In my last couple of blogs I've been bleating on about the Pace Choke, particularly as it comes from a position I often find very attainable. I managed to hit one of these babies on Thursday night against one of my sparring partners and was exceptionally chuffed in a kind of "well whaddya know? It works!" type way.
So anyway, I thought I'd dig around on the YouTube for a video of it either being taught or used on a fight. And I was fortunate enough to find a video of the man himself, Nick Pace, demonstrating his choke.
I have also found a copy of him using it to finish Will Campuzano in the third round of their match at The Ultimate Fighter Finale - Team GSP vs Team Koscheck. Even UFC mouthpiece and general lover of all things Jiu Jitsu, Joe Rogan, confesses at the time that he'd never seen it's like before.
I am definitely going to be using this little baby more often. Simple and effective. \m/
This is an ongoing blog about Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and my experiences.
Monday, 30 April 2012
Saturday, 28 April 2012
Weston Bjj 26-4-12
We had reasonable numbers for Ian's class again this week and the dojo at Sweat FA in Weston has been done out with new mats so the place absolutely stank of chemicals or glue or something. Everyone in attendance was feeling relatively high after being in there for a couple of minutes (it's all good). And because of the super slippy-ness of the new mats, everyone's hip escapes were amazing. Even tubby gits like me were hip escaping like Rickson Gracie, keeping position on people was a lesson in control by itself.
Venue: Sweat FA, Weston Super Mare, UK.
Instructor: Ian Rossiter.
Warm up:
Laps of the mat, including, ass kicks, knee ups, facing inward for a lap, facing out for a lap and arm windmilling for a couple of laps. Neck, Arm and Shoulder stretching. Push ups 10x3, Squats 10x 3, Crunches 10 x 3, then some leg stretching.
Techniques:
Ian started us off with the very first sweep I ever learned off him. The Scissor Sweep. I must confess that I don't use this sweep very often. I see lots of guys using it but it's just not one of my favourites. Starting with your opponent in your closed guard you grab a hold of his gi at the elbow or triceps on one side and at the collar on the other side. Then,opening your guard, hip escape to the side you have the collar grip, leaving your far side leg flat to the ground next to his leg, while pulling the near side leg up to push against the opponent at the torso (Ian prefers it to go diagonally up across his body). To finish the sweep you steer the opponent sideways toward the side where you have the triceps grip whilst simultaneously 'scissoring' your legs to sweep the guys base out from underneath him and flip him over on to his back.
I was drilling all of the nights moves with Dan Foster. This one being an old move was fairly straight forward and both of us knew it well anyway.
Next technique Ian showed was a variation on the first. Same set-up as before but this time, when trying to turn the opponent over, he bases out well with his far side leg. To counter this, just bring the sweeping leg up and press your foot against his basing out leg. Then just push hard on that leg to knock the base out and continue the flip over the same as before.
We then drilled the above two sweeps in continuous motion by having the opponent Upa escape out of the mount back to guard. We did 4 turns each then swapped. Did this for a couple of sets.
The next move was a technique I'd not seen before. Starting from closed guard, reach up with one hand and secure the same side collar of the opponent using a pistol grip. Now, bait your opponent into trying to pass guard on that side of your body by dropping the leg a bit. Let him pass one leg over but clamp his second leg in (effectively going into half guard). Whilst the passing was going on you should be using your other hand to grab his other collar using and inverted grip (upside down pistol grip, so fingers are in). Now, moving your far side shoulder in toward your opponent, you can bring the inverted hand collar under the opponent's chin and then pull up the other side of his face to start applying the choke. Sometimes this will be enough to get the tap but if the opponent can resist this you just need to bring your far side leg up and over the top of the opponents head to pressure down on him making the choke much tighter. A real eye popper.
Me and Dan both really liked this choke once we'd got the hang of it.
The next technique was a variation of the above. Same movements up until the point that you're applying the choke. This time though, the opponent has managed to get his near side arm in between the choking arm and the leg that comes up, taking the pressure off the move. From here, you just simultaneously shift your hips out to bring the inside leg up to rest against their ribcage while securing the blocking arm to your chest. You can then extend your legs for the arm bar finish.
Nice and flash.
Funnily enough, me and Dan had been trying to work on how you could change it into an arm bar just before Ian demo'd the technique. Works really well.
We then worked on blocking cross chokes as Rich had requested it. Standard block of pushing the elbow of the top arm of the cross choke a little bit further across so you can bring the other hand up in between his cross choke and rest that hand against the top of your head (not on the lower part of your face or a strong opponent could break your fingers). This totally defuses the pressure of the hold.
We drilled this for a bit.
We started on another gi choke technique then but I can't remember the details as I didn't get a chance to drill it. We stopped to roll soon after the demo.
Rolling:
We had a nice long rolling session in this class. I went against Dan first. I started by pulling guard and we spent a good couple of minutes with Dan trying to pass my guard and me doing everything I could to not let that happen, occasionally I would threaten a sweep by grabbing a leg too but Dan was really energetic in his pass attempts and didn't give me a lot of time to work anything. I eventually managed to wrap a leg under and around his leg and swept him down into 50/50 guard and then came up into his guard. Dan then threw up and triangle attempt which he turned into an arm bar attempt. The round played out with me desperately blocking his arm bar attempt. He was VERY close to hitting it but I was twisting my arm to stop the pressure being put on.
My next opponent was Rich Presley and I was happy once again to jump guard. This time though I baited Rich to pass over my leg into half guard and then wrapped my untrapped leg over his back behind and around his head and grabbed the leg on the other side of his head with my outside arm. I then passed that arm under his chin and pulled the leg tight while pushing the arm up into his throat for the choke. I was chuffed to get the tap from this as it's the same Pace Choke technique that Me and Marcus had been drilling on Tuesday. Although the proper way to finish it is to extend the leg so the arm closes tight across the throat. Ah well, I'll work on that. Great move though. The rest of the round played out with guard play and a bit of side control on both parts.
My next opponent was a new guy called Steve. As Steve didn't really know what to do I didn't really spar with him, I just showed him a couple of methods of passing guard and let him use them on me. I showed him the knee up ass, extend legs guard break with the smash pass and also the knee over then rear leg over pass. He seemed very appreciative of this.
Chris Whiting was next. Chris is a strong but not very experienced white belt. Once again I pulled guard (couldn't be bothered to wrestle for position that night) and tried for various sweeps and other moves under Chris' vigorous guard attack. I eventually shot my legs up and turned him over for an arm bar. Chris took a breather for a sec and then we were just restarting when the time buzzer went.
The next guy I sparred with was Rob (still don't know his surname) who after starting from guard I managed to tap ridiculously easily with an arm bar. I didn't realise Rob was as new as his skills as he appeared. So instead on carrying on rolling from knee to knee I let him first of start in side control which I found escaping quite easy (probably down to the super slippy new mats) and then gave him tips on side control pressure. I then let Rob start in mount, a decision which I nearly regretted as Rob went straight for the throat, literally, as he latched on a very tight cross choke from mount. His arms were particularly strong on this and it took a lot of strength for me to perform the choke block that we were drilling earlier. I was able to Upa out of the mount though and the round ended.
Last opponent was Marcus, who I managed to sweep but landed in his half guard. From there a bit of arm wrestling lead to me hitting a straight arm bar on him. The round played out shortly after that.
That was the end to another wicked Bjj lesson. I can only say I am loving this Martial Art and Sport more and more as my time in it passes. I have some ideas on things I won't to improve on which I will talk about in upcoming posts. And I'm developing a small list of techniques I really want to hit. I'll probably be doing a bit more training on Monday and Tuesday lunch with Marcus too. We're thinking of doing a No-Gi session on Monday which'll be cool. \m/
Venue: Sweat FA, Weston Super Mare, UK.
Instructor: Ian Rossiter.
Warm up:
Laps of the mat, including, ass kicks, knee ups, facing inward for a lap, facing out for a lap and arm windmilling for a couple of laps. Neck, Arm and Shoulder stretching. Push ups 10x3, Squats 10x 3, Crunches 10 x 3, then some leg stretching.
Techniques:
Ian started us off with the very first sweep I ever learned off him. The Scissor Sweep. I must confess that I don't use this sweep very often. I see lots of guys using it but it's just not one of my favourites. Starting with your opponent in your closed guard you grab a hold of his gi at the elbow or triceps on one side and at the collar on the other side. Then,opening your guard, hip escape to the side you have the collar grip, leaving your far side leg flat to the ground next to his leg, while pulling the near side leg up to push against the opponent at the torso (Ian prefers it to go diagonally up across his body). To finish the sweep you steer the opponent sideways toward the side where you have the triceps grip whilst simultaneously 'scissoring' your legs to sweep the guys base out from underneath him and flip him over on to his back.
I was drilling all of the nights moves with Dan Foster. This one being an old move was fairly straight forward and both of us knew it well anyway.
Next technique Ian showed was a variation on the first. Same set-up as before but this time, when trying to turn the opponent over, he bases out well with his far side leg. To counter this, just bring the sweeping leg up and press your foot against his basing out leg. Then just push hard on that leg to knock the base out and continue the flip over the same as before.
We then drilled the above two sweeps in continuous motion by having the opponent Upa escape out of the mount back to guard. We did 4 turns each then swapped. Did this for a couple of sets.
The next move was a technique I'd not seen before. Starting from closed guard, reach up with one hand and secure the same side collar of the opponent using a pistol grip. Now, bait your opponent into trying to pass guard on that side of your body by dropping the leg a bit. Let him pass one leg over but clamp his second leg in (effectively going into half guard). Whilst the passing was going on you should be using your other hand to grab his other collar using and inverted grip (upside down pistol grip, so fingers are in). Now, moving your far side shoulder in toward your opponent, you can bring the inverted hand collar under the opponent's chin and then pull up the other side of his face to start applying the choke. Sometimes this will be enough to get the tap but if the opponent can resist this you just need to bring your far side leg up and over the top of the opponents head to pressure down on him making the choke much tighter. A real eye popper.
Me and Dan both really liked this choke once we'd got the hang of it.
The next technique was a variation of the above. Same movements up until the point that you're applying the choke. This time though, the opponent has managed to get his near side arm in between the choking arm and the leg that comes up, taking the pressure off the move. From here, you just simultaneously shift your hips out to bring the inside leg up to rest against their ribcage while securing the blocking arm to your chest. You can then extend your legs for the arm bar finish.
Nice and flash.
Funnily enough, me and Dan had been trying to work on how you could change it into an arm bar just before Ian demo'd the technique. Works really well.
We then worked on blocking cross chokes as Rich had requested it. Standard block of pushing the elbow of the top arm of the cross choke a little bit further across so you can bring the other hand up in between his cross choke and rest that hand against the top of your head (not on the lower part of your face or a strong opponent could break your fingers). This totally defuses the pressure of the hold.
We drilled this for a bit.
