23/08/2017 - BJJ Globetrotter Camp | Heidelberg 2017 | Arm Triangles (Lilo Asensi)

Class #884
BJJ Globetrotter Camp (Olympiastützpunkt Rhein-Neckar) Lilo Asensi, Heidelberg, Germany, 23/08/2017

Lilo's class the morning after her first was on arm triangles. They are framing into your neck, pushing slightly. Make a 'v' with your hand (useful tip from Jeff Knight here), creating a firm wedge. Put that just under their elbow, then use the force vector (thanks Josh!) to drive it across. As soon as you have that arm across, jam your ear into their arm. Bring your other arm around their neck, then on that other side, push your shoulder into their neck too, everything tight (a tip from Daniel Bertina this time, who was being Lilo's uke).

A post shared by Can (Jun) (@slideyfoot) on Aug 23, 2017 at 3:54am PDT

Wriggle your legs over to the other side, then move round to a perpendicular position. Slide your hips down into the choke. If they block, you can move to the back. You have their neck in the crook of your elbow. Lift them up and transfer your arms, then adjust into that arm triangle again. If you are going for leg drag but they push into shoulder, you can knock the arm, slide down into the choke. If they press into the other shoulder, you can jump into an armbar, hooking your foot into their armpit. If you have them in closed guard, you can sit right up and put on the arm triangle grip, or maybe do it from lower. Then butterfly hook, knock them over to mount and back to the arm triangle.

05/09/2011 - Q & A at Gracie Barra Bristol

Class #417
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Nicolai 'Geeza' Holt, Bristol, UK - 05/09/2011

As some of you may know, I write the team history articles for Jiu Jitsu Style magazine. So far, I've been running through the major teams in a vaguely chronological fashion. However, I'm soon going to get to a point where I'm not completely certain of the dates: it doesn't matter all that much which order I do them in, but it did make me wonder what the exact dates were. That's why I thought I'd start compiling a BJJ Team Index. That should help me work out which team to do next. Ideally, I'd also be able to indicate all the connections somehow (e.g., Alliance > Brasa > Atos), but I haven't worked out the best way to lay it out yet on a spreadsheet. If you can help with clarifying any of the info, or adding more teams, let me know. :)

I also managed to add that Facebook 'like' button at the bottom of each post in my blog, which I've been wondering how to do. There is a relatively simple tutorial here, which worked for me (though note that the initial version of the code will mean it only appears in individual posts: if you want it on the home page of your blog, like I've set it up, scroll further down into that guy's post, where he tells you how).

I managed to get myself sun-burned all across my back and shoulders during the Weymouth trip last week, mainly due to building sand castles and digging big holes in the beach (yes, I am five ;p). That meant I wasn't planning to go to BJJ tonight, as abrasive gi + sun burn tends to = lots of pain. However, in the text message Geeza sends out before every lesson, he said that tonight it was Q & A. I remember the last time he ran one of those, and it was awesome. Hence sun-burn or not, I wanted to be there.

Geeza kicked off by answering Guy's question about wristlocks. Geeza started by discussing wristlock defence. His central point was that in essence, it is quite easy. You just make a tight fist with your hand, which is almost impossible to wrist lock. You're still at risk if you're gripping a gi with your fist, as you will often have a few fingers extended in the course of making a grip. Hence why in terms of avoiding wristlocks, it is safer to grip really, really tight.

Geeza also showed some basic wristlock attacks, starting with side control. If they are swimming for underhook to begin their escape, that's a perfect moment to go for a wristlock. Immobilise their arm by grabbing the elbow and slipping your other hand over their bicep. You need to time it so that you can press your weight down on the back of their hand, before they can wriggle it into a safer position. From there, simply shift your weight so that you're driving into their knuckles and bending their hand towards their forearm.

You can also do several things from within a triangle, because the arm is isolated. That makes it vulnerable to a bent armlock (pull on the wrist to bring it to either side of your body), an armbar, or a wristlock. Geeza's wristlock involved pressing on the back of their hand with both thumbs and twisting it slightly. If anyone is interested in wristlocks for BJJ, I'd recommend checking out Roy Dean's Art of the Wristlock.

