27/03/2011 - RGA Aylesbury (Open Mat)

Class #384
RGA Aylesbury, (BJJ), Kev Capel, Aylesbury, UK - 27/03/2011

Had something of a transportation mix-up, meaning I missed almost all of the first lesson. Unfortunate, but at least it gives my knee a bit more time to rest. Also, those transportation issues should hopefully soon be a thing of the past. In about a month, I will be in Aylesbury, cycling distance from RGA Bucks. Then once I finally find a house in Bristol, I'll be within walking or cycling distance of Gracie Barra Bristol. No more relying on cars or buses! Hooray! Good fitness too. :D

I also watched the Pan Jiu Jitsu stream yesterday. That first day was free, while the second cost $10 (though I left to go visit my sister and nieces after training, so didn't see it). Enjoyable stuff, with particularly good commentary by Rafael Lovato Jr (especially as I think that might have been his first time: he definitely needs to be brought back as a permanent member of the commentary team).

It was great to see a few women's matches on Saturday, but I was disappointed that they kept switching to the men in the middle of female fights. For example, in one of Gabi Garcia's matches, it switched over twice. As there was a split screen available, I would have liked to see more women's fights, rather than the men swamping the coverage even when women's fights were available for viewing. Update: For an excellent write-up of the women's results, go here.

The dream would be multiple cameras so you could pick which match you wanted to follow, like when the BBC broadcast the last Olympics. However, that will be a long way off, and no doubt require lots of funds: for now, I guess we should all be thankful that companies like Budovideos are still willing to offer streams for free (and the paid stream on Sunday was only $10).

Unfortunately, current world champ Hillary Williams was hurt by a calf-slicer in her absolute fight: I see on her Facebook that she did fight the next day, but ran into the mighty Hannette Staack. Best of luck to Williams with her recovery: I'm sure she'll be back fighting for the gold soon. Oli Geddes from RGA and Geeza from GB Bristol are both competing too, so I look forward to hearing how they did (probably on Facebook).

Speaking of gold medals, one of those was placed around the neck of my training partner Yasmine Wilson that same day. She is the first ever British woman to win the Abu Dhabi Pro Trials, beating a tough brown belt and a top UK purple belt. As a result, Yas landed a paid flight to the main competition over in Abu Dhabi itself, with accommodation provided: very well done to her! Draz fought well too and got the bronze, with another member of RGA Bucks (who I haven't trained with yet) also medalling.

When I arrived at the Neil McLeod Academy (the home of RGA Bucks), the beginners class had entered the sparring phase. As I finished getting changed, the round finished, and it shifted to king of the hill. I took the opportunity to ask each of the two white belt women if they'd like to spar. I'm not sure what they thought of some random unshaven purple belt saying "fancy a roll?", but fortunately, they were both willing to indulge me.

I've said many times in the past that I prefer to roll with women, as they tend to be more mature, considerate training partners. If I'm injured, that's especially important. Michelle and Stacey were both careful not to aggravate my knee injury, keeping a relaxed pace, for which I'm grateful. That gave me the chance to ease myself back into playing closed guard: this is the first time I've ventured beyond either half guard or a one-legged open guard with the injury.

Kev had left earlier to pick up his son (I think? Something like that), meaning that there was a short lull before the competition class. That meant I could have another roll, with that same white belt I sparred last time (who has also proved to be a considerate training partner: must get his name next time we train). I suggested giving flow rolling a try, which he hadn't done before, but was happy to try it.

If you're not familiar with flow rolling, it is basically a form a sparring where the idea is to work on movement, timing and transitions, staying calm and controlled. As well as a useful exercise, flow rolling can also function as a great warm-up. I first learned it from Nic Gregoriades, and tried to remember the rules he put forward.

So, that meant we didn't hold any grips, and also made sure not to stay in one position just clamping down for too long (e.g., if you're in side control and have them stuck, switch to north-south, knee-on-belly, back to side control, mount, other side, etc). For something similar, check out Christian Graugart's thirty-seven minute long video on 'slow rolling', here.

Once Kev returned, the competition class got into gear. As everybody was sparring from standing, I decided against risking my knee. It also meant that there wasn't room to do any sparring at a lighter pace, at least not safely (I had intended to do some relaxed rolling with Adill, who is also injured). However, that did at least give me a chance to try and work out the points for each round. As I'm now a purple, it would be fun to go on a refereeing course or something, so I'll have to keep an eye out for the next one.

There was still time for some open mat at the end, so like before, I wanted to improve my understanding of leg locks. As Yas had won her gold medal with an ankle lock, that seemed like a good one to drill. She gave out plenty of handy tips to Sahid and I, after which we noticed Kev was demonstrating the very same technique up the other end of the mat. So, that provided us all with a chance to get Kev to go through the mechanics.

If I understood Kev and Yas correctly, this particular variation on the ankle lock begins by wrapping your arm around their ankle, as you would do for a standard Achilles lock. With your wrapping hand, grab your own gi collar, and make sure you have secured their ankle tightly. Having trapped that leg, drop back, then bring your inside leg over theirs (if they've grabbed your collar, simply bring your inside leg over that arm). It is very important you only do this with your inside leg: if you bring your outside leg over theirs, you're liable to get disqualified in IBJJF competitions.

You can now turn towards their trapped ankle side, so that you're facing the floor, with their ankle still trapped. To finish the submission, simply sprawl your legs back towards them and arch your back. Though this is technically an ankle lock due to your grips, the pressure will probably be on their knee.

Kev had several follow ups too, but I wanted to make sure I got the basic details of the submission down, so concentrated on that. Still, I did take some quick notes on the rest of the sequence and 'what ifs': if they wriggle their foot free, turn and pass their guard. If they stand and put the sole of their trapped foot to the floor, go to x-guard, sweep them, then you can go for the ankle lock again.

Finally, if they have pulled themselves up on your gi and are basing out with their other hand, grab the sleeve of that basing hand and yank them back off balance. There are of course a lot more details, but I'll look to iron those out once I've got a handle on the lock (which will be a good while). Also, if you're a Facebook friend of Kev's, he's put up the video of Yas using this technique at the Abu Dhabi Pro Trials (not sure if that will later appear on YouTube or not).

20/03/2011 - RGA Aylesbury (Open Mat)

Class #382
RGA Aylesbury, (BJJ), Kev Capel, Aylesbury, UK - 20/03/2011

As I've probably mentioned before, I'm not a fan of leg locks. Though I'm aware not everyone agrees on this point, I think they're dangerous, mainly because it is possible to do serious damage before there is any pain. That scares me, both in terms of my own knees, and the potential injury I could do to someone else: even if I did everything right, I'd be worried they might try to spin the wrong way during their defence, or something along those lines.

However, as somebody said to me on Bullshido, it is important not to be completely ignorant of lower body submissions, for your own safety if nothing else. I definitely agree on that point, and now seems like a good time to start improving my ability to recognise and escape them. It isn't an area I've explored in any depth before, particularly as according to my blog, I've only been shown lower body submissions seven times in the last four and a bit years.

