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.
___________________________________________________

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! ;)



< Previous Seminar :::

26/10/2010 - BJJ (Beginner)

Class #353
RGA High Wycombe, (BJJ), Kev Capel, High Wycombe, UK - 26/10/2010

I didn’t make training last week, because I was off up north with my gf. Her best friend is getting married, which meant she had the dubious pleasure of spending many, many hours in Louth being fitted for a bridesmaid dress (apparently, here in the UK the correct term for best woman is indeed ‘chief bridesmaid’ rather than ‘Maid of Honour’, which I’m told is an American thing). On the way, we stopped off at Matlock in the Peak District, which not only had a lovely bed and breakfast at The Old Sunday School, but owners who could recommend the even more awesome pie night at The Thorn Tree pub (they have one every Wednesday). Very, very tasty, but also huge: next time, we’ll share a pie instead of tackling one each!

While there finally got to use our book of Peak District walks we bought years ago, heading off on the relatively short stroll from Birchover to Robin Hood’s Stride. On the way back, there was this brilliant place called Rowtor Rocks (there’s a turning near The Druid Inn), where the book tells me that some vicar in the 17th century decided to carve out passages, rooms and even armchairs from the rock. Lots of people trying to climb them, too: bouldering, I think it’s called?

The Ultimate Fighter also just stepped up a gear with a fantastic sixth episode. As ever, the careful editing is geared towards making you hate one team and love the other, but it nevertheless works. That has never been more true than in this episode, where it massively pays off. If you haven’t seen it already, try to avoid hearing the result and go check it out (decent grappling, GSP offering up lots of class, and even some words of wisdom from Camarillo). Should be available on either the TUF website or Sky Sports (which makes the annoying mistake of dubbing ‘UFC’ a sport rather than MMA), depending on where you live.

Class tonight began with a section from Gracie Barra Fundamentals, escaping scarf hold. This was specifically orthodox scarf hold rather than broken, meaning they are gripping under your head, rather than under your far armpit (which is tougher to escape). First you need to get the elbow of your trapped arm to the floor, after which your can bring your other hand over their head to create a frame, in combination with your now freed hand.

Shrimp out until you can bring your leg over their head: this may require several shrimping motions. Once your leg is in position, use that to roll them back. From here, you can either come up to side control, or look to attack their arm. The armbar Kev showed works by controlling their arm just above the crook of their elbow, giving you time to wrap your other arm over the top. Press down on their arm while raising your hips for the submission.

Getting into the class proper, this week is all going to be about half guard. Kev kicked off by running through the lockdown (like he did almost exactly a year ago today), but unlike last October, he didn’t then run through the full Eddie Bravo sequence, stopping after the ‘Jaws of Life’ and ‘whip up’. If you have Mastering the Rubber Guard, you can see the techniques from pages 54-59.

Instead, Kev finished with how to recover full guard from there, which I much prefer. You’re on your side with an underhook, so the first thing you want to do is block their arm from cross-facing: simply hook your hand over the wrist. Release your lockdown, using your outside leg as a base for your shrimp. Your inside leg will slip around the back of their knee, in order to maintain control (otherwise they can just move their leg over and pass).

Shrimp until you’re able to get that outside foot onto their same side hip. Push, then slide your other leg through to move back into full guard, or possibly butterfly guard. As you have that grip on their wrist, you could also try pushing that arm towards them, bringing your leg right through for a triangle.

If you’re on top, once you’ve released the lockdown (again, as Kev taught last year), you can move on to what Kev called the ‘switch pass’ from half guard. Reach over to bring your near arm to their far side and turn your body, so that you’re facing their legs. With your other hand, grab a firm hold of their knee: this is key to the technique. That grip will stop them bridging, and it will also enable you to quickly free your leg if they make a mistake.

Having got your arm over and secured the knee, wedge your free leg in front of their legs. Pull up on their knee with your grip until you can free your leg, then move into side control. Make sure you don’t let them get both arms around your knees, as otherwise they can reverse you. To avoid that, drive your hip back into their bottom arm, which will stop them linking their hands together.

Specific sparring was from half guard, and on top, I again struggled to get past Howard’s knee shield/z-guard. I could maintain control from the top, keeping my hips low and legs sprawled, but at best I’d manage a stalemate due to that knee. I tried grabbing his trouser leg, but didn’t have much luck squashing the knees together. As ever, something to work on.

