25/02/2017 - RGA Bucks | Standing Guard Sweeps

Class #806
RGA Aylesbury, (BJJ), Dan Lewis, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, UK - 25/02/2017

Dan took us on a trip down memory lane today, specifically the book Royler, Renzo and Danaher put out almost twenty years ago. That book was a warm-up for Danaher and Renzo's seminar Mastering Jujitsu, with a similar history section. It was called Jiu-Jitsu: Theory & Technique. The layout was haphazard, but including a sequence of three closely related techniques for when an opponent stands up in your closed guard: the ankle grab sweep, handstand and star sweep.

For the first one, as they stand up, if you've got a grip on their collar or head, maintain it in order to keep their posture bent forwards. At the moment you let go of that grip (if you have one) and they try to reach an upright position, grab behind their ankles (around the outside: if you grab around the inside, there's an injury risk).

Open your guard (when they stand, they are looking to open it and pass. It's better if when you open your guard, it's on your terms rather than theirs). Usually when I've seen this taught, the idea is to bring your knees together under their chest. You can also put your feet on their hips, depending on their height and how much leverage you need. Either way, drive those feet or knees into them. That should knock them over if they aren't prepared for the sweep. One advantage of the knees is you can keep squeezing your legs into their sides, which can help you use their momentum as they fall back (but be careful you don't get your feet under them too much, or you might hurt yourself as you hit the floor). Dan did it a little differently, as he focused instead on pushing with the back of your legs against their thighs.

After they've hit the mat, before they can react, come up on your hand and same side knee. Bring your hips forward on that same side. It's much easier if you move in a diagonal direction, rather than trying to go straight forward. Slide your knee on that side to the mat, keeping your hips low, also grabbing behind their head (or collar). From there, you could go to mount, s-mount, side control etc. It is an awkward position, so takes a bit of getting used to. I used a hip thrust drill during the warm-up to help: you can do a technical stand-up from here too if you find that easier, keeping hold of their leg and passing around to the side.

A good follow up to the double ankle grab sweep is another option that works off wrapping an ankle. This one is normally known as the 'handstand sweep', though invariably there are lots of other names for it. As your partner stands in your closed guard, keep your guard closed, wrapping an arm around their same side ankle. You're looking to get the crook of your elbow behind their ankle: for further control, you could try reaching through to grab your own collar. For power, range and balance, put your free hand on the floor, as if you were doing a handstand (hence the name).

To complete the sweep, you need to bring their knee out sideways. Their foot has to be immobilised for that, or they'll be able to adjust and maintain their balance. To turn their knee out, bring your hips sideways, pushing into the inside of their knee (don't go above the knee, you need to stay either next to it or underneath). Once you've pushed it far enough so their leg swivels, that should knock them to the floor. Dan's option was to bring the hip right onto the knee to push it from facing forwards to face sideways instead, which worked well (at least on one side, I had real trouble doing it on the other side). Your guard stays closed throughout, opening at the last moment to adjust into mount.

However, that still leaves them a hand with which they can post out and recover. To prevent that, you can cross-grip their sleeve. This is what Xande calls the 'muscle sweep', because their ankle is by your 'muscle' (i.e., bicep). The set up is the same as before, but this time, you don't use your free hand to push off the floor. Instead, you grab their opposite sleeve, thereby both preventing them from posting out, and also providing you with an easy way of pulling yourself up into mount.

The difficulty is the decreased leverage at your disposal. Now that you can't use that hand to push up, you instead have to really push into their knee. Make sure your grip around their leg is tight, pulling their foot right up to your shoulder. You will also use your grip on their sleeve, pulling their arm to help you. This is tougher to pull off than the handstand, but it makes the transition to the top much easier.

Dan finished with an old school final option, the star sweep. This is one I used to try all the time nine years or so ago, but have fallen out of the habit. From the handstand sweep, kick your leg so that you swivel around the leg you're hooking with your arm. Stay close, kneeling next to that leg, facing parallel, head low. Lean back to knock them to the ground. You need to be careful you aren't too explosive with this one, in order to avoid tweaking their knee. I was ending up too turned a few times, meaning that I ended up in a poor position once (if) they fell down.

