Posted by So, I’ve never pulled guard. Or at least, I have never done it correctly, until now.
Ronnie one of our very tough (in a more traditional human sense – typically all brown belts are tough) took me on a very hard roll (for me, anyway – a walk in the park for him no doubt) with three submissions in the round. He had some questions for me after though and wanted to show me two key things that helped me immensely:
- Pulling guard: I have been completely doing this wrong. I need to get my foot in the hip and pull to the same side grabbing the directly-across collar. Keep my other leg prepared to accept them into my guard, and the foot on the hip quickly to their back and pulling them in. I had been just grabbing people and pulling them down and hoping they’d naturally fall into my guard. Nope. I need to help them in and yank them into it, using the foot in the hip as the leverage point and the spin over.
- Scissor sweeps – I still need to improve these immensely but Ronnie was again teaching me how to pull my opponent into me, hard and deliberately, grabbing cross collar and then arm dragging across my body on their potential post arm, depending on which side I am sweeping. Thrust the hips up and go straight over without delay. Also – pushing the knee instead of sweeping laterally works as well.
- It occurred to me later on mount escapes that could be achieved with just one leg/thigh/knee combo to push someone up and off of me. I haven’t tried that yet.
- 2 on 1 (?) grip breaking. When opponent is grabbing the lapel, go for a sleeve grab on the same arm, but use your other arm to cup over the wrist and push it off. Keep the arm to pull it down and create an opportunity to go through the opponent for a take down.