25/03/2019 - Teaching | Back | Turtle escape, post and tip

Teaching #847
Artemis BJJ (Easton Road), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 25/03/2019

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To escape the turtle position, your main options generally involve turning back to guard. If they leave enough space, you may be able to do a tight roll over your shoulder to swing your legs back into play. However, with a more experienced opponent, they will often be able to anticipate your roll and move around the side control. Alternatively, you can try turning the other way, again timing it for when they give you some space.

Another option for when they are on your side starts by stepping your near side leg behind them. Cut your other knee in front, just past their knee. Block their other leg by grabbing it, then turn underneath. If they are smaller than you or the same size, you may be able to roll them right over and get side control. If not, then guard recovery should be possible, at the very least half guard.

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Should they make the mistake of reaching deep with their arm, you have a simple method to get on top. Trap their elbow by bringing your same side arm back and wrapping it tight. Look away, kick back your same side leg and roll through, getting your weight up onto them. In wrestling, this is apparently called a 'Peterson roll'.
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Teaching Notes: How important is it to emphasise you can use this as a guard recovery too, if they're big? Also possible to combine it with simply turning as they move around, or should that be in a separate lesson?

22/03/2019 - Teaching | Back | Dog leg armbar/shoulder lock

Teaching #846
Artemis BJJ (Easton Road), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 22/03/2019

Secure the crucifix by driving your knee in from the side ride, flaring your knee out, then hooking their arm with your other heel. Drag their arm back and make sure it stays trapped between your legs.

Put the knee nearest their head slightly forward, still controlling their arm. Turn to face their legs, grabbing their ankle to anchor yourself in place, with your head in line with their bum. At this point you will need to switch your legs, so that you can get the leg further away from their head closer to their wrist. Twist your body and swing the leg furthest from their head backwards, still hooking the arm. Do this movement gradually, as that shoulder lock can come on quickly, depending on their flexibility.

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Teaching Notes: Putting your free knee into their shoulder, worth emphasising. Also, is there a slight backwards motion as well as bringing the leg out (like a dog weeing)? Often turns into an armbar instead of a shoulder lock, not sure that matters too much. Does seem to work, as long as you get that angle right and lock the shoulder down.

20/03/2019 - Teaching | Back | Crucifix armbar

Teaching #845
Artemis BJJ (MYGYM Bristol), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 20/03/2019

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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 the Dave Jacobs seminar, where you walk backwards until you can get them face-up. The other option, which I included tonight, is to jump and roll over their shoulder, on the non-trapped arm side. This is a bit more acrobatic, so not something I use as often, but it is a viable alternative to the Jacobs method.

Once they're face-up, 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.

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For the armbar, find their wrist with the back of your calf, triangling your legs. When you get the right spot, flare your knee out, then bridge up into their arm. If they turn their hand, you'll need to follow their elbow with your hips, adjusting your position as necessary. If they manage to bend their arm, you can straighten it back out by 'walking' your feet up their arm. Making sure you still have one leg hooked over their arm (as soon as you don't, they'll free their arm and move to side control), bring the other foot behind and slide it up their arm. You can keep doing that until the arm is straight: this takes a bit of dexterity, but when you get used to the motion, it considerably improves your control.

Another option is to cross your ankles over their wrist, or to push on their wrist with the bottom of your foot. Keep in mind that all the way through, you should be threatening a choke. That will keep their attention divided between the two submissions, increasing the efficacy of both.

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Teaching Notes: How important is it to get underneath them? Aesopian's vid on this is good, so that's always worth rewatching. Talking about tweaking out the knee, not sure everyone was doing that enough. Good ways to get the calf in the right place to find the blade of the arm? Also, I could perhaps talk more about using your legs to 'smooth out' the arm to get it straight?

18/03/2019 - Teaching | Back | Clock choke

Teaching #844
Artemis BJJ (Easton Road), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 18/03/2019

If I can't get the back from turtle and I haven't managed to move into a crucifix, I like to go for the clock choke. I use an 'elbow wedge' variation I learned from my instructor Kev Capel (and he in turn learned it from Felipe Souza, who we both used to train with at RGA HQ).

From the side ride, move from grabbing their arm to reaching through for a grip on their far collar. If the grip isn't quite right on the far collar, this can end up being an air choke rather than a blood choke: avoid being too shallow on that grip. To enhance your hold, there is the option of reaching under their arm with your far arm and opening up the collar, then feeding it to your other hand. Be aware that there is a danger of them reaching back to trap your elbow if you do that.

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Either way, once you have a deep grip, bring the arm that was by their far leg to the near side of their head. Use your elbow as a wedge against their skull, giving you a sort of 'backstop' to pull their collar through. Another potential reason it might turn into an air choke is the position of your wrist: if you're finding it's an air choke, try adjusting how much you bend your wrist.

Pressing that arm into their skull produces a fair bit of leverage in conjunction with your collar grip. Increase it by leaning back slightly, while walking your legs around towards their head. Make sure you maintain your weight on their shoulders, or you'll relieve the pressure: Saulo suggests keeping your ribs against their shoulder. This should eventually result in a choke.

Speaking of Saulo, his variation on BJJ Library doesn't bother with an elbow block. He simply leans heavily into the shoulder, locking off the choke by leaning his head across. His other hand is grabbing by their far hip. If he doesn't get it, he keeps walking around, turning them onto their side and circling his elbow over. The other arm goes behind to lock off the choke.
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Teaching Notes: Usual thing about keeping the ribs on the shoulder, weight down, stepping through with the leg. I introduced it as a method for getting the arm to move for the crucifix entry, which hopefully wasn't too confusing for people who haven't seen the crucifix. I think it was ok, but that's something to watch out for. Also, I didn't mention that you can do it with the crucifix configuration too (i.e., with the arm trapped), which also functions as a handy way of stopping that escape where they carefully time a shoulder shrug to move behind.

Definitely something to keep in mind for next time: the shoulder shrug escape that Matt mentioned Roger does is a good escape, but I think you can capture the arm in a crucifix if you're waiting for it. Combination attacks. I could even mention it in a later class? But maybe more something I'd highlight in drilling.

13/03/2019 - Teaching | The Back | Crucifix Entry and Single Collar Choke

Teaching #843
Artemis BJJ (Easton Road), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 11/03/2019

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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 the Dave 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. You can also begin to establish your grip mid-roll, reaching for the collar with your free arm.

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 and get a deep grip on their collar. Pull that around the neck as you would in a bow and arrow choke, getting additional leverage due to the way you've trapped their arm with your non-choking hand. For another boost of leverage, Aesopian's tip from Mastering the Crucifix is handy: bring their weight slightly onto you and bridge up into them.

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Teaching Notes: Angle of how people should be on the arms, a few people were ending up diagonal which makes their escape easier, I think. Curling up around their head, I could emphasise that more when teaching.

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. :)