25/10/2011 - Gracie Barra Bristol (X-Guard)

Class #426
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Donal Carmody, Bristol, UK - 25/10/2011

My wrist and neck are still not in working order, but Donal's classes have been too good to miss, especially as he is currently going through open guard. It did unfortunately mean I couldn't do all the drills, like the gorilla walk, but I could at least get the technical benefits from Donal's impressively cheerful instruction. ;)

Tonight it was x guard, going through the classic sweep from that position. First, Donal showed how to get into the position. Starting in a simple spider guard, where you have their sleeves pulled around your knees, the x-guard entry beckons when they stand up. Hook your instep around the outside of their far hip, while the knee of that same leg goes behind their near knee. The instep of your other foot also hooks on the far side, but this time behind their upper leg. Your legs and feet now form a sort of 'x', hence the name of the guard.

You also want to make sure you scoot underneath them, so you may need to wriggle your bum sideways and forwards to get in position. The aim is to get your near arm wrapped around the leg closest to your head. Push with your legs to stretch them out, which also makes their near leg light: it should now be a simple matter to bump that up onto your shoulder with your wrapping arm. Immediately lock that to your head, clamping it in place with both your skull and your arm (either grab your gi with your hand, or hold your own head).

There is still another grip you need, to fully break their posture. Ideally, you want to grab their far sleeve. If that is out of range, the second best option is their near sleeve. If you can't get that either, you'll have to make do with any lapel that is dangling within reach, making sure you really pull that tight, feeding it as far into your grip as you can. This should now force them to lean towards you awkwardly, making it hard for them to balance.

If you can get the far sleeve, you have a chance to totally mess up their posture. Pull that far sleeve right to your shoulder, so they're yanked forward. Pass that sleeve to your other hand (but still keeping the arm wrapped around their leg). This will put an even better grip in range: the armpit of that far sleeve. Grab that and pull it towards you. From here, you barely have to do anything to knock them over to get the sweep, as their posture is completely broken.

Should that not be possible and you're left with a slightly less awesome grip, push on their far leg with your feet to stretch it out. The normal process would be to then keep pushing with the sole of the foot you had on their outside hip, transferring it to the side of their knee. That would then enable you to do a technical stand-up, lifting their leg up onto your shoulder as a result (because you still have it wrapped with your arm). Simply keep moving forward to knock them over, then pass.

Donal does it slightly differently, as he doesn't put the sole of his foot on their knee. Instead, he keeps the instep hooked and pushes with that. Also, when standing up, Donal noted that you don't have to drive forward to get them down. You can instead just pull their leg in tight and shove your shoulder into it to start your pass.

Sparring was next, in the 1-2-3 set-up Donal normally uses, but I wasn't confident my injuries would hold up against excited white belts. So instead, I had a roll with Tony's son (I think he's 8 or 9), which gave me a chance to go into instructor mode. I tried to give him a chance to work his guard recovery, as well as practice x-guard, although given the difference in leg length that wasn't easy. I'm not yet used to teaching kids, but if they were all as attentive and polite as this one, it would be a doddle. ;)

To finish off, I had three light rolls, first with Luke, then Donal, then a flow roll with Luke again (although Luke has such good control it always pretty much feels like a flow roll). In the course of that, I got a good tip from Donal. At one point he was passing my guard, while I still had a pocket grip on the bottom of his trousers (by which I mean you create a 'pocket' with your thumb by rolling it under the cuff, then put your four fingers into that pocket). I tend to get nervous about my fingers, so will often switch to the less secure grip of the heel.

However, Donal said that you need to have faith in that pocket grip. Like Big Mick said in his lesson a while ago, if you just stick with that grip, it makes it really tough for them to pass. Donal gave the example that when they are trying to drive their leg through, maintain that grip and squeeze your knees together on both sides of the leg (without locking your feet, as then you can squeeze even more). Turn their leg over your body in the other direction, then open your knees back up to re-establish guard.

25/05/2011 - GB Bristol

Class #399
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Nicolai 'Geeza' Holt, Bristol, UK - 25/05/2011

Good news for US fans of Jiu Jitsu Style: you can now buy the print version of the magazine through Budovideos. Also, Steve from Black Eagle recently attended his first class of BJJ and wrote it up here, which is excellent news. Steve has an interesting perspective, as he runs a martial arts company, including equipment for BJJ, especially gis (I have one of their judogi and a backpack, though they don't seem to make the latter anymore).

