David vs Goliath PT.1 (Inside position and Movement)

 

I often read posts on forums asking about how to deal with or even beat larger opponents. I can't offer much personal advice because I'm not a smaller person and I train in Japan, so most of my partners are smaller than I am. However instead of personal advice, let's look at what top competitors do when they are faced with larger opponents. Of course the easy answer is to use technique, but what if your opponent is also technical? Lets get into it and see what these smaller people did against SKILLED larger opponents and then take some lessons from them. 

In this article I'll focus on a few points. 

Movement - When facing someone larger than you it is important to use angles and off balance your opponents. If you are larger than the other person you can use strength/weight to move your opponent, but when you're smaller this is generally a bad idea. Don't try to move them, you have to move your own body into the correct position. By moving you'll cause your opponent to shift their balance and where they focus their strength. Making your oppoent reset their feet or their grips gives you chances the attack. It can also deplete your opponents stamina. Also by using movement to avoid their aggression you can create opportunities to counterattack

Inside position - Keeping you legs(arms) between theirs, in positions such as butterfly guard or half butterfly, will allow you to deflect your opponent's pressure upwards. This is what will allow you to get under your opponent. Even when it comes to hands and arms, inside position is important. An example of inside positioning with the arms is double underhooks, which is a powerful position that can be used on people with a size advantage over you. Even from under a pin, inside position will allow you to turn and stay mobile. This will allow you to escape or at least get into a position where their weight isn't crushing you.

Get underneath - This is very important because if you're smaller than someone one of the best places to be is between their legs directly underneath them. Positions such as single leg X, X guard, kiss of the dragon, etc can be used to topple larger opponents or allow you to take their backs. If we're talking Judo, one of the best throws to do against someone larger is a drop seionage, which puts you directly underneath your opponent. When you're underneath someone it is hard for them to put weight on you without unbalancing themselves. 

Keep control of yourself  - Of course you want to stay focused and not get nervous, but in this case I mean don't let your opponent control your body. Letting them control any part of your body is bad, but letting them control your torso is especially terrible. A larger person will be able to use their strength to toss your around or control you if you let them get grips on your body. Don't move directly into them and if they get a grip on your torso break it immediately. If you're standing and let your opponent gets double underhooks you'll get launched to the moon. On the ground a bodylock pass will allow a larger man to grind you into dust. 

Use combinations and misdirection - As a smaller person you'll have a hard time forcing people into techniques. Your best bet is to use combinations or feints to get your opponent off balance and out of position.  Even if you're smaller and weaker a larger person has to defend your attacks and in doing so they will open up opportunities in other areas. For example it might be hard to extend a larger persons arm for an armbar. However when you have them in a triangle your opponent will posture up to escape the choke. This movement will cause them to extend their arm, making the armbar easier. 

Marcelo Garcia

When it comes to small guys beating larger people, the first name that comes up is Marcelo Garcia. This is a famous match from his ADCC run.

It starts out badly for Marcelo as he quickly gets taken down by an armdrag to a tackle(He hit Marcelo with an arm drag. That's cold blooded). From there Marcelo "lets" Rico put his body weight on him and get chest to chest with him. I'd recommend never allowing this to happen. Marcelo shows good defensive skills and manages to hold on and not get his guard passed.

0:45 - Marcelo puts in the butterfly hook from half guard(giving him inside position), which allows him to lift Rico and get under him. Rico wants to avoid this so he backs away from Marcelo and stands up. Marcelo hand fights and Rico then tries to speed past Marcelo's guard. It doesn't work(larger opponents usually can't do this effectively against smaller opponents), and Marcelo retains guard and then moves his legs back to butterfly guard so he has the inside position. 

1:19 - Watch Marcelo's hand fighting. He keeps Rico's hands off his body. Once a larger person controls your body it is hell trying to escape. Marcelo makes sure to peel Rico's hands off his body and he intercepts Rico's hands whenever he can. You can see this frustrates Rico and he goes for a flying armbar because he doesn't know what else to do.

