The Omoplata: Andris Brunovskis
Photo courtesy of Chase Smith/FloGrappling
This article is part of our “long article” requests through Patreon! A huge thank you to Alteroc (@crwate01) for this excellent topic suggestion.
In an effort to learn more about combat sports, Alteroc laid out an article format that covers three athletes from a specific sport:
An all-time great
A specialist
Someone “weird”
This article covers #2 for jiu jitsu
Andris Brunovskis is one of top gi players in the world, with a unique and submission-oriented style that captivates the imagination. With multiple placements at prestigious events such as the IBJJF European Open Championships, Brunovskis is always in the mix to win any event he enters.
As one of the first Europeans to burst upon the Brazilian jiu-jitsu scene, Brunovskis has developed a cult-like following within the Brazilian jiu-jitsu community. A black belt under Andre Galvao, Brunovskis implemented his unique game on a myriad of opponents, winning the IBJJF World Championships at both blue and purple belt.
Some of Brunovskis’ most notable techniques are uncommon in the modern metagame, as he has gained notoriety for his implementation of worm guard, stack passing, and of course, the omoplata.
Brunovskis was selected by Keenan Cornelius, the innovator of the worm guard system, to be the assistant head coach at Cornelius’ academy. It is no surprise, therefore, that Brunovskis has a phenomenal understanding of how to implement worm guard against opponents.
Whereas Cornelius almost exclusively uses his opponent's lapel to enact worm guard, Brunovskis uses both the belt of his opponent and his lapel. While obtaining and using the lapel worm guard is more secure and allows you to break your opponent’s posture down, the belt worm guard variation is much easier to obtain, and allows greater freedom of movement.
Once Brunovskis obtains the worm guard, his primary tactic is to insert a Deep De La Riva X hook with his free foot. This significantly inhibits the movement of his opponent, as their lead leg is caught between their own lapel or belt, and both of Brunovskis’ legs. Once his opponent is trapped, Brunovskis is able to sweep his opponent over and enter a much more advantageous top position.
Brunovskis attaches the Deep De La Riva X hook to his opponent’s far hip and secures a grip on his opponent’s near side tricep, which prevents his opponent from making a post in order to stop his fall. Brunovskis then pulls his own legs towards his chest to off-balance his opponent, before switching his hips to sweep his opponent, securing mount in the process.
Brunovskis’ use of the Deep De La Riva X hook is not limited to worm guard, as his most consistent use of the technique comes in combination with his lasso guard. One of the main benefits of the lasso guard is its ability of be used in conjunction with other open guards, which Brunovskis takes full advantage of.
Brunovskis inserts his lasso on Bulut’s far side, which allows Brunovskis to control the upper body of Bulut. The lasso simultaneously stops Bulut from changing his angle on Brunovskis, and forces him to remain center. Brunovskis then grips Bulut’s ankle, while elevating his own hips, forcing Bulut to sit in order to avoid the sweep.
As Bulut stands, Brunovskis releases the grip on Bulut’s tricep in order to grip Bulut’s pants, keeping Bulut in the proper range for Brunovskis to insert a De La Riva hook. When the hook is engaged Brunovskis simultaneously transitions from the pants grip to an ankle grip while also switching to a Deep De La Riva X hook, elevating his hips and off-balancing Bulut. Since Bulut’s near-side hand was not controlled, he is able to post on it, preventing the sweep. Brunovskis counters this by inverting so that the back of his knee separates Bulut’s elbow from his body, creating the opening for the omoplata.
Brunovskis does not only use the Deep De La Riva X and lasso combination against standing opponents, as it is arguably more effective once an opponent sits into combat base as they try to avoid the sweep. Since the combat base position requires one of the opponents knees to be up, therefore creating the space necessary for Brunovskis to insert his De La Riva hook, Brunovskis is almost always in a position to enact this sweep.
