28/10/2017 - RGA Bucks | Takedowns, Von Flue choke, double underhooks pass

Class #914
RGA Aylesbury, (BJJ), Dan Lewis, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, UK - 28/10/2017

For the double leg takedown, get your standard judo grips, grip a collar and sleeve. Step back and pull them in towards you, raising your elbows. Then immediately drop, putting the knee on the collar-grabbing side on the ground between their legs. Step your other leg up on the outside and put your hands around the back of their knees, but not trying to link your hands. Your head comes up, then you also step up with your other leg. Do a little sideways run, away from your head, in order to bring them down.

They will often grab your head in an attempt at a guillotine, then land under side control, meaning they have a not particularly functional grip. If they insist on maintaining that grip, you can do what's known as a 'von Flue choke', presumably named after some guy. You establish the cross face as normal, but driving your shoulder into their neck. Your other hand goes underneath their gripping arm, linking up with your other hand. Make sure your cross-face hand is palm down for the gable grip (palm to palm). Move around to exert pressure for the choke. Either you'll get the submission, or they will let go of their grip.

A post shared by Can (Jun) (@slideyfoot) on Oct 31, 2017 at 8:57am PDT

Dan then ran through a double underhooks pass, drawing on the method Mauricio showed earlier that week (very awesomely, Mauricio is now teaching every Monday lunchtime at RGA Bucks). Roll their collars together to start (like Donal showed me a few years back), fighting off their hands if they try to stop you. It's worth taking the time to get that super strong grip. Your collar gripping arm isn't completely straight, there is a slight bend so you're not straining, ready to engage if they try to sit up.

Open their closed guard with the usual kneeling break, then get your shoulder behind their knee. Rather than immediately reaching for the collar like I'm used to, you instead rely on gripping your wrist to create a frame. Your arm that would normally go for the collar instead just wraps tight around their leg. Your other hand comes in tight, grasping the wrist of your outside arm. Driving forward off your toes, start to stack them, keeping your head up, driving with your hips too. Once they are stacked, that's when you go for the collar.

Grab their opposite collar (or shoulder, if it's nogi or you can't get the grip you want) with one of your hands, sliding your fingers inside. Bring your knee behind their bum to maintain your stack. It is important to keep maintaining heavy downwards pressure throughout this pass. Keep pushing until eventually you drive past their leg and transition to side control: don't raise your head, just keep pushing until you slide past, nudging with your shoulder if necessary.

If they bring their knee across to block that, by your neck, you can switch to something else. Grip their other leg (that isn't against your neck), low on their trousers. Step over the top of it, so you're in a kind of half guard. Your head then goes onto the leg-stacked side hip, driving across towards that side. Head stays low to avoid the reverse triangle, then you bring your other arm in for the cross-face. Walk your legs back toward the side your head is pressing into, as that shift back around should make it tough for them to keep control of your leg.

Good roll with Stu as always, where I again tried to fit in that single leg x and shin on shin guard, but not getting it where I want it just yet. I'll keep trying (naturally it's rather harder on brown belts like Stu!).

25/02/2017 - RGA Bucks | Standing Guard Sweeps

Class #806
RGA Aylesbury, (BJJ), Dan Lewis, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, UK - 25/02/2017

Dan took us on a trip down memory lane today, specifically the book Royler, Renzo and Danaher put out almost twenty years ago. That book was a warm-up for Danaher and Renzo's seminar Mastering Jujitsu, with a similar history section. It was called Jiu-Jitsu: Theory & Technique. The layout was haphazard, but including a sequence of three closely related techniques for when an opponent stands up in your closed guard: the ankle grab sweep, handstand and star sweep.

For the first one, as they stand up, if you've got a grip on their collar or head, maintain it in order to keep their posture bent forwards. At the moment you let go of that grip (if you have one) and they try to reach an upright position, grab behind their ankles (around the outside: if you grab around the inside, there's an injury risk).

Open your guard (when they stand, they are looking to open it and pass. It's better if when you open your guard, it's on your terms rather than theirs). Usually when I've seen this taught, the idea is to bring your knees together under their chest. You can also put your feet on their hips, depending on their height and how much leverage you need. Either way, drive those feet or knees into them. That should knock them over if they aren't prepared for the sweep. One advantage of the knees is you can keep squeezing your legs into their sides, which can help you use their momentum as they fall back (but be careful you don't get your feet under them too much, or you might hurt yourself as you hit the floor). Dan did it a little differently, as he focused instead on pushing with the back of your legs against their thighs.

