08/06/2011 - Q & A at Gracie Barra Bristol

Class #403
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Nicolai 'Geeza' Holt, Bristol, UK - 08/06/2011

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Class tonight was a bit different, as this time, Geeza did something I haven't seen at many other schools (though I know Kev has done something like this in the past, along with Roy Dean at last year's seminar). Rather than presenting us with a technique, Geeza treated this lesson as a question and answer session, giving everybody present the chance to investigate some of the problems they've been having in their game.

As Geeza always sends out a text summarising the content of the class, I made sure to text my question in advance: I wanted to get some input on the ideal posture, pressure, distancing etc when you're facing somebody's open guard and looking to pass. Geeza had already gone through some good technique in terms of opening and passing closed guard earlier, so I was interested to hear his thoughts on dealing with open guard.

They are in open guard, perhaps with a grip on your sleeve, their legs keeping you at bay. This is a position where I frequently end up just staring at people, breathing a sigh of relief when I get passed and can start working my guard. As I've said so many times in the past, that needs to change. I've been given the tools by Kev, during a private lesson: the techniques Geeza taught acted as a very helpful reminder, with some additional emphases.

First, get your grips. Geeza mentioned he likes to grab a collar and a leg. As Kev advises, push down on their leg and do a big step over the top. From here, you then need to get an underhook on whichever side you aren't passing. Don't drop down immediately: they will often have an arm up to grab your collar, so swim under that. Once you've got the underhook, you can then drive forward, put your head on the passing side by their neck, then slide your knee over to pass.

Most likely they'll try to catch you in half-guard: if that happens, you're in a strong position, so just kick their top leg to pry your foot free (or as Saulo demonstrates, their bottom). If you aren't able to get that initial underhook, you can also underhook the other side instead, then switch your knees to that side (bringing your second knee under the leading knee). Finally, Geeza also mentioned how you can turn their hips away from the side your passing, which hinders their attempts to recover guard.

We drilled that for thirty seconds each, which was useful: progressive resistance is an enormously productive tool. This was the case with all the techniques tonight, rather than spending a long time drilling each one. That meant Geeza packed plenty into the class, but it was all stripped down to key principles, making it much easier to remember. Also, the remaining techniques were a lot simpler than the first.

Donal was up next in terms of asking questions, which turned out to be immediately beneficial to my efforts to focus on guard passing. It wasn't exactly a guard pass, but sort of, in a competition specific setting. The scenario was that both you and your opponent want to play a bottom game, so both pull guard. That leaves you playing footsie, so Donal wanted to know a good way to make sure you're the one who comes out on top.

Geeza's answer was very simple, but effective: grab the bottom of their trouser leg and stand up. With their leg in the air, they can't stand up, and you should get the advantage. It should also be a good place from which to begin a pass, netting you even more points. From my perspective, this was a handy starting point when sparring in class from the knees. Instead of pulling guard like normal, I could grab a trouser leg and try to work from on top.

The progressive resistance was again useful in testing that out, seeing what worked and what didn't. It did at points become a matter of reaction speed, but I'm sure there are technical nuances that can get involved with more experience. Luke also had a nifty defence, which was to instantly move into either spider or x-guard as soon as I stood with the leg. That's probably what I would try too, as it makes it hard for the person trying to passing to continue driving forward.

Lee, one of the white belts, asked the final two questions, about defending chokes and sweeps. Simple answer: for choke, first grip, look away to hide neck with hand on chest, then pull hand down and off. If they have both, wrap arm, and do a 'dog' motion, raising head and driving forward.

In terms of defending against a sweep, they are trying to turn your hips over, so that they can roll to the top position. To prevent them achieving their goal, simply turn your hips in the other direction, switching your base and sprawling. You can then keep moving around, in order to either take side control or the back, depending on what they do.

There was enough time for some free sparring: I started off with Oli. Instead of pulling guard like I normally do, I grabbed his leg instead and stood up. I sort of flopped into half guard, at some point getting into position for a bent armlock. Rather than trying to finish that, Geeza suggested I use it to pass, which is sensible advice. I'm not sure how I got there, but later I was in north south, looking for a kimura.

However, Oli was wise to that, so hid his arm by putting it between his legs and grabbing onto his gi. Instead of trying to wrench that free, I tried wriggling the foot I had on the far side into his armpit. My intention was to then kick through to establish the step over triangle, which would hopefully enable me to catch an arm somewhere.

Afterwards, both Geeza and Oli advised that I could have pulled on the trapped arm and made an attempt at the triangle. Good reminder, as I almost always don't bother trying to finish the triangle, as I assume I'm highly unlikely to finish it. Nevertheless, it is well worth at least giving it a go, rather than completely ignoring the opportunity and only using it for control.

Last spar was with Kirsty, which as I'd expected proved to be a good roll (given that she's my size and also has plenty of judo experience, with a couple of years doing MMA too). I wanted to test out some of the attacks I planned to teach tomorrow, particularly to isolate the difficulties: I'll go through that on Thursday. I also again tried to work the pass, getting to Geeza's recommended starting position, though I think Kirsty swept me at some point in the middle.

