side control
octopus guard
I started using the octopus moves shown in this video when people turned to face my legs in my halfguard. I didn’t really want to be there, but I needed some answer when the usual lockdown and underhook sequences were denied to me.
Craig Jones has some cheeky explanations of the reach around guard. He also takes a moment to remind you of the importance of rabbit season vs duck season:
Here’s a more complete take. He’s using some of the same moves as Jones, but explained in more detail. Burrito grip!
We played with the first techniques during class on Wednesday (2/28/24) but the baby bridge near the end might be the most interesting addition:
Side Control
When we returned to side control as a position, we started with transitions to mount:
I love me some Twister side, so this is the mount movement that I use the most:
We also talked about the more traditional knee-across transition:
I’m not a big user of Kimuras or Americanas, so we acknowledged but haven’t spent a lot of time on these yet. We can come back to them.
Boom brought out the Brabo choke a couple months back. I love it. We will also work on the cross and baseball bat chokes that exist in the same neighborhood.
In case you trust it more with an accent:
Countering Stiff Arms
When we were practicing side control defense, we covered stiff arms to prevent guard passers from securing side control. Now Jared just shoves everyone off of him and it’s hard to complete passes on him. How can we deal with that from the top position?
Countering Stiff Arms Read More »
The Ghost Escape
If you’ve ever managed to get Travis in side control but then wondered where the heck he went. He probably did this to you. Coach Brian of TeachMeGrappling is very fond of this move as well and likes to end with a D’Arce choke:
More details for skeptics and struggles from the previous video:
It also works with pajamas on:
Side Control Escapes
We worked on escapes before, but you can always benefit from getting better at escaping. Gordon says it’s the most important thing:
This link is what we covered last time: https://halfguardlife.com/escapes/.
This time, I was specifically looking for video of the first escape shown here:
I found myself attempting variations of that this morning when stronger guys wouldn’t let me do anything else. Note that the video is named 2/3. The 1st video contains the advice on “what to do before you get fully pinned and squeezed:”
The third video of that series contains an entirely different move, which is worth considering down the road, but a bit off the theme of this post.
This next video has a better version of the underhook turn than what I showed Monday (1/10/22) morning. Marcelo still starts with a similar framing concept as the previous video. That portion alone is worth some focus since the rest of the escapes will be blocked if you can’t get out of that head control.
To keep with tradition of this site, here’s my dude Lachlan Giles getting out of side control:
Side Control Escapes Read More »
Bow and Arrow Part 2
I like this idea of skipping the back hooks and going directly into the bow and arrow choke. I often look for it when my opponent is on their side, as in Emily Kwok’s video that I linked on the previous bow and arrow post, but I’ve never thought to force it while their back was still on the mat.
I was looking for an example of performing the choke from back control where both players are on their side. It seems more common in my experience to be on the side, but many of the demonstrations show the attack from a seated, center position. I’m a bit puzzled by the following video from Lachlan Giles. As he’s demonstrating elbow and head position, he briefly falls onto his control arm side, with the choking arm on top. He shows first the consequence of losing the head position, but then shows a quick switch into the bow and arrow choke when the head position is maintained correctly. Following that, he demonstrates a bow and arrow sequence from the opposite side, with the choking arm on the mat side and describes that side as “easier.” Perhaps you notice, as I did, that this “easier” side requires several steps and requires some movement to free your bottom leg compared to the nearly instant transition from the traditional “weak” side. I understand the preference for ukes to escape on that side. It’s easier to win the head positioning and scrape them off your back. With the choking arm on the mat side, there’s more opportunity to reset the back position even if they beat the hooks. However, if the desired destination is a successful bow and arrow choke, it feels easier to me to use good head positioning and the leverage of my legs on the top arm choking side. It’s a simple turn on that side. If the bottom hook was any good, it’s already in position for the choke. Maybe at higher levels the head positioning is that much harder to win? Danaher’s bunch seems to like that side though.
What about the turtle? Get ’em with a bow and arrow there, too:
Bow and Arrow Part 2 Read More »
The Truck
Since we’re working on back positioning, here’s a path to the back. To Ryan Hall it’s a “rolling back attack” but 10th Planet folks would call this “The Truck“:
Here’s the same transition from Edgy Brah:
Baseball Bat Choke
We haven’t really worked on this in class yet, but Eric had some questions about it one day, so I did some research. I had bookmarked these videos before I had this site to hold them for me. I’m sure we’ll get into this eventually. The defensive techniques have already helped me.
Baseball Bat Choke Read More »
Escapes!
This is where we started. At the bottom, getting smashed. Danaher’s video shows the most straightforward approach to making space to pry your way out of bottom side control. In addition to this movement, always look out for free legs. Top players can get greedy or impatient and make sloppy transitions to mount or toward other positions. Be prepared to catch their leg in your half guard and start initiating offense from the bottom.
I’ve always had a harder time escaping side control compared to mount. Mount might offer better submission options than side control, but side control is easier to hold. It’s not necessarily wise in a scored contest, but I often let people move to mount so that I can escape from there. From mount, half guard is only an elbow escape away.
If you’ve had enough philosophy and detail and just want to see the move, this is another simple depiction of it. Here, he demonstrates escaping all the way into full closed guard if you’re into that sort of thing:
The other standard mount escape is a roll. The Umpa escape can be alternated with elbow escapes if the top guy is being tough to shake. Don’t forget that the Umpa will land you in your opponent’s guard. Cross chokes and Ezekiel chokes initiated in mount can still be finished in guard, so you can’t relax your defenses yet because you hit the roll.