Class #999 RGA Bucks, Kev Capel, Aylesbury, UK - 07/07/2018
The sequence begins from a standard roll over against turtle, where you pull them by the corner to move into the back. Right away from there, kimura grip an arm. Maintaining the grip on their wrist, you can then push down the other arm and trap it with your leg.
To finish, there's the single arm choke. İf they bridge into you and clear your leg, swivel that cleared leg under (as they've given you space), establishing a crucifix on their arm. Switch your legs before you do (you already have a leg round their arm due to your previous technique of trapping their arm).
On the crucifix, you can single arm nogi choke with a squeeze, or go for a collar choke. İf they manage to dip down and roll backwards to escape, be ready to push their head into a reverse triangle. This will catch people unawares, as their arm is likely to still be stuck by your legs due to needing that base for the backward roll.
You can then either pull on their trapped arm and squeeze your legs to finish the choke, or focus on the other arm instead, going for a pressing armbar etc. After training, lots of great art in London, checking out the Courtauld Gallery for the first time. :D
Class #601 RGA Aylesbury, (BJJ), Kev Capel, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, UK - 01/11/2014
This week marks another family birthday, which means I get to enjoy three of the best things in life: my family's hospitality, great art and jiu jitsu (if you understandably only care about the third, click here). As I happened to be in London for Friday afternoon, I took advantage of the numerous tours offered by the Tate Britain.
The first of those tours was digital, via an app on my phone. The Tate Britain have a '500 Years of British Art' tour available on the app store, for the excellent price of free. Its intention is to walk you through a representative selection of another representative selection. The Tate has curated several rooms to display a chronological circuit of British Art. Handily, the period covered by each room glints at you from the floor, though sometimes it requires a bit of wandering to work out which exit has the relevant number.
You get around three paintings discussed per room, between one to two minutes each time. Occasionally there is some extra content, like a contemporary artist discussing the work, or some historical background. For example, an expert on 18th century ballet to flesh out the pose struck by Giovanna Baccelli in Gainsborough's famous portrait, or Damien Hirst's opinion on 'Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion' by Francis Bacon.
That commentary is quite good, but there is an annoying downside to the audio guide. Normally when you play audio, you can switch off your screen. Not with this app. It insists on keeping your screen on, a major battery drain if you're a fellow user of phones in the 'ridiculously-huge' category. A less irksome problem is that this app is massive (158mb), but that's easily solved by downloading it over WiFi before you get to the gallery. There is apparently a Tate wifi network, but I couldn't get it to work last time I tried.
The guide shows you a full-screen picture of the painting when it plays the audio snippet, so you could quite happily do a tour from the comfort of your phone (though of course you're missing out on all the cool details you get from seeing the painting in person. The texture of the paint, the swerve of brush strokes, the individual flecks of pigment close to your eye).
I also joined a couple of the guided tours (again entirely free), which are mostly on the hour. I've been on the 15:00 tour that focuses on Turner before, so as I'm feeling rather full of Turner (perhaps due to the recent film, there's been lots on TV and I went to the Late Turner exhibition during my last visit), I opted for the 14:00 and 16:00 tours instead.
The 14:00 tour is a general one, covering those same chronological rooms as the app. Guides will vary in quality, but the knowledgeable and efficient woman leading it today was good. She checked with the group if they wanted to cover anything pre-Victorian, deciding to therefore concentrate on the 19th and early 20th century when nobody made much of a response. It was interesting to learn more about the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (a rare exception to the normally narrow range of my art taste, which is almost entirely 1450-1700), followed by an examination of several painters I've conveniently enjoyed via BBC Four recently (Andrew Graham-Dixon did a good series on war artists: it was cool to see the Bombergs, Sickerts and Spencers in situ. Though I can't remember who did the Stanley Spencer documentary: that was earlier, but quite possibly Graham-Dixon again as he does a lot of the BBC Four art presenting).
Also, chatting to a friend afterwards, she asked me if I had any favourite paintings from the Tate. That led to an excellent couple of hours wandering around the Tate website: I hadn't realised just how fantastic they are on the digital front, with lots of interactivity and info. Hence why when somebody asks me that now, I can simply post a link. ;)
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Getting on to the jiu jitsu, Kev's Saturday class at RGA Bucks focused on attacking the back, a topic still fresh in my mind due to September. He started off with two simple attacks from the back, the rear naked choke and what I refer to as the sliding choke. You reach over their shoulder and grab high on their opposite collar, while your second hand slides past their armpit and again grasps the far collar. Pull the collar tight around the neck with your shoulder arm, while your armpit arm pulls its collar down.
That then moved into several options against the turtle. First off was a basic turnover, reaching underneath them for their far collar, a bit under their chest. Be careful of your elbow as you don't want them to hook it and roll you. Should they get some kind of grip on it, you can lean down and make yourselft heavy. If that's not enough, you can move all the way round to the other side and block their roll with your knee.
Assuming you avoid their grip, pull your elbow back. Sit back on the opposite side, then roll them over into back control. Should you have any trouble getting the second hook in place, use what Marcelo Garcia calls a 'hip extension' to make that available.
Next up was something I recognised from Levo's video as the three-quarter nelson, this time used for a turnover. Secure that grip, with one arm behind their head and the other under their armpit, linking the two with a gable grip. On the side of the gable grip, wedge the knee nearest their head (if you turned and had both knees against them) behind their knee. Shove your knee back towards their legs, using your three-quarter nelson to turn them. At this point you can pull on their shoulder, then adjust your other arm into a single-arm choke.
To finish, Kev went through a crucifix entry. He drives the knee in behind their elbow as normal, flaring it out and trapping their arm between his legs. Controlling their other wrist with your same side hand, you can then roll over their wrist-side shoulder to move into the face-up crucifix. It's a similar motion to when you roll for the reverse omoplata on the near shoulder, except that you're doing that tight turn over the far shoulder instead.
To finish, Kev demonstrated a straight armbar from the kneeling crucifix. I find it hard to get the right spot for those, but Kev offered the handy pointer during his demo that your hips go by their shoulder. Sprawl from there and press down. Avoid moving too far back or you'll lose their elbow and enable them to free their arm. As long as you don't do that, their typical escape is to curl their arm back, which gives you the opening to roll into the crucifix or the reverse omoplata.
Sparring is one of the main benefits I get from regularly heading back to my home club. At RGA Bucks, there are lots of higher belts to smash me, not to mention fellow purples equally happy to crush, along with loads of tough blue belts ready to squish me too. I rolled with a couple of blues, a purple, a brown and a black belt, so got to experience the full range of being squashed under side control and people attacking my back.
It seems those two positions are invariably where I end up when I spar anybody bigger and/or better than me, so I'm relatively comfortable. On the plus side, I wasn't relying as heavily on the running escape, trying to switch to the stiff-arm and attempting some standard bridge and shrimp escapes from under side control. As always Kev got into north-south, so I had a chance to try the escapes from last Saturday. I couldn't get into position for the head push, but did vaguely try the knee into the arm. I could only get one arm, but worth trying again. I also tried to get into position with a blue belt later, but they switched back to side control before I had a chance to go for a north-south escape.
I also finally remembered to go for that double-trap of the arms when they're on my back, clamping their armpit arm with my elbow and using my hand to grab their other sleeve. Although I was fighting off a deep choke during my last roll, mostly by pushing on the elbow: I doubt I would have gotten out if I hadn't had a strength advantage.
Back escapes have been a major weakness for me, so I'm pleased I felt a bit more confident there today, if only slightly. My other big weakness was still very much in evidence, the guard. I'm getting passed way too easily (almost every time, it was my own favourite pass, the knee cut). I have trouble keeping some kind of control over people when they're in my open guard. I can entangle one side slightly, but not enough. I tried the mawashi grip a few times, but didn't establish it properly. Going for that modified spider guard was useful as a goal, though it didn't yield any success today. Fortunately, I'll get to think long and hard about guard in a couple of months, as we'll be back into the three months of different guards at Artemis BJJ in a little while.
Today I also received what may be the best compliment I've ever had after sparring: "You smell like christmas." I suspect that's because I was wearing my Datsusara HCG-03, which has experienced the magic of Georgette's washing machine. That magic is strong, as it appears to have lingered on two years after my Datsusara passed through her detergent (at least that's what she claims it is: I remain convinced it can't be anything so mundane. Must all be rainbows and unicorns). Unless she meant it in more of a Trading Places "smell like xmas" sense, so booze and wee. I'll stick with my first thought. ;D
Class #593 Artemis BJJ (Impact Gym), Open Mat, Bristol, UK - 20/09/2014
Once again, I used the open mat as an opportunity to practice what I wanted to teach next week. Today that was especially important, as I wanted to work on a technique I've been building towards the whole month: the reverse omoplata. I'll talk more about this in the lesson plan write-up on Monday, but this was the culmination of my Mastering the Crucifix teaching experiment, which has gone well so far. I was especially curious to see how students would deal with the reverse omoplata, given Aesopian's evangelising about its inflated perception as complex and difficult.
