05/09/2011 - Q & A at Gracie Barra Bristol

Class #417
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Nicolai 'Geeza' Holt, Bristol, UK - 05/09/2011

As some of you may know, I write the team history articles for Jiu Jitsu Style magazine. So far, I've been running through the major teams in a vaguely chronological fashion. However, I'm soon going to get to a point where I'm not completely certain of the dates: it doesn't matter all that much which order I do them in, but it did make me wonder what the exact dates were. That's why I thought I'd start compiling a BJJ Team Index. That should help me work out which team to do next. Ideally, I'd also be able to indicate all the connections somehow (e.g., Alliance > Brasa > Atos), but I haven't worked out the best way to lay it out yet on a spreadsheet. If you can help with clarifying any of the info, or adding more teams, let me know. :)

I also managed to add that Facebook 'like' button at the bottom of each post in my blog, which I've been wondering how to do. There is a relatively simple tutorial here, which worked for me (though note that the initial version of the code will mean it only appears in individual posts: if you want it on the home page of your blog, like I've set it up, scroll further down into that guy's post, where he tells you how).

I managed to get myself sun-burned all across my back and shoulders during the Weymouth trip last week, mainly due to building sand castles and digging big holes in the beach (yes, I am five ;p). That meant I wasn't planning to go to BJJ tonight, as abrasive gi + sun burn tends to = lots of pain. However, in the text message Geeza sends out before every lesson, he said that tonight it was Q & A. I remember the last time he ran one of those, and it was awesome. Hence sun-burn or not, I wanted to be there.

Geeza kicked off by answering Guy's question about wristlocks. Geeza started by discussing wristlock defence. His central point was that in essence, it is quite easy. You just make a tight fist with your hand, which is almost impossible to wrist lock. You're still at risk if you're gripping a gi with your fist, as you will often have a few fingers extended in the course of making a grip. Hence why in terms of avoiding wristlocks, it is safer to grip really, really tight.

Geeza also showed some basic wristlock attacks, starting with side control. If they are swimming for underhook to begin their escape, that's a perfect moment to go for a wristlock. Immobilise their arm by grabbing the elbow and slipping your other hand over their bicep. You need to time it so that you can press your weight down on the back of their hand, before they can wriggle it into a safer position. From there, simply shift your weight so that you're driving into their knuckles and bending their hand towards their forearm.

You can also do several things from within a triangle, because the arm is isolated. That makes it vulnerable to a bent armlock (pull on the wrist to bring it to either side of your body), an armbar, or a wristlock. Geeza's wristlock involved pressing on the back of their hand with both thumbs and twisting it slightly. If anyone is interested in wristlocks for BJJ, I'd recommend checking out Roy Dean's Art of the Wristlock.

The second question for the opening hour of the question and answer session was how to get out of what I think Geeza called a side choke, which I'd refer to as an arm triangle. Begin by trapping their arm next to their head, using your own head to lock it in place. It is key that their arm is pressing into their neck: you're going to be using that to block off one side.

Bring your arm on the other side underneath their head: this is what will block off the other side. Link your hands together, moving to side control, pressing a knee into their back. Your other leg is out for base. From here, gradually sink down with your hips, squeezing your elbows together. That should eventually result in a choke.

To escape the arm triangle, roll towards the open side. Your aim is to make a little bit of space, so that you're no longer in immediate danger of being choke. From there, bridge and bring your trapped arm out and around their head, so that it is no longer pressing into your neck. Be careful though, as if you put an arm on the far side of their head, they can trap it and start moving for a north-south kimura.

Finally for the beginner class, Geeza answered a question from Arnaud about finishing off armbars from mount when they have their hands locked together. Geeza responded with a strategic method, which wears them out before breaking the grip. You are about the sink the armbar, but they have managed to lock their hands. Reach through to grab their belt, palm up.

With your other hand (nearest their legs), grab their trouser leg. Lean towards that leg, which will make them sit up. Let them come up slightly, then push down on neck with your leg. Keep doing it to soften them up, then eventually move your hand from their leg to under their wrist, and break their grip.

I had texted a question earlier, which Geeza told me he'd cover at the start of the advanced class. I needed to leave after that, so for the sparring that always opens the advanced classes, I did a bit of guard passage with one of the children (I was being wimpy due to my sunburn.) Given that I was rolling with a small child, I had a chance to practice my teaching, as I tried to coach him through a guard pass. I'm not sure if I've worked out the right balance between encouraging children and providing enough resistance for them to have a meaningful spar, but good to get a chance to build my experience doing that.

Onto my question. For the next three weeks, I'm going to be teaching back mount, in my usual maintaining, escaping and attacking pattern. As the attacking lesson is the one I'm most keen to get right (as I've arranged for my girlfriend and one of her female friends to attend that night), I wanted to ask a question about entries into the rear naked choke

I was specifically interested in a way of getting to the neck without being nasty. Geeza's 'nice' option was to use the gi instead. Rather than a typical rear naked choke, work the gi collar across their neck (easier than arm, as it is much thinner), then you can do a variation on the RNC where you pull on their gi with one hand, threading the other between their arm and head.

A less pleasant option is to make a fist with your index finger slightly raised, then rub that along where their jaw line starts, working it under their neck. This is particularly effective if you do it on both sides at the same time. I'm uncomfortable with the nastiness, as I'm a big believer in Saulo's mantra of "treating your training partner like your best friend", but if you're happy to use the jaw dig, it does work.

