When you want to truly master something, you must take every opportunity to put that something to use that something. This has been my approach to mastering the art of submissions holds. I practice on my wife, my dog and on unsuspecting opponents during rugby games.
Many Americans are not familiar with rugby unless exposed to the game in college. This collegiate exposure usually consisted of some sort of pre-party mayhem. As a ritual game before the drinking started. This type of exposure, or the general lack of exposure, has limited the growth of rugby in the US. Suffice it to say it is an outstanding game. It requires a great aerobic base and a high anaerobic threshold. There usually exists some "extracurricular" activity during the game, a punch here, a stomp there, the odd head butt, but rarely the submission hold. Yet for the experienced such as myself, Rugby has provided multiple opportunities for submission practice. I have used submission holds to great effect in many a rugby game to keep the peace and or to make a statement. Some will say that they have used submission holds during rugby games, however, they are most likely referring to finger locks . Something commonly used in mauls (a standing pile up of ruggers searching for the ball, moving as an amorphous mass) to get somebody to let go of the ball. The other common submission seen in these very same circumstances is the dreaded "ball- crusher", when some unseemingly unscrupulous player sees fit to grab 'em 'cause you got 'em. This technique though effective, can lead to multiple metal cleat imprints left indelibly on your body sometime later in the game if you are the one caught performing such a submission hold. This fortunately, this doesn't occur with great frequency in America and is found mostly in French and South African club rugby. Thus, while my fellow players have crudely twisted and grabbed, I, on the other hand, I have attempted to bring high art into rugby:, spinning arm locks, triangle chokes and the like. It has, of course, gone unappreciated. My team has no idea what the hell I'm doing and the opposing ruggers think I've killed their buddy (especially after a choke). What about takedowns and throws, you ask? Well, that's another article but yes, those too, have been employed with vigor and results. Let's stick with submissions for now.
My first submission attempt was a cross lapel choke, modified to work within the confines of a rugby jersey. At the time we were an up and coming team playing a team we had never beaten but this time we thought we had a chance. They had several National team players (Eagles, current and former). They also had one of the finest uncapped scrum halves who had a penchant for taking the ball off the back of the scrum and running blind-side (narrow side of the field). I played blind-side flanker (sort of the linebacker of rugby), so it was my job to stop him. He was quick and strong about an inch taller and 20 pounds lighter than I was. The first few times he opted for this play, I would tackled him cleanly but it allowed him to present the ball to his teammates uninhibited. This allowed them to gain more territory. I knew I was stronger, so I decided to stand him up and wrap, thereby preventing him from passing and causing a maul. Remember, a maul is a standing pile up of ruggers searching for the ball, moving as an amorphous mass. On this first occasion of the maul, surrounded by teammates and opposing players, I let go of his torso, reached up, and secured a cross lapel grip, and proceeded to choke him. The referee blew the whistle because play had not continued and the ball had not come out of the maul for use. I started to laugh as I watched this scrum half wobble around with his teammates scratching their heads as to why. His play was affected for about 5 minutes as he made several mistakes. This threw off the tempo of his whole team, also . The scrum half really sets the pace and tempo of the game. I was able to get at him in the same manner two more times before I was found out and received a crushing downward elbow for my effort by their big lock. Though I was knocked down, I shook out the cobwebs and continued play (yes, I got the big lock back later in the game). Alas, it wasn't enough and we lost the game with seconds left to play.
My next submission was the triangle choke. We were playing a Canadian team and Canadians are generally better rugby players than Americans, especially teams from British Columbia. This team was from Vancouver Island. They were big and fast. There was this hard charging inside center ( a sort of fullback) that usually required two of us to tackle him. On this one occasion, me and the other flanker and I put a good hit on him but he drove us to our backs. For some reason, he decided to start flailing away on my buddy. He was sort of in both our guards. My buddy was taking heavy knuckle so I popped a leg out and around while he was preoccupied with making flat cakes, and slapped on a very tight triangle choke. I put this guy out in about 8 seconds while play was continuing on another part of the field. His teammates came running over and I wasn't sure if they were gonna' start putting the boots to me or not. They were laughing, asking me to let go, saying something about he finally got what he deserved. I let go crabbed backward and rejoined play as his mates stayed to revive him. Later on during the drink up, he saw me, put his hands up in sort of a "whoa easy boy" type of gesture, and gave me a wide berth.
