JD Position Escapes

1. Introduction to New Wave Jiu Jitsu Philosophy (opens in a new tab) (00:00)
2. The Importance of Defense in Jiu Jitsu (opens in a new tab) (00:33)
3. Mental Aspects of Attacking in Jiu Jitsu (opens in a new tab) (01:33)
4. Traditional vs. New Philosophy in Jiu Jitsu (opens in a new tab) (03:09)
5. Maximizing Opportunities from Pin Escapes (opens in a new tab) (04:26)
6. Understanding Pin Types and Counterattacks (opens in a new tab) (06:37)
7. Building Confidence Through Defense (opens in a new tab) (08:52)
8. The Role of Defensive Skills in Competitive Success (opens in a new tab) (13:02)
9. Binary Approach to Defense and Offense (opens in a new tab) (16:37)
10. Narrowing the Gap Between Defense and Offense (opens in a new tab) (18:53)
11. Psychological Principles in Jiu Jitsu (opens in a new tab) (33:06)
12. General Game Plan for Pin Escapes (opens in a new tab) (50:54)
13. Understanding Scoring Pins in Jiu Jitsu (opens in a new tab) (01:01:33)
14. Leg Dominant vs Arm Dominant Pins (opens in a new tab) (01:02:48)
15. Counterattacking from Pins (opens in a new tab) (01:03:02)
16. Introduction to the Kipping Escape (opens in a new tab) (01:06:09)
17. Executing the Lateral Kipping Escape (opens in a new tab) (01:11:28)
18. Common Mistakes and Tips for Kipping Escape (opens in a new tab) (01:18:44)
19. Misdirectional Kipping Escape (opens in a new tab) (01:32:36)
20. Advanced Overhead Kipping Escape (opens in a new tab) (01:45:15)
21. Building a Strong Frame for Kipping Escape (opens in a new tab) (01:52:11)
22. Weightless Body and Kipping Techniques (opens in a new tab) (01:52:40)
23. Overhead Kipping Escape Demonstration (opens in a new tab) (01:53:32)
24. Gaining Confidence Through Practice (opens in a new tab) (01:53:38)
25. Detailed Breakdown of Kipping Escape (opens in a new tab) (01:54:40)
26. Importance of Head and Chin Position (opens in a new tab) (01:56:35)
27. Three Variations of Kipping Escape (opens in a new tab) (01:59:28)
28. Introduction to Elbow Escape (opens in a new tab) (02:01:20)
29. Classic Outside Elbow Escape (opens in a new tab) (02:02:05)
30. Challenges at Higher Levels (opens in a new tab) (02:04:25)
31. Inside Mounted Elbow Escape (opens in a new tab) (02:08:19)
32. Outside Elbow Escape in High-Level Competition (opens in a new tab) (02:12:10)
33. Maximizing Philosophy of Escape (opens in a new tab) (02:19:29)
34. Rear Mounted Position: Hand and Head Battle (opens in a new tab) (02:20:48)
35. Controlling the Strangle Hand (opens in a new tab) (02:25:06)
36. Winning the Head Fight (opens in a new tab) (02:32:06)
37. Sliding Elbow Escape (opens in a new tab) (02:42:52)
38. Winning the Hand Fight (opens in a new tab) (02:44:06)
39. Turning the Body Parallel to the Mat (opens in a new tab) (02:44:46)
40. Chin Position and Hand Grip (opens in a new tab) (02:45:03)
41. Escaping the Hook (opens in a new tab) (02:45:41)
42. Elbow to the Floor for Defense (opens in a new tab) (02:46:13)
43. Transitioning to Ashigurami (opens in a new tab) (02:46:28)
44. Review and Demonstration (opens in a new tab) (02:47:07)
45. Principles of Sliding Elbow Escapes (opens in a new tab) (02:49:10)
46. Counter Offense Mindset (opens in a new tab) (02:49:35)
47. Introduction to Body Triangle Escapes (opens in a new tab) (02:52:19)
48. Ineffectiveness of Footlock Method (opens in a new tab) (02:54:27)
49. Differences Between Rear Mount and Body Triangle (opens in a new tab) (02:55:25)
50. Importance of Winning the Hand Fight (opens in a new tab) (02:57:29)
51. Theory of the Four Triangles (opens in a new tab) (02:59:36)
52. Outside Body Triangle (opens in a new tab) (02:59:52)
53. Inside Body Triangle (opens in a new tab) (03:00:42)
54. Inside Cross Triangle (opens in a new tab) (03:01:33)
55. Weak Outside Cross Triangle (opens in a new tab) (03:03:57)
56. Converting to the Weakest Triangle (opens in a new tab) (03:04:50)
57. Escaping the Bottom Side Triangle (opens in a new tab) (03:10:09)
58. Breaking the Upper Body Connection (opens in a new tab) (03:20:04)
59. Legal Hand Separation Techniques (opens in a new tab) (03:22:19)
60. Turning Escape Technique (opens in a new tab) (03:27:06)
61. Critical Role of the Elbow (opens in a new tab) (03:30:18)
62. Understanding the Elbow Position (opens in a new tab) (03:31:09)
63. Slow Motion Breakdown (opens in a new tab) (03:31:24)
64. Executing the Spin Move (opens in a new tab) (03:32:15)
65. Combining Techniques: Four Triangles and Misdirection (opens in a new tab) (03:33:14)
66. Escaping Tight Body Triangles (opens in a new tab) (03:33:51)
67. Head Positioning Strategies (opens in a new tab) (03:35:10)
68. Switching Headlocks (opens in a new tab) (03:42:12)
69. Realistic Expectations in Competition (opens in a new tab) (03:43:53)
70. Counterattacks from Neon Belly (opens in a new tab) (03:44:38)
71. Attacking the Back Leg from Neon Belly (opens in a new tab) (03:57:44)
72. Escaping Side Control (opens in a new tab) (04:10:01)
73. Elbow and Knee Positioning for Escapes (opens in a new tab) (04:21:28)
74. Creating Space and Counterattacks (opens in a new tab) (04:22:06)
75. Upper Body Attacks and Triangle Entries (opens in a new tab) (04:22:57)
76. Defensive Framing Techniques (opens in a new tab) (04:25:09)
77. Manipulating Opponent's Head Position (opens in a new tab) (04:27:42)
78. Options for Inside Arm Framing (opens in a new tab) (04:33:59)
79. Options for Outside Arm Framing (opens in a new tab) (04:39:44)
80. Understanding Pin Configurations (opens in a new tab) (04:51:42)
81. Kipping for Side Control Escapes (opens in a new tab) (05:05:09)
82. Mastering the Reverse Shrimping Technique (opens in a new tab) (05:11:24)
83. Creating Space with Reverse Shrimping (opens in a new tab) (05:12:09)
84. Overcoming Tight Hip Control (opens in a new tab) (05:12:37)
85. Demonstrating Reverse Shrimping from Different Angles (opens in a new tab) (05:13:12)
86. Integrating Reverse Shrimping into Your Game (opens in a new tab) (05:13:49)
87. Side Elbow Escape: The Ultimate Jiu Jitsu Move (opens in a new tab) (05:15:34)
88. Forming Effective Frames for Side Elbow Escape (opens in a new tab) (05:16:36)
89. Controlling Your Opponent's Head and Hips (opens in a new tab) (05:17:26)
90. Penetrating with Precision: Knee Placement (opens in a new tab) (05:17:48)
91. Transitioning from Defense to Offense (opens in a new tab) (05:19:42)
92. Introducing the Clamp Position (opens in a new tab) (05:20:53)\
93. Clamp Position: Controlling Distance (opens in a new tab) (05:20:59)
94. Executing the Basic Clamp (opens in a new tab) (05:23:18)
95. Advanced Clamp Techniques and Submissions (opens in a new tab) (05:26:13)
96. Attacking Options from the Clamp (opens in a new tab) (05:29:04)
97. Utilizing Half Guard for Leg Attacks (opens in a new tab) (05:40:23)
98. High Leg Escape: An Auxiliary Technique (opens in a new tab) (06:04:14)
99. Securing the Foot and Preventing the Backstep (opens in a new tab) (06:05:46)
100. Practical High Leg Diversionary Attack (opens in a new tab) (06:06:08)
101. Match Speed Competition Setting (opens in a new tab) (06:07:32)
102. Introduction to Tegitame Arm Lock (opens in a new tab) (06:08:32)
103. Executing Tegitame for Fast Submissions (opens in a new tab) (06:10:35)
104. Combining Tegitame with Leg Attacks (opens in a new tab) (06:12:40)
105. Knee Escape from Side Control (opens in a new tab) (06:18:28)
106. Single Leg to Ashi Garami Transition (opens in a new tab) (06:21:52)
107. Sit Back to Half Guard Transition (opens in a new tab) (06:28:00)
108. Rolling Response to Defensive Sprawl (opens in a new tab) (06:34:40)
109. Switching from Single Leg to Ankle Control (opens in a new tab) (06:41:07)
110. Reverse Shrimping and Elbow Control (opens in a new tab) (06:47:59)
111. Turning Away from Opponents: Risks and Rewards (opens in a new tab) (06:49:05)
112. Executing the Double Thumb Post (opens in a new tab) (06:53:05)
113. The Backdoor Escape Technique (opens in a new tab) (07:05:21)
114. Dealing with Sit-Throughs and Elbow Control (opens in a new tab) (07:22:12)
115. Elbow Positioning and Shrimping Techniques (opens in a new tab) (07:34:09)
116. Thumb Post and Counterattacks (opens in a new tab) (07:35:19)
117. North South Position: Introduction and Challenges (opens in a new tab) (07:37:41)
118. Fundamentals of North South Escapes (opens in a new tab) (07:39:51)
119. High Leg Escape: Drills and Application (opens in a new tab) (07:46:05)
120. Variations in North South Pins and Escapes (opens in a new tab) (07:56:30)
121. Converting North South to Side Control (opens in a new tab) (08:06:17)
122. Introduction to Turtle Position Escapes (opens in a new tab) (08:17:05)
123. Upper Body Control Techniques (opens in a new tab) (08:17:30)
124. Lower Body Control and Positioning (opens in a new tab) (08:17:49)
125. Defensive Responsibilities and Crucifix Attacks (opens in a new tab) (08:18:30)
126. Escaping from Tight Waist Control (opens in a new tab) (08:19:50)
127. Executing the Roll and Pin (opens in a new tab) (08:20:48)
128. Inside and Outside Makikomi Techniques (opens in a new tab) (08:25:05)
129. Dealing with Shallow Tight Waist and Shoulder Rolls (opens in a new tab) (08:33:07)
130. Body Lock Escapes and Strategies (opens in a new tab) (08:41:19)
131. Reach Back Sumigeshi and Leg Attacks (opens in a new tab) (08:46:33)
132. Seatbelt Control and Escape Techniques (opens in a new tab) (08:52:19)
133. Introduction to Ashigurami Techniques (opens in a new tab) (09:05:39)
134. Counterattacking from Ashigurami (opens in a new tab) (09:06:01)
135. Dealing with High-Level Opponents (opens in a new tab) (09:07:11)
136. Hand Fighting Fundamentals (opens in a new tab) (09:11:48)
137. Five-Step Program for Positional Escapes (opens in a new tab) (09:24:13)
138. Critical Components of Pin Escapes (opens in a new tab) (09:37:19)
139. Maximizing Opportunities from Broken Pins (opens in a new tab) (09:50:39)

1. Kipping Escape from Mount (opens in a new tab) (01:11:28)

   a. Lateral Kipping Escape: (https://youtu.be/RjRdAb5pLW8?t=4288 (opens in a new tab)) (01:11:28)

   • Form a hand or forearm frame.
   • Bridge laterally to move the opponent's weight off-center.
   • Kip with feet together, knees at the tailbone, to break the opponent's foot lock.
   • Penetrate with one knee and transition to Ashi Garami. b. Misdirectional Kipping Escape: (https://youtu.be/RjRdAb5pLW8?t=5556 (opens in a new tab)) (01:32:36)
   • Similar setup to the lateral escape.
   • When the opponent pushes back to center, misdirect their weight to the other side.
   • Kip and enter Ashi Garami. c. Overhead Kipping Escape: (https://youtu.be/RjRdAb5pLW8?t=6315 (opens in a new tab)) (01:45:15)
   • Use a forearm frame.
   • Bring knees to the chest and elevate the opponent's hips.
   • Kip and bring the opponent overhead, landing in Ashi Garami.

2. Elbow Escape from Mount (opens in a new tab) (02:01:20)

   a. Classic Outside Elbow Escape: (https://youtu.be/RjRdAb5pLW8?t=7325 (opens in a new tab)) (02:02:05)

   • Effective against opponents who expose their feet.
   • Trap the opponent's ankle, elevate the knee, and trap the knee.
   • Transition to guard (half guard, knee shield, full guard, etc.). b. Inside Mounted Elbow Escape: (https://youtu.be/RjRdAb5pLW8?t=7699 (opens in a new tab)) (02:08:19)
   • Bridge and penetrate the knee inside the opponent's hip.
   • Clear the upper body frame and transition to Ashi Garami.

3. Sliding Elbow Escape from Rear Mount (opens in a new tab) (02:42:52)

   • Win the hand fight (control the strangle hand).
   • Win the head fight (get your head underneath the opponent's).
   • Tilt the opponent to the side.
   • Beat the bottom hook by pointing your knee away from it.
   • Turn parallel to the mat and slide away, getting your elbow to the floor.
   • Transition to Ashi Garami as the opponent attempts to mount.

4. Body Triangle Escapes (opens in a new tab) (02:52:19)

   a. Theory of the Four Triangles: (https://youtu.be/RjRdAb5pLW8?t=10776 (opens in a new tab)) (02:59:36)

   • Convert the opponent's body triangle from strongest to weakest:
   • Outside Body Triangle: Strongest.
   • Inside Body Triangle: Very strong.
   • Inside Cross Triangle: Effective standing but weaker on the ground.
   • Weak Outside Cross Triangle: Weakest, aim to get to this position.
   • Once in the Weak Outside Cross Triangle, monitor the strangle hand, split the legs with a hand assist, get your elbow to the floor, and transition to Ashi Garami. b. Escaping the Bottom Side Triangle: (https://youtu.be/RjRdAb5pLW8?t=11409 (opens in a new tab)) (03:10:09)
   • Turn your body into the space in the triangle.
   • Kip to overcome the sticking point.
   • Slip your elbow into the crook of the opponent's elbow.
   • Whip your legs up to top position. c. Breaking the Upper Body Connection: (https://youtu.be/RjRdAb5pLW8?t=12004 (opens in a new tab)) (03:20:04)
   • If unable to use leg movements, separate the opponent's hands to break the seatbelt.
   • Use a turning escape to get your elbow to the floor and transition to Ashi Garami. d. Headlock Escape (Double Underhooks): (https://youtu.be/RjRdAb5pLW8?t=13332 (opens in a new tab)) (03:42:12)
   • When the opponent has double underhooks, get your head underneath theirs.
   • Punch your arm over their head to form a headlock.
   • Spin inside the body triangle and come up to your knees, keeping your elbows below their armpits.

5. Escaping Side Control with Knee Entries (opens in a new tab) (06:18:28)

   a. Single Leg to Ashi Garami Transition: (https://youtu.be/RjRdAb5pLW8?t=22912 (opens in a new tab)) (06:21:52)

   • Use a knee escape to get up to a single leg position.
   • Recline backward, pulling the opponent's knee to your hip, and enter Ashi Garami. b. Sit Back to Half Guard Transition: (https://youtu.be/RjRdAb5pLW8?t=23280 (opens in a new tab)) (06:28:00)
   • If facing a strong sprawl, sit back into half guard.
   • Use a knee shield to create space and control the opponent's hand.
   • Scoop inside their leg and transition to a reverse double leg, then to a leg lock.

6. Backdoor Escape from Side Control (opens in a new tab) (07:05:21)

   • Turn away from the opponent, minimizing back exposure.
   • Use a double thumb post on the tricep and corkscrew your arm to create space.
   • Bring your chest behind their tricep and transition to a darce choke.
   • If the darce fails, transition to guard or a leg lock.

1. The Maximizing Philosophy of Escapes (opens in a new tab) (02:19:29)

   a. Don't just escape to a neutral position. b. Seek submission opportunities the moment a pin is broken. c. Capitalize on the opponent's overextension and sunk costs.

2. The Importance of Inside Control (opens in a new tab) (09:11:48)

   a. Pins work by the opponent's limbs having inside position, creating wedges. b. Escapes are achieved by progressively gaining inside control with your limbs. c. When you have majority inside control, you can move freely and attack.

3. The Hand and Head Battle in Rear Mount (opens in a new tab) (02:20:48)

   a. Hand Fight: Control the opponent's strangle hand to prevent submissions. b. Use inside thumb position or cover the thumb pad to make the hand "disappear." c. Head Fight: Get your head underneath the opponent's to disrupt their strangle control.

4. The Clamp as an Upper Body Ashi Garami (opens in a new tab) (05:20:53)

   a. The Clamp, similar to Ashi Garami, governs distance. b. One knee in front of the opponent's shoulder and one behind controls their head and arm. c. Creates opportunities for various upper body submissions.

5. Reverse Shrimping (opens in a new tab) (05:11:24)

   a. Turn your knees away from the opponent in side control. b. Reach for the floor with your foot and pull your hips away. c. Creates significant space, especially when the opponent has tight hip control.

(Continue with additional concepts as needed)

[00:00:00] Welcome to New Wave Jiu Jitsu [00:00:10] Positional Escapes and New Philosophy. The final goal of New Wave Jiu Jitsu is to create a generation of Jiu Jitsu athletes who strongly [00:00:20] emphasize a positive attacking game going from control to submission. Ironically, the first step towards that goal [00:00:30] is to build a cast iron defense.

[00:00:33] When people come to watch me coaching my athletes, they're often struck by the fact that a [00:00:40] very, very significant part of every training session is built around defensive skills. This is shocking because most people associate strong [00:00:50] attacking game as the definitive feature of the squad. Why do I put such a heavy emphasis on [00:01:00] strong defensive skills?

[00:01:03] It's because defense is the source, the bedrock of all your [00:01:10] attacking confidence. Always remember that attack in the sport of jiu jitsu has two elements. The first is the most [00:01:20] obvious and that is physical ability. You have to know the attacking moves. You have to know your leg locks, your armbars, your strangleholds, etc.

[00:01:29] But there's a [00:01:30] second element that gets talked about a lot less. This is the mental element. Always remember that every attack is ultimately a [00:01:40] choice on the part of the athlete. At some point, the athlete has to choose to pull the trigger when the opportunity is there. That [00:01:50] mental aspect can confound many athletes.

[00:01:54] The world is full of athletes who have a great physical ability to attack, but when the moment is there, [00:02:00] will hang back and won't pull the trigger. Why? What's the reason for this? Ultimately, it comes down to a [00:02:10] fear which regards the consequences of a failed attack. Failed attacks in Jiu Jitsu render you somewhat vulnerable.

[00:02:18] Very often, you will see [00:02:20] after a failed attack, a loss of points or some kind of positional compromise. If you truly believe that your submission [00:02:30] attack could possibly be followed by positional compromise from which you cannot recover, you won't attack. You might have all the physical [00:02:40] ability in the world, but your own mind will hold you back and prevent you attacking.

[00:02:46] Despite the fact you had all the physical ability, you didn't have [00:02:50] that mental confidence to pull the trigger. My goal as a coach is to get my athletes to a point where they believe so resolutely in their defensive [00:03:00] acumen and their ability to recover from any kind of positional compromise that they will attack at will with no fear of consequences.

[00:03:09] Understand [00:03:10] always that the traditional approach to jiu jitsu is extremely conservative. Essentially, it works with three understandings of position. There are [00:03:20] dominant positions. There are neutral positions. And there are inferior positions. Traditional Jiu Jitsu takes an approach [00:03:30] that anytime you find yourself in, in an inferior position, your duty and your goal is to get back to a neutral position.

[00:03:38] This is almost always [00:03:40] some version of guard position. Guard by definition is a neutral position in the sport. And anytime you find yourself in a bad pin, your duty is to work your way [00:03:50] back to guard. I want to supplement this time tested traditional approach. with a new philosophy. [00:04:00] Traditional Jiu Jitsu is ultimately a satisfying philosophy.

[00:04:03] This is the idea that most Jiu Jitsu players are satisfied with a good enough outcome, and for [00:04:10] them good enough means getting back to neutrality. If you're mounted, you elbow escape, get back to guard, that's good enough. Stop there, and then once you're in guard, figure out where you [00:04:20] want to go going forward.

[00:04:22] I want to supplement this with a maximizing approach. The idea behind this Is that there are mental [00:04:30] components to the sport of Jiu Jitsu which can create great opportunities for counter attacks when we get out of pins. Think about the notion, the psychological [00:04:40] notion, of sunk costs. If you invest heavily into some project, And for whatever reason, at a later date, you have to invest [00:04:50] again.

[00:04:50] You will do so readily because you've already sunk a large amount of time, effort, or money into the original project. [00:05:00] Each time the project runs into difficulties further down the line, you'll be happy to invest more and more. Why? Because you've already invested so much that for [00:05:10] you to stop now would mean losing everything you've already worked so hard to put in.

[00:05:15] Sunk costs apply very, very heavily in the sport of [00:05:20] jiu jitsu. Everything we do in the sport costs us energy and sweat. When someone gets to a dominant position, It costs them a considerable amount. [00:05:30] They're very reluctant to give it up when you begin to escape. This means that most athletes will take risks and compromises and body position and posture [00:05:40] when they try to hold on to a pin that they feel they're losing, that they would normally never take.

[00:05:46] As a result, their bodies tend to become very vulnerable and very [00:05:50] extended. There's an old cliche that a boxer is never more vulnerable than when he's throwing a punch. The same is true in Jiu Jitsu. [00:06:00] An athlete in Jiu Jitsu is never more vulnerable than when they're trying to hold on to a pin that is failing.

[00:06:06] As their body becomes extended and the principle [00:06:10] of sunk cost kicks in, And they simply refuse to give up on what appears to be a failing project simply because they've already invested so much energy into getting where [00:06:20] they are. At that point, a counterattack will usually prove to be decisive. There are tremendous opportunities as an opponent tries to [00:06:30] hold on and maintain a pin that is failing.

[00:06:33] As they become extended, they become extremely vulnerable to submission holds. A useful distinction made in this [00:06:40] video is that of upper body dominant pins and lower body dominant pins. There are five pins in Jiu Jitsu. Two of them, north, south and side control, [00:06:50] are anchored primarily with the arms. Three of them, knee on belly, mount and rear mount, are anchored primarily with the legs.

[00:06:59] In the [00:07:00] case of leg dominant pins, I should be prepared to go into an immediate counter attack out of the pin directly into my opponent's legs. So when we escape [00:07:10] mount, rear mount, and knee on belly, characteristically, we go directly into leg attacks. When we escape from north south [00:07:20] and side control, characteristically, we go into upper body attacks.

[00:07:24] But because of the very nature of the position, typically what will happen is the opponent will pull [00:07:30] away from the upper body attacks, but the mere act of pulling away will leave their legs vulnerable to a forward leg attack. And so the pattern That we [00:07:40] explore in this video is of direct leg attacks against leg pins and of indirect leg attacks against upper body pins.

[00:07:48] This maximizing approach [00:07:50] to pin escapes will create a generation of exciting jiu jitsu athletes where they display the best aspects of the sport. Cast iron defense. [00:08:00] Along with aggressive offense.

[00:08:09] Welcome [00:08:10] to the new wave series. Uh, it's a, uh, no key series featuring the tactics and skills as, uh, shown by the squad and [00:08:20] competition in particular ADCC type competition. As such its primary interest is the integration of submission systems with positional pressure. [00:08:30] Um, my long term goal in this video series is to make you the best Working from, uh, your own location into a very aggressive, confident, [00:08:40] attacking jiu jitsu player.

[00:08:41] A jiu jitsu player with an unusually high ability to control opponents and work your way into submission holds against someone your own [00:08:50] size and your own skill level. Interestingly, the first step in building you up as an aggressive, risk [00:09:00] taking jiu jitsu player, paradoxically, is to focus on defense. A little known fact about my coaching program is that it [00:09:10] always begins with a cast iron defense.

[00:09:13] There is literally not a single day where even my top athletes don't spend at least half of [00:09:20] their training time Working the way out of bad or inferior positions. This is such a huge part of my training program that many people, when they [00:09:30] first encounter it, are somewhat surprised. Because normally my students are associated with very strong attacking style of Jiu Jitsu.

[00:09:37] And they're somewhat taken aback by the idea that when [00:09:40] it's time to go into the room and train, over 50 percent of the training time is actually built towards defensive aspects of Jiu Jitsu. There's a very simple reason [00:09:50] for this. It is my earnest belief. That almost all confidence in your attacks in Jiu Jitsu is directly proportional [00:10:00] to your confidence in your defense.

[00:10:04] The reasoning for this is very simple. Jiu Jitsu attacks are all about risk. [00:10:10] Anytime you go to attack someone, you are, in a sense, compromising your balance and your stance and your posture. Because some kind [00:10:20] of risk is entailed, if the attack should fail, there can be dire consequences. So, for example, if I have Placido in my guard, and [00:10:30] however we do it, I work my way up into, say, a triangle, okay?

[00:10:33] As I work for the triangle, there's always a chance, I'm sure you guys have all been here a thousand times, you have a bigger, stronger opponent, he just starts bullying his [00:10:40] way around the side, my triangle gets put under pressure, and More and more pressure. Pressure brings his head over my head until, oh no, there's a slip, and then he ends up passing my guard.

[00:10:48] Okay. And it's a [00:10:50] symptom which jiu jitsu kind of punishes risk. I took the risk of going for a submission hold that we're told that's a good thing to do. But, um, Leaving [00:11:00] the, the tight defensive, uh, uh, postures of guard position and going into that risky submission, uh, got punished and as a result ended up getting pinned.[00:11:10]

[00:11:10] Now, if I get pinned underneath someone and I can't get out pretty soon, I'm going to start thinking in the following way. I'm going to think to myself, [00:11:20] every time I attend a submission. I either get it or the guy breaks out and pins me and I can't escape. It's human nature under those [00:11:30] circumstances to start avoiding risk.

[00:11:32] You're going to start going for fewer and fewer submissions as you go with better and better opponents. Because every time you lose the submission, you feel [00:11:40] you get pinned and you can't get out of the pin. And as a result, even though you have the ability to attack someone, you don't have the confidence to do it.[00:11:50]

[00:11:50] Always remember that when it comes to offense, there's two aspects to it. There's your physical ability to perform the submission. Many people have that. [00:12:00] And there's your confidence that you'll actually pull the trigger. When the opportunity arises in a competitive situation. And those are two very different things.[00:12:10]

[00:12:10] The world is full of people who have a ton of physical ability to perform a move. If you ask them to perform an armbar, they look beautiful. But when they're out there in the heat of competition, [00:12:20] they won't pull the trigger. Why? Because they don't believe in their defense. In the back of their mind is a nagging doubt that if the [00:12:30] submission doesn't work, they're in deep trouble.

[00:12:34] And when that nagging doubt is there in the back of your mind, and that fleeting opportunity comes for [00:12:40] your attack, you got to hold back. You're going to doubt yourself and you're going to say, is this worth the risk? And by the time you come to an[00:12:50]

[00:12:51] That's why I earnestly believe that the basis of building a strong, attacking, proactive form of Jiu Jitsu [00:13:00] begins with defense. All of my students excel in defensive, uh, skills. You would often see this, for example, in EBI [00:13:10] competition, where my students built, uh, a very, very impressive record working out of, uh, situations and back situations.

[00:13:19] [00:13:20] Um, uh, the two most prolific champions in EBI history, Gary Tonin and Gordon Ryan were never submitted in [00:13:30] EBI overtime. Um, despite often going against players far larger than themselves, they were able to get out very, very easily and, uh, uh, had [00:13:40] an amazing win record. under the pressure of EBI overtime and show their defensive acumen.

[00:13:48] Um, when you have that kind of [00:13:50] confidence in your, in your defense, you will attack at every opportunity because you no longer have a fear of bad consequences. If you truly believe in your [00:14:00] mind that no one in the world can pin you and no one in the world can submit you, you will attack at will because you no longer have any fear of bad [00:14:10] consequences.

[00:14:10] You think to yourself, well, if I go for that triangle and the guy passes my guard, so I'll get out in five seconds and I'm gonna start attacking again. It's so [00:14:20] important. I'll say it again. All of your offensive confidence comes out of your defensive confidence. And if you don't have that defensive [00:14:30] confidence, when it comes time to pull the trigger in competition, you won't.

[00:14:34] You'll doubt yourself and you'll delay and the opportunity will be gone. And so [00:14:40] even though my overall goal in this video series is to build you, as I said, into a strong, proactive attacking Jiu Jitsu player who tries to earnestly [00:14:50] work from control to submission, your first step is to build a cast iron defense, because that cast iron defense is going to give you the second [00:15:00] key ingredient to attacking confidence.

[00:15:03] The first is physical skill. We'll spend a lot of time on that throughout this video series, but the second one is [00:15:10] much less understood and is much less common. And that is attacking confidence. Confidence doesn't come from words from a sports [00:15:20] psychologist. It comes from results on the mat. And it comes from the fact that on the mat, you have proven to yourself and other people that no one can pin you and no one can [00:15:30] submit you.

[00:15:31] Once you have that as a physical skill, then suddenly the confidence rises and your attack rate in competitive situations will double or [00:15:40] triple in a very short period of time. The more you're attacking, the more success you're going to have with your attacks. It's just how it works. Um, and so our first step, [00:15:50] ironically, in building you towards a strong attacking game in the sport of Jiu Jitsu is to push you towards confidence.

[00:15:57] Very, very strong defense.[00:16:00]

[00:16:03] If you go to almost any, uh, jujitsu beginner class, you will see a pretty similar thing across the board, no matter where you [00:16:10] are in the world. There is a heavy emphasis on the building of defensive skills at white belt level. And that's a wise approach. Okay. Because when you're a white belt, you have no skills.[00:16:20]

[00:16:20] You go into a class, everyone else has more skills than you. They may not be experts, but they're certainly more expert than you are. Um, and as a result, your first, A few days in Jiu Jitsu, you're inevitably in the [00:16:30] bottom of the mound, bottom side control. And so, most teaching curriculums start off with defensive skills, as I said, a wise choice.

[00:16:37] Um, let's understand [00:16:40] that the traditional approach to defense in Jiu Jitsu is a, more or less, a binary approach, okay? Um, traditionally, [00:16:50] Jiu Jitsu has strongly separated defensive skills, and offensive skills. Okay. Um, this is based around [00:17:00] the theory that there are three types of position in Jiu Jitsu.

[00:17:04] There are dominant positions, There are neutral positions and there are [00:17:10] inferior positions. So, for example, if Plasky goes on top of me in the mounted position, this would be a classic example of a situation where the top [00:17:20] man is in a thoroughly dominant position and I, conversely, am in an inferior position.

[00:17:26] My goal in jiu jitsu, at least according to the traditional method, [00:17:30] is to work my way out of the inferior position and get back to a neutral position. So for example, we could go for a standard form [00:17:40] of elbow escape,

[00:17:44] which takes me now to a neutral position guard. So we went from inferior to neutral. [00:17:50] Once I'm in neutral position, then I can focus on offense and say, for example, we might come all the way up on a training partner and knock them over. And now we [00:18:00] find ourselves having turned everything around in a massively dominant position.

[00:18:05] And so that would be a simple expression of that basic [00:18:10] three types of position philosophy in classic jiu jitsu. You're either inferior, neutral, or dominant. [00:18:20] Traditionally, jiu jitsu has had this binary approach where you focus on one, and Then you get to the neutral position, and then you focus on the other, [00:18:30] okay?

[00:18:30] Uh, there's nothing wrong with that approach. It's, it's an excellent approach, which is still a test of time. Even now, uh, my students still use it. Uh, it's, it's not [00:18:40] the optimal approach. I, I, I, I promise you we'll start to move along soon, but this is the traditional one, which I was brought up with. You're probably learning somewhere in the world right now.[00:18:50]

[00:18:50] Um, it's not the only way of doing things. My biggest goal in this video is to present an alternative mindset to escape, which [00:19:00] greatly narrows the division between defense and offense. Traditionally, Jiu Jitsu has built into its athletes. A [00:19:10] mindset where when they're in a bad position, their only thought is defense, get out of the bad position.

[00:19:17] That's it. Okay. You're in trouble, get [00:19:20] out of trouble. Once you're out of trouble and get back to neutrality, then you can start thinking about offense. That's always been the traditional approach. Again, not a bad approach, [00:19:30] uh, and still one which has tremendous ability in the world today, but it's not the only approach.

[00:19:36] My intention in this video is to narrow. Uh, The [00:19:40] distinction between defense and offense, so that you, as a development student can start counter attacking out of bad positions. And, uh, [00:19:50] By narrowing the distinction between offense and defense, create a much more overall attacking style where you're going for a higher rate of [00:20:00] submissions in a given timeframe.

[00:20:01] then you would using the traditional approach. Always remember the traditional approach is based around this key idea of a binary split where you're [00:20:10] either defensive mode or you're offensive mode. It's a little bit like American football where they have a defensive team and an offensive team. Okay. And you just, you have your defensive skills here, you have your [00:20:20] offensive skills here, and somewhere in between them is this realm of neutrality.

[00:20:25] You start off inferior, you get to neutral, and only when you got to neutral can you [00:20:30] start thinking about offense. My goal is to bring offense and defense together and start looking at this idea of neutrality [00:20:40] and, uh, observe it in a new light, which will greatly increase the number of submissions you hit per minute in a competitive match.[00:20:50]

[00:20:51] Broadly speaking, there are two major types of defensive skills in Jiu Jitsu. There are pin escapes and there are submission escapes. Okay, [00:21:00] a pin is a positional threat, okay, where I'm being controlled. I'm under no threat of bodily damage in a grappling match. [00:21:10] but I am being controlled in positions like so.

[00:21:13] Now this stands in contrast with a submission threat where now not only am I being controlled, but I'm [00:21:20] being controlled in a way which could potentially damage my body and force me to surrender. Okay. Uh, positional threats are to my torso. So when I'm [00:21:30] being pinned, it's my torso that's typically being pinned.

[00:21:33] Submission threats are to my limbs. Whether they be joint locks or [00:21:40] whether they be strangles, okay? This video will deal with both and I hope to, [00:21:50] uh, impress you with The idea that they can be dealt with in a way where you're not just thinking defensively, but also counter offensively. [00:22:00] And if we can turn you into a counter offensive Jiu Jitsu player, we can double or triple the number of submissions you're going to attempt on your opponent in a given time frame than what you [00:22:10] currently are.

[00:22:11] So the video will focus over time on pin escapes, positional threats. and submission escapes. We'll look at the most common [00:22:20] forms of pin and the most common and effective forms of submission in modern day jiu jitsu and give a very comprehensive look at how to Get out of these, [00:22:30] uh, out of these problems.[00:22:40]

[00:22:40] Now, we're going to teach you to get out of all of the major pins of jujitsu and a relatively short period of time. Your first skill, you've got to get out of a pin. Very [00:22:50] soon. We're going to start looking at what we can do when we get out of a pin in terms of turning into counter offense. But your first skill, you've got to be able to get out of a pin.

[00:22:58] Okay. First, what is a pin? What are we [00:23:00] fighting against? We've got to know what the problem is in order to solve the problem. A pin is essentially a set of wedges that I put around my opponent's body, reinforced by both [00:23:10] the floor and my body weight. Okay. So for example, if I take my arm, and wedge it underneath my training partner's far shoulder and my elbow wedges [00:23:20] underneath Placido's head and then I wedge my second forearm underneath the near hip and I reinforce this with body weight keeping my head wedged here against his hip.

[00:23:29] When Placido goes [00:23:30] to move around he finds there's a set of wedges locked around his body. Okay, um, I only have so many wedges to use so I have to be [00:23:40] judicious in where I select to put them based upon him. What kind of problem I'm looking to create for my, uh, for my opponent. If for example, I use a reverse [00:23:50] cross face, that does an excellent job of wedging Placido's head on the far side of his body.

[00:23:56] So Placido tries to move his head away from me. There's a lot of resistance. [00:24:00] My thigh. on the near side makes it difficult for Placido to move his body towards me. If Placido tries to move his hip towards me for an elbow escape, it's wedged [00:24:10] by my right arm. But you'll notice there is no wedge here. So Placido could shrimp away from me and cause problems.

[00:24:16] Okay. I could change that by [00:24:20] repositioning my body and putting a wedge to control that far hip. So now when Placido goes to move the far hip and shrimp, there's resistance. Okay. I could [00:24:30] change the position of my cross face and lock up like so. I could close the wedges and lock them together using my hands like this.

[00:24:38] Okay. Now when Placido [00:24:40] goes to move around, again, he finds there are wedges distributed around his hips, head and shoulders. There's a sense in which your limbs can be [00:24:50] used in a similar fashion To a door stop underneath a door, which will hold a door in place even during a hurricane. Um, your job is to [00:25:00] take the limbs of your body and strategically place wedges around your opponent's body, typically the torso and the head.

[00:25:08] And if we can do this, [00:25:10] you can restrain someone from moving, okay? At the same time, I wanna reinforce those wedges with my body weight. Now, unfortunately, many [00:25:20] people misunderstand pins as body weight primary. Okay. They think the body weight is the basis of the pin. In fact, the body weight is almost useless for many people.

[00:25:29] Okay. [00:25:30] If I can do a simple experiment, I just got to put all of my body weight. On Placido's chest, like so. You can see I have no wedges around Placido's body. I [00:25:40] have a very high percentage of my body weight on him because I have no contact with the floor except for my toes. But Placido can easily move underneath me and effortlessly put me back in [00:25:50] guard.

[00:25:52] Body weight doesn't stop people from moving. Here, I'm going to keep my chest off Placido. [00:26:00] Okay, I don't know if you've ever picked this up on camera, but if I place wedges around Placido's body, here I have a set of wedges, but I have no chest contact. So I have literally [00:26:10] zero body weight on Placido's body.

[00:26:12] But when he goes to put me back in guard, the wedges do a very good job holding him in place. So it really works. [00:26:20] The, the, the mechanical mechanism for a pin is bound around is the idea of creating wedges around my opponent's head, shoulders, and hips, and my body [00:26:30] weight just reinforces them. So when Pasito goes to move around, it's those wedges that are holding him in place.

[00:26:38] And then I just use my body weight [00:26:40] as a method of reinforcing them and cementing them in place. But it's the wedges that do the work. Um, when we go [00:26:50] to pin people, Um, you're going to see that this simple insight of a set of wedges placed around the body reinforced by [00:27:00] body weight is the problem that you as a developing jiu jitsu athlete will be working against when it's time for you to get out of a bad pen, okay?

[00:27:09] And now in the next [00:27:10] section, we're going to start looking at the beginnings of a solution to that problem.

[00:27:17] Okay, so what about a get out of anybody's pen? [00:27:20] Here's the first step. Whenever you are in a pin, we've seen that a pin is composed of a set of wedges placed around the body, reinforced by [00:27:30] your opponent's body weight. You must start to develop an understanding of inside and outside positioning, okay? This [00:27:40] pin that Placido has is a fight of his limbs, which are his wedges versus mine.

[00:27:46] My ultimate goal is to get my [00:27:50] limbs inside my opponent's limbs. I want to create my own wedges inside his wedges. [00:28:00] As long as Placido Placido has the inside position with his limbs. Uh, if you look at, uh, just rotate this way for a second. Look at Placido's right knee. [00:28:10] It is currently inside my hip. And it's blocking my ability to put him back in guard.

[00:28:15] So he has inside position with his right knee. Placido [00:28:20] has inside and under position with his underhook. Lock your hands. Okay. I cannot get my hands inside his. His head [00:28:30] is inside my shoulder. I And as a result, it plays a nullifying effect on my own head. I can't move my head freely. Like [00:28:40] so. Like this.

[00:28:41] Okay? Look. Strong here. Now my head is locked. Okay? Here's the inside position. His head against my shoulder. So [00:28:50] he's inside at my arm. He's inside with his head. He's inside with his right knee. Come around even further. [00:29:00] Now, his shoulder is inside my shoulder, here. And bring your knee underneath my head. His hip is inside [00:29:10] my elbow.

[00:29:10] So Placido has maximal inside position. Every one of his limbs, from shoulders to elbows to knees, is inside mine. [00:29:20] This is a 100 percent losing position for me. I have no inside real estate whatsoever. Placido has everything. [00:29:30] What I need to do is start finding inside position. You're going to see that in any given pin, there's always an [00:29:40] optimal first item of inside position.

[00:29:43] In the case of a side control, it's usually inside the hip. That's usually the easiest one to get [00:29:50] and the most significant. Once you get one item of inside position, you suddenly find you have a little more mobility than previously. And you find that getting the [00:30:00] second item of inside position is not so difficult.

[00:30:04] Then, from here, we start to work, work, work, until space starts to generate, until you start getting more and [00:30:10] more inside position on your opponent. A critical point, rotate around, a critical point gets reached where I have more limbs [00:30:20] inside him. than he has inside of me. That is the critical tipping point.

[00:30:26] Once you have more of your limbs inside his, [00:30:30] then escape becomes quite simple. And you can go back if you're a conservative player to a neutral position like guard, or as we'll [00:30:40] see later on in this video, you can adopt a different philosophy when you start going into attacks. That is the general playbook that will play itself out [00:30:50] again and again throughout this video.

[00:30:53] This is a battle of his limbs versus yours. His limbs are being used as wedges around your [00:31:00] body. As long as his limbs are inside your limbs, that's a winning strategy for him. Your goal is to use the techniques and tactics that I'll be showing you [00:31:10] throughout this video to get more and more of your limbs inside his.

[00:31:14] It will start incrementally. Usually with one limb getting inside. Then there will be an [00:31:20] incremental process over time where you get progressively more and more of your hands. elbows, shoulders, head, knees, feet [00:31:30] inside his limbs. There's going to come a critical tipping point where you have majority inside control.

[00:31:37] There's more of your limbs inside his than [00:31:40] he has inside you. When you get to that critical tipping point, You can start moving your opponent quite easily, even though you're underneath them. [00:31:50] He no longer has sufficient wedge control to immobilize you. And now, despite being underneath his body weight, you can move freely and either go into a neutral [00:32:00] defensive position, sorry, a neutral traditional position such as guard, or the philosophy that we'll be looking at in this video to go immediately into your counterattacks.

[00:32:09] [00:32:10] Thanks for watching. That's the basic mechanism by which pins are made and pins are broken. Pins are made [00:32:20] by wedges supported by body weight. Pins are broken by progressively getting more and more inside control over time, usually starting [00:32:30] with just one item and building from there. And so ultimately you get majority inside control.

[00:32:36] And the second you get majority inside control. You [00:32:40] are now in charge. Then you can move freely. You can go traditional route and move back to a neutral guard position, or you can go with my philosophy, which is [00:32:50] go directly into a form of attack instead of just neutral guard position. And that will be my philosophy.

[00:32:56] Our guiding philosophy as we work our way through the various [00:33:00] pin escapes that will be shown in this video.

[00:33:06] Now I want to look at a subject, which is [00:33:10] essentially the core theme of this video. This is the idea that there is an element of psychology involved behind. [00:33:20] People talk all the time about psychology and sports, and normally when they do so, it's kind of wishy washy garbage of, um, you know, talking yourself into confidence [00:33:30] and, uh, visualization and, uh, other highfalutin ideas like that.

[00:33:35] Um, I prefer a much more practical way of looking [00:33:40] at what, uh, the ways in which psychology works. Uh, influences performance in sport and a much more tangible concrete way [00:33:50] in which psychology really does play a role has to do with directing our behaviors. When most people go to escape, [00:34:00] they're held back by their own mindset, which is a result of the traditional approach to training escapes in Jiu Jitsu.

[00:34:08] Traditionally, as we saw [00:34:10] earlier in this video, Jiu Jitsu is satisfied with getting out of a bad position into a neutral position. So show me any Jiu Jitsu beginner's [00:34:20] class in America and someone's melted, and you'll see everyone gets taught classic elbow escape. You put the man [00:34:30] back in a neutral position, like guard, and the move is now complete.

[00:34:35] You have gone from an inferior position to a neutral position. Now you switch your [00:34:40] mindset, you say, okay, the defensive, uh, skill has been exercised. Now it's time for me to, to go into my offensive skills. And then you'll see them go from arm [00:34:50] bars, triangles, et cetera. So that's, um, The traditional approach.

[00:34:54] As I said earlier, there's nothing wrong with that. It's tried and true and, uh, you can get all the way to a world [00:35:00] championship with that approach. Um, there's a sense in which this is the satisfying mindset. Uh, the idea [00:35:10] is that you're happy enough with the result you got. It was a good result, but it's not the only mindset you can adopt.[00:35:20]

[00:35:20] The big theme that I'm going to push on you in this video Is that traditionally, Jiu Jitsu is satisfied with guard position. If you [00:35:30] look at the overwhelming majority of escapes in the sport of Jiu Jitsu, they are escapes to guard. Whether it be me putting my opponent back in my guard, or [00:35:40] me trapping an opponent and ending up in [00:35:50] his guard, okay?

[00:35:51] In both cases, whether I end up in his guard or I put him back in my guard, you've ended up in a neutral position and that would count as an escape in the [00:36:00] sport of jiu jitsu. This is not the only way of doing things. The philosophy which I'm going to push on you throughout this video is the [00:36:10] maximizing philosophy.

[00:36:11] We're going to go beyond satisfying philosophy, the traditional approach, and into maximizing. The idea is, it's no more difficult [00:36:20] for me to put my opponent into a submission hold based around movements such as Ashigurami. armbars, the clamp position. [00:36:30] Don't worry, I'll explain that soon. Then it is to put my opponent back in guard.

[00:36:36] Think about the notion of [00:36:40] price, or the philosophy of price. If there were two items, A and B, and you strongly preferred A over B. If you were [00:36:50] given a choice, which one would you rather have? You definitely have a preference for A. And someone came to you and said, I'll sell you A or B and [00:37:00] the prices are the same.

[00:37:02] Which one would you go for? Of course you'd go for A because you prefer it. It's your preferred option and they're the same price. [00:37:10] The only motivation that would make you go for B is if the price was radically lower. My point is this. The price [00:37:20] in terms of energy expenditure and degree of difficulty of putting your opponent in Ashigurami is identical to putting him back in guard.

[00:37:29] So [00:37:30] why put him back in guard? Why not just put him in Ashigurami? You can just attack him with a heel hook and finish the match. That's much better than going back to a neutral position. Who would rather go back [00:37:40] to a neutral position than finish someone with a submission hold? One is obviously a better outcome.

[00:37:45] You finish someone with a finishing hole, that's the highest outcome in the sport. There's no better option. [00:37:50] There's no better option than that. That's, that's the as good as it gets. Putting someone back in a neutral position doesn't guarantee anything. This means you got back to your starting point. [00:38:00] If it doesn't cost you any more to put the guy into a submission hold, then it has to put him back in.

[00:38:06] Why would anyone choose putting him back in guard? So for example, if [00:38:10] someone's across my side, I could from the situation go with the satisfying response and just put [00:38:20] my opponent back in guard, but I could also go for a much more Aggressive response, where I go [00:38:30] directly into a submission hole once the escape has been affected.

[00:38:33] That aggressive maximizing approach is the one I will be advocating in this video. Do I [00:38:40] always advocate it? No, there are some situations. For example, if you're physically fatigued or if your opponent is predicting your, um, uh, your attempts to go directly from [00:38:50] pin to submission hold, where you might just be satisfied with the, the traditional satisficing model.

[00:38:57] But you will be pleasantly surprised to [00:39:00] discover that in the majority of cases, you can employ the maximizing approach. This is the great theme of this video. I want you to change your [00:39:10] mindset from satisfying the traditional approach to escape to maximizing. You will soon find that if you adopt the maximizing approach, the number of [00:39:20] submissions you get to attempt per minute of play on the mat rises dramatically over situations where you adopt the old approach.[00:39:30]

[00:39:30] You know what's an interesting thing about Jiu Jitsu? Jiu Jitsu is one of the very few combat sports that has no real developed [00:39:40] sense of counter attack. If you look at other combat sports, they have a highly developed sense of counterattack. In wrestling, the whole idea of a reshot, a vast [00:39:50] percentage of the successful takedowns in wrestling are reshots where someone shoots at you and you use their offense to go in and score a takedown on them.

[00:39:58] In striking [00:40:00] martial arts, boxing, kickboxing, muay thai, there's whole chapters of those martial arts built around the idea of counterfighting where someone throws a technique at you, you slip and evade [00:40:10] and hit them. Um, It's, it's shocking to see the degree to which this is absent in jiu jitsu because we [00:40:20] work with the old triadic approach of inferior, neutral, dominant, and we're satisfied with just getting out of a bad position.

[00:40:29] We [00:40:30] don't think in terms of going directly into a counterattack. But the moment you start doing this, you're going to suddenly find that the number of [00:40:40] submissions you attempt per minute of match goes up enormously. Now every time you get in a bad situation, you're coming back hard at your opponent [00:40:50] with a submission hold.

[00:40:51] Pretty soon your opponent gets nervous about pinning you. They're like, damn, every time I get a good position on this guy, he's trying to break my freaking legs. Okay, it gets nerve wracking for the, for the [00:41:00] guy who's doing the pin. He's supposed to be confident saying, ah, I've got this guy pinned down, he's under my control.

[00:41:04] And in the back of his mind he's like, this guy could heel hook me at any moment if he gets out of this pin. It kind of takes away [00:41:10] the edge of their pin. They're no longer thinking about going from pin to submission. They're worried about getting submitted themselves as they're pinning you. This maximizing mindset is [00:41:20] what we'll be pushing throughout this video.

[00:41:22] I want you to change from satisficing, where you see it as good enough just to get out of the pin, and [00:41:30] instead start looking for submission opportunities the minute you reach that critical tipping point when the pin has been broken and your mind switches to [00:41:40] And in the blink of an eye, from defensive concern, right back to offensive concern.

[00:41:46] If you can do this, your submission rate will [00:41:50] massively increase. And accordingly, The overall number of submissions you score in a given training session or a given tournament or match will [00:42:00] also go up

[00:42:04] I talked a little bit earlier about the idea of psychology and how it permeates into sports performance [00:42:10] Um, there's a well known And much studied psychological principle which often gets thrown around in the business world. This is the principle of sunk [00:42:20] costs Um, the essential idea here is that as people invest more and more You of their time, money, and effort into a given [00:42:30] project, they will become more and more reluctant to pull out of that project if things start going wrong for them.

[00:42:39] So, for [00:42:40] example, let's say you have a friend and he comes to you and he says, listen, man, um, I've got this project going on. It could make quite a bit of money. [00:42:50] I really need 10, 000 and I promise you in six months I'll give you back 20, 000. Now you've known this guy a long [00:43:00] time. You went to college together, high school, you trust him.

[00:43:04] So somewhat nervously, you get all your funds together and you give him 10 grand. You're [00:43:10] apprehensive, but you trust him. He seems to have a good head on his shoulders. Seems to know what he's talking about. And you sign over the 10, 000. Three [00:43:20] weeks later, he comes back to you and says, uh, we spent the money.

[00:43:24] Projects doing well. Things are good. Most things are on schedule, [00:43:30] but we need a little more money. We need another 2, 000 Can you spare 2, 000 at this point? You're like, oh man, it's not good. It's [00:43:40] like It's not a good sign that they're asking for more money, but you've already put 10, 000 in. And he's saying to you, if they don't get this money, the whole project sunk [00:43:50] and you've already sunk 10, 000 into the projects and now you're worried about losing 10, 000.

[00:43:56] So you're like, Oh my God, I don't want to lose [00:44:00] 10, 000. And if it only costs me 2, 000 to save the 10, 000, let me put the 2, 000 in. So you put in an extra 2, 000, a [00:44:10] month later, he comes to you again. We're almost there. We're almost there. But we need another 5, 000. Can you spare 5, 000? Now at this point, you're [00:44:20] freaking out.

[00:44:20] You're like, Oh my God, like I'm already 12, 000 in the hole here. But if I don't keep going now, I lose 12, 000. And you can see [00:44:30] what's happening here. Invested so much in the project that now pulling out is going to kill you. And so you keep putting in more and more. And then of [00:44:40] course one day the guy comes in and tells you the whole thing's folded and you lost 20, 000.

[00:44:43] Um, the world is full of examples of this kind of thing going on. [00:44:50] And here's some news for you. Jiu Jitsu is full of the same problem. Everything you do in Jiu Jitsu is an investment. An [00:45:00] investment in sweat, pain, and physical energy expenditure. If I take someone down, [00:45:10] pass their guard, pin them, work my way all the way up to the mounted position, that's going to cost me a lot of energy.

[00:45:17] It's not easy to take down tough opponents. It's not easy to [00:45:20] hold them down. It's not easy to pass their guard. It might take eight minutes of hard work to pass a good guy's guard. I work my way through the various pins and there I am, I'm mounted. [00:45:30] If I start to lose that mount, what do you think I'm going to do?

[00:45:35] I've invested so much time and effort into getting mounted. I'm going to fight like a [00:45:40] dog to keep myself mounted. I'm not going to give it up easily. So typically what we see when people are mounted, or side mounted, or any other pin that you care to [00:45:50] mention, is that when they feel they're starting to lose the pin, as Placido's knees start coming in, when they feel they're about to lose it, you see them holding on, trying to get over the head, [00:46:00] and you see them extending and fighting hard to retain it.

[00:46:03] And as Placido fights for the guard, and I'm fighting for the pin, you see people getting out of balance, and oh my god, they tried [00:46:10] so hard to keep what they've worked so hard to get to. They took risks that they normally wouldn't take. If I'm in Placido's guard, [00:46:20] I will never start reaching for the head.

[00:46:22] That's suicide. Placido can do all kinds of things from here. I'll never overextend my chest up to the line of his [00:46:30] shoulders. This is suicide. I've played a whole game back here, looking to get back up and away to my feet, away from my opponent. I've played short because this is a potentially dangerous position.[00:46:40]

[00:46:40] I would never take the risk of overextension in a position like this. But when I'm across side, I'll be happy to take those risks. As someone [00:46:50] goes to escape, I'll use control of the head. I'll take risks with extension. I'll reach for the far hip as he tries to put me back in guard. And you, [00:47:00] ultimately, Look to recover my position.

[00:47:03] I will reach and extend what I'm pinning people in ways that I would never do if I was inside their guard or inside their half guard. [00:47:10] I'm happy to take those risks because it's an inherently safer position for me. And because I put so much effort into passing this guy's guard in the first place, I [00:47:20] don't want to just give it up for free.

[00:47:22] It's the, it's the law of sunk costs applied in sports. Now, there's another [00:47:30] law. This one doesn't apply in economics, but it sure as hell applies in jiu jitsu. This is the law of extension. In jiu jitsu, an [00:47:40] extended opponent is a vulnerable opponent. The hardest people to attack with submission holds are contracted opponents.

[00:47:48] The easiest people [00:47:50] to attack are extended opponents. Whenever someone goes to hold on to a pin, They inevitably become [00:48:00] extended. When I hit a side pin on Placido, as the hips move and I start reaching for the hips, You get extension, and where there's extension, [00:48:10] there's joint loss. Your goal is to use the principle of sum costs and the principle of [00:48:20] extension in concert with each other.

[00:48:22] Your opponents will try desperately to hold on. To pins that are in the act of breaking because they [00:48:30] put so much effort into getting them in the first place. They will take risks with extension of their limbs that they would normally never take. And in that moment of [00:48:40] opportunity of a broken pin, you will suddenly find there are opportunities to submit people that you never even dreamed about.

[00:48:47] They are there right in front of you every single [00:48:50] day and for years you've been overlooking them. My goal in this video is to change that. My goal in this video is to get you thinking about escapes [00:49:00] as the ultimate opportunity for submissions. Because people are more extended holding on to failing pins than they are at any other time in the sport of jujitsu.[00:49:10]

[00:49:10] A guy that I've always looked up to over the years is Bernard Hopkins. He was at a UFC once and he said something brilliant in front of us all. He said, [00:49:20] a boxer is never more vulnerable than in the moment he goes to throw a punch. A boxer who's in stance, everything's covered up, it's hard to hit him. [00:49:30] But the moment he steps forward and throws, he's extended, the balance is compromised, and the stance is broken.

[00:49:36] Where there's extension, punches can come in over, over, over. [00:49:40] Exactly the same is true in Juditism. A guy who's contracted, very hard to submit. But a guy who's overextended, holding on [00:49:50] to a pen longer than he should, easy as hell. My goal in this video is to switch your mindset onto this. To make [00:50:00] you take seriously the interaction of the principle of sunk costs, And the principle of extension.

[00:50:05] Anytime you break an opponent's pin, there is a [00:50:10] very high likelihood your opponent will fall victim to those two principles. It will turn you from being someone who just passively gets out of [00:50:20] bad positions into a neutral guard, to someone who comes out of a pin, BANG! Right into a heel hook, right into an arm lock.

[00:50:26] And so people are almost afraid to pin you. Oh my God. Every time I pin this [00:50:30] guy, he breaks my freaking legs. Okay. That's what I want you steering towards. That's going to be the ultimate direction that this video takes. And speaking of that, it's time to [00:50:40] go in that direction.

[00:50:45] We're very close now to starting out showing you how to actually get out of these positions and [00:50:50] enact this new maximizing, uh, approach to escape. Um, let's start off with just a general game plan. What are we trying to do here? What's the big picture? It's always pretty [00:51:00] much the same. Whenever we're in a pin situation.

[00:51:03] We want to start by taking our limbs to the inside [00:51:10] position to the greatest degree possible. The more my opponent owns the inside position, the more he, as the pinning agent, can make a switch into submission holds. [00:51:20] So my first thing, survive. Don't get in situations where not only is your opponent pinning you, Melton, [00:51:30] but he's also extending your arms out and away from your body.

[00:51:35] Remember, the law of extension goes both for you and [00:51:40] against you. If I'm pinned and extended, I'm in deep shit. Okay? We need a sense in which if we're gonna be pinned, you can't be extended. [00:51:50] Agreed. So my first thing is, when you're in a pin type situation, bring everything in. Especially the elbows, and in some cases, the knees, [00:52:00] depending on the nature of the pin.

[00:52:01] Okay? What we can't do is get pinned and extended. That's when you get finished. So step number one is the survival step, [00:52:10] where we bring elbows, knees, whatever is appropriate in. As a result, we're pinned, but we're not extended. That's step number one. [00:52:20] Step number two is not always necessary, but in some cases it may be necessary.

[00:52:29] [00:52:30] Sometimes you have to start off balancing people, okay? You might have to off balance them in certain situations. So I control. If I'm just being completely [00:52:40] pinned in place here and I, I can't get, uh, my, my escapes to work, then there might have to be a period where we get the man out of balance. And that [00:52:50] will enable us to start getting inside position.

[00:52:52] Okay. Now, so we've got the idea of survival, bringing everything [00:53:00] inside the limbs in close to our body, in particular, knees and elbows. Then, not always the case, but often is the case, [00:53:10] we have to create some kind of kizushi or off balancing to disturb our opponent's balance. That almost always makes step three much easier.

[00:53:17] Step three is to gain [00:53:20] sufficient inside control that we can create movement underneath of an opponent's body weight. So, for example. Here, I take my limb [00:53:30] to the inside. I take this elbow to the inside. I put my knee in place, and now my knee is in the inside. You have enough inside real estate now that from here, I can [00:53:40] start moving people, okay?

[00:53:42] I can move freely underneath parts of his body weight now, okay? Technically, his body is still on top of me, but you have sufficient inside space [00:53:50] now that you can move freely in ways which will set up his body weight. Many forms of submission as we'll see fairly shortly and now [00:54:00] the next part of it Arguably the most important part the critical tipping point There will be a tipping point [00:54:10] for every escape that I show you in this video where you go from defense to To offense.

[00:54:17] Okay. There's a tipping [00:54:20] point where everything happens in the briefest flash of time. If you can recognize what that tipping point is, you're going to submit a lot of people. If you're a day [00:54:30] late and a dollar short, much fewer. Okay. Um, you have to be alert to this idea that you're on defense, defense, defense, [00:54:40] offense, and it occurs at a critical tipping point.

[00:54:44] I will be showing you exactly what that tipping point is. In every one of the escapes that [00:54:50] I coach you through in this video when you get to that tipping point Not only does the physical reality of the situation change, you [00:55:00] go from a situation where you were restrained to one where now you can move freely.

[00:55:03] That's the physical element of the tipping point. There was a psychological phenomenon going on here too. You have to [00:55:10] go from a defensive mindset to an offensive mindset. You have to go from a situation where you're thinking about defend, defend, defend, attack. Okay. And take advantage [00:55:20] of that fleeting opportunity as your opponent is overextended trying to hold onto a pin, which has been broken.

[00:55:26] And in that momentary opportunity, you can [00:55:30] submit a ton of people.

[00:55:34] This will be the pattern in every Pennescape that I show you [00:55:40] in this video. We'll be following to the greatest degree possible, this maximizing approach. It begins with defense. I [00:55:50] can't be pinned and extended. So bring your limbs in close to the body. So you're, Even though you've been pinned, you're not going to get finished.

[00:55:59] Okay? [00:56:00] Getting pinned is one thing, getting pinned and finished, that's completely unacceptable. That's another. Once we've gotten into the survival mode, then it's about getting [00:56:10] out of the pin. And that starts with getting some form of inside position, sometimes more, sometimes less. Once we get inside position, we maneuver [00:56:20] ourselves towards a critical tipping point where we're able to get a sufficient degree of inside position that we can break the pin.

[00:56:28] There will be a critical [00:56:30] tipping point where the pin is broken, and now your whole psychology must change from what a defense into offense. And instead of putting your opponent back in guard, you're going to put them in [00:56:40] some kind of counter offense. Ashigarami. arm bars, the clamp position. These are no more difficult to [00:56:50] attain than it is to put your opponent back in guard.

[00:56:51] It costs you nothing extra, and the result is 10 times better. Instead of just putting them back in guard, you finish the motherfucker. [00:57:00] Okay, that's the ultimate goal of the sport. And you come out looking like a stud, you were in trouble, next minute you finish them. That's what I want you to focus on [00:57:10] as we go through all the techniques that we show you.

[00:57:12] So that's the big picture guys. Step number one, contraction. Bring everything in. It's bad to be [00:57:20] pinned, but it's a lot worse to be pinned and extended. That's when he finishes you, not the other way around. Okay. So step number one, contraction. Step number two, [00:57:30] sometimes yes, sometimes no. Get the guy out of balance.

[00:57:33] Sometimes you don't need that. You can just skip that step. A lot of times you do need it. Once you've gotten out [00:57:40] of balance, you can suddenly start swimming your hands and start to gain inside position. So this will be step number three. As you gain more and more inside position, there's going to come a critical tipping point.

[00:57:49] Step [00:57:50] number four, where the tipping point is reached, where we usually penetrate with either a knee, An elbow, sometimes two knees, don't worry I'll be showing that as we go through the moves. [00:58:00] Where suddenly you can start to move very freely underneath your opponent and he has now essentially lost control of your body.

