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Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Hips and Hooks

Today, I rolled with a guy we all call Barf. Barf is a purple belt who routinely kicks my butt seven ways from Sunday. But, in that good I-just-learned-a-lot type of butt kicking way. Today, he reminded me about the importance of underhooks.

I know underhooks are important for a lot of moves from butterfly guard to passing and sweeping. But today, Barf made me realize I don't focus on those enough. He told me the two things I really need to worry about most are hips and underhooks. I need to move my hips and block theirs. I need to get the underhooks, thus blocking theirs.

A lot of times I will start a guard pass or half-guard pass to one side and forget to get the underhook on the opposite side. Even if I do the rest of the pass right, if I don't have that underhook, they are out and scrambling seconds after I pass. The underhook is about control.

Just like the hip is. If my hips are free, I can move. If I can block the other person's hips, then their options become more limited.

Barf suggested that I focus on those two things only today in class. It was great. I never noticed how much I was neglecting the underhooks. Fun exercise.

2 comments:

Megan said...

I think I'm JUST starting to think about things that involve controlling the other person after months of not being able to even see anything but myself.

BTW, I love purple belts. They're so smooth and clean. Brown and black are still magical in my eyes, people is amazing, but still human. Great post!

Liam H Wandi said...

Thanks Allie for an awesome post. This one is all you!

And Megan...That's such a nice thing to say about purple belts :o)