Kroyler Gracie said in a gi seminar that he's poured a lot of time in being the guy on bottom. He showed us a shaolin sweep where he gets to his side, pinches his knees, creates space to frame the top guys head and swim out of the cross face, to eventually make your way to control the top guys cross facing hand. You'd then shove that hand between your crotch and do a backward somersault. Looks really slick if you can get it, and I've surprised some people with it, even in no-gi. Especially in no-gi. The only difference between gi and no-gi is that gi may allow you to get caught holding the grip, and you'll still get the sweep. In other words, the guy could have caught on and started struggling but your grip is already locked in. You could almost leisurely have your hand make its way down to your genitals. No-gi almost requires you to punch yourself in the penis or vagina in order to pull it off, while simultaneously doing a backward somersault. It's done faster. But it does work. That was the only sweep he showed though, so I sought him out 1-on-1 to dive headfirst in this reverse half-guard passing position and how to counter it. Literally. I was shocked when I saw this post. I'm like "Holy shit that's LiTerally the reason I went to go see him". Think we've met up 3 times so far. He's about 100 miles outside of Chicago up in Elkhart, Indiana, so anyone near should check him out. But I digress. Here's what I found:
The biggest detail is straightening out your knees. If you're the guy on the bottom, you want to trap your half-guard above his knee cap then immediately lock your knees in place. What this does is create a pinch between your kneecaps. If you experiment with it, you will see that the guy on top has a considerably harder time pushing his knee out. Like everything tho, it's a race. If he switches his hips quick enough as they showed in the video, and he has the cross-face, it leaves you with less room to straighten out your legs. This means that his hips are less likely able to elevate above your hips, which could be the precursor to a lot of Shaolin-type stuff or deep-half. At this point, experienced guys pretty much got the pass. But if you have the underhook, you might just be able to create some space by locking your knees. The idea here is distance management using the pinch on his thigh with your kneecaps as pivot points. You're ultimate goal is to do something about the cross-face so your chest isn't pinned. From my experience, the best you can hope for against a skilled, heavy black belt is to work to a butterfly hook or time an oompa and come on top. My instructor is 250 and I'm 180, so it's definitely a game I'm losing today, but going in with the idea that if I can find an answer for him, I can find an answer for anyone. Wishful thinking though, often times. Not to be a defeatist, though. I have been able to create some space with the knee pinch, and I feel that it's only a matter of time before human ingenuity kicks in and over time keep throwing in wrenches that guys don't necessarily have an answer for.
Play with it though. The knee pinch principle alone is worth the 300 clams I've shelled out so far.
The biggest detail is straightening out your knees. If you're the guy on the bottom, you want to trap your half-guard above his knee cap then immediately lock your knees in place. What this does is create a pinch between your kneecaps. If you experiment with it, you will see that the guy on top has a considerably harder time pushing his knee out. Like everything tho, it's a race. If he switches his hips quick enough as they showed in the video, and he has the cross-face, it leaves you with less room to straighten out your legs. This means that his hips are less likely able to elevate above your hips, which could be the precursor to a lot of Shaolin-type stuff or deep-half. At this point, experienced guys pretty much got the pass. But if you have the underhook, you might just be able to create some space by locking your knees. The idea here is distance management using the pinch on his thigh with your kneecaps as pivot points. You're ultimate goal is to do something about the cross-face so your chest isn't pinned. From my experience, the best you can hope for against a skilled, heavy black belt is to work to a butterfly hook or time an oompa and come on top. My instructor is 250 and I'm 180, so it's definitely a game I'm losing today, but going in with the idea that if I can find an answer for him, I can find an answer for anyone. Wishful thinking though, often times. Not to be a defeatist, though. I have been able to create some space with the knee pinch, and I feel that it's only a matter of time before human ingenuity kicks in and over time keep throwing in wrenches that guys don't necessarily have an answer for.
Play with it though. The knee pinch principle alone is worth the 300 clams I've shelled out so far.
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