27/05/2019 - Teaching | Side Control | Gi tail escape

Teaching #869
Artemis BJJ (Easton Road), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 27/05/2019

Alexander Neufang can be relied upon for unusual techniques, including this escape from side control he taught at Heidelcamp 2018 (I was there, as you can see in the video, but only for the first few minutes because I was heading off to something else). Your arm is exposed on the far side, which you're going to use to your advantage by feeding their gi lapel to it, across their back. You have several options here. The most basic is to pull it around your knee (nearest to your head, the other leg doesn't generate the right leverage).



From there, you can then kick forwards to rock your body up, slamming your knee outwards to get momentum. Use that to roll them over, assisted by your other arm under their body. Continue the roll to come on top. Alternatively, you can feed the gi tail under your leg, or if it isn't long enough, reach your arm under your own leg and then grab their gi tail. There are many other variations, so be sure to watch Neufang's video.

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Teaching Notes: I need to play with this some more, but it's interesting, with a lot of variations. When it came to teaching, I found that I was demonstrating on people with short gis. That meant I improvised a variation on the fly, which is to reach your arm under your own leg and use that to grab the gi tail. This gives you more range, but I'm not sure if it reduces the leverage. I imagine Neufang already covered this in his vid, or if not, could be due to it being less effective? I'll continue to play: I did give it a shot in sparring without much success, will continue to
practice more.

The specific angle of leverage is important to consider too. Most people were having little trouble with the motion, but a newer student was struggling, which made me think it through carefully. Is it a kick out with your posting leg, or both? Should that kick be more diagonal? Is punching up the arm better than wedging your elbow underneath? Also, I should emphasise really getting that gi tail tight, to twist them off you before you even start to move.