24/02/2014 - Artemis BJJ (Ezequiel Choke from Side Control)

Class #545
Bristol Sports Centre, (Artemis BJJ), Dónal Carmody, Bristol, UK - 24/02/2014

We're into our final week of this opening month of side control. Dónal decided on an unusual technique for tonight's class, though it fits with the series he's been having us drill for a few weeks now. Again, this applies when they are turning away from you under side control, but instead of taking the back like last time, Dónal moved into a choke instead.

Before, when they turned away, you slipped your arm underneath theirs, bringing the other arm over their shoulder to lock up a harness/seat belt grip. From there you could move into a back take, working off Marcelo Garcia's principle that the harness is the most important aspect of controlling the back. This time, Dónal snaked the arm around the neck after having brought it underneath their armpit. This was not to secure the back, but to set yourself up for a choke. Reach as far as you can with that arm, then turn your body so your shoulders and upper back are pressing into their upper back. That should hold them in place. You're also up on your toes, to maximise the weight.

To finish, you have options with and without the gi. If you have a gi, you can go for an ezequiel. With the hand of the arm you've got around their neck, reach for your other sleeve. With the sleeve hand, chop into their neck, using the fabric of your gi to cut off one artery, then your arm around their neck combined with your chopping hand to cut off the other. The nogi variation is to grab the crook of your other elbow rather than your sleeve, then finish effectively as you would with a rear naked choke (except you've still got their arm inside).

If they keep on turning away from you and you can't secure that grip, then you can take the back. Either bring your knee underneath them on the near side and roll them over, or more acrobatically, bring a knee over the far side and throw yourself over their body. You can then again roll to take the back.

06/02/2014 - Teaching (Helping Dónal: Side Control to Mount)

Teaching #137
Hit Fit, (BJJ), Dónal Carmody & Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 06/02/2014

Unusual class today, where I won't have as many notes, because I took on the role of an assistant instructor. As both of us turn up to all the lessons at the moment, that means our students at Artemis get the handy benefit of having two instructors to help out with classes. I didn't do any drilling or sparring, just helping students, hence why I'm going to categorise this one under teaching. ;)

We were still going with maintaining side control, starting with a simple drill to take mount from side control. Drive the knee across, fish tail your leg to the mat (i.e., flicking it sideways, to avoid them snatching half guard), then switch to the other side by circling your other leg over their stomach. You should end up in side control in the opposite position to where you began, meaning you can repeat the motion.

Dónal also suggested that before you move to mount, dig your arm under their elbow. From there, swing your torso across to really jam their arm by their head. You can then lock that in place with your other hand, providing you with an easier route to mount. It won't hold their arm for long, but it should be enough time to secure the mount.

Once you've got the leg through to take the mount, hook it back around their legs to drag them towards the side you've just left. That will make it harder for them to muster a defence, due to their legs being stuck. Otherwise, they will be looking to escape to half guard by grabbing your leg: with their legs and their arm trapped, that's going to be tough.

While observing sparring, I was able to pick up a few details that Dónal emphasises which I haven't in the past. For example, the importance of pressing into their neck with the middle of the forearm. The reason he points that out is because if your arm slides and you're pushing with the upper part, they can clamp their chin onto your wrist and drive your arm to the mat.

07/11/2013 - Movember in Full Flow & BJJ with Dónal

Class #534
Hit Fit, (BJJ), Dónal Carmody, Bristol, UK - 07/11/2013

Straightforward class today on moving from side control to mount. Dónal was able to find yet another application for his favoured back step, this time as a starting position from side control. From there, grab your foot, pulling it towards you slightly (but not to the extent that you're twisting yourself up painfully), then shove it across to their far hip and establish mount. This should avoid them snatching half guard, as can happen when you swing your leg over. It also makes it easier the get past their blocking knee. Personally, I prefer sliding the knee over the belt line, but this option is totally legit as well.

Sparring was specific from mount, where on top I was looking to maintain position and scoop up an arm. As my partner wasn't wearing a gi (most of the students at Hit Fit have crossed over from the MMA class), that meant I didn't have any of my preferred choke options. I should have therefore switched to focus more on the arm, such as Verhoeven's tips on landing the americana.

I did go for an armbar at one point, which I almost never do, because I don't like the risk of losing position (exactly what happened). Still, it's good to practice that occasionally, even if it isn't among my favourite options. I think I got a RNC when they turned over later on, but then they have only been training BJJ for a month or maybe less: a few more months and I'll find that much harder to land. ;)

Underneath I went with my usual heel drag escape, trying to also give them a chance to work on position. It was useful for me too, as they were a good bit bigger, but I should have thrown in the Verhoeven variation on the elbow escape to mix things up. Then again, Dónal has been sticking to a theme in classes: if it is mount for the next few weeks, I'll have plenty of opportunity to work on my other mount escapes.

For the last minute or so, Dónal had us get our favourite mount position and then try to escape, before switching. On top I'm fairly confident about holding, especially if there is an experience gap. I was looking to try the escape to butterfly underneath, but ended up throwing them off almost bench press style: I think they were a bit high and overbalanced. Again, with more experience that won't happen (though with more experience, they will probably be attacking my collars a lot more, making the escape to butterfly increase in risk).

Movember is progressing nicely: if anyone wants to follow my Mo for some reason, I've been posting daily pictures on my Mo Space. If you want to throw some money at that page, it's all going towards the Gravity BJJ Movember Rollathon. ;D

18/07/2013 - No Gi (Side Control to Mount)

Class #510
Gracie Barra Bristol, (No-Gi), Miles Pearson, Bristol, UK - 18/07/2013

There was an impressive turn-out for the nogi class tonight, with thirteen hardy souls braving the heat. The ridiculous temperatures (for the UK) have continued, with upwards of 30 degree Celsius. Miles was covering some basic transitions from side control to mount, beginning with the Gracie Barra Fundamentals syllabus method. Get a secure gable grip and cross-face as normal, bringing your knees in tight. You're then going to try and slip under the near arm with your knee. The GB Fundamentals version involves turning your knees towards their legs, then shifting back to dig under their elbow with the outside of your nearest knee.

You're then going to walk your far hand up past their head, creeping up the mat with your fingers until their arm is squished by their face. If you can, put your head next to it as well for additional control and the potential of switching to a head and arm triangle. Having dealt with the near arm, you should be able to get your hips high up by their head. That gives you loads of room to slide your knee over. To go to mount, drive that knee up into their far armpit, to avoid giving them a chance to snatch half guard.

The second version starts the same, except this time you switch your hips towards their head to get that near arm. The idea is to scoop it up with your hip, grabbing their far shoulder and pulling yourself up their body if necessary. You then twist them up like before, but instead of driving your knee into the armpit, drive it to their hip and push back. That should give you the space to 'fishtail' (turning your body and slapping your lower leg to the mat), after which you immediately bring your leg into their armpit for control.

My main goal for sparring was continuing to work on my nogi grips, following my own advice to focus on small components of techniques. I had another watch of the 'Essential Grips' section from Roy Dean's excellent No Gi Essentials (Black Belt Requirements is coming soon: I'm looking forward to reviewing it!). He shows the same shoulder grip I've seen from Levo and the Carlos Machado butterfly sweep DVD, which I still have trouble landing. It feels like something that needs to be set-up, as a second option based on their attempt to escape something else, rather than a grip I should be going for initially.

