Shinobi Academy, Lagos, Portugal

Class #940
Shinobi Academy, Lagos, Portugal, Open Mat - 12/01/2018

I'm going through my draft posts at the moment (writing this in Nov 2018), it looks like there are a bunch I never finished writing up. So yeah, working my way through them now. There wasn't any actual teaching at this one, although there were some pointers from the excellent Jeff Knight about half guard, IIRC. Great place to train if you're on holiday in Lagos, I'll definitely go again if I find myself there in future. :D

A post shared by Shinobi Academy (@shinobiacademylagos) on Jan 14, 2018 at 10:24am PST

More vids training at Shinobi.

A post shared by Can (Jun) (@slideyfoot) on Jan 15, 2018 at 2:02am PST

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!

03/05/2014 - Fabio Novaes BJJ Open Mat

Class #566
Fabio Novaes BJJ, Open Mat, Lakeland, FL, USA - 03/05/2014

A photo posted by Can (Jun) (@slideyfoot) on May 3, 2014 at 11:55am PDT

Today is my last full day in the US for 2014 as well as my last training on American soil for this year. It was really cool to finally train with an old Bullshido buddy of mine, Josh. Back when I was regularly updating my training log thread on there, Josh would often chime in with some good advice.

I was therefore excited at the prospect of rolling with him in person, as I knew he would have lots of pointers (on top of very generously driving me to and from the open mat, a three hour round trip, which was shortly after his mammoth 6hr+ drive down from Atlanta, GA!). He didn't disappoint, breaking down several issues I've been having. First up was a potential solution to my long-running issue with combat base: even better, it was simple.

You've broken their posture, but they have a knee raised. Bring your outside foot in front of their shin, hooking their ankle, then pull it to the open side. You can then knock their leg back, which combined with collar control could provide an immediate transition into an omoplata, moving into the triangle and armbar if you miss that.

Another thing Josh pointed out was that given I frequently go for a deep collar grip, I could start using a collar drag. I've seen that done, but always forget about it as an option: you simply shift slightly to the side and pull them into the space you vacated. If they resist, post your free hand behind you and push forwards to knock them backwards. If that doesn't work either, there's the possibility of a loop choke. Sounds like a good sequence for me to work on, fitting with my current game (though admittedly I don't have much of a game from guard).

With passing I'm focusing too much on driving forward, meaning I miss opportunities to circle around. That came up when I was putting in lots of pressure forward, while Josh had a sort of lasso grip on my right hand. At that point, I should have used my strong position to get that hand free and move around to an underhook pass. Also, if my knee cut is getting blocked, I should slide my hip into them, rather than continuing to shove forwards ineffectually.

On the sit-up sweep, I made a very sloppy attempt during sparring, prompting a useful reminder to bump with the hip rather than leading with the shoulder. Interestingly, under side control Josh recommends putting the foot on the knee: I have always preferred to keep the knee floating and I had thought that putting the foot on the knee made it more vulnerable to footlocks.

Quite to the contrary, Josh said it actually was easier to footlock when the leg is floating. He also noted that by having the foot on your knee, you can use the other leg to help wedge your knee underneath. Be sure to properly shrimp with a turn: I wasn't doing that properly today, sliding sideways, which doesn't bring any advantage. Basic point, but always get on your side! ;)

The usual issue of not attacking enough came up too: I've gotten comfortable maintaining mount, but I keep being to complacent and not moving on from that. Josh pointed out that when I get that high mount with their arms crossed over their face, the arm triangle is an option. Even if I don't get it, that could open up other attacks.

Sparring with Stephanie again was really cool too. She has a dodgy knee at the mo, so we were keeping things on the knees rather than any open guard against standing type stuff, which suits me fine. I got to have a good play with the crucifix entries and attacks I learned at the Dave Jacobs seminar a few weeks ago in Virginia, which was fun.

I managed the entry a few times, but couldn't get her arm straightened out walking my feet up it. She was also careful to tuck her chin to make that bow and arrow style grip difficult. I could perhaps have worked a sliding choke, because I might be able to get away with not going under the chin as much there, so I need to remember to attempt that next time.

There was loads of chatting with Josh and Stephanie too: all in all, a super cool way to round off my trip this year. I will definitely be back in the States, but it might be a coupe of years before I head out again. At the moment, my next priorities are Seattle, Washington DC, Philadelphia and New York (the only place in the US that would tempt my gf to give this country another try), followed by return trips to Virginia, Texas and Florida. :)

Update May 2014: Josh's write-up here.

01/05/2014 - Stephanie's Women's Class (Triangle Under Side Control)

Class #565
Fabio Novaes BJJ, Stephanie McClish, Lakeland, FL, USA - 01/05/2014

A photo posted by Can (Jun) (@slideyfoot) on May 1, 2014 at 6:47pm PDT

Back to the awesomeness of Stephanie's women's class tonight, where this time we covered a technique I frequently use, the triangle from under side control. Stephanies uses it the same way I do, which is as an escape that very occasionally might turn into a submission.

The situation is that they are in side control, but have put and arm inside your leg (if they haven't put the arm inside, you can walk you legs up by their arm and get a similar position). Push their head towards your legs and swing one over the head, locking in a triangle position where you capture both their arm and their head.

Normally it will be hard to submit from here, but to try, slide your upper body underneath their torso (you may need to move their arm because it is often obstructing your route), lock your arms around them and thrust your hips. Usually they will posture up before you get that far, whereupon you can shrimp away and recover your guard.

In the half guard specific sparring at the start I again wasn't doing great on the passing or underneath, so I'm looking forward to half guard month at Artemis BJJ. Clearly my half guard needs a lot of work, as I'm not really doing anything from there. I flail at the scissor sweep and roll over from knee shield and occasionally go for deep half Homer Simpson, but that's about it. Ineed much more from the standard haf guard.

Getting to free sparring, just like last time, the women all had good pressure, turning my head and working the pass. I was again trying to go to deep half as well as try Kev's 'nappy grip' (or what I decided to dub the 'mawashi grip' because I think it sounds cooler :p), but not much success with either. I am at least remembering to regrip on the mawashi option.

29/04/2014 - Stephanie's Women's Class at Fabio Novaes BJJ

Class #564
Fabio Novaes BJJ, Stephanie McClish, Lakeland, FL, USA - 29/04/2014

My next stop after West Palm Beach was Lakeland, a few hours further north into Florida, where away from the beach it becomes rural. The reason I headed that way, as usual, was more cool bloggers, this time the McClish sisters. Allie picked me up from the train station in order to get me checked in at the AirBnB, then Stephanie drove me to Fabio Novaes Jiu Jitsu about an hour later.

