Obvious Epiphanies

**RobT** · Posted On: 11/15/2007 11:24am

Along the way, things which have helped me (they all seem so obvious now!)...

If you're on the bottom in a bad position, control their hips. Hips = balance.

Be prepared to let things go, don't get caught up in attacking one thing. I.e. you've got their back but they're escaping... go to mount, don't try to hang on to the back and end up being reversed. You're attacking an armbar but they're pulling out... switch to triangle or omoplata, or sweep them.

Grips are all important. The only time you should let go of a grip is to move to a more dominant or more useful one.

Always attack. Always. Don't let your opponent take the initiative at any point in the fight. If they are in a dominant position this means you should be constantly moving to escape, make them fight for a good control don't give it to them. If you're in a dominant position, constantly threaten subs so that your opponent has to defend that before starting an escape.

**rino86** · Posted On: 11/15/2007 5:03pm

I blinding flash of white belt intuition I had about 4 months ago:

"I am physically weaker and lighter than most of my opponents and it is a bitch to submit them with joint locks... what can I attack more successfully... the neck is pretty weak... I should choke people...but how will I choke them? I would need some kind of noose or fabric to wrap around...OH MY GOD"

it seems so stupid but I never really did any gi chokes before that and now its what I'm always attacking.

**Fighting Cephalopod** · Posted On: 11/15/2007 8:57pm

The solution to almost every half guard problem (from the bottom) is reverse-crunch your knees to your chest.

Also, and a bit more fundamentally -

In every submission, there are two pieces - the isolation, and the control. The isolation is how you're isolating the joint or the neck, and the control is how you keep him in place for you to finish.
The control is always over either the hips or two points of the triangle formed by the head and shoulders. If people are consistently escaping your submissions, 99% of the time it will be because you aren't controlling one of these two things properly.

Thirdly - in any scramble, when in doubt - if his head is below yours, switch your hips and drive into him. If his head is above yours, pull guard. Not universally true, since scrambles are unpredictable, but a really good rule of thumb.

**Boyd** · Posted On: 11/15/2007 11:16pm

I don't get that last one. Are you sure you don't have it backwards?

**Fighting Cephalopod** · Posted On: 11/16/2007 9:26am

Originally Posted by Boyd

I don't get that last one. Are you sure you don't have it backwards?

I'm working from the idea that you're not already on your knees. If you're already on your knees, then yes, you can drive in when they're above you, but if you're on your side, on your back, in a transition, the time required to switch hips before driving gives them the time to already start sprawling, and since you're already on your knees, even a weak sprawl is going to be fairly effective because shooting from turtle is a weak shot. You're usually better off pulling guard.

In the reverse, if their head is below yours, driving into them leaves them two options; pull guard, or try to drive into your when you're already in a position of strength driving into them, and you're usually going to win that one unless you've completely neglected your grips.

Like I said, scrambles are basically not ever an "always... never..." situation because it's an inherently chaotic position, but this is a pretty good rule of thumb.

**Kokujin** · Posted On: 11/16/2007 9:47am

Originally Posted by Aesopian

Oh, and shaking the baby. Shaking grips to off balance them, shaking to get under their chin for chokes, shaking to break their defense to armlocks and kimuras, shaking my hips to get rid of hooks, shaking my shoulders to adjust.

My teacher is hands down, the smallest guy in the gym, but everytime he does a technique he has a way of "shaking" things first, at the smallest sign of resistence from our part. He shakes us when armbaring us, when we try to smother him, etc. When asked about it, he said he came from a school full of bigger guys with chips on their shoulders, who resisted to every move he tried, even when drilling. So he started doing the shaking to overcome their initial resistance.

**Fearless Ukemi** · Posted On: 11/16/2007 10:58am

Would someone mind explaining "shaking" in more detail? Right now, all the other blue belts I roll with are bigger than I am and this sounds pretty interesting.

**Kokujin** · Posted On: 11/16/2007 8:59pm

Originally Posted by Fearless Ukemi

Would someone mind explaining "shaking" in more detail? Right now, all the other blue belts I roll with are bigger than I am and this sounds pretty interesting.

I see it as small adjustments that your body does while rolling or aplying a technique. I give you an example...you have a guy in side control, trying to weigh on him an such...he tries to shrimp under you just enough to place one hand on your ribs, the other across your throat and lift you up with the assistance of his belly, in one cordinated move. It's something basic, but it helps the bottom guy to restore guard or even reverse you.

Enter the shaking, in the sense that the second you feel that hand creeping under your ribs you move your body into a modified scarf hold position and shake your belly over his hand giving him a cow's hand! Note: You don't go for the full position change, you just "shake" your body in way that allows you to trap his hand under the weight of your belly/torso! Basicly you just shake your hips, the torso follows and you trap the guys hand under you in a beautiful cow's hand. He will wince in surprise and you'll restore side control, just a lot tighter this time!

OTHER USES FOR SHAKING THAT I REMEMBER:

Shaking to get the back while in half guard, shaking your legs to adjust the juji gatame (you hit him repetedly in the face with the inside of your knees), shaking while defending a lapel choke, shaking while passing the guard and the guy is trying to get his hooks. You shake your body to adjust it to the situation!

But hey, Aesopian might mean something else!

**fes_fsa** · Posted On: 11/23/2007 4:29pm

let's see... at my level i'm still just trying to get everything to click and understand what the **** i'm doing.

i guess the biggest one is creating space. alot of times, when mounted, i would skip out, and push his legs... but in a hurry, i would try to sneak my leg in and try to get the guy back into my guard. then end up in half guard or he'd just regain mount. taking a split second to push out a little further and give myself more space to work has made things so much easier.

another one is controling the arms. i have absolutely no upper body strength... and it's very easy to muscle somebody with my build. keeping my elbows in and my opponent's elbows out has made it easier for me to pull off arm submissions (something i never thought i'd be able to do until just last week, believe it or not).

**Backdraft** · Posted On: 11/23/2007 6:27pm

Shaking to escape armbars works too. Once you have a good stack or you've managed to grip your arms together, instead of trying to pull your arm out all at once, pull it out a little bit at a time, by shaking.