18/07/2016 - BJJ Globetrotter Camp | Bournemouth 2016 | Foetal Side Control Escapes (Chiu Kwong Man)

Class #754
BJJ Globetrotter Camp (Phoenix MMA), Chiu Kwong Man, Bournemouth, UK, 18/07/2016

I used to really enjoy Chiu's classes back when I trained at GB Brum in 2010, so it was cool to get to train under him again. Especially as today, he picked side control escapes from a position similar to the running escape: perfect. :)

Chiu called his class 'foetal side control escapes', which makes sense after you see the position he's talking about. First, he talked about getting two-on-one control on their far arm. From a no-gi perspective, you can grab their far arm with both your hands, without worrying too much about their arm near your head (in gi, it's a lot more dangerous, but he got onto that later).

After having us drill that with some light resistance, Chiu added in the legs. You've created space with your two on one grip, meaning you can bring in your knees (like the 'shin-in-elbow' trick Ed Beneville wrote about it his book, Strategic Guard). If they raise up, that gives you the space to spin back to guard: for drilling this particular technique, your partner needs to be helpful and stay low, stopping you turning in towards them. If you can't get the arm (e.g., they are trying to moving to north south), you can push on the head to stop them going where they want.

If you can get your knee in, lift that leg to make some space (pushing into their arm with your shin), until you can insert the other leg. If you can get your feet into the crook of their elbow, even better. At that point, it is difficult for them to prevent you making enough room to recover some kind of guard.

In a detail reminiscent of the running escape, you may want to make more space by shrimping your hips into them. You also want to make sure you are monitoring their leg with your inside arm (like your arm is stuck inside their knee), as otherwise they will probably try and get to knee on belly to then rip their arm free. Turning yourself towards them at that point is another good option, spinning into guard once they've given you that space.

A granby roll can work from there too, in the same way as it does from the running escape. However, also like the running escape, sometimes it is tough to get that rolling motion, which can also put pressure on your neck. Digging your feet into the floor and then shrimping towards them is therefore preferable in that situation.

The foetal defence feels like a guard from under side control. It has attacks too, such as switching into a reverse triangle. I was finding it felt natural to push on the back of their arm and spin out. For others, the triangle might feel like a smooth transition. You have the two on one grip, a foot into the crook of their elbow. Kick up with the foot in the elbow, the other leg going behind their arm. Your kicking foot shoots around the side of their neck, locking it with the other leg over your shin. Pull on their elbow and squeeze to finish.

Finally, there is the important question of how to avoid getting choked when trying this in the gi. If you're lazy, they can potentially sneak a hand under your head and secure a bow and arrow grip, or potentially loop their arm over for a breadcutter style choke. To prevent that, keep pressuring their arm by pulling your head back, following that arm if they try to bring it over the top of your head.

If possible, hide your collar under your armpit, which prevents them gripping it for a choke. Do not curl when you're in the gi, that gives them enough room for the choke. In terms of gripping, Chiu recommends grabbing the wrist, lifting the leg to get their elbow up. If you grip the gi and don't lift your leg, they may be able to rotate your arm down to put pressure on your grip.

09/04/2016 - RGA Bucks | Side Control | Reverse Triangle

Class #709
RGA Aylesbury, (BJJ), Kev Capel, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, UK - 09/04/2016

A photo posted by Can (Jun) (@slideyfoot) on Apr 9, 2016 at 6:15am PDT

After my private lesson, in the normal class Kev focused on side control. He started with some basic escapes, with the guard recovery. He has a little tweak I haven't seen before, in the last part where you're getting back into guard. Rather than wrapping the arm over the top and reaching for your other shoulder, he prefers to make a frame against their shoulder and bicep. That enables you to push yourself away, then move into either open guard or wriggle into closed guard.

Kev upped the complexity next, with reverse triangles. Having escaped, the leg that was previous by their hip now kicks up diagonally, past their opposite shoulder, straightening your leg. If you have long legs, it might be tricky to manoeuvre it in place, but I don't have that problem. Put that leg across the back of their neck, then the other leg comes up to lock over the shin, as with a normal triangle. You are essentially putting yourself underneath side control: the same technique will work if you're starting out from side control too, though the setup is a little different (you'd push their head down towards your leg).

It can be difficult to finish the triangle, but their near arm is vulnerable. You can attack with pressing armbars, kimuras and even americanas, due to locking that shoulder down so they can't relieve the pressure. If you're having trouble, straighten out your leg that's over their neck, to push their head down further. Turn your hips, then the leg that was across the back of their head becomes the leg that locks over the top. The legs are switching, changing the triangle configuration. The hard part is getting the lock in tightly enough by the shoulder, especially as you can't see what you're doing.

I was taking it easy in sparring, as I had the GrappleThon to go to later. I mainly tried more maintaining open guard, attempting to pull them into closed guard like Kev had taught me in the private.

