I have always been terrified of leglocks, especially heel hooks. However, as long as you're training with somebody who knows what they're doing it's good to have a play. I didn't drill them all that much, due to aforementioned fear (also, Rich teaches a LOT of technique in each of his classes ;D). Still the main points I took away were a two arm finish, the importance of getting under the heel and that you should avoid lying on your arms. If you lie on your arm, that will restrict the amount you can turn.
Once Rich got to defence, I was keener to practice. The big thing this time was grabbing their arm with both of yours and pulling it towards you. That's the first thing to try. Then there is the usual defensive stuff for footlocks, like 'putting the boot on'. Rich also mentioned crossing your feet as a general principle, which he said applies to lots of foot and leglocks. I look forward to his kneebar material, as that seems like a good attack against Sam's knee shield.
I used my tripod with a new phone clamp, much better. Sparring with Adrienne, focused on when they have heel hook and you escape. She was doing a good job of switching to single leg x, so that was fun. Need to work my passes against there, which is where Paul Schreiner (yet again) comes in, from Precise Pressure Passing.
Class #821 Artemis BJJ (MYGYM Bristol), Lisa Chappell, Bristol, UK - 14/05/2017
Really good class structure from Lisa, top notch techniques too. Hopefully she'll be up for teaching more often, as it would be especially awesome to have a woman leading more of the classes. She went through a transition today, introducing elements during the warm up as a drill, then breaking it down. The sequence begins from mount. They try to escape your mount with the bump to butterfly. Base on your feet and drop your hip, in order to dislodge their straightened arm. Slide into side control leading with your hip. They will often turn towards you at this point, attempting to recover guard. Putting your weight into their shoulder, swivel around behind. Bring your arm that's nearest their hips over, pressing the elbow in tight a little below their hip.
That helps keep some control as you spin. Once you're behind them, get your arm under theirs, while your other arm goes over their shoulder. You can progress into back control from here, sitting them up with your seat belt grip, then establishing your hooks. If they are tight and don't let you get your arm under, push their elbow instead. This sets up a gift wrap, pushing their wrist into your waiting hand behind their head. You can then again go to the back.
I got in some good sparring with Adrienne and Paul, which was cool as I haven't sparred with Adrienne before. She's got a background at a different club, so there was more intensity, always an interesting test for my guard retention (especially as she's a purple belt). I was also impressed by Sara, who hasn't trained before, but already looked to have good movement. Hopefully she keeps it up, as she clearly has some natural aptitude for it.
With Paul, I was looking for the kimura, my go-to in lots of positions but especially nogi, if I can't get a good butterfly position for a sweep. I was also trying to switch into the crucifix when he went to control my leg, but I haven't got that movement smooth yet. I have managed to make the transition a few times in sparring over the last few months, sloppily though. It would be good to see a decent video on it to see what details I could add. :)
Class #814 Artemis BJJ (MYGYM Bristol), Rich Lindsay, Bristol, UK - 23/04/2017
I am trying to get along to more Sunday nogi sessions, as I've been having a lot of trouble in terms of bashing up my fingers in gi. The ringfingers on each hand keep getting tweaked, which is making it difficult to spar. I therefore thought that doing more nogi might help me get more comfortable with other grips, especially from open guard. Another thing it enables me to do is take a lot of video, as the nogi instructor at Artemis BJJ has the necessary self-confidence to put themselves out there online. I'll therefore just direct you to the videos, rather than write too much about the technique. Rich teaches lots of techniques in his class, all of which is up there on the Artemis BJJ social media. :)
Class #753 BJJ Globetrotter Camp (Phoenix MMA), Lorenzo Fraquelli, Bournemouth, UK, 18/07/2016
After arriving back from Madrid around midnight, I got in a few hours of sleep before jumping on a train down from Bristol to Bournemouth. That was for the inaugural UK BJJ Globetrotters Camp, held at the Phoenix MMA gym. It's a short and straightforward cycle from the train station, though as it's also on a high street, I imagine there are plenty of buses running through there.
In terms of accessibility, Phoenix MMA is fairly convenient for those of us in the South West. The train is about three hours from Bristol, or you can drive there in around two and a half. Due to it's prominent location, the gym is easy to find. It's a decent size for a BJJ school, with two rooms (one was a lot cooler than the other in the unseasonable heat today), though naturally much smaller than the Sportoase in Leuven. The Sportoase is HUGE.
The main downside of the UK venue is there's only one shower and one toilet (for the men at least, the women's changing room might be more spacious). I was only able to make it to camp for the Monday this year, but if I can stay longer in 2017, I'll try to get accommodation somewhere near enough to the gym that I can pop out for a shower. ;)
It's been a long time since I last saw today's first instructor, Lorenzo. He was there when I first started at the Roger Gracie Academy in 2006, but I don't think I've seen him since I moved away from London in 2009. In the intervening years, he's earned a black belt and set up his own school, Wave BJJ, as well as becoming a regular instructor on the BJJ Globetrotter camp circuit.
To kick off the camp, Lorenzo taught something more advanced, the barataplata (also called the baratoplata: the guy who invented it seems to use barataplata, so I'll go with that). Fortunately for me, I wasn't completely unfamiliar with the technique, as my instructor Kev Capel had shown a set-up earlier this month. For the first variation, Lorenzo started from north south, moving into a kimura. He then locks the second arm (which was grabbing his own wrist) to his chest, meaning he has his first arm free. If you were wearing a gi you could grab that, but as this was nogi, the hand was just on the chest, clamping tight.
You can then pull their legs across to prevent them blocking. I'm not sure that's always essential, as I'd rather maintain the kimura grip, but depends what they do with their legs. Also, the assumption here is that they have their hands locking together. If they let go, you could switch into an armbar.
If you still have their arm and it's bent, swing your leg over, so it is across their kimuraed arm. Bring your arm through so it is grabbing your own thigh. Base your other arm out on the mat, then slowly turn your hips towards their head, keeping your other leg braced against the back of their head.
Should they turn to their knees putting your back on the mat, you can still finish this. Push on their near knee, then untriangle your legs. Come up on your elbow, then bring the leg which was nearest their head over and towards their legs. Get that foot to the mat. Keep turning, until you've knocked your partner to their back. You can then turn your hips again to finish, as you end up in the same place as before.
The last technique was the same one Kev showed, from that double underhooks defence position. See my earlier post for that one.
Class #741 BJJ Globetrotter Camp (Sportoase Leuven), Chad Wright, Leuven, Belgium, 24/06/2016
The pressing armbar is an attack I'm increasingly enjoying, meaning I was sufficiently interested in what variations Chad might have that I forced myself to do a nogi class. For what Chad calls a cutting armbar (there are always loads of different names for stuff in BJJ), he started off with applying it against a triangle defence. If they tuck they arm back to try and prevent your choke, reach through behind that arm. You can then pry it loose, pulling the wrist to your neck, then moving into the usual pressing armbar.
