Shawn Williams taught some rad armbar counters today, which is good because I never know what to do when I get caught in one of these. The thing I instinctively want to do is to bend my arm which is correct but Shawn taught me how to do a real technical counter and not just spaz out like I’ve been doing. Today’s sequences were very intricate and I don’t think I can describe them right but here goes. As usual I have to preface this blog by saying … I’m a white belt with six months of training. Nothing you read here can be considered even remotely instructional. This stuff is just a place for me to record my thoughts from class time.

Basic Arm Bar Escape
This counter starts when your opponent works an armbar from guard. The biomechanic that Shawn emphasized is exactly the thing I kept screwing up. Namely, you can’t let go of your own bicep.

• When you start to feel the armbar grab your bicep with the arm being attacked and scoot up and to the side so your opponent is stacked with his hips under your tail-side knee and your head-side knee tight against his side.
• Get up on the ball of your foot with the head-side foot.
• With the free arm, grab the outside of your opponent’s far knee and pull it close to your face
• Pull your trapped arm out with a series of small jerks. (Shawn made the interesting point that a big arm jerk does not work as well with human physiology)
• Swivel your hips around your opponent’s rear so you’re on the other side of your opponent.  At this point you still control your opponent’s legs
• Plant your head-side hand on the far side of your opponent’s head while driving his legs to the mat with your other hand
• Plant your tail-side hand on the mat next to your opponent’s near hip
• Transition to side control.

Counter Sweep Variation 1
This counter is for when you lose your balance while you have your opponent stacked and your opponent sweeps you onto your back by extending his legs.  In this position, you’re vulnerable to a seated arm bar. (Although ideally you still have a grip on your bicep) The last step is the most counter-intuitive but it was truly amazing how effective it was when we drilled it. Shawn coached me through this until I finally got it right.

• Bridge up and turn towards your opponent’s crotch
• With the foot farthest from your opponent’s head rotate your hips by making a big step over towards your opponent’s head so you are face down
• In order to close the distance so you can work to get your opponent stacked forcefully straighten out the head-side leg behind you
• Start over with the escape described above

Counter Sweep Variation 2
This counter is different from the last in that you turn away from your opponent’s crotch. It’s also scarier because you essentially give up your arm.

• If you’re on your back in an arm bar…
• Rotate your arm so that your thumb is pointing at your opponent’s chest
• Let your knees flop towards your opponent’s feet
• Bridge and take a small step towards your opponent’s feet with the foot furthest from his head
• Then rotate your hips by taking a big step over with the foot closest to your opponent’s head so that you end up facing the mat
• Scramble into position 0

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 12th, 2007 at 11:23 pm and is filed under Hollywood BJJ, classwork, no-gi, technique. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.