04/10/2015 - Seminar with Chelsea Bainbridge-Donner

Seminar #017
Artemis BJJ, Chelsea Bainbridge-Donner, Bristol, UK - 04/10/2015

I have 'known' Chelsea for a number of years now online, having first encountered her on reddit when she was a brown belt living in Hong Kong. That led me to her awesome blog, when she was still posting as purplekettle. Most awesome of all is this post, entitled “Wow, you’re a lot shorter than I thought you were.” If you haven't read it before, go read it: I have read many, many BJJ blog posts over the last decade, and that remains right up there among my favourites.

Since then, Chelsea has gone on to become a top competitor out of initially ATOS HQ, before moving to the affiliated Art of Jiu Jitsu Academy, run by ATOS stand-outs Rafa and Gui Mendes. She has won a world title at brown belt (after which Andre Galvao promoted her to black belt on the podium, along with his wife Angelica), the Dream submission only tournament and so far this year, medalled at the Worlds and Pan Ams. What I didn't realise was how good she is at teaching, perhaps helped by her considerable academic background (among her many skills she speaks fluent Chinese, for example!).

I therefore jumped at the chance to book her for a seminar when she got in touch to say she would be in the UK. There was a good turnout from Artemis BJJ itself, along with some other local clubs from Bristol and Swindon popping down: thanks for the support! We should have some more seminars in January, hopefully as well as a women's BJJ workshop with Leoni. :)
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Chelsea's teaching was well structured and focused, exactly what I want out of a seminar. She began with a number of drills related to passing the guard, the theme of the seminar. That progressed into some bullfighter passing drills. First, the one I'm used to, where you grab the bottom of the trousers, move round and drop the shoulder. Then we did the variation where you push the legs out of the way, establishing knee on belly. Chelsea and Tom (Barlow, of Polaris fame: it was very cool to have him there too) helped me out during drilling, noting that I should be pushing the shins so they 'spring' back, making it easier to then shove them out of the way.

The central technique of the seminar, which began as a drill, was something I think I've seen Saulo do in the past on BJJ Library. Chelsea pointed out that in open guard, it seems people are overly keen to get stuck inside a guard, whereas they should be passing pre-entanglement.

For this open guard pass, put one hand on their hip, the other on their knee. As you move around, bum in the air and legs wide, shove their knee down. Continue to pass around, then slide your grip so you can push their knee back. Follow it back with your body, moving into a leg drag position, driving off your toes as you descend. If you get greedy and try to go directly into side control, you may find they can get their legs in the way.

Often, they will try to turn away into turtle, preventing the pass (especially in a competition where points are at stake). To stop that, drive into them as they turn, locking on a seat belt grip. Previously I have tended to gable grip my hands, but as Tom explained during drilling, grabbing the meat of your hand with your grip on top is stronger, bringing your elbows into your sides. Having secured your seatbelt, curl your leg in tight to their back, pulling them up onto your knee (effectively putting them in your lap).

You can then roll back over your knee, bringing your other leg over the top, securing back control. I'm a big fan of that back take, though I've tended to do it from either technical mount or as a back re-take: getting some more tweaks was brilliant. It also made me think I should emphasise getting on your elbow next time I teach that move, as that really helps your balance.

To emphasise the importance of a strong seat belt grip, Chelsea then did some drilling on the back take portion of the technique, same as the drill I sometimes throw into our warm-ups at Artemis BJJ (although I've been combining it with mount, so switching to technical mount as they try to turn, then going for this back take). Chelsea and Tom both put that seat belt in really firmly, to the point where the arm is already almost choking you. That was made very clear, as she then had all of us take it in turns to experience what it feels like when she and Tom do it. Educational! ;)

You may find that rather than turn away, they will try and turn towards you. If that happens, sprawl back with your seatbelt grip in place, backstopping their elbow so they can't continue the turn. Walk around on your toes behind them, then pop up so you're crouched by their back. Either put your foot on their thigh or step it through, then take the back from there. Marcelo Garcia shows something similar in his book, on p100.

If Chelsea wants a partner for demonstrating a choke, hide

Chelsea showed a classic choke next. Open up their collar with your hand that's under their armpit, feeding it to your other hand. Having got a firm grip with that other hand, cinch it in, then push your armpit-hand behind their head. There are various ways you can add leverage to the position, ranging from crossing your legs to stepping on their arm. As you can see from Tom's expression in the picture, it isn't a whole lot of fun for your partner. ;)

When you initially attempt the pass, your partner might swing their leg over and wrap your arm with it, moving into a lasso spider guard (I liked how Chelsea had everybody drill that spider guard recovery at this point, to make sure everyone knew it). To pass spider guard from there, reach through and grab their other trouser leg with your lassoed arm, being sure to grip below their knee. With your other hand, grasp their collar.