The last one is an omoplata, from that handstand sweep position. You have the cross-grip on their sleeve, pass that to the hand you have around their leg. Grab their collar and pull them down with your now free hand. Turn your hips out and bring your leg over their head, like you're clamping for an armbar. Knock them down, then you can transition into an omoplata. Dan doesn't triangle his legs, as that can give them a footlock: instead, he just squeezes his knees together.

20/06/2016 - BJJ Globetrotter Camp | Leuven 2016 | Closed Guard (Wim Deputter)

Class #725
BJJ Globetrotter Camp (Sportoase Leuven), Wim Deputter, Leuven, Belgium, 20/06/2016

Deputter began his lesson with an exercise to get the right hip movement in closed guard. First, bring your hips up, driving them into your partner. Then shoot them back down, pulling your partner in with your knees, wrapping your arms around them to keep everything tight. Adding to that, he then showed how when you feel their weight going one way, bring your head and torso to the other side. That means when you pull them down, you’re in position to take their back or set up a sweep.

A sweep therefore followed next. In order to get the momentum, he pulled them in, then extended his hips up as he lifted his knees. It was a tricky motion to work out in sparring: watching the video as I type this up during the nogi class makes it a little clearer, but I’ll need to drill that a lot more at open mat. Anyway, for the sweep, establish a pistol grip on their sleeve, your other hand gripping their knee. Thrust your hips up, then pull your knees in to lift them up (the tricky motion). Angle off to look in their ear, so you gripping hand is far away from you. Then kick your leg into the armpit, lift the knee and sweep.

If you can’t get that sweep in for whatever reason, keep the sleeve grip and turn away, so your non-gripping elbow is on the floor. Extend your hip and punch your gripping arm away from you, stiff arming so you can then pass it off to the other hand, locking in the gift wrap, their arm getting pulled around their own neck as a result.

Often they will stand up in the closed guard. A useful standing sweep to try is the handstand sweep, which Deputter does differently to how I’ve seen it before. He begins the same, wrapping an arm around their leg. With your non-hooking arm, grip their arm on the trapped leg side: in the scenario he demonstrated, they had a sleeve grip on your non-hooking arm, but you could still adjust to grab their other sleeve. The main difference is his reliance on the legs to off balance, rather than driving hips into their knee. Once he had his sleeve grips, he opening his legs, curling the hooking side leg by their hip. That continues to curl in, while the other leg chops up and across into their armpit. I think he kept cycling his legs to knock them over, but even with a video, it was hard to be certain.

The final technique was an omoplata sweep. You are trying to get into position for your handstand sweep, but they turn in their knee and solidify their base. Reach the arm you have under their leg through, to grab their sleeve. At the same time, you are gripping their collar. Swivel through, pulling on their elbow to move into the omoplata position. You aren’t going to use the swing of your legs to finish. Instead, put your free foot on the back of their head, pushing it down. You should then be able to extend and roll through for the sweep. Deputter then somehow managed to swivel through into an armbar, staying really tight, but I didn’t quite catch the details.

18/07/2015 - RGA Bucks | Closed Guard | Sweeps When They Stand

Class #653
RGA Bucks (BJJ), Dan Lewis, Aylesbury, UK - 18/07/2015

At RGA Bucks, the class goes through more techniques and with less drilling time: although I wouldn't teach that way myself, as a student and given I only get up to RGA Bucks every two months, it's perfect for me. It means there is lots of technique when I visit, plus I get plenty of sparring time to make sure I can roll with everybody I want to (priority is old training partners, along with people around my size).

Dan taught three options for when they stand in your closed guard, which fits in nicely with the month of closed guard at Artemis BJJ in June. Each one was predicated off a slightly different reaction by your partner. In the first scenario, after they've stood, they are trying to get their knees under your bum for a guard break (apparently a lot of people at RGA Bucks have been doing what Dan called the 'table top' position, because JT Torres taught it at a seminar recently).

