Spider Guard

2/11

Some rather basic techniques from spider guard.

Set-up:
You have grips on both sleeves and feet are on hips of kneeling opponent. Opponent puts their R knee up in combat stance.

1. Spider guard to Triangle: R foot goes on the inside of their L elbow. L shin comes across their R shin with knee off to the L. Push them back and to the R with your R foot while you hook on the inside of their R foot with your L foot. Pull it up and to your L (clearing the knee). Put L foot on their R hip, shoot R leg over their back/neck and lock triangle with L leg.

2. Spider guard to Omoplata: Same set-up as above to the point where the knee is cleared. Wrap your L leg around their R arm and hook their back. Face them dead-on (don't be on your R hip, otherwise they'll be able to unwrap their R arm), let go of the sleeve with your R hand, reach over and grip the elbow of their R arm, kick leg straight, let go of sleeve with L hand and use that to grip the back of their elbow too as you turn into them for omoplata.

3. Spider guard sweep to arm bar: Opponent does not have knee up. R foot on inside of their L elbow. L foot to their knee. Push R foot up and straighten L leg. You are trying to straighten your body, not push them over. They should end up on their back. Keep R foot on their L arm, post with your L hand for an arm-bar on their R arm. Or, slide your L knee under their arm and use L foot under their head to the lift them up and bring them closer to you for the arm-bar. I much preferred this method, but I was working with Sara and she weighs about 30lb less than I do. :p

Notes:

• Use your hips a lot to position yourself in spider guard. Especially to clear the knee in techniques #1 & #2. Fortunately, this is one thing that comes naturally to me. Also, there was no way I was getting my L shin in front of their R shin without hipping around.
• Always, always keep pressure and moving in spider guard to keep them off balance.
• If someone has you spider guard and has a foot on your bicep/elbow, do NOT put up the knee on that side. You're begging to be swept.
• To finish the omoplata, don't grab their hip. Try to get an underhook on the far side arm or grip over their back on their lapel. I need to remember this, b/c people roll out of my omoplatas all the time b/c I'm trying to hold down their hips.

Rolls:
Sara, Kevin, Gabe, Manny. Good rolls today. Gabe is a bigger dude and got in side-control and wasn't much I was able to do. Kevin let me work on spider guard a bit. I tried to get back-mount on Sara and she almost got a deep half guard pass. Manny and I had a good roll. At one point we restarted and he let me get top side-control, and then proceeded to bench me off of him over his head. Felt like he was benching me anyway. :)