Getting Out Of Bad Spots With The Bad Guy
It does not matter what combat sport you are in, when someone is on your back you are in a bad spot. In striking arts you won't see incoming punches and kicks, but you can turn around and face your opponent. In grappling arts you are not afforded that luxury. Whether it be in Brazillian Jiu Jitsu or Wrestling if the other guy is on your back you're in deep.
In Grappling if a person has their legs in they refer to it as getting “hooks” because just like when you fish if you set a hook it is hard to get away. This is often immediately followed by the person with the hooks choking the other from behind.
In wrestling having “legs thrown in” is a little less finite, the ending cannot come with a choke and the fight is far from over. Nonetheless the man who has the legs thrown is has a considerable advantage and will be looking to have points scored soon, or better yet a pin with a Turk (leg tied in) will make life very difficult for the other wrestler.
What if you are the fish on the hook so to speak? How can you deal with this situation that has you on the losing side of an exchange? Much like untying a knot, you have to deal with the end of the rope and go back to words.
Going backwards the wrestler on top has adjusted their weight on to you this is often done by starting to drape over your back. To undo this step you must quickly and effectively sit out long and fast.
The step before that was the wrestler threw in the leg. we remove their leg off of our thigh/hip area. The fight in this scenario will be can you keep their leg off your thigh long enough to move before they can replace it.
A common way to win this scenario is to hop your hips over their thigh and sit on it. This will achieve two goals. First and foremost it will keep them from replacing that leg causing you a headache. Second, it will pin that same side hip of the leg you're sitting on to the floor, as an added bonus they become partially trapped even if just for the moment.
Now you are in a much better position although it is still not a great one, on the positive side it did not go from bad to worse.
Finishing here leaves wrestlers with two options. Chaos or Control which route to take is entirely up to the wrestler themselves.
Chaos route is now that you are on their leg, you lean in and turn hard! This may pin them or it will cause a scramble with no points scored. Some wrestlers prefer this method and there is nothing wrong with it. At a minimum it will make an exciting match.
The controlled option is the one most coaches would recommend and requires a bit of finesse, so to speak. You might be utilizing finesse but this is definitely not graceful.
Let the Bad Guy himself show you how to finish getting out of this bad position. As graceful is something Chael Sonnen has probably never been accused of, but his solid wrestling is something everyone agrees on.
Chael shows that there are two things keeping you in that position, the leg in the hip and keeping the hips as close as possible. If one of those points becomes disrupted there is a route for escape.
A great example of creating more hip separation is the option to scoot low and go under the legs. After he gets down he pummels his arm to the inside of a leg and turns. This will cause a scramble and you have escaped a bad spot with no additional points scored.
The option of beating the foot is to peel the foot and sit over it. Options for finishing are the head hunt which will create the scramble but you might have that upper body control to push them toward their back.
That less graceful option is to elevate over the opposite leg. This will require some arm strength and a little luck but once you have sat on the far side hip their leg ride will be useless. At this point you can start sitting back. Chael shows an option where you sit on your opponent.
Check out more fundamental tips with Chael Sonnen, Click Learn More!
If that is not your flavor, you can always swim the near side arm backwards while continuing to escape the hips and smother your opponent. At this point if they are naive they will give up back points, if they are smart they roll away to the referee's position or their belly. In either circumstance you are now the aggressor and the man on top.
Chael wrestled in the pacific northwest, he even faced Tito Ortiz and smashed him in their wrestling encounter long before Ortiz was the Huntington Beach bad boy. When Chael signed to the UFC he went on a tear and challenged for the middleweight championship twice.
If it was not for a lucky triangle choke Chael would have been the middle weight champion. For 23 and a half minutes Chael used his wrestling to keep Anderson Silva, the greatest middleweight of all time, flat on his back.
Chael has a whole lot of experience and wrestling is not just a sport for him, it is his passion. That is why he created his Wrestling Fundamentals instructional. He wanted to share the knowledge he has gained from years on the mat with wrestlers of all kinds young and old.
If your wrestling game needs a pick me up, or you are just starting off, there is no better beginners guide then Chael's Wrestling Fundamentals From The Bad Guy.Check it out here!