This week in team training we continued to drill and refine the more advanced details of entering the omoplata in the Gi. While there several ways to enter the omoplata they all involve moving the elbow to the front of the body while moving the wrist behind the body using our legs. We have been paying particular attention to breaking the posture using the elbow. By using our leg to apply downward pressure on the elbow while keeping the arm bent at 90 degrees we can attack the shoulder joint versus attacking our opponents structure when your leg is on their shoulder. The structure of the top player can support a large amount of weight because of all of the muscles being used, legs, back, chest all stacked on top of each other to prevent the top players posture from being broken. If the bottom player can shift the force from the shoulder to the elbow he can attack only the small muscle in the top players shoulder. Demonstrating a major and fundamental concept in jiu-jitsu, using strong muscles in our body to attack week muscles in our opponents body.
The second technique we discussed was a sweep off of an escape attempt. One possible option to escape the omoplata is for the top player to base off of his outside hand, bring his legs perpendicular to the mat and then bring the feet down on to opposite side of your head. The counter technique involves to bottom player lifting their inside arm towards the ceiling in an attempt to stop the top players inside leg from crossing our center line. If the bottom player can secure the inside leg of the top player than he can capitalize on the momentum created by the top players “jump” and because the inside arm of the top player is trapped in the between the bottom players legs in the omoplata position the top player has nothing to base off on the inside. Once the Bottom player has removed the base of his opponent on one side and the top player has given enough momentum or movement to crossover the bottom players center line, the bottom player can roll over his outside(and lower) shoulder to sweep and reverse the position.
Once on top we discussed 3 different submissions off of the reversal as well as ways to improve position. The 3 submissions we discussed each attacked a different joint available to us. the wrist, the shoulder and the elbow. If the bottom player is able to execute the the sweep and control the top players arm he has several options to submit, because the bicep is trapped between the legs the shin can be positioned to act as a fulcrum for an armbar. The leg also trap the arm in a way that allows you to perform a wrist lock by pushing the palm of the hand towards the form arm to perform a wrist lock. The third joint to attack is the shoulder, which is done using the same concept as applying the omoplata, by bringing the wrist behind the opponents torso and bringing the elbow to the front of their body. having all three submissions available in a very small range of motion for the person who’s arm is being attacked makes it very hard to defend against any of them.