SJJA 27th Oct 2011

I see that a lot of guys use their blogs as a way of logging their classes and what techniques they have covered in a particular lesson. This seems to be a fairly good idea and as I've got an off week (work stuff) I can't see why I shouldn't start this off with last Thursdays lesson at Sweat FA, Weston Super Mare. I hope you like it and it doesn't sound like so much waffle to you guys.

Thursday 27^th Oct 2011

Venue: Sweat FA

Instructor: Ian Rossiter.  (SJJA)

Warm up: Laps of the mat with sprints. Upper body stretching. Leg Stretching. Push ups, squats, ab crunches. 20s x 2

Takedown Techniques:

Reworked the collar and elbow tie up to walk forward/push down from previous week. Then reworked the same but with the sweep. Finishing with the Armbar.

We then changed it to the collar and elbow tie up, pushing your elbows up and out to raise your opponent’s upper body. You then quickly simultaneously step forward and duck down and take the double leg (gable grip behind legs). I had problems with this initially due to not putting my foot forward at the correct time. Once the double is secured push out with your arms one way while pushing the guy over with your head the other. Keep hold of the legs until you pass any possible guard they might try to throw up at you. 

This is very similar to how the technique looked although we didn't leave the right arm around the neck, we ducked under, stepped in and grabbed straight away with both arms.

We then did an exercise to get this down to pat. 1 guy stands at the front with a line of people facing him. He does the technique on all of those people then the next guy in the line is at the front. Rinse and repeat. We did this drill twice (at my request, I didn’t feel like I was getting it very well the first time through) and by the end most of us seemed to be getting it.

Side Control Techniques:

Ian then moved us neatly on to side control first making sure we were securing a nice strong point scoring position. From that side control position he then pulled one side of his gi out of his belt (the side that was furthest from his opponents head) and passed it around the back of his opponents head (far side to near side) and clutched it in his hand underneath his opponents head. Then, putting his hand furthest from the opponent’s head flat on the floor near to the guys hips to use as a brace (so he can’t chase you around the mat to avoid the choke), rotate your body away from your opponents hips as if moving into north south, and press your head toward the ground where you knee just were. The choke will be put on by a combination of the gi being stretched taught due to your movement and the top of your forearm pushing his neck up into it for the tap.

This move is shown here by the amazing Renzo Gracie (I met him :o) ADCC 2011 ).

Ian then showed us a different variation of a gi choke from side.

This time he was in a dominant side control position and pulled one side of his gi up but it was the side nearest the opponents head. The gi was passed over the top of the guy near the neck and then gripped with a hand passed underneath the guys head so the grip occurs near the far side ear.  He then brought his free arm (the one farthest from opponents head) around to grip on the opposite sleeve and press the forearm onto the stretched taught gi and the opponents neck. Then you pull on the gi twisting the opponents head round and putting immense pressure on the neck for the choke.

Here’s a clip of this being demonstrated by the Jiu Jitsu Genius, Marcelo Garcia.

Closed Guard Technique:

Ian finished the series off with a quick gi choke from guard.

Opponent in the closed guard, pull one side of their gi out and pass it around their back, pulling them forward with your knees to catch the gi on the other side of them up at the neck. You then cross grip that lapel (ie. If the collar is over your opponents left shoulder, grab it with your left hand) and pull on it so the gi is pulling him into you and your wrist/forearm is running up the side of his neck. Then, shifting your body around away from the gripped lapel, use the other hand to grab his shoulder and then pull down with both lapel and shoulder closing on the choke.

This is a vid of the choke as shown by Jean Jacques Machado, although it differs at the setup as JJ’s version is shown with the guy resting on him where as Ian’s version was worked as if the guy was postured and you had to pull him forward with your knees.

Rolling:

We then rolled in a slightly different way. Two guys were on the floor rolling, then after 1 minute a third guy would come and attack the guy in the least advantageous position. They’d roll together for the minute then the guy who’d tagged out would come back in place of the guy who’d been in the longest, taking the most advantageous position he could from the way the last guy was positioned (ie. If he was on top attacking, you can jump on his back. If he was on his back defending, you can attack side control, knee on belly or mount). We repeated this for a few rounds then called it a night.

Hope you understood most of that and it didn't waffle to much. Personally I really enjoyed typing it out and it really helps to remember the techniques.

Til next time ;o)

\m/

The run up to my Blue. Rollin' with Chico.

In the period of time running up to my Blue Belt promotion on 17th Sept, I was a very focused student of Bjj. I was attending as many training sessions as I could, I also attended a pretty amazing Checkmat seminar up at Trojan Cheltenham, Chico's first for Trojan. The seminar was great mainly because before that point I had only been in the same room as 1 Bjj black at any one time, at this seminar were 4!!! Chico (black 2 stripe) was there with fellow Checkmat representatives Eduardo Azevedo (black 1 stripe), Leonardo Queiroz (black 2 stripe) and the mighty Thiago "Monstro" Borges (black 2 stripe). The feeling of so much black beltery in one place was awesome. It was also a great opportunity to see some very high level grappling very close up. Until the ADCC in Nottingham last month (Sept 24 and 25) this occasion was the highest level bjj event I'd been to (sadly, but I'm going to correct that this year, trust me) and I loved it.

