Seminar #024
Artemis BJJ, Neil Owen, Bristol, UK - 19/03/2017
Neil began with some simple drills for entering spider guard, starting with feet on the hips. Grab the sleeves, then put your feet into the biceps. The feet should always be doing a different job, one pulling while the other pushes. He also included moving to the knees, back to the hips, then lift them up. A nice, fluid drill to work on getting comfortable with open guard. Neil emphasised curling your foot around their bicep, like you're trying to grab it with a foot-hand. The same is true for the hip: curl your foot around the hip bone.
From there, get used to rotating. This was like the tips Chelsea gave in her seminar (I still need to write up her fourth one, from January), rotating to face the arm, with your outside foot extending straight as the inside leg curls in. To create pressure into the arm, push through with your heel, like you're putting a boot on (similar motion to the footlock defence). There is flexion in the foot too, for controlling the biceps.
Neil progressed to the concept of protecting your week side. By that he means the side where they can move around and pass. If you have a leg on the weak side that you can extend straight, that bolsters your defence. You want to spin so that your weak side is on the outside, your strong side is by them. They can pass around the inside, but they will get swept if you have your legs in place.
If they open your guard, they are passing. If you open your guard, then you're playing open guard. This is an important distinction. Neil demonstrated this idea by going into more detail about what he calls classic guard, getting there from as they try to open your closed guard. He prefers to grip under with his fingers on the collar grip, so thumb on top. Opposite leg on the floor and shrimp, then put your other foot on their hip. He has four points of contact: knee (into their chest), foot (on their hip), hand (on their collar) and other hand (on their same side sleeve).
If they stand, hide your outside foot. Should they grip it, you have their arm in range, which is what you wanted. Your weak side here is the outside, so the foot on that side swivels into the bicep and extends, while pulling down with the collar grip. For classic guard, he doesn't like to keep the foot in their bicep, it is too easy to weave the hand in. He prefers to keep his foot on the shoulder blade, that is much harder for them to weave their hand around.
When you have extended your legs into them all the way, it is hard for them to step around, but they might be able to go back to come off your feet. When they do that and break the connection, you could be in trouble. Therefore keep a little bit of a bend in your leg, as opposed to completely straightening them. The slight bend makes it easier for you to keep that connection between the soles of your feet and their hips/shoulder etc (your collar grip you're using to pull them in will help a lot here, leading into things later).
In terms of passing, should they have four points of contact, you need to remove some in order to pass. For example, controlling their legs, then moving your hips back in order to remove the feet. For the guard player, when you feel yourself losing those points of contact, sit up and press your collar grip into them. Move to the outside with your hips. If they move inside, your arm is strong, but if they move behind, you don't have much resistance. You therefore need to keep moving away to make sure they stay within that area you are strong. Any time there is a pause, strip the grip they have on your knee, meaning you can return to your previous position.
For stripping a grip, think about pushing the wrist over, rather than grabbing their sleeve and yanking. It's the same idea as when you're trying to remove a hook from a loop. Also keep in mind that when you are moving your hips away, they will occasionally try and drive forward. You therefore don't want to simply spin in a circle. If they manage to beat your legs and start dropping in, you can use your sleeve grip to keep pushing their arm away, same as the last time Neil taught us open guard.
When drilling, remember that with more resistance, there will be less space for you. That means the person on top needs to move in close, not giving unrealistic amounts of space. If you lose your grip, frame against their arm, moving your hips back until you can recover a guard. This should be pre-emptive, before they get in close to your hips. Your trigger to shrimp should not be when they have passed the knees and are dropping their weight into your hip/stomach. You need to do it earlier, just as they are starting to pass your knees.
Moving on to a different position, Neil talked about the turtle. He began with a drill where you are in turtle, then you post your outside arm and leg. Roll under yourself into that space, as if you're doing a really tight breakfall on the spot. You want to make a wide circle with your leg. You're reaching for your own butt cheek.
This can be applied to the previous material too. They have passed and are starting to press in. Roll away, swinging your legs through to recover guard. Your body shape is key, to avoid getting put flat. If you do that and they end up in a front headlock, you can do the wrestler's sit-out. Neil's version was a little different, hooking the leg with an arm and then firing out under the armpit.
Yet another option you could try is underhooking when the pressure comes in off the pass. However, that's a risky one, as it is when that pressure is there. Ideally you want to use one of the other options, before the pressure is applied.
The last part of the seminar was from what Neil calls classic guard. Again, you have a collar and sleeve grip, along with a foot into their shoulder (not their biceps). Your other foot is into their hip. Push with the hip foot, dragging their sleeve into your hip. Rotate your hip knee around, to move into an omoplata as you bend their arm around your leg. A typical follow-up is to square up, sit up, then get their shoulder on the ground. That isn't easy, especially if they are bigger than you.
Neil prefers to turn his knees away instead, pressing it to the ground. That makes it tough for them to bring their shoulder off the ground, as well as scuppering their ability to roll through. From there, wiggle your hips out and go to apply the omoplata. Be careful with the omoplata, it's a lot of control on the shoulder. Disentangle yourself with care, their arm and shoulder are very vulnerable. It is not like a choke, where you can just relieve the pressure and you are finished. You have to actively remove yourself from the submission.
Another option is a collar drag, switching your hips and dragging them into the space you've just cleared. Neil prefers to go to side control from there, rather than trying to jump onto the back. Be careful with this one, as it is difficult to hit this technique in sparring without smacking their face into the floor. With drilling, it's best for the person passing to let go of the legs, in order to land safely,.
Showing posts with label guard pass defence. Show all posts
Showing posts with label guard pass defence. Show all posts
19 March 2017
18 December 2016
18/12/2016 - Neil Owen Seminar
Seminar #022
Artemis BJJ, Neil Owen, Bristol, UK - 18/12/2016
I signed Artemis BJJ up to the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Globetrotters affiliation some time ago, as I like the independence that grants me. Our club is not under anybody other than me, although I'm personally under Kev Capel from RGA Bucks (and have been since 2009). Being part of BJJ Globetrotters has a number of advantages, but perhaps the biggest is networking.
This seminar marks the fruition of that networking, something which is set to continue through into 2017 and beyond. We have already hosted one fellow BJJ Globetrotters instructor, Ana Yagues, but I've known her online for several years due to blogging. Neil Owen is somebody I've never met before, though I was aware of the name due to Brian Lister (a friend from Bullshido, who I met at the Oxford Throwdown a few years back now). In an interesting twist of fate, Neil happens to be the business partner of one of the teachers at the Leuven Globetrotter Camp, Chad Wright, who like me is very active on social media.
Chad sent me a message on Facebook asking if I'd be interested in hosting Neil (they run Infinity BJJ together, mainly based in Australia, but they have expanded to various other countries) for a seminar. Naturally I jumped at the chance: Neil has been training since the mid '90s, among the original pioneers of BJJ in the UK. He has an easy-going personality that meant he was a pleasure to deal with, something that also carries over to his teaching style.
Neil had asked me if there was anything in particular I wanted to work on. If you've been following this blog, you'll know that open guard has been my focus for a couple of years now. I sent Neil the recent sparring videos I've been putting up on Instragram, resulting in one of the most useful seminars I've ever been to. I'm very pleased Neil is going to be coming back (on the 19th March), where we can hopefully do the same thing. :)
The seminar began with a quick demonstration of various passes you might do off a standard kneeling guard break. Grab both their collars with one arm, then raise up very slightly to bring your knee into their bum. Push into their other knee with your arm to open, then move directly into an underhook pass (which Neil calls the 'bully pass').
Your arm goes underneath the leg you didn't push down for a single underhook pass, or swim both arms under for a double underhook pass. Alternatively, you might go for a knee slide, bringing your other knee into their thigh and stepping out with the other leg, then cutting through. If you put the same side shin over their thigh, that leads into the various leg pin pass options.
Should you prefer to stand up after opening their guard, a whole other set of options become available. Grab inside their knees and bullfighter by kicking your leg back and stepping through. Neil's favourite is the over-under pass, which effectively combines the single underhook with a bullfighter variation (as you underhook one one leg, while shoving the other back between your own legs).
We drilled all of those, to get familiar with the passes. That laid the groundwork to then learn how to defend against all those passes. In terms of moving from closed to open guard, put your foot on their hip (not near their hip, their actual hip bone) as soon as they get close to opening your guard. You're cupping their hip bone with the arch of your foot. That provides you with some distance control, along with enough time to shrimp out a little with your other foot. You also want to lean back slightly, to help bring your same side elbow back for base.
Once you've come up on your elbow, insert your free hand deep into their opposite collar. Go from your elbow to your hand, make it easier to shrimp a little more, squaring up to them. You're now ready to establish butterfly guard and go from there, making sure you are wriggling back on your bum to stop them shoving you down.
As Neil then demonstrated, you can use that to block all the passes he showed at the start of the seminar. It was a brilliantly taught sequence with a bunch of great little details. Even better, because it was so well targeted towards my game (given Neil had kindly watched those vids I sent him), this is going to perfectly set me up for both practicing and teaching in February (as that's open guard month). :)
If they bring their hands back to your knees after the guard has been opened and you've set up your open guard, it's likely they are going to stand up. Your basing hand switches to grabbing their same side sleeve. As they stand, swing out your other leg. This means all your grips are down one side of their body: you're grabbing their collar, their sleeve and also pushing into their hip. Neil called this 'classic open guard'.
That position can lead into triangles and omoplatas. You also want to be on your side, maximising the control you have with your grips. If they attempt to pass in that direction, it will be next to impossible for them to pass. If they go the other way, they are chasing your swung-away leg, also leaving their trailing arm vulnerable to the aforementioned omoplata. At any point, you can square back up by bringing that free foot to their hip, arm, chest.
Neil then ran through his theory of pass 'zones'. The bullfighter is out at Zone 3, while the knee slide comes in a little closer at Zone 2. Finally, an underhook pass is Zone 1. The smaller the number, the harder it is to prevent the pass. To succeed in their pass, they need to maintain their grips all the way round. Do not accept side control: if you lose the grip with your foot, you still have the sleeve from earlier. That's enough to recover your guard.
Stiff arm that away from you, returning to a sitting guard position. They cannot pass until they free that arm. Of course, you aren't going to wait there. You'll look to square back up and recover your guard long before they wriggle their arm out of your grip. If they insist on the pass, you might even be able to roll them right over the top. The only downside to this for me is the grip asks a lot of your fingers. I could try it with a pistol grip I guess, that's much easier on the fingers, but also easier to break. Maybe even gripping the wrist, just enough to recover my guard?
From a passing perspective, Neil discussed how you want to separate the elbow and knee. Therefore from the bottom, you're looking to keep those in tight. Hence why some people will work on getting the flexibility to put their knee into their armpits. Progessing to spider guard, if they break off one of your feet grips, swing it straight in to a de la Riva hook. Your same side hand will grab their foot, or the trouser leg. Keep your toes up, pulling your knee in. It's important to pull them in, because as Neil pointed out, the DLR hook only works on a bent leg.
In an effort to pass DLR, they may grab your knee, pushing it down and straightening their arm in the process. Keeping the arm straight, push your bum back to knock off that DLR hook. This puts the passer in Zone 2, ready to go for the knee slide. Do not buckle your knee sideways: step the other leg across, sink down to put your heel right on your butt.
On the bottom looking to recover guard, bring your ex-DLR knee across their hip to block. Neil noted that the important part here is not the knee, it's adjusting your upper body to line up against your knee. In practice, that means bringing your shoulder and head back, putting you almost perpendicular to the passer. Bring your bottom knee out, then square back up to guard.
The next scenario was countering the double underhook pass. They want to control your hips and either take them out of action (getting underneath them) or connect their hands to put those legs on their shoulders. Your defence is the same for both. Immediately grip both their sleeves and flare your legs. Push into their biceps, using that to try and create space by shrimiping. You'll also need to walk backwards on your shoulders.
If they really try to fling your leg, you can switch to the stiff arm into their sleeve, like Neil showed earlier. Should they manage to lock their hands, instead of grabbing their sleeve, stiff arm into the back of their elbow. You can then proceed to recover guard in much the same way as the stiff arm into their sleeve from earlier.
To finish, Neil demonstrated an over under pass, his personal favourite. Essentially, it's a combination of the bullfighter and the underhook pass. He explained how he does not buy into the idea that you can only pass on your feet, a trend which he feels is in part based upon the speed, balance and athleticism of elite competitors rather than the average grappler. He (like me) prefers to be in Zone 1, with a close connection.
Crouch, set, engage, like you're going into a rugby scrum. One arm goes under, the other over, so be careful of the triangle. You must control their bottom leg between your legs, to make certain they can't set up that triangle. Your head goes to their far hip, driving your shoulder across their stomach. You now have the option of either moving into mount or to side control.
As Neil believes this is the best pass, it stands to reason that to counter the over under is difficult. The option he suggested was to grab their armpit on the side their head wants to go. Do that before they get their head in position, keeping your arm tight, which will also block them getting their head to your hip. Twisting your knee inwards and kicking your leg, wriggle your hips out until you can pull your opponent away to your other hip, using your armpit grip. If you have long legs, that becomes much easier, as you can put your foot on the ground. With short legs (like me), you end up manically wriggling your knee and hips, an awkward motion to master. But then as Neil said, it is a tough pass to defend. Focus on defending the underhook element of the pass.
Rolling with both Neil and his black belt James (from Infinity Martial Arts Chesterfield) was good fun. They both took it fairly easy, letting me work through positions. I was trying the slow motion seoi-nage to avoid James taking my back, lots of gripping and elbow wedging from me to try and avoid his hooks. With Neil, he is not only much better but a lot bigger than me, so he was taking it especially light. Tried to put some of what he had taught into action, such as the knee shield where it's about leaning back with head rather than relying too much on the bracing arm. Another interesting thing he said during drilling, he doesn't rely on that so much from sitting guard, posture should be doing that job. So more like what I've seen from Graugart and I think Scully too?
Tasty pie afterwards, had a great long chat with Neil about UK BJJ history, particularly up North, along with how he and Chad have developed Infinity Martial Arts. Look out for the relevant episode of the Artemis BJJ Podcast, I'll have that up in the next month or two. :)
Artemis BJJ, Neil Owen, Bristol, UK - 18/12/2016
I signed Artemis BJJ up to the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Globetrotters affiliation some time ago, as I like the independence that grants me. Our club is not under anybody other than me, although I'm personally under Kev Capel from RGA Bucks (and have been since 2009). Being part of BJJ Globetrotters has a number of advantages, but perhaps the biggest is networking.
This seminar marks the fruition of that networking, something which is set to continue through into 2017 and beyond. We have already hosted one fellow BJJ Globetrotters instructor, Ana Yagues, but I've known her online for several years due to blogging. Neil Owen is somebody I've never met before, though I was aware of the name due to Brian Lister (a friend from Bullshido, who I met at the Oxford Throwdown a few years back now). In an interesting twist of fate, Neil happens to be the business partner of one of the teachers at the Leuven Globetrotter Camp, Chad Wright, who like me is very active on social media.
Chad sent me a message on Facebook asking if I'd be interested in hosting Neil (they run Infinity BJJ together, mainly based in Australia, but they have expanded to various other countries) for a seminar. Naturally I jumped at the chance: Neil has been training since the mid '90s, among the original pioneers of BJJ in the UK. He has an easy-going personality that meant he was a pleasure to deal with, something that also carries over to his teaching style.