2:05 - Marcelo goes back to hand fighting, then moves to the side(don't go directly into them) and hits a swing single. He was doing really well with this, but once Rico turned into him he was able to use his power and weight to put Marcelo back on the mat. Marcelo keeps the leg and gets underneath Rico. From here Rico can't use his weight or strength so he runs away and then comes back to smash.

 2:33 - Marcelo uses his legs to frame Rico's body and as Rico gets more aggressive Marcelo slides under Rico and lifts him up. Rico is off balance and he falls which lets Marcelo come on top of him for the sweep.

3:10 - Rico doesn't want to be on bottom and like many bigger people, he tries to stand up instead of sweeping. Instead of trying to hold him down Marcelo takes his back. From there we see a sickening slam and then Marcelo takes inside position to off balance and catch him in a heel hook. Marcelo almost never used leg locks, but here he does. I imagine one of the reasons is that heel hooks are perhaps the only submission that works better on larger people than smaller people. 

This match already has a great breakdown by Ayrshire Grappler , so I don't have to do much here. I'll just point out a few things.

1:04 - This is exactly what you want to avoid. Marcelo gives Xande and inch and he takes a mile. Someone that much larger than you getting chest to chest like that is never a good idea. Xande uses that connection and control to move into mount. Luckily Marcelo is able to escape.

3:09  - Xande goes for a leglock against Marcleo, but ends up losing it. IMHO it isn't a good idea to try to leg lock someone smaller than you. I say this as someone that does this all the time, but in the next article I'll explain why.

6:06 - Earlier Marcelo tried pressure passing and didn't have any luck. Here he first tries a pressure pass and the quickly switches to a jumping long step style pass and effortlessly passes Xande's guard. This type of movement with quick misdirections can be very effective against larger opponents. Finally Marcelo takes the back and finishes with a RNC.

Bruno Malfacine

In this match Bruno uses inside position and movement beautifully to defeat his opponent. He uses butterfly guard and shin-to-shin guards to enter into single leg X and X-guard. 

0:36 - Bruno gets shin-to-shin and then slides under into X-guard. He almost gets the sweep but his opponent turns back into him. Bruno is out of position and instead of trying to continue to sweep, he gives up, goes back to inside position and works to get under his opponent again. Once he's under him he goes for single leg X, but his opponent denies it so he tackles him. 

2:12 - Bruno does the same thing again, but this time goes to X-guard. He tries to stand up, but his opponent wasn't off balanced enough, so it becomes a fight of strength which Bruno loses. 

3:33 - The same thing again, but his opponent tries to remove the hooks with his hands and Bruno slowly off balances him towards his rear. His opponent then goes for a leg lock(bad idea) and Bruno comes on top and sweeps him.

4:45 - Bruno goes for another single leg X sweep, but doesn't quite have it. He switches off to a double leg(bad idea). With proper timing and off balancing you can  take down someone larger than you with this technique, but his opponent was already coming forward. His opponent rag dolls him. If they were the same size Bruno might have gotten this, but against someone this much larger it isn't a good idea to use a double leg unless they are severely off balanced or you have a killer tackle.

5:13 - Bruno pulls himself under his opponent into butterfly guard. This is a great place to be because his opponent can't use his weight or strength effectively from here. His opponent tries to readjust himself and gets to a slightly better position, but Bruno still controls the inside space and goes right back to single leg X and sweeps. His opponent tries to kneebar him, gets in a leg spaghetti battle and loses.

The rest of the match is pretty much the same. His opponent continues to try to leg lock him, but fails. Bruno constantly gets under his opponent by using inside positioning and once there he can manipulate his opponent's balance and he doesn't have to worry about his weight or strength.

Here Bruno talks about how he deals with larger opponents and shows how he hand fights and stays away from their grips. The audio is bad, but you can turn up the volume so you can hear it.

Gary Tonon

This is a great match where Gary shows a lot of movement and uses the inside position to get into leg entanglements.

