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For any mixed martial artist the fundamentals of training are most important no matter what discipline you are training in (Brazilian Jujitsu, Judo, Pankration, wrestling, shooto, or sambo.) If you are a novice, beginner to MMA expert you will have to continually practice
Armbar Defense and the Berserker
Q: How do I escape the armbar when my opponent is crossing his ankes?
A: Crossing the ankles during the armbar is controversial (http:// tinyurl.com/2ks5yk), but is an effective way to shut down many of your opponent's escapes. For example, the simple escape shown here - doesn't work if your opponent has his ankles crossed.
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| Stephan is caught in an armbar. He protects his arm by gripping his hands together (see next photo for details on the grip). | Using the linked hands he pushes his opponent's leg off of his face. Note that he does not release his grip. | Stephan then drives his whole body backwards using his legs. He puts his head on the floor to trap his opponent's thigh, so that that leg can't come back over his face. |
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| Still keeping his hands gripped together Stephan spins towards his opponent. | He ends up in his opponent's guard, completing the escape from the armbar submission. Most opponents will now immediately try for an armbar from the guard, so Stephan is protecting his arm and controlling his opponent's hips! |
To escape an armbar where your opponent has crossed his ankles one good option is to fight (very hard) to get onto your knees and drop your weight down over him while protecting your arm by applying placing your arms into a rear naked choke position. Once you are above him then you can stabilize the position, crush him a little bit, and start to extricate your arm an inch at a time.
If he is also controlling your leg
then you need to use your free leg to kick his arm off of your leg before getting your knees underneath you
It is a tough position to escape though...
The Berserker
There's one at almost every club. The guy who can't lose. The guy who always goes 100%. The guy who applies every submission with speed and power. The guy who fights as if his life depends on it. One sure indicator that someone is a grappling berserker is that he is always injuring his training partners and/or himself.
A favorite trick of a berserker is to say something like "I'm feeling tired (or sick, or injured) today, let's just go 50% and flow".
Usually it takes less than 10 seconds of sparring for them to go into turbocharged berserker mode. Now you've got to make a decision to get crushed or to play his game and match his intensity.
There's nothing wrong with hard-fought, high intensity rolling, especially if you have competitive aspirations. Making EVERY sparring match a battle to the death, however, is suboptimal for several
reasons:
First of all, the chances of injury increase, both for you and your opponents.
Secondly, since everything is tense, tight and explosive it limits the development of that elusive attribute 'flow'.
Thirdly, it limits your pool of training partners. People will start avoiding you on the mats, either because they don't want to get injured or simply because they aren't in the mood for an all-out dogfight.
Finally, it can stop you from becoming well rounded, because if winning every sparring match is the only thing that counts then you probably won't willingly put yourself into bad situations or positions you need to improve at.
If you have a berserker at your club I'm not saying that you shouldn't spar with him; in fact they can be very useful training partners depending on what aspect of your game you are working on. The main thing is that you have to know what you are getting into and be prepared for a battle every single time. Don't get sucked into starting out light and easy and then, without warning, having the intensity escalated on you.
Stephan Kesting
www.grapplearts.com
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