[00:58:09] He [00:58:10] no longer controls your movement. When you get to that critical tipping point, don't, as it were, limit yourself to the guard position. [00:58:20] The guard position is a satisfactory outcome. Why go for a satisfactory outcome when you can go for an optimal outcome? The [00:58:30] optimal outcome is submission. So the second you reach that critical tipping point, boom, go in and attack.

[00:58:37] And I'll say this again, it's no more [00:58:40] difficult to put your opponent in ashigurami than it is to put him in guard. Doesn't cost you anything extra and the outcome is far, far better. You will see this pattern [00:58:50] emerge time and time again and the various techniques and tactics as we go through this video.[00:59:00]

[00:59:01] Okay, so we want to turn you into a master of escape from pins. First thing you got to learn, what are the five pins of jiu jitsu? Lie down buddy. [00:59:10] Okay, first are side pins, where as the name implies, I pin my opponent from across side, just like so, chest to chest, uh, sometimes chest over face. [00:59:20] And this is one forward bend.

[00:59:23] The other are north south bends. What distinguishes north south bends is that my hips are above the line of my [00:59:30] opponent's shoulders. So in a side bend, there's, as you notice, a shoulder line. My hips are below the shoulders. North south is any [00:59:40] situation where my hips are above the shoulder line. You can be completely north south, but most north south pins are actually slightly at an angle, okay?

[00:59:48] Doesn't matter, just as long as [00:59:50] my hips are above the shoulder line, it's a north south pin. Then we have mounted pins. Like so, with my hips [01:00:00] on top of my opponent's hips and my head towards his head. This would not be a mounted pin in most forms of jiu jitsu [01:00:10] competition other than ADCC. Okay? Um, so you have to face your opponent to count as a mounted pin in conventional approaches to jiu jitsu.

[01:00:16] So this would be a mounted pin in many variations of this. [01:00:20] Knee on belly. Would be here, where my knee goes across my training partner's stomach. My other leg is up, I can't have my knee on the floor, so I'm going to count as knee on [01:00:30] belly. And we play in this position, like so. Then we have the rear mounted pad.

[01:00:35] Jiu Jitsu is unusual amongst grappling arts. [01:00:40] You can count as pinning, so even when you're underneath, provided you are behind them. Okay. So this, if I have two feet hooked in [01:00:50] like this on my opponent's legs and some rule sets where I have my legs triangle around my opponent's body, this would be an example of a rear pin.

[01:00:58] Okay. [01:01:00] Um, there are other dominant positions that are not pins. So here I have an excellent attacking position, but [01:01:10] this is ostensibly a neutral position. In the, uh, uh, sport of Jiu Jitsu, you don't get a score for this position. Um, at least not for the position [01:01:20] itself. Uh, but it is pretty dominant, so we'll spend some time looking at that too.

[01:01:25] How to get out of that position as well. Now, let's understand something right from the start. There are [01:01:30] five scoring pins. in the sport of Jiu Jitsu. Sorry, uh, let me rephrase that. There are three scoring pins in Jitsu, but five pins overall. [01:01:40] Side pins and north south pins do not score. They are dominant positions, but they don't score.

[01:01:48] The only pins that [01:01:50] score in Jiu Jitsu are pins that involve your legs. If, go again, side control. [01:02:00] does not involve the use of my legs. It's my arms that form the primary control of my opponent's body. The same is true of North South. [01:02:10] The primary connection to them is through my arms. My legs play very little role in a North South pair.

[01:02:17] Contrast this with the mouth. [01:02:20] My legs hook into my opponent's hips and my legs are part of the pin. Knee on belly, same thing. Obviously my legs are [01:02:30] critical to the pin because that's my contact with my opponent. Rear mouth, my legs hook in. And it's that hooking ability of the legs that [01:02:40] that creates the score.

[01:02:42] Um,

[01:02:46] that's an important piece of information. So there's five pins in jiu [01:02:50] jitsu overall. Two of them are arm dominant and three of them are leg dominant. Why do I, why do I bring this up? You already knew this presumably, right? [01:03:00] Uh, why did I bring this up? I'll tell you why. Because it's extremely important in how we go to counterattack him when we're getting out of the pin.

[01:03:09] I [01:03:10] distinguish between leg dominant pins and arm dominant pins for a very specific reason. Whenever I break out of a leg dominant pin, I go [01:03:20] for leg locks. Whenever I break out of an arm dominant pin, I go for arm locks, followed by leg locks. What do I mean by [01:03:30] this? If my opponent is, say, mouth dominant, his primary connection to my body is through his legs.

[01:03:37] That means that any time the lock is [01:03:40] broken, I'm right in on his legs. So the logical place for me to center my attack will be on Placido's legs, because that's the primary [01:03:50] connection we have to each other. So that's the intelligent thing for me to do, focus on his legs. Side control, on the other hand, it would be quite difficult for me [01:04:00] to go directly into his legs.

[01:04:01] I can go indirectly into Placido's legs, but there's no real direct path because his legs are not around me, but his arms are around me. So in [01:04:10] situations like this, The first attack is almost always going to be on the arms. Now, given that this is not a particularly strong form [01:04:20] of attack, it's quite likely that Passive were going to pull away from me, and that will leave me in the situations where we can go off into subsequent leg [01:04:30] attacks.

[01:04:30] So as he denies me his upper body, he will leave me his lower body. So my general rule of thumb, which we will [01:04:40] follow throughout this approach, this maximizing approach to pin escapes, is to divide our opponent's pins into arm dominant and leg dominant. [01:04:50] Whenever it's a leg dominant pin, mount, rear mount, neon belly, attack his legs, go straight for his legs.

[01:04:58] Whenever it's an arm [01:05:00] dominant pin, north south. or side pin. Usually, the attack starts at the arms, the upper body, and because our opponents try to pull [01:05:10] away, we go indirectly into the legs. As he pulls away the upper body, we don't get the submission of the upper body, we go straight down into his legs.

[01:05:18] That will be one of the big [01:05:20] themes as you work through this video. I'll say it one more time, it's a simple rule, but it will guide your behavior when you're counterattacking out of pins. All of the leg dominant pins, [01:05:30] mount, rear mount, knee on belly, when you escape, your primary target is your opponent's legs.

[01:05:36] Go straight into his legs. When your opponent's [01:05:40] pin is arm dominant, side, north south, your first attack will be on his arms. If you get the arms, congratulations, you won. [01:05:50] If he pulls away from the arms, he will leave you his legs. Bam. Go straight into the legs and get your finish. So the attacks on the legs are usually indirect when [01:06:00] it comes to arm dominant pins.

[01:06:02] If you can follow that simple insight, that will guide you as we go through our counterattacks as we go further into this video.

[01:06:09] [01:06:10] [01:06:20] Well, we've been going through a lot of philosophy this and philosophy that. It's [01:06:30] time to get down to specifics. It's time to get down to the nitty gritty and actually show you how to get out of pins and start counterattacking. We're going to start with the mounted position because [01:06:40] a lot of people have trouble with that.

[01:06:41] Justifiably a great fear of the position. It's scary. Someone's mounted on top of you. Um, it's normally the pin, which we're taught first in this water of jujitsu. [01:06:50] It's always the one we're encouraged to go towards. So let's start there. It's one great place to start. Um, I want to start with a pin that my students [01:07:00] have achieved a great deal of notoriety for.

[01:07:03] This is the kipping escape. Uh, you might ask, why the hell are you starting with this kipping escape [01:07:10] of yours? Uh, first things first, what the fuck is a kipping escape? Kipping, I'm sure you're, you've heard the term before, but in a very different context. It's [01:07:20] often used in the context of sports exercise.

[01:07:24] Say for example, um, you were hanging from a bar. And you were trying to do as [01:07:30] many pull ups as possible. And as you started fatiguing and getting more and more tired with your pull ups, you'll notice that your form starts to break. [01:07:40] And you will start throwing your legs to assist and help you get those extra repetitions out.

[01:07:46] That is kipping, where you're using your [01:07:50] legs to generate momentum to carry your body up and over the bar. It's basically cheating when you're Uh, uh, performing some kind of [01:08:00] exercise. Um, you will see kipping used in gymnastics to assist a gymnast in climbing onto the gymnastics rings or performing certain [01:08:10] kinds of exercises on the high bar.

[01:08:12] It's essentially just the use of your legs to generate momentum and movement to assist you in a difficult task. And that's exactly [01:08:20] what we do from the bottom of the mount. You might ask yourself, why aren't you teaching the elbow escape first? Don't you always say that's the king of defensive moves? Yes it is.

[01:08:29] [01:08:30] But when we work without a gi and we're really interested in the idea of counterattacking, I usually advocate to my students to begin with the kipping escape [01:08:40] because it presents a much smaller interface between defense and offense. It presents almost a perfect [01:08:50] opportunity to go from a defensive pin into leg locking activity.

[01:08:54] Um, please understand right from the start, there are different variations of the Kipping Escape. They're not [01:09:00] all the same. Uh, we're going to start with what I believe is the easiest Kipping Escape for most students to learn. I'm also going to start you guys off with a bit of a warning, [01:09:10] um, many, many years ago when I would start teaching the Kipping Escape, uh, I always found that a significant percentage [01:09:20] of any given classroom.

[01:09:22] would fail hopelessly with the escape. And there was a lot of frustration and, [01:09:30] uh, those who stuck with it did incredibly well. Those who got frustrated early on and just abandoned it basically had to rely on elbow [01:09:40] escapes. Um,

[01:09:44] this is a move where if it's done well, it works effortlessly. And if it's [01:09:50] done poorly, won't work at all. So it's kind of like all or nothing. If you do it perfectly, it's a hundred percent effective. If it's done with even small imperfections, it can be a [01:10:00] pretty damn frustrating thing for you. So, uh, when you first start learning this move, don't give up on it if it doesn't work out in the first couple of weeks.

[01:10:09] Okay. It's, [01:10:10] it's not going to be a move like that. I'll give you an inspirational story with Gary Tonin. When Gary Tonin first started learning the Kipping Escape, he was absolutely [01:10:20] hopeless. And for two or three months, Couldn't get it going. And I would literally make him stay after class and just practice his kipping escapes [01:10:30] for 15 minutes a day, every day after class.

[01:10:32] And it seemed he made no progress whatsoever. After two months, he was just as bad as he was the first day he tried. [01:10:40] And there were points where both he and I were kind of giving up on it. Then one day something clicked and he got it on a white belt. [01:10:50] Within a few weeks of that, he was regularly scoring it on even the toughest guys in the room and he never looked back.[01:11:00]

[01:11:01] At this point Gary Tonin has one of the very best kipping escapes in the world. You can put establish world champions on top of him in the mounted position and he'll kip out [01:11:10] very easily, very quickly and go right into his late log game. Uh, so please don't give up on it. If it doesn't happen immediately, I'll coach you through the details.

[01:11:19] And as [01:11:20] I said, I will start you with the easiest version of the kipping escape. the lateral version, which I believe most people can, can get working at a fairly short period of time. So [01:11:30] without any further holding back, let's have a look at the lateral kipping escape. Okay, a guy gets mounted on me. Our first responsibility, as we outlined earlier, I [01:11:40] can't have my opponent getting underneath and inside my arms and extending me.

[01:11:44] So my first responsibility here always is to come in close with my elbows. [01:11:50] Now, if we just move around this way. When our opponent locks in place, you have two good choices with your kipping escapes. You can go [01:12:00] here, two hands on the hips. When you connect to the hips, use the heel of your hand. Don't push with your fingers.

[01:12:08] Use the heel of [01:12:10] your hand and your fingers point outwards. Don't have your fingers pointing up the body. If he pushes forward rapidly with the hips, it can accidentally wrist lock you. [01:12:20] So have your fingers pointing outwards. here and here. Rotate through.

[01:12:29] Once the heels [01:12:30] of the hand go in here, you use the hip bones, which naturally catch. So when he drives the hips forward, there's some good resistance. I want my elbows close to my body, and [01:12:40] I want at least one of my elbows inside his knee. I don't want this. Here, my hands have inside position, but my elbows don't.[01:12:50]

[01:12:50] Okay, this will not create good conditions for a kipping escape. I want inside position with the heels of my hands, so my hands are inside his hips. and at least [01:13:00] one elbow inside his knee. Okay, so that's our beginning elements. Rotate through.

[01:13:09] Second [01:13:10] grip, also very good, is to use my whole forearm and go across and lock my hands like so and place my elbow [01:13:20] Inside the knee. This is a very robust grip. It is physically stronger than this one, like so, and it's very good when you're going against opponents [01:13:30] who are shorter or coming up high on your hips, like so.

[01:13:34] If your opponent is long and tall and further back down the hips, this one works very well. [01:13:40] Okay, so it's either one or two. Those are the two best choices you have. As you get more advanced, you can play a one handed kipping escape. [01:13:50] So plus it attracts my arm on one side, I can hit a one handed kipping escape.

[01:13:54] When you get really advanced, you can even hit a no hands kipping escape. No hands at all, but [01:14:00] that's for further down the line, okay? So when you first start off, it's either one or two. Placido will have his feet locked in securely [01:14:10] here, okay? First things first, He locks up around my hip, puts his arm out wide for base, like so.

[01:14:19] That's his starting [01:14:20] position. So, we're not going against some Tyro here, who's, doesn't know how to hold a mounted pin. We're going up against someone who knows what they're doing. Their feet are connected, [01:14:30] their hip is in good position, and their arm is out wide for base. So this is someone, if someone's good enough to get mounted on you, then they should be good enough to hold a good mount.

[01:14:38] This guy's holding a good [01:14:40] mounted position, okay? From here, I'm going to take my hand through and across. If my opponent is so tight to me with his hips that my hand won't go through, I will use kizushi [01:14:50] to bump my hand through, okay? But my hand comes through and I lock up just like so. Now from here, I am going to off balance Placido [01:15:00] so that his center of gravity moves towards me.

[01:15:04] away to the side, lateral. Right now, sit up. [01:15:10] His central gravity is a point two inches Around his, uh, navel like so. From this position, his central gravity is [01:15:20] lined up directly over mine. His center line is over my center line. As his body weight comes forward, that central gravity presses directly over my hips.

[01:15:28] I want his belly button to [01:15:30] move off. So it's no longer above my body. The way I do this is I hit an asymmetrical bridge. One foot is flat on the [01:15:40] floor. The other foot, I turn the toes out. I put the blade of the foot on the mat. Now from here, I tilt him off to the side. If you were to draw a straight line [01:15:50] from Placido's belly button down to the floor, it would be here.

[01:15:54] It is outside my body. So when Placido begins, if you drew a [01:16:00] straight line down through the center of gravity, it would go right down through my belly button. Okay, that's why he's pinning me. He has good connection of his hips to my hips. But when I hit this lateral [01:16:10] bridge, his center of gravity is no longer directly over mine.

[01:16:16] Now, he locks his feet to hold himself in place. [01:16:20] I'm going to drop my ass to the floor. Hold tight. Just like so. From here, my two knees come up to his tailbone, and my feet come off the [01:16:30] mat. Lock tight. The only thing holding Placido in place now is the lock of his feet. His body weight is being held [01:16:40] by his hand.

[01:16:40] He's holding his own body weight. When he's mounted on me, I'm holding his body weight through his hips. His hips are pressing down on my hips. I [01:16:50] feel his body weight. When I take my opponent's body out, he's no longer on top. He's holding up his own body weight. When he tries to bring his central gravity back on [01:17:00] top of me, my frame prevents it, locks it in place, whether I'm here or whether I'm here.

[01:17:06] So this frame just prevents him from coming back. The [01:17:10] only connection he has to me is through his locked feet. So when I kip, I don't kip against his body weight. I kip against his locked feet and I [01:17:20] bring my knee inside and as a result we're in perfect position not just to escape to guard position but rather to escape to an ashigarami.

[01:17:29] [01:17:30] That creates an immediate threat on my opponent, okay? He's not thinking, oh I lost the mount and I'm backing his guard. He's like, I lost the mount, I'm [01:17:40] about to get my fucking leg broken. And from here, as we go to turn across, he goes into an escape sequence. We go to follow on through and find ourselves in a superb [01:17:50] breaking position.

[01:17:51] Okay. Numerous ways you can go in and get the attack. You see what happened here, guys, you broke out of a given pin. And [01:18:00] instead of being satisfied with the guard position, you went for the maximizing optimal option. You went for the submission hold. It was no more difficult for you to apply an [01:18:10] Ashi Garami than it was for you to apply the guard position.

[01:18:13] In fact, I'll go further and say it's actually easier because to put someone back in guard, I have to penetrate with two knees. To go [01:18:20] through with Ashigurami, I need to penetrate with one knee. So it's actually easier to go into a heel hook at the breaking of the pin than it is to go into guard position.

[01:18:28] Okay. [01:18:30] Um, now that's the basic big picture. The idea is we want to take his body weight off us to the side. That's why it's called a lateral kipping escape. We take his [01:18:40] center of gravity off to the side and we kip against his feet. Now, what's the number one problem I see here when people first start their first day of kipping escapes, they [01:18:50] try to kip against their opponent's body weight.

[01:18:53] That's a losing gambit. Okay. Possero's on top of me and I just try to jack him [01:19:00] up into the air and just kick against his body weight. Just nothing happens. Even worse, people start using their feet like this. It's just a [01:19:10] disaster. When you kick, your feet must function in unison, together. My feet together.

[01:19:18] Never let, this is [01:19:20] pathetic. Here, boom, boom, boom. My knees must be precisely placed in his tailbone. Here. That's where you kip [01:19:30] from. If my knees are above his tailbone, no amount of kipping will help you. You'll just look like a fool. If your feet come apart, you'll look even more like a [01:19:40] fool. So feet together, knees at the tailbone.

[01:19:46] That's when kipping starts to work. Even more so [01:19:50] when his body weight is out to the side. So what we're looking for is feet together, knee in the tailbone, lock your feet, buddy. [01:20:00] And from here, we kip and bring a single knee through. And as a result, he now rests, wait a minute, he now rests on my ashi [01:20:10] garami.

[01:20:12] Wherever we go now, it doesn't matter. There's so many good attacks out of a position like so, that we can come up and go on the attack [01:20:20] with. Whichever one you choose. Don't worry, I'll be showing you a bunch of options soon. Okay? So, never do a kip directly against your [01:20:30] opponent's body weight. Please understand something guys.

[01:20:33] Kipping is not the strongest movement in the world. It's nowhere near as strong as a bridge, for [01:20:40] example. Essentially, all you're doing is just moving body weight like so. Just as you would to pull yourself up a bar. [01:20:50] It doesn't, it's never going to be as strong as connection to the floor. You have no connection to the floor in a kip.

[01:20:56] Don't kip against body weight, kip against his locked feet. That's so [01:21:00] important, I'm going to say it again. Don't kip against your opponent's body weight. Kipping isn't that strong. Kip against his locked feet. Use your [01:21:10] kip to break his feet apart and bring your knee inside. If you're trying to lift people with a kip, you're in for a long night of failure.

[01:21:19] Okay? [01:21:20] So once again, I'm going to demonstrate with a head facing towards the camera. I choose my frame. I can sit up either here or [01:21:30] here. Okay, because I'm old and feeble, I'm going to choose this method. Um, if Plus here was tall, I would choose this method. Okay, now [01:21:40] he gets a good lock with his feet, good upper body grip.

[01:21:45] I want to get my hand across and form my initial frame. Now [01:21:50] I hit that asymmetrical bridge that gets his center of gravity off me. I form my frame. So when he tries to bring his hips back on top of [01:22:00] me, that's what he wants. When I hit a lateral bridge, he wants to bring his hips back and pin me a second time.

[01:22:07] I don't want that. I move him, [01:22:10] I form my frame, knees come in. Now the only thing holding him in place is the lock of his feet. My knees are in his tailbone, my feet are together. [01:22:20] And as a result, my knee comes in effortlessly. As he comes up on top of me, we're in positions now where we can start coming around the corner, and directly [01:22:30] into our various submission holds.

[01:22:33] I'll be coming back to that later soon, don't worry. Now let's demonstrate with the prosecutor's ass towards the camera, so you can [01:22:40] see the feet. My apologies. So, here's the frame. You can see Placido's doing a good job of locking his [01:22:50] feet. Okay, if Placido was a naive fool, he'd actually just hit a basic elbow escape from here.

[01:22:55] But Placido's very good. And so, the feet [01:23:00] are locked in place. I go through, I form my frame, I take him out of balance, I drop. Now, he locks tight, tight, tight with his feet. [01:23:10] And look how the kip works when the knee comes in. Once one knee comes in, it's so easy for us now to start moving this guy's body weight around us, [01:23:20] driving him.

[01:23:21] We're always looking under circumstances like this to get people elevated up into the air and dropping them into our various forms of attack. [01:23:30] So, I'm going to give you guys some mechanical details here. The solo. First things first, you can't kip off a flat [01:23:40] back. If your back is flat on the floor, you're not going to move anyone with a kip.

[01:23:46] This is a disaster. My back is flat, there is [01:23:50] maximal contact with the mat, and the kip is feeble as a result. I always want my body concave, like so, [01:24:00] with minimal contact with the mat. Frame, either hand frame or forearm frame. Now from here, look how when I kip, I take my [01:24:10] balls of the feet on top of the shoelaces, So my legs work in unison.

[01:24:16] Never do the legs kick apart from each other. [01:24:20] When you kick apart from each other, it's just one leg working against each other. You want unification of your legs to generate momentum. When you [01:24:30] generate momentum, it creates a lift. Where my body rocks. And it's that minuscule rocking action, which goes very, very quickly, which [01:24:40] loosens the grip of his legs and enables me to slip a single knee inside and gives me ashigurami.

[01:24:46] So again, once our frames are in [01:24:50] place, we drop here. My knee is right in his tailbone. The further my knee is from his tailbone, the less effective I am. I want my knee right behind the [01:25:00] tail. Then from here, kip, and the knee comes in. Once the knee comes in, we're in perfect position now to start coming around the corner [01:25:10] and going into our attacks.

[01:25:11] Okay? So, key ideas behind the lateral kipping escape. [01:25:20] You can't do it with this body weight directly over your central gravity. If his belly button is over yours, it's going to be awfully, awfully difficult. Unless you're much, much stronger than him, the kipping escape is going to be [01:25:30] tough. So get his belly button out to the side.

[01:25:35] Once his belly button goes out to the side, you are no longer kipping against his body weight. You are [01:25:40] kipping against the strength of his locked feet. And that's a lot easier to kip against than his whole body weight. Much easier. In fact, it's almost comically easy. When you kip, [01:25:50] have your knees right in front of his tailbone.

[01:25:55] The further your knees deviate from his tailbone, the less [01:26:00] effective you will be. This is super important. Another key feature. Is this idea that the legs must work in unison like a [01:26:10] mermaid's tail, like so, rather than like, so where the legs work against each other and they're counterproductive. The way you ensure this [01:26:20] happens is you take the sole of your foot and place it over the shoelaces of the other.

[01:26:24] So that when you kip, you generate good movement. Okay. When [01:26:30] you kip, don't spastically fling your legs as hard as you can. Short, fast, rhythmic pulses get much better results than exaggerated [01:26:40] long swings and kicks. That's very important, so I'll say it again. Once you get to position, short, rhythmic pulses loosen an opponent's grip [01:26:50] far better than long, heavy swings of the legs.

[01:26:54] Okay, so one more time. I have an opponent on top of me. He's in [01:27:00] the mounted position. I see that he has good foot position, good hip position, and good arm position. First things first, I can't let him get underneath my arms and extend me. [01:27:10] That's a disaster. So first things first, elbows in close. I go for a frame.

[01:27:16] I've chosen the forearm frame. I could have chosen double [01:27:20] hand frame. They're both very good. Now from here, I disturb his balance and get his center of gravity off to the side. That's why it's called a [01:27:30] lateral kipping escape. Come on, higher on my body. Your knees. Now, he's still got a great position with his feet.

[01:27:38] What I do now is I drop my [01:27:40] butt to the floor and I take the starting position where my whole body goes into a banana shape. Like so. So that my, my spine is the shape [01:27:50] of a rocking chair. So that when I kip, the movement is quick and easy. And as a result, a single knee can easily penetrate. And give me Ashigurami.[01:28:00]

[01:28:00] The minute we come out of the Ashigurami, you don't go to guard position, you go straight to, uh, a finishing lock. [01:28:10] Which finishing hold you choose will depend on what your preferences are and which direction his body is going. If he flees the mat, then conventional outside heel hooks make perfect sense.[01:28:20]

[01:28:20] If he starts crowding in towards you, then elevation into cross ashi might make more sense. If you feel your [01:28:30] opponent's doing a good job of separating his knees, then you might, then you might, then you might do better coming around the corner into [01:28:40] more subtle versions of ashi gurame. Such as the Criss Cross or Inside Outside Ashi Garai.

[01:28:46] We'll be looking at these in detail throughout the series [01:28:50] as we get more and more advanced. Um, this, in my opinion, is the best first lateral, uh, sorry, [01:29:00] first Kipping Escape you ought to learn. It's the easiest of them all. It also gets fantastic results. Um, please don't think because I'm teaching this first it's the basic one which only [01:29:10] works up to a certain level.

[01:29:10] It works at World Championship level just fine. Um, we often do. Uh, kind of a fun experiment when the squad is training together, we'll [01:29:20] have visiting world champions come in and start in the mounted position. And we'll just practice our kipping escapes. And it's shocking how easily they are [01:29:30] dislodged by this method, including the lateral method.

[01:29:33] Um, and it's shocking to them too. They normally see the mount as a very stable, dominant [01:29:40] position, and they're quite shocked to be easily dislodged and then immediately attacked with a heel hook. right afterwards. And this is on some of the best players in the world. Imagine [01:29:50] how easily you can perform it in the gym, working with your, uh, with your compadres.

[01:29:55] Um, we'll move on to look at [01:30:00] other versions of the Kipping Escape, but I recommend this is where you start. Again, just going solo now. The big key features. Don't have a flat back. Work with [01:30:10] a rounded spine. Make a choice with your frames between hand frames and forearm frames. They're both good choices.

[01:30:16] Which one you choose will kind of depend on his height, your height, [01:30:20] and personal preference. Have your legs close together and your feet even closer. When one foot moves, the other foot moves with it. Never. Like so. [01:30:30] Feet move in unison. Use short pulses rather than big unproductive swings. [01:30:40] Okay. Short pulses will separate your opponent's feet very, very rapidly.

[01:30:46] Make sure that his center of gravity is off you so that you're, you're [01:30:50] tipping not against his whole body weight, that's very difficult, but rather against the lock of his feet. Make sure your knees are positioned [01:31:00] very precisely by his tailbone. The further your knees are from the tailbone, the less effective you're going to be.

[01:31:06] And once you get your opponent [01:31:10] dislodged and a single knee can penetrate, You have now reached that critical tipping point that we talked about earlier in the video. Once the single knee penetrates, [01:31:20] that's the tipping point. Don't be satisfied with guard position when you can throw your legs into a winning ashigurami where you're submitting people instead of just merely putting them back in [01:31:30] guard.

[01:31:34] After many years of teaching kipping escapes to struggling students, I came to the [01:31:40] conclusion that the best one to start with is the lateral kipping escape. Most students have an easier time performing that one first, Um, it's not the only form of kipping escape, but it's a great [01:31:50] way to start. Now, once you start getting good at the lateral kipping escape, you're gonna get the same reaction out of all of your opponents.

[01:31:56] They're gonna start pushing with their hips to recenter. [01:32:00] They're gonna figure out that the key to the movement is to get your central gravity, sorry, your opponents central gravity off yours. And once their central gravity is off yours, you're only tipping [01:32:10] against their feet. And that's a relatively easy battle to win.

[01:32:13] That's why most people have a pretty easy time learning this move and getting good success with it. So what your opponents are going to do is they're going [01:32:20] to lock their legs as tight as they can, and they're going to drive their hips back towards you. When this first starts happening, it's pretty disconcerting.

[01:32:27] You feel like, man, my kipping escape was working pretty well, and now [01:32:30] it's getting shut down. Okay? Don't worry. It leads right into an even better form of the kipping escape. Okay, so let's first just demonstrate the problem that you're, you're grappling [01:32:40] against. The problem is this. Placido has been hit by the Kibbe Escape a couple of times.

[01:32:45] And he's starting to figure out that once we hit that lateral bridge, if my, [01:32:50] not yet, if the weight stays here, there's, remember guys, the straight line that comes out of Placido's belly button, that's where center of gravity is, it's outside my body. [01:33:00] And as a result, it's very easy for me to get that superior position where my body's crunching, I can kip and put him back into an ashigarami.

[01:33:07] So what Placido's going to do is push [01:33:10] aggressively with his hips and return to a His weight is directly over mine. And now when I go to kip, no good. Okay? So, here's what the problem looks [01:33:20] like. You've made a good frame, you come out, but before you can get your kip on, he drives back, and you're like, Oh man, I got squashed.

[01:33:28] You try again, you come up, [01:33:30] and you're squashed. Okay? So that's the problem. Now, an old cliche of jiu jitsu, And there's a reason why it's a cliche, because it's a damn good piece of advice. [01:33:40] Whenever someone goes to push into you, don't resist the push, go with it. So the old cliche is when you get pushed, [01:33:50] pull and use their strength.

[01:33:51] Now you can't really pull with the grip that you have, but what you can do is guide them in the same direction they're pushing towards. So what we do is [01:34:00] I, hit a lateral bridge to my left and as my opponent pushes back towards center line, I take them further than they wanted to go and I misdirect them [01:34:10] to the other side.

[01:34:11] So they end up on my right side with their body weight outside the line of my body. And as a result, we just go left, right, [01:34:20] kipping escape. Okay, this is a beautiful move that works at the highest levels. So once again, I'll demonstrate with my head towards the camera so you can see how the hits [01:34:30] I start off With a conventional movement like so.

[01:34:35] When I feel Placido push back, I take him further than he wanted to go. [01:34:40] Now, the Kipping Escape is almost embarrassingly easy, and you penetrate so easily through that you find yourself in these beautiful Ashi Garamis. And from situations like this, he [01:34:50] comes in towards us, again, it's just not that difficult for us to start going around the corner.

[01:34:54] You're getting into very good attacking positions, okay? So once again, [01:35:00] here we are, we're lined up. We're lined up like so. I take him to my left, he pushes me back, and I take him out to the right, okay? I don't [01:35:10] care which side he's on, just so long as his center of gravity is not directly over me. but at a point outside the line of my body.

[01:35:16] Okay. So [01:35:20] here I go to my lift. He pushes back and I take him over to the right. Now he has to overcompensate. His weight's all on his hands. He tries to lock his [01:35:30] feet. And we just kip, kip, kip, the knee goes in, and we're in business, okay? From here, so many ways for us to go in and get the attack going, [01:35:40] okay?

[01:35:40] So this is the basic idea behind this misdirectional escape. I'll demonstrate it from other angles now. Here we have pass it [01:35:50] on, mounted situation. We lock in, I take him to the left. I feel Placido pushing back and I take him to the [01:36:00] right. From here, we've got a nice entry. Go back a step, Placido. Guys, can you see the daylight between Placido's thighs.

[01:36:09] That's the [01:36:10] daylight that enables me to bring my knee into an ashigurami. Remember, a single knee entry to ashigurami is always easier than trying to get, you know, [01:36:20] two knees through for an elbow escape to guard. Okay? It's just so easy now to bring that leg in, and now you're in a perfect attacking position.

[01:36:28] So many ways to go from [01:36:30] here. So once again, I

[01:36:36] go left. He fights back. [01:36:40] I go right. And now we're in perfect position to go on the attack. So many ways, from here, to go straight up and over, put this guy down into a winning position. [01:36:50] Um, a word to the wise guys, when I, I kind of anticipate that I'm going to [01:37:00] need a misdirectional escape, rather than just a basic lateral escape, but maybe I've felt my opponent before and I can feel, man, I'm This guy's really good at shutting down the basic lateral escape.

[01:37:09] I [01:37:10] will often start with double hand frames. What I typically find is that double hand frames do a better job of navigating left, right, than forearm frames do. [01:37:20] Forearm frames are incredibly strong in one direction, but they don't change direction quite so well. I'm not going to say it's wrong to use a forearm frame.

[01:37:27] I, don't get me wrong, but, um, [01:37:30] uh, I generally find most people go side to side better with double hand this grip which is symmetrical rather than an asymmetrical grip like this one. [01:37:40] So if I know ahead of time that Placido is really good at resisting kipping escapes and I'm probably going to have to go misdirectional on him, I'm probably going to lock up like this.

[01:37:48] [01:37:50] So Placido's on top, he locks on board, I come out to one side, he fights back, and I typically find you get a better [01:38:00] result with this grip when you misdirect than the one I did previously. Okay, but still, they're both going to be pretty effective. Okay. [01:38:10] Now, as he fights to work this position, I'm always looking at Placido's head position.

[01:38:13] If his head moves away, we'll chase. If his head moves towards me, we're always looking to [01:38:20] elevate and usually go into some variation of cross Toshigurami. Okay, um, from here, we'll be looking later on at, uh, variations. You [01:38:30] have a classic inside Senkaku is one obvious option. Okay, you can come around the corner, especially if, uh, this knee starts stepping out in this direction.

[01:38:38] We can come around the corner [01:38:40] and go inside, outside. That's another great option. You can even place a hand inside and then from here come all the way around if you prefer 50 [01:38:50] 50 options, okay? I leave that up to you, they're all excellent choices. Um, so once again,

[01:38:58] our opponent's on top, he's [01:39:00] got good position, his feet are where they should be, locked in tight. I try hard to take Passino left, he fights back and I take him across right. From situations here, I [01:39:10] look at his head, if the head moves away, We chase the heel. If he hides the heel and comes driving in towards me and from here we start elevating and we have choices.[01:39:20]

[01:39:20] We have choices between going inside Senkaku. We have choices coming around the corner like so and fitting into [01:39:30] inside outside or crisscross Ashiguramis. Or in situations here I can pass my body all the way around the corner and start going into variations. [01:39:40] We'll be looking at all those choices in subsequent parts of this video and other videos out into the future.

[01:39:47] They're all good choices. Um, [01:39:50] you can't go wrong. What is important here is the concept of getting out of the position. and immediately into your counter attacks, whichever one you end up choosing. [01:40:00] Um, take faith guys. And this idea that it's actually easier for you to get into ashi garami in most cases than it is for you to get into guard [01:40:10] position.

[01:40:10] The only amount of space you need to generate is the circumference of one knee because that's the space required [01:40:20] to enter one knee into an ashi garami. Don't think with the kipping escape, you have to move your opponent big distances. You don't. That's how far you [01:40:30] have to move him. It's not asking a lot, guys.

[01:40:33] Now Placido's got his butt towards the camera.

[01:40:39] Obviously a basic [01:40:40] lateral escape. From here, hips down with Placido. From here, look how easy this is to kip, kip, kip, and that's all that was required. Once that knee's inside, [01:40:50] we're good to attack now. It's going to be pretty easy for us. Start going through on an opponent, locking up. and getting into various attacks from here.

[01:40:59] Okay. [01:41:00] Regardless of the position we find ourselves in, if he comes up and over my body, regardless of where we go from here, you're going to find it's an easy thing for you to [01:41:10] slip your legs in and get to those winning positions that we favor. Um, invest a lot of time in this Kipping Escape guys. [01:41:20] When it comes to no gear work and your opponent doesn't have a collar to go in and strangle you with, I have tremendous faith.

[01:41:29] In [01:41:30] the Kibbing Escape, I've watched my students perform it time and time again, both in international competition and in the gym. Um, I've [01:41:40] literally watched them in the gym go against the best people in the world and invariably escape using this method directly [01:41:50] into heel hooks. It transforms you from seeing the mount as a terror to be avoided, and start seeing it as an opportunity to [01:42:00] be exploited.

[01:42:01] Um, and when, when my students were young and brash and obnoxious, they, they still are, but, um, uh, more so when they were even younger, [01:42:10] they would often in local tournaments come out and pull bottom mount and black belts would come up against them and just, you They would kip out and heel hook them in 10 seconds and the match was over.

[01:42:19] [01:42:20] Um, obviously you wouldn't want to do that at world championship level, but it just kind of demonstrates how devastating this, this skill can become. You can get to a level where black belts are [01:42:30] getting mounted on you because you're letting them, knowing damn well that you're going to heel hook them 10 seconds later.

[01:42:35] When you're at that level, You're gonna be a scary opponent to face. Because [01:42:40] literally there's no position your opponent can get to where he's safe. Think about it from your opponent's point of view. He's worked so hard, he's taken you down, passed you guard, [01:42:50] worked his way to the mount. Finally he gets mount, he's like, oh man, finally victory is mine.

[01:42:55] And then five seconds later, he's fighting for his life out of a heel hook. What's going through his [01:43:00] mind at that point? He's like, dude, I did everything right. I, I played by the rules. I did. I, I, I, I literally lived out the jiu jitsu rule book and I'm getting freaking leglocked [01:43:10] by these people. It's devastating.

[01:43:12] Okay, it's not that difficult to use these kipping skills. Just make sure you [01:43:20] pay attention to the basic mechanics. Keep your spine bent.

[01:43:28] Like so. So you create [01:43:30] a rocking chair effect where you can move people's body weight. No flat spines. From here, you're no good. Make sure your knees are close [01:43:40] together and your feet even closer. Make sure your knees are positioned precisely. at your opponent's tailbone. The further from the tailbone, the less [01:43:50] effective you're going to be.

[01:43:51] Form a good frame, either forearm or double hand. That's your choice. Make sure initially that his center of gravity is [01:44:00] not right over your belly button. The easiest way to do that is to go lateral. So typically we start with a little bridge, then kip out. If he forces [01:44:10] his way back towards your belly button, take him further than he wanted to go and misdirect him out to the side.

[01:44:15] You perform the same move on the other side. If you do this, you'll be [01:44:20] pleasantly shocked at how easy it is for you to take even bigger, stronger opponents, effortlessly move them off you and slide easily into your heel hook attacks. [01:44:30] Don't worry guys, I promise I'll be coming back to heel hooks a lot more in this video.

[01:44:34] Right now, we're just focusing on just getting out. Um, soon we'll be looking into the nitty gritty [01:44:40] of how to heal people out of this position. I promise I'll come back to that.

[01:44:47] Guys, I don't want you just to be good at the kipping [01:44:50] escape. I want you to be great at it. Again, to be great at the kipping escape, you gotta have variations, just like any other move in the sport. The foundational one is the lateral kipping escape. [01:45:00] Most students do best with that when they first start off.

[01:45:04] Then you need a misdirectional kipping escape, because as you get better at the lateral, they're going to try and push back on top [01:45:10] of you. You've got to misdirect them to the other side of your body, so you can fool them left and take them right. But at some point, you've got to start learning what I believe is the best [01:45:20] overall version of the kipping escape, which is the overhead kipping escape.

[01:45:25] As the name implies, you're no longer taking them laterally to [01:45:30] left or right, you're taking them over a shoulder. Why do I believe this is the ultimate version? Because it puts your opponent in the single best [01:45:40] position to finish them with a heel hook. This comes at a price. It means you must pay particular attention to your, [01:45:50] uh, to your posture.

[01:45:51] Any failure in posture when you try to bring someone overhead is going to be, it's going to result in a, in a badly squashed move. [01:46:00] Um, some of the main principles of the lateral tipping escape are still there, but they're modified. Let's have a look at them now. [01:46:10] You. You remember, fellas, that The whole idea behind kipping is you don't want to kip against your opponent's body weight.

[01:46:17] You want to kip against his feet. If [01:46:20] you kip against the weight of his body, you're in for a long night because the kipping movement is just not strong enough to move an entire opponent's body weight. Okay? So what do we need? [01:46:30] In lateral kipping escape, we moved his center of gravity to one side or the other.

[01:46:36] Now what we're going to do is we're going to move the center of gravity forward [01:46:40] from our belly button, where he controls our hips, to our chest. When his belly button comes up towards our chest, we can start to create a rocking effect, [01:46:50] like so. Which will make a strong kip and result in a kip that, when I escape, his weight is so close to me that it's almost [01:47:00] impossible for him to avoid the heel hook.

[01:47:02] Let's contrast that with a lateral kipping escape. In a lateral kipping escape, the bipod is smart. Once he feels himself [01:47:10] getting dislodged, he's going to skip out to the side. and avoid the heel hook. Like so. Like that. He's going to move in the same direction that I'm moving him. And [01:47:20] so maybe if you hit him once or twice with the lateral kipping escape, he's got to wise up.

[01:47:24] He's going to realize, oh, if he takes me to that side, I got to, I got to press the eject button on that side and get away from his freaking heel hooks. [01:47:30] But when you take him over here, there's no eject button because he's directly over your body. So that's the good news. The bad news is it's much harder to move [01:47:40] people overhead than it is to the side.

[01:47:42] You've got to have a strategy to do it. The way I like to do it is to focus on this frame, the forearm frame. [01:47:50] I don't like doing overheads with my hands like so. I'm not going to say don't do it. Okay. I've had students who are very good at overhead keeping escapes from this grip, but my own personal [01:48:00] preference is this one for overhead, this one for lateral and this one for misdirectional.

[01:48:06] That reflects a personal bias on my part. It may be different for you. [01:48:10] Now, what I want to do is take Placido's central gravity, which is located close to his belly button, and bring it as high up on my chest as [01:48:20] possible. You can't do this with your arms. So what do you do it with? Your knees. Take your knees, round out your body, make a strong body, grab my head.[01:48:30]

[01:48:31] And then from here, start doing this motion.

[01:48:37] I know when you look at that, that looks too good to [01:48:40] be true. Hold tight, Placido. So I take my knees, I bring them into my chest. And then from here I look across Placido's chest. That's an important [01:48:50] detail. I'll come back to that soon. I start an action

[01:48:56] that brings his hips up into a position where I always [01:49:00] make the catch. There's no step out. If he goes to step out in this direction here, he's going to give me a different form of heel hook. Okay, you saw [01:49:10] something happen like that when Gordon fought Cyborg. He went to make a back step out of one, Hashigurami went right into another one.

[01:49:16] So once again, if [01:49:20] Placido's center of gravity Which is manifested very close to his belly button. It's directly over mine. No amount of kipping will help me. [01:49:30] So my first thing is to use my knees like so. What I do at this moment [01:49:40] is I join my knees and my forearm. I lift and bring knees and forearms together.

[01:49:48] When I have this structure, [01:49:50] I kip. Don't try to kip with separation of knees and forearm. It just feels hopeless. Okay? So, basedo now. [01:50:00] I lock up. I bring everything in close. And then from here, look how I kip. Just to bring [01:50:10] knee and forearm together. Now, it doesn't matter where he goes. If he goes over my head, I'll follow him.[01:50:20]

[01:50:22] If he goes out to the side, I'll follow him. If he goes out to the side, [01:50:30] I'll follow him. If he goes down my body, he can't foots in behind him. It's gonna create disruptions to his balance [01:50:40] and all kinds of secondary attacks.

[01:50:46] That's why the overhead kip and escape is the most [01:50:50] mature and the most advanced version. It's the one, if I could only have one for the rest of my life, I'd probably choose this one. But I'm saying that to you as someone who's been doing [01:51:00] kip and escapes for 20 years. When you first start off, it's difficult.

[01:51:05] You feel like you're never going to be able to move people. You feel, ah, it's hopeless. Start with a [01:51:10] lateral escape, get some early successes on the board. So at least you believe in the move. You're like, okay, I can see it. It's working for me. As they fight that, go [01:51:20] misdirectional. As they start fighting that by stepping away from your heel hooks, go to the ultimate version over here.

[01:51:29] Once [01:51:30] again, solo, that's the frame we work with. How do I get that frame? I kip to the frame. [01:51:40] That puts my knees right behind his tailbone. And it creates a structure. Placido, just come, uh, stand right there. And just [01:51:50] lean forward and put 100 percent of your body weight on my structure. I can hold. Just take your feet off the ground.

[01:51:55] I can hold Placido's body. I easily in this position, his whole body weight, [01:52:00] okay, just despite a hip replacement, etc. Okay, I can move him easily in these positions because he's on a very, very strong frame of support. I can move him [01:52:10] effortlessly. I could not do the same with my hands, my hands would collapse.

[01:52:14] Okay, but this frame is enormously strong. So the whole thing I do is I get everything in [01:52:20] close, that never changes. I form my frame, and then from here, I I kip and watch my forearm. Kip, kip, kip, kip, [01:52:30] kip, kip, kip, kip, kip. until the magic bar of forearm and knee alignment upon which he's weightless and suspended.[01:52:40]

[01:52:40] Show him the weightless body. Here he's weightless, he can hold his whole body weight. And from here it's so easy for me to kip. You can move him [01:52:50] around, you can do whatever you want. And once you get that weightless feeling, kip him overhead and fire your legs into ashi garami. So once again, [01:53:00] pasirus maude.

[01:53:02] I can never let him get underneath and extend me if it is asked of me. So always first, everything in close, okay? [01:53:10] If he locks into my feet with grapevines, I have to take the feet away from him. When he locks his feet together, we start that action. Everything comes in close. [01:53:20] And now he's suspended over me.

[01:53:24] I can make my choices now, as to where we go in the chat. [01:53:30] Okay. This is the key to the overhead kipping escape. I'm going to demonstrate from different angles. Um, [01:53:40] guys if you ever get to a point where you do this and you spend maybe two weeks drilling with your partners and you're like, Dude, this is never going to work for me.

[01:53:47] I can't even get it going. [01:53:50] Watch some video of my students. Get some faith from that alone. You will see them time and time again against the best players in the world easily kick their way out. Sometimes [01:54:00] you need a little bit of a moral shot in the arm, okay, and watching video of my students do this, you'll get exactly that.

[01:54:06] You'll get to see how even the best players in the world [01:54:10] couldn't stop this move from happening. Um, once you get that kind of confidence, you'll go back to the gym with a renewed sense of belief and vigor, [01:54:20] and you'll stick with it long enough to get that feeling and push on through and succeed. Again, if you feel you just can't get it, a couple of weeks goes by, go back to the, to the lateral escape.

[01:54:29] It's [01:54:30] easier. Okay. Go back to the misdirectional escape. But at some point, start pushing for this one. Because as you go higher and higher in the sport, this will be the one you start relying on more than all [01:54:40] the others. Now we're going to demonstrate with Placido's butt towards the camera.

[01:54:47] So first things first, I form a forearm [01:54:50] frame. His feet lock. My first thing is I bring my knees in close and I contract my body and I bring my head to look across his chest. I'll come back to that detail soon. [01:55:00] Now from here. Look how I start that tipping action. It brings him up my body and connects my forearm and my knee.[01:55:10]

[01:55:10] Now, I have more than enough space to penetrate with my knee directly into an ashi garami. Once we get to a position like this, I look at his head. [01:55:20] The more the head comes in towards me, The more inclined we are to go into variations that cross Ashi Gurami, okay? [01:55:30] The more his feet are apart, the more inclined we are to go inside grip and come around the corner into variations such as criss cross [01:55:40] Ashi.

[01:55:42] Variations of 50 50. We'll be spending a lot more time on this soon, don't worry. Okay? I leave that up to you. From [01:55:50] another angle, let's give him the three quarter angle. Let's go. Pay attention to Placido's locked feet. He's got good head position. In [01:56:00] goes my forearm frame. I look across the body. Now from here, I look, body curves out.

[01:56:09] Kip, kip, [01:56:10] kip. And now we've got it. We punch the knee through from that knee position. He tries to put weight on me. He just rests on my knee. And [01:56:20] as a result, it's just so easy. to go in and get to our locks. Okay. He goes to pull his knee away, your hand assisting, locking it up, locking. [01:56:30] You can always come around the corner and fire your legs into alternative finishing positions.

[01:56:35] Now guys, a detail, which you may have heard me talking about a couple of times [01:56:40] was my head position and looking across the chest. You might be asking, as you should, How is that relevant? It's very relevant. If your opponent's shoulder [01:56:50] gets under your chin, it's going to screw up, you could be in escape. So you can't have your opponent dominate your chin.

[01:56:56] I'll demonstrate with my head close to the camera. [01:57:00] Placido's Mountain. If Placido's shoulder, uh, let's go this way. If Placido's shoulder catches underneath my [01:57:10] chin, I can't bend my body into the shape of a rocking chair or a banana.

[01:57:18] Remember guys, [01:57:20] I need my body. In the shape of a rocking chair for a banana. I cannot kip with a flat back. When [01:57:30] Placido dominates my chin, he keeps my back flat, kills my kipping escape. So always what we want, when he dominates the chin, [01:57:40] take a thumb post. Put it in his armpit and give a little bump and get your chin inside.

[01:57:47] So I'm always looking across his chest. [01:57:50] When he goes to lift my chin, it's impossible. If my head comes out, he gets inside shoulder position. If his shoulder is [01:58:00] inside my chin, it's impossible. He flattens me out, I can't move. So we thumb post, I put my thumb inside position, even though my whole hand is outside, my thumb is inside.

[01:58:09] [01:58:10] I look and I get my head to the inside position, so my head is inside his shoulder. If his shoulder is inside my jaw, he's winning. So I bump, [01:58:20] I get inside head position, he tries to recover it, I keep my hand inside, and then from here, we get him up into the air. Once we [01:58:30] get that man elevated, we're in a position now to start coming around the corner, okay?

[01:58:35] From here, because of the leg position we're in, it probably makes more sense just to hand [01:58:40] assist. Catch and put the man down. Okay, so that's the detail of Head and chin position looking across the chest getting your chin and [01:58:50] head to the inside position to begin That's one obstacle. You must overcome to have an effective Overhead Kipping Escape.

[01:58:58] You can't do it if your chin and [01:59:00] head are being controlled. Get your chin and head to the inside position and then obey the basic rules of posture, which is have him float on the [01:59:10] frame of your forearm and knees. You can carry even a big man's weight. It's going twice your size in this position. And from this position, Kipping will open [01:59:20] up a hole through which one knee can easily penetrate.

[01:59:23] And give you variations of Ashi Garami, where you can finish even very tough opponents. So there you have it guys, [01:59:30] three variations of the Kipping Escape. The most successful method for my students to get out of bad mounted positions and effortlessly heal [01:59:40] people. Um, you can see a ton of competition footage in the early days of the squad, where they would often allow people Just [01:59:50] specifically so they can work this move and go directly into heel hooks.

[01:59:53] It's a shocking thing for the man on top. He's in what is supposedly the most dominant position in the sport, and then three seconds later he's fighting for [02:00:00] his life, trying to get away from a maniac trying to break his legs. Um, work on these skills. Develop a strong kipping escape. I don't believe there's a [02:00:10] better escape to the mounted position when you work without a gi.

[02:00:13] I will also show the Elbow Escape. I still have a ton of faith in the Elbow Escape. It's still one of my absolute favorites. [02:00:20] But here's my, here's my advice to you. Have the best Elbow Escape you possibly can. It'll never let you down, either with or without a Gi. [02:00:30] But back it up when you go No Gi with the Kipping Escape.

[02:00:34] These two will form a tremendous combination team to get you out of the [02:00:40] worst mounted positions on the planet. And not only get you out, but get you out in a maximizing fashion where you not only escape, but now you're attacking the [02:00:50] second you get through. Remember guys, the critical point is where your knee penetrates between your opponent's legs.

[02:00:57] The second your knee penetrates, your mind [02:01:00] switches. From defense into offense. You're not thinking about putting this guy back in guard. You're thinking about putting him in Ashigurami. And going from an Ashigurami [02:01:10] variation to another, to get in there and break those legs.[02:01:20]

[02:01:20] It's time for us to switch our attention from the Kipping Escape, which, uh, is the first variation. favored escape among the squad for getting out of a mounted position when we work without a gi, [02:01:30] um, to the elbow escape. Now, when I say the kipping escape is favored, it's not by much. These two, uh, your left and right hand, and you need them both to be [02:01:40] successful.

[02:01:40] Um, Let's have a look at how the Elbow Escape is usually taught in a beginner's class. Uh, look at what's good about that, what's not so good [02:01:50] about it as you go further up in levels. And start to contrast the outside variations, which are seen in beginner classes, with inside variations. which are very useful for [02:02:00] you as you get better and better at the sport of jiu jitsu.

[02:02:03] So let's look at your first day in jiu jitsu. You learn an outside elbow escape. We'll demonstrate it with our feet towards the [02:02:10] camera, so you can see what is happening here with the legs. Okay, my training partner gets in, I put a frame in place. I'm going to demonstrate with a cross frame. You could also [02:02:20] use hands.

[02:02:20] down. You can just have one hand elbow. I leave that up to you. Now, if Placido was naive and had his feet out wide, it's really easy for us to turn onto [02:02:30] our side, give a little bump, and then from here I use my elbow to block his knee and I bring My knee inside the ankle, like [02:02:40] so, that has a slight lifting effect on my training partner's heel.

[02:02:43] If my opponent presses his toes down into the ground, then I can bring my second foot over and drag his [02:02:50] foot, and we lock a triangle around the foot. This enables me to lift his knee off the mat. When the knee lifts off the mat, it's very easy for me to surround [02:03:00] his knee and trap from the outside. So I have His leg locked and my leg is outside his.

[02:03:08] Now, many different ways for [02:03:10] us to go, for us to go from here. You could just play half guard. You could come out and bring your knee inside and play a knee shield, for example. You could bring your [02:03:20] inside knee, like so, classic method, and lock up a full guard. You could stay in butterfly guard, you do whatever you want, okay?

[02:03:27] They're all good options. So, that's the [02:03:30] classic method, and it's a great one when you first start off the sport of Jiu Jitsu. But you can see, it was predicated on trapping your opponent's ankle first. So once again, [02:03:40] the whole idea is that when his ankle is exposed, it's pretty easy for us to go through.

[02:03:46] And from here, trap him. Once you trap an [02:03:50] ankle, you can elevate a knee. And if you can elevate a knee, it's really easy to trap that knee. And it's from here that we do all of our work. [02:04:00] Okay, we're gonna put him back in butterfly guard, we're gonna get a full guard, we're gonna half guard. That's up to you, okay?

[02:04:05] So it all starts off with that idea of trapping your opponent's heel and then [02:04:10] getting your leg to the outside position. Now, that's a great way of starting off your jiu jitsu career, and it often works quite well because you'll get exposed feet, [02:04:20] opponents make mistakes in beginner's classes, and it works quite well.

[02:04:25] Then you go a level up in competition and you find immediately [02:04:30] that no one ever exposes their feet to you again. Typically when people get mounted on you, that usually means they're better than you, because they got mounted after all, and [02:04:40] they get their feet very tight together, sometimes even cross the ankles.

[02:04:44] And in situations like this, you suddenly find it's awfully, awfully difficult for you to get [02:04:50] through and look. It's hard for you to get underneath your opponent's heel. When you can't penetrate under the [02:05:00] ankle, my recommendation is take the inside route. Penetrate inside the head. Turn our angle. So if I can't trap a foot, [02:05:10] I can't trap a foot, I'm going to instead bridge and then from here I'm just going to bring my knee inside my opponent's head.[02:05:20]

[02:05:21] When he tries to put weight on me now, it's like a frame. It's so easy for me to take my two hands and clear the upper body frame away. [02:05:30] What does that leave us with? You guessed it. Hashigurami. Most people, put your knee down, when they end up here, come out. Bring [02:05:40] the second leg in and put him back in guard.

[02:05:42] But what's our philosophy of the skit? Of course, it's the maximizing philosophy. We're not using the [02:05:50] satisficing philosophy of putting our opponent back in guard. We're using the maximizing philosophy of attacking with a submission hold. Remember, it's just as easy, if not easier, for me to [02:06:00] go into an ashigurami as it is for me to go into an open guard.

[02:06:03] Why go for the lesser option when the best of all options is right there in front of you for either the same price or [02:06:10] even cheaper. So once again, my opponent's mounted. This guy knows what he's doing. He should know what he's doing because he got mounted on me after the roll. [02:06:20] From here, I can't expose his feet, but one thing I can always expose is a little space inside the hip, and I [02:06:30] bring my knee into that space.

[02:06:32] Once I penetrate with one knee, that's all I need for an Ashigarami. As he tries to put weight on me, [02:06:40] you've got that frame. Now I just clear the upper body frame. I take my hands, I put them in his armpit, and I clear it off. Now I look at his head. If the head moves away, [02:06:50] outside. If the head moves in towards me, this is the classic time for us, to come up into inside attacks.

[02:06:59] [02:07:00] Okay, if my opponent steps out with his leg, it's the perfect time for us to catch that leg and then from here Come across and do other variations usually backside attacks out of variations of [02:07:10] 50 50 or We can go through into crisscross variations where, uh, you have one foot on the inside, one foot on the outside, and these two are [02:07:20] excellent attacking options.

[02:07:21] So once again,

[02:07:28] my opponent's mounted, [02:07:30] he's got a good foot position. I need a frame. Remember, if he's underneath and extending my body, I'm in deep, deep trouble. So our first thing is survival. [02:07:40] Arms come in. It's always the first protocol. We form an effective frame. So when he tries to bring his hips up high, the frame blocks him.[02:07:50]

[02:07:50] Now I off balance him. As his weight goes out, I take this knee here and penetrate inside. [02:08:00] As the knee penetrates, I start to look at my opponent's head position. We're in a perfect position now to clear everything off, get our man up and elevated, [02:08:10] coming around the corner, we make a nice catch that puts him down into one of our favorite attacking positions.

[02:08:18] Okay? [02:08:20] This inside mounted elbow escape is, by far and away, the most effective. The more likely to happen at the higher echelons of the sport. [02:08:30] It's very difficult to trap an opponent's foot. If the foot is hidden underneath your buttocks and locked together to the other foot. You just don't see that [02:08:40] beginner level elbow escape being performed at world championship level.

[02:08:44] Instead of penetrating underneath your opponent's ankle to trap the ankle and then the knee, [02:08:50] instead we penetrate inside the hip. This brings the inside mounted elbow escape quite close in spirit to the kipping escape. [02:09:00] Essentially the difference is you're using a bridge instead of a kip to do it. A bridge is mechanically a stronger movement than a kip.

[02:09:09] However, you're [02:09:10] fighting from a less mechanically advantageous position So in reality, they turn out to be about the same in terms of mechanical efficiency. Um, [02:09:20] one more time. My opponent's mounted. I can't have my opponent underneath my chin [02:09:30] driving me up. So one thing never really changes. I have to be able to look across my training partner's chest.

[02:09:37] Okay, now from here, I'll get my elbow [02:09:40] inside. I start with that lifting action. Then from here, that frame means that as I shrimp my body out, [02:09:50] my knee comes in. Okay, once one knee comes in, the cat's out of the bag. I don't care how much pressure he puts on me now. It's difficult to put pressure right through my hips.[02:10:00]

[02:10:00] I keep that knee in place, either here or here, both excellent options. Try not to keep it in the middle, either over one hip [02:10:10] or the other. Okay? As he comes in, driving towards me, that's the perfect time for you to start putting those cross frames in place. And then from here, coming around the corner [02:10:20] and looking for our various options for attack.

[02:10:22] Until we can go through and get to our wings. One more time. Demonstrate from the other angle.[02:10:30]

[02:10:32] Okay, again, the part that beats my chin. I can't make my body go into the shapes [02:10:40] required to get an effective escape. So my first thing is always to be able to look across my training partner's chest. I form the frame inside. [02:10:50] Now from here, I come up. And then from here I just shrimp. As I shrimp, the knee comes in.

[02:10:58] If the head moves away, [02:11:00] it's an easy catch. If the head moves in towards me, I can go insights and kanku. [02:11:10] I can split the legs, and go criss cross ashi. The inside outside. We'll be spending a lot of time in this, throughout this video series. Very important version of [02:11:20] ashi garami. You can also go through, into variations of 50 50.

[02:11:26] This is the double 50. We'll be spending a lot of time on this too. [02:11:30] Many fascinating variations out of this. And from here, you have a large array of very effective attacks. Um, this is [02:11:40] the inside elbow escape. At the higher levels of the sport, It becomes extremely effective.

[02:11:49] Now, we're looking at [02:11:50] the elbow escape from mounted position. You may have just heard me regale on the outside elbow escape and say that it only works in beginner classes. [02:12:00] Um, of course, that's an exaggeration. Um, the inside elbow escape is the best, in my opinion, when you have a high level opponent who's doing a good job of hiding his [02:12:10] feet.

[02:12:10] When he's mounted on you, but there are still great opportunities to hit the outside elbow escape as he's getting mounted on you. [02:12:20] I believe the real value of outside elbow escapes. in high level competition is not when someone's mounted on you, but as they're getting mounted on you. And in that [02:12:30] situation, outside elbow escapes are damn good.

[02:12:33] Let's have a look at what I mean by this. Okay, if Pasidon was across my side, [02:12:40] he's obviously going to be interested in the idea of moving into the mounted position. He can score a lot of points for doing that. When he goes to move across, he's going slow motion, Pasidon, You'll notice as the [02:12:50] knee goes across, something interesting starts to happen, stop at the belly button.

[02:12:54] His foot starts to get exposed. The distance between his butt [02:13:00] and his foot increases as the foot goes across the stomach. When he first enters here, the knee and the foot are very, sorry, the foot and the buttocks are [02:13:10] very close together. But as he drives to the floor, more and more space develops until by the time he touches the floor, There's quite a bit of space between the foot and the [02:13:20] buttocks and into that space.

[02:13:22] It's very easy for me to take advantage of the exposed foot. In addition, one [02:13:30] of the key prerequisites to a good elbow escape is that my head look inside his chest. When Placido goes across my body to the mount, he does that for me. [02:13:40] And it's really easy as a result for me just to point my knees in the same direction he's going.

[02:13:47] Come back. What I don't want to [02:13:50] do is resist Passido and turn into him. That makes it easier for him to mount and extend me at the same time. What I want to do is [02:14:00] share his body direction. When I do that, it opens up space. and makes it very easy for me to catch his ankle in my [02:14:10] triangle. Now what I do is I lift his knee off the floor.

[02:14:14] I'm sure you've guessed what comes next. Once the knee is lifted off the floor, we put it [02:14:20] inside our half guard, just like so. Once we get inside, we're in a position to go back on the attack. And from situations like this, I normally recommend a low knee [02:14:30] shield and a hand on our training partner's collar.

[02:14:32] As my training partner tries desperately to come back into me, You're going to find a myriad of opportunities to go straight on through and into your [02:14:40] various counterattacks. I'm demonstrating out of a triangle, but you could choose, I'm sure, many others from here. So once again, from a situation where I [02:14:50] feel Placido driving to the mount, I'm going to expose his ankle by turning in the direction he's going.

[02:14:56] And I open my leg so that even as he [02:15:00] mounts, I get a catch on the heel. Now, as he tries to drop into the mount, I hit the heel. He hasn't scored, and as a result, [02:15:10] I can now lift his knee off the mat and expose it to my elbow escape. From here, I put my knee across. [02:15:20] If I don't, Placido can drive into me and flatten me out.

[02:15:24] So I want to turn my knee in. One leg back heels, the other pushes. He tries to [02:15:30] flatten me out. Very, very difficult. From a situation like this, it's not so difficult for us to go upper body. Now, what do you think Placido's going [02:15:40] to do when you go upper body? He's going to go vertical. Posturing up and standing up.

