17/11/2009 - BJJ (Beginner)

Class #261



RGA High Wycombe, (BJJ), Kev Capel, High Wycombe, UK - 17/11/2009

If you enjoyed the No Gi Worlds live stream last week, then I just encountered something else which might interest you. Chatting in this thread, one of the posters brought up the fact that his instructor has a webcam running the whole class. Even better, the results are available for anyone to see, on this site, which also has a few archived classes as well as live broadcasts.

It looks to be very much Gracie jiu jitsu rather than typical BJJ, so plenty of self defence included. Normally I'd skip that section of class, but by a strange coincidence, the technique he shows here is actually one I could have used at the weekend, because some guy in a club bear hugged me from behind and lifted me up. I'm pretty sure he was just being exuberant (he was dancing with one of the girls in our party) rather than malicious, but it did make me wonder what I could do in a less benign situation. Thanks to that online class, now I know. ;)

In terms of RGA High Wycombe, tonight Kev focused on the turtle. This is something that was a major part of training in the few judo sessions I've attended, but doesn't crop up so often in BJJ. Kev began with a drill, where the aim was to practice maintaining chest to back contact at all times, legs sprawled back and hips down. You and your partner take it in turns to spin around the back, moving to different positions, for a couple of minutes.

Kev followed that with the wrestler's sit-out, adding the point that you should move backwards a little first. That should disrupt their base, and give you slightly more space to effect your escape. As Kev mentioned, this technique is tough to achieve in sparring, so requires a lot of practice: any additional tips should prove useful.

Shifting to the top, Kev demonstrated a method for taking the back when attacking the turtle, starting from their side. Begin by chopping your hand into the space between their far leg and arm. You want to wedge your arm down by their thigh, making sure to keep your elbow back: otherwise, they might be able to trap that limb and roll you over.

Having secured that grip, roll them towards you, on top of the foot you have closest to their head. This is so you can then immediately insert that foot by their thigh as they try to turn away, establishing a hook. If they do not turn away, then they're essentially giving your their back, so you can insert your hooks from there.

Once you've got that first hook in as they turn away, you can then wedge in the second hook. Here again you may need to knife hand their far knee, in order to create a wedge to make space for your foot. With both hooks in, you're in a great position, so can flatten them out, go for a submission, or roll them over and work for the rear naked choke.

Specific sparring from that position, I was initially comfortable rolling back to half guard and guard, but then my training partner tightened up. He then managed to turn me over or shift to side control repeatedly, such as by grabbing my foot and arm. This isn't a position I'm too familiar with, so it was useful having that intensive specific spar, being able to carefully isolate how to stay tight, where to move, and what angles to create.

When attacking, I was trying to develop good control, keeping my chest in contact with their back. I first attempted to get my hands into the back of the collar, so I could pull back to create some space. That was overly ambitious, I think, as my partner had far too much leverage for that to do any good. Getting the cloth by his armpits might have been better, though I was constantly wary of getting my arms trapped.

During king of the hill, it was nice to roll with a couple of white belts, where suddenly there was much more space. They also made the mistake of leaving their arm in, meaning that it was a simple matter to trap that arm with my own, then roll them and end up on top in side control (though of course I said afterwards that they need to make sure I can't lock that arm).

They also put their knee in the middle of my bum, which is another mistake. As Kev pointed out earlier, this opens you up to getting kneebarred, as the person turtling can reach between their legs and get hold of your foot. I never go for leg attacks (and you can't do that against white belts anyway), but it's something to keep in mind when in the turtle.

Unlike normal, I didn't stay for the advanced class tonight, as I wanted to make sure I got back home in time to help my gf with her job interview tomorrow. Some things are higher priority than BJJ! ;)

11/08/2009 - BJJ (No-gi)

Class #236



Combat Athletics, (BJJ), Rich Green, Coventry, UK - 11/08/2009

The hour of drilling and rolling with Rosie at Warwick a couple of weeks ago was handy, with two things of particular use. First, she gave me a handy pointer on the guard break Roy Dean showed me, which was to do with grip placement. I had thought you grabbed their biceps and shoved their arms back.

