The Grapplers Guide - Important Positional Tips

HOME | GRAPPLING RESOURCES | PHOTO GALLERIES | SEARCH | FAQ

		The Grapplers Guide > The Grapplers Guide Learning Resources > Grappling Performance Resources
Important Positional Tips

All Albums

Premium Sections

Mark Forums Read

- : Important Positional Tips

Category Tools

Search this Category

17 Important Tips for When You Have the Back Mount Position

hese are some important aspects to focus on when you are working towards or have established the back mount position on your opponent.

Comments	Views	Last Activity
4	234	07-12-2009 11:55 PM by GrapplersGuide

17 Important Tips for the Half Guard on The Bottom

These are some important aspects to focus on and remember when it comes to being on the bottom in half guard

Comments	Views	Last Activity
16	881	01-12-2009 07:15 PM by skywalker557

12 Important Tips for the Mount on Top

The Mount position is one of the most dominant positions in grappling, however for many people it’s actually one of the hardest positions to keep. Below you’ll find...

Comments	Views	Last Activity
3	270	10-11-2008 10:05 AM by GrapplersGuide

12 Important Tips for Top North South Position

Here are some important general tips for having an effective north south position on your opponent.

Comments	Views	Last Activity
6	350	09-09-2008 10:52 PM by GrapplersGuide

[/B][/CENTER] [/CENTER] Here are some important general tips for having an effective side control position on your opponent. (When reading these tips refer to them as if you have your opponent in side control on his right side.) [LIST] [*]Make sure you block your opponent’s nearside hip. This is one of the most important points to remember. If you forget to block your opponent’s hip with either your arm or your knee, it usually isn’t very hard for him to reguard. If you control their hips you usually control their body. This should be one of the first points you focus on. [/LIST] [LIST] [*]If you decide to move a limb from your opponent’s hip, then you must place another limb in place of the limb that was blocking your opponent’s hip before you moved it away. For example, if you’re blocking your opponent’s hip with your right knee and you want to remove your knee from his hip, you must place your right hand in front of his hip first and then move your knee. [/LIST] [LIST] [*]If you were blocking your opponent’s hip with your right hand and you want to remove your hand, then you must place your right knee in front of your opponent’s hip before you move your hand. This ensures that his hips are always controlled and it’s harder for him to regain the guard on you. If you don’t do it this way then he will have a better chance of escaping. [/LIST] [LIST] [*]You want to keep your chest on your opponent’s chest. Don’t have your body too high up towards his face and don’t have it too low down towards his stomach. [/LIST] [LIST] [*]Generally, you should be perpendicular to your opponent in side control. You shouldn’t be on an angle with your legs close to your opponent’s legs because they can do things such as hook your leg with their leg to annoy you. [/LIST] [LIST] [*]Don’t lean too far forward. If you lean to far forward then you’re going to release a lot of your weight off of your opponent. It’ll also make it easier for your opponent to roll you over him, especially if your opponent is much bigger then you. [/LIST] [LIST] [*]Don’t have your weight/chest to far back. As with having your weight to far forward, if you have your weight to far back then it takes a lot of pressure off of your opponent and will make it easier for him to scoot his body out from underneath you or possibly get his arm under you to form a frame in which he can use to push off of you to get out. [/LIST] [LIST] [*]Get your opponent’s right arm on the ramp position (on top of your thigh. What I mean by the ramp position is you want his right arm up on top of your left thigh which is the one closest to his head. You want to keep your leg very close to your opponent’s arm and body to make it harder for him to get his right arm out and frame it across your hips. If you have your left arm under your opponent’s head think about touching your left elbow to your right knee. [/LIST] [LIST] [*]Have an underhook on your opponent’s left arm with your right arm. While there are a few different ways you can position your arms, it’s generally a good idea to try to get an underhook on your opponent’s outside arm (this would be his left arm from this scenario) with your arm that is on the side closer to his legs, which would be your right arm. This is because when you establish an underhook on his outside arm, you gain much more control and also open him up for more attacks. [/LIST] [LIST] [*]Keep your head down and facing your opponent’s head. You don’t want to have your head up. If you do, he can form a frame under your face or neck and start pushing really hard on your face/neck to start working to get out. This is one of the first things that your opponent usually looks for when trying to escape. By keeping your head low it makes it much harder for him to get his arm under your face/neck and it also make some attacks such as armbars and americanas easier for you to g for. I also recommend that you keep your face turned towards your opponent’s head because this will keep him from trying to crossface you from the bottom. If your head is facing his legs then it’ll be easier for him to crossface your face with his forearm. [/LIST] [LIST] [*]It’s very important to also know what positions you can transition to from side control. To have a very good and very effective top game you need to know where you can move to and when might be a good time to do so. [LIST] [*]a.Scarf hold – This position is a good position to switch to if your opponent gets his inside arm across your hip. It’s also very useful if you want to adjust your side control position. I switch to the scarf hold many times to help me get my side control even tighter when I switch back. [*]b.Reverse scarf hold – This is a good position to switch to if your opponent places his outside forearm under your face/neck. I personally like to take my arm that was under my opponents head and feed it under my opponent’s arm that is working a frame under my neck. This way when I switch to reverse scarf hold I have both of my opponent’s arms behind me. [*]c.North South – You can switch to this position anytime. It’s also good if your opponent is starting to work underhooks on you. I switch to the north south position from side control a lot when I feel my opponent my try to scoot his body out to get to his knees. However I make sure I switch to north south before he is fully committed to getting to his knees. [*]d.Knee on Belly – Switching to this position is good if your opponent is moving you around a lot, because the knee on belly can be a floating position. Many times on bigger opponents it’s a good option to pop up to knee on belly when you have trouble keeping them still. [/LIST] [/LIST] [LIST] [*]Cinch your elbows in. What I mean by this is that you always want to make sure your elbows are tight to your opponent’s body. When your elbows are lose then it generally means your position isn’t as tight as it could be. So make sure you keep your elbows in. [/LIST] [LIST] [*]If you have both of your knees in, keep your butt down close to your heels. The reason for this is because if your butt is off of your heels then you’re probably supporting some of your weight with your legs when you really want to be focusing most of your weight on your chest so you can make yourself heavier on your opponent. Also when you have your butt off of your heels this usually leads to your weight being too far forward. [/LIST] [LIST] [*]At all times you should be connected to your opponent. When I have side control I think of myself as an extension of my opponent where a part of my body is linked to his hips. Why his hip? Because the hips in grappling is one of the most important parts of the body to control. If my opponent moves his hips, I will be there with him because I am now a part of his hips when I’m on top. [/LIST] [LIST] [*]Have your left arm under your opponents head to gain head control and place shoulder pressure on your opponents face. You should be trying to turn your opponents face away from you with your left shoulder. This will make him feel really uncomfortable and it’ll make it much harder for him to turn his face. If he can’t turn his face then he can’t turn his body which makes it harder for him to escape. [/LIST] [LIST] [*]Know the basic positions of side control [LIST] [*]a.Position 1 – Left arm under his head. Right arm underhooking his left arm. Your hands should be clamped together and your elbows should be cinched close to him. You can have either both knees in or your right knee blocking his hip and the other leg sprawled back. [*]b.Position 2 - Both arm on outside of your opponent. This is where both of your arms are near your opponent’s far arm. Your right arm should have an underhook on his left arm and your left arm should be under his shoulder/tricep. Your elbows should be cinched close to him. You can have either both knees in or your right knee blocking his hip and the other leg sprawled back. [*]c.Position 3 – Left arm under his head and right arm blocking the hip. Both of your knees can be in our both of your legs can be sprawled back. [/LIST] [/LIST] [LIST] [*]16.Pay attention to your opponents outside arm. [LIST] [*]a.Is it out? Can you get an underhook? [LIST] [*]i.Can you set up a spinning armbar or kimura from here? [/LIST] [*]b.Is he trying to get his forearm under your face/arm? Is your head down to stop him from doing this? [LIST] [*]i.Can you set up an Americana or Hug Choke from here? [/LIST] [/LIST] [/LIST] [LIST] [*]Be aware of the three main things your opponent has to use against you when trying to escape [LIST] [*]a.With his inside arm he will either: [LIST] [*]i.Try to get a frame across your hip line to use to push off of you. [*]ii.Try to get his inside arm completely under your body so he can use it to help him scoot his body out from under you using the forward hip scape motion. [/LIST] [*]b.With his outside arm he will either: [LIST] [*]i.Try to get a frame under your face/neck to make space to work an escape [*]ii.Try to get an underhook so he can make space and work to escape from there. [/LIST] [*]c.With his hips (accompanied by his legs) he will: [LIST] [*]i.Mainly continually attempt to hip scape away from you so he can get way to his knees or come back under for the guard. [*]ii.Use his legs and hips to bump up to work space so he can get his hands in the proper escaping position. [/LIST] [/LIST] [/LIST] While these tips are very useful in keeping a strong side control and opening up attacks it’s also very important to remember that if the side control position isn’t working for you then you need to switch your position. The best way to stay on top is to know what other positions you can transition to from each top position and when it’s the right time for you to do so. Many people feel that side control is the end all of top positions. While it’s a very strong and versatile position there are other positions that link well with the side control position to help you gain complete control on top of your opponent. If you use all of these positions in relation to each other you’ll feel much better when you obtain top control of your opponent.">

