13/08/2015 - BJJ Globetrotter Camp | Knee Shield & Spider Half Guard

Class #659
BJJ Globetrotter Camp (Sportoase Leuven), Bruno Matias, Leuven, Belgium, 13/08/2015

The next gi session was with another Brazilian black belt, Bruno Matias (presumably from Checkmat, going by his patches). He had called his session 'half spider guard', which sounded intriguing. He started off with something I could recognise, the knee shield back roll sweep. That's also known as the Shaolin sweep, I'm told.

I have trouble with it, as I always end up going off to the side, mainly because I'm worried about crunching either their neck or my neck. The other tricky part is getting their weight properly distributed on your legs, so that it isn't a strain to roll them over your head. One day it will feel smooth and easy, but not yet. ;)

For the next one, they have stepped up one of their legs. The hand on your lower leg side is going to reach in to the leg that is up, on your knee shield side. Bring your hand in front of the shin, then use that as an anchor point to help you swivel through. Grab their trouser leg as you swivel through. Continue swivelling until you pop out behind them, grabbing the other leg with your other hand.

Adjust your grips, in order to enable you to go into a back take. Also adjust your legs, so they are hooking inside. From here, you could try kicking out the back of their knees, like on the standard de la Riva back take I taught a while ago. However, I'd be worried about their ankles given they may be sat on them at this point, plus it feels like they have a strong base to resist that push from here. I preferred the other option Bruno showed, where you come up onto your knees and take the back that way.

The final technique was a complex armbar from spider guard, or rather, the half spider guard referenced in the class title. Start in knee shield, grab their sleeve on the same side as your knee shield. Push your foot into their hip to create some distance. Switch your grip on their sleeve to your other hand, then bring your non-knee shield side leg over the top of their trapped arm, threading your leg through underneath (maintain your grip on the arm).

Your free hand grips their same side trouser leg. Spin on your shoulders (keep your head off the ground), pulling firmly on the sleeve and trouser grips you established. That should set up your armbar, though you'll probably have to wriggle your hips forward. Your sleeve grips will give you some control, hopefully providing enough time to solidify the armbar position.


My last class of the day would be less intricate, but more painful, as it was the dreaded art of takedowns (well taught by a friendly Irishman, but I hate takedowns ;D ).

Pictures courtesy of Vara from BJJ Globetrotters

10/05/2015 - Super Seminar with Leoni Munslow, Yas Wilson, Gret Zoeller & Vanessa English

Seminar #016
Gracie Barra Nottingham, Leoni Munslow, Yas Wilson, Gret Zoeller & Vanessa English, UK - 10/05/2015

The numbers of women competing in BJJ has been increasing, with some representatives from the UK achieving impressive results on the big stage. To help fund the not inconsiderable costs of competing at the IBJJF World Championships (27th-31st May 2015), four of those success stories decided to offer a seminar at Gracie Barra Nottingham, for a very reasonable £20.

Black belt Yas Wilson is someone I already know, having first trained with her in 2007 at RGA HQ. Yas, who is Roger Gracie's first female black belt, has a lot of accolades to her name, including a brown belt gold at the 2013 Worlds. That same year, Vanessa English won gold at purple belt, while Gret Zoeller was on the podium in her brown belt division too, winnning bronze. Leoni Munslow's trophy case is also well stocked, most recently featuring a silver at this year's European Championship as a brown belt along with a nogi Euros gold.

Beyond their great tournament results, all four are excellent teachers: Yas and Gret are both black belts now, while Leoni and Vanessa are brown belts. It was therefore cool to get a chance to learn from them, especially as Yas was the only one I had met and trained with before. I was also keen to encourage some of the students from my women's class to pop up too: although this was a co-ed seminar (I was one of about five men there, IIRC), it was a particularly good opportunity for female students to network and train with other women. Thanks to Laura very kindly offering to take us in her car, four of us from Artemis BJJ made the journey to Nottingham.

There have been women only open mats running across the UK for several years, with a strong presence in London (the Facebook group looks to be more current than the page), the South West and probably lots of others I'm not aware of (feel free to add a comment if you known of any others in the UK). The US has loads as well, often highlighted and supported by Fenom Kimonos. Hopefully the Super Seminar will become a regular event too, with future editions already planned for London and Manchester. I'm not sure where the main updates will be, but for the moment you could keep an eye on the Facebook event page (which also has lots of pictures from the seminar).

The Super Seminar had support from several BJJ companies, meaning the raffle was crammed with prizes. Tatami Fightwear (who I think also sponsor at least three of the instructors) is always ready to give back to the community, on this occasion providing gis and caps. Idee Pure sent some soaps along too, plus there was another stall selling various healthy looking stuff with all proceeds going to support the instructors.

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The four instructors split the teaching between them, each focusing on a different area, mainly guard. Leoni was the exception, drawing upon her judo background to go through some takedowns. The first one reminded me a bit of the Roy Dean style single leg off Blue Belt Requirements, where after you shoot in, you hook a leg behind theirs and drive through. That's probably my favourite takedown (though I say this as somebody who pretty much never does takedowns).

Leoni's version starts with the usual collar and elbow grip. Pull on one side to get them to step a foot towards you, then immediately hook that leg and drop, driving through to knock them over. My drilling partner, David, emphasised really hooking that leg: I was initially just putting my foot behind and driving, whereas it's more effective to wrap further, enabling you lock their lower leg between your foot and shin. That seemed to add a bit more leverage when you drive. You end in top half guard, ready to pass.

Next was a hip throw, to which Leoni added some handy details, like the importance of maintaining the sleeve grip. Keeping hold of that arm can lead right into an armbar, especially if as you execute the throw their arm goes under your armpit (if it doesn't, it's still easy enough to switch your grip to control the wrist as they hit the floor). It also means you can adjust how hard they land. Leoni also showed how you can make it more effective by swinging your leg back.

Switching to closed guard, Yas detailed two solid options off the two-on-one grip break. Start by grabbing their opposite sleeve, then bring your same side hand underneath. You're looking to grab your wrist, using the combined power of your two hands to punch up and break their hold on your gi. Maintaining your sleeve grip, stiff-arm it away from you to turn them slightly, then capitalise by using your other hand to grasp their armpit. Lock your elbow against their back, which combined with the armpit grip and stiff-arming the sleeve should twist their torso.

That puts you in a great position to take their back. Staying tight to their back, release your grip on their sleeve in order to post on your elbow (ideally transitioning to your hand for improved base). Swivel your body around to their back, putting your knee on the mat. As Yas said, often people will look to establish an initial back control hook here, aiming to put in both hooks as they rotate around to the back.

Instead, Yas suggests bringing your foot across their thigh, crossing the other foot on the other side of that thigh. Crossing your feet around their thigh makes for a secure hold, facilitating your roll into back control. While you want to avoid crossing your feet in between their legs (because they can footlock you from there), crossing by the thigh looks to be safe. It also makes for an easy transition into a body triangle, if you like that position.

In terms of the grip on the sleeve you're stiff-arming (i.e., straightening your arm to use skeletal rather than muscular strength), that's going to vary depending on your preference. I usually prefer the pistol grip (where you grab a load of gi in your fist, like you were holding a pistol), though it isn't as strong as the pocket grip (your thumb folds the sleeve over your fingers, creating the titular 'pocket'). The advantage of the pistol grip is that it's a lot less rough on the fingers than a pocket grip.

However, I was finding that when I stiff-armed the sleeve away, my hand got twisted into an awkward position using my pistol grip. So a pocket grip is probably preferable, unless you switch your hands in the initial two-on-one grip break configuration, then pass the sleeve to your other hand for the stiff-arm. That way you can get a comfortable grip, but it risks them freeing their sleeve during the grip change (and adds an extra step to the technique).

If they are wise to that back take, they may post on their leg as you try to move around, using their weight to prevent you swivelling to their back. Yas has an answer for that, full of armbar goodness. Put your foot into the hip of their raised leg. That gives you the leverage to push and turn your body. As you turn, you want to simultaneously move both your other leg and the arm you reached around their back. The leg is going to slide into their armpit, while the elbow of your reaching arm shaves closely past their head, in order to press against their neck.

You can then use your arm to help shove their head back as you bring your first leg over. From there you're perfectly placed for an armbar. Their arm is already controlled because of your initial sleeve grip (from that grip break), so just extend your hips and pull down on the wrist. I found it helpful to lift my hips for that swivel, though you have to be careful you don't leave them any space to wriggle free. Making sure the arm stays really close to the head as you shave it past is important. That ensures their head is tucked out of the way for when you want to bring your leg across.

