Giant Killers: Submission Grappling
Marcelo Garcia as David
The mythos of Jiu-Jitsu has always been underpinned by David of the Bible.
Helio Gracie developed “Gracie Jiu-Jitsu” to complement his size (~150 lbs) and beat larger opponents with his style. The nature of Helio’s lacking athleticism and the size difference between him and his opponents has been exaggerated, but it is integral to the story and popularization of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. His son Royce Gracie was chosen to represent Gracie Jiu-Jitsu at UFC due to his smaller frame (~170 lbs). The Gracie family wanted to showcase the ability of their art to overcome much larger opponents. Every MMA fan has a heard a story of someone watching UFC 1 or 2 for the first time, and being blown away by the little Brazilian dude in a Gi fucking everyone up.
This mythos was integral to BJJ’s growth. The more people learned how to grapple, the less of an advantage the smaller man had against the giants. Experience evened out the playing field and swung the advantage of size and strength back into the corner of the heavyweights. With this evolution came the opportunity for a small man to shock the world. In an age where everyone knew how to grapple, Marcelo Garcia is the greatest representative of the David archetype that Jiu-Jitsu has ever had. He never won gold at ADCC Absolutes but his performances in the division are nothing short of astounding. If you want to know how to grapple bigger men, Marcelo Garcia is the man to watch.
Disclaimer: The video clips included in this article are not owned by the author. They are included for educational purposes only to illustrate key moments in the fighter’s career and demonstrate aspects of mixed martial arts techniques and strategies. All rights to the video content belong to their respective owners.
Leverage More Weapons
Beautiful sequence where Marcelo sits to guard in order to get shin-to-shin. From shin-to-shin he can grab the near leg and stand up on the single. Getting shin-to-shin is an awesome way to start wrestling up. Make contact —> get control —> get up.
It is difficult to stay standing with the larger man. In wrestling exchanges between two competent opponents, the bigger guy has the advantage. Though the taller man is easier to take down than the shorter, wrestling is a sport where strength sits at the foundation.
Marcelo ensures he gets past Rodriguez’s knee, getting up from under the former UFC champ and into his open guard. His attempt to sweep out Rodriguez’s foot helps bring Rodriguez to his hip while Garcia’s forward drive, ensuring his elbows are past the knee, flatten him out.
How to overcome a large strength differential? Apply your strength to the opponent where they are weakest. Find situations where their strength and size matters less, and no such position is more apparent than the back.
While standing Garcia would move around while fighting grips. Keeping the big man moving will pay off later into the fight, and the grip fight prevents them from getting too close and crashing the distance.
Wrist control, interlocking fingers, tricep clamps, inside control ties. Garcia attempts different ideas depending on what Rodriguez gives him. Interlocking fingers grips let Garcia move his opponent around, inside control lets him maintain distance, and the tricep clamp allows him to threaten potential offense. He’s not simply going out there trying whatever. He’s intelligently cycling through his options to gain an advantageous position.
While the opponent is focused on breaking his grips, Garcia would look for the arm drag to expose the back and break their posture.
A forced arm drag that Garcia puts his whole body into to complete. Even though the opponent knows his intentions, he is still able to move him enough to jump over to the back. Using the seatbelt to maintain position without his hooks, he works in the choke with one hook and is able to get the finish. Before going for the choke, he made sure to stabilize himself as to not slide off the opponent’s back. Gorgeous finishing technique on the choke.
The arm drag is a great weapon exemplary the core philosophy of jiu-jitsu: leverage multiple limbs against one of theirs. Garcia is leveraging two hands to an opponent’s arm, forcing their body to follow in the direction he pulls it. It difficult to reach the head with collar ties, so the arm drag is the next best weapon to break their stance and posture. Based on how the opponent defends Garcia is presented with 3 options:
1. Standing Back Take
If he wants Marcelo can jump right on the back and start working the choke while standing. As he found out in the Ricco Rodriguez match however, this comes with a large detriment depending on the ruleset.
