30.07.19
Tuesday night saw the first hour of my client’s first course in Submission Grappling for Martial Arts Cross Training. This lesson began with the top position and was mainly concerned with learning the major pinning positions and transitioning through them.
We warmed up with bear crawls, lizard crawls, seal crawls and caterpillar crawls before snaking/shrimping forwards, backwards and from the side. Then we moved onto the first technique.
Side control is a good solid position to begin from. It is a good base to go back to when fighting from the top and there are many opportunities for submissions. We went over securing the four points of the pin before I taught the Americana arm-lock. We then moved onto the under-hook scarf-hold. This position was taught as a transitional move. It is important to keep everything tight when moving from the top position, ensuring all gaps are closed and the hips are kept low throughout the transition. Then I taught the north south pin from the scarf hold and then round to the other side of the opponent with an opposite side scarf-hold. We then transitioned from scarf-hold to side control and from side control to knee pin. From knee pin we transitioned back to side control and then moved into reverse scarf-hold, which set us up for a transition into full mount followed another knee and pin and then back to the original scarf-hold position. Then we began linking them all into a top position drill, building good muscle memory for pinning and moving from the top position.