Practicing it at open mat, I found myself agreeing with Aesopian. The basic mechanics aren't too difficult, especially if you're already familiar with the crucifix. In short, get into the crucifix as normal, base out on your far arm, then do a tight roll over your shoulder, similar to breakfalling. Reach your near arm past their shoulder, aiming to grab their leg. Continue the roll, making sure you still have their arm and leg trapped. They will roll too, due to the pressure on their shoulder.
When you come up, switch the arm you have gripping their leg, putting your original arm over their body for control. Base on your far leg, keeping your near leg closely wrapped on their arm, then bring your hips back. That should torque their arm for the submission. Not a simple technique, but not super-complicated either. We'll see how that goes on Monday: I'm looking forward to it. :)
Class #591 Artemis BJJ (Impact Gym), Dónal Carmody, Bristol, UK - 11/09/2014
Progressing from his series on maintaining the turtle, Dónal showed a simple option for moving to orthodox back control. You're behind them: on one side, you stick your arm in up to the wrist by their hip, where it stays in as a hook. Leave a leg behind on that side too, still tight to their body. Your remaining arm reaches for their arm on the other side, joined by your other knee.
If there is space, you can just replace your forearm with your leg to insert your hooks. Note that for the second hook, you will have to turn your body before you can insert it, or you'll find the motion awkward. Pull them to to the side, rolling them over the knee you had on the arm-gripping side, ideally straight into back mount. You'll also want to establish a harness/seat-belt grip, with an arm over the shoulder and the other under the armpit.
In specific sparring, I had a play with the back take I learned from Rickson, where he takes a leaf out of Marcelo Garcia's Advanced Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Just like Marcelo, Rickson showed how if you have that seatbelt, you can maintain the back even without having your hooks in place. If your opponent is in the turtle, you can simply establish your seat belt, then leap over and roll them into place. I managed it once or twice, but I need to be tighter. Also, this was against a beginner (he had some other grappling experience, but not BJJ).
That was followed by some free sparring with Gina: I gave her a few tips on passing (my usual thing, where I tell them to pin my legs and walk round). She picked it up quickly, which is always cool to see. I'm looking forward to hearing how she does over at the Grappler's Heart tournament (scroll down here for more info) Jon Gelber emailed me about a while ago. Looks like an awesome competition, so check out that entry info if you are a (or know any) disabled grappler. :)
Class #590 Artemis BJJ (Impact Gym), Dónal Carmody, Bristol, UK - 04/09/2014
Quick update from the Artemis BJJ website: the interview I did with Saulo Ribeiro is now up here. In regards to class tonight, I didn't get in much training, as I was helping out with teaching. Attendance was huge today, so we thought two instructors would be better than one (seeing as we were both there).
Still, while I didn't get to drill or spar, I was able to feel the technique in my usual role as Dónal's uke. You're on their back, attacking the turtle. When directly behind them, clamp your knees by their hips, then taking your feet off the floor, 'sit' on their thighs and sink your weight down and back (staying tight). That should cause their head to raise slightly, opening them up for attacks and your grips. Shifting to put your knee next to theirs, move round to the side and yank them towards you.
If they try to roll out over their shoulder and recover guard, reach through to far hip like last time. That escape motion was my main bit of drilling, while demonstrating it with Dónal : roll over your shoulder to get your guard back, swinging your legs in front of them. You're effectively rolling on the spot (pretty much the same motion as a breakfall, without the hand slapping part), as tight a turn as possible to recover your guard.
Class #589 Artemis BJJ (Impact Gym), Dónal Carmody, Bristol, UK - 02/09/2014
Following on nicely from the lesson I taught yesterday about keeping the top position in turtle, Dónal went through his approach to the same set of techniques. He started with a few drills to get the movement, spinning around their back. A nifty little detail Dónal added was with the position where you're right behind them. Pinch your knees on their thighs with your feet off the floor, then use that sinking down to lift their head up slightly. That could give you the access you need to attack their neck. From there, you can also run behind them in the same way I showed, establishing side control.
Dónal has another addition to that technique as well, if you miss the opportunity and can't quite get past their legs as smoothly as before. Reach through and grab their opposite leg with your arm, clamping down with your elbow on top of their near leg. That should mean your arm acts as a barrier to their guard recovery, stopping them from swinging their legs through to establish some kind of open guard.
Sparring started off by helping a new student, which is always cool: she was picking up the details well, transitioning to side control. I then went with one of the slightly more experienced beginners, giving me the chance to play around with crucifix entries. I'm not managing to get that transition from side control Aesopian shows in Mastering the Crucifix, so I should get some kind of drill going for that. Once I did manage to get to the crucifix (from the standard side ride entry), I managed to finish off with a single-arm RNC, as my partner wasn't wearing a gi. That's possibly what I'll show when I next do some teaching at Impact this month, as a fair few of them don't have a gi. I could also go with stuff like the D'arce, but I find that a little neck cranky (still a good submission though, so could be worth showing in a nogi class where it's especially applicable).
Dónal had a few pointers after class regarding side control positioning, for the person underneath. It's generally a bad idea to try and wrap over the head of the person on top, burying them under your armpit. That's because they can shove their head up (especially if they twist to put their whole body behind it), trapping your arm against your head. This sets them up for a head-and-arm choke, like the ones John Will showed at his seminar a while back.
Class #588 Artemis BJJ (Impact Gym), Open Mat, Bristol, UK - 30/08/2014
In September, we're returning to the back, revisiting a position for the first time since we kicked off Artemis BJJ back in January. It won't be a retread of April, however, as the focus will be a specific variant of back control known as the turtle, where you're on your knees and elbows. This is something that crops up quite often as people try to avoid being passed, along with various other situations. It isn't a position I find myself in all that much, perhaps because I tend to go with tight, pressure passes that result either in a pass or getting stuck in half guard most of the time. Either way, it means it's a position I'm looking forward to exploring in more depth.
So, as usual with open mats, I wanted to have a play with some techniques I plan to teach next week. The reason I was especially keen to look into turtle was due to a couple of instructionals I've been sent to review that are based around turtle: firstly, Aesopian's Mastering the Crucifix that I reviewed recently, then secondly a turtle seminar from Nathan 'Levo' Leverton. A number of the techniques from Levo's video are ones I've seen before at his LSG back seminar, so it's good to get a different take on it as well as a refresher.
I'm going to cover some of the basics for maintaining the turtle, from the top person's perspective. For that, I'm using the side ride and the back control position Levo learned from Demian Maia. For the side ride, you have your nearest knee next to theirs, your other leg out for base (but bent, as if it's straight, that hinders your ability to react to their movement). Your same side hand is grabbing their arm, while your other hand is reaching inside their far hip. Don't go too deep, just to the level of your wrist, also being careful to keep your elbow out of range. Your head stays low.
A point of difference between how Levo showed it on that video and how I've seen Xande do the same thing is that Xande keeps his knee off the floor and leans into them. You can also see that in Aesopian's section about the side ride. I decided to go with knee off the ground, to add a bit more weight and mobility, but I'm still experimenting to see what works best both for me and for students.
You can also move around behind them, where you put both hands inside their thighs, your knees pressing into their hips, staying on your toes and keeping your weight low. From there, you can switch to the side ride on either side. If they manage to start turning, always run behind them to their back. If you run towards their stomach as they turn, that puts you in their guard.
Along with some of that maintenance, I had a quick play with the clock choke variation I learned from Kev, who got it in turn from Felipe Souza. I find it simpler than the usual clock choke, as you simply grab their collar, block the near side of their head with your free elbow, then walk round for the submission. I tend to find the standard clock choke tricky to get and more awkward to finish, but that's probably just because I always use the elbow-block version instead.
Finally, I also had a play with some crucifix stuff, which fits nicely with the side ride. In specific sparring, I was able to switch into the crucifix a few times, walking back and going into the collar choke. However, I also lost it a few times, their arm slipping free because my legs were too loose. I didn't get lifted up, as my training partner was my size, which meant different gaps in my technique were exposed compared to Congleton.
