Escape

Some grappling defense is fairly instinctual – if your partner wraps their arm around your neck, you try and pull it off.  However, as with all aspects of the art, there is much to be added to our natural fighting instincts.

Today we worked defense against two different submissions, the arm bar and the guillotine.  Unsurprisingly, both escapes involve the defender trying to reclaim their hips.  Grappling is often about controlling your partner’s hips because if you control their hips, they’ve lost most of their ability to fight.

One way to fight the guillotine (when applied from guard bottom) is to pop up into a down dog position, drive your body weight through your shoulder into your partner and bull your neck.  This combination of actions gets your hips back and makes it very uncomfortable for your partner to hold on to the choke.

One way to fight the arm bar (when you find yourself on your back) is to link your hands together, shrimp to your side and try and pull your elbow close to yourself.  Linking your hands together is merely a quick stop measure.  Shrimping to your side gets you your hips back, thus giving you the power to maneuver again.  Pulling your elbow in negates the arm bar.

While it is not always true, it is often true that to fight a submission, you must get your hips back.