But some guys I tried this with, bigger guys and those with more experience were either too heavy to roll or too skilled at keeping their balance. This means that I’ve got to work escapes that, as with half of my half-guard passes, are “tackles” rather than “twists.”
Marcelo Garcia showed a couple of details on one of his escapes from side control in one of his instructional DVDs …
http://www.groundfighter.com/uploads/videos/Marcelo Garcia 3 vol-6.WMV
The first idea is to create a frame with your arms. This will enable you to create enough space so that you can do a reverse sit-out and get out from under.
The first part of the frame is the arm that is being underhooked (your far arm). That arm is brought up and against the neck, sort of like a forearm choke. You take the near arm, the arm that is between you and the opponent, and snake it under the arm that is around your neck. Thread it by his armpit, where the space is the greatest. Go all the way through until you can clasp your hands together at about his near shoulder.
That is your frame. As you extend your arms you create space because the guy is avoiding the choking pressure of your far arm’s forearm.
Now you want to move from the frame to the underhook. Marcelo warns to be careful not to lead with your elbow, because an alert opponent will pin your arm. Instead, he does that Taco Bell “good to go” hand gesture, rotating the wrist of the far arm (the choking arm) in and down under the guy’s armpit. As you swim your hand, then arm, into underhook position, be sure to reach as far across the guy’s back as possible.
The next step is the bridge. Marcelo points out that to get a really good high bridge, you need to bring your heels in as tight against your butt as possible. With your underhook, bridge up nice and high and drive the underhook into the guy. You want to push him not so much forward and not to the side, but more to the corner, off your inside shoulder.
At the same time, you want to take your inside leg and do the reverse sit-out. Bend that leg and bring it back under you as you turn INTO the guy with the rest of your body. The move is VERY similar to what Bravo has us doing with half-guard tackle sweeps in terms of coming up to the elbow.
The goal of this part of the move is to get to your knees. Once there, you want to attack the near leg, then move up to a body lock as you move to take the back or attack with a clock choke, for example.
