Here in part 2 I want to talk about the importance of frames and how you can even the playing field out with leg entanglements. In the last article I went over getting inside position and talked about why it is important. Outside postion is a any guard where you're legs are outside of your opponents legs and are free to move. Examples of this would be DLR, Spider guard, and collar sleeve guard. Outside position gives you more frames and therefore has defensive potential. If you want a more thorough explanation of outside positioning and its strengths and weaknesses, please watch this video by Lachlan Giles.
Framing - To keep someone larger away from you, it is important to frame on their body. Using your feet will give the the strongest frame, but hands, elbows and knee can also work. With someone larger, an important trick will be frame replacement. Quickly use a weaker frame to stop the initial attack and then replace the weak frame with a more powerful one. Outside position is great for this. With outside positioning you can use the strongest frame, your feet, and still have your knees and backup incase they pass your first line of defense. You will generally have 3 lines of defense, your feet, knees and arms. With inside positioning you usually only have 2 and if you screw up, 1.
The placement of the frame is also important. The hip and shoulder are generally the best places to frame, but there are other that work in specific situations, such as the side of the neck, chest, etc.
Leg entanglements - The legs are where explosiveness and athleticism come from. If you can entangle your opponents legs you can usually stop your opponents ability to crush you or quickly run around you. By taking away their legs you can knock them down and get on top.
The most common entanglements are 50/50, the saddle and single leg X, but there are others that people use that can also be effective. To make these even more effective, learn various entities and exits from the positions as well as transitions between them.
Submission choice - Submissions have various strengths and weaknesses and many of them become harder with larger opponents. If you chain together submissions you can sometimes catch a larger person out of position and get them with a sub no more matter the strength difference. That said, there are submissions that don't lose much effectiveness when your opponent's size increases. The RNC(also rear collar chokes) seems to work on anyone regardless of size. Once it is locked it is hard to pull the arm off the neck even if you are larger. Of course if your technique is sloppy they'll be able to pull it off, but if you look at how small people typically beat larger people, this is how they're doing it.
AFAIK there is only 1 submission that works better on larger people than smaller, and that is the heelhook. The muscles that turn the foot are very weak and there is no muscle to oppose the force on the knee. Larger people generally have larger feet and legs, which makes defenses such as heel slipping and clearing the knee line much more difficult.
Caio Terra
Caio competed in one of the smallest weight divisions, but would occasionally do absolute matches. He used a variety of guards, but was very good at leg entanglements such as 50/50.
Caio starts by going to halfguard with a high kneeshield as a frame. He also uses his left hand to frame the neck. Against someone larger, often you'll have to use multiple frames to keep them off you.
1:39 - His opponent, realizing he can't pressure through, stands and to try something else. Caio takes his left leg and sneaks it behind the opponent's legs and then through the middle. Now he is in the 50/50 position. At the time this happened 50/50 was a new position and people generally didn't know what to do once caught. His opponent tries to pressure through it(which is the wrong response) and gets swept.
6:19 - After struggling for a while with 50/50 his opponents escapes and they return to half guard. Caio uses his left knee to frame the body and his right hand to frame the arm. The opponent starts to increase his pressure , but he can't break through the frames. This pressure gives Caio the opportunity to catch him in an omoplata. Since his opponent's weight was driving forward he couldn't posture up to defend and has to lean forward. As he tries to avoid the omoplata, Caio grabs his other arm and gets the armbar.
This is a fast one. They drop for a double guard pull and start playing leg spaghetti. Caio gets a DLR hook and is attached to his opponent's leg. His opponent is most likely worried about the berimbolo from here and tries to counter with an estima lock. Caio feeds his hand deeper and the submits him with the Caio Terra footlock.
Mikey Musumeci
Mikey because popular about a year or 2 ago for challenging larger opponents. I'll go over 2 of his matches from the 2020 European championships. Watch how Mikey uses his frames and always tries to use multiple at the same time to stay safe.
Mikey starts out by pulling guard and enters the DLR guard with a deep grip. He uses is right knee and right hand to frame his opponent's body.
0:34 - Mikey switches back to the lapel grip and then quickly spins to the berimbolo. His opponent defends by staying up right. Mikey goes for it again, but this time extends the opponent's leg and when his opponent tries to do the same defense again he is too slow. Mikey takes his back.
