27/11/2012 - Revolution Dojo

Class #477
Revolution Dojo, (BJJ), Jeff Messina, Houston, TX, USA - 27/11/2012

I met up with Jodi again in the morning, as she kindly drove me over to get some tasty breakfast before heading to the day class at Revolution Dojo (the first time I had taken two classes at the same place during this Texas trip). Jeff was a little late for the warm-up, so Jodi ran the class through the usual running round the room and the like, followed up by the basic push-through triangle set up. Once Jeff arrived, it was straight into more triangle options, beginning like last time with something relatively fundamental before moving into the advanced set-up.

The basic approach for today was the spider guard triangle. Start off pushing one foot into their hip while gripping their collar, the other knee pressing outwards into the crook of their elbow, your free hand gripping the sleeve of that elbow-arm. Shift to pushing the crook with your foot, then place the foot on their shoulder. When the moment is right, slide your foot over their shoulder and pull them in, then lock up a triangle.

For more advanced students, Jeff demonstrated a triangle counter to deep half guard. They’ve established deep half and are looking to sweep. Underhook their far arm, sliding your free knee under their head so they end up essentially lying in your lap. Due to that underhook it should be difficult for them to turn, so you’re now waiting for the chance to pull your trapped leg out. You can either force it by pushing with your other leg (my injury meant that wasn’t possible), or wait until they loosen, then point your toes and pull the leg out.

Once the leg is out, curl that leg around the underhooked arm and roll backwards a little. You don’t want to roll right into guard, because in a competition setting, they will get sweep points if they can escape the imminent triangle. Instead, roll just enough to get space to swing your other leg around to lock the triangle. It is possible to submit from there, but if you need extra pressure, base on your free hand then lift your hips, moving forwards.

Sparring with Jodi was similar to yesterday, though I was trying more actively to get into half guard without much success. Jeff then offered to roll, which isn’t an opportunity you turn down: black belts generally have enough control to avoid hurting you even with a niggling injury. Like you would expect he controlled me easily, but without aggravating my hurt leg. I got caught in a choke again, so still not being careful enough of my collars, and I also got armbarred, so should watch it on extending my arm when I try to roll through to escape.

I think I’m relying too much on defending the pass with a frame, where they sometimes end up balancing on my arms giving me space to bring in my knees. I need to remember to combine that with moving my hips and getting my knees in the way. Jeff and John both passed my frame quite easily, moving around my hands as if they weren’t there.

26/11/2012 - Revolution Dojo

Class #476
Revolution Dojo, (BJJ), Jeff Messina, Houston, TX, USA - 26/11/2012

For the next part of my Texas trip (full write-up here), I met up with yet another awesome blogger, Jodi, straight from the bus station. I’m really enjoying having the opportunity to talk at length to all these amazing people, who without fail have been incredibly nice to me. Jodi drove me around without complaint for what must have been hours, not only going to the station, but from there to the gym and then onwards to Conor’s house, which she repeated several times over the next few days. Thanks for being so generous with your time and petrol, Jodi! :D

Jeff Messina likes to have a theme for his classes, which is something I wish was common to more schools. The theme while I was there was the triangle, so the warm-up drills were focused on that as well as the techniques. I sat out much of the warm-up due to my injury, as did Jodi, who has unfortunately hurt her knee. I joined back in a bit later, with an interesting triangle drill from inverted guard, which also works hip movement.

Lie on the floor with your head pointing towards them. Grab both of their sleeves. Swing your leg up into their opposite armpit, then use that to swivel around, making sure you spin towards them. Kick the leg through, using it as an anchor point to pull yourself into a triangle, the other leg going into their neck, after which you can lock up the submission. I could only do it on one side, unfortunately, but a great drill either way.

Next up was a relatively standard triangle set-up, where you use a scissor sweep motion to move into the triangle (similar to what Scott McVeigh showed in Glasgow a while ago). Grab their collar and sleeve on the same side, then still on that side, also push their hip with your foot. Bring the other knee across their other arm, as if you were going for a scissor sweep. Use the combination of that leg pressing with your grips to dislodge their grip on your jacket on trousers, swivelling the leg around so that it wraps around their neck. This should also pull them forward and break their posture, particularly as you’ll also be pulling their collar and sleeve. Use that broken posture to bring your other leg into play to lock up the triangle as usual.

