Class #1210
Jugendhotel Wiederkehr, Brian Carlsen, Wagrain, Austria - 03/01/2020
Handy summary of the standard butterfly guard techniques. Brian likes to use a sleeve and belt grip, can pull in tight. Check out Adam Wardzinski, he cited him as a major source.
Showing posts with label butterfly sweep. Show all posts
Showing posts with label butterfly sweep. Show all posts
03 January 2020
09 September 2017
09/04/2017 - Dan Strauss Seminar
Seminar #029
Artemis BJJ, Daniel Strauss, Taunton, UK - 09/04/2017
Dan Strauss, who has become one of the better known UK Grapplers thanks to his charismatic performances on Polaris along with his popular Raspberry Ape Podcast, is nearing the end of his butterfly guard seminar tour. I missed his Bristol dates due to being away, but fortunately I was available for Dan's stop at Taunton (only about 30 mins on the train). Impressively, this is the 40th time Dan has taught this material, having begun his tour back in March.
He kicked off with some pointers about butterfly fundamentals. Keep your head in front of your bum and make sure they can't crush your knees together. They might try using their knees to do that, which you can prevent by staggering your hooks. If they attempt to pass, you need to make sure you have your hooks engaged. Dan made the useful comparisons to the back position, noting that back hooks also need to.be engaged (driving your heels in), or your back control will easy to escape.
Similarly, if you don't tense your instep, then your partner will be able to backstep and pass. Should they crush down, you need to either push them away with your legs, or push yourself away. Their head may stay down (or they may try to lead with their head to pass), in which case you should threaten a guilloiltine. That will make them shoot their head back: if they leave their head there, naturally you can just finish the choke.
Dan also showed how you can enter into butterfly guard from half guard and side control. From half guard, shrimp out, insert your foot (lead with your foot, don't bring your knee in), then use that engaged hook to move into butterfly. Under side control, Dan had some variations for the standard guard recovery. Walk your feet out and bring your body to 90 degrees. Bring and bring your knee in as usual, but with an important difference. Tuck your other foot behind that knee, meaning it is there ready to become a butterfly hook. That will require you to swing your leg in with your hips, as you can't drive off your foot.
The technical bulk of the seminar built around two variations of the basic butterfly sweep. First Dan showed how you can use a whizzer to create a strong control. When they underhook, bring your arm underneath and move round to their shoulder. Reach through to hook your hand over their other arm. With your free hand, pull that same arm by grasping their wrist, yanking it to your hip. You can then switch from the wrist to grab their elbow.
Put your hook close to their knee, in order to avoid lifting up into the groin. If you need more leverage for the sweep, push with your other foot just above their other knee, like the push sweep follow up to a scissor sweep. You can enter this same position from half guard, when they get an underhook on you. Shrimp out, then establish your butterfly hook and overhook at the sake time. With a gi, it can be even stronger, as then you can anchor your whizzer on their collar.
The seminar finished with my favourite grip from butterfly, the shoulder clamp, which Dan calls the single shoulder. It's his favourite too, so he had lots of great details on tightening it up. First off, the hand going under faces away, while the hand over has palm towards you. Lock it by their shoulder, jamming that shoulder into your sternum. Keep that shoulder pressed in, dropping back and stretching them out with your legs.
Drive your arm under their neck and roll them over, windscreen wiping your legs across their body to get knee on belly on the other side. That leaves you with a strong control on their far arm. Looking forward to more from Dan in the future!
Artemis BJJ, Daniel Strauss, Taunton, UK - 09/04/2017
Dan Strauss, who has become one of the better known UK Grapplers thanks to his charismatic performances on Polaris along with his popular Raspberry Ape Podcast, is nearing the end of his butterfly guard seminar tour. I missed his Bristol dates due to being away, but fortunately I was available for Dan's stop at Taunton (only about 30 mins on the train). Impressively, this is the 40th time Dan has taught this material, having begun his tour back in March.
He kicked off with some pointers about butterfly fundamentals. Keep your head in front of your bum and make sure they can't crush your knees together. They might try using their knees to do that, which you can prevent by staggering your hooks. If they attempt to pass, you need to make sure you have your hooks engaged. Dan made the useful comparisons to the back position, noting that back hooks also need to.be engaged (driving your heels in), or your back control will easy to escape.
Similarly, if you don't tense your instep, then your partner will be able to backstep and pass. Should they crush down, you need to either push them away with your legs, or push yourself away. Their head may stay down (or they may try to lead with their head to pass), in which case you should threaten a guilloiltine. That will make them shoot their head back: if they leave their head there, naturally you can just finish the choke.
Dan also showed how you can enter into butterfly guard from half guard and side control. From half guard, shrimp out, insert your foot (lead with your foot, don't bring your knee in), then use that engaged hook to move into butterfly. Under side control, Dan had some variations for the standard guard recovery. Walk your feet out and bring your body to 90 degrees. Bring and bring your knee in as usual, but with an important difference. Tuck your other foot behind that knee, meaning it is there ready to become a butterfly hook. That will require you to swing your leg in with your hips, as you can't drive off your foot.
The technical bulk of the seminar built around two variations of the basic butterfly sweep. First Dan showed how you can use a whizzer to create a strong control. When they underhook, bring your arm underneath and move round to their shoulder. Reach through to hook your hand over their other arm. With your free hand, pull that same arm by grasping their wrist, yanking it to your hip. You can then switch from the wrist to grab their elbow.
Put your hook close to their knee, in order to avoid lifting up into the groin. If you need more leverage for the sweep, push with your other foot just above their other knee, like the push sweep follow up to a scissor sweep. You can enter this same position from half guard, when they get an underhook on you. Shrimp out, then establish your butterfly hook and overhook at the sake time. With a gi, it can be even stronger, as then you can anchor your whizzer on their collar.
The seminar finished with my favourite grip from butterfly, the shoulder clamp, which Dan calls the single shoulder. It's his favourite too, so he had lots of great details on tightening it up. First off, the hand going under faces away, while the hand over has palm towards you. Lock it by their shoulder, jamming that shoulder into your sternum. Keep that shoulder pressed in, dropping back and stretching them out with your legs.
Drive your arm under their neck and roll them over, windscreen wiping your legs across their body to get knee on belly on the other side. That leaves you with a strong control on their far arm. Looking forward to more from Dan in the future!
25 July 2017
25/07/2017 - BJJ Globetrotter Camp | Leuven 2017 | Butterfly Sweeps (Chris Haueter)
Class #853
BJJ Globetrotter Camp (Sportoase Leuven), Chris Haueter, Leuven, Belgium, 25/07/2017
In 2016, this session wasn't so much a class as an extended lecture. I was anticipating it would be similar in 2017, ready to leave before the end like last year (especially as I had the excitement of D&D waiting at 7pm). I expected it to run over, but Haueter managed to keep on time this year.
After the lecture part finished, he spoke a bit about butterfly sweeps, using the classic belt grip set up. He then showed a less common variation, using the gi tail. From butterfly guard, pull out the gi on one side and feed it around the back to their other hand. Firmly grasp their trciep with your non gi gripping hand, high. You go for the sweep, but they base out to prevent going over.
Cross your feet over that basing leg, on the gi gripping side. Haueter called this 'micro-guard'. Pummel your head inside their arm on the non-=gi gripping side. You can then pop out under his armpit, switching the gi grip to your other handm, then drag them to take the back. Alternatively, you might complete the sweep as they attempt to pass.
BJJ Globetrotter Camp (Sportoase Leuven), Chris Haueter, Leuven, Belgium, 25/07/2017
In 2016, this session wasn't so much a class as an extended lecture. I was anticipating it would be similar in 2017, ready to leave before the end like last year (especially as I had the excitement of D&D waiting at 7pm). I expected it to run over, but Haueter managed to keep on time this year.
After the lecture part finished, he spoke a bit about butterfly sweeps, using the classic belt grip set up. He then showed a less common variation, using the gi tail. From butterfly guard, pull out the gi on one side and feed it around the back to their other hand. Firmly grasp their trciep with your non gi gripping hand, high. You go for the sweep, but they base out to prevent going over.
Cross your feet over that basing leg, on the gi gripping side. Haueter called this 'micro-guard'. Pummel your head inside their arm on the non-=gi gripping side. You can then pop out under his armpit, switching the gi grip to your other handm, then drag them to take the back. Alternatively, you might complete the sweep as they attempt to pass.
24 February 2017
24/02/2017 - Open Mat with Chad | Open Guard
Class #805
Artemis BJJ (MYGYM Bristol), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - -24/02/2017
I was lucky enough today to have a visit from a BJJ Globetrotter friend of mine, Chad Wright. He was passing through Bristol, so kindly dropped in to share some tips with Matt and I before class started. The focus, as ever, was open guard, my major bugbear. For the typical open guard approach, you want to get that push/pull going, that I've talked about before. Grip a sleeve and push your foot into their same side hip. With your other hand, you want a deep collar grip, really pulling them down towards you. Classic guard, with your other leg swung out. It would be good to learn more about that from Neil, I'll ask if he can cover that for the seminar.
If you lose your hip control, try bringing that leg over their head, if you can. On the butterfly sweep, Chad suggested that rather than just falling to the side, you should really emphasise pushing off the other foot. In his version, that was key, rather than just a way to get a bit of extra leverage if you can't quite finish the sweep (which is how I've been using the other foot).
You do the same kind of motion as in the turn to the knees shrimp (which I need to get back into the warm up, it's been slipping. The application for techniques like this is useful, but needs that facility with the movement). That's where the leverage comes from, lots of power. I need to play with it more, felt a little awkward, but interesting.
Another simple point Chad made is that open guard is hard. There is no need to engage with it, you can just put a hand on their head and stand up. In a competition setting, at worst they will take you down and get two points. Still better than the alternative result of your crappy open guard, which is them passing and getting three points.
However, it isn't so workable in class, there isn't the room or mat thickness to get into takedown battles. Maybe I could just come up slightly, like I do for the ankle pick sweep, using it to get in close and secure better grips. I don't have to fully stand up.
Chad also went through a bunch of details on the over-under sweep with Matt. I didn't catch a lot of what he said, but the main thing I remember is squaring back up to finish the pass. The temptation is to keep going around, but that makes it easier for them to wrap their leg around yours. If you square up first, it becomes way harder to keep that leg in play, meaning you can just kick it around.
Checking with Matt, he filled in some of the bits I'd forgotten. First, the importance of staying low on the hips rather than going too high with your shoulder. If your shoulder goes up too high, their hips get more space to move as a result. You also need to be careful they can't underhook your arm: that's something I managed to do a couple of times when we were testing this pass, which makes it hard to complete.
Artemis BJJ (MYGYM Bristol), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - -24/02/2017
I was lucky enough today to have a visit from a BJJ Globetrotter friend of mine, Chad Wright. He was passing through Bristol, so kindly dropped in to share some tips with Matt and I before class started. The focus, as ever, was open guard, my major bugbear. For the typical open guard approach, you want to get that push/pull going, that I've talked about before. Grip a sleeve and push your foot into their same side hip. With your other hand, you want a deep collar grip, really pulling them down towards you. Classic guard, with your other leg swung out. It would be good to learn more about that from Neil, I'll ask if he can cover that for the seminar.
If you lose your hip control, try bringing that leg over their head, if you can. On the butterfly sweep, Chad suggested that rather than just falling to the side, you should really emphasise pushing off the other foot. In his version, that was key, rather than just a way to get a bit of extra leverage if you can't quite finish the sweep (which is how I've been using the other foot).
You do the same kind of motion as in the turn to the knees shrimp (which I need to get back into the warm up, it's been slipping. The application for techniques like this is useful, but needs that facility with the movement). That's where the leverage comes from, lots of power. I need to play with it more, felt a little awkward, but interesting.
Another simple point Chad made is that open guard is hard. There is no need to engage with it, you can just put a hand on their head and stand up. In a competition setting, at worst they will take you down and get two points. Still better than the alternative result of your crappy open guard, which is them passing and getting three points.
However, it isn't so workable in class, there isn't the room or mat thickness to get into takedown battles. Maybe I could just come up slightly, like I do for the ankle pick sweep, using it to get in close and secure better grips. I don't have to fully stand up.
Chad also went through a bunch of details on the over-under sweep with Matt. I didn't catch a lot of what he said, but the main thing I remember is squaring back up to finish the pass. The temptation is to keep going around, but that makes it easier for them to wrap their leg around yours. If you square up first, it becomes way harder to keep that leg in play, meaning you can just kick it around.
Checking with Matt, he filled in some of the bits I'd forgotten. First, the importance of staying low on the hips rather than going too high with your shoulder. If your shoulder goes up too high, their hips get more space to move as a result. You also need to be careful they can't underhook your arm: that's something I managed to do a couple of times when we were testing this pass, which makes it hard to complete.
02 August 2014
02/08/2014 - Open Mat | Butterfly Guard | Butterfly Sweep
Class #585
Artemis BJJ (Impact Gym), Open Mat, Bristol, UK - 02/08/2014
After teaching the nogi class, it was time for open mat. Like I do every week, I wanted to practice the techniques I'm intending to teach over the next few lessons, in this case butterfly guard (or at least, that's what I'll be teaching at Bristol Sports Centre.) I have never been a big butterfly guard players, but I have always wanted to get better at it. The main sweep is among the most powerful in all of BJJ, as ably demonstrated on Carlos Machado's awesome DVD on the topic from a while ago.
After running through the basic sweep a few times, I added in the technique I'm considering teaching on Wednesday, where you follow up a failed sweep with a back take. If you're using the orthodox grip for the butterfly sweep, where you have an underhook reaching around the back to grab their belt, you can do basically the same thing as if it was half guard. Shuck their arm by knocking it with your underhook, using the momentum to duck under the arm and spin to the back.
