DV8 22/11/12

Went to Ian's class on the Thursday (22/11/12). Attendance was pretty good as usual.

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

Techniques:
(As usual, I will explain the movements of each technique from how I first learnt them)
After a brief warm up Ian took us straight into some techniques from side control. The first was a Gi choke from side. Laying across your opponent with your left arm around under his head and your right elbow pressed against his right hip to brace him into place. Using your left hand you take a grip of his gi collar on the right side of his head. Maintaining heavy bodyweight pressure on him, you pass you right arm down to the left side of the opponent, taking a grip of his gi at the under arm. You can now finish the move by opening your left arm out (whilst maintaining that grip of the collar) so your arm passes over the head and you can bring the forearm down onto the throat of the opponent, pushing up into the neck to apply the pressure.
This is a good technique that is fairly usable against anyone as long as you get the technique right. I very nearly tapped someone out with this in my first ever competition. I was also tapped out with this by Matt Sellars just recently.


The second technique of the night was from the same starting position but this time you don't grip the collar as far over to the right, more like at the back of the neck. You then turn your lower body left, so it's facing up toward his head. Now, keeping your left hand grip on the collar, pass your left leg up over the guys head and wrap it around. Leaning forward you now push back with your legs whilst keeping your tight grip with your hand, cutting off the flow blood for the choke out.
It's worth noting that this move can be quite hard to pull off on certain types of people. I was training this move with Tom Hill and Luke Brown. Meand Tom found it particularly difficult to hit this move on Luke. To finish him with it I found I really had to wrap my leg around his neck and drive down. The more blade-like I could make my arm with the collar grip seemed to make a difference too.


Ian then brought us on to Side Control Transition to North South then to arm bar. Laying across the opponent with his head to your left, you secure his left arm so it is to the right side of your head. Now, dropping to your right hip so your lower body is facing upward toward his head, you can step his head with your left leg to attain the North South position, using your right shoulder to push against the secured arm to keep it in position. Ensure you are keeping good downward pressure on the opponent's upper body so he can't easily tilt in one direction to escape. Pushing up against his secured arm as if to push it across his body, this will make the guy angle up on to his right side slightly giving you the opportunity to bring your right leg up and press it into his left side. Taking a double hand grip of his arm at this point, you can now lean forward to bring the right leg up over his upper body as you sit back with the secure arm for the very tight arm bar. Clenching your legs together at this point helps apply the pressure.



Ian had us do that technique first so we were already fluid in controlling from the North South position. For the next technique you do the above as far as the North South then grip the wrist of the guy's left arm you have secured with your right hand. Now, passing your left hand underneath his left arm at the elbow you can grip your own right wrist. Using this "figure 4" grip gives you the all important strength advantage so you can pull upward bringing the guy up onto his right side, so his left side is upright and you can tighten your legs around his head and upper chest to keep him in that position. To finish the Kimura lock, you bring the guy's upper arm up at a 90 degree angle to his body and then, using the superior strength of both of your arms, you turn his lower arm left. Very painful. Most of the time though, the guy will know this is coming by the time you've started adjusting your grips in the North South and they will generally grab a hold of their gi or their belt. All you have to do is lean into the grip and use your body strength to rip it away from what it is gripping. Always be sure to rip away from not into the grip.

For the last move Ian showed an alternate for if the guy is too strong for you to break his grip for the Kimura. Instead you just bring your left knee up and press it into his back, then as before with the first arm bar, lean forward, bring your right leg up to position and then sit back so your right leg is over his face/upper body. You should have loads of methods for breaking his grip at this point to fall back for the arm bar so I'll leave it there.



Rolling:

For my first roll of the night I was against Tom Hill. For me it was mostly top control. i managed to pass his guard a couple of times but he recovered very well. The highlight of the roll was Tom's awesome escape from turtle choke attempt to recover guard. He basically folded himself in half to recover guard while I was trying to choke him. Great stuff.



