16/04/2018 - Kirsty on Priit Turtle

Class #970
Artemis BJJ (MYGYM Bristol), Kirsty Wynne, Bristol, UK - 15/04/2018

I don't normally get to train on Mondays now as I have carved that out as an evening to spend with my partner, but as she was busy this evening anyway, I took the opportunity to experience a fundamental class taught by Kirsty. I'm very glad I did, as it was excellent. Ever since I managed to tempt Kirsty onto the instructor team, I've been getting rapturous feedback from students. It is well justified, judging by tonight. In the course of about 10 minutes, I understood more about turtle defence then I did after 12 hours with Priit. That goes to show what a difference teaching styles make, when one happens to fit you well: brilliant stuff, Kirsty! :D

A post shared by Can (Jun) (@slideyfoot) on Apr 16, 2018 at 6:29pm PDT

She began her class with a series of drills, to get you used to the motions in Priit Turtle. First, sit on the ground with your legs stretched in front of you. Curl in your right leg, so that the foot is by your left thigh. Then curl back your left leg, so that your foot is pointing behind you (so, sort of like a hurdlers stretch). Bring your head to the mat in front of your right leg. Use that balance to switch your legs, rotating them in the other direction to previously, returning to your starting position. Repeat on the other side.

Next, start in the Priit Turtle position, with your head, toes and knees on the mat, elbows tucked back. Straight your right leg, then fall towards your left leg. You're now back into a similar position from the previous drill, so can again rotate your legs in order to end up in that seated position with your legs outstretched (which Priit calls the 'passive turtle', or more evocatively, the 'panda').

A post shared by Can (Jun) (@slideyfoot) on Apr 16, 2018 at 6:34pm PDT

In order to defend from here, you need to stay active with your arms defending, stopping them getting a seatbelt, as well as using your elbows to dislodge any attempt to get a hook with their leg. If they swing a leg high enough, to try and circumvent your arms, bring both arms underneath their leg. Lean forwards and base on your head, then turn over their leg. As you do, pin that leg with your trailing shin, staying tight to their leg. Windscreen wiper your other leg over the top. Bring your inside hand through, so that you can put your first on the mat by their hip. This is to stop them bringing their knee through as you move around to side control.

A post shared by Can (Jun) (@slideyfoot) on Apr 16, 2018 at 6:42pm PDT

You could potentially bring your arm under, in order to get to something like that headquarters passing position I talked about with Paulina a few weeks ago. However, as Kirsty pointed out, that could leave you at risk of a triangle from underneath side control, because your head is low enough that with a small push, then can pop over your arm with their leg. A safer option is to get your arm in front to bodylock instead, which has the added advantage of preventing them from being able to escape their hip in that direction. This means you've blocked off both hips, making the pass much easier.

Great class, I hope I can make it down to more Monday sessions with Kirsty.

A post shared by Can (Jun) (@slideyfoot) on Apr 16, 2018 at 6:52pm PDT

24/10/2015 - RGA Bucks | The Back | Escapes & Taking the Back

Class #673
RGA Aylesbury, (BJJ), Kev Capel, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, UK - 24/10/2015

Kev started with taking the back against turtle. Open up their collar with one arm, feeding that to the other, making sure you don't reach it so far that they can hook your elbow. Move around to the opposite side of your gripping arm and roll them into the back. You can move straight into a choke from here, where for some reason I got confused about which hand goes where. I think it was the same thing Kev was showing during that private last month, where you do the collar choke on the weak side (i.e., on the side you have your arm under their armpit), switching to a RNC with the arm by the neck if you can't get that.

Next was an escape, as Kev often likes to show both sides of a position when he teaches. For this back escape, grab their arm and pull it over your head, locking it by your shoulder with one arm. Move away from that arm with your legs, clearing their foot off your hip and walking over it. Once you have cleared that leg, grab their remaining leg, to prevent them swinging over into mount. Pushing off your feet, get your weight onto them, walk your feet around to side control, then finish by turning towards their legs.

The last technique looked perfect, as it was a knee cut counter. I get stuck there all the time. Kev did it from de la Riva, but I think it works from other places (e.g., IIRC, Bruno Matias did it from half guard at the BJJ Globetrotter Summer Camp a few months ago). It also comes with a flowery name, 'kiss of the dragon': Kev has the same view of fancy terminology for techniques as me, so said that with a wry smile. It certainly wouldn't be his choice of name, nor mine. ;)

Anyway, from de la Riva, switch hands to grab their ankle with your other hand (i.e., switch from your same side hand to opposite hand). That means you can pull their heel against your bum and lock their foot facing outwards. This should make it tough for them to turn their leg in order to do the knee cut. Your knee comes in place to block into their leg, again to hinder their ability to turn their knee in for the pass. Slide your free hand behind their other knee, back of the hand against the back of their knee. Use that as a guide to swivel your body and pop through their legs.

From there, you can just grab their ankles and knock them over. There's a chance you might be able to rotate your legs to the back of theirs, making it possible to flick their legs out and take their back. If not, knocking them into turtle may give you the opening to jump onto their back and lock on a seat belt. At worst, you should at least be able to get into top half guard. All of those are much better than getting your guard passed. :)

Sparring involved lots of guard passing attempts, where it took me most of the round to get past the first person's guard, then I had an americana locked on just as the timer ran out. I think I was underneath too and almost got my back taken at one point, so that was probably from side control. I have a bad habit of leaving my back exposed when escaping from there. Risky! I also missed a chance to try Chelsea's 'crazy dog' pass against a lasso spider guard in the last round, must remember to do that next time.

With a purple belt (who eventually got an americana too), I was trying out the sit-up escape type stuff again, blocking into his shoulder. Sort of worked, but he then got my basing arm and knocked me down, just like Kev warned in his private. Like I said before, I need to rewatch that Ryan Hall set where he talks about that, as I am sure he's got a counter to try. At the end of class, there were a few stripes given out, including one for me. Always nice, especially as it's been a few years. :)
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I've been looking forward to my next visit to Aylesbury, as there is a particularly good art exhibition on at the National Gallery right now, covering one of my favourite painters. 'Goya: The Portraits' has come at the perfect time for me, because my head is full of his work after my recent trip to Madrid and the accompanying research I did (for fun: I'm weird that kind of thing makes me happy).

It was a pleasure to see so many of the portraits I'd been reading about spring off the page. Three in particular stood out, 'The Family of the Infante Don Luis' (normally in Parma), 'Self Portrait with Doctor Arrieta' (from the Minneapolis Institute of Art) and best of all, the famous Duchess of Alba where she points at the ground.

She is rightly featured as the poster for the whole exhibition. A number of other sources I've read/watched interpret the fact that she's pointing at the words 'solo Goya' ('only Goya') on the ground as an indication of a romantic connection. The theory goes that it's Goya mooning over a younger woman and trying to 'claim' her in painting, like Rossetti arguably attempted with his endless images of Jane Morris. Another plausible explanation was offered by the audio guide, where the curator Dr Xavier Bray (who also notes it took a decade to get the exhibition sorted, apparently) says it is probably just Goya saying only he could paint the Duchess so well. Her potent presence is usually restricted to the Hispanic Society of America, based in New York, so as the audio guide said, it was awesome to get a chance to see it in person. Well ok, the guide didn't say 'awesome', but that was the gist of it. ;p

It was also really cool to see lots of other paintings that live in the US: the Duchess was just one of them. I've been earmarking various galleries in the States to see the work of my favourite painters, including a number of the Goya portraits that appear in this exhibition (works belonging to Washington and New York especially). Naturally that won't put me off going to the New York and Washington galleries: rather it acted as a delicious taster of what awaits me when I finally do make it out there (should be in 2017, during my next big BJJ trip).

