DV8 Academia de Jiu Jitsu 25/10/12

I haven't managed to get to a Bjj class for about 2 weeks due to being on call last week with work during the High Tides. Lots of overtime but it reallly puts a dampner on your Bjj. All I've managed to get in is a couple of lunchtime No-Gi sessions with a lad called Matty Martin at my local gym. These No-Gi sessions are pretty productive though as I haven't really done a lot of Bjj without the Gi on so it's a good learning curve for me too. And Matty's a big guy with a lot of strength so I have to be really wily to get anything over on him. It ensures I use more technique rather than just muscling my way through.

While I've been off from Bjj classes I've also been a bit lax with my blogging. During this time though there has been some great things happen in Bjj. Particularly the mega event Metamoris Pro, which featured some of the top Bjj athletes in the world pitted against each other in one off, submission only, 20 minute bouts. Put on like a traditional boxing or MMA card with fighter intros, commentary and clearly defined winners (or draws if no sub occurs) the event was, in my opinion, a tremendous success with some truly amazing world class action. I think this format is the future of the top end of the sport. I mean obviously to sell it you need some big names, so the guys on the card have already paid their dues and won world championships tournaments and everyone into the sport/art has heard of pretty much everyone on the card. I really hope another event such as this occurs in the future.

In other Bjj related updates more relative to me I'm really proud of our Bristol Instructor and head of Checkmat Europe, Chico Mendes, for going up to London on the weekend and taking gold in the London Open Gi competition, and then gold in the European No-Gi at weight and silver in the absolute. Well done Chico. You're awesome! Special mention should also go to Sam Cook who went up and got gold in her category at the London Open too. Also on a side note, well done to Tyrone Derrick for taking gold in his weight division at London too. Makes me seem that little less bad for losing to you at the Bristol Open ;o).

Anyway, back to the matter at hand. This weeks class down at DV8 Bjj, Weston, was brilliant. There were good numbers down there and the guys that attend these days are real good blokes who are committed to learning but still willing to have some fun while doing it.

Venue: Sweat Fa,



Warm Up:
I took the guys for the warm up starting with jogging laps with Arm Windmills, Butt kicks, Knee ups, Inward for a lap and outwards for a lap. Then two steps facing in two steps facing out for a lap. Then we did 2 lengths of the mat sprinting, followed by breakfalls, forward rolls for 2 lengths. Backward Rolls 2 lengths. Then Neck and Arm stretching. 4 x 10 Squats, 3 x 10 situps and 3 x 10 press ups. Finished with some leg stretching.



Techniques:
(For ease of explanation, I will describe techniques using the sides I used when first learnt (i.e Left and Right).


For this weeks first move Ian ran us through the Upa technique for escaping mount. This is a fantastic escape move that everyone should have in their arsenal. This is an impressive move that always amazes the newby or inexperienced grappler. I've shown this move a few times to some of the guys I've been training during lunchtimes recently and it always elicits a suitably amazed response. Fortunately, using the joyous Youtube website, I can show you this technique and cut down on valuable wear and tear on my keyboard and fingers ;o)

Video courtesy of Jaymac0152 taught by Zed Chierighini

For the second technique, Ian started us off with a one man drill. Lying on your back you bridge up, then hip escape (firing your ass out to your left) then scissor switch your legs so your hips are now facing the ground, then turn your whole body over so you are on your hands and knees at a 90 degree angle to how your body was initially positioned. This is a basic drill to get the movement for the an Escape from Side Control to Single Leg.


Once this was drilled a few times we then paired up and did the technique. I was paired with the ever improving Rich Presley.
With the guy on top of you in a strong side control position, his legs off to your right, you have your right forearm against his waist and your left hand below his head (to the right) of his head. You bridge up and push out to the right, then perform the leg scissor switch turn, whilst taking hold of the opponent's right leg as you come over into the all fours position. From there you can drive forward, preferably with your head on the inside, pushing the guy back onto his ass. If you maintain good control of his legs you can come up into side control here.


Next was the old staple for side control escapes. The Bridge and Shrimp to Guard Recovery. Once again the guy has the strong side control on you. This time you have your right forearm at his waist, your left forearm across his neck. Bring your feet close to your ass and bridge up and push to the right once again. At this point you shrimp out to your left but this time, bring your right knee up inbetween the two of you to make enough space that you can bring your left leg inside to gain guard. The type of guard you recover is dependant on your flexibility, your body type (long/short) and the size and strength of your opponent. Regardless, if you only initially recover to half guard you can still shrimp out the other way and get the other leg in for the full guard (Butterfly hooks).