I also tried Dean's suggested wrist and elbow control, but had real trouble getting any kind of purchase on their arm. The humidity certainly didn't help with that, but Dean repeatedly stated how good a grip it was, so I don't plan to give up on it just yet. The most successful grip for me tonight was the armpits. That was generally from reaching around their back and hooking my hand into the far armpit, but I managed to somehow anchor myself on Mike's armpit to avoid getting swept and instead take mount at one point (though I'm pretty sure he swept me later, as Mike's x-guard is tough to stop ;D).

Once in mount I wanted to try Dónal's ezequiel series from yesterday. The ezequiel isn't really workable in nogi (though I have heard of people using it: I guess they have weird arms?), but the tight, high-mount americana remains viable, as does the back take. I started with the americana, which Mike avoided because I couldn't get him squashed enough. I transitioned to the back take, grabbing the wrist (only just though, as Mike was wise to it and defending), but nothing came of it.

I went for the same back take with Roli, attempting to switch into the short choke from Dónal's series. I probably over-focused on it, as the rear naked choke was likely there too. I briefly went to Kesting's palm-to-palm grip to secure my arm behind the back, but wasn't able to maintain the back long enough. I squeezed briefly, but I don't think there was anything there so didn't push it (like I was saying on reddit recently, I subscribe to Cane Prevost's 70% approach). On the plus side, I landed the Akins sweep, which is fun: so, that therefore works in nogi too (although I didn't pull him forward first, which makes the sweep easier). :)

There was also a load of specific sparring from side control earlier, where I was trying for the running escape, but wasn't able to get their arms out of the way to move into position. I was able to lock on a triangle from under side control, but not tight enough and I also failed to isolate the other arm for an attack. On top, I did the usual maintaining, while hunting for the same Roy Dean lockflow. I tried it on Mike, but wasn't able to clamp his arm sufficiently when switching through the three attacks. I think I also need to prepare the ground better, putting my hand in place to move directly into the submission, as well as more use of my head to control the arm. That kind of tightness is much harder in nogi, but that difficulty also means it is a great way to refine your control.

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.

20/04/2012 - Gracie Barra Bristol (Mount & Side Control Transition)

Class #454
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Nicolai 'Geeza' Holt, Bristol, UK - 20/04/2012

I was intending to train on Tuesday this week, but like last week, my gf asked if I could shift my days around, so again I was in on Friday. Should be back to the normal schedule of training Tuesday next week, though: I'll be interested to see if Dónal has made any adjustments now that the gi class is only an hour, followed by nogi.

Tonight Geeza discussed the transition between side control and mount. Unusually, he demonstrated mount to side control, which isn't something you'd typically expect: on the one hand, that's dropping down the positional hierarchy, which isn't normally advisable. However, if you're about to lose position, it makes sense to go for one almost as solid before you fall even further down, such as into guard or half guard.

Another interesting comment Geeza made was that he feels that side control is preferable to the mount if your opponent is going nuts trying to escape. If you'd asked me which I prefer a year ago, I would have said side control, no question. More recently, I've been feeling increasingly comfortable in the mount, so now I'm not sure (although on the other hand, on the rare occasions I do submit somebody, it's almost always from either side control or top half guard and pretty much never from mount).

So, if you find that they're about to escape by turning and bridging, then you can switch from mount to side control by swinging the leg (on the side to which they're turning) over their head. Turn your body to face the mat, swinging your other leg around in the process. You can then reverse by swinging back over their head, to land in s-mount (particularly if they turn towards you after you've just spun to side control). Essentially, you're breakdancing on them, which looks awesome if you get it right, but it's a risky move.

A safer transition is the standard side control to mount. Secure a solid side control with one arm under the head, cross-facing, while the other goes under their far armpit. Prying their near elbow open with your near knee, bringing that in tight to put their near arm out of commission. Crawl up towards their head with your far side hand, then slide your knee across their belt line. Once it's far enough, turn your body slightly to slap the side of that foot on the mat (to avoid getting stuck in half guard), then secure the mount.

We finished up with a bit of specific sparring. Geeza put an interesting twist on it, as you could start in either side control or mount, but the goal was to make at least two transitions. That was good for the person on top, as it forced them to work their mobility rather than clamping down in a static hold, while the person on the bottom could work on timing their escapes with those transitions.

On top, I tried starting in both side control and mount, generally going for side control with the less experienced training partners, as mount seems almost unfair in that situation. I didn't with everyone though: one of the blues quickly punished my sloppy attempt to switch to mount from side control by catching my leg in half guard. It's always good to get a reminder of the danger that comes with trying to rush that transition.

From mount, as Geeza said, it's easier to make that transition, because you're starting in a more dominant position. It also gave me a chance to practice holding mount against someone much bigger. My tactic of loading up my weight on one side by putting my head in the opposite direction when they roll (something I learned from Roger, IIRC) wasn't quite enough when the size difference is really big, or rather, I need to pull it off perfectly when the discrepancy is that large. Another good lesson to keep in mind.

Underneath, the person on the bottom almost had the advantage, as the person on top had to move. It was mainly a matter of waiting for them to start shifting their weight, or baiting them into motion. I like the drill, so something I'll look to incorporate into mount lessons in future. It would combine well with the Saulo side control, as that's a fluid position. Also, I'm not sure what criteria Geeza uses, but I got a stripe.

31/10/2011 - RGA Bucks Aylesbury New Location

Class #427
RGA Bucks, (BJJ), Kev Capel, Aylesbury, UK - 31/10/2011

There have been big changes since I last headed to Kev's, as he has recently opened up a full-time academy. So, I thought I'd take the opportunity to plug his school. ;)

The new venue is brilliantly located, as I discovered while walking to my parents' house after arriving into town. You can basically jump off the train at Aylesbury Station and almost immediately step onto the mats at RGA Bucks. It's in Duck Farm Court, a cluster of shops. Due to all that retail, there is ample parking, convenient if you're driving to your BJJ. Duck Farm Court is right behind Morrisons (for US readers, that's a large supermarket chain in the UK), which also means you've handily got an ATM nearby.

Roger Gracie Academy Bucks (new website in development)
Duck Farm Court
Station Way
Aylesbury
Buckinghamshire
HP20 2SQ
kevcapel@hotmail.co.uk
07904810640 (Kev)

The building itself is two floors. RGA Bucks' main matted area is on the lower floor, visible from outside because the entry is through two glass doors. If the sign above the door didn't give it away, the sight of people in gis wandering around lets you know you're in the right place. Kev's mats are really soft, so they're ideal for working your takedowns (and I think a judo class is indeed in the works). Though there are some pillars holding up the ceiling, they're all heavily padded: I didn't notice any problems with that during sparring or the warm-up. Kev has an office on the same floor, with an open window you can lean through to chat or settle up your bill.

Upstairs houses the changing rooms, along with a spacious chill-out area that reminded me of Mill Hill. You can relax on the couch while enjoying the library of BJJ DVDs and books. That might be because you're about to have an appointment with the resident physio, who I think Kev said was a back specialist. So, if you've got any niggling injuries, you don't even have to leave the premises to get some professional assistance. Which is pretty cool.

There are classes every day (except Saturday, I think, but that will probably get a class in future), with evening and daytime options. Kev is handling most of the teaching duties at the moment along with his work in the fire service, but is due to expand his staff. Most of the people who got their purple belts on the same day as me are going to become instructors: I'm looking forward to checking out Howard's class, as he's got a lot of experience in other martial arts as well as BJJ.