Chico, as usual, was a master instructor and showed off his knowledge with some escapes from back control, an escape from triangle and some guard pulling stuff mixed in with some chokes, while the other guys walked around during our drills and helped us out with hints and techniques to polish up our skills. Some of the guys even got to roll with the black belts, with very little luck. I managed to get to roll with a tall guy called Dwayne who'd come up from our Taunton class. The thing I enjoyed about the roll was that as mat space was at a bit of a premium due to numbers, we rolled in the cage. It was the first (and only) time I'd ever stepped into a cage and the feeling was pretty cool. And I managed to tap Dwayne out a few times too. He seemed particularly susceptible to the Ezekial choke, almost to the point of me feeling guilty about using it on him again. I think I got him with an armbar as well (long time ago so I can't remember).

On that day I also rolled with a guy called Paul Severn from the Cheltenham class of Trojan Free Fighters. Now Paul is a blue belt but I would consider his skill level to be at the very high end of the blue belt range. As I said, at the time I was a white belt who was eagerly hunting his blue. I rarely had a problem rolling against other white belts and more often than not came out with a tap or two against fellow white belt opponents. I was also rolling against blue belts on occasion and rarely getting tapped out which I saw as a good indication that I was on my way. When I rolled with Paul though it was a different story. Paul's control is very tight and he flipped me over in sweeps a couple of times. I managed to flip him once which I was quite happy with but much of the rest of the roll was a lesson in fighting against the armbar. He got one from a guard set up where he flipped me over to my back with the armbar locked in. I did the old twist my elbow to take the pressure off then tried to turn in to shake off the hold and come up in his guard. Unfortunately, he had other ideas and kept a heavy downward pressure with his legs so I could roll out, then adjusted himself and his grip and slapped the move on tighter which got him the tap. The second armbar was from mount. I was powering out of mount with an upa bridge and had my arm slightly to high. He dropped back in to the armbar and we pretty much replayed the 30 seconds that lead up to my first tap.

All in all, rolling with Paul served to knock my confidence in my ability and my preparedness (it's a word, I checked) for my blue. A little later though I saw him rolling with other blue belts and he was handling them with equal ease so I guessed he was just a very good blue belt.

Now I have rolled with guys higher level than myself on occasion, most frequently Gary Davies, who is a Purple Belt in Bjj (should probably be Brown by now but doesn't actually go to a class where he can be graded), a Black Belt 3 Dan in Traditional JJ and an instructor of combat sambo. I've also rolled less frequently with Ian Rossiter (Brown bjj, Black 4th traditional). When rolling against both of these guys they tend to go a bit easier on the lower belts to see how you've progressed and also to practice their less used stuff. Gary in particular likes to dust off his less frequently used guards for our sparring sessions.

I've also rolled with Nathan "Matrix" Moore Pointing a Bjj Purple belt under Pedro Bessa, who is a very technical guy and has polished off moves that the rest of us see as possibly unobtainable super disco stuff. Rolling with Nathan is difficult experience in that he is a highly competitive guy, not in the sense that he turns it up to 110% every time but rather that he is a common sight in the UK competition scene. Nathan trains about 5 times a week and is pretty awesome. He fires some shit out of nowhere and you're tapping before you know it. I've rolled with him about 6 times on the odd occasion that he used to turn up at Ian's classes and he invariably ended up tapping me out using something I've not seen before. I think I managed to roll with him on only two of those occasions where I resisted being tapped out.

Now, easily the highest grade person I have ever rolled against was Chico Mendes. Rolling against Chico was like nothing I'd experienced before. Going in I already had that feeling of trepidation knowing that Chico was where I am today, over fifteen years ago. Chico has forgotten more about Bjj than I know (actually that's a total lie, I doubt Chico has forgotten anything about Bjj, ever) and it was this knowledge that made me revert straight back to a first day novice white belt who tried to use all his strength to do everything and gave up simple positions. I though I was having some luck smashing past his guard until I realised he was just allowing me to do so so he could sweep me in some disco fashion. He then quickly obtained side control to mount and locked in a very basic arm triangle. All my defence had left my mind and he was so damn fast that the move was locked in before I had time to "answer the phone". I tapped. We reset. Chico pulled guard instantly, I attempted to break guard for a pass and bam! Chico swept me again and landed in half guard. Actually I'm not sure if he landed in half guard or side control and I recovered half guard. I'm going with landed in because at this time I have great doubt that I managed to do anything positive at all against him. From half guard Chico quick as a flash locked in another arm triangle.

My rolling experience against Chico went pretty much how you would expect a not quite blue belt (at the time) would go. But I will hold my hand up right now and say I've have never experienced someone with such a tight and fast game as Chico's. The little things he did, the technique he displayed and the natural strength he exhibited which can only come from thousands upon thousands of hours of mat time. I am in awe of his skill level and very much hope (though severely doubt) that one day I will be near to his skill level. Though by that time I imagine he will be a red and black belt :o)

Anyway, I've got my blue belt now, I just need to spend the next few years polishing the hell out of my game and get that "tightness" that the higher level guys seem to have so naturally.

