davey123's blog

Crab during competitive match.

Hi Guys,
I've been asked the same question quite a few times now, and heard various opinions on the subject too. Is it really possible to secure a Boston Crab during a competitive bout, or is it only for give n take matches or even just for fake or heel/jobber promission bouts?
I guess some guys have spotted from my profile that this is a hold which I love to use (actually quite like being caught in it and punished myself too....but I have too much muscle to bend much, though I yell well and can sometimes just push out heh heh). Usually I am the one on top! And yes, of course it can be a really extremely punishing hold when properly applied making it very difficult for the victim, oops....I mean opponent, to breathe. Apart from having his back bent severely, he is effectively taking his own weight through his sternum/chest pressed into the mat, plus most of mine too....though more about that aspect in a while. There are so many subtle variations of the hold - I won't try to describe them all here (hand positions, feet positions, exactly where to sit etc etc) but it is always basically a balance between how much weight you put on your man under you and to what extent you are pulling his legs back to torture his spinal muscles and stretch him out. Of course if you want to, you can always make a guy submit virtually immediately. But that is potentially dangerous and anyway...what's the point? Nearly all the guys I wrestle, we are doing it for fun, exercise, male bonding (comradeship sounds a bit posh) and because it's hot too! I like to test my opponent gradually and punish him a bit....wear him down.....maybe get multiple submissions and use trash talk and make him say rubbish like, 'I submit sir!'. Or vice versa! It's a great hold for simply dominating your opponent - devastating for him to be in, and easy for me to sustain my position of domination.
Many of you will remember the huge fuss when one man beat his opponent with a Boston in a fairly recent legit MMA bout. Jonno Mears was suddenly famous and his victory with the Boston was much talked about on media. (In case it passed you by look here https://youtu.be/GMMigjW3q78.) It seemed to amaze the BJJ community that someone had used this hold successfully in a match - I'll not discuss the quality of his opponent's defence.
Because the matches I have are always with guys who I might want to wrestle again and who I certainly don't want to injure, my first concern is always the safety of my opponent. Actually - it's a bit more than that, I want him to have a good time too....even when we are going at it quite aggressively, it's more important to me that both guys enjoy the match than whether I win or lose. But my answer as to whether you can get the hold on in a competitive bout is, yes you can, if your'e in luck! Of course whether you can get any hold on in wrestling depends on how your opponent responds and defends when you attempt something. You're not going to get it on the way you sometimes see in pro style TV matches.....where it is often clear that a) one guy lets the other apply it and cooperates, and b) the man on top never really sits into the hold properly but remains planted on the ass or upper thighs of the man underneath and certainly doesn't lean back significantly.
There are times when you can get it on just in the loose scramble stage of a round....especially if you are fresher than your opponent, or bigger/stronger, or he is out of air. I have sometimes managed to escape from a front body scissor position (full guard) by taking hold of one of my opponents legs around my waist and slipping my forearm under his knee, without rising fully to my feet but keeping some pressure downwards on him, then turn him and step over into a single leg Boston. It's surprising, but some guys as you lever them back, then lift their free leg so that you can grab it and apply the full version. Or if you are feeling mean you apply a single leg crab and demand as part of the submission that they give you the other leg. "Where there's a will there's a way!" A well applied single leg Boston Crab is extremely effective and perhaps even harder to escape than the full version.