First you want a cross grip on their sleeve. You might get that before they stand, but normally they will break the grip before beginning to rise up. Once you have that, you also want a collar grip. This is to stop them being able to sit back into that 'table top': if you're pulling down on their collar, you should be able to use their broken posture to keep them where you want.

Open your guard and slide down to their knees, reclosing around their legs. For the table top attempt their feet have to step in close together, setting you up for a sweep. Extend your legs, then lift slightly, turning them over to the side of the cross-gripped sleeve. Stay tight. Depending on where you land, you can either drive your knee forwards to secure mount, or squash them as you pass to side control.

Second option was the usual handstand sweep (like I taught last month), starting with the version where you grab their sleeve. As Dan noted, the sleeve grabbing one can be hard, as they can turn out their foot and resist. That's when you add the extra leverage from pushing off your hand into the handstand sweep.

The final technique was an omoplata. You've attempted the handstand sweep, but it isn't working. Instead, feed the cross grip over to the other hand, under the leg. Take time to establish that grip, pushing it in tight with both hands. Then grab their collar and pull down. Walk you leg up over their back, into the armpit. Don't try to immediately leap into the omoplata leg position, as they can potentially shrug that off and posture up.

To make it more gradual with greater control, bring your free leg over their head and push down at an angle, like you would to control their posture during an armbar. Bringing them down to the mat, maintaining your sleeve grip. Switch your grips, then the hand that was grabbing the leg grabs their belt. Push their arm around your leg, then you can disengage the sleeve grip, get up onto your elbow and switch the belt grip to their far hip. You can sweep from there too if you don't get the positioning, locking your legs and rolling through, making sure you lift your arm out of the way.

Sparring started off with Chris, my white belt drilling partner. It was cool to hear that he has been reading my blog for a while: always great to meet somebody who reads this blog! :D It was specifics from closed guard, meaning I was looking for underhooks to get into the collar clamp position I've been playing with since last month. I got the angle, pressing on his head, where we stayed for a while (he did a good job of staying patient, looking for an escape).

I went for the omoplata once I got my leg past his shoulder, but my body was a bit squished up preventing me from extending properly. I managed to turn it into a triangle by swinging around, a combination I don't normally get but should work on more. As I've gotten into this underhook thing, that should mean the omoplata becomes a much bigger part of my game.

On top, I was being a bit lazy, sticking with kneeling passes and seeing if I could get Jason Scully's sideways variation on the tailbone break, along with his 'eat the belt'. Couldn't get either, as Chris had decent control of my arm. I eventually got through with the normal kneeling break.

Then in free sparring, I went with Gareth, a purple from New Zealand who has been down to visit us at Artemis BJJ. He's a bit bigger than me, so I immediately looked to get on top and stay heavy. I wanted the breadcutter, moving to north south. I had the arm under, but getting the right positioning by the neck was causing me trouble. I should have remembered to push on the far arm and move into an armbar. Eventually I got rolled over, into the typical "getting squashed during pass attempt" position, same as what happens with Chris J back at Artemis BJJ. I need to work on 'walls' in open guard, maybe sit up more? Koala guard is another option, also breaking grips more actively.

There was a lot more motion with Stu (another purple, who runs RGA Milton Keynes with his partner Hayley, who is also cool: she wasn't feeling well and sat out of sparring, where I had a good chat with her to catch up), probably because he's smaller. He was going for my neck and back. I just about wriggled free, looking for knee cuts. I mostly tried for the kimura, but not securing it from good positions: e.g., I had it during his pass, under side control, when he was moving to my back, etc.

As he kept turning to turtle, I got into the crucifix, but forgot about getting the collar with an arm around the neck. We ended up in reverse mount, most unusual, then he was able to gradually catch me with a bow and arrow right at the end. I popped out of the first attempt, but then he got it tighter and I couldn't manage to get his elbow. Nicely done! :)

07/07/2009 - Nova Força

Class #232



Nova Força Epsom (BJJ), Tim Radcliffe, Epsom, UK - 07/07/2009

At long last, I'll be heading to Turkey with my gf in a couple of months. I've been meaning to take her there since we started going out eight years ago, so very much overdue. Also given me the sufficient kick up the arse I need to finally try and brush up my rather terrible Turkish. Only downside is that the people I cycled past probably thought I was nuts, as I was loudly repeating Turkish from my language podcast on the way to and from training.

