Class #957
Artemis BJJ (MYGYM Bristol), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 08/03/2018
Training with Mauricio, having had a cool weekend with my Australian Instagram friend, Melanie. Although I'm writing this up in November 2018, I fortunately still have the notes I recorded on my dictaphone app from this class. Mauricio kicked off with headlock escapes, as he likes to add in the self defence stuff. Bring your hips in, grab their arm to stop them punching you, Big step back, grabbing their hand, keeping your head out. Push their hand up around their back. If you can't get your head up, dive under, roll through and get on top that way. Usual hands in front of head, bring foot over and armbar.
For passing, Mauricio was talking about staying really tight. When you're stepping in towards their guard, always step in with one leg forwards, in that low crouch position I like. Keep your head up, posture solid. When they have a grip on your sleeve, grab their belt and pull in tight.
Bring the other leg out, turning it away, pressing in from there. If they manage to catch onto your foot, walk it away slowly. Particularly for half guard, Mauricio brings his arm in early, underneath, swivelling it back to stop their hips from following you.
In sparring, keeping my balance on top. On the bottom, mostly got squished and clung on, trying to push gi under leg. Need to be framing, get the head down.
Showing posts with label Maurição Gomes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Maurição Gomes. Show all posts
05 March 2018
03 December 2011
03/12/2011 - Mauricio Gomes Masterclass & GB Submission Only Comp
Class #435
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Mauricio 'Maurição' Motta Gomes, Bristol, UK - 03/12/2011
I've been out of training for the last week, as last weekend I got some kind of nasty flu. That meant I wasn't sleeping well, so spend the day and night sniffling while wrapped up in a sleeping bag, my laptop at the ready. Also meant I finally got round to watching the commentaries of my Blackadder box set, then put on Battlestar Galactica, which I keep hearing is really good. Decent plot and acting so far, but then I've only been through the mini-series and first episode.
I was determined to make today, as we were going to have the rare treat of Mauricio 'Maurição' Gomes popping down to do a 'masterclass', before the regular internal Gracie Barra competition Geeza runs every few months. If you don't know who he is, Maurição has four major claims to fame: first, he is one of the very few people to be promoted to black belt by Rolls Gracie. Second, he is the man largely responsible for growing BJJ in the UK. Third, he is a member of another rare group, red and black belts (the belt after black belt). Finally, his son is Roger Gracie, whose name might ring a bell. ;)
I was also to grab Maurição for an interview later in the day, which was cool: we spent a good forty minutes chatting about Rolls Gracie, BJJ in the UK, Roger, belt tests, the first female black belt and various other topics. Always great to chat to the big names. I have met Maurição before, back when I was training regularly at the RGA HQ, but I was surprised that he remembered me. Clearly a man with a good memory for faces! ;)
There was no warm-up, as Maurição went straight into technique, keeping things fairly basic. He started off with a guard pass, where you grab both their collars with one hand and their sleeve with the other. Shove that sleeve into their hip, then hop up into a crouch, basing by pressing your weight through your hands. Stand up, letting go of the collars but pulling up on their sleeve. With your free hand, press inside their knee while simultaneously stepping your same side leg back.
Ideally, that should mean you can now open their guard and shove their knee to the floor. As soon as you do, slide your same side knee over, pinning their leg to the mat with your shin. You now have two options for passing. Either you can bump their other leg up onto your shoulder, reach for the collar with your outside hand then smash pass (like I showed last week), or you can go the other way, backstepping then pulling your leg through.
Maurição followed up with some knee on belly attacks, of which I think there were about four. However, I was drilling with Maeve, so that was a bit overwhelming for a white belt, meaning we just stuck with the first one. After you've passed and established knee on belly, sliding your knee across their belt line, get a deep grip in their collar, four fingers in, just like you were going for a cross choke. Your other hand goes on top, gripping the other collar thumb in. Once you've secured that grip, sprawl back with your feet, which puts all your weight through the neck, then twist your wrists to finish the submission.
Having covered knee on belly, Maurição moved rapidly onto attacks from mount. Specifically, it was technical mount, for when your opponent has turned to one side. Again, just like a class I've taught before (although obviously I don't teach it anywhere near as well as Maurição, who has literally been a black belt longer than I've been alive), during the technical mount portion of my attacking the mount lesson.
Finally, Maurição went through a couple of basic sweeps, the double ankle grab and one of my favourites, the sickle sweep (which I last taught here). He then handed over to one of the other black belts in attendance, Nick Brooks (if you're wondering who the other two were, it was Salvo from GB Bath and Raphael Dos Santos, who runs a number of schools under the GB Cornwall banner)
Having experienced Nick's excellent instruction at Mill Hill a couple of times, I knew he'd have something good up his sleeve. Today, that was a nifty but simple half guard sweep. The starting position is unusual. You have your inside foot over their upper leg, hooking around for control, but the knee of your leg is still in front of them, pressing into their hip. Your outside leg is just clamping tight against them, rather than locked up into an orthodox half guard.
Grab their sleeve on the outside leg side, while also gripping their trouser leg on the inside leg side. Bridge slightly, then turn towards the outside leg, driving your knees in that direction, pulling on their sleeve and lifting with your trouser grip. Very simple, but effective.
That marked the end of the masterclass, which ran for about an hour. Geeza then sorted out the brackets for the internal competition. This is open to all Gracie Barra students in the UK. Previously, the competitions have mainly consisted of Gracie Barra Bristol and Gracie Barra Bath, but this time a number of students came along from Cornwall, Birmingham, Swindon, Wales, the main RGA school in London and Nick Brooks' school in Mill Hill. GB Bristol has a lot of mat space, so Geeza was able to have five matches running at once.
I wasn't feeling up to competing (perhaps I'll give it a shot in the future, as I couldn't really ask for a more convenient environment), so instead I helped out as a ref. Of course, that wasn't a very demanding job, given the rules of this particular competition. Geeza, as you may know if you've ever watched his TheRealGeeza YouTube channel, is a firm believer that you should aim to finish the fight, not play for points. To that end, the internal GB comps he runs are submission only.
That meant my job as a ref was basically to stop people rolling into other fights, avoid hitting the wall, pause the action if trousers or jacket were falling off (more common than you'd expect!), stop the fight once someone was tapping and then raise the hand of the winner. Some techniques were illegal, such as cervical locks, slamming and all leglocks except straight ankle locks, but nobody ended up doing them and getting disqualified.
It was cool to get some reffing experience, as that's something I'd like to get into, in order to become a better teacher: I'll often have students ask, "so how many points would that be?", and I'm not always certain when the situation gets a bit more complex. Submission only is a good way to dip my toes, as it is so much simpler than the usual IBJJF rules. Most of the fights were pretty quick, but there were a few monsters, such as the epic eighty minute white belt battle. Among the women, Maeve also had an impressively long fight, going for fifty-three minutes.
Finaly, it was great to catch up with some old training partners from RGA and GB Brum, especially Conor, who I hadn't even realised was here in England now rather than Belfast. There should eventually be lots of videos, either on TheRealGeeza or the official Gracie Barra Bristol channel, so keep an eye on those. :)
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Mauricio 'Maurição' Motta Gomes, Bristol, UK - 03/12/2011
I've been out of training for the last week, as last weekend I got some kind of nasty flu. That meant I wasn't sleeping well, so spend the day and night sniffling while wrapped up in a sleeping bag, my laptop at the ready. Also meant I finally got round to watching the commentaries of my Blackadder box set, then put on Battlestar Galactica, which I keep hearing is really good. Decent plot and acting so far, but then I've only been through the mini-series and first episode. I was determined to make today, as we were going to have the rare treat of Mauricio 'Maurição' Gomes popping down to do a 'masterclass', before the regular internal Gracie Barra competition Geeza runs every few months. If you don't know who he is, Maurição has four major claims to fame: first, he is one of the very few people to be promoted to black belt by Rolls Gracie. Second, he is the man largely responsible for growing BJJ in the UK. Third, he is a member of another rare group, red and black belts (the belt after black belt). Finally, his son is Roger Gracie, whose name might ring a bell. ;)
I was also to grab Maurição for an interview later in the day, which was cool: we spent a good forty minutes chatting about Rolls Gracie, BJJ in the UK, Roger, belt tests, the first female black belt and various other topics. Always great to chat to the big names. I have met Maurição before, back when I was training regularly at the RGA HQ, but I was surprised that he remembered me. Clearly a man with a good memory for faces! ;)
There was no warm-up, as Maurição went straight into technique, keeping things fairly basic. He started off with a guard pass, where you grab both their collars with one hand and their sleeve with the other. Shove that sleeve into their hip, then hop up into a crouch, basing by pressing your weight through your hands. Stand up, letting go of the collars but pulling up on their sleeve. With your free hand, press inside their knee while simultaneously stepping your same side leg back.
Ideally, that should mean you can now open their guard and shove their knee to the floor. As soon as you do, slide your same side knee over, pinning their leg to the mat with your shin. You now have two options for passing. Either you can bump their other leg up onto your shoulder, reach for the collar with your outside hand then smash pass (like I showed last week), or you can go the other way, backstepping then pulling your leg through. Maurição followed up with some knee on belly attacks, of which I think there were about four. However, I was drilling with Maeve, so that was a bit overwhelming for a white belt, meaning we just stuck with the first one. After you've passed and established knee on belly, sliding your knee across their belt line, get a deep grip in their collar, four fingers in, just like you were going for a cross choke. Your other hand goes on top, gripping the other collar thumb in. Once you've secured that grip, sprawl back with your feet, which puts all your weight through the neck, then twist your wrists to finish the submission.
Having covered knee on belly, Maurição moved rapidly onto attacks from mount. Specifically, it was technical mount, for when your opponent has turned to one side. Again, just like a class I've taught before (although obviously I don't teach it anywhere near as well as Maurição, who has literally been a black belt longer than I've been alive), during the technical mount portion of my attacking the mount lesson.
Finally, Maurição went through a couple of basic sweeps, the double ankle grab and one of my favourites, the sickle sweep (which I last taught here). He then handed over to one of the other black belts in attendance, Nick Brooks (if you're wondering who the other two were, it was Salvo from GB Bath and Raphael Dos Santos, who runs a number of schools under the GB Cornwall banner)
Having experienced Nick's excellent instruction at Mill Hill a couple of times, I knew he'd have something good up his sleeve. Today, that was a nifty but simple half guard sweep. The starting position is unusual. You have your inside foot over their upper leg, hooking around for control, but the knee of your leg is still in front of them, pressing into their hip. Your outside leg is just clamping tight against them, rather than locked up into an orthodox half guard.
Grab their sleeve on the outside leg side, while also gripping their trouser leg on the inside leg side. Bridge slightly, then turn towards the outside leg, driving your knees in that direction, pulling on their sleeve and lifting with your trouser grip. Very simple, but effective.
That marked the end of the masterclass, which ran for about an hour. Geeza then sorted out the brackets for the internal competition. This is open to all Gracie Barra students in the UK. Previously, the competitions have mainly consisted of Gracie Barra Bristol and Gracie Barra Bath, but this time a number of students came along from Cornwall, Birmingham, Swindon, Wales, the main RGA school in London and Nick Brooks' school in Mill Hill. GB Bristol has a lot of mat space, so Geeza was able to have five matches running at once.
I wasn't feeling up to competing (perhaps I'll give it a shot in the future, as I couldn't really ask for a more convenient environment), so instead I helped out as a ref. Of course, that wasn't a very demanding job, given the rules of this particular competition. Geeza, as you may know if you've ever watched his TheRealGeeza YouTube channel, is a firm believer that you should aim to finish the fight, not play for points. To that end, the internal GB comps he runs are submission only.
That meant my job as a ref was basically to stop people rolling into other fights, avoid hitting the wall, pause the action if trousers or jacket were falling off (more common than you'd expect!), stop the fight once someone was tapping and then raise the hand of the winner. Some techniques were illegal, such as cervical locks, slamming and all leglocks except straight ankle locks, but nobody ended up doing them and getting disqualified.
It was cool to get some reffing experience, as that's something I'd like to get into, in order to become a better teacher: I'll often have students ask, "so how many points would that be?", and I'm not always certain when the situation gets a bit more complex. Submission only is a good way to dip my toes, as it is so much simpler than the usual IBJJF rules. Most of the fights were pretty quick, but there were a few monsters, such as the epic eighty minute white belt battle. Among the women, Maeve also had an impressively long fight, going for fifty-three minutes.
Finaly, it was great to catch up with some old training partners from RGA and GB Brum, especially Conor, who I hadn't even realised was here in England now rather than Belfast. There should eventually be lots of videos, either on TheRealGeeza or the official Gracie Barra Bristol channel, so keep an eye on those. :)
12 January 2009
12/01/2009 - BJJ (Intermediate)
Class #209
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Maurição Gomes, London, UK - 12/01/2009 - Intermediate
Tonight was concentrated on guard passing, which continues to be my worst area. Maurição stuck with the basics, beginning with a straightforward standing guard pass. Post your hands on their chest, spring up to your feet, also grabbing one of their sleeves. Push their knee on the other side off your hip, bouncing to help dislodge their hold.
Once that limb is loose, immediately clamp their knee to the floor, bringing your own knee over the top to pin their leg. Swing your other leg behind you, then put your nearest hand by their hip, in order to block them. Shift your first leg under the other, staying sprawled out: don’t bring your knees up to their side yet, as that gives them a window of opportunity to get their knee through and escape.
If they put up resistance when you try the leg pin pass - e.g., block your knee, shrimp onto their side etc – then you can switch to a different guard pass. Get your same side arm under their leg, grabbing their opposite collar (palm down, so your fingers are on top). From this position, you can either move around past that trapped leg, shifting your hips and keeping the pressure on to slip through, or try moving round the other side.
Specific sparring with Justin was rather one-sided, as he had no problems at all either passing my guard or sweeping me. I attempted the hook sweep as usual, though need to be careful I’m not too exuberant when disengaging closed guard: I ended up flinging myself right off and Justin simply used gravity to go straight to side control.
I tried my favoured (but almost always ineffectual) kneeling guard break, but wasn’t able to open up Justin’s guard. Nick G stepped in at this point, noting that its difficult to keep control of their hips with that technique, especially if they have a size advantage. He suggested I should instead be trying to stand more often, and also briefly demonstrated another kneeling option. Your posture stays low, grabbing the gi material on their sides, after which you gradually work your knee through: Nick noted that you have to be very wary of chokes when doing that.
Next up was side control, this time with Liam. Again, on top I was being flung off or reversed with ease: I kept overbalancing, and I’m still not mobile enough in transitioning. I had a go at the knee-on-chest Maurição showed us last week, but not getting that knee in right yet. I’ll keep practicing, as I’m keen to establish an option that doesn’t require you to get their elbow clear first, along with the typical pass which does.
Underneath I was more comfortable, shifting around and following Liam to prevent the pass, but nothing more than that. I was simply holding him off rather than getting near to escaping. That continued into free sparring, which unfortunately today was a continuous line-up rather than picking our own partners. I spent almost the whole of that thirty minutes in half-guard, which was ok if my partner wasn’t too big, but I got smashed when trying that against the beefy Polish guys.
In the midst of that smashing, the second of the Poles was looking for a guillotining, but ended up face cranking me instead. I didn’t want to tap to that, as its not going to help him against anyone his size or bigger so bad habit to get into, but on the other hand, I probably should have just saved myself some pain and restarted. Eventually slipped out, but my face and neck were a little sore at the end of class.
Most useful tip was when I went with Nick. He disdainfully looked at my “flop on the floor” approach to sparring from the knees, advising me that I have to ensure I establish some grips, even if I’m planning to pull guard. I also need to prevent my partner from getting grips: I’m way too complacent when going from knees, as I pretty much assume I’m going to be defending for the majority of the spar, so don’t pay much attention to their opening grips. Something to rectify.
Finally, Nick also had some advice for the mounted triangle. He let me get to mount in order to see what I’d do, but noted that once I’d got a leg under their head, I was raising up my other leg in order to lock on the triangle. That’s a mistake, as it gives your partner the chance to escape: you should keep your hips down and weight low all the way through the technique. So instead of lifting your leg to try and get it around your foot, pull your ankle back enough that you can slot it into place behind your other knee.
Should be training again on Wednesday, but I have some preparation to do for a job interview next week, so may stay at home in order to work some more on that. Depends how far I get tomorrow night.
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Maurição Gomes, London, UK - 12/01/2009 - Intermediate
Tonight was concentrated on guard passing, which continues to be my worst area. Maurição stuck with the basics, beginning with a straightforward standing guard pass. Post your hands on their chest, spring up to your feet, also grabbing one of their sleeves. Push their knee on the other side off your hip, bouncing to help dislodge their hold.
Once that limb is loose, immediately clamp their knee to the floor, bringing your own knee over the top to pin their leg. Swing your other leg behind you, then put your nearest hand by their hip, in order to block them. Shift your first leg under the other, staying sprawled out: don’t bring your knees up to their side yet, as that gives them a window of opportunity to get their knee through and escape.
If they put up resistance when you try the leg pin pass - e.g., block your knee, shrimp onto their side etc – then you can switch to a different guard pass. Get your same side arm under their leg, grabbing their opposite collar (palm down, so your fingers are on top). From this position, you can either move around past that trapped leg, shifting your hips and keeping the pressure on to slip through, or try moving round the other side.