There's a video done by the National Gallery introducing the exhibition embedded below, plus a few more over on the sponsor Credit Suisse's website.

07/03/2015 - Artemis BJJ | Pre-GrappleThon Open Mat | Back Escapes

Class #631
Artemis BJJ (PHNX Fitness), Open Mat, Bristol, UK - 07/03/2015

To kick off a long day of grappling, I headed to the weekly Artemis BJJ open mat. Small turn-out - as most people were saving themselves for the GrappleThon - but I still got in some drilling. I mainly wanted to practice escaping the back, so did my usual escape a few times. I then had a play with a different escape I don't use often, as a purple belt visitor suggested it.

For that one, you get control of their arm and pull it over to the side. From there, the purple belt likes to do a rolling back take. That's a little complex for me, but fun to try out. From what I remember, you hook their same side leg, roll over your shoulder, then get a grip on their back to pull yourself into position. I do rely way too much on the one back escape, so it would be a good idea to develop a few other options.

I played around a bit with open guard too, mainly practicing what I learned from Kev in the recent private. Plenty more time to practice that at the GrappleThon! ;)

07/04/2014 - Taking the Back from Side Control

Class #556
Bristol Sports Centre, (Artemis BJJ), Dónal Carmody, Bristol, UK - 07/04/2014

Dónal started off with his usual movement drills, progressing to a simple drill for escaping the back. They are on your back, you push off their hook with your opposite foot. Use that same foot to step over their ankle, blocking their ability to regain that hook. Pop your hips over (have that other leg there complicates it slightly, but it still works) and angle your knee towards them, to increase your base.

The main technique was method of taking the back from side control. If they are looking to escape by turning away from you, immediately leap in and slide your foot underneath them. To force that position, wriggle until you can press your shoulder near the middle of their shoulder blades. Push into them, with the aim of turning their body. That should mean that some space opens up underneath them, whereupon you can shove your foot through the gap and establish your first hook.

Interestingly, Dónal's method is counter-intuitive. You would think that pushing off with your non-hooking foot would make sense, then shoving the hooking foot inside as soon as space opens up. However, Dónal finds it easier to generate the necessary leverage by pushing off his hooking foot, then kicking that one through once he's opened up space. That does mean you really have to jump into it, so it fits with Dónal's very mobile style.

In sparring, I wasn't having a huge amount of success escaping during specific sparring. I tried to slip down like Kev showed at the weekend, but I couldn't slide down very far. I kept in mind Kev's tips on being careful of your elbows, using those to dig under arms and knees. A few times I made the same mistake as before, where I was focusing too much on arms and knees rather than keeping my neck safe. I was able to swim my arm back in to block choke attempts, but that's quite sloppy and unreliable.

I still felt like I was just stalling most of the time, unable to progress my position very well. I guess being able to fend off attacks is something, but the goal is to escape to a better spot. I think my approach going forward is to revisit the escape Dónal showed and remember to keep trying that, adding in Kev's tips on improving that escape. I was thinking too much about elbows and not enough about getting my head and back to the mat, popping my hips over, etc.

It's in that respect a shame I'm going to miss most of the Artemis BJJ month on the back, as I'll be in the US. Given this is a weak point for me, I need to work on it. Still, because we also have free sparring anyway and should also be adding open mat by the time I return to the UK, I can continue to work on those weak points in addition to the specific position each month. :)

When I was on the back, I wasn't doing much better. I played around with the straitjacket, but wasn't getting anywhere near any attacks. As ever I should be threatening more, which is a long term goal. In free sparring, I wasn't doing much from guard as before, though it gave me a chance to try different grips. Instead of getting a death grip with the pocket on the sleeve from spider guard, I went for a pistol grip. That is normally kinder to your fingers.

I'm not angling out enough in guard, though I'm pleased I at least remembered to shoulder walk backwards in guard to stop getting crushed by somebody bigger. For general health, that's a good habit I should be developing. I should be trying Kev's grip break to back take or sit-up sweep combo more often, as well as the windscreen wiper variations I learned from Dónal. I did have a chance to play around with the gi tail grip from another Dónal private, but couldn't lock anything up with it (though it was helpful for controlling posture).

At some point I got to mount, but was way too complacent about holding it. I was sparring somebody bigger, who had little trouble rolling me over. If I am with somebody bigger, then moving up to a tight high mount immediately would probably be a good idea. I should also be thinking of transitional possibilities if I'm getting rolled, setting up an attack mid-reversal before they settle into my guard.

I'm continuing to pull the gi into various places to see what happens. That proved handy again today, this time attacking turtle. I yanked out the gi lapel and wrapped it around them, which seemed to help me go straight into side control as they attempted to spin to guard. I kept hold of that lapel, which was now pulled around and underneath them, possibly preventing them from turning effectively. Something to play with. :)

05/04/2014 - Private with Kev (Back Escape Details)

Class #555 - Private #019
RGA Aylesbury, (BJJ), Kev Capel, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, UK - 05/04/2013

Over the last couple of years, I think I've got three major problem areas: working from the guard (at least against anyone good: I can normally stall somebody less experienced), passing the guard and escaping the back. Kev went through some options for the guard a while ago, so this time round I wanted to look at the back. I also had in mind that I'd probably get stuck there a lot during my US training holiday, so it would make sense to have something solid to work on while trapped there. :)

This is also something Dónal went through during the private lessons I took with him last year. I have to say, most of that has completely gone out of my head, so it's a good thing I take copious notes and that Dónal was also happy for me to take video. I ran through that escape with Kev, where you start by pushing their head across and putting your foot up to stop then rolling you, then wriggling your shoulders to the mat. When you've got your back to the mat, grab their knee with your far arm. I like to use the near arm to go under their head and get a sort of cross-face grip: if I can't get that, I'll go over the top. From there, you can kick your leg free and move to side control.

It seems that when I've been caught in the back over the last few months, I've just tried to stay tight and grab their arm, attempting to turn to little effect as they still have a strong grip. I should try and get back to that previous escape I learned, especially the little trick I tried in open mats, where you pin the arm by your armpit by keeping your elbow tight, using the same side hand to grab their opposite sleeve.

Today's private was different to most of the others, as we did a lot of specific sparring, which helped Kev point out some small details and make a few corrections. After I showed him what I do (or rather, should be doing, as per that Dónal lesson), Kev went through his main option, an escape which begins by sliding downwards. It's the same motion Saulo does for his 'scoop escape', but in this case they have their grips.

As you've scooted down, you should be much closer to their feet. It means that it becomes harder for them to put on a choke, but you do need to watch out for armbar attempts. Keep your elbows tight and don't forget about your neck. To knock their foot off, you could use your foot, but due to being lower down it may be easier to simply push with your hand. From there, you can escape as before.

When you've got your hips over their leg, Kev likes to immediately put his weight onto them by pushing off his feet. He reaches over their far leg locking by their far hip, securing a sort of low reverse scarf hold. You can then keep shifting your hips back into side control, or use it to go to mount if you're able to control their legs. Kev goes all the way back to north-south, whereas I'd probably go to side control at the moment.

We got into a conceptual discussion as a result of all the specific sparring, which was helpful. First, it's possible to bring in John's control point framework and apply it to the back, in particular his secondary control points inside the knees and elbows. When escaping, you want to get underneath their elbows and knees, meaning that you also don't want them to get underneath YOUR elbows.

