Now that I’m back on a more regular training schedule, I can devote more time (more posts) to some of the actual instruction I’m getting. I’ve found myself going back to look up details on a number of techniques over the past several days, reminding me of how valuable this blog can be if I build it correctly.
So with that, a look at Monday night’s class. Mamazinho had us work on quite a bit of standup, especially the double leg and the duck under. There were two different types of double leg that he showed us. The first is just the “crouch and shoot” variety that I like: penetration step with the lead foot while dropping low, then stepping up parallel with the other foot as you lock behind the knees/lower thighs and lift, then a step to the side with what was the lead foot as you turn and take the guy down.
The second one is the one I used to see Cindy practicing all the time as a warm-up. In this version, you are looking to get even lower to deal with an opponent with a very low posture. Here, the penetration step is a knee drop. Everything else is the same.
What makes this variation difficult for me is that I feel as if I’m going off balance when I drop down on my forward knee. The duck under—which I’ll talk about in a minute—also has you drop down on your forward knee. But the difference is that with the drop down double leg, your knee drop has to be a penetration move. In other words, you don’t drop straight down so much as you drop forward.
It will take some practice. But it seems like a great takedown if you can hit it
Last was the duck under. Again, this one involves a knee drop with the forward leg. But because you are not really making a penetration move out of it, it seems a little easier for me to pull off without feeling like I’m losing my balance.
Mamazinho sets up the duck under takedown by grabbing the sleeve and the collar. Pull up on the sleeve and drop the forward knee. As you come back up, duck under the arm of the sleeve you control and, as you turn into the guy, pull on the collar. The combination of the twisting motion (as you turn into him) and the yank on the collar makes this a hard takedown to resist. Mamazinho highlighted also the detail of picking up the guy’s near leg as you rise, turn and tug on the collar.
The duck under can also be a set up for a take-the-back move, as well as an ankle pick, it seems to me. Good stuff.
The second half of the instruction had to do with spinning out to take the back. Maybe the guy is in a turtle defensive position. Maybe he shot in, you sprawled, but he grabbed a leg (behind the knee). What you want to do is spin out toward the same side as the trapped leg. Practicing this Monday night, I got a little confused from time to time about which direction to spin. But as I think about it, I’m reminded of that move I saw in that ADCC 2005 match where the guy had his leg trapped, but managed to escape by spinning around “backwards” toward the guy’s head. He almost wound up in a knee on belly position.
So if the guy under you grabs around your right leg, you want to reach over his back with your right hand as you turn toward the left. Your trapped leg is like a post that you spin around; since he’s got it trapped, there’s no sense in trying to free it directly. So you use the fact that he is committed himself to holding on to your leg to attack his body.
I’m going to go over this before class a few times to make sure I’m thinking this through correctly. But it seems to make more sense than trying to yank your leg free by spinning in the other direction. If the guy’s lock on your leg is strong, then that simply won’t work.
You can finish at the side or at the back. Make sure that you’ve got control of the inside elbow and are checking the inside hip, also.
From there Mamazinho had us work on the clock choke. Though I’m no Wallid Ismail when it comes to the clock choke, it is the one choke I’ve had some success with (compared to the RNC or the basic cross collar choke or the winding choke or the baseball choke …). We worked on the basic set-up for the clock choke, with Mamazinho emphasizing not getting too far out in front of the guy when you are applying the choke, as well as putting your weight on the guy’s shoulder and sitting back and up. The guy I was training with (George?) a purple belt pointed out that you can also increase the torque on the choke by levering your wrist downward, as if you were tapping a stick on a surface. I want to make sure I’m remembering that one right, also. It seems like a nice detail to be mindful of.
I keep feeling that I’m forgetting a third move from this basic turtle/sprawl-to-back spin out stuff. But it’s just not coming to me. If I remember it, then I’ll note it in an update or another post.