Next up was a very game Cameron Rothery. I tapped Cam very quickly to an Arm Bar from guard once again. I will continue doing it until he stops extending the arm to try and almost push his way out of guard. I also got him with a Bow and Arrow but that was while I was playing about with position and managed to transition to his back so I just thought I'd test him with it.


Third was against Glenn. I was chuffed once again cause I managed to get the first takedown and was close to hitting an arm bar but he rolled out. Glenn then got second takedown and transitioned to North South which is somewhat of a resting position for him. As I don't generally feel overly threatened in North South I just wait for a movement for my opportunity to escape. On this occasion though, Glenn seemed happy to stay in his commanding position so it ended there.


For my last roll of the night I was against Chris Whiting. After a brief scramble I took top control then secured a leg and dropped back for the Achilles lock. The rest of the round I just played a bit of guard until time.

At the end Ian called us all round so he could award some stripes to some of the white belts. Justin Thomas was well deservedly notched up to his third stripe, Rob (Morris?), Chris Whiting and Chris Cook were all made up to 2 stripes and Cameron and Luke were given 1 each.

Good session all around. Now I've only got the one more lesson before my big competition on Sunday 2nd December. The Hereford Open. Can't friggin' wait!!!

¬m/

DV8 Bjj 15/11/12

Getting around to typing these entries up at the moment is pretty hard as I seem to be very busy with family stuff. As long as I'm getting the important stuff done, like training and learning, and as long as I log down all the techniques I've studied for later reference, I am happy. Hopefully in the new year things will be a little less hectic in casa de Eyre and I will be able to get a bit more creative and funk this shit up a bit.


Got down to training with Ian (Rossiter) on Thursday at DV8 Academia de Jiu Jitsu, Sweat FA, Weston Super Mare. We had a reasonably good turn out for this time of year. Things always tend to fizzle out on the run up to Chrimbo as people are saving money/getting shitfaced/recovering from getting shitfaced/ just can't be bothered cause the festive season is round the corner.

Techniques:
(As usual, I will describe the techniques from the position/side/angle I learned them)
 
After a standard warm up we got down to action. For Ian's first technique we were shown an arm bar from Butterfly Guard. Starting from a sat up Butterfly Guard position with your opponent making a grab for your left collar with his right hand. You reach up to his shoulder and grab his right shoulder with your right hand and under his right arm with your left, grabbing him roughly around arm pit. Your left arm should be inside his right, so you can then use a steering motion to turn his arm upside-down, while at the same time you pull back, falling backward as you go and forcing his arm up further so his wrist is against the side of your face/neck. Accompanying this motion you should be coming out to his right side slightly and bringing your knees up so they can surround his right rib cage at front and back. To finish you wrap your left arm over the back of his right at the elbow and apply pressure on it by gable gripping your hands together and pulling the arm down. It takes a bit of drilling and adjusting to work out where the sweet spot is but I found it best if you get the elbow or just a fraction below.
Of course, if the guy turns his arm one way or the other quickly the technique falls apart.
We totally mixed about with who we practised techniques against so I can't remember who I learned what with.



The second technique is a fall back plan for if the guy turns his arm. From the end of the previous technique, the guy turns his right arm clockwise slightly so you can't get the finish. Fear not, if you then bring your left arm up toward your chest a bit, clamping his arm close, you can then bring your left leg up over his head and pass it in front of his face/neck/chest. Keeping the arm clamped to your chest you finish by thrust forward with your hips to hyper extend the arm. Fairly painful.
I found though, that I wasn't as good with this on the other side (when I was trying to arm bar his left arm). For some reason I was initially getting the positioning wrong. I got it in the end but it took some experimenting.


