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If you didn't have time to watch the
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7-hour Giles trials event for CJI 2,
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don't worry, I got you. In this video,
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we're going to discuss my key takeaways
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from the event, starting with Turtle.
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When you're attacking from Turtle, you
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can look to throw in your far hook. And
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if the defender just tries to use their
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elbow, it can be hard for them to defend
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the hook from coming in. So, a lot of
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times they're going to use their hand,
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which makes it hard for us to insert our
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hook, but we can capitalize on this
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extension by taking a deep under hook
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and using it to ratchet the defender
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over. So now instead of taking their
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back, we force them into a pinning
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position. And from the pinning position,
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we saw this very unique submission that
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I didn't know much about. So I made an
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Instagram post seeing if there were more
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resources or examples that I could
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study. And I feel very lucky to kind of
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be the hub that a lot of jiu-jitsu nerds
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gather around. And you all had very
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insightful recommendations. If I take
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like this traditional like RMC style
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grip, my hand is now in my way. Okay.
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Okay. So, as I try and go down for the
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finish, like it's not impossible, but
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this arm has got in my way. This is why
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we're looking at using this alternative
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grip. So, I'm bringing my hand up and
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then I take my shoulder to the floor and
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it drags my arm through. The most common
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defense to an arm triangle is the
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defender turning away. The only defense
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I've actually seen that actually works
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for high level kagatame is to expose
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your back by turning away from the
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kagatame and shooting your shoulder
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forward into the lock and exposing your
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back. But the key to this submission
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that seems to be called the farce is
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getting our chest around the corner.
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Okay, I've got to wait for this to fully
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disconnect so that I know that I can get
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my chest around the corner. Look, it's
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there. So, the dilemma we can play is if
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our opponent tries to get their back to
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the mat, we can go for a classic arm
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triangle. But if they turn away to
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defend the arm triangle, this is our
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opportunity to transition into a farce.
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If I was in this position and I started
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driving the elbow here and only didn't
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go, I would cradle the
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shoulder and just go back to the to the
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head and arm, okay? Cuz he's giving it
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to me. But people are going to turn.
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They're going to you're going to feel
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their feet. They're going to twist their
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hip. They're going to try and turn up
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onto their side. And now now it's going
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to be really hard to try and pull them
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back down on the other head and arm. So
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look, just make the adjustment. I went
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ahead and added #farse to the outlier
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database. So you and I can easily search
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for examples and learn more about it.
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And we can see people from New Wave like
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Nicholas Maragali and John Carlo Bedoni
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using the farce to attack when they have
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the head and arm grip. And the fact that
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they're using it and we're seeing it
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being used in the highest level of
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competition gives me the validation I
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need to incorporate it into my game. And
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if you're interested in the Outlier
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Database, which is a website I made for
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you and I to more efficiently study
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jiu-jitsu, check the link in the
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[Music]
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description. Now, switching gears a bit.
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Recently, I've really been enjoying the
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idea of propping up on my elbow when
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grip fighting from half guard. And the
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basic game we play is we can look to
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fall from our elbow to take a grip on
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their near arm, or we can attack their
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farm by staying on our elbow and looking
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to take a cross grip. as we pull the
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guard passer across our body and look to
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enter the legs. But if we perform this
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strategy when the opponent has their
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elbow inside of our thigh, we don't have
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an effective lower body frame in place.
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So when we do get the twoon-one grip on
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their near arm, it's not very useful and
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the guard passer can flatten us out. So
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if we're playing halfguard and the
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passer gets their forearm inside of our
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thigh before we can take a grip on their
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near arm, we have to first reinsert a
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lower body frame. And with a lower body
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frame in place, we're now free to start
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attacking their near arm. Like I said,
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I've really been enjoying this elbow
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prop when grip fighting from half guard.
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But make sure when you're doing it, you
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have a lower body frame in place.
