Front Headlock Hands to the Mat

Words I Like – “If you break their structure, you break their defense.”

Outlier Mat Minute: Front Headlock Hands to the Mat

When someone is standing in your front headlock, it’s hard to control them. If we make them touch the mat, we start to open up more attacking options.

• #frontheadlock + #standing + #destabilization - Circle toward the side of your overhook to put their hands on the mat.

  • Wrestling Example

  • Gordon Ryan Example

• #standing + #frontheadlock + #handstothemat - It can be easier to put their hands on the mat if your arms are behind both of their armpits instead of using a chin strap.

  • Chest wrap to break the defender down. Notice as soon as the attacker switches to a front head and arm grip, the defender stands to escape

  • Danaher teaching 2 grips behind the armpits to put their hands on the mat

• Switching Grips - Switching from a chin strap to both hands behind the armpit can be risky. To prevent our opponent from posturing while we switch, we can circle toward the side of our chin strap to get our chest over their head to control their posture. This allows us to transition our chin strap arm to behind their armpit to put their hands on the mat.

  • John Combs Example

As promised, jiu-jitsu insights in under 1 minute!

P.S. You can search any of the above #s on the Outlier Database to study more examples!