Note how I'm so far out to the side that I have been able to bring my knee up on his shoulder. In addition to controlling the space and defending the pass like I said above, I'm now using it to get a straight elbow lock (hiza gatame) on the trapped arm.
I keep escaping my hips and sliding down his arm until I feel his elbow under my elbow and his wrist in my armpit. I pinch my elbow in on his like I want to bring mine into my chest. I drive his shoulder down with my left knee. I twist my upper body to pressure down on the arm and help drive his shoulder down.
To prevent him from posturing, I'll kick out his far knee with my left foot. When I really go for the finish, I'll bring my bottom knee up against his shoulder too and pinch it with my knees.
You'll need to experiment with this armlock some since it takes some practice and feedback from your training partner to get a feel for how to do it effectively to get a tap.
You can see Koji Komuro demonstrate the submission here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B31pNfRj3a4
In addition to the straight elbow lock, I have a collar choke. I grab his collar with four fingers in and punch into his neck while pulling down on his other collar (with my overhooking arm).
This first choke helps me create space to prevent him from driving into me and can be used to get the correct positioning for the armlock. I can also pull on the collar to break his posture if he tries to pull out.
You can do the choke more like a cross collar choke by grabbing the wrinkled fabric on the shoulder (palm down), but I like doing it with my fist in the throat since it hurts more and can controls the space and posture better. I picked this up from Koji's instructional and watching his matches.
You can see Koji set this choke up from the top of half guard and finish it from the bottom here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hplbU2AaBcI
And off the sprawl:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfBGSP2cefk
Depending on how I enter this position (e.g. from closed guard vs half guard), I'll either start with the collar choke then use it to get the armlock, or go for the armlock and add the collar choke. Ideally, I get both going at the same time so I can use them together.
If I had to pick though, I'd say to go for the armlock more since it puts you in a better position, setups up alternate submissions and you can be done if you play this game no-gi.
Often while fighting to defend the armlock and choke, they'll make themselves vulnerable to you climbing your leg to a triangle position too.
You can go for the triangle much earlier without the collar choke and armlock, which is how David taught me, but I found that if I went for it first, I was more likely to have them counter by driving a knee though and passing my guard. Once I started going for the armlock and choke first, the triangle became safer.
If you're not content to have an armlock, choke and triangle all at once, you'll happy to know that you can also throw your leg over for an omoplata.
Again, you don't need the other submissions first, but I found that going for the omoplata alone didn't work well. The time to get it is when they're in the armlock and try to escape the submission by driving their arm deeper (to take the pressure off their elbow) and bend it so their hand point down towards your hip.
But really, I wouldn't go for the omoplata if I had the other submissions I can do without switching to another position. It's just nice to know it's there.
If they bend their arm up towards your head, you can go for an americana-like submission like Mir got on whatshisname.
Watching David, I constantly see him with the whizzer grip, escaping his hips out as he goes for the armlock, working for the collar choke and climbing to the triangle, attacking all three at once. His opponent will be trying to give him the omoplata or let him sweep them just to escape, but he'll roll around without letting go of anything. It was seeing this that inspired me to train this position more and helped me understand how it can be played.
I've also seen him use this grip for hook sweeps and even swinging over to an armbar on the trapped arm, so that more to this game to explore too.
You can get an idea of how I get to this position from half guard through half butterfly by looking at steps 1-10 here:
Half butterfly guard sweep
If you ignore the special London grip and pretend I'm using the whizzer grip, you can see how I'd get to this from closed guard and take the triangle:
Lazy London
I trust you can figure out how these different moves fit together.
In summary:
- Overhook and get a whizzer.
- Grab the far collar.
- Get your hips out and stay on your side.
- Get higher on their torso and step on their hips and knees.
- Attack the trapped arm, attack the neck, climb for triangles, watch for omoplatas.
One last comment on this game. Since I've started playing with it, I've found that my underhooking guards have gotten better too. How can this be? Because now I'm no longer afraid of them getting an underhook, while my opponent may actually give up his underhook to escape, giving me underhooks and even armdrags.
