Armdrag

Well I have been managing to get back on the mat on a regular basis again and I am working on incorporating some different tactics into my game. Re-incorporating might be a better term as these are moves which used to be a mainstay of my guard game but I haven't really been focusing on them recently.



First on Saturday I trained at the class on Bainbridge. Tim taught a technique that used to be my go-to sweep. I haven't been using it recently; I have been working on other guard positions, but I got some great details that made me want to invest more time in it.



Starting from a sitting up guard position you trap his lead leg (right) between your left shin and your left arm. Grab your lapel with your left hand. Grab his left sleeve with your right hand and feed it to your left hand. This will compromise his balance and cause him to lean forward. Reach over his shoulder as deep onto his back as you can, and fall to your right, kicking up your left leg like a butterfly guard sweep as you push his left knee with your right foot. It sounds complicated but it's basically a glorified butterfly guard sweep as Tim succinctly put it.



The second technique is one that I'm terrible at and would like to spend some serious time on. If the guy puts his knee on your stomach from the sitting up guard position, which he probably will try to do, you use your hook to lift his leg and go under his left leg, whcih will probably be posted out. Bring his leg up to your shoulder then bracing his right knee with your elbow bring your left leg up to put him in deep half-guard. It's hard. I sort of used it last night but my opponent wasn't putting much pressure on me.



Monday and Wednesday I trained at Maxercise. Both nights we worked on an arm drag from the butterfly guard. I like how John focuses on the same techniques all week, it really gives me an opportunity to get into them and practice them.

Basically if you're sitting in the butterfly guard andyour opponent grabs your left pantleg with his right hand make a pistol grip on his sleeve with your right hand, grab his tricep, break his grip by kicking his leg, then launch yourself backwards, pulling his arm. Post your hand on the ground, come up to the back.

Before I came to Maxercise I trained a lot of no-gi and I used armdrags all the time. I evenually kind of got tired of them because I relied on them so much. Last night I hit that armdrag so much it was almost unfair. I want to try it at the Bainbridge class on Saturday and see how it goes.