But if it is the situation that you are standing facing an opponent who is for some reason flat on his back and you can reach his ankles then you might be in business if you are quick and firm. Some guys defend themselves in this flat-on-the-back position by lifting one or two legs towards your torso anyway. I have found over a few years of experience that the best way to secure my opponent and turn him for a crab, is to apply a very firm Achilles lock. I tuck one of his ankles under my armpit and then use the inner blade of my wrist on his Achilles' tendon to force him to lift up high...as high as possible. Usually I secure the grip by holding my own opposite wrist - it's a bit like a applying a Kimura position on his ankle but levering the Achilles' tendon. If I can make him arch up high/lift him up using this hold, so that he instinctively uses his hands to take some of his own up-ended weight (handstand position) rather than take his own weight just on his head/neck, it means that he will not try grabbing my ankles (standard defence for being attacked with a Boston Crab). With very little of his body actually in contact with the mat it becomes very easy to turn him over onto his chest. Then I lower myself onto his back, sitting just immediately above his speedos in the small of his back, squatting quickly but very carefully. I keep a fairly wide stance so that my own balance is secure. If there is any risk I might lose my balance whilst turning an opponent I just let go and give this chance up. But once I have lowered myself onto his back, initially keeping most of my own weight on my own feet, it is then time to test him. I need to find out how flexible my opponent is. Without knowing that it is somewhat risky to apply the hold really hard. So for that reason, I go slowly. Listen to him. Feel how his body is responding. Does he go rigid and try not to bend...? Is he able to go with the hold a bit? Where are his arms...some guys keep an arm under their chest so that they can still breathe at least a bit when more weight comes down on them (the experienced ones!).
Then the fun begins. I slowly settle in properly on his back and begin to break him down with very gently bouncing of my weight. There are always surprises at this stage. I wrestled a very well muscled Indian guy some while back and though he was a fairly big and certainly strong wrestler his ability to bend was astounding! As I sat back on him his leg just seemed to go on folding back over him - scorpion-like - until his foot was nearly touching the back of his head and I was worried about my own balance. I was leaning so far back on him I though I might fall backwards and have to release the hold. (For the curious, I didn't. I put all my weight down on him and that did make the hold far worse for him and after about 10/12 seconds he started to submit.) The younger, fitter leaner guys generally bend well as do gymnasts of course. But don't assume this will be the case. What seems like a very mild bend can be absolute agony for one man and really quite easy for another. You have your two weapons to balance.....how much weight are you gonna sink into him (as you move your feet outwards you automatically transfer more weight to him....it can feel as though the man on top weighs a ton!) and how far back are you going to lean to stretch him out??
If you safely but quite quickly give him a hard time with the single leg version you have begun with, there will probably be a moment where you can reach forward and grab the other leg and turn it into a full Boston. For your comfort and enjoyment, and his torture. It's good to vary the pressure. Where are you holding his legs? Just at the ankles under your armpits (easiest for him, allowing him to bend more evenly) or have you got his mid-calves locked in making the hold tighter. Even more powerful is if you take his knees and pull back - do it gently at first as that makes this hold very effective indeed. I like to keep his ankles locked under my armpits and I lock my hands in front of my abs with a butcher grip. It's very secure then. Or I take his inner thighs so that I can control his legs even more....maybe splay them out wider - that's easier for him. If you wanna be mean use your inner thighs to push his legs more together - it makes it more painful for him. Of course important is where are you sitting. If you are just above his waist that is the most punishing positions for him. If you sit further up his back towards his shoulders you can maybe lift his abs off the mat and allow him to arch evenly through his entire spine. It is slightly easier for him to breathe in that position. Lift off the pressure by nearly rising onto your feet periodically and you will be able to crab him for much longer.
In my experience many guys submit within 5-10 seconds once they are caught. if you have been in the hold you will know that can seem like a long time. A few exceptionally fit and tough guys can last much longer. They know who they are! There are two or three impressively tough guys I know who are astonishingly resistant to the stretch and the pain. One lad I have wrestled quite a bit can resist an extreme full crab for up to around 3 minutes!!! He endures the hold really like no other, soaking up the punishment often without much sound except his deliberately controlled breathing. As I slowly crank it on higher and deeper I admire his incredible resistance and extraordinary strength and atheleticism.
