05/06/2008 - BJJ (Advanced)

Class #152



Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Marcio Gomes, London, UK - 05/06/2008 - Advanced

Really need to start getting more sleep: I'm averaging 6.5hrs or so, which isn't enough to give my body a proper chance to recover. Last night I got back a bit before 11pm as usual, but as my laptop battery has gone nuts, I wasn't able to type up on the train. That meant writing up at home, which took a little while, then the inevitable messing about on the internet. So, finally went to bed at midnight, which is a bit crap for getting up at 06:40. Need a more healthy routine!

Awesome lesson from Marcio tonight: best I can remember in a long time, from an instructional point of view. Even the warm-up was great, as it wasn't just star-jumps and press-ups etc, but directly applicable drills. That is without any doubt the best way to warm-up, and it serves both the purpose of getting the blood flowing and ingrains technique.

The first drill exemplified that. It starts with them attacking your turtle position (on your hands and knees, but tightly bunched, so elbows touching knees) from the front (i.e., facing you). You do a wrestler's sit out, by which I mean: hook one of their arms, then bring your far leg under your near leg, coming out the side and going round to the back. They then similarly hook an arm, also grabbing the gi material by your knee, then spin to their back, aiming to recover guard. You try to pass, they turn to defend, meaning that you are now facing their turtle and the drill can start again. That also means its continuous, so you're both working non-stop.

Second drill starts with you by their side. You push your head up into their armpit, the forehead pressing on the floor. Your far leg is up, the knee of your near leg shoved into their side. Drive your near shoulder into their chin. That means you now have a good base from which you can fling your body up and over to the other side, where you repeat the motion, going back and forth.

Finally, the third drill was from standing, Grab their knees, step to one side and push their knees in the other, then go straight to knee on belly. Posting your hands a bit beyond their head, fling yourself over to the other side and again go to knee on belly. To complete the drill, move back to their knees, then restart the process going to the opposite side from before.

Marcio then added even more awesome by going through an escape from side control, which is exactly the kind of thing I'd like to cover as much as possible. For this one, they have an arm under your head, with the other by your hip. First, you need to squeeze your near arm past their armpit, so you can push on the same side shoulder with both hands. Once you've pushed to make that space, you twist so that your bottom goes up and into them, using your legs to provide the power. It’s a slightly awkward position, but you're basically rolling over your shoulder to get your bum to shove against them. You also use your near arm to keep pushing. Finally, grab the gi material by their knee with your other hand and swivel back to guard.

Next technique was a choke from top half-guard. On the same side as your trapped leg, pull their gi out of their belt. Gripping the trailing material, pull it behind their head and feed to your other hand. Yanking tight, slide your other hand down their face, taking hold of the gi material with your palm facing away from their head. Position your elbow into their chest, and with your other hand grab their opposite sleeve and pull it across their face. Press the elbow down to get them to free your leg, then press your weight forward for the choke (I think: not sure if you have to grab your own arm or something to get the sub).

I found that extremely uncomfortable, which Christina said was made worse because I was tensing up my arm. I think that was because I was scared of accidentally getting wrist locked – the position meant I was ramming my hand into the mat in an awkward position, so had to adjust quickly to stop getting into a nasty position. However, I was being silly, as I could just relax the arm and put my hand around my head. I got wrist locked by Lubo's body weight once when squashed under his side control, so that's made me extra wary of getting my wrist twisted.

Marcio then showed the defence against the clock choke, where they have taken your back. With the opposite side arm to the one they're choking with, grab their sleeve and pull it in the direction their hand is pointing. This will reduce the pressure on your neck. At the same time, grab their gi pants by the knee with your other hand. Bring your knees close to their body, switching one underneath the other. Use that position to roll them over, whereupon you can go for your own clock choke.

As you roll over, you arm is in position to trap their arm, so wrap that up. Once you've got them on their back, reach your arm around to their collar, grabbing the back of it. Your other arm grabs a lapel and goes across their throat as you move your body around to north-south, squeezing for the clock choke.