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Speaking of small battles from half
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guard, you can see the guard player
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enters half guard with an over hook
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before pummeling in a butterfly hook to
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enter butterfly halfguard. This seems to
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be consistent with how Gordon Ryan likes
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to play half guard where he'll play with
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a knee shield until he establishes some
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form of upper body control like an over
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hook and then once he has control of the
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upper body, he pummeles in his butterfly
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hook to enter butterfly halfguard. But
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you can see the top player is very aware
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that this upper body connection is what
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makes it safe to play butterfly
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halfguard. So the passer limp arms out
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before immediately creating an angle to
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threaten the pass. Speaking of small
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battles from half guard, the top player
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is likely going to want to control our
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head and shoulders, but as the bottom
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player, we want to prevent that. But it
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can be difficult to directly clear their
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crossace. So instead, we can threaten
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just enough of an elbow escape to force
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the top player to let go of their
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crossface to prevent us from winning the
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battle at the lower body. And now we
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make sure they don't get that crossace
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back. I think a lot of times the lower
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body to upper body dilemma is often
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glamorized. And we see very flashy
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examples of people attacking Kaggard to
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get to an arm bar. But even though this
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is not as highlight worthy, it's the
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same principle being done. Threaten to
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win battles at the lower body and as
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your opponent addresses those threats,
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win the battle at the upper body. I talk
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about how to do this in my guard passing
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instructional from the top player's
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perspective. If you're having trouble
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controlling their head and shoulders,
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you can switch your attention from the
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upper body to the lower body and do
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things like pummeling in butterfly
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hooks. If you're interested in my
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instructional, it's now free to members
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of the Outlier database. It's pretty
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awesome, so check it out. Speaking of
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lower body to upper body dilemmas, this
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was easily my favorite takedown of the
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event, even though it didn't work. Kenta
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shoots in on a single leg that's
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welldefended, but leads to an underhook,
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also known as attacking the lower body
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to get to the upper body. With the
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underhook, Kenta uses this hip throw/
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power twist motion to off-balance his
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opponent to get to the far leg, setting
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up a beautiful kneetap takedown. Now,
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Duke does a very impressive lat drop to
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counter the knee tap takedown and take
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top position, but this setup from Kenta
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has become one of my favorites, and I've
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seen JFlow use it as well. Off an
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underhook, JFlo uses that hip throw to
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offbalance Joseph looking to get to the
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far leg. Now, it doesn't work, but you
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can see the idea. And this next example
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rounds out the sequence. Off the
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underhook, JFlo threatens that hip
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throw, but is not able to get to the far
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leg. So, he tries a foot sweep on the
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near leg. Now, again, it doesn't work,
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but trust me, try it out and let me know
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what you think. Sticking with the theme
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of wrestling, it seems like people are
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really starting to understand how to use
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the slanted walls to facilitate their
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takedowns. In jiu-jitsu, there's not a
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penalty for being pushed out of bounds.
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And the idea behind the slanted wall is
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it gives you a significant disadvantage
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if you're getting pushed around the mat.
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In wrestling, they penalize players for
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getting pushed out of bounds with a
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stall call. And from what I've seen,
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Carter Strach is a beautiful study when
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trying to apply it. and against Draachi
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shoots in. That's going to do it. A
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stall call against Ruth, his fifth, and
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he's been disqualified.
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Carter likes to work with an underhook,
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collar tie, or inside bicep tie to walk
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his opponent towards the edge of the mat
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where his opponent's actions become a
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lot more predictable. If they don't
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really do anything, Carter can shoot in
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on these half-hearted takedowns to force
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the opponent out of bounds and get that
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stall call. So, to prevent the stall
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call, the way I see it, they basically
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have three options. They can pressure
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back in. They can try and circle towards
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the center or they can shoot in on a
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takedown of their own. If they pressure
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in, Carter just gets out of the way as
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he snaps his opponent down to the mat.
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Or it can be more direct with a snap
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down. But I think you get the idea. It's
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also a great time to use things like
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throwbyss or duck unders to initiate
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your takedowns if they try to circle
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towards the center. The issue is it's
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hard to do this while maintaining good
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defensive posture. So, as they go to
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circle, Carter gets good head position
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and capitalizes on the weak defensive
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structure to get a takedown. Here we see
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Carter pressuring his opponent towards
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the edge of the mat before reaching for
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a half-hearted single leg. Now, earlier
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in the match, the defender did nothing
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to respect the single leg and was forced
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out of bounds and hit with a stall call.
