DV8 Bjj 28/11/13

So this week at Ian's class (once again this is written a week behind) the numbers had dropped slightly, most likely due to Christmas impending.

Ian started us off with the drill for Kimura setup where you have the opponent postured up in your guard, hands pushing into your lower stomach/hips area. You bring your hands under his forearms and clench you fingers together, as if in a prayer. You then push up with your hands while drawing up with your knees to open his arms and collapse his posture down onto you. Between your arm pushing and his instinct reaction the opponent will (might) put his hands to the floor to either side of you. This is the standard set up for the positioning for the Kimura. From this position you can work the drill. Select one side (for this example we'll use the left/his right) and grab his (right) wrist. Opening your guard you can then sit up, throwing your arm over his right shoulder, to reach over and grab your own wrist. As this was only a drill for the set up we then released and sat back down, then did the same thing on the other side. Rinse and repeat for 5 times on either side. Then swap round so your partner gets a go. This drill is great for practicing the movement to Kimura.


To actually apply the Kimura once your got to the figure four lock (the bit where your left hand is holding his right wrist and your right hand is reaching over and grabbing your left wrist), you pull your opponent's upper arm into your chest and then fall back, pushing the guy's arm up at a ninety degree angle. At this point you also re-close the guard to ensure he can't try and shift to escape. The Kimura is a very traditional move that I have been using to great effect recently. I generally prefer to set it up by just tilting sideways and gripping my opponent's wrist while it's still on my jacket/front/hip. The motion of tilting sideways might make just enough space for me to sit up, throw the arm over and lock in the kimura.


The Kimura Sweep has basically the same set up as the first method except there is no need to grab your own wrist. In fact you can even nail it if the guys has hugged his arm around you as long as you have the space to sit up and slam your hips into him quite hard. Open the guard, sit up and throw the arm over, reaching down as if for a kimura but instead, just slam your hips into him with a big thrust while pulling on the arm to stop him from basing out. He should go over on to his back with you following straight to mount.


Moving us on from the Kimura-ish stuff we went on to it the guy gets his right hand to his leg and grabs his pant leg or belt to block. To counter this you just push your left leg through and the swing it up and over his shoulder, turning out to the side as you go. You then bring your left leg down across his right shoulder whilst passing your left arm over his back (or grabbing his belt) to stop him from forward rolling out of position. To finish the Omoplata you can either lean forward hard to pressure the shoulder or, if he's resisting particularly well, you can grab his opposite shoulder and pull yourself toward it. This will really pile on the pain though so you need to be careful with this move.


Alternatively, if he just pushes your right leg away and twists back toward your guard before you get into Omoplata lock position you can pass your left leg across his shoulders and throw your right up over his left arm to lock up a triangle. If you need to adjust because his arm being wrapped behind your leg is stopping to choke you can posture out with your body and then grab your left leg with both hands and pull inward with that leg to pile on the pressure. He'll either tap out to the shoulder lock or release and let you lock up the triangle.

Gotta catch up with writing this stuff up so I'm gonna sign off here and try and get another log typed up tomorrow night. ¬m/

DV8 Bjj 21/11/13

Once again I'm writing this one a good week or so after the day. I've been getting more training in again during the week now which is a huge bonus although it's in our chilly new Warrior Gym in Worle. The gym isn't that bad if others have been training in it and warmed the place up but when you're the first person in of a day the floor is bitterly cold. Still you can't whinge when it's an opportunity to train. Which reminds me, I need to start writing the stuff down that we drill in during these lunchtimes sessions cause we're really covering a lot of good stuff.

Anyway, on to the Thursday class at Warrior Gym, Worle, and Ian (Rossiter, Black Belt - Checkmat) was going a bit old school self defense to begin this class. Starting with defense for a standard side headlock (school boy style move). For the first your opponent has you in a standard headlock using his right arm wrapped around your head at the side of him. With your left hand you reach up and grab him at the shoulder. Your right hand reaches under his nearside (right) leg. From there you use the strength in your legs and back to stand up straight, thrusting forward with your hips to lift the guy off the ground to tip him on to his back. If you want to add a little juice to this move, say if you're in an MMA fight or a street fight, you can lift hard and slam the guy down in a pretty cool WWE style.

The second defense shown was where you move to stand sideways on to the opponent with your nearside (left) leg behind his legs and you reach around behind his back to grip his other side at the waist with your left hand. With your right hand you can grab his head locking arm or his leg. From there you just sit backward, pulling him over onto his side.

The third one is where you use your offside (right) arm to underhook the opponent's leg. With your left arm around his back as for the first, you just sit back whilst you pull and turn, throwing him over onto his side with you right over him.

After drilling how to counter the side headlock we then did an escape for if the guy (stupidly) tries to keep the head lock on from his newly established disadvantageous. What you do here is get your head side arm (in our examples case it will be the left) and drive the blade edge of your wrist into his neck /throat, starting at the base of his neck at using a scooping style motion to push up his neck. The pain of this will force the opponent to release the headlock giving you time to transition to a good Armbar or Americana.

Changing tact from the headlock escape, Ian moved us to some Closed Guard action. The opponent is in your Closed Guard, postured up.  You need to grab his right collar high with your left hand and lower with your right hand. You then pull him down to your left side, escape your hips to the right and press your right leg down over his back. Now (maintaining the collar grip) swing your left elbow out and over his head and then close off the cross choke by pushing your left elbow toward your right wrist. A nice tight eye bulger right there.

