28/10/2017 - RGA Bucks | Takedowns, Von Flue choke, double underhooks pass

Class #914
RGA Aylesbury, (BJJ), Dan Lewis, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, UK - 28/10/2017

For the double leg takedown, get your standard judo grips, grip a collar and sleeve. Step back and pull them in towards you, raising your elbows. Then immediately drop, putting the knee on the collar-grabbing side on the ground between their legs. Step your other leg up on the outside and put your hands around the back of their knees, but not trying to link your hands. Your head comes up, then you also step up with your other leg. Do a little sideways run, away from your head, in order to bring them down.

They will often grab your head in an attempt at a guillotine, then land under side control, meaning they have a not particularly functional grip. If they insist on maintaining that grip, you can do what's known as a 'von Flue choke', presumably named after some guy. You establish the cross face as normal, but driving your shoulder into their neck. Your other hand goes underneath their gripping arm, linking up with your other hand. Make sure your cross-face hand is palm down for the gable grip (palm to palm). Move around to exert pressure for the choke. Either you'll get the submission, or they will let go of their grip.

A post shared by Can (Jun) (@slideyfoot) on Oct 31, 2017 at 8:57am PDT

Dan then ran through a double underhooks pass, drawing on the method Mauricio showed earlier that week (very awesomely, Mauricio is now teaching every Monday lunchtime at RGA Bucks). Roll their collars together to start (like Donal showed me a few years back), fighting off their hands if they try to stop you. It's worth taking the time to get that super strong grip. Your collar gripping arm isn't completely straight, there is a slight bend so you're not straining, ready to engage if they try to sit up.

Open their closed guard with the usual kneeling break, then get your shoulder behind their knee. Rather than immediately reaching for the collar like I'm used to, you instead rely on gripping your wrist to create a frame. Your arm that would normally go for the collar instead just wraps tight around their leg. Your other hand comes in tight, grasping the wrist of your outside arm. Driving forward off your toes, start to stack them, keeping your head up, driving with your hips too. Once they are stacked, that's when you go for the collar.

Grab their opposite collar (or shoulder, if it's nogi or you can't get the grip you want) with one of your hands, sliding your fingers inside. Bring your knee behind their bum to maintain your stack. It is important to keep maintaining heavy downwards pressure throughout this pass. Keep pushing until eventually you drive past their leg and transition to side control: don't raise your head, just keep pushing until you slide past, nudging with your shoulder if necessary.

If they bring their knee across to block that, by your neck, you can switch to something else. Grip their other leg (that isn't against your neck), low on their trousers. Step over the top of it, so you're in a kind of half guard. Your head then goes onto the leg-stacked side hip, driving across towards that side. Head stays low to avoid the reverse triangle, then you bring your other arm in for the cross-face. Walk your legs back toward the side your head is pressing into, as that shift back around should make it tough for them to keep control of your leg.

Good roll with Stu as always, where I again tried to fit in that single leg x and shin on shin guard, but not getting it where I want it just yet. I'll keep trying (naturally it's rather harder on brown belts like Stu!).

26/07/2017 - BJJ Globetrotter Camp | Leuven 2017 | Passing Half Guard, Chokes & Back Takes (Fran Vanderstukken)

Class #856
BJJ Globetrotter Camp (Sportoase Leuven), Fran Vanderstukken, Leuven, Belgium, 26/07/2017

Another excellent class, taught by a female brown belt. Fran focused on top half guard, with some connections to side control and a back take. You are stuck in a standard half guard. Sit on your heels initially, hands into their hips, strong posture. Grab a strong cross-face, keeping that pressure up all the way through. Pull out their far gi lapel, feeding it under their far armpit, passing that to your hand.

Lock that in, having turned your hips towards them. Bring your foot close to their bum, to avoid getting caught in the lockdown. Maintaining your cross face pressure, rise up enough to drive your bottom knee (not shin, just the knee) into their hip, then settle your weight back down. Pull their knee over, getting that supine twist (their knees go one way, their head goes the other). Grip the gi material by the knee, pull towards you, then push your leg free.

Keeping that lapel grip under their head as you move to side control, trap their arm by your hip. Move around their head, making sure the lapel grip has enough slack that you can move around. Once you get to the other side, grip your other hand under their head, then squeeze and drop your hips for the choke.

Next up, Fran upped the complexity. For whatever reason, the pass isn't happening. Reach your other hand on the inside, above their shoulder, switching the gi lapel grip. Bring your knee that is nearest the head into their side, in order to clear the way to pull them up in front of you. Also, swim your other arm underneath their armpit, establishing a gi grip with that too (that transition can be tough, I need to drill that lots to get it smooth). Yanking them up and across should be straightforward at this point, transitioning to the back.

Fran noted that she found it helpful to view top half guard as partway to the back, as you already have a hook inserted. All you need to do is pull their arm across, then with a gift wrap you can pull them straight into the back position. It's comparable to how technical mount is an easy transition to the back, just that your hook is lower.

The lesson finished up with two option from the opposite side pass. When you flipped over to the other side, you have the option of passing that side. You can also perform a rolling back take. Sit up from your position, bringing the knee of your trapped knee to the ground. Make sure you hook your foot over the back of their leg, this is very important. From here, you want to do a shoulder roll towards their legs.

As you roll, use your hook to bring their legs past you, progressing to the back. If you like, you could stop in the truck here instead. Be careful of your hook, as if you're lazy with it, they can reverse the momentum and take your back instead. Your hook needs to get down behind their knee ideally. The higher it is, the more likely they can adjust to dominate your leg instead.

24/06/2016 - BJJ Globetrotter Camp | Leuven 2016 | Side Control Attacks (Kenny Polmans)

Class #739
BJJ Globetrotter Camp (Sportoase Leuven), Kenny Polmans, Leuven, Belgium, 24/06/2016

For his second class, Kenny focused on my favourite position, side control. As with his session on closed guard, he started off with the basics, keeping his instruction concise and clear. In order to move round from side control to north south, he suggested blocking the near hip, extending your leg nearest their head, then shifting towards the head.

However, he warned against getting greedy and trying to go straight to the head: that can mean your weight is off and you get rolled. Keep it steady, settling your weight down. Push their near arm out of the way (anybody experienced will make this a struggle, as that gives you a lot of control), shifting your leg forward then shuffling back to dislodge the elbow. You can now move into mount (grabbing your foot is an option here, though I always prefer driving the knee across, ideally into the armpit).

