Vunak's Top 50 Combat Secrets Ch. 38

Chapter 38 – The Neck Crank

The Neck Crank is my favorite all time Jiu-Jitsu move. The Irony is however, most black belts will tell you, it isn’t even a legitimate move.

The reality is that when people tap to a neck crank, they are tapping to a combination of uncomfortability, fear, and panic. However with that said, when one is rolling, playing the Jiu-Jitsu game, the gentleman’s game, the goal is to make the opponent tap. Before we get into the meat of this week’s column, let me confirm that we are all on the same page, and actually define the neck crank. The actual move that we are referring, is identical to a rear naked choke. The only difference between a rear naked choke and a neck crank is one is not behind the opponent, one is in front of them. Chest to chest. This precise posture occurs in Jiu-Jitsu, two times and two times only. The guard and the mount. Let us take the guard first( closed guard) . First we prevent the opponent from gaining his posture. As we are applying what would look like a rear naked choke to the front of our opponent, out of the guard, loosen your leg grip by 50 %, and raise your legs as high as you can on your opponents arm pits (Rickson used to call this the high guard stretch). Now simultaneously straighten your spine and apply the rear naked choke until tap is achieved (in order to make these kinds of moves functional one must put in 50 hours in our specific Action Strength training).

Second the mount. Once we have achieved the mount on our opponent, we drop our head completely down, straighten both legs and put our hooks in. Now with our head down, hooks in, we begin our neck crank again… exactly the same way one would do a rear naked choke. You will hear that lovely tapping sound more often from the mounted position rather than the guard position due to leverage and physics.

At this point I have told you that the neck crank is my all time favorite Jiu-Jitsu position,(that is the what). I have told you which posture to achieve said position(that is the how). And now I will teach you the most important aspect of the rear naked choke the why !

This is going to be the simplest explanation that you have ever heard in your life. You will find it logical, serendipitous, and ironic all at the same time. The greatest martial art in the world for self preservation is Kinomutai. The two greatest kinomutai positions ever invented, perhaps exponentially greater… happen to be the face bite, yes the infamous face bite that you have heard me joking about for 30 years, the one that makes Hannibal Lector look like Pee Wee Herman. The postures on kinomutai’s face bite are identical not similar, not 99.999 % similar, they are identical to aforementioned neck cranks. ALL ONE LITERALLY HAS TO DO FROM THE TWO BRAZILIAN JIU-JITSU NECK CRANK POSTURES IS BITE ! OR AS A KINOMUTAI MAN WOULD SAY TEAR !

In conclusion as a 5’10, 170 lbs American practicing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, one of my single most empowering revelations while wrestling with folks that are usually much better than myself was how easily we could evoke our greatest principle of Instantaneous Asymmetric Violence, which gets me filled with so much creative energy, that it brings the poet out in me. The quickest way to win a fight, is to go from the neck crank to the face bite.

See Ya Next Week !

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Vunak's Top 50 Combat Secrets Ch. 25

Chapter 25 – Contemporary JKD’s Progression

As stated before in our previous articles, mixed martial arts has boiled down to really two arts, Thai boxing, and Brazilian jiu-jitsu. And as mentioned before, we were aware of this revelation around 1985. And since that time, we have had plenty of years to devise ways to improve this Thai boxing – Brazilian jiu jitsu cocktail. Adding Kinamutai was our first priority. The single most important thing that we wanted to do, was defeat another person that also knows Thai boxing and Brazilian jiu jitsu, and happens to be bigger, stronger, younger, etc… Kinamutai filled this hole, next we found that by injecting Wing Chun, we were able to control the opponents center line, trap the opponents hands, and even apply follow up arts. Some of these follow up arts can include, but are not limited too, savate, dumog, tai-chi, etc…

When two people are trading blows, in a typical MMA fashion, and all of a sudden somebody enters with a Pac Sao, and the perhaps a Lop Sao, and then if they were to go to a double leg takedown, continuing the match on the ground, we would see a visceral response of most of the audience sitting up in their chair, extremely impressed, in deed this scenario has actually occurred once in the UFC.

Joe Rogan, perhaps the most sophisticated man on planet earth, when it comes to knowing fighters, was blown away by Vitor Belfort’s Straight Blast on Vanderlai Silva. In fact, Joe actually got up out of his chair, and declared at a very high decibels, did you see that he, “Wing Chuned him”.

Once this perfectly timed Wing Chun entry occurs, and you have Pac Saoed and Lop Saoed your opponent, controlling his center line, there is a brief window in which we can actually flow to the enigmatic but functional art of Tai Chi. Picture the opponents hands crossed, and you square up your body and sail him, straight across the octagon, or perhaps a street fight, sailing the opponent into a 65 Chevy. Now we have a contemporary JKD person, able too trade blows in the world of Thai boxing, able to trade counters in the world of jiu jitsu, yet also able to put more sophisticated and sublime arts in, that are more germane to the street, again weather these follow up arts are Wing Chun or Tai- Chi, or locking, or throwing, there main purpose, is to add to the potential degree, of violence, necessary to win the encounter.


Training Drill:

Step 1: Get your Thai boxing and jiu jitsu skills as high as possible.

