28/01/2017 - 4th Seminar with Chelsea Bainbridge-Donner & Tom Barlow

Seminar #023
Artemis BJJ, Chelsea Bainbridge-Donner & Tom Barlow, Bristol, UK - 28/01/2017

To celebrate the third year anniversary of Artemis BJJ, Chelsea and Tom were back for their fourth seminar. As always, it was excellent. The main reason I bring down black belts to teach seminars on the MYGYM Bristol mats is to expand my students' horizons. For my own game, I focus on a narrow range of techniques, specifically selected to avoid doing any damage to my body, as well as relying on the least amount of physical aptitude possible.

So, to have somebody like Chelsea down is perfect, given that as a prominent competitor in the black belt division she is well versed in the modern style. Who better to teach us about berimbolos than a teacher at the Mendes brothers' Art of Jiu Jitsu school? :)

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A post shared by Artemis BJJ (@artemisbjj) on Jan 28, 2017 at 4:45am PST

For this seminar, she ran through the berimbolo and de la Riva techniques. Exactly what I wanted from Chelsea, flashy stuff I don't use so much. :D

10/10/2016 - 3rd Seminar with Chelsea Bainbridge-Donner & Tom Barlow

Seminar #021
Artemis BJJ, Chelsea Bainbridge-Donner & Tom Barlow, Bristol, UK - 10/10/2016

A little under nine months since they last visited us in Bristol, Chelsea and Tom were back on the Artemis BJJ mats to share some techniques. Before the seminar got started I took the opportunity to interview them both, so that will be on the Artemis BJJ Podcast soon (and will mark the first time I've actually used new interview footage, ooo ;D). My free account on Spreaker is running out of space, so I've set up a Patreon for it. If there are at least six people out there who like the podcast enough to put in $1 a month, that will pay for an upgrade to the first tier of the pro account (which raises the amount of audio storage from 5 hours to 100 hours). If not, meh, saves me the work of doing a regular podcast. ;)

A video posted by Artemis BJJ (@artemisbjj) on Oct 10, 2016 at 9:52pm PDT

Chelsea kicked things off with a quick warm-up, then into spider guard drills. I've been wary of spider guard ever since Chiu told me years ago that he mashed up his fingers too much to play it regularly, but it's useful to know for teaching (and the occasional time when I need to fall back on it). Today's seminar was especially useful on that score, as Chelsea built up to the main technique gradually, with plenty of drilling. Grab their sleeves, feet in the biceps, being sure to keep their elbows flared out.You spin from side to side, extending one leg while pulling back your other knee. Do that three times, then kick your bent out and around their arm. Weave it around the inside, threading in your lasso grip.

I got a bit confused on which side to extend, but fortunately this time I didn't accidentally delete all my videos after the seminar. Therefore I can double-check: when you spin to go slightly sideways, it's the inside leg that you extend, meaning your outside leg is bent. Bring your shoulders and bum off the mat as much as you can, as that will make it easier to spin. If you don't spin inwards and stay square on, they are going to be able to leg drag you. It is always the bent leg that moves into the lasso.

For the first sweep, bring your straight leg back and up, past your head. That should make them step forward, enabling you to switch your grip from their sleeve to the bottom of their trouser leg (don't grip inside the cuff). Keep your foot extended into the crook of their elbow for distance, then drop that same foot to the mat, behind their opposite leg. The foot of your lassoing leg pushes into their same side leg, toes pointing towards their other hip.

Chop back with your foot that's on the floor, coming up immediately after the sweep. You'll end up a little entangled in limbs, but on top. Keep hold of the trouser grip, pressing it to the mat. Otherwise, they are likely to try and get their knee in the way, making it awkward to complete your pass. Be careful of the arm you've lassoed, as coming up on top might generate some bicep-slicer pressure.

