Rafael Heck - Checkmat 28-2-12

A bit of a sad night for the Bristol class of Checkmat/Trojan Free Fighters last night as it was Rafael Heck's last class there for the foreseeable future. Raf has to go home to Brazil as his visa has expired and he is unsure as to whether or not he'll get another to come back. So potentially, last night was the last time we saw and got to train with Maestre Heck. If all goes well he will be back at the end of next month but that's only if everything goes well.

As for the session, I was up ridiculously early with my daughter Jolie yesterday morning so I found it difficult to focus on any of the techniques (or anything else really) so if I've forgotten details I apologise.

Venue - LA Gym, Bristol, UK
Instructor - Rafael Heck (Checkmat Black Belt)




Warm up.
By Raf's standards it was a relatively lax warm up starting with stretches, then some star jumps and the weird bush whacker on the spot thing he does and then into the running man (a personal favourite).
From there it was down on the floor for sit ups, lateral sit ups (both sides) press ups, cross collar sit ups, press ups, bicycle sit ups, press ups, crunches and ending with superman flies (or sky dives as I think of them).




Light Drills.
Raf had us do some light minimal resistance drilling. With a partner we started with sweeps from guard. Any type of sweep will do. You sweep your opponent then he recovers to guard and sweeps you. I loved this type of drilling, particularly cause it gave us time to brush up on sweeps we're less confident with. I was firing off all kinds of Butterfly and Half Guard Sweeps. I hit the ones we learnt at Leo's last seminar a couple of times, particularly loving that inside leg turn sweep from half guard (not an official name but the best I could come up with).


Next we started from a mount position and lightly hit five subs with minimal resistance and then swapped to let your partner do the same. This was a lot of fun too, I went with the mounted triangle, kimura, cross collar choke, arm bar and ezekial for my first go then found myself struggling to think. Americana, another choke variant and then I tossed in an S mount Bow and Arrow choke from the top.

For the nights techniques Raf took us back to the guard passing from last week. Starting with a closed guard pass, break the guard using the knee in, then thread one arm under the same side leg and do the lock and stack thing. Your opponent then pulls on your arm to block the stack so you push his other leg down and pass your knee over so the foot is still un-passed (the leg brace technique from last week). Now press your weight on the opponents torso, wrap your free arm around the guys neck and buck the other leg out from over your initial securing arm, then bring your other leg through over top. Now make sure your hip is on the floor, then you can bring first leg through and make sure you are tight to the opponents body to ensure he doesn't have room to shrimp a knee inside and ruin your move (Marcus does this ALOT if you let him).

The next technique was a sit up Guard pass. The opponent is sat up facing you with space inbetween the two of you. He's ready to jump into Butterfly at a moments notice if you move forward. You have hold of his legs at the ankle and push his legs in toward him. You then secure his legs by wrapping arms around both parts of legs (so they're folded up)and rest your head on his torso leaning in against him. Sprawl your legs out and push one of the opponents knees down through the gap inbetween your legs and then at this point you can do one of two things. You can either pass the one leg over (so you're in a top half guard situation) and turn on your side to pull the other leg through, OR if you're quick you can pass both legs over keeping tight to his body so he can't escape away. I don't know if it was something to do with me being spaced out due to lack of sleep but I was having a hard time accepting that the second variant would work. Seemed too simple.

The third and fourth passes of the night were shown together. The first was a Butterfly Guard pass. Raf showed us that if you hug the opponents legs together high on the leg (ie above the knee) the guys instinct is to push out with his legs using his butterfly to make space. If he does that though you just keep his legs hugged tight together and rest all your weight down. His legs will flatten under you and as long as you use good knee control and all you weight well, you should be able to pass your legs over to one side, keeping a strong hug on the opponent while you inch up his legs and torso to flatten him out into side control.

The other guard pass was worked as if you'd managed to get double underhooks on his legs (both his legs are around you head with no arms inside). You can then grip the lapel on one side of his jacket using both hands and use it to pull yourself in towards him. You can then use this to shoulder shrug pass around the legs the opposite side to the secured lapel into side control.



Next we did some situational rolling in the form of Guard Passing or Sweeping. The guy in guard has to sweep, the guy on top has to pass. I did pretty well for this portion of the sparring last night as I managed to pass AND sweep 3 of my four opponents. Hit the half guard sweep I talked about earlier twice, so it's good to know it's working in live rolling. The only guy I didn't sweep was Andy (Judo throw guy from last week whose surname eludes me) who I didn't hit a sweep on. None of my opponents managed to pass or sweep me for the situationals either which was a bit of a reassurance for my control techniques.


We closed the class out with some good rolling. Four turns for 5 minutes. Very enjoyable.

First up was Marcus who went straight into guard. I had a hell of a time passing his guard this time however and whenever I did manage it he just escaped back using his wicked hip escapes (very strong part of his game). Really good defensive rolling from Marcus last night and I couldn't get anything on him.

Next up was Jase Brookbank and it was another energy sapping endurance roll. I was in his guard and after some furious grip fighting and sweep blocking I got close to passing so he turtled up and held a really tight hug grip on my leg quite high up. This was horrendously difficult to shake and we were in the position for a good couple of minutes. I eventually broke out of it using the arm underhook technique Leo taught us (using a lot of Leo stuff that night). From there I was really close to taking his back but he managed to keep an arm in to block. That was where the time played out and we were both totally shagged after. While we were gasping for breath and drinking everybody else had paired off and were going again so me and Jase rolled together again.

Next one Jase jumped guard straight away and the roll turned into a guard to half guard, recover back to full guard rinse and repeat effort for ages. Then in the end I got sloppy and was trying to push his upper body for a pass and he caught me with a very neat arm bar. Fuckin tight too, still smarts a bit now. He swang his leg over and I had the arm secure with my other arm and stacked him up. I used the arm bump to pull the arm out and just when I thought I'd got the elbow through he managed to pull the secure arm off and locked the arm bar on. It seemed to be positioned perfectly so his hips could be used as a fulcrum and my arm could invert to either side of the elbow. Ouchie. I'll definitely be bringing the A game for Mr Brookbanks next week.

