Lockdown Weight Limit?

[Ross Davidson]

I've noticed, for me, that the bigger the opponent, the less I'm able to play a straight forward lockdown game. I usually have to mix it up, pimp arming to full guard, and switching back to half guard, and immediately using the Omaha whip. Sometimes I don't even wait till the lockdown is in to Omaha whip, cause getting on my side right away is vital for success against big dudes. Often I don't even engage in any type of clinch until I'm set up to get into pdu straight away (latching onto a leg as he's passing for instance). So basically looking for lockdown entries in which getting to pdu immediately is key for me. Once I get to pdu, I like to dipset. This makes them lose control of their balance enough to allow me to sweep them in a specific direction.

I try not to bother with lockdown if I'm gonna be flat on my back against a big dude. Bad news bears. I'd rather play open so as to stay mobile and either look for an entry like I already stated, or look for legs/back takes.

[Tim Mohatt]

I don't descriminate. I tend to whip straight to electric unders.

[Kurzy]

I am 160lbs and I regularily roll with guys that are 230 or higher. I know it's not the same weight spread, but my philosophy with Lockdown and whipup against immovable opponents is not to actually lift them with the whipup motion, but just to upset their center of balance enough that they have to at least base their hands.
Then it becomes a game of moving my body out from under them and getting to my side. Instead of moving them, I squeeze myself out from under them. But if they are too big and unsweepable, I always end up using stomps and reclaiming butterfly guard, then either work Gogo clinch or get back to our knee wrestling, because big dudes lose balance pretty quickly if you know how to knock them over.

[Larry Williams, Jr.]

As a bigger guy I can say for near certain two things... One is that unless there is just some kind of crazy prohibitive strength descrepancy to go with the weight difference (and even perhaps then if the technique is picture perfect) you CAN whip up. I'm a super heavyweight, and I think FAIRLY a technical, and I've had Chad who I think weighs in somewhere between lightweight and middleweight if I were guessing whip up pretty effectively agaisnst me, I've allso had my coach who I outweigh by A LOT whip me up like I was going to go through a wall.
BUT
I'm still always happy to be in half guard, particularly with no knee shield in, because I can often flatten a guy out and put a lot of pressure on them, and try to shake the lockdown or even submit from inside half. Point is, if you let a guy that much bigger than you get their weight down on top of you its gonna be tough, so don't get discouraged. I personally don't think the whip up that's the hard part (you have a mechanical advantage for the whip up) it's getting off your back. If lockdown is the game you wanna play I suggest keeping after it, cause it can be done it's just gonna be tough at times, but when you get to where you can get the space, then whip up and get in a good side position with a guy that much bigger, guys in your own weight class will be easy.
Just my 2 cents from the other side of the coin.

[Chad Clark]

Lockdown pdu can work vs large weight difference, but like others have said, getting on your side so you better deal with their pressure is the main goal. Whether you go butterfly half, lockdown, deep half, any type of guard, you have to avoid getting flattened at all costs. Get on your side and get out from under them asap. If you are flattened, you are going to have a bad time.

[DavidBaut]

Angry Rainbow is what I use and I've been pretty successful so far.I competed against a guy who weighed in at 347lbs.at NAGA last year and it helped me tremendously