I’m lucky to work in an office where my absences this year haven’t caused too much controversy. I’ve got the sick time, so it isn’t so much a matter of that. But sick time is one of those weird aspects of 21st century employment in America: just because they give it to you, doesn’t mean they don’t mind when you use it. Even if the work output remains the same—or, as is often the case with me in my current gig, increases—during a health-related absence, there is a “Being There” quality that most employers seem to prize above almost everything else.So I’m here Friday morning, squinting and blinking my way through the first few hours of the day—grateful both for the fact that I’ll be able to leave a little early (courtesy of extra time spent at the desk earlier in the week) and that the weekend is only a few hours away.
Much of this overshadows some interesting discoveries I made Wednesday night about my half-guard game—discoveries that were largely confirmed after watching some more ADCC matches since then. Most important of these observations is a basic one: use your outside leg to hold the half-guard in place, not the “center” leg.
By using the outside leg mostly to “overhook” the guy’s leg when in half-guard, you accomplish a couple of important things. The most important of these things is that it helps keep you on your hip rather than flat on your back, which is a likely result of using your center leg to hook “inside-to-outside.”
Another problem with using the center leg to try and trap the guy’s leg is that it doesn’t allow your hips to move effectively, again making it easier for the guy on top to flatten and stretch you out. Theoretically if you’ve got the center leg in place, it can become the first hook if you are able to move to the back. But most of the time I see guys trying to keep their half-guard in place by using mainly the center leg aren’t trying to take the back, they are hanging on for dear life, often figure-fouring the guy’s leg in attempt to stave off the pass.
Figure-fours can be effective. I’ve seen guys like Anderson Silva use figure-fours to lock up his closed guard. And figure-fours from rear mount are increasingly common. But the problem with figure-fours is that they completely monopolize the legs. There’s nothing else you can do with them—unless you release the figure four. In my opinion, figure fours are great “holding” patterns before moving on to a more constructive (and traditional) use of the legs.
The idea of using the outer leg primarily when in half-guard is that it both allows you to easily shift your hips to the outside (i.e., plant the center leg and elbow escape) or even to come up on the inside knee as when doing the Old School sweep (which I was able to do more effectively than ever Wednesday night—albeit not so much against Cindy!).
Twists also go better with the outside leg overhook than the center leg hook. I’m still getting the hang of it; you want to make sure that the foot of your outside leg stays pinned to the mat so that the guy’s leg doesn’t slip out, allowing hip to hop easily into side control. But if you do it right, then by the time you need to worry about moving your outside leg, you’ve already ducked down, controlled the leg on the other side, and are likely turning the guy up and over into the twist. And there are really only two options for the guy to be able to stop the twist: either bracing with an arm or a leg.
The arm threat is usually eliminated by the overhook you’ve got on the sweep side. The leg-brace threat is eliminated by the overhook you’ve got with your outside leg. Get your grips (overhook the arm, underhook the leg—or grab the pants at the knee), plant the center leg and, with your outside leg trap set, pivot and elbow escape off the center leg and twist the guy over. Don’t release the outside leg hook until the guy is well on his way over the top.