Underneath, my turtle escapes could do with some work. I was waiting for them to try and get their hook, then grabbing the arm and driving through. That kinda works, but it's sloppy and I think uses way too much strength. I felt sore in my lower abs/groin afterwards, which indicates to me I was relying on force rather than leverage. On the plus side, the random kimura grip thing to escape back control worked, having watched some guy use it while browsing the net earlier: getting something off a Sherdog thread to function has got to be a first for me. ;)
Best thing that happened all day was my training partner hit the clock choke variation I showed him a few minutes earlier! Unfortunately I wasn't watching at the time, but still cool to know it was effective for him straight away. :D
Seminar #015 Tidewater BJJ, David 'Rock' Jacobs, Chesapeake, VA, USA - 19/04/2014
If you've been around on BJJ forums for any length of time, especially NHBGear (now defunct, it would appear), then you know who Dave Jacobs is. I've also come across him due to Seymour's posts about seminars Jacobs' has done at Mill Hill, plus there was an interview with him in JJS a while ago, IIRC. My host here in Virginia, Adrienne, is an old student of Jacobs. She therefore was keen to support his seminar at Tidewater BJJ: that fit well with my plans, as not only did it mean I would get to train with a top black belt and internet personality, I'd also be able to rest my neck (rather than getting in lots of sparring, the other option today).
After a cool opening speech about his ethos for BJJ (all of which I agreed with, so his school sounds like a great place to train), Jacobs ran us through a couple of warm-up drills. The first was similar to the open guard drills I learned from Kev, specifically the third one where you do a hip swing to recover guard. Jacobs call it a 'reverse shrimp' and does the same motion of popping up onto your toes with your bum in the air, but from the same starting position as a shrimp. We then did that with a partner, when it became almost exactly like I'm used to, except that your partner stays up rather than shifting into knee on belly. The final drill was doing the motion of a butterfly sweep (i.e., rolling to your side and kicking a leg up high, basing on your shoulder, head and hand), then swivelling through into scarf hold (the same leg you lifted into the air now goes underneath, so you end up facing the opposite way to when you started).
Getting into the techniques, Jacobs started off with a concept he called the supine twist, or rather that's what it is called in yoga. As he put it, great position in yoga, but terrible if somebody puts you there in jiu jitsu. Essentially, you're shoving their legs one way, knees pinned to the mat, while aiming to shove their head the other way. To illustrate that concept, Jacobs taught a variation on the transition from side control to mount.
That begins in the normal way, driving your knee across the belt line. The finish is where it's a little different. Keep driving your leg across until the knee pokes out a little past their leg. You're then going to slide it backwards into that leg, scraping it into their outer thigh. Your aim is to push their legs together, then slip your leg to the ground. They should find it difficult to step over and pull your leg into half guard, because you've pushed it backwards. Jacobs also briefly showed how the 'supine twist' could apply to passing quarter guard, bringing your knee across their body, shoving their legs one way and shoving your head next to theirs, pressing into their skull to turn it in the opposite direction.
After a short break, we moved on to a more extensive session. Jacobs is a big fan of butterfly guard, especially the armbar from there. He mentioned that he has a lot of trouble landing the standard armbar against anybody with experience. His preference is to instead use a pressing armbar from butterfly. Personally I've always found those difficult, but then I rarely use armbars of any type, because it requires more space than I would like (at least when you compare it to my favourite attacks, which are chokes and bent armlocks).
I last saw this taught by Nathan Leverton at one of his Leverage Submission Grappling seminars. Jacobs has a comparable set up, though this is from butterfly rather than closed guard. With both your butterfly hooks in, grab both their collars and drop back. It's important to stay as 'one unit', by which Jacobs means there isn't any separation between your bodies. They will normally post out their hands if you knock them forward like that.
Get an over-under grip, wrapping one arm around their head, the other under their arm. Trap the wrist of their outstretched arm between your head and shoulder. You then want to get your head arm over towards their shoulder. To do that, use your shins to push them backwards, hopefully providing the necessary space to bring your arm over the head and establish a lock by the shoulder.
Next your want to get your feet onto their hips so they can't stack you, turning your body to also clamp your knees on either side of their shoulder: Leslie calls this the 'shoulder sandwich', a helpful way of remembering the positioning. Put your hands in a gable grip and slide them down their arm until you are just above the elbow (finding that spot is one of the parts of this technique I struggle with). Once there, press down with your hands for the submission.
If they manage to circle their trapped arm off your head, you can still attack. Slide the top hand of your gable grip up, ready to catch their wrist before they circle their arm over. Establish a figure-four grip on their arm, then twist that arm away from you. This might get the submission, but more likely is that you steer them over, reversing the position to mount. As you transition, put your elbow by their head and move right into an americana from mount.
You can also finish the pressing armbar from mount too, by sweeping them as you have the grip. Just put in your hook and lift the leg up and over as you normally would with a butterfly sweep. The same principle then applies, sliding your arms up their arm until you get to that point above the elbow, exerting pressure for the tap. Alternatively you can switch to whatever submission you like.
Going to an armbar from s-mount works too. Kick your far leg under their armpit, bringing up their other arm and staying tight the whole way. Turn your torso towards their legs. Your near knee goes into their ear, or if you're like Leslie and are working on being mean, put the knee over their head. It is possible to do this in a controlled way, but as I still have major hang-ups about aggression and the whole idea of being mean, it probably isn't something I'm likely to use. ;)
Leslie has been working on her aggression for some time, though that is a complicated term for both of us: she has had similar hang-ups in the past. Leslie gets into a very interesting discussion of the topic over on her blog (extending into the comments here). As we were doing that technique, she said she'd be updating it to reflect her current perspective. I'm looking forward to reading the additions: Leslie's writing is always thought-provoking.
Next up was a more unorthodox position, the crucifix, although it is becoming more common. There have been a few instructionals on the topic, including an upcoming release by the Godfather of BJJ Blogging, Aesopian. If you're not familiar with the term, it is basically a back position where instead of putting your legs around their waist, you swivel and put them around their arm instead, while controlling the other arm with at least one of yours.
Jacobs entered the position by attacking the turtle. Reach inside their arm and grab a sleeve. Jacobs prefers this to the wrist, because it gives you enough slack to escape should they reach back and grab your elbow. They're intending to roll you over and take side control, but they can't easily lock that elbow if you are able to pull your elbow back due to the looser sleeve grip.
Shove your knee by the elbow of that sleeve grip. If there isn't space, walk around to the other side (maintaining pressure as you do), grab the sleeve there and attempt to insert the knee. You can even grab both sleeves and keep switching side to side until you work your knee in. Once you do, try to hook their arm with your other leg and drag it back. This puts you in a downwards facing crucifix. You can get an armbar from there, using your legs (you can do a sort of lockdown too to hold it in place), though as ever I found it hard to get the right leverage point for the elbow.
Alternatively, you can attack for a shoulder lock from turtle. Put the knee nearest their head slightly forward, making sure it is still controlling their arm. Turn to face their legs, grabbing their ankle to anchor yourself. Twist and swing the leg furthest from their head backwards, still hooking the arm. Do this movement gradually, as that shoulder lock can come on quickly, depending on their flexibility.
Most of the time, people will somersault from the turtle crucifix to get into a position where they are now facing upwards. To maintain the crucifix, shrimp out a little so they can't drive their weight on top of you. Be careful not to shrimp too far, or they may be able to scoot down. If they can do that, their next step is to roll backwards, putting them straight into side control. Make sure to have an arm around the head grabbing their opposite collar (like a bow and arrow choke) to stop that escape route.
If they manage to sit up, then adjust your legs into a sort of reverse omoplata position to get upright yourself, then walk backwards (still crucifixing their arm with the legs) to recover that upwards facing crucifix. Even if they stick out a knee for base, if you keep shimmying back, you'll eventually get them onto a weak angle where you can roll them back over. Alternatively, when they first sit up, that makes them vulnerable to that shoulder lock from earlier.
Assuming they don't sit up and you manage to hold that upwards facing position, you have numerous chokes available to you. Snake an arm around the neck and grab the opposite collar for a bow and arrow type attack. You can also grab the other collar for a sliding choke, then there is always the rear naked choke. If your arms are long enough, driving an arm past their armpit and behind their head while you also have that bow and arrow type grip works too.
Again, Jacobs prefers to armbar. He does the main one with his legs on their crucifixed arm. Keep adjusting your feet and slipping them up to the wrist, wriggling their arm in position. Don't ever step both feet off the arm, only one at a time to maintain control.
Swing your leg back past the knee line of the other each time. Eventually you find it gets tighter and tighter, until you can press on their wrist with your feet for the submission. Switching to a standard armbar is possible too, though there is a risk of losing position (as always with mounted armbars, it seems).
