03/01/2012 - Gracie Barra Bristol (Guard Pass)

Class #440
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Luke Chamberlain, Bristol, UK - 02/01/2012

My first class of 2012 was, unusually, taken by Luke, one of the better blue belts at GB Bristol. I knew he had an interest in teaching from discussions we've had in the past, so I was intrigued as to what and how he would teach. Normally it would be Dónal, but I think he's skiing in Austria, and Geeza was also busy.

Luke more than lived up to expectations: he taught a very technical, carefully structured class, with loads of detail. That kicked off with a look at grip-breaking, which I'll definitely be keeping in mind for when I teach passing. Luke started with grip-breaking from the closed guard, from the perspective of the person on top looking to pass. If they grip your collar, the basic option is to place both your hands under their gripping wrist, then thrust upwards and away as you move your torso slightly backwards.

The second collar-grip break was a little more complex, which I hadn't seen before. IIRC, you start by bracing the elbow of your outside arm with your hip, cupping your hand underneath their arm, just before their elbow. Your other hand goes to the wrist again. Luke mentioned it was a bit like an armbar motion, as you're locking the arm out. As before, your then push up to break the grip (though I think I might be missing some details there).

Having dealt with the collar, Luke followed up with a grip break if they grab your sleeve. This was nice and simple, as you just circle your wrist in the direction of their thumb. If you try and go the other way, they can adjust and maintain the grip. Going against their thumb makes it much harder for them to retain their hold. Finally, if they grab your trousers near the knee, bring your hand underneath, then slide it up past their wrist to dislodge their grip.

Open guard grip breaks was next, focusing specifically on the spider guard. To escape my preferred lasso (where you wrap your leg around their arm), circle your hand behind their leg, then crawl your fingers around. I can't remember if the next one was also for a lasso or for the standard foot in bicep (I think it was the latter), but either way, you bring your arm down next to your knee, scraping their leg off, then circle your hand free of their grip as in the previous closed guard grip break.

If they are being sloppy with their feet in a foot-in-biceps spider guard, you may be able to simply circle your forearms under their legs, cupping the back of their ankle or leg with your hands, then push their legs off your biceps. That can then lead straight into a guard pass, as you take the opportunity to move round into knee on belly before they can recover their leg position.

The main technique of the night was the Margarida pass, named after Fernando 'Margarida' Pontes (read more about him here), a famous competitor from a few years back, who has beaten huge names like Saulo Ribeiro. Begin by grabbing their collars up high, near their chest, which is a common grip for when you want to stop them sitting up. Your other hand is going to grab low on their same side lapel, pulling it tight to take out any slack.

Use a swaying pendulum motion to stand up, then put the leg on the same side as your high collar gripping arm behind their bum. You want to get your knee into their tailbone: finding the right spot can be difficult, but if you just bounce your leg, that should be enough to jar their guard open. As soon as their legs open, drop down into a tight combat base: the knee on the tailbone break leg side will be raised. Your other knee will be on the floor, with the foot of that knee curled behind you, while your high collar grip is pressing into their shoulder.

It is important that you sink down quickly and tightly, as otherwise they may be able to sneak a leg behind to establish a de la Riva hook. I was finding that as I'm skinny, there was normally some space, but you can generally use your elbow to block what little bit of foot they manage to insert. Also, your weight should be mainly towards the leg you have on the floor rather than the raised knee. If your weight is leaning towards the raised knee, you're vulnerable to being swept.

Next, you want to slide your raised knee forward, up into their sternum, still pressing your high collar grip into their shoulder. The low grip you have on their lapel should help with this, as you can pull on that for additional leverage (a note of caution for drilling: you may end up squishing male training partners' tender areas if you're not careful). After that knee is into their sternum, you can shift your low lapel grip to the front of their same side trouser leg, about a fist's width below the knee.

Shove that leg down, coming up on your hips slightly if you need more force. Do a 'sumo step' over that leg once it is on the floor. Keep hold of that leg until you can slide your sternum knee to the mat, which will block that leg, meaning you can safely let go. Switch the leg gripping hand to instead grab their same side sleeve and pull it up high, across your chest.

If you can establish an underhook with your other arm, great, but most likely they'll be wise to that. In that likely event, drop the elbow of the high collar arm across to their other shoulder, so that your forearm is now pressing into their throat. Keep sliding through, until you can free your trapped foot, then move into side control. You also have the option to apply a collar choke, particularly if they're being very squirmy after you free your foot.