Tim went through two sweeps today, both of which I've seen before, but still can't perform very well. The first standing sweep begins when they stand in your guard and try to open your legs. Grab their sleeves, slip down their body and open your guard. Once you get to their knees, squash them together with your legs, locking your feet. This needs to be quick, as normally they'll put one leg back to begin passing, which prevents you trying this technique.

Using your sleeve grips, push their arms down and as far back as you can. This should put them off balance. You can now crunch your legs towards you and roll over one shoulder (as in the typical breakfalling drill). Keep pulling on the arms to end up in mount, aiming to end up near their hips.

I had some trouble getting this right. Locking the legs is straightforward, but I found pushing the arms back in combination with crunching your knees in and rolling over awkward. Aside from my general ineptitude, I also don't like techniques where I feel I lack control, which is the case with this one: momentum is a big part of it.

On top of that, when I rolled back, I was ending up too far forward in mount, which in sparring would provide my partner with the option to escape out the back. That was because I wasn't controlling the arms properly, or pushing on the sleeves as I rolled.

The next standing sweep is a variation on one of my favourites, the handstand sweep. This time when they stand up in your closed guard, you keep your legs locked around their waist. Grab a sleeve, then underhook their opposite foot with your arm. Drop your hips to their knees and twist: if their knees are closed, use your hips to dig your way between them.

Drive your hip against the knee of their trapped leg to knock them to the floor. Come up on top using the grip on their sleeve, with your legs in a hurdling position (i.e., one bent with the foot pointing back, the other straight, pointing diagonally away from their body). You're now well placed to shift into a strong mount.

Simon had a tip on the grip here, demonstrating what he feels is the most powerful method. First, get your thumb under the sleeve. Twist that up, wrapping your fingers around the top, continuing to twist. You should end up with a pocket of gi material held by your four fingers, thumb gripping outside.

In free sparring I started with Tim, quickly getting into the usual thing pattern of escaping side control to guard repeatedly. As before, I was concentrating on staying on my side, shrimping, and also trying to get my forearm to my thigh in order to block knee on belly. Need to be quicker with that, and also keep in mind the option of going to knees from under side control.

After briefly rolling with a beginner, which resulted in me showing them how to escape side control (which surprisingly they don't appear to have seen yet), I went with Simon. He's always really good for tips, though he tends to go at a harder pace than the other senior belts I've rolled with at Nova Força.

First thing was that I need to press forward when in someone's guard or I'll simply get knocked over backwards. That's especially true when starting from knees for sparring, as I'll tend to be passive and wait to see what they'll do.

Secondly, to defend the baseball bat choke (Simon said this was applicable to chokes in general too), I should press the elbow of their choking arm outwards, defending my neck with my other hand. As they need to close their elbows for the choke, that will give me room to turn towards them and shrimp out.

Finally, to escape mount I need to be proactive with my elbows. Rather than just staying tight and defensive, I have to really push on their legs and shrimp. Simon exposed the weakness in my defence by repeatedly moving into a mounted triangle, which is something that's happened before with other people too. So, more activity on my part under mount!

21/05/2008 - BJJ (Advanced)

Class #147



Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK - 21/05/2008 - Advanced

I've already mentioned bjjMap.com in this blog, and there is now another club database in the works, called simply Gym Database. The site interface is looking great so far, although there are a few problems that still need to be worked out (though I think I encountered more as I was adding a UK entry: unsurprisingly, the site is geared towards the US at the moment). Should hopefully become a useful resource once the kinks are ironed out: the developer also started a thread on Sherdog, looking for any suggestions people might have for improvements. Also reminds me to put up a link for one of the other big databases, TrainJiuJitsu.com.