To continue on from this but from the perspective of the the top control guy, Ian then demo'd a counter to the bridge, taking it into a Darce Choke. As the guy bridges up, the top control guy can pull back a little while using his left arm to control the guys head, while threading his right arm under the arm pit of the opponent's left arm and passing it underneath his neck and head. Then use your body to press down and keep his left arm in position, so you can put your right hand into the elbow crook of your left arm. To finish you close the left arm over the right and then reach the left hand behind your head. This should apply enough squeeze to get the tap but if it doesn't, you can turn your lower body to face the opponent (instead of facing down) and curl in toward him wrapping a leg over his leg to apply extra pressure.
I really enjoy this move and have tapped a few guys out with this in rolling. Love it.



Rolling:

First off I rolled with Rich. It was a pretty good, action packed roll. I managed to pass his guard a couple of times. Got to mount a couple of times too. I took his back once but he defended admirably and I gave up the position by trying for an ill advised arm bar. At the end, I'd mounted Rich and tried for a mounted triangle, which Rich turned out of to come up attacking my guard. In the end I was hunting a Kimura and was totally gutted that the roll ended. Sometimes you have a round that you wish would last longer. This was one of those times.


Next up was Ash (Glenn'son), who seems to have taken to hunting me down every time we are both in attendance. A per usual against Ash, I pulled guard. He tried his best to break my guard and did his usual thing of leaving his arms extended too much to push against my arm pits. As I've told him about this countless times before I decided to just quickly arm bar him, give him the quick lecture again, then continue. After that I was happy to just do some flow rolling with him, letting him get positions on me so I can escape, then helping him do the same.


Next up I had a fantastic round against Glenn. Glenn is a strong dude and usually has some good top control. Coupled with the fact that he's pretty awesome at Judo it means he doesn't usually have problem getting you to your back. The time however, I managed to take him down and got straight to side control. After a bit of a struggle in side, me trying to keep the position, him trying to escape, I noticed he was extending his arm high to push me away so I switched and hit an arm bar on him. I was pretty damn chuffed with this and was fairly certain he would flatten me at the restart. He did take me straight down to my back getting into my half guard. I was massively chuffed with the next bit though as I hit a nice roll over sweep on him, although in the scramble he got his leg up so I jumped to 50/50 and after a couple of fumbled attempts I managed to secure an ankle lock. I was dead happy with this. It was probably the best round of rolling I had in a while.


For my last roll I was up against Cameron. Cam has been improving a lot and doesn't bull rush from the outset any more. He was comfortable to sit in my guard to begin, although he left his arm out allowing my to very nearly hit him with the arm bar from guard. I was extended very far up on my shoulder though and he was on his feet, so he walked over me cranking my neck a bit so I released the hold. I came up quickly from here though and passed his guard to side, quickly hitting him with a cheap Americana from side. After the reset I drove forward into a kneeling clinch and managed to quickly get a really tight loop choke on.


So it was a good session of Jiu Jitsu with some good mates and a great few rounds of rolling at the end.

I also attended a cool Leo Vieira seminar on Saturday too, which I still need to type up. Great times. ¬m/

Checkmat Bjj - 9/10/12

With Chico away in Greece for the week, Ian Rossiter was left to do the Tuesday Checkmat Bjj Gi session for Bristol Combat Legion at La Gym Bristol.

Venue: LA Gym, Bristol, Uk.
Instructor: Ian Rossiter (Black Belt - Checkmat)

Warm up:

Laps of the mat with knee ups, ass kicks, face in for a lap then out for a lap. Then we did lengths of the mat doing Forward rolls, backward rolls and leap frogs (2 lengths each). After that we did some stretching and then paired up to do 30 Push ups off your partners back, then 20 Closed Guard situps.



