20/07/2022 - Teaching | NoGi | Pasing open guard, knee slide

Teaching #Evening
Artemis BJJ (Easton Road), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK -20/07/2022

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If you are passing nogi, you don't have the joy of gi grips to help you secure position. Instead, put your hands on the middle of their shins, driving them into their body. Move off at an angle, then step your leg in deep, shin against the back of their knee, trying to get their leg towards the floor. Turn your inside knee inwards. You've got your body over the top of their other leg, attempting to put your weight into the side of that leg.

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By driving their leg across towards their other leg, they will tend to push back: it's common for people to give you the opposite reaction to whatever you're doing (i.e., you pull, they push). If they push back, use that momentum to move into a knee slide. You follow where they are pushing, bringing your shin over their thigh, your knee on the ground. Your other leg steps out for base.

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It is important to try and avoid their knee coming in, as you don't want to deal with the knee shield if you don't have to. In order to prevent it, circle your hand that is gripping to instead go to the hip, making sure your arm maintains a block on their leg attempting to sneak inside. You can then go to the underhook. Your knee that is on the ground pushes straight back, hip to the mat, then turn to side control.

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If they don't push back, you can collapse your weight over the top of both of their legs, walking your way up into mount.

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Teaching Notes: The Grapplers Guide videos from JT Torres on nogi passing are really handy, well taught too. Next time, I want to be more precise about how you put your weight to the side of their knee, also if it is possible that pushing with the arm can work ok too. It fits well with what I already know for knee cut, providing a different entry. The squash pass over the thigh fits in here nicely, but probably best saved for a separate class.

Also, the first vid in JT Torres' series is specifically against people self-framing into their legs, so most of that doesn't apply if they simply have their legs in the air. With that, you can drive their knees towards them, which makes everything a lot easier as they have less opportunity to get some kind of guard going.

14/07/2019 - Teaching | Half Guard | Toe Grab Sweep (NoGi)

Teaching #887
Artemis BJJ (Easton Road), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 14/07/2019

Short Version:

• Get underhook, scooting down towards their legs
• Reach under their non-trapped leg, grab their toes
• Bring your other arm around their bum, transfer grip
• Using your outside leg, drag their leg out
• Turn and post on your elbow, drive, still holding toes, then move to side control

Full Version: I call this one the toe grab sweep, like Indrek Reiland does in his classic 'Functional Half Guard' video. Eddie Bravo's name for it - 'old school' - is common too, but his version is slightly less effective in my opinion, though it is similar. I prefer the way Jason Scully teaches it, over on the Grapplers Guide. I've also been taught it in the past, back when I was training at RGA High Wycombe with Kev.

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So, the Scully version begins from the basic half guard position I taught earlier, where you're on your side using the kickstand leg positioning, with an underhook. Use your underhook to bump yourself down closer to their legs, curling your head into towards their far knee. You want to get your underhook arm shoulder to their hipbone on that side, also getting your head to their same side hipbone.

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With your non-underhooking arm, reach for their far toes. Grab them and then shove their heel into their thigh. Make sure you are grabbing their toes: if you grip their ankle or higher, they will find it easier to kick their leg back and scupper your sweep. Bring your underhook arm down past their bum, then switch the toe grab grip from your non-underhook hand to your underhook hand.

Bring your non-underhook elbow and then hand out for base, also turning to slide out your inside leg. Your outside leg tweaks their lower leg to further disrupt their base, then drive with your head and shoulder to move on top. Keep hold of the toes until you're past to side control. If they stay on their hands and knees, you can also just take their back instead.

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Keep in mind that it is possible to get this sweep with various leg configurations. I find it easiest from the kickstand, as I think that provides the best base for getting on your side, but it's certainly not the only option.

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Teaching Notes: All good, I think. Head to hipbone and underhook shoulder to hipbone helps. Make sure to come up on your elbow to drive, also don't let go of the toes. I added in the Kenny Polmans big step when you start going behind for side control, that is worth playing with some more.

17/02/2019 - Nogi class, Painless RNC

Class #1113
Artemis BJJ (MYGYM Bristol), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 17/02/2019

Charles' RNC again (which I taught in the gi a few days earlier too). Head position is something to emphasise, still working on getting that checklist. I think hips, back, elbows and head makes sense, that's easy to remember as you go up the body. I'll keep playing, looking forward to teaching this again during our next back month. I'm continuing to try and cut it down, so I don't go on too long.

