Day one of the Marcio Feitosa/Kyra Gracie seminar was held at Ballard Jiu Jitsu, Micah’s school. It’s such a small location compared to GB Seattle; the mat alone takes up a good 75% of the total space. But that helps create a nice intimate atmosphere that is especially cool in times like these when you’ve got big name jiu jitsu folks coming to town. The whole place had the air of a family reunion.
Marcio led us through a fairly moderate warm-up before moving on to techniques. Other than the relative lightness of the warm-up compared to what we do in class, I noticed that he included upas in his warm-up, which has led me to include them in my Tabata. It’s very good for north-south escapes, as well as other techniques. So I’m going to make sure I do a few sets whenever I’m warming up.
The stand up technique was one that Marcio said was among his favorites: the uchi mata. I think I remember reading Dave Camarillo, a jiu jitsu guy with a lot of judo in his game, mentioning that the uchi mata was one of the judo throws that translated well into jiu jitsu.
Marcio emphasized a couple of things with the uchi mata. First you want your grip to be about as high on the collar as it would be if you were trying to punch the guy in the jaw while still holding on to the gi. Not too high, not too low. This also helps prevent the guy from moving around to your back. When you move into the throw, you you’re your elbow in and down, from 3 o’clock to 6 o’clock, so it is pointing down.
Second, although it is not 100% necessary to grab the opposite elbow, the throw is best delivered with that grip on the arm. Grab right behind the elbow and, as you turn into the throw, make sure to lift rather than lower that arm. Think of it almost as if you were waltzing. Keeping that arm high makes it harder for the guy to maintain his balance.
A third detail that Marcio talked about was stepping to the outside as you did the reverse pivot. I think the idea here is that you get a better angle on the inside thigh if you step wide. If you don’t step wide, then not only is the guy closer to your back, but also you might actually swing your leg up into the groin instead of the inside thigh. Painful, perhaps, but not as effective in getting the guy off the ground.
Marcio talked about setting up the uchi mata with an inside-to-outside leg sweep. For example, I would be right-side forward. I snag the guy’s left collar with my right hand. The leg sweep has me step forward with my right leg and sweeping behind his left leg as I push with my right hand on his collar. As he steps back to evade the sweep, I swing into the uchi mata.
The uchi mata also works off a collar drag. Snag the collar and drag him toward you. As he instinctually pulls back, use that momentum to step forward and swing into an uchi mata.
If you don’t immediately get the throw, Marcio recommended keeping the pressure on. To do this, hop on your pivot foot and drive your shoulder into the guy, pushing him back. Keep kicking your up leg back to as you move into him.
Marcio showed us an excellent ankle pick that worked as a nice follow up if the guy still won’t go down. While you are attacking with the uchi mata, hopping into him, take that up leg and swing it back down to block his posting leg right behind the ankle. Push on the collar and reach down and pick the ankle. It’s a great combo move, especially if the guy has been giving it is all to avoid the uchi mata. From the ankle pick you can either get the takedown straightaway or you can lift him up and kick the other leg out from under him.
A few thoughts. This technique reinforced the idea of controlling the grips from the standup. Ultimate Grappling actually did a few decent articles on grip fighting that I should re-read. But given that my competition game is built around getting the takedown, this attack—which I’m calling the Feitosa series—is something I definitely want to add to my takedowns.