We didn't get a chance to practice that in specific sparring, moving straight into free sparring. I was paired up with three people not too far off my weight, which meant I was able to get into top half guard. I'm having a reasonable amount of success tightly underhooking their arm then bracing my other elbow against the back of their head, dropping my hips and sprawling back. From there, I found I could gradually put them flat on their back, then establish the usual cross-face and gable grip.

However, that was mainly because people weren't putting their knee up high towards my chest when they went to z-guard/knee shield. Instead, they were keeping it low by my hips, where I was able to sprawl on top of the knee and essentially negate it. That isn't a wholly reliable tactic on my part, as Callum used to knee-shield me all the time and I really struggled to get past: I think he must have had his knee a little bit higher.

I also failed to launch any real threat from top half guard. About the only attack I ever do is an americana, which is what people are expecting. I'm also often too hesitant about shifting from my secure grip to a position in which I can attack. I need to think of some options for offence based off that solid grip, with one arm under their head and the other under their armpit. Maybe some kind of choke?

Getting to mount a few times didn't help my attacks, as I'm limited there too. I'll either go for an ezequiel, but normally struggle to finish the choke (at least partially because I keep raising up, which gives them space to defend), or again an americana, but I'll often get stuck because my arm is still under their head. To complete the lock, I have to circle the arm over their head, at which point they can either block with their head, or take the opportunity to try and free their arm.

10/11/2009 - BJJ (Advanced)

Class #260



RGA High Wycombe, (BJJ), Kev Capel, High Wycombe, UK - 10/11/2009

I was pleased to see my article on the No Gi Worlds live stream get plenty of hits over the past two days, presumably because people are looking for results. I also wanted to note that if you missed the stream, it is going to be replayed at some point this week. Initially, there was a guy from Budovideos on The Underground saying tonight, but the Nogi Live site itself currently reads "we will be rebroadcasting the finals in the coming days".

When I find out exactly when the replay is happening, I'll put it on Twitter (which is linked through to my Facebook updates, if I happen to know you on there). Speaking of Twitter, I've been playing with their new list feature to make a 'BJJnews' section on my Twitter page. I'm looking for people who actually put up BJJ specific news, rather than lots of pointless "@randomguido: UFC was awesome, bro!" type posts. Most pertinent account on the Nogi Live situation is the Budovideos Twitter page. I didn't see one for nogi.com, so if somebody knows they have one, tell me.

I wouldn't normally bother writing up the throwing section of the advanced class, as it's not something I tend to concentrate on very heavily, but tonight was interesting. Instead of just running through throws, Kev worked specifically on grip fighting. First, he went through four fundamental grips, and how to do them correctly (remember, he's got a black belt in judo as well as the brown belt in BJJ and MMA record), in a flowing sequence.

The most basic is the collar and elbow. One hand grips deep in the collar, the other grabs the cloth slightly above their elbow, tight. A variation on that is a high grip: you simply slide your collar gripping hand a bit further up. Next, Kev went to a cross-collar grip, which as you can probably guess is simply gripping the opposite collar rather than same side.

Finally, Kev went through the slightly more complex Russian grip. Release their elbow, instead grasping their opposite sleeve. Pull on that, aiming to move towards their back (bit like an armdrag), so you can bring your collar-gripping arm over their back, grabbing by their armpit. Done right, you should end up with their arm pulled across your body, while your other arm is over their back. This is perfect for breaking their posture down, forcing them to bend over.

I hate takedown sparring, as it tends to hurt (due to a combination of my crap breakfalling and occasional aggressive training partners). However, Kev had a magnificent solution that even a wimp like me could be happy with: you don't throw anyone, you just fight for grips. Much less painful than getting thrown repeatedly: busts up your fingers a bit, but I prefer that to the usual grazed elbows, sore back and dodgy knees.

Groundwork continued in mount, this time a somewhat unusual technique Kev mentioned he was working with Daniel Strauss. Instead of an armdrag from guard, this was an armdrag from mount. First, you slide your hand into the crook of their elbow, until you can grab around the other side. You also need to make sure you've threaded your arm over theirs, otherwise this won't work.