We started on another gi choke technique then but I can't remember the details as I didn't get a chance to drill it. We stopped to roll soon after the demo.
Rolling:
We had a nice long rolling session in this class. I went against Dan first. I started by pulling guard and we spent a good couple of minutes with Dan trying to pass my guard and me doing everything I could to not let that happen, occasionally I would threaten a sweep by grabbing a leg too but Dan was really energetic in his pass attempts and didn't give me a lot of time to work anything. I eventually managed to wrap a leg under and around his leg and swept him down into 50/50 guard and then came up into his guard. Dan then threw up and triangle attempt which he turned into an arm bar attempt. The round played out with me desperately blocking his arm bar attempt. He was VERY close to hitting it but I was twisting my arm to stop the pressure being put on.
My next opponent was Rich Presley and I was happy once again to jump guard. This time though I baited Rich to pass over my leg into half guard and then wrapped my untrapped leg over his back behind and around his head and grabbed the leg on the other side of his head with my outside arm. I then passed that arm under his chin and pulled the leg tight while pushing the arm up into his throat for the choke. I was chuffed to get the tap from this as it's the same Pace Choke technique that Me and Marcus had been drilling on Tuesday. Although the proper way to finish it is to extend the leg so the arm closes tight across the throat. Ah well, I'll work on that. Great move though. The rest of the round played out with guard play and a bit of side control on both parts.
My next opponent was a new guy called Steve. As Steve didn't really know what to do I didn't really spar with him, I just showed him a couple of methods of passing guard and let him use them on me. I showed him the knee up ass, extend legs guard break with the smash pass and also the knee over then rear leg over pass. He seemed very appreciative of this.
Chris Whiting was next. Chris is a strong but not very experienced white belt. Once again I pulled guard (couldn't be bothered to wrestle for position that night) and tried for various sweeps and other moves under Chris' vigorous guard attack. I eventually shot my legs up and turned him over for an arm bar. Chris took a breather for a sec and then we were just restarting when the time buzzer went.
The next guy I sparred with was Rob (still don't know his surname) who after starting from guard I managed to tap ridiculously easily with an arm bar. I didn't realise Rob was as new as his skills as he appeared. So instead on carrying on rolling from knee to knee I let him first of start in side control which I found escaping quite easy (probably down to the super slippy new mats) and then gave him tips on side control pressure. I then let Rob start in mount, a decision which I nearly regretted as Rob went straight for the throat, literally, as he latched on a very tight cross choke from mount. His arms were particularly strong on this and it took a lot of strength for me to perform the choke block that we were drilling earlier. I was able to Upa out of the mount though and the round ended.
Last opponent was Marcus, who I managed to sweep but landed in his half guard. From there a bit of arm wrestling lead to me hitting a straight arm bar on him. The round played out shortly after that.
That was the end to another wicked Bjj lesson. I can only say I am loving this Martial Art and Sport more and more as my time in it passes. I have some ideas on things I won't to improve on which I will talk about in upcoming posts. And I'm developing a small list of techniques I really want to hit. I'll probably be doing a bit more training on Monday and Tuesday lunch with Marcus too. We're thinking of doing a No-Gi session on Monday which'll be cool. \m/
Tuesday, 24 April 2012
Two Man Training 24-4-12
I've had the pleasure of getting in a couple of training sessions over lunchtimes (god bless flexi-time) on Monday and Tuesday this week down Sweat FA in Weston Super Mare, with my trusty training amigo, Marcus Hedley.
Given the impromptu-ness of the first one on Monday, we didn't really plan anything to train in advance. So instead we just decided to roll..... for the whole hour. Which was awesome, challenging, enlightening and knackering, all at once. I got to try a load of stuff that I've been learning recently but not had a chance to try or hit in normal class sparring due to time constraints or the right opportunity not coming up.
To be frank, an hour of rolling was just what the Bjj doctor ordered. Once you fight through the cardio wall you start to pull your shit back together and get your second wind. And your adrenaline brain also fades, bringing back some of your repertoire. Interesting that, and worth remembering for any future competitions.
Anyway, on to today's session and the techniques we worked on. Thinking ahead, Marcus and I both went away Monday and looked up a few things to train. I personally took most of my inspiration from "the Jiu Jitsu Genius" Marcelo Garcia, in the form of his new book Advanced Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Techniques. And what an amazing book it is. Marcus looked up some stuff from various sources, including Andre Galvao's Drill to Win book and various YouTube vids.
To start we drilled some techniques to enhance our Rear Naked Choke game (courtesy of Mr Garcia). Now Marcelo is firm advocate of isolating an arm so he can then use both arms to attack the neck. Starting from full back control (sat up, both hooks in, seat belt control) you grab one of the opponents defending arms (with your overhook arm) at the forearm and push it down, then quickly bring up your leg on the same side and clamp it over the top of that arm to secure it to his side, pulling the arm you used to acomplish this back out and reverting to the seat belt. You can now push the other arm away in a similar style but with your underhooking arm (so from the inside of the forearm)and whip your free arm up hard (Marcelo's preferred method for hitting the RNC is aggressively whipping the overhook arm up from the seat belt to attack the neck direct) to encompass his neck. Now releasing with the other arm you can quickly wrap it around the first (crook of elbow around hand) and bring the arm around to apply pressure to the back of the head, squeezing tight.
The next one works under the premise that you have full back control but are leant over on the side with the overhooking arm against the floor. Basically you use the same style, but back to front. You start with the underhooking arm pushing down on his same side defending arm from the inside forearm, trap the arm with your top leg. You then use the same arm (top arm) to reach across the opponents body and push down on his other arm so you create space to quickly whip the overhook arm up around the neck. You can then release the other arm and finish the RNC in the usual way.
The last one also worked from the back control but laid on your sides. This time though, your opponent is using his top arm to try and push away your top hook. You let him push it until his arm passes his hip (so the arm is now a little way behind him) and then grab it at the inside forearm using your underhooking arm (the one the was at the top) and pull it further behind him and then up his back so you now have an old school style behind the back arm lock on him. Now bringing your top leg up and putting your foot on his hip you can squeeze in a keep the arm in place. You are now free to attack the RNC using the two arms on one situation again.
Arm isolation is one of Marcelo's key tips for hitting the Rear Naked Chokes that he is famous for. Using any of the above moves can seriously aid your back attack game.
The next thing we covered was something Marcus had been looking at in Andre Galvao's book. Defending from Kesa Gatame bottom scarf hold as others know it), bring your outside arm up and grabbing the opponents same side lapel with an upside-down fingers in grip, you do a punching motion with the gi in hand to pass the opponents opposite shoulder. Whilst doing this you hip escape away (as far as you can) and simultaneously bring the outside leg up across the head, the inner leg up to pressing knee on the opponents side and grab the opponents near arm, extending the whole lot out for the arm bar.
Another technique we drilled a little was a North - South Choke. From a strong side control position, grab the gi material of opponents far side arm near the upper arm, with the hand of your leg side arm and pull it down and close to the opponents body. Then, using your near side arm, pass the arm over the top of the opponents head and then wrap it around underneath so your hand ends near your belt area. Now you just move your body around to the North - South position, forcing the opponents head down on it's side with the pressure of your torso as you move and reach down with your other arm to grip the wrapped arm with a gable grip so you can pull in to apply the pressure. We found that if you use the crook of the elbow around the choking arm you can get it on REALLY tight but sometimes you may not be able to reach it.
Marcus brought a bit more Galvao to the table for the next couple of techniques. We did an amazing and somewhat disco omoplata and triangle from the same set up. Started in closed guard, you cross grip the opponents sleeve using a pistol grip and reach down to the same side knee with your other hand and grab the gi pants. Now comes the flash bit. You swing your leg on the other side, over the top of his head whilst rolling sideways across your shoulders to come up in an inverted position off to the side off your opponent with your leg tucked under his arm. Now you just need to roll forward, keeping hold the gi pants (so he can't roll out of it), coming up beautifully into an omoplata. Amazing yet simple move with a really cool set up. I NEED to hit this move.
The second move from this set up works the same up until you get to the rolling forward point. This time when you're rolling forward for the omoplata the opponent blocks by straight arming the far side arm and starts turning in toward you. This movement leaves him perfectly set up for the triangle finish as he turns into your legs. Just wrap your far side leg around his shoulder/neck using this to pull him in position so you can easily wrap your free leg over the top of the other to close the triangle. Raise your hips and pull the arm across and you don't even need to pull on the back of the head. Another flash finish from a relatively simple and attainable set up (trusting you're not afraid to invert).
There was another really tasty triangle that I had been trying in our rolling session (didn't know it at the time, was just trying to escape a bad position) that Marcus pointed out later. It has a funny name, after an MMA fighter of relatively little renown, who used it to win a fight one time and then faded into obscurity. I cannot remember the name of the guy but the move is basically a triangle from Half Guard, being closed up using your arm/s. You are in Half Guard bottom position but quite loose on the outside. You bring your outside leg up and over his shoulder and back and grab it at the other side of his head with your same side arm (same side as where the leg is coming from, so you've essentially got an across neck choke hold). Now you just pull hard on the leg while lifting your shoulder to apply the choke. You can actually use both arms to grab the leg but it's the off side arm that's applying the choke. Me and Marcus were mega chuffed with this triangle variation which I why I am a bit gutted I can't remember the bloody MMA fighters name. Grrrr.
We finished with another Marcelo effort, this time the Over the Shoulder Armbar from Mount. Mounted on your opponent crouching low, you thread one of your arms under his same side forearm and out a little so he ends up with that arm underhooking yours. With your other arm you grab his other arm at the forearm and press it to his chest and bring your leg on that side up and over his shoulder (as if going for a mounted triangle but without attempting to wrap it around his head). From there (you should still have his first arm tucked under your arm at this point) you can bring your other leg out and up to beside his head and use that leg a fulcrum for the arm bar. This move is remarkably simple and actually very tight.
I'm sure I missed a couple of techniques off but never mind. I got the bulk of it. After all that we had a quick ten minute roll which was mega fast and furious, neither of us managing to hit any of the moves we learned today. Once again, I cannot recommend enough this two man training format as you can both bring moves to the table that you've been dying to learn and it teaches the other guy the move at the same time. Brilliant. Anyway, now I have to wait until Thursday for my next Bjj fix. I will definitely be trying to get more of these two man sessions in though as I feel like my game is really improving a lot and particularly my cardio (previously my Achilles heel) has been benefiting no end.
A big thanks to Marcus for training with me too. \m/
Given the impromptu-ness of the first one on Monday, we didn't really plan anything to train in advance. So instead we just decided to roll..... for the whole hour. Which was awesome, challenging, enlightening and knackering, all at once. I got to try a load of stuff that I've been learning recently but not had a chance to try or hit in normal class sparring due to time constraints or the right opportunity not coming up.
To be frank, an hour of rolling was just what the Bjj doctor ordered. Once you fight through the cardio wall you start to pull your shit back together and get your second wind. And your adrenaline brain also fades, bringing back some of your repertoire. Interesting that, and worth remembering for any future competitions.
