22/10/2013 - Teaching (Preparing the Pass & Kneeling Guard Break)

Teaching #129
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 22/10/2013

Passing the closed guard is something I've always found difficult, so I'm particularly keen to break down the methods in order to make it easier for everyone else. That will in turn hopefully help me as well. Working out exactly what to teach takes some thought, as there is a lot to cover, even at the basic level of how to initiate your attempts to open the guard.

First thing I wanted to cover was posture. Stay upright, with your head up. Curving your back slightly can help too. Don't let them bend your arms: keep at least one of them stiff into their hip. It is very important to control their hips, as they need to angle off to attack effectively. Your other hand is ready to push them down if they attempt to raise their torso towards you, or more typically, gripping both collars and keeping their back on the mat.

Another option is to grab their belt instead, but be warned that can come undone, automatically removing your grip. Whichever one you use, if possible, jam your collar gripping hand just under their sternum, to wedge it in place. You can either use the heel of your hand or possibly a fist, depending on how you're gripping their gi.

For a strong base, widen your knees, sitting on your heels. Alternatively, you could try squeezing your knees to their hips to stop them moving, but that will result in a less sturdy base. Make sure you do not put your elbows on the outside of their legs: keep them inside, or they can start kicking up into your armpit for triangles, armbars, flower sweeps etc.

A key detail is to come up on your toes. This will feel uncomfortable at first, but it provides you with much better base than having your insteps flat on the floor. With your toes up, you can resist their attempts to pull your around. It also enables you to drive forward and improves your mobility.

Another way they'll be looking to disrupt your base is to angle their hips away. To prevent that, you can simply follow them, making sure you keep squaring back up so they don't have that attacking angle anymore. You could also try caging their hips by squeezing your knees together, but that can result in a less stable base.

In order to attack, they are going to want to disrupt your base and break your posture down. The first way they'll probably do that is to establish a strong grip, on your sleeve and collar. You don't want that, so try to strip any grips before beginning your pass. Not to say that it's impossible to pass if they've got grips, but you'll find it easier if they don't.

If they grab your collar, use both of your hands to grab either side of that sleeve or wrist. Push it forcefully away from you, while simultaneously leaning back slightly. If you remember the grip break from the maintaining closed guard lesson I taught a while back, this is a similar principle, but from the opposite position. Another option is to put both your hands on their gripping arm, trapping it to their torso. Posture up forcefully to break the grip.

If they get a grip on your sleeve, then grab their sleeve with your free hand. To break the grip, yank your trapped hand back as your gripping hand drives forward. TrumpetDan has a good video on this, here. I don't generally recommend YouTube, but he is one of the better teachers on there. A simpler option is to circle your hand either inside or outside of their arm, then chop downwards to break the grip: there is a good explanation of that in Beneville's excellent Passing the Guard.

Should they get a hold of the material by your knee, you can use a similar grip break. Grab their gripping wrist with your same side arm and press it to the mat, then kick your trapped leg back. Ideally, as with the previous grip break, this will now give you control of their arm, which you can immediately use to initiate your pass.

There is also a one-handed grip break you can try, which Xande showed recently: he calls it the 'y grip break'. This has some similarities to circling your hand, but this time you circle it underneath their hand, shoving the 'v' between your thumb and index finger into the heel of their hand. Thrust your arm forward forcefully to free your sleeve. You might also be able to use your hand position to grab their wrist, putting you in control and negating their own grip.

Finally, I finished off with the kneeling guard break, building on the private from a while ago. There are three main ways of opening the guard. The most reliable is standing up, bringing gravity to bear on them, though this has the disadvantage of leaving you more vulnerable to sweeps. The most risky is baiting a submissions to get them to open, as that obviously puts you in danger of getting caught if you're not careful. Finally, you can open the guard from the knees, which has the advantage of using less energy and leaving you with good base, but it does keep you in the 'submission zone'.

That last one is what I wanted to cover today. The basic method of opening from the knees starts by setting up your grips, grabbing both collars with one hand, by their chest, your other hand by their hip. Saulo's version, as per that earlier picture, has the knee off to the side with the leg stretched out, using a sort of dip rather than relying on scooting back.

Dónal has a handy tip about twisting up their collars, rolling them over each other so that there is no slack when you grip, though that may sometimes be tough to secure. Also try to jam your palm or fist into their sternum to lock it in place. Regarding your hand on the hip, measure your gripping position by bringing your elbow back to their knee, then grabbing whatever material is then under your hand.

From there, get your knee underneath their butt cheek, meaning they are raised up onto your leg. Your other knee slides out to the side, so you're now making a right angle with your two knees (this differs from Saulo's version: your leg stays on the ground, not raised up). Still keeping your back curved, slowly wriggle backwards, shifting your sideways knee and continuing to wriggle until you can pop open their ankles. As soon as you do, immediately shove their leg to the mat with your elbow and/or hand, then begin your pass.
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Teaching Notes: I'll see what feedback is like in regards to the amount of content, but I think this is getting towards being a useful lesson. I could easily teach the guard break and pass as a separate lesson, but judging by the feedback I had last time, it feels like the guard break is a useful thing to add in after the details on posture and grips.

A number of people were stepping their leg up and back for the guard break, which is how Saulo demonstrates it (as per the picture). That works too, but I personally have had more success with Dónal's method, as that feels more stable. To explain it during my John Will style review at the end wasn't as simple as I'd thought, given that a lot of people were still lifting their leg. I eventually just went to the front so they could see me: I could do that all the time, but at the moment I think it's more helpful if I'm facing the same way but also able to see them, which tends to mean I'm sat behind them. Then again, as they're all facing the same way, if I'm in front of them and running through it, they should be able to both see me and follow along with my words. Something I'll try next time.

15/10/2013 - Teaching (Deep 'Relson' Grip in Closed Guard & Sit-Up Sweep)

Teaching #128
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 15/10/2013

A basic but very useful grip is to get a really deep grasp of the collar. I learned this from Roy Dean's demonstration on his Brown Belt Requirements DVD, where he calls it the 'Relson' choke. I'm going to go with a more descriptive name, deep grip choke: to establish that grip, you may find it helps to sit up to get it in really deep. As Dean discusses on his DVD, an especially deep grip can help your choke as well as give you authoritative control.

Often people will let you get a grip on their collar from guard, unlike the same situation from under mount, despite the threat being similar. If possible, it's a good idea to open up the collar with your same side hand to help get your other hand in as deep as possible. Like John Will says, this will also take the slack out of their gi.

Once you have it, this deep 'Relson' grip provides three main advantages. Firstly, you get great control, as you can pull them down towards you. Secondly, it could be the beginning of a choke. Lift their chin with your forearm to make some space, then insert your other grip. Due to the depth of your first grip, the second hand doesn't need to go as far. Turn your thumbs inwards for the choke, pulling in with your elbows (don't flare them out).

Even if you don't land the choke, just having the grip will make them start to worry about that choke rather than thinking about passing. Thirdly, it means you can establish a collar and elbow grip. There are various attacks you can do from there, the most common of which are probably armbars, scissor and push sweeps.