Third in line was black belt Gret Zoeller, a veteran grappler with fourteen years experience, presenting half guard. She shared a technique she first learned in 2003, from the legendary half guard pioneer, Roberto 'Gordo' Correira. Before getting on to the details, she gave us some history on the half guard, as well as this particular sweep. It turns out Gret used to train with Ben Poppleton, a name I don't hear as much these days, but a significant figure in the early years of UK BJJ, especially in the North (he's since moved to teach in the rather sunnier setting of Tenerife).

Gordo had great success with this technique as a competitor. I refer to it as the toe grab sweep, but it's often called 'old school', thanks to Eddie Bravo. Gret covered two versions. They both started the same, blocking the cross face and circling your other arm around for the underhook. That was followed by reaching your cross-face block under their same side leg, in order to grab their ankle and pull it up. You can then bring your underhook arm under their bum, switching grips so the underhook hand grasps their foot.

The two version diverge at this point. In the first version, your free hand grips their knee, then you drive forward to go on top. In the second, you tweak out their non-gripped leg first, then drive through, the same way Jason Scully teaches it. My preference is the second, which has the further advantage that you can take their back if for some reason you can't knock them to their back. I also find it easier to disentangle my leg with the second option, but they're both effective.

Gret progressed into something she's been playing with recently (thanks to her evocative choice of metaphor, this one surely needs to be known as the Jane Fonda sweep ;D). The situation is that you're under half guard and they've squashed you flat. You can't get on your side, ruling out a lot of the main options from the bottom. Instead, you're going to pull out their gi lapel and pass it over their back, to your other hand. I'm not sure I'm remembering rightly, but I think you use that to make some space and shrimp out slightly. With your free hand, reach underneath until you can get your arm to their far knee, wrapping around the outside.

You will normally have a leg locked over the back of theirs: keep that in place, but the other leg is going to swing as part of the sweep. The motion for the sweep is where Fonda comes in. Sadly I couldn't find a clip of Ms Fonda demonstrating driving a big truck (though I did enjoy this awesomely '80s workout, complete with random singing), but basically imagine you are trying to turn a huge steering wheel. Pull with the gi lapel grip and lift with your leg grip, also swinging your free leg. This shouldn't take a huge amount of effort, so if you're straining you probably need to adjust something.

I was finding that when I asked my drilling partner to apply some pressure on top, I generally had to try twice, getting the sweep on the second attempt after creating some momentum with the first. I realised I was gripping incorrectly on the leg after Gret came over during drilling: rather than grasping the gi material, you can hook your arm around the leg instead. That's much easier, especially if the material around their knee isn't loose.

Vanessa closed the technique portion of the seminar with a sweep from spider guard. If you're in closed guard, to move them to open guard, grab both their sleeves then put your feet on their hips. Extend your legs, at which point they will normally stand (if they don't you've got options like the triangle here). Put one foot into their same side bicep, then loop your other leg around their arm in a lasso, reaching your toes to their shoulder blade.

You can then pull them in, switching your grip from the lasso to their same side collar. Swivel your body towards them, so you're facing your bicep-pushing foot. If they don't do anything at this point, contract by pulling them in, then kick out your bicep foot and roll them over (you'll probably find your knee goes across their stomach too). More likely, they will try to go to knee on belly as soon as you present your side to them. They aren't going to be able to settle because you're still pushing their arm away with your extended leg. So, you can still roll through, but make sure you grab their leg. Using that grip, you can go straight into the leg drag position, shoving their leg down.

The seminar closed with some rolling. I mostly took photos, as I didn't want to take away the opportunity for two women to roll with each other. However, I did get a chance to roll with Leoni once the numbers had thinned right out. That was cool, as Leoni is somebody I've known online for a number of years, but we haven't met in person until today. Best of luck to Leoni, Yas, Vanessa and Gret at the Worlds and I look forward to the next seminar! :D

14/02/2015 - Interview on NHBNews Podcast | Artemis BJJ | Open Mat | Half Guard

Class #628
Artemis BJJ (PHNX Fitness), Open Mat, Bristol, UK - 14/02/2015

Back when I first started listening to podcasts around 2005/2006, my initial choices were the Fightworks Podcast and No Holds Barred. They were both relatively new at that time (although in the case of NHBNews, it wasn't really 'new', because the radio show had been around for much longer. However, it had recently been relaunched in the 'new' format of a podcast). It's therefore pretty cool that I can now say I've appeared on both of them, having spoken to Caleb in 2013, then this Wednesday I also got to chat with Eddie Goldman. Yay! :D



Apart from peppering almost everything I said with 'absolutely!', that turned out fairly well. Main thing is that it hopefully drives more people towards the donation page for the GrappleThon. We're almost at £1,000 now, a quarter of the way through our target goal. As always, no amount is too small and you can donate from anywhere in the world. There should be a live stream again this year, as there's WiFi and Steve said he's up for bringing his equipment along. Coolness.

I went on a media blitz at the weekend too, in terms of sending out the press release for the GrappleThon everywhere. That should mean it pops up in a couple of places over the next week or two, depending how many news outlets are interested. I'll be putting the full pre-event press release up on the Artemis BJJ site too, probably in the next couple of days.
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I did more playing with half guard today, drilling a bit with Rafal, though I should have been a bit more focused. It's easy to slip into the "hmm, maybe this would work? Or perhaps this?" mode, which is fun but not constructive enough. Still, I went through more on the Braulio arm shield, along with the waiter sweep and trying that knee cut defence. I'm not entirely convinced by it yet (basically, from knee shield you hook your arm under the leg they're trying to slide over), but it's got potential.

In sparring, I was working against the lockdown which was fun. It's been a while since anyone has tried that on me (I don't seem to end up in half guard that often, although naturally I haven't been free sparring as much as I'd like given that it mostly get training from specific sparring in class). I was mostly just untangling my foot: I should try the more reliable scoot down to control their hips. I also need to be careful of my leg, especially if people are trying some of the esoteric Eddie Bravo stuff that tweaks the knee. I didn't feel threatened on that score, but nevertheless I need to keep it in mind.

As ever I looked for the kimura again, both from side control and then the back. Unusually the latter was more successful, using that to move into an armbar. Sloppy and I suspect force had a lot to do with it, but still, I'm glad the armbar is slowly becoming a part of my game. I doubt it will ever be a major part, but it's good to work on it more. I'd like to develop more chokes from side control and half guard, as that's more dependable than a joint lock. Perhaps I should teach one? That's normally a good way of refining my game, based on past experience.

Sparring with Tracey and Laura was cool too, finishing off the two hours by running through some pointers on the RNC choke set up with Steve (same stuff as that women's class a while ago). Next week is all passing, meaning that if I can get in some specific sparring, I'll be able to continue working on bottom half guard stuff. I therefore definitely want to revisit the kimura from under half guard, as I'd like to use that a lot more.

21/06/2014 - Artemis BJJ (Open Mat) | Basic Half Guard Sweeps

Class #574
Artemis BJJ (Impact Gym), Open Mat, Bristol, UK - 21/06/2014

This is the first time I've been down to the open mat at Impact Gym, as I was off on holiday in Croatia right after our classes kicked off in East Bristol earlier this month. The open mat is right after our nogi class (which I won't be attending often, as I've never been a nogi fan), which means that a lot of the people who stay on for the open mat aren't wearing a gi. It's also relatively hot in the UK at the moment, further discouraging people from putting on a heavy piece of cotton (or in my case, hemp, as I was in my The Green Gi factory reject).

I'm never discouraged from wearing a gi: I don't care if I'm training in the Sahara, I'd still be doing gi. Fortunately for me, Rich was also well up for gi, so I had a drilling partner. I wanted to work on half guard today, as I always like the practice what I'm planning to teach the following week. Open mat also often helps me work out the shape of my lessons: now that I'm going to be regularly teaching twice a week (hopefully more in the future, once Artemis brings in enough money that I can afford to go part-time at my current 'put food on the table' job and dedicate that free time to more BJJ).

Today, that meant I was deciding what half guard attacks to go over next week. I want it to be the absolute basics of half guard, so that effectively means recovering full guard, back take and the toe grab sweep. I had a play with another straightforward sweep for countering the whizzer too, as I'd be watching that in the morning on BJJ Library: they've got a cool Gordo seminar on half guard which had a lot of useful pointers.

Starting with the toe grab sweep (Eddie Bravo's name for it, 'old school', is common too), I was mainly following the way Jason Scully teaches it, over on the Grapplers Guide. I have never really done this sweep in sparring and it's high time I started using it, given it's both basic and high percentage. Apparently I have been taught it in the past, but I'd completely forgotten until I was putting in labels for this post. ;)

So, the Scully version begins from the basic half guard position I taught before leaving for Croatia earlier this month, where you're on your side with an underhook. Use your underhook to bump yourself down closer to their legs, curling your head into towards them. With your non-underhooking arm, reach for their far toes. Grab them and then shove their heel into their thigh.

