Why Your Shoulder Crunch Is Failing And What To Do When It Does

Shoulder Crunches And Butterfly Sweeps At UFC 295

UFC 295 came and went in the blink of an eye. Seriously, every main card fight ended in a finish, and three of the fights didn’t make it past the second minute.

Alex Pereira stopped Jiří Procházka in the second round to claim a second weight class belt, Tom Aspinall blitzed Sergei Pavlovich to claim the interim heavyweight title, and rising French UFC star Benoit Saint Denis knocked out Matt Frevola with a head kick 91 seconds into their fight.

Saint Denis is quickly becoming a hardcore fan favorite. After losing his UFC welterweight debut by decision, Saint Denis has stopped every opponent since.

Saint Denis’s last few fights have been at lightweight. With the win over Matt Frevola he likely will enter the top fifteen soon.

Saint Denis is a mixed martial artist in the purest sense of the word. Saint Denis has different weapons for different distances and locations his fights take place. Before Saint Denis got his head kick finish at UFC 295 he was working for a guillotine choke, and he used some interesting guard play to get off the bottom. Today we’re going to take a closer look at what Saint Denis scored with, attempted, and how he can improve on his attempts.

By immediately locking up Frevola’s arms on the floor, Saint Denis prevented his striking and was able to eventually sweep to top. Butterfly guard and over hooks should be part of every MMA fighter’s game. Even when you don’t get the sweep you can move and create a ton of space to stand up.

Saint Denis got his sweep, so there’s definitely a “no harm, no foul” situation here. Still, I think this fight gives us a good opportunity to take a closer look at what Saint Denis was trying to do before he got his butterfly sweep, the shoulder crunch.

Shoulder Crunch And How To Fix It

When Benoit Saint Denis reached high and controlled Matt Frevola’s posture he grabbed a pinch head lock before looking to attack the shoulder crunch. The shoulder crunch is an annoyingly effective upper body control that wrecks your opponent’s posture, attaches you to their arm, and lets you sweep or attack submissions like the straight arm lock and triangle choke.

Before you can score with the shoulder crunch you need to cement the position. Once you lose it, it’s going to be very tricky to get it back - especially in MMA. Let’s talk about how to secure it effectively.

How Can We Fix The Shoulder Crunch?

Benoit Saint Denis lost the shoulder crunch because his outside elbow was low. That allowed Matt Frevola to rotate his arm and bring it down. Fortunately for Saint Denis he immediately turned that into an over hook and used that to aid his sweep.

Contrast Saint Denis’s shoulder crunch attempt in the gif above with Gordon Ryan’s here below.

And here is how Gordon Ryan used that position to sweep Marcus “Buchecha” Almeida in their ADCC match a few years ago.

The shoulder crunch is a powerful option to control your opponent’s posture, but it isn’t always available. If at any point your opponent is on their knees and posts over your shoulders you can look to immediately dig an under hook, attach yourself to their upper body, and shoulder crunch. If your opponent is standing over you and their posture is out of reach, you’re better off grabbing their ankles for a simple sweep, or entering a variation of X guard. It’s a safe bet to look to attack what’s most available first.

It’s exciting to see more and more MMA fighters actually playing guard again. With nine submissions on his record, I’ll certainly be paying attention to Benoit Saint Denis’s career going forward.

This weekend there is another UFC card headlined by a guard specialist. We’ll be taking a deeper look at his game and what makes him special this Thursday. See you then!