Teaching #924
Artemis BJJ (Easton Road), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 16/12/2019
Start by flattening out your opponent, driving your free knee into their hip, then walking your trapped leg across. Apply a heavy cross-face: this is absolutely central to the technique. Without a solid cross face, they will be able to turn towards you, perhaps even getting a reversal. If they manage to get an underhook, you'll still need to be wary of getting rolled over: hooking an arm by their leg should block it.
Once you've got that cross-face firmly locked in, you need to adjust your position so you can twist in towards them, bringing your bottom leg into play. You're trying to get your free knee into their hip (sliding underneath your trapped leg). Shift back slightly, in order to make some space in front of their bottom leg: you could also raise up to get that twist, but that's more risky. Shrimping away tends to be securer. Using either the knee or your shin, wedge that against their lower hip. With your free arm, grasp their trouser leg and yank it towards you, in order to open up enough space to free your leg. Ideally you also want to keep your head low and turned towards their legs, to make it harder for them to push into your throat.
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Teaching Notes: Remember to talk about pulling their leg right across, that helps with the leverage. You only need the point of your knee in their hip. Also, get your hip right to the ground, if you're in midair you may not have the necessary weight.
The little shrimp to make space is the best option for inserting your wedge, but raising up isn't awful, just a secondary option. Then for a third and final resort, push with the foot of your bottom leg. The problem there is the difficulty of maintaining your crossface. So yeah, same pointers as last time, keep doing it.
Worth noting that Xande doesn't have a crossface when he shows it, he brings his arm over to the other side, under their armpit. So there are alternatives, check those vids before teaching it again, would be interesting to play with. Still my favourite pass. Is it worth showing with elbow behind the head too? Again, Xande does an entirely different arm drape thing for control rather than crossface.
Showing posts with label achilles lock. Show all posts
Showing posts with label achilles lock. Show all posts
16 December 2019
09 June 2013
09/06/2013 - Tatami Multi Arts (San Francisco, USA)
Class #502
Tatami Multi Arts (BJJ), Dave Shin, El Cerrito, CA, USA - 09/06/2013
I first 'met' Dave on the JiuJitsuForums website a couple of years ago. We've been chatting on the forum, in PMs and on Facebook for a few years now. When he read I was heading to his neck of the woods on my California trip, he immediately suggested meeting up (I'm not the first blogger to have met up with Dave, as Julia also got to train with him during her amazing trip a couple of years ago. Coincidentally, she also recently put up an article based on some of Dave's JJF posts). We had a few drinks at Thirsty Bear in San Francisco, where he mentioned that his friend Adam at Tatami Multi Arts had an open mat the next day, after watching Metamoris II.
It wasn't too difficult to get over to the club from where I was staying in San Francisco. I walked down to the Powell St BART station (if like me you stay at the HI Hostel Downtown, that's the closest one), then bought a $3.95 ticket. The machines randomly go out of order, which was confusing, but buying the ticket is easy enough. The main strange part is that you have to know the value of the ticket beforehand, rather than the usual method of typing in your destination.
I took the train for Pittsburgh/Bay St, then changed at 19th St Station in order to travel towards Richmond (as Dave said in his handy directions, the trains are synchronised, which makes it simple). Getting off at El Cerrito Plaza, I was ready to walk to the club with the GPS on my phone, but Dave was already there waiting for me in his car. He also very kindly lent me a gi (I had my Gimono with me, but it's handy not having to wash it). First time I had worn a Fuji, which always gets good reviews: seemed comfy and I like how plain it is. It was just Dave, Adam and me, resulting in a relaxed open mat where we exchanged a few techniques.
Dave was the most experienced, with 15 years under his brown belt. He wanted to show Adam and I a few 'small guy' techniques (Adam is roughly the same size as me), initially from side control. We started with what I was most interested in, a method for maintaining side control Dave had mentioned at the Thirsty Bear last night, learned from a 130lbs training partner of his.
You're holding side control in the usual way with a cross-face. Bring your chest low to the ground, then aim to slide the upper part of your chest just under the exposed side of their pectoral muscle. Keep sliding forwards, maintaining a crushing pressure. Done right, this makes it hard for them to breathe. The difficulty is finding the right spot. If you think of tectonic plates sliding over each other, it's a bit like that.