After they've hit the mat, before they can react, come up on your hand and same side knee. Bring your hips forward on that same side. It's much easier if you move in a diagonal direction, rather than trying to go straight forward. Slide your knee on that side to the mat, keeping your hips low, also grabbing behind their head (or collar). From there, you could go to mount, s-mount, side control etc. It is an awkward position, so takes a bit of getting used to. I used a hip thrust drill during the warm-up to help: you can do a technical stand-up from here too if you find that easier, keeping hold of their leg and passing around to the side.

A good follow up to the double ankle grab sweep is another option that works off wrapping an ankle. This one is normally known as the 'handstand sweep', though invariably there are lots of other names for it. As your partner stands in your closed guard, keep your guard closed, wrapping an arm around their same side ankle. You're looking to get the crook of your elbow behind their ankle: for further control, you could try reaching through to grab your own collar. For power, range and balance, put your free hand on the floor, as if you were doing a handstand (hence the name).

To complete the sweep, you need to bring their knee out sideways. Their foot has to be immobilised for that, or they'll be able to adjust and maintain their balance. To turn their knee out, bring your hips sideways, pushing into the inside of their knee (don't go above the knee, you need to stay either next to it or underneath). Once you've pushed it far enough so their leg swivels, that should knock them to the floor. Dan's option was to bring the hip right onto the knee to push it from facing forwards to face sideways instead, which worked well (at least on one side, I had real trouble doing it on the other side). Your guard stays closed throughout, opening at the last moment to adjust into mount.

However, that still leaves them a hand with which they can post out and recover. To prevent that, you can cross-grip their sleeve. This is what Xande calls the 'muscle sweep', because their ankle is by your 'muscle' (i.e., bicep). The set up is the same as before, but this time, you don't use your free hand to push off the floor. Instead, you grab their opposite sleeve, thereby both preventing them from posting out, and also providing you with an easy way of pulling yourself up into mount.

The difficulty is the decreased leverage at your disposal. Now that you can't use that hand to push up, you instead have to really push into their knee. Make sure your grip around their leg is tight, pulling their foot right up to your shoulder. You will also use your grip on their sleeve, pulling their arm to help you. This is tougher to pull off than the handstand, but it makes the transition to the top much easier.

Dan finished with an old school final option, the star sweep. This is one I used to try all the time nine years or so ago, but have fallen out of the habit. From the handstand sweep, kick your leg so that you swivel around the leg you're hooking with your arm. Stay close, kneeling next to that leg, facing parallel, head low. Lean back to knock them to the ground. You need to be careful you aren't too explosive with this one, in order to avoid tweaking their knee. I was ending up too turned a few times, meaning that I ended up in a poor position once (if) they fell down.

The last one is an omoplata, from that handstand sweep position. You have the cross-grip on their sleeve, pass that to the hand you have around their leg. Grab their collar and pull them down with your now free hand. Turn your hips out and bring your leg over their head, like you're clamping for an armbar. Knock them down, then you can transition into an omoplata. Dan doesn't triangle his legs, as that can give them a footlock: instead, he just squeezes his knees together.

27/02/2016 - RGA Bucks | Side Control | Escape to Guard

Class #696
RGA Aylesbury, (BJJ), Dan Lewis, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, UK - 27/02/2016

A photo posted by Can (Jun) (@slideyfoot) on Feb 27, 2016 at 6:11am PST

This weekend marks my first 2016 trip to my instructor's academy, RGA Bucks. Kev was away judging BAMMA, but as usual Dan was covering. His class was fantastic. I've mentioned a few times that I need to work on open guard, based around the Ryan Hall 'Defensive Guard' DVD. That is pretty much exactly what Dan covered, based on a recent David Onuma seminar. Judging by this, I really need to get myself down to an Onuma seminar: detailed tweaks on the basics, my absolute favourite stuff to learn in BJJ! :D

Dan kicked off with one of those tweaks, related to maintaining open guard as they look to pass with a knee cut. Block with your near arm, bent at right angles to make a frame. To generate base, pop up on your other elbow. I thought that you would need to come up to your hand, but that actually doesn't help you in this situation. I do this all the time, which can work against less experienced people, but higher belts will eventually grab that basing arm and pull it.

Instead of coming up on your hand, stay on your elbow. Make sure that your shoulder is in front of your elbow. This alignment makes it much harder for them to accomplish their inevitable attempt at yanking your basing arm. Use that frame to get your near foot onto their hip, push to create distance, then re-establish guard.