Last roll was against Andy (Judo Guy) and for this one I was feeling a bit lazy so after an initial grip battle I just pulled spider guard then pulled him into closed guard and tried to look for ways to submit him from there. I didn’t find any but I rest easy in the knowledge that I could’ve swept him a few times if that had been my aim, but I was content to look for subs. His game was tight enough though that he had everything well scouted.

At the end Raf made a little speech and then we all got pictures with him. Unfortunately, due to the exceptionally steamy nature of the room we train in post session, the lense on the camera basically steams up a second after you've wiped it off. 

 If that was to be my last raining session with Rafael Heck then I want to thank him for the instruction he's given us and the laughter and camaraderie he brings to the table with his teaching style and personality. Raf you're one in a million. Cheers dude. \m.

Checkmat 21-2-12

There was a bit of an air of disappointment in class this week, which in no way reflects how we feel about being taught by Rafael Heck, but at the Seminar on Saturday it was hinted at that Chico would be there along with Leo Vieira who is sticking around in the run up to Chico's MMA debut fight on Saturday. Just the thought of Leo being in attendance for a regular Tuesday night lesson had us all a wee bit excited. I understand the reasons they weren't there (Chico training for his fight) but when you pump yourself up for something you can feel a little deflated when it doesn't happen.

Still, Raf is a brilliant teacher and his command of the English language is improving every time I see him. He rarely stumbles on a word now when showing us a technique which is a vast improvement on his first lesson.

Venue - LA Gym, Bristol, UK
Instructor - Rafael Heck (Checkmat Black Belt)

To start Raf took us through an absolute beast of a warm up. Lots of running, sit ups, push ups, hip escapes and all sorts of other stuff. I was fairly knackered after the warm up alone to be honest.

When the instruction part of the session started, Raf explained that we were going to do Closed Guard Passing. This was due to the fact that there was a competition two days before at Hereford and a number of Checkmat guys went to compete. Raf felt that there seemed to be some people having no success breaking and passing closed guard so he wanted to go back to basics. It's worth mentioning however, that of the three guys I know of that competed from the Bristol class, all three acquitted themselves well by all accounts. Josh Kersey won a couple of fights in the always heavily contested under 82 kg bracket, Shabba Vaithianathan managed to get three wins (all by sub) and finished fourth in his bracket and Ronan Fleming impressively managed to come away with a silver medal at blue belt under 100 kg. Well done guys. All good results.

On to the techniques then. First pass Raf showed us was a standing one for No gi. Start in your opponents closed guard, laying down on his torso with hands pressing his armpits. You then stand and pressure his body using your hips as if to stack him. If you bend your legs in slightly and balance on the instep of your foot the opponent will not be able to take your leg for a sweep. From here, push one of his legs down with both hands to break his closed guard, then land your knee past the leg with your foot the other side so you have his leg pinned to the floor. Lean across his torso using your body weight to keep the guy down then pull your other leg through and secure the side control before bringing the bracing leg fully over.

Raf also showed nearly the same for Gi, but you start postured up with one hand on his belt, the other taking his same side wrist and pressing it into his body. Stand as for the first technique, then break closed guard with one hand using a grip on the gi pants (almost as if you're pulling the leg open) and then pass same as before.

I was drilling the techniques with Marcus Hedley. I managed to slip in a demo of the Half Guard Sweep that Leo taught us on the Saturday as Marcus was unable to attend. He agreed with me on the awesome-osity of the move.

For the next Guard break and pass Raf taught, you start in closed guard again, this time pressing on hips using your hands. You then push a knee into the opponents rear so you can break the guard and end with the knee in between his legs. From there, secure one leg with your same side hand (this would be on the other side to the knee you have raised) and push the leg to the floor, then reach back under same side knee with your other hand and pull that leg up to your shoulder and drive it upward (as if toward his other side shoulder) using constant body weight pressure. Then you just need to buck the leg by turning your body sideways slightly and you come over into side control. Make sure you stay tight at all times or the guy might get space to bring a leg back up for guard recovery. 

We drilled this and also drilled the move for if the opponent flips over to turtle. Quite fun.

For the last pass the start was basically the same up to the knee in-between the legs point. You then reach under the other side knee and pull down hard using both arms gable gripped together. You can drive your body weight into this as well as if to sort of half stack the guy which causes some discomfort for him. You can then smash pass in the same way driving forward with shoulder and passing to side contol.

After drilling this last pass we were stopped for a bit of situational rolling. The purpose of this was mainly to practice passing. The objective for the top guy was passing while the bottom guy tries to sweeps. I rolled with 3 different guys through this - Marcus, Jase Brookbank and some other guy whose name escapes me. I managed to pass all three at least once and managed to hit a few sweeps which was good and I successfully defended my guard through the lot. Result.

After that came the real rolling. Me and Marcus went first and after a good bit of back and forth sparring I managed to hit him with a triangle which I was happy with (remember, it was one of those moves I really wanted to be hitting more often at the end of last year). After the reset Marcus landed a really impressive arm drag on me and very nearly took me back. I was fortunate to manage to turn in at the last second to recover guard from which I managed to pull off an armbar. We reset again with him jumping into Butterfly Guard. He nearly threw me over the top with an impressive fall back sweep but I kept my balance and pushed into an S mount. From there I wrapped my arm around the back of his neck and secure his arm in a position so it was crossfacing him (almost like he was RNCing himself), tucked my nearside leg down in between his legs and used the leverage that the gift wrap (as the Americans call it) allowed me to pull him up so I'd taken his back with both hooks in. Then I was attacking his back for the rest of the roll with Marcus defending liking a demon. Very impressed with Marcus' ability to defend his back, I was trying Bow and Arrows, RNC's, armbars, nothing worked and time expired. 

Then I rolled with Jase. We had another excellent high tempo roll but it was one of those attack-parry- riposte type rolls where you barely get to advance or gain a significant upper hand. I was in his guard. I attempted a pass but only made it to half guard. He nearly got the sweep on me to which I based out then passed one knee over to attempt to get to mount. He then pushed me back down to get back to half then attacked with some fairly well measured gi chokes. I piled on top and started to attack the guillotine, he broke this and threatened with the over shoulder lapel gi choke, I tried to control his hand with his belt and from there it just deteriorated into a grip battle. By the end we were both pretty knackered and happy with the well earned stalemate. As Jase said, it was very much a chess match type roll where you're thinking about what the opponent is doing next and trying to block that before it happens. 