Should that grip slip, then you still have a more orthodox collar choke available, or the numerous options from a collar and elbow/sleeve grip, if you established that hold. Should you switch to the standard collar choke, you can try another Roy Dean trick. Shoot your arms out straight, aiming to get your hands to the back of their collar (ideally, gripping right by the tag), then grip as normal. Remember to turn your thumbs inwards rather than out (or to put it another way, turn them away from your face rather than towards it). Turning them outwards will work too, but inwards should be tighter.

If they try to avoid having their posture broken down and lean back, that can provide the perfect opportunity for a sit-up sweep, also known as the hip bump. This makes for a classic offensive combination with the kimura and guillotine. Rise up, reaching over their shoulder with your opposite hand, putting the other behind you for base (often you might find you come up on your elbow first, then switch to the hand). Secure their tricep and whack them with your hip as if you were doing a big step to slowly spin in place. This should cause them to fall off balance. Once you get your knee onto the mat, twist your upper body so that you're effectively doing a take down.
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Teaching Notes: The choke doesn't flow directly into the sit up sweep, as you have to release your grip. I still like the conceptual approach of breaking posture then following them up, but I am not certain starting with a choke is the best way to do it. The more orthodox approach would be going for the sit-up sweep first, then attacking as they push back into you with kimuras, guillotines etc, but personally I find myself in the other scenario more often.

Also, I didn't write this directly after the lesson like I normally try to do, so can't remember much. Note to self: don't leave it until a week later to finish your write-up! ;)

08/10/2013 - Teaching (Back Retake & Switch to Mount)

Teaching #127
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 08/10/2013

I started off with the simple, instinctual option, recovering mount from the back. They've cleared one hook and managed to put their shoulders onto the mat. It will be tough to regain your back mount from here, especially if they've moved over your leg. As soon as you feel their bum move past your knee, bring your remaining hook over their body and clamp the heel to their far hip. Make sure it is providing you with enough control that they can't simply shrug you off. Pull out your elbow for base, then turn and slide through into mount, using your heel for leverage.

If you can catch them before they get their shoulders to the mat, then you can retake the back. They manage to clear one of your hooks and start bringing their hips over. Before they can get their shoulders to the mat, press your chest into their shoulder and roll them onto their side, in the direction they were escaping. You'll probably need to balance on your shoulder and head to get into the right position. As they have cleared one of your legs, you should be able to then slide that knee behind their head (you might need to post on an arm, but see if you can do it without releasing your seatbelt grip). Sit back and roll them over your knee, then re-establish your second hook (note that in sparring, this will almost certainly be blocked, but that's for another class). You can keep doing that from side to side as a drill.
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Teaching & Sparring Notes: This is another lesson which is feeling relatively solid, probably because the techniques are quite basic: I switched the order from the last time I taught this, which I think works better. In terms of improving for next time, I felt I was babbling a bit when teaching, so I want to be more succinct in future. Arnaud asked a good question in regards to the second technique, as he said he's had trouble in the past stopping them slipping down.

I was pleased my answer seemed to help, which in short was to make sure you're hooking under their arm, which then acts as a block. It also made me wonder if it matters which arm grip is better when you're going for the back retake. Under the arm means they can't slip down, as per Arnaud's question, but there is a chance your arm might get stuck. I prefer going under the arm and using what was the choking arm for base, then regripping for the turn, but it's something to experiment with. It may also be the case that it is a matter of preference.

Sparring with Tony, I continued to play with the one-on-two grip when defending the back (by which I mean clamping their arm that's by my armpit, using that same arm to grab their opposite sleeve: I started using it last month). That frees my other arm to grab their leg and stiff arm into it, ideally meaning I create a continuous space they can't fill back in before my escape. It worked the first few times, but Tony later worked out a few ways of scuppering what I was doing (especially as we were discussing it each time: he was doing some kind of judo grip, yoko something something?). Which is great, as that should hopefully mean my defence will improve as I iron out all the kinks. :D

01/10/2013 - Teaching (Bridging Back Escape)

Teaching #126
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 01/10/2013

Start off by immediately bringing your knee up on the choking arm side. Angle it inwards, to prevent them from rolling you back the other way. In one quick motion, move your head forwards and simultaneously shove their head sideways (this is presuming they know what they are doing and have their head tight to yours for control). Look towards them, keeping your head and neck firm in order to stop them moving their head back into place.

Push off your leg and bridge back, aiming to get your shoulders and spine to the mat. If you aren't able to get your head past theirs, still push off your leg. Put your head on the mat and then grind it underneath their head. This isn't pleasant for either of you, but it is generally effective: preferably you can get your head past theirs in the gentler method above. If you can, clamp your arm that is nearest the mat to your side, aiming to trap their arm. To really immobile them, see if you can use that same arm to grab their opposite sleeve, meaning you're using one arm to control both of theirs.

Due to your body slipping off to the side, they are probably going to try and come on top. To do that, they need to be able to turn their legs down and then away from you. Keep your legs in tight to block them: with your leg back, that forms an effective barrier to their efforts to turn. There are a couple of ways you can do that. The first one is hooking their top leg (if they're trying to turn on top, they'll be on their side) with your near leg. Get your foot towards your bum to lock their leg in place. Alternatively, step your near leg behind the knee of their bottom leg and pinch your own knees together.

With your near arm, grab their trousers by their top leg (either by the knee or a bit lower). When you have the opportunity, switch to grip with the other hand, which means you can bring your near elbow down past their body, on the inside. At this point, make sure you've got your outside knee angled towards them, once again for base. Shrimp away, get your near arm back, then turn straight into the leg squash pass position.

As in the simpler version, I prefer to get control of the shoulder and head. Instead of getting my elbow to the floor and turning like Dónal, I like to either reach across their neck and grab the gi, or better, reach under their head, grip the far armpit then lock my shoulder into their head and shoulder. Either way, push off your free leg and turn to try and come on top. With your grip on the knee, stiff-arm so they can't lock their half-guard (if they do lock their half guard, this puts you in the opposite side half guard pass position, so proceed from there). Free your leg (pushing on their leg if you need to) and move into side control.

If you find they keep moving through to mount, the first option is to make sure you've got a really firm grip on their leg. You may be able to use that grip to prevent them getting to mount, as well as using it as a base point. Shrimp back and go to open guard. Alternatively, try shifting to deep half. I am not a big fan of deep half, as it is getting into the more complex territory I strive to avoid in BJJ. However, it's undeniably a useful option in this scenario.

You're attempting the escape as above, but they have managed to get their heel to your hip and you can't prevent them moving towards mount. Instead, shove their lower leg between yours, then reach underneath their bum with your near arm, reaching up and shoving their far butt cheek. That should knock them forward while simultaneously dragging you underneath.

Wrap around the outside of their leg with your bum-shoving arm, just below the knee. Hide your other arm underneath their leg, or at least tuck the elbow in tight: if their sleeve is in reach, grab it. The first thing they will try to do when you put them in deep half is underhook that hidden arm, meaning you want to take away any space for them to wedge in their arm. From there, pull their knee outwards and spin in that direction, in order to come on top and pass.