Specific sparring with Justin was rather one-sided, as he had no problems at all either passing my guard or sweeping me. I attempted the hook sweep as usual, though need to be careful I’m not too exuberant when disengaging closed guard: I ended up flinging myself right off and Justin simply used gravity to go straight to side control.
I tried my favoured (but almost always ineffectual) kneeling guard break, but wasn’t able to open up Justin’s guard. Nick G stepped in at this point, noting that its difficult to keep control of their hips with that technique, especially if they have a size advantage. He suggested I should instead be trying to stand more often, and also briefly demonstrated another kneeling option. Your posture stays low, grabbing the gi material on their sides, after which you gradually work your knee through: Nick noted that you have to be very wary of chokes when doing that.
Next up was side control, this time with Liam. Again, on top I was being flung off or reversed with ease: I kept overbalancing, and I’m still not mobile enough in transitioning. I had a go at the knee-on-chest Maurição showed us last week, but not getting that knee in right yet. I’ll keep practicing, as I’m keen to establish an option that doesn’t require you to get their elbow clear first, along with the typical pass which does.
Underneath I was more comfortable, shifting around and following Liam to prevent the pass, but nothing more than that. I was simply holding him off rather than getting near to escaping. That continued into free sparring, which unfortunately today was a continuous line-up rather than picking our own partners. I spent almost the whole of that thirty minutes in half-guard, which was ok if my partner wasn’t too big, but I got smashed when trying that against the beefy Polish guys.
In the midst of that smashing, the second of the Poles was looking for a guillotining, but ended up face cranking me instead. I didn’t want to tap to that, as its not going to help him against anyone his size or bigger so bad habit to get into, but on the other hand, I probably should have just saved myself some pain and restarted. Eventually slipped out, but my face and neck were a little sore at the end of class.
Most useful tip was when I went with Nick. He disdainfully looked at my “flop on the floor” approach to sparring from the knees, advising me that I have to ensure I establish some grips, even if I’m planning to pull guard. I also need to prevent my partner from getting grips: I’m way too complacent when going from knees, as I pretty much assume I’m going to be defending for the majority of the spar, so don’t pay much attention to their opening grips. Something to rectify.
Finally, Nick also had some advice for the mounted triangle. He let me get to mount in order to see what I’d do, but noted that once I’d got a leg under their head, I was raising up my other leg in order to lock on the triangle. That’s a mistake, as it gives your partner the chance to escape: you should keep your hips down and weight low all the way through the technique. So instead of lifting your leg to try and get it around your foot, pull your ankle back enough that you can slot it into place behind your other knee.
Should be training again on Wednesday, but I have some preparation to do for a job interview next week, so may stay at home in order to work some more on that. Depends how far I get tomorrow night.
08 May 2008
08/05/2008 - BJJ (Advanced)
Class #144
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Maurição Gomes, London, UK - 08/05/2008 - Advanced
Today marks 1.5 years since my first BJJ class, and I can see there is still plenty that I had trouble with back in November 2006 that continues to cause me problems now. Guard passing is the big one, though Brian's sprawl pass has helped a little on that: still need to force myself to stand up more, but I think that's steadily getting better. It’s a shame I missed Maurição's class on breaking the guard last week, as it wasn't on a day I could make, but hopefully that will be covered again at some point. My top game is bad in general, but passing the guard is the weakest part, followed by submissions from mount (my subs from side control are crappy too, but at least I have a few I can go for).
My regular training partner Christina is off in the US at the moment, so I'm in the unfamiliar position of having to search for someone to drill with. Yesterday that was with Indra, who is a good substitute (similarly mature and interested in working out the fine points of a technique), but I'm not always quick enough to catch her eye. Today, none of my regular training partners were there anyway, although as it turned out, we didn't do any technique.
Instead, Maurição decided to have a sparring class. We began with three specific spars in a row, with the same partner. I found myself with Jalal, who must have found it a little dull, as he had no trouble whatsoever in the first specific spar, from rear mount. I could do absolutely nothing when I was sat in position to choke him, as my hook was completely ineffectual: he brushed it away like it was nothing. I had no idea how to stop him, so repeatedly got in position, felt him twist and remove my hook, then escape my grip. I was even more helpless when the situation was reversed, unable to put up any resistance to Jalal's chokes.
My heart sank when I heard the next specific spar was knee-on-belly, as that could be rather painful. However, turned out to be much better than rear mount, at least when I was on the bottom. On top, I once again couldn't control Jalal at all: I tried posturing up, pressing my weight down, shifting to the other side, but to no avail. The position felt completely alien to me: I have never ended up there in sparring, so I probably should have been thinking about sliding through to mount. Jalal noted that I should keep my foot off the floor to put as much pressure through my knee as possible, and also need to be careful I don't lean forward too much, as its then a simple matter to roll me over.
Underneath, I had more of an idea what to do, working for half-guard, shrimping and bridging. Jalal had a choke at one point, but I was able to get an arm in the way to prevent him locking it in. While uncomfortable, I found that I could brace my arm into position, stopping him from squeezing my neck (though my face did get a bit squashed several times during out specific spars). I even found myself popping out the back door at one point, having got half-guard and then gone between his legs, but not quite sure how I ended up there.
Half-guard is where I normally find myself during sparring, so I was relieved that we'd be doing the third specific spar from there. On top, I was again pretty useless, as Jalal turned to his side and pulled out, or rolled me over. He advised that I could try posting on my head to create additional pressure, which is something I haven't attempted before. I was thinking of the passes Maurição showed us earlier, but clearly I have a lot of work to do before I can use those effectively.
Underneath, I clung to half-guard, continuing my attempts to follow Aesopian's videos. I still can't get that knee in, but am finding myself in what Aesopian calls deep half guard more frequently now. Must look into sweeps from there, as at present I grabbing the leg and then looking confused. Squirrel-fu is helping to keep me safe, but very passive.
We did some guard passage after that in a king of the hill line-up, though I only rolled twice. I was knackered by this point, so reverted back to my usual defensive posture avoiding chokes. Others were a little more competitive, as the purple belt I'd just rolled with cracked Radek right in the eyebrow with his heel, making a nasty cut. Radek headed off to hospital shortly afterwards, where I imagine he'll be getting a fair few stitches. Hopefully he'll heal up ok.
Maurição then paired us up. I was put against a guy named Simon, who I haven't seen before. Either he was tired or going light, as I didn't feel I was in too much danger under his side control, eventually getting half-guard and again curling up tight against his leg. As before, I tried to think of some kind of sweep, lifting his trapped leg up and getting a grip on the other one with my arms, but not clear on the proper technique.
Things finished up with Grant, who as always schooled me: armbars, chokes etc. Shame there weren't any small people in class at all, but then I have been spoiled at RGA, given that normally there are a reasonable number of people my size and lower.
At the end of class, Maurição made a brief speech about how you shouldn't get over aggressive in class, as its not a competition. Going rough will soon mean you run out of training partners. It’s a sentiment I certainly agree with, but made me wonder what prompted him to want to prove that point through lots of sparring (although he might have just been emphasising the point due to Radek's hospitalisation).
Just as people were about to get up to shake hands, Maurição pulled a purple belt out of his gi to give to Connor, who's been a blue belt for a good long time now. Presumably the high level blues like Gavin, Oli and Tran won't be too far behind. Also, speaking of purples, Luciano is back from Brazil, though he obviously won't be training for a while given the recent surgery.
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Maurição Gomes, London, UK - 08/05/2008 - Advanced
Today marks 1.5 years since my first BJJ class, and I can see there is still plenty that I had trouble with back in November 2006 that continues to cause me problems now. Guard passing is the big one, though Brian's sprawl pass has helped a little on that: still need to force myself to stand up more, but I think that's steadily getting better. It’s a shame I missed Maurição's class on breaking the guard last week, as it wasn't on a day I could make, but hopefully that will be covered again at some point. My top game is bad in general, but passing the guard is the weakest part, followed by submissions from mount (my subs from side control are crappy too, but at least I have a few I can go for).
My regular training partner Christina is off in the US at the moment, so I'm in the unfamiliar position of having to search for someone to drill with. Yesterday that was with Indra, who is a good substitute (similarly mature and interested in working out the fine points of a technique), but I'm not always quick enough to catch her eye. Today, none of my regular training partners were there anyway, although as it turned out, we didn't do any technique.
Instead, Maurição decided to have a sparring class. We began with three specific spars in a row, with the same partner. I found myself with Jalal, who must have found it a little dull, as he had no trouble whatsoever in the first specific spar, from rear mount. I could do absolutely nothing when I was sat in position to choke him, as my hook was completely ineffectual: he brushed it away like it was nothing. I had no idea how to stop him, so repeatedly got in position, felt him twist and remove my hook, then escape my grip. I was even more helpless when the situation was reversed, unable to put up any resistance to Jalal's chokes.
My heart sank when I heard the next specific spar was knee-on-belly, as that could be rather painful. However, turned out to be much better than rear mount, at least when I was on the bottom. On top, I once again couldn't control Jalal at all: I tried posturing up, pressing my weight down, shifting to the other side, but to no avail. The position felt completely alien to me: I have never ended up there in sparring, so I probably should have been thinking about sliding through to mount. Jalal noted that I should keep my foot off the floor to put as much pressure through my knee as possible, and also need to be careful I don't lean forward too much, as its then a simple matter to roll me over.
Underneath, I had more of an idea what to do, working for half-guard, shrimping and bridging. Jalal had a choke at one point, but I was able to get an arm in the way to prevent him locking it in. While uncomfortable, I found that I could brace my arm into position, stopping him from squeezing my neck (though my face did get a bit squashed several times during out specific spars). I even found myself popping out the back door at one point, having got half-guard and then gone between his legs, but not quite sure how I ended up there.
Half-guard is where I normally find myself during sparring, so I was relieved that we'd be doing the third specific spar from there. On top, I was again pretty useless, as Jalal turned to his side and pulled out, or rolled me over. He advised that I could try posting on my head to create additional pressure, which is something I haven't attempted before. I was thinking of the passes Maurição showed us earlier, but clearly I have a lot of work to do before I can use those effectively.
Underneath, I clung to half-guard, continuing my attempts to follow Aesopian's videos. I still can't get that knee in, but am finding myself in what Aesopian calls deep half guard more frequently now. Must look into sweeps from there, as at present I grabbing the leg and then looking confused. Squirrel-fu is helping to keep me safe, but very passive.
We did some guard passage after that in a king of the hill line-up, though I only rolled twice. I was knackered by this point, so reverted back to my usual defensive posture avoiding chokes. Others were a little more competitive, as the purple belt I'd just rolled with cracked Radek right in the eyebrow with his heel, making a nasty cut. Radek headed off to hospital shortly afterwards, where I imagine he'll be getting a fair few stitches. Hopefully he'll heal up ok.
Maurição then paired us up. I was put against a guy named Simon, who I haven't seen before. Either he was tired or going light, as I didn't feel I was in too much danger under his side control, eventually getting half-guard and again curling up tight against his leg. As before, I tried to think of some kind of sweep, lifting his trapped leg up and getting a grip on the other one with my arms, but not clear on the proper technique.
Things finished up with Grant, who as always schooled me: armbars, chokes etc. Shame there weren't any small people in class at all, but then I have been spoiled at RGA, given that normally there are a reasonable number of people my size and lower.
At the end of class, Maurição made a brief speech about how you shouldn't get over aggressive in class, as its not a competition. Going rough will soon mean you run out of training partners. It’s a sentiment I certainly agree with, but made me wonder what prompted him to want to prove that point through lots of sparring (although he might have just been emphasising the point due to Radek's hospitalisation).
Just as people were about to get up to shake hands, Maurição pulled a purple belt out of his gi to give to Connor, who's been a blue belt for a good long time now. Presumably the high level blues like Gavin, Oli and Tran won't be too far behind. Also, speaking of purples, Luciano is back from Brazil, though he obviously won't be training for a while given the recent surgery.
01 May 2008
01/05/2008 - BJJ (Advanced)
Class #142
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Maurição Gomes, London, UK - 01/05/2008 - Advanced
The more I read by Roy Dean, the more I'm impressed. I already like his videos and blog, and now I've been enjoying his free online book, An Uchideshi Experience. Anyone who has read Angry White Pyjamas (my review of that here) will remember that an uchideshi is a live-in student. Dean's writing is a little later (1999) than Angry White Pyjamas, and also considerably more informed: unlike Robert Twigger, Dean was already an experienced martial artist. Even better, he had begun his training in BJJ, so brings a much more critical eye to traditional martial arts. He provides a balanced perspective on both their benefits and their flaws, with particular regard to aikido.
As I've mentioned before in this blog, I'm trying to pull together a long post on BJJ history (which will link back to the ones I've already done on the early UFCs). For that, I'm mainly drawing on Mastering Jujitsu and The Gracie Way, so things like An Uchideshi Experience - given the time of writing – are going to be very useful for broadening my sources. Look forward to getting to Dean's thoughts on the SEG era of the UFC, as in keeping with most non-Brazilians who began BJJ in the 1990s, he was inspired to take up the sport by Royce Gracie's MMA victories.
Tonight's class was, in contrast to yesterday, technique heavy. Maurição kind of did what he did yesterday, but this time with careful explanation and clearer goals for us to practice, as opposed to the more conceptual approach last lesson. The pattern was to first do a specific spar, then work a technique from that position, which proved a good structure.
Sparring from the mount with Herman, I was able to escape ok, especially doing my usual half guard, then shifting to full guard by pushing the leg away and slipping under. However, on top I was much less successful. I did at least get to try different things, attempting to secure my leg under his head to get into the mounted triangle position, where my intention was either to go for an armbar from there or finish the triangle. Unfortunately, I was leaving way too much space, so either got swept or Herman was able to escape.
Maurição then instructed us on maintaining mount. The scenario was that they have managed to get an elbow between your knee and their side. Get hold of their other elbow and drag it back, aiming to shove their arm across their own throat. With the same side knee, shift up towards their head, raising up slightly with your other leg (but keeping the foot tight to their side, leaving no space for them to try and underhook it). Also make sure your hips are on them, keeping the pressure.
You can then either go for the armbar, or there was some kind of choke Maurição showed us. I don't think I quite understood it, but from what I can remember, you open up their collar with one hand, bring your other hand under their head, feed the collar through, grab their other collar and secure the choke. I'm pretty sure I got it wrong, though, as it didn't feel very tight.
We then moved on to sparring from half-guard. I went for submissions, mainly the kimura, but couldn't secure Herman's arm. I also tried switching to a straight armbar, but wasn't in position to apply enough leverage. Underneath, I was doing much the same thing as from under mount, using the half guard to try to recover full guard. I also attempted shifting to deep half guard (so up by Herman's legs), which again didn't yield much as I wasn't quite sure what to go for. At another point, I'm sure I was in position for some kind of sweep, with my legs under, but again, couldn't think how to finish.
The technique was two half guard passes. For the first one, you sit back on their leg. As they raise up their torso, you shove it down with one arm. With the other, press their knee to the floor (this will be the knee you were previously sitting on, so its already down by the ground). Having got control of that knee, bring your knee over, then keeping the pressure with your hips, slide through to side control.
Second method was for when you're closer to them. They'll most likely try to bring their arm to bear for the underhook, so control that and squash it into their body. Your free knee presses into their hip, blocking the movement of their leg. You then slip your trapped foot out and move to side control. I think: feels like I'm missing something there.
Our last bit of specific sparring was from open guard. With passing, I kinda swung my way past a few times, but not all that securely: had we been free sparring, I don't think Herman would have had too much trouble coming to his knees and getting up, or going to guard. I also got the sprawl pass again, but need to both control the legs better and improve what Brian called 'rock climbing' at the Oxford TD (i.e., pulling myself up his body into side control).
Underneath, I was trying spider guard, but as has been a recurring problem today, wasn't totally clear on what I was trying to achieve. I really need to review the sweeps from open and half guard, as I can normally get to some semblance of the position. Now I need to clarify my goals once I reach that point in the spar.
Maurição then showed how to pass the open guard. This is something I've seen Gustavo demonstrate, and it’s a technique I like (though haven't quite used it successfully yet, probably again due to problems with pressing my limited weight downwards). They have spider guard. You circle your arms underneath and grip behind their knees. Stack them up (by pushing their legs back), aiming to get their knees to their shoulders. Sit on the back of their thighs, thrusting your hips forward and keeping the pressure downwards. Then simultaneously slip to the side and thrust their legs out the way, sliding into side control.
Free sparring with Herman was quite fun, as I went for lots of submissions. I started with an attempted guillotine, but only had one arm in and couldn't secure it. I tried switching to a kimura but couldn't get the arm, and then as Herman came to his knees at one point, I even went for a brabo choke. I think I did it totally wrong, so definitely need to refresh my memory on that one: got the spinning to your back bit, but think my grip on the neck was incorrect.
I also tried for a triangle, as I worked to get my leg over Herman's arm while pulling the other one forward, but left too much space. I need to thrust my hips up more, and perhaps swivel round. I remembered to try for the armbar, but didn't have enough of a hold with my legs to stop Herman from pulling out. I really wanted to go for an omoplata too, but couldn't get the position to swing my leg over and wrap up the arm. Enjoyable, but repeatedly sloppy technique on my part.
My next free spar was quite different, as it was a great deal less mobile. I was with Andy, a white belt who had a bit of size on me. While underneath, he tried to crush my head into his side, which was random: I got my leg around his head and then used the pressure to gradually pry his arm off my head. I'm not sure if he could have got a submission out of that, but presumably was just trying stuff to see if it worked.