Ian followed up with a counter for if the opponent blocks the choke with his right hand. If he does this his left arm will likely be stretched out and exposed over your right side. All you need to do is bring your right knee down across the back of his arm to really painfully hyper-extend his arm. A real quick tapper.

Another great session of training and getting back on top of things with the week day stuff. Definitely gonna start logging the weekday stuff me and Marcus do to as I need a reminder for this stuff. Some of it is shit hot.

Catcha later ¬m/

DV8 Bjj 14/11/13

Second week training at the new Warriors Gym, Weston Super Mare, and once again it was the only training I got in that week. NOT HAPPY!! It's a problem I have since resolved thankfully but it was a sparse and miserable two weeks for me.

Still, on the up side it really made me appreciate when Ian's Thursday night class came around. Reasonably good numbers turned out at the class with a couple of old faces coming back and a new guy too. Good stuff.

Ian started us off with a double leg shoot takedown. The usual drive in left knee first, arms reach around legs with your head out to the right and push your head to the left to 'turn the corner' taking the opponent down to the floor with you jumping straight to side control. Nice and easy for the first one.



The next technique me and Marcus affectionate named the 'Mutha Fucker Choke'. The opponent has just tried to shoot in for the double but you've managed to sprawl to defend it. From there you reach under the guys arm on the right (his left) and take a fingers in grip on his collar. With your other hand you take a thumb in grip at the back of his neck. To finish you just need to bring the left arm over his head to the right (his left) side and try to push the your elbow toward your other wrist. This will tighten off the choke. You can finish this technique from the side or pull the guy into your guard for more control.



Next up was the Sprawl to Anaconda Roll. Once again you've sprawled against the takedown. This time you pass your arm through the gap between his head and shoulder (obviously using the arm on the side where his head is sticking out) and under his opposite side arm to grab the back of his arm and pull it in.You now bring your other arm down on the outside until you can post your underarm hand into the crook of the outside arm. Now, using the outer arm to clamp inward, you knock the opponent's arm in to avoid any basing and roll yourself and your opponent over to that side and then curl in toward him to finish the choke.


Moving to a different tact Ian changed to the Overhook Guard. First up was a cross choke. The opponent is in your guard postured up with his hands posting up on your waist/lower abdomen. Grab the opponent's cuff of his right wrist with your left hand using a pocket style grip (turn the cuff inside out on itself). With you reaching under his wrist you pull up with both hands whilst drawing up with your knees to break his posture down and stretch the arm out long in front of you.Switching grips to use the right hand to keep his arm stretched in place you bring your left arm inside then wrap it over the top of the outstretched arm and then back under to grab at the opponent's opposite collar. You can then let go with the right hand and tighten up the Overhook Guard position. To finish off the cross collar choke you just grab his right shoulder with your right hand and drive your elbow towards the wrist of your other hand for the choke.


The second submission from Overhook Guard was the Rickson Armbar. If you try to go for the gi choke but the opponent postures himself up slightly and drops his head down to the side and uses his free arm he can block out the choke. From here you open your guard and escape your hips out to the side, then put your far side foot on the nearside hip of your opponent and use the knee of that leg to press against the back of your overhooking arm putting immense pressure on the opponents trapped arm at the elbow. I've always loved this technique even though I haven't hit it a lot in free rolling. I think I'm going to try and incorporate the overhook guard and some of it's techniques into my game a bit more. I'll add it to an aim sheet.

That's the end of another uneventful week of Bjj in my life. Fortunately I know (because I've already lived it) that next week picks up a bit. ¬m/

DV8 Bjj 7/11/13

I've severely missed out on training this last week as our usual lunch time venue at Sweat FA, Weston, has been compromised (hopefully only temporarily) due to the dojo side of the operation moving to new residence. This left me with my only output for Bjj being watching fight vids, doing drills in my living room (hip escapes, throwing up triangles, upa bridges, shoulder rolling) and the occasional forced grapple on my Wife so I could practice a couple of transitions.

So when Thursday came around for Ian's new class at the brand new Warrior Gym in Worle, (nr Weston Super Mare) Uk, I was chomping at the bit. I ventured down to the new venue, a fully matted out warehouse with a boxing ring in one corner, which is conveniently just 300 metres or so down the road from my house, for at first lesson in our new home.

For this week however, Ian wasn't feeling at his best so although he was present, Glenn Cutter enthusiastically took over the class.


After the standard beastly Glenn warm up, he ran us through some Knee on Belly Escapes. The first was where you grab the foot of the opponent's KOB leg with your nearside hand and grab the arm or collar with the other hand. Escape your hips a bit so your legs are off at an angle to him then pull your legs in towards you and kick out hard while pulling on the leg and pushing on the upper body so you can sit upright, dropping the opponent down on his back so you can come up into side control.


The second escape is where you reach under the shin of the opponent's KOB leg and then thread the arm through the gap at the crock of the leg and reach inside to his knee. If you find it difficult to put your arm fully through you may need to escape hips to get yourself at such an angle to do so. Put your other hand on this knee also and kick forward once again to take him over to side control. With this one you need ensure you bring your arm out quickly after or you can be caught in a nasty arm lock or bicep crush. Neither would be entirely legal in comp but would rely on the ref seeing the infraction.



