Thursday, May 25, 2006

[FIGHT] Strapple: May 22, 2006 Beginners' Session

Regrettably, only the parts that I remember:

Reviewing the basics of base

Settle into your opponent's cross guard. Top guy spreads apart his knees, outside of bottom guy's hips, to form his base. Either keep your feet sprawled underneath, with their tops flush against the floor, or stump up with just your ten toes pressed into the mat. A word of caution, as the latter may result in injury in the case of certain sweeps or actions taken from the bottom. Top guy grips both of the lapels near or south of his opponent's sternum with one hand, say, the right. Improve your leverage by digging the heel of your palm into your opponent's torso. No need to straightarm him back to the ground unless and until he tries to sit up. With your free left hand, grip Otherguy's belt or, better yet, some fabric near the top of his trousers. In either case, keep the thumb of your left hand tucked in to prevent bottom guy from wresting it free without expending a little effort, and stunt the heel of your left hand in as well. Use your left elbow to stab into the sensitive area inside his right knee, while retaining a firm grip with your left hand, of course.


Basic pass, arch, and kick out to kesa-gatame

Show some persistence in digging in with your left elbow and his right leg should fall open. Keeping the pressure with your left arm on as long as possible, throw your left knee over his inner right thigh to start the pass. The next priority is to reposition your left forearm under his neck, with his right shoulder trapped under your left armpit. Meanwhile, your right arm darts under Otherguy's left armpit to meet your left hand as you look to complete the pin. Bottom guy will usually try to establish some form of half guard. Keep the pressure on, chest to chest, your left shoulder digging into his chin if possible, and arch your body into an ever-higher triangle, rising at your waist only. With enough space established, your right leg should be clear except for your foot plus alpha. Here the right leg can now sink and bend at the knee outside your opponent, or farther out than his right hip. Post your left foot out and somewhere in front temporarily to create space for the right to follow. If your opponent insists on trapping your right foot, you can use the bottom of your left foot against his left thigh to help gain freedom. You can now shoot your right leg straight out and forward past bottom guy's right head to take kesa-gatame.

Push off reversal from guard bottom

Shrimp to straight legs and use your hands to fend off the top guy's advancing left shoulder and arm. Pull up your left leg and blade it diagonally across your opponent's torso, generally from his right hip to his left shoulder. Your left hand switches from fending off his left shoulder to grabbing the fabric around it. Your right leg (still trapped between top guy's legs, I think) should have room to bend enough such that your right leg can tuck in front of Otherguy's right thigh. Now pull your opponent toward, on top of, and past you with your left hand, with some help from your legs lifting him into a more precarious altitude. Once past, Otherguy will post his arms out for balance. Continue to alienate your opponent by bringing your left palm into contact with his left rib cage and pushing off with further assistance from your legs, while your right hand moles under his left tibialis anterior. You can push off a bit with your right hand on his posterior also. As you crawl out from under your opponent and get to your feet or a kneel, you should be able to catch the front ankle part of his left foot in the cranny of your right elbow. Using your free right hand to grab your upper left lapel can help secure control of his right foot. Some motion here and there, in particular moving backward and pulling his left leg toward you, should convince your opponent to flop to his butt.

German suplex control, single leg grapevine to kata-hajime

With the above maneuver, there's a possibility that your opponent will not flop to guard, choosing instead to wheelbarrow himself away for as long as he can do so. Rather than waste time chasing him around, you can make a quick forward move and get the German suplex position. From there, you can yank him to the floor to one side (say, his right) after placing the instep of your right foot outside his right heel. In the alternative, you can re-secure your grips on your opponent's mid-lapels, then hop one foot (say, your left) over his left foot. Grapevine just his left leg by tucking the top of your left foot under your right inside knee, then hooking the front of your right foot behind his lower left calf to finish the levitation trick. Now, you can work either hand over the top of one of Otherguy's shoulders to get a cleaner grip on his upper lapel on the opposite side. First, if you go for his upper left lapel by passing your right hand over his right shoulder, you can reach for the mat with your left hand to bring your opponent down, then snake your left arm around his and then to the back of his neck to get a kata-hajime. Second, if you go for your opponent's upper right lapel with your left hand over his left shoulder, you can snake your right arm around for the kata-hajime and then lean earthward on your right side to obtain some good leverage. A successful choke in this situation likely means that you'll have to let go in mid-air as your partner taps out. In summary, lean off to the same side as the opponent's lapel that you have trapped.

And somewhere along the while, I got this for my troubles. Or, perhaps more likely, I got it during the wrestling portion of Masada-juku, with details to follow.


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