I've followed both of their blogs for many years now, as well as reading both of them write about running a women's class. Allie started it off, a responsibility that has since passed to Stephanie. I already knew from seeing her at the Boca that she's a dedicated coach, so it was cool to experience one of her classes. Although it's a women's class, men have been invited along a number of times: I was one of two men there tonight.

Stephanie kicks off with a 'circuit training' style warm-up, with four stations in each corner of the mat. You start off with jumping jacks, then kimura sit ups (in other words, diagonal rather than square on with your knees), mountain climbers and finally using a Swiss ball to swivel onto your front then back again. I think it was two minutes every time, with two or three people at each station.

The topic for this month is half guard, as Stephanie noticed that some of her students were having issues with half guard at the Boca Open. To start off we did some specific sparring from half guard, keeping things fairly light. I was with the other guy in class, Patrick. Underneath, I did my terrified squirrl impression and clung on tightly to his leg, spending most of it in quarter-guard (so, clinging to the lower part of the leg). He basically had back control at the end, wriggling that second hook into place.

On top, I got swept a lot. I wasn't able to dig out any space for the underhook, reverting to that position where you are turned towards their legs. I could perhaps have used my head next to theirs for more control, clamping my elbow. Either way, Patrick was able to get underneath me every time and roll me over, so my base wasn't solid enough and my grips were poor. Good reminder that I should think more carefully about half guard passing! :)

Technique for tonight was a straight-forward half guard sweep. Assuming you don't have the underhook next, get up on your side and bring your top arm in front of their face, swivelling it to reach past their armpit. Use that to slide down towards their legs, reaching through their legs with your bottom arm. Link your hands together.

Stretch out their leg on that side with your own. Making sure you keep your inside leg over their calf (otherwise they can just step into mount), push off with your outside foot and roll them away from you, moving to the top position. Be careful of staying too close to their legs: if you leave your head and arm inside their legs, they can go for a triangle. Once you're on top, you should be able to move into side control, sliding past their leg.

The other option is almost exactly the same, except that you roll them the other way, over your body. This feels more natural, though like Patrick said, that could just be because of our jiu jitsu instincts. For somone who hasn't trained before, perhaps the other way would feel more intuitive. ;)

Class finished off with several rounds of sparring. I had a light roll with Stephanie, who is recovering from a knee injury. That prevents her from standing up to pass, which meant I wasn't going to the gi grips I've been playing with recently. At some point I got on top and tried for the spinning gi lapel choke, but I went for it too early, without having secured enough gi by her neck.

I had a few rolls with several of the other women in the class, who had good hip movement and plenty of energy. Maria pretty much had a rear naked choke locked on from a smooth transition, but I think her elbow wasn't quite by my chin, so I had enough space to squirm out.

Sparring with Patrick involved me getting choked. I was falling into the trap of going to the running escape then having my back taken. The first one was a rear naked choke (I think?), followed by a bow and arrow grip finished with his fre arm sliding behind my head. I remembered to pull on the elbow to escape one bow and arrow type attempt, but couldn't manage it the second time.

I also kept getting my arm trapped between his legs, I think because I was looking to go to deep half from mount. I need to keep in mind the primary rule for escaping the back: protect your neck! I'm getting complacent on that, which leads to being choked. ;)

I really liked the atmosphere at the women's class: everyone was very friendly and the rolls were at a good pace. As Artemis BJJ will soon be starting a womens class, I'm keen to glean any tips, especially given Stephanie's approach has been so successful. The number of women at the club has grown from 1 to over 20 since Allie and Stephanie started: if we can manage that at Artemis it would be awesome! :D

28/04/2014 - American Top Team West Palm Beach (Open Mat)

Class #563
American Top Team (BJJ), Open Mat, West Palm Beach, FL, USA - 28/04/2014

A photo posted by Can (Jun) (@slideyfoot) on Apr 28, 2014 at 11:33am PDT

One of my favourite bloggers for many years now has been the erudite Megan, who runs Tangled Triangle and Groundwork. She managed to arrange for us to head into the spacious ATT West Palm Beach gym and hit the mats for around 1.5hrs of rolling and drilling. We started off with some light rolling, where again I was playing with the gi lapel from guard, as it is so much easier on my fingers than spider guard. I was mostly just trying to maintain my guard, wriggling around to square back up: I think I am relying too much on flexibility sometimes with that, as my legs occasionally get into odd positions that probably aren't entirely safe.

I can't remember how exactly, but I later ended up on top, passing from half guard with the knee cut to then shift to side control and mount, my favourite progression from the top. In mount I was attempting to walk up into the armpits and trap the arms like always.

This time I did something different, deciding to feed my lapel to the arm I have under the head, then step off into side control to finish off the spinning gi lapel choke (I need to think of a name for that: I know there was a name for it on MGinAction that I mentioned last time I tauht this, so I'll look that up next time I'm on a laptop rather than my phone).

That's a transition I don't think about often, but it's worth considering. I'm not sure I'm comfortable giving up mount for side control, as it's lower down the positional hierarchy, but then again if I have a submission cinched in, it is perhaps a sensible exception. I went for the bow and arrow as well at some point, which I'm continuing to try and improve (for the possibly dubious reason that I kind of think I should due to calling my club 'Artemis BJJ'. ;D).

We then got into a load of drilling. Megan had mentioned she wanted to work on her mount control, so I shared what I do, especially thrusting the hips through and clamping the soles of your feet to their sides, as well as tucking your feet under their bum. I also mentioned the 'think of mount as guard except you're sat on them' idea, as I've found that a helpful concept to keep in mind.

A bit of specific sparring enabled me to add in some other possibilities, such as the way I tend to escape mount by digging under their knee with my elbow. If they turn to technical mount, I push their raised leg over and around my knee to get some leverage to squeeze through and escape.

It seemed that if Megan put her bum further back, sitting towards rather than her weight coming forwards, I had much less space. I'm not certain if that reduces control, but it felt tougher for me to escape. Switching swiftly to the back worked for Megan too, as then I didn't have time to start shoving my knee through.

I also shared the low mount escape Michel Verhoeven showed me at his seminar, where he does a series of short bumps to get his arm under, putting the hand by the opposite hip. He stiff arms into that hip and shoves, with the intention of opening up enough space to initiate an escape.

We also had a play with stuff from guard. I gave one of Mikal's sweeps a go, where he pushes their arm back then hooks it with the leg he has around their back, locking his instep by the crook of their elbow. He uses that to then roll them over. Megan suggested that it could be a nifty way to set up a triangle too, which felt very smooth when she did it.