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So, to prevent that from happening
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again, they try and circle out to face
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the center. And Carter uses this as an
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opportunity to level change to get to
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the second leg and complete the
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takedown. This sequence is just so
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beautiful. Carter starts with a collar
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tie and uses it to snap his opponent
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down as he shoots in for a takedown. The
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takedown fails, but he goes from the
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lower body to the upper body, taking an
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underhook, and continues to walk his
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opponent towards the edge of the mat.
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And when he can no longer move his
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opponent, another snap down before
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getting back to his under hook and
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walking them towards the edge of the
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mat. This type of pressure is just
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relentless. And eventually, they're
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like, "Bro, I'm done. I'm not tying up
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with you. I'm just going to shoot." And
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Carter can defend these takedowns
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relatively easily and get into his
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offense. It's the pressure of constantly
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being forced to the edge of the mat that
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forces his opponents into
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uncharacteristic takedown attempts. And
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with the addition of the slanted walls
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in CJI, it really adds in this element
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to the standing game. And I believe it
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drastically favors those people who win
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the grip fight. And they can use things
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like collar ties, under hooks, or inside
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bicep ties to force their opponent
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against the wall where they can start to
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work their takedowns. And whether you're
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an athlete or a spectator, I encourage
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you to dive deeper into this topic
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before the CJI event by checking out
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this breakdown from the Earn Your Gold
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Medal YouTube channel. I just gave you
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my key takeaways, but that's the source.
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But the threat of the star call is going
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to open up. He's it's going to make the
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guy pressure back into you. So many
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things open up when you're pressuring
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the guy. Another way we saw the slanted
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walls be used at CJI is to help with leg
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locks. When the defender runs into the
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wall, it makes it hard for them to turn
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and escape. and we can use that to help
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facilitate our attacks. Similar to how
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the cage is used when applying leg locks
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in MMA. Now with some honorable mentions
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as we wrap the video up. Sticking with
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the theme of leg locks, people are
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getting very good at defending these
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days. The attacker initially does a
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great job of reaching for the secondary
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leg to force the defender down to their
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knee. Knowing that this is the
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attacker's primary option, the defender
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controls that hand as he stands to his
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feet. So now the attacker can't control
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the secondary leg. So he tries to switch
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to butterfly Ashi on the primary leg.
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But the defender is one step ahead and
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ready with a quick backst step to escape
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and threaten the guard pass before
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diving through looking to take the back.
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But he's struggling to climb the body,
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so he uses a back roll to enter the
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wedge. But the defender uses the
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momentum of the wedge to roll through
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and escape. These are some incredible
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breakthroughs. When we're attacking the
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legs from a position like single leg X,
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it's very annoying when the defender
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peels the foot off their hip and back
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steps. But as they backst step looking
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to escape our single leg X, our foot
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that was on their hip can transition
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behind their knee to help us stay
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connected and keep attacking. This
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Barado Plata sequence was pretty unreal
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and it's out of my element, so I'll just
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let you watch it and rewind as needed.
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In terms of guard passing, I've recently
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been talking a lot about using interlock
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grips as a way to force the seated guard
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player down to their back in a safe
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manner. And we saw that being used in
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the event as
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well. It's also becoming very trendy to
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try and pass the guard underneath the
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legs. And as the guard player, we can
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look to bring our secondary leg across
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their body or we can look to put it on
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their body as a frame. This frame gives
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us enough space to pummel our foot out
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of the scoop grip. But if we can't
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pummel our foot, we can look to invert
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so we can pummel our knee, effectively
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retaining guard against the under the
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legs passing. I obviously have more
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notes from a 7-hour event, but that's
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all I can fit into this video. If you're
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interested in more, all my notes are on
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the outlier database. The link is right
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here.