Sparring was good again today, as like yesterday there were plenty of women who matched up well with my weight (as they're all strong and technical, but without any of the occasional spasms of machismo that men occasionally suffer from). I started with Christina, who was giving me an opportunity to try the side control escape from earlier, but I didn't seize the chance. Need to ingrain that as another option: I'm too used to passively waiting for the chance to snatch half-guard, which isn't working well for me at the moment.

I also kept on trying the Roy Harris open guard defence, but still getting used to it. Things are developing slowly, so if I keep at it I should hopefully be able to apply those principles instinctively rather than having to pause and ponder which side, which hand etc.

With Christy, I always get an interesting roll, as she has a different style from most of the people I spar with (probably due to her years at Roots in Australia). I kept trying to go for the kimura as always, and also pulling her down into a tight guard. She went for a few footlocks, which I'm not sure if I defended correctly. As she fell back to go for them, I aimed to get the sole of my foot to the floor, grab her gi and pull myself forwards. That got me into top half-guard at one point, and generally seemed a good place to pass from, but I get the impression it’s a sloppy defence that probably wouldn't work against someone really driving for the submission. Could be wrong though, as I'm generally pretty clueless about footlocks (while I've no intention of going for something that could potentially fuck someone up, I would like to work on the defences so I can prevent my knee getting blown out).

Finally, I had a long roll with Joanna, who is the perfect person to work the Harris open guard techniques. She goes for a loose pass against open guard, and invariably gets it, but it gives me the opportunity to at least try to push on her neck or arm. I'm getting better at sitting up as opposed to staying flat on my back, but I wasn't very good at reacting quickly to the side she was passing. That meant a few times I was trying to push the wrong side, which is very pointless, so spent a lot of time under Joanna's side control.

I also had a chance to use something Tran showed me a little while ago. When they swing their leg over to try and get mount from side control, if you time it right, you can simply bridge into them, rolling into their guard. Worked a few times, but as you're basically capitalising on a mistake (as from what I gather, its better to either slide the knee across for mount, or grab your foot and slam it down, leaving much less space), not something I'd want to rely on. However, useful to have up your sleeve.

Quite possibly my favourite lesson this year, so I was in a great mood leaving class tonight. This Saturday I'm hoping to get through lots of reviews I've been planning, especially the next DVD release from Roy Dean, who once again very kindly sent me a review copy. There's also a bunch of books I'd like to write up, but will see how it goes.

29/05/2008 - BJJ (Advanced)

Class #150



Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Marcio Gomes, London, UK - 29/05/2008 - Advanced

If anyone fancies buying a Katama gi, I'll happily sell you mine for £30 (its allegedly worth £90, or so I was told when I signed up and got it included in the joining package). Its still in perfectly good condition, but too coarse for my liking. The label says 180/5, which I assume means its for people 180cm in height: however, seems to fit me ok, and I'm more like 170cm. Trousers have also shrunk sufficiently that I don't think they'd be too comfy on anyone much taller than me.

My hand is still feeling kinda sore from getting crushed by the combined bodyweight of my training partner and I last week, but hopefully that will have recovered by the next lesson. That was joined today by some kind of bruise on both legs, around the knee and upper shin. My right shin and knee was a bit painful from attempting the single stack pass yesterday, which got worse as I tried it again tonight during guard passage. Having decided to give that leg a rest, I welcome the opportunity to go on the bottom when offered the choice. However, I somehow managed to bust up the other knee while trying to recover guard, so ended up sitting out the rest of specific sparring.

Marcio was taking the session again today, going through butterfly guard sweeps. He began with two variations, starting from closed guard. Grab behind both their elbows and pull them forward, shrimping out by pushing off their hip. Bring the same foot you used for that towards them, aiming to hook inside their inner thigh with your instep. Shrimp again with your other foot, getting that one between their legs too (though this one isn't hooking, positioned on the floor with the sole of your foot facing your other foot). Finally, secure a grip behind their back with the arm on the same side as your first hook (maintain the grip on their elbow with your other hand).