Til next time \m/

Favoured Techniques: Straight Leg Lock (Achilles) into Toe Hold.

For the second of this Favoured Techniques section of my Jiu Jitsu ramblings I thought I would delve back into my past (about a year and a few months ago) and review a move that I really fell in love with until I realised I'd wouldn't be able to use it in competition for quite a few years (til Brown Belt I believe). Now I learned this combination of techniques in three parts. The first through your standard teacher student learning set up that the lions share of your Bjj techniques are learned through. The second part was more through a childhood memory and a search on Youtube. The stringing together of the submissions I found much later, also on Youtube, as a bonus and I was totally chuffed and blown away by it.

Ian Rossiter taught me the first part in one of the classes I attended down in Burnham. The Achilles leg lock or straight leg lock was originally taught to me as if I was standing and my opponents back was on the the ground with his legs in the air around me (standing in an opponents guard). You'd then wrap one of your arms around one of the opponents legs, your left to his right or vice versa. With your forearm around the guys achilles you'd then place your hand on the inside elbow of the opposite arm (some people just grip hands and pull up but I find this way much tighter) and put the hand of that arm on your opponents shin bone. Your opponents foot by this time will be handily pressed against the back of your armpit. You then lean your weight back on the foot whilst squeezing your forearm against his achilles and pushing down with your other hand. Now obviously in that lesson we were also taught a few variations on the move including if the guy tries to roll out, how to hit it from your knees and also how to get the position after breaking your opponents closed guard along with the part where you go to your bum and tuck one leg up against his hip to stop him from moving forward to block. I used to use this move a lot during my early days in Burnham and in the first few months of being at Sweat FA in Weston and had great success with it. I had the technique nailed down really well and people rarely hung around in the hold before tapping. Nowadays, as I haven't used the move much at all I've found my skill with it a bit stale and I only tap guys with it about one time in 3 (Maybe time for a refresher on it).

Now the second part of this write up, namely the Toe Hold, came from my youth in the good old days of watching corny old WWF Wrestling. Now back in those days a guy named Ken Shamrock (yes as in the former UFC champion) utilised a fantastic move called the Ankle Lock which was basically a Toe Hold submission. I later found out that the way Ken applied it for the theatre of wrestling would never have finished a real submission match as it would have been easy for his opponent to roll out. He does however hold quite a number of MMA victories by legitimate leg locks. Anyway as soon as I started Jiu Jitsu I wanted to find out how the move could effectively be put on an opponent so I trawled the interwebz and found a few vids of it in action. I should have been tipped off about the move as I only really found No Gi or MMA style vids but that didn't deter me as I really liked the move. Besides, the Burnham class at the time was anything goes except for Heel Hooks so I was free to try it sans guilt. I think I only hit it about twice but it didn't stop me trying the move any oppotunity I had.

So the move (or the variation I favoured) featured me breaking open my opponents guard, reaching back with my hand to grab the outside edge of the toes of the guy, once again left hand to right foot or vice versa, then bringing my other arm over the top of that leg, tucking it underneath and securing a hold of my forearm so my arm along with his leg form a kind of figure four. I'd then put my same side foot over on to his hip and brace against the ground with my other foot and at the same time push down with both my hands, kind of pushing his toe downward and his heel up. Now as I said this probably isn't the perfect technique for it but it worked twice and came to some near miss situations a couple of other times and I really liked the move.

Then one day I had a real amazing moment while I was once again searching the net for Bjj moves. I found a Gracie Insider Position of the Month featuring Rener and Ryron Gracie showing the sitting down version of the Straight Achilles Ankle Lock then transitioning it into a toe hold using a near fool proof method. It's easy, you're on your bum on the floor, the guys foot is threaded through you arm and you've got the Achilles secure but for some reason the guys not tapping. Maybe you've got the arm just a fraction too low or too high or maybe he's just got legs that do well against that kind of hold. For whatever reason move isn't working so instead you use the arm resting on the shin to secure the leg down while you release the other arm (the one that was wrapped around the leg) but still keep some downward pressure on it, and quickly reach back with that hand for the toes. As soon as you've got a good grip, push down with the hand gripping the toes so your opponents leg goes out at a right angle to you and then wrap the other hand underneath said leg gripping your forearm to fix up the figure four shape and push down as before. Bam! Tap tap tap.

I loved this move for the very short amount of time I used it for. I think I tapped about 4 people with it in sparring in the space of a month. It was around about this time though that I started going to Italo Ferriera's class in Bristol. Now up there was a different kind of class as explained in a previous log. They were more geared to Bjj as a sport and consequentially the first time I went to slap that move on someone they snapped at me saying what the hell was I doing. I was bemused as I didn't realise at the time there was a no leg locks except for the Straight Achilles as per Ibjjf official comp rules. When this was explained to me I was mega bummed. At the time, half my game was about the leg locks. Achilles, Toe Hold and this cool Calf Crusher that I really loved too, all weren't allowed up at the Bristol class and wouldn't be in a competition either. So I made a decision from that point on to avoid using leg locks for the foreseeable future and concentrate on stuff that's would be allowed in competition. It was only in the last few months that I have even gone back to trying the odd Straight Leg Lock an as I said before, I'm pretty rusty.

