Crossfaces and Underhooks

What makes a good cross body position?  Well, if you’re on top, a good cross body position means you’ve got control of the player on the bottom.  If you’re on bottom, a “good” cross body position is one where you’ve got plenty of space to reverse the position.

Coming back to the top player, if you’re new to the game, “control” is a pretty vague term.  How does one establish control?  For starters, think about establishing an under hook on the far side and a cross face on the close side.  An under hook means your arm is under their arm.  A cross face means that you are applying pressure to their face (neck, really) with your shoulder.  If you’ve got these two pieces and you’re dropping your weight on your partner, you’ll be making things tough for them.

Does that mean you can just hang out there?  Probably not.  You’ll need to move and adjust, as always.  Your partner will resist and try to escape the position.  Try moving to mount or to north south.  Try flipping all the way over to the other side cross body.  Lots of times when you switch positions like this, you’ll find that one of your partner’s arms gets put in a really bad position and you can either choke them with it or put on some sort of shoulder lock.

Thanks as always to the guys from Alive MMA for the class ideas.