You're now ready to sweep. Lean back, keeping them tight, then flick up with your initial hook, bringing your other leg underneath the hooking leg. If you've timed that right, you'll roll on top. Marcio emphasised here how a lot of people make the mistake of not first bringing their partner in close, so end up getting passed instead of completing the sweep.

If they post up their leg in an attempt to prevent the pass once you've pulled them forward and established your hooks, wrap that ankle up with your same side arm. You'll now switch your legs, so that the leg which was hooking goes to the floor, while the other hooks near their bottom. Using your grasp on their leg and that hook, lift and roll them to your side, ending up in side control.

Marcio finished with some points on the butterfly guard positioning. You already have butterfly guard with both insteps hooked around your partner's inner thighs. Your partner is staying low, gripping near your armpits. In order to move into position to sweep, you'll need to shrimp and slip an arm underneath their's, grabbing a handful of gi (either by their side, armpit or back). Having established that hold, push forward with your feet and come forward, bringing your other arm around their back.

Important point to note here is that you don't come up with your head on their shoulder: if you do that, they can push you right back down. Instead, you should come up pushing your forehead into their chest. This makes it much more difficult for them to shove you back down. Also, if they do manage to then get into place to push you down, you're ready to effect the sweep detailed above.

My knees and shins were still feeling sore, so I wasn't too up for sparring. However, as my fave training partner Christina is back now, I knew I had someone I could go light with, and could trust to not suddenly smash my legs into the mat. She was looking to work that sweep – which she got – while I looked to try and find a way to pass the open guard. I tried wrapping up both her legs, but I think I was too low. I also tried bringing her feet back, but didn't manage to transition from that to the pass where you swing their knees out the way and move to the side. Finally, I attempted the one where you drive their knees into their chest and sit on them, but wasn't able to slip past to side control: think that's my usual problem of weight distribution, as well as not quite getting in the right place to apply pressure.

Generally open guard causes me problems whether I'm on top or bottom, but the only way to overcome that difficulty is by failing repeatedly, until eventually I can resolve all those little mistakes and start to get somewhere. Christina proved to be my only spar today, so didn't get the chance to practice it some more, but I don't think my legs were up to anymore sparring anyway. I won't be training again for a week, so that's hopefully enough time to recover. I should probably be getting more sleep too, as that's essential for the healing process.

Even more gradings after this session, though just stripes this time. Tran, Christina, her husband Lorenzo and Mike all got another stripe on their blue belts, which was cool as that includes two of my most regular training partners. This session also reminded me just how good an instructor Marcio is: really detailed, attentive, and the only BJJ teacher I've been taught by who is close to my size (though he's a fair bit beefier). If I lived in Brighton, I'd definitely train with him at Gracie Barra Brighton.

22/05/2008 - BJJ (Advanced)

Class #148



Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Marcio Gomes, London, UK - 22/05/2008 - Advanced

Roger and his father were back today, so it was nice to shake his hand and congratulate him on his recent victory in Japan. That means he's now 2-0 in MMA, having first beaten the powerful Ron Waterman despite the big wrestler's 65lb advantage. This time, Roger had weight on his side, but compared to the discrepancy he had earlier overcome, the difference was far less: 26lbs instead of 65lbs. However, Roger wasn't taking the class tonight, which instead would again be run by Marcio from GB Brighton.

As before, class kicked off with takedowns, though this time it was the version I'd seen in nogi, where you grip around your partner's waist, pressing your head into their chest. To get them to the floor, you pull their torso towards you while driving forward with your head and legs, bracing your foot behind their leg to knock out their balance. I'm not comfortable in this position, as its difficult to control: either I thump on top of my training partner, or when we switch they slam onto me. I still tried to slow down the drill, as I dislike repeatedly smacking people into the floor, but that proved painful: towards the end of the drill, I dropped the combined bodyweight of my partner and myself onto my hand.

We also went through the double leg, similarly to last time showing how to transition to a single. If you go for the double and they sprawl back, switch to the nearest leg, grabbing low, then driving your shoulder into their knee, take them down.