The second question for the opening hour of the question and answer session was how to get out of what I think Geeza called a side choke, which I'd refer to as an arm triangle. Begin by trapping their arm next to their head, using your own head to lock it in place. It is key that their arm is pressing into their neck: you're going to be using that to block off one side.

Bring your arm on the other side underneath their head: this is what will block off the other side. Link your hands together, moving to side control, pressing a knee into their back. Your other leg is out for base. From here, gradually sink down with your hips, squeezing your elbows together. That should eventually result in a choke.

To escape the arm triangle, roll towards the open side. Your aim is to make a little bit of space, so that you're no longer in immediate danger of being choke. From there, bridge and bring your trapped arm out and around their head, so that it is no longer pressing into your neck. Be careful though, as if you put an arm on the far side of their head, they can trap it and start moving for a north-south kimura.

Finally for the beginner class, Geeza answered a question from Arnaud about finishing off armbars from mount when they have their hands locked together. Geeza responded with a strategic method, which wears them out before breaking the grip. You are about the sink the armbar, but they have managed to lock their hands. Reach through to grab their belt, palm up.

With your other hand (nearest their legs), grab their trouser leg. Lean towards that leg, which will make them sit up. Let them come up slightly, then push down on neck with your leg. Keep doing it to soften them up, then eventually move your hand from their leg to under their wrist, and break their grip.

I had texted a question earlier, which Geeza told me he'd cover at the start of the advanced class. I needed to leave after that, so for the sparring that always opens the advanced classes, I did a bit of guard passage with one of the children (I was being wimpy due to my sunburn.) Given that I was rolling with a small child, I had a chance to practice my teaching, as I tried to coach him through a guard pass. I'm not sure if I've worked out the right balance between encouraging children and providing enough resistance for them to have a meaningful spar, but good to get a chance to build my experience doing that.

Onto my question. For the next three weeks, I'm going to be teaching back mount, in my usual maintaining, escaping and attacking pattern. As the attacking lesson is the one I'm most keen to get right (as I've arranged for my girlfriend and one of her female friends to attend that night), I wanted to ask a question about entries into the rear naked choke

I was specifically interested in a way of getting to the neck without being nasty. Geeza's 'nice' option was to use the gi instead. Rather than a typical rear naked choke, work the gi collar across their neck (easier than arm, as it is much thinner), then you can do a variation on the RNC where you pull on their gi with one hand, threading the other between their arm and head.

A less pleasant option is to make a fist with your index finger slightly raised, then rub that along where their jaw line starts, working it under their neck. This is particularly effective if you do it on both sides at the same time. I'm uncomfortable with the nastiness, as I'm a big believer in Saulo's mantra of "treating your training partner like your best friend", but if you're happy to use the jaw dig, it does work.

08/05/2010 - BJJ (Advanced)

Class #309
Gracie Barra Birmingham, (BJJ), Chiu Kwong Man, Birmingham, UK - 08/05/2010

I don't normally have a weekend free, but it was handy I did today, as I wasn't able to go to training on Monday. My normal pattern is shaping up to be Monday and Wednesday advanced gi from 19:00-20:30, or failing that, either a beginner class from 19:30-20:30 on Tuesday or the advanced gi class on Saturday from 13:30-15:00.

Class was taught by Braulio's first black belt, Chiu Kwong Man. He's been present at a few of the other classes I've attended, but this is the first time I've had a chance to see how he runs a class. Like Rob, Chiu moves into stand-up after the warm-up, starting with some light resistance grip fighting. After that, we were supposed to practice an entry into a takedown for several minutes.

As I doubt very much I would ever be able to take anyone down, I thought I'd try something with applications on the ground too, an arm drag. I never remember to try these, so it was useful to have a play with it. I was initially just holding the sleeve, pulling it towards me, then grabbing and yanking past their armpit on the tricep, based on what I remembered from Roy Dean's best release to date, No Gi Essentials. Roy suggests that drilling the armdrag from standing is a good way to learn principles which also apply to the ground, hence why I wanted to try it.

