DV8 Academia de Jiu Jitsu 30-8-12

I'm horrendously busy with stuff at the moment so you'll have to forgive the hurried state of this entry.

Venue: Sweat FA, Weston Super Mare, Uk
Instructor: Ian Rossiter (Checkmat Black Belt)


Warm Up:
The usual laps of the mat with arm wind milling, knee ups, butt kicks and side steps. Then on to arm, neck and shoulder stretching, Squat (4 x 10), push ups (4 x 10) and sit ups (4 x 10). We finished up with some leg stretching and the weird torso twisty thing where you sit down and turn you legs one way and twist your bother 'tother.






Techniques:
(I will describe the techniques from the side I initially learnt them on for ease of description).


For the first few techniques this week we covered the Over-Under hook control from closed guard. The setup for this starts with the opponent in your closed guard with, postured up with his hands at your lower body. You select one of his arms, in my case his right arm, and grab his cuff using both hands turning the cuff inside out over your fingers to assist with grip. Use this grip to pull the arm up over your left shoulder whilst simultaneously clenching your guard and lifting your legs to pull the guy up closer to you. As the arm's coming up you maintain your grip with your inside hand (my right ) while releasing the outer hand and bringing it down under his arm then back over the top and swinging your arm back down and passing the hand inside to take a grip on the opponent's lapel. This gives you strong control of the guys right arm.


The first move we did from here was a good old choke. With your free right hand you reach up and grab his shoulder in quite tight to the neck. You then (while maintaining the grip) drive the elbow down into his chest, then up into his throat. The driving down first helps make the space for the choke. If done correctly the choke can come on really quickly.


I was drilling all of the evenings moves with Rich Presley and Dan Foster.



The next technique from the same setup was for an arm bar or what I like to call the "Rickson Armbar". The bad thing about the first technique (the choke) is it's so easy to block that you'll probably never get it on anyone except a white belt. All the guy has to do is use his free hand to push the driving arm away. If he does that though, you can open your guard and shift your hips out to the left, step your foot onto his hip and then turn in toward his arm. You can now use your left knee to press on your left elbow, to apply pressure to the opponent's arm that will be straightened out against your side. This is a very painful submission and is very attainable at all levels.


Next up was the Triangle. From the setup, you get to the position for the Arm bar but for some reason it's not coming on. Maybe the guy is freakishly flexible, maybe he's shifted his arm just right so it doesn't come on. From here, ensuring your left foot is pushing on his right hip, you use your tight control to push against your opponent so he's forced to put his left hand out wide on the mat to base out. Now all you need to do is push away using the left leg so you can bring the right leg out and then wrap it around his neck over his left shoulder. Once wrapped around, pull it neatly into position using your right hand so you just need to bring the left leg up and wrap it around the lower part of the right leg to close the triangle tight.


Next up was a change of perspective. Focusing on the top guy's position Ian showed us the escape for the Over Under control. The guy has the arm trapped and the guard closed tight. You need to step your offside leg (my left when I did it first) out to base, punch your trapped arm further through and then circle it out and down the side of the left side of the guy's body so you can turn it and swing it back up and inside. Fairly simple really.


From there Ian demonstrated two simple variations of the Smash Pass. The first is the standard guard break, then pass your arm under the guys leg and reach up and grab his collar. Then press your weight against the guy's leg and push it up toward him while you walk out and around the leg (maintaining the pressure as you go). When you get to the point where the leg is pushed up very high and you are out at the side you can turn your head and shoulder away from the leg so the leg fires back past you and you have passed into side control.

The second variation was for if the guy stopped you from passing by pushing on your side with his hand. Keeping your pressure against the leg you just bring your nearside knee up inside near his elbow and knee the arm out of the way so you can pass as usual. Fairly obvious but you'd be surprised how many are stopped by the simple little hand against side pass block.



Sparring:

The week I sparred first with Ian, then Glen'son, then with (Old) Rob, then Glen and finished against Dan Foster.


Good lesson. Still miss Marcus though.




On the upside I've found another guy to get some training is with during the week. A young lad named Tom Gifford came up to me a few weeks ago when he saw me and Marcus training and asked what we were doing. I got chatting and he asked if I was ever up for training with him a bit as he's a brown belt in Judo but wouldn't mind learning some more ground stuff. I was happy to and we had our first session on Monday. Tom showed me some throws for 20 minutes, I showed him some ground work for about the same. Then we sparred from standing. As predictable, Tom took me down nearly every time and then I either swept or tapped him out every time. So there's definitely a lot for both of us to work on but we wee both dead chuffed with what we picked up from the other. We've agreed to try and get in 2 a week at lunchtimes.