The final part of the seminar was dedicated to wristlocks. This isn't something I have used much myself, but I'd like to add it in, given it's a great equaliser for smaller guys like me. The principle is very simple: any time you can isolate their arm so that their hand is pressing into you and their elbow is blocked, the wristlock is available. Their elbow might be blocked by the mat, or it might be you knee, or you might grab behind it with both hands.
I was especially intrigued by a side control option, as I have had that exact grip numerous times but not known what to do with it. To get this side control wristlock, the situation is that they have tried to get an underhook, but you whizzered their arm. Trap their wrist in your armpit and grab their elbow with an arm to block its movement. Adjust with your armpit until you can use it to bend their hand back towards their wrist, then apply pressure for the sub.
The other one that caught my interest was a wristlock from guard. Hold their sleeve and elbow, pulling the arm across like an arm drag: Jacobs calls this the 'short arm drag'. Wedge your knee next to their elbow, the other leg up into their armpit. That should immobilise the arm. Bring your sleeve grip elbow around the back of their hand, pressing in for the submission.
You can also wristlock them if they try passing your half guard and grip a collar: same thing as before, isolate the arm and pull behind the elbow. Hence why Jacobs recommends grabbing the bicep when passing half guard like that, as that is far less vulnerable to wristlocks.
Class #537 RGA Aylesbury, (BJJ), Kev Capel, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, UK - 30/11/2013
I'm back in Aylesbury this weekend, part of my intention to get over there more regularly (ideally every couple of months on average across the year). Kev began by attacking the turtle, where he suggests you start off with a leg over their back. That makes it hard for them to roll back to guard over a shoulder, as you can follow them in either direction into side control or even the back.
Reach to grab a lapel (not too deep, or they will trap your arm and roll you), then pull them diagonally over their hip. Put in your hook as you do so, using the Marcelo hip extension if you need to open them up before inserting your second hook.
Having taken their back, go for the single arm short choke, something else Donal has covered in private lessons. They aren't going to let you have that easily and will block with both arms. Use your armpit hand to grab their wrist, shove it down, then bring your leg over the crook of their elbow. To secure that in place, hook your instep under their wrist.
They only have one hand left to defend their neck, but that can still be an annoyance. Switch your arms to try and wriggle it across their neck. They will almost certainly block that too by grabbing your arm. With your free hand, dig under their defending elbow, until you can reach inside and grab their wrist. Shove it down, keeping that for control. You can then finish your choke, either with a single arm, moving to a sliding choke, or a bow and arrow variation.
Do not be tempted to bring your leg over that arm too. That puts them into a deep half guard type position. They can use that to shrug off your legs and slip down out of your back control, meaning you lose a strong attacking position and possibly even puts them on top, if they react quickly. Never have both legs over.
Finally, for the other person, you can escape the turtle. Reverse engineering what you did earlier, don't let them get a leg over your back. Blcok that immediately by stepping your nearest leg next to theirs, hooking it ideally. Reach to grab their knee next to you, which will probably be raised. Avoid having your elbow high: instead, keep your arm in line with their leg. Shift your hip, spinning through to guard.
In terms of sparring, the tail-end of the warm-up was guard passage. On top, I wasn't having much luck except against white belts. Even there, I was being lazy and waiting for them to open their guard, then single stack passing around their side. The brown belts were sweeping me easily (I don't think I rolled with a purple at that point, but they would have no doubt swept me easily too).
On the few occasions I got underneath I had even less success, getting passed by everyone. Rolling with a blue, I couldn't get my deep collar grip established, eventually leading to him standing up than leg drag passing me. I need to consider ways to get the opening for the deep collar grip, because once I have it in properly it's a good control. Perhaps pull them in to get them to lean back and expose their neck? Or the opposite, hip bump so they come forward and bring the collar in range? Something to play with.
At the end, I got in a bunch of free sparring. I still can't get my deep grip: several people just moved their head around, which I think can be used to go for a funky baseball bat but it looks a bit flashy and has a sacrifice element to it I don't like. But worth trying, as that happened at least three or four times. Alternatively, I need to spend more time on getting a better grip, leaving less slack.
I sort of got the Akins hip shift sweep, but that was with a smaller partner. That put me in mount, where I used Donal's tips (via Roger Gracie) about getting in tight on mount. I moved up into the armpits and got their elbows in the air, then reached in past the arm to go for the back. That's where I messed up, as I wasn't tight enough to the shoulder with my chest, so ended up slipping off and putting myself in guard.
With a purple belt, I had to be wary of my feet, making sure I didn't put them past their hip where they could drop back for an achilles lock. I found myself on top half guard a few times: The control is not as good when I have my arm past their head, driving the elbow back, compared to a cross-face. However, there is a risk that they can escape as I try to switch from the first to the second, which I think happened during this roll once or twice.
I was looking for the kimura from there, but failed to isolate properly. When I did finally get an americana locked on, I no longer had strong enough positional control, as he was able to turn and escape. It was an enjoyable roll, as Stuart kept a steady, technical pace. I get the impression that he could have sped up and given me a much harder time. ;)
With another purple belt I was throwing up triangle attempts under side control. That's not a high percentage submission, but I get tempted to try it for control when their head is low and I have my legs around their far arm. It failed miserably the first time, but the second time helped me recover my guard.
On top with a bigger blue belt, I was practicing my side control maintenance again. It was a good reminder that I shouldn't get complacent about that: while I can hold a number of people my size or bigger white belts, if somebody more experienced and bigger is underneath, they can still roll me straight over (and I'm no doubt leaving some gaps for them to exploit there, so it's not purely a matter of strength).
I was pleased that earlier in the roll I managed to do a very slow back-step pass against de la Riva. I dropped my head to his hip then gradually shifted my weight back to stop him scooting underneath, until I could get an arm under the head and put myself into the familiar opposite side half guard passing position. Having said that, he was specifically working his guard as it's an area he doesn't go much, so somebody with a trickier de la Riva would probably have taken my back.
As always there was lots of sitting in the running escape not doing anything. That's something I've covered in a private with Donal, but as I end up there so frequently, it's important that I look at it with Kev too in a future private (in today's private, which was right after this lesson, we covered a different topic).
Seminar #014 Glasgow Club Bellahouston (BJJ), Rickson Gracie, Glasgow, UK - 03/11/2013
This November marks numerous anniversaries, with varying levels of significance. Perhaps the best known is that this month is the twentieth anniversary of the Ultimate Fighting Championship: UFC 1 was held on the 12th November 1993. A lesser known anniversary is that in the same month Royce stepped into the Octagon, BJJ was first taught in Europe, thanks to BJJ and MMA pioneer Remco Pardoel. He brought Romero 'Jacare' Cavalcanti to the Netherlands in November 1993, shortly before that first UFC and well before the vast majority of people in Europe had even heard of BJJ (which is why Remco remains high on my list of people I'd love to interview). Remco went on to fight Royce in UFC 2, followed by a spot at the first Mundials in 1996.
On a personal note, as of yesterday it is seven years since I took my first official class of Brazilian jiu jitsu, taught by Felipe Souza at the Roger Gracie Academy. November 2012 was the first time I flew to the United States. Today, I've got a new November anniversary to add to that list: November will now also mark when I trained with Rickson Gracie (shame about the picture quality: the guy who took it must have hit the wrong button on my phone).
When I previously went to Scotland, it was as part of a short holiday in Galloway: that involved an extended car journey spread across two days. A much quicker option is to fly, so I booked a £78 flight from Bristol. It meant for a long day, getting up at 05:30 and returning home at 23:40, but I thought it was worth it for the experience. I certainly wasn't the only one, as when I arrived at the sports centre, there were over a hundred people in attendance. That included several black belts, such as the UK trailblazer, Rick Young (who would also be a fascinating interviewee).
Thanks to Scott McVeigh, the organiser of the seminar who had very kindly given me a heads up before he released the date to the public, I was able to speak briefly with Rickson before the seminar started (that interview can be found in issue #18 of Jiu Jitsu Style Magazine, available here). I met Scott last year and he has stayed in touch, inviting me to multiple seminars since then. I was pleased I could finally take him up on the suggestion today. At £95 it is the most expensive seminar I've attended to date, but you have to expect that with a name as big as Rickson.
The man himself warmed up on a Swiss ball in the centre of the mats, exhaling forcefully in what I assume was a specific breathing exercise. At various points he stopped, stood up, then walked over to shake hands with a section of the group, making a point of greeting everybody on the mats. His three hour seminar began with the technique he'd been practicing in full view up until he officially kicked things off: how to breathe.
Probably the most famous scene in the seminal documentary Choke is when Rickson demonstrates his impressive diaphragm and breathing control. We were treated to a live performance, as Rickson pulled off his shirt so he could emphasise the correct way to breathe. His main point was that you should use the whole of the lungs, rather than just the narrow opening at the top. Most of us do the latter, breathing with our chest. Rickson advises using the diaphragm instead.