The last one was a tasty little recovery to half guard. The guys has knee on belly so you push your nearside hand against his offside leg and your offside hand reaches inside and grabs his KOB foot. You then bring your feet in tight to your butt and bump up (as if doing an upa) to bump the pressure from his KOB, giving you time to push his leg in between your legs for the half guard recovery. Nifty little move and definitely the simplest of the three.

Changing tack completely, Glenn then demo'd a couple of takedowns. The first one was a drag takedown. You take a grip of the opponent's right sleeve with your left hand and a grip of his right collar with your right hand. You furl the collar up in your hand so your arm is pointing directly upwards and your elbow is driving into him. Then simultaneously you pull on the arm whilst driving forward with the elbow/collar grip combo and turning left away to drag the guy round and down. A cool little move that will earn you 2 points in Bjj but sod all in Judo apparently. Fair play. Good technique though.


The next variation on it is basically exactly the same but the opponent is letting themselves be dragged so you turn into it then put your right leg out (bent) behind you for the trip takedown. Great skills.

So that was it for another week. Gotta find somewhere a bit stable for us to train on the week days now but that's talk for another time. ¬m/

DV8 Bjj 24/10/13

*I'm writing this about a week late so it'll probably be a bit rushed as I have another to write too.


Another brilliant week of training with my buddies Marcus and Chris during lunchtimes. Got a good amount covered and plenty of sparring in too. I really need to start writing some of the stuff we do down as a lot of it slips my mind after a couple of weeks.

Here is a quick recap of what we covered on Thursday  (24th) at Ian's class.

First off was a Knee Slide Transition to Mount. Fairly basic. Start from a side control where your left (head side) arm is bracing down the opponent's left side while your right hand is down at his right hip to keep his hips in place. You're laying very heavy on him to minimise his ability to move. From there you bring your right knee up to his lower torso while your upper body flattens out his upper body. You gradually slide you knee across his stomach until it gets to the floor the other side of him (his left). Once the knee's in position you need to quickly bend in the lower leg and turn it outward to reach the mount.


Next up Ian showed a Transition from Mount to Side Control the details of which escape me as we didn't spend much time on it.


Ian finished off the transition-fest with 2 Transitions from Side Control to Mount Pressuring the Leg. In basic side control again. This time your opponent is savvy enough to raise the near leg, putting his foot on the thigh/knee of the other leg, to block a potential pass from an opponent. In this case you turn your lower body to face toward the opponent's legs and use your near arm to push his legs down away from you toward the mat. You then pressure the legs into the ground with your near leg and slide through, similar to the method in the first transition.

The next one was if the guy raises his leg high to stop the pass. To counter this you bring your near leg up and hook it over his flat (offside) leg and push his near leg so it goes over your knee. You can then use this leverage to crush his leg into the mat and once again knee slide over the leg to mount. A few nice reliable transitions to mount there.


Ian finished off the lesson with a Standing Rear Waist Lock Counter to Rolling Kimura. The opponent has a standing rear waist lock on you. To break this you need to select his top hand and either; use two hands to grip his one (top) wrist and push down as hard as you can, OR you can drive a knuckle into the back of his hand until he releases his grip. Once the grip is broken you quickly switch to the figure four wrist grip of the kimura, turn toward the guy then fall/sit backward and kick out with your leg with foot hooked at his inside thigh. He will flip right over the top of you onto his back and then you can roll on top of him in side control and hit the kimura finish. Lovely move. One pitfall I noticed was that you can sometimes try rolling straight over in to it and mess it up. You need him to land on his back first then you can roll over on top.

That's it for this write up. I've got more to type out now though so, once again, I'm sorry for the hasty blog and finish but rest assured, I'm spending a lot more time training these days than I am writing about it which is probably the way it should be.

¬m/

DV8 Bjj 17/10/13

Once again this week I've been getting some good lunch time training in with my good buddy Marcus Hedley. We were also glad to have the company of the ever improving Chris Cook  for one of those sessions too which was an added bonus.

We mainly rehashed on the flow attacks we did last week (because they were awesome) and added another to the repertoire.

This one starts off with your opponent in your guard but flatting you out to the mat and stalling by hugging you tight. You initiate the flow attack by first using two hands to pry one of his elbows away from his body (for this example I'll use his right arm). You quickly then slot your left arm through the opened gap as an under hook and reach to his near shoulder, so as to bring that arm up uncomfortably. You then reach over with your right arm and grab his raised right wrist using a monkey style grip (no thumb) and you use your left underhooked arm to grab around the forearm of your right. This gives you a Reverse Kimura from Guard which comes on very tight.

If however he punches out of the reverse kimura you can pull the outstretched arm into the crook of your shoulder and apply pressure to it for an extremely painful straight arm bar.

If he pulls and bends his arm out of that one you can then switch grips for a ridiculously tight and very easy to land Americana.

And if against all odds, he manages to escape all that, you can pull the arm in tight and roll on it, putting your left leg on the back of his head (with the right still under his belly) then turning for either the tight arm bar on top of his arm or flipping him over for the arm bar at the side of him.

A lovely string of techniques there. Brilliant.

