We were working on some body locks and positioning last night at the U and we went over this counter to the double leg takedown. In a sense, its not a counter to the double leg takedown because you are still going to the ground. It’s a “make the best of things” type counter. The guy gets in too deep, too fast to sprawl; its too late to stop him for taking you for a ride. Best case scenario is that you get to pick the destination. Video below shows Utah local, Brian Yamasaki teaching the move.
.
I remember seeing Dan Henderson use something like this in his fight against Jake Shields. He wasn’t able to roll Jake, but kept his hips from getting sucked underneath and got his legs to the side and then to freedom with his belly down.
So…. Anderson Silva knocks out Vitor Belfort with a front kick to the face. It was beautiful. The timing, the distance the expression on Silva’s face … it almost made me cry. Both for the beauty of the thing, but also because my hope for a new champ got KO’d as well.
The fun thing for me was all the hoopla post fight about the kick. People were going ape-shiz like they have never seen it before, and true, its not a bread and butter thing in the UFC.
This you probably already know. What you may not know, is that Anderson learned this technique from Steven Seagal, or so says Seagal.
.
.
First of all, is it just me, or does Seagal look like “The Eradicator” from the Superman comic books? Because the glasses really sell the look.
As for his remarks about nobody really using it, etc, also like “The Eradicator”, there may be a small amount of fantasy going on.
The way I figure it, is that the teep kick from Muay Thai is close match to this kick, and that’s been around from the dawn of time – and Anderson is *ahem* fairly well versed in that. But hey, now that Seagal has brought the front kick to MMA, perhaps we will also see elbows to the face as well. Maybe even punching of the ribs. Who knows the crazy things is store for us?
Maybe he showed some different pointers or a style of doing it? I don’t know, but it would be awesome to hang out with these guys and find out. I bet its like a rap video, but with hot girls doing ninja stuff instead of clubbing.
I originally learned the front kick in Karate, and one time I accidentally kicked an opponent in the throat in a tournament (I was aiming for the face). It’s a nasty kick. A lot of force is going straight forward, and the structure of the stances with you and your opponent is like a head on collision. The kick is a bit slower and harder to hit with; the movement makes it tricky to adjust mid way through. Unlike a circular kick, which can just keep swinging onward to whack into an opponent, it can be avoided with good head movement. Below, a kung-fu version of the kick.
.
.
The first time I saw the kick in MMA was with Bas Rutten. I remember thinking, “I’m going to have to keep that in my bag of tricks.” I know the resolution on the pics below aren’t amazing, but trust me, it’s Bas. (See video here).
Here’s a video of Rob Mccullough teaching the rear push kick, a variation of the one that KO’d Vitor.
.
.
Anyway, the front kick is something we’ll probably see more of know that attention has been brought to it. Here are just a few more pics to please you.
True fact: Anytime a front kick to the face happens, a leprechaun gets a pot of gold.
We had a really fun training session tonight at the U, and one of the things we drilled was a transition to mount. As I mentioned, the points brought up in training were pretty much the same as the following instruction from BJ Penn. Personally I’m always pumped when we can do something like he does, as BJ’s jujitsu is strong enough to make a man wet his pants at 50 paces.
So … I’ve been sick for the last six weeks or so (non-communicable lung infection) which makes me cry, because jujitsu justice is not being performed at full throttle. However, the lockdown of illness has been ebbing and I’ve rebounded with a counter submission of my own – suck monkey turd, disease! – my immune system.
In that spirit, we spend last night’s class on only one submission, the KIMURA. While we used the kimura in several different circumstances (breaking the grip of a back-to-belly hold, from the guard, etc) we spend a good deal of time with the half guard kimura. Not only do I love the half guard kimura, but so does Krzysztof Soszynski.
Thankfully, the submission is much easier than spelling his name.
First, we over the basic points of the kimura, nicely summarized by Steven Kesting, of grapple arts renown.
To add to this, we discussed some variations. If your opponent tries to pass to you back underneath your leg, you can use it to sweep or transition to an armbar. Or if you’re wily enough, sometimes get your outside leg rapped around the back and into the arm space your attacking, without them trying to pass underneath it. Kinda like rubber guard … ish. I love to try it because it baits people to pass under it, which leads to the aforementioned armbar. Below, a video that explains that pretty darn well (check the last half, it’s 8 minute vid).
So to recap, here are the basic pointers of finishing the half guard kimura.
Keep tight on his arm, otherwise they’ll worm out of it.
After you slap on the kimura, get the wrist beyond (behind) their ribcage fast. Don’t slow down until they can’t grab onto something. Being slow on the upward motion begs a block.
Keep the hand away from his thighs – even beginning grapplers will block you with the “scratch the groin” defense. Prevent this in the first place.
After you get the arm on its way behind the back, to painville, get out from underneath the guy and get to the side. Seeing the videos will make this clear.
Anyway, while rolling with one of the guys post instruction, I get caught in a solid kimura from half guard and was pleased to remember how much it hurts. However, with Christmas right around the corner, remember that it is far more blessed to give, than receive.
I’ve been watching The Ultimate Fighter on Spike and Cody McKenzine’s guillotine choke has been on my brain. Cody hits the choke with a different grip and elbow position; it’s made me curious to know more. Since Cody’s explanation of how he does the choke was two-seconds long, I’ve had to look elsewhere. Below, a video from Precision Martial Arts down in Texas, showing the basics of this variation.
The cool thing about this choke is that it just *hits* differently than a normal guillotine. The top pressure a guy uses to try to escape interacts differently with your grip, you can finish the choke from unusual angles, etc. One thing I like about it is that you don’t have to have the same hip control to tighten it.
As you can see on the left, Marc Stevens has passed Cody’s guard – and Cody has only partially kept Steven’s hips from swinging around by getting a hook on the outer leg (I think this is what’s called empty half guard). I’ve even seen guys tapped from clean side control, no hooks attached – although that’s uncommon. On the right, you can see how a lot of guillotine’s from the guard get finished; by compressing the choke-arm’s elbow towards your own hip.
Another detail – the position of the supporting arm in the choke is varied. On the right, you see how the elbow flares up and comes off the body while on the left (it’s sort of hidden) the supporting elbow can stay down and still provide leverage for the choke, as well as keeping the head caged up. From my experience, if the guy on the right sucked in his elbow towards his hips, it’d be easier to wriggle the head free.
I’ve heard some guys call this the prayer choke, palm to palm guillotine, or now – in Cody’s honor – some suggest we call it “the fisherman”. McKenzine has a nice body for the choke – long, thin arms ; slender core and slightly concaved chest. The Diaz brothers have such frames too.
As I’ve been playing around with it, the grip has intrigued me. Like Josh Koscheck points out, you’ve got to attack the grip to stop the choke, because hip position won’t necessarily do it.
Anywho, I’d like to know your thoughts and experiences – have you choked or been choked with this? How does it stack up to the regular guillotine? What name would you give this variation?
