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Favorite TechniquesPart 1

11/26/06

Grappling Arts Publications is beginning some exciting new projects. In the meantime I thought I would practice up on my book making skills. What follows are are a couple of my favorite techniques. This material is not from any of Grappling Arts Publications’ books but it is presented in print quality Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format so that you can print it and add it to your notebooks.

Step Over Choke: The first technique is a very powerful choke. I like it because it surprises people and it does not require much strength.

Inside Out Roll: The second is an escape from the turtle position which results in an opportunity for the triangle. This one is presented in two parts, first as a solo drill and then with a partner. This is a very effective technique. I am a little surprised that it is not more popular. I attribute its relative obscurity to the fact that the underlying core body movement/roll takes a lot of practice to get good at and most people just are not willing to put in the time. Even if you do not like the move itself, practice the roll, it will improve your ability to deal with being stacked in the guard.

I like the way the green mats look as a background, as compared to the tatame mats used in our books. What do you think? I would appreciate your feed back.

Also, what would you like to see in future Grappling Arts Publications offerings?

Reply to Ed@grapplingarts.net

Regards,Ed Beneville

Introduction #1

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Here is one of my favorite chokes from the cross-side position. The great thing about this one is that your opponents efforts to escape provide the opening for the choke. Also, it catches people by surprise.

This choke probably works better if you legs are long (I am 6-0 with a 33 inch inseam).

White pushes with his arms and turns further to his side. This elevates Blue’s hips.

White turns into Blue and positions is forearm on Blue’s hip. If Blue does not already have the collar grip behind White’s neck already, he takes it here. White cannot make his escape without taking his head off the mat. Blue wants his hand right behind White’s spine.

Blue is in the cross-side position. Maybe he is gripping White’s collar behind the neck, maybe not.

Step Over Choke

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Blue quickly switches to Judo base, scissoring his legs so his hips turn up. As he does White losses the angle he had for pushing Blue’s hip. White’s hand slips off as Blue’s hip slips under White’s left arm.

Notice that Blue’s head is over White’s hips at this point. Blue wants this as it will make it easier for him to put his leg over. White thinks he is getting the edge, but he is helping Blue with his angles.

Continued...

Step Over Choke

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In this instance Blue steps his leg over White’s head right away. He could also take his time and wait for his moment. He switches his hips back down in the pro-cess. Blue stays centered over White and his head drops down. Blue has a thumb in grip on the lapel, but his fingers supply the power of the grip, not his thumb.

The back of Blue’s knee wraps around the side of White’s face.Blue forces the back of his leg into White’s face and pulls on the collar at the same time. Blue wants to keep his wrist straight in the process and force the thumb side edge of his wrist (radial bone) into White’s carotid artery. As he pushes with his leg he flexes it so that the big tendon behind his knee protrudes and bites in under White’s jaw line.

Step Over Choke

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If the angle is not quite right, White might hang on. If so Blue will tighten things up a bit more. Without letting up on the pressure, Blue drops his right knee partially to the floor and scoops his calve in behind the back of White’s head.

Blue finishes by using his left leg to pressure up his right foot. Keep in mind, this is still a collar choke, not a tri-angle.

Step Over Choke

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Blue dives his left arm between his legs and begins to roll over his shoulder, like a standard judo break fall. Unlike a regular roll he initially posts on his other hand.

The hips come up as the arm shoots under.

Your neck needs to be relaxed and to the side, ear to the shoulder of the posted (left) arm.

Blue’s weight is between his shoulders, not on his neck.

The free leg swinging over creates a lot of the impetus here.

Once your head comes out the other side, the rest all falls into place.

This technique is first and foremost an escape from the turtle position. I call it the inside-out roll. The essence of this move is a core body movement which you must master if you want to be a wizard from the bottom. It is similar to a Granby roll, but not quite the same.

Inside-Out Roll, drill

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Pushing off of the balls of the feet helps elevate the hips.

Blue’s left leg is straight, but he does not want all the way away from the wall. He needs to maintain contact with the ball of his foot.

Blue’s head has traced a semi-circle at this point. His free leg begins its trajec-tory up and over.

Blue finishes ready to play guard.

The roll here is counter-intuitive and takes sometime to master. I highly recommend that you practice this move regularly for months until you can do it smoothly and without thought to the specific mechanics. In the mean time however, you may have to consider the specific mechanics carefully.

Inside-Out Roll, drill

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Blue is in the turtle position and White is in the midst of launching an attack or maybe he is taking his time looking for an opening he likes.

Blue drops onto his outside shoulder while posting on his inside hand.

White cannot just hang on. If he does he will get pulled over Blue’s back. So White lets go.

When I was learning this move it did not make sense to me that as I turned around, my opponent would commonly be right there, with one arm between my legs, vulnerable to a triangle. Neverthe-less, it happens all the time. When it does not, just go guard.

TA lot of people try to escape the turtle by rolling over their inside (relative to their opponent) shoulder. That is a valid and effective technique but in my experience, it is much more effective to roll over the outside shoulder provided, however, that you pivot off the inside (relative to your opponent) leg. Confused? I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

Inside-Out Roll

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Even if White had more of his weight on top of Blue, it would not matter, the legs and hips are strong enough to lift White.

As Blue turns through White ends up between Blue’s legs.

Here the triangle presents itself.

The move against an opponent is the same as the drill. It is important to recognize when the technique will and will not work.+ Do not attempt this move if you opponent has his arm across your throat and is holding your lapel (like for a clock choke).

+ Do not attempt is he is holding either lapel from around the back (for instance, if White reached in deeper and grabbed a lapel in the first picture.+ You may say “but isn’t that most of the time?” Yes those are standard grips, but there is time to make the move before your opponent makes his grips and when he switches grips or positions.

Do not miss the moment if you want the triangle. Hit it while your hips are still high off the mat.

Inside-Out Roll