Next up was a way of transitioning to knee on belly. From side control, move your arm on top of their throat, gripping the far collar, then shift your hips to point towards their head. This is reminiscent of reverse scarf hold. Your other arm is over by their far hip.
Use that far hand to post slightly, clamping in tight to the hip. Shove your hips into theirs, then pushing off your outside leg, slide your near leg right into knee on belly. Your back, hips and bum are blocking their knee from getting in the way.
Finally, Dave went through a straight ankle lock set-up, moving away from side control. In a guard passing position, you notice they don't have any grips and have a foot on the outside of your hip. Immediately fall back, trapping that foot on the way. Don't telegraph what you're about to do by wrapping up their foot first, or they'll move to prepare their escape.
Once you've fallen back, put your foot on the attacking side on their hip, to prevent them sitting up and coming forward. Your other shin presses into the back of their same side knee, again to stop them sitting up. When you can, shift from using your shin to pushing with your foot.
To attack the ankle, bring your outside arm around it, using your other hand to feed your same side collar to that first hand. Grip as high as you can. You can then twist the blade of your arm into their achilles tendon and lean back for the submission. Dave prefers to just use that collar grip rather than moving into a figure four grip, as he finds having just the one hand their better facilitates cutting into their tendon with the blade of our arm.
Then it was my turn to show some stuff. I picked the guard pass and sweep I've been working on with Dónal: it was handy to try and teach it again (I've taught both at GB Bristol, here and here, in simplified versions) to help me work out the important details. The full write ups are in my private lesson notes, which is split into multiple parts for the pass (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) and just a single entry for the sweep (here).
Sparring was fairly brief, as I needed to get back to my hostel, going a round with Dave and then Adam. Both times the spar went in a fairly similar pattern, which tends to be how a lot of my rolls at drop-ins go. I flopped to my back and worked spider guard, trying to retain my position and also looking for an opportunity to tripod and/or sickle sweep. I almost hit it a couple of times, but made the common error of not coming up fast enough to secure the position.
I briefly went to the running escape when Dave passed, then recovered my guard, but I think that was only because Dave was giong quite light. With Adam, I had a brief pass attempt, but failed to get chest to chest contact. That meant that although I had some control of his arm and was moving round to north south, he had enough space to spin and escape.
It was cool to finally hit the mats in California: thanks again to Adam and Dave for their hospitality! If you want to get in some good training in the El Cerrito area, be sure to check out Tatami Multi Arts. :D
Tatami Multi Arts (BJJ), Dave Shin, El Cerrito, CA, USA - 09/06/2013
I first 'met' Dave on the JiuJitsuForums website a couple of years ago. We've been chatting on the forum, in PMs and on Facebook for a few years now. When he read I was heading to his neck of the woods on my California trip, he immediately suggested meeting up (I'm not the first blogger to have met up with Dave, as Julia also got to train with him during her amazing trip a couple of years ago. Coincidentally, she also recently put up an article based on some of Dave's JJF posts). We had a few drinks at Thirsty Bear in San Francisco, where he mentioned that his friend Adam at Tatami Multi Arts had an open mat the next day, after watching Metamoris II.
It wasn't too difficult to get over to the club from where I was staying in San Francisco. I walked down to the Powell St BART station (if like me you stay at the HI Hostel Downtown, that's the closest one), then bought a $3.95 ticket. The machines randomly go out of order, which was confusing, but buying the ticket is easy enough. The main strange part is that you have to know the value of the ticket beforehand, rather than the usual method of typing in your destination.
I took the train for Pittsburgh/Bay St, then changed at 19th St Station in order to travel towards Richmond (as Dave said in his handy directions, the trains are synchronised, which makes it simple). Getting off at El Cerrito Plaza, I was ready to walk to the club with the GPS on my phone, but Dave was already there waiting for me in his car. He also very kindly lent me a gi (I had my Gimono with me, but it's handy not having to wash it). First time I had worn a Fuji, which always gets good reviews: seemed comfy and I like how plain it is. It was just Dave, Adam and me, resulting in a relaxed open mat where we exchanged a few techniques.