In the daytime, you have the pleasure of being taught by Yas Wilson, one of the top female competitors in the country who has fought at the highest levels of competition. She got silver at the Mundials this year in the purple belt division, only losing out to Mackenzie Dern. Yas has also fought at the Abu Dhabi Pro, and recently took part in the most prestigious grappling competition in the world, the ADCC. If you're in the Aylesbury area and are free during the day, then you should definitely go benefit from her wealth of competitive experience.

On top of all that, Kev himself is of course an awesome instructor, who started off in boxing, went on to get a black belt in judo, another in jeet kune do, fought a few times in MMA and has since earned a brown belt in BJJ from Roger Gracie. I really enjoyed my time as a regular student under Kev, which is why I'll be continuing to drop in whenever I'm visiting my parents. If you're in Buckinghamshire, you need to go train at RGA Bucks! :D
____________________________________

Getting on to the actual class, the beginner class started off as normal with some self defence. Like I've said many times before, I'm not a fan of self-defence, but I like Kev's approach. That's because he has a straightforward, realistic perspective, without any of the mystical fluff you often get in traditional martial arts at one end of the scale, or the 'hard man' posturing that plagues RBSD. There was a great example tonight during Kev's defence to a haymaker. It's something I've seen him teach before, similar to how it's shown on Gracie Combatives.

The difference is that when Kev teaches it, he will say things like "yeah, you're probably going to eat a shot when you do this." As he mentioned, you'll likely be in a pub, maybe had a few drinks. You may well even find that you don't just get hit, but knocked out, in which case you're obviously not going be able to land the technique. However, presuming you manage to stay on your feet or avoid the full force of the punch, you can then move into a side-on clinch. From there, step through into an o-goshi hip throw.

Another thing I like about how Kev teaches self defence is that he merges it nicely with the stuff I'm interested in, which is what the Gracie Academy would call 'sport' jiu jitsu (as ever, that terminology is debateable.) So after you take them down, move through to knee on belly, then secure the armbar.

Kev then went through two ways of transitioning from side control to the mount. Start by killing the near arm, switching your hips briefly to scarf hold to get that elbow up, then switch back to trap it. However you trap it, as with maintaining, getting the near elbow out of the way is key to this particular method of transitioning to mount.

Make space by shifting towards their head, then slide your knee over their belt line. To stop them blocking your slide, grab their far hip with your hand, creating a barrier with your arm. Keep sliding the knee through to the mat. If they have an arm in the way, underhook it and walk your fingers towards their head to get it out of the way. From there, you can now adjust your legs in order shift into mount and establish your grapevines.

The second transition to mount again starts from a a tight side control. You've already killed the near arm. Switch one arm to their far arm, putting the other hand to their near hip, then shift your hips right back towards their head as far as you can. This puts you in reverse scarfhold, where your elbow is either in their far armpit or wrapped underneath for control. This position also means you're blocking their view with your entire body.

That therefore stops them from seeing exactly what you're doing. When you've got up really high and are ready to go (at this point, they should almost be bridging to relieve the pressure), grab their far knee to stop them snatching mount, then bring the leg across. You can either grab your own foot and pull it across, or just squeeze it past your own arm, depending on your flexibility and how much space you've created.

I'm still injured, so sparring from side control was light. I wanted to practice Saulo's method of holding side control, as that doesn't require much use of my wrist. Instead, I can just clamp the elbow to their far side, concentrating on keeping my weight down. Still, it is much harder to transition to variations of side control when I can't use my hand properly to grip, so it wasn't a particularly dominant side control on my part.

Rolling with Kev was fun, as he was sweeping me with a whole bunch of techniques. I got reversed from his deep half guard at one point, which Kev showed me afterwards. He said the move he used is normally called the waiter sweep or the He-Man sweep: either way, good stuff. Deep half guard isn't a strong point of mine, as my approach to half guard is normally to try and get back to full guard or take the back. Still, it is something Geeza likes too, so I'm in a good place to learn it.

27/04/2011 - The BJJ Labs, Manchester

Class #391
BJJ Labs, (BJJ), Liam Wandi, Manchester, UK - 27/04/2011


Wednesday was mostly devoted to a few hours walking from Hayfield across the moors, starting from the car park of an out-of-use train station. You next head up something called the Snake Path, through moorlands, before going on the Sett Valley Trail to get back (it's Walk 17 in the Jarrold book, although we cheated and cut it short by following a stream back instead.)

Having trained at Factory BJJ earlier in the week, my next class was to be in Manchester. Annoyingly, there were some kind of road works on the way to Stockport to visit my friend's aunt, which meant I missed the train I wanted to catch to Manchester Piccadilly. I nabbed the 17:08 from Davenport instead, and just about made it to training on time. It takes about twenty minutes walking at a brisk "shit-I'm-going-to-be-late" pace.

This was the first time I've not only visited a fellow blogger, but been taught by one too. Liam runs the beginner classes at The BJJ Labs. That's where most of the SBG Manchester crew emigrated after Karl Tanswell went on an extended trip abroad. It's part of the Fighting Fit gym under BJJ brown belt Martyn Cahill, who also teaches a number of other styles under the same roof: there are a bunch of heavy bags hanging from the ceiling and a chain link fence, which gives away the multi-disciplinary nature of the gym.

Liam, in case you don't know, writes The Part-Time Grappler blog, which is stuffed with plenty of thoughtful theory (and now a whole gallery of me, which I found amusing). That carries over into his teaching style during the beginners class, where he put all the techniques into a solid conceptual framework. As with all the best BJJ classes, the warm-up was directly related to BJJ, so instead of lots of press-ups and sit-ups, there were numerous movements from Ginastica Natural, along with the kind of drills you might recognise from Jason Scully's video.

The lesson proper started with takedowns, which I often don't bother noting down, but I will this time because Liam taught a useful flowing sequence with, again, helpful concepts. For example, he spoke about forming a triangle with your feet, presuming you already have the usual collar and sleeve grip. Your partner is square on – the first two points of the triangle – while your leading foot is in the middle of theirs, slightly back – the third point of the triangle.

Once you have that triangular arrangement, you can step in and either hook your leading foot around the back of their same side leg, then drive through to bring them to the floor. Alternatively, you can put that leading foot behind their opposite heel, drive them backwards to take the weight off their foot, then scoop up the leg ready for a takedown.

Finally, you can also move around to their side (always the side on which you're not holding their collar), then drop down to both knees. You need to be close to their leg, simultaneously yanking downwards on their collar. Wrap that leg with your arm, then release your collar grip and reach for their far ankle. You can then drive forward and take them down, moving round to side control.

We then did what I dread most in BJJ, stand-up sparring. However, as it was white belts, I could mostly just stiff arm and step away. Not a good habit, especially as I'm overly passive anyway, but meh. I did try to move to the side and drop to my knees a few times (they have nice soft mats at Fighting Fit, which is a big help!), but I was admittedly glad when it was over.

Sensibly, the ground technique continued from there, discussing how to maintain side control. You start with an orthodox grip, one arm under their head and grabbing the far shoulder, while your other arm reaches over to their far side, underneath their far arm. Use your elbow to maintain some control of their far hip. Your knees are in tight, and you've also cleared their elbow (move slightly further towards their head to make sure they can't pull it back out).