Good times ahead. ¬m/

DV8 Academia de Jiu Jitsu - 23/8/12

Back to Ian's class for the first time since before the comp. After all, I had to attend Ian's first class as a Black Belt Professor. Oh, and of course it was Marcus' last class in Weston for what I can only imagine will be quite a long time, so there was definitely no chance I could miss this session.

Numbers were reasonable for the summer hols, a lot of the new guys have stuck around so it's a good bunch of regulars we've got coming now. We were also lucky enough to be joined by Steve Keen, long time Bjj Purple Belt who hasn't really trained Gi for quite a while. Steve says he's interested in taking it up again and getting a bit fitter for it. I truly hope that Steve does stick around because his game is pretty awesome and we could all benefit from sparring with him.

Venue: Sweat FA, Weston Super Mare, Uk
Instructor: Ian Rossiter (Black Belt)


Warm Up:
The usual laps of the mat with arm wind milling, knee ups, butt kicks and side steps. Then on to arm, neck and shoulder stretching, Squat (4 x 10), push ups (4 x 10) and sit ups (4 x 10). We finished up with some leg stretching.



Techniques:
(I will describe the techniques from the side I initially learnt them on for ease of description).

Ian went straight into a Butterfly Sweep to start with. It's the standard one from seated Butterfly, where you have your left arm underhooking his the opponent's right, your other arm is grabbing his left arm on the outside and forcing it in tight to your torso. You need to keep your head low and driven forward into his left shoulder to avoid him getting HIS head underneath and driving you off balance. From here you fall out to your right, taking him with you. As you get to the ground you kick you left butterfly hook high up, sweeping the opponent over on to his back with you coming up into top control. What top control you land in depends on the scramble but the highest percentage is side control or kesa gatame. You can try for mount but you run the great risk of getting caught in his half guard.
I trained with Marcus for this one last time. We were joined by a newly promoted Tom who arrived late and stepped in with us. We all found this fairly easy and played about with a couple of other techniques in between drilling this move.



The next move was Arm Drag to Back from Butterfly Guard. The move works on the premise that you're in seated butterfly guard and your opponent is trying to pass by standing off and grabbing you gi pants at the ankles. Utilising the idea that your legs will nearly always be stronger than his arms you step your left leg out to the side (taking his controlling arm with it), leaving room for you to thrust your right arm under his right arm and grab the back of his triceps or his shoulder. Now you canthrow your right leg through between the guys legs while pulling back hard on his arm and turning in toward him at the same time. The opponent should shoot right past you and land on his front, opting to turtle before he's completely flattened out (you handily have your right hook in at this point). While he's in he's getting his turtle, you should harness grip around his waist/high chest and put pressure on his back to keep him down. Then you can work your way low down on his back so your left leg can be moved up in position to thread in to it's hook slot. If he's closed up at this point a quick jerk upwards with your harness grip should make enough space. Now you have both hooks in and the harness grip you can tip you body over and fall on your side taking the opponent with you. You have now taken his back a broken down his turtle.
Good quality sweep and transition to back. Very tasty. I shall be trying to use it more often.


Ian changed the focus around now to the guy who had just had his back taken. The next move was the rear mounted guys reaction with a Rear Mount Escape to side control. The guys just pulled you over to the side to get the hooks in for the rear mount. You need to sit up so the opponent is forced into a seated rear mount position. From there you bend forward to reach your ankles and lean back down to the right. Now you can use your hands to push the guys right leg (the one under you) away to release his hook. You can now escape your hips out to your right, turning toward the opponent as you do. Now pull your left leg out so you can turn onto your front and force him down onto his back. You will be left with your right leg in a loose half guard here but as you come over you can reach your right arm under his left leg and lift it forward while flattening him, leaving you open to easily bring the other leg out and gain side control. Very nice escape which I found myself enjoying. I like arm under touch at the to get to side control. Very good.



The last technique Ian gave us was an old favourite of his. A basic Gi Choke from Side Control where you have the guy secure around the neck with your left arm and you grip his collar with that hand. With your other hand you reach down and grab a handful of the guy's gi jacket at about the underarm area (quite near to the floor though) whilst ensuring you keep an adequate amount of weight down on his torso to block any escapes. Now you open your left elbow out so that arm can pass around his head, then bring it back in and down across the upper chest/neck (you are still gripping his collar here). To finish this move you start pushing your elbow out into his neck/throat whilst keeping him from moving with your bodyweight and your grip on his gi with your right hand.



Rolling:

I rolled with Marcus first. Last roll for some time I imagine. We did a bit of back and forth, top and bottom play. I eventually managed to tap him out with a kimura from half guard top, just for old times sake :o).