[02:15:46] Posturing up and standing up. To get away from the [02:15:50] threat of the triangle. gi, it's not that hard for him to start slipping out. Whenever I feel my opponent go to slip out, [02:16:00] That's exactly the time for us to start going back into the legs. Once someone goes back into the legs, it's not so difficult for us now to start going around the [02:16:10] corner and into winning positions.

[02:16:12] So the general thread, whenever we go upper body on an opponent, [02:16:20] is if they go to pull away, they always leave their legs behind. So my philosophy for taking the upper body, we'll come back to this again and again. Okay. [02:16:30] during the new wave jiu jitsu series is that whenever you lose the upper body, they're going to leave you the lower body behind.

[02:16:37] Make the transition, you get some of the [02:16:40] easiest leg locks of your life whenever someone goes to pull away from your upper body attacks. So once again, we start off Just like so. [02:16:50] He drives across and I open everything in the same direction he's going. That will expose his ankle. Now, I expose the [02:17:00] knee. Now, I put my knee shield there.

[02:17:04] He goes to flatten me out. Very, very difficult. Not hard for us now to start building [02:17:10] up to an elbow. It's not hard for us now to start going upper body. But also, not hard for him to start posturing up in a way. So even as I lose [02:17:20] the upper body, I gain the lower body. And as a result, we can start bumping people down towards the floor.

[02:17:26] Okay. Numerous ways for us to go into the attack. [02:17:30] Now all of them are excellent methods. Okay. And you'll find from situations like this, Many ways for us to know if we're going to score our training partners legs, I'll leave [02:17:40] them all up to you. Um, we'll be spending quite a bit of time on leg locking throughout this video series, looking at the pros and cons of inside and outside position.

[02:17:49] [02:17:50] Um, looking at, uh, compromises between inside and outside. Uh, some fascinating stuff. Um, this version of the outside [02:18:00] elbow escape is very, very practical, even at the highest levels. So my general rule of thumb for you is this, when it comes to elbow escapes, when someone is already mounted on [02:18:10] you, I typically favor inside mounted elbow escapes.

[02:18:15] When someone is in the act of getting mounted on you, I typically favor [02:18:20] outside mounted elbow escapes, the classic version. In both cases. Don't be satisfied with just putting them back in your yard. Use the [02:18:30] philosophy which we're promulgating in this video. The idea that every time you come out of an escape, your opponent will typically be overextended [02:18:40] and trying very hard to hold on to the mount that he thinks he's about to lose.

[02:18:45] And as a result, he will tend to give you the heel hooks that you're looking for. [02:18:50] Once you've made that critical switch from being in a completely defensive situation to one where you've gotten that critical tipping point where you [02:19:00] can throw your legs into an ashigurami. Don't be satisfied with putting him back in guard when instead you can go into your various leg locks.

[02:19:07] If it's an upper body attack, as we looked at in the [02:19:10] last case, threaten the upper body. Presumably if your opponent's good enough to get mounted on you, he's probably good enough to pull away from an initial upper body attack. And whenever he [02:19:20] pulls away with the upper body, he has to leave you the lower body.

[02:19:24] Make the transition and you'll scare, scare a lot of people from these bad positions.

[02:19:29] [02:19:30] [02:19:40] We're looking at the idea of not only escaping from bad positions, but employing what we're calling the maximizing philosophy of [02:19:50] escape, which is to create the conditions for escape and then identify a critical tipping point where your opponent no longer controls your ability to [02:20:00] move. And from there you switch from a defensive mindset to an offensive mindset.

[02:20:05] Instead of being satisfied with putting your opponent back in guard, You go for [02:20:10] the maximizing option, the optimal option, which is to finish and submit your opponent. You will be delighted to learn that in the vast [02:20:20] majority of cases, it is no more difficult, and arguably less difficult, to go into Ashigurami or other finishing positions than it is to go into a guard position.

[02:20:29] So [02:20:30] why go for the satisfactory outcome when you can go for the optimal outcome? They cost you the same, arguably even less. So let's start to take this in the context [02:20:40] of an athlete who's gotten behind you, has gotten two hooks in, and you're looking to get out of the rear mounted position. We're going to start off.[02:20:50]

[02:20:50] with Placido in behind and understand that there's a couple of problems we have to deal with here simultaneously. There are two battles going on here. [02:21:00] There is a lower body battle where I fight against my opponent's hooks and there is an upper body battle where I fight against the control of his arms, [02:21:10] his head position, and potentially his ability to strangle me.

[02:21:16] Okay, so there's, the upper body battle is a little more [02:21:20] complex than the lower body battle. I'm going to go further and say that the upper body battle is more critical. It's one thing to get held in place by someone. That's bad, [02:21:30] but it's a lot worse to get finished by someone. So my advice to you, right from the start, when you're dealing with rear mounted [02:21:40] positions, win the upper body battle first.

[02:21:43] That's so important. I'm going to say it to you again. Focus on winning the upper body battle first. You [02:21:50] can always win the lower body battle second. You can win the lower body battle and end up getting strangled. That's why [02:22:00] I always urge people To focus on this battle first and then worry about this one second.

[02:22:06] Okay. At the very least, you might get held for a while, but you're not gonna [02:22:10] get finished. Okay? And that's far more important than, than any other consideration. Now, what does it mean to say winning the upper body battle? Well, there's [02:22:20] a simple battle going on here. Placido has to maintain his head on the opposite side of his strangle hand.

[02:22:27] He has two arms. One goes [02:22:30] under my arm and the other goes over. The over grip will be the one that strangles me. The under grip will be the one that controls my hands [02:22:40] and cements the connection of his chest to my back. It's very important for him that he keep his strangle hand and his head on opposite sides of my head.[02:22:50]

[02:22:50] If his head ever comes to the same side as the strangle hand, it's almost impossible for him to strangle me. So he needs opposite sides. And from here [02:23:00] you can finish me in a moment's notice. Okay, so that's the upper body battle. I have to monitor the stranglehand and I have to bear in mind that he must keep his head [02:23:10] and his stranglehand on opposite sides of my head.

[02:23:13] In addition, there's a third complication. The more his hands come up to my shoulder, The [02:23:20] tighter his connection of chest to back, and at the same time, the more threatening his stranglehand becomes because the distance it has to [02:23:30] travel has become less. It also means that I cannot move my head. The more he locks in tight to my shoulder, the more my head is constricted.

[02:23:39] So I [02:23:40] always want his hands here on my sternum. When the hands are on my sternum, my head can move. And I can diminish the contact of [02:23:50] his chest to my back. The more his hands migrate up to the shoulder, the less freedom of movement that I have. Okay, so once again, the upper [02:24:00] body battle. is three major concerns.

[02:24:02] There are other concerns, but for now, let's just focus on the most critical three. One is hand position. He wants his [02:24:10] hands high to the side. I want his hands low on the center line. That's our big first thing. Second thing, head position. He always wants his head opposite [02:24:20] side of his strangle hand. If head goes the same side, there's almost no danger of a strangle.

[02:24:25] Okay? Danger has been mitigated. So he's always looking for that. [02:24:30] The other thing is just straightforwardly monitoring the strangle hand. At any given moment, that hand can put me up. [02:24:40] So I always want to make sure that I'm monitoring the strangle hand. So if he ever goes for a strangle, It's controlled.

[02:24:47] Okay. So those are the basics of [02:24:50] the upper body game. Now it's time for us to start getting into details. Placido and I are going to come close to the camera now, because we're going to go over some exceedingly important details of [02:25:00] hand control.

[02:25:03] Okay. Go behind. From this position, this is [02:25:10] your opponent's strangle hand. If his hand goes over and behind my shoulder,

[02:25:18] it's almost impossible for me [02:25:20] now to stop the strangle.

[02:25:26] In order for me to control his strangle hand, I [02:25:30] cannot control the wrist. This will prove inadequate. If he controls my wrist here, look how even though I'm holding with all my might and pulling down, if Placido inches the hand up, [02:25:40] he will strangle me every single time. Grabbing someone's wrist, is not effective.

[02:25:46] I don't care which hand you use. It is ineffective. [02:25:50] It will not stop the strangle. I'm sure you've seen my students finishing many people from the back and you'll see [02:26:00] everyone gripping like so. When people try to stop, it's completely ineffective. and you see them tapping on the forearm. [02:26:10] In order to stop someone strangling, I have to stop his hand moving from my center line to behind the shoulder.

[02:26:17] And the only way I can do that is by [02:26:20] making my opponent's hand disappear. There are two ways I can do this. I can do it by taking inside thumb position. Like so. So [02:26:30] that when I hold Placido's hand, you cannot physically see his hand. Now, when Placido tries to migrate across the chest and strangle me, it's physically [02:26:40] impossible, because my thumb has taken the inside position.

[02:26:43] This area of the wrist, um, the area which you would [02:26:50] slash if you were trying to kill yourself, is the area I want my thumb to operate. I take my thumb and lock. [02:27:00] Now, even if Placido grabs my wrist and tries to come up with the stranglehand, with a single hand I can completely confound him, because I control the end of the lever.[02:27:10]

[02:27:10] If my hand migrates up the lever, now even if I tried to stop him, he could bring the hand up. and strangle me. Similarly, [02:27:20] with this hand here, if I grab the wrist, he easily defeats my poor position on the lever. But if I make his hand disappear, [02:27:30] now when he tries to bring the hand up, it's easy for me to return it to the sternum and feed it back into the hand.

[02:27:39] [02:27:40] Okay? Take this out, buddy. So, if the hand is in the center, I just grab it. If the hand comes over the shoulder, I can't grab it that way, [02:27:50] so I grab it this way. When I grab it, I strip it down to the sternum, and I feed it back to my primary defensive [02:28:00] hand. Let's understand that I have two hands to defend myself with.

[02:28:04] A primary and a secondary. The primary defensive hand [02:28:10] always wants to control my opponent like so. It's the stronger of the two. But the primary defensive hand has a weakness. It has an inability to follow the hand [02:28:20] beyond a certain point. The secondary hand is not quite as strong, but it has the advantage of reach.

[02:28:25] So that even if my opponent's hand goes all the way over my shoulder, it has the [02:28:30] reach to bring it down, back to the sternum, and make a pass off to the primary defensive hand. So we have two hands and they must work in concert. If the [02:28:40] hand is at the sternum, I just grab it. If the hand has gone beyond the sternum, then I must perform a pass off.

[02:28:47] and lock it in place. If my opponent's [02:28:50] hands are locked in a seatbelt, I may not have direct access to the hand. So I must do the best I can and position over the top. So that when my opponent goes to switch to a [02:29:00] strangle, it will go directly into the grip that I favor. And always the key is to make my opponent's hand disappear.

[02:29:08] If you can physically see the [02:29:10] hand, you can be strangled. Here you can physically see the hand, I can be strangled. Here, you cannot physically see the hand, he tries to strangle me.[02:29:20]

[02:29:24] He tries to strangle me, that's where we do our gripping. If you're in a [02:29:30] situation where you cannot access the hand directly, then get as close to it as possible. So that when he does go to strangle you, You can go right to your preferred grips. [02:29:40] Okay. These are the subtle rules which enable you to control an opponent's strangle hand and prevent yourself from being strangled out right from the start.

[02:29:48] Okay. [02:29:50] The key elements, the primary defensive hand is based around inside thumb position.[02:30:00]

[02:30:00] The secondary defensive hand is based on the idea of controlling the thumb. It is illegal in the sport of Jiu Jitsu for me to grab the thumb [02:30:10] itself. It is illegal for me to grab any one, two or three digits. but it is fully legal for me to grab over the digits. This is [02:30:20] legal. This is illegal. So my target is to cover the whole pad of the thumb.

[02:30:29] That way [02:30:30] his hand disappears and when he goes to strangle me, it feels like it's impossible. I use this to peel and bring it back [02:30:40] to my primary defensive hand. Once I have the primary defensive hand in place, the main danger is Placide will come through and strip my primary defensive hand [02:30:50] off. Now he'll go to strangle and I must come back with the secondary.

[02:30:54] Now he's holding my primary. Look how I strip out. So there will [02:31:00] be hand fighting, where he's constantly looking to take my hand off, and I'm constantly looking to get that hand back on. Let's play [02:31:10] around Pasito.[02:31:20]

[02:31:21] And can you see how we work through this hand fight, where I never give him the opportunity to bring the hand up and behind the shoulder, where I can no longer access [02:31:30] it with either primary or secondary hand, and now I will lose. This is the key to understand hand fighting. The beginnings of the hand fight.

[02:31:39] [02:31:40] I said to you this before guys and I'll say it to you again. Focus on the hand fight first, because if you screw up the hand fight, you can be doing everything else right and still get strangled. [02:31:50] Hands first, everything else second.

[02:31:56] Now, we look at the idea of getting out of rear mount positions, we saw [02:32:00] step number one, win the hand fight. Step number two, win the head fight. Let's have a look at that right now. When someone gets behind us, we know that there has to be a certain [02:32:10] relationship between their strangle hand and their head position.

[02:32:13] They must always have head. stranglehand on opposite sides of my head. If their head ever comes to the same [02:32:20] side, it completely destroys their ability to lock on an effective strangle and makes escape very, very easy. So he's always interested in keeping this position, head one side, [02:32:30] stranglehand the other.

[02:32:31] I'm always interested in breaking that. I want his head and stranglehand on the same side. So how are we going to do this against someone who knows what they're doing? We [02:32:40] know right from the bat that our first concern is always getting this two on one grip where we cover our opponent's hand to the greatest degree possible and back it up with a second [02:32:50] and keep his hand close to our sternum.

[02:32:53] The more the hands come up towards my shoulder, the less mobility I have with my head, and the greater his ability to keep his head on [02:33:00] one side, strangle hand on the other. So always what we want to do is keep his hand low on the center line, down by the sternum. Okay, now I want to start tilting [02:33:10] my opponent.

[02:33:10] I have a choice between going to one side or the other. Typically, we don't like to go straight back in a straight line. We want to tilt one side to the other. Most players are [02:33:20] more comfortable escaping to the side of the underarm. So I'm going to demonstrate that first. Okay. As Placido locks up tight, I want to tilt to my left.[02:33:30]

[02:33:30] Placido generally wants to tilt to my right. So a natural question is, who wins this battle? Well, there's a way to win this. We put our foot out wide. [02:33:40] Then, I straighten my second leg. And when Placido tries to take me to the right, you've begun an artificial tilt to the left. Why do I win this battle so easily?[02:33:50]

[02:33:50] Because Placido has no contact with the floor. His only base on the mat is his two buttcheeks. That's a very narrow base. I, on the other [02:34:00] hand, can widen my base very wide. And I can push off the floor because I have contact with the mat with my feet. Placido has no contact with the mat. And as a result, when it's [02:34:10] time to tilt, I should always be able to win.

[02:34:12] As Placido tries to tilt me to the right, I can easily overwhelm him and tilt to the left. Now, Placido has his head on one [02:34:20] side, strangle hand on the other. That's good for Placido. It's bad for me. So, what I want to do under these circumstances is start to win the battle for head position. I bring the hands down, [02:34:30] and as a result, because the hands are on the sternum, it's quite easy for me to track my head with your head, bring your head forward.

[02:34:36] It's quite easy for me to bring my head forward further than Placido [02:34:40] can go. Placido is limited by my back. He can only bring his chest so far forward because my back is directly in his path. [02:34:50] If his hands were locked up high in the shoulders, I couldn't bring my head forward. But because I've won the hand fight and put his hands on my sternum, it's pretty easy for me to bring my head [02:35:00] further forward than he can take it.

[02:35:02] And as a result, I can bring my head into a position where his strangle hand and his head are on the same side. [02:35:10] Now all that's required is for me to square my hips to the floor. I start turning like so. Placido has to try and desperately keep his foot over my hip. Okay. [02:35:20] Because I've gotten to this position here, there's very little danger of a strangle.

[02:35:24] Okay, because his head and his strangle hand are on the same side. What I need to do now is [02:35:30] beat this foot. From this position, look how I just take my knee up. He's hooked in. Here, I can't beat the foot. I bring my [02:35:40] knee and I point it this way, hook him tightly. No matter how tight he hooks in I can always beat his hook by pointing my knee away from the hook.

[02:35:48] Then I bring my knee [02:35:50] up and over and I start stepping over my training partner's legs. As I start coming out to the side I always want under these circumstances to start [02:36:00] pinning the foot and coming down with my back and shoulders to the back. Now guys, do you remember all the times I talked about a tipping point where there's a certain point of no return where [02:36:10] you are officially out of the hole and then you can start focusing on other things like offense, counteroffense?

[02:36:15] The tipping point is my elbow. From [02:36:20] here, as I come out, I take my elbow and I bring it to the floor. The second my elbow touches the floor, the cat's out of the bag. [02:36:30] Placido couldn't strangle me here even if he wanted to. His head's just in the wrong position. Okay, I don't even have to worry about the hand fighting.

[02:36:38] There's no danger. There's no [02:36:40] strangle. So I just put my elbow on the floor and my hand frames across here at his hip. Now, I just start turning in towards him. The danger now is no [02:36:50] longer the strangle. The danger now is him coming up and getting mounted on me. As he goes to step over, we're always conscious of bringing our knees to the inside position.

[02:36:59] And as a [02:37:00] result, we're in a fine position now, instead of putting him back in guard, to go into variations of Ashi Garami, okay? From here, it's not a difficult thing for us to start that [02:37:10] action of turning our training partner's body around like so. Many ways for us to go on the attack. If his knees are together, typically we go insides and cover.

[02:37:18] If the knees come apart, [02:37:20] then typically we put our hand insides, and from situations like this, we have many different variations. Here, I've chosen a crisscross Ashi. You could have, uh, gone through into [02:37:30] variations of 50 50, your choice, okay? So once again, I start off, we'll demonstrate from a different angle.

[02:37:39] Okay, [02:37:40] hands in the center. If his hands are in the center, my head can always go further forward than Placido's. He tries to follow my head. I should always [02:37:50] be able to get my head in front. If I can get my head in front, and tilt my opponent over, and I should always be able to win that battle, because he has no contact with the mat, I do.[02:38:00]

[02:38:00] When we get to here, go to bring your head forward. I can always bring my head further forward than his. and get my head to the under position. [02:38:10] Once my head goes underneath, now I've got to beat this annoying foot, this hook, okay? I control the hands, I point my knee away from his hook, [02:38:20] just like so. And as a result, I can go over it.

[02:38:23] Once we get over, now it's all about the battle of the the elbow. This is the critical tipping point. If I can get my [02:38:30] elbow to the floor, I am out of this move. Okay. So as we come over our training partner and start coming down, fight, fight, fight. And I get my elbow to the mat. [02:38:40] Once the elbow touches the mat, I no longer care about the stranglers.

[02:38:42] There's no danger of a strangler. The angle is all wrong. All I care about now Is getting my feet to the inside position. [02:38:50] If he tries to come up on top of me, it's suicide. Cause he's coming up onto an Ashigurami. If his head moves away from me, [02:39:00] he gives me the heel. If his head moves towards me, he hides the heel.

[02:39:05] Then he's going to give me. other ways of attacking, [02:39:10] and from here many ways for us to go. Okay, um, once you start to break the battle down into these compartmentalized battles, [02:39:20] the battle of the hands, the battle of the head, and ultimately the battle of the elbow, and you identify the elbow as the critical tipping point where you switch from defense into [02:39:30] offense, and you don't just put them back in guard, you put them in ashigurami, you're gonna, not only will you get out of these positions, You'll get out and finish people.

[02:39:38] And that's what we're looking for. [02:39:40] Let's understand something

[02:39:44] that as we hit the escape, your opponent starts getting all those things that we talked [02:39:50] about earlier in the video. He starts getting that idea, that dreadful idea of sunk costs. He had expended so much effort to get to this position. It took me down. He passed my guard. [02:40:00] He got to the mount. He got to the rear mount.

[02:40:01] He's spent a lot of it. He doesn't want to give it up for free. Put so much into this. Okay. And as we come out and tilt and tilt and tilt [02:40:10] and win it. essential head battle. And from here, we start coming out the other way, pointing our knee away and getting over his foot, and then getting our elbow down. Do you think he's just going to give up [02:40:20] here and just let go?

[02:40:20] Of course not. He's invested so much at this point. He's like, well, I lost the rear mount. Let's, let's let me get mounted out of this. Maybe get some extra points or something. Okay. And yet [02:40:30] that just brings him right onto our legs. Okay. And from situations like this, not so hard for us to start that turning action that we always favor.[02:40:40]

[02:40:40] Okay? Not so hard for us under these circumstances to start turning through in any way that we favor, to go into various forms of leg attack and, uh, [02:40:50] and, and go in for our finishes. Um, seen in this light, you'll start to see. That as an [02:41:00] escape occurs, it's such an easy thing for us to switch our mindset with being satisfied with God position.

[02:41:08] and instead looking for the [02:41:10] maximizing option. That philosophy of getting away from satisfactory outcomes and going for optimal outcomes will mean a difference between being someone who just got out [02:41:20] of a bad situation to one who got out of a bad situation and just immediately finished his opponent.

[02:41:26] Again, imagine how daunting this would be for your opponent who's taking you [02:41:30] down past your guard, gotten into the mounted position, worked his way to the rear mount position, was almost finishing you. And then suddenly he loses by heel. It's like, damn. It's like, [02:41:40] I did everything. I did everything I was supposed to do in Jiu Jitsu and I got finished.

[02:41:43] It's a daunting thing for your opponent to be, to be exposed to. Um, one more [02:41:50] time, just looking from a different angle. Some things just don't change. First one, win the hand fight. None of this is going to happen. Because [02:42:00] hands are going up and over my shoulders, okay? So win that hand fight, lock it in close.

[02:42:05] Second, win the head fight. As you start tilting your opponent over, get your [02:42:10] head in front of his head. Once we've done that, I've got to beat this hook. So what do I do? I start bringing my knee away from the hook and start [02:42:20] going over my training partner's legs. Now from here, elbow. Once my elbow touches down on my training partner's body, it's about inside foot position.

[02:42:28] From inside foot position, [02:42:30] not so difficult for us now to make that switch from going from offense to defense, sorry, from defense to offense. He goes to spin out and you're going to find it's an easy thing to roll [02:42:40] through on a training partner and get into some of our favorite finishing positions.

[02:42:49] Now, we're looking at [02:42:50] the idea of getting out of the rear mounted position. The general method that we're looking at is the sliding elbow escape, where we slide our body progressively further and further away from our opponent [02:43:00] because we're able to win the hand fight, uh, win the head fight, and get our back and shoulders to the mat, culminating in our elbow touching the floor.

[02:43:08] By the time you've slid away from your [02:43:10] opponent and your elbow touches the floor, you're essentially in position for an elbow escape. He tries to mount. You throw your legs in, instead of putting him defensively back in guard, you put him into ashigurami, you [02:43:20] finish him with a leg lock. Um, everything we've done so far has been a situation where Placido was behind me and we've identified an [02:43:30] overhand and an underhand.

[02:43:32] And our general preference was to go towards the side of the underhand, okay, at least in this basic form of escape. [02:43:40] in general, will have a preference to go towards the strangle hand. Why? Because when he goes towards the strangle hand, I can never win [02:43:50] the battle for head position. Even if my head is in front of him, he can still strangle me.

[02:43:56] I can't, under these circumstances, [02:44:00] unless I actually move the hand. Create situations where the hand and the strangle hand end up on the same side. Okay, I can't I'll say that again I can't use the [02:44:10] previous method to get hand and strangle hand on the same side There is another method which we'll look at now, which does work So it's in his best interest to move me to [02:44:20] this side So a natural question is, what do I do if he does succeed in taking me to the side?

[02:44:24] What if he wins the battle for the tilt and takes me to the side of the stranglehand? Well, whenever we feel this happening, one thing [02:44:30] never changes. You always want to win the battle for the hand fight. I want to keep his hands on my sternum. He wants his hands coming up to the shoulder so he can make [02:44:40] quick transitions into strangles.

[02:44:41] So when we win that battle for the hand fight, we're going to start to use this. Now he locks in tight with his feet. We're going to take our body and start turning our [02:44:50] body like so, so that my body is parallel with the mat. He wants my body parallel with the mat. here on one shoulder. I [02:45:00] want my shoulders turning down towards the mat.

[02:45:03] Now, what I want to do in this case is look back at my opponent. If I'm looking away from him, [02:45:10] his arm catches underneath my jaw and creates tremendous leverage to hold me. So what I want to do is get my chin inside [02:45:20] of my opponent's forearm and wrist, just like so. And I want to switch my hand grip. from a grip where I [02:45:30] have one thumb inside and one hand over to one where I have two thumbs controlling.

[02:45:36] So he locks up, my grip just in [02:45:40] like so. Now, what I want to do under these circumstances is first beat the my training partner's hook. How do I do that? By pointing my knee away from the [02:45:50] hook. Then from here, I start turning in and I start looking and sliding down. Okay? If my chin is over, I'll never move this hand.

[02:45:58] But if I get my chin [02:46:00] inside his wrist, it's quite easy for me to to bring the hand over. Now, his head and his strangle hand are on the same side. There's no more danger, [02:46:10] okay? He can be underneath my arm, means nothing, okay? Now, from the situation, again, I look to get my elbow to the floor. The second my elbow [02:46:20] touches the mat, it's an effective frame, which means now there is no danger of a strangle.

[02:46:24] I focus my mind now on attack instead of defense. All I do is slip my [02:46:30] hips out and away from my opponent and focus on getting my feet to the inside position. So as he comes up in the top position, he comes right up into a potential Ashigurami. [02:46:40] Once we're in positions like this, we know what to do. We're always looking to turn around our training partner and start going in on the attack.

[02:46:46] Okay? Using any one of the various methods that [02:46:50] are available to us. Once we get into situations like this, it's not difficult for us to launch into a wide variety of different Ashiguramis. and look for different [02:47:00] forms of finish. So once again,

[02:47:07] my opponent's behind me. [02:47:10] He does a good job of tilting me towards the scramble side. From here, I do a good job of getting my body [02:47:20] parallel with the mat. Under these circumstances, I switch my hand grip so I have two thumbs underneath his wrist. Now from here, [02:47:30] as I turn in, it's not difficult for us to bring our head looking back towards him and start going down the body.

[02:47:37] I focus on getting my elbow to the floor so it forms an [02:47:40] effective frame. The danger now is no longer the strangle, the danger is he will get so I place my foot Right inside. This will give us an excellent [02:47:50] opportunity to enter into Ashiguramis. From here, it's not difficult for us to start lifting people.

[02:47:55] Once we get that initial lift, it's pretty easy for us to go around the corner and [02:48:00] start getting into some of our favorite finishing positions.

[02:48:08] Demonstrating from a different angle. [02:48:10] First, one thing never changes. We're always looking to win that hand fight. As he takes us down towards the floor, this is where he wants me to be. I [02:48:20] want a situation where we start turning like so. Now, from situations like this, People will often tell you, don't reach down [02:48:30] to the feet.

[02:48:31] As long as I have inside thumb position, it's fine. In this particular size, he hooks in tight with his foot. Okay. I can just use my hand and just briefly take the foot off and [02:48:40] go back to my double thumb position. Now, as I come out, I start turning back towards him and sliding down his body. I form an effective frame as my elbow touches the [02:48:50] floor.

[02:48:50] As we move away from our training partner, my legs come in. It's kind of like a quasi elbow escape from here. Now from here, it's another difficult thing for me to start that lifting and elevation [02:49:00] that brings our body around the corner. and into the potential winning position.[02:49:10]

[02:49:10] There's a sense in which these sliding elbow escapes, um, are bound up with very similar principles. Principles of winning the hand fight, getting [02:49:20] your opponent's head and stranglehand on the same side, and ultimately sliding away from your opponent in a way which enables you to get your elbow to the floor.

[02:49:28] Once your elbow touches the [02:49:30] floor, cat's out of the bag. Makes no sense to keep thinking in terms of defense now. Makes a lot more sense to start thinking in terms of counter offense. Instead of passively putting your [02:49:40] opponent back in guard, we put them into a threatening leg lock using ashigurami as our form of connection.

[02:49:46] We understand that it's no more difficult and arguably even easier [02:49:50] to go into ashigurami than it is to put them back in guard. You could go with the satisficing option. [02:50:00] You could

[02:50:08] just put them back in guard. [02:50:10] It wouldn't be wrong, but why? When for the same energy expenditure, you can put them in ashi [02:50:20] garami and finish them. Why put them in a neutral position when you can put them in a finishing hold? That's the mindset that I want you taking. So there we have two [02:50:30] forms of the sliding elbow escape.

[02:50:31] One going to the underhook side, the other going to the over side. In both cases, there's some [02:50:40] similarities. Um, the hand fight remains almost identical. The idea of getting the head and strangle arm on the same side is Uh, [02:50:50] the idea is the same, the means of doing it is different. In one case we simply slide out, in another we transfer across.

[02:50:57] Um, the idea of getting your elbow to the mat [02:51:00] is similar for both, and the idea of counterattacking rather than just putting your opponent back in guard, going to a leg lop is the same. The only real difference[02:51:10]

[02:51:12] is this idea of taking our opponent's arm and bringing it in. over our head. Now guys, realistically, [02:51:20] make a strong arm. You're never just going to lift a strong man. It's just not realistic. You don't lift it. You slip underneath it. So once we start coming out to the side, [02:51:30] we've done a good job of beating that lower leg.

[02:51:35] My whole thing is to look back into him. You're not going to be able to lift a strong man's arm, [02:51:40] but what you can do is slide down the body. Okay, so it's like I just walk down in a way and that's what brings the hand [02:51:50] over, damage that frame, and from here you've got your ashi garana. Once you're confident of your ability to attack [02:52:00] and go on through, you'll be pleasantly surprised how often you'll be able to come out of a bad situation directly into a fight with your opponent.

[02:52:09] [02:52:10] finishing submission hold.

[02:52:19] [02:52:20] Let's look at a topic, um, which really needs to be addressed. Uh, this is the topic of getting out of a body triangle when someone is behind you and they've locked not only the rear [02:52:30] mounted position, but they've solidified it with a body triangle. This always compounds the difficulty of the escape. Uh, my students are famous [02:52:40] for the success that they had both with and against the Body Triangles and EBI Overtime Competition.

[02:52:47] Um, None of my students were ever successfully strangled from the [02:52:50] back or held successfully in Body Triangles. They always managed to, to get out. Um, Success against the Body Triangle. is slightly more [02:53:00] difficult than against the rear mount. I'll grant you that, but it's by no means impossible if you just know what you're doing.

[02:53:06] Let's start off by looking at why [02:53:10] the rear body triangle is a little more problematic than basic rear mount techniques. I should say guys, uh, I'm not allowed to do escapes to a rear body triangle [02:53:20] because it puts a lot of pressure on my hip replacement. So this is one thing I'm not allowed to do. So I'll have my.

[02:53:25] Uh, trustee, stalwart assistance, Giancarlo and, uh, [02:53:30] the Puerto Rican guy, um, work here and, uh, and demonstrate this. Let's, uh, have a look at Placido and Giancarlo locked up. [02:53:40] Okay. As they fall, let's understand that there's two options here. The trial can be locked on either side of the body, um, that will influence slightly [02:53:50] the method of, of getting out.

[02:53:52] I'm just going to throw a few initial observations at you guys. Um, a method of escape, which was often taught when I was beginning in Jiu [02:54:00] Jitsu and you still be see it being taught today. Uh, the man takes the foot over the top and locks it in [02:54:10] and they turn their bodies. Let's uh, we'll take it this way guys.

[02:54:14] Turn their bodies to the floor and then pass you know, Archers, as he takes two hands and pushes on [02:54:20] his opponent's knee, two hands, two hands, pushes on the knee, and goes into a kind of a footlock situation like so, okay? Um, I don't mean to sound [02:54:30] overly pessimistic or sarcastic, I don't teach this for a reason, because it's pretty much a waste of time.

[02:54:35] Um, you can get someone who's very inexperienced. [02:54:40] to submit to this method of attack. But the truth is, if someone has gotten behind you and has locked a body triangle, then presumably they're better than you are, at least in some areas of Jiu Jitsu. [02:54:50] So the chance of getting someone who's actually good to submit with this rather feeble technique is exceedingly low.

[02:54:58] This is borne out by experience in [02:55:00] EBI competition, where this method was tried by numerous competitors and never even got close to a submission and was often. Uh, the result of, uh, the, the failure of the technique [02:55:10] resulted in the person being strangled as they attempted it. So let's, let's kind of discount this footlock method as a viable method of escaping.

[02:55:18] We'll focus instead on [02:55:20] some other elements. Now, with that being said, um, let's understand the difference here. If we just take a regular rear mount position for now, guys. Just lock it in. Good. And, uh, we fall to [02:55:30] the side. The big problem here for Placido is to beat the bottom hook. If he can flatten his hips out, like so, [02:55:40] it's a battle for Giancarlo's hook.

[02:55:42] Versus Plato's hip as Plato's knee, no. As Plato's knee turns inwards, it [02:55:50] becomes harder and harder for his opponent to maintain the hook. If Plato wanted to, he could also hand assist, knock the foot down, and then start coming on top of the leg. Okay? [02:56:00] Now that changes. When you lock a body triangle, the moment a body triangle is locked.

[02:56:07] You can no longer beat the bottom foot, [02:56:10] okay, because it's locked in place by the triangle. So when you try to shift your hips and move around, you suddenly find the whole top foot, bottom foot battle is no longer possible. a [02:56:20] moot point that's gone because the legs are locked in place and one leg defends the position of the other leg.

[02:56:25] And so one of the starting positions of getting out of the rear mount becomes [02:56:30] almost completely useless against the body triangle. That's why you get so many frustrated students who are very good at defending a conventional rear mount but can't get out of [02:56:40] any rear body triangle, and they'll come to you and say like, oh man, I can get out of any rear mount, no problem, but body triangle just kills me.

[02:56:46] That's the reason, because, uh, back to [02:56:50] rear mount. The whole issue of beating the bottom foot is just a non issue any time you've got a body triangle locked up. Okay, because the rear foot is supported by the body triangle [02:57:00] itself. Okay, it's held in place. So there's no rear foot to beat. So that's why you can be someone who, perhaps you're one of those people, can be [02:57:10] very good at escaping rear mount, but can't even get started against a body triangle.

[02:57:14] Um, coming back to that, Thomas. Now, let's look at what is similar, that's the [02:57:20] difference between escaping from a body triangle. So we're up to the camera. Uh, that's the difference between escaping from body triangle versus rear mount. Now let's look at the similarities. [02:57:30] One thing never changes, and based upon what we said earlier, I'm sure you can all guess what that is.

[02:57:35] The hand fight. Regardless of whether you're in rear mount or a body triangle, the [02:57:40] hand fight comes first. That's so important, I'm going to say it again. No matter whether we're in a body triangle or rear mount, your first duty is to win the hand fight. [02:57:50] Winning the hand fight comes down to Keeping our opponent's stranglehand at the sternum.

[02:57:55] If Giancarlo's stranglehand migrates up and across, it becomes a real issue now [02:58:00] for Placido. So Placido wants to keep the stranglehand low. That means he can put a lot of pressure on his opponent's seatbelt. It means that he can [02:58:10] move his head and chest much more freely than if the hands are high and up by the shoulders.

[02:58:16] Okay? It also means that if Gene Culler ever goes to switch to [02:58:20] a stranglehold, his hands will be monitored and held in place and the stranglehold will be quite difficult. So always, regardless of whether it's rear mount or body triangle, [02:58:30] win the hand fight first. Everything comes off that. Now, with those basic ideas in mind, um, quick summary here, let's forego the idea of footlock [02:58:40] defenses.

[02:58:40] History has shown pretty clearly they're just not very effective. Even if you could by some, uh, surreptitious means get to the footlock position, it [02:58:50] will championship people. People just ignore the pain and just keep strangling you while you're fiddling around with a useless footlock. Um, let's understand that we can't just hit [02:59:00] Moves that work well against the rear mount because the basic idea behind Escapes the rear mount to beat the bottom foot doesn't apply in the case of a body triangle and [02:59:10] Thirdly the idea that the hand fight comes first remains the same.

[02:59:13] That's the one thing that just doesn't change With that in mind Let's cut now and then go to a scene where we start to look at [02:59:20] getting out of a really tight fight well performed body triangle.

[02:59:27] Let's start looking at some concrete methods that are [02:59:30] going to get you out of a world championship level body triangle and back into some offense. Okay, I want to introduce you guys to the theory of the four [02:59:40] triangles. Let's have a look at this. When Giancarlo locks a body triangle, commits his body down towards the mat, you will quickly see that there are four main variations of body [02:59:50] triangle that your opponent can employ.

[02:59:52] Okay. The first and arguably the strongest of the four is the outside body triangle where he locks a good [03:00:00] tight body triangle and the triangle leg is on the outside of his opponent's legs here. Sometimes people will hook. Behind the knee. Okay. That's [03:00:10] not essential, but it happens occasionally. It doesn't really matter.

[03:00:12] What does matter is that the triangle leg be on the outside of your legs. Okay. So this is the first and arguably the most powerful [03:00:20] option. This provides excellent control of the entire line of the hips and a really strong connection. So let's put this as arguably the most desirable. [03:00:30] of the body triangles, the outside body triangle.

[03:00:33] Now, your opponents know this is a very good way of controlling people. So what they will often do is Placido will pull his knee [03:00:40] underneath and bring it like so. This constitutes an inside body triangle, where now Giancarlo's leg has migrated to the inside position [03:00:50] like this. If he forms a tight triangle, lock it up tight, good, and back heels his leg tightly into his opponent's hip, like so.

[03:00:59] It actually forms [03:01:00] a very good triangle, okay? Uh, You could argue it's not quite as good as an outside body triangle. There's, it's not as simple as that. Uh, I would say they're both excellent. [03:01:10] Um, me personally, I, I have shorter legs. So my preference is actually this one. Uh, but if I, if I had the length of legs of Giancarlo, I might prefer an outside body triangle.

[03:01:19] [03:01:20] The point is they're both damn good. Okay. And you can control a lot of people for a long, long time in these two positions. Okay. So this is the second option, the inside body triangle. Now, [03:01:30] every so often, you're going to see an inside cross. An inside cross is where Giancarlo takes his foot and hooks it in place.

[03:01:38] here, behind the knee. [03:01:40] This version of the triangle is actually seen quite often when both athletes are standing and one guy has gotten behind the other and locked a body triangle. You don't see [03:01:50] it so much on the ground for a simple reason. Okay, I'll demonstrate in a minute. But you often see this move Uh, when the two athletes are standing, one guy's gotten behind the other, thrown in two [03:02:00] hooks and you'll lock this inside cross.

[03:02:02] So once again, the inside cross, you extend the leg. So the difference between an inside cross is the leg is extending versus the [03:02:10] inside where it's back heeling. So one pulls back and the other extends forward. Okay. Now, the reason why this is a good move in the standing position is because if they were [03:02:20] standing.

[03:02:20] Placido can't move his leg. He's standing on it. Okay, if he tried to move his leg, this would trip him. But on the ground, it's not so effective for a simple reason. Giancarlo's [03:02:30] leg can only move so far forward. Okay, that's the maximum right there. His leg's at maximum extension. But Placido's leg is not even close to maximum extension.

[03:02:38] He can easily move [03:02:40] out and extend and come through. Okay, so, um, this, um, Inside cross is seen in standing situations quite often. Every [03:02:50] so often you see it down on the floor but in truth it's not the most impressive of the triangles for a simple reason. What often, what does sometimes [03:03:00] happen is you'll have a naive opponent who's mistakenly coming back with the legs and trying to shift his hips towards me, plant his foot and shift his hips.

[03:03:09] So if, [03:03:10] if Placido was a neophyte, not a very skilled jiu jitsu player, he might try to plant his foot and shift his hips. That's exactly when Shigenkawa would use this move. Okay, but if Placido was [03:03:20] smart, he wouldn't do that. He would extend his leg, beat the hook, And then go to work. Okay? So, what have we got so far?

[03:03:26] We've got outside triangle, which is arguably, [03:03:30] sometimes no, sometimes yes, the strongest of the triangles. We've got inside triangle, another excellent option. We've got inside cross, which works well in the standing position and against naive opponents, [03:03:40] but has the problem that it can't follow the movement of an opponent.

[03:03:43] Okay? Now there is a fourth triangle. The three that we've looked at so far are very good, going from [03:03:50] extremely good to very good and decent. The last triangle is pathetic. It is a weak and feeble triangle. That is where Giancarlo tries to lock [03:04:00] the triangle over the second hip, on the outside. Okay? This triangle, as you can tell just by looking at the camera, is is not a true triangle at all.

[03:04:09] The angle [03:04:10] means you go from a true triangle, a true Senkaku, to some kind of messy crossing of the feet kind of situation, which is not at all strong. From Placido's [03:04:20] perspective, what he doesn't want is the strongest triangle, for obvious reasons. That's good for Giancarlo, bad for Placido. He doesn't want the inside triangle.

[03:04:29] [03:04:30] That's also pretty good for Giancarlo. He doesn't want this. the inside cross. What he does want is the outside cross. The outside cross, [03:04:40] where both feet are on the outside, and the Senkaku has basically lost its true shape, is the weakest, by far, of all the body triangles. [03:04:50] Placido's goal is to is to convert every body triangle into the outside cross.

[03:04:55] That's so important, I'm going to say it again. When Placido defends the body triangle, one [03:05:00] of his primary goals is to convert any one of the four triangles into this, the weakest of them all, the outside cross. So we're going to start off now in [03:05:10] a full body triangle. Let's face the camera a little more directly guys.[03:05:20]

[03:05:20] Okay. So right now Giancarlo is winning. He's got the, uh, he's got the outside body triangle. Very, very good for him. Very bad for Placido. Placido [03:05:30] pommels his leg to convert the outside into the inside triangle. Now, that's better, but still Giancarlo's in a pretty damn [03:05:40] good position. Okay. Now, Placido is going to take his body and take this knee and force Giancarlo into the [03:05:50] outside cross.

[03:05:51] Now, things are looking good for Placido. At this point here, because he's done a good job of winning the hand fight, it is [03:06:00] permissible for Placido to start to turn towards his opponent. Stop. He's going to monitor The strangle arm with inside wrist position, take his [03:06:10] second hand and grab over the leg and pull it.

[03:06:17] That immediately splits the legs apart [03:06:20] and creates a situation where all he has to do now is shrimp out, get his elbow to the mat, and throw his legs to Ashi Burami. As his opponent tries to come up on top, he can attack in any numerous number of [03:06:30] ways, depending on his opponent's head position. If the head moves away, he can attack.

[03:06:32] He's going to go to outside ashi. If the head moves towards him, he's going to go into cross ashi variations. From here, he's [03:06:40] got his way. Let's have a look at that whole thing again. So we start off, let's understand the theory of the four triangles. We go down to the floor. There [03:06:50] are four possible body triangles when we work on this side of the body.

[03:06:54] Okay. There are other triangles when we lock on the bottom side. Don't worry. I'll cover that soon. When we've [03:07:00] got a top side body triangle, there are four triangles outside. Inside, inside cross, and outside cross. [03:07:10] Outside cross is the one Placido, the defensive player, wants. Giancarlo always wants a variation of the other three.

[03:07:17] So our goal is to migrate through the [03:07:20] various triangles, step by step, until we get to the weakest one. Don't try to fight the strongest triangle, fight the weakest one. First, take away the strongest one of them all [03:07:30] with a simple leg pole. Convert it into an inside triangle. Now, pommel with the second leg and bring, to the weakest of all the triangles, the [03:07:40] outside cross.

[03:07:41] The minute you're in an outside cross, monitor the strangle hand with inside thumb position. Take the other hand and grip, and use the hand assist to split the [03:07:50] legs and turn into Ashi Garami. As your elbow touches the mat, good. Then you look at your opponent's head position. If the head moves away, heel [03:08:00] exposure.

[03:08:00] If the head moves towards you, lift, elevate, and end up in some variation across ashi gara. Some of you like 50 50, some of you like double cross, some of [03:08:10] you like incising kanku, whichever one you like. Okay. So one more time, the theory of the four triangles.[03:08:20]

[03:08:20] Here, the strongest of all the triangles, the outside triangle. Turn it into an inside triangle. Good. This is also a very good triangle. Turn it into the weakest of all triangles. [03:08:30] Good. Once we're here, monitor the strangle hand, hand assist, split the legs, elbow to the floor, and we're on the attack. [03:08:40] Now guys, did you notice that one thing doesn't change?

[03:08:42] Once your elbow touches the mat, it's attack time. That's the critical point. The point of no return where Giancarlo no longer has [03:08:50] any offerings of options and he must try to come up on top to preserve his position. The second your elbow touches the mat, that's the critical tipping point where you're going to go from [03:09:00] a defensive mindset to an offensive mindset.

[03:09:03] And instead of just putting your opponent back in guard, you can put him in ashi garami. It didn't cost you anything extra. And instead of just putting [03:09:10] him back in a neutral position, put him into a situation where you can finish him and win the match with a beautiful submission hold.[03:09:20]

[03:09:20] Now we look at the idea of getting out of one of the most difficult situations in all of you. This is the body triangle and this is often a source of a lot of vexation and frustration for [03:09:30] many of you. Um, we looked at this idea that there are four kinds of triangle. If you understand how they work, uh, It's [03:09:40] pretty easy for us to manipulate our opponent's body triangle from the strongest all the way down to the weakest and get into some really nice escapes.

[03:09:47] Now the more attentive among you are probably saying at [03:09:50] this point, wait a minute, there's some obvious triangles that you're overlooking. And you're absolutely right. Uh, there are four body triangles when my opponent's triangle lock is on [03:10:00] the top side of my body. But of course there's a fifth option.

[03:10:03] You can take the triangle and put it on the bottom side and then things start getting interesting. So let's look at the problem. We've got [03:10:10] Placido locked up by Giancarlo and He locks on a body triangle, [03:10:20] and he falls to the side of the lock. So now, we have a body triangle, but the lock of the triangle is on the bottom side.

[03:10:28] Okay, first thing you want to notice in [03:10:30] these situations. If Placido tries to just turn away from me, that body triangle is a huge wedge underneath the set. So it makes rotation in that direction [03:10:40] exceedingly difficult. Okay, so that's the first thing you're going to notice. Um, Next thing, and this is, uh, uh, very important for what we're going to be looking [03:10:50] at.

[03:10:50] Whenever someone goes to look a body triangle, on the bottom side, the tightness of the triangle is down here. Okay? But you're going to notice [03:11:00] that there's a huge hole in the triangle. in the crook of your training partner's knee. That means there's space for Placido's [03:11:10] hip to turn into. If you were to lock your body triangle on the other side, Giancarlo, in a topside body triangle, there's no space to [03:11:20] get through.

[03:11:21] There's no space at all. So when Placido goes to move his hips around, it feels like there's an iron bar controlling the top hip. But in the case of a bottom side triangle, [03:11:30] there's actually a large amount of space. to go through. So what happens is Placido can actually churn his hips quite a long way and [03:11:40] square up his body.

[03:11:41] to the ceiling. Okay. This is facilitated by the fact, let's go back a step fellas, that Giancarlo's seatbelt is locked [03:11:50] here with the strangleharm, uh, stranglearm on the bottom side. That means that Placido's shoulder can get to the mat. These two things, the fact that [03:12:00] Placido's shoulder can get to the mat because the stranglearm is going over the shoulder, and the fact that the triangle is locked on the bottom side, the fifth triangle, Giving us a lot of space to [03:12:10] work with, to turn into.

[03:12:12] Means that Placido can turn and rotate his body quite a significant distance. So it becomes almost parallel with the mat. Now that's a [03:12:20] very significant thing. What we want to do is keep turning as far as our body is, as far as our opponent's, uh, body lock, [03:12:30] the triangle body lock, and the seatbelt will permit.

[03:12:32] It won't be all the way, but you'll be pleasantly surprised to learn it will permit quite a significant amount of turn. Okay, so we turn as far as we can [03:12:40] go. Now you hit a sticking point. There's a sticking point where you can't turn any further. You've reached, you've maxed out on how far you can turn.

[03:12:48] Okay. Placido is holding a [03:12:50] tight, uh, sorry, uh, Giancarlo is holding a tight seat belt and his body triangle is now locked, uh, his training partner in place. At this point, [03:13:00] we're going to hit a movement not unlike tipping as we saw earlier in the mountain escape situations. We're going to take our two feet off the ground.

[03:13:08] Well, our hips are now relatively [03:13:10] square with the ceiling, and we're going to hit a whip over where one leg goes high, one leg goes low, and I use my two legs to kip my body and get [03:13:20] rotation so that my hips go from being square with the ceiling to perpendicular to the floor. Okay? So, Placido hits a sticking point, and now he [03:13:30] whips.

[03:13:31] and turns. That's going to give him an ability to put his feet on the mat and slice his elbow into his opponent's elbow. That means he can get his elbow to the [03:13:40] floor, and as a result, he can cut back, turn into the body triangle, and get an effective escape, okay? Now there's a very important detail that has to do with your opponent's elbow [03:13:50] and all three of us are going to come very close to the camera now so you can see this.

[03:13:55] Okay, um, let's take that side on body position facing us like this. [03:14:00] Okay, first we understand now that because our opponent is using a bottom side triangle there's going to be a lot of space to [03:14:10] turn in our hips. We understand that our opponent has a seatbelt with the over side of the seatbelt here, so that our shoulder can get to the mat.

[03:14:19] Okay? [03:14:20] If our shoulder can get to the mat and we can turn into this big empty space in the triangle, passito, turn, we turn and we max out the degree of turn we can get. Now, [03:14:30] here's something interesting. There's a clash of elbows here. Tighten. Placide, I'm trying to turn your elbow inside Giancarlo's elbow.

[03:14:38] It locks. Okay? [03:14:40] Get your elbow as far in as you can turn. Now, keep turning Placide. Reach your maximum. Right there. That's it. That's your sticking point. Okay? He's stuck at the elbow and the triangle. [03:14:50] This is where the kip, kip's in. Kip. Good. Now, the elbow versus elbow. Take your elbow and slip into the [03:15:00] crook.

[03:15:00] Hold tight. Hold tight. Strong. Don't let him get out easily. You're gonna slip the crook of your elbow into the crook of his elbow. I don't care how tight and strong your opponent is. [03:15:10] You'll always be able to get out. Okay, come back a step. Sometimes if you catch, go in and catch. Strong. Tight, tight, tight.

[03:15:17] Straighten your arm out. The straight arm [03:15:20] slips through like spaghetti, and you're free. As soon as your elbow touches the floor, whip your body up, and come into top position. Okay, so you want to find the crook of your opponent's [03:15:30] elbow, and slip the point of your elbow inside the crook of his elbow. Okay, so again, you want to slip the point of your elbow inside the crook of [03:15:40] his.

[03:15:40] So let's take that back. Okay, we're introducing the fifth body triangle. Let's go. Which is the body triangle locked on the bottom side. [03:15:50] Okay. We understand there are two things holding us in place. One is the body triangle. The other is the seatbelt. And you have to beat both. The good news is the seatbelt is locked in such a way that we [03:16:00] can get our shoulder to the mat.

[03:16:01] Okay. The other piece of good news is, because it's a bottom side triangle, there's a lot of space to turn into and move our hips. Step number [03:16:10] one is to turn your body into the space here. Okay. and the fact your shoulders on the floor and square your body up as far as it'll go. You're going to be able to turn a certain distance and then [03:16:20] there's going to be a sticking point.

[03:16:21] When you get to that sticking point, stop. From the sticking point, take your two feet up off the floor and hit that whip over and turn. [03:16:30] Now the last battle is the battle of the elbow. From here you control your training partner's strangle hand. Alternatively, you can post on your training partner's knee.[03:16:40]

[03:16:40] Straighten out your arms so that your elbow slips inside the crook of his elbow and then quickly whip your legs up and end up in top position. This is a highly effective [03:16:50] escape. Let's have a look at it one more time.

[03:16:58] Okay. We're at a bottom [03:17:00] side triangle now, which is a quite a different challenge to just lock a top side triangle. A very different challenge from a top side triangle. We've already seen how to beat the top side triangle. Now we're going to bottom [03:17:10] side, lock it tight, tight seatbelt. Uh, start with the whole body.

[03:17:14] Chest to back, good, so it's not going to be easy for Placido, good. Now, from this position, step number, [03:17:20] stop, step number one, take advantage of the space. Take advantage of the fact your shoulder can get to the ground, always monitoring your opponent's hands, winning the upper body [03:17:30] battle, make sure he can't switch to a strangle at any given time.

[03:17:32] Okay, with all that in place, first step number one, get everything squared up. Get to that sticking point. Okay, [03:17:40] Placer, are you on the sticking point? Yes, sir. Take your feet off the floor. Now, whip your legs and go past the stick. Now, stop. From here, it's all about the battle of the elbows [03:17:50] now. This is the third big battle.

[03:17:51] Make it easier by straightening. Either maintain the grip here or post on the knee. They're both good options. Okay. From here, [03:18:00] elbow down to the floor. Beautiful. Cut back and done. Excellent. You guys are doing great. Now, let's do one realistic now, like you're in an EBI final. [03:18:10] Placido. There's 20, 000 on the line.

[03:18:13] Actually, there's not. You're quitting this job, huh? Um, let's lock up. And we'll [03:18:20] wait for a placido. Do it. Excellent. Okay? [03:18:30] That's my favorite way to deal with the problem of the fifth triangle, the bottom side triangle. Um, a specific situation that often confounds students [03:18:40] when they get stuck in tight body triangles from back.

[03:18:47] Okay guys, we're looking at the idea of getting out of a very [03:18:50] complicated situation, the body triangle. Because body triangles are typically seen in a more advanced context in Jiu Jitsu, usually the guy who's doing it to you has some serious skills. You've got to [03:19:00] know what you're doing to get out of this tricky situation.

[03:19:03] Um, we looked at the previous move, the idea of the four step. triangles, [03:19:10] the four body triangles. And we can make our opponent's body triangle go from strongest to strong to slightly less strong to weak, then we can employ our [03:19:20] standard methods of escaping from the rear mount. You basically convert over a simple series of, of leg movements, your opponent's leg configuration from the strongest body [03:19:30] triangle into something pretty close to a regular rear mount.

[03:19:33] And when he's in that outside cross position, Thanks for watching. Transcribed Just use a regular random escape and then go into your counterattacks and everything [03:19:40] will be fine. Um, now let's look at a situation where you're working with an opponent who has very good leg dexterity. And for whatever reason, you are unable to [03:19:50] make him go through the four triangles and get from strongest to weakest.

[03:19:53] Okay. This guy, I don't know what he's doing, but he's just got a damn good body triangle. And you're really struggling to to, to take him through the [03:20:00] four triangles and get to that, that weak position. So what are we going to do now? My general philosophy is, if I can't break my opponent's connection at the legs, I'll break his [03:20:10] connection at the chest.

[03:20:11] Always remember guys, if we just lock up a body triangle pose, your opponent when he has a body triangle has two closed sets of [03:20:20] wedges around your body. The first one obviously is the body triangle itself. You will see that a triangle is a closed set of wedges locked into the floor [03:20:30] where now Placido can barely move his hips.

[03:20:32] He also has a seatbelt locked in here. So this means that Genkawa's hips are locked to Placido's [03:20:40] lower back and his chest is locked to Placido's upper back. As a result, if Placido were to try and spin his way out of this, you would see that Giancarlo [03:20:50] easily follows his body movement. Come back this way guys, come back.

[03:20:55] Now you will see that as Placido goes to turn, good, now roll away from me, [03:21:00] good. The connection is not broken, coming back. When you have two sets of closed wedges, one around the [03:21:10] hips. Thanks guys. One around the hips and one around the back. There's no breaking that connection. You can't just roll out.

[03:21:16] You'll just roll and your opponent will stay locked to you and you'll keep rolling forever and eventually [03:21:20] he'll just turn it into a strangle and that's it. Match is over. So turning and rolling will not work if he has two closed wedges. One around the hips, one around the chest [03:21:30] and shoulders. But what if we were able to take one of those connections and break it?

[03:21:36] Well, we saw how to do that with the theory of the four triangles. We [03:21:40] broke it at the lower body. If I can't break it at the lower body, I've got to break it at the upper body. Now, let's come close to the camera. Placido, I'll take this one because I can [03:21:50] demonstrate this. You're behind me, Placido. Just on your knees, buddy.

[03:21:55] Okay. If someone's got a [03:22:00] seatbelt locked in here, it's not easy just to break a seatbelt. If this guy has any kind of physicality at all, I'll make a strong grip, buddy, [03:22:10] I weigh more than Placido does, but man, the chance of me just breaking a seatbelt here is pretty remote, okay? But I can start to peel hands.

[03:22:19] Remember [03:22:20] fellas, it's illegal for me to start grabbing single digits. That's not allowed in the squadron unit. So not only is it not allowed, but if you do that kind of thing in the training hall, you're going to piss off some [03:22:30] people you're training with and things can get ugly. So let's make sure that when we go to peel.

[03:22:34] We never try to pull digits away and do this kind of thing. That is unacceptable. Okay? [03:22:40] Nonetheless, you are allowed to get inside with all of your digits inside like so. Here you are not [03:22:50] separating the thumb away from the hand. You are just working like so. And from situations like that, you can realistically peel hands.

[03:22:58] So I lock in [03:23:00] and I dig four fingers. inside. I'm not separating his thumb from his hand. I'm just separating the hands themselves. And this can realistically be done. [03:23:10] Okay. So this is one way to achieve separation. I'm just going to come very close to the camera. This guy, you may not be able to see this person.

[03:23:16] If you just take a higher position behind me. Okay. [03:23:20] This unacceptable. You are separating this unacceptable. You are separating fingers. Like, so this is. Single [03:23:30] digit manipulation. This is no good. Okay. Not only is it illegal, but as I said, you'll piss people off if you're training with them. This kind of thing, relax buddy, where I grab [03:23:40] here is legal because I am not separating the thumb away from the hand.

[03:23:45] This is fine. It's fully legal. This is fine. I'm grabbing the fingers, [03:23:50] but I'm grabbing all of them together. That's fine. Nothing wrong with that. Okay. So if someone grips and I peel here, I can separate hands. This is [03:24:00] legal. Okay? And it's realistic. This is something you can do against strong opponents.

[03:24:06] Okay? So I never just try to, strong, I never try to [03:24:10] push, this is, no, you're never going to separate anyone's hands like this. Even a heavyweight couldn't separate a lightweight's hands this way. Okay? But I can, Work my fingers in so all four fingers [03:24:20] get underneath and now as Placido goes to hold his grip You can just work and work and work and separate the hands and this sir is realistic Okay, so I go in strong Placido and [03:24:30] when I just take my time work

[03:24:34] And break the grips that's realistic. Okay, so you can [03:24:40] Break the grits apart in a way which is legal and will work on people who are stronger than yourself. Now, having said that, would I at the age of 54 be able [03:24:50] to do that against a 25 year old who's two weight divisions heavier than me and does a lot of strength and conditioning?

[03:24:57] Uh, no. Probably not, okay? [03:25:00] In those circumstances, where there's a big strength difference, I would probably rather play a waiting game, where I just cover his hands, okay? Now, why did Placido [03:25:10] get behind me? To strangle me, right? That's what he wants to do. So I just monitor the hands. And as Placido goes for his strangles, I take the hands apart.[03:25:20]

[03:25:20] I just play a waiting game. I know at some point he wants to go to a strangle. He can't just hold me forever. He's got to do something. Okay. So as he plays in this position, I see him go off for the strangle, I [03:25:30] separate them. So there's two ways to do it. I can do it proactively by getting hands inside and then physically separating them.

[03:25:39] [03:25:40] That's very workable against people your own size and strength. If they're bigger and stronger than you, I recommend doing it reactively where you basically wait for them to go to strangle you. [03:25:50] And when they do, there's separation, okay? So those are the two methods that we'll work with. Now, fellas, let's take that back to the mat.

[03:25:59] Okay, [03:26:00] Placido has been taken down as the opponent's gotten behind him and locked up, okay? From here, Placido goes in and monitors the [03:26:10] hands. We'll take it as Giancarlo goes to, uh, strangle and Placido takes the hands and separates them. Okay, [03:26:20] like you're kind of trying to break out of a tight shirt or something like that.

[03:26:23] Um, as we separate the hands, you have now broken one of the two forms of connection. He's still got a body [03:26:30] triangle, but you've broken the hands apart. When you've broken the hands apart, something interesting starts to happen. Placido gets an ability to break the contact of [03:26:40] chest to back by coming forward.

[03:26:42] So separation occurs. It probably won't be that much separation in a competitive situation, but even a small amount makes a big [03:26:50] difference. In addition, he gets an ability to get separation by sliding away, like so. Not that much if a tight body triangle, good tight, keep it tight. You may not only, [03:27:00] might only move a little bit.

[03:27:02] Anything you can do with money in the bank, even the smallest misalignments are good, okay? Now, when we separate those hands, plus, you know, [03:27:10] it's going to go into a turning escape. What is a turning escape? That's where Placido makes one full rotation. He goes once to the east. [03:27:20] As he comes through, he stops and comes back the other way, to the west.

[03:27:26] And he's focusing, you guessed it, on getting his elbow [03:27:30] to the floor. That never changes. Once his elbows touch the mat, he turns inside the body triangle. And comes up into a winning position. Okay, so let's [03:27:40] have a look at that again. Let's go close to the wall guys.

[03:27:46] So, You're in a body triangle, and for whatever [03:27:50] reason, you find yourself unable to take your opponent through the four triangles. So now you gotta work at the upper body instead. We get separation of the hands. Okay, good news [03:28:00] is, the upper body is being separated, and that's gonna set up a successful spin.

[03:28:04] Now, in slow motion, it's hard to do it in slow motion, but we'll do our best. Placido is gonna begin [03:28:10] turning. As you begin to turn, you get separation of chest and back. He turns inside his opponent's body. In particular, inside his training partner's [03:28:20] body triangle. Comes up, elbows to the floor, and faces his opponent square.

[03:28:24] Okay? Now, I'm just going to demonstrate this solo, guys, so people can see what's happening here. [03:28:30] What are we doing here? I have an opponent, an imaginary opponent here on my back. I separate the hands so that I can get some [03:28:40] separation of my chest Sorry, his chest from my back. Doesn't have to be much, just a little is fine.

[03:28:46] I begin rolling to the east. I [03:28:50] make one roll through. As I come out, his body momentum is going to the east. I started rolling to the east, [03:29:00] he's following me, and all his body momentum is going east. As he comes over, I'm just a little bit ahead of him in the roll. From here I plant, and I shift [03:29:10] the other way.

[03:29:11] And I scoop my body to the west. So as he's going east over top of me, I'm going west underneath him. And what happens is, I [03:29:20] turn a smaller circle inside the circle of his body triangle. I focus on getting my elbow to the floor. Now, as he comes over me, I've turned under him. And as [03:29:30] a result, I can scissor and come up in his close guard, okay?

[03:29:33] So once again, Placido's whole thing is to create a [03:29:40] momentum to the east. So, here we are. Separate the hands. Remember guys, if you don't separate the hands, he can stick to you all [03:29:50] day. You can roll as far as you want, he'll stay on you. But if we separate the hands And yet a small amount of separation between his chest and our back, that's more than enough right there.