Neil had asked me if there was anything in particular I wanted to work on. If you've been following this blog, you'll know that open guard has been my focus for a couple of years now. I sent Neil the recent sparring videos I've been putting up on Instragram, resulting in one of the most useful seminars I've ever been to. I'm very pleased Neil is going to be coming back (on the 19th March), where we can hopefully do the same thing. :)
The seminar began with a quick demonstration of various passes you might do off a standard kneeling guard break. Grab both their collars with one arm, then raise up very slightly to bring your knee into their bum. Push into their other knee with your arm to open, then move directly into an underhook pass (which Neil calls the 'bully pass').
Your arm goes underneath the leg you didn't push down for a single underhook pass, or swim both arms under for a double underhook pass. Alternatively, you might go for a knee slide, bringing your other knee into their thigh and stepping out with the other leg, then cutting through. If you put the same side shin over their thigh, that leads into the various leg pin pass options.
Should you prefer to stand up after opening their guard, a whole other set of options become available. Grab inside their knees and bullfighter by kicking your leg back and stepping through. Neil's favourite is the over-under pass, which effectively combines the single underhook with a bullfighter variation (as you underhook one one leg, while shoving the other back between your own legs).
We drilled all of those, to get familiar with the passes. That laid the groundwork to then learn how to defend against all those passes. In terms of moving from closed to open guard, put your foot on their hip (not near their hip, their actual hip bone) as soon as they get close to opening your guard. You're cupping their hip bone with the arch of your foot. That provides you with some distance control, along with enough time to shrimp out a little with your other foot. You also want to lean back slightly, to help bring your same side elbow back for base.
Once you've come up on your elbow, insert your free hand deep into their opposite collar. Go from your elbow to your hand, make it easier to shrimp a little more, squaring up to them. You're now ready to establish butterfly guard and go from there, making sure you are wriggling back on your bum to stop them shoving you down.
As Neil then demonstrated, you can use that to block all the passes he showed at the start of the seminar. It was a brilliantly taught sequence with a bunch of great little details. Even better, because it was so well targeted towards my game (given Neil had kindly watched those vids I sent him), this is going to perfectly set me up for both practicing and teaching in February (as that's open guard month). :)
If they bring their hands back to your knees after the guard has been opened and you've set up your open guard, it's likely they are going to stand up. Your basing hand switches to grabbing their same side sleeve. As they stand, swing out your other leg. This means all your grips are down one side of their body: you're grabbing their collar, their sleeve and also pushing into their hip. Neil called this 'classic open guard'.
That position can lead into triangles and omoplatas. You also want to be on your side, maximising the control you have with your grips. If they attempt to pass in that direction, it will be next to impossible for them to pass. If they go the other way, they are chasing your swung-away leg, also leaving their trailing arm vulnerable to the aforementioned omoplata. At any point, you can square back up by bringing that free foot to their hip, arm, chest.
Neil then ran through his theory of pass 'zones'. The bullfighter is out at Zone 3, while the knee slide comes in a little closer at Zone 2. Finally, an underhook pass is Zone 1. The smaller the number, the harder it is to prevent the pass. To succeed in their pass, they need to maintain their grips all the way round. Do not accept side control: if you lose the grip with your foot, you still have the sleeve from earlier. That's enough to recover your guard.
Stiff arm that away from you, returning to a sitting guard position. They cannot pass until they free that arm. Of course, you aren't going to wait there. You'll look to square back up and recover your guard long before they wriggle their arm out of your grip. If they insist on the pass, you might even be able to roll them right over the top. The only downside to this for me is the grip asks a lot of your fingers. I could try it with a pistol grip I guess, that's much easier on the fingers, but also easier to break. Maybe even gripping the wrist, just enough to recover my guard?
From a passing perspective, Neil discussed how you want to separate the elbow and knee. Therefore from the bottom, you're looking to keep those in tight. Hence why some people will work on getting the flexibility to put their knee into their armpits. Progessing to spider guard, if they break off one of your feet grips, swing it straight in to a de la Riva hook. Your same side hand will grab their foot, or the trouser leg. Keep your toes up, pulling your knee in. It's important to pull them in, because as Neil pointed out, the DLR hook only works on a bent leg.
In an effort to pass DLR, they may grab your knee, pushing it down and straightening their arm in the process. Keeping the arm straight, push your bum back to knock off that DLR hook. This puts the passer in Zone 2, ready to go for the knee slide. Do not buckle your knee sideways: step the other leg across, sink down to put your heel right on your butt.
On the bottom looking to recover guard, bring your ex-DLR knee across their hip to block. Neil noted that the important part here is not the knee, it's adjusting your upper body to line up against your knee. In practice, that means bringing your shoulder and head back, putting you almost perpendicular to the passer. Bring your bottom knee out, then square back up to guard.
The next scenario was countering the double underhook pass. They want to control your hips and either take them out of action (getting underneath them) or connect their hands to put those legs on their shoulders. Your defence is the same for both. Immediately grip both their sleeves and flare your legs. Push into their biceps, using that to try and create space by shrimiping. You'll also need to walk backwards on your shoulders.
If they really try to fling your leg, you can switch to the stiff arm into their sleeve, like Neil showed earlier. Should they manage to lock their hands, instead of grabbing their sleeve, stiff arm into the back of their elbow. You can then proceed to recover guard in much the same way as the stiff arm into their sleeve from earlier.
To finish, Neil demonstrated an over under pass, his personal favourite. Essentially, it's a combination of the bullfighter and the underhook pass. He explained how he does not buy into the idea that you can only pass on your feet, a trend which he feels is in part based upon the speed, balance and athleticism of elite competitors rather than the average grappler. He (like me) prefers to be in Zone 1, with a close connection.
Crouch, set, engage, like you're going into a rugby scrum. One arm goes under, the other over, so be careful of the triangle. You must control their bottom leg between your legs, to make certain they can't set up that triangle. Your head goes to their far hip, driving your shoulder across their stomach. You now have the option of either moving into mount or to side control.
As Neil believes this is the best pass, it stands to reason that to counter the over under is difficult. The option he suggested was to grab their armpit on the side their head wants to go. Do that before they get their head in position, keeping your arm tight, which will also block them getting their head to your hip. Twisting your knee inwards and kicking your leg, wriggle your hips out until you can pull your opponent away to your other hip, using your armpit grip. If you have long legs, that becomes much easier, as you can put your foot on the ground. With short legs (like me), you end up manically wriggling your knee and hips, an awkward motion to master. But then as Neil said, it is a tough pass to defend. Focus on defending the underhook element of the pass.
Rolling with both Neil and his black belt James (from Infinity Martial Arts Chesterfield) was good fun. They both took it fairly easy, letting me work through positions. I was trying the slow motion seoi-nage to avoid James taking my back, lots of gripping and elbow wedging from me to try and avoid his hooks. With Neil, he is not only much better but a lot bigger than me, so he was taking it especially light. Tried to put some of what he had taught into action, such as the knee shield where it's about leaning back with head rather than relying too much on the bracing arm. Another interesting thing he said during drilling, he doesn't rely on that so much from sitting guard, posture should be doing that job. So more like what I've seen from Graugart and I think Scully too?
Tasty pie afterwards, had a great long chat with Neil about UK BJJ history, particularly up North, along with how he and Chad have developed Infinity Martial Arts. Look out for the relevant episode of the Artemis BJJ Podcast, I'll have that up in the next month or two. :)
21 June 2016
21/06/2016 - BJJ Globetrotter Camp | Leuven 2016 | Retaining Open Guard (Christian Graugart)
Class #729
BJJ Globetrotter Camp (Sportoase Leuven), Christian Graugart, Leuven, Belgium, 21/06/2016
Christian continued with his concepts-led approach to teaching, with most of the class spent doing drills. The details built upon his opening session. This time, he fleshed it out more, in the context of maintaining your open guard. I have been focusing on maintaining open guard for several years, so this was ideal for me. Any more details I can glean on basic open guard are very welcome: I’m not interested in flipping around or weird leg grips, just simple ways to stop my guard getting passed. This class was directly related, giving a broad overview of how to retain that guard.
The class followed a pattern of Christian elucidating the concept a little further, then going off to specific spar on that point (essentially, increasing levels of resistance in specific open guard sparring, but with no sweeps or submissions). First up, he re-emphasised that importance of controlling the space between your knees and chest. Whenever they are passing your guard, it is because they have managed to get your knees away from your chest.
Therefore, your goal is to return to that tight position, whether you're in sitting guard or on your back, with wide knees close to your chest. If your knees are close together, it narrows your guard, making it easier for them to move your legs around and pass. If they pull your leg, you pull it back: Graugart calls this the 'rubber band' principle. It should be difficult for them to break your posture. Some people will even grab their own knees for that reason.
There are exceptions: if you have control, you can straighten the leg, such as in spider guard. As soon as they manage to break that, you need to return to the knees-to-chest guard. Don't reach with your legs, as that opens up your posture without that requisite control. When there is distance, just wait for them to come to you. If you're determined to chase them, make sure you sit up, as then you can stay tight as you move forward.
Christian has a simple approach to grip-fighting: if they grip you, grip them back (grabbing whatever they're gripping you with). For example, if they grip your leg, grab their sleeve. Another big point is to use all four limbs. Make sure that your hands and feet are always engaged, there shouldn't be fresh air under your feet or hands.
Finally, if they are starting to pass, create a frame and get back to your posture. That's the same idea as the stiff arm escape. For example, if they get a double underhook, push up into their arm to try and scoot away. Build a frame, break their posture. The drill this time was to let them pass part of the way, then escape.
All that drilling meant this was the first bit of 'sparring' I got at the camp, though I was holding off on 'proper' sparring until later in the week. My thinking was that if I got banged up from sparring later on, it didn't matter so much, as I already had plenty of classes under my belt. The fact that most of the classes I was looking forward to were earlier in the week anyway helped on that too.
BJJ Globetrotter Camp (Sportoase Leuven), Christian Graugart, Leuven, Belgium, 21/06/2016
Christian continued with his concepts-led approach to teaching, with most of the class spent doing drills. The details built upon his opening session. This time, he fleshed it out more, in the context of maintaining your open guard. I have been focusing on maintaining open guard for several years, so this was ideal for me. Any more details I can glean on basic open guard are very welcome: I’m not interested in flipping around or weird leg grips, just simple ways to stop my guard getting passed. This class was directly related, giving a broad overview of how to retain that guard.
The class followed a pattern of Christian elucidating the concept a little further, then going off to specific spar on that point (essentially, increasing levels of resistance in specific open guard sparring, but with no sweeps or submissions). First up, he re-emphasised that importance of controlling the space between your knees and chest. Whenever they are passing your guard, it is because they have managed to get your knees away from your chest.
Therefore, your goal is to return to that tight position, whether you're in sitting guard or on your back, with wide knees close to your chest. If your knees are close together, it narrows your guard, making it easier for them to move your legs around and pass. If they pull your leg, you pull it back: Graugart calls this the 'rubber band' principle. It should be difficult for them to break your posture. Some people will even grab their own knees for that reason.
There are exceptions: if you have control, you can straighten the leg, such as in spider guard. As soon as they manage to break that, you need to return to the knees-to-chest guard. Don't reach with your legs, as that opens up your posture without that requisite control. When there is distance, just wait for them to come to you. If you're determined to chase them, make sure you sit up, as then you can stay tight as you move forward.
Christian has a simple approach to grip-fighting: if they grip you, grip them back (grabbing whatever they're gripping you with). For example, if they grip your leg, grab their sleeve. Another big point is to use all four limbs. Make sure that your hands and feet are always engaged, there shouldn't be fresh air under your feet or hands.
Finally, if they are starting to pass, create a frame and get back to your posture. That's the same idea as the stiff arm escape. For example, if they get a double underhook, push up into their arm to try and scoot away. Build a frame, break their posture. The drill this time was to let them pass part of the way, then escape.
All that drilling meant this was the first bit of 'sparring' I got at the camp, though I was holding off on 'proper' sparring until later in the week. My thinking was that if I got banged up from sparring later on, it didn't matter so much, as I already had plenty of classes under my belt. The fact that most of the classes I was looking forward to were earlier in the week anyway helped on that too.
15 June 2013
15/06/2013 - Fabio Santos BJJ (San Diego, USA)
Class #504
Fabio Santos (BJJ), Fabio Santos, San Diego, CA, USA - 15/06/2013
Like the Gracie Academy, Fabio Santos has also been present for much of BJJ's global expansion. His teaching in the US dates back to at least 1983. He was running classes in New York for strength and conditioning, but had a few mats off to the side where he would show a few moves at the end of class. He eventually found himself in San Diego after a brief stint in Utah, followed by a much longer period teaching at the Gracie Academy. Santos was the main instructor there when Royce was preparing for the first UFC.
Santos has taught in San Diego since 1998: he has seen the jiu jitsu scene there explode over the last decade and a half. His gym is of fairly modest dimensions, without the swish facilities of the Gracie Academy, but the training was excellent with some great sparring partners. I was not the only visitor: my drilling partner was a blue belt called Alex from Tristar up in Montreal, who teaches boxing and jiu jitsu at his club.
The main reason I was there (and indeed set off on my California trip in the first place), apart from interviewing Santos about his many years in jiu jitsu (you can now read it, here), was to meet up and train with two cool people I know from the internet. I have met Fightworks Podcast host Caleb before, during the ADCC 2011, but this was the first time I would get to train with him. The other person was Dagney, who I know via her excellent blog. She kindly picked me up from my hotel and gave me a lift to the school, so we had a chance to get in a good chat on the way.
Like Tatami Multi Arts, this academy was also on Julia's West Coast trip. I recognised a couple of settings for her pictures, such as the bench outside and indeed the person sitting on the bench in Julia's picture. In my case, Alex Brandao greeted me from his car instead. ;)
The class was even less formal than yesterday (the only formality I noticed was each person who came in shook everyone else's hand, which I last saw at Rilion's academy in Houston), with no real warm-up, going straight into a drill. Fabio is old school and believes in the importance of the original self defence curriculum. He therefore began with an escape from them bear hugging your arms. Brace your hands against their hips, move to the side and grab their far wrist, step in front then take them down with a hip throw.
The two main techniques both related to rolling your partner over, preventing the pass, straight into a reversal. Grab their arm on the side they're passing and straighten out your arm, shoving it under their body towards your opposite hip. With your other arm, reach over their back and grab their belt. Use those grips to roll them over, shifting around in mid-air to end in side control
For the second technique, they are looking for the double underhook pass. Grasp one of their arms with both of yours, push it across and clamp it to your hip. Roll through in the direction their hand is pointing. That should flip them over, meaning you can establish side control, or alternatively you could go for a waki gatame armbar. Each technique was repeated three or four times without much talking, then it was down to us to drill.
It turned out that instruction does not really progress beyond that level of detail. I asked Santos about that later: he used to show techniques in a lot more depth, but interestingly he has since found that he prefers people to work through the technique in practice (there is therefore plenty of time allocated to drilling), rather than relying on him to make multiple corrections.
I can see the point of that (particularly as there were lots of black belts on the mats, due to the age of the gym), although my personal preference when learning is as much detail as possible. In teaching terms, I'm still not sure of the best approach. Right now, I'm trying to combine the two, starting with a simple movement, complicating it later.
Sparring was divided into groups, due to the limited mat space. That has the advantage of an automatic rest period, which for lazy people like me is handy, particularly given the humidity of the academy. I was dripping with sweat at the end of the class, despite having only rolled three times at a comparatively light pace.
