First Absolute Match
This is the first of the last two videos I have of my matches at the Tampa Invitational. This was a fun match since were from the same school. My instructor, Eduardo, referees too.
The Yeti Match
My first match in the absolute was against Yeti, another blue belt. He had fought in the heavyweight division (195 lbs. and up), and I think he’s around 240 lbs. I weighed in at 157 lbs. that morning.
Right before the match starts, you can see me say “I’m gonna get yetied.” And I do. He rushes in for a takedown immediately since he knows I’m going to pull guard anyway. I give him it, so he starts the match up by 2 points.
I land in half guard without the underhook. I get the overhook and whizzer my grip deep, then get my butterfly hook in for half butterfly guard then full butterfly.
Before I can make anything of it, he postures and yeties his arm out. I sit up and bury my head under his chin, getting an underhook one one side and a grip on the elbow on the other. I drive into him but he drives me back and tries to jump around my legs. I follow him with my underhook and butterfly hooks.
He pummels for the underhook and I go to the whizzering game again. I’m trying for some sweeps or something but he just puts me flat on my back again.
My training partner Jon sees that I’m not sticking to the plan and yells “Matt, play YOUR GAME!” That’s when I switch to closed guard.
We’re interrupted for a moment while the scorekeeper and the cameraman have a secret discussion.
I then teleport into the center of the mat (or they moved us away from the wall while the camera was off).
I get my Power Grip, the hand in the collar like I’m going for chokes. I use my free hand to feed it deeper and reach behind his neck. You’ll see me do the same thing before getting the armbar in my second match.
Without even breaking his posture, I just throw my legs up and shoot my hips up to climb his back.
As he tries to stack to block the armbar, I go belly down. You can’t see from this angle, but I actually finished the armbar with my leg on the back of his head, like this:
I started doing some armbars from guard like this after watching Elliott Bayev teach them like that. If I pass the leg in front of the face (like a normal armbar) when I’m belly down like this actually makes it easier for them to posture and pull their arm out. With the leg on the back of the head like this, I can push their face into the mat and keep them down.
One more match to come.
November 27th, 2006 at 4:15 pm
You really should explain the nicknames. “Yeti” isn’t all that flattering out of context. :P
November 27th, 2006 at 4:15 pm
It’s not all that flattering in context.
November 27th, 2006 at 4:19 pm
Well, at least it came from somewhere other than Eduardo’s judgement of Craig’s looks.
But it came from WoW, didn’t it? That just makes Eduardo look bad, not Yeti. Heh.
November 27th, 2006 at 6:00 pm
Wow, that’s what it’s supposed to be all about – a smaller (much smaller, in this case) defender being to take on a much larger opponent.
You didn’t go for a Lockdown/Dogfight out of your initial halfguard?
November 27th, 2006 at 10:21 pm
I need the underhook to do any of that Eddie Bravo half guard stuff. And no, I don’t ever go for the dogfight.
January 12th, 2007 at 12:30 am
You have a pretty good sweep from there as well. Eddie Bravo shows it but I like the way David Camarillo shows it on his DVD series.
Essentially, if you can’t extend his arm, shoot your arm that is close to his head completely through his arm and to your waist and chicken wing your arm to your body. Take your other arm that is close to his leg and wrap around the outside of his knee to the inside. You can even reach for the back of your head for support. The next movement, which is really key (for me at least, it really helps this sweep), is to move the knee of the leg that is resting on the back of his head towards your body and his knees. Try for a 45 degree angle from his head. If he is moving foward roll onto your left shoulder (make sure you clear your head while rolling or bad things will happen). You are basically doing a foward roll on your left shoulder while pulling the trapped leg and applying downward pressure on the head you have your shin pressed on. If you can’t get the roll, pull on his arm and leg towards your body as if you are trying to turn him the opposite way. He will react by pulling against that motion thereby giving you the momentum to roll him with ease.
Once the roll is complete, you want to keep your right leg on his stomach area as a means of stopping him from posturing up. You basically apply downward pressure to stop the posture and then hook your left leg (the one that was applying pressure on his head) over the top of his face and work the Spider Web position (top armbar position with left arm trapping the leg, for those not familiar with Eddie Bravo’s terms).
I was having lots of trouble trying to lock armbars from the back. I could get the back pretty well but people had started defending my chokes a lot better. I would then transition to armbars but I could never get them. This has givin me another option so that if I can’t get the choke, I attempt the shin-to-head armbar (not very original name, I know) and if I can’t get it, transition to a sweep then Spider Web. The cool thing is that even if I don’t get the armbar from Spider Web, I can transition to mount, then side mount (not side control, but side mount) and then the back again. I can rinse, wash, repeat. It’s a great way to demoralize your opponent. The second time I tried this I was successful with the tap.
I’m sure, Aesop, you are probably familiar with this one but figured I would put it out there. You can create an instructional on it if you haven’t already.