[FIGHT] Strapple: Variations on a Theme by Minotauro

As you can imagine, things have been very busy at home with the tag team. Work also sucks donkey. So I won't even pretend to attend jiu-jitsu classes regularly, let alone keep a journal thereof. But I did manage to attend Masada-juku on April 19, 2006. Technique drills focused on top guy sprawling against a failed shoot with both parties ending up on their knees.

Haul forward and take back

After sprawling, top guy can trap bottom guy's inside arm with the semblance of an arm-in guillotine. Assuming that your opponent's shoot was for a single leg, his inside arm (say, his right) will be the arm between your knees. Trap the left side of his head with your right bicep and clasp your hands together outside the armpit of his right arm. Keeping a tight palm-on-palm grip, slide back and draw bottom guy's extended right arm forward. In effect, you disrupt his base by sprawling him forward against his will. If his inside arm is sufficiently swept away, vectoring diagonally away from its original position between your knees, you can switch your grip to hold his right armpit with only your right hand, palm up (and the very tip of his upper right tricep with your fingertips). Clench a little bit of his gi if necessary. While extending your opponent, at the exact moment that the right side of his body is in a down dog position from yoga, you can pivot fully to his right side just as your free left hand reaches across bottom guy's back to grab his left mid-lapel.

Spinning choke sleeper

Masada-sensei witnessed my less-than-perfect attempts to pull off the technique above, and he told me to try the spinning choke sleeper. The choke works best for guys with long arms, and I'm just a regular orangutan. From the haul forward to half-down dog, the top guy switches to a sleeper grip instead of the armpit hold. Your right hand grabs your left bicep, with your open left palm on the mid- to lower back of your opponent's right side for leverage. Drop to your left side, where bottom guy's trapped arm is. With your body resting on your left ribs and your opponent on his right, start walking along the mat toward him to tighten the choke.

Unfinished spinning choke sleeper to mount

Working off of the spinning choke sleeper after dropping to the left side, as an alternative you can roll all the way onto your back. To get the other guy onto his, keep your sleeper grip tight and then bridge. Unfortunately, I was not too clear on the mechanics of moving to mount (or side position) from here. Thrust your legs and hips into the air and hope for the best, I suppose.

Ushikoroshi

Start with the sprawl and failed shoot, with top guy securing a modest palm-on-palm clasp but having trouble hauling bottom guy forward. On top, you want to pass to the side of the trapped arm. Your opponent below knows this, and crawls with you in the same direction, say, clockwise. With some good timing, you can plant your left foot to the outside at a stiff, almost right angle, and throw bottom guy in the opposite direction with your left hand, which is under his right armpit and outstretched arm. That should reorient your opponent on all fours but at two or three hours counterclockwise, vulnerable to a back-taking. Crawling and tip-toeing to the other direction, then with a shuck with your right hand, may also be worth a try.

Free arm lift helicopter sweep

What's a body to do from the bottom? We were only treated to one technique on this end. From the failed sprawl, keep your right arm jerked back at a 90-degree angle to prevent the half-down dog. Since top guy's right arm is swooping down from up top, use your right hand to knot up some cloth around his right elbow. In the tight space available, step forward across your body with your right foot. It should end up a fair bit outside your opponent's right knee, or hamstring, even. Your left arm strikes out like a board and lifts from inside top guy's right thigh. Use your right foot, perhaps the flat, broad topside (the peroneus longus tendon, maybe?) to leverage and push off. If all goes to plan, top guy will flop onto his back after rotating on the imaginary axis en the top of his head and the great cornholio. Keep moving in direction of the forward right foot. Free your head first and work to a close osaekomi from the side position. Think like a judoka, I was told, but I don't quite get that.



We ended Masada-juku with restless sparring. OK, so maybe I sat out one round. I sparred with Sato first, but he is just heads and shoulders above everyone else right now, even in light of the fact that he got his long overdue blue belt promotion. My next partner was Yagihashi. I got to sidemount on his left side quickly and worked reasonably fervently for a V1 with my legs on one side, and either a Kimura, Americana or straight armbar on the other. Fumi-san then chimed in with some advice about tying up Yagihashi's right wrist with his own gi, and when I got focused on that endeavor I got caught in an armbar (left, I think) for my trouble. And for the finale, Little Blue Araki asked me to spar from my back for once. Sure. From there, I caught him with a little-bit-short-of-textbook basic scissors sweep to my right side, which I followed up with a quick Kimura attempt from mount that Araki tapped out of very early. On his next try from inside my guard, I caught him and his left arm in a triangle. I shifted position in a lose, errant way but still clamped it on again and toppled Araki to the mat on his left side, which brought forth the tapping. Araki might have been better off with his usual Spider or Rubber Guard game, because to be frank, he doesn't have much of a shot of putting me under except with a triangle from the bottom.