I eventually ended up under mount, but was able to sweep him when he went for a choke. However, he was dead keen to get that submission, so held on tightly to his grips as I rolled him into guard. I wrapped up his arms and postured up, so felt fairly confident I was safe. He gave it a good try, though, and definitely wasn't comfortable. That also made me think about what point do you tap on a choke: I didn't feel I was in danger, though it definitely wasn't a fun position to be in. I probably should have also been pressing his elbows in more, rather than just wrapping and posturing.
It was clear that he didn't want to let go, and that I was going to be able to sit there and resist while he strained, so I advised him to try something else. However, by that point the time was about to run out. I didn't fancy another roll after that, so sat out the last round of sparring to get some water.
Next bit of training should hopefully be the inaugural meeting of the Warwick Uni BJJ group, which will give me the chance for loads of drilling. Will see how the organisation goes, but could be the start of something really handy.
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Maurição Gomes, London, UK - 01/05/2008 - Advanced
The more I read by Roy Dean, the more I'm impressed. I already like his videos and blog, and now I've been enjoying his free online book, An Uchideshi Experience. Anyone who has read Angry White Pyjamas (my review of that here) will remember that an uchideshi is a live-in student. Dean's writing is a little later (1999) than Angry White Pyjamas, and also considerably more informed: unlike Robert Twigger, Dean was already an experienced martial artist. Even better, he had begun his training in BJJ, so brings a much more critical eye to traditional martial arts. He provides a balanced perspective on both their benefits and their flaws, with particular regard to aikido.
As I've mentioned before in this blog, I'm trying to pull together a long post on BJJ history (which will link back to the ones I've already done on the early UFCs). For that, I'm mainly drawing on Mastering Jujitsu and The Gracie Way, so things like An Uchideshi Experience - given the time of writing – are going to be very useful for broadening my sources. Look forward to getting to Dean's thoughts on the SEG era of the UFC, as in keeping with most non-Brazilians who began BJJ in the 1990s, he was inspired to take up the sport by Royce Gracie's MMA victories.
Tonight's class was, in contrast to yesterday, technique heavy. Maurição kind of did what he did yesterday, but this time with careful explanation and clearer goals for us to practice, as opposed to the more conceptual approach last lesson. The pattern was to first do a specific spar, then work a technique from that position, which proved a good structure.
Sparring from the mount with Herman, I was able to escape ok, especially doing my usual half guard, then shifting to full guard by pushing the leg away and slipping under. However, on top I was much less successful. I did at least get to try different things, attempting to secure my leg under his head to get into the mounted triangle position, where my intention was either to go for an armbar from there or finish the triangle. Unfortunately, I was leaving way too much space, so either got swept or Herman was able to escape.
Maurição then instructed us on maintaining mount. The scenario was that they have managed to get an elbow between your knee and their side. Get hold of their other elbow and drag it back, aiming to shove their arm across their own throat. With the same side knee, shift up towards their head, raising up slightly with your other leg (but keeping the foot tight to their side, leaving no space for them to try and underhook it). Also make sure your hips are on them, keeping the pressure.
You can then either go for the armbar, or there was some kind of choke Maurição showed us. I don't think I quite understood it, but from what I can remember, you open up their collar with one hand, bring your other hand under their head, feed the collar through, grab their other collar and secure the choke. I'm pretty sure I got it wrong, though, as it didn't feel very tight.
We then moved on to sparring from half-guard. I went for submissions, mainly the kimura, but couldn't secure Herman's arm. I also tried switching to a straight armbar, but wasn't in position to apply enough leverage. Underneath, I was doing much the same thing as from under mount, using the half guard to try to recover full guard. I also attempted shifting to deep half guard (so up by Herman's legs), which again didn't yield much as I wasn't quite sure what to go for. At another point, I'm sure I was in position for some kind of sweep, with my legs under, but again, couldn't think how to finish.
The technique was two half guard passes. For the first one, you sit back on their leg. As they raise up their torso, you shove it down with one arm. With the other, press their knee to the floor (this will be the knee you were previously sitting on, so its already down by the ground). Having got control of that knee, bring your knee over, then keeping the pressure with your hips, slide through to side control.
Second method was for when you're closer to them. They'll most likely try to bring their arm to bear for the underhook, so control that and squash it into their body. Your free knee presses into their hip, blocking the movement of their leg. You then slip your trapped foot out and move to side control. I think: feels like I'm missing something there.
Our last bit of specific sparring was from open guard. With passing, I kinda swung my way past a few times, but not all that securely: had we been free sparring, I don't think Herman would have had too much trouble coming to his knees and getting up, or going to guard. I also got the sprawl pass again, but need to both control the legs better and improve what Brian called 'rock climbing' at the Oxford TD (i.e., pulling myself up his body into side control).
Underneath, I was trying spider guard, but as has been a recurring problem today, wasn't totally clear on what I was trying to achieve. I really need to review the sweeps from open and half guard, as I can normally get to some semblance of the position. Now I need to clarify my goals once I reach that point in the spar.
Maurição then showed how to pass the open guard. This is something I've seen Gustavo demonstrate, and it’s a technique I like (though haven't quite used it successfully yet, probably again due to problems with pressing my limited weight downwards). They have spider guard. You circle your arms underneath and grip behind their knees. Stack them up (by pushing their legs back), aiming to get their knees to their shoulders. Sit on the back of their thighs, thrusting your hips forward and keeping the pressure downwards. Then simultaneously slip to the side and thrust their legs out the way, sliding into side control.
Free sparring with Herman was quite fun, as I went for lots of submissions. I started with an attempted guillotine, but only had one arm in and couldn't secure it. I tried switching to a kimura but couldn't get the arm, and then as Herman came to his knees at one point, I even went for a brabo choke. I think I did it totally wrong, so definitely need to refresh my memory on that one: got the spinning to your back bit, but think my grip on the neck was incorrect.
I also tried for a triangle, as I worked to get my leg over Herman's arm while pulling the other one forward, but left too much space. I need to thrust my hips up more, and perhaps swivel round. I remembered to try for the armbar, but didn't have enough of a hold with my legs to stop Herman from pulling out. I really wanted to go for an omoplata too, but couldn't get the position to swing my leg over and wrap up the arm. Enjoyable, but repeatedly sloppy technique on my part.
My next free spar was quite different, as it was a great deal less mobile. I was with Andy, a white belt who had a bit of size on me. While underneath, he tried to crush my head into his side, which was random: I got my leg around his head and then used the pressure to gradually pry his arm off my head. I'm not sure if he could have got a submission out of that, but presumably was just trying stuff to see if it worked.
I eventually ended up under mount, but was able to sweep him when he went for a choke. However, he was dead keen to get that submission, so held on tightly to his grips as I rolled him into guard. I wrapped up his arms and postured up, so felt fairly confident I was safe. He gave it a good try, though, and definitely wasn't comfortable. That also made me think about what point do you tap on a choke: I didn't feel I was in danger, though it definitely wasn't a fun position to be in. I probably should have also been pressing his elbows in more, rather than just wrapping and posturing.
It was clear that he didn't want to let go, and that I was going to be able to sit there and resist while he strained, so I advised him to try something else. However, by that point the time was about to run out. I didn't fancy another roll after that, so sat out the last round of sparring to get some water.
Next bit of training should hopefully be the inaugural meeting of the Warwick Uni BJJ group, which will give me the chance for loads of drilling. Will see how the organisation goes, but could be the start of something really handy.
30 April 2008
30/04/2008 - BJJ (Advanced)
Class #141
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Maurição Gomes, London, UK - 30/04/2008 - Advanced
Turned out that SENI was well stocked for helpers, so I wasn't really needed. I brought the food round and did an hour of table judging (i.e., flipping the points board), but aside from bringing along some of the tickets, that was it. Very much enjoyed even that small bit of helping, though, and definitely would like to do it again. Excellent way of getting an in depth view of competition, given that you're forced to concentrate as you're waiting to note down points.
It was also really nice to chat to various people at RGA, as well as see a few other BJJers for the first time in a while (like Ben and Oli, who both used to train at RGA and are now at Farringdon, along with the guys from Belfast and Anne, who is now in Brighton).
When I left (about 17:40), there had already been a few RGA successes, most notably Christina kicking arse: gold medal in both her weight category and the absolute. I think one of the heavy whites also got a gold, along with Joanna too. Joanna also, somewhat randomly, did some fights in the cage set up elsewhere at the venue: I missed the first fight, but in the second (pure grappling match), she won through armbar. Not only that, but she beat a guy, which always makes me happy: hooray for feminism! ;D
Watching the SENI did make me think that when I next compete, I might do it at a smaller tournament. The white belts took so long that they were still going when I left, having started at 10:00: some very packed weight divisions. The other thing was that space restrictions (not in terms of competition, as there were eight mats, but around the edge) meant you couldn't take your bag with you. I really don't like being away from my stuff, as I'm hyper-paranoid since getting things nicked twice last year.
I've spent a lot of yesterday and today reading my way through Roy Dean's website, which has lots of interesting content. Dean is a BJJ black belt under Roy Harris, but he also has an extensive background in styles like aikido, which has clearly affected his approach. What I like most about Dean is his teaching style, as seen in a number of his videos. He emphasises basics, which is definitely to my liking, and in particular escapes, which is even more up my street. So may well have to pick up one of his DVDs in the future.
Getting back to tonight's class, somewhat strange in that there was no technique. Instead, Maurição talked for a while about general strategy. His main point, if I understood correctly, was that you had to think a few steps ahead of your opponent, instead of just working to counter whatever they were doing. His analogy was going round a wall – if they went the long way, circling around the right to reach the left corner on the other side, you shouldn't follow them. Instead, walk straight past the left corner, heading them off.
In the course of demonstrating his point, he went through a whole bunch of positions, mainly working through side mount and knee on belly, showing various submissions and ways of regaining your control. I was waiting for a particular technique, but he then said "go and try," which confused me: that left a lot of room.
So what Christina and I ended up doing was a bit of side control, moving to knee on belly. The way Christina advised, having learned from Maurição, was to bring your knee diagonally onto your partner, then use that to shift up high onto their chest. From that, you can then swivel round for the armbar. I have never used knee-on-belly, but then I'm rarely on top. If I get there, its either side control or top half guard, after which I normally get swept.
King of the hill guard passage followed, where I was trying to make myself stand up. That didn't get too far until I went with Lorenzo, who essentially coached me, which was pretty helpful. He emphasised driving my hips forward and being very careful not to lean over, especially as a small guy. I was also trying to remember ShanghaiBJJ's point about your feet and knees pointing in: Lorenzo let me pass a few times, and then went to sit out. I didn't actually pass his guard properly, but ended up staying on anyway (though that was short lived, as I was then immediately passed by my next partner).
Free sparring was interesting today. I started off with Tran, and as ever worked escapes against his tight top game. As with the nogi class last week, I keep ending up clamped in half-guard, though this time I tried to move in towards them rather than just clinging on waiting to get passed. Maintaining that grasp on Tran's leg (which kinda shifted to his ankle several times, so a rather tenuous half-guard on my part) seemed to help resist his submissions, but it was completely defensive. I also used my knuckles to block his hand sliding across my throat, which again was a purely defensive measure.
I need to have a clearer goal to work towards when I'm doing my "clinging like a limpet" half-guard. There's the option of trying to come up on my side, but that never happens, as I can never find the space. Going to a deep half guard curled up against their legs was a position I could achieve, but do nothing with. Ideally, I want the half guard to be a transitional position for me to get back to full guard. As usual, that’s due to my desire to keep things basic, rather than attempt lots of half guard sweeps or something.
Much the same thing happened with Yasmine, though I did find myself moving towards a stack pass several times. However, on each occasion Yasmine was able to come to her knees and I found myself once again on the bottom. I think that must be my old problem of keeping my weight pressed down: securing the double underhooks isn't enough, I need to drive forward and really use my hips to maintain the pressure.
Finally, I had a roll with Christina. I'm still working on my spider guard with her, and today I felt a bit more confident with the position. Rather than kinda hanging there and then getting passed, I was focusing on shrimping away, using my wrapped up legs to push off my training partner's arms. Christina was continuing to drive forward powerfully with her hips, but shrimping away helped a little. However, I'm not doing enough with my arms, and like with half-guard, need to come up with a more specific aim. For that, I've been looking at Mark Massey's videos on YouTube, which gave me some ideas. Possibly a little ambitious, but the concept of shrimping away certainly helped.
As before, my neck was a bit stiff, so I may have to look into that if it becomes a problem. The right thumb is also still sore, but I'm hoping that’s just a matter of time: I'm not really using it much beyond typing, so it shouldn't be under a great deal of strain. Also need to watch whacking people in the face when in open guard, as I caught Christina with my knee. I don't think it was too bad, as I didn't feel any impact (unlike last time), so hopefully it was just a minor knock. In recompense, I'd earlier got smacked in the nose by Uyi. ;)
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Maurição Gomes, London, UK - 30/04/2008 - Advanced
Turned out that SENI was well stocked for helpers, so I wasn't really needed. I brought the food round and did an hour of table judging (i.e., flipping the points board), but aside from bringing along some of the tickets, that was it. Very much enjoyed even that small bit of helping, though, and definitely would like to do it again. Excellent way of getting an in depth view of competition, given that you're forced to concentrate as you're waiting to note down points.
It was also really nice to chat to various people at RGA, as well as see a few other BJJers for the first time in a while (like Ben and Oli, who both used to train at RGA and are now at Farringdon, along with the guys from Belfast and Anne, who is now in Brighton).
When I left (about 17:40), there had already been a few RGA successes, most notably Christina kicking arse: gold medal in both her weight category and the absolute. I think one of the heavy whites also got a gold, along with Joanna too. Joanna also, somewhat randomly, did some fights in the cage set up elsewhere at the venue: I missed the first fight, but in the second (pure grappling match), she won through armbar. Not only that, but she beat a guy, which always makes me happy: hooray for feminism! ;D
Watching the SENI did make me think that when I next compete, I might do it at a smaller tournament. The white belts took so long that they were still going when I left, having started at 10:00: some very packed weight divisions. The other thing was that space restrictions (not in terms of competition, as there were eight mats, but around the edge) meant you couldn't take your bag with you. I really don't like being away from my stuff, as I'm hyper-paranoid since getting things nicked twice last year.
I've spent a lot of yesterday and today reading my way through Roy Dean's website, which has lots of interesting content. Dean is a BJJ black belt under Roy Harris, but he also has an extensive background in styles like aikido, which has clearly affected his approach. What I like most about Dean is his teaching style, as seen in a number of his videos. He emphasises basics, which is definitely to my liking, and in particular escapes, which is even more up my street. So may well have to pick up one of his DVDs in the future.
Getting back to tonight's class, somewhat strange in that there was no technique. Instead, Maurição talked for a while about general strategy. His main point, if I understood correctly, was that you had to think a few steps ahead of your opponent, instead of just working to counter whatever they were doing. His analogy was going round a wall – if they went the long way, circling around the right to reach the left corner on the other side, you shouldn't follow them. Instead, walk straight past the left corner, heading them off.
In the course of demonstrating his point, he went through a whole bunch of positions, mainly working through side mount and knee on belly, showing various submissions and ways of regaining your control. I was waiting for a particular technique, but he then said "go and try," which confused me: that left a lot of room.
So what Christina and I ended up doing was a bit of side control, moving to knee on belly. The way Christina advised, having learned from Maurição, was to bring your knee diagonally onto your partner, then use that to shift up high onto their chest. From that, you can then swivel round for the armbar. I have never used knee-on-belly, but then I'm rarely on top. If I get there, its either side control or top half guard, after which I normally get swept.
King of the hill guard passage followed, where I was trying to make myself stand up. That didn't get too far until I went with Lorenzo, who essentially coached me, which was pretty helpful. He emphasised driving my hips forward and being very careful not to lean over, especially as a small guy. I was also trying to remember ShanghaiBJJ's point about your feet and knees pointing in: Lorenzo let me pass a few times, and then went to sit out. I didn't actually pass his guard properly, but ended up staying on anyway (though that was short lived, as I was then immediately passed by my next partner).
Free sparring was interesting today. I started off with Tran, and as ever worked escapes against his tight top game. As with the nogi class last week, I keep ending up clamped in half-guard, though this time I tried to move in towards them rather than just clinging on waiting to get passed. Maintaining that grasp on Tran's leg (which kinda shifted to his ankle several times, so a rather tenuous half-guard on my part) seemed to help resist his submissions, but it was completely defensive. I also used my knuckles to block his hand sliding across my throat, which again was a purely defensive measure.
I need to have a clearer goal to work towards when I'm doing my "clinging like a limpet" half-guard. There's the option of trying to come up on my side, but that never happens, as I can never find the space. Going to a deep half guard curled up against their legs was a position I could achieve, but do nothing with. Ideally, I want the half guard to be a transitional position for me to get back to full guard. As usual, that’s due to my desire to keep things basic, rather than attempt lots of half guard sweeps or something.
Much the same thing happened with Yasmine, though I did find myself moving towards a stack pass several times. However, on each occasion Yasmine was able to come to her knees and I found myself once again on the bottom. I think that must be my old problem of keeping my weight pressed down: securing the double underhooks isn't enough, I need to drive forward and really use my hips to maintain the pressure.
