Dan Faggella‘s latest video on escaping X-Guard combines a couple of the grappling elements I’ve wrote about recently. These are the concepts geared toward the novice to intermediate level, but certainly great to investigate as beginners too. As we improve our grappling through both knowledge and flow, we find instructors and teammates making the appropriate adjustments to keep us humble in our improvement. It’s part of the beauty of our art and sport–so many levels!
We once simply wanted to pass an open guard with some finesse. Now that we can pull that off with a little more ease and frequency, suddenly we have to worry about leg lassos, sit-up guards, inverted guards, reverse DLR hooks, and carefully constructed tie-ups that leave us not knowing whose gi is wrapped around our limbs or neck.Image may be NSFW.
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Last week we looked at escaping the X-Guard with a Floating pass as an example of grappling evolution. Last month we looked at the concept of Controlled Chaos by breaking down this Rolling Back Take. This week we will combine some of these ideas while analyzing a tricky position we find ourselves in–sometimes too late for our defense or counter.
Love him or hate him, Olympic wrestler and undefeated MMA champion Ben Askren displays some of the best Controlled Chaos out there with his “funky” grappling style!
Dan begins this session by discussing the types of entanglements that happen pretty regularly. Many times it is the beginning of a position that we are responding to, but not yet a fully consolidated one. Maybe it’s a De La Riva hook, or Single X, or a lapel entanglement sneaking it’s way in to disrupt our base or limit our options. These entangled positions make us uncomfortable and increase that sense of urgency. We kick, back-step, yank, or even sprint free of it to reset and re-engage from a less entangled position with more control.
However, those resets are more in the prevention category, before a position is fully established. We tend to spend the most time drilling defensive technique in the middle of the attack, when the setup is close to or fully complete, but before the final steps.
Today’s video focus is an important one. It’s a focus that admittedly I should work more often from a number of positions–or more importantly, from the movement or situation generated by the attack. Today’s video is about what to do in the midst of the attack itself. Let’s face it: our opponents are going to be successful sometimes. If we can make the additional effort to limit that success to a partial or disrupted success, we would have an effective game indeed.
No Retreat! No Surrender!
After the initial introduction of the situation, Dan continues instruction from the point of having already been tipped forward by an opponent’s X-Guard control. Dan has posted with both arms in front to buy some time and offer resistance, but his opponent is in position to use a technical lift to complete the sweep. A quick sprint escape may be possible here, but if his opponent has too much of a grip on the leg being lifted, it is likely to force Dan to accept the sweep and take as best a bottom position as possible. In a point match this would also likely mean surrendering 2 points.
Instead of surrendering points and position, Dan looks to create some chaos by doing the unexpected, and to come out of it in better control. Looking at this momentary stall in the sweep as an entangled position that is offering slightly more favorable options to his opponent, Dan dives under his opponent, using the momentum of the sweep and no longer fighting it. This actually causes Dan to become even more entangled with his back on the mat. However, he does this with the intention of evening out the options instead of having less favorable ones. Dan and his opponent end up in a somewhat neutral, entangled position: a better entanglement than before.
This is an excellent response to getting caught in a bad spot for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, it offers Dan the element of surprise. Not only is the roll less expected than continuing to resist the sweep, having both created and controlled the chaos, Dan will be the first to act. Second, in most point matches, Dan would have limited his opponent’s X-Guard Sweep to an advantage, instead of any actual points, likely rendering it a partial success at best.
This technique breakdown is a prime example of how a bit of thoughtful ingenuity turns a tricky spot into an even playing field and then a new path to an advantageous position. By evening the odds, and setting up a properly controlled extraction, Dan was able to avoid both surrendering position, or retreating to a neutral reset.
Step-by-Step
- In a forward sweep from X-Guard, opponent is lifting the leg trapped on the shoulder, while using the X-Guard control to stretch and and tip forward. Have defended sweep by posting with both arms. Momentarily stuck in this entanglement. Opponent’s grip on raised leg is too tight for a “sprint out” to escape and reset.
- Before opponent can continue the technical lift by drawing the bottom leg back, dive own inside arm under opponent’s bottom leg into shoulder roll.
- While completing the roll, catch opponent’s top leg and drag it on top of own waist (now with own back on the mat)
- Use outside hand to grab opponent’s top leg at the ankle and pull out and up, while pushing up with the original hooking hand to lift the thigh
- Shrimp out slightly, shifting to own inside hip, and slip knee of own free leg under opponent’s lifted top leg.
- Use shin to brace into opponent’s calf at an outward angle (not toward opponent’s body) and begin to extract the entangled leg
- Tip: grip with outside hand can remain on front of ankle or switch to over the thigh, while posting or pushing off opponent with other hand
- As the entangled leg is freed, kick it out into technical lift get-up and take top position.
Image credit: http://danofearth.com/2014/04/03/eddie-bravo-vs-royler-gracie-2-a-gif-breakdown-and-analysis/
The post Entanglements, Chaos & Extraction: Avoiding Surrender or Retreat in a Tricky Jiu Jitsu Postition appeared first on Science Of Skill.