Class #925 Fighting Fit, Priit Mihkelson, Stafford, UK - 25/11/2017
After watching Braulio stymie Galvao with his guard at ADCC 2013, Priit developed what he calls the 'grilled chicken' guard. Keep your knees wide, toes up, elbows on the outside, pressing into the mat. Use your elbows to wriggle, a kind of elbow shrimp. From this platform, you can 360, swinging your legs all the way round. You end up in an inverted position, so bring your arms up to help with the strain on that, you don't want to go further than your body allows. My first attempt at drilling that after the weekend below:
If they and push your legs up, put your head on the mat, arch your back with tailbone pressing down, legs relaxed. I felt like I was coming up too high, so I'll keep working on that. If they try and throw you to the side, your elbow hits the ground like a strut, blocks that throw. Also, post your hand on their shoulder and move back (like the usual Ryan Hall/Jeff Rockwell stuff I've been playing with for a while now), then leading with the head to stop them pushing you down. You can also post on wrist, knee, elbow etc, along with collar ties.
The next two hours, I had trouble remembering anything. There was some kind of reverse de la Riva to block the knee slide, that's about the only vague thing that stuck. I'll need to review my video. There was also the interesting point on grabbing four fingers, as a nogi spider guard, end of the lever. But is it legal?
Class #862 BJJ Globetrotter Camp (Sportoase Leuven), Christian Graugart, Leuven, Belgium, 27/07/2017
This was another classic Graugart conceputal lesson. He may well have taught it at one of the previous camps I've attended, but either way, loads of good stuff, made simple. Graugart called this 'defending everything', boiling that down to a few memorable phrases.
The first was 'head over butt', by which he means always keeping your head higher than your bum. Sounds simple, but a lot of people start sticking their bum in the air when passing. Indeed, some passes rely on it (like the half guard pressure pass). There aren't many 100% rules, but based on the examples he went through, it's a fairly good rule to keep in mind, particularly when passing.
If you get into a scramble, throw everything else out of the window and just get your hips higher than theirs. Graugart said this is what he goes for with younger, athletic opponents. Getting the hips higher might mean you can get ahead of their attributes, though timing and technique.
When you've almost been swept and are about to get passed, mounted or whatever. It's too late to get your hips higher than theirs. They need both your feet on the same side of your hip. So, you want to get at least one knee or foot behind your hip. If you have a free foot, get it behind you.
Class #828 Artemis BJJ (MYGYM Bristol), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 06/06/2017
I had a couple of rolls today, where I'm continuing to try my latest efforts with that sitting guard frame. Instead of grabbing the collar like I've been doing for the last few years, I'm trying a collar tie instead. That is much easier on my fingers and has the considerable plus of breaking their posture. However, it is also much shorter range, messed up if they stay upright.
I could try classic guard, but on reflection, I think it might be better to add that gi tail grab back in. That is easy to reach, then I can use that to pull them down. Either I'll then be able to get their head and continue on with head control, or if they stay out of reach, I can enter into de la Riva. That then goes into the various basic de la Riva pulling sweep options. Something to play with. I am looking forward to Dan Strauss' butterfly guard seminar too, I need more options from there. I basically just go for the sweep, along with pressing armbar/omoplata if I can get the shoulder clamp. Guillotines would be good to add, I have never got the hang of those properly.
Nevertheless, while I didn't get classic guard (too hard on my fingers), I did try Neil Owen's omoplata metod a few times. I kept missing it though. I'm not used to the turning away, so my control was poor. I need to drill that more, get it smoother. With Chris, more passing practice. I think he was taking it quite easy, I was trying head control once again, aiming for butterfly. I messed up on one, he jumped past easily as I over-committed. Should have pushed on his head, to regain my guard. I managed a half butterfly sweep, but need to be thinking more about angles generally. Grips that don't hurt fingers, I really want that: hopefully I'm getting closer to a solution. :D
I was lucky enough today to have a visit from a BJJ Globetrotter friend of mine, Chad Wright. He was passing through Bristol, so kindly dropped in to share some tips with Matt and I before class started. The focus, as ever, was open guard, my major bugbear. For the typical open guard approach, you want to get that push/pull going, that I've talked about before. Grip a sleeve and push your foot into their same side hip. With your other hand, you want a deep collar grip, really pulling them down towards you. Classic guard, with your other leg swung out. It would be good to learn more about that from Neil, I'll ask if he can cover that for the seminar.