04/10/2007 - BJJ (No-Gi)

Class #93



Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Felipe Souza, London, UK - 04/10/2007 – No-Gi

There’s a social next Wednesday I thought I wouldn’t be able to make, but as it turns out I should be able to make the conference to give my presentation on time. That does mean I won’t be able to stay too late, so I’m not sure many people will be there during the time I spend at the club: it starts at 20:00 and training is still on, so will most likely just be a few beginners. Nevertheless, I’ve been hoping for a social ever since I started, so will make the effort to attend this.

Tonight was also the first time I’ve seen Chris since his tournament performance: from what he said, definitely sounds like he had the same weight-cutting problem I did and felt awful. However, he managed to win, and only lost the next one narrowly on points, so that goes to show how good his BJJ has got in the last few months.

He was keen to work on a butterfly sweep, which we worked a little before class got going, and also went through at the end of class too. Get to butterfly guard, which means you feet are hooked round the inside of their legs, your knees splayed (a defence against butterfly guard is to push those knees together), head further forward than your hips, overhooking one arm by the tricep and underhooking the other, gripping round the back. Switch your left leg under your right, pull them in, then with your other leg flick their leg right up in the air, also twisting over with your body. That should end with you in mount, though you have to be careful to avoid getting trapped in their half guard.

Technique today was rather nasty looking, as it was a triangle from side control, leading to all sorts of painful submission options. Grab the elbow of their near arm, push it up, then simultaneously switch your base and slide your knee underneath. Having got scarf hold, pull their arm down and step your leg right over their head. As you do so, slip the stepping leg underneath their head, triangling that with your other leg, leaving their arm trapped against their neck. From there you can squeeze to get the triangle, pulling their arm over if its not quite on.

Even if you don’t get them to tap from that, their other arm is now in an extremely vulnerable position, exacerbated by the considerable discomfort they should be feeling from your triangle attempt. You have a range of options to attack their arm – a straight armbar can be applied by getting a figure-four pressing against their elbow, pulling down on the wrist with the palm facing up. Alternately, there are the usual kimura and Americana subs, depending on which way their arm is pointing, or even a wrist lock, where you figure-four pressing on their wrist with their fingers pointing down.

Sparring went much better than yesterday, I think because its continuous, so when I made a mistake, I still had a chance to work technique. The main problem with my sparring yesterday was that I wasn’t focusing on specific things I wanted to do, which I rectified today. Rolling for me was going to be all about getting the knee through from half guard in order to get to full-guard, and that clear aim definitely helped me get more out of sparring.

Before the free rolling, we did specific from side control. Underneath, I managed to switch to half guard a few times, aiming for full guard (not always quite making it, but at least getting a leg in position a few times). On top, I was completely useless, getting swept in rapid succession.

Moving on to continuous sparring with Chris, I immediately pulled full guard. I tried the technique from yesterday, where you bump them forward, grab behind the head, then try to armbar as they move up, but couldn’t quite get it: I think I need to control that arm more and gain a better position with my hips before I attempt to swing the legs and go for the sub. As always I was often in half guard, but worked to get the knee through. I pushed it through a couple of times (though going to rubber guard wasn’t working so well for me), though Chris was generally able to pass into either mount or side control. I was also getting back to half guard when under side control, though I found it a little easier to do that from under mount (because under side control, I have to bring my far leg way over to trap the leg, whereas with mount the stepover is much closer).

Chris had a solid grip on my arm at a couple of points. The first time, after a bit of a struggled, I was able to lock my arms, and then use that strong position to sweep him from half guard. The second time was tougher, as Chris was close to getting me in position for a kimura or Americana, but I managed to lock my arms again. Eventually his grip loosened and I escaped (though he might have given it up to break the stalemate – I asked afterward, and he reckoned he couldn’t have got it as my defensive grip was too tightly cinched in).

I made a bee-line for Aika after sitting the next round out, as she’s always good to spar with due to her much higher skill, but lower weight. I started off underneath, again working the half guard, along with the sit-up sweep from full guard. She tends to pass standing up, so I tried a lot of armbars from standing guard, but couldn’t get the arm straightened out. I walked my legs up her back and hooked her leg, but probably should have pulled her down more, and also used my hips to help.

I also got a chance to see how my open guard defence functioned: at one point I was trying the classic defensive stance of arms and one knee up, which proved a fairly useful base to block her legs with mine. She did eventually get me into side control, but I flipped her over (that weight difference factoring into it more than skill, I’m sure). That left me in the same position I often end up with her in side control, trying to go for scarf hold. Struggling for a while, I decided I really didn’t want to waste the spar that way, so had a go at moving into north south. Aika shrimped out, I tried to move round to get into position for a kimura, which didn’t work but did leave me set up to pull guard rather than get mounted or something.

That meant I could again try for the sit-up sweep. This time, I did remember to keep the kimura from guard, partly because Aika had been careful to get her arm to safety when I tried the sit-up earlier. However, I was looking for the arm and managed to grab it, opening my guard and sliding my leg over her back to get into position for the kimura. She was tapping quicker than I expected, so hopefully that wasn’t an injured arm or something! Also, as with my escape from her side control, I think the weight discrepancy made a big difference: if it had been Chris, he might well have been able to muscle his arm away from me before I could go for the kimura.

I then sat on again, doing some drilling with Chris on the butterfly sweep. Looks useful, so I should give that a try some time. That proved to be the end of class, so just two free spars today rather than the usual three.