Next up was Steve the purple belt. And I really had a fantastic roll with him. Exchnaging position and control. Steve's fluidity in his rolling was really good. I only even once felt close to threatening with a sub attempt. On the plus side (although I'll attribute it to him being rusty) Steve didn't threaten me with anything either although he was able to pass my guard right at the end. I recovered to half guard as the buzzer went. A great roll and I really hope Steve sticks around to train more with us.


Next up was Tom. I went with mostly top control in this one but was very impressed with how well Tom's guard game has improved. I did manage to pass his guard a couple of times, getting to mount on him twice but Tom escaped well for one and I gave up the other trying to bow and arrow his from technical mount. Tom managed to survive everything I threw at him in the end which is good.

My last roll was with Ian and his new Black Belt. It was a brilliant roll. Ian tried to straight leg lock me at one point which I was able to stand into easily to resist. Other than that, neither of us really threatened a sub, just went back and forth with positions. Ian ended up with top control just before the buzzer.

It was a great session with some cool sparring at the end. We all said our hearty goodbyes to Marcus. He certainly will be missed by all. A great guy, a good friend and a phenomenal training/sparring partner. I wish him well in everything he tries and I hope Southampton turns out well for him and Aneta. He'll be welcomed back any time he wishes.


¬m/

Checkmat Seminar and Grading 19/8/12

It never ceases to amaze me the emotions that this Martial Art I love can bring forth in myself and my friends.

On Sunday I was fortunate enough to attend another Checkmat seminar at Trojan Freefighters Gym in Cheltenham. As is the norm with these Grading seminars that our instructor, Chico Mendes puts on, we were spoiled with the talent that was brought to us, to impart on us some of their Jiu Jitsu knowledge. Attending the seminar alongside Chico (Black Belt Grade two), were Valmyr Neto (Black Belt Grade two), Marco Canha (Black Belt Grade 1) and Luiz Ribiero (Black Belt). We were also graced with the presence of Walter "Broca" Pinto da Silva Jr (Black Belt Grade 3). The Bjj coach of none other than former UFC Light Heavyweight world champion, Lyoto Machida. That's a whole lot of Black Belt on the mats for us right there.

All photos supplied from Chico's Facebook album, shot by Paul Benjiman- paul@Strikingshots.com

The event was exceptionally well attended by Checkmat students from all over the Uk with guys travelling from London, Kent, The Midlands and even from as far north as South Shields. This was great for the Checkmat organisation in England as a whole, not so good for the guys that got graded. Hehe.

We were first treated to something a little different with a Wrestling for Bjj seminar by Marc "Suplex" Allen. Marc showed us a lot of tricks and some pretty slick takedowns to compliment the standing start part of our games for use in competition. The move that I was particularly chuffed with in that segment was a single leg lift up-fall back takedown. About as close as you could probably get to a suplex in a proper Bjj comp. Real great move that I think I will cover in another entry along with a few of the other things Marc taught us.

After the wrestling segment the Black Belt instructors took the mats for the No Gi portion of the day. This was pretty cool as each visiting instructor in turn(except for Broca for some reason) demonstrated a technique and then walked the mats while the students attending drilled it, helping and correcting where necessary. This gave the students a taste of each instructor's style and how they like to work and I have to say, all three instructors really are first class. It's an absolute privilege to train under these guys, it's just a shame Chico didn't get in on the instructional act. Chico's teaching is also amazing and it'd be cool to experience some more of his seminar level techniques.

For drilling all of these techniques I paired off with a nice guy called Jamie Berry from Checkmat South Shields (near Newcastle). I have to say I am very impressed with how far these guys travelled for this seminar. That's commitment for you.

Techniques: No- Gi
(I will describe this moves from the position I initially learned them).

The first technique of the day was demo'd by Valmyr Neto and was a Triangle from Butterfly Guard. You have your opponent in your Butterfly guard (seated with underhooks). The idea of this move is to force a reaction from your opponent by leaning him over toward his left side. To do this you need to release your right underhook use that hand to base out a little behind you while pushing him left (your right) using your left underhook. This should force the guy to put his left hand out to stop the sweep at which point you can push away from him a bit with your legs while keeping him pressured with your left arm. Now you can push yourself away further using your feet on his hips then bring your right leg out (keeping the left in place at his hip) and use it to overwrap around his left shoulder/behind his head and bring the left leg up to lock it up for the tight triangle. Neto added some little bits to tighten the triangle or to turn it into and arm bar but it was all pretty obvious stuff from there. The magic is in getting there and that is a move I could definitely get on board with.
He also showed us a variation on that move that got to a really slick shoulder lock too (like an upright omoplata). When you reach behind and force the opponent over to his left so he extends the hand, keep a tight grip on the left underhook and bring your left knee up over his shoulder and lay yourself forwards on the floor. If done correctly you should be able to roll further over on your left side to increase pressure to the lock.
Both of these were pretty goochy moves that came quite natural with just a little bit of drilling.