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Teaching Notes: I need to streamline how I teach the first technique, as I'm over-complicating it. I cut out the detail on hooking the leg, as I can leave that to the second technique: I can probably also leave out going through multiple variations of how to protect your neck. It's possible I could continue to split the techniques like in the past, spending a lesson on each, but combining them makes sense. Whenever I've taught the first technique on its own, I've invariably seen lots of people move from the back to mount during sparring and progressive resistance.

I'm also still not as confident as I'd like with escaping the back myself. I can generally get free, but then I'm rolling with people relatively close to my size but with less experience, so that's not a true test. My back escapes continue to feel sloppy and require too much energy. On the other hand, I am getting better at remembering to stiff-arm that leg, rather than getting so defensive that I trap myself in place (but only getting better, I haven't overcome the impulse yet).

Attacking the back I wasn't doing a whole lot, though it was fun to play with switching sides on armbars (because I'd been watching a video on that in Black Belt Requirements, which I'm hoping to have finished reviewing this weekend). I also cramped up a few times, so need to remember to warm up properly before I jump into sparring.

24/09/2013 - Teaching (Maintaining Mount)

Teaching #125
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 24/09/2013

Ok, I'm back from Cornwall! I had a lovely trip in Port Isaac, better known as the Port Wenn of Doc Martin. Unfortunately that did mean I had to miss my favourite session of the week, the 3pm Sunday Study Hall. I'm going to be unable to make it yet again this Sunday, due to work, but if you're a GB Bristol student, be sure to join in the drilling fun! :)

Reason being firstly it's cool, but secondly, Geeza has been threatening on Facebook to cancel it if the study hall doesn't get sufficient numbers (which it normally does: most of the regulars were on holiday when he popped in last week).
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There are two basic types of mount to choose from, which I'll call low and high. Once you've achieved mount, I find that low mount provides the most control. First off, you want to immobilise their hips, as their main method of making space is to bridge up forcefully.

Bring your feet right back, threading them around their legs to establish two hooks: this is known as a grapevine. Alternatively, you can also cross your feet underneath, which has the advantage of making it much harder for them to push your hooks off. Your knees are ideally off the ground, to generate maximum pressure. How far off the ground they are depends on your dimensions: the key is getting loads of hip pressure. Another option, which I learned from Rob Stevens at Gracie Barra Birmingham, is to put the soles of your feet together and then bring your knees right off the floor.

Whichever option you're going for, thrust those hips into them, using your hands for base, where again you have a couple of options. Either have both arms out, or put one under the head while the other goes out wide for base. Try to grip the gi material by their opposite shoulder, or even better, by the opposite armpit. Keep your head on the basing arm side, loading up your weight there. If they're bridging hard, you can switch from side to side.

A basic escape is to trap an arm, bridge and roll. So, don't let them grab your arm and crush it to their side. Instead, swim it through, like Ryron and Rener demonstrate in the third slice of the third lesson in Gracie Combatives. Be sure to do it one at a time, or you may get both arms squashed to your sides.

The drawback to the low mount is that there aren't many submissions from there: the ezequiel is one of the few high percentage attacks. In terms of their defence, they are mostly going to be trying to unhook your feet and digging their elbows under your knees, so you'll be battling to keep those in place.

To attack, you're better off climbing further up, into high mount. Again, you need to worry about their hips. To control them, put your feet by their bum, tucking your toes underneath: Roger Gracie points this out as of particular importance. In what you might call 'middle' mount where you're still over their hips, Saulo suggests that you 'ride' their bridges, like you were on a horse. Lean back, then as they bridge, lift up: you’re aiming to move with their hips, rather than just leaving a big space. So, this takes a good understanding of timing.

He also recommends against leaning forward, as he feels that gives them more space and leverage to escape. Hence why he leans back instead. Experiment, seeing how holding the head works for you versus leaning back. I think Saulo’s method requires more experience, and personally I feel unstable there, but as ever, I want to offer students choice whenever possible.

The danger of leaning back is when you're facing somebody with flexibility and/or long limbs. They might be able reach their legs over to kick into your armpits, either sliding out through your legs or pushing your over. You must control their hips with your feet, to prevent them from bending their body. Swimming the arms through might help you out here, this time against their legs, depending on how they attack. If they do get their feet in place, I generally grab on the back of their collar, stay really low, then attempt to gradually work my hips back to flatten them out: that worked for me last time it happened.

Another option is to move off their hips, shifting into an even higher mount. Gradually walk your knees into their armpits (pulling on the top of their head may help, which will also stop them wriggling back out) being careful of the elbows. If they start to work an elbow into your thigh, twist to one side and raise that knee. Pull their arm up with whatever you can grab, then reinsert your knee. I've seen Rob S teach grabbing their sleeve with your opposite hand, while Mauricio likes to grab the elbow with their opposite hand and Felipe essentially shifts to technical mount for a moment.

A final thing I wanted to mention, from Demian Maia, is that you can also use the cross-face. If they turn on their side to get their elbow back in, you can use the cross face to bring their head out of alignment: moving them with their head is easier than trying to move their shoulders or arms or whatever. Also, the body follows the head, so they are going to have trouble bridging or turning if you've got a solid cross face.
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Teaching Notes: I felt fairly happy with how it went today, so this feels like a workable lesson now. I'm still not sure the Saulo 'ride the horse' option is something many people use, but it doesn't take long to add in. I tried to make a conscious effort to avoid overteaching, which seemed to help the timings, but I think I could still be more efficient when demonstrating. The main habit I need to avoid is repeating it over and over again: better to go through it twice at most, then ask if anybody wants to see it another time.

Next time, I think I'll emphasise that you can remove that hand from under their head to base out if they try to bridge you, as a few people were getting rolled and not basing. Also, some of the bigger guys were wary of putting their weight fully on their training partners: that's good in that it shows consideration on their part, but it is important to note that there's nothing wrong with using your weight. If you're muscling, that's different, but weight distribution is totally fine IMO.

It was also cool to get a visitor: Mike has trained in Hong Kong and Korea (Busan specifically, which made me wonder if he knew John Torres. Classic "You're from [insert huge country]? Do you know [insert random person]" question). I look forward to chatting to him more about his experiences over there. ;D

10/09/2013 - Teaching (Side Control Transitions to North-South & Scarf Hold)

Teaching #124
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 10/09/2013

When moving around to north-south from standard side control, start by shifting your grip. You'll need to place one arm by their near hip. A useful tip from Braulio is to anchor your hand flat on the mat by their legs, elbow near their bum. If you instead grab their gi or their trousers, they will be able to follow you with their legs as you turn. If you put your hand in the way, that acts as a barrier, meaning you can scoot around but they can't scamper after you. Your other hand will normally wrap under their far shoulder, especially if you're looking for a kimura.

As always with top positions, you must make sure you are maximising the weight you're driving into them. Stay on your toes as you walk around, also establishing solid grips with your hands. Press your chest down to turn their head to one side: that is a good general rule of thumb from top position, as if you can turn their head to one side, it is tough for them to turn their body in the other direction.

There are numerous ways you can grip in this position, as ever. A common option is to basically flop your upper body onto their head, bringing your knees in. My personal preference is to move off to one side of the head, driving my weight onto their shoulder, my head low and pressing down, sprawling back with my legs.