Occasionally (as mentioned above) I find a big man who seems to be made of rubber where the Boston Crab is concerned. Maybe I'll tantalise you all by telling you that there is one very, very big guy here on MF with a very hefty muscled build (who has become extremely popular) who took my full Boston fully seated with all of my weight on him and cranked way back for almost two minutes before he tapped. I was so sure at the start that with the amount of muscle this brute has he would not bend at all, and then I slowly bent him until I thought he must be breaking. He told me afterwards that he had always had a very flexible back. Lucky bugger!
Anyway guys.....yes, you can secure this hold if you're confident and careful and quick in a competitive match. Not always of course. But it is sooooo much fun when you do!!! Be safe.

I love doing straightforward competitive submission matches, though like to keep it safe and sane. Sometimes have found that when wrestling another really competitive guy things can escalate risking injury and these days I have become a bit calmer. After all, we are doing it for fun right? I’m not really one of those guys who think that wrestling must always be ‘deadly’ (maybe that’s not a good word to use in this context) serious. Am totally up for a normal bout with one clear winner.
But….. have also always loved playing the heel for any guy who likes to be worked over a bit (or a lot…hah hah!). If you read my recommendations you’ll get an idea of what I like. Surprisingly (to me) have also found more recently that I enjoy being the jobber from time to time, and some guys seems to have the chemistry/knack of bringing that side out of me. Pity that I have so much muscle I don’t bend better! SO…… have been thinking of what kind of match could exploit both heel and jobber aspects. What do you think of this…….any takers……..???

One by One Heeling

This is my suggestion for how to have a fun match where you both want to do some heeling and jobbing and use a good range of both BJJ and promission holds. I am assuming that both guys will only tap/submit when they really need to. Pride preventing simply giving up easily. I suppose this is a good way to extend and test your ability to absorb punishment and take pain. Important to have a ‘safe word’ which means if the man in a hold says it, the guy applying the hold lets go immediately without hesitation or questions. ‘Break’ is a good clear one, but I have used many different ones in the past ….some deliberately humourous or silly (eg he has to say ‘I am a tit’)
The match starts with a bit of a roll….then whoever gets the first sub hold on, attempts to keep it on his opponent at just below the opponents tap threshold…so the hold is kept on for some length of ‘punishment’ time, as long as possible! When the man trapped does submit, the guy applying the hold backs off the pressure a bit and asks his victim if he really wants to give up. This gives the guy on the receiving end time to adjust and regroup a bit and he can respond with either ‘no…fuck you’ type of response, or simply say ‘yes, yes I give’ (or whatever you say when you want to quit). Multiple submissions are thereby obtained from the one hold, with varied intensity.
Then once the final submission is obtained from that particular hold (‘I quit’), you reverse positions. The guy who was on the receiving end now as his reward applies any hold he wants on his opponent who is compliant in getting into the hold. The hold is ‘worked’ well, as in the initial hold. This enables you to try out holds which you like to use but maybe rarely can in fully competitive bouts, or simply drill and perfect your holds. Because you alternate between taking and applying you can last longer. If you feel like it of course you can be mean and go for a relatively quick full submission but if you want to enjoy punishing and stretching out your man you can take your time. Being on the receiving end…you are actually in charge because you decide how long the punishment really lasts…in effect you are challenging yourself to see what you can take. It’s fun! And could be hot too of course! You are basically swapping from heel to jobber and vice versa after each hold is worked to the final submission from it.
If you have the luxury of a bigger matted area (eg when wrestling somewhere like Pippas in Manchester) you can invent other fun rules which make it more interesting. For example if the man trapped in the hold manages to reach the edge of the mat and can touch the floor just beyond the mats with any hand/foot, the hold has to be released and he escapes. He then gets his ‘reward’ for his special efforts becoming the guy who applies the next hold on his opponent. Of course if you use this rule there is motivation for the guy underneath not to simply take the hold but to struggle to try and reach the edge of the mats to escape. It introduces a moderate competitive element. Necessary therefore always to start off in the centre of the mats!
