25/06/2016 - Private with Nathan Adamson | Open Guard & Mount | Knee Cut, Knee Shield Pass, Knee Cut Counters & Mount

Class #746 - Private #025
BJJ Globetrotter Camp (Sportoase Leuven), Nathan Adamson, Leuven, Belgium, 25/06/2016

In the same way that I booked a private with Kenny Polmans because I liked his side control attacks, I also booked one for the next day with Nathan Adamson due to his excellent lesson on passing. I have been doing a lot of knee cut counters in my private lessons so far: this time, I wanted to work on the other side of that equation, refining my knee cut and dealing with issues that can arise, most significantly the knee shield. The fact that Adamson sounds and (very slightly) looks like Greg Proops was a bonus. I used to love Whose Line Is It Anyway? :D

A photo posted by Artemis BJJ (@artemisbjj) on Jul 4, 2016 at 4:02am PDT

Again as before, I quickly showed Nathan what I normally do with my knee cut, in order to get some tips about how to improve it. First Nathan talked about getting in tight, pressing your shin into the back of their leg. Grab their same side collar (or alternatively, anchor your hand by their hip), putting your elbow on the outside of your knee. Come through the centre and drop your hip. With your passing side hand, push their wrist to the mat. With your other hand, either swim for the underhook, or grab their opposite collar.

Swing your elbow up and drive, flattening them out and controlling (to a degree) with that instead of an underhook. To finish, slide your shin back into their bottom leg to push that out of the way. Keep your bum by your heels to prevent them catching half guard. Slide through and finish. Nathan likes to hop up to knee on belly in order to swivel his legs into mount, I generally prefer moving to side control.

If they manage to get that annoying knee shield in the way, you’re going to grab low on their trousers, palm facing up. Straighten your arm, shoving the leg away in an interestingly angled stiff arm. If you get that in place correctly, any attempts by them to get their knee back in place results in pushing you into the mount. Nathan goes to knee on belly off that, grabbing their passing side collar with his opposite arm, pushing his wrist to the mat with the same side arm. If their knee shield is more firmly in, pushing your back. Lock in that stiff arm in the same way as before, then slide your bottom knee over. Jam their knee to the mat and hop around behind. You might not be able to get your arm as straight, because they’re already connected to you.

A photo posted by Artemis BJJ (@artemisbjj) on Jun 26, 2016 at 1:06am PDT

When the knee shield is up higher, into your chest, your same side hand taps the top of their knee. Yank it back, twisting your hips in as you pull that knee behind you. This results in you facing their legs. The knee you now have on the bottom pops up to their thigh, as with the hip switch pass. Bring your far elbow inside their armpit, meaning their arm is stuck behind your elbow. To make it really tight, feed their lapel to that far hand, pinching it tight. This therefore applies to knee cutting through half guard too, as you can clear their lock ankle with this. You can also try and simply turn your hips around the knee that’s blocking you, ending up in the same position.

Another option, again for a lower knee shield, is to rely on that hip twist. Grab the collar and the hip, making sure your head is diagonally opposite to his. Drive in to press their knee-shield into their chest, also trying to flatten them out. If you can, get the cross face and gable grip. From there, switch your hips, turning your knee inwards, underneath their knee shield.

You can then climb up into mount. If they have a half guard on your leg, you can still climb up, crushing through it. If they are framing firmly into your arm, grab their collar and use that to break them down. If you are pushed too far out, you can grab their knee and hop over, as before. There are other options too, like doing a headstand to hop over to the other side.

Nathan loves going to mount, so I wanted to ask about that too. Off the pass, you have their arm underhooked thanks to your gable grip superhold, enabling you to pry that arm up high, pressuring into their face and/or neck with your cross-facing shoulder. Once in mount, he looks to get the cross collar grip. He can then swivel to progress into chokes and armbars, particularly from the powerful submission platform that is s mount. Never sit back until you're all in position, stay really heavy, leaning forwards.

In keeping with my focus this camp, I made sure to get Nathan's opinion on countering the knee cut pass. His approach combined the two options David showed. First he gets a grip on their opposite collar, grabbing their same side sleeve with his other hand, shoving that in towards them. He then bumps with his knee, using his grips to help win the scramble as he turns to the top. Come up on your elbow. That grip on the sleeve means your can immediately stuff the arm as he comes up, moving into a strong pass. Your other grip enables you to pressure into their neck, similar to the pass Nathan went through earlier in the lesson.

Nathan suggested a shrimping drill for this knee cut counter, where each time you shrimp, you are bringing your top shoulder across, pulling the bottom shoulder back. He also spoke a bit about sitting guard, where there is a grip detail. You bend your wrist, like you're casting a fishing line: this makes your grip stronger, although it does put greater strain on your wrist. That can lead into a choke too, gripping with your other hand, looking away as you apply the pressure.

