October 2022

I’ve addressed this scenario in class multiple times over the years. Rivas lives in this position. I never really believed in Lachlan’s sweep once the top person cleared the legs:

Y’all know I’ve got a lot of love for Lachlan, but frankly I think the top player in this example is moving terribly. If you walk in slow circle around the head and then put yourself into a straight line with the bottom guy who has control of the arm, of course you could get knocked over. Why would you move like that? If I’m trying to unwind the kimura grip and transition into the arm bar position, I am going to step my leg directly over my opponent to the other side, behind his back. There, I maintain a solid base and can twist my hips over him. Unless there’s a major strength advantage, I don’t feel like I’m going to get pushed over there. I’m not in a hurry to flop back into an armbar either. That’s almost always an error for an armbar from the top. I don’t want my weight to come off of my opponent, I want to keep it on him as much as possible. Still, we worked on the position from top and bottom and then did full speed situational drills with everyone. The results consistently favored the Hughes vs GSP 1 outcome:

Rivas loves it so much, we gave it another shot at open mat today. Kimura grip from the bottom with no guard. The first results were the same.

Then, Rivas started extending his grip more. I found that when I spun to the other side, I was losing his arm, and therefore control of him. The problem seemed to be where our elbows were. If our arm entanglement compressed, I could force my captured arm under his elbow and effectively reverse the grip on him. When his grip extended out, I couldn’t get the hook on his arm and any armbar attempts were destined for failure as he could pull right out and come up.

For a few rounds after that, I found myself abandoning the armbar and driving my knee across his torso to land in mount. This was eventually denied by turning his hips to face me and hip escaping. Then, he was able to get his legs back into position while maintaining a grip that was quite uncomfortable to my shoulder. It didn’t seem to be an immediate finishing position, but it felt like a setup to the Swim Move as 10P would call it:

This is an ongoing investigation, but I’m not feeling so dismissive of that kimura grip anymore.