Dave was the most experienced, with 15 years under his brown belt. He wanted to show Adam and I a few 'small guy' techniques (Adam is roughly the same size as me), initially from side control. We started with what I was most interested in, a method for maintaining side control Dave had mentioned at the Thirsty Bear last night, learned from a 130lbs training partner of his.
You're holding side control in the usual way with a cross-face. Bring your chest low to the ground, then aim to slide the upper part of your chest just under the exposed side of their pectoral muscle. Keep sliding forwards, maintaining a crushing pressure. Done right, this makes it hard for them to breathe. The difficulty is finding the right spot. If you think of tectonic plates sliding over each other, it's a bit like that.
Next up was a way of transitioning to knee on belly. From side control, move your arm on top of their throat, gripping the far collar, then shift your hips to point towards their head. This is reminiscent of reverse scarf hold. Your other arm is over by their far hip.
Use that far hand to post slightly, clamping in tight to the hip. Shove your hips into theirs, then pushing off your outside leg, slide your near leg right into knee on belly. Your back, hips and bum are blocking their knee from getting in the way.
Finally, Dave went through a straight ankle lock set-up, moving away from side control. In a guard passing position, you notice they don't have any grips and have a foot on the outside of your hip. Immediately fall back, trapping that foot on the way. Don't telegraph what you're about to do by wrapping up their foot first, or they'll move to prepare their escape.
Once you've fallen back, put your foot on the attacking side on their hip, to prevent them sitting up and coming forward. Your other shin presses into the back of their same side knee, again to stop them sitting up. When you can, shift from using your shin to pushing with your foot.
To attack the ankle, bring your outside arm around it, using your other hand to feed your same side collar to that first hand. Grip as high as you can. You can then twist the blade of your arm into their achilles tendon and lean back for the submission. Dave prefers to just use that collar grip rather than moving into a figure four grip, as he finds having just the one hand their better facilitates cutting into their tendon with the blade of our arm.
Then it was my turn to show some stuff. I picked the guard pass and sweep I've been working on with Dónal: it was handy to try and teach it again (I've taught both at GB Bristol, here and here, in simplified versions) to help me work out the important details. The full write ups are in my private lesson notes, which is split into multiple parts for the pass (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) and just a single entry for the sweep (here).
Sparring was fairly brief, as I needed to get back to my hostel, going a round with Dave and then Adam. Both times the spar went in a fairly similar pattern, which tends to be how a lot of my rolls at drop-ins go. I flopped to my back and worked spider guard, trying to retain my position and also looking for an opportunity to tripod and/or sickle sweep. I almost hit it a couple of times, but made the common error of not coming up fast enough to secure the position.
I briefly went to the running escape when Dave passed, then recovered my guard, but I think that was only because Dave was giong quite light. With Adam, I had a brief pass attempt, but failed to get chest to chest contact. That meant that although I had some control of his arm and was moving round to north south, he had enough space to spin and escape.
It was cool to finally hit the mats in California: thanks again to Adam and Dave for their hospitality! If you want to get in some good training in the El Cerrito area, be sure to check out Tatami Multi Arts. :D
15 April 2008
15/04/2008 - BJJ (Advanced)
Class #137
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK - 15/04/2008 – Advanced
Roger was chatting to Owen, Paxton and I before the lesson, which is always nice. I'm attempting to dissuade Paxton from competing as he's awaiting knee surgery, but then Roger mentioned the other argument that there shouldn't be too much stress on his knee, particularly at white belt, and if he tries to stick to playing from his back. So advice is to give it a week and see: if it was me, I would probably barely even be training, but then I'm terrified of getting an injury that would put me out for a long time. One of the many things that makes me less keen on competing, though I do plan to get back into it next year, hopefully.
Lots of black belts at RGA tonight, which I didn't realise until the end. Aside from Roger and his father Maurição (who just flew in today, I think), there was also Marcio Gomes from GB Brighton, Gustavo, Jude and Braulio Estima. Could be they were there to help with Roger's training before his MMA fight, or perhaps more likely, they're all getting ready for SENI. Either way, cool to have that many big names around.
Technique kicked off with the sweep from last time: I noticed that I'm tending to forget about grabbing the ankle, which is an integral part of the technique, so useful to be able to drill that in.