Training with Caleb was interesting, as he doesn't have the game you might expect. It turns out that Caleb is very flexible, which completely changes side control. He is more than happy to let you pass, establish side control, then suddenly a pair of legs come from nowhere and you're fighting to avoid getting sucked into a crucifix. Side control goes from being a comfortable, dominant position to a risky prospect where you're constantly worried about limbs appearing at bizarre angles. I have sparred with people like that before, such as Trev from RGA Bucks, but Trev has long legs: Caleb does it without being all that tall, which is impressive.
Dagney was next, who as an experienced brown belt also went fairly light. We got into a pattern where I worked for the knee shield half guard but failed to set up a sweep. There are two I want to develop from that position, both of which Nick Brooks originally taught me and I've taught at GB Bristol in the past (with some pointers from Caio Terra's comprehensive half guard DVD). I'm clearly missing lots of details, so I need to review those. Dagney would then pass, I eventually escaped side control, then back to the knee shield.
My final round was with Alex, my drilling partner from earlier. He carefully controlled his pace, never pushing a position to the point of a struggle. If we were getting stuck at any point (e.g., when I kept going to the running escape), he simply disengaged and went for something else, which was refreshing. There are not many training partners who are that mature. Alternatively, it could just be he was so much better than me that it was no challenge for him to keep pushing. Either way, yet another good reminder to improve my back escapes, as I end up with my back taken far too often. ;D
I wasn't wearing my glasses, so was confused when everyone started applauding some guy in shorts and a t-shirt over by the entrance. I thought at first he might have been some long time member of the gym who had just come back from an injury or time off, like Caleb and Dagney. Once he sat down and started talking, all became clear: this wasn't just another member of the gym, it was Relson Gracie. He was running a seminar the next day, which I would have definitely tried to attend if I was on a solo holiday, but running off when my girlfriend had patiently let me train twice in a row would have been rather unfair.
After I finished my interview with Santos and took some photos, Caleb drove me to his house where he cooked a delicious meal for Dagney and I, with an amazing view from the back of his home. We chatted jiu jitsu, with a more extended recorded chat later, as Caleb asked if I wanted to change my usual role and be the interviewee.
I don't think I'm particularly worthy of being interviewed, especially on Fightworks (still by far the best BJJ podcast out there), but it did give me another chance to plug the GrappleThon concept again, an opportunity I always try to take. Not to mention that to write a blog in the first place you have to have a certain degree of narcissism: I'm generally more than happy to talk about myself. :)
Caleb kindly also gave me some money towards the GrappleThon that took place back in May, in support of the charity RapeCrisis. My page is still open for donations here, in case anyone fancies following Caleb's example. ;D
The interview itself is now available here: if for some reason the download doesn't work, you can just click the 'play' button for the audio. My section starts about 35 minutes in.
Fabio Santos (BJJ), Fabio Santos, San Diego, CA, USA - 15/06/2013
Like the Gracie Academy, Fabio Santos has also been present for much of BJJ's global expansion. His teaching in the US dates back to at least 1983. He was running classes in New York for strength and conditioning, but had a few mats off to the side where he would show a few moves at the end of class. He eventually found himself in San Diego after a brief stint in Utah, followed by a much longer period teaching at the Gracie Academy. Santos was the main instructor there when Royce was preparing for the first UFC.
Santos has taught in San Diego since 1998: he has seen the jiu jitsu scene there explode over the last decade and a half. His gym is of fairly modest dimensions, without the swish facilities of the Gracie Academy, but the training was excellent with some great sparring partners. I was not the only visitor: my drilling partner was a blue belt called Alex from Tristar up in Montreal, who teaches boxing and jiu jitsu at his club.
The main reason I was there (and indeed set off on my California trip in the first place), apart from interviewing Santos about his many years in jiu jitsu (you can now read it, here), was to meet up and train with two cool people I know from the internet. I have met Fightworks Podcast host Caleb before, during the ADCC 2011, but this was the first time I would get to train with him. The other person was Dagney, who I know via her excellent blog. She kindly picked me up from my hotel and gave me a lift to the school, so we had a chance to get in a good chat on the way.
Like Tatami Multi Arts, this academy was also on Julia's West Coast trip. I recognised a couple of settings for her pictures, such as the bench outside and indeed the person sitting on the bench in Julia's picture. In my case, Alex Brandao greeted me from his car instead. ;)
The class was even less formal than yesterday (the only formality I noticed was each person who came in shook everyone else's hand, which I last saw at Rilion's academy in Houston), with no real warm-up, going straight into a drill. Fabio is old school and believes in the importance of the original self defence curriculum. He therefore began with an escape from them bear hugging your arms. Brace your hands against their hips, move to the side and grab their far wrist, step in front then take them down with a hip throw.
The two main techniques both related to rolling your partner over, preventing the pass, straight into a reversal. Grab their arm on the side they're passing and straighten out your arm, shoving it under their body towards your opposite hip. With your other arm, reach over their back and grab their belt. Use those grips to roll them over, shifting around in mid-air to end in side control
For the second technique, they are looking for the double underhook pass. Grasp one of their arms with both of yours, push it across and clamp it to your hip. Roll through in the direction their hand is pointing. That should flip them over, meaning you can establish side control, or alternatively you could go for a waki gatame armbar. Each technique was repeated three or four times without much talking, then it was down to us to drill.
It turned out that instruction does not really progress beyond that level of detail. I asked Santos about that later: he used to show techniques in a lot more depth, but interestingly he has since found that he prefers people to work through the technique in practice (there is therefore plenty of time allocated to drilling), rather than relying on him to make multiple corrections.
I can see the point of that (particularly as there were lots of black belts on the mats, due to the age of the gym), although my personal preference when learning is as much detail as possible. In teaching terms, I'm still not sure of the best approach. Right now, I'm trying to combine the two, starting with a simple movement, complicating it later.
Sparring was divided into groups, due to the limited mat space. That has the advantage of an automatic rest period, which for lazy people like me is handy, particularly given the humidity of the academy. I was dripping with sweat at the end of the class, despite having only rolled three times at a comparatively light pace.
Training with Caleb was interesting, as he doesn't have the game you might expect. It turns out that Caleb is very flexible, which completely changes side control. He is more than happy to let you pass, establish side control, then suddenly a pair of legs come from nowhere and you're fighting to avoid getting sucked into a crucifix. Side control goes from being a comfortable, dominant position to a risky prospect where you're constantly worried about limbs appearing at bizarre angles. I have sparred with people like that before, such as Trev from RGA Bucks, but Trev has long legs: Caleb does it without being all that tall, which is impressive.
Dagney was next, who as an experienced brown belt also went fairly light. We got into a pattern where I worked for the knee shield half guard but failed to set up a sweep. There are two I want to develop from that position, both of which Nick Brooks originally taught me and I've taught at GB Bristol in the past (with some pointers from Caio Terra's comprehensive half guard DVD). I'm clearly missing lots of details, so I need to review those. Dagney would then pass, I eventually escaped side control, then back to the knee shield. My final round was with Alex, my drilling partner from earlier. He carefully controlled his pace, never pushing a position to the point of a struggle. If we were getting stuck at any point (e.g., when I kept going to the running escape), he simply disengaged and went for something else, which was refreshing. There are not many training partners who are that mature. Alternatively, it could just be he was so much better than me that it was no challenge for him to keep pushing. Either way, yet another good reminder to improve my back escapes, as I end up with my back taken far too often. ;D
I wasn't wearing my glasses, so was confused when everyone started applauding some guy in shorts and a t-shirt over by the entrance. I thought at first he might have been some long time member of the gym who had just come back from an injury or time off, like Caleb and Dagney. Once he sat down and started talking, all became clear: this wasn't just another member of the gym, it was Relson Gracie. He was running a seminar the next day, which I would have definitely tried to attend if I was on a solo holiday, but running off when my girlfriend had patiently let me train twice in a row would have been rather unfair.
After I finished my interview with Santos and took some photos, Caleb drove me to his house where he cooked a delicious meal for Dagney and I, with an amazing view from the back of his home. We chatted jiu jitsu, with a more extended recorded chat later, as Caleb asked if I wanted to change my usual role and be the interviewee.
I don't think I'm particularly worthy of being interviewed, especially on Fightworks (still by far the best BJJ podcast out there), but it did give me another chance to plug the GrappleThon concept again, an opportunity I always try to take. Not to mention that to write a blog in the first place you have to have a certain degree of narcissism: I'm generally more than happy to talk about myself. :)
Caleb kindly also gave me some money towards the GrappleThon that took place back in May, in support of the charity RapeCrisis. My page is still open for donations here, in case anyone fancies following Caleb's example. ;D
The interview itself is now available here: if for some reason the download doesn't work, you can just click the 'play' button for the audio. My section starts about 35 minutes in.
07 September 2011
07/09/2011 - More Q & A at Gracie Barra Bristol
Class #418
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Nicolai 'Geeza' Holt, Bristol, UK - 07/09/2011
As on Monday, I was again in two minds about heading to training due to that annoying sun burn, but then a gi arrived this morning (at the moment, I'm dealing with four requests to do a review, so that should mean several other packages arriving in the next few weeks). I like to provide a fast turn-around on reviews, so that immediately meant I wanted to give the gi its first test run that night. Should have the first of those reviews up in a couple of weeks.
In his text message before class, Geeza said tonight was going to be sacrifice throws, where you drop back on one knee, roll back looking over the shoulder on that side, lift them with your other leg and pop up in mount. However, as people were having trouble with it, he stopped at just the one technique.
The advantage of being an experienced instructor like Geeza is that you can switch your lesson plan with relative ease. Instead of continuing with takedowns, he then changed the lesson into another Q & A session: in my class I'd find that much tougher, as I wouldn't be confident I could properly answer any question. The first query put forward was a good one from Donal, about the best option if you're passing and have trapped both their legs to the mat, but you're being blocked. This prompted a cool bit of principle based teaching from Geeza, on the topic of guard passing.
The first principle is that to block a pass, you want to push their head in the direction they want to pass. Demian Maia explores that same principle, which he calls 'head control theory', in his DVD set. However, while pushing their head to the passing side helps block off one route, it makes it easier for the person on top to pass to the other side: they are already being rotated in that direction. If they quickly switch, it is difficult for the person being passed to quickly adjust and push the head the other way.
In a related principle (which I remember Geeza telling me early on, after he had easily blocked my passing attempts last year during one of our first spars), you should also pass to their strongest grip, using the grip like a hinge. The reason is that if you pass to the other side, you are going to get stuck, because whatever limb is trapped in that strong grip will be left behind. Instead, if they have a solid spider guard on your right and are also grabbing your right foot, pass around that point.
There wasn't a chance to drill it, perhaps due to time constraints. After a question from Arnaud about leglock options (which are pretty limited until brown belt, so that was a relatively easy question), it was straight into twenty minutes of sparring. That started with specific sparring from guard, where I was with a white belt who had just come back from an injury.
That would explain why I had an unusually successful time on top. Normally, as regular readers will know, I would be telling you I need to stand up, I have to stop being so passive, my passing went nowhere. Not this time: I found that immediately going to grab an arm (especially when they gripped me on that side) then standing worked well. This is what I've been meaning to do, but one of the few times I've actually been able to pull it off. From there, I was able to get a deep single underhook, reach to grab their collar and drive through.
I was also finding that going the other way worked a few times too, stepping over their other leg and pushing through to pass half guard. That was made easier by the fact I still had control of their leg, which makes it tough for them to lock a half guard. To my surprise, I even got the pass when you step back, drive their legs to the mat and move around. So that was nice, even though there were various mitigating factors like injury, time off, experience difference etc. I'll take what I can get when it comes to passing. ;)
Due to grabbing the arms, and initiating successful passes that way, it also made my partner more wary and less likely to attack. On the downside, I was still tending to lean forward too much when standing due to holding on to the collar grip unnecessarily. My hold on the sleeve could also do with some work, as it wasn't as solid as it should have been. Not to mention that when I tried to do the same single underhook pass on my next partner (we had now moved on to free sparring), a blue belt, it didn't work anywhere near as well.
I was able to push through to half guard again by switching to the other side, but they pulled off a nicely time sweep just as I thought I was passing, putting me underneath. We then spent the majority of the roll in my open and closed guard, where as ever I was looking to break their posture, control the head, and keep my legs in play at all times.
My last roll was with that same white belt again. He's a good bit stronger than me, so as I was getting pretty tired by that point, I pulled up on the leg to pass, got to half guard, drove through to low mount with grapevines and then just stayed there the whole roll. I went for the ezequiel repeatedly, but I'm making the same mistake of raising up too high. That gives them to opportunity to get their other arm in the way and block my chopping hand from getting to the other side of the neck. I need to remember to stay low and tight, blocking that defensive hand from scuppering the submission attempt.
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Nicolai 'Geeza' Holt, Bristol, UK - 07/09/2011
As on Monday, I was again in two minds about heading to training due to that annoying sun burn, but then a gi arrived this morning (at the moment, I'm dealing with four requests to do a review, so that should mean several other packages arriving in the next few weeks). I like to provide a fast turn-around on reviews, so that immediately meant I wanted to give the gi its first test run that night. Should have the first of those reviews up in a couple of weeks.
In his text message before class, Geeza said tonight was going to be sacrifice throws, where you drop back on one knee, roll back looking over the shoulder on that side, lift them with your other leg and pop up in mount. However, as people were having trouble with it, he stopped at just the one technique.
The advantage of being an experienced instructor like Geeza is that you can switch your lesson plan with relative ease. Instead of continuing with takedowns, he then changed the lesson into another Q & A session: in my class I'd find that much tougher, as I wouldn't be confident I could properly answer any question. The first query put forward was a good one from Donal, about the best option if you're passing and have trapped both their legs to the mat, but you're being blocked. This prompted a cool bit of principle based teaching from Geeza, on the topic of guard passing.
The first principle is that to block a pass, you want to push their head in the direction they want to pass. Demian Maia explores that same principle, which he calls 'head control theory', in his DVD set. However, while pushing their head to the passing side helps block off one route, it makes it easier for the person on top to pass to the other side: they are already being rotated in that direction. If they quickly switch, it is difficult for the person being passed to quickly adjust and push the head the other way.In a related principle (which I remember Geeza telling me early on, after he had easily blocked my passing attempts last year during one of our first spars), you should also pass to their strongest grip, using the grip like a hinge. The reason is that if you pass to the other side, you are going to get stuck, because whatever limb is trapped in that strong grip will be left behind. Instead, if they have a solid spider guard on your right and are also grabbing your right foot, pass around that point.
There wasn't a chance to drill it, perhaps due to time constraints. After a question from Arnaud about leglock options (which are pretty limited until brown belt, so that was a relatively easy question), it was straight into twenty minutes of sparring. That started with specific sparring from guard, where I was with a white belt who had just come back from an injury.
That would explain why I had an unusually successful time on top. Normally, as regular readers will know, I would be telling you I need to stand up, I have to stop being so passive, my passing went nowhere. Not this time: I found that immediately going to grab an arm (especially when they gripped me on that side) then standing worked well. This is what I've been meaning to do, but one of the few times I've actually been able to pull it off. From there, I was able to get a deep single underhook, reach to grab their collar and drive through.