At this point, there was another very handy tip, which I will be implementing immediately into my classes. Once you have the closed guard and want to break their posture, you don't have to bring your knees to your chest to do it. That's a powerful option, but it does take some energy. A considerably more efficient method is to drive your heels into their lower back instead. That achieves the same goal of knocking them forwards, while also saving your gas tank.

When it comes to escaping side control, they want to dominate your near arm. It puts you in a rubbish position if they manage to isolate it. To get your arm back, bring your heels close to your bum, then turn to replace your elbow block inside their hip. Rotate the hand of your other arm (never bring the arm past their head, that's asking to be americanaed), grabbing their shoulder.

From here, don't drive it up. Bring your elbow out, twisting your forearm into their neck and jaw. Walk your feet towards their head, then bring your knees in to recover guard. If they manage to get such a tight underhook that you can't free your neck-pressure arm, grab your far hip instead.You can then turn to apply a weak shoulder lock.

It won't be enough to make them tap, but it will make them think. Don't bring your knees in to guard yet, get that turn first. Then you can bring your knees in, continuing to apply the pressure on their shoulder. This puts you in a great attacking position. You've got the option of the overhook guard, as well as pressing armbars and shoulder clamps.

Great sparring today: the mat was a sea of purple, along with two white belts, a brown belt and a black belt. Needless to say, there were no easy rolls available! I started off with Stuart, probably my favourite guy to roll with in the whole club (apart from Kev himself, of course). Stuart is about my size and he never goes super hard. That makes for a fun spar, with plenty of movement. I was going for the kimura grip, along with trying tips from Ryan Hall. The additional tweaks from today's lesson are going to be a big help, I think.

I then had a short roll with Dan, where I was looking to attempt that knee cut counter AJ Sousa showed on BJJ Library, but didn't get into the right position. My old training partner Liam was up next. We started training at roughly the same time, but he's improved rather quicker than me, meaning while I'm still purple, he's a black belt. I imagine he wasn't going very hard, nevertheless I had a bit of a confidence boost in that I felt I held my own (he did catch me with a pressing armbar from the top of half guard, so I need to be careful of that arm in that position).

He also had some tips for holding the top position in half guard. At one point I was able to get on top and move through into a cross-face. I was trying to get the Ribeiro super-hold (cross face and underhook), so I could then bring my shin over his leg and start to pass the half guard. I think he reversed me at some point, but regardless, the tip he gave was to bring both arms under the head. That might initially feel vulnerable, but as he demonstrated, when you then drive your chest into their head, it's tight!

I finished up with two bigger purples, where I took the opportunity to work on my defence. In the first roll, I spent a lot of it with my knee driving into their and pulling on the sleeve, to stop them progressing from side control to any kind of attack. I guess it did work, but I should have probably attempted to move into some kind of escape instead of holding that so long. I was getting pretty tired by the final roll: next time, I definitely want to stick around for the yoga. I'll be back in April, when there won't be a niece's birthday to rush off to. So, yoga time! :D

The next day, I did my usual art trip. The exhibition picked for this visit was Delacroix at the National Gallery. I already knew there was a lot of it I wouldn't like (as I'm not fond of most Impressionists, especially Cézanne and Gauguin). Due to that antipathy it only took 45 mins, but assuming you don't have an allergy to Impressionism, I'd say leave about 1.5hrs to do it properly.

A photo posted by Can (Jun) (@slideyfoot) on Feb 28, 2016 at 6:09am PST

However, I do like Degas. It was cool to see some more Moreau too, as I enjoy the Symbolists. I also enjoyed Frederic Bazille, who I wasn't familiar with before. Plenty of bigwigs today, like Van Gogh (not a fan of his work either, except the early stuff). It was still worth it I thought (on my father's membership at least, I wouldn't have paid full price), although the exhibition felt a little flabby. In my opinion, it lacked a sufficiently coherent narrative. It bounces between landscape, religious painting, portraits and others. Then again, the intention is to show Delacroix's influence on modern art, so I guess it needs to be broad for that. Note you aren't allowed any photography, even without flash: the pics I'm using are from a book.

18/07/2015 - RGA Bucks | Closed Guard | Sweeps When They Stand

Class #653
RGA Bucks (BJJ), Dan Lewis, Aylesbury, UK - 18/07/2015

At RGA Bucks, the class goes through more techniques and with less drilling time: although I wouldn't teach that way myself, as a student and given I only get up to RGA Bucks every two months, it's perfect for me. It means there is lots of technique when I visit, plus I get plenty of sparring time to make sure I can roll with everybody I want to (priority is old training partners, along with people around my size).

