Tips for no-gi

**Jaguar Wong** · Posted On: 10/10/2005 2:11pm

Originally Posted by Yrkoon9

#1 objective is to take the back in no-gi. People are just too damn slippery in any other position.

Finally my "sweat like a horse" genes are serving me well. I build up a good "defensive sweat" in the early seconds of the round, and from there it takes less effort to spaz out of locks and positions. :eusa_shhh

My biggest problem is how to transition to different subs from underhooks, overhooks, etc. I can use them to set up some decent positioning, but I worry so much about losing the limb that I end up losing the sub, position and limb.

I'm going to start working on armdrags and underhooks from guard, and worry about subs from the top later on (I'll worry more about maintaining side control and mount, since I always lose those and end up pulling guard anyway).

also, my neck hurts...no-gi puts a lot of strain on your neck when you're stuck on bottom (it's like a freakin' handle).

**Bang!** · Posted On: 10/10/2005 2:33pm

Is it just me, or is the arm triangle also a very solid submission in terms of holding onto a sweaty opponent?

**Jaguar Wong** · Posted On: 10/10/2005 3:42pm

Originally Posted by Repulsive Monkey

Is it just me, or is the arm triangle also a very solid submission in terms of holding onto a sweaty opponent?

Not that I'm good at it, but I had it pretty tight on a smaller guy, and he was able to pop his arm out. But I can't even get close on guys bigger than me.

**Kengou** · Posted On: 10/10/2005 8:26pm

Alright, here are results:

My wrestling friend came over, along with another friend of ours from my TKD school who had never done serious grappling (outside of the crap we learn in TKD, of course). I found that no-gi was certainly different from gi, and yes, my head took quite a beating from being grabbed this way and that, as well as cranked.

I went with the wrestler first, but he hadn't wrestled in years so we warmed up with only positional grappling. It started with me pulling guard (we started everything from knees), he pushed toward me, I got a leg over one of his arms and secured a triangle, but then I remembered we weren't doing subs, so I let it go and went back to guard. Swept him to mount, tried to grapevine but messed up, then we stopped.

Next, I went with my friend from TKD. I got to the top in his guard, but he knew nothing at all about guard, so I passed that quickly, and went to side control. I tried for a keylock, but he turned into it and sat up, giving me his back. I sunk hooks in, layed back, and applied RNC. Vigerous tapping ensued.

Then I went with wrestling friend again. He started on top starting to pass my guard, I got him in half-guard. He cranked the **** out of my head for a while, but I got double underhooks, escaped the crank, and tried to take his back. He turtled momentarily, I got on top, but couldn't get any hooks or hands in. He rolled over with me in side control, then we stopped (were about to hit a wall).

My friends went at it once too. Wrestler got the other guy in arm triangle from side control, the other guy managed to get out of it, tried to get around and take the back, but obviously knew nothing about hooks, so he failed and ended up on the bottom again. They stopped then.

Finally I went with the non-grappler guy again. He ended up on bottom guard, and again he knew nothing about closing his guard, so I decided to experiment a bit. I grabbed one leg and tried for an achilles lock, but I haven't learned those yet at my BJJ classes so I couldn't get it to work right. His foot was bleeding though, so we stopped.

Conclusions: it was great fun, you guys helped a lot. Feel free to comment, flame, or whatever.

**Vulgar** · Posted On: 10/10/2005 9:59pm

Originally Posted by Kengou

Thanks a lot Andrew. He isn't a particularly good wrestler, and he hasn't wrestled in years, so I think I'll do ok. I know you're assuming it's a good wrestler, but I don't need to.

Well, if you are going for the submission and he is going for the pin, I wouldn't be too worried. Now if he knows about submissions, I'd be a bit more worried. I was never a great wrestler, mostly due to not being in great shape. 5 years after I ever wrestled, I went into a Submission Grappling class at New England Submission Fighting and I still wasn't in great shape. I gave people who had been there a couple of months a run for their money. I knew some submissions from tapes/videos, but I had no practice with them. Wrestlers are good at using their weight and getting on top or atleast taking side control.

My advice is try to take his back or guillotine him. Wrestlers give their head and back away a lot of the time.