Me and Jase.

 

To close out the session the class separated into two group, under 80 kg and over 80 kg. Obviously I was in the over group (tubs). In these groups with did a bit of standing start throwing practice where two guys start with the aim being to throw the opponent. Winner stays on up to three goes. I got beat in the first go against the guy whose name I don't know from earlier. He got a pretty cool judo throw on me (Ian told me the name of it but I forgot. I'm shit at remembering Judo names) and then proceeded to last for his full three turns. Then Ian went on and blasted everyone he fought using the same move. Some sort of fall back and flip the opponent over so he landed in mount. Pretty impressive.

At the end of the session we all gave Raf a big clap for the lesson as he quickly made us forget all about Leo and the class was actually really enjoyable. Some of the guys seemed a little disappointed as they though they were to be graded that night (oh did I forget to mention that was supposed to be on the cards too) but it'll probably happen next week now so I'll be going up again to see who gets a shiny new belt. And to punish then for it like they did me >:o)

Good luck to Chico for his fight Saturday. I hope he gets it to the ground and gets a flash sub real quick! \m/

Leo Vieira Seminar 18-2-12

Saturday was an amazing day for me. For the second time I had the opportunity to go and train under the Legendary Checkmat Head, Leo Vieira. Leo is over in the UK to help train his good friend and student (and incidentally one of my instructors) Chico Mendes for his upcoming MMA debut. But it wouldn't have been fair on the members of Checkmat UK if Leo visited and didn't do a seminar so Saturday was the day. The location was the awesomely kitted out, yet slightly chilly, Trojan Freefighters Gym in Cheltenham Gloucester. The attendance was very good without being too packed. And the techniques taught were brilliant.

First up we lined up for the introductions. Chico took the lead with a little speech and introduction for Leo. He also introduced another Brazilian Black Belt Amaury Pugliese, Brown Belt and Checkmat MMA representative Mauro Xuxa, and Checkmat Bristol regular Rafael Heck.

The first portion of the seminar was No Gi, only my second time of actually training No Gi. Leo ran us through a quick warm up and then we went into techniques.

First technique (well drill really) had us pummelling then one guy drops down for the double leg takedown and the other guy sprawls, securing the first guy around the chest. We drilled this for a couple of minutes then moved on. I was drilling through the No Gi part with Dan 'Grizzly' Adams, an old training buddy from the Burnham Class where I first started Jiu Jitsu.

The next technique was started from the sprawl. You're leaning on the shoulders/back of the guy after he'd tried a double leg on you and you've reach over his arms and around his torso to grip him around the chest. From here you take the guys chin in one hand for control and reach down and grab the same side arm of the guy with the other hand. Then pass the arm up the other hand and secure it in close to the guys body so you can then transition around the guys undefended side to get to rear side mount. We drilled this a few time time then moved on.

Next up starting from the sprawl position again, cup the guys chin with one hand, then with your other arm reach inside for the underhook and pass your arm through the gap and then over his back and use the leverage you gain to pry his arm up. From there you can turn the guy over into side control using the arm to control his body, but ensure you press your weight against him at all times so he has absolutely no space to shrimp out. Really liked this as a simple method of attacking a guy in the turtle. Drilled the move for a bit then moved on.


The next set of techniques were from Butterfly Guard which was amazing for me as I am really developing a love for this guard set and I've been working on trying to improve this part of my game loads lately.

First off Leo focused on recovering to Butterfly and included a nifty sweep in there. From attempting the sprawl the opponent either manages to pull your legs in or you have attempted to pull guard (you have still managed to overhook the back and secure the guy around the chest). The guy starts to pass around to side control but you've still got that vital grip. From there you can hit a cool sweep. Raising the near side leg against the guys side, push off with the other leg and pull the guy over using the torso grip. From this point Leo showed us a few things to do depending on what happens from there. If you get a good bit of momentum on it you can sweep the guy right over and roll over backwards to land in side control or better still, mount. Alternatively you release the chest grip and push off the guys shoulder while turning your body to face down so you can push up onto you feet (handy for MMA or if you just wanted to reset and start from standing). Lastly, if the guy manages to push himself back over and around the worst that can happen is that you land with both Butterfly hooks in and you've still got the overhook chest hold. Now you can fire the guy backwards with your legs and sit up into a very commanding Butterfly position. We drilled these over and over for a while. I particularly loved the sweep but the reset to Butterfly was also a favourite.

Next up we worked on the Butterfly Guard proper. Starting from the Butterfly Guard with overhook, the guy either manages to get his head out or you let it pop out but keep a grip on the arms. A very strong grip. From there you lay backward so the guy is forced to catch both of your body weights on his hands. From here you can twist over to one side and back and kick out with the leg on the opposite side to flip the guys over and land in mount (with the guys arms still gripped to your sides). Leo also showed us a way around if the guy is quick and manages to base out with his outside leg. Simply kick it away using your other leg. Fairly obvious really but very handy and the sweep is amazing. This was probably my favourite technique of the day. Me and Dan drilled the move to death and tried to theorise on whether it would be possible for the guy getting swept to react quickly and upa escape back round. We established that it was fairly unlikely as the sweep exerts a fair bit of pain on the ribs of the guy on the receiving end and you're too busy thinking about alleviating that squeeze on the ribs before you even consider busting out of the mount.

The next technique shown was a couple of cool subs. From the Butterfly Guard but with only one of the overhooks. Make sure there's a bit of space between yourself and your opponent and that your leg on the opposite side to the secured arm is in a position to stop any possibility of passing. Now use your free arm to push the other guys free arm out of the way and you can fire the leg on that side up and over the shoulder and bring the other leg up to wrap around the first for the triangle. I found that you need to thrust up with your hips to make space to pull the guys trapped arm into the correct position. Either that or switch it to an armbar.
The alternative that was shown at the same time was instead of firing the leg up for the triangle, pull the other leg up and around across the underside of the guys face to turn into the omoplata.
Both great moves. Really enjoyed drilling these subs as I'm always on the look out for new ways to hit an Omoplata or Triangle.