It's a fast sweep, but Chelsea highlighted that the downside to that speed is that the other person can sit back up again without too much difficulty. As they do, make sure to bring your leg that was behind their leg out. That goes to their hip or stomach instead, to slow them down. On the lasso side, pull their elbow, which pops your leg through. Your other leg goes to their head, letting you transition into a triangle. The omoplata is an option too (interestingly, Chelsea mentioned that although she's a fan of the omoplata, it is a much lower percentage submission than the triangle or armbar, but a high percentage sweep). She also added in her tip about grabbing their head and twisting it to expose their neck.

They also might end up on their knees due to frustration at dealing with your lasso. If their knee is raised on the opposite side to your lasso, you can easily hook your foot underneath and sweep them. Therefore more experienced grapplers will make sure they either keep both knees down or raise it on the lasso side. If you're gripping the trouser leg, switch to grabbing their opposite collar. From here you can again go into a triangle, pushing your foot into the non-lassoed arm (or on their shoulder, if you've lost the arm), in order to then kick that leg into their neck. On the other side, pull on the lassoed elbow again to get your leg through, ready to lock up a triangle.

The last spider guard option Chelsea shared with us was my favourite. For this spider guard sweep they need to have the knee raised on the lasso side. Again grab their opposite collar (although for this one, you can grab their same side collar. As you don't bring that leg through to their neck, a same-side grip won't block it). Your lasso foot hooks in behind their raised knee, moving through to de la Riva. You'll need to turn to get that de la Riva all the way in, unless you have very flexible knees. When the hook is established, it should be simple to knock them over in that direction.

Chelsea then progressed to closed guard. She started with the posture break we use in our warm-up drills, flaring out their elbows and pulling your knees in. You can move into lots of closed guard variations from there (my favourite is the shoulder clamp): Chelsea began with the lapel over the back grip. Pull out their gi and pull it over their back. To give you the time to do that, anchor your other hand into their armpit. Feed the gi over their back to your hand, cinching it by their head. Switch hands, palm up. You can now go for a choke by locking in the other hand (on that gi on the other side of their head, by the shoulder, or even in the collar).

Her last technique was on the overhook guard, where after breaking their posture, you overhook their arm, anchoring by grabbing their opposite collar. Shrimp out slightly towards your overhook, getting slightly on your hand. Put your foot on their hip to make some more space, then you can bring your knee on the overhook side on top of their arm. Squeeze for the pressing armbar (as ever, the tricky part is getting the right spot on their elbow). If they try to turn their arm, as long as your grip is tight enough to stop them pulling their arm right out, just twist and you can americana them.

At that point, Chelsea paused the technical instruction to do a few rounds of sparring. I took the opportunity to get a roll in with Tom, which mostly consisted of him hopping to either side of my open guard. It felt like my open guard was made of tissue paper, something I haven't yet been able to resolve properly. With somebody less experienced I can get a shin-on-shin in the way, or keep them at bay with my legs, but that doesn't work when your sparring partner is good (especially if they're much better than you, like black belts ;D).

I asked a question about that later, during the question and answer section. The simple response was 'get grips', a useful pointer to keep in mind. I'm wondering if I focus too much on that leg on the outside, when perhaps I should attempt to really lock up the inside leg? I'll keep playing. I have a private with my instructor Kev Capel this month, so that's something I can ask about more.

Chelsea then passed over to Tom, so that he could discuss his approach to passing closed guard. He goes into depth on this topic over on his website, which also has a bunch of embedded videos. Read that for the full details, but in short, you get into the usual posture with an arm by the chest and on the hip. Tom notes that the elbow of the chest arm should be angled down, as that makes it much tougher for them to collapse it. Ideally you want to grab their same side sleeve with your hip hand, meaning you can step your foot up on that side with impunity.

Once you've up, stand up tall, immediately angling your knee on the sleeve grabbing side into their stomach. You want to hang them off their sleeve (or their collar, if they don't let you grab their sleeve), twisting their posture awkwardly and affecting their ability to sweep. Don't wait around there, moving to push on their other leg as quickly as you can. Pop open the guard, following their leg down with your knee so they don't have any space to start setting up an open guard.