Anyway, here for your viewing pleasure is the GracieInsider Toe Hold Footlock vid. Enjoy and use it wisely.

That's all for now. \m/

Favoured Techniques: The Flower Sweep.

Every practitioner of Jiu Jitsu has a favourite technique or two that they like to hit. We all have go to subs from top mount and moves that you like to hit when you've got a guy in your guard. For whatever reason, whether you think the move looks cool, it works well with your style of game or body type or if you use it so often it's just ingrained into your muscle memory so much so that when your mind is feeling heavy from the exhaustion of rolling against multiple opponents you instantly go for that one favoured move (making you a bit predictable but when you are really knackered it's the only thing that springs to mind).

Now I personally have quite a few moves in mind when I thought about this ranging from those that have been with me since my early days training in Burham, to techniques that I have learned through Chico Mendes at Trojan Free Fighters Bristol, to stuff that I've only read about or seen on YouTube. And the beauty of this particular part of my blog is that I can waffle on about where I first learned the technique (if I remember) and how much success I have had with it in rolling and maybe what back up plans I've ever used in the event of a failure.

The first of these "Favoured Techniques" that I will feature on here will be a move that I consider to be my go to sweep from closed guard. This is the first sweep I nearly always try when I have a guy in my closed guard and has been for the best part of 2 and a half years. Now you'd think that that would probably have to end now with the writing of this article (should anyone I know actually read this) but I am fairly certain that all of my regular sparring partners are fully aware of my love for this sweep and yet it still continues to yield results with a fairly high success rate. I don't know if I can attribute that to any kind of high skill level with this particular sweep or if my body type and flexibility lend themselves well to the completion of the move, but I have always found a better sweep to not sweep ratio with the use of this move. 

The sweep I refer to today is known as the "Flower Sweep" and was first taught to me back in the very early days of my Jiu Jitsu  journey (I think possibly my 4th ever lesson or something like that) by Ian Rossiter, then Head Instructor at Somerset Jiu Jitsu Alliance located in King Alfreds Sport Centre at Burham on Sea on Thursday nights. It was not the first sweep from closed guard that I was taught (that was the scissor sweep) but it was the sweep I preferred to use and found more instinctive and intuitive.

The situation I have found of best utilising this technique has been when your opponent is postured up in your closed guard, possibly ready to start to break the guard, with one hand high up you body, possibly making a grip for your lapel, the other hand down low attempting to pressure your hips or grip on your belt. I would then take the arm with the hand gripping my lapel (or whatever it's doing) by the sleeve in a tight grip, with the hand opposite (so if it's his right hand on my lapel I'd grab it with my left) and pull it so it's stays in close to me. At the same time I would be using my other hand to reach down and secure a hold of the lower leg of his gi pants, sometimes this can be a knee but I more often prefer to grab the pants near the ankle. This may require a slight hip adjustment to reach down depending on how flexible you are.

With those two grips in place I can open my guard and simultaneously swing the leg on the side where I have the gi pants gripped, up to my opponents shoulder, while the leg on the side where I have the hand secured near to my upper chest drops down to provide the trip. I would then push with the leg against the shoulder whilst pulling on the gi pants to overbalance the opponent and add a little pull to the secured arm. This motion will flip the opponent over my other leg onto their back whilst I grab hold and use their momentum and a handy little push off my elbow to take myself over into mount. That particular move in competition is worth 6 points if the mount is secured correctly.

I have included a video with a close representation of how I perform the Flower Sweep. It was unbelievably difficult to find a semi decent video of the Flower Sweep in just the style I wanted on YouTube so I hope you appreciate this effort uploaded by BaltimoreSelfDefense.

That's all for now guys \m/

Post comp fitness fad and Chico time!

After the unsuccessful competition début at the Welsh Open I decided that I was not being clever maintaining my chubby porker status so I took the almighty leap into a proper gym schedule and a somewhat less calorific diet. First step, I spoke to Rane, one of the fitness instructors at Sweat FA where I happened to have membership (if a trifle under used), who showed me a decent interval training routine (not like the shite one I'd made up for myself) on the cross-trainer, bike and running machine. She also recommended I get myself a heart monitor. Now I'm no string bean but when a fitness instructor advised me to get a heart monitor I thought "holy shit, how out of shape am I?!". On voicing this concern Rane explained to me that it was just to measure my heart rate for effort and then recovery rate. I was quite relieved and went out immediately a bought a cheap heart rate monitor from Boots chemist. £10, Bargain.

On to the workout. I started off doing 25 minutes a day (at lunch time during work, thank god for the flexi time job I am fortunate enough to have), 5 mins warm up, 10 minutes taking my heart rate up to 170 for 30 secs then resting it back down to 140, and then a moderate pace for the final 10 minutes keeping my heart rate at 155-ish. I did this five times a week when I could but more often than not it would be reduced to 4 times due to the odd work commitment.