Techniques:

Ian decided to start by doing some of the self defence aspect of Bjj for this lesson, starting with the defence against a headlock. This is where an opponent has wrapped one of his arms around your neck and has secured that arm in place by gripping hands together. However, the inexperienced opponent has absolutely no body control on you so you are able to move to his side as in this image;

From here, you use both of your hands to secured his outside arm to his side (stunting his ability to punch you in the face),and then extend your left leg behind the opponent. All you need do then is sit down and the guy should fall back and go over onto his side. If he's persistent and keeps the head lock you can now drive your forearm down into his neck using your other arm to brace it and add to the power load. Start at the base of the neck and use a scooping sort of motion, pushing up the neck, for maximum pain. This is legal in Bjj competition but at the end of the day you're unlikely to get a tap from it as all it's really for is to get the guy to let go of your neck. Once he releases you can grip the arm that was around your neck (his right), bring your right knee up and push it against his rib high on the nearside, then drop backwards, passing your left leg over his chest/face as you go, finishing with the arm bar.
This has always been a favourite of mine. I can't tell you the number of beered up tussles I've had where a guy's grabbed me in a headlock like this. If only I knew then what I know now ;o)
I was training all of the nights techniques with Tom Hill.



The next technique is a defence against someone pushing against your upper body with one hand.For this example they are using their right hand to push against your left shoulder. Using your left hand you first strike their arm away by knocking it across them so it has passed your body. Then you bring your right arm up under that arm and pass it over their left shoulder, wrapping it around their neck, securing it in place by gable gripping your hands together(their right arm at this point should be discomforting them as it's crushed up between your shoulder and their face). It's possible to finish from this position by just pulling the choking arm as if you're trying to get it toward your chest. However, you can also use this position to easily take your opponent down by stepping your right foot behind his right and tripping him while pulling him off balance with the hold. He'll go down onto his back with you coming down with the head and arm choke side control. To finish the choke tight, you put the hand of the choking arm in to the elbow crook of the bracing arm, closing that arm around it. Then with that hand you just reach for your ear and try to lay you body flat to the floor.  This should put severe pressure on the neck for the head and arm triangle choke.
Sometimes if you haven't got the opponent's trapped arm at the correct angle across their neck it will take some time for you to get the tap.




Ian's next technique was just a basic Rear Naked Choke putting emphasis on Ian's favourite little detail, the clenching down with the elbow into the opponent's chest. In seated rear mount  you bring your right arm around the opponents neck and ensure you bring that elbow down hard into his chest. You put the hand of that choking arm into the elbow crook of your left arm and then close that arm and pass the forearm behind the head and pressure the head forward. Most guys will tap at this point if you have the technique in tight but if not you just need to lean back while bending forward.




We then repeated both of the rear mount escapes from Ronan's class last friday.


Next up was the Half Nelson choke into Armbar. From the seated rear mount you have the seat belt grip (left arm under, right over). You pass you right arm across his neck and put it in the crook of the left arm, then close the left arm and pass that arm behind his head as you would for a normal rear naked. As you had the underhook though, the opponent's left arm is brought up with it. This in itself is a finishing technique called the Half Nelson Choke. Often though, the guy will bring the left shoulder down making space and preventing the choke from being successfully applied. For this situation you can secure his left arm with your left, then remove your right arm and bring it around to the left side of his face to push the face in the opposite direction. When doing this you can quickly release you right leg hook, pass your left leg hook fully across his body and then bring the right leg around and over his head, leaning back to finish with an arm bar. An old favourite of mine which I haven't hit in absolutely years. Hmmmmm I think I'm gonna have to make that a mini aim soon.



The last technique is a personal favourite. 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 tries to escape using the drive back method from Ronan's lesson. 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 your hip slightly to the other side and use the leg on that side to wrap around your first leg forming the triangle. Finish the technique by dragging yourself backward on your butt. Great move.




Rolling:


We didn't have a lot of time at all for rolling so it was just 2 x 3 minute rounds.

I rolled against Tom first. It was a good round. Tom's guard is very tight as usual, I managed to pass it once but he recovered. That was pretty much the highlight of a round that was over much to quickly.


Next up was the first time I'd properly rolled with Josh Kersey in a long time. It was a fast paced effort tight effort with not a lot of ground gained from either side. I managed a pass at one point which was easily recovered by Josh. He played with a lot of high guard and showed a much improved flexibility from the last times I've rolled with him. Josh threatened a triangle at one point but I had it well scouted and broke out (something I've been working on). Other than that it was just a "try to find an opening" type of roll with neither of us getting very far. Once again the 3 minutes went far too quickly and time was called.

So it was another great session up at Bristol Combat Legion. I'm really enjoying the hard sparring and good work ethic they've got up there.  Now unfortunately I've got no Bjj until next Thursday :o(  Apart from a No-Gi session with Matt Martin down Sweat FA Friday lunchtime. Oh well. Competition time will come soon enough.