To practice, lie down on your back, with a hand on your chest and the other on your stomach. When you breathe, your chest should not move, just your diaphragm. Also key is exhaling when you're tired, rather than desperately gasping for breath. Rickson said that you need to expel what he called "bad breath", in order to leave room for "good breath," as if you were a bottle of dirty water that needs to be emptied before it can be refilled with clean liquid.
Just like Michel Verhoeven's seminar a little while ago, Rickson then covered how to create a 'connection' with your opponent from the standing position. It isn't enough to have base: you also need to generate that connection. This was definitely the most 'invisible' part of the invisible jiu jitsu shown today, a number of people struggling to apply it as a result. The idea is that when the other person pulls or pushes, you stay put due to this connection. It's based around your hip and leg posture, as far as I could tell, sinking your hips and sticking your bum out slightly, keeping your legs apart on the top right and bottom left corner of a square. However, I say that as somebody who struggled with this one too.
Adding to that was the same connection from a different position, where your arms are wrapped around their waist. This again was difficult to understand, but the 'connection' this time seemed to involve driving the point of your shoulder into their side, rather than relying on your arms. Finally, there was yet another stand-up connection, when you're trying to move in for a takedown. Rickson went through an exercise where you're grabbing their collar, pushing into their chest, then mirroring them with your feet as they move.
It was much easier to understand the two side control escapes Rickson taught us next. Both are mechanically quite simple, functional against the orthodox side control position where they have one arm under your head, the other by your far arm (as per that picture of Xande). Instead of the usual frame against their neck, your arm clamps on top of theirs, reaching for your legs. This is your point of connection.
Swing your legs up and then across, towards their hips. That should generate the momentum to turn so you're facing them, freeing your shoulder and pulling yourself onto your side. Use your outside foot for base as you shrimp back, where you can then either turn to your knees or look to recover guard. Maintain that connection of your outside foot to the floor, dragging your other leg out as you slide backwards.
The second option is for countering the cross-face. If they are driving hard into your face with their shoulder, the first escape variation will be difficult. So instead, you're going to move the arm that would be normally be against their hip (in an orthodox side control defensive frame). Reach underneath them, towards your same side hip. Using the shoulder of that arm, bump them with some quick bridging motions.
You're looking to knock them over your head, giving you the space to then swivel free past their arm, potentially even getting some control of their arm in the process. As ever in jiu jitsu techniques work best in combination: when they relax their cross-face to deal with this second escape attempt, it's the perfect time to switch back to the first variation.
Rickson followed up with some drilling of the side control top position, emphasising that you should aim to cross the line of their sternum with your own. He had us drill that without using our arms (I saw something comparable in Andre Galvao's book, which I turned into a drill I often teach in my own classes).
The topic moved on to the armbar from guard. Once you have control of their arm, rather than climbing for the armbar gradually, stepping off the hip, Rickson advocates jumping your legs up onto their shoulders right away. He feels that the slower approach, where you push off their hip to get your legs up there, gives your opponent time to stack and escape. I wasn't sure where you were basing for Rickson's shortcut, but when drilling it felt like I was pushing off my own shoulders as I flung my legs to wrap up high on their body.
The advantage of this method is that once you have the arm and spring to that position, they don't have much of a chance to resist: it's like you've skipped a step of the armbar set-up. You aren't scrunched up at any point, because you've gone straight to that stretched out position. Once you've got your legs by their shoulders, keeping your knees tightly clamped and calves gripping their back, you just have to bring your leg over their head to lock it in. Similarly, Rickson advised that if they stand, you need to become adept at walking your legs up their back, 'biting' in as you move, until you reach the shoulders and can again lock in that armbar.
Update August 2016: I've since had a chance to teach this myself, having learned a slightly different variation from another BJJ legend, Chris Haueter.
Sticking with offence from the guard, Rickson transitioned into taking the back, where the scenario is that you've already knocked them to the side and the route to their back is available. As with his perspective on the armbar, Rickson feels that the typical crawling around the back involves too much effort. He instead prefers to wrap one arm around the back, securing you in place pressed against their shoulder.
The difference comes with the legs. He locks those low on their back, then stretches his limbs out. You can use the lower leg (which will be across their stomach) to chop into their far knee, a bit like a scissor sweep. That should hopefully put them on their belly, making it easier for you to shimmy round and establish the back position.
Rickson then took a leaf out of Marcelo Garcia's Advanced Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, in that he also highlighted the importance of the seat belt grip when taking the back. Just like Marcelo, Rickson showed how if you have that seatbelt, you can maintain the back even without having your hooks in place. If your opponent is in the turtle, apply the seat belt. Be sure to lock it into their chest, not their head: with the latter, they can pop their head free.
From there, you can leap over and roll them into place, ready to insert your hooks. You can also do what Marcelo demonstrates, crawling behind them to force a seated position, where again you have a good opportunity to insert your hooks. You can then follow up with Rickson's suggested submission, the rear naked choke.
Rickson's concept here reminded me a bit of Saulo's defence. Saulo likes the have one thumb in the opposite collar, while his other hand stays mobile, blocking any attacks. Rickson does something similar with his offence. He works his choking hand in, digging past the jawline, then uses his other hand in an almost defensive way, stripping their grips and preventing them from blocking his choking arm. Once it is in place, he can finish the choke. As Demian Maia shows, you can complete the choke without getting your second arm behind their head, or even with just the one arm.
There weren't any breaks, meaning I don't think I quite caught the final two techniques. I concentrated on getting the earlier material in my head, as that interested me more. Nevertheless, from what I remember there was a discussion of vale tudo guard, something which Rickson feels has been increasingly lacking in modern MMA. This revolves around getting your shin across their stomach to control the distance, whacking into their side with your other heel.
The three hours finished up with a guillotine Rickson apparently learned from Kron. It's cool that his jiu jitsu is still evolving after all this time, though I have to admit I did not get good notes on this one. From what I can recall, it was applied with the palm down rather than up, but I may well be misremembering.
Rickson's teaching style doesn't spend too long going through the details. He'll run through the techniques a couple of times, then have everyone drill it for a few minutes before moving on. Although it did not feel like he was spending much time on explaining, his words were efficient, as aside from the vale tudo guard and guillotine, I didn't have any trouble recollecting the key points Rickson had made.
He also encouraged everybody to ask questions, both in drilling and immediately after he finished demonstrating. Generally he would answer questions by inviting the person who asked to drill it with him in front of everyone else, making sure they understood. Rickson did not stick with one uke either, rotating regularly by randomly picking people standing nearby. The pattern tended to be having them try their typical approach, he would show his variation, then he would get them to attempt it again, correcting as necessary.
Rickson is obviously well practiced at being a celebrity. He signed books and then posed for pictures with anyone who asked, resulting in a large huddle around him with people waving their phones (myself included). There was plenty of Rickson merchandise for sale, mainly t-shirts, gi patches, tank tops and baseball caps, emblazoned with the old Rickson Gracie Association logo. I think there were a few gis on offer too (though I'm not sure if they were the classic Mizuno gis I've heard used to be a staple at Rickson's schools).
In the weeks leading up to November, I had arranged to speak at greater length with Rickson after the seminar, for the JJS interview. Unfortunately that didn't work out: I guess Rickson was busy or simply tired (he had sounded under the weather), as he went straight back to the hotel instead. I think he will be over again next year, though I'm not sure when. Heading over to the Netherlands and training with Michel Verhoeven would be a great option as well: comparing the two seminars, I feel confident that you would not be disappointed if you went to Verhoeven's class hoping to learn Rickson's jiu jitsu.
The full picture is massive, given how many people there were, so to explain who is in this small section I chopped out: Rickson is obviously the guy wearing the red and black belt, on the front row. To the right of him is Scott McVeigh, the Royce Gracie black belt who organised the seminar. To the left of Rickson is Rick Young, the first British man (I think) to ever train in BJJ. Going up from Rick to the top of the pic, there's me with my unruly hair and carefully exposed RGA Bucks logo. ;)
Class #532 RGA Aylesbury, (BJJ), Kev Capel, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, UK - 26/10/2013
It is always really good to go back and train with my main instructor, Kev Capel at RGA Buckinghamshire. That's something I will be doing much more regularly from now on, although still not exactly frequent as it will be once every month or two. Having a long-distance relationship to your instructor can be difficult, but if the calibre of the instructor is high enough (as it is with Kev, who has the integrity to match his teaching skill), it's well worth the extra effort.