Chad then demonstrated how you could move into the pressing armbar from underneath half guard, noting that if they posture up when you go for it, you can simply shift back to closed guard. From a closed guard, Chad showed how you can move into a 'pitstop', where you bringing your legs up over their shoulder and triangling your legs. That's definitely easier if you have long limbs like Chad. ;)
Class #728 BJJ Globetrotter Camp (Sportoase Leuven), David 'Morcegao' George, Leuven, Belgium, 21/06/2016
I very rarely train nogi, as I don’t like the absence of gi grips. I also find it becomes a lot more based on physical attributes when you take away the gi, exactly the opposite of what I want from my jiu jitsu game. However, I was intrigued by the prospect of learning from David George. I first encountered him on the sadly defunct European Fight Network forum that my old instructor Jude Samuel used to run. When I started BJJ, the EFN was the place the UK BJJ community congregated. That’s where you would hear about competitions, gossip and of course trolling. The notorious david5 was a master of the latter.
Since then, he’s become better known as the UK’s only (I think?) black belt earned directly under the legendary Ricardo de la Riva, as well as the organiser of Roll Models. That was the first competition Artemis BJJ went to as a club and it was a great experience. Well organised, very affordable and supportive of female competitors (they initially could enter for free, then later editions had heavily discounted prices for women). He has also started his own school, Morcegao Jiu Jitsu, as that is now his moniker (including a memorable custom design by Seymour).
David focused on passing, with a strong wrestling slant. To begin, you need to get your distancing right. You can’t be too far away, but you also don’t want to be too close, or they may be able to grab your legs and go for a sweep. Crouch low, a little like you’re going to shoot for a takedown. Pick your moment, then grab their feet and drive forward. You want to get their feet right over their head. To do that, you’ll also want to switch your grip, so that you are driving the web of your hand (between your thumb and finger) into their ankles (or sometimes the back of their knees). As their legs go over their head, follow in, driving your hips into the bottom of their back, right below (from your perspective) their bum. Stay upright, stopping them from bringing their legs back down or scooting away from you.
If they are being squirmy, you may want to lock your hands around their hips. If you mess up the motion and can’t get their legs over their head, you can try to pass by swiping one leg in front and towards their hip, sliding to the side. That squashes their legs down, enabling you to slip through into side control. To secure that side control. David’s catchphrase was ‘punch them in the head!’ In other words, whack into the side of their head, relatively high, with your bicep. That makes it very tough for them to turn back towards you.
When you have them in that compromised position, tight to their back with their legs in the air, you can of course pass. David suggested sliding your arm across their neck/jaw to turn their head (depending on how much of a neck they have). Turn, so that you still have one knee up to jam against their back and keep them stacked, sliding the rest of your body around behind your neck/jaw pushing arm. You might be able to choke by leaning into their neck, or complete the pass by crushing through, like you would on a single or double underhook pass.
Class #657 BJJ Globetrotter Camp (Sportoase Leuven), Oli Geddes, Leuven, Belgium, 13/08/2015
I went straight from the plane to the train, then walked from Leuven Train Station to the Sportoase. There was already a class going on when I entered, but as it was wrestling I wasn't too concerned about missing it. I had plenty of time to get checked in with Vara at the BJJ Globetrotter desk, then get changed.
The class I wanted was Oli Geddes' session on rolling back attacks. This was perhaps a bit fancy by my standards and it was nogi: I almost never take the gi off for BJJ. Nevertheless, there were some useful techniques from quarter guard and half guard, handy given that it is currently half guard month back home at Artemis BJJ.
Oli kicked off with a rolling back take against turtle. Turn to face their legs, with your knee nearest their head looking to jam inside the space between their knee and elbow. Your other knee is blocking their leg, to make it harder for them to reclaim guard. With the arm nearest their head, reach over and grab their ankle (at least that's what my training partner Stacey and I ended up doing).
Your other hand grabs inside their leg, gripping the ankle. Lift that ankle up and outwards, to make it easier to get your waiting leg inside (slipping it under first), hooking around their leg. Thrust your hips into them, then diving over to the far side, roll over the shoulder nearest their head (I think? I need to check that with more drilling). Get past their hip, swinging through to grab their arm and take their back.
If you get part way through the back take, but can't reach their arm or hip to complete the motion, wrap up their near leg with your arms instead. Your legs will still be clamping around their other leg. Pull on their leg with your arms, extending into their other leg for the submission. You can put one foot behind the other for extra leverage. Note that this submission is entirely down to their flexibility, so it has some limitations.
If you are going for the back, but can't get hold of anything, you can still triangle your legs around the leg you do have. Pull down on their toes for the calf crush. Wrapping their leg with your arm can add in extra pressure.
We then moved to a rolling back take from quarter guard, a common position as you're passing half guard or they are trying to escape mount. Turn away from the foot they've trapped, adjusting your knee position so it doesn't catch on their leg. Roll inside (I think inside? Again, I need to check that during drilling), then you're back into the same position as before. Similarly from half guard, you can do this after moving into the opposite side pass.
In that opposite side pass position, adjust your feet so their leg is still controlled, then turn with your shoulder to begin another back take. I'm not totally clear on how best to adjust your feet: I think you hook your instep over their leg to trap it? I've seen this technique before, but the same thing confused me, along with the turn. Oli's instruction definitely helped, I just need to drill this more. Generally rolling back attacks are a bit fancy for me, but it's useful to have some options against quarter guard.
You can do the same back take from deep half, where this time you'll need to push on their head to step your leg through. However, I'm not sure I entirely got the rest of the technique. Once again, needs more drilling, I'll grab some people at Artemis BJJ when I get home. Judging by the picture Vara put on Facebook (there are loads on the BJJ Globetrotter group, so I asked if I could use them in my posts), it's the shoulder on the same side as the trapped leg, diving over to the opposite side.
Class #514 Gracie Barra Bristol, (No-Gi), Miles Pearson, Bristol, UK - 01/08/2013
The schedule for nogi has changed slightly, as classes are now 19:30-21:00 rather than 19:00-20:30. That works out quite nicely, as it means I can eat with my girlfriend rather than having to eat sandwiches on my own to make sure I'm leaving enough time between eating and training (I like to leave at least an hour, preferably two). Tonight we were continuing on top mount, but interestingly due to the position Miles picked, it combined elements of passing half guard as well, along with back control.
That's because both techniques were based around quarter guard, which is a common term for when they've trying to get half guard, but have only managed to trap your foot (as per the picture, although most often, you would be in more of a mount position with both knees on the mat: Saulo is most of the way through a half guard pass). This is BJJ, so I'm sure there are a bunch of other names for the same thing. It is something I first encountered as a new blue belt, back in August 2008, when Rob T mentioned it as a way to escape knee-on-belly.
The basic quarter guard pass (which you could argue is also part of maintaining mount), begins by reaching under the armpit on the same side as your trapped knee. Grab their same side shoulder, locking it in, then complete the immobilisation of their skull by clamping your head to the other side. This should stop them being able to turn. Raise up your legs (maintaining plenty of pressure on their upper body: you have the control points of their head and at least one shoulder, making it tough for them), then slide your trapped knee to the other side of their body. From here you should be able to slide free. If you need to create more space to extricate your trapped foot, use your free leg to kick their upper knee.
