Seminar #024
Artemis BJJ, Neil Owen, Bristol, UK - 19/03/2017
Neil began with some simple drills for entering spider guard, starting with feet on the hips. Grab the sleeves, then put your feet into the biceps. The feet should always be doing a different job, one pulling while the other pushes. He also included moving to the knees, back to the hips, then lift them up. A nice, fluid drill to work on getting comfortable with open guard. Neil emphasised curling your foot around their bicep, like you're trying to grab it with a foot-hand. The same is true for the hip: curl your foot around the hip bone.
From there, get used to rotating. This was like the tips Chelsea gave in her seminar (I still need to write up her fourth one, from January), rotating to face the arm, with your outside foot extending straight as the inside leg curls in. To create pressure into the arm, push through with your heel, like you're putting a boot on (similar motion to the footlock defence). There is flexion in the foot too, for controlling the biceps.
Neil progressed to the concept of protecting your week side. By that he means the side where they can move around and pass. If you have a leg on the weak side that you can extend straight, that bolsters your defence. You want to spin so that your weak side is on the outside, your strong side is by them. They can pass around the inside, but they will get swept if you have your legs in place.
If they open your guard, they are passing. If you open your guard, then you're playing open guard. This is an important distinction. Neil demonstrated this idea by going into more detail about what he calls classic guard, getting there from as they try to open your closed guard. He prefers to grip under with his fingers on the collar grip, so thumb on top. Opposite leg on the floor and shrimp, then put your other foot on their hip. He has four points of contact: knee (into their chest), foot (on their hip), hand (on their collar) and other hand (on their same side sleeve).
If they stand, hide your outside foot. Should they grip it, you have their arm in range, which is what you wanted. Your weak side here is the outside, so the foot on that side swivels into the bicep and extends, while pulling down with the collar grip. For classic guard, he doesn't like to keep the foot in their bicep, it is too easy to weave the hand in. He prefers to keep his foot on the shoulder blade, that is much harder for them to weave their hand around.
When you have extended your legs into them all the way, it is hard for them to step around, but they might be able to go back to come off your feet. When they do that and break the connection, you could be in trouble. Therefore keep a little bit of a bend in your leg, as opposed to completely straightening them. The slight bend makes it easier for you to keep that connection between the soles of your feet and their hips/shoulder etc (your collar grip you're using to pull them in will help a lot here, leading into things later).
In terms of passing, should they have four points of contact, you need to remove some in order to pass. For example, controlling their legs, then moving your hips back in order to remove the feet. For the guard player, when you feel yourself losing those points of contact, sit up and press your collar grip into them. Move to the outside with your hips. If they move inside, your arm is strong, but if they move behind, you don't have much resistance. You therefore need to keep moving away to make sure they stay within that area you are strong. Any time there is a pause, strip the grip they have on your knee, meaning you can return to your previous position.
For stripping a grip, think about pushing the wrist over, rather than grabbing their sleeve and yanking. It's the same idea as when you're trying to remove a hook from a loop. Also keep in mind that when you are moving your hips away, they will occasionally try and drive forward. You therefore don't want to simply spin in a circle. If they manage to beat your legs and start dropping in, you can use your sleeve grip to keep pushing their arm away, same as the last time Neil taught us open guard.
When drilling, remember that with more resistance, there will be less space for you. That means the person on top needs to move in close, not giving unrealistic amounts of space. If you lose your grip, frame against their arm, moving your hips back until you can recover a guard. This should be pre-emptive, before they get in close to your hips. Your trigger to shrimp should not be when they have passed the knees and are dropping their weight into your hip/stomach. You need to do it earlier, just as they are starting to pass your knees.
Moving on to a different position, Neil talked about the turtle. He began with a drill where you are in turtle, then you post your outside arm and leg. Roll under yourself into that space, as if you're doing a really tight breakfall on the spot. You want to make a wide circle with your leg. You're reaching for your own butt cheek.