I find it prudent to add at this time that due to my nature and my possible ADHD type personality, I find it difficult to do cardiovascular activity for too long as I get tremendously bored and then my mind started to realise how knackered I was getting. This is where the remarkable Steve Jobs (R.I.P) comes in. I was fortunate enough at the time to be gifted with an IPOD nano from my darling wife, Emma, which I have found to help out no end with the monotony of physical exertion. I just ramp on something heavy (Metallica, Pantera, Machinehead) and zone out. When my mind was focused on listening to music I like I found the minutes just flying by and I was gradually starting to gain some form of stamina. And I was also getting the opportunity to listen to some new music which was a bonus. In short, an IPOD is a must have cardiovascular work out aid.

Another thing I did at this time to aid me in my fitness and weight loss regime was to start eating the shit my wife eats. Gone were the days of me planking back a full Fray Bentos pie with chips or mash while my enduring wife ate some form of dry chicken breast with some salad. I was joining her on the rabbit food. Something that had always repulsed me previously, I had never found salad appealing whatsoever. As a wise old work colleague of mine says "I didn't fight my way to the top of the food chain to go around eating green shit". But never the less, I was starting to sit down with a healthy fish cake, salad and a small portion of rice or something like that.

This new approach to life that I was going through seemed to work. I stuck at it for about 3 months or so and at the end I'd dropped down to 83.9 Kilos at my best (or 13 stone 3 in real money), which was amazing. I was well chuffed. You could really tell the difference as well, I looked thinner, I had stopped snoring at night which was a bonus for the missus, my Bjj game was better due to having much more stamina and poor long enduring Marcus, my regular training partner, didn't have a fat git laying on him week in week out. I was getting good enough that I was able to roll the full 4 x five minutes sparring sessions up at Trojan in Bristol at top capability. I was also finding this was helping with my technique during rolling as I wasn't getting so exhausted so I could focus my mind more on what I wanted to do. All in all, things were looking up.

And at that time things got a whole lot better. Trojan Freefighters (where I was training in Bristol) had joined up with the mighty Checkmat team, headed by multi time World Champion, Leo Vieira, and introduced their new instructor, the outstanding 2nd Grade Black Belt, Chico Mendes.

Straight away it became apparent that Chico's teaching was on a whole other level to what we'd experienced before. Chico's knowledge of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu technique is immense, he makes you better just by being in the class with him. When he shows a pass or a sweep his explanation of the manoeuvre (you wouldn't believe what I just went through to find the correct spelling for that word) is complete down to the most minor detail. He not only tells you where you put your hands (for example), he tells you why you put them there and often tells you where you definitely don't put them and for what reason. And if he sees someone doing the technique wrong he'll call the class to a halt and explain (without indicating who it was as to cause embarrassment) a bit more about what can go wrong and how to avoid the situation. His kind of teaching really makes you feel like he is paying a lot of attention to his students and really helps you to tighten up your game.

And so, with the addition of Chico and Checkmat to the Trojan team and with my fitness level getting better everyday, I was finally feeling that my Bjj game was advancing to next level.


Cheers 'til next time. \m/

The Welsh Open part 2.

On the morning of the big competition I was in high spirits, though a little nervous. I met up with the guys (Ian, Tom, Marcus and his missus) at the local supermarket car park where they all piled in to my car and off we went. The journey was a great time in itself, all of us full of the excitement of people who were about to physically pit themselves against another human being in a contest of skill and strength.

We arrived in Cardiff with ample time to spare so stopped at Maccy D's for a quick drink, some of the guys had a McBreakfast but I was a bit unsure of putting food in my belly before a grappling tournament so I just had a banana and an energy drink. In fact, over the course of the day I had about 4 energy drinks and a packet of jelly belly sports beans. I was hyped up and ready to go.

On arrival at the Western Sports Centre in Cardiff we were greeted by our fellow Somerset Jiu Jitsu Alliance club mates (there was about 12 or so of us in total) and then made our way to the sign in area. Sign up was a quick and painless process although trying to find a space to sit/congregate after was a bit of a chore. Then it was just the wait for the weigh ins to be called. White belt categories were all to compete first fortunately so we didn't have long to wait before some of our group (all of us competing were white belts) were called to weigh. Starting with the lighter weights so Marcus and Tom were straight up weighing in and then on the dedicated warm up area.

Then the competition began and Tom and Marcus were competing. Tom fought a couple of tough fights and managed to secure a bronze medal for his efforts, while Marcus had two extremely difficult fights and unfortunately got outpointed on both. It was during Marcus' second fight that I heard my name being called over the (absolutely terrible) tanoy system. I was up to be weighed in. In fact I was late to be weighed in even though I never heard my category being called prior to that (as I said, shite tanoy). I ran up to the desk and stood on the scale and weighed a mighty 91.4 kilos. In the 94.3 kilo and under Heavy weight class. So I certainly wasn't going to be one of the heavier guys in my class but that's ok.

I then made my way down to the warm up mats where there was a collection of what I can only describe as herculean man-beasts stretching and sparring with friends and doing their own little thing to focus. I was by then shitting myself hoping to god that the guys I was looking at were actually in the super heavys or something. How wrong could I be? So I was sitting there stretching and chatting with Dan and Ben from our Taunton club when their category, Medium Heavy, was called for mat 2. Dan and Ben get up and walk off. So do a healthy selection of the Man Beast crew. Holy schnitz they were in the class below mine. Then a load more guys got on the warm up mats and some of them were truly frickin giants. I had an image in my head that one of them had just rushed in from eating a whole raw cow.