You can also experiment with various grips. The most basic is probably grabbing under their shoulders and reaching for their belt, then pulling them in towards you. You could also try putting your elbows into their armpits, or maybe wrap up an arm, perhaps sliding your arm under the head. Another common approach is to have one arm over their arm, while the elbow of your other arm digs into their armpit.

Generally you want to keep your hips low, like in side control, but there are variations where you raise your hips, driving your weight through your shoulders. As Jason Scully over on Grapplers Guide mentioned, if they try that escape where they wriggle out and fling their legs over to take your back, raising your hips can be useful. You can then drive your forehead into their chest to stop them completing the escape.

The best place to learn about maintaining the north-south probably isn't BJJ: its parent art judo is much better at pins. In judo, the orthodox north-south is called 'kami shiho gatame', with lots of variations. For example, the above picture shows three options mentioned in an old instructional book from 1952, Higher Judo: Groundwork, by Dr Moshé Feldenkrais (not only a good judoka, but an engineer, physicist and founder of the eponymous 'Feldenkrais Method').

Scarf hold is useful to switch to if they start shoving into your neck and bridge. Turn your body, resting your torso on them, leaning into them for extra weight. You can have your knee up (to provide a counter if they start forcefully bridging into you), but be careful they can't hook that with their leg. You can also sprawl your legs out, one crossed over the other. Keep your head low for additional control.

The position is also handy for when you want to kill the near arm. Scoop up their elbow with your near hip, digging it underneath as you switch to scarf, pull up the arm, then return to side control. Bring your knees in tight and suck your partner in with your arms to remove any space for their arm. From there, you can turn your hips towards their legs and shift backwards, keeping your hip tight to the floor the whole time. From there, you can go for mount or start setting up submissions: it will be harder for them to see what you're doing as your body is obscuring their view.

Many instructors would say that it is very important you pull up on their arm and keep good control of that elbow in scarf hold. If they can get their elbow back and dig it under your hip, they can start to make space and escape. However, John Will disagrees. He feels that this position wasn't as common as it used to be, because people often have a bad experience. They go into scarf hold, pulling their opponent’s arm up...then the opponent links arms behind their back and rolls them over. The move can often be discarded by beginners as a result of that bad experience.

For Will, the key detail is that linking arm. Instead of pulling it up and trapping it under your armpit – which exposes you to that linked hands escape – jam your arm next to your raised knee so they can’t get their arm around your back. There are various attacks you can do on the arm if you use the non-Will orthodox scarf hold, or like good judoka, you can simply pin them here. If they try and shrimp away, you can return to side control, and switch between the two. Also, make sure to stay right up into their armpit, rather than going low by their hip.

Finally, this can also combine well with the Saulo position I demonstrate in my side control basic maintenance class. If they are really shoving their forearm into your neck, you can go with that pressure but still keep control, 'connecting the hip' like Saulo advises.
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Teaching & Sparring Notes: I spent too long during the demonstration section, which cut into the sparring time later. Partly that's because there were some questions which sparked a discussion, but I could also be more concise with the details I'm showing. As Tony said when we were talking about it afterwards, rather than trying to cover every potential eventuality, you can deal with at least some of them if they crop up in drilling.

I initially thought that perhaps I should switch to focused lessons on scarf hold and north-south, adding the transition to mount onto scarf hold and a kimura onto north-south. However, asking the class, they all agreed that they liked having that pure focus on transition. So, I'll stick with this arrangement for the next class, but try to be more concise.

Sparring with Tony is always useful. I found that trying to hold north-south was possible, but it took a fair bit of energy: I'm clearly not efficient with that position yet. Tony was able to get out by switching from side to side, meaning that once I loaded up my weight on one side, he would circumvent it by exploding to the other side. Side control was less energy intensive, as I'm more comfortable there, but at the same time I was wary of letting go of any grips, due to how close Tony was getting with his escapes.

Taking risks is something I don't often do: being willing to have someone escape for the chance of a submission set-up is something I should try more frequently. At the same time, I'm keen to develop a game where those risks are minimised as much as possible. When I go for a submission, I'd like to be able to do it from a secure position that isn't overly affected by that submission set-up (the reverse scarf position is good for that, fitting nicely into my favoured gi tail choke). Tony's breadcutter choke would be another good option for me to try.

04/09/2013 - Teaching (Running Escape)

Teaching #123
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 04/09/2013

Following on from the beginner class, I moved into my usual tips on the running escape as a survival posture. I first pointed out the importance of blocking their arm from reaching through past your hip. Ideally you want to block that by jamming your forearm to your thigh, so that you elbow is by your hip. This will need to be mobile, as they will be trying to wriggle past.

Putting your arm under your knee can work too, depending on your flexibility, but be careful of reaching too far under your leg. It may leave you vulnerable to them collapsing your leg on top of your arm, trapping both limbs (unless you're flexible enough to get your heel right to your hip, which should be a strong enough structure to prevent that).

If they do manage to get their arm in, dig it back out using your elbow and knee. You can also drive your shin into the crook of their elbow and recover your position, or potentially try and recover guard by spinning off that leverage point (Beneville calls this the 'shin in elbow trick' in his book). I should note that it is possible to escape while their arm is through (Marcelo teaches it that way, IIRC), but personally I find it much tougher when they have that arm through.

The second survival tip is being very careful of their attempts to take your back. Especially if they have an arm through and can reach your opposite hip, they will try to lift you up and slide their leg underneath. That will then help them to put in their hooks and take the back. If they do start to take your back, block their second hook with your elbow and knee (in the same way you were blocking their arm), hopefully setting you up to either get back to the running escape, or perhaps starting a pass off the back escape. Blocking the first hook with your hand is another possibility, but that could potentially leave your neck vulnerable.

Which leads into the third point: protect your neck. You are relatively safe in the running escape, but if they can reach a hand past your neck and grab a collar, that's dangerous. If you feel their hand beginning to sneak past your shoulder, immediately dive your head into your lower armpit. It is a strange position, but that motion should close off their route to your neck. This isn't somewhere you want to stay very long: just enough to prevent that choke set-up.

Moving on to the actual escape, saulo's version in Jiu Jitsu University (p69), which begins by making a little space and turning to the survival posture, links directly to his knee on belly escape. I normally just teach that knee on belly escape as a drill for my open guard maintenance lesson (e.g., back in October), as the swinging motion is a useful skill to learn. However, in his book, Saulo uses that motion to recover his guard from under side control, rather than the swivel he uses in Jiu Jitsu Revolution 2 (he does a much quicker version in his first set, Jiu Jitsu Revolution 1).

The risky part is as you're swinging through with your legs in the air: if your partner is prepared and you aren't able to perform that motion smoothly and efficiently, they may be able to set up a double-underhook pass. It is therefore important to clamp your legs down as Saulo does in the last picture, rather than leaving them dangling and vulnerable. If they do get that double underhook, make your legs heavy, wriggle back on your shoulders, then hook your insteps inside their thighs.

