Stuck In The Honey Hole? Kyle Boehm Can Help

 

Kyle Boehm is no longer one of BJJ’s best kept secrets. This 10th Planet monster recently received his black belt and has been riding a very successful string of competition endeavors, making his bank account a little bit bigger in the process. Boehm recently claimed 10K prizes at the BJJ Fanatics invite in Beverly, Massachusetts, a King of the Mat event in Ohio, and not long ago he brought home a hard fought $2,500 at the inaugural BJJ Fanatics brown belt invite. Boehm is a grinder, incredibly resilient, ad his technique is razor sharp. 

Boehm excels at the EBI ruleset and as you probably know, EBI overtime rounds offer a serious level of excitement. Boehm is always more than game and it’s a pleasure to watch him compete. His level of escape artistry is masterful and he displays this again and again in these exciting overtime rounds, often outlasting his opponents and Boehm is just so unbelievably difficult to submit. With Boehm receiving his black belt, I think we’re going to be seeing and hearing a lot more from him in the upcoming months.

Boehm has recently taken his escape knowledge to the filming room and compiled what’s sure to be an amazing list of some of his favorite escapes. This release will be hitting the BJJ Fanatics site very soon and this is quite the anticipated instructional, as Boehm has been showcasing his unique and high-level abilities more regularly. 

In this video, Boehm gives us some insight in to what he’s been working on for the release. The honey hole, which you may know as “the saddle” or “inside sangaku” has been one of the most utilized game over positions in the lower body attack game. It’s a unique entanglement of the legs that offers incredible control over a player’s lower 50%. With this entanglement in place, and with proper controls, an attacker can seemingly take their time and hunt for the submission. Most often, the submission we see her is the inside heel hook, one of the most dangerous in the leg attack game. But there are also plenty of other options here, that include straight style foot locks, toe holds, and other innovations. 

Escarping the honey hole is not impossible, but it does require some knowledge of the position and what is actually happening to you. Lack of technical proficiency here can land you in even worse positions or even find you hurting yourself in the process of escape. Boehm is going to guide us through a proper escape from this dangerous configuration so we don’t succumb to its treachery. Check this out! 

 

Boehm’s partner begins in the most extreme form of the honey hole entanglement. With one of his legs over the outside of Boehm’s and weaved under the far leg, there is a certain level of control. Added to this is the acquisition of the free leg, using an over hook. Once this position is achieved, escape can become quite difficult. 

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As Boehm explains, the very first order of business is to free the “secondary” leg. This is the leg that’s over hooked, which isn’t necessarily in much danger, but it the continued control of this this limb will lead to plenty of trouble, so it must be freed. Using a two on one grip on the back of his partner’s arm, Boehm begins to apply kimura-like pressure to the upper arm and pulls his partner forward. This forward pull is enough o create a gap where Boehm can escape his trapped foot. Once free, he moves his leg as far from his partner as possible, so that it cannot be reacquired. We only want to have to do this once! Don’t get caught int eh cycle of your opponent continuously re-capturing the leg. This can become exhausting and frustrating and the more times we allow this to happen the greater our chances of getting stuck become. When you remove your leg, be sure it travels to a safe distance out of your opponent’s reach. 

Here, Boehm’s next play is to free his trapped knee from the honey hole, so that he is free from the threat of the submission. To do this, he can post on his partner’s knee or ankle area. Once he finds a place to plant his hand, he begins to rise up, lifting his hips from the mat, and putting weight in to the primary leg. He then turns his instep down tot eh mat, making it extremely difficult for his partner to once again capture the heel. Boehm then separates the legs a bit and frees his kneel line from the trap. He ends by backstepping over his partner’s body (with a small blow tot eh head for good measure) where he can reengage and continue the scramble, or he can simply pull the leg completely free and then reset to continue fighting. 

This systematic unwinding of the honey hole position is absolutely perfect. Boehm address every major issue associated with the entanglement and demonstrates how to dismantle one of the most problematic scenarios in the game. That’s how its done. Keep this one smooth and methodical. No need to panic here and cause yourself more trouble! 

We see this critical concept of “freeing the knee line” constantly with the leg game. This is most definitely one of the most important themes when we’re considering leg attacks. With the honey hole, there is a bit of a trek to make our way to freeing the knee line, as the position offers a high level of control not just over the knee line, but over the entire lower body. One thing is for sure with the honey hole. Be certain that you understand the inner workings of the position before you begin trying to escape. We saw here how Boehm was able to work backwards, unwinding all of the different elements of the entanglement. Simply touring in the wrong direction when you’re caught here could have disastrous consequences. Do your homework and be safe!

While you impatiently wait for Boehm’s escape series, check out Kimura Control, his new instructional based on another one of Boehm’s most acclaimed areas of expertise. I’ve seen Boehm employ the kimura it seems like 1000 times in a match to get to the back and chase down other favorable scenarios. You’ll find plenty of great techniques to add to your toolbox with this one and it’s available now. I hope you enjoyed this segment as much as I did. Thanks for reading and enjoy! 

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