Mark mentioned a handy pointer when I was drilling this with him. If you have the underhook deep to your shoulder, then knocking them is simple. But if you don't have that deep a grip, they can exploit that space if you try to take the back. So, in that situation, flaring your elbow out when you're knocking their arm can increase the efficacy of your back take attempt.
Having a look through the butterfly sweeps on my favourite online training site, BJJ Library. Saulo has an interesting option he calls the 'switchback sweep'. Rather than underhooking or grabbing somewhere on the sleeve, he grabs over the top of each arm, locking that in by grasping the gi. That means he can sweep his opponent in either direction, because he's got both arms trapped. The difficulty I had when drilling this was that I'm not able to trap them very effectively, as they can normally swivel their arms free. If I do trap the arm really tightly, I have to get in close and drive my shoulder to do it, making the other grip harder to secure.
Anyway, the switch to sweep the other way certainly works, it's that initial sweep which is hard. If the first sweep is mainly a feint, that would make sense, though I assume I just need to drill this more to refine my understanding. The principle is a good one, so I'll be playing with this over the next week if I get the chance. Mark tried grabbing their arm with both of his: that works too, but then you don't have an arm free to try and trap their same side arm.
Mark wanted to drill reverse triangles under side control. I do use that technique, but most of the time just to recover guard. I rarely try to actually submit someone with it, but Mark had some cool concepts on the position from a Braulio seminar he'd been to a while ago. He also mentioned how Braulio had said that if you're going for the triangle from guard, but don't have it locked in properly, you can try grabbing their head and twisting it at an angle. This may put the carotid arteries into the right configuration that you can then tap them just by squeezing your legs, even if you haven't got a 'proper' triangle secured.
The last thing I wanted to note from open mat was what Mark said about defending the knee cut pass. Apparently, Dónal and Mark's brother Chris both reach under their own leg and grab the passer's ankle, stuffing the sweep. Dónal then attempts to hook his free foot under the passer's foot, moving into a sweep. I haven't tried that before: it feels a bit like knee shield. Mostly I've been trying to use the mawashi grip from that Kev private a while back, but this looks a bit more intuitive. Both worth investigating some more in the future. :)
Artemis BJJ (Impact Gym), Open Mat, Bristol, UK - 02/08/2014
After teaching the nogi class, it was time for open mat. Like I do every week, I wanted to practice the techniques I'm intending to teach over the next few lessons, in this case butterfly guard (or at least, that's what I'll be teaching at Bristol Sports Centre.) I have never been a big butterfly guard players, but I have always wanted to get better at it. The main sweep is among the most powerful in all of BJJ, as ably demonstrated on Carlos Machado's awesome DVD on the topic from a while ago.
After running through the basic sweep a few times, I added in the technique I'm considering teaching on Wednesday, where you follow up a failed sweep with a back take. If you're using the orthodox grip for the butterfly sweep, where you have an underhook reaching around the back to grab their belt, you can do basically the same thing as if it was half guard. Shuck their arm by knocking it with your underhook, using the momentum to duck under the arm and spin to the back.
Mark mentioned a handy pointer when I was drilling this with him. If you have the underhook deep to your shoulder, then knocking them is simple. But if you don't have that deep a grip, they can exploit that space if you try to take the back. So, in that situation, flaring your elbow out when you're knocking their arm can increase the efficacy of your back take attempt.
Having a look through the butterfly sweeps on my favourite online training site, BJJ Library. Saulo has an interesting option he calls the 'switchback sweep'. Rather than underhooking or grabbing somewhere on the sleeve, he grabs over the top of each arm, locking that in by grasping the gi. That means he can sweep his opponent in either direction, because he's got both arms trapped. The difficulty I had when drilling this was that I'm not able to trap them very effectively, as they can normally swivel their arms free. If I do trap the arm really tightly, I have to get in close and drive my shoulder to do it, making the other grip harder to secure.Anyway, the switch to sweep the other way certainly works, it's that initial sweep which is hard. If the first sweep is mainly a feint, that would make sense, though I assume I just need to drill this more to refine my understanding. The principle is a good one, so I'll be playing with this over the next week if I get the chance. Mark tried grabbing their arm with both of his: that works too, but then you don't have an arm free to try and trap their same side arm.
Mark wanted to drill reverse triangles under side control. I do use that technique, but most of the time just to recover guard. I rarely try to actually submit someone with it, but Mark had some cool concepts on the position from a Braulio seminar he'd been to a while ago. He also mentioned how Braulio had said that if you're going for the triangle from guard, but don't have it locked in properly, you can try grabbing their head and twisting it at an angle. This may put the carotid arteries into the right configuration that you can then tap them just by squeezing your legs, even if you haven't got a 'proper' triangle secured.
The last thing I wanted to note from open mat was what Mark said about defending the knee cut pass. Apparently, Dónal and Mark's brother Chris both reach under their own leg and grab the passer's ankle, stuffing the sweep. Dónal then attempts to hook his free foot under the passer's foot, moving into a sweep. I haven't tried that before: it feels a bit like knee shield. Mostly I've been trying to use the mawashi grip from that Kev private a while back, but this looks a bit more intuitive. Both worth investigating some more in the future. :)
23 January 2014
23/01/2014 - Hit Fit (Open Guard Passing)
Class #540
Hit Fit, (BJJ), Dónal Carmody, Bristol, UK - 23/01/2014
I'm excited to announce that next week will be the first class at Artemis BJJ, the new club Dónal and I have set up! We haven't done a big launch yet, but the website is up and running, along with the usual social media stuff (so far, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram). I'm still digging through the various bits of bureaucracy involved in setting it up, but I'm looking forward to finally getting back into a regular pattern of training. First week will be free regardless, but we'll probably have a longer free period to kick things off. So, would be cool to see you on the mats at the Bristol Sports Centre on Monday at 19:30. :D
__________________
Dónal started with a simple knee cut drill, where they are on their back in open guard. Step between their legs with one of your own, then cut across to the opposite side, over their thigh. Slide your hip through, keeping your hip tight for pressure, ideally also underhooking their far arm. That was followed by a connected drill, where you're in the same scenario but this time they push into the leg you're trying to cut across. Swing your leg back, then step it through to their side, moving into knee on belly.
Dónal rounded off that section with the butterfly pass he likes to teach. You're facing them, both of you kneeling with one knee raised. Reach over their back and secure a grip under their opposite shoulder. Using your raised knee, push their knees in the opposite direction. The idea here is to clamp their knees to the mat, pressuring through the side of their top knee. Replace that pressure with your hand, keeping the arm straight to use your skeletal structure rather than muscles. You can then pass to side control or possibly take their back, depending on their reaction.
Finally, there was a very basic butterfly sweep from the same position. As soon as they go to grab the knee you have on the floor, control their elbow or sleeve and push their arm across your body. Hooking under their raised leg with your same side instep, then lift as your drop your shoulder on the other side to the mat. This should flip them over, whereupon you can establish side control.
Specific sparring was from on your knees, with the goal of either passing, sweeping or submitting. I was impressed with how quickly my training partner, Estee, picked up the fundamentals of grappling. She was already doing a good job of keeping me away with her feet (just like I'd taught her last week, with good hip movement. Seems to be a natural, so it will be cool to see how she progresses, especially as this is only her second class!
I also had a roll with Mark, where I was pleased to manage a tripod sweep, but weirdly while he was still on his knees. I didn't expect it to work too well from that position, so I'll keep trying it. It's been really helpful having that focus from my previous private lesson with Kev, though I still keep forgetting to try the arm drag attempt to sit up sweep. I've also found considerable utility in the basic open guard position Kev suggested, where I'm sat up, one hand behind for base and the other gripping deep in their collar.
In the open mat hour after class, I was able to fit in a long roll with Gary. I'm not having any luck with the mawashi grip. I did a bit of drilling, but couldn't seem to get any benefit, so that's something to keep experimenting with. I was mainly keeping him at bay by pushing on his hips with my feet, but with very limited success on sweeps. I did eventually get to mount, where I could hold the position, but wasn't able to progress to any kind of submission. I need to keep working on walking my knees up high, as well as threatening the ezequiel when I'm lower down.
Hit Fit, (BJJ), Dónal Carmody, Bristol, UK - 23/01/2014
I'm excited to announce that next week will be the first class at Artemis BJJ, the new club Dónal and I have set up! We haven't done a big launch yet, but the website is up and running, along with the usual social media stuff (so far, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram). I'm still digging through the various bits of bureaucracy involved in setting it up, but I'm looking forward to finally getting back into a regular pattern of training. First week will be free regardless, but we'll probably have a longer free period to kick things off. So, would be cool to see you on the mats at the Bristol Sports Centre on Monday at 19:30. :D
__________________
Dónal started with a simple knee cut drill, where they are on their back in open guard. Step between their legs with one of your own, then cut across to the opposite side, over their thigh. Slide your hip through, keeping your hip tight for pressure, ideally also underhooking their far arm. That was followed by a connected drill, where you're in the same scenario but this time they push into the leg you're trying to cut across. Swing your leg back, then step it through to their side, moving into knee on belly.
Dónal rounded off that section with the butterfly pass he likes to teach. You're facing them, both of you kneeling with one knee raised. Reach over their back and secure a grip under their opposite shoulder. Using your raised knee, push their knees in the opposite direction. The idea here is to clamp their knees to the mat, pressuring through the side of their top knee. Replace that pressure with your hand, keeping the arm straight to use your skeletal structure rather than muscles. You can then pass to side control or possibly take their back, depending on their reaction.
Finally, there was a very basic butterfly sweep from the same position. As soon as they go to grab the knee you have on the floor, control their elbow or sleeve and push their arm across your body. Hooking under their raised leg with your same side instep, then lift as your drop your shoulder on the other side to the mat. This should flip them over, whereupon you can establish side control.
Specific sparring was from on your knees, with the goal of either passing, sweeping or submitting. I was impressed with how quickly my training partner, Estee, picked up the fundamentals of grappling. She was already doing a good job of keeping me away with her feet (just like I'd taught her last week, with good hip movement. Seems to be a natural, so it will be cool to see how she progresses, especially as this is only her second class!
I also had a roll with Mark, where I was pleased to manage a tripod sweep, but weirdly while he was still on his knees. I didn't expect it to work too well from that position, so I'll keep trying it. It's been really helpful having that focus from my previous private lesson with Kev, though I still keep forgetting to try the arm drag attempt to sit up sweep. I've also found considerable utility in the basic open guard position Kev suggested, where I'm sat up, one hand behind for base and the other gripping deep in their collar.
In the open mat hour after class, I was able to fit in a long roll with Gary. I'm not having any luck with the mawashi grip. I did a bit of drilling, but couldn't seem to get any benefit, so that's something to keep experimenting with. I was mainly keeping him at bay by pushing on his hips with my feet, but with very limited success on sweeps. I did eventually get to mount, where I could hold the position, but wasn't able to progress to any kind of submission. I need to keep working on walking my knees up high, as well as threatening the ezequiel when I'm lower down.
03 October 2013
03/10/2013 - BJJ at Hit Fit with Dónal
Class #526
Hit Fit, (BJJ), Dónal Carmody, Bristol, UK - 03/10/2013
It was much busier tonight, with a blue belt on the mat as well as the two purple belts (Dónal and I). Still, the vast majority were beginners, to the extent that most of them didn't have a gi yet (though I'm guess some of them may well have been training MMA and the like in the past).
Dónal began with a basic knee cut drill, where you put your leg in the middle of theirs, then cut it across their thigh. That was followed up by lifting under their knee if they blocked, turn to the other side, then push that leg across and flop down on top of it. In other words, this was another simplified version of a private Dónal has taught me before: it's very interesting to see how he strips it down, as that's a useful skill for teaching.
Next up was a basic butterfly sweep. Scoot in, hook one foot under their thigh, while your other foot is a bit off to the side. Bring your arm around their back and under their arm on the hooking side. With your free hand, grab their same side arm and pull it inwards (they will normally be gripping your trouser leg), then drop your shoulder sideways and kick up with your hook.
Sparring was from butterfly, where I'm particularly weak: I should really follow my own advice from a while back, when I last taught butterfly, but I invariably go for either spider or closed guard. I sucked on the bottom today, unable to do a whole lot even against beginners (many of whom weren't wearing a gi, which didn't help, but I wasn't getting far with those who were either). On the plus side, I'm continuing to experiment with the simple concept of pulling them towards you to get them to sit back, so you can sit-up sweep. I need to rebuild a functional guard game, so that will be one part of it (the sit-up sweep has always been my most successful sweep from guard).
I also got a reminder of the old elbow grind guard break, which hasn't happened to me in a long time. On the one hand it's crude, pure pain compliance and therefore low percentage. On the other hand, a beginner doesn't know any better than to grind their elbows into your thighs, so it's up to me to defend and neutralise it. Generally, you can just pull on their elbows, or I guess open the guard and go to something else, like spider. Although there's a little voice in the back of your head if you do that, shouting "No! Don't let them think elbow grinding works!" ;)
Passing went better, which is a complete turnaround from a few years back, when I saw myself as a bottom player (although again, there was a big experience gap). I went for the knee cut every time, then a single underhook stack pass if that wasn't working. Though I wasn't dealing with the blocking hand into the hip properly: should have brought my hips over to bend the wrist, or insert my knee by the elbow to bring their arm out of the way.
Hit Fit, (BJJ), Dónal Carmody, Bristol, UK - 03/10/2013
It was much busier tonight, with a blue belt on the mat as well as the two purple belts (Dónal and I). Still, the vast majority were beginners, to the extent that most of them didn't have a gi yet (though I'm guess some of them may well have been training MMA and the like in the past).
