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This website is about Brazilian jiu jitsu (BJJ). I'm a black belt who started in 2006, teaching and training at Artemis BJJ in Bristol, UK. All content ©Can Sönmez
Showing posts with label loop choke. Show all posts
Showing posts with label loop choke. Show all posts

19 November 2012

19/11/2012 - RCJ Machado, Dallas

Class #473
19/11/2012 - RCJ Machado Dallas (BJJ), Ryan & Adam Trees, Dallas, TX, USA

When I think Dallas and BJJ, I think Carlos Machado. That is not to say that there are no other good schools in the area - there are several, such as Pesadelo BJJ - but Machado is the pioneer. He arrived in 1995 at the behest of Chuck Norris, setting up shop on the set of Walker: Texas Ranger.

I've done some research into Carlos already due to my history piece on the RCJ Machado team in Jiu Jitsu Style Magazine #7 (back issues are available here, but they will eventually run out. There is also an iPad/iPhone etc app, plus various other digital options) and listened to lots of interviews, so it was cool to get the chance to interview him myself. His brother Roger was also there, as was his nephew (I think that's the relationship? John Machado's son, IIRC) Jean. Great stuff, which should hopefully be popping up in the next issue of JJS. :)

I also think Triin when I think Dallas, one of several friends I first met online who I was very keen to meet on this trip. She is an assistant instructor at RCJ Machado, which she somehow fits in between her kids and running my favourite gi company, Fenom Kimonos. Not only does Triin make brilliant female-cut gis, she also actively works to encourage and support women in jiu jitsu, with seminars, competitions and the like. There's more about what I did in Dallas in my full Texas write-up.

Clearly Triin has to be very organised to pull that off, which is reflected in her technical style of rolling and obvious interest in the fine details. Couple that with the considerate, mature approach to rolling I've noticed amongst many women in jiu jitsu along with the fact we're pretty much the same size: you then have an ideal training partner. It makes me wish I was training at RCJ Machado for a month, not just a day.

I also got to meet Triin's protege, Annemieke (interviewed over on the Fenom site here). She is a powerfully built woman, but at the same time is humble and conscientious. Describing her recent victorious competition, she did not crow over how she dominated her opponent: instead, she was more concerned with her much smaller opponent's safety. Which is awesome.

Her double-knee ride technique is also quite awesome, balancing both her knees on you, grabbing a leg and collar, then adding pressure. She was being nice when she demonstrated on me, but I can see exactly why she gets people to tap with that! ;)

The class set up was pleasantly informal, with no specific warm-up. Instead, people were using various methods of getting ready for class, particularly light rolling. That's what Triin and I did, which also gave me a chance to test out how my injured groin works in guard for the first time. I stuck to knee shield, as I was still nervous about using anything that would involve more torsion and/or pressure on my left leg.

I also played around with my favoured running escape: as I said when I last taught it, it's important to watch out for chokes. Triin's hand was sneaking around for chokes at several points, almost landing one later (I suspect she eased off, because I was able to spin out).

Getting on to the techniques, Adam taught us a tomoe nage sweep. Start by grabbing both an arm and a collar on the same side, then push your leg into that same side hip. Stretch them out to make them drive forward, also hooking under their other leg with your remaining foot. As they drive in, flip them over towards your shoulder on the gripped arm and collar side. When Adam demonstrated, he rolled through right into mount (though I kept ending up in half guard).

Next up was a loop choke, beginning from their attempt to do a standing pass. Get a cross-grip on their collar (so, your hand into their opposite collar), not overly deep. Use that to break their posture and pull them down. Chop your other over the back of their neck: your hands should form a loose 'X'. Raise the elbow of your cross-grip hand, and if necessary, weave your chopping hand under that elbow. From here, you can finish the choke.

While we were drilling, Ryan offered Triin and I a handy tip regarding finishing the choke when they seek an escape. If they try to spin out, follow their head with your own head. That should keep your body in the proper alignment, meaning you can still choke them. This is much easier than trying to think where to put your body, as your body will follow your head anyway.

I then did more sparring with Triin, who was continuing to be careful of my leg. We also got into several discussions, with Triin eagerly showing me a variety of cool technical details she likes. Some of that put into action what Carlos Machado had told me in the interview regarding visual cues he used when teaching. For example, 'holding the baby' when passing guard and keeping your elbows protected from spider guard. It makes me keen to take a private with Carlos some time, and until then check out his DVDs.