[03:29:59] Fred [03:30:00] won't even be that much in a tight contest. Placido hits an aggressive roll, turns, and then changes direction to come back the other way and slices the elbow. Now [03:30:10] guys, we're going to do it again. This time I want you to pay particular attention to Placido's elbow. Again. Here's an important point for you fellas.

[03:30:18] The critical [03:30:20] demarcation point as to whether or not you've escaped the body triangle or not, it's the one thing that no one talks about. It's your elbow. The [03:30:30] elbow is the demarcation point that denotes whether you've escaped or whether you haven't escaped. If your elbow can touch the mat, you are out. Um, one time at an EBI [03:30:40] competition, there was a huge set of disagreements over what constituted a satisfactory Escape to a body trauma.

[03:30:46] People say, nah, that's not an escape. I stood up and I said, [03:30:50] listen, guys, there's a simple rule. If the elbow touches the floor, you're out. The minute you get a situation where you're no longer behind your opponent's elbows, you're no longer on his back. The [03:31:00] elbow is the demarcation point. So let's have a look at this again.

[03:31:03] This time pay particular attention to Placido's elbow, okay? [03:31:10] As they roll through. Good. Turning, turning. Watch the right elbow. It chops. and cuts inside. Okay? If your elbow [03:31:20] is in front of your opponent's body, he no longer has your back. Let's take this in slow motion. Sorry, I, I don't mean to, uh, to linger on this point [03:31:30] so long, but I just want to let you understand this.

[03:31:32] Okay,

[03:31:37] but I'll throw it in slow motion. [03:31:40] Okay, stop. Stop. Now, from here, this is Pasito's left elbow. Ignore it. Focus on Pasito's right elbow. As they roll through, [03:31:50] stop. Here's the right elbow. Okay, good. As they continue rolling, it comes in close and cuts down to the floor. [03:32:00] The second that elbow touches the mat, you turn inside as close guard and come up into neutral position on top.

[03:32:05] Now, with that in mind, now you're visually locked in. Let's do it fast.[03:32:10]

[03:32:15] So from here, aggressive spin, [03:32:20] cutback, and you're out. Okay, you can see what's happening here guys. We're creating a spinning momentum to the east. And then his opponent [03:32:30] tries to follow the momentum, pull your elbow through, and cut back to the west. He's going one way, you're going the other, you're both a little bit sweaty, presumably [03:32:40] by the time he gets to the Red Mountain there's been some action, and you cut through and go.

[03:32:44] So one more time.

[03:32:49] Working out full [03:32:50] speed, Placido breaks the hands, spins, and cuts through. And this is an excellent depiction of how this move works in a real game. [03:33:00] This is one of the most successful moves when we worked in EBI competition. Um, a splendid way to get out of one of the trickiest situations in Jiu [03:33:10] Jitsu. Now, let's put this in the context of both of these moves together.

[03:33:14] Um, let's look first at the theory of the four triangles, and then we'll look at the theory of the [03:33:20] misdirection. First, good,

[03:33:29] [03:33:30] from here, Placido converts from the strongest

[03:33:35] to the weakest triangle. As a result, the connection of the body triangle of the hips has been [03:33:40] broken, and now a conventional back escape, just like all the ones we saw earlier, will work just fine. He cuts his elbow to the floor, turns it into an ashi garami. And that's it. Not only have you escaped, you're in a [03:33:50] position to finish him.

[03:33:51] Now, this time, the man's body triangle proves to be so tight, so strong, that escaping in the fashion just described is [03:34:00] proving problematic. So now, instead of breaking the connection at the hips, we break the connection at the chest. Okay? From here, we start rolling, misdirect in [03:34:10] the opposite direction, elbow cut, and come up inside our opponent's closed guard.

[03:34:15] These are two very practical and very effective ways to get you out [03:34:20] of a body triangle without too much fuss and bother. Please bear in mind that body triangles take a little bit of, um, getting used to. If you're, if you spend [03:34:30] most of your time defending just the basic rear mount, your first couple of weeks are going to be problematic.

[03:34:35] It's It's a little more uncomfortable, but don't worry, you'll soon make fast progress. These [03:34:40] are two very reliable, very effective methods for getting out of this very problematic position.

[03:34:49] Now, [03:34:50] you guys are starting to see a lot of, uh, very interesting material with regards getting out of the body triangle. Um, I'm sure that many of you are starting to puzzle something out at this [03:35:00] point. You're starting to realize there's a very close relationship. between the lower body battle and the upper body battle.

[03:35:08] What exactly do you mean by [03:35:10] this? Does it look like a body triangle on Placido? Good. Now, from here, if Placido can get his shoulder [03:35:20] to the mat, And that's easy because the overgrip of the seatbelt gets his rear deltoid to the mat very easily. It becomes quite [03:35:30] easy for Placido to begin to turn and square up his hips and shoulders to the floor.

[03:35:35] Come back. But what if we switch the seatbelt so that here we [03:35:40] went underneath and locked the seatbelt the other way? Okay? Now, Placido can't get his rear deltoid to the mat. And so those sliding escapes where you get your shoulders to [03:35:50] the floor get confounded by any form of underhook. Come around this way fellas.

[03:35:55] So now the smart thing for Placido to do would be to drive his body to the other side. [03:36:00] And as a result, Placido can now get his, let's face this way fellas, now Placido can get his shoulder to the mat and can hit the [03:36:10] move that we looked at previously. Okay, very good Placido, nice, okay. Now can you see what's happening here fellas?

[03:36:17] If Placido can get his shoulders to the [03:36:20] mat, he can transfer side to side and eventually work his way out. So what if Giancarlo was smart and he said, I can see what this guy's doing. He's taking advantage of the fact that on one side of the [03:36:30] seatbelt, in particular the strangle side, he can always get his shoulder to the mat and as a result he can start to rotate inside my body triangle.

[03:36:38] So Giancarlo [03:36:40] employs a clever strategy. He goes underneath both arms, he switches away from the seatbelt and takes a high chest lock, double underhooks, [03:36:50] just like so. This means that when he locks his body triangle, Placido cannot go side to side and get a shoulder to the mat, because [03:37:00] double underhooks prevent either shoulder getting to the mat.

[03:37:03] So now switching sides no longer has any effect. It cost Giancarlo something. Now he has no ability [03:37:10] to strangle his opponent. But if you just wanted to hold someone in place with no intention of strangling, kind of like a stalling approach. I know I'm not an advocate of stalling [03:37:20] but someone could easily do this to you and hold you for long periods of time.

[03:37:23] This is arguably one of the trickier forms of body trying to get out of because you could no longer get a shoulder to the mat [03:37:30] on either side. That's going to rule out all of your spinning escapes and make them very difficult. If Plastico tries to spin, you just can't even get his shoulders to the mat.

[03:37:37] Giancarlo can [03:37:40] switch his body triangle side to side and cause all kinds of problems for him here. Whenever you see this kind of thing going on, we employ a different strategy. What we're going to do is we're going to [03:37:50] bring our head forward. Now from here, we're going to get our head just like so, and we're going to start bridging.

[03:37:57] When we get to this bridge, we're going to take [03:38:00] our arm and we're going to bridge and shoot our arm high overhead just like so. We're going to form a headlock on our training partner, just hold it in place. [03:38:10] Now, using our opponent's head as a stabilizer, we're going to spin inside their triangle. Now, as you come up onto your knees, [03:38:20] Fix this one guys.

[03:38:23] As you come up onto your knees, you're in a perilous situation because you've got a headlock. Your opponent could go to a shoulder crunch grip. And start sweeping you from here. Go [03:38:30] into Udikatabi and try and arm lock you. All kinds of things you can do from here. So let's make damn sure as we come up, our elbow is already retracting and our elbows end up below his armpits.

[03:38:39] [03:38:40] You never want your elbows above the armpits. That's when he can arm lock you, shoulder crunch you, all kinds of things. So you want your elbows below the armpits. Okay? Now we're going to come closer to the camera so you can see a lot more details [03:38:50] here. Okay. You guys are understanding at this point that if you can get a shoulder to the mat, you can rotate inside the body triangle.

[03:38:58] So the opponent's smart, [03:39:00] he takes double underhooks. Precisely so you can't rotate either shoulder to the floor. You can't just go from one side to the other and get a shoulder to the mat. Okay, so he's going to show that's Giancarlo's [03:39:10] lock. Okay, now Placido monitors the hands from this position. We start to turn as best we can.

[03:39:17] We bring our head below our opponent's head. [03:39:20] Now, you want to get eye contact, but you don't want to bring your head to him. It can't be a clash of heads. You want your head as far away from him as possible, and turn back and face [03:39:30] your opponent. If you can see your opponent's head, you're ready to go. Okay?

[03:39:34] Now, you've got to get your arm. around his head. The only way you can do this is if your shoulder is [03:39:40] lower than your opponent's jaw. The only way you can do that is to punch your arm out and bridge. And now, your armpit and shoulder is lower than his head. Come [03:39:50] around the corner and grip. When you grip, grip with your arm.

[03:39:54] Don't grip with your hands and don't be a an asshole and start poking him in the eye, okay? Make a [03:40:00] fist and then put your elbow in like so. So you've got like a schoolboy headlock on your training partner. Now, from this position, no need to monitor the hands [03:40:10] anymore. There's no strangle at this point.

[03:40:11] Just focus now on whipping your body inside his triangle, coming up. Immediately withdraw your elbow, don't delay. Get those elbows back quickly, [03:40:20] otherwise you're going to get caught in a counterattack, shoulder crunch or what have you. Let's hit it one more time. So, we've got a smart opponent who's figured out [03:40:30] if the guy gets shoulders to the man, it's going to be a problem.

[03:40:33] So he denies you the ability to get shoulders to the mat with double underhooks. This is not a dangerous opponent because he [03:40:40] has no method of strangling you from this position. He has no method of transferring to an armbar or any other form of attack. So this is a rather negative kind of play on the part of your opponent.

[03:40:49] But there's lots of [03:40:50] people out there who play a very negative game and you've got to get out of their games just like all the other people. When you see this kind of thing going on, you can't do this move if your head can't get underneath [03:41:00] them. Okay, so from here, we start bringing the head forward. We start switching head position, and now from here we punch out over [03:41:10] head, we come around, lock, and we get a good head lock.

[03:41:13] Just holding around like so. Then from here, we spin inside the body triangle, we immediately withdraw our [03:41:20] arm, and we say. Now we're going to have to move in full speed, Placido. Let's come to the mat.[03:41:30]

[03:41:32] Good.

[03:41:38] My only criticism on that one, [03:41:40] Placido, there wasn't quite enough extension of your arm. You did a short headlock. Go out, boom, and around. Let's go a little further around.[03:41:50]

[03:41:50] Good. Really reach for the floor behind. Yes, sir. Punch out. Beautiful. Turn inside. Elbows back. Well done. Beautiful. [03:42:00] Okay. Now, here's a question. I'm sure some of you are looking and saying, Hey, that looks pretty cool. I can see this in virtue behind that. What if I can't win the battle for head position? What if I try to move my head underneath [03:42:10] and the guy blocks me with his head?

[03:42:11] Good question. Let's have a look at that. Now, now you've got to hit a switching headlock. What is a switching headlock? Yes. Okay, Placido [03:42:20] needs to get his head underneath his opponent's head. What if Giancarlo locks his head in and says, fuck you, you're not getting that head position. Okay, when you see this, Placido, [03:42:30] drive back directly towards me and take the head position on the other side.

[03:42:35] Now, bring your head away from his, look at him, Punch through, come [03:42:40] around, and spin inside the body. Elbows back, and you're back in place. Okay? Excellent. One more time, Pasito.[03:42:50]

[03:42:50] Guys, let's face the camera a little more. Let's come closer to the camera. Let's see if he fails. Good. Next one. Okay, tight Giancarlo. Now, Giancarlo is [03:43:00] refusing to give up head position. He's doing a good job keeping the head up. Placido would like to be able to switch head positions. That's what he would like to do.

[03:43:07] Giancarlo is smart. He knows what the gamut is and he's preventing that. [03:43:10] As we fail on the right hand side, We're gonna win on the left. Punch back, come through, spin, elbows back, and done. [03:43:20] Beautiful. Okay, that was excellent guys. Now let's do one more, slightly more competitive. So Gene Coward, you're going to make Placido work on this one, and [03:43:30] uh, Placido, you may have to switch several, several times.

[03:43:32] Might be two, three times before you get out. Try hard on one side. Come across, come back. [03:43:40] That's it. Well done. Beautiful. Super loyal. Beautiful. Well done fellas. That's exactly what we're looking for. That switching approach, going back [03:43:50] left and right, is what's going to do it in top level competition. Guys, always remember, in every pin escape, don't think that when you're out there live, it's going to look as pretty as the demonstrations that we [03:44:00] do here.

[03:44:00] Okay? We're giving you the technology to get out, but When you're out there on the mats, working with people, it's not gonna look as smooth as [03:44:10] that. It's not gonna be pretty, okay. There's times when you gotta go left, right, try, fail, fail, fail, and then succeed. And that's absolutely normal, all part of the, uh, of, [03:44:20] of, of being a trainer.

[03:44:22] normality out there on the mats. Again, it's not going to look pretty and smooth every time. It's going to be more like that. Try left, try right, [03:44:30] try one method, switch back to another, and then ultimately succeed. You don't have to get out first time every time. That's not realistic. Okay. Um, great stuff, fellas.

[03:44:38] [03:44:40] [03:44:50] Let's have a look at Neon Belly and, uh, uh, going into our counterattacks from there. The big theme of this video is the idea that we want to go [03:45:00] beyond just getting out of positions, okay? That's a satisfactory outcome. Getting out of the position to a neutral position is satisfactory. But I want you guys going beyond that and [03:45:10] starting to go for optimal outcomes, where you not only get out of the position, But at the same time, you actually slap on submission holds and start to threaten people.

[03:45:18] So you become a good [03:45:20] counter fighter. Okay, he put you in your own belly. Fuck it. You got to go back and now break his fucking leg. Okay, you got to have that aggressive mindset where you don't just, Oh, let me [03:45:30] get out of here and be happy with that. No. We're going to get out and we're going to counter attack.

[03:45:34] We're going to go hard into his legs and put some heat on this guy. Um, the good news is, [03:45:40] in the case of Neon Belly, it's an inherently lighter and looser pin. Because Neon Belly is a mobility pin. It's not really designed to hold people [03:45:50] stationary for long periods of time. Rather, it's designed to create openings for an opponent who's moving around you.

[03:45:56] That means there's much more separation between your chest and his. In the [03:46:00] case of neon belly, then they would be in, say, the mounted position, for example. This means there's going to be a lot of opportunities for you to take advantage of that separation to go directly [03:46:10] into submission holds as soon as you've compromised the balance of the neon belly position.

[03:46:15] So let's have a look at this. We have Placido on top and neon belly. [03:46:20] In a gi context, Placido would be well advised to grip the belt. the lapels and stabilize themself like so and take advantage of the gi. In a no [03:46:30] gi context, it gets very risky to put your hands on your opponent's body for extended periods of time, because you're not able to grab the clothing.

[03:46:37] And as a result, you become very unstable. [03:46:40] Easily, the hands can be put on the floor. So most people put their hands on the mat and keep a good, solid stance, just like so. OK. They use the knee on [03:46:50] belly to set up scoring opportunities as people turn or what, or turn into them. Now, what we want to do is initially off balance our opponent in a forward direction.

[03:46:59] [03:47:00] The way we're going to do that, if we just turn around this way,

[03:47:05] is we're going to take our hand through and we're going to put our hand here, [03:47:10] underneath our training partner's knee. You have two good choices with your other hand. You can either grab your own wrist. That's one good option. Or you can put your two hands underneath [03:47:20] this hamstring. So it's either one or two.

[03:47:24] I leave that up to you. I've seen a lot of success with both. Okay. Once we get The hand's in [03:47:30] place. The next thing is to get our head to our hands. The most common mistake I see is people reach like so, and they extend themselves and create problems for dark strangles, [03:47:40] etc, etc. You don't want that happening.

[03:47:43] So what I want to do is, as soon as my hands make contact, I want my head to come to my hands. The last step [03:47:50] is to get our opponent to take a step. So I push and I get him taking a step. So all his weight's on his hands. As a result, that makes my legs very [03:48:00] light and very mobile. That makes it very easy for me to put one hand on his thigh and pull the other hand back.

[03:48:08] That creates a slingshot effect [03:48:10] where it becomes very easy to throw our legs straight on through. and get a good catch on our training partner's leg. If you sit up now, Pasiru, you'll see that you have kind of like [03:48:20] a quasi 50 50 type situation. You have a good choice here. You can either lock a triangle like so, or you can just work with open [03:48:30] legs and back healing, back healing.

[03:48:31] with one knee pushing, the other knee pulling, and both feet coming back towards yourself. When he tries to drag that [03:48:40] leg out, it's a very difficult thing. I always recommend you point your knees down at the floor. The more my knees point up at the [03:48:50] ceiling, the looser the connection, and the greater the danger of slippage.

[03:48:53] So always, we point our knees down at the mat. From here, you have excellent heel exposure. I can go in, [03:49:00] score my training partner's heel, and get a very strong break. I'm going to demonstrate this now from a different angle so you can see what was happening behind Placido's legs. [03:49:10] So from knee on belly, I take my hands through, I bring my head to my hands, and from here I come up and get my knee in front of [03:49:20] his knee.

[03:49:21] This hand here locked on him. Now I throw my foot around the corner and make a good hook, making very sure that my [03:49:30] knee is a wedge in front of his knee. Now you have automatic heel exposure. You don't have to do any work. The heel is exposed, ready for you to go. As a result, we can make a very [03:49:40] good initial catch on our training partner's heel.

[03:49:43] Now I have the choice of locking a triangle. That's one good choice. Or, just going open, like so. From [03:49:50] here, you have a good choice between brakes with a conventional grip, or switching off to reverse figure four for an even stronger grip. Now from here, this plus here tries [03:50:00] to drag his way out. It's enormously difficult.

[03:50:04] And as a result, We get very strong breaks out [03:50:10] of the escape. Let's demonstrate from another angle. Knee on belly position. From here, we're going to turn underneath my training partner, and [03:50:20] hands go in and make that initial catch. As the left hand guides him over, right arm comes back, knee goes in front.

[03:50:28] Pass the foot through and make a [03:50:30] good connection. My knee is like a wedge in front of his knee. When he tries to bulldoze through, very, very difficult. You have the option [03:50:40] of closing the wedges. If your opponent should go to backstep out, make sure you follow and come to your knee and lock up with [03:50:50] both of your shoelaces here on his hip.

[03:50:52] So when he tries to scoot back and pull away, Very, very difficult. If he tries to continue [03:51:00] to turn away, he'll break his own leg. If he tries to turn in, he's working against both of my legs. Very, very hard for him to succeed. Don't put your hips [03:51:10] on the ground. Take your hips up, invert your knees down towards the floor, and find yourself in a fine breaking position.

[03:51:18] Let's have a look at all that again. [03:51:20] From Neon Valley situation, I turn my body in towards him, catch the underside of the hamstring, I [03:51:30] position my knee in front of his knee. I don't want to just push him and have his knee slide away from me.[03:51:40]

[03:51:41] So when we come around the corner, there has to be that initial wedge. I make sure we're catching, just in like so, and I [03:51:50] pass my foot through the hole that we've created. I can close the wedges with a triangle. I always recommend pointing your knees downwards towards the floor. When [03:52:00] he tries to knee slide down, very, very difficult.

[03:52:04] You have automatic heel exposure. You can take advantage of this with conventional grips or [03:52:10] reverse figure four. Your choice, they're both excellent. Now, from here, one possible option for my opponent is to backstair. First reaction. If [03:52:20] I know my opponent is interested in back stepping, I like to, I strongly favor belly down finishes, okay?

[03:52:27] I'm going to take my top shoulder, my [03:52:30] right shoulder, and put it in front of If he goes to backstep now, he'll break his own leg. If my [03:52:40] top shoulder is behind my bottom shoulder, Placido can backstep. If I see him backstep, it's important I follow the movement, and from here, I put both of [03:52:50] my shoelaces on his ribcage, just like so.

[03:52:54] I don't want my body facing Placido. He can come forward and expose my [03:53:00] elbow and my hip. and defend themself. When I bring my two elbows, my two knees down towards the floor, it creates a barrier that protects my elbow and [03:53:10] head. Come back once you're done.

[03:53:15] My biggest concern when I work in positions like this is the [03:53:20] exposure of my head. Head and elbow to my opponent, or even just my hands. Okay? I wanna put [03:53:30] barriers between my elbow and my hands and bring my head as far away from him as possible. So I invert [03:53:40] my knee and my shoulder. Now there's some danger of exposure.

[03:53:46] It's not much, but it's there's some. So it's important [03:53:50] that we lock and our two feet come in together. The distance between my head and his head now is much, much greater. He tries to reach my head, [03:54:00] difficult. He tries to reach my elbow, very difficult. He goes to reach my hands, not easy. And from this [03:54:10] position.

[03:54:10] So once again,

[03:54:17] my opponent has gone to the knee on belly position. [03:54:20] From here, I move towards his leg. I create the wedge in front of his knee. As I push out, we feed the leg [03:54:30] on through. First means of attacking is just to lock a simple triangle with our legs and finish either conventional, or [03:54:40] reverse figure four. Reverse figure four is stronger but takes a little longer to lock up.

[03:54:46] One danger here is my opponent backstepping. So [03:54:50] if my shoulder, the top shoulder, is behind the bottom shoulder, he can backstep. So a good way to stop this from happening is [03:55:00] to go to a belly down finish where I bring my top shoulder forward, point my knees at the floor, and go slightly belly down, not full belly [03:55:10] down.

[03:55:10] But just my top shoulder in front of my back, bottom shoulder. If Placido goes to back step now, he'll shred his own leg. It's not smart. [03:55:20] If my shoulders are out of position, then I must follow him as he goes. As he follows, I can't leave an exposed foot. I can't leave [03:55:30] an exposed hand. I can't leave an exposed head and elbow.

[03:55:36] So what do we do? If I see my [03:55:40] opponent back step successfully, it's important I come up to an inside shoulder. Inside shoulder position with double shoelaces [03:55:50] here on his chest means that the distance between my head and his head The distance between my elbow and his hand. [03:56:00] Impossible for him to breach.

[03:56:02] And if he tries to get to my hands, he can only get to one. It won't be enough. And from here, we close it by bringing our knee down on top of [03:56:10] his knee. And get very strong finishes. So this is a very simple, very realistic way to really turn your [03:56:20] opponent's knee on belly against him. There's a sense in which his pin becomes his downfall.

[03:56:28] If you've hit this move successfully [03:56:30] on a competitor several times in training, do you think he'd be willing to use knee on belly against you a third time? Of course not. You would start to see it as a very, [03:56:40] very vulnerable situation where he can easily be attacked. Notice that, The transition from defense into offense is much [03:56:50] faster in the case of knee on belly than it is from say the mount or the rear mount.

[03:56:55] You must be cognizant of this. Knee on belly is a mobility pin, [03:57:00] not a weight and immobility pin. And as a result, that transition is much, much faster than usual. Be aware of that. When you throw the guy off, straight [03:57:10] in and get to that heel hook. So once again, we're here, we make that first movement, and it's on.[03:57:20]

[03:57:20] He goes into the backstab, we follow, leg through, and finish in position. It all happens pretty quickly.[03:57:30]

[03:57:32] And once you get a reputation as someone who's strong in this move, opponents will be very reluctant indeed to try and use knee on belly as a means of scoring on [03:57:40] you.

[03:57:44] Now we look at the idea of coming out of a knee on belly pin and entering into our opponent's [03:57:50] legs, taking advantage of the fact that knee on belly is an intrinsically looser form of pin, a mobility based pin than usual. Because there's greater separation of you and your opponent, there's a [03:58:00] very fast and easy transition, transition into your opponent's legs if you keep your eyes open for it.

[03:58:05] In the previous move, we attacked our opponent's forward leg. [03:58:10] Okay? At least initially. We went through, gripped the forward leg, and sent it by, so we're going to attack the back leg with a heel hook. Once again, we're going to attack the back leg with a [03:58:20] heel hook, but the first move isn't going to be against the forward leg, it's going to be against the back leg.

[03:58:25] So let's have a look at this from a knee on belly type situation. Previously, [03:58:30] we went in and we attacked the forward leg. Now we're going to put our knee here against the back leg. My first thing here is to stay in tight, okay? Previous [03:58:40] move we extended ourselves, this time we stay in tight. From here I'm going to give a knee bump that brings my body, proposed body weight forward.

[03:58:49] I'm going to put [03:58:50] my elbow around my training partner's knee. And from this situation, I'm just going to turn my body so that Placido's knee points down towards the floor. [03:59:00] Now, I'm going to come here around Placido's Achilles tendon. So even if Placido went to flee the mat and run away from me, he would [03:59:10] find me hooked onto his leg like an anchor.

[03:59:12] My whole goal is to get my knee behind his ankle, just like so. So [03:59:20] when Placido goes to pull away from me, it feels like I'm stuck on him, like a limpet. Now all I'm going to do is make my feet mobile, plant [03:59:30] one foot, and then take my second leg and go through and hook behind my training partner's far hamstring.

[03:59:35] From this position, it's a relatively easy thing for me to push [03:59:40] off my remaining leg, and put my head between my training partner's knees. So he can rotate around the corner. From here I feed my foot through in front of his [03:59:50] quadricep. When Placido tries to backstep out of this 50 50, he can't. I'm controlling the leg.

[03:59:57] This is one of our favorite forms of [04:00:00] 50 50 that you'll be seeing a lot throughout this video series. This is the double 50. Normally, in a 50 50 situation, you control one leg. [04:00:10] This is a variation of double treble where both legs are controlled. A conventional form of 50 50. will always be [04:00:20] somewhat vulnerable to backsteps, which expose your elbow to your opponent.

[04:00:29] Double [04:00:30] 50 takes out the backstep. He goes to backstep. Very, very difficult. And from here, we can get some brutal finishes, particularly when we [04:00:40] start going belly down towards the floor. So once again, we have an opponent here like so. I put my knee right there on the side of his hip, not on the quadricep.[04:00:50]

[04:00:50] Not on the far butt cheek, near butt cheek, side of the hip. Everything in close, we give a simple bump. I put my elbow around my training partner's knee, and start a rotation. [04:01:00] Coming out to the side. I come in, and I lock. Everything in close to the hip. So when he goes to yank away from me, they'll be like, It [04:01:10] feels tough man, it's hard to get away.

[04:01:11] I put my head down, and from here I just kick my leg through and around, and I make a good contact on the far leg. Now [04:01:20] I just put my hip underneath his knees and we end up in the perfect. Double 50 situation plus heto goes to back [04:01:30] step through. Even if he was so strong that he succeeded in a full back step, you would still be in a very, very strong finishing position right here.

[04:01:39] Okay. [04:01:40] Coming back. But in truth, when he goes to back step, it's very, very difficult. If he was smart and took his hand [04:01:50] and dislodged and came out, you would still be in a perfect position to roll through and go to another one of our favorite. attacks. This is the [04:02:00] crisscross ashi, or inside outside ashi, where one foot goes to the inside, like an inside senkaku, and one foot goes to the outside, like a 50 50.

[04:02:09] So it bridges the [04:02:10] gap between inside and outside foot position. When he tries to pull away from us, it's enormously difficult, and you get very, very strong breaks. So once again, [04:02:20] um, guys, don't worry about the variations in ashi grabbing. I'm going to, I'm showing you, I promise you throughout the video [04:02:30] series, I will be going over these in great depth because they become very, very important when we start looking at, um, uh, defense to heel hooks, uh, and [04:02:40] also from various forms of guard attacks and guard passing attacks.

[04:02:44] So if it seems that I'm rushing past important concepts here, I promise you I'll be spending [04:02:50] A lot of time on these, but my primary focus in this particular video is getting out and getting on the attack quickly. Um, uh, [04:03:00] but please don't think I'm just going to skip over these. All of these variations of Ashigurami have very important details to them, which I will fully expound upon in other parts of the video series.

[04:03:09] [04:03:10] So once again, we start off knee on belly situation. I use a knee bump to carry him forward and catch. As we come around the corner, we want to create a [04:03:20] sense where I have a wedge here with my thigh, and a wedge here with my arm. So that as my opponent goes to drag out, it [04:03:30] feels like he's got an anchor stuck to his leg.

[04:03:33] Now, I bring my head down to make this leg here light. As I bring my foot through and [04:03:40] around to make a good connection on the far side. Even if he brought his knee off the mat now, it wouldn't matter. You'd still be able to just roll on through and get [04:03:50] to your hooks. From here, he tries to backstep out.

[04:03:54] Very, very difficult. And from here, you have tremendous breaking pressure. If he [04:04:00] was smart and canny and, uh, had the wherewithal to let his leg partially pop and break and force his way out, it would be an easy thing to follow his [04:04:10] back step all the way through into criss cross ashi. And finish. So one more time.[04:04:20]

[04:04:20] Knee on belly situation. My knee tracks right here. Not here. Not here. Right there on the near butt cheek. Elbows in close. [04:04:30] One little bump disrupts his balance. Second elbow goes in place. Catch. And I bring my around to this catch position. [04:04:40] So when he goes to kick out, even no hands go to kick out with him.

[04:04:46] Very, very strong. Okay. Now my head comes down [04:04:50] to make my left leg unweighted. I go through and I score on that far leg. Now I just bring my head between his legs. [04:05:00] I go all the way through and make a good connection. And as a result, we have a superb breaking position. This is a really realistic [04:05:10] way. To come out of a knee on belly type situation, and get a very strong attack on your opponent's legs.[04:05:20]

[04:05:25] Let's start to focus on a different kind of pin. All the [04:05:30] pins we've looked at so far involve the use of our legs. The mounted situation, my primary connection to my opponent is through my legs at the hips. [04:05:40] Knee on belly, my primary connection to my opponent is through my shin to his hip line. Rear mounted position is through the use of my hooks, [04:05:50] either conventionally, or as a body triangle.

[04:05:56] But in all three cases, our primary connection to our opponent [04:06:00] was through our legs. Always remember guys, Jiu Jitsu has five major pins. Of those five, three are leg dominant. [04:06:10] We saw, these are rear mount, mount, and knee on belly, where the primary connection to your opponent is through the legs. Whenever you go to escape from a [04:06:20] leg dominant pin, your first counter attack is right into his legs, because they're right there for you to attack.

[04:06:27] If his legs are wrapped around you in any way, shape, or form, and you [04:06:30] bust out of that pin, his legs are there to be attacked, every single time. Okay, now we're going to look at the two forms of pin in jiu jitsu which are armed on it. [04:06:40] These are side pins and north south pins. The basic idea here is that in a side pin, my hips are [04:06:50] below Placido's shoulder line.

[04:06:52] Anytime my hips are at or below the shoulder line, this is a side pin. Okay, [04:07:00] north south pins.

[04:07:04] My hips operate above the shoulder line, and we work from up here. Okay, [04:07:10] there's some important differences between the two. How you go to get out of the two is, as I said, some important differences. Let's focus first on the more [04:07:20] numerically common side pins. Probably the most common pin in Jiu Jitsu.

[04:07:24] Let's understand that these two pins are arm dominant. So that if Passiro [04:07:30] does go to break out of this pin, The first target will almost always be the arms, since it's my arms that are wrapped around him, not my legs. As opposed to the [04:07:40] mount, where when he breaks out, the first thing for him to attack will be my legs, since it's my legs that are wrapped around him.

[04:07:47] Okay? Now, [04:07:50] we understand something here. I don't want you guys just to be hitting these moves on white belts and blue belts. I want you guys to be hitting these moves on world champion black belts. [04:08:00] At world championship level. Let's be honest, if you come out of a pin. directly to an upper body submission hold on someone who knows what they're doing [04:08:10] and maybe has seen you do this a couple of times in the past.

[04:08:12] It's going to be hard to catch him by surprise. So typically what happens is you will threaten him with an arm lock [04:08:20] and he will pull away. But anytime he pulls away, he will leave you His legs. Okay? It [04:08:30] is physically impossible to posture up and away from an upper body attack without leaving your legs behind.

[04:08:37] There's no way a human being can [04:08:40] simultaneously pull away upper body and lower body. Human body doesn't work that way. The only way I can posture up is to make my legs vulnerable to attack. [04:08:50] So what I always coach my students is this. When you come out of an upper body pin and you're attacking your opponent's arms, [04:09:00] try your best to get the arms.

[04:09:01] If you do, congratulations, you win. But understand that nine times out of ten, a knowledgeable opponent is going to pull [04:09:10] away from that upper body attack. And when he pulls away from that upper body attack, I don't care who he is, how good he is, or how famous he is. He's going to leave his [04:09:20] fucking legs behind, just like any other human being.

[04:09:23] And when he leaves his legs behind, you go in on the legs, you'll get your submissions. So once again,[04:09:30]

[04:09:32] Placido breaks out of the pin, threatens upper body, I pull away, and lo and behold, I'm dead. I leave my lower body [04:09:40] and from there you can go in and attack. Okay, that's the pattern that I want you guys working with as we work in this, uh, this section of the video. [04:09:50] As I said, if you get the arms, it's a bonus.

[04:09:54] But the legs, you can rely on them being there regardless of how good or bad [04:10:00] he is. Now, let's have a look at getting out of side control, um, and bring it back to things that we said earlier in this video. One [04:10:10] of the big themes when we first started off the video is that it's one thing to be pinned, it's another thing to be pinned and extended, okay?

[04:10:18] This is bad, [04:10:20] where I am now. I'm pinned, okay? That's not what I wanted. I'm But even worse are situations where Placido begins to extend me. Now, as he pulls the [04:10:30] arm up and I get extended, now we're going from bad to worse. Now, not only are you getting pinned, but you're about to be submitted. Okay? So my first responsibility, anytime [04:10:40] I'm in side position, is to take away the danger of extension.

[04:10:44] Okay. Let's turn around this way. This is [04:10:50] bad if it gets extended, but this is even worse if it gets extended. If Placido extends me on this side, grab my elbow, lifts it up. This is just dreadful [04:11:00] because now I don't even have an opportunity to defend myself. Okay. So my first responsibility always is to get my elbow to inside position on the near side.[04:11:10]

[04:11:10] Don't put your hand in and don't try to bench press people. It's ineffective, tiring, and can get you all kinds of trouble. Use this, [04:11:20] the forearm, close to the elbow. When he goes to put weight on me from here, it can bear the weight quite easily. The hand can't, [04:11:30] okay? So my first responsibility, always, is to get the elbow inside.

[04:11:35] If Placido brings his hips close to me, The onus is on me [04:11:40] to shift away to get my elbow in. If Placido beats my elbow, I can't just bring it in, it's stuck. So I need to [04:11:50] move my body to get my elbow inside. Once my elbow goes inside, rotate around. My next responsibility is to get my knee [04:12:00] inside. If I try to bring my knee along the floor, it's very, very difficult.

[04:12:05] So I want to bring my knee here, to the biggest opening, so that every inch I move [04:12:10] out, my knee can move in an inch and form a good, strong, robust frame. Now I've got a leg inside and an elbow inside. [04:12:20] My knee is in and my elbow is in. As a result, it's pretty easy for us to start pushing on our opponent.

[04:12:26] Spin around. So [04:12:30] I have an elbow and a knee inside. When I push, I'm now able to get an arm inside and lock up like so. [04:12:40] At this point here, I can move more easily underneath him than he can on top of me. I'm no longer thinking about defense. At this point, [04:12:50] I'm thinking about conversion. into offense. Once I bring my knees into this position here called the clamp, where his head and shoulders are [04:13:00] caught clamped between my two knees, there's no reason now why I can't start going straight through into upper body attacks.

[04:13:08] If I finish with the upper body [04:13:10] attack, awesome, congratulations. But let's be honest, at world championship level, he's probably going to go up and start posturing up and away. When I see that going on, [04:13:20] scoop a hold of our training partner's leg. From situations like this, as I feel I'm losing control of the initial walk, there's no reason now why I can't bring the legs around the [04:13:30] corner and bring my training partner's hands to the floor.

[04:13:33] And from situations like this, Not hard for us to go around the corner and go into our locks. We can do this in numerous [04:13:40] different ways. Starting from a triangle, he comes up, we can feed legs through and go into conventional forms of X guard. Okay? [04:13:50] From X guard, not hard for us to go up into reverse X guard.

[04:13:53] If I see my opponent, I'm Giving me a hard time and bringing that leg up high into the sky and [04:14:00] making it difficult. No reason now why I can't start to Switching my body around in the opposite direction Going through into the opposite [04:14:10] leg and scoring. There's always a path into your opponent's legs He goes to turn out of situations like this and it's not hard for us to go through into a winning position So you're [04:14:20] going to see as we go further into the video There are numerous ways for us to get the score on the legs.

[04:14:26] You can take the upper body away from me, but you can never [04:14:30] simultaneously take away his upper body and his lower body. He can only take away his upper body by leaving me his lower body. So that's something you're going to have to be programmed into your mind. So you lose one, [04:14:40] bang, straight into the other.

[04:14:41] Okay. Um, with regards, uh, escaping from side control, [04:14:50] in my opinion, by far and away, the most efficient method is going to be the side elbow escape. We just looked at the broad outlines of the side elbow [04:15:00] escape. Now we're going to spend some time going into the fine details that make it work at top level competition.

[04:15:06] A very important position that I want you guys to become [04:15:10] familiar with is going to become very important now, is the clamp position. Let me briefly explain what the clamp is. A clamp is any situation from open guard, usually when [04:15:20] someone's on two knees, where I have a knee in front of him that governs his ability to come forward and a knee [04:15:30] behind his shoulder that governs his ability to pull away so that the distance of his head from If he goes to move [04:15:40] back, difficult.

[04:15:41] If he goes to move forward, difficult. And this enables me to create sufficient space that I can go directly into various kinds of [04:15:50] upper body attack. It also means that every attempt to pull away from upper body attack will almost always leave me [04:16:00] lower body attacks.

[04:16:04] The clamp is kind of like an upper body ashigurami. What do I mean by that? [04:16:10] We have an ashigurami. Really? Ashigurami. puts a knee in front that prevents him coming forward. [04:16:20] Ashigarami puts a knee behind. If he goes to pull the leg back, difficult. So it governs the distance of his upper body and lower body to me [04:16:30] by having a knee in front and a knee behind.

[04:16:33] Forward movement and backward movement is governed by me. The clamp [04:16:40] is just an upper body version. Here, the arm is like your opponent's leg. And just like the Ashigurami, you have a knee behind and a knee in [04:16:50] front. When he goes to move back, difficult. Goes to move forward, difficult. And just like an Ashigurami, it leads directly [04:17:00] into submission holds.

[04:17:02] Okay? So our general rule is, Lie down.[04:17:10]

[04:17:12] When someone comes out of an upper body arm based pin, the clamp, is our primary means of connection to him. [04:17:20] It's it very difficult for the guy to pull away. It's going to set up a huge number of upper body threats. His only response to those upper body threats is going to be to pull away. And as you've seen [04:17:30] already, you pull away from an upper body threat, it'll create a situation where you can go into your lower body finishes.

[04:17:36] Okay, and using those together, you'll be able to get tremendous success rate. [04:17:40] Not only escaping side control, but finishing out of those escapes.

[04:17:48] We looked at some [04:17:50] preliminaries of the side elbow escape and we saw our philosophy, uh, uh, of escape with regards, uh, side control. Um, it's the same [04:18:00] philosophy that we've looked at throughout this video. The idea that we're going to perform an escape in the expectation that there's going to be a critical point, We can [04:18:10] switch from defense to offense and start finishing people.

[04:18:12] But because side control is an arm dominant pin instead of a leg dominant pin, the first target will be the arms. [04:18:20] And then the understanding is if we get the arms, great matches over. But realistically, it's very likely he will pull away. And leave us the legs and the legs will be a secondary [04:18:30] target, perhaps a little more likely to succeed on the legs.

[04:18:32] Okay, um, let's now go into the details that are going to make you a successful [04:18:40] exponent of the side elbow escape. There's no question in my mind that the side elbow escape is the king of escapes from side control. If I could only have one for the rest of my life. I would unquestionably [04:18:50] choose it, okay, it works at all skill levels against all sides of opponents.

[04:18:54] Let's have a look at it right now. Okay, I can have a range of upper body positions with [04:19:00] this hand. I can be underneath my opponent, I can be over the top of my opponent, I can be under hook, okay, they'll all work. I'm going to demonstrate it. with this [04:19:10] grip here because very often your opponent is looking to put you in this form of grip.

[04:19:14] Okay, so I don't have an underhook and I don't have a reverse crossface. I'm just in [04:19:20] like so. Okay, now your first responsibility is to in any elbow escape is to get your elbow inside his thigh down [04:19:30] towards the knee or hip, okay? Side elbow escape is no exception. From here, I need to be able to get this elbow in.

[04:19:36] He's going to be trying to block that by coming [04:19:40] forward with his knee underneath my head. And now that blocks my ability to get my elbow inside. So my first thing, I've got to move my head away from [04:19:50] his knee. The further my head goes from his knee, the easier my elbow penetrates and goes in. Don't try to grab him, it doesn't help.

[04:19:58] Just have your arm out like so, [04:20:00] and push with your forearm into your training partner's hip. When he tries to bring his hip back towards me now, I govern the distance. He can never get his hip back towards me. [04:20:10] If my elbow's not there, he can continually walk. The arm up, and now trap me and go into Jiri Gatame on this arm, and start finishing me.

[04:20:18] Okay? So we've got to [04:20:20] guard this elbow. I bring my head away, and my forearm goes in. Coming around this way now. Now our next job is to [04:20:30] penetrate this space with my knee. If I go along the floor, I'll never do it. I just run into the barrier of his leg. If I come up by the lat muscle, I'll never [04:20:40] do it. I run into the barrier of his lats and ribs.

[04:20:42] What I want to do is place my knee there at the pocket of his hip. I want my foot higher than my knee. [04:20:50] If my foot is lower than my knee, I tend to push into the ribs. But when I put my foot higher than my knee, every time I move out, I get [04:21:00] opportunities for my knee to go in, sitting up positive, and join a V shaped frame, knee to elbow.

[04:21:08] Once I form that frame, [04:21:10] I start using my second leg. Like so. Then I start pushing on my training partner. You can have your hand here on the neck. I leave it up to you. My goal is [04:21:20] to get my head in front of his head. Right now my head is in front of his shoulder. I want to get my head in front of his. The second, let's move around.[04:21:30]

[04:21:32] The second this occurs, My hand is no longer useful on the hip. I bring it in here. Why? Because he wants to control [04:21:40] my head and pull my head back in, walk around my knee and go back to side control. That's what he wants. Okay, locked tight. So our first thing is to get [04:21:50] our elbow inside. Turn around. Second thing is to get our knee inside.

[04:21:58] So I position it [04:22:00] right there. My foot higher than my knee. I start moving out until. Knee and elbow can join. From here, we start to create space. Walking, walking, getting [04:22:10] my hand in front. Turning around now. And I want to take my hand in front of his arm. So when he goes to grab my head, difficult. Now, [04:22:20] I take my knee and put it in front of the shoulder so I can release the arm now.

[04:22:25] Now I take my foot. You have reached the critical point [04:22:30] where you can attack when your knee comes in front of his shoulder. That's the demarcation point. Here, not so many submission [04:22:40] attacks. You'll get out of the pin, but no real counterattacks. Only when I come here to the clamp, now you can counterattack.

[04:22:48] Now I can create [04:22:50] distance, push his head away. And as a result, very easy to bring the foot across. and start going into our counterattacks. The first ones, as I'm sure you've guessed, are upper body [04:23:00] attacks. You have triangle entries. You have omoplata variations. You have [04:23:10] judogatami variations. I normally start with the triangle, okay?

[04:23:16] Now, from here, your opponent has to react to this. As he starts [04:23:20] coming up, we want to be bringing the head down, scooping inside the leg, and making good transitions directly into the triangle, and getting our finishes. If he [04:23:30] thumb posts inside the triangle and you feel you're starting to lose control of your opponent, this is the perfect time for us to start going around the corner and putting his hands [04:23:40] on the mat.

[04:23:41] Look how my foot connects here like an X guard, but unlike an X guard, I don't put my second foot behind the knee. Rather we [04:23:50] lock, I push into my training partner's hip, I connect my foot and my knee just across like so. So we lock up in this position. So turn around [04:24:00] this way please. So that I have a foot in front of this thigh and a foot behind this thigh.

[04:24:05] If Placido goes to back step out, There's some resistance there, okay? You [04:24:10] can lock like so, or you can step on your training partner's hamstring. The important thing is you've got a foot in front and a foot behind. Once we get into a position like so, [04:24:20] it's not so difficult for us to go hunting for our training partner's foot.

[04:24:23] And start bringing it across the line of our chest. Now we commit to a pass off. Where my hand [04:24:30] comes in, locks, and we cover our training partner's toes. There's no reason now why we can't go for our various finishes. First finish that we're going to look at in these [04:24:40] situations is for us to take our foot and monitor his backstep.

[04:24:45] If he doesn't backstep, there's no reason I can't go into a simple 50 50 [04:24:50] type finish from the backside. If I feel my opponent is going to backstep, I will follow and make a good switch into insides and cops. And from here, [04:25:00] you get very strong finishes. So once again, I'm in a full pin, everything on the outside.

[04:25:09] First [04:25:10] responsibility, get your elbow inside. Second responsibility, bring your knee inside. Third responsibility, [04:25:20] bring your head. in front of his head. Fourth responsibility, dominate the space in front of the bicep and then make the critical switch to the clamp. From the [04:25:30] clamp, you're now switching from defensive thinking to offensive thinking.

[04:25:34] I didn't want to just put this guy back in guard. I want to finish him. As a result, [04:25:40] we make a quick transition over into Senkaku, the triangle. He goes to posture up and away. He does a good job of thumb posting and [04:25:50] destroying the connection to my triangle. My foot goes in front of the hip like an X guard, but from here I come around the corner and lock up, just like so.[04:26:00]

[04:26:00] Not difficult now for us to go hunting our training partner's shoelaces and bringing the foot across the chest. We commit to a pass off, and then we look at our opponent's reaction. If there's [04:26:10] no attempt to backstep, maybe he's a guy who likes to knee slide away from us. We just point our knees at the floor, he goes to knee slide.

[04:26:18] There's no way. If, [04:26:20] on the other hand, I'm in this position and I see him go for a strong back, I'm Step, we just lock the insides in kaku, and as a result, we're in perfect position to go through and do a break. [04:26:30] Seen in this light, you can see that the side elbow escape is so much more than just an escape.

[04:26:39] It's a [04:26:40] perfect leader into the clamp position. As I said earlier, it's no more difficult for you to get to a position like the clamp than it is for you to get to the guard position. [04:26:50] Arguably, it's even easier. Once you get to the clamp, you have a range of strong upper body finishes. I normally recommend to begin with a triangle because it has the [04:27:00] versatility of both a strangle and an arm lock at the same time.

[04:27:03] It also leads brilliantly into the legs if your opponent uses some kind of postural escape. Once you go into the [04:27:10] legs, you can go in any direction you favor. Once you make that initial connection, I'll be showing you dozens of different ways to go into the legs as the series progresses, but we looked at one practical method [04:27:20] that we can start using tomorrow.

[04:27:25] Now, we're looking at the idea of a side elbow escape. I just want to throw in, uh, as we [04:27:30] go through this section, some general observations. These are not techniques, so to speak, but just general observations about getting out of side control, um, side pins [04:27:40] with an elbow escape. Things that are going to help you.

[04:27:42] To do that against strong resistance, um, one detail that you really need to understand and make use of anytime you're [04:27:50] employing side elbow escapes concerns your opponent's head, okay? There is a fundamental relationship between your opponent's head and his hips that has to [04:28:00] be obeyed if your opponent's going to pin you from the side.

[04:28:02] If he doesn't obey this simple principle, he won't have an effective pen. And the good news is, you can manipulate his head position to [04:28:10] your advantage. So what is this basic principle? Whenever someone is across my side, you will notice that his head must be on one side of my body, [04:28:20] and his hips must be on the other.

[04:28:22] Okay, no exceptions here. Head on one side, hips on the other. If Placido brings his head to the [04:28:30] same side as the hips, it creates a very, very weak pin where it's easy for me to take my knee inside. Okay, now [04:28:40] we can use this to our advantage. We can use this to our advantage. Placido has to keep his head on one side, zips on the other.[04:28:50]

[04:28:50] Regardless of where my arm position is, it's not difficult to make a strong body point. It's not that difficult for me to move his head. When I go to bridge on boxing, I can move the [04:29:00] head. So that for one second, his head and his hips are on the same side. And as a result, it's going to be very easy for us to start sliding.

[04:29:08] We find [04:29:10] ourselves in a situation where we can get back on the attack against our opponent. So once again, we're here. Cross side. I want his head and [04:29:20] hips on the same side. You to hold it there for long. You don't have to. It only has to be a second. So from here we start a bridging action. As I start that bridge, I turn into him, even when he's got a [04:29:30] strong cross face, if I move the head, the cross face, is dissolved, okay?

[04:29:36] From Placido's perspective, the only way his crossface can take effect is when [04:29:40] the head drives across my body. Even as his head drives across the body, it's not difficult for me to move the head. Now, here's a common mistake. A lot of people, [04:29:50] when they go to move the head, they grab the head. No. Don't grab the head.

[04:29:53] Use your arm to move it by extending the arm. The more bent my arm, I'm just holding on. This is, [04:30:00] this is worthless. It's actually worse than, than, uh, just leaving the head where it was. What I want to do is to use the whole length of the arm and turn my thumb down and [04:30:10] get that head moving. Then when I add my legs into it, the head moves well.

[04:30:15] Again, don't reach around. Don't grab. Extend. And then from here, [04:30:20] the knee comes in and you find yourself. back in a position, you can quickly get on the attack. So again, from another angle, look how far [04:30:30] plus your head will move here. Okay. As our body comes up, we're reaching, reaching, reaching, and then moving the head.

[04:30:37] Now, when you do this, don't punch the head. Your training [04:30:40] partner's going to hate you. Okay. Place it on and then move it. Don't use a punch. Place, [04:30:50] extend, and move. When I go to move the head, watch my thumb. As my arm extends, the thumb [04:31:00] points across. In this way, you maximize your reach. So the hips come up.

[04:31:05] Now we're in the perfect position to extend and move. Knee [04:31:10] penetrates. We'll find ourselves back in a great attacking position. Now, you can use this principle with different arm placements. [04:31:20] I just showed it when we had an overback grip. You can do similar things with your hand like so. [04:31:30] Okay. One of my favorite grips from here is to lock up over my training partner's shoulder like so.

[04:31:35] Same thing. When you use this method, don't go up. Make a strong body [04:31:40] posture. Take your elbow along the line of the jaw and rotate your opponent's head. Okay. So you're using the level of his jaw. Even if his [04:31:50] head is in close to mine, from here, we just move the head. And as a result, the knee goes in very easily.

[04:31:57] And from here, we're in the perfect position to go into [04:32:00] our attacks. So once again, my hand's in. From this position, we start that action of lifting, bridging. And [04:32:10] I move the head to the same side as the hips. And as a result, the knees go in quite easily, and we start that action by working our way back into the clamp position [04:32:20] and into our various attacks.

[04:32:22] So these are ways in which we can move our opponent's head quite successfully. This is a particularly effective, uh, [04:32:30] movement pattern to employ any time your opponent has a conventional crossface. If my opponent has a reverse crossface, here, here. [04:32:40] Moving the head becomes a little more problematic because that reverse crossface tends to lock us here in place.

[04:32:45] We do different things. When Rapone is pinning like so, okay? [04:32:50] But anytime, he's employing this very common form of pin, and you can move that head either with the bicep, or [04:33:00] with the forearm. In either case, that will greatly facilitate Your ability to work your escapes and go into your counterattacks.[04:33:10]

[04:33:13] Anytime you're being pinned across side, you're going to have different options as to where you place your defensive arms. We know [04:33:20] that the basic game plan that we employ to get out of any pin is to get inside our opponent's wedges as he sets them around us. Okay. He wants to put wedges around our torso and head and prevent [04:33:30] us moving.

[04:33:30] So And we want to get inside those wedges with our limbs and, uh, and be able to move within the, the, the wedges he's placed around us. If we can move within those wedges. [04:33:40] You can eventually work your way out. That's the basic game plan. Um, you've got different options based upon how he's holding you and what you want to do, what you want to achieve.

[04:33:49] [04:33:50] Let's have a look at some of those options. Whenever I'm bottom cross side, I have. An inside arm and an outside arm. Let's focus on the [04:34:00] options of the inside arm first. So a placido is across my side. I have two arms. My inside arm is the one [04:34:10] which is between us. And my outside arm is the one which is out here on the outside like so.

[04:34:15] Okay, let's focus on the inside arm first. Let's rotate a little [04:34:20] bit. Okay, from here, first option is the one I use most of the time. Okay, the idea is that I'm going to take my forearm and put it inside the crook of his hip. [04:34:30] Try to avoid putting the hand in the hip, it can lead to problems down the line.

[04:34:34] Okay, so we use the forearm, About a third of the way away from the elbow and [04:34:40] lock it in like so this is an excellent method of framing and Controlling the distance between his hip and your shoulders if that frame is not there He can bring his hips to my [04:34:50] shoulders and trap my arm into positions where he can unlock me strangle me, all kinds of bad things.

[04:34:54] Okay. So we want to be able to control his ability of his hips to come towards me. [04:35:00] So we just turn in. Now, when he tries to bring his hips towards me, he runs into that impediment every time. Okay. So that's your first option. It's a good option, but it's not the only one. [04:35:10] Let's move a little bit this way.

[04:35:12] Now, second option from here, I'm going to take my hand and I'm going to keep a thumb post. close to his armpit just like [04:35:20] so. So that we're here on the lat muscle around the armpit. Okay, so we've gone away from the hip and instead we're framing here. What's my intention? Sitting up. [04:35:30] I want to frame the other hip.

[04:35:32] I put my elbow here on the other hip. Okay, so we're going to change our body position.[04:35:40]

[04:35:41] This is what I'm looking for. My elbow to this hip. Okay, so he comes in. If I The [04:35:50] conventional hip, I control the hip that's closest to my head, that there's good and bad to that, okay? But I can also frame the opposite hip. by putting my elbow in here, [04:36:00] okay, all the way through and under. Now when Placido tries to bring his right hip to my right hip, it's a frame.

[04:36:06] If I didn't have that frame there, he can join his hip to my hip [04:36:10] and hold me in place for long periods of time. So I take my elbow to the opposite hip, just like so. When he goes to bring the elbow, the hip towards me, [04:36:20] it forms a nice little frame on the knee, okay? So that's your other option. Next option, There's a [04:36:30] thumb post here at the tricep.

[04:36:32] Okay. This is a useful one in certain circumstances, particularly when your opponent is interested in switching [04:36:40] from a crossface to a reverse crossface. So if I know my opponent's a reverse crossface, kind of a guy, I'll keep a thumb post just like so. When I feel him go to make [04:36:50] that option, we'll be in a position where we can start framing on our training partner's arm and bring it across.

[04:36:54] Okay. This is going to give us options to come up to an elbow. And start to [04:37:00] work like so. We'll be looking at this option later on. So that's another nice defensive option. So your three main options with this arm. The option I favor more than [04:37:10] any others is to frame the near hip. Okay. Second option is to put the hands through and frame.

[04:37:16] down here at the thigh hip. Okay, and this too is an [04:37:20] excellent option. Option number three is the thumb post to tricep, which becomes a useful option anytime the guy starts switching arm positions. And then from here [04:37:30] you can start going to work in various kinds of ways that we'll look at later. Okay, so those are three excellent options with the inside arm.

[04:37:38] Now we saw those three [04:37:40] standard options for the inside arm as far as defensive framing. There is a fourth option which I'll use occasionally. His Uh, it has a role in, uh, escapes into [04:37:50] counterattacks. This is a scoop option where my opponent is across my side and instead of me keeping my elbow here at the hip, [04:38:00] elbow here at the hip, or thumb posting at the tricep, we're going to take our whole arm and put our elbow all the way through like so.

[04:38:08] Let's come around this way. [04:38:10] So my whole arm goes through and my elbow posts like so. Let's go. on the far hip. Now when I get pinned, I focus on [04:38:20] using this as a frame of moving my opponent over my head and turning away from my opponent. Typically we're turning into the man, from here you start turning out.

[04:38:29] And this [04:38:30] has specific functions in terms of backdoor escapes that we'll be looking at later. Okay, so later on. So once again, I bring my arm all the way through and I go either here at the hip [04:38:40] or here at the armpit. There's good and bad to both. Okay, they're both good options. And from here, it's not difficult for us to start slipping out the back door and going [04:38:50] into defenses that we'll look at later.

[04:38:51] So once again, quickly summarizing the four choices. with the inside [04:39:00] frame arm. Conventional at the near hip, elbow at the far hip, thumb posting the [04:39:10] tricep and scoop gripping either at the hip or the lat muscle and turning out. Okay? [04:39:20] Four. Excellent defensive options with the inside arm.

[04:39:28] Now when someone goes to pin us [04:39:30] across side, we've got to form defensive frames so we can move inside those wedges that he's placing around our body. We've got different options. We've seen we've got two arms, we have the inside arm and the outside arm, or [04:39:40] we've seen with inside arm we have four good options to place our defensive frame.

[04:39:44] What about the outside arm? What are my options here? Okay. [04:39:50] Arguably the best all round option, uh, is this. A reverse cross face where I place my hand here across, like so. [04:40:00] Try not to have the hand buried in front of his shoulder. There's some little wrist lock, uh, options that my opponent has in these positions that can you.

[04:40:08] uh, confound you. [04:40:10] But if I bring my hand all the way through, I now control my opponent's head. If my hand is too close in here, he can crunch down on my [04:40:20] arm and kind of constrict its movement and make it hard for me to move my arm effectively. It's very hard for him to do that if I have the whole length of my hand going across [04:40:30] to the shoulder and tricep.

[04:40:31] Now when he tries to put weight on the arm, it's pretty strong here. This enables me to move the head in various directions. Gives excellent control of my [04:40:40] opponent's head. So that's one excellent defensive option. Again, the idea is, don't have your hand here, in front of his chest. There's some wrist locks from here and your arm can [04:40:50] be crunched down and pinned.

[04:40:52] Instead, I want to come through and put the whole heel of my hand around his shoulder. So that you get an [04:41:00] excellent ability to hold your arm in place even when he puts weight over you. and tries to employ cross faces, you'll be able to move your opponent's head quite readily with this grip. [04:41:10] Okay, that's an excellent defensive option.

[04:41:13] Um, another defensive option here is to have my hand go through underneath my training partner's [04:41:20] chest and become an under hook. Okay, this too gives an excellent ability to move our opponent's head and to get my head underneath my opponent's body weight. [04:41:30] This will greatly facilitate turns in towards our opponent that we'll be looking at later on in the video.

[04:41:35] Okay, so once again if I can get my hand through underneath and get elbow [04:41:40] deep on the underhook. You can move the head and start tuning towards an opponent like so. So this too is an excellent defensive frame. [04:41:50] Another good frame here is a bicep frame or over back, where my arm goes over my opponent's back.

[04:41:56] Make sure you don't start gripping the head, okay, it's not going to help you at all. [04:42:00] Just have your arm sort of over your opponent's back, okay. The advantage of this one is the ability to move the opponent's head by coming to the end of the lever, all the way [04:42:10] up by the temple, and then from here, moving the head.

[04:42:13] And why does it facilitate escape? Okay, so three excellent defensive options. Arguably the [04:42:20] best option is to come through all the way, like so, with a reverse crossface. Another excellent option is an underhook. [04:42:30] Another great option is the overback or bicep crossface, which enables you to move the head back.

[04:42:36] quite readily, then create excellent control [04:42:40] coming out of your elbow escape. Those are our favorite options with the outside arm. Once we get good frame positions with inside [04:42:50] arm and outside arm, you're going to have a lot of choices as far as your escapes from side patterns. One[04:43:00]

[04:43:00] of the themes I'm constantly trying to push on my students is that Getting out of pins is just problem solving under stress. You've got to be able to identify [04:43:10] what the central problem is in order to solve it. Whenever someone has a cross face grip on me, the central problem is the connection of their hip To my near side [04:43:20] hip.

[04:43:20] So when someone has a crossfix, that's where the arm comes through underneath, connects to my lat muscle. And now their [04:43:30] shoulder and bicep connect to my jaw and use my jaw as a lever to exert force. Pressure across my face to my spinal column. Okay, so that's a cross face. [04:43:40] Whenever someone has this grip, the central problem that I have to overcome is the connection of my inside or near hip to [04:43:50] their far side here.

[04:43:54] When Placido can connect his hip to my hip, I'm in deep trouble. He doesn't have to [04:44:00] sit through, just standing there. Just walk that hip in and when there's connection, I can't elbow escape. There's no space for me to elbow escape. Okay, so [04:44:10] what, what's my reaction? My reaction is to create space, right? But every time I go to move away from Placido, he just follows me and he keeps connected to my hip [04:44:20] And you never get out.

[04:44:21] Every time you try to shrink away, you just feel he just follows you across the mat It's hopeless and you end up just going around in these meaningless circles [04:44:30] Okay, that's because he's doing a good job of connecting his hip to yours Most people do this on their knees But later on the video we're going to look at when people [04:44:40] Accentuate the connection by turning the hip through into a sit up all the way down to the floor in some cases.

[04:44:44] Okay? Then they get a really strong connection to the hip. So what would, what should we [04:44:50] be doing under these circumstances? Okay, I need to create space between his hip and mine, and he wants minimum space and like, [04:45:00] so, okay, if I frame on this side and I just walk away, we know what happens. He follows us. I have to create a barrier [04:45:10] here.

[04:45:10] to stop him following us. And that barrier is my knee. That's why I always place my knee right here at his [04:45:20] hip, so that when I shrimp on my left foot, he tries to follow me and runs into my knee. So I always beat him with my knee. [04:45:30] If I have my two feet on the floor, like so, and I shrimp, he just follows.

[04:45:38] So [04:45:40] there has to be something holding this hip in place so that I can walk away from it and him not follow me. Okay? [04:45:50] The best thing, there's several options, but one really good one here, arguably the best, is my knee. So I place my knee on the floor. As close to the pocket of his hip [04:46:00] as possible, so that every inch that I shrimp out, he can't follow it.

[04:46:04] Until my knee gets in front of his hip. Once it's in front, there's no following. Okay, every [04:46:10] inch I shrimp out now, it just goes right in. So my whole goal is to go from outside knee position, to inside. The best way to do that is to get your knee as close to the hip, right [04:46:20] from the start, as you possibly can.

[04:46:22] Get your foot up higher than your knee. So that as I go to work here, follow, follow me, it's impossible [04:46:30] for him to follow. As opposed to shrimping, where he easily follows my movement. Make sure when you go to shrimp, bring your hip in. [04:46:40] Make sure your knee is right there, so that when you shrimp, the knee gets inside.

