The Jiu Jitsu basics
I am fairly new to Jiu Jitsu, let me make that clear from the start, but I am going to try to explain a few basic (but crucial) techniques..
Before you start you should always do a warm up and stretches. The warm up could be “shrimping” movements. To do this you need a partner. You then lie on you back with your knees bent and have your partner stand over you. You then flatten one of your legs to the mat by straightening it and then roll your body onto the side of that leg so that you are leaning on the shoulder of that side. The simultaneously push against your partners leg while “shrimping” out, which means shooting your hips out in the opposite direction away from your opponent. The action should be explosive. This is the fundamental movement used in performing a hip escape so it is imperative to practice it a lot in drills like this.
One of the principle technique I am going to be explaining is how to escape from side control. So if you are starting in full guard with your feet pressed your opponents hips, getting ready to push him off you but he throws your ankles to one side and pounces into side control. The first thing to do is to make sure your arm of the side he comes from grabs his opposite arm’s bicep. So if he comes from the left you grab his right bicep with your left arm and vice versa. This is so he can’s get control of your head in a neck crank (because if he did you would be in a world of trouble from strikes or submissions). Keep your opposite arm around your stomach will become evident later.
So from this position there are two basic ways of getting out.
The first is to push your hips towards him and then explode in the opposite direction with a shrimping hip escape. This may create enough distance between you and your opponent to reclaim full guard with either a closed guard or a butterfly guard.
If that doesn’t work there is another way. With the arm across your stomach, use that to get an underhook on your opponent so you can control him a bit. Then slide down so that your ear is at his armpit and then use a hip escape to sprawl out so that your stomach is face down on the mat with you on your knees. From this position you can drive him over to earn side control top.
About the Author:
Morgan Mcleary is a 19 year old journalism student from Glasgow, Scotland. He currently trains in Jiu-Jitsu at Possil Park Gym and is a member of GripHouse MMA. He is one of the growing number of British MMA fans. As well as writing about MMA he also has his own blog which is updated weekly and is working on a podcast. http://themorganmclearyblog.wordpress.com/
Tags: jiu-jitsu
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