Rosie drove her hands into the armpits instead, thumb on top, which seemed to provide a lot more tension. That made it easier to then push to make space, bringing the knee past their tailbone and through their legs, opening the guard.

Working on setting up the triangle was also useful, especially combining it with the armbar. I was hooking the leg more during sparring, which was useful, as it gave me greater stability for the armbar. However, I was relying a lot on getting hold of the sleeve, which obviously doesn't work in nogi. I could grip the wrist, but sweat makes it easy enough to slip free.

Unfortunately, at some point that day I seemed to mess up my left foot, meaning that I wasn't able to make it to Combat Athletics in Canley the next week. I don't think it was from training, but whatever it was, healed up by the 11th, so I was back down to the Canley Sports and Social Club for more nogi.

Like last time, Rich again let everyone warm up on their own, then called for light rolling. I assume it was just positional, but either way, makes for a nice exercise (though if it was positional, I probably should have flowed out of closed guard more often).

Also in keeping with the previous class I attended, Rich built up a set of mobility drills rather than a specific series of techniques. The central focus was the wrestler's sit-out. First off we did what Rich called the 'baseball slide', where from the all fours position, you post out one leg and reach back with the same side elbow. Slide your other leg through, then switch your first leg back over to return to all fours, repeating the motion on the other side.

The application soon became clear, from turtle. They are facing you, gripping around your chest, under both your arms. On the side you'll be using to escape, post out your foot, then reach back with the same side elbow to make space (this is intended to clear their arm).

Your head pops out to aid the motion, then you bring your other leg through, sliding as before. As soon as you break free, move round to take their back. The leg with which you escaped now steps over to initiate that attack.

The same is true if they grip you with an over-under, so one arm going past your shoulder, the other underneath your arm. The only difference is that you need to do it towards the side on which they've gripped underneath your arm, rather than either direction.

For the arm that is around your head, there's a different option. Grab that elbow and lock it to your head, then do the wrestler's sit out in that direction. Continuing to drive with the head and body, you're aiming to put them flat on the floor, with you on top still holding their arm.

You now need to break their grip, either with a figure four and push, or by attacking the wrist. Once the arm is free, you can get a figure four, using their elbow as a fulcrum, and armbar them from there. I think this is the same thing we did in judo, where it's called waki-gatami.

Rich moved on to cover the drill from last time, where as they pass your guard, you shrimp and reach for their ankle, come to your knees then go for a double leg takedown. The wrestler's sit-out can be added in to the sequence, if the person on top manages to move round, facing your turtle again, where you can then repeat the earlier techniques.

I had a chance to spar Rich today, which was interesting. He has a size advantage, so took it easy on me, but still had little trouble getting into strong pins. While I'm relatively happy under side control, I can see I'm a lot less comfortable underneath variations of scarf hold: something I need to work on.

I wasn't being sufficiently mobile underneath, and I also need to watch how I spin: at one point, he could have got that same waki-gatami from earlier, but didn't crank the submission, letting it go instead.

In guard I was still looking for triangles, which Rich let me move into, but then easily defended. While I had the triangle in place, Rich's elbows were in tight, which stumped me. On another occasion I didn't get proper head control, so he was able to just posture up.

I found myself in mount at one point, but struggled to properly grapevine Rich's legs: definitely harder in nogi, due to less friction, and obviously more difficult with a more experienced opponent. He let me shift to a mounted triangle, after which I rolled into guard, but still couldn't finish.

Should be back again next week, hopefully twice. Off to Wales before that, to the annual trip with our friends to Aberystwyth. Weather doesn't look like its going to be too pleasant, but hey, its Wales, so that's to be expected. ;)