The Basic Pins (diary entry)

Armlock shown is a straight arm bar (juji-gatame) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Marines practice groundfighting (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

19.11.14 This is the first of my client’s 10 session course on ground and submission fighting for martial arts cross training. We began the lesson with a warm-up specific for groundwork movement. This included bear crawls, gorilla crawls, spider crawls, sit-throughs and frog jumps for fighting from the top position, as well as snaking forwards and backwards for fighting from underneath. The bulk of this lesson was focused on the basic pins found in ground fighting. I introduced my client to this area via specific sparring, where he could appreciate trying to defend against the pins. We then began with the knee pin, which my client is familiar with having covered it in self-defence several times. This was then followed by side control (aka side mount or three quarter hold), which is a very common and solid pin found in ground fighting. We looked at two versions of the hold, isolating the arm and isolating the head. This was followed the scarf-hold, where I explained the conventional Judo version, which involves a headlock, and the adjusted under hook variation now more common in submission fighting. The latter version protects the back more adequately. We then covered the full mount, the reverse scarf-hold and the north-south pin. These were then shown in transition. The client practised them both on a human body and also an exercise ball. Transitioning helps promote better mobility on the ground. I reinforced the importance of keeping at least one hip pressed onto an opponent. This was then put under pressure with some more specific sparring, this time with the client attacking from the pins. The session was finished with an arm-bar from the side control and mount positions.