Christina has returned from the US: its been strange not having my regular training partner there in class, so cool to have her back. She and her husband Lorenzo had the chance to train at both American Top Team in Coconut Creek and Gracie Barra Orlando. I seem to remember there is at least one person from Bullshido who trains at ATT Coconut Creek, so I wonder if he was there: I asked Lorenzo if he remembered a big Asian guy, but either Anthony wasn't there, or Lorenzo didn't get a chance to train with him. Still, reminds me how I'd like to go off on a geektastic trip around some part of the US to go train with internet people. My current vague plan is San Diego, LA and Bend, but it’s a very hypothetical plan at the moment. Definitely want to get out there at some point in the future, though.

Getting back to class, first technique, very handily, was a sweep for when your partner stands up in your guard. In fact, it was the basic standing sweep generally known as the 'handstand sweep'. As they stand, keep your guard closed, wrapping an arm around their same side ankle. Twist into their knee with your hips, pushing up with your other hand for extra leverage, which done right will drop them to the floor.

However, that still leaves them a hand with which they can post out and recover. To prevent that, Jude showed a more difficult variation on the standing sweep. The same set up, but this time, you don't use your free hand to push up by your head. Instead, you grab their opposite sleeve, thereby both preventing them from posting out, and also providing you with an easy way of pulling yourself up into mount.

The difficulty is due to the decreased leverage at your disposal. Now that you can't use that hand to push up, you instead have to really twist into their knee. Make sure your grip around their leg is tight, pulling their foot right to your head. You will also use your grip on their sleeve, pulling their arm way across towards their trapped leg. This is tougher to pull off, as we discovered when drilling.

Next, Jude showed us another standing sweep, which looked a little like the standing version of the flower sweep. Again keeping your guard closed as they stand, pull them down towards you with a hold on their collar. Having bent them downwards, move your legs up their back, then reach for their opposite armpit, grabbing over their shoulder.

With your free hand, swivel and wrap around their opposite foot, then use that grip in conjunction with your leg to drive them to the ground. Note that if they put their legs closer together, you can not only wrap around their opposite foot, but reach though with that same hand to grab their other pant leg. From their, you can roll into an armbar.

Alternately, if they adjust their legs, you can switch to a standing armbar by bringing your leg over their head. If they also manage to get their arm free of that, you should still have your legs in position for an omoplata sweep, rolling through and then adjusting to either side control or s-mount (where you have their arm trapped and kind of swing round behind you into mount, with their arm still between your legs).

Sparring was unusual today, in that everyone competing at the Mundials (plus Indra, who was being impressively brave) went to the mat and then had to stay there while people switched in and out. Guard passage was followed by takedowns then finally free sparring, in one minute rounds but no rest for the people out on the mat. During that I had a chance to play with the 'paw' concept in half-guard against Oli, as well as go for deep half guard, but then Oli was going light. Even so, I was still sitting their clamped on his legs without much of an idea what to do: I guess getting to the position is something, but I really need to work out a better plan than my usual terrified squirrel-fu.

Normal free sparring kicked off with Christina, where again I fell into the typical pattern of trying to keep her at bay with my open guard. Its getting better, and I felt I was at least partly controlling the distance, but she eventually passed to knee-on-belly. At one point I again ended up in a sort of deep half guard, but not very tight.

Also, I tried sitting up in closed guard to try and stop her standing. That did work, but I wasn't able to do anything else. I tried sit-up sweeps and the kimura set-up, but Christina's base was too good and her defence too tight. I threw in some choke attempts too, but couldn't sink in anything around her neck: she was happy to let me get one grip, but that was as far as I managed. Grabbing the back of her gi was difficult, and her chin was sufficiently tucked that I failed to wedge an arm underneath even when I did get that gi grip.

Tran was my second and final spar, with another familiar pattern, this time escaping his mount and defending cross-chokes. I clung to half guard for a little while, but Tran was able to bring his knee up and drive through for mount. He then worked for the choke, but I was able to slip my hand in between, stopping him from clamping down on my neck. It was uncomfortable, with plenty of strain on my hand, but I was in no danger of being choked. However, this is a habit I should probably get out of: much better to defend the choke earlier than a last ditch blockade, which might well fail against someone willing to painfully crush my hand into submission.