If they try to shrimp out and insert their knee to recover guard, switch to scarf hold by kicking one leg straight by their head, the other knee raised for base. If they then bridge, you go back to side control. Alternatively, from scarf hold you can then reach around their trapped arm, then use your body weight to press that arm against their face.

Using that point as a fulcrum, sprawl your legs back and walk to their other side. Also keep a hold of their far arm, so they can't try any sort of escape. Once you've moved all the way round to the other side of their body, reinsert an arm under their head. This puts them in what Liam called a 'barbed wire' position, with their arms criss-crossed over their upper body and/or face. I've also seen it called the 'bow-tie', I think. There are various subs you can do from here, like turning to face the other way and applying a waki-gatame armbar.

Chatting to Liam afterwards, he spoke about how the beginners syllabus was built up. I had assumed it would have some kind of link back to the SBG teaching methodology (which is certainly there, especially the integral progressive resistance approach), but apparently The BJJ Labs has used the basic framework provided by Gracie Barra Fundamentals. Modifications occured for various reasons, such as the manner in which a takedown in the DVDs might end in side control, but then the next set of techniques would continue in mount. That doesn't make much sense, so instead Liam and the gang made the more logical progression of - for example - a takedown into side control, followed by attacks from side control.

Class finished up with a bit of light sparring. I was with my training partner, JP, a friendly tall Canadian (all the Canadians I've ever met seem to be tall). He had been asking lots of sensible questions throughout drilling, something I very much approve of, given that's exactly what I've been trying to do ever since I started. He took onboard everything that had been chatted about earlier, making sure to try and kill the near arm, switching back and forth from scarf hold and being certain to keep his weight pressed into me.

Sparring was fairly brief, so I don't think I had a round on top: the advanced class was waiting to go, although I wasn't able to join in, as I needed to head back to Davenport to join my gf. On my way back to the station I could take in slightly more of Manchester than the hurried previous journey, but still not a lot. Before today, I've only been to Manchester Airport, back when I used to live in Yarm. It would be good to check out the city properly some time: after all, one of my all-time favourite bands hails from here, The Smiths. :)

Our last walk, my favourite, was on Thursday (again from the Jarrold book: Walk 2). This time we were in the Castleton area, which again has amazing views, but it also has the bizarrely interesting ruins of the old A625. Apparently, back in the day this was a main route between Manchester and Sheffield, but because of the unstable ground, bits kept falling off. A particularly major landslide in 1977 caused serious damage: the road was finally closed to through traffic in 1979.


It felt a lot like walking through one of those apocalyptic landscapes from a dystopian sci fi film, like Planet of the Apes or Mad Max. The road was smashed up, yet the signs of civilisation could still be seen: a drain cover, a cat's eye, the lines up the middle. For some reason, I was fascinated. Not far from there was a historic site (dating to the 13th century, allegedly) with the awesome name of Odin Mine, though I wasn't able to walk too far inside before I started sinking into clay. Reminds me I'm looking forward to watching Thor. ;D

06/07/2010 - BJJ (Basics)

Class #323
Gracie Barra Birmingham, (BJJ), Nathan Roberts, Birmingham, UK - 06/07/2010

Good article by Krista Scott-Dixon up on Grapplearts, here. She tackles the essential topic of attracting women to your BJJ school, and perhaps just as important, retaining them as members.

Speaking of women, a new one joined my family today, as my sister gave birth to her second daughter (so far, no nephews, which pleases me). As I don’t intend to have any kids myself, I’ve enjoyed being an uncle. I spent eight months looking after my first niece back when I was unemployed, so it will be interesting to see how she reacts to having a sister.

Getting back to training, as ever I couldn’t make the Monday, this time because I was visiting my girlfriend in Bristol. The buses have also changed now that it’s out of term time, so Wednesdays are going to be much tougher to make: it could be that I’ll be limited to just Tuesdays, but hopefully not.

Nathan continued his coverage of side control today. Having gone through the usual drill where we go from side control to mount to side control, he then showed us another method for moving from side control to mount. You start with a tight mount, having already cleared the elbow. First, bring your elbow over their head and slide it back, so that their skull is squished between your elbow and knee. You also want to make sure you’re controlling their far arm, so they can’t get their elbow to the mat and turn.

Instead, you’re going to turn, switching your base so you’re facing their legs. Grab their leg to limit their mobility, while also pushing back into their armpit with your hips, until you’re effectively sitting on their face. Having made all that space, you can bring your foot over to their far hip, without putting it on the floor. Instead, you’re going to use that hook on their hip to twist into mount.

Nathan then progressed to the bottom perspective, with an escape from side control, in that same position. If you’re on the bottom and they bring their arm over, you want to do two things. First, you’re going to grip around the back of their gi so that you’re grabbing the material behind their neck. Pull it tight, so that they can’t possibly attack your arm: if you leave the elbow expose, they’ll either move round to eventually go for a kimura, or potentially just raise up and attack the straightened arm.

If instead you’re pulling them down, with your elbow up high by their shoulder, there isn’t much they can do. This is made safer by ‘chicken dancing’ your other elbow against their knee, to wriggle your back up the mat. That elbow by their knee means they can’t move to north-south, and they also can’t re-establish a tight side control by moving back up under your armpit. You are also going to grab that knee, for reasons which will become clear in a moment.

The main thing they’ll probably do from here is switch their hips, looking to get into some kind of scarf hold to restore their previous control. You’ll be waiting for the moment they switch their hips: if you time it right, you can bridge up into them, switching your hips over as you do, so that you end up rolling them onto their back. Due to your high elbow position, you can slide that around their head, while keeping your own head low.

This should result in a solid arm triangle position. You can increase the pressure by coming up on your toes slightly and driving your shoulder into them, solidifying your position further as you do. Either go for the submission from there, or alternatively use it as a firm controlling point to move into mount. You could also reach around to grab wrist control, then shift to take their back.

If they should happen to get half guard in the midst of that, it doesn’t really matter. You can still work the submission, or just keep up the pressure with your shoulder, slide your knee through and establish mount. They’ll find it difficult to get a secure half guard if you’ve got that control around their head and arm.

Specific sparring went as it often does from side control, where I found I could normally escape from side control eventually, either by recovering half guard or slowly working my knee through for full guard. However, I’m still not getting that scarf hold escape properly, where you brace their lapel against their neck: one thing I think I’m doing wrong is not pushing up enough. I tried to get into place to push on the back of the elbow when they put both arms over too, but that’s also something where I need a lot more work to get used to the principle and iron out the details.

On top, I struggled to keep the position: my training partner had clearly paid attention to Nathan’s repeated advice to get that elbow to the mat, as it was tough to stop him doing it. I tried moving to scarf and north-south, but that elbow kept slipping free. I could possibly try collapsing my weight on that arm more, or be more pro-active about attacking the far arm to distract them, or perhaps even the neck with some kind of choke.

Moving to mount by quickly sliding my knee over did work at one point, but probably because he was expecting another extended battle of the knees and elbows. I also almost made it to the back at one point, but he was wise to it, getting half guard and spinning to face me before I could establish both my hooks.

Getting into free sparring, there was a bit more of that side control, though I also found myself in his guard at one point. It seems like ages since I’ve been in a position to practice passing, and as ever I was too passive and slow to react. Some specific work on guard would definitely be handy, as much as I’ve enjoyed the intense focus on side control over the last couple of months.

