17/01/2007 - BJJ

Class #21


Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK – 17/01/2007

My meeting only took slightly over an hour, so had no problems making the train from Leamington. Very pleased to have been given the go ahead to do some work on Robert Lowell: I’ve been waiting about three years now! Means I can get diving into biographies, collected letters, critical studies and of course re-read the poems. Also great to move on from Peter Reading – he’s a very interesting subject to study, but I’ve been rewriting my draft on him for about a year, so definitely time for a change.

Jude took the class again today, so still no Felipe (though he was taking the juniors as usual – it hadn’t clicked with me until today that there was a difference between the kids and the juniors). Having run through the usual hip throws with a guy called Richard (sounded French, but not sure), Jude showed us the standing pass and a few counters. The first counter was the basic grab the ankles, put knees into stomach and push them over (like this). Despite it being very basic, I still have trouble getting the leverage, so probably need to focus on getting my knees tighter.

The second one was new to me. Person B looks for Person A to lean in close to them while standing up from guard. Person B then grips Person A’s elbows and pulls them forward, also pushing with the hips. The next step is for Person B to get their feet into Person A’s hips, which they use to elevate Person A and roll them directly behind them, coming up in mount. I had some problems getting my feet through, rolling my partner over with my legs still behind. While this worked in drilling, it was the wrong technique and would probably fail with more resistance, so need to be careful I don’t get into bad habits.

Jude also managed to fit in a third counter from a similar position. This looked very simple, but proved a lot more difficult to get – I had problems in drilling. Person B looks for Person A to over balance after standing up from Person B’s guard. Person B then pushes them forward and down, grabbing their right wrist with their left hand then left wrist with right, crossing them over. Next, Person B drops their legs and wraps them behind Person A’s legs, trying to push Person A’s legs together. Finally, Person B pulls Person A to one side and mounts.

I didn’t have any success in sparring, ending up in stalemates against Dominique and Bryant from the top. My passing is still really bad, which I think is because I’m still too worried about getting swept. I need to be braver and just stand up, so I can improve my posture and get familiarity with the position. The one plus point from the top I had today was armbar escapes, which I did twice against Bryant. However, I wasn’t able to capitalise and move into side control, as Bryant was able to quickly re-establish guard both times.

I was also swept by both Bryant and Dominique, although only once or twice each, if I’m remembering correctly. I attempted to work my sensitivity with Bryant, seeing if I could feel what he was trying to do. I avoided getting collar choked, but clearly not sensitive enough yet, as he then got a sit-up sweep on me.

I had a good opportunity against Dominique when she was in my half-guard, but my technique was missing something. I isolated her arm in the way Marcio showed me on the flower sweep (underhook the arm and push it next to her head), but it wasn’t enough to enable me to roll her over. Thinking about it now, I should have worked harder to get a leg around her leg, which would help in removing her base. I strained away at that for a while, but she was eventually able to move through into side control (might have even been scarf hold).

So things to work on are taking more risks on top and following through on armbar escapes. I also need to go back to trying a string of sweeps, rather than just going for one and then ending up struggling. Hopefully get a chance to improve in tomorrow’s session, and I should also been training on Saturday. Also got my Pancrase DVD (first event from back in 1993) through today – its all in Japanese (presumably the guy recorded it off Japanese TV), but while that’s unfortunate, it’s the fights that are important. Not to mention it was only £4, so not exactly pricey.

16/01/2007 - ZSK

University of Warwick Zhuan Shu Kuan, (ZSK), Rod Richardson, Coventry, UK - 16/01/2007

Didn’t make the MMA class I wanted to on Saturday – unfortunately, turns out that’s not going to be convenient after all. I’m hoping to still try it out in May, when I’ll have my BJJ contract paused (as I’ll be in the Caribbean for half of may). Should be a good substitute. Would also be cool if I can make the JKD school on Barbados, but that’s probably pushing it a bit.

This was my first session back since 5th December, meaning that I’ve had 12.5hrs of BJJ since my last ZSK class. So, felt a little rusty going back to striking, in particular on the stretching, but was good to whack the pads again. I also decided I’d waited more than long enough for my shoulder to recover from the judo injury in Oct 2005, so held pads for the first full class for well over a year (up to this point, I’ve been sticking with the heavy bag so I don’t get any jarring against my left shoulder).

Techniques were all as usual, with the compulsory movements for the first two grades (a bunch of blocks and then a bunch of kicks from back stance), followed by front, spurning and side kicks from the rear leg against pads. Was also good to see Paddy again and have a chat with him – sounds like his black belt grading is likely to be in June, so hopefully that won’t clash with the Birmingham Throwdown. The 7th July date would probably work either way, but will have to see. Would also be good to have Rod down this time, so will have to remember to ask him if and when he’s up for it this summer.

Sparring (at least standing up) is something else I haven’t done for a while now. I’ve never really enjoyed stand-up sparring, and find it a lot harder to get something out of in comparison to rolling. First partner was a relatively new guy, who as with most new guys had trouble getting himself to actually make contact. That’s fine by me, as its means I can settle back and work my defence, although I could just as easily step back to avoid the kicks and punches. Second partner, however, was Paddy, who I know is keen to go heavier contact with me. Mainly this is due to the fact that apart from Rod and the black belts who turn up on Sunday, he hasn’t really got anyone else he can go all out against.

Still, I don’t think he was going especially heavy today, though I’m sure he would have given me a good smack if I’d left an opening. I was fairly cautious, though I was trying to force myself to be offensive and learn something from the spar. Unfortunately, the voice in my head screaming DON’T GET INJURED DON’T GET INJURED DON’T GET INJURED made that a little hard. I’m even more timid than normal since that injury, as I’d really hate to miss a chunk of BJJ. That meant that I treated this as a comparatively relaxed way to get used to sparring stand-up again, though admittedly I do tend to take it easy as a matter of course if my partner doesn’t press forward. The usual problems of crappy punches, not following up strikes and backing away too readily are all there, but something I can work on in later sessions. Of course, I only get one session of striking a week at most, so I doubt I’m ever going to make great improvements. My main focus currently is groundwork, so the striking has been taking a back seat since last November.

Next session should be BJJ tomorrow. There is a slight chance I’ll have to miss it, as it depends on how long the meeting takes. It’s at 12:00, so if it stays under two hours, I should be able to make the train from Leamington to London no problem (ideally I’d be at Marylebone by 17:00). Can but hope. Then again, I've got the Saturday free this week, so either way should get at least two sessions of BJJ.

11/01/2007 - BJJ

Class #20



Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK – 11/01/2007

No Felipe again today, so he must still be on holiday, or perhaps just getting back into it slowly. That meant he missed the dubious pleasure of the Big Brother’s Big Mouth camera stalking around the Academy looking for potential interviewees. Olly popped his rib warming up for the advanced class, so as I came out of the changing rooms, I saw him preparing for his fifteen minutes of fame. The TV crew then looked over at Jan and I, asking if we watched Big Brother, to which we both responded with furious head-shaking: there was no way I was going in front of that camera voluntarily! Mungkorn Dam had no such qualms, doing pretty much exactly what he said he was going to do in his earlier post on Bullshido. I thought he came off as quite confident, sticking to his line of “I think Big Brother is lowest common denominator entertainment, like watching your neighbour’s through the curtains.” Also note Will's blog entry. I got to see the episode a few days later (or was it the day after?), which of course went up on YouTube immediately:



Amidst the cables and prepared answers (“I think Jade Goody is going to win” was frequently pushed by the TV crew, for some reason), there was still a BJJ class going on. After three lessons of it, the instructor let up on the ‘self defence’ drills, instead concentrating on how to escape from scarf hold. Apparently, Jude has been through three this week, not just the one I saw last night. The first variation he demonstrated was for Person B to push their trapped elbow to the floor, bringing the other arm round to grip the wrist. Instead of sitting up and wrapping the leg round, Person B grabbed Person A’s gi trouser, shifting round behind in order to get a hook in. Using this to leverage Person A round, Person B reached in over Person A’s should to get a deep grip on the collar, in preparation for a choke. Person B then rolled Person A on top of them facing up, bringing their other arm under Person A’s armpit to secure the choke on their other collar.

This was followed by the escape from last lesson (which I found much simpler, not only because I’d done it the class before), then finally a third variation. The scenario for that one was Person A managing to get both their legs and head out of reach, negating the two previous escapes. Instead, Person B brings their arms round to Person A’s far leg, clasping their hands in order to drive a knuckle into Person A’s floating rib. At the same time, Person B gets as close behind Person A as they can, slipping a leg tight into Person A’s hip. The pain from pressing the floating rib is supposed to get Person A to raise their hips, so that Person B can swing them over onto their side, taking mount then performing the same armbar as last session's escape. However, I found this difficult: despite apparently getting the knuckle into the right place, I was still straining to get my training partner over. Jan weighs about ten kilograms more than me, which seemed to make a noticeable difference. Rowan Cunningham shows the same technique here.