Second, you can view escaping the back rather like escaping the mount: some of the same principles apply. Escaping the mount, you're looking to dig your elbows into their knees, prying your way out. You can do much the same thing from the back, prying under their arms to make space, or indeed making space by their knee and slipping into deep half. There's also a link in that to do the heel drag escape from mount, I curl in towards the knee make it easier, a little bit like Kev dropping down closer to the feet.

However, you always need to watch out for basic chokes: I was occasionally focusing too much on breaking the unusual controls Kev was using on my arms and forgetting about the ever-present risk to my neck if I left it vulnerable. In terms of controlling the back, Kev mentioned something he calls Also, 'straitjacket control', where he grabs both sleeves and pulls them in tight. He's been doing something similar to control the elbows from north-south too, which has been a very high percentage set up for him. Mainly the armbar, I think, which is still a submission I tend to avoid because of the risk of losing position.

With the legs, there is a grapevine you can do which is reminiscent of the lockdown from half guard. Bring your leg either outside or inside the leg, then hook your instep around their lower leg: inside is better as that ends up being stronger. Just like the half guard lockdown, this should make it easier to affect their base and move their leg around. E.g., I felt like I had almost escaped during sparring at one point, but then Kev got that grapevine and pulled me right back into his control.

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I wasn't able to hang around for the rest of class, as right before training, my parents offered to take me down to London for the day, as it was my birthday yesterday. Due to the rescheduled private, that meant I still had plenty of time to fit in some museum hopping, followed by a tasty meal at Bincho, a Japanese restaurant that specialises in yakitori (Japanese mini-kebabs, essentially).

I also had a chance to wander through the Assyrian section of the British Museum. Although the audioguide didn't have all that much to say, it did discuss three of the exhibits (as well as talk more generally about Assyrian history, lion hunts and those winged bulls with bearded human heads). There are also secondary bits on that audioguide, which is quite swish. There are accompanying videos, highlights, plus a 'touch and listen' part. That shows you a photo of what you're looking at, with areas highlighted that open up further discussions when you press on them.

You can also select a guided tour from a menu of around six options, IIRC. I didn't have much time, so selected the 45 minute walk through the Egyptian section of the museum. Unfortunately, as it's the school holidays and a Saturday, the Egyptian section was stuffed with tour groups of children who I doubt particularly wanted to be there. Still, it just meant it took a bit longer to squeeze your way to the relevant exhibit. The guide gives you specific directions, with a highlighted map and a photo of what you should be looking at, although with my total lack of a sense of direction I was able to miss a couple despite all that hand-holding. All in all, I think the audio guide is well worth the £4.50 (I think? Birthday privileges meant my father paid for it ;D) it costs to pick up.

08/09/2013 - Study Hall (Back Escapes)

Class #522
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Study Hall, Bristol, UK - 08/09/2013

Today's session started off with a brief bit of takedowns, as that's what the people I was partnered up with wanted to do. I took the opportunity to play with some of the Rickson techniques I learned at the Michel Verhoeven seminar recently (later that seminar was handy once again, when I was helping Berry with some cross-choke details). As Arnaud pushed in towards me, I couldn't stop him shoving me backwards down the mat. However, if I switched to pick up his leg, he said he couldn't stop his momentum as he overbalanced, enabling me to put him on his back. I still don't have any intention of competing, meaning takedown practice is rather redundant for me, but it's good to have something to work on when takedowns training is unavoidable.

I'm still not happy with my back escapes, so I'm returning to the same techniques as before (which I suspect is going to be a regular occurrence for a long time). Switching to deep half when they go to mount could do with a lot of improvement. Hooking the leg is something I need to time, as if I do it too soon, I lose my supporting leg and can get rolled to the other side. I therefore should get my back properly to the mat first. A few times, they ended up in mount anyway: I then escape from technical mount, but that's not really the idea.

Another area where I'm having trouble is working out when to move to grabbing their trouser leg. In the scenario where they try to mount, that's useful, as it gives me the possibility of doing what Xande does and recover guard. I'd prefer to get on top, but having somebody in my guard is much better than having them on my back.

I took a different route to the usual progressive resistance. Although that is very useful and I do it frequently, it isn't always as effective at pinning down the specific problem, because it can turn into pseudo-sparring. To further isolate the specific training, I broke the escape down step by step, asking my training partner what their reaction would be at each point. That obviously isn't realistic, but I did find it helpful to work out what to do at which point, as well as different tweaks and responses my partner might have.

For example, Berry liked to switch his arms when I turn away from the choking side, which results in recovering the choking side without having to roll them over (as I taught a while ago). To avoid that, I need better control over the arms, which was a general theme over the whole session.

I focused on clamping my elbow to my side, to trap the arm they had reaching under my armpit. I then looked to also control their other arm, by grabbing the sleeve with that same elbow-clamping arm. I haven't yet worked out the best configuration to lock that in place. At present, they may be able to simply free that arm then pull it out of range. Then again, perhaps that would open up the chance of stepping over it with my leg, trapping it that way? Could work as a nice combination.

Another advantage of gripping like that is I'm using one arm to control both of theirs, leaving one of my arms free. I can use that free arm to grab their leg and being my escape, then reach behind their head and grab their far armpit. That puts me in my preferred cross-facing position. It isn't always easy to get, so I also need a Plan B: perhaps dropping my elbow like Dónal, or somehow getting my weight up onto their chest, or indeed reaching across their neck (again like I've taught before).

I don't often train with Nick because he is so big (literally about twice the size of me), but he's also very technical. Going through the same step-by-step process with him, he had various advice on maintaining the back. If you want to put them back over to the other side, press your heel into their hip on that side (similar to what I learned in the private on bow and arrow chokes). When gripping under their armpit, getting the opposite collar grip is going to be the strongest.

Rather than going to mount when they push off one hook, you can also do a very simple flick under their leg with your remaining hook, then walk around to side control. This does depend on how much mobility you have with their armpit arm, though: if they've really clamped it, you won't be able to turn. Afterwards I realised that this is something I used to attempt, way back in the day, but I think I generally got stuck due to that armpit arm. Nice option to have, either way.

11/08/2013 - Study Hall (Back Escapes & Maintaining)

Class #517
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Study Hall, Bristol, UK - 11/08/2013

Today I continued focusing on the back, still one of my main weak areas at the moment. Previously I would have said passing the guard was my biggest weak point, but I think the private lessons have helped a lot with that. I wouldn't say I'm confident passing yet, but I at least feel I have an idea where I want to go: previously, I'd end up staring blankly at somebody's open guard.

Having said that, since training at GB Bristol, I've also mainly been rolling with white and blue belts rather than purples and up, which is obviously a very different proposition. For a start, I rarely have people stick me in closed guard, which I should practice against more often. It would be good to get in more rolls with Dónal, as he's the closest to my size, along with the other two purple belts, Miles and Liam, plus high level blues like Tony. There is Geeza too, naturally, but although he's a black belt, he's so much bigger than me that I don't tend to get much of our rolls.

Interestingly, that need for partners with greater experience was mentioned by several of the higher level blue belts I drilled with today. Although there are definitely advantages to having lots of less experienced training partners - the biggest one is that you can test out techniques in which you lack confidence - they don't react the same way as somebody who has been training longer. The ideal situation is a relatively even spread of people who are less experienced, people at the same level and people who have been training longer than you. Hence why it is so useful to occasionally train at other schools, for both that broader range of experience and different games to what you're used to.