03/02/2019 - NoGi shoulder clamp, open mat

Class #1106
Artemis BJJ (MYGYM Bristol), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 03/02/2019

I went through the James Boyle variation on the shoulder clamp again, still mainly teaching it like Aaron Milam showed me in his 2017 private lesson at the Leuven Camp. James' version adds in more leverage, along with that straightforward sweep, where you just bundle them over by shifting your weight.



I had a quick roll with Erick after that, continuing to practice my framing. I also took the opportunity to give a lapel grip a go that I saw on reddit from Breck Still. You pull the gi tail over their back and feed it to your hand, but then you also overhook their arm and feed it again to your overhook. Still calls it the 'master lock' (as he likes giving things names like that), I'd just call it an overhook gi tail grip.

That felt like a strong control, but I wasn't clamping the overhooked arm enough to kill his post when I was attempting to butterfly sweep. I think I also was letting myself get too stacked to move into a triangle properly, but it was very handy to have my right arm free (like Still says).

09/12/2018 - Teaching | Back | Crucifix Rolling Leg Kimura (Reverse Omoplata) No GI

Teaching #821
Artemis BJJ (MYGYM Bristol), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 08/12/2018

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Once you've already got into the crucifix from turtle, with their arm bent around your leg, there's a relatively simple roll through to sweep or submit. To make things easier (and safer, for drilling), I am assuming they have already grabbed inside their own leg to prevent you getting the arm. Base out on your far arm, then do a tight roll over your near shoulder, similar to breakfalling. You aren't looking to travel forward much with that roll: attempt to roll underneath yourself.

As you roll, reach your near arm under their shoulder, aiming to grab their near leg. Continue the roll, making sure you still have their arm and leg trapped. They will normally roll too, due to the pressure on their shoulder. Be careful, as if you're too explosive you may put excessive strain on their shoulder: stay controlled throughout your rolling motion. That roll should result with you in an upright position, while they are lying next to you.

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Can isn't back until later this afternoon, so daytime will be all open mat today. 😉 Full schedule for Tuesday: CENTRAL (7 Lawrence Hill) 12:30-14:00 #OpenMat 14:00-19:30 Open Mat [By Appointment] 19:30-20:30 Intermediate #BJJ 20:30-21:30 Open Mat __________________________ #BrazilianJiuJitsu #ArtemisBJJ #jiujitsu #SlideyTeach #Gi #BJJLifestyle #grappling #bjjlife #sport #martialarts #jiujitsulifestyle #artesuave #ArtemisBJJback #ArtemisBJJcrucifix #ArtemisBJJturtle __________________________ 🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈 There are still a few tickets left (£65) for the Artemis BJJ Spring Camp next weekend. 13th/14th April, 10hrs, multiple black belts. Everybody is welcome! Head to www.ArtemisBJJ.com/camp to secure your spot. 😍

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It's essential that you still have both their leg and their arm trapped. Wrap your arms tightly around their leg, then switch so you have your outside arm around their leg. The elbow of your inside arm goes into their far armpit. Keep leaning into them throughout, keeping your leg tense so they can't unbend their arm or pull it free (if they do, you still get side control, a pretty good consolation prize). From side control, you can easily switch into various attacks (like the step over triangle), as long as you make sure you keep their arm trapped with your legs.

Assuming you have managed to keep their arm bent with your near leg, base on your far leg, keeping your near leg closely wrapped on their arm. Use the base from your far leg to keep bringing your hips back. You then tilt slightly, to bring your bottom leg underneath you. This should eventually torque their arm to the point that they tap from the shoulder pressure. To keep the arm bent, as you roll you can try keeping your leg bent back. Don't worry too much about it though, as you'll almost certainly still end up on top in side control.

