PRE-CHRISTMAS SALE I'm hearing Christmas music in the stores and seeing lights starting to appear on the houses, and that means it's time to start up the annual winter sale at Grapplearts.com. The Grapplearts Video Catalog includes DVDs on sweeps, submissions, MMA training, conditioning videos, etc.

All Grapplearts DVDs have been reduced by at least 20%. In addition, the 'multiple item discount' still applies, so you can save 10% more if you order two DVDs, 15% more if you order three DVDs or 20% more (for a total of 40%) if you order four DVDs or more. To cap things off, you only pay one flat fee for shipping, regardless of how many DVDs you order. Shipping in the mainland US and Canada is via UPS. For shipping to Alaska and Hawaii and PO boxes I use expedited mail, and internationally I use airmail.

So please check out the sale by clicking here

Flexible Opponents

Q: Do you have any advice for handling opponents who are tall, long- legged and very flexible?

A: I have had several training partners who were built like daddy long leg spiders and had very good open guards, so yes I do have a strategy to deal with them.

Typically in the open guard his feet (or 'hooks') will be controlling you by pushing on your hips and/or biceps and/or shoulders and/or hooking behind your knees. To pass you need to remove or nullify these hooks - this is often the biggest part of the guard passing battle, but it is a critical step and you can't really continue without it.

Once I've dealt with his hooks I often try to drive his feet up and over his head - I try to plant his knees beside his ears and his feet, folding him in half.

In this folded position most opponents will either: 1) stay there and attempt to reguard, or 2) do a backwards somersault to the turtle position.

If he stays in the folded over position (option 1) I try to control his hips with my body weight by dropping my chest onto his buttocks.

This buys me a bit of time to think about my next move, and keeps his long, flexible legs far away from me. There are multiple guard passes and even a few submissions from this position.

If he flips over into the turtle (option 2) I don't mind: at the very least I've managed to change the game from one of passing his guard to one of attacking his turtle. I either try to stabilize him in head-to- head turtle position or spin to his side and attack him from there.

On all fours his long, flexible legs are now tucked under him supporting his body, and not entangling me like some amorous octopus.

Hopefully your turtle attacks can take it from here...

Two Dangerous Submissions

Q: You've previously discussed dangerous submissions. Do you think that the twister spine lock is a dangerous submission? How dangerous is the twister compared to other submissions, say something like a toehold.

Stephan's note: Just in case readers aren't familiar with these techniques you can see the twister used by Eddie Bravo many times here

and the toehold taught by Chris Leben here

A: The quick answer is that both submissions (the toehold and the
twister) are dangerous.

If you were to collect injury statistics, you would probably find that more people have been hurt by toeholds than by the twister, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the twister is safer. The twister is a great submission - I use it myself whenever I get the chance - but it hasn't really hit the grappling mainstream yet. As such it is less commonly used and it's not surprising that injuries from this submission are still fairly rare.

The thing to remember about a twister is that it is a spine lock, just like the final position here -

www.grapplearts.com/Denis-Kang-Sprawl-And-Neck-Lock.htm

- and that the spine, particularly the cervical spine which is targeted by this lock, is a delicate and unforgiving-once-injured body part.

One significant difference between the two techniques is the level of control necessary to apply the submission. The twister requires the victim to be pretty much immobilized and controlled, whereas the toehold can be applied with widely varying amounts of control (depending on the exact entry).

A common toehold injury scenario goes like this: one person applies a toehold on another person, but refrains from cranking it on because he knows that it can be a dangerous submission. The guy caught in the toehold decides to spin out - which is one of the correct counters - but spins in the wrong direction. Before the first person can let go something in the second person's leg goes snap, crackle, pop, and the toehold has claimed another victim.

When caught in the twister, on the other hand, it's very hard for your opponent to move this spastically. People still have egos, and it is very common for people to try and tough their way through a neck crank, only tapping after injury occurs.

I speak from personal and collective experience - neck injuries are no joke! I know a number of grapplers who have had their competitive careers cut short by neck injuries, and others who have quit the sport altogether. Severe neck injuries (or a series of less severe ones) can lead to herniated cervical disks, osteoarthritis, spondylosis, spondylitis, spondylolysis and many other nasty multi-syllabic conditions.

I use both submissions, but I treat them both with a lot of respect.
If a person starts thrashing or refusing to tap I try to let go and move on to something else before they injure themselves and deprive me of a training partner

Stephan Kesting
www.grapplearts.com