Also nice to chat to Brian, as I don't often get to vent about writing commitment frustrations with people who can sympathise. ;)

02/01/2008 - BJJ (Beginners)

Class #113



Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK - 02/01/2008 – Beginner

Nick G has moved his excellent blog, The Jiu-Jitsu Brotherhood, to a new site, here. Looks like he was still working on it last time I checked, but presumably new articles will be appearing there rather than the old blogspot site.

As it’s the start of a new year, I’m going to go through my training to date (I’m very, very geeky about my statistics: Excel sheet stuffed with formulae). Since November 2006, I’ve been (before tonight’s class, that is) to 112 classes of BJJ, of which 85 were beginner, 26 were advanced (11 gi and 16 nogi), which means 122.5hrs total at RGA, with another 1.5hrs from the Brighton TD, and finally the half hour intro with Oli back in October 2006. I’ve been to one competition, and plan to make at least one more this year (I doubt I’ll ever be all that into competition, as its not really my personality to compete, but nevertheless important to test myself outside of class). That means BJJ now makes up 16.93% of my total martial arts experience (which – and this is partially guesswork – is 735.5hrs), the lion’s share still being Zhuan Shu Kuan (68.66%, but that’s unsurprising, seeing as I trained there for 8 years). I haven’t been back to ZSK since April last year, as I’m not really interested in stand-up anymore, but as I enjoy the socialising, may well try and make some sessions later this year.

My main focus hasn’t really changed much since I began: in the beginners, I concentrated on sweeps, and since moving to the advanced, I’ve been looking into escapes. Those two areas (which are big areas) still need plenty of improvement, so I’m not going to stop working either of those. However, I also need to get some kind of top game, as at present its non-existent, along with attempting more submissions (though I mainly want to use them in combination with a sweep, like the kimura from sit-up or armbar from scissor and flower/pendulum).

I wasn’t feeling 100% this morning, and still felt a bit off during work, so decided to go for the beginners instead of advanced tonight. That’s what I normally do if I feel a little dodgy, but not enough to skip training: means I still get at least one class in, so don’t then feel so bad about taking the rest of the week off if it turns out I am coming down with something.

Training tonight focused on sweeps when they stand up in your guard. First one was the usual ankle grab sweep, which despite being basic is something I always have trouble with. It might be that I’m not raising my hips high enough, or thrusting them forward sufficiently, or perhaps both. Will have to remember to check that with Jude or Oli etc next time I have a chance. I also find it difficult to follow it up quickly, particularly when – as today – my partner (a guy called Doug, who has been at RGA around two years, but kept away by work for the past three months) is a fair bit taller than me. Doug suggested holding onto the gi to pull yourself up, though mused that this might also mean you effectively pull the guy towards you, negating the sweep. Either way, the proper method as Jude showed it was to come up on your hand, pushing forward so you can get to mount.

The next sweep involved feet in hips (not sure what the usual name for this sweep is, though I think we’ve done it before). If the ankle grab sweep fails because they’re pulling on your lapels for balance, reach inside their arms. Then draw your legs back until you can get your feet into their hips. Finally, pull their elbows back to your head, so they’re overbalancing right over you, then lift your legs and roll them straight over into your mount. I need to remember to get them all the way forward before straightening out the legs, as I think I being a little premature at points in the drill, meaning that the sweep didn’t quite complete properly (or wouldn’t have, if there had been much resistance).

Sparring was guard passage, which on top against Doug I generally tried the tailbone break. As often happens, that wasn’t hugely effective, but did put me in position to bring my knee through when Doug attempted to initiate something. He swept me a few times by getting his knees into my legs (or was it a scissor? Frequently find myself falling prey to this, but I don’t think it involves getting the shin into the stomach as with a scissor sweep. Could be wrong, though), but I also managed to use that opening once or twice to pin a leg and get through to side control.

