During our Team Training Class at Crossroads BJJ we continued working out from the bottom of side control. After having spend the last several classes discussing the finer points of elbow positioning, the correct way to move your arm to escape while avoiding being submitted we began to discuss escapes other than the elbow escape. In Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu details matter and having something as small as your elbow being an inch or so out of place and have extreme consequences, not only will you most likely not be able to escape you also leave yourself open to submissions.
A large part of jiu-jitsu is moving yourself into positions where you can set up attacks, this extends to the bottom of side control where we need to have our arms and legs in the correct position to be mobile, in this particular positions our “attacks” are our escapes. By getting on to our sides with our arms and legs in the proper positions we can perform 3 escapes, todays BJJ class focused on the third escape, getting to the turtle position, and from the turtle position there are a number of ways we can move into positions where we can attack. We also discussed how not all turtle position are equal.