Jude took care to carefully demonstrate the armbar, as he said too many of us were leaving space as we flopped down for a submission. The correct way was to keep tight, using an arm for balance, meaning that Person B could drop down into an armbar but remain tight to Person A’s shoulder.

I wasn’t able to get anything on Jan during specific sparring, which I spent in guard. As usual I couldn’t find the space for a scissor sweep, and the sit-up sweep failed even more miserably than usual. As I came up, Jan anticipated it, and I ended up twisted to the side, almost getting passed in the process. Talking to him later, Jan thought I was going for an armbar, but either way, it was telegraphed. I think what I need to do is better set up the sweep, perhaps with an attempted kimura or something. “Position before submission”, or in this case, the rather less catchy “Position before…sweep”.

Next up was someone who appeared to have a reasonable bit of experience (I didn’t notice what stripe), who I think was called Huey, however that should be spelt. He had little trouble sweeping me, at one point getting a scissor (or at least that’s what he said it was when I asked later: I remember him getting a leg wrapped behind mine, which is either a variation or perhaps a different sweep). I was at least able to resist his armbar attempt, rising up and freeing my arm, though he had my arm fairly straightened out. I was confident I could get it free, as I had my other arm in position, but it was a fine line between trying out an escape and being dangerously pig-headed about not tapping (something I’m very keen to avoid, as I don’t fancy being out of training with a busted elbow). Though Huey then got me in a triangle instead, I felt I was improving on the armbar escape.

I had a second opportunity against my final partner, Jon, who has been training about as long as me. We had a bit of a struggle, until Jon attempted an armbar. I was ready for it, getting both my arms inside his legs, then escaped and moved round into side control. I fared less well trying the tailbone pass: though I remembered to dig my elbows into his inner thigh, I pulled my arms in too far and too close. This meant I effectively put myself into position for Jon to sweep me.

I’m hoping to get down to F’s Freestyle on Saturday to try out the MMA class there – will see if I can convince my gf to come down. The TV crew caused the session to run over half an hour, meaning I was a bit late for my lift. Still, will be interesting to see how much of the footage the Big Brother editors use: real shame Mungkorn's Bullshido t-shirt didn’t arrive in time for television stardom.

10/01/2007 - BJJ

Class #19



Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK – 10/01/2007

I wimped out of ZSK yesterday, deciding to give myself another day to shake off the cold (Paddy confirmed he’d be there to take the first part of class, so no worries there). Seemed to work, as I felt ok for tonight’s BJJ class. After the warm-up, which wasn’t quite so intense as usual for Jude, we went through ten hip throws each, but only on the left side (presumably because Jude reckoned most people neglect that in favour of the right). As normal, I was with someone a fair bit heavier than myself, which helps me concentrate more on technique, as I’ve got no chance of throwing just with strength.

Jude moved on to a ‘self-defence’ drill, starting from the same manoeuvre Luciano showed us last week. Self defence isn’t something that especially interests me, as I treat BJJ purely as a sport, but Jude did say something useful about grips. When holding a sleeve, dig in your thumb and push through, aiming for a tight grip with the fingers. This should mean that the other person’s gi is pressed firmly against their arm, which provides you with much better control.

That was followed by an escape from scarf hold. Person B shrimps to the side to free their elbow from Person A’s grip, then sits up slightly, lightly gripping their own hand. This then enables Person B to bring their leg over Person A’s head, wrapping their other leg in front, then driving through to put Person A on their side. Person B then readjusts their legs, moving over Person A into mount.

My training partner Owen gave me a tip on bringing my leg right down to the floor, pressing my foot into the other person’s hip, which provides better control. At this point, Person A still has a hold on Person B’s head. To break it, Person B pushes their wrist into Person A’s throat, pushing with their other hand for additional force, then moves forward with their upper body. This breaks the grip, whereupon Person B grabs Person A’s arm, securing it for an armbar, stepping over with their far leg to swing down to a submission.

I can't see a video showing specifically that escape, so I'll post up this one by Rowan Cunningham. He demonstrates a bizarre looking armbar from this position, which even if it fails could get you their back.



The closest I can see to the escape we learned is this krav maga thingy (minus the stomp: we're grapplers, after all :p) - hopefully it at least gives you an idea of what I was trying to describe.



We must have spent a fair bit of time on those drills, as there wasn’t much time left for sparring. However, everyone was able to get in three minutes on top and on bottom. I was with Owen, a third stripe who also had prior experience, apparently. He dominated me from both positions, though I did at least manage to escape once – I’m not sure if that’s because he over-committed to an armbar attempt leaving me space, or if it was due to my technique, but still pleasing.

As always, I attempted scissor and sit-up sweeps along with the two passes I’ve learned before, none of which I managed successfully. I’m not sure what I did wrong with the sit-up sweep, as I had one side isolated and came up on the elbow, so I assume Owen must have realised what I was doing and adjusted his base accordingly. Could also have been the weight difference. With the scissor sweep, Owen was getting his arm in the way of the leg I was trying to press against his stomach, leaving me in open guard with no leverage. That also prevented me from going for the follow-up armbar, as I couldn’t kick my leg through. I also couldn’t get the flower sweep, going too slow and not dragging Owen off-balance – he was easily able to sit back and trap my arm under his leg.

My passing was equally poor, though I remembered to keep my grip lower for the tailbone pass and tried to dig my elbows in. At one point I almost had the space to put my knee in between, then shifted for double underhooks. However, again Owen could see what I was going for and got his legs into my arms. I wasn’t able to get my elbows in tight, so once again that’s something I need to work on. I tried to stand up more often and pull Owen off balance, but to no avail. Nevertheless, I’m glad I didn’t just end up in a stalemate as has happened so often before, though that’s largely due to Owen trying numerous different techniques on me, necessitating movement on my part.

Annoyingly, I wasn’t quick enough to ask for specific advice on what I did wrong when the sparring was over, so next time I must remember to inquire during sparring, in the pause as we restart. Should be training again tomorrow, then hopefully get my gf down to MMA on Saturday. Will have to wait and see...

04/01/2007 - BJJ

Class #18



Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Luciano Cristovam, London, UK – 04/01/2007

When I arrived, I was rather surprised to see the advanced class still getting changed. For a moment I thought the class times might have changed or something, but turns out the power only came back on 10 minutes before I got there, having been off since 16:30. This meant that the advanced class and the beginners class were running side by side for about 40mins with a few belts down the middle to divide the groups. A little cramped, to say the least, but we mainly did warm-ups, so wasn’t too bad.

Luciano ran class again, which pleased me because it meant I should have another chance to drill the omoplata. He began with the ‘self-defence’ thing again, which I’m not too keen on, but moved swiftly on to the kimura. I’ve done this before in MMA, but quite some time ago, and the set-up this time was much better. Person B grabs Person A’s right wrist with their left hand, sitting up and bringing their right hand thumb-first round the back of Person A’s right arm. Person B then grabs their own left wrist with their right hand, using the leverage this creates (i.e., the right arm wrapped round isolates Person A’s joint) to push Person’s arm with their left hand. Person B continues pushing with their left hand, also using their leg to further drive Person A downwards, until Person A taps.

As I’d hoped, Luciano then demonstrated the omoplata again. This time, however, it was much simpler (though perhaps the previous lesson helped, despite my inability to remember the set-up properly). If the kimura failed, Person A managing to straighten out his arm, Person B brings their right leg out under Person A’s head. Person B then moves their left leg over the top of Person A’s right arm, the foot near Person A’s head, using their right leg to secure a triangle on the arm. Keeping Person A’s right arm bent round the leg, Person B sits up and grabs hold of Person A’s far side (the left, in this case). Person B then tries to improve their position by pulling Person A out to the right, aiming to drive Person A’s shoulder down and eventually flatten them out. This makes it easier to thrust the hips forward at a forty-five degree angle in the direction of Person A, until they tap from the pain in their shoulder.

Unlike last session, I was able to at least drill the technique, though I still had some trouble getting the right angle with my hips for the tap. Oli G came over to give me further advice: as I’d been going the wrong way, his correction certainly helped!

Sparring was as usual passing and sweeping, though I didn’t have too much success. I was up against Paul, who I think is an Aussie (had a Gracie Barra Sydney gi on, IIRC), and has plenty more experience than normal for a beginner. If I understood him correctly, he’s been going off and on to BJJ for years, just never consistently enough to progress up the ranks. Still, it was clearly sufficient to deal with my mediocre efforts. I couldn’t get anything on him, as he had no problem blocking my attempts to scissor and sit-up sweep. I probably should have tried to go for the flower sweep too, and as I keep finding myself in a position where I have one leg between theirs as they’re rising up, learning the elevator (which frankly I’ve only heard of due to Jeff Blatnick commentating on the early UFCs) might be useful too. I did at least resist his pass for a while, though I think he may have been going easy on me.