Brunovskis inserts a Deep De La Riva X hook through the space where his opponent’s knee is up, while controlling his opponent’s far side with the lasso. Once again, Brunovskis grabs his opponent’s ankle on the near side in an attempt to sweep him. When his opponent tries to maintain his base, using his near-side hand, Brunovskis removes the Deep De La Riva hook and places the ball of his foot on the mat so that he is completely parallel to the mat. This motion separates his opponent's elbow from his body and allows Brunovskis to invert into the omoplata position.
This technique is particularly effective for Brunovskis because it takes away his opponent’s primary defense to stop the inversion. To stop an opponent from inverting, it is effective to drop into combat base and latch the free hand onto the collar or lapel of an opponent. As they have control of the gi, the opponent is no longer able to use the lasso to invert and enter various submissions. Brunovskis solves this problem by forcing his opponent to post on the mat with their free hand, through the off balancing, giving him the space and ability to invert into the omoplata position.
Brunovskis starts this sequence with a deep lasso. Using a standard De La Riva hook, as opposed to a Deep De La Riva X hook, with an ankle grip, Brunovskis is able to off balance Bahiense. When Bahiense posts his hand on the mat to prevent the sweep, Brunovskis completely inverts, driving his lasso further in order to create the overhook of the omoplata. Bahiense attempts to stop Brunovskis from locking in the omoplata by placing his near leg in between both of Brunovskis’, but Brunovskis is able to counter with a pants grip, which allows him to lock up the omoplata.
While the omoplata is usually one of the first submissions taught to Brazilian jiu jitsu students, it has become a rare sight at the upper echelon of the sport jiu jitsu landscape. However, fighters like Brunovskis, Clark Gracie, and Osvaldo “Quexinho” Moizinho have made their living through expert utilization of this position. Unlike the triangle or armbar, the omoplata is a control position first and foremost. Once a person is caught in an omoplata, they no longer have use of one of their arms, and are extremely susceptible to sweeps that would put them in either omoplata side-control, or worse, the omoplata crucifix.
The omoplata crucifix is one of the worst positions an athlete can be in as it gives the opponent a clear avenue to the back with one of the arms of the recipient of the omoplata crucifix already trapped. This principle is also one of the core tenets of the Danaher Death Squads’ back control system as it takes away the opponent’s ability to properly defend their neck, since they only have one arm to defend your two limbs.
For this reason, a significant portion of Brunovskis’ finishes have come from the omoplata crucifix position.
Here, Brunovskis underhooks the far side shoulder of his opponent while in the omoplata, this is important as it keeps himself pressed to his opponent’s back, while already setting up a grip on his opponent’s opposite side lapel. As he does this, Brunovskis positions himself so that his upper body is perpendicular to his opponent, enabling him to do a proper shoulder roll. Brunovskis releases the underhook on his opponent’s shoulder to recompose his position by creating a hook on the backside of his opponent’s near side leg in order to prevent him from turning towards Brunovskis. As his opponent attempts to drive in toward Brunovskis to free his leg, Brunovskis re-establishes the underhook while gripping his opponent’s far side collar to threaten the choke. As this is occuring, Brunovskis flexes his right hand to prevent his opponent’s near side arm from attacking his grip, before finishing with the Ezekiel Choke.
As Megaton builds his base and sits, Brunovskis obtains the underhook on Megaton’s far side, while making a grip on his far side collar to set up the choke. Brunovskis then flexes his hand on the biceps of Megaton to prevent any chance of a grip break. Brunovskis then hip escapes to change his angle, becoming more and more perpendicular to Megaton’s back in order to strengthen the choke. Using his torso, Brunovskis unbalances Megaton, who is forced to submit as he has no option available for an escape.
Andris Brunovskis’ game is an amazing blend of old-school, traditionally jiu jitsu and the newest innovations in the jiu jitsu world. Brunovskis’ primary sweep, the Deep De la Riva X combined with the lasso guard, allows him to control modern passers while simultaneously defending against the primary method of preventing inversions that lead to the omoplata. Then, once Brunovskis is able to properly secure the omoplata, it is only a matter of time before even the top black belts in the world are forced to submit.