Next is Chelsea's trademark control, driving her head right underneath their chin. Keep pushing with your head, something which they will definitely not enjoy, then walk back towards their legs. This is the same principle as with that pass from earlier, to make sure their legs are cleared out of the way. Which makes sense, as I can remember Chelsea's instructors, the Mendes brothers, highlighting the importance of walking back like that post-pass in a video a couple of years ago.

My drilling partner for this one, Nathan (the third black belt on the mats today), handily pointed out that I need to make sure I'm driving my shoulder into their leg to squish their knees towards the mat. I was being lax on that, which would make it easy for them to square back up and stop my pass. For a video of this pass, check out the interview Chelsea did on This Week In BJJ, here (she also shows the same pass from reverse de la Riva, as well as countering their invert).

If they flare out their knee on the lasso so it is difficult to drive all the way to under their chin, Chelsea showed how you can instead drive your head into their chest, proceeding pretty much as before apart from that. Except that this time, you move into knee on belly rather than passing all the way to side control. From knee on belly, if they push on your knee, you can reach through by the crook of their elbow, pull them up, then step around to drop into an armbar. Note that you need them to turn in towards you: this won't work if they are flat on their back, as you can't step over properly in that situation.

After all that excellent technique, Chelsea then fit in thirty minutes of sparring, quick three minute rounds. I am pretty sure this marks the only time I've ever sparred three black belts in a row (and the only time I've seen more black belts on the mat was my visit to Fabio Santos' school). Sparring with Chelsea, Tom and Nathan, I was mainly trying to use the stiff arm from guard. When that didn't work, I tried my follow-up of going into koala guard, but messed up each time. I did vaguely attempt a roll under sweep with Chelsea, but she had already passed regardless.

After getting passed, with all three of the black belts I was (not very successfully, as you'd expect) attempting to then block with Rockwell's sit-up escape frame. There was a lot of being crushed under mount, which seems to happen to me a lot with black belts (fair payback, as I was in mount on a white belt earlier in sparring. So, taste of my own medicine ;D). I very narrowly escaped Tom's bow and arrow type choke by pulling on his sleeve then elbow, also slipping free of the follow-up armbar by a whisker. No doubt he was going a lot lighter than normal as I'm a lower belt, but I was still pleased I managed to defend it. ;)

To finish, Chelsea did a question and answer session, a magnificent way of finishing a seminar. I asked about my main bugbear, back escapes. Chelsea recommended blocking their second hook coming in, then getting to the non-choking side and putting your back on the mat. She leapt right over when she did it, IIRC. Tom added in a nifty option when it came to turtle. If you can cross your ankles around their leg, then you've basically escaped turtle. However they move, you're either going to be able to spin free, invert, or recover your guard more conventionally. Therefore on top of turtle, be wary of them hooking your foot like that.

Of the seventeen seminars I've been to, I would put this and Dave Jacobs from last year at the top. If you get the chance to book Chelsea for a seminar, I highly recommend you do it. She said she should be back in the UK in January, so hopefully we'll be able to arrange another seminar then. I'm also hoping she'll be on the next Polaris event: there is such an incredible talent pool of black belt women that Polaris could easily fit in two female fights, if not more. :)

28/11/2013 - Hit Fit (Chokes from the Back)

Class #536
Hit Fit, (BJJ), Dónal Carmody, Bristol, UK - 28/11/2013

Dharni's last lesson tonight, so it is sad to see her fly back to Kenya, but I'm sure she will be in Bristol again some time. :)

Chokes from the back tonight, beginning with the basic sliding choke. In back control, keep your knees in tight, don't splay them out. Clamp your seat belt grip on the chest, a grip where Donal does something a bit similar to Xande. He has one hand slightly curled into their sternum, the armpit hand over the top. Like Xande, this means you can swivel it straight under the chin for the choke.

Donal likes to open up the collar with the armpit hand, folding the lapel over itself, getting the choking hand thumb as deep as you can. Pull on the gi with the other hand to cinch it up if you need to tighten the hold. Reach your armpit hand lower down, then pull downwards with that one as you twist your choking wrist around.