22/06/2010 - BJJ (Basics)

Class #320
Gracie Barra Birmingham, (BJJ), Nathan Roberts, Birmingham, UK - 22/06/2010

For the second week in a row I couldn’t make the bus on time to get to Monday, and annoying, the same thing happened on Wednesday. Same story this Monday, so as usual I went to my back up of Tuesday. Hopefully this week, I will be able to do Wednesday, though as I have a free weekend, there’s the option of Friday too (I’m planning on visiting home, but Friday class probably finishes early enough that I could still make it at a reasonable hour).

As with the other lessons by Nathan I’ve been to so far, tonight was about control from the top. There was a clear progression, beginning by drilling a side control escape. Wedge your forearm into their neck, gripping over their shoulder blade. Lever up your wrist, bridge to get your other elbow in, then shrimp into that space. Move your knee in to guard, making sure you control their arms: otherwise, they can just pass back to side control.

From the top, as soon as somebody presses up into your neck, you want to go to scarf hold. Lean slightly forward (be careful, as if you overbalance, they could roll you straight over), then switch your hips, aiming to scoop up their elbow as you bring your leg close to their side, foot past the head. Your other leg will be up, to create a solid base.

Keep your head low, and most importantly, keep a firm control of their near arm. Ideally you want to hold behind their tricep, but grabbing somewhere on their upper sleeve will do. If they start to get their elbow down, yank it back up, pressing forwards with your hips if you need some extra power.

From here, you can move from side control to mount. Switch your hips back, moving higher towards their head. You should now have their arm right out of the way, while one of your own arms will be controlling their far elbow, with the other arm is underneath their head. To being your transition, the head arm is going to move to the far side, then you’ll slide your elbow right back into their skull. This will trap their head between your elbow and your knee, severely limiting their movement.

You’re now going to switch your hips again, so that you’re facing their legs, in reverse scarf hold. The arm by their head will stay where it is, while the arm you were using to control their far elbow will instead grab the top of their near pant leg. This means you can both control their hips and a point from which to push, to help your hips scoot backwards towards their head.

You want to shove your hips as far back as you can, so that you’re effectively lying on their face. This is very uncomfortable, and also restricts their view. You can now bring your foot over to their far hip: don’t just swing your leg over, but instead curl it inwards. If you’re not flexible enough, just grab your foot and pull it over. You can then twist to mount, scooping up their arm in the process.

We did some light specific sparring from that tight side control, which was particularly light due to one of my partner’s being smaller than me, while the other had a back injury he was watching carefully. That meant I could try and really concentrate on the technique, so from the bottom, that meant I was paying particular attention to getting my elbow free, then making space to wedge my knee in.

I was also attempting to put Norby’s scarf hold escape into action, though I found it difficult to get my arms straight. Sneaking an arm under sort of worked, though my timing needs work, as I almost managed to just get it trapped rather than in place for an escape.

On top, I tried to keep my hips down, and time my hip switch to match the moment they pushed up with their arms. That continued into the next bit of specific sparring from side control, again with the near arm already cleared. As the only other blue belt was injured, I took the opportunity to go with the biggest guy there, as that should mean that if I made any mistakes, his power would be enough to throw me off.

He was fairly inexperienced, but still, it made for an interesting test of holding down a larger opponent, again trying to time that hip switch while also keeping control of the arm. Underneath I was trying to get my elbow free, then make space and shrimp. I’m also making sure to remember to grip around the shoulder blade and lever up with my wrist, to make it more difficult for them to press their head down.

Free sparring at the end was with a small white belt, so as before I was trying to think about technique. I had a play with that same spider guard series from Braulio’s video, but I’m still not quite securing that grip properly. I also tried to get into the same scarf hold position as earlier, so my training partner had a chance to practice.

Should be in again tomorrow for the advanced gi class, which will be a very different sparring experience, but we’ll see how work and buses sync up.

15/06/2010 - BJJ (Basics)

Class #319
Gracie Barra Birmingham, (BJJ), Nathan Roberts, Birmingham, UK - 15/06/2010

I couldn’t make the advanced gi on Monday, so did my usual backup of the basics Tuesday class. That also has the advantage of starting later, so even though I stayed on at work for thirty minutes, I didn’t having any trouble getting to Leamington train station to get to Acocks Green in time.


As I walked in GB Brum, Kevin was showing a useful looking escape from side control to the advanced no-gi class. I didn’t see it from the start, so probably missed some details, but it looked as though they have a normal side control. You keep your elbows in, grasping their underhooking arm with both hands, on either side of the shoulder. That means you can also use the lower part of your arm against their neck if required: Kevin noted that you should never rely on just your wrist or hand, as they can simply collapse that with their weight.

You’re then going to make a powerful bridge, by bringing your heels right to your bum. That gives you some extra force, as you aim to either bridge them right off, or at least make enough space to get your knee in. Due to your elbows both moving beneath their torso, that makes it more difficult for them to collapse their weight back down. Shame I didn’t see it from the start, as it looked interesting.

Nathan’s class began with several drills, which are always useful. For example, where you stand up in their guard, with a grip of both collars, the other hand driving their same side sleeve into their opposite hip. This controls that arm and also helps to immobilise their hips. As you stand up, you let go of the collars, pulling the arm up, but also keeping your elbow inside their knee.

Make sure you drive your hips forward too, to keep the pressure on: something I often forget to do. My passing remains terrible: it would be good to get some guard passing classes at some point again, as it feels like it’s been a while. That also reminds me to review my notes from Kev Capel’s private a while back, which presented a good set of tools for passing.

The main part of Nathan’s basics session was focused on side control. He began with a transition to mount, similar to what he’s shown before. You have a tight side control, and have already cleared their near elbow. First, shift your hips up towards their head, getting as tight as possible. Walk the hand that is under their far arm towards their head, until you can reach the top of their skull.

You can then slide your knee onto their stomach, but don’t go all the way to the floor yet. Keep twisting towards the area you just vacated, to bend their body and make it more difficult for them to bridge. You can also move up towards their head, staying tight. Once you’re secure, go to full mount, and there is the possibility of either digging their arm into position for an arm triangle, or setting up an armbar by getting a good high mount.

Nathan then demonstrated how to move into a triangle from side control. This isn’t the option I like to try where you step over their head from scarf hold, but instead a transition straight into a mounted submission. As before, you have a solid side control, and have cleared their near elbow. Also as before, you want to shift your hips towards their head, then walk your hand underneath their far arm.

This time, you’re going to manoeuvre that arm to the ground, pressing their wrist to the mat with your hand. You can then feed it to the hand you have under their head. Next, drive your hips forward and straighten your arm. That will prevent them turning their head, and it also puts them on their side. Be certain to keep that near arm of theirs trapped, so they aren’t able to pull their elbow free.

Now put your free hand on their torso, using that as a post to swing your leg over and sit on them. You then want to slide it over the arm you’re gripping, at which point you can let go to pull their head up and towards you. That should provide enough room to wrap your leg under their head, meaning that their recently freed arm is of no real use to them. Grab your ankle to maintain the grip.

Lean forward and post with your free hand, in order to get the space to then lock up the triangle with your other leg. From here, you can either go for the triangle, attack their arm, or indeed go for a wristlock. Your weight is on their neck, and their bridges aren’t going to be very effective, as their hips are so far away.

