10 min warm up - Over under clinch
- Arm drag
- O goshi
- Two on one
- Inside trip
- Shadow shot
We spent this class looking at what I consider an essential skill for high level grapplers which is easy to overlook; basing on your head. There are a few places that this skill is commonly useful but it isn't something that we train often. We started off with what Reilly calls leglock rolls or ankle lock rolls. This involves starting laying on your back, rolling to one shoulder, then to your forehead, then to the other shoulder and again to your back. Start this with your knees down if you need to but you want to eventually be able to do it form your toes. You never want your temples or your nose to touch the mat. As you roll from your shoulder, look at the mat so that your weight goes to your hairline, keep looking down at the mat until you find your other shoulder again. This way you are always aligned in the strongest position. These are leglock rolls or ankle lock rolls because frequently when your hands are occupied in an ankle lock your opponent may try to rotate out, forcing you to turn with them or to finish in tripod position balanced on your head.
In the following video we can see the finishing position on the head, although this set up doesn't involving rolling to get there. ( Bonus! This video features Reilly, Vlad, and 2017 -74kg Combat Wrestling world champ Mike Palladino. I'm coming for that title this year, Mike.)
However, the real reason I wanted to work this skill is for sticking with armbars when our opponent rolls while defending. I find that this happens with me frequently and specifically happened several times in my first match at the Canadian Combat Wrestling trials last weekend. In the clip below you can see I begin with a kimura grip and am forced to roll several times across my forehead in the same manner as the ankle lock roll in order to secure the transition to the armbar. John managed to escape the armbar because he is a beast, but that is a story for another time. The skill here is to be able to roll onto your head, allowing you to use you legs to redirect your opponent and stick with the armbar. When they are turtled you want to use your hip side leg to lift them forcing a front roll, when they posture up high you want to use your head side leg to drive them to their back the whole time keeping your grips.