I'm teaching maintaining the back next week, so as I try to enable students to practice the techniques they learn in class when I teach, that means I'll also want to keep working on escaping the back. Rewatching a few of the back escape videos in my archive, I realised that the brief section Ryan Hall includes in his DVD on the back looks quite similar to what I learned from Dónal.

There is the same head to the mat process, followed by a switch to deep half when they try to mount. The two escapes I wanted to practice were Hall's take on using your foot to push the opposite hook free. Dónal did cover this in the private, but I don't think I remembered to cover it in the little review video we always do at the end of privates. So, study hall was a good opportunity to practice it.

The first back escape begins by getting your head to the mat, like Dónal demonstrated. You then push their hooking foot off with your opposite heel, immediately bringing your hips over. With that same heel, block the leg you just cleared out of the way. Keep shifting round, then either move to the top (if you're able to control their head in the way I like to), or take deep half and spin to the top.

Drilling that version with Luke (the bigger one: I drilled with both Lukes today ;D) yielded two pointers for improvement. Getting the shoulders to the mat is key: to get them there, I need a bit more explosion. It shouldn't take too much energy, just that extra twist to get myself out of range of most chokes. On that point, bow and arrow type chokes are dangerous, so I can never be complacent: Luke caught me in a very tight grip.

Secondly, something somebody mentioned in the changing room, which is pushing the head across. I have been getting lazy about that and been driving my own head across. If I instead make sure I am actually pushing their head across, that both gets my head in position, but it also puts my shoulders in the right place too.

Another variation Ryan Hall does when you end up on the 'wrong' side. Again, push their foot off with your opposite heel. Pop your hips over, then with that same heel, block the leg you just cleared out of the way. Next is a motion that Xande does on his DVD as well, reaching back with the non-choking side arm and grabbing around their head. From there, turn your hips towards their head, sliding your lower leg through, then securing some variation of side control.

This one was harder to get: I generally found it difficult to push off hooks, especially with Bigger Luke, as he had his feet solidly crossed off to the side (I did at one point try pushing them across to get that classic footlock, but to no avail). It's also important to turn the right way. If I try turning over the top, towards their legs, I will often get stuck.

Turning your hips towards their head instead is easier, but your head then becomes an important extra limb. I drove it up across Smaller Luke's chest (getting a worried squealing noise from the hair on the top of my head: better suited to those with shaved heads, I think). That maintains your control on their upper body.

I also practiced maintaining the back for Tuesday, working both the Marcelo tips and the stuff I was playing with on Friday (though using a single hook for back control is something Marcelo briefly talks about in his book). It seemed to function ok, although after doing it with more resistance I found my left hamstring felt slightly sore afterwards, which indicates I was using too much force on that side (interestingly, that was the free hook, not the one I had threaded through both legs).

Dónal's guard sweeps with the lapel were up next, mainly just getting in reps, before returning to more work on back escapes. I also got to drill lots of guard posture (which fits in nicely with what I said earlier about wanting to practice more against closed guard), because Smaller Luke wanted to practice his overhook guard. Initially that was with no resistance, then we upped it gradually. The big difference for me was going up on my toes, like Caio Terra advises. It isn't comfortable, but it massively increases your ability to drive, resist and adjust when in somebody's closed guard.

04/08/2013 - Study Hall (Back Escapes & Chokes)

Class #515
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Study Hall, Bristol, UK - 04/08/2013

Just like last week, I wanted to continue working on back escapes, especially as I'm teaching it on Tuesday. The main thing that came up at last week's study hall was preventing them from turning to mount. I rewatched my videos from those private lessons and re-read my notes, from which I gathered that while blocking the leg to stop them turning was a good option, often going to deep half is the best idea.

I practiced blocking their turn a few times, clamping more tightly than last time, so that I wasn't just hooking over their top leg but also hooking behind their lower leg. I then moved on to practicing the switch to deep half and sweeping. The Homer Simpson sweep from there is one option, but you could also try for the sweep I learned at the University of Jiu Jitsu in San Diego about a month ago, which relies more on lifting their leg up with your own.

I also wanted to practice chokes from my most recent private, particularly the bow and arrow choke. Initially I had a go practicing chokes with a white belt, who upon being told that he could resist during the drilling immediately clamped down. It is often good to train with beginners because they won't react in the way you expect: he basically just got a death grip on both of my wrists, which made for an interesting challenge.

I ended up trying to swim through and get an arm across the neck, then see if I could grab some collar. If I did get the collar, it wasn't generally a good enough grip to move into the bow and arrow. I also kept forgetting to hook their leg in to grab it and then use as a base point. That's also something I kept forgetting when I had a more technical bit of drilling practice with Berry.

Getting yourself upright is one of the harder parts of the bow and arrow, it seems. I tried pushing off the same side choking leg as I'd been shown in the private, but still struggled. However, I did find that you can try bringing the other arm behind the head to finish off the bow and arrow if you're struggling. I'm not sure that is a viable option, as it was just drilling, but something to play with.

I finished off by rolling with Geeza, who I don't often spar against. That's because he is so much bigger: as a general rule, much larger opponents are less beneficial for my learning, but for working defence, they're great. Of course, Geeza is also a black belt, so that helps a lot too. I asked if he could start on my back, which meant I got choked repeatedly, but it was a useful reminder that I should put myself in bad positions against skilled opposition more often.

Geeza had some advice for defending the multiple ways he choked me. He used a different method requiring a different defence each time, but the main thing I remembered was grabbing the elbow. I think for the bow and arrow he suggested grabbing their elbow with both hands and pulling it over your head. Again, something else for me to work on, alongside general back defence.

28/07/2013 - Study Hall (Back Escapes)

Class #513
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Study Hall, Bristol, UK - 28/07/2013

Back escapes have been a weak area for me for a long time, which is why I did two private lessons on them a while ago. However, I haven't been implementing one of the key points from those privates: I'm still clamming up and jamming my hands to my neck. Drilling should hopefully wean me off that habit, so I wanted to purely concentrate on back escape for today's study hall, with increasing levels of resistance.

The version I want to get good at is a tweaked bridging back escape. I've also begun incorporating that into my teaching of the back escape. My training partner today was Geraldine, who as ever proved to be very helpful in highlighting a few issues with my technique. We started off just drilling it light so I could get some reps in: initially I forgot to angle my knee to prevent them rolling, but remembered that later.

As we started upping the resistance in later rounds, the main problem that came to light wasn't my excessively defensive grip by my neck. Instead, it was preventing them bringing the leg over to take mount. I tried hooking the leg, but that either meant I lost my brace against being rolled the other way or it didn't seem to make much difference (meaning I'm clearly doing it wrong). Pinching my knees fare a little better but wasn't entirely reliable either. I briefly attempted shifting to deep half, but just got stuck under mount.

I'm pleased I've now got some well-defined areas I can keep practicing. Next time, I'll isolate the mount defence part, then build up the resistance on that. Back escapes could easily keep me busy for the foreseeable future, though I also want to make sure I'm drilling techniques that I'm due to teach the following week, along with whatever I've learned from the most recent private lesson.

I was also able to get in a bit of sparring at the end, starting with Dónal. He was going light, or I would have just been mercilessly crushed, but it was nevertheless a useful exercise in attempting to retain guard and transitioning between positions. We briefly ended up in 50/50, which I know for a fact was Dónal being playful: he knows I hate all the flashy stuff like that. ;)

My rolling finished up with Geraldine, where I looked to practice the ezequiel series from mount (although I didn't get to the ezequiel part, moving directly into the tight americana against the leg). I hopefully wasn't putting on too much pressure, but then as I know she's preparing for a competition in a couple of weeks, should be ok. She's more than capable of holding her own, of course: it's difficult to pin her down as she has good hip movement and escapes.