I was also finding that going the other way worked a few times too, stepping over their other leg and pushing through to pass half guard. That was made easier by the fact I still had control of their leg, which makes it tough for them to lock a half guard. To my surprise, I even got the pass when you step back, drive their legs to the mat and move around. So that was nice, even though there were various mitigating factors like injury, time off, experience difference etc. I'll take what I can get when it comes to passing. ;)
Due to grabbing the arms, and initiating successful passes that way, it also made my partner more wary and less likely to attack. On the downside, I was still tending to lean forward too much when standing due to holding on to the collar grip unnecessarily. My hold on the sleeve could also do with some work, as it wasn't as solid as it should have been. Not to mention that when I tried to do the same single underhook pass on my next partner (we had now moved on to free sparring), a blue belt, it didn't work anywhere near as well.
I was able to push through to half guard again by switching to the other side, but they pulled off a nicely time sweep just as I thought I was passing, putting me underneath. We then spent the majority of the roll in my open and closed guard, where as ever I was looking to break their posture, control the head, and keep my legs in play at all times.
My last roll was with that same white belt again. He's a good bit stronger than me, so as I was getting pretty tired by that point, I pulled up on the leg to pass, got to half guard, drove through to low mount with grapevines and then just stayed there the whole roll. I went for the ezequiel repeatedly, but I'm making the same mistake of raising up too high. That gives them to opportunity to get their other arm in the way and block my chopping hand from getting to the other side of the neck. I need to remember to stay low and tight, blocking that defensive hand from scuppering the submission attempt.
26 August 2011
26/08/2011 - Gracie Barra Fundamentals (Closed Guard)
Class #415
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Nicolai 'Geeza' Holt, Bristol, UK - 26/08/2011
Randomly, a Sherdog thread threw up this pretty cool link. It's a manga about a guy training at a shooto club, but with lots of technical BJJ on display. I presume the person behind it, Hiroki Endo, trains in something. He's also done good previous work, which I'm reading my way through at the moment: Eden: It's An Endless World.
Tonight Geeza went through a couple of triangle escapes, starting with a late escape. They are about to lock in the triangle. Your counter is to bring the elbow of your trapped arm to the mat. Make sure your arm is tucked behind, as they are able to grab it and pull towards their head, you'll get stuck in a bent armlock. Geeza stopped there, but to break free you could try driving with legs.
Next, they don't have the triangle quite there, so this is a slightly earlier escape. Before they can fully lock their legs, posture up. With the leg on the same side as the arm you have inside, step over their head. To finish, drop back, then cross your legs to provide the leverage to slip free.
Interestingly, for the triangle set-up on all of these, Geeza grabbed the hand by the hips and shoved it low, popping over to get the triangle. That's different to what I've seen before, which is to take the hand on the collar, shove it to their chest, then lift your hips up over the top for the triangle.
The final technique was a guard recovery for when they are passing you with a single underhook. Grab their collar, then with your free leg, push off their same side hip. That should help you produce some space for your underhooked foot to push off their shoulder. Once you've managed that, swivel the foot around to hook their armpit, then pull them back into closed guard.
For specific sparring, it was guard passage, but they already have one of your legs up on their shoulder. On top, I was therefore looking for the basic single underhooked, reaching to grab their collar and drive forward. I also found that at one point the tip from the triangle escape, where you step over their head, helped provide some additional control for me to pass.
However, you also need to be careful of getting swept: Oli got a nice technique on me, where I think he basically pushed into my arm to bring me over. He also managed to shrimp out and get to his knees at one point, which I need to watch out for: other times I was able to get a solid grip around his head and shoulders, then push forward to put him on his back. That can work, but it's a bit sloppy, and will be rather less effective if they're at all bigger than you.
Underneath, I think I was mostly with either children or fairly new white belts, so I was trying to let them practice the technique. My main goal was to see if I could recover from bad positions: there is no point just spinning quickly back to full guard simply because you can, as you're not going to learn anything that way with less experienced (or much smaller, as is the case with children) training partners.
Just so I don't forget, I'm going to note down that I need to start marking cards now on Thursdays (which wasn't previously the case). The pen is in the box lid, so I can do that at the start during the warm-up when they're running round the mats. It normally isn't more than ten people anyway, so that won't take long.
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Nicolai 'Geeza' Holt, Bristol, UK - 26/08/2011
Randomly, a Sherdog thread threw up this pretty cool link. It's a manga about a guy training at a shooto club, but with lots of technical BJJ on display. I presume the person behind it, Hiroki Endo, trains in something. He's also done good previous work, which I'm reading my way through at the moment: Eden: It's An Endless World. Tonight Geeza went through a couple of triangle escapes, starting with a late escape. They are about to lock in the triangle. Your counter is to bring the elbow of your trapped arm to the mat. Make sure your arm is tucked behind, as they are able to grab it and pull towards their head, you'll get stuck in a bent armlock. Geeza stopped there, but to break free you could try driving with legs.
Next, they don't have the triangle quite there, so this is a slightly earlier escape. Before they can fully lock their legs, posture up. With the leg on the same side as the arm you have inside, step over their head. To finish, drop back, then cross your legs to provide the leverage to slip free.
Interestingly, for the triangle set-up on all of these, Geeza grabbed the hand by the hips and shoved it low, popping over to get the triangle. That's different to what I've seen before, which is to take the hand on the collar, shove it to their chest, then lift your hips up over the top for the triangle.
The final technique was a guard recovery for when they are passing you with a single underhook. Grab their collar, then with your free leg, push off their same side hip. That should help you produce some space for your underhooked foot to push off their shoulder. Once you've managed that, swivel the foot around to hook their armpit, then pull them back into closed guard.
For specific sparring, it was guard passage, but they already have one of your legs up on their shoulder. On top, I was therefore looking for the basic single underhooked, reaching to grab their collar and drive forward. I also found that at one point the tip from the triangle escape, where you step over their head, helped provide some additional control for me to pass.
However, you also need to be careful of getting swept: Oli got a nice technique on me, where I think he basically pushed into my arm to bring me over. He also managed to shrimp out and get to his knees at one point, which I need to watch out for: other times I was able to get a solid grip around his head and shoulders, then push forward to put him on his back. That can work, but it's a bit sloppy, and will be rather less effective if they're at all bigger than you.
Underneath, I think I was mostly with either children or fairly new white belts, so I was trying to let them practice the technique. My main goal was to see if I could recover from bad positions: there is no point just spinning quickly back to full guard simply because you can, as you're not going to learn anything that way with less experienced (or much smaller, as is the case with children) training partners.
Just so I don't forget, I'm going to note down that I need to start marking cards now on Thursdays (which wasn't previously the case). The pen is in the box lid, so I can do that at the start during the warm-up when they're running round the mats. It normally isn't more than ten people anyway, so that won't take long.
13 November 2008
13/11/2008 - BJJ (Advanced)
Class #194
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK – 13/11/2008 - Advanced
Training is likely to be a bit abnormal over the next couple of weeks, as next week, my gf is going to be popping down on the train with me (she has a conference thingy to go to in London), so no training Wednesday. However, the week after she's visiting friends, which should mean I could potentially get in four sessions. That would be handy as we're off on holiday in December, which naturally will cause me to miss a load more sessions (plus December tends to be a lean month anyway, due to RGA closing in over xmas). As long as it all works out to an at least twice a week average, I'm happy.
In case people have already seen this on BJJ forums (I saw it on EFN, where J-Sho posted a link, there is apparently going to be compulsory BJJ at schools in Abu Dhabi: story here. There has long been a strong association between Abu Dhabi and BJJ, due to the ruling family's interest in the sport: its interesting to see what happens when BJJ is coupled with large amounts of cash and executive power.
Tonight Jude went through a defence against the stack pass, which turned out to be quite complicated. You start by pushing off their hips with your feet, so they can't continue stacking you and getting your hips off the floor. Grab their same side sleeve, then hook the inside of their leg with your same side foot. Having stabilised your position, grip their collar with your opposite hand and sit-up.
With your same side hand, take hold of their belt, with your palm facing downwards. Push their head down to the floor, then switch grips again, so that you're now holding the belt with the other hand, palm facing up. This means that you can use that grasp to bring your elbow into play, stopping them from raising up.
That will help with your next motion, which is to bring your same side leg under the belt-gripping arm and over their head. To finish, drive your hips forward and post on your free hand slightly (I think), spinning to their back. I found this final part rather awkward, especially struggling to keep my weight on my partner: as ever, maintaining pressure remains a problem.
Jude then followed this up with a clock choke. Having spun to their back, bring your feet back so that you can press as much weight down on them as possible (I kept instinctively going to my knees, which relieves the pressure and therefore messes up the technique). Circle your right arm over their shoulder and grab their far collar, then bring the other arm underneath, holding the opposite collar. Post your forehead on the mat, and then shuffle your feet past their head to get the submission.
Specific sparring from guard reminded me just how terrible my guard passing is: if I ever take a private lesson, that will have to be the focus. I'm trying to stand up, but as we haven't done guard passage for a little while, think I've regressed a bit on that front, returning to the defensive mode that simply delays the inevitable submission or sweep.
Free sparring began with an old training partner, Dominique, who was down for a rare visit to RGA. Very nice to see her on the mats again, as she's the first person I ever rolled with at RGA, and remained a great person to train with throughout her time at the club (she does her BJJ at the affiliate in Mill Hill these days). She's got noticeably quicker since I last rolled with her: I found it tough to get into any kind of controlling position with my open guard.
That's also due to my ongoing problem of not being proactive enough in open guard, which is a position you can't really sit and wait. I kept Nick's advice about always having your feet off the floor and on your opponent in mind, but think I should be bending my partner's over more (by pushing into their hip and pulling on their sleeve or collar), so they're too off-balance to attack.
I then went with Helen, where I was trying to apply the tips I'd learned about escaping knee on belly, but think I still left my arm dangling too much. I also almost got caught in a footlock, and I'm not sure if I escaped (keeping my foot flat on the floor then pushing on Helen with my other foot to free the first), or if Helen just let go. Either way, must stay aware of footlock defences, even if I'm not keen on using them myself (too injurious, so I'd be too worried about causing somebody long-term damage).
Finished up by rolling with Dominique again, this time having a chance to further practice my half-guard. My main goal was to shift around the leg I'd trapped to secure the grip, so concentrated on getting my hips over. That's obviously easier when your partner is lighter than you, although I was trying not to get into situation where I was clearly just using force rather than technique.
Similarly under side control, I didn't want to try and just fling Dominique over me, as that would be purely a matter of size advantage. While its possible I might get it (I used to go for that as a white belt, IIRC, digging my elbow in and lifting her straight over me), its pretty pointless as that mainly relies on muscle, which in my case is in very short supply. Silly to practice something that only works on a very small group of people, so I wanted to focus on technical bridge and shrimp escapes instead, looking for the half-guard.
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK – 13/11/2008 - Advanced
Training is likely to be a bit abnormal over the next couple of weeks, as next week, my gf is going to be popping down on the train with me (she has a conference thingy to go to in London), so no training Wednesday. However, the week after she's visiting friends, which should mean I could potentially get in four sessions. That would be handy as we're off on holiday in December, which naturally will cause me to miss a load more sessions (plus December tends to be a lean month anyway, due to RGA closing in over xmas). As long as it all works out to an at least twice a week average, I'm happy.
In case people have already seen this on BJJ forums (I saw it on EFN, where J-Sho posted a link, there is apparently going to be compulsory BJJ at schools in Abu Dhabi: story here. There has long been a strong association between Abu Dhabi and BJJ, due to the ruling family's interest in the sport: its interesting to see what happens when BJJ is coupled with large amounts of cash and executive power.
Tonight Jude went through a defence against the stack pass, which turned out to be quite complicated. You start by pushing off their hips with your feet, so they can't continue stacking you and getting your hips off the floor. Grab their same side sleeve, then hook the inside of their leg with your same side foot. Having stabilised your position, grip their collar with your opposite hand and sit-up.
With your same side hand, take hold of their belt, with your palm facing downwards. Push their head down to the floor, then switch grips again, so that you're now holding the belt with the other hand, palm facing up. This means that you can use that grasp to bring your elbow into play, stopping them from raising up.
That will help with your next motion, which is to bring your same side leg under the belt-gripping arm and over their head. To finish, drive your hips forward and post on your free hand slightly (I think), spinning to their back. I found this final part rather awkward, especially struggling to keep my weight on my partner: as ever, maintaining pressure remains a problem.
Jude then followed this up with a clock choke. Having spun to their back, bring your feet back so that you can press as much weight down on them as possible (I kept instinctively going to my knees, which relieves the pressure and therefore messes up the technique). Circle your right arm over their shoulder and grab their far collar, then bring the other arm underneath, holding the opposite collar. Post your forehead on the mat, and then shuffle your feet past their head to get the submission.
Specific sparring from guard reminded me just how terrible my guard passing is: if I ever take a private lesson, that will have to be the focus. I'm trying to stand up, but as we haven't done guard passage for a little while, think I've regressed a bit on that front, returning to the defensive mode that simply delays the inevitable submission or sweep.
Free sparring began with an old training partner, Dominique, who was down for a rare visit to RGA. Very nice to see her on the mats again, as she's the first person I ever rolled with at RGA, and remained a great person to train with throughout her time at the club (she does her BJJ at the affiliate in Mill Hill these days). She's got noticeably quicker since I last rolled with her: I found it tough to get into any kind of controlling position with my open guard.
That's also due to my ongoing problem of not being proactive enough in open guard, which is a position you can't really sit and wait. I kept Nick's advice about always having your feet off the floor and on your opponent in mind, but think I should be bending my partner's over more (by pushing into their hip and pulling on their sleeve or collar), so they're too off-balance to attack.
I then went with Helen, where I was trying to apply the tips I'd learned about escaping knee on belly, but think I still left my arm dangling too much. I also almost got caught in a footlock, and I'm not sure if I escaped (keeping my foot flat on the floor then pushing on Helen with my other foot to free the first), or if Helen just let go. Either way, must stay aware of footlock defences, even if I'm not keen on using them myself (too injurious, so I'd be too worried about causing somebody long-term damage).
Finished up by rolling with Dominique again, this time having a chance to further practice my half-guard. My main goal was to shift around the leg I'd trapped to secure the grip, so concentrated on getting my hips over. That's obviously easier when your partner is lighter than you, although I was trying not to get into situation where I was clearly just using force rather than technique.
Similarly under side control, I didn't want to try and just fling Dominique over me, as that would be purely a matter of size advantage. While its possible I might get it (I used to go for that as a white belt, IIRC, digging my elbow in and lifting her straight over me), its pretty pointless as that mainly relies on muscle, which in my case is in very short supply. Silly to practice something that only works on a very small group of people, so I wanted to focus on technical bridge and shrimp escapes instead, looking for the half-guard.
26 June 2008
26/06/2008 - BJJ (Advanced)
Class #157
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Gustavo Dos Santos Pires, London, UK - 26/06/2008 - Advanced
Not too much to report this lesson, as we did the same technique as yesterday. However, that did mean that I now know you definitely come up on that knee, as I wasn't sure last night. Also emphasised that you straighten your legs out first on their biceps, grab their sleeves and shrimp out: I didn't note the sleeve grabbing clearly enough previously.
Christina wasn't there, but fortunately for me, Christy was, so I still had a good drilling partner. On the down side, she mentioned that she'll be returning to Australia in a few months, which is a shame: I've enjoyed our rolls, as she's close to my size and has a style distinct from everyone else I spar regularly.
