28 May 2007, 23:57 in

Some notes on standup grappling from John Will seminar

In the recent BJJ seminar that John Will gave on Sunday 20 May 2007, we started with some stand-up stuff which I found really useful.

One of the first things we did was pummeling. This is a semi-cooperative drill done with a partner that is very useful for stand-up grappling. Initially, you both start in over-under-position which means you have one underhook and one overhook. The objective is to get double underhooks on your partner.

Something to always keep in mind during standup grappling is that if you put the wrong leg forward it is easy for an opponent to scoop up that leg and take you down. I had always been taught that you should keep your blind leg back. This means that if your opponents head is to your right, then you keep your right leg back. However, John said you should keep the leg back on the side where you do not have an underhook on your opponent. If you have an underhook with, say, your right hand, then this allows you to control them enough to prevent them from reaching down to that side. Thus if you have an underhook with your right arm then you would keep your left leg back and right leg forward. I haven’t got a chance to play with this yet but will have to try it out.

We learnt a way to get to a control position, similar to a guillotine, from under-over-position. Say you have an underhook on your opponent with your right arm and an overhook with your left. Keep the underhook in place. With your overhook hand, grab the back of your opponents head and pull it into you while applying forward pressure against it with your own head. The force of your hand pulling back and your head pushing forward create an equilibrium resulting in no movement. We then suddenly step back and stop pushing forward with our own head, breaking the equilibrium and causing their head to come towards us and down. With your left hand pull/push their head down and grab around their chin with your left hand, all the while still keeping the underhook with the other hand.

From this position we learnt three different takedowns – a turning kind of throw, a far leg shoot, and a near leg shoot.

The first takedown involves stepping your left foot behind you and to the right, and turning to the left 180 degrees in a tight circle, using your left hand on their chin and your right overhook to throw them onto their back. This is a nice setup for an armbar too; once they are on their back, keep your right foot planted and turn back the opposite direction (to the right) around their arm with your left foot.

The far leg shoot involves keeping your left hand on their chin to control their head, as you drop your level and reach under them with your right arm. You drive forward under them, dropping onto your right knee, and with your right hand, grab the back of their right heel and drive (diagonally?) backwards.

If the far leg shoot fails because they posted out with the far leg, we immediately switch to the close leg shoot. With your right hand, grab the back of their close (left) leg heel and drive into them.

I haven’t trained BJJ since the seminar because I somehow strained a muscle in my belly while doing squats, but very keen to get back on the mat!

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