23/04/2014 - University of Texas at Austin (Open Mat)

Class #562
University of Texas at Austin, (BJJ), Austin, TX, USA - 23/04/2014

Today I got to meet another cool blogger who I have 'known' online for a few years, who has moved back to Austin from Korea. John runs the I Love Leg Locks blog and he lives up to that name, so I spent a lot of our roll being very careful of my feet. I decided to flail at a leg lock at least once, as it seemed I really should given the name of John's blog: unsurprisingly, he tapped me not long after. ;)

John is a brown belt who now trains at the University of Texas at Austin (where he is also studying for a masters degree). That fortunately means he has access to one of the matted rooms there, so we could get in a bit of sparring and drilling. After a quick warm-up, we got in a good roll, at a fairly light pace.

As ever I failed to do a whole lot from guard. Mainly I played around with grabbing the gi tail and sticking my foot in it, but I don't really know what to do with that position. I should probably have a look at some of the random stuff people do with 'lapel guard', though I suspect it is probably too complex for me. Could be fun to try though.

One thing I should have done is Kev's 'nappy grip' sweep as they go to knee cut. Iremembered to shove the gi tail under their leg, but didn't remember to then switch grips again. Also, as John metioned later, you will have trouble rolling them if they get their hip to the mat. At least I think that's what he said, meaning I need to get underneath them to complete the sweep.

Another tip John mentioned was on passing, especially useful because it built on something I already do. I try to stay low and tight with pretty much everything I do on top. When passing, John suggested I progress from that tight position to also using my head to finish the pass. Wriggle it down next to their head and use it as a sort of third arm. Sounds like a good plan, so I'm looking forwrd to giving that a go next time I'm struggling to pass (which is most of the time when I'm trying to pass).

My back escape remains too sloppy. I keep forgetting to implement what I learned from Dónal, so I think I'd benefit from lots of drilling on back esapes. When I get back to the UK, Artemis BJJ will have started its expanded schedule, including open mat time: I see copious back escape drills in my future.

Jesse was going to join us, but something important came up, meaning he didn't make it over until I was about to leave. Still, he did at least get to roll with John (who is a lot more beneficial to roll with than me: it would be interesting to take a class with him, as he's clearly a decent teacher).

22/04/2014 - Gracie Humaitá (Beginners Class)

Class #561
Gracie Humaitá, (BJJ), Paulo ‘Coelho’ Brandão, Austin, TX, USA - 22/04/2014

A photo posted by Can (Jun) (@slideyfoot) on Apr 24, 2014 at 5:45pm PDT

After being dropped off by my new friends from the Aces Jiu Jitsu Club session, I headed up to Georgette's office. The next destination was Gracie Humaita Austin, another beautiful facilitiy. I've read and seen so much of that academy through Georgette's blog that a lot of it felt familiar, especially the faces I saw later on during the sparring class. The focus tonight was on butterfly passing, which Paulo said was a signature move of his.

The first butterfly pass begins by sinking your base as low as possible. If they have both butterfly hooks rather than one ready to lift, you can box them in with your knees. Insert a knee behind their heel (if they have one leg raised, you want to put your knee by the other leg), then step out your other foot. Make sure you are stepping out rather than forward, to avoid giving them a chance to get underneath you and lift.

Using an underhook and driving with your head, spin their upper body to the ground. You aren't driving straight forward, you're steering them in a semi-circle. Basing on your head and the shoulder you have pressed into them (due to your underhook), pop your hips up. You can then knee cut across the leg where you put your knee earlier. If you need to, shove their leg to the mat with your hand.

I don't think I quite got the second variation. It starts the same, but this time they manage to initiate an underhook before you can complete your knee cut. With the arm they're trying to underhook, grasp their same side knee and clamp your elbow to your side. This is where I got a bit confused: move around (I think?), then as they try to shrimp away, cross face and complete the knee cut pass.

The main super-cool thing about tonight was finally training with Georgette. You can tell she'd be a good teacher as she's very focused on getting the technique right, regularly calling over the instructor to double-check the finer points. She also gave me a ton of useful advice as we were doing the technique, polishing specific movements, questioning grips and highlighting details. I'm keen to get in some rolling with her later this week.

I was less keen on getting in loads of rolling generally. So, I continued to be wimpy and sit out of the following hour of sparring, both because I'm lazy and I also don't want to injure myself this early in the trip. Not that I don't trust the control of the students there: I don't trust my own control, as I regularly hurt myself if I do any extensive sparring . ;)

22/04/2014 - Aces Jiu Jitsu Club

Class #560
Aces Jiu Jitsu Club, (BJJ), Austin, TX, USA - 22/04/2014

I trained with Mikal last time I was in Austin, back in 2012. At that time he was a purple belt at another club, occasionally teaching class and also regularly teaching kids. I had the chance to watch him teach kids during the previous trip and was impressed by his mixture of discipline (he has a military background) and humour. It was also obvious how much he cared about helping students progress.

Almost two years later and Mikal is a brown belt with his own club, launched in September of last year. Impressively, he already has a massive space with a hundred members, a wifi lounge and even a fully matted creche (there's a handy window for both baby and parents to see each other while training).

Like we do at Artemis BJJ, Mikal also has a theme for the month. For April that was leglocks, something I have avoided for most of my time in jiu jitsu. I have a vague idea of what a straight ankle lock is and I know to grab people and pull them in towards me as a defence if they grab my foot, but that's about it. Even more outside of my experience was he specific theme for this week: 50/50 guard.

Dónal would no doubt have been amused, as right before I left to fly out this year we were talking about my aversion to what might be called 'modern' jiu jitsu, for want of a better word. But meh, it's good to at least know how to avoid the position and escape it, even if I have no intention of getting into it myself.

First off was leglocks, with a drill switching between the straight ankle lock and the cross ankle lock. Presuming I understood it, the straght ankle lock involves putting their leg by your same side hip, bringing one arm under the achilles tendon, with the cutting part of your forearm (so, just below the wrist). Reach that hand to your chest, putting the other hand palm-down on top.

Mikal had a useful visual metaphor here, a hallmark of his teaching, likening it to a romantic gesture of holding your heart. That perfectly described the position. You'll also have your outside foot on their hip, the other under their other leg, squeezing your knee together. To finish, look up then thrust your hips slightly: Mikal calls this 'Megan Fox-ing', as she's known for looking over her shoulder and pouting.