02/08/2014 - Open Mat | Butterfly Guard | Butterfly Sweep

Class #585
Artemis BJJ (Impact Gym), Open Mat, Bristol, UK - 02/08/2014

After teaching the nogi class, it was time for open mat. Like I do every week, I wanted to practice the techniques I'm intending to teach over the next few lessons, in this case butterfly guard (or at least, that's what I'll be teaching at Bristol Sports Centre.) I have never been a big butterfly guard players, but I have always wanted to get better at it. The main sweep is among the most powerful in all of BJJ, as ably demonstrated on Carlos Machado's awesome DVD on the topic from a while ago.

After running through the basic sweep a few times, I added in the technique I'm considering teaching on Wednesday, where you follow up a failed sweep with a back take. If you're using the orthodox grip for the butterfly sweep, where you have an underhook reaching around the back to grab their belt, you can do basically the same thing as if it was half guard. Shuck their arm by knocking it with your underhook, using the momentum to duck under the arm and spin to the back.

Mark mentioned a handy pointer when I was drilling this with him. If you have the underhook deep to your shoulder, then knocking them is simple. But if you don't have that deep a grip, they can exploit that space if you try to take the back. So, in that situation, flaring your elbow out when you're knocking their arm can increase the efficacy of your back take attempt.

Having a look through the butterfly sweeps on my favourite online training site, BJJ Library. Saulo has an interesting option he calls the 'switchback sweep'. Rather than underhooking or grabbing somewhere on the sleeve, he grabs over the top of each arm, locking that in by grasping the gi. That means he can sweep his opponent in either direction, because he's got both arms trapped. The difficulty I had when drilling this was that I'm not able to trap them very effectively, as they can normally swivel their arms free. If I do trap the arm really tightly, I have to get in close and drive my shoulder to do it, making the other grip harder to secure.

Anyway, the switch to sweep the other way certainly works, it's that initial sweep which is hard. If the first sweep is mainly a feint, that would make sense, though I assume I just need to drill this more to refine my understanding. The principle is a good one, so I'll be playing with this over the next week if I get the chance. Mark tried grabbing their arm with both of his: that works too, but then you don't have an arm free to try and trap their same side arm.

Mark wanted to drill reverse triangles under side control. I do use that technique, but most of the time just to recover guard. I rarely try to actually submit someone with it, but Mark had some cool concepts on the position from a Braulio seminar he'd been to a while ago. He also mentioned how Braulio had said that if you're going for the triangle from guard, but don't have it locked in properly, you can try grabbing their head and twisting it at an angle. This may put the carotid arteries into the right configuration that you can then tap them just by squeezing your legs, even if you haven't got a 'proper' triangle secured.

The last thing I wanted to note from open mat was what Mark said about defending the knee cut pass. Apparently, Dónal and Mark's brother Chris both reach under their own leg and grab the passer's ankle, stuffing the sweep. Dónal then attempts to hook his free foot under the passer's foot, moving into a sweep. I haven't tried that before: it feels a bit like knee shield. Mostly I've been trying to use the mawashi grip from that Kev private a while back, but this looks a bit more intuitive. Both worth investigating some more in the future. :)

01/05/2014 - Stephanie's Women's Class (Triangle Under Side Control)

Class #565
Fabio Novaes BJJ, Stephanie McClish, Lakeland, FL, USA - 01/05/2014

A photo posted by Can (Jun) (@slideyfoot) on May 1, 2014 at 6:47pm PDT

Back to the awesomeness of Stephanie's women's class tonight, where this time we covered a technique I frequently use, the triangle from under side control. Stephanies uses it the same way I do, which is as an escape that very occasionally might turn into a submission.

The situation is that they are in side control, but have put and arm inside your leg (if they haven't put the arm inside, you can walk you legs up by their arm and get a similar position). Push their head towards your legs and swing one over the head, locking in a triangle position where you capture both their arm and their head.

Normally it will be hard to submit from here, but to try, slide your upper body underneath their torso (you may need to move their arm because it is often obstructing your route), lock your arms around them and thrust your hips. Usually they will posture up before you get that far, whereupon you can shrimp away and recover your guard.

In the half guard specific sparring at the start I again wasn't doing great on the passing or underneath, so I'm looking forward to half guard month at Artemis BJJ. Clearly my half guard needs a lot of work, as I'm not really doing anything from there. I flail at the scissor sweep and roll over from knee shield and occasionally go for deep half Homer Simpson, but that's about it. Ineed much more from the standard haf guard.

Getting to free sparring, just like last time, the women all had good pressure, turning my head and working the pass. I was again trying to go to deep half as well as try Kev's 'nappy grip' (or what I decided to dub the 'mawashi grip' because I think it sounds cooler :p), but not much success with either. I am at least remembering to regrip on the mawashi option.