Chaining Submissions: Omoplata to Kneebar Finish with Luiza Monteiro

 

When you first started out rolling as a white belt, you probably tried one attack over and over and it didn’t work. Why not? Coach just showed it to you and you felt like you had it down pretty well during drilling. 

To borrow an analogy from boxing: rarely does a fighter knock someone out with one punch. Almost always the punches are chained together in combos. The opponent blocks the first punch, leaving them open to the second or third. 

In jiujitsu we need to achieve a similar effect, lining attacks up to overwhelm our partner’s defense. As a few examples, switching to an armbar off a triangle, backing out for an x pass from a blocked knee cut, attacking front headlocks to force a turtled opponent to open up for a go behind. All of these techniques work better in combination then they do as standalone attacks (to go back to the boxing analogy, you use one pass or submission as a jab to set up the next one).

Below, world champion Luiza Monterio shows an omoplata to kneebar sequence. Luiza is a two-time World Champion, three time World Nogi Champion, and five time Pan Championship winner. 

 

Starting with an open guard, Luiza takes a sleeve and cross collar grip, planting her right foot on her opponent’s shoulder. From here she kicks her left leg through as she pushes off the shoulder with her right foot. The push off the shoulder swings her body around, and her left leg bits down behind the opponent’s armpit in a standard omoplata set up. 

A common response from here is for the opponent to stand up. Standing makes it difficult for Luiza flatten her partner out to finish the shoulder lock, giving them time to work their arm free. But what it also does give easy access to their legs, and make it very easy for Luiza to  get under and affect their center of gravity.

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Luiza releases the sleeve grip and wraps her hand around the ankle closest to her, pulling herself to it so it rests against her shoulder. She hangs onto the collar grip for now to keep her partner’s posture broken down. When Luiza is ready to switch to the kneebar she lets go of the collar and swings her outside leg around while sliding the inside leg from the armpit  down so both of her legs clamp around her opponent’s leg. She extends her hips up and knocks her partner forward by kicking her legs that direction. 

Her partner is going to be forced to catch himself with his hands on mat. With his hands taking some of his weight, his legs become light and easy to move. Luiza rolls so that both of them are  on their sides and the leg she has trapped is now the bottom leg, making escapes or trying to stand back up more difficult. She pummels her top leg in so that her foot is behind her opponent’s back securing the position and protecting herself from counter leg locks.

Luiza then passes the foot to the other side of her head (side closest to the mat). This is because if doesn’t, the foot is free to move and the opponent can start rotating the leg and escaping. By passing the foot to the other side, she can use her head and block the foots ability to rotate, which prevents the legs ability to move.

With the leg secured she can finish the submission. Her hands cup around the ankle and pulls, she bites her ankles down, squeezes her knees together, and hips into the knee. 

Chaining techniques together is a concept that will take any aspect of your game to the next level. It will allow you to dictate the pace of a match, keeping an opponent on the back foot and forced to always be defending. In this sequence, the opponent is so worried about defending an upper body attack that they are leaving openings for leg locks to finish the fight. 

Update your Fundamental Foot Locks with Luiza Monteiro! These footlocks are 100% IBJJF LEGAL! Leg locks aren’t just for No-Gi. Use your open guard to set traps and land SUBMISSIONS!

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