We learned a cool mount from side control. This technique inflicts a lot of pain on your opponent. The goal is to get his hips torqued over as far as they’ll go while his shoulders are still flat on the ground. It reminds me of the twister because you basically turn your opponent’s body like a corkscrew.

1. Get head and hip side control with your head-side arm over your opponent’s far bicep and your tail-side hand guarding his hip.
2. Isolate his near arm by backing up and driving it back with your butt.
3. Your opponent will raise his leg to block your mount.
4. Weave your hand in the gap between his legs and drive his hips over until your hand touches the mat.
5. Block his leg by posting your arm strong on the mat - this will keep the gap between his legs open which you need because next you..
6. Put your tail-side foot into the gap and pin his leg to the ground with your shin
7. Slide your head-side arm under your opponent’s head.
8. Get an underhook with your tail-side arm and walk your opponent’s far arm up until it is over his head.
9. At this point you can mount by swinging your tail-side leg over.

We didn’t talk about this but I noticed that when you finish Step 8 you are in a position to get a kata-gatame (arm triangle). Or else you could get an arm bar if you transition to S-mount. I want to try and see if I can get a kata-gatame if I can put this whole sequence together on the mat.

I have a couple other things I need to remember from class this week.

Why is it better to grab under your opponent’s armpit rather than atop his shoulder when you are stuck in side-mount?

1. Because it makes it harder for your opponent to isolate your arm by underhooking it.
2. If your opponent gets head-and-hip side control and you want to go for the single leg, you’re already set up to shoot your hand across his body and around his leg. If your hand is on top of his shoulder then you have to work it under his chest first and then try to get the leg.

When you’re stuck in side-mount why should you always make praying mantis arms with your hands hooked?

If you push with your hands and extend your arms, your opponent will just sit out and get underneath your arm. If you make a praying mantis hook, you can just drop your elbow to the mat and you have effectively made a “wall” that he can’t get through when he sits out.

When is it safe to go around your opponent’s front side when you’re transitioning to side control?

When you have a grip on his bottom ankle, which prevents him from hip-escaping away from you. If you don’t have a grip on the bottom ankle, you must go around the back.

Today we worked on escape from side mount. It felt great to be back on the mat again, after an extended absence due to 1) being in the woods in Virginia and 2) being sick for a week.

Shawn emphasized several important bio-mechanics for side-mount escapes.

1. Rather than grab the top of your opponent’s shoulder with your head-side hand, try to grab underneath his arm pit. This makes it harder to isolate your arm.
2. Don’t try to control your opponent’s body by extending your arms. (You’ll get arm-barred) Instead, make your arms like a praying mantis and hook your hands. Control your opponent’s body with your mantis hooks.
3. Make sure your tail-side elbow is on your opponent’s far hip. If you’re having trouble getting your elbow in position, you can hop your feet out towards your opponent’s head to get your forearm across your opponent’s belt-line and your elbow planted on his hip.

Transition to Closed Guard

In this sequence and the next your opponent has you in “regular” side control with a his head-side arm under your head, his tail-side arm under your arm, and his hands clasped in a gable grip.

1. Set up the transition by hopping your feet out towards your opponent’s head.
2. Bridge up while pushing with your forearms towards your opponent’s feet.
3. Get on your side so that you are facing your opponent.
4. Carve your lower shin across your opponent’s middle.
5. Put your foot on the ground and extend your knee so you can get your butt flat on the ground. At this point your foot will be between your opponent’s legs.
6. Push your opponent’s head away from the trapped foot.
7. Free your foot and close your guard.

Transition to Arm Bar

1. Set up the transition by hopping your feet out towards your opponent’s head.
2. Bridge while arcing your forearms over your face.
3. Pull your body towards your feet using your hamstrings. Your head will pop out of your opponent’s gable grip as though by magic.
4. Elevate your hips as though you’re doing a leg lift but carve your tail-side leg under your opponent’s armpit across his chest and swing your head-side head over his head.
5. Secure your opponent’s head-side arm and apply the arm-bar.
6. If your opponent tries to counter the arm-bar by driving into you, you can sweep by driving your tail-side knee into his arm-pit so he falls to the mat onto his back. You’re still in arm-bar position so you can finish from here.

Transition to Side Control

In this sequence your opponent has head and hip side control. In other words, his head-side hand is posted across your body and his tail-side hand is controlling your near hip. I used to do a variation of this move but my version didn’t incorporate the single-leg takedown. Basically my version was steps 1, 2, and 6 and I would end up squared off with my opponent meaning I then had to scramble to get dominant position. Shawn’s technique is way more efficient and I’m glad to avoid a scramble because I generally lose scrambles due to my lack of athleticism.

1. Set up the transition by hopping your feet out towards your opponent’s head.
2. Bridge up while pushing with your forearms towards your opponent’s feet.
3. With your head-side hand make a windshield-wiper down so your hand is pointing toward your opponent’s feet.
4. Bring your tail-side elbow to your belt line.
5. Shoot your windshield-wiper hand across your opponent’s hip and behind his thigh.
6. Scissor your legs so you are facing the mat.
7. Plant your ear against your opponent’s thigh.
8. Put your other hand on top of the windshield-wiper hand, so that both hands are around your opponent’s leg. You are now in position for a single-leg.
9. If possible, try to block your opponent’s foot on the trapped leg with your knee. This will also have the effect of getting you behind him.
10. Get up on your feet and drive against your opponent. He will flop down on his side with very little effort on your part.
11. Grab your opponent’s mat-side leg to prevent him from shrimping.
12. Walk around toward your opponent’s face and secure side control with your arm under his head.