The third move was also an alternate from the first. This time the guy turns his right arm anti-clockwise to escape the first arm bar. This time you pull the arm down as if to put it in your right pocket and secure it there. Now pass your left leg over the top of him and press that shin into the side of his head to keep him at the right distance. Whilst doing this you need to reach back and grab him across his back or at his belt (to stop him from rolling forward). You can now use this positioning of your legs and arms to rotate yourself around to put your legs out to your right. Shifting out to the right you can pull the opponent off of his knees so he's lying a bit more on his stomach. Bringing your opponent's trapped arm into your gut you lean forward to apply immense pressure to his shoulder for the omoplata.


The last technique was a sweep from Butterfly Guard. You have your opponent in a standard Butterfly Guard, both hooks in and you have a strong right underhook to his left arm. You then pull in his right arm close to your stomach, trapping it there. You then fall back and to the left side and kick up and over using the right side butterfly hook. The opponent flips over onto their back and you can fellow them over into mount. An old favourite.


Rolling:

For rolling tonight we did the old 2 grapple for a minute while one waits, then attacks the guy with the advantageous position once the minute's up. It then carries on in that order until time is called.

I was sparring with Rich Presley and Dan Foster for this. For my first roll I jumped in  against Dan and it was fairly uneventful. I ended in his guard with him trying for a triangle but I'm VERY weary of Dan's triangles now as he's pretty exceptional with the move, so I had it well scouted.

I was then attacked by Rich but was able to recover to top control pretty quick. That was where my advantage ended for that round though as Rich was attacking like a man possessed and wrapped a triangle on me, which I stacked him up in, so he started trying for the arm bar. It was only with some judicious twisting of the arm that saved me. I'd escaped it just, by the time Dan was in on Rich.

My second go at Dan was better for me, even though I lost advantageous position straight away as Dan saw me coming and recovered guard quickly. I managed to pass his guard after though and he quickly turtled up. At this point I was head on to his turtle and managed to sneak in a cross collar grip. Dan, to his credit, resisted this for a long time but was eventually forced to tap. When his head came up he was looking a bit purple.

After a very brief restart, Rich then jumped me. Can't remember much about that one, other than it was more favourable to me than our first. Think I managed to sweep him to his guard and was trying to pass for the most of the minute.

That was pretty much it for that week of Bjj. Unfortunately I didn't manage to get any in during the week either as Matty, my current training partner, was busy. Gutted. Hopefully I'll get more in next week.

¬m/

Chico Mendes Seminar 3/11/12

I was fortunate enough on Saturday, to be able to attend a fantastic Chico Mendes seminar down at Sweat FA, Weston Super Mare. The first of many to come we hope. The attendance was pretty good. Better than Ian (Rossiter) expected for the first time out, with a lot of our guys and the guys from Bristol attending, along with some of the Wednesday night MMA class guys and some other random Jiu Jitsu enthusiasts.

As usual, Chico's teaching was absolutely first class, striking the right combination of technical instruction, coupled with a good dose of humour to make people feel at home and comfortable. I've never found my attention slipping in a Chico class or seminar.

No Gi Techniques:

We started off with a couple of techniques for passing a seated opponents guard from a standing position. For the first you are to wait back and let the opponent come to you using their legs to drag them forward. As he's come toward you and ready to pull forward again you quickly step forward and pull his leg up high toward you so he goes down on his back. You secure his leg by kneeling into him so your knees are either side of his leg and you fold his leg over your leg nearside leg and "put his foot in your pocket". You should be facing him head on for this not off to the side. With his leg clamped between your legs you have a teasing leg lock finish although that's not what we were being taught. You basically sit there and wait for the guy on bottom to act first (usually by trying to push you away using his leg so he can recover guard) so you can push his leg out of the way and step around and come down into side control.
I was fortunate enough to be Chico's demonstration dummy for this move so got to see if fresh and first hand. One specific thing I remember that Chico showed us as a tip was that when you first grab the leg and pull it up so the guy's back goes flat to the floor, a common thing for the guy on the ground to do is attempt to cross over his free leg to hold you off. However, if you hold the secured leg forward and stand off until you've found your position you can actually use that leg to block the guy from crossing over his free leg to regain some semblance of guard.