For base, you'll need to immediately post out with your arm and head on that side, or you're likely to get bridged. Yank that arm up and across, moving straight into a technical mount where you're also pressing your torso into that elbow. That stops them pulling their arm back out again. This is therefore potentially a risk if you're using Saulo's arm frame to defend mount, which I do regularly: so, be aware they can try to armdrag you if there's enough space by the crook of your elbow.

To finish, you're going to take their back. Similarly to Kev's high mount transition preceding the armbar from earlier, grab their other elbow with both hands. However, instead of using that to get your knee in for high mount, roll them into you and establish your hooks for back mount. You'll need to stay tight here, or they might spin into your guard, meaning that you've just rolled out of a dominant position for no reason.

From here, you can go into a triangle from back mount. The technique is similar to the one Pedro Carvalho demonstrated on his old tapes from 1996. Demian Maia also used it in Science of Jiu Jitsu, from 2007, on his 'Attacking the Back' DVD. Kev described it as an old technique, so perhaps it isn't used as much these days. No reason it shouldn't be, however, considering it's a brilliant way of controlling your opponent from the back.

Kev's version was probably closer to Carvalho's, as unlike Maia, Kev didn't say anything about cupping under the chin. Also like Carvalho, it makes for a great attacking position, with a whole bunch of submissions available once you've secured it. The basic idea is to step over one of their arms: it could be that they've reached down and tried to remove one of your hooks, or you could just shove their arm down yourself.

Either way, once you've got that leg over, cross your feet. While this is normally a cardinal sin in back mount which will get you footlocked, your feet should be too high for that in this particular position. Pull their arm across their neck and trap it in place, before stepping off their hip to shift up, until you can bring that leg across too, triangling it with your other leg. Make sure you step off their hip, and not the floor: the latter option may give them enough space to escape.

From here, tense your calves to make the choke tighter (bring the top of your foot backwards). You probably won't manage to submit them from here, so to add pressure, grab their leg with one hand, then basing your other hand behind you, raise up and simultaneously pull their leg towards you. This should bend them in half, adding much more power to the choke.

If that still doesn't work (I found I wasn't tapping to it, most likely because I'm weeny, so there isn't much neck to get your legs round), no problem. Their arm is seriously vulnerable. You can apply a wristlock (Roy Dean can help you with those), a keylock, a straight armbar, and many other options. You could also grab more of their leg, hauling it right back so you can go for a toehold. Do note that toeholds aren't allowed until brown belt, while you have to be at least a blue belt for wristlocks.

Specific sparring from the back went ok in terms of defence, as using Aisling Daly's handy advice on the 'Shirley Temple' method, I was able to protect my neck long enough to recover half guard (well, most of the time: Howard caught with me a bow and arrow choke first).

However, when it came to my turn, not much luck. As is so often the case, I wasn't able to stay on the back. I had a go at trying the tips from Lesson 4 of Gracie Combatives, about remounting, but not successfully. I think I was possibly doing it on the wrong side, as it felt like I had a long way to move in order to slide back into mount.

I'm off to Bristol to visit my girlfriend tomorrow (should be able to run through some more Gracie Combatives for her), so no training again this Thursday. I've already put up my article for this week, so next post should be next Tuesday.

27/06/2007 - BJJ (Advanced)

Class #66



Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK - 27/06/2007 – Advanced

Unusual class tonight, for several reasons. First of all, as there was an odd number of people in the beginners, Jude asked if I fancied doing a bit of sparring in order to even up the groups. I did guard passage with a guy called Roberto, who I think I’ve spoken to before: as usual, I went for the tailbone pass and scissor sweep, also trying to keep the flower sweep and sit-up sweep in mind. Sit-up didn’t work, but it did set me up for a kimura from guard against Roberto. The same thing happened with my other sparring partner, Chet: however, both of those guys are comparatively new. Still, nice to get a few sweeps and passes along with the kimura.

That class was drilling the flower sweep before I joined in, which reminded me how Jude does it a little different from people like Rowan Cunningham. Jude grabs an arm first, draws that across the body, bumps them forward and then secures a hold behind the head before swivelling round for the leg. That means that the head grip can be used to lock down the arm, leaving your other arm free for the leg, as well as facilitating the sweep. Normally I find it difficult to get my opponent right down close in order to grab the head, but I think previously I wasn’t really yanking and holding that arm first. Something to keep in mind next time I go for it.