The thing I like about this is that so often in either competitive matches or when heeling, inevitably the guy who is on the receiving end of a series of submission holds becomes tired fairly quickly as his resilience is broken…fine if you like that. But in this approach instead of it all becoming one sided you both get to experience heel and jobber roles, unlike in a normal heel match, or as actually happens often in competitive matches where one guy turns out to be dominant because he secures a particularly gruelling hold on his opponent early on which weakens the man.
Tell me what you think! And of course anyone who wants to try it out with me…..get in touch!!!

He knew that Davey could be rough. They had wrestled before and though basically he had always enjoyed the bouts, there had been moments when he really feared that Davey would completely finish him off. Davey was big. And he trained hard, simply to wrestle. One time he had lifted Andy off the mat and racked him until Andy could no longer even beg. Then he had dumped him via a devastating drop back breaker over the knee. Andy had been unable to breathe for what seemed like several minutes, but was probably only thirty seconds. Davey had simply stood over him with a light smile on his face, and when Andy had hauled himself up Davey had leaped on him and wrenched him into an excruciating camel that had Andy wondering whether it would be his back or his neck which would break first.
Davey was always a mean sadistic wrestler, and he had the muscle to completely control his opponent if he decided to. This time he looked serious. He also looked pumped in his dark blue speedos, and Andy noted the heavy swing of those massive thighs as Davey strode onto the mats. Davey looked bigger in the back and those triceps were as thick as ever. Andy could feel that strange leap in the pit of his stomach. Or was it lower. Andy knew that he was very resilient and could absorb punishment from just about any wrestler. He was fit and flexible too. He liked pain.....well, up to a point. But bouts with Davey were always unpredictable. Davey had certain holds that he always inflicted with ruthless concentration and seeming disregard for his opponents suffering. But quite often there would be something new too. Andy remembered ruefully when Davey had started adding the Sleeper hold to his wide vocabulary of submission moves. He had been gentle at first, but gradually had become wickedly efficient at clipping the hold on, with that big, hard-muscled arm sinuously snaked around Andy's neck, and then the other arm slipping down from the crown of Andy's head into the nape of his neck to clamp the hold on without mercy. Each time Andy thought he was dying as the pressure from Davey's hardening bicep bore into the side of his neck and he would quickly lose the sense of where he was, then peripheral vision would go and finally he would feel himself falling into blackness. Davey would let go a little of the pressure at that point just in order to apply it again. Death a thousand times. Anyway, that was some time back. There had been others. The Twister...Davey had been delighted with the way that stretched and arched his victim ....resulting in a neck crank, arm lock which ripped the chest muscles, a spinal twist that felt like you were being pulled apart, and with those powerful legs grapevining one of Andy's thighs generally it felt like Andy was trapped by some kind of alien muscle monster. Then Davey would gently stroke Andy's tautly stretched chest and abs and ask with a grin 'you wanna give yet?'. There was always an extra little bit of pressure added just before any hold was released. It was a hallmark of Davey's style, as if he was saying...'I could make it worse you know, but I won't, but remember this....'.