That was a great end to the camp. I was able to hang around long enough for the belt ceremony and a bit of open mat, but then had to rush off to catch my train. Next time, I'll stay for the Saturday night, so I can go to the camp party. I don't drink, but I do like a good dance. Next year! ;)

A video posted by Can (Jun) (@slideyfoot) on Jun 25, 2016 at 9:46am PDT

23/06/2016 - Private with David Morcegao | Open Guard & Side Control | Stiff Arm Frame, Knee Cut Counters & Gi Tail Choke

Class #737 - Private #023
BJJ Globetrotter Camp (Sportoase Leuven), David 'Morcegao' George, Leuven, Belgium, 23/06/2016

I hadn't intended to do any privates when I was booking the camp, but David mentioned he was only charging €40 for two people, a price too good to pass up. That set me off on a private lesson spree, booking another for Friday and a third for Saturday, each with a different instructor. For anybody going to a BJJ Globetrotter camp, I would therefore recommend bringing along a 'private lesson piggybank', to take advantage of affordable one-on-one attention. You can also grab black belts at open mat to ask them stuff (e.g., Christian said to do that, as he wasn't looking to do privates at this camp), but I feel better able to babble after having paid for an hour. Especially as I ask LOTS of questions. ;)

A photo posted by Can (Jun) (@slideyfoot) on Jun 23, 2016 at 11:02am PDT

First on my list was knee cut counters. David began by suggesting you grab the foot from a reverse de la Riva position. If you mess up and they have gotten a knee through, you're in trouble. They want their balance centered, you want to disrupt that. Bump them with your knee, with the intention of swivelling up behind them. It could be either knee, depending on the position.

Pulling on the collar can help you with that too. You will end up in a scramble, like Haueter said, meaning that a wrestling approach will pay dividends. You're spinning through behind the leg, looking for the back or possibly moving into a single leg off that position.

If you can get some kind of purchase on their leg, you can turn, rolling them over. Securing a collar and grabbing their knee will help with this too, stiff arming to stop them recovering their position. If they don't fall over (e.g., you end up with their leg, but they still have some base), hook the leg as you turn, then stand to complete the single leg. If they are on their knee, you can tap that knee and drive through.

A late option is to try and spin through, your arm going underneath their body. Your other arm loops over their head, ending up in a brabo choke type thing (anaconda? I get confused as to which is which). To complete the choke, you're curling your body around their head.

Along with knee cut counters, I more generally want to improve my open guard, particularly the sitting guard frames I've been playing with from Ryan Hall. Rather than curling your arm in when you have it behind their head, make sure you're redirecting that head. That's a great point, as like David said, just curling the arm ends up using triceps. In a related point (which applies to side control frames too), you can reach for their shoulder, getting the lower part of your forearm into the throat.

I'm keen on improving my chokes from side control too, as I go for those a lot. David had a nifty little tweak on my favoured gi tail choke. If you can't get the basic gi tail to work, bring your other hand through to grip on top of your first grip, similar to a baseball bat grip, but on the side. Lever their head up for the choke (David described it as a steering wheel), being careful not to put your forearm through too deeply.

21/06/2016 - BJJ Globetrotter Camp | Leuven 2016 | Introductory Speech, Lapel Guard & Knee Cut Counter (Chris Haueter)

Class #730
BJJ Globetrotter Camp (Sportoase Leuven), Chris Haueter, Leuven, Belgium, 21/06/2016

Chris Haueter is a name to conjure with, a member of the Dirty Dozen and legend of American BJJ. He has also become known for delivering long, entertaining speeches, thanks to a class that turned into a lecture at last year's Leuven BJJ Globetrotters Camp. I was therefore expecting he might give a repeat performance in his first class tonight, which indeed he did. The 2016 edition of the Chris Haueter Lecture Series has been uploaded to YouTube, virtually in full:



It was an engaging talk, though personally I'm more interested in specific technique. Clearly many others were ready to sit down and get a long talk, as even when he asked for questions, many of them were about street fights. There was some technique in there too, focusing around the guard.

Haueter's first point was the importance of hips, head and hands, the old school approach to grappling. If somebody is trying to punch you, it makes sense to control their hands, head and hips, as then they will have trouble whacking you. Controlling the head means they can't headbutt you, a tactic that used to win a lot of MMA/NHB fights back in the day (Mark Kerr and Mark Coleman were especially successful with it).

There were lots of other interesting tidbits that came up. He mentioned that while he used to be a strong believer that everything he did should work in both nogi and gi, he has changed his mind. When standing, he recommends staying on your toes (similar to how you should be on your toes when inside closed guard too).

He talked about four 'pressures' in the guard: chokes, joint lock, sweeps and standing up. The idea here was that the person on top has to hold you in guard, as otherwise you will move around that guard (e.g., stand up, move to the side etc). Haueter also likes to get their gi out of the belt as soon as he can, from standing.

That's where he got into his first 'proper' bit of technical demonstration, on a palm up, palm down choke in the closed guard. Grab their same side lapel and same side sleeve, aiming to lock that forearm against your stomach. 'Cast' the lapel slightly open, like you're casting a line when fishing. Insert your arm gripping hand into that collar you've opened up, as deep as you possibly can.