Underneath, I was able to recover to butterfly a couple of times, but only for a moment: I swiftly got passed. I should go look over my notes on butterfly from GB Brum: one thing I definitely didn’t do and should have done is immediately try to secure an arm over the back and cinch the grip in tight. As I’ve got short, squat legs, butterfly remains something I’m keen to improve.

There were a few other times when I had a leg across his neck while the other was still by his legs, but again got easily passed. That’s another position I need to use more effectively: I need better head control, breaking of posture and using all my limbs rather than relying on the legs. I did manage some kind of sweep where I grabbed the arm, but as I’m not sure exactly how, that isn’t overly helpful. ;)

At the end of class, Kev called me up to receive a fourth stripe (also replacing the one that fell off) on my blue belt, which I wasn’t expecting: as ever, always nice to have the handshake and round of applause. I was just getting used to accidentally demoting myself to two stripes when one fell off at GB Brum, and hadn’t thought I'd get another stripe for several months. I guess the time at Birmingham counted, if RGA is still doing the ‘six months per stripe’ thing for blue belts?

Goes to show that there can be a massive gaping hole between four stripe blue and purple, as I don’t feel anywhere near that level yet (I can’t pass guard, can’t submit people, struggle to sweep, frequently hang out passively in side control...etc etc).

29/10/2009 - BJJ

Class #256



RGA High Wycombe, (BJJ), Kev Capel, High Wycombe, UK - 29/10/2009

Shereen, a female BJJer who I became aware of due to this thread, has just set up a training blog here. She isn't your average woman, at over 200lbs of muscle with many years of bodybuilding and powerlifting behind her. So, I'm very much looking forward to following her training, as for a female BJJer, she has a fairly unique combination of attributes.

Tonight Kev continued with the half guard, but this time it was orthodox rather than lockdown. First up was a drill for demonstrating how to recover full guard from half guard. Step out your leg and shrimp out to the side of half guard, making space to wedge your knee into their chest. Use that pressure to straighten up your torso, free your other leg, then put your feet on their hips. You can now either go to full guard, or stick with open guard.

That was followed by passing the half guard, where as on Tuesday shoulder pressure was paramount. Begin by securing a grip under their head and arm, gable gripping your hands and driving your shoulder into the side of their face. The aim is to turn their head away from you.

Now that you've jammed their upper body to the mat, you can push off your toes and straighten your legs. This feels vulnerable because your hips are raised, but if you've got your shoulder in the right place, they won't be able to capitalise with a sweep. To finish, get your knee free and slide it to the mat for mount. If you can't quite pull out your foot, use your other foot to push their away.

If they manage to shove your head to the other side, it makes little difference. You'll simply trap their head there instead, by putting your head onto the mat, right next to their skull. Straighten your legs and raise your hips as before, but this time you'll slide your knee the other way, moving through into scarf hold instead of mount.

Being squished flat on your back is tough, but there is a solution. Kev showed us two related sweeps from half guard, dealing with exactly the situation he'd just demonstrated on top. You first need to overhook their arm on the same side as the leg you've trapped, reaching through to grab their collar (this can act as a handy grip, pulling it up to their armpit). You're also going to hook over the other arm with your own, reaching back towards your head. This may telegraph the sweep, so if you wish you can leave it for later.

Release your top leg from half guard, maintaining a good grasp with the remaining leg behind their knee. Switch the top leg to a butterfly hook and lift, also basing off the toes of your other foot. Bridge and drive diagonally to the side, lifting with your hook. Done right, this should put you straight into mount.

It is possible for the person being swept to widen their base, preventing your sweep with their knee. If that happens, simply step closer with your basing leg and push again. Eventually, they will go over, as you have much more leverage than they do.

Alternately, they might get their arm free from your hook and base out that way. If that happens, you can switch to butterfly guard, then bridge the other way. As you have their other arm locked up, you should be able to sweep to mount that way. Even if you can't, you're still in butterfly rather than half, and can normally recover full guard from here.

Specific sparring with Callum went similarly to previous times I've been in his half guard. He wasn't wearing a gi, which didn't help, but the central problem on top was that I still can't beat their underhook. I can get that whizzer, but fail to do anything much with it. This time, I tried harder to use that grip to try and wrestle them back down to the mat, but without much success.

