10/12/2018 - Teaching | Half Guard | Overhook/whizzer counter sweep

Teaching #822
Artemis BJJ (MYGYM Bristol), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 10/12/2018

The back take is an excellent basic option. Establish your underhook, bump them with your arm and move to the back. However, if they manage to thread their arm through (in what's called a 'whizzer', though I think more accurately it is an overhook), the back take is no longer there.

As ever, you still have options: their whizzer/overhook doesn't stop you sweeping them. Indrek Reiland shows how you can still do the toe grab, or you can do a counter roll movement. With your free hand, push their knee outwards to disrupt their base: you can also underhook that leg if you prefer. Dive your body underneath them, putting your head into the gap between their arm and their leg.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Artemis BJJ (@artemisbjj) on Jan 9, 2019 at 12:04am PST

Finally, bring your whizzered/overhooked elbow back towards their head, aiming to clamp your elbow to your side (as much as you can in that position). From here you should be able to roll them over fairly easily. If you need some additional help, try tweaking their leg out like you do with the toe grab sweep.
_____________________

Teaching Notes: I thought this would follow on nicely from the back take. Checking BJJ Library again (which is where I saw the Gordo 'Plan B' option), there's a good vid from Xande where he shows a back take variation, sweep and overhook counter. I realised when checking through my blog posts when I taught this before that I have actually seen that exact sequence before, but I'd forgotten. Kenny taught it at one of the BJJ Globetrotters Camps, which I drew upon for a class a while back. This time, I thought I'd stick with the simpler option of just the back take and whizzer counter, given it's a fundamentals class.

I wouldn't normally teach the back take and a counter, but then I've already taught them a standard back take already. So, a variation doesn't seem like too much of an add-on. We drilled the back take in the warm up to further help with that. Video will be added later, when I've uploaded them all onto Instagram. As ever, there is a delay. ;)

04/08/2017 - Teaching | Half Guard | Whizzer Counters (with Kenny Polmans details)

Teaching #693
Artemis BJJ (MYGYM Bristol), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 31/07/2017

I continued with simple sweeps from underneath, drawing on Kenny Polmans excellent class in Leuven. He showed a couple of options for countering the whizzer, a common reaction from the person on top when you get an underhook. All of them build on how Kenny takes the back, where a key detail is tweaking out their leg, hooking your calf right under as you come to your knees. If they whizzer, as they often film, do a superman punch with your whizzered arm, while simultaneously grabbing their far knee with your other arm. Drive your hips down to end up in a passing position. To finish, hook behind their top leg with your own, taking a big step to twist them. You can then move around behind.

A post shared by Artemis BJJ (@artemisbjj) on Aug 7, 2017 at 1:30am PDT

The second option is one I'm more familiar with, the whizzer counter roll. This time, their knee is too far for you to reach it, you instead your dive your arm between their legs. Roll through, maintaining that hook on their leg. This will help you roll them over. Bring your whizzered elbow back towards their head, aiming to clamp your elbow to your side (as much as you can in that position). It shouldn't take much force to do this if you've got all the details, particularly that leg hook.
_____________________

Teaching Notes: The hardest part is getting your other leg out, that didn't feel very smooth. Next time, make sure that you're lifting their leg enough with your hook that you can slide your leg underneath. That's the key motion to practice for that bit, something Lucas Leite does. It isn't pulling your whole leg forward and then around (or rather, that's inefficient). I guess a little bit like the heel drag and elbow escape, as you're sliding a leg under theirs, but you're getting the leverage to lift their leg with your own hooking leg?

Some people also got confused about which leg was hooking, trying to do it with their outside leg. Make sure to do the big step where you are pushing into the back of their calf with your shin, that's very useful. It's possible to teach both of these in the one class, I think, but I could just teach the counter roll. Surprisingly the last time I taught this was two years ago, so Kenny's class was a useful reminder to teach it again. :)

12/02/2015 - Teaching | Half Guard | Whizzer Counter Roll

Teaching #278
Artemis BJJ (PHNX Fitness), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 12/02/2015

I continued with simple sweeps from underneath, teaching what Gordo (the guy who effectively created the half guard as a viable position) calls 'Plan B'. I don't think that's very descriptive, so I'm going with whizzer counter roll.

The situation is that you've managed to get the underhook under half guard, but they've threaded their arm through in what's called a 'whizzer'. That ruins your back take, but it doesn't stop you sweeping them. Indrek Reiland shows how you can still do the toe grab, or you can do a counter roll movement. With your free hand, push their knee outwards to disrupt their base: you can also underhook that leg if you prefer. Dive your body underneath them, putting your head into the gap between their arm and their leg.

Finally, bring your whizzered elbow back towards their head, aiming to clamp your elbow to your side (as much as you can in that position). From here you should be able to roll them over fairly easily. If you need some additional help, try tweaking their leg out like you do with the toe grab sweep.
_____________________

Teaching & Sparring Notes: Thursday classes end up in a different format to the two mixed classes at MyGym, for three reasons. Firstly the Thursday is longer, the mat space is bigger and there tend to be less people. I often fit in two techniques rather than one, so tonight also inluded the toe grab sweep in what became a general recap of Monday and Wednesday. I added in the Bravo version of the toe grab sweep for variety too, which was interesting to watch in terms of how the students worked through it. Initially they were saying "cool, that's simpler," because Bravo doesn't switch his grips. He gets the underhook and grabs the foot, then sweeps from there.

