First Things First

The United Kingdom’s grappling promotion, Polaris, put on a straight-up excellent tournament this weekend. Let’s take a look at the dynamic clash of styles we got in the finals.

Polaris 77kg Grand Prix

Polaris hosted an 8 man 77kg grand prix tournament this past Saturday. The division was filled with a handful of potential dark horses to win the ADCC World Championships. Ultimately, the finals featured a polar opposite style match-up between Levi Jones-Leary and PJ Barch.

Leary is mainly a gi player. He has won the IBJJF European and Pan American championships at black belt. As a brown belt, he even won the World Championships.

Leary’s game is entirely based around getting to the back. He hits berimbolos and crab rides better than almost everyone, but, usually, that game falls apart in no gi. Not this time.

Leary did an incredible job kicking Curtis’s legs away to elevate and expose Curtis’s hips. When the action slowed, he grabbed his own shin to hold the position.

Above, Levi hasn’t been able to put both of his hooks in and seal the position. Instead he makes a cross grips on his own shin (1) and his opponent’s shoulder (2). The combined action of these grips cages Curtis’s spine.

Grabbing the shin is a simple and powerful intermediary step to get the back body triangle. Leary even went back to it in the next match against rising star, Jozef Chen.

Leary’s final dance partner would be Barch. After a razor-close first match, Barch scored a brutal leg lock to get into the finals.

Mahiesen was trying to play a game similar to Leary’s but Barch did an excellent job denying the inversion and keeping his hips away. This set the stage for a finals between Barch and Leary. Guard player vs. wrestler and guard passer.

In reality, the nuances of Barch’s top game would make him a frustratingly difficult puzzle for a back take specialist like Leary.

Leary’s basic strategy is to get under you so he can elevate your hips, turn you, and take your back. Barch does an incredible job of sitting low while allowing his top leg to float. This means that when Leary gets under Barch’s top leg, he hardly gets closer to his hips because Barch is sitting away. And if Barch stands and Leary follows him, he’ll just be taken down again.

Near the end of the match, Leary nearly got his back take game to work.

Sometimes it makes more sense to go with your opponent’s attacks and beat them to the next spot.

Leary was trying to climb up Barch. Barch knew he lost ground. Instead of fighting to maintain position and possibly allowing Leary to continue to climb, Barch went with Leary’s attack and beat him to the position. This simple flow might have saved the match, and $20,000

It sounds simple but it’s challenging to do well. You need to stay calm and dynamic while fighting away from the advantage your opponent is gaining. One mistake and it probably ends up twice as bad.

Barch’s Polaris run was a master class on how to counter people entering leg entanglements from the outside.

How To Beat Hand Fighting Before It Starts

The UFC returned to the Apex this Saturday. The card was pretty average all around but there is one finish that’s worth mentioning here. Youssef Zalal returned to the UFC to strangle Billy Quarantillo in the second round.

Quarantillo was doing a pretty good job keeping Zalal’s hands off of his neck. Instead of hand fighting, Zalal forced Quarantillo face down. Quarantillo had to put his hands on the mat or risk getting stuck there. As soon as Quarantillo posted, Zalal slipped the choke in.

Last Friday, I wrote an article here for the premium subscribers on Gerald Meerschaert’s tactics for setting up rear naked chokes. The main theme is that he distracts you so you move your head and hands on your own. That means he doesn’t have to hand fight and the chokes come that much simpler. That’s partly why he has as many submissions at middleweight as Demian Maia and Rodolfo Vieira…combined.

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