31/01/2016 - Seminar with Chelsea Bainbridge-Donner

Seminar #018
Artemis BJJ, Chelsea Bainbridge-Donner, Bristol, UK - 31/01/2016

A photo posted by Artemis BJJ (@artemisbjj) on Jan 31, 2016 at 10:13am PST

Today we were lucky enough to learn from Chelsea once again, only a few months after her last visit and fresh from competing at the Europeans. She kicked off with takedowns. Grab their collar, hand inside on top of the bicep. Lever up bicep arm with your elbow, then drop and grab behind leg (keep your grip on the collar). Drive your forehead into their floating rib, then move on to 'run the pipe' by spiralling them down to the mat. Keep you ear into their thigh.

Up next was a de la Riva sweep. Having established a de la Riva hook, get a firm grip on that trouser leg. Push on their far leg, also pulling on the collar. Lift them up a little with your trouser grip. If they are holding your collar, you can switch the trouser grip foot to their hip. Push off, swing your other leg around and lock in triangle. To finish off the triangle if they are hiding their arm, twist their head (chin towards neck leg). Squeeze while hugging their head and pull down for the tap.

If they don't grip your collar, you can swivel your de la Riva leg underneath, hooking behind their calf with your shin. Lift, then also swivelling your arm under their leg, do a technical standup (make sure you keep your other foot pressing into their other leg until you're in position). The leg should be on your shoulder. Move back, then kick out their leg to come on top.

Chelsea also ran through the bullfighter pass, continuing to emphasise that you should never just fall into their guard, or even let them set up guard. Grab the bottom of their trouser legs, knuckles down. You can now do the usual bullfighter pass. Push their legs in, then move around, dropping your shoulder.

She looked into passing the knee shield after that. If they get a knee shield in, grip their collar and crush through into their chin, like the spider guard pass we learned last time. Another passing option is to switch into reverse half guard, facing towards their legs.

Chelsea likes to make sure she traps their arm, scooting up towards their head to do so. You can lock that in place by grabbing the gi by their armpit. Walk your trapped foot to their bum, then push their knee off your leg. Drive your knee to the ground, then scrape their leg off with your free leg. Move through into mount Alternatively, hook under their arm and rotate through into a knee slide.

For the classic cross choke from mount, get a good grip, staying heavy on that side. As they try to turn, bring your knee up towards your hand. That traps their arm. Chelsea likes to stick with the traditional palm up palm up choke. She brings her elbow up, sliding her other hand under for the orthodox finish.

To finish with something entirely unorthodox, Chelsea went through a 'Monoplata', which I've only vaguely heard of before. It was cool to finally see what it actually is! This operates off that same deep grip for the cross choke. The knee is up high, they have their arm reaching up around your back. Bring your leg over their head, fall to the same side as their arm. To finish, pull your knee towards you. It is sort of like an omoplata, hence the name. I found this tough to do with my short legs, but it was certainly nice and tight once you lock it in.

Once again, Chelsea and Tom ended the technique portion with an awesome question and answer session. This time, I had some questions about koala guard, which I've been trying a lot, but often get squashed. Tom and Chelsea suggested that you should have in mind either a single or double leg. If you're looking for the single, really drive your shoulder into the back of their knee. If you're looking for the double, stay tight with your head, your ear on their thigh. Also be sure to get a shin-on-shin, so even if they do drive, you can lift and adjust.

I wasn't sparring this time, due to some lingering injuries, but that was no hindrance to what is quickly becoming an Artemis BJJ tradition: Pieminister pie! I look forward to Chelsea's next visit. We're also going to be blessed by another top notch female black belt later this year, when Ana Yagues heads down to teach on the 24th July. More details here: as ever, everybody welcome and it's only £20. :)

04/10/2015 - Seminar with Chelsea Bainbridge-Donner

Seminar #017
Artemis BJJ, Chelsea Bainbridge-Donner, Bristol, UK - 04/10/2015

I have 'known' Chelsea for a number of years now online, having first encountered her on reddit when she was a brown belt living in Hong Kong. That led me to her awesome blog, when she was still posting as purplekettle. Most awesome of all is this post, entitled “Wow, you’re a lot shorter than I thought you were.” If you haven't read it before, go read it: I have read many, many BJJ blog posts over the last decade, and that remains right up there among my favourites.