The next set up was definitely not standard, building on the warm-up drill. This time you have a lasso spider guard. You have the lasso and are grabbing both sleeves. Switch grips, so that you pass the lasso sleeve to your other hand. Grab their collar with your free hand. Just like the earlier drill, spin through, kicking your lasso leg for the triangle. Keep your other leg so the shin is up on their thigh, pushing off that for the rotational energy. You want that knee to be there as a barrier, so they can’t drive forward.

Once the leg is up, you can control the back of their head with your knee before swivelling it into place over the back of their neck to cinch up your triangle. Jeff then showed the same motion, but this time in half guard with a spider guard grip. The technique is the same, except that you first have to free you leg from between theirs, by making space with your grips.

I finished off with some light sparring, for which Jodi was the perfect partner. We're both injured, so neither of us was going hard. Once again I was working my guard retention, as well as playing a bit with top side control, including the ‘Relson grip’ Mikal had shown me the day before while I was having dinner at his house. I didn’t try the heavy cross-face Mikal also demonstrated (as per pic: your bicep goes into their jaw line, to make certain they can't turn their head towards you), but showed it to Jodi afterwards as we were talking about side control grips. Jodi had some nifty passing and made me aware I need to be careful of my collars. She wasn’t far off choking me, so I must always be cognisant of that danger. ;)

04/09/2012 - Gracie Barra Bristol (Guard Recovery to Triangle & Back Take)

Class #467
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Dónal Carmody, Bristol, UK - 04/09/2012

The triangle fortnight is still going: for tonight's lesson, Dónal moved into spider guard, although from an angle I wasn't expecting. Rather than the typical spider triangle set-up, this was a method of using spider guard to hit a triangle off guard recovery. They've just passed your guard: push on their shoulder to block them getting any further.

In regards to blocking the shoulder, previously I've always assumed that you push on the near shoulder or the near side of their head to stop them passing. That means they can't continue to drive into you: e.g., like the Demian Maia DVD, where he talks about 'head control theory'. However, Dónal prefers to push on the far shoulder, which is interesting: something I'll have to experiment with. Quite possible I've been doing it wrong the whole time. :)

Anyway, whichever shoulder you've blocked, shrimp out and get onto your side, then bring your bottom leg into their torso, hooking around their side with your foot. Grab their far sleeve with your same side hand. Due to turning on your side, you have a greater range of motion, so can swing your top leg right over their head. Press that foot into the crook of their far elbow, pulling with your sleeve grip. You also want to grab by their upper arm on the other side with your free hand.

To really stretch them out, bring your foot up, which should drive them flat. Getting to this point was the key, as if you can do that, you've added a useful tool to your guard recovery repertoire. However, you can then move into at least two different techniques, starting with a triangle similar to the one Braulio teaches on one of his instructionals. From the previous position, lift up your top knee slightly, towards their head.

That should give you enough room to put your bottom foot directly next to the other, so you're now pushing both legs into the crook of their elbow. From here, you can swing your top leg over their head, pull their other arm towards you between your legs, then raising you hips lock your feet behind them. From here you should be able to move into a triangle.

The other option Dónal showed from there (along with an alternative triangle set-up I can't remember) was to take the back. This time, you're going to swing your leg right past their head, using that swing to generate enough momentum to sit up. You could move straight to the back from there. If you need some extra help, your sleeve grabbing hand can switch to an arm drag, grabbing inside their other arm and pulling it across.

Sparring started off with the chess drill, then two rounds of free sparring. I began with a white belt, where I was looking to set up a deep grip on the choke, but without much success. I'm keen to get those collar chokes more effective, as pretty much everybody is complacent about that first grip, so I need to think more carefully about shifting into other attacks. There's a good video on Gracie University about the 'triple threat' which bears further study (I've got several reviews in the pipeline, so once those are done I can get back to my notes for the Gracie University blue belt stripe 1 guard chapter review).