So, I mentioned to Kev that I thought I needed to improve my understanding (although he confirmed that there weren’t any new leg locks allowed at purple belt, just the same straight ankle lock you can do from white belt onwards). He suggested that I could start trying to attempt some leg locks in sparring: the reactions of my training partners will help me understand the defence.

Kev then quickly ran through the basic four submissions: straight ankle lock, toe hold, heel hook (illegal in IBJJF competitions, among other places) and kneebar. I won't write them up in depth, as I would need to go through them again to get the full details, but they all started from standing in your opponent's open guard. Hook your arm around, control their leg and drop back.

Kev started with the straight ankle lock (which attacks the Achilles tendon), then a toe hold if they roll (figure four their foot, then twist their big toe towards their bum), before showing a heel hook (their foot is in your armpit, with the heel sticking out: wrap your elbow under and turn. You'll notice in the picture, Roy Dean is just showing the motion, rather than actually applying the submission), then finally the kneebar (spin around their leg and drop alongside them, ready to drive your hips up into the leg while pulling back on the top).

This was just before the open mat started, which wasn't a typical open mat. Instead of drilling, Kev led competition training for those fighting in the British Open. That took up the red mats in one half of the room, while the blue mats were for everyone else to practice what they wanted (so, normal open mat). I stayed on the blue mats, as the competition training involved things like hopping around on one leg, plus lots of sparring.

A white belt on the blue mats asked about deep half guard, which isn't something I have a great deal of experience using, but I could at least show him the entry he wanted. However, I noted that as a white belt, most important thing is to get the basics down first, which in this case is how to defend under half guard, ideally looking to get back to full guard (handily he was at the Roger seminar, so had already seen some good half guard bottom fundamentals).

I couldn't spar, but I could do specific sparring from top half guard, particularly as I was just looking to maintain the position and give him some tips. The idea was to help him get used to defending underneath, taking particular note of how I was moving my weight around, controlling his head, blocking underhooks etc. Hopefully proved useful for him, and was certainly helpful for me: sparring like that didn't seem to cause my knee any problems.

Another pair of training partners were drilling a side control sequence of attacks on the far arm. I butted in at one point, because I noticed that when transitioning from the straight armbar to either the americana or the kimura, they could get more control with Roy Dean's lockflow. Hopefully jumping in to demonstrate wasn't too patronising, which is something I'll have to watch. Just because I'm a purple belt now doesn't give me free rein to interrupt everyone around me and correct what they're doing.

Finally I did a brief bit of drilling with Yas, firstly on an arm-wrap choke variation I'd seen on Abmar Barbosa's DVD, which I thought would interest her. That's because Yas has recently starred in her own mini-series on the Black Eagle BJJ Essentials videos, showing a sequence of attacks from the arm-wrap. The latest one was this sweep, having already shown an armbar and a triangle earlier. Kev is up next, as he is going to do three counters for the same Black Eagle series.

I also asked Yas about leg lock defence, as she's a regular competitor in both gi and nogi (you're a lot more likely to see leg locks in nogi, as there are less restrictions). That meant I had a chance to clarify some details on the leg locks Kev had shown me earlier, as well as get her thoughts on the defence she uses most often.

I've got some familiarity with escaping the straight ankle lock, as on the extremely rare occasions when people try to go for my legs, they'll attack the achilles. I'll aim to hop my hips over their leg, then grab their gi, sit-up and move forward. Sahid also reminded me about the 'Wellington boot' defence: basically, hold your foot as if you're wearing a boot. This makes it harder for them to complete the submission, giving you a bit of time to initiate your escape.

In terms of escaping the other leg attacks, Yas said she tended to try and kick her leg free by pushing on the back of theirs, demonstrating as I vaguely went through a toe hold and kneebar with her. I think I've tried that escape in the distant past too, though I can't remember exactly what kind of leg lock I was looking to defend. I look forward to having two working legs, as then I can start testing this out and shoring up my defences. Best thing to do would probably be some kind of master class with Nick Brooks at Mill Hill: when I've sparred him in the past, I tend to get leglocked all over the place.

Incidentally, it was cool to see a (very) brief feature on RGA Bucks on the GracieMag site, where there is a group pic of the Roger seminar. The club has popped up a couple of times, as it is a Gracie Magazine Associate.

Roy Dean Seminar: Day One

Seminar #2
Uplands School, (BJJ), Roy Dean, Poole, UK - 25/07/2009

Today is only the second time I've attended a BJJ seminar, the first having been with Victor Estima in Belfast. That day, Victor focused largely on one guard pass, adding details and getting in lots of drilling. Roy Dean has a very different style, running through a huge number of connected techniques. As he says, his goal is for the student to at least get one or two techniques that really fit into their game, so having that sheer number of techniques increases the likelihood of providing something specific for a diverse range of people.

This first day began with various single leg takedowns. Grip their same side collar and use your bodyweight to pull them down and off balance. Drop to your outside knee, moving around to the side of their same side leg, then hook that leg with your arm. Use your head to drive forward, getting to your feet, clamping their leg between your knees. Shove your shoulder on the inside of their leg while simultaneously stepping back, which should knock them to the ground.

Alternatively, once you are up with their leg between your knees, step back with your outside leg, dropping down so that you end up with a knee raised inside their guard. Still holding their collar (which you used to pull them down at the start), keep your elbow in, bring your knee across their leg and pass to the side, pulling up on their sleeve to settle into a controlling position.

Checking my notes, I've mentioned a heel hook here, so I must have meant from that position. You have one foot underneath their bum, the other over their leg. Scoot in closer towards them so that their leg bends, making it easier for you to wedge your hand and wrist under their heel. You can then twist that up for the submission.

Importantly, Roy mention that this technique was not for sparring, merely something for his students to be aware of. It is always essential for a safety warning whenever going over a very dangerous technique like a heel hook, particularly if you're teaching white belts.

Roy then demonstrated some 'what if' scenarios for the single leg takedown. Again, you're standing with their leg between yours, looking for the takedown. However, they have managed to circle their leg to the outside. You can still take them down: step in, sweep their standing leg, then in conjunction with your collar grip, drive them to the mat.

If they circle their leg to the inside, you need a different option. This time, you can move right into an Achilles lock. Bring your arm under their leg, pressing up in their Achilles tendon: your arm will be near their foot. Lift up the leg, then step forwards with your far leg. Block the foot of their standing leg with your near leg, driving in to take them to the mat.

After a short break, it was time for the second hour of the seminar. Roy began with a basic rear naked choke, in back mount with them sitting in front of you, feet hooking their inner thighs. Roy emphasised that it isn't just the arms that make this submission. You also need to shrug your shoulder, further cutting off any space around their neck.

Aside from the usual grip, where you hold your bicep, brining a hand around the back of their head, Roy also showed a variation using fists. As ever, you get the arm around the neck, so your elbow is under their chin. Grab their shoulder with the hand of that arm.

Put the elbow of your other arm on that same shoulder, then bring the fist of that arm around to the back of their head. Instead of pressing with your palm, you press with the back of your fist.