Finally, Nathan switched perspective for an escape from side control. This time, it’s your elbow that’s been cleared out the way, so the first thing you need to do is get it back. Start by digging the hand near their head into their jaw line, knuckles first, until you can slide the forearm under their neck. You can then grip around their shoulder blade and pry their head up, by lifting your wrist and thereby driving your forearm into their neck.

This is unpleasant (meaning that I try not to be too gung ho with this in drilling: fortunately, my training partner tonight was of a similar mindset), so you’ll suddenly find you have some space to free your trapped elbow. You can then shrimp out, bring your knee in and recover guard. That forearm against their neck will make it difficult for them to bring their weight down, while the elbow by their hip prevents their motion forwards.

Specific sparring was unusual, in that for once most of my training partners were either my size or smaller. There also weren’t any other blue belts there this time round: Gary normally attends the Tuesday basics, but I guess he must have been teaching at his kickboxing club or something. So, that meant I had a chance to practice both on top and on the bottom.

On top, I tried moving into reverse scarf hold to mount, which worked nicely the first time, but then that was against somebody a fair bit smaller (I did try to focus on technique, but it is always hard to know if you’ve managed to avoid using a size advantage, especially if you’re not used to having one). The second time, I don’t think I controlled their torso well enough, as they were able to get onto their side. I should probably have made better use of the arm by their head, and perhaps grabbed a knee or something before they managed to turn.

Underneath, I looked to put Norby’s advice from Saturday into practice, especially as I was starting from the worst position possible, with both of my arms clear. Again, that worked a few times, but I think I wasn’t always concentrating enough on bending their head towards their shoulder coupled with a firm bridge. It is definitely good to have that option for when they’ve managed to isolate your far arm, so something I’ll be looking to try more often (though it is of course much more difficult against bigger people, especially if they’re more experienced).

11/05/2010 - BJJ (Basics)

Class #311
Gracie Barra Birmingham, (BJJ), Nathan Roberts, Birmingham, UK - 11/05/2010

Due to that seminar tomorrow, I went to yet another class tonight, this time the basic gi session. It's an hour shorter than the advanced, like at Roger's (speaking of which, a guy who used to train there but is now at GB Brum recognised me and said hello, which was nice), but unlike Roger's, all levels are allowed to train. That means that you'll see purple and brown belts training alongside the fresh faced white belts. When I was in London, as soon as you got your blue, you had to train in the advanced class.

On the one hand that's good, as it forces lazy people like me to go train with the higher level people. On the other hand, it means you can't keep on working your fundamentals, not to mention that a few higher level people can still be found in the basic class.

The advanced no-gi class begins half an hour earlier, then continues on concurrently with the basics. That means that I arrived in time to watch Kev demonstrate the same deep half guard pass he showed yesterday, but for nogi. So, that could be an advantage to training Monday and Tuesday, as if Kev always follows that pattern, you get a chance to either refine your technique directly if you go for the nogi, or at least watch it a second time from the sidelines if you don't.

My training partner tonight was a fellow blue called Gary, who mentioned that he also runs his own kickboxing club, where he incorporates his grappling into something he called 'combat jiu jitsu'. It isn't quite MMA, as no punching to the head, but sounds like it could be a useful stepping stone.

Nathan, who has taken the warm-up for the advanced a few times, was in charge of the lesson. After the standard running around the room, his class was all drills, which gradually progressed into more complex sequences. This finished up with demonstrating how to transition from side control to mount. The first option was to get into a standard tight side control with a gable grip and heavy shoulder pressure, having already cleared their near elbow. Staying tight, slide your arm to the other side of their head (try to avoid raising it up). Bring that arm under their far arm, meaning you can bring your other hand to their near hip.

You can now switch to face their legs (so reverse scarf hold, I think), shifting your hips back into their near arm to make space. Keep on shifting back into their head until they are starting to bridge to try and relieve the pressure. Grab your foot and pull it across to their far hip: you want to avoid leaving it vulnerable to their attempts at grabbing half guard. You can then settle into a tight mount.

Nathan made the point here that you shouldn't be in a rush: hold the position. He cited an example from when he once competed as a blue, and managed to quickly move from side to mount to the back, then back to mount. However, because he did it so fast, pre-empting his opponent, he only got a few advantages. If he'd held each position a little longer, he would have been way ahead on points (he did still win, of course ;p).

The next transition from side control to the mount was a little different. This time, you press your weight forward (being careful not to overbalance), then use that space to bring the knee nearest their head even closer and higher. The hand under their head reaches further, to grab under their far armpit. Your other hand (underneath their far arm) walks up past their head, meaning that both their arms are now uncomfortably squished.

Bring your knee over their stomach, sliding it to the floor. Turn your upper body towards their near side, moving into mount, squeezing your knees. Push your feet into their sides, enabling you to move forward, again putting them in a very uncomfortable position. From here, you could then shift your head around their arm, wriggle down and go for an arm triangle. However, again the point of the drill was to make sure you establish a good position.

Specific sparring was naturally from side control, with that near elbow already trapped. To continue to focus on position, you weren't allowed to use any submissions. That made escaping much easier, because I didn't have to worry about the usually frequent danger of either an Americana, armbar or choke. So, I was able to gradually squirm free a few times.

On top, I had a harder time, as I wasn't able to move into mount. However, there is a small chance I might have got there eventually, as I was concentrating on being very slow and steady, keeping my partner in tight with my grip, and also trying to shift my knee up closer to the head, as in the drill. I got into a sort of reverse scarf hold, and was in the process of shifting back and then getting my knee across when time ran out. Of course, I may have got swept or something in the next couple of moments.

In free sparring, submissions were back on, and made all the difference. I soon found myself under side control, as Mike was having none of my flailing at spider or butterfly guard, easily controlling my legs and passing. He immediately looked to attack the arm, and eventually got in place for an armbar. I was able to block with my other arm and grab his leg, in an awkward position where he was belly down and I was facing away from him.

I spent what seemed like ages sat there in basically a stalling position, trying to think exactly where my arm now was in relation to his body, and how I should look to escape. I thought about rolling, shifting round the leg, or perhaps pressing into him. What I should have done is tried to get to a point where I was stacking him, but eventually his superior position paid off and he got the arm.

That's training done for the week, so it will be nice to have a rest after several days on the trot. One thing to note is that there is an unfortunate problem with the showers, in that you can only use a single shower at a time, otherwise nobody gets any hot water. Personally I would be happy enough with cold water in the interests of speed, but that isn't very fair to everyone else. So, just means I have to be quick once I get in there.

08/05/2010 - BJJ (Advanced)

Class #309
Gracie Barra Birmingham, (BJJ), Chiu Kwong Man, Birmingham, UK - 08/05/2010

I don't normally have a weekend free, but it was handy I did today, as I wasn't able to go to training on Monday. My normal pattern is shaping up to be Monday and Wednesday advanced gi from 19:00-20:30, or failing that, either a beginner class from 19:30-20:30 on Tuesday or the advanced gi class on Saturday from 13:30-15:00.

Class was taught by Braulio's first black belt, Chiu Kwong Man. He's been present at a few of the other classes I've attended, but this is the first time I've had a chance to see how he runs a class. Like Rob, Chiu moves into stand-up after the warm-up, starting with some light resistance grip fighting. After that, we were supposed to practice an entry into a takedown for several minutes.

