18/08/2018 - BJJ Globetrotter Camp | Heidelberg 2018 | Kenny Polmans (Leg over head lapel grip mount attack series)

Class #1038
BJJ Globetrotter Camp (Olympiastützpunkt Rhein-Neckar) Kenny Polmans, Heidelberg, Germany, 18/08/2018

Kenny went through what I'm calling shoulder clamp. It's a bit like technical mount. Starting from a typical mount, they have crossed their arms and are protecting their neck. Reach under their forearm, sliding it through until you can get your elbow onto the mat. You also have your toes on the mat, ready to drive forwards.

From that position, you can power your knee up as you bring your elbow back. The goal here is to capture their arm at your hip. As your arm slides back, grip their shoulder. Your hand on the other side pushes into their other shoulder. The goal is to twist them up onto their side. Once you've made that space, immediately fill it with your leg, behind their shoulders. Make sure your foot is tight to their bottom shoulder, as you don't want them to be able to bring their shoulders back down to the mat.

Lean forwards slightly to move your weight onto them. Fold forwards too, in order to make certain their arm stays stuck by your hip. For a simple submission option, reach back with your arm and grab their wrist. Push it down and slide it along your leg for a shoulderlock. Alternatively, you can simply grip their hand and pull it back into a wristlock.

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To secure a grip, there are two main options Kenny suggested. The first option is to wrap your same side arm around your knee, reaching under their head. Your other hand locks that in place by grabbing your wrist. A gi option is to instead reach behind your own leg, grabbing the back of their collar. There are several other submissions you can go for if the initial shoulder lock isn't viable. The two main options both involve bringing your leg over their head. If you're flexible enough, you can just swing it over. Should you need some support, slip your other hand behind, then guide the leg over.

For the armbar, bring your hips up higher on their body. Push their head to face down, placing your arm in front of their head. You can use your other hand out to the side as base, or possibly grabbing behind their leg. However, be careful: you don't want to lose your balance while you have their arm tightly trapped, in case of injury. Rotate around the arm you have trapped, then slowly drop back. You might be able to get the submission by leaning back, if you've secured their arm under your armpit. If not, you can adjust into a standard armbar, adjusting their arm to your chest.

If they manage to secure a grip on something, preventing the standard shoulder lock, you can switch to an armbar, or an omoplata. The omoplata is fairly simple. Raise up your other leg, stepping up with your foot like you were basing for knee on belly or a knee cut slide. Slide across towards that raised foot, dropping into the standard omoplata. Kenny makes a point that he drives his hips directly forwards, rather than the orthodox way of leaning towards their far ear. As ever, you can wristlock instead if that isn't working.

11/07/2018 - BJJ Globetrotter Camp | Leuven 2018 | Kenny Polmans (Butterfly guard)

Class #1006
BJJ Globetrotter Camp (Sportoase Leuven), Kenny Polmans, Leuven, Belgium, 11/07/2018

Butterfly guard from Kenny, well taught as always.

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25/07/2017 - BJJ Globetrotter Camp | Leuven 2017 | Knee Shield Half Guard (Kenny Polmans)

Class #852
BJJ Globetrotter Camp (Sportoase Leuven), Kenny Polmans, Leuven, Belgium, 25/07/2017

Kenny's class was a highlight from last year, his teaching approach proving a good match for my learning style. This initial class was about the knee shield from the bottom of half guard. Kenny noted that he puts his knee right by their hip bone, no further across. If it's further across, that becomes easier for them to crush your legs and pass. Cross your ankles, pull your heels back. Frame with your hands, then you're ready to go.

Bring your knee high, with your elbow inside. Kick, then reach your arm around their hip. Don't reach too high, or you might leave enough space for them to lock in a d'arce choke. Step your leg over theirs to hook it, come up on your hand, then use that base to bring your knee out. Next, shucking their arm off your head. Lock in a seatbelt, then move back and drag them to secure your back position.

If they manage to overhook your arm and prevent you shucking it off, reach for their knee with your other hand. Do a superman punch with the trapped arm, aiming to flatten them. Grab their top knee, then hook that leg with your shin. Step your leg forwards, then move around to side control.

For the last one, their base is too wide for you to grab their knee. Instead, you're going to shoot your arm between their legs, rolling underneath. Make sure you keep the leg hooked, as that will help with leverage. Also, without that leg hook, you're at risk of just giving them side control. Again, Kenny used that big step forward with a shin behind their leg, which makes it much tougher for them to recover their position.