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Full schedule for Wednesday: CENTRAL (7 Lawrence Hill) 14:00-18:30 Open Mat [By Appointment] 18:40-19:40 Women's Class 19:45-20:45 Gi #BJJ with @slideyfoot 20:45-21:45 #OpenMat _____________________________ #BrazilianJiuJitsu #ArtemisBJJ #jiujitsu #SlideyTeach #Gi #BJJLifestyle #grappling #bjjlife #sport #martialarts #jiujitsulifestyle #artesuave #ArtemisBJJback #ArtemisBJJcrucifix #ArtemisBJJturtle _____________________________ 🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈 There are still a few tickets left (£65) for the Artemis BJJ Spring Camp next weekend. 13th/14th April, 10hrs, multiple black belts. Everybody is welcome! Head to www.ArtemisBJJ.com/camp to secure your spot. 😍

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Teaching Notes: Main thing is thinking about how to keep the arm bent next time. Switching the legs and bending your leg back, perhaps? I shall experiment next time. As this was the nogi class, I didn't have the chance to practice it beforehand in a daytime sesssio. Next time, I should be able to iron out those kinks. Doing the 'roll underneath yourself' drill as a warm up makes a big difference I think, but people are still frequently not getting the tilt motion. They naturally think it is just scooting the hips back: so, emphasise tilt again. :)

22/04/2018- Teaching | Closed Guard | Figure 4 Bicep Guard Rolling Armbar (NoGi)

Teaching #773
Artemis BJJ (MYGYM Bristol), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 22/04/2018

Good open mat and nogi class today. I tested out another figure four bicep guard option, this time a rolling armbar. You swivel through basing on your head and shoulder, shin into the back of their neck. As you roll them through, switch your leg so your instep is behind their head.

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That can be tricky to do in transition. Also, you then need to turn and get your knee over towards their legs. A few people kept either going the other way, or not going far enough towards the legs. Basing on the head caused some problems too, understandable as it's a tricky position if you're not used to wrestling.

Loads of drilling during open mat, İ wasn't sparring so I could save myself for the GrappleThon. Matt H showed me an interesting near side gi tail choke, which Oslander calls the snare. İt's nasty, but not a crank. You can do it straight off the cross face, then just loop your arm around and drop the elbow. How to make it less mean?

11/02/2018- Teaching | Closed Guard | Taking the Back (NoGi Leg Clamp)

Teaching #754
Artemis BJJ (MYGYM Bristol), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 11/02/2018

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If you are able to push their arm across their body when they're in your closed guard, you're in a great position to take their back. Keeping your arm straight, push their arm across their body, while simultaneously pulling in with your knees. With a gi, you can get a solid grip on their sleeve and punch it away from you, making it very hard for them to reclaim their position. In nogi, you could try grabbing their wrist, but it isn't as a effect. Another option is to instead clamp your arms tight around them and pull in, to keep their arm stuck across their body with no space to pull it back.

Either way, the intention is to collapse them on top of their arm, unable to recover their position. Your other arm should be free at this point, meaning your outside hand can reach around to their far armpit. Hook your fingers in for a solid hold, then twist your elbow in firmly. Combined with your stiff-arming sleeve grip (if you're doing this in gi, if not it's either wrist or just holding them in tight), that should rotate their torso and make it hard for them to turn back towards you.

You can now shrimp slightly away from them, keeping your bottom foot in tight to act as your first hook. Shrimping away may be enough to drop them into back control. If not, use the heel of your top foot to dig into their hip, spinning them into back control.
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Teaching Notes: I should teach this more often, as this marks only the second time I've done a class on the back take from closed guard. I used the leg clamp set up for this one, showing how if they escape their arm, you can move to the back. I'm writing this up quite a bit later, so I can't remember if there was anything specific I should keep in mind, so I'll note down the usual thing of making sure the arm is horizontal. Sometimes people try pushing it straight up, whereas you want it across.

And we had an exciting visiting from Germany, my good friend and DM, Eva! Hooray! :D

21/01/2018 - Teaching (NoGi) | Closed Guard | Leg Clamp Kimura/Wristlock

Teaching #746
Artemis BJJ (MYGYM Bristol), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 21/01/2018

Short Version:

• Swim your arms inside, pull knees in
• Shrimp to the side, overhook, bringing your knee high to their head
• Transfer arms to both grabbing your knee and pulling straight down to the mat
• Grab their wrist and push up your leg
• Alternatively, lean up to pin elbow and bend hand for wristlock

Full Version: I've taught the leg clamp before, but as I had a number of nogi classes to cover, I wanted to cover the sequence in more detail. For a simple entry, they have their hands on your hips. Swim your hands under their wrists from the outside in a prayer time motion to knock those hands from your hips. As soon as they are off your hips, pull in with your knees. During that breaking of their posture, immediately shrimp to the side, bringing your knee up high as you establish an overhook. Use that control to give you time to drive your knee right up past their shoulder blade and by their head, pushing down to the mat.

