Kimura From Turtle Guard (Neil Melanson)

Neil Melanson Turtle Guard Kimura

Neil Melanson is about as well respected of a coach as you could ask for, having previously been the head coach of Randy Couture’s Xtreme Couture and currently the coach of the Blackzillians MMA team. Chael Sonnen even went so far as to say “Neil would slap Rickson Gracie around like it was easy.” The point is, there’s probably something you could learn from him. In this week’s video he shows a really effective kimura from turtle guard. When you’re in turtle with an opponent on your back, there’s an opening for a kimura that Neil shows and goes through in detail here.

(Note: He does the technique no gi, but it can be done in gi also.)

The Technique

This technique starts when an opponent has your back in turtle with one of their arms overcommitted around your waist. Neil keeps his arms in tight and grabs a kimura grip on their top arm.

He then looks up to the ceiling and steps up, while keeping the kimura grip. Neil guides their arm behind their back as he uses the momentum to put them on their back.

From side mount, he finishes the kimura by stepping over their head in order to generate power for the crank and gets the tap.

Melanson also shows another way to get the kimura with a front roll when they defend the step up. Instead of looking toward the kimura like in the first technique, he looks the other way and does a front roll.

Neil ends up in the same positions to finish the kimura.

This technique is great, because generally being on bottom in turtle is a disadvantageous position for most. However the kimura Neil shows here gives a great option to attack from turtle.

For more techniques like this check out our technique section and look more techniques added weekly!