06/02/2011 - RGA Aylesbury Drilling/Open Mat

[I'm off to Malta on the 13th, and won't be back until the 24th, so this will be my last post for a while. I had intended to train with a local club out in Malta, but unfortunately that knee injury means I can't.]

Class #377
RGA Aylesbury, (BJJ), Kev Capel, Aylesbury, UK - 06/02/2011

I'm not too comfortable with advertising myself through self-promotion: normally, I'll link back to stuff I've written in the context of a thread reply, rather than start a new topic purely to tell people to go look at something I've done. However, I know that there are a least a few fellow bloggers who are much less reticent about doing that. So, you guys may want to check out the Reddit subsite for BJJ.

If you aren't familiar with Reddit, it is a system for sticking up stuff you want to share, be that links, videos, questions, or just your thoughts on something. There are sub-divisions by interest, and the one for BJJ has grown pretty large (around 900 people posting) since I first noticed it (through my blog stats: I tend to follow up any links to my site I don't recognise). For people who are reading rather than writing, it's also a useful place to check out videos, questions etc. Sort of like a forum, but not quite.

Getting back to training, I really like Kev's drilling/open mat set up. It's an excellent way to make certain that people don't waste their open mat time due to having no plan of what to practice, or chatting the whole time. That's because the first hour is instructor-led drilling, beginning with a useful warm-up where you shrimp forwards, then across, then back, then across the other way. My leg can't handle forwards and backwards shrimping, but going side-to-side is fine: also a good work out for your core.

Kev moved into a double leg takedown drill, where you take it in turns to shoot in and lift your partner, then run or walk to the other end of the mat as they dangle over your shoulder (so basically like Matt Hughes in various MMA fights). I definitely wasn't going to be picking anyone up with my knee, but I could at least be useful as a weight for somebody to lift.

I'm small, so that meant that another guy who was injured (in his shoulder rather than knee) could get some training in that way, as he is much bigger so I was no problem for him to pick up. After he ran with me up and down the mat, I practiced shooting in the double (very carefully, given the knee).

Next up was drilling the armbar from mount, swivelling from side to side. That was relatively ok for my knee, though I had to do it slowly and with control. That dogleg position in s-mount does put some torsion on the knee, but it seemed ok if I didn't do it really fast and put lots of weight on it.

Knee problems also ruled out most of the following drill, which was annoying as it is something I would have liked to practice more. Again it is from the armbar from mount, but this time, they are defending, so you are struggling to yank their arm free. Instead of straining, you can simply switch to the other arm. Reach under, then bring your knees into a sort of crouch (i.e., rather than one knee up and the other in a dogleg position under their arm, the soles or both feet are now on the ground.

From there, switch to the exact same s-mount position, but on the other side. Apparently, there is a silat drill that is good for honing your transition if you don't have a partner, which Kev demonstrated. I didn't see a video on YouTube (mainly because I don't know the name of the drill: presumably there is some funky silat name for it, if anybody recognises this?), but you start on the floor, one leg bent in front of you, with the sole of your foot pointing at your other knee and upper leg.

Sort of like a hurdlers stretch, but with the other leg bent as well. Your other leg will also be bent, but the heel of that foot will be by your hip. You then rotate your legs to come up into a crouch, and finish by continuing the rotation of your legs, to end up in the reverse of your starting position.

The last drill was another transition, but this time from mount to knee on belly. If they try to upa and turn, your leg in the direction they aren't turning will swivel around, so that you bring your foot from the mat to their opposite hip. The leg in the direction they are turning steps out for base, putting you in knee on belly. The drill continued with them shrimping away from your knee, which you counter by sliding through into scarf hold. Switch to side control, reverse scarf hold (so facing their legs), then bring your leg over or slide your knee through to return to mount.

That finished off the taught drilling, leaving an hour of open mat. I couldn't spar, but even if I could I would still have wanted to get in some more drilling on that overhook choke I've been working. Fortunately for me, Kev is awesome, so when I asked him if he would mind drilling it with me, I ended up getting a great mini-private.

This centred around the second grip, which I now suspect may be the root of my problems landing this submission in sparring. After you've got the overhook and reached through for their collar, use that grip to also slide your other thumb up towards their head. This will also provide you with control, as you can pull their head down, as well as the opportunity to continue tightening that first grip.

Crush their collar in your second hand, to get a strong grip, fingers pressing into your palm through their gi. You hand is not going to move from this position. Move your body to the side a little, bringing your knees up their back to pinch together. The arm of your second hand needs to circle over their head, without moving your hand. Straighten that arm, so that their is a firm line to your hand: you shouldn't have your hand curved in either direction. To get that straight line, you may need to turn your knuckles towards you.

If you need to straighten your wrist from a bent position, don’t move your hand. Instead, press against their head to make the space. You can then finish the choke as usual, elbow into their chest. Throughout all of this, don't forget about your first grip: that also needs to stay tight.

You can also get the choke by grabbing fabric instead of the thumb grip and circling your hand over. Alternatively, you could grab material on the opposite side, and get the choke from there: looking at three DVDs that feature this choke, I notice that Roy Dean, Matt Thornton and Xande Ribeiro all go for that option (which works well if you want to choke across the throat and flare your elbow, which is what it looks like Thornton is doing). However, drilling the variations and having them done to me, Kev's method seemed to suit me better, as I found I could get a tighter choke that way (though the grip is a lot more difficult to establish, at least if you have weedy hands like me).

After that, I had a brief chat with Kev about grips. I've mentioned before how Chiu told me that he doesn't use spider guard much these days, because the grips knacker his fingers too much. However, Kev mentioned an easy solution to avoid getting to that stage: learn when to release the grip, and either immediately re-grip, or use it to attack.

For example, if they are yanking away to free themselves from spider guard, letting go may set you up for a triangle by putting their arm out of the way. If you've grabbed the inside of their trouser leg to pass the open guard and they are bashing away at your fingers to break the grip, there is a point where it makes sense to let go and re-grip, rather than accepting the potential damage to your fingers.

So, I'll finish with a Julia style closing question related to that: do you try and mollycoddle your fingers like me, or do you rely on your grips of steel and laugh at your opponent's puny attempts to break free? ;)

23/01/2011 - RGA Aylesbury (Open Mat)

Class #375
RGA Aylesbury, (BJJ), Kev Capel, Aylesbury, UK - 23/01/2011

There are a bunch of cool people training at RGA Aylesbury, and tonight I finally had a chance to meet and chat to one in particular I'd been interested in talking to: Pete Griffiths. If you've read the FAQ, you may recognise the name, as he is the awesome guy who wrote this on EFN and this for Meg's blog (I'd forgotten he'd written that until he mentioned it: excellent piece, so that reminds me to update the FAQ entry).

The next session opened with shrimping around the mat, going backwards, side to side and forwards. Again, my leg wasn't up to that, so as during the warm-up of the first class, I stayed in a corner doing sit-ups and press-ups (I can rest my dodgy leg over the back of the one that works, which seems to avoid any strain on the injury).

An hour of drilling followed. Unfortunately, I couldn't take part in most of that too, as it involved throws, and then work from De La Riva and mount. The one from De La Riva was really cool, so despite not being able to practice it yet, I tried to take a few notes (though that's always more difficult to remember if you aren't actually drilling the technique yourself). It starts with a sort of back-step when attempting to pass De La Riva, putting you in top half guard, facing their legs.

Your leg is still stuck, which means you can lock it up, almost as if you were doing a lockdown from an unorthodox position. The next part is where drilling it myself would have made things clearer: move your torso to their far side and roll over your shoulder, dragging them with you, ending up on their back. That's probably difficult to visualise, but it is a bit like the cool transition Sean Roberts does here.

As it didn't use the legs so much, I was able to drill another of the techniques, an arm drag from guard. Specifically, this was from butterfly guard, which is important, as that helps when taking the back. The technique starts from their attempt to grip your grip, push your shoulder, grab your head etc. If they extend an arm, grab the sleeve with your same side hand and pull it towards you, followed by grabbing their tricep with your other hand and continuing the pulling motion.

This should knock them forward. You can now remove your hooking foot on the same side as their dragged arm, placing it away from their body instead. That means that you can then swing around to their back, using that hold on their triceps to help your spin. The hooking foot you leave behind now becomes your first hook for back mount.

Once we got to the open mat section itself, I was able to ask Kev for some pointers on the overhook guard choke I'd been drilling earlier. This is where that second option I mentioned earlier comes in, which is similar to the cross choke variation I described in that same post. Establish the overhook as before, but this time, make sure your initial grip on the collar is good and deep. This is difficult, as you are already overhooking their arm, which shortens your reach, and it is also where I've been having problems in sparring.

Still, if you can get that grip, move onto your side. Either grab behind their gi, their shoulder or get your thumb inside their collar. You can then bring that arm around as before, getting the elbow in tight to their chest. From here, you can complete the choke: it has the advantage over the looser variation that it isn't so easy for them to simply push on your elbow to block the submission. Kev also noted that a thick collar can make this harder to get too.

I drilled that with Sahid while everyone else was sparring, which proved useful. Even better, Sahid had another attack to add onto the position, which was similar to the americana from overhook guard Roy Dean demonstrates on Purple Belt Requirements. Dean describes it as an option for when your partner tries to free their arm the wrong way (if they remove it the right way, you're set up for an arm drag, as Dean shows).