With Miles, things were of course quite different, so I was mostly defending. I was attempting to keep pushing on his hips with my feet and shoulders with my hands, shrimping as much as possible. I did still get stuck with Miles on my back, but just about managed to struggle out. However, he was taking it fairly easy, due to the size difference, so I'm sure he could have finished off that choke if he was feeling mean. ;)

11/10/2011 - Gracie Barra Bristol (Spider Guard)

Class #424
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Donal Carmody, Bristol, UK - 11/10/2011

Some people may remember I mentioned I was working on a new BJJ history project, as an extension of my Jiu Jitsu Style magazine articles about team history. I've now taken that a step further, so I'm trying to organise the data (which still isn't anywhere near complete, so please drop me a line if you can help on dates, team lineage, further historical sources, etc) in a sort of 'BJJ teams family tree', here.

Tonight was another fantastic class by Donal: I'm really enjoying his teaching style, and again there was an almost permanent smile on my face the whole lesson. He came up with more cool warm-ups, too, including the great open guard drill from last time, where you move around your partner using only your legs without putting your feet on the floor. Last time I kept things simple, but this time I was happily spinning around on my shoulders into inverted guard. I think it's the same drill Abmar Barbosa shows on his DVD set (which looks hilarious sped up).

When I trained at RGA HQ, I was often early, so got to watch Felipe Souza teach the kids class (he is the best teacher of kids I've ever seen: the only guy who comes close is his student and Future Champions head teacher, Jamie Hussein). The biggest difference was that a large chunk of those kids classes was devoted to games, bringing in learning by stealth.

The reason I mention this is that I got the same vibe from some of the cool stuff Donal brought into his warm-up. For example, he split the room into two groups, at either end of the mat. He then told us to spider walk towards each other (so, you're on your hands and feet, but facing the ceiling), then try and 'high five' as many people as you can. One important difference: you have to high five with the soles of your feet. Great way to work on your agility, getting used to using your feet like hands and of course decent cardio too, not to mention fun. ;)

Randomly, I also found that a passing drilling dredged up a memory of an old kung fu drill I used to do in Zhuan Shu Kuan. From what I remember of the history, backed up by Rod's trip to China, ZSK is supposed to be based on 'long fist' kung fu, which I guess is where the lunging stances come from. The drill I'm thinking of was a sort of diagonal punching thing.

You lean forward on one leg, keeping the other straight behind you, then punch out at an angle. Switch to the other leg, then punch the other way. The BJJ application is that you're passing the guard, having grabbed one of their trouser legs. Side step towards their head and punch with that grip simultaneously, to move their leg out of the way. The ZSK stance seemed to fit. Strange, as that's not something I ever thought I'd use again. ;)

Technique was still spider guard, which makes me very happy, as I've been trying to work on that for a good while now. Donal started off with a sweep, from when they are still on their knees. Starting with your feet on their hips, grab both sleeves and put one foot on their bicep. Push with your foot while also pulling their other sleeve forwards, so that your hand holding their sleeve is right by your head.

That should knock them off balance, as their arm is dragged forward on one side, while on their other you're pushing it right up. Keep on pushing with that foot into their bicep (remembering to curl your toes for extra grip), manoeuvring it over your opposite shoulder. When they're totally off-balance, use your free leg to chop into their same side leg, while continuing to pull on their sleeve and pushing with your bicep leg. From there, you should be able to roll into mount, similar to a scissor sweep.

If they manage to resist that and stay on their knees, they are still going to be off-balance, leaning right forward. That means it is a great time to transition to a triangle. Simply pull them arm even more forward as you slide your leg off their bicep and into their neck. Lock your legs by their head, also trapping the arm, then move into the triangle as normal.

As in Big Mick's lesson and the GB Brum method, we were split into groups of 1-2-3 for specific sparring, from spider guard. Interestingly, Donal used that to teach another technique, as before we started, he recapped what he said earlier about going deep with your lasso, hooking the foot around their back. This was for when they stand up: swing your leg out to one side in order to then swing it back to wrap over their arm, establishing your lasso spider guard.