Saulo has a little tweak to this guard recovery option, which I noticed on his new instructional site, BJJ Library (review now up, here). It may be he did this previously, but it was highlighted on the running escape video I watched last week. In the past, I have used a wide base, securing my weight on my shoulder and two feet. The way Saulo did it in the video was with a much narrower base, pushing off with his feet straight from the running escape position rather than stepping out to wide the legs. He also makes more of a push with his hips into them, staying close, rather than a swing. If you can manage to push them with your hips, that leaves less space for them to move right into the double-underhooks pass.

To further enhance your push, you can try the tips I got from Donal's private lesson a while back: using the elbow to make some space before you go for the hip swing. After you have shoved your elbow into their chest, continue to extend it to push them further. Initially, especially if you are very defensive like me, that feels as if you're leaving your arm vulnerable. However, because you are immediately following up the elbow shove and arm extension with a hip bump and leg swing, they shouldn't have a chance to capitalise on your arm being out there.

On that point, be careful to time your escape, staying sensitive to their weight distribution. If they are driving into you with lots of pressure, it will be hard. A good moment to attempt the escape is when they are looking to attack or transition to another position. Often, there will be a brief moment before they start when they take their weight off you. That is the time to spring the escape.

It is possible that the person you are training with won't often use near side grips from side control. Speaking personally, I tend to go for the orthodox grip under the head and the far arm. That doesn't mean you can't use the running escape, it simply means you have to put yourself into position, forcing them to use near grips. All you need to do is make enough space that you can turn away and curl into a ball.
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Teaching & Sparring Notes: I think the teaching went ok, as most of the class seemed to get the concept. The one thing I could add in is how to complete the running escape even if they get their arm through. I mentioned that it is possible, as Marcelo does the escape with the arm trapped, but the method I showed was digging their arm out, rather than continuing regardless of the arm.

Sparring was useful. I was pleasantly surprised by one of the white belts, who had an effective escape to half guard from under side control. I'm fairly confident on top in side control, so it is good to come across new challenges. Tonight severed as a reminder to be careful of my leg near their hips, making sure that I shift before they can snatch it. I was able to recover and pass relatively quickly, but it took a bit of effort: if he had managed to shrimp out and get on his side, that would have been much tougher (which is what I advised him to do next time, to make it even more of a challenge ;D).

I also got to roll with Tony, always a pleasure. He has been a four-stripe blue for a while now, but I view him in the same light as purple belts, so wouldn't be surprised if he got promoted in the not-too-distant future. Tony has a completely different game to me, as he loves the flashy stuff, which makes for an interesting roll. We were taking it quite light, but I still learned that I need, as ever, to be more careful of my neck and getting my back taken.

I ended up underneath a sort of technical mount, so shoved his leg back to recover guard, falling right into the trap of getting my back taken. What I should have done is what Michel Verhoeven recommended: the double shin sweep. That needs to be my go to from there, rather than recovering guard. I also somehow ended up in an anaconda type choke just as time ran out, because I was attempting to grab Tony's arm in order to roll him. Rather than rolling him over, it just meant I gave him solid access to my neck.

At an earlier point with somebody else, I finally managed to turn them over while escaping a back take attempt. That never normally works, but grabbing the gi material near their ribs and driving through put me back on top. Not something to rely upon, but nice to know it can very occasionally work.

27/08/2013 - Teaching (Preparing to Pass Closed Guard)

Teaching #121
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 27/08/2013

Passing the closed guard is something I've always found difficult, so I'm particularly keen to break down the methods in order to make it easier for everyone else. That will in turn hopefully help me as well. Working out exactly what to teach takes some thought, as there is a lot to cover, even at the basic level of how to initiate your attempts to open the guard.

First thing I wanted to cover was posture. Stay upright, with your head up. Curving your back slightly can help too. Don't let them bend your arms: keep at least one of them stiff into their hip. It is very important to control their hips, as they need to angle off to attack effectively. Your other hand is ready to push them down if they attempt to raise their torso towards you, or more typically, gripping both collars and keeping their back on the mat.

That collar grip is something I've been experimenting with recently, after taking a private lesson with Dónal on breaking open the closed guard and passing. The standard way to grab the collars is to simply grip and twist. Dónal prefers to open them both up, put them together then start twisting the collar inwards to take out any slack. That means that when you grab, your hand should stay in place, rather than shifting up or down their body.

Another option is to grab their belt instead, but be warned that can come undone, automatically removing your grip. Whichever one you use, if possible, jam your collar gripping hand just under their sternum, to wedge it in place. You can either use the heel of your hand or possibly a fist, depending on how you're gripping their gi.

For a strong base, widen your knees, sitting on your heels. Alternatively, you could try squeezing your knees to their hips to stop them moving, but that will result in a less sturdy base. Make sure you do not put your elbows on the outside of their legs: keep them inside, or they can start kicking up into your armpit for triangles, armbars, flower sweeps etc.

A key detail is to come up on your toes. This will feel uncomfortable at first, but it provides you with much better base than having your insteps flat on the floor. With your toes up, you can resist their attempts to pull your around. It also enables you to drive forward and improves your mobility.

Another way they'll be looking to disrupt your base is to angle their hips away. To prevent that, you can simply follow them, making sure you keep squaring back up so they don't have that attacking angle anymore. You could also try caging their hips by squeezing your knees together, but that can result in a less stable base.

In order to attack, they are going to want to disrupt your base and break your posture down. The first way they'll probably do that is to establish a strong grip, on your sleeve and collar. You don't want that, so try to strip any grips before beginning your pass. Not to say that it's impossible to pass if they've got grips, but you'll find it easier if they don't.

If they grab your collar, use both of your hands to grab either side of that sleeve or wrist. Push it forcefully away from you, while simultaneously leaning back slightly. If you remember the grip break from the maintaining closed guard lesson I taught a while back, this is a similar principle, but from the opposite position. Another option is to put both your hands on their gripping arm, trapping it to their torso. Posture up forcefully to break the grip.

If they get a grip on your sleeve, then grab their sleeve with your free hand. To break the grip, yank your trapped hand back as your gripping hand drives forward. TrumpetDan has a good video on this, here. I don't generally recommend YouTube, but he is one of the better teachers on there. A simpler option is to circle your hand either inside or outside of their arm, then chop downwards to break the grip: there is a good explanation of that in Beneville's excellent Passing the Guard.

Should they get a hold of the material by your knee, you can use a similar grip break. Grab their gripping wrist with your same side arm and press it to the mat, then kick your trapped leg back. Ideally, as with the previous grip break, this will now give you control of their arm, which you can immediately use to initiate your pass.

There is also a one-handed grip break you can try, which Xande showed recently: he calls it the 'y grip break'. This has some similarities to circling your hand, but this time you circle it underneath their hand, shoving the 'v' between your thumb and index finger into the heel of their hand. Thrust your arm forward forcefully to free your sleeve. You might also be able to use your hand position to grab their wrist, putting you in control and negating their own grip.
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Teaching & Sparring Notes: This was a particularly simple lesson, which judging by feedback was perhaps a little too simple. Asking Chris and Mike, there is scope to add in a bit more technique: putting in the basic guard break from the knees could work. I'm not sure whether I should do that as part of the posture details at the start or with the grip breaks in the second part. Another option would be to reduce the number of grip breaks, or as Chris suggested, do what I've done in the past with a 'basic' option and an 'advanced' option.