As I mentioned in my previous post, Kev's partner Yaz was promoted to black belt on Wednesday, making her the first female black belt under Roger Gracie and the fourth female black belt in the UK. The occasion for that grading was the official opening of Kev's new academy, a short walk from the previous location but a considerable step-up in terms of its facilities.
There is a sprung floor, top quality mats, a small gym with weights, male and female changing rooms, toilets, showers, a pro shop, entrance lobby with plush couches, plus there is ample parking nearby. The RGA Bucks academy is also still right near Aylesbury train station. The specific address is:
My sense of direction is notoriously terrible and I'm also poor at reading maps (I got a bit confused by the Google Maps location). I therefore relied upon staring at my phone's SatNav, which eventually got me to the right place. The route I took was to walk up onto the bridge outside the entrance of Aylesbury train station: from there, I could see the RGA Bucks sign on the side of a building. Walk to the end of the bridge, then turn left. Go across the small bridge that has the 'cyclists dismount' sign on it. You'll soon see the entrance to RGA Bucks on the right, with a metal fence around it.
Saturday training begins with an hour and a half class, followed by open mat for drilling and sparring. Kev opened up the sessions with a single leg takedown, with two closely related variations. Block their hands from grip fighting by literally covering them with your own hands, then establish a cross-grip on their collar (i.e., grabbing the opposite side to your hand).
In a comparable motion to the collar drag from butterfly Dónal showed on Thursday, pull their collar down and past you. At the same time, slide your leg (same side as the collar-gripping arm) between theirs, wrapping around their lower leg. Be sure to bring your head to the outside of their leg, staying tight, or they can stuff your head. From here, stand up, lifting their leg and trapping it between yours as you do (the motion is basically a technical stand up, posting with the hand that was gripping the collar).
Switch so that your arm is under their leg rather than your leg (you can bump their leg up with your knee to facilitate that transfer). Bring your other hand around their same side hip, stepping sideways and staying close. That's in order to thrust your hip forwards to knock them sufficiently off balance that you can then lift them up and drop them. This isn't a strength move, so if you're having to use a lot of force, adjust your grips and your hip bump position.
The second variation is a small change, which is to keep hold of that collar grip when standing up, rather than posting on your hand. That means you can still do a technical stand-up, but also shove them away with the collar grip. As you step up, that gives you some additional leverage, which may enable you to knock them to the ground, putting you in a good position to pass the guard.
Next, Kev moved on to a choke against the turtle. Peruvian neck-tie, I think? Not quite sure, but something like that. As Kev mentioned in the class, after Roger Gracie taught this in his Wednesday seminar, Yaz put up a video showing the choke. You can see Yarden Gerbi from Israel having plenty of success with this choke en route to gold at the 2013 Judo World Championship, though from what I gather she did cause a brief bit of controversy in the judo world as a result (regarding the choke's legality under IJF competition rules). Skip ahead to 1:12 in the video to see it (there are some more nice details in this vid too):
You're on the side of their turtle, maintaining pressure. Open up your gi, pulling out the end of the lapel, then shove that down past the far side of their neck. Pass it under their body, so that your hand nearest their hip can grab it (be careful you aren't reaching too deep into their turtle, as they might be able to trap your arm and roll you over). Step your foot up to the far side of their body, angling it outwards.
Bring that leg over their shoulder, right by the gi lapel you've pull through, then drop back. Swing your other leg over them too, then use the combined leverage of your legs, arms and collar grip to apply the choke. It should be a blood choke rather than a crank or air choke, so adjust if you're having problems. A key point is not dropping off their head: stay tight with your leg so they cannot pop their head free.
The nogi variation is done with your arms. Rather than the gi lapel, put your arm (nearest their head) to the far side of the neck, just far enough that the blade of your arm is cutting into their neck. Just like with the lapel, reach your other hand underneath from the near side, linking up your hands. From there, it is exactly the same as before, just using your arms instead of the gi for the application.
I kicked off sparring with my training partner, Sandeep. I was being lazy and went straight into the running man escape when he managed to get on top. We then spent almost the entire roll fighting for a few millimetres, in my case attempting to shove his hand back past my knee and avoid his other arm from creeping around my neck. Eventually, Sandeep was able to get a grip under both my elbows, using that to slide into mount. That hasn't happened to me before, so I'll have to watch out for it. He didn't have a chance to finish from there, as the buzzer went shortly afterwards.
I then had a roll with Kev, who naturally dominated me quite easily, but also gave me some room to work. It was almost exactly the same roll as I had with my other instructor Dónal: lots of defensive scrambling on my part, trying to spin and twist out of submissions when I could feel Kev starting to lock something on. He finally caught me in an armbar, which I tried to hitchhiker escape out of, but he had a figure-four grip, closing that particular door.
After sparring, I stayed for a bit of drilling during the open mat. Sandeep gave me some awesome advice about a few more chokes from side control, fitting perfectly with my game. I've got several useful chokes for side control now, building on Dónal's private lesson and the two I used prior to that (step-over triangle and the lapel choke). Sandeep's first option was to get the arm nearest their head over to the far side. Reach back, in a sort-of guillotine grip under their neck, grabbing your own leg.
Block their near hip with your other arm, then start to move your head over to the near side as well (as you would with that lapel choke I like). If you need some extra leverage to finish, squeeze your arm. This should fit well with that half guard grip I frequently get behind the head, though I'd need to free my leg to finish the choke.
You can also try the classic leg scissor squeeze off a kimura. I first saw this on Rorion's original instructional and thought it looked dubious, but it's since appeared on a few other DVDs (such as Brown Belt Requirements, which changed my mind. Having now been on the receiving end, I am completely convinced. Rorion was right all along. ;)
Be sure to get your knee right onto their neck, then cross your ankles to lock your feet. Curl your toes back for additional pressure, like you would with a triangle. To get the submission, stretch your legs and squeeze. The tap is very quick, though it just pressure on the windpipe rather than a blood choke. Still, definitely an effective attack.
Before I left, I picked up an awesome RGA Bucks rashguard for £35, custom made for the Academy by Tatami Fightwear. I'll get a review of that done at some point in the future, though there are a bunch of others in the queue (Elastic Steel is the main one I need to finish off, now that I've completed my reviews of Black Belt Requirements and the Gentle Chief rashguard). In case you're wondering, I'm 5'7 and 145lbs, wearing a Small in the below picture (before washing, but I don't expect it to shrink given the material). Looking forward to the RGA Bucks curry night in a few hours! :D
My initial entry into Leverage Submission Grappling, a nogi system being codified by veteran UK instructor Nathan Leverton, was last year, with my team mate Steve. Steve kindly gave me a lift in 2012, but this time he wasn't able to go. I decided to take the opportunity to do some more CouchSurfing by coming up on the train the day before, as I had such a good experience in Dallas.
[I'm going to ramble a bit about CouchSurfing now, so if you don't care, scroll past the next three paragraphs ;D]
If you're not familiar with CouchSurfing, it is a social media website which people use to meet up and stay with each other. While that sounds rather bizarre to a lot of people, particularly those who do not spend much time on the internet, it's a process that works very well in practice. There are checks in place, such as a system of references and vouching to warn others if anybody turns out to be dodgy. Leicester was my second time staying with somebody, which I'm also hoping to do when I head over to the US later in the year.
My host this time was Dani, who very handily is only about a mile away from Leicester Shootfighters. After cycling over (the Google Navigation thing on my phone is fortunately quite thorough, so my total lack of a sense of direction didn't matter), it didn't take me long to work out the right house: flags from around the world were peeping out from behind the window. Dani has travelled to a LOT of countries! ;) She and her housemate Justyna greeted me with a big bottle of Becks and a tasty spaghetti meal.
Another CouchSurfer, Sara, was also there: just like in Dallas, there is a vibrant CouchSurfing community in Leicester. We headed out to a local shisha bar, followed by some excellent cheesy music at Hakamou (it was a bit full for dancing, unfortunately, though I could still have a good wiggle). While there we met two cool Canadian students (randomly, it turns out that Pete was well aware of BJJ, as he did some MMA and JKD back in Alberta), who Sara invited back to her flat where we all had a good chat until 4am. Slightly later than I was intending to get to bed, but Dani and Justyna are so hilariously entertaining that I was laughing too much to care. It's impossible to not have a good time with those two, so I'm looking forward to seeing them again before the next LSG seminar. Thanks for the great night out, CouchSurfers of Leicester! ;D
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There has been heavy snow this weekend, which prevented a few attendees from coming along to the seminar. Then again, that does have the positive outcome of more personal attention from Leverton, which is a good thing from a student perspective. As with LSG 04, LSG 03 kicked off with an introduction. Leverton handed out a sheet detailing the techniques to be taught today, again aiming to cover it all off within five hours.
