26/07/2017 - BJJ Globetrotter Camp | Leuven 2017 | Passing Half Guard, Chokes & Back Takes (Fran Vanderstukken)

Class #856
BJJ Globetrotter Camp (Sportoase Leuven), Fran Vanderstukken, Leuven, Belgium, 26/07/2017

Another excellent class, taught by a female brown belt. Fran focused on top half guard, with some connections to side control and a back take. You are stuck in a standard half guard. Sit on your heels initially, hands into their hips, strong posture. Grab a strong cross-face, keeping that pressure up all the way through. Pull out their far gi lapel, feeding it under their far armpit, passing that to your hand.

Lock that in, having turned your hips towards them. Bring your foot close to their bum, to avoid getting caught in the lockdown. Maintaining your cross face pressure, rise up enough to drive your bottom knee (not shin, just the knee) into their hip, then settle your weight back down. Pull their knee over, getting that supine twist (their knees go one way, their head goes the other). Grip the gi material by the knee, pull towards you, then push your leg free.

Keeping that lapel grip under their head as you move to side control, trap their arm by your hip. Move around their head, making sure the lapel grip has enough slack that you can move around. Once you get to the other side, grip your other hand under their head, then squeeze and drop your hips for the choke.

Next up, Fran upped the complexity. For whatever reason, the pass isn't happening. Reach your other hand on the inside, above their shoulder, switching the gi lapel grip. Bring your knee that is nearest the head into their side, in order to clear the way to pull them up in front of you. Also, swim your other arm underneath their armpit, establishing a gi grip with that too (that transition can be tough, I need to drill that lots to get it smooth). Yanking them up and across should be straightforward at this point, transitioning to the back.

Fran noted that she found it helpful to view top half guard as partway to the back, as you already have a hook inserted. All you need to do is pull their arm across, then with a gift wrap you can pull them straight into the back position. It's comparable to how technical mount is an easy transition to the back, just that your hook is lower.

The lesson finished up with two option from the opposite side pass. When you flipped over to the other side, you have the option of passing that side. You can also perform a rolling back take. Sit up from your position, bringing the knee of your trapped knee to the ground. Make sure you hook your foot over the back of their leg, this is very important. From here, you want to do a shoulder roll towards their legs.

As you roll, use your hook to bring their legs past you, progressing to the back. If you like, you could stop in the truck here instead. Be careful of your hook, as if you're lazy with it, they can reverse the momentum and take your back instead. Your hook needs to get down behind their knee ideally. The higher it is, the more likely they can adjust to dominate your leg instead.