Marcio followed that with another dual action attack, this time from a position similar to pulling guard. Putting your foot on their hip, grabbing a collar, fall back. Loop your foot around their leg and a hand around the other, using that to push forward and knock them to the floor. If they step a leg back to prevent that takedown, come up to your knees and switch to the same single leg as before.

Like yesterday, the Mundials competitors were called up for takedown sparring. However, I don't think they had to stay in, though sparring wasn't done in a line-up: you simply went forward when you wanted. I'm averse to stand-up anyway, but given the option, decided to rest my hand. As I normally mention when it comes to the question of takedown sparring, its something that I need to do more if I want to succeed in competition, but on the other hand, I'm really not all that competitive. ;)

Next came specific sparring, starting with side control. I went with Liam, and tried my usual Tran method of tight side control. As I don't want to get into a habit of just clinging in place on top (I already do that quite enough on the bottom), I tried to switch between side control and scarf hold, using my knee to get under the elbow and thereby secure a better side control. It worked at points, but Liam was frequently able to shove me off with an arm and escape: I'm still poor at controlling that far arm properly.

Underneath, I felt more comfortable, aiming for half guard. I was able to snatch it a few times, though rather sloppily: however, the spar stopped once we reached half guard, no matter how tenuous. Marcio offered a handy tip, noting that I need to immediately push the knee with my hand and come up on my side, as opposed to just barely catching the leg in between my own. A fundamental point, but I realise I previously haven't been paying it enough attention.

I also got through to half guard from under knee on belly a few times, trying to push on the knee, but that's probably a risky strategy to get used to, given the possibility of getting armbarred. Going for half-guard is occasionally working at the moment, but I don't want to rely on it, particularly as I'm sure there are more sensible escapes from knee on belly.

Christina was my partner for rear mount sparring, where I'd had so much trouble against Jalal a while ago. Today wasn't quite the same, as I didn't get repeatedly smashed, presumably because Christina wasn't going all that hard. I still found it very difficult to hold her in rear mount, as she slowly but inexorably slipped out, freeing first one leg then the other.

With the positions reversed, I was more confident, just about holding off the choke and gradually getting my leg free. I wasn't so fluid as Christina, however, so had to struggle a lot longer to fully escape. Eventually I found myself on my front, working to pop out the back. Christina was definitely going easy at this point, even partially coaching me through, but still nice to get out of the position.

That meant it was time for free sparring. Vitor offered to roll, but I waved him off saying I'd do the next one. That proved to be a foolish decision, as there was only a single round tonight. This reminds me that I have to look at the clock before deciding to take a rest, otherwise like tonight, I could miss out on free sparring altogether. On the plus side, it does at least mean I gave my hand further rest: feels fairly sore right now.

15/05/2008 - BJJ (Advanced)

Class #146



Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Marcio Gomes, London, UK - 15/05/2008 - Advanced

My finger was still missing skin, so I stuck a plaster on top, then got some zinc oxide tape to hold that in place. As the abrasion is right on the joint, that makes taping it a bit awkward, but I was hoping that I could avoid bending the finger too much in training: e.g., sticking to pistol grips and relying on the lower part of the finger.

Marcio from GB Brighton took class today, which makes this the third time I've trained under him. He started off with drilling the double leg, then showed how you could switch to the single leg if that failed. The position was that they had moved back the leg nearest your head, having also secured a grip on your neck. Simply move round the side of their other leg, squat down then lift with your legs, dropping them into side control.

Marcio followed that up with some work from side control. First he showed how to maintain side control if they tried to turn into you and turtle up. To do so, they'll generally reach around your back with an arm. Before they can secure a grip, the elbow of your nearest arm goes by their armpit. You then move around their head, keeping your weight down and pushing against their arm with your elbow, until you end up round the other side with good control of their arm.