24/06/2016 - Private with Kenny Polmans | Half Guard & Side Control | Gi Chokes & Gi Tail Attacks

Class #740 - Private #024
BJJ Globetrotter Camp (Sportoase Leuven), Kenny Polmans, Leuven, Belgium, 24/06/2016

A video posted by Can (Jun) (@slideyfoot) on Jun 24, 2016 at 12:00pm PDT

My private lesson with David ‘Morcegao’ put me into a mindset of asking other black belts their prices. I liked the selection of techniques Polmans showed in his class, his teaching style suited me, plus he’s also close to my size and age. As if that wasn’t enough, his fees were incredibly reasonable too. :)

We got started immediately after his class on side control finished. I began by asking about the position we’d just done in the class, as I didn’t quite get it right. I have been playing with the breadcutter choke for a few years now, without a great deal of success. The problem I tend to have is that while I can get the grip behind the collar, I will generally then struggle to move into a submission.

Instead, I’ll get the initial grip, fail to get the second grip, then vacillate over switching to something else because I don’t want to lose position. I know three or four follow ups (i.e., these), but rarely go for them because they don’t feel tight enough.

Kenny had plenty of good advice. To begin, getting that initial grip can sometimes be tricky, as your arm gets stuck and you can’t reach far enough under their arm. Therefore you want to make enough space. With your cross facing arm, grip their far shoulder/gi material. Use that as an anchor point to lever them up with your arm. It’s then easy to reach through under their near arm, securing that near grip on the back of their collar.

Once you have that in, it’s important to wedge the knee nearest their hips underneath them slightly. That will prevent them putting their back flat, which would take away the space you need for the collar grip. Normally this point is where I have trouble getting my second grip in. In Kenny’s version, you already have it in place: rather than trying to insert your arm over their neck, you loop your arm around that far shoulder grip you secured earlier.

At this point, it’s similar to the Xande version I like, a blood choke, rather than the air choke David showed me in his private (because unlike me, David is of the Chris Paines nasty catch wrestling mindset ;D). That elbow of the shoulder arm drops down to the near side. When demonstrating, Kenny tapped his demonstration partner much earlier than that, so I’m not sure if that had some windpipe in it, or if it’s just that efficient. ;)

If they are blocking your shoulder grip by grabbing that arm, grab them back, gripping their tricep or elbow. Pull that across, so you can trap it underneath your chest. Once you’ve trapped it under your chest, bring your arm (the same one you just used to pull their arm across) under their head, like you were cross facing. You still have your original grip on the back of the collar. Grip on their shoulder, driving through them for the choke. If that doesn’t work, stretch out your leg nearest their head and drop your same side hip.

Shifting to the lapel, Kenny then went through his take on the gi tail baseball bat choke, something I first encountered on Roy Dean’s excellent Purple Belt Requirements. Pull out their far lapel, feeding that under their head to your cross facing hand. Secure the grip, then cut in your original hand, gripping on top of your other first, elbow angled in (aim to put it in the crook of your other elbow).

Put your knee on their belly to stop them escaping, then apply the choke. Your original arm stays fairly static, that’s mainly there as a wedge for pressure. If you need more leverage, you can try rotating around to a north south type position, putting your head on their chest.

You also have the armbar as an option from there. Move your original grip from under their head to pull up on their near arm. Step over their head, drop back and finish. If you have trouble with their turning into you, grip under their leg, securing their thigh.

Wrapping that far lapel over their arm works well too, especially as they’ll often try to block you feeding it by their neck. As a side note, keep your head turned towards their legs on top in side control when they are framing into your neck. That way, they can’t generate as much pressure into your throat with their forearm. Anyway, this is where the Americana comes in, same way I teach it (except that as before, Kenny likes to go to a low knee on belly for control).

I find that I try many of my favourite attacks in half guard in side control as well, so half guard gi tail attacks is what I asked about next. First thing Kenny pointed out was that you need to get the knee of your trapped leg out, in order to have the necessary mobility. He started with the gi tail ezequiel I like from there, along with the choke where you wrap the tail around, then cut in the elbow.

If they try to block your shoulder grip, as with the breadcutter, pull their arm across, cross-face and go for the pressure choke. This time, Kenny pulled on the sleeve and folded himself over the arm. Other than that, it was the same motion as before, just with your leg trapped in half guard. As ever with top half guard, you should also always keep in mind that the pass is an option too (he ran through his take on the hip switch pass as a result).

24/06/2016 - BJJ Globetrotter Camp | Leuven 2016 | Side Control Attacks (Kenny Polmans)

Class #739
BJJ Globetrotter Camp (Sportoase Leuven), Kenny Polmans, Leuven, Belgium, 24/06/2016

For his second class, Kenny focused on my favourite position, side control. As with his session on closed guard, he started off with the basics, keeping his instruction concise and clear. In order to move round from side control to north south, he suggested blocking the near hip, extending your leg nearest their head, then shifting towards the head.