The second technique was from Marco Cahna. Again from Butterfly guard but this time it was a sweep. From seated butterfly with the left underhook in and the right arm pulling the opponents left arm in tight, kick your right leg under your left leg (through the gap between your foot and your ass) and lean out right, kicking with your left leg to bring the guy over with you easily. This felt like a really natural butterfly sweep and I found myself easily sweeping Jamie over and coming up in side control. However. Marco also pointed out that if you were in a sport Jiu Jitsu match and trying to maximise your points you would be best served leaving your left foot in between the opponent's legs allowing him to close up for a really feeble half guard. That way you can lean over to the guys left side (so your left leg is flat to the floor except for the trapped part, you still have the left underhook to stop him from taking your back) and push your right foot against his right leg so you can easily pull your left leg out. From there you must stay tight to him and hip switch to a strong side control position.

Third move was from Luiz Ribiero and was a half guard sweep. It was very similar to the one demonstrated  by Leo Vieira at his last seminar over here except you have your left arm over the opponent's right and across his shoulders/back a little. You have the opponent's right leg in your half with your right leg securing. You are leant up on your right side a little but the opponent has a good underhook on your top (left arm) and is confident of a pass. You have your right hand on his bicep and wait for the guys momentum to shift forward. It doesn't even have to be a lot, just an ever so slight shift and you can use it to twist over to the left with your legs, whilst rolling over that way using the right arm on the bicep to assist in the very effective sweep. Although you invariably come up in half guard top you have good head control and can crush the opponent's face sideways to limit his manoeuvrability and assist you with the pass.
A great variation on what was already my favourite half guard sweep.

The last technique in the No Gi portion was another Marco Cahna move and felt quite familiar as it was a transition from the Butterfly Guard to X Guard then finish with a knee bar or toe hold. Starting for the same position as for Marco's previous move, you attempt the same sweep but the opponent anticipates it and brings his left leg out and bases with it to block the sweep. From here you pass your right arm under his left leg (low to the ankle or foot) and chop it out and up to your shoulder pulling down tight on it with a double wrapped arm grip to keep it in place), whilst at the same time bringing your left hook high in his inside (right) leg and your right hook back and putting in underneath the your left at about the knee. This is the X Guard position. From here you use your left leg to push his right leg away at the knee which forces the opponent to turn away from you slightly allowing you to turn him around so his knee is facing down into your stomach. You now just pass your right leg out and over the top of his upper leg and triangle it on the other side of him with your other leg, but then hide the lower of part of the securing leg above him to avoid a toe hold counter. From that position you just need to extend your hips into his knee while pushing your legs into his butt/lower back for the knee bar.
If for whatever reason it's not coming on, a slight adjustment turns it into a painful toe hold.

Some great and easily attainable techniques for the No Gi part. After a very short break and a quick change into something a little less sweaty we were back for the Gi portion of the day.


Techniques: Gi


The first gi technique was almost like an old friend to me as it was the Flower Sweep from closed guard as demo'd by Luiz Ribiero. Luiz did show it with a couple of obvious differences to how I usually do it. From closed guard you grab the opponent's left gi sleeve at the cuff and pull it in towards you, whilst at the same time you reach down a grab his left pant leg as low as possible. Now opening your guard, your drop your left leg low to his side whilst kicking up high into his shoulder with your right leg and at the same time pulling up on the left pant leg. At this point though was the main difference between how I usually do it and how Luiz taught it. Luiz had us pull the leg as high up towards our heads as possible to totally destroy the opponent's balance and easily tip him over into side control. Very effective but at the time I was thinking there wasn't much difference between it and the method I usually use.
However. After playing around with that for a while, Luiz showed a counter for if the opponent manages to block the sweep (usually by bringing their left arm across to act as a large ditch base out). This is where having the opponent's left leg held high comes in. With your strong grip on the leg you turn your right elbow underneath the leg so you can turn the arm fully under that leg and have it tightly secured at your shoulder. You can now bring yourself back to a seated position and close the guard with the slight difference that you have his leg trapped rather uncomfortably (for him) up at your shoulder.

Now for the first move from here (you've still got his right sleeve gripped right?) you can just shift your hips out to your left a little and swing your left leg up and over for quite a tight arm bar.

The second move from here you keep the arm grip and swing you leg up and roll over on your right (taking him with you). He instinctively bases out with his left hand leaving you perfectly set up to pull on his right arm using your lower body as a fulcrum for one of the tightest arm bars you can get on a guy.

If all this looks like failing you can switch your left hand grip of his right sleeve over to pull on his left sleeve and you can sweep him over the other way coming up into mount as you would have for the original sweep.

Exceptionally cool options from the flower sweep using that leg pulled high.


