Tonight kind of reminded me of one of those commercials that tells you that unless you call in the next 30 minutes this amazing offer will expire and you will miss out FOREVER on their awesome product.
Except, in my case, waiting doesn't mean missing out on a buy one get one free topsy-turvy tomato grower. Waiting means the difference between escaping a submission and tapping.
There are two times when I am tempted not to go into an escape from a submission, and to try to fight for the position. One is when someone goes for a heel hook on me. I have been told numerous times to got for the escape right off the bat. But instead, what I usually do is hold onto one of the person's sleeves for dear life and try to somehow come up on top. And, what usually follows is them getting their arm free and me tapping to a finished heel hook.
There are escaped where I can come up on top, but those depend on me acting very fast and a lot of times the person may already be past the point when that escape will work. I need to know when that "point of no return" is and be smart enough to go to the roll out escape when that time comes instead of trying to force the other escapes.
The other time I am tempted to do this is when I am escaping a triangle and the person switches to an armbar. If I escape a triangle correctly, I will usually end up in a low side control. If I roll out of an armbar, the chances are less that I will come out in a dominant position. Usually, people will take advantage of the time that I am rolling out to prepare for when I come up. So, I try to do the stacking option to escape the armbar instead of the roll out, which I have a better chance of using successfully.
Tonight, I went for the roll-out escapes right away. And it worked. Shocking, I know. I had to give up "better" positions, but at least I didn't have to tap.
I am learning that I don't need to force good positions to happen. I need to be fluid and move between different positions, not just try to hold one forever. This is true when dealing with submission escapes. I just have to learn to better recognize when I have reached that point.
Things are really, really bad.
2 months ago
6 comments:
" I need to know when that "point of no return" is "
Once again, the subject of body awareness comes up. Excellent article Allie.
Why are they catching you in heel hooks in the first place? Where are you putting your feet? It's one thing if they are forcing your feet/ankles into positions that make you vulnerable for ankle-wrap-style attacks but just make sure you are not handing them (excuse the pun) over on a silver platter.
Oh and if you do that now, you get a complimentary set of steak knives!!
You may have mentioned this before, but do people regularly use heel hooks at your school? I don't think I've ever seen anybody try one in sparring at the BJJ places I've trained (although I don't train nogi).
@ Liam: One of the biggest downfalls to the way I like to grapple is that I am constantly exposing my legs. I like to do a lot of open guard, spider guard and inverted guard. I like to use my legs to push and pull people. But I end up exposing my legs because of it. So, yes, I am in a sense handing them my legs on a silver platter.
The way I am trying to work around this is to be aware of the signs that someone is setting up for a leg attack. A lot of times I am able to slip my leg out of danger before they really get hold of it. But almost as many times I am too slow and then I have to escape.
@ Can: Yes, we do all types of leg locks at our school at all levels from white belt to black belt. I get heel hooked all the time, but usually it is by higher belts who have enough control not to hurt me. For example, the guy I was rolling with last night was a purple belt and he caught a heel hook but did not really try to finish it. He made me work out of it.
I do like you do, Allie, and leave my feet dangling out there all the time. (Mostly, I think, it's that I'm focusing on something else and am not really paying attention to what my feet are doing.) My purples+ also go for leg attacks of all sorts to help me recognize when I'm in danger and, like yours, usually let me work out. If I try something wrong -- like hanging on and trying to come on top -- they block harder and/or move closer to finishing, which is a clue that I'm doing the wrong thing.
Now when I roll with lower belts, I notice when my feet are out of position and instantly think that the purples+ would have caught my legs there. I'm still not avoiding those spots entirely, but at least I can sometimes identify them. :P
You don't need to look at it as an "either...or" situation. You can play a lot of open guard, spider guard and inverted guard and use your legs to push and pull people. You just need to dominate their sleeves before :)
If they free their arms then you need to hide you feet and use your shins, knees and thighs to push pull until you can re-dominate the sleeves.
i completely agree with leaving the legs exposed, i still haven't figured out how to keep them 100% safe but i've started incorporating leg attacks into my game to at least level the playing field
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