First up, I needed to save lots of the vids I took of my courses on the ‘superhero touchdown’ posture inside guard. I labelled it as ‘superhero pose’ on the vids, as that is one syllable much less: undecided which one I want but. The previous is extra descriptive, the latter is faster to say. Anyway, I realized it from Chris Paines on the Artemis BJJ München Camp 2023 (I will most definitely do extra camps there, during which case you possibly can ebook them right here). It’s a posture I can bear in mind Priit displaying at certainly one of his mega lengthy weekend seminars at Chris’ health club just a few years again. Because it was Priit, I discovered the reason complicated and it by no means actually caught, regardless of a number of hours of Priit lectures.
Chris is a superb Priit translator. Within the area of a few minute, he was in a position to condense that down and make it very simple to know. I’ve tried to proceed that course of, so I am slapping a hopefully evocative title on it, with just a few easy factors to clarify the mechanics. I referred to as it superhero touchdown as a result of it seems to be very similar to the pose you at all times see superheroes do once they hit the ground after flying in to cease the villain. Particularly, that is a 3 level touchdown (I suppose technically 4, however primarily three): hand, foot, knee. You possibly can argue the foot of the knee leg makes it 4 factors, however there is not a lot weight on the foot again there.
That very same place works surprisingly properly inside guard, with just a few tweaks. Think about there’s a stick operating from the highest of your head to your tailbone, that should keep in alignment. You additionally need to preserve every part pointed forwards, significantly your knees. The hand on the bottom breaks the same old rule of guard high that you do not put your hand on the mat. Nonetheless, due to the positioning and alignment, you’re placing all of your weight by way of that arm, which means it means much less susceptible to kimura and the like.
The hand additionally would not need to be on the mat (I will usually base off my fist, that feels extra snug). You possibly can put that hand on their collar, or in all probability the very best of all, on their arm pinning it to the mat. One other good choice is getting that arm by their head, in the event you handle to maneuver up their physique sufficient. You possibly can then successfully cross-face them by putting it tight sufficient to their head to drive their ear in the direction of their shoulder, misaligning the backbone.
Chris informed us on the camp that he is had his health club do that and just about nothing else for about 2 years. That has resulted in everyone having to get significantly better at guard, as a result of you must work tougher to interrupt it down when someone will get good at utilizing this posture. I am planning to include this into my courses on passing, ultimately I will work it up right into a seminar I can train at camps. It combines properly with how I already train my passing intro, so I believe there’s loads of scope to play with it extra.