Next up was a sliding choke Again in back mount with them sitting in front of you, get one arm under their armpit. Open up the nearest lapel, then feed it to your other arm, which you bring over their other shoulder. This should be a tight grip, with your hand curled.

The other hand, which is still under their armpit, now grips their other lapel lower down. You can now lean back, pulling down with that hand while twisting the other for the choke. In other words, you effectively straighten your arms out to create the pressure.

To create even greater pressure, remove one of your hooks and put it across their stomach. The way I tried to remember which leg to use was that the sole of your foot should be pointing the same way as the knuckles of your lower hand. Lean in the direction of the knee of that leg you have across the stomach, again straightening out the arms for the choke.

You can make it tighter still after removing the hook and establishing the leg across the stomach. Release your lower grip. sliding that hand along their arm until you reach their elbow. That gives you the space to then reach behind their head, setting up the choke.

Before you sink it, make the submission super-tight by swivelling your legs around, so that you are able to bring your free leg over their shoulder, locking your feet together. This is a very stable position to get the choke, with little room for escape.

If for whatever reason you aren't able to get that choke on, switch to an armbar from the back. Keep swivelling your legs, push their head, then bring the leg over their head. You're now in perfect position for an armbar.

Staying with chokes, we shifted positions. Instead of back mount, Roy showed us how to attack the turtle. Establish one hook on the near side with your foot, also hooking the same side arm with your own, coming underneath their armpit. Your free hand will reach over their far shoulder, gripping their collar.

Roll over your shoulder towards the unhooked side, locking in the other hook as you turn, aiming to use momentum to drop them right into the crook of your elbow. You can now go for a rear naked choke.

You can go for an armbar from the turtle with a similar set-up, with the key difference that this time, you don't secure your second hook. Instead, you want to bring that leg all around, pushing their head, going straight into the armbar. If they try to turn towards you to escape the armbar, there is the option of a triangle too.

I would note here that you can get stuck under their arm as you attempt to move round for the armbar. If that happens, you can go for a choke instead.

Last one for the turtle was to get a hook, grip their collar, then grab under their thigh, on the far side. Roll over your shoulder again, but more perpendicular than before. You should hopefully end up with a collar to pull over the neck and a firm hold behind their knee, pulling their leg up. Pulling from this position will give you a bow and arrow choke.

The final technique for that second hour was from the previous position, a choke from rear mount with them sitting in front of you. For this particular technique, you don't put in either hook, but instead grip one collar, then using the mechanics of a technical stand-up, bring your legs back and pull your partner towards you. To finish, twist into the grip, using the pressure of your shoulder to complete the choke.

Hour number three focused on how to attack from the knees. This is handy for sparring in class, as BJJ sparring commonly starts from the knees: Roy provided some option. It is also applicable beyond that, such as if you end up in a scramble, with both of you suddenly facing each other on your knees.

Roy kicked off with a throw. Grabbing their collar and elbow in the usual way, put your opposite foot by their near knee, to a point that about half your foot is directly next to the knee. Using your grips, pull them over that knee and to the mat, then move directly into knee-on-belly.

Alternately, you can armbar from the knees. As before, you are holding the collar and elbow. You also have one knee up, by their opposite hip. The other knee is on the floor: keeping it flat on the floor, slide that leg over towards their knee. You can now swivel, and then put the foot of the raised knee leg into their armpit. The other leg goes over their head, after which you can complete the submission.

Another option is that you are on your knees, but they want to pull guard, so they are waiting with one knee up, the other leg flat on the floor, knee pointing to the side. Attacking the leg with the raised knee, grab their heel with your opposite hand. With your free hand, grip their same side sleeve.

Next, pull their heel back and yank their sleeve (or wrist, if it is nogi) out. This should spin them and expose their side, leaving you plenty of room to go straight into knee-on-belly. Roy later referred to this as an ankle pick, a term I've heard related to wrestling, but never really understood before now. Its also what Christina called the "it's me" position, which is how I'll always remember it.

From knee on belly, there is often the option of the armbar: that is again the case here, as you've still go hold of their sleeve. So as before, bring your leg over their head, then drop for the armbar, making sure you keep your knees pinched and don't land with your hips too far back.

Alternately, you can spin and catch the far armbar, if they try and push your knee off with their hand. Same technique as yesterday, reaching through the frame of their arm and swivelling into place for the armbar.

The technique portion drew to a close with numerous options from the armdrag. Starting position is and open guard, with your feet on their hips, but they are still on their knees. Hold their opposite sleeve (or wrist), then with your other hand, grab the knob of their elbow, gripping on the outside of their arm.

Pull with your arms and push with the feet, which gave Roy the opportunity to repeat a useful description of BJJ by his instructor, Roy Harris: BJJ is the art of pushing and pulling. Disengage your foot from the side where you aren't holding their arm, then shift the grip you have on their sleeve or wrist to high under the same arm.

You can now pull them past you onto their knees. That disengaged foot is perfectly placed to become a hook, while you will establish an over-under grip with your hands (i.e., where one arm goes under their armpit, the other over their shoulder, then grip together). Potentially you could spin right to their back and get the other hook in on the far side.

However, if you can't quite get that foot all the way over for a far hook, reach over with an arm to grasp their gi near their far lat muscle. With your other hand, reach under their same side arm and grip their wrist, pulling it inwards.

The hand you had on their lat will now move to block their same side hand, enabling you to roll them into back mount, where you can finish with a choke.

That ended the third hour, leaving a final fourth hour for open mat. My first spar was with Gareth, the big white belt from Friday. I was more proactive this time, managing to get on top and into mount. I'm remembering to switch to s-mount when people try to roll me over, which is good, but can't finish the armbar from there. I had it in place, but wasn't able to prise Gareth's hands apart in order to properly extend the arm.

I also couldn't get the ezequiel from mount, which I tried a few times, but was probably holding it wrong, and I also don't think I created the right pressure by lifting an elbow. Attempting to finish it from guard after he rolled me was no more successful.

In guard, I continued to work for triangles, and continued to get stacked. I also always seem to have the wrong placement for the arm and leg when looking to switch, though that could just be another example of my failure to react immediately rather than pondering what to do next.

Roy interrupted us midway through, which was cool as I was looking forward to rolling with him. Sparring black belts is always awesome, particularly when they are able to carefully observe and break down your game like Roy. As usual, I was very defensive, protecting my neck, looking to go to half guard from side control and mount.

I'm still a bit flat, but Roy kindly said he thought my defence was pretty good, as I didn't leave him much space, kept my neck safe and showed signs of using my legs as well as arms. I mentioned that while I'm content with how my defence is progressing, my guard passing and submissions remain awful.

That led to what was perhaps the most useful thing I learned all weekend, a guard break. As any regular reader knows, I have been trying to get the damn closed guard open ever since I started, without a great deal of success. Previously I've been trying to tailbone break, but generally get swept or stuck. I've also been attempting to trap and arm, stand, then step forward to their trapped arm, pushing on their other leg. There too I'm still lacking key details, as they often manage to grab the foot I have back anyway.