There was another load of specific sparring straight after the warm-up, moving through side control, then mount, finishing with rear mount. I think my most comfortable position was side control, as I had an idea of what to do both from underneath and on top. I spent most of the first part on top trying to get into that judo scarf hold again, but once I got there was swept. Aside from my lack of technique, might also be what Dan was telling me about at the Warwick Uni BJJ training group. His comparison for weight distribution in scarf hold was that its worse to be like a plank, even though that control might be tight and heavy: sinking into them like a sack of potatoes is preferable, as that way you're harder to sweep. I'm not quite certain how to achieve the latter, but the analogy seemed apt.
Underneath, I as ever was working to try and go to half guard, and also see if I could get my knee through. I need to bridge and shrimp more, as currently I'm not making much space, relying instead too heavily on going to half-guard. Alternately, I'm waiting til they make a mistake in going to knee on belly, or try and swing the leg over for the Tran escape. The latter didn't work for me today, as Christy got the leg through quickly, and also tended to have control of my hips and/or legs.
On top of mount I was pretty terrible. Christy was having no trouble rolling me off, even getting her legs right up so I was squished onto my front, leaving my leg exposed for a lock (or I assume so: foot locks scare me, so I tend to tap very quickly, particularly in specific sparring when there is a predetermined end goal anyway). Christy mentioned that if she's about to sweep me, I should try counterbalancing by putting my bodyweight to the other side, leading with my head.
Underneath I felt a lot more comfortable, going to half guard even more than with side control. I tried the step-over foot drag, which worked several times, although I need to be a lot more proactive in half-guard. Christy was often raising up her trapped leg, making it difficult to maintain control. I was able to just about get it to the floor again and shift my hips around, but normally that would end up with her knee being much further through than before.
Worst of all without any doubt was my woeful attempt to hold rear mount. Every single time, as has happened with all my previous partners from this position, Christy simply bridged and moved to one side. I had no idea how to stop her: couldn't seem to get my hips back under to follow. The only time I got any kind of control was when I moved to a body triangle, but I didn't quite have it locked in, Christy eventually making space to get out.
Escaping rear mount was much easier. I tried the 'Shirley Temple' defence Ais showed me at the Belfast Throwdown last weekend. Clamping my hands to my jaw helped prevent the choke, but I was less successful moving down towards Christy's leg to try and spin round to her guard. A combination of sweat and fatigue meant I made it in the end, but it wasn't especially technical on my part.
Free sparring started with Tanvir, where I was determined to try and avoid using my arms too much. I'm not sure that entirely worked, but I at least wasn't sitting in guard clinging on with my arms. I got through to side control after Tanvir tried a submission, then pushed his knees down to one side to pass. However, I was sloppy, so Tanvir very almost got his knee back through: must keep better control of the knees if I want to mount like that.
Finally, rolled with Christy, and yet again spent most of it in half guard. I really, really need to work out more options than holding onto the leg looking to slip back to full guard. I remember getting one sweep, but that was only because Christy raised her knee near my arm, so I could lift that up to come out on top. Like Tran suggested to me yesterday, working to get up on my side could be a useful goal for me in half-guard, so I'll think I try and work on that.
I also still want to improve my open guard. I think once I feel comfortable there, I'll be a lot happier trying submissions, as then I'll be able to recover when I mess up. Closest I came to anything like that today was from scarf hold, where I was trying to trap Christy's arm. I did eventually get my leg on top of it, but she successfully worked her way free, so I clearly didn't have my weight down properly.
My right bicep is now very sore, possibly in part due to the awkward position in which that stack pass defence puts it. Still, I'll glad I trained, as I had been feeling a little crappy earlier today: I've now got until next Tuesday to recover, when I'll hopefully have a working pair of arms again.
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Gustavo Dos Santos Pires, London, UK - 26/06/2008 - Advanced
Not too much to report this lesson, as we did the same technique as yesterday. However, that did mean that I now know you definitely come up on that knee, as I wasn't sure last night. Also emphasised that you straighten your legs out first on their biceps, grab their sleeves and shrimp out: I didn't note the sleeve grabbing clearly enough previously.
Christina wasn't there, but fortunately for me, Christy was, so I still had a good drilling partner. On the down side, she mentioned that she'll be returning to Australia in a few months, which is a shame: I've enjoyed our rolls, as she's close to my size and has a style distinct from everyone else I spar regularly.
There was another load of specific sparring straight after the warm-up, moving through side control, then mount, finishing with rear mount. I think my most comfortable position was side control, as I had an idea of what to do both from underneath and on top. I spent most of the first part on top trying to get into that judo scarf hold again, but once I got there was swept. Aside from my lack of technique, might also be what Dan was telling me about at the Warwick Uni BJJ training group. His comparison for weight distribution in scarf hold was that its worse to be like a plank, even though that control might be tight and heavy: sinking into them like a sack of potatoes is preferable, as that way you're harder to sweep. I'm not quite certain how to achieve the latter, but the analogy seemed apt.
Underneath, I as ever was working to try and go to half guard, and also see if I could get my knee through. I need to bridge and shrimp more, as currently I'm not making much space, relying instead too heavily on going to half-guard. Alternately, I'm waiting til they make a mistake in going to knee on belly, or try and swing the leg over for the Tran escape. The latter didn't work for me today, as Christy got the leg through quickly, and also tended to have control of my hips and/or legs.
On top of mount I was pretty terrible. Christy was having no trouble rolling me off, even getting her legs right up so I was squished onto my front, leaving my leg exposed for a lock (or I assume so: foot locks scare me, so I tend to tap very quickly, particularly in specific sparring when there is a predetermined end goal anyway). Christy mentioned that if she's about to sweep me, I should try counterbalancing by putting my bodyweight to the other side, leading with my head.
Underneath I felt a lot more comfortable, going to half guard even more than with side control. I tried the step-over foot drag, which worked several times, although I need to be a lot more proactive in half-guard. Christy was often raising up her trapped leg, making it difficult to maintain control. I was able to just about get it to the floor again and shift my hips around, but normally that would end up with her knee being much further through than before.
Worst of all without any doubt was my woeful attempt to hold rear mount. Every single time, as has happened with all my previous partners from this position, Christy simply bridged and moved to one side. I had no idea how to stop her: couldn't seem to get my hips back under to follow. The only time I got any kind of control was when I moved to a body triangle, but I didn't quite have it locked in, Christy eventually making space to get out.
Escaping rear mount was much easier. I tried the 'Shirley Temple' defence Ais showed me at the Belfast Throwdown last weekend. Clamping my hands to my jaw helped prevent the choke, but I was less successful moving down towards Christy's leg to try and spin round to her guard. A combination of sweat and fatigue meant I made it in the end, but it wasn't especially technical on my part.
Free sparring started with Tanvir, where I was determined to try and avoid using my arms too much. I'm not sure that entirely worked, but I at least wasn't sitting in guard clinging on with my arms. I got through to side control after Tanvir tried a submission, then pushed his knees down to one side to pass. However, I was sloppy, so Tanvir very almost got his knee back through: must keep better control of the knees if I want to mount like that.
Finally, rolled with Christy, and yet again spent most of it in half guard. I really, really need to work out more options than holding onto the leg looking to slip back to full guard. I remember getting one sweep, but that was only because Christy raised her knee near my arm, so I could lift that up to come out on top. Like Tran suggested to me yesterday, working to get up on my side could be a useful goal for me in half-guard, so I'll think I try and work on that.
I also still want to improve my open guard. I think once I feel comfortable there, I'll be a lot happier trying submissions, as then I'll be able to recover when I mess up. Closest I came to anything like that today was from scarf hold, where I was trying to trap Christy's arm. I did eventually get my leg on top of it, but she successfully worked her way free, so I clearly didn't have my weight down properly.
My right bicep is now very sore, possibly in part due to the awkward position in which that stack pass defence puts it. Still, I'll glad I trained, as I had been feeling a little crappy earlier today: I've now got until next Tuesday to recover, when I'll hopefully have a working pair of arms again.
25 June 2008
25/06/2008 - BJJ (Advanced)
Class #156
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Gustavo Dos Santos Pires, London, UK - 25/06/2008 - Advanced
First outing for my new Padilla & Sons single weave gi, which felt relatively comfortable. I've only washed it once and in the spin-drier for ten minutes on a low heat, so will be shrinking it a bit more with further washes. Extremely cheap at a mere £52, which combined with the quality and customer service is why I keep going back to Padilla. Will have a proper review up in a few months, after I've got some experience rolling in the single weave.
Tonight was all focused on defending against the stack pass, from two positions your partner might reach before locking their hands together and pulling your in. The first guard pass defence was from when they have a grip on the fabric by your thighs. Shrimp, then use that space to bring a leg around and under their arm, pressing your shin into their stomach with the foot hooked round the far side (reminiscent of the scissor sweep position). Shrimp again, and this time get your other leg inside their arm, coming up on your knee (I think: might be that the leg stays flat). Holding their arm, you then roll them over and come up on top, still maintaining a grip on both their sleeves.
The next guard pass defence is a little more straightforward, and this time starts from when they've grabbed your belt, coming round either side of your legs with their arms. Take a deep grip on their collar, then come up on your elbow. Your other arm will reach all the way over to their belt, grabbing it palm up. Bring your elbow to the other side of their head, bracing it against their back. Squeeze for the submission.
Guard passage started with Christina, where I immediately gave the pass from Vitor's seminar a go, but couldn't get into position. Even posturing up proved difficult: holding the sleeve didn't help much when I was unable to stay upright. Still, as we'd been saying earlier, just have to keep on trying these things until you get them right.
Underneath, I attempted to be a little more varied than just going for that sit-up sweep/kimura combo, seeing how the takedown Jude showed us yesterday might work. I was in position, but Christina knew exactly what I was going for, so easily countered it, meaning I was the one to end up on my back.
We then switched partners, so I had a chance to go with Herman, which is always cool as he's not only my weight, but similar in style. This time, I did get the takedown from yesterday, though it was fairly sloppy and I relied way too much on my arms (though I guess you kinda have to in order to get up close when they stand in your guard).
I also again tried Vitor's pass, running into a problem I'd encountered when drilling with Conor back in Belfast. While this time I got further along than with Christina, having stood up and twisted, Herman was able to shift away. I had difficulty controlling the hips in Belfast, for which Vitor's answer (if I understood correctly) was basically to put more pressure on that one side with your knee, also making good use of the control on their sleeve. I think my leg could do with being tighter too when I stand up, bringing it to their bum straight after coming to my feet. I got the stack pass a few times, but again a bit sloppy. It was from a more sideways position than usual, so I think I was probably at risk of a guillotine.
Continuing to roll with Herman in free sparring, I was definitely using my arms too much, as evidence by the fact my biceps are a bit sore now. I was holding him down in my guard, attempting to go for the butterfly guard stuff Waqi showed me at the Belfast TD. That was nogi: much harder to slip the arm through when there's the friction of all that coarse cotton. I couldn't get the sweep either, eventually switching to an elevator, which did eventually work, but once again rather sloppy.
I slowly worked from half-guard, having left a trailing leg, until I just reached that judo scarf hold before time ran out. Most important lesson for me to take from that roll, and the sparring overall, is to keep in mind Nick Gregoriades' advice: the arms are the steering wheel, the legs and hips are your engine. That reminds me to go back to working on the flower sweep, which I never really got down back when I was trying it in the beginners: legs and hips needs to be my focus. Also ties in with what Roy Harris said about the use of the legs rather than the arms being one of the big differences between purple and blue belts.
Next up was Tran, who was looking to work on flow, so rolled out when he inevitably got mount. He gave me yet another handy tip, which was when trying to free a trapped arm if they've pushed one of yours across in their guard. Bring the same side leg up to make space to get it free. If you bring the opposite leg up, you're both asking to be swept and making their control tighter. I was previously trying to counterbalance, but as Tran demonstrated, I can see how much more effective it is to bring up the same side knee. Also need to watch out for the armbar by keeping your elbow in close.
Finally, I had a light roll with Zaf – I was planning on sitting it out, having turned down Kevin (reminds me I should definitely roll with him again, as he's got good control and is around my size), but Zaf's powers of persuasion got me back to the mat. I passed with the thing where you push their legs one way, then swing in the other direction and step through (toreador? Something like that), after which I played around on top. Zaf was watching me work, though I couldn't really do anything: he rolled to his back, but despite having hooks, I was totally incapable of getting my arms into position for a choke.
Should be ok for tomorrow, when my sore arms will serve as an important reminder that power is in the lower body, not the upper. Shall have to review the flower sweep when I get the chance: Roy Dean covers it on Blue Belt Requirements, so I'll take another look at the sweeps section.
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Gustavo Dos Santos Pires, London, UK - 25/06/2008 - Advanced
First outing for my new Padilla & Sons single weave gi, which felt relatively comfortable. I've only washed it once and in the spin-drier for ten minutes on a low heat, so will be shrinking it a bit more with further washes. Extremely cheap at a mere £52, which combined with the quality and customer service is why I keep going back to Padilla. Will have a proper review up in a few months, after I've got some experience rolling in the single weave.
Tonight was all focused on defending against the stack pass, from two positions your partner might reach before locking their hands together and pulling your in. The first guard pass defence was from when they have a grip on the fabric by your thighs. Shrimp, then use that space to bring a leg around and under their arm, pressing your shin into their stomach with the foot hooked round the far side (reminiscent of the scissor sweep position). Shrimp again, and this time get your other leg inside their arm, coming up on your knee (I think: might be that the leg stays flat). Holding their arm, you then roll them over and come up on top, still maintaining a grip on both their sleeves.
The next guard pass defence is a little more straightforward, and this time starts from when they've grabbed your belt, coming round either side of your legs with their arms. Take a deep grip on their collar, then come up on your elbow. Your other arm will reach all the way over to their belt, grabbing it palm up. Bring your elbow to the other side of their head, bracing it against their back. Squeeze for the submission.
Guard passage started with Christina, where I immediately gave the pass from Vitor's seminar a go, but couldn't get into position. Even posturing up proved difficult: holding the sleeve didn't help much when I was unable to stay upright. Still, as we'd been saying earlier, just have to keep on trying these things until you get them right.
Underneath, I attempted to be a little more varied than just going for that sit-up sweep/kimura combo, seeing how the takedown Jude showed us yesterday might work. I was in position, but Christina knew exactly what I was going for, so easily countered it, meaning I was the one to end up on my back.
We then switched partners, so I had a chance to go with Herman, which is always cool as he's not only my weight, but similar in style. This time, I did get the takedown from yesterday, though it was fairly sloppy and I relied way too much on my arms (though I guess you kinda have to in order to get up close when they stand in your guard).
I also again tried Vitor's pass, running into a problem I'd encountered when drilling with Conor back in Belfast. While this time I got further along than with Christina, having stood up and twisted, Herman was able to shift away. I had difficulty controlling the hips in Belfast, for which Vitor's answer (if I understood correctly) was basically to put more pressure on that one side with your knee, also making good use of the control on their sleeve. I think my leg could do with being tighter too when I stand up, bringing it to their bum straight after coming to my feet. I got the stack pass a few times, but again a bit sloppy. It was from a more sideways position than usual, so I think I was probably at risk of a guillotine.
Continuing to roll with Herman in free sparring, I was definitely using my arms too much, as evidence by the fact my biceps are a bit sore now. I was holding him down in my guard, attempting to go for the butterfly guard stuff Waqi showed me at the Belfast TD. That was nogi: much harder to slip the arm through when there's the friction of all that coarse cotton. I couldn't get the sweep either, eventually switching to an elevator, which did eventually work, but once again rather sloppy.