Ok, so I might have been letting intimidation get the better of me by now. Fortunately, a friend from Pedro Bessa Bjj, Nathan 'Matrix' Moore Pointing, who occasionally trains with SJJA came over and started chatting with me which calmed my nerves somewhat. He also suggested I have a light roll with him which at the time I thought was crazy (roll with a purple belt before my first competition match?! are you nuts?) but he went relatively light and I think the idea was to calm me down a bit. It worked somewhat as it took my mind off of my impending doom.

When my category was called I walked up to the table near mat 3 with the Gorilla parade to find out how long I had until my first fight and found that I was given a bye for the first round. Awesome I thought. I got to gage and rate the opponents before ever stepping on the mat. Wicked. There was some pretty good talent on display but I did notice that there weren't many battles for takedowns going on. Most fights featured someone pulling guard straight away. Nutsacks. The guy I had previously noted as possibly eating a whole cow before the warm up (Matt, I later found his name to be) managed to choke his first opponent unconscious using a gi choke that I didn't quite see. When the first round was over I checked the next round bracket and found that I was to be fighting Matt. What a surprise. And he didn't even look like he'd been in a fight. Chuffing marvelous.

Come my fight time I was so anxious that I walked on the mat and the ref (Pippa Granger) told me to get off as they hadn't raised the hand of the previous winner (d'oh). Then came time. I was stood opposite my enormous opponent. He stood about 6' 2" - 6' 3" and looked pretty much solid muscle and probably weighing nearer the 94 kilo mark. And there was me, 91 kilos of chubby 33 year old. We tapped knuckle and were off. I quickly went in for a grab on his collar hoping that I could go for a takedown or something but the guy instantly pulled guard on me. During his pulling of guard he had a vice like grip on one of my lapels and shoved his knuckle in the other side of my throat so his forearms were crossed. Now the move was tight but I rather stupidly thought to myself that I wasn't choking so I had time to escape. I carefully threaded my arm underneath his knuckled hand forearm and started to push up......

 The next thing I was aware of was Gary shouting from the sidelines "Martin, stay down". The only thought I can recall having at this point was thinking that it was some sort of Jiu Jitsu trick and that I would actually win if I stayed down. Then my legs were shaken and I was helped back up. Oh the shame, I had lost my first match and gotten choked unconscious. Gutted. I sat at the side regaining my senses, my victorious opponent came over to check if I was all right, Ian came over to see that I was ok to go on then gave me a bit of advice that I don't recall now, then went off to check on how the other guys were fairing. I just had to calm myself and carry on. After all, the repechage system meant that I could still compete for bronze.

After a thankfully long rest to bring my brain functions back to order I was due to fight again. I pulled my pride hurt ass off the floor and walked on to the mats (at the right time this time too). My opponent was not as large as the previous titan I faced and fortunately looked like he bore a matching mid-rift spread to mine. We tapped hands and then dived in. Shocker of shockers he instantly pulled guard on me. I managed to pass his guard quite quickly though he turned to turtle to deny me points. I pushed him over on to his back but in the scramble he recovered to half guard. Still no points. He then escaped hips and recovered full guard. He managed a quick sweep attempt with no luck and then I smashed passed his guard again with him turning to turtle again. This time though I pulled him toward me and flattened him out gaining 3 points. My side were cheering me on rabidly. I then put all my weight down on him to crush him to the floor and secured my left arm around the back of his head. Putting my other arm down and sneaking it to his nearside under arm I grabbed a hand full of his gi and quickly switched the left arm over the top, still gripping the collar, and pressed my forearm down on his throat. I had the technique sunk in quite well and for a while the guy was going some interesting shades of purple. Unfortunately he managed to switch his hips into me, giving me his back but breaking the choke hold. He then turtled up but I still had a damn good grip on his lapel with my left hand which I then swapped to my right. I quickly, at the very loud instruction of Gary, managed to get my hooks in and pull him over so I had his back with hooks in (4 points) and after a little tom foolery with going to the wrong side first I managed to sink in a decent Bow and Arrow, a move which I love and have rarely seen fail. But to the credit of my opponent he turned his head the correct way and kept his hand just inside his collar so the choke wasn't sunk in properly. With most of my club on the side lines just screaming at me to pull with all my might and Gary trying to call out technique over the top I couldn't really hear anything. I did realise I was tiring from tugging on his gi though and saw the ideal opportunity to bring my right leg up over his head and get a firm hold on his arm with both hands. I then rolled my weight to my right shoulder and pulled on the armbar. The guy tapped instantly.

It was over. My second match. My first win. My corner were going crazy. I loved the feeling of having my arm raised in front of all those people. I shook hands with my opponent (I never even realised until it was pointed out to me later that he had 4 tags on his belt) who looked gutted. Then all my buddies came over and congratulated me and it really did feel amazing. I can so see why people get addicted to competing. The thrill of the fight. The excellent feeling you get when you win. I was on top of the world, for a moment.