In other words, I could show the grip breaks, then tell people they can just stick with that if they want, but they can also do the guard break if they're already comfortable with stripping the grips, after which I show the guard break itself. Mike also suggested that I probably don't need as much time doing progressive resistance on the posture stuff: I cut it down to 2 minutes each rather than the usual 3, but could cut it down further. Or perhaps just include it in the general drilling?

The most useful thing from that lesson is probably coming up on your toes, so I kept emphasising that during progressive resistance and sparring. I know from personal experience it isn't a comfortable position to hold, but it makes a significant difference.

I also had the chance to get in a bit of sparring, which as with drilling on Sunday was useful. On top I was looking to secure the two firm grips on the chest and hip in order to start wriggling backwards, but that can be easier said than done. What I ended up doing was switching my arms to press my elbow down on their collar grip, to loosen it up sufficiently that I could initiate my guard break.

I wasn't generally breaking the grips: I'm still not sure whether it is possible to move around the grips or they have to be broken before you can start your pass. I did manage to open the guard and move into a single underhook pass while they still had grips, but that might have been due to them going light or the difference in experience. Something I'll keep playing with at study hall, along with back escapes.

Underneath, I'm not feeling super-confident yet either. I focused first on breaking their posture by bringing my knees to my chest. However, they were generally doing a good job of keeping that arm into my chest, which automatically makes it harder to disrupt their base and knock them down. I also attempted to angle off a few times, to see if I could move around the arm that was pressing into my chest. Finally, when they grabbed my sleeve, I pulled it back towards my head to get them moving forwards, again to help break their posture (though I'm not sure if that is potentially dangerous, if they were able to get control of my sleeve and pin my hand somehow).

I did briefly go for the grip break I taught a while back, without much success. I started pulling the arm behind my head, but it became a force thing, meaning I lost my grip. I then switched to pushing across, but they were now wise to it and scuppered my efforts before I got too far. Useful stuff, hopefully beneficial to my approach to closed guard going forwards. Though I definitely want to get in at least one more private on the topic, for more details on posture breaking and correctly angling off if nothing else.

20/08/2013 - Teaching (Grips & Breaking Posture in Closed Guard)

Teaching #120
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 20/08/2013

I wasn't able to train much last week, as I was visiting friends in Lincolnshire (where I had the chance to look at the beautiful Burghley House: amazing baroque artwork and a cool 'Garden of Surprises', so Burghley refreshingly lives up to its high entrance fee). Getting back on the mats, I began with a discussion of closed guard grips. A basic but very useful grip is to get a really deep grasp of the collar: you may find it helps to sit up to get that in really deep. As Roy Dean discusses in Brown Belt Requirements, an especially deep grip can help your choke as well as give you authoritative control. Once you have it, that provides three main advantages. Firstly, this gives you great control, as you can pull them down towards you. Second, it could be the beginning of a choke, and perhaps more importantly, it will make them start to worry about that choke rather than thinking about passing.

Thirdly, it means you can establish a collar and elbow grip. There are various attacks you can do from there, the most common of which are probably armbars, scissor and push sweeps. I then suggested double wrist control (emphasising to keep your elbows close to your sides for added leverage), which meant I could emphasise the two main types of sleeve grips: either make a pocket with your thumb and insert your four fingers (rather than putting four fingers inside the sleeve or trouser cuff: that's not only competition illegal, it's dangerous), or get a pistol grip, where you grab a heap of cloth in your fist.

Another grip is to grab their trousers by their knee, the other hand on their sleeve. This again can be useful for sweeps. It also helps to stop them getting a knee into your tailbone, as you can use that grip on the knee to bounce your hips back over their knee. It might also make them nervous, as they'll assume you're setting something up, whether or not you actually are. That’s when they’re liable to make mistakes which you can then exploit to your advantage.

The most basic method of breaking posture is probably pulling their elbows out and then towards you. This is particularly handy if they've got both hands on your hips, or something like that. Using your legs is key here, to help you pull them forwards. This is a general point for the guard: make sure you involve your legs, as they're a lot more powerful than your arms alone.

This is also true if they want to stand. Carefully time the right moment, then as they stand, pull your knees towards your chest. That should knock them back onto the ground. It could also put you in a better position than before, as they may end up falling into you, meaning you can get superior control. Ideally, they'll make the mistake of posting on their hands, as that means you can go for various attacks, like the kimura.

If you want to maintain closed guard, then you need to stop them setting up their pass. If they try to pass from the knees, the first thing they normally do is put a knee into your tailbone, or somewhere else on your bottom. The easy way to scupper that is to grab onto the gi material by their knee and shift your hips back over to the middle.

That can be very frustrating for the person trying to pass, which is good for distracting them and working an opening to attack. On the downside, it can consume a fair bit of energy, as you might find yourself doing it repeatedly if they're really persistent. Another option is a very simple sweep from Henry Akins, where you just pop your hips over to the opposite side and knock them over.

On the topic of closed guard fundamentals, it is worth taking a look at the video Henry Akins put out recently, here:


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Teaching & Sparring Notes: I tried to include the most basic grips tonight, but I'll be looking for feedback to work out which are the most useful to learn. There are lots more I could add, but it feels as though that's something that could (and has, in the past) be split across multiple lessons. E.g., under and overhooks, which can both be powerful grips.

The other important topic is breaking grips. Again, I didn't cover that as it feels like another lesson. However, as the first thing anyone is going to do when in your closed guard is grab your collar by the chest, I could just include a simple break for that. It leads into a whole other lesson, where you can take the back or go into the overhook guard off the grip break, but I don't need to cover that in the same lesson. I'm not sure I'll bother including the Akins sweep next time, as a number of people had trouble with that, so I could replace it with a basic grip break.

Sparring reminded me, for the millionth time, that my closed guard remains quite poo, both on top and underneath. For the sweeps I'm looking for, I generally need to get a sleeve grip, which isn't always straight forward. I'll be looking to drill some sweep combinations from closed guard at the next study hall, along with closed guard passing and more work on back escape.

I have gotten complacent about passing, because I've gotten used to starting with the guard open. Hence why specific sparring is so useful: it forces you to confront the positions where you're weaker. I still suck at standing up, so I have to make myself stand up again (this is a problem that hasn't gone away in seven years! ;D). On the flip side, it would also be good to get better at passing from the knees, as I like the option of being lazy if it's there.

13/08/2013 - Teaching (Maintaining the Back)

Teaching #119
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 13/08/2013

The very awesome Aesopian has just started a podcast, here. If you're not aware of Aesopian, he's a black belt under Eduardo de Lima who is basically the Godfather of BJJ blogging. He's the person I looked up to when I started this blog, a respect that's only grown as he continues to produce excellent content. I received a preview of the podcast, so I already know it's a quality listen. The format is short answers to common BJJ questions, delivered with Aesopian's trademark solid advice coupled with wry humour. Go listen to it. Now. :)
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It is common when on the back that you might find they manage to knock off one of your hooks, or perhaps you're struggling to establish that second hook. If that happens, in order to take the back fully, use what Marcelo Garcia calls the 'hip extension'. If they are blocking your second hook, cross your free foot over your hooking foot. Although crossing your feet if you had both hooks would be asking to get foot-locked, if you only have one hook, it means they can't properly apply pressure against your ankle. You can then thrust your hips forwards into them while simultaneously pulling back with your seat belt grip.

