Class #851
BJJ Globetrotter Camp (Sportoase Leuven), Michel Verhoeven, Leuven, Belgium, 25/07/2017
This class was titled 'self defence', which would normally put me off. However, Michel Verhoeven taught one of the most useful seminars I've been to back in 2013, particularly his details on cross-collar chokes. I was therefore hoping that despite the title, there would be more of those helpful tips waiting for me today.
As it turned out, it was indeed heavy on the self defence side of things, fitting the title. Michel began by talking about your posture and frame if somebody is charging towards you looking for an attack. Keep your hands up naturally (not in a fighting stance, but like you're talking with gestures, that kind of thing), feet shoulder width apart, engaging your hips. Before they enter your space, extend your arms into their chest. Don't push your hips too far forwards or you're easy to trip, or rely too much on pushing with your arms or you'll fall over forwards should they move.
He progressed to talking about blocking punches by raising your elbows, then picking the moment to come in close and clinch. Block knees and kicks with your legs, taking them down if there's an opportunity. If somebody manages to grab your neck in a collar tie, keep that strong posture with hips engaged, then you can shuck their arm off by turning your shoulder in.
Once you've knocked their arm off, grab it with your arms underneath, like you were carrying a stack of wood, their arm in the crooks of your elbows. Drive your shoulder into theirs, keep their arm close, stepping your outside leg back. That should enable you to drive them to the floor, ending up in the same kind of pose as in the classic Greek statue of wrestlers.
If they grab you in a bearhug, drop your hips down to make yourself heavy, stepping your leg back on the side their head is pressing into your shoulder. Make a frame against their face with your arms, using that to break their grip.
The main part of the lesson that could be applicable to 'normal' BJJ training was the points Michel made about knee on belly. Trap their wrist under your armpit, reaching hand underneath. Your other hand grips their shoulder, then your waiting first hand grips that wrist. From that position, you can twist your hands to press into their elbow. If you need more leverage, thrust your hips in too.
Last part was a brief discussion of posture inside guard. Michel emphasised the point about controlling hips, cupping them with your hands.
Showing posts with label self defence. Show all posts
Showing posts with label self defence. Show all posts
25 July 2017
27 August 2012
27/08/2012 - Gracie Barra Bristol (Basic Pendulum & Triangle)
Class #465
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Nicolai 'Geeza' Holt, Bristol, UK - 27/08/2012
Another big class this Monday, though a couple of people short of the biggest ever last week. Self defence was the technical stand-up, blocking their kicking leg (which is normally the one they have back) by putting your elbow to your knee, kicking into their other knee with your free leg. Last time we did this one I forgot which side to kick, which I may have done again this week: Geeza did mention that my partner was doing it wrong, but from what I could tell he seemed to be following the same drill as everyone else. Still, very possibly I could have missed something, as self defence training makes your eyes glaze over. ;p
Next up was the basic pendulum sweep. Grab both their sleeves, just behind the elbow: Geeza recommended gripping the seam to take out slack. They then try to stand up. As soon as they raise a knee, swivel towards that side and underhook that leg with your same side arm. Still on the same side, kick your leg up into their armpit to knock them over while lifting with your arm. As you come up, remember to curl the other leg back so you don't throw them onto it: otherwise, you'll get stuck while trying to shift into mount.
That was followed by the triangle from guard, which Geeza wants us to keep working for the next two weeks. That should prove interesting for me, as my triangles are rubbish: so, good opportunity for me to take another look at them, given it's something I hardly ever use. Given this was the first lesson of triangle fortnight, Geeza kept things very basic. They have one arm in and one arm out. Lock your feet and grab their head to break their posture (Geeza said that this is the only time he laces his fingers together, as he feels that's the strongest grip to use in this situation).
Swivel to their free arm side, adjusting your legs if you need to. To finish the choke, Geeza prefers the Ryan Hall method, where you're kicking into their neck using your quads, rather than squeezing your abductors together. Hall talks about this at length on his DVDs: his perspective is that you should be using the most powerful muscles in your legs, rather than comparatively weedy ones, which makes sense.
There wasn't any time for sparring, but then it is only an hour class, so that's not surprising as self defence etc takes up a good bit of time.
