Ben Dyson is a veteran of the professional grappling scene with victories on Polaris and Fight 2 Win, a black belt under the legendary Roy Dean, and the ADCC 2019 European Trials Champion. All of this to say that if he’s releasing instructional content then it’s a surefire guarantee to be something worth watching. As a result, we decided to sit down with his recent release for Techniqly which is an instructional based solely around the Front Headlock position, delving into entries, attacks and combinations both from standing and a grounded position.
Front Headlock Entries
Ben Dyson starts by going through the basics of the Front Headlock position and how to control an opponent from there. He quickly moves on from this section to show defensive entries to the Front Headlock when an opponent is shooting or coming up for a sweep, before also going through an entry from your opponent having shin-on-shin. Dyson then shows a pair of attacking entries from the knee-slice passing position, and for a turtled opponent.
The standing subsection of entries is a little shorter than the grounded subsection, but Dyson does also show two different variations of the Snapdown for when you have either an inside tie or an underhook. He finishes off the entire section with an entry from Butterfly guard, the only one from the bottom of a guard in the instructional. With the variety of entries presented from all sorts of different positions, Dyson ensures that you’ll be able to get to work with the rest of this instructional no matter where you start from.
Attacks
The attack portion of this instructional is where Dyson really comes into his own and delivers the meat of the content. He goes through virtually the entire family of head-and-arm chokes, starting with several different variations on the necktie. Dyson shows the Japanese Necktie from both top half-guard, and the Front Headlock that he’s just shown us how to get to, including some lovely finishing details. Then he moves on to the step-over Necktie and the Peruvian Necktie as well.
From there, he moves on to demonstrating the basic D’arce Choke and what he calls the “Shoulder Dipper” D’arce Choke which is a really useful variation on the technique. He then shows three different Guillotine variations too, Arm-In Guillotines off being taken down and from the Front Headlock, followed by an Elbow-to-Elbow Guillotine from the Front Headlock too. Finally, Dyson goes back to the standing Front Headlock in order to show three different takedown options from there to round out the attacks section.
Combinations
Ben Dyson really comes into his own here by teaching the more complicated concept of chaining attacks together, but still keeping it relatively simple for beginners to understand. The first part of it is a great unique necktie variation that he calls the Dorset Necktie, something you aren’t likely to pick from any other Front Headlock instructional available. Then he shows how to switch from the necktie to the D’arce choke, and vice versa as well.
The final two techniques he shows here are branching off from the each of the Arm-In Guillotine variations that he spent some time going through earlier, and they’re both submissions he hasn’t gone yet. The first is an Anaconda Choke running off from the Front Headlock Arm-In Guillotine, and the second is a Triangle Choke running off from the Arm-In Guillotine when being taken down. Both are very useful for ensuring the finish when an opponent defends the first attack successfully.
Conclusion: Great Routes to the Front Headlock and some Unique Attacks
The fact that Ben Dyson goes through entries into the Front Headlock from such a huge variety of positions is a huge selling point here. If you take the time to really get to grips with each of the entries he shows, it should allow you to get to work learning the rest of the material in the instructional again and again. The majority of the instructional is focused on the ground, but it’s a nice addition showing entries into the standing Front Headlock and a few takedowns from there as well.
He goes through a wealth of different head-and-arm attacks, including several from the Front Headlock itself and by the time you make it to the Combinations section, the instructional really delivers some huge value for money. Here, you’ll find a unique variation on the Necktie along with some really effective methods of chaining the attacks presented earlier together, to give you a really rounded out gameplan if you stick with the instructional from start to finish.
Ben Dyson – Neckties, Front Headlocks, and Attacks is currently available to purchase on Techniqly, click here to find out more.
Or to take a look at our other instructional reviews, click here.