The seminar proper began with around two hours on turtle top position. I rarely go anywhere near turtle, so although many of the techniques looked familiar, I can't think of the last time I used any of them in sparring. My main interest for this seminar was the back mount portion, but I knew that some focus on the turtle would be good for me, given I don't seem to use it much these days. Particularly in regards to turtle, there was a key difference between LSG 03 and LSG 04: wrestling. As LSG 04 was on the guard, the predominant influence was jiu jitsu, but for the turtle, wrestling provides an excellent base.
Leverton's first technique was defending against the person in turtle trying to grab your legs, as they will often be looking for a takedown. The simplest method of blocking that attack is to sprawl. Whether they have grabbed one or both of your legs, start by grabbing behind their armpit, the other hand going on their head (not their neck: aim for the end of the lever where they're weaker). Push their head towards the mat and then sprawl back. It's important you then square up.
When sprawling, you want to make sure you aren't jumping backwards, as that gives them the opportunity to complete their takedown. Instead, thrust your hips into them then slide down. The aim is to create a wedge with your body that means their forward momentum is dissipated. You can then establish a front headlock, shifting your head-hand to wrap around and grip their chin. Drive the point of your same side shoulder into the base of their neck, right where it meets their back. Similarly to the sprawl, this blocks them moving forwards.
Your other hand clamps onto their triceps, then slides down towards their elbow. Come up on your toes, getting your ear into their armpit on the triceps-gripping side. Lower your chin-grip side knee slightly, then pull back on their arm. From there you can go behind, with two main options. The meaner version seemed to be 'snapping' them (a term I've heard in regards to takedowns, but don't really understand in technical detail because I never work takedowns. Ever), driving with your shoulder first then dragging their arm back. The goal is to get them extended, so that it is difficult for them to react as you move around behind.
The nicer option is moving the arm on their chin to the other side of their head. The back of your hand is on their shoulder, while your arm is still pressed against their head. From there, move around. Leverton suggested this as a good option for when the person turtling is mainly trying to stay tight, rather than making any aggressive actions like a wrestler would. It therefore sounds like it could be a good option in the context of BJJ.
The standard way of maintaining control on top of turtle, or at least the option I'm familiar with, is sprawling out the legs connecting your hips. This is a bit like what Leverton called the 'side ride', which he noted was good for strikes (he should know, given he has a long history of training successful MMA fighters). Leverton prefers a different position, where he uses his forearms to create initial hooks before replacing them with his legs. Crouched directly behind them, brace your forearms into their hips (but not your elbows, or they can try to control them) and squeeze your knees into them.
This is just a transitional position, so don't stay there long. You aren't sprawled back from here because that is space they can move into. From here, twist around to one side. On one side, your forearm stays in as a hook on their hip. Leave a leg behind on that side too, still tight to their body. Your remaining arm reaches for their arm on the other side, joined by your other knee.
If there is space, you can just replace your forearm with your leg to insert your hooks. Note that for the second hook, you will have to turn your body before you can insert it, or you'll find the motion awkward. Most likely they won't let you do that and will stay tight. In that situation, Leverton suggested trying a tilt to back mount, with two options. At this point there was a degree of jiu jitsu influence again, as Leverton described these techniques as the 'Maia' and 'Marcelo' back takes respectively.
For the Maia, you're shifting diagonally into their bottom corner. Move your body backwards slightly, diagonally behind you and away from them on the arm-gripping side. Leave a small space, then pull them into that space. That will roll them over the knee you had on the arm-gripping side, ideally straight into back mount. You'll also want to establish a harness/seat-belt grip, with an arm over the shoulder and the other under the armpit.
By contrast, the Marcelo shifts forwards into their top corner. This is more difficult, as it feels like there are more parts to the motion. Start by jamming the knee on their arm-gripping side into the gap between their thigh and their arm (if they are tight there won't be much space, but digging your knee in should open it up). Sliding over their shoulder, drop onto your own shoulder, pushing off your leg to roll them onto you. A common mistake is to just leap over and hope your body weight will be enough to roll them, which almost certainly won't be the case: you need to be pushing off the mat with your leg. During that roll, pinch your knees around their leg to stop them walking through and escaping.
Next, swing the leg you have underneath around their leg to get your hook. You then want to bring your second hook in, which they may block. If they do, you still have one hook, which allows you to use Marcelo Garcia's 'hip extension'. Lock your feet together, then pull them towards you with your seat-belt grip and thrust your hips into their back. That should stretch them out, giving you the space to secure your second hook.
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After a short break, Leverton moved on to bottom turtle, which again was roughly two hours. I was initially nervous when I saw this was due to feature takedowns, as that was liable to exacerbate my groin injury, but fortunately the takedowns were from turtle and staying low, rather than a big lift and drop. The overarching theme for this section was making your turtle dangerous, rather than a purely defensive position.
The other major point was scooting backwards while in turtle. Bring one arm back at a time, to reduce your vulnerability. By moving backwards, this helps to extend your opponent and open up opportunities for attacking and escaping. That does mean you may mash your knees up drilling, as you're sliding them back and forth on the mats (especially if you are just wearing shorts so the skin is exposed), but meh. Hopefully my awesome Pony Club Grappling Gear spats will arrive at some point: the Yang seems to have gotten stuck in transit from Australia a couple of months ago (possibly customs? Or just Royal Mail being rubbish, as they are frequently crap with getting stuff to the office).
Keep your knees wide for base, elbows inside, then defending your neck with your hands (either Aisling's 'Shirley Temple' defence, or crossing your hands). You need to keep the person in front of you so that moving back becomes particularly effective. Leverton ran us through a quick drill, where the person on top just put their hands on your upper back while you were in turtle, the person on the bottom adjusting to stay facing them.
From here you can attack with a single leg, wrapping their leg and keeping your head on the inside, elbows tight, trying to bring their knee into your chest. This can be set up by backing away: even if they're sprawled, they are going to have to come forward to stay on top. To finish the takedown, keep your inside hand locked behind their knee, grabbing their ankle with the other. Pull that out, then move around, put the leg between your knees and bump them with your shoulder.
This combines well with the double leg. Should you get the opportunity, grab both legs, bring your head outside, drive with your outside leg and move on top. In many ways this was similar to how I've been taught to complete the side control escape to your knees. A detail I wasn't doing (or at least haven't emphasised) is sliding your other knee in. Like Roy Dean's takedown, Leverton pivots to the side rather than staying straight on, but wrapping both legs rather than using a knee block.
I'm familiar with the peek out, which I know as a wrestler's sit-out. Although when I say 'familiar', it isn't something I use a lot because I'm lazy and don't like to move very much. The situation is that they have made the mistake of wrapping arms by your hips. Base on an elbow and the opposite foot, then knock back their same side arm with your non-basing elbow.
Bring your non-basing foot through right across to the opposite corner, getting your head up, then spin behind them. Your inside hand stays by the leg in case they try to run behind. Also make sure you are putting your weight onto them when you bring your head through. If your weight is sat on the floor, the person on top can simply put their head on the floor, bring their leg over and mount.
I prefer the arm roll, which I think I first learned during my very brief stint of judo way back, as a set up for waki-gatame. Of course, a good grappler isn't going to give you their arm like that, but it is still worth knowing. Same position, but this time you reach back and lock their arm. Look in the direction of the wrapped arm, then drop your same side shoulder to the mat and roll them onto their back. Turn towards their legs to come on top (if you turn towards their head, they can take your back).
The sit back to guard is another basic option I'm used to, but it turns out that I have been doing this wrong. This is not the same as trying to pull guard off a takedown attempt. As Leverton noted, jiu jitsu guys can get away with that as their opponents don't normally know how to hold the top turtle position properly or perform a decent double or single leg, at least by comparison to a wrestler. Instead of pulling guard, you are sliding over your leg. Do not kick out your leg: just rock back into guard. Leverton came over several times to correct my positioning, so clearly I have some bad jiu jitsu habits to iron out.
Once I do, this could be very useful for escapes I use all the time, especially the running escape. Which is cool, as I've been struggling to finish that escape properly (as opposed to just stalling with the running escape) for ages. I'm looking forward to seeing if I can incorporate Leverton's details, along with the scoot back Geraldine did the last time I taught the running escape. Although as you can see from the picture, the scenario is somewhat different, so perhaps it isn't entirely relevant.
To perform a front headlock escape, there were two versions, early and late. If you can control that arm before they secure it around your neck (this therefore also applies to guillotines and the like when you're in turtle). Grab their wrist and push it down to the floor, then run your head up the outside of their arm until your reach their shoulder.
