01/06/2010 - BJJ (Basics)

Class #315
Gracie Barra Birmingham, (BJJ), Kevin Webb, Birmingham, UK - 01/06/2010

Good post by my old training partner Ben, on dealing with the temptation to quit BJJ, here. If we're honest with ourselves, I think everyone in BJJ has at least considered the possibility of quitting at some point. That might be from a terrible competition performance, a really bad few days of class, or struggling with things outside of class. So, Ben's recent post is probably one everyone reading can sympathise with: check it out.

Speaking of old training partners, I also want to give a shout out to Dominique, who recently got her purple belt after a great performance at the SENI last weekend (to read more on that event, check out Meerkatsu's write-up, here, who also happens to be a current training partner of Dom's). She's the first person I ever rolled with in BJJ, so it's cool to hear she's doing so well. :)

Braulio was there tonight, although taking the no-gi session rather than the basics class I was attending. This isn't the first time I've ever seen him, because he used to pop down to Roger's to train with the black belts, but it is the first time I've seen him in his own club. So, hopefully I'll get the chance to experience a lesson with him at some point: should be interesting seeing how his teaching style compares both to his videos and to other instructors.

The basics class was taken by Kevin, which surprised me as I had thought Nathan always took them. It could be that the schedule has shifted now that Braulio is back, but either way, I really like Kev's classes, so I was looking forward to seeing how he runs a more junior level session.

As ever, Kev employed his trademark attention to detail, honing in on the essential details in such a way that they really stick in your head. Afterwards somebody mentioned to me that his day job is a PE teacher, which goes some way to explaining his impressive instruction. The focus tonight was passing the guard, but as Kev said, it wasn't so much about a particular technique as the principles that lead to success.

The scenario was that they are facing you, chest close to their knees, hands and arms inside their legs, feet on the floor. You're standing, and keeping your head low, you first need to get past their hands: for this situation, Kev just slapped them down. You then press one hand into their same side hip, the other just above their same side knee, pressing their same side leg to the floor. Make sure you do shove that leg to the floor: this helps disrupt their defensive posture.

It is also important to get the right hand position, as you need to make sure they can't slip that knee out, as otherwise they can block your pass and recover guard. Your hand is above their knee, on the top of the leg (so, the same side as the front of the kneecap, not the inner or outer thigh). Similarly, you need to stay aware of the other knee: if they try to bring it through, block it with the elbow of your other arm, which is pressing into their hip.

You don't want to dawdle in that position: in two large steps, keeping your weight into them all the time, move past their trapped knee and to their side. You are now past their legs, but this is the easy part. As Kev explained, after that is where you'll often run into trouble. They will probably block your pass with their arms (as you've prevented them using their legs).

This could be by putting both hands on your shoulder and straightening their arms. That can make it difficult to continue moving round. However, you can bring your hips and weight into play to work around their arms. Using the hand on their hip, press them flat on their back, leaning forward into that hip. As you drive their shoulders to the mat, it should become easier to keep moving around and cause their arms to move up towards their head.

There is now a large space between their arms and their leg (you'll have let go of the leg as you move towards their head, but still prevent them curling in due to that firm pressure on their hip). Drop your inner hip into this space, cutting in under their armpit, sliding right into scarf hold. Get right underneath that arm, so that when you switch your base again, you can move right into a tight side control.

A variation on that guard pass is if they don't push on your shoulder, but instead go lower on your arm, or get a hand into the hip you have nearest their head. That removes the option of cutting in under their arm, so instead, you'll bring your leg over the top, from the other direction.

As before, you keep pressure on their hip and move up towards their head. This time, however, you bring the leg nearest their head over their near arm, your knee pointing back towards their hips. That leg goes right over and straightens out, the other stretching out behind you, in a reverse scarf hold position. You're basically sitting on their arm.

Once again, due to that scarf hold, when you switch your base back, you'll get a tight side control. In this case, because you've slide over that arm with your leg, when you switch it back, that knocks the arm out of the way towards their head, so you automatically clear their elbow, slipping the leg right into their armpit.

Kev then got us to drill this with a little more resistance, to demonstrate some of the typical mistakes, a useful way of ironing out kinks. I found that I was being too gradual when moving round, so needed to take two big steps, rather than lots of little ones. More focus on pushing into that hip to flatten them out was also useful, and making sure I got their arms good and high towards their head before cutting in with either my hip under or leg over.

Class finished with free sparring, without the king of the hill specific sparring Nathan tends to do. I started with one of the two women present, Julie, looking to work that spider guard set-up from Braulio's video. I sort of got the position, but I don't think I swung my legs around enough or pulled the arm in sufficiently, as I ended up on the side rather than the triangle/armbar option I wanted.