That means that he has been around the sport for a good while now, sponsoring athletes and competitions as well as consulting various practitioners in the process of creating equipment, but up until now he hadn't actually trained in the sport himself. I'm therefore very intrigued as to how his perspective will change as he develops first-hand understanding of BJJ: should become a fascinating blog. :)

Getting back to tonight's class, Geeza was running us through the x-guard, specifically some sweeps. Like last time I was at a Wednesday class, Geeza was able to draw upon his vast store of competition footage (as per his YouTube channel) to show us some examples of him successfully performing the techniques he was about to teach in a tournament. Really cool that he can do that, though I must remember to leave my glasses on the dividing wall: otherwise not that easy to see the image on the screen with my short-sightedness.

If you're not familiar with x-guard, it's called that due to the position of your feet. You are sideways, with your arm wrapped around the back of their leg, clamping their foot to your shoulder. Your opposite side leg then hooks around the back of their other leg. Finally, your remaining foot (so this is on the same side as your leg-hooking arm) hooks around the front of their far hip (so your feet are in an x shape), meaning that the knee of that leg is behind their arm-wrapped leg. In the likely event that description is confusing, see Stephan Kesting's pictures.

The first x guard sweep is the main one I'm familiar with from that position, having seen it a few times before. With your crossed feet, push their far leg away from you, to knock them off balance. Come up on your elbow, lifting the leg you've trapped by your shoulder. Make sure the knee of their trapped leg is pointing down.

You can also continue pushing on their far leg, by switching your foot to the side of their knee. Do a technical stand up, which means that you'll be raising their trapped leg into the air as you stand. From there, it should be fairly simple to take them down and pass, as they can't stand while you have their leg like that.

Geeza's second x guard sweep was slightly more complex. Again, you're going to push their leg slightly, but this time, you're also going to grab their nearest arm with your free hand. Push them in the direction they're facing, then as they fall, bring their trapped arm past their far leg, so they can't use it to post out. Roll with them as they fall, turning your hips, coming up in a sort of mount.

My training partner Kirsty gave me some useful tips here. Make sure to keep hold of both that sleeve you've grabbed and the leg you've hooked with your arm as you roll. Kick through with your foot as you come out on top. If you release a grip and don't kick through, you'll end up leaving too much space and probably get your back taken, or simply lose the pass.

The final x-guard attack was a method for taking the back, a bit like the one from de la Riva. It starts as before, but this time, bring your free hand behind the leg you've trapped, grabbing the wrist of your leg-wrapping arm. Push them forward slightly with your crossed feet to knock their balance off, then use your hands to shove their trapped leg to the other side of your head.

Unwrap your arm and grab their belt: keep the wrist of the second hand pressed into the back of their leg. Using that hold on the belt, you're now going to swivel directly behind them, so that you can hook the inside of their knees with both of your feet. Kick forward with your feet, then sit up to take the back.

Specific sparring was therefore from x guard, with the proviso that the person on top could not sit down, they had to stay standing. We were split into groups by weight and skill, which is something Geeza likes to do for safety: seems to work well, so I'll be looking to do that in my classes, when the 1-2-3 grouping isn't viable (or indeed combine the two options, but it would need to be a pretty big class for that to work).

I wasn't able to do all that much from underneath, though I did manage to sweep one guy by grabbing their leg and knocking them backwards. Not very technical, but still better than the vague flailing I fell into later, where I generally soon lost the x-guard and started wibbling about in various sloppy attempts at open guard. I had a good roll with Kirsty: IIRC, she's a judo black belt and has done a few years of MMA, so hopefully I'll get a chance to roll with her again. Always good to train with people around my weight, especially when they're experienced.

On top, I wasn't getting anywhere. My natural instinct would be to sit down, but forced to stand, I was generally just getting caught with the exact same sweep Geeza had shown earlier. They do a technical stand up, and I'm left hopping around on one leg. What I should have been doing, but only did once, was shove their foot down and try to pass from there. As ever, I hate standing up in guard, but something everybody has to get used to.