That can then lead to an armbar, though not the orthodox finish. As you moved round using your elbow, shift your grip so that you're cupping their elbow, trapping the arm under your armpit. Having reached the other side, staying close, bring your knee up onto them, while the leg near their head goes over their neck, diagonally. You can then drop back for the submission, which is a sort of figure-four on the arm (so like the straight armbar), though presumably you could also readjust and go for the more normal armbar from here.

The last technique of the day was a butterfly guard pass, used when they try to sweep you (with what looked to be the same method Jude showed us a few lessons back). As they try to lift you up with their hooked leg, you drive your knee through, twisting your torso in the same direction you're pushing your knee towards (this will mean their leg is in a sufficiently awkward position that its difficult for them to counter). Pull up their arm, gripping the back of their gi with your other hand, then pop over their leg to end up in mount.

Guard passage gave me another opportunity to try and stand up more, and I also attempted to grab a sleeve as I did so (something Ben had mentioned during an email exchange earlier). Hard to tell what effect that had, though, as I was rolling with people much better than me, meaning they could quite happily watch me stand up and try to secure a position, then just as happily sweep me.

I was a bit concerned that my shoddily taped finger was going to be exposed if I sparred a lot tonight, so wanted to limit myself to two. Therefore I sat out the first one, then sparred with Christy, who had also been my drilling partner. We had a good roll, where I ended up in either half-guard or butterfly guard, also trying to keep distance with my open guard. At one point I had the opportunity to wrap up a leg with my arms, so attempted to use that to escape out the back, but I think just ended up in a triangle.

However, I managed to get out of the triangle too, just about, also remembering to keep my trailing arm in tight, so I didn't leave myself open for an easy armbar. I had trouble getting past Christy's open guard, as while I had underhooked her legs, I couldn't seem to push them to one side and pass round. Nevertheless, felt like a relatively even spar (though no doubt Christy was taking it relatively easy, as I know she's got considerably more experience than me), so reminded me that I should roll with her more often.

The tape held up during that roll, but I'd misjudged, as that turned out to be the final round of sparring. Next time, I'll follow Jason's method (he always tapes up his fingers), and bend my fingers first, then wrap the tape round. Zinc oxide seems to do a good job of staying put, though I'm not sure if its an especially cost effective option: I paid about £3.70 for an 8m roll. No idea if that’s expensive or not, but either way I've read that duct tape is a functional alternative.

18/07/2007 - BJJ (Beginners)

Class #73



Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Marcio Gomes, London, UK - 18/07/2007 – Beginners

Ended up not making the Tuesday sparring class after all, because I forgot I had a dentists appointment that day. Finally got my third wisdom tooth extracted, which has been bothering me for years, but that meant that I apparently couldn’t do “vigorous exercise”, as that would raise my blood pressure and therefore cause excessive bleeding.

Today I had yet another excuse, though somewhat random: I had to bake a cake. No, really. It’s a thing my department does every week, which due to the size of our branch means that people generally end up doing it once a year each. This week its my turn.

Still, I could at least fit in the beginners, and that would give my tooth (or rather, my gum) a bit more time to recover. Class was taken by Marcio, unusually, who I first met back at the Brighton Throwdown - the website for his club can be found here. I was looking forward to seeing what a typical Gracie Barra Brighton class would be like: as it turned out, fairly similar to the normal RGA session.

Marcio ran through double legs (for which he initially gave the Portuguese term, which is baiana), starting off with the one where you fling the arms up then drop down, followed by the same takedown we did in no-gi last week (underhooks, pull in their hips, push against their chest with your head). Important point Marcio noted when he me doing it wrong was to get a good grip on your wrists: i.e., clamp one hand onto your other wrist to secure the hold, rather than just gripping your opponent around their waist.

Using a vaguely similar principle, Marcio then moved to escapes from side control. The first one I don’t think I’ve seen before, though its similar to the escape where you come to your knees. Both escapes we saw tonight were dependant on the other person’s grip: this initial technique was for when they gripped under your head and arm. Apparently, this is the less ‘correct’ way to hold side control. From that position, you push up with the forearm under their neck, then slide your other hand over your chest and on top of their back, palm down. You then follow that arm, pushing away from the neck and spinning over onto their back with their head under your chest.

