Saturday, June 20, 2015

2015 Mundials Analysis: Leandro Lo vs Matheus Diniz - Grip or Die

Matheus does a lot to shut down the usual parts of Leandro's guard. Matheus gets hit with a sweep that while not initially successful leads to turning and thus having to flee when Lo dives at his legs: the same sweep I've seen Leandro hit against Keenan when he crosses his legs/locks his ankles with a position like a guard around the knees and tips the guy over.
It's an interesting adjustment to guys fighting off Leandro scooting underneath to come to his other more common sweep where he would normally set it up with that far spider hook on the arm.

For a guy like Matheus fighting Leandro's right hand grip (often at times Matheus was using BOTH of his hands to control that hand), or a taller guy like Keenan who is also avoiding the spider hook, the guard around the knees level sweep is an interesting adaptation.
Matheus (something I've noticed Marcelo does continually is never concede grips) and Matheus and company clearly prepped for Leandro's hand placement. The 2nd scoring sweep or rather sweep that leads to a scramble and then finally a sweep happens when Leandro adjusts and gets a single leg x-guard type position and if you look closely, there's a split second where Matheus doesn't control Leandro's right grip and Leandro gets the lift necessary to come up on a single leg type of stand up then eventually finishes as Matheus dives for a leg.

I was just out in LA talking to my friend/owner of the Cosmic Training Center and he mentioned he noticed this quite a bit in the Worlds matches at the higher levels: 1) as a tool to prevent lapel guard or other lapel feeding-worm-guard-type stuff and also as a passing tool for the top player if he controls and punches that grip down and controls it against the mat.

Food for thought.


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