All photos come courtesy of Chico's Facebook page.

The second technique along the standing pass line involved finding the seated opponent's stronger side. You do this by stand in front of him, both feet level to give him the option of which side to attack. When he presents himself in a seated combat posture, where one leg is forward and he's leaning his elbow on that leg for base, you know that is his stronger, preferred side (unless he's poker playing, bluffing genius) and you can then switch your stance so your leg that is directly opposite his forward leg is now stepped back whilst your other leg is forward. With this stance he cannot get and easy grab of the preferred leg. From this position you should be stood crouched, with your head in line with your lower body so as to not be easily unbalanced. From here you once again wait for the opponent to make a move forward then drive froward yourself, simultaneously pushing on the inside knee of his forward raised leg with one hand (left hand for right leg or vice versa) and your other hand presses against his waist on the other side of him, using this position to push his leg down to the ground so he turns on his side. Whilst doing this you should be stood fully away from him so he can't recover by getting hold of a leg somehow. You can finish the pass by walking out around the leg that is secured down and then dropping into side control (keeping the legs held away all the while). This is a move that I learned ages ago but have never actually put into good use which is pretty criminal really given the amount of opportunities I've had to do so. Gotta try and use it a bit more.

I was drilling both of the above with Rich Presley.

Moving away from the standing passing but staying with the passing theme, Chico next showed us a Half Guard pass. The first thing about passing half guard that he drilled into us was the importance of getting the knee up. You must bring the knee of the trapped leg off of the ground and preferably out of the leg trap. To do this you can turn to your side and rest on your non trapped leg so you can bring the other leg up. You may also encounter half guard users who love using the leg trapping method (lock down - urgh) in which case you rest your weight forward whilst you use your other leg to push open the trap so you can bring the first leg out and bend it to an untrappable position. You then once again work at popping the knee up through.
Another very important point was that when the opponent on the bottom is using the strong half guard style of laying out to one side of you, always ensure you have the underhook there to stop him from going to your back. If not the underhook then an over-underhook like a whizzer.
We drilled around with these tips to begin with, trying to get the leg out/up, un-trapping where necessary, just so we get well used to the idea of getting that knee up. I drilled this with a young lad called Sean Errock, who trains a bit of gi but is a very talented young No Gi grappler. We drilled quite hard in the end, with the guy on bottom really trying to stop the knee escape or keep the leg trapped. I found it remarkable that when you're not thinking about trying to submit the guy from half guard top, it actually proves quite easy to blast past his half guard.

For an actual half guard pass from here, Chico then ran us through one of his main thoughts from this position. Always use your head! It's like a third limb that you can use for pushing. When the guy has a strong side control position on your and you want to flatten him out, use your head against his shoulder or neck, to push him down so his back's to the floor. From here, to help with your pass and also to assist in bringing the knee up if necessary (if the guy is really persistent or tenacious), your head by his so you can bring your free (outside) arm up behind his head to tak a grab of the material at his shoulder on the other side. With that position correct you can now drive your shoulder forward to painfully push his head to the side, effectively cutting down half the escape possibilities for him (if his head can't turn back toward me, neither can the rest of his body). From this position you can walk your nearside underhooked arm up the mat a bit to bring the opponent's arm up (up the mat not up in the air). you can now bring both of your arms together so your arm passed behind the head can reach to grab the wrist of the one that has walked up the mat. You now have the opponent in a very uncomfortable position with his offside arm trapped above his head so as to not interfere with anything. The opponent will generally want to release your leg at that point just to get out of this position but if he's really stubborn it proves quite easy to flatten your offside to the ground so you can bring the trapped knee up now. Once up and out of the trap it's just a decision at the whether you want to slide the knee over and go to mount or slide it across and come to side control. We drilled the mount version which would usually be a no brainer as it's worth more points, but maybe some people are more confident with their side control or use it better fro MMA. Or they might even be confident that they can then easily pass to mount from side thus getting extra points. Lots of reasons for going to side then. If you go to mount though you've got a nice set up for an arm bar right there too.