Finally, I had a roll with Christina. I'm still working on my spider guard with her, and today I felt a bit more confident with the position. Rather than kinda hanging there and then getting passed, I was focusing on shrimping away, using my wrapped up legs to push off my training partner's arms. Christina was continuing to drive forward powerfully with her hips, but shrimping away helped a little. However, I'm not doing enough with my arms, and like with half-guard, need to come up with a more specific aim. For that, I've been looking at Mark Massey's videos on YouTube, which gave me some ideas. Possibly a little ambitious, but the concept of shrimping away certainly helped.
As before, my neck was a bit stiff, so I may have to look into that if it becomes a problem. The right thumb is also still sore, but I'm hoping that’s just a matter of time: I'm not really using it much beyond typing, so it shouldn't be under a great deal of strain. Also need to watch whacking people in the face when in open guard, as I caught Christina with my knee. I don't think it was too bad, as I didn't feel any impact (unlike last time), so hopefully it was just a minor knock. In recompense, I'd earlier got smacked in the nose by Uyi. ;)
23 April 2008
23/04/2008 - BJJ (Advanced)
Class #138
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Maurição Gomes, London, UK - 23/04/2008 - Advanced
Felt good to finally get back to RGA: I was annoyed to only make one session last week due to my neck problems, as that ended what had been a very consistent run of training (although at least I did make that one session, rather than miss the whole week). The bit of grappling at ZSK was fun too, and it was interesting to roll with a completely different set of people than I'm used to (especially much, much bigger guys like Paddy and Glen).
Term has restarted now, so its back to the pattern of just Weds and Thurs available to train (though as happened last year, I very rarely managed three classes despite the potential to do so). Hopefully will make three this week to make up for that: would be fun to do the nogi class again, as its been a long time.
Maurição is back taking class, which is always cool. He started off with some takedowns, including one I haven't done before but did recognise: in the very brief period I did judo, I had a dig through the technique section on the excellent JudoInfo site. So, I knew the technique tonight was called kata guruma, or shoulder wheel.
If I got this right, you start with a pistol grip on their same side arm. Your elbow comes up and under the inside of their arm, as you turn into their body, sitting down. Maintaining a firm grip on their sleeve, you have the knee nearest to them on the floor, while the other leg is up. To complete the throw, stretch out that leg and fall to that side, rolling your partner up over your shoulders and to the side. You can then follow them round into side control.
Ground technique this session focused on half guard passes. The first one was from a position where you're on top, they're curled up towards your knees, with one underhook, preparing to sweep you. First, you reach around the outside of their underhook and reach through, grabbing your opposite lapel, clamping your elbow down to trap their arm. Next, bring your other arm right into their face, with your hand on the floor directly behind their head. Shove that arm towards the opposite side, forcing their body to swivel away, which messes up their sweep attempt.
You then bring your body backwards, changing your grip on the lapel to instead cup their knee and hold it in place. Bring your trapped knee over the top of their leg, then drive your hips forward in order to slide into side control.
The second situation was again from half guard, but this time they've managed to get a knee into your stomach. Passing is surprisingly simple, at least in principle. Posture up and drive your hips forward, then grab the fabric by their knee with both hands. Shove that knee right down to the floor: this means you've now got a solid control of their legs and hips. Bring your back leg behind your, keeping your arms out to continue trapping their legs, then slide round to take a sort of side control (albeit with them up on their side). If they try to spin out, you can take their back.
For sparring, Maurição started off by pairing up, according to weight and rank. I ended up with Christina, who I most likely would have picked anyway, so that didn't make too much difference to me. Yet again, after I pulled guard, Christina began to pass, while I attempted to get into a spider guard. As always happens, I tried to push her away with one foot, but her hips were forward and I couldn't readjust. She gradually crushed her way through to side control, then eventually got mount. That's where we stayed for the rest of the spar. I maintained a defensive posture, and tried to work on dragging her foot out so I could snatch half guard. However, I didn't get very far – I wasn't able to get much purchase on her foot.
Next up was Herman. I started in his guard, as he wanted to practice going from there due to SENI at the weekend. After some straining, I eventually passed to half guard and worked for the kimura: this happens quite often when we spar. I was trying to go for the kimura where you shove a knee into their armpit, pull them up on their and secure the sub. I couldn't free his arm at first, so bided my time until I was eventually able to isolate the limb. Herman managed to straighten his arm, so I transitioned to a straight armbar.
I wasn't expecting to land it, but I think Herman was still anticipating the kimura, so I was able to lock it on. I must check the proper technique with an instructor some time, as I think I'm going off Beneville or something at the moment: can't remember where I first saw it. Either way, I'm definitely not doing it quite right, so would be good to know how to do it properly off a failed kimura.
Third spar of the evening was Indra, another of my favourite sparring partners (I was spoiled for choice tonight, as almost everybody I most enjoy rolling with was there). I find that the last few times I've sparred Indra, I've tried to pull guard, she's almost escaped, and I've then found myself half taking her back, but can never get the second hook in. I did at least mostly manage to stay on top, seeing if I could grab a kimura, but didn't have a good position on the arm. I went after a series of submissions, but with sloppy technique, so I don't think I was close to getting anything at any point. However, I'm at least being more offensive in sparring now.
Finally, I got to roll with an old sparring partner I've not had a chance to work with for quite a while, Dominique. I'd forgotten how good her guard passing was, as even pulling guard on her was difficult. I eventually rolled her into half-guard (though I think more through my slight size advantage than technique), and attacked in the same way I had against Herman earlier. Dominique is good at quickly grabbing her leg when she's at risk of a kimura, so I wasn't able to immediately isolate the limb.
That gave me the perfect opportunity to try something I'd seen Stephan Keating advise in one of his YouTube vids on finishing the kimura from half guard (although his demonstration is from underneath rather than on top). He recommended pushing as if trying to go through their leg, then relaxing as if giving up, finally yanking to free the grip. Seemed to work, but again, I'm not sure if it was a size thing. Will keep it in mind next time I find myself in that position.
I was trying to use more spider guard and attempt the omoplata a lot tonight, in combination with the kimura, but still have a long way to go. I came closest with Indra, and IIRC did at least still end up in side control, but wasn't able to spin round to what I think is called 's-mount': we've been shown a bunch of stuff from there earlier, so I'd like to get better at that position.
Tran asked if I wanted to do a light roll after class, but unfortunately I've always got to rush off in order to catch a train on Wednesdays. It would be nice to live more locally, although that would be rather expensive and its highly unlikely my gf would ever want to live in London. Could be we end up there through work some time, which would be convenient, but she really doesn't like the capital, so not too likely.
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Maurição Gomes, London, UK - 23/04/2008 - Advanced
Felt good to finally get back to RGA: I was annoyed to only make one session last week due to my neck problems, as that ended what had been a very consistent run of training (although at least I did make that one session, rather than miss the whole week). The bit of grappling at ZSK was fun too, and it was interesting to roll with a completely different set of people than I'm used to (especially much, much bigger guys like Paddy and Glen).
Term has restarted now, so its back to the pattern of just Weds and Thurs available to train (though as happened last year, I very rarely managed three classes despite the potential to do so). Hopefully will make three this week to make up for that: would be fun to do the nogi class again, as its been a long time.
Maurição is back taking class, which is always cool. He started off with some takedowns, including one I haven't done before but did recognise: in the very brief period I did judo, I had a dig through the technique section on the excellent JudoInfo site. So, I knew the technique tonight was called kata guruma, or shoulder wheel.
If I got this right, you start with a pistol grip on their same side arm. Your elbow comes up and under the inside of their arm, as you turn into their body, sitting down. Maintaining a firm grip on their sleeve, you have the knee nearest to them on the floor, while the other leg is up. To complete the throw, stretch out that leg and fall to that side, rolling your partner up over your shoulders and to the side. You can then follow them round into side control.
Ground technique this session focused on half guard passes. The first one was from a position where you're on top, they're curled up towards your knees, with one underhook, preparing to sweep you. First, you reach around the outside of their underhook and reach through, grabbing your opposite lapel, clamping your elbow down to trap their arm. Next, bring your other arm right into their face, with your hand on the floor directly behind their head. Shove that arm towards the opposite side, forcing their body to swivel away, which messes up their sweep attempt.
You then bring your body backwards, changing your grip on the lapel to instead cup their knee and hold it in place. Bring your trapped knee over the top of their leg, then drive your hips forward in order to slide into side control.
The second situation was again from half guard, but this time they've managed to get a knee into your stomach. Passing is surprisingly simple, at least in principle. Posture up and drive your hips forward, then grab the fabric by their knee with both hands. Shove that knee right down to the floor: this means you've now got a solid control of their legs and hips. Bring your back leg behind your, keeping your arms out to continue trapping their legs, then slide round to take a sort of side control (albeit with them up on their side). If they try to spin out, you can take their back.
For sparring, Maurição started off by pairing up, according to weight and rank. I ended up with Christina, who I most likely would have picked anyway, so that didn't make too much difference to me. Yet again, after I pulled guard, Christina began to pass, while I attempted to get into a spider guard. As always happens, I tried to push her away with one foot, but her hips were forward and I couldn't readjust. She gradually crushed her way through to side control, then eventually got mount. That's where we stayed for the rest of the spar. I maintained a defensive posture, and tried to work on dragging her foot out so I could snatch half guard. However, I didn't get very far – I wasn't able to get much purchase on her foot.
Next up was Herman. I started in his guard, as he wanted to practice going from there due to SENI at the weekend. After some straining, I eventually passed to half guard and worked for the kimura: this happens quite often when we spar. I was trying to go for the kimura where you shove a knee into their armpit, pull them up on their and secure the sub. I couldn't free his arm at first, so bided my time until I was eventually able to isolate the limb. Herman managed to straighten his arm, so I transitioned to a straight armbar.
I wasn't expecting to land it, but I think Herman was still anticipating the kimura, so I was able to lock it on. I must check the proper technique with an instructor some time, as I think I'm going off Beneville or something at the moment: can't remember where I first saw it. Either way, I'm definitely not doing it quite right, so would be good to know how to do it properly off a failed kimura.
Third spar of the evening was Indra, another of my favourite sparring partners (I was spoiled for choice tonight, as almost everybody I most enjoy rolling with was there). I find that the last few times I've sparred Indra, I've tried to pull guard, she's almost escaped, and I've then found myself half taking her back, but can never get the second hook in. I did at least mostly manage to stay on top, seeing if I could grab a kimura, but didn't have a good position on the arm. I went after a series of submissions, but with sloppy technique, so I don't think I was close to getting anything at any point. However, I'm at least being more offensive in sparring now.
Finally, I got to roll with an old sparring partner I've not had a chance to work with for quite a while, Dominique. I'd forgotten how good her guard passing was, as even pulling guard on her was difficult. I eventually rolled her into half-guard (though I think more through my slight size advantage than technique), and attacked in the same way I had against Herman earlier. Dominique is good at quickly grabbing her leg when she's at risk of a kimura, so I wasn't able to immediately isolate the limb.
That gave me the perfect opportunity to try something I'd seen Stephan Keating advise in one of his YouTube vids on finishing the kimura from half guard (although his demonstration is from underneath rather than on top). He recommended pushing as if trying to go through their leg, then relaxing as if giving up, finally yanking to free the grip. Seemed to work, but again, I'm not sure if it was a size thing. Will keep it in mind next time I find myself in that position.
I was trying to use more spider guard and attempt the omoplata a lot tonight, in combination with the kimura, but still have a long way to go. I came closest with Indra, and IIRC did at least still end up in side control, but wasn't able to spin round to what I think is called 's-mount': we've been shown a bunch of stuff from there earlier, so I'd like to get better at that position.
Tran asked if I wanted to do a light roll after class, but unfortunately I've always got to rush off in order to catch a train on Wednesdays. It would be nice to live more locally, although that would be rather expensive and its highly unlikely my gf would ever want to live in London. Could be we end up there through work some time, which would be convenient, but she really doesn't like the capital, so not too likely.
29 August 2007
29/08/2007 - BJJ (Advanced)
Class #83
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Maurição Gomes, London, UK - 29/08/2007 – Advanced
I felt sufficiently ok for the advanced class, unlike a fortnight ago when I dragged myself home after the beginners. The first technique was a little confusing, but I think it was a defence against a single-leg. As they go for the takedown (with a leg and an arm wrapped round), you reach back between your legs and grab the trouser of the leg they’ve got curled around your limb. You also grab the back of their gi. Pulling up on their leg, fall parallel by their side, still holding their leg, then push on their knee with your outside leg. This will provide space to bring your leg out and round, so you can then move into side control.
Maurição then went through a variation where you press heavily on their leg with your knee, also pulling up on their gi collar. Drag their other leg behind you, then swing all the way over with the leg you had been using to drive down into them. Switch your base, finishing up in side control. That was then followed by a basic half-guard escape, if I recall correctly.
In specific sparring, which this time was guard passage, I just tried to keep posture and work my defence. I made some attempt at passing guard, with my favoured (but increasingly less successful) tailbone guard break, but generally worked to try and keep my back straight, head up and base solid. I also need to watch my arm, which I occasionally left too far forward, meaning I was very vulnerable to a submission. I was eventually swept each time, but hopefully it helped to some small degree in my sensitivity to submission attempts. Then again, I was sparring blue belts and higher, so they would have been going easy on me anyway.
I only rolled twice once we got the end of class sparring, but that was largely because the room was stuffed with people (though admittedly I’m prone to slacking if given the opportunity). First I sparred Dominique, as in the beginners class, and once again found myself mostly in half-guard, or alternately spinning about trying to recover guard. I had a go at the windscreen wiper sweep Ciaran showed me, but Dominique’s elbow wasn’t really far enough out, so I should have tried for a better set-up first.
I could do with practicing more sweeps from half-guard, given that I’m ending up in that position so frequently, or preferably, methods for recovering full guard from there. At the moment, I either try and just drive my knee through, bounce around attempting to make space or lie there waiting for an opportunity. I need to look back through my log to remind myself of the potentially useful related techniques we’ve been shown, like the sweep Maurição demonstrated where you lift them back into your closed guard.
At the same time, I mustn’t forget to work the basics, like the elbow escape and upa. While half-guard is a tempting position to try for, its pretty pointless if I can’t do the fundamentals, as that means as soon as I spar somebody good at passing half-guard, I’m screwed. Not to mention my half-guard is largely of the noobtastic ‘cling on desperately and hope’ variety.
Like in the beginners, my escapes from underneath side control and mount weren’t up to snuff, particularly when it comes to making space. Same thing happened with Nathan, when I spent even more time in half-guard, Nathan tending to dominate on top. Both he and Dominique are becoming much tougher sparring partners (not that I ever had an easy time against them, but its significantly harder now).
Might also help if I was more aggressive when pulling guard, rather than ending up in either half-guard or a sloppy open guard. Though that’s still better than the previous position I ended up in during advanced class, which was in somebody’s guard after which I immediately got swept. On the other hand, I could try being more forceful in driving for the top position: at present I’m heavily leaning towards guard and half-guard, so I need to be careful I’m not neglecting other parts of BJJ.
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Maurição Gomes, London, UK - 29/08/2007 – Advanced
I felt sufficiently ok for the advanced class, unlike a fortnight ago when I dragged myself home after the beginners. The first technique was a little confusing, but I think it was a defence against a single-leg. As they go for the takedown (with a leg and an arm wrapped round), you reach back between your legs and grab the trouser of the leg they’ve got curled around your limb. You also grab the back of their gi. Pulling up on their leg, fall parallel by their side, still holding their leg, then push on their knee with your outside leg. This will provide space to bring your leg out and round, so you can then move into side control.
Maurição then went through a variation where you press heavily on their leg with your knee, also pulling up on their gi collar. Drag their other leg behind you, then swing all the way over with the leg you had been using to drive down into them. Switch your base, finishing up in side control. That was then followed by a basic half-guard escape, if I recall correctly.
In specific sparring, which this time was guard passage, I just tried to keep posture and work my defence. I made some attempt at passing guard, with my favoured (but increasingly less successful) tailbone guard break, but generally worked to try and keep my back straight, head up and base solid. I also need to watch my arm, which I occasionally left too far forward, meaning I was very vulnerable to a submission. I was eventually swept each time, but hopefully it helped to some small degree in my sensitivity to submission attempts. Then again, I was sparring blue belts and higher, so they would have been going easy on me anyway.
I only rolled twice once we got the end of class sparring, but that was largely because the room was stuffed with people (though admittedly I’m prone to slacking if given the opportunity). First I sparred Dominique, as in the beginners class, and once again found myself mostly in half-guard, or alternately spinning about trying to recover guard. I had a go at the windscreen wiper sweep Ciaran showed me, but Dominique’s elbow wasn’t really far enough out, so I should have tried for a better set-up first.
I could do with practicing more sweeps from half-guard, given that I’m ending up in that position so frequently, or preferably, methods for recovering full guard from there. At the moment, I either try and just drive my knee through, bounce around attempting to make space or lie there waiting for an opportunity. I need to look back through my log to remind myself of the potentially useful related techniques we’ve been shown, like the sweep Maurição demonstrated where you lift them back into your closed guard.
At the same time, I mustn’t forget to work the basics, like the elbow escape and upa. While half-guard is a tempting position to try for, its pretty pointless if I can’t do the fundamentals, as that means as soon as I spar somebody good at passing half-guard, I’m screwed. Not to mention my half-guard is largely of the noobtastic ‘cling on desperately and hope’ variety.