Bring your underhook arm down past their bum, then switch the toe grab from your non-underhook hand to your underhook hand. Bring your non-underhook hand out for base, also turning to slide out your inside leg. Your outside leg tweaks their lower leg, then drive with your head and shoulder to move on top. Keep hold of the toes until you're past to side control.

I'm not sure if it is better to do the leg tweaking before or after you've established the toe grab: I think probably after, judging by drilling with Rich, but something I'll continue playing with. You can do it from lockdown too, which I ran through briefly, but that's not a half guard I tend to use unless I've messed up and I'm carrying all of their weight.

I then also ran through what Gordo calls the Plan B sweep, but as that isn't descriptive enough for me, I'm going to refer to it as the whizzer counter roll. You've got the underhook, but they've threaded their arm through in what's called a 'whizzer'. That ruins your back take, but it doesn't stop you sweeping them. Indrek Reiland shows how you can still do the toe grab, or there is the option I watched from Gordo on BJJ Library.

With your same side hand, push their knee out. Bring your whizzered elbow back towards your head, clamping it to your side, then just roll them over. I found tweaking their leg helped a bit, but as ever I'll keep playing with it to see the best way to increase leverage. I initially felt like it involved too much force, then I starting tweaking the leg. That helps, but I think I can get a lot more leverage once I work out the right leg positions and hip movement. Obviously watching the Gordo vid a bunch more times will be the best way to progress, as then I can see exactly what he's doing to generate that leverage.

My first week of teaching twice at Bristol Sports Centre kicks off on Monday: exciting stuff! I'm looking forward to being able to string together a progression, something that is really tough to do when you're only teaching one class a week (or as was the case previously, two classes but at two different locations).

29/04/2014 - Stephanie's Women's Class at Fabio Novaes BJJ

Class #564
Fabio Novaes BJJ, Stephanie McClish, Lakeland, FL, USA - 29/04/2014

My next stop after West Palm Beach was Lakeland, a few hours further north into Florida, where away from the beach it becomes rural. The reason I headed that way, as usual, was more cool bloggers, this time the McClish sisters. Allie picked me up from the train station in order to get me checked in at the AirBnB, then Stephanie drove me to Fabio Novaes Jiu Jitsu about an hour later.

I've followed both of their blogs for many years now, as well as reading both of them write about running a women's class. Allie started it off, a responsibility that has since passed to Stephanie. I already knew from seeing her at the Boca that she's a dedicated coach, so it was cool to experience one of her classes. Although it's a women's class, men have been invited along a number of times: I was one of two men there tonight.

Stephanie kicks off with a 'circuit training' style warm-up, with four stations in each corner of the mat. You start off with jumping jacks, then kimura sit ups (in other words, diagonal rather than square on with your knees), mountain climbers and finally using a Swiss ball to swivel onto your front then back again. I think it was two minutes every time, with two or three people at each station.

The topic for this month is half guard, as Stephanie noticed that some of her students were having issues with half guard at the Boca Open. To start off we did some specific sparring from half guard, keeping things fairly light. I was with the other guy in class, Patrick. Underneath, I did my terrified squirrl impression and clung on tightly to his leg, spending most of it in quarter-guard (so, clinging to the lower part of the leg). He basically had back control at the end, wriggling that second hook into place.

On top, I got swept a lot. I wasn't able to dig out any space for the underhook, reverting to that position where you are turned towards their legs. I could perhaps have used my head next to theirs for more control, clamping my elbow. Either way, Patrick was able to get underneath me every time and roll me over, so my base wasn't solid enough and my grips were poor. Good reminder that I should think more carefully about half guard passing! :)

Technique for tonight was a straight-forward half guard sweep. Assuming you don't have the underhook next, get up on your side and bring your top arm in front of their face, swivelling it to reach past their armpit. Use that to slide down towards their legs, reaching through their legs with your bottom arm. Link your hands together.

Stretch out their leg on that side with your own. Making sure you keep your inside leg over their calf (otherwise they can just step into mount), push off with your outside foot and roll them away from you, moving to the top position. Be careful of staying too close to their legs: if you leave your head and arm inside their legs, they can go for a triangle. Once you're on top, you should be able to move into side control, sliding past their leg.

The other option is almost exactly the same, except that you roll them the other way, over your body. This feels more natural, though like Patrick said, that could just be because of our jiu jitsu instincts. For somone who hasn't trained before, perhaps the other way would feel more intuitive. ;)

Class finished off with several rounds of sparring. I had a light roll with Stephanie, who is recovering from a knee injury. That prevents her from standing up to pass, which meant I wasn't going to the gi grips I've been playing with recently. At some point I got on top and tried for the spinning gi lapel choke, but I went for it too early, without having secured enough gi by her neck.

I had a few rolls with several of the other women in the class, who had good hip movement and plenty of energy. Maria pretty much had a rear naked choke locked on from a smooth transition, but I think her elbow wasn't quite by my chin, so I had enough space to squirm out.

Sparring with Patrick involved me getting choked. I was falling into the trap of going to the running escape then having my back taken. The first one was a rear naked choke (I think?), followed by a bow and arrow grip finished with his fre arm sliding behind my head. I remembered to pull on the elbow to escape one bow and arrow type attempt, but couldn't manage it the second time.

I also kept getting my arm trapped between his legs, I think because I was looking to go to deep half from mount. I need to keep in mind the primary rule for escaping the back: protect your neck! I'm getting complacent on that, which leads to being choked. ;)

I really liked the atmosphere at the women's class: everyone was very friendly and the rolls were at a good pace. As Artemis BJJ will soon be starting a womens class, I'm keen to glean any tips, especially given Stephanie's approach has been so successful. The number of women at the club has grown from 1 to over 20 since Allie and Stephanie started: if we can manage that at Artemis it would be awesome! :D

17/06/2013 - University of Jiu Jitsu (San Diego, USA)

Class #505
University of Jiu Jitsu (BJJ), Rentao Lima Vieira, San Diego, CA, USA - 17/06/2013

My final training in California was at another beautiful facility, the University of Jiu Jitsu. I have admired the instructionals of the Ribeiro brothers for a long time and Saulo is a jiu jitsu hero of mine, meaning it was an honour to train at his gym and interview him.

This was all thanks to Dave Kim, the man who both originally pitched the idea of the BJJ Library to Saulo and now runs it (that includes filming, admin etc, so he's a busy man), having moved across the country to do so. He contacted me about reviewing the site some time ago, then when I mentioned I was coming to California, he immediately offered to drive me over to the academy and set up the interview with Saulo. I felt very lucky to get to chat to the man himself for almost an hour as a result.

The University is yet another stop Julia visited back in 2011 during her West Coast trip. Unlike that time, Saulo was not there to teach the class, as this was the early morning 09:00-10:00 session. The instructor was Renato Vieira (sitting next to Saulo in the picture above), who judging by Google and Facebook is associated with Rodrigo Pagani, one of Saulo's black belts. If you're on BJJ Library, Pagani is the guy who has the Curu Curu guard videos, although I haven't looked at those yet. Vieira led four of us through a standard warm-up of running round the room, facing in, knees up, shrimping and so forth. That progressed to a strongly judo influenced set of drills, with grip fighting followed by some takedown entries.

The technique for the lesson was a deep half guard sweep. You have half guard with a knee shield. Move your head and arm close to their non-wrapped leg, curling in tight. Stretch out their trapped leg with both of yours by straightening them, while at the same time shooting the arm you've brought near their other leg underneath it. Bump them up with that arm, bringing it past their bottom, as you turn your body. Your reaching arm now locks above their knee, while your other elbow stays hidden: the first thing they will try from top deep half is isolating that arm, therefore keeping it safe is a priority.

Hooking under their ankle with your leg and lift, using that to spin to the top and initiate your pass. When Vieira walked round to check on drilling, he added another detail for Dave and I. Normally deep half results in them having a leg behind your head, but sometimes they may be able to get it past your head. If that happens, switch your grips to instead gable grip and lock around the hip of that same leg. From there, you still want to lift up their ankle, but simply roll them backwards. Come up and use your control of their hip to transition into a single stack pass.

Sparring started with Dave at a fairly light pace, probably because he is both bigger and more skilled than I am. I was looking for the tripod and sickle sweep again when we were in open guard, but kept being blocked because Dave would crouch slightly and bring a knee forward. I need to develop a good follow-up sweep for when that happens, particularly as Dave was not the only person to do that to me today.

