19/05/2017 - Teaching | Side Control | Transitions and the Kimura as a position

Teaching #665
Artemis BJJ (MYGYM Bristol), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 19/05/2017

A post shared by Artemis BJJ (@artemisbjj) on May 22, 2017 at 1:44am PDT

You have the kimura, but can't finish it, normally because they've grabbed their gi and you can't break that grip. Fortunately, there are plenty of follow-ups, such as the armbar. Another option is to enter into the crucifix position. To do that, you'll need to trap their other arm with your legs. Wriggle out towards their head, adjusting your kimura grip so that you have one arm threading through theirs, securing it by your own head. Your other arm wraps around their neck, grasping the other collar. From here, you're in the crucifix, which provides a wealth of attacks, along with the option to reset back to side control with that kimura grip still in place.

This lesson was more conceptual than specific techniques. Once you have a kimura locked in, it becomes an anchor point that you can flow around. A kimura from side control could open up the back, it might lead to technical mount, or perhaps through to a crucifix and back to side control. The idea today was to play with that idea. Two aspects of control I wanted to highlight were the ways in which you could stop your partner from escaping your grip. The easiest to keep in mind is jamming their elbow into your chest. Another option, possibly trickier to get the hang of, is to extend your arms. Both are meant to prevent your partner's ability to turn in towards you, as if they can do that, they will try to dip their elbow and escape your hold.
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Teaching Notes: This was a lot of fun. Unusually for me, the lesson was partially improvised on my cycle over. I had an epiphany that the technical mount is a nexus point for all the top positions, which gave me the link I needed to build a lesson around the kimura as a position. That's also a nexus point, specifically their elbow pressing tightliy into your chest.

As you'd expect, the main mistake people made was not keeping that elbow jammed into their chest. I could also talk about some basic stuff like gripping with or without the thumb (I prefer without, but could emphasise the reasons behind that). I didn't talk much about the extending your arms option, as I didn't want to confuse people, but I did mention it while wandering around during drilling. It's also handy if you are trying to jam the elbow, they make some space, so you extend your arms.

I had originally planned to teach the crucifix off the kimura, but I like this better. I don't have many conceptual lessons, as they can feel too flabby and amorphous for my liking, but it felt ok today. One to add to my store of lessons. Could do with some drills for it, maybe technical mount moving through positions, along with something on the kimura? I shall have a think before next time. ;)