10/06/2016 - Teaching | Half Guard | Escaping Lockdown

Teaching #516
Artemis BJJ (MYGYM Bristol), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 10/06/2016

If you find that you keep getting stuck in the lockdown, don't worry: there are numerous ways to free your leg to get back to a standard half guard. First off, you can avoid the situation by making sure your lower leg is curled back. That will put it out of reach for the purposes of a lockdown. If they have started to put the lockdown on, bring your heel to your thigh, then loop your foot out of their grip. Be sure to again immediately curl your foot to your bum, underneath both their legs, or they can put you right back into the lockdown.

Should they manage to get it a little tighter, try lifting your trapped leg up, like Christian Graugart. Curl your free leg back, sticking your heel by their lower heel. That should loosen the tension enough that you can drive your trapped knee to the mat and escape the lockdown. Once again, be sure to curl your foot out of the way, so they can't re-establish the lockdown.

A photo posted by Artemis BJJ (@artemisbjj) on Jun 13, 2016 at 4:06am PDT

Finally, if it's too late for any of the above, there's the option I most commonly use. Scoot down towards their hips. You can now try one of three options: either grab their hips, lock your arms underneath their thighs, or hook an arm under their leg. I tend to go with the third option, though be aware there is a small risk that they might manage to shift into a triangle if you're not careful as you pass. Once you've secured a grip, either sprawl back firmly or kick your trapped leg backwards. Maintain your grips, then walk around towards their head for the pass.

Another more complex pass I sometimes teach comes from Rener Gracie. For this one, first sprawl to take out the slack in their grip. Swing your trapped leg towards your other leg. Hook behind their nearest knee with the instep of your free foot. Press their knee to the mat. This should give you the room to bring your trapped leg towards the other side, then simply drive the trapped knee through, moving directly into a knee cut pass.
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Teaching & Sparring Notes: I decided to stick to freeing your leg from the lockdown tonight, rather than going into too much detail about passing. My main goal is to dissuade people from using the lockdown to stall. It's certainly a valid position with plenty of options, but a lot of people (admittedly including me ;D) will use it to slow down the pace and get a breather. I don't normally put in as many techniques as this, but they're all relatively simple and I think fit together well. Last time I taught the Rener pass, but I think the options I went with tonight are easier to remember, as it's basically either 'lift up your leg' or 'grab their hips and kick'.

Sparring was fun, trying to get into some closed guard attack. I used the forearm to forearm clasp to keep hold of my shoulder clamp, but I was too flat on my back. I need to get on my side right away, pushing for that head and shoulder control. I vaguely had the overhook guard after that, but again I think I'm being too flat. I also attempted to block Sam's might knee slide as he tried to break my half guard, ending up going to quarter guard and then a toe grab sweep.

However, he could have kicked his leg free during my sloppy quarter guard (as he confirmed later when I asked: I didn't think I had that properly). I think I'll play some more with quarter guard at open mat, mainly out of curiosity. Main thing I want to work on is the half guard kimura, as I haven't taught that yet.

21/08/2015 - Teaching | Half Guard | Passing Lockdown

Teaching #376
Artemis BJJ (MYGYM Bristol), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 21/08/2015

If you find that you keep getting stuck in the lockdown, don't worry: there is a simple method for working back to a standard half guard. First off, you can avoid the situation by making sure your lower leg is curled back. That will put it out of reach for the purposes of a lockdown. You can also just bring your foot close to their bum. If it is too late for that, grab their hips and shift downwards. Keep shifting backwards until you can circle your leg out of their lockdown, then move back up. Again, make sure your leg is curled out of reach, or they'll be able to put you right back in the lockdown. You can potentially pass after scooting down too, underhooking their leg and kicking free, but be careful, there is a triangle risk if you're not paying attention.

Alternatively, Ed Beneville includes this lockdown pass in Passing the Guard. Move down and put your head on their hip, trapped leg side. Move you free leg back, driving your hips down. Reach under their upper legs, then lock your arms together. When you've taken out all the slack in their lockdown, put your head on the other side. Shift your chest down, then kick back with your trapped leg (or simply straighten it, depending on how much purchase they still have on your leg). Pass from there by moving around, making sure to keep their hips locked to the mat, driving your shoulder into them.

Then there is Christian Graugart's option. When he's caught in the lockdown, he lifts his leg in the air, then puts the heel of his other leg against their bottom heel. That enables him to remove his trapped leg, quickly curling it back to avoid getting stuck in the lockdown again. Kurt Osiander and Xande Ribeiro both use a comparable tactic, lifting their heel towards their bum, then uncurling the leg.


Finally, here is yet another option, from Rener Gracie. That's the one I went with tonight. When you're caught in the lockdown, sprawl to take out the slack in their grip, then swing your trapped leg towards your other leg. Hook behind their nearest knee with the instep of your free foot. Press their knee to the mat. This should give you the room to bring your trapped leg towards the other side, then simply drive the trapped knee through, moving directly into a knee cut pass.
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Teaching & Sparring Notes: There are many different ways to deal with the lockdown, so I had to think which one to show. My usual approach is to scoot down to their hips, hook inside their leg, then use the leverage of that hook combined with pressing my leg back to pop the lockdown open (I'm pretty sure I first saw that in a Stephan Kesting video, but I couldn't seem to find it when I looked). However, I decided that I'd go with Rener's technique, as that can be done while you still have a cross-face and underhook, so feels more secure.

Most people got it ok, although a few were confused by the lockdown itself, along with the mechanics of this pass. The John Will method helped, along with giving specific tips during drilling. By the end of class and the second John Will review, everybody had it down. Not that this necessarily translated to sparring. I made a point of asking Rafal, as he uses the lockdown a lot, but he didn't find a lot of people passing with it. Then again, he's also more experienced than most of the people in class, which would have an impact too. Admittedly, when I sparred Rafal I didn't use it either, I reverted back to my usual underhook the leg method. ;)

I was pleased to get the papercutter choke from side control in free sparring later, though I'm not sure how tight my grips were. Quite often people will let me get to north south, where that choke comes into play nicely. I want to keep on trying it, making sure I also shift into the follow-ups (near side armbar, north-south kimura and far side armbar). I also kept attempting the Jeff Rockwell collar tie guard recovery off a guard pass, something else I'm really keen to add into my game. I need to drill his north south escape too. After that, the big thing I still want to improve is back escapes.