Step 2: Integrate the Pac Sao as a Portal to enter.

Step 3: Make sure you can perform said Pac Sao on the retraction of any punch or kick.

Step 4: Trap the rear barrier (Wu Sao).

Step 5: Once the students are able to get all the way up to this final point, add the two basic Tai Chi shoves.

Step 6. Add Foot sweeps

Step 7: Add Dumog

Step 8 : Add Savate

Step 9: And now finally by step 9, we should see our students, looking very similar to two MMA cats sparring in the Octagon. They should be trading blows, not too dissimilar from Thai Boxing. Integrating Ground Fighting, integrating biting, indeed if we could for a moment, lets shut our eyes and picture this one combination.

Thai Kick – Pac Sao -Lap Sao - double leg takedown - ground and pound - sweep occurs from the bottom person - the sweeper comes to his feet, with a blitzing straight blast, and a Tai-Chi Sail into the Octagon, concluding with a knee strike.

In conclusion when one can seamlessly integrate, tai chi, locking, biting, with Thai boxing and jiu jitsu, they can fight out of their weight class by 70 pounds, when they are 70 years old.


 

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Vunak's Top 50 Combat Secrets Ch. 5

Chapter 5 – My Favorite Takedown


In my 25 years of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and various other grappling arts, there is only one takedown that is appropriate for us(on the cement). When watching 2 people square off, and one of these individuals is preparing to do a takedown. There are certain requirements necessary to accomplish his goal. The grappler must shoot in with a reasonable amount of speed. Depending on which takedown they are doing, this inertia 9 out of 10 times slams their knees directly into the cement(I have many many grappling friends that have blown out their knees tackling people in the cement).


The other very common takedown is a plain old body slam from the front, or the traditional suplex from the rear. Nine out of ten times , when either one of these moves are attempted, the first thing that hits the ground is the grapplers head. So for the aforementioned reasons, please allow me to share with you my favorite takedown. And believe it or not, yes by some amazing coincidence it is done out of my favorite position, our termination phase of the R.A.T. The Thai Clinch. When in said Thai Clinch, simply remove one arm from the neck, and wrap the opponents arm as tight as possible, and now simply sit down. As you sit down, you have three options, you can sit back in the butter fly guard and sweep him, you will now be mounted. .


Option 2, our individual out weighs us by 60 pounds, and his base appears too solid. Now we simply sit straight down, and pull him in the guard. Option 3 – This person out weighs you by more than 60 pounds, you end up wrapping the arm, and during your attempt to sit down, nothing happens. Now, pull yourself up to him, into a leaping guard, and initiate an instant Kino Mutai nose Bite. If you practice these techniques a 100 times a day, on the cement, I promise you will not find it deleterious to your health


How to train this takedown.


Our favorite way to train this takedown is out of MMA style Kickboxing, one person initiates a R.A.T., enters to the Thai Clinch position, wraps the opponents arm and sits down and either pulls sweep or pulls guard, then both people stand up, re-initiate kickboxing and switching now to the other partner.


In conclusion, remember takedowns are for rare occasions… say you catch a burglar, or a thief in action, or you are an officer of some kind and you need to detain this person by taking them to the ground. Remember for our needs we are usually trying to get off the ground, not the other way around.

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Vunak's Top 50 Combat Secrets Ch. 4

Chapter 4 - Takedown Defense


In order for someone to take us to the ground, they must be inside of our kicking range. The moment they take a step in, our first defense is the shuffle kick to the groin(this is the closest target with our longest weapon). This person also must manage to lower the elevation of the head while traversing through boxing range. This implies that they would have to get through our jab. So the average person, big or small, attempting to take us to the ground is a very difficult task for the aforementioned two reasons.


On the other hand, when dealing with a super skilled and very large grappler who dives 6 inches from your ankles, bent on taking you to the ground, in my experience they are going to accomplish their goal 95 out of a 100 times. Therefore, one can occasionally acquiesce and allow the takedown to happen, and instantly pull guard, and tie up his arm and neck simultaneously(I call this move bug out). When doing this, you will find that even a strong big man, has extreme difficulty getting their posture. It is very important not to do any offense at this point. Simply, hold on to this person, and let them burn themselves out. This process takes anywhere from 10 seconds to 3 minutes. They will try to slam your back on the ground many times, do not let go. They will try to punch you in the face, with weak pussy shots, do not let go. They will try to punch you in the side of the ribs, do not let go. After a while, as you become one with this person, you will notice they will stop for a brief moment and get their breath. In that split nano-second, you begin biting. Over and over and over, tearing through the face and the tip of the nose. You will feel this person get stronger, and want to get away from you instantly. Do not let GO !! Keep biting. After a few more seconds, push the person off with you hand, bring your feet up to their chest and kick them off.


The two most important points of this move, are that:

1. As you pull guard the assailant does not get their posture
2. You ride the bucking bronco until it gets tired, and then bite when the bronco is least expecting.

In order to do this right, there are a litany of exercises that one must do in order to have the tendon strength to hang on to a 300 lbs man. Fortunately for us, the single greatest proponent of this type of strength is Singh. And I defer exercises to him.


Until Next Sunday, Love Vu

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