Anyway, on to today's session and the techniques we worked on. Thinking ahead, Marcus and I both went away Monday and looked up a few things to train. I personally took most of my inspiration from "the Jiu Jitsu Genius" Marcelo Garcia, in the form of his new book Advanced Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Techniques. And what an amazing book it is. Marcus looked up some stuff from various sources, including Andre Galvao's Drill to Win book and various YouTube vids.
To start we drilled some techniques to enhance our Rear Naked Choke game (courtesy of Mr Garcia). Now Marcelo is firm advocate of isolating an arm so he can then use both arms to attack the neck. Starting from full back control (sat up, both hooks in, seat belt control) you grab one of the opponents defending arms (with your overhook arm) at the forearm and push it down, then quickly bring up your leg on the same side and clamp it over the top of that arm to secure it to his side, pulling the arm you used to acomplish this back out and reverting to the seat belt. You can now push the other arm away in a similar style but with your underhooking arm (so from the inside of the forearm)and whip your free arm up hard (Marcelo's preferred method for hitting the RNC is aggressively whipping the overhook arm up from the seat belt to attack the neck direct) to encompass his neck. Now releasing with the other arm you can quickly wrap it around the first (crook of elbow around hand) and bring the arm around to apply pressure to the back of the head, squeezing tight.
The next one works under the premise that you have full back control but are leant over on the side with the overhooking arm against the floor. Basically you use the same style, but back to front. You start with the underhooking arm pushing down on his same side defending arm from the inside forearm, trap the arm with your top leg. You then use the same arm (top arm) to reach across the opponents body and push down on his other arm so you create space to quickly whip the overhook arm up around the neck. You can then release the other arm and finish the RNC in the usual way.
The last one also worked from the back control but laid on your sides. This time though, your opponent is using his top arm to try and push away your top hook. You let him push it until his arm passes his hip (so the arm is now a little way behind him) and then grab it at the inside forearm using your underhooking arm (the one the was at the top) and pull it further behind him and then up his back so you now have an old school style behind the back arm lock on him. Now bringing your top leg up and putting your foot on his hip you can squeeze in a keep the arm in place. You are now free to attack the RNC using the two arms on one situation again.
Arm isolation is one of Marcelo's key tips for hitting the Rear Naked Chokes that he is famous for. Using any of the above moves can seriously aid your back attack game.
The next thing we covered was something Marcus had been looking at in Andre Galvao's book. Defending from Kesa Gatame bottom scarf hold as others know it), bring your outside arm up and grabbing the opponents same side lapel with an upside-down fingers in grip, you do a punching motion with the gi in hand to pass the opponents opposite shoulder. Whilst doing this you hip escape away (as far as you can) and simultaneously bring the outside leg up across the head, the inner leg up to pressing knee on the opponents side and grab the opponents near arm, extending the whole lot out for the arm bar.
Another technique we drilled a little was a North - South Choke. From a strong side control position, grab the gi material of opponents far side arm near the upper arm, with the hand of your leg side arm and pull it down and close to the opponents body. Then, using your near side arm, pass the arm over the top of the opponents head and then wrap it around underneath so your hand ends near your belt area. Now you just move your body around to the North - South position, forcing the opponents head down on it's side with the pressure of your torso as you move and reach down with your other arm to grip the wrapped arm with a gable grip so you can pull in to apply the pressure. We found that if you use the crook of the elbow around the choking arm you can get it on REALLY tight but sometimes you may not be able to reach it.
Marcus brought a bit more Galvao to the table for the next couple of techniques. We did an amazing and somewhat disco omoplata and triangle from the same set up. Started in closed guard, you cross grip the opponents sleeve using a pistol grip and reach down to the same side knee with your other hand and grab the gi pants. Now comes the flash bit. You swing your leg on the other side, over the top of his head whilst rolling sideways across your shoulders to come up in an inverted position off to the side off your opponent with your leg tucked under his arm. Now you just need to roll forward, keeping hold the gi pants (so he can't roll out of it), coming up beautifully into an omoplata. Amazing yet simple move with a really cool set up. I NEED to hit this move.
The second move from this set up works the same up until you get to the rolling forward point. This time when you're rolling forward for the omoplata the opponent blocks by straight arming the far side arm and starts turning in toward you. This movement leaves him perfectly set up for the triangle finish as he turns into your legs. Just wrap your far side leg around his shoulder/neck using this to pull him in position so you can easily wrap your free leg over the top of the other to close the triangle. Raise your hips and pull the arm across and you don't even need to pull on the back of the head. Another flash finish from a relatively simple and attainable set up (trusting you're not afraid to invert).
There was another really tasty triangle that I had been trying in our rolling session (didn't know it at the time, was just trying to escape a bad position) that Marcus pointed out later. It has a funny name, after an MMA fighter of relatively little renown, who used it to win a fight one time and then faded into obscurity. I cannot remember the name of the guy but the move is basically a triangle from Half Guard, being closed up using your arm/s. You are in Half Guard bottom position but quite loose on the outside. You bring your outside leg up and over his shoulder and back and grab it at the other side of his head with your same side arm (same side as where the leg is coming from, so you've essentially got an across neck choke hold). Now you just pull hard on the leg while lifting your shoulder to apply the choke. You can actually use both arms to grab the leg but it's the off side arm that's applying the choke. Me and Marcus were mega chuffed with this triangle variation which I why I am a bit gutted I can't remember the bloody MMA fighters name. Grrrr.
We finished with another Marcelo effort, this time the Over the Shoulder Armbar from Mount. Mounted on your opponent crouching low, you thread one of your arms under his same side forearm and out a little so he ends up with that arm underhooking yours. With your other arm you grab his other arm at the forearm and press it to his chest and bring your leg on that side up and over his shoulder (as if going for a mounted triangle but without attempting to wrap it around his head). From there (you should still have his first arm tucked under your arm at this point) you can bring your other leg out and up to beside his head and use that leg a fulcrum for the arm bar. This move is remarkably simple and actually very tight.
I'm sure I missed a couple of techniques off but never mind. I got the bulk of it. After all that we had a quick ten minute roll which was mega fast and furious, neither of us managing to hit any of the moves we learned today. Once again, I cannot recommend enough this two man training format as you can both bring moves to the table that you've been dying to learn and it teaches the other guy the move at the same time. Brilliant. Anyway, now I have to wait until Thursday for my next Bjj fix. I will definitely be trying to get more of these two man sessions in though as I feel like my game is really improving a lot and particularly my cardio (previously my Achilles heel) has been benefiting no end.
A big thanks to Marcus for training with me too. \m/
Sunday, 22 April 2012
Bow and Arrow from Side Control.
I've been getting good results with this technique recently and to be honest it wasn't something I'd seen on YouTube or had been taught, I'd just kind of edited what I already knew about the Bow and Arrow to be applied from Side Control. I often find myself in Side Control searching for a sub and the old me would be trying to hit an Americana or an Ezekial Choke from Side, or just trying to transition over to Mount.
My sub knowledge from side control is ok from a practical, sit back and think about it, view point, but when it comes to stuff that jumps into my head during the heat of the moment I'd say I become a bit more limited in my options. This is something I'm going to be working on in the coming weeks with a series of goals, to hit (or at least attempt multiple times) different subs from side control.
But that is off the track of what this particular post is about as, for the time being, I am pleasantly happy and chuffed with the development of this Bow and Arrow variation I had been working on. The method I use to pull it off is slightly different to the video I found (but you gotta get a video, right?), so I'll describe what I do first and then you can look at the vid to see how it's supposed to be done. Remember, I am not trying to teach people here, I am just typing what works for me.
So I have Side Control on my opponents. He's flattened out on his back and I have a controlling arm around his neck, hand near his shoulder, my other arm his bracing his far side to prevent him from shrimping out and my leg side knee is braced against his low side (also to prevent movement). Maintaining downward pressure on his body I bring my bracing arm up so I can grab his nearside collar and pass it over into my other hand (at the opponents shoulder). I then use the hand that I passed the gi over with to reach down and grab a hold of the opponents nearside leg at the knee, either by grabbing the gi material or grabbing under the knee. I can now push my legside knee into the side of the opponent and use that to keep the opponent down in place, while I pull around the neck on the gi collar. I have finished the sub from this early position a few times before but should it require, you can bring your other leg up and pass it over the opponents far shoulder to put additional pressure on the choke.
I have, on one occasion, hit this move from half guard top too. To do this you have to ensure that the knee of your trapped leg has passed through the opponents guard. Then you can pass the collar the same as above and pull back and up on your opponent with that hand on the gi so you can bring the other leg around behind his neck and over his shoulder (a certain level of flexibility is needed for this bit). From there you can reach down with the other hand for the opponents leg and lean back on the hold. As I've said, it's worked for me twice, I've only managed to try it three times.
Anyway, enjoy this video of a variation of this move. Video was uploaded to YouTube by GGBJJ (many thanks).
Enjoy. \m/
My sub knowledge from side control is ok from a practical, sit back and think about it, view point, but when it comes to stuff that jumps into my head during the heat of the moment I'd say I become a bit more limited in my options. This is something I'm going to be working on in the coming weeks with a series of goals, to hit (or at least attempt multiple times) different subs from side control.
But that is off the track of what this particular post is about as, for the time being, I am pleasantly happy and chuffed with the development of this Bow and Arrow variation I had been working on. The method I use to pull it off is slightly different to the video I found (but you gotta get a video, right?), so I'll describe what I do first and then you can look at the vid to see how it's supposed to be done. Remember, I am not trying to teach people here, I am just typing what works for me.
So I have Side Control on my opponents. He's flattened out on his back and I have a controlling arm around his neck, hand near his shoulder, my other arm his bracing his far side to prevent him from shrimping out and my leg side knee is braced against his low side (also to prevent movement). Maintaining downward pressure on his body I bring my bracing arm up so I can grab his nearside collar and pass it over into my other hand (at the opponents shoulder). I then use the hand that I passed the gi over with to reach down and grab a hold of the opponents nearside leg at the knee, either by grabbing the gi material or grabbing under the knee. I can now push my legside knee into the side of the opponent and use that to keep the opponent down in place, while I pull around the neck on the gi collar. I have finished the sub from this early position a few times before but should it require, you can bring your other leg up and pass it over the opponents far shoulder to put additional pressure on the choke.
I have, on one occasion, hit this move from half guard top too. To do this you have to ensure that the knee of your trapped leg has passed through the opponents guard. Then you can pass the collar the same as above and pull back and up on your opponent with that hand on the gi so you can bring the other leg around behind his neck and over his shoulder (a certain level of flexibility is needed for this bit). From there you can reach down with the other hand for the opponents leg and lean back on the hold. As I've said, it's worked for me twice, I've only managed to try it three times.
Anyway, enjoy this video of a variation of this move. Video was uploaded to YouTube by GGBJJ (many thanks).