That is often hard to get. Shifting to the one armed short choke is a good follow up, applied the same way as Donal discussed in our private while back. If you're having trouble, get their arm out of the way by pushing their wrist down with your armpit hand. That may be enough. If not, then try grabbing the meaty part of their hand with your fingers and twisting it outwards.

Drop towards you choking arm side, then bring your leg over their arm. Move the foot down their back to really lock that in place, while simultaneously sliding the single arm tight up into their neck for the choke.

In specific sparring, I got more chance to work on my poor back attack and defence. I wasn't bridging properly or wriggling my shoulders to the mat when defending, leaving me stuck in the middle. I was looking to then switch to grabbing their leg, without trapping their arm under the armpit and reaching across to grab their sleeve with the same hand. I need to refresh my memory by looking at the private lesson video on back defence. Somebody more experienced would have probably got the choke, as I was merely blocking with my arm rather sloppily.

On the back, I was trying Rickson's thing of attacking with one arm and clearing their grips with the other. That sort of worked, but I was failing to get under the chin. I just kept switching side to side without getting it in place. What I should have done was use it to grab the gi and go for a bow and arrow: I eventually did do that, but he's less experienced and is also mainly a nogi guy, so not used to collar chokes.

With another partner, I started under side control and attempted the Rickson escape, but a bit sloppy. On top, I wasn't looking for the side control attacks I should have been: with my lack of training at the moment I don't feel I'm retaining information well enough, so I'm looking forward to my training schedule getting back to normal once everything is settled.

27/02/2011 - RGA Aylesbury (Beginner)

Class #378
RGA Aylesbury, (BJJ), Kev Capel, Aylesbury, UK - 27/02/2011

Due to my Malta trip, this is my first training session in three weeks, which is the longest I've been out for a while. Of course, not necessarily a bad thing, as I'm also still injured, so that time away gave it some time to heal. It isn't 100% yet, but definitely improving. I'm hoping to try some light sparring next week, and see how that goes.

We started off with a double leg takedown drill. Drive forward with your leading leg, ending up with it inbetween theirs. Bring the other foot outside, both arms round their legs, then raise up, driving your head into their side. Fortunately for my leg, we only did the entry, otherwise I would have had trouble drilling this.

That moved into taking the back. As they shoot in for the double, thrust your hips forward, then sprawl back. They will probably still have an arm over your leg. Insert your arm on that side of their head, reaching through to grab their bicep. They should now find it tough to follow as you move round. Walk your feet in the direction of your cross-facing arm's elbow, then get a harness grip. Insert hooks, then roll, lifting with your leg, to take their back.

To escape back mount when facing the ceiling, Kev had a useful phrase to keep in mind: "head, shoulders, hips." If they don't have a choke on, you can move to either side. If they do, look towards their choking elbow to relieve pressure on your neck, then move in the direction of their choking hand: that points the way out.

Start the escape itself by posting your head to the mat (remember, whichever side their choking hand is pointing towards), pushing off with your diagonally opposite foot. Next, wriggle your shoulders to the mat, which then means they can't finish their choke attempt.

Now that you should be safe from chokes, move your hands to grab their knees (or wherever you can grip on their trouser leg). First step your leg free on your head side. Maintain your grip on the other leg, to make sure they can't just roll on top of you.

Keeping your weight on them, shift your hips towards their head, still holding that leg (you could use your free arm to post). Thread your leg as you would in the shrimp to all fours drill, establishing side control.

Kev finished with a basic sliding choke. You have the back, one hand past their armpit. Use that hand to open up their nearest collar, feeding it tight to your other hand. Then grip the other collar with your armpit hand, pulling on both for the choke.

During king of the hill sparring, my training partner generously gave his time to do some more drilling with me. As ever, I decided to work some more on the overhook choke. My wrist is still ending up too bent, although he did say the choke was still on, pressing into the carotoid arteries rather than just i to the windpipe. Nevertheless, I want to get it right: I think perhaps I need to allow for more cloth, in order to make a proper fist and avoid twisting up my wrist and hand once I bring my arm past their head. Problem of course is that the initial grip also needs to be a tight for the choke to function properly.

While people were warming up with the usual star jumps, squats, breakfalls and shrimping, I tried warming up with exercises I could do with only one leg. However, I ran out of ideas after sit ups, press-ups and whatever that one is called where you lie on your front, then raise your upper body and legs (Kev suggested it: I think he called it dorsal raises or something?) So, if anyone has some further suggestions, let me know.

