I’m in a massively unenthusiastic mood at present. The market is tanking, and taking my options positions with it. I’m being turned into a hack writer at the office (though there’s some daylight in the form of some ghost writing work I might be able to snag). I live in a country run by the most corrupt, cynical, self-serving son of a bitches imaginable. As the saying goes, I could go on …
A brief aside. I am amazed at people’s tendency to self-promote. I tend to be pretty modest about my accomplishments—such as they are—when talking with other people. You’ll never see me stroll up to somebody and just start talking to him or her about some wonderful thing going on in my life. Why presume that the other person gives a fuck? Why run around looking for people to pat you on the head and tell you how great you are? But that’s how people are, I suppose—and why I can’t stand them.
Fortunately, I’ve got jiu jitsu. Among the myriad graces that jiu jitsu gives us is its thoroughness. When you’re hyperextending somebody’s arm, or choking them to the edge of consciousness, nobody needs to tell you how good you are. It’s obvious. No bullshit. And if there is bullshit, you break their arm or put them to sleep. Talk about your doctrine of infallibility!
Anyway, I want to recap some of the techniques that Mamazinho has been showing us. He does an excellent job of starting with a basic position—side control, the guard—and then showing variations on escapes, sweeps and submissions that can all be applied from that basic position. I take nothing away from Rodrigo—who did much the same thing when he was doing most of the teaching. But insofar as I really didn’t know very much about Mamazinho and his teaching style until only that past few months, I have to say that I’ve been pleasantly surprised.
This week, Mamazinho has been showing us ways to counter when a guy stands up in your guard. The first technique was a sweep. The guy stands up in your guard looking to pass. You open your guard a bit and bring your knees in together. At the same time, you grab behind both of his ankles. Pull on his ankles as you push out with your hips. This should sweep the guy directly backwards.
Now, you need to get superior position. The guy will always try and come back to the top, usually by planting a hand behind him and pushing himself up. What you want to do is to plant your hand behind you—same side that he is planting—and reach over and across to grab the wrist of his “planting hand”. Use his weight to pull you to the top, while also making it hard for him because you’ve grabbed his “planting hand.”
Here’s a variation. Sometimes, in the heat of a fight, they guy will make the mistake of trying to push you back in the chest with his other hand. This leaves him vulnerable to an armbar. I’ll use “left/right” language to make sure the variation is clear.
You get the sweep. He reached to post with his left hand (your right side) and tries to push your chest back with his right hand as you are coming up. Grab his wrist with your left hand and swing your left leg over. You want to put his left arm between your legs, and hook the top of your foot on his neck. It is basically an inverted armbar. You don’t need much torque to get the submission from here. Pull up gradually on the wrist to apply the lock.
