06/12/2007 - BJJ (No-Gi)

Class #107



Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Roger Gracie, London, UK - 06/12/2007 – No-Gi

My gf did have a spare gumshield, which is good: not sure I quite molded it right, but meh, better than nothing. I had meant to train on Wednesday, but trains on my way to campus messed up, so that I wasn’t able to get to Leamington in time to catch the right train to Marylebone. However, not too annoying, as my gf is visiting her parents again this weekend, meaning I’ve got the Friday and Saturday free to train. Also means I can pop in again on my niece this Saturday, then maybe make Christina’s xmas party.

Of greater annoyance was my laptop charger dying on the train down to High Wycombe. At first I thought someone was eating a curry, but turned out the smell was coming from the Dell adapter, after which it fizzled out. On the plus side, that meant that instead of pissing around on the internet last night, I finally got round to reading Pumping Iron, something I’ve been waiting to do since my birthday earlier this year. Every bit as enjoyable as the more famous documentary it spawned, this is packed with great photos and anecdotes (focusing on the 1972 Mr Universe contest in Baghdad and the 1972 Olympia in New York, following Mike Katz/Ed Corney and Schwarzenegger/Columbu respectively), along with a cool chunk of history related by Sig Klein on how the old strongman shows of Eugene Sandow laid the groundwork for bodybuilding in the 1940s onwards.

Getting back to BJJ: nogi began with light pummelling (weaving your arms through your partner’s in an alternating over-under clinch, in which you have one arm under their armpit while the other arm grips their other triceps). Roger, who was taking the class rather than Jude tonight, then demonstrated a standing guillotine, from the over-under position. With the arm that is underneath their armpit, pull them towards you and slightly to the side, while simultaneously with your other arm, push against their shoulder. This should put them in position so that you can use the arm that was pushing and instead wrap around their neck. Link up with your other arm and apply the guillotine.

If they resist that attempt by straightening up as you try to pull them forward and down, you can instead drop and shoot into their legs, taking them down. This led to an extended bit of drilling on the shot, for which Leo gave me a bunch of handy tips. The basic position is to come forward with your leading leg, dropping the knee to the floor in between their legs. Grabbing behind their knees, you step forward and raise up, driving them backwards and lifting for the takedown. Leo remarked that I needed to slam into his hip with my shoulder as I was shooting in, which helps to knock them off-balance.

After a bit more drilling, where the idea was that you had six seconds to take them down (one person crouched by their legs, not touching, until Roger said go), at which I failed miserably in both positions, we moved on to the next technique.

This was a guard break and pass, starting off in a slightly similar fashion to the old tailbone break. Inside their guards, your hands go on their torso near their hips, one hand slightly forward. Push back, with a knee raised up, until you’ve made a bit of space. Quickly slide your right hand in front of you, near your crotch, while at the same time digging your left hand behind. Slip both hands to their leg, keeping a knee on the ground with your other leg sprawled out behind you. Move backwards, which should give you the space to get your arms round both legs, gripping in front. Drive forward with your shoulder, trying to press their knee into their face, then finally push until you can slip past their legs into side control.

Leo gave me yet more useful advice whilst drilling this, as well as when we did some guard passage straight after. First thing was to be careful of the arm you’ve dug in behind: its possible for the other person to grab that arm and mess up your pass if you leave it vulnerable. If when you’re trying to slide past they lock an arm into your hip, jerk that hip forward. This will either bash their wrist, meaning they’ll unbend their arm, or you can keep wiggling the hip forward until you’ve knocked their blocking arm out of the way.

I mainly practiced this in guard passage, especially because the only thing the person on top was allowed to do was break the guard (the person on the bottom had the usual options of sweeping or submitting). Then again, that’s pretty much what I’d do on top anyway: certainly not going to be trying leg locks or something, as I wouldn’t have a clue what to do (not to mention I’m still woefully poor at passing, so need as much practice as I can get). Leo wasn’t going especially hard, and eventually starting coaching me as we sparred, building on what he’d advised during drilling.

I’m still struggling to be proactive when I have someone in my guard. With the gi, I’d get a grip on the lapel and sleeve and try to work from there. However, with nogi, I don’t have that option, so I think a particular focus for me has to be establishing grips, which for nogi would be overhooking an arm and controlling the head. I’ve not yet got that down properly, so will keep trying to work out how to get a secure hold.