Anyhow here they were again. Andy closed in on Davey, who was difficult to read always at these opening moments. As Andy lifted his hands towards Davey's neck and left arm, with a rapid blur of movement Davey encircled Andy's neck in an iron hard grip and threw him from his hip, tossing Andy easily to the mat and hanging onto him so that Andy landed hard with Davey's 14+ stone on him, still held in a side headlock. Fuck. Fuck. Davey was so fucking strong. He was a bastard. He was a mean-son-of-a-bitch. Still holding Andy firmly in the side headlock, Davey grabbed Andy's free arm and thrust Andy's wrist into the waiting crooked knee, so that Andy's arm was at ninety degrees with the elbow being levered up under Davey's thick thigh thereby also cranking his shoulder. This was a hold-down move which Andy of course knew, but he could not resist the momentum of it. Davey was too strong. Davey's weight across his chest kept him firmly pinned whilst the bastard started working his shoulder and arm. To make matters worse Davey hauled on the headlock, pulling Andy's head towards him and doubling the effect of weight. Leverage. Simple really. Davey was an expert at leverage. Andy groaned and said 'no, never!' When Davey told him to quit. Davey shifted yet more weight onto Andy and started to crank on the holds. Andy's shoulder was already screaming with the torque being applied. But Davey, ever the sadist, took it just to the point which Andy could endure and then kept it there, pulsing the pressure a little. Andy took it as long as he could but it was too much within about forty seconds. He tapped on Davey's broadly muscled back. Nothing. Davey was not looking at him and did not respond. Well, he was looking at him, but just did not seem to register Andy's face at all or his tapping. 'Ok' Andy said, ' you got me, I submit.' Davey then focussed on Andy's face and said 'oh no lad, you have a long way to go yet before I let you out of this'. Oh shit. He's in one of those moods.
Davey kept Andy in this shoulder busting hold for maybe another whole minute whilst Andy yelled, moaned, cursed, and alternated between tapping and punching Davey's back. He soon gave up any punching as that was met with vicious pressure crudely applied to his already torn shoulder. Suddenly, Davey mounted Andy chest to chest, and Andy felt those awesome legs grapevine his own putting unbearable pressure on his trapped legs and knees. Jeez. Andy knew how heavy Davey was, but always forgot the reality of just how heavy he felt when it was all on top of him. Davey promptly enclosed the whole of Andy's neck and head in his arms, with his chest flexing in a way that did things to Andy which he could not control. Davey was smothering him and clearly enjoying doing it. Andy struggled and thrashed under the heavily muscled man. He could not breathe and every movement he made seemed to result in Davey being clamped more tightly on him. Andy bucked and writhed but it was useless. He started to plead for release. As usual he felt a rush of unbelievable electricity run through him at being forcibly subdued by this muscled brute, and also fear that he might actually be going beyond what he could endure.
The bout progressed. It was totally one sided. Andy felt exhausted. Davey had been inventively unremittingly plain mean. He had scissored Andy and had turned up the pressure long after Andy submitted, until Andy thought his entire rib cage would implode. Andy's ribs were sore after that....we would remember the sheer hardness of those hairy monsters which looked mountainously huge when he had been trapped in them. Then he had turned his legs over to work Andy's neck. He had pumped them until Andy had gone woozy and virtually passed out.
Now, this was the worst moment. Davey seemed to tower over him, his muscles glistening and swollen as he had Andy's ankles trapped firmly under his armpits. Only Andy's head and part of his shoulders was in touch with the mat. He was struggling violently, twisting his body up and from side to side. He tried to snatch hold of Davey's ankles, but it was useless. Fuck....Andy knew he must avoid being forced over onto his belly at all costs, but Davey already had one knee pushed hard into the small of Andy's back, starting to arch him mercilessly. Andy knew that Davey was playing with him. With the power of those legs and his torso Davey could flip him over whenever he wanted. Davey was nearly lifting him up entirely. 'Yeah.....you are gonna take it now boy...the most punishing hold ever devised in wrestling.....I am gonna ride you in my Crab, fucker.' Andy yelled defiantly, but he knew the inevitable would happen. This hold was Davey's absolute speciality. He always seemed to be able to manoeuvre an opponent into this, and when he did he would turn into a wicked pain machine, doling out spine breaking agony with ease. With a hideous surge, Andy was forced over onto his belly. Davey held him high, arched between Davey's wide stance. Andy could feel Davey tightening the grip on his legs and Davey's palms made contact with Andy's inner thighs, forcing them to spread wide. Slowly Davey sat into the saddle created by the bent lumbar zone of Andy's already-tortured back. He settled some of his weight onto Andy, which felt amazing to Andy....how could those muscled globes of Davey's ass be so hard? Davey tilted his hips into the hold and Andy yelled his immediate submission. But he knew there would be no release. Davey was never satisfied with just a simple submission from this hold.
