I don't think my no gi-instructor understands the lock down

[Michael O.]

Tonight was a usual Thursday night for me,




grappling no gi and enjoying my roll, when another student comes in who's a pretty good purple belt, we all start rolling like normal. Then suddenly he turns to me and starts talking to me about half guard sweeps and starts saying something like, Hey your pretty good at the twister? At this point I'm not allowing myself to correct him or say anything to him, Hell I wasn't even sure what he was talking about. So he demonstrates a deep half guard sweep he's seen either glover or hall use.

So he starts showing me this sweep, and there's another sweep in case the opponent counters that one. All is going good, just variations of different things I've seen before but never really done them THAT WAY.


So like I said, All is good that's fine you know... then the instructor starts saying, Oh yeah I really like this stuff, makes the whole lock down look like baby steps.....


As he is saying this, I'm dying to say something but I'm not in the position to say anything as I'm not being charged to train there and it's not my gym obviously. He went on to mention how a lot of top grapplers never used the lock down. Also I really don't think he knows what different things you can do with the lock down. Then the purple belt tells me how He just uses it to stall when he's ahead on points is about to win.


Weird how I've been using the lock down to either to whip up to dog fight, or use it for an electric chair, twister... etc... he's seen me do it count less times...


So.... Man this is why I need to go to an actual 10th planet affiliate school.

[michael craig]

he uses it to stall when he is ahead on points...hmmmmmmmmm..that is so competitive of him..

[Andrei (KAZE)]

how do you call the submission that comes from lockdown? Calf crank or smth? i keep doing this sub for a while now but i still don't know how it's called. I saw Eddie do this sub in his twister dvd.

[Jonathan Wylie]

how do you call the submission that comes from lockdown? Calf crank or smth? i keep doing this sub for a while now but i still don't know how it's called. I saw Eddie do this sub in his twister dvd.

what? I think your talking about Electric Chair its the only submition that comes directly from lockdown but there is no twister dvd.

[Brian Beaumont AKA Thor]

It's not just him that's the view from the top of the Gracie food chain. I had a Gracie red+black belt tell me that lockdown is a stall position. I think that's awesome!!!! That means when they're in it they don't feel any real threat and therefore don't defend the impending attack. I hope they keep teaching that it's money for those of us who use it. Oh Jonathan there' a kick ass head + arm combo from lockdown but you have to bait them into it. We've got the vid on our site

[David Stevens]

Hey Andrei,

The submission is in Jiu Jitsu Unleashed under the Kamikaze Calf Crank. Eddie mentions the lower success when applying it in competitions. Or against someone who hates tapping to anything 10th Planet related

and Jonathan

No, he's not talking about the Electric Chair and yes, there is a Twister DVD


Ninja Vanish

[John Roderick]

There's a few things to point out. First, yes: there's a lower percentage calf crank from lockdown. Really,you'll only get it on new players, or someone who really hasn't seen it. If your opponent has a whizzer when you whip up, you won't get it. You have several sweeps: Electric Chair, Old School, Twist Back/Plan B, and on and on. You have opportunities to regain full guard, Limp Arm from Dog Fight, The Boa and so on. The key is, you have to be active in your guard game.

[Neale Hoerle]

So.... Man this is why I need to go to an actual 10th planet affiliate school.

It is my mission, and the mission of any Moon Instructor to teach the full system top to bottom. This is an obvious statement, I know, but you illustrated my point brilliantly.

Our system is so detailed it is why we, Moon Instructors, exist. Take the lockdown for example. If you are learning the lock down then you can be damn sure I'm teaching you the Capoiera Pass, the Mini Capoiera, Twister pass, basic foot pummeling, hell I even show the Indian Death Lock simply to ensure that any of my students dont get stuck in our own tech by a "Non-Believer"

Recently, given the popularity of our system, we have seen an increase of NON-Affiliate gyms teaching "Rubber-Guard" so long as they don't put 10TH Planet in front of it, there is nothing we can do. That is from a legal sense. It is up to you as 10TH Planet disciples to help us keep the system clean and correct. Dont train with these jokers. I am the only authorized 10TH Instructor in the entire state of VA and I have a gym right down the road selling seats at Rubberguard Seminars.

On one hand, the name is getting out there and thats great for the system, Also, imitation flattery is the highest form of flattery and I can appreciate that. The problem is the system can become corrupt. We dont want that to happen. Myself and the other Moon coaches are available to help you out. Im not blind to the fact that there are alot of you out there that do not have the benefit of being near a 10TH Planet school, but let us help! Call us, write us, use the forum... It's why were here

Oh, and as far as the Kamakazi Calf Crank is concerned... IMHO it's a diamond in the rough! It may not be high percentage for alot of you out there but my long legs are VERY well suited for the move. I catch players in it all the time... Not just once or everynow and then, it is an active submission in my bag of tricks. REPS REPS REPS

[AJ Camacho]

If your instructor is a BJJ black belt, I think you might be too critical of him (unless there's other stuff you haven't mentioned). For some guys, the lockdown just doesn't fit within their philosophy of jiujitsu. Some instructors would rather that you fight the cross face like your life depended on it, never allowing yourself to be flattened. Other instructors feel that learning the lockdown first teaches you to give up the cross face and flatten yourself when you don't have to.

Though those notions may be seeded in misconceptions it doesn't mean that you instructors game is ineffective or that his opinion is totally worthless. Your instructor isn't saying that stuff because he's an idiot. He probably has a valid reason for his opinion whether or not his opinion is right or wrong (assuming he's a BJJ black belt).

There are all kinds of ranges to the half guard game and the more you know then the more situations you can deal with. Rather than getting miffed about your instructors opinion, you should learn from it.

Personally I love the hell out of the lockdown. How many grapplers are still dangerous when they are pinned in half guard? 10th Planet dudes totally are.

[Scott Philips]

All you can do is show them daily that your lockdown is a more effective form of half guard. If your getting sweeps, they can only talk shit for so long.