Rodriguez attempts to squash Garcia’s open guard and bring him into the front headlock position. He maintains wrist control to initiate an arm drag, simultaneously hooking his foot behind Rodriguez’s to scoop the single. A simple transition from the single allows Garcia to get the back body lock (BBL for short) while his Goliath defends the near arm. His trip is awesome, pushing all of his bodyweight into the back of Rodriguez’s knees to buckle him and bring him down. Though Rodriguez is able to get up Garcia takes the back anyway.
Herein lies the danger of taking the larger man’s back while standing, they can simply slam you by jumping backwards. Not always a good move against someone your own weight (i.e. Oliveira vs. Chandler), but it can do some damage against someone smaller.
2. Trips from Back Body Lock
A much safer process is to get the back body lock and bring the opponent to the ground before taking their back. Though an earlier attempt was met with a quick stand up, Garcia’s back take below was able to keep Rodriguez down. Rather than push with his feet Marcelo stays grounded, opting to use his own knees as frames against his opponent’s. He can get a high position on the back to stuff Rodriguez’s head to the mat while establishing his hooks. This does cost him as he cannot maintain the position for long, but it prevents a stand up and slam at the very least.
It is difficult for Garcia to pick up such a large man from the BBL, so he attacks both legs with the bulk of his bodyweight. Leveraging his weight against the least stable part of Rodriguez’s leg.
Possible triangle and armbar attacks from here as well, but Garcia opted for choke finishes above all else.
3. Single-Leg
Most opponents will react quickly enough to an arm drag to turn and face you once you begin the drag. This isn’t a problem: they still have to move.
Another beautiful example of Garcia using his feet to scoop up a single. Sweeping Rodriguez’s ankle to the outside while framing off the arm, Garcia follows the foot. He snatches up the ankle and immediately puts all of his weight down on it. Realizing Rodriguez is likely going to escape, he maintains control of the ankle and pulls him into a leg entanglement. Though he loses it, isolating the leg in an entanglement is a great way to keep someone off balance.
In order to retain their stance, their rear foot will either have to come forward or farther back as they pivot to face you. There is now a moment where your opponent is adjusting and unprepared to deal with a follow-up shot: the single-leg.
Marcelo attempts to do the same thing standing that he does from guard. Marcelo gets a two-on-one grip and swings to the outside of Rodriguez’s arm. He scoops up his opponent’s leg with his own, picks up the single, and attempts to chain it into a double as Rodriguez gives up his back.
Valiant efforts to take the giant down. Even if you don’t succeed you keep the opponent moving, give him offense to constantly defend, and slowly wear him out. You don’t have the luxury of playing defense as a smaller competitor. You will get smothered if the opportunity presents itself. Overload your opponent with questions, they eventually won’t be able to answer.
Here Garcia tries to double-leg from guard against a larger opponent, though not 50 lbs larger. He attempts to chain a double off of his classic double foot trip from the open guard. He still can’t overcome the physical gap quite as well as when he is switching to the single. He can double off of the single quite reliably, but a straight double is a taller task without a more successful trip preceding it.
Double-leg takedowns might be difficult to finish against a larger opponent, but they can provide a great entry to chain wrestle.
Marcelo’s insistent hand-fighting clears the way for a clean double-leg. He can’t finish so he switches off to the single . An advantage of the single is that you can breathe. Doubles require constant forward motion. You will get sprawled on and trapped underfoot if you stagnate. Standing with the single is a viable option that Garcia uses to his advantage. He slows the pace down while maintaining control of the elg, and runs the pipe to end up in side control when he is ready. Running the pipe on the single will work on someone of just about any size.
Even here, Marcelo takes his time with his single leg attempts. First running the pipe succeeded by a double leg. He maintains control of the leg even when he gets Drysdale down, pushing through until he ends up on top.
