10/08/2016 - Teaching | Closed Guard | Pressing Armbar (Shoulder Clamp)

Teaching #544
Artemis BJJ (MYGYM Bristol), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 10/08/2016

More #ShoulderClamp tonight @mygym_bristol, adding in the #omoplata to the #PressingArmbar we did on Wednesday #BJJ #BrazilianJiuJitsu #ArtemisBJJ #ClosedGuard

A photo posted by Artemis BJJ (@artemisbjj) on Jan 8, 2016 at 1:37am PST

For the pressing armbar, 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. Firmly lock their wrist between your head and shoulder, as if you were talking on your phone with your hands full. 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 back into you to square up, weakening your control. Push their head away with what was your head wrapping arm if you need to. Your goal is to smush their head into the mat, down and away from you. Relock your gable grip, pulling your arm over their elbow to roll it up if it's in the wrong position. That makes it hard for them to escape, as they need to get their elbow down to pull the arm free. To finish, pull (or push, depending on your grip and configuration) down on their elbow.

Keep in mind that there needs to be some space to pull down into. If you haven't gotten enough onto 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. Pull your bottom shoulder back to make sure there is that space. It's also important to secure both their wrist and their shoulder for this to succeed. 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. Please don't snap anybody's arm though! ;)
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Teaching Notes: This felt pretty good today, I didn't see too many issues. Usual things came up, which I'm already emphasising. Stay on your side, get the knees right down to the shoulder, keep your head up. The big problem is almost always finding the right spot on the elbow. Everybody managed it eventually, but it's not a major problem as the omoplata is right there. That's what I'll be teaching on Friday. :)