If you lose your hip control, try bringing that leg over their head, if you can. On the butterfly sweep, Chad suggested that rather than just falling to the side, you should really emphasise pushing off the other foot. In his version, that was key, rather than just a way to get a bit of extra leverage if you can't quite finish the sweep (which is how I've been using the other foot).
You do the same kind of motion as in the turn to the knees shrimp (which I need to get back into the warm up, it's been slipping. The application for techniques like this is useful, but needs that facility with the movement). That's where the leverage comes from, lots of power. I need to play with it more, felt a little awkward, but interesting.
Another simple point Chad made is that open guard is hard. There is no need to engage with it, you can just put a hand on their head and stand up. In a competition setting, at worst they will take you down and get two points. Still better than the alternative result of your crappy open guard, which is them passing and getting three points.
However, it isn't so workable in class, there isn't the room or mat thickness to get into takedown battles. Maybe I could just come up slightly, like I do for the ankle pick sweep, using it to get in close and secure better grips. I don't have to fully stand up.
Chad also went through a bunch of details on the over-under sweep with Matt. I didn't catch a lot of what he said, but the main thing I remember is squaring back up to finish the pass. The temptation is to keep going around, but that makes it easier for them to wrap their leg around yours. If you square up first, it becomes way harder to keep that leg in play, meaning you can just kick it around.
Checking with Matt, he filled in some of the bits I'd forgotten. First, the importance of staying low on the hips rather than going too high with your shoulder. If your shoulder goes up too high, their hips get more space to move as a result. You also need to be careful they can't underhook your arm: that's something I managed to do a couple of times when we were testing this pass, which makes it hard to complete.
Class #796 Artemis BJJ (MYGYM Bristol), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK -24/01/2017
Sparring yesterday, I was repeatedly going for the kimura again but not quite getting there. Good defence by Mat J as always. From closed guard, I'm continuing to focus on angles, grip breaks and posture: I mustn't forget about shoulder clamp. I'll teach that again next month from butterfly to help remind myself. ;)
Today, I did a bit of sparring with Heidi, who is becoming an increasingly useful training partner. I tried to practice Sam knee shield, plus I want to drill that reverse de la Riva stuff from JJS. That spar gave me a chance to practice my modified spider guard too, where I'm trying to make sure I switch from pushing my foot into their arm and then into their hip, in order to keep them off balance. That ended up in the tripod sweep a few times, which is perfect as that's one of my favourite sweeps. I'm not sure if that just tends to happen with Heidi, but I'll continue playing with the arm/hip switch.
We also talked at length about stacking in passes, how that can turn into a choke, as well as defending. Matt had another interesting tip from Faria, who just slightly lifts his head on underhook passes rather than moving round to the side. The idea is to avoid them blocking into the hip, then pushing the leg out of the way with your hand/shoulder. I don't like lifting the head as I don't want to give them space, but a very small, gradual lift should be ok. Something to try.
Class #793 Artemis BJJ (MYGYM Bristol), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - -03/01/2017
Really good open mat today. I had a chance to work through the reverse de la Riva sweep I wanted to practice, with a view to potentially teaching that in a month or two. It's from the next issue of JJS and the reason I like it is the lack of sleeve grips. This sweep just needs collar and wrist, relying mainly on the legs rather than the arms. There is a whole sequence from here, which I will continue to play with at open mat. I got a video of it, so will embed that at some point later, probably when I come to teach it.
We also practiced the over-under pass, as it seemed to be a good fit for one of the students who has been looking to develop their passing game. I think I'm going to spend a lot of the next couple of months on passing, in order to build up to the next Neil Owen seminar. I intend to get through all the techniques he taught, so Neil can then build on that.
If I'm being selfish, what I'd really like is to get a good handle on that reverse de la Riva sequence, then ask him to add some pointers to that series of sweeps. His previous seminar was fantastic, but I may not be as successful with the stiff arm counter because that relies on a strong sleeve grip (then again, with a pistol grip that wouldn't be so bad on the fingers).
Class #790 Artemis BJJ (MYGYM Bristol), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 20/12/2016
Today, Heidi and I ran through what we learned at the Neil Owen seminar last Sunday (I'll get a full write-up done of that in a while, plus I have a cool interview with Neil to upload for the Artemis BJJ Podcast). The sequence we practiced begins with them opening your closed guard. Put your foot on their hip to manage the distance, bringing your head back, then coming up on the elbow and hand. Grab their collar with your other hand, using your posting hand to adjust your position into butterfly guard. That will make it difficult for them to complete the pass they wanted to do (e.g., knee cut, underhook, over-under, bullfighter).
