07/08/2013 - Dónal Private (Windscreen Wiper & Omoplata Sweep Variations)

Class #516 - Private #013
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Dónal Carmody, Bristol, UK - 07/08/2013

I went on one of my irregular blog hunts recently, meaning I added a bunch of sites to my blog index. It again reminds me that the best way to connect with other blogs is to comment: I discovered four blogs I hadn't read before just by clicking through comments on Cynthia's adeptly written CAMAMYD blog.
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My closed guard has been languishing for some time. I haven't really managed to make it much of an attacking force, although Dónal's private on the windscreen wiper sweep has helped. I'd like to have two or three effective sweeps from closed guard that can put me where I want to be (so, mount or side control) without risking much loss of control. The windscreen wiper is good for that, as is Henry Akins' hip shift. I want to add a couple more: before this lesson, I had in mind either the scissor and push sweep combination, or the series from the sit-up sweep.

The scissor and push sweep are solid fundamentals, but that does involve opening your guard and creating some space. I could also consider the flower sweep, which seems a bit less open. Considering what grips I tend to get is important too, along with grips that aren't going to burn out my hands or be especially awkward to achieve. I like to get a hand deep in the collar, which can fit with the scissor and push, as well as lending itself to collar chokes (which I'd also like to get better at).

The sit-up sweep doesn't require too much opening, as you remain close to them throughout. It's also the sweep I probably have the most success with in sparring, although that's generally with white belts or early blues. I've also been wondering, from a teaching perspective, if I might fit with Akins' sweep, as the mechanics seemed to have a few similarities.

As it turned out, Dónal went with something a bit flashier than I would normally pick, but those all-important mechanics remained simple. He began with a tweak on the windscreen wiper, where instead of grabbing the gi trousers, he underhooked the leg with his arm. From there, he moved into an interesting sequence that involved securing the bottom of the gi by their leg.

This could fit in with things I've been playing with already. Quite often, I will start pulling out my partner's gi and wrapping it around their arm and/or head. This is generally random, but because I have a purple belt, people often assume I've got some cunning technique in mind (I almost never do: I'm a mediocre purple belt ;D), which results in them extending an arm or shifting their weight. That then hopefully gives me something else.

Dónal's technique means that I can be rather less random with my gi wrapping. Start off by grabbing their gi, low, then pulling it towards you. A typical reaction is for them to pull that gi out of your hand, brushing it behind them because they think that will scupper whatever technique you have in mind. In fact, it puts the gi right where you want it, dangling near their leg. Alternatively, you can try pulling the gi over their arm with your opposite hand, feeding it to your other hand.

That's because either way, that other hand will be underhooking their leg. Use it to grab their trailing gi (whether they put it there or you did), creeping up the lapel to get it as tight by their leg as possible. Note that you want to keep your thumb pointing up, as otherwise you might find your arm getting uncomfortably squashed. For them, this can turn into comparable pressure to a calf slicer. That will make them lean forward. They'll also quite probably try and hug in tight and stay low. Again, this helps your sweep. If you've been able to actually wrap the gi over their arm as well as then underhooking the leg and grabbing, you can go for the windscreen wiper sweep again.

If they've pulled their arm free, you have the option of an omoplata sweep. The key motion for this private lesson is contained within that technique. Start by bridging up onto your shoulders, then swinging out your far leg. Keep the heel of your near leg stuck into their side (basic physics: you want the end of the lever, not the middle). As you spin, you also want to make sure your spine stays on the ground. Swivel perpendicular, then kick forward.

A full omoplata sweep involves rolling through so they pass over your body, whereupon you come up in a sort of side control, but you're sitting on their arm. I prefer the other position we ended up with, where you do a similar motion to knock them over, but come up into a sort of technical mount instead rather than rolling them over you.

