More and more guys are coming into the pro-am levels of MMA with strong wrestling backgrounds. A lot of wrestlers have been shooting for double leg take downs, asserting the single collar tie, and cradle-pinning opponents since 10 years old, some even starting even earlier. Possibly the womb.
It’s no mystery why wrestling for MMA is powerful, so I’ll omit going over that. The purpose of this article is to help those who have difficulties in dealing with wrestling based mixed martial artists.
“If you want the skills, do the drills.”
- Major Mark Cunningham
In the stand-up game, fighters string together punches in combinations – if the first one doesn’t connect the second third or fourth will probably slip through. On the ground, you want to do the same thing. Fire off one submission and if it doesn’t go through, instead of trying to muscle it through, immediately move to a new one. A lot of guys have the problem of just throwing one submission attack by itself instead of chaining moves that flow one to the next. The great part is that just like striking, certain moves naturally set up other moves so that if your guard sweep got stuffed by a guy posting out – your kimura attack is primed and ready to go. Getting good at chaining attacks makes your ground game far more dangerous – eventually one of your attacks will sink in and make your opponent submit, all without draining you in a battle of strength. The following videos will give you some ideas to work with.
From the guard position
From side mount/ cross body position
From top mount position
Take the time to learn the technical aspects of a submission and then make sure to drill it in the context of a series of other moves.
P.S. One of my favorite attack chains is very traditional Gracie Jujitsu and goes like this: go for the armbar from the guard, your opponent tries to pull the barred arm out by pushing with the other hand on my hips, I counter by letting go and pull the pushing arm across my body and get my legs going for a triangle choke, to avoid getting choked out my opponents chin tucks down and pulls on the leg with the free hand to get some space to pull the head out … and finally this attempted escape leaves the arm in the triangle weak to my omoplata attack.
When you’re fighting standing up, everybody has a punchers chance – the opportunity to land a lucky shot and end the match. When you’re on the ground, the luck factor is greatly diminished and the battle of power, control and technique commences. You can dramatically improve your ability to control the ground game by developing “the squeeze”.
Here’s a video of Eddie Bravo – pioneer of the rubber guard – explaining a bit about the power of the squeeze, in the context of choking someone out.
Having a great squeeze is more than just the rear naked choke though- its vital in all your chokes and especially your guard game. In MMA, a guy can stack you in the guard, pass, or start a session of “ground and pound”. When you have the guard and a solid squeeze, it is more likely that you can control the action and work your gameplan. (This is doubly true if you practice rubber guard – a lot of guys starting out will have opponents pass their guard as they work to get or maintain the “mission control” position – practice squeezing your knees together tightly when your opponents in your rubber guard).
Strengthening your squeeze
In the video, you see one way to increase your rear naked choke squeeze by sitting flat on the floor, hugging one knee up to your chest and wrap the same side arm around the leg and squeeze down with the RNC. That’s the basic process to strengthening any of the squeeze-worthy chokes or positions. You sink in deep into the position, getting all the finer technical points set, and slowly start amping up the squeeze intensity until you’re squeezing as hard as you can go. Your whole body should be tight – you want to recruit as many muscle groups to the party as possible. Your abs, neck, biceps, hip adductor – all of these should be working in concert to add to the squeeze. However, you want to continue to breathe throughout the squeeze.
Other great positions that are improved by a good squeeze are the body triangles, triangle choke from guard, standing clinch, bear hug and armbar. You can seriously hurt a training partner, so make sure you practice on medicine balls, grappling dummies or punching bags/sand bags.
For more information on isometric exercises, see here.