Next, Kenny began to set up the breadcutter choke. If they have their near arm in front of your legs, you can hook it with your arm, as you bring your knees back around into side control. I couldn’t quite see what was happening from the angle I had, but normally you then get underneath that arm with your hand, in order to reach back under for their collar. You can then grip their far collar with your other hand, swivelling your elbow back to lock in the breadcutter.

Just as I was thinking I couldn’t see the detail, Kenny psychically heard me and shifted his angle, meaning I could zoom in with my phone too. That meant I could see how Kenny pushes them up onto their side to secure his grip. He also secures the arm differently than I’ve been shown: rather than sneaking an arm under and staying sprawled, he does a quick motion with his legs to get the arm, knees staying in tight.

When you go for this choke, often they will be blocking. Just as often, you may find their gi lapels are loose. If not, it’s not normally too hard to pull them out yourself, though that does telegraph what you’re about to do. My training partners know how much I like choking people with a lapel, so get very wary once I start pulling out gi tails. ;D

For Kenny’s gi tail choke, grab their far lapel with your hand that’s nearest their legs, maintaining control of their head with your other arm. Punch it out to give yourself maximum gi tail to play with, then slide back and push it through the gap they usually create with their far arm (because that tends to be framing into your neck, head, or perhaps shoulder). You can go over the top too, like the attacks I enjoy from half guard. As Kenny said, they frequently pull their arm out if you do that, opening up the route you wanted in the first place.

From there, you can move into an Ezequiel choke using the lapel, which again connects back to that half guard sequence I’ve taught in the past. Keep it loose enough that you can insert your hand through. A big advantage of side control over the same attack from half guard is you can go to knee on belly, adding much more leverage. Look up, to engage the muscles of your whole body.

That was followed by another gi feed attack. This time, feed the gi collar over the arm, trapping their limb in the bent position. Bring your elbow underneath their elbow, then grab the gi tail with that hand (like the one I’ve taught from top half guard). Keep feeding it until you are gripping that gi tail close to their wrist, to lock their arm in tight. Put your knee on their stomach. Take the arm you have behind their head out, instead gripping their far wrist. Now just pull up their elbow as you push on the wrist for an Americana.

I didn't get a good angle on that last one, so couldn't see what was happening too well (thanks to Chris Paines, when I wrote this up in Madrid a few weeks later, I had access to his video from the other side), which also made me think I wanted more detail on everything. This was all stuff I like to use, so I decided to check with Kenny what he charged for private lessons. They were MUCH cheaper than I expected, meaning I immediately booked one there and there. Keep your eyes peeled for the class write-up, it will be the next post I upload on here. ;)

23/06/2016 - Private with David Morcegao | Open Guard & Side Control | Stiff Arm Frame, Knee Cut Counters & Gi Tail Choke

Class #737 - Private #023
BJJ Globetrotter Camp (Sportoase Leuven), David 'Morcegao' George, Leuven, Belgium, 23/06/2016

I hadn't intended to do any privates when I was booking the camp, but David mentioned he was only charging €40 for two people, a price too good to pass up. That set me off on a private lesson spree, booking another for Friday and a third for Saturday, each with a different instructor. For anybody going to a BJJ Globetrotter camp, I would therefore recommend bringing along a 'private lesson piggybank', to take advantage of affordable one-on-one attention. You can also grab black belts at open mat to ask them stuff (e.g., Christian said to do that, as he wasn't looking to do privates at this camp), but I feel better able to babble after having paid for an hour. Especially as I ask LOTS of questions. ;)

A photo posted by Can (Jun) (@slideyfoot) on Jun 23, 2016 at 11:02am PDT

First on my list was knee cut counters. David began by suggesting you grab the foot from a reverse de la Riva position. If you mess up and they have gotten a knee through, you're in trouble. They want their balance centered, you want to disrupt that. Bump them with your knee, with the intention of swivelling up behind them. It could be either knee, depending on the position.

Pulling on the collar can help you with that too. You will end up in a scramble, like Haueter said, meaning that a wrestling approach will pay dividends. You're spinning through behind the leg, looking for the back or possibly moving into a single leg off that position.

If you can get some kind of purchase on their leg, you can turn, rolling them over. Securing a collar and grabbing their knee will help with this too, stiff arming to stop them recovering their position. If they don't fall over (e.g., you end up with their leg, but they still have some base), hook the leg as you turn, then stand to complete the single leg. If they are on their knee, you can tap that knee and drive through.

A late option is to try and spin through, your arm going underneath their body. Your other arm loops over their head, ending up in a brabo choke type thing (anaconda? I get confused as to which is which). To complete the choke, you're curling your body around their head.

Along with knee cut counters, I more generally want to improve my open guard, particularly the sitting guard frames I've been playing with from Ryan Hall. Rather than curling your arm in when you have it behind their head, make sure you're redirecting that head. That's a great point, as like David said, just curling the arm ends up using triceps. In a related point (which applies to side control frames too), you can reach for their shoulder, getting the lower part of your forearm into the throat.

I'm keen on improving my chokes from side control too, as I go for those a lot. David had a nifty little tweak on my favoured gi tail choke. If you can't get the basic gi tail to work, bring your other hand through to grip on top of your first grip, similar to a baseball bat grip, but on the side. Lever their head up for the choke (David described it as a steering wheel), being careful not to put your forearm through too deeply.

04/10/2014 - 1st Open Mat at PHNX FItness | Artemis BJJ | Breadcutter Choke

Class #597
Artemis BJJ (PHNX Fitness), Open Mat, Bristol, UK - 04/10/2014


Today was the first open mat at PHNX Fitness (directions here: open mats will be every Saturday from 10:00-12:00), where we get a whole two hours to play with technique. As Chris had asked about the breadcutter choke I taught him a while back, I decided to have a play with that. I want to look at two variations, starting with the one I learned from Dónal, then an option I saw Saulo teach on BJJ Library.

Dónal's breadcutter choke is set up by moving towards north-south from side control. They will often reach past your hip when you do that, which leaves a space for you reach under their armpit and clamp it to your side, so that their arm is stuck between your side and your arm. Move back to side control, then with the hand of that clamping arm, grab behind their neck, gripping in the middle of the collar. Cinch that in.