This can be applied to the previous material too. They have passed and are starting to press in. Roll away, swinging your legs through to recover guard. Your body shape is key, to avoid getting put flat. If you do that and they end up in a front headlock, you can do the wrestler's sit-out. Neil's version was a little different, hooking the leg with an arm and then firing out under the armpit.
Yet another option you could try is underhooking when the pressure comes in off the pass. However, that's a risky one, as it is when that pressure is there. Ideally you want to use one of the other options, before the pressure is applied.
The last part of the seminar was from what Neil calls classic guard. Again, you have a collar and sleeve grip, along with a foot into their shoulder (not their biceps). Your other foot is into their hip. Push with the hip foot, dragging their sleeve into your hip. Rotate your hip knee around, to move into an omoplata as you bend their arm around your leg. A typical follow-up is to square up, sit up, then get their shoulder on the ground. That isn't easy, especially if they are bigger than you.
Neil prefers to turn his knees away instead, pressing it to the ground. That makes it tough for them to bring their shoulder off the ground, as well as scuppering their ability to roll through. From there, wiggle your hips out and go to apply the omoplata. Be careful with the omoplata, it's a lot of control on the shoulder. Disentangle yourself with care, their arm and shoulder are very vulnerable. It is not like a choke, where you can just relieve the pressure and you are finished. You have to actively remove yourself from the submission.
Another option is a collar drag, switching your hips and dragging them into the space you've just cleared. Neil prefers to go to side control from there, rather than trying to jump onto the back. Be careful with this one, as it is difficult to hit this technique in sparring without smacking their face into the floor. With drilling, it's best for the person passing to let go of the legs, in order to land safely,.
Showing posts with label Neil Owen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Neil Owen. Show all posts
19 March 2017
18 December 2016
18/12/2016 - Neil Owen Seminar
Seminar #022
Artemis BJJ, Neil Owen, Bristol, UK - 18/12/2016
I signed Artemis BJJ up to the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Globetrotters affiliation some time ago, as I like the independence that grants me. Our club is not under anybody other than me, although I'm personally under Kev Capel from RGA Bucks (and have been since 2009). Being part of BJJ Globetrotters has a number of advantages, but perhaps the biggest is networking.
This seminar marks the fruition of that networking, something which is set to continue through into 2017 and beyond. We have already hosted one fellow BJJ Globetrotters instructor, Ana Yagues, but I've known her online for several years due to blogging. Neil Owen is somebody I've never met before, though I was aware of the name due to Brian Lister (a friend from Bullshido, who I met at the Oxford Throwdown a few years back now). In an interesting twist of fate, Neil happens to be the business partner of one of the teachers at the Leuven Globetrotter Camp, Chad Wright, who like me is very active on social media.
Chad sent me a message on Facebook asking if I'd be interested in hosting Neil (they run Infinity BJJ together, mainly based in Australia, but they have expanded to various other countries) for a seminar. Naturally I jumped at the chance: Neil has been training since the mid '90s, among the original pioneers of BJJ in the UK. He has an easy-going personality that meant he was a pleasure to deal with, something that also carries over to his teaching style.
Neil had asked me if there was anything in particular I wanted to work on. If you've been following this blog, you'll know that open guard has been my focus for a couple of years now. I sent Neil the recent sparring videos I've been putting up on Instragram, resulting in one of the most useful seminars I've ever been to. I'm very pleased Neil is going to be coming back (on the 19th March), where we can hopefully do the same thing. :)
The seminar began with a quick demonstration of various passes you might do off a standard kneeling guard break. Grab both their collars with one arm, then raise up very slightly to bring your knee into their bum. Push into their other knee with your arm to open, then move directly into an underhook pass (which Neil calls the 'bully pass').