It took twenty minutes before a totally wrecked Andy was allowed to escape from under an exultant Davey. Those who doubt the power of this hold, should try it. But take care, friend. It is the most feared hold in all promission for a good reason.

I guess how much an opponent can take depends on several factors where the Boston Crab submission hold is concerned. It is I think potentially the most punishing hold an opponent can be placed in and so I think it is always up to me to find the right way of using it with each man. I have sometimes used it for an instant submission winner where I just bull the guy into it and sit down hard and lean back, pulling on his legs even as I get sat on him. That has produced always a very quick submission from the man under me, usually with something like a strange compressed voice at high pitch yelling ‘fuck, yes, yes, yes, I give!’ even before I have asked him. But that has been in situations where the other wrestler has pissed me off with something, or punched me hard (especially if we have agreed to only wrestle) or where the match has been solely seriously competitive.
Getting a man who is strong and really struggling into a crab is not easy – there are quite a few ways of avoiding it. I can sometimes get a guy into it via an ankle lock applied whilst I am standing and he is on his back on the mat…but you have to be quick and mean! Usually that would mean applying a single leg Boston initially and scooping up his other leg when the opportunity presents itself without losing control of him in the process.
Another way of getting a man into the hold in a competitive bout is to slam him hard (or if you have agreed on body punching to drive a solid fist into him) so that for a moment or two he is winded and take advantage of that to position him. Even in a competitive bout I would not sit back on the hold until he has recovered his breathing a little – but that might only be seconds.
The third way of securing a victim in the hold is to exhaust him by locking on another hold (even something like a headlock with shoulder lock with my weight on him simultaneously, or a properly applied Fig 4 head scissor or rib crushing body scissor) and then keeping him locked in it so that his energy level is slowly dissipated. Then when the moment arrives, just moving very quickly and cranking him into a crab. The only problem is that I am responsible for his security and in competitive stuff you have to be certain when laying on a crab that your balance is good and that you can lower yourself into the final position with mostly good control as the last thing you want to happen is that you lose balance and fall back onto him – which may bend him beyond what he can take.
As with all submission holds there is the potential for injury if you are careless or over-estimate what an opponent can endure/take. Having said that, though I have accidentally unfortunately caused (not too serious…!) injuries to opponents over the years (went through a patch where I seemed to crack ribs with my scissors hold but then discovered what the particular issue was and stopped using a particular position) and had a few minor ones myself, I have never had an opponent had any injury from a Boston Crab. I have been in the hold myself too many times – and had an opponent lose control as he sat back (!) but the worst seems to be a sore back for a few hours. My medic pals tell me that actually bending the spine the other way (eg bending forwards to touch your toes) is potentially more likely to cause injury to the spine than the flexion involved in camels/crabs.
But most matches I have had are not all-out competitive ones but are some version of give n take, where the holds and pressure in the holds is real but no-one is all that bothered as to who is winning. And of course I like really sustained holds that play with a man’s pain threshold and determination not to quit. So that is one of the factors – the other guy’s mind. Even if you took two guys who had the same physical characteristics you might find that one guys submits quickly and finds the pain intolerable and another goes way beyond that and surprises you.
Most guys give small signals (sometimes not so subtle hah hah!) about their pain level and whether they are close to subbing or not, some vocal and some physical, by the way they move slightly under you in the hold. It’s good to keep an eye on where their head is (and neck) if you can see that either in a mirror or by looking round. If you are sitting quite far back on an opponent and he does not bend well in the lumbar lower back zone (for whatever reason) it is possible that the torque of the hold gets transferred more to his neck – so time then for me to be careful! If a guy seems to be lying in the hold fairly placidly and not moving his head around much it is probable that he is not near submission and I can crank it harder on him. So the first and biggest variant in how a man can take the crab is his own mind and pain level.