Bring your free arm back towards you, then use that to turn their head away from you. This feels counter-intuitive, as you'd expect to drag that arm back and turn their head towards you. However, you want to expose the near side of their neck. So, bring your arm back, then drive it over their jawline, turning their head away. Grip their far collar with your free hand (this might require balancing on their chest, turned towards their head, which should also help keep them pinned to the mat), then put your forearm into the exposed side of their neck.

To finish, you need to create some pressure into their neck, in order to close off the artery. Turn towards their legs, in a sort of reverse scarf hold position, then use that base from your legs to lower yourself gradually into their neck, keeping your initial gi grip tight. Be careful, as this can come on quickly and it isn't very comfortable.

Saulo's version is a little different. In his breadcutter choke, he starts off by grabbing their far lapel with both of his hands. That means you can use one hand to pull their lapel, feeding your other hand deeper towards their neck. It also means you can push their lapel behind their armpit if they try to shrimp and turn towards you (if you aren't able to keep them flat here, they might be able to recover guard).

When you have that grip by their collar, put your arm into their neck, making sure it's on the side rather than over their windpipe. Reach your other hand to their near side elbow, pulling that elbow up towards their chest. If you can, reach even deeper and grab their shoulder, depending how much space you've got. You can then finish by leaning sideways and pressing into their neck, pulling on the arm. Saulo also mentioned a gentler option is to lean towards their far shoulder instead.

In sparring, working specifically on the breadcutter, I was finding that Chris was often able to turn towards me and get his knee in there, to recover guard. I think the problem was that I started off by getting my arm to the neck and gripping the collar, but I wasn't pushing the lapel into his armpit to keep him flat. Instead, I was hooking the elbow with my knee, as he was tending to flare that when turning.

I got into the step over triangle position as a result, but couldn't finish it. Still, at least that provided some control. I need to remember to be more upright on the triangle, driving the leg more into the neck. When I was underneath, I was staying tight and wriggling back to guard. I'm not doing the basic escape as much as I should, doing a powerful bridge.

After sparring, Chris and I reckoned that we need a follow-up to the choke that combines well. I think the answer could be going for their arm. When we were defending, that arm was starting to come loose. So, I could try attacking for americanas and the like when they defend the neck, after which I can switch back if they defend the americana. Something to play with.

Another purple belt who was there mentioned that he does that choke off a double-under pass, which is something worth keeping in mind. It's a bit meaner than I would like, but a potential attack that would combine nicely. The arm triangle is another submission I could try more from side control. I sort of had it in place in sparring, but lost the arm when I jumped all the way over to the other side. I should have tried finishing it from mount instead, which I'll try next time.

26/10/2013 - Training at the New RGA Bucks Academy in Aylesbury

Class #532
RGA Aylesbury, (BJJ), Kev Capel, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, UK - 26/10/2013

It is always really good to go back and train with my main instructor, Kev Capel at RGA Buckinghamshire. That's something I will be doing much more regularly from now on, although still not exactly frequent as it will be once every month or two. Having a long-distance relationship to your instructor can be difficult, but if the calibre of the instructor is high enough (as it is with Kev, who has the integrity to match his teaching skill), it's well worth the extra effort.

As I mentioned in my previous post, Kev's partner Yaz was promoted to black belt on Wednesday, making her the first female black belt under Roger Gracie and the fourth female black belt in the UK. The occasion for that grading was the official opening of Kev's new academy, a short walk from the previous location but a considerable step-up in terms of its facilities.

There is a sprung floor, top quality mats, a small gym with weights, male and female changing rooms, toilets, showers, a pro shop, entrance lobby with plush couches, plus there is ample parking nearby. The RGA Bucks academy is also still right near Aylesbury train station. The specific address is:

18 California,
Coxhill Way,
Aylesbury,
Buckinghamshire
HP21 8HH

My sense of direction is notoriously terrible and I'm also poor at reading maps (I got a bit confused by the Google Maps location). I therefore relied upon staring at my phone's SatNav, which eventually got me to the right place. The route I took was to walk up onto the bridge outside the entrance of Aylesbury train station: from there, I could see the RGA Bucks sign on the side of a building. Walk to the end of the bridge, then turn left. Go across the small bridge that has the 'cyclists dismount' sign on it. You'll soon see the entrance to RGA Bucks on the right, with a metal fence around it.

Saturday training begins with an hour and a half class, followed by open mat for drilling and sparring. Kev opened up the sessions with a single leg takedown, with two closely related variations. Block their hands from grip fighting by literally covering them with your own hands, then establish a cross-grip on their collar (i.e., grabbing the opposite side to your hand).

In a comparable motion to the collar drag from butterfly Dónal showed on Thursday, pull their collar down and past you. At the same time, slide your leg (same side as the collar-gripping arm) between theirs, wrapping around their lower leg. Be sure to bring your head to the outside of their leg, staying tight, or they can stuff your head. From here, stand up, lifting their leg and trapping it between yours as you do (the motion is basically a technical stand up, posting with the hand that was gripping the collar).

Switch so that your arm is under their leg rather than your leg (you can bump their leg up with your knee to facilitate that transfer). Bring your other hand around their same side hip, stepping sideways and staying close. That's in order to thrust your hip forwards to knock them sufficiently off balance that you can then lift them up and drop them. This isn't a strength move, so if you're having to use a lot of force, adjust your grips and your hip bump position.

The second variation is a small change, which is to keep hold of that collar grip when standing up, rather than posting on your hand. That means you can still do a technical stand-up, but also shove them away with the collar grip. As you step up, that gives you some additional leverage, which may enable you to knock them to the ground, putting you in a good position to pass the guard.

Next, Kev moved on to a choke against the turtle. Peruvian neck-tie, I think? Not quite sure, but something like that. As Kev mentioned in the class, after Roger Gracie taught this in his Wednesday seminar, Yaz put up a video showing the choke. You can see Yarden Gerbi from Israel having plenty of success with this choke en route to gold at the 2013 Judo World Championship, though from what I gather she did cause a brief bit of controversy in the judo world as a result (regarding the choke's legality under IJF competition rules). Skip ahead to 1:12 in the video to see it (there are some more nice details in this vid too):



You're on the side of their turtle, maintaining pressure. Open up your gi, pulling out the end of the lapel, then shove that down past the far side of their neck. Pass it under their body, so that your hand nearest their hip can grab it (be careful you aren't reaching too deep into their turtle, as they might be able to trap your arm and roll you over). Step your foot up to the far side of their body, angling it outwards.

