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 20x3, Squats 20x 3, Crunches 20 x 3 (Ian was on one), then some leg stretching.
Techniques:
The first couple of techniques Ian gave us were from a Rear Mount back controlling position. You are sat up with the opponent sat with his back to you between your legs. You have both hooks in (your legs are around his waist with the feet "hooked" in behind his knees on the inside of his legs). You have your arms under-hooking him (underneath his arms) with your hands gripping his lapels. This is the starting position for most of the lessons techniques.
The first sub shown involved you pulling the lapel out on one side (same side) with the underhook and bringing your other arm out from underhooking to overhooking (passing the arm around over his arm) so you can grab the opposite side lapel quite deep at the collar and pull it taught against the opponents neck. Now with the other arm you reach up and pass the hand behind the opponent's head (as it's an underhook you should still have the opponents arm trapped in there). To apply the pressure here you just need to lean back while pushing forward with the arm behind his head for the nice tight Arm in Gi Choke from Rear Mount.
Ian showed us the second sub in the same demo so we could drill the two at the same time. The second technique was a straight forward Rear Naked Choke. From the start up position, bring one of your under hooked arms out and over hook to wrap around the opponents so the hand is coming up near the opponents opposite shoulder. Then you get your other arm out and put the hand of the choking arm on the bicep of the tightening arm and then close the tightening arm and pass that hand around the back the guys head. To finish the move, tighten the choking arm around the neck while clamping it down against his chest and leaning forward into the move to push pressure on at the back of his head. This move is one of the most commonly used submissions from Back Control and is a firm favourite for MMAers.
I was drilling the nights stuff with Marcus. We both had these techniques down already so we just drilled a bit and talked crap.
For the next technique, Ian split the class up and dealt with the new guys for a bit and let me show the Bow and Arrow choke to the more seasoned side of the class. From the start up position you present one lapel and remove the other under hook to bring it back over the that shoulder and get a grip on the opposite presented lapel (doesn't have to be particularly deep). You then lean out to the side where you haven't got the overhook lapel grip and grab the opponents under knee or gi pants on that side and pass your leg on the other side over the opponents shoulder to stretch the choke taught. This is my favourite rear mount choke technique. I love it and usually try for it when ever I have someone's back. It is a choke you have to be careful with though as a lot of guys have tried to fight it for too long and gone under. You need to be aware of your sparring partners consciousness when applying that choke.
Me and Marcus have drilled the hell out of this technique over the last couple of years so we were happy to try different ways of blocking or countering it. One that I found quite successful was to pull down on the lapel from underneath where the choker has his grip, which takes a lot of the pressure off, giving you the opportunity to scoot your but down a fraction and reach up with your other arm to push it against his elbow and release the head. This makes the whole sub fall apart and puts you in a good position to attack. I also found an interesting kimura variation from that escape that I couldn't even begin to describe without doing it again. We also drilled arm bar counters on the escape.
For the next sub Ian showed us the simple yet very effective Rear Mount to Arm Bar. A move I am very familiar with being as that it was my go to move from Rear Mount for ages. Until everyone started realising this and blocking the arm bar meaning I'd just given up my highly controlling position and ended up with my opponent in my guard. Anyway, from the start up position, your opponent is blocking out any collar control or your ability to cross his neck. With one of your under hook arms, reach up and grab the guy's shoulder (effectively securing his arm). You then lean out to that side, pushing on the side of his head with your other arm, and then bring your far leg out and over the top of his head and lean back, pulling the secured arm out straight for the arm bar. Brilliant technique, simple yet effective if you get it on an unsuspecting opponent. As I said before though, fail and you've lost position and may well look a bit of a pillock.
The last technique was a real peach. Ian's disco move of the day was a Rear Triangle/Armbar option from Rear Mount (with kick out). From the start up, you reach up to the shoulder as for the Rear Mount Arm Bar and the opponent decides to hit the ill-advised MMA escape where you drive back on his legs to flatten you on the floor. To counter this, you remove your foot hooks and put your feet under his legs in the crooks of his knees and kick out firing the guy back forward to the seated position with the additional bonus of his underhooked arm pulled right up toward you. Now you just need to wrap your leg (the one on the other side to his raised arm) over the shoulder and past his head and raised arm. You then escape you hip slightly to the other side and use the leg on that side to wrap around your first leg forming the triangle. If you've done this right but you're having trouble hitting the triangle the arm bar is right there too. In fact both are so easy to attain you actually find yourself accidentally hitting one when you're trying to drill the other.
Two very effective techniques and definitely my favourite techniques of the night. Me and Marcus drilled the hell out of these, I just hope I manage to retain the knowledge for when the adrenaline is pumping. I'd love to hit that move.
Rolling:
We didn't have loads of time at the end of the class for rolling but we still got a few in. I managed to roll with the more experienced guys in the class which is good. I don't mind showing the newer guys stuff but if feels good to let loose with some full sparring.
Rolled against Marcus first which was a back and forth affair starting with me in guard, then hit a sweep on him, passed to side, went to North South, Marcus pulled a pretty wicked escape out of the hat and swept me and we finished the round shortly after.
Next up was Dan Foster. Dan is a really good challenge for me and I'm loving rolling against him regularly as we are of comparable weight and level. I attacked straight from the start and managed to pull Dan's leg out and push him back forcing his to assume guard. I then attacked his guard managing to pass it ever so briefly to side control before he recovered. Eventually Dan got a sweep on me jumping on to mount, also very briefly, before I escaped to half guard. I was in the process of hitting a Half Guard sweep when the round ended. A good furious paced roll there. I look forward to our next.
After Dan I was up against Big Justin. What Justin gives up in technique he manages to make up for in pure power. I went straight into open guard and tried to set up various arm bar or omoplata attacks. I very nearly had a gogoplata on him (which would have been a first) but he muscled out of it. I was very pleased that Justin was attacking a lot too, trying to pass my guard constantly with out even trying his old tactic of trying to choke me from within my guard (it's never worked). Justin's game is improving loads and he was really trying some well thought out passes, all the while defending my sub attempts. I eventually hit a sweep on him to side control which he powered out of to get guard. I was then attacking his guard as the round played out.
Now my final roll of the night was against Ian and I was insistent on not getting tapped this time. Jumping straight to guard I first fought off some of Ian's pass attempts before I managed a hook sweep on him. As he went down he tried to get a cheeky little Achilles Ankle Lock on me but I leant forward to take the pressure off the hold and pulled out. I then tried to pass his guard with a few different passes without much joy before trying a feeble effort at my own Achilles. Ian easily broke out of this and nearly hit me with a scissor sweep before I was able to base out at the last second. We then went in to a kind of 50/50 position but with me standing. I could feel Ian reaching down for my leg to go for another Achilles attempt or a sweep of some kind and I had his leg secure so I decided to slap on an old school Toe Hold Ankle Lock (Ian is a Brown Belt after all so it's not really cheating). Ian tapped to this, making that the first time I've ever tapped Ian (or any Brown Belt) out. Result. I think I'll go in to hiding for a few weeks now until all this has blown over :o)
Anyway, as I said, brilliant lesson. A couple of great moves. Got to teach a move. Got a cheeky tap. And I went home and had a Caribbean Curry after (it was ok). What more can I guy ask for.
An image of purely coincidental relevance and importance.
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