That was confirmed when we changed positions. I was struggling yet again with the tailbone pass, so Paul advised me to drive my elbows into his inner thighs. I think I’ve been gripping too high for the pass, up on the lower part of the gi jacket when I should be going for the top of the trousers close to the hips: that should help with leverage. I wasn’t able to get my knee through like I did yesterday against Herman (turns out Herman trains every day, which would explain his improvement, but tends to have long gaps), as Paul’s closed guard was too tight. Standing up I’m still entirely ineffectual, generally ending back down on my knees.

This was followed by an ego boost against Basil, though the specific sparring was now from side control rather than guard. I had little trouble switching to guard when underneath, and similarly found it fairly straightforward to move into mount when on top - he left plenty of space, unsurprising considering he's never been in side control before. In hindsight, I probably should have gone for something else, like an Americana, as I don’t think I really learned too much simply passing and getting into guard (would that still be pulling guard, if I’m shifting into it from under side control?) against somebody new to the position.

On the other hand, it did give me a chance to teach, as Basil had only been to four classes whereas this was my twentieth. It also confirms what I think one of the quality BJJ posters on Bullshido (NSLightsOut, jnp, Yrkoon9 etc) said about it being in your interest to help out the less experienced as much as possible, as this results in better training partners for you. Having advised Basil to put his knee into my side when he’s underneath, I did indeed find it more difficult to mount and therefore got more out of the roll. A low-level but nonetheless quantifiable example.

Tonight was the first time I’d worn my gum shield when rolling, having been inspired by a chat to Daniel about him getting whacked in the teeth a few lessons back. Needless to say, he now wears a gum shield every spar. Basil noticed there was a bit of blood in my gum shield, which often happens as my teeth are crappy. Turns out the guy is a dentist, who then proceeded to give me a lecture about flossing, once we'd finished and were in the changing rooms. Fair enough, though, as I’m far too lazy with that kind of thing – you only get one set of teeth, after all.

I asked Luciano about prices for the Carlinhos seminar, but he didn’t know. Oli G, on the other hand, said he’d heard it was £15 for RGA students, though £25 was more likely. Should be training next Wednesday as normal, with the first ZSK session of 2007 on Tuesday. There is supposed to be a ‘taster session’ on Sunday, which I suggested a few months back, but don’t think I’ll be needed to attend. Could be that BJJ is already improving my fitness, as I spent five minutes sprinting from Edgware Road to Marylebone, just managing to catch my train back to Amersham. Being a wimp, normally I’d get a stitch.

03/01/2007 - BJJ

Class #17



Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Luciano Cristovam, London, UK – 03/01/2007

The black belts were all still on holiday, apparently, which meant Luciano (a purple belt) took both the beginner and advanced classes, helped by Oli G as usual. I’d found him helpful when he assisted at previous lessons, so knew he’d be a good substitute for Felipe and Jude. I think his surname is Cristovam, though I've also seen a Luciano Cristocam when googling 'Luciano' and 'Roger Gracie Academy' - as vam gets more hits than cam, I'm assuming the latter is a typo. Then again, Oli G can tell me for certain.

Mungkorn Dam had PMed me earlier mentioning he was keen to try out the armless triangle, having come across the move in a book recently. Fortunately for us, there was no kids class today, meaning the mats were free for drilling. As Person A underhooks both legs in an attempt to pass the guard, Person B brings their left leg up behind Person A’s head. Instead of trapping an arm and bringing the other leg over, Person B wedges their own left arm into Person A’s throat, gripping their own left leg to secure the hold (I can’t remember if the grip is on top of the leg or underneath: will have to check a video or wait for MD to respond). Person B then brings their other leg across into the usual triangle position, squeezing for the choke.

After drilling some throws and a ‘self defence’ thing (when grabbed from behind, circle round the arm, pushing against the elbow, gripping your own hand and twisting up for a standing Americana), the first technique we worked in the actual class was the flower sweep, which I’d somehow managed to forget over Christmas. Luciano followed Felipe’s method rather than Jude’s, isolating an arm rather than grabbing behind the head. One thing I need to remember is that you underhook the opposite leg to the arm you’re isolating – kept getting that mixed up, meaning the sweep doesn’t work as your training partner can still base out with their arm.

Having had sufficient trouble with a technique I’d covered before, Luciano then sprung something rather more complex on us: the omoplata. I’ve seen the term used repeatedly on Bullshido without ever knowing what it was beyond some kind of shoulder lock, so it was good to finally drill it.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t even get the technique right when drilling with no resistance, which is probably why I’m having difficulty remembering exactly how the omoplata is supposed to work. I think this is a different set-up, but here’s how Rowan Cunningham shows it in one of the Abhaya videos. My main problem was pulling the arm through properly, as I kept ending up in a position where I’d triangled the arm, but it wasn’t bent backwards as shown in that video. Looking round the rest of the room, I could see I wasn’t alone: Luciano stopped us drilling to repeat his demonstration of the technique twice, the first time I can remember that happening. Here's another set-up, this time from open guard, by Cindy Omatsu:



Then it was time for specific sparring, as usual Person A trying to pass and Person B trying to sweep. I was with Herman again, but things didn’t go quite as easily as last time. He had a much more solid posture, my attempts to scissor sweep falling flat. With hindsight, I can see that my problem was a failure to move from sweep to sweep like I did previously, instead getting into a stalemate, going for the same technique rather than pressuring with several different manoeuvres. I should have been able to try the sit-up sweep, as Herman was often sitting back in my guard, but as before I forgot to go up on my elbow. That meant that Herman had no problem readjusting when I went to isolate one side, as it took me so long to get there. I did eventually sweep Herman, due to him putting too much weight forward (I think as has happened before in sparring, I basically rolled him with my knee), but it took almost the entire first spar.

Sparring in general proved useful in helping my passing. I managed to remember Marcio’s advice on getting the knee in between my partner’s legs, but that was about as far as my memory went. Nevertheless, it did enable me to break Herman’s guard (or he opened it), meaning that I was standing up gripping his trouser legs. As I tried to pass by switching my base, I didn’t defend properly, meaning Herman got my back.

Seeing my noob mistake, Luciano gave me the very useful tip to keep my elbows tight and inside Herman’s legs – I had left too much space, which meant Herman could get his foot to my bicep and generally hamper my movement. I did better on the second attempt, effectively driving straight through Herman’s guard with my knee and into side control, though no doubt fatigue on Herman’s part was a major factor.

Finally, I rolled with Basil, for whom this was his third lesson. If he had any more experience, I’m pretty sure he would have taken my back. Basil was keeping a tight grip on both my lapels, but had opened his guard sufficiently that I was able to get round his leg. Again, if he wasn’t so new, I imagine he would have capitalised on the fact he was still gripping my lapels while I was trying to pass. However, I was able to push round his leg to almost get side control, ending up in the familiar situation where my training partner is on their side trying to move back into guard. Luciano was watching, and shouted out the blindingly obvious next move: mount him. Simple, but I was so busy concentrating on getting side control I didn’t consider the much easier option of throwing my leg over until Luciano’s observation.

I still need to be quicker, and must remember to keep flowing from technique to technique rather than getting into a stalemate of failing at one move repeatedly. If I mess up the scissor, I should go for an armbar, possibly move on to flower sweep or try a sit-up sweep depending on the position. Also need to keep my elbows in tight when I’ve got the trouser legs, and be more careful of my back when attempting to pass by switching my base. Hopefully I’ll get the chance to test this out tomorrow, but we’ll see if it ends up being more guard passing and sweeping.

Chatting to Michael and Oli on the train, they confirmed the stripes are based on time rather than ability, which would make sense. If that’s the case, then I need to be careful if and when I get my third stripe and can move up to the advanced class, as it wouldn’t be an indication of my skill level. They also commented that there may be an intermediate class consisting of third/fourth stripe whites and blues in the future, which would tally with what Oli G said to me a while back.

21/12/2006 - BJJ (evening)

Class #16



Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Felipe Souza, London, UK – 21/12/2006

Having enjoyed myself at the Velázquez exhibition, I arrived for the next class to again see hardly anyone there: just Harry and I. We had a good chat about his previous MA experience (not just wing chun, but apparently he was pretty damn good at TKD back in his youth, later moving on to Thai boxing. In fact, turns out he went to Coventry uni, so knows the guy I’m familiar with from the Warwick class, Lucky). I then had a talk to Dava, who was there with a friend of his – like many of the people I started with, he’s also got his stripe recently, though hasn’t been able to make it much this month.

The advanced class ran over a bit, meaning the beginners were warming up round the outside as the seniors were warming down on the inside. Felipe mentioned to me before the session started as I was waiting, after I said I’d been at Roger’s class earlier and noticed the differences in teaching style, that the black belts get together to plan sessions at the start of the week. That would explain the consistencies from class to class.

After drilling the double and single leg takedowns, Felipe worked through two techniques I’ve been wanting to drill in class: the sit-up sweep and the tailbone pass. I was already pretty familiar with the sit-up sweep, having used it successfully in earlier classes, so didn’t need to ask many questions (Oli wondered if that was from my earlier MMA, but the only things that I can remember from the sixteen or so classes I went to over the past three years are submissions. I don’t think I ever worked position before starting BJJ).