Rather than kicking into their arm for the omoplata sweep, this option is based around blocking their knee, for which Dónal had two options, both starting from closed guard. They raise one knee to begin their pass. Pop your hips up onto the leg that is still kneeling and grab their same side sleeve. With your other hand, reach underneath your own back and grip the inside of their gi trousers, to maintain control of the knee on the floor.

As before, do the same omoplata sweep motion where you swing out your legs, keeping your spine on the mat rather than raising up on one side. That should knock them over. The other variation is for when they still have both knees on the ground. Pop your hips up onto their knee like the first variation, but rather than grabbing their knee, you're going to reach further, putting the back of your hand on the outside of the knee (you'll find it easier if you turn your body, facing the opposite side). Finish with the same swinging motion as before.

In both variations, the motion to knock them over leaves your hips pointing towards their arm, which potentially works well for dropping directly into an armbar. Personally, I'm not comfortable with that, as it feels more scrambly: I would rather sweep into a solid, controlling mount, then work from there. To do that you need to be turning your hips and curling a leg underneath as you come up. I also think I feel more comfortable with the first variation, as that twist makes me a little wary, but I'll test it out at study hall.

10/04/2013 - Dónal Private: Windscreen Wiper & Sit-Up Sweep

Class #498 - Private #009
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Dónal Carmody, Bristol, UK - 10/04/2013

As ever with jiu jitsu, the sweep I worked on today has several names: Andre Anderson calls it the 'Rey Diogo sweep' after his instructor. I first learned the windscreen wiper sweep from Ciaran Toal in Belfast, so I sometimes refer to it as the 'Ciaran sweep'. However, 'windscreen wiper' seems like the most descriptive term, which I therefore use most often.

Dónal was pleased when I mentioned I'd like to study this technique in more depth, as it is one of his favourites. He had various modifications to the versions I've learned before, beginning with his grips. Anderson grabs the elbow and pushes in. Dónal grabs the sleeve with his same side hand, grabbing just below their knee with the other hand. If you can't get any material, pull your legs inwards to knock them towards you and take their weight off their legs. That should enable you to get a good handful of cloth by their knee.

You don't just grip their sleeve with a typical pocket grip. Instead, Dónal used a principle similar to the grip on the shin when doing the knee cut pass. Grab the cloth then turn your hand inwards, pressing your knuckles into the side of their forearm. Just like when they sit on their heels and make the trousers too tight to hold, by turning your hand in their sleeve becomes tight and restricts their movement. They can longer easily circle their hand around to break your hold.

Remember the advice from Anderson's DVD about bringing your hips off the mat and closer to your partner. That way, they don't have as much space for a guard pass: you've taken it away, so to even begin a guard pass they have to first create that space. On the sleeve grip side, put your foot on the mat by their leg, keeping it tight so there is no room for them to wriggle. Anderson prefers to put his foot on the hip, but as I found during the Nic Gregoriades 'big class' on this topic, I think foot on the floor works better for me than foot on the hip. You could go straight for the windscreen wiper from here, but Dónal uses a combination instead: he starts off with a sit-up sweep.

For this initial technique, the sit-up is a bait. Angle your hips slightly towards your sleeve grip, then shove their arm into their other hip. Do the sit up sweep as normal, coming up diagonally towards the knee grip side and bumping into their hip. Their natural reaction will be to press forwards to prevent your sweep, which sets you up perfectly for the windscreen wiper. On the knee-grip side, kick your leg into their armpit, curling it around their back as you do. It's important that this leg stays tight to them, right from the moment you do a sit-up: imagine that leg is an arm, which you're using to hug them tightly.

You'll drop back slightly too. In order to do the hip bump, you'll have probably come up on your elbow. Don't drop straight back down. Instead, angle off in the direction of your knee grip, moving the shoulder of your posting elbow across. Your leg should end up across their upper back, the foot near their opposite shoulder. Kick the leg forwards to knock them over, thrusting up with your knee grip arm, then roll them into mount.