After class I had a nice surprise. As some of you know I started training 7 months ago and in that whole time I’ve never been promoted. Being a perpetual white belt never bothered me actually. What really makes me hate myself is when I can’t put techniques together when I’m rolling. Or when I’m sloppy or lazy. I basically just want to be have a beautiful BJJ game and do good on the mat.

Anyway, as I was leaving Shawn gave me a new white belt with three tips and I was both shocked and very gratified. As an additional bonus, my new belt is longer which is cool because my other belt barely fit around my stomach. When I tied the old one off, there were like two inches of belt past the knot. It was totally embarassing.

We’re continuing our mount drills at Hollywood BJJ and Shawn Williams had some great tips for how to get your leg flat when you’re setting up a mount escape. Before this class I knew enough to try to get my leg flat but I didn’t know the proper technique so I would just basically kick around with my feet until I got my leg flat. The problem with this is it takes too frickin long. You obviously want to start your escape quickly since you’re deprived of oxygen because of your opponent’s weight

Anyway, the context here is that you’re mounted and your opponent has his feet crossed behind your butt. What you want to do is attack the top foot but you can’t see what’s going on down there because your opponent’s body is in the way. So what you do is splay both your legs straight out so that they’re resting on top of your opponent’s ankles. One of your legs will feel higher than the other. That’s the leg that is resting on top of your opponent’s top ankle. So if your left leg feels higher, use your right foot to push your opponent’s foot to the side and hold it down if possible. Then rest your left leg on top of your right foot. When you remove your right foot, your left leg will just fall onto the mat. At that point you can begin your mount escape. The whole thing can be accomplished in less than a second which is much more efficient than what I’ve been doing.

The same technique can be applied when your legs are grapevined. You can defeat one grapevine by just straightening your leg until you can get it over your opponent’s hook. Then use it to hold down your opponent’s other foot and continue the technique as described above.

On a somewhat unrelated note I have concluded after today’s class that I suck ass at BJJ. Some guys in my class are incredibly smooth with very precise and technical transitions. I on the other hand roll like a beer keg with four Duraflame logs for limbs. It’s hideous to behold. I just want to play the beautiful jiu-jitsu but it continuously eludes me.

Today we drilled the following flow:

Double Leg >>

<< Head and Arm Guillotine

Guillotine Counter >>

<< Butterfly Sweep

Hip Out >>

<< Danaher Choke

After class I was screwing around on YouTube and I saw a video for the D’Arce choke. I was all, “WTF! That’s the Danaher choke that I was just doing fifteen minutes ago!” I’m not sure who Danaher and D’Arce are but I think they ought to fight each other to see who gets to name the move.

Anyway, the Danaher/D’Arce choke is kind of advanced for me. What I really want to remember about today is the guillotine counter. I liked the counter Shawn Williams showed us because it doesn’t require you to hop over your opponent’s guard like you sometimes see. I’m not nimble enough to hop and the last time I tried I landed with my knee on my opponent’s ribs and practically killed the poor guy. So I don’t try that anymore as a courtesy to my partners.

So what you do is grab the choking wrist with your free hand using a monkey grip and pull your elbow down to your waist while looking up. Then you stabilize on your other leg while driving your shoulder downward into your opponent’s sternum. It’s important to get your opponent’s back flat because it makes it harder for him to keep his hands clasped. Also, if you stabilize on your knee, you’re vulnerable to a butterfly sweep. Or you’ll just lose your balance and flop over on your side like I did about thirty times.

Today we did a fun flow. I’ve had exposure to all of these techniques before but as per usual, I identified dozens of things I’ve been doing wrong. I’m just going to jot down the pointers I need to remember, rather than go through some long-winded explanation of each move.

Standing Guard Pass

• When you step up with the first leg, keep your foot close to your opponent’s body and engage your hip-drive so your back is very straight.
• Swivel the second foot out at an angle and twist your hips forcefully when you step up.
• Don’t just lean on your hand.  Your opponent can knock your hand away and force your posture down.  Hold your arm straight with light pressure so if he tries to sit up he has to sit up through your arm.

Head and Hip Side Control

When you complete the guard pass you naturally end up in head-and-hip side control. Rather than scoop the head and go knee-on-belly you can just

• Place your bicep over your opponent’s far bicep (this keeps you heavy on his chest)
• Scoot your hips back to isolate his near arm
• Push down on his knees
• “Stomp a bug” on the far side of his body to complete the mount.
• Walk your hands over to stabilize the mount

Mount

• When you scoop under your opponent’s head, then also shift your weight to crank his head over
• Pry his arm up by walking your hand up underneath it with little movements rather than a violent jerk

S-Mount

• Your knee has to be at least as high as your opponent’s head
• If you straighten your arms you will lift up your opponent’s head preventing a bridge. This also makes it easier to get your other knee under his shoulder. Make sure to get the knee under and not just your calf or foot
• Don’t be afraid to just sit on your opponent’s chest to stabilize the S mount

Arm Bar 1

• Lean towards your opponent’s feet to make it easy to swing your leg over his head
• Do not try to straighten his arm unless you can get your foot over his face. Otherwise he’ll just sit up in your guard.
• Try to touch the soles of your feet to the mat

Arm Bar 2

• If he counters arm-bar #1 by grabbing a bicep then snake your hand over his arms and grab the other arm at the elbow
• Lean way forward and stabilize by putting your hand on the mat
• Pendulum your hips by kick-standing up on your foot so that you are facing the other direction. Swing your other leg over your opponent’s face. Then arm-bar the other arm.