I’m still having major problems getting the tailbone pass to work, though I was useful having one of the most experienced white belts, Aika, to drill with. She gave me plenty of tips, such as on the collar choke Felipe added on (to be used when Person A flops forward in Person B’s guard, bringing their neck in range). She also mentioned that the A1 gi she was wearing was intended for 160-165cm people, so probably slightly too small for me. I had been thinking of getting one, but if that’s accurate (though I think it might vary a bit from brand to brand), I’d need an A2 if buying from the US (I’m 5’7).

Sparring was by the line-up system again, which I’m not too fond of – tends to mean that I only get to work passing, normally ending up in a war of attrition rather than technique. That’s exactly what happened with the first two people I attempted to pass, Del and Dava. I did put up plenty of resistance in both cases, and had a chance to pass each time the same way. On both, I managed to underhook both legs, but couldn’t capitalise, getting pulled forward and basically stuck. They also both tried collar chokes, which I was able to resist by simple looking up and raising my posture, and a triangle, which I could stop by either getting both arms in or both arms out. Dava made it very uncomfortable, though – despite not having either arm, merely my head, my face was shoved first into his crotch then into gi fabric, making it a little hard to breath at one point. The fatigue was a major factor too, but I decided not to tap simply from being tired – its probably a good idea to practice rolling while exhausted.

Finally I rolled with Aika. I was expecting to get thoroughly schooled, as she’s been in the advanced class for at least a couple of months now. However, I was able to both pass and sweep her (scissor wasn’t too effective this time round, and I wasn’t quick enough to go for the armbar variation), getting the pass from an armbar escape and then a sort of sweep from half-guard (similar to when I rolled with Dominique yesterday). I’d like to be able to say it was my technique that meant I could do well against someone with much more experience, but I’m assuming the size difference had rather more to do with. I’m a small, weedy guy at about 64kg, but that’s still over 10kg more than Aika, who’s even smaller at 53kg.

Still, meant I could finish class feeling good about myself, size difference or not, therefore providing a positive note to finish this year’s training. Looking forward to starting up again on 3rd January, though its annoying to have almost a fortnight off training. I don’t think there is anywhere I can go nearby to get some rolling in, though I could try and get something going with friends in Birmingham – maybe book out the activities room at Warwick if I can convince Paddy that he really does enjoy groundwork. Alternately, my gf might be willing to drill a few techniques, so that could be worth a try.

Until then, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

21/12/2006 - BJJ (day)

Class #15



Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Roger Gracie, London, UK – 21/12/2006

My first ever day class, and my first ever session taught by the man himself, Roger Gracie. Roger runs a more technique focused class than either Felipe or Jude (although this is going by merely one experience), quickly moving on to drills after the warm-up. Nobody was there when I arrived at around 12:20, Pippa coming in slightly later. That gave me the opportunity to have a long chat with her, which was good because I’ve not had the chance to talk to her properly before now.

Once everyone arrived, there was an odd number of people at the session, which worked out very well for me, as it meant I was drilling with Luciano, a purple belt who appears to often act as assistant instructor. That meant I had someone with much more experience and skill than normal. In addition, he’s Brazilian, meaning he has a laid-back manner which I find conducive to my learning. Best of all, because he’s a purple belt in a beginner class, there was no need to swap over, so I got extra drilling time.

Roger started off demonstrating the double leg, though we stopped short of actually throwing. The way he taught it was for Person A to first push Person B’s out of the way, stepping in between Person B’s legs with their far leg, dropping down with their head on the near side, grabbing behind both knees with linked hands. Person A, keeping their back straight, knees pointing forward and base solid, steps the other leg in line, then removes their near leg from between Person B and steps round. The finish would be for Person A to push with the head and lift with the arms, bracing Person B against a leg, then pulling up on Person B’s legs to drop them. Luciano was very helpful, as you’d expect, correcting my posture and answering noob questions like “should I drop to behind the knees or higher up?”

Next was the basic armbar from guard, which I last did a couple of weeks ago on 23rd November. First Person B isolates an arm, gripping the wrist with their near hand, then on top of the elbow with their other hand (coming underneath Person A’s non-isolated arm to do so). The foot Person B has on the same side of the isolate arm goes up on the Person A’s same side hip. This enables Person B to raise their hips, then shrimp, again to the same side. At the same time, Person B brings their far leg up under Person A’s armpit, pushing Person A to the near side in an attempt to push them off-balance and set up the armbar. Person B then swings their near side leg up onto Person A’s neck to secure the armbar, raising the hips for the sub.

As before, this was followed by a demonstration of the armbar escape. As soon as Person B puts their near leg up for the armbar, Person A needs to release their grip on Person B’s gi (presuming they’re holding it), then immediately bring the other arm under their near side hand, gripping Person B’s nearest leg. Trapping that leg between their head and arm, Person A puts up their far leg, pushes forwards into Person B, then jerks their arm out. Continue to press with the head and locking up the leg with both arms, Person A then moves round for the pass. (Dave Camarillo vid)

Before the next technique, it was time to spar from the usual guard pass position. I wasn’t so successful with the scissor sweep this time – I’m not sure I managed to sweep my partner, Zahir, though I might have. I did however pass his guard several times, although one of us seems to have misunderstood the object of the exercise. At one point, I used the double underhook from Marcio to pass Zahir and go to full mount, where he confusingly said “you’ve gone back to it now, that’s not sidemount”. I might have missed Roger saying the aim was to get to sidemount, and its also possible that Zahir might have resisted less if he was under the impression the object was to get to sidemount.

So, I then passed his guard and went for sidemount instead. I’m not quite sure what position I was in, as while I was perpendicular to him with my arms around his neck and arm, he was up on his side. I thought that was close enough, but Zahir kept going, so perhaps not – I probably should have tried to take his back and choke him to be certain. Either during that roll or the next one, I was in a position with Zahir’s knee into my stomach, which meant I had a chance to try something I’d seen in the Abhaya videos from that position. The idea is to reach behind the knee and grab the opposite leg by the gi, then grab their collar, also pushing your head into their ribs, enabling you to walk round for the pass as the other person should find it hard to move with you. I clearly didn’t do it right, however, as I ended back in Zahir’s guard, I think.

Final technique of class was a sidemount escape, which looked a lot like something I’d looked at in the Abhaya videos after my helpless performance last time we rolled from sidemount. Person B presses their near knee into Person A’s side, also pressing a forearm into Person A’s neck to make space. Person B then shrimps round to get directly underneath Person A rather than at right angles, pressing their shin into Person A’s stomach. Finally, Person B shrimps in the other direction to get back into guard.

Class ended on specific sparring from sidemount. This time, it went much better, I think because of the principles I’d started to learn from my focus on sweeps. I was sparring with Zahir again, and at first it was fairly even, both of us escaping However, I then started to get repeated success on the bottom, managing to twice flip Zahir straight into sidemount (especially satisfying as Luciano was right there watching). I think it was because I got my knee underneath him and arms behind his shoulders, which gave me sufficient leverage to throw him over, but not sure. I also managed to get back to guard – I’m not sure if I was able to mount him: can’t remember, as I’m typing this up in Waterstones a few hours later, having gone to the Velázquez exhibition at the National Gallery (well worth it, if you happen to be in London).

I was dawdling a little in the changing rooms because I knew I had a good six hours or so to kill before the session at 20:00, which gave me the chance to have a chat with Roger. Kinda cool to be talking to a world champion and pro fighter about christmas, family, relationships, training etc – apparently, he’d like to stay in England more consistently, but needs to get some training partners of sufficient calibre to prepare for his next fight. I imagine Renzo Gracie is a bit of a tough act to follow, but hopefully someone will surface. Would be good to have other classes under Roger, as I like his style of teaching (though Felipe and Jude are both excellent teachers too).

Time to go get my train from Charing Cross back to Westbourne Park, for my last session of the year.

20/12/2006 - BJJ

Class #14

Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK – 20/12/2006

Session went pretty much as well as it possibly could have for me tonight, so I left class happy. Over the past month and a bit, I’ve been focusing my efforts on developing options for sweeps and passes, and its paid off.

Jude didn’t run as fitness intensive a class today, perhaps because there were less people around due to it being near christmas. Unusually from my limited experience under him, he started off with technique drills, going through the basic standing pass and counter that I learned during my first session back in November. Its always useful going over the basics, particularly with a different instructor, as Jude added a few details I either missed or forgot from when Felipe showed the same techniques earlier. Firstly, when standing from the pass, Person A releases one of the collars they’re gripping with one hand, pulling up on the remaining collar instead, keeping their back straight. This unbalances Person B by twisting them over to the side. Secondly, Jude pointed out that the pass finishes differently depending on if you loop your arm under the leg or if you simply push the leg off your hip. When looping the arm, Person A then reaches round the leg for Person B’s opposite collar and pushes down and round. When pushing the leg off the hip, Person A traps Person B’s leg with their shin, then switches their base in order to pass.

