Don’t you just hate it when you shoot in for a take down and your opponent sprawls nicely, flattening you out on to all fours with him on top of your back? Me too. From this sprawl position, the top grappler has plenty of options – anaconda, guillotine, taking the back, you name it. But what does the bottom grappler have? Not much. I think the best option is to try to escape into a better position. Here’s one idea:
It’s basically the high school wrestling “sit out”, and I think it works pretty well. I’ve been experimenting with a couple of other ideas for this situation, and when I refine them I’ll post. If you have any techniques you like from this position, let us in on them!
The longer a fight lasts, the sweatier the combatants gets. The sweatier the guys get, the harder it is to lock in submissions – especially if your opponent is a hairless manatee, having shaven himself from head to toe. Moves that require gripping or friction lose effectiveness as things get slippery.
At first blush, it’s an odd thing to think about – but it’s important. If you have a jujitsu-heavy MMA style, you have to plan that some submissions just won’t work very well in the 2nd or 3rd rounds. In particular, The armbar and triangle from guard are two that get harder lock in later in fights. You’ll slap them on and squeeze confidently, only to your chagrin when your grease monkey opponent slithers out his head or arm. Conversly, the mata leo/rear naked choke is one that seems to hold up well despite the sweat coverage.
This is good news if you’re a ground and pounder – you can be agressive while in the opponent’s guard with a diminshed fear of submissions when you start to sweat.
The picture above is of two men participating in the Turkish sport of kirkpinar – oil wrestling. In kirkpinar, they rub down each other with olive oil, wear traditional black pants (leather?) and wrestle furiously. I am not making this up.
Waaaagh! Wrestlers. They’re a tricky sort, and as big names like Randy Couture, Matt Hughes, and Brock Lesnar have shown. The purpose of this article is to help fighters who have difficulties in dealing with wrestling based mixed martial artists. Certainly, I don’t know it all. Hopefully though, you’ll get some tips and ideas to take to the mat and gain an upper hand against wrestling MMA’ers.
In part 1, I discussed the basic wrestlers strategy, side control management, preventing the guard pass, and striking from the guard.
In part 2, I want to add some details about dominant positions, submissions from the ground and elaborate a bit about the standing striking game.
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.
Going for a clinch and an upper-body throw is fundamental MMA. Sometimes you can’t shoot in for leg takedowns – maybe your opponent is a great sprawler or has such a reach advantage on you that you can never quite make it into shooting distance (rule of thumb, if you can’t punch him, you can’t successfully shoot in for a takedown).
Here are a few vids on taking your opponent to the ground.