As I doubt very much I would ever be able to take anyone down, I thought I'd try something with applications on the ground too, an arm drag. I never remember to try these, so it was useful to have a play with it. I was initially just holding the sleeve, pulling it towards me, then grabbing and yanking past their armpit on the tricep, based on what I remembered from Roy Dean's best release to date, No Gi Essentials. Roy suggests that drilling the armdrag from standing is a good way to learn principles which also apply to the ground, hence why I wanted to try it.

As I'm not confident with the technique, I asked Chiu for some arm drag advice. He suggested that from standing, it was possible to do the arm drag like I had been, but unlikely my opponent would give me that grip. It would be more typical that they establish a grip on my lapel, up near my neck. In that situation, the arm drag makes more sense on the other arm: if they maintain their grip and you get to their back, that just makes it easier to choke them.

Groundwork began with a transition from side control to mount. You secure a tight side control, with your arm under their head, reaching to grip their far shoulder. Your other arm will be over to that far side, going under their arm. Clear their elbow on the near side, then pull them in tight towards your knee, by dragging on their far shoulder. This should force their head to face away from you, and because you also have their elbow, it will be tough for them to turn.

That hand you have under their far arm is now going to walk up past their head. You want to get their arm up high, until you can use your head to press that arm into their face. This should provide sufficient distraction for you to slide your knee through to get into mount. You can also press on their hip with the sole of your foot to stretch them out, securing a better position against their arm with your head.

I got a little confused during the arm triangle from side control which followed, but from what I understood, from that previous position you bring the hand that walked up under their head. Your head wriggles against their arm as you bring your shoulder down (in the direction of their legs), still staying tight. The reason for this is that their arm is currently too high to be part of a choke: you need to get it lower, by their neck.

Once you've got it against their neck, you can slide off mount to the other side. This is where I had problems, as what you're supposed to do is keep that hand under their head, palm on the floor. The choke comes from wriggling down and getting the shoulder back, then creating pressure as you sprawl next to them. I found that difficult, so definitely need more practice.

Alternatively, you can go for a standard arm triangle position, using the hand under their head to grab your other bicep. You can then get into a rear naked choke position, pressing the bicep arm on their head to create the necessary pressure. I've also been taught in the past that you can grab your own head with the bicep arm, but Chiu recommended the RNC choke style grip.

Sparring started with Pete, my training partner for today: he's one of several blue belts I'm getting to know over the course of the last few weeks. I was keen to practice spider guard, having seen an interesting instructional by Braulio, but unfortunately I couldn't get into the position I wanted after pulling butterfly guard. Instead, I ended up under side control yet again. I need to be less obsessive about getting that perfect grip, and remember the basic foot-in-bicep option.

However, because I had my leg around that arm, I thought I might be able to move into a triangle. I spent a good chunk of the roll trying to wiggle into the right place, but couldn't get the angle (unsurprising, given being under side control is not a great place to try submissions). I had the arm between my legs and his head was low, so the triangle was the preferable option, but I was also looking out for an armbar, without any luck.

Naturally I was trying to escape too: I think I need to re-emphasise my previous habit of using the 'ball', where you get your knees tight to your chest. Possibly because I wasn't using that enough, I felt as if it was easier to pass my guard today.

Next up was Chiu: its always cool to roll with black belts, as they are pretty much guaranteed to give you good advice afterwards. Obviously I was getting tapped all over the place, mainly by the very techniques Chiu had just taught. Generally, I need to watch my arms and neck, though I was remembering to fight for that elbow by the neck as well as the hip, like Rob suggested after I rolled with him.

Chiu also noted that I need to be careful where I put my feet. I could see he was manoeuvring me into footlocks, looking to slip my foot under his arm, and managed to pop free a few times by pushing on his other hip. However, he still got the hold he wanted anyway, on the other foot, so a handy reminder that I must be vigilant about footlocks. While I don't use them myself, I am keen to improve my defences for when other people try them.

I might be training again tomorrow at Warwick Uni, because Adam from the judo club mentioned on Facebook that they have a nogi groundwork session at 17:00. Hopefully that will all work out, as it sounded intriguing, as much as I'm not overly keen on no gi.

30/03/2010 - BJJ (Beginner)

Class #297
RGA High Wycombe, (BJJ), Kev Capel, High Wycombe, UK - 30/03/2010

In case people missed it, fellow blogger Georgette recently popped up on The Fightworks Podcast, talking about the right way to coach somebody at a tournament. Very cool to hear somebody speak when you've only ever interacted with them online!

Still on the topic of bloggers, Seymour from Meerkatsu.com set up a new Facebook group for BJJ bloggers to share ideas, here. If you have a BJJ blog, feel free to join in the discussion (I'd especially be interested in people's thoughts on this).

The Gracie Barra Fundamentals segment was a Haymaker defence defence today, which made for a slight contrast to the Gracie Combatives version, where they duck under and move to a side-on clinch. As ever Kev, noted that anyone who is trained in striking won't throw a punch like that, but if somebody does, you perform a motion as if you're combing your hair to block the punch, then wrap over their arm. Step forward with your same side foot, while simultaneously driving your other arm into their neck. That means you can drive forwards and take them down, so essentially a sort of modified osoto-gari throw.

Kev's main focus for the beginner class was transitioning from side control to mount. He began with the basic technique, but with an important tweak. After you've grabbed their knee to stop them snatching half guard, you don't swing your leg over. Instead, step through, bringing your knee under your own arm, then whack your foot on the other side. This has the advantage of making it more difficult for them to bridge and roll you mid-transition. If you have any trouble with flexibility, simply move you hips further towards their head.

That was followed by the knee slide alternative. Again, you progress as normal, but the difference is that you're either grabbing their belt by the hip, or cupping that hip with your hand. You don't let go of that grip until your knee is on the floor: otherwise, they can try to shrimp out and dislodge you.

Often when you try to slide your knee across, they will attempt to block mount by putting their hand against your knee. That means you can either go for the potentially risky option of an armbar from knee on belly, or alternatively, underhook that arm. You can then lift it, putting that limb out of commission, while you complete your slide into mount unimpeded.

Shoulder pressure is key with both of these: I tend to use a gable grip, but Kev mentioned that getting of their lapel and wrapping it around their arm is a strong hold too. It is also essential to isolate their near arm. The orthodox way to do that is to dig your knee into their elbow to pry it away from their torso, then drive up into their armpit. However, as Kev said later when I asked if you could do it without the knee inside, there are other options. For example, Maurição simply drops his hip straight onto the arm, trapping it by their side (as he once showed us in a lesson at RGA HQ, in the context of knee on chest). You can also pin the arm to their chest with your upper body, should they move it into a vulnerable position.

Sparring from side control was purely positional, with no submissions allowed. This reiterated how tough it can be to kill that near arm, meaning that I ended up trying to move around, shifting to north-south, sitting on their head, different grips etc. I was being particularly reliant on gi grips, so made a conscious effort to try and incorporate underhooks as well, along with lots of shoulder pressure and keeping my hips down.

On top with Howard, I didn't manage to do a whole lot. The only bit of success was an opportunistic leg swing into mount while his upper body was occupied, but that wasn't so much about technique as luck and timing. On top of one of the white belts, things were definitely easier, which is where I was experimenting with side control grips and trying to move around to north-south.