As I'm not confident with the technique, I asked Chiu for some arm drag advice. He suggested that from standing, it was possible to do the arm drag like I had been, but unlikely my opponent would give me that grip. It would be more typical that they establish a grip on my lapel, up near my neck. In that situation, the arm drag makes more sense on the other arm: if they maintain their grip and you get to their back, that just makes it easier to choke them.

Groundwork began with a transition from side control to mount. You secure a tight side control, with your arm under their head, reaching to grip their far shoulder. Your other arm will be over to that far side, going under their arm. Clear their elbow on the near side, then pull them in tight towards your knee, by dragging on their far shoulder. This should force their head to face away from you, and because you also have their elbow, it will be tough for them to turn.

That hand you have under their far arm is now going to walk up past their head. You want to get their arm up high, until you can use your head to press that arm into their face. This should provide sufficient distraction for you to slide your knee through to get into mount. You can also press on their hip with the sole of your foot to stretch them out, securing a better position against their arm with your head.

I got a little confused during the arm triangle from side control which followed, but from what I understood, from that previous position you bring the hand that walked up under their head. Your head wriggles against their arm as you bring your shoulder down (in the direction of their legs), still staying tight. The reason for this is that their arm is currently too high to be part of a choke: you need to get it lower, by their neck.

Once you've got it against their neck, you can slide off mount to the other side. This is where I had problems, as what you're supposed to do is keep that hand under their head, palm on the floor. The choke comes from wriggling down and getting the shoulder back, then creating pressure as you sprawl next to them. I found that difficult, so definitely need more practice.

Alternatively, you can go for a standard arm triangle position, using the hand under their head to grab your other bicep. You can then get into a rear naked choke position, pressing the bicep arm on their head to create the necessary pressure. I've also been taught in the past that you can grab your own head with the bicep arm, but Chiu recommended the RNC choke style grip.

Sparring started with Pete, my training partner for today: he's one of several blue belts I'm getting to know over the course of the last few weeks. I was keen to practice spider guard, having seen an interesting instructional by Braulio, but unfortunately I couldn't get into the position I wanted after pulling butterfly guard. Instead, I ended up under side control yet again. I need to be less obsessive about getting that perfect grip, and remember the basic foot-in-bicep option.

However, because I had my leg around that arm, I thought I might be able to move into a triangle. I spent a good chunk of the roll trying to wiggle into the right place, but couldn't get the angle (unsurprising, given being under side control is not a great place to try submissions). I had the arm between my legs and his head was low, so the triangle was the preferable option, but I was also looking out for an armbar, without any luck.

Naturally I was trying to escape too: I think I need to re-emphasise my previous habit of using the 'ball', where you get your knees tight to your chest. Possibly because I wasn't using that enough, I felt as if it was easier to pass my guard today.

Next up was Chiu: its always cool to roll with black belts, as they are pretty much guaranteed to give you good advice afterwards. Obviously I was getting tapped all over the place, mainly by the very techniques Chiu had just taught. Generally, I need to watch my arms and neck, though I was remembering to fight for that elbow by the neck as well as the hip, like Rob suggested after I rolled with him.

Chiu also noted that I need to be careful where I put my feet. I could see he was manoeuvring me into footlocks, looking to slip my foot under his arm, and managed to pop free a few times by pushing on his other hip. However, he still got the hold he wanted anyway, on the other foot, so a handy reminder that I must be vigilant about footlocks. While I don't use them myself, I am keen to improve my defences for when other people try them.

I might be training again tomorrow at Warwick Uni, because Adam from the judo club mentioned on Facebook that they have a nogi groundwork session at 17:00. Hopefully that will all work out, as it sounded intriguing, as much as I'm not overly keen on no gi.

26/01/2010 - BJJ (Advanced)

Class #280



RGA High Wycombe, (BJJ), Kev Capel, High Wycombe, UK - 26/01/2010

Not content with being one of the greatest bloggers to ever sit behind a keyboard, Matt from Martial Farts has now set his sights on mastering the video camera too. He's been doing his Grappling Dummies series for a while, but the latest edition reached even higher levels of awesome than normal. Documentaries, humour, sparring, even techniques (and as this is Japan, crazy spinning is of course involved).