As a result, they stand up. Your foot is on their hip, you also grab their same side sleeve. Kick your other leg out wide. In order to pass, they can't go around the foot towards your other leg, as that puts them inside your guard. They will normally therefore attempt to move around the other way. This enables you to use a Ryan Hall/Jeff Rockwell style defence, stiff arming the sleeve you're still gripping away from you. Again, use that base to square back up to them, re-establishing your guard.
They stand up once more, whereupon you move into spider guard. They attempt to pop that off, so you move into de la Riva guard. They will then often try to shift into a knee cut, moving across from the de la Riva hook. Bring the knee/shin that was de la Riva-ing into their hip instead, using that to bring your head back and pop up on your elbow. You are looking to establish base in order to bring your bottom knee back out, in order to get back to guard.
Now they go for a double underhook pass. Grab their sleeves and shoulder walk back, kicking off their arms with your thighs to make some space. If they try to swing you over with an arm, you can push off hard, yet again returning to guard. If they manage to lock their arms, stiff arm into their elbow to free yourself and get back to guard, like the previous stiff arm (admittedly trickier when the hands are locked, but possible).
The final part of the sequence is when they try for an under over. This is also the harder one. Block them getting their head to your hip by creating a barrier with your arm. Your other hand grabs their armpit. Jerk your knee sideways (if you have long legs, you can put your foot on the ground to do this, much easier), dislodging their base. You guessed it, you use your base to get back into guard.
Class #789 Artemis BJJ (MYGYM Bristol), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 13/12/2016
Small class again, I think I just ran through a few techniques as I've been giving my fingers a rest. Still busted from sparring a while ago, I need to work out a better grip for my left hand.
Class #788 Artemis BJJ (MYGYM Bristol), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 11/12/2016
I can't totally remember what we did, I assume it was more open guard. The videos have been useful, and also mean I have a bunch to send to Neil Owen. He's an old school UK BJJ black belt who is doing a seminar at Artemis BJJ next week, who asked what I wanted him to teach. Having those videos means I can just send those, meaning we can get something really targeted to what we've been doing in those sparring session. Cool! :)
I've continued to play with the Saulo grip and trying to control their sleeve. The problem I'm having at the moment is that sleeve control. I keep mashing the joints of the finger next to my little finger on my left hand. Clearly I am doing something wrong wit the grip there: I could try just grabbing the wrist instead. It isn't as secure, but it shouldn't be as risky for my fingers. I'm more concerned with longevity than grip strength, so it needs to be something I can do long term, rather than a grip that will only last a few years as my fingers eventually give out.
A lot of my open guard is based around getting that collar grip. If I can't get it, I'm a bit stuck. To combat that I've been trying to stick my foot in their bicep, as that makes it harder for them to break the grip. I could perhaps try grabbing the belt or lower on the lapel too. I like the idea of koala guard, but so far haven't had too much success with it. I don't think I'm angling myself behind the knee properly, as they normally crush down. Knee shield is another option, especially Sam's variation. That could then lead into the collar grip.
I'm also going to butterfly guard or some kimura-heavy variant, though often rather sloppily. That's when they crush in low. Using more of Jeff Rockwell's concepts would help too, combined with the Ryan Hall Defensive Guard material I've been using for a couple of years now. I should rewatch that DVD set again, I haven't looked at the legs all that much (as when I initially bought it, that injury on my hip flexor had been flaring up).
Class #786 Artemis BJJ (MYGYM Bristol), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 04/12/2016
I think due to having the ROLLforROWW mini GrappleThon yesterday, there wasn't much of a turnout today, just Heidi. I've been shaking off a cold for the last week, so didn't roll or do anything yesterday. As Paul wasn't there for the nogi and it was only Heidi (I was there because of the kids class, to make sure there were two adults present), I went through some nogi bits and pieces with Heidi. Hopefully I'll be feeling better soon!
Class #785 Artemis BJJ (MYGYM Bristol), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 29/11/2016
I'm going to generally write up material I learn from the Friday workshop here, as it fits better. So, from last Friday, we went through Sam's knee shield, something I've wanted to do ever since we started the Q&A workshops (though that wasn't very long ago ;)D). The main tweak I took away from what Sam said was blocking in front of their knee that's cutting through, using the back of your bottom leg. Sam also highlighted the importance of keeping the knees relatively near eachother, keeping that equidistant. He also hooks under their thigh with his bottom foot (not to the extent of a full DLR though), along with the usual points about a strong cross-grip and getting on your side.