Passing, I wasn't getting all that far, partly because I wanted to give the person on the bottom a chance to work, but mainly because my open guard passing is awful. I was able to work on the principle Geeza taught a while back, however, which is to use their strongest grip (in this case, the lasso wrapped around my arm) as a 'hinge' for your pass. I just kept trying to move around that leg, while gripping the other leg with my hand.

Underneath was fun, as I had a chance to start throwing in the various other sweeps I've been practicing. My favoured tripod sweep to sickle combination fits in nicely with spider guard, when they stand up: the sickle seemed to work better, for some reason. As you've already got such a deep control on their arm, that also seemed to help with coming straight up and into a dominant position, which is one of the things I often flail at with a normal tripod or sickle sweep.

Like last week, Donal also started free sparring with a round of flow rolling, though this time it was more jiu jitsu chess than what I'm used to (i.e., instead of just flowing through positions, you took it in turns with your partner). For free sparring proper, I had the usual relaxed roll with Luke. I was looking to go for an arm-wrap choke, but he was wise to that, so I couldn't bring the other elbow down across his chest while getting a grip on the collar.

I did somehow end up in mount later, where I aimed to use grapevines for control (or rather, Kev's tip on just crossing your feet underneath them), then working to either go for an ezequiel, scoop their elbow and walk my fingers up to loosen up an arm, or try and reach behind the head to grab the wrist for twisting arm control.

Having had a cool email exchange with a woman who recently started training BJJ in New Zealand, I'd been thinking about grapevines from mount earlier. She mentioned that in her class, someone had dissuaded her from using them, while her instructor went so far as to claim he could break her ankles if she put in grapevines. I've read elsewhere, somewhere on reddit, that grapevines are frowned upon in some schools.

I'm not sure why, as I use them all the time: it's something I taught earlier, in my maintaining mount lesson. Could be I've got a different definition of grapevines, or that I just haven't come across somebody who will punish me for putting in grapevines. Food for thought, though I take solace in the fact that top black belts like Demian Maia and Saulo Ribeiro both demonstrate grapevining on their instructional DVDs.

06/10/2011 - Michael 'Big Mick' Wilson at Gracie Barra Bristol

Class #423
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Michael 'Big Mick' Wilson, Bristol, UK - 06/10/2011

Normally I would be teaching the Thursday class, but this week is a bit special. That's because this week, there is a top black belt training at Gracie Barra Bristol: Michael 'Big Mick' Wilson. I was therefore more than happy to give up my slot to him, especially as I thought I'd lost my chance to learn from Big Mick due to being away yesterday. Also, I stayed on my brother's floor last night after a five hour meeting I had to attend up near Leamington, so lack of sleep would probably have rather hampered my teaching. ;)

Instead, I could relax and be the student rather than the instructor. Big Mick's lesson got off to an excellent start, as I really like his approach to warm-ups. Rather than any running or press-ups, it was based entirely upon partner-exercises which were directly relevant to jiu jitsu. For example, pummelling in the clinch, bullfighter passes and a useful drill for working leg flexibility, hip movement and lower body dexterity all at the same time.

That third exercise begins by having your partner sat on their heels, with arms outstretched in front of them, held parallel. You then put your instep on the opposite arm, after which you rotate your hips so that the knee of that same leg points to the floor. Follow that up by swinging your other leg over the top, until the instep of that leg presses into the other arm, whereupon your repeat. Great drill.

Mick's lesson tonight looked into the efficacy of double sleeve control from guard. He described it as if your partner's hands are an opposing team's star players, while your hands are going to act as markers to take them out of the game (or to use Mick's choice of metaphor, taggers from Aussie rules football). If you keep hold of those sleeves, then even if they get all the way around your legs, you can still stop them passing. There is the possibility of a sweep too: using another metaphor, Mick described the person passing as a plane trying to touch down without landing gear, meaning they were liable to crash.

