Over-Under Fundamentals For MMA Fighters With Brandon Escobar
The MMA world is built upon two primary aspects - Grappling & Striking. Inside both aspects, we have different branches that go through the same “adjustment process” to be effective in MMA.
But what does it mean to “go through an adjustment process”?
When MMA was first introduced in the early UFC’s, we were able to see the different martial arts at their RAW form fighting against each other to see which one is the best of all martial arts.
But today, it is different, most fighters are coming from a mixed background, and usually, they are used to dealing with most of the traditional styles as they encounter them daily in the gym.
So, today it is not enough to be good at one of the traditional martial arts; we must adjust the style to the MMA rules and take what is most effective for us and discard what is not (pretty similar to what Bruce Lee said).
Other than just adjusting the different styles to the cage, new fighting methods have been developed that are unique for MMA. For example, Ground & Pound, Cage fighting, and using the opponent’s gloves to wedge him in place are all new branches of techniques developed specifically for MMA.
In the next section, we will go over a grappling position called “the over-under position,” and we will learn about fundamental concepts that will carry over with us to the MMA cage. Remember, grappling in MMA is not the same; there are strikes allowed, and we must always consider that because a sudden knee to the ribs can finish the fight if we are not aware.
In this video, Brandon Escobar will show us the fundamental concepts behind the over-under position so we can effectively use it.
Who Is Brandon Escobar?
Brandon Escobar is a Honduran American wrestler who became Honduras’ first Olympic Wrestling qualifier after earning his spot on the Olympic team by winning the Pan American Olympic Qualifier. As the years went over, Brandon started to gravitate towards MMA and had 12 amateur fights. Nowadays, Brandon is a part of the Jackson Wink MMA coaching staff - passing his knowledge to many MMA fighters and adjusting the wrestling to fit into MMA effectively.
Check Out Brandon's Instructional HERE! Click Learn More!
The Main Concepts Of The Over-Under Position
In this video, Brandon Escobar will go over the over-under position with us. When we are in our fighting stance and looking to get into the over-under position, we can engage in various ways -
- Using strikes to close the distance and gain the position
- Collide with your opponent when his back is against the cage
- Pull your opponent in by grabbing their hand and pulling it in a downward angle, so the opponent puts his hands on us and giving away the underhook
Overall this position is very common in MMA as bodies collide all the time, and this is the easiest position to get into off a collision. When we are in the over-under position, the most important thing we look for is to look solid and to have confidence in our ability to attack and defend from the position.
Once we are in the position, we stand either in a squared stance or a staggered stance. When we are in a staggered stance, we can put the underhook or the Whizzer leg in front, depending on preference, but Brandon likes the underhook leg in front as he feels more powerful.
Now it doesn’t matter which stance you choose, but you have to make sure that the opponent’s hips are always far away from us or closed in full so we can engage ourselves and go for takedowns but make sure that you are the one taking action.
The next thing we will do is put our head on the overhook side and clump down on the opponent’s overhook, so he doesn’t control us. When we do that, we also want to lift our underhook, so we are the ones controlling the frame.
Notice that this is a 50/50 position, and if we are not doing anything to get an advantage, the opponent will do. Now, after we get the frames on, we need to lower our level, so our shoulder is under their shoulders this way. We can have the power to push them at an upward angle to drive them up in an incline, which is what we look to do.
After we get everything done and in place, we need to stop our opponent from circling and taking an angle because that is what he needs to do. To solve this problem, we are going to use the frames we gained to stay in front of the opponent as he moves around, not giving him an angle.
Learn More From Brandon Escobar
If you liked this video and want to learn more from Brandon, he has his complete instructional “Dynamic Wrestling For MMA - By Brandon Escobar” available exclusively on Dynamic Striking.