Artemis BJJ (MYGYM Bristol), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 12/08/2016
From the shoulder clamp, it starts the same way as the pressing armbar, shifting off to the side as you extend their arm. Again, it is important to push their head away and down, along with a tight control of their shoulder. Unlike the pressing armbar, you need to free your bottom leg: if that gets stuck, you can push with your free leg to slide it out (but be careful you don't ease up on their shoulder with your arms when doing that).
You may also find that as you bring your leg over their arm they start moving towards you, giving you the space to slide your leg out. As you leg comes over, make sure to bend their arm around your leg, keeping it tight to your body. Sit up immediately, reaching for their far hip: this should trap their bent arm between your hip and their side. If their hips are still up at this point they might be able to use that space to regain posture. Shift your hips away from them until you've knocked them flat (keep hold of their hip).
A great tip from Dónal applies just as you've got your leg into their arm. This gives you a shortcut. Keep pushing into their arm, switching your grip, so that you can reach to grip their trouser leg. You can then punch that out, superman style, while continuing to kick forward into their leg. That knocks them flat, removing any opportunity for them to try and roll out. You can then sit up and grab the hip as before, with relative impunity.
Once you've sat up (or as you're sitting up), point both your feet away from them, knees on the ground. You're now ready to thrust forwards slowly, aiming to tweak their shoulder for the submission. If you miss the submission or simply prefer top position, you can also turn that into a sweep, rolling them over your body. If you don't manage to control their hip or leg, they will roll through anyway. Keep control of the arm, then you should be able to end up on top. If they try to turn away as you go for the omoplata, you might be able to take their back by bringing your head-leg over as a hook.
If you miss it entirely and they posture back up, turning towards you, swing your other leg into the side of their neck and swivel into a triangle. The omoplata combines well with the triangle, continuing the armbar-triangle-omoplata sequence.
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Teaching & Sparring Notes: I almost forgot about the Dónal superman tip, but was reminded by Chris. I'll make sure to emphasise that next time, it's a really useful detail. Other things to emphasise are pointing your feet away and maintaining that grip on the hip. I'd like to play with some follow-ups at some point too: e.g., Karel Pravec shows some cool stuff in his Digitsu app, I need to play with that at open mat on Sunday.
Sparring was good today too, with my continuing crusade to chill out and avoid tensing up. That worked well today, observing what my partner was doing. I ended up with a bizarre submission, trapping their arm with my leg and getting an armbar by pushing their wrist to the side. Not sure how I got there, but I think it was off a kimura grip somehow. Fun! :D
I had an awesome Friday today. My long-term plans are slowly coming to fruition, in this instance my strength and conditioning program. I started with kettlebells last October, and have now added in barbells (with the same excellent coach, David from Strength Lab). Heidi is due to start a yoga class on Fridays too, which would fit in perfectly with my barbell work. Hopefully all that conditioning and flexibility will reduce the niggling injuries I sometimes pick up, especially in my neck, back, knees, wrists and fingers.