Enjoy. \m/
Wednesday, 18 April 2012
Checkmat - Bristol Combat Legion 17-4-12
Up at La Gym in Bristol this week, usual Trainer (for what used to be called Trojan Bristol, now Bristol Combat Legion) Chico Mendes has been on holiday in Brazil for a couple of weeks and is now over in the states to help Trojan Freefighters prospect, Che Mills, for his fight against Rory MacDonald at UFC 145. However, ready to step up and take his place for a couple of sessions was my usual Weston instructor, Ian Rossiter. And a great lesson Ian offered up for us this week. Attendance wasn't spectacular but it was mainly due to a drop in the number of MMA guys attending the Bjj class. No real loss, it was good to have a class of all gi students up there.
Venue: LA Gym - Bristol - Uk
Instructor: Ian Rossiter, Checkmat (Brown Belt).
Warm Up:
Laps of the mat, including, ass kicks, knee ups, facing inward for a lap, facing out for a lap and arm windmilling for a couple of laps. Neck, Arm and Shoulder stretching. Push ups 10x4, Squats 10x 4, Crunches 10 x 4, then some leg stretching.
Techniques:
For the first technique of the night Ian started us off on a series of moves from the closed guard with overhook. To start Ian just ran us through an effective way to gain the overhook control. Beginning with the opponent in your closed guard postured up with hands down at your gi lapel. Using both hands, grip one of the opponents sleeves at the cuff (use thumb in grip and then use the fingers to turn the gi cuff inside out on itself for a legal yet tight grip). Now simultaneously break the opponents posture down by pulling toward you with your closed legs while at the same time yanking up with your hands and pulling the opponents arm out straight and over your shoulder. Now, with the same side arm as the one the opponent has extended over your shoulder (so if it's his right arm over, use your left), swim the arm in and then over the top of the extended arm and then back underneath to grab a hold the guys opposite side lapel. This is overhook control from guard and is a very tight controlling guard with a good few options.
We drilled just getting to this position to start with. I paired off with the returning Jason Brookbanks, who it was good to see back on our Southern Mats.
Ian moved us on from there to a standard gi choke. From the overhook control you just use your free arm to pass it over the guys near shoulder then draw the arm back down across the face until your hand reaches his shoulder, at which point your grab a handful of his gi at the shoulder and scoop your arm upward under his jaw/face to apply the choke.
This is a fairly easy and effective choke that I have never actually pulled off in free sparring. To be honest I never really utilise the overhook control (I can sense a new long term goal coming on) which is a shame as there's so many options from it, but I generally prefer to keep away from my opponent, not close up.
Me and Jase drilled this move and felt impressed by the tightness of the choke. If the opponent only tries to defend this one by dropping his chin you can use the scooping motion of the forearm to jemmy his head up a bit and tighten on the choke.
Next move in the sequence was a move I affectionately call the Rickson Armbar. As described in the Saulo Ribeiro Jiu Jitsu University Manual, Saulo was present at a seminar where Rickson tapped out the entire class in free sparring using that one move.
The technique was shown to us from the Overhook Guard start. If you try to go for the gi choke but the opponent postures himself up slightly and drops his head down to the side and uses his free arm he can block out the choke. From here you open your guard and escape your hips out to the side, then put your far side foot on the nearside hip of your opponent and use the knee of that leg to press against the back of your overhooking arm putting immense pressure on the opponents trapped arm at the elbow.
I love this move. When executed correctly it gets a pleasant an very immediate tap. It is however, one of those techniques where the size of yourself and your opponent may require you to adjust your positioning somewhat. To demonstrate this Ian had use drill the move with guys of different sizes. I drilled the move first off with Jase, on who I hit the move quite easily using the foot on hip method. Jase on the other hand had difficulty getting it on me as I'm a bit bigger than him, but with a quick adjustment bringing the foot up to my ribcage instead he got it in real tight.
Next up I drilled the technique against Josh Kersey, whose a very tall lad. When he tried the moved on me he landed it easily with foot on hip (and it felt REALLY tight) but for me on him I had to escape my hips a touch further and raise the foot to the ribcage to get the tap. Important to remember.
Moving on, Ian shown us the next step in this sequence. If you're going for the armbar but the opponent then drops the trapped arm down and back at the elbow, effectively blocking the armbar, you can then transition to the omoplata. From the position you were left in attempting the armbar, bring the foot that was on the opponents hip up and lay it across his back whilst turning out to the side so as to come out at a 90 degree angle to the side of the opponent keeping the opponents arm to the outside of your torso (don't allow it to go across you or you'll lose the hold). With the downward leg pressure you can now afford to release the overhooking grip on the gi collar and pull the arm out and use it to secure the opponent at the belt so he can't roll out of the hold. Now you can complete the turning of your body, bringing the leg you have underneath out and bringing the leg that's on his back over and forward. From here you pressure down with your body weight on his back and lean forward and across his back a bit to apply the submission. Lovely move.
Me and Jase drilled this with a guy called Ed (friend of Jase') stepping in aswell. The move is fairly awesome but we let Ed have a good share of the drillling of this as he needed the experience for it.
To finish off the technique portion of the night, Ian showed us a few very effective finishes for the omoplata from that position. As you've turned to face front with the arm wrapped over your leg and secured down by your side, your opponent is still up on his hand and knees slightly. For the most effective finish you need to flatten the opponent out.
The first method for this just involves kicking your legs forward hard to take the opponent down using his own shoulder being thrust forward. If you find that you're not getting this move to work well it's probably that you're not far enough forward to use the thrust with any degree of success. Just bump your hips forward toward the guys shoulder so you're tight in against it, then try again. Works a charm.
The second method shown for flattening out involves swapping the arm securing the opponent at the belt for the outside arm, then using the nearside hand to grip the opponent at the gi pant lower leg (his nearside leg) and then pulling your body laterally away from him (remember his arm is trapped under your leg) whilst pushing away with your hand. This flattens the guy out next to you and is arguably the better technique for flattening a guy out. Or at least it's the one I've always used successfully.
For both of these you finish the hold by leaning forward and across the guys body for the tap.
The third finish of this doesn't involve flattening the guy. Although the move is quite risky as it's very escapable, you can get the tap on the guy in his postured up state. Simply reach across and grab the opponents gi under the far side arm pit and pull your self up to be on top of his back. Ensuring you have maximum body weight on him so he can't move out, you can now just lean forward and toward the far side shoulder for a nice painful sub.
I drilled these moves with Ed. I mostly helped him get the technique down to pat.
To finish off the night we did a bit of 3 way rolling. 2 guys spar for a minute then the third guy attacks the guy with the advantageous position. Then you just switch in that order taking the most dominating position when it's your turn to drop in.
I trio'd off with Jase and Rich Long for the first one. I jumped guard against Jase to start but didn't manage to sweep him within the minute so Rich attacked Jase. Jase managed to recover guard which was the position it stayed in until I stepped in allowing me to attack Rich's back from the off. From there I managed to hit a fairly quick and cheeky Bow and Arrow choke on Rich. After the restart I jumped guard and then Jase switched in, jumping on me into Side Control. I managed to escape to first half guard, then I managed a half guard sweep to get to top just before Rich jumps in attacking side control. I was so busy hanging out of my ass for the next minute that I didn't see what happened but I ended up taking Rich's back again for my minute against him. Rich defend much better this time and the round played out with me unsuccessfully attacked Rich at the rear mount.
Excellent fast and frenetic paced rounds there. Everyone in the room puffing smoke.
The second group I went with was Ed and this massive guy called Ryan. Me Ryan started and I was immediately shocked by just how strong Ryan was, dumping me straight on my back and frantically trying to past my guard. Ryan exhibited all the hall marks of an MMA Bjj practitioner though and just tried to pass using pure strength, throwing my legs to the side most attempts. I managed to retain guard and was just getting an overhook gi choke attempt in when Ed jumped in an took Ryan's back. Ed tried for a kind of Gi choke from behind until Ryan managed to buck him off and started attacking his guard. I jumped in at this point to side control, then used a gift wrap with single hook to pull Ed over and take his back. From there I quickly finished him with a bow and arrow choke and then reset to guard. Ryan quickly jumped in then and got side control on me from which I executed an escape that I was fairly chuffed with. Using my arms to push Ryan away a touch, I swung my leg closest his head up and around his head and brought my other leg to the other side of his head and used my knees to clamp his head there. I then span out of the side of his control and rolled him over so I ended up with side control on him. I was pretty chuffed with that move. From there I managed to get to mount but my minute ended before I could do anything with it.
The rest it a bit of a blur, I know I took Eds back again but got nothing from it and I know Ryan jumped me straight to mount but postured up WAY to high in his mount so I just swept him straight backwards off me using my legs. Our round finished with me attacking side control after escaping out the side of a triangle attempt. Good round. Good class.
It was a great nights training and everyone seemed to be buzzing afterwards as well. Those quick paced rounds where you're attacking one minute then suddenly your world come crashing down around you make for a real adrenaline pump and help you practise your survival defense.
Great sesh. Well done Ian \m/
Venue: LA Gym - Bristol - Uk
Instructor: Ian Rossiter, Checkmat (Brown Belt).
Warm Up:
Laps of the mat, including, ass kicks, knee ups, facing inward for a lap, facing out for a lap and arm windmilling for a couple of laps. Neck, Arm and Shoulder stretching. Push ups 10x4, Squats 10x 4, Crunches 10 x 4, then some leg stretching.
Techniques:
For the first technique of the night Ian started us off on a series of moves from the closed guard with overhook. To start Ian just ran us through an effective way to gain the overhook control. Beginning with the opponent in your closed guard postured up with hands down at your gi lapel. Using both hands, grip one of the opponents sleeves at the cuff (use thumb in grip and then use the fingers to turn the gi cuff inside out on itself for a legal yet tight grip). Now simultaneously break the opponents posture down by pulling toward you with your closed legs while at the same time yanking up with your hands and pulling the opponents arm out straight and over your shoulder. Now, with the same side arm as the one the opponent has extended over your shoulder (so if it's his right arm over, use your left), swim the arm in and then over the top of the extended arm and then back underneath to grab a hold the guys opposite side lapel. This is overhook control from guard and is a very tight controlling guard with a good few options.
We drilled just getting to this position to start with. I paired off with the returning Jason Brookbanks, who it was good to see back on our Southern Mats.
Ian moved us on from there to a standard gi choke. From the overhook control you just use your free arm to pass it over the guys near shoulder then draw the arm back down across the face until your hand reaches his shoulder, at which point your grab a handful of his gi at the shoulder and scoop your arm upward under his jaw/face to apply the choke.
This is a fairly easy and effective choke that I have never actually pulled off in free sparring. To be honest I never really utilise the overhook control (I can sense a new long term goal coming on) which is a shame as there's so many options from it, but I generally prefer to keep away from my opponent, not close up.