The next roll was with a green belt (an unusual rank for an adult in BJJ, but several schools use it, such as ATT and University of Jiu Jitsu), again a bit bigger than me. He also recently starred in a video where Saulo drains his cauliflower ear, which got a bit of traction on YouTube. They were talking about it before the lesson, although it appears Saulo did a good job as I didn't notice the green belt's ear being particularly messed up. I briefly had an attempt at the windscreen wiper sweep, but soon got passed.

He had little trouble squashing me under side control, where yet again I relied on the running escape to save me. My partner's response to it was stepping over the head, whereupon I went to turtle and tried to return to guard, but mostly just got stuck in the running escape. He would step back over to repeat the pattern, until the timer went. Like John said in Texas, I must develop a chain of escapes rather than 100% running escape, which has been an issue for a while now.

My final roll was with the six-month white belt who like me was visiting from out of town. Naturally I had an advantage given I've been training a lot longer than that, so could practice my top control and closed guard. For once I was able to successfully use the overhook from closed guard, then slowly work to a triangle. However, that again was very much down to the experience gap, not any skill on my part: in another six months, I am sure that roll would have been quite different as he wouldn't leave those gaps.

Saulo arrived after the class had finished: he is a lot bigger in person, with arms larger than my head. Saulo's passion for his latest project, the BJJ Library run by Dave, is clear. Saulo and Dave have a lot of plans for the site, which also came out in Saulo's interview, along with his thoughts on moving to America, teaching methodology, growing BJJ and numerous other topics. That will all be popping up in a future issue of Jiu Jitsu Style. (Update Feb 2015: The whole interview is now available here)

Thanks again to Saulo for the interview and to Dave for being such a great host. Dave welcomed me to San Diego from the Greyhound station, drove me around the city to show me the sights the next day, then brought me to Saulo's school for training a few hours before I flew out. :D

03/12/2011 - Mauricio Gomes Masterclass & GB Submission Only Comp

Class #435
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Mauricio 'Maurição' Motta Gomes, Bristol, UK - 03/12/2011

I've been out of training for the last week, as last weekend I got some kind of nasty flu. That meant I wasn't sleeping well, so spend the day and night sniffling while wrapped up in a sleeping bag, my laptop at the ready. Also meant I finally got round to watching the commentaries of my Blackadder box set, then put on Battlestar Galactica, which I keep hearing is really good. Decent plot and acting so far, but then I've only been through the mini-series and first episode.

I was determined to make today, as we were going to have the rare treat of Mauricio 'Maurição' Gomes popping down to do a 'masterclass', before the regular internal Gracie Barra competition Geeza runs every few months. If you don't know who he is, Maurição has four major claims to fame: first, he is one of the very few people to be promoted to black belt by Rolls Gracie. Second, he is the man largely responsible for growing BJJ in the UK. Third, he is a member of another rare group, red and black belts (the belt after black belt). Finally, his son is Roger Gracie, whose name might ring a bell. ;)

I was also to grab Maurição for an interview later in the day, which was cool: we spent a good forty minutes chatting about Rolls Gracie, BJJ in the UK, Roger, belt tests, the first female black belt and various other topics. Always great to chat to the big names. I have met Maurição before, back when I was training regularly at the RGA HQ, but I was surprised that he remembered me. Clearly a man with a good memory for faces! ;)

There was no warm-up, as Maurição went straight into technique, keeping things fairly basic. He started off with a guard pass, where you grab both their collars with one hand and their sleeve with the other. Shove that sleeve into their hip, then hop up into a crouch, basing by pressing your weight through your hands. Stand up, letting go of the collars but pulling up on their sleeve. With your free hand, press inside their knee while simultaneously stepping your same side leg back.

Ideally, that should mean you can now open their guard and shove their knee to the floor. As soon as you do, slide your same side knee over, pinning their leg to the mat with your shin. You now have two options for passing. Either you can bump their other leg up onto your shoulder, reach for the collar with your outside hand then smash pass (like I showed last week), or you can go the other way, backstepping then pulling your leg through.

Maurição followed up with some knee on belly attacks, of which I think there were about four. However, I was drilling with Maeve, so that was a bit overwhelming for a white belt, meaning we just stuck with the first one. After you've passed and established knee on belly, sliding your knee across their belt line, get a deep grip in their collar, four fingers in, just like you were going for a cross choke. Your other hand goes on top, gripping the other collar thumb in. Once you've secured that grip, sprawl back with your feet, which puts all your weight through the neck, then twist your wrists to finish the submission.

Having covered knee on belly, Maurição moved rapidly onto attacks from mount. Specifically, it was technical mount, for when your opponent has turned to one side. Again, just like a class I've taught before (although obviously I don't teach it anywhere near as well as Maurição, who has literally been a black belt longer than I've been alive), during the technical mount portion of my attacking the mount lesson.

Finally, Maurição went through a couple of basic sweeps, the double ankle grab and one of my favourites, the sickle sweep (which I last taught here). He then handed over to one of the other black belts in attendance, Nick Brooks (if you're wondering who the other two were, it was Salvo from GB Bath and Raphael Dos Santos, who runs a number of schools under the GB Cornwall banner)

Having experienced Nick's excellent instruction at Mill Hill a couple of times, I knew he'd have something good up his sleeve. Today, that was a nifty but simple half guard sweep. The starting position is unusual. You have your inside foot over their upper leg, hooking around for control, but the knee of your leg is still in front of them, pressing into their hip. Your outside leg is just clamping tight against them, rather than locked up into an orthodox half guard.

Grab their sleeve on the outside leg side, while also gripping their trouser leg on the inside leg side. Bridge slightly, then turn towards the outside leg, driving your knees in that direction, pulling on their sleeve and lifting with your trouser grip. Very simple, but effective.

That marked the end of the masterclass, which ran for about an hour. Geeza then sorted out the brackets for the internal competition. This is open to all Gracie Barra students in the UK. Previously, the competitions have mainly consisted of Gracie Barra Bristol and Gracie Barra Bath, but this time a number of students came along from Cornwall, Birmingham, Swindon, Wales, the main RGA school in London and Nick Brooks' school in Mill Hill. GB Bristol has a lot of mat space, so Geeza was able to have five matches running at once.

I wasn't feeling up to competing (perhaps I'll give it a shot in the future, as I couldn't really ask for a more convenient environment), so instead I helped out as a ref. Of course, that wasn't a very demanding job, given the rules of this particular competition. Geeza, as you may know if you've ever watched his TheRealGeeza YouTube channel, is a firm believer that you should aim to finish the fight, not play for points. To that end, the internal GB comps he runs are submission only.

That meant my job as a ref was basically to stop people rolling into other fights, avoid hitting the wall, pause the action if trousers or jacket were falling off (more common than you'd expect!), stop the fight once someone was tapping and then raise the hand of the winner. Some techniques were illegal, such as cervical locks, slamming and all leglocks except straight ankle locks, but nobody ended up doing them and getting disqualified.

It was cool to get some reffing experience, as that's something I'd like to get into, in order to become a better teacher: I'll often have students ask, "so how many points would that be?", and I'm not always certain when the situation gets a bit more complex. Submission only is a good way to dip my toes, as it is so much simpler than the usual IBJJF rules. Most of the fights were pretty quick, but there were a few monsters, such as the epic eighty minute white belt battle. Among the women, Maeve also had an impressively long fight, going for fifty-three minutes.

Finaly, it was great to catch up with some old training partners from RGA and GB Brum, especially Conor, who I hadn't even realised was here in England now rather than Belfast. There should eventually be lots of videos, either on TheRealGeeza or the official Gracie Barra Bristol channel, so keep an eye on those. :)

15/11/2011 - Gracie Barra Bristol (Half Guard Back Take)

Class #432
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Donal Carmody, Bristol, UK - 15/11/2011

I finally got round to listening to Aesopian's excellent interview on new BJJ podcast, The Flow recently. If for some reason you don't know who Aesopian is, he is basically the Godfather of BJJ Blogging. I'm not sure if he was actually the first person to start typing systematically about BJJ training, but he was the first to do it really, really well. Without any doubt, Aesopian's blog was a big factor in inspiring my own.

Tonight, Donal shared an option for taking the back from half guard. They've flattened you out on your back, so you're exactly where you don't want to be. Start by swimming the arm you have by their head under their neck, circling your hand around. You can then brace your forearm into their throat, to prevent them driving their weight through their shoulder into your neck. Be aware that they may try to knock your arm sideways across your throat, so they can go for an arm triangle

You now want to get on your side. Kick your leg forwards to swing your body up. You can either have your knee by your elbow, to try and maintain that space, or you can stick your knee on their hip. As you pop up onto your side, slide in and sink right down, so that your ear is by their belly button. Switch your arm to grip around their back. Also turn your knee outwards to give yourself base. From there, go to their back.