The second method is the one I’m more familiar with, which operates from the ‘right’ way to hold side control (or perhaps its just the more common way?) Instead of the grip under the head and arm, this time it was the grip under the head with the other hand by their hip. Escaping this time involves getting an underhook as before, but also getting an underhook with the forearm that was against their neck. At the same time, you should be driving forward and through with your head, eventually coming to your knees.

My partner throughout was a second stripe called Ian, who started before me in September, but has had a few months off. Sparring began from side control, as you’d expect – I managed to get half guard a few times, which seemed to be the main way I escaped. However, I think Ian was a little rusty from his time off, so don’t think that’s an indication of improved technique on my part: I was still having trouble making space, but capable of wrapping up his leg as he attempted to move into mount.

On top I got mount a couple of times, but I also got swept. Ian is about 10kg heavier than me, but still my positioning on top remains sloppy. I did at least try and transition, moving round the north-south, but I continue to find it difficult moving into scarf hold and staying there. Scarf hold is supposed to be a very strong controlling position, so I’m clearly doing something very wrong if I’m so unstable with that pin.

Next we went from mount. Ian couldn’t remember having done mount escapes before at all, which meant I was able to pretty much hold him in place for most of the time by switching hands by his head, keeping my legs tight and staying low. Once I realised he was unsure of what the escapes were, I quickly went through the upa and elbow escape (which I’ve been referring to as shrimping out – think it’s the same thing, but could be getting my terminology mixed up), which seemed to refresh his memory.

However, on several occasions he effectively gave me his back, but I wasn’t able to get my hooks in and therefore ended up in guard. That definitely shouldn’t be happening, so I need to work on staying tight if the person underneath tries to spin round. Its not a position I find myself in often, which no doubt contributes to my crapness at adjusting, but that’s no excuse for sloppy technique. I managed to get an armbar at one point, which was nice, but that was because he didn’t realise I was trapping his arm with my chest: perhaps he hasn’t seen that set-up for a while. Either way, think it was again due to his time off rather than skill on my part.

I’m not sure I actually got a chance to work from underneath mount at that point, but soon did during the next spar, which (unless I misunderstood Marcio, which is certainly possible) started from guard, then just kept going. I got half-guard a couple of times, but completely failed to get the sit-up sweep despite a good opportunity. I probably should have gone for the kimura at that point, but either forgot or was pushed back down with sufficient speed that Ian could negate the attempt. We finished up with me struggling to escape mount, at one point popping out through his legs, though I think he then recovered his position via side control.

Should hopefully be training twice again tomorrow – cake baking should be interesting. I normally do the same thing, but as I’m a shockingly bad cook, may well still mess it up. But hey, I’m not the one who has to eat it...

09/12/06 - Brighton Throwdown

UK Brighton Throwdown (BJJ), Marcio Gomes, Brighton, UK – 09/12/2006

Not quite as many turned up as in Birmingham, but we still ended up with seven. In terms of Bullshido regulars, there was me (slideyfoot), Mungkorn Dam, RunningDog, Liffguard and Tcell. A friend of mine I first met about 3 years ago on the now defunct Tung-Fu also came along. He has posted on Bullshido as Jinksy, but only briefly. One of the blues from RunningDog’s club, Sam, also came along, though he left early.

Found out as I arrived that the place had been double-booked with some aikido people, which meant we only had it until 17:00 rather than 18:00, which was a shame. Still, I managed to cover just about everything I wanted in those three hours. While Marcio bumped up the cost by a tenner each, he was extremely handy to have there to ask questions. Otherwise, I would probably have ended up drilling the technique wrong, or at least not as effectively as possible. Website for his class can be found here.