At present, there isn't a separate changing rooms for women, probably because Kirsty is currently the only woman training there. Hopefully that will change in the future: I'm pleased with how the female contingent at RGA Bucks has grown, I'm sure in large part due to Yas training there. Must be encouraging to have a friendly senior ranked female for any new women joining up.

Women at GB Bristol are temporarily getting changed upstairs in the ladies toilet, from what Kirsty said: as far as I'm aware, a proper female changing room is in the process of being built, as there are some showers being made ready upstairs too. I think she left her bag or something in the main changing room (which was fairly packed, as the class was relatively large tonight), as she briefly popped in to get something.

As soon as she'd left the changing room, somebody made an off-colour remark about what she might have been looking for. Given that this was in a men's locker room, that is perhaps to be expected, but nevertheless, training partners should be respected as training partners, on and off the mat. Sexism in particular is something that annoys me, hence why I've written stuff like this in the past.

Now, I'm sure nobody at the club would say anything sexist during class: very much to his credit, Geeza actively attempts to foster a respectful atmosphere, regularly speaking to the class about the ethos and principles he wants to institute. However, that comment in the locker room did make me wonder how I would react in the hypothetical situation of somebody making a crude sexist joke while I was teaching, or indeed a racist or homophobic comment.

In an ideal world, I'd immediately cut them down with a dazzlingly witty retort. Unfortunately, I'm not blessed with great wit, so I'd probably end up coming across as a stuffy headteacher instead (which would at least be better than saying nothing and letting it pass). Dolph related an incident he remembered regarding some mild homophobia, but I haven't seen much talk on the web about how instructors generally deal with bigotry during class (probably because it is rare: I can't think of any incidents during class in the years I've been training). It would be interesting to hear if people know of any, or have suggestions on what they would do.

01/09/2010 - BJJ (Advanced)

Class #338
Gracie Barra Birmingham, (BJJ), Norby Nowak, Birmingham, UK – 01/09/2010

As at RGA Wycombe, I tried to scribble some notes down, as otherwise I’d probably struggle to remember the techniques from both sessions. At Wycombe, I felt particularly comfortable, so I’d happily just sit out some sparring to take notes. I’m not quite at that stage with GB Brum, so instead I did what I used to do at RGA HQ, which is write up notes during the warm-up for the second class (seeing as I’d already be pretty warm from doing the whole beginners class).

Speaking of the Roger Gracie Academy, a new affiliate is opening up soon, and they’re holding a seminar this Saturday at 12:00 to celebrate. Better yet, it’s going to be completely free and open to anyone. Unfortunately, although I will be in London, I’m at a training course (for home maintenance, randomly), so can’t attend. Still, sounds like it should be a good event: further details here.

As this is the last week of De La Riva, Norby went through some more complicated techniques, with legs in all sorts of complicated tangles. He began with something relatively simple, in order to introduce the first technique. You’re in De La Riva, but they point out the knee of the leg you’ve hooked, popping your foot free. So instead, you swing your leg around, then bring it back sharply, bumping their leg. Your foot comes around the front, to push on their hip: make sure you don’t bring it further across, or you’re in danger of getting disqualified (due to the potential danger to their knee.)

This sets you up for an x-guard sweep. From the previous position, either grip their foot on the hooked side, or wrap your hand behind their foot. Your other foot, which was pushing on the inside of their other leg, now hooks behind their knee. The first foot is going to go behind their leg, so that the foot is on the other leg. However, the knee remains behind the first leg: this is important, as otherwise they can just push it out of the way. Finally, your free hand is going to grab the bottom of their same side gi trousers.

After all of that intricate leg work, the sweep is nice and simple. You just extend their legs to knock them to the floor. From their, you can either stand up and initiate a pass, or go for a footlock. If understood correctly (I’m not big on footlocks, so I may well have missed details), the key there is to keep your forehead on the mat, with the blade of your forearm pressing into their Achilles. Keep shifting your upper body towards their other leg, arching your back in order to get the submission.

Another sweep without the spaghetti legs starts similarly, with a leg looped behind theirs, the foot on their hip. This time, you have your other foot on their other hip, still with a grip on the foot of the leg you’ve trapped. Simply raise your hips, pinch your knees on their trapped leg, and drive them to the mat with your knees and the pushing of your feet. Again, you can either stand for the pass or try for a footlock.