Miles followed up with a far more complicated and lower percentage response, where you end up taking the back. I would never use this in sparring, but as I very frequently use the heel drag escape from mount (which begins with quarter guard), it is good to know that the person on top might attempt this. After they put you in quarter guard, adjust your foot so you're hooking over their top foot with your shin. The idea is to keep it in place, as if they can uncross their legs, the back take will fail.
Next, turn your body towards their legs, away from your trapped side, pushing your free foot into the heel/ankle of your trapped foot. Do a static forward roll motion, bringing your arm between your legs (as much as you can do while sat astride somebody). Reach for their trailing leg and grab it, then extend your legs (watch out that you don't end up doing a calf slicer, unless you're trying this technique in a competition setting that allows slicers). Hopefully this will put you into a sort of banana split position, where you immediately wrap your arms around their nearest leg, still pushing on your own foot to get the rotation. From there, you're going to try and take their back by again adjusting to grab the neck.
Sparring started off with specific from quarter guard, king of the hill, split into group. Staying on top, I found that in that position you need to immediately go for something as they have already initiated your escape. If you delay, they'll probably get at least to half guard. I therefore went straight to underhook the shoulder, or if I couldn't get that, gripping their head and/or armpit. I generally managed that, though a few times I found myself in half guard.
Underneath, I could normally finish the heel drag, as that is my favourite escape. Once or twice I ended up just opening space, but could then use the butterfly type escapes I taught last week to complete my exit from underneath them. The most complex situation was when Luke attempted the rolling back take we had just learned, but fortunately for me he didn't have control of my legs. That meant I could swivel through and end up in his guard (helped by the fact he is much bigger than me, so inevitably leaves space I can exploit, particularly in nogi).
I'm still watching the Essential Grips clip from No Gi Essentials before each nogi class, which has therefore been my focus when it came to free sparring. Previously I found it really difficult to get the wrist and elbow grip Dean advocates as everything was so sweaty, but tonight it was perhaps a bit cooler as I managed it a few times. I didn't do a whole lot with it, but just getting the grip was an improvement from before, as I could then push into their hips with my feet.
The knee cut worked a few times, helped by the slipperiness. I wasn't doing a whole lot with submissions, though I randomly ended up in a vague head and arm choke type position. Very sloppy though: the first tap was just from their arm being pressed into their mouth, so that wasn't anything to rely upon. I was in the middle of trying to set something up when that happened, so hadn't even realised they were in that position.
I also again landed the Henry Akins sweep, this time without them putting their knee in my tailbone. I'm liking the mechanics of it, so plan to keep on testing it whenever I'm in closed guard, gi or nogi.
Class #510 Gracie Barra Bristol, (No-Gi), Miles Pearson, Bristol, UK - 18/07/2013
There was an impressive turn-out for the nogi class tonight, with thirteen hardy souls braving the heat. The ridiculous temperatures (for the UK) have continued, with upwards of 30 degree Celsius. Miles was covering some basic transitions from side control to mount, beginning with the Gracie Barra Fundamentals syllabus method. Get a secure gable grip and cross-face as normal, bringing your knees in tight. You're then going to try and slip under the near arm with your knee. The GB Fundamentals version involves turning your knees towards their legs, then shifting back to dig under their elbow with the outside of your nearest knee.
You're then going to walk your far hand up past their head, creeping up the mat with your fingers until their arm is squished by their face. If you can, put your head next to it as well for additional control and the potential of switching to a head and arm triangle. Having dealt with the near arm, you should be able to get your hips high up by their head. That gives you loads of room to slide your knee over. To go to mount, drive that knee up into their far armpit, to avoid giving them a chance to snatch half guard.
The second version starts the same, except this time you switch your hips towards their head to get that near arm. The idea is to scoop it up with your hip, grabbing their far shoulder and pulling yourself up their body if necessary. You then twist them up like before, but instead of driving your knee into the armpit, drive it to their hip and push back. That should give you the space to 'fishtail' (turning your body and slapping your lower leg to the mat), after which you immediately bring your leg into their armpit for control.
My main goal for sparring was continuing to work on my nogi grips, following my own advice to focus on small components of techniques. I had another watch of the 'Essential Grips' section from Roy Dean's excellent No Gi Essentials (Black Belt Requirements is coming soon: I'm looking forward to reviewing it!). He shows the same shoulder grip I've seen from Levo and the Carlos Machado butterfly sweep DVD, which I still have trouble landing. It feels like something that needs to be set-up, as a second option based on their attempt to escape something else, rather than a grip I should be going for initially.
I also tried Dean's suggested wrist and elbow control, but had real trouble getting any kind of purchase on their arm. The humidity certainly didn't help with that, but Dean repeatedly stated how good a grip it was, so I don't plan to give up on it just yet. The most successful grip for me tonight was the armpits. That was generally from reaching around their back and hooking my hand into the far armpit, but I managed to somehow anchor myself on Mike's armpit to avoid getting swept and instead take mount at one point (though I'm pretty sure he swept me later, as Mike's x-guard is tough to stop ;D).
Once in mount I wanted to try Dónal's ezequiel series from yesterday. The ezequiel isn't really workable in nogi (though I have heard of people using it: I guess they have weird arms?), but the tight, high-mount americana remains viable, as does the back take. I started with the americana, which Mike avoided because I couldn't get him squashed enough. I transitioned to the back take, grabbing the wrist (only just though, as Mike was wise to it and defending), but nothing came of it.
I went for the same back take with Roli, attempting to switch into the short choke from Dónal's series. I probably over-focused on it, as the rear naked choke was likely there too. I briefly went to Kesting's palm-to-palm grip to secure my arm behind the back, but wasn't able to maintain the back long enough. I squeezed briefly, but I don't think there was anything there so didn't push it (like I was saying on reddit recently, I subscribe to Cane Prevost's 70% approach). On the plus side, I landed the Akins sweep, which is fun: so, that therefore works in nogi too (although I didn't pull him forward first, which makes the sweep easier). :)
There was also a load of specific sparring from side control earlier, where I was trying for the running escape, but wasn't able to get their arms out of the way to move into position. I was able to lock on a triangle from under side control, but not tight enough and I also failed to isolate the other arm for an attack. On top, I did the usual maintaining, while hunting for the same Roy Dean lockflow. I tried it on Mike, but wasn't able to clamp his arm sufficiently when switching through the three attacks. I think I also need to prepare the ground better, putting my hand in place to move directly into the submission, as well as more use of my head to control the arm. That kind of tightness is much harder in nogi, but that difficulty also means it is a great way to refine your control.
Class #506 Gracie Barra Bristol, (No-Gi), Miles Pearson, Bristol, UK - 27/06/2013
Back to the nogi tonight with Miles, working from closed guard. It's been very muggy today, which made for an extremely sweaty session, but that's great for working control. The topic was closed guard, more specifically the omoplata sweep. Grab their opposite wrist, with your thumb towards them, clamping their hand to their own torso. Swivel and kick into their trapped arm with your legs (try to get the back of your knee right into their armpit), at the same time shooting your free hand underneath their same side leg. Bring that in as close to your body as possible.