The cross ankle lock is very similar, except that you pick up their ankle and pull it across your body, to your opposite hip. The rest of the technique is the same, wrapping up under the ankle, looking up and Megan Fox-ing.

Main technique for tonight was a 50/50 armbar, which was also a footlock escape. They have a straight ankle lock secured but not locked. Grab the elbow of the arm they have under your achilles. Pull that towards you and scoot forward, while also popping your hips around as if you were trying to take the back. Kick your trapped leg through, then triangle it with your other leg.

Next you want to pry their arm free. This has a bunch of options, but to keep it simple (the class was all white belts), reach inside and wriggle the arm out. With your opposite arm, grab on the side of the elbow (another image from Mikal here, saying it's where the joint would be if they were wearing plate armour), while your other hand reaches across to grab their opposite collar.

Pull them over and down towards your non-trapped leg, also yanking their arm in the other direction. Bring your non-trapped leg over their head, sliding your arm to their wrist. From here you can thrust up for the armbar, either using your hip as a leverage point or potentially your knee.

Before we got into technique Mikal and I had a flow roll, which largely consisted of me trying to avoid my feet getting entangled. He was going very light: otherwise he could have submitted me a number of times, such as the calf slicer he had at one point. We also filmed a quick technique video for his YouTube channel: I don't mind being on camera, but I declined the offer to also film myself teaching. That would need a lot more preparation on my part. ;)

Update Aug 2014: The video is now up, so you get to see some great techniques from Mikal, with lots of blinking and awkwardness from me. Hooray! ;)



Mikal also has an interesting variation on shrimping. Rather than pushing off a foot and pushing your hip out, Mikal steps his foot across, almost in a running escape type fashion. He then pushes off from that position for the shrimp. His reasoning is that this makes it harder for them to shove down on your knee to pass, because you're protecting one leg with the other.

After class we headed off to the park. Mikal's partner Marlana (who was responsible for the tasty meal we had back in 2012 and has since had a baby) recently came up with the cool idea of throwing some mats down on the grass to have a roll. It's a nifty advert, so I guess in future they'll have banners and the like to emphasise exactly why there are a bunch of people cuddling each other on some puzzle mats. ;)

That also meant I got to hang out and chat with some of the students, which was very cool. 'Mean' Marlene talked about her background in Mexico and aspirations as a fighter (she not only trains BJJ, but boxing and muay thai as well), while Lacey discused tattoos with me and her fantastic hair. Marlene and Dustin also very kindly drove me both to the park and to Georgette's office, in time for me to get a lift with her to the Gracie Humaita beginner's class.

18/04/2014 - Open Mat in Virginia Beach

Class #559
Olympus Fitness & Martial Arts, (BJJ), Virginia Beach, VA, USA - 18/04/2014

A photo posted by Can (Jun) (@slideyfoot) on Apr 18, 2014 at 12:11pm PDT

I have had a brilliant time in Virginia so far, thanks to both the awesome hospitality of my host Adrienne from The Green Gi and the fantastic group of people who have all come together this weekend. I knew two of them online before - Chrissy Linzy from US Grappling and Leslie from BJJ Grrl - but the others I hadn't interacted with much before. That changed as soon as I headed into Norfolk Airport, where they met me down by baggage claim, then we went out for a meal as a group. This would be the pattern over the next few days, along with fun bits of socialising like a game of Cards Against Humanity on Friday night.

I'd certainly heard of at least one of them before: Val Worthington. She's a black belt who has been active in BJJ for many years, both online and offline. I first encountered her through the BJJ Vision Quest blog she used to write, which I think she is now using as source material for a book (might be on something else entirely: either way, I'll definitely be buying it!). More recently she's known for her insightful articles on the Breaking Muscle website.

Val has also succeeded at the highest levels of competition, so I was very much looking forward to rolling with her. It entirely lived up to my expectations, as Val is a superb training partner. Although she could easily have spent the roll tapping me over and over again, she instead stayed light (but tight: any space I made instantly disappeared), waiting to see what I would do. There are very few people capable of perfectly adjusting to their training partner's level like that: the only ones that immediately spring to mind that I've rolled with are my instructor Kev Capel, Jeff Rockwell, my fellow Artemis BJJ co-founder Dónal and John 'jnp' Palmer. A rare and valuable skill.

In terms of rolling in general (over the hour, I was able to spar with most of the group), I'm still playing more spider guard than I would like, relying on those arthritis-tastic grips. I need to attempt simple feet on hips more, along with that Xande open guard I used to do. Then again, it's not a bad thing to occasionally play with it. I couldn't get the sweep Kev showed me when they're on their knees, though I did manage that simple one Dónal gave me some pointers about recently, where you're just steering them over to the side.

With the addition of turning my head to look over my shoulder and tucking my elbow, that gets a lot more leverage. I wasn't following up all that smoothly though: when I've knocked someone over with that, I need to close the distance more efficiently. I ended up yanking on the arm and using that to crawl to mount or side control.

My passing is also too repetitive: I always push through to half guard then try and knee cut. I need to vary that up more, adding in Dónal's leg squash pass, as well as moving from side to side. It does work, but then if I am against anybody good at blocking me from half guard and/or scuppering the knee cut, I'm stuck.

Under side contol, I'm tending to either over rely on the running escape or move into weird stuff, rather than solidifying the basic guard recovery and turn to knees. For example, I frequently go for the triangle under side control, which really shouldn't be a go to technique. Having said that, if I can get my legs in position, it does often lead to an escape. The problem is most people with experience won't let you push their head and get your legs in place.

The shin in elbow trick (from Beneville's Strategic Guard) is less low percentage: it's something I am getting more regularly now that I've been working on stiff arming their sleeve away from me in the running escape, like Kev showed me. I got an interesting taste of my own medicine on that front, because Adrienne made very effective use of the same principle when we rolled.

Just like her gi company, Adrienne's game is innovative. She uses a lot of gi grips, combined with good flexibility and agility. I managed to pass her guard and was looking to set up the gi tail choke, when Adrienne got a grip on my gi and stuck a leg inside. I didn't think too much of it, as I assumed I could eventually wriggle my hand around and use gradual leverage to free the sleeve.

Instead, I somehow found myself in a tight triangle: very cool attack on Adrienne's part, as I didn't see it coming and was pretty much caught. I was getting close to tapping, then Adrienne eased off slightly, as I think she thought it wasn't on. I walked over towards he head, then popped free after a slow wriggle.