If you're late and they've managed to get a bit deeper, the focus will still be on that arm. Reach for the elbow of the arm they have by the neck and try to pull it down into your chest. Use the kind of motion as if you were climbing a rope, hand over hand. After you've secure it towards your chest, switch your knees and step around, reaching an arm around their back. This ends up looking a bit like an arm drag.
Leverton took the opportunity here to make some comments about what he called 'sport jiu jitsu'. I know what he means, but it's a term I dislike: I associate it with the marketing campaign to separate 'self defence' and 'sport' BJJ into two distinct styles, which I think is a false dichotomy: that came up again recently here and I also babble about it extensively here.
He basically said that currently in elite BJJ competition, you will see double-guard pulls where top jiu jitsu competitors fight to grab each other's feet. That looks ridiculous even to an educated viewer. Leverton far prefers to get on top, smash with wrestling and look to submit. Given I'm assuming I was one of the few jiu jitsu people in the room, I kinda feel I have to respond. ;p
Not that I disagree with any of that: I don't like the manner in which some competitors currently aim to play footsie either. I also have absolutely no interest in 50/50 and similarly over-complicated guards, aside from countering them with as simple a pass as possible. The main point I want to make - and I'm sure Leverton is fully aware of this - is that there are lots of people within jiu jitsu saying the same thing. For example, Xande Ribeiro, amongst the greatest competitors of all time and still active in major tournaments today. Speaking to Inside BJJ, Xande stated in #58:
Double guard pull? This is insane. You watch a match, and seven minutes is in the same position. [...] You see fights, black belt fights, seven minutes in a position that is not an end, you know? There's a beginning, there's a middle, but no finish.
I even hear people say, "Well, what if you mount the guy for three minutes..." Yeah buddy, I'm mounted on you. That's totally different. I am in a dominant position. But when you are in a position where the only thing that you can do is a toe hold, get an advantage, or maybe an armbar that some people do from there, that's it. What else is in there? I didn't go to a tournament to have someone fight for their life to wrap their legs around my leg and stay there for eight minutes.
I tell people, grab my fricking arm and pull my arm for ten minutes! Pull my neck for ten minutes! Do not pull my leg and wrap around it tight. That's not the jiu jitsu I teach for my students. Double guard pull? What is this double guard pull? All of a sudden jiu jitsu is two guys fighting for the bottom? I don't really appreciate it, it's ugly, it's bad.
People should be a little more proud and think "I'm a bad ass passer. I'm going to pass your legs, go around to your side, hold on to you and you're going to suffer." I think that should be more the mentality, not just a sweeping art. "Ok, I sweep you, then I stall and I get two advantages, then I sit my butt on the floor again."
I wasn't raised like that. I'm from a time when you could slam in jiu jitsu, you could reap the knee. People fought for the finish, points were just consequences of your work.
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Back mount lasted around an hour, brought over from another seminar in the series that was overly long. Starting with the top, lower body control discussed hooking your feet inside. Bring your knees up higher to shorten the length of your legs, as this will provide less space for their escape. Tense the hamstring if they roll, following them over remaining stuck to their back.
Upper body control looked at the seat-belt grip, also known as the harness, which is the basic over the shoulder and under the armpit grip. Leverton prefers to cover his choking hand with his armpit hand: as I've discussed in the past, there are various opinions on the best option. Some instructors teach that covering with the armpit hand means you can go straight to the choke if they try to knock it off. Others prefer having the choking hand on top, so that you already have that immediate route to the neck.
The body triangle depends a lot on both your body type and that of your partner. In my case, I'm quite flexible, but there was no way I was locking my short legs around my partner, who was a fair bit bigger than me (even with Leverton's handy tip about opening your hips by turning your toes downwards).
Next up was a few tips I recognised from Marcelo Garcia, as these are both techniques I've taught in the past and had success with in rolling, based off Marcelo Garcia's material. Marshal Carper, who was among the co-authors for Garcia's book, produced a handy video detailing the techniques in combination. First there is moving them from side to side with your legs, particularly if you have them on the choking side and they try to roll away, then secondly there is the 'hip extension' method for opening up space to insert your second hook (covered more briefly earlier in the seminar).
Leverton also examined the standard transition to full mount if you're losing the back, which looked familiar to how I've seen it taught elsewhere (lock your heel to their far hip and swivel around), althrough I don't normally grab the arm. That's a useful detail to keep in mind.
Leverton then moved into two submissions (incidentally, it was cool that Leverton focused on controlling position rather than loads of submissions, in contrast to numerous other seminars). I have taught the rear naked choke a number of times, but was looking forward to Leverton's version, hoping to learn some useful tweaks. Leverton did not disappoint, providing simple details that could make a huge difference. The most important distinction is the way he places his locking arm, so that it becomes more involved in the choke.
It is entirely possible most other instructors do this, but it is not something that I can remember being emphasised. Set-up the choke in the usual way, bringing your choking arm around their neck with your elbow under their chin and your body tight. The second arm locks up with the elbow in front of their shoulder, not behind. Both of your armpits are therefore resting on their shoulders.
That minor shift in position makes it a lot tighter, along with the considerable advantage of hiding both your wrists (which they now can't grab). Leverton noted that while there are lots of ways of finishing off the choke, such as expanding your chest (which I like to do), you have your arms around their neck so squeeze those before anything else.
Leverton's variation reminded me of the palm to palm lock Kesting does to walk his arm into position. It is also something I've seen on Demian Maia's DVD, where you are essentially choking them with one arm. This is useful if for some reason you can't get that second arm into place, though it is naturally not as strong a choke as when you can get both arms locked in for a true RNC.
If they tuck their chin, you can bring your arm over the head for a nasty Neil Adams style armbar from the back, which involves a vicious grip that is almost a bicep slicer. If for some reason you haven't heard of Neil Adams, he has two Olympic silver medals in judo and is very, very good at armbarring people. When Adams tells you how to do an armbar, you should listen extremely closely. ;)
Grab their wrist, then reach your other arm over. Grab their wrist with that other hand, whereupon you can switch your first grip to your own wrist, securing a figure four grip. Drop to your shoulder, swinging around: as you do, bring your leg across their hips, swinging the other leg out. This spin should be the same kind of motion as when you spin for an armbar from guard (I've always sucked at armbars from guard, so wasn't very fluid at this).
Hook the swinging leg over their head, so the back of your calf is pressing into their face/temple rather than their neck (for the same reason as a Thai clinch, because holding higher on the head is harder for them to resist than gripping by their neck.) Move your arm deeper, so that instead of grabbing your wrist, you're now grabbing nearer your elbow. Curl your wrists up and you can also turn the hand nearer you elbow upwards.
Straighten your leg into their head as you apply pressure with your arms. Speaking from experience, this feels horrible. I would be tapping long before the actual armbar. If your opponent is tougher than me (which is highly likely), use that hold to unlock their hands (which they will normally clamp together to defend the armbar), then drop back for the submission.
You can briefly see Neil Adams himself use the grip in this video, which is from another seminar at Leicester Shootfighters:
Leverton's demonstration of back mount escapes was quick by comparison to the rest of the seminar, beginning with some basic survival details, such as hand placement on the neck. Again, you can use the 'Shirley Temple/Home Alone' or the hands crossed over the neck. Elbow inside, knees up, keeping your abs tight. You can then move into the escape, which was a fairly standard drop to the side and shrimp.
It was essentially the same version Xande demonstrates on his DVD set. Leverton calls it the 'scrape escape'. Drop to your side, bringing your knee in, then lift and pop their knee off with your hip, just like Xande. Shrimp out pushing on their leg, ready to move into guard should they try to move on top, as people normally will attempt. If they've got a choke in the early stages, it is especially important to get your head and shoulders to the mat to reduce their efficacy.
You can also turn to your knees, using the same motion as if you're escaping from under side control to your knees. This is useful for when they've locked their legs in a sort of 'side-on back mount', making it hard to complete the usual escape. If you can drop your elbow, then there is a chance you can thread one leg under the other, turning on the spot to come up in their guard. Leverton also mentioned escaping the body triangle using a similar motion to the scrap escape (personally I just step over their foot and bridge into their locked feet, as he demonstrated, but it as he said it's good to keep practicing that scrape escape motion).
I realised at the end that I had been drilling with Jake from Fighting at Forty blog, which is a good site I've been reading recently. I love meeting fellow bloggers whose work I enjoy, which was therefore a cool way to end the seminar. I'm looking forward to making more of them, which will also mean I can get in some more CouchSurfing fun. All in all, great weekend, particularly as when I got home, I saw that the GrappleThon has now raised over £4000 for Rape Crisis! :D
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