I slowly worked from half-guard, having left a trailing leg, until I just reached that judo scarf hold before time ran out. Most important lesson for me to take from that roll, and the sparring overall, is to keep in mind Nick Gregoriades' advice: the arms are the steering wheel, the legs and hips are your engine. That reminds me to go back to working on the flower sweep, which I never really got down back when I was trying it in the beginners: legs and hips needs to be my focus. Also ties in with what Roy Harris said about the use of the legs rather than the arms being one of the big differences between purple and blue belts.
Next up was Tran, who was looking to work on flow, so rolled out when he inevitably got mount. He gave me yet another handy tip, which was when trying to free a trapped arm if they've pushed one of yours across in their guard. Bring the same side leg up to make space to get it free. If you bring the opposite leg up, you're both asking to be swept and making their control tighter. I was previously trying to counterbalance, but as Tran demonstrated, I can see how much more effective it is to bring up the same side knee. Also need to watch out for the armbar by keeping your elbow in close.
Finally, I had a light roll with Zaf – I was planning on sitting it out, having turned down Kevin (reminds me I should definitely roll with him again, as he's got good control and is around my size), but Zaf's powers of persuasion got me back to the mat. I passed with the thing where you push their legs one way, then swing in the other direction and step through (toreador? Something like that), after which I played around on top. Zaf was watching me work, though I couldn't really do anything: he rolled to his back, but despite having hooks, I was totally incapable of getting my arms into position for a choke.
Should be ok for tomorrow, when my sore arms will serve as an important reminder that power is in the lower body, not the upper. Shall have to review the flower sweep when I get the chance: Roy Dean covers it on Blue Belt Requirements, so I'll take another look at the sweeps section.
30 August 2007
30/08/2007 - BJJ (No-Gi)
Class #84
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Felipe Souza, London, UK - 30/08/2007 – No-Gi
Basic point Felipe reminded me of today, which was to always grip under the head and arm when sprawling, as otherwise they can shift round to your back due to the space you’re leaving.
That was followed by more work on the clinch, with some interesting defence against double underhooks. First position Felipe showed us was when they try to get double underhooks, before they can come in close and break your posture, you push back on their hips. Keep doing that until you make sufficient space to slip in an arm and recover your underhook.
The second option was when they’ve got double underhooks and have moved round to the side. Put your left hand on their head, then with your right arm come underneath their armpit and grab your own wrist. Sprawling backwards, push their head down right to the floor. Once their, you have several options, two of which I drilled with Chris. Having got a secure grip, move round to their back (with one arm under their neck, the other coming underneath their armpit), then roll over and pull them into back mount. Alternately, maintaining that earlier grip on the head, push their head down towards their knee, rolling them into side control with a firm grip on their arm – I felt very vulnerable to submission when Chris demonstrated the technique. If you’re having trouble moving them over, use your head to drive under their side.
As always, Chris was great at pointing out errors I was making during drilling and had lots of pointers. I really must remember to roll with him more often, even though his considerable muscle can be a little intimidating. He continued providing advice during the next three drills, which were variations on triangle from guard. This started off from a guard pass defence we’ve done before in gi, but I’d not seen in no-gi. As they try to pass, you put a hand on their head and armpit to push off their body and make space, shrimp away from them, then come back in with one leg over their head, the other shin pressing into their stomach. Felipe showed how to drill this, with one person repeatedly going for the pass on each side with their partner went through the guard pass defence.
The first triangle was the usual method. From the position where you have one leg over their head and one into their stomach, isolate their arm with a firm grip. Then bring the stomach leg out and over your ankle, then secure the triangle by squeezing your legs and raising your hips.
The second variation was if you got them into a triangle position, but they managed to get their arm wrapped back around your leg (but still between your legs). Maintaining good head control with your legs, bring your arms around your legs and grip behind. Raise your legs straight up, squeezing your knees together and also using your arms to further tighten that grip. Leaning back also seemed to help: in combination, that should result in a submission.
I think its supposed to be a choke, but when Chris did it to me I’m not sure exactly where the pain came from. Nevertheless, definitely enough to make me tap. I had some problems making sure I was both raising my legs and leaning back, but after some pointers from Chris seemed to perform the technique better.
Finally, from the guard pass defence position where you’ve got one leg over their head and the other by their stomach, grab an outside arm. Shift your hips, then bring the leg by their stomach past their armpit and wrap it over your other leg, in a triangle grip. Roll them towards the floor controlling their arm and squeeze for the submission.
We then moved on to guard passage. I had a tough time passing Chris’ guard, so instead of straining uselessly I tried to be patient, maintain posture and wait for an opportunity. That sort of worked a couple of times, as due to it being no-gi I was able to slip my arms out and go for a stack pass. However, while I managed to throw his legs over once or twice, as always seems to happen with Chris, I couldn’t get my weight down so he simply got to his knees and stood up.
I also had trouble stopping Chris passing my guard, generally ending up, yet again, in half guard. I had a go at the half-guard sweep I’ve seen willyboy do, which as far as I can tell is to grab underneath the far arm and use that to roll them over, but didn’t manage to pull it off. I also tried to drive my knee through to recover guard, which sort of worked, but Chris managed to catch me midway a couple of times and either return to half guard or get through to side control.
He also tried a lot of brabo chokes (although I’m going by his description there, as I can never remember exactly what they look like), though I just about managed to resist. Chris said the I was leaving myself open to that submission because I wasn’t securing the underhook on him with my arm: that’s something to keep in mind, as it would make sweeping more productive. It would also provide the opportunity to take his back, which I keep forgetting about.
Sparring at the end of class was a little slack for me, as I wasn’t grabbing people to spar with like I should have been – I missed the opportunity to go with Aika and then with Chris, meaning that I ended up only sparring once. Still, that was at least a good roll with Nathan, where for once I wasn’t constantly sitting in half guard. Instead, I was either trying to work open guard, in his guard, or going for his back. I slipped round to rear mount several times, and it was very much slipped: the amount of sweat both on us and the floor made grips a lot harder to maintain, and therefore more difficult for Nathan to defend.
He almost swivelled round to guard from my back mount several times, but due to the lack of a gi and copious sweat, I was able to regain the position. I eventually managed to sink a rear naked choke, which was gratifying, but fairly meaningless as I think the main reason was all that sweat – that made it much easier to slide my arms through. Just before I had been trying to choke from mount, and again found it far simpler than usual to slip my arms across the throat (though I wasn’t able to secure it). I also had a go for armbars again, but couldn’t secure a proper grip.
So, still need work on half-guard: moving to rear mount from getting the underhook is something else for me to consider. I forgot to try the sweep I mentioned yesterday that Maurição showed us, so that’s another technique I want to attempt. Also, must roll more – I think you basically need to book people by eye contact, so I’ll have to remember to jump up and grab sparring partners next time.
I decided to wimp out of the beginners tonight, partly because I’m a wuss (especially seeing how I’d only sparred twice, so was comparatively fresh), but also because I really need to get more sleep. I keep getting home too late then going to bed around midnight, which wouldn’t be so bad if I didn’t then have to get up again at 06:50. Ideally I’d get eight hours, but if I could at least get to bed around 23:00, that would be a big improvement.
I’m hoping to get my gf to try out BJJ soon, though we’ll need to go to Gracie Barra Birmingham for that, as unlike me she’s in Brum all week (I only go up there half the week). The beginners classes at Brum are inconvenient for me, but should work out ok for her: I’ll have to pop down with her the first time, but my hope is that she’ll have a good experience and then be happy to start going on her own from then on. Having a training partner at home would be great, and getting my gf into my main hobby would be beyond awesome. If I can make the time to get her down there and she actually enjoys training, which is an enormous if.
No training next week as my gf and I are off to the Lake District, which should be cool: last time we went we didn’t have National Trust membership or a car, so looking forward to checking out more of the cultural heritage this time round.
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Felipe Souza, London, UK - 30/08/2007 – No-Gi
Basic point Felipe reminded me of today, which was to always grip under the head and arm when sprawling, as otherwise they can shift round to your back due to the space you’re leaving.
That was followed by more work on the clinch, with some interesting defence against double underhooks. First position Felipe showed us was when they try to get double underhooks, before they can come in close and break your posture, you push back on their hips. Keep doing that until you make sufficient space to slip in an arm and recover your underhook.
The second option was when they’ve got double underhooks and have moved round to the side. Put your left hand on their head, then with your right arm come underneath their armpit and grab your own wrist. Sprawling backwards, push their head down right to the floor. Once their, you have several options, two of which I drilled with Chris. Having got a secure grip, move round to their back (with one arm under their neck, the other coming underneath their armpit), then roll over and pull them into back mount. Alternately, maintaining that earlier grip on the head, push their head down towards their knee, rolling them into side control with a firm grip on their arm – I felt very vulnerable to submission when Chris demonstrated the technique. If you’re having trouble moving them over, use your head to drive under their side.
As always, Chris was great at pointing out errors I was making during drilling and had lots of pointers. I really must remember to roll with him more often, even though his considerable muscle can be a little intimidating. He continued providing advice during the next three drills, which were variations on triangle from guard. This started off from a guard pass defence we’ve done before in gi, but I’d not seen in no-gi. As they try to pass, you put a hand on their head and armpit to push off their body and make space, shrimp away from them, then come back in with one leg over their head, the other shin pressing into their stomach. Felipe showed how to drill this, with one person repeatedly going for the pass on each side with their partner went through the guard pass defence.
The first triangle was the usual method. From the position where you have one leg over their head and one into their stomach, isolate their arm with a firm grip. Then bring the stomach leg out and over your ankle, then secure the triangle by squeezing your legs and raising your hips.
The second variation was if you got them into a triangle position, but they managed to get their arm wrapped back around your leg (but still between your legs). Maintaining good head control with your legs, bring your arms around your legs and grip behind. Raise your legs straight up, squeezing your knees together and also using your arms to further tighten that grip. Leaning back also seemed to help: in combination, that should result in a submission.
I think its supposed to be a choke, but when Chris did it to me I’m not sure exactly where the pain came from. Nevertheless, definitely enough to make me tap. I had some problems making sure I was both raising my legs and leaning back, but after some pointers from Chris seemed to perform the technique better.
Finally, from the guard pass defence position where you’ve got one leg over their head and the other by their stomach, grab an outside arm. Shift your hips, then bring the leg by their stomach past their armpit and wrap it over your other leg, in a triangle grip. Roll them towards the floor controlling their arm and squeeze for the submission.
We then moved on to guard passage. I had a tough time passing Chris’ guard, so instead of straining uselessly I tried to be patient, maintain posture and wait for an opportunity. That sort of worked a couple of times, as due to it being no-gi I was able to slip my arms out and go for a stack pass. However, while I managed to throw his legs over once or twice, as always seems to happen with Chris, I couldn’t get my weight down so he simply got to his knees and stood up.
I also had trouble stopping Chris passing my guard, generally ending up, yet again, in half guard. I had a go at the half-guard sweep I’ve seen willyboy do, which as far as I can tell is to grab underneath the far arm and use that to roll them over, but didn’t manage to pull it off. I also tried to drive my knee through to recover guard, which sort of worked, but Chris managed to catch me midway a couple of times and either return to half guard or get through to side control.
He also tried a lot of brabo chokes (although I’m going by his description there, as I can never remember exactly what they look like), though I just about managed to resist. Chris said the I was leaving myself open to that submission because I wasn’t securing the underhook on him with my arm: that’s something to keep in mind, as it would make sweeping more productive. It would also provide the opportunity to take his back, which I keep forgetting about.
Sparring at the end of class was a little slack for me, as I wasn’t grabbing people to spar with like I should have been – I missed the opportunity to go with Aika and then with Chris, meaning that I ended up only sparring once. Still, that was at least a good roll with Nathan, where for once I wasn’t constantly sitting in half guard. Instead, I was either trying to work open guard, in his guard, or going for his back. I slipped round to rear mount several times, and it was very much slipped: the amount of sweat both on us and the floor made grips a lot harder to maintain, and therefore more difficult for Nathan to defend.
He almost swivelled round to guard from my back mount several times, but due to the lack of a gi and copious sweat, I was able to regain the position. I eventually managed to sink a rear naked choke, which was gratifying, but fairly meaningless as I think the main reason was all that sweat – that made it much easier to slide my arms through. Just before I had been trying to choke from mount, and again found it far simpler than usual to slip my arms across the throat (though I wasn’t able to secure it). I also had a go for armbars again, but couldn’t secure a proper grip.
So, still need work on half-guard: moving to rear mount from getting the underhook is something else for me to consider. I forgot to try the sweep I mentioned yesterday that Maurição showed us, so that’s another technique I want to attempt. Also, must roll more – I think you basically need to book people by eye contact, so I’ll have to remember to jump up and grab sparring partners next time.
I decided to wimp out of the beginners tonight, partly because I’m a wuss (especially seeing how I’d only sparred twice, so was comparatively fresh), but also because I really need to get more sleep. I keep getting home too late then going to bed around midnight, which wouldn’t be so bad if I didn’t then have to get up again at 06:50. Ideally I’d get eight hours, but if I could at least get to bed around 23:00, that would be a big improvement.
I’m hoping to get my gf to try out BJJ soon, though we’ll need to go to Gracie Barra Birmingham for that, as unlike me she’s in Brum all week (I only go up there half the week). The beginners classes at Brum are inconvenient for me, but should work out ok for her: I’ll have to pop down with her the first time, but my hope is that she’ll have a good experience and then be happy to start going on her own from then on. Having a training partner at home would be great, and getting my gf into my main hobby would be beyond awesome. If I can make the time to get her down there and she actually enjoys training, which is an enormous if.
No training next week as my gf and I are off to the Lake District, which should be cool: last time we went we didn’t have National Trust membership or a car, so looking forward to checking out more of the cultural heritage this time round.
19 April 2007
19/04/2007 - BJJ
Class #55
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Nick Gregoriades, London, UK - 19/04/2007
Another class with an instructor I’ve not experienced before, this time one of the brown belts, Nick Gregoriades (be sure to check out his blog). Instead of side control, his focus was on guard pass defence. The first one was slightly similar to what we’ve done before, but different set-up. Person A goes for the guard pass, and as they reach to grab the gi collar, Person B blocks their wrist, taking a firm hold of the fabric by Person A’s elbow at the same time. Person B then pushes that arm right down between their legs, comes up slightly on the same side elbow, then shrimps out. Having made space, Person B then brings their outside leg back in, swivelling into guard.
I felt I wasn’t being quite tight enough with this, and also needed to shrimp more. Could probably do with pushing further on that arm as well, so as to better facilitate the sweep. Kourosh had done the technique on Tuesday, so was able to offer some helpful tips on positioning, which was also true of our next drill.
The second guard pass defence was entirely different. As Person A comes round to pass, pushing under the leg, Person B grabs their own knee with the same side arm to block Person A, also raising their hips right up. As Person A continues to push, Person B uses that momentum to roll over their opposite shoulder (the motion is exactly like a backwards breakfall), coming to their knees. As they roll, Nick noted its important to keep the arms out to the side, to stop Person A taking your back. It also means you’re ready to go for a leg when you come up to your knees, doing the usual grab, yank and move into side control. I keep going for the wrong side with the single leg, so that’s something I’ll need to drill some more.
Sparring, which unsurprisingly was guard passage, went pretty well today. I started off with Kourosh, and had some success with the elevator sweep. I don’t think I was doing the technique quite right though, as I was still having to use a fair bit of force to get him over. I also need to remember to trap his arm, as I kept forgetting, meaning that he could simply base out to resist my sweep attempts. I had a few attempts at the push sweep too, which didn’t come off but I think did help prepare a follow-up sweep. Flower sweep continues to be a problem, though I made a small bit of progress as I got in position and lifted my partner off the ground (although Kourosh recovered his position fairly easily, his base being sufficiently steady).