¬m/

Checkmat Bjj - 5/10/12

I've had a double great day today.  Not only did I get some lunchtime No-Gi training in down Sweat FA in Weston, I also managed to get up to Ronan Fleming's  Checkmat Bjj class up at Bristol Combat Legion.

The session was very good. Ronan demo'd a couple of techniques then we got a shit load of sparring in. When I'm next training for a competition, I will definitely be going to Ronan's class for a bit of extra sparring and to build up my match ready grappling fitness. The guys up there set a good pace and keep it up all the way through.




Venue: Bristol Combat Legion, LA Gym, Bristol, Uk.
Instructor: Ronan Fleming (Purple Belt - Checkmat).



Warm Up:
For the warm up we started with laps of the mat whilst doing knee ups, butt kicks, inward facing sidesteps, outward facing sidesteps, then two in two out sidesteps. We then did lengths of the mat, doing forward rolls (X 2 Lengths), backward rolls (X 2 Lengths) and Spiderman Crawls (X 2 Lengths).



Techniques:
(I will describe each technique using the method I originally learned it. ie. left or right grips etc. for ease of description)


For the techniques, Ronan started us off with some escapes from Rear Mount. Starting with your opponent having your back in seated rear mount with both hooks in. You defend your neck with both your hands and plant both feet flat on the ground to push yourself back into your opponent, flattening his back to the floor. You then shift your hips out to the right, moving your back out also, to get it to the floor. During this movement, the weight of your lower body should press against the opponent's right inside leg, knocking the hook out and leaving you the opportunity to use both of your legs to trap the guy's left leg (as if for half guard). At this point, if he's sensible, he'll accept that he's lost the position and try to limit his losses by coming over on top of you into your half guard. However, if he tries to hold on for dear life and not accept that he lost the back control, you'll find it easy to roll over on to him, bringing you up into half guard top.
Working under the assumption that the guy is going to take the sensible option and roll on you for half guard top, Ronan had us drill practice two different methods of ensuring you come up in as favourable a position as possible. The first being the side half guard with deep under hook that I've covered here a lot recently. The second being a cool underhook for deep half guard. The guys (Ronan and Josh Kersey) also showed me a nifty little deep half sweep for if the guy tries to base out using his left leg.


The second rear mount escape was the more common butt scooth, leg drop and hip shift method that I have written up many times before. A great basic staple move that everyone practising Bjj should know.



Moving on from there, Ronan ran us through some good basic finishes for if you have the guy's back. He hit us with three nice easy ones in quick succession and then had us drill all three together. All of these are from the full seated rear mount position.

First was a variation from the rear naked choke for if you're finding it too hard to get your (right)arm buried all the way in under his chin so you can apply the rear naked properly. Instead, you can finish the choke using the forearm/wrist under the chin, angling it just so that the flattest part is crushing the opponent's throat. To finish this you only need to pull the right arm up into the opponent's throat using a no thumb grip down over the hand with your free left hand. If applied correctly the choke comes on quick.

The second and third were two variations of the rear mounted ezekiel.
From a seated rear mount with seat belt control, your right arm is over the top of his right arm (as if to attack the neck), your left arm is under his left. You reach up in front of him with your left arm and put the fingers of your right hand into the sleeve of the left arm. You then pass the left hand behind the guy's head, with the right hand nestling neatly into the opponent's throat. The finish this you just need to lean your body weight backward which seems to naturally push your arms out. Very tight choke.
The alternate method is where you push your left arm fully under his arm and through so it is past the right side of his head. You then put the fingers of your left hand into the sleeve cuff of your right and pass the right arm behind the opponent's head so the blade of your right hand can be pushed into the left side of his neck. Once again, finish by laying backward and pushing your arms out.
Two real eye waterers there.


Sparring:

We kicked off with some situational sparring. Attacking the back. The guy with the back has to submit. The guy whose trapped has to escape to either top control or guard.

We rolled with loads of guys through this and as mentioned before, the pace was really high. Some great rolling. I didn't get tapped out through any of the situational stuff and managed to get a couple of taps.

For the full sparring I had a turn against Tom Kocur first, who was really on his game. Although he didn't finish me, he basically controlled me for 85%  of the round, quite a lot of it in a triangle choke attempt. It was a real tough round and by the end I fel totally beasted.