Stretch them out with your legs, then get your hip slightly underneath them. This should enable you to roll them directly over you. Maintaining control of their arm, turn towards their legs. As you establish control with your bodyweight and by putting your free elbow into their far hip, you can let go of their arm and either continue into side control, or shift your hips back for reverse scarf, then mount.
There is also the option of transitioning to an armbar. As you turn and come up, instead of looking to get side control, focus on grabbing just below the elbow of their trapped arm and pulling up and in towards your body. Sit on their chest, then wait for their reaction. If they try and roll you over, there is the option of still going for the omoplata.
If they raise their head, stick the leg you have nearest to that head underneath it, so their head is on top of your calf. You then want to adjust and turn until your instep is under their head. Quickly swing the other leg over the top (if you are too slow with this, they can grab it and stop your submission). Wrap their arm tightly with one of yours, while the other arm grasps their leg to stop them scampering away. Finish the armbar from there.
Sparring started from closed guard, with the proviso that you had to stay on your knees when passing, with no submissions from the bottom, just sweeps. On the bottom, I went for sit-up sweeps, though I was generally with less experienced people. On top, again I was with someone less experienced. I wasn't able to open the guard with the classic knee in the tailbone break, unable to get sufficient leverage (which I can never manage in the gi either: I struggle to get the necessary extension).
Waiting for my moment, I snuck my arm underneath, clamped their hip in close and looked for the single underhook pass. To stop them spinning away, I reached around the outside with my free arm, grabbing the far side of their neck, using that to complete the pass. However, I suspect a higher belt wouldn't have let me do that.
With free sparring, I started off with Liam, a fellow purple who is also bigger. He was going fairly light, otherwise I would have been choked out several times. As it was, he didn't cinch it in tightly, meaning I could sneak my arms in and make some space. That's a false sense of security though, because he wasn't going full pelt. I kept failing to overwrap his arm when slipping out too, ending up right back in choking range.
On top, where I briefly manage to stay at the start, I used my favoured half guard control people often give me when we go from the knees. That translates relatively well to nogi, as I put one elbow into the back of the head, the other arm wrapping up one of theirs. However, I don't really do anything with it. I need to work out how to turn that into a submission or setting up a pass. At the moment, what I mainly try to do is work to flatten them out, which doesn't always work that well.
However, sometimes it does, like when I was sparring somebody less experienced, getting me to mount. I again used what I'm familiar with from the gi, which is Kev's mount control where you cross your feet. I was attempting to walk up with my feet and work under the arm for an americana, but the lack of friction in nogi made that rather more difficult.
He escaped, which gave me another chance to work on controls from closed guard. Before the lesson I rewatched the nogi-applicable segment from Carlos Machado's excellent butterfly sweep dissection, Unstoppable. I didn't expect to get anywhere near a sweep, so followed my own advice and looked for a specific component of the sweep: the initial control gripping the shoulder with a gable grip. That turned out to be hard enough, as with almost everybody I struggled to secure the initial underhook I needed.
It was easier to wrap the head, though I think I'm doing something drastically wrong there. I keep having a sore right arm, a clear indication I'm using too much force. Using my legs more would make sense, or even better if I could bring my skeletal structure into play somehow.
Another control I was working was reaching further to grab their far armpit, which seemed relatively stable. Not that I was able to do much with it, but for nogi, getting any kind of control is my current goal, as I can't do anything until I've got a handle on that.
I eventually got a sit-up sweep again to put them back in mount, where it repeated the earlier slow lack of submission. He was able to get out this time by being energetic, where again the lack of friction was noticeable. Having no gi material to grab makes it harder to stop them wriggling free, which is good practice for my mount control: it has to be tighter to function in nogi.
I also had a roll with Oli, one of the better blue belts. He has a relaxed approach to sparring and often likes to try out random stuff. He's therefore fun to roll with, as he doesn't take it too seriously. I played around with triangles from under side control: I had one locked in and wanted to isolate the non trapped arm, but Oli was wise to it and immediately hid his elbow.
He managed to escape and started going for my back, using the Marcelo Garcia tactic of locking in the seatbelt grip, then manoeuvring around behind me. By the time he got to a good position, the timer rang, though I suspect I would have ended up in a similar situation to Liam earlier, defending and failing to escape.
Class #501 Gracie Barra Bristol, (No-Gi), Miles Pearson, Bristol, UK - 23/05/2013
I'm continuing to struggle to fit in regular training. I've been teaching consistently every week, but I haven't been getting as much time as I'd like as a student. The private lessons have been on hiatus while Dónal gets his exams sorted, which leaves Thursdays as my main option. That's therefore what I've been aiming to make, finally managing it again this week.
Tonight, Miles was demonstrating some attacks from the top of side control. He kicked off with a handy drill, where they are escaping and about to establish an underhook. You whizzer in return, reaching further until you can put the back of your hand on their neck, then swivel around to the other side, where you repeat the process.
The first technique of the night was a kimura from side control, predicated off a similar scenario. They are going for the underhook, whereupon you switch your base, into a sort of scarf hold facing their legs. Your foot is back for base, looking to lock up the kimura position as quickly as you can, to avoid being bridged off. The first part of that is slipping your arm underneath theirs, which further stops their bridging potential.
Push the arm back down to the mat, switch your base back the other way, facing their head. Step over their head, then twist so that you're sitting on their head, like you had gone for the kimura off the north-south transition. Ideally, you want to scoop up their other arm with your leg, further securing your position and also preventing their ability to turn and escape. From there, turn your body and apply the submission.
That lends itself to a lockflow from side control, which I first learned from Roy Dean. This flows from a kimura to a straight armbar to americana, then back again: I think Miles taught it pretty much the same way I've learned it in the past. The main thing Miles added was blocking off the other arm, either with the knee, or even better, fishtailing and trapping that arm with your shin. There was another nice point he mentioned, relating to the americana: get your elbow into the armpit gap, stopping them from bringing their elbow and initiating and escape.
With sparring, I was looking to try Levo's control from closed guard again, grabbing the head and underhooking, which I'm still not doing very well. Along with that I wanted to attempt to work on butterfly, particularly as I'm reviewing a really good Carlos Machado instructional for JJS at the moment. That didn't go well either, as instead of establishing guard, I was getting passed, then working from under side control.
It's interesting when they don't have that friction, which makes escapes easier. I was pushing on the head, messing around with the arm, and of course didn't have to worry so much about chokes and all the fun stuff you can do with a gi lapel. Final roll wasn't really a roll, as AJ was leaving for the army so had the dubious pleasure of a 'shark tank', where fresh people are jumping in every couple of minutes.
