Combat Base with Double Underhooks- Guard Passing

In class last night I went over passing from combat base using double underhooks. The topic for the week was guard passing and I wanted a way to break it down into a smaller curriculum. I decided to use one attacking posture and explore the possibilities from there. I picked combat base with double underhooks for a few reasons.

Combat Base Position with Double Underhooks.

1. It’s a relatively stable posture. If you build it right it’s hard for the bottom guy to sweep you.
2. It doesn’t leave the bottom guy many places to put his feet. This makes his open guard much more ineffective.
3. It protects your arms well because they are underhooking. This makes you less likely to get caught in a triangle or armbar. it also makes your arms much harder to harvest.

The only part of your body that’s vulnerable is your neck. You need to keep your shoulders hunched and your chin tucked in.

You must be able to hold this posture and control the bottom guy’s hips from here. If you can do that then many opportunities for guard passes will happen.

Class Intro Video

Basic Video on Holding Combat Base

Holding the Posture

There are a few things the bottom guy will do to break the posture. Here they are along with how to thwart them.

1. Sit up and insert butterfly hooks. The bottom guy will do this to prevent the pass. It gives his feet firm footing and leverage to move his body and hips.
   1. When the bottom guy does this you must use your head to lever them back down, control the hips with your arms, and re- pummel your legs back into posture. Remember, posture is king. If you don’t have it you should be working to get it.
2. The bottom guy will sometimes make his legs heavy. he’ll spread them wide, drive his heels to the floor, and keep his hips level. When he does this passing around becomes a nightmare.
   1. In this case I wouldn’t give him passing around the legs posture. I’d instead roll him side to side and try to get one of his knees to touch the mat. If you get a knee to the mat you’ll immediately pin it there. Usually by dropping your combat base knee across it. This takes you to a different hold posture that I’ll talk about later.
3. Another tactic the bottom person will try is to get a knee across the body into a z guard.
   

   Courtesy of grapplearts.com

   Once the knee is across the game changes considerably.

   1. If you are in either the combat base with double underhooks or in the second posture with the knee across the leg and the bottom guy is giving you pressure like they want to put the knee across there are two main ways to kill it.
      1. Lower your head in front of his knee. This will block it from coming across.
      2. If your leg is pinning one of his you can get a gable grip on his leg and control it at the hip. See image below.
         

         From Combat Base the knee goes over and kills one leg if you can get a knee to the mat.

   Key Concepts to the Double Under Position.

• If his knee touches the mat it means a through the legs pass is possible.
• If the back of the knee comes over your shoulder then you have an around the legs pass.
• If you have one knee on your shoulder and one knee pinned to the mat as in the above posture then you can pass either way.

Double Under Pass Video

Video of both Under and Over Pass from Underhooks.

About these ads