Me and Jase drilled this move and felt impressed by the tightness of the choke. If the opponent only tries to defend this one by dropping his chin you can use the scooping motion of the forearm to jemmy his head up a bit and tighten on the choke.
Next move in the sequence was a move I affectionately call the Rickson Armbar. As described in the Saulo Ribeiro Jiu Jitsu University Manual, Saulo was present at a seminar where Rickson tapped out the entire class in free sparring using that one move.
The technique was shown to us from the Overhook Guard start. If you try to go for the gi choke but the opponent postures himself up slightly and drops his head down to the side and uses his free arm he can block out the choke. From here you open your guard and escape your hips out to the side, then put your far side foot on the nearside hip of your opponent and use the knee of that leg to press against the back of your overhooking arm putting immense pressure on the opponents trapped arm at the elbow.
I love this move. When executed correctly it gets a pleasant an very immediate tap. It is however, one of those techniques where the size of yourself and your opponent may require you to adjust your positioning somewhat. To demonstrate this Ian had use drill the move with guys of different sizes. I drilled the move first off with Jase, on who I hit the move quite easily using the foot on hip method. Jase on the other hand had difficulty getting it on me as I'm a bit bigger than him, but with a quick adjustment bringing the foot up to my ribcage instead he got it in real tight.
Next up I drilled the technique against Josh Kersey, whose a very tall lad. When he tried the moved on me he landed it easily with foot on hip (and it felt REALLY tight) but for me on him I had to escape my hips a touch further and raise the foot to the ribcage to get the tap. Important to remember.
Moving on, Ian shown us the next step in this sequence. If you're going for the armbar but the opponent then drops the trapped arm down and back at the elbow, effectively blocking the armbar, you can then transition to the omoplata. From the position you were left in attempting the armbar, bring the foot that was on the opponents hip up and lay it across his back whilst turning out to the side so as to come out at a 90 degree angle to the side of the opponent keeping the opponents arm to the outside of your torso (don't allow it to go across you or you'll lose the hold). With the downward leg pressure you can now afford to release the overhooking grip on the gi collar and pull the arm out and use it to secure the opponent at the belt so he can't roll out of the hold. Now you can complete the turning of your body, bringing the leg you have underneath out and bringing the leg that's on his back over and forward. From here you pressure down with your body weight on his back and lean forward and across his back a bit to apply the submission. Lovely move.
Me and Jase drilled this with a guy called Ed (friend of Jase') stepping in aswell. The move is fairly awesome but we let Ed have a good share of the drillling of this as he needed the experience for it.
To finish off the technique portion of the night, Ian showed us a few very effective finishes for the omoplata from that position. As you've turned to face front with the arm wrapped over your leg and secured down by your side, your opponent is still up on his hand and knees slightly. For the most effective finish you need to flatten the opponent out.
The first method for this just involves kicking your legs forward hard to take the opponent down using his own shoulder being thrust forward. If you find that you're not getting this move to work well it's probably that you're not far enough forward to use the thrust with any degree of success. Just bump your hips forward toward the guys shoulder so you're tight in against it, then try again. Works a charm.
The second method shown for flattening out involves swapping the arm securing the opponent at the belt for the outside arm, then using the nearside hand to grip the opponent at the gi pant lower leg (his nearside leg) and then pulling your body laterally away from him (remember his arm is trapped under your leg) whilst pushing away with your hand. This flattens the guy out next to you and is arguably the better technique for flattening a guy out. Or at least it's the one I've always used successfully.
For both of these you finish the hold by leaning forward and across the guys body for the tap.
The third finish of this doesn't involve flattening the guy. Although the move is quite risky as it's very escapable, you can get the tap on the guy in his postured up state. Simply reach across and grab the opponents gi under the far side arm pit and pull your self up to be on top of his back. Ensuring you have maximum body weight on him so he can't move out, you can now just lean forward and toward the far side shoulder for a nice painful sub.
I drilled these moves with Ed. I mostly helped him get the technique down to pat.
To finish off the night we did a bit of 3 way rolling. 2 guys spar for a minute then the third guy attacks the guy with the advantageous position. Then you just switch in that order taking the most dominating position when it's your turn to drop in.
I trio'd off with Jase and Rich Long for the first one. I jumped guard against Jase to start but didn't manage to sweep him within the minute so Rich attacked Jase. Jase managed to recover guard which was the position it stayed in until I stepped in allowing me to attack Rich's back from the off. From there I managed to hit a fairly quick and cheeky Bow and Arrow choke on Rich. After the restart I jumped guard and then Jase switched in, jumping on me into Side Control. I managed to escape to first half guard, then I managed a half guard sweep to get to top just before Rich jumps in attacking side control. I was so busy hanging out of my ass for the next minute that I didn't see what happened but I ended up taking Rich's back again for my minute against him. Rich defend much better this time and the round played out with me unsuccessfully attacked Rich at the rear mount.
Excellent fast and frenetic paced rounds there. Everyone in the room puffing smoke.
The second group I went with was Ed and this massive guy called Ryan. Me Ryan started and I was immediately shocked by just how strong Ryan was, dumping me straight on my back and frantically trying to past my guard. Ryan exhibited all the hall marks of an MMA Bjj practitioner though and just tried to pass using pure strength, throwing my legs to the side most attempts. I managed to retain guard and was just getting an overhook gi choke attempt in when Ed jumped in an took Ryan's back. Ed tried for a kind of Gi choke from behind until Ryan managed to buck him off and started attacking his guard. I jumped in at this point to side control, then used a gift wrap with single hook to pull Ed over and take his back. From there I quickly finished him with a bow and arrow choke and then reset to guard. Ryan quickly jumped in then and got side control on me from which I executed an escape that I was fairly chuffed with. Using my arms to push Ryan away a touch, I swung my leg closest his head up and around his head and brought my other leg to the other side of his head and used my knees to clamp his head there. I then span out of the side of his control and rolled him over so I ended up with side control on him. I was pretty chuffed with that move. From there I managed to get to mount but my minute ended before I could do anything with it.
The rest it a bit of a blur, I know I took Eds back again but got nothing from it and I know Ryan jumped me straight to mount but postured up WAY to high in his mount so I just swept him straight backwards off me using my legs. Our round finished with me attacking side control after escaping out the side of a triangle attempt. Good round. Good class.
It was a great nights training and everyone seemed to be buzzing afterwards as well. Those quick paced rounds where you're attacking one minute then suddenly your world come crashing down around you make for a real adrenaline pump and help you practise your survival defense.
Great sesh. Well done Ian \m/
Sunday, 15 April 2012
Weston Bjj 12-4-12
It was my beautiful little girl's birthday Friday (Happy Birthday Jolie xxx) so I'm a bit behind with my typing up of Thursday nights class at Sweat FA. The numbers had picked back up a little which is good although some of the guys seem to be pushing the starting time back a bit. Ten past eight guys?
Venue: Sweat FA, Weston Super Mare, Uk.
Instructor: Ian Rossiter (Brown Belt).
Warm Up:
Laps of the mat, including, ass kicks, knee ups, facing inward for a lap, facing out for a lap and arm windmilling for a couple of laps. Neck, Arm and Shoulder stretching. Push ups 15x3, Squats 15x 3, Crunches 15 x 3, then some leg stretching.
Technique:
First technique of the night Ian demonstrated was a transition from Side Control to Mount. From a basic strong Side Control with the opponent well flattened out, use your near side hand (the one closer to his head) to grab over his shoulder and secure the gi at the under arm pit (the arm that is nearer your head- the top arm). With your other arm, reach down and brace the side of the opponent (the side that is closer to your legs) to stop him making space from you when you move. Next, switch your legs over so you're sort of facing his legs (ensuring you keep downward pressure on his torso) and bring your bottom leg in close to the opponent to replace your low arm bracing at his side. That arm can now either grab one of his legs or grab the arm opponents top arm to stop his defence of the transition. Now you can easily kick your top leg up and over the guy in a crescent kick style, to come over the top of him into mount regardless of whether or not he has a knee up to defend. If you've maintained your grip of the guys top arm you have a good starting point for attacks on a shoulder lock or arm lock.
I drilled this transition with Tom Hill. I find this move particularly easy due to my flexibility and I generally use it as my Side Control to Mount transition of choice.
Next Technique Ian demo'd was another Side Control to Mount Technique. This time it was a knee slide method. Using the same start with the under arm pit control and the hand brace at the opponents side, this time, bring your far side knee up (the knee farthest from his head) inside your bracing arm and on to his belly. Now you can remove the bracing arm from his side and use it to push off his top leg to help you turn yourself up to mount whilst simultaneously sliding the knee up so you can bring the rest of that leg over.
I drilled this move and the rest of the techniques this lesson with the late arriving Dan Foster. I find this transition a little more awkward than the last but still pull it off fairly regularly in sparring, although if you are not careful you can land yourself in a very loose but annoying half guard if the guy on bottom manages to push your sliding leg through between his legs to stop the mount.
To take the movement further, Ian showed what happens if the guy on the bottom tries to block the knee sliding through with his top arm hand. Using your far side arm (arm furthest from guys head), thread the arm through the gap at the elbow of the opponents blocking arm and then start walking up the arm up the mat using your hand, to pull the blocking arm up with it and get the pass to mount. You've also got a handy start on a mounted Kimura lock or Americana lock from the resulting position.
Drilling this move demonstrates that if the guy on the bottom has fairly strong shoulders the walk the hand up the mat action is a bit of a struggle. If the guy is much stronger than you I can easily imagine the move being impossible.
Ian had already thought of all this though and the next move was specifically for if you cannot move the guys arm up. Instead, when you reach through the elbow gap, pull the arm toward your body and step your near side leg (leg closer to opponents head) over his head to rest behind his head giving a minimum of space for him to move. Now, leaning forward, you just switch around on your legs (leaving one leg laying across his body) and then fall backwards to pull his arm back for the arm bar. You can grab a hold of the opponents gi pants or belt for additional control when falling back, to keep him pulled toward you for a tight arm bar.
When using this technique in sparring you should be mindful that if you pull back hard on the arm as you fall you risk damaging your opponents arm. On the other hand, if you don't pull the arm back quick enough, the opponent may block the move by gripping his arms together.
For the last technique of the night Ian showed the same Kimura from side control that he showed last week and then showed the variation for it, for if the opponent blocks the standard kimura by grabbing his belt.
Last weeks Kimura: You establish a strong side control on your opponent with lots of downward pressure on his torso. Next you push his far side arm out at a 90 degree angle to his body, then bend his arm at the elbow so it's pointing south from his upper arm, also at a 90 degree angle, and secure the arm in that position by grabbing his wrist with your far side hand (the one closer to his legs). Now take your other arm and thread it underneath your opponents upper arm, reaching to grab your own wrist forming a figure four and massively strengthening your hold. From there you switch your legs so they are turned toward his head and then step over his head with your top leg. Applying the sub now is a simple matter off pulling up and toward you on the arm that's threaded underneath while keeping the opponents wrist held down. This move is not one that your training partner will thank you for if you hammer the technique on as it is quite an intense shoulder lock.
