It’s all in the hips
Though I have wrestled competitively, I’ve only had a handful of matches. In New Zealand however, that is more than most people. The biggest advantage that wrestling gives me in MMA and submission grappling is in the hips.
When sparring in MMA, if you’re up against someone that you want to keep it standing with, maintaining your stand-up position is all down to your hips – especially if you have to get back to your feet. When someone goes for a takedown, you need heavy hips. Now, before I begin, I understand the concept of “heavy hips” can be quite odd to hear outside of specific scenarios. Often times, hearing this is not a compliment. In wrestling however, having heavy and steady hips is a great asset (and in MMA, it helps you keep safe).
In general, you want to push through your hips (not for every defence though). So, you try to keep your back straight and your feet away from your opponent – while trying to keep your weight predominantly in your hips. If all is going well, the person attacking will be trying to shift your hips to get you down but with all your weight on them, it makes it a lot harder. If the worst-case scenario occurs (you get taken down), the key is to fall to your stomach, although, some people disagree with this. The argument against this is fair enough; the main concern is that you are face down so your opponent can get your back and attack with punches and/or submissions. This is a concern when you are on the ground anyway, so from my perspective, I would rather be in the place where I am closest to standing up.
Ever since you first learnt to stand up, you started from all fours, then put one foot on the ground under yourself, followed by the other foot and then end up on your feet. Unless I have missed something in body mechanics, that is how we still stand up. To me, it makes sense to cut out the middleman and fall to your stomach rather than landing on your back and trying to turn over to get out and back to your feet. This is more of a mentality than a technique. So, as soon as you feel yourself going over (you’ve perhaps mistimed the defence) you twist your hips down, so you land flat on your stomach. As there is a concern of your opponent getting your back – here is the surprise, you don’t just stay there and let it happen. You actively and quickly get to your feet as fast as you can to make it as difficult as possible for your opponent to get any type of control. I can say from experience that when you are deep in on a takedown and someone goes belly down and ends up back on their feet, it is rather hard to stop and is very demoralising.
In grappling or ground fighting, where I am not trying to get back to my feet, I am applying the same mentality and from my perspective, it is my best asset. When someone tries to sweep me, I keep my hips flat and will not go to my back. As an alternative to my back, I may end up on my stomach or on all fours. What usually happens is, when they go for the sweep, I defend primarily with my hips, and if it gets close to getting me, then there will be some time and distance to deal with. Usually, I am trying to make space, and they are trying to close the space to get a good position. This battle usually opens up the transition phase – which is my favourite part. Where you are battling for position, it is all about ‘feeling’ the movements. This battle can make or break you. If someone gets close to sweeping you and you create a scramble – if you end up on top, that is a massive win. As much as I would love to say that it is my technique that makes me hard to sweep, I have to say that being bigger, or at least as big as almost everyone I roll with, gives me a big advantage. There are some people I roll with where I will give up position and have a little play with some moves and then there are people who my main goal is to keep top position and stay off my back, which all comes down to heavy hips.
As a coach, when working with new people to improve their hips, it comes down to very simple principles. They are not allowed to have one hip on the ground, or laying on your side. When this happens, you are very close to being tipped over as your weight is only balancing on one hip. If someone is trying to get you on your back, would you rather lay flat on your stomach in the starfish position or on your side? I would assume that should be an easy decision. This is worked from ground fighting with defending sweeps and standing where any takedown they land on the stomach. As a coach, it is very satisfying when new people start to get their heavy hips, however it is also a pain as they become hard to sweep.
If this is something you have not focused on in your training, I recommend introducing it. Like any new move, it doesn’t happen overnight. But, with the mentality of landing on your stomach and not giving up position really does change your game. This is more for the top game people, less so for the guard players. Work on keeping your hips level and not letting them shift when people are trying to sweep you and may be surprised what opens up for you.
Gareth Lewis
Head MMA Instructor