Your arm goes underneath the leg you didn't push down for a single underhook pass, or swim both arms under for a double underhook pass. Alternatively, you might go for a knee slide, bringing your other knee into their thigh and stepping out with the other leg, then cutting through. If you put the same side shin over their thigh, that leads into the various leg pin pass options.
Should you prefer to stand up after opening their guard, a whole other set of options become available. Grab inside their knees and bullfighter by kicking your leg back and stepping through. Neil's favourite is the over-under pass, which effectively combines the single underhook with a bullfighter variation (as you underhook one one leg, while shoving the other back between your own legs).
We drilled all of those, to get familiar with the passes. That laid the groundwork to then learn how to defend against all those passes. In terms of moving from closed to open guard, put your foot on their hip (not near their hip, their actual hip bone) as soon as they get close to opening your guard. You're cupping their hip bone with the arch of your foot. That provides you with some distance control, along with enough time to shrimp out a little with your other foot. You also want to lean back slightly, to help bring your same side elbow back for base.
Once you've come up on your elbow, insert your free hand deep into their opposite collar. Go from your elbow to your hand, make it easier to shrimp a little more, squaring up to them. You're now ready to establish butterfly guard and go from there, making sure you are wriggling back on your bum to stop them shoving you down.
As Neil then demonstrated, you can use that to block all the passes he showed at the start of the seminar. It was a brilliantly taught sequence with a bunch of great little details. Even better, because it was so well targeted towards my game (given Neil had kindly watched those vids I sent him), this is going to perfectly set me up for both practicing and teaching in February (as that's open guard month). :)
If they bring their hands back to your knees after the guard has been opened and you've set up your open guard, it's likely they are going to stand up. Your basing hand switches to grabbing their same side sleeve. As they stand, swing out your other leg. This means all your grips are down one side of their body: you're grabbing their collar, their sleeve and also pushing into their hip. Neil called this 'classic open guard'.
That position can lead into triangles and omoplatas. You also want to be on your side, maximising the control you have with your grips. If they attempt to pass in that direction, it will be next to impossible for them to pass. If they go the other way, they are chasing your swung-away leg, also leaving their trailing arm vulnerable to the aforementioned omoplata. At any point, you can square back up by bringing that free foot to their hip, arm, chest.
Neil then ran through his theory of pass 'zones'. The bullfighter is out at Zone 3, while the knee slide comes in a little closer at Zone 2. Finally, an underhook pass is Zone 1. The smaller the number, the harder it is to prevent the pass. To succeed in their pass, they need to maintain their grips all the way round. Do not accept side control: if you lose the grip with your foot, you still have the sleeve from earlier. That's enough to recover your guard.
Stiff arm that away from you, returning to a sitting guard position. They cannot pass until they free that arm. Of course, you aren't going to wait there. You'll look to square back up and recover your guard long before they wriggle their arm out of your grip. If they insist on the pass, you might even be able to roll them right over the top. The only downside to this for me is the grip asks a lot of your fingers. I could try it with a pistol grip I guess, that's much easier on the fingers, but also easier to break. Maybe even gripping the wrist, just enough to recover my guard?
From a passing perspective, Neil discussed how you want to separate the elbow and knee. Therefore from the bottom, you're looking to keep those in tight. Hence why some people will work on getting the flexibility to put their knee into their armpits. Progessing to spider guard, if they break off one of your feet grips, swing it straight in to a de la Riva hook. Your same side hand will grab their foot, or the trouser leg. Keep your toes up, pulling your knee in. It's important to pull them in, because as Neil pointed out, the DLR hook only works on a bent leg.
In an effort to pass DLR, they may grab your knee, pushing it down and straightening their arm in the process. Keeping the arm straight, push your bum back to knock off that DLR hook. This puts the passer in Zone 2, ready to go for the knee slide. Do not buckle your knee sideways: step the other leg across, sink down to put your heel right on your butt.