Another move we did was a nifty Americana from turtle bottom when the opponent is attacking you head on. Starting as if you've gone for a takedown and he's sprawled and is in front of you. You're turtled up and reach around behind his left arm with your right while grabbing the left wrist with your left. You then pop your head out  to the left (opposite side to where all the action is) and drive your head up while pulling the arm trap down under you. Your opponent should go over on to his back with you landing on him with an Americana right there. A thing of beauty.

We've also smashed out some damn good sparring this week, with the addition of Chris really driving up the pace as there is always a fresh guy jumping in. Brutal.

In Ian's nice packed class this week we studied Omoplata set ups. First up repeating the one we did with Glenn Cutter the other week which starts as a Scissor Sweep, which your opponent blocks by basing out, then you transition neatly to an Omoplata.

Another was a pretty cool effort from Lasso Guard, where you use the old pull arm and kick through method to switch to Omoplata.

We also did a transition from when you've gone for the Arm Bar from Guard but he's managed to stack you and pull the arm free (but left the bracing arm in there). You then just swivel on your ass and kick out hard to switch it to the Omoplata.

All this was polished off with some Omoplata finishing tips and then we did a load of situational guard work rolling. Great active session.

7/10/13 Training.

Back to another hard week of training for me and Marcus this week. During our lunch time sessions we've mostly been focusing on stuff from the Joe Moreira - Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Details and Techniques - The Guard manual, which is the second in a series of 3 amazing Bjj manuals on the guard by Ed Beneville. For the second and third books Ed teams up with Joe, for the first he was with Tim Cartmell. I only have the first two -something I will be hoping to rectify come Dec 25th -  but I find both manuals to be damn good.

The second of Ed's great books concentrates on guard work and it is this that we have been focusing on. In particular we have been doing some flowing attacks. A good example of the flowing attack from guard - or attacking with options - is the one that probably most students learn first which is the good Closed Guard Armbar to Triangle to Omoplata option. This is a great basic option string for throwing up a few subs in a row and depending on how good your control is and how good your opponent's ability to block said subs is, you could essentially go round in circles with this one.

This string of attacks however wasn't the one that we were studying. Joe Moreira demonstrates some pretty damn cool flowing attacks in this book, all with thorough descriptions and loads of photos from a couple of different angles.

I'm not going to type out full descriptions of these moves as I don't need to. I have the book I'm just typing this up as a reference for what I've been studying. If anyone's interested in seeing these techniques then they can either buy the book or , if they know and live near me, borrow it off of me.

First up was a string starting from guard (closed or open, doesn't matter). Your first attack is:

Triangle from Guard. From there, if the guy blocks it using a bracing a you can either;

a/ Get a wrist lock on him, or
b/ Go for the Arm Bar.

If he manages to turn to the other side of you legs to escape this you can then hip escape out and push him over for the Omoplata.

From here if he blocks the you have the option to lean over and pull back his other arm to your shoulder for a really tight Straight Arm Bar. If not and he rolls out you then have the one leg over, one leg at his side Arm Bar.

If he then twists out of this you have his arm over your hip and bring your other (near) leg over his extended arm then wedge it into his side and sit up for a feckin tight Arm Lock! (A personal favourite).

From there if he looks to be escaping you can either:

a/ Sweep him over to side control using the hook, or ;
b/ Use his belt to help usher him into rolling over for another side-on standard Arm Bar. If he then attempts to defend that by pushing your head side leg away you can bring your chest side leg under his head and the other crosses over his face for Yet Another Arm Bar!!

And then if he manages to push your face leg away and attempts to sit up you can get right back to the Triangle. Absolute genius. We totally loved this flowing attack string and spent a lot of time drilling it.



The next set started from a spider guard attempt at a Triangle, where the opponent postures right up trying get out of it. You then push his extended to the outside of your body so it's trapped under your arm pit and use your hands to pull you knee in for a Straight Arm Bar (a fucking tight one too).

If he then uses the logical escape route of turning his arm and reach back around your leg you can hit a great Kimura. This is a total beaut of a Kimura too as there is an amazing range of motion available to finish it without you needing to struggle at all.

If however he manages to block this by quickly grabbing his inside pant leg you can twist your upper body over, using the strength of your legs to force him to forward roll, bringing you up in a lovely position for a Shoulder Lock (very monoplata-esque).

If he twists his arm sideways to stop the lock you can bring your other leg over his head for a side-on Arm Bar but you will be raising your legs a bit higher than usual as the guy's thumb will be pointing toward his legs so you will need to finish the sub by pushing his arm up toward his head. Another particularly tight one.

And if he twists his arm out of that then the cross over leg Arm Bar from the above string is right there.

These two stringed attacks are frickin awesome and with enough drilling you can find yourself jumping into the string from any point along the chain. Nice stuff. That's why I felt compelled to put this down in a log. I've still got Ian's class from last week to type up yet so I think I'm gonna be lagging behind a bit this week.

¬m/

DV8 Bjj 3/10/13

Had a bit of a lighter week of training this week after the comp. Marcus was suffering with a bit of an injured neck so he was out anyway and I wanted to hit the weights and cross trainer a bit to get in a bit of a better shape.

So Thursday was my first session of the week and I was happy to see my good mate Rich Presley returned from holiday. In all though it was a bit of a small class as there were major road resurfacing works going on in front of the gym and we think a lot of guys got put off by this. Even Ian turned up a bit late so we'd smashed through the warm up and were doing some technique Glenn Cutter was running us through by the time he got there.