Variation: If by the time you've formed your figure four, he has grabbed his belt, pull the arm hard toward you and then step over his head and clench together hard with your knees to secure him in place in a North South position. You should now have his arm upright 90 degrees from his body with it still secured for the kimura attempt but he is blocking the move with the belt grip. From here you can push the opponents arm out and away from his grip using all the strength of both your arms and your back, easily breaking the grip, then pull the arm back to the 90 degrees and rotate the lower arm backwards applying pressure for the Kimura.
We drilled this move for a short time before rolling.
Rolling:
My first roll of the night was against Big Steve. I didn't bother to resist for too long in the knee to knee start jumping to guard . From there I threw up a few choke attempts and then went into a seated sweep attempt which Steve based out to block. It was an easy transition to and omoplata from there though and I didn't really even have the move sunk in properly before Steve was tapping.
Had the opportunity to roll against Ian next and after some initial grip fighting I managed to land in Ian's guard. After a long struggle I was able to pass to side control and from there I used the crescent transition to mount. I tried a cheeky ezekial which Ian easily blocked. I then passed my arm under Ian's neck and fed his far gi lapel into my hand and switched to an S mount to reach back and grab Ian's knee for a Bow and Arrow choke variation. Ian managed to impressively block this as well and the round ended with me first trying to torque the hell out of it, then realising what Ian was doing and trying to transition to an arm bar instead.
Next up was a roll with Dan. This time I managed to get the advantage from the knee to knee, taking him down into guard. After a long period of trying switch side and re-trying, I managed to pass his guard into side control. From there I went to S mount and went for the Bow and Arrow choke again. This time I didn't have managed to get my leg up around his neck and shoulder and he managed to get a little space and roll out.
Fourth roll was against a very intense occasional trainer, Chris Hardaway. Chris has been training for years but due to his work commitments has never had the time to dedicate to grading or anything. On top of that he's athletic as hell and strong as a guy twice his size and he never grapples at anything less than 100%. From the knee to knee I jumped into guard but Chris quickly managed an athletic pass into Kesa Gatame side control where he tried to focus on attacking my nearside arm so I well able to bridge out of the hold and get to top control. From there I was able to pass Chris' guard and finished the round attacking at side control myself. A good hard paced round there.
Last roll was against returning gold medalist, Tom Hill. I jumped to guard for this one and mostly tried gi chokes against him. Eventually though I had to settle for a sweep and then passed to side control. I then used the gift wrap arm hold around the neck to pull him over and take his back. The round played out with me attacking Tom's back for a rear naked.
A good session of Bjj this week with a good bit of rolling at the end. Can't wait for next week. \m/
Venue: Sweat FA, Weston Super Mare, Uk.
Instructor: Ian Rossiter (Brown Belt).
Warm Up:
Laps of the mat, including, ass kicks, knee ups, facing inward for a lap, facing out for a lap and arm windmilling for a couple of laps. Neck, Arm and Shoulder stretching. Push ups 15x3, Squats 15x 3, Crunches 15 x 3, then some leg stretching.
Technique:
First technique of the night Ian demonstrated was a transition from Side Control to Mount. From a basic strong Side Control with the opponent well flattened out, use your near side hand (the one closer to his head) to grab over his shoulder and secure the gi at the under arm pit (the arm that is nearer your head- the top arm). With your other arm, reach down and brace the side of the opponent (the side that is closer to your legs) to stop him making space from you when you move. Next, switch your legs over so you're sort of facing his legs (ensuring you keep downward pressure on his torso) and bring your bottom leg in close to the opponent to replace your low arm bracing at his side. That arm can now either grab one of his legs or grab the arm opponents top arm to stop his defence of the transition. Now you can easily kick your top leg up and over the guy in a crescent kick style, to come over the top of him into mount regardless of whether or not he has a knee up to defend. If you've maintained your grip of the guys top arm you have a good starting point for attacks on a shoulder lock or arm lock.
I drilled this transition with Tom Hill. I find this move particularly easy due to my flexibility and I generally use it as my Side Control to Mount transition of choice.
Next Technique Ian demo'd was another Side Control to Mount Technique. This time it was a knee slide method. Using the same start with the under arm pit control and the hand brace at the opponents side, this time, bring your far side knee up (the knee farthest from his head) inside your bracing arm and on to his belly. Now you can remove the bracing arm from his side and use it to push off his top leg to help you turn yourself up to mount whilst simultaneously sliding the knee up so you can bring the rest of that leg over.
I drilled this move and the rest of the techniques this lesson with the late arriving Dan Foster. I find this transition a little more awkward than the last but still pull it off fairly regularly in sparring, although if you are not careful you can land yourself in a very loose but annoying half guard if the guy on bottom manages to push your sliding leg through between his legs to stop the mount.
To take the movement further, Ian showed what happens if the guy on the bottom tries to block the knee sliding through with his top arm hand. Using your far side arm (arm furthest from guys head), thread the arm through the gap at the elbow of the opponents blocking arm and then start walking up the arm up the mat using your hand, to pull the blocking arm up with it and get the pass to mount. You've also got a handy start on a mounted Kimura lock or Americana lock from the resulting position.
Drilling this move demonstrates that if the guy on the bottom has fairly strong shoulders the walk the hand up the mat action is a bit of a struggle. If the guy is much stronger than you I can easily imagine the move being impossible.
Ian had already thought of all this though and the next move was specifically for if you cannot move the guys arm up. Instead, when you reach through the elbow gap, pull the arm toward your body and step your near side leg (leg closer to opponents head) over his head to rest behind his head giving a minimum of space for him to move. Now, leaning forward, you just switch around on your legs (leaving one leg laying across his body) and then fall backwards to pull his arm back for the arm bar. You can grab a hold of the opponents gi pants or belt for additional control when falling back, to keep him pulled toward you for a tight arm bar.
When using this technique in sparring you should be mindful that if you pull back hard on the arm as you fall you risk damaging your opponents arm. On the other hand, if you don't pull the arm back quick enough, the opponent may block the move by gripping his arms together.
For the last technique of the night Ian showed the same Kimura from side control that he showed last week and then showed the variation for it, for if the opponent blocks the standard kimura by grabbing his belt.
Last weeks Kimura: You establish a strong side control on your opponent with lots of downward pressure on his torso. Next you push his far side arm out at a 90 degree angle to his body, then bend his arm at the elbow so it's pointing south from his upper arm, also at a 90 degree angle, and secure the arm in that position by grabbing his wrist with your far side hand (the one closer to his legs). Now take your other arm and thread it underneath your opponents upper arm, reaching to grab your own wrist forming a figure four and massively strengthening your hold. From there you switch your legs so they are turned toward his head and then step over his head with your top leg. Applying the sub now is a simple matter off pulling up and toward you on the arm that's threaded underneath while keeping the opponents wrist held down. This move is not one that your training partner will thank you for if you hammer the technique on as it is quite an intense shoulder lock.
Variation: If by the time you've formed your figure four, he has grabbed his belt, pull the arm hard toward you and then step over his head and clench together hard with your knees to secure him in place in a North South position. You should now have his arm upright 90 degrees from his body with it still secured for the kimura attempt but he is blocking the move with the belt grip. From here you can push the opponents arm out and away from his grip using all the strength of both your arms and your back, easily breaking the grip, then pull the arm back to the 90 degrees and rotate the lower arm backwards applying pressure for the Kimura.
We drilled this move for a short time before rolling.
Rolling:
My first roll of the night was against Big Steve. I didn't bother to resist for too long in the knee to knee start jumping to guard . From there I threw up a few choke attempts and then went into a seated sweep attempt which Steve based out to block. It was an easy transition to and omoplata from there though and I didn't really even have the move sunk in properly before Steve was tapping.
Had the opportunity to roll against Ian next and after some initial grip fighting I managed to land in Ian's guard. After a long struggle I was able to pass to side control and from there I used the crescent transition to mount. I tried a cheeky ezekial which Ian easily blocked. I then passed my arm under Ian's neck and fed his far gi lapel into my hand and switched to an S mount to reach back and grab Ian's knee for a Bow and Arrow choke variation. Ian managed to impressively block this as well and the round ended with me first trying to torque the hell out of it, then realising what Ian was doing and trying to transition to an arm bar instead.
Next up was a roll with Dan. This time I managed to get the advantage from the knee to knee, taking him down into guard. After a long period of trying switch side and re-trying, I managed to pass his guard into side control. From there I went to S mount and went for the Bow and Arrow choke again. This time I didn't have managed to get my leg up around his neck and shoulder and he managed to get a little space and roll out.
Fourth roll was against a very intense occasional trainer, Chris Hardaway. Chris has been training for years but due to his work commitments has never had the time to dedicate to grading or anything. On top of that he's athletic as hell and strong as a guy twice his size and he never grapples at anything less than 100%. From the knee to knee I jumped into guard but Chris quickly managed an athletic pass into Kesa Gatame side control where he tried to focus on attacking my nearside arm so I well able to bridge out of the hold and get to top control. From there I was able to pass Chris' guard and finished the round attacking at side control myself. A good hard paced round there.
Last roll was against returning gold medalist, Tom Hill. I jumped to guard for this one and mostly tried gi chokes against him. Eventually though I had to settle for a sweep and then passed to side control. I then used the gift wrap arm hold around the neck to pull him over and take his back. The round played out with me attacking Tom's back for a rear naked.
A good session of Bjj this week with a good bit of rolling at the end. Can't wait for next week. \m/
Friday, 6 April 2012
Weston Bjj - 5/4/12
After my two Bjj sessions earlier on in the week I had a thirst for more action. Bjj is definitely one of those addictions where if you feed it, it only gets stronger. Anyway, Thursdays class down Sweat FA, Weston Super Mare, had a limited attendance, what with it being Easter weekend and all that. There were only seven of us in total but you get the odd class like that sometimes. Still, at least Ian ensured the lesson didn't suffer for it. In fact I felt like we managed to cover more than we usually would in a packed class as Ian had less guys to see too.
Venue: Sweat FA, Weston Super Mare, Uk.
Instructor: Ian Rossiter (Brown Belt).
Warm Up:
Laps of the mat, including, ass kicks, knee ups, facing inward for a lap, facing out for a lap and arm windmilling for a couple of laps. Neck, Arm and Shoulder stretching. Push ups 15x2 then 10 x 1, Squats 15x 2 then 10 x 1, Crunches 15 x 2 then 10x 1, then some leg stretching.