As has happened quite often the past few sessions, I worked with Dominique, which provides me with a reassuring sense of continuity as she’s the first person I ever drilled and rolled with. Its also been a useful way of marking my progress, as I can measure how I do against her in rolling. This time round, I got exactly what I wanted: scissor sweep. Thanks to Aesopian and Rowan Cunningham’s tutorials (found by Aesopian, so he deserves two helpings of thanks), I managed to get this on both Dominique and the next person I sparred, a long-haired Asian guy called Herman. As I mentioned earlier, I’ve been working sweeps and passes for a month and a bit now, carefully reading through info on the flower sweep, sit-up sweep and scissor sweep, as well as looking at videos. I’ve also had the chance to use the first two before in class (though I’ve only ever got the sit-up sweep to work before), with additional drilling on the flower sweep at the Bullshido throwdown a couple of weeks ago.

Even more satisfying was that I managed to pass both Dominique and Herman. On Dominique, I think it was the basic pass, which took me a while to get, but I did eventually get through. With Herman, something Marcio taught me at the throwdown worked out perfectly. I was trying the tailbone pass again, but as Marcio had said, you don’t have to complete it, just get enough space to underhook the legs with both arms. That’s exactly what I did, pushing forward to grab Herman’s gi, pulling myself round for the pass. I’m also pleased that I now have at least three options to try from the bottom (flower, scissor and sit-up) as well as two from the top (basic and tailbone).

However, there are unsurprisingly still plenty of aspects of those sweeps and passes I need to work on. With the scissor, I wasn’t pulling my partner on to me like I should, as demonstrated by Rowan in his Abhaya vid and Aesopian, where he mentions using ‘judo elbows’. I also didn’t come up on one elbow like Rowan demonstrated, or at least its not something I was thinking about as I should have done: I did get the sweep, so either I did it those times without realising, or got lucky. Also worth noting that there is a bit of a size difference between Dominique and I (though I’m fairly small, so its not too much), and I think Herman is effectively a beginner – I didn’t quite get what he said, but IIRC, he did BJJ eight months ago but hasn’t been able to go back since, so not entirely certain as to the extent of his experience.

What I want to work on now, besides improving the scissor, flower (thanks GoldenJonas for that link) and sit-up sweeps along with the guard passes, is to build on options if I don’t get the sweep. During rolling tonight, I shifted between the sweeps (trying both left and right) when they didn’t work at first, and also tried the armbar follow-up from Abhaya, but will need plenty more practice before I get them drilled in. Aesopian's ‘Stupid Simple Sweep’ off a failed scissor also looks worth drilling, so I’ll keep that in mind too.

The class was rounded off nicely by Jude calling out my name at the end, to receive my first stripe. He got my name wrong, but that’s to be expected – its written ‘Can’, which any reasonable person would read as the ‘can’ in ‘tin-can’. Its Turkish, so actually pronounced like the ‘jun’ in ‘junction’, but that’s certainly not clear from the way its written!

Felt good to go up and get applauded, with a handshake from Jude, then congratulations from the rest of class. I’m still not entirely sure whether the stripe thing is based on ability or simply on time spent at the club: I’ve heard conflicting reports, but either way, I was smiling. May only be a stripe, but really put the icing on a successful bit of rolling.

Tomorrow I’m going to try and go along to both the day and the evening class, as I’m not working Thursday. Pippa mentioned that there is also going to be a class on Saturday, which I didn’t realise, so I’ll try to make that one too. Another option has cropped up recently near where I am in Birmingham, on the MMA side of things rather than BJJ. A guy on Myspace randomly messaged me several months ago about a wrestling club, the times of which I unfortunately couldn’t make. He said there should be another class starting up, so I emailed him again two days ago to check if it was running yet. Apparently not, as he got injured, but he did instead give me the details for the MMA place he trains, which as it turns out is a short walk from my flat! Met the instructor yesterday, so should be trying out a class at F’s Freestyle on 13th Jan (they’re closed over christmas, and I’ve got an anniversary meal on the 6th). Hoping to tempt my gf down, which would be very cool, though she’s going to take some convincing.

To finish on a random comedy note, just came across this from last year (so may well not be new to people, but it was to me): only really makes sense if you’re from the UK.

14/12/06 - BJJ

Class #13



Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Felipe Souza, London, UK – 14/12/2006

Unusual warm-up today, as Felipe went straight into drilling throws. First we did 10 hip throws, then 10 head throws, after which Felipe showed us the counter. This was basically to step to the side and then throw the other person – if they were going for a hip throw, you’d already have your arm in position for the head throw and vice versa. At least I think so: I’m especially terrible at throws.

Something else I proved to be very bad as was side control. Felipe demonstrated how to counter side control, which I found very complex – understanding moves from the guard seemed somehow easier. Person B bridges, then shrimps out, gripping the far side of Person A’s gi as they transition to go for Person A’s legs. Raising their far leg, Person B grabs round the back of Person A’s near leg, putting their own head on the far side. Driving forward with the legs and pushing towards the near side with their head, Person B moves into side control. Not sure if ‘near’ and ‘far’ are better than ‘left’ and ‘right’, but I’ll see if that helps me remember it more easily.

Next was getting the armbar from side control. Person A locks up Person B’s far arm, wrapping both their arms round, keeping their hips down (as my training partner, Dan, kept reminding me, because I wasn’t keeping my weight on him enough). Grabbing the near side of Person B’s gi down by their hips, Person A moves round to the near side until they're in a north-south position (which is the one where you’re facing up and they’re facing down, if I’ve got the terminology right on that). Person A then raises Person B’s near shoulder, in order to step their far leg over Person B’s neck, leaving their near leg underneath. This sets up the armbar, on which I kept forgetting to pinch my knees together, raising the hips to finish (A Korean instructor shows a vaguely similar method here, embedded below) . Ben mentioned a potentially easier armbar from side control, where you reach round for the near arm instead, lifting up for the armbar: will have to give that a go next time.



Felipe finished up class with a variation on specific sparring I last did a while ago, where everyone lines up against one wall, the first twelve getting ready to spar while the rest of class waits. As soon as someone wins (so the top person getting mount/submitting or the bottom person escaping), whoever is at the back of the line replaces the loser.

Needless to say, I found myself at the back of the line rather often. This did at least give me the opportunity to get someone’s name I hadn’t spoken to before – a big guy with a goatee (or was it just a moustache?) called Gary.

I completely forgot the two drills we’d just done and tensed up, unsure what to do from on top or on the bottom. I attempted an americana from the side control at one point on Jan, but didn’t get it, eventually being swept. From the bottom I was tending to get mounted. A third-stripe white, Will, was going fairly light, and remained relaxed as I switched to the opposite side control. That meant I was basically in the north-south position, wondering what I supposed to do next. I think Will was waiting to see if I’d do anything, then got bored and swept me. With Michael, an Australian guy (or perhaps Kiwi? Not too good with accents), I focused so much on resisting his americana attempt that I didn’t think to defend against mount, which he got easily.

Side control is clearly something I’ll have to do a lot of work on to improve, though I suppose this is the first time I’ve spent a whole class doing it. It might help when we’re doing the normal specific sparring, as then I’ll get the chance to try out escapes and the like continuously.

Next session will either be Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on when my gf leaves to see her parents for christmas. Unfortunately the Academy is closing from 23rd December to 3rd January, which means I’ll miss out on a week and a bit of training. Hopefully I can get in four classes the preceding week to make up for it, but we’ll see.

13/12/06 - BJJ

Class #12



Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK – 13/12/2006

By the way, would be good if some other people who train at Roger Gracie’s could add their thoughts to the Bullshido Dojo Review I put up a few weeks ago. I’ve only been at RGA a month, so not exactly got a great deal of experience to go on.

I hadn’t expected to train today, as last night my gf and I went to the KPMG Christmas Ball, meaning that the day after was going to be spent at Madame Tussauds, museums etc. However, my gf has the misfortune to suffer from crippling hangovers, another of which smacked her in the stomach this morning. We finally got out of bed at around 2pm, her health quite clearly not up to wandering to much further than onto the train home. That left me with rather more time than I’d planned, so I decided to pop down to training.

Jude ran his usual fitness intensive session, and I don’t think presented anything I hadn’t seen before, but he taught it in a slightly different way to Felipe. As before, drills were alternated with specific sparring, so I started off with Dominique. If she can be used as a marker of my progress, seeing how she was the first person I ever sparred at RGA, then I seem to be improving. She managed to pass me a couple of times, but I also managed to sweep her – IIRC, it was the basic sit-up sweep, but I’m not quite sure. I still can’t get the tailbone pass, as my opponent can normally move up onto my knee or simply resist my wimpy attempts to push against their legs. Nevertheless, good to have the opportunity to at least try it every now and then.

