Helena Crevar: Go to the Legs to Get on Top (ADCC 2026)
Helena Crevar goes to the legs for more than the tap. From bottom: attack a leg and either it taps or she comes up on top. From top: when the opponent recovers guard, she takes the leg they recovered with. Shown on her ADCC 2026 quarterfinal and semifinal, with her own teaching.
Flow outline
Go to a leg
- From bottom, going to the legs isn't all or nothing: it taps, or she comes up on top.
- QF vs Matilda Reid: Helena's on her back, goes to a leg, and a few seconds later she's on top, already passing.
Straight ankle lock
- When the leg is there to finish, she finishes it. SF vs Liz Mitrovic.
- Helena: "feel my partner's heel on my rib cage and my partner's toes inside my armpit."
- Helena: "it's all about elbows coming in, everything tight and hips coming inside."
Opponent pulls it back or sits back
- With one leg tied up, the top player can't step to catch their balance. To save the leg they pull it back or sit back, and their weight goes with it.
Opponent gets her off the leg
- QF: Reid gets her off the ankle lock with a butterfly hook. SF: Liz rolls out late.
Follow the leg up
- Points period, QF vs Matilda Reid: butterfly hooks in, onto the other leg, up to a knee. Two points for the sweep, then straight to the pass.
Come up on top anyway
- She uses the same motion to come up on top. Going to the legs doesn't cost her the position.
Top
- Pass straight away.
Opponent recovers guard
- SF: Liz keeps getting a knee back in.
Take the leg they recovered with
- Back to the legs: she takes the leg the recovery is attached to.
- Helena teaching, attacking from top: "I just start to slide across my training partner's body until I sit down near the mat, and then from here I can start collecting two legs or just one."
Pass, mount, back
- To stop the pass, the bottom player has to put a leg in front of her. To keep the legs safe, they have to keep them away, and then the pass is open.
- QF vs Matilda Reid: the sweep, the body-lock pass, mount, the back.
- Helena: "since January I've been focusing a lot on getting on top, taking the back, mounting."
Back, choke
- QF vs Matilda Reid: rear naked choke.
Branch conditions
- it's there
- it doesn't tap
- back to the legs
- they keep the legs away