[04:46:49] Now when he tries to [04:46:50] follow me, impossible, my knee hits the inside position. And as a result, we quickly affect the escape. Second option, sitting up, is to [04:47:00] put my elbow here on the hip. Okay. As a result, once I get my elbow on the hip, when Placido goes to [04:47:10] follow me now, my elbow on the hip slows him down.

[04:47:13] It gives me an excellent chance to get my knee inside. Go from here, as always, We're back in a good adjunct [04:47:20] position. Okay? So I take my elbow right here. Now his hip can't follow.[04:47:30]

[04:47:31] So when I go to shrimp out, the elbow is blocking him at the hip. Now he tries to follow [04:47:40] me and it's very easy to bring my knee inside and get back into a winning position. Third option is to go through with the pit [04:47:50] of my elbow. So I bring my arm and lock it in. He goes to follow me and the arm makes it very difficult.

[04:47:58] But this is not for elbow [04:48:00] escapes. This is for backdoor escapes and we'll be looking at those later on in the video. So you can see there's a sense in which you have to be able [04:48:10] to form a disconnection between your opponent's hip and your hip. And the way to do this is to frame with either your knee or your elbow [04:48:20] on that far hip, break the connection, and as you shrimp away, you'll have the space required to get your knee in and perform that elbow escape successfully, even against very strong [04:48:30] resistance.

[04:48:34] Now, we're looking at the idea of pin escapes as ultimately some form of, uh, problem solving [04:48:40] under stress. In order to solve a problem, you've got to know what the problem is you're trying to solve. In side control, when my opponent has a crossface, we saw it was hip to hip connection. [04:48:50] When someone goes to a reverse crossface, the second most popular method of holding someone, it's about shoulder to shoulder connection.

[04:48:57] So again, here's a [04:49:00] crossface. When someone has a crossface, I need to maximize my ability to stop him getting hip to hip connection here at [04:49:10] my inside hip and his far hip. If Placido makes a switch to a reverse crossface, the problem now is the connection of his shoulder, [04:49:20] his near shoulder to my outside shoulder.

[04:49:23] That's what locks him in place now. Okay, makes it very hard for me to move effectively. He's controlling my [04:49:30] head through this connection of his left shoulder to my left shoulder. When I try to elbow escape, I can't because I can't move my head. If he had a conventional [04:49:40] crossface, my head can turn into him eventually.

[04:49:45] Oh, he locks me in here, my head can't move. I'm stuck. It's like he's got a wedge underneath my head and neck. [04:49:50] This is the connection that I've got to break. So whenever someone is here in a cross face, one of my favorite tactics is to have my [04:50:00] hand here monitoring. If I ever see Placido go to make the switch, I put my hand here as a frame.

[04:50:09] So when he goes to [04:50:10] connect to the shoulder, there's no connection, okay? Even if he crunches down on me now. There's just no connection. You can easily hold someone in this position. Now there's no control of my [04:50:20] head. And as a result, you can move your head around, and from here you could easily bring legs in, and start going back into all of the escapes that we failed on.

[04:50:29] [04:50:30] Okay? So my whole thing is, whenever I see someone in a crossface getting ready to make a switch, when I see that switch, my head always beats their [04:50:40] arm. Because their arm has to go over mine. The very act of going over mine always gives me inside position. So he's got a cross face, he goes to [04:50:50] move. It's so easy.

[04:50:52] Just goes right in. Now he goes to control my head and shoulder. He could even take his knees off the ground and lean all his weight on me. And even with [04:51:00] one hand I can easily hold him up. Okay. From here he tries to pin me. There's no way. It's so easy to bring everything in and find ourselves [04:51:10] right back in those positions to get all of our counterattacks on.

[04:51:13] Okay. So once again. If I start him just like so and I see him go to make a switch, boom, there it [04:51:20] is. Now he can't fulfill the one great requirement he must for these reverse crossface pins, which is shoulder to shoulder connection. You've broken the connection before it even began. [04:51:30] And as a result, your whole body can move very freely and very easily and go into your counterattacks.[04:51:40]

[04:51:42] Now, first you've got to understand about side pins. They come in different types. How you go to escape. How I go to escape from [04:51:50] any given side pin will depend upon the configuration of side pin he is using. That's very important, so I'm going to say it again. How I go to escape [04:52:00] from any side pin will depend upon the configuration of side pin that he is using against me.

[04:52:05] There's no one size fits all. with side pins. There are [04:52:10] variations. You have to understand what they are. Each variation has its good points. Each variation has its weaknesses. When you understand the differences between each, and you understand their [04:52:20] strengths and weaknesses, it's a lot easier to get out of those pins.

[04:52:23] Okay? Don't try to hammer away. With a, uh, with hammer and nail tactics in a [04:52:30] situation where what's required is a screwdriver. Okay, that's very very inefficient Let's look through the basic configurations that he can use [04:52:40] and the basic configurations that I can use Okay Whenever someone goes to the pen meet, I would say probably the most common and the most popular [04:52:50] Pin configuration and side control in the modern sport of Jiu Jitsu is something I call top, head and arm.

[04:52:55] Okay? Um, that's where someone has a cross face arm and an underhook. They [04:53:00] have the option of having their hands open or, more likely perhaps, their hands closed. It's smart for them to close their hands because essentially they're closing the wedges around my head and [04:53:10] shoulders. They can use direct cross face pressure to put me under great duress or they can focus more on choking up on the underhook and getting hand position I'm using the hip position to [04:53:20] stop my movement, okay?

[04:53:21] So this is arguably the most popular and the most effective overall method. of working. Okay. Another very [04:53:30] popular option, probably the second most popular, is a reverse cross face. Okay. This does a really good job of wedging my head and preventing my head moving away from my opponent. [04:53:40] Most people, when they opt for a reverse cross face, will take their second hand and go near hip.

[04:53:46] The idea behind near hip control is that [04:53:50] I can't put him back in guard now. His arm functions as a wedge or block to prevent my knee getting inside position. If his hand wasn't here, [04:54:00] then I could get inside position with my knee and stop putting him back in guard. This arm is designed to steal the inside position from me.

[04:54:07] His hand is inside my hip and knee. [04:54:10] His elbow is inside my knee and his hand is inside my hip. And as a result, he's stolen the inside position from me. I have no ability now to put him back in guard. So he controls [04:54:20] my head with the reverse cross face. He controls inside position with his arm like so. So this too is a very effective method.

[04:54:28] A less popular method [04:54:30] is for the opponent to bring Bar hip and wedge the elbow here.

[04:54:38] Elbow down, like [04:54:40] so. Okay. This, it's good insofar as it controls my shrimping. I can't shrimp away from him now. [04:54:50] Okay. And I can't move my head. So it's, it's not a bad hold. It's not my favorite, but it's not bad. Um, it does have the disadvantage, however, that he's [04:55:00] got to try and stop my shrimping, which is a very strong movement.

[04:55:04] And there's nothing to prevent my knee going inside. So yeah, if you're a strong, powerful type, [04:55:10] uh, with good mobility, you could get this to work, but it does have the defect that it's pretty easy for me now to start getting my knee inside. Okay. So it's [04:55:20] not a bad option, but, uh, it's one of the less popular ones.

[04:55:23] Um, probably the least popular option. The one you see the least, it's a very good option when you work with a gi, when you have clothing, the [04:55:30] grip or the belt, but no gi, uh, not so good. It's where you get cross face. and near hip. It looks strong on the surface because you do have a [04:55:40] cross face, that's a good grip, and you do have the ability to control inside position, but you have no ability to stop your opponent from moving away from you, okay?

[04:55:49] If we [04:55:50] had clothing and he went underneath and gripped my gi pants or my belt, then he could stop me moving away, but that's illegal in no gi training, so it's [04:56:00] pretty easy for me to post and move my body out in the way, okay? So this is probably the least popular in no gi. for, for holding and controlling people.

[04:56:07] Okay, so again, the four options. [04:56:10] Arguably the most popular is top head and arm. Okay, this gives excellent control, a set of, look, a set of closed wedges around my head and [04:56:20] shoulders and is very, very good for controlling head and upper body. Okay, it's an excellent option, arguably the most popular. Second is cross face.

[04:56:29] and [04:56:30] near hip. An excellent option, probably the second most popular. Does a great job of controlling my head and does an excellent job of controlling inside space, making elbow escapes [04:56:40] quite problematic. Then we have two over, like so. Good for controlling the hip. Good for controlling the head, but doesn't do much to [04:56:50] control inside space.

[04:56:51] So unless you're able to either be very fast and move with me or very strong and able to freeze my [04:57:00] hips Plus it was neither fast nor strong. So It'd be quite easy for me to get my knee inside, okay Probably the least [04:57:10] popular would be cross face and near hip On the surface it looks good because the cross face is a pretty good hold to have and this does a great job of controlling [04:57:20] inside space, but in reality without the benefit of gi and belt to use, it's pretty easy for me to start moving away and putting my opponent back in guard.

[04:57:28] Okay, so those are your [04:57:30] four options that your opponent has with the upper body. Now let's look at his options with the lower body, the hips. Do you remember guys how we talked constantly about the idea of hip to [04:57:40] hip Connection is one of the key elements of side control. Passido's over here. We know that Passido's right hip wants to connect to my right hip.

[04:57:48] Okay? The [04:57:50] more he can do that, it tightens the controls that he has over me. And it's the harder and harder my elbow skates me up. Okay? So that's a big big part of it. [04:58:00] Placido's number one option, and the most popular option in modern day jiu jitsu, is the so called square stance, where he's on two knees with his hips square to the mat.

[04:58:08] This has many advantages. [04:58:10] First, it gives him good mobility. If I go to move, he's on his knees and he's pretty light. He can move around pretty quickly. At any given moment, he can transfer to the knee on belly. And [04:58:20] score points. Okay? It's very easy for him to transfer into the mounted position by me sliding across.[04:58:30]

[04:58:30] Um, it's a very very stable position. If he locks up tight, when I try to bridge him and move him, he feels very stable. His body is well [04:58:40] centred. Okay, so it's, in my opinion, overall it's, it's, it's, the best. Of course, there's no one, uh, pin which is perfect, but it's a damn, damn good one. There's a [04:58:50] reason why this is the most popular.

[04:58:51] Okay. Um, second option is for Paseo to sit out towards me, like so. Typically [04:59:00] his arms, his hands will transfer to the arms and the sit out has the virtue of, That it closes the distance between his hips and my hips. His hip connection now is very, very strong. [04:59:10] Moreover, the height of his hip connection goes down towards the floor.

[04:59:14] So his center of gravity is lower. Okay. That means if I try to bring my knee in, it feels awfully, [04:59:20] awfully difficult. It shuts down my elbow escape. So if I'm here, there's an opening for me Pazito sits out, he takes the [04:59:30] opening away from me and kills my elbow escape. Okay. Now this comes at a price. And that price is stability.

[04:59:37] By sitting out, Placido can become [04:59:40] somewhat vulnerable to being bumped forward and taken backwards. Okay? So it's good for some [04:59:50] things, but like everything, it has its limits. Okay? Placido's third option is a reverse sit out. Now, to hit a reverse sit out, he must Bring the [05:00:00] arm over here or here. Okay, coming back.

[05:00:07] If Placido keeps a cross [05:00:10] face and hits a reverse sit down, just everything's wrong. There's just no connection here. It's so easy for me now to start pumping that side up. So Placido must get shoulder to shoulder connection [05:00:20] either on top of the shoulder or under the shoulder. Okay? This is an excellent option also.

[05:00:29] [05:00:30] Okay? So From a situation where Pasiru brings the arm over and then from here, sits out. He has a great ability now to step [05:00:40] into the mount. No, step into the mount. Good. He has a good [05:00:50] ability to go into leg locks by taking his left foot between my legs, left foot between my legs, and then going into various kinds of leg [05:01:00] locks from here.

[05:01:00] So this tool is an excellent option, okay? Um, so what have we got at this point? Three options. Square, which is [05:01:10] arguably the most robust, the most stable, the most mobile, and the one which facilitates the most variation in point scoring. Thank you. Uh, entries into submissions, et cetera, et cetera. There's a [05:01:20] reason why this is the most popular.

[05:01:21] Um, but it's not the only one. The weakness of the square stance is that it presents an opening for elbow escapes. So [05:01:30] some opponents will hit a quick sit out to the head and close that space. This puts great weight over my hips, is very stable, but [05:01:40] has the weakness that forwards and backwards, he can be destabilized.

[05:01:45] Okay, the simple action of me moving my hips out and coming up will [05:01:50] destabilize him in one direction. Sit up. The simple action if he tries to climb onto my hips, climb onto my hips, becomes [05:02:00] unstable forwards. Okay, so it's, it's good but has its limitations like any other. A reverse sit out requires a switch to shoulder to [05:02:10] shoulder either on top or underneath the reverse underhook situation.

[05:02:15] Okay, this too. It's an excellent one. It does a [05:02:20] good job of enabling him to control the inside space with his hand, to step into mount, do all kinds of things. But it too has its limitations. [05:02:30] It's not very stable in the back of his direction. And from here it's so difficult for us to start moving the man around in different directions.

[05:02:37] It also suffers from problems of [05:02:40] pass offs, where from here we can start reverse elbow escaping and moving our opponent like so. Okay, so you see that there are three [05:02:50] lower body options for our opponent and four upper body options. The upper body options, top head and arms. [05:03:00] Reverse cross face. Reverse cross face over the hip and cross face and under the hip.

[05:03:08] Okay. [05:03:10] Combined with those four upper body options are three lower body options. Where he's square is option number one. Forward sit out, option number two. [05:03:20] And reverse set out, option number three. Understand that a good pinner will play between all of those. Remember guys, no [05:03:30] one pin is invulnerable. Every pin has its weaknesses, its good points and its bad points.

[05:03:37] Your job as the pinner is to move [05:03:40] between different pins to cover up the weaknesses and exploit the strengths of each pin. No one pin will hold a good man in place. [05:03:50] Rather, the totality of your pens. will hold a good man in place over time. Please understand that. It's very important. I'll say it again. [05:04:00] No one pin will hold a good man in place for very long.

[05:04:05] What holds them down is the totality of your pins where you [05:04:10] exploit the strengths of each and avoid the weaknesses over time. So in a realistic situation, where I was playing bottom position, I would not be faced against one form of pin on the [05:04:20] Piter Placido. But as he moves around with me, I would have to deal with variations as he goes through.

[05:04:26] Until, ultimately, he gets to [05:04:30] hold me down for long periods of time, okay? So that's the problem that you're going to be working against. You see that it's a dynamic problem. There are variations that he can use, and I have to [05:04:40] know how each one of those has to be attacked. Each has to be checked within a given time frame because my opponent can switch back and forth from one to the other.

[05:04:48] And that, sir, is when the [05:04:50] game becomes interesting, okay? It's pretty easy just to hit a basic escape on someone who just holds one pin. Where things get interesting and difficult is when you [05:05:00] have a dynamic pinner you who's moving and resisting and confounding you by going from pin to pin to pin. And, uh, as I said, that's where things start getting interesting.

[05:05:09] [05:05:10] Guys, I just want to throw in a [05:05:20] very short note, this is not a big move I'm about to show you here. Just a very short note on, uh, something that really helps people, uh, it's helped my students for years, many, [05:05:30] many years now to get out of side controls and competitive situations. And that's to bring kipping.

[05:05:36] into side control escapes. It's kind of small, it's kind of subtle, but it [05:05:40] really makes a difference when you've got a tough guy on top of you and you just can't get your elbow escapes to work. Um, you remember from the mounted pin section, we worked on kipping escapes and we saw that we [05:05:50] can use our feet in the air with no contact with the mat to kip our body and escape from mounted pins.

[05:05:56] A natural question for you guys to be asking is, is there a kipping escape to [05:06:00] side control? Um, the answer is no. But it has applications. Okay. What we do is we [05:06:10] try to perform a conventional side elbow escape and you've got to run into sticking points. When you've got a tough opponent on top of you, there's got to be times you kind of get stuck and you're almost there, but you're [05:06:20] not quite there.

[05:06:21] That is when you use some kipping. Okay. So the central problem with regards side elbow escapes is that we've got to [05:06:30] fit our knee into this hole. here. I've got to get inside position with my knee. That's what the side elbow escape is based on. The problem [05:06:40] is he's trying to get hip to hip connection. Walk in just like so, and now there's no space for my knee to get in.

[05:06:46] So there's a battle for space coming back, where I'm trying [05:06:50] to frame on him, and he's trying to come in towards me. And sometimes you reach an impasse, and you feel like he's kind of winning the battle on [05:07:00] space. What I often do under these circumstances is I thumb post. My training partner is Nick. I take my two legs away from him, [05:07:10] like so.

[05:07:11] So my two feet are now mobile, just like we did when we did kipping escapes. But this time, unlike a mounted kipping escape, where I keep my [05:07:20] feet together, we kip with our legs apart. I'm going to use my legs to just kip as my lower back comes off the ground. I just kip [05:07:30] And it repositions my body so that now my hips are slightly further away, just far enough that I can penetrate with my knee and [05:07:40] get inside.

[05:07:41] So even when Passiero gets his hip all the way in, I thumb post to stop his head following me. I take my legs away from him, [05:07:50] strong, and from here, I whip my legs and I go from facing to my left. to facing to my right. And as a [05:08:00] result, space develops. When he tries to re get, uh, reposition his hips back to my hips, I beat him on the inside position.

[05:08:08] And as a result, we can go [05:08:10] through and into, uh, various counterattacks. Okay? This is a really practical way. to take a side [05:08:20] escape which kind of worked or almost worked and didn't quite make the grade and then turn it into success. I use this all the time. My students use it all the time. They have a huge amount of success [05:08:30] with this.

[05:08:30] Makes a big difference to your performance against a tough opponent. So one more time. The problem that we're trying to overcome is this. How am I going [05:08:40] to penetrate with the knee inside a set? When he's a good man and trying to bring His body enclosed. You notice what happens to his head? [05:08:50] If the head comes down the body, then that's what enables him to pin my hips.

[05:08:54] So the first thing I do is I freeze his head with a thumb post. Now, the only thing that can [05:09:00] move is the hips. He tries to move down the body, only the hips can go. Now from here, I take my legs away from him. Normally, I'm trying to turn my hips into him. I [05:09:10] turn my knees away from him. My legs separate. And then from here, I whip so that my hips come off the floor as I kip [05:09:20] and my knees face back towards him.

[05:09:22] Now he tries to come in, my knee always beats him on the inside space. And then from here, [05:09:30] it's a pretty easy thing for us to start tuning in and find ourselves in some of our favorites. counterattacking positions. Okay. So this is just a really [05:09:40] simple and really practical way to use kipping in a way, which is slightly different from our mounted kips, but really makes a difference in your performance with your side escapes.[05:09:50]

[05:09:50] The obvious difference here is when we kip against the mounted position, our feet are together. When we kick against the side position, our feet are apart.[05:10:00]

[05:10:01] Now, we're looking at side elbow escapes, going through the small details that make a difference to your performance. Um, we know what the basic deal is with side elbow escapes. It's [05:10:10] all about getting my knee to the inside position, forming effective frames until my knee can get inside his hip. That's the fundamental thing.

[05:10:17] thing that we're grappling with here. Now, [05:10:20] he knows that and his whole thing is to close that distance and come in, okay? So there tends to be a battle here where people shrimp and shrimp, so, [05:10:30] and shrimp to generate space and they use that space to come in with the knee. That's Jiu Jitsu 101, okay?

[05:10:38] Unfortunately, when he's [05:10:40] Okay. So the standard method involves me pointing my knees towards [05:10:50] Placido and shrimping out. Okay. So standard method of shrimping, I have a planted foot. And I shrimp my hips away from [05:11:00] my opponent like so. That's Jiu Jitsu 101 for you. A reverse shrimp is where I point my knees away from my opponent.

[05:11:06] So here's Placido on my right hand side, typically, and shrimping, I [05:11:10] point my knees towards him and shrimp away. Okay. In a reverse shrimp, I point my knees away from him and I reach for the floor. Instead of me pushing [05:11:20] off the floor, the shrimp, I pull off the floor. I use a hamstring curl motion to pull. my hips like so.[05:11:30]

[05:11:30] Okay, so typically shrimping involves plant and push. Reverse shrimping involves plant the ball of [05:11:40] the foot instead of the heel of the foot and pull and as a result we have a face down there. What you typically find is when your opponent's doing a really good job of crowding your [05:11:50] hips And there's no space, the shrimp, and he keeps following you and causing all kinds of problems.

[05:11:54] What we do under these circumstances is we just move our legs so far away from him that a [05:12:00] huge space opens between my hips and his hips. If I turn into him, there's no space between my hips and his. When I turn away, there's a huge space. And [05:12:10] then I use a reverse shrimping motion. I reach for the mat and I pull.

[05:12:14] And this creates an ocean of space between you and your opponent. As a [05:12:20] result, I can bring my legs into a position where as my toes point back towards him. It's so hard for Placido to prevent the angle of my knee coming downwards [05:12:30] and the entry directly into his grip. Some form of elbow escape. From here, so many ways for us to operate.

[05:12:37] Okay? So once again, if [05:12:40] he's jammed into my hips and I just shrug conventionally, it's so hard for me. Follow me? It's so hard for me to work effectively. But if I just take my [05:12:50] hips off the ground and move away from him, that, that creates so much space that when Patrik goes to follow, it's almost impossible.

[05:12:58] Then from here, I [05:13:00] just bring my knee into position, he goes to bring his knees in, there's no way. You've got to stop. You create an ocean of space between you and your opponent. And as a result, find yourself [05:13:10] in positions where you can easily go on the attack. I'll demonstrate that from another angle. Okay, the big problem we face, his hip [05:13:20] position is so tight.

[05:13:20] He's doing such a good job of hip to hip that every time I get a shrug away he follows, I can't move away. So I take my legs and I face [05:13:30] completely away from him. Creating so much space between my hips and his, that when I hit a reverse shrimp, I touch the floor and pull. But when he tries to make up that [05:13:40] space, he just comes on to my legs.

[05:13:43] And from situations like this, it's very easy for us now to go in on the attack. So [05:13:50] this is the role of reverse shrimping, and it can form a beautiful and highly effective alternative to your basic forms of shrimping. One more time solo, if you can pass it over [05:14:00] here, sir. Juditzen 101. We plant the whole foot and then from here we shrimp our body out and come in that's fine It works well up to a certain [05:14:10] level, but it must be supplemented sometimes, especially it's a good opponent with reverse shrimping But he's out to my right hand side and I swing my legs away from him to generate a huge amount of space behind [05:14:20] me I reach for the floor and pull even further away and then switch direction back into him.

[05:14:25] Now you've created a huge arc of space, and as a result, [05:14:30] it's easy for you to bring your legs into that space. So demonstrating here, Passido is hip to hip. There's no space for me to get in. So [05:14:40] instead, I hit an opposite strategy where I take my legs and I bring them away. This creates an enormous arc of space between us.[05:14:50]

[05:14:50] When Passido tries to Follow, no, you'll see that a reverse shrimp creates even more space [05:15:00] as my hips come out. Now I just bring my legs up. As he goes to follow, he walks on to My elbow escape. And as a result, we're in perfect position to [05:15:10] go in and get this man moving, okay? So this is a fantastic supplement to your basic shrimping.

[05:15:18] Reverse shrimping creates [05:15:20] two to three times as much space Even against strongly resisting opponents and gives you the perfect drop in to get that knee inside and put that man [05:15:30] Now,

[05:15:34] we've been through a ton of details and, uh, thoughts and, uh, concerns [05:15:40] with regards to the side pin and the side elbow escape. We've seen that the most popular side pin of them all is top head and arm with our opponent's hips in a squared [05:15:50] position. And it's my earnest belief that the number one escape to this position in all of Jiu Jitsu is the side elbow escape.

[05:15:55] So let's start putting everything together into a coherent package so you can see everything working [05:16:00] in unison and help us. Great and very common battle between his side pin from the square position top head and arm Versus our side elbow escape or flesh arm. Okay, [05:16:10] so The problem we're working against he's working with the most popular pin in the sport the top head and arm where he has a cross face Arm and an underhook and he's chosen to lock [05:16:20] his hands He's on square knee position both his knees on the floor just like so so he's very stable He locks in tight, very strong, takes [05:16:30] good head position, like so.

[05:16:31] What I'm looking to do is get my knee to the inside position between us. Step number one, form effective frames. I won't be [05:16:40] effective with my elbows in the outside position. So I start to turn and bring my elbow and get that inside frame. I have a bunch of choices here. I can frame the near hip, [05:16:50] or I can go further through and frame my elbow on the far hip.

[05:16:54] Okay? I normally go near hip. You can use both. They're very effective. From here I [05:17:00] start to look for positioning of my outside arm. One good option is over back that gives me a good option to use my bicep to cross face my opponent and move his head. [05:17:10] Alternatively, I could put my hand through all the way like so.

[05:17:15] And again, I'll get a good ability now to move his head. Alternatively, I can come [05:17:20] through with an underhook. Again, I get a good ability to move his head, okay? Coming around. Every elbow escape is almost always greatly assisted by [05:17:30] taking my opponent's head to the same side as his hip. So as he locks up, tight, tight, tight, tight, strong.

[05:17:35] Head comes in. From here, if I can ever move Placido's head from my left side [05:17:40] across to the right, that's always going to facilitate the movement of my knee inside. Okay, coming around. Now, Fundamentally, what [05:17:50] we have to do is penetrate with our knee inside our training partner's hip. I can't do it if I'm down here by the floor.

[05:17:57] I can't do it if my knee's up here by the lat muscle. Be [05:18:00] precise. Put your knee right there on the point of the hip. There's a constant battle now between Placido's attempt to bring his hip to my hip and form connection, and Placido's This is my ability to get my knee in [05:18:10] front of his hip. Now when he tries to form connection, he can't.

[05:18:12] There's a frame of the knee which prevents him from coming in and facilitates my movement to the inside. Try to use [05:18:20] angle to your advantage. Have your foot higher than your knee. If your foot's lower than your knee, you tend to push into the hip and ribs and not penetrate. When my foot's higher, it's much easier for me [05:18:30] to penetrate with my knee.

[05:18:31] The angle creates advantage which lets me slip in much more easily. For Your toes, don't have them pointing anywhere, point them down to the floor, [05:18:40] towards his feet. And as a result, you penetrate very, very easily. So once again, putting everything together. We're getting pinned, he's got a strong pin. From here, [05:18:50] choosing my friends.

[05:18:52] I move the head, I get my knee in front, hold me down buddy. Now, from this position, every time I try to shrimp out, he's following me. [05:19:00] But as long as my knee is in front of his hip, and I can get my knee inside his, we're out free. If I cannot do this, and he's locked in tight, then I'll [05:19:10] take my legs away from him, and I will use reverse trumping, then bringing my knees up high, he tries to follow, and we'll get that knee inside.

[05:19:18] Sometimes, when he locks [05:19:20] in tight, I will use kipping, and just kip to get my knee inside like so. Once we get in here, let's rotate around, [05:19:30] around,

[05:19:34] I've got inside position, with my knee. Next step is to move my head away from him [05:19:40] and get inside position at the bicep. Okay, I could put him back in guard, but we know now why put him back in guard. We can put him in a submission hold [05:19:50] because this is an arm dominant pin. We're going to go with the clamp position and my knee goes in front of my training partner's shoulder on one side behind my opponent's shoulder on the other and traps the head [05:20:00] and one arm.

[05:20:00] So if he tries to pull his arm free, it won't be easy. From here we can get much more than just guard position. We can go into upper body [05:20:10] submissions. If he goes to pull away and posture up out of upper body submissions, you're going to find immediately you can transfer into lower body submissions. Okay, from [05:20:20] lower body situations, it's not so hard for us now to go through and score.

[05:20:25] winning positions. And so there you have it, [05:20:30] putting everything together into coherent package, the side elbow escape, taking all those little details and working them in a practical way against the most popular side pin in [05:20:40] Jiu Jitsu.

[05:20:45] Now it's time that we could take a detailed look at this position that I've been [05:20:50] talking about a lot. coming out of side control with elbow escapes. This is the clamp position. It's a variation of guard which is specifically designed to control your opponent's head and one arm. [05:21:00] It's, I, the idea behind it is it controls distance in a very similar way that Ashigurami controls distance.

[05:21:05] It controls the distance of your opponent's head from your head. Just as [05:21:10] Ashigurami Controls the distance of your opponent's hips from your hips. Um, if we look at, Ashigurami, One knee up, one knee down, one knee up. [05:21:20] Ashigurami works by putting a knee in front, so if his opponent comes forward, the knee is a shield, and it puts a knee behind his knee.

[05:21:28] So if he goes to move away from [05:21:30] me, it's a shield. It locks me to him. So if he comes forward, I control his movement forward. If he goes to back away from me, it locks me to him. So it, it guards and, and measures [05:21:40] distance. Okay. By having one behind and one in front, a clamp does exactly the same thing. It puts a knee in front [05:21:50] and a knee behind.

[05:21:51] Okay? But instead of a leg. between your, uh, uh, legs. It's an arm. So there's a sense in which the clamp is [05:22:00] an ashigarami of the upper body. Just like ashigarami, it leads into a host of submissions and is a very, very powerful controlling mechanism. Okay. Uh, thank [05:22:10] you. My point to you is this. Anytime you come out of a side elbow escape, it's just as easy for you to go directly into the clamp as it is for you to go into, say, a closed [05:22:20] guard or a butterfly guard or any other form of guard.

[05:22:23] And it leads directly into submission holds. So this is one of the very best ways to come out of a defensive [05:22:30] cycle, where you're trying to get out of a pin, and immediately back into counter offense. This creates a scary situation for the guy who is pinning you. Every time you get out of an upper body pin from side [05:22:40] control You're threatening him with submission holds.

[05:22:43] So it goes together really well with this big theme of this entire video. The idea that every time we come out of a [05:22:50] defensive pin situation, we go into counter offense and you start threatening people. You're not dissatisfied with getting out. But rather you're looking for the optimal or [05:23:00] maximizing option to get out and attack.

[05:23:03] So let's talk a little bit about the clamp and, uh, how to get, uh, understand [05:23:10] the small details that make it work really well. Okay. We've had a look at the broad details now let's look at the finer details. First your foot position [05:23:20] isn't that important. Okay. People are always asking me, where do I put my feet?

[05:23:23] I don't really care that much where you put your feet. What I do care about is your knees. One knee wants to be here [05:23:30] inside my opponent's shoulder. I don't want him to be able to get his arm over my leg. Now you're just in a basic guard position. Okay? So I want inside position with this [05:23:40] knee inside the shoulder.

[05:23:42] I want to be a little bit more on my side. If I'm too much flat on my back, his head can go over and around my body. and start causing [05:23:50] problems. So I want to be on my side. I want this knee here to be as high as possible. Up here by the crown of his head. The more my knee goes behind [05:24:00] him, the more Hasidic can posture up.

[05:24:02] So what we're looking to do is to get out on our side and control the head by pushing down and locking like so. So my two [05:24:10] knees clamp around the head and the arm. Okay? Now where you are now is good, But it won't be really solidified until I take my foot and pass it across and join my [05:24:20] foot to my own knee.

[05:24:21] What, what's so special about this? When he goes to raise his head, I can now use his shoulder to lever. His head down in [05:24:30] extreme cases where he bases out on the floor It's even permissible for you to put your shoelaces through underneath. So when he tries to pull away Very very difficult. [05:24:40] Okay, so a basic clamp is just performed with the knees here Okay, this is where we typically start from as he tries to [05:24:50] Resist me and push around.

[05:24:51] I want to put this hand on the floor. I put my foot over and I touch my own knee. Now, I force his hand to the mat. If possible, I'll thread through and get my [05:25:00] shoelaces inside. So when he tries to pull away from me and cause any kinds of problems, it's very, very difficult. He goes to pass your arm. Very, very difficult.

[05:25:08] He swims his arm [05:25:10] over to escape and that will give me exactly what I was looking for, okay? So once again, the basic clamp. We want to be partially on our side, [05:25:20] one knee high, one knee inside, just like so. He will probably be trying to control your knee because if he doesn't do that, it's very easy for us to just start [05:25:30] swimming through in the triangle.

[05:25:30] So he'll probably be trying to control your knee. Option number one is to come through and touch your shin with your own foot. Now I can flick his hand to the floor, make a strong [05:25:40] body posture. No matter how strong his body, I just punch my hips and force his hand to the mat. Now, he wants to bring his hand back, but I just [05:25:50] thread my shoelaces through underneath, like so.

[05:25:52] Now, when Pastor goes to posture up, very, very difficult. He goes to pull away from me, even more difficult. [05:26:00] And this makes it very easy for us to go around the corner and start going into submission holds. Don't worry, I'll show all the various submission holds that we can get to very soon. [05:26:10] But first, you've got to learn control, okay?

[05:26:12] So, once again, the basic idea. From any God situation, I want to be able to get my knee in front, [05:26:20] just like so, okay? Now, as I shrimp out, I bring this knee here, up and forward. The further forward this knee, the more control [05:26:30] over the shoulder. The more my knee goes behind him, the more he can posture up and away from me.

[05:26:34] So I want to bring this knee up nice and high. Now from here, I take my foot and I [05:26:40] go over his shoulder and I try to hook the heel into the front deltoid. Why? Because I can use his deltoid to [05:26:50] lever My knee down makes a strong body. Go to posture up. I use this to lever him down. Okay. He goes to control me here.

[05:26:58] Look how I can punch [05:27:00] out and force his hand to the mat. Now from here, I just go through and around and hook my shoelaces in. So now when he goes to posture, it's an enormously [05:27:10] strong position. Okay. So this would be a basic clamp. This would be a connected clamp where my foot connects to my shin. And this would be a reinforced clamp [05:27:20] where my shoelaces go through underneath the far side.

[05:27:23] Okay? All of them are very, very good in their own right. This is the easiest one to get into. [05:27:30] This one here gives excellent control in ways that we'll look at in just a few minutes. And this one here is the most controlling because it controls both arms instead of just [05:27:40] one. When he tries to posture up, almost impossible.

[05:27:43] If he goes to yank his arm out, it's the other arm, he'll always surrender the [05:27:50] submission holds that we'll be looking at fairly shortly. Okay, so seen from another angle.

[05:27:59] Starting [05:28:00] position on our side. One knee. Frontal position, the other knee high, rear position. He goes to yank his arm away, difficult. He goes to [05:28:10] push into me, difficult. Okay, don't obsess with your foot position yet. Sometimes I have my foot here, sometimes I put it underneath this ribcage, sometimes I have my [05:28:20] foot on the hip, sometimes I put it on this hip, doesn't really matter.

[05:28:23] What does matter is my knee position. One in front of the shoulder, one behind the other shoulder, okay? I'm [05:28:30] constantly looking to move my body out to the side. The more chest up to the ceiling I am, the less effective I am, and the more I can start pushing knees through and causing problems. So we're always [05:28:40] looking to get our body out to the side.

[05:28:42] I can solidify my position by bringing my foot here over the top. Okay, I can solidify my position still [05:28:50] further by getting this hand to the mat and threading the shoelaces through. Okay, and from here you're in a very strong attacking position. So that's the basic idea behind the [05:29:00] clamp. Now, let's go further and start looking at your attacking options.

[05:29:04] Once you get to the clamp, you have a bunch of really good submission attempts. [05:29:10] Um, I'm sure you've already guessed, That, of them all, my favorite is the front triangle, a motosunkaku. Uh, that's the one that I always try to use first. So, [05:29:20] from any given clamp position, you're going to find, by the way, it's not wrong to get a hold of this collar with your hand.

[05:29:27] Something I often make use of, okay? [05:29:30] Um, once I touch my foot over the top like so, I use the foot here, grip grip, okay? And I, it's illegal in me to start [05:29:40] grabbing single digits. This is illegal and annoying, okay? But it is perfectly legal for me to grab all four at the same time. Okay? I pull away, [05:29:50] and as a result, I'm able to pass my bottom foot through.

[05:29:53] When he tries to stop me with this hand, I'm Even if he took his hand out, if I had the inside position with my foot inside the [05:30:00] bicep, he goes to stop me, there's no way he'll be able to do it. Okay? Now I just kick over the top, and we're right away into a triangle. The second we get our opportunity [05:30:10] to lock, my hand transfers to the shin, and we start to lock up the full Senkaku.

[05:30:16] From here, if my opponent stays on his knees, I'll hook beyond. [05:30:20] and go for my finishes. If my opponent elects to stand up, then I'll hook the leg and pull my head to his shoelaces. And from here we [05:30:30] get very strong finishes. If my opponent successfully pulls out of the triangle, I will immediately drop into a situation where I can go in and start attacking my training [05:30:40] partner's legs.

[05:30:40] You can attack the far leg. That's fine. You can also have the great option of going around the corner. and attacking the opposite [05:30:50] leg. And from here, you also have very strong attacks. So you have a beautiful sequence, starting off with a basic clamp, just like [05:31:00] so. From here, I come across and touch. I peel all four fingers.

[05:31:04] I'm never the annoying prick in the gym who tries to grab one or two fingers. It's not going to make anyone happy. We grab [05:31:10] all the fingers together and pry the hand off. As a result, we can go over the top. The second we get into that triangle, we're in the perfect position to lock the figure [05:31:20] of four. A lot of times you'll get your finish right here, okay?

[05:31:24] If he stays down on his knees and goes to defend himself, we always like to get that grip underneath his arm, [05:31:30] make a good turn, and get our finish. If he goes to stand up on us, then we won't scoop the arm, we'll scoop the leg. And come around with my head right in front of his shoelaces [05:31:40] for a strong finish.

[05:31:41] If for whatever reason, this proves inadequate, you've got arm lock options. They're always good, but if that should prove ineffective, we [05:31:50] drop our foot. What's wrong? We drop our foot to the opposite hip, just like so. Second foot can go either here, behind the knee, or [05:32:00] over the top to touch my own shin, depending on whether you want to attack the far leg or the near leg.

[05:32:06] Okay? Once we decide on our attacks, whether [05:32:10] it's far leg or near leg, the next thing of course is always to go in and lock up in any way, fashion. Anywhere you please, brother, to go on your finishes. [05:32:20] So that's your triangle option. Second option will be jujigitame, the armbar.

[05:32:28] So, once [05:32:30] again, we're back in the clamp. I bring my foot across. This time, I cannot get the hand off. So triangle is no longer an option, okay? If I feel I [05:32:40] cannot get the hand off, From here, we're going to punch out towards the side. We're going to look at the arm. If I feel the hand is coming up to the armpit, like so, [05:32:50] then it's Judy Guitarmi time.

[05:32:51] From here, I'm going to curl up and invert my body. I'm going to bring my knee. [05:33:00] And I'm going to come and touch my knee on the floor, just like so. As I drive forth, we get very strong arm locks. If my training partner goes to rotate [05:33:10] through, I will release the wrist and come up into this position here. You now have the option of standard Yugi Tabe's, [05:33:20] three quarter judokas or shoulder senkakus, where I bring my foot over my training partner's shoulder.

[05:33:28] When he tries to pull [05:33:30] away, spin out, spin out, difficult. From here, I can pass my foot over or [05:33:40] I can lock a triangle. All of these are excellent finishing options. So once again, from[05:33:50]

[05:33:51] an initial start, we come out to the side. He's locked in place and has a strong control. I can't get the hand off. So, I pass [05:34:00] the foot across. I start to move out. I look at his arm position. If the hand comes up towards the armpit, this is the best time for us to start the action of coming up and [05:34:10] rotating through.

[05:34:11] First option is to break it right here. If I see my opponent going to roll, we catch, roll through with him. There's the initial control [05:34:20] here. Now I make my decision. Will I bring my foot across into a regular judokitami? Or, will I bring my foot [05:34:30] across the neck into three quarter judokitami? Or, will I take my foot across and put the shoelaces underneath the neck just like so, [05:34:40] and finish either here or here?

[05:34:42] Here, or here. All of them are excellent attacking options. So [05:34:50] that's Juri Gitardo. Another excellent option from here is the Kimura.

[05:34:58] From an initial [05:35:00] clamp situation, where we come in and we feel you cannot get the hand off, so in a triangle. And, when I go out here, the arm bends. That's going to make [05:35:10] Judo Itami very difficult. Okay, when we see the arm bend, we're going to thumb post on our training partner's wrist. Off this, I just cover my training partner's [05:35:20] elbow like so, and I come through and we lock.

[05:35:24] The most common reaction we get to this is our opponent trying to bring his head towards us, and that [05:35:30] will kill my ability to hit the Kimura. If he can bring his head over mine, it becomes very, very difficult for me now. Head over my head, hard for me to finish. This is a [05:35:40] smart option on this part.

[05:35:41] Whenever we see this, as the head comes in, just switch. Get your lock, okay? The lock we use here is [05:35:50] a Senkaku, but it's not your regular Senkaku. You're not trying to finish this guy. With a stranglehold. As he comes towards me, look how I switch, and I get a Senkaku [05:36:00] in what appears to be the wrong direction.

[05:36:03] If I wanted to strangle Passido, I would Senkaku like so. If I want to Kimura him, I lock [05:36:10] in what appears to be the wrong way. As a result, he tries to push into me. Impossible. I take Placido's elbow to my armpit and as a result, [05:36:20] very strong breaks. Okay. So once again, Kimura out of a clamp. We shift out. We get to the basic clamp position.

[05:36:29] We [05:36:30] bring our foot over the top. For whatever reason, I'm unable to get the hand off, so there's no triangle. When I move him out, his hand migrates towards my hip. [05:36:40] So Jujigitame, the Anbar, is a no go. It's not going to be a good option. So I go through, I lock. If Placido is naive and keeps his head where it is, [05:36:50] just finish it right here.

[05:36:51] Okay, it's a great finishing position. If Placido is smart and goes to bring the head towards us, we'll bring our legs over and switch off into [05:37:00] what appears to be a triangle locked the wrong way. It is the wrong way for a strangle. But it's the right way for a Kimura. As he tries to come in towards us, we just bring his elbow to [05:37:10] our armpit, and we've got an enormously strong break.

[05:37:13] Okay, another great option from here is Uri Gatame. From the clamp situation, we go through [05:37:20] over the top, we're just going to get a hold of his elbow, we're going to go under the wrist, and we're going to bring everything up here into an Uri Gatame type lock. And from here, [05:37:30] Watch my bottom knee come through and we find ourselves in the perfect breaking position.

[05:37:35] The key to this break is to bring my hips away from my training partner and push [05:37:40] and extend. I don't want to just contract, I want my hips involved in the movement. So I have to get my hips moving away from him and get very [05:37:50] strong breaks. Okay, so once again. We're in basic clamp. As we push away, we just swim underneath our training partner's wrist.

[05:37:59] We bring [05:38:00] everything all the way up here to the shoulder and trap it in place. I go elbow to elbow, right over his elbow. Be precise. Don't put it on the forearm. Don't put it on the tricep. [05:38:10] Find the elbow. Now, from situations like this, I thought we'd just move away from our training partner with our hips, and you get enormous.

[05:38:17] breaking pressure. Okay, so [05:38:20] those are our favorite options coming out of the clamp positions. Excellent finishing options, excellent control. Let's have a look at how they all come together. From a [05:38:30] side pin,

[05:38:34] he's in a square stance, so we know this is a good time for a side elbow escape. We use all those techniques and tactics that [05:38:40] we looked at earlier in the day, and we're able to get the of a side elbow escape. You could put them back in guard. That's what everyone does, right? [05:38:50] But not you. You're going to go the extra distance.

[05:38:52] You're not going to be a satisficer. You're going to be a maximizer. It's no more difficult for you to put them in the clamp, than it is for you to put them back [05:39:00] in guard. So from here, instead of putting them back in a boring closed guard, we put them into a clamp. I look at my opponent, we see many opportunities from in here to go into our [05:39:10] various attacks, depending upon what we see in front of us.

[05:39:17] And from here, all these finishes are right there in [05:39:20] front of you. In this way, we can take the side elbow escape. And use the clamp as a transitory position between the [05:39:30] positional escape and the submissions that we seek.

[05:39:37] You will remember, um, earlier in the video I said that when [05:39:40] people have us in arm dominant pins, such as side control and north south, I generally favor going into upper body submissions first. Okay, typically we use the clamp as a [05:39:50] method of, uh, connecting to our opponent's upper body. We threaten the upper body submissions.

[05:39:53] If you get them, awesome, match is over. If you don't get them, you switch downstairs and you go into leg locks. That's the [05:40:00] general pattern that I teach. All of my students excel at that. Um, a natural question for you guys to be asking is, Uh, can you go directly into leg locks from [05:40:10] side control? Uh, ostensibly the answer is no, because you have no connection to your opponent's legs.

[05:40:16] You only have a connection to his upper body. But of course, [05:40:20] like anything, you can manipulate things so that you do get connection. One of my recommendations is to perform a side elbow escape into some form of half guard. [05:40:30] The two primary forms of half guard I generally recommend are either half butterfly guard or knee shield half guards.

[05:40:37] Both of them will give you excellent opportunities to [05:40:40] go directly into lower body submissions. If you're a guy who greatly favors lower body submissions, um, this might be a preferable option for you. [05:40:50] Generally, I counsel my students when they're getting out of side control and elbow escape, upper body first, lower body second.

[05:40:55] But if you really want to go. Digging downstairs into lower body, perhaps you realize your [05:41:00] opponent is not strong at defending Heathloaks, for example, you might want to go to some variation of half guard first. So let's have a look at this. [05:41:10] Okay. Because he's square, we realize that the side elbow escape is the preppable method of operating.

[05:41:17] I come through, I come in, and I [05:41:20] get my knee inside past his knee. From this kind of situation, I'm going to come around the corner and start scoring a kind of a half guard type [05:41:30] situation. Okay, so you've got an excellent control blade on the small body. Now, as I come through, I'm going to get distance, and I'm going to get my foot and thread it through.

[05:41:38] So it becomes like a half butterfly [05:41:40] hook. My other leg is going to come across, and that will become my half gut. So if you look at us now, we now have worked our way into half butterfly gut. I have a butterfly hook, [05:41:50] and I have my other leg entwined around it, so there's a classic half butterfly. Now, from here, Placido goes into his normal [05:42:00] thing.

[05:42:00] He's interested in passing my half butterfly gut. I won't allow him to do that, because I'm going to take him over this shoulder. The way we do this is we just take our hands to our training [05:42:10] partner's armpit. So my hand frames in my training partner's armpit. Second hand just frames on the lat muscle.

[05:42:15] And from here I start bringing my knees in towards my chest. And I start bringing them [05:42:20] over my body. So we now find ourselves in the perfect position to frame, and then fire our legs up so we're perpendicular to our man, like so. You have an excellent choice [05:42:30] now between attacking Rumi Ashigurami, or you could go straight on through and start going into variations across Ashigurami and putting [05:42:40] your training partner down to the mat.

[05:42:41] I leave it up to you, they're both great choices. So once again, we have an opponent across our side. Because he's in a square stance, this is [05:42:50] the perfect time for us to employ the side elbow escape. And from here, start getting on me. Now, from situations where you have your opponent in half guard, [05:43:00] it's not much of a stretch to take out foot and start going through and getting that half butterfly.

[05:43:05] So you've gone from side control to half butterfly. Didn't put him back in full guard, put him in [05:43:10] a half guard variation. Now from here, I start posting on the armpit and I start turning my knees across the body. So you get underneath your opponent's center of gravity. [05:43:20] From here, I can either go under his leg with a scoop grip or over his leg.

[05:43:28] From situations like this, it's not so [05:43:30] difficult for us to either go a Rumi Yashigurami, fairly standard way of operating, or I start that action of lifting, bringing my man through, and then from [05:43:40] here, catching a hold of my opponent's legs. So we can take them down into variations of cross ashigurami.

[05:43:46] Okay, many ways for you to act. So once again,[05:43:50]

[05:43:51] side control. From here, we get the knee to the inside. I start to bring [05:44:00] my knee inside. Instead of putting them back in a full guard, we go into a variation of half guard, okay? All we need is to get our shoelaces right there [05:44:10] inside, or in half butterfly. From half butterfly, I want him going over the shoulder, so I thumb post the armpit.

[05:44:16] Just in like so. I start bringing my knees to my chest. Knees [05:44:20] to chest, making my body bent like a banana at the spine. And as a result, we start getting this guy moving. Okay? From situations like this, it won't be so [05:44:30] hard for us to start elevating him. It won't be so hard for us to take our body around the corner and go to attack in different kinds of ways.

[05:44:37] We've seen the idea of going cross ashi. Okay? [05:44:40] It's not the only option. We've also got other possibilities too. Coming around the corner and go directly into. Insides and cartwheel on the opposite leg. It's always a good [05:44:50] option. You also could take your legs through and around and thread just like so. And go into a double 50 position.

[05:44:58] Okay, you could, if he [05:45:00] picks the leg out, you can go with the standard forms of 50 50. These are all good choices. The main thing is, you create an angle where you can go into multiple [05:45:10] leg attacks. So once again, we're being pinned across side. As we move away from our training partner, we're going to get opportunities to go inside, And get that knee in.[05:45:20]

[05:45:20] From here, it's not so difficult for us to go in and score the half butterfly guard. We thumb post, inside our chinny partner, get our hips underneath him. I don't want my [05:45:30] hips out to the side for this one. Okay, I want my hips going under his. If he tries to pull his right leg out, it won't be easy. We've got an excellent connection there.

[05:45:38] Now I jerk my hips [05:45:40] underneath his. Strong base. From here, Look how my two hands go into the lat muscles at the armpits, and I bring my knees to my chest, and I [05:45:50] start to bring them out of balance. From here, not so hard for us to go into our attacks. You can attack the far leg.[05:46:00]

[05:46:00] You can attack the near leg. You can use inside position. Insights in Karate, you can use [05:46:10] outside position, double 50, he spins on through, you can use more conventional approaches to 50 50, they're all [05:46:20] excellent options, okay? So these are some practical ways for us to use half butterfly guard to directly attack your opponent's [05:46:30] legs out of side control.

[05:46:32] Always remember guys that the primary problem of leg attacks versus side control is that you don't have any immediate connection to the legs in side control. [05:46:40] In the mount, the rear mount, the neon belly, you do have immediate connection, so going into the legs is very easy. Side control, you've got to manipulate yourself to get to the legs first [05:46:50] and then make that direct attack.

[05:46:51] Second option is to go into knee shields. Again, my opponent's in like so. Like [05:47:00] before, we hit that side elbow escape. You can come in and we hit a basic half guard, but this time we're going to post, we're going to take our knee, and we're [05:47:10] going to take the inside position with our knee shield, just like so.

[05:47:13] I'm going to scissor my legs so that as a result we get a good ability to create space between his chest and my [05:47:20] chest. We're going to frame across our training partner's shoulder. I'm going to use my shield high on his body so I can force Placido's hand towards the mat. [05:47:30] That's going to make it very easy for us to start the rotations that we're always looking for.

[05:47:34] As my hand finds this far armpit, we're going to whip our body around the corner and start [05:47:40] finding ourselves a situation. We're going to start pulling a training partner through blocking in various ways, we come through and into various forms of leg attacks. So once [05:47:50] again, we start off, side control. I can't go directly into leg attacks here, I have to do a connection to his legs, okay?

[05:47:58] But if I start, [05:48:00] With that side control and go into half guard. I can go through knee shield. I can use the knee shield, hold tight. No [05:48:10] matter how tight is upper body connection, my knee shield can always loosen things. And now I bring myself from low knee shield to high knee shield. High knee shield lets me [05:48:20] get his hands towards the mat.

[05:48:22] Hands towards the mat and we can get a good scoop grip inside our training partner's legs. From here, it's not so difficult for us to start [05:48:30] the action of turning around our training partner's body. So many ways for us to act from here, okay? One good option will always be [05:48:40] insides and kaku, strong backs.

[05:48:42] So insides and kaku is always one good option. If you go for insides and kaku, I always recommend bringing him [05:48:50] down towards the floor, turning him over, Like so, come back.

[05:48:57] Second option from here is always going to be to take your [05:49:00] inside foot and go across to your opponent's far knee. As a result, you can feed your legs through. Now you hit double 50. That's a [05:49:10] 50 50 with both legs controlled. So if your opponent goes to backstep out, very difficult because both legs are controlled.

[05:49:18] From here, we get enormously [05:49:20] strong finishes. If your opponent manages to clear the second leg, You've always got the option of coming back in the opposite direction, back to inside [05:49:30] Senkaku, or

[05:49:35] coming up, both your shoelaces on his hips, but variations of 50 50, okay? [05:49:40] Between all of those, you're going to find many ways to get through into your opponent's legs and employ your favorite leg attacks. Directly outta side control. So my [05:49:50] general recommendation, if you want to perhaps you know something about your opponent, you know, he's not particularly good at defending leg attacks and you want to go directly into your opponent's legs from side control.

[05:49:59] You can't [05:50:00] just do it from wherever you are. You have to navigate your way to leg to leg contact first. The easiest ones I generally half guard. Okay. Your two main options are half [05:50:10] butterfly. and knee shield. So one more time. I'm getting pinned. I realized once it was in a square stance, that means [05:50:20] elbow escape is always going to be one of our best options.

[05:50:24] From here, I punch my knee through. My butterfly hook already [05:50:30] starting to emerge. underneath my training partner's thigh. So, when we start manipulating our training partner's body, it's an easy thing for us to get into half butters wide. Now, my [05:50:40] hands go to my training partner's lat muscle, and my hips go underneath them.

[05:50:43] Normally, we're always trying to get our hips out to the side. In this one, we're trying to get underneath them. And as a [05:50:50] result, I can go knees to chest, and pump my training partner forward, creating an elevation and extension, which enables me to attack either one of my [05:51:00] training partner's legs, either the far leg, or the near leg.

[05:51:06] If I attack the near leg, I have the option of [05:51:10] inside foot position, the inside Senkaku, it's always a good option, or bringing the cross to the opposite side, [05:51:20] trapping the second leg, and threading through into variations of 50 50. Arguably the strongest one is double 50, where both legs are controlled.

[05:51:27] That makes many of the standard defenses in [05:51:30] 50 50 type situations very, very difficult. Standard defenses often include the idea of our opponent back stepping and [05:51:40] exposing my elbow,

[05:51:45] like so. If I have a basic 50 50, [05:51:50] he back steps, he's going to be very close to my head. Elbow and hands. So when someone comes into a back step, it's [05:52:00] important we either switch off to inside Senkaku, switch across the body, going in either under, that's our favorite one, the crisscross ashi, or over the [05:52:10] top for the far waist.

[05:52:11] Alternatively, you can extend and bring yourself here, double shoelaces, a fairly common and very effective form of finish [05:52:20] that lengthens the space between his hands and my hands. Puts my back in a position where it shields my hands from his. Makes it very hard for him to access [05:52:30] my head or my elbow. And from here, you have tremendous breaking pressure.

[05:52:35] So once again, the key idea is that [05:52:40] if we're going to go directly for the legs from bottom side control, Rather than go upper body first, leg second, we're going to have to form some kind of connection. Your two best ones [05:52:50] are going to be knee shields and, uh, half guard. If we choose the knee shield option,[05:53:00]

[05:53:02] we come in, we get to an initial half guard, we take our knee and come [05:53:10] in. From here, I create space, frame, and I go high shield. All the way up. High shield lets us get a opponent's hand down to [05:53:20] the man. It's going to make it relatively easy for us to come around the corner and start spinning on the man.

[05:53:25] Again, we're in a position now where we can start attacking [05:53:30] with insides and conquering.

[05:53:34] We're in a position where we can switch across and go through into double 50. [05:53:40] If my opponent should free that second leg, we're in a position now where if he goes to backstep, you can come through into [05:53:50] excellent finishing positions on your inside shoulder. Ready to go. So those are always my recommendations.

[05:53:56] You need to go directly to your opponent's legs at a bottom side control. [05:54:00] Form some kind of half guard connection first. The two most applicable for leg locking entries will always be half butterfly and the knee shield.[05:54:10]

[05:54:14] Let's spend some time looking at a really good escape that functions as a great auxiliary [05:54:20] escape to side elbow escapes. Whenever the side elbow escape isn't quite working, we can often make use of what we call a high leg escape. The main difference between a high leg escape and [05:54:30] a side elbow escape is the point of entry.

[05:54:32] When you enter a side elbow escape, you're entering at the hip with your knee. When you're entering the high leg escape, you're [05:54:40] entering at the armpit with your knee. It also requires a little bit different hand positioning, the framing is a little bit different. Uh, let's have a look at these details now.[05:54:50]

[05:54:50] Okay, we've been looking a lot at side elbow escapes, and we've seen that typically we frame at the near hip, and then from here, We bring our knee in at our training partner's hip, [05:55:00] like so, okay? In the case of the high leg escape, we want to get this frame here, making sure that we put our hand [05:55:10] all the way outside the shoulder, not getting our hand here in front of our chest where we can get crushed down.

[05:55:15] We want to move our opponent's head. The second frame arm doesn't go here [05:55:20] to the hip, it goes close to the armpit and lat muscle, just like so, okay? Now, what I'm looking to do with any high leg [05:55:30] escape is to get my head inside his crossface. If his shoulder is on my jaw, there's no high leg escape. You'll never get the move to work.[05:55:40]

[05:55:40] What I need is to get my head inside his crossface. If my head can go inside his crossface, that will [05:55:50] free up my hips and it will mean that from here I can start bringing my knee inside his armpit. Which is my ultimate goal, okay? I [05:56:00] cannot get my knee inside the armpit if the shoulder's in front of my jaw.

[05:56:03] I don't care how flexible you are, you won't be able to get your knee inside. So the whole game is to get [05:56:10] Placido's head moving in a way where I can get my head inside his bicep. If I can do that, [05:56:20] then it's going to be very easy for us to start bringing our knee inside the armpit and ultimately going into the high leg assembly.

[05:56:25] It's going to work. And from here, we lock up into [05:56:30] Judigatami, okay? So once again, we start things off, bring your hips in close. Where I feel, for whatever reason, my elbow escapes aren't working, we're [05:56:40] going to thread our hand through and walk the hand into this good attacking position. I double thumb post.

[05:56:46] behind his triceps and biceps. Then from here, we're [05:56:50] going to give a little bump. It just gets my head inside. Nothing more. That's all we're looking for. I don't care how tight he holds me. If I bring my feet in [05:57:00] close and we focus on that little bump action, you'll get inside. Now from here, my head is free because my head is free.

[05:57:07] It's very, very easy for me now to bring my [05:57:10] legs up and fire them into position like a strong body man. From here, my knee comes around the corner, leg goes over. And we're in a perfect position now to hit a variation of judogitame. [05:57:20] This version of judogitame is not the strongest because my leg here is inside the armpit rather than across to the far armpit.

[05:57:29] But it's made [05:57:30] stronger by the fact that his forearm is caught behind my lat muscle. So the leg position is not the strongest, but the arm position is pretty good. There is always a danger, however, that he [05:57:40] will twist his arm the other way. Like so, so you get less control of the arm. Don't worry, we'll look at what to do if that happens very soon.[05:57:50]

[05:57:50] So, from here, both my thumbs right there on his tricep. I give a little bump, coming up, and I just slip [05:58:00] inside. It's like I go down his body, slipping inside. So that I get inside his cross face. That frees up my legs and creates a [05:58:10] situation where the legs can come high, over the top, and just catch him right there at the head and shoulders.

[05:58:16] So you have a judokitami. If he tries to lock his [05:58:20] hands together, it's very, very difficult. If the hand was in front of the chest, you could lock them easily. But behind here, it's quite difficult. [05:58:30] Nonetheless, my leg configuration isn't the tightest one. So what you'll often get here is people trying to stand up and pull away from you, and you'll often get slippage.

[05:58:39] [05:58:40] Whenever they do this, they're always going to leave you the leg behind. And as a result, we're in perfect position now to make a good catch on a training partner's legs. As he goes [05:58:50] to pull away from us, you're going to find this grip here is enormously tight. Now it's a simple matter of dragging his foot across the chest from one armpit across to the other, [05:59:00] locking it in place with our second hand, covering it up.

[05:59:03] From here, if he's naive and stays face down, you'll get your finish right here. If he's smart and he goes to backstep over, [05:59:10] we have to follow and come up onto our inside shoulder. From here, we go to double shoelaces. When both my shoelaces are on his near hip, my [05:59:20] body pointing down towards the floor. This hides my hands from Placido.

[05:59:27] It also hides my elbow. [05:59:30] He can't get to my left elbow. I don't care if he gets to my right elbow, even if he takes it off. You can always limp it back and go back into your finishes. www (opens in a new tab). I don't want to turn my [05:59:40] knees down over his knee. As I lift up, we get very, very strong finishes. Okay. So once again,

[05:59:49] we start [05:59:50] off bottom side control. Whatever reason my elbow escapes, just not there for me. I bring my hand in and across [06:00:00] double thumb post from here. I give a little bump and bring my head inside his cross face. Now I just fire my legs. right up and [06:00:10] I make a good initial catch. If I get the finish here, congratulations, awesome.

[06:00:13] But because it's not the strongest leg configuration, you'll often get people kind of twisting their arm and you kind of almost get it, but [06:00:20] not quite. My foot transfers to the opposite hip and from here we go around the corner, trip, I land down to the floor, make a good connection here, [06:00:30] I drag his foot from the bottom side to the top side, I hand assist and lock up on my training partner's heel.

[06:00:38] From here, if I get the initial [06:00:40] finish, he stays chest down, congratulations, it's over. If he's smart, he's going to backstep. That will expose my body to him, the hands, the [06:00:50] head, etc. And it can cause a lot of problems. So we want to make sure that we tilt over to an inside shoulder. I can't just leave my foot for him to heel hook [06:01:00] me.

[06:01:01] So we make sure we connect. We put both of our shoelaces right there on his hip. As I close my knee downward, my body [06:01:10] weight comes forward into the lock. We get a very strong finish. From another angle,

[06:01:19] cross hands on [06:01:20] top. We thumb post from here. Hold tight. I take my head inside. I lift, lift, lift, and slip. Now in one motion, the [06:01:30] legs come up and I just fire them right into place. If I get the lock, congratulations, it's over. Okay? But the nature of this lock is not really the strongest in the world. It's [06:01:40] really a distraction to get into the legs.

[06:01:42] As I see him try to pull away from the armbar, I put my foot on the far hip, and I come around the corner, make a strong body. I take [06:01:50] my body up, look how I can trip Placido's hands to the mat. I come around the corner, as my right foot pushes, left foot pulls, and you just put his hands immediately down to [06:02:00] the floor.

[06:02:01] If he goes to flee the mat, he runs into a situation where his shoelaces catch on my shoulder and, uh, and bicep. [06:02:10] So there's only so much he can run. His foot functions like a knot at the end of a rope. So even if he went to flee, it wouldn't mean much. [06:02:20] Now we're looking to transfer his foot from bottom side, top side.

[06:02:24] The way we do this is a pass off. I pass his foot to the second hand. and lock [06:02:30] those shoelaces tight to my chest. As a result, you get an excellent bite. You have a choice between conventional finishes or reverse figure four. If your [06:02:40] opponent should go to backstep, you've got a couple of options here. Come back.