After a quick group photo and change to Gi we were quickly into a bit of Closed guard work. The first move was a handy little sweep if your opponent puts his leg forward in your guard. So he's put the left leg forward and has a grip of your left lapel with his right hand. Now this is to good an opportunity to miss. You need to chop his leg out by bringing your right arm underneath it and chopping upward toward you at about the ankle. Make sure to hold on to the leg in the crook of your elbow. Now with your free left hand you grab his right hand to keep it secure near you so he can't base out. To hit the sweep you lean forward pushing the leg forward with you, so he tips to his back on the side where he has no basing arm. As he's tipping you need to open your guard and ensure you straighten out your left leg so when he flattens to the ground you can switch the leg out and come to your knees in the mount. This is a pretty good sweep variation from closed guard that will add another dimension to my game.

Next up was a sweep variation for if the guy traps your arm. He's in your closed guard and baited you with the open left leg. You reach under to take it but he's too quick and clamps his leg back down shut again, trapping your right arm in there and cutting off one side of your upper body defence. However this is not the end of the world. In fact after a short while of drilling this move I felt this was an amazing turn of events. All you need to do is ensure he can't move his right hand from your waist at this point then you can sweep him over to your left (his right) side. To do this you open your guard and drop the left foot to the floor and can basically roll him over to his back using a flower sweep style right leg up, kicking him (not proper kicking, it's just a description) at the left under arm to flip him over and come up comfortably in mount. I absolutely LOVE this sweep as a cool variation on the Flower Sweep. I've already hit it a few times in rolling since. Love it!!
You can even just slot your arm inside when he hasn't opened the leg. Works the same way. Amazing sweep.
I was drilling this one with young Paddy.

A quick alternative to the above sweep was to turn it into an arm bar. You have your right arm trapped under his leg as above. You also have his right arm trapped secured with your left hand. You need a bit more of the arm trapped here though so most of his forearm is on your chest/stomach. From here you shift your hips out left and use the arm under leg hold to shift you position so you can open your guard and bring your left leg up and over his head. You can finish the arm bar here with him sat up but most likely the superior strength of your legs and the hold you have on his leg will push him down to the mat  so he's flat on his back and you have the arm bar like that. This is a very common finish for me and one of my most frequent methods of tapping people out these days.
Alternatively with this, if the guys retracts the elbow just enough that the arm bar doesn't hit, at least with the arm in leg you've swept them to their back and can come up into technical or s-mount.

Chico then ran us through some tips for enhancing your Arm Bar from Guard. From closed guard you have the right arm secured with your right hand. Grip it at the upper forearm or elbow to start, by cupping your hand across the top of the arm and having the cupped hand go under on the other side. You then escape your hips left as standard arm bar practice. Now pull the arm tight inside so the elbow is uncomfortably pulled in at an angle. Reach over with your free left hand and grab his free left arm on the gi material at his upper arm/triceps. You use this grip to help you turn into position and get the leg over the head. When you are finishing, bring your left hand back down to help with the control of the wrist. Whilst extending the hips, if you point your heels down and flex your feet up it adds extra tension to the hold.
The feet pointing up tip was a particular eye opener because you wouldn't suspect it would make much difference but you really feel it when it's on.

The last technique I was in attendance for was an amazing Gi choke. From closed guard you open your opponent's Gi for ease of access. Using your knees to brings him towards you, you drive your right hand fairly deep into his right collar and grip tight. Shift your body around to that side (your left) to create the opening for your other hand. He'll instinctively be trying to pull away at this point so you just need to use your knees again to pull him back and pass your left hand UNDER your right arm to slip into his left collar. Shifting back to head on position you clamp your arms shut around his neck (like a scissor motion) to hold him in place and OPEN your hand grips slightly. Now using the knees to keep him closed you drive the hands ridiculously deep into his collar and then close them. At this point the guys eyes are already watering in anticipation of what is about to come. To painfully finish you just pull your elbows in tight to your ribs and then outwardly flex with your hands. Christ this is painful. Brilliant move.