However, this specific white belt is definitely getting better, and had some intriguing defences. At one point I was all set, having dealt with the near arm, but he somehow managed to reach behind my gi pants and grab the back of them. That meant I couldn't shift back properly, forcing me to take a different approach instead

Underneath Howard, I was looking to swim through and stop him establishing an underhook, which resulted in lots of handfighting. Kicking my knee high towards the armpit and trying to spin worked well a few times, using my legs to gain purchase on their head to distract them, which in turn helped me rotate. I'm still generally too flat, so must get on side more. I can escape from a flat position and feel comfortable there, but it's a bad habit.

Under the white belt, he stayed very firm with that shoulder pressure, so much so that I started to have visions of cauliflower ear. Apparently the focus on pressure is something I showed him last time we sparred, so good to see I was able to be of some help. However, he sometimes forgot about his legs, meaning I could snatch half guard.

20/11/2008 - BJJ (Advanced)

Class #195



Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Nick Gregoriades, London, UK – 20/11/2008 - Advanced

There's a new site by Stephan Kesting, specifically for beginners, with the straightforward name Beginning BJJ. I saw this mentioned by Aesopian, and it looks good so far: along with a newsletter, sent out every three days, you get a thirty-four page e-book, A Roadmap for BJJ, after signing up. At the moment, its all free, which I assume will remain the case.

You're also in luck if you're into comics, as a professional cartoonist from Seattle has put her skills to work in creating some stylish BJJ art: check out Ellen Forney's free wallpaper here. There's a whole load of other cool stuff available on her website, with various books by Ellen for sale, as well as free samples. Reminds me to take a look in the library for graphic novels again: last time, I delved into MAUS, which is right up there with The Sandman, Watchmen, Preacher and other classics (unsurprising, given its also rather rare amongst graphic novels in having won the author a Pulitzer Prize). That high status means its one of the very few comics available at my university library, but there might be more by now.

Couldn't train yesterday as my gf stayed round in Bucks for a conference in London today, meaning I popped down with her to High Wycombe in the evening rather than my usual afternoon train to Marylebone. However, that means I'll get extra training in next week to make up for it: if your partner doesn't share your hobby, then its good to set up compromises like that :D. At the same time, BJJ is probably number three on my list of priorities (my relationship and family being one and two), so I don't mind missing the occasional session if I have to.

As I was getting changed, I could hear the instantly recognisable voice of one of the best training partners at RGA, Christina. Great to see her again, as it's been almost two months since she has been down to the same class as me.

She immediately reminded me of just how good a training partner she is by offering some tips on the tai otoshi, a throw I'm keen to improve given all the handy follow-ups Chris demonstrated at judo earlier this month. Main points are that I need to keep my upper body straight and get my hips closer to my partner: Christina used to do a fair bit of judo at the Budokwai, so is a handy person to ask.

We moved straight into specific sparring after the warm-up, where I went with Melissa. I found that on top, I was able to control her with scarf hold, but I couldn't really do a whole lot else with the position. I always attempt to trap their arm so I can do that step over triangle, then if that fails I try to wedge my knee in to push their arm past their head, switch back to side control and go for mount.

That's only two options, however, which is too limited if I'm struggling with both of them. I need to develop another submission from scarf, and also work harder on the transition to mount. Holding somebody is a useful first step (although I think I have a size advantage on Melissa), but I need to move past that and initiate some kind of offence.

Underneath, Nick urged me to bridge more and with greater force, also suggesting bridging twice in quick succession, which I haven't tried before. I'm used to biding my time and conserving energy, but that can easily lead to being totally passive and waiting, giving my partner all the time they want to work offence. Again, I need to be more proactive, and combine various escape attempts.

I also need to be careful of my neck, such as when I go to my knees to escape side control. I'm being too complacent about people going for chokes, relying on my defence to get me out. Melissa came close several times today, mainly trying guillotines and cross chokes, but I was either able to get an arm or leg in the way and make some space. Definitely not comfortable though, so requires greater vigilance on my part.

There was just the one technique today, but it was relatively complex, transitioning from side control to mount. Nick called it 'around the world', where starting in side control, you first scoop up their near elbow and then switch your base, driving your knee through to push that elbow out of the way and break their defence.

Next, bring your rear leg over their head, using your hip to force the arm you just knocked out of place onto their face and neck. This will put you in north-south. From here, put your hand on the side of their head (in the direction you're about to move), then bring what is now your rear leg all the way over again (meaning you've switched your base once more).

As you do so, use your arm to keep their arm trapped against their neck. This is important, as that means you can then dig your hand under their head, which sets you up for an arm triangle. You can finish the submission by grabbing your other bicep, then with the hand of the arm you just gripped, take hold of your own head and squeeze.

Alternately, keep going and transition to mount. You've got their arm uncomfortably shoved into their face (or neck, or perhaps chin, but either way its not pleasant), so now you have to make enough space to go to mount. Similarly to how you started, you're going to switch your base yet again, moving the knee of the leg closest to their hips underneath your other leg, which should knock their free hand out of place. The mount is now yours for the taking, putting you in a very controlling position with both their arms out of play.

Nick got us to spar from side control again, and this time my partner was Christina. I tried to concentrate on keeping my weight down, and then switching to north-south while maintaining the pressure. While doing that, I tried closing my eyes to see if that helped, also aiming to squirm my elbows into her armpits.

However, I didn't use my weight properly. Afterwards, Christina mentioned that I was just using my arms, with my hips too high and therefore not helping with weight distribution. Not being used to north-south, I'm still a little apprehensive about shoving my weight into somebody's face, which partly accounts for that, but I can always drop it more onto their shoulder. Either way, weight distribution remains key, and the hips the most important part of the solution.

Underneath, same story as usual, with Christina popping up to knee-on-belly. I was being cautious with my hands, trying again to implement Dominik's advice about using your elbows instead of your hands to push on the knee. This seemed to work better, and Christina noted that it was definitely an improved defensive strategy on my part (though naturally she still didn't have too much trouble passing).

My first partner in free sparring was again Melissa, and again I'm not being careful enough with chokes. Towards the end she was in open guard really pushing for a cross-choke, which I only held off by pressing my knees into her torso. Similarly I'd earlier resisted a guillotine by having an arm in to make a bit of breathing space. Not very reliable defence on my part: much better to develop better awareness and watch out for choke attempts before they're locked in.

Before that, I'd been spending a lot of time in side control and half guard, eventually reversing Melissa and getting into her guard. Once again, she was working for a choke, as I tried to posture up and go for a pass. Due to my horrendously bad guard passing, that just meant I ended up in open guard, leading to yet another choke attempt by Melissa.

Closing spar with Christina was very relaxed, turning into instruction, which was really handy. She gave me a whole load of good tips on open guard. First was to keep my knees off the floor and on either her upper legs or higher. I've been tending to hook knees, but if I do that, I shouldn't just sit there, but go for the sweep immediately.

Christina also advised that I should keep my legs pushing constantly, but not completely straight: there should still be some tension, or she can simply push them down and pass. Finally, once your partner is going low, use spider guard to push them away on their bicep, and/or getting a knee into their shoulder if they're really low and close.

Turns out that another of my old training partners has got involved with Kukla Pictures, though unfortunately he isn't able to train yet. Chris has been carrying injuries for a long time, but its cool to hear that he's been able to use his considerable artistic skills to help out with the film production. I'm looking forward to seeing some of the stuff Kukla comes up with, so will have to try and clear some time in my diary to make the events.