I went straight to mount and looked to see if I could isolate the arm, either for an americana or a head and arm choke. Neither got anywhere close, though I suppose I at least managed to hold mount, so that's something. ;)
Class #499 Gracie Barra Bristol, (No-Gi), Miles Pearson, Bristol, UK - 18/04/2013
I've mentioned numerous times in the past that I'm not a big fan of nogi. Out of the 500 lessons of BJJ I've taken over the years, a mere 30 of them have been nogi. When I've gone to nogi, it has normally been because I had no choice as I couldn't make any other class in the schedule. That's exactly why I find myself in the GB Bristol nogi class: Thursdays and Tuesdays are still by far the best days for me to train, so as I now teach on Tuesdays, it looks like I'll be taking off the gi on Thursdays.
This time, I do at least have a new element to make it interesting: Leverage Submission Grappling. I've been to two of Nathan 'Levo' Leverton's seminars so far, which I will be using as a nogi syllabus to work through. Every time I train nogi, my main focus will be LSG techniques. Fortunately for me, tonight was straight out of the LSG playbook, with several techniques Levo taught back at the Leverage Grappling Seminar #03. Miles kicked off with the wrestler's sit-out (which Levo calls the 'peek out'). They are in front of you, with their arms past your armpits but not locked. Base on an elbow and the opposite foot, then knock back their same side arm with your non-basing elbow.
Bring your non-basing foot through right across to the opposite corner, getting your head up, then spin behind them. Your inside hand stays by the leg in case they try to run behind. Also make sure you are putting your weight onto them when you bring your head through. If your weight is sat on the floor, the person on top can simply put their head on the floor, bring their leg over and mount.
Miles combined this with the arm roll, which applies when they lock their arms around you. Of course, a good grappler isn't going to give you their arm like that when you're in turtle, but it is still worth knowing. Same position, but this time you reach back and lock their arm. Look in the direction of the wrapped arm, then drop your same side shoulder to the mat and roll them onto their back. Turn towards their legs to come on top (if you turn towards their head, they can take your back).
Miles finished off with defending the over-under. This is when you have a more knowledgeable opponent, who reaches under your neck with one arm and your armpit with the other. From there, they can move into chokes, so you don't want to hang around. Miles said that some people advocate the usual sit-out, but that he finds it doesn't work well for him. His preference is to drop to the mat, firmly gripping their arm, one leg back and the other curled up high.
That should mean you are now heavy because your centre of gravity is low, hopefully giving you time to work free of their grip. When drilling, Liam tested out some variations on the Peruvian neck tie (although I've heard of it, that was the first time I'd seen it in the flesh), which he thought might make that defence problematic, although trouble-shooting with Miles, the defence seemed sound.
I was nervous about sparring, as my groin injury decided to flare up again due to Tuesday (I didn't restrict myself as much, which was a mistake), but it turned out ok. Specific sparring from turtle gave me the chance to try and shift into Levo's front headlock position, but I was having trouble because we all had to start with that arm-wrapping grip. Although even if we hadn't started there, I would still have run into difficulty: I'm not settling my shoulder into their upper back properly, meaning they can still move forward and take out my legs.
Underneath I also had problems, again partially due to the grip. Normally if I'm in turtle I would be trying very hard to prevent them getting any kind of grip, with my elbows in tight. What I should have done was practice the escapes we'd learned, but I got overly fixated in attempting some tips from LSG #03, particularly the point on always shifting backwards to make them follow you then go for a leg.
Moving into free sparring, I was reminded yet again just how little I know about nogi. I really struggle to get any sort of grip in guard: not having lots of gi to grab makes a massive difference. That meant that instead, I was grabbing the head and failing to get over and underhooks. Keeping them tight is another high priority, which I need to work on. I have been to Levo's closed guard seminar, but would benefit from going again, along with his session on open guard.
I vaguely looked for deep half at one point, but as I don't use that in gi either, I just ended up curled close to their legs. That curled up position featured heavily when I sparred Luke too, this time facing the other way, in the running escape survival posture. I could defend from there, but because I was squashed on the mat, I couldn't do much else except work to block arms digging in. I was impressed by Luke's control, as despite being a huge guy, he took it nice and easy, staying technical even though I'm sure he could have just picked me up and thrown me across the room. ;)
My initial entry into Leverage Submission Grappling, a nogi system being codified by veteran UK instructor Nathan Leverton, was last year, with my team mate Steve. Steve kindly gave me a lift in 2012, but this time he wasn't able to go. I decided to take the opportunity to do some more CouchSurfing by coming up on the train the day before, as I had such a good experience in Dallas.
[I'm going to ramble a bit about CouchSurfing now, so if you don't care, scroll past the next three paragraphs ;D]
If you're not familiar with CouchSurfing, it is a social media website which people use to meet up and stay with each other. While that sounds rather bizarre to a lot of people, particularly those who do not spend much time on the internet, it's a process that works very well in practice. There are checks in place, such as a system of references and vouching to warn others if anybody turns out to be dodgy. Leicester was my second time staying with somebody, which I'm also hoping to do when I head over to the US later in the year.
My host this time was Dani, who very handily is only about a mile away from Leicester Shootfighters. After cycling over (the Google Navigation thing on my phone is fortunately quite thorough, so my total lack of a sense of direction didn't matter), it didn't take me long to work out the right house: flags from around the world were peeping out from behind the window. Dani has travelled to a LOT of countries! ;) She and her housemate Justyna greeted me with a big bottle of Becks and a tasty spaghetti meal.
Another CouchSurfer, Sara, was also there: just like in Dallas, there is a vibrant CouchSurfing community in Leicester. We headed out to a local shisha bar, followed by some excellent cheesy music at Hakamou (it was a bit full for dancing, unfortunately, though I could still have a good wiggle). While there we met two cool Canadian students (randomly, it turns out that Pete was well aware of BJJ, as he did some MMA and JKD back in Alberta), who Sara invited back to her flat where we all had a good chat until 4am. Slightly later than I was intending to get to bed, but Dani and Justyna are so hilariously entertaining that I was laughing too much to care. It's impossible to not have a good time with those two, so I'm looking forward to seeing them again before the next LSG seminar. Thanks for the great night out, CouchSurfers of Leicester! ;D
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There has been heavy snow this weekend, which prevented a few attendees from coming along to the seminar. Then again, that does have the positive outcome of more personal attention from Leverton, which is a good thing from a student perspective. As with LSG 04, LSG 03 kicked off with an introduction. Leverton handed out a sheet detailing the techniques to be taught today, again aiming to cover it all off within five hours.
The seminar proper began with around two hours on turtle top position. I rarely go anywhere near turtle, so although many of the techniques looked familiar, I can't think of the last time I used any of them in sparring. My main interest for this seminar was the back mount portion, but I knew that some focus on the turtle would be good for me, given I don't seem to use it much these days. Particularly in regards to turtle, there was a key difference between LSG 03 and LSG 04: wrestling. As LSG 04 was on the guard, the predominant influence was jiu jitsu, but for the turtle, wrestling provides an excellent base.
Leverton's first technique was defending against the person in turtle trying to grab your legs, as they will often be looking for a takedown. The simplest method of blocking that attack is to sprawl. Whether they have grabbed one or both of your legs, start by grabbing behind their armpit, the other hand going on their head (not their neck: aim for the end of the lever where they're weaker). Push their head towards the mat and then sprawl back. It's important you then square up.
