the open guard clinch

Got a couple of fun training sessions in on Wednesday and one on Thursday. Some of the new base control tactics are working well to disrupt any type of pin and pass, but this has all been work on the first step and against good players, this is not enough. They quickly catch up and move on if that’s all that I do.

The next step if for me to take advantage of the pause it gives them. Right now arm drags, hook sweeps and guillotines have been somewhat effective but still limited. I think this has been mainly because they only have to worry about their base and their upper body.

Thus it’s time to become a leg locking fool. My instructor’s always emphasized that leg locks are the great equalizer. The thing that I’ve noticed is they are a great attack on wrestlers, not just for the leg-locking component, but also for the sweeping component.

I remember Nick Diaz fighting Sean Sherk and getting him on his butt after attempting a knee bar. It’s the only time I can remember someone sweeping Sherk and it was because Sherk was worried enough about his leg to sacrifice position.

So my next step to get there is to take advantage of the disrupt and get some type of handle that I can turn into a leglock. I realized that this is another huge hole in my game. I let there be separation in open guard situation rather than grabbing handles immediately.

Handles allow me to stick with the person, like an anchor slowly weighing down a motorboat. I’ve learned some tactics to slow down the game in closed guard and on top, but now it’s time to really slow things down from open guard. Ethan told me this a long time ago and now I"m finally beginning to see what he meant.

So while I definitely think leg locks are the next step in my open guard game, I first need to get that clinch and get those handles from open guard. Much like the early days when Royce would always talk about timing the clinch I’m going to work on ways to enter into and establish those clinches. This is the only way that I know to really control someone. Otherwise it becomes a scramble and a battle of speed which I will lose more and more as time goes on.