Week 9: New era of Leg-locks: False Reap (Kieran Kichuk, Diego Pato, Craig Jones, etc)
This week's focus will be the False Reap
In this issue, we will go over the newly famous: False Reap entry into Cross Ashi Garami (Inside Sankaku/Honey Hole/Saddle/411)
Technique:
Step 1: Reverse de la Riva with calf grip:
The first step is to get a calf grip from reverse de la Riva (before you put your reverse de la Riva hook on)
Step 2: Make the leg light:
Use your Reverse de la Riva position to push them back and make them put all their weight on their back leg. You need the primary leg to be as light as possible:
Kieran also likes to add this detail to make sure they’re unbalanced and pulling their weight back:
Step 3: Back-heel + Cross Ashi Hook:
You’re going to backheel with your de la Riva hook as you lean forward. At the same moment, you're going to lace your top leg (the one that’s pushing on their hips) between their legs.
Make sure you use your bottom leg to push off the mat to help you keep your hips off the floor and keep the desired angle:
Step 4: Invert and free your bottom leg
This step has 2 super important details; the first one is that you need to invert and get your head almost directly under your opponent’s but.
The second detail is that you must free your bottom leg from their hook. This can be done in many ways, but the main trick is to make sure their leg is light, and the way to make it light is by creating kuzushi (unbalancing them):
Some people like to make a palm-to-palm grip as they back heel with their bottom hook and invert. I find it easier to use my bottom hand to control their hook.
Step 5: Control the distance with a modified saddle instead of an inside sankaku
In order to keep them from smashing you, and putting their weight on you, you shouldn’t close the inside sankaku from behind. Instead, use your inside leg to keep the distance like so:
Step 6: Expose the Heel and go for the break:
If they backstep, make sure you roll with them and go for the break from a regular inside sankaku.
Related Resources
Watch it in action
Best XYZ Players
Kieran Kichuk
Diego Pato
Craig Jones
Jacob Couch
Jason Rau
Training Plan for the Week
I train 3-4 days weekly (I drill at home with a dummy almost daily). In order to make it easier for you and everyone else to adapt this plan to their training schedule, I'll divide the week into 2 parts.
First Half of the Week:
Drill the whole sequence and try the positions with your training partners before you try them while rolling.
Focus on rolling playfully with smaller, weaker opponents that are way below your skill level. If you can roll playfully with someone that knows what you are trying, that’s better. Be SUPER careful with the finish from the backside. Sometimes people will react in weird ways, and heel hook themselves.
Remember, the first half of the week is meant to get reps and some feedback on the things that you are doing wrong and how to fix them.
Second Half of the Week (Training sessions 3 & 4 of 4 for me):
Gradually start picking better opponents until you can no longer perform the move. Once this happens, start going down and picking less skilled opponents until you get to a sweet spot where you are performing the move more than 50% of the time you try it.
Try to finish your week performing the move as flawlessly as possible with someone, no matter how low their skill level is: You want to make the last rep as perfect as possible. That's the repetition we internalize the most when we leave the training room.
That’s it for this week!
🫱 👊 🤼♂️
I heard your feedback!
First of all, I want to thank you all for answering last week’s poll.
This newsletter WILL CONTINUE. I am considering being a bit more structured in terms of each newsletter's content. For example, maybe each month, we cover techniques that are related and work in conjunction. Example: This week, we are covering false reap. Maybe next week, we will also cover something related to heel hooks, maybe breaking mechanics in detail or something like that.
PS. I'd love to hear your feedback on this newsletter. Please reply and let me know what you want to cover next week.
I'm trying to grow this newsletter, so please, share it with your friends and training partners 🙏
Nice!!! My coach won his Polaris match last year with the false reap entry (we made a short 1 min video about it https://youtube.com/shorts/DaXydP2DO9Q?feature=share) and he had only learnt it a couple weeks before. He said he was able to pull it off because it’s conceptually the same entry as any backstep entry to saddle, which was a revelation for me!
What grappling dummy do you use?