Need to be more careful of my base, so I don’t get swept in that position where I’ve got my knee back, and also should try standing passes more often. I was possibly a bit wary this time due to having spent the whole class working standing sweeps, but that’s no excuse. I did at least defend OK against his choke attempts, by either squashing his arms together at the elbow or isolating one arm until I could get space to posture up.

Underneath, I got passed a few times, such as when attempting scissor sweeps, but had a chance to play with my half-guard. I had a vague attempt at the lockdown thingy where you use your foot to wrap round and cause extra pressure, but will need to review the basic section of the Bravo book to make a more serious effort. I did find I was able to get up on my side, and get my arm right across Doug’s back, but couldn’t quite move through to taking the back. However, it did at least enable me to recover full guard.

I also tried slipping down to a single leg when Doug stood up in my guard, which sort of worked, in the sense that while I didn’t manage to catch the leg, I was able to come to my feet. That does rather defeat the object of the exercise, though, as I want to be going for a single as opposed to merely ending up in a clinch. Final point I wanted to note is that I found myself in that position where I have a leg flailing by their head, which eventually gets batted away and they move into side control. I need to work out what to do in that situation to regain a secure position: I was trying to get my foot into his biceps, but couldn’t get the foot away from by his head.

My next partner was a Brazilian guy called Felipe, who apparently trained under De La Riva for four years (although this was ten years ago). According to him, De La Riva is a really nice guy, and very small (at least I’m guessing that’s what he meant by holding up his little finger: perhaps I missed some nuance of Brazilian sign language). Felipe had a tendency to cling firmly onto my trouser legs by the knee or ankle when I was in his guard, which I felt sure must mean I had a good opportunity to pass, as he was tying up his arms. I did manage to step through at one point, albeit with Felipe continuing to hold on to the trouser leg. He eventually relented and switched to half-guard: I can’t remember if I managed to step through initially and then on the second try stayed stuck in half-guard, or if I stepped through the half guard too. Either way, I tried to focus on fighting for the underhooks from half-guard, and flattening Felipe out, which sort of worked, as I was able to get my arm under his head and drive my shoulder forward.

With my guard, I found again that Felipe likes to hold on tight (though he mention, not at all to my surprise, that his fingers were sore from the previous round). I put my legs up too high at one point, meaning he could easily stack pass me, and he also slid through to side control a couple of times. As he was staying so low, I probably should have tried to work my flower sweep more, which is something I’ve yet to work out, despite having been trying to do so for over a year now. I also couldn’t quite succeed in armbarring him, although he was going for a thrust choke and seemed in perfect position for the attack: need to get my hips over faster. We finished off as I was hanging on to his arm looking for a kimura, or possibly using that hold to sweep: couldn't manage either, though the latter looked viable at one point.

I don’t feel too bad after that class, but will see how my body is tomorrow morning. Hopefully make the no-gi, as it would be annoying to start the year with a single-class week (though at least that isn’t no classes). Also depends on the weather: trains in this country are terrible, and tend to collapse in bad weather. May be snow tomorrow afternoon, so will need to check that before I consider heading off to training.

01/03/2007 - BJJ

Class #34


Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Felipe Souza, London, UK - 01/03/2007

I didn’t get the chance to drill the scissor and sit-up as I’d hoped today, but instead I was surprised to see Felipe go through the exact same sweep I’d unsuccessfully tried on Dominique yesterday. Not sure what it’s called, but I’ll refer to it as the standing guard sweep. When Person A stands up to pass, Person B hooks an arm around Person A’s leg, gripping their own collar (an important detail I missed yesterday). They then push up off their other arm, drive their hips into their opponent and attempt to knock Person A to the ground. Here's the Paulo Guillobel video I saw a few days ago, which starts with the same technique.



It seems a difficult sweep to get, as in drilling the person standing generally had to let their partner knock them down rather than being forced to do so through technique. Then again, when drilling you’re expecting it, so I assume this sweep is one that needs the right timing, such as when your opponent is just about to pass and perhaps has their feet close together, or has overbalanced for some reason. That’s just conjecture on my part, though.

