I spent some time going over Bravo's half-guard on the plane ride back, and I'll probably post some synthesis of those notes tonight after class or some time over the weekend. There's also a nice move Bravo has for when the guy bear hugs your legs, a variation on the Jean Jacques Machado move in his book, that I want to highlight. Jeff the White has caught me in that bear hug guard pass a few times, and though I'm defending against it better, my defense still has a lot of "scramble" in it.
Anyway, I wanted right now to quote William A. Martell, from his book, Greco-Roman Wrestling:
When working for the advantage of an underhook, extending your arms out from your body will give your opponent scoring opportunities and will take you out of a sound body position. Pulling and turning with the underhook will break your opponent's balance.
The moment your opponent is off balance, position your underhook shoulder under his shoulder. This will create space between your bodies that will allow you to move your overhook hand to his wrist, and drive your hand, arm and shoulder down to facilitate a double underhook. You are now in a position to use your leg strength to lift your arm and hook your opponent at the shoulder joint or secure a double underhook.
One big mistake I've been making during pummeling has been to push with my underhook arm and to try and dip my underhook attacking arm under a shoulder that I am making lower and harder to reach by my own pushing on the other side. It's a classic case, or so we'll see after I try the adjustment tonight, of what happens when you are off-base technically. You can easily not just do something badly, but you can easily find yourself doing exactly the wrong thing.
It's like standing up to escape an armbar instead of defending the arm, staying tight, stacking and smashing. Or like crossing your feet when you take the back. The wrong thing in grappling--something that might seem completely harmless to the unaware--is often the worst thing.