Roy's suggestion was that I push up into their biceps with straight arms, taking them out of the equation. At the same time, bury your head into their stomach. That provides the stability to jump straight into a wide base with your legs. You then jump again, but this time in order to bring your knee into their tailbone. Sit down and use that knee to cut through their guard, opening the legs.

To pass, grab their collar and arm, dropping your raised knee to trap their leg with your shin. Bringing the elbow of your collar-gripping arm in, slide through, pulling up on their arm in order to secure a good side control or scarf hold. This is apparently on Purple Belt Requirements, Roy's new DVD. There was more guard passing in store on day two, which proved to be just as heavy on technique.
_________________________________

That ended the seminar, but I was in for another surprise. Roy had two students with him, Glen and Rick, who you might recognise from their blue belt demonstrations up on Youtube. As well as acting as uke for Roy (along with Steve), Rick and Glen were in charge of filming the seminar and taking photos.

Update May 2011: Some of that footage has now been released on DVD, as part of The White Belt Bible. The section in question is a short documentary about the Roy Dean Academy trip to London, so also shows them going round the capital, Paul's private lesson, and earlier rolling from Roy before I got there. If you're wondering where yours truly pops up, there is about forty seconds of me from 08:02 onwards ;).]

Rick has an additional project in the works, which sounds fascinating: once its finished, it will be a BJJ documentary, with the central thread being Rick's progress towards his purple belt demonstration this year, alongside lots of interview and competition footage from around the world. I'm assuming the video will be incorporated into that, but perhaps it is meant to be stand-alone.

Either way, I was pleased to be asked to take part in that, with a quick interview about my training, the blog, how I got into BJJ and the like (naturally much, much longer than forty seconds, but I like the quote Rick took: makes me sound coherent instead of rambling ;p). I could talk about BJJ for days, so relished the opportunity to let loose with a stream of enthusiastic, but hopefully coherent babble.

Back at Steve, Kirsty and Paul's flat, I had a chance to look through Purple Belt Requirements with Steve. Looks brilliant, and very different from every other instructional DVD I've seen up until this point. Also useful to have a first viewing to get in mind some of the things I want to discuss when I come to review it in a few days.

Even better, I could ask Roy himself later that evening, as we all hit Bournemouth for some drinks. Talking with Roy and Rick (Glen stayed at home) was awesome, with lots of long conversations about BJJ, Roy's DVD, Rick's documentary, along with a whole load of other stuff.

Four hours of training followed by several more hours of talking with top BJJ black belts and their students: that's a day that is going to be tough to beat. :D

[Pics included by kind permission of Paul Laver]

< Previous Seminar ::: Next Seminar >

24/07/2009 - Roy Dean Class

Class #234



Uplands School, (BJJ), Roy Dean, Poole, UK - 24/07/2009

I was pleasantly surprised a while ago by an email asking if I'd be interested in attending a Roy Dean seminar, so of course jumped at the chance. £30 for two days with an instructor I very much admire was a great opportunity. I've been looking forward to this weekend of training for several months now.

Kirsty, Steve and Paul very generously allowed me to stay at their home, and proved to be excellent hosts, laying on food, and even washing and drying one of the two gis I'd brought. There was also a rather nice present waiting for me, which was an early release copy of Roy Dean's new DVD, Purple Belt Requirements. I will of course have a review up shortly. ;)

As I was there the day before the seminar, I was able to head down to a class Roy held at Uplands School. He didn't waste much time on the warm-up, using the armbar from guard as a way of getting the blood flowing. After that, it was straight into technique. A lot of technique.

Roy's theme tonight was countering submissions, ending up with a submission of your own. That kicked off with a counter to the armbar from guard. As you feel them moving into the armbar, get your forearm behind their leg. Press that hand down to the floor on the far side, then swing your arms through, thrusting your chest out to get past the legs into side control.

Roy followed that with an additional option. Having blocked the leg with your forearm, you can push them to the side, grabbing their trousers or belt to help. The idea is to roll them into the turtle position.

Once there, you can attack with a sliding choke. Start by getting one arm under their same side armpit, grabbing the same side collar. Open it up, bringing your other arm over their same side shoulder. You can now feed that open collar to your second hand, securing a deep grip.

The other grips lower down, on the opposite lapel. To secure the choke, pull down on that lapel, while twisting the other hand and pulling back. Alternately, you can also executed a clock choke, from the same position. Instead of tightening with your hands, walk your legs gradually around past their head, dropping your head towards their neck. This will tighten the choke for you, until you get the tap.

Yet another option is to move into a crucifix, again starting from the turtle. As before, you've reached under their armpit, opened the same side collar and fed it to the other hand, which comes over the shoulder. Your free hand goes under their armpit again, but this time grabs the wrist, pulling it inwards.

This will break their posture. Making sure you have their other arm trapped between you legs, you can now roll over your shoulder in the direction of your grips. That puts your partner in a crucifix. From here, release the hold on the wrist, instead moving your arm out along their arm up to the crook of their elbow. Controlling their arm, bring your hand behind their head. You can now go for the submission, in conjunction with that grip on their collar you still have from earlier.

Roy then demonstrated an armbar from knee-on-belly, followed by a defence. Once you've secured knee on belly, often your opponent will push on the knee with their hand to relieve the pressure. That opens up an opportunity for a submission. Reach through the frame formed by their arm, gripping underneath, then post your other hand for base near their head.

You can then spin, bringing your leg over their head, continuing until your knee is pointing up beside their arm, on the side nearest their knees. You should also have you other leg over their throat, after which you can drop down and back for the armbar, keeping your knees pinched.

The counter to a knee-on-belly armbar is comparatively simple. First, you need to turn your hand so that your thumb is no longer pointing to the ceiling. This will give you a moment to escape, as they will either have to get your thumb back up, or shift into a position where they can still hyperextend your arm in a different direction.

Look towards their feet, also gripping their nearest leg. From here, kick your legs up and back, rolling over your shoulder. Now you can move into your own knee-on-belly, ready to launch an attack.

Finally, Roy progressed to footlocks, which fits with the pattern he sets in Blue Belt Requirements. First off was a straight footlock (I think an Achilles lock, but not sure on the correct terminology).

From standing, you step your foot across to the opposite bum cheek. Wrap an arm around their Achilles, pressing into the tendon with your wrist. Hold their knee with your other hand to keep their leg tight, then sit down. You other leg comes over the top, then in a sort of guillotine hold on the Achilles, drop back, squeeze and thrust your hips up for the tap. Alternately you can also roll to your side to get more leverage.

The footlock counter begins by getting their foot off your hip, also bringing your toes back on the trapped foot to tense the tendon, buying you a brief bit of time to escape. Having dislodged their foot from the hip, reach for their opposite knee, your free hand going back for balance. From there, you can move through to mount.

If they roll to the side for the footlock, you can use a similar strategy. Clearing their foot is still the essential detail, but this time that means bringing your body over the top, so you just bring your hips to the other side of the foot. Once again, you now move through to mount. Must have been a grip of some sort involved in there, but its been submerged in my mountain of notes (possibly that's where you move into knee on belly and armbar, so I may have got the order of class mixed up).