First Technique was a Closed Guard Scissor Sweep - Blocked - To Omoplata. The opponent starts of in your closed guard. You grab his right sleeve with your left hand and his right collar with your right hand. You then open your guard, hip escape away from the hand grips (ass escapes out to your right) bringing your right leg so your knee is pushing against his torso. Your left leg drops to the floor. You then scissor your legs, kicking out with your right while pulling in with your left so the guy should flip over on to his back with you coming up into mount. However, for this particular technique, you didn't have a strong enough grip on his right arm when trying to scissor kick the guy over so he manages to base out with that arm, stopping the sweep. As a counter to his defense you pull him toward you with your grip on his collar, while your left hand keeps his right arm in place. You then kick up with your left leg under his arm and turn 90 degrees, pushing his upper body over so you are now on his other side (out to his left). You carry on the leg movement bringing it right over his shoulder if you can, if not over his back then adjust, to the omoplata position, pulling your right leg out through as you go. Finish the omoplata in the usual way.




The second technique was the same as the above but emphasized the fact that the leg needed to go over the shoulder as you turned. This time though, you drive your left leg (the one over the shoulder) under the guys chin. You can now finish the move by bringing your right leg over the top of his head and try and scissor the legs together for a kind of modified Gogoplata. This should get a good choke tap if applied right.



This was the point where Ian took over. Ian started us off with and Ezekiel from Rear Mount. You have the opponent's back taken completely with hooks in and a harness style (seat belt) grip around him. This means you have your left arm under his left and your right arm over his right, with your hands gripped together in front of him. You start by driving the underhook (left arm) through as far as it'll go until your left hand is at the right side of his face. You use the hand to grab your right sleeve cuff with a fingers in grip. You are allowed to fingers in grip the cuffs your own gi in Bjj, just not your opponents. You then pass your right arm behind his head and lean out to the left slightly, wrapping the arm down around the left side of his neck. You finish the sub by pushing out with both arms and leaning back. This technique crushes the wind pipe for the quick choke but if that fails, it also puts a lot of pressure across the carotid artery for the slow choke. A good finish all round.



We then went on to do some situational rear mount sparring with one collar grip. That means the opponent who has you rear mounted also has a good, strong, deep collar grip. Fuck me this was hard. We basically got Bow and Arrow choked a lot. I found a good method to stop it but it relied on you managing to quickly get a good grip on his choking arm with both of your hands. The offside hand grips at the wrist to relieve the immediate pressure. The nearside arm gets the grip above the elbow to take a bit more off and work on pushing the arm out over your head. Even then I only managed to block it a few times. I got B and A'd a lot more. Lesson learned. Don't get yourself in that position. Or as the great man once said.......

We did a bit of rolling after that which was cool. A nice mellow week but definitely back to the heavier training next week.

¬m/

Checkmat Interclub 29/9/13 - London.

So I've missed out last Thursday's blog as I didn't really have time to type it up. In fact time seems to be a big issue for me lately between training, getting quality time in with my family and studying, I don't seem to have enough. I am however, glad that I took the time to go up to the Checkmat Uk Interclub in London last Sunday. The atmosphere was great. Seeing a load of the Checkmat extended family was cool and getting the opportunity to compete was pretty good too.

The venue was the Brittania Leisure Centre in Islington. It was a relatively small venue and made even smaller by the fact that we only had half the hall. Most of our half was separated off for the matted area leaving a very small section for people who weren't competing at that exact moment. So it was very much standing room only with no seating even being offered unless you wanted to go out in the lobby. Space was probably the major down point of the day as everyone was huddled up and struggling to see anything and there wasn't really even a dedicated warm up area. In the end we jumped the barrier to the climbing wall area and used the mats there to stretch.

The competition itself started a little bit late as the weigh ins and the team photo took place before hand and this all took a bit of clever man management to initiate. Fair play to Luiz and Chico, they did a good job of keeping the thing going and catching up with the match timings. By midday they'd managed to catch up with all the match times.

I was instantly impressed with the level of talent on display. I managed to grab myself a spot right front and centre and watched avidly as a very skilled array of white belts competed. Very impressive. The first category I had a real vested interest in was the Adult White Belt Light Weight (<76kg) as Marc Aplin from our club was competing and previous outings had left me filled with high hopes for him. Marc is a phenomenal athlete with with a bucket load of stamina and strong as hell for a 76kg-er. Which was why I was surprised when Marc spent a lot of his time from his first two matches in guard and down on points. His composure was spot on as he didn't panic or flake out once but he wasn't up to his usual standard. He managed to win both his first two matches with well executed triangles from his guard though so I can't complain and, as I said before, the level was very high so who am I to judge?

The big downside to the comp came in Marc's third bout. He was working from guard again, the opponent was 2 points up and Marc had an advantage. Then the power went on the timer/points display and the ref called timeout while some techie guys fixed it. When the screen was put back on the guy Marc was fighting had inexplicably been given 3 extra points taken his total to 5. Something I hadn't noticed until toward the end of the match. At this point Marc was quite happily sitting in guard and then quickly swept his opponent right at the end for two, thinking this had won him the match. However, no one else wanted to listen to the protests and the opponent was given the match thanks to these mysterious extra 3 points. Marc was understandably miffed, as were the rest of us. This put a bit of a black mark on an otherwise good day.