Lovely trip attempt here. Garcia uses the arm drag to pull Gracie forward. He capitalizes on this forward momentum by posting his foot in front of his opponent’s. He is able to bring Gracie to the ground, but Gracie gets the underhook and pushes forward to top half.
Marcelo Garcia has a salient process to bring the bigger man down. In isolating his opponents limbs and attacking joints (like the knees), Garcia is able to commit the majority of his body weight to a concentrated portion of his opponents. Though he may not be wholesale stronger than them, he is stronger than a part of them. Even when he can’t get on top his pace, constant movement, and grip fighting on the outside keep the opponent reacting to his offense without establishing their own.
Don’t Stay Down
Grappling is a complicated game however: you will find yourself on your back at some point during a match. Underneath the crushing weight of men who outweigh you by 20-60 pounds, what can you do?
First and foremost, don’t get flattened out. It is much harder to work from a flattened position no matter what you have in your toolkit. Garcia knows this and is constantly pushing on the hips with his feet and grip fighting to arm drag and break their posture. If he doesn’t see an opportunity to the back he will work from his butterfly hooks and X-Guard.
Butterfly hooks are a great way to off-balance the man on top. A common problem with establishing butterfly hooks is that your opponent will cinch their knees together to trap your legs, transfer control with their hands, and climb up your body to pass the guard. This rarely happens to Garcia.
Beautiful use of the butterfly sweep to defend the front choke.
He maintains strong hooks on the ground to keep the opponent’s legs open, and his hand-fighting prevents the opponent from grabbing onto his ankles. Once he is ready to move the opponent he brings his hips in and commits the whole of his body to elevating the opponent with his shins. Even if he is unsuccessful at coming up on top, his forceful elevations ensure the opponent’s hips are far enough away that they cannot smother him.
Underhooks are an essential part of Garcia’s butterfly guard. Even when he does get flattened out the underhook gives him enough leverage to elevate the opponent at the knee and turn him around. Though not able to sweep, he was able to re-establish his guard and work from a more advantageous position. His insistence on underhooks from butterfly guard allow him to work from the shoulder crunch as well.
Another great example of utilizing your strength disproportionately. Garcia here makes sure to commit the majority of his bodyweight to bringing the arm to the ground. His butterfly hooks push his opponents base out, thus allowing him to go right into mount.
Marcelo’s butterfly hooks keep his hips far from the opponent and allow him to elevate much larger men, but they chain into an even more potent position against the big boys: Leg entanglements.
Garcia pulls guard above and pulls them into his signature X-Guard. Marcelo can easily drop on the leg. He has the option to submit:
The GOAT gets a water bottle thrown at him for heel-hooking. Travesty. Obviously a much different perception to heel hooks today, which are all the rage and required to know in the current meta. Didn’t care since he got slammed. Either way a beautiful X-Guard entry and heel hook finish.
Or he can isolate the leg to come up on top. Leg entanglements work against larger men for the same reason anything works: You are committing the whole of your strength to a single limb. No matter how strong they are, their leg isn’t stronger than all of you. Garcia’s X-Guard is a great tool to widen the opponent’s stance and take out a standing leg. They are forced to go to the ground with Garcia, where he would look to submit or come up from the bottom with a firm handle on their ankle.
Now say your guard gets penetrated, and you can’t react quickly enough to insert your butterfly hooks while being taken down. Are you fucked?
No sir.
Just get to half-guard.
Even when the takedown is assured, Garcia gets up to the turtle and sits to half-guard. Half-guard can be easier to get than full-guard and and acts as a moment of control and rest. Using half-guard as a reset point gives him a moment to breathe, assess his options, and re-establish his butterfly guard. He can then create space between their hips and separate.
Another great way to get up from half-guard is with the dog fight. Garcia’s insistence on underhooks again bolsters another tactic to get up from the bottom. Straighten you the opponent’s leg you have in half-guard and slowly base out on an elbow and then your hand while pulling yourself up with the underhook.