Bring that leg over their shoulder, right by the gi lapel you've pull through, then drop back. Swing your other leg over them too, then use the combined leverage of your legs, arms and collar grip to apply the choke. It should be a blood choke rather than a crank or air choke, so adjust if you're having problems. A key point is not dropping off their head: stay tight with your leg so they cannot pop their head free.

The nogi variation is done with your arms. Rather than the gi lapel, put your arm (nearest their head) to the far side of the neck, just far enough that the blade of your arm is cutting into their neck. Just like with the lapel, reach your other hand underneath from the near side, linking up your hands. From there, it is exactly the same as before, just using your arms instead of the gi for the application.

I kicked off sparring with my training partner, Sandeep. I was being lazy and went straight into the running man escape when he managed to get on top. We then spent almost the entire roll fighting for a few millimetres, in my case attempting to shove his hand back past my knee and avoid his other arm from creeping around my neck. Eventually, Sandeep was able to get a grip under both my elbows, using that to slide into mount. That hasn't happened to me before, so I'll have to watch out for it. He didn't have a chance to finish from there, as the buzzer went shortly afterwards.

I then had a roll with Kev, who naturally dominated me quite easily, but also gave me some room to work. It was almost exactly the same roll as I had with my other instructor Dónal: lots of defensive scrambling on my part, trying to spin and twist out of submissions when I could feel Kev starting to lock something on. He finally caught me in an armbar, which I tried to hitchhiker escape out of, but he had a figure-four grip, closing that particular door.

After sparring, I stayed for a bit of drilling during the open mat. Sandeep gave me some awesome advice about a few more chokes from side control, fitting perfectly with my game. I've got several useful chokes for side control now, building on Dónal's private lesson and the two I used prior to that (step-over triangle and the lapel choke). Sandeep's first option was to get the arm nearest their head over to the far side. Reach back, in a sort-of guillotine grip under their neck, grabbing your own leg.

Block their near hip with your other arm, then start to move your head over to the near side as well (as you would with that lapel choke I like). If you need some extra leverage to finish, squeeze your arm. This should fit well with that half guard grip I frequently get behind the head, though I'd need to free my leg to finish the choke.

You can also try the classic leg scissor squeeze off a kimura. I first saw this on Rorion's original instructional and thought it looked dubious, but it's since appeared on a few other DVDs (such as Brown Belt Requirements, which changed my mind. Having now been on the receiving end, I am completely convinced. Rorion was right all along. ;)

Be sure to get your knee right onto their neck, then cross your ankles to lock your feet. Curl your toes back for additional pressure, like you would with a triangle. To get the submission, stretch your legs and squeeze. The tap is very quick, though it just pressure on the windpipe rather than a blood choke. Still, definitely an effective attack.

Before I left, I picked up an awesome RGA Bucks rashguard for £35, custom made for the Academy by Tatami Fightwear. I'll get a review of that done at some point in the future, though there are a bunch of others in the queue (Elastic Steel is the main one I need to finish off, now that I've completed my reviews of Black Belt Requirements and the Gentle Chief rashguard). In case you're wondering, I'm 5'7 and 145lbs, wearing a Small in the below picture (before washing, but I don't expect it to shrink given the material). Looking forward to the RGA Bucks curry night in a few hours! :D

20/10/2013 - Study Hall (Closed Guard Passing & Side Control Chokes)

Class #530
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Study Hall, Bristol, UK - 20/10/2013

Dónal wasn't able to make it to Hit Fit this week, so study hall was my only bit of training, aside from teaching on Tuesday. That only happens once a month though, so hopefully I'll be able to work something out so I'm at least getting in two classes rather than just the one.

I continued working on the closed guard, this time passing rather than from the bottom, trying to maintain my posture and practice grip breaks. I'm teaching them next week, so I'm still attempting to work out the best combination of techniques. I will probably put grip breaks and posture in the first section, then opening the guard from the knees. The question is whether to also add in a pass: I think what I'll do is show the guard break, then tell people they can drill that, or stick around for a passing option.

Practicing the grip breaks is useful, though I still feel with the two-handed sleeve grip break I'm not ending up with their sleeve in the optimum hand. Something I can keep playing with. The one-handed 'y' grip break doesn't work too well for me, but I'll continue playing with it anyway. I'm also not sure about the hierarchy of grip breaks: e.g., if they are holding both my collar and my sleeve, I am tending to break the collar grip first, but perhaps I should be dealing with the sleeve first.

Moving into the guard break, the kneeling option works fine in drilling, but in sparring I will often get knocked off balance or my grips get stripped. However, getting in reps is valuable: I don't want to get into the resistance part too early, as simply doing lots of reps is productive too. I feel fairly confident once I can get a grip around the head, but at the same time, I don't want to get sloppy about the legs and try to crush through.

With regards to the side control chokes, I'm continuing on with the options from that private a while ago. The breadcutter puts a lot of pressure on the neck, so I want to work on that being a blood choke, not a simple pain compliance type thing. Interestingly, it worked better as a choke when I was practicing on somebody bigger, but that might have just been a more careful application on my part.

I struggle with the second grip for the baseball bat choke, which was too shallow a number of times today. I also tried using their gi lapel for the first grip, then for both grips. It was more effective when I used it for both grips, acting as a anchor so I could squeeze into the neck with my forearms. Apparently I was easing off at one point, so I'll need to be careful I'm not letting off the pressure.

After that, I ended up doing a bunch of teaching, but that's cool as I enjoy practicing that too. It's useful to try and work through problems people are having and see if I can come up with something of use. Speaking of which, Geraldine told me that she managed to get the step-over triangle twice in nogi, which is awesome as that's what we were working on last week. :D

13/10/2013 - Study Hall (Closed Guard Posture Break & Side Control Chokes)

Class #529
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Study Hall, Bristol, UK - 13/10/2013

I'm continuing with drilling offence from closed guard, attempting to develop a series that starts with breaking their posture into the gi tail control. If that doesn't work, I want to add the windscreen wiper sweep. Should I be unable to break their posture and they lean back to resist, I can switch to a sit-up sweep.

