A lot of this class was spent talking about preventing the guard pull. I will come back and do another post on that soon, but this will focus on the work we did at the end of class on the backstep DLR pass. The examples used will be from this video by Marcelo Garcia. It is a little long but very good. Watch the whole video and consider subscribing to his site if you like it.
Marcelo starts in a similar position to what we did, the main difference is that he controls the lapels while I like the grip on the belt or outside the hip. With his other hand he controls the posting leg. From here the backstep arises mainly as a means of clearing or counter the deep DLR hook. If the hook hasn't come in or is only in a shallow position, our previous passing sequences work well. But, when the hook is set deep to the far hip we need a way to clear it. Marcelo first advocates for taking a large backstep to clear the hook from the hip and allow us to step back to square and again work our previous passes. Notice he keeps pressure on the posted leg the whole time and doesn't allow it to block his return.
However, often if the hook is very deep or the guard player very skilled this will not be enough to clear it. In this case Marcelo advocated for a floating position. He backsteps very deep, and balances his weight on all four limbs, especially on his grips. In this initial position he will not let his hip hit the mat. He forces the far leg away and puts lots of weight through the collar grip. If possible from here he will kick he trapped leg free of the grip and extract it. This is also true if the opponent decides to let go the the ankle grip.
In the event that The guard player keeps the ankle grip and Marcelo can't free it, the far arm becomes the primary concern. If that hand reaches for the belt to initiate a berimbolo or another attack, Marcelo looks to let go of the collar grip and drop his elbow to the far side. Now he will allow his hip to hit the mat for the first time.
From this cross body position it is pretty easy to clear the leg. Marcelo uses his other foot to kick it free. Just note that when doing so you lose some base so keep good control on the leg grip. Here is the pass from start to finish.
