03/10/2017 - Academy Jiu Jitsu (Open mat)

Class #905
Academy Jiu Jitsu, Open Mat, Melbourne, Australia - 03/10/2017

Rolling at open mat afterwards was cool. I had another roll with Scotty, the blue belt from earlier. This time, I went for the arms, attempting overhook and underhooks. I initially tried to get my standard shoulder clamp butterfly sweep, but was too flat and I didn't have tight enough shoulder control.

I then tried for an overhook to get Dan's reaching grip, but couldn't manage to secure the arm. Trying for shoulder clamp into pressing armbar, his base felt too solid, I couldn't get the angle I wanted. Dylan was awesome. All the higher belts kept to a nice relaxed pace, letting me work and try stuff. I was attempting to defend my back, using that slow seio have thing, but I think Dylan was taking it easy or I would not have gotten out.

The most useful tips were on shin-on-shin. Angle out slightly, not too much. Your knee is high, but you support it with your arm inside. Head is tight on the other side. Immediately roll under, reaching for the shin of the far leg. If you don't get that, bring what was your shin on shin leg inside their same side leg, then around into single leg x. Your other foot should be hooking their other leg, knees tight. Tilt for sweep, or get ready to move into full x guard.

After training, Erin took me to a delicious burger place where I had sliders. For some reason they don't do that much in the UK: they were excellent! It was super cool to catch up with Erin and see what a wonderful place she now trains at. Hopefully I'll get the chance to come back to Melbourne some time, and Australia in general. I'm still keen to visit Brisbane to catch up with some other Australian BJJ friends. For 2017, Academy Jiu Jitsu was definitely the highlight of my Australasian trip. :D

03/10/2017 - Academy Jiu Jitsu (Standing up in closed guard)

Class #904
Academy Jiu Jitsu, Dylan Hewitt, Melbourne, Australia - 03/10/2017

My ex-student Erin had told me all about her new school in Melbourne after she moved back home. A big part of my original reason for making the trip over to Australia was to see Erin and train at her new place. There was therefore quite a lot of expectation riding on what she'd said: as it turned out, those expectations were more than met.

Academy Jiu Jitsu is a lovely place to train, full of friendly people who immediately made me feel part of the family. In many ways it reminded me of training back home at Artemis BJJ, so I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Academy Jiu Jitsu if you're looking for a chilled out training environment with a friendly vibe. The rolls were technical, everybody was welcoming, lots of laughter during class.

The teaching was high quality too. Dylan went through a standard closed guard break and pass, with lots of details. Sit on your heels, thrusting your hip. Use your forward hand to grasp both collars, twist: that's to keep them down. Other hand grabs their wrist, pressing that into their hip. Slight flare of your elbow in order to press in their hip, but be ready to clamp that back in as it's dangerous (omoplata etc).

To stand, lean over to the non-wrist grip side, then step your wrist grip side foot forward. Stand, letting go of collars and pulling up on sleeve. Dylan likes to switch grips, but down to preference. Squeeze your knees together, then push down on their knee. You can follow with your shin and move into various passes. One I hadn't thought about was windscreen wiping your feet across, then you can go into mount, side control etc.

In closed guard specific sparring, I was lazy and just waited. It's important to be wary of chokes, I was lucky in that i could push on elbows to prevent the chokes, but if he had gotten deeper, that would have been on. I liked the simple tip that if they grab your collar, grab their hand and use that as your grip to stand. Worked well for me.a few times, but just white belts and I was telegraphing it too much. Next up, open mat.

02/10/2017 - Absolute MMA St Kilda

Class #903
Absolute MMA St Kilda, Lachlan Giles, Melbourne, Australia - 02/10/2017

Lachlan started to class with a closed guard drill, where the idea was to try and stand up/control posture without your hands, then with. That's useful for making you focus on posture on top and the use of your legs on the bottom, so I may try that myself. Next up was a hip bump, then switching under the leg if they resist and rolling them to the other side. If that doesn't work either, overhook and push their hand to their chest, into triangle.

Rolling with Liv, I was leaving my neck too open again, must be careful. I think I only prevented her choke due to grabbing her wrist, so no technique on my part. I outweight her a fair bit, even though I'm small: if she'd been my size, that choke would probably have been on.

Next roll, I was super boring and just tried to frame to stop them passing. I think they got a bit bored, especially as they weren't going hard. I should engage more, but then I struggle enough with that in gi, let alone nogi. ;)

I was considering staying for the next class, but I had some things to arrange with a friend for tomorrow, so decided I should head back to get that sorted. It was awesome to finally meet Liv and exchange more than a few words with Hannah. Thanks very much to Liv for letting me train!