Three Variations of A Shoulder Lock

Last night, Andres, an 18-year-old purple belt on Team Evolution taught class. Darren plans on letting him teach on Mondays, and I’m very happy about this. Darren’s an awesome teacher, for sure, but I think it will also be good for me to be exposed to Andres’s sick submission game. The kid has a heart of a lion, and amazing technique to back it up.

Last night, Andres showed three variations of a shoulder lock while taking the overhook from the closed guard:

Variation 1: Take the overhook, get to your side, and grab your top knee and lock down on your opponent’s shoulder. From here, one can take the Kimura grip and finish with the Kimura. It’s amazing how tight this submission is when the shoulder is totally isolated.

Variation 2: Repeat the afore-mentioned overhook sequence, but instead of taking the Kimura-grip, thread the same side leg as the overhooked arm across the neck and work for the Uma Plata. Andres showed an excellent way of gripping both of your knees and using your top leg as a lever either to break down your opponent or lift him up if he’s too heavy on the bottom leg. He also has a very cool technique where, once he shifts his hips and grabs the opponent’s belt, he uses a rocking chair motion to break the guy down and isolate the shoulder in order to quickly finish the Uma Plata.

Variation 3: This involves an Uma Plata set-up, but imagine the opponent stepping over your far leg to defend against the Uma Plata. Andres showed how to straighten this far leg and hook the opponent behind his knee. He then switched to the Kimura-lock while trapping this leg. Again, it was a very tight submission.

Aside from the three techniques, Andres showed me from the Uma Plata setup how he innerlocks his hands and grips his opponents head, providing he can sneak his shin across the throat, and finish with the Gogo Plata. If you've never felt this submission, it's NASTY with a capital N!

All three submissions play well into my game, for I take this overhook quite a bit from the closed guard anyway. The techniques were very helpful, and gave me a fresh perspective on the overhook position, isolating the shoulder, and adjusting my opponent’s body position to keep my nips mobile. More importantly, all three finishes require little to no exertion by the one performing them, and further reminds me that submissions do not require vast amounts of strength to be affective. Andres is approximately 5 foot 11 and weighs around 150 lbs. and dominates everyone in the room. He even gives Darren problems from time to time.

Respectfully,

Larry, the LTrain