I also kept on attempting the sit-up sweep, though it needs better set-up, and walking my guard up high to see if that would help my control. I need to be a bit more cautious with that, as a few times with Leo, he was able to use my attempts at a high guard to underhook both my legs and stack pass. So, that presumably means I’m leaving too much space, and also not attacking enough when I’ve the legs up, which should be pulling my opponent down towards me more forcefully.

I was totally knackered after that, so was the sole wimp sitting out the next round. I must have looked pretty tired, as Roger came over and asked if I was ok, commenting on my red face. Really could do with better cardio, but I can’t see myself getting my lazy arse into gear, given that in the comfort of my own home there’s nobody like Jude forcing me through a bunch of sweat-drenched exercises. Must try this willpower thing some time. ;)

After that rest, I rolled with Aika, who’s back this week after a long lay-off due to injury. She’s not quite recovered, as both her knees are still dodgy along with an elbow, but I was more than happy to go a bit lighter (though considering my pathetic levels of fitness, wasn’t entirely a choice). I spent most of the spar trying to get somewhere in guard, as with Leo, or spinning about under side control or in open guard. She got mount at one point, which gave me the chance to try for the upa/shrimp combo, but she moved forward at the same time, meaning she flew forward so we were basically back where we started on our knees.

Final spar, without a round of rest this time (though Roger was giving people a minute to recuperate between spars anyway), I went up against Frank. I think I may have rolled with him in the beginners before, and he’s recently moved up to the advanced: this was his second nogi class. Though he’s a little bigger than me, I was able to hold him off, probably because I’m a bit more used to nogi now. I kept ending up pulling half-guard, which wasn’t the idea (I was aiming for open guard), and eventually found myself under his side control. He switched to scarf-hold, and I noticed an opportunity to go for the escape where you bring your leg over their head and roll them. Getting my leg in position, I pushed forward, then suddenly he was tapping, which I didn’t expect.

Turns out he has a sore neck, and perhaps I was doing something weird that meant I ended up doing some kind of unintentional crank. Either way, that technique clearly needs work on my part, as it was supposed to be an escape, not a sloppy attack on the neck.

Rest of the spar continued the spin around in open guard, then go to side control theme. Towards the end of the round, I found myself in that ridiculous not-quite-reverse-triangle position. I was worried that I was going to end up putting his whole body weight on my head, which wouldn’t have been pleasant, but instead settled into using my legs to hold him in one place. I wasn’t anywhere near a reverse triangle, but I was at least able to prevent being crushed: need to think more carefully next time I randomly grab someone’s head with my legs from under side control.

Class finished up with a sprawl drill. The class had odd numbers (either someone left early or a group had been working in threes), meaning I was paired up with Roger. I took the chance to finally work out how to do a sprawl properly, which if I understood him correctly, was to shoot your hips back and down, hitting the floor before your hands or feet, also keeping your toes back (so the instep touches the floor). Also looked like Roger’s legs were staggered rather than parallel, due to one hip being further forward. I had previously through you shoot the hips back and land on your toes and hands, but from what I gather, the end position is closer to the floor, presumably to practice bringing as much of your weight downwards as possibly. Of course, could well have completely misunderstood what Roger was trying to show me.

Should be training in the beginner session tomorrow, which I haven’t done for a while (my gf is visiting her parents again this weekend), which I’ll then follow up with either the beginner or advanced tomorrow. Will see how I feel. That should also enable me to go visit my niece again on the Saturday, which is cool.

19/07/2007 - BJJ (Beginners)

Class #74



Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Maurição Gomes, London, UK - 19/07/2007 – Beginners

I’ve been having a very absentminded week. Started off by leaving my flip flops in Birmingham, then almost missing a bus despite leaning on the bus stop. I proceeded to sign the kids register, then today I forgot to pack my rash guard, so could only make the beginners session tonight. At least I remembered to bake that cake yesterday…although my mum did kinda take over (probably out of frustration at seeing me plod through a recipe she’s been doing long before I was even born).

Anyway, onto the BJJ. It’s a shame I had to miss the no-gi, as Maurição was teaching. However, on the other hand that did mean I was fully rested for the beginners, so could really concentrate on what he was saying. This lesson reminded me once again of Jude’s description of his teacher Maurição as a fine wine: one of the great things about training at RGA is the opportunity to learn from world-class people like Maurição.