Before long though I was called to prepare for my next fight. I was knackered. I blasted back and energy drink and some more beans at this time to try and recover some lost stamina but the weary feeling isn't the exhaustion of running about it's the muscle weariness of pitting all your strength against all your opponents strength. My arms were feeling pretty weak. My next opponent was another quite big bloke. About 6' 1", a three stripe white belt, he was obviously another one who was at the heavier end of the category. Remembering back to it in my mind I kind of imagine myself doing some sort of theatrical gulp as we stood opposite each other.

We tapped hands and began. Now I really don't remember much at all about this fight except that he did stand with me trying for a takedown, which I managed to get (yay me, I knew all that takedown training wasn't for nothing), and that we both worked in guard for a time, I had him in side control for a time and we stood up at one point when we both just managed to regain our feet. The second time stood face to face he pulled guard on me, I managed to pass his guard and he tried for a turtle but I grabbed around he undefended neck quickly and didn't even bother to get my hooks in I just cranked in a rear naked choke and he tapped really quickly without even trying to resist. I won my third match.

I don't remember anything from winning that one though as my blood was pumping so hard that I was in a bit of a daze. I got off the mat and it was then called out that I had a five minute break and would be on again. Bummer!! I was absolutely exhausted, bone weary, muscle shocked and I could hardly focus my thoughts at all. The five minutes went ridiculously quick and I was back on the mat facing guy of comparable size to the last one I fought. And he looked fresher than I did by far.

I'm sure I won't surprise you by telling you that I remember vitrually bugger all about this fight. I do remember that he pretty much passed my guard at will and in the vid I've seen of the match my opponent went to side control then to mount twice, both times trying to finish with a cross choke, both times I used the classic upa escape from mount and burst out of the choke. Both times I then passed his guard to side and then got swept back to to bottom with him in my closed guard. The third time he tried though he secured the grip tight and I upa turned him so I was then in his guard and I just remember feeling so weak and so helpless that I knew I wasn't going to be able to burst out of his cross choke and I didn't have enough time to work my arms through as he had it on tight. I had to tap.

I was a bit crest fallen but I knew I'd done my best and my first tournament was a good one. I'd got two taps out of four which wasn't bad for a fat git. One thing was for sure though, I swore to myself as I walked away that I would not be competing at Heavyweight again. Unsurprisingly, Matt the titan, man-beast, raw cow eating, pressure choke machine won my category so at least one of my losses was to the eventual winner. I felt pride from my performance. I thought to myself as I left that I would be back and a whole lot fitter.

\m/

The Welsh Open Part 1

At some point after Italo Ferreira had departed from teaching the Tuesday night Bristol class at Trojan, but before Chico Mendes arrived, I decided to enter into a competition. The Welsh open was coming up at the beginning of March and I thought that it'd be a good experience. Plus Ian (Rossiter) and Gary (Davies), my instructors, were keen on getting some white belt guys going in for competitions to expand their experience level and suggested that I be one of the guys to enter. I was happy with this. I felt that my nearly two years of training had amounted to something and I was being given a great vote of confidence by my instructors for suggesting that I be one of their guys to enter for competition. My head was enormous. I was getting into a zone. I was believing in myself.

During the build up to the tournament I was training regularly, Tuesdays at Trojan where the classes were conveniently being taken by Ian at the time so it felt like he was gearing the lessons towards me and a couple of my club mates, and Thursdays at Sweat FA where Gary was taking me and the chosen few aside for "special instruction" in the boxing rings. I felt like I learned and advanced my game loads in those few weeks. Particularly in the "start from standing" training. I received a great ego boost when Ben (a guy from Gary's Taunton class) came along with a much vaunted history in Judo and I took him down about 7 times. All the while I was thinking "now he's gonna bust out some uber-throw in a sec and blister my hide into the mat" but it never came. It was a big confidence booster.

Another favourite part of that period of my training was when Gary was putting us into extremely tough positions to escape from and making us work out how to escape without any prompts or help from him. Basically, if you couldn't work out how to escape, you weren't escaping. Memories of a brutally smothering half guard, which took me about 4 minutes to navigate my way back to full guard, were a bit of a low-light though and left me totally exhausted.

Now that brings me neatly on to my big issue at that point in my training. Exhaustion, unfitness in general. Up to the end of 2010 I was used to rolling for 2 to 3 minutes about 3 or 4 times at the end of a class. And I was in such bad shape at that point that I was left totally shagged. When I started the additional training up Italo's class they were doing 5 minute rolls at the end of class. You'd maybe get 2 or 3 in but there was always a rest because the class was so packed. And I was still shagged after this. When Ian took over Italo's class the numbers dropped slightly and everyone could get on the mats for all rolling sessions. Meaning about 4 spars for 5 minutes a pop. Porky little old me was cream crackered. I'd roll the first two at a hundred percent but the third I'd be really sketchy for (you know when your brain stops working textbook Bjj and the sloppy stuff takes over) and the last I was good for nothing. My last spar of the class I would either be laying in my opponents guard trying to put pressure on their neck and hoping they don't fight back or I'd have them in my closed guard locked solid tight and every time they made a move to break I'd pull them in close or make like I was trying a gi choke (something which I had neither the strength nor the motor function to pull off) to stall the fight to the end. Poor tactics I know. In short I was in no condition to be entering into a competition.