I used a spinning arm lock from the open guard next. We were playing a tough team that had a player that I particularly despised. During the game he caught a kick preparing sort of a punt return and I barreled into him with an uppercut for good measure. He dropped the ball, spun toward me as I lay on my back and started firing bony flesh in my general direction. He was between my legs and when he started punching I brought my legs up, stuck some cleats into one of his biceps to block that punch,. grabbed the other sleeve, hooked an ankle, and spun into an arm bar. He was yelling in confused pain as I gave a little extra hip thrust. This dropped him to his knees holding his arm while I rejoined the game. Lest you feel sorry for this guy, our feud goes went way back to when he kicked my mate in the face and broke his cheekbone. Oh, by the way he left the game with an injury, an elbow injury.
In Sambo, my grappling art of choice, we have a group of techniques called rescues. These are simple ways of helping your buddy out when his stuff is weak and someone is getting the better of him. In one particular game, our opponents were a team we usually dominated and the games were generally fairly clean. On this occasion they had a very nasty chap who thought the game needed an enforcer. This large plump fellow had a tendency to pick on the smaller people. I caught him one time, mounted on top of our scrum half priming his fist for a blow from downtown. I was off to his punching side where I performed a circle-around arm drag from the rear. This brought his arm into a type of hammer lock. I threaded other through and grabbed his shoulder. I had him, and in his pain, I eased him off my scrum half. Because he had been a particularly nasty player, I applied enough pressure to send him to his belly. Game, set and match for this guy and no repercussions from his teammates as he left the game rubbing his shoulder.
Where are the leg locks you ask? This recounting wouldn't be complete without some leg lock events. Sambo is famous for leg locks. We happened to be playing the first team I had mentioned and in my younger days of rugby (though I really wasn't that young at the time), I played to win and with great intensity. I decided that this day was leg lock day, and everybody I tackled would get a little extra for his troubles. It was a slow game with lots of sloppy play that was punctuated with lots of screams. For those of you who don't have the regular pleasure of receiving lower body submissions, the pain sets off responses that aren't normal and are almost always vocal. It was extremely puzzling for the opposing players, my teammates, and especially the referee. I would seemingly make a clean tackle around the legs, the ball would stay in play and move on, and then a loud scream would ring out. Players and the referee would look back half expecting to see someone mounted on a player tearing his eyes out. All they would see was me letting go of the ball carriers legs as I got up to continue play. No one saw the heel cups, Achilles strangles, the straight knee bars, or the shin locks and toe holds. In rugby, toe holds or shin locks are always there for the taking, and by God are they painful. The referee knew he should do something, the opposing team thought they should get me, but when the injured player would describe what he thought occurred he would get shrugs and scowls of disbelief from his mates and the referee. This caused the injured rugger to start to doubt his own story. Mind you, I did these little maneuvers quickly and the referee follows what is occurring not what has occurred so I got away with a lot. I sent three limping players off the field that day and if your bleeding liberal hearts are now starting once again to tisk, tisk me. Remember there are no innocent rugby players, ever. One more thing, don't doubt for a second that I escape unscathed from extra curricular rugby, I've been pummeled, stomped and slammed. My retaliations have only been more refined - don't you agree?
You must endeavor to make every attempt to learn your craft, in whatever venue is provided. These are just some the adventures I've had while playing rugby. Rugby is a tough sport, played by hard men and it is very addicting. I encourage you to look into such a fun game where I've just happened to be able to improve my submission technique.