The advanced class focused on grip fighting, presumably due to the Gomes Cup this weekend. We went through three grips breaks, the first two responding to them grabbing you lapel with the same side hand. One option is to grab their wrist with both hands, thumb underneath, then push up and away with your arms while simultaneously stepping back with the same side leg. Jude emphasised that it has to be the same side leg, or you don’t get the leverage.

I had some trouble getting this every time on my training partner, Grant, who’s a fair bit bigger and stronger than me. He suggested that I could break down the hold by gradually jerking at his grip: that seemed to be a useful fallback if I couldn’t release his grasp on my first attempt.

Next grip break, which I didn’t quite get to drill properly as we were mainly working in a three (can’t remember the other guys name), was to get one of your hands across their fingers (with your thumb pointing towards you, I think), which were gripping inside your collar. The other hand grips in the opposite direction (so thumb pointing away), then you twist with both hands to break the grip. However, I’m not sure I understood that one properly, so will have to double-check.

Finally, Jude showed us how to release a grip on your back, with them reaching over your shoulder. First you grip their same side collar with your same side arm. Then you swing your shoulder underneath their arm and all the way around, so that you end up pressing against the top. Finally you push with your arm and step back on the same side leg.

I was able to get this against Grant, although his strength sometimes meant I had to jerk a bit like with the other grip break, but against Ben I had more trouble. I think that’s because Ben is fairly tall, so has a much longer reach than a shortarse like me. Bringing my arm around the top and pushing that into it helped, but I think that’s effectively ‘cheating’, and presumably builds in bad habits.

We did a bit of drilling on grip fighting, going fairly light contact with one person gripping and the other trying to remove them, then switching partners. Once everyone had tried it out against two different people, it was time for free sparring.

Jude divided the class into those who wanted to start standing up and those who didn’t: perhaps unsurprisingly, the latter was rather more popular. I’m still being a little too timid in asking people to spar, waiting for them to come to me, but eventually had a roll with Anthony, one of the blue belts (which make up the majority of the class, at least tonight). I’d been hoping to work my mount escapes, and soon got the opportunity, as well as defending under side control. I didn’t have much success with either, generally getting into a pattern of holding my partner off for a while, until they gradually got me into some kind of uncomfortable position like a tight north-south.

As I mentioned in my spar against Chris in the beginners class last week, I’m having problems preventing people spinning around on top of my side control – my only defence at the moment is to try and spin with them, holding onto their hip, but I seem to merely delay the inevitable rather than present a serious challenge to their motion. I also need to get better at making space under side control in order to shrimp, as well as being careful of the arm pressed against their neck in case they go for an Americana. Probably shouldn’t be bothering with random attempts at armbars either, as that’s beyond my level at the moment: I saw it in an advanced class once, but I was only watching.

That Anthony finished me off with a loop choke was in a way handy, as I’d been discussing the difference between an Ezekiel choke and a loop choke before class started with Oli. In my glossary, I had the two under the same heading, which is technically incorrect: I’ve now changed it to sleeve choke, which is more accurate. I also didn’t mention that the choke generally requires you to grab the inside of your own sleeves in order to work: without its much more difficult, as in the no-gi variation. As ever, very useful to have a guy like Oli casting an eye over my glossary, as I’m a white belt and therefore still pretty unclear on all the terminology.

A similar thing happened against Grant, although I spent most of my time in his mount rather than side control. I had a go at shrimping out, as well as the upa plenty of times, and even gave the one where you go to butterfly guard a go, but as with Anthony, I was doing little more than slowing Grant down. He eventually went for an armbar, switching to a triangle when I defended. I managed to get out of it by driving his knee to the floor and pushing forward, but he was close to locking it on: I think if he’d pulled down on my head I wouldn’t have been able to escape.

Right towards the end of the spar, I was under Grant’s side control, again attempting to stop him spinning to north-south. Unfortunately, his knee and my face collided in the process, which meant I was out of sparring for the rest of the session. I probably should have immediately gone to ask for an ice pack rather than hanging around by the wall, but did finally go soothe my eye after urging from Indra and Grant (who was very apologetic about the whole thing: not a problem, as it was clearly an accident. Something I’ll just have to get used to in training).

I’ll definitely be sporting a black eye tomorrow, as its already puffed up, but hopefully my face won’t be too sore for class that night. If its really throbbing, then I may just do the beginners class, or skip training altogether. Should be ok, as its only a black eye, but we’ll see.