The whizzer is an overhook on the hip

Position and problem

You are on your knees beside someone, or standing in a tie, and their arm has just gone under your armpit. Your shoulder starts to rise, their head arrives at your ribs, and you can feel the direction they are about to take you. The reflex is to throw your arm over the top of theirs and squeeze, and the reflex gets the arm right and leaves the hips behind. That wrap over an underhooking arm, with the elbow clamped down and the hand usually on your own hip or thigh, is what wrestlers and many grappling gyms call a whizzer. Taken as an arm movement alone, it slows the underhook briefly and then loses to it, because an arm wrapped around the outside of another arm can only follow where that arm goes.

Objective

Wrap the underhooking arm from above and drive your hip through theirs in the same movement, so their shoulder is pressed down instead of lifting you.

Core concept

The whizzer works from the hip, and the arm is there to hold what the hip wins. The underhook and the overhook are the two ends of one contest, and the underhook starts ahead because it is inside: an arm under the armpit connects to a body that can lift, turn and lever, while an arm over the top can only press down and wrap. On the arms alone, inside beats outside, which is why the underhook is the grip people fight for and the overhook is the grip people end up with. The whizzer changes the terms by adding a hip. When the overhooking side's hip drives forward and past the underhooker's hip, their shoulder is pinned between your arm above and your body in front, and the lift they were about to make has nowhere to go. The whizzer that wins is lower and further past the other person's hip than the underhook it is wrapping; the whizzer that loses is an arm draped over a shoulder while the hips stay square and behind. Once the hip is through, the overhook becomes an attacking position rather than a defensive one. Standing, it turns into a throw across that hip; on the knees, in the position many gyms call the dogfight, it turns into a drive that flattens them; on top of half guard, it is the answer to the underhook that the bottom player is trying to come up on.

Key mechanics

1. 01Move the hip as the arm wraps, never after. The overhook alone is outside position on a limb that is already lifting you; the hip driving through theirs is what stops the lift.
2. 02Wrap above the elbow, with your elbow clamped to your own ribs and your hand on your own hip or thigh. A wrap at the forearm leaves their elbow free to drop and slide out through the bottom.
3. 03Send your weight forward and down through the trapped shoulder rather than pulling the arm back. Pulling back lifts their head into the space the underhook wants; pressing down loads their shoulder toward the mat.
4. 04Keep your chest over the top of their shoulder and your head above theirs. When their head gets under your chin, they are lower than you and the position belongs to the underhook again.
5. 05Use the free hand for a wrist or a post on the far side. The whizzer decides nothing about their other arm, which is the one that takes a second underhook or reaches for your leg.
6. 06Convert it while the hip is through. Standing, turn them over the hip you have driven in; on the knees, keep driving until their shoulder touches the mat; in half guard, pair it with a crossface and flatten them.
7. 07Let it go when the hip is lost. If they get lower and further behind your hip, the whizzer is an arm behind your own back; pummel for the underhook instead.

Common errors

• ×Wrapping the arm while the hips stay square or behind theirs, so the overhook is an outside grip on an arm that is still lifting.
• ×Clamping at the forearm instead of above the elbow, which lets the elbow drop through and the underhooker pull the arm free.
• ×Pulling the whizzer back and up toward your own shoulder, which raises their head and hands them the angle to come up.
• ×Leaving the free hand idle, so their free hand takes the far underhook or a leg while the whizzer holds the near side.
• ×Holding the whizzer after they have circled behind the hip, when the wrapped arm is now the arm they take your back through.

Safety

Training progression

1. 01Static: from the knees, partner sets an underhook and holds still. Wrap above the elbow, clamp, and step the hip through until their shoulder drops. Notice how little the arm did.
2. 02Cooperative: partner swims the underhook in slowly ten times. Each time, wrap and drive the hip in one movement, then release and let them swim again.
3. 03Pummelling game: both players on the knees, hip to hip, fighting only for the underhook and the whizzer on the same side. Reset whenever either hip gets clearly behind the other.
4. 04Constrained sparring: you start with the whizzer and the hip through; partner may only try to get lower and behind your hip or pull the arm out. You score by flattening a shoulder; they score by getting behind you.
5. 05Standing: from a collar tie, partner takes an underhook. Whizzer, drive the hip, and turn them to a knee without finishing a throw. Swap after every repetition.
6. 06Live rounds from the knees or standing, noting afterwards whether each whizzer you took came with the hip or was an arm on its own.

Related entries

• The underhook in half guard
• The arm drag
• Inside position
• The knee cut pass