Last technique for the No Gi part was from the Half Guard but similar to the Butterfly (almost as if the guy managed to pass one leg over your Butterfly Hook), the arm is overhooked. You must ensure that your inside leg is up out past the knee pressing into the guys gut so he can't pass. From there you can press the foot of your outside leg up against his knee on the same side. Now you can press your inside leg knee into the guys near inside thigh and twist into him whilst pulling the trapped arm and push him over with the free arm.
At first I was really uncertain about this sweep, not being sure if I could get enough power to flip the guy over but after a few attempts and a handy pointer from Amaury Pugliese I found the move fairly reeking of awesome.

To close the No Gi part of the seminar out we had some situational rolling. Starting from some of the various positions we'd practised today. One guy had to try and hit the move, other guys has to pass or break out of position. We changed partners after 3 or 4 minutes. I really enjoyed this rolling as I was hitting just about everything I was trying and it really gave me a confidence in the stuff I had learned so far that day. Awesome first part of the seminar.


We quickly had a drink and changed into our Gis for the second part of the seminar. None of the usual half hour to an hour break that we often have with Checkmat seminars. We went straight into the Gi portion of the day with no preamble.


For this segment of the day I had the fortune of training with Gary Davies, Ian's long time SJJA instruction partner who has a dearth of helpful tips and tricks to help improve your game. Whenever I train with Gary I never fail to learn at least something new to improve my game.

For the first Gi technique of the day, Leo showed us a really cool little Gi choke that goes against most of your conventional Gi chokes from Guard. Start with the guy in your closed guard. Reach up for the cross collar grip deep into his collar. Then with the other hand, reach to the other collar (going over the top of the first arm) and grip the collar deep using a kind of upside down (thumb pointing downward) grip. Then you simply scissor you hands together whilst pushing up (that's right, up?!). We really loved the simplicity of this move and I have no doubt that Gary is trying to tap someone out with this sub as I type (he runs a Monday class in Taunton). I must admit though I was finding it hard to land at first as I couldn't get past the urge to pull down. Also, I wasn't driving my top hand into the collar far enough for a while.

Leo moved this technique on by having the guy getting choked attempt to resist by pushing on the choking arm. When he does this you can just escape your hips to the side of the arm he's using to block, swing your leg up and over the top of his arm and across his chest for a really tight armbar. The arm actually lands in a position very low on your crotch so the falcrum of the armbar is really tight on.

Next Leo took us through some Half Guard tactics. Things to improve your basic Half Guard. He started by putting us in the basic Half Guard with your butt out to one side (the strong side, where your leg is on the outside). You then put your outside arm across to push against the guys shoulder (the shoulder on the opposite side, so your left hand pushes his left shoulder or right for right). Your outside leg hooks the guy around the outside but the knee points up inside at the shoulder. From there you secure the guys outside arm at the wrist with your free hand, then base up on your elbow and windmill your other arm (the one that was previously cross bodying him) under his nearside arm then around his back. You then drive your shoulder up whilst basing out with your free hand, forcing your opponent down using your bodyweight (so he's on three points with your underhook pushing him down at the fourth point). You have still got your inside leg tucked in and wrapped over the guys near leg. From this basic position came pretty much every other technique we did that day.
We drilled getting to this basic position a few times before being moved on. It was during this time that Gary imparted upon me one of the most basic yet important pieces of Half Guard knowledge I have heard. It's almost so simple I'm surprised I've never heard it before but there you go. Whilst drilling the basic Half Guard I was initially forgetting to put my cross arm up sometimes going for an underhook or something. Gary kept reminding me and eventually told me that the FIRST thing he does when hitting Half Guard is to get the hips to the outside and put the arm across. Why had I never seen it before? So simple. Arm across stops the guy passing while you set yourself up for other stuff. Epiphany.

Moving the series on Leo showed us two sweeps from that basic start position. The first was simply whilst leaning into the guy you grab his knee with your free hand or pull his gi pants at the knee and he just collapses on the floor with you quickly pulling your leg out to jump into side control. The second was very similar but pulling the ankle instead. Nice easy moves to start with. Easily drilled.

The next move Leo demonstrated from the initial basic position had you pressing down on the opponents head as if tying to tuck in underneath him. You then lean your hips into him whilst freeing the tangled leg and the guy goes first inverted, then flips over for you to land in side control or North South. Drilling this one was a bit fiddly and I got it wrong a few times. The inversion part of it is not comfortable either when you're the guy getting swept over.


Next up was another easy one. From the basic position you reach up to his collar with your free hand and use it and your arm around the opponents back/shoulders to shunt the guy forward so you can pop your head out and take the back or at least rear side mount. See, nice and simple yet very effective.

Another one, this time a little bit more fiddly, can happen if the opponent tries to stand from the basic position by basing out on his outside leg and getting a whizzer on the arm you have him underhooked with. What you do is keep your nearside leg (not the one that's entangled with his nearside leg) pressed tight to the back of his nearside leg so he can't pull away and grip his gi at the shoulder with your tangled arm. Then with you free hand, reach down and grab the guys gi pants near the very bottom (don't use the illegal fingers in grip) and stand so his leg is now parallel to the floor and he's hoping on one foot, still with your arm around his back, gi clutched at the shoulder. Now all you need do is walk forward whilst pulling back on his gi. Even guys with the best balance will go down to this eventually.

The final move of the day (that I remember) was for if the guys manages to get to feet or knees and escapes his tangled leg. So he has the whizzer and has escaped his foot but your shoulder is still up behind his back. Just quickly shift your hip in toward him and turn him over you for the flashy judo style throw. For extra assistance pull on his outside arm. This move can be done equally easily from the knees.


After all the techniques were done we did some situational rolling. First, we started from what I've been calling the basic position and the one guy tried to sweep or advance position while the other guys tried to break or gain position. This very quickly deteriorated into a Half Guard situational roll though as most guys just seemed to be tapping hands then going balls to the wall from a half guard start. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was doing really well in all this. I managed to hit quite a few sweeps and not get swept much at all. I know! Me. Hitting half guard sweeps. Cool.

