Fundamental Five of Reverse Omoplata Game

[Aesopian]

As you well know, the Reverse Omoplata Game (ROG) is the foundation of the Aesopian Jiu-Jitsu System (AJJS). It is an important aspect of jitsu that is neglected by most Coaches. So their Athletes do not learn a Complete Game.

To help remedy this, I am introducing the Fundamental Five of Reverse Omoplata Game (FFROG).

A technical (non-attribute based) ROG follows these 5 points regardless of how fast or slow, heavy or light you go -- it transcends personal style. It is based on basics of position, control and leverage. It works with and without the gi, with and without strikes. A smaller, weaker person can successfully do it to bigger, stronger and fully-resisting opponents. So it is a Fun-da-mental Fund-amen-tal.

Just as importantly, the FFROG follow a natural order. The success of each step is dependant on how well the previous steps were done. Skipping steps or losing control of an earlier one will either make the ROG fail or require you to introduce attributes (speed, strength, etc.) to compensate.

En-joy.

The FFROG

1. Trap the arm.

The first step to a ROG is trapping the arm with your legs.

The standard method is to get the crucifix from side ride on a turtled opponent. For example, if they do a single leg with their head outside, you cut to the side, trap their arm between your legs (squeeze knees, hips tight to shoulder) and get the harness.

Other methods of trapping the arm exist and show be trained. See My Amazing Reverse Omoplata Guard Passes and Operation: Back Attack.

2. Cross the arm.

Once the leg is trapped it needs to be crossed back into the reverse omoplata trigger position: crucifix on knees with their arm pointing back towards their hips.

If you are starting from the crucifix on knees, the highest percentage method is to cross your front knee over the rear calf then straighten your leg, passing the arm from one leg to the other.

Once the arm is crossed, you need to keep tension in your leg in order to prevent them from uncrossing it. You can always bend your leg more than they can straighten their arm, so they should not be able to uncross it.

Make sure the students drill this until they can do it smoothly. You can break down passing the arm into minor steps so they understand the leverage and control at each point in the move. But once they've got it, they should be able to do it all as one fluid movement.

It's possible to do the first step and "cross" the arm at the same time by trapping it with your rear leg, eliminating the need to use pass it back.

3. Reach inside.

Once the arm trapped and crossed back, you need to turn so you are parallel to them and reach inside. By "reach inside", I mean you dive your arm under them. You can grab/block their far knee, grab their near knee, grab their wrist, etc.

Reaching for the near knee and trying to hug it through this and the next two steps will offer the greatest control and leverage throughout the roll and finish.

It is possible to reach to the outside but the leverage is poor and will only work if you use speed, increasing the risk of injury. It will also be much harder to roll a heavier opponent in the next step.

4. Roll.

Once you have trapped and crossed the arm then turned and started reaching inside to grab their knee, you need to start rolling.

This will allow you to keep reaching deeper between their legs and start cranking their arm to force them to roll forward.

R&R: There are actually two rolls: you rolling under them, and them rolling to their back. These can happen seperately or at the same time, depending on momentum, speed, etc.

Once you have rolled forward, they will start rolling too. They may try resisting by basing back or to either side. If they do, you can takes them to these directions instead and go to step 5 (Finish). But the forward roll is the primary pressure and their reactions to it are what give you the other rolls.

If you make your goal hugging their near knee, your roll will be the most efficient and you will have the most leverage and control to roll them and prevent escapes. You will often end up flat on your back, hugging their leg to your shoulder, with their arm trapped by your legs.

This position can be isolated by having the student just try to hold it while their partner tries to shake them off, stand up, pull his arm out, roll out, etc. They will learn to maintain tension in their leg to trap the arm and break posture and hug the leg to keep them from rolling or jumping out.

Keep in points 1-3 as you do the roll, e.g. don't let their arm slip out (keep your leg bent and your hips by their shouder), keep ahold of their knee/leg so they can't roll out and escape. Once you come on top, keep ahold of their leg so they can't get up or roll out.

When drilling the roll, have the partner hold the inside of his thigh or belt since it will prevent him from being injured and gives the student a more realistic resistance (since this is how people will commonly defend the submission).

5. Finish.

Once you have rolled them, the strongest finish is to lock down their upper body, scoot your hips back then bring your leg under your butt (like a technical stand-up/standing up in base) to crank the arm.

Scooting your hips back will break their grip if they are holding their thigh, belt or hands to defend.

You can also submit them during step (Roll) if their arm is not well defended, but it usually requires too much speed and power to be done safely. You have much more control rolling them to their back and finishing on top.

====

Once an athlete has each point of the FFROG down, they will be able to go through the entire sequence in one fluid motion. Or stop and maintain control at any step. I-method (Isolation in paricular) and Inquiry Method can be applied to every point, allowing the athelete to develop their own ROG style.

Make the most of It.

"The world is governed more by appearances than realities, so that it is fully as necessary to seem to know something as to know it."

-- Daniel Webster (1782 - 1852)

[Phrost]

Nobody's going to get this.

[eviechu]

Aseo... pictures! Pleeeeeassseeeeeee *bats eyes*

[theraydiator]

Aeso, seeing as you have posted like 12 threads on the reverse omoplata since I've been a member, and since you've organized every picture/video/explanation of this thing that's ever existed on the internet, and since everything with Reverse in it really is 250% cooler, and since you've now broken the instructions down into 5 easy payments, I'm going to finally try this out tonight.

Details to follow. Unless I make a complete jackass of myself.

edit:: Also, Saulo features the reverse omoplata on his Freestyle Revolution no-gi dvd's - He traps the arm from sprawl and then steps to the side and rolls real quick - he skips the 'passing-the-arm-from-leg-to-leg' bit. Looks like almost the same setup.

[Aesopian]

Print out this thread and this instructional and bring it to class to guide you through the steps. I talk to a purple belt who did this with just the page I linked and it is now his #1 submission.

[Aesopian]

Saulo's way is good but you need to be faster and have better coordination to get it on the fly. The method I linked offers the most control and requires the least speed, so it is better to learn first. You can start skipping steps once you've got the major movements down.

[theraydiator]

heh - what made me think you didn't know about the Saulo DVD.

Anyway - thanks for all the info - should be an interesting night training.

[Aesopian]

Saulo shows it on both of his DVD sets but I don't remember him ever going into much detail on how to set it up beyond just catching the arm on the fly. He also doesn't go in depth about how to roll and get them to turn over beyond "You juss roll and they tap or roll too."

[theraydiator]

I see what you mean - if I remember correctly, he didn't break it down much and it's sort of stuck on the end of an arm-triangle dvd, which made me think it was kind of an afterthought.

Still, that dvd is the only media I've found that you didn't direct me to - I wonder why it's so hard to find people teaching it.

[Aesopian]

Few instructors teach the crucifix for some reason. Fewer still ever use it. Most would just take the back or do a more "traditional" attack like clock choke, turnover, etc.