[06:02:44] First option is belly down. I can kill his backstep by turning my [06:02:50] body, go back, belly down towards the floor. Now, my top shoulder is in front of my bottom shoulder, right here. If he goes to [06:03:00] backstep from here, he'll break his own leg. If I'm a little late and I screw up and he manages to back step, I don't want to stay here.

[06:03:09] That will [06:03:10] expose my elbow, my hip, my hands, and screw everything up. I don't want to stay with my chest facing the ceiling. Again, from here if he back [06:03:20] steps, I'm facing the ceiling, my elbow is exposed to his right hand. My head's exposed to his collar time. My hands are exposed. They can do all kinds of [06:03:30] things to interrupt me.

[06:03:31] So if I see that back step, I want to follow the leg. Okay, there's the leg in front of me. I want to follow the leg. He comes across, I follow, follow, [06:03:40] follow, and I come up. The main danger now is heel exposure. So I make sure if he goes after my heel, I keep my feet close together. I punch through and lock.

[06:03:49] [06:03:50] Now, when he tries to get to my hands, very, very difficult. Tries to get to my elbow, impossible. There's no back exposure because my feet are in the [06:04:00] outside position. Can't get to my back. And then from here, I just curl down my knee over the top and we get a very strong finish. So this is a very practical [06:04:10] way to use the high leg as a, what I would call a diversionary attack on the arm.

[06:04:15] It's, it's, uh, It's not the strongest arm lock attack in the world, it's decent, [06:04:20] but it creates a threat. And your opponent has to pull away from that threat. As he pulls away, he leaves his two legs behind every single time, okay? Let's have a look at how it would look in a match [06:04:30] speed competition setting.

[06:04:33] What I want you to emphasize is first and foremost, get your head inside the cross face. I don't care how [06:04:40] flexible you are, if he's got a cross face on, your high leg is going to be pathetic, okay? The whole thing is to get that initial frame position. Now, when I come in, I get [06:04:50] inside, when I throw my legs, it's a quick catch.

[06:04:52] Right from the floor, boom, and there's the catch. Okay? He goes to yank out and away, it's not easy. Okay? You gotta make him [06:05:00] work and let him pull out for free. From here I catch onto the leg. As I lose the upper body. Lose, pull, pull, pull, pull, again, upper body, lower body, [06:05:10] and you're in, okay? You can't have delays, you can't be wishy washy about this, you can't just attack the upper body, he pulls out, and then you're thinking, oh, what's next, oh, lower body, no.

[06:05:19] It's gotta be [06:05:20] bang that, okay, and go straight up. So, here we have it. I rise, I get inside the crossface, I throw. There's the initial catch. [06:05:30] As he goes to pull away, it's not easy. Make him work, make him work, make him work, bam, right into the legs. From the legs, transfer the foot across. [06:05:40] If he's naive and stays where he is.

[06:05:42] Finish him right here. If the guy knows what he's doing and backsteps, come back, Placido. Then I want to convert, [06:05:50] belly down. If he backsteps now, he'll break his own leg. If I'm a little late, I've got to follow the opposite leg. I want to come over the top, punching [06:06:00] through, and lock. Two knees facing down to the floor.

[06:06:04] He goes after my hands. There's no way he'll reach the elbow. There's no [06:06:10] way he'll reach the head. My knee pushes down on his leg. If I'm going to lift up, and we get very strong finishes. Okay? And [06:06:20] this way, we can use the high leg escape to create an immediate diversionary upper body submission. This will force an opponent to either get finished or pull away.[06:06:30]

[06:06:30] As he pulls away the upper body, he must inevitably leave you with the lower body. And that's where the real submission entry comes from.[06:06:40]

[06:06:41] Let's go further into the high leg escape, which is an excellent, uh, backup method to the side elbow escape. They work really well together. Um, [06:06:50] my, my goal is to get you as students by the time you've studied this video and practice it and started to master the skills you [06:07:00] see in it. I want to get you to a point where people are literally afraid to pin you.

[06:07:07] I want them in their minds when they pin you to [06:07:10] be looking at you like you're the aggressor. So you can start bottom side control when you're training with your friends and they're more worried about not getting submitted from top side control [06:07:20] than you are from bottom. Okay, when you get to that level, you're a scary opponent.

[06:07:24] Um, let's look at another way of locking your opponent's arms out [06:07:30] of a, uh, side pin. This makes use of a submission hold you don't see so often. Tegetame. Okay, the, the arm or the hand hold. [06:07:40] First, what the hell is tegetame? Tegetame is a form of arm lock where I use either my hand, like so, usually it's the hand, [06:07:50] te just means hand, um, or the hip with the hand on top.

[06:07:54] So the hand locks my opponent's elbow into my hip. You can have a foot position [06:08:00] here in the armpit. You can have a foot position here On the far hip, you can even have a foot position here over the leg. This happens to be my favorite [06:08:10] one, okay, but all of them are damn good. From this position, the idea behind Tegutami, the strong body, is I place my second foot on the upper back and lat muscle, and I [06:08:20] use my hips rising to the ceiling to put extraordinary pressure on my opponent's elbow.

[06:08:25] When you first look at this, I'm sure you're thinking like, man, it doesn't look very strong. Okay? [06:08:30] But Plastic Day will tell you, when the knees come together and the hip rises, it's a scary freaking lock. Now, what's so special about Tegitame? [06:08:40] Speed. It's one of the fastest arm locks. Why? Because you don't have to get your leg over the top as a crossface.

[06:08:46] In Jujigitame, when we come in here, I have to [06:08:50] find everything up and over, get a good catch on my training partner. Okay? In Te Gitame, when we come through, when I lock into a position [06:09:00] like so, over my training partner's body, all I have to do is put my foot on his upper back. When Placido goes to Yang Gao, he actually makes it work.

[06:09:08] Okay? Now, there's [06:09:10] something really interesting about Te Gitame. It's very, very different from Juji Gitame in one important sense. Juji means cross. [06:09:20] In judogitari, I want to form a cross to my opponent's body, okay? So when I come through, and I hit that initial lock, I'm [06:09:30] perpendicular to plasida. We form a cross.

[06:09:33] That's literally what judogitari means, means cross hold, okay? My body runs here, his runs [06:09:40] 90 degrees to it, forming a cross shape. That's the distinguishing characteristic of every judogitari. Tegitame is the opposite. In Tegitame, [06:09:50] you face square on to your opponent. And from this situation, what makes it work is the rising of my hips.

[06:09:58] I want my hips to get as close to [06:10:00] his armpit as possible. Okay? Now, what you're going to find is something really interesting. Tegitame is a very [06:10:10] fast, sharp arm lock. The characteristic of it is it tends to snap on. It comes on, it's either immediate or it doesn't work at all. So it's a hard, [06:10:20] sharp, fast lock.

[06:10:22] And in the gym, when we use it on each other, it often results in like scream taps, because you're playing, everything [06:10:30] feels fine. Oh, and it's on. Okay. So use some caution when you're using it with your friends. Judy, you're telling me is a much slower, more controlling lock. [06:10:40] My favorite way to use tegitame, because it's not the most controlling method, is to create a threat with tegitame, and then use that threat, I'm sure you've guessed [06:10:50] it, to go downstairs into his legs.

[06:10:51] Okay, so let's have a look at how this might work. First, I'm going to contrast it with Judy Gutami. We saw that in the case of Judy Gutami, [06:11:00] we had a high leg escape, we bring our head inside, and then from here, we rise and catch. Okay, so that's Judy. Very [06:11:10] strong. It's probably my favorite one out of the high leg escape because it's so controlling and powerful.

[06:11:15] But if I feel for whatever reason, when I come out, that I cannot [06:11:20] get the cross face leg over, Instead, what we'll do is we'll penetrate with the knee inside, just like so. His head is down, so I can't [06:11:30] get the cross face in, I'm not flexible enough for it. So I bring my foot to his upper back. Then I shovel my hips through underneath Placido, and my knee [06:11:40] controls the side of his head.

[06:11:41] Now from here I just rise, and it's done. Very, very tight. Okay, so once again, [06:11:50] we're here. Juji gatame involves getting inside, trapping the bicep, and locking. Okay. [06:12:00] Te gatame is in situations where I come over, but I cannot trap the head or the arm, [06:12:10] so instead I pivot underneath them. And then I just chop down with one, and push up with the other, and it's on.

[06:12:17] Now, it's [06:12:20] sharp and fast and painful, but you hit it once or twice and pretty soon this is going to start happening.[06:12:30]

[06:12:30] We come up, and he goes to pull away. When we see that pull away, you guessed it, right into the legs. You have a choice of going here, or, my favorite out [06:12:40] of tegatame, is to work my legs through and chop over the top. Why do I prefer that method? Because in tegatame, you square up to the man. So it's harder to hit the leg [06:12:50] entries that we saw in the previous move.

[06:12:51] I generally recommend in these cases. Use conventional Arumi type Ashigurami. Now, what do you think your opponent's main escape to this [06:13:00] is? You've got the heel. He's going to want to step over slowly. I'm going to hold here like a false grip. So I just hold. Okay. Now I could [06:13:10] roll through and go into outside Ashigurami, but I've shown that a lot in previous videos.

[06:13:15] Okay. So, uh, different now and a stronger finish, I [06:13:20] believe. When I see my opponent go to roll, rather than me following him, all I'm going to do is bring my leg higher, and I'm going to take my bottom leg and step through. So Placide goes to step, [06:13:30] and I step through. This changes his foot from my right armpit to my left armpit.

[06:13:37] The danger now is that Placide will continue [06:13:40] the roll through. So I grab, and we take his foot to center chest. From center chest, I take the whole blade of his foot and I connect it to my chest. If [06:13:50] Placido goes to roll through, he'll break his own leg. Now from this position, we want to start the action of controlling this man.

[06:13:57] Okay, I'm going to take my body, I'm going to [06:14:00] hit a forward shift. I put my shoelaces behind my own Achilles tendon, and I just sit up and forward. As I sit up and forward, I'm controlling my training partner in center chest. [06:14:10] As I go to sit up, I get my body in front of his and lock. He goes into his secondary role and finds himself in a position now where I can easily [06:14:20] get to my break.

[06:14:21] So once again, side pin. Our favorite move from here will always be [06:14:30] duty guitar lift. But if for whatever reason I come up and duty proves to be impossible, we go underneath Peace. Then we [06:14:40] get tegitame. He goes to stand up and out. I catch. As I lose tegitame, I go around the corner and switch to urumi [06:14:50] ashigurami.

[06:14:51] From here, if, uh, if he were naive and just stayed in this position, then I would just go through into a break. Okay. But [06:15:00] from here, I see he's going to spin. I just put my foot out. So he just goes right into the catch. Now I come in and I control his foot, center chest. [06:15:10] If he goes to continue his turn, he'll break his own leg.

[06:15:13] Okay, so you can control him here like so now from this position Look how I sit up so that I get my chest in front of his foot [06:15:20] And we get a good feed as a result. As long as his foot's in front of my chest, I'll never get to the heel hook. There's no heel explosion. So our whole thing here is to [06:15:30] turn our knees out and hit that forward shift that puts his foot behind me.

[06:15:35] Then from here, I lock the heel. I don't let go of the toes. He points the toes away, it's [06:15:40] gone. So I keep the toes connected to my lat muscle like so. Then I come around the corner and lock. Now as we come down over the top he goes to [06:15:50] continuous turn and we find ourselves in a great breaking position down on the mat.

[06:15:55] Okay, so that's a very realistic way. We use tegitame as an [06:16:00] entry into the legs. Again, you can see what the model is here, guys. We use a diversionary attack on the upper body. In [06:16:10] this case, tegitame. If you get the submission with tegitame, awesome. Congratulations. It's over. You won. But realistically, once you hit the move two or three [06:16:20] times, people are going to start pulling away from you.

[06:16:22] When they pull away the upper body, they will always leave you the lower body. Go straight in and attack the [06:16:30] legs. Because in tegitame we're facing our opponent very squarely, I generally recommend frontal entries into the legs. The most obvious frontal entry is always [06:16:40] variations of a rumi yashi gorami, okay?

[06:16:45] In the past we've spent a lot of time Getting used to the idea of rolling through with [06:16:50] people. Okay. But now we're looking at a different method that results in a different heel hook where I just put my foot out here in the distance and he falls into the gap that we've created. [06:17:00] Now we just focus on keeping the blade of his foot in the center of our chest.

[06:17:04] So when he goes to continue the defensive role, it's difficult for him to do so. Now our whole [06:17:10] thing from here is to get in front of his foot. Okay. We do that in this particular case with a forward shift. It puts his foot behind me, so that when we lock [06:17:20] up, we're in good attacking position. Now we look at him.

[06:17:23] What is he doing? Is he coming forward to hand fight? Down to the shoulder. Is he going to roll out? [06:17:30] Down to the shoulder and finish him. Is he going to step on through, find the opposite foot, and make the switch? Okay? These are [06:17:40] all excellent attacking options. So there you have it. Tegutami into Tegu. The legs coming out of the side pin.[06:17:50]

[06:17:53] Now, we're working our way through these escapes to side pins. Um, side pin is a move you just [06:18:00] have, a situation where you just have to get out as well. Probably the most common pen in jiu jitsu, uh, leads into many forms of, uh, submission and, and, uh, transitions into other [06:18:10] pens. This is one you just have to be able to get out of, so that's why we're spending so much time on it.

[06:18:14] Um, my goal ultimately is to get you not only getting out of the pen, but attacking him. [06:18:20] So, you've got the strong counter attacking ability so people are almost afraid to try and pin you. They're worried about the submission counters that come out of it. Um, let's look now at one of [06:18:30] the strongest and most traditional forms of escape from a side pin.

[06:18:34] But we'll give it our first. Submission grappling slant by finishing with submission holds instead [06:18:40] of the usual positional elements. So first, what is a knee escape? That's where we get up to our knees underneath our opponent and into a single leg type situation. So what do [06:18:50] we need to get this started?

[06:18:51] When someone is on top of me here in a side pin, I can't turn into them as long as they have a cross face and as long as they're [06:19:00] underneath my arm, like so. There's no turning in against both the cross face. So what we need to be able to do is to [06:19:10] move our training partner's head, just like so. So that I can thread my hand through.

[06:19:15] And then I can get into an underhook situation. Now the only thing [06:19:20] between me and his legs is the crossface. Get strong. From here, I want to get inside his crossface by bridging and bringing my head inside. [06:19:30] Now, he's presumably not going to stay like that, he'll be looking to get a wizard. From this position, we're going to come down to our training partner's leg.

[06:19:37] and chop around in a single leg. [06:19:40] My second arm, as I come in with a single leg, my second arm is going to come back to my own body, because ultimately [06:19:50] I need to get up to my knees and into the single leg. If my arm is out here, it will prove to be an impediment to my ability to get up. [06:20:00] So I have to pull my elbow back, And my head comes forward so that my whole chest is in front of my elbow.

[06:20:08] If my elbow is in front of my [06:20:10] chest, it's hard to get up. Our whole thing is to jackknife into this position. And as a result, we quickly get up and into a single leg. So here we are. [06:20:20] First things first, I need to give a little bump. that feeds my hand through. From here, I take my head to the [06:20:30] inside. From this position, I come in and catch.

[06:20:33] So I have that single leg. I generally recommend hold with one hand. Snake [06:20:40] your hand around his leg. It's tempting to try and lock your hands. Now you can't get up. Just snake one hand around. If he sprawls the leg back, [06:20:50] don't worry, just hold it here. Like so, no matter how much he sprawls, sprawl, sprawl, sprawl, sprawl like that, you've still got control of his leg, it won't let go.

[06:20:59] If my [06:21:00] hands lock, sprawl, I'll lose the grip. I just hold one hand and he sprawls.

[06:21:08] You'll keep that grip locked to him. [06:21:10] Okay? Snake your hand around. Don't grab the hamstring. He sprawls, you lose it. Snake your hand around the calf muscle. When [06:21:20] he goes to sprawl, very hard to get away. Now from here, I bring my head forward. Remember, if my head is back, it's hard for me to get up. I want everything in front of my elbow, so that from [06:21:30] this position, I can scissor my legs.

[06:21:32] and come up driving up off the floor. Now I'm going to reposition my hand. I was here on the calf. I come in, I get wrist [06:21:40] deep around the knee. From here, I take my knee to his knee. I take my foot and I put it through underneath his shoelaces. From this position, I recline [06:21:50] backwards and I take his knee to my hip.

[06:21:52] So I give a quick pull as I sit back and find myself in an ashigarami type situation. From the ashigarami, [06:22:00] I look at my opponent's response. If he goes to peel away from me, we chase the heel. If he's smart and hides the heel, I go forward and I [06:22:10] either catch the head or if he's really coming onto me, I put my hand in as a cross frame in front of his shoulders.

[06:22:15] From these kinds of situations, we're always looking to get our man [06:22:20] elevated up into the air. As he elevates over my body, I will often hand assist and catch the knee. If he points the knee away from me, it's very hard for me to [06:22:30] get to the leg lock. I want his knee pointing towards my belly button. When he goes to prevent me getting the leg lock now, Very, very difficult.

[06:22:39] As a [06:22:40] result, we can get through and make a good catch. Now we lock up a Senkaku and put the man down into a winning position. So once again, [06:22:50] side control bottom, I shift out, I pommel inside, arm comes in, From [06:23:00] here, I feed his crossface by bridging and getting in. I take my arm here around my training partner's leg.

[06:23:07] I scissor up to my base. [06:23:10] I catch my training partner there at the knee. I can't be naïve and hold here one hand to go to a rolling on the platter and cause problems for me. [06:23:20] So once we commit to this grip, I don't stay here too long. I sit down, I put my shoelaces in front of his shoelaces. Now all I do is I just recline backwards.[06:23:30]

[06:23:30] As my head comes out, I pull his knee off the floor, onto my hip. So that as we sit back, we get the perfect Ashigurami type entry. [06:23:40] And lock it in. If he's naive, It rotates out, he gives me the heel. If he's so physically explosive that when he [06:23:50] jumps through, I lose control of one form of heel hook, I just open my feet and we go back into[06:24:00]

[06:24:01] Most of the time, however, once we draw someone up, he'll plant his foot and come towards me so there's no heel exposure. Now we plant either [06:24:10] here, or if he's pulling away from me, here. Here if he pulls, here if he pushes. Now I start that lifting action that, as [06:24:20] it were, puts his hands on the floor and bumps him up and out of position.

[06:24:24] From situations like this, I catch his knee and point his knee towards my belly button. He tries to pull [06:24:30] away. It's not so easy. My knee comes in behind his knee. Make strong base. No matter how strong his base, if I push along [06:24:40] the line of his hips, he'll always fall over. Okay. And from here, many ways for us to go in on the attack.

[06:24:48] For a different angle.[06:24:50]

[06:24:54] First things first, hand bubbles in. Lifting, [06:25:00] head goes inside the cross face. Elba goes in front. Arm catches the leg. From here we scissor and come up. [06:25:10] I plant into the man. My knee to his knee. My shoelaces to his shoelaces. We sit back and pull. We find ourselves in a perfect position now to go on the [06:25:20] attack.

[06:25:20] If the head moves away, he goes into a big spin and finish.[06:25:30]

[06:25:34] If he comes in towards us, frame, lift, Turn, [06:25:40] catch. From here, down to the floor and into a great attacking position. What are the keys to this move? [06:25:50] When it comes to the side elbow escape, let's face this way, I need, lock tight, I need to get my hand through as an underhook. [06:26:00] Step number one, Put the palm of your hand on your chest.

[06:26:04] Step number one, put the palm of your hand on your chest. [06:26:10] Step number two, get onto your side. Step number three, point your elbow at them so you can come through and lock your underhook. So [06:26:20] here I'm kind of shut out. I put my hand. on my own chest. My hand goes in as far as it'll go. Lock [06:26:30] tight. Now there'll be some bumping, bumping.

[06:26:34] Get onto your side. If he's so strong that he's pushing into you, pushing into you, and you can't [06:26:40] get onto your side, use a kipping action. Bring your legs up off the floor and kip. Then from here, punch through and get your grips. [06:26:50] He tries to cross face and control me There's no way. I catch. Okay, as he tries to Sprawl his [06:27:00] legs back and away from me.

[06:27:00] I just hold that one handed grip, even in a full sprawl, sprawl. It's not abrupt. To start that lifting action, it gets us to an ashi garami. [06:27:10] I catch, I bring his hands towards the floor, kick through, find ourselves in a perfect attacking position. He tries to base out, [06:27:20] tries to walk his hands away from me, base out wide.

[06:27:26] No matter how strong his base, just don't go down. Yes, sir. All I do is [06:27:30] push across the line of his hips and he goes straight down every time. Okay. Very, very effective way to get into the legs out of bottom side control. [06:27:40] One more time. Solar from here. Hand goes in, starting at the chest, turn in. Pommel through, beat the cross [06:27:50] face so that we can bring our elbow tight to our body, single leg up to our knees.

[06:27:55] Once we get to our knees, I bring my knee to his knee. I take my shoelace to his [06:28:00] shoelace and I just pull everything to my hip. I slide under him and find myself in Ashi Garami. So, here's our start [06:28:10] position. From here, I turn in, my elbow in his armpit. I beat his crossfits. I come through and catch. From here, [06:28:20] I scissor, come up to my knees.

[06:28:22] Even if he goes to sprawl now, you've got to control that leg. I recline, bring my foot in, Pull [06:28:30] back action that brings his knee to my hip. If he tries to pull away from me, I'll hold the collar tight and get his hands to the floor. If he tries to push into me and stack me, [06:28:40] I'll get that cross frame and plex and I'll get his hands to the floor.

[06:28:44] From here, I turn my body underneath him and make a good catch. If he tries to [06:28:50] pull away from me, Down to the floor we go and we're looking good.[06:29:00]

[06:29:01] Let's look at, uh, another means of finishing this knee escape. I really want you to get strong at knee escapes. I'll tell you why. Because they function [06:29:10] extremely well against people who start to get reverse crossfaces and block your hip. Okay? So in a situation where [06:29:20] Pasiru switches from top hand Nam It comes over and blocks my hip.

[06:29:25] Elbow escapes become very difficult. High leg escapes [06:29:30] become useless. Okay, I can't hit a high leg escape if, uh, uh, it's a jujitsu if the arms is not there to be attacked. Okay, so what do we do in these [06:29:40] cases? Typically what we're looking to do is to get our hand in towards our chest and get that underhook in place.

[06:29:47] From the underhook we come up into the [06:29:50] single leg situation and be able to find ourselves Right there. Ready to attack. Okay? So, these moves work extremely well, um, in those specific [06:30:00] situations where a opponent gets a reverse crossface and blocks the hit. Now, from here, a second way to operate. Very often when we get to the single leg, our opponent will [06:30:10] go into a strong sprawl and you feel like, man, it's going to be tough just to pull him into washigurami.

[06:30:16] In these circumstances, another excellent option is what we call a sit back. [06:30:20] In a sit back, I take my knee towards his knee and I step over his calf muscle and I lock it in place. [06:30:30] Now, I just sit back and pull him into half guard. Okay, from half guard situation, We're going to go into a different kind of attack.

[06:30:39] I go [06:30:40] into a fairly conventional half guard. He's facing me, obviously. I bring my knee in as a shield, right here. So when he tries to get chest to chest contact, he can't [06:30:50] do it. In any knee shield, we're always, pushing with the top leg and pulling with the bottom leg. So there's a good connection to him. I frame across his body like so [06:31:00] and I bring my knee shield high and as a result I can make his hand touch the floor out to the distance and get his head moving away from me.

[06:31:06] That's going to make it very easy for us to go in and score our [06:31:10] training partner's leg and put our hand here in our training partner's armpit. This too will make it very easy for us to use our leg like a whip. and turn underneath our training [06:31:20] partner and get into positions like so. One hand goes in, second hand comes out, and we get to a reverse double leg situation.

[06:31:28] Even if he goes to sprawl away from us [06:31:30] now, or he goes up looking to run away and flee the mat, it doesn't matter. You're in a position now where you can lock that inside some concrete and start to bring your opponent to bear. [06:31:40] I take my shoelaces and I put them right there in front of my training partner's ribs.

[06:31:44] I connect everything to our center chest. We're in the perfect position now to lock him up. And then I use my left [06:31:50] foot to level Placido over into a winning position. So once again, we start off like so. [06:32:00] We'll come through, palm over, hand in. I come up and lock onto the single leg. I come up to my knees. He goes into a strong sprawl.

[06:32:09] From [06:32:10] that strong sprawl, we're going to sit, our knee to his knee. I'm going to step over the top and pull him into a common half guard situation. From here, I go to [06:32:20] knee shield low. He tries to drive forward. Impossible. I go to high shield and from here I get his hands down towards the floor. My hand scoops inside my training partner's leg and my [06:32:30] hand goes from front deltoid to red deltoid.

[06:32:32] It's like so. Now I use my second leg to whip my body around the corner. And we end up in this good attacking [06:32:40] position. Okay. Many ways for us to attack from here, but one which I've always favored a lot, is to It's the switch from single leg to reverse double leg, where you're holding both legs, just [06:32:50] like so.

[06:32:50] Now from here, I just turn off my training partner's body and lock. From here, we're in perfect position to put him down and get to the [06:33:00] wind. Once again,

[06:33:06] I'll demonstrate it this time out of top head and arm, because it works just as well there. [06:33:10] From this position, I come out, pommel through. I come up, single leg situation. As we come up into the single leg, with our knee [06:33:20] slide towards his knee, and I step over his calf muscle. As a result, my arm can come up, and we can just settle down into half guard.

[06:33:29] I bring my knee in as [06:33:30] a He tries to come towards me, knee shield makes it tough. From here, high knee shield, gets his hand moving away. Scoop, hand goes from front [06:33:40] deltoid to rear deltoid. Now we're gonna spin underneath our training partner. He's coming through like so. From here, I catch a hold of my training partner's two legs and [06:33:50] a reverse double leg.

[06:33:51] If he should try to flee the mat, won't do him any good. We just drop in and lock. Okay, many ways for us to work in situations like [06:34:00] this. One of my favorites is to put my foot the shoelaces right in front of his stomach. So I then put my shoelaces on his back, put them in front. [06:34:10] As we lock up, I use my shoelaces to lever him over.

[06:34:14] And we end up in situations where we can go through to a very strong [06:34:20] attacking position. So that's a very realistic way to use a sit back to go into your opponent's legs.[06:34:30]

[06:34:32] Now we're looking at the knee escape, one of the premier methods of getting out of side control. Um, let's look now at a application of [06:34:40] it. We're Our opponent's defensive sprawl forces us to go into a roll response. So we know that the basic [06:34:50] game plan here when someone's holding us down and we want to go into this form of knee escapes to get to that underhook.

[06:34:57] Then we want to beat the cross face. Then [06:35:00] from here we want to elbow in front of our body, turn into the single leg and then slither. our legs and come up into the single leg situation just like so. Okay, so you're perpendicular to [06:35:10] your opponent. A very common thing here is our opponent will go to square up to us, so we sprawl his legs back.

[06:35:17] Then we get caught underneath the sprawl. [06:35:20] If I feel I'm being crushed underneath the sprawl, we have to have an effective response. Come back up. So, I want to be perpendicular. Okay, that's what I'm [06:35:30] looking for. He wants to square up and get his legs back and trap my head underneath his hips. That's what he wants.

[06:35:38] Okay? [06:35:40] First response. If I'm in here in a single leg situation and I feel my opponent's sprawling and I feel I'm losing control of the situation, it's to bring my hands [06:35:50] back and shrug my head back just like so. My head is going to peek out to the side. And from here, we're going to hit a quick sit out. As I hit my sit out, my elbow comes back, [06:36:00] my hip comes up.

[06:36:01] And as a result, we look at our training partner's back. My hand goes across my training partner's hip, and we start the action of moving around behind our training partner, [06:36:10] across to the opposite side, and breaking his base down to the floor. Okay? So once again, we start off in front of our opponent. [06:36:20] We get to the underhook tuck situation, come through.

[06:36:23] We get to the single leg, we come up, But unfortunately, he's able to get a good, healthy scroll. And our head starts coming [06:36:30] down. I retract everything back towards myself. He wants to be on top of my head. head with his hips. Position your hips on top of my head and sprawling. That's what he wants, okay? So [06:36:40] from here, I come up.

[06:36:41] I don't want to be down on my shoelaces. I want to be on my toes. I start contracting and bringing my body back. Heavy. I don't want to be extended [06:36:50] forward. I want to retract. As I retract, We cock our body like so. Watch my left knee. My left knee comes up off the floor. Now my elbow [06:37:00] chops back, and I just hit a quick sit.

[06:37:03] So his weight comes off me. From here, it's another difficult thing for us to go around our training partner's waist. There's a concern as [06:37:10] I come around, he can reach back, take a wizard. So it's important I get my ear to his back. He goes to reach back, hard for him to get to the wizard. Even [06:37:20] harder if I come around the corner and switch sides and start breaking him down towards the floor, okay?

[06:37:26] So once again,[06:37:30]

[06:37:30] we're caught underneath our opponent. We want to get out. We've chosen the knee escape as [06:37:40] our method. I go through, I catch, the opponent's going to come up into a full sprawl. As I feel his sprawl coming up, we go straight on through, lock up, [06:37:50] then run to the other side. Now, there's going to be times that you feel the peek out is quite difficult.

[06:37:58] Usually it's because your opponent does a really good [06:38:00] job of trapping your head underneath his hips. He might be using his hands to assist. And you can't get your head up, and you can't peek out. Under those [06:38:10] circumstances, I'm in here, and there's a heavy scrawl, and I can't get my head out. What we're going to do instead is put our head further down.

[06:38:19] We're going to [06:38:20] bring our shoulder in towards our training partner, and we're going to drive with our feet off the mat. And we're going to start an action of pushing into our man like so, using our hips [06:38:30] to come in. I bring one foot in front of my opponent and a second foot here. Okay. If I'm naive, Can I bring my legs like so?

[06:38:38] He can [06:38:40] expose my back, he can go into leg locks, he can do all kinds of things. Okay? I don't want giving him easy leg locks from this position. So I bring my foot in and retract, so my legs are short. [06:38:50] If Placido goes for any kind of leg lock from here, it's going to be tough. Okay? Now, from situations like this, we're always looking to go into our various attacks.

[06:38:59] I normally kind [06:39:00] of threaten some kind of upper body attack or punch through you. And come in like so. Placere will almost certainly go into some kind of defensive standing. Pulling away posturing. And that'll give us [06:39:10] an opportunity to go into something a little more serious. And then work for our various finishes.

[06:39:16] So once again, you start off, [06:39:20] bottom side control. I manage to get to an underhook. I come through. I come up into a single leg situation. For whatever reason, I can't get my [06:39:30] head out and peak out. So from here, I come through and I push actively off the mat, bringing my hips in. I bring my foot across my training partner's chest and we start [06:39:40] creating space.

[06:39:41] Many ways for us to go on the attack, uh, situations like this. Okay. Usually any kind of feigned attack will create a defensive response. He goes to pull away and I [06:39:50] lose the upper body. There'll be many opportunities to come downstairs into the lower body. As he tries to pull away from us, tries to backstep [06:40:00] over, it's going to be difficult and we get into our lower body submissions.

[06:40:04] So one more time, starting off, legs up[06:40:10]

[06:40:17] from here, many ways for us to [06:40:20] go around the corner and into our various attacks.

[06:40:29] [06:40:30] With all [06:40:40] combinations, they tend to work best. Sorry, I'll say that again. With all escapes, they tend to work best in combinations. Um, the knee escape is no [06:40:50] exception. There's going to come times when you feel it's really hard. You can get to an underhook, but it's really difficult to get up underneath your opponent's body weight.

[06:40:57] Maybe he's just a much heavier person than you, [06:41:00] maybe he's really experienced in either jiu jitsu or wrestling, and you find it very difficult. You get to your underhook, but you can't get up and get to your single leg. Uh, there's a really nice way of, [06:41:10] uh, switching from the single leg at the knee to coming down to the ankle.

[06:41:15] So once again, we start off, got the talented opponent on top of us, and we [06:41:20] managed to work our way. into an underhook. We've managed to get inside his crossface and we come down here. I'm going to grab a hold of his ankle, but when I [06:41:30] try to get up, he's got a very tight whizzer and he's putting his hip into me.

[06:41:35] And when I try to get up, it's like, Oh my God, he whizzes hard and I get knocked back down. I try to get [06:41:40] up, he whizzes hard and I keep getting knocked down. Okay. Under these circumstances, he's going to lift his ankle off the floor. I don't need to get up for this move. That's one of the big advantages it has over knee [06:41:50] escapes.

[06:41:51] I just lift his ankle off the floor and I walk towards his ankle. Even if he whizzes me now, it means nothing. I just stay on my back and I just lock a [06:42:00] triangle around his leg. If he goes to sprawl his leg back, it's worthless. It's his legs against mine. Okay, my legs will always win. From this [06:42:10] situation, I'm going to take a hold of my training partner and catch him here at the opposite leg.[06:42:20]

[06:42:21] And now I just pull my body in towards him. Even if he tries his best to sprawl away and do all those things that people do, it's just so damn [06:42:30] difficult. Okay? And it's very easy for us now to start turning him over and compromising his balance. Forcing him to put his hands to the mat. [06:42:40] Once his hands come to the mat, I'm going to take his leg in like so, and then from here, I let him back down to the floor.

[06:42:47] Then I catch my training [06:42:50] partner right here, almost in a deep half guard type situation. Now, I start moving my opponent around and I hook a hold of my training partner's [06:43:00] foot. I'm going to use this to make his foot come out to the side. And as a result, we can start the action of spinning out. My knee goes behind his [06:43:10] ankle, strong body.

[06:43:11] From here, I come up and I catch a hold of his leg. When he tries to pull that leg free, almost impossible. Now I just take [06:43:20] my foot through and I just hook on the far side of my training partner's body. You've got an excellent initial entry in your training partner. No matter what he tries to do now, all [06:43:30] I'm going to do is put my head in the space between his two knees.

[06:43:34] So I push off the floor and from here I just roll on through. That puts me in the perfect position to [06:43:40] expose his heel. I can go inside Senkaku or I can go double 50. Both excellent options. He [06:43:50] goes to pull away from me, so difficult. And from here we get very, very strong finishes. So once again, I know this seems a little complicated, don't worry.[06:44:00]

[06:44:00] There's simpler options that I will get very soon as well. Personally, I love this escape. I'm not gonna lie to you, the older I got and the more problems I had with my hips, I end up using this one more and [06:44:10] more. So, I lock up, I come in, and lock. From here, I try to get up, he's got a strong willy, [06:44:20] I can't get to my single leg.

[06:44:22] Okay, he's just better than me in this position. So I lift the ankle and I lock it and I almost look like a triangle scroll. [06:44:30] I lock almost like a triangle around scroll from here. I come up to my training partner's waist. I come up to the opposite knee and from [06:44:40] here I hit into my opponent like so, okay.

[06:44:44] As he goes to square out because i'm interested in leg locks. I come in here and here, [06:44:50] okay. I play a game of footsie. where I thread this hook inside. Now I make his foot go to the floor like so [06:45:00] I catch and I just come up and put my knee right inside my training partner's heel. Now as he desperately goes to yank away from me, I lock [06:45:10] on board.

[06:45:11] Now I'm just knee slide in towards him and I go hunting for his far hamstring. He goes to stand up on me. Very, [06:45:20] very difficult. Feels like he'll break his own leg. Okay. Now I just put my head inside his two knees. Yeah. And as a result, we [06:45:30] get a beautiful catch and into the finish. Now, I know what some of you are saying.

[06:45:35] You're saying, okay, that looks cool, but I'm 50 [06:45:40] years old and I'm not inverting under anyone anytime soon. Don't worry, there's more conservative approaches you can use that don't lead into leg lock activity, [06:45:50] um, which are every bit as valuable as the one we just looked at, if not more so. You can use more conservative approaches where you simply sweep your opponent.

[06:45:59] So once again, [06:46:00] we start off, I go inside, I catch, I can't get up. He's blistering strongly, can't get up to my single leg. I [06:46:10] lift, I expose his ankle, and I lock a triangle around it. I go to his waist, I go to his knee, I pull my elbow back to my own body. He puts his [06:46:20] hands on the floor defensively. From this position, look how I scoot underneath Katsuda.

[06:46:25] Scooting, scooting, scooting, scooting, until he can't follow anymore. [06:46:30] No matter how he bases it out, if I keep walking that circle and scooting, it's going to fall. Every time he comes down like so, [06:46:40] I come up into top position. And we end up in the perfect position to get our reversal. If he tries to stand up on me from here, it's awfully, awfully difficult.

[06:46:48] Now I go hunting. [06:46:50] for that forearm. Okay. He wants his elbow off the mat. So what I do is I just push with my head. I force the elbow to the mat. I come forward and I put his shoulder [06:47:00] down on the floor. The second, we're over those kinds of situations. We come up and now you've got a host of attacks from the back.

[06:47:07] Okay, if you take your opponent's back, you've got [06:47:10] strangles from there. If he puts his back on the floor, you've got karagatame. Everywhere you go, there's submissions, okay? So don't think, if you're not the most flexible guy in the world and the leg lock option seems a [06:47:20] little, uh, difficult for you, don't worry, you've got a great upper body options as well.

[06:47:25] So let's have a look at that again. It all starts. [06:47:30] So I control bottom, I move out, Punch in an underhook. Gotta beat the crossfit. From here, I [06:47:40] catch a hold of my trainee partner's heel. He goes into a full scroll. I just focus on lifting and locking. I get a good triangle around his foot. Now from here, I go to [06:47:50] his waist.

[06:47:50] He tries to pull away from me. It's not easy, you got that waist. You go in, get elbow deep around his leg. I push my hips forward, I bring his knees together. I [06:48:00] reach for the floor and I hit a reverse shrimping motion, pulling him along the mat. Every time he goes to follow me, he can only move so far [06:48:10] until eventually he goes down.

[06:48:12] I always want to go forward and catch. He wants his elbow off the mat. So I use my head to push into him and force his elbow to [06:48:20] the mat. If he takes his hand away from me and I can't reach, I'll use my second hand to feed it to my first hand. Then I just put his shoulder [06:48:30] down on the mat. I post, I go forward, and I put my hand here.

[06:48:36] If he turns away from me, he gives me the bat. If he turns [06:48:40] his back to the floor, he gives me a target on me. Either way, we're going to get a nice upper body submission opportunity. So this is a great way to use [06:48:50] this very effective form of, uh, defense from bottom side control to not only get out of side control, but up into winning positions, either on the legs, [06:49:00] or the upper body.

[06:49:05] Now, as we've gone through these side escapes, I'm sure all of you have noticed something. [06:49:10] That all the escapes we've looked at so far involve turning in towards our opponent. Okay, it's fair to say that the overwhelming majority of [06:49:20] escapes to side pins in the sport of Jiu favor turning towards your opponent.

[06:49:25] That's because traditionally jiu jitsu has a paranoia about back exposure. Okay. Back [06:49:30] exposure is always a bad thing in the sport. So people are reluctant to turn away from an opponent. Um, now that's understandable, but it's something you have to get over. Why? [06:49:40] Because it's damn difficult to turn into a skilled opponent.

[06:49:43] They're putting a lot of physical pressure on you. You get. At world championship level, there's guys with tremendous cross face power [06:49:50] and a lot of times you will be able to turn into people and get these escapes to work, but there's going to be some times you can't. And then you have to be able to misdirect in the opposite [06:50:00] direction.

[06:50:00] You can't just always go bang, bang, bang in one direction. Okay, as I said, it'll work well a lot of the times, but there's going to come that day. You just [06:50:10] can't turn into an opponent and then you have to turn the other way. Now there's good news and bad news. The bad news is anytime you turn away, there's always some risk of back [06:50:20] exposure.

[06:50:20] That's true, but don't worry. There's ways you can minimize this. The good news is when you turn away from opponents, you're going in the same [06:50:30] direction that they are pushing into you. So you get a very interesting chance here. to use their energy, their pushing energy against them. Okay. So those are the [06:50:40] good and bad of turning away from an opponent.

[06:50:43] Okay. So first what's the danger here? If I'm bottom side control, he's on top [06:50:50] and I start turning away from an opponent. Yes. You can see there's some danger of back exposure here. That's the downside. The good news is, there's [06:51:00] ways we can play this, so that I can expose his back as we come up. Now, if I have my hand in the inside position, [06:51:10] and I turn away, it's my back that's getting exposed.

[06:51:12] Placido's arm is behind me, and as a result, he can easily lock up seatbelts, etc, etc, and cause problems for [06:51:20] me. But if I have his tricep, and I post my hand on the tricep, and as we play in this position, I shrug my head underneath, I can do a movement where, [06:51:30] when I move and turn away from Pasido, I can send his body out to the side, and now his back is exposed to me.

[06:51:37] Now that's not a back exposure I can [06:51:40] use, because my hips are underneath his hips. So I can't take his back from here, okay? But at least he can't take mine. So we're kind of, kind of neutral here. [06:51:50] I've exposed his back, but I can't use it because his hips are on top of my hips. When I turn and expose my back to him, he can't use it because I'm behind his arms.[06:52:00]

[06:52:00] So we've kind of nullified each other here. So from these situations, we're just going to plant our feet on the floor and we're going to scoop our hips out so that my hips [06:52:10] now face his hips. I can release his arm now, he comes to turn and face me, and we're back in neutral, okay? So that's the idea behind this escape.

[06:52:19] Now, [06:52:20] guys, all of the escapes we've been looking at heavily emphasize the idea of a counterattack after the escape was completed. You're going to notice in this particular move, [06:52:30] it's unlikely that you're going to go into a direct attack after this move, because your two bodies separate from each other.

[06:52:36] You don't have the connection to go straight into this. Uh, [06:52:40] counterattacks. There are some good things you can do off his reaction, but please bear in mind this particular escape kind of breaks the, uh, overall vision that we're pushing [06:52:50] in this video. The idea that, uh, as we're escaping, we've got sufficient connection to go into arm locks or leg locks on our opponent.

[06:52:56] In this case, it's all about separation, so it's [06:53:00] unlikely you're going to get a direct attack out of it, okay? So once again, what do I need to get this moving? We're going to hit what we call a double thumb post, where I have my two thumbs [06:53:10] around my training partner's tricep, okay? So if we reposition ourselves, Pasiru is in here, and he's across my side.

[06:53:18] Normally, we frame here. [06:53:20] at the hip. I'm going to take my hand across and I'm going to thumb post right in behind his tricep. What I'm going to do, there's two ways to do this. [06:53:30] One is proactive, one is reactive. A lot of our opponents like to take their arm and come across here. A lot of guys like to pit in this position.

[06:53:38] So if I'm in [06:53:40] this position, I have a thumb post and I ever see my opponent go to make that transition, it's right there for me. Okay. What if I've done this move a couple of times [06:53:50] and this guy's like, I know what he wants to do. He wants to do this. send my arm by. So he just keeps his hand here. In those cases, just go underneath your opponent's head the same way we did for a high leg escape.[06:54:00]

[06:54:00] So as he holds in tight, I'm just going to put my two thumbs under and we're just going to go out like so. As we come out the other side, now we're in a position to go on the attack. [06:54:10] Now, my arm is quite bent in this position. A bent arm is a weak arm. So what we want to do is start pushing off the floor and we just send everything out in this direction here.[06:54:20]

[06:54:20] Okay, try to stretch that arm out and push. Now, you can be on your hand, you can be on your elbow, okay, but you can't stay down on your [06:54:30] shoulder. From the shoulder, it's kind of a weak re entry of the leg. I'm not going to say it won't work at all, um, but you're better off rolling over your shoulder if you're going to stay down [06:54:40] here, okay.

[06:54:40] You have much more mobility when you're on either an elbow or a hand. Now, I take my foot, And I hit a scoop, and I come back towards my [06:54:50] opponent. As he goes to face us, we're in a position now where we can go in. Which are counter attacks or what have you. There won't be immediate counter attacks the way it was with all the other [06:55:00] moves we've looked at.

[06:55:00] But I normally recommend some kind of arm drag and off that entries into legs or what have you. So once again, we start off just like so. [06:55:10] As he pins me. I have my hands ready to go. If I ever see him switch, that's the perfect time to come on through. Now we can shoot him, [06:55:20] we face him, now we can start taking him over in various directions of that action reaction.

[06:55:27] If on the other hand, [06:55:30] Passiero decides to play a static game and isn't going to move his arm. Then it's up to me to get underneath our opponent, okay? [06:55:40] Once we get to a position like this, weight down, look how we just post, and then we turn away from our man, we push off the floor, and it's off that push that we get moving [06:55:50] away with our body.

[06:55:51] As we square up with our opponent, Now we're in a position to go in on the attack in any way you favor. Okay? Um, a [06:56:00] word to the wise with this kind of attack. You've got a choice here between a longer lever versus a more robust grip. [06:56:10] Longer lever. but not very robust. If he pulls his elbow back, it can slip out.

[06:56:15] This is a shorter lever, but it's more robust. It stays in there. He tries to [06:56:20] pull free. It's not so easy. It's a good, challenging grip. So those are your two choices. Uh, some guys like the long lever, some guys like the short lever, but more robust grip. [06:56:30] Okay. That's a personal choice, which I've seen both work very well.

[06:56:33] So in these situations, Okay, I come in, I start moving my chest like this body [06:56:40] now from here It's all about that explosive push when we go to push the best direction is down the body If I go across the [06:56:50] body, I expose my arm to my arm lock I expose my arm to a step over arm lock. Okay, so I don't want to go across my shoulder line I expose my [06:57:00] arm.

[06:57:01] What I do want to do is bring him down towards my opposite hip So this leg here as I push off the floor the other leg snaps down And it's that [06:57:10] motion of just push, which gives a lot of whip to this move. Start with a high leg, so you can whip your body. If you just push with your arm, make a strong body.[06:57:20]

[06:57:20] If you just push with your arm, it's very hard. Okay, but if I work with my legs, you can get tremendous momentum Down towards the hips. [06:57:30] Okay, so it's so long kind of a kipping motion We have the arm and I bring my leg up and then from here you whip the leg down If my [06:57:40] body is flat back you had no ability to move So I need my body shaped like a rocking chair or a banana so that my body generates momentum [06:57:50] As my leg comes up Everything chops down towards my feet.

[06:57:55] Again, don't go across the shoulders and have your opponent go into an extended arm [06:58:00] for an easy arm bar. So we start off, I thumb post, I get inside. You've got that tricep [06:58:10] grip. Okay, I bring my legs up. As the legs come up, we're going to get good opportunities to move them across our body and down towards the feet.

[06:58:19] My foot comes [06:58:20] in and we square up and we're in the perfect position now to go through into our various attacks. Okay, this is a very useful move. for the simple reason [06:58:30] that it goes in the opposite direction of all your other moves. Traditionally, we always turn into our opponent for most of our escapes.

[06:58:37] This one turns you the other way. It turns you in a [06:58:40] way which is always completely safe because you're behind his arm in front of me. Whenever I'm behind someone's arm, there's never any back [06:58:50] exposure. Okay. Uh, even if he was behind me here, it looks like he's back exposure, right? But if I'm [06:59:00] behind his arm, is there back exposure?

[06:59:01] Nope. In order for there to be real back exposure, I have to be between his elbows. Now there's back exposure. [06:59:10] Okay? But if I'm not between his elbows, there's no back exposure. Okay? From here, there's many things you can do to bring him right back in. Okay? That's exactly how this works. [06:59:20] This move works. Yes, when I turn away, there's back exposure if I'm between his elbows.

[06:59:27] Yep, there's back exposure there for sure. [06:59:30] But if I come in to a position like so, and I throw everything out to the side, I'm not between his elbows. So even though technically I've given up [06:59:40] my, I've turned my back towards him, I haven't given up back exposure. I did turn my back towards him. That's true.

[06:59:46] But I didn't expose my back. So not between his elbows. [06:59:50] I bring my feet in towards myself. I scoot, get our feet back and recovered. And from here, many ways for us to go on the attack. Okay. So one more time. [07:00:00] Oh, from here. I can't just do it from here. My own head will be an impediment. [07:00:10] So we're going to get through into situations like so, weight down.

[07:00:14] Now, look at the legs and what generate momentum here. Okay. So the legs come up, they [07:00:20] just whip, and we start moving out to the side. As we extend down, we find ourselves in good position. to go into our various counterattacks. Now, [07:00:30] um, that's a very practical way of getting out. I'm just going to show you another little method that isn't really practical as a way of getting out.

[07:00:38] It's related to the moves that we looked at. [07:00:40] same family variation. Um, it's not really a practical way to get out, but it is a practical way to disrupt his balance and set up some of the moves that we looked at previously in the [07:00:50] video. We're looking at the idea of going with our opponent. Okay. Normally we turn it into him and it's a battle.

[07:00:57] Him driving into me and me driving into him. Okay. [07:01:00] Sometimes if he's bigger and stronger than us, it's better for us to drive in the same direction he's driving. Okay. So from Placido's perspective as the man doing the pin, [07:01:10] He's typically driving into me and putting me under pressure. That's typically what he's doing.

[07:01:16] Okay. I'm typically, as the man defending, [07:01:20] turning into him. Either knee escapes, high leg escapes, or elbow escapes. We're typically turning into him. And so you [07:01:30] get this direct frontal confrontation. We look now at the idea of going in the same direction [07:01:40] that he's driving. Okay, so the advantage is you're sharing his energy instead of resisting it.

[07:01:45] There's other ways to do this. Okay. Um, one which can be quite useful. [07:01:50] He takes reverse crossface and blocks down here. Okay. I'm going to bridge into my opponent and get a pushback reaction. So my [07:02:00] left foot bridges and he pushes back to resist the bridge. Now I take my other foot here and I plant it. As I plant it, I switch direction back the other way [07:02:10] and as a result we get them out of balance.

[07:02:12] What does he do? Recovers his balance, right? The minute he recovers his balance, our knees go in, and we get a nice little action [07:02:20] reaction injury. So once again, I feel Pasito is pushing into me and pinning me hard, so I make him push even harder. I [07:02:30] fake to my right, put my left foot in, and I give a good fake, and I get him pushing back.

[07:02:37] Then I just change direction on it, and as a result, [07:02:40] you get him well out of balance. Now he's got to put his

[07:02:45] You're right away back into all the various attacks and counterattacks that we [07:02:50] saw earlier. So again, I'm being pinned like so. I'm feeling he's a strong pinner pushing into me. I [07:03:00] motivate him to push even more. I'm pushing back into him. So you can see I'm pushing off my left foot. Then I plant my right foot and I take everything down this way, not across, [07:03:10] down this way.

[07:03:11] And as a result, we get him out of balance. He goes to recover, but he recovers to hold it out. And into that hole goes my knee. [07:03:20] As he tries to hold us off from here, we go into our basic side elbow escape. And you guys Nowhere to go from there. Okay. So that's another [07:03:30] nice way to get to share our opponent's pushing energy across the body and go in the same direction.

[07:03:36] Now, if he's got a top head and arm grip, you [07:03:40] can do the same thing. It won't be quite as good, uh, but still not bad. Okay. So I feel him giving me strong cross face pressure. I push back into him like so, [07:03:50] and then from here, look, I take him down the body like so I don't go across. I go down the body. I plant my right foot and I get them out of balance.[07:04:00]

[07:04:00] Now as he goes to recover, I follow his hip and find my knee going through, and once again, we're back in business, okay? So these are some simple [07:04:10] ways for us to share our opponent's pushing energy and to reverse the general trend in side escapes. The general trend in side escapes is to turn into [07:04:20] your opponent.

[07:04:20] And that can create too much head to head confrontation, okay? Every so often you've got to mix it up, you've got to turn the other way. And uh, that [07:04:30] way as he drives into you, you go with his energy, disrupt his balance, or expose his back, and enable you to either put him back in guard, or turn the other way.[07:04:40]

[07:04:42] Now, we're touching on the idea of reversing direction. The general trend of most side escapes is to turn into your opponent. [07:04:50] But we're looking now at the idea of turning in the same direction that our opponent is pushing. This creates, uh, a sense in which you're sharing your opponent's energy. And it's not [07:05:00] quite so physically draining as it is to always punch into your opponent's uh, uh, energy and take him like front on.

[07:05:06] The backdoor escape uses the same idea, uh, as [07:05:10] always when we turn away from an opponent our primary concern is back exposure. The backdoor escape, uh, does a great job of preventing back exposure even as we turn in the same [07:05:20] direction our opponent is moving. So, what is a backdoor escape? Typically, our escapes involve turning into an opponent.

[07:05:29] [07:05:30] Okay? Front on. Just like so. A backdoor escape involves turning with our opponent. Like so. And from here, instead of me [07:05:40] escaping with my head, On this side of his body, normally my head stays on this side of the body, okay? If you look at the majority of escapes we've looked at so far, they all [07:05:50] involve my head remaining more or less in the same position as we go into the escape.

[07:05:56] In a backdoor escape, my head switches from one side of his body [07:06:00] across and through to the other side. It's as though he slips out and he's left with nothing in front of him. And you're out the back door. [07:06:10] Okay. As your head comes out, you're in a position to go on to various forms of counterattack. So once again, what is necessary for a backdoor is a change in [07:06:20] philosophy about frame.

[07:06:21] Normally we frame on the hip or the near armpit here. We frame on the far hip, or the far [07:06:30] armpit, okay? This and this are the two primary points of the frame. Now, this comes at a price. When you have decided to frame like [07:06:40] this, you now have problems of your opponent scooping your arm, and now he can go into various forms of strangulation, like north south, for example.[07:06:50]

[07:06:52] He can go into variations of armbars.

[07:06:58] Triangles, red triangles, [07:07:00] all kinds of bad facts. So you might be saying to yourself, why the fuck are you showing us this escape? It looks like a disaster. All these [07:07:10] terrifying ways of countering it. Well, of course, you're not going to stay there long enough for him to get these to work. It's a very fast and mobile escape.

[07:07:17] And very effective. You don't see it so often, but when it's used, [07:07:20] it has a lot of surprise value. And as I said, it goes in the same direction an opponent is moving away. And that typically makes things a little easier. So, we're going to start off in a conventional [07:07:30] position, just like so. I'm going to thumb post my training partner like so.

[07:07:33] And I'm going to use that to take my hand and bring it through. Now, guys, [07:07:40] it's usually taught as a frame at the hip. I'm not going to say that's wrong. I've seen it work. But I personally Prefer to frame here, at the [07:07:50] shoulder and armpit, okay? Why? It creates a stronger and shorter movement. Because [07:08:00] what I'm looking to do is turn my hips away from him and create a drive leg.

[07:08:06] I don't put two feet on the floor. Now my left [07:08:10] foot is an impediment. I take my left foot out of the equation by pointing my toes away. When I hit my bridge, I don't bridge up. I bridge to the [07:08:20] side, I punch with my arm into the armpit, and we come out the back door. The second we come out, I take my arm [07:08:30] and I bring my wrist to the back of his neck, just like so.

[07:08:34] I slip over, and I keep walking. until we're perpendicular. The [07:08:40] second we get perpendicular, I misdirect in the opposite direction as he tries to pull away from me. We lock in and I get my wrist to the back of his neck, just like so. [07:08:50] The back of my hand should be in the deltoid. Don't grab the head, just put your hand in like so.

[07:08:56] As he goes to pull away, just lock it up. [07:09:00] He goes to pull out, enormously difficult. Now, don't unlock your hands, just slide them, so there's no loss of content. And put [07:09:10] your hand on his shoulder. Don't put your hand on his back. That makes for a weak lock. Go all the way through and lock it. The second you get the lock, walk back to the [07:09:20] shoulder line.

[07:09:20] And then pull the elbow down, and strangle for the finish. Okay? Let's have a look at all that again. Okay. [07:09:30] More south. Sorry. Side control. Just like so. I thumb post to immobilize the hand. Now, I manipulate my body, [07:09:40] So that I can bring my hand all the way through I normally do that by walking away from my training partner Then I just slip [07:09:50] the elbow through you could go here But I always get better results when I put my shoulder here now guys We're gonna come closer to the [07:10:00] camera so you can see an important detail.

[07:10:03] I want you to watch my right shoulder[07:10:10]

[07:10:10] I don't just have my bicep on his lat muscle. What I do is I punch through [07:10:20] so that my whole shoulder is behind his shoulder. I don't do this. And try to move them with my [07:10:30] I turn and corkscrew my hand. My thumb corkscrews. Watch my shoulder. That's what makes him move. [07:10:40] Make a strong body. Yes, sir. If I just hit him like this, I'll never move a strong opponent.

[07:10:46] I see this all the time. Guys, drill this move. And the guy [07:10:50] on top is too relaxed. And then they do this, and they get out. Then they go into a competition, the guy holds up their world champion, and they're, [07:11:00] they're stuck. It's not working, it doesn't work. It works, you just gotta do it right. Look how I corkscrew, and I shoot for the ceiling.

[07:11:08] When I shoot for the [07:11:10] ceiling, I look away from Blastido. Don't look at your opponent. Now he's, he's caught on your head. Look in this direction. Strong. Now, I [07:11:20] just punch and corkscrew. You come right out. I'm on my side. Don't finish on your back. He can recover now. He can [07:11:30] pull his arm out. I finish on my side.

[07:11:34] So my chest is right behind his tricep. If my chest is not touching his tricep, [07:11:40] rotate. If my chest is not touching his tricep, he can pull out. So what I want is to take my whole [07:11:50] chest and rotate into the tricep. He goes to pull out. Very difficult. Now I feed the hands through. I walk so that [07:12:00] my head pops out of the hole.

[07:12:02] Okay, your head literally comes out the back door. Now from this position, I turn and lock. He goes [07:12:10] to pull his head free. It's not easy. I go north south, lock it in tighter. I shoot my hands. I don't let go. He goes vertical and I [07:12:20] lose it. Go vertical. You can't. Now, I lock it. I go perpendicular. And my hand goes all the way up to the shoulder.

[07:12:29] If [07:12:30] you put your hand here, here, it's weak. Just stand up and go vertical on me. Here is weak. He can slip out. Stand up and go [07:12:40] vertical on me. There he'll strangle. Okay. So let's have a look at this from another angle.[07:12:50]

[07:12:50] Okay. His energy is driving me this way. There's gonna be a day his cross face is so strong. [07:13:00] You can't turn into it. None of these skates I showed you so far are working. This guy's got the crossface from hell and you're like, Oh my God, what do I do now? Okay. Thumb post, take your hand [07:13:10] and bring it through.

[07:13:12] Walk so you're almost north south with him. Now, corkscrew. When we take our hand, I [07:13:20] corkscrew up to the ceiling. And as a result, we come out and get our whole chest right there behind the tricep. He goes to rip his arm out. Very, very difficult. [07:13:30] Okay, you come through and lock. He goes to rip everything out.

[07:13:35] Very difficult. My hands don't disconnect. They lock. [07:13:40] He goes to stand up, pull me up off the floor, do all those things that people do, and he strangles out. It's a very, very effective way of working. Now, [07:13:50] let's have a look at what would happen if you lost the da strangle. So you did the escape, but lost the da strangle.

[07:13:56] Don't worry, it's not the end of the world, okay? At least you'll put him back in guard. [07:14:00] So, the optimal thing is to get out and strangle him. That's the optimal situation, okay? We've seen this [07:14:10] idea of coming out and then the corkscrew. What if, from a situation like so, I came around? and he pulled and got [07:14:20] away from us.

[07:14:21] So we lose the upper body. Okay. So we come in and he goes vertical on us and we lose the upper body. [07:14:30] Whenever we see that kind of thing in the conservative option from here is to put a hand on the hip and then from here, thread your legs through and then find ourselves back in [07:14:40] guard position. If I feel I'm losing this.

[07:14:46] The conservative option is the hip. The more aggressive [07:14:50] option is the scoop grip. Okay. Whenever we get into that scoop grip, we're going to look to bring our knee through in front of our training partner. And our foot goes here in [07:15:00] front of the opposite hip. As a result, it's an easy pull around the corner that connects our knee and foot on the opposite side.

[07:15:08] From here, I'm looking to [07:15:10] take his knee on top.

[07:15:14] Once we get to a position like this, we're always looking to take his foot and bring it across [07:15:20] our chest from one armpit across to the other. Now, I thread my foot through on the opposite side. I look at my opponent's reaction. [07:15:30] If he stays face down as he is now, I I'll break him right here. If he goes to turn, to expose my hands to his counter offense, [07:15:40] then from here I come up to my inside shoulder, I use my feet to lock my two shoelaces to his chest and hips.

[07:15:47] As he comes forward to fight my hands, [07:15:50] get to my elbow, do all those things that people do. That's it. It's almost impossible and we get a very strong break. Okay. So once again, that principle, as you lose the upper body, [07:16:00] the lower body will be left behind and that's the easy pickings to work with. So once again, we start off, I thumb post, create [07:16:10] a slightly different angle so I can bring my frame arm through, pop my shoulder and come in just like so.

[07:16:18] Unfortunately, when I go for my [07:16:20] da strangle, he pulls out. Conservative option post. Align and find yourself in a position to work from open guard. That's a conservative [07:16:30] option. Nothing wrong with being conservative, by the way. Okay, the optimal thing, I'm sorry, that's probably the wrong thing to say at this time of [07:16:40] day, um, uh, the optimal thing is to to get the best possible option, okay, to get to the submission hold.

[07:16:46] But dude, if you put him back in guard and take that concealer, there's nothing wrong with that either. You can [07:16:50] always fight later from guard position. So it's not like he failed. So from a situation like so, I come around the corner, my shoulder goes into the outside, we come [07:17:00] around and we lock, but unfortunately, I can't get through it.

[07:17:03] This time I scoop inside my training partner's leg. His backward momentum is going to make it pretty easy for us to get our [07:17:10] knee right there in front of his opposite hip. Okay, now I take my second foot over the top and get his hands to the mat. My whole thing is to get his knee [07:17:20] on top of our belly button.

[07:17:21] I don't want my knee Pointing across the body. When the knee points across the body, he can start to turn, square, and cause problems for us. [07:17:30] I want his knee on my belly button. So we're going to give a little pull. It does exactly that. Now I come across, and send his foot from one side of my body [07:17:40] across to the other.

[07:17:40] If he tried to turn and face me now, he was previously able to break his own leg. Okay? So we come around the corner and block. If he's naive, perhaps, and just [07:17:50] stays in this position, it's an easy finish. If he goes to turn and expose my hands, then from this position, look, I'll come up onto the shoulder.

[07:17:59] And [07:18:00] I take my hands further and further away from him. Okay? If he tries to get to my right elbow, it's impossible. Right elbow, impossible. If he [07:18:10] tries to get to my head, too far away. The only thing he can access is the near hand and the near elbow. That's gonna be tough, man. From here, okay, we just lock up.

[07:18:19] [07:18:20] We get everything in tight. My whole body locked around his. And then from this position, we finish. Please understand [07:18:30] that there's always other options here. If he goes to back step over, nothing wrong. We're taking your foot across and going into a crisscross ashi. Okay. [07:18:40] This is actually one of the big favorites of the squad.

[07:18:42] Um, very, very strong, uh, used numerous times in competition. This too is an excellent finishing position. [07:18:50] It has the properties of both 50 50. and inside Senkaku at the same time. Okay. If later on in this video series, we're going to be looking at this position in [07:19:00] huge amounts of detail, why it's proven to be so successful for the squad over the years.

