I was born in the former Soviet Union and lived half my life there. I’m thoroughly “Americanized” at this point, but obviously all the stereotypical Russian qualities must still be deeply a part of my genetics. All I have to do is unlock them, no pun intended. Surely, that includes the intrinsic knowledge of leg locks which are a central element of Sambo (a martial art of Russian origin).

In all seriousness, my knowledge of leg locks is nearly non-existent, and I feel that this is simply unacceptable for anyone looking to compete in high level no-gi events. I know a few fundamentals of defending leg locks, but am not at all comfortable doing so. Bottom line is it’s a big hole in my no-gi game and as a leg lock specialist (and facebook friend of mine), Reilly Bodycomb, says in this excellent interview, it’s a hole that should not be there.

For this reason, it was very cool when Sharon taught a calf slicer in Tuesday’s class. It was something like this:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKqe3mQ33gI

I had a lot of trouble wrapping my mind around the technique at first. Given my advancing age, I sometimes have trouble figuring this youngster trickery out, but it eventually started clicking. I think that this attack could be effectively used on the way to taking the back with something like a rolling back take (that Ryan Hall, for example, likes to do).