Scott Sonnon did not theorize his approach. It was born out of competitive success and many years of ongoing “lab work” of daily rolling with athletes of every martial art and wrestling background. Here is a highlight reel of Coach Sonnon in the 1990s winning national and international championships using early versions of the signature Saddle techniques:

Scott Sonnon published early explanations of his family of lower body positions called the Sambo Saddle on his web pages, Sonnon explained (Bellingham seminar, February 2007) that he is surprised that mixed martial arts (MMA) fighters still rely too much on “free wrestling” or non-positional leg attacks (trying to apply a leg lock without securing the opponent’s hips) and will sacrifice good position for the low percentage chance of landing a fast submission hold to the legs. Non-positional submissions are criticized for two reasons: it’s relatively easy to avoid submission because the other end of the lever is free to remove pressure, and in an actual MMA match, non-positional leg attacks exposes the fighter to being front and even back mounted.

In the February 2007 seminar, Sonnon explained that the Saddle positions are a good alternative for MMA fighters since it establishes optimal positional control of the opponent’s hip and can be held, protect the fighter from strikes which non-positional leg attacks cannot, and opens up opportunity to a variety of positional submission attacks to the legs.

Coach Sonnon highlight reel of attacking Saddle techniques during one of his seminars:

Many fighters don’t control the hips because they learned their leg attacks from traditional Sambo or from someone who learned them from traditional Sambo. In traditional Sambo, there are no points awarded for passing the guard, and unlike traditional Judo and Jiujitsu, leg attacks have never been prohibited. As a result, Sambo athletes will stay in the “lower-half” (by the legs) rather than rushing to establish “upper-half” position in the way that Brazilian Jiujitsu (BJJ) has become famous.

With only 60 seconds permitted to land a submission in traditional Sambo, there has never been much encouragement to establish positional control because both players are trying to submit the other opponent as fast as possible. Hence, Sambo prides itself on “fast-wrestling.” Sonnon explains however that this tactic only works a small percentage of the time (20%) against positional fighters, especially in MMA, and isn’t worth sacrificing quality position. As a result, Sonnon modified traditional Sambo to become a positional approach so that fighters could both strike and defend against strikes, could maintain positional dominance, and could easily transition from one submission to the next in a chess-like fashion, as BJJ has become known for in the “upper-half” game.

Sonnon explained that the Saddles aren’t the only tool in the toolbox, but is missing from current fighters’ repertoire, and although it wouldn’t create an undefeatable grappler with a 100% success rate, it will expand the ground game exponentially. In additional, as well all techniques in Russian Sambo, at each point in establishing the Saddle, there are variations, counters and most importantly re-counters, as well as easy transitions into the other conventional ground-fighting positions: guard, half-guard, cross-side, mount, et cetera.

Sonnon predicted that as more details of the Saddles are published and more people begin training it, it will flash like wild fire across the MMA community, as it offer an incredibly greater success rate for MMA fighters than traditional Sambo, and eventually become the most useful of the many accepted variations in the leg attack game such as the traditional non-positional attacks: wishbone, scissors and knee pinch.

Responding to complaints that the Saddle requires a higher degree of flexibility than conventional leg attacks, due to the closer position of the legs and knees to the opponent’s hips, Sonnon explains that a Russian Sambo player who expects to be good at his or her own game just needs to accept the fact that dynamic range of motion is a very important part of training. He explains that although it seems like the Saddles are “attribute driven” the mechanics are how the legs are supposed to move when not counter-conditioned with stiffness and injury. One test of the limberness for applying Saddle effortlessly is the ability to cross your legs one over top of another in a seated position while laying down on the floor (similar to a folded half lotus yoga asana.)

Although Sonnon is a controversial figure for both “inventing” new Sambo positions and techniques and for his “old-school training equipment with high-tech training science”, Sonnon is a strong advocate of drilling in addition to “rolling” or submission wrestling which shows he is still traditional in some aspects. At the February 2007 seminar, he complained that Russian Sambo players are a little addicted to submission wrestling and view “boring positional chess” as a distraction fro the adrenaline high of full-out rolling. He stated that any serious practitioner needs to spend at the very least an hour per week drilling the essential moves and defending themselves within the Saddle positions, so they become as unconsciously competent skills. The core Saddle positions need to become second nature, otherwise the reaction speed required to apply them will always stand in the way of their effectiveness.