Mamazinho showed us three techniques Wednesday night: a half-guard pass, a counter to the kimura from the top while in half-guard, and a one-handed brabo choke from the half-guard.
In the same way that Mamazinho did for me after I lost by armbar at the second Pacific Northwest Jiu Jitsu Championships at Yesler Community College, Mamazinho focused on Jason, the crazy strong white belt, who will be competing at both the tournament this Saturday and the Pan-Ams about six weeks after that. Very classy, in my opinion--and a great help for all of us.
I worked with Bruce. The first technique was the half-guard pass. There were two key elements: shoulder pressure and using the opposite leg as a wedge. By wrapping the far arm in the guy's lapel and getting a tight grip, you can improve that shoulder, or upper body, pressure. Walk yourself backwards a little bit toward the north in order to get some space. Then bring the free leg up and through, knee first, in order to free the leg and pass into side control.
I'd been struggling for a counter to the "sit-out" half-guard pass. There were a few good hints I found here and there. All of them focused on getting a butterfly hook with the outside leg (the leg that overhooks in the lockdown), while having the inside/center leg on top of the guy's butterflied leg. It takes some leg coordination, but it seems like it is coordination worth developing insofar as that half-guard pass is very effective.
Mamazinho's version gets you to the back. I found a version in Rigan Machado's Encyclopedia, Volume One, that got you back to closed guard.
If you are defending against a kimura, then you want to grab on to something fast: your belt, gi, whatever. Change your leg position so that your outside leg is butterflied under the guy's leg and the foot of your inside leg is pressing down on that leg.
With the other arm, reach down and grab the pants by the knee. Aesopian's version has you completely duck down and underhook the knee. But Aesopian is going for a twist-back type of sweep rather than a take-the-back.
Lift up with the butterfly hook and the pants grip by the knee. As you stuff the knee back down, overhook that leg with your leg on that side and scoot out and around towards the guy's back. By committing to the kimura--or to the sit-out half-guard pass--the guy has essentially already given you his back. You just need to figure out how to get your legs out of the way. Butterflying the outside leg helps lift the guy to create space and to allow that leg to eventually become a rear mount hook on the guy's other leg. The lift also allows your center leg to come out and around to overhook that leg, giving you time to shift your body out and around that "post".
The choke was a sort of one-handed brabo choke. Whereas the brabo choke has you put your arm behind the guy's neck and back and then lift up with your northmost shoulder, Mamazinho's version had you flatten the guy out first, basically using the mat as that pressure behind the neck. He also had the arm back there, but I think it was mostly to help drive the guy flat on his back to the mat.
I think what the other arm is supposed to do is keep the head in place as you pull on the collar and press forward with your upper body to flatten them out. It's a detail I'll have to ask about Monday night. I've found myself fighting hard for brabo and d'arce chokes from the top in half guard and not being able to get the finish. I suspect it is something small, but critical, as is so often the case in jiu jitsu.