On the bottom looking to recover guard, bring your ex-DLR knee across their hip to block. Neil noted that the important part here is not the knee, it's adjusting your upper body to line up against your knee. In practice, that means bringing your shoulder and head back, putting you almost perpendicular to the passer. Bring your bottom knee out, then square back up to guard.
The next scenario was countering the double underhook pass. They want to control your hips and either take them out of action (getting underneath them) or connect their hands to put those legs on their shoulders. Your defence is the same for both. Immediately grip both their sleeves and flare your legs. Push into their biceps, using that to try and create space by shrimiping. You'll also need to walk backwards on your shoulders.
If they really try to fling your leg, you can switch to the stiff arm into their sleeve, like Neil showed earlier. Should they manage to lock their hands, instead of grabbing their sleeve, stiff arm into the back of their elbow. You can then proceed to recover guard in much the same way as the stiff arm into their sleeve from earlier.
To finish, Neil demonstrated an over under pass, his personal favourite. Essentially, it's a combination of the bullfighter and the underhook pass. He explained how he does not buy into the idea that you can only pass on your feet, a trend which he feels is in part based upon the speed, balance and athleticism of elite competitors rather than the average grappler. He (like me) prefers to be in Zone 1, with a close connection.
Crouch, set, engage, like you're going into a rugby scrum. One arm goes under, the other over, so be careful of the triangle. You must control their bottom leg between your legs, to make certain they can't set up that triangle. Your head goes to their far hip, driving your shoulder across their stomach. You now have the option of either moving into mount or to side control.
As Neil believes this is the best pass, it stands to reason that to counter the over under is difficult. The option he suggested was to grab their armpit on the side their head wants to go. Do that before they get their head in position, keeping your arm tight, which will also block them getting their head to your hip. Twisting your knee inwards and kicking your leg, wriggle your hips out until you can pull your opponent away to your other hip, using your armpit grip. If you have long legs, that becomes much easier, as you can put your foot on the ground. With short legs (like me), you end up manically wriggling your knee and hips, an awkward motion to master. But then as Neil said, it is a tough pass to defend. Focus on defending the underhook element of the pass.
Rolling with both Neil and his black belt James (from Infinity Martial Arts Chesterfield) was good fun. They both took it fairly easy, letting me work through positions. I was trying the slow motion seoi-nage to avoid James taking my back, lots of gripping and elbow wedging from me to try and avoid his hooks. With Neil, he is not only much better but a lot bigger than me, so he was taking it especially light. Tried to put some of what he had taught into action, such as the knee shield where it's about leaning back with head rather than relying too much on the bracing arm. Another interesting thing he said during drilling, he doesn't rely on that so much from sitting guard, posture should be doing that job. So more like what I've seen from Graugart and I think Scully too?
Tasty pie afterwards, had a great long chat with Neil about UK BJJ history, particularly up North, along with how he and Chad have developed Infinity Martial Arts. Look out for the relevant episode of the Artemis BJJ Podcast, I'll have that up in the next month or two. :)
Artemis BJJ, Neil Owen, Bristol, UK - 18/12/2016
I signed Artemis BJJ up to the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Globetrotters affiliation some time ago, as I like the independence that grants me. Our club is not under anybody other than me, although I'm personally under Kev Capel from RGA Bucks (and have been since 2009). Being part of BJJ Globetrotters has a number of advantages, but perhaps the biggest is networking.
This seminar marks the fruition of that networking, something which is set to continue through into 2017 and beyond. We have already hosted one fellow BJJ Globetrotters instructor, Ana Yagues, but I've known her online for several years due to blogging. Neil Owen is somebody I've never met before, though I was aware of the name due to Brian Lister (a friend from Bullshido, who I met at the Oxford Throwdown a few years back now). In an interesting twist of fate, Neil happens to be the business partner of one of the teachers at the Leuven Globetrotter Camp, Chad Wright, who like me is very active on social media.
