Key Takeaways
- A three-part No-Gi instructional deconstructing the way Magid Hage uses reverse armlocks.
- Features entries and finishes from the closed guard, half guard, butterfly guard, and half butterfly.
- Offers in-depth analysis of gripping and positioning for optimal finishing.
- BJJ World Expert Rating: 7.5 out of 10.
REVERSE ARMLOCK MAGID HAGE DVD GET HERE
One of the tightest armlocks ever is the reverse armlock, but it is almost never used with intention. You’ll see people capitalizing on it opportunistically, or using it to leverage themselves into position for something else, such as a sweep or another submission.
And yet, the reverse armlock is a submission that offers high reliability and has a very small learning curve. Speaking of picking the move up quickly, the Reverse Armlock Magid Hage DVD, which is a fairly short instructional if we hold it to modern standards, has everything you need to start getting taps with it. Read on to find out more.
Exploring Straight Armlocks
How often do you go for a straight armlock in BJJ? If you do it is most likely the armbar, am I right? Of course, there are those who like to mess around with Choi bars as well, but those are mostly seen as opportunistic these days.
For me, the revelation of reverse armlocks came from setting up triangles. it turns out that if you trap and block your opponent’s elbow while their arm is in a fully outstretched position, you can do pretty much whatever you want with them. If you ask me it beats the shoulder crunch by a country mile.
During the triangle research, I kept getting taps from people on account of the elbow pressure, so I decided to look into it. Reverse armlocks emerged, and they gave my game a completely new dimension not just in setup up subs, but also in creating the perfect environment for sweeping.
Then, I came across the Reverse Armlock Magid Hage DVD. It is an instructional that will help you understand what reverse armlocks are and how to finish them. You will need to do more research on your own, however, if you want to really make them a part of your game.
Magid “Gorilla Hands” Hage
The baseball choke is one of the best surprise attacks in the sport of BJJ. I’ve personally seen it put people to sleep in seconds, and what’s most interesting is that it usually involves lower belts snoozing upper belts with this sneaky move. The man we have to thank for the choke is Magid Hage.
Hage is a 2nd-degree black belt under Carlos Gracie Jr. which shows that have come up throw the Gracie Barra ranks. He leads GB Escondido in California and is very well-known and respected in competition circles.
Magid came to people’s attention when he submitted two black belts (Zack Maxwell and Clark Gracie) with his signature baseball choke in the same event, demonstrating that innovation can work even against much more experienced opponents.
Since then Magid has competed a lot, fine-tuning not just the baseball choke but also a bunch of other submissions people don’t see coming. He now demonstrates exactly how he developed a highly effective armlock system in the Reverse Armlock Magid Hage DVD.
Detailed Reverse Armlock Magid Hage DVD Review
For a three-part instructional, the Reverse Armlock Magid Hage DVD is fairly short, as each part lasts barely half an hour. That means that the entire instructional is just over an hour and a half long. However, on the positive side, the subject is not vast so this No-Gi DVD is pretty complete as far as reverse armlocks are concerned:
Part 1 – Grips and Positioning
The reverse armlock is a position many grapplers shun, which is a dumb move since this particular move is one of the best there is. Even if it doesn’t work a sa submission it opens up just about everything you want to get from guard with very little resistance possible.
In the Reverse Armlock Magid Hage DVD, the focus is on improving the finishing rate of the reverse armlock, as opposed to using it as scare tactics. The opening chapters of the instructional cover the key aspects of positioning starting with grips.
Grips are the make-or-break portion of reverse armlocks since the pressure on the elbow requires precision for both finishing and retaining the position. Magid does an excellent job at pinpointing these concepts, making them crystal clear before he connects them to actual guard setups.
Part 2 – Different Guard Setups
As you probably know from the popularity of the Choi Bar these days, reverse armlocks work particularly well from BJJ guards. The closed guard has long been a position for setting them up.
In fact, Magid makes closed guard setups on either side extremely easy in this part of the Reverse Armlock Magid Hage DVD. After explaining how to manage distance in a way that favors reverse armlocks it is easy to see why Magid’s armlocks are so tight.
The same principles apply to other guards as well, with butterfly and half guard setups also featuring in this part of the instructional. Hage offers slight adjustments compared to the initial closed guard set up to make the submission work almost effortlessly.
Part 3 – Combo Attacks
The final part of the Reverse Armlock Magid Hage DVD, which is also the longest one, goes deeper into the art of setting up the position and offers a few variations on finishing and possible follow-ups.
I really liked the fact that Magid does not abandon ship when the initial reverse armlock fails and goes for something else, but rather goes on to hunt for it on the opposite side creating an endless loop of the same attack.
The DVD concludes with a recap and some general ideas on using the reverse armlock system.
Spectrum Attacks in BJJ
There is an underlying concept in this Magid Hage Armlock DVD that is a great example of how you can think about diversifying your submission attacks without having to resort to different attacks as follow-ups.
Imagine you’re trying to do a triangle choke. The top person pushes forward (dumb, I know, but people still do it) and you end up mounting them. Can you finish the triangle? Yes, of course you can.
The idea here is that you stay on the same spectrum, i.e. you keep sticking to the same submission, just change the setting slightly to make it work. The same can happen with armbars, going belly down with an ankle lock, or switching from one reverse armlock to another.
The concept is super useful to show you that you can do follow-ups within the same submission hold you’re trying to do when you can quite make it work and you don’t have to change to something completely different immediately.
DOWNLOAD HERE: REVERSE ARMLOCK MAGID HAGE DVD
Hit Reverse on Armlocks!
Add reverse armlocks to your game. They work in every possible scenario, they’re easier to figure out than armbars and bent armlocks and will help you understand Jiu-Jitsu better. The Reverse Armlock Magid Hage DVD is a great place to begin exploring this underrated submission and quickly start tapping out higher belts. Give it a try!
