03/11/09 - BJJ (Beginner)

Class #257



RGA High Wycombe, (BJJ), Kev Capel, High Wycombe, UK - 03/11/2009

I finally finished writing up my trip to Turkey, if anyone's interested. I have thought about moving the travel stuff to a separate blog, given its got nothing to do with BJJ, but I don't think I do it regularly enough to warrant one. Still, there's a suitably silly video of me belly-dancing on there, so that might amuse regular readers. ;p

This week, Kev is focusing on side control, beginning with the two basic escapes, recovering guard and going to your knees. One point to note was that Kev recommended beginners put an arm by their partner's armpit rather than into their throat. This is less effective that driving your forearm into the throat, but it is also safer, as they won't be able to attack your arm as easily.

That was followed by another basic technique, transitioning from side control to mount. Again, Kev kept it simple, with a big step rather than sliding the knee, or grabbing your foot and pulling it past their blocking knee.

In specific sparring, I'm still being far too flat on my back under side control, and end up waiting for them to make a move rather than forcefully bridging. Partly that's because I want to conserve energy, partly because I'm small, but mainly because I'm lazy. I need to stop relying on my partner making a mistake (e.g., stepping over to mount and allowing me to bridge into them for the Tran side control escape), and do something more proactive. First thing is to focus more on getting onto my side. As we'll presumably be doing more of this on Thursday, I should get plenty of opportunities to practice.

On top, I was able to play with the triangle position from side control again, as one of my partners was effectively giving me his head. I don't think he realised what I was doing, as there was no resistance to my attempts to hook my leg over and lock in the triangle position. I can never actually finish somebody with just that hold on top of side control, so tend to look for the arm.

However, he had his arms firmly locked, and I wasn't able to break them free: eventually, he reversed me into guard. Still, it proved to be a relatively stable controlling position for a while, but that was probably just because he wasn't used to being held like that.

With Joel, I ended up in half guard while under side control: we didn't stop at that point, so instead I was presented with the problem of when they face your legs. I found that I was trying to work my way to the position from last week, so I could hook the arms and try the sweep. However, that's more of a last resort than a position you actively put yourself in, because you're then flat on your back with your upper body controlled. I should instead have been looking at deep half guard or something, given I was near his legs, so that's something to keep in mind next time.