Techniques:
Ian started us off tonight with the basic Kimura from Side Control. You establish a strong side control on your opponent with lots of downward pressure on his torso. Next you push his far side arm out at a 90 degree angle to his body, then bend his arm at the elbow so it's pointing south from his upper arm, also at a 90 degree angle, and secure the arm in that position by grabbing his wrist with your far side hand (the one closer to his legs). Now take your other arm and thread it underneath your opponents upper arm, reaching to grab your own wrist forming a figure four and massively strengthening your hold. From there you switch your legs so they are turned toward his head and then step over his head with your top leg. Applying the sub now is a simple matter off pulling up and toward you on the arm that's threaded underneath while keeping the opponents wrist held down. This move is not one that your training partner will thank you for if you hammer the technique on as it is quite an intense shoulder lock.
I practised this move with Rich Presley (still in fine competition shape) .
Next, Ian ran us through a variation of the same move. The setup is the same as the last move all the way up to having the arm secured in the figure four and switching your legs to face his head. This time though, instead of stepping over the head you just walk yourself toward his head using your top leg to kind of drag yourself across. As you do, apply the shoulder lock in the same way and the hold will come on, arguably tighter than before.
We were constantly swapped around tonight and I drilled this second move with Big Steve. In an actual Bjj or grappling competition I do not think I would have any chance of getting this move on Steve as his shoulders are pretty massive and I have fairly stumpy arms. Threading underneath to reach for my wrist process would probably not be attainable in a fight situation with that kind of size disparity.
To give our dying shoulders a bit of a rest Ian moved the next move on to something else. The technique was started from Side Control then transition to Knee on Belly then switch back around for a North-South Gi Choke. I was particularly chuffed with training this as we rarely do Knee on Belly in either of the classes I attend and consequentially I rarely find myself utilising the Knee on Belly position as it's not one I find myself going to automatically. From Side Control you grab your opponents collar around the back of the neck using a thumb in grip. With your other hand grab the guys belt at his far side hip. You can then quickly push yourself up into knee on belly using the downward pressure at neck and hip to keep the guy from escaping out of the way (be sure to maintain this position for 3 seconds in comp as it's worth 3 points). From there you use the hand that was at his hips to reach up into his collar using a fingers in, thumb pointing down (towards yourself) grip. You can now transition yourself to North-South and by doing so your forearm (of the arm you'd just secured the collar with) will come to rest across his neck. Push this arm down toward the floor to put the pressure on the throat for the sub. This is one of those moves that if executed correctly, you will make the guy tap real quick as the pressure on your throat is very painful.
I practised this technique with Neil 'Touché Turtle' Owen who is another fairly big guy so I was pretty grateful for the fact that he didn't dive into the Knee on Belly with vigour. I have this horrible memory of being tapped out by Ian in my early days of Jiu Jitsu training by the Knee on Belly. Not pleasant at the time and I was such a newbie that I didn't have a single answer.
Which lead neatly onto the second part of the technique which was how you traditionally react when the opponent hits Knee on Belly and then how the guy on top can use that to finish the sub anyway.So to start with we did the escape from knee on belly which involves the guy on the bottom putting his far side hand on the opponents attacking knee and his nearside hand against the guys chest or in his arm pit. You then push away while shrimping out to the side and from here you can bring your knees in to recover to a guard position. The actual point of this technique though was to show how if the guy on the bottom uses this traditional Knee on Belly escape, you can still hit the choke (as long as you've managed to get the hand in the collar). So from the Knee on Belly, if you quickly get the fingers in grip at the collar, then the guy tries to escape using the usual KoB escape, you can use the momentum of him pushing you away to still rotate around to North South for the Gi choke and with a bit of good weight distribution you can still hit the sub.
I drilled this move with Rob who is a relative newbie to Bjj so I was content to focus the learning on him, allowing him to first drill the Knee on Belly escape and then doing the escape resist into North South Choke.
For the last technique of the night we did the good old Side Control Forearm Gi Choke. As the guy on top you have a strong side control, during which you establish the same rear neck collar grip as the last few techniques. With your other hand you reach down (whilst maintaining good downward pressure on the opponents torso) to either the guys belt or his Gi at the underarm. Getting a good grip with that far side hand, you can now bring the arm with the hand still at the rear neck gi collar out and over the top of the head/face to close the forearm across the throat. When hit right this can get a real quick sub as the pressure on the throat is great. Unfortunately, the move is virtually never hit right off against a guy who has a modicum of experience as it kind of telegraphs its self. Although Ian showed us a way that I think is maybe a little less predictable. I have always done this technique using the underarm gi grip but using Ian's clench and twist of the belt you can keep the opponent in place without "showing your hand" to soon. Generally though, most experienced guys are "shrugging up" with their chin low and their shoulders drawn up so you can't land the move. I'd say it's pretty low percentage, although now I've said that I'm sure some smart ass'll tap me with it in the near future.
Practised this with Dan Foster who proved pretty much straight away when applying a little resistance to this you can easily shake the sub.
Rolling:
We did a good amount of rolling at the end of the lesson, although some of the older boys sat out a couple of rounds. I sparred first against Big Steve who has a distinct weight advantage over me so I elected to start seated and try out the arm drag. With Steve fresh it didn't work as when I grabbed the arm he dived straight forward to pancake me out. Unfortunately, Steve seems to have an obsession with trying to choke guys out from within their guard which, to my knowledge, has never succeeded for him. I spent the entire round pushing him away with feet on hips and trying to arm bar him or hit a triangle on him. Now I'm not sure if it's possible for a guy my size to triangle a guy with a neck and shoulders the size of Steve's. This is something I am insistent on trying over and over even though I probably won't succeed. I can see that I would have to get it totally perfect to actually hit the sub. Anyway, the rest of the roll played out with me trying to hit subs and Steve basically sitting in my guard trying to choke me with his forearm. After, I tried to encourage Steve to attempt to try and pass a bit as I can only imagine the kind of hell he could cause if he were to attain side control.
For my second roll I was with Dan. I decided I would go straight to guard and a furious pass guard against maintain guard battle ensued. I even inverted at one point to maintain my guard. Dan managed to pass in the end though and went to side control and then to mount. From mount Dan was trying to take an arm but I was able to Upa out of it back to guard. During my attempt to pass guard though, Dan was able to fire a lose triangle up from a strange side on angle which was smothering my mouth a bit although I had it blocked with my second hand. Unfortunately Dan managed to extend the trapped arm while I was trying to escape the triangle and got a nifty arm bar on me. Good move well earned. The round ended soon after that leaving me having to wait until next time to get some measure of revenge. I also need to remember that I shouldn't go to guard and just try and counter his attempts to pass I should be trying to sweep or sub straight from the off.
Next up was Rich. Rich threw up some good guard play, particularly with his ever improving Spider Guard, but I had the bit in my teeth for this one so I was quickly able to smash pass to side control and then get to mount. From there I tried to gi choke, arm bar and trap the arm for and head and arm triangle, all of which Rich impressively blocked out. I was able to eventually throw my weight down on his arm and hit and Americana though but I always feel a bit cheap after I've hit that move. After the restart I was quickly able to get to Rich's back but the round ended soon after that with me not able to get anything more.
The fourth roll was with the 'Turtle King', Neil Owen. Now Neil is a bit of a tank (his former nick name before the Turtle presented itself), but his cardio is relatively shocking and he has a tendency to 'turtle up' when he gets too tired. So when we started I was happy to jump guard, knowing full well he would most likely take me down easily anyway. From the guard I threatened with a couple of chokes and arm bars for a bit but he gassed out ridiculously quickly and actually said "I can feel a turtle coming on" just before I swept him, to which he virtually DIVED straight to his favourite position. From there I had about 40 seconds of trying to attack his amazingly strong turtle base with absolutely no luck at all. After trying various chokes (can't get his collar) and to upset his base and take him over (Neil's base is inhumanly good), I eventually tried to tuck my leg inside his (for a single hook) to go for a forward roll taking him over to side control. Time was called at this point though so I never got the opportunity to see if it would work.
Last roll off the night was back with Steve again. This time I worked the arm drag from the beginning and managed to get to rear side mount. From there Steve just rolled over giving up the mount, allowing me to attack various neck chokes (unsuccessfully as Steve's got a huge neck) before I managed to push his arm across, whip my leg around and fall backwards for the armbar. From the restart I hit the arm drag again, which Steve resisted this time. Fortunately, Uncle Marcelo supplied me with the answer to this as well as I reach back and secured his near leg and pushed him forward. Steve flipped back over again to give up the mount allowing me to attack from the top once again. The round played out like that with me coming away loving the Marcelo Garcia Arm Drag stuff I learned on Tuesday.
A good session with some good rolling and some things to think about regarding my Bjj development. Specifically, try more arm drags; attack more with sweeps from the guard; use more Knee on Belly; and carry on learning stuff from Marcelo Garcia's books (it all seems to work so far). \m/
Venue: Sweat FA, Weston Super Mare, Uk.
Instructor: Ian Rossiter (Brown Belt).
Warm Up:
Laps of the mat, including, ass kicks, knee ups, facing inward for a lap, facing out for a lap and arm windmilling for a couple of laps. Neck, Arm and Shoulder stretching. Push ups 15x2 then 10 x 1, Squats 15x 2 then 10 x 1, Crunches 15 x 2 then 10x 1, then some leg stretching.
Techniques:
Ian started us off tonight with the basic Kimura from Side Control. You establish a strong side control on your opponent with lots of downward pressure on his torso. Next you push his far side arm out at a 90 degree angle to his body, then bend his arm at the elbow so it's pointing south from his upper arm, also at a 90 degree angle, and secure the arm in that position by grabbing his wrist with your far side hand (the one closer to his legs). Now take your other arm and thread it underneath your opponents upper arm, reaching to grab your own wrist forming a figure four and massively strengthening your hold. From there you switch your legs so they are turned toward his head and then step over his head with your top leg. Applying the sub now is a simple matter off pulling up and toward you on the arm that's threaded underneath while keeping the opponents wrist held down. This move is not one that your training partner will thank you for if you hammer the technique on as it is quite an intense shoulder lock.
I practised this move with Rich Presley (still in fine competition shape) .
Next, Ian ran us through a variation of the same move. The setup is the same as the last move all the way up to having the arm secured in the figure four and switching your legs to face his head. This time though, instead of stepping over the head you just walk yourself toward his head using your top leg to kind of drag yourself across. As you do, apply the shoulder lock in the same way and the hold will come on, arguably tighter than before.
We were constantly swapped around tonight and I drilled this second move with Big Steve. In an actual Bjj or grappling competition I do not think I would have any chance of getting this move on Steve as his shoulders are pretty massive and I have fairly stumpy arms. Threading underneath to reach for my wrist process would probably not be attainable in a fight situation with that kind of size disparity.
