First up, I needed to save lots of the vids I took of my lessons on the ‘superhero touchdown’ posture inside guard. I labelled it as ‘superhero pose’ on the vids, as that is one syllable much less: unsure which one I want but. The previous is extra descriptive, the latter is faster to say. Anyway, I discovered it from Chris Paines on the Artemis BJJ München Camp 2023 (I am going to most definitely do extra camps there, by which case you possibly can e-book them right here). It’s a posture I can keep in mind Priit displaying at certainly one of his mega lengthy weekend seminars at Chris’ gymnasium a couple of 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 wonderful Priit translator. Within the area of a couple of minute, he was in a position to condense that down and make it very straightforward to know. I’ve tried to proceed that course of, so I am slapping a hopefully evocative identify on it, with a couple of easy factors to clarify the mechanics. I known 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 may 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 effectively inside guard, with a couple of 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 standard rule of guard high that you do not put your hand on the mat. Nonetheless, due to the positioning and alignment, you might be placing all of your weight via that arm, which means it means much less weak to kimura and the like.
The hand additionally does not need to be on the mat (I am going to usually base off my fist, that feels extra comfy). You may put that hand on their collar, or most likely the perfect of all, on their arm pinning it to the mat. One other good possibility is getting that arm by their head, if you happen to handle to maneuver up their physique sufficient. You may then successfully cross-face them by inserting it tight sufficient to their head to drive their ear in the direction of their shoulder, misaligning the backbone.
Chris advised us on the camp that he is had his gymnasium do that and just about nothing else for about 2 years. That has resulted in all people having to get a lot better at guard, as a result of it’s a must to work more durable to interrupt it down when any individual will get good at utilizing this posture. I am planning to include this into my lessons on passing, ultimately I am going to work it up right into a seminar I can train at camps. It combines effectively with how I already train my passing intro, so I feel there’s loads of scope to play with it extra.