If they overhook, clamp their arm in place, then yank it forwards (I think this is off Caio Terra's half guard DVD). Switch the sleeve of their arm to your other hand and push it to the mat. That means not only have you trapped their arm, you've also got additional base and you've created lots of space to being your ascent to the back.

In sparring, Donal as usual started off with specific sparring, splitting the class into groups of 1-2-3. I stayed on top, as my neck is still playing up: it becomes a problem if I get squished on the bottom, but I can avoid using it when I'm on top of mount, half guard, side control etc. However, it does limit me in half-guard, as I rely quite a lot on my head to maintain control. I like to shove it next to their head, then use that combined with shoulder pressure to pass. It is also handy for base, if they start trying to roll you over.

As I couldn't use my head, I instead had to rely on pressure from my hips and good grips with my arms. When grabbing under their head, I brought my hand all the way through and also gripped tightly onto their shoulder (or their armpit, if I could reach it). I also tried turning towards their legs, clamping my elbow to the far side and attempting to maximise hip pressure. Still, I definitely didn't feel anywhere near as secure as I normally do, so was getting rolled, particularly by the bigger guys.

In free sparring, I stuck with either smaller or controlled people, as I didn't want to mess up my neck again (with has happened twice in the last month or two, both times because I kept turtling against white belts who were staying active on top). This time, I stayed either in open guard, or I worked to get on top of either half guard, mount or side control. If I could get to a dominant position, I tried let them into the game a bit, as it isn't very helpful to just lie there.

Underneath was interesting, as on numerous occasions I had to stop myself rolling into the running escape or turtling. That means I was instead forced to stay on my back and use my knees and arms, trying to create a frame to then recover guard. If you can get your skeletal structure into the right alignment (e.g., framing your forearms or knees into their hips), that can be a useful start to guard recovery. Of course, much easier when people aren't going nuts, or if they're much less experienced than you.

A few people were going for footlocks too, which is unusual. Good practice for my defence on that front, which at the moment just consists of grabbing their gi and pulling them close to me, then driving forwards and stepping through. There is a free internal Gracie Barra Bristol submission only comp coming up on 3rd December (open to any Gracie Barra students, I think), so perhaps people are looking to improve their straight footlocks in preparation for that.

03/10/2011 - Gracie Barra Bristol 1 Year Anniversary (Half Guard)

Class #421
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Oli Geddes, Bristol, UK - 03/10/2011

Tonight was special, as it marks the one year anniversary of Gracie Barra Bristol. Back then, we were in the small building up the stairs, crammed into a small but comfortable room at the top. I first headed down at the end of October 2010, eager to try out the Roger Gracie team outpost in Bristol. Fortunately for me, plans for moving down here came to fruition, after my girlfriend bought a house just round the corner from Geeza's new academy.

As it was a special night, Geeza had two higher belts in attendance. Michael 'Big Mick' Wilson, a top black belt from Australia, was visiting after taking part in the ADCC. I think he used to train with Donal back Down Under, so is staying with him for a few days. Big Mick is also going to be teaching a class on Wednesday, though unfortunately I won't be able to make that as I have writing commitments. Still, will be cool to have him in class over the next few days.

The other higher belt was my first ever instructor of BJJ, half guard master Oli Geddes. I don't think there is anyone else in the UK who competes as much as Oli: if you want to enjoy his half guard goodness, he has videos of most of his fights on his blog and YouTube channel. I haven't been taught by Oli much since that intro class in October 2006 (again October, clearly a good month for BJJ beginnings), except for this class in 2008. Having experienced Oli's teaching when he was a blue and then a purple, tonight I got the chance to see brown belt Oli in action.

Like 2008, he again stuck with the strongest part of his game, half guard. That started off with maintaining half guard, which reminded me a bit of Indrek's version (which I taught a while ago). Like Indrek, Oli emphasised that you should be worrying more about the cross-face than the underhook. Therefore, block that cross-facing arm with both of your hands.

In terms of your legs, Oli feels that the inside leg is the most important: bring that over towards the outside, so that it is clamping down diagonally across their lower leg. You don't want to be too shallow. If they try to circle their leg out, hook your foot around their shin, but otherwise just keep pressuring down.

You outside leg doesn't necessarily need to be triangled over the inside leg. The main purpose of the outside leg is getting the knee either into their hip or higher up, towards their chest. Make sure you don't put it across their stomach, as then they can shove down on the knee and collapse your leg. That's the basic pass they're going to be looking for, so keep your knee firmly against the hip or chest.

From half guard, it is essential to secure an underhook. However, if you try to reach under their arm from far out, they can easily swim underneath and establish their own underhook. Therefore, you want to minimise the space. Come up on one elbow, still blocking their cross-face with the other hand. Sit up, bumping your free forearm into their chest. From there, you can then circle your arm around for the underhook. That's much less distance for your arm to travel. Finish by jamming your head close to their chest: if you leave any room, they can start to push on your skull, or even work for a cross-face.

You've got half guard, so it's time for a half guard sweep. Begin by switching your legs. Either do that in one motion, transferring your outside leg to the inside, or stamp the outside leg into their calf, sliding it into position. Your outside heel is then going to slip to their instep, hooking it backwards. Push your leg through, so that their instep is in the back of your knee, then lock their heel to the back of their hamstring. The idea is to force them to angle their knee inwards, which disrupts their base.

That whole motion is awkward, so it takes some getting used to, but there is a video of Oli teaching it. Next you want to stop them basing out with their free leg. Using your same side hand, grab the gi material by their knee. Slide your inside leg (the one which isn't clamping their heel to their hamstring) underneath their trapped leg, then come to your knees.

Reach further around their back to grip their side, then drive into them sideways. Pull with your knee grip, which should help knock them down. Keep hold of that as you move around, so they can't readjust to escape. Once they're on the floor, it should be a simple matter to backstep and transition into side control.



Handily, Oli's follow-up sweep combines nicely, as you can keep switching between these two sweeps depending on their reaction. The second sweep starts from the point where you've got to your knees and are trying to drive forward. However, they've somehow managed to drop their weight into you, preventing the sweep. That means there is lots of momentum driving into you, which also means you can use physics against them.

Drop back to the mat, roll underneath and thrust your knee-gripping arm upwards. As you've still got their heel clamped to their hamstring, you should be able to keep turning, until they are put onto their back. Come up on top, then continuing to push your knee-grip into the floor to trap their leg, move around into side control, or possible even mount.

I had more trouble with the final technique, Oli's infamous loop choke. Thankfully there is video of him teaching that too, although his shows it slightly differently. The way he taught it tonight was to start by gripping their collar, putting your knuckles into their clavicle. Pull them forwards, slipping that collar around their neck as you do, then also pushing on their head with your other hand.

Raise up the elbow of your collar-gripping hand, so that there is a window to insert your other hand. Pointing the fingers of that other hand up, to lock it in place. To finish, lift the elbow of the collar gripping hand while dropping the elbow of the other hand. It also helps if you can get your leg into the bicep of their same side arm, or even better over the top.

Oli mentioned that this choke is sufficiently versatile to function from various positions, such as butterfly guard, and also when they're trying to establish double underhooks on your legs to pass. I struggled to get my hands in the right place, so kept missing the correct choking point. I could occasionally get a sloppy choke into the windpipe, but not the proper blood choke. Good thing there is video. ;)



Normally, Monday is two classes, split into an hour each. Tonight, they merged into one, so after technique it was time for sparring. I started off with Kirsty, looking to play around with spider guard again. I made the mistake of giving up my back, for which I was very nearly punished: Kirsty was close to choking me out at several points. I defended using the crappy option of shifting my gi collar up onto my chin, which is not advisable as people can just dig that painfully into your face. Probably the only reason I didn't get choked was because Kirsty was being nice: she thought she'd kicked me in the head, so paused to check before restarting.

After that, I had a good technical roll with Tony, who like Kirsty is close to my size. I was messing about with wrapping the gi around various limbs without any real clue of what to do with them. Still, I did manage to get a sweep as a result, though I'm not sure how: something to do with wrapping it by his leg and grabbing a foot. I also got stuck under Tony's mount, which gave me an opportunity to try deep half.

That happened with Kirsty too, but both times I wasn't getting the right grips. I can get underneath and grab their leg with my legs, but I think my head position and hands are in the wrong place. It doesn't feel like I'm disrupting their base at all, so perhaps I need to kick my legs up to move their weight higher. My head should be lower. I haven't paid much attention to deep half, but as I'm finding myself there more regularly, it's time I gave it more thought.

Finished up with Chris, who is a tough blue belt, but I was able to keep him at bay with the usual spider guard lasso (mainly because he isn't sure how to pass it). I was using my other foot and knee to press against his shoulder, chest and hip. That meant I could keep slipping out of his attempts to press down to establish a passing position. However, I again was failing to do anything offensive with my spider guard, just holding him in place.