However, he warned against getting greedy and trying to go straight to the head: that can mean your weight is off and you get rolled. Keep it steady, settling your weight down. Push their near arm out of the way (anybody experienced will make this a struggle, as that gives you a lot of control), shifting your leg forward then shuffling back to dislodge the elbow. You can now move into mount (grabbing your foot is an option here, though I always prefer driving the knee across, ideally into the armpit).

Next, Kenny began to set up the breadcutter choke. If they have their near arm in front of your legs, you can hook it with your arm, as you bring your knees back around into side control. I couldn’t quite see what was happening from the angle I had, but normally you then get underneath that arm with your hand, in order to reach back under for their collar. You can then grip their far collar with your other hand, swivelling your elbow back to lock in the breadcutter.

Just as I was thinking I couldn’t see the detail, Kenny psychically heard me and shifted his angle, meaning I could zoom in with my phone too. That meant I could see how Kenny pushes them up onto their side to secure his grip. He also secures the arm differently than I’ve been shown: rather than sneaking an arm under and staying sprawled, he does a quick motion with his legs to get the arm, knees staying in tight.

When you go for this choke, often they will be blocking. Just as often, you may find their gi lapels are loose. If not, it’s not normally too hard to pull them out yourself, though that does telegraph what you’re about to do. My training partners know how much I like choking people with a lapel, so get very wary once I start pulling out gi tails. ;D

For Kenny’s gi tail choke, grab their far lapel with your hand that’s nearest their legs, maintaining control of their head with your other arm. Punch it out to give yourself maximum gi tail to play with, then slide back and push it through the gap they usually create with their far arm (because that tends to be framing into your neck, head, or perhaps shoulder). You can go over the top too, like the attacks I enjoy from half guard. As Kenny said, they frequently pull their arm out if you do that, opening up the route you wanted in the first place.

From there, you can move into an Ezequiel choke using the lapel, which again connects back to that half guard sequence I’ve taught in the past. Keep it loose enough that you can insert your hand through. A big advantage of side control over the same attack from half guard is you can go to knee on belly, adding much more leverage. Look up, to engage the muscles of your whole body.

That was followed by another gi feed attack. This time, feed the gi collar over the arm, trapping their limb in the bent position. Bring your elbow underneath their elbow, then grab the gi tail with that hand (like the one I’ve taught from top half guard). Keep feeding it until you are gripping that gi tail close to their wrist, to lock their arm in tight. Put your knee on their stomach. Take the arm you have behind their head out, instead gripping their far wrist. Now just pull up their elbow as you push on the wrist for an Americana.

I didn't get a good angle on that last one, so couldn't see what was happening too well (thanks to Chris Paines, when I wrote this up in Madrid a few weeks later, I had access to his video from the other side), which also made me think I wanted more detail on everything. This was all stuff I like to use, so I decided to check with Kenny what he charged for private lessons. They were MUCH cheaper than I expected, meaning I immediately booked one there and there. Keep your eyes peeled for the class write-up, it will be the next post I upload on here. ;)

22/06/2016 - BJJ Globetrotter Camp | Leuven 2016 | Closed Guard Two-On-1 Grip Break (Kenny Polmans)

Class #733
BJJ Globetrotter Camp (Sportoase Leuven), Kenny Polmans, Leuven, Belgium, 22/06/2016

Another Belgian black belt and more lovely closed guard, this time focusing on the two-on-one grip break. Kenny likes to stick a thumb in the sleeve to open up that sleeve first, in order to establish your grip. He also turns his body, shifting his torso towards the gripping sleeve side. That slight shift adds more power to the grip break.

From there, you have lots of options. The main ones I like are a back take or a sweep, both of which Kenny covered. He went with the windscreen wiper sweep, like Andre Anderson does on his top notch DVD about closed guard. He controls the arm by gripping around the back, pinning down his elbow to clamp their arm against him. He can then grab their knee, then kick his leg up to roll through into mount. Punching up with that knee grip finishes the motion.

He showed the back take as an option when that sweep was blocked. Similar idea, with a strong grip, shrimping away to get the space to get your hooks in. I think it's also a sequence Yas went through at that comp fundraising seminar a while back: either way, solid stuff from closed guard.

More surprisingly, Kenny showed how you could move into a bow and arrow from here, from that same position. Instead of keeping the hand grabbed around their back gripping the lat, you reach to grab their collar. You are gripping all the way around their head, gripping the collar underneath their head. That means you can roll them over like in the windscreen wiper, right into a bow and arrow.