Like in the beginners, my escapes from underneath side control and mount weren’t up to snuff, particularly when it comes to making space. Same thing happened with Nathan, when I spent even more time in half-guard, Nathan tending to dominate on top. Both he and Dominique are becoming much tougher sparring partners (not that I ever had an easy time against them, but its significantly harder now).
Might also help if I was more aggressive when pulling guard, rather than ending up in either half-guard or a sloppy open guard. Though that’s still better than the previous position I ended up in during advanced class, which was in somebody’s guard after which I immediately got swept. On the other hand, I could try being more forceful in driving for the top position: at present I’m heavily leaning towards guard and half-guard, so I need to be careful I’m not neglecting other parts of BJJ.
29/08/2007 - BJJ (Beginners)
Class #82
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Maurição Gomes, London, UK - 29/08/2007 – Beginner
August has been a strange month. Since dropping weight for the Bristol Open, I’ve been fluctuating from slightly woozy to bedridden, not really feeling 100% at any point in the past four weeks. I took last week off entirely to try and finally shake the sick feeling clogging up my head, which has at least partially paid off in that I felt well enough to train tonight. I had been considering training on Tuesday, but from what Owen said about the class, I’m glad I didn’t: apparently lots of over-enthusiastic aggressive noobs resulted in various injuries.
I was expecting to see some kind of celebratory sign to commemorate Roger’s momentous double gold at the Mundials – as there had been after he beat Waterman in his MMA debut - but there was only a congratulatory note on the whiteboard. Also hadn’t expected Roger himself to be back so soon (though he didn’t take the class, I saw him in the office): then again, it is his club, so not entirely surprising he’d want to return as soon as possible.
Maurição was taking class again, which as always meant an atypical syllabus. He began with a cool set-up for the flower sweep, which made a lot of sense. Previously, I’ve found it difficult to get in position, but Maurição showed how a flower sweep could be done off an armbar attempt. If they have their elbow too far back to get the armbar, you can instead hook round their leg and go for the flower as normal, pulling them towards you over your shoulder then rolling into mount, using one leg against their side, the other sweeping out and then back (to avoid throwing them onto your own leg).
This was followed by an armbar escape from mount which I’ve never seen before. If they are pulling back for the armbar but haven’t yet secured your wrist, immediately twist your trapped hand so its palm down and curl your arm towards their knee. At the same time, move round with your legs and turn your body over, grabbing their leg as you scramble in order to better transition to side control. Finally, put your knee into their side then swing your leg over into mount – if they try to stop you with an arm, underhook and push it out of the way.
Maurição then ran through the Americana from mount, emphasising that you should be using your weight rather than arm strength, as well as advising against the ‘monkey grip’ (holding with the thumb wrapped round). I continue to struggle with submissions from mount, generally ending up trying to maintain the position and move up to high mount, flapping uselessly at my partner’s limbs. Nevertheless, always good to have a reminder.
Sparring was from side control, where I didn’t achieve too much from top or bottom except holding position. I think I swept Dominique once or twice, and occasionally got through to mount from on top, but that was only after she very nearly caught me in full guard several times. I feel like my mobility is improving, but I continue to lack sufficient downward pressure and I’m still leaving too much space. In addition, while I’m moving a little better, I need to move more.
I’m also finding myself frequently in half-guard, which I can just about hold, but not very proactively. I’m trying to work on recovering full guard, or possibly go for some half-guard sweeps, but I’d prefer to keep things basic. That sweep Maurição showed a while back where you lift your opponent into full guard looks worth a go. I’d also like to get better with the fundamental mount and side control escapes, which continue to be weak points: I don’t make enough space under mount or side control. I did try the typical push up and shrimp out escape, but I tend to end up squashed and incapable of creating room to move.
I attempted a few submissions, mainly armbars, but was mostly going from weird places (at least to me: for example, from a poorly executed back mount missing a hook I ended up in at one point). It would probably be a better use of my time to continue ignoring submissions for the most part to concentrate on position, so that I can hopefully get to a point where I can confidently hold guard/mount/side control etc, therefore providing a good platform to launch a sub attempt.
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Maurição Gomes, London, UK - 29/08/2007 – Beginner
August has been a strange month. Since dropping weight for the Bristol Open, I’ve been fluctuating from slightly woozy to bedridden, not really feeling 100% at any point in the past four weeks. I took last week off entirely to try and finally shake the sick feeling clogging up my head, which has at least partially paid off in that I felt well enough to train tonight. I had been considering training on Tuesday, but from what Owen said about the class, I’m glad I didn’t: apparently lots of over-enthusiastic aggressive noobs resulted in various injuries.
I was expecting to see some kind of celebratory sign to commemorate Roger’s momentous double gold at the Mundials – as there had been after he beat Waterman in his MMA debut - but there was only a congratulatory note on the whiteboard. Also hadn’t expected Roger himself to be back so soon (though he didn’t take the class, I saw him in the office): then again, it is his club, so not entirely surprising he’d want to return as soon as possible.
Maurição was taking class again, which as always meant an atypical syllabus. He began with a cool set-up for the flower sweep, which made a lot of sense. Previously, I’ve found it difficult to get in position, but Maurição showed how a flower sweep could be done off an armbar attempt. If they have their elbow too far back to get the armbar, you can instead hook round their leg and go for the flower as normal, pulling them towards you over your shoulder then rolling into mount, using one leg against their side, the other sweeping out and then back (to avoid throwing them onto your own leg).
This was followed by an armbar escape from mount which I’ve never seen before. If they are pulling back for the armbar but haven’t yet secured your wrist, immediately twist your trapped hand so its palm down and curl your arm towards their knee. At the same time, move round with your legs and turn your body over, grabbing their leg as you scramble in order to better transition to side control. Finally, put your knee into their side then swing your leg over into mount – if they try to stop you with an arm, underhook and push it out of the way.
Maurição then ran through the Americana from mount, emphasising that you should be using your weight rather than arm strength, as well as advising against the ‘monkey grip’ (holding with the thumb wrapped round). I continue to struggle with submissions from mount, generally ending up trying to maintain the position and move up to high mount, flapping uselessly at my partner’s limbs. Nevertheless, always good to have a reminder.
Sparring was from side control, where I didn’t achieve too much from top or bottom except holding position. I think I swept Dominique once or twice, and occasionally got through to mount from on top, but that was only after she very nearly caught me in full guard several times. I feel like my mobility is improving, but I continue to lack sufficient downward pressure and I’m still leaving too much space. In addition, while I’m moving a little better, I need to move more.
I’m also finding myself frequently in half-guard, which I can just about hold, but not very proactively. I’m trying to work on recovering full guard, or possibly go for some half-guard sweeps, but I’d prefer to keep things basic. That sweep Maurição showed a while back where you lift your opponent into full guard looks worth a go. I’d also like to get better with the fundamental mount and side control escapes, which continue to be weak points: I don’t make enough space under mount or side control. I did try the typical push up and shrimp out escape, but I tend to end up squashed and incapable of creating room to move.
I attempted a few submissions, mainly armbars, but was mostly going from weird places (at least to me: for example, from a poorly executed back mount missing a hook I ended up in at one point). It would probably be a better use of my time to continue ignoring submissions for the most part to concentrate on position, so that I can hopefully get to a point where I can confidently hold guard/mount/side control etc, therefore providing a good platform to launch a sub attempt.
15 August 2007
15/08/2007 - BJJ (Beginners)
Class #81
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Maurição Gomes, London, UK - 15/08/2007 – Beginner
Noticed last Friday that Nick G’s class at the Vie Gym has its own site, under Roger Gracie Vie Academy. Its on 122 Clerkenwell Road, which isn’t too far from Farringdon tube station. As my department is moving to an office in Farringdon, I’d like to finally pop down to one of the classes – Nick is a great instructor, and I’m told the classes are still comparatively small so you get plenty of attention. Didn’t see Nick listed under the instructors, but presumably that’s just a mistake: I thought he and Helio were the main teachers there, but perhaps I’m wrong.
Anyway, getting back to tonight’s class at RGA. Like last time, Maurição focused on the arm triangle, with a different set-up. First, he showed how to get the arm triangle from half guard. If they move to one side, you take that opportunity to wrap up their arm, gripping behind their head and thereby clamping their arm to their skull. Open your half guard, bridge up, then roll over. Transition to side control as you do so, still maintaining a firm hold on their head and arm. As before, your forearm should be as far under their neck as possible (this will be the arm that is wrapped around their head already), gripping your other bicep. To tighten the hold, grip your forehead, past your ear or on their head depending on your preference and how far you can get your arm. Personally, I found that gripping past my ear resulted in the firmest grip.
Finally, squeeze your arms together, also pressing forwards with your hips. This should result in a choke. Like last time, however, I had some problems applying the technique, I think because I wasn’t getting my forearm far enough through. My arm triangle seemed to be working better as the class went on: one thing to note is that this can be a slow choke, so keep squeezing.
Next, Maurição demonstrated the same technique, but instead of half guard, he showed us the arm triangle from closed guard. Pull their arm across their body, then wrap it up against their cheek as before, tightly gripping behind their head. Open your guard and use a leg to chop away at one of their’s, in a motion similar to the scissor sweep. Roll over and switch to side control, then apply the arm triangle in the same way as before.
Sparring was, somewhat bizarrely, from a half guard we weren’t allowed to close, instead just holding their leg with one as to opposed to two of ours. Nevertheless, this proved to be quite enough to stop me passing Dominique’s guard. I tried pulling my foot in close to her tailbone and basing out, but there was no way I could get it free. I perhaps should have instead tried keep a tight hold on her upper body then use my leg to free myself, or possibly a submission (though the object was expressly to get to mount, so that would probably have been counterproductive).
Dominique had similar trouble getting past my half guard, and I was able to sweep her a few times, mainly by gripping behind the head and rolling over. As ever when I’m with someone who has the rare distinction of being even smaller than me, I’m never sure if its technique or force on my part. Dominique did say that I’d gone for the sweep at the right moment when she was off-balance, but I think my slight additional weight probably had an important part to play.
Class finished with sparring from mount. Neither Dominique or I could do anything much from on top: I tried pulling myself up on her head to open up her arms, but that didn’t work. I also attempted an armbar later on, but Dominique managed to pop out from under my leg. Generally trying to crush my weight down gave me a fairly secure position, but not much else.
From underneath, I swept Dominique a few times, though that was mainly because she was going for a choke and wrapped up my head, meaning she couldn’t use her hands to base out. I also tried to shrimp out and recover guard, which sort of worked, although when using that to get to half guard, I managed to effectively throw myself groin-first onto Dominique’s knee. Not a sensible plan: I didn’t whack myself too hard, but given the area involved still felt it!
Still need work on mount escapes, as I’m not yet making enough space when shrimping. I also clearly need plenty of improvement on passing half guard, as I couldn’t even get past when the person holding it wasn’t allowed to fully close their legs. My submissions on top remain non-existent – getting them to expose one of their limbs is the part I’m finding difficult at the moment, so perhaps I should try going for the neck more often, if only to get them to defend.
I’m off to the Belfast Throwdown on Friday, so decided to give the advanced class a miss, as I’m sure sod’s law would mean I’d pick up an injury just before flying out. Typing this up back at my sister’s, I’m glad I left early, as that niggling cold has popped up again, making me feel feverish. My immune system’s complete lack of any defence is getting very frustrating – it seems I’ve spent most of the summer suffering from varying degrees of illness. Grr.
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Maurição Gomes, London, UK - 15/08/2007 – Beginner
Noticed last Friday that Nick G’s class at the Vie Gym has its own site, under Roger Gracie Vie Academy. Its on 122 Clerkenwell Road, which isn’t too far from Farringdon tube station. As my department is moving to an office in Farringdon, I’d like to finally pop down to one of the classes – Nick is a great instructor, and I’m told the classes are still comparatively small so you get plenty of attention. Didn’t see Nick listed under the instructors, but presumably that’s just a mistake: I thought he and Helio were the main teachers there, but perhaps I’m wrong.
Anyway, getting back to tonight’s class at RGA. Like last time, Maurição focused on the arm triangle, with a different set-up. First, he showed how to get the arm triangle from half guard. If they move to one side, you take that opportunity to wrap up their arm, gripping behind their head and thereby clamping their arm to their skull. Open your half guard, bridge up, then roll over. Transition to side control as you do so, still maintaining a firm hold on their head and arm. As before, your forearm should be as far under their neck as possible (this will be the arm that is wrapped around their head already), gripping your other bicep. To tighten the hold, grip your forehead, past your ear or on their head depending on your preference and how far you can get your arm. Personally, I found that gripping past my ear resulted in the firmest grip.
Finally, squeeze your arms together, also pressing forwards with your hips. This should result in a choke. Like last time, however, I had some problems applying the technique, I think because I wasn’t getting my forearm far enough through. My arm triangle seemed to be working better as the class went on: one thing to note is that this can be a slow choke, so keep squeezing.
Next, Maurição demonstrated the same technique, but instead of half guard, he showed us the arm triangle from closed guard. Pull their arm across their body, then wrap it up against their cheek as before, tightly gripping behind their head. Open your guard and use a leg to chop away at one of their’s, in a motion similar to the scissor sweep. Roll over and switch to side control, then apply the arm triangle in the same way as before.
Sparring was, somewhat bizarrely, from a half guard we weren’t allowed to close, instead just holding their leg with one as to opposed to two of ours. Nevertheless, this proved to be quite enough to stop me passing Dominique’s guard. I tried pulling my foot in close to her tailbone and basing out, but there was no way I could get it free. I perhaps should have instead tried keep a tight hold on her upper body then use my leg to free myself, or possibly a submission (though the object was expressly to get to mount, so that would probably have been counterproductive).
Dominique had similar trouble getting past my half guard, and I was able to sweep her a few times, mainly by gripping behind the head and rolling over. As ever when I’m with someone who has the rare distinction of being even smaller than me, I’m never sure if its technique or force on my part. Dominique did say that I’d gone for the sweep at the right moment when she was off-balance, but I think my slight additional weight probably had an important part to play.
Class finished with sparring from mount. Neither Dominique or I could do anything much from on top: I tried pulling myself up on her head to open up her arms, but that didn’t work. I also attempted an armbar later on, but Dominique managed to pop out from under my leg. Generally trying to crush my weight down gave me a fairly secure position, but not much else.
From underneath, I swept Dominique a few times, though that was mainly because she was going for a choke and wrapped up my head, meaning she couldn’t use her hands to base out. I also tried to shrimp out and recover guard, which sort of worked, although when using that to get to half guard, I managed to effectively throw myself groin-first onto Dominique’s knee. Not a sensible plan: I didn’t whack myself too hard, but given the area involved still felt it!
Still need work on mount escapes, as I’m not yet making enough space when shrimping. I also clearly need plenty of improvement on passing half guard, as I couldn’t even get past when the person holding it wasn’t allowed to fully close their legs. My submissions on top remain non-existent – getting them to expose one of their limbs is the part I’m finding difficult at the moment, so perhaps I should try going for the neck more often, if only to get them to defend.
I’m off to the Belfast Throwdown on Friday, so decided to give the advanced class a miss, as I’m sure sod’s law would mean I’d pick up an injury just before flying out. Typing this up back at my sister’s, I’m glad I left early, as that niggling cold has popped up again, making me feel feverish. My immune system’s complete lack of any defence is getting very frustrating – it seems I’ve spent most of the summer suffering from varying degrees of illness. Grr.
09 August 2007
09/08/2007 - BJJ (Beginners)
Class #80
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Maurição Gomes, London, UK - 09/08/2007 – Beginners
I was considering skipping the beginners, but decided that I didn’t feel too terrible after sparring so could handle another 45 minutes of training. After going through the arm throw (of which I only caught the tail end, having picked the wrong moment to pop to the toilet), we moved onto techniques from knee on belly.
First, Maurição showed the armbar from knee on belly, although I’m not quite sure I understood it correctly. As far as I can tell, popping up to knee on belly, you drag their arm up, then bring your leg over and fall back. Making sure you pull that arm right up is important, as otherwise they can slip their elbow down and escape.
That was followed by a sliding choke from knee on belly (at least I think that’s the right term). I was a little confused initially, as I thought it would be the same set up as for the usual cross choke, but hand positioning is a little different. Assuming I haven’t mixed up the hands, your bottom arm goes in first, gripping palm out instead of the usual palm in. You then feed in your other hand palm in, pressing the forearm firmly into their neck, driving your elbow floorwards to increase the pressure. Finally, sprawl back from knee on belly, drop your upper body right down, then pull with your bottom hand and lean on your forearm. That should swiftly result in a choke: suffice to say, drilling wasn’t a whole lot of fun when you’re on the receiving end!
While we were doing this, Oli also demonstrated how to do a similar choke from side control (as I’d asked if this only works from knee on belly). The grip is similar, but as you don’t have the same space, you bring your near arm right up under their near side and grab high on their gi. Then your forearm crushes into their neck as before, using the other hand to anchor the choke.
To finish off before sparring, Maurição went through the Americana from knee on belly. Once you’ve got the wrist to the floor and fed your other hand past their elbow and into position, bring your far leg up over their head, raise them up and pivot on their elbow for the kimura. Not sure if you move back into side control for this: will have to check next time.
Sparring was from side control, for which I went with a guy called Frank, who I haven’t seen before. He’s apparently been going for two months, and as happened last time, I was being rolled over from the top due to putting my weight too far forward. Shifting, I managed to maintain side control, but not really do anything with it.
