Continuing from the previous weeks look at Funk rolls and switches this class was built around advancing those skills. First we started looking at the Funk roll and how it is more likely to play out in a wrestling or Combat Wrestling context in which people are more phobic of exposing their backs to the ground than the typical Jiu Jitsu player. The main difference between this weeks feed and last weeks was that last week when we rolled through our opponent stayed on their grips allowing us to roll them to their back. This week we had the shooter bail on the grips and walk on their hands to remain on top. In this case we end up coming to our hands and knees with one of their legs on either side of us in kind of weird reverse wheelbarrow position. From here a few things can happen. Starting with the least desirable, they may grab our foot and try to work a toe hold. This has very little chance of working as there is no control over the knee , but they might try. Second, they might grab both our feet and try to stay on top. This can work and we will counter by grabbing both their feet and waiting for something to change or the ref to reset us. Not great, but at least we limited the damage and didn’t give up pin points. Last but most desirable, our goal is to build back up in a technical stand up and turn in. We then shelve the leg on our hip and finish with the same sequence we use for our sweep singles. Again, stay below the waist to avoid the over hook. It should look more or less like this.
On a side note, here is a good example of what can happen if you wrap above the waist and feed a live overhook to your opponent. Note the defenders foot is shelved on the hip very well and the attacker does eventually get the take down but not until the defender throws an illegal and halfhearted flying scissor. Had this been combat wrestling and he committed more aggressively to the scissor it might have been different.
Back to the business at hand, we next revisited the switch. This time we looked at using the switch to defend the single leg. Assuming our opponent has shot a head inside single our first move is to swap their head to the outside high crotch position. From here we reach down through the armpit into the thigh. We need to make sure we get good shoulder pressure doing this so it may be necessary to pull up on the elbow at the same time to get some ‘bite.’ We next look to keep driving pressure down as we hop our free leg forward and fall to ‘S’ position on our inside hip. This is very hard to stop as the pressure is very intense. Almost always they will bail on the leg to base out on the mat. This allows us to dig and turn in hard to attack the back or run the double should they turn back in. It should look something like this.
If you are looking for more on these subjects Reilly Bodycomb recently released a special short instructional called Wrestle Back which goes into both of these techniques in much more detail. I learned them both in his camps and highly recommend them. You can get a copy of Wrestle Back for free right now with purchase of a pair of Rdojo shorts from Inverted Gear. They are dope. Although I’m an associated instructor with Rdojo, I am not affiliated in anyway with Inverted Gear, I just like the shorts.
