Athos gets underneath to perform the reversal.
A sitting champion of the IBJJF’s No-Gi Pan, Athos Miranda of Alliance has been experiencing a good phase in his career. After three years living in New York and training at Marcelinho Garcia’s school, he’s begun to reap some fruits, like gi and no-gi titles in tournaments on American soil.
In his recent victorious showing at Kasai Pro 6, for example, Athos used one of his favorite techniques from the half-guard, in which he gets under his opponent doing the X-guard to explode and open up two advantageous options: either taking the back straight away or passing guard to achieve side control.
The lesson was recorded and sent in by him, and you can check it out in the following video.
Translated transcript:
“I’m here on the half-guard. He’s applying plenty of pressure. I just relieve the pressure a little to be able to bring his leg here. Getting here, I bring his knee up [0:26], don’t let him stretch himself. I move to the X… and kick. As soon as I get up, I don’t walk forward with him, because he’ll get away. I bring him to me, maintaining the pressure on the knee. And here I have two options: I can let go and jump to his back. Or I put his knee down, ending the position [0:48] and moving to side control.”