Triin also likes to trap their leg in between hers then sit. Another thing she likes to do, again as taught by Carlos, is keep her legs flat when under mount. That way, it is tough for the person on top to grapevine or otherwise get their legs underneath (e.g., I'm fond of Kev Capel's method for holding mount, where your cross your legs underneath their butt).

I played some more with the running escape, which opened up some other holes in my technique. Triin was in the middle of locking up a toe hold before I had any understanding of what she was doing. By the time I realised, she was already asking if it was ok for her to do a toe hold (presumably due to my injured leg). That's definitely something to be aware of under side control: as I would find out in a later Austin training session, to prevent it you need to be moving and 'running' with that escape, not staying too static as I often do.

03 October 2011

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! ;)

30 June 2009

30/06/2009 - Nova Força

Class #231



Nova Força Epsom (BJJ), Tim Radcliffe, Epsom, UK - 30/06/2009

I've had a few weeks off due to a bunch of job interviews (none of which came to anything, unfortunately: just have to keep plugging away, like the massive horde of other people applying for the same jobs...), so good to get back on the mats. Ricardo is in Brazil at the moment, so instead class was taken by his top student, brown belt Tim (who incidentally won yet another MMA fight recently).

Tim kicked off with a gi choke. Start by pulling one side of their gi out of their belt (if its already loose, so much the better), then feed it around their back to your other hand. Shift your torso to that side, then change hands. This frees up your first hand to grip whatever material you can on the back of their gi, still on the same side (if you try to grip on the other side, your partner is likely to see it coming and defend). Finally, bring that arm over their head whilst maintaining your grip, then bring your wrists up for the choke.

Next, Tim demonstrated a basic loop choke. Grab their opposite collar, with a deep grip. Break their posture by pulling that collar towards you, while also pushing their head down and to the side with your other hand. Next, slide that other hand across the back of their head and under your own elbow, hooking with the back of your hand. Finally, raise the elbow of your collar-gripping arm for the submission.

Rowan Cunningham, who puts out the best free BJJ videos on the net (unfortunately not the most famous, as the Abhaya vids aren't heavily publicised or flashy), has a typically excellent demonstration up on YouTube, where he calls it an 'encircled collar choke'. I first saw this choke when Aesopian put up the Abhaya vids, probably on Bullshido somewhere:



Tim mentioned as he was walking around that you need to be quick with this, so its something to spring on your opponent if you have a collar grip but see they aren't defending their neck. Even if you don't get the choke, you're likely to still manage a sweep, as in order to avoid getting submitted they'll probably have to roll out. You can simply follow them and end up in mount.

Sparring today put me mostly under side control, which is good as I always like to try and improve my escapes from there. As per Saulo's advice (both in his book and DVD), I was concentrating on keeping my head stuck to the floor to prevent the cross-face, while also blocking their arm with my hand.

While I did ok getting that far into Saulo's 'survival position', I was rather less successful getting onto my side. I also wasn't preventing the knee on belly too well, as usual, but I think I managed to use my elbow and knee as a barrier slightly better than last time. The difficulty is getting them properly locked together, with forearm to upper leg, rather than just touching elbow to knee.

From knee-on-belly, I also couldn't avoid Mark's choke, so must have done Simon's defence wrong. I know you're suppose to swim your arms in and turn towards them, but forgot which arm went where.

With one of the white belts, I managed to get to my knees from side control, but couldn't then trap an arm in order to roll them. I was thinking about the wrestler's sit-out too, but didn't feel I had the space to get free: as their arm was ready to look for chokes, my neck felt exposed. In retrospect, I probably should have been less hesitant and just gone for something, as eventually I tried to spin to guard as they left some space, which merely landed me back under side control.

My last spar was against somebody fairly new, so I had a chance to play around with triangles. I'm still missing lots of important details, like proper head control, so even as a noobie they were able to slip out, but it was nice to confirm the 'trigger' position Ryan Hall talks about. Whenever somebody is trying to open your guard by driving their elbow into your thigh, you can open your guard and cause them to lean to one side. This leaves your partner vulnerable to the triangle, as you can now fling your leg over that arm and to their neck, locking your other leg in place.