22.11.2023
Tonight my 1.5 hour client trained a very technical class as we made the next logical bridge in our Wrestling training. After reviewing the previous lesson’s work on the single leg takedown, we moved into the double-leg version. There is an excellent setup by Gordon Ryan that could be seen a great way to combine tactics from the areas we have previously covered. He baits with a double-leg, then goes for an arm-drag like a Greco-Roman wrestler before shooting for the single leg and then switching to the double leg.
All of this brought us back to the basics of a fundamental double-leg takedown. In recent years, I have given double-legs the scarf-hold treatment. That is I have considered the conventional or traditional way of doing them to be too risky for submission grappling counters. Just as the traditional scarf-hold found in Judo and Greco-Roman Wrestling might leave the back open for attack, so might the traditional double-leg takedown endanger the shooter to fall into a guillotine choke. However, a reappraisal of getting the basics right have made me think again. By ensuring a good posture is taken in tandem with a deep penetration step (itself seamlessly following on from a smooth level change) and using the trail leg to get the angle in alignment with the head, is a good argument for being able to nullify the guillotine choke counter. Then we tried an interesting variation that would hamper a guillotine choke: an outer reap. The guillotine choke in question is often used in a closed guard (although it should be noted that butterfly and other types of guards are used). However, by outer reaping one of the opponent’s legs the shooter gets a type of half-lockdown and stops the guard pull. It will be worth pursuing this as we then re-look at the spear-type version of this double-leg next time.
We also spent time looking at how Wrestling also makes use of the edge of range in order to set up shoots.