Underneath, I also didn't get very far, and the same thing happened with Joel. I realised later that the very obvious problem was that I wasn't doing what Kev had just shown us. Instead, I was thinking too much about my foot position, although I did get a chance to play with the lockdown and work harder for the underhook. Still, even though I had double underhooks on Joel, I couldn't move his weight. He's a fair bit bigger, but my technique was of course the main problem.

On top with Joel, I did remember to use Kev's technique, trying to get that shoulder pressure. I could just about get the grip, but wasn't able to straighten up and get my legs free. What kept happening was that I'd raise my hips, but then Joel would get a lockdown and pull me back down again. Then again, that gave me the opportunity to practice releasing the lockdown, which went as per drilling: shift down to put pressure on the grip until you can circle your foot free, then hide your leg.

06/04/2009 - BJJ (Beginner)

Class #216



Roger Gracie Academy Kilburn (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK - 06/04/2009 - Beginner

Tonight's class was perfect for me, as Jude went through several basic half guard techniques. I wasn't expecting to see that for a while, as Kilburn is mostly beginners, but nevertheless very useful stuff from my perspective.

Jude began with the fundamental half guard pass where you squeeze your knee through by trapping their leg. Start by getting one arm under their head and the other past their armpit, gable gripping your hands. Having secured that grip, drive your shoulder under their chin: this is essential, as the pass will be difficult without that heavy pressure.

Slide your free knee towards their other armpit, while coming up on the toes of your trapped foot. Once your free foot has enough space, bring it over their leg and push into their calf. At the same time, try to squeeze your trapped leg out of their half-guard, shoving your shoving under their chin the whole time.

I've always had trouble with this escape, but the way Jude showed this as really shoving that leg off of yours was helpful. Previously I thought the foot on the calf was more of a block, but I see now its a push. The combination of that push with the pull of your trapped leg is one of the important details I'd been missing.

Next, Jude demonstrated recovering guard from half-guard. That is something I've been trying to do for a while, so was especially pleased to see it broken down. You're underneath half guard, with your head on the opposite side to the leg you've trapped, with your forearm pressing into their throat.

Clamp down on their calf with your inside leg. Bring your other foot out slightly to bridge, then block their hip with your hand. Using space you've just created, bring your inside knee through and replace guard. In other words, this is exactly like recovering guard from mount, in terms of mechanics, in that the shrimp is all-important. As ever, its in the hips.

That then moved on to taking the back from half guard, using what I've seen referred to as 'deep half-guard'. You'll be shrimping again, same as before, but this time, you aren't aiming to recover guard. Instead, once you've made space with your bridge, swim the arm you have against their throat under their armpit instead, securing the underhook.

You can now knock them forward with that arm, aiming to slip down towards their leg, coming onto your side. Make sure your head is also free, on the same side as their trapped leg. To finish, link both arms behind their trapped knee and knock them forward again. That should kill their balance, leaving you to move to your knees, then take their back.

Sparring from half-guard I didn't have much success applying the technique, but then that's to be expected when everybody knows what you're going for. I'm still tending to stall in half-guard, but at least I now have some further options, which don't require me to get my head on the same side as their trapped leg. I'm getting too flattened out, and being too cautious about controlling them with just one leg (which would give me the option of bridging off the other).

On top, I'm leaving too much space and not getting my hips down enough. I'm also having trouble dealing with the arm in my throat: that is currently preventing me putting enough pressure with my shoulder into their throat. I repeatedly found that Rich opened up space with his forearm, then got to his side. From there it was a simple matter for him to either reach his knees or reverse me.

Guard passage also followed a typical pattern, though again, I do now have clearer goals thanks to Jude's help last week. Getting the knee up and hips forward is the first aim, then I need to establish better base when I stand. I also need to do a much better job of stripping their grips, or preventing them altogether. My posture must improve for that, as currently I'm being broken down too easily.

Underneath guard, I was trying cross-chokes and triangles, but without being sufficiently tight. With the triangle, I couldn't lock my legs properly, swiftly getting stacked and losing the position. I also had a quick go at a guillotine from half-guard top, in the hope that might help the pass, but again that didn't go anywhere. Not to mention my sparring partner, a relatively stocky white belt, was taking it easy anyway, as he was concerned about the size difference.