Next up was Valmyr Neto showing us a cool pass for Butterfly guard. The opponent has done everything right with his butterfly guard, he's sat up with full double underhook control and both hooks in. You are on your knees postured up. From here you reach over the opponent's shoulder with your left hand to grab at the guys belt or gi at the lower back. Next you use your right hand to reach inside the opponent's left leg at the knee crook and bend your hand back to hook out around the leg. Now you just kick backwards with your right leg and use your belt control and leg control to tilt and turn the guy so you land neatly in side control. As a little addition, Neto landed in side with you shoulder crushing into the opponent's face quite heavily, leaving the opponent no choice but to attempt to relieve pressure on his face by bringing his arms up then eventually bridging up, by which time you have all the space in the world to transition to mount.
Another very slick, very easy to learn move.

The last technique for the Gi portion of the seminar was another Marco Canha one and was perhaps the most tricky move of the day. Mainly because there seemed to be so much to it. Starting from your opponent's Spider Guard with you standing, you manage to pull your right arm free. you reach inside and grab a hold of the opponent's gi then collapse his guard and quick step around his right leg to land knee on belly. From there the opponent reacts by trying to get up on his side and pushing against your knee with his hand. You rotate yourself around him, stepping up past his head to come back around into side control the other side,  but you have the guy tilted up on his side slightly with his back to you a little. You need to use your downward pressure against his side/shoulder to keep him in position while you thread your right arm under his head and initiate a seat belt grip in front of him. You must keep you upper body tight to him at all times from here but you can give the opponent a little space at his lower body to "invite" him to attempt to turtle. Should he take you up on this you have space to quickly thrust your right hook in and quickly pull him back down. At this point you may be able to get the left hook in too. If not, you need to lock up your one hook using a sort of rear mount half guard style to maintain maximum control. The finish Marco showed us from here was very similar to Lucas Leite's. You open the guys left collar using your left hand by putting you thumb on top of the collar and turning it proper inside out. This allows you to bring right hand across in front of him and get sooo deep in at the collar that the choke is virtually on already. Now you can grab the guys right lapel quite low with your land and finish by applying the choke. Interesting detail here was instead of just yanking away to finish, lift yourself up on your right elbow and turn and the choke apply much tighter anyway.
Some nice parts to the move and I might have lost a couple of details here as this was one of those techniques where the demo was very long and descriptive. Works well though.

Rolling:

We all had a little roll at the end. I rolled with Jamie, who I had trained with all day, first. I basically just played around with my guard for this one. Trying to submit off my back and moving him a round a little. Jamie managed to pass my guard handily at one point but I was able to recover it quite well. That's about as much of it as I remember to be frank. He seemed to have some good movement and held me quite tight, not leaving much space. For a white belt he had a pretty damn good game and I can't imagine that he's too far off his blue belt.


Next up was my annual thrashing from Paul Severn, although I was pleased to see that I was holding my own a bit better this time. We played with some good guard work back and forth before he cleverly passed my guard to side control. I managed to escape his side control using the Lucas Leite set up to the inverted Anaconda but turned his lower body toward me before I could try and tighen it fully and recovered guard. From there he managed to cinch on a nice tight arm bar which "convinced" me to tap after a brief struggle. Can't remember the rest of it except for that I played it quite safe after that.


My last roll was where I made a massive mistake. I was against quite a big heavy guy called Wayne. We started with a little knee to knee grapple where he got such a tight hold on both my lapels that I had to struggle to loosen it or risk going out. From there I pushed him over and got in his closed guard with him working the collar still and me bringing the knee in for the pass. At this point we clashed with another pair on the mat and in my Herculean stupidity I tried to move Wayne across using the pull him across by the gi jacket method that you can generally get away with when grappling a guy of similar or smaller size. Oh my god did something go in my back at that point. I carried on the roll with some twinges of pain there, passed his guard and attempted a bow and arrow from top but I really couldn't focus on anything other than the pain. I welcomed the end of that roll and was actually glad when it was over. I also sat out the rest of the rolling to stretch out my back. It has healed over the last few days but the Sunday night at home was sheer agony.



Grading:

On to the final part of the event. And what a climax it was. Chico started off the proceedings by issuing the Blue Belts out. Notable among them were Bristol Class regulars, Andy "Ginge" Bremerkamp (he didn't know that was his nickname and evidently neither did Chico when he was reading the names on the belts out :oD) and Martin (Late show) Rose, and DV8 and Bristol regular Tom Hill. There were a few other guys who scooped Blues as well. Good stuff all of them. It's a great feeling getting your first awarded belt as it's a long journey with few stops along the way.