Dónal began with a basic knee cut drill, where you put your leg in the middle of theirs, then cut it across their thigh. That was followed up by lifting under their knee if they blocked, turn to the other side, then push that leg across and flop down on top of it. In other words, this was another simplified version of a private Dónal has taught me before: it's very interesting to see how he strips it down, as that's a useful skill for teaching.
Sparring was from butterfly, where I'm particularly weak: I should really follow my own advice from a while back, when I last taught butterfly, but I invariably go for either spider or closed guard. I sucked on the bottom today, unable to do a whole lot even against beginners (many of whom weren't wearing a gi, which didn't help, but I wasn't getting far with those who were either). On the plus side, I'm continuing to experiment with the simple concept of pulling them towards you to get them to sit back, so you can sit-up sweep. I need to rebuild a functional guard game, so that will be one part of it (the sit-up sweep has always been my most successful sweep from guard).
I also got a reminder of the old elbow grind guard break, which hasn't happened to me in a long time. On the one hand it's crude, pure pain compliance and therefore low percentage. On the other hand, a beginner doesn't know any better than to grind their elbows into your thighs, so it's up to me to defend and neutralise it. Generally, you can just pull on their elbows, or I guess open the guard and go to something else, like spider. Although there's a little voice in the back of your head if you do that, shouting "No! Don't let them think elbow grinding works!" ;)
Passing went better, which is a complete turnaround from a few years back, when I saw myself as a bottom player (although again, there was a big experience gap). I went for the knee cut every time, then a single underhook stack pass if that wasn't working. Though I wasn't dealing with the blocking hand into the hip properly: should have brought my hips over to bend the wrist, or insert my knee by the elbow to bring their arm out of the way.
08 May 2012
Seminar: John B Will
Seminar #007
Dowty Judo Club, (BJJ), John B Will, Gloucester, UK - 08/05/2012
There aren’t many sources of BJJ history available in English. The main text is Kid Peligro’s The Gracie Way, an interesting if biased biography of several figures from the Gracie family. John Danaher has been involved in two instructional books with significant historical sections, Mastering Jujitsu and BJJ: Theory & Technique, though the historical section of the former is essentially an update of the latter. Aside from that, it is mostly MMA histories like No Holds Barred and Total MMA.
However, there is another useful historical source, contained within the pages of John Will’s ‘Rogue Black Belt’ series of books, specifically the second and third volumes of his three part biographical sequence. Hence why I jumped at the chance to meet him in person for an interview, which should be appearing a little further down the line. Thanks to Mark Collett, I was able to meet Will before his seminar on the 8th May, as well as attend that seminar myself.
Update October 2014: An edit of that interview popped up in Jiu Jitsu Style #010 in 2012, plus it's now being republished in full over on the Artemis BJJ website. First part can be found here and the second part here.
I already knew both from Will’s books and Mark that this would be a very different class format to what I'm used to. First of all, everybody faces the same way, with Will standing against a wall he designates as ‘north’. Every technique is drilled like that, which makes a lot of sense: it means that the instructor can easily scan the room to see any errors, and can just say “move your right leg a little to the left”, knowing that there is no need to try and mentally adjust to the varied configuration of each pair of training partners.
Secondly, for the demonstration of the technique, Will does the usual thing of having everybody gather around him in a circle. This again makes sense, as you can get the best angle that way, maximising the space, rather than being spread out along a wall. Thirdly, when drilling he talks you through the technique: if you weren't paying attention during the demonstration, the instructor now has a chance to correct you. Finally, everybody drills a couple of times at their own pace. After that, you switch, so the process can be repeated for your partner.
Given his extensive history in the sport (we’re talking about a man who first trained with Rorion in the 1980s, years before the UFC brought BJJ to international attention), there were plenty of anecdotes. Rigan Machado’s teaching methodology was used to illustrate one point, Hélio Gracie’s attitude to private lessons fleshed out another. Hélio also served as the central reference for the first set of techniques, which Will referred to as ‘the four days of Hélio’: the structure and content was taken directly from four private lessons Will had experienced with Hélio himself.
The four lessons built up to a sweep from the guard. Hélio didn’t assume you already had the grips: the starting point was in guard with no grips at all, while they still have good posture. So, lesson one was extremely simple. Grab behind their elbows (and it needs to be the elbows, not the gi material around them, as that can move), pull their elbows outwards and towards you, while simultaneously bringing your knees to your chest. This should collapse their posture.
Hélio’s second lesson was to reach over their head with your left arm. They will naturally try to recover their posture by raising up. As soon as they do, reach your right arm deep into their opposite collar. Having secured that grip, your other hand then also grabs the collar, next to your first hand. If they try to recover their posture now, get as much of your body off the floor and hang off that grip. Even if they’re bigger than you, this should make it very difficult for them to return to an upright position.
The third lesson is opening your guard. I haven’t seen this before, and initially it seems counter-intuitive, but judging from drilling it’s also effective. Spread your legs out wide and straight, so that they are across the knees of your training partner, also shifting your second hand to their sleeve. Again, this should make it extremely tough for them to stand up. Next, your feet go on their hips, then using your legs in combination with your collar and sleeve grip, stretch your training partner out.
Finally, your knee should now be next to their elbow. Collapse that elbow by bringing your knee across, in order to clear a path to their belt. Switch from feet on hips to butterfly hooks, then reach for their belt with your sleeve-gripping hand. Lean back and use your grips to pull them down, clamping the elbow of your belt-gripping arm to your side. Like in the previous lessons, this should make it hard for your partner to recover posture.
As they are basically stuck, the instinct will be for them to post their hand on the floor and push up. That gives you the opportunity to underhook it with your same side arm, reaching around to hold their same side shoulder. Use your elbow to bring their arm out of alignment, also shrimping your hips towards that arm two or three times. Your shin on the other side drops towards their knee, then simultaneously push out their leg with your shin (similar goal to a push sweep follow-up after a failed scissor sweep) while lifting with your remaining butterfly hook.
Don’t be greedy and go to mount, as you’re liable to at best get caught in half guard, at worst rolled right under their mount (as your underhook would then work to their advantage). Instead, stick to side control. Once you’re there, immediately control their far arm with both of yours, clamping with your head before they can get a forearm into your neck. Your hand on the other side will be waiting for them to try: when they attempt to move their arm around, you can grab the wrist and go for the americana.
Will announced a brief two minute break, before going into the next section of the seminar, which focused on the head and arm choke. He started off by showing the mechanics of the choke, beginning in side control. You’ve managed to get their far arm to the upper side of your head (i.e., the side nearest their head, rather than nearest their legs). This is a good position for you, so you want to keep their arm trapped there.
Having clamped their arm to your head, put the hand you have nearest their legs on their hip. Push off that, in order to curl your head (and by extension, their arm) towards and around their head. This is sort of like a ‘pre-stretch’ in plyometrics, if I understood Will correctly, setting your choke position in place to make it easier once you get the rest of your body there. Walk your feet towards them so your hips rise into in the air, then hop over to the far side.
The second option is to pass over more gradually. Slide your knee over their belt line, as if you were going for mount. Once that knee is on the mat by the far side, use your other foot to hook around their far knee. Pull that towards the near side, then drop down next to them on the far side. Be certain to use the space you’ve created: in the process of pulling them over, you’ll have turned them on their side, leaving a gap you can fill. This should help you make the choke even tighter.
However you get there, next establish a ten-finger grip around their head and arm, locking your hands together: you’re curling your fingers and linking them, rather than the more typical palm-to-palm gable grip. In order to complete the choke, you need to take out any slack. Raise their head up slightly, extend your arms, then use your near side arm to cinch in the arm by their neck as tightly as possible. Re-establish your choke position, then drive with your shoulder to elicit the tap.
That was followed by lots of other entries. From north-south, dig your head along their chest to get into position, reaching under their armpits with both hands. You don’t want to be too deep: just get your thumbs inside, rather than grabbing all the way down by the belt or something like that. Get them up on their side, still keeping your elbow down (like Rodin’s ‘Thinker’) so they don’t have any space to slip their arm out.
Do a sort of push-up to keep your weight pressed into them, also driving your shoulder into their elbow. This ‘staples’ their arm in place. Walk around, at which point you could go for a kimura, but in this case you're going to attack the head-and-arm choke instead, reaching the thumb towards their neck. You can then use the method Will already went through (i.e., ten finger grip etc).
There was also a handy little pointer here for the common problem of them grabbing cloth to block a kimura. Push a little to make them think you still want the kimura, then backstep around their head, using your bodyweight to either break their grip, or move into the head and arm choke.
When attacking the turtle from the side, putting your knee next to theirs on the near side, reach under their near armpit and grip their far shoulder. Your other arm goes to the inside of their far knee, just blocking it rather than gripping anything. Roll into the near side – Will describe it as ‘disappear underneath them – to bring them over your body, putting you back into the choke position.
The next situation is that they’re escaping your back control, specifically by turning towards you and beginning to put their back on the mat, on your choking arm side. Similar to Marcelo Garcia’s option for retaining back control, switch your non-choking-arm-side hook from inside their thigh to the outside, then hook under their knee. That will briefly halt their turning motion, giving you a bit of time.
Will advises against having your choking arm hand on top when using a seat belt grip in back control. Instead, he suggests your non-choking hand should be protecting your choking arm. The reasoning is that your opponent will probably go for the easiest arm to grab, which is the one on top. If they pull your non-choking arm down, then that's better, as it clears a path for you to put your choking arm right into their neck.
I have seen other instructors teach it the opposite way around, but with the same end result. If I recall correctly, they argued that if the choking arm is on top, that means you can capitalise more quickly if they ever leave their neck free. Xande has yet another option, which merges the two: when he teaches the rear naked choke, he uses a gable grip. The palm of the choking arm hand points away, which he then twists as he inserts the arm for the choke.
For this technique, when you’ve hooked under the knee and are ready to go into the choke, switch your hands so that the choking hand is on top. You can then use that choking hand to pull yourself into the head and arm choke position, completing the submission as before.
The final entry was from what Will called headlock control, also known as scarf hold. This was specifically the classic scarf hold, where you’re reaching under their head to grab your own leg, rather than modified scarf hold, where you’re reaching under their far armpit. Will made the point that this position wasn’t as common as it used to be, because people often have a bad experience. They go into scarf hold, pulling their opponent’s arm up...then the opponent links arms behind their back and rolls them over. The move can often be discarded by beginners as a result of that bad experience.
However, Will does it differently, the key detail being that linking arm. Instead of pulling it up and trapping it under your armpit – which exposes you to that linked hands escape – jam your arm next to your raised knee so they can’t get their arm around your back. Will's route to getting into scarf hold is itself also unorthodox. From side control, Will focuses on the arm pushing into your hip. Underhook that arm and walk your fingers along the mat, then literally lay your body on top of the arm, squashing it flat.
In some ways this is reminiscent of the Sao Paulo/Tozi/Reis pass (it has lots of names), in that it feels counter-intuitive, because you think you’re exposing your back. However, if you’ve distributed your weight correctly, they should be stuck in place. Their next move tends to be turning towards you, which is when you wrap their head with your other arm. You can now switch into scarf hold, remembering to block their ability to reach through for your back. They are probably then going to try and push into your neck, giving you the opportunity to push their elbow to bring their own arm past their head, then transition to the head and arm choke once again.
All in all, it was an excellent class. John Will is without any doubt the best seminar instructor I’ve seen to date, so I made sure to pick up a couple of his DVDs at the end (especially as he was selling them at a discount). I wanted to see if the same style of teaching had been captured for an instructional, so I’ll be reviewing both of them at some point in the future. I’ll also be using them to illustrate this post, along with some of the great photos Esther took on the day.
Thanks again to Mark for inviting me to the seminar: I’m intending to head to Cheltenham some time to check out one of Mark’s own classes, as I’m curious to see what his teaching methodology is like. The club he runs with his business partner Tony is a John Will affiliate, of which I think there are currently only two in the UK. The other one is where I briefly trained in Coventry, under John Will purple belt, Rich Green.
Make sure you're at one of John Will's UK seminars next year! ;D
Seminar photos included by kind permission of Esther Smith
Dowty Judo Club, (BJJ), John B Will, Gloucester, UK - 08/05/2012
However, there is another useful historical source, contained within the pages of John Will’s ‘Rogue Black Belt’ series of books, specifically the second and third volumes of his three part biographical sequence. Hence why I jumped at the chance to meet him in person for an interview, which should be appearing a little further down the line. Thanks to Mark Collett, I was able to meet Will before his seminar on the 8th May, as well as attend that seminar myself.
Update October 2014: An edit of that interview popped up in Jiu Jitsu Style #010 in 2012, plus it's now being republished in full over on the Artemis BJJ website. First part can be found here and the second part here.
Secondly, for the demonstration of the technique, Will does the usual thing of having everybody gather around him in a circle. This again makes sense, as you can get the best angle that way, maximising the space, rather than being spread out along a wall. Thirdly, when drilling he talks you through the technique: if you weren't paying attention during the demonstration, the instructor now has a chance to correct you. Finally, everybody drills a couple of times at their own pace. After that, you switch, so the process can be repeated for your partner.
Given his extensive history in the sport (we’re talking about a man who first trained with Rorion in the 1980s, years before the UFC brought BJJ to international attention), there were plenty of anecdotes. Rigan Machado’s teaching methodology was used to illustrate one point, Hélio Gracie’s attitude to private lessons fleshed out another. Hélio also served as the central reference for the first set of techniques, which Will referred to as ‘the four days of Hélio’: the structure and content was taken directly from four private lessons Will had experienced with Hélio himself.