Chad sent me a message on Facebook asking if I'd be interested in hosting Neil (they run Infinity BJJ together, mainly based in Australia, but they have expanded to various other countries) for a seminar. Naturally I jumped at the chance: Neil has been training since the mid '90s, among the original pioneers of BJJ in the UK. He has an easy-going personality that meant he was a pleasure to deal with, something that also carries over to his teaching style.
Neil had asked me if there was anything in particular I wanted to work on. If you've been following this blog, you'll know that open guard has been my focus for a couple of years now. I sent Neil the recent sparring videos I've been putting up on Instragram, resulting in one of the most useful seminars I've ever been to. I'm very pleased Neil is going to be coming back (on the 19th March), where we can hopefully do the same thing. :)
The seminar began with a quick demonstration of various passes you might do off a standard kneeling guard break. Grab both their collars with one arm, then raise up very slightly to bring your knee into their bum. Push into their other knee with your arm to open, then move directly into an underhook pass (which Neil calls the 'bully pass').
Your arm goes underneath the leg you didn't push down for a single underhook pass, or swim both arms under for a double underhook pass. Alternatively, you might go for a knee slide, bringing your other knee into their thigh and stepping out with the other leg, then cutting through. If you put the same side shin over their thigh, that leads into the various leg pin pass options.
Should you prefer to stand up after opening their guard, a whole other set of options become available. Grab inside their knees and bullfighter by kicking your leg back and stepping through. Neil's favourite is the over-under pass, which effectively combines the single underhook with a bullfighter variation (as you underhook one one leg, while shoving the other back between your own legs).
We drilled all of those, to get familiar with the passes. That laid the groundwork to then learn how to defend against all those passes. In terms of moving from closed to open guard, put your foot on their hip (not near their hip, their actual hip bone) as soon as they get close to opening your guard. You're cupping their hip bone with the arch of your foot. That provides you with some distance control, along with enough time to shrimp out a little with your other foot. You also want to lean back slightly, to help bring your same side elbow back for base.
Once you've come up on your elbow, insert your free hand deep into their opposite collar. Go from your elbow to your hand, make it easier to shrimp a little more, squaring up to them. You're now ready to establish butterfly guard and go from there, making sure you are wriggling back on your bum to stop them shoving you down.
As Neil then demonstrated, you can use that to block all the passes he showed at the start of the seminar. It was a brilliantly taught sequence with a bunch of great little details. Even better, because it was so well targeted towards my game (given Neil had kindly watched those vids I sent him), this is going to perfectly set me up for both practicing and teaching in February (as that's open guard month). :)
If they bring their hands back to your knees after the guard has been opened and you've set up your open guard, it's likely they are going to stand up. Your basing hand switches to grabbing their same side sleeve. As they stand, swing out your other leg. This means all your grips are down one side of their body: you're grabbing their collar, their sleeve and also pushing into their hip. Neil called this 'classic open guard'.
That position can lead into triangles and omoplatas. You also want to be on your side, maximising the control you have with your grips. If they attempt to pass in that direction, it will be next to impossible for them to pass. If they go the other way, they are chasing your swung-away leg, also leaving their trailing arm vulnerable to the aforementioned omoplata. At any point, you can square back up by bringing that free foot to their hip, arm, chest.
Neil then ran through his theory of pass 'zones'. The bullfighter is out at Zone 3, while the knee slide comes in a little closer at Zone 2. Finally, an underhook pass is Zone 1. The smaller the number, the harder it is to prevent the pass. To succeed in their pass, they need to maintain their grips all the way round. Do not accept side control: if you lose the grip with your foot, you still have the sleeve from earlier. That's enough to recover your guard.
Stiff arm that away from you, returning to a sitting guard position. They cannot pass until they free that arm. Of course, you aren't going to wait there. You'll look to square back up and recover your guard long before they wriggle their arm out of your grip. If they insist on the pass, you might even be able to roll them right over the top. The only downside to this for me is the grip asks a lot of your fingers. I could try it with a pistol grip I guess, that's much easier on the fingers, but also easier to break. Maybe even gripping the wrist, just enough to recover my guard?