Since then, Chelsea has gone on to become a top competitor out of initially ATOS HQ, before moving to the affiliated Art of Jiu Jitsu Academy, run by ATOS stand-outs Rafa and Gui Mendes. She has won a world title at brown belt (after which Andre Galvao promoted her to black belt on the podium, along with his wife Angelica), the Dream submission only tournament and so far this year, medalled at the Worlds and Pan Ams. What I didn't realise was how good she is at teaching, perhaps helped by her considerable academic background (among her many skills she speaks fluent Chinese, for example!).

I therefore jumped at the chance to book her for a seminar when she got in touch to say she would be in the UK. There was a good turnout from Artemis BJJ itself, along with some other local clubs from Bristol and Swindon popping down: thanks for the support! We should have some more seminars in January, hopefully as well as a women's BJJ workshop with Leoni. :)
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Chelsea's teaching was well structured and focused, exactly what I want out of a seminar. She began with a number of drills related to passing the guard, the theme of the seminar. That progressed into some bullfighter passing drills. First, the one I'm used to, where you grab the bottom of the trousers, move round and drop the shoulder. Then we did the variation where you push the legs out of the way, establishing knee on belly. Chelsea and Tom (Barlow, of Polaris fame: it was very cool to have him there too) helped me out during drilling, noting that I should be pushing the shins so they 'spring' back, making it easier to then shove them out of the way.

The central technique of the seminar, which began as a drill, was something I think I've seen Saulo do in the past on BJJ Library. Chelsea pointed out that in open guard, it seems people are overly keen to get stuck inside a guard, whereas they should be passing pre-entanglement.

For this open guard pass, put one hand on their hip, the other on their knee. As you move around, bum in the air and legs wide, shove their knee down. Continue to pass around, then slide your grip so you can push their knee back. Follow it back with your body, moving into a leg drag position, driving off your toes as you descend. If you get greedy and try to go directly into side control, you may find they can get their legs in the way.

Often, they will try to turn away into turtle, preventing the pass (especially in a competition where points are at stake). To stop that, drive into them as they turn, locking on a seat belt grip. Previously I have tended to gable grip my hands, but as Tom explained during drilling, grabbing the meat of your hand with your grip on top is stronger, bringing your elbows into your sides. Having secured your seatbelt, curl your leg in tight to their back, pulling them up onto your knee (effectively putting them in your lap).

You can then roll back over your knee, bringing your other leg over the top, securing back control. I'm a big fan of that back take, though I've tended to do it from either technical mount or as a back re-take: getting some more tweaks was brilliant. It also made me think I should emphasise getting on your elbow next time I teach that move, as that really helps your balance.

To emphasise the importance of a strong seat belt grip, Chelsea then did some drilling on the back take portion of the technique, same as the drill I sometimes throw into our warm-ups at Artemis BJJ (although I've been combining it with mount, so switching to technical mount as they try to turn, then going for this back take). Chelsea and Tom both put that seat belt in really firmly, to the point where the arm is already almost choking you. That was made very clear, as she then had all of us take it in turns to experience what it feels like when she and Tom do it. Educational! ;)

You may find that rather than turn away, they will try and turn towards you. If that happens, sprawl back with your seatbelt grip in place, backstopping their elbow so they can't continue the turn. Walk around on your toes behind them, then pop up so you're crouched by their back. Either put your foot on their thigh or step it through, then take the back from there. Marcelo Garcia shows something similar in his book, on p100.