28/03/2007 - BJJ

Class #45


Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK - 28/03/2007

I had a good idea of what Jude was going to run through due to Asriel's blog (for which you need to be a Supporting Member) of what happened on Monday, but still had to double-check when it came to getting mount from side control. Or rather, my partner checked, who today was a fairly new guy called Roberto. From side control (arm under the head, gripping hands under your partner’s arm), you first bring your hand from under your partner’s head and instead drive your elbow on the opposite side. Switch base – pushing one knee firmly into their side – then taking hold of their far leg, swing round into mount. Rowan Cunningham shows it like this.



Jude then showed us the correct procedure for taking the back. With your partner in the turtle position (curled up tight on all fours, bottom down on their heels), your grab them by the neck of the gi and their belt. Pushing their head firmly to the floor, post the foot nearest their head by their side. Next, feed that foot underneath them, aiming to hook around their leg from the inside, putting your knee on the floor (Jude emphasised that you should be in a position where there is a straight line from your hip to your knee, which means you need to be raised up rather than sitting). That facilitates bringing your other leg over and in on their other side, meaning you now have hooks on both of their legs. I wasn’t sure whether it was at this point that you reached under an arm and grabbed their wrist, or did that before you brought the other leg over – my partner reckoned grabbing the wrist came first.

Either way, once you’ve done that, then look up, push forward with your hips and back with your legs, aiming to straighten your partner flat onto the floor. This meant they were in position for a rear naked choke, for which you simply raise their head, bring one forearm across their throat, use the hand of that arm to grab your other arm’s bicep, bring your free arm behind their head, then squeeze, bringing your head to bear for extra force.

Jude had previously demonstrated this from kneeling – to repeat the basic process, forearm into neck, grab other bicep, bring that arm round behind to grip the back of the head, then squeeze, also pushing with your head. Jude described it as trying to bring your elbows together: this choke appeared to be even more effective when applied against the ground, as then you could bring more of your weight into play.

Finally, Jude went through the sliding choke (which I keep mixing up with the clock choke: not quite the same thing, as discussed in the members-only Bullshido training logs section). As with the RNC, Jude first showed this from a kneeling position to get the technique right, then in context, which for the clock choke was when an opponent has rolled to one side with their back towards you. The basic process is to come under one arm and grip the nearest gi collar, opening it up. The other arm then comes round the neck (similar to the RNC), whereupon your first hand feeds the collar to the other hand. Switching your first hand to grip the other collar, you then pull down for the submission.

From the position where your opponent has their back to you (Jude set this up from side control, from which you imagine your partner has just managed to turn), the same process applies, but you need to get your elbow into their hip to stop them turning further in that direction, as well as a knee firmly into their back to prevent that escape route. If you forget to block off those exits, then your opponent can go for half guard or indeed sweep you from there.

I did all my sparring with Dominique, as unusually there was nobody else in our weight category: normally there are at least a few people of similar size, like Nathan, but everyone seemed bigger today. There is still a bit of a disparity between Dominique and I, but much less than with anyone else.

I found that putting into practice Oli’s basic tip from yesterday – control the hip with your hand when passing – worked very well. I was able to get the pass across the knee a few times, though I think I still need to be quicker switching my base and also keeping control on the neck and knee as I pass. I also think I’m forgetting to leave a hook round the knee as I bring the other leg round, meaning that my partner can recover guard – happened at least once against Dominique.

Still not managing to get the tailbone pass to function, though I think it was at least a bit improve. I ended up transitioning to the standing version instead – definitely want to get more options for passing, because at the moment I’m only having success with the pass across the knee. While that’s good, because at least it’s working, that also means I’m screwed against anyone adept at defending that particular pass. Dominique pointed out that I need to watch my posture, as I was leaning forward too much, so that something else I want to keep an eye on.

From the guard, I was trying to get into position for a flower sweep, but had trouble making enough space. Instead, I found myself trying open guard, and managed to get the elevator sweep a few times. However, I think it was a little sloppy, so I look forward to being shown the technique in class – apparently, Roger went through it on Saturday, so hopefully I’ll get the chance to see either him or one of the other instructor demonstrate soon.

Should be training again tomorrow, although I’m concerned about my gf up in Brum, as she’s been having severe tooth pain over the past few days. I don’t want her to be alone in the flat any longer than necessary, as I know how horrible tooh pain can be – had to have emergency dentistry myself a while back. Bad enough to be in agony without having to do all the usual household tasks on top of it, like cooking lunch etc. The dentist is seeing her tomorrow, but if he doesn’t sort it I’ll try to take time off work and go up to Brum early.