Your arm is extended, which Haueter uses to block any punches on that side. He then swings them to the other side, swinging his body underneath in the opposite direction, elbow into their sternum. Your free hand grabs the material by their opposite shoulder, then drop that elbow into their sternum too. Square back up and choke.

He also discussed lapel guard, much to my surprise. It was cool to see how somebody with a solidly old school mindset approaches a new school technique. Pull out both of their lapels, gripping inside their arms, while they are in your closed guard. Pull out as much as you can on one side, gripping that with both of your fists. Move that off onto their arm, which can lead into all sorts of chokes. You can try reaching an arm around their head, passing the gi tail to that hand and locking it off. Your other hand stays inside, under their chin. Drive that chin-hand up while pulling with your gi grip for the first choke.

Another option, bring their gi around their head instead of your arm, gripping the end with your same side fist. This time, you close off the choke by grabbing your gi-gripping wrist with your other hand to bar across their neck. Pull the gi and apply pressure with your arm to finish. It's even possible to simply wrap the gi all the way around the neck, getting the pressure from ratcheting your arm with a single hand gripping. You can also attack the arm, wrapping the gi tail over their upper arm, then pushing their wrist: the gi becomes the fulcrum for the joint lock. You can use that same gi grip to stop their arm posting, moving into a scissor sweep.

I got in a technical question myself, about the knee cut counter, my main focus for this camp. When you ask Chris Haueter a question, like some other old school instructors I've seen (e.g., Rickson), he will get you to show what you mean before answering. That meant I needed to put my phone down to head over and demonstrate. Fortunately for me, the very awesome Oscar picked up my phone and immediately started filming, so I have it all on my phone after all. Thanks again, Oscar! :)

First off, keep them constantly off balance. If they are leaning in towards you, attempt to lift them up, possibly even over your head (Haueter used a de la Riva hook to help with that). If they are leaning back, he keeps the pressure, holding the heel of the knee you want to cut, also with a firm grip on the other lapel. Should they manage to start that knee cut, make sure they can't push your opposite should flat, as that really stuffs your counters. If they pull up on your arm, even worse.

If they try to push you flat, drive your shoulder in hard. If they pull up on your arm, reach behind their knee cutting leg, lock in a strong quarter guard. As they pass, come up, scramble, wrestling to get back to a good position. You might end up back in guard, but that's still better than being passed. This would be far from the last time I asked about knee cut counters: by the end of the camp, I had done three private lessons on the same topic. ;)

19/01/2016 - Open Mat | Knee Cut Counters & Sitting Guard

Class #692
Artemis BJJ (MYGYM Bristol), Open Mat, Bristol, UK - 19/01/2016

I had a question about knee cut counters today, something I've been trying to work out myself. The first thing I try is from Ryan Hall's DVDs and I think something Mackenzei Dern mentions on BJJ Library: getting your foot into their hip to create some distance. You could also try reaching under the knee they're driving to drive to the mat and move it back across. This will be tough if they've already got their knee down and weight behind it, meaning it's more of an 'early' escape.

Matt mentioned another nifty option, which would be something you also try early on. Get a good reverse de la Riva hook, bringing the foot of the leg their trying to trap to curl around the outside of their leg. Mirror their grips, grabbing their opposite collar with your far hand, their sleeve with your near hand (I think? Need to play with it more at open mat, though it's also on Saulo's DVD as well as YouTube, from what Matt said). You can then lift them and sweep through to the top.

The counter I've been working on is from Jeff Rockwell's sit up escape system. This is a late escape and relies on timing. Your arm braces into their same side arm, on the near side (i.e., you'd be pushing into the arm further away from you). Immediately as they slide past your leg, walk your own legs away from them as you sit up, keeping your pushing arm straight. Timed right, you can sit up directly into side control.

Sparring with Matt was good, playing with open guard. He's been watching the Ryan Hall DVDs I like so much, as he's had the same problem with open guard as me. In terms of passing, I was grabbing his collar and getting an underhook as soon as I could: he was repeatedly trying to go for sweeps on that side, which is why I needed that underhook to keep control. At one point I managed a random sweep (or was this yesterday? Either way, it was with Matt) where I reached around his neck and grabbed the collar, using that to sweep. Not quite sure how I did it, but fun.

A video posted by Can (Jun) (@slideyfoot) on Jan 19, 2016 at 9:14am PST

More kettlebells with the Turkish get up again today too, especially as I essentially got a private lesson on the Turkish get up from David because the other regular didn't come along. Loads of great points, like angling your leg out more when you sit through on the way back down. That puts your body in a much stronger alignment. I've been sticking with the 12kg up until, but gave the 16kg a go. I can pump out a Turkish get up, not with some wobble though. The goal is to build up to 32kg over a long, long time. I don't know if I'll ever go that high: nevertheless, useful to have some kind of benchmark. :)