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Nicolai 'Geeza' Holt, Bristol, UK - 27/08/2012
Next up was the basic pendulum sweep. Grab both their sleeves, just behind the elbow: Geeza recommended gripping the seam to take out slack. They then try to stand up. As soon as they raise a knee, swivel towards that side and underhook that leg with your same side arm. Still on the same side, kick your leg up into their armpit to knock them over while lifting with your arm. As you come up, remember to curl the other leg back so you don't throw them onto it: otherwise, you'll get stuck while trying to shift into mount.
That was followed by the triangle from guard, which Geeza wants us to keep working for the next two weeks. That should prove interesting for me, as my triangles are rubbish: so, good opportunity for me to take another look at them, given it's something I hardly ever use. Given this was the first lesson of triangle fortnight, Geeza kept things very basic. They have one arm in and one arm out. Lock your feet and grab their head to break their posture (Geeza said that this is the only time he laces his fingers together, as he feels that's the strongest grip to use in this situation).
Swivel to their free arm side, adjusting your legs if you need to. To finish the choke, Geeza prefers the Ryan Hall method, where you're kicking into their neck using your quads, rather than squeezing your abductors together. Hall talks about this at length on his DVDs: his perspective is that you should be using the most powerful muscles in your legs, rather than comparatively weedy ones, which makes sense.
There wasn't any time for sparring, but then it is only an hour class, so that's not surprising as self defence etc takes up a good bit of time.
20 August 2012
20/08/2012 - Gracie Barra Bristol (Back Escapes)
Class #464
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Nicolai 'Geeza' Holt, Bristol, UK - 20/08/2012
Due to an increase in my writing workload, it's been a few months since I last made it to a Monday or Friday class. Those have always been the busiest days: I'm not sure if that is because those are the longest established, or the ones advertised as 'Gracie Barra Fundamentals'. Either way, Geeza is clearly doing an incredible job of getting the word out, as tonight there were almost fifty people on the month. The number of children training at the club has increased so much that Geeza is able to offer a separate kid's class, which his son Oli is currently running (although I think he is off on a work placement or something soon, so Luke will be taking over. Which is cool, as Luke is a good teacher).
It was also good to see about five women on the mat too, although the upstairs changing room hasn't been designated as the women's changing room yet. Hopefully that will happen soon, as even two women is too many for the current small shower room allocated to Gracie Barra Bristol's female members. Perhaps in future there might even be enough for a separate women's class, which would be great, as that's a good way to help build up the numbers in a less intimidating environment (e.g., like the classes Chrissy used to run at her club in Virginia).
Geeza was busy, so passed the warm-up over to me. I've never run a warm-up with a class of almost fifty people, so that was an interesting experience. For a start, I couldn't just say "do breakfalls down the mat" as normal, because due to the numbers it wasn't as obvious when everybody had been: my classes tend to get between six and twelve people, so this was around five times as many students as I'm used to. ;)
It has been a long while since I've made it down on a Monday, so I'd almost forgotten that the fundamentals class always kicks off with some self defence. As I've mentioned many times before, that's by far my least favourite part of BJJ, because I find it neither interesting nor useful, given that self defence techniques are never tested against resistance in a sparring situation. Still, I should probably start to pay a bit more attention, as apparently some people do like learning it.
So, I'll try to start noting that part of the class down more often. Today, the self defence situation was that they've grabbed your neck from behind with both their hands. Reach across to grip the fleshy part of their opposite hand, then turn and twist. You're aiming to put them into a typical aikido style wristlock, pushing their palm towards their arm, bringing them to the ground: exactly the same thing as you would see in any TMA type class.
Once that was out of the way, we got onto the more useful material, continuing with the back position. Geeza covered a standard escape from the back, beginning with the simpler option, when they have only gripped your lapels rather than locked in the seatbelt (one arm over the shoulder, one arm under the armpit). Bridge, get your head over their shoulder, then wriggle your shoulders to the mat. Pop their hook off with your hand, step over with your leg, then grab their other leg with your nearest arm (pant leg or underhook behind their knee). From there, shrimp and move into side control.
If they do have the seatbelt grip, fall towards the open side, so their armpit arm. Again, try to wriggle your head to the mat followed by your shoulders: if your back is on the mat, it is impossible for them to occupy that space. Continue as before, grabbing their leg, shrimping, then turning towards them to establish side control.
There was also a simple escape from turtle, where you've gone for some kind of takedown but they've sprawled, so are now position in front of your turtle position. Grab for their opposite leg with your arm (otherwise they'll just spin to your back), also putting up your leg on the same side as that grabbing arm for base. You can then slide your other leg through and move into guard.
