Funk Roll
Defense · Standing
A last-resort defence to a deep single leg that takes you from standing to a top position. Use it when they are deep on a head-inside single and your hands, sprawl and whizzer have not stopped it. Fall off their back to the side and grab their near ankle with both hands, then roll across your own back and shoulders underneath them, chin tucked, never over your head. Extend their leg and pull it across so you come out between their legs on your belly, then post a hand, build your knees under you and come up on top. Keep the ankle the whole time: if they step over to its side, the ankle keeps their hips down.
How to do it
- Use it only when they are deep on a head-inside single leg and your head and hands, sprawl and whizzer did not stop it.
- Fall off their back to the side and grab their near ankle with both hands.
- Roll across your own back and shoulders underneath them, chin tucked, never over your head, keeping the ankle.
- Extend their leg and pull it across so you end up between their legs, on your belly. If they step over to the side of the ankle, keep the ankle so their hips stay down.
- Post a hand, build your knees under you and come up on top.
Key details
- The order of defense: head and hands, then hips (sprawl), then the funk roll.
- The goal is an ankle and a place between their legs: from there you come up on top while they are still on the mat.
- Roll across your back and shoulders, never over your head: the neck must not take their weight.
- If they step over to the side of the ankle, keep the ankle so their hips stay down.
- Get your head as close to their foot as you can: the whole goal is to pass that foot from one side of your body to the other, and from close up it only has to travel a few inches.
- Roll when they come up off their knees and start running behind you; once on your belly, slide both knees up at once and turn toward the direction their toes point.
Common mistakes
- Rolling without the ankle. — Nothing turns them with you: you just roll onto your back under them. — Grab the near ankle with both hands first.
- Rolling over the head. — The neck takes the whole weight. — Roll across the back and shoulders, chin tucked.
- Rolling too early. — You give up a takedown they did not have yet. — Head, hands and sprawl first; roll only when they are deep.
- Not sliding the knees up after the roll, or turning into them while they still hold your foot. — With your legs still out they regrab and re-roll you, and turning into a held foot twists your own knee. — Knee-slide up at once; if the foot is held, turn away, back to their hips, and clear the foot before you turn in.
If they defend
- They step over to the side of the ankle. → Keep the ankle, post a hand and build up to your knees.
- They turn toward you. → Wrap the ankle and the knee and ride them to their back.
How to drill it
Slow funk rolls on soft mats from a partner's head-inside single, 5 each side.
Safety
Roll across the shoulders with the chin tucked; the partner keeps the grip loose while you learn.
Where it comes from