I've been working on escapes from side control a lot recently. The
method I have had the most success with is the one you can see in
Saulo's cross-body tape. He cups his opponents left near arm biceps
with his right hand so that he cannot get the cross face on him (which
is probably one of the hardest positions to escape). From there
proceeds with the standard "go back to guard / get to your knees"
formula.
My question is: Is there a method to escape side control in a technical
manner, even if you did not prevent the cross face? I know that many
instructors teach to place your right forearm against his near side hip
and create space but this still seems to require a lot of strengh (since
he has some much upper body control). I assume that the key is to get
rid of the cross face first and I'm interested in how you accomplish
that. As always, thanks a lot for your input!
First of all let me mention that I personally classify "pin escapes" as more or less the same category of technique and based on the way I think of the ground game there are 7 different pins. Ideally as you train pin escapes you want to know a handful of reliable escapes from each of these 7 pins which are side control, knee on belly, modified scarf hold, reverse scarf hold, north/south, scarf hold and head lock (basically that is the scarf hold without your arm trapped). Some of these pins are more common than others but in order to be a well rounded grappler eventually you have to work on solutions to each of these.
For side control in particular I have three types of posture I try to use in order of preference. Let's say for all examples X is on my R side. For all three postures my R forearm will be doing the job of hip checking X which prevents him from sitting to modified scarf hold and also frustrates his balance if he tries to attack my left arm. My first posture of preference is to have my L arm under his L armpit. I do most of my escaping from here and if he does get a grip behind my neck I can still put my right hand on his elbow, lift my head up and slip it off while I bring my L arm back under the armpit. From here the two most useful escapes are to turn on my side and bring my knee through to put him in regular or butterfly guard or to go to my knees.
The second posture of preference is to put my L arm under his R armpit as deeply as possible. This protects that arm from attack and facilitates slipping out the back door. The standard knee through or go to knees escapes apply or I can do a bridge and slide out the back since in effect this posture is an underhood. There are other escapes which work well here too which involve creating some momentum but they take a lot of time to explain.
My third and least preferable posture is to have my L forearm placed against the L side of X's neck which is pretty much what you have to to when he has a strong grip around your head and is squeezing you. Just remember that even in this position if you make sure to keep your R knee glued to the bend of his hip on his R side (which you should do in all these postures) then you only have to scoot a couple inches or move him away a couple inches to slide that knee in a little. Once you get that knee in you can push him away from you just enough to hook your L foot under his R thigh which will allow you to push away more, rotate your body, push his neck with your forearm and put him in your butterfly guard. If you need a reference Roy Harris shows this escape on BJJ 201.
Finally I should mention that it is always easiest to escape side control when you are turned sideways into the opponent as much as possible. One easy way to do this if he is pinning your upper body is to stick both your legs straight in the air and keep them stuck together. Now swing them both down directly sideways and this will almost always create the momentum to turn your upper body sideways as well. From there is it pretty easy to scoot and bring your knee through or scoot some more and go to your knees.
Wow... thanks for the great answer! The first position you describe
sounds like a good alternative to the third one (which is the one I used
to do before I tried Saulo's version). I'll definitly give it a try in practice.
I already knew the pendulum trick with your legs and I use it a lot. I can
add another thing I have found useful for position no.3.
Sometimes it's hard to get your left hand / forearm across his throat
because he is keeping his head close to your chest / left shoulder.
What I do is: Bring your left hand close to the right side of his neck.
Then bridge your hips explosively off the the ground. This will create a
little bit of space you can use to bring your left hand in. But do not try
to slide your hand / forearm in but rather "rotate" your hand in (the
fingers of your left hand are basically describing a semi-circle, fingers
pointing towards his right shoulder). Sorry, that's tricky to describe...
The answers you've already gotten are good. I'd like to emphasize an important detail:
-The purpose of your arm positioning is to take his weight off of your chest. When his weight is centered on you, AND he is anchored to you with his arms, it will be very difficult for you to move.
-When your awareness gets higher, you will use the same arm positioning methods to prevent him from placing his weight on your chest to begin with. This will make escaping the side MUCH easier (but it will take timing and awareness on your part!).