To finish off we did some king of the hill sparring from turtle, switching position if you were able to either escape or take the back. I have carefully avoided turtle for the last six months or so, as last time I went to turtle I messed up my neck. It's never been a strong position for me, but I can generally work my way back to guard. However, I'm terrible at attacking the turtle, as demonstrated by today's sparring.
I barely got anywhere, except with one person who was trying to spin to guard. That gave me the chance to move to the back and get my second hook using the Marcelo Garcia back extension. Aside from that sole success, I most tried to keep my weight on the side, but soon lost control as they re-established guard, or even worse, managed to somehow get on top as I fell off and ended up on my back.
Hopefully I'll now be able to get back into my old pattern of Monday, Tuesday then teach on Thursday. Once I've re-established that, I'll see if I can add in Friday or Wednesday, with the odd Saturday.
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Nicolai 'Geeza' Holt, Bristol, UK - 20/08/2012
It was also good to see about five women on the mat too, although the upstairs changing room hasn't been designated as the women's changing room yet. Hopefully that will happen soon, as even two women is too many for the current small shower room allocated to Gracie Barra Bristol's female members. Perhaps in future there might even be enough for a separate women's class, which would be great, as that's a good way to help build up the numbers in a less intimidating environment (e.g., like the classes Chrissy used to run at her club in Virginia).
Geeza was busy, so passed the warm-up over to me. I've never run a warm-up with a class of almost fifty people, so that was an interesting experience. For a start, I couldn't just say "do breakfalls down the mat" as normal, because due to the numbers it wasn't as obvious when everybody had been: my classes tend to get between six and twelve people, so this was around five times as many students as I'm used to. ;)
It has been a long while since I've made it down on a Monday, so I'd almost forgotten that the fundamentals class always kicks off with some self defence. As I've mentioned many times before, that's by far my least favourite part of BJJ, because I find it neither interesting nor useful, given that self defence techniques are never tested against resistance in a sparring situation. Still, I should probably start to pay a bit more attention, as apparently some people do like learning it.
So, I'll try to start noting that part of the class down more often. Today, the self defence situation was that they've grabbed your neck from behind with both their hands. Reach across to grip the fleshy part of their opposite hand, then turn and twist. You're aiming to put them into a typical aikido style wristlock, pushing their palm towards their arm, bringing them to the ground: exactly the same thing as you would see in any TMA type class.
Once that was out of the way, we got onto the more useful material, continuing with the back position. Geeza covered a standard escape from the back, beginning with the simpler option, when they have only gripped your lapels rather than locked in the seatbelt (one arm over the shoulder, one arm under the armpit). Bridge, get your head over their shoulder, then wriggle your shoulders to the mat. Pop their hook off with your hand, step over with your leg, then grab their other leg with your nearest arm (pant leg or underhook behind their knee). From there, shrimp and move into side control.
If they do have the seatbelt grip, fall towards the open side, so their armpit arm. Again, try to wriggle your head to the mat followed by your shoulders: if your back is on the mat, it is impossible for them to occupy that space. Continue as before, grabbing their leg, shrimping, then turning towards them to establish side control.
There was also a simple escape from turtle, where you've gone for some kind of takedown but they've sprawled, so are now position in front of your turtle position. Grab for their opposite leg with your arm (otherwise they'll just spin to your back), also putting up your leg on the same side as that grabbing arm for base. You can then slide your other leg through and move into guard.
To finish off we did some king of the hill sparring from turtle, switching position if you were able to either escape or take the back. I have carefully avoided turtle for the last six months or so, as last time I went to turtle I messed up my neck. It's never been a strong position for me, but I can generally work my way back to guard. However, I'm terrible at attacking the turtle, as demonstrated by today's sparring.
I barely got anywhere, except with one person who was trying to spin to guard. That gave me the chance to move to the back and get my second hook using the Marcelo Garcia back extension. Aside from that sole success, I most tried to keep my weight on the side, but soon lost control as they re-established guard, or even worse, managed to somehow get on top as I fell off and ended up on my back.
Hopefully I'll now be able to get back into my old pattern of Monday, Tuesday then teach on Thursday. Once I've re-established that, I'll see if I can add in Friday or Wednesday, with the odd Saturday.
31 January 2008
31/01/2008 - BJJ (Beginners)
Class #118
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Gustavo Dos Santos Pires & Luciano Cristovam, London, UK - 31/01/2008 – Beginner
Beginners was a significantly larger class than no-gi, where there were only about ten of us. Gustavo was teaching through Luciano's translation again, and as before started off with some self-defence, both against bear hugs.