I'm still not quite sure how best to put those all together, but it's been helpful playing with it for the last few weeks in an open mat environment. I plan to teach something on the topic next week too, which should give me some further ideas. The sit-up sweep has been by far my most successful sweep for as long as I can remember, but strangely I haven't taught it yet in the two and a half years I've been an instructor, so that will be fun. :)

With the gi tail grip, I'm still having some trouble keeping their posture broken. People were standing up when I was doing that, though I found I could still finish the choke (although that might just be because I was trying it against somebody less experienced). More reps required. Also, I need to make sure I'm getting plenty of gi material, rather than snatching at it. If I can't get that grip and they're posturing up, I should be going into the sit-up sweep as before.

Geraldine wanted to work on side control chokes, which was perfect as that's what I wanted to work on too. She saw a specific step over triangle set-up that she wanted to try, from Jay Pages (IIRC). From a sort-of scarf hold position, he grabs their arm, then shoves his bottom leg into that arm. As he is still pulling with his grip, that should wedge their arm in place. His other leg then steps over to trap their arm in place, meaning he can then transfer his grip to hold on with his other arm.

From there, he can now step over their head with the raised leg, moving into the triangle position as usual. Drilling this with Geraldine reminded me to be careful of the neck. Especially when you're drilling this repeatedly, you have to watch out you're not twisting their neck into awkward positions, such as when you're adjusting your legs to lock in the triangle. I also played around with the chokes from the private lesson, but need to rewatch the video.

25/09/2013 - Dónal Private (Side Control Chokes)

Class #524 - Private #016
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Dónal Carmody, Bristol, UK - 25/09/2013

This will probably be my last private with Dónal for a while, as I've covered the majority of what I wanted to work on for the next year or two. Today I was keen to add some more side control chokes to my game, along with refining the few I know. Dónal began with the breadcutter choke (I think that's what it's normally called), setting it up by moving towards north-south. They will often reach past your hip when you do that, which leaves a space for you reach under their arm and clamp it to your side.

Move back to side control, then with the hand of that clamping arm, grab behind their neck, gripping in the middle of the collar. Cinch that in. Bring your free arm back towards you, then use that to turn their head away from you. This is in order to expose the side of their neck. Grip their far collar with your free hand (this might require balancing on their chest, turned towards their head, which should also help keep them pinned to the mat), then put your forearm into the exposed side of their neck.

To finish, you need to create some pressure into their neck, in order to close off the artery. Turn towards their legs, in a sort of reverse scarf hold position, then use that base from your legs to lower yourself gradually into their neck, keeping your initial gi grip tight. Be careful, as this can come on quickly and it isn't very comfortable.

A similar option is the baseball bat choke, so called because your hands are in the same position as if they were gripping a bat (or a greatsword, if you want to picture something cooler. 'Greatsword choke' has a nice ring to it, or maybe 'dai-katana choke', for fellow Daggerfall fans. ;p). It's often done from knee on belly, as in the screencap from Roy Dean's Brown Belt Requirements, but I rarely use knee on belly. I much prefer side control, so Dónal showed me the application from there instead.

Again you want to grip the collar behind their neck, but this time you aren't going underneath their arm. Your other hand reaches over to the other side of their neck, gripping the collar just above your first hand: this is where that 'Greatsword grip' (that has a nice ring to it too! :D) comes in. A key detail Dónal adds here is that you then 'engage' your arms. By that, he means tense the muscles slightly, squeezing into their neck. This shouldn't be straining, but enough to create pressure.

From there, spin around to north-south, putting your head by their far hip. Your bum raises slightly for added pressure. Often, they will tap before you get all the way around, because you already started applying to submission as soon as you engaged your arms. It is possible to do this choke by squeezing at the end, but I prefer Dónal's method.

You can also use the gi tail to apply the baseball bat choke: the grip is the same as for the attacks from guard Dónal showed me last week. Yet another option is to do the technique in reverse, so you establish your second grip before the first, in order to overcome their defence. To work out the position you need, set up the baseball bat choke as normal, then before spinning around to finish, look at where you second hand is. Reset, but this time, put that second hand in place first. Switch to the other side, bringing the elbow of your second-grip arm across. Put in your first grip, engaging your arms, whereupon you finish as in the standard version.

The gi tail also comes in handy for a variation from Norbi. They are defending, so their arm is bent, protecting their neck. Wrap their gi lapel on the same side straight over their arm, feeding it to your hand under their head to lock it in place. You can potentially apply an americana from here by lifting their elbow: another tip on that submission is to control their wrist by bringing your chin to your chest, then bring your head to the mat to get their arm into an americana position. If you're not doing the americana, then you just wrap the arm up as above, but use that as an opportunity to establish your grips for the baseball bat choke.

We finished off with the step-over triangle, which is the one technique from today I already use frequently. I first learned it in a nogi class with Felipe Souza back in 2007, along with a few times since, like when Kev taught it in 2010. However, I rarely use the step-over triangle as a submission: normally I just use it for control, then attack the far arm. I have finished the choke occasionally, but most often that happens without a focused effort to get the submission: I just happen to be tighter on the neck than I thought while going for the arm, or the person I'm sparring is less experienced and taps before there is truly the threat of a choke.

Dónal's method had some similarities to the way Roy Dean teaches it on his latest release, Black Belt Requirements (review forthcoming). Like Roy, Dónal also sets it up from scarf hold, stepping over the head, then bringing that leg back to press firmly into their neck. Locking up the triangle, your other leg curls back, then you finish by reaching behind you and pulling their arm and squeezing. The way I've done it in the past was flatter, more like in the picture on the right of Yuki Ishikawa on yellow mats (being careful to lock on the ankle not the foot): it will be good to add Dónal/Roy Dean's method as another variation.

29/09/2012 - Gracie Barra Bristol (Dealing with Frames & Gi Tail Choke)

Class #471
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Dónal Carmody, Bristol, UK - 29/09/2012

Normally Geeza would be heading up this class, but he and a large number of students are away at an internal comp over at Roger Gracie HQ. I haven't trained much this week, so wanted to fit in another class. It was also a good opportunity to see how much my injured leg can handle. The warm-up caused a few problems: breakfalling seems to be painful on the one side, and I'm also having some issues with a few stretches. Definitely time to check in with a physio.