[07:19:04] From here, he goes in to fight my hands. Now there's a barrier right in the way. And it's a very, very [07:19:10] strong finishing position. Another great option from here. If I see him go into his back step, Just follow right across and just switch your feet [07:19:20] and find yourself now in good old inside Senkaku from here He goes in tries to fight my hands inside Senkaku puts a barrier So it's harder for him to fight my hands [07:19:30] Harder for him to fight my head and almost impossible to get to the far elbow and from here Closing pressure of my leg creates very very strong breaks regardless [07:19:40] Senkaku you use.

[07:19:41] So There's a whole bunch of ways that we can work into submission holds out of this very interesting escape. Please [07:19:50] understand that the backdoor escape works on that same principle of going with your opponent's energy instead of against it. As such, it's a nice complement. To the other moves that we've looked [07:20:00] at so far in the series.

[07:20:01] Now, fellas, um, would I use the backdoor escape as my primary escape? Probably not. Okay. I still [07:20:10] believe with my heart of hearts, that the side elbow escape is the king of escapes from side control. If I could only have one for the rest of my life, I would unquestionably choose the side elbow escape. [07:20:20] But you've got to have some backups, okay?

[07:20:22] The side elbow escape is always predicated on the idea of turning into your opponent. And there's going to come days when your opponent's cross face is [07:20:30] so strong that it feels like it's going to break your jaw if you try and turn into him. You've got to have some escapes that go the other way, that go with his energy.

[07:20:39] The, [07:20:40] uh, the backdoor escape is a fine example of this. And even though it looks a little risky, it looks a little flashy when you first look at it. It's actually mechanically very sound. Uh, Plaston, I think you'll agree [07:20:50] that when you pop the shoulder and corkscrew the arm, it really moves the guy quite successfully.

[07:20:54] So we're in here and I get my hand through, Plaston tight crossface, tight lob. [07:21:00] Good tight strong tight when I get here my shoulder rest when I corkscrew my thumb And rotate you just come right out [07:21:10] Okay, and this is going to give you excellent opportunities for both da strangles or if you lose da strangles To go into your opponent's [07:21:20] legs.

[07:21:20] Once we go into the legs, the whole thing is to connect foot and knee together. And then most importantly, get his belly, his knee, your belly button. With everything facing the ceiling. [07:21:30] If I start turning and exposing, that's when people get on top of you. I don't want his knee on the floor, I want his knee on my belly button.

[07:21:38] So we're gonna shovel our [07:21:40] body underneath it. Once we get that knee up on the value button, we're looking good. So we lock up even better when we control our [07:21:50] training partner's leg. And from situations like this, now we're in the perfect position to go through into the various attacks that we favor in these positions.

[07:21:59] [07:22:00] So, the backdoor escape, a valuable addition. Now,[07:22:10]

[07:22:12] we've been looking at navigating our way through the various side pins and getting out escaping and into our [07:22:20] counterattacks. Let's understand always that there are three major hip configurations that our opponent can use, and we have to be able to get out of all of them. By far and away, the most [07:22:30] dominant and most popular, the most common form of hip configuration is square, where your opponent's on two knees, like so, but he also has the option of sitting in [07:22:40] both directions, like so.

[07:22:42] Why would someone sit through? What's the motivation to do it? Okay, when someone's square, [07:22:50] their center of gravity is elevated off the mat by the height of the knee and hip. It also presents an open space [07:23:00] for me to elbow skate. So the center of gravity is relatively high. And it has the disadvantage that there's [07:23:10] an opening for my knee to enter.

[07:23:13] The good news from this perspective is he's very mobile in this position. He can transfer to other pins, other positions, etc, etc. [07:23:20] Okay, so he's got mobility. Um, nonetheless, whenever your opponent senses that your primary goal is some form [07:23:30] of elbow escape, many of them will be tempted to sit through it, or sit out.

[07:23:33] When they do so, they close that space, and now there's no space for my knee to enter. [07:23:40] In addition, it gives an excellent control of my near side arm. And as they pull up on the arm, it can put considerable pressure on my body. So those are good [07:23:50] things from my opponent's perspective. Okay. It comes at a price.

[07:23:54] His mobility is somewhat compromised. It also means that any pressure [07:24:00] backwards will tend to destabilize him. It'll also mean That space develops between his chest and mine. Okay, and we [07:24:10] can take advantage of this. Now, let's rotate around, like so. So start square. When someone goes to sit through, it's in their [07:24:20] best interest to grab your elbow first before they sit through.

[07:24:25] So that when they go to sit through, they've always already got the elbow [07:24:30] in control. Okay. That's what smart people do. Fortunately, there's many people out there that aren't smart. And what they do is they sit through first [07:24:40] and then they grab the elbow. Whenever this happens, you've got to take advantage of their mistake.

[07:24:46] Okay. Whenever I'm here, Across side. [07:24:50] I'm very conscious of the fact that if my opponent goes to sit through, I will always take my elbow to the bottom hip. He wants my elbow over the top hip. [07:25:00] I want my elbow underneath the bottom hip. That's our battle. Okay. So when he comes in here and he sits through, that's my first move.

[07:25:09] My elbow [07:25:10] goes to the bottom hip. Now, one of the problems of sit outs is that it develops space between his chest and mine. I'll always take advantage of that and take my hand [07:25:20] through and form a frame on the top shoulder. So I have a frame on the top shoulder and my elbow is down here. On his bottom hip, when he tries to pull up on my [07:25:30] elbow, it's impossible to take my elbow off the floor.

[07:25:33] Now the next thing I do is I just take my legs behind him and I just give a little tip to bring my hips out to the side. Then I start [07:25:40] shrimping because my elbow's on the bottom hip, he can't follow my shrimp, and as a result, it's really easy for me to join elbow and join my knee and elbow together.[07:25:50]

[07:25:50] Okay? If he stays where he is. He's inherently unstable, and it's very easy for us to tilt him in a backwards direction. As he [07:26:00] goes to recover, he'll always come up into a triangle. Okay, once again, we start off in a side control position. [07:26:10] I'm always very cognizant of the fact that when he goes to sit out, I want my elbow on the bottom hip.

[07:26:16] He wants my elbow on the top hip. [07:26:20] You have to win this elbow battle. When I see him sit out, I'm already there with my elbow in place. Now I form my frame, [07:26:30] put it just in like so. He goes to pull up on my elbow now, no way. He'll never take your elbow off the floor once it's there. Now I start the action of placing my foot out to the [07:26:40] side and tripping onto my side.

[07:26:43] I bring my knee through and replace my hand with my knee. Almost like a clamp position. Because [07:26:50] of the sit out, he's in a very poor position to avoid being disrupted backwards. As he tries to recover, he goes right into that simple entry into the triangle. Okay? [07:27:00] Now let's look at dealing with a higher level of opponent.

[07:27:03] Okay. I said higher level, but not high level. He still makes the mistake with the [07:27:10] elbow. So when he sits out, I drop my elbow. I bring my frame hand in. When I go to shift away and bring my knee [07:27:20] in, this guy's at least smarter. He comes up to his knees and saves his base. Thanks. But he still comes up into a clamp.

[07:27:26] That doesn't change. Okay, I put my knee in front I pass my foot [07:27:30] over the top then from here We're always looking to control that bottom hand and kick through into a triangle. If he's smart, you'll hold on tight I'll put my foot over the top and [07:27:40] I'll force his hand down to the mat Once the hand goes down to the mat It's an easy thing to thread the foot through and control his posture.

[07:27:48] He tries to posture up Very, [07:27:50] very difficult. And then from this situation, many ways for us to go through and into our favorite attacks. Now, I know the question that's [07:28:00] all on all of your minds. What if this guy is smart, knows what he's doing, and controls my elbow first, and then sits down? Now, he's got my [07:28:10] elbow on the top hip.

[07:28:10] What do I do now? Okay, in these situations, this hand here must save this hand. I'm gonna take my hand, and I'm gonna thumb post. [07:28:20] Normally, it would be very risky for me, let go of my arm, to start reaching across someone's body. Because he can switch either over my arm, and then [07:28:30] lock the wrist, and then sit out, into waki gitame and finish me, or he can come under my arm, and start going into strangleholds.

[07:28:38] Okay?[07:28:40]

[07:28:43] But when he's going to sit out, he needs this arm here for base. Okay? So it's going to be safe for us [07:28:50] to thumb post at the bicep. He goes to hold on tight, don't try to pull from here, hold tight, it's hard. Instead, shift your hips, turn, [07:29:00] and then from here you'll slip out very easily every time. Now, presumably if your opponent did things right, he's a smart guy, knows what he's doing, he will immediately go [07:29:10] to correct his base.

[07:29:11] But as he goes to correct his base, you'll always be able to go inside his turn. You're turning a much smaller circle than he's turning, and as a result your leg will [07:29:20] always penetrate through very quickly. And you'll find yourself in an excellent attacking position. If he goes to pull away from your upper body attacks, you guys know the deal.

[07:29:28] It's time now to go down into [07:29:30] lower body attacks. Get those hands down to the floor and start working from positions like so. Once again, we [07:29:40] start off. If the guy's naive and just sits out, elbow position. Okay, if the guy's smart, takes control of the elbow [07:29:50] first and sits down, now I'm stuck. He pulls up.

[07:29:54] You can hear my voice changing as I feel the pressure of his hold. He pulls back. I take my [07:30:00] thumb and lock it inside. I turn my thumb upwards, like so, okay. As I do that, I turn and pull. It's quite easy without the [07:30:10] gait. Now, my elbow goes inside his hip. As he goes to recover, we're always looking to get our body inside the turn of his [07:30:20] body.

[07:30:20] And as a result, we get good opportunities to go into upper body submissions. As he goes to pull away from us, we go triangle, armbar. It all fails, the upper body [07:30:30] fails. We go into lower body. from the lower body, many ways for us to pull him in and get into some of our favorite attacks. [07:30:40] Now, an obvious question, what if the guy sits out the other way?

[07:30:46] The only way that someone can sit out in the opposite [07:30:50] direction, uh, not going to say the only way, but the sensible way for him to sit out is to bring his arm over. If he's And he sits out with his arm [07:31:00] behind me in this position. This would make sense with a gi arm. Okay, he can grip the gi and now it makes sense.

[07:31:05] But no gi, he has very little control of my body. And a [07:31:10] simple thumb post at the shoulder will disrupt his base more than enough to stop bringing his knees up. Okay, so what works well on the Gi doesn't necessarily [07:31:20] work well without the Gi. He would be much better off taking his arm across the shoulder and now sitting down.

[07:31:27] Now his weight is much better distributed, [07:31:30] okay? He can put his hand, where's your hand? He can put it here on the hip to create space to bring his knees through. He can put it here, he can post up my knee and all kinds of things. He can put it [07:31:40] on the floor. And wedge the floor, it's up to him. Now what I want to do is disrupt his base backwards.

[07:31:46] So I'm going to get my hips coming up towards him and I plant my [07:31:50] left foot. My hand is going to cross face so I don't punch my training partner in the face. I place my hand just like so. And I disrupt his base and get a significant reaction in a backwards direction like [07:32:00] so. Okay. Now as I feel my training partner come back up to his base to recover, the knee enters.

[07:32:06] Good. And we're in perfect position, going to the clamp. You guys know where that [07:32:10] goes, straight into our upper body attacks. So once again, I see my opponent take his arm over the top. Okay. Again, he sits [07:32:20] down. We're in a position now where we can take him using the head. I just open my elbow, create a strong bridging attack that forces [07:32:30] him to square up.

[07:32:31] Of the square up, we're in perfect position to go into upper body control. Now, a word to the wise.[07:32:40]

[07:32:42] Whenever someone is in this position, and they sit out towards the legs, okay? Very often, They will [07:32:50] use this as a method of stepping over into the mountain, not sliding over, but stepping over. When they step, you're going to hear their foot fall when it hits the ground. [07:33:00] Bam! Just like so. Go back. Okay. So I can't see what's going on because Pasquero's upper body is obstructing my view.

[07:33:06] But I can hear what's going on. Soon as I hear that [07:33:10] impact, I time my bridge and come back in the opposite direction. And then from here, usually it's a pretty easy thing to end up on top of your opponent. So once [07:33:20] again, if he sits out for the purpose of mounting, when he steps over, there's no base behind him.

[07:33:28] It won't be there for long because the [07:33:30] minute his knee touches the ground, it's gone. Okay, so listen for the sound of the footfall. Stay relaxed. You hear it, you come back in the opposite direction [07:33:40] and as a result, we're on top. Okay. Once again, just summarizing the sit outs.[07:33:50]

[07:33:55] First thing to note, I will say this, sit outs work [07:34:00] exceedingly well with the gi because they enable you to use sleeves, belts, Lapel grips, et cetera, to really connect to your opponent. Without [07:34:10] the gi, they're, they're a lot more problematic. I'm not going to say they're wrong, but they are more problematic.

[07:34:15] Okay? When someone goes into a forward sit out. [07:34:20] Straight towards me. From here. Just pull your elbow down to the floor. Let's change the angle. Come back. So it's all about my elbow [07:34:30] position. He wants my elbow here on the top hip. He sits down. That's what he wants up here. Presumably he'll grab the elbow.

[07:34:37] Okay. I want the elbow in the [07:34:40] bottom position. Wherever I see him coming through, Elbow in place. He tries to pull it off the floor. No way. It's not coming up. Now from here, we just [07:34:50] start shrimping. When we shrimp, there's very little holding me in place because my hips are not controlled. When I start to bring my knee in, the onus is on him now to square up.

[07:34:59] If [07:35:00] he doesn't square up, it's a simple thing to walk down some backwards. Okay? So he's got to square up. But when he does so, That's an easy thing to go into our counterattacks. [07:35:10] If he's smart, he's going to control the elbow first and then sit up. If he had a gi to work with, he could put me under real pressure here.

[07:35:17] Okay? But without the gi, [07:35:20] it's pretty easy to thumb post the bicep. I turn my thumb down, strong. From here, I just turn onto my side, and as I push with my left hand, [07:35:30] we come out with the other. Okay? It's hard for him to hold an extended turning hand. Okay? It's very, very hard for him to do. From this position, I block the bottom hip.

[07:35:39] I [07:35:40] scoot away. He goes to correct himself and finds himself getting locked up. Once again, back in the clamp, and we're ready to counterattack. So, this time, [07:35:50] he takes his arm across the other side, and sets out. From here, I want him to take his base in a backwards direction. If he's smart, he's going to have this foot [07:36:00] further back, like so.

[07:36:01] Okay? The further back his foot goes, the less effective my bridge will be. So what I have to do is I have to move into him. [07:36:10] Okay? That puts his foot in a position where we can start off balancing him. Now he's got to go to correct himself. As he goes to correct, the knees come in, and we elbow [07:36:20] escape. Okay?

[07:36:21] Now, when you start moving your hips towards him, the danger is he will mount. That's the danger. But as soon as his foot touches the [07:36:30] ground, there's no reason now, because there's no base behind him, why we can't hit. A good bridge. And end up in top position. At very least, [07:36:40] he'll have to react and you'll elbow escape and put him back in guard.

[07:36:43] So once again, knees. You know what's coming [07:36:50] next when this arm comes over. This guy favors a sit out. As soon as he's into that sit out position, we're going to disrupt in his face in a backwards direction. [07:37:00] Knees come in, and lo and behold, We're back into the plant and the various counterattacks from that position, okay?

[07:37:06] So, without the Gi, the [07:37:10] various setups are a little more problematic than they are with a Gi. That's why you generally see them much less in ADCC competition than you do in regular Gi World [07:37:20] Championships. Um, I'm not going to say it's wrong to use them, they have their place, they have their value, uh, but they are a little more problematic than when we're working with a Gi.

[07:37:29] So there, that's it. [07:37:30] It's how we deal with those in the no gi context.[07:37:40]

[07:37:41] Let's cast our attention towards escaping north south positions. We've spent a lot of time looking at side pins. Now let's switch our attention to north south. [07:37:50] North south is the second of the non scoring pins in Jiu Jitsu. Always understand there are five pins in Jiu Jitsu. Three of them score points.

[07:37:58] Knee on belly. Mount. [07:38:00] Rear mount. Then there are the two non scoring ones. side control and north south. Um, a very common theme in my coaching [07:38:10] career is I will have many, many students come to me and they'll say something along the lines of the following. They'll say, John, I feel really confident getting out of [07:38:20] the mount, the rear mount and the side, knee on belly, never had a problem.

[07:38:26] But the moment someone gets north south on me, I really struggle. [07:38:30] And that's the toughest pin for me to get out of. Okay. Maybe you're one of those fellows too. Um, There's a reason for that. The North South position [07:38:40] is fundamentally different in its mechanisms of control from side pins. Something that many Jiu Jitsu athletes run into problems with [07:38:50] is they treat North South like it's a variation of side control and they try to employ the same methodologies, the same thinking to get out.

[07:38:59] You have to [07:39:00] understand that North South pins fundamentally change the way you must act. in order to escape. Let's have a look at this in some detail. [07:39:10] Okay, when someone's across my side and they form that perpendicular angle, my entry point for an elbow [07:39:20] escape is their hip. I'm always looking to create some kind of space so that my knee can enter inside their hip.

[07:39:27] That's my fundamental gambit. [07:39:30] And so the fundamental escape from bottom side control is almost always the elbow escape. And off that we bring in all the others. Okay? But I need some kind of [07:39:40] entry point. And that entry point is almost always the hip. If I can generate any kind of motion that gets me inside the hip, I'm looking good in terms [07:39:50] of escapes.

[07:39:50] Okay? That all changes when someone goes north south. The moment they come up north south, where the hips are now above the [07:40:00] line of my shoulders. It becomes very problematic to try and bring my knee inside the hip. Now, the fundamental entry point [07:40:10] changes from the hip to the clavicles, the shoulders and clavicles, and that's the entry point.[07:40:20]

[07:40:20] When I operate side control, All of my entry points are behind the arm, towards the [07:40:30] hip. Okay? I either operate here, behind the arm, here, behind the arm, [07:40:40] or here, at the hip, behind the arm. In the case of North South, most of my best, most high percentage [07:40:50] injuries are in front of the arms and shoulders. And it's from here that we do most of our injuries inward, okay?

[07:40:58] Once you understand this simple [07:41:00] insight, you'll be fine. You're on the path to learning how to escape north south positions. Um, understand also some other important points. [07:41:10] When you're being pinned across side, Your opponent has an excellent control of your hips and your head.[07:41:20]

[07:41:21] He has his right arm here, either on this side or this side, and it controls my hips. And he has a pretty good control of my head on [07:41:30] one side, but the other side of my head is not controlled. I can only control one side of my head at a time. He either controls the right side of my head or the left side of my [07:41:40] head, but never both.

[07:41:41] In North South, he controls both sides of my hips. Okay, both sides are [07:41:50] controlled, but it comes at a price. He has no control of my hips, so he has total control of the head, but no control of my [07:42:00] hips. My legs can move at will, and as a result, if we can get up into a high leg position, you're going to find you're very successful at turning in on people, okay?

[07:42:09] [07:42:10] Now, what this is all mean? It means that the fundamental escape from North South is a very different [07:42:20] form of escape. and the fundamental escape from side control. The fundamental escape from side control is the elbow escape. The fundamental escape from north south is the [07:42:30] high leg escape. The number one problem I see with, uh, beginning jiu jitsu athletes is when they try to escape north south, they try to use elbow escapes, which is [07:42:40] appropriate for side control, but In most cases, not all cases, but in most cases, inappropriate for North South escapes.

[07:42:47] You've got to learn a high leg escape and [07:42:50] use it in the context of North South. So those are some general considerations with regards, uh, uh, North South. I will [07:43:00] add one more that's very important. And that's the idea of your opponent's arm positioning. Okay, when you're a cross side, your opponent has [07:43:10] a choice between cross face and reverse cross face.

[07:43:15] They can get more advanced and they can go into reverse underhooks and things like so, okay, but [07:43:20] most people work here or here, okay. Now, if someone wants to go north south, They [07:43:30] cannot keep their arm in this position. Okay. My opponent comes around North South and keeps his arm here, his whole body weight [07:43:40] comes off me.

[07:43:41] There's nothing controlling my head. So it's just an easy escape. The only way you can transition to North South is to first [07:43:50] take his arm over here and immobilize my head. Now, when he walks around North South, now he's got control of my head. So[07:44:00]

[07:44:03] when someone's across my side, something I will always seek to do is get my hand [07:44:10] here on his shoulder. If I ever see my opponent coming across, I will take my [07:44:20] hand and put it here inside my training partner's armpit. So that he never gets the kind of control that he needs. to go into north [07:44:30] south. When he brings his right hand to my hip, I'll take my second elbow and put it here underneath his clavicle so that [07:44:40] I control the clavicles on both sides.

[07:44:43] When he goes to north south, he comes on top of me, this means I control the area [07:44:50] between our chests, and this is going to make the combination of our hip mobility And our knee entering in front of the shoulder, a very easy [07:45:00] form of escape to turn into. And now, we're in the perfect position to go into our various counterattacks that we'll be looking at later on.

[07:45:08] So once again, [07:45:10] to go from side control to north south requires the transition from crossface to reverse crossface. [07:45:20] Whenever I see this kind of thing going on, whenever possible, I place my hand here. So that the second he goes to transfer, he gives me this. [07:45:30] that wedge, that frame, okay? As he goes to transfer and walk around, you now control both of his [07:45:40] clavicles.

[07:45:40] There's a ton of space for you to bring your knees in front of his shoulders and make a good turn on your training partner. And from here, [07:45:50] go in and recover, okay? So those are some general considerations. with regards north south, which will become very important as we go into the actual technical details of these [07:46:00] moves.

[07:46:05] It's time for us to go into the details of the high leg escape. Just as we spend a ton of time [07:46:10] going through the intricate details of the side escape, the side elbow escape, um, to get out of side pins, now we've got to spend some time looking at the primary escape out of north south, the high [07:46:20] leg escape.

[07:46:20] First, let's just run through some solo drills. For a situation where we have an imaginary opponent, over top of us. In high legging, we want to form a [07:46:30] frame between his collarbones and my collarbones so there's space in front of our chest. From here, we want to use the mobility of our hips to start bringing knee [07:46:40] to chest, like so.

[07:46:42] When you do this, one foot will be low and the other foot will be high. This is my penetration knee. here. That's the one which is going [07:46:50] to penetrate between my collarbones and his. The other one is my movement leg, which takes me high. If I extend both legs at the same time, [07:47:00] That's good for going high, but it's bad for penetration.

[07:47:04] Okay. That sounds awful, but stay with it. I need one knee close to my body. [07:47:10] One knee has to go through that small gap. If both of my legs are extended, I'm not going to [07:47:20] do it. So one has to be close, but if both knees are close, I can't get my, my hips off the ground. I can't go high and move from [07:47:30] here. So I need one, which does.

[07:47:32] The high leg operation and the other which does the penetrating. So one foot is high, one foot is low. [07:47:40] Don't have your feet the same height. That's going to be a disaster. You'll either not be able to get your hips off the ground. or you won't be able to penetrate with the knee. So [07:47:50] one high, one low. From here, the high leg comes over the top.

[07:47:58] My spine has to be [07:48:00] the shape of a banana. If my back is flat, you'll never get a high leg. Spine in like so. Frame in place. [07:48:10] Elbows and knees close together. There's the high leg. The high leg generates momentum. My bent spine makes for an easy [07:48:20] rocking chair motion.

[07:48:25] As you gain in confidence, you should be able to go [07:48:30] and touch your toes overhead. You should be able to do that with either one of your [07:48:40] feet because you don't know which side you will have to penetrate on. You should also be able [07:48:50] to go over and make a turn. This will be important.

[07:48:59] As you go [07:49:00] further into the series, so those are the physical movements involved in a high leg escape. Now let's start putting them in the context of a live situation. [07:49:10] So from side control, I see my opponent go to make his transition. I lock in and I form my second frame. Sitting [07:49:20] up, so that my frame looks something like this, okay?

[07:49:24] It blocks his clavicles. No matter how much weight Puskadew puts on me, I can [07:49:30] easily hold him up. Because I'm holding on my elbows, not my hands. Now, I form the high leg, low leg. The right knee is my [07:49:40] penetration knee. It penetrates in front of the shoulder. Not, bring your arm forward, not behind the shoulder.

[07:49:47] That blocks my hip, can't get in. It goes in [07:49:50] front. Now from here, I catch the head on both sides. So one foot on one side, one leg on the other. [07:50:00] I use that to push, okay? And then from here, we're in a position to go around and square up to our training partner. How we go in to [07:50:10] attack our man will depend on how he's gripping us and where he is, but at a minimum, I should be able to get my two knees in front and be ready to play.

[07:50:17] Don't worry. We'll look at counter attacks later. [07:50:20] Okay. So from side control, I see the switch and I block. [07:50:30] Block again. He tries to put weight on me. Very difficult. From here, the legs become mobile, the spine rounds, [07:50:40] and we catch. Now from this position, an obvious counter attack is to control our training partner's arm.

[07:50:46] Um, Bring our foot inside and pass the leg over the [07:50:50] top. And as a result, we're in pivot position to catch. If my opponent goes to yank his arm away from me, our whole thing, go to yank arm, is to bring our [07:51:00] legs over into three quarter juji. If he goes to stand up and away from me, then I feel the three quarter juji is being lost.

[07:51:06] You guys know where that's going. Straight down into the [07:51:10] legs. Always, we want our foot to come across and touch our own shin. If he goes to flee the man, there's an excellent connection here. We want our foot coming [07:51:20] through and making good connection on our training partner's far thigh. And as a result, we can easily pass the foot across, make that pass over, and lock.

[07:51:27] If he goes to spin out, [07:51:30] we're always looking to go through into our various finishing options. One good option is double shoelaces. And that's it. Both my shoelaces right there on his [07:51:40] oblique muscles like so. We can also go across and lock in here with the crisscross ashi, the inside outside position. One foot in a 50 50 position, [07:51:50] the other in an inside senkaku.

[07:51:52] You can also take your feet out, go to a classic inside senkaku, and finish. There's a bunch of good options there. So once again, [07:52:00] my opponent does a good job of coming through. But I do a good job of anticipating and blocking. Now I'm inside his two [07:52:10] clavicles in a good frame. I bring the high leg up. I bring the knee inside and we start a turning action on our training partner.[07:52:20]

[07:52:20] Move around. Look how I hold the arm. I go elbow to wrist, hand to elbow. [07:52:30] If I just hold here, he easily yanks out. I want to control the elbow. If I just hold here, Any old fashioned, he pulls away. What I want [07:52:40] is this. Forearm to forearm, control the elbow. He goes to yank out, quite difficult, it's a sticky grip.

[07:52:46] My foot, sitting up, my foot catches the [07:52:50] hip, here. My second leg catches over, so I have a foot on each side of his leg, sorry, on each side of his body. This foot is on his left side, this foot is on his right. He goes to yank [07:53:00] out, Quite difficult. I pass my legs through. That makes my second leg very light.

[07:53:06] As I square up, he goes to yank out. We go into a strong three quarter juji [07:53:10] attack. If you get it, awesome, congratulations, it's over. Okay. He goes to pull away from us and leaves us the upper body [07:53:20] to the lower body. Okay. Now from here, so many ways for us to act. As we pull our hand through, We could go into many forms of attack in this [07:53:30] position.

[07:53:30] So many good ones,

[07:53:37] which one you choose[07:53:40]

[07:53:42] is up to you. One more time from across side, [07:53:50] we get that preemptive frame in place. We bring. The high leg action over, catch our training partner with the arm, he goes to yank the arm out, it won't [07:54:00] be easy. I bring my leg across, second leg comes in, we turn out to an angle, and snap on a nice 3 quarter [07:54:10] jujy.

[07:54:10] Unfortunately, no gi, slippery, sweaty. As I lose the upper body, I gain the lower body. So many ways for us to go around the corner [07:54:20] and get to those locks. Bring the foot across our body, lock through and finish. Okay? He's smart, goes to backstep out. Not so difficult for [07:54:30] us to spear that foot through into a crisscross ashi.

[07:54:33] or inside shoulder 50 50 or inside Senkaku, [07:54:40] whatever you want. You could do pretty much any one of the various Hachiguramis from that position.[07:54:50]

[07:54:50] Now with the idea of getting out of North South, let's understand right from the start, there are several variations of North South and just as was the case with side control, [07:55:00] small variations in his pin require variations on my part and how I get out of those pins. Remember guys, there's no one size fits all escape.

[07:55:09] The closest we [07:55:10] come to that is the elbow escape, and even that has its issues. So, uh, I must, as it were, tailor my escape to the pin that he's put me in. [07:55:20] And in a live situation against someone who's got good skills, He will be changing from pin to pin, and I should be able to change from escape to escape.

[07:55:28] That'll happen as you mature and [07:55:30] develop skills in the sport. Um, now, let's look at the different ways that someone can hold me inside control. Sorry, yourself. Okay, [07:55:40] first one, is where, plus you know, is his two arms underneath my elbows, like so. Okay, so his two [07:55:50] arms are over my shoulders, like this. Another is to take one of his arms, this one, and go under my shoulder, [07:56:00] so he's over under, like so.

[07:56:02] And obviously this can be done on either side. Okay? The last option is where both [07:56:10] of his elbows go under mine. Okay, so again, the different options. First, both of his elbows are under my elbows, [07:56:20] like so. The virtue of this one is that it controls my hips. Now, if we had a gi on, Placido would grab my belt, just like so.

[07:56:29] And [07:56:30] this is a very strong pin. In no gi, it's illegal for Placido to grab my clothing. So this pin is not quite as useful. in the no gi context, [07:56:40] okay? But it's a very strong one when we work with the gi on, because the belt literally locks his body to my center of gravity. Now, second one, he [07:56:50] goes here and here.

[07:56:52] This is a very good one in no gi. It also leads directly into many forms of submission hold. [07:57:00] It also leads to back exposure. It's a very good form of pin, very useful. Okay. The last one is where both of his arms [07:57:10] are underneath here. This too is a very good one because now you can expose my arms on either side.[07:57:20]

[07:57:20] Okay. So this is an extremely effective way to hold me. This is an extremely effective way to hold me. [07:57:30] And this one's good. Uh, There are some submissions out of here, maybe not the most high percentage ones, but it's not bad. And it does a [07:57:40] good job of controlling the hips if you can create strong wedges.

[07:57:43] But it's, uh, as it were, because he can't grip the belt, it's not so [07:57:50] difficult for me in a no gi context to start using my ability to move away from him. If I had a belt on, I couldn't just move my hips away and follow him very easily. [07:58:00] But without the benefit of the belt, it's pretty easy for us to start whipping our legs through and coming out into various forms of escape.

[07:58:07] Okay, so those are the different [07:58:10] ways that my opponent can hold me. I should be able to vary my escapes a little depending upon what we see. As a general rule,[07:58:20]

[07:58:22] if I have a situation where he's here and High leg escapes won't work because [07:58:30] his head pins my hips. Okay. So I can't get a high leg going. The more his body comes [07:58:40] up, the more I'm going to be able to get hands inside and start going to work. Okay. My best frames. [07:58:50] Cause they generate separation of chest from chest and make it possible for us to come up and high leg people.

[07:58:57] He wants the opposite. He [07:59:00] wants chest to chest, pinning my hips down and then controlling my arms so that he can start to turn into various forms of submission and back [07:59:10] explosion. Okay, so that's the context that's going on and I have to work on that. My way out of this. Now, an obvious question is, how do we [07:59:20] deal with each one of those variations?

[07:59:21] How do we escape from each of them? We'll look at that next.

[07:59:28] Now, we've already [07:59:30] looked at one variation, uh, of north south position and we've looked at the high leg escape. Essentially what we do is we, Uh, we [07:59:40] anticipated our opponent's transition from side control to north south, and we beat him on the transition. So he was across my side,[07:59:50]

[07:59:51] and we understand that the only way he can transition to north south is to transition his arm across, like so, go back. So [08:00:00] we saw that in that transition, I can block. Once I block, I control his clavicles and [08:00:10] shoulders. And from here, we create the high leg effect, where one leg goes high, the other goes low.

[08:00:16] One is a penetration knee, and the other is a catching knee. So [08:00:20] one leg catches, and one leg locks in like so. And from here, we can control our training partner's arm, turn, and square up to the man. We saw [08:00:30] that there's many excellent ways of going into counterattacks from here. Usually we start with triangle.

[08:00:35] Triangle. three quarter duties and then we go into the legs when he tries to [08:00:40] resist. Okay. Now an obvious question, which I'm sure many of you are asking right now is, okay, that's cool. What if I'm just a day late and a dollar short, the guy just [08:00:50] flat out gets me, pins me in North South and any one of those variations that we just saw.

[08:00:55] Uh, good question. Let's have a look at that now. First, let's look at the [08:01:00] North south pin where my opponent goes under my two armpits. Okay, so from north south situation [08:01:10] He comes in and locks like so now We know that one good thing is at least he doesn't have a belt foot to work with so it's bad But [08:01:20] at least we got that in our favor.

[08:01:21] Okay, whenever we see this kind of thing going on One of the best movements that we can do is to take our hand across our training partner's body by [08:01:30] first forming a fist. I'm not allowed to grab the gee pads. In ADCC or any other form of competition, okay? This is illegal. No. Put the [08:01:40] fists in. Like so. Now, as he holds onto me, I'm going to use the mobility of my hips to come out and onto my side.

[08:01:49] Just like so. [08:01:50] Okay? So wedge type muscle, but you're always in tight smuggle. Now, we just give a little push and we start using a kipping action that brings me from one side to the [08:02:00] other. My feet stay together. Don't have your legs doing this kind of business, okay? Feet together, and I kip one, two, [08:02:10] and three.

[08:02:11] And now you have a good frame, okay? From this kind of frame position, it's hard for me just to bring my knees in and put him back in [08:02:20] guard, because he has full control. I'm sure you can see a wedging elbow here, so I can't bring my knee in to put him back in guard. Okay, so what are we going to do under these [08:02:30] circumstances?

[08:02:30] We're going to shrimp. We're going to place our feet on the floor and we're going to shrimp our body away. Now my knee comes in front, [08:02:40] just like so. Now from here, my foot hooks underneath him and we're in the pivot position now to sit up. We can go and get various counterattacks from there. [08:02:50] So once again, I'm pinned.

[08:02:55] Like so. He's got him to a north south pin. He's doing a good job of controlling me. I [08:03:00] make a double frame right there in the hips. Now I use the mobility of my legs, using a good kipping motion, [08:03:10] and we come around the corner. I bring my feet back, shrimp. There's that wedging arm here. I can't, get in, tight.

[08:03:18] I can't bring my knee in. [08:03:20] It's blocked by his triceps. But when I shrimp, I beat it. Now I bring my knee in front, my legs feet in, and we find ourselves. back in [08:03:30] a winning position. Let's do it from another angle.

[08:03:38] North south pit from [08:03:40] here. I frame in my training partner's hips. I take my legs one, two, three [08:03:50] from here. I'm blocked by his elbow. So I plant my feet, not straight legs, bent legs. So that I can [08:04:00] push my hips back. My knee beats his frame. Feet go in. We find ourselves in a good position to get back into [08:04:10] guard.

[08:04:10] Okay. Um, next one. My opponent is underneath both of my arms,[08:04:20]

[08:04:21] like so. This is a good hold for him. Okay, this enables him to switch into armbar and back [08:04:30] exposure on either side. But like any kind of pin, it comes at a price. From here, I'm going to take my hand through and I'm going to put it on the side of [08:04:40] his throat. You're not allowed to dig into the throat or do anything crazy like that.

[08:04:44] So I just put my fist Like so, hold tight. I just take my fist and just put it in. Now I [08:04:50] give a little bump with my hips so that I get my forearm underneath his throat. I lock my hands and I form a good connection. Sit up [08:05:00] so that my hands lock just like so. Forms a good tight frame. Locking tight to my arms.

[08:05:09] Now, no matter [08:05:10] how tightly he locks into the arms, you're going to get good opportunities now to start using that high leg action to create space. Knees go in. There's the high leg. We spin [08:05:20] around the corner, get to one of our favorite attacking positions. He goes to yank away from us. We go into three quarter duty.

[08:05:27] He goes to pull away. As I lose [08:05:30] the upper body, we gain the lower body. Okay. From here, so many ways for us to go to work. We walk up on our training partner, from here, I [08:05:40] can go through the backside 50 50s. If I see him spinning out, we can go through and follow. We can stay on the 50 50, we can go criss cross, [08:05:50] we can transition through to inside Senkaku.

[08:05:52] It's all up to you. So, from the situation, North South. [08:06:00] Sorry, I'm such an idiot. Nick Logan. I am too. From here, you lock up, you can drive me in either direction now, to expose my arm. So [08:06:10] it's a little bit scary, okay? I take my fist, I put it in the side of his neck. We're not doing anything crazy here. You're not trying to do any kind of crazy, uh, throat pressure or anything like that.

[08:06:19] [08:06:20] I just have it close by. I give a little bump. Heavy on me? Heavy? I give a little bump. Just like so with my hips. When I bump up and drop, my arm goes [08:06:30] in as a frame. Once my arm goes in as a frame, we connect everything in together. You've got a good frame now in front of your training partner. And now, we start that kipping [08:06:40] action.

[08:06:40] Until We can come up and high leg. Off the high leg, catch and control. It goes to yank the arm out. It's not so easy. It's a pretty good grip. [08:06:50] Okay. If you did yank the arm out, don't worry, just put them back in the guard. Okay. If you make a good catch from here, you're going to get a good opportunity to go into some serious [08:07:00] attacks.

[08:07:00] If I lose the upper body, we're already programming ourselves to go into the lower body. Okay. A ton of ways to do that. for us to go from there. Okay. I can [08:07:10] stay in this position. I can lock through, roll him through, whatever you feel like. They're all great attacking options. Okay. So, [08:07:20] um, those are some really practical ways to attack north south when our opponent's either got two arms under my arms or two arms over.

[08:07:29] Now I [08:07:30] know what you're thinking. You're saying, most of my opponents are smart. What they do is they take the compromise option where they go under on one side and over on the other, and that's like a royal pain [08:07:40] in the ass. I agree with you. It is a pain in the ass. Let's have a look at how we deal with it now.

[08:07:46] Okay, so this guy's smart. He started [08:07:50] off He started off here, okay? And we saw that when he does that, he gives us a pretty easy frame at the hips. Then, he went [08:08:00] here. Now, we saw that it's pretty easy for us to get a frame at the head. Now he's getting smart. He comes in like [08:08:10] so. Kind of a, a weird compromise option.

[08:08:13] Usually when they do this, they angle slightly to one side or the other. And that will give them [08:08:20] abilities to expose our arms and our back. Okay. Okay, so this is a, this is a guy who knows what he's doing [08:08:30] here. Okay, what's going to be our frame? I can't really frame as we did previously, because this arm interferes with my ability to get under the [08:08:40] clavicles.

[08:08:40] Okay, and it's hard for me to frame on the hips. I can do it on one side, but I can't reach on the other. So this is a, this is a smart [08:08:50] thing that this guy's doing. Okay. This is, this guy knows what he's up to. I'm going to do this instead. I'm going to take my hand on the side where he's under my [08:09:00] arm here, and I'm going to take my hand and migrate across to the other hip so that I form an elbow frame here and this hand on [08:09:10] the hip.

[08:09:11] Okay. Now I'm going to take the arm and go in the one direction. He can never stop me. He can stop [08:09:20] me moving this way. But he can't stop me moving, you guessed it, this way. Now, we're gonna tune his north south into our side [08:09:30] control. From side control, we do what we always do. Side elbow escape and go into our finishers.

[08:09:36] Okay? Um, essentially what we're doing guys [08:09:40] is we're tuning a north south pin into a side pin. How are we doing this? Just stay with me. Sitting up. Not that far. [08:09:50] From here, we're starting north south. I take my hand across so that my hand goes on the obliques and my elbow goes on the other obliques, [08:10:00] okay?

[08:10:00] And if I can do that, I can convert north south position to side position, okay? So, passiero has me with one arm under my arm and one arm over. [08:10:10] That makes it very hard for me to frame on the hips on this side. I can frame on my right, but I can't frame on my left. Okay, it means that I can't get [08:10:20] underneath his head and form a satisfactory frame.

[08:10:23] So the two framing methods we've looked at so far are now inadequate. So the new frame that we're going to employ, [08:10:30] I take the arm on the side that he's under, and I go through, and I grip here. This arm, I can't move it back towards [08:10:40] myself, block it, he's got it under control, but I can easily move it away from myself.

[08:10:46] I lock in, right here. Hold tight. [08:10:50] Now, I just use that kipping motion to bring my body around the corner. Okay, if he blocks, in here, I bring [08:11:00] my knee right inside his elbow. Okay? Turn around. He wants to block, block. He wants to block my knee coming in, right? Can't get it [08:11:10] in. Look how I high leg, and I go in front.

[08:11:13] Okay? And as a result, I'm able to pull around the corner and start getting into counter attacks. He goes to yank his arm through, [08:11:20] What have you got here? Tegitame, I'm sure you all guessed it. Okay, go to Yenkyo Ara 3, stand up. That's a strong Tegitame position. If Tegitame should [08:11:30] fail, okay, it's not that difficult for us to go across and back into, everybody guessed it, the legs.

[08:11:36] Okay, we lock up, he goes to spin out, [08:11:40] and we find ourselves right back in Insights and Kaku 50 50, criss cross. Sorry, Chris Kurosashi, whatever you prefer. [08:11:50] Okay. So once again, plus, you know, it does a really good job of locking up, arguably the strongest of all the North South. All the North [08:12:00] South are good.

[08:12:00] They're all strong, but this one is really problematic for most people. Okay. Why? Because I can't form frames on both sides of the hips and I can't form frames [08:12:10] on both sides of the clavicles. So instead I form an asymmetrical frame here. And here, at the head. [08:12:20] Bury your head. No matter how much he buries his head, I'm always able to go through.

[08:12:26] Now, I start generating momentum and turning. Keep your hand where it [08:12:30] is. Now, this arm is blocking my elbow escape. So what do I do? I just high leg and bring my knee in front. Then I come [08:12:40] around the corner chasing. You get that perfect opportunity to go into. Various forms of triangle um, uh. He goes to yank out.

[08:12:48] If he doesn't yank out, I'll win right [08:12:50] here. It's a strong position, but no gi, things get slippery. So we have to be ready to go across and get to some of our primary locks. Okay, [08:13:00] we make a pass off, lock it on through. From here, many ways for us to go on the attack. He goes to back step out. We find ourselves following, [08:13:10] going through, and into a superb finishing position.

[08:13:13] Okay. So, there you have it. A quick and dirty guide on how to frame [08:13:20] and escape from these pesky, uh, North South positions. I'll just spend one more time looking at that final frame because this particular situation [08:13:30] gives a lot of people a lot of vexation and problems. Um, essentially what you're doing is you're converting a North South into a side pin.

[08:13:38] So, when [08:13:40] Pachinko hits me here, side pin or no side pin? Side pin. When Pachinko hits me with a side pin, we frame on the hip, right? It's what we always do, okay? When he goes [08:13:50] north south, can't do that. His hips are all over me, okay? But if I move my body, [08:14:00] I can bring my hand into the same situation, in a sense in which I reach from one side of his body, across to the other.[08:14:10]

[08:14:10] And as my head comes out, You go from north south to a kind of a side angle, okay? Now, this is a risky place for me to keep my arm. [08:14:20] Plus, he's got arm exposure here. You go for arm bars? Arm bars. Good, he's got arm bar exposure. So I want to make sure I come in here. [08:14:30] There's still some arm bar exposure, but less than before.

[08:14:33] Okay? This is getting very risky. He's all kind of, he's got kagatame, he's got all kinds of things from here. [08:14:40] Okay? If you just reach back, now he's got kagatame entries, all kinds of things. So this is safer. It also means that I can move them more easily. Okay? [08:14:50] Now the one problem is this blocking hand. If I try to bring my knee in, it blocks me.

[08:14:55] So what do we do? Kip. I take my legs, I kip, and I [08:15:00] come in front of our training partner's arm. If he keeps his arm here, I'll go into Uri Gatame. Most of your opponents will bring the arm back. So we go across and walk up. [08:15:10] Okay, so we reach for the, for the arm. I always remember when, uh, many years ago [08:15:20] I was teaching to a huge class at HENZOS in New York.

[08:15:23] Class had to have over 100 people and it was way back when George was fighting in MMA. And I'm teaching this move and [08:15:30] I had the move, but I didn't have a name for it. So I wanted a name for the reaching frame, where you reach from one part of the body to the other. So I, I said, [08:15:40] okay, guys, we're going to work on a move called the reach around, where you reach from one side of the body to the other.

[08:15:46] And I thought the reach around is [08:15:50] descriptively accurate. You reach from one side across the other. It's like a collective gasp of horror. As I say, we're going to work the reach around and, uh, Everyone's just like, [08:16:00] whoa, like whoa, like afterwards people come up a Johnna. You should get another name for that move.

[08:16:07] It's a good name. They explained it to me and I [08:16:10] realized, okay, let's call it something else. Um, you guys can come up with a good name for it. So once again,

[08:16:17] we're here, we're locked in. [08:16:20] I reach around. Oh, sorry. Uh, I come through and lock here like so. I reposition my arm to a slightly safer position. Then from there, I [08:16:30] bring my legs to generate momentum, strong, strong, side to side. It's my hips and this is his right hand. You've got to block me with your right hand, okay?

[08:16:38] No matter what he does, [08:16:40] it's your whole hips moving, and as a result, I can come around the corner. Now, this is stopping me, okay? Stopping me from bringing my legs in. So I just high [08:16:50] leg, go in front, come around the corner, catching, blocking, and if necessary, going into the leg. [08:17:00] So, there's some practical ways to get out of the main variations of North South pins.

[08:17:05] [08:17:10] Let's go into a new [08:17:20] topic, the idea of getting out of turtle position. Now, turtle position is not a pin, um, in the Jiu Jitsu curriculum. It's actually a neutral position, kind of like guard [08:17:30] situations. Um, nonetheless, most Jiu Jitsu players are, um, uh, Cognizant of the idea that it's worrying when someone's, uh, uh, on top of you and you're in turtle [08:17:40] position.

[08:17:40] The reason for this is because they're so close to your back, just a few simple movements and they can get hooks in and score maximum points and start strangling [08:17:50] you. So I think it would be fair to say that even though turtle position and guard position are both by definition neutral. I'd be a lot more worried about a situation where a guy was on my back in turtle position than I [08:18:00] would if he was in, say for example, my open guard.

[08:18:02] So we should treat it almost like a pin and look to, uh, to get out of there as soon as possible. [08:18:10] Um, let's start off by looking at the different varieties of ways that our opponent can connect to us. He has to connect to us with his upper body. And [08:18:20] there's a bunch of ways you can do this. Um, one of the most common, uh, one which I, uh, often, uh, coach to my students is the idea of a tight waist grip.

[08:18:29] Okay? A [08:18:30] tight waist is any situation where Placido's arm, if he's on my right hand side, his left arm will come around and it can control me at the waist and hips. [08:18:40] Now, he can use a deep tight waist where he comes all the way through. So the hip like so, or he can go shallow. What he's really trying to do here is get his [08:18:50] elbow to control me.

[08:18:51] That elbow can pull me out of balance and start creating kizushi, which will set up many good attacks for him. It also means that if I [08:19:00] were to try and stand up and get away from him, he's got a good immediate connection to me, which would make that problematic. Okay? So that tight waist is his first possibility.

[08:19:09] The [08:19:10] second possibility is to strengthen the tight waist by going to a body lock. Okay, this too is a very strong form of control. In some ways it's stronger in the obvious sense that [08:19:20] you've got locked hands than a conventional tight waist, um, but it does require the commitment of both of his arms. So it's less dangerous to me in so far as he has to do some work now to [08:19:30] convert to a strangle.

[08:19:31] Okay, so it's very controlling, very tight, but not particularly dangerous in terms of submissions. Another excellent option our opponent has is the seatbelt. [08:19:40] The seatbelt changes the focus of control from my waist to my head. And it also means that my opponent becomes immediately dangerous to me because [08:19:50] there's an immediate danger of a switch to a strangulation at any given time.

[08:19:53] Okay. So once again, the main forms of control are at the hips, just like so, tight [08:20:00] waist, shallow tight waist, both these variations of tight waist. a body lock, and a seat belt. [08:20:10] Another form of control that an opponent can use is a one on one, where he controls hands. He can do it on either side,[08:20:20]

[08:20:20] like so, okay? An opponent always has to go behind my armpit and lock, okay? You can never go over the shoulder, there's no [08:20:30] control whatsoever. So he goes behind the armpit and locks up. Okay, so these one on ones are another form of control. The one on one is somewhat related to a tight waist because [08:20:40] when you pull the hand in it functions rather like a tight waist hip control.

[08:20:44] Okay, so very interesting form of control. Now that's his upper body controls. What about [08:20:50] his lower body? The main choices that he has

[08:20:55] are covering the hips where his leg goes up and he has [08:21:00] his hips higher than my hips. Okay? This gives him an excellent ability to align his body with mine and follow me as I try to move out of this [08:21:10] position. This is arguably the most commonly seen form of lower body positioning. You cover the hips. This can be done with one leg or by coming up into a horse riding [08:21:20] position with two legs.

[08:21:21] Okay? That will depend on your opponent. You're never really sure what he'll go for. Now, the stance in contrast to methods. [08:21:30] We block the triceps. We place our knee behind the triceps, usually in conjunction with the seatbelt, and lock in like so. This has the advantage that it can [08:21:40] expose my arm to crucifix attacks.

[08:21:42] Okay, there's other things you can do from here, but the crucifix is an obvious candidate. So, my arms get separated away from my body, and as a [08:21:50] result, the extension can lead directly into submission holds. So those are the main options that my opponent has. As with any escape sequence, how [08:22:00] I go to escape will be strongly influenced by what kind of hold he has on me.

[08:22:06] Always remember guys that Each way that your [08:22:10] opponent has of holding you presents a different puzzle to be solved. You can't just use some kind of one size fits all and say, oh, I'm just going to get out of this position using my favorite [08:22:20] move. Well, no, you have to determine how is he controlling you?

[08:22:23] What is the problem he's presenting? And then you have to customize your solution. to whatever problem he's presenting. [08:22:30] So I should be cognizant the whole time. How is he controlling me? Is it a tight waist? Is it a body lock? Is it a seatbelt? Because how I go to act and respond will be strongly influenced [08:22:40] by his decisions as to how he's going to control me.[08:22:50]

[08:22:50] Now, let's look at a particularly effective way of dealing with one of the more common controls when someone's got us in total position, a tight waist. This particular version works best against [08:23:00] people who have committed deeply to a deep tight waist. So if I have an opponent up to my side, the other side.

[08:23:09] From here, we're in [08:23:10] turtle position and we notice they've come through, like so. What I want to do is I want to roll my opponent over and take advantage of the fact that he's committed very deeply to the waist, [08:23:20] okay? First, let's talk about defensive responsibility. I can't just have my body in a position where he can switch off to any other kind of grip and, and worst of all, get his arms around my [08:23:30] neck.

[08:23:30] So I've always got to be defensively responsible in these positions by keeping my hands in close, particularly the hand, which is furthest away from the opponent, [08:23:40] because that's the hand which is going to switch off into a seatbelt and start to threaten my neck. Okay, so I should always have my hand positioned close to my clavicle.

[08:23:49] So if [08:23:50] Placido, put your hand down. If Placido should ever try to take his hand and switch into a seatbelt, it goes right into my waiting hand, just like so. I can't be naive and just have [08:24:00] my hand positioned so he can switch immediately to a seatbelt and make things more complicated for me. So defensively, we want to be in just like so right from the start.

[08:24:08] Now, at some point, [08:24:10] I'm going to bring my body weight forward, and I'm just going to come through and I'm just going to catch my training partner's wrist. Now, don't grab with your fingers. Okay, so your [08:24:20] hands aren't very strong. What I want to do is I want to take my whole forearm and elbow and lock there at the wrist.

[08:24:28] Essentially, I want you [08:24:30] to treat your opponent's forearm like a rope with a knot at the end of it. His hand is the knot. Just as you slide down a rope, if it has a knot at the end, you'll stop on the knot. [08:24:40] So too, if he goes to pull his arm out, It'll stop on the hand just like so that's much faster and more efficient than trying to control with your fingers Okay, if he pulls on the [08:24:50] fingers, it's pretty weak But if I lock just in like so and I pull around my ribcage now his elbow locks into my ribcage It goes to pull away.

[08:24:58] It's quite difficult. It's a [08:25:00] good catch on the training partner's arm So from here, I'm defensively responsible like so and then I just go and I make that initial catch just locking that Now from here, we're [08:25:10] going to start the action of turning back towards our training partner like so. Like my knees are pointing at me.

[08:25:15] And then from here, I start that roll through. Off the roll through, [08:25:20] we're just going to drive across our training partner's hip, and then look to control our training partner across the hip, right here. So we end up in a good pin. Don't just finish here. [08:25:30] Okay, from positions like this, he can scramble out and get away from me.

[08:25:32] I want to go through and finish over my training partner's hips. Even if I lost the wrist at this late stage of development, [08:25:40] I would still have the hips. Okay, if I lose the wrist here, there's no control now. If I lose the wrist here, it's still great control. There's also a great [08:25:50] opportunity to step over into the mounted position.

[08:25:51] So once again, we have an opponent down to the side. I don't want to roll [08:26:00] straight out here. I don't want to roll straight out here. I want to take the angle. out here. That's where he has no base. Placido can base out with this hand. He can base out with this foot. [08:26:10] Okay, so he has base that way, he has base that way.

[08:26:13] But the one base he doesn't have is out here to the front corner. So after that initial defensive responsibility, I go in and I [08:26:20] catch. Now, as I walk away from my chain bones, I'm going to turn and face him. Then we get a good roll, but put me right underneath him, central gravity. Even as he's coming over, I'm [08:26:30] already looking for the hip.

[08:26:31] Don't roll him. And then look for the hip, okay? You want to make sure you're chasing the hip as early as possible in the roll. [08:26:40] It's also very important that I try and scoot my hips underneath the center of gravity, okay? Try to avoid making this common mistake. Don't go away [08:26:50] from him, hold your ground.

[08:26:51] Don't go away from him and just sit down. Okay, you stop on the hip. Now he sprawls, and it feels like a ton of leg. [08:27:00] You'll never take him over. What I want to do is go into and underneath him. So, from a start position, just down like so, I [08:27:10] come in and I catch my training partner's arm. When I put my leg up, it's like I go underneath his hips.

[08:27:17] Okay, so my hips [08:27:20] penetrate underneath him. Already, I'm through on the hips and up, even if he would have pulled the arm free now, it wouldn't mean anything. You're in on the hips and into your own pain. [08:27:30] One more time. Again, very important, directionality. He has base with his [08:27:40] left arm that covers all the way up to 12 on the clock.

[08:27:43] He has base with his right leg that covers all the way up to 3 o'clock on the clock. But what he doesn't have is [08:27:50] base in that area between the 3 and the 12. Okay? And that's exactly where I want to go. Initially, I'm defensively responsible. This end makes [08:28:00] up. And from here I go and I make that catch. As soon as I've got the catch in place, I want to turn towards him, my hips facing his.

[08:28:09] Then I just throw him [08:28:10] right underneath my training partner, Sandy Gravely, and go through and chase the hips. Now we come up and find ourselves in an excellent pin position. Not only have you [08:28:20] gotten out, but you've gotten out into an excellent form of, uh, of pin. Now that's a classic outside maki komi, where I reach with [08:28:30] my outside arm.

[08:28:31] There's also an inside makikomi, which I often favor. Two type wedge project? Same thing. [08:28:40] Okay, when someone comes around here, I looked at the idea of using my outside arm. Okay? You can also come in and use your inside arm. When you use an [08:28:50] inside arm, Make sure you catch above the wrist. Just clamp everything in.

[08:28:55] That locks his elbow to your rib cage. Okay? If I grab with the [08:29:00] fingers on this side, there's a ton of space, Paul, that my opponent can exploit. If I grab with the fingers on this side, All the space is closed off. So when he [08:29:10] goes to pull out, almost impossible. Okay, it's a very, very strong and robust grip.

[08:29:16] It has the advantage that enables me to keep my [08:29:20] defensively responsible hand in place the whole time I'm doing the move. So once again, we start off just like so. There we are defending ourselves and then look how I just reach up and [08:29:30] catch. As soon as we get the catch, it's exactly the same thing. We just roll straight on through.

[08:29:36] Off the roll, to chase the hips now, look how I just bring my [08:29:40] body forward and I just reach straight across to the legs. When he goes to put me back in guard, there is a bit of time available. So once [08:29:50] again, I'm inside my pikomi.

[08:29:55] From turtle position, I use my head as a form of base, and then from here I [08:30:00] lock. I want to make sure that I get my feet outside his, uh, foot. Right now, you can see my feet are inside Placido's foot. So [08:30:10] when I try to roll, he can base out with his foot and make it very hard for me. So it's important that I always get my feet to the outside.

[08:30:18] Now when he goes to base out, [08:30:20] he just goes straight on through. Now as we come up, we find ourselves in a perfect pin. Make sure your head goes to the far hip. [08:30:30] Don't stop with your head on the center line. He can still scoot and move around. What we want is to bring our head across. Now when he goes to scoot and move [08:30:40] around, controlling the hips very, very directly and end up in a very nice pin.

[08:30:44] So one more time.[08:30:50]

[08:30:52] We're in here. Look at how we just catch, just like so. He goes to pull his arm free, it's not so easy. And from here [08:31:00] we get our feet to the outside, we find ourselves in perfect position, okay? When you hit this roll, come on through, like so. [08:31:10] Now, um, I've been doing this roll down to a shoulder, okay? Um, I'll, I'll demonstrate.[08:31:20]

[08:31:22] The outside makikomi is done down to a shoulder. Okay, and we roll [08:31:30] straight on through. I demonstrated the inside makikomi the same way. But in truth, the best inside makikomi Don't go down to a shoulder. [08:31:40] You can roll over your elbow or even your hand, okay? So from a situation where we start off like so, I've always found the strongest inside monkey tummies involve [08:31:50] posting, either here or here.

[08:31:53] This means that I can get more height in front of my training partner, and it's easier for me to get my legs in that preferred position, and [08:32:00] stronger drive across. Okay? So my general rule, when I teach makikomis, is outside shoulder, sorry, let me say that again, [08:32:10] outside arm, trap, go down to a shoulder, and send them through.

[08:32:16] Inside, my preference is hand or elbow and [08:32:20] send the man over so that you retain height. Okay? So when we hit the inside maki komi, typically what we do is we post here and then turn in and we just roll [08:32:30] him straight over the hip. Then turn in. Outside maki komi. We typically go [08:32:40] down to the shoulder. So, we meant solo now.

[08:32:45] Outside Maki Komi, down to the shoulder. [08:32:50] Inside Maki Komi, down to an elbow, or even a hand. And that general rule of thumb gets good results.[08:33:00]

[08:33:02] Now, we just looked at the Makikomi, an excellent way to deal with someone who's got a deep, tight waist on us. An obvious question here is, okay, what if the guy wises up? He's [08:33:10] on this side, and he comes in, and he hits a shallow, tight waist. Then it's going to be very hard for us to hit any kind of Makikomi.

[08:33:18] In the Makikomi, I need [08:33:20] his whole forearm to lock up on. Not the elbow, the forearm. Okay, once he denies me the forearm, it becomes a lot harder for us to work with makikomi rolls. [08:33:30] This is a great time for us to switch into shoulder rolls. As always, we start off being defensively responsible by taking the opposite side hand and putting it on our collarbone, so if he ever goes to switch to a [08:33:40] seatbelt, he's going to run into my hand.

[08:33:42] Once he runs into the hand, then you're in a situation where you can start getting away from people, okay? So, initially, [08:33:50] defensively responsible like so. Weight goes forward onto the head and we swish our feet outwards. I never want my feet operating between his feet. Okay, most of the [08:34:00] time here we're always looking to swish a step our feet to the outside position.

[08:34:04] You don't have to move much to do this, just bring your weight onto your head. If my weight's over my hips, I can't swish [08:34:10] a foot, okay? But when I bring my weight down to my forehead, my feet become light, and I can swish it up quite easily. From here I go knee to knee. From the knee to knee position, I'm just going [08:34:20] to bring my outside leg up, and I'm just going to bring my shoulder down just like so, and I'm going to push off the floor, and I'm going to aim for his armpit.

[08:34:28] Don't just try to roll, put [08:34:30] your tight waist tight, don't just try to roll into his hips, you're going to get flattened out and crushed. What I have to do is push my tailbone [08:34:40] right up into his armpit, in this direction. Again, don't go for the hips, he'll pull and crush your hips. What I want to do is drive [08:34:50] right up so my tailbone goes right to his armpit.

[08:34:53] From there, there's no crushing of the hips. I don't want my feet too far apart. If Placido's got skills and [08:35:00] I widen my feet, he'll let me roll and go onto a leg lock. You just come straight in, catches, now you end up in trouble. [08:35:10] I'm a big advocate of narrow foot shoulder, uh, shoulder rolls. I know most people show a very wide split.

[08:35:18] The truth is your split doesn't have to be very [08:35:20] wide. It only needs to be as wide as your opponent's waist. Um, the wider your feet go apart, the easier it is for him to leg lock you when you're hitting this move. So [08:35:30] he's got his tight waist in place and I notice it's a shallow one. So from here, we're going to swisher our feet to the outside.

[08:35:37] I will often monitor his hand [08:35:40] and put it in my back pocket. The more he's on my hip, the more he can pull the flat in my hips. So often what I do here is I monitor the [08:35:50] wrist and put it in my back pocket. This way, there's no opportunity to flatten me out. Now I push off this foot and I aim for his armpit.

[08:35:57] This foot here splits [08:36:00] and this one comes in. From here I put my weight over the near shoulder. My legs split only far enough that I beat the hand and find myself in a good attacking position from [08:36:10] here. My first thing is always just to lock my feet like a close guard into a triangle. This is called the trap triangle.

[08:36:16] When Placido goes to yank away from me, the trap holds him in place. [08:36:20] As he goes to posture up, I make an assessment. Will I attack the triangle with the intention of finishing the triangle? A lot of times you can, okay? A lot of times you're going to be pleasantly [08:36:30] surprised to see that you can just shoot around the corner and lock up.

[08:36:34] But if this guy knows what he's doing, he's going to make it awfully hard to finish. And from here, often we're going to lose [08:36:40] those triangles. Whenever we see this going on, our foot drifts in. We always look to get his hands immediately down to the mat. The second we get the hands down to the mat, it's not such [08:36:50] a difficult thing for us now, Just stop turning into the various leg locks that we favor In these positions.

[08:36:55] We can go in with Insights and Conco. If we use an Insights and Conco, we [08:37:00] typically shoe lac it. We take our shoelaces from the back to the front. Okay? If Ula tries to flee, the mat tries to push back [08:37:10] into me. Those shoe laces in the front will always convert him into a seated position. From here, we can get enormously strong breaks.

