04/08/2017 - Teaching | Half Guard | Whizzer Counters (with Kenny Polmans details)

Teaching #693
Artemis BJJ (MYGYM Bristol), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 31/07/2017

I continued with simple sweeps from underneath, drawing on Kenny Polmans excellent class in Leuven. He showed a couple of options for countering the whizzer, a common reaction from the person on top when you get an underhook. All of them build on how Kenny takes the back, where a key detail is tweaking out their leg, hooking your calf right under as you come to your knees. If they whizzer, as they often film, do a superman punch with your whizzered arm, while simultaneously grabbing their far knee with your other arm. Drive your hips down to end up in a passing position. To finish, hook behind their top leg with your own, taking a big step to twist them. You can then move around behind.

A post shared by Artemis BJJ (@artemisbjj) on Aug 7, 2017 at 1:30am PDT

The second option is one I'm more familiar with, the whizzer counter roll. This time, their knee is too far for you to reach it, you instead your dive your arm between their legs. Roll through, maintaining that hook on their leg. This will help you roll them over. Bring your whizzered elbow back towards their head, aiming to clamp your elbow to your side (as much as you can in that position). It shouldn't take much force to do this if you've got all the details, particularly that leg hook.
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Teaching Notes: The hardest part is getting your other leg out, that didn't feel very smooth. Next time, make sure that you're lifting their leg enough with your hook that you can slide your leg underneath. That's the key motion to practice for that bit, something Lucas Leite does. It isn't pulling your whole leg forward and then around (or rather, that's inefficient). I guess a little bit like the heel drag and elbow escape, as you're sliding a leg under theirs, but you're getting the leverage to lift their leg with your own hooking leg?

Some people also got confused about which leg was hooking, trying to do it with their outside leg. Make sure to do the big step where you are pushing into the back of their calf with your shin, that's very useful. It's possible to teach both of these in the one class, I think, but I could just teach the counter roll. Surprisingly the last time I taught this was two years ago, so Kenny's class was a useful reminder to teach it again. :)