Specific sparring was De La Riva, so I was looking to pass in the same way as before, grabbing a leg and moving around. I also tried to concentrate on getting my hips to theirs, sprawling my legs and staying tight. That sometimes worked, but sometimes I also ended up leaving too much space, so it became more of a scramble to get their back, or with them on their side. Also, I need to remember to break their grips, instead of just trying to work with them still in place.

Underneath, I had a mixture of either getting passed easily, or some random sweeps where I didn’t really know what I was doing. That was quite fun, as I managed to knock a few people over, including somebody much bigger. However, as I wasn’t working off any technique, it felt more like a succession of random flukes than anything I could build upon. Still, sometimes I was at least trying to apply some of the principles of the techniques I’d been learning, so that’s a vague plus.

Free sparring was only one round, where I spent the first half trying to avoid getting my back taken, clinging on tightly to their arm while also keeping my elbow and knee tight, to stop them securing both hooks. Holding that arm eventually paid off, as I managed to drive through, flip them over and get to side control. That wouldn’t have worked on anybody much bigger, but fortunately they’re around the same size as me. I then moved on to my favourite attack position, the step over triangle.

After the restart, it was mostly squirming around under side control, looking to attack the arm, before finally getting a leg free and moving back into guard. I’m still too complacent under side control, and I ended up some unfamiliar positions, like really low right down by their legs. Not sure if that’s better or worse for me defensively.

Oh, and in case anyone missed it, I did an interview with multiple world champ Romulo Barral over the Bank Holiday weekend: part one is up now, and I’ll be putting up part two tomorrow. There will be five parts in total, spread out over the next month or so. This weekend, I won’t be on the internet at all, as I’m at that home maintenance course, randomly (which I’ll probably write up, but not on this blog: I’ve got a spare one I hardly ever use).

22/09/2009 - Advanced

Class #242



RGA High Wycombe, (BJJ), Kev Capel, High Wycombe, UK - 22/09/2009

There wasn't much of a break between classes, going straight into a thankfully brief warm-up (a few throws, with some uchikomi: Kev also has a black belt in judo, so that's unsurprising). At RGA in London, I used to get a little rest when doubling-up classes, because you could sit out the warm-up if you'd just spent the previous hour training. Not so here, meaning that my cardio is going to take some time to adjust! ;)

As with the beginner class, Kev's theme for the intermediate/advanced was butterfly guard. He started with another butterfly pass, this time off an armdrag. You have them in butterfly guard, where they then grab your collar. Strip that grip (e.g., both hands under and thrust away), then with one hand on their sleeve and the other by their armpit, pull them across your body.

They will now be overbalanced and close to you, meaning that you should immediately capitalise. Reach under them with one arm, over their back with the arm, locking a gable grip by their side where your hands meet. You can now sweep as in the last class, noting that you have to lift them as you drop back. That means you can also readjust your hooking foot deep behind their knee, as space should open up in the midst of that motion.

Kev followed this up with a submission, the D'arce choke. From the previous gable grip position, you remove the hand you had on top, instead threading that under their near arm, reaching right by their head. Your other arm goes over their head.

You need to grab the bicep of that arm with the hand you have by their head. Especially in the gi, it can be difficult to get the hand and arm close enough for a good grip. If you're finding it tough, try pushing down on their head with your arm: that should make it easier to secure a hold on your bicep.

Finally, reach over their back with your bicep arm, squeeze and drop back. Getting a good grip may take a few tries: speaking personally, I was ok on my strong side, but could only manage a loose grip on my weak side. Also, Kev showed how this can be an option as they switch to side control. Even if they're pretty much past, if you've set it up in time, the submission is still an option.

The last technique was moving from butterfly guard into an x-guard sweep. This is the same thing I saw about three months ago at Nova Força, useful for when they try to initiate a butterfly pass. As soon as they post their leg, swivel your body towards that limb, using your arm to trap their foot against your head, getting it right to your shoulder. Put your legs into the x-guard position (one foot under their thigh, the other foot on their hip, pressing with the top of your instep).