Dan taught three options for when they stand in your closed guard, which fits in nicely with the month of closed guard at Artemis BJJ in June. Each one was predicated off a slightly different reaction by your partner. In the first scenario, after they've stood, they are trying to get their knees under your bum for a guard break (apparently a lot of people at RGA Bucks have been doing what Dan called the 'table top' position, because JT Torres taught it at a seminar recently).

First you want a cross grip on their sleeve. You might get that before they stand, but normally they will break the grip before beginning to rise up. Once you have that, you also want a collar grip. This is to stop them being able to sit back into that 'table top': if you're pulling down on their collar, you should be able to use their broken posture to keep them where you want.

Open your guard and slide down to their knees, reclosing around their legs. For the table top attempt their feet have to step in close together, setting you up for a sweep. Extend your legs, then lift slightly, turning them over to the side of the cross-gripped sleeve. Stay tight. Depending on where you land, you can either drive your knee forwards to secure mount, or squash them as you pass to side control.

Second option was the usual handstand sweep (like I taught last month), starting with the version where you grab their sleeve. As Dan noted, the sleeve grabbing one can be hard, as they can turn out their foot and resist. That's when you add the extra leverage from pushing off your hand into the handstand sweep.

The final technique was an omoplata. You've attempted the handstand sweep, but it isn't working. Instead, feed the cross grip over to the other hand, under the leg. Take time to establish that grip, pushing it in tight with both hands. Then grab their collar and pull down. Walk you leg up over their back, into the armpit. Don't try to immediately leap into the omoplata leg position, as they can potentially shrug that off and posture up.

To make it more gradual with greater control, bring your free leg over their head and push down at an angle, like you would to control their posture during an armbar. Bringing them down to the mat, maintaining your sleeve grip. Switch your grips, then the hand that was grabbing the leg grabs their belt. Push their arm around your leg, then you can disengage the sleeve grip, get up onto your elbow and switch the belt grip to their far hip. You can sweep from there too if you don't get the positioning, locking your legs and rolling through, making sure you lift your arm out of the way.

Sparring started off with Chris, my white belt drilling partner. It was cool to hear that he has been reading my blog for a while: always great to meet somebody who reads this blog! :D It was specifics from closed guard, meaning I was looking for underhooks to get into the collar clamp position I've been playing with since last month. I got the angle, pressing on his head, where we stayed for a while (he did a good job of staying patient, looking for an escape).

I went for the omoplata once I got my leg past his shoulder, but my body was a bit squished up preventing me from extending properly. I managed to turn it into a triangle by swinging around, a combination I don't normally get but should work on more. As I've gotten into this underhook thing, that should mean the omoplata becomes a much bigger part of my game.

On top, I was being a bit lazy, sticking with kneeling passes and seeing if I could get Jason Scully's sideways variation on the tailbone break, along with his 'eat the belt'. Couldn't get either, as Chris had decent control of my arm. I eventually got through with the normal kneeling break.

Then in free sparring, I went with Gareth, a purple from New Zealand who has been down to visit us at Artemis BJJ. He's a bit bigger than me, so I immediately looked to get on top and stay heavy. I wanted the breadcutter, moving to north south. I had the arm under, but getting the right positioning by the neck was causing me trouble. I should have remembered to push on the far arm and move into an armbar. Eventually I got rolled over, into the typical "getting squashed during pass attempt" position, same as what happens with Chris J back at Artemis BJJ. I need to work on 'walls' in open guard, maybe sit up more? Koala guard is another option, also breaking grips more actively.

There was a lot more motion with Stu (another purple, who runs RGA Milton Keynes with his partner Hayley, who is also cool: she wasn't feeling well and sat out of sparring, where I had a good chat with her to catch up), probably because he's smaller. He was going for my neck and back. I just about wriggled free, looking for knee cuts. I mostly tried for the kimura, but not securing it from good positions: e.g., I had it during his pass, under side control, when he was moving to my back, etc.

As he kept turning to turtle, I got into the crucifix, but forgot about getting the collar with an arm around the neck. We ended up in reverse mount, most unusual, then he was able to gradually catch me with a bow and arrow right at the end. I popped out of the first attempt, but then he got it tighter and I couldn't manage to get his elbow. Nicely done! :)

11/04/2015 - RGA Bucks | Mount | Escapes

Class #637
RGA Bucks (BJJ), Dan Lewis, Aylesbury, UK - 11/04/2015

I was in London on Friday, in order to (finally) sort out some bureaucracy at the Turkish Consulate in the morning. As they proved efficient, that left me most of the day to go and check out some culture. Given it's not far from the Consulate, I decided to wander through the Victoria & Albert Museum. It isn't my usual kind of thing, as I prefer paintings (though the V&A has a number of them), but it was interesting nonetheless. Still, I found the organisation too haphazard for my taste: for example, the route I took jumped from church relics to a cabinet of armour and then a bunch of doors. All interesting individually, but I like to have a sense of narrative when I go to a museum or gallery.

