Week 15

Anti grappling: Double underhooks

This material is from the level 3 program and level/stage 3 deals with all matters anti-grappling. This evening we started off by focussing on the double underhooks position. Initially we practised working the body lock on another. Keys are pulling their hips towards yours, maintain a strong palm to palm grip and keeping your own centre of gravity lower than theirs. IN part, this ensures you are harder to take down. To complete the takedown from double underhooks, level the elbows at the same time down and up. They become off balanced very quickly and the takedown is a matter of keeping control as you dump them down. When feeling the position, it was most uncomfortable and unpleasant. When studying BJJ this was a position we rarely played with. We tended to focus on single and double leg shots, throws and sweeps for takedown.

This was a very new experience for me tonight. So from this position, Martin talked about this being the worst case scenario as if someone knows this position, then they know where to go next and it is clearly not a good place for you. The next stage was defending the position as the go for the underhooks, arms are around but hands not yet clasped. There are several key movements to remember. Firstly, you need to drop the hips (arse) back then down . This double movement will ensure you have both space from his hips and your centre of gravity is lower and thus harder to manipulate. As the hips drop back and down, you need to insert the outside of your hands towards his hips, keep the arms straight. This will now create vital space and make him attempting to get the grip very, very hard. It is also important to maintain a good structural alignment, keep the back straight but angled. Of course we can’t stay in this stalemate forever so we need to work an escape. As we are not a sport we can look to manipulate the eyes to get him moving away. Bring the hands up to his face, thumbs down, so the fingers fall into the soft tissues of the face. Protective reflexes will start to kick in and he will look to move away and you push his head back over his spine and centre of gravity. To make it easier, the elbows should not stay out as you push the head as you are not using the correct muscle groups, try to get the elbows closer together, engage the lats.

The second escape involved same initial anti grapple, try to squeeze his elbows together, take an elbow with your opposite hand, use the same side hand to take it off and away then pass it across your centre which puts him in a sort of arm triangle. Stand up and push his face on the jaw then strike with the elbow where you just pushed. If he does pull out an arm, great, you can still give him more good news with little strike threat to yourself.

Finally we looked at throwing punches at our partner, they crescent under and go for double underhooks, we then looked to practise the above escapes. Interestingly the attacker threw 2 types of punches. We started with tight and centred wing chun punches which felt really hard to shoot under for double underhooks. I wanted to drop right under and go for the double leg. I felt the punches were going to prohibit my double underhook attempt. We then had to throw higher elbowed boxer style. This felt much easier to come under. The lesson is therefore, our style of punches are better.

Pak lop drill:

Continued from the last session I attended. Again working the basic lop and punch with the change (leaver the fist there), then pak and punch. The change for each is simply doing 2 of each technique, so if you want to change on the lop, follow it with a lop with the other hand. The inside gate lop is off the pak and the key is to turn the hand over and pull them in. The pak and lop get them going backwards, the inside lop lobs a spanner in the works as it brings them forward. I was training with Martin and we had a good system during this drill, when one makes a mistake, then the other take his turn. A good tip I picked up on the lop technique was keeping the elbow low and the hands almost looks like it is moving laterally as the wrist stays under the fingers. When you start to look for or reach for lop sau and pak sau in this drill, the elbow will come up and the lats are not engaged, it just felt more efficient.

We then looked to apply these techniques as entry techniques against a boxer pikey style guard.

Regular guard = lop (L) pak (R) hit (L)

Symmetrical guard = pak (R) pak (L) hit (R)

We also looked the using the inside gate lop but I have forgotten how to apply it.

Sparring

Really enjoyed it tonight, I changed my approach by trying to stay with the system as we were both attacking at the same time. For those training partners i had the absolute pleasure and privilege to spar with, thank you for your time, patience and pain. I left last night with battered arms, a bloody nose, a bruised chin but a stronger spirit. I need to ensure that if i am holding with one hand, the other is pistoning or hitting. I was also trying to spend time and an awful lots of energy going for the Thai clinch and taking the back.