By T.P Grant

Bodycomb s instructional materials have become increasingly popular as his Sambo background gives him a unique perspective and insightful thoughts on the evolving game of submission grappling. In even a short conversation the depth of his leg lock game and views on grappling come through clearly.

What is your basic philosophy when it comes to submission grappling and how does that inform your personal game?

My philosophy for submission grappling is the same as it is for the other combat sports I compete in, including sambo and MMA: Attack for a takedown that leads to a submission, or enter into a submission from standing. If I m on the ground and not working toward a submission, I work my way back to my feet to re-attack.

You've been around the submission grappling scene for a while, going back the mid-2000's. How has your game evolved as you continued to compete in Sub Grappling, Sambo, and MMA? Do you ever look back at a match from 2007 or 2008 and think about how you've totally reworked an aspect of your game?

Absolutely. Everything is constantly evolving. Methods are emerging, or in many cases re-emerging, and then being further refined at an incredible rate. As I have transitioned from a competitor to predominantly a coaching role, I have had to examine my own approach very carefully and distill  what works now from what worked back then. My best students and training partners push each other forward with a lot of leg lock techniques that are not in common practice at most BJJ schools. Because of this, it would be really easy to say this move is good enough because it works on most people right now. However, I strive to hold the stuff I teach to a higher standard. So if I teach a move one way in 2008, I should have found a better way of teaching it by 2015.  A lot of people have a problem with the idea that a move they learned almost 10 years ago could somehow no longer be the best way of doing it, or worse, completely unviable. But I acknowledge that even if it was correct at the time that does not make it  correct now. This evolution does not make me sad. I m proud of things I achieved years ago, but I know I have to teach things differently now for my students to have the same success in the future.

Submission grappling is a sport where a lot of high level competitors are excellent guard players. Anyone familiar with your Top Rock instructional knows you have some excellent insight to the relationship between passing the guard and leg locks, could you talk a bit about that interplay?

When it comes to attacking the bottom person in submission grappling, (an environment without a gi jacket or strikes) the game is quite unique. The bottom grappler can sit up and play what is often called a seated guard which is nonexistent in MMA, Combat Sambo, or any environment with strikes. Also the rules dictate that the top player has to engage the bottom player, something unique to BJJ competitions that has bled over into sub grappling. No other combat sport (MMA, judo, sambo, or wrestling) works like this. Because of this, it allows for the bottom player (without fear of being hit) to react and counter as the top player is forced to pressure. This is why we see so many people rushing to be the bottom player in BJJ matches. At the same time, because there is no gi in submission grappling, the ability for the seated grappler to use the standing grappler s sleeves for guard retention is gone, and therefore their sweep options are limited. 

So the top player cannot strike, and the bottom player has limited sweep options. However, sub grappling has the addition of more legal leg locks than BJJ, judo, and most sambo competitions.

Therefore, interactions between the bottom and top player tend to shift to what we have seen lately in these higher level grappling tournaments, which is constant leg lock battles. It s an interesting development, and it goes to show how rule sets begin to dictate behavior.

Keeping the focus on attacking the guard, a big part of your game is dynamic entry into submissions and attacks on the feet. Does facing opponents who immediately sit to guard change your approach at all?

As much as I enjoy big throws and flying submissions, it does not bother me if someone sits straight to guard. I enjoy attacking the guard as well. It may be a bit less exciting to watch though.

In your instructionals you speak to the importance of keeping control of the opponent's leg while attacking for leg submissions. What do you consider to be some fundamental concepts when it comes to "leg control" for someone just starting to learn leg locks?

If you are working for an ankle lock, then you do not want your opponent to be able to stand or rotate independently of you. Controlling the free leg is a crucial tool in preventing these things. Another important principle is allowing yourself to track the knee of the leg you are attacking so that if they do rotate, you rotate together.

Foot and leg placement while trying to attack leg locks is highly situational and a skill that really seems to be acquired though a great deal of experience. What determines for you where you put your feet while attacking an opponent's legs?

This is a difficult question to answer fully without showing you, but when working for an ankle lock I am typically controlling the free leg and reaping their knee inward so they are forced to roll toward their hands which makes defending the ankle lock very difficult. However that same behavior can often lead to them escaping if you transition to a heel hook. If, while escaping an ankle lock, they rotate to a position where they are on their butt with their knee facing up (perhaps they are trying to fight my hands or doing the put on the boot defense) THEN I will transition to a heel hook. From here they are now out of position to rotate and limp their leg free in a timely manner. When working from this relative position for a heel hook, my foot placement and leg entanglement is largely irrelevant.  Here is a video of me teaching this lesson in a seminar at Studio 540:

What is the role of the "reap" in your leg locking approach?

In sports where your opponent can hit you, reaping helps turn their hips away to pull power off their punches. In grappling it helps turn people toward their hands which makes ankle locks easier.

When you look at your upcoming match at Polaris 2 with another expert leg locker in Eddie Cummings, what differences do you see in his approach to finding submissions?

I tend to find my leg locks from my feet, either with dynamic sub entrances, off of takedowns, or from attacking someone s guard. I can t speak for him, but from what I have seen, he likes to shoot leg control entanglements from the bottom as people try to pass.

How do you feel about the increasing popularity of Submission Only rule sets? Is that the direction you'd like Submission Grappling to head?

Having multiple rule sets available for martial artists is a good thing. Each rule set encourages different behaviors out of the athletes so it allows/forces martial artists to develop specific skills to win each different sport. I have seen some really interesting grappling come out of EBI, Polaris, and some of the other sub-only events, so I m happy to participate in it.

However, I really like stand up battles for takedowns, flying subs, and fast ground work. So it is important that sub-only events are not the only thing available to us. A student of mine recently qualified for the Combat Wrestling world championships in Bulgaria. That rule set rewards good stand up grappling and transition speed. If you have ever watched some of those Japanese Combat Wrestling highlights you know how cool they are, so I m glad that is starting to become available in the US. I think if your goals are to be the best martial artist you can, you should compete in many varying rule sets, and actively build skills that can work across multiple combat sports. We all have our favorites, but it s good to get out of your comfort zone and explore new rules. That being said, sub-only events are a fantastic addition to the sports available to us.

Do you think there is an ideal rule set to create a grappling sport more in-line with your personal grappling philosophy?

I love trying to make up rule sets to fit the way I like to grapple. Sport Sambo is close, as is Combat Wrestling. I held a sport sambo invitational tournament a couple of years ago, and it gave my local students in New Orleans an opportunity to compete with some high level sambo wrestlers from other states. Here is the highlights from that:

Recently I made up a rule set that I used at an in-house tournament I held during a training camp of mine in Houston last month. I thought it went pretty well, and I will probably use a version of that rule set at any future Rdojo camps to give students an opportunity to focus on their stand up grappling and transition speed. 

Will there be a backstage Magic game at Polaris?

Quite possibly. My corners are Nelson Puentes and Hillary Witt of Inverted Gear. They are both hardcore Magic players, so you never know.

Hypothetically a game goes down back stage, what is your go-to deck?

I only play Draft, not Constructed, so I have to think on my feet and build a deck on the fly. That being said I am partial to Red-Blue Tempo decks.

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Reilly is currently relocating to San Francisco to begin coaching at the Bay Jiu Jitsu school. He frequently teaches seminars and those can be found on Facebook or on his website RDojo.com, which also features his instructional material including the No Kurtka series, a DRM-free video set focused on no gi takedowns and leg locks for submission grappling.