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Well, like many defenses, if it’s done right, the best move is to go for something else. If the sprawl is good, grapplers will pull guard. If the sprawl takes the hips away but there is some freedom of movement, the attacker can go for the back. If the sprawl takes the defender off balance (overcommits) the attacker can pull out of the sprawl and kick or strike. If the sprawl leads to the beginning of a guillotine, the shooter can sit out to the side and spin back in.
Against a sprawl to a guillotine, I try to agressively move forward and upward to straighten the posture- this negates the guillotine’s strength, and sometimes you can use the changing arm angle to achieve a hammerlock. In my experience, there’s not a whole lot that can be done if the sprawl is done correctly.
As a followup to a sprawl, I consider maintaining the weight down as I move around to the back. From here you can RNC, or sometimes if you pop up real quick you can field goal kick their groin from behind (if their feet are too close together to do this, you can stomp or knee spike into the tailbone, or if you’re more above them than behind them and they’re low enough to the ground you can work knee crushes to the kidneys- these can quickly transfer back to a dominant ground position). I also consider throwing knees to the head or ribs depending on position. If you grab the lapel and spin to the back, you can choke using the fabric. If I feel like I’ve successfully neutralized their forward drive, I may consider standing as I continue to apply pressure to their head with my hands.
I always like to consider the armed possibilities. If I sprawl and I have an edged weapon, its repeatedly going into the kidneys and sides. If I am sprawled on, some weak arm flailing to the side will still cause some damage. The reason I mention being sprawled on while with a knife is that one of the in close methods I train is to encircle and lift their left leg with my left arm and press my head into their side so they can’t move away quickly and most people will try to guillotine and/or strike with the other hand to the body, both of which I will ignore while I repeatedly hook with the blade to the kidneys or inside thigh. I could see a sprawl as a partial defense to this sort of attack (but like I said, some arm only flailing to the side can still do lots of damage.Yeah, a knife would be add a whole new dimension and would be a good equalizer. If you can get to it, all you may need to do is give him some cuts, maybe even on the legs (there is a big artery there I believe that would make him bleed pretty bad if cut).
Without a knife it’s harder, but I suppose to try to prevent being sprawled on is to learn how to shoot in correctly. If you keep your upper body up the entire time and just move in closer with your legs, a sprawl would not work as well as a defense and the guillotine may not work either.
For the kidney crushes, would you establish a ground position first, or would you just drop down your knee from above? Or put it on the kidney, then forcefully push it down?
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GiantkillerGK,
\”If you keep your upper body up the entire time and just move in closer with your legs, a sprawl would not work as well as a defense and the guillotine may not work either.\”If I understand this corectly, wouldn’t it leave an opening for a knee to the face?
Not really, because the hands stay up to protect. If you ever see professional wrestlers shoot in, they go in very fast. If the knee comes up, they may just grab the leg. There are exercises you can do, where you move around the room in the same way you would shoot in. Hard to explain, but you squat straight down (from your fighting stance), then pull yourself forward with your front foot, so that foot’s knee will land on the ground. Then you step forward with your other leg, put that leg’s foot on the ground and pull yourself forward again, so that that foot’s knee ends up on the ground. Then you step with the other foot etc. You keep your upper body straight the whole time. Good wrestlers can move really fast like this, so if you step back to defend the shoot, they just keep moving forward, grabbing one leg or the other, whichever one they can get to.
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GiantkillerRe:
quote \”Giant Killer\:For the kidney crushes, would you establish a ground position first, or would you just drop down your knee from above? Or put it on the kidney, then forcefully push it down?_________________
GiantkillerIf they’re in a turtle position, you can’t really do the knee crushes because you don’t have the space. It only works if you flattened them out all the way. In this instance, you’d need the dominant position to transition behind them without them getting up. When you do these from a dominant position, you are risking your ability to get away when you release the weight so its a calculated risk. The best use of these is to follow up against a standing joint lock that brought them to the ground (for instance, a wrist lock with their stomach down can lead into alternating crushes to the head and ribs, or to attack the elbow). When you train these a decent amount and get used to crushing a heavy bag, you start seeing lots of opportunites to attack with them in transition between standing and the ground.
And are you basically falling forward with your knee onto the opponent’s kidney. If he’s flattened out, the kidneys will be on top, so it’s potentially a weird angle for giving a knee (maybe not, something to try). Sounds like a powerful counter, though.
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GiantkillerA knee crush is a straight down attack with the knee. If you stand over a downed heavy bag with a leg on each side, then pivot sideways and drop your knee into it, you get a good feel for how they work.
Just saw the Human Weapon MMA episode and they showed a sprawl where the defender seems to move at an angle as he shoots his legs back and then shifts his weight to one side, rather than spread out evenly on top of the attacker’s body (the way we usually do it). So, the defender is still on the attacker’s back, but one of his legs is on the ground and his body is tilted to one side.
Are both of these sprawls correct, or is one more effective than the other?
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GiantkillerGK,
Why on earth would you ever shoot in on anyone? Takedowns are questionable in street situations. I mean if you have superior skill you should not find this necessary. In fact this discussion is a bit of a flash point with me because I don’t think it really has any place in self defense. GK anything that puts you on the ground with an attacker is highly dangerous and should be avoided. The Sprawl is a great defense. But shooting in? No. Shooting is for a \”fight\”, not self defense.
Well, but I was asking about the sprawl, not the shoot. Apparently, there are two slightly different ways to do it and I was wondering if one of them might work better than the other, or if they are pretty much the same. Just in case someone decides to shoot in on me.
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GiantkillerPsyops- don’t you need to know how to shoot properly in order to defend against it? Most places I’ve seen that don’t teach how to shoot end up with various sub-par defenses against a low bent at the waist football tackle type motion rather than a good shoot.
Yes,
Learning to shoot properly in order to practice a defense against it is one thing. Incorporating shooting into your offensive game is another. The problem with many practitioners today is that they have never been in a real street altercation. They are teaching theory. Who is going to shoot on cement? Are you kidding? It’s ridiculous.
I am not anti-ground. I am anti unrealistic ground scenarios that encourage smaller individuals to take a bigger person down on the ground and fight with them. Going for armbars in the street? Bullshit! Ankle locks in the street? Bullshit! Street is not MMA! It is not a tournament. Students will get hurt by practicing these techniques as offensive weapons.
Oh by the way what do you think a student is more likely to see in the street, a perfectly executed shoot, or a bent at the waist football tackle?
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