Jude then followed the sweep by applying an achilles lock. After you've swept them, stand-up and control their foot. This isn't with the figure-four, as that leaves your forearm bone pressing flat rather than digging in with the edge. Instead, Jude suggested bringing one hand over the ankle, grabbing the wrist of your other arm underneath, pressing the edge of your forearm into their achilles tendon.
You then bring your inside knee through their legs and onto their torso, dropping your body in that direction, leading with your same side shoulder. This should cause your partner to come up on their side, whereupon you bring your feet into their stomach to lock up the leg, then arch your back to apply the lock. This is apparently legal in competition, though I doubt I'd try this in competition, as I'd most likely fuck it up under pressure and end up doing something illegal by accident.
That would definitely be the case with the variation Jude showed next. It starts the same way, but this time you don't drop your body to the side. Instead, you go straight forward, then roll with your partner, until your end up again in a position where you've locked up the leg and can arch your back for the sub. I felt nervous about falling forward with somebody's foot trapped in my grip, as it seemed like it could easily go wrong and cause some unpleasant damage. Of course, I'm in no way confident with footlocks, so I'd probably feel the same way no matter how safe they are on paper.
Guard passage started with Christina, where I tried to force myself to stand up more in her guard. She was going easy on me, but I still couldn't get into position for a pass. I ended up crouching, trying to grab an arm and a leg for the "It's me!" pass, but no luck. This has long been a problem for me, and I need to build up confidence when standing up. I also need to push forward with my hips more, and generally watch my base.
Underneath, I continued trying to bring my partner down towards me, then work for the kimura. With Christina, I only get to the "try to bring them down" part, as she inevitably gets her posture up, stands, then passes my feeble open guard. I like the principle of wrapping my foot around their arm, but that isn't enough control, so I need to work on that further. I also need to greatly improve my footwork in open guard, getting onto their hips and off-balancing my partner.
Switching partner, I went with one of my favourite partners, Tanvir. As usual, I went for the kimura, prying the elbow and eventually breaking his grip free to go for the submission. However, I think my technique was kinda sloppy and more down to force, so want to focus in on the proper way to break a grip. I also want to make sure I'm really controlling their shoulder in tight to my body.
Still, I was pleased to then get the reverse kimura too, on the other arm. This is something I wanted to try out from Beneville's The Guard: instead of the usual figure four, you bring same side arm past their armpit, then the opposite arm over the top to grip their wrist. Your first arm grips the bicep of the other, which then puts you in position to apply the submission. Seemed to work ok, though as I'm just going off a book rather than instruction, there's a lot I'm going to be missing, so needs more practice in live rolling.
I wasn't as successful on top, though I did manage a sloppy sprawl pass to get to Tanvir's half guard. I was in definite danger of getting guillotined as I did so: need to control the legs better if I'm going to pass like that, and use my hips better. I should have been able to go straight to side control if I had done it properly.
My first free roll was with Herman, which followed a similar pattern to Tanvir. I again was going for that kimura, which resulted not in a submission, but lots of spinning round instead. I ended up both underneath in guard, in half guard and in side control, still with that kimura grip. Clearly I need to transition better, as I'm getting stuck on the one thing: I haven't really pushed for a sweep in a while, and I haven't tried any other submissions, except the reverse kimura. Chokes would be a good thing to work, so might try those, particularly if I can get some in combination with a sweep.
I also ended up on top in half guard with Herman, and I think in side control once. I tried to step over his head and spin to an armbar (as yet again, I had a kimura grip on the arm), but messed it up and ended up dangling underneath instead. So, broader range of submissions and more sweeps required. Herman is competing at the SENI, and as a fellow small guy doesn't get to try going from on top much, so I said I'd be happy to start in mount or something to give him some practice.
However, that will depend on my neck. I think I hurt something when sparring with Christina, when trying to escape north south. I was playing a lot of open guard again, trying to wrap her arms up with my legs, but ended up under side control. She moved round to north-south, which is probably where I hurt my neck attempting to escape, until she went for the armbar. I followed her up with it and went for the armbar escape, but she most likely would have put the armbar on quicker and harder had she been going full bore.
