Jab Slip Counters

Worked four jab slip counters:

1. Opponent’s rear hand low, throws jab, slip outside. Your medial hand wraps behind your opponent’s neck far from you, hook with wrist, palm of lateral hand just distal to jab arm deltoid. Step up with your rear leg, then drop step and pivot 90° with your new rear foot laterally from your opponent.  Attempt to put your weight on top of your opponents, shoulder/back. Deliver knee with rear leg to body.
2. Opponent’s rear hand low, throws jab, slip outside. Your medial hand wraps behind your opponents neck far from you, hook with wrist, palm of lateral hand just distal to jab arm deltoid. Step up with your rear leg and knee with your new rear knee to the medial side of their leg at midline, simultaneously pull with the neck control and push their arm, as your body twists.
3. Opponent’s rear hand high, throws jab, slip outside. Hug at waist, deliver knees, stepping with foot posterior to opponent behind their leg, bending them laterally away from you, trip over your rear leg.
4. Opponent’s rear hand high, throws jab, slip outside. Your medial hand wraps at their far waist, palm of lateral hand just distal to jab arm deltoid. Step forward next to opponent, leaving about a fist distance between your shoulders, then pivot 90° toward opponent and deliver downward elbow.

Andre Galvao Passing the Guard Seminar and Coach Los Faixa Preta Promotion

 

Andre Galvao of ATOS presented a seminar hosted by Impact Zone in Lafayette, IN. Professor Galvao is a top-level competitor yet simultaneously an excellent instructor. Today he presented part of his top game against the open guard and De La Riva guard. One of the key elements of his game is the "leg drag". The leg drag concept is a solution to the problem with clearing the legs and going directly to side mount, your opponent invariably shrimps out and reestablishes guard or half-guard. To remedy this, all the passing we did has a step where your opponents knees are directed away from you and you attempt to control their hips, before going to side mount (or taking the back). In essence you take a step back to get eventually get ahead.

Galvao is similar to other top level competitors in that he does not worry about what his opponent will do, rather he attacks the way he wants pruning the decision tree of responses that he has to deal with. We can all learn that confidence in our game is not arrogance and is necessary to obtain victory.

Open Guard Passing

1. Simple open-guard leg drag pass: Your partner is seated, back off the floor with feet on the floor. Lower your level and place one hand on the ipsilateral hip and the other on their ipsilateral knee. Push the knee laterally to the floor and circle in the same direction as you push their legs away from you, their knees should switch to being pointed away from you. Now “park the car” by circling behind them sliding your knee nearest their legs between them, stay on the balls of your feet. Your abdomen should pin their hip and your near arm comes over trapping their thigh between your triceps and knee, your “far” hand controls the kimono. If they should try to stop you with their top leg use your hip control arm’s elbow to relieve the hook.
2. Take the back from leg drag: As above but as your push their legs away from you they shrimp out, “running away” from you. Step the foot nearest their head, superior to their head and spin to their back. Your ipsilateral arm underhooks their arm and grabbing your opposite hand which comes between their neck and mat, over the shoulder to form a seat belt grip. Stay on the balls of your feet, control their shoulder with your chin.
3. Shin hook pass: As in #1 but this time they attempt to use their bottom leg to hook inside. Step your contralateral foot so that you hook shin-to-shin and push their foot to their butt. Now step your free leg up, with a shin just superior to the hip and pinch your legs around theirs. Post a sit to your butt, in an inverse kesa gatame.
4. Outside-inside toreador pass: Your partner is flat on their back, pushing gently on your thighs with their feet, grab their ankles, one hand outside and one hand inside, hollow yourself slightly and throw them to your hands open side. Step in, placing your shin hook nearest their legs against their thigh.

We then drilled each of these for speed, one side doing repetitions for time, going through all four passing types.

 

De La Riva Guard Passing

The De La Riva guard has three ways to grip your opponents leg (1) cupping the heel, (2) controlling the pant leg, and (3) overhooking the leg and grabbing your own thigh. They increase in the difficulty of freeing your leg. One of the keys of passing the De La Riva was to lift the leg that is controlling your hip and pushing the knee down on the hook side, freeing the medial thigh hook.

1. Shin hook scissor step: Loosen the De La Riva by lifting the straight leg and pushing down on the hook knee. Control the lifted leg and step your free leg back placing a shin hook, their leg is now trapped around your “hooked” leg. Squat to prevent them from sliding up and control both lapels as you slide your trapped leg’s knee laterally and to the floor to free it. Clear the thigh and then move their legs away from you to the leg drag position
2. Check mark pass (heel cup): Push their straight leg down as you pull your opponent to a seated position, rotate them 90° by pulling their leg through yours and pushing them back flat to the mat. Now knee slide over their thigh as you grab their sleeve with the hand contralateral to the knee slide and drop the lapel control arm to their body to block their knee from creating space. Slide your shin distally between their legs to free it. Get hip to hip then shift toward your opponents hip and legs to get to the leg drag position.
3. Shin knee slide (pant leg control): Lift their straight leg and push down on the hook knee, move your hooked leg outside of your elbow, drop the knee laterally to the floor, trapping their grip hand under their leg. Use a window wiper to clear the leg, then retrace your steps to the leg drag position. Option 1: simply let them take half guard, option 2: get head control and long step out, or option 3: if they are pushing step all the way around and take the back.
4. Leg drag (pant leg control): Lift their straight leg and push down on the hook knee, move your hooked leg outside of your elbow and underhook it. Push forward then shift back while passing their legs to the far side, ending in leg drag position.
5. Stack pass (overhook control): Lift their straight leg and push down on the hook knee, get double under control grabbing their pants at the belt line on the straight leg side and your opponent’s triceps on their overhook side. Pull their posterior upward stacking them on their neck and shoulders. Squat as if your were sitting, placing your free leg behind back. Knee slide over their arm, window wiper to clear, as your opposite arm cradles them and brings them to the mat. If they try to post their free hand on their hip to stop this, grab their wrist and pull it behind their back. If their overhook remains high (or you pull it higher), drop to your hip distal from their head and pull them across your body feet to head to the crucifix position.

And then we drilled, starting from open guard until submission for two minutes then switching. This was followed by starting from De La Riva until first point.

 

James Clingerman, Max Burt, Evan Mannweiler, Carlos Soto, Tim Sledd, Andre Galvao, Thabet AT, Mat Stratta, and your humble blogger.