To drive that point home, he then had us do some specific sparring from that position. That brought up another feature of the lesson I liked, as Mick followed the system at Gracie Barra Birmingham. I've mentioned this before, but you have everyone line up, then count them off in groups of 1-2-3. The ones go down on their backs first and stay there, until time runs out and it's the turn of the twos, then finally the threes. That way, everybody gets a good chance to practice the position, instead of just the most skilled and/or athletic people (which is what happens in a typical king of the hill set-up).

The people on their backs started with that double sleeve control, so the aim was to see if you could use those grips to hold your partner at bay. I found it tough to pass (though my passing is crap, so that's not unusual), even when I managed to get into a good position. I managed to move round to north-south at one point, but due to that double sleeve control, I couldn't settle into a dominant position. I also found myself getting swept a few times, after trying my usual tactic of sitting on one leg to force half guard and pass from there.

Underneath things went better, but I wasn't very good at maintaining the double sleeve hold. Most of the time my fingers would fail me on at least one of the grips, meaning I went back to spider guard or looked to take the back. It required a slightly different mindset than normal, because the idea was to hold on as long as possible: most of the time, if somebody seems to have got to side control, I'd stop and restart. However, as the point this time was to see if those grips could rescue you from a worst case scenario, I tried to fight on unless they could establish firm control for a few seconds.

The first technique of the day was a triangle from spider guard, but different to Donal's version from Tuesday due to the grips. Rather than a spider guard with a lasso, this time you just had your knees pressed into the crook of their elbows. From there, you're looking to get one foot on the bicep, which means you can then kick through while simultaneously pulling their arms forward. That puts you into a good position to finish the triangle. Grab your shin, foot on the hip to readjust, then lock your legs and complete as usual.

Interestingly, both Oli and I had trouble completing the triangle on eachother. That's possibly because we both have small necks, so had to be careful to close off any possible gaps. Shifting the leg in closer helped, as did wriggling backwards to stretch them out. Mick went into more detail on the latter before moving on to the next technique, demonstrating how your opponent is much weaker if you can bring their head forward of their knees. For example, push on their hip with your foot while holding their arm to pull them out of posture, a bit like the Gracie Combatives 'giant-killer' variation.

Mick rounded things off with an omoplata from spider guard, again in the same position. This time, you kicked one leg up, until their elbow was slipping past your knee. You then immediately push on their wrist, so that their arm wraps behind your leg, enabling you to swivel. You want to get your foot by their head. Grab their trouser leg with your hand, then continue rotating until your foot is pointing forwards by their head. Kick them forward as you also pull with your trouser grip to flatten them out. You can then lock your legs for the omoplata, crawling up their back to bring on the shoulder submission.

There was enough time for a round of free sparring, where I again found myself looking for the back. I focused on breaking posture, then keeping them there with a high guard, wrapping behind the head and also seeing if the overhook was a possibility. I was looking to then sneak around the side and pop up onto their back. I often have a problem getting myself up from the side to the back, which was again the case here.

Eventually I managed to swivel round, but I think I need to use my bottom instep to hook around their far hip to help (I seem to remember being taught that a while ago, so need to go review my notes). Once I got on the back I wasn't very good at finishing the choke, but the main concern for now is working on back control. While I did land a RNC earlier during specific sparring, I made lots of mistakes, like leaving my arm vulnerable as I brought the second hand in, as well as leaving too much space.

Going from back mount to mount is another technique I'm not doing properly. I was able to shift to mount as I felt my back mount slipping, but not with sufficient control. They had little trouble readjusting and dropping me back into guard, so I need to work on securing that transition to prevent myself immediately losing the position. Something to play with when I come to teaching the back again.

04/10/2011 - Gracie Barra Donal (Spider Guard)

Class #422
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Donal Carmody, Bristol, UK - 04/10/2011

Donal is easily one of the best guys at GB Bristol, so I was pleased to hear he'll be teaching some classes from now on. I wanted to make sure I was there to support his first lesson, as Donal has been kind enough to head down to quite a few of mine. Unfortunately I wasn't going to be able to stick around for Kirsty's judo session afterwards, which I'd also like to support, but hopefully she'll get a good turnout. For competitors, a judo class should be extremely helpful, so I'd urge everybody to go check out Kirsty's new class.