Sparring was done in long rounds, which I didn't realise at first. I started off with a big white belt called Gareth, where I basically stayed squashed underneath, looking to go to half guard. I made some vague attempts at a triangle, but I'm not getting sufficient head control, and also get immediately stacked, preventing me achieving the right position.

Next up was Kirsty, one of the small UK group who has travelled out to Bend in order to train at Roy's academy there. She was able to hold a solid side control, so again I found myself stuck underneath. I probably should have bumped more to make space for an escape, or at least get onto my side. However, as I knew I had to keep going for rather longer than I'm used to, I gave in the laziness and just waited.

I did eventually find myself with the opportunity to go for a triangle a couple of times, but on each occasion, Kirsty shrugged it off and moved right back into side control. Later I managed to move into her guard, where again I took the strategy of waiting for an opportunity.

That led to getting top half guard, though I think that was quite possibly a matter of boring my training partner into opening some space, which is a crappy tactic. As ever, I need to be more proactive.

Looking forward to the main seminar tomorrow, which is going to be intense: four hours of training, followed by another four the next day. My notebook is going to be rammed with technique: I was surprised by just how much Roy packed into the lesson. Pretty much every other lesson I've been to at other BJJ schools teaches no more than three or four techniques at most.

However, chatting to Roy afterwards, I can see why he takes this route instead. This is his first visit to the UK, brought out by Steve and the other UK residents who fly out to Bend in order to train. Therefore Roy wanted to get as much technique in as possible, making the most out of the brief time he has here with his British students.

After the class, we headed back to the flat for an extremely tasty barbecue (again, supplied by our generous hosts), while watching the entirety of UFC Ultimate 100: Greatest Fights. Of course, that title is a misnomer, given that there are several glaring omissions like Frank Shamrock, but it was entertaining nonetheless.

I also got to chat at length to Roy, his students, and the UK crew, which was really cool. Great food, great company, and a great seminar to forward to the next day.

15/04/2008 - BJJ (Advanced)

Class #137



Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK - 15/04/2008 – Advanced

Roger was chatting to Owen, Paxton and I before the lesson, which is always nice. I'm attempting to dissuade Paxton from competing as he's awaiting knee surgery, but then Roger mentioned the other argument that there shouldn't be too much stress on his knee, particularly at white belt, and if he tries to stick to playing from his back. So advice is to give it a week and see: if it was me, I would probably barely even be training, but then I'm terrified of getting an injury that would put me out for a long time. One of the many things that makes me less keen on competing, though I do plan to get back into it next year, hopefully.

Lots of black belts at RGA tonight, which I didn't realise until the end. Aside from Roger and his father Maurição (who just flew in today, I think), there was also Marcio Gomes from GB Brighton, Gustavo, Jude and Braulio Estima. Could be they were there to help with Roger's training before his MMA fight, or perhaps more likely, they're all getting ready for SENI. Either way, cool to have that many big names around.

Technique kicked off with the sweep from last time: I noticed that I'm tending to forget about grabbing the ankle, which is an integral part of the technique, so useful to be able to drill that in.

Jude then followed the sweep by applying an achilles lock. After you've swept them, stand-up and control their foot. This isn't with the figure-four, as that leaves your forearm bone pressing flat rather than digging in with the edge. Instead, Jude suggested bringing one hand over the ankle, grabbing the wrist of your other arm underneath, pressing the edge of your forearm into their achilles tendon.

You then bring your inside knee through their legs and onto their torso, dropping your body in that direction, leading with your same side shoulder. This should cause your partner to come up on their side, whereupon you bring your feet into their stomach to lock up the leg, then arch your back to apply the lock. This is apparently legal in competition, though I doubt I'd try this in competition, as I'd most likely fuck it up under pressure and end up doing something illegal by accident.

That would definitely be the case with the variation Jude showed next. It starts the same way, but this time you don't drop your body to the side. Instead, you go straight forward, then roll with your partner, until your end up again in a position where you've locked up the leg and can arch your back for the sub. I felt nervous about falling forward with somebody's foot trapped in my grip, as it seemed like it could easily go wrong and cause some unpleasant damage. Of course, I'm in no way confident with footlocks, so I'd probably feel the same way no matter how safe they are on paper.

Guard passage started with Christina, where I tried to force myself to stand up more in her guard. She was going easy on me, but I still couldn't get into position for a pass. I ended up crouching, trying to grab an arm and a leg for the "It's me!" pass, but no luck. This has long been a problem for me, and I need to build up confidence when standing up. I also need to push forward with my hips more, and generally watch my base.

Underneath, I continued trying to bring my partner down towards me, then work for the kimura. With Christina, I only get to the "try to bring them down" part, as she inevitably gets her posture up, stands, then passes my feeble open guard. I like the principle of wrapping my foot around their arm, but that isn't enough control, so I need to work on that further. I also need to greatly improve my footwork in open guard, getting onto their hips and off-balancing my partner.

Switching partner, I went with one of my favourite partners, Tanvir. As usual, I went for the kimura, prying the elbow and eventually breaking his grip free to go for the submission. However, I think my technique was kinda sloppy and more down to force, so want to focus in on the proper way to break a grip. I also want to make sure I'm really controlling their shoulder in tight to my body.

Still, I was pleased to then get the reverse kimura too, on the other arm. This is something I wanted to try out from Beneville's The Guard: instead of the usual figure four, you bring same side arm past their armpit, then the opposite arm over the top to grip their wrist. Your first arm grips the bicep of the other, which then puts you in position to apply the submission. Seemed to work ok, though as I'm just going off a book rather than instruction, there's a lot I'm going to be missing, so needs more practice in live rolling.

I wasn't as successful on top, though I did manage a sloppy sprawl pass to get to Tanvir's half guard. I was in definite danger of getting guillotined as I did so: need to control the legs better if I'm going to pass like that, and use my hips better. I should have been able to go straight to side control if I had done it properly.

My first free roll was with Herman, which followed a similar pattern to Tanvir. I again was going for that kimura, which resulted not in a submission, but lots of spinning round instead. I ended up both underneath in guard, in half guard and in side control, still with that kimura grip. Clearly I need to transition better, as I'm getting stuck on the one thing: I haven't really pushed for a sweep in a while, and I haven't tried any other submissions, except the reverse kimura. Chokes would be a good thing to work, so might try those, particularly if I can get some in combination with a sweep.

I also ended up on top in half guard with Herman, and I think in side control once. I tried to step over his head and spin to an armbar (as yet again, I had a kimura grip on the arm), but messed it up and ended up dangling underneath instead. So, broader range of submissions and more sweeps required. Herman is competing at the SENI, and as a fellow small guy doesn't get to try going from on top much, so I said I'd be happy to start in mount or something to give him some practice.

However, that will depend on my neck. I think I hurt something when sparring with Christina, when trying to escape north south. I was playing a lot of open guard again, trying to wrap her arms up with my legs, but ended up under side control. She moved round to north-south, which is probably where I hurt my neck attempting to escape, until she went for the armbar. I followed her up with it and went for the armbar escape, but she most likely would have put the armbar on quicker and harder had she been going full bore.