10 hip throws later, I switched partners to Misja (or however its spelled: pronounced Mezhdi, so I think I’ll spell it like that from now on so I can at least pronounce it properly when I next see him). I struggled without a great deal of success, but did at least prevent him from sweeping and passing me too often, though he did eventually get both a couple of times. With both Mezhdi and Dominique, I was able to move into position for a flower sweep, but they tended to get one or both arms free, enabling them to then sit back again. I think I need to reach the point where I can run through the sweep more quickly, or I’m not going to succeed with it. Mezhdi also complimented me that I was far better than the last time we rolled (about a month ago on 18th November), which was encouraging. However, I’m having trouble standing up to pass, perhaps because I’m being too cautious and sitting back down again to resist grips on my legs. I need to be faster and more confident on the pass.

This proved to be my last roll of the session, as after 10 neck throws, Jude moved on to technique. First, he covered off the basic standing guard pass Oli G had shown me in my intro (which reminded me I haven’t actually tried it in sparring since my first few lessons). Person A grips both Person B’s collars with their right hand, twisting it over to the left, grabbing the fabric by Person B’s right hip with their left hand. Person A then steps up onto their bent right leg, then brings up the left leg, maintaining a good base and standing up. As they stand up, Person A lets go of Person B’s right collar, pulling up on Person B’s left collar. Person A then pushes Person B’s right knee off their hip with their left hand, reaching under and pushing forward with their left shoulder. At the same time, Person A reaches for a deep hold on Person B’s left collar by their neck, moving round with their left knee as they do so. Person A pushes Person B slightly by their belt, raises their hips and slips round into side control.

The next step is for Person A to switch their base (so kick their left leg under their right) then swing the right leg over into mount, pushing Person B’s knee out of the way as they do so. Rowan Cunningham shows it like this (no-gi, however).

Jude followed his demonstration of the guard pass with the upa escape from mount. Person B isolates Person A’s right arm, also trapping Person A’s right leg with their left foot. Person B then thrusts Person A forward by jerking upwards with their hips, then using their right elbow, Person B turns to the left and rolls over into Person A’s guard.

Also finally got to meet Roger Gracie, though I didn’t realise who he was at first. It would appear he came down for a quick photo shoot, going round first to shake the hand of all the beginners waiting for the session to start. While we were rolling, I noticed he was sat on the step up to the matted area getting pictures taken – not sure if that’s for a magazine, or just promotional material for the Academy.

Should be training again tomorrow, then off to Birmingham for mini-christmas with my gf. Might also take the opportunity to train at the Vie Gym class in Farringdon next week or the week after, if times work out.

09/12/06 - Brighton Throwdown

UK Brighton Throwdown (BJJ), Marcio Gomes, Brighton, UK – 09/12/2006

Not quite as many turned up as in Birmingham, but we still ended up with seven. In terms of Bullshido regulars, there was me (slideyfoot), Mungkorn Dam, RunningDog, Liffguard and Tcell. A friend of mine I first met about 3 years ago on the now defunct Tung-Fu also came along. He has posted on Bullshido as Jinksy, but only briefly. One of the blues from RunningDog’s club, Sam, also came along, though he left early.

Found out as I arrived that the place had been double-booked with some aikido people, which meant we only had it until 17:00 rather than 18:00, which was a shame. Still, I managed to cover just about everything I wanted in those three hours. While Marcio bumped up the cost by a tenner each, he was extremely handy to have there to ask questions. Otherwise, I would probably have ended up drilling the technique wrong, or at least not as effectively as possible. Website for his class can be found here.

After we all did a quick warm-up, I worked passes and sweeps from closed guard with Tcell. He gave me a bunch of useful tips, such as supporting myself with a bent leg rather than sprawling to resist sweep attempts and being careful not to lean too much forward or too much back. Both Tcell and the next guy I worked with, Sam, said that I was basically doing the right thing. So, now I just need the experience to see openings and perform the passes and sweeps quicker.

After taking a bunch of photos (annoyingly, the camera I had with me ran out of battery ridiculously quickly), I got down to my main drilling with Jinksy. As he didn’t have a gi, I took off my jacket and belt so I just had my t-shirt and gi trousers, meaning that I’d need a pass and sweep that worked without the gi. Only one I know is the tailbone pass (no idea what the proper name is), which Felipe had showed Mungkorn and me in class a while back. Marcio went over it again in greater detail.

Person A starts by putting their hands on Person B’s pelvis, working back up the legs. Shoving their right knee into Person B’s tailbone and pushing down with the hands to keep Person B there, Person A then attempts to push back with their arms and left knee (which I think you put to the side rather than backwards like I was doing previously), digging their elbows into Person B’s leg muscles at the same time. As soon as there is space, Person A underhooks both legs with his arms, pushes forward and sprawls round for the pass. Ideally, Person A will also get their knee up in between Person B’s legs for additional security, or break their guard open to pass that way. Main problem I had was simply lacking the strength to easily break Jinksy's guard. So, Marcio’s advice that you just needed to make space rather than necessarily break the guard proved very helpful.

Drilling that for a while with increasing resistance, I then moved on to the flower sweep, which Marcio also helped with. The way he taught it was for Person B to break Person A’s posture by pulling forward with the guard and also dragging down on Person A’s right arm, throwing it over to the right. As quickly as possible, Person B then wraps their left arm round Person A’s head, making sure to trap Person A’s right arm at the same time. If Person A manages to get their left arm into Person B’s neck, Person B needs to push on the elbow and trap that arm as well. Person B then wraps their right arm around the back of Person A’s left knee (aiming to pull it up towards Person B’s right shoulder). Person B put's their right foot up on Person A's hip, pushing off to swivel their own hips round to the left. Taking the right leg off and shoving it into Person A's side, Person B puts their left leg down by Person A's other leg. Finally, Person B pulls on the left knee and pushes with their right leg to get the sweep. If Person A manages to get their right arm free, Person B underhooks it and pulls it close to their own head to stop Person A using it to stop the sweep.

Jinksy and I drilled that to death, although only on one side – must remember to do the other side as well next time I have the chance. Jinksy got Marcio to help him with something different, as he wanted to work the kimura (if I’m using the right term for the arm lock where you figure-four the arm from guard, sitting up and twisting it past Person A’s back), along with the sweep you can do if Person A pulls back. While he was working with Marcio, RunningDog grabbed me for a roll, where I had the dubious pleasure of being shoved forcefully face-first into his crotch before he got me with some kind of shoulder-lock. Well, we were in Brighton, so I guess that’s to be expected...

I then went back to drilling with Jinksy, where I found out that escaping the mount when someone isn’t constantly going for an armbar is considerably more difficult. I wasn’t able to sweep him, though Jinksy advised trying to shrimp my way out, which did eventually work but I seemed to use a lot of energy in the process. Probably just doing it wrong, or my stamina had gone by that point. Also rolled with him at some point, which I think might have been what precipitated the mount escape drills, as I ended up stuck underneath his.

After the session finished and the aikidoka appeared (with stereotypical “skinny guy with ponytail” typifying the class), we headed off to the St. James’ Tavern for drinks. Well, at least Mungkorn and his gf did – Jinksy and I wandered aimlessly for while trying to find his sister’s house so I could dump my stuff. Once we finally got there, showered and then found the pub, Johnny had also arrived – Liffguard unfortunately had to leave earlier, Tcell having gone around 16:00. So that left five of us – shame I couldn’t get any pics.

I reckon I can legitimately put today down as 1.5hrs of BJJ in my geektastic Excel sheet: proved useful, and Marcio was well worth the fee, not to mention it’s always good to see people off the forum. Even better to get drunk with them!

07/12/06 - BJJ

Class #11



Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Felipe Souza, London, UK – 07/12/2006

Came out of the session feeling great today: had some success in sparring, chatted to a guy I hadn’t talked to before (Mike, a big South African), and might have managed to recruit another Brighton Throwdown attendee.

Lesson started by working on the double-leg takedown again, although we only got to the lifting stage. After that, Felipe went through the counter, which was fairly simple. Person A sprawls as Person B shoots for the right leg. At the same time, Person A thrusts their right arm under Person B’s neck and their left arm around underneath Person B’s right armpit (underhook?), gripping hands together. Pushing down and sprawling back, Person A drives Person B to their knees. Felipe then added on moving round Person B, switching to a deep grip on each collar with both hands, going underneath Person B’s armpits again (double underhooks? Or is that something else?). Once that’s secured, Person A does a shoulder roll over the top of Person B, ending up with Person B on their back atop Person A. Person A then shifts grips again for the rear naked choke/mata leo.

John and I occasionally overbalanced, meaning that Person B shifted to the side, making the RNC choke more difficult. I also made a mistake with my arm positioning, grabbing my elbow sleeve rather than bicep – as Felipe explained, this made it much easier for Person B to grab my arm and pull it downwards.