I passed with the technique from BJ Penn’s site again, which is working well for me. While on the one hand that’s good, on the other I need to be careful I don’t start to rely on it too much, as otherwise I’ll find anyone proficient at the defence impossible to pass. With Kourosh I got round his guard a few times, but with Chris I continue to leave too much space when coming past, meaning he can get to his knees and escape. I tried to grab the head as I was getting the legs out the way, but I think I keep raising up and round the legs rather than driving down and pushing into side control. That’s even more the case when I’m trying to escape an armbar, which happened with Chris a few times.
When Chris was in my guard, something very weird happened. He had me stacked and almost got through, but I managed to get a knee into his stomach before he could pass. After a bit of swivelling, I somehow went from being underneath to side control, and I’m still not sure quite how. I realised afterwards Nick had been telling me to try the guard pass defence he’d shown us earlier in class, which I didn’t think to attempt. As he said, that would have been the intelligent thing to do, so I must keep in mind that its rather pointless to learn a technique in class but then never test it out in sparring. I then tried butterfly guard, but time ran out before I had the opportunity to see how it went.
Unusually, class finished off with some breathing exercises, with Nick telling us to sit cross-legged, close our eyes and concentrate on the air flowing in and out. Judging by his blog, meditative practice of this nature is something he's personally found helpful with his BJJ. In addition, he told us to visualise the techniques we’d just learned in class, which was a different approach to other instructors I’ve had. Also thought it was nice of him to ask my name as we did the hand shaking thing at the end of the class – I presume he did that to all the people he didn’t recognise, but it’s a pleasant personal touch.
Back to term-time next week, so I’ll only get to train twice, then off to Barbados. Will be painful not training BJJ again until 6th June, but then I’m going on a Caribbean holiday instead, so not exactly a cause for complaint!
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Nick Gregoriades, London, UK - 19/04/2007
Another class with an instructor I’ve not experienced before, this time one of the brown belts, Nick Gregoriades (be sure to check out his blog). Instead of side control, his focus was on guard pass defence. The first one was slightly similar to what we’ve done before, but different set-up. Person A goes for the guard pass, and as they reach to grab the gi collar, Person B blocks their wrist, taking a firm hold of the fabric by Person A’s elbow at the same time. Person B then pushes that arm right down between their legs, comes up slightly on the same side elbow, then shrimps out. Having made space, Person B then brings their outside leg back in, swivelling into guard.
I felt I wasn’t being quite tight enough with this, and also needed to shrimp more. Could probably do with pushing further on that arm as well, so as to better facilitate the sweep. Kourosh had done the technique on Tuesday, so was able to offer some helpful tips on positioning, which was also true of our next drill.
The second guard pass defence was entirely different. As Person A comes round to pass, pushing under the leg, Person B grabs their own knee with the same side arm to block Person A, also raising their hips right up. As Person A continues to push, Person B uses that momentum to roll over their opposite shoulder (the motion is exactly like a backwards breakfall), coming to their knees. As they roll, Nick noted its important to keep the arms out to the side, to stop Person A taking your back. It also means you’re ready to go for a leg when you come up to your knees, doing the usual grab, yank and move into side control. I keep going for the wrong side with the single leg, so that’s something I’ll need to drill some more.
Sparring, which unsurprisingly was guard passage, went pretty well today. I started off with Kourosh, and had some success with the elevator sweep. I don’t think I was doing the technique quite right though, as I was still having to use a fair bit of force to get him over. I also need to remember to trap his arm, as I kept forgetting, meaning that he could simply base out to resist my sweep attempts. I had a few attempts at the push sweep too, which didn’t come off but I think did help prepare a follow-up sweep. Flower sweep continues to be a problem, though I made a small bit of progress as I got in position and lifted my partner off the ground (although Kourosh recovered his position fairly easily, his base being sufficiently steady).
I passed with the technique from BJ Penn’s site again, which is working well for me. While on the one hand that’s good, on the other I need to be careful I don’t start to rely on it too much, as otherwise I’ll find anyone proficient at the defence impossible to pass. With Kourosh I got round his guard a few times, but with Chris I continue to leave too much space when coming past, meaning he can get to his knees and escape. I tried to grab the head as I was getting the legs out the way, but I think I keep raising up and round the legs rather than driving down and pushing into side control. That’s even more the case when I’m trying to escape an armbar, which happened with Chris a few times.
When Chris was in my guard, something very weird happened. He had me stacked and almost got through, but I managed to get a knee into his stomach before he could pass. After a bit of swivelling, I somehow went from being underneath to side control, and I’m still not sure quite how. I realised afterwards Nick had been telling me to try the guard pass defence he’d shown us earlier in class, which I didn’t think to attempt. As he said, that would have been the intelligent thing to do, so I must keep in mind that its rather pointless to learn a technique in class but then never test it out in sparring. I then tried butterfly guard, but time ran out before I had the opportunity to see how it went.
Unusually, class finished off with some breathing exercises, with Nick telling us to sit cross-legged, close our eyes and concentrate on the air flowing in and out. Judging by his blog, meditative practice of this nature is something he's personally found helpful with his BJJ. In addition, he told us to visualise the techniques we’d just learned in class, which was a different approach to other instructors I’ve had. Also thought it was nice of him to ask my name as we did the hand shaking thing at the end of the class – I presume he did that to all the people he didn’t recognise, but it’s a pleasant personal touch.
Back to term-time next week, so I’ll only get to train twice, then off to Barbados. Will be painful not training BJJ again until 6th June, but then I’m going on a Caribbean holiday instead, so not exactly a cause for complaint!
12 April 2007
12/04/2007 - BJJ
Class #52
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Felipe Souza, London, UK - 12/04/2007
As on Tuesday, Felipe went through a guard defence, then instead of moving on to the triangle, we were to simply try out a technique. Unfortunately, time run out before I got a chance to drill properly, but I did pick up some interesting tips from Chris. Going for the triangle, he pushed my head tight into the back of his knee, pushing off my hip with the other leg. Already I could feel the pressure on my throat, so that seems like a good set up – shame I didn’t get the chance to try it myself, but will see if I can give that a go at some point.
Chris was also his usual helpful self when we were working throws. When going for a double-leg lift, he pointed out that I wasn’t putting my hips in tight, leaving my bum way out behind me instead. This meant I was putting too much pressure on my back. He suggested that to get in position, I should try stepping round more as I went for the double-leg, which improved my technique. I’m still not pushing my hips forward enough as I lift, but at least it seems to be getting better.
Sparring was varied today, at least in terms of partner. I started off with Chris, who is short and powerful, with about 10kg on me. I’m finding that pass from BJ Penn’s site has been working well as a starting point, even if I’m not always getting it quite the same way he demonstrates. Having that principle of using the hip bone to dig into their ankles is definitely aiding my top game. I got the pass once on Chris, but on several other occasions, I was getting into position, grabbing him by the head and going past his legs, but he was able to come to his knees. My mistake is not keeping my weight on my partner as I pass – I keep allowing too much space, coming up and around the legs rather than driving down and slipping through.
On the bottom, I can’t remember getting any sweeps on Chris – instead, we ended up in half-guard and got stuck. I was trying to remember the half guard sweep Jude showed us yesterday, but either did it wrong or couldn’t get the position. Will have to look that over, as I’m finding myself in half-guard more and more.
The same position cropped up against Paxton. I also got the first stage of the guard defence, with a leg up and my hands on his shoulder and armpit, but I struggled to shrimp out. Eventually, I moved my leg off his head to make space, whereupon he simply dropped into side control. Paxton also had a good guard break, able to really drive his elbow into my thigh and make it difficult for me to maintain the grip with my ankles. I tried for an armbar a couple of times, but seeing it wasn’t going anywhere, simply readjusted to closed guard. I think I might have done the same thing against Chris, but can’t quite remember.
As with Chris, I had more success on top. However, on this occasion Paxton gave me the opportunity, as I ended up in a rather weird position with my arms pretty much out but he still had some kind of grip with his legs. I managed to move round by switching my base and going to scarf hold. That time, I didn’t have so much trouble keeping my weight on him, probably because I was being forced downwards by Paxton’s legs anyway.
Finally, I got the chance to spar Ben. It’s been a long time since we last rolled, as that was way back in November at my second class. So, this proved to be a useful marker of progress, as I was no longer simply getting swept in every direction. Ben was completely knackered, which obviously has an impact, but I was still glad to get the pass. Or rather, almost get the pass – I made the exact same mistake as with Chris, not keeping my weight down meaning Ben could turn and come to his knees. The BJ Penn pass helped me out again, and from what Ben said, it wasn’t just me – apparently, everybody he sparred today was trying the same technique. Wouldn’t surprise me if that was entirely due to those vids giving people the same idea.
On the bottom, I struggled to keep Ben on his knees. He eventually stood up, so I took the opportunity to try for an armbar. I couldn’t quite remember the technique, but I did get both legs round his head and hold of his arm. Unfortunately, so did he, and his grip on his arm was considerably more secure than mine. Time ran out as I was trying to go for butterfly guard to stop him passing (think he might have passed me earlier, but can’t remember).
Chris and Ben both tried to get the armbar from guard on me, which I resisted both times, then moving to try for a pass. However, I think if Ben had been less tired, he would have got the armbar – while I had a grip on his gi trousers, it was fairly loose. I also still can’t get the flower sweep, even though I was in position repeatedly today (in terms of getting a hold on the head and the triceps). Its that last step of making space and swivelling that is causing me trouble: I think my lack of speed in executing the sweep attempt is part of the problem too.
My left elbow and upper arm was sore today from the kimura yesterday, but felt ok once I got into the swing of class. I was breakfalling a bit gingerly, but apart from that didn’t really affect my ability to partake in drilling and sparring. I’ve got a few days for it to fully recover before my next session (which will either be Tuesday or Wednesday, depending how my Lowell chapter goes: I’ve got about 7,500 words and want 10,000 to submit on the 21st), so should be fully sorted by then.
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Felipe Souza, London, UK - 12/04/2007
As on Tuesday, Felipe went through a guard defence, then instead of moving on to the triangle, we were to simply try out a technique. Unfortunately, time run out before I got a chance to drill properly, but I did pick up some interesting tips from Chris. Going for the triangle, he pushed my head tight into the back of his knee, pushing off my hip with the other leg. Already I could feel the pressure on my throat, so that seems like a good set up – shame I didn’t get the chance to try it myself, but will see if I can give that a go at some point.
Chris was also his usual helpful self when we were working throws. When going for a double-leg lift, he pointed out that I wasn’t putting my hips in tight, leaving my bum way out behind me instead. This meant I was putting too much pressure on my back. He suggested that to get in position, I should try stepping round more as I went for the double-leg, which improved my technique. I’m still not pushing my hips forward enough as I lift, but at least it seems to be getting better.
Sparring was varied today, at least in terms of partner. I started off with Chris, who is short and powerful, with about 10kg on me. I’m finding that pass from BJ Penn’s site has been working well as a starting point, even if I’m not always getting it quite the same way he demonstrates. Having that principle of using the hip bone to dig into their ankles is definitely aiding my top game. I got the pass once on Chris, but on several other occasions, I was getting into position, grabbing him by the head and going past his legs, but he was able to come to his knees. My mistake is not keeping my weight on my partner as I pass – I keep allowing too much space, coming up and around the legs rather than driving down and slipping through.
On the bottom, I can’t remember getting any sweeps on Chris – instead, we ended up in half-guard and got stuck. I was trying to remember the half guard sweep Jude showed us yesterday, but either did it wrong or couldn’t get the position. Will have to look that over, as I’m finding myself in half-guard more and more.
The same position cropped up against Paxton. I also got the first stage of the guard defence, with a leg up and my hands on his shoulder and armpit, but I struggled to shrimp out. Eventually, I moved my leg off his head to make space, whereupon he simply dropped into side control. Paxton also had a good guard break, able to really drive his elbow into my thigh and make it difficult for me to maintain the grip with my ankles. I tried for an armbar a couple of times, but seeing it wasn’t going anywhere, simply readjusted to closed guard. I think I might have done the same thing against Chris, but can’t quite remember.
As with Chris, I had more success on top. However, on this occasion Paxton gave me the opportunity, as I ended up in a rather weird position with my arms pretty much out but he still had some kind of grip with his legs. I managed to move round by switching my base and going to scarf hold. That time, I didn’t have so much trouble keeping my weight on him, probably because I was being forced downwards by Paxton’s legs anyway.
Finally, I got the chance to spar Ben. It’s been a long time since we last rolled, as that was way back in November at my second class. So, this proved to be a useful marker of progress, as I was no longer simply getting swept in every direction. Ben was completely knackered, which obviously has an impact, but I was still glad to get the pass. Or rather, almost get the pass – I made the exact same mistake as with Chris, not keeping my weight down meaning Ben could turn and come to his knees. The BJ Penn pass helped me out again, and from what Ben said, it wasn’t just me – apparently, everybody he sparred today was trying the same technique. Wouldn’t surprise me if that was entirely due to those vids giving people the same idea.
On the bottom, I struggled to keep Ben on his knees. He eventually stood up, so I took the opportunity to try for an armbar. I couldn’t quite remember the technique, but I did get both legs round his head and hold of his arm. Unfortunately, so did he, and his grip on his arm was considerably more secure than mine. Time ran out as I was trying to go for butterfly guard to stop him passing (think he might have passed me earlier, but can’t remember).
Chris and Ben both tried to get the armbar from guard on me, which I resisted both times, then moving to try for a pass. However, I think if Ben had been less tired, he would have got the armbar – while I had a grip on his gi trousers, it was fairly loose. I also still can’t get the flower sweep, even though I was in position repeatedly today (in terms of getting a hold on the head and the triceps). Its that last step of making space and swivelling that is causing me trouble: I think my lack of speed in executing the sweep attempt is part of the problem too.
My left elbow and upper arm was sore today from the kimura yesterday, but felt ok once I got into the swing of class. I was breakfalling a bit gingerly, but apart from that didn’t really affect my ability to partake in drilling and sparring. I’ve got a few days for it to fully recover before my next session (which will either be Tuesday or Wednesday, depending how my Lowell chapter goes: I’ve got about 7,500 words and want 10,000 to submit on the 21st), so should be fully sorted by then.
10 April 2007
10/04/2007 - BJJ
Class #50
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Felipe Souza, London, UK - 10/04/2007
Nothing new today, but we did cover something on which I needed a refresher: guard defence. As Person A gets an arm under the leg and starts to move round, Person B grabs them under the armpit and on top of the arm, their leg pushed up on the same side of Person A’s head due to the pass attempt. Note that you shouldn’t put your arm in the way of your leg, as the next step is to swing that leg out, shrimp away from Person A, then bring the same leg back in. The shin is pressed against Person A’s stomach like you would for a scissor sweep, with the other leg coming round next to Person A’s head, at the same time maintaining a grip on Person A’s arm. This provides Person B with a secure hold, so that they can firmly resist Person A’s pass, moving with them. Person B then picks their moment, pushes Person A away with their legs (still holding the arm), then swings back into full guard.
