12/05/2014 - Artemis BJJ (Opening & Passing the Closed Guard)

Class #569
Artemis BJJ (Bristol Sports Centre), Dónal Carmody, Bristol, UK - 12/05/2014

Excellent turn-out tonight, with a number of new faces. Dónal kicked off with some nifty passing drills. First, they have their feet on your hips. Cup under with your hands and lift, thrusting your hips forwards. That was followed by a bullfighter pass drill, where you grab inside their knees, keeping your elbows inside: glue your forearms to the inside of their lower legs. Follow those legs with your elbows, generally keeping one leg high and the other low. Picking your moment carefully, simultaneously lean in the direction of the lower leg while also shoving the lower leg away from you. Due to your lean, you can swing your other leg away, enabling you to push their lower leg further.

Main technique for tonight was a standing guard break. Grab their two collars and twist them up, keeping your hand around the level of their chest. With your other hand, grasp their same side sleeve and stuff it under your other arm, locking your other arm's elbow on top. Stand up on the sleeve-grip side, as they can't use that arm to block or hook your leg. Posture up, pulling the sleeve. Be sure to stand straight up, rather than trying to push off your collar grip. Dónal diagnosed this problem perfectly: if you lean forwards into that collar grip for base (as I often have in the past), you're going to find it both hard to stand and be more vulnerable to getting your posture broken back down.

Braulio and Norbi pull up on the gi instead, wrapping it by the leg, but they're black belts, so can deal with the person on the bottom trying to hook the leg. Once you've stood, shake their legs open like you were taking off a pair of trousers. When you've opened the guard, turn your body to knock their leg out of the way. You may also need to wriggle your elbow underneath that leg, to help slip it off. Drop down to pass, still holding the sleeve. As that will mean your arm is in an odd position, once you're down switch the sleeve grip to the other hand, then solidify your position.