If Chelsea wants a partner for demonstrating a choke, hide

Chelsea showed a classic choke next. Open up their collar with your hand that's under their armpit, feeding it to your other hand. Having got a firm grip with that other hand, cinch it in, then push your armpit-hand behind their head. There are various ways you can add leverage to the position, ranging from crossing your legs to stepping on their arm. As you can see from Tom's expression in the picture, it isn't a whole lot of fun for your partner. ;)

When you initially attempt the pass, your partner might swing their leg over and wrap your arm with it, moving into a lasso spider guard (I liked how Chelsea had everybody drill that spider guard recovery at this point, to make sure everyone knew it). To pass spider guard from there, reach through and grab their other trouser leg with your lassoed arm, being sure to grip below their knee. With your other hand, grasp their collar.

Next is Chelsea's trademark control, driving her head right underneath their chin. Keep pushing with your head, something which they will definitely not enjoy, then walk back towards their legs. This is the same principle as with that pass from earlier, to make sure their legs are cleared out of the way. Which makes sense, as I can remember Chelsea's instructors, the Mendes brothers, highlighting the importance of walking back like that post-pass in a video a couple of years ago.

My drilling partner for this one, Nathan (the third black belt on the mats today), handily pointed out that I need to make sure I'm driving my shoulder into their leg to squish their knees towards the mat. I was being lax on that, which would make it easy for them to square back up and stop my pass. For a video of this pass, check out the interview Chelsea did on This Week In BJJ, here (she also shows the same pass from reverse de la Riva, as well as countering their invert).

If they flare out their knee on the lasso so it is difficult to drive all the way to under their chin, Chelsea showed how you can instead drive your head into their chest, proceeding pretty much as before apart from that. Except that this time, you move into knee on belly rather than passing all the way to side control. From knee on belly, if they push on your knee, you can reach through by the crook of their elbow, pull them up, then step around to drop into an armbar. Note that you need them to turn in towards you: this won't work if they are flat on their back, as you can't step over properly in that situation.

After all that excellent technique, Chelsea then fit in thirty minutes of sparring, quick three minute rounds. I am pretty sure this marks the only time I've ever sparred three black belts in a row (and the only time I've seen more black belts on the mat was my visit to Fabio Santos' school). Sparring with Chelsea, Tom and Nathan, I was mainly trying to use the stiff arm from guard. When that didn't work, I tried my follow-up of going into koala guard, but messed up each time. I did vaguely attempt a roll under sweep with Chelsea, but she had already passed regardless.

After getting passed, with all three of the black belts I was (not very successfully, as you'd expect) attempting to then block with Rockwell's sit-up escape frame. There was a lot of being crushed under mount, which seems to happen to me a lot with black belts (fair payback, as I was in mount on a white belt earlier in sparring. So, taste of my own medicine ;D). I very narrowly escaped Tom's bow and arrow type choke by pulling on his sleeve then elbow, also slipping free of the follow-up armbar by a whisker. No doubt he was going a lot lighter than normal as I'm a lower belt, but I was still pleased I managed to defend it. ;)

To finish, Chelsea did a question and answer session, a magnificent way of finishing a seminar. I asked about my main bugbear, back escapes. Chelsea recommended blocking their second hook coming in, then getting to the non-choking side and putting your back on the mat. She leapt right over when she did it, IIRC. Tom added in a nifty option when it came to turtle. If you can cross your ankles around their leg, then you've basically escaped turtle. However they move, you're either going to be able to spin free, invert, or recover your guard more conventionally. Therefore on top of turtle, be wary of them hooking your foot like that.

Of the seventeen seminars I've been to, I would put this and Dave Jacobs from last year at the top. If you get the chance to book Chelsea for a seminar, I highly recommend you do it. She said she should be back in the UK in January, so hopefully we'll be able to arrange another seminar then. I'm also hoping she'll be on the next Polaris event: there is such an incredible talent pool of black belt women that Polaris could easily fit in two female fights, if not more. :)