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With enough pressure, the overhook becomes redundant, meaning you can then grab your own knee with both of your hands instead. From this position, you have several attacks available. First, use your outside arm to grab their wrist and slide it up your leg for a kimura variation. Should that not work, you can try sitting up to pin their elbow against your body, so that you can then bend their hand back for a wristlock.

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Teaching Notes: Some people were lifting the arm up rather than sliding it up their leg, which is inefficient. On the wristlock, sitting up to trap with chest is handy. On basic position, a number of people were trying to pull their knee in towards them, rather than down to the mat. Useful to describe as attempting to squash the side of their face into the mat, makes it tough for them to recover. Still, the big problem with this is getting the entry right, which only gets harder as their posture in closed guard gets better. Something I'll be playing with for the next bunch of both nogi classes and over February in closed guard month.

07/10/2017 - Teaching | Side Control | Movement Drills

Teaching #707
Artemis BJJ (MYGYM Bristol), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 08/10/2017

Not much to say about this class, as I again went with the movement drill sequence that I taught before going on holiday (difference this time being that it was a nogi class, but the same apart from that). On crossing the feet for that side to side knee ride, it is worth mentioning that you don't quite cross them, it should be a smooth switch to the other side. Tamzin got it first time, which was cool to see. :)

For the movement drill in general, I checked with Josh again later to clarify exactly how it went, as it felt like it devolved into sparring a few times. From what he said, the rule is no grips at all, you're only allow to push on the levers, so like pushing an arm across. You can't solidify any grips, as that slows everything right down. I will keep trying it, I like the idea of improving everybody's mobility (my own could do with some work too ;D).

10/09/2017 - Teaching | Open Guard | Butterfly Sweep (Dan Strauss whizzer grip)

Teaching #701
Artemis BJJ (MYGYM Bristol), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 10/09/2017

As our usual nogi teacher is away at the moment, I decided to take the opportunity to share some material from the Dan Strauss seminar I went to yesterday (I'll get the write-up done at some point, but as I've got about six seminars to write up, may be a while ;D). When they underhook against your butterfly guard, bring your arm underneath and move round to their shoulder. Reach through for the whizzer, hooking your hand over their other arm (not under and around the tricep, but over the top of the arm). With your free hand, pull their same arm by grasping their wrist, yanking it to your hip. You can then switch from your hold on the wrist to grab their elbow.

Put your hooking foot close to their knee, in order to avoid lifting up into the groin: along with being painful, that will just lift them up, not knock them over. If you need more leverage for the sweep, push with your other foot just above their other knee, like the push sweep follow up to a scissor sweep. You can enter this same position from half guard, when they get an underhook on you. Shrimp out, then establish your butterfly hook and overhook at the sake time. With a gi, it can be even stronger, as then you can anchor your whizzer on their collar.
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Teaching Notes: I don't often teach nogi, but there is lots of other shoulder clamp type stuff I want to practice. It's good to have the opportunity to teach smaller classes too, rather than the 15-25 that come to my sessions downstairs. Teaching large classes is a different skill set to small ones, plus the atmosphere is different, particularly in a smaller room too. Downstairs is open to the rest of the gym, upstairs feels 'private'. I'll also be covering some of the Thursdays, as Chris is injured currently. Looking forward to working on technique. :)

In terms of notes for this class, I'm writing this up a month later, so I can't remember if there were any points. I'll check the teaching notes from the butterfly class before this, though I will note that the grip is handy. I've been finding myself going for it quite often now, though I don't always get it. It's interesting how people seem less concerned about me getting an overhook than they are an underhook.

30/10/2016 - Teaching | Back | Crucifix Single Arm Choke (NoGi)

Teaching #583
Artemis BJJ (MYGYM Bristol), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 30/10/2016

Starting from the side ride, dig your near knee next to their hip. You're aiming to shove that as deep as you can behind their arm. Once it is in deep, flare the knee out towards you, which should make their arm available for your other heel to hook. Drag it back over your other leg and use your legs to lock that arm in place. At this point, you've already got a bunch of attacks available to you, but we want to get them face-up.