Dónal's innovative warm-up drill for tonight was to do with protecting yourself as you spun through into turtle, very useful if like me you're fond of the running escape. From lying on your back, turn like you would with the running escape. As you turn, bring your arm across and put your hand by your neck, palm facing out with your fingers extended. The arm you use is the one nearest the floor as you turn, reaching to the opposite side of your neck.

This is to block them reaching for your collar: if your hand is lower, they will still be able to reach over the top. On the same side as that shielding palm, your other hand swings out down by the hip, so that they can't insert a hook as you turn away from them. It's worth remembering that your knee on that side as you initially turn will need to be tight too, to prevent them getting the other hook in, but in the context of this drill you were already too far for them to go that route.

In terms of technique, Dónal asked the class if there was anything in particular people wanted help with. Luke suggested dealing with frames with side control, though that's also applicable to passing the guard. If somebody is framing into your shoulder, which they'll commonly do in order to create space to shrimp back to guard, the solution is fairly simply. As when somebody is straight-arming into your hip, dip your shoulder towards them. The aim is to put pressure into their wrist, which will normally make them bend their arm.

With the same arm as that shoulder, scoop under their legs and move forwards, dropping your weight into them. Due to that scoop, you should be able to drive their knees together on the other side of the mat. Trapping them with your weight will make it very difficult for them to recover, but be careful you don't bring your weight too low. If you're way down by their legs, they will be able to sit up with their upper body. So, you want to be more towards the middle.

The second technique was some tips on the gi tail choke from side control. I think Dónal has taught something like this before, as I remembered him showing the first part, where you twist your gi outwards to create a rope. From side control, pull out your gi, so that you can bring the gi lapel nearest to their legs over to the far side.

Ideally, you want to get that gi tail right against their neck on the far side. However, anybody with a bit of experience will realise something is up if you're pulling out your gi and trying to pull it around their head. Therefore you'll need to be a bit sneakier. Matty Burn's tip from when I first learned this was to hide the gi in your fist then punch it through. Dónal suggested that even if they do realise what you're doing and bring their arm in the way, you can keep shoving the gi through anyway.

Bringing that gi around their arm will often make them react by pulling their arm free. You can then immediately get the gi tail to their neck before they can readjust their defence. If they keep their arm in place, then they're leaving themselves open to an americana. Once you go for that, they'll probably bring their arm out, meaning that the route to their neck is again clear.

To finish off the choke, feed the gi tail to your other hand, under their head. Move your head to their other hip, either staying low, or bringing your hips up for additional leverage (however, be careful if you do that to maintain downwards pressure into their torso, or they may be able to use the space to escape). You other arm needs to be driving firmly into the other side of their neck as you move around, leading to the submission.

In sparring, I was trying to go a bit lighter to avoid straining my leg any further. Fortunately several of my favorite training partners were there, who I know I can rely on to stay controlled, like Luke and Dónal. I'm still finding myself defaulting to spider guard when I want to keep things light: I'm not sure if that is aggravating the injury, though I didn't notice any twinges when pushing forwards into a bicep.

Berry has an injured wrist, so for that round we did one-handed sparring, like in the open guard drill. It's also a useful exercise, particularly from positions like the back, where normally I would rely more on grabbing with my arms. Only having one hand free forces you to think more carefully about your weight distribution and pressure when on top.

I had a chance to try out the gi tail choke later too, though I wasn't twisting it out, which I should have attempted, rather than just doing the technique like I always do. I did find that lifting the hips was a useful method when I didn't have as good a grip as I wanted with the gi tail, because I hadn't fed it through very far. Being able to generate a bit of extra leverage by raising the hips meant that the shallow grip was sufficient.

Mount continues to be a no-submission zone for me, except for occasional sloppy ezequiels. I'm looking forward to the next fortnight on mount, as I'd like to dedicate my lessons to going for the cross choke. Every time I'm in mount, I find that I'm sitting there maintaining it, often walking an arm up underneath their elbow, but I can never effect any kind of threat from there, apart from the ezequiel (though even that will normally be stunted: I'll get an arm partway through, then stop as the only way I can finish with that limited purchase is force, which isn't something I'm interested in practicing).

10/01/2012 - Gracie Barra Bristol (Side Control Choke)

Class #441
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Dónal Carmody, Bristol, UK - 10/01/2012

Dónal is now back from Austria, which meant more cool drills to work body movement and weight distribution. They fit in particularly well tonight, as I spent about 30 mins with Mike before the lesson started drilling and then testing a butterfly sweep he wanted to practice. Dónal's drills were related to that baseball slide he has shown in the past, where you bring your knee out underneath your other leg. That has since increased in complexity to doing it from all fours, as well as doing a little hop and changing sides.

Dónal added on yet another layer of complexity with tonight's lesson. First off, he had us go on all fours, then fling our legs in the air, trying to land softly on one foot. The next stage was to do the same thing, but this time you switch your hips in mid-airs, bringing one leg underneath the other. That means you land with your legs splayed, like you would if you were dropping your hips low in scarf hold or something like that.

Even better, Dónal showed the application. As Miles attempted to butterfly sweep him, Dónal switched his hips. For the sweep, Miles had hooked under one leg: Dónal therefore swung his other leg over the top, which not only switched his hips, but also meant that he slid off Miles' hooking foot and into side control. Nice.

However, the main technique for tonight (and there was only one, which is good) was a choke from side control. This is the same thing I learned from Matt Burn a while back at RGA Bucks, but Dónal had a few more details to add. The basic idea is to open up your far lapel with your far hand, bunching it in your fist. Punch that past their arm so that your fist is next to their neck.

Your other hand should be underneath their neck, meaning you can then feed the lapel from your far hand to your near side arm hand. Straighten your near arm into their neck, then gradually bring your head to their near side hip. Keeping your arm straight as you turn should cause the pressure on the sides of their neck to increase until you land the choke.

Dónal suggested that you not only pull your lapel out of your gi, you also twist it up into a rope. Twist the gi towards your feet, until you have what is effectively a coil of rope. Hide that in your hand and punch it through as before. This rope should make the choke noticeably more effective at digging into the carotid arteries: keep in mind the choke is around the back of the neck and side, not the front or the throat.

Rather than simply straightening your arm, you also want to drop your shoulder and across. You can either sprawl as you move around, or you can raise your bum in the air to drive your weight through a smaller area. If you need some extra pressure when you're in that finishing position, Dónal moved his choking arm elbow across, which seemed to be a useful way to finish off a stubborn opponent.

