Flashbacks
Today while we were drilling I had two moments when I recalled things that Shawn Williams taught me. Sometimes I learn better from flashbacks.
First we were drilling arm bars. I was letting my tail side leg hang low on my partner’s back and Willy, a blue belt and MMA fighter told me to keep my leg high and reminded me that it’s more important than the head-side leg. This caused me to flashback to a class at Hollywood BJJ where Shawn Williams said to drive your shin high up into your opponent’s armpit before shifting your hips and planting the head-side leg. This was the exact same bio-mechanic that Willy was reminding me of. I watched Willy do his armbar drills and I realized another thing i was doing wrong. He was thrusting his hips up the same way you do with a triangle. So his hips were elevated way higher than his shoulders and his entire body was engaged in the arm bar.
Second we drilled standing guard passes and there was a sequence where you scoop your hands between your opponent’s thighs to get him stacked. In Shawn’s class we studied a sequence where you’re stacked but your thighs are very low on your opponent’s arms. From this position you can get an arm crank or a collar guillotine or even a belt sweep. But Greg taught us a counter that will neutralize these moves by keeping your opponent’s legs high on your shoulders. Basically after you scoop you pull your opponent’s thighs forcefully towards your chest so he can’t wiggle back and weigh down on your arms with his thighs.
Today’s drills depend on the following bio-mechanics
- Keep your elbows in and low at all times. Do NOT let your opponent inside your elbows.
- Keep your knees close
- Forcefully push down on opponent’s torso as you stand to pass
Standing Guard Pass
- Pin opponent’s biceps
- Posture up
- Grab both lapels at solar plexus
- With other hand, pummel to capture sleeve
- Pull your elbow in tight to your belt line with sleeve wrapped in your fist
- Pushing down on opponent’s stomach and solar-plexus, step up
- Keep your knees and elbows close together and wedge between opponent’s knees
Thigh Pin Pass Variation
- Opponent will try to pull you to one side to sweep
- Use opponent’s momentum to pin his leg under your shin
- Scoop under his head maintaining heavy pressure on his chest and maintaining sleeve control
- With chest-on-chest pressure flop your other leg back behind you
- Grab under the thigh of the opponent’s near leg to counter a sweep
- Forcefully throw it over the other leg while pulling your resting leg under and through
- You are now in side control with the tail side hand pinning opponent’s near leg to the mat and his head scooped in your arm
Stack Pass Variation
- Dip your hands between opponent’s legs
- Forcefully pull his thighs towards your chest
- Reach across and grab the top of your opponent’s far pant leg
- Reach under and grab opponent’s lower back
- Drive and stack
- Lift your head so opponent’s legs flop past your face
- You are now in side control with head side hand pinning your opponent’s leg to the mat.
Leg Lock Variation
If you have your opponent stacked, sometimes you can whip their thighs to the side. One leg will be crossed over the other. If you reach under the bottom leg and grab the top leg your opponent will be hog tied.