Jiu-Jitsu/Muay Thai/MMA Techniques and Training Log

Let’s start with a scenario in which you’re standing and your opponent is on their back.  They utilize a De La Riva guard, bringing their right leg behind your left and their shin across your right thigh.

Start by immediately sitting down and attempting to tightly trap their leg.  Make sure that your left shin is pointed towards their head/face area, and not towards your right.  If your shin is not facing in this direction and tightly pressed up against their hamstring area, the move will not work.  Keeping your shin exactly where it is, place your left arm over their right leg and by your thigh.  Place your head on the mat in between your opponent’s legs as if you were going to do a forward roll, but instead turn yourself upside-down without doing a full forward roll.  Now figure four your legs, reach your arms over your opponent’s right thigh, clasp your hands together and pull down as you stretch your legs to complete the muscle crush on your opponent’s right hamstring area.

The Guillotine, in all of its forms, is my absolute favorite submission.  The Flying Guillotine is especially great because, even if you can’t or have no intenion on finishing it, it is a great way to open your opponent up for a takedown or, at the very least, disrupt their rhythm and throw them off their game (at least for a little while.)

The best way to approach the Flying Guillotine is to first think consider your stance.  I’m right-handed and primarily a striker - a Muay Thai guy - so I lead with my left leg.  Many people from wrestling backgrounds will lead with their strong side, so right-handed wrestlers will often lead with their right legs.  Whichever side you lead with, you’re going to use that hand to control your opponent’s head.  For example, since I lead with my left leg, I use my left hand to control the head.

In either case, you place your “lead hand” on your opponent’s head as you’re leaping and push your opponent’s head down and over to the opposite side of your body.  In my case, I use my left hand to push my opponent’s head down and then towards my right armpit.  My right arm will then come around my opponent’s neck, with the blade of my forearm across their throat.  As I land from my short leap, my left hand will come and lock up with my right hand.  The most important thing here is that I don’t have an arm trapped.  That’s going to make it more difficult for me to finish the guillotine and presents my opponent with more options for escaping.  Once you’ve joined hands with the preferred grip (a ten finger grip for this variation,) you can pull either full or half guard - your preference.

The counter:

This isn’t really a “counter” in the traditional sense.  The goal here is to react fast enough to avoid being pulled into your opponent’s closed guard (full or half) as that makes things much more difficult and really presents you with much fewer options.

What you need to do (and of course it always helps to drill) is; as soon as you feel your opponent’s arm come around your neck, you need to prepare yourself to react.  Timing is everything for this counter.

If your opponent grabs your head and begins to tuck it under their right arm (which is generally what I would do if I were performing the move since I lead with my left leg,) you will need to escape to your opponent’s left side.  If your opponent begins to tuck your head under their left arm, you will need to escape to their right.  Whichever side you’re escaping to, you will need to wait until the moment your opponent starts to pull guard, at which point you will actually begin your counter/escape.

Rather than make this any more confusing, let’s just use an example.  Your opponent has your head trapped in their right armpit.  You need to escape to their left, so as they start to pull guard, you will use your right arm to hold down their left leg and you will hop your legs - one at a time, starting with your right - over their left leg.  You should land in side control, but your opponent will most likely be holding onto your head for dear life.  The best way to get it out is to wriggle and pull your head clean out.  If you’re unable to free your head this way (which is very possible and probably likely,) you will need to use whichever hand is not under your opponent’s head to grab their wrist and pop their grip.

I was just poking around my stats for the first time in a while when I noticed that #2 on my top countries list (a few hundred visits behind the U.S.) is Thailand.  Any connection to one of my favorite places on the Planet, no matter how distant or virtual, is always appreciated.

Laew phob gan mai!

Assuming, as always, that you’re working with your strong side and it’s your right leg that’s trapped in your opponent’s half guard.  Arm and hand placement is extremely important in order to control your opponent, so your left arm should be under their head and your right arm should be under their left arm.  Your hands should meet by their left shoulder and they should be clasped together with your left hand on top of your right.  Use your shoulder to create pressure and make it uncomfortable.  Anything to distract your opponent from the pass.

Without removing your left knee from the mat, hinge the lower half of your leg over and place your instep on your opponent’s right thigh.  While applying downward pressure, shake and bring your leg up and out of your opponent’s half guard.  You can either bring it out and over to the right in order to obtain full mount or, if you’re more comfortable in side, cut your right knee hard to your left.  Make sure that you keep your hips heavy at all times and you don’t allow your opponent to roll out over by moving your weight around too much.  Your arms and hands should not move during this process.

