In this game, structure matters.

Why?

It’s because we play a game of space management. In any given situation, we have to either create space or take it away. Structure helps in achieving those tasks.

Here’s the thing though..

If we create space that can be easily taken away, we only waste our effort and achieve nothing.

Case in point:

I’ve lost count of the times I’ve seen people struggle to escape from side control. They bridge. They shrimp. But their opponents stay tight. Sometimes they even create lots of space with the bridge too.

It doesn’t matter.

Why?

It’s because right before the shrimp, they let their hips drop and their opponents soak up the space again. It’s a frustrating situation to be in, and the issue lies in the lack of structure after the bridge.

Space was created but not in a way that can be kept.

That’s the problem.

And it is one that I now have a solution to.

In fact, I’ve been teaching it in my academy for the last several weeks, and it is even effective against me. In fact, I find it downright annoying when students use on me.

And you can annoy people too if you so wish.

Just go check out this short video I did on the strategy of creating structure from the bottom of side control:

In that video, you will learn how to create the structure and some counters to use if they transition to a better position.

Enjoy and let me know if you would to see more tactics for this strategy. That video barely scratches the surface of all the ways we escape after establishing structure.