To give our dying shoulders a bit of a rest Ian moved the next move on to something else. The technique was started from Side Control then transition to Knee on Belly then switch back around for a North-South Gi Choke. I was particularly chuffed with training this as we rarely do Knee on Belly in either of the classes I attend and consequentially I rarely find myself utilising the Knee on Belly position as it's not one I find myself going to automatically. From Side Control you grab your opponents collar around the back of the neck using a thumb in grip. With your other hand grab the guys belt at his far side hip. You can then quickly push yourself up into knee on belly using the downward pressure at neck and hip to keep the guy from escaping out of the way (be sure to maintain this position for 3 seconds in comp as it's worth 3 points). From there you use the hand that was at his hips to reach up into his collar using a fingers in, thumb pointing down (towards yourself) grip. You can now transition yourself to North-South and by doing so your forearm (of the arm you'd just secured the collar with) will come to rest across his neck. Push this arm down toward the floor to put the pressure on the throat for the sub. This is one of those moves that if executed correctly, you will make the guy tap real quick as the pressure on your throat is very painful.
I practised this technique with Neil 'Touché Turtle' Owen who is another fairly big guy so I was pretty grateful for the fact that he didn't dive into the Knee on Belly with vigour. I have this horrible memory of being tapped out by Ian in my early days of Jiu Jitsu training by the Knee on Belly. Not pleasant at the time and I was such a newbie that I didn't have a single answer.
Which lead neatly onto the second part of the technique which was how you traditionally react when the opponent hits Knee on Belly and then how the guy on top can use that to finish the sub anyway.So to start with we did the escape from knee on belly which involves the guy on the bottom putting his far side hand on the opponents attacking knee and his nearside hand against the guys chest or in his arm pit. You then push away while shrimping out to the side and from here you can bring your knees in to recover to a guard position. The actual point of this technique though was to show how if the guy on the bottom uses this traditional Knee on Belly escape, you can still hit the choke (as long as you've managed to get the hand in the collar). So from the Knee on Belly, if you quickly get the fingers in grip at the collar, then the guy tries to escape using the usual KoB escape, you can use the momentum of him pushing you away to still rotate around to North South for the Gi choke and with a bit of good weight distribution you can still hit the sub.
I drilled this move with Rob who is a relative newbie to Bjj so I was content to focus the learning on him, allowing him to first drill the Knee on Belly escape and then doing the escape resist into North South Choke.
For the last technique of the night we did the good old Side Control Forearm Gi Choke. As the guy on top you have a strong side control, during which you establish the same rear neck collar grip as the last few techniques. With your other hand you reach down (whilst maintaining good downward pressure on the opponents torso) to either the guys belt or his Gi at the underarm. Getting a good grip with that far side hand, you can now bring the arm with the hand still at the rear neck gi collar out and over the top of the head/face to close the forearm across the throat. When hit right this can get a real quick sub as the pressure on the throat is great. Unfortunately, the move is virtually never hit right off against a guy who has a modicum of experience as it kind of telegraphs its self. Although Ian showed us a way that I think is maybe a little less predictable. I have always done this technique using the underarm gi grip but using Ian's clench and twist of the belt you can keep the opponent in place without "showing your hand" to soon. Generally though, most experienced guys are "shrugging up" with their chin low and their shoulders drawn up so you can't land the move. I'd say it's pretty low percentage, although now I've said that I'm sure some smart ass'll tap me with it in the near future.
Practised this with Dan Foster who proved pretty much straight away when applying a little resistance to this you can easily shake the sub.
Rolling:
We did a good amount of rolling at the end of the lesson, although some of the older boys sat out a couple of rounds. I sparred first against Big Steve who has a distinct weight advantage over me so I elected to start seated and try out the arm drag. With Steve fresh it didn't work as when I grabbed the arm he dived straight forward to pancake me out. Unfortunately, Steve seems to have an obsession with trying to choke guys out from within their guard which, to my knowledge, has never succeeded for him. I spent the entire round pushing him away with feet on hips and trying to arm bar him or hit a triangle on him. Now I'm not sure if it's possible for a guy my size to triangle a guy with a neck and shoulders the size of Steve's. This is something I am insistent on trying over and over even though I probably won't succeed. I can see that I would have to get it totally perfect to actually hit the sub. Anyway, the rest of the roll played out with me trying to hit subs and Steve basically sitting in my guard trying to choke me with his forearm. After, I tried to encourage Steve to attempt to try and pass a bit as I can only imagine the kind of hell he could cause if he were to attain side control.
For my second roll I was with Dan. I decided I would go straight to guard and a furious pass guard against maintain guard battle ensued. I even inverted at one point to maintain my guard. Dan managed to pass in the end though and went to side control and then to mount. From mount Dan was trying to take an arm but I was able to Upa out of it back to guard. During my attempt to pass guard though, Dan was able to fire a lose triangle up from a strange side on angle which was smothering my mouth a bit although I had it blocked with my second hand. Unfortunately Dan managed to extend the trapped arm while I was trying to escape the triangle and got a nifty arm bar on me. Good move well earned. The round ended soon after that leaving me having to wait until next time to get some measure of revenge. I also need to remember that I shouldn't go to guard and just try and counter his attempts to pass I should be trying to sweep or sub straight from the off.
Next up was Rich. Rich threw up some good guard play, particularly with his ever improving Spider Guard, but I had the bit in my teeth for this one so I was quickly able to smash pass to side control and then get to mount. From there I tried to gi choke, arm bar and trap the arm for and head and arm triangle, all of which Rich impressively blocked out. I was able to eventually throw my weight down on his arm and hit and Americana though but I always feel a bit cheap after I've hit that move. After the restart I was quickly able to get to Rich's back but the round ended soon after that with me not able to get anything more.
The fourth roll was with the 'Turtle King', Neil Owen. Now Neil is a bit of a tank (his former nick name before the Turtle presented itself), but his cardio is relatively shocking and he has a tendency to 'turtle up' when he gets too tired. So when we started I was happy to jump guard, knowing full well he would most likely take me down easily anyway. From the guard I threatened with a couple of chokes and arm bars for a bit but he gassed out ridiculously quickly and actually said "I can feel a turtle coming on" just before I swept him, to which he virtually DIVED straight to his favourite position. From there I had about 40 seconds of trying to attack his amazingly strong turtle base with absolutely no luck at all. After trying various chokes (can't get his collar) and to upset his base and take him over (Neil's base is inhumanly good), I eventually tried to tuck my leg inside his (for a single hook) to go for a forward roll taking him over to side control. Time was called at this point though so I never got the opportunity to see if it would work.
Last roll off the night was back with Steve again. This time I worked the arm drag from the beginning and managed to get to rear side mount. From there Steve just rolled over giving up the mount, allowing me to attack various neck chokes (unsuccessfully as Steve's got a huge neck) before I managed to push his arm across, whip my leg around and fall backwards for the armbar. From the restart I hit the arm drag again, which Steve resisted this time. Fortunately, Uncle Marcelo supplied me with the answer to this as well as I reach back and secured his near leg and pushed him forward. Steve flipped back over again to give up the mount allowing me to attack from the top once again. The round played out like that with me coming away loving the Marcelo Garcia Arm Drag stuff I learned on Tuesday.
A good session with some good rolling and some things to think about regarding my Bjj development. Specifically, try more arm drags; attack more with sweeps from the guard; use more Knee on Belly; and carry on learning stuff from Marcelo Garcia's books (it all seems to work so far). \m/
Wednesday, 4 April 2012
2 Man Training
I have been fortunate enough to have the week off this week to spend time with the wife and kids. I have also managed to get some additional mat time in on the Monday and Tuesday afternoons. In a stroke of genius last week I checked the training schedule times for over Easter at my local gym, Sweat FA - Weston Super Mare, and found that there were some pretty huge gaps in the mat usage times which I could exploit. So I grabbed my trusty training compatriot, Marcus Hedley, and ventured down for some 2 man training.
And may I just say that although you are not getting the tuition aspect of a full class, I cannot recommend this format enough for an occasional session of additional training to help you polish up your skill set and maybe work on things that you've not had the time or space to try in class.
Monday was a bit impromptu as I didn't know whether we'd actually get to train so neither of us planned anything and we basically did everything on an as we think of it basis. Stuff we covered includes practising triangles, omoplatas, some judo throws, and an absoluute shit load of rolling.
On Tuesday however, we each managed to plan a bit the night before. I took reference from my good friend (yeah right) Marcelo Garcia, via his new book Advanced Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Techniques. From there we worked on his Arm Drag section practising and drilling a load of Arm Drags starting from the seated guard position with a few variations and then working on standing Arm Drags, also with a few variations. Marcelo is so thorough on this subject in his book that he even show a few variations where things don't go right for you initially and how to bring it back to your advantage. We spent a decent amount of time on this and by the end of it we both came away amazed at how much we didn't know about arm dragging and how many different ways you can actually initiate and arm drag and go straight to back. The guy really is a "Jiu Jitsu Genius".
Marcus went away with the Ed Beneville and Joe Moreira : The Guard manual. From there we did some guard techniques, sweeps and subs. We also tried a couple of Butterfly Guard sweeps from Marcelo's X-Guard Book.
It was really good learning these techniques that under usual circumstances, we wouldn't get the opportunity to try. We even found ourselves chucking a few of them in during the heavy rolling sessions we had at the end. It's good to apply the stuff you've learnt so when you hit something you've been trying out it makes it all feel worthwhile.
I truly cannot recommend enough getting in a bit of one on one training and experimentation time with your techniques for anyone who is semi-serious about learning Bjj. Roll on Thursday for Ian's class. I love this martial art!
\m/
And may I just say that although you are not getting the tuition aspect of a full class, I cannot recommend this format enough for an occasional session of additional training to help you polish up your skill set and maybe work on things that you've not had the time or space to try in class.
Monday was a bit impromptu as I didn't know whether we'd actually get to train so neither of us planned anything and we basically did everything on an as we think of it basis. Stuff we covered includes practising triangles, omoplatas, some judo throws, and an absoluute shit load of rolling.
On Tuesday however, we each managed to plan a bit the night before. I took reference from my good friend (yeah right) Marcelo Garcia, via his new book Advanced Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Techniques. From there we worked on his Arm Drag section practising and drilling a load of Arm Drags starting from the seated guard position with a few variations and then working on standing Arm Drags, also with a few variations. Marcelo is so thorough on this subject in his book that he even show a few variations where things don't go right for you initially and how to bring it back to your advantage. We spent a decent amount of time on this and by the end of it we both came away amazed at how much we didn't know about arm dragging and how many different ways you can actually initiate and arm drag and go straight to back. The guy really is a "Jiu Jitsu Genius".
Marcus went away with the Ed Beneville and Joe Moreira : The Guard manual. From there we did some guard techniques, sweeps and subs. We also tried a couple of Butterfly Guard sweeps from Marcelo's X-Guard Book.
It was really good learning these techniques that under usual circumstances, we wouldn't get the opportunity to try. We even found ourselves chucking a few of them in during the heavy rolling sessions we had at the end. It's good to apply the stuff you've learnt so when you hit something you've been trying out it makes it all feel worthwhile.
I truly cannot recommend enough getting in a bit of one on one training and experimentation time with your techniques for anyone who is semi-serious about learning Bjj. Roll on Thursday for Ian's class. I love this martial art!
\m/
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