During back mount, I wanted to try for Kev Capel's favoured bow and arrow choke. I got the grip around the neck and swivelled for the hold on the knee, but I don't think I was tight enough on the collar grip. I also didn't have my legs in the right position, getting one stuck underneath, which is a recurring problem I have from the back when attempting armbars and bow and arrows.

The next spar was with Kevin Webb, who mercilessly crushed me. That also exposed my side control defence weaknesses, as while I was able to get on my side and crunch up, I was leaving my arm vulnerable to attack. I also got caught in a few chokes, and one silly mistake, where started from the knees I ducked my head straight into a guillotine. As a general rule, I need to be more careful of my arms under side control, as I'm finding myself at risk of armbars far too often.

That contrasted with the completely different roll I had with somebody who was experiencing their first lesson. So, instead of being crushed, I could stay relaxed and try to be helpful, attempting to move into the same positions we had just drilled earlier so he could practice. In terms of technique, it was quite a lot to take in as a first lesson (especially principles like switching your base to scarf hold, which takes a bit of getting used to), so he did pretty well to remember as much as he did.

Finally, I finished up with Sofia, were again I was looking for that spider guard, and again ended up on the back instead. This time, I don't think I stretched my legs out enough, meaning that I didn't break their posture, and I also didn't have enough control over the arm I was looking to attack.

Should be training again tomorrow. If I do, that will be my first advanced class in a while, as I've had to miss the last few due to bank holidays and the like. Possibly with Braulio too, which would fun, though as there are so many top notch instructors at GB Brum, it is sure to be an excellent class whoever takes it.

10/05/2010 - BJJ (Advanced)

Class #310
Gracie Barra Birmingham, (BJJ), Kevin Webb, Birmingham, UK - 10/05/2010

Following on from Kev's last lesson on passing the knee-in half guard (z-guard?), tonight he focused on passing the deep half guard. Since Rob showed us some options from underneath a while back, I've been trying it more often, though rather unsuccessfully. Kev's reference to it as a really good way for small people to sweep big people renews that impetus to look into it more.

Kev showed two scenarios for passing deep half guard, beginning with the less secure option where they use their arms to hook one leg each, rather than wrapping around one leg. You will be in a position where your knee is close to their head, and they have one arm around that knee. Their other arm will be by your other thigh, their head tucked in towards your hip, while their legs are locked just below the knee of that other leg. This straightens out your leg, and can make it feel like a precarious balancing act.

To pass, you first want to grab the wrist of the hand nearest their head. Pull it onto your nearest hip and lock it there. You are then going to shift your weight towards their legs, so that you can bring the knee by their head over their neck and to the floor. You're going to drop so that you're now looking at their leg. It is essential that you maintain your tight grip on their wrist throughout: this will put them into a sort of shoulder lock, forcing them to turn to their front.

The next part has to be done quickly. You're going to grab around their back, or ideally, grip the back of their gi trousers. Swiftly, you now want to release their wrist from your hip, basing out with your hand instead. Simultaneously pushing off with that hand, you also want to bring your leg through, and push off with that foot to swing to their back.

Thought it feels counter-intuitive, the leg which was trapped between theirs to start with stays there almost the entire time. This is going to become your first hook which you'll use to establish back control. It is tempting to try and pull it free when you've dropped to their side, but that will leave you without the control you need to take their back.

The second method for passing deep half guard starts from a slightly different situation. Now instead of having an arm around the leg you have close to their head, they have both their arms around the leg they've trapped with their own legs. This means you can't use the previous tactic, so have to come up with something quite different, and a little more straightforward.

The first action depends on how they have triangled their legs around your leg. If the foot underneath is pointing behind you, that's what you want: you're going to grab around the side of the foot, near the toes, and pull it towards you. You then bring your elbow to the other side of your leg, so it is in front of your leg rather than behind.

If their bottom foot is pointing towards your front, you still grab the foot pointing behind (which this time will be their top foot). Again, pull it towards you. They will normally relock their legs in the previous configuration to break your grip. That then means you can proceed as above.

Once you've done that, all you're doing to do is bring the leg you have nearest their head around, so that your free leg can point towards their knees. As you have a tight hold on their foot, you're immobilising their lower body, so they don't have much hip mobility to stop you. You can then let go, bringing that same arm backwards so that it wedges into their armpit, and you can grasp their back, dropping your weight onto them. Again, this should immobilise them, but this time its their upper body which can't move much.