Keep hold of their leg and sleeve, also extending the sleeve forwards. Holding the leg makes it hard for them to bridge, while holding the sleeve and straightening the arm could lead directly into a submission, such as an americana. To further help with that, slide your knee up on the sleeve grip side, so they can't bring their elbow back to their side.

Keep in mind this is a combination: the option of completing the sit up sweep is also available, switching back and forth depending on where and how they resist. Sit-up diagonally, bumping with your hip, again shoving their arm into their other hip as you do. You also want to lock their arm in place with your sleeve grip side hip, pressing that into them.

If they don't lean forwards to resist (if they did, you'd go to the windscreen wiper), they will most likely post their arm on the knee grip side behind them. Let go of their sleeve and instead reach slightly below the elbow of that posting arm. Push it forwards and hook it, then continue the sit-up sweep/hip bump motion.

Bring your knee up to trap their arm again, for submission opportunities. Also don't let their other arm free: because you shoved it into their hip and clamped it in place at the other end with your hip, once you roll into mount it should be totally stuck underneath you. That means they can't use it to defend, putting you in a great position to attack.

30/06/2012 - Nic Gregoriades 'Big Class' at GB Bristol (Overhook & Windscreen Wiper Sweep)

Class #461
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Nic Gregoriades, Bristol, UK - 30/06/2012

Geeza regularly has events he calls a 'Big Class'. It is sort of like of seminar, in that Geeza brings someone in to teach, but within the normal parameters of a class, rather than the several hours you tend to get at a seminar. Either way, it's cool to get a different perspective. I don't make it out to many of them, as I'm normally busy at the weekend, but fortunately this Saturday I had time free.

Nic is somebody I met on my first day of jiu jitsu, back in 2006 when he was a brown belt. The last time I trained with him was during my last month at the Roger Gracie Academy HQ, in January 2009. Nic is an excellent teacher, so I was excited at the chance to be taught by him again. One of my main memories from when I was learning from him regularly is that he liked to throw in unusual warm-ups and cool-downs, like meditation. That hasn't changed in the three years since, as he had a whole bunch of drills I hadn't seen before.

The idea behind all of them was to open up the hips. I'm not sure I remembered it all properly, but the ones that stuck in my head were based around the 'shin box' position (handy term: it's what Nic calls the position where you have one leg bent in front of you, so that the sole of that foot touches the knee of your other leg, which is bent behind you). From there, move your knees up, so that you switch to being sat on the floor with both knees raised in front. Continue the motion, putting your knees on the mat in the other direction, returning to the shin box position but the opposite configuration. You can then bring your legs back to the starting position and repeat.

A slightly more difficult one (if you're inflexible: I'm lucky in that I seem to have always been relatively flexible, ever since I got into martial arts seriously in 1999) starts with one leg in front, as with the shin box, but the other leg goes straight backwards, on your toes. From there, swing the back leg around in a big circle, staying low throughout and not bending your leg. Keep the swing going until that leg is in front, pointing diagonally away from you. Curl that leg so it goes into a shin box, while the other leg goes straight backwards. You can then repeat, moving forward up the mat each time.

Techniques today were all based around the closed guard. Geeza mentioned that in his email about this class, which was another reason I was keen to attend. I'm a big believer in the basics, so the kind of instruction I most value includes variations and details on fundamental techniques I already know. That's exactly what I got from Nic's class, which was therefore awesome.

First, Nic had a little detail on breaking their posture. Generally, people will stagger their hands when in your guard, gripping your collars near your chest with a straight arm, while the other hangs back pressing into your hip. To collapse that straight arm can be a pain, but Nic taught us a reliable method.

Reach over with your same side arm, grabbing their opposite collar. Brace your elbow by the side of their elbow. Bring them forwards with your legs and collar grip as usual, but use your elbow to push into their elbow. As Nic described it, their elbow is the major hinge in that situation, so this should make it easy to bring them down into what Geeza calls the 'submission zone', wrapping up their head to keep them there.