At the Monday open mat (which I'll also include on these Tuesday write-ups), I was trying the Saulo option for when they are almost past. He calls it 'hug guard', which appears to work as a method for preventing them finishing their pass. You get on your side, 'top' hand reaching down to grab your opposite hip, 'bottom' arm folded back to defend, elbows staying tight. It felt a bit like the facepalm in half guard, though I need to play with it more to get it down.
Like last time, I'm including the sparring after class on Monday, especially as that's what features in the video above. I managed to retain my guard little better, trying to move to knee shield and that modified spider guard I tried last week. However, I did unintentionally cheat, as I instinctively closed my half guard: that's counterproductive, as the whole idea was working open guard. I uncrossed when I realised, but I suspect I would have been passed rather quicker if I hadn't had that lock to help. ;)
I hit the tripod sweep, but I didn't get control of a sleeve. That renders the sweep way less effective, because they can base out with a hand to come straight back up. I need to work out the best way to get a sleeve for the sweep, especially against people that are good at breaking grips. Ideally I'd get the sleeve just before I pull/push with my legs, so that's something to work on.
By the time it got to Tuesday, I was really tired from not getting any sleep (insomnia strikes yet again). I therefore tried curling into a ball, keeping knees to chest like Graugart taught at the Globetrotter Camps this year. Looking at the video, I can see I dropped to my back and opened up that space, making for an easy pass. If I'm going to try that, I need to invert, which I don't want to get into. So, that approach to guard retention likely is not for me: I value my neck and back too much. :p
I got a good tip from Matt on Tuesday. I've been attempting to pull legs across when my knee cut gets blocked, into a semi leg drag. It often gets stuck halfway. Matt suggested at that point if I can cross-face, I can then kick into a big backstep to pass. I like cross-facing, so that's appealing, though I am guessing it's tough to get. I'll try it next time.
Class #783 Artemis BJJ (MYGYM Bristol), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 15/11/2016
I've been focusing on my open guard for the last couple of years, but it is still the weakest part of my game. So, I've started to film my specific sparring to isolate exactly where I'm going wrong. If I can get some kind of grip it helps, but against somebody good at quickly dancing around the legs, I struggle (as per bottom right of the video ;D). Both Sam and Hamza have excellent agility and speed. I end up flailing at them with my hands and spinning to try and block, until eventually they manage to step past my knee and block any more spinning. I could at that point be better on the stiff-arm guard I've been using for the last couple of years, perhaps into the knee? It might be worth me drilling that in isolation, recovering to guard when they step past my legs but haven't yet got their weight down onto me.
I'm having much more success passing than I am using my guard, which is interesting. It used to be that I dreaded passing: now I feel I at least have a few things to aim for. However, I'm using too much energy in general and I need better grips from open guard, both top and bottom. Ideally I want to build on all the stuff I've been doing the last few years, so that's a lot of sitting guard on the bottom. I also think Sam's knee shield approach could work for me, as I like knee shield too. What I particularly value about that guard is the way it offers a secure but low energy way of preventing the pass. Naturally you need to progress from there into attacks, but having something like that in my toolbox would be awesome. The ability to analyse Sam's video is really helpful too: it's already shown me lots of details I didn't realise he did.
Another guard I'd like to try more is the modified spider guard that I first saw on Xande's DVD from a few years ago. I tried that on Heidi today and it worked ok, but then there is an experience and size gap there. I also tried more sitting guard and knee shield on Tom, where again there is an experience gap and possibly size, but it is smaller (he's got a few years of nogi IIRC).
I ended up with a pseudo-butterfly guard at one point (top right of vid below), which eventually resulted in a sit-up sweep. I wasn't going for the sit-up sweep (I wanted a hook sweep, a la Caros Machado) so I should look at for that more. I think it came about because I was trapping the arm and looking for the shoulder clamp. Perhaps I need to sit up more: I felt too flat when I was doing that. Also, on the butterfly hook sweep I attempted and failed, I should have brought my arm under the head when I first went for the sweep, that might have done it.