This half-guard series is something I use quite a bit as the smaller man in my grappling gym (5’7, 150 lbs). I am still perfecting it, but I can reliably get up into the dog fight from half-guard against people 50+ lbs larger than me. You have to be careful not to get front-choked, but it is a series of techniques that absolutely work to get out from under the big boys.
On Top of the World
As has been emphasized, size and strength are enormous advantages in grappling. Even when you are on top, the larger man has the strength to turn into you and throw you off. You need to be able to control him. Throughout his ADCC Absolutes run, Garcia employed various tactics that allowed him to subdue the giants beneath him.
As Garcia attempts to pass the guard, notice his body lock. One on side he has the underhook. On the other side, he is actually crunching his opponent’s wrist against his body. Though he might have wanted double unders, this was actually in his favor. He effectively took away one of his opponent’s arms from posting and framing, controlling it at one of the weakest areas of the arm. He only need deal with one arm during the pass, and is able to swiftly attain side control. He wouldn’t stay here long, as he favored another position where he could leverage his strength against the opponent.
North-South (NS) is a favorite of Garcia’s. He has many finishes with the North-South choke, but also works as a wonderful way to control a larger opponent. Garcia can initiate a choke putting all his weight onto his opponent’s neck and chest. If Garcia’s pressure is potent enough, their kipping and hip movement will do naught to take Garcia off of their neck. While in side control he controls the opponent before moving into NS. He starts with a crossface and underhook. Once the opponent stops moving he posts his hand besides their waist as his other locks in the choke to stop him from rolling into Garcia. Though he didn’t finish the choke, his head pressure was superb and he eventually got two reverse underhooks to lift their shoulders off the ground and expose the back. All great looks that isolate a singular piece of the opponent’s body and keep them from negating your offense.
Garcia enters NS the same way he did above, except this time from a smothering mount. Now he secures the finish. Gorgeous flow and stability from mount, to side control, to NS. He ensures he has control in a position before attempting to move on to the next.
Tricks from the Back
Marcelo Garcia favored chokes above all else, almost exclusively finishing with them. This is pertinent to Giant Killing. Though you can leverage limb isolation to move your opponent and control them, it is much harder to finish limb submissions as they can simply muscle out of them. Catch them by surprise in transition to force a reaction, but good luck finishing.
Can’t muscle out of a choke though.
I think every combat sports athlete should train their neck. Having a well-muscled neck can absorb impact and make you more difficult to choke, but if someone manages to wrap around that tree trunk neck, you will go to sleep.
Garcia would constantly look for the back with arm drags, single legs, and buttery passes like those above. Garcia popularized the “Seatbelt” grip on the back to maintain control where one arm is ready to choke. It is also an optimal for grip-fighting and attempting to isolate an arm.
A nice wrinkle to Garcia’s back control is hooking a singular leg rather than looking to establish both hooks. His legs are too short to reliably lock a body triangle and he would not have enough strength to maintain control with two hooks. Garcia instead opts to take full control of one leg to stretch out his adversary.
This single hook variation can also be used to place the non-hooking foot behind the opponent’s leg. You can still maintain control of the leg, raising it when the opponent attempts to set both feet on the ground and escape.
Another nice little trick is his transition with the hooking leg. Once his opponent gets his base he bases his foot off the opponent’s thigh. This allows him to quickly snatch his opponent’s arm so they cannot fight off the choke. You will see this trick all the time in modern grappling matches.
Garcia is able to secure the finish shortly thereafter.
Garcia is truly a marvel and pioneer of submission grappling. Throughout this article I have solely focused on Garcia’s matches against larger opponents in the absolute division of ADCC. I would implore you to watch his runs through the -77kg division where shone in a different light.
Anyone who grapples should know Marcelo Garcia. He invented half the modern game, with skills speaking as loudly as his accomplishments. Whether you are small or large take what you can from his game. If you want to be a giant killer? Try out his style, innovate. Become the next Little Giant yourself.
ABT