That was followed by two techniques I've been failing to get in sparring for quite some time, which is why I was so pleased to see Nic teaching them. To begin, Nic demonstrated the two-on-one gripbreak, which I taught a while ago. The basic idea is to grab their opposite sleeve, then bring your other arm underneath theirs, in order to hold the wrist of your sleeve-gripping hand. You then shove upwards to break the grip. Nic added in a variation at that point: instead of going straight up, punch diagonally across with your sleeve-grip hand, in the direction your knuckles are pointing.

Another useful detail was getting to the armwrap, for an overhook guard sweep. After you've broken the grip and are pulling your sleeve grip behind your head, Nic suggested bringing the elbow of your wrist-grabbing arm up inside their arm. That helps avoid the confusion people often get into with this technique, as it makes a clear distinction. Yet another key detail Nic added was to reach up as far as you can with your overhooking arm, before reaching under their arm. You want their shoulder pressing into your Teres major first, which will give you maximum arm length for reaching under.

After you've reached under their arm to establish the overhook, grab their opposite collar (you could feed it with your other hand, if you can do so without losing control over their posture). Make sure you also pin the elbow of your gripping arm to your ribs, to clamp their arm in place. With your non-gripping hand, grasp the gi material by their shoulder, on the trapped-arm side. Wedge your wrist and forearm under their jaw. This is important, as you'll need it for the technique to work.

Having well and truly immobilised their upper body, you can now open your guard and turn your hip out towards the non-trapped arm side. Circle your leg on the non-trapped side around their knee in order to insert a butterfly hook. If you can't, then shrimp out until you can. Raise your jaw elbow up, to lift their head, then also elevate your butterfly hook. With your other leg, chop into their knee (like you would with a scissor sweep), rolling through into mount. Here's another old training partner of mine, Yas Wilson, showing a variation where you go the opposite way:



The next technique is something I was first shown by Ciaran at the Belfast Throwdown. He called it the 'windscreen wiper' sweep. I next saw it on Andre Anderson's closed guard DVD, where he called it the 'Rey Diogo sweep', after his instructor who used it extensively. John Will does something similar he dubs the 'bearhug ankle lift'. Nic's name for it was the 'Xande sweep', due to Xande having also used it regularly in competition.

Whatever the name (I think I'll stick with Ciaran's 'windscreen wiper sweep', as it's the most descriptive), it's a great sweep. I've been giving it a go since watching the Anderson DVD, but without much success. After having been shown the same technique by Nic, I think I've been having trouble because I've followed Anderson's preference on a particular detail, whereas the other option – which Nic showed in his demonstration - works better for me. Of course, Anderson shows both and says you should try both, but I've been wrongly fixated on just the one.

Start off by grabbing the same side wrist (Anderson prefers to grab the elbow and push in, while Will has yet another variation. The breadth of jiu jitsu, even within a single element of a single technique, is a beautiful thing). Angle your torso over to the opposite side, then grab either the outside of their knee or the lower part of their trousers. Nic noted that when you do this, an experienced opponent is going to know something is up. If they know this sweep, they'll post their other leg out to stop you.

Before they can do that, put your same side foot by that other leg, keeping it tight so there is no room for them to wriggle. This is the detail I wasn't doing, because Anderson prefers to put his foot on the hip, but having tried both with Nic, I think foot on the floor works better for me than foot on the hip. Next, kick your foot on the trouser-grip side up into their armpit, aiming to curve their body away as you do (Nic used the image of a sickle, Ciaran prefers a windscreen wiper). To finish, kick forward with that leg, lifting the trouser, then roll through into mount.

We finished up with two rounds of sparring, from the closed guard. I was able to get a few passes from the top, though they felt a bit sloppy. Still, I'm pleased I managed to switch from one side to the other a couple of times, as that is a habit I've been trying to develop. Underneath, I was looking to take the back, combining that with a flower sweep if it didn't work. I wasn't wholly successful. Still got the sweep, but again it was sloppy, based more on reaction than anything I could easily replicate.

