Sit-out

What it is

The sit-out is how you turn to face someone who is behind or on top of you when you are on all fours: post a hand, lift the hips and swing one leg through under you, so that your hips turn and you end up sitting and facing them. It is the first answer to a sprawl and a basic way out of turtle.

When to use it

• You shot a takedown, they sprawled, and their chest is on your back with their arms around your head.
• You are in turtle and they are moving to your side or back but have no hooks yet.
• In the warm-up, from all fours, alternating sides down the mat.

How to do it

1. From all fours, keep your elbows in and your head up, with your weight on your hands and toes.
2. Post one hand flat on the mat and step the foot on the same side up, so the hips lift off the mat.
3. Swing the other leg forward through the space under your hips and let it slide out in front of you.
4. Turn your hips as the leg comes through, so that you end up sitting on the mat with your back toward where their chest was.
5. Keep turning toward them: swing the free arm over and come around to face your partner, hands up.
6. Come up to your base or your feet before they can follow you around.

Key details

• Head up and elbows tight before you move. A low head gets snapped down.
• Hips off the mat first, then the leg swings. A leg swung from the floor goes nowhere.
• Turn all the way to face them. Half a sit-out leaves them behind you.
• Swing the leg long and fast, so that it clears under you in one movement.

Common mistakes

• Mistake: swinging the leg with the hips still on the mat. The leg catches and you stay in turtle.
• Mistake: dropping the head to look at the leg. They snap you down or take a guillotine, a choke around your neck from the front.
• Mistake: stopping once you are sitting. They follow around to your back and get a hook in.
• Mistake: elbows out while you post. The posted arm is exposed and they can attack it.

What they will try

• They follow your turn and sprawl again, keeping the chest on your back.
• They take the back as you sit, if the seatbelt is already in or the sit-out is slow.