Next up were the Purple Belt guys and this was quite a big moment for the South West Branch of the Checkmat family as, up until now the highest rankers were all Blue Belts, except for a very light smattering of Brown Belts that have been training for ages and landed in Checkmat recently. Notable amongst the Purples were Ronan Fleming of the Bristol Club and Paul Severn of the Cheltenham and Worcester Clubs, as these guys have been training for a fair old while and it was universally felt that their promotions were a necessity by this time. Other guys I've rolled with who scooped their purples were Stuart Austin and Antanas Jazbutis. Both very worthy guys. Well done the lot of them. They've done theirselves and their team-mates proud.

The last and most special award of the day to be given out was a big moment for Checkmat Uk as a whole and for our little DV8 club in particular, as my Instructor, Ian Rossiter, was presented with the monumental honour of being the first home grown Checkmat Black Belt in the West of England. And a very emotional time for him it was too. It truly was priceless to see Ian's jaw drop and to have him stand up in front of the gathering getting his pristine new Black Belt tied around his waist and giving his speech, whilst choking back his Tears of joy. I can honestly say that, looking at Ian come the journeys end, the final big step makes all the hard work, the training and learning, the niggling little injuries, the long distances travelled and the hardships endured all seem worthwhile for that one moment of elation when you get exactly what you've worked these long years for. Congratulations Boss. You thoroughly deserve it.

¬m/

Uk Premier Bjj - Bristol Open - 5th August 2012

So the big day was finally here. My competition day. The Bristol Open at the Filton College campus in Filton, Bristol. I was pumped up and raring to go. What a massive disappointment it was. Or I was, whichever you prefer.

First impression of the event were "oh my god this is squeezed in to a very small space". The campus itself seemed enormous but the space we were jammed into was half (yes, half!) a reasonable sized sports hall. The other half of the hall was occupied by a what seemed to be a wheel chair basketball match so we were all rammed into a small half a hall with the most hilariously cramped in warm up area and 3 match pitches laid out in an L shaped occupying the largest part of the hall. All spectators and non-fighters were expected to sit in the stand which featured some of THE most uncomfortable seating I have ever had the misfortune of resting my peachy cheeks on. It was a common sight to see spectators getting up and stretching as if they were just about to get on the mats for a match. But alas, they were only trying to alleviate the immense pain prolonged contact with the seats had caused.

As for everything else, the atmosphere was brilliant. As always, what never ceases to amaze me at an event where highly athletic guys are trying to inflict pain on each other, Bjj competitions are an example of combat sports competitors who are also nice, honourable guys. If you were to get a similar set up for a boxing competition or MMA competition the amount of IPSM (idiots per square metre) would be significantly higher. Probably due to the fact that those guys always think they're better than everyone else. It's the mindset you have to have to do that sort of thing. But Bjj-ers have been beaten, tapped out, choked out and folded in half so many times by their peers that it's rare you will find a guy with a massive ego. Those guys don't last long in Bjj.


I arrived at the event toward the end of the white belt competition so didn't get to see much of the lower rank action. A short while after I arrived, the Brown Belt prize money competition started. There were only 3 competitors for this bracket and the first two were absolute monsters. 1 in particular, was referred to as Jack Black on special chicken by some of the spectators looking on. Jack Black-alike won the first match by takedown and pass to side control, that was pretty much the sum total of the match. I think the other guy managed to recover half guard at one point but was quickly passed again. Pretty boring match with JB taking the points decision.

There was a bit of a chuckle for the second match as the third competitor was pitted against the loser of the first match. This new guy was probably a middle or light weight against the Super Heavy plus, the other guy was. We all should've known better to chuckle though (we've been studying this art for long enough to know size shouldn't matter) as the small guy swept the big fella and got him quickly with a gi choke.

The final between Jack Black and the little guy was another surprise. The little guy managed a takedown and a pass and then did enough to keep busy and the opponent away from points to take the victory. He got a fairly big cheer for it too. Well done that man, for proving the whole thing that Bjj was supposed to be created for still rings true.


Our Checkmat Team we took managed to scoop a few medals with Tom Kocur and Shabba Vaithianathan both scoring Bronze in the Adult Blue Belt Lightweight catagory and Ronan Fleming grabbing a silver in the Adult Blue Belt Super Heavyweight catagory. Well done guys.


Now on to my performance. I was entered into the Masters and Seniors Blue Belt Medium Heavyweight bracket and I was massively chuffed with my weight cut for this. I've spent the last month eating carefully and working out or training every day to keep a semblance of cardio and strength at my new found slim line stature. And I felt that I'd done quite well with that and I'd even dropped a bit past the weight I needed to attain so I could eat relatively heartily on the weekend of the comp so my energy levels would be right up there.

All in all I was slim, fit and definitely game. I wasn't overly nervous. I had a bit of an idea of what I wanted to do. None of this mattered in the end.

