27/12/2019 - Teaching | Half Guard | Gi Tail Figure Four

Teaching #928
Artemis BJJ (Easton Road), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 27/12/2019



From the top of half guard, there's a cool attack sequence I learned from Jason Scully's Grapplers Guide. Establish a strong cross face and solidify your base. When you're feeling secure, yank out their far lapel, getting as much material as you can. Pull that over their far arm, trapping their wrist to their shoulder (make sure it is over their wrist, not lower on their arm). Feed the lapel to your cross-facing hand, gripping as near their wrist as you can. Use your head to press their arm to the floor.

From here, you can continue to twist on their lapel, going for the submission. If you need extra leverage, switch the lapel back to your other hand and continue rotating. If that's still not enough leverage, you can always transition into a standard americana. Your head control on their wrist should help you set up the typical grips on the wrist and finish the lock as normal. If you keep their wrist trapped with the lapel, you can do the normal americana, but with the added bonus that they can't unbend their arm due to the lapel. If they free their arm, you can switch to a choke, much like the ezequiel, but using the lapel to lock it in.



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Teaching Notes: Switch the grip on the arm before you press in with the head and before you bring your other arm over the top. Also, emphasise getting that gi grip as close to their wrist as possible, to minimise the amount of space they have to wriggle out. As ever, be careful on this, lots of people have tight shoulders.