MOnline MMA Gym

The Sprawl

The one defensive movement that decides whether the fight stays standing.

The Sprawl

Video · 10:00 · coming soon

0:00 / 10:00
1080p
10 minLesson 4 of 5

In this lesson

  • Sprawl with the hips rather than the hands
  • Recover to the feet before they can re-attack
  • Take the front headlock when it is offered

Coaching cue — Hips hit the mat before the hands do. Legs back and out.

The movement

A sprawl removes your hips from the space they are shooting into and replaces them with your weight.

  1. Hips drive down and forward onto their shoulders. This is the whole technique; everything else is support.
  2. Legs shoot back and out, wide rather than straight back. Wide legs cannot be scooped together.
  3. Chest presses down on their upper back, not on their head.
  4. Hands hook under their arms, on their shoulders, or into a front headlock — depending on what they gave you.
  5. Head up. Looking down puts your weight in the wrong place.
DemonstrationA sprawl from the side showing the hips driving down onto the shooter's shoulders with the legs shot back and wide
FigHips first, legs wide — weight goes down through their shoulders

Timing

You cannot sprawl on sight of a shot. Like checking kicks, the sprawl runs on expectation: you sprawl because the situation called for it, and you accept that you will sprawl on nothing several times per round.

Situations that call for it:

  • They just feinted a level change.
  • You have thrown three or more punches in a row.
  • Your back is near the fence.
  • They circled and stopped, squaring their hips to you.

After the sprawl

A sprawl that stops with both of you still on the floor has only half worked. Two ways to finish it:

Circle behind. Keep your weight on them and walk your legs around toward their back. Take the position rather than letting them stand.

Front headlock. If their head is out and their posture is broken, lock the head and an arm. From here you have the choice of a guillotine, a darce, or simply standing back up while holding them down.

The most valuable thing about a good sprawl is not the sprawl. It is that after two of them, they stop shooting, and their striking becomes much easier to read.

DemonstrationCircling behind after a successful sprawl, keeping chest pressure while walking the legs toward the back
FigFinish the sprawl by taking a position, not by standing up and resetting

Drill it

Fifty sprawls a day for a week, on your own, checking that the hips land before the hands. Then two rounds with a partner shooting at half speed, sprawl only. Then two rounds where every sprawl must be finished by circling behind. Then two rounds live, striking allowed, where the striker's only goal is not to be taken down.

The Single LegBack to Your Feet