First, the escape from a front bear hug. The person in front of you has wrapped your arms against your side. Put your hands into their hips, push, and shove your hips back to make space. Shift your hand around their back, the other gripping their arm, then step in front. Dip, thrust your hip into them, then pick them up, in the same manner as for a hip throw.
Escaping a rear bear hug is a little different. A person behind you has now wrapped up your arms. Bend your arms straight up, drop, twist, then step a leg behind. Grab the back of their knees (going round the front), then lift them up. From there you could dump them on the floor, or end in side control.
Finally, we did a spider guard sweep. As they step round, your shin is against the leg they're leading with, while your other leg is shove straight into their bicep. You also pull them down on their leading side with your arm (like the last time I had a lesson with Gustavo). From this position, you can use their momentum to sweep: grab their rear leg at the bottom of their gi pants, bend your previously straight leg, then pull them down with your other hand. Simultaneously push with your bicep leg and the other shin, levering them over you and onto their back. Maintain your grip, which enables you to move straight to knee on belly.
I was working with Amy, who had only had four classes up til now. So, when it came to guard passage and side control sparring, I tried to be helpful. However, I'm not sure I was too useful, as I was probably bombarding her with too much information: control the hips, drive a shoulder into my face, make space, shrimp, press and arm into my neck, keep your weight down when on top…and so on. Particularly considering my side control is poo (especially on top), I'm not really in a position to give out decent advice, although hopefully the general idea was of some use. Next time, I think I'll just focus on one thing if I'm training with someone very new, and try to help them with that: going back over what I should be doing benefits my woeful side control too.
Definitely preferable rolling with a female noob than a male noob. The latter, as I found in my last beginner lesson, tends to get all macho and treat the sparring as life or death, while women are often more sensible. Most importantly, they don't end up injuring you, an ever-present risk with the more aggressive of the male noobs.
I'm off on holiday to Spain tomorrow, so won't be able to train again until mid February. Shame, as I'll miss the big group photo on Saturday, which would have been nice to make.
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Gustavo Dos Santos Pires & Luciano Cristovam, London, UK - 31/01/2008 – Beginner
Beginners was a significantly larger class than no-gi, where there were only about ten of us. Gustavo was teaching through Luciano's translation again, and as before started off with some self-defence, both against bear hugs.
First, the escape from a front bear hug. The person in front of you has wrapped your arms against your side. Put your hands into their hips, push, and shove your hips back to make space. Shift your hand around their back, the other gripping their arm, then step in front. Dip, thrust your hip into them, then pick them up, in the same manner as for a hip throw.
Escaping a rear bear hug is a little different. A person behind you has now wrapped up your arms. Bend your arms straight up, drop, twist, then step a leg behind. Grab the back of their knees (going round the front), then lift them up. From there you could dump them on the floor, or end in side control.
Finally, we did a spider guard sweep. As they step round, your shin is against the leg they're leading with, while your other leg is shove straight into their bicep. You also pull them down on their leading side with your arm (like the last time I had a lesson with Gustavo). From this position, you can use their momentum to sweep: grab their rear leg at the bottom of their gi pants, bend your previously straight leg, then pull them down with your other hand. Simultaneously push with your bicep leg and the other shin, levering them over you and onto their back. Maintain your grip, which enables you to move straight to knee on belly.
I was working with Amy, who had only had four classes up til now. So, when it came to guard passage and side control sparring, I tried to be helpful. However, I'm not sure I was too useful, as I was probably bombarding her with too much information: control the hips, drive a shoulder into my face, make space, shrimp, press and arm into my neck, keep your weight down when on top…and so on. Particularly considering my side control is poo (especially on top), I'm not really in a position to give out decent advice, although hopefully the general idea was of some use. Next time, I think I'll just focus on one thing if I'm training with someone very new, and try to help them with that: going back over what I should be doing benefits my woeful side control too.
Definitely preferable rolling with a female noob than a male noob. The latter, as I found in my last beginner lesson, tends to get all macho and treat the sparring as life or death, while women are often more sensible. Most importantly, they don't end up injuring you, an ever-present risk with the more aggressive of the male noobs.
I'm off on holiday to Spain tomorrow, so won't be able to train again until mid February. Shame, as I'll miss the big group photo on Saturday, which would have been nice to make.
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