03/12/2014 - Teaching | Closed Guard | Pressing Armbar

Teaching #243
Artemis BJJ (Bristol Sports Centre/MyGym), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 03/12/2014

Thinking about grips on Monday, I decided that the pressing armbar would flow well as a next step, confirmed by doing a bunch of drilling with Chris. I therefore wanted to have a play with it during the open mat session with Chris. Start by breaking their posture, then get an over-under grip (wrapping one arm around their head, the other under their arm). Get a gable grip (palm to palm) and then clamp down firmly on their shoulder.

Break their posture by pulling your knees to your chest, then wrap up their head with an arm. Reach your other arm under their same side armpit, clasping your hands together palm to palm and locking on their shoulder. Get your hips out to the side and extend their arm. Clamp their wrist between your head and shoulder. With your armpit arm, slide that up their arm, staying tight so they have no room to move.

Bring your leg up their back, aiming to squash them into the floor. If they are able to stay upright, they can drive into your and weaken your control. Push their head away with what was your head wrapping arm if you need to. Relock your gable grip, pulling your arm over their elbow to roll it up. That makes it hard for them to escape, as they need to get their elbow down to pull the arm free. To finish, pull down on their elbow.

Keep in mind that there needs to be some space to pull down into. If you haven't got enough on your side and you're holding too low with your head and shoulder clamp, you might end up just shoving their arm into your own chest. It's important to secure both their wrist and their shoulder for this to success. Nathan Leverton had a name for this at his LSG seminar: 'stick theory'. In other words, to snap a stick across your knee, you hold it at both ends, not just one.
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Teaching Notes: The two parts people find hard is firstly keeping that arm locked and extended, then secondly creating space underneath the elbow in order to push down for the submission. Next time, I'll emphasise getting onto your side and sliding enough to create that space. Generally though it went fairly well, especially as that's the first time I've taught the pressing armbar.

It could fit nicely into a sequence, with the omoplata and 'standard' armbar from guard, so I may teach those next week. I'd also like to fit in a sequence of sit-up sweep, kimura and guillotine, then there's the scissor sweep too. I'll have to think how much I can pack into December, given I also need to cover breaking the guard open and a couple of passes. Still, three weeks left, so that should be enough time.