This week’s topic is north south position. We address both top and bottom in the same week. Usually that’s not the case but with a position like this that’s not that complicated in terms of what’s available to do it makes sense. I decided to start the week with the bottom game. Defense first. As is usually the case I didn’t want to simply pile a bunch of escape techniques on students. That approach is usually not helpful as nobody seems to remember them well. Instead I wanted to explore the position a bit and give students some ideas about good posture and how to pressure from bottom. In the end I hardly worked escapes at all but everyone improved a lot in their ability to set up escapes over the course of the class.
Initial Posture
I worked from the premise that an initial strong starting posture was the key to working the position. Most of the opportunities from bottom happen because of a good starting base. The starting point of the posture is the hand position. I used to use a position with my elbows on the mat because it made my arms very difficult to harvest. The problem with this position was that it also made it hard to escape. I switched to a boxing hands posture with my elbows as close together as possible and that’s been working way better. This keeps the top guy from getting chest to chest contact and gives me much greater leverage for lifting him off. Here’s a video of building the initial posture.
Students drilled the position with the correct arm posture. Top guy trying to hold and bottom person trying to escape. Or more specifically just trying to get the bottom elbow tucked in which is the building block of escape.
Problems Created and Solved
What sometimes happens if you build an initial good posture is that the top guy will react by modifying his position. It feels really uncomfortable to try to hold down someone by lying on their forearms. You don’t feel like you have a firm hold. Often times the top guy will slide down the body and try to pin the hips instead bypassing the shoulders/arms altogether. This is a great way for the top guy to negate the initial arm posture and render it ineffective.
When he does this we need to adjust our posture and build a different arm position that works with his new top game. Below is a video explaining how to adjust our bottom posture when the top guy is pinning our hips.
Just Add Pressure
Next we went back to the initial start posture and started building a pressure game with our lower body. We went through 3 initial pressures. Those were:
- Pendulum
- Shrimp
- Upa
The potential or objective was the same for all 3. We were still trying to get our hips facing the mat with our bottom elbow tucked under. This is the starting point for all our good escapes. Below is a video of the first 3 pressures.
Minor Corrections
After watching students move from bottom I decided to be more specific about how to move the legs when turning over. Students were doing all sorts of things with their legs as they turned towards the mat. Some of it looked a bit like a fish flopping around. It was clear that some of them needed some help. Below are videos of me describing 2 different methods of going from your back to belly.
The Kickover
The Hip Heist or Threading the Needle
Alternate Arm Positions
Things don’t always work out the way we planned in a live roll. We worked a couple of alternate hand positions when on bottom. I described the worst hand position and it’s problems and then gave an alternative hand position to try. We drilled it after. Below is a video of the alternative hand position I call the forklift.
A bit of footage of students drilling
A Couple of What Ifs
Next I addressed a couple of common scenarios. The first one was what to do if you get caught with your arms in a way bad position. I describe the escape that is possible from here. It’s not great but better than nothing.
Next I describe the most high percentage arm catch from the top position. If I get caught in a sub from the bottom it almost always starts with the top guy getting this catch. I describe the simple objective for taking care of this situation. It’s mostly a matter of awareness here.
Finally, some end of class drilling
December 10, 2010 at 11:10 pm
I tried a north south choke on my instructor (Black Belt) today. Huge mistake. He reversed and quickly submitted me.
I did learn something though. He told me I was telegraphing my movements because I was using so much strength in my arms. He told me to use pressure with my chest etc., but to make sure I kept my hands and arms loose until I was ready to pounce.
December 11, 2010 at 1:09 am
That choke isn’t part of my game so I don’t know much about it. Some guys from the gym were playing around with it this week though and found they could hold down pretty well with it if they got a good bite on the bottom guy’s chin.