I was especially excited to hear that Donal would be teaching spider guard. That's something I've been fiddling with for years, but in a rather haphazard and unsuccessful fashion. I can generally hold somebody there, but not much else. Donal's whole class was geared around spider guard, including some helpful drills, such as trying to move in a circle around your training partner using only your legs, with the restriction that your feet can't touch the floor.

The teaching method was to break down the technique into stages of complexity, which worked well. The drill was the most basic level, as that helped to familiarise everyone with using your legs and feet to hook against somebody else's limbs. Donal then began to demonstrate the triangle from spider guard itself, again starting out simply.

You're in open guard, with your feet on their hips, gripping both sleeves. Swing one leg out, then bring it back in, wrapping over the same side arm. Your foot hooks under their armpit on the inside, reaching to pull around their shoulder blade: this creates a lasso grip. Your other foot presses into their other bicep, pushing that out. Once you've got that other leg straight, you can switch the hand from the bicep-arm sleeve to their lasso-side collar.

Pull their collar towards you to stop them posturing up. Next, release your hand from their lasso-side sleeve and move it to their same side elbow. Slide that towards you while kicking your lasso-side leg through. Bring your bicep-arm leg to their head, which means you're now ready to lock up the triangle.

We drilled that, allowing Donal to progress to a more detailed stage. He noted that when pushing into their bicep, curl the toes of your foot. That will make it harder for them to circle their arm free. Similarly, when you grip their sleeve on the lasso side, pull that around your thigh and clamp your elbow to your side. That means that if they pull, they have to contend with the static mass of your thigh, rather than matching muscle against muscle with your wrist and arm.

When closing up the triangle, Donal advised against pulling down on the head. Instead, he suggested that you angle out the leg which you've brought over your instep, so that you can look at your ankle. You can then complete the triangle by just squeezing your thighs, rather than relying on yanking their head towards you.

We then went into a sort of king of the hill sparring, but more along the lines of the 1-2-3 set-up I liked so much at Gracie Barra Birmingham. Donal called out several people to stay on their backs, while everyone else cycled in, before switching out to some other people to go on their backs. It was a particularly relaxed form of sparring, which was a hallmark of the lesson. Rather than fighting from spider guard, all we were doing was switching spider guard grips from one side to the other while your partner tried to pass.

That then led into flow rolling, which isn't something I've tried to add into lessons yet, but I'd like to as it's an awesome way to get people to chill out. When you get used to flow rolling, you become much more creative and fluid in your sparring, rather than stalling out in certain position. Ideally it would be a part of every lesson, perhaps a warm-up, but then there are time constraints. It's also a tough concept for beginners to grasp, though Donal built up to it well.

Free sparring enabled me to try out some of those sweeps I drilled months ago, but had completely forgotten until I reread my notes earlier today. I frequently try spider guard, which normally results in them raising a knee, but I then can't remember what to do. Tonight gave me a chance to remind myself (or if nothing else, the impetus to do so), which proved useful.

I loved the laid back vibe that lasted all the way through the lesson. Donal's friendly, enthusiastic personality definitely came through in his teaching: I had a smile on my face most of the time. He was constantly encouraging, even to his uke during demonstration, with a good grasp of details. Should be fun to see what he has in store for us next week. Donal will be teaching again on Wednesday at 12:00.

You should also be sure to head along to Kirsty's judo class if you want to work your takedowns (which if you compete, you should). I liked the way that Geeza made sure everyone paid the proper respect to both judo and to Kirsty's rank: she put on her black belt, while everybody else strapped on a white belt.

27/04/2009 - BJJ (RGA Kilburn)

Class #222



Roger Gracie Academy Kilburn (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK - 27/04/2009 - Beginner

Almost forgot to mention: there is a throwdown in Farnborough this Sunday, with a nominal £5 mat fee. So, if anybody fancies meeting up for a roll, now's your chance. Would be great to see people, if there's anyone reading this blog who can make it down to spar (or just drill: I normally spend a good chunk of throwdowns drilling stuff I've not had a chance to practice much in class). Full details on Jadon's Bullshido thread.