Sahid has been trying this out recently, and he baits them to remove their arm that way. You loosen up slightly on the overhook, opening your guard and using your shin to create the necessary distance (and block them coming forward). They will probably take the opportunity to try and free their arm, which will give you just enough room to lock your arms and twist to the side. Sahid also noted that you need to be careful with this, as it comes on quick and some people are too stubborn to tap. So, be sure to use control. Apparently Frank Mir tried this is in a fight some time, so there is probably a video out there somewhere.

Taking a leaf out of Julia's excellent blog, I thought I'd finish with a question: what would you drill at an open mat?

23/01/2011 - RGA Aylesbury (Beginner)

Class #374
RGA Aylesbury, (BJJ), Kev Capel, Aylesbury, UK - 23/01/2011

After worrying that my knee might have exploded last week, it appears to be recovering fairly quickly. There was a party in London the next day (hence fancy dress pics of me on Facebook, which is very typical for parties at that house: my gf has awesome friends), which involved a lot of limping around the capital and hobbling up and down stairs. Fortunately, my leg started to work again over the course of the week, although I'm still holding off on sparring or anything involving torsion on the leg.

Also, I only just realised my old training buddy Will has moved his excellent post on Portuguese terminology for BJJ to its own site, BJJ Phrases.com. Amy has that linked on her blog, which is where I saw it recently. Which amuses me, because I'm in regular email contact with Will: I somehow managed to miss it from the first hand source. Finally, speaking of blogs, Hannah put up a list of her top fifty here, which includes a bunch of familiar names.

Last time I showed up at an Aylesbury Sunday class, the whole three hours was open mat. However, things have changed since 2009, as now it is split into two sessions, and thirty minutes longer. The first is a normal beginner class, for an hour and a half. After that, there is another hour of drilling, before moving into the actual open mat.

I had been intending to do several hours of drilling on the overhook guard choke (or at least that's what I call it: arm wrap choke is another common name), because I never seem to be able to threaten with the submission even if I can secure the position. Fortunately for me, Kev was teaching chokes for the beginner lesson, so similar principles applied although the position was slightly different.

Kev began with the classic cross choke from guard. After getting a deep initial grip, a useful point to keep in mind is to swing your torso to the opposite direction in order to help establish the second grip. You can then square back up before sinking the submission.

That was followed by a standard variation, where after the first grip, your second hand grabs around the back of their gi. Maintaining your grip, you then swing that second arm to the side your first hand is grasping. Bring the elbow of the second arm tight to their chest, then complete the choke as normal.

Kev completed the technical section with a guard pass, knee sliding through to side control. However, that involved plenty of twisting and turning with the legs, so I decided it probably wouldn't be a good idea to put that strain on my damaged knee. I could at least let Callum do the drill on me, although I couldn't offer up much resistance with my legs for him to work against.

As specific sparring was from guard, I decided against that too. Callum kindly stayed to drill with me, meaning that I got my chance to do some drilling on that overhook guard choke. There are a couple of options, one of which is easier to apply but less effective. That's the one I started with: I drilled the second during the open mat. Either way, first you have to get into the arm wrap/overhook.

They will probably be grabbing your gi somewhere between your chest and stomach. Grab their sleeve with one hand, then reach your other hand underneath to hold your own wrist, making a figure-four. Wrench up with your figure-four to break their grip (you could also try raising your hips then dropping them as you wrench to increase the leverage). Pull the sleeve behind your head, while simultaneously swimming through with the other arm, so that you end up overhooking their arm.

With the overhooking hand, reach through and grasp their opposite collar. Keep the elbow of your overhooking arm locked to your body, so they can't free their arm. This is a good controlling position, where you have a number of attacks: omoplata, armbar, triangle and the one I wanted to practice, a choke.

The application is similar to the variation of the cross choke we did earlier. Again, either grab the back of their gi, around their shoulder, or get your thumb into their collar. Then bring that arm to the other side of their head. Depending on your grip on their collar, you can bring your forearm into their throat. Pull on the gi with your overhook arm to cut off one artery, then press your forearm into the other side of their neck to block the other. As you have access to the throat, you can also try pressing into that, but it makes for a less efficient submission.

Matt Thornton demonstrates something similar in his 'A.P.E Guard' disc from Functional JKD 3 (which incidentally is a great set, so I should get round to reviewing it at some point). Even if that submission doesn't work, it should at least force them to defend. This is where you can go for a triangle, especially if as likely they use their other arm to block. That motion could give you the chance you need to bring your leg over and begin your triangle set up.