I have wrestled lightweights who seem unbelievably able to absorb punishment which with less pressure in general in the hold would have a bigger man tapping out frantically. Some jobbers (BostonKid in London for example) are so stubborn you think they will pass out before they submit. And though it is generally true that the bigger more muscled guys don’t bend so well, some of them can be very surprising (Wrestlecub – incredible guy with enormous strength who seemed able to take very punishing Boston and certainly was not tapping out quickly….and by the way was well able to repay the hold!). I guess the jobber who I have met who takes the most pain from a full Boston Crab and refuses to submit until I nearly break him is Slpt.
Anyway back to the subject. Other important variables are obvious too. How limber is the man getting crabbed? I wrestled a well built Indian wrestler (he was a doctor!) a few years back and he was strong with very well developed balanced physique. Put up a good fight too – was not a jobber. But when I finally manoeuvred him into a full crab I was really astonished (maybe he was a Yoga man?) because as I sat into the hold his legs easily just came further and further back as his flexed back bent very much easily at the waist just above his speedos. I kept leaning back and he kept bending (without much grunting either) and it was only when his feet were really nearly touching the back of his own head that I felt the resistant spring of his spine and muscles. Kept him in it for a while, but it did not seem all that painful to him to be bent like that (which would have had other men screaming) and I think it was more than fact that in that position he had all my weight (I was around 212lbs/96kg then ) sat heavily on the middle of his back and he just could not breathe once the hold was on tight and his abs were stretched to the max. (Of course he did sub.)
Some guys hardly bend at all, and those who work out in the gym alot and have very developed muscle mass are sometimes virtually rigid and cannot really be crabbed at all – even as you approach the position of the hold they submit. This is a hold where the flexibility of the man in it plays a very big role…unlike holds like a straight arm-bar where once you reach the natural extent of the elbow joint, flexibility is irrelevant. I guess flexibility in the crab is governed by many musculo-skeletal factors. Is the bone structure of the spine itself healthily flexible with all inter-vertebral discs plumply healthy? Does he have big spinal erector muscle on him and does he automatically tense that when he is bent, or can he relax those big muscles even when he is being attacked )? That may not be a conscious choice for him. How tight are his abs and quads? For some guys the hip flexors and abs are the limiting factor as to how much they can take in a crab. A fully applied crab can feel like you are being ripped apart in those – and other – regions of the body. It is a hold which when properly applied seems to crank everything.
Then of course there is the issue of weight and where it is distributed. This makes a huge difference to the hold. If you sit on your opponents glutes rather than on his back, the hold is not really effective and even an opponent who does not bend much can probably survive a crab for a long time in that position.
But the moment you slide back so that some at least of your weight is on his lower back he will feel the hold much more and it will begin to seriously compromise his ability to breath. I like to test an opponent in this position where I keep my feet tight in to the side of his hips so that at the start at least, until I know his ability better, most of my weight is still taken on my own feet as I squat down onto him. I will then gently bounce my weight on him to loosen him up and punish him some for a bit before settling more deeply into his back.
Even there I can usually make a guy submit just by tilting my pelvis a little so that we fit together more tightly and he is cranked that little bit more. From this point on, every inch that I move my feet further out with a widening stance transfers more weight onto him and I can usually hear the result in the moans and groans and gasps that come from the man trapped under me. If he is strong, game and feisty he may try pushing up to see if he can escape (it’s the only way possible in this hold) but that generally means I get to crank him harder and more quickly. Though if he is trying that manoeuvre at all it usually means he is going to be quite stubborn and resistant and therefore I can be a bit tougher on him and start to grind him into the mat.
