Passing the spider guard could be a frustrating task. A lot of energy could be wasted achieving nothing. Below you will find one good way to pass the spider guard. Notice how little does he say about the grips. We will work on this pass on class and we will notice that breaking the grips is not as easy as Garcia makes it sound. While you are unable to break the grips, or establish good grips of your own your opponent my attack you in many ways. Breaking the grips is one very important aspect of training with the Gi and an important lesson to be learned in order to make your No-Gi and Gi games transfer from one discipline to the other.
The “Spider Guard” is a guard that heavily relies on the Gi. Its strengths lie in all the angles, twist and turns that it produces. So far it has been less successful in No-Gi situations. I believe in developing my game through moves that easily transfer from Gi to No-Gi and vice versa. Although in theory the spider guard may be effectively transferred between the two systems, no one has been able to do so at the highest level of Submission Wrestling. You may ask yourself why study it then?
The following scenario is now very common:
Fighter A defeats fighter B.
Fighter B defeats fighter C.
Fighter C defeats fighter A.
This leaves people wondering who the best out of the three is . This phenomenon occurs because of contrasting style match ups. Some fighters study or become good and one style over the years and other fighters at other styles.
We would all desire to have an unbeatable style. Such a style can only come from a solid foundation of fundamental principles. Leonardo Da Vinci studied the human body like a doctor would (if not more) in order to produce great sculptures and paintings. In BJJ you need to study the angles, the momentums, and why things work the way they do in order to leave the competition in the dust. You cannot just get magic carbon paper put it over the Mona Lisa, and expect the same results. You need to study and analyze instead of committing to the old “monkey see, monkey do” approach. Of course at first we all repeat what we see our instructor do, but as we progress we should try to analyze and not be lazy. It will pay later on.
Cardio and genes will only take you so far. No matter how good in shape you are (don’t get me wrong being in your best shape is a must!) or how strong you are, ineffective movements, will lead to ineffective energy spent, which will lead to exhaustion You should worry about utilizing your energy efficiently, regardless of the situation. This is not an easy task. If an Olympic swimmer came to the school today to do BJJ he will get exhausted. I hope you guys understand my point.
Do you see now why it is important to study the Spider Guard even if it may not be part of your game or it may not transfer over? No? Well, let’s break it down then:
1-) You might be put on it and not know what the heck to do. If you know what your opponent is trying to do you may be able to be one step ahead and defend appropriately. To fully understand how to defeat a position you must have a good understanding of it.
2-) If you understand the labyrinth of the spider guard, and all its angles, tricks etc, and you understand how it works, then you probably have a lot of knowledge of angles that a No-Gi only opponent may not have.
3-) You may want to use it. The best guys in the world in BJJ and Submission Wrestling train with the Gi and also fight No-GI. When they fight with the GI they use their knowledge of the Spider Guard to help themselves adjust a bit here and a bit there. Why wouldn’t you. If you develop a good Spider Guard don’t be afraid to use it with the Gi. Just make sure that you understand how to transfer your knowledge to No-Gi, since you may need to make some small modifications. You may come up with something new one day.
Here is the Spider Guard in action:
Now let’s look at three basic techniques and we will expand from there:
In my opinion one of the most devastating submissions are neck or spine cranks. These submissions can put someone in a wheel chair for the rest of their life. Nevertheless this rarely occurs due to the amount of force that it is needed to break someone’s neck or spine and usually people are allowed to tap if they feel any pain, thus preventing any major injuries.
If you have seen some of Bruce Lee’s or Steven Segal’s movies, you probably have seen them grab someone’s head, torque it and break the neck killing the person. The problem with this submission is that if the guy doesn’t tap he dies or ends up paralyzed at the very least. Please, never use this; no matter what the circumstances may be. That move is illegal in all levels of competition while neck cranks aren’t.
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Submission Wrestling are dedicated to the submission of an opponent, but a line must be drawn somewhere in order to let practitioners compete at the highest level and improve without facing death or a serious injury. It is always hard for people to draw lines when it comes to what is a serious injury!
In Judo, for example, this line was drawn very safely only allowing chokes, and arm bars. Over the years very efficient fighting techniques were left out of the martial art turning mainly into an Olympic sport.
In Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu at first everything was allowed, but as the sport grew so did the limitations. Many inexperienced fighters were causing each other lots of serious injuries by using risky submissions, especially neck cranks and leg locks. They decided that some risky moves were only going to be allowed to be done at higher belts; when the fighter has a better understanding of the sport and is hence more responsible.
At the top level people don’t care a lot about going unconscious, braking an arm or a leg and because of this people do submissions with the intent to break those body parts. It is the responsibility of the opponent to tap in time. Here is Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza, one of the best in the world, winning a World Championship by not tapping to an arm bar (as a consequence his arm breaks) applied by Roger Gracie, also one of the best to ever hit the mat scene:
By not allowing it until later belts BJJ sacrificed how early practitioners will get good at these submissions. Brazilian practitioners do not like leg locks usually for two reasons:
1- ) It’s an easy way to lose positioning .BJJ is all about submitting an opponent, but it is based on the principle that positioning is always more important. They may refer to it as “Fools Gold”.
2- ) Leg Locks are considered cheap moves because they are usually surprise moves that don’t prove great understanding of the art. They feel that passing the guard, taking the back, and submitting from there is way more honorable.
Nevertheless leg locks can be very efficient. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioners in Japan love leg locks because of the influence of Shoot Wrestling. Sambo practitioners on the other hand, love leg locks to the extent that they hunt for the legs with lack of positioning.
Finally in Submission Wrestling (also know as No-Gi Grappling or Submission Grappling) leg locks are allowed at advance level of competition. Such level can be achieved very early in someone’s career as a grappler. Anyone can say “I am advanced” at a NAGA or Grappler’s Quest and the officials will take your word for it. Neck and spinal cranks are allowed depending on the tournament. ADCC and ADCC Trials (the highest level of Submission Wrestling) allows them.
One leg lock in particular which is incredibly dangerous is the heel hook. It torques the heel while keeping the knee in place. It is similar to that neck hook Bruce Lee does in movies where the lower body is kept in place while the head is moved sideways. They both do not cause much pain on an opponent until a serious injury has occurred. If you don’t think heel hooks are effective watch the following clip of Imanari:
There is a reason why he doesn’t wear any gloves.
Now heel hooks are every effective but if you only go for them against someone that has a good understanding of positioning you will get destroyed. It is important to find perfect balance and as a ground fighter this may be the hardest thing to achieve.
Some of you will be doing competitions and developing good defense is essential, especially when you can get heel hooked and be out for a year if you are lucky. Please study the anatomy of the knee and the surgery available for a ACL (Anterior Cruciate Ligament), PCL (Posterior Cruciate Ligament), LCL (Lateral Collateral Ligament), MCL (Medial Collateral Ligament), or Meniscus ( Lateral and Medial) that has a tear. Here is a link:
http://www.orthoassociates.com/knee_lig.htm
If you are stubborn and don’t want to tap you could also end up hurting your ankle:
This should encourage you to learn how to defend these dangerous submissions.
Here is a basic one heel hook:
Basic Inverted Heel Hook
How to Lock the Heel Hook
Just so you get the main idea. To be a good offensive player you must believe in your defense. By now you probably see that Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is not a game.