This will be my last week training at Kilburn, so I plan to train Monday and Wednesday (tomorrow I've got some work I need to get sorted). I'll be sad to leave, as its been a great few months continuing to learn from Jude. Hopefully I'll get back to London at some point in the future, but no idea when that will be, especially as my gf hates the idea of living in the capital (expensive, dangerous, commuting on the Tube is horrible, etc).

During guard passage, I was having a play with the triangle, thought my set-ups remain terrible and my execution sufficiently sloppy that I can never secure the submission. With my first training partner, a white belt called Ben, I had my legs up and crossed, but didn't underhook the leg, so he could happily stand up with me sitting by his head. Fortunately he's one of the more sensible white belts, so didn't Rampage-slam me, instead carefully kneeling back down.

Similarly with Rodrigo, I again couldn't lock the triangle properly. I got a bit further this time, having managed to get into position with my legs secured by his head and arm through, but still couldn't finish. Of course he's much bigger than me, but there was clearly something wrong with my mechanics given how easily he escaped.

Finally, I went with Rich, but was thinking too much about trying out the reverse De La Riva I'd wanted to attempt last lesson. What I should have been concentrating on instead was making sure I pushed his hips away with my legs as soon as my guard was open, as otherwise its a simple matter for him to pass.

Jude then went through the same underhook cross choke and triangle combination from last week, then moved on to a triangle from spider guard. From closed guard, you uncross your legs and put your feet on their hips. Grab their sleeves, then shrimp out to make enough space for your foot onto their same side bicep. The other foot stays on their hip.

You're now going to pull them in, kicking the foot on their bicep through to instead go over the back of their neck. You can now bring your other leg up for the triangle position, keeping their other arm by your chest and inside your leg.

That's what I should have been doing when sparring Rodrigo and Ben earlier, so its handy to see the set-up. I also think I may be too bunched up, meaning I'm already half-stacked, whereas I should be scooting back and swivelling for better leverage. I'm keen to improve submissions that use my legs rather than my arms, given that my arms are puny (not that my legs are much better, but still much stronger than my upper body).

In free sparring I ended up against Ben twice. The first time I spent most of it in an Americana, but fortunately for me, Ben was trying to apply it with one of his arms still under my head. I felt fairly safe, as he didn't have the leverage from there, but a good reminder to be more careful with my arm when I'm under half guard or side control. I made sure to tell him, so I doubt I'll get off that lightly if there's a next time. ;)

Our second spar was the other way round, where instead I was in top half-guard for much of the time. I was looking for the kimura, but couldn't get into position. I then saw a possible opportunity for that whizzer armbar I saw Saulo do on his DVD, but again I didn't quite get in the proper place. Still, as I often find myself with a whizzer in top half guard, its something I'd like to try again.

Same thing happened with Rich, with the difference that it happened right at the end of the spar. Previously, he'd got me into high mount yet again, and I'd also been under side control for a while. As he was passing I threw my legs up by his legs, but while I was able to triangle them, I don't think I had anything so soon let go. Like always, basics must remain the focus: I definitely need to follow my own advice on that in guard, making sure I'm using my legs a lot more to off-balance and break posture.

01/07/2008 - BJJ (Advanced)

Class #158



Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK - 01/07/2008 - Advanced

My arms felt much better after a rest, so hopefully I won't mess them up again from too much emphasis on my upper body. Tonight's class was all from spider guard, going through a number of submission options.

First, Jude showed us the armbar from spider guard. You begin in typical spider guard, both legs into your partner's biceps, one leg straightened out, the other bent. At the same time, your partner has a hold of your gi trousers with each hand, while you are holding both of their sleeves. First, you need to remove their grip on your bent leg. Pull up with your grip on their sleeve, and at the same time kick out with your leg: this should break their hold. Immediately pull them forward with your sleeve grip, bringing their arm around to the opposite side of your head, still gripping firmly.

Having secured that grip, bring your now free leg over their head to set up for the armbar. You can now switch your grip from behind their head to their wrist. Twist to get your other leg into position, then raise your hips for the submission. If they resist, knock them over and finish from side control.