Check out M.Garcia's escape from cross body in his new series. It is the free download on Groundfighter.com. The way he keeps his hands together gives you a much better brace than pushing one on his hip. (Watch the clip, It would take a long time to explain)
The purpose of posture according to Roy Harris is to force X to lift his weight off of you in order to launch any offense. He even said that some guys are so strong that you may have to wait them out in posture but when they do move you will have your opening.
I should add that I don't always have my R arm on the hip but its a good habit to start with. You can bend and even break the rules as you get better at escaping but if you are having a hard time getting out go back to the fundamentals.
Also it does help, as noted above, to remember that pinning is a matter of degrees. Just like with submissions it is better to avoid the pin or prevent it. A bad newby habit is to give up the position, let the opponent set in a very tight pin, and then work on the escape. If you can stop a pin while it is still "developing" it will be much easier to escape. Some black belts in fact have such good pinning skills they are virtually impossible to escape once they are full set in.
If you guys use forearm under throat (which is the only option sometimes) how do you escape if he centers his weight more towards your legs and also transfers his head there. This doesn´t enable you to use the frame properly to bridge and escape or do any other variation where framing the throat is necessary.
Indrek, I guess that in that case I would transition into the first posture, i.e. my left forearm under his left armpit and try to duck under his cross facing arm. Then I'd bridge repeatedly in small motions to get onto my side.
I use my R arm on his L hip VERY sparingly, because it's so easy for the top guy to "kill" it out of posture with a quick hip movement. So my arm won't stay there for more than a second and only if I feel that I might actually gain anything from putting it there.
For me I use mostly the "boxing hands" and "straight jacket" postures if I get flattened out in side control.
Have you tried Matt Thornton's main escape from a hard crossface, i.e. penduling your legs to get some space and then then work from there - maybe pull guard?
When my partner moves himself lower down, so that he is over my hips/legs, it DOES take away the effectiveness of the forearm in the throat.
When that happens, I switch to applying pressure in his left armpit (as jonpall said), though it will sometimes be my left forearm, and sometimes my right hand. I will swing my legs up, and then down to create momentum to sit up. When I sit up, I will roll him over me by continuing the pressure in the armpit.
This is the "bench press escape" from sidemount that you hear about. Joe Moreira is great at hitting this one. There is some awesome footage of him doing it to Mike Jen (over and over) in the Pin Escapes part 7 on DVD (the bonus features).
I also do the same bench press escape or long frame escape when his arm is not behind my neck. The same that is on FJKD2.
What i have problems with is when he gets his arm behind my neck (a crossface essentially) and i frame his throat. Then he lowers himself down more towards the hips and tries to push up on the elbow to remove the frame.
So when you described this:
"When that happens, I switch to applying pressure in his left armpit (as jonpall said), though it will sometimes be my left forearm, and sometimes my right hand. I will swing my legs up, and then down to create momentum to sit up. When I sit up, I will roll him over me by continuing the pressure in the armpit."
I assume you release his hand from behind the head first (transferring your hand to the position or similar to position that Jen calls pin prevention) prior to doing the bench press (i can´t see how this sort of escape can be done without releasing the hand behind the head)?
My question is how do you most efficiently release it? If he grabs really tight and has his weight more towards the hips I usually can´t manage to release the hand the way Jen shows it on his pin prevention tape.
Jonpall:
Pendulum is a pressure that needs a working frame. But in this case the forearm under throat stops working if they center their weight toward the legs.
If he is doing that why can't you get his arm off your neck? If he is on your R side try putting your L hand flat against your R ear and then moving your hand over your head to the other ear on the same path that a pair of headphones would sit. That should take his "cross face" grip off your head and alloy you to go to the first posture being discussed. Its also very likely that as soon as his grip on your neck "breaks" he is going to be easy to unbalance down to your left side at an angle with the armpit push used for the bench press escapes.
From what I understand to do the bench press you have to bridge (correct me if I'm wrong). Do you guys have other escapes from this position without bridging (I have a really bad back)?