Nate taught this no-gi class. This sequence starts from half-guard and relies on body control via good under hooks. I had a lot of trouble with these sweeps because my hip-drive is weak and I wasn’t able to get any power behind my bridge. I need to work on my conditioning and overall strength because I’m a total candy-ass.

Overhook sweep

1. Grapevine opponent’s leg and stretch him out and down
2. Secure over and under hooks
3. Bridge up and towards the over hook side
4. Land in mount or side control

Ankle Sweep variation

If your opponent tries to counter the overhook sweep by posting his hand you can try this variation

1. Switch overhook to underhook by forcefully driving elbow under posted arm
2. Reach down with your other hand and grab opponent’s ankle
3. Reverse bridge direction to complete sweep

This was an unusual day in that Ishmael Bently taught us only one transition and then we drilled it for an entire class. I kind of appreciated that because I’m a dunce and I need a lot of reps before I feel comfortable with a move. After we drilled we had some live goes and I left class pretty discouraged because I wasn’t able to stick this move once even after an hour of drilling.

Butterfly to Half Guard to Back Mount

1. From butterfly guard, grab opponent’s sleeve
2. Drag his arm across your body and sink a hook deep in his armpit
3. Scoot hips forward and to side so that your legs surround your opponent’s leg on the same side as the underhook
4. Reach across opponent’s back and grab lat
5. Spring up onto your opponent’s back
6. Sink in heel hooks while securing over and under control of your opponent’s torso.
7. Stretch opponent out and press him to the mat

Nate Homme taught us this sequence at a no-gi class at MMAA. All of these moves have the same setup. Basically after a scramble you’re behind your opponent but not in back control. First you get over and under grips around his torso. Then you yank his body up so you’ll have room to get a foot between his legs and secure a figure-four around his near-thigh. I had a lot of fun with this sequence.

Wrestler’s Neck Crank (The Twister)
This is a nasty submission. It’s not a blood choke or an air choke but a straight-up bone choke that hurts like a mother.

1. Get over-under control of opp’s body
2. Pull opp’s torso up and sink in a hook
3. Pull opp onto side while securing a figure-four on opponent’s leg
4. Scramble up so you are sitting up and can reach in front of opponent’s body
5. Secure head lock and lean back while keeping opponent’s leg secure
6. Twist opponent’s hips in a different direction than their head

Calf Crank variation

1. Once you have a good figure-four on opponent’s leg, sit up and grab his ankle
2. Secure opponent’s ankle in crook of your elbow and crank his calf against your shin

Step over to rear-naked choke variation

1. Reach under opponent’s body to grab post arm
2. Release figure-four and spring over opponent’s body pulling him down and onto his back
3. Controlling his legs with your hooks, secure a rear-naked choke

Banana Split variation

This is a crazy move, and it’s pretty hard to explain how to do this. Also, it might not work if your opponent is very flexible. Then you’re kinda screwed because the guy’s on top of you.

1. Reach over your opponent’s hips and grab his far leg.
2. Forward roll over your opponent’s hips without releasing your figure four so he ends up in the splits with one of his legs secured by the figure four and his other leg secured by your arms.
3. Pull your opponent’s legs apart

Today Sean Flannery taught us the omo-plata which I’ve seen on television but never in real life. I don’t know what omo plata means but this is a sick submission.

Omo Plata

1. From guard attack your opponent’s sleeves and get sleeve grips
2. Open guard and point toes to side to get hip on ground and create distance
3. Carve knee across opponent’s chest and plant your foot on his hip
4. Plant other foot on opponent’s hip
5. Break down opponent’s elbow by cranking it against your knee and push it down and back
6. Whip leg over your opponent’s back, grabbing it if necessary with your other hand
7. Keep opponent’s belt secure with one hand and his arm secure with other
8. On the opposite side of the omo-plata, plant your foot and scramble to your opponent’s side
9. Now scramble back towards your opponent’s butt so you can sit up
10. Fold legs out and sit up to secure the omo-plata

Triangle variation
If you can’t get the omo-plata you’re in a good position to go for a triangle.

1. Your opponent counters the omo plata by grabbing your free leg thus preventing your scramble
2. Your other leg is still across your opponent’s back so straighten your body out and explode hips upward to secure a triangle
3. Pull arm across body and secure it under your arm
4. Pull head down, squeeze legs together, drive hips up

This entire sequence depends on having a good strong collar grip so the point of your wrist is pressing hard into the side of your opponent’s neck. If you can’t secure a good collar grip, there’s no point in trying this sequence. Shawn Williams taught us a cool trick to sink in a deep collar grip. All you have to do is open your guard briefly to loosen your opponent’s kimono. Sink your grip in and then close up your guard.

Cross-choke

1. From guard, opponent is attacking your collar
2. Use 2-on-1 to break collar-grip but maintain control of sleeve with a cross-grip
3. Pop head through window and sit up to over-hook
4. Sink your other hand into opponent’s collar at back of neck
5. Release over-hook and shifting body to side, reach under to grab other collar as deep as you can
6. Straighten body out and pull elbows down towards your belt

Scissor-sweep Variation

If you can’t get a good collar grip to finish the cross-choke, you might want to try a scissor sweep. When I drilled this I had the original collar grip and also a behind-the-elbow grip, but I think I might have better results with an overhook.

1. Open guard and point toes towards in the direction of the sweep.
2. Carve knee across opponent’s chest and plant high at shoulder while hooking his side with your foot
3. Lay sweep-side leg flat on the ground
4. Turn body completely sideways so your shoulders are perpendicular to the ground
5. Without releasing your grips, touch your nose to the ground
6. Land in mount

Arm-Bar variation

If you can’t get the scissor sweep because your opponent sits back on his haunches and strains backwards, you can try for an arm bar.

1. Straighten out the hook leg and drive it up into your opponent’s armpit
2. Shift your other thigh so it’s resting on top of your opponent’s thigh
3. While maintaining downward pressure with the hook leg, swing your other foot out and over your opponent’s head
4. Secure opp’s arm while straightening legs for arm-bar

Arm-bar to Cross-choke variation

This was my favorite transition of the whole series. If you are struggling to finish the arm bar you can shift your hips and end up back in a cross choke. When Shawn unveiled this final transition there were many gasps from the class because of the diabolical simplicity of this transition. I struggled with this move and after class I went over it in my head for hours. Finally I realized that the reason I had trouble with this entire sequence was because I failed to get a good initial collar grip or released my collar grip somewhere in the middle. My error became glaringly apparent when I tried to fall back into a cross-choke from an arm-bar attempt because the point of my wrist wasn’t anywhere near my opponent’s kneck.

1. Cross-grab top of opponent’s shoulder
2. Straighten out your body and relax backwards
3. Pull elbows down towards your belt to complete cross-choke