The guy I was against in the first round was a really nice guy called Tyrone Derrick. A Blue Belt from Gracie Barra Southampton (amusingly this is where Marcus' will probably be training when he moves down there) he was really approachable and and pleasant. When we got on the mat and started the match we had a very brief grip fight before I stepped in for a takedown to which he reacted with a very tasty fall back suicide trip. If it failed he would've been in the shit but as it was the gambit paid off and he had the two points. I quickly managed to attain closed guard which (and I've discussed this at length with people since) is totally weird as I can count on 1 hand, the amount of minutes I spent using closed guard in sparring in the last 3 months. But no, for some reason I had closed guard and I kept my closed guard on whilst trying for gi chokes, arm bars, a couple of flower sweep attempts and a couple of set ups for kimuras. None of this was very effective because Tyrone was very strong and basically planted his fist at my hips and postured up while trying break my guard. Every time I managed to pry one of his arms away from his and break his posture he'd lean forward for a second or two, I'd reach up for a collar choke or something and he'd plant the fists back and posture up again and continue to try to break my guard. The annoying thing is I should of just been opening my guard anyway. My open guard is pretty good. I probably would have had a lot more options to sweep him and felt more comfortable doing it. But hindsight is always 20/20 and at the time, Tyrone felt so strong that I felt to lose my closed guard was to surrender a position. So I stupidly kept the closed guard there. I got an advantage for a relatively close gi choke but other than that I did bugger all. At the end I tried a bit frantically to sweep him from closed guard and he managed to counter neatly and pass to my half guard. I was just gearing up for a half guard sweep when the time was called. Tyrone won from the two points he'd scored in the opening seconds of our fight. I was pretty gutted about this but at the end of the day I did it to myself. Well done to Tyrone, he went on to win Bronze at our weight and also in the Absolute.
I've included the video for anybody who wants to sit through five minutes of relatively little action.

As for me, it's back to the drawing board. I will need over the next couple of weeks to re-evaluate what I need for my game to progress. It's my ability to process a game plan in the heat of the moment. Mental Strength a lot of people call it and mine left me that day. I also think a bit more situation training where I work my way out of positions I am held in. I should try and up my game as well. Never take the easy option in sparing, instead always roll against the toughest, strongest and best guys in the class. Only this way will I learn how to counter strong guys who have a strong hold on me or be able to increase my skill level by rolling with the higher level guys.

I'd just like to thank my instructors, Ian and Chico, for their tuition and support and for yelling out their instruction from the side lines. Sorry I didn't do better for you guys. 

I've got a couple of weeks off now as I'm on annual leave from work and I've promised my wife and children some solid family time together. I shall be back in action on the 19th August at the Checkmat Grading Seminar where I shall get the opportunity to whip some backs in the name of team spirit and camaraderie. It'll also give me a little bit of time to rest up on a growing list of aches and pains before I get back to training hard. At the moment the next competition in my sight is the Hereford Open in December unless something else pops up in the meantime. I really have got the bug after my little outing Sunday. I NEED to compete.

I'll see if anything else comes up. ¬m/

DV8 Academia de Jiu Jitsu 2-8-12

I was and have been buzzing and fired up to f!!k for my up coming competition on Sunday 5th August. Unfortunately, as Marcus has been working away this last week I didn't get any chance to train at lunch times in the week. Which, as I was on call for work, meant my sole opportunity for training this week was at Ian's session down at Sweat FA in Weston Super Mare on Thursday night. So I was understandably fit to burst by the time I got down there this week.

We were back to relatively good numbers again this week after lasts week's effort. We also had a new guy trying out although I don't think he'll be back as he seemed more interested in Judo.

Venue: Sweat FA, Weston Super Mare, Uk.
Instructor: Ian Rossiter.


Warm up:

The usual laps of the mat with arm wind milling, knee ups, butt kicks and side steps. Then on to arm, neck and shoulder stretching, Squat (4 x 10), push ups (4 x 10) and sit ups (4 x 10). We finished up with some leg stretching.



 
Techniques:

It seems Ian has been struck by a little Olympic fever for the beginning of his techniques this week as he decided to go with methods of breaking down your opponent's Turtle. This has been something that has been bothering him due to the Judo on the box at the moment. Specifically, now the Judo players are allowed more time for ground work but their ability to attack the turtle seems a bit shite (in Ian's opinion). So the first technique was Attacking turtle to knee on belly. Your opponent is turtled up in front of you with you leaning your weight across him on from his left side to keep him down in turtle.You then grab his left arm with your left arm and push it in (to stop him basing out with it) and with your right arm you reach over the top of the guy and then thread you arm in under to grab his opposite lapel (left one) . You now stand up and step back whilst pulling hard on the opponent's lapel. You may need to put your right foot against his left leg initially to stop him basing out with the leg. The guy should pull over onto his back his back with you falling neatly into knee of belly.
I was drilling this and all over techniques with Justin 'Man Tank' Thomas. Justin is huge and strong as hell so getting the technique right with him is imperative as pure strength on my half just ain't gonna work against him.