Geeza mentioned something interesting to me during class, which is that I'm now technically eligible for a red strip on my purple belt, given that I'm teaching. That sounds tempting, although I'm not sure I'd want to replace the belt I got from Roger. Then again, I could have a second belt for teaching. Something to think about, I guess: I suppose I could try unstitching the black strip and replacing it with a red one, but that sounds way beyond my sewing abilities. ;)

23/02/2010 - BJJ (Beginners)

Class #289
RGA High Wycombe, (BJJ), Kev Capel, High Wycombe, UK - 23/02/2010

For those who didn't notice, Matt's awesome blog Martial Farts has changed its name to The Grappling Dummy, which means the URL has also changed, to this. So, you may need to update your links and if you subscribe to the feed, that may need updating too. However, Matt mentioned that Grappling Dummy is set up to forward from the old Martial Farts URL, so quite possible your links will be unaffected.

I also read a good tip from the aptly named BJJ Tips blog, here, about treating mount like it was a reverse guard. Interesting, especially as I knew Kev was continuing to focus on back mount this week, so thought I might have a chance to try it out.

Fundamentals was escaping a standing choke. Pull down on their arm for breathing room, then drop your hips to get underneath them. Lift with your legs, then throw them over your shoulder by twisting to the side.

This will be slightly different if they put forward the leg on the same side as their choking arm. You won't be able to drop and lift them so easily, so instead, you want to make them pull back. Normally leaning forwards as if you're going to try and lift gets that reaction.

As soon as they pull you backwards, hook their leg and circle round. You should now have that choking arm in an awkward position: if you drop your upper body, they'll have to flip to the ground. Otherwise, they're going to hurt their arm.

Transitioning to the ground, Kev moved into an escape from back mount. The first thing to note is your defensive hand position. Interestingly, it was the same thing Liam suggested last week: cross your hands under your jaw, pressing the back of each hand against your faces, elbows in tight. This should both block attempts to press a forearm into your neck, while still enabling you to use your hands to intercept theirs.

Bridge up, then keep moving to the side until you've created a bit of pressure on their hook. Push it off with your same side hand and immediately move your hips over onto the floor. You need to make sure that you keep your weight on their chest the whole time, gluing their upper body to the ground.

Gradually walk around with your feet, maintaining that pressure on their chest, bringing an arm over their neck. With your other hand (this will be the same hand that released their hooking foot earlier), reach over and grab their opposite leg. This is to stop them turning into you. It should now be a simple matter to twist into side control.

If you also need to escape a choke, the technique is similar. The only difference is that you have to deal with that choking arm first. Grab it with both hands and pull down, then roll to the side. It must be the side their choking hand is pointing towards. If you roll towards their choking elbow, you're helping them put the submission on faster.

Once you've rolled to the side, you need to release their hooking foot, after which the technique proceeds as before. If you're escaping a RNC, then you begin the same way, but you'll also need to peel away the hand behind your skull. In order to do that, grab their four fingers with the hand closest to it, then pull it off your head.

Be careful, as you aren't allowed to manipulate small joints in BJJ, so it needs to be all four fingers clumped together. Once it is loose, bring their arm over your body until your can trap it under your same side armpit. You can then proceed to escape as before.

The last technique was another choke, this time in response to their defence. You've got a grip on the collar by their neck, but you can't get your other hand low on their other lapel. So instead, just wiggle your hand through until you can bring it behind their head, then choke them by pressing that arm and pulling on the collar. This is only going to work if they have left some space with their arm: if they're clamping their elbow in tight to their side, you're going to struggle to make room.

Specific sparring from the back, I focused too much on releasing hook with my legs. That defensive hand position worked great, as I wasn't in any danger of chokes, but I also wasn't getting too far with escaping. I generally felt too vulnerable to move one hand to brush off one of their hooks, though the one time I did attempt it, my remaining hand was enough to keep blocking submissions.

I did eventually release a hook just by squirming with my legs, but once again I went the wrong way. I should have triangled my legs around the other side, where his hand was under my armpit. That would make it easier to turn. Once I did eventually escape, I ended up straight under mount. Better than having my back taken, but not exactly ideal.

When it came to attacking, I had trouble dealing with Dan's hands. He kept managing to peel off one of my arms, then using that space to turn and escape. I wasn't able to break through his arms for a choke, so instead I had a go at an armbar. That almost worked the first time, but I didn't control him enough with the figure four grip. I should have really pressed his arm into his chest.

As it was, I left too much space, so when I went for the armbar, he was able to slip free. I also must remember to always come under the arm first before securing my initial grip, which I failed to do a couple of times with my later attempts.

I asked Kev if he had any suggestions for controlling their arms when on the back. His response was interesting: use your legs. Basically, you push through the crook of their elbow, reach under your own knee, then grab the gi. Clamp your elbow down, and you've trapped their arm. If you do that on both sides, you've managed to buy yourself a few extra seconds to attack their neck.

21/06/2008 - Belfast Throwdown II

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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