You'll probably be grabbing their wrist, their bicep, their sleeve or something else with your arm on the near side. With your other arm, reach under their far armpit and grab their shoulder. They could trap your elbow and try to roll you at this point, but that puts you where you want to be anyway. In the likely event they aren't foolish enough to do that, you have a few entries to the face-up crucifix available to you.

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The one I prefer is from that Jacobs seminar. Walk your feet back towards their bum, staying low and tight. Keep walking until you roll over their leg, putting them face-up. As you move into that position, make sure that your far arm is hooking back behind your head: otherwise, they can wriggle their arm free without too much trouble, enabling them to turn and escape. Alternatively, thread your arm inside theirs and grab the meat of their hand, twisting it outwards. That grip makes it hard for them to wriggle their hand free.

You don't want their weight too far on top of you, as again that can help them escape: if that happens, shrimp your hips slightly to bring them down again. However, you don't want them to slip too far down to the mat, as there's another escape they can do in that situation. So, if they're too far down, scoop under them to prevent that escape.

You're now ready for the choke, which is nice and simple. With your free arm, reach around their neck, aligning your elbow with their chin. Grab their shoulder-blade with the hand of that arm. Put your head tightly next to theirs, then squeeze your arm slightly and drive the shoulder of that arm into their head, as if you were trying to push through it. That should make them tap.
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Teaching Notes: I am not a fan of nogi so don't teach it often, but with this technique I'm relatively confident. Aesopian has added some extra bits to his Mastering the Crucifix instructional, meaning I could watch a bonus nogi seminar: very useful for today. I started off with some basics on the side ride, the back take (noting not to go too horizontal), then the crucifix entry. Again, I highlighted that needed to be diagonal.

The main thing I added from Aesopian was grabbing the meat of the hand. That fits in well with what Kev had been telling me in the private lesson earlier, from guard. The same thing applies here, gripping that way makes it tough for them to get grips. It also transfers the strain from your wrist to theirs, discouraging them from trying to power out.

I'll be teaching a load more crucifix in Backvember, so will continue to draw on both Matt 'Aesopian' Kirtley and the handy material from Dave Jacobs.

09/08/2014 - Teaching | NoGi | Butterfly Sweep

Teaching #179
Artemis BJJ (Impact Gym), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 09/08/2014

Marcelo Garcia has written that when passing butterfly guard, it's important to keep in mind that "unlike the closed guard or half guard, in the butterfly guard, your opponent is not trying to hold you in place." In my opinion, the ensuing dynamism and movement makes butterfly guard a more advanced position, which requires greater sensitivity and timing than closed or half guard.

So, I stuck with the most basic technique in butterfly, which is the classic butterfly sweep. There are three main grips to try. Two less common options are grabbing the neck, or grabbing the same side sleeve and collar (or neck and wrist in nogi): the latter can be useful if you want to transition to a choke in gi, or perhaps back to closed guard to go for a scissor or knee push sweep. On Carlos Machado's excellent Unstoppable DVD all about this sweep, he shows many more variations, but it is definitely a higher level instructional (so, I wouldn't recommend beginners pick it up). The orthodox method is to establish a deep underhook with your arm, reaching around their back and/or grabbing their belt.

Saulo Ribeiro emphasises that you must be close with the shoulder to generate sufficient leverage. Saulo also likes to put a hand out behind him for base (just like the cross-grip guard we did last week), which contrasts with others who prefer to grab the knee. It is worth experimenting with several options. One of the best parts about training in jiu jitsu is that it is so individual. There is rarely a single 'right' way to do any technique, which is also part of what makes jiu jitsu so complex.

If you've lifted them up but they aren't going over, try hopping towards your lifting leg with your other leg. That should eventually provide the leverage to knock them to the mat.
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Teaching Notes: I added in that additional drill this time, where you don't just do the solo butterfly motion, but kick through as if you were going to scarf hold as well. As this was the first time I've taught butterfly at Impact, I did it in two stages, starting with the sweep motion, then a second drill where I added the kick through.

I could also put in more butterfly passing elements to the drilling. For a start, riding the sweep when doing that lifting drill, balancing on your hands. The backstep off their sweep attempt is a good one too, but takes a bit longer to explain. I'd probably need to start with the backstep in isolation, then move on to the drill. I might give it a try anyway in one of the butterfly guard classes next week and see how that goes.