At the end of class, Geeza held another photoshoot to mark the occasion. Due to the large numbers of Gracie Barra Bristol members in attendance, the organisation for colour coordinating the pictures was almost as hard as the preceding two hours of training! ;)

22/04/2011 - Gracie Barra Bristol

Class #389
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Nicolai 'Geeza' Holt, Bristol, UK - 022/04/2011

I was at a friend's barbecue today, who just so happens to live right around the corner from Gracie Barra Bristol. My gf's new house is a few minutes away, and there is yet another friend who has bought a place nearby. Hopefully I'll be able to tempt some of them down, although "come roll with sweaty men" tends to be a difficult sell. But hey, I can hope.

An hour or two into the BBQ, I wandered off to Geeza's academy, where he went through some fairly complex techniques. The position for tonight was half guard, where they are on top and facing your legs. In order to sweep, you need to be careful of your leg position. It is tempting to triangle your legs, because that's the usual way of controlling from half guard.

However, if they're on top and facing your legs, then locking a triangle around their trapped leg will make it easier for them to pull the leg free. Instead, Geeza suggested putting your hooking hook on the outside of their trapped leg, with your knee pointing to the ceiling. Your other shin stays parallel to your first leg, again with the knee pointing straight up. Clamp those knees together for control. It should now be much harder for them to pull their leg free.

Next, your non-hooking foot is going to slip under their trapped heel. You also want to reach over their back and grab a lapel, pulling it out and wrapping it tight behind them. With your free hand, take a grip on their knee. Kick up with the foot behind their heel, while simultaneously pulling on their lapel and pushing their knee. This should spin them to their back, or at least onto their side, meaning you can come up and take side control.

Apparently last lesson, there was a simpler version, for when they are nearer your head. If that happens, you can simply reach over their head, lock your arms, pull them down towards you, then turn and come out on top. I think: Geeza briefly demonstrated it before going into tonight's techniques, so I'm quite possibly missing out some details. There was another one in that quick recap, but I can't remember it.

The last half guard sweep was from the same position as before, but this time they've also inserted their free shin in front of your thigh. That means the previous technique isn't going to work. I got a little confused about which leg goes where, but I think you started by using your inside hooking leg again. Grab their belt or the bottom of their trousers with one of your arms.

Either way, you then turn your body slightly towards the trapped side, with the aim of moving them slightly up and away. Reach under them and grab their lower trouser leg. Push that leg across, so that you can then bring your outside leg over both of their legs. Now all you have to do is come up on your elbow, then swivel around to the top position.

During specific sparring from that position, I didn't have much luck on top to start with: I just ended up getting my back taken. Underneath I got very confused about which leg was supposed to go where, so it wasn't long before I got passed. I had a bit better luck the third time round, on top: I established tight head control by grabbing onto the gi after wrapping my arm under their head.

That seemed to give me enough control to maintain base, then pick my moment to kick my leg free and pass. Then again, people are still going easy on me due to the lingering knee injury (mostly recovered now, but I'm trying not to push it too much).

In free sparring, I started with one of the larger teens, so we had a relatively light roll. I was playing around with various things, like the arm wrap from guard (failed to maintain enough control over the arm), spider guard attacks (didn't pull them forward and break their posture when going for the triangle) and twisting arm control (too loose a grip on the arm: should put my body into it to help trap it).

With one of the blue belts around my size, I obviously had to be more careful. I again tried the lasso spider guard control, but I'm focusing far too heavily on going for that triangle. That meant that because he put his knee in the way, I was basically just getting a grip then staring at him, uncertain of what to do next. I need to revise my options from there, as I know there are plenty of sweeps, but my mind went blank when trying to think of them.

I eventually did release and pop up for the triangle, but as before, I hadn't sufficiently broken down their posture. That meant they could easily just raise up and pass. So, back to the old running escape posture. I've been using that to stall far too often, so I made sure to complete the motion this time, pushing off my leg and swivelling back to guard.

However, I'm doing something wrong, as each time I spun, they just passed straight away. Either I need to block them by pressing into the shoulder and bicep and hip, or possibly something else Saulo does which I'm forgetting. I'll rewatch the video. Still, good to get into the habit of trying to escape rather than just lying there waiting.

Next week I'm off to the Peak District, which means I'll be able to go visit some fellow bloggers. First up is Adam from Conceptual BJJ, although he hasn't posted in a long while (in fact, the blog may be gone entirely now, I'll have to ask): he's a brown belt, in charge of Factory BJJ in Stockport. Then on Wednesday, I'll be heading over to Manchester to check out Liam the Part Time Grappler's class. Should be cool!

Roger Gracie Seminar

Seminar #6
RGA Aylesbury, (BJJ), Roger Gracie, Aylesbury, UK - 06/03/2011

Before I talk about this seminar, I wanted to talk about another one: be sure to check out the charity women-only BJJ seminar being held by black belt Helen Currie on 3rd April from 13:00-15:00, here. No experience necessary, and the proceeds go towards fighting breast cancer and ovarian cancer. The fee is a tiny £5, and it will be held in Oldham at Stealth BJJ. Worthy cause, and you get to learn some awesome technique: what more could you want? :)

Continuing with the charity theme, shout out to all the grapplers from Martial Arts Planet in Kingston, Ontario (the names I managed to catch are Laura, Lex, the Hull family, Morgan and especially fellow blogger Ashley, which is where I heard about it in the first place). I spent most of yesterday watching their live stream of a twenty-four hour grapple-a-thon event they had, in support of The Ontario Lung Association. The recording of the live stream is still up, in several parts, here. If you'd like to fight lung disease by donating to the Ontario Lung Association, click here.
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The seminar today (which incidentally was also in support of a charity, the Action for Brazil's Children Trust over in Brazil) is without any doubt the busiest class I've seen at the McLeod Academy, the home of RGA Bucks. The club has several locations: I used to be at the one in High Wycombe.

The name 'Roger Gracie' unsurprisingly gets people excited, so there were around sixty people from the club there, possibly more. I'm guessing sixty, as everyone gave a £10 donation to the Trust, and we ended up raising £607 in total. Either way, it was great to see several women among that sixty: with a high level female purple belt at the club (Yas, who recently recorded the below excellent video with Kev), I'm hopeful that the number of women will continue to grow.



I'm still taking it easy on my knee, so spent the warm-up doing sit-ups and press-ups rather than the usual jumping jacks and squats. However, it seemed to be relatively ok for the takedowns Roger taught (though we weren't actually bringing anyone to the mat, as there wasn't space). This begins from the grip break: you grip their sleeve on the top of their hand, and also underneath, making sure that there isn't any loose material. Step back and pull up at the same time.

Keeping one hand on the sleeve, transfer the other to their collar and pull them down to break their posture. Step outside their leg as you drop to take their leg, being sure to keep your head on the inside. Securing their leg with your arms, stand back up, then also trap the leg between your arms. From there, you can do for various takedowns, like the single leg, or indeed switch to a double leg.

The main technical instruction centred on the half guard. Roger taught a simple but very effective posture, which can help you either recover your full guard, take the back, or sweep. You need to get up on your side, with a same side underhook. It is also essential that you don't let them cross-face you, or they'll be able to drive forward and put you flat on your back.

So, keep tight and curled in, with your hand blocking their same side arm. For extra support, you can brace that hand with your head. Alternatively, you can simply put your hand on your head, with your forearm directly in front of your face. Curl in further towards them, ideally getting right by their leg. This will make it very difficult for them to fish your head free. Most likely, they will end up trying to drive their weight forward.

As soon as you feel that weight transfer, bring your underhooking arm up, in order to knock them off-balance, past your head. You can then come up on your elbow (same arm that is on your head). Don't bring your head out from underneath them yet, as you don't want to give them a chance to control it. From there, you may find you have space to slip your knee through to get back to full guard, or swing round to take the back.

A more experienced opponent will be wise to what you're doing, and as soon as you underhook, they will look to overhook that arm, establishing what's called a 'whizzer'. That now blocks you from taking the back, but it does present other opportunities. The technique is much the same as above, but this time you can't go to the back.

If they don't drive their weight forward, you can try to move out to all fours, from which you can try to attack (e.g., if you go for their far leg and perhaps get to side control). If they do drive their weight forward, swivel underneath, reaching your basing arm behind their leg. Continue the roll, and their momentum should enable you to bring them over your body, so that you move into top half guard.

That was it for technique, moving straight into specific sparring. Again, I sat this one out, though I did get to watch some good rounds of sparring: for example, Callum's nifty open guard, which has caused me problems many times. There were about four rounds of that, split by weight, followed by free sparring.