I also attempted to move into a scissor sweep, but as so often when I try that, I basically just gave them an opportunity to start a pass. I was able to recover with a kimura from under half guard, but again that was opportunistic and sloppy. I should soon have lots more time to work on guard stuff, as I think the theme is passing for the next fortnight.

18/08/2007 - Belfast Throwdown

Belfast Throwdown, Bullshido, Birmingham, UK – 17-19/08/2007

I flew in from Birmingham International to Belfast International on the Friday evening – should have arrived at 18:00, but various delays meant I eventually arrived more like 20:00. At first I wasn’t sure how to get the ticket for the bus, as the desk saying ‘buy tickets here’ helpfully wasn’t staffed, but I noticed a poster saying you could get them from the driver. The stop is just outside the airport, over the road and to the left. Return to Belfast is £9, taking between 30 to 40 minutes: Europa Buscentre is normally the stop you want.

Das Moose (Mark), Megalef (Johannes) and adouglasmhor (Dougie) were waiting for me at the bus station, though I somehow managed to walk past them…twice. Ahem. Anyway, once we managed to notice eachother, went back to Mark’s place and watched the awesomeness that is Flash Gordon. Forgot how kick-ass that fabulous exercise in camp really is (in fact, I think I can safely say its pretty much the epitome of camp) – been far too long since I last saw it.

I’d not quite shaken off my flu (or whatever it was) at this point, so had been taking it easy with the drinking. Still didn’t feel 100% on Saturday, but turned out I was sufficiently well to make it through the throwdown. Having got to the sports centre at Queen’s University, things kicked off with a warm-up and some very light rolling while everyone was still arriving. I played open guard with Johannes: he refrained from thoroughly squashing me, as we were only going very light. So, mainly ended up with me bouncing around on the floor by his legs, trying to pull him into guard.

Once everybody arrived (about 10 or 12, I think: will have to check the photos when they pop up), Mark organised some MMA sparring, of which there is plenty of video here on the thread. Mark fought pretty much everyone, Johannes also getting in on the action. There is one especially excellent video involving a slam that we’re waiting to augment with some suitable music: provided much entertainment watching it later, so hopefully I can whip up something half-decent.

There were only the four of us from Bullshido, so attendance was mostly made up by Gracie Barra Northern Ireland, along with a few other guys Mark knows. Ciaran and I partnered up for a no-gi spar, in which Ciaran went fairly easy on me. He’s got about 20kg and plenty more experience than me, but proved to be a really good training partner. Got armbarred early on (as per video), then fell into the usual pattern of wriggling about under side control or mount, trying to get to half guard and then full guard. At one point I seem to remember reversing and passing, but can’t quite remember how, so I think that was down to a combination of Ciaran not squashing me and luck. Felt like a fairly long spar, although its often hard to judge – a couple of minutes can feel like 10. The video is of the first part.

I couldn’t get anywhere with the stack pass, as I had trouble doing the actual stacking part, which meant I couldn’t get close enough to get a grip on their head. I also noticed how much easier it is to escape in no-gi due to sweat and the lack of grips. In Ciaran’s guard, I found it simpler than usual to pull out from triangle and armbar attempts because of sweat, though again as he was going light, might be that he was leaving more space than normal. Afterwards Ciaran complimented me on my movement, which was nice of him, though I didn’t feel I did anything more than damage limitation.

Had a good chat with Ciaran following our spar, in the course of which he showed me a handy looking technique he called the windscreen wiper sweep. When they’ve postured up, you grab their arm and opposite knee, shifting slightly in the direction of that arm. If they have the opposite elbow flared out, move your same side leg up their body, hooked round, keeping it fairly relaxed but still firm. That leg goes all the way up and then over, like a windscreen wiper, eventually rolling them to the side so you come up in mount. Not sure I’ve quite remembered that correctly, so will see if I get a chance to ask someone at RGA.