Another reminder during that spar that I have to be more careful when flailing with my legs. Once again, I fucked up a north-south escape (clearly I have a lot of work to do on those!), and ended up kneeing Christina in the face instead. Not clever, and I hate it when I hurt people, especially when its stupid avoidable stuff like that (though she seemed ok). She later showed me how it should be done, pushing me away with a carefully aimed shove around my clavicle.

Applying my usual "anything hurts, stop" approach, I didn't spar any more after that due to my neck, though I didn't notice just how sore it was until I sat down by the side. Hopefully that rest will mean its ok for tomorrow, but if not, then I guess I can wait til Thursday. I'll definitely be able to help out on the first day of the SENI, so that should be interesting: just need to remember to email Jude. I don't feel qualified to referee or anything, so probably end up doing something menial, or maybe selling stuff. Will see.

29/11/2007 - BJJ (No-Gi)

Class #106



Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK - 29/11/2007 – No-Gi

Quick note on links: Jude’s EFN site is now using a new url, so everything that used to be under www.bjj.eu is now going to be replaced with www.efnsports.com. That goes for the main site, the forum, the video blog etc (as per links on the left).

Lost my damn gum shield yet again yesterday (definitely put it in my bag, so must have fallen out somewhere at home): tried to pick a new one up before class, but the one shop near my office that might have sold them is about to become a smoothie bar. Grr. So I’ll have to buy a new one in Brum (unless my gf has two?), whether I find the old gum shield or not: this keeps happening, so it would be useful to have a spare.

I was a bit uncertain about training tonight, as the tricep on my left arm has been acting up since training yesterday, along with my right leg (not quite sure how that happened). Decided to go along in the end, and was glad I did due to the decent number of smaller people training today (like Sehyun, who moved up to the advanced recently).

After going through the throws, Jude showed us a butterfly guard sweep, which despite being introduced as a basic technique was not something I’d seen demonstrated before. In butterfly guard (where you have your shins inside their legs), you get a firm overhook on one of their arms. Sit up into them, grabbing their other hand, then shrimp slightly out to one side. Your knee should be pressed up against their side, your foot braced firmly against the inside of their leg. Leaning right back, raise them towards you with that foot, then push your knee into their side, at the same time (and with the same leg) pressing against their inside leg with your shin. Roll to the other side, ending up in mount.

Next up was a mount escape, leading to a leg lock. Heel hooks have been banned since 2002, apparently, so it was important that this was a straight leg lock (if I understood correctly). But that’s getting ahead of myself: first thing you need to do is bump them towards you with one knee. Brace their weight with your arms against your hips, then use the space to bring your leg through (as soon as the leg you bumped them with hits the floor, shrimp).

The knee you’ve brought through goes to the left, while you swivel round to the right (for the sake of this example). Once you’re in position, your knee comes up tight against their left leg, while you bring your right leg around the other side, pushing on their hip with their foot to stretch them out. Your forearm then loops right round the back of their ankle, moving into a figure-four grip. Finally, sit up slightly and arch your back to apply the sub.

As tends to happen with these leg locks, I had trouble getting the sub on. I think the main problem was that I hadn’t got my arm through far enough, which Jude corrected as he went round the class.

Finally, Jude added a slight variation if they try to roll out of the lock. Keep your hold on their ankle, then effectively sit on their leg (so you’re facing away from them), bringing one of your own legs across the back of their knee, again figure-fouring the ankle.

Guard passage with Christina was a little more active than normal, as I tried to be offensive. She maintained solid pressure on my hips, so I spent most of the time swimming underneath her arms trying to knock them off my hips (by coming under with my arm and pushing out). I had a go at the sit-up sweep a few times, but her base was too solid: I need to work harder at breaking down their posture before I attempt to sweep.

In her guard, things were much the same as usual, as I stayed defensive, trying to ward off her attempts at submission. She was working towards a triangle, but we had to pause due to coming precariously close to the edge of the mat. The second time, I was just about able to defend by keeping my elbows in tight and pushing. I also had a go at getting the double underhooks and going for a stack pass, but time run out (though I’m pretty sure Christina would have been able to recover guard).

My first free spar was with Joanna, who was definitely going easy on me today. I especially noticed that when in guard, as she pretty much let me attempt things. Not that I was able to do much – as that tends to be the position I spend most of my sparring working towards, I often draw a blank when I actually find myself there.

I played with open guard again, trying to keep her from passing. I was generally able to recover my guard, though that’s mitigated by her holding back. At another point, she stood up in my guard, so I climbed up after her, then tried dropping to a single leg, which knocked her down, but I wasn’t able to move round to side control. She eventually secured a solid side control on me, which gave me the opportunity to try and bridge more forcefully than I have been in the past. However, I’m still not managing to shrimp immediately after making space from bridging, which is the main thing I want to improve at the moment.

I sat out the next one, and what turned out to be my final spar was with Sehyun. Having chatted to him just before, I think his main experience is with hapkido and TKD, though he’s also got a year of judo and a brief bit of BJJ back in Korea. Whatever he did, it seems to have helped: he’s quick, flexible and aggressive, and I found him just as much of a challenge as he’d been in the beginners class. He quickly got me in a guillotine, which reminds me yet again to take care with my head position when driving forwards. I started to attempt the escape, but he had it cinched in way too tight.

After that, the spar was a little more even. I swivelled around trying to maintain my guard, then once he passed found myself in various strange positions under side control. First I ended up in that random triangle position, so thought I might as well go for it: however, I don’t think I had my legs in quite the right place, so after squeezing for a bit, tried switching to an armbar, which didn’t work either. Still, good to try, and also great to have somebody else in the advanced class who’s slightly smaller than me, but higher skill level (normally I’d rely on Aika for that, but she’s been off for a while, I think with an injury).

The RGA christmas thing is currently set for the 15th December, which I can hopefully make. I’ve got a different party to go to at the mo, but might be able to skip it in favour of RGA. Will have to see: always good to socialise with people from the club, as it makes training infinitely more enjoyable.

18/10/2007 - BJJ (No-Gi)

Class #96



Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Felipe Souza, London, UK - 18/10/2007 – No-Gi

To start with medical matters, finally had that mole (or rather, ‘tag’: think I’ve been using ‘mole’ incorrectly) removed yesterday. Straightforward process, beginning with an anaesthetic injection, which did sting a bit but nothing too unbearable. The doctor then used a hot wire to literally burn the tag off my back: I could hear the sizzle as it sliced through, but fortunately the anaesthetic did its job. The wound seems to have healed up ok – doctor said my painkiller would wear off in three hours, so should take some paracetemol, as I’ve basically got a burn mark on my back. Despite its many problems, still good to know that the NHS is capable of providing really simple procedures like mole/tag removal for free and without a long wait. Giving that wound time to heal was why I didn't train yesterday.

My left elbow has also been giving me trouble for a while, but I think that’s probably due to my seating position when typing. KPMG has occupational people that should be able to give me some advice on that kind of thing, so I’ll give them a try when I’m next in the office.