If your opponent is smart or more experienced, and the switch their hips in order to make it difficult for you to pass, just use your left foot to walk them back into a better position for you without moving your upper body.

Every year, I travel to Thailand to train Muay Thai for 2-4 weeks (whatever work’ll allow.) Here is my journal from week one of my most recent three week trip.

Day One

Continue Reading »

No gi:

- Tip on jumping guard with a guillotine and finishing the guillotine by not only leaning back, but corkscrewing your body towards the same side the head is trapped on.
- Worked a variation on the closed guard similar to rubber guard.  This involved opening the closed guard to feed your own left arm underneath your left leg, re-closing your guard, clasping your hands together, and bringing your right elbow over your opponent’s head and onto the left side of your body where you fed your arm under your leg.  Your opponent is pretty locked down at this point and will most likely attempt to posture up by posting with their left arm.  In this scenario, grab their left wrist with your right hand and punch their arm through in order to get a triangle.
- Another variation of the guard described above would have you push your opponent’s head to your right, pull your left foot underneath their chin, reach over top of their neck in order to grab your own foot, and then use your right arm to grab the top of their head and pull down to finish a gogoplata.

Gi:

- Drilled a single-leg takedown.  Starting by already holding the leg (we’ll assume your opponent’s right leg) and then use your right knee/leg and/or your right arm to hoist their leg even higher.  While you started the single-leg with your left arm over their leg and your right arm under, both arms should now be under their leg.  Now move your left hand to your opponent’s collar and either squat or use your left knee to elevate your opponent before taking them down.  Try to land with knee on belly.
- Armbar escape when only one of your opponent’s legs is over your body (at your head) and they don’t have a decent grip on your pants.  This is a common scenario when your opponent tries to armbar you from knee on belly.  Start by un-straightening your arm and bending it around your opponent’s leg towards your head, almost as if you were giving yourself an Americana.  Post your other, free arm by your hips and then bridge and turn towards your head and captured arm.  At this point you can continue to pass to side control on the same side or switch sides.
- For the person attempting the armbar, if your opponent attempts to escape described above, you can remove your leg from your opponent and turn their escape into an omoplata.

If you’re trapped in side control, here is an escape to half guard to a sweep in the gi.

Start by undoing in left side of your opponent’s lapel.  Wrap it around their back and feed it (deep) to your left hand.  Stick your right hand in between their legs and grab their right pant leg by the knee or lower, if you can.  Using your grip on their lapel, tug your opponent to your left and then your right, a move which - when assisted by your grip on their pants - should create the space necessary to gain half guard.

Once in half guard, release the grip on their lapel and let the lapel fall to your right hand, which is still between their legs.  Use your left hand to grip deep on your opponent’s collar, pulling their collar to your left side.  Break your half guard in order to place your left hook in.  Use your left hook and your right arm to push up and then over to your left, sweeping your opponent.

Start by undoing the right side of your opponent’s kimono.  This will be the side closest to you.  Feed the kimono through your opponent’s legs and control with your left hand.  Feed the kimono to your right hand, bringing your right hand between you and your opponent’s leg rather than underneath their leg.  Next, reach up with your left hand and grab your opponent’s belt.  Using your shoulder and left hand grip, force your opponent to move forward.  Bring your body out from your opponent’s half guard.

At this point, you can secure side control to moving to the side of your opponent’s body, grabbing their collar with your right hand and then pulling them down or you can obtain back control by using your hands to secure over/under and then sinking your hooks in.

From inside your opponent’s half guard, control their right wrist.  Post up on your right leg and free some of your leg so that you can bring your right knee to the mat.  Move your left leg to your left, moving it over your opponent’s leg so that you can rest, sitting on your opponent’s stomach with your back facing them.  Hook both arms under your opponent’s left leg using a ten finger grip, with your forearm behind their knee.  Bring your right leg also underneath your opponent’s left leg.  Fall to your right side, figure fouring your legs (inside of your left knee over your right foot).  Once on your side, tighten the figure four to finish the calf crush.

Start from the open guard with your feet on your opponent’s (seated) hips.  Holding onto your opponent’s wrists, kick your left leg out under their armpit and then bring it up and over their right arm, placing your foot in their armpit.  Move your right leg to your left, placing it by your opponent’s right hip.  This will make your opponent believe they will have an easy pass to your right side.  Once they “pass”, figure four your legs.  Remove your right hand grip from your opponent’s left wrist and shoot your right arm underneath your opponent’s right armpit in order to cup the back of their trapped, right arm.  Release your other grip and bring your left arm around so that your left hand can also cup the back of your opponent’s right arm.  To finish the crush, pull in with your hands while pushing out with your hips.