Now you shuffle back, using your other hand to help (this hand is also there for posting, is they try to shove you in that direction). Your trapped leg will gradually slip out of their locked triangle. Most likely they'll tighten up, so that your foot is stuck. To free that foot requires leverage, rather than force. Many people kick at the top knee, without doing much good. Instead, use the bit between your toes and the ball of your foot to press into the bottom edge of their top knee. You can simply lift that up, prying the triangle free and pulling your leg out.

During free sparring with Pete, I began by looking for that spider guard again, but yet again not quite getting the position I wanted. I then attempted to use the stiff arm principle against his shoulder and neck to stop getting passed. It worked for a little while, but he was eventually able to collapse my arms and get to side control. That did give a chance for the Gustavo Machado north-south escape, but as so often happens, he just moved backwards, so I slipped off the front instead of securing back control.

My next roll was with a female white belt, where I was able to move into move. However, I was stuck in her half guard for a good while: my usual shoulder pressure pass did eventually work, but it was sloppy. Still, once I moved into high mount, I moved into a triangle. I could see I wasn't going to be able to lock from there, so rolled into guard instead. For once, I remembered head control, scooted back on my hips, and underhooked her free arm to swivel into the necessary angle.

I was also pleased to finally get that spider guard position I wanted, threading my leg around the arm and pulling the gi sleeve around my thigh. Following what I'd seen on Braulio's spider guard instructional, while still holding that sleeve, I then pushed both feet into the other arm, gripping the sleeve with my other arm.

The next part didn't quite go according to plan, as you're supposed to open your legs, pull their arm in, and then threaten an armbar to either get the tap from that, or make them move forward into a triangle. Instead, I lost the head, but still had the arm, switching to a kimura. I'm not sure I had much control, so it probably isn't a good habit, especially as there was probably a size difference in my favour.

With Chris, I was playing lots of open guard, still looking for the spider guard. I had it briefly, but he was able to yank his arm free, also getting his knee in for further leverage. However, that meant his foot was close enough for me to try the handstand sweep. As usual, not much luck, and then I remembered I used to always try the star sweep as a follow up, as seen in Royler, Renzo and Danaher's Theory & Technique.

To my surprise, it actually worked this time, although it wasn't exactly smooth. Rather than mount or side control, I ended up on top in half guard, but very low, almost with my head on his hips. I was able to crawl up into a more secure half guard, but definitely need to try and end up higher on that sweep.

With Donal, I got smashed by lapel chokes. There was a pattern where I would try to scoot forward into butterfly guard, he would crush my knees together, pass, then sneak a lapel over or under my neck as I tried to defend with an eye on his choking hand. Every time, my focus was on the wrong thing, as that lapel snuck into position, enabling him to get the submission. I clearly need to be more careful with those.

Finally, I rolled with a green belt. In the past when I've rolled with juniors who regularly train in the adult class, they tend to be very explosive and acrobatic. However, I was pleasantly surprised by this guy's controlled, steady pace, which made for a refreshingly slow battle for position on top in half guard.

I'll be training yet again tomorrow: I hadn't intended to do four in a row, but there's a postgraduate seminar series I don't want to miss on Wednesday, as its on poetic form and therefore relevant to my writing. Working at the University has a whole bunch of perks like that: I'm especially looking forward to start of the next academic year, as I'll be able to take some language courses.

Unfortunately that's way off in October, but I guess that gives me a chance to see if I actually have the time to dedicate to a structured course like that (I've been following the Pimsleur Spanish language course, but then that's all audio, so I can go at my own pace, rather than a set schedule).

26/04/2010 - BJJ (Advanced)

Class #307
Gracie Barra Birmingham, (BJJ), Kevin Webb, Birmingham, UK - 26/04/2010

Judging by my first fortnight, GB Brum is blessed with plenty of top notch instructors, and that's not even including the black belts. Brown belt Kevin Webb taught a brilliant class tonight, all focused on passing the half guard when they have a knee across your torso. I'm not sure it was quite z-guard, but then I'm still not entirely sure what the definition of z-guard is, so it might have been.

Anyway, for this bit of half guard passing, the situation was that they have their knee across. With the hand on that side, they're gripping your opposite collar, looking for a submission (e.g., a loop choke, something Oli G is fond of). Their other hand is gripping your same side sleeve.

The first thing you need to do is strip that grip off your collar. Keep your chest raised and forward, in good posture, or this will be hard. Your free hand takes a firm pistol grip on that sleeve, while the other one moves up to their gripping hand itself, grabbing onto the hand. This may well be a battle, as your opponent is not going to make it easy for you to get your hand up there: crawl up their arm, gradually moving your hand into position for the grip.