The next match I held an interest in was Chris Cook's outing in the White Medium Heavy bracket. Chris has been training very hard recently and I had some hopes for him too. Unfortunately his opponent (the eventual bracket winner) was very savvy and a bit of a machine and quickly got to mount on Chris. From there I couldn't see what was going on cause the view was obstructed so I though I'd seen Chris buck his opponent off but it turned out he'd rolled over into an arm bar. Bad luck to Chris but it's all experience. He'll be back and better, I guarantee it.

As the afternoon was moving on I could feel the approach of my bracket. I was in the Masters Blue Belt Medium Heavy and I knew there was only 3 entrants. I was to be in the first round against a guy named Chris Gregory from Margate Bjj, then the loser would fight the other guy, Ben Bryant. If Ben won that he'd get the opportunity to contest for Gold.

It's worth mentioning at this point that due to my rather ill timed holiday at the end of the month previous, a fantastic week all inclusive in Ibiza, I was well out of my fighting shape going in and had to put myself up in weight category. Couple that with the fact that I technically qualify as a senior (old bastard at 36) fighting in a division of masters, (30 to 35) I had a bit of a disadvantage going in. Regardless of this I went in fairly confident as I'd trained like shit for this and actually had a game plan to work off. Unfortunately this didn't come off as Chris Gregory was one feckin strong dude!

My game plan was to work on a takedown - of which I had prepared and drilled about four good ones that I was confident to use - gain top control and work from there. Bummer then that Chris instantly pulled guard and had the grip strength and closed guard of a titan! I spent most of the first two minutes of the round blocking his collar chokes and trying to pry his legs apart. Every time I started to threaten a guard break he'd tighten a collar choke on so I'd have to concentrate on blocking that. He then got a good sweep on me to mount, which I managed to reverse back to be in his strong guard again. At one point he tried for a triangle which I managed to block and break out of. When I'd broken it I was semi excited as I had the opportunity to spin round and pass however, "Wonder Ref" (yes it was the same guy Marc had), decided at that point to stand us up. My opponent then pulled guard again and I was left struggling against his superior strength. By the end of the match he'd swept me three times to mount and I'd reversed them back all three times. As I'd managed to mount no effective offense whatsoever I lost the match 18 x 0.

Pretty poor performance really and I was completely shagged. I had the length of the next match to recover which was nowhere near enough for me. In a very short space of time I was called back to the mat to face off against Ben Bryant from Essex. We jockeyed a bit as if looking for takedowns but he then quickly pulled guard. I had minimal strength in me against a totally fresh guy. He threatened a choke and then quickly switched to a triangle attack. I managed to hold it off for a decent amount of time but he was really good at adjusting his hips to stop my particular method of triangle block to keep me in it. When he eventually worked out what I was doing he started trying to pull my arm in for an arm bar, which totally destroys the triangle block. I adjusted my grip and pulled my arm away but this gave him the space to tighten the triangle even more and pull on my head. I was very near to passing out at the end and survival instinct made me tap.

Both Ben and Chris were really nice humble guys and I gave them both big congratulations but at the end of the day I was a bit gutted by my own performance. Didn't have the strength in the first match and my stamina completely left me for the second. For future comps I will most definitely be dropping down to the next category and doing a shit load of strength and stamina training.

Chris went on to beat Ben in the final by another triangle but I think Ben was happy with his silver. Chris was just a machine and would be a strong competitor for anyone at that weight.


The only other match I held an interest in after that was with Checkmat South Shields Blue Belt, Jamie Berry. Jamie is a really nice guy I met at a previous Checkmat seminar in Cheltenham about a year ago. Jamie, for me, represents everything good about Bjj. The cameraderie. The wider team mentality. I have only met Jamie on one occasion previous and yet we greeted each other like old buddies and chatted for large portions of the day. It's always good meeting people through your chosen method of time consumption as you know they have one common interest and generally, what I have found with Bjj, is that there aren't that many people who train it that you end up disliking. By and large all my Jiu Jitsu compatriots are nice guys who you wouldn't mind going for a beer with after.  Jamie is exactly this and I hope I see him at many more of these events in the future.

As for Jamie's match. The ref on mat 3 was on form once again. James had a very tight, very composed guard game and hadn't given up any points. I think he was actually ahead due to an advantage or a penalty (I think, I can't be sure on this). Right at the end though his opponent made a pretty impressive switch down at his legs and came up in a banana split (I wasn't sure that was legal at Blue and after trawling the internet for hours, still am not convinced) which seemed to turn into a knee bar as he tightened it on. Jamie, feeling the knee being extended, looked bemused and tapped with that pointing at the knee and questioning the ref type look that people do when an illegal technique has been used to get the tap. The ref didn't have any of it (once again) and consequentially, half the people watching were staring on in bewilderment as the knee barrer had his hand raised for the victory.

Jamie was understandably gutted. So was I. Unfortunately, as it's an interclub and everyone's a team mate you can't really go and make a song and dance about it. Winds me up a bit though.

