Quote:
Originally Posted by Fight_Song
I just don't like scooping the hand under the thigh in half guard because it remembers the top man to close his legs off. If you watch the Saulo no-gi DVDs on HG, the techs 1-4 show how he has his tight compact top HG. Most guys I roll with use this so their free leg is tight and not based out making a hole. If I saw that often I would come out the butt more. Usually when I try this, they pinch their legs and trap my arm, then I can't block much the crossface.
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This is why I like to control the crossfacing arm as the setup to the position. If you control the crossfacing arm and drive it over you, he doesn't have much chance to keep his legs tight, because you are spinning his upper body too far and he can't come back. If he does suck his leg tight somehow, you can drive into him for a sweep since he has no base from his arm or leg on that side.
You really need a gi to get that much control over the arm though. Also a gi makes it much easier to grab his pants at the knee and end up in my preferred "elbow and knee" dominating position.
The time I get into trouble with this is when I can't get both arms into the space between his leg and his crossfacing arm -- one of them is still on the underhook side. Then you are screwed. Hard to do anything if you just have one arm and the guy is laying on top of you. I need to figure out some options from there, as it seems to be the most serious problem I run into (a purple belt consistently catches me in this hapless position, then sits there working for the kimura or mount).