Troubleshooting from lockdown

[Elisha J Baker]

Alright, so, go ahead and mock me for this but I play a ton of half guard and there's one guy at my gym who makes it his mission in life to get double underhooks when I have him locked down. He knows if I get the same side underhook, he's absolutely getting swept.

We fight hard over it every time, but sometimes he still gets it. Jaws of life is pretty tough when he's squeezing hard with both underhooks. We end up stalled. There's problem 1.

Problem 2: correct answer is to stomp out, but my butterfly game isn't very good. He usually passes if I do that. I know, I'm working on it.

So. What are all our options?

[Michael Mella]

Can't you still do the whip up and whip down to regain the undertook, or forget about the underhook and get the meathook in and biceps control on the opposite side... then... use this to get to the arm triangle. The guys (Zach Maslany & JM Holland) at 10P Bethlehem do this a lot
Good luck!

[Mike May]

How's your flexibility? You could always superstomp to gogo clinch out of New Jersey. The was a Star Wars based name series Eddie put out a while back that I still play, which covered this exact flow.

[HerbChao]

Jaws of life is pretty tough when he's squeezing hard with both underhooks. We end up stalled. There's problem 1.

I don't have a video of it in front of me, but Big Nog released a video (and book "Guard for MMA" or some thing along the lines) where he shows a wicked money sweep for when your opponent has the underhook on you on the same leg trapped, he does a bridge and chop on the person's leg and it causes them to roll over and you end up in top guard (often the person realizes to get back to guard as you sweep them but there are times I've managed to end up in top half guard).

I would agree look into the stomp that the Bethlehem folks use as well, I've had relative success there as well. Also Brendan has taught some awesome meathook transitions as well when your opponent gets out of guard (but hasn't fully passed yet) it may not always be easy to hit from a lockdown (least I haven't mastered that yet) but I think meathook may be something worth looking into too.

[Brandon Mccaghren]

Use your knees to bump him and whip him. That will give you a little space to work, but really you can't allow him to play for both underhooks. You gotta stay on your side and deny him the underhooks early in the process.

[Elisha J Baker]

Thanks guys.

Gogo clinch is still a bit of a struggle for my flexibility.

Been meaning to look into your meethook stuff more, Brandon. Thanks for all the hacks.

[tilok1997]

I'm just thinking out loud here haven't tried this yet; I was watching MTS 131 yesterday and saw the "Ezekiel Choke No Gi with Ilan Xanthakis"; if this guy gets both underhooks on you then your hands should be in a golden position to go for it; if he tries to shake it off he'll give up good top pressure and you can recover you underhooks and go back to playing your game. If im wrong please correct me :P i'll try it out as soon as i can

[Eddie Bravo]

Professional stomps are long term goals but crucial, that’s why it’s in the warm ups twice, F1 and F2. Whip downs and jaws of life are huge too.

[Jon Watkins]

Do you ever use 93 guard to pummel your underhook? I personally find it less taxing to win the hand fight before I even enter into lockdown. Of course there are options when that does happen as mentioned above, but what is your game plan before you are entering lockdown? How is the other guy getting the double underhooks? Is he just pummeling or is he using some means to flatten you out first?

[Elisha J Baker]

He does flatten me out from time to time, that's my bad... it generally happens when I'm really tired.

I do know pro stomps are the correct answer in the long run. No arguing with Eddie on that one.

Never giving up the underhook is also correct, but like I said, sometimes it happens. I have indeed been thinking about ditching to 93 from lockdown (I can pretty often do that even while underhooked) and pummeling back in from there. For me that’s more secure than my weak butterfly guard.

Sadly I just put a tear in my LCL so this is gonna be just theory for a hot minute...