Posted by: JKogas
Fundamental 5 - Part III; Killing the Inside Arm - 12/15/05 09:42 PM
Fundamental 5 For Cross-sides
Part Three: Killing the inside arm
Time to get this one going folks. Killing the inside arm is the next step toward effectively pinning your opponent and will lead to various submission opportunities.
If you’ve blocked out the guard and locked into position, you eliminate many opportunities for people to just simply make an explosive motion to dislodge you (bearing in mind that we’re talking about people who aren’t a GREAT deal larger and stronger than yourself – you will often have to play more of a floating game against them until you can lock into position). Accomplishing those two things ALONE will generally overwhelm the majority of unskilled opponents.
Now you will force your opponent to rely upon skillful “technique” in order to escape. One key objective for the person on the bottom is to create space between your hips and his. To accomplish this, he will need to brace his inside (near) arm against your hip to hold you in place as he scoots (“shrimps”) away. This gives him the room to bring his knee inside and begin to obtain the guard (it also gives him room to turn to his hands and knees and work for a reversal). That’s the arm we have to “kill”.
I always tell everyone at the gym that when the elbow is away from the body, the arm becomes weak. That's a good thing when it's your opponent who has the "chicken wing". When you kill the inside arm (your opponent's arm nearest your hips when on top), you're actually doing one better because you're really taking that arm out of play. When you've done that, he's stuck, and it's time to hunt for submissions (more later on that).
I kill the arm in a variety of ways. One of my favorite ways is using my hip-side knee to "cut" under the elbow where I then turn my hip back over, using my weight to pin the arm against his head. That's a fundamental method of killing the arm and is called a hip-cut. When you do this, you're sitting out, sliding the knee underneath the elbow and then turning your hips back down to face your opponent. It's important to learn to do this by contorting your body slightly, never learning your torso off of your opponent. Keep your chest flat across him, moving only your hips and legs.
Other ways I kill the arm include:
• Popping the elbow off of my hip using my hip-side hand, then scooting back in close with my hips.
• Turning down slightly with my hip nearest my opponent's head and sprawling my weight on the arm. That can suck!
• Pulling up on the elbow with my hip-side hand as I move laterally toward the north-south position.
We'll be practicing all of these at the gym so don't worry about them sounding confusing. They're actually pretty easy to learn.
Now when you've blocked your opponent's guard, locked into position and killed the inside arm, he's got one direction left where he may be able to move. That is to roll to his knees away from you. We’ll deal with that next.
Questions? Fire away. Fletch is up on all of this as well so take advantage of his experience and insight.
-John
Part Three: Killing the inside arm
Time to get this one going folks. Killing the inside arm is the next step toward effectively pinning your opponent and will lead to various submission opportunities.
If you’ve blocked out the guard and locked into position, you eliminate many opportunities for people to just simply make an explosive motion to dislodge you (bearing in mind that we’re talking about people who aren’t a GREAT deal larger and stronger than yourself – you will often have to play more of a floating game against them until you can lock into position). Accomplishing those two things ALONE will generally overwhelm the majority of unskilled opponents.
Now you will force your opponent to rely upon skillful “technique” in order to escape. One key objective for the person on the bottom is to create space between your hips and his. To accomplish this, he will need to brace his inside (near) arm against your hip to hold you in place as he scoots (“shrimps”) away. This gives him the room to bring his knee inside and begin to obtain the guard (it also gives him room to turn to his hands and knees and work for a reversal). That’s the arm we have to “kill”.
I always tell everyone at the gym that when the elbow is away from the body, the arm becomes weak. That's a good thing when it's your opponent who has the "chicken wing". When you kill the inside arm (your opponent's arm nearest your hips when on top), you're actually doing one better because you're really taking that arm out of play. When you've done that, he's stuck, and it's time to hunt for submissions (more later on that).
I kill the arm in a variety of ways. One of my favorite ways is using my hip-side knee to "cut" under the elbow where I then turn my hip back over, using my weight to pin the arm against his head. That's a fundamental method of killing the arm and is called a hip-cut. When you do this, you're sitting out, sliding the knee underneath the elbow and then turning your hips back down to face your opponent. It's important to learn to do this by contorting your body slightly, never learning your torso off of your opponent. Keep your chest flat across him, moving only your hips and legs.
Other ways I kill the arm include:
• Popping the elbow off of my hip using my hip-side hand, then scooting back in close with my hips.
• Turning down slightly with my hip nearest my opponent's head and sprawling my weight on the arm. That can suck!
• Pulling up on the elbow with my hip-side hand as I move laterally toward the north-south position.
We'll be practicing all of these at the gym so don't worry about them sounding confusing. They're actually pretty easy to learn.
Now when you've blocked your opponent's guard, locked into position and killed the inside arm, he's got one direction left where he may be able to move. That is to roll to his knees away from you. We’ll deal with that next.
Questions? Fire away. Fletch is up on all of this as well so take advantage of his experience and insight.
-John