Seeing this was just breaking down into Half Guard rolling Leo stopped it and put a load of pairs on the mat. Then lined the remaining guys at the side. The deal was that the guy on the bottom stays on the mat for 5 rolls. The object is to start from Half Guard with the guy on the bottom trying to sweep or regain full guard, the guy on top has to pass. Once the objective has been completed, regardless of who won, the guys on bottom stays on until he's had 5 goes, then swaps with his last opponent. I loved this style of training and was experiencing some really cool results. I managed to sweep quite a few people, twice hitting the twisting half guard sweep from the No Gi part of the seminar. I was also passing well too though my sweeping game was better than my passing game.

I think on reflection this had been the best seminar I have been to for stuff I've learnt that has been relevant to my current goals in Bjj. We covered Butterfly Guard stuff and Half Guard stuff. I had a fruitful day in the situational sparring. Things were working for me. Some days you feel good about your game.

Chico only gave out two belts on the day as most of the other guys he was ready to promote were in competition the next day so he said he'd save it for in the week. I have high hopes for a couple of the guys at the Bristol club this Tuesday and am warming my belt whipping arm in anticipation.

As an amusing ending to the day, Chico had us all do some weird dance moves on the mat so he could upload them to some weird website that makes it into a video. The results are pretty funny but unfortunately I can't put them up here as the flash video is not downloadable so you'll have to take my word for it.

\m/

SJJA 16-2-12

I've been on call all week but not really had any call outs which is a bit of a bummer. I'm of the mind that if I'm gonna be on call I may as well be working so no calls seems like a wasted week waiting by the phone. So it was a great relief when Thursday came around and it was time for Ian's class at Sweat FA. Good numbers again this week which seems to be quite a steady theme recently (touch wood), a few of the newer guys sticking around and some of the older faces returning and making a run of it. Always good to vary up who you roll with.

Venue: Sweat FA, Weston Super Mare, UK.

Instructor: Ian Rossiter.  (SJJA)







Ian was running a bit late so I took the warm up. I used Ian's standard template of laps of the mats, whilst wind-milling your arms, first the outside arm forward for a lap then back for a lap, then the inside arm the same. Then laps with ass kicks, knee ups, face inward for a lap and out for a lap, then two steps facing in and two step facing out for a lap. Then we did some neck and arm stretching followed by squats, sit ups and press ups. 4 x 10 of each and finished with some leg stretching.

First technique of the night, Ian ran us through a cross collar choke from guard. You've start with the opponent in your closed guard, reach up and grab one side of his collar with both hands (the nearside hand going above the cross side hand). Escape your hips out to the side (not the side you have the collar grip) and pull the opponent down to break his posture. Your top hand then goes over the top of the guys head (whilst sliding your hand along in his collar) and then down across the neck, for the cross collar choke. Be sure to pull your elbows down toward your torso then outward with the contour of your body rather than just trying to yank outwards from the offset.

We constantly mixed up the drilling partners through out the class this week so I'm not even going to try and remember who I was drilling with at any given time. I do remember initially having problems getting my arm over the top of one of the larger headed members of the class but I realised that once the guys posture is broken down you can actually release the cross collar grip momentarily to pull the guys head down with that hand so the arm can pass over, then replace it quickly, without losing any of the tension on the choke.

We were then shown a variation of this technique by Dan, a blue belt that has recently joined our class after moving up from Portsmouth (I think?). You've got the guy in your Guard. You break his posture down using 1 cross collar so he's close to your chest. Your other arm comes over the top and pulls up a handful of gi at the shoulder and you use the pressure of that arm on his back to uncomfortably press his face into your chest. He’ll inevitably try and make space to free his head by which time you can lift the top arm slightly to let the head go up and pass the forearm under the chin for the cross collar choke.

From there we moved on to a Loop Choke. Start in closed guard again with 1 cross collar grip with a limp wrist grip so the arm can bend under the throat. Pass the other arm around the back of the guys neck and thread that hand through your arm at the elbow crook. You then turn the hold and the guy (like a steering wheel) to hit the choke.

A variation for if your opponent is on the large side is to grab the gi sleeve at the elbow (instead of threading the hand in the elbow) and slapping it on like that.

The last technique of the day was a cross collar choke variation using the opponents gi lapel pass over his back. Firstly, you need to ensure his gi jacket lapel is pulled fully out of his belt on one side. Then, break down his posture using your knees to pull him toward you and pass the guys lapel behind his back and over his opposite shoulder. Then grip with the opposite hand so you have a cross collar grip. Hold it so your thumb is pointing upwards and bring your forearm across his throat. Your other hand reaches up to his other shoulder and you can apply the cross collar choke by pulling your arms down towards yourself in the usual way.

I initially found this move difficult to get to grips with but I think that might be as much to do with the guy I was drilling with who was a bit uncooperative with the positioning of the technique. Got it in the end though.

A variation for this one was to turn it into a loop choke which I found much easier to get to grips with.

Rolling.

Rolled twice against Tom Hill controlled him and took his back twice. Very near to hitting the bow and arrow at the end but time ran out. Next against big Justin who I managed a deep half sweep on. Got him to mount and tapped him to an arm bar from mount. Last roll was another go in the meat grinder against Ian. I didn’t tap this time - result. And got some reasonably good half guard play in there.

A good lesson with some nifty gi chokes in there. Fantastic. Saturday is another Leo Vieira - Checkmat/Trojan Seminar in Cheltenham. Awesome. Can't wait. \m/

Half Guard Top to Back.

I've been on call this week so I've been relatively quiet on the Jiu Jitsu front. I've got Ian's class on Thursday to go to trusting work's quiet that night so I look forward to that, but generally when I'm on call I lay off the intense study of technique vids and books in favour of a bit of relaxation while I'm not out on a emergency call out.

I was a bit chuffed though when Paul Severn from Trojan/Checkmat Cheltenham, linked me a YouTube vid of Caio Terra taken from his 111 Half Guard Techniques DVDs. Paul has sent me the vid link in the hope that it helps improve my Half Guard game by the next time he sees me so he doesn't roll over me in sparring so easily (at least that's what I imagine, he may just be being a nice guy).