When sprawling, you want to make sure you aren't jumping backwards, as that gives them the opportunity to complete their takedown. Instead, thrust your hips into them then slide down. The aim is to create a wedge with your body that means their forward momentum is dissipated. You can then establish a front headlock, shifting your head-hand to wrap around and grip their chin. Drive the point of your same side shoulder into the base of their neck, right where it meets their back. Similarly to the sprawl, this blocks them moving forwards.
Your other hand clamps onto their triceps, then slides down towards their elbow. Come up on your toes, getting your ear into their armpit on the triceps-gripping side. Lower your chin-grip side knee slightly, then pull back on their arm. From there you can go behind, with two main options. The meaner version seemed to be 'snapping' them (a term I've heard in regards to takedowns, but don't really understand in technical detail because I never work takedowns. Ever), driving with your shoulder first then dragging their arm back. The goal is to get them extended, so that it is difficult for them to react as you move around behind.
The nicer option is moving the arm on their chin to the other side of their head. The back of your hand is on their shoulder, while your arm is still pressed against their head. From there, move around. Leverton suggested this as a good option for when the person turtling is mainly trying to stay tight, rather than making any aggressive actions like a wrestler would. It therefore sounds like it could be a good option in the context of BJJ.
The standard way of maintaining control on top of turtle, or at least the option I'm familiar with, is sprawling out the legs connecting your hips. This is a bit like what Leverton called the 'side ride', which he noted was good for strikes (he should know, given he has a long history of training successful MMA fighters). Leverton prefers a different position, where he uses his forearms to create initial hooks before replacing them with his legs. Crouched directly behind them, brace your forearms into their hips (but not your elbows, or they can try to control them) and squeeze your knees into them.
This is just a transitional position, so don't stay there long. You aren't sprawled back from here because that is space they can move into. From here, twist around to one side. On one side, your forearm stays in as a hook on their hip. Leave a leg behind on that side too, still tight to their body. Your remaining arm reaches for their arm on the other side, joined by your other knee.
If there is space, you can just replace your forearm with your leg to insert your hooks. Note that for the second hook, you will have to turn your body before you can insert it, or you'll find the motion awkward. Most likely they won't let you do that and will stay tight. In that situation, Leverton suggested trying a tilt to back mount, with two options. At this point there was a degree of jiu jitsu influence again, as Leverton described these techniques as the 'Maia' and 'Marcelo' back takes respectively.
For the Maia, you're shifting diagonally into their bottom corner. Move your body backwards slightly, diagonally behind you and away from them on the arm-gripping side. Leave a small space, then pull them into that space. That will roll them over the knee you had on the arm-gripping side, ideally straight into back mount. You'll also want to establish a harness/seat-belt grip, with an arm over the shoulder and the other under the armpit.
By contrast, the Marcelo shifts forwards into their top corner. This is more difficult, as it feels like there are more parts to the motion. Start by jamming the knee on their arm-gripping side into the gap between their thigh and their arm (if they are tight there won't be much space, but digging your knee in should open it up). Sliding over their shoulder, drop onto your own shoulder, pushing off your leg to roll them onto you. A common mistake is to just leap over and hope your body weight will be enough to roll them, which almost certainly won't be the case: you need to be pushing off the mat with your leg. During that roll, pinch your knees around their leg to stop them walking through and escaping.
Next, swing the leg you have underneath around their leg to get your hook. You then want to bring your second hook in, which they may block. If they do, you still have one hook, which allows you to use Marcelo Garcia's 'hip extension'. Lock your feet together, then pull them towards you with your seat-belt grip and thrust your hips into their back. That should stretch them out, giving you the space to secure your second hook.
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After a short break, Leverton moved on to bottom turtle, which again was roughly two hours. I was initially nervous when I saw this was due to feature takedowns, as that was liable to exacerbate my groin injury, but fortunately the takedowns were from turtle and staying low, rather than a big lift and drop. The overarching theme for this section was making your turtle dangerous, rather than a purely defensive position.
The other major point was scooting backwards while in turtle. Bring one arm back at a time, to reduce your vulnerability. By moving backwards, this helps to extend your opponent and open up opportunities for attacking and escaping. That does mean you may mash your knees up drilling, as you're sliding them back and forth on the mats (especially if you are just wearing shorts so the skin is exposed), but meh. Hopefully my awesome Pony Club Grappling Gear spats will arrive at some point: the Yang seems to have gotten stuck in transit from Australia a couple of months ago (possibly customs? Or just Royal Mail being rubbish, as they are frequently crap with getting stuff to the office).
Keep your knees wide for base, elbows inside, then defending your neck with your hands (either Aisling's 'Shirley Temple' defence, or crossing your hands). You need to keep the person in front of you so that moving back becomes particularly effective. Leverton ran us through a quick drill, where the person on top just put their hands on your upper back while you were in turtle, the person on the bottom adjusting to stay facing them.
From here you can attack with a single leg, wrapping their leg and keeping your head on the inside, elbows tight, trying to bring their knee into your chest. This can be set up by backing away: even if they're sprawled, they are going to have to come forward to stay on top. To finish the takedown, keep your inside hand locked behind their knee, grabbing their ankle with the other. Pull that out, then move around, put the leg between your knees and bump them with your shoulder.
This combines well with the double leg. Should you get the opportunity, grab both legs, bring your head outside, drive with your outside leg and move on top. In many ways this was similar to how I've been taught to complete the side control escape to your knees. A detail I wasn't doing (or at least haven't emphasised) is sliding your other knee in. Like Roy Dean's takedown, Leverton pivots to the side rather than staying straight on, but wrapping both legs rather than using a knee block.
I'm familiar with the peek out, which I know as a wrestler's sit-out. Although when I say 'familiar', it isn't something I use a lot because I'm lazy and don't like to move very much. The situation is that they have made the mistake of wrapping arms by your hips. Base on an elbow and the opposite foot, then knock back their same side arm with your non-basing elbow.
Bring your non-basing foot through right across to the opposite corner, getting your head up, then spin behind them. Your inside hand stays by the leg in case they try to run behind. Also make sure you are putting your weight onto them when you bring your head through. If your weight is sat on the floor, the person on top can simply put their head on the floor, bring their leg over and mount.
I prefer the arm roll, which I think I first learned during my very brief stint of judo way back, as a set up for waki-gatame. Of course, a good grappler isn't going to give you their arm like that, but it is still worth knowing. Same position, but this time you reach back and lock their arm. Look in the direction of the wrapped arm, then drop your same side shoulder to the mat and roll them onto their back. Turn towards their legs to come on top (if you turn towards their head, they can take your back).
The sit back to guard is another basic option I'm used to, but it turns out that I have been doing this wrong. This is not the same as trying to pull guard off a takedown attempt. As Leverton noted, jiu jitsu guys can get away with that as their opponents don't normally know how to hold the top turtle position properly or perform a decent double or single leg, at least by comparison to a wrestler. Instead of pulling guard, you are sliding over your leg. Do not kick out your leg: just rock back into guard. Leverton came over several times to correct my positioning, so clearly I have some bad jiu jitsu habits to iron out.