Next, you want to get the foot you've trapped off the floor, by pushing with your own feet on their leg. Make sure you have their foot right up to your shoulder, or your grip will be too loose. Once you feel their foot lose purchase on the ground due to your push, switch the hooking foot you have under their thigh to their knee. Push more to get them off-balance, then do a technical stand-up to get back to your feet, still holding their leg (this should be straightforward if its on your shoulder). Their base is now completely broken, so it should be a simple matter to take out their leg for the sweep.

During specific sparring, I didn't really get anywhere with my training partner Callum. He had little trouble sweeping me when underneath, or passing when on top. However, I did at least get to familiarise myself with butterfly guard a little, trying to bring him back with my legs when he managed to flatten me out. I also had a go at wiggling my arm through for the D'arce, but wasn't quick enough.

During free sparring, I got smashed by one of the blue belts, Rob. He was throwing on a whole bunch of chokes, easily getting to a high mount each time. As in the last lesson, I need better hip movement, and also more activity on the bottom. I did remember to try and bump them forward a few times to disrupt submission attempts, but didn't manage to make space and shrimp.

I think there was someone else before that, but can't remember. The last spar was interesting, with the same white belt from last week, Dan. I again tried standing to pass, but this time almost handed him an armbar and then a triangle. I managed to wriggle my arms past his legs and thought I'd be nicely set up for a double-underhooks pass.

No such luck, as instead he clamped his legs around my head. That was distinctly uncomfortable for two reasons. First, I hurt my own neck if I tried to move in either direction, and secondly, I was unpleasantly close to a faceful of humid man crotch. Not fun.

I did eventually get free, trying the pass where you grab the back of their gi pants and flip them right over. That didn't quite go according to plan, as after a scramble I ended up back underneath again. I tried the Tran side control escape, but didn't have any energy left, so instead got squished under mount. Squirmed my way back to half guard a little later, managing to get on my side, but again in the wrong spot to launch an attempt on the back.

After that round was finished, I decided to sit out the last one. I know my stamina will improve if I keep showing up and training, but its a strenuous process getting there. I've had a slight lay-off while in Turkey for three weeks, but its probably more due to the fact that I've only been training an average of once a week over the past few months. Its good to get back to twice a week, with two classes each night, but my body was definitely complaining the next day.

31/07/2008 - BJJ (Advanced)

Class #167



Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK - 31/07/2008 - Advanced

Back to technique this session, returning to some open guard sweeps Jude has shown us before. They both begin from half-guard, after your opponent has stood up, then I think switch to what is called 'x-guard', but as I'm still not entirely sure what the hell that is, may be mislabelling the position.

Anyway, the first x-guard sweep starts with them standing up, while you have both of your legs wrapped around one of theirs, also using your same side hand to grab their gi trousers. With your other hand, grip their other sleeve. In order to make them step forward, brings your knees towards your chest and pull their sleeve forward.

Once they've stepped forward, switch your grip from their sleeve to behind their leg, wrapping your arm around the back of their knee, gripping just above that same knee round the other side. Your half-guard now switches to the 'x-guard' thingy, where your have one shin underneath their leg, the other foot braced by the side of their knee. If they are trying to drop their knee to your stomach, use your own knee to press them back.

To knock them over, pull your arm in so you can change your grip from their gi pants to their ankle, then use the combination of pushing on their knee and your hold on their other leg to put them on the ground. Don't come up using your hand: rely on the momentum instead, completing the motion by coming round to side control.

The next x-guard sweep was a bit more complicated, working from the same starting position. However, this time when you try to get them to step forward, they put their weight back and hold steady, so you can't hook that leg. Instead, you'll move right round to the side of the leg you've trapped with your own legs. Pull their arm between their legs, feeding the sleeve to your other hand, then hook the instep of one leg around their other thigh (taking care not to get your arm and leg tangled up, which I did a few times when drilling this). Your other leg is going to push on their knee again.

Having got into position, sit up and grab their collar, aiming to get a deep grip. You can now drop the leg you've got hooked, and instead concentrate on pushing their knee, pulling down on the gi with your collar grip at the same time. This should drag them to the floor: note that they can't easily break their fall, so be careful when drilling this (you basically end up landing on your shoulder).

Specific sparring was king of the hill guard passage, where again my main goal was to make myself stand up. I got defensive a few times, but was pleased to at least get to my feet during a couple of spars. I'm not getting any further than that at the mo, but it’s a start: next thing will be to drive my hips forward and develop good balance, so I can being to work a pass. At the moment, I tend to get swept fairly quickly and easily after I'm up, so its going to be a matter of persevering until I start to settle into the motion and get my base.

