The Great Equalizer

A long time ago my instructor told me I should start incorporating more leglocks into my game but as always, it takes me entirely too long to listen to good advice. I’ve gone through phases where I’ve done that but for the most part I would do them in isolation then go back to my normal game. I felt like they interrupted the flow and took away from my attacks. But after Wednesday’s session, I realized that if I’m going to only attack the upper body, especially no gi, I’m going to have to either work inverted guard or rubber guard.

I like both of these guards, but my body doesn’t, especially when dealing with much bigger training partners. So in my mind to really round out the no gi game, and actually to improve my armbars and triangles, I need to attack the legs.

Today was day one of really incorporating leglocks into my whole game. Now granted I was actively looking for kneebars and ankle locks, but I was also looking to see how they could enhance, rather than distract from my whole game. One of the mistakes I’ve made in the past is to “over isolate” a particular move to the point where I ignore what going for that move gives me. It is always hard to incorporate the rest of my game from that, so now I’m always trying to have “black dot focus” rather than “white dot focus”.

I had some great training partners today who gave me a good energy and chance to work some of my new attacks. I really like what I’m seeing and feeling so far even though some of my knee bars are at a bad” boy band” level right now. One thing that I noticed, is the best way to set up kneebars from the guard is to attack the arms and neck. This leads to posture and posture leads to leaving the legs out there.

Of course the opposite quickly becomes apparent as well, when once you attack the legs, they lean in and grab. I realized this might be one of the best ways to get wrist control to work for a triangle as most people aren’t thinking triangle defense when they’re dealing with a knee bar. They’re reaching out.

The flip bar is another project that will take some work but definitely made me like being sprawl passed better. The threat is there and I always do much better when I have an attack to focus on rather than the idea of “not getting passed”.

I’m going to write about this idea more later, but for now, it seems to me that trying to make something as big and broad as a pass “not happen” is overwhelming. There are so many ways to pass that trying to stop everything feels impossible and for me personally always makes me panic a little.

But if I focus on an attack and feeling what attack is there, I don’t worry about the pass as preventing the pass, miss aligning them and off basing or submitting them is all part of the attack.

So today was very exciting to me in that regard because I am seeing leg attacks in positions where normally I get a “scramble” or even “don’t let him pass” feeling. A lot of these locks rely on them pushing the pass and even the concept of getting that clinch and the handles from open guard is inherently taken care of.

One thing I need to be careful is not to slip into inverting too much as my neck doesn’t forgive me for that position. Although thinking about it, I really should be shifting from my shoulder to my forehead to my other shoulder anyway.

The leg attacks are also leading to another type of guard that I’m experimenting with. I’m not sure what it’s really called but it really is normally just a guard recovering technique where one shin is across their belt line and the other leg is over their head. Let’s say it’s my right leg across their belt and my left leg over their head.

I’m finding that if I control their right arm with my left hand and hook their left leg with my right arm I have a decent amount of control. This position also works, maybe even better, if my right leg is in between theirs in a half guard position.

I see some knee bar attacks on their left leg if they move to their left. If they force the pass to my right there is a good reverse triangle as well. It needs more practice, of course, but I see some definite potential with that.

Also I’m realizing how much the knee bar and cross ankle lock/inside heelhook tie in. I saw that when I was working on controlling the knee bar where we’re both essentially on our backs and I have my instep in the crook of their knee. I’m thinking that grabbing their heel may be a way of preventing them from spinning , but even if they do, the inside heelhook/footlock is there. I also need to adjust my body position and have my back towards them as well.

Overall I’m really excited about this next step and look forward to seeing how these setups work in a no gi situation. Additionally I want to see how I can implement leglock entries starting from standing. I think this may be a good way to initiate an attack on good wrestlers.