Kev continued with side control, adding in some interesting submission options. First, the arm triangle. You start in side control, then move round to north-south. As you do, catch under their elbow with your own, prying the arm free. You can then use your continuing motion to push their arm over their neck, trapping it with your body weight.

Keep going until you end up directly opposite where you started. They should now have their arm right over their neck, closing off one side. Bring your arm under their head to close off the other side, lock your hands and squeeze. If that doesn't get them to tap, slide your knee over to move into a tight mount.

Retaining your arm's position under their head, your can now bring your other arm over their neck and squeeze, in a sort of reverse RNC. Alternatively, you could reach that other arm to grip behind your own head and squeeze. Finally, if none of that is working, step off mount to the other side. Their arm should now be very tight around their neck, which will hopefully get you that tap.

The second was a simpler, and rather sneakier, lapel choke. You're in side control, with a cross-face: this is important, as the technique won't work without it. Pull out one side of your gi, then feed the lapel to your cross-facing hand. Pull that tight against their neck. You now move round as if you were going to north south, but instead you're going to stay alongside them, facing their legs. Straighten your cross-facing arm against their head, then keep moving until they tap. If for some reason they aren't tapping, you can flip over to increase the pressure, your feet on the other side of your partner.

Sparring was quite fun, as I was with a white belt around my size. Unusually, Kev did extra-long specific sparring from side control, with ten minute rounds. On top, I got to try out various techniques, including my favourite attacking position from side control: the step over triangle (or at least that's how I refer to it).

If you don't know what the hell that is, then Matt to the rescue, as his awesome video features Ishikawa Yuki teaching that very technique (in surprisingly good English, around the 18:33 mark). I first learned it from Felipe, though the kimura on the triangled arm Ishikawa adds here is something I haven't seen before.

I also attempted to do something I saw on the Mundials 2009 DVD set, where the idea is to use your knee to push them on their side, then thread your arm through their legs before stepping over to mount. Looking again at the video, I can see what I did wrong: Shawn Williams leaves his arm threaded, then moves his knee to their back. From there, he can slide the knee over, keeping their legs trapped with his arm. I was trying to step over with my body by the legs, which was silly.

Underneath side control, I played around with the armbar, but left way too much space. There was then a single five minute round of free sparring at the end, sticking with the same partner. That meant I could continue trying things out, beginning with a sit-up sweep to mount, then finally landing the Ezequiel choke from there. However, I think I may have been raising up too much, so someone with more experience may well have escaped at that point (not to mention all the blue belts see this choke coming a mile off, so I still need to disguise it better).

03/11/09 - BJJ (Advanced)

Class #258



RGA High Wycombe, (BJJ), Kev Capel, High Wycombe, UK - 03/11/2009

Kev has officially instituted thirty minutes on takedowns at the start of every advanced lesson on Thursdays. That's good news for people keen on competition or self-defence, less good for wimpy hobbyists like me who just want to play on the ground. Still, it's only half an hour, and probably useful to get in a little takedown training, even if I don't like it.

After the throws, Kev continued with side control, this time running through two submissions, one on top, the other underneath. For the rolling triangle from side control, you begin with your hands locked under their head and arm in the classic controlling position. First, you have to clear their near arm, either by switching your hips, or getting your hip to the floor and driving backwards against their arm.

Having got that arm out of the way, you can now shove their other wrist to their chest. Your near shin presses against their body. As you still have that arm wrapping their head, raise it. This gives you the space to step your other leg right over, slipping it under their head. Grab your ankle with the hand you already have under their head.

To finish, roll over your shoulder, which puts you in the guard with a leg locked over their head, one of their arms trapped. You're therefore perfectly set up for a triangle. Simply adjust your legs by pushing off their hip, then lock in the submission. You may also need to raise your hips to push their arm across before completion.