This was the last move I got to see as I (unfortunately) had to leave a little early to get my kids :o(. Fantastic seminar though. It fact I'd go out on a limb and say it was one of the best I've been to. Chico is an amazing instructor for this sort of setting. Very entertaining and the whole class was entranced throughout. I really hope we get another again real soon.

¬m/

Checkmat Bjj 30/10/12

Went to Chico's Bjj class in Bristol Tuesday 30th Oct. Loads of guys there as usual and a great camaraderie as is always the case with Chico's classes.

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


Techniques:
(All move descriptions are based on how I first learnt them. I.e left grip, right foot etc..)
Chico started off with some standing techniques. First move started face to face with the opponent getting a quick grip on your right collar with his left hand. You quickly pocket grip (turn the cuff inside out over your hand) the gi cuff of the guys gripping hand with your left hand whilst reaching over the top of the extended arm with your right arm and gripping his left collar. From this position you close your right elbow hard into his extended left arm to cause discomfort and shake the guy's balance. To finish the technique you pull out with your hand gripping his collar to take him over to his left (your right), whilst you quickly drop down to your left on both knees (important that it IS both knees to ensure he can't reverse the move and get points on you) and secure his right leg in the single. I had the added advantage of training with Raj Bista who has some pretty awesome wrestling skills, so was able to show me where I was going wrong with this.


We moved on to a simple Wrist Lock from this starting position. As before, he's reached in and grabbed your right lapel. You take the pocket grip of his cuff with your left, but this time your right hand reaches to the back of his extended left arm at the just above the elbow. You once again close your arm in to force the opponent's arm in at an awkward angle, then advance toward the opponent whilst pulling the arm in toward you to put pressure on the wrist. Chico's tip with this one is Do Not stop walking forward once you have the arm secured as, if you don't get the tap, you'll at least get 2 points for the guy walking off the mat to get out of a submission hold.


Chico then moved us on to some closed guard stuff. You start off in the closed guard position with the opponent postured up with his hands at your waist to resist being moved about. With both of your arms you can attempt to remove one of the opponent's arms from their bracing position. Selecting the guy's right arm, you pass your right hand over his arm, above the elbow, while passing your left hand inside his arm. Once there you can grip your hands together and pry the guy's arm open so you are able to pull him toward you using your knee. With his posture destroyed in this way you can obtain an over-under hook grip on him to secure him close to you by bringing your right arm around over his left shoulder and gripping your hands behind his back. Now with your left arm you pry his right arm open and up  at an angle so you can press it into your shoulder. You finish the move by pressuring the back of the secured arm with your arms forcing the painful straight arm bar.
I was drilling the rest of the techniques with Chris Cook

The last technique Chico showed us for this lesson was how to obtain a nice tight single arm overhook guard and a triangle from there. With the guy in your closed guard, his right hand gripping your lapel, you pocket grip the his sleeve cuff with your right hand whilst passing your left arm underneath his right and grabbing your own right forearm (on the underside). You can then simultaneously pull up with your arms whilst breaking his posture with your knees. You should be able to pull his arm right up and out straight above your head. You can then bring the left arm inside and overwrap the secured arm (you'll need to still be holding the cuff grip to get this to work). To secure your hold on the arm you can get a high grip of your left lapel. There are plenty of finished from here, Chico showed us the triangle. Pushing the opponent's left arm down and to his waist you can now open your guard and pass your right leg over his shoulder, crossing both legs behind his back to form a diamond holding him in place. You can now shift hips to the left and reach up with your right hand to help position your right leg correctly so the left leg can wrap over it to get the tight pressure needed for the triangle. Brilliant technique.


