Below, you will find my notes summarizing and reflecting upon the stand-up grappling practice that I led at Fit Factory Jiu Jitsu, 3814 Boyd’s Creek Highway, Sevierville, TN on March 11, 2024.
Handfight → Tie-up → Scramble → Jiu Jitsu
We are still trying to emphasize controlling the chaos of stand-up grappling in order to get more, higher-quality reps without losing the necessary feedback of realistic resistance.
Within this specific training context, we’re currently working on a frame of reference of 4 zones. By training the transitions between these 4 zones, we’re significantly minimizing complexity.
Hand fight to a dominant tie-up
A dominant tie can include any setup where there is one person who is clearly on attack and one person who clearly needs to prioritize escape or counter.
Examples might include single underhook, 2 on 1 arm grip, single leg
Tie-up to a scramble
This is where the throw or the shot happens, but it isn’t where it ends.
Scramble is the loose term we’re using that consists of all the wrestling where the defender has knees and/or hands on the ground.
Scramble to jiu jitsu
This is where we secure the takedown.
Once the defender has accepted the bottom position either willingly by asserting a guard or unwillingly by having their hips or shoulders pinned to the mat, we are out of the scramble zone and into the jiu jitsu we all know and love.
Two key targets when handfighting and one very important bit of defensive posture.
Aim to get your palms against the back of your opponent’s hand. This can be tricky to implement at first because depending on how your opponent has chosen to orient their hands, you may have to come from below or from the side rather than the seemingly obvious choice “from above”
Once your palm is against the back of your opponent’s hand, you’ll be able to put your weight on that hand to constrain your opponent’s movement. You’ll also be able to push, pull, and turn it, allowing you to progress to the armpit or leg that it was guarding.
From this grip there are two orientations to choose from (fingers pointing away from your opponent’s fingers or fingers pointing toward your opponent’s fingers), and one appears to be objectively superior. Aim to get your fingers pointed in the same direction as your opponent, and you’ll have a stronger wrist angle, better leverage for turning their hand, and they’ll have a harder time breaking your grip since your ranges of motion will match.
Defensively, we emphasized bringing the fight to your hands by moving your feet and turning your torso, sliding your elbows along your rib cage as you turn. These options help us to get our hands in position without reaching out away from our body and exposing our armpits to tie-up and our legs to shots.
I’m making some solid progress on a handful of techniques that I’ve emphasized while practicing in this fashion. Perhaps next time I’ll share some insights on the remarkable effectiveness of the Greco-style underhook I’m using.
Good Hunting,
Charles