21/06/2008 - Belfast Throwdown II

Belfast Throwdown II, Bullshido, Queens University Belfast, UK – 20-22/06/2008

Once again, I flew out from Birmingham International to Belfast International with bmibaby: about £70 total, though that's with no extras ('extras' for these super cheap flights meaning stuff that used to be included, like luggage – I only took hand luggage). They do an online check-in thing which is pretty handy: you tick a few boxes, choose your seat, then print out your boarding card. That means you can then basically walk straight onto the plane after going through security. No delays with the flight this year, then headed into the city with the frequent 300 Airport Express (out the airport, over the zebra crossing, then the stop is to your left: £9 return, which you can buy from the bus driver). Takes about 40 minutes to get to the Europa Buscentre, which as you'd expect is right in the middle of Belfast.

Mark and Aisling were in Dublin getting Mark's new house sorted, so wouldn't be back until the evening. As I arrived fairly early, that meant I had plenty of time to check out the Northern Irish capital. My girlfriend, who is part-Northern Irish herself, recommended doing a tour round the City Hall, but unfortunately that was closed for refurbishment. So was the Ulster Museum, which would have been my next choice, but that still left me with plenty of art galleries to choose from.

I'm not normally a fan of modern art, as I tend to go for the kind of painting you can see in my blog background, but the Ormeau Baths Gallery turned out to be pretty cool. It’s a short walk from the Europa Bus Centre: I went via the City Hall, where Linenhall Street goes straight to it.

The Ormeau Baths Gallery is free, and had two exhibitions on when I went. First, there was a display by the Chapman Brothers, called 'My Giant Colouring Book'. That's based on the innovative idea of taking a children's colouring book, then basically painting lots of bizarre imagery over the top, often rather macabre. For example, there's a teddy bear with shorn-off limbs, an open rib cage with the intestines hanging out, along with fangs and a partially melted face. An interesting - if slightly disturbing - contrast with the original, innocent join-the-dots picture. That's a touring exhibition, so may be coming to a gallery near you if you fancy checking it out.

Sue Williams fills up the rest of the space, with her 'Small Talk, High Heels', also a touring exhibition. According to the leaflet by the door, that is "concerned with perceptions of women, with gender roles and sexual power relations", which immediately appealed to my feminist impulses. Most of the work seems to be a woman (perhaps the artist) in various sexually provocative poses, but the large installation upstairs struck me as a bit more polemical. I'm not entirely certain what she was trying to say, but there was definitely a feeling of strong narrative across a bunch of scrawled pictures with bits of text scribbled across them.

Most of the galleries in Belfast were closed by 17:00, so I needed to think of something else to do. Eventually, I ended up taking the somewhat less culturally edifying option of going to see The Incredible Hulk at the Movie House. For anyone frustrated by Ang Lee's lumbering attempt at injecting some arthouse into the comic book genre, this film will come as a considerable relief: Ed Norton goes green and starts smashing things during the opening credits. ;)

So, to get to what I assume anyone reading this is actually interested in: rolling around with sweaty men and women. The turn-out for the throwdown, held the next day, was pretty small. Last year we managed a whole four people from Bullshido (including Mark and I), which in 2008 dropped to three (again including Mark and I, plus his girlfriend, so not much in the way of internetty people).

However, also like last year, that didn't matter, because the numbers were made up by Mark's training partners: Olga, Peter and Waqi all showed up from the QUB BJJ club. I again got to roll with Mark and Waqi, and also had the chance to roll with Ais: pretty cool, as she's both a pro MMA fighter and a BJJ purple belt. I approached sparring as I normally do in class, trying to work my open guard, but ending up underneath in side control most of the time. As we were going to a gi seminar later on, this was all nogi.

I got in a bit of drilling before the sparring kicked off, running through some mount escapes and guard passes with John, Mark's housemate. He is a ninjitsu guy rather than BJJ, so I wanted to see if I could get him interested in something with a bit more aliveness. In keeping with that ideology, I ran through the drill with progressive resistance, ending up with Mark trying to escape as I adjusted my mount on top. He's got a fair bit of size on me, so hopefully the fact I was able to maintain my position as he struggled to throw me off might lead to him popping down to a BJJ class. Of course, to each their own, but I can't help doing a bit of BJJ preaching when I get the opportunity. ;)

With Mark, I again found the main thing I need to do is raise up more in open guard. I keep staying too flat on my back, which makes me much easier to pass. Mark mentioned that Caiomhe, one of his training partners (who unfortunately couldn't make it today: shame, as she's a high-level purple belt), will sometimes sit up and grab the leg. That's something I haven't tried from open guard, so worth a go. Mark later choked me out from the back: he frequently uses a body triangle, so I was even more at a loss than usual in terms of my escape options.

I also found myself getting arm-triangled a few times from under side control and half guard, so need to watch I don't let my arm get stuck on the wrong side of their head. That normally happens when I'm trying to push myself into a better bracing position, but either misjudge things or get squeezed into a bad position. I have to stay aware of that, keeping a close eye when my partner starts to try and knock my arm with their head.