Then it was time for specific sparring, from a position I’ve not experienced before. Person B started on all fours curled up (turtling?), while Person A got into the same position as the sprawl from before. The aim was for Person A to get Person B’s back, while Person B had to escape (which could be moving into guard, reversing, etc). It was mostly a stalemate between John and I, though I think he might have slightly got the better of it – I think I got his back once, but not sure. Oli gave me some useful tips about being on top, mainly that I need to keep my legs right back out of the way. At one point I attempted to go for the back while John still had hold of one of my legs, which prompted the comment.

Next up was another guy with roughly the same experience level as me, who I think was either an Aussie or Kiwi, called Paul. He very swiftly took my back the first time, after which it became pretty equal. I managed to get to guard a couple of times, and also ended up in mount later on. However, I’m sure that was just because we were both noobs – we got to a very weird position in which I had my right arm behind my head gripping Paul’s collar, while he was trying to get my back. The first time that happened, I was able to twist round into side control and then mount, but the second time Paul got the better of me. I tried gripping his belt, which John had used against me, which appeared relatively effective in stopping Paul spinning and taking my back as easily as he managed the first time. Not much use for no-gi, of course, and I’m not certain if its an acceptable thing to do in sparring: is the belt off-limits for grips like that, or can you basically yank away as much as you want? Will have to double check, as I don’t want to get into bad habits, even if I only tried it briefly.

Finally, I sparred Indra, although this time one person started in mount. I wasn’t overly active in mount, just trying to hold my position – I probably should have tried to move up into a higher mount and go for a submission. I took the opportunity to try and see how to work my hooks from mount, and also seeing if pressure on Indra’s neck would enable me to re-establish position. That worked a couple of times, but she eventually managed to sweep me after a prolonged stalemate. I did much better when mounted, which surprised me: last time I got stuck in mount (which would have been way back in my last MMA class in what used to be HSD in Harrow) I was helpless. This time, I remembered to keep my elbows in, and tried to upa at every opportunity. I got the sweep where you grab their arm and sit up to the side once or twice, but mainly managed to push round into Indra’s guard each time she went for the armbar from mount. I’m sure there were some mitigating circumstances – could be she doesn’t work that sub often, perhaps she was tired from the previous spar, maybe she was going light – but it still made me happy to manage to repeatedly escape. When Indra asked Felipe to come over to work out what she was doing wrong, I think he established the problem was that Indra wasn’t putting her arm down in order to swivel for the armbar, and also didn’t slow down and re-establish mount position when overbalanced. Not sure, though.

I had a chat with Oli after the session, who said he probably can’t make the TD, so as Indra was standing there at the time, I took the opportunity to ask if she would be up for it. Indra seemed keen, so I gave her the details for the Throwdown thread and my email: hopefully she can make it. Also inquired about rash guards, as I’ve been getting rashes on my upper arms. I could just toughen up, but I quite like the idea of a plain rash guard – would be useful for other sports too, as I hate getting sweaty. In the changing rooms, Gary mentioned that he’d been going along to the Farringdon class held at Vie Gym (which partly explains why he swept and passed me with such ease last time we sparred. Apparently, they drilled sweeps continuously for most of the class when he went, and there were only four people there, so got close attention from seniors). Definitely sounds worth checking out, so I might give it a go when I’ve got a week or two off work round Christmas.

Looking forward to the Brighton TD, which should hopefully have a good BJJ attendance. Also always enjoy putting faces to names, not to mention drinking with said faces!

06/12/06 - BJJ

Class #10



Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK – 06/12/2006

As you’d expect, Roger Gracie’s fight was up pretty swiftly after the event, defeating Waterman by armbar in the first round. Not bad for a debut, though I can’t say I currently count him as my instructor, given that I’ve yet to meet him. Still cool that he won, of course.

The Academy had a big banner up between the Brazil and England flags that are always there saying ‘Congratulations Roger!’, detailing the defeat of Waterman by submission in the first round below. Which was nice: apparently, he should be coming back to the UK in the not too distant future, possibly in time for the grading day on the 16th (not sure though). Also confirmed that as I’d hoped, ‘grading day’ simply means a bunch of people get their grades that day, rather than some weird formalised thing.

Jude ran the session today (maybe he normally runs it? I’ve only been to one Wednesday before this), though thankfully didn’t do the mega-fitness thing he seems to do on Saturday: already had a fairly decent workout yesterday at ZSK. Following the warm-up and drills on the hip throw and double-leg (I’m still sucking badly at that, though I think my hip throw is improving), Jude demonstrated how to counter a single/double leg takedown. Person A sprawls then manoeuvres around, thrusting their left knee into Person B’s left side. Person A also reaches round Person B’s head to grip their left collar with their right hand. Person A then switches their grip and opens up Person B’s left collar with their left hand, which enables Person A to sink their right hand deep into Person B’s collar. Person A then reaches under and secures Person B’s right collar with their left hand, pulling downwards to prepare what’s apparently called a clock choke. Keeping their weight pressed down on the middle of Person B’s back, Person A switches base by moving their right leg round to the left, walking round and tightening the choke for the submission. There is a variation on that in which instead of switching their base, Person A leans forward and over, aiming to get their head to the floor – this seemed to be a lot more difficult, as both I and my training partner Oli (not the blue belt, who I’ll refer to from now on as Oli G) had more trouble with it.

Jude then showed us a different option to choke from the back. Once Person B is on all fours, Person A moves round as before with the sprawl, but this time secures a grip on the back of Person B’s collar and lower down near their belt. Person A pushes down on Person B’s neck, then shoves their left knee into Person B’s left side, aiming to create space to sink a hook (which I think is the right term for wrapping the foot in round the opponent’s leg). Continuing to push down on the neck, Person A lifts their hips and swings their right leg over, securing the second hook on the other side. Person A shifts their grip to Person B’s right wrist (at least I think it was right), steadying themselves with their right hand. Using leverage from the hips and hooks, Person A pushes back with their legs in order to stretch out Person B.

Finally, Jude demonstrated what to do if Person B turned while Person A was trying to get a choke as in the previous movement. This turned out to be fairly simple, as Person A just did a rear naked choke from their back as Person B was lying with their back on top of them, or alternately the clock choke. Jude referred to the rear naked choke as a ‘mata leo’, which he later told us was Brazilian for ‘killing the lion’. Bizarre name, but at least I know what it means now. I’m familiar with the RNC from MMA classes a few years back – Person A wraps their right forearm around Person B’s neck, pressing in with the bony part. At the same time, Person A wraps their left arm behind Person B’s head, gripping the right bicep with the left hand and the left bicep with the right hand (depending on how much you can grip), then squeezes.

Class finished with the usual specific sparring focusing on guard passes and sweeps. As has been happening in the last few lessons, I mostly ended up in a stalemate with Oli, simply resisting or pass. He was able to pass me twice, but IIRC he didn’t sweep me – either way, I was unable to initiate anything from either position. Oli mentioned that I needed to work out the grips, which is something I haven’t been shown yet: that should certainly be useful once I get familiar with them, as at present I’m mainly just flailing and grabbing at random.

I also managed to accidentally kick Oli in the head while sloppily attempting an armbar from guard, but he seemed ok, so fortunately no damage done. I’m thinking a rash guard might be a wise purchase too, as I’m getting rashes on my bicep, and also Oli was tending to pinch my skin when looking for the clock choke during drilling. Will have to see if there is something suitably cheap for beginners available in the UK – IIRC, Underarmour was about £20. Really don’t care about brand, as long as its not going to fall apart on me within a few months.

Next session will be tomorrow, then it’s on to the Throwdown in Brighton at the weekend.

05/12/2006 - ZSK

University of Warwick Zhuan Shu Kuan (ZSK), Rod Richardson, Coventry, UK – 05/12/2006

After I went through the warm-up, throwing in some sprawls like last time, Rod arrived to work the formal side of things. Fortunately, he focused on the compulsory movements, which tends to be both enjoyable (as I get to jump around throwing flashy kicks) as well as a good work out (jumps are knackering!). Also good to know that my jumping back kick is still sharp, as it elicited a comment from Rod.

He also incorporated a lot of linework, with combinations like jab-cross-hook-uppercut, jab-cross-leg kick-back kick, jab-elbow-spinning elbow etc. Would have been preferable against pads, but again it’s good aerobic exercise and also works coordination.

Finally, it was time for padwork, or in my case (due to the continuing saga of my dodgy left shoulder), bagwork. Here I got some useful tips from Rod and Paddy, firstly a reminder on the hook to keep my elbow down rather than up. Rod also told me to aim for Paddy’s head (he’s significantly taller than me, so that requires a fair bit of reaching), which meant I had to put my hip into the punches more, as I couldn’t bring my elbow over the top. This has definitely been helping my piss-poor punching, especially on the wrist positioning: my punching has sucked for years, but if I keep getting (and more importantly, take on board) good advice, there’s hope for me yet.

Last drill was an unusual one on turning kicks. Rather than hitting with the instep or lower shin, we had to try and strike with the upper shin. Not only that, it needed to be a high kick. This turned out to really work my side, as well as flexibility, though I’m fortunate in that I can get my leg pretty high so flexibility isn’t normally a problem for me. It also reminded me how little conditioned my left shin is, but I’m fine with that – I’m perfectly happy to hide behind a nice thick pair of Viper pads.