For the rest of the match Mikey hand fights until he eventually gets the choke. Mikey uses outside control to go around his opponent, avoiding his power, and getting to a position when weight and strengths aren't as much of a factor.
Mikey has a lot on his plate with this one. Mahamed Aly is a world champion who is about 100lbs heavier than Mikey and also very fast. Mikey starts by pulling guard and using his feet to frame on Aly's arm and body. He keeps his feet in front of him so Aly can't pressure pass him. He also moves his feet so Aly can't grab them and starting pinning or throwing them.
0:35 - Mikey starts by going for the underhook DLR on Aly's left leg and is doing a fairly good job of unbalancing him. However Aly has his right leg controlled. Mikey can't move easily because of this control, so he lets go of his left hand grip and tries to free his left leg. Aly takes this opportunity to quickly leg drag his other leg and fall into side control.
As soon as Aly does this Mikey uses his left hand to frame Aly's left shoulder and head. His left knee starts to come in to frame Aly's chest and his right hand goes to Aly's hip. Then he connects his right knee to his right elbow and uses both hands to frame Aly's left shoulder. Then he starts bringing in his left knee to protect his body as well. Aly then runs to the other side, but Mikey uses his left knee and arm to stop the pass. Then recomposes his guard.
This sequence shows the importance of stopping people from controlling you legs. A larger person will be able to control you legs and stop you from using them as frames. Its often best to break their grips ASAP if you're in a bad position.
3:15 - Mikey is framing with his feet. His left leg is on Aly's arm around the area of his armpit. Framing here is actually very powerful because you can not only move they body, but it is also very hard for opponents to remove the frame from this position without stopping their attack or off balancing themselves. Mikey's in a pseudo-lasso position with his foot used as a frame on the shoulder. He then switches to DLR while Aly is off balance. Aly eventually gets sloppy and allows Mikey to push his arm down and separate his arm from his leg. From here Mikey's right leg is between Aly's arm and leg which give Mikey the omoplata. Unfortunately the omoplata isn't the best move against a larger opponent and Aly deadlifts him.
4:11 - After hanging in the omoplata position for a while Mikey switches to a matrix entry. When this fails he scoots underneath and puts Aly into the 50/50 position. He grabs the lapel and sits up to sweep. This is a great use of leg entanglement and shows how a smaller person use the 50/50 to get on top.
5:35 - Aly winds up to sweep Mikey to his back. This is where being small helps. Mikey is able to free his knee from the 50/50 and swings around to Aly's back. Mikey gets the crab ride and almost has him, but Aly grabs his leg and pulls him back into 50/50 and eventually sweeps him. From here there is a 50/50 battle and Mikey tries a toehold and well as some sweeps and a crab ride.
8:56 - Mikey comes up on a single leg, but can't seem to complete it, so he drops back down into 50/50. Aly ends up falling down and turning which puts him into backside 50/50. Mikey stands up and Aly grabs his leg so he can stop Mikey from jumping on his back. With his leg trapped Mikey instead goes for a crab ride and almost gets to Aly's back. Mikey tries to come on top instead of chasing the back and Ali gets on top of him.
Unfortunately Mikey lost this match(I think he should have got some advantages and won), but shows how you can use frames to keep yourself safe and also use leg entanglements to topple/control larger foes.
This was a somewhat strange match in China where Lachlan fought Hasim Rida. I think the match had rounds, which is unusual for a grappling match, and Lachlan ended up submitting him twice.
7:40 - Rida attempts to jump over Lachlan's guard and triangle/armbar him, but misses and gets put into 50/50 after a scramble. As I said in the previous article, this almost never seems to work for the big guys. Lachlan goes after the inside heelhook, but Rida's hand fighting stops him. Then Lachlan puts his foot on Rida's chest to make space and finishes the heel hook.
9:47 - For some reason the match starts again and Lachlan goes for a single leg. Rida stuffs it and tries to move into side control. Rida then tries to leg lock Giles and they get into a leg spaghetti battle. As I've said before this is generally a bad idea for the larger person.
10:19 - Rida goes for a nice torreando pass and gets past Lachlan's legs, but because of the difference in heights, Lachlan is able to insert his legs and get back into the 50/50. Lachlan tries to inside heel hook him again, but Rida defends well. As Rida gets up Lachlan moves his foot over to the other side and submits him with an outside heelhook. Lachlan might have broken the same leg twice.
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