After we all did a quick warm-up, I worked passes and sweeps from closed guard with Tcell. He gave me a bunch of useful tips, such as supporting myself with a bent leg rather than sprawling to resist sweep attempts and being careful not to lean too much forward or too much back. Both Tcell and the next guy I worked with, Sam, said that I was basically doing the right thing. So, now I just need the experience to see openings and perform the passes and sweeps quicker.

After taking a bunch of photos (annoyingly, the camera I had with me ran out of battery ridiculously quickly), I got down to my main drilling with Jinksy. As he didn’t have a gi, I took off my jacket and belt so I just had my t-shirt and gi trousers, meaning that I’d need a pass and sweep that worked without the gi. Only one I know is the tailbone pass (no idea what the proper name is), which Felipe had showed Mungkorn and me in class a while back. Marcio went over it again in greater detail.

Person A starts by putting their hands on Person B’s pelvis, working back up the legs. Shoving their right knee into Person B’s tailbone and pushing down with the hands to keep Person B there, Person A then attempts to push back with their arms and left knee (which I think you put to the side rather than backwards like I was doing previously), digging their elbows into Person B’s leg muscles at the same time. As soon as there is space, Person A underhooks both legs with his arms, pushes forward and sprawls round for the pass. Ideally, Person A will also get their knee up in between Person B’s legs for additional security, or break their guard open to pass that way. Main problem I had was simply lacking the strength to easily break Jinksy's guard. So, Marcio’s advice that you just needed to make space rather than necessarily break the guard proved very helpful.

Drilling that for a while with increasing resistance, I then moved on to the flower sweep, which Marcio also helped with. The way he taught it was for Person B to break Person A’s posture by pulling forward with the guard and also dragging down on Person A’s right arm, throwing it over to the right. As quickly as possible, Person B then wraps their left arm round Person A’s head, making sure to trap Person A’s right arm at the same time. If Person A manages to get their left arm into Person B’s neck, Person B needs to push on the elbow and trap that arm as well. Person B then wraps their right arm around the back of Person A’s left knee (aiming to pull it up towards Person B’s right shoulder). Person B put's their right foot up on Person A's hip, pushing off to swivel their own hips round to the left. Taking the right leg off and shoving it into Person A's side, Person B puts their left leg down by Person A's other leg. Finally, Person B pulls on the left knee and pushes with their right leg to get the sweep. If Person A manages to get their right arm free, Person B underhooks it and pulls it close to their own head to stop Person A using it to stop the sweep.

Jinksy and I drilled that to death, although only on one side – must remember to do the other side as well next time I have the chance. Jinksy got Marcio to help him with something different, as he wanted to work the kimura (if I’m using the right term for the arm lock where you figure-four the arm from guard, sitting up and twisting it past Person A’s back), along with the sweep you can do if Person A pulls back. While he was working with Marcio, RunningDog grabbed me for a roll, where I had the dubious pleasure of being shoved forcefully face-first into his crotch before he got me with some kind of shoulder-lock. Well, we were in Brighton, so I guess that’s to be expected...

I then went back to drilling with Jinksy, where I found out that escaping the mount when someone isn’t constantly going for an armbar is considerably more difficult. I wasn’t able to sweep him, though Jinksy advised trying to shrimp my way out, which did eventually work but I seemed to use a lot of energy in the process. Probably just doing it wrong, or my stamina had gone by that point. Also rolled with him at some point, which I think might have been what precipitated the mount escape drills, as I ended up stuck underneath his.

After the session finished and the aikidoka appeared (with stereotypical “skinny guy with ponytail” typifying the class), we headed off to the St. James’ Tavern for drinks. Well, at least Mungkorn and his gf did – Jinksy and I wandered aimlessly for while trying to find his sister’s house so I could dump my stuff. Once we finally got there, showered and then found the pub, Johnny had also arrived – Liffguard unfortunately had to leave earlier, Tcell having gone around 16:00. So that left five of us – shame I couldn’t get any pics.

I reckon I can legitimately put today down as 1.5hrs of BJJ in my geektastic Excel sheet: proved useful, and Marcio was well worth the fee, not to mention it’s always good to see people off the forum. Even better to get drunk with them!