As usual, Chico's teaching was absolutely first class, striking the right combination of technical instruction, coupled with a good dose of humour to make people feel at home and comfortable. I've never found my attention slipping in a Chico class or seminar.
No Gi Techniques:
We started off with a couple of techniques for passing a seated opponents guard from a standing position. For the first you are to wait back and let the opponent come to you using their legs to drag them forward. As he's come toward you and ready to pull forward again you quickly step forward and pull his leg up high toward you so he goes down on his back. You secure his leg by kneeling into him so your knees are either side of his leg and you fold his leg over your leg nearside leg and "put his foot in your pocket". You should be facing him head on for this not off to the side. With his leg clamped between your legs you have a teasing leg lock finish although that's not what we were being taught. You basically sit there and wait for the guy on bottom to act first (usually by trying to push you away using his leg so he can recover guard) so you can push his leg out of the way and step around and come down into side control.
I was fortunate enough to be Chico's demonstration dummy for this move so got to see if fresh and first hand. One specific thing I remember that Chico showed us as a tip was that when you first grab the leg and pull it up so the guy's back goes flat to the floor, a common thing for the guy on the ground to do is attempt to cross over his free leg to hold you off. However, if you hold the secured leg forward and stand off until you've found your position you can actually use that leg to block the guy from crossing over his free leg to regain some semblance of guard.
All photos come courtesy of Chico's Facebook page.
The second technique along the standing pass line involved finding the seated opponent's stronger side. You do this by stand in front of him, both feet level to give him the option of which side to attack. When he presents himself in a seated combat posture, where one leg is forward and he's leaning his elbow on that leg for base, you know that is his stronger, preferred side (unless he's poker playing, bluffing genius) and you can then switch your stance so your leg that is directly opposite his forward leg is now stepped back whilst your other leg is forward. With this stance he cannot get and easy grab of the preferred leg. From this position you should be stood crouched, with your head in line with your lower body so as to not be easily unbalanced. From here you once again wait for the opponent to make a move forward then drive froward yourself, simultaneously pushing on the inside knee of his forward raised leg with one hand (left hand for right leg or vice versa) and your other hand presses against his waist on the other side of him, using this position to push his leg down to the ground so he turns on his side. Whilst doing this you should be stood fully away from him so he can't recover by getting hold of a leg somehow. You can finish the pass by walking out around the leg that is secured down and then dropping into side control (keeping the legs held away all the while). This is a move that I learned ages ago but have never actually put into good use which is pretty criminal really given the amount of opportunities I've had to do so. Gotta try and use it a bit more.
I was drilling both of the above with Rich Presley.
Moving away from the standing passing but staying with the passing theme, Chico next showed us a Half Guard pass. The first thing about passing half guard that he drilled into us was the importance of getting the knee up. You must bring the knee of the trapped leg off of the ground and preferably out of the leg trap. To do this you can turn to your side and rest on your non trapped leg so you can bring the other leg up. You may also encounter half guard users who love using the leg trapping method (lock down - urgh) in which case you rest your weight forward whilst you use your other leg to push open the trap so you can bring the first leg out and bend it to an untrappable position. You then once again work at popping the knee up through.
Another very important point was that when the opponent on the bottom is using the strong half guard style of laying out to one side of you, always ensure you have the underhook there to stop him from going to your back. If not the underhook then an over-underhook like a whizzer.
We drilled around with these tips to begin with, trying to get the leg out/up, un-trapping where necessary, just so we get well used to the idea of getting that knee up. I drilled this with a young lad called Sean Errock, who trains a bit of gi but is a very talented young No Gi grappler. We drilled quite hard in the end, with the guy on bottom really trying to stop the knee escape or keep the leg trapped. I found it remarkable that when you're not thinking about trying to submit the guy from half guard top, it actually proves quite easy to blast past his half guard.
For an actual half guard pass from here, Chico then ran us through one of his main thoughts from this position. Always use your head! It's like a third limb that you can use for pushing. When the guy has a strong side control position on your and you want to flatten him out, use your head against his shoulder or neck, to push him down so his back's to the floor. From here, to help with your pass and also to assist in bringing the knee up if necessary (if the guy is really persistent or tenacious), your head by his so you can bring your free (outside) arm up behind his head to tak a grab of the material at his shoulder on the other side. With that position correct you can now drive your shoulder forward to painfully push his head to the side, effectively cutting down half the escape possibilities for him (if his head can't turn back toward me, neither can the rest of his body). From this position you can walk your nearside underhooked arm up the mat a bit to bring the opponent's arm up (up the mat not up in the air). you can now bring both of your arms together so your arm passed behind the head can reach to grab the wrist of the one that has walked up the mat. You now have the opponent in a very uncomfortable position with his offside arm trapped above his head so as to not interfere with anything. The opponent will generally want to release your leg at that point just to get out of this position but if he's really stubborn it proves quite easy to flatten your offside to the ground so you can bring the trapped knee up now. Once up and out of the trap it's just a decision at the whether you want to slide the knee over and go to mount or slide it across and come to side control. We drilled the mount version which would usually be a no brainer as it's worth more points, but maybe some people are more confident with their side control or use it better fro MMA. Or they might even be confident that they can then easily pass to mount from side thus getting extra points. Lots of reasons for going to side then. If you go to mount though you've got a nice set up for an arm bar right there too.