The technique itself is a pretty slick transition from Half Guard top to taking the opponents back. Caio pops his trapped leg up so the knee is free, then clenches his legs together trapping the inside leg of his opponents and falls forward flattening him out. Now from that point alone I can see a good few potential submissions or transitions. Caio goes with taking the back but it doesn't take a lot of imagination to see other possibilities. I can't wait to get the opportunity to try this move in sparring.

Thanks for the link Paul. A real good find. (I bet you've already got the set you bastard). Below is the YouTube vid I'm talking about. It's good viewing and also has many other Caio Terra technique thumbs on the same page. Enjoy. \m/

Checkmat Bristol 7/2/12

Managed to get a Tuesday night training sesh in with the guys at Checkmat/Trojan Freefighters Bristol at the LA Gym. We had been moved upstairs into the slightly smaller, yet infinitely warmer top floor room for last nights class. Chico Mendes (2nd degree Black Belt) took the class with Rafael Heck (Black Belt) used as his demonstration partner. Numbers were, as usual, extremely good with space on the mats pushed to it's limit. Seemed to be slightly more of the No Gi crowd last night but a lot of the usual suspects in gi had turned up too so there wasn't a shortage of training/sparring partners.

Instructor: Chico Mendes
Venue: LA Gym, Bristol, UK.

We got there dead on time last night (8 pm) but the warm up was already well underway so I think someone was raring to go last night. By the time I was changed and ready to partake we had got to sit ups and press ups. Then hip escapes, cross collar choke sit ups and then on to two man warm up exercises.
First up was arms held behind backs, both guys start in an armless clinch type stance then try and take the back of the other guy whilst he is trying to take your back. What this results in is the two of you just basically circling and changing levels to block each other out.
Next up was a clinching drill (arms involved this time) where you've each got an over under hold and the objective is to pummel to gain an advantage (double underhooks), once you've got it you can drop slightly, tighten the control at the waist/small of back and lift the opponent as if for a takedown.
Last up was a balance/leg control exercise where you've got you opponent with a grip round the back of his head with one hand and his leg raised and tucked under your arm on the other side. Your opponent has you in exactly the same hold and you basically just move around, hopping about. At one point I was sure someone was going to be filming the scenario as we both looked like a bunch of dancing wallies.

First technique was an arm drag from a position where the opponent is attempting to pass your guard (most commonly your Butterfly Guard) by hold you legs together at the ankles whilst you are sat up in front of him. You are pushing him away at the shoulders to make space, then you reach down to one of his wrists and grip it to secure that arm in place so it's effectively attached to that leg, then with that same leg you step outside taking the guys arm out with you and, using your other hand, grab underneath the exposed arm pit. From there you can just pull hard back and to the opposite side of you whilst escaping your hips to the side from which you just performed the drag. The guy should shoot right over with you comfortably popping round on the outside so he lands on his front and struggles to get to turtle while you already have one hook in. You've now got the opportunity to secure a back side mount and attempt to get both hooks in (possible but riskier) or take him out of turtle to a safe position to attack. Were also shown a variation of this where you drag by the collar instead of the arm.

I drilled these techniques with Marcus and we both found them pretty easy although Chico picked me up on the fact that I should have been escaping my hips further.

Next technique was from if you don't get the drag off well. If when dragging the guy puts his arm out while going over he can land in your Half Guard. From here we were shown a Half Guard sweep similar to one we did a few weeks ago with some pointers on control. Over wrap the opponents nearside arm (whizzer style). Release the outside leg figure four  (ensure your inside leg is firmly crossed over his near side leg for control) then put hook against his near side inside thigh and hold the guys other arm either at the wrist or the triceps (Chico said his preference is the Triceps grip) . Then, wait for the opponent to make a move. Chico emphasized this a lot saying that you can wait as long as you want, if the guy's not moving just relax there and wait. As soon as he attempts to pass or flatten you out or make virtually any kind of move you can push up with the hook and sweep him over onto his back.
We first drilled this move then went on to situational rolling from this position.Starting from the Half Guard, arm secured, foot hooked inside thigh position, the objective is for the bottom guy to get a sweep or sub or recover guard, while the top guy has to pass or sub. I rolled with Marcus first managing to get a couple of  sweeps on him (which I was mega chuffed with as it means my Half Guard game is making strides) and passing his guard a couple of times.
I then rolled with Mike under the same conditions and managed to get a couple of sweeps on him too. Then he kept trying this weird method of passing while basing his outer leg really far out giving you about a car parks worth of space to pull your inside leg up and secure full guard. Which I did a couple of times.

I also had a go against some guy I've seen a few times before but still do not know his name. I managed a sweep on him and he managed to pass once too. From the top I managed to pass him a couple of times and he got a sweep on me. I really enjoyed the half guard training and have to say I feel like my Half Guard game is already beginning to go places compared to how poor it was a couple of months ago. Chuffed things are going right :o)


As for the nights proper rolling. I had my first roll against Josh Kersey. Now "Big Josh" is quite a tall lad and used to have a decent weight advantage on me when he first started about a year or so ago and I used to have a fairly easy time of it against him. Wow things have changed. Bjj has definitely worked wonders on Josh and he's really training hard and looking the part. He's lost a shit load of weight (think he's lighter than me now but I'll gloss over that bit), has himself a well tasty new Vulkan light (not sure if it's the Pro or the Ultra version) black Gi, and gets to train 4 times a weeks (4 TIMES!! Lucky bastard).
From the start of the roll Josh went at it very hard. Driving me straight back into guard and passing my guard into half guard. From there we sat for a very long time in a rather unorthodox position with Josh in a sort across ways Half Guard top position giving him quite a lot of control but with me have a death grip like clench on his leg. From this position I was eventually able to recover guard but not for very long at all. Josh quickly blasted past my guard (looks like I've got to go back to basics there for a bit) into side control and then after a while managed to get mount. He didn't really threaten anything from mount control and it wasn't until I hit and Upa escape (got the 3rd attempt) back into his guard that he launched an omoplata attack on me. I was able to pass my body over the top of him for the escape on that but he altered it into a very nice, very tight armbar to which, after a very quick attempt at breaking out of, I tapped. Very nice move Josh. After that we dived back into it. I very nearly managed to take his back, got a sweep on him and that was about it. I very much look forward to my next roll with Josh but fear that he would've trained about 8 times the next times I see him where as I probably would've only fit about 2 in :o(
Life is unfair sometimes.