Oh, and in case anyone is wondering, work presentation last week went fine. The food at the conference centre was also much better than last year, which provided something tasty to look forward to. That same conference has been held in the UK for the past three years, so hopefully next time we’ll get the chance to go to the US. Getting in some BJJ, or maybe even a US throwdown, would be awesome.

Onto training: my regular training partner Chris wasn’t there, which was a shame, so I ended up with a guy I’ve never trained with before. I didn’t catch his name, but he was a fairly muscular looking bloke. Proved to have some useful tips later on.

We started with a single leg takedown from the clinch. Step back with your left, then when they’re put their leg out as they’re pulled towards you, wrap your right leg around that leg, also grabbing their other leg with your same side hand. Drive forward, throwing your free leg out to land in half guard.

If that didn’t work, another single leg option was to step sideways inside their legs, then drop your leading knee to the ground, also wrapping that over their leg (which is behind instead of in front as with the previous example). Again grabbing their other leg, lift it and drive forward, but this time you end up in their closed guard.

Felipe followed that with demonstrating three techniques off an omoplata from the guard. You start with a tight guard, one arm wrapped firmly around their’s, your other arm securing their head. Move the arm round their head to their free arm, then push off their same side hip with your leg, aiming to push the knee past the arm you just grabbed. Keep tight: I repeatedly made the mistake of scooting out, which merely gives your opponent the space to pass.

Having got your knee past, keep pushing off the hip (maintaining your grip on their other arm), until you can bring your other leg over their shoulder and past their near side cheek. That then means your can triangle your legs to secure the grip, then getting a good hold around their back to keep the lock on, shift to the side away from them to flatten your opponent out. To finish, having moved your legs round, move your hips forward until they tap.

If they roll before you can get the omoplata, one option is to grab a leg as they come over, jam your knee past, then wrap up their foot (high by the ankle, or your leverage will be weak) with the back of your arm. Making sure their knee is higher than yours, press for the kneebar.

Finally, you can grab their foot instead as they come over, get a figure four grip and twist for the sub. If they kick your grip away with their other foot, you can still move through into scarf hold or side control.

Class then moved straight into free sparring. I looked around for someone lighter, but ended up with my partner from drilling. As expected, I got good and smashed, mostly sitting under side control or mount. I learned once again that I need to be careful when leaning in or I’m asking to get guillotined. I’m also having a bit of trouble escaping the knee on belly. Everyone who’s done it to me so far has followed up with the same technique, an armbar attempt (just like Colin did back at Birmingham 2). Normally I can defend by just moving round quickly to stop them stepping over, but didn’t work this time.

My next spar was one of my more usual opponents, Christina. She’s stronger and a little bigger than me, but always helpful to roll with because she maintains control, so doesn’t crank anything. Again, I pulled half guard (meant to go for full, but keep ending up with half), struggled for a bit, then found myself under side. I escaped a few times back to half guard, which Christina passed back to side control. That pretty much covers the whole roll: half guard, side control, half guard, side control, along with repeated attempts by Christina to get my arm.

She gave me a useful tip about being under side control, which was that it’s a good idea to touch your elbow and knee together, forming a barrier and making space for your escape. Though I didn’t quite get this against my third and final sparring partner, Joanna, it was a useful to have that to go for. As with Christina, I again ended up shifting from half guard to side control, also spending some time under mount. I began the spar in open guard, so that’s something I need to work: in particular, automatically framing my arms against their armpit and side to prepare for recovering guard.

13/09/2007 - BJJ (No-Gi)

Class #86



Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Luciano Cristovam, London, UK - 13/09/2007 – No-Gi

I had assumed tonight’s class would be taken by Felipe as usual, given that he was teaching the kids session beforehand, but instead Luciano was in charge of training. It seems Luciano has a penchant for the complex, as well as being keen to get everyone sparring as much as possible: even part of the drilling involved a fair bit of resistance. We did some pummelling (which I think is the right term when you both start in a clinch, then fight for the double underhooks), which was then immediately followed by takedown specific sparring.

As ever when we do takedowns, I wasn’t really going for takedowns myself: I’m pretty much clueless standing up, particularly no-gi, so I took it slow and tried to take in what the other person was doing. I tried to get to a clinch position and stop them grabbing a leg, and also had a brief attempt at one of the moves we were shown a while back, where you push on their hips. Didn’t quite remember what to do, unfortunately, but still good to do at least one proactive thing. Generally my attempt to observe weren’t all that successful, as I often wasn’t able to follow how they got the takedown due to the speed. Still, I’m starting to get some idea of footwork and the like when standing up, in a very very limited sense, so that’s progress.

The techniques almost went straight over my head, kicking off with Aesopian’s favourite, the reverse omoplata. As they go for your legs, you sprawl back and move round to their back. Bring your right arm underneath and grab their right wrist, then slip your left hand under their left armpit to grab your own wrist. Your right knee then slides in close to their arm, after which you then use that to push their arm out. Wrap your left leg round to pull it back, then triangle that arm making sure your left leg is on top (I think: this part especially kept confusing me).

You then release your grip on their arm and roll over your right shoulder. They’ll have to roll with you, or be forced to tap there and then. Make sure you get your arm (right, I think) across them so they can’t just sit up, then come to you knees. I think you then continue the motion twisting their arm until they tap from the pressure on their shoulder, but again, not too clear on the mechanics.

The next technique, to my surprise, was even more complicated. This time Luciano showed us a rolling footlock, in which you’re standing in their open guard. Grab one of their feet, thumb on top and figures on their sole. Trap their other leg between your own legs: its important that stays secured. You then roll over your shoulder, keep the hold on the foot (which I found difficult: it was hard to stop myself instinctively letting go of the foot to put an arm down for the roll). You should now be triangling their leg with a firm grip on their foot. Bring your other hand in to grasp your own wrist, making a figure four, then push their toes away from you for the tap.

I kept pushing in the wrong direction: I can remember that pushing up or down was wrong, so I think it was a sort of twisting motion where their toes go forward and heel back. I also wasn’t securing the ankle properly, so need to remember to keep that tight.

As with the takedown sparring, we then lined up against the wall again, and for a moment I thought Luciano might do specific footlock sparring or something, which would be terrifying. However, turned out that it was already time for full free sparring: there was still half the lesson (45 minutes) to go at this point. Fortunately, the class was also sufficiently large that no everyone could spar at the same time, meaning we did it in shifts. There were seven rounds in total, and I alternated between sitting out and sparring, getting three spars overall.

Things kicked off with Chris, who as I’ve mentioned a few times I’ve been wanting to spar more frequently. As ever, I ended up in half-guard, from which I still found I was basically just clinging on. I can get a fairly strong triangle on the leg, but not much else. I also got double underhooks, but couldn’t really do much with it. My aim was to try and get my head to the same side as the isolated leg in order to take the back, but like every other time, my head was on the opposite side. From there I should be able to sweep by coming up on my elbow, but I tended to be low on their body and quite flat, which made it difficult.

Chris said afterwards that his preferred method of getting past half-guard was to underhook, bring the hip in, and then move past the hip. Or something like that: I’ll need to drill it with him some time to get the technique right, which is unfortunately difficult as I’m never about after training.