However, in progressive resistance, the students reverted to the grip switch, because with Bravo's method they couldn't get the leverage. Of course, they aren't starting from the lockdown, which makes a difference (though I did mention that too). The whizzer counter roll went smoothly as it always tends to, plus one of the students commented how they whizzer quite a lot (looking for the D'arce. Brabo? Whatever it's called, I get those mixed up all the time). So, useful when rolling with him at least. ;)

The smaller numbers on Thursday has the advantage that I often get to join in sparring, mainly during specific sparring. Rather than putting people into two king of the hill groups based on weight (like I do on Wednesdays, as that's the biggest class), Thursday it's a case of one person in the middle with everyone else switching in. I therefore practiced passing, using the pressure pass and reminding myself of the Xande cross-face alternative. If you can't get the cross-face, you can stick your head next to theirs and use that control instead. My neck was a little sore after class, though I'm not sure if it was me doing that wrong, or a sloppy escape out the back I did later.

Underneath, Braulio's arm shield worked well for me, to the extent that I think it actually fits better into my approach than the paw block. Keeping EstimaInAction in mind, I attempted to shift into deep half guard from there, but without much success (Braulio goes into the waiter sweep, whereas I prefer the Homer Simpson sweep: I wasn't getting either). Nevertheless, I felt considerably safer than normal, so I'll be sticking with the arm shield for the rest of this month.

Another type of shield caused more problems. I am not getting anywhere using the knee shield, in terms of sweeping. I know that there is a viable scissor sweep into back roll from here, as I've used and taught that in the past, but I must be forgetting a key element (probably to do with their weight distribution). I can get the position, then end up uselessly straining to move them with the sweep. Back take might be a good one to throw in there too, as that can work well off the knee shield. Braulio's version is very different to the kick and reach I'm used to, as he does something with the belt on EstimaInAction. Something to try I guess, though I don't like techniques that rely on belt grips (unlike the gi, the belt can loosen and fall off, so it doesn't feel secure).

11/02/2015 - Teaching | Half Guard | Whizzer Counter Roll

Teaching #277
Artemis BJJ (MyGym/Bristol Sports Centre), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 11/02/2015

This week, I continued with simple sweeps from underneath. Previously I went through the toe grab sweep, so today I'm following up with what Gordo (the guy who effectively created the half guard as a viable position) calls 'Plan B'. I don't think that's very descriptive, so I prefer calling it whizzer counter roll.

The situation is that you've managed to get the underhook under half guard, but they've threaded their arm through in what's called a 'whizzer'. That ruins your back take, but it doesn't stop you sweeping them. Indrek Reiland shows how you can still do the toe grab, or you can do a counter roll movement. With your free hand, push their knee outwards to disrupt their base: you can also underhook that leg if you prefer. Dive your body underneath them, putting your head into the gap between their arm and their leg.

Finally, bring your whizzered elbow back towards their head, aiming to clamp your elbow to your side (as much as you can in that position). From here you should be able to roll them over fairly easily. If you need some additional help, try tweaking their leg out like you do with the toe grab sweep.
_____________________

Teaching Notes: This is what I followed up with last time I taught half guard, but I'm not convinced it is the best follow up. I'm not sure many people even use the whizzer, something on which this sweep is predicated. So, unless I notice a bunch of people whizzering, I think next time I get to this stage in half guard month, I'll teach the kimura from half guard instead.

Having said that, at least seemed everyone managed the mechanics without any issues, given this is not a complex sweep. You could argue that even if people aren't doing a lot of whizzering, it is good to pre-empt that control with this sweep. Or perhaps if I had a class on the basics of maintaining the top position in half guard it would come up? I'm going to run through two half guard passes next week: that might bring up some other useful points for me to keep in mind for the person on the bottom.

25/06/2014 - Teaching | Whizzer Counter Roll

Teaching #161
Artemis BJJ (Bristol Sports Centre), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 25/06/2014

It's almost the last week of half guard month, though as Monday is still June, that gives me a lesson to cover some passing. This week, I continued with simple sweeps from underneath. A couple of days ago I went through the toe grab sweep, so today I'm following up with what Gordo (the guy who effectively created the half guard as a viable position) calls 'Plan B'. I don't think that's very descriptive, so I'm going with whizzer counter roll.

The situation is that you've managed to get the underhook under half guard, but they've threaded their arm through in what's called a 'whizzer'. That ruins your back take, but it doesn't stop you sweeping them. Indrek Reiland shows how you can still do the toe grab, or you can do a counter roll movement. With your free hand, push their knee outwards to disrupt their base: you can also underhook that leg if you prefer. Dive your body underneath them, putting your head into the gap between their arm and their leg.

Finally, bring your whizzered elbow back towards their head, aiming to clamp your elbow to your side (as much as you can in that position). From here you should be able to roll them over fairly easily. If you need some additional help, try tweaking their leg out like you do with the toe grab sweep.
_____________________

Teaching Notes: I went through that half guard back take drill I wanted, which seemed to be better understood than I expected. Both the experienced and beginner students appeared to manage it ok. I'd like to add in recovering full guard to the drill as well, so next week I'll see if that can be done in a way that makes sense. That way I can get in several important skills into the one drill: taking the back, maintaining half guard and recovering full guard. I could even add in a pass to side control, but that might be getting too complicated.

Technique tonight also went well, with no major problems cropping up in drilling. Chris suggested underhooking the leg, so I'll be adding that in when I teach it next time, as practicing it myself that seemed to work just as well as pushing the knee. The main area I'd like to play around with in more depth is the leg configuration as you're rolling them over. Tweaking the leg is one option, but I'm sure there must be other variations that could potentially increase leverage.