North-South: From the bottom

[Zankou]

After reading the great responses to the half-guard question just posed, I gotta ask the same for North South -- how the hell do you get out of it from the bottom? Not having much luck -- any advice would be appreciated!

 

[Sherdog_Mutt]

Sigh... since I'm goofing off at work. I'll go ahead and post my favorite escapes from the bottom of north south. Keep in mind that north south is just a difficult position to escape from if the top guy is properly controlling you. So you're limited in what you can do.

1) Pendulum escape- Control top guy's hips and straighten out your legs. Swing your legs from side to side, like a pendulum, gradually gaining momentum until you have enough momentum to swing completely over to one side. You'll find that if you're lucky you may have enough momentum to practically go on your knees. Usually I find that I get enough momentum to catch one of his legs and establish half-guard.

2) Royler Gracie Triangle escape- I learned this from Royler's Submission Grappling book. Basically you bump up and then frame your arms against your opponent's hips to create space. Use this space to bring your knees to your chest (ultimately you want to try to get both feet under your opponent's arm pit on one side). Then use your legs to spin out and into guard. If done absolutely spot on, you can spin into a triangle. Oftentimes, when I do this, I find that I'm unable to place my feet under the guy's arm pit. No problem. With just your knees against the top guy, you can still spin out from north south and into open guard.

3) Go to your knees escape- Escape that is very difficult to pull off. Bump up to create space, turn onto your side and try to go to your knees. Really hard to do against a guy who knows what he's doing.

4) Establish upside down spider-guard- If you're rolling with a gi. Grab both of the guy's sleeves. Bump up to create space and attempt to establish upside down spider-guard.

 

[TheHighlander]

Hold him tight, place your head on the outside of his knee and bridge. Works an amazingly high percentage of the time. When it fails, you can frequently use other escapes ala Mutt above.

 

[Kantian_relativist]

Get your arms closer to your hips than his, push him up and away, roll straight backwards and take his back. Grabbing his belt helps accomplish this as well.

 

[VTJas81]

Depends where he places his arm,

If his arms are in your armpits then trap an arm and bridge 45 degrees into him

If his arms are underneath your arms then slide both your hands in front of his face and push

 

[Waxwingslain]

Get your arms closer to your hips than his, push him up and away, roll straight backwards and take his back. Grabbing his belt helps accomplish this as well.

I do this one all the time. You probably need long legs for it though. Here's how I do it. Opponent has his elbows in your armpits.

1. Push against the guys hips with your hands, extend your arms and push away from your opponent (you're NOT pushing him up, you're pushing yourself out).

2. Bring your legs straight up and over your opponent's back, hook them under his chest and use the leverage to roll yourself out to take the back.

This one surprises the hell out of people. One minute they're in control and the next your sitting on their back.

 

[LCDforMe]

Just tonight I found this one out. If you're on bottom 69 and they havetheir arms kind of near your stomach or waist, reach up, wrap your arms around their shoulders (Looks like a bear hug just his arms should be extended outward) from here, he will have no balance. Just use a leg to oompah up and then roll him to the side that you oompahed to.

 

[Bubble Boy]

All the above have pretty much covered it. I've never gotten anyone's back as mentioned by lee.l. and Waxwhatshisface, but I'm not giving up on that one. Truthfully, I just scramble for a halfguard after bridging like a motherfucker and swinging my legs side to side aggresively. Sometimes I'll pop to the turtle if they give me the space. It's a shitty position to be in, no doubt.

 

[Zankou]

Thanks guys -- this info is very helpful, and I can't wait to put it to work.

 

["Dangerous" Dan]

Remember how Fedor used the pendulum escape agains Randleman? Actually he didn't even swing like a pendulum, all he did was move his hips to the left and then quickly swung them around to the right and completely reversed position. All that in just about 10 seconds after being slammed right on the back of his head with that devastating suplex! Amazing.

 

[beatnick]

This is 1 position l used to have problems with before. Atleast now l use the pendulum technique and the shrimp move while pushing his chin with my forearms. I havent tried to go for the chokes yet but l will soon.

 

[SuperCubsFan]

Thanks guys. I did a search and found this stuff very helpful. I am a little guy who frequenly rolls with a much larger and stronger guy who goes to North South and sits there. I am at lessons to get better in all positions, not to be held down. I will definatly try these.

 

[beatnick]

l am trying to work on my gi choke from the bottom position. Looks like an ezekiel, and there is another one where u support the choke with your leg. So far without sucess, but l'll keep practising it. The main problem in this position is when the opponent fixes your skull to the mat with his chest/stomach, think about 10-20kg disadvantage sometimes, that means big problem.

 

[twoblink]

I stick one arm through their armpit, Scissor my legs, switch my hips, and then "swim out" like I just did a freestyle stroke. If he's got good control on me, and I can swim out, I usually at least can get my head out. If not, then I at least try to wedge my armpit against his armpit, and pull him lower onto my body. That way, most of his weight is off my chest and onto my hips. I then try to swim out again, but this time, with an arm through the leg.

Hope that made sense.

 

[thecas]

At our place, NS is done by having the top guy laying down totally, as in both his legs are str8 n wide for base. And he holds tightly to u. This will prevent most of the escapes listed above[Aka if u r on ya knees, u r higher..In physics it means u will b much easier to topple over. Also, being on ya knees means there will hav a gap usually. But if u just lay gosh..tough to get out]

 

[Big Red]

Just tonight I found this one out. If you're on bottom 69 and they havetheir arms kind of near your stomach or waist, reach up, wrap your arms around their shoulders (Looks like a bear hug just his arms should be extended outward) from here, he will have no balance. Just use a leg to oompah up and then roll him to the side that you oompahed to.

a reverse upa? I must try that, never really thought of doing that. usually what works for me aside the roll & take their back or at least get out of n/s position is to explode your hips in a bridgining motion & throw one of your arms through to grab their foot whist turning. I'll try break it down better:

1. Explode your hips up, bump your opponent & bridge.
2. Say you use your right hand, twist your body into the space you created from bridging as if your driving back into your opponents ab area & grab their right foot through their legs at the bottom.
3. Use your other hand to grab at their heel & drive your shoulder into your opponent.
4. Push with your shoulder & pull with the foot. this will get you a half guard or side mount position.

A note aswell is to be as explosive & determined as possible to a) bump them & b) get that hand through whilst protecting your neck because you could wind up in a head & arm choke.

 

[thecas]

a reverse upa? I must try that, never really thought of doing that. usually what works for me aside the roll & take their back or at least get out of n/s position is to explode your hips in a bridgining motion & throw one of your arms through to grab their foot whist turning. I'll try break it down better:

1. Explode your hips up, bump your opponent & bridge.
2. Say you use your right hand, twist your body into the space you created from bridging as if your driving back into your opponents ab area & grab their right foot through their legs at the bottom.
3. Use your other hand to grab at their heel & drive your shoulder into your opponent.
4. Push with your shoulder & pull with the foot. this will get you a half guard or side mount position.

A note aswell is to be as explosive & determined as possible to a) bump them & b) get that hand through whilst protecting your neck because you could wind up in a head & arm choke.

Once again u will not b able to grab their foot if he adopts the position i mentioned above

 

[Steeltwo]

i like to do this one


they should be chest to chest with you. I like to push them up, so their face in on my chest. With that, i can kick my feet up and get a foot or few toes under their belt. Then I just pull and squirt out. It's have to do with heavy phuckers, but it does work.

also, the first two that mutt said I do if I can.

there is also a upside down ezikel(sp?) choke you can do.