17 Important Tips to Know for Side Control On Top

Here are some important general tips for having an effective side control position on your opponent. (When reading these tips refer to them as if you have your opponent in side control on...

Comments	Views	Last Activity
8	955	07-30-2008 11:38 PM by yubjun

15 Important Tips for Having an Effective Scarf Hold

Here are some important tips related to the Scarf Hold pinning position or also referred to as the Kesa Gatame...

Comments	Views	Last Activity
11	524	07-19-2008 07:20 PM by Preston Gagg

16 Important Tips for Closed Guard

These are very important aspects to practice and remember with the closed guard. These tips are especially helpful with no-gi.

When having your opponent in closed guard you don't want to give him any space. Space for him means more...

Comments	Views	Last Activity
5	765	09-04-2007 10:00 PM by 1PunchKO

Display Options

Showing articles 1 to 7 of 7

Sorted By		Sort Order
From The

Category Tools	Search this Category
Mark This Category Read View Parent Category	Search this Category : Advanced Search

	New posts		Hot article with new posts
	No new posts		Hot article with no new posts
	Thread is closed

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads You may not post replies You may not post attachments You may not edit your posts vB code is On Smilies are On [IMG] code is On HTML code is Off

Tip of the Week

Sign up for the tip of the week and improve your grappling game!

Member Benefits!

- Get Access to a Community with Highly Respectful Members Who Have the Same Goals as You

- Get Access to a Community with the Most BJJ Black Belt Members (60 and Growing)

- Learn How to Create a Grappling Outline

- Learn How to Drill Grappling Techniques on Your Own

- Learn How to Break Through Grappling Slumps

- Get Access to High Percentage Gi Techniques

- Get Access to High Percentage No-Gi Techniques

- Learn How to Link Techniques Together Into Combinations

- Get Workouts to Benefit Your Grappling

- Learn How to Set Grappling Goals and Follow Through With Them

- Have the Ability to See Detailed Commentary Analysis of Grappling
Competitions

- Learn How to Make the Most of Your Class Time

- Learn How to Properly Drill To Improve Your Grappling With and Without a Partner

- Learn How to Analyze and Improve Your Grappling Through Journals and Worksheets

- That's Just Some of the Many Benefits You Get. There's Much Much More!

Testimonials

Once I saw the quality of the free instructional clips on this forum I signed up and have been nothing but extremely impressed. I promise you that you will not be disappointed in signing up.

~Pat

This place is well worth the money. I highly suggest anyone who isn't already a premium member, to hurry up and get the premium membership. It has great stuff that will really improve your game, your cardio, your mental planning, and your overall training regimen.

~Balcom

I've had paid membership with other forums and I got to say I like this one more. Especially compared to others. This forum has more to offer and again has more constructive information!

~Jay

What I like the most here is the friendly side of the site. All the members are cool, always very polite in the thread, and this is why we have such great discussions about BJJ and grappling here. So if you like grappling and BJJ and want to have serious discussions about your sport Grapplers Guide is THE place to sign!

~Alexis