This was highlighted in my own mind when Gary, at the beginning of all this competition shenanigans, asked us (all Somerset Jiu Jitsu Alliance guys) via facebook, what weight categories we wished to compete in. At that time I was a traditional English Stones and Pounds kind of bloke. I knew that I weighed about 14 stone 10 pounds (8 pound off my fattest of 15 st 4) so I entered that into googles to find the equivalent in Kilos and a reading of 93.4 Kg came up. Cool, I misguidedly thought, that means I can fight at White Belt Adult Heavyweight. Trust me, when you look at me you do not think Heavyweight Grappling Competitor. I relayed the info to Gary and everyone else via our wonderful Club FB page to which I got a good round of you fat bastard comments. Gary then pointed out to me that I had to weigh in with my Gi on which would weigh about 1.5 Kg at least so I needed to lose a bit of weight or risk not getting in (or getting entered in the category above, thank f*** I didn't pick that option). So I hit the gym.

I did about a month of interval training on on the cross trainer and bike 3 or 4 days a week. For my efforts I lost about 3 and a half kilos, probably would've been more but I refused to alter my diet (idiot). I was weighing about 14st 3 and I looked a bit better than when I'd started. Still a chubber but my cardio had improved slightly. On the day with my Gi on I weighed 91.4 kilos. At the time I felt good about that.

So being fitter than I'd been for 3 years and all trained up with (what I thought to be) my new super takedown ability we ventured off to sunny (overcast actually) Cardiff for the Welsh Open.

Continued in Part 2 \m/

Italo Ferreira's class.

Throughout 2010 I was training every Thursday at Sweat FA under Ian. It was great and I was really building my my skillset up and developing my love for the art of Bjj. At the end of every lesson Ian always said the same thing, "any one who fancies going to an additional (and slightly more advanced) class, can go along with him on a Tuesday up to Bristol and train under the Black Belt instructor at Trojan Freefighters, Italo Ferreira". I had wanted to increase my mat time for a while by this point and this seemed like a great opportunity so towards the end of 2010 I took him up on his offer and started going along.

The classes up at Carrefour in Bristol were a bit different to Ian's lessons. Italo basically walked into the class, told you to do a load of push ups, sit ups and stretches and then we were into techniques. Italo would show a technique twice and then send you off to drill it. The techniques were more advanced than the stuff I'd previously learned, spider guard sweeps, half guard passes and sweeps and some butterfly guard stuff. Another big difference was that Italo always made reference to points when gaining certain positions which was something I was not familiar with. I asked Ian about the whole competition thing and what scores points etc. after class to which he gave me a rough outline and directed me to the IBJJF website to read the competition rule set for myself. This was my first thought of BJJ competition.

Italo's class.

Another thing that I found different (and a little hard to get used too) was when rolling at the end of Italo's lessons, you were not allowed to use knee bars, toe holds and leg locks (except for achilles). I later found this was to reflect competition rules for purple belt and below. This change in game definitely seemed weird to me, particularly because I was going through a cool period in rolling where I was tapping everyone out with toe holds. Down at Ian's class in Weston (and previously in Burnham) the only restriction on submissions was NO HEEL HOOKS. I emphasize that as it was always emphasized to me. A heel hook is an exceptionally dangerous move (as highlighted with the controversy at the ADCC this year) and should not be used lightly. So anyway, at Italo's class I was no longer allowed to use my go to move of the toe hold, it was after this point that I basically revised my entire game and totally stopped using leg locks (except for achilles) and really developed my top game.

I was finding results with a good smash pass game using my weight advantage (funny term that for a fat git) and gaining side control or mount and tapping people using an ezekial choke or an arm bar. The other technique I developed a major love for was the Bow and Arrow choke. I really love the move and nowadays find it my go to finish from the back, particularly as if you don't quite get it in it's real easy to transition to an arm bar. I was also finding that I was having a lot of success in rolling up at Italo's, something I didn't think would happen as the class was considered to be a bit more advanced than the one I usually attended. But it was giving me a lot of experience rolling against guys that were coming at me using techniques I had rarely seen before. The main reason why I was having good fortune against Italo's guys was due to Ian's thoroughness in teaching his guys the basics first as mentioned in my post Learning basics and moving class.

A random pic of me rolling at Italo's and actually looking like I was doing something right.

(I'm the guy in blue).

I was really loving the new class and different approach and gained a host of new Bjj friends. Sadly though, Italo did not hang around for long after I started that class. The spawny git had managed to get a new job in Abu Dhabi, as a part of the Sheiks program to make Bjj part of their children's national curriculum. 100 (roughly) black belts were being employed to teach children for a few hours a day and then they got to train with each other for the rest of the day or do as they pleased. For this they were given a house, a car, flight expenses and the equivalent of £30,000 a year. Lucky B*****d. So it was an emotional (for him) day in January 2011 when Italo said his goodbyes and left.

I have continued going up to the Bristol class on Tuesdays on a semi regular basis. Ian took over the teaching of the class until Italo's full time replacement, Chico Mendes of Checkmat, arrived in April 2011. It was during that time between January and February that I decided to take the leap and go in for a competition.

More on that next time \m/