[08:37:18] So once again. [08:37:20] We start off, internal situation, always we're defensively responsible. I can't let him switch to a seatbelt and go from bad to worse. So always, [08:37:30] hand in like so, he goes to switch to a seatbelt, it's going to be risky for him now. Okay, now you've got the arm beat and you're ready to play. So there we [08:37:40] are, we're defensively responsible, we put the weight forward on the head and swisher our feet.

[08:37:44] Now from here I start. Finally, my partner's hand, put it in the back pocket. If the hand's not particularly [08:37:50] strong, then I won't bother with that step. But if I feel he's the kind of guy that's going to pull me down, then from here I'll often try to put it in the back pocket. Now I just punch through and I just bring my [08:38:00] tailbone to his hip.

[08:38:01] I just push him right off the mat. I like to keep my legs fairly close together. So there's less danger of being attacked by leg locks. From [08:38:10] here I come around the corner and make an initial catch. As he goes to pull away from us in these situations, it won't be easy. Now we start turning off the head, going through, [08:38:20] and locking up Senkaku.

[08:38:21] If I feel the initial triangle, is likely to fail. We drift our legs straight down into X guard and put those hands on the floor. So many [08:38:30] ways to attack from here. I just demonstrated one means of attack. Another good one from these positions is to feed our foot straight on through and go into variations of backside 50 [08:38:40] 50.

[08:38:40] One potential problem here is our opponent going to backstep out. If we feel that happening, we always follow the backstep leg. From here, we throw our feet [08:38:50] and end up in a very good attacking position. The Criss Cross Ashi, which has an inside leg and an outside leg, inside outside. This has the [08:39:00] virtues of both outside positioning, 50 50, and inside positioning, inside Senkaku.

[08:39:06] It makes it very hard for my opponent to hand fight with me, if I'm purely [08:39:10] 50 50, you can easily access my hands. You can access my elbow, my head, etc. When you throw the leg to the inside, you've got a good barrier there at the chest. Much harder [08:39:20] for him. He does an excellent job of making it difficult for opponents to roll in this direction, which is a traditional problem associated with inside Senkaku.

[08:39:28] Okay? But if [08:39:30] I lock in here, it's like you get the best of both worlds. When he goes to peel away from us, it's awfully, awfully difficult. And it's a crushing pressure. You'll often see my students making [08:39:40] use of this method of control. So one more time. Guys, I can't emphasize enough the target that you're looking for.

[08:39:48] It's your opponent's armpit. [08:39:50] Don't roll into his hips. Okay. You being perched on your shoulders is not the strongest position in the world. If you go into his hips, you go into a center of mass and he can stop you. [08:40:00] Aim for the vulnerable armpit and you'll have a lot of success. Okay. Um, I'm also going to suggest you In a world of leg lockers, don't roll with a wide split, [08:40:10] okay?

[08:40:10] Traditionally, this is how it's taught traditionally, okay? I come down, and I hit a wide split with my legs, and I split wide to get [08:40:20] caught, okay? If you're in a room full of leg lock killers, I can definitely run you into problems. So let's make sure we go with a very narrow split. You [08:40:30] only need to be as wide as his shoulders or hips, okay?

[08:40:32] Not very deep. Not very wide and plushy, those coats. So, um, I'm such an asshole, but I'm sorry. [08:40:40] From here, we come out to the side. Look how we turn. We swish our feet. How do I swish your feet easily? By bringing my weight forward. We're responsible with our hands. We come [08:40:50] forward, and then we start driving off the floor, aiming for the armpit.

[08:40:54] I've got that narrow split of my legs. I catch one, [08:41:00] catch two. From here, he goes to posture up. It's like he's in a closed guard. Only it's around his head and shoulders like a triangle. The trap triangle as we call it. From [08:41:10] here, he goes to pull away. Constantly looking to bring the feet closer and closer to the outside.

[08:41:16] They start in the center, he goes to pull away. And we're pulling everything [08:41:20] down. Now we catch and lock up the figure of four. We get the security of the leg, so if I do lose the upper body, it's going to be a quick transition straight into lower body. [08:41:30] From here, so many different ways for us to go, okay?

[08:41:34] Once we start getting into positions like this, there's, man, there's a million ways for us to go, okay? [08:41:40] Um, this particular variation we'll be looking at a lot, uh, later on in the video series. Especially when we get into guard position, this is the shoelace Senkaku, where I take my [08:41:50] shoelaces from the back, which is not a particularly strong finishing position when you're backside, to the front.

[08:41:55] Okay? When I'm backside, here, and my foot is on his back, [08:42:00] Placido can drive into me and straighten his leg and kill my ability to work the heel. But when I throw a shoelace Senkaku in [08:42:10] front of his stomach, when he tries to straighten and drive, you can always turn him over to his ass. And from here, the brakes are enormously strong.

[08:42:18] I'll be talking a lot in the future [08:42:20] about shoelace variations of Senkaku. Um, uh, but for now we focus mostly on getting out of bad position. So, we'll keep our focus on that. [08:42:30] Um, one more time guys. Okay. One of the most common and effective forms of escape from any turtle position. First things [08:42:40] first, I gotta beat the coverage of his hips.

[08:42:41] Right now my feet are between his feet. That means Placido is winning the battle for coverage. I don't want my hips covered. Okay, [08:42:50] so I bring my weight forward and as a result I can swish a step and get my feet to the outside position. That's going to give me drive. Don't try to drive from your shoelaces.

[08:42:59] Get up on your [08:43:00] toes. Now, strong body, Pasito. If I just roll, pathetic, I've got to drive into him. Okay, so I get [08:43:10] power out of the floor using the ball of the foot and the toes. Okay, look how that first drive is up into his armpit, just like so. Then I clamp down, [08:43:20] lock. From here it's not about just getting out, it's about finishing people.

[08:43:24] Okay, he goes to pull away. Standing up, pulling away, doing all sorts of things that people do. Okay, my feet are in the [08:43:30] center, pulling away. And then they start to come out to the side, and as a result, we can make a very quick switch. Okay? He goes to yank out. It [08:43:40] won't be easy, but if he's some kind of Hercules and he manages to clear three, boom, foot goes straight in.

[08:43:47] It's always easy to go from upper body to lower [08:43:50] body. It's almost impossible, interestingly, to go from lower body to upper body. We'll be talking about that later on in the series. Now from here, I want his hands on the floor. If his hands are available, he can start [08:44:00] clearing things out with some problems for me.

[08:44:02] So I want his hands on the mat. Then I make up my choices. What do I want to do here? Okay, do I want to attack the thigh leg? Do I want to take the knee [08:44:10] leg? What do we do? Okay, well, the truth is, you've got a million different options here. Okay, there's so many things you can do in these situations as far as attacks go.

[08:44:19] Okay, we'll [08:44:20] be spending a lot of time on that as we get into the guard variations later on in the series. But for now, our primary focus is on escape [08:44:30] into those attacks.

[08:44:35] We're looking at the idea of defending and escaping from turtle situations. Let's [08:44:40] look now at a slight complication that can occur when our opponent transitions from tight waist to body lock. Okay. Tight waist is one thing. If our opponent comes through [08:44:50] and locks his hands, that Uh, obviously closes the, the controls that he has around my body and can complicate things.

[08:44:57] Um, the [08:45:00] good news is you don't have to worry about strangles very much from this position. Okay. He's committed to the body lock. Uh, that's an excellent direct control of my hips. But at least [08:45:10] strangulation is an immediate issue. That means I can be a little more circumspect with my hand positioning Okay, I don't need to keep my hand wedded to my collarbones anymore because there's no way you can strangle [08:45:20] me from this position So the good news is you can be a little bit more playful with your hands at this point You can take some risks that you normally couldn't take.

[08:45:26] Okay, the bad news is He's got his hands locked [08:45:30] tightly around your hips and that can be a real problem. It enables him to lock his hips to your hips. Okay? So what should we be looking for under these circumstances? Um, well, the first thing I like to do is I like [08:45:40] to create as much distance as I can between my hips and his.

[08:45:44] As he locks a tight body lock in this situation, we're going to look to switch our feet out just like so. [08:45:50] I'm going to use the fact that I can use my hands on the mat. Okay, again, there's not much danger of a switch to a strangle, so I can be a little more adventurous with my hand positioning. [08:46:00] First thing I'm going to do here is I'm just going to place my shoelaces on my body.

[08:46:03] So I'm going to place my shoelaces right there on my training partner's thigh, just like so. Okay, that means that he can't switch [08:46:10] from one side of my body to the other. If I put my feet down, he can start jumping around my body and causing problems. Okay, so I'm just going to come throw this lock, my foot right here to my training partner's [08:46:20] thigh.

[08:46:20] That's going to enable me to get a height advantage. And start turning them towards my trigger point, pulling them straight down into guard position. So once again, from the situation, [08:46:30] So my opponent walks up, just like so. Because he's around my waist, I don't have to worry about strangles, so I start placing my hands down like so.

[08:46:39] Now I [08:46:40] just take my foot and I just place it right here, so we can't switch side to side, and, uh, can't really make any real transitions on me. Now, from these types of situations, [08:46:50] uh, it's pretty easy for us to start turning in and then using his body as a means of just sitting down. Placing our foot and pulling him right back into guard [08:47:00] position.

[08:47:00] If you see opportunities, you can pull him into triangles or what have you. Okay. Another excellent option, someone locks a body triangle, [08:47:10] you can still hit shoulder rolls. but there will be more resistance because he's locked to your body. So what we have to be cognizant of [08:47:20] now is we need more momentum to get the body roll started.

[08:47:24] The good news is he can't strangle me from this grip, so I can bring my head up so I can start [08:47:30] to generate a little more height from the ground. That's going to create a stronger roll. Now, if he has skills, uh, maybe if he doesn't even have skills, if he just has strength, [08:47:40] he's going to keep that body lock.

[08:47:41] So, you may not end up in guard position. So be aware of that at the end of the roll. Very often there'll be a scramble, [08:47:50] which may not necessarily go towards guard as it did against the tight waist. So from here, I'm going to shoulder roll down. I'm going to punch in, come up off the floor, hold it, [08:48:00] aim for my training partner's armpit.

[08:48:02] As he locks on tight to that shoulder roll, I'm going to throw my body across his body. I want to beat his hips. He wants his [08:48:10] hips to follow my hips. That's what he wants. I don't want that. As I go over the top, I want to throw my body across his [08:48:20] and end up higher than him. You need to kind of keep your body off the wall.

[08:48:24] Now from here, our head is higher than his head. Okay? If we get into a scramble in this [08:48:30] position, he tries to get back up, my head is higher than his. And you'll be in the perfect position to go into your various step overs, step together. [08:48:40] So once again, when someone locks a body lock, you have to understand it comes at certain prices, okay?

[08:48:47] When he locks the body lock, he can't go up and just [08:48:50] switch to a stranglehold. It's going to take time. So I can be a little bit more adventurous with my hand placements. One way we can get that adventurous spirit is to build up off the mat. [08:49:00] So you start to generate height. Because you have height, when you throw your body to the mat, you'll have momentum.

[08:49:06] So even though he has a very tight lock on your body, you will throw him [08:49:10] over and end up in situations where you can get to a winning scramble. Okay? If my opponent just has a tight waist, typically the shoulder roll [08:49:20] will result in guard position. Okay? But when he has a body lock, Then [08:49:30] typically, it'll result in a situation where you have to battle for height and with a scramble after the roll.

[08:49:36] So once again, we start off. I notice he has the body lock on so I [08:49:40] can play a little bit more with the hands on the floor. Okay. As always, he wants his hips covering my hips. That's what he wants. Not what I want. [08:49:50] From here, look how we smoosh his feet and bring our body out and away. Okay, so we're playing up a tall body here.

[08:49:55] From these kinds of situations, look how when I commit for the shoulder roll, holding [08:50:00] tight, I take my body and I aim towards my training partner's armpit, and look to go across his body. We're looking for the floor here, we're looking to keep our head [08:50:10] high. If he pulls my head down, that's to his advantage.

[08:50:15] Okay, so I want my head high. How do I keep my head high? He wants to pull with his [08:50:20] arms, you know. He wants to pull with his arms and do this, correct? So how do I keep my head high? A scoop grip. He goes to pull with the arms and [08:50:30] we're scooped over him. Now, he's got to start coming up to his knees. As he comes up to his knees, we're always looking to step over.

[08:50:38] And from the [08:50:40] stepovers, you're going to find you have triangles, arm locks, et cetera. Okay. So once again, your opponent has the body lock, [08:50:50] uh, an intimidating grip. And a very, very useful one when, uh, when someone's behind you, I think it's probably fair to say fellas, that the body lock is one of the more [08:51:00] underutilized controls against turtle position in the sport of Jiu Jitsu.

[08:51:04] Recently that started to change, uh, new generation of athletes are starting to use it more. It's a healthy thing. [08:51:10] I, I come from a generation of Jiu Jitsu where the seatbelt was everything. And I still believe in my heart of hearts, the seatbelt is the single best control from the back in [08:51:20] turtle position in all of Jiu Jitsu.

[08:51:22] I still believe that even now. But, let's not underestimate the usefulness of a good body lock, okay? That should be something that [08:51:30] all of us Jiu Jitsu guys should be using a little more. Um, now if someone goes to use it against us, then we've got to have a strategy to get out of here. We can't just show the world [08:51:40] to God, okay?

[08:51:41] The body lock is stronger than the tight waist. So if I just try to roll to guard, this happens.[08:51:50]

[08:51:51] Okay, not really what you're looking for. You just get stepped up on your shoulders and stopped. So what I want to do is [08:52:00] generate momentum by gaining height and performing a whipping shoulder roll that throws me across his body. So, because he's got a body lock, I [08:52:10] don't have to stay like this anymore.

[08:52:11] Okay, instead I start coming up and getting height from that height. We're in a position now It's not to move away just [08:52:20] knee sliding generate as much space between he and I Possible and from here, I throw my body through lock tight from here. I just throw my body [08:52:30] As a result in the perfect position to lock up tries to throw me backwards Difficult.

[08:52:35] Okay, if I build height He comes out to recover. We're always [08:52:40] looking for that step over, off the step over. You've got an exposed neck on the other side, and you can go on to triangles, arm lines, whatever you want. Um, this is an excellent [08:52:50] way to deal with this potential problem of the, of the body lock.

[08:52:59] Now, we're looking at this [08:53:00] theme that, uh, how we go to escape from any given bad situation is largely contingent upon how the other fellow deals with it. is holding you. What's the source of their connection? Do they [08:53:10] have a body lock? Do they have a seatbelt? Do they have a tight waist? Um, a move which I will often make use of against tight waists is a reach back [08:53:20] sumigeshi.

[08:53:21] So, from a situation from over here, internal position, our opponent has the, uh, the, uh, the body lock on us. We know when they have a body lock we can play a [08:53:30] little bit more with our hands because the immediate danger of strangulation is no longer there when they lock, okay? One thing we can do in these situations is start building for height, okay?[08:53:40]

[08:53:40] Um, if my opponent has a seatbelt, I can't build for height because his shoulder is right on the back of my head. And now I can't pressure up. [08:53:50] But when he goes to my waist, there's nothing controlling my hip. So he can start building up on people. We're going to put our foot out just like so. So we start getting our hips higher than his hips.

[08:53:59] And [08:54:00] we're going to hit a reach back, where I just take my whole body, I turn and I reach for the lat muscle. Right here. Okay. Off that grip, I'm going to [08:54:10] put

[08:54:13] my foot, my right foot inside his right thigh. So it's going to be like a yoko sumigeshi. Okay. [08:54:20] Don't do a normal sumigeshi. Where right thigh goes to left, rather it's right versus right. From this position, I'm going to knee slide underneath my [08:54:30] training partner's center of gravity. Just like so. I'm going to commit my shoulder down to the floor, and I'm going to lift and I'm going to use that right foot to elevate [08:54:40] my opponent up into the air.

[08:54:41] As he elevates up into the air, we're in the perfect position now to start snatching for a leg. We're just going to take our leg through, lock, let's [08:54:50] see here, and lock onto a good inside Senkaku. Now I'd look at my opponent's body posture. From here, one [08:55:00] excellent response is to go inside our opponent's leg and hit an inside spin.

[08:55:05] So we start coming around backside behind our opponent. One [08:55:10] problem with inside Senkaku is that if my opponent pushes into me and straightens the leg, he kills the heel hook pressure. Because I have no ability to push on the back of his knee. [08:55:20] Anytime we're finishing backside, we have to be able to push on the back of the knee.

[08:55:24] Inside Senkaku does not do this. So we make a switch, straight in [08:55:30] like so. Now, through my left thigh, I have an ability to push on the back of his knee. Now when he tries to straighten out and push back into me, you can easily push his knee down to the [08:55:40] mat and get into a very strong breaking position. So once again,

[08:55:49] we have [08:55:50] an opponent behind us. Initially, take your hands out. Initially, we're defensively responsible, so he tries for a seatbelt, can't do it. So what does he do? He's smart, he [08:56:00] switches into a body lock. From the body lock, we know the head is no longer under pressure, so we start building for height. Off that height, I turn back and grab the [08:56:10] lat muscle just like so.

[08:56:11] As my knees come down, I place my sumigeshi hook in. Now I just knee slide and bring him up into the air. From that [08:56:20] position, we go through, catch the leg, and snatch. You're good at satsenkaku. I don't care what he does now, okay? You've got an excellent bite on the leg. [08:56:30] One excellent option is to spin inside our opponent's legs.

[08:56:35] From here, because we're backside, it makes a lot of sense for me to make a [08:56:40] switch to inside outside position, the so called criss cross ashi, so that I can push on the back of his knee. When he tries to drive into me, you win [08:56:50] the drive every time. And from here, we get very strong breaking pressure. So one more time.

[08:56:59] My [08:57:00] opponent's in a good attacking position down on the floor. He's having a hard time switching off to the hip. Because of his body lock. We come up, find ourselves in a good height advantage [08:57:10] now. Now I turn back towards my opponent. And we hit that reach back and catch onto the lat muscle. Just like so. I bring my foot in.

[08:57:17] I knee slide [08:57:20] all the way through. And find myself in the perfect position to attack. From here we come on up. And lock a good tight inside tenkaku. Many ways for us to go. You could just collapse [08:57:30] both legs and just put them straight down to the mat. Your choice. Whatever you feel like. Okay? Once you get in [08:57:40] all that good tight insides and coffee, you have both legs under control.

[08:57:44] It's gonna be hard for him to keep his pace. So this is an excellent way for us to come out of a bad situation [08:57:50] with an excellent counter attack.

[08:57:56] Arguably the most popular and the most effective form of turtle [08:58:00] control connection is the seatbelt. This is where Placido goes over the near shoulder, under the far shoulder, and locks his [08:58:10] hands either five finger, palm to palm, or wrist to wrist, like so. His head will be on the opposite side of his strangle hand.

[08:58:19] This gives him [08:58:20] many excellent ways to control me. First and most obvious is his right shoulder. It's directly over my head, so when he puts right shoulder pressure, it puts [08:58:30] direct pressure on my head to the floor. In addition, it makes him very dangerous to me, because at any given moment, his hand could convert to a stranglehold.[08:58:40]

[08:58:40] It also means that he can take a one on one at any given moment and go into a garrotte, where he locks up a one handed strangle. while simultaneously controlling my [08:58:50] wrist. Okay. So this is an enormously effective means of control from total possession. It gives direct control of the head. It gives an immediate [08:59:00] transition to a stranglehold that I have to respect the entire time I'm held within it.

[08:59:05] Um, it's a scary lock, but like any lock it has its [08:59:10] limitations. Let's look at an effective way of getting out of this troublesome position. Um, a word to you all, this method of getting out is ultimately. [08:59:20] a variation of a sitting escape. Not only does it work really well against the seat belt, it also works very well against tight waist grips as well.

[08:59:27] I'll show it first against the seat belt [08:59:30] since that's the question I'm most often asked with regards getting out of turtle position, how do you deal with this problematic situation? Uh, I'll demonstrate with Placido on my left. [08:59:40] That's because I have a hip replacement on the other side. Um, so my training partner has a seatbelt.

[08:59:47] Okay. First things first, you've got to be [08:59:50] defensively responsible. His strangle hand is an inch away from your carotid arteries. You got, you just can't ignore that. Okay. So if I'm playing around like this, I'm just going to get strangled. So the first thing I [09:00:00] have to do is get inside thumb release, inside thumb position on the wrist, the area of his wrist that you would slash if you were trying to kill [09:00:10] yourself.

[09:00:10] That's what I couple with my thumb, okay? So he locks up, I take my thumb, lock tight, and I put my thumb inside. So if he ever goes to convert to a [09:00:20] strangle, It's not going to happen. If my thumb isn't there, that could be a real problem. So we've got to be defensively responsible the whole time. Lock it in [09:00:30] like so.

[09:00:30] Okay? Next problem. Placido is covering my hips. Look. Placido is covering my [09:00:40] hips. I can't accept that. So what I want to do is bring my weight forward, and from here, I want to swish him so that his hips no longer cover me. [09:00:50] Okay? He's got his leg up, covering my hips. I can't have this knee covering my hip. I need to get it out of there.

[09:00:58] So head goes forward [09:01:00] and I turn away from him so that my knee is facing him. Now I'm going to knee slide. That's like I'm sitting down. As I lean [09:01:10] back, my foot traps his foot. Okay. If he tries to jump over my back and take my guard, sorry, take my bag, [09:01:20] he's trapped. It's not going to happen. Now from here. I roll him through.

[09:01:28] Once I roll him [09:01:30] through, there's a danger he can kick out. Okay. I don't make it easy for him. If I'm relaxed and he kicks out, now I can start pushing my back. [09:01:40] So I lock in here. Okay. And now the key point, I'm sure some of you have guessed this. It's my elbow. Do [09:01:50] you remember guys, when we were doing the back escapes, the critical demarcation point of the elbow?

[09:01:55] When your elbow touches the floor, you're out of the rear mount. Same thing with seatbelts. He [09:02:00] locks tight. From here, I want to work and get my elbow to the mat. The second the elbow touches the mat, I don't need this anymore. [09:02:10] Let it go. Even if Placido went to strangle me now, the angle's wrong. That elbow touching the floor is your telltale guide.[09:02:20]

[09:02:21] The second my elbow touches the mat, there is no strangle. He can put his arm and do whatever he wants. There's no strangle. He puts the arm around my neck, I can always [09:02:30] turn inside a strangle. Once the elbow touches the floor. Once the elbow touches the floor, I take the second hand and I go pointing at the ceiling.

[09:02:38] Why? Because his [09:02:40] arm is under my shoulder, blocking the seatbelt. I want to get inside my training partner's seatbelt, so we know it controls my [09:02:50] shoulder. Now Placido has to get top position, so I bring my knee to my chest. As he comes up into top position, I put my foot inside. Just like so, [09:03:00] okay? Once my foot goes inside, we start that lifting action that we so often do.

[09:03:06] It creates the potential for ashigurami, okay? [09:03:10] Once we get to an ashigurami, you guys know the drill. If he's pulling away from us, we grab the collar. If he's pushing into us, we We cross frame the shoulder. We get his hands [09:03:20] down to the mat. And from here, it's an easy thing to put him down into a winning position.

[09:03:26] So once again,[09:03:30]

[09:03:31] first defensive responsibility, thumb inside my training partner's wrist. Passere goes to convert, can't do it. Okay. A little word about defensive [09:03:40] responsibility. Okay, the thumb's the most important part. It's the star of the show. But the second part is my shoulder. I take my cheek [09:03:50] to my own shoulder. The further my cheek from my shoulder, the more his arm can come around as a strangle.

[09:03:56] The closer, go for the strangle. It's [09:04:00] tough. What I do is I use my shoulder to direct him onto my wrist. So if he comes around, boom, he locks, and he gets a seatbelt, and now [09:04:10] I'm defensively responsible, everything turning in, okay? If he's freakishly strong and my chin's up, there's a chance that he could snap the hand off and go right into the strangle.[09:04:20]

[09:04:20] So I always want to be defensively responsible, okay? Now, next issue is that he covers my hips. From here, I [09:04:30] bring my weight forward, And I swish a step, cover my head. Watch Placido's right knee. Watch his right knee. When I come out, [09:04:40] he puts his knee on the floor. The second his knee touches the floor, I step over and hook.

[09:04:49] [09:04:50] Now from here, I roll him through. He's gonna want to kick out, so I backheel. If I'm relaxed, he just kicks out. [09:05:00] So I make sure the backheel's strong. I can't hold him forever with a backheel. But I can hold him long enough to do the one thing we need to do, [09:05:10] get our elbow to the mat. Once the elbow touches the mat, I don't care.

[09:05:14] If he lets go, I just go straight in. If he holds tight, [09:05:20] I put my hand inside. Now I bring my knee to my chest. He gets top position and runs right onto my butterfly hook. [09:05:30] Get out of there. Now, from here, put your foot back where it was. From here, I need to pommel my foot to an inside position. Okay? So I [09:05:40] hold, I lift out to the side, and bring the legs forward.

[09:05:44] We find ourselves in Ashigurami. From here, if he flees, he [09:05:50] exposes. If he's smart, he comes towards me. I place the cross frame in place. Now I just use my foot to elevate him. He's going to clear my ashi [09:06:00] garami off. That's what he should be doing. And then from here, I focus on getting his hands into the mat.

[09:06:04] From situations like this, he goes to pull away from me. Always looking to control [09:06:10] that knee, pointing his knee at my belly button so I can get my knee behind his knee. He goes to yank away. Very, very difficult. He kicks this leg out. No [09:06:20] problem, we follow it, and lock on through. Now we're in a winning position.[09:06:30]

[09:06:30] Offensive responsibility, shoulder turned in. Bring his knee to the floor, step over and catch. Elbow to the mat, [09:06:40] everything inside. He comes up, runs onto a butterfly hook. We start that action of lifting and elevating, lifting and elevating. From here, from around the corner, [09:06:50] catch him. He goes to step out and rip the leg away.

[09:06:54] And we find ourselves ready to go. With criss cross, inside outside Ashi. [09:07:00] Um, with regards to the Ashi Ramez, don't worry, I'll be spending a lot of time on that when we start the specialized look at leg locking. Right now, our primary focus is on getting out and [09:07:10] counterattacking. Um, now an obvious question if you ask is, okay, that looks cool.

[09:07:15] What if my opponent sees what I'm doing and jumps over my back to try and take my [09:07:20] bag? So now I've got a high level opponent. He's got a seatbelt. He feels me get the thumb inside so he knows he can't switch to a strangle. [09:07:30] He feels me put his knee towards the floor and from here it goes to jump over my body.

[09:07:36] Okay, that's what he should be doing.[09:07:40]

[09:07:41] When we lock up and I come around, I want to make sure that this leg here extends as a trap. [09:07:50] So even as I commit to the mat and he jumps, I catch him a bit here. Because my leg was in good position. If that's good [09:08:00] position, what's bad position? I can't do this. I can't slouch. He jumps. Yeah, I'm reaching.[09:08:10]

[09:08:14] When I go through, look how I just bring my leg up. It's like a high leg action. [09:08:20] So that even as I sit, he goes to jump, you get the catch. Now, He goes to fight his way out. I went to the [09:08:30] floor. He goes for top position. He

[09:08:37] pushes into me, [09:08:40] cross, and down to the mat we go.[09:08:50]

[09:08:50] Okay. Another excellent way to deal with, uh, tight grips around our waist. Usually a tight waist variation is a peek out. Um, this uses mobility [09:09:00] and change of direction. to get good results. So here we are, we have an opponent who's got a deep, tight waist on us, controlling us from this position. We have to be defensively responsible here [09:09:10] because he's got a right hand that at any moment could go in and threaten my neck.

[09:09:13] So we have to have our thumb glued in place. If he ever goes to grip, he's We lock it in, okay? As we [09:09:20] control our training partner from here, we're going to put our head down to the mat, we're going to take our inside knee to our outside knee, and we're going to swish a step. I'm sure you guys are starting to figure out right now, swisher [09:09:30] steps are a big part of turtle escapes.

[09:09:32] I have to be able to do it. To get my feet to the outside position. The second we do this, I just, uh, [09:09:40] as it were, collapse my body to my knees. So as Pasiru holds on tight and strong, from here he feels strong, I don't resist the strength, I just collapse everything [09:09:50] straight on in. Now it's a battle for height.

[09:09:53] I want my head higher than his hips. Okay, so I just come straight on up and rock. [09:10:00] As soon as we're here, we're looking to pull him out of balance. Okay, now we've got our own body lock on him and you've completely switched places. So once again, [09:10:10] we've got an opponent here working with tight waist, we're defensively responsible.

[09:10:14] From here I start moving inside my training partner's body. Swisher stepping [09:10:20] and then from here I just hit a simple peak where I come back, my head comes out. Okay, many ways for us to go. If I feel my opponent sitting back to [09:10:30] guard position, he's worrying about the back exposure, I will always go chasing the legs.

[09:10:34] And then, from here we'll turn it into a leg attack. A lot of jiu jitsu guys, [09:10:40] when they feel their back is straightened, they'll sit to the floor to protect their back. That leaves you the legs. If he's more wrestling oriented or more top position oriented, then I'll typically go [09:10:50] chasing his back. So if he sits back, I'll go for his legs.

[09:10:52] If he chases top position, I'll go for his back. So once again, He's in here. We're defensively [09:11:00] responsible. We take our feet, swish them out. It's like so. As we move away from our training partner, we just sit back for height. Now, from here, [09:11:10] we're breaking down to our hips and find ourselves in an excellent attacking position, ready to play.

[09:11:16] If, on the other hand, I go [09:11:20] through, I hit my peak, and from here I see him sitting there, that's a good opportunity for us to sit into our training partner's leg. Okay? Either way. You go from a [09:11:30] situation where he's threatening you to one where you're threatening him.

[09:11:38] Now we're looking at a bunch of [09:11:40] techniques to get out of turtle position. Sometimes you've got to go beyond technique. You've got to give people an overall context in which they're operating. And one of those [09:11:50] key elements in the overall context of escaping turtle position is hand fighting, okay? A big, big part of being successful in defending, getting out of [09:12:00] turtle position, and hopefully counterattacking once you're out, is the idea of monitoring your opponent's hands.

[09:12:05] Please remember that a big part of his connection to you is through his hands, whether it be a [09:12:10] tight waist, a body log or a seat belt, okay? So if we can dominate his hands, you're going to have a much easier chance of, of, uh, of getting out of these positions and [09:12:20] saving yourself some trouble. So let's talk a little bit about hand fighting.

[09:12:23] Um, some of it we've stated already in passing. This is the idea first of defensive responsibility. My [09:12:30] biggest fear when someone gets my back is always strangulation. So I need to be defensively responsible and keep my thumb on my clavicle. I need to keep [09:12:40] my shoulder close to my chin. Just as a good boxer holds a guard and protects his chin at all times with hands and shoulders like [09:12:50] so, so that he minimizes the exposure of his chin to a strike, so too a good grappler always minimizes the exposure of his throat to his opponent's wrists.

[09:12:59] And it's done [09:13:00] more or less the same way, by keeping hands in front of shoulders. What I want to do is learn to guide my opponent's strangle hand [09:13:10] onto my defensive hand. So if his strangle hand is his right hand, I don't just want to have my chin up. I want everything down, like so. When I connect chin and shoulder, [09:13:20] I guide him.

[09:13:22] Onto my thumb, okay? I can't just be naive here like so, and he just goes right around and gets me, okay? Everything's got to be [09:13:30] tight together. So even as he comes around, he guides right onto what I wanted, okay? Once you get one hand, typically, we get the other. Even if [09:13:40] Placido would put his other arm around my neck now, it wouldn't count as a strangle because he'd completely dominate the other hand.

[09:13:46] Okay, even if he puts the outline on you're going to get opportunities [09:13:50] now to take him out of position. So that's one consideration. If he goes around my waist, what I don't want to do is taking this hand out and switching to [09:14:00] seatbelt. Okay, so very often we'll cover the hands just like so. So if he ever goes to change to another grip, it breaks.[09:14:10]

[09:14:10] If someone takes this grip, I want him to stay on that grip. Okay, what I don't want is someone who can go from grip to grip and dominate me, okay? So if he takes this [09:14:20] strong grip, okay, that's the last grip he's ever going to get. Because if he changes from this, then he is a goner. Okay, we're up and away.

[09:14:28] Um, [09:14:30] with regards to hand placement, I want to be threatening to him. Turn to my side. So if someone takes a body lock in a [09:14:40] position like so, I want to be threatening him too. Okay, so I will often just catch a wrist. Now, man, if he doesn't let go, he's in trouble. Okay, [09:14:50] from situations like this, you've already seen, it's very easy to start whipping people over, putting them down.

[09:14:56] So, there should be a constant play on your [09:15:00] part of hands, like a boxer, chin down, gripping, two on one, monitor the hands, if your hands ever separate, take them off and put his hands in your back [09:15:10] pocket. I'm always looking to take his tight waist grip.

[09:15:16] Tight waist grip, put it in my back pocket. [09:15:20] Here he controls my hip. He pulls, I'm out of balance. Here he doesn't control anything. [09:15:30] He pulls, nothing, okay? It's when he's in the pocket of my hip that he controls me. So I always want to make sure when I'm monitoring that hand, I'm putting it where it's [09:15:40] weak, in the back pocket.

[09:15:42] Okay, he goes to grip me with the other hand, means nothing. Tries to lock the tight waist. And we're up and away. [09:15:50] Okay. If I can split my opponent's hands, and at the same time, take his hands away from any kind of meaningful contact, that is a [09:16:00] huge development. Okay, that means he no longer effectively controls me.

[09:16:05] The only time it's risky for me to start moving away from my opponent is when he has [09:16:10] good grips on me. Okay, if I put my head up now, I'm dead. Tight waist. He comes in here and I just naively put my head, he pulls. Nope. [09:16:20] I'm broken down to a hip. But, if I have situations where I separate his hands, I can do whatever I want with my [09:16:30] body.

[09:16:30] Put my hips down. You can't. You can't do anything. You can't go to strangle me.

[09:16:39] You can't do [09:16:40] anything. If you can separate your opponent's hands, you can move wherever you want. If you can dominate the hands, the battle is won. So what you need to do is develop this sense [09:16:50] of play where your hands, chin, are first and foremost defensively responsible, and you're dominating his hands.

[09:16:57] And you're looking constantly for [09:17:00] situations where you can put a hand in the back pocket. Separate hands. Lock. Monitor hands, so that if he ever [09:17:10] lets go, the hands are yours. And once you separate hands and put them in positions of weakness, And you can do whatever you want. You can move wherever you want.[09:17:20]

[09:17:20] Okay. So a good thing for you to do to learn these skills is to have a buddy start behind you, just like so, with a tight waist. From here, you just [09:17:30] start off defensively responsible. And you just have him try to work for a seatbelt. You just practice. keeping the hands monitored. He goes back in and works for the [09:17:40] seatbelt.

[09:17:40] You just practice monitoring a single hand, okay? He comes in, works, and you monitor the hand. He comes in and works, and you [09:17:50] monitor the hand. Then you start getting more adventurous. He comes in and works, you monitor one hand, and then you monitor two hands, and you put a knee up, okay? You come [09:18:00] back down to the floor.

[09:18:01] From here, he works for a seatbelt, you get one hand, You get the second hand, you put it in the back pocket, he tries to follow you, tries to move around. You can [09:18:10] move around quite freely now, okay? We have a guy who's working for a seatbelt.[09:18:20]

[09:18:21] You're defensively responsible, catch it, and then you double up on it. You get two on one. So instead of going here and here, we go here and here, okay? Two on one. [09:18:30] Previously, we were working on top of the hand. Now we're working two on one. Now, I've got this cracker slipping under his armpit. I put him on the other side of my [09:18:40] body.

[09:18:40] And as a result, we can send back up to our feet. Okay? So once again, we start off, seatbelt situation. We're in here. He goes in for a seatbelt. [09:18:50] We lock, and we start moving his hands around our body.

[09:18:58] Tight waist situation. [09:19:00] Sorry, body lock situation, my mistake. We're monitoring our training partner's hands, okay? I've got both my hands covering his. As he goes [09:19:10] to pull me around the mat, move me around, good. You've got good base. He goes to switch to a seatbelt. You've got both his hands controlled. Okay, there's no switching out of [09:19:20] that grip.

[09:19:21] And then from here it's pretty easy for us to get up and away from our partner. Um, you drill like this for a little while, pretty soon you get pretty damn good at controlling [09:19:30] people's hands. Okay? And if you can control the hands, you can move in any way you wish. Um, my general recommendation, if you split your opponent's hands and put them [09:19:40] into a zone of weakness, such as the pocket, across your head, or what have you, stand up.

[09:19:46] Okay? Jiu Jitsu players are generally rather reluctant to stand up, [09:19:50] but standing up and getting back to neutral is an excellent way to go. You can always set the guard later on. Okay? Nothing's more threatening than someone behind you controlling your head, Like so, [09:20:00] okay, but if I, uh, go into strangle, if I come through and bring him over and stand back up to neutral, okay, you [09:20:10] can always sit back down and guard later if you want or you can play takedowns, you know, what you like, but it's a very safe way for you to stand up.

[09:20:17] He's behind you with a body lock. [09:20:20] I see him try to, uh, switch off to something else and he puts everything in the back pocket. Stand up with me. Stand up with me. Stand up with me. We stand up, we're neutral, [09:20:30] boom. And now, we're back in the, uh, neutral situation. So that's a very easy way for us to get to a standing position.

[09:20:37] Um, these skills of hand fighting [09:20:40] are very, very important to mastering your turtle escapes. They make all the moves that we've looked at considerably easier. If your opponent does have [09:20:50] locked hands, either with a seatbelt, or tight waist, put hands on top of them. Okay. Don't just [09:21:00] sit around for long periods of time where you can just switch to something else and cause problems for you.

[09:21:05] Okay. Monitor those hands, at least one of them. Okay. With [09:21:10] regards to breaking a grip, Traditionally, in the sport of wrestling, things are, grip breaking is typically done where you drive everything down and [09:21:20] forward into the hips. It's a little risky in jiu jitsu because you can sit back, and start scoring points so that it hooks in.

[09:21:27] Start scoring on you. Okay? So that's a little [09:21:30] risky for the sport of jiu jitsu. I wouldn't recommend that too much. Um, if you know what you're doing, you can be okay with that, but it's a little risky in our game. Um, but there's still the [09:21:40] idea of just monitoring hands, and being able to separate. You can get back up and away from your opponent.

[09:21:43] That's perfectly valid for our sport. Um, if you can't break the hands, at least he'll be [09:21:50] sufficiently threatened that he's, he's not thinking about just switching off to a stranglehold on you. And you'll be able to easily go into all the other defensive moves that we looked at. So again, just a brief summary, [09:22:00] someone's behind us.

[09:22:01] We never want, Hands is to be unmonitored. At the very least, I should have inside position with a thumb versus a seatbelt. [09:22:10] Against body locks, I should have hands on top of his hands. So that if he ever switches to something else, you're gonna be away. Okay? I [09:22:20] can stand up against locked hands, but now you're in the problems with mat returns, et cetera, et cetera.

[09:22:25] Um, generally, uh, if I feel I can't break the lock of the hands and the hand [09:22:30] fighting's not working in my favor, this is the time for us to start hitting various kinds of rolls from here, going into various counterattacks from those positions. [09:22:40] Okay, so if I can't break hands, we'll typically roll into hands and use body weight.

[09:22:45] But again, if you can work with those hand fighting skills as we described, [09:22:50] that's going to give you a foundational skill which will make the performance of all the other moves that we looked at a lot easier than before.

[09:22:58] [09:23:00] [09:23:10] Now, we've been going through a ton of, uh, information with regards to positional escape. It's a very valuable thing [09:23:20] to summarize some of that information and start giving us, uh, an idea of what we would have to do if we were under stress. And we have to recall information in a hurry in a difficult situation and get [09:23:30] out in a wide variety of situations.

[09:23:33] Um, what I want to do now is give you guys a five step program, which is pretty easy to remember, makes a [09:23:40] lot of intuitive sense, and it covers, in a very useful, short summary, almost all the things that we've covered in this video. in this video with regards to positional [09:23:50] escapes. The first step in our positional escape program, it's a five step program, is always defensive responsibility.

[09:23:58] You can't start [09:24:00] off in a pin type situation where you're defensively irresponsible and you're getting finished. Remember, there's a reason why the other guy wants to pin you. It's because he [09:24:10] wants to submit you. They don't just pin you for the sake of it, they pin you for the sake of submitting you. So your first responsibility, shut down your opponent's [09:24:20] ability to transition from a pin to a submission.

[09:24:23] Be defensively responsible. What that means in practice is contraction, bringing your [09:24:30] elbows and knees in close. An extended person is a vulnerable person. Chin down, elbows in, knees in close. [09:24:40] At the same time, monitor the most dangerous parts of your opponent. Usually, in the case of strangles, it's his hands.

[09:24:48] Even in the case of most [09:24:50] joint locks, the hands are a big component. So monitoring the hands as a general rule is a useful thing. Okay. So for example, mount a position. [09:25:00] My first thing in bottom mount is I won't let my elbows get extended. That's just straightforward defensive irresponsibility. [09:25:10] Okay. Your first thing here, bring the elbows in close to your body, bring the chin down and cover it.

[09:25:16] Okay? As your opponent goes in to control you, [09:25:20] then you start working into your various frames, etc, etc. But first things first, before anything else begins, contraction. Bring everything in close to your body. [09:25:30] Elbows inside, hands close to your own neck, contraction begins everything. Side position. Same lesson.

[09:25:39] The more [09:25:40] extended I am, the more Placido can switch off into submissions on either one of my arms, my neck, whatever you want. Okay? So our first thing here is always going to be some kind of [09:25:50] contraction inwards that brings the elbows inside. Brings a knee in close to our training partner's hip, so you're in a contracted body position.

[09:25:58] If he goes for an arm lock [09:26:00] on this arm, it's going to be very difficult. Everything's in close. Okay? North south position. I [09:26:10] can't just have my opponent underneath my arms here, like so. My body extended, he extends out, and you're very vulnerable to submission now. So always, [09:26:20] we want our arms in close to our body, just like so, defensively responsible.

[09:26:25] If I can't get there, then they'll be in close here to his body, like [09:26:30] so. But what I can't do is have my opponent extending my arms out. causing problems like so. Regardless of where we're working, [09:26:40] rear mount position, similar considerations. Here, the number one problem will be strangulation. So defensive [09:26:50] responsibility comes down to things like hand control, where my thumb must monitor his strangle hand.

[09:26:56] So when he goes to switch off to a strangle, it's going to be enormously difficult. [09:27:00] If we're going to cover our opponent's hands, make sure the hands can't be seen. Okay, that's always how we want to control him. We want to [09:27:10] come up and cover the hands. Okay, that kind of defensive responsibility with the hands is going to get very hard for him to get through to strangles and, and arm [09:27:20] locks, et cetera, et cetera.

[09:27:21] So your first thing is always contraction in pins and monitoring strangle hands when someone's on your back. [09:27:30] So step number one of our program. It's always defensive responsibility. You can't get out of a pin until first you shut down the danger, bring [09:27:40] everything in and cover the hands.

[09:27:46] Now, we're giving you a five step program to get out of [09:27:50] most, uh, positional pin situations. The program is roughly sequential. Okay, but there is one joker in the pack. This is Kazushi. [09:28:00] The sequence varies in the case of Kazushi. Sometimes it comes first, sometimes it comes second, sometimes even further down the line.

[09:28:08] I'm demonstrating it as the [09:28:10] second step. But Kazushi, as I said, it's the Joker in the back. It can occur at any time in the sequence. So please bear that in mind. Um, [09:28:20] Kazushi literally means off balancing, to knock someone out of balance. Uh, if I am in, say, for example, a mounted position and the posture has my arm [09:28:30] extended, I can't just bring my arm back in.

[09:28:34] Okay, he's got it. I, I can't just pull my arm in against his will. I would have to [09:28:40] start by off balancing him. So I could start with the bridge that forces his arm out and now I can contract my arms. Okay, [09:28:50] if we're sign control.

[09:28:56] I feel I'm having a very hard time getting this hand [09:29:00] inside. He's blocking me out. Then it might be a good idea for me to create some form of Kazushi to get my hand into the [09:29:10] position that I desire. Okay. Um, these are examples where you may have to off balance someone just in order to [09:29:20] get the first step of contraction.

[09:29:22] And, uh, defensive responsibility set. Uh, other times you will need Kazushio off balancing in a [09:29:30] different fashion, okay? Let's say I'm already defensively responsible. Side control? No, it's fine. So, I've done a good job [09:29:40] of getting everything in. That's, that's secure. But, on the other hand, I want now to start forming frames, and I can't get my arms [09:29:50] in.

[09:29:50] Okay? Well then I might start with some kind of kazoo shi. It gets them out of balance. Back in the middle. And now, my, my frames are set. Okay, [09:30:00] so I might use kazoo shi as a means of setting my frames, or getting into a defensively responsible position. Okay. I might use Kazushi [09:30:10] to get reactions out of my opponent.

[09:30:12] Okay. Further down the line, um, about five step sequence. I might create Kazushi to my right to [09:30:20] get him to push back and create Kazushi left. He goes to react to that. And then I get the escape working. Okay. So you can see that Kazushi doesn't really [09:30:30] fit into the, Any one place in the sequence. It could be at the start of the sequence, the very first step, it might be the second, it might be the third, fourth, or fifth.

[09:30:39] Um, [09:30:40] Uh, but it often, often plays a role. The number one form of generating Kazushi out of pins will always be bridging. Okay? [09:30:50] Uh, just a word to the wise person. Um, When you go to bridge in Jiu Jitsu, you're not looking for height in the bridge. What you are looking for is [09:31:00] torque, okay, rotational torque. Um, when I go to bridge, I have one foot that I bridge off and the [09:31:10] second foot comes out like so.

[09:31:11] So it's a very shallow bridge. You're not looking to get your hips high up in the air. You're only looking to tilt people left and right. So we bridge over [09:31:20] the shoulders. We're not trying to bridge up on our head and neck or anything crazy like that. We just create a planted foot. That's where the horsepower comes from.

[09:31:27] And the direction comes from the second foot turning [09:31:30] out, which talks everything over to the side, creates strong rotation to the side. Okay. If I lift someone straight up, And then come straight back [09:31:40] down. He hasn't moved. I'm looking to displace people side to side. So we put our foot close to our own buttocks.

[09:31:47] You there's no power in your bridge. If your foot is far from the [09:31:50] buttocks, we bring it in close and turn our foot out. And then from here, we push off, displace him, displace him [09:32:00] and displace him. So with someone mounted on us, if I need Placido to take his hand off me and put it on the [09:32:10] floor. Okay, it's not that difficult for us just to create a simple kizushi where we do exactly that, foot points out, and from here the hand goes on the [09:32:20] floor.

[09:32:20] Okay, um, if he's side control,

[09:32:26] if I need Pasido's head to move from one side of my body to the other, [09:32:30] foot comes up into the power position, second foot moves out, and that's going to create a strong ability to move his head. and uh, and go into our various escapes. So that's the [09:32:40] pattern, the general pattern of kizushi out of pins. It's typically started with uh, with bridges.

[09:32:46] Okay,[09:32:50]

[09:32:51] we're looking at our five step program for positional pin escapes. Um, we saw that everything begins with [09:33:00] defensive responsibility. We saw that kizushi, the ability to off balance someone from underneath and uh, disturb their is a big part of our [09:33:10] Uh, of our five step program. The next big part is the idea of forming your first frame.

[09:33:17] Please understand that every pin is a [09:33:20] set of wedges set around your body, usually around the hips and the head and shoulders. Your opponent is trying to wedge you in place. [09:33:30] Your weapon against him is frames. It's a battle of his wedges versus yours. Versus your frames. That's so important, I'm going to say it again.[09:33:40]

[09:33:40] Whenever you go to get out of a positional pin, it always comes down to a battle between his ability to set immobilizing wedges around you, and your ability to set [09:33:50] frames inside his wedges So that you can move inside those, uh, wedges that he's placed around you. [09:34:00] Whenever you go to escape, there has to be a first frame.

[09:34:03] If you start with nothing, you've got to start somewhere. And your first frame will determine the success or [09:34:10] failure of the rest of the, uh, of the five step program. For every pin, there's always a small set of preferred first frames. Say, for example, [09:34:20] side control. Whenever I'm pin side control, the first frame will typically be with the near side arm, [09:34:30] either inside the hip, or on the far side hip with my elbow, or thumb [09:34:40] posting here.

[09:34:40] My general preference is always this one, near side hip. It's very robust. It covers a large number of different, uh, [09:34:50] contingencies. So I often just start just like so. It's a pretty easy first frame to get, even when he's wedged in tight to me. It's not that hard to generate the kind of movement, [09:35:00] the kind of kazushi necessary to get that first frame set.

[09:35:03] Once I've set the first frame, I can go to work. If I don't have that first frame. Man, [09:35:10] it's hard to even get off the ground. It's just hopeless from here. Okay, you feel like someone can hold you all night. But the second I set a first frame, whether it [09:35:20] be just the movement itself, or whether I begin with some kind of distracting kizushi, Once we set it in, you've got a foot in the door.

[09:35:28] That's very important. I'll [09:35:30] say it again. Your first frame is the foot in the door that will lead to the escape that you seek. Okay, mounted position.[09:35:40]

[09:35:41] A couple of good choices here. My favorite one is always a forearm frame where I take my forearm across and I put my second elbow [09:35:50] inside my training partner's knee and I lock in like so. That's a very good, robust frame. Okay? It puts my elbow inside the knee and gives me inside [09:36:00] position. It puts my forearm inside the hip and gives me inside position at the hip.

[09:36:04] Alternatively, you can use the heels of the hands inside the hips on both sides. They're [09:36:10] both good. From north south, my favorite first frame is always here, okay? [09:36:20] Now when my opponent goes to put weight on me, you're controlling the clavicles. And this will set up all the various escapes that we know from here.

[09:36:27] If I can't get to that position, [09:36:30] I might choose as the first frame, inside the hips. Double hip post, just like so. And this too is a very useful one. Okay? Um, [09:36:40] Setting up those defensive frames, in particular the first one, is a crucial part of getting out. Interestingly, when someone's on your back, in the [09:36:50] rear mount or turtle, first frames don't really apply.

[09:36:58] I said they don't apply, [09:37:00] that's another statement based apply in a different way. When someone's behind you, your first frame is so small that most people never see it. It's the thumb, [09:37:10] right inside, framing inside your opponent's wrist. So when he goes to switch off to any other kind of movement or stranglehold, you frame them out.

[09:37:18] Okay, so it's a very [09:37:20] subtle thing, okay? Um, it's not as obvious as the big frames of forearms, hands on hips, et cetera, et It's smaller and subtler, but it's still there nonetheless. Um, [09:37:30] so there's the theory of the first frame. Okay. Each one of the major pins that we looked at involves some kind of first frame.

[09:37:37] It's your foot in the door, which will enable you [09:37:40] to branch out and, uh, and work your way to success.

[09:37:48] Now, an interesting thing [09:37:50] about almost all of the major escapes in jiu jitsu is they all have one essential movement associated with them, which is [09:38:00] by far and away the most important component in the move overall. It's a component so important that if you succeed with it, you will almost [09:38:10] succeed, almost always succeed with the escape overall.

[09:38:12] And if you fail with it, you will almost always fail with the movement and the escape overall. Um, [09:38:20] each pin escape has its own unique primary entry point. Let's have a look. For example, at side control, the side elbow [09:38:30] escape. Once I get all my defensive frames in place, 90%, 90 percent of the work of the side elbow escape is done by my near knee.[09:38:40]

[09:38:41] Once my near knee is in place, and we start moving in, my near knee can enter on my training partner, 90 percent of the move is done [09:38:50] now. I've got a 90 percent chance of being successful. If Placido shuts my knee out, I can't even get the move to work. It's gone. [09:39:00] We're going to do something else. Okay. Every pin escape in this sport has one such, uh, [09:39:10] uh, movement within it, which is responsible for its success or failure more than anything else by far.

[09:39:16] Okay. So side elbow escape. It's always about that knee [09:39:20] entering. And if the knee enters, the move is on. Okay. Mounted elbow escape. The entry [09:39:30] point for my knee, The best one is always behind the knee. If my opponent's naive and exposes his ankle, well then the ankle will be the entry point. [09:39:40] But at high levels of the sport, that's unlikely to happen.

[09:39:43] So much more likely will be the idea of a kizushi that gets my knee right in behind [09:39:50] his knee. And that's that entry point. If I can get my knee inside his, when he tries to work his way out of here, No way. Okay? And you're in the perfect position [09:40:00] now to go into your various counterattacks. North south.

[09:40:07] The primary entry point is the clavicles. [09:40:10] He tries to put weight on us, and from here, that's my entry point, with my knee entering in front of the clavicles. If I can get my knee in front of Placer here, I don't care [09:40:20] what he does, you'll always succeed in bringing him into your counterattacks. From turtle [09:40:30] situation with a seatbelt on, if I succeed coming around the corner,

[09:40:39] [09:40:40] trapping my opponent. If I can get my elbow to the floor, it's done. I'm out. I don't care who he is. I can put my elbow on the floor. He can do whatever he wants at [09:40:50] this point. You'll always be able to go into your various counter attacks. From ram out,[09:41:00]

[09:41:04] once we hit various forms of escape from this position, moving out, moving out, [09:41:10] once my elbow touches the floor, it's all over. Escape's done. Okay, that's the most valuable component of the move. It's getting my elbow to the mat. As he tries to [09:41:20] scramble for top position, You'll be in every time, okay? My point to you is this out of all [09:41:30] The most well known popular and effective escapes in the sport There's always one particular component of the escape some kind of [09:41:40] entry point Which determines the success or failure of the move?

[09:41:44] It's the critical component Where if you succeed with it, the whole move succeeds. [09:41:50] And if you fail with it, the whole move fails. Each one of the major pin escapes has such a critical component. [09:42:00] Your job is to know what that critical component is and fight like a dog to get to it. Okay. I'll summarize it again very quickly.

[09:42:08] Side elbow escape.[09:42:10]

[09:42:13] It's the entry of my knee. Once I get all my frames in place and I get them out of balance, ultimately it comes down to this. Will my knee [09:42:20] go inside the hip or not? If it does, I win. If it doesn't, I lose. It's as simple as that. [09:42:30] Mounted position. It all comes down to one critical thing. Does my knee get inside the crook of his knee?

[09:42:38] Okay. He [09:42:40] locks his feet. Once we start getting that man out of bounds, Does my knee get inside the crook of his knee? If it does, [09:42:50] I win. If it doesn't,

[09:42:56] I lose. North south. [09:43:00] Does my knee get inside the clavicle? If it does,

[09:43:09] I win. [09:43:10] If it doesn't,

[09:43:15] I lose. Rear mount.[09:43:20]

[09:43:23] Does my elbow get to the floor? If it does, I win.[09:43:30]

[09:43:37] If it doesn't,[09:43:40]

[09:43:41] he just recovers.

[09:43:46] So you see, I win. There's a critical component, [09:43:50] usually some form of entry point, where one part of your body has to find the critical part of your opponent's body that makes the escape work. [09:44:00] Each escape has quite a few movements associated with it, but there's one movement which defines the move. And if it [09:44:10] works, the whole move works.

[09:44:12] If it fails, the whole move fails. Know what those critical entry points are, where they are on his body, [09:44:20] and what you have to do to get there. If you have a clear understanding, out of all the major pin situations, what those critical entry points are, you're [09:44:30] going to have a lot of success getting out of bad position.

[09:44:36] We are defining the Every pin escape [09:44:40] is essentially a battle of his wedges versus my frames. The idea is that a pin is a set of wedges set around our hips, [09:44:50] head and shoulders. Our goal is to form frames inside his wedges and if we can do this, we can move underneath his body [09:45:00] weight. And if I can move underneath his body weight, I can get out and eventually I can submit him.

[09:45:05] That's the core of the problem. We know [09:45:10] that there's an initial frame, a first frame that goes in your job is to build on that and bring in more and more frames until you have more [09:45:20] frames inside his wedges and he has wedges around your body. If you can get a majority inside control where I have more inside control on [09:45:30] him than he has on me.

[09:45:31] You're gonna get out every time. The pattern is pretty simple. If I start with everything [09:45:40] outside, So the Placido has a shoulder inside my shoulder. He has a hip inside my elbow. He has an arm underneath and inside my arm. And he has a [09:45:50] knee inside my hip. I've got nothing. He's got everything, I've got nothing.

[09:45:53] Okay? But I'm able to move him, maybe generate a little Kazushi, and get my [09:46:00] first frame. Okay? That's one item of inside control. That's good, but it's not enough. Then [09:46:10] from here, my knee comes up to his hip, And I use movement to get the most important component of the side elbow escape [09:46:20] to work. I bring my knee inside.

[09:46:21] That's good. I've got two items of inside control. Then, I push strong. I push my body away from him, and as a [09:46:30] result, I lengthen out the arms, and I get another item of inside control. I've got three now. Now, I bring a knee inside. [09:46:40] Man, I've got a lot of inside control at this point. In fact, I've got more inside control on Placido than he has on me.

[09:46:46] So even though his body weight is technically on top of me, [09:46:50] he can't do anything with it. If he tries to control my movement, no way. I can move very easily underneath him and start going into counterattacks. [09:47:00] Okay. Mounted position.

[09:47:07] Right now, he's completely got the beat on me. I've [09:47:10] got nothing. No inside control of any kind. Okay. He's underneath my arm. His head's inside my shoulder. His right arm's inside underneath. [09:47:20] I've got nothing to work with here. But if I get him out of balance, and I get my hand inside his hip, that's my first frame, I get [09:47:30] him out of balance again, and I get my elbow.

[09:47:33] Inside my training partner's knee. Now I've got two very good items of inside control. [09:47:40] Now from here, I get my knee inside his knee. I've got more inside control on him now than he has on me. [09:47:50] He's got no inside control, I've got three good items of it. As a result, it's very easy for To start going through [09:48:00] and into my tags.

[09:48:04] You can see what's happening here. Every pen escape is a progression. [09:48:10] It starts in a step by step fashion. One of the big early steps is getting that first frame, your first item of inside control. [09:48:20] And then you work piece by piece. to steal more and more inside control from your opponent until a critical tipping point [09:48:30] is reached where you have more inside control on him than he has on you.

[09:48:35] And when you get to that point, you can move any way you want. [09:48:40] When you can move any way you want, you can escape and you can submit people.

[09:48:48] We've been looking [09:48:50] at a five step program that takes you from a hopeless pin into A situation where you've got to get out. [09:49:00] It's not completely sequential. Sometimes the sequence changes, but it's broadly sequential. Okay? It starts with defensive responsibility. You've got to be everything in [09:49:10] tight, contracted.

[09:49:10] Everything in sight. You can't just be limbs floating in the breeze getting submitted by people, okay? Chin down, elbows in, knees in tight, play defensively responsible. [09:49:20] Second, you've got to get people out of balance. If you can knock them out of balance and force hands to the floor, it's a lot easier to go into all the other steps.

[09:49:29] [09:49:30] Third, you've got to get to that first frame. Your first frame is that foot in the door, that lifeline that lets everything else work. If you can't get a first frame, none of the other stuff is going to work, [09:49:40] okay? You need your first frame. There's going to be a fourth step. This is the idea of the entry point.

[09:49:48] There's a [09:49:50] critical component in all of the major escapes which define the move. If you succeed with this most important step, the whole move will generally succeed. If [09:50:00] you fail with that most important step, the whole move will tend to fail. Okay, it's different for each kind of pin. We outlined that as we went along.[09:50:10]

[09:50:10] Then we looked at the idea of majority inside control. Okay, every. Pin is essentially a battle between his immobilizing wedges [09:50:20] versus your frames inside those wedges. If you get more of your frames inside his wedges than he has wedges around your body, you [09:50:30] win. That's how the rules work. Once we get to majority inside control, you've completed the five step program.

[09:50:39] Now, [09:50:40] things get interesting. Now they come down to you, because you've got a choice. The choice as we've outlined it in this video is you could [09:50:50] play conservative and do it for the satisfying option. This is the traditional option of Jiu Jitsu. You could just get out and escape. Nothing wrong with that.[09:51:00]

[09:51:00] Okay. It's a, it's a good option. The idea is you work your way out of a pin and you put them back in a neutral position like guard. Okay. As I said, nothing wrong with that. Even now, [09:51:10] uh, I, myself and my students use this. Strategy quite often, but there's another way you can do it. Whenever you break out of a pin, you're going to [09:51:20] find something predictably happens among your opponents.

[09:51:23] They're going to try and keep the pin because it costs them energy and effort to get it in the first place. [09:51:30] That's the idea of sunk costs. Your opponents sunk a lot of energy and hard work to get to that pin. And they're [09:51:40] not going to give it up for free. So typically, when they feel that you're busting out of a pin, they're going to try and hold on to it.

[09:51:48] And when they do, [09:51:50] they're going to get overextended. And an extended body is a weak body. An extended limb can be a broken limb. When [09:52:00] you feel them trying to hold on to that pin, and you've got majority inside control, there's a second choice you can make. Instead of just putting them back in God. [09:52:10] Put them in ashigurami, put them in a clamp, put them directly into a triangle.

[09:52:15] It costs you no more in effort to put them into [09:52:20] ashigurami than it does to put them in guard. To put them in the clamp than to put them in the guard. It's the same degree of difficulty, but the potential rewards [09:52:30] are so much greater. You put them in guard, no one even notices. You put them in a heel hook, everybody notices.

[09:52:39] Okay? [09:52:40] Big difference. Why go with a good option? When there's a great one right there in front of you that costs exactly the same. In some cases, even [09:52:50] less. That's where your choice comes in. Do you want to be a traditionalist and take the safe, easy option? Just put them back in God. Would you want to go [09:53:00] the extra step and start using your opponent's pins as a means of counter attack?

[09:53:08] As the old saying goes, a [09:53:10] martial artist is never more vulnerable than when he's attacking. The same thing applies in grappling. If someone tries hard to hold on to that mounted position, [09:53:20] they're going to get extended. It's going to be very easy for you to slip into an hashigurami and take that heel hook.

[09:53:26] You're going to come out looking like a real stud. That guy was on top of you, [09:53:30] pinning you, next second, he was submitting to you. That really changes the nature of the game. It makes you into a very aggressive jiu jitsu [09:53:40] fighter. Someone who people are almost afraid to get good position on, because they never feel safe when they're rolling against you.

[09:53:49] They [09:53:50] always feel there's a threat, even when they're mounted on you, they're going, oh my god, is this guy going to get into my legs? They're not even thinking about finishing you, they're thinking about how they're going to get attacked from every [09:54:00] possible position. All it requires is a good, sound application of the 5 step program as we've defined it.

[09:54:08] And as you break out, [09:54:10] you could go with the traditional option, or you could go with the option that I've advocated throughout this video, which is the maximizing option. To see [09:54:20] every broken pin as an opportunity to submit your opponent. Most people see a broken pin as an opportunity to go back to neutral.

[09:54:29] I want [09:54:30] you to start changing your focus and see a broken pin as an opportunity to win.