Immediately after the roll, I realised my neck was sore. It's hard to know if I'm getting the balance between testing out my defence to see if there is a way out, or just being stubborn to the point of hurting myself. Seeing as my neck was sore, I would strongly suspect I was closer to the 'stubborn and stupid' end of the spectrum this time round. ;)

After one last roll with Leslie, I decided to stop at that point, in case I aggravated my neck. It wasn't too bad, but seeing as I've got lots more training to do on this trip, resting it made sense. I rolled with almost everybody, including Brian, who is much, much bigger than me. Despite that size difference, like Val he is good at adjusting his pace. I never felt like he was using strength or size: with some big guys, I don't feel safe and avoid engaging. With Brian, I felt totally comfortable: we rolled again right after the first time.

Tomorrow there is a Dave 'Rock' Jacobs seminar. That's perfect, as it means not only do I get to train with a top black belt, I can also continue to rest my neck as seminars are normally all technique with optional rolling at the end. I'm also looking forward to trying out a suggestion Leslie made: she uses the gi tail grip from guard for a choke, grabbing next to the initial hand with her other hand, then bringing her arm around their head to set up the choke. Sounds cool! :)

17/06/2013 - University of Jiu Jitsu (San Diego, USA)

Class #505
University of Jiu Jitsu (BJJ), Rentao Lima Vieira, San Diego, CA, USA - 17/06/2013

My final training in California was at another beautiful facility, the University of Jiu Jitsu. I have admired the instructionals of the Ribeiro brothers for a long time and Saulo is a jiu jitsu hero of mine, meaning it was an honour to train at his gym and interview him.

This was all thanks to Dave Kim, the man who both originally pitched the idea of the BJJ Library to Saulo and now runs it (that includes filming, admin etc, so he's a busy man), having moved across the country to do so. He contacted me about reviewing the site some time ago, then when I mentioned I was coming to California, he immediately offered to drive me over to the academy and set up the interview with Saulo. I felt very lucky to get to chat to the man himself for almost an hour as a result.

The University is yet another stop Julia visited back in 2011 during her West Coast trip. Unlike that time, Saulo was not there to teach the class, as this was the early morning 09:00-10:00 session. The instructor was Renato Vieira (sitting next to Saulo in the picture above), who judging by Google and Facebook is associated with Rodrigo Pagani, one of Saulo's black belts. If you're on BJJ Library, Pagani is the guy who has the Curu Curu guard videos, although I haven't looked at those yet. Vieira led four of us through a standard warm-up of running round the room, facing in, knees up, shrimping and so forth. That progressed to a strongly judo influenced set of drills, with grip fighting followed by some takedown entries.

The technique for the lesson was a deep half guard sweep. You have half guard with a knee shield. Move your head and arm close to their non-wrapped leg, curling in tight. Stretch out their trapped leg with both of yours by straightening them, while at the same time shooting the arm you've brought near their other leg underneath it. Bump them up with that arm, bringing it past their bottom, as you turn your body. Your reaching arm now locks above their knee, while your other elbow stays hidden: the first thing they will try from top deep half is isolating that arm, therefore keeping it safe is a priority.

Hooking under their ankle with your leg and lift, using that to spin to the top and initiate your pass. When Vieira walked round to check on drilling, he added another detail for Dave and I. 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.

Sparring started with Dave at a fairly light pace, probably because he is both bigger and more skilled than I am. I was looking for the tripod and sickle sweep again when we were in open guard, but kept being blocked because Dave would crouch slightly and bring a knee forward. I need to develop a good follow-up sweep for when that happens, particularly as Dave was not the only person to do that to me today.

The next roll was with a green belt (an unusual rank for an adult in BJJ, but several schools use it, such as ATT and University of Jiu Jitsu), again a bit bigger than me. He also recently starred in a video where Saulo drains his cauliflower ear, which got a bit of traction on YouTube. They were talking about it before the lesson, although it appears Saulo did a good job as I didn't notice the green belt's ear being particularly messed up. I briefly had an attempt at the windscreen wiper sweep, but soon got passed.

He had little trouble squashing me under side control, where yet again I relied on the running escape to save me. My partner's response to it was stepping over the head, whereupon I went to turtle and tried to return to guard, but mostly just got stuck in the running escape. He would step back over to repeat the pattern, until the timer went. Like John said in Texas, I must develop a chain of escapes rather than 100% running escape, which has been an issue for a while now.

My final roll was with the six-month white belt who like me was visiting from out of town. Naturally I had an advantage given I've been training a lot longer than that, so could practice my top control and closed guard. For once I was able to successfully use the overhook from closed guard, then slowly work to a triangle. However, that again was very much down to the experience gap, not any skill on my part: in another six months, I am sure that roll would have been quite different as he wouldn't leave those gaps.

Saulo arrived after the class had finished: he is a lot bigger in person, with arms larger than my head. Saulo's passion for his latest project, the BJJ Library run by Dave, is clear. Saulo and Dave have a lot of plans for the site, which also came out in Saulo's interview, along with his thoughts on moving to America, teaching methodology, growing BJJ and numerous other topics. That will all be popping up in a future issue of Jiu Jitsu Style. (Update Feb 2015: The whole interview is now available here)

Thanks again to Saulo for the interview and to Dave for being such a great host. Dave welcomed me to San Diego from the Greyhound station, drove me around the city to show me the sights the next day, then brought me to Saulo's school for training a few hours before I flew out. :D

15/06/2013 - Fabio Santos BJJ (San Diego, USA)

Class #504
Fabio Santos (BJJ), Fabio Santos, San Diego, CA, USA - 15/06/2013

Like the Gracie Academy, Fabio Santos has also been present for much of BJJ's global expansion. His teaching in the US dates back to at least 1983. He was running classes in New York for strength and conditioning, but had a few mats off to the side where he would show a few moves at the end of class. He eventually found himself in San Diego after a brief stint in Utah, followed by a much longer period teaching at the Gracie Academy. Santos was the main instructor there when Royce was preparing for the first UFC.

Santos has taught in San Diego since 1998: he has seen the jiu jitsu scene there explode over the last decade and a half. His gym is of fairly modest dimensions, without the swish facilities of the Gracie Academy, but the training was excellent with some great sparring partners. I was not the only visitor: my drilling partner was a blue belt called Alex from Tristar up in Montreal, who teaches boxing and jiu jitsu at his club.

The main reason I was there (and indeed set off on my California trip in the first place), apart from interviewing Santos about his many years in jiu jitsu (you can now read it, here), was to meet up and train with two cool people I know from the internet. I have met Fightworks Podcast host Caleb before, during the ADCC 2011, but this was the first time I would get to train with him. The other person was Dagney, who I know via her excellent blog. She kindly picked me up from my hotel and gave me a lift to the school, so we had a chance to get in a good chat on the way.

