RGA High Wycombe, (BJJ), Kev Capel, High Wycombe, UK - 09/11/2010
I'm not sure if anyone takes any note of the names of my training partners, which I occasionally mention on this blog (especially if I've rolled with them a lot and they give me good advice, like Tran, Christina and more recently, Howard), but readers may remember Callum. He's one of the other blue belts I like to roll with at RGA Wycombe, as he is always a tough challenge: often in the guard, I'll find that one moment I'm looking to start a pass, then the next I find Callum has somehow climbed most of the way up my shoulder and is trying to sink an armbar. ;)
As well as slick submissions, Callum also has something even more impressive to his name: a new BJJ magazine. We've been discussing it in class and over email for a few months now, and I've been getting steadily more excited as things begin to come together. This week, the launch of Jiu Jitsu Style has been announced to the rest of the world, with a page on Facebook. The first issue is due to come out in February 2011: I'll no doubt be talking a whole lot more about it in the coming months, as will other people who have since got on board, like Seymour from Meerkatsu and Matt from The Grappling Dummy. Speaking of which, I recently did an interview with Callum for The FightWorks Podcast, which you can check out here if you're interested in Jiu Jitsu Style.
I've been off training as I came down with a cold last week, so didn't want to spread my germs around. I think I'm just about recovered now, so finally made it back to the mats tonight. If that went ok, I'd know I'm ok for the advanced class in Bristol tomorrow. Kev's focus for the beginners was the triangle choke from guard, going through two basic set-ups he has shown before.
The first triangle set-up was the most simple. Grab both their wrists with your same side hands, then push their rear hand into their torso, while clamping the other to your chest. You can then either bring your hips up in order to fling your leg over their shoulder, locking your feet by the top of their back. The important thing is to clear that hand you've shoved into them, so that you're ready to move into the triangle.You can now bring them in with your legs, moving their outstretched arm across your body, Grab the leg you have across the back of their neck, swivel to face the direction your sole is pointing, then lock up the triangle and squeeze. Kev noted that you can also try pushing their trapped shoulder back a little, in order to get your legs more tightly on their carotoid arteries. Howard also had a handy tip for when you're getting stacked, which is to stiff-arm into your knee, which should help you shuffle backwards on your shoulders.
The second triangle set-up is a bit like a scissor sweep. You start by grabbing their opposite collar, but instead of bringing your shin across their stomach, bring that knee over their rear arm (presuming they have the standard grip in guard, with one arm forward grabbing your collars, the other back by your hip). You can then rotate that leg around and over their neck, swivelling into position for the triangle, finishing as before.
Next up was the flipside, an escape from the triangle. If you're just about to get caught, you want to reverse engineer your defence. To complete the triangle, they want to bring your arm across, so to prevent that, clasp your hands and clamp them to the leg on your free arm side. Maintain good posture to try and make some space (if their grip is still loose, this may even be enough to break it), bringing your knee on the trapped arm side next to your elbow. Turn that knee in towards them.
Having given yourself a strong frame, grab their leg with your trapped arm. You can then put your free hand behind you for base. Move your other knee to their hip, which will mean you can move around to their side slightly. Step your trapped side leg right over their body, foot by their hip. You can now posture up and remove their legs, after which you want to immediately pin their legs to the floor by pushing on their top knee with your hand.
From here, you can turn your knee towards their torso, stepping your other leg over their trapped knees. That sets you up to move into knee on belly. Alternatively, you can try switching your legs and 'surfing' them into mount. If they block that by shoving on your leg, you can go with the flow and slide into side control on the other side.
Specific sparring was from full guard. I wasn't getting too far with Howard, who was managing to eventually either pass or sweep me every time. I did manage to get to that same old half guard position a few times on top, but could never quite complete the pass. Afterwards, Howard suggested I could try using my head as a post, driving it next to his and using my skull to turn his head in the other direction. Something to try next time I'm on top in half guard.
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