Also, chatted about Faria's deep half with Matt, looked interested. It's a deep half guard sweep where he wraps a gi lapel around their leg to facilitate the sweep, then if they raise up, a Turkish get up variation. I've got video so will check that, possibly pick up Digitsu's instructional Faria did too. There's a lot of deep half prep I want to do for December, so we'll see how far I get with the instructional and notes I already have on the position. :)
Class #782 Artemis BJJ (MYGYM Bristol), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 13/11/2016
Today was the hardest I've trained for a while (though this is me, so still not especially hard ;D). There were only three of us today, so we took it in turns for about an hour to do some specific open guard sparring. On top, I was trying to add direction changes to my knee cut pass. That is difficult with Sam, as his knee shield is so good, but I think it helped. My main problem on the attempts to switch sides was that it takes quite a bit of energy. I also wasn't able to collapse down on the other side, something was still blocking (I think Sam's knee or foot?)
However, I did manage to drive through on the knee cut a couple of times, by locking down his legs and turning around the knee. The danger there is relying too much on basing with your same side hand. If you do that, then they just need to get control of that hand to turn your pass into their sweep. I didn't try pinning his hand to the mat on that side (like Adamson taught at the Globetrotter camp), that's something I should give a go next time.
On the bottom, I'm still trying the shin-on-shin, but I'm also still getting squished when I try that. I attempted to push into the other leg, but wasn't able to maintain much pressure. I'm not sure if I'm swivelling around their leg too much, or not enough. That's another area I shall play around with. I wanted to combine it with my previous sitting guard, looking to link the two. It certainly isn't there yet, but if I can finally force myself to get into a pattern of doing this regularly, I'll get there.
Spinning around behind the knee-cutting leg for a single leg is a good approach too, but once again, that takes lots of energy. I also found it got a bit stuffed if they could secure a strong grip on your sleeve and/or leg. I was using far too much strength, as I was knackered after an hour or so of that. Might not have even been an hour, perhaps just 40 minutes. So, slow down and flow more: it's something I don't have to do as much as I should, because I'm being lazy and not rolling enough with challenging sparring sparring. Injuries don't help. ;)
Class #627 Artemis BJJ (PHNX Fitness), Open Mat, Bristol, UK - 07/02/2015
I think today marks the first open mat where we've had two women attending, which is cool! Tracey has been a regular pretty much since we started the Artemis BJJ open mat at PHNX, so I'm really pleased that she had a chance to train with somebody her own size and weight for once. Hopefully this will set a trend for the future (and it all helps towards that 50/50 gender mix I'm aiming for).
There was some light sparring from side control for me, mainly to help one of the students work on their escape. I then had another relatively light roll with a visiting purple belt: I know he can go a lot harder than that, so appreciated the steady pace. It gave me a chance to play with various techniques, starting with the stiff-arm guard I've been using a lot recently. He was tending to step in close, which makes it harder to play the ankle pick/loop choke/collar drag combination I've been attempting to develop, but does makes the tripod/sickle sweep combination possible.
I continued to try and add in the Fowler 'unstoppable sweep' from last week, but couldn't get his weight sufficiently off-balance. When I got on top, I repeatedly went for the knee cut, focusing on controlling the feet and legs (particularly shoving one across, like how Donal showed me a couple of years ago). Holding on to the kimura was a useful thing to try out too (this particular purple belt is the one who gave me that advice in the first place), but as he's got a dodgy shoulder, I'm sure he was tapping earlier on that than normal (and rightly so: I like to think I never whack anything on hard or without control, but I had forgotten about that old shoulder injury).
Rolling out from the running escape sort of worked, but that's still a technique that needs a good bit of work. I look forward to refining that once we get to the month of side control. It's handy having a lot of guard practice over the three months of open, closed and half guard, but my favourite place to be is still either side control or mount. I feel like I've shored up my guard a bit in these last couple of months, so the back will be something else to look forward to (as along with guard that's what I view as my biggest weak point).
Class #626 Artemis BJJ (PHNX Fitness), Open Mat, Bristol, UK - 31/01/2015
With about five weeks left until we hit the mats to roll for Equality Now, we're getting close to a fundraising milestone. With another five pounds, we'll reach the £500 mark on our GrappleThon team total. Are there any readers who want to help us there? One step closer to the £4,000 target! Donate here and support the important work done by Equality Now. :D
In other exciting news, a new sponsor has stepped up to support the GrappleThon. GIMONO are a gi company from New Zealand, who use an innovative material in creating their martial arts equipment. It's made of merino wool and polyster, which sounds like a bizarre combination, but after almost three years of use, it's still my favourite gi (I reviewed the BJJ model back in 2012, just before my first trip out to the States). Now you have a chance to win one in your choice of colour, cut (they do several) and size. All you need to do is join the GrappleThon fundraising team and raise more money than anybody else (I'm excluding myself from the comp, of course ;D).