Like Tatami Multi Arts, this academy was also on Julia's West Coast trip. I recognised a couple of settings for her pictures, such as the bench outside and indeed the person sitting on the bench in Julia's picture. In my case, Alex Brandao greeted me from his car instead. ;)

The class was even less formal than yesterday (the only formality I noticed was each person who came in shook everyone else's hand, which I last saw at Rilion's academy in Houston), with no real warm-up, going straight into a drill. Fabio is old school and believes in the importance of the original self defence curriculum. He therefore began with an escape from them bear hugging your arms. Brace your hands against their hips, move to the side and grab their far wrist, step in front then take them down with a hip throw.

The two main techniques both related to rolling your partner over, preventing the pass, straight into a reversal. Grab their arm on the side they're passing and straighten out your arm, shoving it under their body towards your opposite hip. With your other arm, reach over their back and grab their belt. Use those grips to roll them over, shifting around in mid-air to end in side control

For the second technique, they are looking for the double underhook pass. Grasp one of their arms with both of yours, push it across and clamp it to your hip. Roll through in the direction their hand is pointing. That should flip them over, meaning you can establish side control, or alternatively you could go for a waki gatame armbar. Each technique was repeated three or four times without much talking, then it was down to us to drill.

It turned out that instruction does not really progress beyond that level of detail. I asked Santos about that later: he used to show techniques in a lot more depth, but interestingly he has since found that he prefers people to work through the technique in practice (there is therefore plenty of time allocated to drilling), rather than relying on him to make multiple corrections.

I can see the point of that (particularly as there were lots of black belts on the mats, due to the age of the gym), although my personal preference when learning is as much detail as possible. In teaching terms, I'm still not sure of the best approach. Right now, I'm trying to combine the two, starting with a simple movement, complicating it later.

Sparring was divided into groups, due to the limited mat space. That has the advantage of an automatic rest period, which for lazy people like me is handy, particularly given the humidity of the academy. I was dripping with sweat at the end of the class, despite having only rolled three times at a comparatively light pace.

Training with Caleb was interesting, as he doesn't have the game you might expect. It turns out that Caleb is very flexible, which completely changes side control. He is more than happy to let you pass, establish side control, then suddenly a pair of legs come from nowhere and you're fighting to avoid getting sucked into a crucifix. Side control goes from being a comfortable, dominant position to a risky prospect where you're constantly worried about limbs appearing at bizarre angles. I have sparred with people like that before, such as Trev from RGA Bucks, but Trev has long legs: Caleb does it without being all that tall, which is impressive.

Dagney was next, who as an experienced brown belt also went fairly light. We got into a pattern where I worked for the knee shield half guard but failed to set up a sweep. There are two I want to develop from that position, both of which Nick Brooks originally taught me and I've taught at GB Bristol in the past (with some pointers from Caio Terra's comprehensive half guard DVD). I'm clearly missing lots of details, so I need to review those. Dagney would then pass, I eventually escaped side control, then back to the knee shield.

My final round was with Alex, my drilling partner from earlier. He carefully controlled his pace, never pushing a position to the point of a struggle. If we were getting stuck at any point (e.g., when I kept going to the running escape), he simply disengaged and went for something else, which was refreshing. There are not many training partners who are that mature. Alternatively, it could just be he was so much better than me that it was no challenge for him to keep pushing. Either way, yet another good reminder to improve my back escapes, as I end up with my back taken far too often. ;D

I wasn't wearing my glasses, so was confused when everyone started applauding some guy in shorts and a t-shirt over by the entrance. I thought at first he might have been some long time member of the gym who had just come back from an injury or time off, like Caleb and Dagney. Once he sat down and started talking, all became clear: this wasn't just another member of the gym, it was Relson Gracie. He was running a seminar the next day, which I would have definitely tried to attend if I was on a solo holiday, but running off when my girlfriend had patiently let me train twice in a row would have been rather unfair.

After I finished my interview with Santos and took some photos, Caleb drove me to his house where he cooked a delicious meal for Dagney and I, with an amazing view from the back of his home. We chatted jiu jitsu, with a more extended recorded chat later, as Caleb asked if I wanted to change my usual role and be the interviewee.

I don't think I'm particularly worthy of being interviewed, especially on Fightworks (still by far the best BJJ podcast out there), but it did give me another chance to plug the GrappleThon concept again, an opportunity I always try to take. Not to mention that to write a blog in the first place you have to have a certain degree of narcissism: I'm generally more than happy to talk about myself. :)

Caleb kindly also gave me some money towards the GrappleThon that took place back in May, in support of the charity RapeCrisis. My page is still open for donations here, in case anyone fancies following Caleb's example. ;D

The interview itself is now available here: if for some reason the download doesn't work, you can just click the 'play' button for the audio. My section starts about 35 minutes in.

14/06/2013 - Gracie Academy (Los Angeles, USA)

Class #503
Gracie Academy (BJJ), Rener Gracie, Torrance, CA, USA - 14/06/2013

Torrance has a special place in the history of international Brazilian jiu jitsu, because it is where the expansion truly began. It was not the first place on US soil to teach BJJ, but the Gracie Academy was undeniably the most important school in the initial growth of the art outside of Brazil. It was therefore really cool to finally walk through those doors and see all that history staring right back at me.

This is a building well aware of its significance, most obviously in the small Gracie Museum filled with artefacts from jiu jitsu's past. There are lots of tributes to Helio, as you would expect, newspaper clippings from the heyday of vale tudo and old gis from the middle of the last century. I was reminded once again that it would be extremely useful to read Portuguese: I've been through the Pimsleur course, but need to start practicing in some methodical way, perhaps by finally tackling that Carlos Gracie biography sitting on my bookshelf.

The museum display I found most interesting was the case containing original logbooks from the first year the Torrance Academy was operating, in 1989. I recognised several of the names as early US pioneers, like Chris Haueter, Bob Bass and Chris Saunders. Walking along the corridor, your route is lined with magazine covers depicting the jiu jitsu explosion ushered in by Rorion and his relatives, until eventually you catch sight of those famous green mats.

My guide was Ben, whose articulate online presence has provided a much-needed perspective on the Gracie Academy, posting as bjh13. I have been impressed with how he has conducted himself in places like Sherdog and reddit, always ready to offer up a rational argument and solid points. He manages to be pro-Gracie Academy without the marketing spiel, therefore playing a central role in moderating the excessive vitriol that often gets directed at Rorion and his sons.