After Roger called time, everybody lined up, a tight squeeze with that many people. Kev announced that Roger was going to do some gradings (the main reason he'd popped down today), drawing out a clutch of crisp new blue belts from a box behind him. I didn't catch the name of everybody who was called up, but well done to all. Next, Kev started pulling out purple belts. Sahid was up first, a very well deserved promotion: he's been dominating the competition scene for a while now. He was followed by Callum, Howard and Matty Burn, along with Tom and Adill. Awesome to see that many new purple belts at RGA Bucks, so massive congratulations to those guys.

Roger hadn't finished yet, as Kev handed him another purple: it turns out that I was going to get one too. I have to admit it makes me a little nervous, as I still feel I have so many holes in my game. However, I trust my instructor's judgement, particularly as Kev has rolled with me many times. It is also obviously a privilege to have the belt tied around my waist by Roger Gracie, the most dominant champion in BJJ's history.

I look forward to finally getting back to sparring, which will now become an especially good test of how well I can control my ego! ;)



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23/12/2010 - Mill Hill BJJ

Class #370
RGA Mill Hill, (BJJ), Nick Brooks, Mill Hill, UK - 23/12/2010

Kev has recently set up a blog for RGA Buckinghamshire (the place I train: I refer to it as RGA High Wycombe, because that's the location I go to. The main club is in Aylesbury, with another branch in Bletchley). Check it out here. Kev is planning to keep it regularly updated with the latest news about RGA Bucks.

Due to the bad weather, Kev closed down for the Christmas break a few days early. So, I decided to take the opportunity to check out another RGA affiliate, in Mill Hill. Nick Brooks' club is the first RGA affiliate, as far as I'm aware, which was later followed by Farringdon, Kilburn and the rest of the growing RGA family. I've trained with Nick before, having been taught by him a couple of times back when he was a purple belt, and also rolled with him (I remember getting footlocked. A lot.)

This was the first time I'd experienced a Nick Brooks class at his own school. It is relatively easy to get to: I hopped on the underground, going from Marylebone to Oxford Circus on the Bakerloo, then the Victoria line through to Kings Cross, and finally an overground train to Mill Hill Broadway. If you head out of the station, down the stairs and past the buses (bearing to your left), you will eventually turn onto a street called The Broadway.

Follow that round to the left until you hit Bunns Lane. Keep on going down that road (you'll have to cross over a couple of times as the footpath appears and disappears) until you see a little industrial looking complex, with a music centre and a car wash. If you go in there and walk past the units with music blaring out of them, you'll eventually see the distinctive Mill Hill logo, with two big tyres outside (presumably for the strength and conditioning sessions).

There was a pretty good turnout for the day before Christmas Eve, mostly white belts, but also a blue and a purple belt present too. Nick was very welcoming to both me and another guy who was visiting from Gracie Barra Essex. After getting changed upstairs in the lounge (bunch of sofas, heaters, a big TV, grappling magazines and a copy of The Gracie Way: you couldn't ask for much more), it was time for class.

The warm-up was interesting, as Nick had us do what he called 'jiu jitsu chess'. I've heard about that in the context of Hélio Gracie before, where the idea is to take it in turns getting into different positions. You don't offer up any resistance, just let your partner test something out, then you respond from whatever position you end up in. Not something I've done before: essentially, it felt like the step before flow-rolling.

Nick then asked the class what they wanted to do, settling on the purple belt's suggestion of practicing some half guard sweeps. The initial two were from a knee shield/z-guard, while the third switched to half butterfly. I particularly liked the last one, as that works from when you're stuck under a dominant half guard.

The first half guard sweep begins in typical half guard, with the modification that you insert the knee of your outside leg into their hip. If you can, you want to get the shin across, but you also need to be able to lock your feet, or at least wrap your instep by your heel. If you leave your legs open, they can simply raise their trapped leg and pivot, bringing their lower leg through the gap between your feet.

Nick said that the far underhook was less of an issue than the cross-face, so having got onto your side with that knee braced against them, put both hands on their cross-facing arm to block their attempt to get their shoulder into your face. Get a strong grip on their sleeve with your top hand (which will therefore be a cross-grip, as that will be the opposite arm).

Your other hand reaches under their same side leg, grabbing the bottom of their trousers (not inside the cuff though, as that is illegal). Pull their sleeve and drive your knee into them, so that you're basically doing a scissor sweep, but from half guard. It is integral to the technique that you don't let go of those grips.

Also, don't get over-excited and try and jump right into side control. Instead, you're just going to roll your hips, staying low and pressed into them the whole time, hip to hip. As you are still holding their leg, they can't re-lock their half guard. You can simply move your trapped leg backwards to stretch out their leg, then loop it around, moving into side control.

You also still have that grip on the sleeve, which sets you up immediately for an americana. You have a number of options to secure the figure four, depending on how you're holding that sleeve. One way is to control their arm with the other hand to then re-establish a better grip on the wrist with your first hand. Another is to roll your hand forward or backwards to change from the sleeve to the wrist. Or you could try pressing your head into their arm, and use that to hold it in place while you get the proper grips.

That was followed by a variation on the same half guard sweep. This time, you've gone for the scissor motion, but they have moved their head in the opposite direction your knee shield is pointing, which shifts their base. You can no longer get the half guard scissor, but in changing their weight distribution, they have opened up an alternative.

Open up their arm with the sleeve grip, so that they move perpendicular to your body. This also means you can shift your knee shield so that they are balanced on the shin. If you get this right, they should feel fairly weightless. All you need to do now is roll backwards over your shoulder, still holding on to that sleeve grip. As before, you'll end up in side control with the americana ready to be applied.

Finally, Nick demonstrated how even when you've messed up and are stuck underneath half guard, and they have a strong cross-face and far underhook, you can still get a sweep. Start by opening up their lapel with your free hand, on the opposite side to the leg you've trapped. Bring that gi material over their back and feed it to your other hand: this grip needs to be tight, so you want to work your hand as close to the armpit as you can.

Shrimp out towards the trapped side (you'll have to release your locking leg to do this, so keep the inside leg heavy on their calf to stop them passing). You may need to do this a couple of times, until you can insert your outside foot under their inner thigh. This means you are now in half-butterfly.

With your free hand, pin the arm they have under your head to your skull: note that you want to avoid them bringing their knee up into your armpit, as that gives them better control. You can now lift with your butterfly hook, stepping in with your other leg if you need additional leverage (same as with the orthodox sweep from full butterfly guard).

Don't get greedy and try to go straight to mount, as they will probably snatch half guard. Instead, as soon as your knee hits the mat, switch your hips so that your other legs swings over, putting you in side control. This is much safer. Of course, it is not a bad thing to get mount, but due to that high risk of getting caught in half, it makes more sense to go for side control in this situation.

Nick had everyone who wanted to spar line up against the wall, whereupon he matched us up. I started off with a white belt, which gave me a chance to work my offence. I played around with that same spider guard attack where you're pressing into one arm with both feet, but didn't quite get what I wanted, as I think my posture was a bit off: I was falling off to one side. I also went for a handstand sweep, although I think a higher belt would have punished me for my sloppy transition from there.

Next was the purple belt, which of course made for a tougher roll. It also meant I could test out the running escape again, which seemed to work fairly well in terms of defending myself, but not much more than that (though of course hard to know if they were taking it easy on me or something like that). I concentrated on preventing their arm from getting around my torso, or if they did, locking that up with the intention of using the space they want to attack in order to effect my escape (although we didn't get that far: mostly just stayed in a 'survival' position, attempting to feel if there was any space opening up).

For the rest of the class, I went with Nick. As with Kev, he is so much better than me that he took it very easy, leaving openings to see what I'd do. Also as with Kev, that resulted in me mostly staring at him from open guard. I was trying to go for a couple of things, like the spider guard attack again, but got nowhere with that. I also wanted to try sitting guard, but couldn't break his grips.

Again like Kev, he mentioned I wasn't doing enough to break his grips, letting him get a dominant hold. However, what make Kev and Nick good instructors is that they don't just say "be more assertive," they add in plenty of technical pointers too. This time, they mostly came as a result of the next round of sparring, where upon being given the choice I asked to work on passing.

First important detail was thrusting my hips forward. However, that wasn't as simple as I thought, as you don't want to be able to see your feet. I was thrusting my hips, but with my feet splayed out, so that I wasn't creating a convex shape with my body. You need to make sure you are really driving those hips forward, so that bend becomes pronounced.

Secondly, basic posture when looking to pass the De La Riva. Turn the foot of your hooked leg outwards, so that you can then drive your shin into the back of their leg. This will make it very difficult for them to maintain a hook. You can then continue your De La Riva pass, normally grabbing the other leg to start.