Hélio’s second lesson was to reach over their head with your left arm. They will naturally try to recover their posture by raising up. As soon as they do, reach your right arm deep into their opposite collar. Having secured that grip, your other hand then also grabs the collar, next to your first hand. If they try to recover their posture now, get as much of your body off the floor and hang off that grip. Even if they’re bigger than you, this should make it very difficult for them to return to an upright position.
The third lesson is opening your guard. I haven’t seen this before, and initially it seems counter-intuitive, but judging from drilling it’s also effective. Spread your legs out wide and straight, so that they are across the knees of your training partner, also shifting your second hand to their sleeve. Again, this should make it extremely tough for them to stand up. Next, your feet go on their hips, then using your legs in combination with your collar and sleeve grip, stretch your training partner out.
As they are basically stuck, the instinct will be for them to post their hand on the floor and push up. That gives you the opportunity to underhook it with your same side arm, reaching around to hold their same side shoulder. Use your elbow to bring their arm out of alignment, also shrimping your hips towards that arm two or three times. Your shin on the other side drops towards their knee, then simultaneously push out their leg with your shin (similar goal to a push sweep follow-up after a failed scissor sweep) while lifting with your remaining butterfly hook.
Will announced a brief two minute break, before going into the next section of the seminar, which focused on the head and arm choke. He started off by showing the mechanics of the choke, beginning in side control. You’ve managed to get their far arm to the upper side of your head (i.e., the side nearest their head, rather than nearest their legs). This is a good position for you, so you want to keep their arm trapped there.
Having clamped their arm to your head, put the hand you have nearest their legs on their hip. Push off that, in order to curl your head (and by extension, their arm) towards and around their head. This is sort of like a ‘pre-stretch’ in plyometrics, if I understood Will correctly, setting your choke position in place to make it easier once you get the rest of your body there. Walk your feet towards them so your hips rise into in the air, then hop over to the far side.
The second option is to pass over more gradually. Slide your knee over their belt line, as if you were going for mount. Once that knee is on the mat by the far side, use your other foot to hook around their far knee. Pull that towards the near side, then drop down next to them on the far side. Be certain to use the space you’ve created: in the process of pulling them over, you’ll have turned them on their side, leaving a gap you can fill. This should help you make the choke even tighter.
That was followed by lots of other entries. From north-south, dig your head along their chest to get into position, reaching under their armpits with both hands. You don’t want to be too deep: just get your thumbs inside, rather than grabbing all the way down by the belt or something like that. Get them up on their side, still keeping your elbow down (like Rodin’s ‘Thinker’) so they don’t have any space to slip their arm out.
There was also a handy little pointer here for the common problem of them grabbing cloth to block a kimura. Push a little to make them think you still want the kimura, then backstep around their head, using your bodyweight to either break their grip, or move into the head and arm choke.
The next situation is that they’re escaping your back control, specifically by turning towards you and beginning to put their back on the mat, on your choking arm side. Similar to Marcelo Garcia’s option for retaining back control, switch your non-choking-arm-side hook from inside their thigh to the outside, then hook under their knee. That will briefly halt their turning motion, giving you a bit of time.
Will advises against having your choking arm hand on top when using a seat belt grip in back control. Instead, he suggests your non-choking hand should be protecting your choking arm. The reasoning is that your opponent will probably go for the easiest arm to grab, which is the one on top. If they pull your non-choking arm down, then that's better, as it clears a path for you to put your choking arm right into their neck.
For this technique, when you’ve hooked under the knee and are ready to go into the choke, switch your hands so that the choking hand is on top. You can then use that choking hand to pull yourself into the head and arm choke position, completing the submission as before.
The final entry was from what Will called headlock control, also known as scarf hold. This was specifically the classic scarf hold, where you’re reaching under their head to grab your own leg, rather than modified scarf hold, where you’re reaching under their far armpit. Will made the point that this position wasn’t as common as it used to be, because people often have a bad experience. They go into scarf hold, pulling their opponent’s arm up...then the opponent links arms behind their back and rolls them over. The move can often be discarded by beginners as a result of that bad experience.
In some ways this is reminiscent of the Sao Paulo/Tozi/Reis pass (it has lots of names), in that it feels counter-intuitive, because you think you’re exposing your back. However, if you’ve distributed your weight correctly, they should be stuck in place. Their next move tends to be turning towards you, which is when you wrap their head with your other arm. You can now switch into scarf hold, remembering to block their ability to reach through for your back. They are probably then going to try and push into your neck, giving you the opportunity to push their elbow to bring their own arm past their head, then transition to the head and arm choke once again.
All in all, it was an excellent class. John Will is without any doubt the best seminar instructor I’ve seen to date, so I made sure to pick up a couple of his DVDs at the end (especially as he was selling them at a discount). I wanted to see if the same style of teaching had been captured for an instructional, so I’ll be reviewing both of them at some point in the future. I’ll also be using them to illustrate this post, along with some of the great photos Esther took on the day.
Thanks again to Mark for inviting me to the seminar: I’m intending to head to Cheltenham some time to check out one of Mark’s own classes, as I’m curious to see what his teaching methodology is like. The club he runs with his business partner Tony is a John Will affiliate, of which I think there are currently only two in the UK. The other one is where I briefly trained in Coventry, under John Will purple belt, Rich Green.
Make sure you're at one of John Will's UK seminars next year! ;D
Seminar photos included by kind permission of Esther Smith
28 February 2012
28/02/2012 - GB Bristol (Butterfly Sweep & Back Take)
Class #447
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Dónal Carmody, Bristol, UK - 28/02/2012
Tonight Dónal tackled the guard in which I'm probably least comfortable: butterfly guard. It is supposed to be good for small guys with short legs, but I've yet to get a handle on the position. Geeza calls it seated guard, similar to yet another term is sitting guard, which can also refer to a quite different guard. Like I've said before, BJJ terminology is very unreliable, as it can vary from school to school, or indeed (as is the case here) between instructors at the same school. ;)
Dónal began with the sensible plan of helping people learn how to maintain butterfly guard, which is certainly something I need help with. Chiu did a detailed lesson this a few years back, but I think a lot of it went over my head. Dónal kept things relatively simple, which boiled down to several useful points.
First put your arm on the outside of the knee you have up. That will make it more difficult for your partner to push your knee down: if they can get both your knees squashed to the mat, that puts them in a great position to pass. Second, keep your bum back and your head up (to avoid guillotines). If you get too close, it becomes easier for them to push you over, so scoot back slightly to improve your base.
Third, grab their knee on the non-underhooking side. For this version of the butterfly, you want grip low enough on the gi material that you are actually grabbing by their knee, not just above it. An easy way of checking that is to get your partner to stand up: you'll then immediately see whether or not you were in fact grabbing the knee.
That was followed by an option Dónal showed a little while ago for taking the back. Lean back slightly in order to make your hooking foot light, so you can extract that and kick it through (there is a possibility of getting passed, but your other leg is in position to at least take half guard if something goes very wrong).
Pull them past you with that belt grip, also twisting your arm over so that your shoulder and elbow are pressing into their upper back (almost a ghost is putting you in a kimura). That should enable you to move through to their back. It is a bit like an arm-drag, but a sort of 'belt-drag' instead.
During sparring, I was again reminded that I'm not finding myself underneath anywhere near as much as I used to. That's probably because I'm mostly with less experienced training partners who are either around my size or smaller. However, that's great for working my top game, which previously has always been a weakness.
On the other hand, I shouldn't forget about escapes. Once I can finally get back into normal training, I'll need to make sure I try starting from bad positions more often (speaking of which, I must stick to butterfly: I kept instinctively shifting to more comfortable guards, like spider). It would be a bit silly to at long last develop a top game, only to find that my escapes had gone to crap. ;)
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Dónal Carmody, Bristol, UK - 28/02/2012
Dónal began with the sensible plan of helping people learn how to maintain butterfly guard, which is certainly something I need help with. Chiu did a detailed lesson this a few years back, but I think a lot of it went over my head. Dónal kept things relatively simple, which boiled down to several useful points.
First put your arm on the outside of the knee you have up. That will make it more difficult for your partner to push your knee down: if they can get both your knees squashed to the mat, that puts them in a great position to pass. Second, keep your bum back and your head up (to avoid guillotines). If you get too close, it becomes easier for them to push you over, so scoot back slightly to improve your base.
Third, grab their knee on the non-underhooking side. For this version of the butterfly, you want grip low enough on the gi material that you are actually grabbing by their knee, not just above it. An easy way of checking that is to get your partner to stand up: you'll then immediately see whether or not you were in fact grabbing the knee.
That was followed by an option Dónal showed a little while ago for taking the back. Lean back slightly in order to make your hooking foot light, so you can extract that and kick it through (there is a possibility of getting passed, but your other leg is in position to at least take half guard if something goes very wrong).
Pull them past you with that belt grip, also twisting your arm over so that your shoulder and elbow are pressing into their upper back (almost a ghost is putting you in a kimura). That should enable you to move through to their back. It is a bit like an arm-drag, but a sort of 'belt-drag' instead.
During sparring, I was again reminded that I'm not finding myself underneath anywhere near as much as I used to. That's probably because I'm mostly with less experienced training partners who are either around my size or smaller. However, that's great for working my top game, which previously has always been a weakness.
On the other hand, I shouldn't forget about escapes. Once I can finally get back into normal training, I'll need to make sure I try starting from bad positions more often (speaking of which, I must stick to butterfly: I kept instinctively shifting to more comfortable guards, like spider). It would be a bit silly to at long last develop a top game, only to find that my escapes had gone to crap. ;)
24 January 2012
24/01/2012 - Gracie Barra Bristol (Butterfly Sweep)
Class #443
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Dónal Carmody, Bristol, UK - 24/01/2012
More drilling with Mike before class started, working on an interesting quarter-guard sweep from Caio Terra's DVD. It's been useful for passing to keep working on specific positions like that, and hopefully has been useful for Mike too (in sparring, he swept me with the exact butterfly sweep we drilled a while ago, which was cool ;D).
Tonight's lesson went through the basic butterfly sweep. Dónal's variation was a little different, as you start from further out than normal. That means you're too far to get the usual deep underhook. Instead, you're going to grip on the back of their head, slightly higher up on the skull for better control (like a muay thai plum clinch, but with one hand).
Other than that, the sweep is the same. One foot is hooked underneath their thigh, while your opposite side hand grabs their same side sleeve. From there, lift with your foot on the head grab side, pulling the sleeve grip towards the hooked leg (you need to make sure they can't post with this). Your other leg threads underneath the underhook side leg, as you continue to drive their weight through their knee. Bring them to the mat, then transition to knee on belly. Normally it would be side control or scarf hold, but due to that increased distance, knee on belly feels more natural from here.
Specific sparring went as poorly as usual for my butterfly guard, which is a really weak position for me. My go-to guard is either cross-grip or spider, which are both long-distance, so the close-up nature of butterfly guard is still a struggle. I've said it before, but something I need to work on. Generally, they just stand up and we end up in one of the two aforementioned guards. I was trying to go to sitting guard instead, to stick with something at least related to butterfly guard, but that's even less familiar. So yeah, I didn't get too far on the bottom.
On top, I looked to pass the same way as when drilling with Mike a while back: stay low, get a strong grip on the collar, try to drive my knee through and get past their leg. I also had a go at the one Kev showed me a year or two ago, where you kick your leg back and bring both your knees against one of theirs. I think I forgot a few details though, as I was having trouble isolating the leg properly.
Good luck to Geeza and all the GB Bristol students competing at the Europeans! :)
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Dónal Carmody, Bristol, UK - 24/01/2012
More drilling with Mike before class started, working on an interesting quarter-guard sweep from Caio Terra's DVD. It's been useful for passing to keep working on specific positions like that, and hopefully has been useful for Mike too (in sparring, he swept me with the exact butterfly sweep we drilled a while ago, which was cool ;D).Tonight's lesson went through the basic butterfly sweep. Dónal's variation was a little different, as you start from further out than normal. That means you're too far to get the usual deep underhook. Instead, you're going to grip on the back of their head, slightly higher up on the skull for better control (like a muay thai plum clinch, but with one hand).
Other than that, the sweep is the same. One foot is hooked underneath their thigh, while your opposite side hand grabs their same side sleeve. From there, lift with your foot on the head grab side, pulling the sleeve grip towards the hooked leg (you need to make sure they can't post with this). Your other leg threads underneath the underhook side leg, as you continue to drive their weight through their knee. Bring them to the mat, then transition to knee on belly. Normally it would be side control or scarf hold, but due to that increased distance, knee on belly feels more natural from here.
Specific sparring went as poorly as usual for my butterfly guard, which is a really weak position for me. My go-to guard is either cross-grip or spider, which are both long-distance, so the close-up nature of butterfly guard is still a struggle. I've said it before, but something I need to work on. Generally, they just stand up and we end up in one of the two aforementioned guards. I was trying to go to sitting guard instead, to stick with something at least related to butterfly guard, but that's even less familiar. So yeah, I didn't get too far on the bottom.
On top, I looked to pass the same way as when drilling with Mike a while back: stay low, get a strong grip on the collar, try to drive my knee through and get past their leg. I also had a go at the one Kev showed me a year or two ago, where you kick your leg back and bring both your knees against one of theirs. I think I forgot a few details though, as I was having trouble isolating the leg properly.
Good luck to Geeza and all the GB Bristol students competing at the Europeans! :)
14 December 2011
14/12/2011 - Gracie Barra Bristol (Butterfly Guard)
Class #437
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Dónal Carmody, Bristol, UK - 14/12/2011
Today Dónal (who has finally been promoted to a long overdue purple belt: congrats to him! :D) was looking at butterfly guard, which is handy because that's a guard I hardly ever use and have never been comfortable playing. As ever, Dónal had some cool drills at the start to help everyone understand the mechanics of the technique. He built up the complexity gradually, starting by have us slide one knee through (like you were playing baseball and skidding to the plate, if I've got that idiom right), then upping the difficulty by twisting to the other side first, then a small hop and twist back to slide through.