The second technique of the night was extending the first move to an Arm Bar. You flip the guy over and attain Knee on Belly with the guy's arm neatly coming up in front of you for you to grab with your left hand/arm. You bring your right knee (the one that's on his belly) up tight on his chest so the foot of that leg stops under his armpit and bring your ass in as tight to his shoulder as possible. Now swing your left leg over the top of the opponent's head and clench your knees together tight as you fall/sit backward. If clenched correctly you shouldn't need all the yanking you see with a lot of guy's arm bar attempts. All you should need is to lean back and extend your hips slightly to put on enough pressure for the tap.



The next move was from the Lucas Leite seminar and Ian allowed me to demonstrate the it which was pretty cool. The opponent is turtled up once again with you laying across him from his left side. As before, you reach over with your right hand and thread it through between his arm and leg and grab his opposite (left side) gi lapel at about chest height. With your left hand you push his left arm in to stop the base out, whilst you place your left knee at the gap between his left arm and leg. Now, pulling/sitting back you turn the guy over into your seated rear mount. As he flips over his legs seem to naturally open up and space away from his arms with just enough of a gap to slot your hooks in, first on the right side, then as you carry the movement on the left opens up. You should end sat up, with the guy seated in front of you. You have one under hooked lapel grip and both hooks in. I love this move and have used it countless times to take the back.



Ian also let me demonstrate the Lucas Leite sliding collar choke. From the above ending position you release the far side lapel grip to grab the nearside (right) to open the lapel wide. This allows you to reach you left arm over his left shoulder and around to grab the open and exposed(right side) lapel and slide the hand up that collar as far as it will go around his neck. You can then release the right hand lapel grip and grab low on the left lapel. To finish you lean back while pulling on the lapels. You sometimes may need to bring your left leg up and wrap it over his left arm to pull it away so it can't relieve the tension of the choke.



Ian next showed us the Rear Naked Choke from rear mount but both guys are on their right side. You have the position secured with both hooks in and you left arm under hooked under his left arm to keep him in place. You now reach over his right shoulder with your right arm and around to grab his left shoulder with your hand. You can now bring the left arm out and over his left arm to rest at the side of his head so you can manoeuvre your right and into the crook of your left arm and then close that arm and pass the left hand behind the opponent's head. Apply the pressure by leaning forward into the move and tightening you right arm around his neck whilst pushing hard against the back of his head.


The last technique of the session was a defence against the single leg takedown. The guy's shot in for a single on you left leg. You immediately sprawl out with your right leg and lean your weight against him. Reach under his chin/face from his left side with your right arm, pushing it all the way through to come out at the other side of him at his right arm pit. You can now gable grip the hand to secure it in place and kick back hard with your left leg to break it from the opponent's grip. You now ensure you have the right arm pushed through as far as it will go so you can put the right hand in the crook of your left arm (same as for a rear naked) and fold it over to close resting your left hand on his back. You now roll both of you over by dropping your left arm down and rolling over on your left side. Carry the move over so you've both rolled all the way over on to your other sides and finish the move by walking yourself in toward him. Lovely tight choke ensues.


Rolling:

In preparation for Sunday's competition and lacking any blue belt opponent's, I elected to roll with the stronger, heavier guys. Justin was first and we started from standing. I stupidly tried to go for a falling arm bar which Justin scouted well. He then stacked me and basically tried to fold me in half which was pretty uncomfortable. The rest of the roll I was trying to submit him from my guard. It was only toward the end that I realised I was limiting myself to this and so tried a weak flower sweep attempt but it was like trying to move a boulder. Justin's one heavy dude.


The next round was against Neil Owen who is essentially built like a tank. I was once again in guard pretty quickly but faired much better this time. After an initial arm bar attempt which left me chronically stacked once again, I managed to turn into an omoplata to get the tap. At this point Neil's cardio left the building and he does what Neil does best; Turtle up. This gave me the opportunity to try my turtle attacking skills against him which proved mostly fruitless as Neil's turtle is immense. I managed to get hooks in and was fighting for the choke at the end.


My last roll was with a guy named Luke Brown. Luke is a bit of an MMA fighter and has quite a colossal rolling ego, so it was a bit of a struggle in the beginning but I managed to get a few transitions in there ending in mount and hitting him with and arm bar. Good one to end on.


So that was it before my big day on Sunday 5th August. Those more astute of you will notice the posting date of this is actually Monday so I have already had my competition. I will tell you all about in my next entry.

Good rollin' ¬m/