Troubleshooting - The Super Stomp

[Ricky Ho]

I have some difficulties playing the Superstomp position and would appreciate your feedback on what I can do to make progress. From the Lockdown position, my opponent smashes me and puts a Cross Face on me with his left arm. I then go into the Superstomp position and my left leg gets one Butterfly Hook in. I face several problems from this position as follows:

1. Although I have a left overhook and 1 Butterfly Hook in, I am not able to sit-up because my opponent is smashing me. What am I doing wrong and what should I be doing from here to sit up?

2. Whenever I try to wiggle my right leg to free my right knee in the Superstomp position, my opponent will free his leg and pass my guard. What am I doing wrong?

Any advice from the 10th Planet family is appreciated.

Ricky H

[Charles Wilhelm]

I'm no expert, but I play a ton of Lockdown, so here's my advice.

First, you say that you are in Lockdown with a left arm overhook, and your opponent is smashing you with a crossface. Even if you had the underhook on that side, there's not a lot you can do to prevent your opponent from moving to a Twister pass and still giving you a good 'ol crossface, which would definitely kill any Superstomp game, other than Gracie-style Elevator Sweeps, and is (for me) harder to deal with than when they continue doing what you are describing. I think that once your opponent decides which direction this halfguard battle is going to be facing, you have to adjust your strategy accordingly. He forces you to look to your left with a hard crossface, so you might try underhooking his free leg for a Whip Down instead, or going to Reverse Lockdown. I primarily use the Super Stomp when I am able to get a strong Pimp Arm in place, which gets me on my right side, facing towards them, and kills any crossface. That's the angle that you need, as far as I understand.

Secondly, the battle of the knee situation. Eddie went over this in a recent MTS, though at the moment I can't say exactly which one. Two things that will help cut down on these knee slice passes you are dealing with are 1) Squeeze your legs very tightly in that half butterfly clinch before you are mermaiding your leg out, and 2) Really slam your right leg back into his hard with each wiggle. The smaller and more vibration-ish that your mermaid is, the more likely he is to hit a knee slice pass on you. That leg wip needs to be aggressively extending and curling, smashing into the back of his thigh to keep his knee down and under control.

I am sure someone with more experience can give you some deeper insight, but in the meantime here is my best shot


I hope it helps even a little bit.

[Ricky Ho]

Thanks Charles for the advise.

[Eddie Bravo]

Sounds like you’re losing the battle of the knee. Watch MTS breakdowns of F1 and F2, I go over the battle of the knee extensively. Developing the butterfly, the leg curl, the over Hook and the pimp arm to the point they are all working together is the key.