My first big tap and the joys of You Tube.

Into the first few months of my training and I was feeling ok with my Jiu Jitsu. I was still doing traditional Jiu Jitsu with a heavy lean towards Bjj at the time, so we were still training loads of takedowns, hip tosses and over shoulder throws, most of them ending with the word "oshi" (but I can rarely remember the names of throws), leading into some cool ground finishes. I was still pretty much in basic armbar, americana, cross choke and rear naked choke territory with my finishing. In rolls against opponents of my own level I would do well in the first one or two rolls, then my god-awful cardio would take over and I would generally end up on my back gasping for air and trying to get my opponent off me. If however, I rolled first against an opponent of moderate to advanced skill level (orange belt and above in traditional), I would do the popular beginners thing of struggling with all my might and blowing myself out in the first minute.

No matter how many times people told me not to use all my strength all the time, as soon as I rolled against someone far superior in ability to me I'd revert to type and struggle my balls off. One person who always tried to help me with this problem was Big Matt. Matt was a brown belt Tjj and he stands about  6' 2, maybe a bit more, and weighs about 120 Kilos (hence the name big Matt). Matt's ability, alongside his strength and weight advantage, meant he could pretty much play with almost anyone at the club except for Ian or Gary (the instructors). Because of this, Matt would happily start off rolling from a number of very unfavourable positions and let me try and tap him while he tries to escape. Inevitably he would escape all the time and then I would end in the unfavourable position and he would try to coach me on how to get out of it. Let me tell you, a nearly twenty stone bloke laying on top of you in side control is not the easiest thing to shake off. But it did help me with learning to exert myself in a more controlled manner. And for that I thank Big Matt a lot.

It was during one of these positional rolls where Matt had started in turtle and I'd managed (although I'm sure he half let me) pull him over so I had his back with both hooks in, that I managed to pull a bit of magic out of the hat. Well not magic exactly but for my level at the time it was a good move. You see I'd be doing the thing that every newly obsessed with Jiu Jitsu young (well not so young) white belt does and trawled the internet looking for some moves. I'd found loads on you tube and one had particularly caught my eye. The armbar from back. Now I'd only that week looked at the move and I'd thought, wow that looks pretty easy to land, so I thought next time I've got back control I'll try for that instead of the choke. So there's Matt in my back control and casually defending the choke like a bear swatting aside a gnat, when I suddenly remembered my big move. One of my legs was already semi wrapped around Matt's middle at the hook so, securing his arm I leant sideways whilst pushing Matt's head the other way and wrapped my other leg around his head and leant back. Matt by this time realizing what I was doing just managed to get a half grip with his hands but could feel it rapidly slipping and I was pulling with all my might as only a young newbie would. Matt, whilst laughing like a proud mentor, quickly shouted tap and said he didn't want to get to the point where his grip slipped because I was torquing his arm so hard I probably would've really hurt him. He also said that he was impressed with the move because he knew I hadn't learnt it at the club so he was impressed with the fact that I'd gone out and done a bit of research and learnt from it.

I left class that day with a really good excited feeling inside, not just from the tap, (which in all realism I never would've got in a million years at that point in my training against a guy like Matt) but from the compliment he paid me after and the fact that he seemed so excited that I was learning stuff. It's the little compliments like this that really encourage a guy to carry on and raise his commitment level to try and improve his game. This was the first move that I'd dug off the internet and successfully used and I loved it. After that I was always on the internet looking for inspiration for techniques to use in different situations. I have now also developed a bit of an addiction to Bjj technique manuals of which I will probably be reviewing in the coming months. But the additional research all stemmed from the successful use of this one single move. A move that I still regularly and successfully use today. Even tapping an opponent out in competition with it.

And this is the exact video I learnt it from.

Cheers for now guys. \m/