Level 2 Basics: Escapes & Defenses
Hugging (Smash) Pass Defense
One of the most common pass defense situations is when we get taken down in a double leg takedown and our opponent is hugging our legs to prevent us from getting up as we attempt to re-stand. Or, any time we are standing out from bottom position and they hold our legs, we’ll be right into the hugging pass (also called smash pass,) one of the most common ways of passing the guard. The idea is to pull their arms up off of your legs, so that you can maintain your butterfly hooks and blosk their pass. However, it’s important to note that once you defend the hugging pass and pull up their arms, they may STILL transition to a bodylock pass if you don’t connect your hands into a frame in the double-overhooks clinch! This is one of the most important details of the move!
Escape Side Control: Under-Hook to Belly-Down Single Leg
A great fundamental Escape-To-Reversal Pathway!
Underhook Escape (Bridge & Shrimp to Belly-Down) > Single Leg > Shoulder Bump & Far-Leg Finish on the Knees > Hugging Walkaround Pass W/Leg-Bind > Head Position Details > Elbow Tap > Cross Face & Snow-Plough > Shoulder Smash to Americana
Make Sure To See Also:
-Underhook Escape Shadow Movements
-Hugging Pass Details for Staying Heavy
-Single Leg Clasp as a Form of Guard & Building Back Up
-Single Leg/Belly Down Loop Drill
The Power-Shrimp Vs Heavy “Kesa” Sit-Thru Style Side Control:
Combining Shrimping & 1/2 Tech Stand with a Sit-Thru Guard Recovery
Still stuck in side control even though you’re breaking the seatbelt and getting your arm frames in, because they go to a sit-through “Kesa-Gatame” style side-control? You probably need the “Power-Shrimp” escape – a 1/2 tech stand to a sit-thru to recover your guard!
See Also:
-Heavy Kesa Style Side-Control Breakdown/Tutorial
-Kesagatame Breakdown/Tutorial
Shoulder Roll FHL-Spin to Back Drill
The other way we can really enhance our side control escapes & guard recoveries is to incorporate overturn attempts into your game as a double attack, going back and forth with your regular hip escapes. This puts us into the same general idea as with our mount escape formula in our Level 1 Basics course – Bridge hard and look for the overturn! But if they base out and block the overturn, be really quick to chain right to your hip-escape and shrimp to guard, therefore using the overturn attempt as A SETUP for your hip-escape/guard recovery. Here we show the “Super-Shrimp” where you swing your legs out to get extra space to bring your legs right back in to recover your guard. When we swing our legs to build momentum for the Overturn, we go directly to the trigger position for the Super Shrimp, so these two techniques are essentially one move. The “Super-Shrimp” is, in my opinion, one of the most important overall moves you need to be competitive in JiuJitsu.