On Saturday we worked a couple of combinations and things in MMA. I haven't updated in a while...not sure why. I guess I've been pretty busy, things have been hectic and though there have been things learnt, I didn't really feel like writing about them. Anyways, will be trying to get back into it!

Guard combination – Arm bar to triangle choke to arm bar

From guard position, set up for an arm bar, if they pull their arm out, switch your leg onto the other side of their head and set up the triangle. If they post off your chest and look up at the ceiling, swing your leg around for an arm bar on the other arm. Both of your legs will be on the same side of their head to get the final arm bar.

A really good video breakdown of it.

Guard combination – Triangle to Kimura

If they try to defend the triangle by pushing their arm around the other side, switch the triangle with your legs to the opposite side in order to reach that arm and put on the Kimura lock.

Guard Guillotine

From Guard, reach up and over your opponent’s opposite shoulder like when reaching for an Omo Plata. Instead of grabbing over their arm, bring your tricep down back against your opponent’s neck. If the opponent sits back, use the arm on their neck to lift you up (so they are doing all the work). Create space between your chests, then bring the same arm’s forearm around their neck, keeping it tight. Creating the space is integral to ensuring that your forearm gets under their chin. Bring your other hand underneath the fist in a cup and saucer sort of gesture and tighten. Pull your legs and straighten them out with their head on the floor to tighten the guillotine. Another way to think about tightening this choke is to uppercut with the choking arm.

If they try to fight the choking arm, loop your other arm in under their neck and close like in a rear naked choke.

Mount combination – Side Mount, Kimura, cutting arm bar, Figure 4 and Head arm choke

From mount, swim your hand inside your opponents arm and put your hand on your opponents shoulder, leverage with your elbow so their arm moves away from their body. Squirrel their forearm so it’s behind you and around your body. Bring your knee up under their arm pit and hop up to side mount, catching their wrist and reaching underneath with the other arm to get the Kimura lock. Your thigh can be used to bend their arm or even get the Kimura. The following video is a pretty good breakdown and though isn’t exactly the same, is pretty close.

If the Kimura lock doesn’t work and they straighten their arm, slide it up to your neck and close the cutting arm bar. If that doesn’t work, pass it past your neck to your opposite hand and reach your other arm around to your wrist to get the Figure 4 lock. If the Figure 4 lock doesn’t work and they bring their arm across, lean down (your chest on their tricep) and close off a head arm choke.

Headlock Control combination – Kimura, cutting arm bar and Figure 4

Similar combos to the above except from headlock control. A huge factor to getting the lock is to bring your top thigh up as the bracing. If their arm is around your body, you can reach around and push it down and bring your knee up to get a Kimura lock. If it’s straight, you can push the arm down to get the cutting arm bar on your knee. If that doesn’t work and they raise their arm up, you can get the Figure 4 lock from behind their head.

Passing an Open Guard

One way to pass the guard is to under hook one of their legs and with the other arm, keep their other leg pinned down so they can’t complete a triangle choke. Stand up, then cross step over their pinned leg and you can go straight into knee ride or side control.

Key thing is to ensure that their leg is pinned down, or they will be able to lock down the triangle.

Some of this is off the top of my head from the other day...so yeah, they may not be 100% correct, but they should be pretty close.

Mount and side control

From Mount position, there are several attacks you can try for. This is from last week


Cross collar choke. This obviously only works with gi.
From mount, grab their lapel across from you, so not directly opposite, diagonally opposite (in my case, right hand). From there, punch it through to create some more material for you to grab. At this point, you can post on your head to stop them from bridging and rolling you. Move to the opposite side (so to the left posting on your head and with your left arm. Grab their collar with your left hand, thumb in,  and swing your left forearm arm around their head, keeping the grip and across their neck. From there, post on your head, and tighten for the choke. The following video explains it pretty well

Arm bar
Another potential move is to set them up for an arm bar after getting into S mount. From mount, bring your left arm behind their head and push your shoulder into their head to turn their head. Grip their shoulder with your left arm and keep it tight. From there, hook your right arm under their elbow and spider crawl it up over their head, keep your hands close to the floor and use your fingers to bring it up. Once above their head, bring your knee up to keep it pinned against their head. Proceed to do the same on the opposite side. You end up in a high mount with their arms pinned high. Keep your right knee against their head whilst your left leg shifts so the outside of your foot is on the ground. Keep it tight. From S mount, grab hold of their arm, push your left leg over their head and sit back into an arm bar. If done very tightly, it doesn't give your opponent much of an opportunity to escape.

Submissions 101 has a great breakdown.