Third, for when you're on the bottom in reverse De La Riva, grab the trouser leg rather than the ankle. If you grab the ankle, it is easier for them to kick their leg free, or drive through to collapse your knees and slide into side control. I think that also may have been happening with the purple belt, as I kept getting into quarter guard, holding him off for a moment, then getting stuck in either knee on belly or side control (the running escape seemed to come in handy for both).

Thanks again to Nick for his generosity, not only in having me down to train, but also because he spent a good thirty minutes or so sparring with me and providing lots of excellent advice. That wraps up this year's training. My next session should be at Gracie Barra Bristol at the start of the next year: I'm currently intending to head along for the Sunday sparring session on the 2nd January 2011 (I would aim for Friday, but that's New Year's Eve, so I'll most likely be deep in drunken conversation at a house party).

21/04/2010 - BJJ (Advanced)

Class #306
Gracie Barra Birmingham, (BJJ), Rob Stevens, Birmingham, UK - 21/04/2010

I should probably try and sync up my bus from campus better with the train to Acocks Green, as there are mainly two options from Leamington Train Station: either the 17:28 or the 17:58. I finish work at 16:30, but only managed to get to Leamington for 17:30. There must be an earlier bus than that, even given the rush hour. Still, early days, as I'm still working out the best route.

Once I got the train, it was relatively easy. Even though the 17:58 was slightly delayed, I still got to Solihull at 18:27, in time to catch the 18:30 on to Acocks Green. Of course, it is worth noting that any delays to the Leamington train should probably carry over to the connecting service at Solihull, because it is on the same line. At least that's what I'm hoping!

Either way, I got to Acocks Green at 18:39, where it was a less than five minute walk to Gracie Barra Birmingham (even though I initially went the wrong way: if you see a sign for 'The Avenue', turn around and go in the other direction. In other words, out the station and turn right). Keep going until you see Station Road (shouldn't take long), then walk down that until you see a gym peeping out from between two shops. You can see it directly on Google Maps street view, so shouldn't be any problems finding it.

Once I'd paid my £60 to the desk (though it is direct debit, you pay the first month in cash, but it doesn't have to be immediate), the lesson started in a similar way to Monday. Again, it was running round the room with variations (knees up, heel up, sprints, sideways etc), interspersed with press-ups and star jumps. That was followed by shrimping, and a few other exercises I haven't done much before, like shrimping forwards, or another one where you grab the bottom of your partner's trousers, they walk forward and stop, then you drag yourself along the floor to get level again.

However, it was mercifully shorter than Monday, and also finished with some stretching. Rob then got into the technique, starting with a single leg takedown. You feint to get them to rock back on their heel, then drop forwards onto your front knee (you're in a mirror stance to your opponent). Grab low on their leg, your head inside, shoulder on the outside, underneath their knee. Drive forward and put them on the mat.

There are clearly plenty of EFN users at GB Brum, as not only does instructor Rob post there, but I had one person ask me if I was slideyfoot, while another mentioned they posted as Tom H. Perhaps unsurprising, as it is a huge club, with an impressive number of higher belts rolling on the mat: I think there were about three brown belts tonight, which apparently isn't even that impressive by GB Brum standards. Christian was saying that some nights, there are considerably more, alongside a fair few black belts too.

The groundwork selection was right up my street, beginning with a mount escape. That went straight into deep half guard, which isn't something I've seen much before (I know Jeff Glover has a popular DVD series on the topic, but I'd generally viewed deep half guard as a bit too advanced for me up until now). I really liked Rob's clear, detailed style of instruction, going over the technique several times, emphasising major points and never rushing through his descriptions.

You are stuck under mount. If they aren't already leaning forward, bridge to make them base out forwards. Brace your forearm across their torso, so that your hand is holding their opposite hip. Your same side hand grabs their pant leg, or ankle if you can't reach it. Drop your same side leg to the floor, knee pointing towards that trouser you've grabbed. The other knee is up, pressing into their back.

Bump them forward with that knee, then immediately shove that trapped leg over the knee you have on the floor, snatching half guard and pinching your knees together. You don't want to stop there, as now you bring both hands to that hip you were holding. Push up and come underneath their leg, slipping slightly down it as well.

You want to end up in deep half guard. This means that your shoulder is underneath their leg, while your head is by their hip and belt, clamped to the leg. You have one arm wrapped under and over, holding by the knee, while the other hand stays in tight to your body, or you could possibly hide it under their leg. Either way, you want to make sure they can't attack it for an underhook, an americana or something like that.

From here, you can now go for a deep half guard sweep. Walk your feet towards them (so moving in the direction of your head). When the moment is right, pendulum your legs back the other way, aiming to roll on top of that leg. Make sure that you hold the leg very tight, with arms that should now be wrapped under the knee.

If you don't, you'll be leaving yourself open for a triangle: an experienced grappler will be looking to pry your arm free in order to attack. Be patient, then using good timing (such as when they've strained away trying to break your grip in vain), move into a pass. Keep in mind the principle of either both arms in or both arms out, and also make sure that leg is controlled before your release the grip with your arms.

Sparring started with specific sparring from the mount, which was nice. I generally like to have a mixture between free and specific, as otherwise it can be difficult to work certain positions. The method wasn't quite king of the hill, but instead, everybody lined up and was counted off in groups of three. All the number ones would go on their backs, then after a while, all the number twos would do the same, finished with the threes.

I was a number one, so started on the bottom. To my surprise, I stayed there the whole time, which was a pleasant improvement on the kicking I got on Monday. I was generally just using the same leg drag to half guard, then shrimping to either get into closed guard or open guard. I didn't get a chance to use Rob's technique, but then that is going to take a while to add into my repertoire, not having used deep half guard before.

Of course, it tends to be easier to escape when specific sparring from mount rather than attack: things went much less well for me on top. I tried for my preferred low grapevine, but struggled to keep it: people were able to free their legs, dropping them flat, then quickly making space to escape. I did briefly manage to stop one guy bringing his long legs up and pulling me off mount, by staying low and scooting back to put him flat, but he managed it on the second attempt.

Free sparring followed, where I again had a roll with Christian. Unusually, this first one started from sparring, but both Christian and I were looking to pull guard: I dropped into half guard, then moved into open. Again, I wasn't able to initiate anything. If I had another private lesson, being proactive from open guard would probably be a good option, refining a few sweeps. We then moved through side control, knee on belly and at one point some kind of random reverse mount thing, during which time ran out. Entertaining stuff.

At one point, I was in Christian's guard, so was naturally keen to try out what I learned in Kev's private lesson on the twisting guard break. Unfortunately, I couldn't quite get into the position I wanted, as his guard was slightly open, and he had some control of my arms. I should have just gone for it and tried something, or perhaps attempted to step back immediately like Kev showed. Hopefully there will be some specific sparring from the guard at some point, which should provide some opportunity to practice.

Sparring got back to normal after that, starting from the knees. I took Kintanon's advice about being less lazy pulling guard, sliding forward straight into butterfly rather than just flopping backwards like on Monday. I was with a white belt, who stayed very tight, stopping me from getting the butterfly grips I wanted. I managed to catch an armbar as he stood up, but mainly due to surprise: he was waiting for it, but thought I'd take the other arm. I was pleased when I later moved into a triangle, saw I wasn't going to get it, and instead took the armbar from that position. That's a transition I need to do much more often.

Finally, I had a roll with Rob, who obviously had no issues controlling me. However, he was taking an instructor role, looking to see what I did in various positions. Very helpfully, he told me afterwards that I was making some mistakes with my elbows under side control, and then when class finished, gave me some excellent advice on exactly what he meant.

When somebody is on top of side control and they scoop up your far arm, you need to bump straight away and dig that elbow free. You can also use your leg and knee to help you, looking to brush their arm away, as if you're trying to connect your elbow to your hip. Like most people, I try to make sure I always keep the other arm by their hip, digging that elbow if they start to work it free, but I've never thought about digging the far arm too. Definitely something I want to keep in mind next time, which should be a big help to my defence.

Importantly, Rob finished with a warm-down, which I don't remember happening on Monday (perhaps the assumption there was that you'd do a stretch yourself). This time I took a shower at the gym, and they're pretty good: IIRC, you have a choice of about four, along a wall sharing a partition (rather than separate cubicles). It would be handy if there were some hooks to hang towels, but I may just have not noticed them.

I should be training again on Monday, but as my gf is up on the Tuesday, that may be it for next week. I'll see if I can make it for the 18:00 basics class too, but probably unlikely given the bus and train I need to catch first (unless I manage to get a lift with Alex again). Before that, there's a throwdown in Essex, this Saturday. Feel free to pop down, as the more the merrier! :D