For drilling the specific mechanics of the butterfly sweep, Donal added in a drill to shrimping, where you are in butterfly guard position. So, you have one knee up, the other foot tucked in, same side arm braced inside your raised knee, while your other hand is posted behind for base. To move forward, use your posted hand and the foot of your raised leg to lift your hips slightly off the floor then slide forwards, with a similar motion to move backwards.
Next, from the same position, roll to one side, then posting on your shoulder, head and toes (for reference, that's the foot of the knee that would have been on the ground), push off the mat with your toes and swing your other leg up (so, that's the leg that would have been the raised knee previously). From there, Dónal then had us switch to basing with our hand rather than the head, so you could bring the knee of the leg in the air behind the leg on the ground, sliding through like in the baseball slide drill from earlier. Sounds complex, but worked pretty well as a drilling sequence. ;)
The first technique was therefore, unsurprisingly, the butterfly sweep. I have to admit I didn't actually get to see Dónal teach it, because there was something Geeza wanted to ask me, but judging by the drilling later when I rejoined the class, it was the classic butterfly sweep I'm used to (e.g., like the notes I wrote a few years ago, though I should emphasise that it isn't quite leaning back, as you're also leaning to the side of your non-raised knee).
Dónal then demonstrated a method of taking the back from butterfly, which relies largely upon reaching your underhook through until you can grab the back of their belt, palm down. Lean back slightly in order to make your hooking foot light, so you can extract that and kick it through (there is a possibility of getting passed, but your other leg is in position to at least take half guard if something goes very wrong).
Pull them past you with that belt grip, also twisting your arm over so that your shoulder and elbow are pressing into their upper back. That should enable you to move through to their back. When drilling this, I kept finding that I was ducking my head underneath their arm, which isn't the same thing. It is a bit like an arm-drag, but a sort of 'belt-drag' instead.
During sparring I'm still being careful of my neck, so with several people I though it made most sense to just give them a chance to work butterfly guard against resistance. It is tough to get the sweep to work against somebody who knows exactly what you're trying to do, as you can just stuff the leg, maintain your balance and post. So, I needed to keep in mind that the aim here was to help my training partner work on the technique with progressive resistance, rather than immediately shutting them down each time.
Hopefully it was useful: I tried to emphasise things like they needed to control my arm to stop me posting, be careful I don't put them flat on their back and maintain a hook on my inner thigh. Still, as my own butterfly guard is pretty pants, I'm not sure how much help I can be. Same thing happened when I had a white belt start on my back, as again I was looking to help them feel how I was trying to escape and what kind of reactions they should be expecting, as well as how to counter (e.g., if I start slipping out over one leg, well worth them trying to swing over and get to mount before they lose the position entirely).
Rolling with higher belts was cool too, starting with a typically relaxed spar with Dónal. I was mostly attempting to create frames to help recover guard, as well as continuing to shrimp rather than letting him settle into a position. Naturally we were going light, so I imagine he could have shut me down at various points. I still struggle a lot when I'm in somebody's open guard, as I always feel like I'm basically just waiting to get swept. However, the only way to get better at it is to keep on putting myself there. Hopefully I'll get the chance to do that with some lower belts too, to help build my confidence there.
That was highlighted again when rolling with Geeza. Not only is Geeza much bigger than me, he is also much better at jiu jitsu, so I'm often a bit uncertain how to approach the roll. As usual, he sat back and waited for me to attempt a pass, but also as usual, I ended up basically just flopping back without him even having to try and sweep. Still, I did at least try a sort of pass later on, where I spun to avoid his open guard, but that merely put me back in closed guard and also exposed my back (which he didn't take at that point, but it was certainly a major risk).
I had a chance to play around with the old running escape survival posture too, which I'm keen to practice against people who are much better than me. Against somebody who isn't that experienced, I can basically stall with the running escape, but somebody who knows what they're doing, like Geeza, will take the opportunity to set up a choke and take my back. So I'd like to try that more often, to really iron out the errors I making with the running escape, as I can be absolutely certain that a skilful grappler like Geeza is going to exploit them every time. :)
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Dónal Carmody, Bristol, UK - 14/12/2011
Today Dónal (who has finally been promoted to a long overdue purple belt: congrats to him! :D) was looking at butterfly guard, which is handy because that's a guard I hardly ever use and have never been comfortable playing. As ever, Dónal had some cool drills at the start to help everyone understand the mechanics of the technique. He built up the complexity gradually, starting by have us slide one knee through (like you were playing baseball and skidding to the plate, if I've got that idiom right), then upping the difficulty by twisting to the other side first, then a small hop and twist back to slide through. For drilling the specific mechanics of the butterfly sweep, Donal added in a drill to shrimping, where you are in butterfly guard position. So, you have one knee up, the other foot tucked in, same side arm braced inside your raised knee, while your other hand is posted behind for base. To move forward, use your posted hand and the foot of your raised leg to lift your hips slightly off the floor then slide forwards, with a similar motion to move backwards.
Next, from the same position, roll to one side, then posting on your shoulder, head and toes (for reference, that's the foot of the knee that would have been on the ground), push off the mat with your toes and swing your other leg up (so, that's the leg that would have been the raised knee previously). From there, Dónal then had us switch to basing with our hand rather than the head, so you could bring the knee of the leg in the air behind the leg on the ground, sliding through like in the baseball slide drill from earlier. Sounds complex, but worked pretty well as a drilling sequence. ;)
The first technique was therefore, unsurprisingly, the butterfly sweep. I have to admit I didn't actually get to see Dónal teach it, because there was something Geeza wanted to ask me, but judging by the drilling later when I rejoined the class, it was the classic butterfly sweep I'm used to (e.g., like the notes I wrote a few years ago, though I should emphasise that it isn't quite leaning back, as you're also leaning to the side of your non-raised knee).
Dónal then demonstrated a method of taking the back from butterfly, which relies largely upon reaching your underhook through until you can grab the back of their belt, palm down. Lean back slightly in order to make your hooking foot light, so you can extract that and kick it through (there is a possibility of getting passed, but your other leg is in position to at least take half guard if something goes very wrong).
Pull them past you with that belt grip, also twisting your arm over so that your shoulder and elbow are pressing into their upper back. That should enable you to move through to their back. When drilling this, I kept finding that I was ducking my head underneath their arm, which isn't the same thing. It is a bit like an arm-drag, but a sort of 'belt-drag' instead.
During sparring I'm still being careful of my neck, so with several people I though it made most sense to just give them a chance to work butterfly guard against resistance. It is tough to get the sweep to work against somebody who knows exactly what you're trying to do, as you can just stuff the leg, maintain your balance and post. So, I needed to keep in mind that the aim here was to help my training partner work on the technique with progressive resistance, rather than immediately shutting them down each time.
Hopefully it was useful: I tried to emphasise things like they needed to control my arm to stop me posting, be careful I don't put them flat on their back and maintain a hook on my inner thigh. Still, as my own butterfly guard is pretty pants, I'm not sure how much help I can be. Same thing happened when I had a white belt start on my back, as again I was looking to help them feel how I was trying to escape and what kind of reactions they should be expecting, as well as how to counter (e.g., if I start slipping out over one leg, well worth them trying to swing over and get to mount before they lose the position entirely).
Rolling with higher belts was cool too, starting with a typically relaxed spar with Dónal. I was mostly attempting to create frames to help recover guard, as well as continuing to shrimp rather than letting him settle into a position. Naturally we were going light, so I imagine he could have shut me down at various points. I still struggle a lot when I'm in somebody's open guard, as I always feel like I'm basically just waiting to get swept. However, the only way to get better at it is to keep on putting myself there. Hopefully I'll get the chance to do that with some lower belts too, to help build my confidence there.
That was highlighted again when rolling with Geeza. Not only is Geeza much bigger than me, he is also much better at jiu jitsu, so I'm often a bit uncertain how to approach the roll. As usual, he sat back and waited for me to attempt a pass, but also as usual, I ended up basically just flopping back without him even having to try and sweep. Still, I did at least try a sort of pass later on, where I spun to avoid his open guard, but that merely put me back in closed guard and also exposed my back (which he didn't take at that point, but it was certainly a major risk).
I had a chance to play around with the old running escape survival posture too, which I'm keen to practice against people who are much better than me. Against somebody who isn't that experienced, I can basically stall with the running escape, but somebody who knows what they're doing, like Geeza, will take the opportunity to set up a choke and take my back. So I'd like to try that more often, to really iron out the errors I making with the running escape, as I can be absolutely certain that a skilful grappler like Geeza is going to exploit them every time. :)
21 September 2011
21/09/2011 - Gracie Barra Technique (Butterfly Guard)
Class #419
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Nicolai 'Geeza' Holt, Bristol, UK - 21/09/2011
Due to the fact I've trained all over the country, I bump into old training partners on a semi-regular basis. Tonight it was Alex, who is the first guy I met from Gracie Barra Birmingham back when I first started training there. He has now moved to Bristol, though mentioned that the club he started up North - Lakes BJJ – is still going.
Geeza kicked off with the basic butterfly sweep (though Geeza refers to the position as seated guard). From closed guard, shrimp out, foot on their hip to make space, bringing the other knee through across their chest. This stops them from stacking you, meaning you have a chance to insert both butterfly hooks. You're also gripping their same side sleeve by the elbow, while your other hand shoots through for a deep underhook.
From there, lift with your foot on the underhook side, pulling the sleeve grip. Your other leg threads underneath the underhook side leg, as you continue to drive their weight through their knee. Bring them to the mat, then transition to scarf hold or side control.
Next, Geeza showed a counter, which moves into a butterfly pass. If they establish butterfly guard and are about to sweep, raise the knee on the non-underhooked side. Drive forward to put their back on the mat, putting your head next to theirs. On the elbow-gripped side, push your hand through for an underhook.
In combination with your head and shoulder pressure, that should give you good control of their upper body. Shove their underhook side knee to the mat, then slide your non-underhook side knee over towards the mat. When you have your knee over the top of their leg, switch your hand from their knee to their same side arm and pull up. Pass to scarf hold.
Continuing the flow, Geeza then demonstrated a counter to that pass, which becomes a deep half guard sweep. As soon as they try for the knee cut pass, grab their knee and shove it to one side. At the same time, swing your legs and dive underneath them. The aim is to get into deep half, with your inside arm holding their leg, your outside arm reaching past to grab behind them. Secure that with a grip on their belt.
Having got to deep half, move your hand from their leg to their ankle and bend it towards you. Kick up with your inside leg to initiate the sweep. During your roll to the top, maintain the grip on their belt. That will mean you've immobilised their other leg, so they can't close their guard. Therefore it should be easy to extricate your leg and establish side control.
Specific sparring from there emphasised something I already knew: my butterfly guard is rubbish. In terms of passing, I was making fundamental errors like raising both knees, which was asking to be swept. I need to make sure I always keep my hips heavy, and definitely don't raise the knee on the underhooked side. I also wasn't going for the technique we'd just learned, which is another basic mistake.
Underneath, I was looking to use Chiu's tips on positioning, but without much success. I'll have to go review my notes, as I think I forgot all the important parts. Also, Geeza reminded me that I need to keep my knee outside of his hips, or he can just squash my leg and move round to pass. As it seems to be such a weak position for me right now, I should start pulling butterfly guard (as I used to in the past, thanks to Kintanon's advice). I'm short with little legs, which I'm told is ideal for butterfly guard. Hopefully that will help me to eventually get the hang of it.
Tomorrow, my girlfriend is keeping her promise from my birthday to check out my class. Exciting stuff, although it does mean I've been even more extensive in my pre-lesson preparation. Probably a bit too much, but meh. ;)
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Nicolai 'Geeza' Holt, Bristol, UK - 21/09/2011
Due to the fact I've trained all over the country, I bump into old training partners on a semi-regular basis. Tonight it was Alex, who is the first guy I met from Gracie Barra Birmingham back when I first started training there. He has now moved to Bristol, though mentioned that the club he started up North - Lakes BJJ – is still going.
Geeza kicked off with the basic butterfly sweep (though Geeza refers to the position as seated guard). From closed guard, shrimp out, foot on their hip to make space, bringing the other knee through across their chest. This stops them from stacking you, meaning you have a chance to insert both butterfly hooks. You're also gripping their same side sleeve by the elbow, while your other hand shoots through for a deep underhook. From there, lift with your foot on the underhook side, pulling the sleeve grip. Your other leg threads underneath the underhook side leg, as you continue to drive their weight through their knee. Bring them to the mat, then transition to scarf hold or side control.
Next, Geeza showed a counter, which moves into a butterfly pass. If they establish butterfly guard and are about to sweep, raise the knee on the non-underhooked side. Drive forward to put their back on the mat, putting your head next to theirs. On the elbow-gripped side, push your hand through for an underhook.
In combination with your head and shoulder pressure, that should give you good control of their upper body. Shove their underhook side knee to the mat, then slide your non-underhook side knee over towards the mat. When you have your knee over the top of their leg, switch your hand from their knee to their same side arm and pull up. Pass to scarf hold.
Continuing the flow, Geeza then demonstrated a counter to that pass, which becomes a deep half guard sweep. As soon as they try for the knee cut pass, grab their knee and shove it to one side. At the same time, swing your legs and dive underneath them. The aim is to get into deep half, with your inside arm holding their leg, your outside arm reaching past to grab behind them. Secure that with a grip on their belt.