Another reminder during that spar that I have to be more careful when flailing with my legs. Once again, I fucked up a north-south escape (clearly I have a lot of work to do on those!), and ended up kneeing Christina in the face instead. Not clever, and I hate it when I hurt people, especially when its stupid avoidable stuff like that (though she seemed ok). She later showed me how it should be done, pushing me away with a carefully aimed shove around my clavicle.
Applying my usual "anything hurts, stop" approach, I didn't spar any more after that due to my neck, though I didn't notice just how sore it was until I sat down by the side. Hopefully that rest will mean its ok for tomorrow, but if not, then I guess I can wait til Thursday. I'll definitely be able to help out on the first day of the SENI, so that should be interesting: just need to remember to email Jude. I don't feel qualified to referee or anything, so probably end up doing something menial, or maybe selling stuff. Will see.
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK - 15/04/2008 – Advanced
Roger was chatting to Owen, Paxton and I before the lesson, which is always nice. I'm attempting to dissuade Paxton from competing as he's awaiting knee surgery, but then Roger mentioned the other argument that there shouldn't be too much stress on his knee, particularly at white belt, and if he tries to stick to playing from his back. So advice is to give it a week and see: if it was me, I would probably barely even be training, but then I'm terrified of getting an injury that would put me out for a long time. One of the many things that makes me less keen on competing, though I do plan to get back into it next year, hopefully.
Lots of black belts at RGA tonight, which I didn't realise until the end. Aside from Roger and his father Maurição (who just flew in today, I think), there was also Marcio Gomes from GB Brighton, Gustavo, Jude and Braulio Estima. Could be they were there to help with Roger's training before his MMA fight, or perhaps more likely, they're all getting ready for SENI. Either way, cool to have that many big names around.
Technique kicked off with the sweep from last time: I noticed that I'm tending to forget about grabbing the ankle, which is an integral part of the technique, so useful to be able to drill that in.
Jude then followed the sweep by applying an achilles lock. After you've swept them, stand-up and control their foot. This isn't with the figure-four, as that leaves your forearm bone pressing flat rather than digging in with the edge. Instead, Jude suggested bringing one hand over the ankle, grabbing the wrist of your other arm underneath, pressing the edge of your forearm into their achilles tendon.
You then bring your inside knee through their legs and onto their torso, dropping your body in that direction, leading with your same side shoulder. This should cause your partner to come up on their side, whereupon you bring your feet into their stomach to lock up the leg, then arch your back to apply the lock. This is apparently legal in competition, though I doubt I'd try this in competition, as I'd most likely fuck it up under pressure and end up doing something illegal by accident.
That would definitely be the case with the variation Jude showed next. It starts the same way, but this time you don't drop your body to the side. Instead, you go straight forward, then roll with your partner, until your end up again in a position where you've locked up the leg and can arch your back for the sub. I felt nervous about falling forward with somebody's foot trapped in my grip, as it seemed like it could easily go wrong and cause some unpleasant damage. Of course, I'm in no way confident with footlocks, so I'd probably feel the same way no matter how safe they are on paper.
Guard passage started with Christina, where I tried to force myself to stand up more in her guard. She was going easy on me, but I still couldn't get into position for a pass. I ended up crouching, trying to grab an arm and a leg for the "It's me!" pass, but no luck. This has long been a problem for me, and I need to build up confidence when standing up. I also need to push forward with my hips more, and generally watch my base.
Underneath, I continued trying to bring my partner down towards me, then work for the kimura. With Christina, I only get to the "try to bring them down" part, as she inevitably gets her posture up, stands, then passes my feeble open guard. I like the principle of wrapping my foot around their arm, but that isn't enough control, so I need to work on that further. I also need to greatly improve my footwork in open guard, getting onto their hips and off-balancing my partner.
Switching partner, I went with one of my favourite partners, Tanvir. As usual, I went for the kimura, prying the elbow and eventually breaking his grip free to go for the submission. However, I think my technique was kinda sloppy and more down to force, so want to focus in on the proper way to break a grip. I also want to make sure I'm really controlling their shoulder in tight to my body.
