27/05/2014 - Teaching (Leg Pin Pass)

Teaching #157
Artemis BJJ (Longwell Green), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 20/05/2014

To simplify things, I'm assuming for this class that you've managed to break their guard open. To help people with that for sparring (as some might not have seen a guard break before), we did a drill at the start where you shove their sleeve into their belt knot/belly button, then stand. Pull up on their sleeve (if you've lost it, grab their collar). You then want to push their knee off your hip on the other side. Don't dig in with your elbow, as pain compliance is not only unpleasant for your training partners, it is unreliable due to varying pain thresholds.

Instead, try bouncing your hip to open their ankles. At the same time, splay your hand by their knee (Roger Gracie calls this 'making his hand big') in order to help push down. Immediately as their leg hits the mat, trap their lower leg with your shin by sliding it over. Hook your instep around their leg near the crook of their knee. Also shift your other foot closer to your bum, so they can't hook it.

The hand which was pushing on the knee now goes to wrap up their head, or you could try grasping their collar. I'd suggest switching the other hand (which was gripping on their sleeve/collar) to behind their leg to stop them bridging and rolling you during the pass attempt. You could also try blocking their near hip with that hand, though that isn't an option I use.

To finish, swing your back leg all the way over, so your back is pointing at their head, in a sort of reverse scarf hold: you're sat next to them, facing their legs, sole of your foot on the floor. You should still have their leg trapped at this point with your hooking foot. Finally, switch your hips, sliding that hooking leg under the back step leg, settling into side control.

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Teaching Notes: A lot of people are arriving late at the moment, so perhaps the class time is a bit of an early start at 7pm. Class itself went ok, the drills fitting a bit better than last time. I did add in the monkey climb, as there were enough people of a similar size. There are still lots of people turning up without a gi, complicating matters: I ended up just lending my gi jacket at one point. Hopefully that will change as people get more interested in jiu jitsu and buy a gi (especially as I sell them pretty cheap at £25, or we should have something set up through Tatami soon for cheap new gis too).