In last Friday's Sambo session I mentioned that I had seen some footage of a Greek Sambist hitting a drop morote to ankle pick combination repeatedly in the same tournament. We have also been using this combination as a warm-up in the Gi jiu jitsu classes this week. I was able to dig up the video and make some animations out of it for discussion. The full video will be posted below as well. So what are we talking about? Well if you're unfamiliar with morote seoi nage, start here to familiarize yourself.
In this case, our Sambist is using a unilateral grip, meaning he is gripping the same side sleeve and lapel. He drops in for his morote, but quickly turns back, ditching the sleeve grip and picking the ankle. He then drives toward that leg and presses with his remaining lapel grip to ground his opponent. Check it out.
Morote to ankle pick.
And again.
Another morote to ankle pick.
One more time.
Morote to ankle pick again.
I say “ground his opponent” and not “take down his opponent” because it is worth noting that only the first one actually scored a single point. The rest were waved off. Even that one I think may have actually earned the point for blue going out of bounds. You need to keep in mind that in Sambo, you can score with drop throws , throws that take you to the ground, but you can't score takedowns from the ground. That's why sweeps don't score either. So in this case it appears as though they are calling the technique a throw attempt and a follow up action in a different direction beginning from the knees. If he had kept the technique going on the same direction it may have scored. Changing directions while already grounded did not. Now that doesn't mean it's valueless. In the last example you can see he follows up attacking the arm almost immediately. Additionally there is the factor of momentum, even if you aren't scoring, repeatedly taking your opponent down is demoralizing for them. That said were this jiu jitsu it would score as any other takedown. So for multidisciplinary grapplers, it seems like a great tool to have in the box. Check out the whole video below if you'd like more context. Cheers.
