Teaching Escapes from Pins

To escape from kesa gatame - called a scarf hold in judo, and a head and arm hold by some other people - one way is to turn in toward your opponent, on to your stomach. Hopefully, you follow that with backing up on to your knees and then attacking your opponent.

A really, really key point that Sergio and Marcello here are demonstrating is that you want to start the escape BEFORE your opponent completely has you in the pin.

I was discussing this with Jim Pedro, Sr. one day and he said,

I'd really like to see, when I was in my prime, if I was squeezing your head, how you would get out of there. 

And he's right. If your opponent has you pinned, the truth is NONE of that stuff you see in all of the Kodokan Illustrated and other judo books really works. {I said that and God did not strike me dead. See, I'm still here. Typing.}

Like a lot of things Jim argues with me about, his answer is right, but to a different question. You want to escape BEFORE you get into the pin. Look at the picture below. 

Even though Marcello threw, he doesn't have the pin perfectly locked in yet,  and Sergio is on his side. THIS is the time to try to get out. Four things I want students to know when learning an escape from kesa gatame:

1. Never be lying flat on the mat with your shoulder blades touching the mat unless you happen to be dead. In that case, it's okay, because, well, you're dead.
2. Have your hands UP. Whether you are standing or on the mat, you should always have your hands up ready to defend yourself. While this seems a pretty basic fact, I want it to be an absolute habit, that you would no more lay there without your hands up in front of you than you would take off your pants and lay on the mat in your underwear. (And if you would, I don't want to know about it.)
3. Do an INSIDE turn. Turn the right way, that is, into your opponent, as shown in the two pictures above that are not of God.
4. React BEFORE you get pinned. The second you feel yourself in danger, do that inside turn, or, as Jim says, you will be too late and he will squeeze your head off.

Isn't this like escaping from being mostly pinned? Yeah, maybe, like in Princess Bride where he was mostly dead.

Not coincidentally, the first three of those things I want students to learn can be learned from a shrimp crawl, also called ebi in some judo classes (because that is the Japanese word for shrimp - you really want me on your team in Trivial Pursuit), and a hip escape by some people. See shrimp crawl video below.

There is a lot more in our book,  -
Winning on the Ground, which is now out as an ebook for
Kindle here 
and Also available for the Nook here
and for other e-readers at Kobobooks

It will be out in paperback in March.


Completely unrelated to this post ... my company is doing a Kickstarter campaign for a game that will replace math. If you have no idea what that means, go here to find out.

How to do an inside turn

If you ask me - which you should, because this is one of those subjects I actually know something about - more people need to spend more time on escapes.

Let's take an inside turn to get out of something like kesa gatame (scarf hold) . This is one of the more basic escapes to one of the most basic pins . Even if you do grappling or mixed martial arts where you can't lose by a pin, you are in a bad position, because it is not too tough to do an arm bar from there.

Yet, I cannot tell you the number of times I have seen this exact thing, where the person on the bottom is trying to escape. How exactly am I supposed to get out like this? My opponent's head is in the way and unless it happens to pop off, which I don't think very likely, I am stuck.




First of all, the time to get out of a pin is before your opponent has really locked up tight. Another crazy thing people often do is start really fighting to get out AFTER they feel the opponent tighten up on the pin. By then,  it's usually too late.

What I want to do is as my opponent starts to get the pin slide my right hand between me and her (I'm just waving it in this picture so you look at it - this is not where your hand goes.) The next picture below is what you really want to do.

So, here we go, as your opponent starts to get close for the pin turn to your side and shove your hand in between the two of you. At the same time jerk your left hand as hard as you can trying to get it away from the opponent. It is a WHOLE BODY movement, jerking your left hand, turning your whole body on the side in toward your opponent (that's why we call it an inside turn.)

If you do the "shrimp crawl" exercise at your club, what some people call ebi (which is Japanese for shrimp - see how educational this blog is) that is the exact movement you are doing with your body.

Keep turning, keep pulling your left hand, shoving your right hand between the two of you. Notice something about both my arms - they are bent. I have seen people teach this move where they are shoving their whole arm through as if they are trying to swim out of the pin. That is a really bad idea, because if you extend a straight arm, an opponent who is good at arm bars is going to jump on it.

Once you get your head out, scoot backward, get up on your knees and come behind her. One of the dumber things I see people do in this position is turn out on their stomach and then lay there, giving the opponent the chance to turn them right back into the pin. No! Get out of there and now YOU attack your opponent!

Thank you to Mr. Gonzales and the students at Gompers Middle School for helping with this blog today. You are much appreciated.