Me and Marcus decided to do two gi sessions at lunchtimes this week. Well not pre-decided but after we were blown away with our Monday session we wanted to carry it on on Tuesday. With neither of us really planning anything it strangely turned out to be two of the most productive sessions going due to the subject matter we ended up drilling.
Monday:
We started off with a cool over head sweep from Spider Guard. You're in the Spider Guard position with both of the opponents cuffs gripped and feet at the elbow crooks pushing out for control. From there you lasso one of the arms by passing the securing leg on that side outside, over the top and then back inside.
The second technique was a method of taking the back from Spider Guard which is handily shown in this video.
I loved this technique, any quick way to the back is in my eyes awesome but the belt control and kick out reminds me of my favourite De La Riva sweep. Brilliant. After that we were at a little bit of a loss as to what to do but fortunately I had Marcelo Garcia's X-Guard book on me. Up until now I've just used that book for it's amazing sections on the Butterfly Guard but as we had the best part of a session to kill we decided to put ourselves in the hands of "The Jiu Jitsu Genius" and try some of his trademark guard out.
Photo borrowed from Google images.
We were massively surprised at how fluid and natural the movement became and once we had this one method of establishing X Guard we got straight on with some techniques. We basically learnt all sweeps on Monday from this Collar and Sleeve Control to X Guard. From the basic X Guard position your opponent is off balance so bases out with his hand out to the side. For the first sweep you just need to grab that arm low down near the wrist and pull in up toward your face thus taking away his base. You can then just lean to the side where his base is gone and kick your legs out to flip him over coming up neatly into side control. Easy sweep once the positioning is there. The move virtually carries itself out once you've pulled his arm in.
The next one was basically the same move but to a standing opponent. When you've initiate the X Guard your opponent doesn't go meekly to his knee but instead powers up to stand up right as in the picture above. You just need to gain a sleeve grip on his far side arm and pull it in toward your head, then kick out with your feet whilst pulling on that arm. The guy will topple over and roll to his back with you neatly coming up into side control. Once again an easy transition to a commanding position and once again, as with most of these X Guard moves, once all the pieces are in place the movement works itself.
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Another sweep (called the Near Sleeve Control Switch Sweep) starts with your opponent in your X Guard on his knee and requires you to grab the opponent's near arm at the cuff and pull it toward you. Now this technique assumes that the opponent will pull his arm away from your grip. To respond to this you reach over for his other arm as if to carry out the first sweep. He reacts by yanking this arm away, thus leaving the other arm back near and himself over balanced. Now you can pull the arm near stretching it out, then push it down under him and kick your legs up, flipping the opponent over onto his back with you coming up neatly into top control. This sweep works just as well if he doesn't manage to pull the arm away to begin with. I think Marcelo was just trying to demonstrate how you can dummy and bluff the opponent into giving up his arms. Once again the last technique can also be done to a standing opponent to equal effect.
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The last sweep we did Monday was the Near Sleeve and Arm Pit Control Sweep. Beginning from the X Guard with opponent on his knee you pull his near arm toward you. The opponent reaches back with his other arm and attempts to pull away to which you can sit up to keep control. You now have space to release your offside leg hook and cross it under the opponent's stretched secured leg to push your foot into his arm pit. Extending your leg whilst keeping the leg and wrist control on your opponent, you can now start twisting over on your side to roll the guy over toward his face side. Once he's rolled over on to his other side you use your legs to push him further over on to his back and you come up into top control.
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We were totally blown away by these new moves and had a good sparring session to see if we could hit any which was pretty hilarious as we both rushed to jump guard and hit the X Guard.During the course of the roll I managed to get the X Guard position a couple of times and sort of nearly hit one of the sweeps but it's pretty difficult when you've only just learnt it and the other guy blatantly knows it's coming!
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We loved this X Guard session so much we decided to do Gi again the next day.
For Tuesdays sesh we went straight in to the X Guard, with Marcus dying to do some techniques he viewed on T'internet, starting with a transition to a single leg takedown. From the X Guard position you grab the opponent's near arm by the sleeve and push him away with your legs so you can sit up with his leg still secured at your shoulder. From there you can stand up with the leg secured tight, either still on your shoulder or moved down to your side. You can do this technique with the opponent kneeling or standing. Great technique to change the tide of a match.