Dónal also holds side control a bit differently. I normally bring my knees in tight, as I like that feeling of security: other people like to sprawl back, as they feel they can drive more weight through their opponent that way. Dónal sort of did both. He folded the leg nearest their hip right back, so that his heel was touching the back of his own leg, while still keeping the knee of that leg pressed into their side. His other leg was sprawled behind him.

Sparring started off with specific sparring from side control, which all of a sudden made me realise I haven't been under side control as much as usual (mainly because I've been either starting from or working towards the top due to that neck injury). Still, when I am underneath, I'm making the same mistakes, relying too much on stalling with the running escape position and either getting my back taken or getting passed.

I still feel relatively comfortable under there, when I look to recover guard with the basic shrimp escape, but as ever I need to be more proactive. Fortunately I'm teaching side control in a few weeks, so I can focus on revisiting those fundamentals again. Hence why I also started under side control in free sparring a few times too.

On top, also as ever, I'm mostly maintaining, failing to launch any real attacks aside from a transition to mount (which is useful, but not the same thing as improving my submissions). I had some relaxing technical rolls with the other two purples at GB Bristol, Miles and Dónal, which was cool as Miles isn't normally at the same classes as me.

With some of the blues, I was looking to work my guard passing and particular trying to get to the back, neither of which I did particularly well: I could start the movement, but not actually get to where I want to go (i.e., I was flailing around looking to break down their turtle, but didn't manage to get both my hooks in). Long term goal.

17/05/2011 - GB Bristol

Class #398
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Miles Pearson, Bristol, UK - 17/05/2011

There are two purple belts currently at Gracie Barra Bristol: I'm one, and Miles is the other. We've both been asked to teach by Geeza, with my class on the Thursdays, Miles' class on the Tuesday. I'm obviously interested in what my fellow purple is teaching (although he's a more experienced purple, and a more experienced instructor: he has a background in primary school teaching), so I was keen to pop along for the Tuesday class. It's impressive Miles is teaching at all, as his wife recently gave birth: congrats to both of them. :)

Miles runs a comparatively long warm-up, following up the usual running round the room with various drills, like partner hip lifting, gi pull ups, belt sprints etc. He then moved into the technical portion, which was all going to be based around the 'gift wrap' made famous by Rickson Gracie. It's a bit like Lesson 35 from Gracie Combatives, which Rener calls 'twisting arm control' (except that he has his foot over by their hip, rather than both knees behind their back). The set up Miles showed started in scarf hold.

To transition to the gift wrap (or twisting arm control, if you prefer that term), step the leg nearest their head over their face. That will push their trapped arm across their body. Grab it with the arm you have over their body, also bringing your other hand under their head. You can then feed their wrist to that other hand, pulling it in tight to establish the gift wrap.

There is a chance you might be able to get a wristlock here, if they don't make a fist with their trapped hand. You want to hold their wrist as high as you can, also controlling that arm with your other hand. Bring their arm out slightly, making sure that their fingers are pointing towards their head. Put your sternum on their elbow, then apply pressure for the wristlock.

As that is low percentage, like Miles mentioned, you can also go for a choke. Loosen up their arm enough that you can slip your other arm through, then reach for your shoulder or bicep. Tighten their arm back up: you're looking to block off one side of their neck with their own arm, and the other with your arm. Once you're in position, pull them up slightly towards you, then straighten your arms, pressing forward.

From the same position, you can also switch to an armbar. Again you want your arm through, but this time grab your wrist, to establish a figure four. Bring your knees up, shift your arm over their head, then get one leg over their head as well, dropping back for the armbar. Make sure to also grab their trouser leg, as otherwise they'll be able to turn and use the hitchhiker escape, because you don't have both legs over.

Miles then showed the same gift wrap/twisting arm control from mount. To transition to the gift wrap, move into a high mount. It will be tough to simply shove their arm over, so instead block it with your hand. Move your upper torso to the side, then pressing your side into their elbow, put your whole body into the action. With that weight, you should be able to slide their arm across their neck, then slip your arm under their head to grab their wrist and enter the gift wrap.

You can now shift into s-mount, where you can go for an armbar in the usual fashion. You can also take the back, by getting a figure four grip again, then dropping towards one side. This will end up being your weak side in terms of the choke, so you'll want to push off with your leg to roll them over to the other side. You're now in a strong position to set up your favourite choke from the back.

Miles finished up by having everyone line up against the wall, where he paired people up for free sparring. I started off with Miles, who was taking it relatively easy with me (possibly because he's a fair bit bigger). I was mostly going to the running escape, trying to spin around back to guard, which he largely let me do.

Next was Geeza, who dropped to his back and waited to see how I'd try to pass his guard. As ever, my answer was mainly to stare at him in confusion, vaguely flailing at his legs before getting swept. My guard passing remains really, really bad: I sometimes forget just how bad, because normally I'll mercifully get put on my back somehow, meaning I can then work my guard.

However, being a good instructor, Geeza kept returning to his back after he landed a sweep, meaning I had to keep on attempting (and failing) to pass. Afterwards, he suggested that instead of trying to push forward and drive with my hips, I should move back and push the legs down. I'm small and weedy, so the second option is a better fit for my body type. Something I need to keep in mind for next time.

Finally, I had a roll with Luke. As always when I roll with Luke, he shows an impressive level of calm control, never using strength, meaning sparring with him is always enjoyably technical. I tried for that lasso spider guard sweep, and set it up just right: I had the lasso, he was passing...but I didn't grab the leg and push, leaving it too late. Luke could see what I was trying to do, so had no problem basing out and preventing the sweep.

I did manage to then bring my legs up for the triangle and roll on top, but that was mostly down to flexibility and the light pace of the roll, rather than solid technique on my part. Still, worth trying that kind of thing when I can, as it's a handy thing to spring on people: they aren't normally expecting to be attacked from under side control. At the same time, it's low percentage stuff (on top of side control is a dominant position for a reason, after all), so definitely not something to rely on.

18/11/2010 - BJJ (Beginner)

Class #361
RGA High Wycombe, (BJJ), Kev Capel, High Wycombe, UK - 18/11/2010

In exciting news, Roy Dean is going to be reworking his fantastic online book, The Uchideshi Experience (he's now taken it down, so if you haven't had a chance to read it, you'll have to wait for the new book). That's what first got me interested in his other work, so I'm really looking forward to this! He just mentioned it on his blog: should be very cool when done.