Still, I was pleased to then get the reverse kimura too, on the other arm. This is something I wanted to try out from Beneville's The Guard: instead of the usual figure four, you bring same side arm past their armpit, then the opposite arm over the top to grip their wrist. Your first arm grips the bicep of the other, which then puts you in position to apply the submission. Seemed to work ok, though as I'm just going off a book rather than instruction, there's a lot I'm going to be missing, so needs more practice in live rolling.
I wasn't as successful on top, though I did manage a sloppy sprawl pass to get to Tanvir's half guard. I was in definite danger of getting guillotined as I did so: need to control the legs better if I'm going to pass like that, and use my hips better. I should have been able to go straight to side control if I had done it properly.
My first free roll was with Herman, which followed a similar pattern to Tanvir. I again was going for that kimura, which resulted not in a submission, but lots of spinning round instead. I ended up both underneath in guard, in half guard and in side control, still with that kimura grip. Clearly I need to transition better, as I'm getting stuck on the one thing: I haven't really pushed for a sweep in a while, and I haven't tried any other submissions, except the reverse kimura. Chokes would be a good thing to work, so might try those, particularly if I can get some in combination with a sweep.
I also ended up on top in half guard with Herman, and I think in side control once. I tried to step over his head and spin to an armbar (as yet again, I had a kimura grip on the arm), but messed it up and ended up dangling underneath instead. So, broader range of submissions and more sweeps required. Herman is competing at the SENI, and as a fellow small guy doesn't get to try going from on top much, so I said I'd be happy to start in mount or something to give him some practice.
However, that will depend on my neck. I think I hurt something when sparring with Christina, when trying to escape north south. I was playing a lot of open guard again, trying to wrap her arms up with my legs, but ended up under side control. She moved round to north-south, which is probably where I hurt my neck attempting to escape, until she went for the armbar. I followed her up with it and went for the armbar escape, but she most likely would have put the armbar on quicker and harder had she been going full bore.
Another reminder during that spar that I have to be more careful when flailing with my legs. Once again, I fucked up a north-south escape (clearly I have a lot of work to do on those!), and ended up kneeing Christina in the face instead. Not clever, and I hate it when I hurt people, especially when its stupid avoidable stuff like that (though she seemed ok). She later showed me how it should be done, pushing me away with a carefully aimed shove around my clavicle.
Applying my usual "anything hurts, stop" approach, I didn't spar any more after that due to my neck, though I didn't notice just how sore it was until I sat down by the side. Hopefully that rest will mean its ok for tomorrow, but if not, then I guess I can wait til Thursday. I'll definitely be able to help out on the first day of the SENI, so that should be interesting: just need to remember to email Jude. I don't feel qualified to referee or anything, so probably end up doing something menial, or maybe selling stuff. Will see.
12 July 2007
12/07/2007 - BJJ (No-Gi)
Class #71
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK - 12/07/2007 – No-Gi
My chin has got a bit bashed up recently, and I’ve developed a friction burn, probably from rubbing against my own gi collar. Rather annoying, but at least no-gi meant the friction was a little reduced.
Felipe had to leave before class started, so Jude took over – I thought he’d already gone on holiday, but I guess his flight must be a little later on. We began with double-legs and ‘pummelling’, which I’ve heard of before but not sure if I’ve actually done (if I have, then it would have been years ago at one of the Kevin O’Hagan classes in Bristol). Basically, each person has one arm overhooked around their partner’s arm, while their other arm underhooks in order to grip round the back. Pummeling is where your switch from arm to arm, the eventual aim being to get both underhooks, which enables the takedown.
That takedown is what Jude showed us next. Having got the double underhooks, you pull on the back and push forward with your head, aiming to bend your opponent backwards and thereby knock them off balance. That should make it easy to keep driving and bring them down to the floor. If they manage to resist, you can also hook a leg.
If your opponent simply steps back once you’ve got double-underhooks, that means they’ll now be leaning forward. That is an opportunity to over-balance them in the other direction. In order to do so, you thrust up with your arms and shoulders, then immediately drop down as low as possible, driving through and up for the double leg. As they are already leaning forwards, due to that sudden motion of throwing them up then moving down, they will now lose their balance and therefore can’t offer much resistance. The thrusting upwards also prevents them from getting a guillotine.