As well as providing control, gripping that arm can also set-up a triangle. When Person B swings back into full guard, it is possible to trap an arm, meaning that Person B can now go for the choke. First, they drag the arm across their body, pulling Person A down. Their guard climbs up, with one leg across the back of Person A’s neck, while the other foot pushes off Person A’s hip, leaving Person B slightly swivelled to one side. Person B then grabs their ankle to pull the leg in tighter, bringing their other leg on top in order to secure the lock. Finally, Person B grabs Person A’s head and pulls down, simultaneously pushing up with their hips to get the choke.
Sparring today was winner stays on in weight groups, where I started off with Diccon. I almost managed to pass his guard a few times, but couldn’t quite get round: he eventually got me in a tight collar choke, having cinched it in after sitting up, so my usual defence of simply raising up didn’t work. As with last time I sparred him, Diccon didn’t have any tips when I asked what I did wrong, so instead I discovered one of the advantages of winner stays on. The lack of a single training partner means that I have time to wander off and ask questions of the instructor and higher belts, so I took the opportunity to query Oli and Felipe about how best to secure a pass when you’re almost through.
The basic principle seemed to be to grab around your opponent’s head, after which you can then drop your weight on them. I realise that I’ve been concentrating on their hips and legs instead, and giving too much space – instead, I should go for the head and use my weight and hips to control their lower body. Felipe also mentioned that you should repeatedly switch base to get the side control: I’m not sure I fully understood this, but I’ll see if I can employ it next time I’m in position.
I wasn’t so successful from guard today, as I didn’t remember to use the guard defence we’d gone over in class. Sparring with Paxton, I left way too much space when opening my guard, and also didn’t secure a sufficiently strong hold before doing so. That meant he was able to pass – next time, I really need to keep the guard defence in mind, and use my arms more defensively as well as my legs.
Today also marked the first time I got to wear my new rash guard, having received it for my birthday last week. It definitely stops the rashes from gi burn, as you’d expect given the name, but I’m not sure I got bad enough rashes to warrant wearing it under my gi. So, I’ll save it for when I move up to the advanced class, or if that doesn’t happen before May, I should get to wear it at whatever sub grappling place I give a go in the mean time. Might train at F’s Freestyle, as that’s near me in Kings Norton, or perhaps one of the London MMA clubs I’ve been to before, like HSD Combat and Elite. Shall have to wait and see: hopefully my plan to get my gf to come along by taking some form of dancing class with her will work out ok.
Might as well put in another plug for the Birmingham Throwdown. If I haven’t pestered you about it yet (meaning you’re either not in my Facebook groups or Bullshido), then its basically a chance to have a spar at whatever level you and your partner want to go. I’ll be going along to help my groundwork, probably doing plenty of drilling, but there will be people there who also want to work striking. £50 for the room (Stevie B’s), split between whoever shows up.
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Felipe Souza, London, UK - 10/04/2007
Nothing new today, but we did cover something on which I needed a refresher: guard defence. As Person A gets an arm under the leg and starts to move round, Person B grabs them under the armpit and on top of the arm, their leg pushed up on the same side of Person A’s head due to the pass attempt. Note that you shouldn’t put your arm in the way of your leg, as the next step is to swing that leg out, shrimp away from Person A, then bring the same leg back in. The shin is pressed against Person A’s stomach like you would for a scissor sweep, with the other leg coming round next to Person A’s head, at the same time maintaining a grip on Person A’s arm. This provides Person B with a secure hold, so that they can firmly resist Person A’s pass, moving with them. Person B then picks their moment, pushes Person A away with their legs (still holding the arm), then swings back into full guard.
As well as providing control, gripping that arm can also set-up a triangle. When Person B swings back into full guard, it is possible to trap an arm, meaning that Person B can now go for the choke. First, they drag the arm across their body, pulling Person A down. Their guard climbs up, with one leg across the back of Person A’s neck, while the other foot pushes off Person A’s hip, leaving Person B slightly swivelled to one side. Person B then grabs their ankle to pull the leg in tighter, bringing their other leg on top in order to secure the lock. Finally, Person B grabs Person A’s head and pulls down, simultaneously pushing up with their hips to get the choke.
Sparring today was winner stays on in weight groups, where I started off with Diccon. I almost managed to pass his guard a few times, but couldn’t quite get round: he eventually got me in a tight collar choke, having cinched it in after sitting up, so my usual defence of simply raising up didn’t work. As with last time I sparred him, Diccon didn’t have any tips when I asked what I did wrong, so instead I discovered one of the advantages of winner stays on. The lack of a single training partner means that I have time to wander off and ask questions of the instructor and higher belts, so I took the opportunity to query Oli and Felipe about how best to secure a pass when you’re almost through.
The basic principle seemed to be to grab around your opponent’s head, after which you can then drop your weight on them. I realise that I’ve been concentrating on their hips and legs instead, and giving too much space – instead, I should go for the head and use my weight and hips to control their lower body. Felipe also mentioned that you should repeatedly switch base to get the side control: I’m not sure I fully understood this, but I’ll see if I can employ it next time I’m in position.
I wasn’t so successful from guard today, as I didn’t remember to use the guard defence we’d gone over in class. Sparring with Paxton, I left way too much space when opening my guard, and also didn’t secure a sufficiently strong hold before doing so. That meant he was able to pass – next time, I really need to keep the guard defence in mind, and use my arms more defensively as well as my legs.
Today also marked the first time I got to wear my new rash guard, having received it for my birthday last week. It definitely stops the rashes from gi burn, as you’d expect given the name, but I’m not sure I got bad enough rashes to warrant wearing it under my gi. So, I’ll save it for when I move up to the advanced class, or if that doesn’t happen before May, I should get to wear it at whatever sub grappling place I give a go in the mean time. Might train at F’s Freestyle, as that’s near me in Kings Norton, or perhaps one of the London MMA clubs I’ve been to before, like HSD Combat and Elite. Shall have to wait and see: hopefully my plan to get my gf to come along by taking some form of dancing class with her will work out ok.
Might as well put in another plug for the Birmingham Throwdown. If I haven’t pestered you about it yet (meaning you’re either not in my Facebook groups or Bullshido), then its basically a chance to have a spar at whatever level you and your partner want to go. I’ll be going along to help my groundwork, probably doing plenty of drilling, but there will be people there who also want to work striking. £50 for the room (Stevie B’s), split between whoever shows up.
13 March 2007
13/03/2007 - BJJ
Class #37
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Felipe Souza, London, UK - 13/03/2007
Long day today, as my gf and I got up at 06:30 in Spain, caught our transfer at 07:15, then a flight to Stansted at 10:15, Stansted Express at 12:00 and finally I arrived back in the office around 13:30. I wasn’t technically in work, I’d just locked up my laptop etc there, so I did a bit of writing in one of the hot desk rooms – need to get stuck into it as the deadline is the 24th April.
This marks the first time I’ve ever made a Tuesday class, though should hopefully be making a few more now, as the second term of this academic year is about to finish. Felipe showed us a guard pass, which was pretty much the same as the basic standing pass, except that you didn’t stand up. Instead, the guard is broken from a kneeling position with one leg driven into the opponent’s tailbone, after which it was the same process of underhooking a leg and bringing it to the shoulder, sprawling, then stacking your opponent until you can push past the leg into side control.
My partner, Owen, was of the opinion that you don’t want to bring your knee up, as Felipe demonstrated. His point was that if you do that, you’re pushing your opponent’s knee right into your own leg, something which Rowan Cunningham also points out in his video of the same technique. However, Cunningham shows how you simply put your leg further back so that you can push your partner’s knee straight to the floor: that would seem to follow what Felipe demonstrated. Will be a useful variation to try in sparring next time.
Next up, usefully, was the relevant guard pass defence, which would presumably have some functionality against any pass coming under the leg. When Person A has underhooked the leg and is about to push forward, Person B pushes on Person A’s arm and also their ribs, both on the one side. Person B then uses this to shrimp out, getting one leg by the opposite side of Person A’s head, while the other drives into Person A’s stomach, as if you were setting up for a scissor sweep. Pushing down with the leg by Person A’s head and keeping tight with the one by their stomach, along with the grip on the arm and ribs, means that Person B can then adjust as necessary when Person A tries to move round into side control. Picking the right moment, Person B then pushes off from the arm and brings out both legs, returning to full guard. Felipe emphasised that it was very important to get both legs out at the same time, otherwise Person A would be able to complete their pass.
Sparring was ‘winner stays on’, but split into two groups – above and below 85kg. I wanted to work on maintaining good posture and keeping my head up, which I think I just about managed, although occasionally I did find myself pulled down in tight. At the same time, I wanted to try and stay calm and not waste too much energy, as I gassed far too quickly last time. This also seemed to work, as I wasn’t quite so knackered at the end of class – of course, that could have been laziness on my part.
I found that I was in position for my favoured pass over the knee, but was still having trouble finishing it. Firstly I wasn’t always able to exert enough force to push the knee right down, meaning that my partner recovered guard as I was pushing or just after I’d struggled to pin their leg. Secondly, I found that even when I did get the leg down, I got stuck in half-guard. Oli G gave me a useful tip as I was attempting to pass the half-guard, which was to use a grip in which I’m underhooking one arm and then also underhooking the head. This is more secure than the grip I had across the throat, which left me vulnerable to sweeps.
In general, I need to improve my positioning so that I’m using technique and body-weight rather than attempting to bring my very meagre strength to bear. Breaking the guard remains something I’m having considerable trouble with, which has resulted in an occasional reliance on the other person going for an armbar or something along those lines, thereby giving me space to attempt a pass. That can succeed, but also risks getting submitted, not to mention its relying on their mistake rather than being proactive and forcing the issue.
When I did pass, it was due to the trapping the leg, and I also remembered to isolate that leg by gripping with my hand, which better facilitated the process (as per the second of two Rowan Cunningham videos showing the standing pass over the leg, here). Last time I tried that, I ended up getting triangled, so this time I was more careful.
Sweeping proved difficult – I only got it once, from half-guard, against somebody who I think was still in their first few lessons. Nice to get, following the usual trap an arm and leg and then roll principle, but I doubt it would have much effect against somebody with more experience. I also tried for the elevator sweep, but was possibly too wary of the pass: the opportunity was there, as one leg was stretched out so could have been hooked. If I get the chance again, I should go for it and see what happens. Better still, we’ll drill it in class, although I should really get a handle on the sweeps we’ve already covered before trying something new.
If all goes as planned, should be an intensive week of training, as I can potentially make tomorrow, Thursday and Saturday. Great opportunity to get some in depth work on guard passing again, presuming later classes resemble today’s syllabus.
Final note to anyone who has been walking back from the Academy to Westbourne Park: take the 23 bus from the stop to the left on the other side of the road. Much quicker, even if you have to wait a while. I finally tried out the route, which appears to stop at the zebra crossing near the station. At the moment, I have a travelcard anyone, so no extra cost, but will have to weigh up speed versus cost once my Young Person’s Railcard runs out (though I think its only like 70p to take the bus with an Oyster card).
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Felipe Souza, London, UK - 13/03/2007
Long day today, as my gf and I got up at 06:30 in Spain, caught our transfer at 07:15, then a flight to Stansted at 10:15, Stansted Express at 12:00 and finally I arrived back in the office around 13:30. I wasn’t technically in work, I’d just locked up my laptop etc there, so I did a bit of writing in one of the hot desk rooms – need to get stuck into it as the deadline is the 24th April.
This marks the first time I’ve ever made a Tuesday class, though should hopefully be making a few more now, as the second term of this academic year is about to finish. Felipe showed us a guard pass, which was pretty much the same as the basic standing pass, except that you didn’t stand up. Instead, the guard is broken from a kneeling position with one leg driven into the opponent’s tailbone, after which it was the same process of underhooking a leg and bringing it to the shoulder, sprawling, then stacking your opponent until you can push past the leg into side control.
My partner, Owen, was of the opinion that you don’t want to bring your knee up, as Felipe demonstrated. His point was that if you do that, you’re pushing your opponent’s knee right into your own leg, something which Rowan Cunningham also points out in his video of the same technique. However, Cunningham shows how you simply put your leg further back so that you can push your partner’s knee straight to the floor: that would seem to follow what Felipe demonstrated. Will be a useful variation to try in sparring next time.
Next up, usefully, was the relevant guard pass defence, which would presumably have some functionality against any pass coming under the leg. When Person A has underhooked the leg and is about to push forward, Person B pushes on Person A’s arm and also their ribs, both on the one side. Person B then uses this to shrimp out, getting one leg by the opposite side of Person A’s head, while the other drives into Person A’s stomach, as if you were setting up for a scissor sweep. Pushing down with the leg by Person A’s head and keeping tight with the one by their stomach, along with the grip on the arm and ribs, means that Person B can then adjust as necessary when Person A tries to move round into side control. Picking the right moment, Person B then pushes off from the arm and brings out both legs, returning to full guard. Felipe emphasised that it was very important to get both legs out at the same time, otherwise Person A would be able to complete their pass.
Sparring was ‘winner stays on’, but split into two groups – above and below 85kg. I wanted to work on maintaining good posture and keeping my head up, which I think I just about managed, although occasionally I did find myself pulled down in tight. At the same time, I wanted to try and stay calm and not waste too much energy, as I gassed far too quickly last time. This also seemed to work, as I wasn’t quite so knackered at the end of class – of course, that could have been laziness on my part.
I found that I was in position for my favoured pass over the knee, but was still having trouble finishing it. Firstly I wasn’t always able to exert enough force to push the knee right down, meaning that my partner recovered guard as I was pushing or just after I’d struggled to pin their leg. Secondly, I found that even when I did get the leg down, I got stuck in half-guard. Oli G gave me a useful tip as I was attempting to pass the half-guard, which was to use a grip in which I’m underhooking one arm and then also underhooking the head. This is more secure than the grip I had across the throat, which left me vulnerable to sweeps.
In general, I need to improve my positioning so that I’m using technique and body-weight rather than attempting to bring my very meagre strength to bear. Breaking the guard remains something I’m having considerable trouble with, which has resulted in an occasional reliance on the other person going for an armbar or something along those lines, thereby giving me space to attempt a pass. That can succeed, but also risks getting submitted, not to mention its relying on their mistake rather than being proactive and forcing the issue.
When I did pass, it was due to the trapping the leg, and I also remembered to isolate that leg by gripping with my hand, which better facilitated the process (as per the second of two Rowan Cunningham videos showing the standing pass over the leg, here). Last time I tried that, I ended up getting triangled, so this time I was more careful.
Sweeping proved difficult – I only got it once, from half-guard, against somebody who I think was still in their first few lessons. Nice to get, following the usual trap an arm and leg and then roll principle, but I doubt it would have much effect against somebody with more experience. I also tried for the elevator sweep, but was possibly too wary of the pass: the opportunity was there, as one leg was stretched out so could have been hooked. If I get the chance again, I should go for it and see what happens. Better still, we’ll drill it in class, although I should really get a handle on the sweeps we’ve already covered before trying something new.
If all goes as planned, should be an intensive week of training, as I can potentially make tomorrow, Thursday and Saturday. Great opportunity to get some in depth work on guard passing again, presuming later classes resemble today’s syllabus.
Final note to anyone who has been walking back from the Academy to Westbourne Park: take the 23 bus from the stop to the left on the other side of the road. Much quicker, even if you have to wait a while. I finally tried out the route, which appears to stop at the zebra crossing near the station. At the moment, I have a travelcard anyone, so no extra cost, but will have to weigh up speed versus cost once my Young Person’s Railcard runs out (though I think its only like 70p to take the bus with an Oyster card).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)