Next roll was against Marcus and I obviously had to take my sparring with Marcus a little more seriously that last Thursday. We went at it with him pulling guard straight from the off. I managed to pass into side control. From there after a bit of struggling I got the mount on him and tried to get some sort of collar/ezekiel action going on while also trying to scout out an arm bar. Marcus had all that well scouted though and eventually recovered half guard. I managed to pass my arm underneath his head though and got a grip on his collar and pulled him up to take his back. From there I was attacking his back for ages and Marcus did an absolutely amazing job of defending his neck and collars. I was literally struggling for ages and had to resort to locking my forearm across his face to pull his head up slightly so I could slip and arm in and get a rear naked choke. Took bloody ages though. We reset and Marcus managed to hit a decent sweep on me from Spider Guard (I think) to land me on my back. From there I got back to top using a Half Guard sweep (hehe it's working) and got to side control. I was attempting all sorts of gi chokes and Americana's, nothing of which would work. It was only during a breath stop that I clocked my belt there in between me and Marcus' head. I quickly reached around his head and grabbed the belt, then pulled it tight around his neck. A quick adjustment of my body position via a North South to opposite side control transition and Marcus tapped. And that was the first time I've hit that sub. Always a pleasure to be blazing new trails in your Jiu Jitsu game.

Last roll of the night was with Jase Brookbanks and, as usual, it was a fast paced, frenetic affair with lots action. Jase fired straight into guard, to which I threatened the achilles ankle lock. He had it well scouted this time and pulled out of it easily and from there we rolled quite aggressively, mostly with me in his guard. I managed a pass at one point but never for too long before he recovered. At some point (can't remember how we got there) Jase threatened an armbar which I stopped with my other arm using a hand to hand gable grip. Unfortunately I was fairly sweaty of hand by this time and my hand slipped and Jase got really close to an arm bar. I only escape this by posturing up and turning around on him to relieve the pressure. Eventually I got to Jase's Half Guard and got him in the position for an arm in guillotine. On torquing this hold Jase tapped but told me it was more due to a neck crank than a choke. Poor technique there Marty-boy.

In all I had a pretty damn good sesh. I'm still leaving myself exposed a little bit exposed for the arm bars which I really have to school myself on (don't remember having this problem before) but on the plus side I seem to be hitting a healthy dose of Half Guard sweepery. Good class. Great people. I still need to work on finding some more mat time somehow but me and Marcus are working on something which might come up in the near future.

Love this game. \m/

Sjja 2-2-12

In Bjj, some nights you have it, where you're on fire and no one can touch you (well, get position on you or threaten with a sub) and some nights you should of just stayed at home. You find yourself stepping back into your early learning phase and dropping clangers all over the place. In particular, leaving arms where they should not be left. More on this later.

Thursday nights class at Sweat FA had good numbers again and we had the bonus of having Gary Davies in attendance which is always a treat. It was pleasantly warm in the martial art room given that the rest of the gym is usually freezing during the day and the temperature outside was a chilly -2C.

Venue: Sweat FA

Instructor: Ian Rossiter.  (SJJA)

Warm Up: Laps of the mat, including, ass kicks, knee ups, facing inward for 2 laps, facing out for 2 lap. Neck, Arm and Shoulder stretching. Push ups 10 x 4, Squats 10x 4, Crunches 10 x 3, and then some leg stretching.

For the first technique, Ian quickly ran us all through the Triangle from Guard we did last week. You've got the opponent in your guard, you get a tight grip on his sleeves, open your guard and put one foot on the opponents opposite hip (left for right, right for left). Then with the strong sleeve grip, push the guys arm that's not on the side with the foot on hip into his stomach whilst pulling the other arm up towards you. Now fire your other leg up in the air then down across his shoulders (you may need a hip shift and rotation of the your body out to the side to accomplish this) and lock your other leg over the first to form a figure four around the guys head and forward arm. I drilled these moves with the ever improving (and ever slimming) Rich Presley. As there were odd numbers we were also joined by Gary which was a treat. Gary always imparts a few of his additional little golden nuggets of Bjj knowledge on the people he's drilling with which help immensely towards tightening up the technique.

 

Quickly after that we went on to the first Triangle defence from last week.  As the opponent is going for the triangle you have to lift your head up a bit so he can't get it lock properly and his leg forms into what Nathan calls a diamond. Also, ensure the arm that is through the triangle hole is braced against the opponents hips, using your other hand reached around the outside of his leg and pressing down on the through arm for additional strength on the brace. Making sure your head is back as far as it will go (even going as far as to roll eyes back to emphasize the upward head motion) and the hips are braced down, you can then come up onto your knees (the triangle will break here if the guys got little legs and you have big shoulders) and then further up to your feet. From here the hold should break easily. After a short drilling of this we moved on.

 

From there, Ian and Gary showed us a different escape from the triangle attempt. You start off the same as before so you have your head and back postured up and arms bracing the hips. From here you bring your leg that is on the same side as your trapped arm, around to press against the opponents side and push it in hard as you turn your head away in the opposite direction. The pressure here should be from your knee on his side and the tightness of it being wrapped around the upper leg pushing it inwards while your head kind of pushes the lower leg out. The legs should come open, but you have to be wary at this point because if you follow your instincts and start to pull out and away in the direction your head is facing at that point you set yourself up to be omoplata'd. Instead you can either turn back in and bring your outside arm back in so you're are back in the guys guard to start the passing attempts again, or you can keep pressure on the opponents bottom leg (the one not over your shoulder) with your free arm and bring your previously trapped arm out and around the outside of the guys leg, then pass using the smash method of leaning all your weight on his leg from your shoulder, pushing it to the side until you can slide right by. While we were drilling, Gary picked me up on the fact that I was trying to just throw the leg over for the pass which give the guy on the bottom valuable space to reclaim guard. 

