for this escape, raise your hips slightly off the ground, move your hips to left, and then violently to right, to get the space between O’s feet to put our left leg flat to mat between them (John called this “hammering the nail”), and it was a common theme today for creating space when on the bottom.
We are now on our left side, which will make it easier to drag our right foot over O’s right lower leg, hooking it with our heel. We pull them into our quarter guard, as John called it.
You then have the room and the space to bring your right foot out and place it on O’s left hip, and then you can do the same with your left foot to O’s right hip, recovering guard.
The little details like hammering the nail and the seesaw are what John calls “developing a palate for the details”, and is what is in common with the best people in BJJ. If your technique calls for eight movements, and you leave out two, it will be like making an omelette without the eggs. You must take time to master the details.
Side Control Escapes
We have to look at side control from two directions; preventive, as in not letting O establish a tight top position on us in the first place, and worst case scenario, as in what to do if we are in the worst possible position with O already in a tight top position, from which it will take some effort to escape. A 50/50 balance on the two situations is good coaching in BJJ.
He used the analogy of a brilliant math teacher who trains under him, who when performing the move left a few things out, and John had to explain to her that the math equation did not balance, as there were things missing on one side. He was explaining it to her in a language she could understand. You must train the techniques from both sides.
Escape From Tightest Side Control
O is in top side control, with crossface and your right arm trapped by their elbow and knee coming together.. Your left hand is unable to exert any upward pressure on O as it is also above your opponents right shoulder.
We must chip away at the problems, one at a time.
First, move your hips horizontally to the left, and then violently to the right, “hammering the nail” against O’s right thigh/hip area, at the same time driving your head to the left. This should give you enough space to free your elbow.
Next, bring your left hand over O’s head, and not floating up high where O can trap it for submission, to their right shoulder, and then start bumping vertically, which will free your elbow to come under O’s chin.
You now have your frames. Once your frames are in place, go to your standard guard recovery by bridging into O, then hip escaping, and driving your bottom knee through the gap, and using the knee as a lever to get your body to 180 degrees from O.
Running From the Bear, to Chasing the Bear
This time your O follows you when you are trying to escape your hips out by bringing their right knee in close to you.
Instead of trying to run, sometimes as John explains, it is better to turn around and chase the bear, yelling and screaming”. The bear is not used to this type of behaviour, gets confused, and in most cases, will run.
As O follows with their knee you turn your hips into them harder, then bridge and hip escape. You disrupt their timing. You bridge into then to escape, they follow your hips with their knee. This may happen a few times. Bridge into them one more time, and disrupt their timing by bridging had a second time. In essence the same concept used in striking on the half beat or with broken rhythm in stand up striking.
You can even catch them off guard further by blocking their left knee with your elbow, and when you bridge, and they start driving back into you, use their momentum and the knee block to roll theem over you, running your feet around them clockwise, into side control – you on top now..
Opponent Switches Base To Modified Scarf Hold
As John said, the best players will change the game as you are in the process of your escapes, so in this case, as you are working your guard recovery, they switch base to a position most resembling a modified scarf hold in Judo, but they have not yet gotten control of your neck or bottom arm.
You create a “plate of glass” as John called it, in which you use your arms to create a wall, which will prevent your opponent from getting a tighter position and also aid in your escape.
Your left arm is framed against their chest and your right against their hips. Your arms should be at about a ninety degree angle. They are not meant to push O away but to hold them in position.
You then walk your left foot to your right, and then as you drive your hips up and to the right, insert your right knee under O’s hips. Then flatten your left leg, hip escape a little to your right, and turn towards left, lifting O over and to your left.
This move worked almost effortlessly when we trained it.
Positional Rolling
We finished by working these escapes from side control and trying to chain them together against a resisting O for two minutes each.
John called this the template for escaping, when our opponent will move from one position to another, and we must adjust our escapes to that.
Questions
Pete McKay then asked for a clarification on one of the moves, the guard recovery from mount. John explained the seesaw effect created by separating his legs, which put further weight on lower side of seesaw, enabling the upper side to rise much easier.
March d’Atalia also needed further clarification on the Chasing the Bear concept. Does this mean that we are effectively making the predator feel like prey by turning the tables on them?
Matt Klein then asked for clarification on the best preventive side control position on bottom, and whether we should concern ourselves more with the crossface, or blocking O’s hips as they obtain side control. John answered that the crossface will cause us the biggest problems, and so that should be our first focus.
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