Once I do, this could be very useful for escapes I use all the time, especially the running escape. Which is cool, as I've been struggling to finish that escape properly (as opposed to just stalling with the running escape) for ages. I'm looking forward to seeing if I can incorporate Leverton's details, along with the scoot back Geraldine did the last time I taught the running escape. Although as you can see from the picture, the scenario is somewhat different, so perhaps it isn't entirely relevant.
To perform a front headlock escape, there were two versions, early and late. If you can control that arm before they secure it around your neck (this therefore also applies to guillotines and the like when you're in turtle). Grab their wrist and push it down to the floor, then run your head up the outside of their arm until your reach their shoulder.
If you're late and they've managed to get a bit deeper, the focus will still be on that arm. Reach for the elbow of the arm they have by the neck and try to pull it down into your chest. Use the kind of motion as if you were climbing a rope, hand over hand. After you've secure it towards your chest, switch your knees and step around, reaching an arm around their back. This ends up looking a bit like an arm drag.
Leverton took the opportunity here to make some comments about what he called 'sport jiu jitsu'. I know what he means, but it's a term I dislike: I associate it with the marketing campaign to separate 'self defence' and 'sport' BJJ into two distinct styles, which I think is a false dichotomy: that came up again recently here and I also babble about it extensively here.
He basically said that currently in elite BJJ competition, you will see double-guard pulls where top jiu jitsu competitors fight to grab each other's feet. That looks ridiculous even to an educated viewer. Leverton far prefers to get on top, smash with wrestling and look to submit. Given I'm assuming I was one of the few jiu jitsu people in the room, I kinda feel I have to respond. ;p
Not that I disagree with any of that: I don't like the manner in which some competitors currently aim to play footsie either. I also have absolutely no interest in 50/50 and similarly over-complicated guards, aside from countering them with as simple a pass as possible. The main point I want to make - and I'm sure Leverton is fully aware of this - is that there are lots of people within jiu jitsu saying the same thing. For example, Xande Ribeiro, amongst the greatest competitors of all time and still active in major tournaments today. Speaking to Inside BJJ, Xande stated in #58:
Double guard pull? This is insane. You watch a match, and seven minutes is in the same position. [...] You see fights, black belt fights, seven minutes in a position that is not an end, you know? There's a beginning, there's a middle, but no finish.
I even hear people say, "Well, what if you mount the guy for three minutes..." Yeah buddy, I'm mounted on you. That's totally different. I am in a dominant position. But when you are in a position where the only thing that you can do is a toe hold, get an advantage, or maybe an armbar that some people do from there, that's it. What else is in there? I didn't go to a tournament to have someone fight for their life to wrap their legs around my leg and stay there for eight minutes.
I tell people, grab my fricking arm and pull my arm for ten minutes! Pull my neck for ten minutes! Do not pull my leg and wrap around it tight. That's not the jiu jitsu I teach for my students. Double guard pull? What is this double guard pull? All of a sudden jiu jitsu is two guys fighting for the bottom? I don't really appreciate it, it's ugly, it's bad.
People should be a little more proud and think "I'm a bad ass passer. I'm going to pass your legs, go around to your side, hold on to you and you're going to suffer." I think that should be more the mentality, not just a sweeping art. "Ok, I sweep you, then I stall and I get two advantages, then I sit my butt on the floor again."
I wasn't raised like that. I'm from a time when you could slam in jiu jitsu, you could reap the knee. People fought for the finish, points were just consequences of your work.
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Back mount lasted around an hour, brought over from another seminar in the series that was overly long. Starting with the top, lower body control discussed hooking your feet inside. Bring your knees up higher to shorten the length of your legs, as this will provide less space for their escape. Tense the hamstring if they roll, following them over remaining stuck to their back.
Upper body control looked at the seat-belt grip, also known as the harness, which is the basic over the shoulder and under the armpit grip. Leverton prefers to cover his choking hand with his armpit hand: as I've discussed in the past, there are various opinions on the best option. Some instructors teach that covering with the armpit hand means you can go straight to the choke if they try to knock it off. Others prefer having the choking hand on top, so that you already have that immediate route to the neck.
The body triangle depends a lot on both your body type and that of your partner. In my case, I'm quite flexible, but there was no way I was locking my short legs around my partner, who was a fair bit bigger than me (even with Leverton's handy tip about opening your hips by turning your toes downwards).
Next up was a few tips I recognised from Marcelo Garcia, as these are both techniques I've taught in the past and had success with in rolling, based off Marcelo Garcia's material. Marshal Carper, who was among the co-authors for Garcia's book, produced a handy video detailing the techniques in combination. First there is moving them from side to side with your legs, particularly if you have them on the choking side and they try to roll away, then secondly there is the 'hip extension' method for opening up space to insert your second hook (covered more briefly earlier in the seminar).
Leverton also examined the standard transition to full mount if you're losing the back, which looked familiar to how I've seen it taught elsewhere (lock your heel to their far hip and swivel around), althrough I don't normally grab the arm. That's a useful detail to keep in mind.
Leverton then moved into two submissions (incidentally, it was cool that Leverton focused on controlling position rather than loads of submissions, in contrast to numerous other seminars). I have taught the rear naked choke a number of times, but was looking forward to Leverton's version, hoping to learn some useful tweaks. Leverton did not disappoint, providing simple details that could make a huge difference. The most important distinction is the way he places his locking arm, so that it becomes more involved in the choke.
It is entirely possible most other instructors do this, but it is not something that I can remember being emphasised. Set-up the choke in the usual way, bringing your choking arm around their neck with your elbow under their chin and your body tight. The second arm locks up with the elbow in front of their shoulder, not behind. Both of your armpits are therefore resting on their shoulders.
That minor shift in position makes it a lot tighter, along with the considerable advantage of hiding both your wrists (which they now can't grab). Leverton noted that while there are lots of ways of finishing off the choke, such as expanding your chest (which I like to do), you have your arms around their neck so squeeze those before anything else.
Leverton's variation reminded me of the palm to palm lock Kesting does to walk his arm into position. It is also something I've seen on Demian Maia's DVD, where you are essentially choking them with one arm. This is useful if for some reason you can't get that second arm into place, though it is naturally not as strong a choke as when you can get both arms locked in for a true RNC.
If they tuck their chin, you can bring your arm over the head for a nasty Neil Adams style armbar from the back, which involves a vicious grip that is almost a bicep slicer. If for some reason you haven't heard of Neil Adams, he has two Olympic silver medals in judo and is very, very good at armbarring people. When Adams tells you how to do an armbar, you should listen extremely closely. ;)
Grab their wrist, then reach your other arm over. Grab their wrist with that other hand, whereupon you can switch your first grip to your own wrist, securing a figure four grip. Drop to your shoulder, swinging around: as you do, bring your leg across their hips, swinging the other leg out. This spin should be the same kind of motion as when you spin for an armbar from guard (I've always sucked at armbars from guard, so wasn't very fluid at this).