Underneath I had a little more success, swivelling back to guard or half-guard a few times, but still not as smooth as I’d like. Frank was expending a lot of energy, which enabled him to get into position a few times, but generally he was powering upwards or trying to shove his knee through without making space first. Although I’m pretty crap from side control, I think I was able to give a few tips that were hopefully of use (like bridging, getting the elbow out of the way for the knee, pushing the legs to one side etc).
At the end of sparring turned out there was still time for another technique, and a very useful one at that. This was a basic half guard to closed guard transition. Having trapped them in your half guard, grab the back of their gi with your left hand and pull them down. With your right hand, grab their same side knee and drag it towards you. Adjust you half guard so that you can get a leg underneath their other knee, use that to lift them right up, then drop them down into your full guard.
After class finished, we were treated to yet another handy bit of instruction, this time in regards to the standing tailbone break. I haven’t had much of a chance to use this, but Maurição answered Diccon’s question about the technique by showing how you raise your bottom up high, turn your foot in to get in position, then drop back and drive a knee into their tailbone, opening their guard. That slight turn of the foot seemed to be of considerable help in targeting the right spot, which is the problem I’ve had when drilling this.
I’m off the Wales next week, so won’t be about on the Thursday. Therefore I need to try and make the Tuesday, which I’ve been avoiding because it’s the extremely knackering sparring class. No excuses now, as I’ll surely be well enough by next week: even if not, can at least make the Tuesday beginners class.
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Maurição Gomes, London, UK - 09/08/2007 – Beginners
I was considering skipping the beginners, but decided that I didn’t feel too terrible after sparring so could handle another 45 minutes of training. After going through the arm throw (of which I only caught the tail end, having picked the wrong moment to pop to the toilet), we moved onto techniques from knee on belly.
First, Maurição showed the armbar from knee on belly, although I’m not quite sure I understood it correctly. As far as I can tell, popping up to knee on belly, you drag their arm up, then bring your leg over and fall back. Making sure you pull that arm right up is important, as otherwise they can slip their elbow down and escape.
That was followed by a sliding choke from knee on belly (at least I think that’s the right term). I was a little confused initially, as I thought it would be the same set up as for the usual cross choke, but hand positioning is a little different. Assuming I haven’t mixed up the hands, your bottom arm goes in first, gripping palm out instead of the usual palm in. You then feed in your other hand palm in, pressing the forearm firmly into their neck, driving your elbow floorwards to increase the pressure. Finally, sprawl back from knee on belly, drop your upper body right down, then pull with your bottom hand and lean on your forearm. That should swiftly result in a choke: suffice to say, drilling wasn’t a whole lot of fun when you’re on the receiving end!
While we were doing this, Oli also demonstrated how to do a similar choke from side control (as I’d asked if this only works from knee on belly). The grip is similar, but as you don’t have the same space, you bring your near arm right up under their near side and grab high on their gi. Then your forearm crushes into their neck as before, using the other hand to anchor the choke.
To finish off before sparring, Maurição went through the Americana from knee on belly. Once you’ve got the wrist to the floor and fed your other hand past their elbow and into position, bring your far leg up over their head, raise them up and pivot on their elbow for the kimura. Not sure if you move back into side control for this: will have to check next time.
Sparring was from side control, for which I went with a guy called Frank, who I haven’t seen before. He’s apparently been going for two months, and as happened last time, I was being rolled over from the top due to putting my weight too far forward. Shifting, I managed to maintain side control, but not really do anything with it.
Underneath I had a little more success, swivelling back to guard or half-guard a few times, but still not as smooth as I’d like. Frank was expending a lot of energy, which enabled him to get into position a few times, but generally he was powering upwards or trying to shove his knee through without making space first. Although I’m pretty crap from side control, I think I was able to give a few tips that were hopefully of use (like bridging, getting the elbow out of the way for the knee, pushing the legs to one side etc).
At the end of sparring turned out there was still time for another technique, and a very useful one at that. This was a basic half guard to closed guard transition. Having trapped them in your half guard, grab the back of their gi with your left hand and pull them down. With your right hand, grab their same side knee and drag it towards you. Adjust you half guard so that you can get a leg underneath their other knee, use that to lift them right up, then drop them down into your full guard.
After class finished, we were treated to yet another handy bit of instruction, this time in regards to the standing tailbone break. I haven’t had much of a chance to use this, but Maurição answered Diccon’s question about the technique by showing how you raise your bottom up high, turn your foot in to get in position, then drop back and drive a knee into their tailbone, opening their guard. That slight turn of the foot seemed to be of considerable help in targeting the right spot, which is the problem I’ve had when drilling this.
I’m off the Wales next week, so won’t be about on the Thursday. Therefore I need to try and make the Tuesday, which I’ve been avoiding because it’s the extremely knackering sparring class. No excuses now, as I’ll surely be well enough by next week: even if not, can at least make the Tuesday beginners class.
09/08/2007 - BJJ (No-Gi)
Class #79
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Maurição Gomes, London, UK - 09/08/2007 – No-Gi
Still felt a little dodgy during the day, but didn’t want to miss yet another advanced class: its been over a fortnight since my last one. As we were going to have the pleasure of Maurição teaching again, I’m glad I decided to turn up. Also meant I could pick up my shiny bronze medal, which is more elaborate than I expected: little picture and ‘Bristol Open 2007’ written on it, making for an attractive souvenir of my first event.
He started with a technique for switching to the back from an over under clinch (which I think the name for when you’ve got one hand on their head, the other on their bicep – its in Mastering Jujitsu, but haven’t got my copy with me). Duck underneath the bicep you’re holding, maintaining that grip without moving the arm, then move round behind them and grab them around the waist.
To change this into a take down and arm triangle, the technique is slightly different. Your grip on the bicep stays in place rather than moving down to their waist, and you use your foot to push against their heel, fall back and take them down. Due to your hold on the arm, you can shove that across their neck and move to a sort of scarf hold as you go down. Bring one arm underneath their neck, pressing with the forearm, then grab your own bicep. Your head should be pressed into their’s, also driving your hips forward while sticking close to their body. To tighten the triangle, you can either put your hand to your forehead, grab your own head, or bring your hand to your ear. I was having some trouble getting my training partner Rodney’s arm into his throat, but eventually managed it with some adjusting and greater pressure from my head.
Next we did a drill for holding guard. As there is no gi to provide handles, you need to keep hold of the head and pull it into your chest, ideally then grabbing your own shin in order to move into a submission. To escape from the opposite position, push on their elbows, or come up underneath their arms. At least that’s what I tried to do during the resistance drilling, which sort of worked, but not with much consistency. A position I definitely need to work, as I often end up getting stuck there.
The final technique was a standing pass, which I’ll call a single leg stack pass. It follows a similar principle to the normal stack pass, but this time its from standing and only focuses on the one leg. Once you’ve stood up and opened their guard, gable grip low on their leg, staying very tight. Lean your weight forward, aiming to drive their leg into their face, and push through until you can slide into side control.
Sparring was in a line, with everyone facing each other then moving one person to the right. I think I sparred about four or five people in total this way, and felt a bit more comfortable than normal. I started off with Oli, who took it fairly easy on me, turtling from the off. We then shifted through various positions, generally involving me getting squashed as usual, but he mentioned that I was basically doing the right thing in my attempts to escape. However, when someone’s turtling I should go for a grip under their arm and around their head, rather than the hold around the waist I was using, which is less useful.
For all my next spars, I pulled guard. That didn’t help too much against Vitor, who got me in a bunch of submissions, some of them coming from random places like a triangle as I was popping out from behind him. With everyone else, I generally then ended up holding half-guard for the duration of the spar, which is better than getting squished, but not hugely constructive at the moment. I need to improve my sweeps from there, and returning to full guard. With Stuart, I held closed guard for a little while, attempting to slip my arm round for a guillotine at one point, but as tends to happen with that submission I couldn’t get the other arm into position so had to release.
Vaguely similar thing happened with Greg, although I just stayed in half guard, having been unsuccessful in pulling full guard. He moved into mount at some point, under which I remained defensive but again not very proactive, just bridging every time he started going for a submission. Finally, with a guy who I think is called Nana, I stuck with half guard until time ran out. I tried grabbing his foot a few times, and was able to stop him scraping my half guard open by pulling his other foot out of position. Right at the end I rolled over on top, but didn’t get the chance to see what would have happened next (probably some kind of arm submission, as I was clinging on to try and rescue my arm but would most likely have lost that grip in a few minutes).
So, pulling guard seems a much more constructive tactic for me than trying to move into a position on top, which has failed every time so far. Of course it’s a bit different from knees, but the principle applies to standing too: my throws suck, so I imagine pulling guard is probably going to be more productive. However, working on my throws would also be sensible, particular if pulling guard loses points (like it did in Bristol), not to mention its easy enough to fuck up if you’re as inexperienced in stand-up as I am.
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Maurição Gomes, London, UK - 09/08/2007 – No-Gi
Still felt a little dodgy during the day, but didn’t want to miss yet another advanced class: its been over a fortnight since my last one. As we were going to have the pleasure of Maurição teaching again, I’m glad I decided to turn up. Also meant I could pick up my shiny bronze medal, which is more elaborate than I expected: little picture and ‘Bristol Open 2007’ written on it, making for an attractive souvenir of my first event.
He started with a technique for switching to the back from an over under clinch (which I think the name for when you’ve got one hand on their head, the other on their bicep – its in Mastering Jujitsu, but haven’t got my copy with me). Duck underneath the bicep you’re holding, maintaining that grip without moving the arm, then move round behind them and grab them around the waist.
To change this into a take down and arm triangle, the technique is slightly different. Your grip on the bicep stays in place rather than moving down to their waist, and you use your foot to push against their heel, fall back and take them down. Due to your hold on the arm, you can shove that across their neck and move to a sort of scarf hold as you go down. Bring one arm underneath their neck, pressing with the forearm, then grab your own bicep. Your head should be pressed into their’s, also driving your hips forward while sticking close to their body. To tighten the triangle, you can either put your hand to your forehead, grab your own head, or bring your hand to your ear. I was having some trouble getting my training partner Rodney’s arm into his throat, but eventually managed it with some adjusting and greater pressure from my head.
Next we did a drill for holding guard. As there is no gi to provide handles, you need to keep hold of the head and pull it into your chest, ideally then grabbing your own shin in order to move into a submission. To escape from the opposite position, push on their elbows, or come up underneath their arms. At least that’s what I tried to do during the resistance drilling, which sort of worked, but not with much consistency. A position I definitely need to work, as I often end up getting stuck there.
The final technique was a standing pass, which I’ll call a single leg stack pass. It follows a similar principle to the normal stack pass, but this time its from standing and only focuses on the one leg. Once you’ve stood up and opened their guard, gable grip low on their leg, staying very tight. Lean your weight forward, aiming to drive their leg into their face, and push through until you can slide into side control.
Sparring was in a line, with everyone facing each other then moving one person to the right. I think I sparred about four or five people in total this way, and felt a bit more comfortable than normal. I started off with Oli, who took it fairly easy on me, turtling from the off. We then shifted through various positions, generally involving me getting squashed as usual, but he mentioned that I was basically doing the right thing in my attempts to escape. However, when someone’s turtling I should go for a grip under their arm and around their head, rather than the hold around the waist I was using, which is less useful.
For all my next spars, I pulled guard. That didn’t help too much against Vitor, who got me in a bunch of submissions, some of them coming from random places like a triangle as I was popping out from behind him. With everyone else, I generally then ended up holding half-guard for the duration of the spar, which is better than getting squished, but not hugely constructive at the moment. I need to improve my sweeps from there, and returning to full guard. With Stuart, I held closed guard for a little while, attempting to slip my arm round for a guillotine at one point, but as tends to happen with that submission I couldn’t get the other arm into position so had to release.
Vaguely similar thing happened with Greg, although I just stayed in half guard, having been unsuccessful in pulling full guard. He moved into mount at some point, under which I remained defensive but again not very proactive, just bridging every time he started going for a submission. Finally, with a guy who I think is called Nana, I stuck with half guard until time ran out. I tried grabbing his foot a few times, and was able to stop him scraping my half guard open by pulling his other foot out of position. Right at the end I rolled over on top, but didn’t get the chance to see what would have happened next (probably some kind of arm submission, as I was clinging on to try and rescue my arm but would most likely have lost that grip in a few minutes).
So, pulling guard seems a much more constructive tactic for me than trying to move into a position on top, which has failed every time so far. Of course it’s a bit different from knees, but the principle applies to standing too: my throws suck, so I imagine pulling guard is probably going to be more productive. However, working on my throws would also be sensible, particular if pulling guard loses points (like it did in Bristol), not to mention its easy enough to fuck up if you’re as inexperienced in stand-up as I am.
08 August 2007
08/08/2007 - BJJ (Beginners)
Class #78
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Maurição Gomes, London, UK - 08/08/2007 – Beginners
I was still feeling a bit under the weather today, but decided that I should at the very least be able to do the beginners. If I felt ok at the end of that, I’d do the advanced as well, but I wasn’t about to force myself. Not to mention an excuse to wimp out is always welcome. :p
Maurição took class today, which automatically means an interesting session. We started off with the basic trip (pull them to one side, step through, sweep the leg), something which I really should have tried at the Bristol Open. Instead of attempting anything, I just clung on to my opponent: if only everything was as easy as drilling. Judo would be the obvious way to improve my stand-up, but that bad experience with an injury last time I tried the sport continues to put me off for the moment.
Maurição then moved on to some fundamental techniques from the guard. First off, the tailbone break he’s showed us before. I’m not sure I’ve been pushing backwards enough on this, and I also need to think more about slicing their feet apart with my hip. As its my favourite guard break, this is what I tried at Bristol, but that merely resulted in getting swept (I think: can’t quite remember exactly how I ended up on the bottom in the first part of that fight).
That was followed by the leg pin pass. Maurição did this a little differently to how I thought it was done, as after opening the guard and pushing his knee onto the leg, he slipped that knee down the leg and then slid into position. That way leaves much less space then what I’ve attempted previously, so this should hopefully make my leg pin pass much tighter. Chris always gets to his knees when I try it on him, so perhaps Maurição’s method is the route to correcting my sloppy technique.
Next up we went through the armbar from guard, moving on to the triangle. Although that choke is a basic submission, I haven’t seen demonstrated that often, especially in comparison with the armbar. Maurição showed it off your opponent’s attempted guard pass. First, you grab their arm and pull it right across your body and close to your leg, swivelling as if your going for an armbar. Your calf then moves up behind their neck, using your heel to push the leg right across (as opposed to your toes: the heel tenses your calf muscle, which in turn makes the grip tighter). Grabbing your ankle (again, not your foot, as that could result in injuring yourself), pull it towards you until you can slip the other leg on top, locking that ankle into the back of your knee. Squeeze your legs and raise your hips for the choke.
Interestingly, Maurição expressly stated that you shouldn’t grab their head and pull down, which I had thought was a standard way of finishing the technique. The triangle was tight enough that I found I didn’t need to pull on the head: then again, my triangle has always been terrible. I’ve got armbars, kimuras and Americanas in sparring before, but never managed to finish a triangle. Maurição’s detailed demonstration today should hopefully result in improvement on my part.
Sparring started with guard passage. I was about to start a stack pass on Chet, when Maurição motioned me to stand up. At first I thought I’d done something wrong (Maurição will quite often stop you to correct technique), but turned out one of the recent female beginners needed someone lighter to roll with.
I’m not sure how to spell her name, but it sounded like ‘Joy-amma’, or possibly ‘Joy-emma’: either way, Brazilian, as Maurição was talking to her in Portuguese. As she’s still fairly new, I was able to try a few different sweeps, mainly the elevator. I also went for a flower sweep at one point, but still not quite landing that one: can but keep trying. I think she’s having similar problems to what has hindered my passing, in particular not leaving space (although she did manage to get round to side control a couple of times).
On top, I went for my normal tailbone break and stack pass routine, also trying the leg pin Maurição had demonstrated earlier. I think like my training partner, I was leaving a bit too much space: getting used to sliding into position is going to take some practice, but should eventually result in better technique. I also tried a standing pass later on, something I need to attempt more often. I’d especially like to perfect that standing tailbone thing Maurição showed a while ago, as that looked like a particularly effective way of opening the guard. However, this time I went for the basic step back slightly and push their knee off your leg method, which seemed to work ok, though I need to be careful to maintain my base.
Class finished with sparring under side control. I don’t think Joyama (must look up the spelling for that) was too familiar with side control (though she still got mount a couple of times), as she was leaving enough space for me to either shrimp back to guard or roll her right over, as she also tended to put her weight too far forward. I was reminded again that I need to bridge more in order to make space (another lesson from Bristol), rather than just getting into position and not doing anything with it. I had a go at getting double underhooks then rolling my partner over, but I forgot to bridge and rock first, meaning I didn’t have sufficient leverage.
The rolling wasn’t too intensive, but I wasn’t feeling 100% at the end of the session, so decided to leave the advanced class until tomorrow (presuming I feel better by Thursday). Nathan got his third stripe today, which was cool as he’s another of my regular sparring partners: will be good to have more fellow white belts in the advanced class.
