It’s hard to believe it’s been nearly 5 months since my last update. In that time I went from my second stripe to my fourth. I regret slacking on here, but free time has been a luxury of late. Since my company launched its new website and I accepted a side project to make some additional money I find myself snatching every bit of sleep whenever I can get it. Thus my commute, which was when I wrote most of my posts, has since become an opportunity for a quick nap. It sucks always being tired.
Not too tired to hit the mats, though. Never too tired for that 🙂
Great news: Prof. Renzo is now teaching regularly at RGA NYC. I had the pleasure of being one of many taking his class tonight. The mats were packed, and with good reason. The professor demonstrated some great details for finishing the sitting armbar. Fair warning: it’s a lengthy post, I tried to squeeze in as much detail as I could recall.
Let’s say you’re attacking your opponent’s right arm. Your opponent is defending the armbar, with his arms crossed over him in an M shape, elbows pointing at the ceiling. Your right arm should be looped deep through his right, with the crook of your elbow facing the crook of his. Your right hand grips your left lapel. Leaning slightly backwards, your left hand should be posted behind you and to the left.
One important thing here is to not cross your ankles on the far side. Doing so forces your knees apart. Instead squeeze your knees together and turn your feet so the soles are facing downward and the big toes are pointing at one another. In this position keeping your knees together is essential. The reason is twofold:
- It limits the motion of your opponent’s arms, restricting his means of escape
- It helps you keep your opponent down.
Building off point #2, the first part of our initial drill was to prevent our partner from bridging over and then turning into us to escape the armbar. To do this, as soon as the partner on the bottom would set up to bridge, the one on top would (while continuing to squeeze his knees together, keeping pressure) lean back and at the same time release his right-handed grip on his left lapel. He would allow his arm to slip back to holding the opponent’s bicep alone, leaning back until his back touched the mat, keeping hips off the floor. This makes it very difficult for the practitioner on the bottom to bridge or turn over in any way.
Once in control, the practitioner on top could start to work on isolating the arm. Assume your opponent switches to using an S-grip or some other two-handed grip to defend. Coming back up from the mat, the idea here would be to once more loop the right arm through, grabbing one’s own left lapel. This time however, when coming up, the important thing would be to pull the opponent’s right forearm as deep under your armpit as possible. Next, place your left hand on his right hand wherever he makes his grip. The idea is to place this grip in a way so that when you twist to your left the torque will pry his hands apart. Once the grip is in place, as stated twist your body to your left, breaking the defensive grip and isolating the arm. Still pinching your knees together, lean back while making sure the elbow is pointed at your stomach and the thumb at the ceiling. Pull down on the wrist, lift the hips, and push away with your legs to apply pressure for the submission.
Bonus Tip #1: Your left hand should not be near the action until the end, when you place it over his grip. Especially in a gi match, bringing your free arm into this gives your opponent an opportunity to grab your arm/sleeve with his free hand, which could make it harder for you to finish and easier for him to escape. If you do need to use it, bring it in quickly for a quick adjustment and get it back out.
The second attack from this position is used when the opponent has his arms crossed in front of him, again in an M shape. The right hand (the one that’s being attacked) is gripping the left lapel, and the left hand is gripping the right lapel, above the right wrist. Your right arm is still looped deeply through his, grabbing your left lapel with your hand. The next step leaves you vulnerable to bridging, so it should be performed when the opponent is flat on his back. Place your left (free) hand on his left hand, pinning it down to his chest. Now using either of your legs (it comes down to what you’re comfortable with), place your shin over the intersection where his arms cross. You will be creating a figure-four shape over his arm, with the sole of your foot along the inside of the opposite knee. By driving your leg down and away from you your shin will apply pressure to break his far-hand grip. This leaves just the right hand gripping the collar. Curl the fingers of your left hand on the outside of his right, then twist toward your left to break the grip on the collar, isolating the arm and continuing through to submission as above.
Bonus Tip #2: There’s a basic air choke right there when you place your left hand on your opponent’s left hand to pin it down. Instead of placing your whole hand on the back of his, place just the thumb and the part of the palm below the thumb on the back of his hand. Your remaining four fingers should curl around and grip the same-side lapel. With this grip complete, push your fist away from you, driving it across your opponent’s neck, putting pressure on the throat. Even if you do not get the tap, you should be able to unnerve your opponent into making a mistake.
That about wraps it up. I’ll be doing my best to start posting on here regularly again. Next post: tight armbar setup from closed guard.