Good luck and let me know if you need any help: there is a full guide to setting up a fundraising page here, but I'm happy to answer any questions you might have. :)
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This Saturday featured one of the biggest turnouts we've had so far, coinciding with the brightest jiu jitsu trousers I've ever worn, having dyed some Fenom trousers Flamingo Pink a few days ago. I've clearly moved away from my previous "plain white gi only" stance, something that's been gradually breaking down ever since I brought back a blue The Green Gi jacket from Virginia last May. My nogi wardrobe was already pretty colourful, so thanks to Dylon, my gi wardrobe will eventually be just as fabulous. ;)
We had a visitor from London today, Bevan, which is always really cool. He's probably going to go train with Seymour at Mill Hill, as since his old gym closed down, I think that's the closest. It would great to get in some rolls with him, as that gave me a chance to practice all sorts of random techniques (e.g., pull his gi tail out over his back, switch hands by the neck, then do a sort of loop choke motion. Not sure that would normally work, but hey, fun!). I had a chance to show him a few techniques too, like some basic mount escapes and my favourite choke from side control (as he's only been training two months, there are of course still some gaps. I've been training for almost nine years now and have LOTS of gaps ;D).
I also got some drilling time with Tracey, whose armbars and triangles are really coming along. There's a noticeable solidity when she locks in that armbar now, which wasn't there before. I'm sure it won't be long until she's regularly hitting that technique in sparring: as a teacher, there's nothing better than watching your students improve. The growing number of women at Artemis BJJ (there are now four officially on the books, with several others popping in every now and then) is especially awesome. Just need to reach that critical mass, then hopefully I'll be getting close to the ambitious 50/50 gender split I'm aiming for.
There was a particularly cool, chilled out atmosphere today, something I always try to build. I honestly think that was at least partly down to my pink pants. They are so ridiculous that it immediately made it easier for everyone to be a bit more silly and relaxed, having fun with jiu jitsu rather than getting all serious and grr. Yay for fabulous Flamingo Pink! ;D
The main thing I wanted to drill was something called the 'unstoppable sweep', mentioned by Seymour over on his blog recently. He went to a Mike Fowler seminar, who is the guy known for this technique. If I understand it right, you get on your side in open guard, bringing your lower leg in front of the bottom of their shin. Your other leg goes just above their knee, when you also lock your feet together. Grab their same side sleeve with your lower arm and their same side collar with your upper arm.
You can then tweak their leg outwards by pulling with your lower leg on their shin and pushing with your other leg behind their knee. Maintain your grips and knee position, as this should hopefully put you directly into a knee cut with a deep collar grip, meaning you could also switch right into a choke. Great technique, judging by the drilling I did. Although I hardly ever go to de la Riva (I worry about my knees, as there was a Fightworks Podcast episode where a veteran BJJ medic commented on long-term knee damage from competitors that used a lot of DLR), I could see this potentially fitting in to my tripod/sickle sweep game.
Trying it in sparring, I wasn't finding myself in position for it, as the sweep appears to require them to be standing. However, I'll keep playing with it: could be there is a way to fit it into some kind of half guard game too, which would be handy as Feburary at Artemis BJJ is going to be half guard month. I'll also be testing out the new Estima InAction site, so hopefully Braulio has a load of cool half guard stuf on there. :)
Here's a video of Fowler's unstoppable sweep (which Seymour linked to):
Class #625 Artemis BJJ (PHNX Fitness), Open Mat, Bristol, UK - 24/01/2015
Meerkatsu's GrappleThon shirt design is ready! The ONLY way to earn one of those is to set up a fundraising page on MyDonate for Equality Now and get in some donations (full details of how to do that here). All donations, no matter how small, would be very welcome: please help us reach our £4,000 target for charity! Any amount gratefully accepted, and it's all for a great cause. Head over to the MyDonate fundraising page to send your pennies (or dollars, yen, whatever, you can donate from anywhere in the world), here. :D
I'm especially excited about the prospect of someone over in the US setting up a simultaneous GrappleThon (like this). I've tried to get that going before but it unfortunately didn't happen. Still a goal of mine, so it would be super cool if anyone managed to run a GrappleThon for Equality Now at the same time as the Artemis BJJ GrappleThon here in Bristol. Keep in mind that if you do that, then as long as you set up a fundraising page and join the team, you're in with a chance of getting a shirt. ;)
Should you still be unclear on any of the details for the GrappleThon, everything you need to know can be found on the main event page, here.