After a quick group photo and change to Gi we were quickly into a bit of Closed guard work. The first move was a handy little sweep if your opponent puts his leg forward in your guard. So he's put the left leg forward and has a grip of your left lapel with his right hand. Now this is to good an opportunity to miss. You need to chop his leg out by bringing your right arm underneath it and chopping upward toward you at about the ankle. Make sure to hold on to the leg in the crook of your elbow. Now with your free left hand you grab his right hand to keep it secure near you so he can't base out. To hit the sweep you lean forward pushing the leg forward with you, so he tips to his back on the side where he has no basing arm. As he's tipping you need to open your guard and ensure you straighten out your left leg so when he flattens to the ground you can switch the leg out and come to your knees in the mount. This is a pretty good sweep variation from closed guard that will add another dimension to my game.
Next up was a sweep variation for if the guy traps your arm. He's in your closed guard and baited you with the open left leg. You reach under to take it but he's too quick and clamps his leg back down shut again, trapping your right arm in there and cutting off one side of your upper body defence. However this is not the end of the world. In fact after a short while of drilling this move I felt this was an amazing turn of events. All you need to do is ensure he can't move his right hand from your waist at this point then you can sweep him over to your left (his right) side. To do this you open your guard and drop the left foot to the floor and can basically roll him over to his back using a flower sweep style right leg up, kicking him (not proper kicking, it's just a description) at the left under arm to flip him over and come up comfortably in mount. I absolutely LOVE this sweep as a cool variation on the Flower Sweep. I've already hit it a few times in rolling since. Love it!!
You can even just slot your arm inside when he hasn't opened the leg. Works the same way. Amazing sweep.
I was drilling this one with young Paddy.
A quick alternative to the above sweep was to turn it into an arm bar. You have your right arm trapped under his leg as above. You also have his right arm trapped secured with your left hand. You need a bit more of the arm trapped here though so most of his forearm is on your chest/stomach. From here you shift your hips out left and use the arm under leg hold to shift you position so you can open your guard and bring your left leg up and over his head. You can finish the arm bar here with him sat up but most likely the superior strength of your legs and the hold you have on his leg will push him down to the mat so he's flat on his back and you have the arm bar like that. This is a very common finish for me and one of my most frequent methods of tapping people out these days.
Alternatively with this, if the guys retracts the elbow just enough that the arm bar doesn't hit, at least with the arm in leg you've swept them to their back and can come up into technical or s-mount.
Chico then ran us through some tips for enhancing your Arm Bar from Guard. From closed guard you have the right arm secured with your right hand. Grip it at the upper forearm or elbow to start, by cupping your hand across the top of the arm and having the cupped hand go under on the other side. You then escape your hips left as standard arm bar practice. Now pull the arm tight inside so the elbow is uncomfortably pulled in at an angle. Reach over with your free left hand and grab his free left arm on the gi material at his upper arm/triceps. You use this grip to help you turn into position and get the leg over the head. When you are finishing, bring your left hand back down to help with the control of the wrist. Whilst extending the hips, if you point your heels down and flex your feet up it adds extra tension to the hold.
The feet pointing up tip was a particular eye opener because you wouldn't suspect it would make much difference but you really feel it when it's on.
The last technique I was in attendance for was an amazing Gi choke. From closed guard you open your opponent's Gi for ease of access. Using your knees to brings him towards you, you drive your right hand fairly deep into his right collar and grip tight. Shift your body around to that side (your left) to create the opening for your other hand. He'll instinctively be trying to pull away at this point so you just need to use your knees again to pull him back and pass your left hand UNDER your right arm to slip into his left collar. Shifting back to head on position you clamp your arms shut around his neck (like a scissor motion) to hold him in place and OPEN your hand grips slightly. Now using the knees to keep him closed you drive the hands ridiculously deep into his collar and then close them. At this point the guys eyes are already watering in anticipation of what is about to come. To painfully finish you just pull your elbows in tight to your ribs and then outwardly flex with your hands. Christ this is painful. Brilliant move.
This was the last move I got to see as I (unfortunately) had to leave a little early to get my kids :o(. Fantastic seminar though. It fact I'd go out on a limb and say it was one of the best I've been to. Chico is an amazing instructor for this sort of setting. Very entertaining and the whole class was entranced throughout. I really hope we get another again real soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment