24/07/2016 - Seminar with Ana Yagües

Seminar #020
Artemis BJJ (MYGYM Bristol), Ana Yagües, Bristol, UK - 24/07/2016

I am always keen to get more women down to teach at Artemis BJJ, as well as bringing in black belts for seminars. Up until now we've had Chelsea Bainbridge-Donner teach us twice, which was cool. When I heard that Ana Yagües would be in the UK for a BJJ Globetrotter Camp, I jumped at the chance to bring her up to Bristol. Ana is somebody I've known online for a number of years, initially due to her blogs about BJJ and pregnancy. I was able to train with her at the Globetrotter camp, from which she made the journey on Sunday morning (thanks to David kindly offering a lift, meaning Ana didn't have to contend with the clunky and overpriced British train system ;D).

We've been looking at Ana's de la Riva x guard sweep all week, so she kicked off with that. It's always awesome to have the black belt perspective, as Ana added several details I'd been missing. The most important tweak was on lifting the hips to make that de la Riva hook really deep. I had been lifting them straight up, but to get maximum extension, you should twist inwards. That then means you can get your foot horizontal: a few people in training had only been managing to hook by the hip, which isn't far enough. With that tip, they should hopefully be able to secure a much deeper hook.

A photo posted by Artemis BJJ (@artemisbjj) on Jul 22, 2016 at 12:02am PDT

To achieve the same sweep when your partner goes to combat base, push on their leg to open up space. It's tough for them to avoid giving you enough space to sneak that hook through. Once you have that, then it isn't too hard to get the other foot underneath. That becomes a powerful sweeping platform, in either direction. I'm looking forward to trying this out some more in sparring, as I like the idea of an open guard that keeps my partner close and controlled, as well as relying principally on my legs rather than some kind of finger-mashing gi grip. ;)

Next up was the shin-to-shin guard, also commonly known as shin-on-shin. We went through a sweeping sequence that was similar to the series my instructor showed me at a private in February last year. Put your shin in front of their same side leg, wrapping behind their leg with your arm. Your other leg pushes on their knee. That will normally make them post their arm, or at least put the arm in range. Grab their sleeve, ideally passing their arm under their leg to your other hand. With your passing hand, grab high on the arm you just controlled, up near their shoulder. Pull down on that arm as you lift with your shin. It's much the same motion as the basic de la Riva sweep I was taught at GB Brum.

Another option is to instead grab their far ankle, rather than high on their arm. This is to block them from stepping to recover their base. You can then again lift with the shin and drive through for the sweep. Finally, if you can't get either arm, again like the de la Riva series from GB Brum, grab their belt or gi tail instead and pass that under their leg. Should they base out heavily on their arms when you go for the sweep, you can potentially switch to a single leg, or move to take their back.

The only downside I find with the shin-on-shin guard is that the eponymous body part gets rather sore after a while, especially as I'm a wimp ;D. So I was relieved when Ana then moved into some closed guard options, starting with an old favourite of mine, the overhook guard. I sometimes have trouble setting that up: Ana had a simple but effective solution. Just swim their hands out as you pull them in with your knees, to make them post on the mat. You can then secure the overhook (another option is off the two-on-one grip break where you pull it behind your head, which is the one I was originally shown back when I first learned this. Tougher to get, but I might show that during closed guard month).

There are lots of attacks you can do from here. Ana began with a triangle from the overhook. Press into their non-overhooked arm with your free hand, then use the space to slip your leg through. You may need to shrimp slightly in order to get your leg past the arm, especially if you are tall. Once you've brought your leg out from underneath that arm, swing it across into their neck. Control their head (e.g., by grabbing the shin of the leg you now have across the back of their neck), then step on their hip to swivel into triangle-locking pushing. You can now bring their arm across and finish the triangle.

If you aren't able to get your leg out for the triangle, you could instead go for a pressing armbar variation. Shrimp out and bring one leg up their back, your other knee clamping by their chest. You still have your arm wrapped around theirs due to your earlier grip. Move your hips out slightly to straighten their arm: their wrist should roughly be on your ribs. To finish, press down on their elbow with your arm and knee. Be careful, as this can come on fast and they also might find it hard to tap as both their arms are in awkward positions. If they twist their arm out to escape, you're set up for an omoplata.

Getting the pressing armbar (or a shoulder lock, depending on the person) can be tricky, so another option is to move instead to a gogoplata. Bring your leg on the overhooking side past their head, threading it around the overhooked arm, until you can hook underneath their chin. You will eventually need to bring your hand out of the overhook, but you're still controlling that arm with your leg. To complete the gogoplata, grab your toes/foot to make sure it's tight and extend your leg.

If you have trouble with that one, keep extending your leg until you can get right under their far armpit. From here, you might be able to get a submission by twisting your hips, or you could go for a wristlock. I think you twist your hips away from them, but I'll check (either from drilling at open mat, or if Ana gets a chance to read this. I did take video of everything, but cleverly deleted it by accident).

A video posted by Artemis BJJ (@artemisbjj) on Jul 24, 2016 at 7:13am PDT

The last technique of the day was reminiscent of what Chris Haueter taught in Leuven last month, with a cool additional detail. Pull out their gi tail, outside their arm. Yank it back across their arm, locking it in place by grabbing it with your opposite hand. Grip their sleeve with your same side hand, then use those two grips to bring their arm over your body. Slide your gi tail grip to the end of the gi lapel, wrapping your same side arm around their head (keep the elbow tight, so they can't wriggle their head free). Pass the end of the gi tail to that head-wrapping arm, securing it against their neck. Finally, use what is now your free hand to grasp their same side knee. Pull on the lapel and the knee to get a sort of bow and arrow choke: video above, if that's confusing. ;)

A photo posted by Artemis BJJ (@artemisbjj) on Jul 24, 2016 at 10:50am PDT

Thanks to everybody who came down to support the seminar, both from Artemis BJJ and from our friends at other clubs: it was cool to see Piotr again from Gloucester, who also brought his team mate Chris. Piotr was a major part of this year's GrappleThon, maintaining that big smile for most of the twenty-four hours. ;)

As always after Artemis BJJ seminars, we went to Pieminister for a delicious meal. If you'd like to come to the next seminar, keep an eye on the Artemis BJJ Facebook page: I'm intending to keep every seminar at £20 and they will also stay open to everybody. Hopefully see you at the next one. ;)

12/11/2012 - Roger Gracie Seminar at Gracie Barra Bristol

Seminar #10
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Roger Gracie, Bristol, UK - 12/11/2012

I was a little uncertain about tonight, as that groin injury still hasn't quite gone away: hence why I haven't trained properly in well over a month. However, when I booked a place on this seminar a while back, I decided that at worst I'd have to skip the warm-up and sparring. Even if the injury hadn't gone, I could at least take part in the important bit, which is technique.

The class was large, given that it was Roger, but not as big as it could have been, due to a 40 person limit on attendance. I don't head along to that many seminars normally (although this is my fourth this year, so clearly I attend more than I used to), but as it was the man who gave me my purple belt last year, I didn't think it was one to miss. I hear he's quite good at BJJ too. ;p

Geeza has been trying to make this seminar happen for a long time now, because not only is Roger the greatest competitor of all time (Marcelo and Xande might disagree, but meh, I'm biased), GB Bristol is also affiliated to his academy (which is unusual: most Gracie Barra clubs in the UK are under Braulio, Victor or Lagarto).

Roger started off with a method for pulling guard. I didn't join in with either the basic or more advanced method, as unfortunately jumping up and wrapping my legs around somebody would make my injured groin very unhappy. Still, it was useful to learn the technique: Roger showed how after jumping up and getting guard, you could break their posture by pushing on their leg while pulling on the collar. If that isn't working, then pushing inside their knee should help collapse their base, as well as smoothly transition into an armbar.

That was followed by a back take, still in guard. This is similar to the one I taught a while ago. Begin with the standard two-on-one grip break, where Roger noted it is important to get the hand underneath right into their wrist, so there is no space. Punch upwards then shove their arm across, bringing them in with your legs. If you can, reach round and grab their arm, so they end up in a gift wrap, but most likely they won't let you have that arm. So, you'll probably end up hooking your hand around their side or into their armpit. Hip out, then come up on your elbow. From here, you can use the leg you have over their back to swivel around and insert your hooks, but my groin wasn't up to that motion.

Continuing with that grip break, you can also move into the armwrap or overhook guard. Roger added that when you break the grip and then have control of their sleeve, bring the elbow of your controlling arm towards your head as you shoot the other arm up inside (as a random point of interest, Roger wasn't inserting his thumb to create a pocket grip in the sleeves. Instead, he grabbed straight off with his four fingers: the thumb didn't appear to come into play at all). Keep dragging their sleeve so that it goes behind your head, meaning that you can now use your head to help trap it in place. From there you have the option of a choke, but most people are going to defend it by getting their free hand in the way.


In the likely event your choke is blocked, you can switch to a pressing armbar. This is reminiscent of the attack Levo showed at his seminar, except the grips are different due to the gi. Similar to Levo's technique, shrimp out and bring one leg up their back, your other knee clamping by their chest. You still have your arm wrapped around due to your earlier grip. Move your hips out slightly (as with Levo's option, pressing into their neck

with your arm can aid you with your body positioning), to straighten their arm: their wrist should roughly be on your ribs. To finish, press down on their elbow with your arm and knee. Be careful, as this can come on fast and they also might find it hard to tap as both their arms are in awkward positions. If they twist their arm out to escape, you're set up for an omoplata.

Alternatively, there is the triangle from the overhook. If they block your choke, cover their blocking hand with your own to keep it in place. Bring your leg out from underneath that arm then jam it into their neck. Lock your feet and control their posture, by putting one or both arms around their head. At this point, Roger noted that a lot of people try to finish the triangle square on by yanking the head down and raising the hips, but that tends to be a crank rather than a choke.

Instead, it is better to create an angle, which in turn will help you get your leg across their neck rather than pointing diagonally across their upper back, then finish the triangle as normal. Interestingly, Roger also agrees with Ryan Hall that getting the arm across is not essential for a triangle. In fact, Roger feels that pulling the trapped arm all the way over their body can be detrimental, because it makes it easier for them to grab your leg and drive it to the floor, the starting point for a common triangle escape. Roger prefers to keep their elbow near your hip or stomach.

Thankfully for my injured groin, we then progressed to a side control to mount transition. Once again there were some intriguing points on a fundamental technique, which for me is infinitely better than some flashy sequence I've not seen before but will never use due to complexity. Roger commented on the numerous different leg positions, noting how sprawling your legs back will lower your weight and increase the pressure on them.

He compared that to bringing your knees in close, which takes the weight off. I was expecting him to recommend legs back, but he actually prefers keeping the knees in tight (which I'm a fan of myself, as it means there is much less space for them to manoeuvre). The reason is that he feels that having the knees in tight rather than sprawled back provides you with greater mobility, even if it is at the expense of less weight on top of them.

The key to attacking is separating their elbows from their body. If they can keep them tightly jammed to their sides with their arms crossed, it will be very difficult to initiate any kind of submission. In order to pry the elbows away from their body, you can try digging into their near armpit with your knee, but that is often hard to accomplish. More reliable is switching your base into a sort-of scarf hold, then thrusting your hips forward into their elbow until you can push it up in the air. At that point, you can switch your base back, meaning their elbow should now be stuck past your hip.

You're controlling their other arm by scooping under the elbow, looking to create an opening. If they try to push their forearm into your neck, that makes things easier. Position your chin by their wrist, then pinch that into your chest. This should help collapse their arm, meaning you can now brace your forehead against the floor.

That position breaks the general principle of not leaning too far forward in side control, but on the other hand you are fairly stable due to your knees on the near side and forehead on the far side. From there, bring your knee across their belt line. If necessary, remove your hand from under their head to help you twist their body as you slide into mount.

Finally, Roger went through his signature technique: the choke from mount. Or at least, a variation of that: technically it wasn't the choke from mount, but what Xande and Saulo call the 'double-attack'. Begin by sliding your knees further up, grabbing on their head to help pull yourself into position. However, Roger noted you should't go too far, or you will find it hard to get the space to attack their arms. Judging from his position (I was trying to put into practice John Will's precept of looking at what they're doing, not just listening to what they're saying), ideally you want your knees at their shoulder level.

Like the earlier offence from side control, this separates their elbows from their body and thereby weakens their defence. It is still a pain to get past the barrier of their arms, so Roger has a handy tip. Insert your hand, keeping the arm straight, then put your body weight behind it. You're lining up your torso behind your shoulder then leaning forward. When you get your elbow to your hip, you can switch to driving with your hip to get your hand deep into their collar.

Naturally once you have a hand committed to gripping their collar, they are going to try and bridge. To maintain your base, put your free hand on the opposite side. If they bridge in that direction, your hand will stop you going over. If they bridge in the other direction, simply move your hand. Most importantly, when they bridge, they are almost certainly going to create some room by their elbow. You can take advantage by swivelling your body, ready to go for the armbar.

Often when a major name comes down for a seminar, there are promotions. Given that there names don't come any more major than Roger Gracie, that meant a lot of promotions. There were various stripes given out, including me, along with lots of new blue belts. Diego is sadly leaving us for his native Brazil, but he goes back with a blue from Roger, which is a pretty cool leaving present. Most significant was that Liam finally got promoted to purple. To say it's been a long time coming would be an understatement. His blue belt is so faded it is almost white: that blue first went around Liam's waist before I started training! So, great to see him get a well-deserved purple from Roger himself.

30/06/2012 - Nic Gregoriades 'Big Class' at GB Bristol (Overhook & Windscreen Wiper Sweep)

Class #461
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Nic Gregoriades, Bristol, UK - 30/06/2012

Geeza regularly has events he calls a 'Big Class'. It is sort of like of seminar, in that Geeza brings someone in to teach, but within the normal parameters of a class, rather than the several hours you tend to get at a seminar. Either way, it's cool to get a different perspective. I don't make it out to many of them, as I'm normally busy at the weekend, but fortunately this Saturday I had time free.

Nic is somebody I met on my first day of jiu jitsu, back in 2006 when he was a brown belt. The last time I trained with him was during my last month at the Roger Gracie Academy HQ, in January 2009. Nic is an excellent teacher, so I was excited at the chance to be taught by him again. One of my main memories from when I was learning from him regularly is that he liked to throw in unusual warm-ups and cool-downs, like meditation. That hasn't changed in the three years since, as he had a whole bunch of drills I hadn't seen before.

The idea behind all of them was to open up the hips. I'm not sure I remembered it all properly, but the ones that stuck in my head were based around the 'shin box' position (handy term: it's what Nic calls the position where you have one leg bent in front of you, so that the sole of that foot touches the knee of your other leg, which is bent behind you). From there, move your knees up, so that you switch to being sat on the floor with both knees raised in front. Continue the motion, putting your knees on the mat in the other direction, returning to the shin box position but the opposite configuration. You can then bring your legs back to the starting position and repeat.

A slightly more difficult one (if you're inflexible: I'm lucky in that I seem to have always been relatively flexible, ever since I got into martial arts seriously in 1999) starts with one leg in front, as with the shin box, but the other leg goes straight backwards, on your toes. From there, swing the back leg around in a big circle, staying low throughout and not bending your leg. Keep the swing going until that leg is in front, pointing diagonally away from you. Curl that leg so it goes into a shin box, while the other leg goes straight backwards. You can then repeat, moving forward up the mat each time.

Techniques today were all based around the closed guard. Geeza mentioned that in his email about this class, which was another reason I was keen to attend. I'm a big believer in the basics, so the kind of instruction I most value includes variations and details on fundamental techniques I already know. That's exactly what I got from Nic's class, which was therefore awesome.

First, Nic had a little detail on breaking their posture. Generally, people will stagger their hands when in your guard, gripping your collars near your chest with a straight arm, while the other hangs back pressing into your hip. To collapse that straight arm can be a pain, but Nic taught us a reliable method.

Reach over with your same side arm, grabbing their opposite collar. Brace your elbow by the side of their elbow. Bring them forwards with your legs and collar grip as usual, but use your elbow to push into their elbow. As Nic described it, their elbow is the major hinge in that situation, so this should make it easy to bring them down into what Geeza calls the 'submission zone', wrapping up their head to keep them there.