I preferred the follow up, an armbar from standing guard. When Person A successfully resists the sweep attempt, Person B grabs their arm (which would normally be gripping Person B’s collar in preparation for a pass). Pulling down and across, Person B walks their guard up high on Person A’s back. At the same time, they need to keep their hips raised so Person A can’t pull out the arm, and also maintain their grip on Person A’s leg, in order to improve control. Once Person B has achieved a sufficiently high guard, they swivel and bring the leg round, staying tight on Person A’s back, then go for the armbar.

Chris reminded me once again how good a training partner he is, constantly providing useful tips. He also always provides the right level of resistant to pick up my mistakes: in this case, I kept forgetting to keep my hips raised up, meaning he could pull his arm out. If I was with somebody who ignored my mistake, then I’d end up using sloppy technique in sparring and have no chance of getting the sub (presuming I found myself in position to go for it).

Sparring went pretty well for me today, as IIRC, I managed to sweep or pass consistently. However, my technique was a bit crappy, and I get the impression that there was probably some simple counter to what I was doing, especially as I wasn’t doing the motion right. Sparring was initially split into weight groups, which I definitely prefer to king of the hill, with my first spar turning out to be a long one. I was with a guy called Jonathan I’ve not sparred before, who was making all the attacks at first. With a bit of wriggling and pushing I was able to resist his attempts at collar chokes and sit-up sweeps, but not able to do much more than that. When I finally picked my moment to stand up, he unsurprisingly went for the sweeps we’d just been shown. However, I had little trouble maintaining my base, and eventually got control of his leg, trapped it with my shin and passed to side control. Getting the pass is always nice, but I really need to stop getting stuck in these long wars of attrition and be more proactive. That old fear of standing up is still lingering, so looks like I have a bit more work to do before I can overcome it after all.

I had to sit out for a bit before my next spar, as my left foot had completely cramped up. Once that relented, I had a similar roll against Anne, although this time I stood up sooner. With Del, I managed to turn him over from underneath - I think from a failed kimura attempt, but not sure. Whichever, I ended up in a sort of side control (he was turned to his side with an arm round my neck), but as Del is one of the more aggressively competitive members of class, he wasn’t keen to stop. However, as its specific sparring, getting on top from having been on the bottom signalled the end point.

Sparring then switched to just working with one person, which for me turned out to be Nathan, who I’ve sparred a number of times now. I had a chance to work my open guard as he tried to pass, seeing how my control was if I had one leg in, or both legs around his inner thighs. Seemed to function ok, but on the other hand we were both pretty knackered, so he may have been able to easily clear my legs if he’d been fresher. I found success in keeping him close with my legs, then going for a kimura on his arm. I didn’t get the kimura, but I did keep ending up with a solid grip on his arm. Coupled with my firm lock around his back, this meant I had enough control that I could execute a sit-up sweep, albeit poorly. The reason it was especially poor is because I was exerting a lot of effort to put him on his back – I’m definitely missing a step of the sweep, possibly not isolating his supporting leg enough. I swept like this several times in the course of our spar, but my technique was crappy, so needs plenty of work.

Success in passing, as before, mainly came from trapping a leg with me knee. I need to improve my ability to force the guard open, because at the moment I’m normally getting the pass when they choose to relax their guard. While that works too, I’d rather be using good technique on my part as opposed to waiting for them to make a mistake.

My cardio sucks arse, as I was completely knackered during sparring. I’m clearly going have to really improve before I have a hope of making it through an advanced class, as at present I’ll simply drown in my own sweat. Another thing that annoyed me, totally unrelated to class, is that I’ve missed the train I wanted to get twice now. Need to start taking the bus instead of walking to the station!

Still, can’t pretend it isn’t satisfying to get lots of passes and sweeps in sparring, even if the technique wasn’t anywhere near as polished as I’d like. Something else that pleases me is a confirmation of the rumour I heard about RGA moving to a new location. Felipe was talking about going to a bigger venue next year, when we’d be able to have more classes due to a split level mat, with two running concurrently. If I understood him correctly, the plan is to have beginner (up to third stripe white), intermediate (third stripe white and blues) and advanced (senior blues and up), which sounds promising.