All it all it was a great day out. Didn't go the way I'd hope but these things never seem to. Back to the drawing board again then. I'm on a big time diet now to bring my weight suitably down below 13 stone on a permanent basis so I don't need to do a dramatic cut to fight at middle weight. Hopefully I'll be down around there in the new year when I'll be pumped to do more comps.

Checkmat Rules!!! ¬m/

DV8 Bjj. 19/9/13

I've had another fairly packed week of training this week with Tuesday to Thursday lunch times all taken up with some very hard situational sparring and hard rolling with Marcus Hedley. After three days of side control escapes, mount escapes and guard work practice I was fairly aching like a bastard. It's all very much appreciated and necessary though as I'm up in London on the 29th Sept for the Checkmat UK Interclub comp. Can't friggin wait. I want to be as prepared as I've ever been.

As for Thursday's lesson under Ian Rossiter at Sweat FA, Weston Super Mare, the numbers we had were massive. We've had a real influx in new guys recently, most of which have stuck around for a more of the same. Always a relief when you get a new guy come back as it feels like our job of promoting Bjj that little bit more has been a success.


As the class was so big Ian separated us up into the newer guys and more experienced guys. Ian took the newbies off and gave them a lot of attention on the basics while me and Marcus took the more advanced guys along a path that Ian started us off on.


Ian started us with a basic defensive concept. Your opponent is in your closed guard. He manages to break the guard open and force your leg (right, for the example) to the mat. He then starts to pass your guard by
passing over the leg, trying to come to side control. As he has one leg through and is coming up you push his head away while shrimping out. As the general rule of thumb is that where the head goes, the body follows, the opponent is pushed out away leaving you an excellent opportunity to counter attack or at least recover guard.


From this defense we were allowed to continue along with various counters and submissions. The first was the Omoplata. You've got to the point where the opponent is passing and you're pushing his head away. For the particular technique the opponent was attempting to pass with an underhook in place. This is ideal because as he's passing you push the head and escape your hips away from him and there is a decent amount of space for you to clamp his arm down to your offside then spin round, bringing your offside (left) leg over his shoulder. Making sure you grab on to his belt or across his lower back you pull yourself side on to him, pulling your bottom leg out as you go. You then switch your legs so they are pointing away from the guy. If he's up on his knees still at this point you can just shift away from him until it collapses his base to lay him out on his front. You can then grab his farside shoulder and use it to pull you body forward over him to apply a really tight omoplata.


We then ran through an underhook to back control. Nice easy transition from the pass. The guy is still using the underhook. You've pushed his head away and hip escaped creating a decent size gap in between you. You can now bring your left arm (the one he had underhooked) under his arm so you now have the underhook. Try to reach as far under as possible so you're grabbing for his opposite side shoulder. You now use the usual shift out, duck and shrug move that helps you claim the back control (one hook in) with him turtling. Don't try and immediately jump across him to get the other hook in for rear mount or he'll just drop down at the front and shrug you off. Instead reach over him (but under his arm) and grab his opposite side lapel. Using your other hand, push his near side elbow in toward him, then drop down to the floor rolling on your shoulder using your momentum to pull him over. As you'd previously reached under his arm for the lapel, that arm blocks him from bringing his knee and arm close together so you can easily get your second hook in for the seated rear mount. Excellent transition to full control.

A great lesson we had and a real pleasure to be allowed the opportunity to teach once again. I've got another full week of training coming up now ahead of Sunday's (29th) Interclub in London. I CAN NOT WAIT!!!! ¬m/  

Roll on.

Checkmat BCL 10/9/13

I've had a fairly full week of training this week. I've hit the lunch time training with Marcus (Hedley) Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and I also took a trip up to Bristol Combat Legion to Chico Mendes' class on the Tuesday evening.

Training in the week with Marcus was very varied. We did stand up on Tuesday, focusing on Uchi Mata throws, trips and double and single leg takedowns.

On Wednesday we recapped on a load of the X Guard stuff we studied during one of our past sessions. It was pretty awesome going back over that as I'd forgotten a lot of the set ups. Strange that I've remembered the sweeps really well and have hit a couple of them in active sparring but only when I've basically been awarded the X Guard position by fluke as I'd nearly totally forgotten the set ups. Glad we went back over them.

Thursday was a bit of a mix of some gi chokes and a lot of sparring. Good hard session. We were both totally done after.


Highlight of the week though was going up to Bristol Combat Legion in Bristol, to Chico's new Checkmat class up there. And I have to say, the set up they have going on up there is amazing. The matted area is so smooth and all one peace, it's like grappling on a mattress. Brilliant.

Chico ran us through a basic Butterfly Guard Sweep. First solo drilling the fall sideway, kick up motion. Then going on to the live opponent drilling. Oddly, we were only using one hook in (right) while the other leg (left) was folded in and tucked behind the first leg. Grabbing a hold of the opponent's right wrist with your left hand and underhooking the guys left with your right, keeping your head ducked down inside toward the guy's chest, you now pull his right arm in (to stop him basing out) and fall sideways using the underhook to take him with you. As you are falling you kick up with your right hook to turn the guy over onto his side, with you coming over into top control. You can often get side control here but your opponent has a fleeting opportunity to recover guard in the transition.


Chico then ran us through a drill where you hit the sweep, come over into your partner's guard, then lean forward to force him into the ground. He then using both of his forearms to push against your shoulder, pushing you down his body until he can kick out with his legs and recover to Butterfly Guard. At which point he does the same thing over and you both continue on in a flow drill.