Then my second round was against Matt Sellars. A long standing brown belt who, quite frankly, is waaaaay out of my league. Every once in a while you have a roll against someone who reminds you just how very far you have to go in your Bjj development. Matt Sellars was that guy for me. I held him off with my guard for about a minute at the start but he pretty soon found a way to glide past and once in side control it was pretty much all over. He tapped me first with forearm choke from side control, then we pretty much repeated the transitioning and he got me with an Americana. Thoroughly handled but Matt's a very humble and friendly guy and tried to give me pointers on how to tighten up my game.

I very briefly had a roll against Ronan who also managed to pass my guard before the bell saved me from some form of pain.

My last roll was against a guy named Ben, a white belt who was showing some really good movement and strength. I got some sweeps on him and got to mount once but he recovered quite nicely each time. I eventually managed to get him with an ezekiel from mount.

For my first taster of a Friday sesh under Ronan I had a bloody good time and really loved the masses of rolling. I shall definitely be attending some more if time allows. ¬m/

Checkmat Bjj - 2/10/12

It's been a while since I've managed to get up to train with the guys at Checkmat Bjj Bristol and I've definitely missed it. They've got a well attended class up there with a few new guys I've not seen before, mixed in with the regular old faces. Great atmosphere with lots of camaraderie but also a good batch of guys who take their training relatively seriously.

Venue: Bristol Combat Legion, LA Gym, Bristol, Uk
Instructor: Chico Mendes (Grade 2 Black Belt, Checkmat Bjj)


Techniques:
(I will describe each technique using the method I originally learned it. ie. left and right grips etc. for ease of description)

Chico started off by running through a couple of the techniques he did last week (which was good for me as I wasn't there last week). Seems last week he was dealing with various methods for breaking the closed guard of which he re-demonstrated 3 quickly and had us run through them quickly a couple of times.

1/. In opponent's closed guard, right hand gripping the lapels of his jacket together, left hand gripping the material of his gi pants right around his pelvis region and pushing your knuckles into said pelvis region in an attempt to keep his hips pinned to the floor. From there you bring your right leg up and forward on the outside, so you can press that shin/knee against the opponent's side. From there you can increase the pressure on his side as if you are turning in towards him (sometimes this can break a guy's guard) or you can stand in this position, increase the pressure on the side and use you left hand to lightly push away his right, easily breaking the guard.

2/. In opponent's closed guard, using your right hand, grab his left and push it hard into his pelvis area to achieve the same sort of pinning as in the first method. With your left hand on his knee you raise your left leg outside of him to apply pressure in his side. The just use your right elbow to push against his left inside leg to achieve the easy guard break.

3/. In opponent's closed guard, both hands gripping the gi pant material at the pelvis and pushing down. With this one you just lean off to your left slightly and use your left elbow to push hard into his right inside left until he eventually lets his guard go just to relieve the pressure.
It's worth noting that this technique is not the same as the one where the guy in guard postures up and deliberately digs his elbows callously into your quad muscles just about halfway up your upper leg. The former technique is a good and legitimate way of passing guard. The latter is a bit of a fuck wits move to callously and intentionally hurt the sparring partner until they let go of their guard in agony and will probably be left with heavy bruising for the next week. Don't be that guy.

I did all my drilling with Tom "Medal Collector" Hill.

Chico then took us through some methods of passing the guard after you have broken it open.

The first passing method was the knee slide. You've just broken the guard open. You now need to press your left leg into the guy's inside leg, pushing it out ward to keep the leg at bay so as to not allow the guy to recover guard. With your right arm you push the guys left leg down to the floor and quickly hop your right leg over it. You then quickly slide your knee over the top of his left leg until gets to the ground one the other side of him. Whilst doing that you also underhook the guys right arm with your left, lay your down either to the mat on the left of him or pressing hard against his chin/neck area, and also overhook his left arm with your right so you can pull that arm behind you to stop him from blocking your pass. Once in this position you can bring yourself further over him and then work to pull your trailing leg through too. Then scissor your legs to switch over into side control.


The second pass demonstrated was basically exactly the same as the last but against the De La Riva guard.


Next up was a variation of the smash pass. You've broke the opponent's guard open and have your left leg pressing against his right inside leg. Your left hand is grabbing his gi pants at the right knee. Your right is gripping his gi front/lapel/belt. You now reach under his left leg with your right arm and then push your arm under as far as it will go so you can grab his right lapel. This enables you to bring the leg right up on your shoulder, leaning your weight against the leg to make it quite uncomfortable for the opponent. You also need to make sure you've kept your left leg in place and brace it there with your left hand. This stops the guy from being able to hit a triangle on you.
From this position we were shown two passes. The basic smash pass and a variation. For the basic smash pass you heavily press your weight up against the guy's left leg until it's basically pushed across his body. When it's forced as far as it'll go you can just turn your upper body slightly (the right shoulder goes forward) so the leg flies right by you and you can pass comfortably into side control.