The result should be that your partner is bent around and stretched out, so that they can no longer connect their knee and elbow to block your foot. That's your chance to quickly insert a second hook, before they can recover their defensive position. When doing the hip extension, don't forget to keep control of their lower leg with your first hook. Otherwise they can just pop over and escape.

Another option to keep in mind is when they've managed to clear one of your hooks, or it's slipping and you want to replace it. You might find that you can put the cleared hook foot on the floor (still keeping your knee tight) and bridge, to roll them back to the other side and re-establish that hook. Be careful though, as they are obviously going to react if you release a hook: you'll need good timing and close control.

If you feel them starting to escape, you can use your foot on your underhook side (so, the side on which you arm is threaded under their armpit) to hook behind their same side knee. Lift that high in the air, then dump then back towards your overhook side. This is particularly useful if they are trying to get back to the centre, bridge and press their weight into you, in order to start wriggling their shoulders to the mat and begin their escape.

The last bit I wanted to add was a straightforward tip when they try to control your arm and pull it over your head. Pop up slightly, in order to have the base to pull your elbow back. That should severely reduce the leverage they can muster against your arm. For that and all of the above, there's a handy video from Marshal Carper (one of the co-authors on Marcelo Garcia's latest book), where he covers maintaining the back Marcelo-style.

My preference, if lifting the leg proves difficult and they get you onto the 'wrong' side, is simply switching arms. If you can't get your arm right into the neck, just grabbing whatever material you can was helpful too. That should provide you with some control, in terms of stopping them rolling away to try and escape. To get a really solid control, reach across for their far lapel and pull it across their body, for what is effectively a literal seat belt.

You can also try to maintain control of them largely with one hook, extending that hook across to their other leg. Hook under the far leg, while pressuring down with your upper leg to stymie the movement of their near leg. It also leaves my other leg free to do things like pushing down on top of their upper leg any time they attempt to wriggle out. Potentially that extended single hook could even lift their knee enough to reinsert your second hook if you want to put it back in.

Finally, to take yet another cue from Marcelo, even if you lose both hooks, don't give up on the seat belt. Sprawl behind them, then steadily walk your legs up: your aim is to put them in a seated position. From there, you can reinsert your hooks, either by putting them straight in or rolling them over your knee.
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Teaching & Sparring Notes: The Marcelo material seemed to go down fairly well. I was initially unsure about the leg lift, as I don't use it effectively myself, but Mike did a great job using it against me in sparring. If it works well for him, it can work well for others, so definitely something I want to keep showing in class. The no hooks Marcelo recovery also got some approving noises, meaning I'll leave that in as well. I need to revisit arm protection by pulling elbow back, as I'm not sure if I missed some details.

The stuff I've been playing with, like the extended hook, may not be worth putting in next time, but I'll see what feedback is like. I saw a few people use the gi lapel control, like when Simon tried it on me, so that might be worth showing. However, more useful would be a simple turtle back take, perhaps the forward roll over their shoulder. I also forgot to mention the tip on tensing your non-choking side hamstring, so I'll try adding that in next time too.

Sparring was my chance to practice more escapes. I need to secure my position much better when I move to the side. I still get stuck just squirming on my side, I think because I'm not clearing their hook properly. That's particularly noticeable with someone tight like Mike, whose hooks I had real trouble knocking off.

When I did escape, it was sloppy and scrambly, such as the old last ditch pushing into armpits. Mike could have finished a bow and arrow, but was being nice and didn't squash my hand into my face. The second time, I remembered to pull on their elbow with both hands, but I left my arm vulnerable. Again, Mike was close to landing an armbar, which I only escaped because of force and scrambling. I grabbed his gi to stay close, until I could circle round and kneel on his chest. Better than not escaping, I suppose, but if it was largely force then that isn't going to be effective against anybody bigger or when I'm tired.

09/08/2013 - Teaching (Bridging Back Escape When They Mount)

Teaching #118
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 09/08/2013

Geeza is away competing today, so asked if I could cover his Friday class. That meant I had the opportunity to follow up my bridging back escape lesson on Tuesday with some variations if you find they keep moving through to mount. The solution I was shown by Dónal in a private lesson was to shift to deep half. I am not a big fan of deep half, as it is getting into the more complex territory I strive to avoid in BJJ. However, it's undeniably a useful option in this scenario.

You're attempting the escape from Tuesday, but they have managed to get their heel to your hip and you can't prevent them moving towards mount. Instead, shove their lower leg between yours, then reach underneath their bum with your near arm, reaching up and shoving their far butt cheek. That should knock them forward while simultaneously dragging you underneath.

Wrap around the outside of their leg with your bum-shoving arm, just below the knee. Hide your other arm underneath their leg, or at least tuck the elbow in tight. The first thing they will try to do when you put them in deep half is underhook that hidden arm, meaning you want to take away any space for them to wedge in their arm. From there, pull their knee outwards and spin in that direction, in order to come on top and pass.

The second option is to go with the deep half sweep I learned at the University of Jiu Jitsu instead. Instead of pulling their knee outwards, hook under their ankle with your leg and lift, using that to spin to the top and initiate your pass. Normally deep half results in them having a leg behind your head, but sometimes they may be able to get it past your head. If that happens, switch your grips to instead gable grip and lock around the hip of that same leg. From there, you still want to lift up their ankle, but simply roll them backwards. Come up and use your control of their hip to transition into a single stack pass.

Berry also mentioned a cool little tip he saw on a Kurt Osiander video when we were drilling at the study hall last week. If you can reach it, use your hidden arm to grab their sleeve.

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Teaching Notes: People were having trouble with the second technique, which indicates that I wasn't teaching it well enough. If I teach it again, I need to emphasise that it is a lift of the leg rather than flick. I should also probably note the importance of trapping their leg in the first place, using the other leg before switching your outside leg underneath. However, I think I'll need to do a load more drilling to refine my understanding before I try it out a second time.

Most likely, I'll switch the way I teach escaping the back to combine the two lessons I taught this week: in other words, the same progression as the original private lessons they're based upon. I'll attempt to add in that detail about pushing off their hook with your foot when you get stuck too, as that's something I do in sparring all the time.

Sparring was useful for me, as it provided an opportunity to practice maintaining the back and setting up chokes. I'm teaching maintaining the back next week, where I'm intending to revisit the lesson on 'Marcelo maintenance' I taught last year. I like the 'hip extension' method for getting the second hook in, but I find lifting the leg to drop them back to the choking side difficult.

My preference, which I played with today, is simply switching arms. However, that's easier said than done: although I could manage it tonight, I had more experience than everybody I rolled with. Still, it seemed a potentially productive area to explore. If you can't get your arm right into the neck, just grabbing whatever material you can was helpful too.

First of all, that meant I had some control, in terms of stopping them rolling away to try and escape. Secondly, it occasionally led into chokes. Getting a firm grasp on the material immediately next to the opposite lapel was enough to then have some fabric to pull against their neck. I could then complete the choke by threading my other arm behind their head. I'm not sure that's high percentage, but I'll keep playing with it.

