Injury is the mother of invention

During one of my injured phases, there have been many, the list is long and distinguished, my knee was bust but whilst rehabbing I wanted to start drilling again. I spent weeks having my guard passed so I could work half guard retrieval as was the vogue at the time.

This injury phase has been spent thinking about turning a perceived bad position into one of attack. Why bother retrieving half guard when I can get top? Time to short cut the process.

What even is a bad position? Consider the dynamic of yourself in relation to your partner, side control is side control whether you are on top or underneath, your position in relation to your partner doesn't change only the position of both of you in relation to the universe changes, wow, trippy!

Remember Danny Mitchell explaining "guard is mount" at one of the team training days, his is exactly the same thing. By the way Danny's spider mount is genius, I've worked this and it is awesome. Needs a DVD out.

So my first phase of training under side control to attacking position consists of 2 elements:

Keeping the hips free
Keeping out the cross face

First one, being under side control means your hips are free and can move around.if your side control escape is to get back to half guard, all you have done at that point is still be in a kind of side control but now you are attached. When I am looking to choke someone from half guard top I purposely don't pass guard, if I don't pass I am attached whereas if I pass your hips are free.

Second point, if I keep out the crossface you are not going to get flattened and can then look to deflect and control the arm they are looking to cross face you with. This is where the kimura grip becomes invaluable.

So now, we are still under side control, our hips are free and we are uncrossfaceable (is that even a word, I would be fabulous at Scrabble, Scrabulous even).

You start looking for the kimura grip. There is so much you can do with this grip, just don't hang out there too long as your partner can hit the spinning arm bar if you are not careful.

We now have a position which can lead to hip heist sweep as video above, can spin to arm bar, can take the back or get on top, a whole game.

The question is WHY go this way rather than the more traditional method? The simple answer is........shortcut.

Lets look at Marcelo no surname necessary with his arm drag to back. Which is the most efficient use of your time and energy?
Arm drag to back or
Arm drag to takedown to pass guard to side control to back

Why does Rafael Mendes use berimbolo to back? Same answer, it's a shortcut.

Consider berimbolo to back as opposed to guard to sweep to pass guard to side to back. Shortcut. In case you hadn't noticed, all the answers are shortcut.

Under side control to top or back is simply a shortcut. If you want a more traditional way, then go for it, I'll see you when you get there.