I had meant to pick up my bronze medal from Pippa today, but left it too late as she’d already gone to join the class. Will have to remember to get it tomorrow. Its amusing that I got a medal for losing, but nevertheless a good way to commemorate my first competition, and also motivate me to do better next time. I may put my name down for the gi tournament in Reading this September, but I want to be certain of transport to and from the venue. Also, need to check my gf doesn’t mind me popping off to another comp: I don’t think she’d mind too much if it’s a while off, but 30th September is kinda near, and weekends are the main time we get together.
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Maurição Gomes, London, UK - 08/08/2007 – Beginners
I was still feeling a bit under the weather today, but decided that I should at the very least be able to do the beginners. If I felt ok at the end of that, I’d do the advanced as well, but I wasn’t about to force myself. Not to mention an excuse to wimp out is always welcome. :p
Maurição took class today, which automatically means an interesting session. We started off with the basic trip (pull them to one side, step through, sweep the leg), something which I really should have tried at the Bristol Open. Instead of attempting anything, I just clung on to my opponent: if only everything was as easy as drilling. Judo would be the obvious way to improve my stand-up, but that bad experience with an injury last time I tried the sport continues to put me off for the moment.
Maurição then moved on to some fundamental techniques from the guard. First off, the tailbone break he’s showed us before. I’m not sure I’ve been pushing backwards enough on this, and I also need to think more about slicing their feet apart with my hip. As its my favourite guard break, this is what I tried at Bristol, but that merely resulted in getting swept (I think: can’t quite remember exactly how I ended up on the bottom in the first part of that fight).
That was followed by the leg pin pass. Maurição did this a little differently to how I thought it was done, as after opening the guard and pushing his knee onto the leg, he slipped that knee down the leg and then slid into position. That way leaves much less space then what I’ve attempted previously, so this should hopefully make my leg pin pass much tighter. Chris always gets to his knees when I try it on him, so perhaps Maurição’s method is the route to correcting my sloppy technique.
Next up we went through the armbar from guard, moving on to the triangle. Although that choke is a basic submission, I haven’t seen demonstrated that often, especially in comparison with the armbar. Maurição showed it off your opponent’s attempted guard pass. First, you grab their arm and pull it right across your body and close to your leg, swivelling as if your going for an armbar. Your calf then moves up behind their neck, using your heel to push the leg right across (as opposed to your toes: the heel tenses your calf muscle, which in turn makes the grip tighter). Grabbing your ankle (again, not your foot, as that could result in injuring yourself), pull it towards you until you can slip the other leg on top, locking that ankle into the back of your knee. Squeeze your legs and raise your hips for the choke.
Interestingly, Maurição expressly stated that you shouldn’t grab their head and pull down, which I had thought was a standard way of finishing the technique. The triangle was tight enough that I found I didn’t need to pull on the head: then again, my triangle has always been terrible. I’ve got armbars, kimuras and Americanas in sparring before, but never managed to finish a triangle. Maurição’s detailed demonstration today should hopefully result in improvement on my part.
Sparring started with guard passage. I was about to start a stack pass on Chet, when Maurição motioned me to stand up. At first I thought I’d done something wrong (Maurição will quite often stop you to correct technique), but turned out one of the recent female beginners needed someone lighter to roll with.
I’m not sure how to spell her name, but it sounded like ‘Joy-amma’, or possibly ‘Joy-emma’: either way, Brazilian, as Maurição was talking to her in Portuguese. As she’s still fairly new, I was able to try a few different sweeps, mainly the elevator. I also went for a flower sweep at one point, but still not quite landing that one: can but keep trying. I think she’s having similar problems to what has hindered my passing, in particular not leaving space (although she did manage to get round to side control a couple of times).
On top, I went for my normal tailbone break and stack pass routine, also trying the leg pin Maurição had demonstrated earlier. I think like my training partner, I was leaving a bit too much space: getting used to sliding into position is going to take some practice, but should eventually result in better technique. I also tried a standing pass later on, something I need to attempt more often. I’d especially like to perfect that standing tailbone thing Maurição showed a while ago, as that looked like a particularly effective way of opening the guard. However, this time I went for the basic step back slightly and push their knee off your leg method, which seemed to work ok, though I need to be careful to maintain my base.
Class finished with sparring under side control. I don’t think Joyama (must look up the spelling for that) was too familiar with side control (though she still got mount a couple of times), as she was leaving enough space for me to either shrimp back to guard or roll her right over, as she also tended to put her weight too far forward. I was reminded again that I need to bridge more in order to make space (another lesson from Bristol), rather than just getting into position and not doing anything with it. I had a go at getting double underhooks then rolling my partner over, but I forgot to bridge and rock first, meaning I didn’t have sufficient leverage.
The rolling wasn’t too intensive, but I wasn’t feeling 100% at the end of the session, so decided to leave the advanced class until tomorrow (presuming I feel better by Thursday). Nathan got his third stripe today, which was cool as he’s another of my regular sparring partners: will be good to have more fellow white belts in the advanced class.
I had meant to pick up my bronze medal from Pippa today, but left it too late as she’d already gone to join the class. Will have to remember to get it tomorrow. Its amusing that I got a medal for losing, but nevertheless a good way to commemorate my first competition, and also motivate me to do better next time. I may put my name down for the gi tournament in Reading this September, but I want to be certain of transport to and from the venue. Also, need to check my gf doesn’t mind me popping off to another comp: I don’t think she’d mind too much if it’s a while off, but 30th September is kinda near, and weekends are the main time we get together.
19 July 2007
19/07/2007 - BJJ (Beginners)
Class #74
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Maurição Gomes, London, UK - 19/07/2007 – Beginners
I’ve been having a very absentminded week. Started off by leaving my flip flops in Birmingham, then almost missing a bus despite leaning on the bus stop. I proceeded to sign the kids register, then today I forgot to pack my rash guard, so could only make the beginners session tonight. At least I remembered to bake that cake yesterday…although my mum did kinda take over (probably out of frustration at seeing me plod through a recipe she’s been doing long before I was even born).
Anyway, onto the BJJ. It’s a shame I had to miss the no-gi, as Maurição was teaching. However, on the other hand that did mean I was fully rested for the beginners, so could really concentrate on what he was saying. This lesson reminded me once again of Jude’s description of his teacher Maurição as a fine wine: one of the great things about training at RGA is the opportunity to learn from world-class people like Maurição.
First technique was the basic pass under the leg. I don’t think I have ever used this in sparring, as I pretty much always go over the over rather than under, which is apparently fairly common. Maurição mentioned how this was a very traditional pass which many people didn’t use because they assumed they’d get caught in a triangle. However, that’s only if you do it wrong: Maurição emphasised that its very important to first get the leg right up onto your shoulder, and secondly make sure the elbow of your other hand stays on either their inner or outer hip and does not get dragged across your opponent’s body. If your partner manages to get hold of the arm and start pulling, or is just very strong, then you can resist it by pushing through with your shoulder, meaning your whole body comes to your defence.
Another major part of the technique is to drive through and really stack them. As BJ Penn mentions on his site, the aim is to either get your shoulder right into their face, or squash their knee into their head. Staying on your toes is also essential, walking round and maintaining that downwards pressure, eventually pushing past the leg into side control.
Maurição went through this in meticulous detail: its rare that an instructor can describe a single, fundamental technique in such depth that its difficult to remember the full explanation. Just as he was about to tell us to go practice the pass, someone spoke up and asked about how to break the guard. This proved to be a fantastic question, as Maurição then, once again in fine detail, went through two breaks.
First was the one I’ve been using from BJ Penn’s site. Grab them by the belt, elbows in tight. Push back with your arms, knees coming back, with one pushing out to the side. That should eventually stretch their legs out and open the guard.
If that doesn’t work, then the second break is to stand up, then sit back down again. The integral detail here is that you shove your knee right into their cocsis before you sit down, so essentially impale them on your kneecap. Done right, that pops the legs apart straight away, leaving you with a knee in between their legs ready to start the pass.
However, I had some trouble finding the right spot, so will have to work on getting the positioning right. Still, very handy to have another option for breaking the guard, as previously I was feeling pretty limited.
Next technique followed on from the pass. Maurição noted that a lot of people were making a serious error, which was putting both hands through to the other side as soon as they got past the leg. That makes it possible for the other person to shrimp and recover guard, or potentially even take your back. Instead, you should keep a hand by the leg to stop them shifting their hips like that.
If you do find yourself in side control with both your arms over, then there is a transition to scarf hold and then back to side control you can do. First get an underhook on their arm, then switch your base and move to scarf hold, grabbing their arm and pulling it across your stomach. The leg near their head points straight out, the other is drawn up towards you, keeping your weight pressed down on them. Having secured that position, you then switch your legs back, trapping that arm that was by your stomach in the process and pushing it into their neck. One arm goes under their head, the other goes down by their hips.
Sparring was a little unusual, as often seems to be the case in Maurição’s classes. It was guard passage, but starting from open guard rather than closed. This was in order to have a chance to work that pass, which turned out to be more difficult than it looked initially. On my first attempt with Tamvin (who is close to my weight at about 63kg), I found that while I could get my shoulder to his leg, he could secure a solid grip with his legs which made it difficult to pass. I eventually got through, but what I should have done was stacked him more, coming up on my toes and pushing down, meaning that I’d be able to really put my legs into it.
On the second try, worked much better. I went a bit faster and drove hard, stacking my partner and slipping round. I still think I’m leaving too much space, however, as I should by pushing into the leg until I slip round. At the moment, I feel I’m still tending to bring my head around the leg and drop down instead, which gives my opponent the opportunity to shrimp and get to their knees. This happens pretty much every time I get in that position with Chris: his size and strength advantage no doubt helps, but the main problem is my sloppy technique.
Switching round, I had an interesting experience working open guard. I wrapped up Tamvin’s arm by getting my leg over his inner elbow and then a foot into his inner thigh, which stopped him pushing through effectively. I also went for a few elevator sweeps, getting it a couple of times the usual way (looped round the outside of one leg and the inside of the other), as well as from butterfly guard (both feet on his inner thighs). I found that I could relax in open guard and keep my partner neutralised without too much effort, but I think that was firstly because Tamvin isn’t used to open guard, and secondly because he was using his arms to try and work his way through rather than his legs. Nevertheless, was good to get a chance to play with some positions I don’t often have an opportunity to explore.
Next week I’ll be staying at my sisters, so I’m hoping to finally get a more hefty schedule of training. I’d also like to give the early morning class on Wednesday a go, which would make for an interesting change as it’s a mixture of beginners and advanced. Tamvin also tells me its pretty small, meaning that you get personal attention from Nick G, which would be cool.
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Maurição Gomes, London, UK - 19/07/2007 – Beginners
I’ve been having a very absentminded week. Started off by leaving my flip flops in Birmingham, then almost missing a bus despite leaning on the bus stop. I proceeded to sign the kids register, then today I forgot to pack my rash guard, so could only make the beginners session tonight. At least I remembered to bake that cake yesterday…although my mum did kinda take over (probably out of frustration at seeing me plod through a recipe she’s been doing long before I was even born).
Anyway, onto the BJJ. It’s a shame I had to miss the no-gi, as Maurição was teaching. However, on the other hand that did mean I was fully rested for the beginners, so could really concentrate on what he was saying. This lesson reminded me once again of Jude’s description of his teacher Maurição as a fine wine: one of the great things about training at RGA is the opportunity to learn from world-class people like Maurição.
First technique was the basic pass under the leg. I don’t think I have ever used this in sparring, as I pretty much always go over the over rather than under, which is apparently fairly common. Maurição mentioned how this was a very traditional pass which many people didn’t use because they assumed they’d get caught in a triangle. However, that’s only if you do it wrong: Maurição emphasised that its very important to first get the leg right up onto your shoulder, and secondly make sure the elbow of your other hand stays on either their inner or outer hip and does not get dragged across your opponent’s body. If your partner manages to get hold of the arm and start pulling, or is just very strong, then you can resist it by pushing through with your shoulder, meaning your whole body comes to your defence.
Another major part of the technique is to drive through and really stack them. As BJ Penn mentions on his site, the aim is to either get your shoulder right into their face, or squash their knee into their head. Staying on your toes is also essential, walking round and maintaining that downwards pressure, eventually pushing past the leg into side control.
Maurição went through this in meticulous detail: its rare that an instructor can describe a single, fundamental technique in such depth that its difficult to remember the full explanation. Just as he was about to tell us to go practice the pass, someone spoke up and asked about how to break the guard. This proved to be a fantastic question, as Maurição then, once again in fine detail, went through two breaks.
First was the one I’ve been using from BJ Penn’s site. Grab them by the belt, elbows in tight. Push back with your arms, knees coming back, with one pushing out to the side. That should eventually stretch their legs out and open the guard.
If that doesn’t work, then the second break is to stand up, then sit back down again. The integral detail here is that you shove your knee right into their cocsis before you sit down, so essentially impale them on your kneecap. Done right, that pops the legs apart straight away, leaving you with a knee in between their legs ready to start the pass.
However, I had some trouble finding the right spot, so will have to work on getting the positioning right. Still, very handy to have another option for breaking the guard, as previously I was feeling pretty limited.
Next technique followed on from the pass. Maurição noted that a lot of people were making a serious error, which was putting both hands through to the other side as soon as they got past the leg. That makes it possible for the other person to shrimp and recover guard, or potentially even take your back. Instead, you should keep a hand by the leg to stop them shifting their hips like that.
If you do find yourself in side control with both your arms over, then there is a transition to scarf hold and then back to side control you can do. First get an underhook on their arm, then switch your base and move to scarf hold, grabbing their arm and pulling it across your stomach. The leg near their head points straight out, the other is drawn up towards you, keeping your weight pressed down on them. Having secured that position, you then switch your legs back, trapping that arm that was by your stomach in the process and pushing it into their neck. One arm goes under their head, the other goes down by their hips.
Sparring was a little unusual, as often seems to be the case in Maurição’s classes. It was guard passage, but starting from open guard rather than closed. This was in order to have a chance to work that pass, which turned out to be more difficult than it looked initially. On my first attempt with Tamvin (who is close to my weight at about 63kg), I found that while I could get my shoulder to his leg, he could secure a solid grip with his legs which made it difficult to pass. I eventually got through, but what I should have done was stacked him more, coming up on my toes and pushing down, meaning that I’d be able to really put my legs into it.
On the second try, worked much better. I went a bit faster and drove hard, stacking my partner and slipping round. I still think I’m leaving too much space, however, as I should by pushing into the leg until I slip round. At the moment, I feel I’m still tending to bring my head around the leg and drop down instead, which gives my opponent the opportunity to shrimp and get to their knees. This happens pretty much every time I get in that position with Chris: his size and strength advantage no doubt helps, but the main problem is my sloppy technique.
Switching round, I had an interesting experience working open guard. I wrapped up Tamvin’s arm by getting my leg over his inner elbow and then a foot into his inner thigh, which stopped him pushing through effectively. I also went for a few elevator sweeps, getting it a couple of times the usual way (looped round the outside of one leg and the inside of the other), as well as from butterfly guard (both feet on his inner thighs). I found that I could relax in open guard and keep my partner neutralised without too much effort, but I think that was firstly because Tamvin isn’t used to open guard, and secondly because he was using his arms to try and work his way through rather than his legs. Nevertheless, was good to get a chance to play with some positions I don’t often have an opportunity to explore.
Next week I’ll be staying at my sisters, so I’m hoping to finally get a more hefty schedule of training. I’d also like to give the early morning class on Wednesday a go, which would make for an interesting change as it’s a mixture of beginners and advanced. Tamvin also tells me its pretty small, meaning that you get personal attention from Nick G, which would be cool.
04 April 2007
04/04/2007 - BJJ
Class #47
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Maurição Gomes, London, UK - 04/04/2007
I had planned to make yesterday, but nobody was around to give me a lift, so as I’d got home earlier to bring a bike back rather than take the train straight down to London, couldn’t make training. However, that was more than made up for with Wednesday’s lesson. I’m a year closer to thirty today, and I got the rather excellent birthday present of what was almost a private lesson from Maurição. For some reason, only three of us turned up today (me, Owen and the Ben that isn’t from Bullshido) – its half term and there is apparently some football match on, but still that surprised me.
The warm-up was a little tougher as usual with Maurição, going through the dive-bomber press-ups and the like, moving on to trips and throws. First groundwork technique of the day was a pass into mount – I’m not sure what the right name or categorisation would be, as its not quite like anything I’ve done so far. There is a pass over the knee involved and switching base, but the process was fairly unfamiliar apart from that. Person A begins by placing their hands on Person B’s chest and jumping up. In order to break Person B’s guard, Person A grips one collar with the knuckles pointing towards Person B’s head, then drives those knuckles into Person B’s neck. At the same time, Person A pulls down on the other collar, aiming to choke Person B. The idea is not necessarily to submit your opponent, but to get them to open their guard, after which they will probably put their feet into your hips in order to push you away from their neck. Before they can get their feet in, Person A pushes against the inside of a leg with an elbow, driving it downwards, then securing it by putting their knee on top and pushing that knee right to the floor. Person A shifts their grip to behind Person B’s head, then brings their other leg around behind the first. The leg which was on top of Person B’s thigh now moves tight and underneath (to stop them attempting to get half guard), after which Person A grabs Person B’s far knee, then swings over into mount.
