Defense before escape

Source: Volume 02, §1.2–1.3 — ▶Watch §1 Front Headlock Review at 00:00:00   (full transcript)

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Verbatim from the transcript

The three priorities on the bottom

When we're underneath front headlock we need to make sure of a few things — in this order:

1. Defend the submission. As my instructor says, you have to have defensive responsibility. Before you start to escape, you have to be defending. The submission threat is very real.
2. Defend the go-behind. Whenever possible, we don't want to just hang out in front headlock without our hands engaged. Even if he's not threatening the strangle, I don't simply want to let him run around behind me and get to a position with better chest-to-back contact, where he can start to control hips, lock hands, and threaten strangles. In front headlock, at least he's in front of you and you can see where he is. Once he gets behind you, life gets a lot more difficult.
3. Put your back on the floor. That can be in an elegant way — like a shoulder roll — or in a sloppy, dumb way where you just kind of fall over on your side. It doesn't actually matter in practice. There are going to be times where you want to "cow-tip" yourself over, and times where you want to hit an elegant roll where you enter your partner's legs or attack the upper body.

When your back is on the mat, your partner can't cover it. They may be able to get to a chest-to-chest pin, but in most cases — especially when the person is more talented, faster, stronger, younger — you're usually in a better place when you're facing them. You have a chance of getting elbow connection and inside position, compared to when they're behind you with chest-to-back.

Defense is not escape

A lot of times when people are learning this sort of thing, they confuse or conflate defense and escape. They are not the same.

• Escaping means getting out of the position you're in.
• Defending means avoiding a potentially dangerous situation.

If he's attacking the strangle from the front, I have to defend that before I try to escape from the position. You have to be able to recognize: if you're under threat, the first thing you've got to do is defend the submission.

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How this principle shows up in Volume 02

Every escape sequence in Volume 02 embeds this ordering. The recurring instruction — stated in §2.2, §5.1, §8.1, and §8.2 — is: if at any point during an escape you feel his strangle hand creeping up over your shoulder line, stop what you're doing immediately. Put your head on the floor, come back down, and defend the grip first. Then resume.

This is the operational version of the principle. Defend first, escape second. The escape is worthless if you get strangled mid-transition.

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Connections

• Extends back to the floor — "put your back on the floor" is step 3, but it only applies after steps 1 and 2 are handled.
• Referenced by every move in Volume 02 that begins from front headlock (bottom).