That injury I've had since September is STILL not entirely gone away, but I'm not sure whether it is paranoia on my part. I very much hope it's just me being paranoid, rather than a gradual slide into the same strain I had before. Bleh. To end on a positive note, these study hall classes continue to be a really cool addition to the schedule. Attendance was great today as well: it was good to everyone supporting the Sunday sessions. :)

03/04/2013 - Dónal Private: Escaping the Back Details

Class #497 - Private #008
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Dónal Carmody, Bristol, UK - 06/04/2013

There were three key details I want to take away from this private. First off, I can relax a bit on my defence: I don't need to clamp my arms by my neck the entire time, as that also locks me in place. Secondly, the importance of getting your head under theirs. You can literally dig your head into place if their head is still in the way when your drop to your side. Finally, hook their top leg as you start to escape. That means you can both shift into deep half if necessary and block their attempts to turn.

For blocking the neck, the Saulo method is worth using, with a thumb in the opposite collar, the other free to defend. If you miss that, then there is the option of grabbing the elbow or gi sleeve and yanking it down. Bring your knee up on the choking arm side, heel closer to your bum. That leg is there for base, so angle your knee in slightly to prevent them turning you.

Push head their head across like last time, then drop to the open side. Wriggle your shoulders and spine onto the ground. As you start to escape, hook your leg on their top leg, so they can't turn to side control. If possible, you can even step your foot right onto the ground to lock their legs in place.

If they have a grip and are going for a single collar choke as you try to escape, your first option is to peel it off with a free hand. Don't let them sit up, or they can tighten up the choke: block that with your leg entangled in theirs. I find that if I can get my near arm under their head, pinching it between my shoulder and arm, I can retain enough control to start moving on top.

When you've got their leg hooked, the route to deep half opens up. If you do that, remember to so they can't underhook, which is the first thing the person on top will look to get against deep half. Grip under their knee cap, using that to turn their leg slightly outward, spin to top and pass.

If you can't push the head, drop to the side and use your foot to push off their opposite hook. Immediately start to slide free, keeping their leg hooked as before. That again gives you the option of either going to deep half or simply trying to keep them locked in place so you can work to go on top.

While doing light sparring this week, we got into some weird positions. At one point I was lying next to him, stepped my leg right over and locked into behind his knees. That prevented turning, then I could spin through into side control. Somewhat random, but fun to play with stuff like that and see what happens.

20/03/2013 - Dónal Private: Escaping the Back

Class #495 - Private #007
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Dónal Carmody, Bristol, UK - 20/03/2013

For today's lesson with Dónal, I decided to move on from guard passing. The reason I started off with passing is that it has long been one of my major weak areas, which thanks to Dónal now feels much stronger (or at least I have a clear route to take). My other current big weakness is the guard...but my injury won't let me work on that. Therefore I plumped for yet another weak point for me, which is back escapes.

As ever, I was looking for simple and efficient, preferably building on what I already know. Dónal came up with the perfect option, which is essentially a modified combination of what I've taught in the past, namely Xande's variation where he falls to the side and the basic back bridge escape. Those modifications are important, as they make the escape much more effective.

Start off by immediately bringing your knee up on the choking arm side. In one quick motion, move your head forwards and simultaneously shove their head sideways (this is presuming they know what they are doing and have their head tight to yours for control). Look towards them, keeping your head and neck firm in order to stop them moving their head back into place. Push off your leg and bridge back, aiming to get your shoulders and spine to the mat. Angle your choking arm side knee towards the other side, to stop them dragging you back over to the choking arm side once you start escaping.

Due to your body slipping off to the side, they are probably going to try and come on top. To do that, they need to be able to turn their legs down and then away from you. Keep your legs in tight to block them: with your leg back, that forms an effective barrier to their efforts to turn. There are a couple of ways you can do that. The first one Dónal showed was hooking their top leg (if they're trying to turn on top, they'll be on their side) with your near leg. Alternatively, step your near leg behind the knee of their bottom leg and pinch your own knees together.

With your near arm, grab their trousers by their top leg (either by the knee or a bit lower). When you have the opportunity, switch to grip with the other hand, which means you can bring your near elbow down past their body, on the inside. At this point, make sure you've got your outside knee angled towards them, for base like before. Shrimp away, get your near arm back, then turn straight into the leg squash pass position.

I ended up doing it a bit differently when we were drilling, as I like to get control of the shoulder and head. I diverged at the point after you switch your grip on their trousers. Instead of getting my elbow to the floor and turning, I preferred to either reach across their neck and grab the gi, or better, reach under their head, grip the far armpit then lock my shoulder into their head/shoulder.

Either way, I then shrimp away and turn to try and come on top. With your grip on the knee, stiff-arm so they can't lock their half-guard (if they do lock their half guard, this puts you in the opposite side half guard pass position, so proceed from there). Free your leg and move into side control.

The other option is to go to deep half, then do the Homer Simpson sweep to come on top and pass. This starts off the same as before, but the difference is that when they try to come on top, they've been a bit more canny and locked their heel into your far hip. That is going to make it more difficult for you to reach the top position. Instead, shove that leg between yours (either bridge and push it in between, or kick your far leg and swivel it round to trap their leg).

Pinch your knees, also stepping your near leg behind their bottom knee. Alternatively, you can hookin your near leg around the back of their top knee. Shrimp away, then curl your near hand underneath their butt, leading with the back of your hand. Use that to bump them off balance, turning into deep half. Hold onto their knee and turn it outwards, run around with your legs (this is the 'Homer Simpson' part of the sweep), then spin to come on top (be careful they don't underhook your arm, as that's awkward) and pass. I'm not a fan of deep half as I put it in the category of "flashy stuff that is too complex for me", but this is probably the most basic application, so something I'm willing to try.

When you come on top, you can go into a useful knee cut/single underhook pass position, which allows you to go for either pass depending on their reaction. I think that's in the Gracie University stripe 1 lesson on passing, which I should take another look at (also reminds me I still haven't reviewed the guard chapter I bought ages ago, so will have to get round to doing that at some point.

I headed straight over to Jamie's lesson afterwards, which continued the side control escape theme from this week. There was a chance I'd get to practice the back escapes, but then last time Geeza taught a GB Fundamentals on side control escapes, you stopped specific sparring as soon as they were able to turn to their knees, so probably not.

20/08/2012 - Gracie Barra Bristol (Back Escapes)

Class #464
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Nicolai 'Geeza' Holt, Bristol, UK - 20/08/2012

Due to an increase in my writing workload, it's been a few months since I last made it to a Monday or Friday class. Those have always been the busiest days: I'm not sure if that is because those are the longest established, or the ones advertised as 'Gracie Barra Fundamentals'. Either way, Geeza is clearly doing an incredible job of getting the word out, as tonight there were almost fifty people on the month. The number of children training at the club has increased so much that Geeza is able to offer a separate kid's class, which his son Oli is currently running (although I think he is off on a work placement or something soon, so Luke will be taking over. Which is cool, as Luke is a good teacher).

It was also good to see about five women on the mat too, although the upstairs changing room hasn't been designated as the women's changing room yet. Hopefully that will happen soon, as even two women is too many for the current small shower room allocated to Gracie Barra Bristol's female members. Perhaps in future there might even be enough for a separate women's class, which would be great, as that's a good way to help build up the numbers in a less intimidating environment (e.g., like the classes Chrissy used to run at her club in Virginia).