From a passing perspective, Neil discussed how you want to separate the elbow and knee. Therefore from the bottom, you're looking to keep those in tight. Hence why some people will work on getting the flexibility to put their knee into their armpits. Progessing to spider guard, if they break off one of your feet grips, swing it straight in to a de la Riva hook. Your same side hand will grab their foot, or the trouser leg. Keep your toes up, pulling your knee in. It's important to pull them in, because as Neil pointed out, the DLR hook only works on a bent leg.
In an effort to pass DLR, they may grab your knee, pushing it down and straightening their arm in the process. Keeping the arm straight, push your bum back to knock off that DLR hook. This puts the passer in Zone 2, ready to go for the knee slide. Do not buckle your knee sideways: step the other leg across, sink down to put your heel right on your butt.
On the bottom looking to recover guard, bring your ex-DLR knee across their hip to block. Neil noted that the important part here is not the knee, it's adjusting your upper body to line up against your knee. In practice, that means bringing your shoulder and head back, putting you almost perpendicular to the passer. Bring your bottom knee out, then square back up to guard.
The next scenario was countering the double underhook pass. They want to control your hips and either take them out of action (getting underneath them) or connect their hands to put those legs on their shoulders. Your defence is the same for both. Immediately grip both their sleeves and flare your legs. Push into their biceps, using that to try and create space by shrimiping. You'll also need to walk backwards on your shoulders.
If they really try to fling your leg, you can switch to the stiff arm into their sleeve, like Neil showed earlier. Should they manage to lock their hands, instead of grabbing their sleeve, stiff arm into the back of their elbow. You can then proceed to recover guard in much the same way as the stiff arm into their sleeve from earlier.
To finish, Neil demonstrated an over under pass, his personal favourite. Essentially, it's a combination of the bullfighter and the underhook pass. He explained how he does not buy into the idea that you can only pass on your feet, a trend which he feels is in part based upon the speed, balance and athleticism of elite competitors rather than the average grappler. He (like me) prefers to be in Zone 1, with a close connection.
Crouch, set, engage, like you're going into a rugby scrum. One arm goes under, the other over, so be careful of the triangle. You must control their bottom leg between your legs, to make certain they can't set up that triangle. Your head goes to their far hip, driving your shoulder across their stomach. You now have the option of either moving into mount or to side control.
As Neil believes this is the best pass, it stands to reason that to counter the over under is difficult. The option he suggested was to grab their armpit on the side their head wants to go. Do that before they get their head in position, keeping your arm tight, which will also block them getting their head to your hip. Twisting your knee inwards and kicking your leg, wriggle your hips out until you can pull your opponent away to your other hip, using your armpit grip. If you have long legs, that becomes much easier, as you can put your foot on the ground. With short legs (like me), you end up manically wriggling your knee and hips, an awkward motion to master. But then as Neil said, it is a tough pass to defend. Focus on defending the underhook element of the pass.
Rolling with both Neil and his black belt James (from Infinity Martial Arts Chesterfield) was good fun. They both took it fairly easy, letting me work through positions. I was trying the slow motion seoi-nage to avoid James taking my back, lots of gripping and elbow wedging from me to try and avoid his hooks. With Neil, he is not only much better but a lot bigger than me, so he was taking it especially light. Tried to put some of what he had taught into action, such as the knee shield where it's about leaning back with head rather than relying too much on the bracing arm. Another interesting thing he said during drilling, he doesn't rely on that so much from sitting guard, posture should be doing that job. So more like what I've seen from Graugart and I think Scully too?
Tasty pie afterwards, had a great long chat with Neil about UK BJJ history, particularly up North, along with how he and Chad have developed Infinity Martial Arts. Look out for the relevant episode of the Artemis BJJ Podcast, I'll have that up in the next month or two. :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)