For part of the lesson, Chico ran us through the 3 essentially important Brazilian words that all Bjj competition practitioners should know, and their relevance in a fight.

The first phrase is Combate (pronounced com-ba-tchee ).
This signifies the beginning of a Bjj fight. When you referee says this it's time to bring the thunder (haha).


The second phrase is Parou (pronounced Parow).
You here this when a referee is calling a halt to the action, be it for a positional stoppage, a time out or the end of the match. When this is heard stop everything but be sure to hold your position in case it's only a time out.


The last phrase is Lute (pronounced Lu-tchee).
The command is heard when a combatant is stalling or inactive, the referee calls "Lute" for a 20 second marker to be put on. This first time is a warning. If still inactive after the 20 seconds the command will be heard again and will come with a penalty for the staller and and advantage for the aggressor. After a further 20 seconds the command will be heard and a further penalty will be issued with the aggressor earning 2 points and both combatants being stood up.
Chico says this is a common technique to use if the fight is in it's last minute and one combatant is ahead comfortably.


Rolling:

For this session we didn't have much time left to roll and Chico only had us do situation guard passing/sweeping. I went first with Chris Cook who I passed and swept a couple of times. My second opponent was Big Justin Thomas. Although I was able to pass his guard during my top control turn I couldn't shift him at all during my time on the bottom and it was all I could do to keep my guard. That lad's definitely getting better.

Another damn good session up with Chico and the Bristol boys. After this I was really looking forward to the seminar down in Weston Super Mare on the 3rd Nov.
That write up to come in the next couple of days.

¬m/

Leo Vieira Seminar. 27/10/12

Wow I'm behind with these write ups at the moment. I've just got so much on, actually getting in time to train at the moment is hard enough. Finding time to blog about it after is proving very difficult. But I will persist as, first and foremost, this blog is a memory aid to me, for all stuff I've attended and what I've learned while I was there.


On then to the subject matter for this blog. I have once again been given the opportunity to trained under the Legendary Head of the Worldwide Checkmat organisation, Leo Vieira at the Bristol Combat Legion, LA Gym in Bristol. Leo is an amazing guy and a brilliant and very thorough teacher. It never ceases to amaze me how much of a down to earth dude he is too. Before the seminar started I had a quick chat with him about the recent Metamoris event and his opinions on it. He thought it was a very well staged event and great for Bjj as a whole. When I asked him if he would ever fight in one if asked he replied that he was asked to do the first one, in a match up with Jean Jacques Machado, but unfortunately he was already committed to training Demian Maia for his recent UFC fight. He said it may well go ahead for a second event as there is already noise that the event will return in the future. Great stuff!!

Anyway, on to the matter at hand. The format for Leo's seminar this time around was an hour and a half MMA grappling and an hour and a half Bjj in the gi. Now I have to confess that I am definitely no MMA competitor and some of the MMA stuff I found little use for in application to my Bjj game as a lot of it was involving clinching against the cage fence/wall and pummelling for position, then going to back or getting the takedown. All very good stuff and all very well taught but as there is a complete lack of wall on a Bjj comp mat there is no practical application for it in my game. I'm pushing on in years now and, although I'm a big fan of MMA, I think any possibility I had of going into it to compete or even just train as a hobby is well behind me now.

That being said, Leo did add a ground technique at the end where you're on the ground with the opponent in your closed guard and you've managed to achieve double overhooks on both his arms, but wrapped your arms underneath to lock them together using a double forearm grip. You should have your opponent trapped close to you, posture broken down, with his arms both bent so he is leaning on his forearms. From here a quick open of the guard and a shift of the hips with allow you to make enough space to get your hooks in for a very close in Butterfly Guard. Leo seems to like this double overhook butterfly guard position as he based a lot of a previous No-Gi seminar around it. To finish this move you just need to choose which way you are going to sweep and use your double underhook to push the guy in that direction while kicking up with the leg (i.e if you're pushing him over to your left you will kick out with your right foot). This is quite an easy sweep to perform if you've managed to get everything in place. The one thing you need to watch out for is if the guy bases out with his leg to defend against the sweep. If he does this though you just use the non sweeping hook to kick that leg out of the way and the guy goes over even easier. Cool move.
I was training this with Chris Cook from our Weston club. It's worth mentioning that Chris had some trouble making space for getting the hooks in with this technique. Guys with longer legs have to shift the hips out a bit more to make the space.


