Top Control
Being heavy is a skill, and it is the one that makes everything else possible.
Top Control
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En esta lección
- Apply weight through the chest and hips rather than the arms
- Keep a base that survives a bridge
- Recognise when to hold and when to advance
Clave del entrenador — Weight through the chest, hips low, knees pinching. Heavy is not the same as strong.
Heavy versus strong
Beginners hold people down with their arms and get tired in ninety seconds. Experienced people hold others down with skeletal weight and could stay there for a round.
The difference is where the weight goes. Your arms should be free to do things — post, frame, punch. Your chest, hips and knees are what pin.
The principles
- Chest to chest, or chest to shoulder. Contact through your torso, not your hands.
- Hips low. A high hip is a hip that can be bridged. Drive them toward the floor.
- Knees pinching. Whatever you have trapped — a hip, an arm, a leg — squeeze it with your knees rather than your hands.
- Head heavy. Your head has weight. Put it somewhere useful, usually on the far side of their head or into their shoulder.
- Wide base when they move. As soon as they bridge, your legs get wider and your weight goes lower.
Reacting to the bridge
The bridge is their main tool from bottom. The correct answer is not to resist it — it is to move with it and let it exhaust them.
- As they bridge, post in the direction they are pushing you.
- Let your weight follow rather than fighting to stay square.
- Return as the bridge fails, and take the small amount of position it gave you.
When to advance
There is a temptation to hold a good position forever because it feels safe. In MMA that is a scoring problem as well as a missed opportunity.
Advance when:
- They have posted an arm away from their body.
- They have turned to their side to face away from you.
- They are tired — advance while their frames are weak.
- They are defending strikes, and their hands are up rather than framing.
Strikes are what create the advancing opportunity. Nobody gives up half guard because you asked; they give it up because holding it while being hit is worse.
Drill it
Two rounds where you hold side control against increasing resistance and are not allowed to advance at all. Then two rounds where you must advance a rung every thirty seconds. Then two rounds free from side control, top and bottom, no submissions.