The reason I was at the Academy was to meet one of those sons, Rener Gracie. Ben set up the interview and also drove me there: I can't thank him enough for all his help. Rener was teaching a private lesson when we arrived and invited us to watch the tail end, as he did some light sparring with his student. He was teaching a celebrity, but as the celebrity in question was from American Football, I wasn't familiar with him. Rener mentioned his name later: Tamba Hali, who plays for the Kansas City Chiefs. Sounds like he has an interesting story, judging by his Wikipedia profile. I didn't get to talk to him much, but seemed like a nice guy and clearly a talented athlete (Update July 2013: Hali features in his own episode of The Gracie Way webseries, here.)

Right after that private with Hali, we got into the interview, spending about fifty minutes discussing history and teaching methodology. It also meant I had my first in-person encounter with Rener's infamous sales patter, a polished piece of marketing machinery. Rorion himself briefly popped his head round the door, which was a bit of a shock. Despite his immense contributions to jiu jitsu, Rorion does not put on any airs and graces.

Update 2016: The interview is now up as a podcast.

It was then time for class, which was a lot less formal than you might expect. In fact, I would say it is one of the least formal classes I've been to. There was no bowing I can recall and I just jumped in during the warm-up. This wasn't the typical run around the room, face inwards, sit-ups and the like. Instead, Rener ran through several body movements. The main one I remember is swinging one leg slowly backwards, carefully balancing and bending forwards until your hands touch the floor. You then reverse direction, bringing the same leg forward and hugging that knee in towards your chest.

The class was part of the Master Cycle, which is what students at the Academy learn after Gracie Combatives. There was no mention of self defence: techniques were all well-taught and sparring felt just as challenging as anywhere else. The class format and content felt much the same as any other class I've been to elsewhere in the UK and US, if more structured and better resourced than most academies.

Ben told me that Rener has been concentrating on mount for the last two months (which is awesome: I wish more schools would focus on a single position for that long). Today, Rener wanted to share how to transition from mount to knee on belly. From mount, fishtail your leg over and move into knee on belly, then to switch to the other side, put both knees on their ribs , crossing your feet over and shifting to knee on belly in the opposite direction.

The drills continued in that vein, building onto that initial movement with another motion. If they turn towards you while you are in knee on belly, spin towards their head, moving directly into technical mount (the picture shows Xande doing it from mount rather than knee on belly, but gives you an idea of which position I'm talking about). Although I may have mixed up the direction: I got slightly confused when drilling at one point, probably because Rener was staring at me. ;)

Rener increased the complexity for the next stage, where he developed the sequence into taking the back. From that technical mount position (if they are blocking tightly with their knee, you can try shifting up their back then pushing your foot through), lock up the gift wrap, then roll to take the back. Switch your grips to go for the choke, which will normally make them reach with their free hand to pull on your forearm. Once that arm starts moving, bring your leg over the top and trap it, giving you free rein to attack. Push on the head and go for the armbar as they try to move their other arm. Again, I may have missed some details there.

Finally, from your knee on belly position, you can move into an armbar. Push their near side hand down to the mat. That should encourage them to turn towards the hand, because they don't want you to isolate it and attack. Disengage your knee to shift into side control, keeping them under pressure by driving all your weight through your chest, pressing just behind their shoulder. Switch your grips to gift wrap their other hand, grabbing your own wrist to secure a figure-four.

Lever up your non-gift wrapping arm to raise their elbow, making it even harder for them to turn (this was a tip from Rener's black belt demonstration partner Jordan, son of the well-known poster simply called '12' on the Underground. He's clearly a good instructor who has learned the methodology, judging by his helpful technical advice when he walked over to Ben and I). Bring your knees in, pulling your partner in tight.

The knee nearest their legs slides higher up their back, in order to act as a pivot for swinging your other leg over their head and straight into a sort of s-mount, with the foot towards their hip. From here you're set-up to attempt the armbar. In order to get that swinging motion, Rener quickly had us all do a drill similar to Nic Gregoriades' 'shin box' from last year, swinging the leg into place from the knees, then returning to the knees to repeat, all without using the hands.

Sparring reminded me initially of classes I've taught myself, strangely, as they also kicked off with no submissions, just maintaining, escaping and sweeping. Sticking with the positional theme, we began in mount every time. Each round was six minutes, starting off with Ben. Prior to training I had been interested to see just how relaxed sparring was going to be, given the encouragement to 'keep it playful' (to use Ryron's terminology) and the lack of emphasis on competition. Ben's approach fit that mould, staying calm and relaxed.

That's markedly different from most new blue belts, particularly when I hold mount on them: they tend to buck wildly to throw me off, especially as they are invariably bigger. Ben is bigger too, but remained thoughtful and technical. I had a go at knee on belly, in an effort to practice the techniques we just learned. That's the kind of pace I enjoy, where it is possible to focus on technique because neither person is viewing it as some kind of fight to the death.

Melissa, another blue belt, was a little more energetic. She tried to stand up as soon as we moved to guard, driving forwards. I as usual attempted to go for the windscreen wiper sweep (picture on the left: that sweep has various names), but without much success. That was also the case with Ben, who did a good job of using the kneeling break repeatedly, making the windscreen wiper sweep difficult. I tried to do the simple response from Henry Akins in that situation, where I think he just shifts to the other side of their knee, but I need to rewatch the Sandy Hook seminar video to double-check the details.

Rener then beckoned me over for a roll. I wasn't surprised to see him tuck a hand into his belt or when I noticed a camera: there have been a few "Rener spars purple belt with both hands tied" videos bouncing around the internet. In this case, I think he was injured rather than simply handicapping himself, but either way, it's a good training approach when there is a large skill disparity. I'm a mediocre purple belt, while Rener is a high level black belt. He would still be able to beat me up even if both hands and feet were tied.

I took my usual passive approach, interested to see what he did: I don't get to spar black belts very often. Moving to my favoured running escape, he drove his knee across my trailing leg, which I think is the same method Sahid uses to smash that defence. The lack of a hand didn't stop him from easily submitting me (I remember an armbar, there were probably a few others).

That also reminded me to review my triangle defence. I tend to default to driving their knee to the mat and trying to open up space that way, but often get stuck there, at best getting into a war of attrition. There's also the stepping over the head method I occasionally attempt, though I think last time I did that I just got armbarred instead. ;)

For my final roll, Rener put me with one of the purple belts (I think his name was Alex, but I'm not sure). He started off light, letting me get position. Once he got into a dominant position, he upped the pace, to the point where it felt like sparring any other competitive higher belt. I was being defensive, spending a good chunk of the roll with my back taken.