It is possible they will bridge into you before you execute your roll, as you don't have a strong base. However, that doesn't matter, because all that means is they've put themselves into a triangle.

The next attack was, unusually, an armbar from underneath side control. This again works off the arm gripping under your head. First, shrimp your hips out, then in one motion, swing your leg over their head, while your other knee must drive in to their chest. Due to that arm under your head, you're now in position to armbar. Squeeze your knees together, then raise your hips for the submission.

This isn't very high percentage, especially as your knee may get blocked by their other arm. Nevertheless, even if you don't land the armbar (most often because they yank their limb free), you should still be able to move to open guard. Either way, you're in a much better position than stuck under sidemount.

During sparring, I found that Christina's advice from her last lesson at RGA Kilburn finally started to sink in, in regards to using your legs in guard. I made a concerted effort to either use the instep to hook their leg or ribs, while also getting feet to their hips to maintain some kind of control, especially as they were trying to pass my open guard.

This is also something Roy Harris discusses during his seminar on the fundamentals of open guard, as featured in the Roy Dean DVD. Harris is known for making methodical lists, which he does here in sets of three: that's what came to mind tonight. Along with using my feet and instep, I was also trying to use my knees to press against their chest and shoulders. This seemed to work well in keeping them at bay, although on the other hand, I as usual had sat out one round while everyone else did the full three. So, fatigue no doubt comes into it as well.

20/11/2008 - BJJ (Advanced)

Class #195



Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Nick Gregoriades, London, UK – 20/11/2008 - Advanced

There's a new site by Stephan Kesting, specifically for beginners, with the straightforward name Beginning BJJ. I saw this mentioned by Aesopian, and it looks good so far: along with a newsletter, sent out every three days, you get a thirty-four page e-book, A Roadmap for BJJ, after signing up. At the moment, its all free, which I assume will remain the case.

You're also in luck if you're into comics, as a professional cartoonist from Seattle has put her skills to work in creating some stylish BJJ art: check out Ellen Forney's free wallpaper here. There's a whole load of other cool stuff available on her website, with various books by Ellen for sale, as well as free samples. Reminds me to take a look in the library for graphic novels again: last time, I delved into MAUS, which is right up there with The Sandman, Watchmen, Preacher and other classics (unsurprising, given its also rather rare amongst graphic novels in having won the author a Pulitzer Prize). That high status means its one of the very few comics available at my university library, but there might be more by now.

Couldn't train yesterday as my gf stayed round in Bucks for a conference in London today, meaning I popped down with her to High Wycombe in the evening rather than my usual afternoon train to Marylebone. However, that means I'll get extra training in next week to make up for it: if your partner doesn't share your hobby, then its good to set up compromises like that :D. At the same time, BJJ is probably number three on my list of priorities (my relationship and family being one and two), so I don't mind missing the occasional session if I have to.

As I was getting changed, I could hear the instantly recognisable voice of one of the best training partners at RGA, Christina. Great to see her again, as it's been almost two months since she has been down to the same class as me.

She immediately reminded me of just how good a training partner she is by offering some tips on the tai otoshi, a throw I'm keen to improve given all the handy follow-ups Chris demonstrated at judo earlier this month. Main points are that I need to keep my upper body straight and get my hips closer to my partner: Christina used to do a fair bit of judo at the Budokwai, so is a handy person to ask.

We moved straight into specific sparring after the warm-up, where I went with Melissa. I found that on top, I was able to control her with scarf hold, but I couldn't really do a whole lot else with the position. I always attempt to trap their arm so I can do that step over triangle, then if that fails I try to wedge my knee in to push their arm past their head, switch back to side control and go for mount.

That's only two options, however, which is too limited if I'm struggling with both of them. I need to develop another submission from scarf, and also work harder on the transition to mount. Holding somebody is a useful first step (although I think I have a size advantage on Melissa), but I need to move past that and initiate some kind of offence.

Underneath, Nick urged me to bridge more and with greater force, also suggesting bridging twice in quick succession, which I haven't tried before. I'm used to biding my time and conserving energy, but that can easily lead to being totally passive and waiting, giving my partner all the time they want to work offence. Again, I need to be more proactive, and combine various escape attempts.