After sitting out, I then followed my plan of next going with somebody my own weight, rolling with Nathan. Again, I spent a lot of it in half-guard, but also had a drawn out open guard battle, which was good to work. I was able to prevent Nathan passing for a fair while, slipping my knee into his stomach or getting my hands onto his side and armpit (though that isn’t quite so effective without a gi to grab). However, he did eventually get through to mount, where I did the step over thing from Belfast to recover my half-guard.

Nathan had a hold of my arm a few times, but due to the sweat I was able to slide out each time. That’s something I’m beginning to rely on in no-gi, so I’ll have to watch that: while the slicker bodies in no-gi certainly makes escapes from that kind of thing easier, I should still be concentrating on proper arm positioning and escapes, not just sweat.

Finally, I went with Gavin, a quiet blue belt whose name I only found out at the Bristol Open. He was unsurprisingly more technical than either Chris or Nathan, and it was rather harder to maintain the half-guard on him. In particular, he did something where he was able to get the knee of the leg I was triangling right up underneath me, meaning that I either had to let go of my half-guard or get passed: I should have done the former, but ended up with the latter. Gavin was going pretty easy on me, so only submitted me twice, which gave me a chance to try defending from the bottom. Not sure if I was especially successful, as I can’t tell how much he was letting me get away with. Still, felt like a productive spar, and I’ll have to be careful of that knee when in half-guard.

I had to make sure I wasn’t home too late tonight, as there is some early morning training at work I can’t afford to miss, so didn’t do the beginners session. Having trouble doubling up, but then as long as I get two classes in, I’m not too bothered: anything from two to four is fine. Also, I may well get the chance to train on Friday too, so that would be at least three.

Generally, same points from yesterday apply: must work those few fundamental sweeps and escapes from half-guard, and also concentrate on recovering full guard. In addition I shouldn’t neglect the top game, so it would be worth attempting to get on top occasionally: I did that briefly with Gavin, so need to keep varying like that. Overall I’m pleased that I went with three spars of respectively someone bigger, someone the same size and someone much more skilled (i.e., a blue), which was my stated intention yesterday. Hopefully I’ll be able to keep that up.

12/07/2007 - BJJ (No-Gi)

Class #71



Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK - 12/07/2007 – No-Gi

My chin has got a bit bashed up recently, and I’ve developed a friction burn, probably from rubbing against my own gi collar. Rather annoying, but at least no-gi meant the friction was a little reduced.

Felipe had to leave before class started, so Jude took over – I thought he’d already gone on holiday, but I guess his flight must be a little later on. We began with double-legs and ‘pummelling’, which I’ve heard of before but not sure if I’ve actually done (if I have, then it would have been years ago at one of the Kevin O’Hagan classes in Bristol). Basically, each person has one arm overhooked around their partner’s arm, while their other arm underhooks in order to grip round the back. Pummeling is where your switch from arm to arm, the eventual aim being to get both underhooks, which enables the takedown.

That takedown is what Jude showed us next. Having got the double underhooks, you pull on the back and push forward with your head, aiming to bend your opponent backwards and thereby knock them off balance. That should make it easy to keep driving and bring them down to the floor. If they manage to resist, you can also hook a leg.

If your opponent simply steps back once you’ve got double-underhooks, that means they’ll now be leaning forward. That is an opportunity to over-balance them in the other direction. In order to do so, you thrust up with your arms and shoulders, then immediately drop down as low as possible, driving through and up for the double leg. As they are already leaning forwards, due to that sudden motion of throwing them up then moving down, they will now lose their balance and therefore can’t offer much resistance. The thrusting upwards also prevents them from getting a guillotine.

Jude then went through a fundamental technique, which also happens to be one I’m very keen to work on – the shrimp escape from mount. Its basic, but there were lots of details I’d been missing. First, you get your elbow into their knee, the other slightly higher up on their other leg, twisting to your side. One of your legs is up by their bum, the other is out straight. This facilitates shrimping out by pushing with your bent leg: your other leg is easier to pull through because you’ve kept it straight. The important point Jude made here was that shrimping is done with the hips, not just the legs. Instead of merely straightening your legs, you should be really driving with your hips: I could immediately see this made a big difference to the escape.

Having pushed the knee out through a combination of your hips and elbow, your knee pops up past theirs. Bring that out, hook their leg, then repeat the process on the other side. Keep going until you’re able to recover guard.

Next, I got my first taste of leg locks in a BJJ class. The achilles lock works off that shrimp escape. Having got to the position where you’re bringing your knee through, lift their leg and push them to the side. Wrap your lifting leg around theirs, then shove them backwards with your foot on their hip. Their ankle is now open to attack – slip your same side wrist tightly under their achilles tendon, aiming to apply pressure with the bony part of your forearm. Grab the wrist of your other arm, putting the hand of that other arm on top of their shin (i.e., a figure four grip). Finally, pull up and back to apply the submission.

The counter to this is to go for your own achilles lock. Once your opponent has managed to start locking your leg, immediately straighten it out. Grab their knee and ankle on the leg pushing against your hip, then push over to the other side of your body. Finally, apply the figure four hold on that leg and apply your own achilles lock. Because their leg is bent and across your body, they can’t straighten it to resist the lock, which you can. Therefore your lock should come on much faster than their’s.

There wasn’t any specific sparring this time round, so we went straight to free sparring. I started off with Leo, who I’d been training with. As usual, he was able to quickly get on top and start moving to north south. I did attempt the mount escape a few times, and also balled up as he tried to transition, which seemed to help a little bit. The lesson on shrimp escapes really helped me clarify the technique in my head, so hopefully I’ll start having more success with it from now on (although I didn’t quite get it against Leo: think I got into half-guard, though).

Christina rolled me about all over the place, though I managed to get in guard a couple of times against her. It was either with her or Leo that I tried escaping the triangle again, but that might have been where Christina caught me with an armbar. Even more so than against Leo, I tried to draw my knees in so I could spin around underneath, but as with Leo only half-worked. Christina had some useful tips about attacking from knees, which was mainly to do with pulling their arm past you and keeping good head control. Alternately, if they have a leg up, you can grab the leg and head and try to sweep them that way.

Finally, I sparred Aika. Unfortunately, she hurt her elbow early on when attempting a single-leg, which ended up with me on top trying to take her back. I think she whacked her elbow on the ground in the process, so we paused for a moment while she checked it out. I did suggest icing it, and wasn’t sure if we should continue or not, but she seemed willing to keep going. I spent most of the spar maintaining mount, keeping an arm underneath Aika’s head with the other free to post, switching as necessary.

I was able to hold that position (though its worth noting that Aika is one of the very few people at RGA who’s significantly smaller than me, which gives me an unfair advantage), but couldn’t take the next step and set-up a submission. A couple of Americana opportunities presented themselves, but I lacked the skill to capitalise. I attempted to avoid the injured elbow, but then stupidly went for an armbar on the wrong arm: very silly. I seem to remember I let go once I realised, or at least I hope so. Aika was icing her elbow afterwards: hopefully didn’t make it any worse than it already was, but that depends on if I released it in time.