Next, we were shown the triangle from spider guard. Set up is the same as for the armbar, but this time, once you have their arm behind your head, put your same side foot on their hip. Use that to shrimp out, then move your straightened leg from their biceps to go over the back of their neck. Lock that ankle behind your other leg's knee, then squeeze for the triangle. Due to your previous grip, their arm is already across your body.

Finally, Jude demonstrated the omoplata from spider guard. This was slightly different, as there was no arm behind the head. After freeing your bent leg, you drive your thigh into the back of their arm, pushing on their sleeve. The aim here is to bend their arm around your leg in a right angle. Once you've got them in position, bring your leg over that arm and past their face, still maintaining your grip on their other sleeve.

Pull that other sleeve up to your bum, then you can raise up and switch your other grip to their belt (or the back of their gi). Pull yourself in tight, shuffling forward if necessary: that will knock them down and make the finish easier. Your other leg will now be splayed behind you. Bring the foot of the leg you brought over their arm and press it towards your other knee. From there, push your hips forward, back straight, to get the submission.

Technique was followed by guard passage, which recently has moved away from the line-up system to instead be a matter of first come, first serve. That tends to mean I'll wait until either someone my size is free, or somebody I'm fairly certain isn't going to be an injury risk. However, as I'm quite lazy, that can mean I'm pondering for a while: still, I got in three specific spars.

All of them were a bit bigger and stronger than me, so I ended up defending, bringing my elbows to my knees. This held off Radek for a short while, but he eventually manoeuvred me into position for an armbar (which he didn't crank – we both knew he had it, so I tapped as soon as he got the position).

Justin was similar, in that I wiggled around for a little while, making adjustments with my knees and sprawling to avoid his sweep attempts. I was in the midst of defending an armbar, when I found myself underneath his back: he spun and finished in side control. Random, but effective.

Finally, I went with a guy in a Renzo Gracie gi, who I think might have been called Damian, but I'm not sure. I found myself presented with an opportunity to sprawl back and wrap up his legs, but as ever when I try that pass, it feels like my neck is vulnerable. Sure enough, though I passed his legs and moved to side control, he had some kind of grip on my collars. I then found myself flying over the top of him, while being simultaneously choked out. Not quite sure what he did, but a useful reminder to watch my neck when trying the sprawl pass.

Two of my favourite sparring partners were available for free rolling at then end of class, Joanna and Indra. Joanna has a fluid style, which tends to result in rapid changes of position when I spar with her (especially as she stays relaxed). We went through half-guard and open guard as ever, where again I need to sit-up rather than lying on my back, which is just asking to be passed.

At one point I got the handstand sweep (very nice to have a closed guard option when they stand up), but couldn't secure mount. However, I was able to spin over onto her back and get a body triangle, but she slipped down away from my arms, meaning I ended back in guard. I also had a chance to put into practice the principle of straightening out an arm into their thigh, with the intention of getting a knee through from half-guard to reclose full guard. Sort of worked at points, but not something I'm doing as automatically as I should.

My second and last spar was with Indra. She went to her back, so I spent a while trying to pass, as she came up on her side and tried to drive through to guard. Eventually I slapped on a sloppy scarf hold, but couldn't get much further than that. I was trying to pry out her arm, so I could then trap it with my leg and go for some sort of submission. Failing that, I wanted to come in under her knee, switch my base and secure a solid side control. However, every time I went to switch, I could feel her leg creeping up to snatch half-guard, meaning I bailed back to scarf hold.

So, not hugely eventful until I somehow found myself on Indra's back. I almost fell off, but because I'd been looking for a kimura, my hold on the arm kept me behind her and on top. I then tried to go for a belly down armbar, but Indra had no trouble protecting her arm, after which time ran out. I continue to suck at doing anything from the back, but practice makes perfect. The body triangle seems to be one interesting option, but I think my big problem is not knowing what to do with my arms to get a choke or armlock.

Then again, my main concern is still escapes, particularly from side control, and recovering full guard from half guard. That's progressing slowly, with the end goal being a solid defence from which I can take risks with my offence. Still a while off at this point, though.