Jude then went through a fundamental technique, which also happens to be one I’m very keen to work on – the shrimp escape from mount. Its basic, but there were lots of details I’d been missing. First, you get your elbow into their knee, the other slightly higher up on their other leg, twisting to your side. One of your legs is up by their bum, the other is out straight. This facilitates shrimping out by pushing with your bent leg: your other leg is easier to pull through because you’ve kept it straight. The important point Jude made here was that shrimping is done with the hips, not just the legs. Instead of merely straightening your legs, you should be really driving with your hips: I could immediately see this made a big difference to the escape.
Having pushed the knee out through a combination of your hips and elbow, your knee pops up past theirs. Bring that out, hook their leg, then repeat the process on the other side. Keep going until you’re able to recover guard.
Next, I got my first taste of leg locks in a BJJ class. The achilles lock works off that shrimp escape. Having got to the position where you’re bringing your knee through, lift their leg and push them to the side. Wrap your lifting leg around theirs, then shove them backwards with your foot on their hip. Their ankle is now open to attack – slip your same side wrist tightly under their achilles tendon, aiming to apply pressure with the bony part of your forearm. Grab the wrist of your other arm, putting the hand of that other arm on top of their shin (i.e., a figure four grip). Finally, pull up and back to apply the submission.
The counter to this is to go for your own achilles lock. Once your opponent has managed to start locking your leg, immediately straighten it out. Grab their knee and ankle on the leg pushing against your hip, then push over to the other side of your body. Finally, apply the figure four hold on that leg and apply your own achilles lock. Because their leg is bent and across your body, they can’t straighten it to resist the lock, which you can. Therefore your lock should come on much faster than their’s.
There wasn’t any specific sparring this time round, so we went straight to free sparring. I started off with Leo, who I’d been training with. As usual, he was able to quickly get on top and start moving to north south. I did attempt the mount escape a few times, and also balled up as he tried to transition, which seemed to help a little bit. The lesson on shrimp escapes really helped me clarify the technique in my head, so hopefully I’ll start having more success with it from now on (although I didn’t quite get it against Leo: think I got into half-guard, though).
Christina rolled me about all over the place, though I managed to get in guard a couple of times against her. It was either with her or Leo that I tried escaping the triangle again, but that might have been where Christina caught me with an armbar. Even more so than against Leo, I tried to draw my knees in so I could spin around underneath, but as with Leo only half-worked. Christina had some useful tips about attacking from knees, which was mainly to do with pulling their arm past you and keeping good head control. Alternately, if they have a leg up, you can grab the leg and head and try to sweep them that way.
Finally, I sparred Aika. Unfortunately, she hurt her elbow early on when attempting a single-leg, which ended up with me on top trying to take her back. I think she whacked her elbow on the ground in the process, so we paused for a moment while she checked it out. I did suggest icing it, and wasn’t sure if we should continue or not, but she seemed willing to keep going. I spent most of the spar maintaining mount, keeping an arm underneath Aika’s head with the other free to post, switching as necessary.
I was able to hold that position (though its worth noting that Aika is one of the very few people at RGA who’s significantly smaller than me, which gives me an unfair advantage), but couldn’t take the next step and set-up a submission. A couple of Americana opportunities presented themselves, but I lacked the skill to capitalise. I attempted to avoid the injured elbow, but then stupidly went for an armbar on the wrong arm: very silly. I seem to remember I let go once I realised, or at least I hope so. Aika was icing her elbow afterwards: hopefully didn’t make it any worse than it already was, but that depends on if I released it in time.
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK - 12/07/2007 – No-Gi
My chin has got a bit bashed up recently, and I’ve developed a friction burn, probably from rubbing against my own gi collar. Rather annoying, but at least no-gi meant the friction was a little reduced.
Felipe had to leave before class started, so Jude took over – I thought he’d already gone on holiday, but I guess his flight must be a little later on. We began with double-legs and ‘pummelling’, which I’ve heard of before but not sure if I’ve actually done (if I have, then it would have been years ago at one of the Kevin O’Hagan classes in Bristol). Basically, each person has one arm overhooked around their partner’s arm, while their other arm underhooks in order to grip round the back. Pummeling is where your switch from arm to arm, the eventual aim being to get both underhooks, which enables the takedown.
