23/08/2015 - Open Mat | Jeff Rockwell Sit-Up Escape System vs North South & Knee Cut

Class #661
Artemis BJJ (MYGYM Bristol), Open Mat, Bristol, UK - 23/08/2015

Great open mat today, which also marks the first week that every single class has been in double digit attendance. Yay! Fittingly, an old training partner popped back in today, with the excellent news that he's moved back to Bristol, so should be with us regularly soon.

My primary goal today was to work on some more material from Jeff Rockwell's instructional (having started that at the previous open mat), covering what he calls the sit-up escape. I prefer calling it the stiff arm, though the actions of sitting up and holding your arm straight are both important to it, so take your pick. The comprehensive system he's shared via Artechoke Media progresses what I used to think of as just a side control escape into a myriad of application.

Of those, the two I focused on today were escaping north south and a pass counter. For the north-south escape, you need to get your arms into their armpits. Bridge, making enough space to bring one arm across to the other side, resulting in both your arms braced behind one of theirs. With your inside arm (i.e., the one that your brought across), grab the gi material by their elbow and stiff arm it away, straightening your arm.

Put your other arm behind you, using that as base. Sit up (you'll probably need to swing your legs for the momentum), continuing to push and keeping your stiff arm straight. Swivel to face them and recover your guard. My training partner Paul did an interesting spin, which was cool. It seemed effective when we switched roles and he was escaping my north south (exactly why I always switch roles when drilling stuff at open mat, as it often brings a new perspective to the technique I hadn't considered), but I felt more comfortable with the standard move out to the side Rockwell shows.

The next option was a stiff arm counter to the knee cut. Right at the moment their foot slides off your leg, sit up and stiff arm into their shoulder. Swing your legs out of the way (towards their head), reversing them to enable you to establish side control. I wasn't swinging my legs enough, though I was still able to get the reversal.

Switching roles, I tried to break the technique: the main thing that hindered it was quickly changing my angle to perpendicular as soon as I passed, as well as not leaning towards the underhook. However, with the stiff arm in place, that still generally gave Paul enough space to recover guard. I was impressed with how effective it seemed to be: I'm wondering if there is a risk of getting armbarred, will test that next time.

In sparring, I was trying to start under north south, but we seemed to quickly end up with me under side control doing that, so I didn't have time to try the escape. Today emphasised how my A game is very much knee cut to side control to either gi choke or some kind of arm attack. I'm liking armbars much more than before now, though I still feel safer with the north-south kimura. I'm not doing an especially good job of breaking their grip on armbars, though I am getting better at switching from side to side.

My omoplata attempts in closed guard weren't working too well. I was missing the switch into an armbar or triangle, something I should work on a bit more. Adding the collar tie from Rockwell's system has been handy for my open guard, giving me a helpful block to their passing efforts. I also landed the crucifix armbar, which was cool: I haven't done that in a while. This time I remembered my crucifix grips properly, unlike when I was last at RGA Bucks and totally forgot about controlling the non-leg wrapped arm.

Attacks from half guard all next week, using the lapel. That's had a big impact on my half guard, having trialled the submission series out over this month. I tried the same lapel trap to americana into a choke today, but off side control. It works from there too, though I wasn't able to lock off the choke as he managed to defend the other side of his neck with his hand. Keeping the Terere triangle option when I have the arm wrapped would be good too, although that does mean I lose the position, so lower down the chain for me.

25/10/2014 - Artemis BJJ | Open Mat | North South Escapes

Class #600
Artemis BJJ (PHNX Fitness), Open Mat, Bristol, UK - 25/10/2014

Most of open mat this week was less focused for me than normal, although I did a bunch of drilling at the start. Tracey and I worked on the various techniques she'd been learning in the women's class, plus a bit of sparring. I then got in some rolls with a fellow purple belt, always cool. As ever I spent lots of it underneath side control and failing to do much from guard. I need to be careful of my arm in the running escape, as the third time round he got a swift armbar.

Passing I need to be careful too. On less experienced training partners, it isn't too difficult to pin an ankle or knee then move around, popping their foot off my hip either with an elbow or a sharp scoot backwards. Against a purple, that's rather less successful. I also need to watch my posture, as I had my head down a few times which almost lead to a loop choke (I was able to prevent it by pushing his elbow off, but only just).

On the plus side, I was pleased that I felt comfortable and secure once I got to the top of side control. Although that satisfaction evaporated when he mentioned he'd had some major shoulder and neck issues and was only recently getting back to full sparring. So yeah, that probably hampered his ability to escape side control just a little. ;)

The rest of the open mat was spent going through some north south escapes. This is a horrible position to escape, as it offers really great control for the person on top with minimal energy expenditure on their part. I'm a big fan of it myself: it's good for scooping up those kimuras too. I played with the basic escape first, where you swing your legs from side to side until you can either fling your legs right over and take their back (unlikely, but cool when you manage it), or swing right back into guard (safer).

There were several less orthodox escapes I'd seen over the years too, but never played with much. Kurt Osiander pops up their torso and loads them onto his knees. He secures his knees behind their arms, then manages to flip them right over. I wasn't able to do it in drilling, but I'm not sure it's one I'd want to get into anyway: I kept worrying I would end up piledriving my partner when playing with that escape. Still, worth working out the mechanics.

Something that felt a lot more viable was an escape where you push their head to the side, bring your arm against it while reaching over their back, while your other arm controls their same side arm. I'd be concerned about letting them get control of my elbows, but if I can avoid that, it looks like a decent principle for escaping. The last one involved getting your knees locked to your elbows, which works, but you have to get that in place before they secure north-secure. Normally I don't get that much time to transition into an escape posture. Worth keeping in mind anyway, as the knees are a handy barrier.