Once you have that double hold on their gripping hand, forcefully strip the grip by pushing away from your body while grasping their hand. Shove that hand to their chest, both hands on top, pinning it in place. This also means you can keep their back flat on the mat, and use that base to get to your feet. This should cause their knee to shift from your chest to either side of your knee.

Again, you want good posture, making certain you are driving forwards with the knee you have between their legs. Your other leg is stepped back for support, and your stance is relatively low (or at least, mine was, and Kev seemed to approve). The problem now is their remaining grip on your sleeve. The trick here is to take the slack out, by pulling your trapped wrist back towards your chest. Your other hand pistol grips their sleeve, and you then yank your trapped wrist back while simultaneously shoving your pistol grip across.

Now that your hands are free, you're going to press both hands on their knee (the one inside your legs, rather than on the outside) and drive it to the floor, moving backwards. Make some space for your trapped leg by wiggling it back and forth. As soon as you have space, in one motion, angle your knee diagonally backwards and slam it through, aiming to land on your butt cheek, rather than on your knee. If they manage to cling onto your foot, it shouldn't be too difficult to use your other foot to push your way free.

You should also find yourself basing out with a hand, over their body by their back. Make sure you don't end up putting that over their shoulder by their head, or they can take your back. Instead, you want it between their hip and their elbow. That way, you can move it up under their elbow and then use your upper body to push them to the mat, switching to a tight side control.

I really liked Kev's detailed, technical approach. Better yet, he frequently stopped the class to go over another point: every single time, he pre-empted the questions I wanted to ask. Like the other Kev I've trained under, Kevin Webb also made a point of asking the class beforehand what they wanted to work on, responding to a specific problem a purple belt was having, which turned into an excellent class. Perhaps there is something about instructors called Kevin that makes them particularly good at picking out details? ;p

Sparring was good too. I started with my drilling partner, Chris, where we maintained an enjoyably steady pace. I was looking to play around with half guard, and also see if I could establish spider guard grips (I've been looking to wrap my leg over and pull the sleeve around, for an especially tight hold). Of course, the best grip in the world doesn't help if you haven't got anywhere to go from there. Still, I am at least regularly moving into butterfly to start: good advice by Kintanon from last week.

Next was another blue belt called Peter, where again I tried to move straight to butterfly, but this time couldn't quite get it because he quickly stood up. Instead, I attempted to switch between spider guard and De La Riva. Neither was especially successful, although I did find that doggedly holding onto that spider guard on at least one sleeve helped me recover guard after he almost passed a few times.

With a white belt called Danny, I was in butterfly longer, but wasn't able to stay sitting up long enough. I need to drive forward with my forehead into their chest quicker. So instead, I took the opportunity to establish an overhook and grab his opposite collar. I was still in butterfly guard, so wanted to move to closed guard in order to work the choke from there. I got into the position I wanted, bringing the other arm over his head to try for the choke, but to no avail: something must have been off with my technique and/or positioning.

I attempted to switch to a triangle instead, shoulder walking backwards once I locked my ankles, but I didn't have sufficient head control. He stacked me, and before I could switch to some variation of an armbar, I somehow ended up in half guard. As I was already fairly crunched up underneath, deep half guard seemed like a sensible option, and I sort of got on top.

However, while I was clinging tightly as per Rob's lesson last week, that's as far as I got. Danny was pulling up on my head for a triangle, which didn't feel like too much of a risk, but I also couldn't seem to work out how to move around from there to side control. I had the same trouble during Rob's lesson, so that's definitely a technique I'd like to revisit. Still, I did at least feel relatively secure with my arms wrapped around that leg.

My last roll was with Nathan, a brown belt. I spent the majority of the roll fending off attack from either side control or knee on belly, which had also popped up in previous spars. Once again, I found myself falling into Saulo's 'running escape' survival position, with one leg over the other, knee up. Eventually, Nathan got me into mount, and with twisting arm control worked the submission.

He also had a good tip (which I think someone else mentioned recently too) about my bridging: I'm bumping up with my hips, but I'm not then using that space well enough. I need to really move those hips into the space, doing a better job of combining the bridge and the shrimp.

My girlfriend is down for the rest of this week into the bank holiday, so I'll only be training on Monday this week. Next week, given Monday will be taken for girlfriend time, that probably means I'll do the basic class on Tuesday followed by advanced on Wednesday. I'm looking forward to seeing what instructor pops up next, though I have to admit, I'd be perfectly content if Kev and Rob took all the lessons, judging by the high standard they've set so far.