That was followed by two techniques I've been failing to get in sparring for quite some time, which is why I was so pleased to see Nic teaching them. To begin, Nic demonstrated the two-on-one gripbreak, which I taught a while ago. The basic idea is to grab their opposite sleeve, then bring your other arm underneath theirs, in order to hold the wrist of your sleeve-gripping hand. You then shove upwards to break the grip. Nic added in a variation at that point: instead of going straight up, punch diagonally across with your sleeve-grip hand, in the direction your knuckles are pointing.

Another useful detail was getting to the armwrap, for an overhook guard sweep. After you've broken the grip and are pulling your sleeve grip behind your head, Nic suggested bringing the elbow of your wrist-grabbing arm up inside their arm. That helps avoid the confusion people often get into with this technique, as it makes a clear distinction. Yet another key detail Nic added was to reach up as far as you can with your overhooking arm, before reaching under their arm. You want their shoulder pressing into your Teres major first, which will give you maximum arm length for reaching under.

After you've reached under their arm to establish the overhook, grab their opposite collar (you could feed it with your other hand, if you can do so without losing control over their posture). Make sure you also pin the elbow of your gripping arm to your ribs, to clamp their arm in place. With your non-gripping hand, grasp the gi material by their shoulder, on the trapped-arm side. Wedge your wrist and forearm under their jaw. This is important, as you'll need it for the technique to work.

Having well and truly immobilised their upper body, you can now open your guard and turn your hip out towards the non-trapped arm side. Circle your leg on the non-trapped side around their knee in order to insert a butterfly hook. If you can't, then shrimp out until you can. Raise your jaw elbow up, to lift their head, then also elevate your butterfly hook. With your other leg, chop into their knee (like you would with a scissor sweep), rolling through into mount. Here's another old training partner of mine, Yas Wilson, showing a variation where you go the opposite way:



The next technique is something I was first shown by Ciaran at the Belfast Throwdown. He called it the 'windscreen wiper' sweep. I next saw it on Andre Anderson's closed guard DVD, where he called it the 'Rey Diogo sweep', after his instructor who used it extensively. John Will does something similar he dubs the 'bearhug ankle lift'. Nic's name for it was the 'Xande sweep', due to Xande having also used it regularly in competition.

Whatever the name (I think I'll stick with Ciaran's 'windscreen wiper sweep', as it's the most descriptive), it's a great sweep. I've been giving it a go since watching the Anderson DVD, but without much success. After having been shown the same technique by Nic, I think I've been having trouble because I've followed Anderson's preference on a particular detail, whereas the other option – which Nic showed in his demonstration - works better for me. Of course, Anderson shows both and says you should try both, but I've been wrongly fixated on just the one.

Start off by grabbing the same side wrist (Anderson prefers to grab the elbow and push in, while Will has yet another variation. The breadth of jiu jitsu, even within a single element of a single technique, is a beautiful thing). Angle your torso over to the opposite side, then grab either the outside of their knee or the lower part of their trousers. Nic noted that when you do this, an experienced opponent is going to know something is up. If they know this sweep, they'll post their other leg out to stop you.

Before they can do that, put your same side foot by that other leg, keeping it tight so there is no room for them to wriggle. This is the detail I wasn't doing, because Anderson prefers to put his foot on the hip, but having tried both with Nic, I think foot on the floor works better for me than foot on the hip. Next, kick your foot on the trouser-grip side up into their armpit, aiming to curve their body away as you do (Nic used the image of a sickle, Ciaran prefers a windscreen wiper). To finish, kick forward with that leg, lifting the trouser, then roll through into mount.

We finished up with two rounds of sparring, from the closed guard. I was able to get a few passes from the top, though they felt a bit sloppy. Still, I'm pleased I managed to switch from one side to the other a couple of times, as that is a habit I've been trying to develop. Underneath, I was looking to take the back, combining that with a flower sweep if it didn't work. I wasn't wholly successful. Still got the sweep, but again it was sloppy, based more on reaction than anything I could easily replicate.

I also attempted to move into a scissor sweep, but as so often when I try that, I basically just gave them an opportunity to start a pass. I was able to recover with a kimura from under half guard, but again that was opportunistic and sloppy. I should soon have lots more time to work on guard stuff, as I think the theme is passing for the next fortnight.

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.