Then of course…the further back I sit the worse it can be for the victim….though if you sit in the middle of the man’s back rather than more towards his waist this can enable him to bend in more of a gentle curve in his back and abs rather than creating a sharp steep angle at his waist. Many guys flex their glutes once they are crabbed –seems to be a reflex thing, but it is not something I am complaining about! Once I sit right back towards his shoulders I can really lever him into a full arch, getting his abs totally off the mat. This is very tough to endure (have you seen the pics of Slpt in that position – it is amazing he can take that for even a few seconds…must be agony!) and most guys will have submitted before you get to that. Then if I am in real heel mood and just wanna keep the hurt on my opponent and show him who is boss with no doubt at all, I might just get that little bit further back so I am effectively sat on his trapezius muscle (which with the extreme bend in the entire spine that this causes always looks like I am sitting on his neck!).
In that position he has no weight really on his back, - it’s all on his shoulder girdle, but the bend is such that his diaphragm cannot descend inside his extremely stretched rib cage which makes breathing very difficult indeed. You have to take great care of your man in this submission position because it is quite extreme and you don’t want to risk any neck injury by a loss of control. No-one that I put in this position has ever managed to struggle at all in it…..they just have to submit or suffer. It is as though their whole body has realised that there is nothing that can be done. I guess that is one of the aims of a good submission is that the opponent gives up totally all effort at resistance…then you know you have submitted him properly. That is why sometimes I demand repeated submissions…..because I sense in the muscle tone of the man taking the hold that he has not yet really given up.
Finally there is the issue of how you have hold of the man’s legs. In order to turn him easily in the first place you need often to lift him high (shows him how strong you are!) and so I tend to take hold of a man with my forearms tucked right into the back of his knees and his mid calves clamped under my armpits and squeezed there with the bulk of my triceps pressing hard into his leg and my ribs. Then I either slowly turn him (so I can exhaust him more as has he has to struggle and keep his core tight) or whip him over quickly and aggressively – to persuade him that further fighting is futile. But as I start to sit I generally allow his legs to slide through my grip so that it ends with his ankles locked under my armpits rather than his calves. That way he can bend much more and there is less cranked torque in the hold. I can also then place my hands on his inner thighs to contribute to controlling his legs and also because I love the feel of a man’s legs like that! After that I can either stay leaning forwards a little which means he is less bent or gradually pull his legs further and further back as I both lean and pull backwards (maybe arching my own back a little in extreme cases). This of course increases the spinal crank very effectively.
So the proper answer to your question as to how long you can survive in my (or anyone’s !) full Boston Crab is this,

THE FULL BOSTON CRAB SUBMISSION EQUATION

Your mind/mood and ability to resist pain and be stubborn/courageous + your natural flexibility + your strength and condititioning + your previous experience and confidence level
MINUS
My mind/mood and determination to inflict punishment and dominance on you + how much of my weight is transferred to your back + where on your back I am squatting/sitting + how I trap your legs + how much I pull your legs back + how quickly these events are enacted
= how long you can take this utter bastard of a hold.

In your case, from what you have said, and assuming I wanted to dominate and ride you in the hold rather than just get a really quick submission (or series of submissions) from you, I would reckon anything above 90 seconds is impressive. If you manage longer than that you are in an elite group. Of course we enter different territory if I release you from the hold and turn you onto your back for a few seconds before re-applying it. That way we might extend what you could take for quite a while. And in the course of a give n take bout where we are both in and out of a variety of holds and moves and the spine therefore does not start to stiffen up (that comes later, after the bout) maybe you could find yourself crabbed quite a few times. And there are great variants too – like Texas Cloverleaf Crab or Scorpion Leglock Crab, or….if you are athletic and flexible I have a brutal off-the-mat crab where your shoulders rest on my thighs and your head is caught tight between my thighs but you are held in a very effective full crab (no weight on your back obviously) in mid air. Nice huh?
So that should give you a bit of an idea about some of the details which go into making a man suffer properly and submit sincerely when I lever him into one of the holds which has long been amongst my favourites. There are others too…….