I spent a lot of free sparring in half-guard, particularly with Dean and Christy. For the first spar, my partner was Christina, and I tried to stand up: didn't really work, but again, something I just need to keep trying. As ever, soon ended up underneath, mostly in either side control or knee on belly. In the latter position, I'm tending to do a lot of waiting, trying to go to half guard by pushing on the knee, which isn't very effective. I've seen some escapes in the Ed Beneville books, and I remember Maurição showing us some a while back, so need to double-check those.

My main problem in half-guard at present is getting up my torso onto the same side as the leg I've trapped. I keep ending up in a diagonal posture, which is much less useful for sweeps, taking the back, recovering guard etc. I'm getting better with snatching half guard if I can see I'm about to be swept or passed, but I must be doing it in such a way that I end up with my torso in the wrong place. Working back around is proving difficult: I should probably be using my hips more, and bridging to make space.

I seem to remember getting some kind of sweep on Christy, but I think it was kinda sloppy, and right near the end I rolled her over with her leg (if I'm remembering correctly). That wasn't really planned, but I should keep in mind that their leg is vulnerable if its up close to my head.

I also rolled into Dean's guard a couple of times, but that didn't help me much as on each occasion he had a kimura mostly locked in when on top of my half-guard. The second time round I managed to get out of it by attempting to crush my shoulder down after I rolled, but I'm not sure if I escaped due to that, or he eased off: not sure on the correct technical escape for a kimura from guard.

Seemed to bruise up my knee today, which I think may have been exacerbated by the unpleasant humidity. London has been wet and hot today, which is a terrible combination. Hopefully will be a little cooler when I get back next week: got a friend's wedding to go to in Cambridge this weekend, which should be fun.

04/06/2008 - BJJ (Advanced)

Class #151



Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK - 04/06/2008 - Advanced

Finally had a chance to watch HookNShoot: Revolution, a DVD I've been waiting to watch for several years now (similarly waited for ages to see The Smashing Machine). The DVD covers a momentous event in MMA history, in 2002: the first ever all female MMA card. There were names in there I'd heard before (mainly because I went through a stint on Wikipedia where I was adding in details of female MMA fighters), like Debi Purcell of FighterGirls.com fame or the powerful ex-bodybuilder Mayra Conde. I'll be writing up a proper review later, but for now, I'll just say that its well worth picking up. Decent event, and great extras too.

My knees and shins are still a bit sore, but I wanted to try out some of the techniques and tactics I've been watching on Roy Dean's Seminars Year One DVD, specifically the open guard portion with Roy Harris. I'm starting with the first half of what he calls the basics of open guard, which I'll write out to help get it clear in my head

In the initial part of his seminar, Harris goes through three sets of defensive pushes: the hands (heel of the hand between thumb and fingers to the neck and jaw line; web of the hand between thumb and fingers against their biceps, or if they power their arm through, switch to triceps and push round; if they power through your hand to jawline, shift to an elbow into their armpit); the feet (push on the crook of their arms, swimming over or under depending on what they do with their arms; push their hips; push their knees, on the outside or the inside, especially in combination with grips); the knees (knee and shin into the shoulder if their head is down, where your foot can be down or up; into the top of the chest, somewhere between nipple line and clavicle; into the hip, bringing knee up to attack the arm if they try to sprawl).

After that, Harris moves on to grips, which he associates with the offensive portion of open guard. However, I want to get the defensive side of things down first, so I'll try concentrating on that before moving on. I had wanted to work this last week too, but the opportunity doesn't always present itself. E.g., if in sparring I'm mainly on top, or trying to escape side control and mount, or king of the hill guard passage, which means I normally only get to try (and fail) to pass, rather than go from my back.

Christina was in early as usual, where there was a group of us having our usual chat. I mentioned to her that I wish we could work the basics more, to which she made the very suggestion that we've got time and space before class, so lets go for it.

That gave me the opportunity to work on my woeful guard passing, starting with the basic standing pass. Points to emphasise here are stiff arming their hip to stall motion on their part, driving forward with your own hips as much as possible after standing, and keeping your head raised and looking up for posture.