Having got to deep half, move your hand from their leg to their ankle and bend it towards you. Kick up with your inside leg to initiate the sweep. During your roll to the top, maintain the grip on their belt. That will mean you've immobilised their other leg, so they can't close their guard. Therefore it should be easy to extricate your leg and establish side control.
Specific sparring from there emphasised something I already knew: my butterfly guard is rubbish. In terms of passing, I was making fundamental errors like raising both knees, which was asking to be swept. I need to make sure I always keep my hips heavy, and definitely don't raise the knee on the underhooked side. I also wasn't going for the technique we'd just learned, which is another basic mistake.
Underneath, I was looking to use Chiu's tips on positioning, but without much success. I'll have to go review my notes, as I think I forgot all the important parts. Also, Geeza reminded me that I need to keep my knee outside of his hips, or he can just squash my leg and move round to pass. As it seems to be such a weak position for me right now, I should start pulling butterfly guard (as I used to in the past, thanks to Kintanon's advice). I'm short with little legs, which I'm told is ideal for butterfly guard. Hopefully that will help me to eventually get the hang of it.
Tomorrow, my girlfriend is keeping her promise from my birthday to check out my class. Exciting stuff, although it does mean I've been even more extensive in my pre-lesson preparation. Probably a bit too much, but meh. ;)
10 September 2010
10/09/2010 - BJJ (Basics)
Class #340
Gracie Barra Birmingham, (BJJ), Chiu Kwong Man, Birmingham, UK – 10/09/2010
Moving onto the gi class, Chiu added some more details to the toreador pass he’d been drilling as a warm-up for no-gi. With the addition of trousers to grip, Chiu advised to grip midway on the inside of the lower leg. Keeping a low stance, lean into that grip to squish their knees up by their chest.
Step diagonally across with your leg: this is the knee you’ll be putting into their stomach. The other foot goes out wide for base, and also so that they can’t hook your leg. You’ll also be pushing into their far leg with your grip, while pulling the near leg behind you. That will make it tough for them to try and bring their knees in to block your pass.
Should they try to hook your leg before you pass, shove that leg away from you, while swinging your other leg back. By pushing their leg, you’ve created a space: bring the leg you swung back to fill it, moving straight into knee on belly. Depending on the size of your partner, you’ll either knock them slightly out of the way, or potentially swivel them perpendicular.
The main technique was again butterfly guard, going through similar sweeps to no-gi. However, as with that pass, the gi provides helpful grips. Now rather than just hooking their lat, you can grab a handful of gi. Ideally, you want to shove their lapel with your free hand, feeding it around their back to your other hand. This makes for a really tight grip.
As before, drive your shoulder into their near armpit as you also pull your arm in, chest close to the mat, putting them in an awkward position. Should they try for a whizzer, you simply raise your elbow. For the sweep this time, Chiu went through a technique similar to what I saw Kev demonstrate at RGA Wycombe a while back. Twisting as you drop back, lift them with your hook: your leg will be in a position that can only be describing as a dog urinating.
From there, you can bring your other leg through, then push off that foot. This will give you extra power to drive them to their back. If you want to go to mount, keep driving and follow through with your knee. If you prefer to go to side control, you do more of a flick with your hooking leg, then slide into scarf or side.
Worth noting here that you can do various things with your legs and feet. For example, you could push on their knee to collapse it to help your bring them over. That may be of a particular use if they’re using it to base and resist your sweep. IIRC, you can also try bringing the knee high, if you’re finding that you’re getting stuck on their legs as you move to the top (though I might be remembering that wrong: I didn’t have my notebook at the side, so may have missed some details over the course of the two lessons).
No sparring again, though it looked as if Chiu had a sort of specific spar to finish off, but it was already past eight, and I had a train connection to make later. So I rushed off for the train, got there with a minute to spare...but of course that just meant when I arrived, the train was cancelled anyway. Sod’s law. I guess that running at least helps a bit with fitness, but always annoying when you miss out on something for no good reason. Bleh.
Anyway, should be back for another double on Monday next week, then probably my last lesson at GB Brum the week after. I’m intending to move out at the end of the month, so training at GB Brum will most likely be the last thing I do before heading off.
Gracie Barra Birmingham, (BJJ), Chiu Kwong Man, Birmingham, UK – 10/09/2010
Moving onto the gi class, Chiu added some more details to the toreador pass he’d been drilling as a warm-up for no-gi. With the addition of trousers to grip, Chiu advised to grip midway on the inside of the lower leg. Keeping a low stance, lean into that grip to squish their knees up by their chest.
Step diagonally across with your leg: this is the knee you’ll be putting into their stomach. The other foot goes out wide for base, and also so that they can’t hook your leg. You’ll also be pushing into their far leg with your grip, while pulling the near leg behind you. That will make it tough for them to try and bring their knees in to block your pass.
Should they try to hook your leg before you pass, shove that leg away from you, while swinging your other leg back. By pushing their leg, you’ve created a space: bring the leg you swung back to fill it, moving straight into knee on belly. Depending on the size of your partner, you’ll either knock them slightly out of the way, or potentially swivel them perpendicular.
The main technique was again butterfly guard, going through similar sweeps to no-gi. However, as with that pass, the gi provides helpful grips. Now rather than just hooking their lat, you can grab a handful of gi. Ideally, you want to shove their lapel with your free hand, feeding it around their back to your other hand. This makes for a really tight grip. As before, drive your shoulder into their near armpit as you also pull your arm in, chest close to the mat, putting them in an awkward position. Should they try for a whizzer, you simply raise your elbow. For the sweep this time, Chiu went through a technique similar to what I saw Kev demonstrate at RGA Wycombe a while back. Twisting as you drop back, lift them with your hook: your leg will be in a position that can only be describing as a dog urinating.
From there, you can bring your other leg through, then push off that foot. This will give you extra power to drive them to their back. If you want to go to mount, keep driving and follow through with your knee. If you prefer to go to side control, you do more of a flick with your hooking leg, then slide into scarf or side.
Worth noting here that you can do various things with your legs and feet. For example, you could push on their knee to collapse it to help your bring them over. That may be of a particular use if they’re using it to base and resist your sweep. IIRC, you can also try bringing the knee high, if you’re finding that you’re getting stuck on their legs as you move to the top (though I might be remembering that wrong: I didn’t have my notebook at the side, so may have missed some details over the course of the two lessons).
No sparring again, though it looked as if Chiu had a sort of specific spar to finish off, but it was already past eight, and I had a train connection to make later. So I rushed off for the train, got there with a minute to spare...but of course that just meant when I arrived, the train was cancelled anyway. Sod’s law. I guess that running at least helps a bit with fitness, but always annoying when you miss out on something for no good reason. Bleh.
Anyway, should be back for another double on Monday next week, then probably my last lesson at GB Brum the week after. I’m intending to move out at the end of the month, so training at GB Brum will most likely be the last thing I do before heading off.
10/09/2010 - BJJ (No Gi)
Class #339
Gracie Barra Birmingham, (BJJ), Chiu Kwong Man, Birmingham, UK – 10/09/2010
Dolph has put up an interview with a Muslim teammate of his, about his thoughts on training while fasting for Ramadan. Check it out here: I’m guessing that’s probably a first – I certainly can’t remember seeing anyone else ever cover that topic, and it makes for an interesting read.
The DIY course was useful, although I was a bit tired by the time I got there. Some friends kindly let my gf and I stay round, although they happened to be out at a party on Friday, so we only got back to the house around 2am (as I knew I’d have to get across London for 8am the next day, I wasn’t drinking, so randomly spent a good chunk of the night reading a great history of the Impressionists. Not exactly party animal behaviour, but hey).
Those same friends happen to be awesome cooks. If you’re into your food, then be sure to check out their blog, The Keston Kitchen. Loads of unusual recipes beautifully executed, and I can personally vouch for the results! Meal time is always a highlight when staying with the women of Keston. ;)
There were some interesting warm-up drills tonight, one of which took a bit of getting used to. The idea is that you’re on your back, keeping your legs off the floor. Twist your knees in the direction you want to move, then rock forwards and twist your upper body the other way. Keep repeating that to gradually bounce your hips down the mat. I just about got the motion, but it took me ages to get all the way down the mat.
I can’t remember where I first read it, or perhaps someone told me, but allegedly butterfly guard is good for small guys with short legs, like me. I’ve wanted to improve it for some time, which is also why I’ve been trying to pull butterfly guard whenever possible (not to mention it’s way better than my previous ‘flop back and wait’ tactic).
So, I was pleased that tonight focused on improving butterfly, with numerous top tips for maintaining butterfly guard and keeping your partner off-balance. Establish hooks under their legs, sitting up. You don’t want to be straight on, but instead move around slightly to the side. Hook your near arm around their back, reaching around to grip: this was a nogi class, so you can either go for their far lat, or under their far armpit. Keep your head on your gripping arm side, pressing into their head.
The essential detail Chiu emphasised here is to drive your shoulder into their near armpit, while also pulling inwards with your arm. It should now be very difficult for them to flatten you out on your back. To make it even harder, bring your chest close to the floor with your other elbow as base, in a sort of ‘spiderman’ pose. That means there is a line going from one arm across your back to the other.
You also need to maintain tension with your hooking feet, as otherwise they can try to just bring their legs around and pass. Even if it feels like they’re moving you to your back, you may well be able to shift your hips and switch your other arm around their back: don’t give up because it feels like you’re about to be flattened out.
If they do manage to flatten you out, you can still go for a sweep. As soon as you start being moved flat, bring both arms around their back, clasping your hands, and bring them up high. You’re aiming to trap their arms: don’t allow them to bring their elbows back down by your hips.
Once you’ve got their arms up high and out of commission, you can work on their legs. Stretch them out, kicking one leg flat, then use your other hook to lift. You’re also going to use your grip on their upper body, twisting your arms to help drive them to the side. You don’t necessarily need both of their arms: you could also lock both of your arms around one of theirs, with an elbow into their throat, a handy leverage point for the sweep.
There wasn’t any sparring, but we did do some progressive resistance on maintaining butterfly guard. The person on top tried to flatten out their partner, while the person underneath just looked to hold their position, adjusting their hips, keeping their hooks in and securing that grip over the back.
Gracie Barra Birmingham, (BJJ), Chiu Kwong Man, Birmingham, UK – 10/09/2010
Dolph has put up an interview with a Muslim teammate of his, about his thoughts on training while fasting for Ramadan. Check it out here: I’m guessing that’s probably a first – I certainly can’t remember seeing anyone else ever cover that topic, and it makes for an interesting read.
The DIY course was useful, although I was a bit tired by the time I got there. Some friends kindly let my gf and I stay round, although they happened to be out at a party on Friday, so we only got back to the house around 2am (as I knew I’d have to get across London for 8am the next day, I wasn’t drinking, so randomly spent a good chunk of the night reading a great history of the Impressionists. Not exactly party animal behaviour, but hey).
Those same friends happen to be awesome cooks. If you’re into your food, then be sure to check out their blog, The Keston Kitchen. Loads of unusual recipes beautifully executed, and I can personally vouch for the results! Meal time is always a highlight when staying with the women of Keston. ;)
There were some interesting warm-up drills tonight, one of which took a bit of getting used to. The idea is that you’re on your back, keeping your legs off the floor. Twist your knees in the direction you want to move, then rock forwards and twist your upper body the other way. Keep repeating that to gradually bounce your hips down the mat. I just about got the motion, but it took me ages to get all the way down the mat.
I can’t remember where I first read it, or perhaps someone told me, but allegedly butterfly guard is good for small guys with short legs, like me. I’ve wanted to improve it for some time, which is also why I’ve been trying to pull butterfly guard whenever possible (not to mention it’s way better than my previous ‘flop back and wait’ tactic).So, I was pleased that tonight focused on improving butterfly, with numerous top tips for maintaining butterfly guard and keeping your partner off-balance. Establish hooks under their legs, sitting up. You don’t want to be straight on, but instead move around slightly to the side. Hook your near arm around their back, reaching around to grip: this was a nogi class, so you can either go for their far lat, or under their far armpit. Keep your head on your gripping arm side, pressing into their head.
The essential detail Chiu emphasised here is to drive your shoulder into their near armpit, while also pulling inwards with your arm. It should now be very difficult for them to flatten you out on your back. To make it even harder, bring your chest close to the floor with your other elbow as base, in a sort of ‘spiderman’ pose. That means there is a line going from one arm across your back to the other.
You also need to maintain tension with your hooking feet, as otherwise they can try to just bring their legs around and pass. Even if it feels like they’re moving you to your back, you may well be able to shift your hips and switch your other arm around their back: don’t give up because it feels like you’re about to be flattened out.
If they do manage to flatten you out, you can still go for a sweep. As soon as you start being moved flat, bring both arms around their back, clasping your hands, and bring them up high. You’re aiming to trap their arms: don’t allow them to bring their elbows back down by your hips.
Once you’ve got their arms up high and out of commission, you can work on their legs. Stretch them out, kicking one leg flat, then use your other hook to lift. You’re also going to use your grip on their upper body, twisting your arms to help drive them to the side. You don’t necessarily need both of their arms: you could also lock both of your arms around one of theirs, with an elbow into their throat, a handy leverage point for the sweep.
There wasn’t any sparring, but we did do some progressive resistance on maintaining butterfly guard. The person on top tried to flatten out their partner, while the person underneath just looked to hold their position, adjusting their hips, keeping their hooks in and securing that grip over the back.
14 January 2010
14/01/2010 - BJJ (Beginner)
Class #276
RGA High Wycombe, (BJJ), Kev Capel, High Wycombe, UK - 14/01/2010
The weather has finally decided to let up a bit, with rain rather than snow today. That meant no problems getting to class, which tonight focused on the butterfly guard. This is something I've been told is good for short legs, so I'm keen to work it more, especially as I'm always trying to hook inside people's legs anyway.