That takedown is what Jude showed us next. Having got the double underhooks, you pull on the back and push forward with your head, aiming to bend your opponent backwards and thereby knock them off balance. That should make it easy to keep driving and bring them down to the floor. If they manage to resist, you can also hook a leg.
If your opponent simply steps back once you’ve got double-underhooks, that means they’ll now be leaning forward. That is an opportunity to over-balance them in the other direction. In order to do so, you thrust up with your arms and shoulders, then immediately drop down as low as possible, driving through and up for the double leg. As they are already leaning forwards, due to that sudden motion of throwing them up then moving down, they will now lose their balance and therefore can’t offer much resistance. The thrusting upwards also prevents them from getting a guillotine.
Jude then went through a fundamental technique, which also happens to be one I’m very keen to work on – the shrimp escape from mount. Its basic, but there were lots of details I’d been missing. First, you get your elbow into their knee, the other slightly higher up on their other leg, twisting to your side. One of your legs is up by their bum, the other is out straight. This facilitates shrimping out by pushing with your bent leg: your other leg is easier to pull through because you’ve kept it straight. The important point Jude made here was that shrimping is done with the hips, not just the legs. Instead of merely straightening your legs, you should be really driving with your hips: I could immediately see this made a big difference to the escape.
Having pushed the knee out through a combination of your hips and elbow, your knee pops up past theirs. Bring that out, hook their leg, then repeat the process on the other side. Keep going until you’re able to recover guard.
Next, I got my first taste of leg locks in a BJJ class. The achilles lock works off that shrimp escape. Having got to the position where you’re bringing your knee through, lift their leg and push them to the side. Wrap your lifting leg around theirs, then shove them backwards with your foot on their hip. Their ankle is now open to attack – slip your same side wrist tightly under their achilles tendon, aiming to apply pressure with the bony part of your forearm. Grab the wrist of your other arm, putting the hand of that other arm on top of their shin (i.e., a figure four grip). Finally, pull up and back to apply the submission.
The counter to this is to go for your own achilles lock. Once your opponent has managed to start locking your leg, immediately straighten it out. Grab their knee and ankle on the leg pushing against your hip, then push over to the other side of your body. Finally, apply the figure four hold on that leg and apply your own achilles lock. Because their leg is bent and across your body, they can’t straighten it to resist the lock, which you can. Therefore your lock should come on much faster than their’s.
There wasn’t any specific sparring this time round, so we went straight to free sparring. I started off with Leo, who I’d been training with. As usual, he was able to quickly get on top and start moving to north south. I did attempt the mount escape a few times, and also balled up as he tried to transition, which seemed to help a little bit. The lesson on shrimp escapes really helped me clarify the technique in my head, so hopefully I’ll start having more success with it from now on (although I didn’t quite get it against Leo: think I got into half-guard, though).
Christina rolled me about all over the place, though I managed to get in guard a couple of times against her. It was either with her or Leo that I tried escaping the triangle again, but that might have been where Christina caught me with an armbar. Even more so than against Leo, I tried to draw my knees in so I could spin around underneath, but as with Leo only half-worked. Christina had some useful tips about attacking from knees, which was mainly to do with pulling their arm past you and keeping good head control. Alternately, if they have a leg up, you can grab the leg and head and try to sweep them that way.
Finally, I sparred Aika. Unfortunately, she hurt her elbow early on when attempting a single-leg, which ended up with me on top trying to take her back. I think she whacked her elbow on the ground in the process, so we paused for a moment while she checked it out. I did suggest icing it, and wasn’t sure if we should continue or not, but she seemed willing to keep going. I spent most of the spar maintaining mount, keeping an arm underneath Aika’s head with the other free to post, switching as necessary.
I was able to hold that position (though its worth noting that Aika is one of the very few people at RGA who’s significantly smaller than me, which gives me an unfair advantage), but couldn’t take the next step and set-up a submission. A couple of Americana opportunities presented themselves, but I lacked the skill to capitalise. I attempted to avoid the injured elbow, but then stupidly went for an armbar on the wrong arm: very silly. I seem to remember I let go once I realised, or at least I hope so. Aika was icing her elbow afterwards: hopefully didn’t make it any worse than it already was, but that depends on if I released it in time.
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