Finishing the kimura

We have been working on kimuras in class over the last couple of weeks.  It's a common attack - the figure four grip is very difficult to escape from, so it also makes a great grip for transition to armbar.
You also have the option of a compression due to the grip setup - options are always good!
But finishing a full on kimura with the opponent turned on their side can be difficult.  People are a pain in the ass when defending this attack.  They will grab their belt, cup the inside of their thigh, or make an S grip to prevent the finish.
If they are flexible they can even get a foot in and begin to pry the grip loose (ala Jeff Glover).

Here are a couple of options when dealing with these types of common defenses.

1. Vandry Kimura
Setup:  You have a full on kimura set up.  The opponent is on their side, you are clamping their head with your knees, and they are utilizing one of the above mentioned defenses to prevent the finish.
In this variation, the opponent needs to be in somewhat of a fetal position, i.e. his legs need to be tucked up.  If they are cupping the inside of their thigh (no gi) they will have to be in this position.
Pull the opponent in closer and then use your heel to hook behind your opponent's knees.  Perform a 'crunch sit-up' motion.  This will put so much pressure on his shoulder that he will tap, even if he never lets go of his defense.

2. Breaking the grip with your chest
Setup: Full on kimura setup - opponent on their side - figure four grip established.
You cannot break your opponent's defense grip with the standard options.
Pin your opponent's wrist of the arm you are attacking, then back away, making some space.
Come back in lower and position your chest against your opponent's tricep.  Drive forward, keeping
the wrist pinned.  This will create enough pressure on the wrist such that your opponent will be forced to release his grip - not necessarily due to pain - it's more of putting the wrist joint in a position that it cannot sustain strength.  Once the grip is broken, pull the tricep to your chest and turn the wrist to properly finish the kimura.

Carter used to talk about making different parts of the body twist in different directions, making opponents uncomfortable and limiting their defensive options.  Wednesday night, Josh showed how to use your knees to make an opponent's head look down as you go to finish the kimura.  This puts more pressure on the shoulder joint - also makes it difficult for the opponent to get his back on the ground - another common defense against the kimura.

Josh also showed an interesting progression when attacking from the back.  Perhaps you have a same side wrist grip, controlling one of your opponent's hands.  You'd likely be attacking with a choke using your other arm.  To transition to armbar/compression, you'll have to take one of your hooks out and lay the person down.  Your choking arm comes over and you make a quick switch to a figure four grip.  You can lock your ankles which prevents too much squirming.  Eventually you'll bring your leg over your opponent's face.  Since you have a figure four grip set up, you can attack with a compression - make sure the blade of the forearm is rotated correctly for maximum pain (make the thumb point up).  Typical kimura grips are monkey grips (no thumbs) and way down on the back of the opponent's hand.  When switching to a compression, you'll move up the forearm with the grip.

Making Space & Thoughts on a New Pass

Very interesting tidbit shared by William in class today.
We were working on the position where one of your shins is across your opponents mid-section, almost as if they are trapping it in an attempt to pass to that side.
This is not the shin across the chest/scissor-sweep type setup.  Your hips are square up to your
opponent, with the bottom of one foot against the inside of your other knee.

The opponent will almost always attempt to pin that knee and pass in that direction (as your other leg is typically blocking the other side).  Bringing your opponent toward you and onto your shin allows you to sweep them and end up with knee-on-belly.
You block their knee on the side that they are passing, usually grabbing some gi at the outside of their knee.  The other hand grabs behind the opposite tricep - this would be their posting arm which you will control.  The outside leg acts as a pendulum to generate momentum at the hips.

It's a simple and effective sweep.  I need to practice automatically getting the right grips and hand position - having to think about it too much right now.

Oftentimes you need to buy some time to establish your position better with the shin (getting it in).
In other cases your opponent may have you in side control and you want to insert your knee.
Using a similar principle with the outside leg, you can bring your heel straight up and down while maintaining the 90 degree angle at your waist.  Bringing your leg down while you turn makes a lot of space between you and your opponent.  It certainly gets their mind off of their attack, and more often than not you can make some space and insert the knee/shin, perhaps even ending up with the above mentioned sweep.

As I was rolling the other day, I was trying to practice the principle of "on your side you're alive, on your back you're dead".  When I was on top in half-guard, I walked/hopped towards my opponent
to flatten them out.  Their natural reaction is shrimp a bit to get on their side and face you.  To do this they have to let go of your trapped half-guard leg it seems.  When they do that you can simply kick your heel to your butt and escape your leg.  I think if you also drive your other knee into their hip it can help block a recovery and aid the pass.  This is going to take some more exploring.

Awesome roll with the Angry Koala today - a methodical ass whipping is what I got.