Continuing on with RDLR we looked again at the kiss of the Dragon. I still don't really like it but hey, better grapplers than me do pretty well with it. For the most part the details are the same as in the gi. Check out the earlier post here for more in depth analysis. The main difference no gi is the finish. It can be hard to sit up and pull them to a really clean back take with out the belt or the skirt to grab. Instead we look to knock them down earlier and build up to a dominant wrestling position. For today we looked at combination leg lace / cradle on one leg and shin staple on the other. When we knock them forward to their knees at the end of the sweep, we still need to circle our outside leg inside with the other. From here we wrap under the shin with one hand then around the waist with the other. Locking out hands provides a very hard to break grip. Stapling the other leg to the ground with our shin ensures they are not going anywhere with out our permission.
For new material we began to talk in brief about what the top person might want to do to pass. Although not a passing lesson we needed the top person to act in threatening manner. The 'feed' in this case was the top person reaching down and clearing the inside grip on the foot. Once this grip is cleared, which is easier in no gi without the pants to hold, the knee cut becomes a very real concern. In order to counter this we switched our hips completely to play revers half guard. The key to this position is that our outside leg now needs to be very low, trapping the ankle in the crook of our knee. The inside leg now rides high and pushes their knee outward with the very high end of the tibia, just below our own knee. We cross our feet, top over bottom for extra leverage. From here, curling your feet in and extending your hips creates an absurd amount of leverage.
The reverse half guard position.
This position can be used to slow an opponent and allow us to reconfigure to a more familiar guard or to sweep. If we want to sweep we need to do two things, load their weight on us and deny their post in the direction of the sweep. In the jacket we would use a cuff and collar grip for this, without it I like the fishing pole grip again. I could also use a collar tie or far side underhook but the fishing pole is my preference. Once their weight is loaded onto us , we extend our hips hard and try to roll to our stomach. The goal is to not let your knees hit the mat until your opponents back hits the mat, this will maximize leverage and avoid coming up in the half guard. The finishing position will depend of the grips we had going in, but as always the main concern is not to allow the near elbow to base on the mat.
Mike Fowler calls this ‘the unstoppable sweep’ and he does it very well in the jacket. Here is a longer form video on the sweep.
