Transitions - Top Turtle

 4/3 - Downtown

Today it clicked for me how important it is to transition out of superior positions if your opponent is executing an escape. Seems like a no brainer, but the occasional revelation is how BJJ goes for me.

Set-up: Opponent is turtled on your R side.

1. They try to roll to the left to regain guard. Keep your R arm in front of their L leg, beat their movement to the L and get into side control with chin on their stomach.

2. They try to sit to guard by putting their L hand on your back and moving their hips away from you. Run your legs around their head and get to side control on the other side.

3. You get your L hook in, and then turn into you to get half guard. Slide your R arm under their L armpit and behind their head. If they remain on their side (turned toward you), ezekiel. If they flatten out, grip hands together (not hand on bicep), free the leg that is in their half guard and head & arm choke.

Turtle flow:

Start in good position. Outside knee up, pushing your weight low into your opponent. Not pushing down, but pushing into the other side. Arm is across their back and holding their opposite side.

• Try to push them over from good starting position

• If they push back into you, drop your outside knee next to their nearside leg and try to roll them into back-mount.

• If they try to shoulder roll into guard, do #1 above. You can bait them into this by pushing their near side tricep toward their head, which will prevent them from doing #2 above.

• If they try to sit to guard, do #2 above

If you have top mount or half mount position with one arm under their armpit and behind their head, do an ezekiel if they are turned into you and a head/arm choke if they are flat.

Rolled with Sarah twice. First roll I focused on positioning and no submissions at all. Did very well. Rolled with Antone, left an arm out for an americana. Other than that, I think I did pretty well. Rolled with Julio, who spent a lot of time in top turtle. I kept trying to escape to avail, finally switched directions and was immediately choked. Good learning point. Rolled with Sarah again and remained focused on position. We had a great back and forth roll, she did really well. Final roll was a sortof flow roll with Nando, which devolved into a full blown scramble at the end. :) He showed me some spider guard sweeps at the end, but I only remember one.

Assume spider guard on opponent who has R knee up. Feed your L foot over the top of their R arm and underhook their R leg. You want to be on your side and almost looking into their L ear. Kick your L leg up and pull their L sleeve in. You should be able to end up in mount. I might have forgotten a detail or two. :p