For the second variation, you're in the smash set up position with the guy's left leg pressured. Instead of trying for the first smash pass, you can use your left hand to wrap around the guy's left leg, then roll left and forward while bringing your right leg up high and over, passing the guy's right leg. If done correctly, when you rolled forward, your knee at his inside leg would've passed over as well leaving only that foot left to pass. Once there you just switch your hips to gain a strong side control position.
I was really impressed with this move. When you drill it repeatedly you can really make it flow. I could easily see it becoming a go to pass of choice.





Situational rolling:

We started off the sparring with some situational stuff. You each get a couple of minutes in guard. Guy on top has to pass. Guy on bottom has to sweep or submit.

I went first against Tom with him going on the bottom first. I managed to pass his guard twice and then swept him once during my guard time.


Next up was Tom Kocur. I have a lot of respect for Tom's guard game. He's definitely a dangerous guard player, so during the course of this session I was very mindful of Tom's ability to whip out some sneaky subs. I did however use his sub hunting skills against his to get passed his guard as I lured him into trying for an arm bar, then turned the arm up so he couldn't hyper-extend it while I just passed around the open side. I was really chuffed with this. Tom is one of those guys that is pretty damn slick, so when i get anything on him it feels like I'm progressing. We restarted back in guard and before long Tom was threatening, first with and arm bar, which I switch out of again, then with an omoplata, which I managed to extend my arm to keep out of. It was during this second escape/block that Tom managed to switch on me getting the sweep. Very slick.
during my guard with the guard, neither of use managed to accomplish anything of noted. I threatened a couple of subs but he easily blocked them. He didn't manage to pass my guard.


Last guy I did the situational against was Mark Acton. Mark is a very wiley opponent who brought it too me straight from the off. He broke my guard using one of the techniques from the beginning of the evening, then after a good struggle and a few well varied attempts, he managed to pass my guard using a Toreando pass. we were both pretty gassed after the struggle mind and basically killed off the rest of my round with stalling play.
My time in Mark's guard was horrendous. I don't know it it was due to me gassing in the round before or what, but I couldn't summon up the strength to break open Mark's guard. I was throwing a lot of stuff at him but he was resisting fantastically. The only plus I take away from that was the fact that Mark didn't manage to sweep me either.


Rolling: 7 Minutes rounds.


For proper rolling I had a go against Rich Long first. Rich's game is ever improving and once again he used some really good techniques to get out of some tricky spots. It was a very back and forth roll with each of us getting a good amount of time on top and on back. I found myself attacking Rich's turtle twice. The first time he executed and immediate escape recovering to half guard. The second time I just marginally missed taking his back. I did manage a pretty cool half guard sweep on him at one point, but then he managed to burst out of a flattened half guard (using the very recognisable Lucas Leite technique) to recover to full guard. During one of my times on the bottom he made the mistake of presenting too much arm while postured up trying to break my guard. I bluffed him by pretending I was going for a gi choke while sneakily pulling myself in to position, where I managed to hit an arm bar on him. All in all it was a great roll. 


My last roll was against a new guy I'd never met before (Chris?) who said he'd only been going 2 months. I went very easy on him and talked him through some escapes from some of the tougher situations. I also tried to talk him through some of the basic mistakes he was making but as is always the case with new guys, no matter what I said I couldn't get him to stop trying to push away using his extended arms whilst in my guard. To his credit though, he had a contingency plan for when I went for the arm bar, using his other arm to block. From there though I threatened the omoplata, making him extend the arm, leaving me in the position where I just had to kneel upright and extend his arm straight to get the tap. It still didn't ram the point home though as he went straight back to arm extending in my guard after the reset. I was just about to hit him with another arm bar when time was called. I guess he's gonna need to be arm barred a few times before he learns. Oh well, we were all beginners once.

That ended a really cool session in Bristol. It was great to be back up there with those guys I hope to get back there really soon. At the end, Chico gave a quick talk about the London Open and European No Gi Championships being held in London at the end of the month, of which Chico himself is entering. Should be good fun but the prices are astronomical so I will not be able to participate myself. Ah well. Stick to training hard and hopefully good things will come. ¬m/