Tanquinho teaches how to defend against the straight footlock. Personal archive photo.
When you’re playing open guard looking to defend or sweep, your foot becomes a sitting duck, and the passer won’t need much to take a shot at it. As everyone wants to go home without a limp, it’s a hold you’ll want to know how to deal with.
So, how do you defend your foot? What do you do when a passer wraps an arm around your ankle and sits back for the finish? What’s the first thing you need to do? That’s what our reader Miguel Useda asked, and today we offer him a solution.
“First, the trick is to keep calm and analyze the position so you can set about defending,” says Augusto “Tanquinho” Mendes.
The US Open champion and winner of the New York leg of the Abu Dhabi WPJJC Trials breaks the position down into minute detail in the following video sent in exclusively to GRACIEMAG.com, with the luxury help of his “father-in-law” Wellington “Megaton” Dias.
Check out the position, and enjoy your training!
