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Being laid up with an injury is no fun. Having been out of action for almost two months with a trapped nerve in my shoulder, I have, frustratingly, had untold time to reflect on the aspects of my Jiu Jitsu that could do with a nip and tuck.
Unsurprisingly, these are basic nuts and bolts techniques. Bread and Butter concepts.
I’ve realised that throughout my time on the mat, I appear to have picked up some less-than-desirable habits in certain positions, which have left me wide open to attack.
I'm no stranger to mistakes – I make many. At home, in training and invariably, at work. The differences being that at home I have a girlfriend to politely point out my errors.
At work I have 34 pupils eager to revel in my misfortune, en masse.
On the mat, namely in competition, I simply have my opponent. The one person who is in no way keen to lend a helping hand or give a guiding nudge. Unless you count a rear naked choke as a polite pointer.
Evidently I do as little as possible to give an opponent any advantage. Or at least I used to.
These days I’m overly keen to wave a free arm about, half-heartedly shoot for a takedown and give up my back, or explore the rich possibilities of getting choked out after kindly letting an opponent pass my guard.
I’ve noticed several things in this vein which I continue to do even though I’m apparently fully aware of the dangers.
The first of these is in trying to escape an indefinite sentence in side control. Once or twice, I’ve instinctively worked to free my near-side arm from under my foe’s torso, skilfully snaking the offending limb out between their shoulder and head, into perfect position for a head and arm triangle. On myself.
Lord only knows why.
I have successfully managed to apply this technique twice in smaller competitions, to be swiftly and thoroughly tapped with said submission. Bloodshot eyes and spots around the T-zone from a lack of oxygen are fine post-match reminders of this particular foolish move.
The results are illustrated perfectly above - in a shot of Jay Furness expertly exposing my BJJ faux pas.
Thanks Jay.
Having discussed this little cavity in my game, Factory BJJ’s Adam Adshead advised some pointers, some of which are relevant from many positions. These are his wise words:
1. Escape the hips but also the shoulders
Creating distance with your hips is great for trying to retain guard, but canny grapplers will find 1001 different ways to block your hip, stopping you from doing this.
So if you are going to play an escaping the hip game, make sure you're aware of how much people will kill your escape with said hip control.
To supercharge your side control escape, also look at escaping your shoulders as well. The majority of failed side control escapes aren't because of a bad hip escape. Instead they fail because people escape their hips, but then then an opponent just sucks you back in as they have control of your upper body - it's like breaking free from the shackles and trying to escape when you're still handcuffed, you're not going to get too far!
Look at it this way, escaping side control in my view is a two part movement and most people only ever work the first part (hips), so will only get it with brute strength or only manage to capitalise on the mistakes of the person on top. They try again and again and again, inefficiently wasting energy and time when patiently escaping your hips and shoulders will get you out, more successfully.
2. Using head control and the V's of elbows to aid your escape.
Escaping side control can be the hardest part of grappling so although step one is good you'll need some trusty accomplices to help you along the way and this is where head and elbow control come in.
Head control
Using the Galvao bridge, where you place your forearm under their head to one - stop you getting side choked and two - to trigger the bridge escape. Remember work a diagonal bridge with your heels spring loaded close to your backside, then once you've pushed their head across your body, make sure you capitalise by stuffing it away and into the mat if possible.
The benefits of using head control are that it limits their sight, weakens their posture/structure and allows you the space and time to make your escape.
Elbow Control
Using the V's of your hand in the V of someone’s elbow is a great way to take away their ability to pin or regain their control over your upper body.As simple as catching a rat with a forked twig (actually it's a lot easier) you want to ideally pin their arms to their body but as long it's not controlling you, it's all good and will help you escape side control.
Recap
· Keep on your side
· Escape your hips
· Escape your shoulders
· Aid your escape with head control and elbow control
· All can be worked conceptually in no set order and mixing them up will stop you building a predictable escaping game.
I've also been running through this, from Aesopian's instructional section.
Admittedly in my head, as I've been injured, but still..............
http://www.aesopian.com/73/heel-drag-side-control-escape/
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