I like the way that kind of choke seems fairly low risk, as I can stay tight to them. I continue to find it hard to move into the bow and arrow, because I find that leaves me feeling vulnerable. I almost always leave too much space by my legs and my arms, along with that step of dropping them into the space between your legs.

Finally, I was trying to maintain control of them largely with one hook, extending that hook across to their other leg. That way I could hook under the far leg, while pressuring down with my upper leg to stymie the movement of their near leg. It also leaves my other leg free to do things like pushing down on top of their upper leg any time they attempt to wriggle out. Again, I'm not sure how effective that will be in the long run, but I'm going to keep experimenting.

06/08/2013 - Teaching (Bridging Back Escape)

Teaching #117
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 06/08/2013

Tonight I'm going to look at what I call the bridging back escape. Saulo isn't a fan, listing the bridge escape under 'common misconceptions' in the back survival section of Jiu Jitsu University, but it is nevertheless standard at most schools I've visited. The motion is roughly similar to the bridge and shrimp under side control or mount to recover guard, but the body arrangement is quite different. Rather than trying to bridge and shrimp to crawl away from a weight on top that has pinned you to the mat, you're bridging to pin them and then crawl over the top of a weight behind you.

The basic method I'm familiar with was taught to me by Kev Capel (which incidentally is the same way Feitosa teaches it on Gracie Barra Fundamentals). Cross your hands under your jaw, pressing the back of each hand against your face, elbows in tight. This should both block attempts to press a forearm into your neck, while still enabling you to use your hands to intercept theirs. Brandon Mullins grabs their choking arm with both of his, reaching back to grab behind their elbow with one hand and their wrist with the other. He then pulls it across to create some space. This is something that initially felt vulnerable, but I've since started using it myself.

Bridge up, trying to get your head to the mat, with the intention of getting your shoulders to the mat. Keep moving to the side until you've created a bit of pressure on their hook. Brandon Mullins talks about a continuous motion of incremental shifts to the side and twists of the hips, until you can pop their hook off. Feitosa pushes it off with his same side hand, whereas Mullins prefers to use hip pressure, just like Xande and Saulo in the escape I've taught before. I'm wary of putting an arm away from my neck, though on the other hand, if you've already got your back to the mat, there is much less danger of being choked (unless they have managed to snake an arm right around your neck and grabbed the opposite collar).

Whichever method you use, do a big step over their leg (Mullins does a 'high step, bringing his knee up high towards his head, then putting the foot over) as soon as you pop it off, then move your hips over onto the floor. Grab their leg (the difficult part here is knowing when to move your hand to the leg, as again you don't want to give them access to your neck), then push off your outside leg to bring your weight onto their chest. Personally I prefer to grab their far armpit and drive my shoulder into their head for control, or if I can't manage that, reach over and trap their head between the back of my elbow and side/armpit.

If you go for the bodyweight option, you need to make sure that you keep your weight on their chest the whole time, gluing their upper body to the ground. Aim to get your shoulder onto their chest if possible, but be careful of not going too far over, or they might be able to roll you. Like Xande, Mullins notes that they will mostly likely try to come on top as you escape. You still have their leg, so you can always just recover guard (though if you can get on top yourself, that's preferable).



To get to side control, gradually walk around with your feet, maintaining that pressure on their chest. With your other hand (this will be the same hand that released their hooking foot earlier), reach over and grab their opposite leg. This is to stop them turning into you. It should now be a simple matter to twist into side control. You can also try hooking around their head: the picture above is from a slightly different scenario, as Xande is escaping the turtle, but similar principles apply. If you're cross-facing, that's more straightforward as you should be able to drive them flat on their back, then shift right into side control.

That's the basic version. For Dónal's back escape (which has more similarities to Xande's version than Feitosa, but is slightly different to both), start off by immediately bringing your knee up on the choking arm side. Angle it inwards, to prevent them from rolling you back the other way. In one quick motion, move your head forwards and simultaneously shove their head sideways (this is presuming they know what they are doing and have their head tight to yours for control). Look towards them, keeping your head and neck firm in order to stop them moving their head back into place.

Push off your leg and bridge back, aiming to get your shoulders and spine to the mat. If you aren't able to get your head past theirs, still push off your leg. Put your head on the mat and then grind it underneath their head. This isn't pleasant for either of you, but it is generally effective: preferably you can get your head past theirs in the gentler method above.

Due to your body slipping off to the side, they are probably going to try and come on top. To do that, they need to be able to turn their legs down and then away from you. Keep your legs in tight to block them: with your leg back, that forms an effective barrier to their efforts to turn. There are a couple of ways you can do that. The first one is hooking their top leg (if they're trying to turn on top, they'll be on their side) with your near leg. Get your foot towards your bum to lock their leg in place. Alternatively, step your near leg behind the knee of their bottom leg and pinch your own knees together.

With your near arm, grab their trousers by their top leg (either by the knee or a bit lower). When you have the opportunity, switch to grip with the other hand, which means you can bring your near elbow down past their body, on the inside. At this point, make sure you've got your outside knee angled towards them, once again for base. Shrimp away, get your near arm back, then turn straight into the leg squash pass position.

As in the simpler version, I prefer to get control of the shoulder and head. Instead of getting my elbow to the floor and turning like Dónal, I like to either reach across their neck and grab the gi, or better, reach under their head, grip the far armpit then lock my shoulder into their head and shoulder. Either way, push off your free leg and turn to try and come on top. With your grip on the knee, stiff-arm so they can't lock their half-guard (if they do lock their half guard, this puts you in the opposite side half guard pass position, so proceed from there). Free your leg (pushing on their leg if you need to) and move into side control. Note also that deep half is another common finish to this escape, if you like that position, which I'll be covering on Friday.
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Teaching Notes: I'm still not sure about the basic version of this escape, as it seems less effective than Dónal's version, but I'll see what feedback I get from students. The bridging motion is potentially useful, but my main intention is to use it as a way of familiarising students with some of the principles they can then use in the second technique. I'm not convinced it is helping with that at the moment.

I also feel like I'm being a bit vague about how to get on top after slipping to the side. I'm confident with the version I use, gripping the armpit, but rather less so on Dónal's turn to pass. I'll have to ask him about it at a study hall some time: I can see the principle, but I'm sure there is more to the motion when he does it. Controlling with the back of the elbow might be something I can explore, for those times when you can't manage to get your arm behind their head.

I'm covering on Friday for Geeza, which means I can teach the deep half stuff that follows on from what I taught today. Frequently they are going to shift to mount when you escape with that method, so Dónal's transition to deep half is a good counter. It could be that it makes more sense for me to teach that in the one lesson and get rid of the basic version I'm initially teaching at the moment, but again I'll ask what students prefer.

There were only four in class today, which is a considerable drop from the last few weeks, perhaps due to the school holidays. Either way, that meant I didn't jump in for the sparring. I thought I might as well save it for a bigger class, particularly as with Dónal's private on Wednesday, nogi on Thursday, the teaching slot on Friday and study hall on Sunday, I'm intending to train five times this week anyway.