Geeza was busy, so passed the warm-up over to me. I've never run a warm-up with a class of almost fifty people, so that was an interesting experience. For a start, I couldn't just say "do breakfalls down the mat" as normal, because due to the numbers it wasn't as obvious when everybody had been: my classes tend to get between six and twelve people, so this was around five times as many students as I'm used to. ;)

It has been a long while since I've made it down on a Monday, so I'd almost forgotten that the fundamentals class always kicks off with some self defence. As I've mentioned many times before, that's by far my least favourite part of BJJ, because I find it neither interesting nor useful, given that self defence techniques are never tested against resistance in a sparring situation. Still, I should probably start to pay a bit more attention, as apparently some people do like learning it.

So, I'll try to start noting that part of the class down more often. Today, the self defence situation was that they've grabbed your neck from behind with both their hands. Reach across to grip the fleshy part of their opposite hand, then turn and twist. You're aiming to put them into a typical aikido style wristlock, pushing their palm towards their arm, bringing them to the ground: exactly the same thing as you would see in any TMA type class.

Once that was out of the way, we got onto the more useful material, continuing with the back position. Geeza covered a standard escape from the back, beginning with the simpler option, when they have only gripped your lapels rather than locked in the seatbelt (one arm over the shoulder, one arm under the armpit). Bridge, get your head over their shoulder, then wriggle your shoulders to the mat. Pop their hook off with your hand, step over with your leg, then grab their other leg with your nearest arm (pant leg or underhook behind their knee). From there, shrimp and move into side control.

If they do have the seatbelt grip, fall towards the open side, so their armpit arm. Again, try to wriggle your head to the mat followed by your shoulders: if your back is on the mat, it is impossible for them to occupy that space. Continue as before, grabbing their leg, shrimping, then turning towards them to establish side control.

There was also a simple escape from turtle, where you've gone for some kind of takedown but they've sprawled, so are now position in front of your turtle position. Grab for their opposite leg with your arm (otherwise they'll just spin to your back), also putting up your leg on the same side as that grabbing arm for base. You can then slide your other leg through and move into guard.

To finish off we did some king of the hill sparring from turtle, switching position if you were able to either escape or take the back. I have carefully avoided turtle for the last six months or so, as last time I went to turtle I messed up my neck. It's never been a strong position for me, but I can generally work my way back to guard. However, I'm terrible at attacking the turtle, as demonstrated by today's sparring.

I barely got anywhere, except with one person who was trying to spin to guard. That gave me the chance to move to the back and get my second hook using the Marcelo Garcia back extension. Aside from that sole success, I most tried to keep my weight on the side, but soon lost control as they re-established guard, or even worse, managed to somehow get on top as I fell off and ended up on my back.

Hopefully I'll now be able to get back into my old pattern of Monday, Tuesday then teach on Thursday. Once I've re-established that, I'll see if I can add in Friday or Wednesday, with the odd Saturday.

07/02/2012 - Gracie Barra Bristol (Defending the Back)

Class #445
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Dónal Carmody, Bristol, UK - 07/02/2012

Lots of great drills from Dónal as usual, all related to guard passing. Start by standing up, holding their knees. They shrimp, you drive your weight through your hands and therefore also jam their knees to match, then hop over to the side behind their knees. They shrimp again and you repeat the motion to the other side.

Another nice guard passing drill, which we've done before, again starts with your standing up. This time, you're square on to their open guard, although for the drill they aren't getting any grips on you, they're just lying on the mat, feet on the floor. Bring one your legs between theirs, then drive your knee across to the opposite side. As you do, with your opposite arm, underhook their same side armpit.

An interesting variation pops up if they manage to get an underhook. Immediately overhook/whizzer that arm, reaching your overhook hand right through to their hip. As you continue the pass, slide your hand back, keeping your arm straight. Eventually that should mean you're hooking their near side leg, helping you to move into side control.

The text message for tonight indicated that the topic was be preventing your opponent taking your back, which sounded interesting (although Geeza does sometimes put his own spin on the text message either I or Dónal send him about our respective classes). That proved to be an extremely simple (which in BJJ tends to be a very positive adjective) concept from turtle. After they've got their first hook, all you do is turn towards their leg (so, towards the outside), recovering half guard. That's it. :)

During sparring, Dónal had another cool tip (as he very often does: if you've got the chance to do a private with him, go do it) for passing half guard. This depends on how they've locked their feet to trap your leg. If the big toe of the foot is nearest to you, then you simply bring your trapped leg back and shove that foot off by hooking under their heel, breaking their grip. Is the big toe is pointing away, that means their heel is on the wrong side, so you can't just bring your leg back and knock the foot away.

27/12/2011 - RGA Bucks (The Back)

Class #439
RGA Bucks, (BJJ), Yas Wilson, Aylesbury, UK - 27/12/2011

Hope you all had a great christmas! I stuffed myself with biscuits, beef wellington and cheese, so it was good to make a start on working that off at RGA Bucks. I made sure to walk rather than accepting the offer of a lift from my parents (who were themselves on the way to a gym), to get in some extra beef-burning. It is a roughly 30-40 minute walk from their house, so I normally go on foot: if I lived here, then I'd probably cycle it instead.

Kev wasn't there, so I couldn't congratulate him on his shiny new black belt, but there were plenty of top notch training partners, like Sahid, Tom and fellow BJJ reviewer Dan, not to mention Yas herself. The topic for tonight was the back, and in classic RGA Bucks fashion, Yas covered both the attack and the defence.

To start with offence, Yas ran through the basic RNC. Her finish was slightly different, as she likes to push on the shoulder by your choking hand. That helps to cinch your grip in tight. Rather than then slipping the arm behind and squeezing, Yas does something more akin to an ezequiel without the gi (which is interesting, as I was just chatting about that with a cool female BJJer from NZL via email). Once she has the first arm wrapped around the front of the neck, she grabs her second arm. The second hand then goes to her choking arm shoulder. From there, slide it down into their neck, just like an ezequiel.

Next up was the basic sliding choke, similar to how I taught it recently. That was followed by escaping the back, which handily will be the topic of my GB Bristol class on Thursday. Again, this was relatively simple: base on your legs to put them on their back, then walk your shoulders to the mat. Move to the side to clear their hook (using your hand if you need to and your neck is protected), then once your hip is over, grab their opposite pant leg to stop them mounting or recovering back mount. Keep on pushing your hips back, until you can settle into side control.

Sahid had a couple of additional thoughts on this one while we were drilling, such as the tip to get your head underneath theirs (and therefore if you have the back mount, make sure they don't get their head underneath yours). I also continued to drill back mount escapes for a few minutes after class, during the open mat, mainly looking at two other options.

The first was an escape Sahid had mentioned earlier, which he calls 'bobbing and weaving'. Pull the arm they have by your shoulder over your head, then fall in the direction of that arm. You're looking to trap it between your head and your arm: Tom also suggested grabbing their tricep, to further prevent them from pulling their arm free. Still on that side, pop your hips over as before, but as you move around to side control, keep facing their head. That should set you up nicely for a d'arce choke, which I think Kev taught yesterday.

My second option was to play around with another escape Dónal had suggested, though I don't think I remembered all the details. This is slightly different, as you start by scooting down. Hook an arm under their leg to establish half guard, after which you can look to spin to come on top. Be careful that your other arm is also safe (e.g., hide it under their hooked leg), as otherwise they might be able to go for an armbar or even a triangle.

