August 17th 2016 - Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Side Control Escapes
Partner: Chris C, Justin

The techniques for this week were ezekiel from mount and half guard and escaping guillotine from the guard.  It was only Chris when class started and he requested to work on side control escapes so I did my best to impart my bottom game. 

First I showed how to bridge and some things that I've found work for me. 

• Bridging: Bridge into them as if you are trying to make them fall over to their back.  Make them have to adjust to keep from falling over which should create space or they fall over.  I've found breath control to be very important here, don't take a deep breath before you're about to bridge.
• Underhook: I generally keep my hand close to my chest instead of pushing on their neck.  This way if I can get my elbow under their armpit I'm very close to an underhook.  From there I move myself down to a single leg or go to half guard or deep half.  
• Elbow push and Controlling the cross face arm: I use the setup from the video below to attempt the elbow push or at least control the cross face arm.  Usually if I'm unable to get the elbow push and I control the cross face arm I can often use that to get the underhook with my other arm.

Rolling: Side Control, Free Rolling


We did some round robin and had everyone work in each position against each partner.  There were a couple of times where I made a mistake (whether on purpose or not) and talked them through the elbow push or had them bridge.  They were both a little too overzealous about stepping over into mount. 

By request I showed Justin my attack sequence from side control as he felt like he didn't know his options.  I also attempted to show him how to flow roll and he appreciated slowing down the game a little bit and being able to see paths to techniques he knows.