The second technique was one Marcus had found on YouTube which makes things easier on the amount of typing I have to do.
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Tuesday:
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Vid courtesy of TheSourceMMAJordan on YouTube. Many thanks.
This technique really shows how great an option the X Guard can be, giving variations that can sweep the opponent to his back and at least one possible method of going straight to back! Love it.
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After that we went back to the book to continue with sweeps from X Guard, only to find the next one along in the book was the Single Leg Takedown effort that Marcus had found. Next though, was a scissor sweep to a standing opponent. The opponent is standing in your X Guard and you grab his near arm at the sleeve and pass it over his leg to your outside hand (the one behind him as opposed to the one in front) and keep it secured down near his knee along with your leg grip. Now you push out with your low hook in the back of his knee (of the unsecured leg) and use your high hook to pull him down at the hip. He should easily topple over onto his back with you coming up over the leg already half past his guard. Admittedly this one was not as good as some of the others as you still have the job of passing guard but it's still an option.
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Of course training a new guard style is never going to be complete with out working out how to tap someone out from it. And there are some options here too. The first we tried was an Omoplata with the set up being the same as the Sleeve and Armpit Control Sweep. From X Guard, grab the opponent's near arm sleeve and pull it toward you, then sitting up to raise his leg some, bring your offside leg (the one that is behind him) out of it's X Guard position and put that foot into his armpit. Now still pulling tight on his secured arm you can turn on your ass and raise your leg above his armpit, then slot the leg through and pull the arm tight over the top of it, sitting up and leaning forward to finish the Omoplata. We were blown away by that move. Very cool.
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Next one was a Triangle from X Guard. From X Guard, with the near arm secured and pulled toward you again, sit up to off balance the opponent, then bring the X Guard hooks in to your butt and kick up over his shoulders and finish the triangle as usual. Fairly obvious once you try it. And awesome, let's not forget awesome.
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The last sub we did (we didn't bother with leg locks for the time being) was an Inverted Arm Bar. This is best done if you have a lot of control over his near arm or if he's trying to nullify your X Guard by pulling on your collar. All you do is pull the arm in so the guys wrist is against your neck on his offside. You can then grab his arm with both of your arms at the elbow and hugs into you whilst trying to sit yourself up. If this doesn't get an immediate tap you can turn sideways on to increase the pressure. Great finish but obviously the less aesthetically pleasing of the three.
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After all that we decided to look at new entries for establishing X Guard. First from seated Butterfly Guard you get elbow control on your opponent (grip both his arms at the elbows) then pull him back toward you and fire one leg out straight to move the opponent's leg on that side out. Now you can shift your hips and reach under that leg and pull it up to your shoulder. With the one Butterfly hook in place you now only need to move the other leg into place and you have your X Guard.
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You can also do basically exactly the same thing with double underhook Butterfly Guard, only difference being when the opponent has been pulled up above you and you've raised your leg to isolate his, you need to push him away with your hand under his armpit so you can reach down to his leg. Other than that it's the same set up.
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We did a closed guard set up as well which I wasn't too keen on, but ended the session with a Half Guard setup. The guy has his leg trapped in your half guard but is laying across you with an arm wrapped around your head. You need to bring that arm to the other side of your head so he's laying totally across you (almost side control but with the half guard leg still through). Once you've past that arm over your head you can reach down under his nearside leg and pull it up toward you. Now you open your guard extending your legs in the air then use them as a pendulum, first swinging them away from the guys head so you can use the backswing momentum to throw them back toward his head direction pushing the opponent further across you and setting you up with your shoulder near his leg. Securing this as for standard X Guard (across shoulder) it's a simple switch out of the hips and an alteration of your leg positioning to get the full X Guard. Another cool set up to end an excellent two days of lunchtime training.
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I am amazed by the stuff I've learned from this book, although I don't believe I've instantly taken it all in, I have been able to remember a lot of key parts and great entries. I guarantee that I will be drilling and trying to use some of this stuff in the coming weeks. I will keep you updated with how I am doing.
Now I've gotta type up Chico's Tuesday class. I love this shit! ¬m/
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