Christina also wanted to go through a bunch of open guard passes. The first one involved gripping the fabric by their knees, on the inside facing part of the legs. Step to the side and then push down one of their knees. Step through with the near leg on the side you want to pass, immediately moving to knee on belly. The proper way to do that is to lay the shin across their stomach, foot off the ground, then sit on your own foot. That puts plenty of pressure onto your opponent.

Another pass, if I remembered rightly, started with you reaching through their leg, grabbing the other one, then sprawling on top of their knee (meaning both their legs were pressed together and to one side). Create pressure with your shoulder, also driving your head into their floating rib, pressing your hips down as much as possible. Finally, walk round slowly into side control.

Christina also tried to show me a half guard sweep, which from what I can recall involved grabbing their free leg, bumping them forward on their trapped side with your same side knee, then using that momentum and your grip on their knee to move through to the top position.

Technique tonight was a bit complex, so I'm not entirely sure I've remembered it accurately. The first part is the same for both open guard sweeps I'll be putting down, and is a response to the leg pin pass. Their leg is press into your thigh: you raise up and grab around the back of their knee with both hands. Bring your outside foot underneath their instep, and use that to lift up their leg. At the same time, pull their knee towards you, aiming to force them to stand up.

The next part I'm less certain, but I think you then grab their trouser leg. Wrap that arm around, feed their opposite sleeve through to the hand now by their leg. Push their knee away with your foot, then raise up and pull their other leg to knock them to the side, coming up to pass.

From the same position, you can also go for an x-guard sweep. The set-up is as before, except that once you've got them to stand up, they move their leg closer to your head. Swivel underneath and bring their leg to your shoulder, then switch your legs to x-guard. I had a bit of trouble remembering where my feet were supposed to go for this, but I think your far foot hooks under their far leg, while the knee of your other leg goes behind their near leg. That leaves the foot of that leg hooking around up near the thigh of the far leg, if I'm remembering correctly.

Once you have that x-guard position, you can then lift them up. At the same time, pull their near sleeve with your far arm between their legs (I think: could well be getting mixed up here), then drop them to the side. I felt a bit like I was on a fairground ride at this point, as your body follows them up, but the eventual finishing place was a little erratic for me: side control, half guard, between their legs facing the wrong way etc. Clearly this is something that is going to take a great deal more getting used to on my part!

Guard passage put me up against a brown belt and a purple respectively, so went as you'd expect. For free sparring, there were lots of women in the class tonight, so that meant I was spoiled for choice in terms of good rolling partners.

Things kicked off with Indra, where I had a go at using the open guard principles from Roy Harris. I still need to get used to them, but I think it helped, at least in terms of getting me to raise up and make better use of my arms to try and recover guard or go for the back. I spent most of the spar trying to attack from top half-guard and side control, although found it difficult because Indra was turned up right on her side. I made an attempt to step over her head and go for a kimura, but couldn't quite get it.

Next up was Pippa, where I again had the opportunity to work half guard. I was initially crushed by her shoulder, but eventually worked through to the 'paw' position. I could then push her arm and grab it with my other hand (which was in an underhook position). That set up the arm sweep Indrek Reiland shows in his instructional video, which seemed to work as I'd hoped (i.e., roll them over so you end up on top in half-guard).

My third spar was with Joanna, where I again had the chance to work open guard. I was trying to time my defences so I could work those Roy Harris principles. I think I just about got into position to push with the hand, but later I ended up basically shoving Joanna in the hip, which was rather sloppy on my part. Still sort of worked, but I had meant to go for her arm or armpit as per the DVD. I also found that I've perhaps been obsessing too much about getting the grips for spider guard: simply pushing with the arms and legs, as in the DVD, proved a useful exercise.

Finally, I went with Yasmine, where I think I once again found myself in that top half-guard position. I think it was from there I must have done something very wrong, as I found myself underneath a very high mount, but was able to pop out the back door and got for top half-guard a second time. I'm having difficulty passing from there, though I have been trying to the step-over kimura too. I eventually got past to go for scarf hold, but time ran out.

Unfortunately Christina aggravated a hamstring injury she sustained earlier this week, so I hope she recovers ok. Would be cool to do some more basics drilling with her again some time, but most important is that the hamstring sorts itself out: looked like a nasty strain.