16/09/2015 - Teaching | Side Control | Far Side Armbar from Breadcutter Choke

Teaching #390
Artemis BJJ (MYGYM Bristol), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 16/09/2015

You've gone for the breadcutter choke, but you aren't able to secure the second grip. Reach around their far arm instead, anchoring your hand with their gi. If they reach up past your head, you can clamp their arm in place. If not, then that north south transition should hopefully mean you can drive your shoulder into the crook of their elbow, as they will often have their arm bent due to framing against your earlier side control.

Either way, once you've secured that arm, you can now pull them up onto their side and move into the north-south kimura. Alternatively, you can go for a slightly more acrobatic far side armbar. Keeping that far arm immobilised in the same way, walk your legs around to their head.Lean forwards into them, in order to help control their mobility. Hop up into a crouch, bringing your feet far enough forward that you can easily cut your knee around the outside of their trapped arm.

Swivel around their trapped arm, cutting your knee tightly next to the arm. Drop back, squeezing your knees, ready to secure the armbar. If you need to, you can adjust into a more orthodox armbar position, such as bringing both legs over for additional leverage.

To do that hop, crouch and swivel takes some confidence. You need to be careful you aren't giving them space, in that gap between the crouch and the swivel. You could try maintaining some control by pressing your head into their stomach, using your weight to slow down their ability to capitalise on any gap you might leave.
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Teaching & Sparring Notes: The main problem people were having is leaving too much space, I think due to the amount they hopped towards them. If you aren't hopping in closely enough, when you turn and drop, there will be loads of room between your hips and their shoulder. That gives them space to work their escape. So, it would appear the further you hop the better, though naturally you don't want to hop so far that you end up losing their arm underneath you.

From a sparring perspective, I feel fairly confident on top in side control (although as ever, I am sparring less experienced people), but I'm not always able to get that arm. I've been trying to switch to wrapping the gi over their top of their arm when they're defending, but can't always get enough gi. Another submission I've tried out is the step over triangle, though I continue to find it normally works better as a controlling position than a submission (I occasionally land it on people, but not often, though the position itself is easy enough to get when they reach through your legs).