At this point there was a revealing example of the Gracie Academy's relaxed and positive vibe. Alex had a rear naked choke almost locked, which I was defending (poorly) with my chin and arm. In some schools, you would get your jaw crushed, with the RNC choke applied directly to your face. Fortunately that did not happen here, as instead Alex took his time and waited to transition to a clean technique. Right as I thought I was slipping free, I suddenly found myself inside a head and arm triangle, smoothly set-up by Alex.

Training at the Academy and speaking to Rener was a cool experience. I still have the same reservations as before, but I now also know first-hand that (at least judging by that one class) training at the Gracie Academy is no different than training anywhere else. You're going to learn the same kind of techniques and get the same experience sparring. Hopefully I'll be able to check out a Gracie Combatives class some day, or something like the 'Reflex Development' class, as I would guess those are both less typical.

Update August 2013: The first part of the interview is now up on the Jiu Jitsu Style website, here. Part Two will be appearing in Issue #16 of the magazine.

Thanks again to Ben for not only driving me to the Academy and setting up the interview, but then taking me to the Greyhound station, letting me use his phone to contact my friend in San Diego to let him know I would be late, then drive me back to the Greyhound and double-check everything was ok. He even agreed to collect several packages for me at his home. I'd also like to thank Dave Kim, who waited patiently in San Diego without complaint, despite my arrival four hours later than expected. Cheers Dave!

Unfortunately I was in a hurry after training (as it turned out I didn't need to be, seeing as the bus was cancelled, resulting in a two hour wait) so didn't get to take any pictures. Bleh. Next time! Though that did at least help me remember to get pictures at the next two places I trained, Fabio Santos BJJ and the University of Jiu Jitsu, both in San Diego. As with Texas last year, I'll be sticking all the California training under the same label, with a general write-up of the whole trip here. :)

09/06/2013 - Tatami Multi Arts (San Francisco, USA)

Class #502
Tatami Multi Arts (BJJ), Dave Shin, El Cerrito, CA, USA - 09/06/2013

I first 'met' Dave on the JiuJitsuForums website a couple of years ago. We've been chatting on the forum, in PMs and on Facebook for a few years now. When he read I was heading to his neck of the woods on my California trip, he immediately suggested meeting up (I'm not the first blogger to have met up with Dave, as Julia also got to train with him during her amazing trip a couple of years ago. Coincidentally, she also recently put up an article based on some of Dave's JJF posts). We had a few drinks at Thirsty Bear in San Francisco, where he mentioned that his friend Adam at Tatami Multi Arts had an open mat the next day, after watching Metamoris II.

It wasn't too difficult to get over to the club from where I was staying in San Francisco. I walked down to the Powell St BART station (if like me you stay at the HI Hostel Downtown, that's the closest one), then bought a $3.95 ticket. The machines randomly go out of order, which was confusing, but buying the ticket is easy enough. The main strange part is that you have to know the value of the ticket beforehand, rather than the usual method of typing in your destination.

I took the train for Pittsburgh/Bay St, then changed at 19th St Station in order to travel towards Richmond (as Dave said in his handy directions, the trains are synchronised, which makes it simple). Getting off at El Cerrito Plaza, I was ready to walk to the club with the GPS on my phone, but Dave was already there waiting for me in his car. He also very kindly lent me a gi (I had my Gimono with me, but it's handy not having to wash it). First time I had worn a Fuji, which always gets good reviews: seemed comfy and I like how plain it is. It was just Dave, Adam and me, resulting in a relaxed open mat where we exchanged a few techniques.

Dave was the most experienced, with 15 years under his brown belt. He wanted to show Adam and I a few 'small guy' techniques (Adam is roughly the same size as me), initially from side control. We started with what I was most interested in, a method for maintaining side control Dave had mentioned at the Thirsty Bear last night, learned from a 130lbs training partner of his.

You're holding side control in the usual way with a cross-face. Bring your chest low to the ground, then aim to slide the upper part of your chest just under the exposed side of their pectoral muscle. Keep sliding forwards, maintaining a crushing pressure. Done right, this makes it hard for them to breathe. The difficulty is finding the right spot. If you think of tectonic plates sliding over each other, it's a bit like that.

Next up was a way of transitioning to knee on belly. From side control, move your arm on top of their throat, gripping the far collar, then shift your hips to point towards their head. This is reminiscent of reverse scarf hold. Your other arm is over by their far hip.

Use that far hand to post slightly, clamping in tight to the hip. Shove your hips into theirs, then pushing off your outside leg, slide your near leg right into knee on belly. Your back, hips and bum are blocking their knee from getting in the way.

Finally, Dave went through a straight ankle lock set-up, moving away from side control. In a guard passing position, you notice they don't have any grips and have a foot on the outside of your hip. Immediately fall back, trapping that foot on the way. Don't telegraph what you're about to do by wrapping up their foot first, or they'll move to prepare their escape.

Once you've fallen back, put your foot on the attacking side on their hip, to prevent them sitting up and coming forward. Your other shin presses into the back of their same side knee, again to stop them sitting up. When you can, shift from using your shin to pushing with your foot.

To attack the ankle, bring your outside arm around it, using your other hand to feed your same side collar to that first hand. Grip as high as you can. You can then twist the blade of your arm into their achilles tendon and lean back for the submission. Dave prefers to just use that collar grip rather than moving into a figure four grip, as he finds having just the one hand their better facilitates cutting into their tendon with the blade of our arm.

Then it was my turn to show some stuff. I picked the guard pass and sweep I've been working on with Dónal: it was handy to try and teach it again (I've taught both at GB Bristol, here and here, in simplified versions) to help me work out the important details. The full write ups are in my private lesson notes, which is split into multiple parts for the pass (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) and just a single entry for the sweep (here).

Sparring was fairly brief, as I needed to get back to my hostel, going a round with Dave and then Adam. Both times the spar went in a fairly similar pattern, which tends to be how a lot of my rolls at drop-ins go. I flopped to my back and worked spider guard, trying to retain my position and also looking for an opportunity to tripod and/or sickle sweep. I almost hit it a couple of times, but made the common error of not coming up fast enough to secure the position.

I briefly went to the running escape when Dave passed, then recovered my guard, but I think that was only because Dave was giong quite light. With Adam, I had a brief pass attempt, but failed to get chest to chest contact. That meant that although I had some control of his arm and was moving round to north south, he had enough space to spin and escape.

It was cool to finally hit the mats in California: thanks again to Adam and Dave for their hospitality! If you want to get in some good training in the El Cerrito area, be sure to check out Tatami Multi Arts. :D