First technique was the basic pass under the leg. I don’t think I have ever used this in sparring, as I pretty much always go over the over rather than under, which is apparently fairly common. Maurição mentioned how this was a very traditional pass which many people didn’t use because they assumed they’d get caught in a triangle. However, that’s only if you do it wrong: Maurição emphasised that its very important to first get the leg right up onto your shoulder, and secondly make sure the elbow of your other hand stays on either their inner or outer hip and does not get dragged across your opponent’s body. If your partner manages to get hold of the arm and start pulling, or is just very strong, then you can resist it by pushing through with your shoulder, meaning your whole body comes to your defence.

Another major part of the technique is to drive through and really stack them. As BJ Penn mentions on his site, the aim is to either get your shoulder right into their face, or squash their knee into their head. Staying on your toes is also essential, walking round and maintaining that downwards pressure, eventually pushing past the leg into side control.

Maurição went through this in meticulous detail: its rare that an instructor can describe a single, fundamental technique in such depth that its difficult to remember the full explanation. Just as he was about to tell us to go practice the pass, someone spoke up and asked about how to break the guard. This proved to be a fantastic question, as Maurição then, once again in fine detail, went through two breaks.

First was the one I’ve been using from BJ Penn’s site. Grab them by the belt, elbows in tight. Push back with your arms, knees coming back, with one pushing out to the side. That should eventually stretch their legs out and open the guard.

If that doesn’t work, then the second break is to stand up, then sit back down again. The integral detail here is that you shove your knee right into their cocsis before you sit down, so essentially impale them on your kneecap. Done right, that pops the legs apart straight away, leaving you with a knee in between their legs ready to start the pass.

However, I had some trouble finding the right spot, so will have to work on getting the positioning right. Still, very handy to have another option for breaking the guard, as previously I was feeling pretty limited.

Next technique followed on from the pass. Maurição noted that a lot of people were making a serious error, which was putting both hands through to the other side as soon as they got past the leg. That makes it possible for the other person to shrimp and recover guard, or potentially even take your back. Instead, you should keep a hand by the leg to stop them shifting their hips like that.

If you do find yourself in side control with both your arms over, then there is a transition to scarf hold and then back to side control you can do. First get an underhook on their arm, then switch your base and move to scarf hold, grabbing their arm and pulling it across your stomach. The leg near their head points straight out, the other is drawn up towards you, keeping your weight pressed down on them. Having secured that position, you then switch your legs back, trapping that arm that was by your stomach in the process and pushing it into their neck. One arm goes under their head, the other goes down by their hips.

Sparring was a little unusual, as often seems to be the case in Maurição’s classes. It was guard passage, but starting from open guard rather than closed. This was in order to have a chance to work that pass, which turned out to be more difficult than it looked initially. On my first attempt with Tamvin (who is close to my weight at about 63kg), I found that while I could get my shoulder to his leg, he could secure a solid grip with his legs which made it difficult to pass. I eventually got through, but what I should have done was stacked him more, coming up on my toes and pushing down, meaning that I’d be able to really put my legs into it.

On the second try, worked much better. I went a bit faster and drove hard, stacking my partner and slipping round. I still think I’m leaving too much space, however, as I should by pushing into the leg until I slip round. At the moment, I feel I’m still tending to bring my head around the leg and drop down instead, which gives my opponent the opportunity to shrimp and get to their knees. This happens pretty much every time I get in that position with Chris: his size and strength advantage no doubt helps, but the main problem is my sloppy technique.

Switching round, I had an interesting experience working open guard. I wrapped up Tamvin’s arm by getting my leg over his inner elbow and then a foot into his inner thigh, which stopped him pushing through effectively. I also went for a few elevator sweeps, getting it a couple of times the usual way (looped round the outside of one leg and the inside of the other), as well as from butterfly guard (both feet on his inner thighs). I found that I could relax in open guard and keep my partner neutralised without too much effort, but I think that was firstly because Tamvin isn’t used to open guard, and secondly because he was using his arms to try and work his way through rather than his legs. Nevertheless, was good to get a chance to play with some positions I don’t often have an opportunity to explore.

Next week I’ll be staying at my sisters, so I’m hoping to finally get a more hefty schedule of training. I’d also like to give the early morning class on Wednesday a go, which would make for an interesting change as it’s a mixture of beginners and advanced. Tamvin also tells me its pretty small, meaning that you get personal attention from Nick G, which would be cool.