Next up Maurição demonstrated the proper technique for an armbar from mount. Having got one arm around the elbow you’re going to go for and the other arm inside, you walk your knee right up to Person B’s head. Your other knee comes up, and you place your foot tight into Person B’s side (again to prevent them trying to go for half-guard). Putting far hand on the floor, you maintain control with your other arm, then bring the knee you’ve moved up high over Person B’s head (using the hand you have on the floor for balance), then fall back for the armbar. Important point Maurição noted here was that you drive your heels in, with your feet curled back: this tenses up your calves, which Maurição said helped your grip.
Unusually, we then did specific sparring from open guard. Equally unusually, there were only three white belts in the class, meaning I sparred a blue belt, Tran. He had the rather major disadvantage of not being allowed to use his arms (which were tucked into his belt), but still managed to keep me at bay just using his legs. This was excellent training, for me at least, as I’d had such trouble when faced with Owen’s open guard a while back. Maurição was watching intently, meaning that he could offer plenty of tips. First, he advised that you should grip your opponent by the knees (not the foot, as I’d thought, because this gives your partner more options), with your arms inside and elbows tight to your hips. Secondly, Maurição recommended I to try passing around the legs, rather than going through them, which is what I’d been unsuccessfully attempting to do. I stood there for a while looking to pick my moment, then with Maurição urging me along, I threw the legs to one side and went round to side control. Of course, Tran couldn’t use his arms and was going easy on me, but still felt like I’d accomplished something.
Maurição assumed the long pause was due to a lack of confidence on my part, and said I should believe more in the technique and myself. There’s probably some truth to that, but I responded by saying that what concerned me was expending a lot of energy – I didn’t want to go for a move that looked to rely to a certain extent on strength, in case I messed up and therefore ended up wasting the little muscle I have. However, Maurição made the very sensible point that this is specific sparring: your opponent knows what you’re going to do, so they’re waiting for it. Hence you’re going to have to expend some energy. I most likely need to be more aggressive anyway, though I’m keen to develop technique. At the same time, there is no such thing as a magic technique that’s guaranteed to work every time effortlessly, so I’m going to have to get used to applying a certain amount of force. I guess the skill is in knowing when to use it.
Finally, Maurição got us to spar from side control. In the process, he gave out further handy pointers. Firstly, bunching up your knees in side control gives the other person space – much better is to sprawl out and go on your toes, as this means you can stay closer. Secondly, Maurição recommended I have both arms on the same side, one under the head and the other down by Person B’s side, ready to prevent them trying to get their leg round into side control. I was able to swing up into mount on Tran, but then the handicap on his arms was even more of a hindrance to him this time. Otherwise, I’m sure he would have been able to reverse me easily. As it was, I tried to stay in tight and went for chokes, but couldn’t get a sufficiently solid grip on his neck.
I can but hope people will fail to show up more often – impromptu semi-private lessons are awesome! Just opened some of my presents (waiting for Saturday when my mother gets back to go through most of them), and very happy to finally get my hands on a copy of Pumping Iron: started looking for the book after I first saw the documentary a few years back, so will enjoy salivating over this.
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Maurição Gomes, London, UK - 04/04/2007
I had planned to make yesterday, but nobody was around to give me a lift, so as I’d got home earlier to bring a bike back rather than take the train straight down to London, couldn’t make training. However, that was more than made up for with Wednesday’s lesson. I’m a year closer to thirty today, and I got the rather excellent birthday present of what was almost a private lesson from Maurição. For some reason, only three of us turned up today (me, Owen and the Ben that isn’t from Bullshido) – its half term and there is apparently some football match on, but still that surprised me.
The warm-up was a little tougher as usual with Maurição, going through the dive-bomber press-ups and the like, moving on to trips and throws. First groundwork technique of the day was a pass into mount – I’m not sure what the right name or categorisation would be, as its not quite like anything I’ve done so far. There is a pass over the knee involved and switching base, but the process was fairly unfamiliar apart from that. Person A begins by placing their hands on Person B’s chest and jumping up. In order to break Person B’s guard, Person A grips one collar with the knuckles pointing towards Person B’s head, then drives those knuckles into Person B’s neck. At the same time, Person A pulls down on the other collar, aiming to choke Person B. The idea is not necessarily to submit your opponent, but to get them to open their guard, after which they will probably put their feet into your hips in order to push you away from their neck. Before they can get their feet in, Person A pushes against the inside of a leg with an elbow, driving it downwards, then securing it by putting their knee on top and pushing that knee right to the floor. Person A shifts their grip to behind Person B’s head, then brings their other leg around behind the first. The leg which was on top of Person B’s thigh now moves tight and underneath (to stop them attempting to get half guard), after which Person A grabs Person B’s far knee, then swings over into mount.
Next up Maurição demonstrated the proper technique for an armbar from mount. Having got one arm around the elbow you’re going to go for and the other arm inside, you walk your knee right up to Person B’s head. Your other knee comes up, and you place your foot tight into Person B’s side (again to prevent them trying to go for half-guard). Putting far hand on the floor, you maintain control with your other arm, then bring the knee you’ve moved up high over Person B’s head (using the hand you have on the floor for balance), then fall back for the armbar. Important point Maurição noted here was that you drive your heels in, with your feet curled back: this tenses up your calves, which Maurição said helped your grip.
Unusually, we then did specific sparring from open guard. Equally unusually, there were only three white belts in the class, meaning I sparred a blue belt, Tran. He had the rather major disadvantage of not being allowed to use his arms (which were tucked into his belt), but still managed to keep me at bay just using his legs. This was excellent training, for me at least, as I’d had such trouble when faced with Owen’s open guard a while back. Maurição was watching intently, meaning that he could offer plenty of tips. First, he advised that you should grip your opponent by the knees (not the foot, as I’d thought, because this gives your partner more options), with your arms inside and elbows tight to your hips. Secondly, Maurição recommended I to try passing around the legs, rather than going through them, which is what I’d been unsuccessfully attempting to do. I stood there for a while looking to pick my moment, then with Maurição urging me along, I threw the legs to one side and went round to side control. Of course, Tran couldn’t use his arms and was going easy on me, but still felt like I’d accomplished something.
Maurição assumed the long pause was due to a lack of confidence on my part, and said I should believe more in the technique and myself. There’s probably some truth to that, but I responded by saying that what concerned me was expending a lot of energy – I didn’t want to go for a move that looked to rely to a certain extent on strength, in case I messed up and therefore ended up wasting the little muscle I have. However, Maurição made the very sensible point that this is specific sparring: your opponent knows what you’re going to do, so they’re waiting for it. Hence you’re going to have to expend some energy. I most likely need to be more aggressive anyway, though I’m keen to develop technique. At the same time, there is no such thing as a magic technique that’s guaranteed to work every time effortlessly, so I’m going to have to get used to applying a certain amount of force. I guess the skill is in knowing when to use it.
Finally, Maurição got us to spar from side control. In the process, he gave out further handy pointers. Firstly, bunching up your knees in side control gives the other person space – much better is to sprawl out and go on your toes, as this means you can stay closer. Secondly, Maurição recommended I have both arms on the same side, one under the head and the other down by Person B’s side, ready to prevent them trying to get their leg round into side control. I was able to swing up into mount on Tran, but then the handicap on his arms was even more of a hindrance to him this time. Otherwise, I’m sure he would have been able to reverse me easily. As it was, I tried to stay in tight and went for chokes, but couldn’t get a sufficiently solid grip on his neck.
I can but hope people will fail to show up more often – impromptu semi-private lessons are awesome! Just opened some of my presents (waiting for Saturday when my mother gets back to go through most of them), and very happy to finally get my hands on a copy of Pumping Iron: started looking for the book after I first saw the documentary a few years back, so will enjoy salivating over this.
17 March 2007
17/03/2007 - BJJ
Class #40
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Maurição Gomes, London, UK - 17/03/2007
Interesting class, as today we had the pleasant surprise of being taught by Roger Gracie’s father, 7th degree black belt and founder of Gracie Barra UK, Maurição Gomes. He ran his class a bit different from Jude, Felipe or his son, adding in some warm-up exercises I don’t think I’ve ever done before. For example, one where you are squatting with your hands on the floor, bouncing slightly, bring a leg back on each bounce. We also did ones I am familiar with but have never done in class, like hindu press-ups (or ‘divebomber press-ups’).
Maurição started off with an arm throw, which is accomplished by pulling an arm in tight, then underhooking, using that to lift your opponent up onto your back then drop them off to one side. I kept accidentally putting my shoulder into it instead, which meant I had the arm too high. Maurição added the variation of getting an arm bar, which seems to be the basic submission after a takedown (at least judging by the throws we’ve done so far, tending to end with control on the arm).
Next was a method of moving from side control to mount. Twisting away from the head (like in my preferred Americana set-up), you push up the elbow nearest to you, then press the inside of your opponent’s own elbow into their neck, returning to side control and trapping that arm with one of your own. This should then facilitate shifting through to full mount. I’m not quite sure what the principle was, but at least I didn’t have too much difficulty with performing the drill.
Maurição then showed us a single leg escape from side control. Person B shrimps out, going to their knees. They then reach over for the opposite leg (I tried to remember it as the one my chin points towards, which is a bit random but appeared to help), posting up a leg and wrapping both legs round, then pulling that leg towards you while thrusting with your head and shoulder around the other side. This should enable you to push through for side control. That escape also leant itself well to drilling, as it could be done continuously in a pair. Unfortunately I was in a three, so couldn’t drill quite as much as normal, but still got plenty of chance to practice (I was with two of the Polish people, Radik and Christina, who proceeded to chat in Polish, understandably).
Sparring began with winner stays on guard passing. I really need to get some more options when it comes to passing, as I still only have two to go for. I was able to keep my posture and base, and resisted submissions, but didn’t have much success in a proactive sense. I thought that the first guy (Chiago? Something like that) was going to go for the arm bar, and I was all ready to escape and push round, but then he somehow swept me. I asked what I did wrong, but I guess he’s not used to being asked, as he had no idea so couldn’t offer any advice.
Next I was with Radik, but time ran out before we had a chance to reach a conclusion. The lesson moved on to one-on-one side control. Radik is clearly a lot stronger than me, and was thrashing away underneath side control – initially, he was able to throw me off basically by exerting lots of energy. However, I was able to maintain position after that, holding on to a leg to try and keep him in place, picking my moment to move into full mount. My usual Americana attempt was unsuccessful, as Radik had no trouble powering out and straightening his arm.
On the bottom, I had trouble stopping Radik bursting through my defences. However, I was able to hold him in half-guard once I got a leg, and tried to keep working so I’d learn something. I thought there were a few openings to try and throw him over, but I don’t know sufficient technique, and certainly don’t have enough strength to power through (though that was be an extremely bad habit to get into anyway). Mainly, I was trying to push my leg through to get full guard, but struggled to make space for shrimping.
Maurição is an attentive teacher, although that may have been helped by the smaller class size this time round. He frequently checked up on everyone’s technique during drilling, making me think of the old stories about Royce only being able to say “Stop!” and “like this.” Of course, Maurição’s English is much better than that, but he still repeatedly called out “Stop!” in order to correct somebody’s position. I didn’t get the pleasure of any personal attention, but as I was in a three I did get to have a good look at Maurição polishing my two partner’s drilling. Small tips like keeping your feet in together when throwing, or staying close and not bending your back when attempting takedowns.
I continue to be rather limited in my guard passing and side control, so need to work on refining the techniques I do know, then adding a couple more so I have some further options. Better still would be developing follow-ups when I fail to pull off a particular move. What’s great about the beginners class is the chance to get stuck in to the basics, so I should try and get my cardio up so that when I move to the advanced class, I can make both. Of course, should still be a fair while before my third strip – if it follows the purely chronological pattern, then I’d get it in April, but if there is skill involved, will be much much longer. My guard passage and mount remain especially poor, though I’m making slight progress with the guard.
As it was a Saturday, I could relax and hang around afterwards – no need to rush off to Birmingham, as my gf only gets back tomorrow. Still need to make sure I don’t leave the guinea pig all lonely, but that gives me enough time to take a look at the advanced class. On Saturday’s that all sparring, so I got to watch two purple belts calmly analysing each other while one hung suspended by his legs, eventually sweeping from a submission attempt. In addition, cool to see Jude what looked like some kind of omoplata sweep from that same standing position – possible what he was referring to on Wednesday? Also cool that he remembered my name, having a brief chat as he went to check something behind the desk.
Reminds me that I wanted to ask if I’d be able to book a private lesson with him when my direct debit is paused in May, or have to wait until after. I’m on holiday for most of that month, but would have a week and a bit to attend a private. As I’ll be saving £90, seems like an excellent time to give it a try.
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Maurição Gomes, London, UK - 17/03/2007
Interesting class, as today we had the pleasant surprise of being taught by Roger Gracie’s father, 7th degree black belt and founder of Gracie Barra UK, Maurição Gomes. He ran his class a bit different from Jude, Felipe or his son, adding in some warm-up exercises I don’t think I’ve ever done before. For example, one where you are squatting with your hands on the floor, bouncing slightly, bring a leg back on each bounce. We also did ones I am familiar with but have never done in class, like hindu press-ups (or ‘divebomber press-ups’).
Maurição started off with an arm throw, which is accomplished by pulling an arm in tight, then underhooking, using that to lift your opponent up onto your back then drop them off to one side. I kept accidentally putting my shoulder into it instead, which meant I had the arm too high. Maurição added the variation of getting an arm bar, which seems to be the basic submission after a takedown (at least judging by the throws we’ve done so far, tending to end with control on the arm).
Next was a method of moving from side control to mount. Twisting away from the head (like in my preferred Americana set-up), you push up the elbow nearest to you, then press the inside of your opponent’s own elbow into their neck, returning to side control and trapping that arm with one of your own. This should then facilitate shifting through to full mount. I’m not quite sure what the principle was, but at least I didn’t have too much difficulty with performing the drill.
Maurição then showed us a single leg escape from side control. Person B shrimps out, going to their knees. They then reach over for the opposite leg (I tried to remember it as the one my chin points towards, which is a bit random but appeared to help), posting up a leg and wrapping both legs round, then pulling that leg towards you while thrusting with your head and shoulder around the other side. This should enable you to push through for side control. That escape also leant itself well to drilling, as it could be done continuously in a pair. Unfortunately I was in a three, so couldn’t drill quite as much as normal, but still got plenty of chance to practice (I was with two of the Polish people, Radik and Christina, who proceeded to chat in Polish, understandably).
Sparring began with winner stays on guard passing. I really need to get some more options when it comes to passing, as I still only have two to go for. I was able to keep my posture and base, and resisted submissions, but didn’t have much success in a proactive sense. I thought that the first guy (Chiago? Something like that) was going to go for the arm bar, and I was all ready to escape and push round, but then he somehow swept me. I asked what I did wrong, but I guess he’s not used to being asked, as he had no idea so couldn’t offer any advice.
Next I was with Radik, but time ran out before we had a chance to reach a conclusion. The lesson moved on to one-on-one side control. Radik is clearly a lot stronger than me, and was thrashing away underneath side control – initially, he was able to throw me off basically by exerting lots of energy. However, I was able to maintain position after that, holding on to a leg to try and keep him in place, picking my moment to move into full mount. My usual Americana attempt was unsuccessful, as Radik had no trouble powering out and straightening his arm.
On the bottom, I had trouble stopping Radik bursting through my defences. However, I was able to hold him in half-guard once I got a leg, and tried to keep working so I’d learn something. I thought there were a few openings to try and throw him over, but I don’t know sufficient technique, and certainly don’t have enough strength to power through (though that was be an extremely bad habit to get into anyway). Mainly, I was trying to push my leg through to get full guard, but struggled to make space for shrimping.
Maurição is an attentive teacher, although that may have been helped by the smaller class size this time round. He frequently checked up on everyone’s technique during drilling, making me think of the old stories about Royce only being able to say “Stop!” and “like this.” Of course, Maurição’s English is much better than that, but he still repeatedly called out “Stop!” in order to correct somebody’s position. I didn’t get the pleasure of any personal attention, but as I was in a three I did get to have a good look at Maurição polishing my two partner’s drilling. Small tips like keeping your feet in together when throwing, or staying close and not bending your back when attempting takedowns.
I continue to be rather limited in my guard passing and side control, so need to work on refining the techniques I do know, then adding a couple more so I have some further options. Better still would be developing follow-ups when I fail to pull off a particular move. What’s great about the beginners class is the chance to get stuck in to the basics, so I should try and get my cardio up so that when I move to the advanced class, I can make both. Of course, should still be a fair while before my third strip – if it follows the purely chronological pattern, then I’d get it in April, but if there is skill involved, will be much much longer. My guard passage and mount remain especially poor, though I’m making slight progress with the guard.
As it was a Saturday, I could relax and hang around afterwards – no need to rush off to Birmingham, as my gf only gets back tomorrow. Still need to make sure I don’t leave the guinea pig all lonely, but that gives me enough time to take a look at the advanced class. On Saturday’s that all sparring, so I got to watch two purple belts calmly analysing each other while one hung suspended by his legs, eventually sweeping from a submission attempt. In addition, cool to see Jude what looked like some kind of omoplata sweep from that same standing position – possible what he was referring to on Wednesday? Also cool that he remembered my name, having a brief chat as he went to check something behind the desk.
Reminds me that I wanted to ask if I’d be able to book a private lesson with him when my direct debit is paused in May, or have to wait until after. I’m on holiday for most of that month, but would have a week and a bit to attend a private. As I’ll be saving £90, seems like an excellent time to give it a try.
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