I also need to be careful of my neck, such as when I go to my knees to escape side control. I'm being too complacent about people going for chokes, relying on my defence to get me out. Melissa came close several times today, mainly trying guillotines and cross chokes, but I was either able to get an arm or leg in the way and make some space. Definitely not comfortable though, so requires greater vigilance on my part.

There was just the one technique today, but it was relatively complex, transitioning from side control to mount. Nick called it 'around the world', where starting in side control, you first scoop up their near elbow and then switch your base, driving your knee through to push that elbow out of the way and break their defence.

Next, bring your rear leg over their head, using your hip to force the arm you just knocked out of place onto their face and neck. This will put you in north-south. From here, put your hand on the side of their head (in the direction you're about to move), then bring what is now your rear leg all the way over again (meaning you've switched your base once more).

As you do so, use your arm to keep their arm trapped against their neck. This is important, as that means you can then dig your hand under their head, which sets you up for an arm triangle. You can finish the submission by grabbing your other bicep, then with the hand of the arm you just gripped, take hold of your own head and squeeze.

Alternately, keep going and transition to mount. You've got their arm uncomfortably shoved into their face (or neck, or perhaps chin, but either way its not pleasant), so now you have to make enough space to go to mount. Similarly to how you started, you're going to switch your base yet again, moving the knee of the leg closest to their hips underneath your other leg, which should knock their free hand out of place. The mount is now yours for the taking, putting you in a very controlling position with both their arms out of play.

Nick got us to spar from side control again, and this time my partner was Christina. I tried to concentrate on keeping my weight down, and then switching to north-south while maintaining the pressure. While doing that, I tried closing my eyes to see if that helped, also aiming to squirm my elbows into her armpits.

However, I didn't use my weight properly. Afterwards, Christina mentioned that I was just using my arms, with my hips too high and therefore not helping with weight distribution. Not being used to north-south, I'm still a little apprehensive about shoving my weight into somebody's face, which partly accounts for that, but I can always drop it more onto their shoulder. Either way, weight distribution remains key, and the hips the most important part of the solution.

Underneath, same story as usual, with Christina popping up to knee-on-belly. I was being cautious with my hands, trying again to implement Dominik's advice about using your elbows instead of your hands to push on the knee. This seemed to work better, and Christina noted that it was definitely an improved defensive strategy on my part (though naturally she still didn't have too much trouble passing).

My first partner in free sparring was again Melissa, and again I'm not being careful enough with chokes. Towards the end she was in open guard really pushing for a cross-choke, which I only held off by pressing my knees into her torso. Similarly I'd earlier resisted a guillotine by having an arm in to make a bit of breathing space. Not very reliable defence on my part: much better to develop better awareness and watch out for choke attempts before they're locked in.

Before that, I'd been spending a lot of time in side control and half guard, eventually reversing Melissa and getting into her guard. Once again, she was working for a choke, as I tried to posture up and go for a pass. Due to my horrendously bad guard passing, that just meant I ended up in open guard, leading to yet another choke attempt by Melissa.

Closing spar with Christina was very relaxed, turning into instruction, which was really handy. She gave me a whole load of good tips on open guard. First was to keep my knees off the floor and on either her upper legs or higher. I've been tending to hook knees, but if I do that, I shouldn't just sit there, but go for the sweep immediately.

Christina also advised that I should keep my legs pushing constantly, but not completely straight: there should still be some tension, or she can simply push them down and pass. Finally, once your partner is going low, use spider guard to push them away on their bicep, and/or getting a knee into their shoulder if they're really low and close.

Turns out that another of my old training partners has got involved with Kukla Pictures, though unfortunately he isn't able to train yet. Chris has been carrying injuries for a long time, but its cool to hear that he's been able to use his considerable artistic skills to help out with the film production. I'm looking forward to seeing some of the stuff Kukla comes up with, so will have to try and clear some time in my diary to make the events.

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.

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.