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March 6th, 2009 by jgatienza

Notes: Your opponent maybe tired or buying time, so he will stay in your guard and post both hands on your biceps and his head on your stomach. Wrestlers will push forward.

Guard sweep: from the guard, your opponent is holding down on your biceps 1) put your right hand on your stomach, bump up and slide your hand in your opponents collar. 2) your left hand goes to the back of the elbow, break your guard, hook your right foot around in the inside of his left ankle 3) straighten your right leg out so your toes are pointing to you sideways 4) unwrap your right foot and work you right foot in between his legs, get on your left side of your body  5) your left leg should be just a little over his right knee, pull him towards you for the sweep, when he rolls over don’t follow him and roll into his half guard, you should finish in side control.

Collar choke: from the guard, your opponent is holding down on your biceps. 1) put your right hand on your stomach, bump up and slide your hand in your opponents collar. 2) put your left hand by his right bicep, keep your left arm close to your body. 3) break your guard, turn to your left side, pull your left leg thru and grab his right hand, use your left knee to block it. 4) straighten your right leg and pivot to the right side and hammer down across his back. 5) reach over with your left hand and grab his gi material over his shoulder and pull your elbows to the mat to finish the submission.

bump, choke, guard

August 26th, 2008 by jgatienza

Escape side control: your opponent has you side control, get your feet to your butt and bridge into him and then back down and bridge the other way  and drive your right arm over your head and roll him over or you can bridge towards him again and drop your right leg to the mat and get him into guard or half guard or you can roll him over (the later being my preference).

Another way to get out of side control is to shrimp. To do this you need to have your left hand under his armpit and your right hand by his hip. move your left and right feet to the left close to your butt and push away, this will break the weakest point of your opponent which is his right arm that is by your left side. This will create space for you to get back into guard or you can take your left arm and hook it over his back and escape from there.

JW says that you should be uncontrollable and that every move has a counter.

Tip: When you bridge it’s never straight back over your head rather at an angle over your head and shoulder (left or right). You should explode when doing this.

escape, guard, half guard, shrimp, side control

August 19th, 2008 by jgatienza

Armbar from the mount: you are on top of your opponent and he is defending with both his arms close to his body. Simply loosen your grip with your knees and scootch back a little and use your shoulders to get under his right elbow and drive it upward, take your left arm and wrap it around his right arm and use your left hand as base. Place your left knee directly behind his head, lean towards his hip, slide your left and to his wrist, windshield wipe your right foot below his left shoulder and swing your left leg over his head, squeeze your knees together.

Defending the armbar from mount: when your opponent is setting up the armbar and his weight is on your body, you can simply roll him over onto his back.

Opponent defends the armbar and you counter by taking his back: your opponent tries to roll you on your back, you simply take his back, get your hooks in, grab his collar for a choke or set it up for a rear naked choke.

Defending when someone has your back: your opponent may be controlling your left arm, simply straighten your arm in a downward motion and that will break the hold. If your opponent has an arm wrapped around your neck, take both your hands and grab his wrist, pull it over to the left side of your head, apply pressure with your head against his triceps, this will be uncomfortable on his elbows. Using your legs push up and put your left shoulder to the mat, your weight should be over his left leg, simply raise both your legs over it and get into side control.

Rolling review: I went up against a taller opponent, I was able to get past his legs and into side control, I kept him in side control most of the time, several times he almost had me in half guard, but I would switch my hips to block his legs or use my arms to control his legs. By the time the bell rang I was in the north south position, trying to set up a kimura or an armbar.

One more quick roll before work. I rolled with an opponent that was more my size. We started off trying to get a good grip. I grabbed his collar and pressed my wrist into his throat, but before that we were trying to control each other by using our heads. I didn’t feel like he was going to make a move so I pressed him and managed to get him off balance. He got into a turtle, I reached deep for his collar and went for a collar choke, it didn’t work, he managed to squirm out of it and reverse it. This time he was on top of me going for a collar choke I remained calm and breathed, I bumped him off and fell into his guard. He had a good closed guard, I had to rest a little, he kept attacking and breaking down my posture, I loosened my collar at one point so that his choke wouldn’t be so tight. I managed to get my left hand around his leg, I was trying to bait him to go for a triangle, it didn’t work, but since I had my left arm free, I was able to swing his leg over to my right shoulder and go for a squeeling pig, close but no cigar, he squirmed out of it and I believe I was back in side control. Timer went off and about frickin’ time.

My opponent told me that I should think more about positioning first rather than submission. Which makes sense, if I can get into a good position, I would be in a better position to attack.

armbar, choke, collar choke, guard, mount, north south position, side control, turtle

August 3rd, 2008 by jgatienza

Open mat Sunday

Rolling review: I was told that I had good side control . I was able to get to side control by pinning my opponents legs and work over it. I didn’t get sucked into my opponents guard as much, unless I wanted to get into it.

Guard escape: when you are in someones guard, grab hold of your opponents pants, post your elbows into his legs, place both your knees behind his butt and push back using your lower back.

From there you can do the leg pass or you can work your hands behind his legs and grab his belt and dump him on his head, from there you can take his back.

guard

July 24th, 2008 by jgatienza

Pulling guard: starting with your left knee down and on your right foot, grab your opponents sleeve with your left hand and with your right hand grab his collar. Put your right foot on his hip, pretend you are steering and pull your to the left and swing your left foot from under you pull him into your guard

Hip pass: once you have your opponent in your guard, your opponent will post up, when he begins to do this, this is the time to do it, sit up and post with your left hand behind you, reach around and trap his right arm, break your guard and put your feet to the matt and drive your hip into him

Kimura: if your opponent posts up on his right hand, take your left hand grab his right wrist, take your right hand and grab your left wrist (figure 4), fall back to your right side and hook your left leg over his back, use your left knee to trap his arm, keep his arm tight to you and twist your upper torso to his head.

Tips: another way to control my opponent while in sidecontrol, I can reach under his legs an grab the farthest leg and hold on to his pant gi and stay on your toes always mashing him. 

Rolling review: I was in sidecontrol, my opponent kept trying to get into half guard and kept scootching away from me, I should have gone to position 2.

I was able to sink a choke, it was difficult until I pressed on his nose and got it deeper, I let him go because I thought he tapped. I should remember when he was defending and giving me his arm, I should have gone for the Americana, which I eventually did but I had to work for it.

I need to work on pulling guard and not be afraid, if I don’t try I will not get any better at it.

americana, guard, hip pass, kimura, pulling guard