Hook the swinging leg over their head, so the back of your calf is pressing into their face/temple rather than their neck (for the same reason as a Thai clinch, because holding higher on the head is harder for them to resist than gripping by their neck.) Move your arm deeper, so that instead of grabbing your wrist, you're now grabbing nearer your elbow. Curl your wrists up and you can also turn the hand nearer you elbow upwards.
Straighten your leg into their head as you apply pressure with your arms. Speaking from experience, this feels horrible. I would be tapping long before the actual armbar. If your opponent is tougher than me (which is highly likely), use that hold to unlock their hands (which they will normally clamp together to defend the armbar), then drop back for the submission.
You can briefly see Neil Adams himself use the grip in this video, which is from another seminar at Leicester Shootfighters:
Leverton's demonstration of back mount escapes was quick by comparison to the rest of the seminar, beginning with some basic survival details, such as hand placement on the neck. Again, you can use the 'Shirley Temple/Home Alone' or the hands crossed over the neck. Elbow inside, knees up, keeping your abs tight. You can then move into the escape, which was a fairly standard drop to the side and shrimp.
It was essentially the same version Xande demonstrates on his DVD set. Leverton calls it the 'scrape escape'. Drop to your side, bringing your knee in, then lift and pop their knee off with your hip, just like Xande. Shrimp out pushing on their leg, ready to move into guard should they try to move on top, as people normally will attempt. If they've got a choke in the early stages, it is especially important to get your head and shoulders to the mat to reduce their efficacy.
You can also turn to your knees, using the same motion as if you're escaping from under side control to your knees. This is useful for when they've locked their legs in a sort of 'side-on back mount', making it hard to complete the usual escape. If you can drop your elbow, then there is a chance you can thread one leg under the other, turning on the spot to come up in their guard. Leverton also mentioned escaping the body triangle using a similar motion to the scrap escape (personally I just step over their foot and bridge into their locked feet, as he demonstrated, but it as he said it's good to keep practicing that scrape escape motion).
I realised at the end that I had been drilling with Jake from Fighting at Forty blog, which is a good site I've been reading recently. I love meeting fellow bloggers whose work I enjoy, which was therefore a cool way to end the seminar. I'm looking forward to making more of them, which will also mean I can get in some more CouchSurfing fun. All in all, great weekend, particularly as when I got home, I saw that the GrappleThon has now raised over £4000 for Rape Crisis! :D
I don't know much about Rolles Jr (and I'm still not completely sure whether his father should be spelled 'Rolls' or 'Rolles', as I've seen both. I think it is the former, but then why is it 'Rolles Jr'?), except that he is probably the largest member of the Gracie family and has had a successful MMA career, despite that one slip-up the UFC. These aspects of Rolles would both feature prominently in the seminar, which kicked off with a refreshingly humble tribute to his uncle Rilion (who has influenced his teaching too: the style felt similar to yesterday). Rolles noted that it felt strange to be the teacher while his own mentor was stood a short distance away.
My last bit of training for the Texas trip kicked off with a takedown, where Rolles noted that he prefers the upright posture of judo. My groin injury meant I couldn't really take part, but there were still a number of handy details I could take away. The initial grip looks especially useful: reach over the back and grasp a clump of gi near their shoulder blade, then bring your elbow down past their shoulder. This gives you a brace that can prevent them driving in for their own takedown.
I can't remember the actual takedown very well, but from what I recall, drop down with your knee raised on the outside, wrapping their leg, still holding onto their gi. Pull on the gi as you drive and lift into the leg, corkscrewing them into the mat to establish side control.
Getting to the ground, the focus was on closed guard. Rolles commented that as a big guy, he found that people often clammed up in his closed guard, staying defensive with elbows pinning his hips,head in his stomach and knees tight. It is difficult be offensive when confronted by that lack of space, but Rolles has developed a solution.
For the armbar, start by grabbing their same side armpit to get a fistful of gi material, then clamp your elbow to your side. Your other hand goes into their collar, again on that armpit side. At this point, many people won't react as they don't worry about the choke until your second hand comes into play.
Your hips are stuck, so instead, open your legs and straighten them, then swivelling off their thighs, bring your knee on the collar arm side in front of them. Shove that up by your collar grip (or the other side of their head, if you prefer), bringing your other knee up as well.
From here, you can squeeze your knees and pull on their collar and armpit, trapping that side of their body. With the foot of your collar arm leg, push into their same side knee, just like the push sweep. This will put their torso to the mat, flat on their stomach. Due to your grips, it should also stretch out their arm.
Bring your armpit side leg up their back to pin their shoulder, mirrored by your knee on the other side (rather like Levo's pressing armbar). Switch your collar grip to your own collar, in order to secure their wrist. It is now possible to turn your top knee down to the mat past their shoulder and go for a belly down armbar. If they roll, maintain your grips and follow them, then complete the submission from mount.
If they are a bit more savvy and grab the foot of your collar side leg, to stop you pushing their knee out, turn towards the other side, pressing into their hip with your armpit side foot. This sets you up for a triangle. Swivel the leg they are holding around their grip (you should be able to beat their grip on this, though that becomes more difficult if they manage to slide their arm further down your leg), then move into a triangle as normal.
Finally from that position, you can sweep them over your head. This time when you've got your knee into position, they stand up. Pull them in, raising your elbows up by your head, then put your feet on their hips and roll them past your shoulder. Again, my injury wasn't up to this, so I just continued with the previous techniques from earlier.
The second half of the seminar was nogi, or more specifically, MMA. I wasn't expecting quite so much relating to working off strikes, but then I guess Rolles is known for his MMA, so that shouldn't be too surprising. The initial takedown begins with a few jabs to judge the distance, after which you move straight into the clinch, reaching through to their far shoulder. Shuck their shoulder (particularly if they push on your head) then slide to their back, gable gripping your hands together.
You want to control a little below their hip, twisting you lower hand to dig your forearm in firmly. This isn't comfortable. Move forward to put them onto their knees, so that you can then progress to attacking the turtle. You have one knee on the mat, the other leg over their back. Punch their head on the leg-down side to get them to cover with that arm, to create some space to insert your hook.
Your arm on the other side wedges inside their leg, effectively becoming a hook. Roll them over, then either establish your second hook, or go straight for the rear naked choke. A quick tip on that was to grab the shoulder with your choking arm, not releasing it until your second arm was most of the way into position. That's because it is harder to pull your arm down if you're grabbing the shoulder, as opposed to open because you're about to weave it by your other bicep.
If you can't get that initial hook with your foot, simply jam your elbow into the other hip, bring your knee out slightly on what would have been the initial hook side, then drag them into that space you've created. That should roll them, so you can now insert your hook and move on for either both hooks or the RNC like before.
Finally, should they attempt to escape your back control, Rolles did a body triangle type counter, which I definitely couldn't do with my injury, but I was able to follow the head and arm choke counter he finished off with. This was quite similar to John Will's technique, where from the seatbelt grip you pull your arm through and turn. Block their arm from escaping with your head (keeping in mind this only needs to be tight enough to block) until you can turn all the way. From there, sink down and jam your head in place, then cinch in the choke.