0:31  - Gary goes for a shot, pulls guard into single leg X and then goes for an outside heelhook. From there he continues to play leg spaghetti which IMO is a good strategy for Tonon. 

2:13 - Here Gary let's Palhares control his upper body. Watch what happens. After it happens a 2nd time Tonon uses the scramble to get underneath Palhares and enter into a reaping position and an outside heelhook.

3:04 - Tonon gets into a clinch with Palhares, but Palhares takes the opportunity to get control of Tonon's upper body and launch him. From there Tonon goes to half butterfly guard and then full buterfly guard. After that he attempts a triangle choke. When Palhares lift him in the air he smartly lets go.

5:14 - Gary goes back to this standing position with one leg in. This is actually a very interesting and unique setup for entering the saddle, which Gary has uses before. Unfortunately when someone is that much larger than you they can just toss you around if you allow them to control your torso.

7:02 - Gary goes into butterly guard and then goes under Palhares and out the back door. This allows Tonon to take his back.

12:44 - Gary goes to butterfly again and does a sneaky back take from here. For smaller people, one of the best strategies is to take your opponents back instead of trying to sweep or settle into mount/side control, etc. Here Gary gets under his opponent and then moves his hips out to the side until his head comes free and he is able to take his back. This is only possible because Palhares pressures forward, but this is often the response you'll get from larger opponents. 

 

J'Den Cox

I've talked a lot about BJJ, but lets get some other grappling styles in here too. This one is a practice session between Nicky Rodrigez and J'Den Cox(Olympian). Nicky is larger and stronger, but watch J'Den's timing, movement and positioning. Even though they are going somewhat light we can still learn a lot form this.

1:55 - After hand fighting J'Den ducks under the collar tie making Nicky react. Then he shoots really low and ends up underneath Nicky in a submarine position. Nicky's size doesn't help him here as J'Den comes out the back door. A scramble ensures and they return to standing.

2:33 - More hand fighting and then J'Den goes for a footsweep. Nicky tries to counter with an arm drag, but J'Den hits a double leg as soon as Nicky's arm starts to move. This is a great example of a combinations and perfect timing.

2:58 - J'Den uses movement to keep Nicky guessing. Nicky goes for a collar tie which J'Den ducks and then goes for another double leg.

3:37 - Nicky goes for a shot, but J'Den defends. Nicky comes up with an underhook, which is already bad for J'Den. Nicky then gets double underhooks, which gives him control over J'Den's torso. Nicky then takes him down. Don't let someone larger control your body like this.

5:05 - J'Den quickly shoots for Nicky's left leg, but then once Nicky pulls it back he goes for his right leg and get deep underneath Nicky. J'Den comes out the backdoor and lifts Nicky up.

Isao Okano

Last but not least I decided to find an example in Judo. Unfortunately there isn't a lot of footage I could find of smaller people fighting larger opponents, but here is one match by a Judo all time great, Isao Okano. Okano is fighting in the absolute division and he is the smallest person to ever win gold in this division. Okano makes great use of combinations and movement to keep his opponent guessing. Sorry for the old grainy footage.

0:22 - Okano goes for a quick kosoto gari (outside footsweep) that knocks his opponent over, but since he bellies down, Okano doesn't score. Still this quick attack shows that with proper timing you can take down larger opponents. 

0:51 - Okano is dominating the grips and his opponent pulls his hand away. Okano then steps in for a seionage. I generally don't think a standing seionage is a great throw against someone larger than you, but after his opponent defends, Okano hits him with a kouchi gari(inner foot sweep) to win the championship. 

Conclusion

There will be another article on this topic going over other things such as outside position. I'd recommend watching some of these matches and adding some of the techniques. If you are looking for more Judo check out this video of Ryoko Tani sparring with men. You can also check out this informative break down of Marcelo Garcia. Hopefully this part will give you some ideas of things you can do and how you can deal with people larger than you.

Part 2