I may throw those in during my lesson on Thursday, but we'll see if I need to. At the moment, I intend to kick things off with a few basic body triangle escapes, then one other escape. The bobbing and weaving thing might be a useful addition, as I haven't shown it before, plus it also provides a different approach to the orthodox back escape.

Sparring started with specific from the back, where I was looking to trap their feet with my legs, or push off a hook with one of my feet. I'm still a bit prone to latching onto the arm when I think I've almost escaped, which I did again with Sahid. I asked him if he thought there was anything I could do to improve that, and he suggested that perhaps I was simply holding on to the arm too tightly. Instead, when I'm in that position, the focus should be turning to side control, rather than really yanking that arm in underneath my armpit.

On the back, I was able to play with bow and arrow chokes with the white belts, as well as seeing how I could adjust when they moved to escape. Release a hook and pushing off the mat works, but that is less successful with the higher belts, who tend to be wise to it. I wasn't getting anywhere with guys like Sahid: size is probably a factor, but still, my technique was sloppy.

In free sparring, I seemed to be getting d'arce choked by everyone who isn't a white belt. Which was fun. Again, I'm smaller, but nevertheless, I must be leaving myself vulnerable to that attack, so I'll have to be more careful of my arm, as well as paying more attention to grips they secure on me. As ever, Sahid is a good person to spar, because he'll always be able to come up with suggestions afterwards (which is great for someone like me who is keen to pepper everybody with questions).

For escaping the d'arce, he said the basic option is to arch your back to make space. If they are already locking it in, trying to grab under your own leg with the arm they want to choke you with. That will buy you some time to hopefully wriggle your way free. I think I was curled up and trying to turn, which wasn't getting me anywhere: staying curled up only helps them get the choke on faster.

Sahid was also good for testing out my beloved running escape posture. Against a lot of people, you'll find they're staring at the posture looking confused, so you can stall until you're ready to try and spin free. However, Sahid had a solution: he drove his knee over my rear leg, trapping it in place, meaning he could then move into a dominant position. If he couldn't get that rear leg, then he tried to step over both.

Awesome stuff, as by having people break down my running escape posture, that will help me make it better. Clearly I need to make sure that people can't shove their knee over, either by adjusting my legs, or perhaps using one of my hands to block that knee. At the same time, my arms need to be defending against the knee sneaking past my hip or choke attempts. One of the great things about BJJ is that you constantly have to think several moves ahead, with multiple options in your head. ;)

20/12/2011 - Gracie Barra Bristol (Guard Retention)

Class #438
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Dónal Carmody, Bristol, UK - 20/12/2011

For those who somehow missed it (it's been all over Facebook and the BJJ blogosphere), Aesopian's gi survey results are now out, here. Aesopian did a ton of work on this, which has really paid off: the result is a wealth of data which is set to get increasingly interesting. The most important point to take away is that there is very little difference between the top thirty-three brands: so, if someone is listed at #20, given the margin for error it is entirely possible that they could just as easily have been listed at #1.

Having said that, I was very pleased to see women-only brand Fenom come in at #19. It's a small company which has only been around a few years, and it's also the cheapest brand in the top 40 at $80. In the whole list, only Woldorf is cheaper at $72, but in Woldorf's case that is reflected in a low rating. Fenom, by contrast, is cheap but still high quality. If it wasn't for the Gracie Barra gis only rule at GB, I would be very tempted to buy a Fenom, despite not being a woman, as it is the only brand on the market which has a message I can support 100%. I wouldn't even mind the patches and embroidery. Might still buy one anyway, and just wear it when I train outside of GB. ;)

_______________________________________

I was reminded of the advantages of living nearby the academy tonight, as when I got there, I realised I'd forgotten my gi trousers. However, despite there being only fifteen minutes until class, I could quickly jog back to my house, grab the trousers, then jog back and get changed, with a few minutes to spare before class started. :D

Dónal was covering guard retention tonight, with his usual awesome array of warm-up drills to work jiu jitsu mechanics. There was the baseball slide, butterfly sweep and an old favourite of mine I learned from Kev, the Saulo Ribeiro running escape recovery. Dónal also added a useful method of practicing how to recover guard when they try to get under your legs. For that guard retention drill, you have one foot on their hip. They are reaching under and lifting the other leg.

First, push off their hip with your foot, raising your own hips to make a small shrimping movement. That should give you the space to bring the knee of your underhooked leg outwards (this is important: if you move your knee inwards, they can shove your leg across and crush you), then circle your leg inside their arm. Switch the leg you just circled to their hip, then as they reach under the other leg, repeat.

If they've managed to get a bit deeper and are working towards double underhooks, make your legs heavy, driving your heels downwards. If they try to lift up on one side to start a pass, immediately reach through under their armpit with your same side arm. Gable grip your other hand (palm to palm), then pull their trapped shoulder to your chest. From there, you could shift into a reverse kimura or an omoplata.

Alternatively, you can move into a triangle. As their arm is now trapped, kick your leg free, bring it inside their arm and over their back. Lock your ankles together. This means they now have one arm in and one arm out, so you're ready to adjust to go for the triangle. If not, then you're still in a good position: armbars, wristlocks and omoplatas are all available to you.

Another option is to reverse them as they try to pass. Before they complete their move to side control, clamp your hand around the back of their arm, just above the elbow, with your thumb pointing down (a little reminiscent of that Braulio side control escape I can never get). Straight-arm, to stop them turning towards you. You're then going to quickly spin and reach your other arm under their body, grasping for their far knee. You can then drive through to side control. The other possibility is to spin to the back, though I found that a little more difficult.

Sparring was initially from the guard, where I was happy enough on the bottom, but still not getting too far on top. I attempted to control the knees and straight arm them into the floor as I moved round. That sort of worked on the first leg, but I wasn't sufficiently controlling the remaining leg, meaning they still had enough mobility with their leg and hips to create a barrier. Still, it's better than just staring at people's open guard, which I've done in the past. ;)

The main interesting thing for me was when I was escaping the back a few times. As I've mentioned before, I will frequently half-escape, then try to secure their arm under my armpit. My aim is to crawl up their arm, until I can trap their arm and turn. That has never worked well for me (except when I can get close enough to reach around their head), so I got some tips from Dónal afterwards. I think I've asked him about this previously, but probably forgot.

Anyway, Dónal's suggestion for escaping the back was to focus on their leg rather than their arm. Pop their hook off your leg with your opposite foot, then slide your hip over the side you've opened up. Next, presuming your neck is safe, grab under their leg on the non-open side, then shimmy down into deep half guard. I'm not used to doing that, but I'll be looking to try it next time, to see if it stops me getting stuck. Most likely will lead to getting choked a few times, but that's the only way to learn.

27/02/2011 - RGA Aylesbury (Beginner)

Class #378
RGA Aylesbury, (BJJ), Kev Capel, Aylesbury, UK - 27/02/2011

Due to my Malta trip, this is my first training session in three weeks, which is the longest I've been out for a while. Of course, not necessarily a bad thing, as I'm also still injured, so that time away gave it some time to heal. It isn't 100% yet, but definitely improving. I'm hoping to try some light sparring next week, and see how that goes.

We started off with a double leg takedown drill. Drive forward with your leading leg, ending up with it inbetween theirs. Bring the other foot outside, both arms round their legs, then raise up, driving your head into their side. Fortunately for my leg, we only did the entry, otherwise I would have had trouble drilling this.