Also, if you haven't seen them yet, check out Oli G's videos for Black Eagle, here. Those are going to be part of an ongoing series of short instructional vids, which as far as I'm aware will feature Black Eagle sponsored fighters (they're one of the main companies putting money into BJJ here in the UK, along with Tatami and a few others).

Class tonight continued with side control. Kev started by going through the basic escape to your knees, where you then have two options. If you put your head on one side and your leg up on the other, that's a good set-up to sit back into butterfly guard, inserting your hook. Alternatively, if you have your head on the same side you step up your leg, grip the gi by their legs, then drive towards them while pulling their legs in the other direction. That should enable you to move through into side control.

Next up was a choke from side control. Start by reaching for their far collar with the hand your have under their head, then pull that in tight, so that your hand moves behind their head. Turn your hips slightly so you can sit on their near arm, which also gives you enough room to step your other leg over their head. Straighten the arm under their head, so that you're pressing firmly into their neck. The leg you have over the head moves backwards. This should eventually choke them, though it often turns into a crank, so you need to be careful.

Specific sparring was from side control. I was with Drazen, whose name I'd heard before: he's usually at Kev's Aylesbury location. The conversation would normally be along the lines of "I don't know how Drazen did that, his legs came from nowhere." I had the opportunity to experience that reputation first hand, as he smashed me during sparring. Underneath, I was able to hold off for a while, but it felt like it was simply a matter of time before he took my back. I was looking for Saulo's running man escape, but each time wasn't able to avoid leaving space for him to insert his hooks (asking him later, he mentioned that I was staying fairly tight, but not enough to stop him pulling me up to make his own space). That also reminds me, I know Saulo talks more about the running escape in his second DVD set, so I should give that a watch.

On top, I could only hold him down for a few seconds before I found myself on the bottom, in his guard, or indeed with my back taken yet again. The one thing that enabled me to stay in the dominant position for a little longer was moving into the step-over triangle I always look for. That gave me sufficient leverage to keep him from making much space, and also attack the far arm (I couldn't quite get into the figure-four). However, even that didn't last especially long, as he eventually managed to reverse me, with my legs still locked.

In the following hour of free sparring (though as ever I sat out plenty of times), things started with Drazen again, meaning I was in for another crushing. I think he may have been taking it a little easier, as I was able to work my guard a bit, but most of the roll was spent spinning madly in an attempt to avoid getting choke or my back taken. I was paying particular attention to block hooks with my elbows, which may or may not have helped. Either way, I was knackered after that, so it certainly proved to be a good cardio workout.

Having been beaten up quickly, I then had a chance to get beaten up slowly, by Kev's methodical transitions. Again, I was trying to stay tight and watch my elbows. However, I wasn't being sufficiently proactive when he moved into high mount. Asking him afterwards, he suggested that I should attempt to work back to normal mount. Though I could sit under high mount with my elbows in, if anybody was going harder, they wouldn't have had much trouble separating those elbows. So, in a very bad position, move back to a plain bad position first, then work to escape from there.

Finally, I had a roll with Dan, who I don't think I've rolled with since he got his blue belt. As ever, I was soon under side control, failing to stop his sit-up sweep (my base was clearly dodgy, as he blasted straight through my knees, folding me backwards). Particularly as I was tired, I relied on my defence, which very almost cost me as Dan went for the choke we'd just learned. He nearly landed it, but there was just enough space to get my arms in the way and slip my head free.

All in all, tonight was handy for working my defence, and reminding me my cardio is crap. Not that I'm going to do anything about it, as I'm far too lazy to work cardio stuff outside of class. ;)

16/11/2010 - BJJ (Advanced)

Class #360
RGA High Wycombe, (BJJ), Matt Burn, High Wycombe, UK - 16/11/2010

Those who read this blog at the main site rather than through Google Reader or Facebook may have noticed I've chopped up my header a bit. Hopefully (it looks ok in the browsers I checked, though personally I always use Firefox, so that's the best way to view the site), there is now a swish horizontal navigation menubar under the header, with menus that appear when you hover over the words. I followed the handy tutorial here, and will be playing around with it some more in the future, to see what happens. Let me know if the site now runs incredibly slow for you, or anything like that.

Matty kicked off the advanced class with a nifty choke from side control, using your gi lapel. You're in the classic side control position with an arm under the head. Open up your gi with your far hand: if possible, be sneaky and then hold the end of it your hand, so it is less obvious to your opponent. You can then have your hand by their far arm, where you're going to wait.

They will probably have their far arm into your throat. What you're waiting for is an opening to punch your hand inside that arm, then feed the gi lapel you were holding to your other hand, which is behind their hand. Get a firm grip: you may want to keep on feeding it further to make it even more secure. Cinch it tight to their neck, straightening the arm you have under their head.

Keeping your upper body low, walk your legs around towards their head, as if you were going to north south. At the same time, move your head towards their near hip: they will probably tap before you get there, but if not, keep going until you can put your head next to their hip. If the submission still isn't happening, make sure you're keeping your arm straight and pressed into their neck, so that your gi lapel digs into the other side of their neck.

Next, Matty went through a variation on the bow and arrow choke, off a grip break when attempting the kimura from north-south. As happens so often with the kimura from there, they've got a death grip on their belt, so you can't shift their arm despite having locked up the figure four. Changing tack, release the grip on your wrist and put your hand palm up.

With your other hand, grab the bottom of their gi and feed it to your first hand. Pull that in tight, bringing your hand back towards you arm and trapping their arm in the process. Get a grip on their collar with your free hand, then swivel to one side, bringing a leg over their shoulder and the other across their torso. From there, you can pull on the collar and push down with your legs to get the choke. Alternatively, you could try having your knee pressed into their head, but I find the leverage is better when you've got your legs over.

I was drilling in a three, so didn't actually get a chance to spar, because there was only time for two rounds (it was specific from side control again, so five minutes on top, five minutes on bottom). Not that I particularly minded, as it gave me a chance to scribble some notes down on my pad. Should be training against on Thursday, before heading up to Birmingham for the Christmas Market (my gf likes it, and it's always nice to get back in touch with one of my favourites things about being part-German: Aachener Printen. :D).

26/01/2010 - BJJ (Advanced)

Class #280



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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