27 April 2015

Underneath side control for beginners

BY Reza Tahar

Underneath side control for beginners

As a beginner you will find yourself underneath someone else a lot. Especially if you are smaller sized and facing people bigger and stronger than you as this is the period where strength would triumph over technique mostly as you are still grasping the basic techniques. Being here is not a comfortable place to be in and can get very claustrophobic. It is important to stay calm and not to try to aimlessly buck your opponent off through sheer force because that is a one way street to getting fatigued very quickly. The only thing you can do underneath side control is to defend and escape the position. There are 1 or 2 surprise submissions from this positions but they are very low hit. Therefore you need to learn how to survive and most important get out of side control.

When under side control the first thing you want to do is to make sure you are not flat on the floor with both shoulders on the ground.

Both Shoulders Pinned: https://www.ltmajujitsu.co.uk/side-control.html

You do this by turning into your opponent who will be trying very hard to pin you. He may try to pin you pushing his weight into your face and driving in the opposite direction. This move is called the cross face and it can be easily defended by protecting your own neck or pushing the arm that your opponent is intending to use for the cross face.

Cross Face Defence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjh7-catBCM

Another way to prevent your opponent from bearing down on you is to line your forearm against your opponent’s neck. This way when he tries to drive into you he is effectively driving his own neck into your forearm and this would ease the pressure allowing you to resist better and have an easier job turning into him

Framing On Opponents Neck: https://www.art-of-bjj.com/en/luxemburg-a-bjj-paradise/

Secondly, your other hand needs to be tucked in or under hooking your opponents shoulder but never over hooking. You have much better control if you have an underhook. An overhook is just invitation to your opponent to choke you out with a head and arm choke. Never overhook from underneath side control. If your under arm is too extended from your body, you make it an easy target for your opponent to finish you off with a kimura.

Kimura Under Side Control: https://www.jiujitsupedia.com/category.cfm?form=1&id=26

With this basic framework you are not in the clear yet but merely putting on the brakes for your opponents assault. Now you created some breathing room for yourself you need to get out of here. During this time your opponent may try to submit you or attempt to mount you. As long as you are not pinned to the ground you will have a much easier time responding to these attempts. Not saying it is not impossible for your opponent to land these transitions but it makes it harder for him. Always be wary of a submission or mount attempt.

The easiest way to get out of side control is to bridge into your opponent hip escape and pull closed guard. The best escape is not a fixed one. It really depends on how your opponent reacts but the bread and butter of escapes that should always be an option is bridging and hip escaping. If you manage to get closed guard you can relax and take a short breather.  Good luck surviving your next encounter with the side control!