Thankfully that's exactly what I got at my old favourite, The National Gallery. There is currently an exhibition on Impressionism down in the Sainsbury Wing, which wouldn't normally tempt me as I don't like the Impressionists. For a start, as I find you need to step back from the paintings to appreciate them fully, it's difficult to do that in the confines of a typical gallery space. However, just like the Turner exhibition last year (another artist of whom I wouldn't count myself a fan), the carefully coherent structure made it enjoyable even for non-fans.

At 'Inventing Impressionism', it wasn't really about the Impressionists, but rather about the art dealer that can be credited with a large part of their success, Paul Durand-Ruel. The paintings exhibited were chosen to illustrate his grand plan and innovative business strategies, such as his habit of buying paintings in bulk, offering a money-back guarantee (he frequently bought paintings back after selling them) and the first ever solo shows for artists.

So if like me you're not enamoured of the Impressionists, it's a great way to look at them from a different perspective. It runs until the end of May.

_______

After the Consulate I headed back with my father to Aylesbury, ready to train the next day at RGA Bucks. Unfortunately Kev wasn't there today, so I couldn't touch base with him, but there are of course loads of excellent training partners at RGA Bucks (and there was still a black belt on the mat, the redoubtable Sahid).

Dan took the session today, starting off with a useful recap of a fundamental scarf hold escape. The situation is that they've managed to control your arm, so you're going to lock your arms around their back. I've been shown this one a few times before, where the instructor has talked about finding a magic spot on the floating rib. I've always found that a bit tricky.

I therefore much preferred Dan's straightforward take on it. Rather than talking about floating ribs, he concentrated on the bridging motion. The key is to bridge up into them, then without putting your hips back down, swivel to the other side and roll your partner over.

Next was my favourite mount escape, the heel drag. The details I took away were firstly that when defending under mount, if you cross your hands over your neck, then that tends to mean your elbows rise up, making it easier for your opponent to move up into a higher mount. It's therefore better to go for the 'Home Alone'/Shirley Temple defence, with your hands on either side of your neck.

Finally, there was a more complex variation on the escape to butterfly. Having made the space to get a leg free, drive that up the middle, bringing your outside foot around and pushing into their hip. From there, you can go for the simplest single-x guard sweep, hooking under their leg to trap it to your shoulder and doing a technical stand-up.

Alternatively, bring their foot over to the other side, where you could go for a foot lock (unless you're me, as I steer well clear of lower body submissions, because I'm anxious about blowing out somebody's knee). The final option is a sweep into a leg drag.

Lock their leg in place by grabbing around the outside, holding just above their knee to stop them standing up. Maintain distance by pushing on their other knee, as well as their same side hip. You then want to twist towards their trapped leg side, aiming to knock them onto their bum. Basing off your free hand, you can then sit up, press their trapped knee to the mat and move into a leg drag position for the pass.

Specific sparring from the mount was mainly me trying to go for low mount, then getting gradually dislodged by larger purple and brown belts (my one stint on the bottom started with a quick heel drag on a blue belt, then a taller blue belt going into some kind of rolling back take when I tried to heel drag them).

It was still useful though, as I asked one of the brown belts - who stayed in the whole king of the hill round on the bottom - what they were doing to beat the low mount. I'm normally fairly confident about my low mount, but he blew threw it without too much difficulty.

The secret is using a leg swing motion, much like the one you do to escape north south. He uses that to make some space for his elbow, which he can then use to scoot under into half guard or deep half guard, moving into the sweep. You have to be careful you don't get your back taken (I almost managed that once, but wasn't tight enough), but looks to be a handy tactic.

I had to rush off to a family photo shoot my sister had organised, but I still had time for a roll with my training partner, another brown belt (who incidentally is among my original set of training partners at RGA HQ). He's busted his MCL, but could still spar from the back. So, we did a round from back control. The first time I managed to escape using my usual approach, but the second attempt wasn't as successful: he blocked my head and also kept me from getting to that side, then secured a good grip on my collar. I tried to reach back to pull his elbow and make space, but he managed to reaffirm the grip then get me belly down, finishing a strong choke.

Good stuff: I look forward to catching up with Kev next time. I'm keen to get in some quality training time with him, as it's been a few months since we've sparred. :)