Kev started with a method of moving into butterfly from closed guard, which is pretty much just shrimp out to a scissor sweep position, then get your feet inside their legs. From here, you have two main options in terms of grip. In the gi, you can hold their collar and grab their same side sleeve, then push it under their leg (the idea is to sweep them in the other direction, so they can't post.) Without the gi (although it still works with the gi too: it's the one I prefer, though that isn't saying much given my butterfly guard is very underdeveloped), you secure an underhook, then pull the other arm in towards you.
Having got into position, Kev could now show us a basic sweep from butterfly guard. Securing your preferred grip, drop back, shifting towards one side. Lift their opposite leg with your hook at the same time: it is important you use the momentum, rather than dropping back, then attempting to lift while flat on the floor. If you need extra power, push off with your other foot, ending up in either mount or side control.
Passing butterfly was slightly more complicated, though it's a technique I've seen Kev show before. Flatten them out, drive your head into their chest, putting your hands into their biceps and keeping your elbows tight. Next, you need to trap a leg against your stomach, accomplished by stepping back one leg, bringing it past their foot, then reinserting your knee under their shin. To further isolate that leg, reach under their outside knee and grab hold of their foot.
From here, shift your head slightly to the side, pinning their upper body by raising your hips and driving your weight through your shoulder. Push the leg you've isolated to the floor with your same side arm, then walk your toes around to side control, maintaining pressure with your shoulder and head all the way.
I was fortunate during specific sparring from butterfly, as I got paired up with people close to my own weight, which doesn't happen often. The first guy is slightly heavier, but quite new, so I was able to work some submissions. I was able to lock my legs in position for the triangle, but struggled to bring the shin back. I think that was because I made the error of not scooting back, so was too bunched up. I also failed to switch to the armbar properly, which is something I'd like to work on: very rare that I even make it to a vague set-up, so combinations are still a way off.
My passing was pretty sloppy, but I didn't get punished for it in the same way as normal because my partners weren't big, and they were also white belts. I kept flailing with my arms, and wasn't using my weight properly to trap their legs. I also had trouble flattening them out, as their arms tended to get in the way.
The second guy was even smaller than me, surprisingly, so I got a chance to see what it's like from the other side. I think I was occasionally using strength too much, getting past his butterfly guard by crushing his legs down, but in a manner that likely would have completely failed against somebody bigger. Still, I was pleased that I managed to get a nice back-step to pass in the other direction at one point, and even better it felt quite natural and instinctive.
Oh, and if the guy who offered me a lift (as his route takes him near my house) is reading this, yes, you've reached the right page. Click on the 'contact me' bit at the top. ;)
RGA High Wycombe, (BJJ), Kev Capel, High Wycombe, UK - 14/01/2010
The weather has finally decided to let up a bit, with rain rather than snow today. That meant no problems getting to class, which tonight focused on the butterfly guard. This is something I've been told is good for short legs, so I'm keen to work it more, especially as I'm always trying to hook inside people's legs anyway.
Kev started with a method of moving into butterfly from closed guard, which is pretty much just shrimp out to a scissor sweep position, then get your feet inside their legs. From here, you have two main options in terms of grip. In the gi, you can hold their collar and grab their same side sleeve, then push it under their leg (the idea is to sweep them in the other direction, so they can't post.) Without the gi (although it still works with the gi too: it's the one I prefer, though that isn't saying much given my butterfly guard is very underdeveloped), you secure an underhook, then pull the other arm in towards you.
Having got into position, Kev could now show us a basic sweep from butterfly guard. Securing your preferred grip, drop back, shifting towards one side. Lift their opposite leg with your hook at the same time: it is important you use the momentum, rather than dropping back, then attempting to lift while flat on the floor. If you need extra power, push off with your other foot, ending up in either mount or side control.
Passing butterfly was slightly more complicated, though it's a technique I've seen Kev show before. Flatten them out, drive your head into their chest, putting your hands into their biceps and keeping your elbows tight. Next, you need to trap a leg against your stomach, accomplished by stepping back one leg, bringing it past their foot, then reinserting your knee under their shin. To further isolate that leg, reach under their outside knee and grab hold of their foot.
From here, shift your head slightly to the side, pinning their upper body by raising your hips and driving your weight through your shoulder. Push the leg you've isolated to the floor with your same side arm, then walk your toes around to side control, maintaining pressure with your shoulder and head all the way.
I was fortunate during specific sparring from butterfly, as I got paired up with people close to my own weight, which doesn't happen often. The first guy is slightly heavier, but quite new, so I was able to work some submissions. I was able to lock my legs in position for the triangle, but struggled to bring the shin back. I think that was because I made the error of not scooting back, so was too bunched up. I also failed to switch to the armbar properly, which is something I'd like to work on: very rare that I even make it to a vague set-up, so combinations are still a way off.
My passing was pretty sloppy, but I didn't get punished for it in the same way as normal because my partners weren't big, and they were also white belts. I kept flailing with my arms, and wasn't using my weight properly to trap their legs. I also had trouble flattening them out, as their arms tended to get in the way.
The second guy was even smaller than me, surprisingly, so I got a chance to see what it's like from the other side. I think I was occasionally using strength too much, getting past his butterfly guard by crushing his legs down, but in a manner that likely would have completely failed against somebody bigger. Still, I was pleased that I managed to get a nice back-step to pass in the other direction at one point, and even better it felt quite natural and instinctive.
Oh, and if the guy who offered me a lift (as his route takes him near my house) is reading this, yes, you've reached the right page. Click on the 'contact me' bit at the top. ;)
24 September 2009
24/09/2009 - RGA Wycombe
Class #243
RGA High Wycombe, (BJJ), Kev Capel, High Wycombe, UK - 24/09/2009
Continuing the lessons from Tuesday, Kev added in some more work on the butterfly guard. He also repeated the drill where you lift up your partner then put them back, but with a twist. This time the point was for the person on top to sink their weight and prevent being lifted. I was pretty crap at that, which is partially because I'm small and light, but also because I'm still poor at dropping my hips down.
That was followed by a butterfly pass. You begin by threading your arm through their legs. Push their knees to one side, crushing down with your body weight to help your arm. If their arm is in range, grab it and feed the sleeve to the hand you now have between their legs.
With your other hand, reach for the back of collar: you could also secure a grip over their shoulder. Drive your head into their stomach, using that for base, then raise your hips and walk around.
Once again, Kev then showed the counter, with a butterfly sweep. As soon as they try to thread their arm through, stiffen your legs. That should give you enough time to grasp the sleeve of that threading arm with your opposite hand. Reach over their back with your other hand and grasp some gi fabric.
Next, turn and bring your hooking foot from the threading arm side to their other leg. Your free foot can be used for additional power, as you now lean back and lift, simultaneously pulling with the grip you have on their back. Done right, that should flip them into your side control (make sure you keep your head close, so they don't land too far away). There are submission opportunities here too, but as a beginner class, we stuck with the basics.
Specific sparring from butterfly guard again didn't yield much success, as my training partner Sam had little difficulty passing. Hopefully it still helped me to familiarise myself with the position, but clearly I need lots of work for both the bottom and the top of butterfly guard.
After that, it was straight into the hour of sparring, though I ended up only going three rounds. I tried to be more aggressive, especially with collar chokes, particularly the one where you get a deep grip, then sneak your other hand around the back and wait to try and loop it round. I wasn't get close to choking anyone, but it did seem to work to a degree as a distraction.
I later managed to get something I've been trying for a while, where you first underhook an arm in guard and grab their collar, then use your other arm against their neck for the choke. However, I think that was mainly because my sparring partner had just got choked the previous round, so was being especially careful. I need to be tighter, set it up better and secure a tighter grip.
Guard passing was improved from yesterday, as I wasn't so bent over once I stood up, but I nevertheless kept sitting back down. I tried to achieve a straighter posture, and successfully got the cross-grip I've been looking for to help me pass. However, didn't manage to capitalise, as he still hooked my other leg. I need to stagger my legs more carefully, and also improve my balance and posture.
Another thing I'm still attempting is the triangle. I was especially looking for the spider guard set up, but too obvious. On one of the white belts he could see it a mile off, whereas on another guy I had a leg over his neck, but couldn't fully close the lock. I tried hooking the arm and swivelling to make more of an angle, but was too stacked by that point. Seeing he was standing at this point, I then looked to switch to an armbar, but too late, as I no longer had enough control.
Remembering what Dolph mentioned in a comment last time, I focused on getting an underhook from under half guard, also thinking about what Brad suggested (on Facebook, so can't link to that, unfortunately) in regards to Eddie Bravo's approach (the half guard is one of the few sufficiently basic parts of Mastering the Rubber Guard I'm therefore willing to try). Again, attacking the neck seemed to help as a distraction.
RGA High Wycombe, (BJJ), Kev Capel, High Wycombe, UK - 24/09/2009
Continuing the lessons from Tuesday, Kev added in some more work on the butterfly guard. He also repeated the drill where you lift up your partner then put them back, but with a twist. This time the point was for the person on top to sink their weight and prevent being lifted. I was pretty crap at that, which is partially because I'm small and light, but also because I'm still poor at dropping my hips down.
That was followed by a butterfly pass. You begin by threading your arm through their legs. Push their knees to one side, crushing down with your body weight to help your arm. If their arm is in range, grab it and feed the sleeve to the hand you now have between their legs.
With your other hand, reach for the back of collar: you could also secure a grip over their shoulder. Drive your head into their stomach, using that for base, then raise your hips and walk around.
Once again, Kev then showed the counter, with a butterfly sweep. As soon as they try to thread their arm through, stiffen your legs. That should give you enough time to grasp the sleeve of that threading arm with your opposite hand. Reach over their back with your other hand and grasp some gi fabric.
Next, turn and bring your hooking foot from the threading arm side to their other leg. Your free foot can be used for additional power, as you now lean back and lift, simultaneously pulling with the grip you have on their back. Done right, that should flip them into your side control (make sure you keep your head close, so they don't land too far away). There are submission opportunities here too, but as a beginner class, we stuck with the basics.
Specific sparring from butterfly guard again didn't yield much success, as my training partner Sam had little difficulty passing. Hopefully it still helped me to familiarise myself with the position, but clearly I need lots of work for both the bottom and the top of butterfly guard.
After that, it was straight into the hour of sparring, though I ended up only going three rounds. I tried to be more aggressive, especially with collar chokes, particularly the one where you get a deep grip, then sneak your other hand around the back and wait to try and loop it round. I wasn't get close to choking anyone, but it did seem to work to a degree as a distraction.
I later managed to get something I've been trying for a while, where you first underhook an arm in guard and grab their collar, then use your other arm against their neck for the choke. However, I think that was mainly because my sparring partner had just got choked the previous round, so was being especially careful. I need to be tighter, set it up better and secure a tighter grip.
Guard passing was improved from yesterday, as I wasn't so bent over once I stood up, but I nevertheless kept sitting back down. I tried to achieve a straighter posture, and successfully got the cross-grip I've been looking for to help me pass. However, didn't manage to capitalise, as he still hooked my other leg. I need to stagger my legs more carefully, and also improve my balance and posture.
Another thing I'm still attempting is the triangle. I was especially looking for the spider guard set up, but too obvious. On one of the white belts he could see it a mile off, whereas on another guy I had a leg over his neck, but couldn't fully close the lock. I tried hooking the arm and swivelling to make more of an angle, but was too stacked by that point. Seeing he was standing at this point, I then looked to switch to an armbar, but too late, as I no longer had enough control.
Remembering what Dolph mentioned in a comment last time, I focused on getting an underhook from under half guard, also thinking about what Brad suggested (on Facebook, so can't link to that, unfortunately) in regards to Eddie Bravo's approach (the half guard is one of the few sufficiently basic parts of Mastering the Rubber Guard I'm therefore willing to try). Again, attacking the neck seemed to help as a distraction.
22 September 2009
22/09/2009 - Advanced
Class #242
RGA High Wycombe, (BJJ), Kev Capel, High Wycombe, UK - 22/09/2009
There wasn't much of a break between classes, going straight into a thankfully brief warm-up (a few throws, with some uchikomi: Kev also has a black belt in judo, so that's unsurprising). At RGA in London, I used to get a little rest when doubling-up classes, because you could sit out the warm-up if you'd just spent the previous hour training. Not so here, meaning that my cardio is going to take some time to adjust! ;)
As with the beginner class, Kev's theme for the intermediate/advanced was butterfly guard. He started with another butterfly pass, this time off an armdrag. You have them in butterfly guard, where they then grab your collar. Strip that grip (e.g., both hands under and thrust away), then with one hand on their sleeve and the other by their armpit, pull them across your body.
They will now be overbalanced and close to you, meaning that you should immediately capitalise. Reach under them with one arm, over their back with the arm, locking a gable grip by their side where your hands meet. You can now sweep as in the last class, noting that you have to lift them as you drop back. That means you can also readjust your hooking foot deep behind their knee, as space should open up in the midst of that motion.
Kev followed this up with a submission, the D'arce choke. From the previous gable grip position, you remove the hand you had on top, instead threading that under their near arm, reaching right by their head. Your other arm goes over their head.
You need to grab the bicep of that arm with the hand you have by their head. Especially in the gi, it can be difficult to get the hand and arm close enough for a good grip. If you're finding it tough, try pushing down on their head with your arm: that should make it easier to secure a hold on your bicep.
