Beginner Grappling Questions

aweiner769

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I am a beginner to grappling (about 2 months). I don't go to a gym or anything. I'm just in the mma club at my school so there's no "trainers". Everyone just helps each other out and shares what they know. There's a few guys who are really good and legitimately train or compete in mma fights. So basically its very relaxed and we do a lot of rolling rather than technique drilling. That being said here are my questions:

First off i have absolutely no wrestling skills so whenever i roll with someone i essentially wait until they try to take me down (which is generally successful) and work from there. i know how to do a double leg and a smash double i think its called im just not comfortable with them yet to effectively use them. I also know 2 throws that i can sometimes complete. Any suggestions? Other take downs? I also have almost no idea what to do in terms of tying up and like clinching and all that.

Secondly, I have been rolling with this one kid who is a very good wrestler (he was going to try out for our collegiate team but didn't have time) and every single time he takes me down, almost always with a single leg, and if I'm lucky ill end up in his guard, which i cannot break, and then he eventually gets mount and generally gets me in an arm triangle. Or he just takes me down and get side control then mount.
I need some advice on 1) technique when in someones guard, 2) how to escape from mount, and 3) how to escape from an arm triangle.

I know the common guard escape where you keep their hips down, put your knee in their butt and twist back, which i can do on other people, but i cant for the life of me do it on this kid. i also know this thing from mount where you knee them in the back and when they plant their arms you trap them and then bridge and you're in their guard but that doesn't work on this kid either.

To sum it up, i need advice for standing clinch stuff and take downs, advice for breaking guard and what to do while in someone's guard, advice for escaping mount, and how to escape an arm triangle. sorry about the lenghth.
 
From the clinch, work for underhooks. Practicing your pummeling can help with this. Underhooks equal control, the ability to both block your opponents clinch offense as well as utilize your own offense. Work on keeping angles while in the clinch. As in stand-up striking, angles allow you an obvious advantage when time comes to strike or take the fight to the ground.

As for takedowns, there are many routes you can take, so I will only list some that come straight to mind.

From a collar-tie, there is the ankle-pick, duck-under, and high-crotch.
From an underhook/overhook position you have the options of a head and arm toss (headlock), hiptoss, or my favorite, the fireman's carry.
Double-underhooks/bodylock give you a lot of options for trips, as well as just bodylocking to the ground (bearhug).

IF your opponent has tight double-overhooks and you can't pummel out, you can toss him by stepping back, cinching down over the elbows, falling back, and turning your hips. Should take you right into half-guard or side-control but takes a lot of practice.

If you would like me to go more in depth on any of that just let me know. Hope I helped in the Clinch-to-TD area...someone more knowlegable should give you pointers on the guard work.
 
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