Ian moved us on from here to a fairly tasty sweep. Starting from the feet on hips, hands gripping opponents sleeves, escape your hips slightly to one side. From there, pass the foot on the side you escaped to, over the opponents arm then put the foot on to his ribs (so you kind of have his arm grapevined with your leg). Now, bring your other foot up and bring your leg horizontally across his torso, hooking on the outside ( at the same side your other leg is). From here your opponents natural instinct is to pass to the side where both your legs aren't. When he does this you can grab the material of his gi pants on the non passing side and pull it up kicking up and over with your legs to sweep the guy over. When you come up, the arm that you originally had trapped with your leg is in a dangerous bicep crush position. If you put your weight on that it will  really hurt the opponent but this is an illegal move in Bjj competition and would get you instantly disqualified. You need to allow space for the guy to retract his arm whilst also making sure you've got enough pressure on his upper body to ensure he can't break position and recover guard. 

 

We drilled this move for a while and whilst we were going through the motions Gary showed us how to switch this in to a "cheeky armbar". Same set up as before up until the opponent starts to pass. From there you bring the horizontal leg out and over his far side arm and past his face. With your other leg out on the under side of both his arms you can get a nifty armbar with both his arms in.

Gary then felt a little bit disco and showed us an inverted triangle from the feet on hips, sleeve control position. With this one you don't wrap the leg round the arm instead keeping it inside positioned vertically up against his chest/torso on the his opposing side. The other leg still goes horizontal across though and from this position you push away with your knees while pull in with the sleeve control. The opponent will try to react by pulling away at which point you bring the vertical leg out and up over the guys non opposite shoulder (your right leg goes over his right shoulder or left for left) and start putting downward pressure whilst keeping both your shoulders flat on the mat - I had problems with this cause I kept turning on my sides for this- and curling your leg around his back. From there you fire your other leg underneath and out behind you then wrap it round the top leg to make the inverted triangle. Very flash. Only got a couple of tries on this before we realised we'd left a tragically short amount of time for rolling. 

Now the rolling was where my previously mentioned problem occurred. First I rolled with Rich who, as I said before, is an ever improving White Belt who has been training quite heavily lately (3 times a week, lucky bastard). I had a good roll with Rich, his guard game has improved massively and he tends to jump straight into guard rather than try to grapple from the knees. He seems to be favouring spider guard a lot lately and was very close to sweeping me with the high foot in elbow crook sweep (obviously not it's official name). Now I used to get a lot of subs on Rich but recently that has not been the case and this time I managed to pass his guard a couple of times to side but didn't even threaten a any kind of sub so his game is definitely improving no end.

I next rolled against Gary. Now Gary has been off for a couple of weeks due to a new tattoo but rather than come back rusty (that's not Gary's style), Gary beasted the shit out me. I had one of those rolls where nothing went right and I felt like a total amateur. I was falling into obvious traps and not even keeping my limbs in tight. Because of this, Gary managed to capitalise on a couple of  rookie mistakes and catch me in two nice tight armbars. And Gary can finish an armbar well. My 50% armbar escape rule definitely doesn't apply with Gary. 

After that roll I was busy fluffing my crestfallen pride while every other guy was picking another opponent. Because of this I lucked out and was left with rolling against Ian. Ian's been rolling with a renewed vigour recently and I definitely felt the brunt of it. As soon as we touched hands for the start he jumped straight into an aggressive guard and tried for several different sweeps. I managed to stop a couple and get a pass into half guard where he threatened a kimura. Whilst the kimura was on and I was stopping it with a very flimsy gi pant grip, I managed to pass to side control and then escaped the kimura attempt by passing into mount. I tried to threaten a few subs from here but Ian had absolutely non of it and I was quickly back into his half guard then guard. I don't remember what happened after that (heat of the moment and all that) but Ian ended up hitting me with yet another armbar (3 armbars in the night!!!) which I'm pretty sure wasn't straight off from his guard.

After time was called on that roll Ian was about to call time. Me and a few others were quick in asking for more and Ian gave in and said we could have one more roll. I went against long time training partner Marcus. Now it's worth me mentioning here that in all the times we've rolled, Marcus has never tapped me out. Not to take anything away from Marcus though as I outweigh him by about 2 and a half stone and have been training for about a year longer than him. Tonight though, as I said, wasn't my night. Ok, I managed to get Marcus early with a Kimura from side control but after the reset I pulled guard and Marcus managed to pass to half guard. I worked on one of the sweeps I've been practising lately, making use of the framing technique I spoke of in my last log to escape the hips to the side (at this point it's worth mentioning that the 30 second warning had gone off). From that position I pulled his basing arm in and bridged for the sweep, turning him over onto his back though Marcus, as usual, exhibited his speed off his back and quickly reclaimed guard (this is one the strongest parts of Marcus' game). Marcus quickly crossed gripped my collar and I made a very stupid mistake here. I settled myself to pull on one of Marcus' hands at my collar to relieve pressure knowing that there was only seconds left (stupid and poor training practice). Time was called and I can recall thinking "I survived that one" but unfortunately my body did not want to move and then my vision swam. I can remember rocking back and forth thinking "I'll stand up in a sec" and Marcus saying "Martin, are you all right?" and then I was back in the room. 

 

I got up and laughed it off with Marcus saying that he nearly had me but after we'd closed out the class and were getting changed I thought to myself that at the end of the day, if time hadn't been called, I would've been unconscious. Marcus got me. I shouldn't take that away from him, I should help him celebrate the fact as a  milestone in his Bjj progress. I went over to Marcus and told him outright that he basically choked me out. We laughed about it as we left the gym. I'm very glad Marcus is improving that much and hope to have many challenging sparring sessions with him in the future. 

Walking away from that session though I felt a little hollow as I've been making a lot of rookie errors recently. My last two classes my sub ratio has been pretty poor and a lot of guys are training 2 or 3 + times a week and are getting noticeably better while I feel I'm starting to stagnate. To combat this I think I desperately need to find a way to get additional training in. I've been tossing about a few ideas and discussing some things with Marcus and hopefully we can maybe start getting some extra mat time in soon. Even if it's just drilling techniques we know or have seen in a book with a healthy dose of rolling. Just need to get this together. Need to improve my game. Don't like the bad days.

\m/

By the way, hopefully next time I'm at Ian's class I'll have my Video Camera fully charged to coincide with the lesson (idiot) and can film some or all of the techniques so I can post the vids here and you won't need to interpret my descriptions so much. Can't wait for that.