I shot these short videos a while back. Just getting around to writing up the post. I’ll have to make it quick. Hopefully the video explains the concepts well enough. As always I like to start any talk of escapes with posture. I’ll outline a couple of knee ride bottom postures. In thinking about the way I usually escape knee ride I realized that having a posture/pressure that works both towards and away from the knee ride is important. The primary posture/escape is always to turn towards the knee ride. There are times though when that isn’t available. In those circumstances you need to go away to escape.
The other factor is that it’s impossible for the top guy to defend in opposite directions at the same time. If he’s defending the turn towards escape then he’s not defending the turn away. With this in mind I’ll start by describing the turn towards posture and escape sequence.
Posture 1- Towards the Top Guy
Turn in towards the bottom guy. Head sits on shoulder and closes off the cross face. Bottom elbow is unavailable. Top arm is preventing the harvest.
The 3 Fights
When you are in knee ride bottom you have 3 main fights to worry about .
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- The top guy will try to get a crossface,
- try to pull up on your bottom elbow to make you flat,
- and harvest your far arm.
The posture described below will help you to survive these fights.
- The head position is important. Put your forehead on the mat and make the space as small as possible. Touch your ear to the mat if you have the neck flexability. If not, try to touch it to your shoulder. In any case you want to make the space so small that he can’t get his hand under for a crossface.
- Keep your bottom elbow on the mat and tight to your body. You don’t want the top guy to get at your bottom elbow and pull it up and away from your body. This will flatten your posture.
- Your top arm has to stay bent with your elbow driving towards your center line and connected to your body. The hand of this arm can be used to block out the cross face.
- Your top leg makes a kickstand like on a bicycle. This keeps you stable up on your side so you won’t roll back.
I’ll leave the video to describe the escape. The posture is what’s most important to me. If you can’t survive knee ride bottom then you’ll have a hard time escaping.
Posture 2- Turning away from the Top Guy
Sometimes you just can’t get an angle. You find yourself flat and can’t turn in. In these cases you can escape knee ride by turning away. Be careful though. If you do it wrong you find the other guy on your back with hooks in. The video will briefly describe how to avoid this.
This is a version of the Saulo running man escape. I like the initial posture because it prevents all the same fights you have when you turn in. You have to keep the top guy from getting under your neck. You need to keep him from harvesting the top arm. You need to keep him from capturing the bottom elbow. If you build the posture right you’ll be able to do all three.
Anyway, here’s the video of this concept.
I hope that’s enough to get the idea. Haven’t had a lot of time to update the blog lately. I’m hoping things settle down a bit now that school is starting.
Hi Cane,
I am glad that you are enjoyng the benefits of the stephen hawking head posture
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And about the running man posture i would recommend you to try also the same posture with switched legs (top over the bottom one) then you can really hide the top arms tip of the elbow and it is really hard to step to the mount for the top person
Thanks Priit,
I like that posture as well and use it if I can’t run all the way to quarters for some reason. What I didn’t show in the video (I’m sure you already know) is that the time lag from posture to run is very short. Almost simultaneous if possible. If I get caught in posture and can’t seem to run I’ll take the posture you recommend.
It seems that the running man posture, pre-running, would leave one very open to a quick mount/S-mount. I know that assuming the posture and affecting the escape should happen in quick succession, but life sometimes gets in the way of that. Do you have any tips for avoiding mount when assuming the position(s)?
Thank you. Congrats on your black, and on one of the best bjj blogs out there.
Thanks Nate. I find that in order to mount they have to take their weight off. When I feel that I immediately run to quarter position. They shouldn’t be able to effectively go to mount or S mount without you having an opportunity to run. Another option is to take the top leg that is making a kickstand and put it in front of the bottom leg. This effectively curls you up into a ball and closes off all the space so he can’t put his leg over. I’ll do this if I can’t run all the way to quarters for some reason.
Thanks for the response. Makes perfect sense. Now that I think about it, I do the “kickstand” method, myself. If I feel like I can run to quarter from there I do, but more often (I’m old and slow), I connect my elbow to that knee and turn back toward the top guy, shoving his k off my b.
Cheers.
I like it. Being old and slow myself I can appreciate that.
Hi Cane,
Some good tips!
When did you get your BB?
Thanks for the comment. Black belt is brand new…
Snazzy new belt my friend! Excellent breakdown. I love playing KOB from the top and feel the escape and top game go hand in hand.
I love turning positions upside down to understand them better. To me, escaping KOB is the equivalent of re-passing to side control when the opponent has snuck a knee thru (minus gravity
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Seeing it that way has done wonders for me. Starting with the right posture is everything. Thanks dude!