Full sparring with Rich led to yet more stalling in half-guard, and I'm also giving up mount way too easily. I need to get into a better defensive posture quicker, rather than looking to snatch half-guard, ending up flat and without many options if I miss it.

Finally, I was with another big white belt looking to try and avoid using his considerable weight advantage. This time I was quite happy to at least have half guard to keep some kind of control, and after a cycle of him making a few steps towards passing before I readjusted to regain a more solid half-guard, I managed to get on top. After passing to side control, I was looking to switch to half-guard and step over for an armbar, but time ran out. Doubtful I would have got anything anyway, but always fun to try.

I'm looking to get in three again this week, especially as I'll only have one evening free next week. We'll see how my body holds up, and if my sister has to work late on Tuesday or Wednesday.

09/08/2007 - BJJ (Beginners)

Class #80



Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Maurição Gomes, London, UK - 09/08/2007 – Beginners

I was considering skipping the beginners, but decided that I didn’t feel too terrible after sparring so could handle another 45 minutes of training. After going through the arm throw (of which I only caught the tail end, having picked the wrong moment to pop to the toilet), we moved onto techniques from knee on belly.

First, Maurição showed the armbar from knee on belly, although I’m not quite sure I understood it correctly. As far as I can tell, popping up to knee on belly, you drag their arm up, then bring your leg over and fall back. Making sure you pull that arm right up is important, as otherwise they can slip their elbow down and escape.

That was followed by a sliding choke from knee on belly (at least I think that’s the right term). I was a little confused initially, as I thought it would be the same set up as for the usual cross choke, but hand positioning is a little different. Assuming I haven’t mixed up the hands, your bottom arm goes in first, gripping palm out instead of the usual palm in. You then feed in your other hand palm in, pressing the forearm firmly into their neck, driving your elbow floorwards to increase the pressure. Finally, sprawl back from knee on belly, drop your upper body right down, then pull with your bottom hand and lean on your forearm. That should swiftly result in a choke: suffice to say, drilling wasn’t a whole lot of fun when you’re on the receiving end!

While we were doing this, Oli also demonstrated how to do a similar choke from side control (as I’d asked if this only works from knee on belly). The grip is similar, but as you don’t have the same space, you bring your near arm right up under their near side and grab high on their gi. Then your forearm crushes into their neck as before, using the other hand to anchor the choke.

To finish off before sparring, Maurição went through the Americana from knee on belly. Once you’ve got the wrist to the floor and fed your other hand past their elbow and into position, bring your far leg up over their head, raise them up and pivot on their elbow for the kimura. Not sure if you move back into side control for this: will have to check next time.

Sparring was from side control, for which I went with a guy called Frank, who I haven’t seen before. He’s apparently been going for two months, and as happened last time, I was being rolled over from the top due to putting my weight too far forward. Shifting, I managed to maintain side control, but not really do anything with it.

Underneath I had a little more success, swivelling back to guard or half-guard a few times, but still not as smooth as I’d like. Frank was expending a lot of energy, which enabled him to get into position a few times, but generally he was powering upwards or trying to shove his knee through without making space first. Although I’m pretty crap from side control, I think I was able to give a few tips that were hopefully of use (like bridging, getting the elbow out of the way for the knee, pushing the legs to one side etc).

At the end of sparring turned out there was still time for another technique, and a very useful one at that. This was a basic half guard to closed guard transition. Having trapped them in your half guard, grab the back of their gi with your left hand and pull them down. With your right hand, grab their same side knee and drag it towards you. Adjust you half guard so that you can get a leg underneath their other knee, use that to lift them right up, then drop them down into your full guard.

After class finished, we were treated to yet another handy bit of instruction, this time in regards to the standing tailbone break. I haven’t had much of a chance to use this, but Maurição answered Diccon’s question about the technique by showing how you raise your bottom up high, turn your foot in to get in position, then drop back and drive a knee into their tailbone, opening their guard. That slight turn of the foot seemed to be of considerable help in targeting the right spot, which is the problem I’ve had when drilling this.

I’m off the Wales next week, so won’t be about on the Thursday. Therefore I need to try and make the Tuesday, which I’ve been avoiding because it’s the extremely knackering sparring class. No excuses now, as I’ll surely be well enough by next week: even if not, can at least make the Tuesday beginners class.