Something similar happened with Waqi. I was getting repeatedly guillotined because of how Waqi was able to control my arm and bump me into position. Reminding me once again how I'd definitely train at QUB if I lived in Belfast, Waqi then immediately demonstrated exactly what he did, describing it as a 'Gorillatine', if I heard him correctly.

Basically, that’s a guillotine from butterfly guard. First you overhook one arm, underhooking the arm. Move round to one side, releasing your far hook to put your hand behind you (in order to facilitate your motion to the side). You can now grab their far arm, pull it towards you to prevent them posting out, then lift them with your near butterfly hook for the sweep.

If they realise what you're trying to do, your partner will normally try to block you at this point by posturing up. That sets them up for a guillotine. Instead of grabbing their far arm, you can now wrap it over and around their neck. Its important to stay up on your side, maintaining your far butterfly hook. Secure your guillotine grip and switch to half-guard (hooking their near leg), staying up on your side. To get the submission, arch back (not into the floor: remember, you need to be up on your side, so go straight backwards from that position).

Your partner may be wise to your attempt, or perhaps have a strong neck. If they resist and you can't finish the guillotine, then instead of going to half-guard to finish, you're going to use that butterfly hook you have on the far leg. Flick them over, where you can finish the guillotine from on top: that is going to be very tough for them to resist, or as Waqi put it, "we've lost cabin pressure". :p

I managed to do something to my hand when drilling the butterfly guard stuff with Waqi, presumably from posting out at an awkward angle at the wrong time. I think I've done that before, so will have to be extra careful next time I'm in a similar position: pretty silly to injure myself in drilling! That meant I waited a bit before my final spar with Ais, but didn't seem to be much of a problem when rolling.

I found it difficult to raise up in guard, as Ais was able to keep me at bay with her arms: one on my hip, the other pressing into my throat. I eventually ended up in half-guard, and I also got the Tran side control escape at one point (bridging into them when they try to bring the leg over to mount). I grabbing the leg from open guard too, thinking of what Mark had said earlier, but Ais seized the opportunity to take my back and choke me out.

Like Waqi, Ais then also gave me some technical tips, this time defence against the rear naked choke. She demonstrated what she called the 'Shirley Temple' defence: you bring your hands to either side of your face, cupping your jaw line, elbows in tight. From there, work your way down from between their arms, move around their leg, then drive through to end up on top.

Like last year, it was almost entirely a BJJ open mat, especially as we were actually just using the QUB BJJ open mat session. Ais and Mark did a bit of MMA sparring, but they were the only ones doing anything non-BJJ (well, apart from John going through some ninjitsu kata, randomly). After a shower and popping down to the shop to get a bite to eat, we jumped in a taxi to Gracie Barra Northern Ireland, where Vitor Estima was holding a gi seminar.

18/08/2007 - Belfast Throwdown

Belfast Throwdown, Bullshido, Birmingham, UK – 17-19/08/2007

I flew in from Birmingham International to Belfast International on the Friday evening – should have arrived at 18:00, but various delays meant I eventually arrived more like 20:00. At first I wasn’t sure how to get the ticket for the bus, as the desk saying ‘buy tickets here’ helpfully wasn’t staffed, but I noticed a poster saying you could get them from the driver. The stop is just outside the airport, over the road and to the left. Return to Belfast is £9, taking between 30 to 40 minutes: Europa Buscentre is normally the stop you want.

Das Moose (Mark), Megalef (Johannes) and adouglasmhor (Dougie) were waiting for me at the bus station, though I somehow managed to walk past them…twice. Ahem. Anyway, once we managed to notice eachother, went back to Mark’s place and watched the awesomeness that is Flash Gordon. Forgot how kick-ass that fabulous exercise in camp really is (in fact, I think I can safely say its pretty much the epitome of camp) – been far too long since I last saw it.

I’d not quite shaken off my flu (or whatever it was) at this point, so had been taking it easy with the drinking. Still didn’t feel 100% on Saturday, but turned out I was sufficiently well to make it through the throwdown. Having got to the sports centre at Queen’s University, things kicked off with a warm-up and some very light rolling while everyone was still arriving. I played open guard with Johannes: he refrained from thoroughly squashing me, as we were only going very light. So, mainly ended up with me bouncing around on the floor by his legs, trying to pull him into guard.

Once everybody arrived (about 10 or 12, I think: will have to check the photos when they pop up), Mark organised some MMA sparring, of which there is plenty of video here on the thread. Mark fought pretty much everyone, Johannes also getting in on the action. There is one especially excellent video involving a slam that we’re waiting to augment with some suitable music: provided much entertainment watching it later, so hopefully I can whip up something half-decent.

There were only the four of us from Bullshido, so attendance was mostly made up by Gracie Barra Northern Ireland, along with a few other guys Mark knows. Ciaran and I partnered up for a no-gi spar, in which Ciaran went fairly easy on me. He’s got about 20kg and plenty more experience than me, but proved to be a really good training partner. Got armbarred early on (as per video), then fell into the usual pattern of wriggling about under side control or mount, trying to get to half guard and then full guard. At one point I seem to remember reversing and passing, but can’t quite remember how, so I think that was down to a combination of Ciaran not squashing me and luck. Felt like a fairly long spar, although its often hard to judge – a couple of minutes can feel like 10. The video is of the first part.