Thoroughly knackered after what at least felt like a long spar, I got scribbling down my notes as usual. Turned out there wasn’t all that much time left by this point, so I got in two spars before time ran out. First was with a very experienced blue belt (more than six years of training, if I heard him right), Waqi. Again, went fairly easy on me, and again proved a good teacher. As before I was mainly underneath and trying to go for half guard. Going for their far leg got some results, as did something I saw Johannes do earlier, which was to cross your right leg over both your left leg and their leg, then use your two legs to scoop their one into half guard. Of course, my attempt was very sloppy, as I was trying to imitate something I didn’t quite understand. Waqi advised me to be careful under side control, as I put myself in a very vulnerable position. In an attempt to go for his legs, I was bunched up on my side, which meant it was a simple matter for Waqi to mount. That position is something I should only use briefly, as part of shrimping out in both directions to recover guard. As you can see in the videos, Waqi was also letting me go to side control a few times while turned on his side, but I wasn't able to do much with it: tried feeding my arms through (we've been shown a choke from this position, but totally forgot how to do it), but didn't get anywhere. He also showed me a technique where you tie up the far arm, then move round maintaining that hold and switch to a kimura: didn't quite understand it though, and unfortunately not in the vid. Finally, I rolled with Mark, and again tried to pull guard. I ended up starting in open guard trying to hook a leg, then getting squashed in side control. I managed to escape…then fell straight into a triangle. That was to be a recurring theme, as the same thing happened when I escaped with a single leg, as well as trying to get out of an armbar. Suffice to say, Mark really likes triangles! In the video, you can see him do that technique with a set up from when I post out to avoid being swept - similar to the position where you can go for a kimura after a failed sit-up sweep. That also meant he had lots of good tips for the technique. To triangle from guard, Mark advised starting by grabbing your shin, in what I think is rubber guard (there’s video of both my spar with Mark and the many triangles he either attempted or got on other people, so can check those to be sure). Pull their arm across, then step off their hip, keeping your knees tight at all times. Get your other leg over, then if I’ve got the order right, underhook their leg to pull yourself round (further tightening the triangle, as well as giving the option of an armbar). Squeeze your knees and hips, pulling down on their head if you’re still having trouble. I couldn’t get the sub when drilling with Conor (yet another friendly example of Mark’s training partners), though I did get it to work on Mark. He also mentioned that if they get their elbow out to the wrong side, cup it with both hands and yank it right over. Checking further on triangle details with Ciaran, there is apparently some controversy over whether its best to post on the hip or on the floor – would seem both function ok. Generally I think I need to work on moving from half guard to full guard, rather than just kind of sitting there not entirely sure what to do (see second vid with Mark). I’ve been shown several sweeps, but under pressure only remember part of them – hence why in some of the videos you can see me going for someone’s foot but do nothing once I’ve got it, or bridge a few times without getting anywhere. Would also be good to give triangle from guard a go, though I still don’t really want to get into submission attempts too much before I feel confident in my escapes. The plan is get competent in fundamental defence and position, as then I’ll be able to attack in the knowledge that if I fuck up, I can recover quickly.

I cunningly left before the group pic, after which we popped back to Mark’s for a shower and to watch the vids. For the rest of the day, it seemed we were being chased around town by hen nights in pink stretch limos, pink stretch hummers, and even pink fire engines. We decided it must have been Johannes’ Swedish good looks drawing them in, so eventually hid in the pub (where Johannes was less successful with the bouncers, though they were soon placated by Dougie). The Bullshido contingent left the next day. No delays on the way back, though forgot there are normally replacement buses on Sundays. Belfast is clearly an awesome place to have a throwdown – as Mark is going to be at uni for ages, look forward to many more!

[I returned to Belfast for another throwdown in 2008]