That moved into taking the back. As they shoot in for the double, thrust your hips forward, then sprawl back. They will probably still have an arm over your leg. Insert your arm on that side of their head, reaching through to grab their bicep. They should now find it tough to follow as you move round. Walk your feet in the direction of your cross-facing arm's elbow, then get a harness grip. Insert hooks, then roll, lifting with your leg, to take their back.

To escape back mount when facing the ceiling, Kev had a useful phrase to keep in mind: "head, shoulders, hips." If they don't have a choke on, you can move to either side. If they do, look towards their choking elbow to relieve pressure on your neck, then move in the direction of their choking hand: that points the way out.

Start the escape itself by posting your head to the mat (remember, whichever side their choking hand is pointing towards), pushing off with your diagonally opposite foot. Next, wriggle your shoulders to the mat, which then means they can't finish their choke attempt.

Now that you should be safe from chokes, move your hands to grab their knees (or wherever you can grip on their trouser leg). First step your leg free on your head side. Maintain your grip on the other leg, to make sure they can't just roll on top of you.

Keeping your weight on them, shift your hips towards their head, still holding that leg (you could use your free arm to post). Thread your leg as you would in the shrimp to all fours drill, establishing side control.

Kev finished with a basic sliding choke. You have the back, one hand past their armpit. Use that hand to open up their nearest collar, feeding it tight to your other hand. Then grip the other collar with your armpit hand, pulling on both for the choke.

During king of the hill sparring, my training partner generously gave his time to do some more drilling with me. As ever, I decided to work some more on the overhook choke. My wrist is still ending up too bent, although he did say the choke was still on, pressing into the carotoid arteries rather than just i to the windpipe. Nevertheless, I want to get it right: I think perhaps I need to allow for more cloth, in order to make a proper fist and avoid twisting up my wrist and hand once I bring my arm past their head. Problem of course is that the initial grip also needs to be a tight for the choke to function properly.

While people were warming up with the usual star jumps, squats, breakfalls and shrimping, I tried warming up with exercises I could do with only one leg. However, I ran out of ideas after sit ups, press-ups and whatever that one is called where you lie on your front, then raise your upper body and legs (Kev suggested it: I think he called it dorsal raises or something?) So, if anyone has some further suggestions, let me know.

10/11/2010 - Gracie Barra Bristol

Class #358
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Nicolai 'Geeza' Holt, Bristol, UK - 11/10/2010

My gf was doing some work-related training, so that meant I had another opportunity to pop down to the class at Gracie Barra Bristol. I was heading over directly after getting off the Megabus from London, so had to work out where to go from the centre of town. Google Maps handily doesn't tell you which random road you take to get down from Colston Hall, so I managed to wander round in a circle a few times, before realising it was Zed Alley (like the Christmas Steps, this cuts through to the town centre).

I'd thought I would be late, running some of the way, but arrived at roughly the same time as Geeza, who has the keys to the club. Construction has begun since I was last there, which gives me a further indication of just how incredibly huge the new gym will be. There is still a reasonable chunk of car park left for your car, though I will probably be cycling or walking once I eventually move to Bristol (especially as I still haven't bothered learning how to drive, though I think I'm going to have to finally join the adult world in that respect once I move down here.)

After the warm-up, Geeza had us move directly into specific sparring, from guard. So, coupled with running to class and then running round the mats, I was definitely feeling warm! No bad thing, as the weather has been pretty cold recently, so you could feel the chill on your bare feet from the mats.

Geeza handily texts everybody before each class to say what he'll be teaching that night, so I already knew we'd be doing back escapes and spider guard sweeps. However, he began technique with a takedown, which is something Roger does as well. You start from the usual collar and sleeve grip, then take a step back to get them to step forward (this should be the leg on the same side as your collar grip).

Once they step, thread your same side leg into that space, putting your knee on the mat behind their leg. Drop down, hanging heavily off that collar you're still holding, then drive forward to knock them backwards. Don't follow them down, but try to maintain good posture (I was basing off their stomach). Apparently this is a good takedown for small guys like me, so something I might have to try (though I think I'll almost certainly just pull guard when I give competition another go).

Interestingly, Geeza does the same thing as Roy Dean when teaching technique, in that he has everybody line up by the wall, rather than the usual huddle. That has the disadvantage of restricting your view, although that is easily counter-acted by showing the technique from several angles. It fits with the traditional flavour Geeza brings to his classes, bowing to a picture of Carlos etc at the beginning.

The next technique, rather handily given my struggles yesterday, was an escape from the back where you pull on their arm. You start from all fours (what Cane Prevost calls the quarter position: turtle would be another common term), where they have one hook in, and are also gripping around your neck with the same side arm, feeding their other hand under your armpit.

First, use your hand on the non-hooked side to grab the arm they have around your neck. With your other arm, base out forwards on your elbow. On your non-hooked side, you can also use your elbow to prevent them getting their foot in: you'll also need to step up your leg on that side. From here, start shrugging them off your back, which should cause them to slip off on the hooking side.

An important detail here is to make sure that on the hooked side, you keep your elbow outside their knee. Otherwise, they'll still be able to take your back. Once you've shrugged them off to the ground, pull on their arm and drive forwards. Either shove your head under their other arm, or over the top, depending on their grip on your neck. You can then settle into top half guard, cross-facing them.

The final technique was a sweep from spider guard. You've moved to spider guard, and they have stood up. One foot is pressed into their same side bicep, stretching it out, while also gripping their sleeve with your same side hand. Your other foot is going to hook around the front of their opposite knee. This feels a bit counter-intuitive, but the reason is to stop them moving around that side (they can't go the other way, because your foot into the bicep means you can just sweep them if they do). Hook your free hand around their same side foot, using that to swivel parallel to them, your hips close to their feet.

From here, break their posture by pulling their sleeve down and pushing out with your foot, until finally you can kick out over your outside shoulder. Again, this position feels slightly weird: if you're having trouble getting the leverage, try shrimping towards their legs, as you can then push out further. If they decide to try and pass from there, that just makes your sweep easier: they've now put themselves into exactly the position you want.

Sparring was run the same way as the sparring class, with everybody lined up around the mat. If you are on your knees, you're saying you want to spar, if not, then you want to sit out. Geeza paired people up, mainly going by size and experience, as far as I could tell. I had a chance to try Howard's tip on using the head when trying to pass from half guard, but I think I may have still had my hips too high.

I didn't try it again later, when in that position with Luke (which is exactly the place I constantly find myself with Howard). Next time, I need to just go for it, while keeping control of their hips so they can't simply shrimp away and go to their knees (which is what Luke did). Luke in particular was great to roll with, as he maintained a very steady pace, focusing on smooth transitions rather than crushing and smashing with strength.

During the line-up, one of the white belts wondered why BJJ didn't generally practice against multiple opponents, as is common in TMAs like karate. He dropped himself in it, as Geeza immediately responded that he should feel free to try, meaning that the rest of the class was treated to an entertaining display of two-on-one sparring. Even better, this led Geeza to make a speech after the round had finished, on the topic of sport and self defence: I particularly enjoyed that, as it fits closely to my own views on the subject.

Geeza emphasised that he teaches sport BJJ, but that 85% of those techniques are perfectly applicable to a real situation. He also stressed that competition and class are two different things, because in competition, you're both just looking for the win. In class, it's about learning, and there may be a whole multitude of reasons you find yourself on the mat that day. Finally, he made the sensible comment that when it comes to self defence and multiple attackers, basically you should get the hell out of there and run, which is invariably the best option in a 'real' fight.

I'm not sure when I'll make it down again, but hopefully in the not-too-distant future. It will be cool to see how far construction has come along next time I make it to Bristol training.