I couldn’t get anywhere with the stack pass, as I had trouble doing the actual stacking part, which meant I couldn’t get close enough to get a grip on their head. I also noticed how much easier it is to escape in no-gi due to sweat and the lack of grips. In Ciaran’s guard, I found it simpler than usual to pull out from triangle and armbar attempts because of sweat, though again as he was going light, might be that he was leaving more space than normal. Afterwards Ciaran complimented me on my movement, which was nice of him, though I didn’t feel I did anything more than damage limitation.

Had a good chat with Ciaran following our spar, in the course of which he showed me a handy looking technique he called the windscreen wiper sweep. When they’ve postured up, you grab their arm and opposite knee, shifting slightly in the direction of that arm. If they have the opposite elbow flared out, move your same side leg up their body, hooked round, keeping it fairly relaxed but still firm. That leg goes all the way up and then over, like a windscreen wiper, eventually rolling them to the side so you come up in mount. Not sure I’ve quite remembered that correctly, so will see if I get a chance to ask someone at RGA.

Thoroughly knackered after what at least felt like a long spar, I got scribbling down my notes as usual. Turned out there wasn’t all that much time left by this point, so I got in two spars before time ran out. First was with a very experienced blue belt (more than six years of training, if I heard him right), Waqi. Again, went fairly easy on me, and again proved a good teacher. As before I was mainly underneath and trying to go for half guard. Going for their far leg got some results, as did something I saw Johannes do earlier, which was to cross your right leg over both your left leg and their leg, then use your two legs to scoop their one into half guard. Of course, my attempt was very sloppy, as I was trying to imitate something I didn’t quite understand. Waqi advised me to be careful under side control, as I put myself in a very vulnerable position. In an attempt to go for his legs, I was bunched up on my side, which meant it was a simple matter for Waqi to mount. That position is something I should only use briefly, as part of shrimping out in both directions to recover guard. As you can see in the videos, Waqi was also letting me go to side control a few times while turned on his side, but I wasn't able to do much with it: tried feeding my arms through (we've been shown a choke from this position, but totally forgot how to do it), but didn't get anywhere. He also showed me a technique where you tie up the far arm, then move round maintaining that hold and switch to a kimura: didn't quite understand it though, and unfortunately not in the vid. Finally, I rolled with Mark, and again tried to pull guard. I ended up starting in open guard trying to hook a leg, then getting squashed in side control. I managed to escape…then fell straight into a triangle. That was to be a recurring theme, as the same thing happened when I escaped with a single leg, as well as trying to get out of an armbar. Suffice to say, Mark really likes triangles! In the video, you can see him do that technique with a set up from when I post out to avoid being swept - similar to the position where you can go for a kimura after a failed sit-up sweep. That also meant he had lots of good tips for the technique. To triangle from guard, Mark advised starting by grabbing your shin, in what I think is rubber guard (there’s video of both my spar with Mark and the many triangles he either attempted or got on other people, so can check those to be sure). Pull their arm across, then step off their hip, keeping your knees tight at all times. Get your other leg over, then if I’ve got the order right, underhook their leg to pull yourself round (further tightening the triangle, as well as giving the option of an armbar). Squeeze your knees and hips, pulling down on their head if you’re still having trouble. I couldn’t get the sub when drilling with Conor (yet another friendly example of Mark’s training partners), though I did get it to work on Mark. He also mentioned that if they get their elbow out to the wrong side, cup it with both hands and yank it right over. Checking further on triangle details with Ciaran, there is apparently some controversy over whether its best to post on the hip or on the floor – would seem both function ok. Generally I think I need to work on moving from half guard to full guard, rather than just kind of sitting there not entirely sure what to do (see second vid with Mark). I’ve been shown several sweeps, but under pressure only remember part of them – hence why in some of the videos you can see me going for someone’s foot but do nothing once I’ve got it, or bridge a few times without getting anywhere. Would also be good to give triangle from guard a go, though I still don’t really want to get into submission attempts too much before I feel confident in my escapes. The plan is get competent in fundamental defence and position, as then I’ll be able to attack in the knowledge that if I fuck up, I can recover quickly.

I cunningly left before the group pic, after which we popped back to Mark’s for a shower and to watch the vids. For the rest of the day, it seemed we were being chased around town by hen nights in pink stretch limos, pink stretch hummers, and even pink fire engines. We decided it must have been Johannes’ Swedish good looks drawing them in, so eventually hid in the pub (where Johannes was less successful with the bouncers, though they were soon placated by Dougie). The Bullshido contingent left the next day. No delays on the way back, though forgot there are normally replacement buses on Sundays. Belfast is clearly an awesome place to have a throwdown – as Mark is going to be at uni for ages, look forward to many more!

[I returned to Belfast for another throwdown in 2008]