Finally, reach over their back with your bicep arm, squeeze and drop back. Getting a good grip may take a few tries: speaking personally, I was ok on my strong side, but could only manage a loose grip on my weak side. Also, Kev showed how this can be an option as they switch to side control. Even if they're pretty much past, if you've set it up in time, the submission is still an option.
The last technique was moving from butterfly guard into an x-guard sweep. This is the same thing I saw about three months ago at Nova Força, useful for when they try to initiate a butterfly pass. As soon as they post their leg, swivel your body towards that limb, using your arm to trap their foot against your head, getting it right to your shoulder. Put your legs into the x-guard position (one foot under their thigh, the other foot on their hip, pressing with the top of your instep).
Next, you want to get the foot you've trapped off the floor, by pushing with your own feet on their leg. Make sure you have their foot right up to your shoulder, or your grip will be too loose. Once you feel their foot lose purchase on the ground due to your push, switch the hooking foot you have under their thigh to their knee. Push more to get them off-balance, then do a technical stand-up to get back to your feet, still holding their leg (this should be straightforward if its on your shoulder). Their base is now completely broken, so it should be a simple matter to take out their leg for the sweep.
During specific sparring, I didn't really get anywhere with my training partner Callum. He had little trouble sweeping me when underneath, or passing when on top. However, I did at least get to familiarise myself with butterfly guard a little, trying to bring him back with my legs when he managed to flatten me out. I also had a go at wiggling my arm through for the D'arce, but wasn't quick enough.
During free sparring, I got smashed by one of the blue belts, Rob. He was throwing on a whole bunch of chokes, easily getting to a high mount each time. As in the last lesson, I need better hip movement, and also more activity on the bottom. I did remember to try and bump them forward a few times to disrupt submission attempts, but didn't manage to make space and shrimp.
I think there was someone else before that, but can't remember. The last spar was interesting, with the same white belt from last week, Dan. I again tried standing to pass, but this time almost handed him an armbar and then a triangle. I managed to wriggle my arms past his legs and thought I'd be nicely set up for a double-underhooks pass.
No such luck, as instead he clamped his legs around my head. That was distinctly uncomfortable for two reasons. First, I hurt my own neck if I tried to move in either direction, and secondly, I was unpleasantly close to a faceful of humid man crotch. Not fun.
I did eventually get free, trying the pass where you grab the back of their gi pants and flip them right over. That didn't quite go according to plan, as after a scramble I ended up back underneath again. I tried the Tran side control escape, but didn't have any energy left, so instead got squished under mount. Squirmed my way back to half guard a little later, managing to get on my side, but again in the wrong spot to launch an attempt on the back.
After that round was finished, I decided to sit out the last one. I know my stamina will improve if I keep showing up and training, but its a strenuous process getting there. I've had a slight lay-off while in Turkey for three weeks, but its probably more due to the fact that I've only been training an average of once a week over the past few months. Its good to get back to twice a week, with two classes each night, but my body was definitely complaining the next day.
RGA High Wycombe, (BJJ), Kev Capel, High Wycombe, UK - 22/09/2009
There wasn't much of a break between classes, going straight into a thankfully brief warm-up (a few throws, with some uchikomi: Kev also has a black belt in judo, so that's unsurprising). At RGA in London, I used to get a little rest when doubling-up classes, because you could sit out the warm-up if you'd just spent the previous hour training. Not so here, meaning that my cardio is going to take some time to adjust! ;)
As with the beginner class, Kev's theme for the intermediate/advanced was butterfly guard. He started with another butterfly pass, this time off an armdrag. You have them in butterfly guard, where they then grab your collar. Strip that grip (e.g., both hands under and thrust away), then with one hand on their sleeve and the other by their armpit, pull them across your body.
They will now be overbalanced and close to you, meaning that you should immediately capitalise. Reach under them with one arm, over their back with the arm, locking a gable grip by their side where your hands meet. You can now sweep as in the last class, noting that you have to lift them as you drop back. That means you can also readjust your hooking foot deep behind their knee, as space should open up in the midst of that motion.
Kev followed this up with a submission, the D'arce choke. From the previous gable grip position, you remove the hand you had on top, instead threading that under their near arm, reaching right by their head. Your other arm goes over their head.
You need to grab the bicep of that arm with the hand you have by their head. Especially in the gi, it can be difficult to get the hand and arm close enough for a good grip. If you're finding it tough, try pushing down on their head with your arm: that should make it easier to secure a hold on your bicep.
Finally, reach over their back with your bicep arm, squeeze and drop back. Getting a good grip may take a few tries: speaking personally, I was ok on my strong side, but could only manage a loose grip on my weak side. Also, Kev showed how this can be an option as they switch to side control. Even if they're pretty much past, if you've set it up in time, the submission is still an option.
The last technique was moving from butterfly guard into an x-guard sweep. This is the same thing I saw about three months ago at Nova Força, useful for when they try to initiate a butterfly pass. As soon as they post their leg, swivel your body towards that limb, using your arm to trap their foot against your head, getting it right to your shoulder. Put your legs into the x-guard position (one foot under their thigh, the other foot on their hip, pressing with the top of your instep).
Next, you want to get the foot you've trapped off the floor, by pushing with your own feet on their leg. Make sure you have their foot right up to your shoulder, or your grip will be too loose. Once you feel their foot lose purchase on the ground due to your push, switch the hooking foot you have under their thigh to their knee. Push more to get them off-balance, then do a technical stand-up to get back to your feet, still holding their leg (this should be straightforward if its on your shoulder). Their base is now completely broken, so it should be a simple matter to take out their leg for the sweep.
During specific sparring, I didn't really get anywhere with my training partner Callum. He had little trouble sweeping me when underneath, or passing when on top. However, I did at least get to familiarise myself with butterfly guard a little, trying to bring him back with my legs when he managed to flatten me out. I also had a go at wiggling my arm through for the D'arce, but wasn't quick enough.
During free sparring, I got smashed by one of the blue belts, Rob. He was throwing on a whole bunch of chokes, easily getting to a high mount each time. As in the last lesson, I need better hip movement, and also more activity on the bottom. I did remember to try and bump them forward a few times to disrupt submission attempts, but didn't manage to make space and shrimp.
I think there was someone else before that, but can't remember. The last spar was interesting, with the same white belt from last week, Dan. I again tried standing to pass, but this time almost handed him an armbar and then a triangle. I managed to wriggle my arms past his legs and thought I'd be nicely set up for a double-underhooks pass.
No such luck, as instead he clamped his legs around my head. That was distinctly uncomfortable for two reasons. First, I hurt my own neck if I tried to move in either direction, and secondly, I was unpleasantly close to a faceful of humid man crotch. Not fun.
I did eventually get free, trying the pass where you grab the back of their gi pants and flip them right over. That didn't quite go according to plan, as after a scramble I ended up back underneath again. I tried the Tran side control escape, but didn't have any energy left, so instead got squished under mount. Squirmed my way back to half guard a little later, managing to get on my side, but again in the wrong spot to launch an attempt on the back.
After that round was finished, I decided to sit out the last one. I know my stamina will improve if I keep showing up and training, but its a strenuous process getting there. I've had a slight lay-off while in Turkey for three weeks, but its probably more due to the fact that I've only been training an average of once a week over the past few months. Its good to get back to twice a week, with two classes each night, but my body was definitely complaining the next day.
22/09/2009 - Beginner
Class #241
RGA High Wycombe, (BJJ), Kev Capel, High Wycombe, UK - 22/09/2009
Today would involve a little more training than Thursday, as while both nights are split into beginner and intermediate/advanced classes, on Thursday its just extra sparring. On Tuesday, the split is sufficiently clear that I'll stick it into two entries rather than last time, when I combined the hour of sparring into the beginners class write-up.
Kev's focus for the beginner class was butterfly guard, providing us with two options for sweeping and passing respectively. More than that, however, he wanted to get across the principles involved in butterfly guard: balance and leverage. Towards that end, we started with a drill where we started in butterfly guard, locked both hands behind our partner then leaned back and lifted at the same time.
That led on to the first butterfly sweep. Its a fairly basic one, which starts by gripping their same side sleeve and collar. You scoot slightly away, maintaining a hook with your foot underneath their other leg. For the sweep, lean back, simultaneously pushing their sleeve down between their legs while you lift with your hook. Done right, you should end up in mount.
The point here is to use the momentum and leverage you've created by leaning back, rather than trying to lift them up purely with your hooking foot. Unless you're very strong, or your partner is very small, that isn't going to work. If on the other hand you get the leverage right, but they are still too big, you can drive off the toes of your other foot to add some power.
The next butterfly sweep is similar, but works both gi and nogi. Instead of grabbing their collar, you're going to underhook them on the same side as your hooking foot, reaching your hand around their back. With your other hand, you'll grab their elbow instead of their sleeve. Otherwise, it is the same motion as before, pulling their arm in as you lean back and lift, rolling on top into mount.
Like last time, Kev then provided the other side of the equation, with two passes. His opening butterfly pass involved flattening them out before they can lean back and lift you up. You aren't out of danger, as they can use their butterfly hooks to move you back and sit up again, but it gives you some time to work.
Now that they're flat, wrap around the outside of their leg with your arm, which stops them lifting your leg with their hook. Press your other side shoulder into their torso, then raise your hips and walk around into side control. You can also use a hand to push their other leg, if you're having trouble clearing that space.
The pressure from your shoulder is essential here: that will pin them down as you walk around. Raising your hips takes your weight off them, so you need to use your shoulder to make sure you keep gravity on your side.
The next butterfly pass is much the same, with one difference. Instead of pinning their leg and walking around, you're going to bring one of your legs back to release their hook. You can now reinsert the knee by the instep of their other foot, so that you now have both legs against their single limb.
That also means you can bring all your weight to bear on that one side, trapping that leg, while their other foot has nothing to hook. As before, walk your legs around to side control, maintaining pressure, pushing their leg out of the way if you need to.
In specific sparring, I spent most of my time readjusting underneath, as ever ending up in one of those boring half guard cycles where they bring their knee through, then you re-establish your lock, over and over. I'm trying to get more on my side and look to see if I can get to the back, but I'm still ending up with my torso on the wrong side most of the time. I need more hip movement, more bumping and perhaps more threatening for some kind of attack (not that I expect to even get close to submitting somebody, but it might help give me space).
During guard passing, I'm pleased I managed to get myself to stand up, but I ended up in a very vulnerable bent over posture, so plopped straight back down most of the time. Later I tried to straighten up, but left my arm out in the process, which my partner happily took for an easy submission. Still, its a start, so I just have to keep on standing until I get better posture and balance.
RGA High Wycombe, (BJJ), Kev Capel, High Wycombe, UK - 22/09/2009
Today would involve a little more training than Thursday, as while both nights are split into beginner and intermediate/advanced classes, on Thursday its just extra sparring. On Tuesday, the split is sufficiently clear that I'll stick it into two entries rather than last time, when I combined the hour of sparring into the beginners class write-up.
Kev's focus for the beginner class was butterfly guard, providing us with two options for sweeping and passing respectively. More than that, however, he wanted to get across the principles involved in butterfly guard: balance and leverage. Towards that end, we started with a drill where we started in butterfly guard, locked both hands behind our partner then leaned back and lifted at the same time.
That led on to the first butterfly sweep. Its a fairly basic one, which starts by gripping their same side sleeve and collar. You scoot slightly away, maintaining a hook with your foot underneath their other leg. For the sweep, lean back, simultaneously pushing their sleeve down between their legs while you lift with your hook. Done right, you should end up in mount.
The point here is to use the momentum and leverage you've created by leaning back, rather than trying to lift them up purely with your hooking foot. Unless you're very strong, or your partner is very small, that isn't going to work. If on the other hand you get the leverage right, but they are still too big, you can drive off the toes of your other foot to add some power.
The next butterfly sweep is similar, but works both gi and nogi. Instead of grabbing their collar, you're going to underhook them on the same side as your hooking foot, reaching your hand around their back. With your other hand, you'll grab their elbow instead of their sleeve. Otherwise, it is the same motion as before, pulling their arm in as you lean back and lift, rolling on top into mount.
Like last time, Kev then provided the other side of the equation, with two passes. His opening butterfly pass involved flattening them out before they can lean back and lift you up. You aren't out of danger, as they can use their butterfly hooks to move you back and sit up again, but it gives you some time to work.
Now that they're flat, wrap around the outside of their leg with your arm, which stops them lifting your leg with their hook. Press your other side shoulder into their torso, then raise your hips and walk around into side control. You can also use a hand to push their other leg, if you're having trouble clearing that space.
The pressure from your shoulder is essential here: that will pin them down as you walk around. Raising your hips takes your weight off them, so you need to use your shoulder to make sure you keep gravity on your side.
The next butterfly pass is much the same, with one difference. Instead of pinning their leg and walking around, you're going to bring one of your legs back to release their hook. You can now reinsert the knee by the instep of their other foot, so that you now have both legs against their single limb.
That also means you can bring all your weight to bear on that one side, trapping that leg, while their other foot has nothing to hook. As before, walk your legs around to side control, maintaining pressure, pushing their leg out of the way if you need to.
In specific sparring, I spent most of my time readjusting underneath, as ever ending up in one of those boring half guard cycles where they bring their knee through, then you re-establish your lock, over and over. I'm trying to get more on my side and look to see if I can get to the back, but I'm still ending up with my torso on the wrong side most of the time. I need more hip movement, more bumping and perhaps more threatening for some kind of attack (not that I expect to even get close to submitting somebody, but it might help give me space).
During guard passing, I'm pleased I managed to get myself to stand up, but I ended up in a very vulnerable bent over posture, so plopped straight back down most of the time. Later I tried to straighten up, but left my arm out in the process, which my partner happily took for an easy submission. Still, its a start, so I just have to keep on standing until I get better posture and balance.
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