Leo managed to overrun the MMA section of the seminar by nearly an hour so it actually closer to 2 and a half hours.


The gi portion of the seminar had some very useful techniques. Leo concentrated on escapes, the first couple being from the mount.

The first was a pretty cool move where you push the right leg of the opponent down (I'll explain it how I learnt it) using both your hands while shrimping your butt out to your own right so you can bring your left leg up and inside (as for the first part of the standard  double shrimp escape) but you keep the knee inside and pressing against the guy's right inside leg/groin to make enough space so you can bring your right leg up and over the outside of his left to press against your knee. You will be left in a position where the guy's leg almost looks like you have it reaped. From this position there are a couple of good sweeps available or an ankle lock, toe hold or even a good transition to knee bar. Of course in a No Holds Barred situation you would have the Heel Hook right there from the off. A good escape from mount which I'd never seen before.

The second was the standard Upa escape which I really don't need to explain again.

Next up was an escape from side control which was also new on me. The opponent has a strong control position on you and you can't get a full shrimp to recover guard. In this situation you use a shimmy move where you first escape your lower body out a bit, then your upper body by shimmying out your shoulders, all the while holding him off with your arm at the hips. You will probably need to repeat this a couple or few times to get the required amount of space but when you do have it you can bring your nearside knee up inside against his torso and use that to make additional space. Now from here there were a few options. The obvious one is to do a standard recovery to butterfly or closed guard but that's a bit unadventurous. Another was to then use your free arm to push against the side of his face/neck to force him away to the point where he's far enough for you to switch on your legs and stand. The third, and always my favourite, is to trap the guy's arm that is nearer to your lower body using your free arm, then swing your outside leg up over and around his head to secure a pretty special arm bar. Very nice move.


Moving on Leo showed us a good escape from if the guy has started to transition to Knee on Belly. He's got his side control and he's put the knee up on your gut but is still crouched in low on you. From here you grab the ankle of the leg he's KOB'd you with, with your nearside arm and pull it toward you, then you can push the knee on your belly away taking away the good base the opponent has for his KOB. You can now turn the guy over the top of you to sweep him over to his back using a combination of your shoulder and torso movement. Not entirely sure I got the explanation of that one right but that's what I remember.


Keeping the side control theme, Leo showed us an escape from when the guy is making a transition to North South from side. The crucial part to this one is that you have to reach your free (outside) arm down and through the gap in the crook of his arm to grip his triceps. This means that when he transitions around you to get to North South you will already be in the process of pushing him away from you. By the time he's in North South you can push him off and either recover guard, push off to stand or go in for the single leg and take him down to his back. Another good alternative to the usual moves I use. One I will try and get in to my game I think.


That is, I'm afraid, as much as my crap memory and even crapper notes will allow me to remember of this seminar. I'm very sure I missed out loads but as I mentioned earlier, I've been so busy with family stuff at the moment I didn't get the chance to type this up straight away. Now I've still got a Chico class from Tuesday to type up. Preferably before Saturday as we have the pleasure of hosting a Chico Mendes seminar down at Sweat FA Weston Super Mare before going out on the piss after. I will really need to write good notes for that one. :oD

Oh yeah, as an additional bonus, Raj Bista was awarded his purple belt at the end of this seminar so we all got to beat him thoroughly about the shoulders with our belts in the name of camaraderie. Fun stuff.

 

¬m/