Happy Eid-al-Fitr everyone. Well, I may not be a regular blogger, as everyone can see from the 6-month or so of absence, but nevertheless, we are still training, and the blog is still on.
To get straight to the point of this log, a few weeks ago, I had someone with a very small frame starting her BJJ first class. Whilst most of the people that I taught still manage to do most of the moves with minor adjustments, it seems that this time the small frame prevents her from opening a closed guard with the knee-stab. While I had to admit that this move works better against smaller opponents, but I never came into a point where the move did not work due to size difference – she cannot move back far enough whilst holding her opponent’s hips down to break open the closed guard.
I had some thoughts after the class and had some discussion with Louisa, my most senior female student which faces similar issues to a lesser extent. From our discussion, I came to realize that she made small modifications on her knee stab, which she had used against me in the past. Her small frame may prevent her from opening the guard by simply moving her hips back, but her short legs allows her to slip her knees through and maintain control of the legs, then staple the legs, even without opening the guard.
Just to make things a bit clearer, let’s look at the following pictures:
To get straight to the point of this log, a few weeks ago, I had someone with a very small frame starting her BJJ first class. Whilst most of the people that I taught still manage to do most of the moves with minor adjustments, it seems that this time the small frame prevents her from opening a closed guard with the knee-stab. While I had to admit that this move works better against smaller opponents, but I never came into a point where the move did not work due to size difference – she cannot move back far enough whilst holding her opponent’s hips down to break open the closed guard.
I had some thoughts after the class and had some discussion with Louisa, my most senior female student which faces similar issues to a lesser extent. From our discussion, I came to realize that she made small modifications on her knee stab, which she had used against me in the past. Her small frame may prevent her from opening the guard by simply moving her hips back, but her short legs allows her to slip her knees through and maintain control of the legs, then staple the legs, even without opening the guard.
Just to make things a bit clearer, let’s look at the following pictures:
1.) Similar to a knee-stab: hands on the pelvic bone, leave no space between arms (notice that I can't get my hand between them) and opponent’s thigh, posture up, and jam your knees on the tailbone but don’t let your opponent sit on your knees
2.) Notice that Louisa in unable to break free by moving her hips back while keeping the right knee on the tailbone
3.) While unable to break the guard, she still manage to create space which she is able to slip he knee to the groin (OUCH! Point). So, remember to wear your groin guard
4.) Having passed her knees, Louisa can slip through and staple my right leg and begin executing knee-through pass
5.) Don’t forget the far underhook, or you’ll get your back taken
6.) Louisa gets the cross face, joint her arms together in gable grip, and maintain staple on my right thigh, and passes her left leg through
7.) Release staple, and pass to side control
Notice that Louisa’s small size allow my ankles to remain locked even as she slipped her knees through. Don’t worry about this - as long as her knees get inside my guard, she will be able to perform the knee-through pass.
This shows that not all moves are created equal – some work better for smaller opponents (eg: the lawnmower), some are for bigger opponents, etc. – and that everyone has their way of doing it, and some deviations come up with new moves (eg: the tepee, which is a triangle choke variation for people with short legs). This emphasizes that practitioners will need to experiment with techniques, whether through variations on setups, angles, or even the techniques themselves, to optimize their games to their body type. However, in order to properly experiment, you will need a proper understanding of the techniques and test them on the field through sparring sessions and/or tournaments over and over again. So, don’t afraid to ask, and don’t be afraid to experiment.
Now, the last but not the least, given the OUCH! Factor on step 3, I’d given this move a nickname “the Homewrecker”, as I think it will be too much burden for Louisa to bear the nickname “nutcracker” or “ballbasher”.
PS: Special thanks to Louisa, Kartini, and Tom for their contribution to this article.
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