Gotta try and keep updating!
Tonight we learnt about side control. Points included:

• Keep your weight on the side of the body which you're on. Putting it too far forward is prone to sweep.
• Hips down to keep the weight on.
• Shoulder into their face to push it across and stop them from hip escaping away. 
• Push their elbow up with your knee closest to their head and trap it between your shin and the floor to allow for Figure 4, Cutting arm bar or Kimura.
• Kimura requires the leg closest to their head over their head, so from the above, you need to switch your feet that is locking their arm down to allow you to put your leg over their head to finish it. Bring them up on their side once the arms are locked in to complete the lock.
• Cutting arm bar has a similar hand position to the Kimura. The left arm threads under their arm, grips the right wrist. Left arm needs to be just above the elbow. Right arm gripping the wrist. Keep the weight on their opposite arm and push your head against the arm to complete the cutting arm bar. Their thumb should be pointing to the ceiling.

Running a bit behind!

Things have been pretty busy lately and though I've managed to actually write a couple of posts, I haven't actually gotten around to putting them up. Anyways, from the last week or so...

On Saturday, we worked some back control stuff.

There were a lot of good points which came up in terms of how to handle back control on top of what was covered the other day in one of my posts. Some of these are repeated.

1. Protect the neck at all costs, it doesn’t take long for them to tighten and complete that submission.

2. Roll onto the side of the non attacking arm. Hang onto their attacking arm to stop the choke. This stops them from tightening and completing the choke.

3. Put all your weight onto their bottom leg and shoulder crawl your way back over their head.

4. Once you’ve moved over them, twist towards them, putting your opposite hand on their hip to stop them from moving straight into mount.

5. This should end up with you in their guard, a significantly improved position from being back controlled.







On Monday, we worked from the mount position and trying to maintain a good mount.

A good mount consists of a good balanced position on top of your opponent. Knees should be as high as their armpits if possible. Your feet should be tucked close to their body, top of the foot against their butt, knees pinching the top of their body.

Body should be leaning over with arms posted out wide. You can use your shoulder to push their head to the side and start setting up for a submission.

From mount, you can seek a figure 4 submission and multiple transitions from there.

First transition – Figure 4 from Mount to Arm bar
If they bridge and attempt to shift to their side when attempting figure 4, hop up to a side mount position, one foot in front of their stomach, other behind with knee behind their head. Control your opponent like from side control, one arm behind their head, one under their arm (except in this case, under the closer arm). From there, push your opponents face across away from you, grab your own lapel (trapping their top arm), throw the leg over (the one with the knee behind their head) and fall back with their arm for the arm bar.

Second Transition – Figure 4 from Mount to choke

Similar to the set up from before, from the side mount position it begins to vary. From there, the top arm pulls open their lapel, grab inside with your lower arm (thumb in) and pull around their neck. So if they bridge to their left, pull open their lapel with your right hand, grab with thumb in with the left hand and pull around the neck. With your right hand, push on the back of their neck and tighten with the left hand to finish the choke.

Next post will also be Mount position centric as we seem to have been drilling that the most out of all of them.
I hurt my knee on Wednesday :( The same one that's been operated on...Hopefully it isn't something too serious.

D'arce, Anaconda and North South chokes

Tonight I learnt a few new chokes, but I think the thing I need to work on the most at the moment is my posture. When we start wrestling, I've been told that my weight and head is too far forward and this results in me being easy to guillotine or be controlled from the back. Same with being in guard, posture is integral to ensuring that I can at least prepare to pass.

Today someone taught me the D'arce Choke, a variation to a head arm choke.
Submissions 101 D'arce Choke breakdown and concept.

Instead of starting on top, I was taught the choke from side control, if they're trying to hip escape away from you (facing you), you dig your arm closest to their leg under their top arm, under the arm pit and around their neck. Then with that same arm, loop it back and grab your other bicep to close the choke and tighten (like a rear naked choke).

I was also taught the Anaconda choke (another variation of the head arm choke) but I must admit, I'm a bit hazy on the details. It seems very similar, to the D'arce, except the arm is dug deep from the other end (so dig in from the neck), bring it under his opposite armpit from the side of the neck you dug and close it like a rear naked choke again.

With each of these chokes, getting that arm as deep as possible seems to be one of the key, or you can't close the choke off. 

Someone also taught me the basic North South Choke. From front control, slip your arm under the neck, push their head to the side and get their neck in between your lat and bicep. Then, with the other hand gripping the choking arm, pull it tight and sink your body down, pushing your chest forward. The sink is really important. Another submissions 101 video explaining how to execute it! Whether their arm gets caught in it or not isn't really important, as long as you have unhindered access to their neck.

Figure 4 lock (Americana) from mount. I need to focus more on putting all my weight into getting that arm down and working for it.
If the person is tightly keeping their arms to their body, I can always attack the neck to get them to open up.  Got caught with this several times.

So some points for improvement:

• Work on keeping posture upright! This is especially key when in a guard, mounted or even at the start of wrestling.
• Use my weight to try and manipulate people, not my strength. 
• Keep my weight as low and centred as possible. Extending beyond my weight results in easy sweeps.
• Attack the neck if an opportunity is not presenting itself from mount.
• Look for under the arm or under the neck choke opportunities.

Throat hurts...someone choked me pretty hard, hopefully it doesn't bruise.