Today will be the first of three consecutive lessons, as I plan to make BJJ on Wednesday and Thursday, then the Throwdown in Brighton on the Saturday. Should be a good week for training.

02/12/06 - BJJ

Class #9



Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK – 02/12/2006

Intense session today – Jude really worked the fitness today, with sit-ups well into three figures and sparring from early on in class. I’ve no idea how some of the three-stripes like Matt managed to do another session straight after!

We worked the guard pass/sweep specific sparring as before, which I started off with a light-haired Australian (I think) guy called Michael. IIRC correctly, he had a few stripes on his belt, but I managed to hold him off for a short while a least. I tried to attempt standing passes too, but tended to get forced back onto my knees, and he also put me in an armbar at one point (is it a reverse armbar when he’s facing downwards? I assume not, but don’t know the terminology).

As with last week, Jude interspersed rolling with drills, such as hip throws, double-legs and arm-bar from mount. He also totally knackered me out by doing sit-up with legs in the air, with half the class counting out ten each. Painful.

Next up was Dominique, who has just come back from an illness. She got a collar choke on me yet again, but the second time round, I managed to resist by tucking my chin and getting my head under her arm as much as possible. Unfortunately, that was all I was able to do, stuck in that position for the duration of the spar. From my guard I didn’t have anymore luck, though it was either with her or Michael that I kept trying armbars, to no avail. Still, good to at least give them a go – each time ended up with my opponent passing, sometimes with more difficulty than others. My attempts at the tailbone pass didn’t have too much succes either: I was still having trouble getting the right position to leverage their guard open.

Finally I rolled with a fairly stocky guy called Gary. I’m not quite sure how, but he seemed to have almost no problem at all sweeping and passing me, except for a couple of times when I managed to resist. As he was already opening my guard and frequently leaving an arm in, I kept trying to triangle, but couldn’t get it. I’m not sure exactly what I’m doing wrong, though it must be something integral, as the same thing has been happening every time I’ve attempted it. Maybe not getting the right position first? Or not getting my leg over enough? Will have to keep working it. At one point, I had the arm, I had the head, I had my legs in position, but couldn’t close it. I wasn’t sure how he was resisting (think he might have had his arm bent and elbow driving into my leg sufficiently to prevent me straightening it out across his neck), so asked him afterwards, but he was unable to give me any tips. Apparently, he did BJJ for two months six years ago, and has only recently got back into it at RGA. Clearly those two months served him well, although I’m pretty poor opposition.

To finish off the class, Jude went through what he called the see-saw sweep (which I've seen called the 'flower sweep' elsewhere), using a slightly different method to Felipe. Person B grips Person A’s right collar and raises their guard, pulling them forward in an effort to break their balance. Person B then wraps their left arm across Person A’s head, dragging them in close. Person B opens his guard and puts their right leg up on Person A’s left hip, using that to lever their own hips round to the left, grabbing the back of Person A’s left leg as well. Then Person B traps Person A’s right arm to prevent them stopping the sweep, Person B also dropping their left leg down. Having swivelled into position, Person B shoves their right leg up against Person A’s side and pushes, simultaneously pulling on Person A’s left knee, in order to drive them to the ground, aiming to end up in full mount.

For a simpler description, see photos on Lockflow, where its called the 'flower sweep', and also this vid on YouTube, though its slightly different as Person B grabs both arms rather than gripping behind Person A's head.

Jude also mentioned an important tip on the variation Felipe showed us, which is to make sure Person A’s head does not go the opposite side of the arm you’ve got, or you can’t sweep them. Jude also demonstrated how this position had a number of possibilities, such as if Person A raised their head, you could move your left leg in front of their neck to go for an armbar. If they did manage to get their head down to the opposite side of the arm you secured, you can then go for their back.

Jude wasn’t finished with the exercise yet. He then got the whole class to run on the spot doing sprawls, throwing in a load of tuck jumps as well. Jude then mentioned we were having a ‘grading day’ on the 16th, which confused me. Felipe also announced this on Thursday, so I had assumed that meant this was for a bunch of people ready to be upgraded to get their stripes/belts. However, now I’m not certain if its instead some kind of testing, which I didn’t think happened at RGA (would be a shame if it did, as I very much like the ‘as soon as you can hang with the grade above, you’re that grade’ methodology’). Would be nice to make the class, as I like the sound of mass group photos, and I really like the sound of the meal afterwards, but doubtful. Gf getting increasingly annoyed at the BJJ training (mainly because it keeps taking up my saturdays), so I'll have to be careful.

Next training will probably be ZSK, then back to Wednesday at BJJ (due to the Throwdown on the Saturday).

30/11/06 - BJJ

Class #8



Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Felipe Souza, London, UK – 30/11/2006

Finally got this wireless thing working at my parent's house, so can geek out on the internet a little earlier. Didn’t go to ZSK due to preparing for a meeting, which went well. I did check with Paddy on the Saturday beforehand, so I assume he took the class.

After the warm-up (did wheelbarrows with Dava's friend, whose name is said 'Nemoy' but spelt something like 'Nimar', if I understood him correctly), we went through a throw similar to the reap (if that’s the right term) we did in previous lessons during in drills up and down the room, but this time picking up a leg before taking out the other. Person A, gripping Person B’s left collar and right arm, pushes forward on Person B’s left side, in order to get them to step back with their left leg. Person A then steps in and picks up Person B’s right leg, putting it by Person A’s left hip. Person A then sweeps their foot round the back of Person B’s left leg and sweeps back against the back of Person B’s left knee, knocking them to the ground. As seems to keep happening, I was left without a partner, so went in a three with John (a fellow beginner I first met back on the 16th) and his bearded housemate, Rob.

Felipe then showed us the flower sweep. Person B controls both of Person A’s arms by gripping the elbow. Person B then isolates one arm, lets say Person A’s right, pushing that arm in towards Person B’s right, keeping a firm grip. Person B then pulls on that arm while simultaneously pulling Person A forward with their legs, aiming to take them off balance. This also opens up space so that Person B can slip their right hand round behind Person A’s left knee, grabbing hold. At the same time, Person B shifts their hips to their left (so opposite direction to the hand that’s grabbing the leg). Person B shoves their right leg up against Person A’s side and pushes, simultaneously pulling on Person A’s left knee, in order to drive them to the ground, aiming to end up in full mount.



That meant it was time for specific sparring again, dividing us into threes with the loser sitting out. I was with two more experienced guys, Mohammed from Belgium (who had six months of training behind him) and a Chinese guy who I think said he name was Bryant (at least that’s what it sounded like). I was easily swept by both of them, though on a couple of occasions I did at least manage to resist their submission attempts. I’m not getting caught in the collar choke anymore, but I think I’ve now got too defensive (blue belt Olly commented I should be trying to standing pass more), simply clinging on with two hands low on the gi. I tried my usual standing pass a few times, but had no luck, so thought I’d attempt to go low instead. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a clue how to do so – I remembered something I saw about putting a knee into my opponent’s tailbone, but that was as far as I got.

After about four or five rolls, I found myself chatting to Felipe. I’d been wondering about the correct pronunciation of his name – something I’m generally keen to get right, given that people mispronounce my own name so frequently – and found that it is ‘Fe-leep’ rather than ‘Fe-lee-peh’. Roger Gracie uses the first one in the Fightworks podcast I linked a while back, but it was good to get confirmation (yeah, I care about stuff like that ). Apparently, it’s a Brazilian thing rather than Portuguese, as in Portugal it would be ‘Fe-lee-peh’. Having chatted about travelling around South America (apparently Felipe is keen to look around the rest of his continent), also turned out he’s a Tolkien fan, especially the linguistics.

While this extended chat meant I was slacking a bit on the sparring, I’m glad I did, as I was able to observe while Ben asked Felipe about the finer points of a guard pass. Fortunately for me, it was the very same guardbreak I had failed to remember earlier. Person A is in Person B’s closed guard. Person A grips Person B’s trousers with both hand, jamming their left knee into Person B’s tailbone, drawing back their right knee. Pushing on Person B’s hip, Person A uses the leverage of the knee on the tailbone to open up Person B’s guard, then pushing round underneath Person B’s left leg to move into side control.

This marks my eighth lesson, so effectively I’ve been going for a month (if I’m dividing it up two lessons a week). I think I’ve definitely seen some improvement, as I started out just getting collar choked all the time, so I hope by two months I’ll be able to be a bit more proactive in sparring. Annoyingly, I’m not going to be able to make the social event on the 16th December, as I’d planned to do Christmassy stuff with my girlfriend (unless there is some way I can do both. Maybe take another day off work to spend more time with her? Doubtful, but worth looking into). Hopefully the club with do some more socialising next year – will have to see. Like last week, next class will be Saturday: I’m going to a party later on, so will meet my gf after training.