Mamazinho has been working us on attacks from knee on stomach this week. A basic armbar, a collar choke in the event the guy tries to escape from the armbar attack by turning into you, and a nice baseball-style choke with a transition to north-south that I definitely need to think about using. He introduced these three on Monday, and we worked them again on Wednesday.
I keep thinking there was a fourth move from knee on stomach that he showed us last night. But nothing is coming to mind … Oh yeah, it was a counter to the collar choke for the guy on the bottom.
He also showed us the proper side control position, as well as the best way to enter. Proper side control is the under-the-head grip on the collar and gripping the inside pant leg by the hip. The gable grip across the upper body isn’t a bad transition position, but it makes it easier for the guy on the bottom to slide a leg under and get you back into half guard—as Lindsey did to me repeatedly during our side control specific drill Wednesday night.
What’s also interesting is that the proper side control position makes it much easier to transition to knee on stomach. It doesn’t “lock up” your body like the front, over/under gable grip positioning.
As far as legs go, you want the knee of the south leg in the inside hip and the north leg to be straight out behind you. This keeps you weight down, and checks his ability to elbow escape out (because of the hip block).
To enter knee on stomach from this position, you reach up with the south hand and grab the belt, keeping the south knee in the hip. From here, push up and hop the south leg knee into the abdomen. Once you get there, you can return your south hand to the pant leg by the hip while you look for a submission opportunity.
The basic armbar from knee on stomach is straightforward enough. Take your south side hand and switch the grip on the collar, replacing the “hold” grip with a deeper, choke grip. With the free, north hand, reach down and grab the near arm. Pull that arm away from you across his upper chest and move your north leg over his head. As you sink back into the armbar, make sure you keep the choke grip on the collar and use that grip to pull the guy into you.
That last point is worth remembering. Mamazinho often mentions pulling the guy toward you when doing an armbar.
The collar choke from this position is especially for instances when the guy tries to turn into you to avoid the armbar, or just to escape. What you need to do is to walk around with your outside leg to help keep the knee on the stomach as he turns. At the same time—remember you’ve already switched to the choke grip on the collar with your south side hand—you want to reach over with your north side hand and grab either the collar or the material near the shoulder. Lower your body—abandoning the knee on stomach if necessary—and squeeze your elbows together to finish the choke.
The north-south forearm choke variation is very nice. It also looks like something you can pull off quickly and really catch the guy. From the knee on stomach position—but before switching to the choke grip—you want to use the baseball choke grip, with your south hand “above” the north hand on the collar. Keep your body down so that the guy can’t armbar you while you are trying to choke him—the best way is to put your forehead on the guy’s far pectoral.
What you want to do is to get the forearm of that south arm down across the throat as effectively as possible. As you do that, you want to move to north-south in a counter clockwise position. You can crawl there or hop there (as I have been doing). But the choke really comes in as you lower the forearm and begin to move. By the time you get to north-south, the choke is probably almost finished.
That is what we learned on Monday night. Wednesday we went over this again (which was excellent!) and Mamazinho added the counter I mentioned. If there is a catechism that I should get to know, then it might be “choke attempt from top is countered by armbar.” I’ve run into this syndrome over and over again: from the counter to the can opener to the escape from that “pin” I mentioned a little while ago. Basically, the guy on top is giving you his arms if he makes the mistake of not keeping his body low. So you’ve got to take advantage of it.
If a guy’s got you in knee on stomach, then your outside leg should still be free. But what is key to making the armbar counter to knee on stomach effective is being able to get your inside leg between you and the other guy. Working with Kevin last night, it seemed like this was the main trick to making the armbar nice and tight. To do the counter, you elbow escape out to give yourself some room. Then throw your outside leg up and over in front of his face, while wedging your inside leg—knee first—into his armpit. The inside knee wedge looks a little like the same sort of knee wedge you use in the scissors sweep, only with the inside leg instead of the outside one.
Of course, you want to control the wrist, but if he is trying to choke you, it shouldn’t be too hard to trap his arm.
I missed out on a great opportunity to try this counter when doing side control specifics with Lindsey. He caught me in knee on stomach twice, and my brain just didn’t make the connection when he went for the choke. More about this in the next Errata Chronicles … but it really typifies what drives me crazy about my jiu jitsu: I don’t adopt/incorporate new techniques into my game as quickly (and as thoroughly) as I should. I was telling myself that since I manage to get to side control so often, I ought to make these three attacks that Mamazinho showed us the center of my top game. Too bad it is no gi tonight. I’m in the mood for a little redemption in the kimono …