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My return to sparring continues, as I risked free sparring with some of the bigger, stronger guys that pop along to open mat. That meant I got in both gi and nogi sparring, which is unusual for me. In the gi, I was using the stiff arm guard yet again. I think I'm still not pushing my chest out enough, though I feel like I'm starting to get the transition into my favoured tripod/sickle combination sweep. That worked for me a number of times, but I wasn't coming up to capitalise. Following my own advice, I need to concentrate on controlling that foot so they can't pre-empt me by coming up first. Using the sleeve or collar for additional momentum would help too. I'm hampered by my injury on that, but should still control the leg much more than I did today.
I ended up on the back a few times, having worked on crawling around from guard a few times unsuccessfully (thinking back to where I was before the injury, more side guard required). I always go for the seat belt as that's the most secure grip, but the old double lapel grip came in handy today, enabling me to retain control. At the same time, I need to be careful my position isn't too far forward as they try to fling me off their back when they're in turtle. My neck and face got smushed into the mat as he rolled through. I maintained control, but that could be risky for my neck (fortunately it was fine, I could tuck my head in, but I did scrape my face along the mats).
Speaking of the stiff arm guard, I used the stiff arm escape from side control a bunch of times too, but didn't maintain control properly there either. However, it did enable me to recover back to guard a number of times, so that's still handy. I am finding that one more and more useful, so will definitely try and teach that during side control month in May.
In nogi I was again using the stiff arm guard, in conjunction with some of my preferred nogi grips. I'm feeling a lot happier about nogi from guard than I used to, as now I go to the shoulder clamp. If I can get the head, that's fine too. Either option means I can combine it with the butterfly sweep, though I was perhaps too single-minded about the butterfly sweep. There's other stuff I could be trying from that position. Still, all in all an enjoyable re-entry into normal sparring for me. :)
Class #624 Artemis BJJ (PHNX Fitness), Open Mat, Bristol, UK - 17/01/2015
Quiet open mat this week, where I mainly got in a good bit of sparring with Tracey. She's the perfect sparring partner for me right now, as it doesn't exacerbate my injury. She's also improving rapidly, so I'm having to work a lot harder to pass and to maintain control on top. I was concentrating on gripping less, so while I still used the stiff arm guard, I wasn't grabbing any gi. That works ok if they aren't too tall, but I can't reach high enough if they're bigger (in that instance, I need to grab a collar and pull them down to my level, ideally).
With passing I was also trying to avoid grabbing the gi trousers. Instead, I tried gripping the ankles and pushing them in, then shoving their knee out of the way with my own. That kind of worked, although it might have just been down to the size and experience difference. I'll have a more thorough look through my notes for passes that don't rely so much on grips. Possibly the Monday class? I'll still teach one with grips, as I haven't gone through the knee slice yet, but if I get a chance to spar I'll try something different. Possibilities. :)
Class #611 Artemis BJJ (PHNX Fitness), Open Mat, Bristol, UK - 06/12/2014
I did some more playing with open guard today, along with a bit of closed guard during sparring. As ever, I need to work more on angling off and getting that arm across. Driving my knee to pry out their elbow might help, when they're clamping in really tight and being super defensive. Also, lifting and dropping the hips, that 'creating and removing structures' principle Nic talked about in his DVD.
Trying the shoulder clamp a bit more could help too: it was useful a few lessons ago, switching side to side, and I can try throwing in omoplatas too. I'm considering what to teach over the next months, especially in terms of submissions. Armbars might be a good one, or I could run through triangles again. It depends what would fit best with the techniques I'm teaching. E.g., the best follow up to a scissor sweep, shoulder clamp and the like, ideally one that would fit with all of them. That might be the omoplata? I'll keep thinking.
Sparring with a fellow purple, I was trying that collar pushing grip, where again I need to remember to sit up. Pushing in with the knuckles of that grip was useful, but like he said, I need to be wary of potential wristlocks if I'm not careful. Same goes for the flying armbars Kev warned about.