After this we did lots of situational butterfly guard rolling which was awesome. The class ended with the 2 in 1 out for a minute rolling (or mugging as I like to call it). Loads of rolling and loads of fun. A brilliant class to attend in a spanking new gym. Now I've got a ton of training to get to for an upcoming interclub on the 29th Sept. ¬m/

DV8 Bjj 5/9/13

Just got back from a pretty awesome lesson down Ian Rossiter's  DV8 Bjj at Sweat FA, Weston, and I'm on a real Bjj high! I've managed to get a good week of training in hitting Glenn's class on Monday, then getting two lunchtimes sessions in with the returning Marcus Hedley, and tonight at Ian's too. May even get some in tomorrow lunchtime too.

Techniques we learn tonight were :

Baseball Bat Choke from Guard.

Baseball Bat Choke from Half Guard.

Counter the Half Guard Baseball Bat Choke to Kesa Gatame Side Control.

Counter the Half Guard Baseball Bat Choke to Straight Arm Bar in Side Control.

Counter the Half Guard Baseball Bat Choke to Normal Arm Bar from Side Control.

Baseball Bat Choke from Knee on Belly.

Counter Baseball Bat Choke from Knee on Belly - into Arm Bar.

Holy shit did we really cover that much tonight?! And we still got some good rolling in too. Good time management there.



So first the Baseball Bat Choke from Closed Guard. You got the opponent in your closed guard. You reach up with your right hand and grab his LEFT collar (not cross collar) with a fingers in, thumb out grip. You also reach forward with your left hand and grab deep into his right lapel collar with a thumb in, fingers out grip. Your hands should nearly touch around the back of his neck. As the grip control is not a threatening as a cross collar grip the opponent feels a bit more confident to carry on working. So if you then open your guard and drop your right leg as if working for a sweep, the guy will try to pass right over on that side. As he does you just roll away left keeping the collar grip to close off the choke. Lovely and painful. A real game winner if you land it.


The move basically works the same with half guard.


Ian then went on to show us how to block the Half Guard variant. The guy underneath has you in his half guard and has the grips in place. You need to reach under his left arm with your right and grab his shoulder. You also grab his right arm at the triceps to release all tension. Now work your trapped leg out and kick through to seated kesa gatame side control position.

The second counter to the Half Guard BBB Choke was using the same restraint to ease the pressure but then pulling the leg through into side control with knee hard into his right ribs. You then clamp your head right so as to trap his left arm in between your head and shoulder whilsts holding the your left arm tight to you to keep his other arm in place. Next pass your right arm over the top of his left and make a gable grip with your left to secure it in place. You then tightly pull your forearm down (up) his arm until it find the sweet spot at his elbow to put on the really tight straight arm bar. Really painful if caught right but easy to lose if your technique is slightly wrong.

Fortunately, if you didn't get the first arm bar you still have the right arm there. Ensuring the right knee is still hard in his ribs and that foot is tucked under him, you can step over his head with your left foot and sit back to take the arm bar. The problem with this type of arm bar however is that you have to hit it fast over the opponent can roll out. So make sure you keep those knees tight together and extend the hips quickly or you'll lose the hold.



Next up we ran over the BBB Choke from Knee on Belly which I'm sure we did a few months ago but I can't seem to find the write up. Start from tight knee on belly control, right knee on, copying the grip method from earlier. To finish the choke you just step through forward with your right foot, leaning all your weight on the tightened choke around his throat.


To counter this you (as the guy on the bottom) straight arm out with your right arm into his hips to stop him from stepping through. With your left you grab his extended right arm. You then move your hips out left to make space then bring your right knee up tight in front of you while your left leg pass up and over his head for the lovely arm bar from bottom. Brilliant counter.


Wow. Once again that was a feck load of stuff we covered and we even had time for some situational rolling and some normal rolling. Good effort. Roll on next week for more of the same.

¬m/

Bridgwater Combat Club. 2/9/13

Ok so I've missed out a couple of weeks worth of blogs. I've got the notes for it but I haven't really got time to go back and type it out.

Anyhow, I thought I'd do a quick entry about my good buddy Glenn Cutter's new gig as Bjj Coach down in Bridgwater, Somerset, UK.  Glenn has taken the spot training the club on their ground work as of Monday 2nd September and I had the pleasure of attending his first class.

The Bridgwater Combat Club is a tidy little unit around the back of Deniz Kebab House on St John's Street in Bridgwater and it is decked out very well with a cage wall down the side and a fully matted floor. The all white finish gives the place a cool, fresh feel to it as well.

As the Bridgwater club is relatively new, most of the guys in attendance were fairly new to the Bjj and groundwork game. There weren't many training in the gi to start except for a couple of guys that have come up from Glenn's regular training venue at Sweat FA, Weston Super Mare (under Ian Rossiters tutelage), me being one of those. The rest of the guys were in combat shorts and rash guards or t shirts.

Glenn ran the class through the very basics to begin starting with the theory behind basic closed guard and posture control, then going on to guard breaking and a basic smash pass to side control. He then ran everyone through a rear naked choke from behind (un mounted) and then showed it with the full rear mount with hooks in. He finished off the class with the traditional staple escape from rear mount. All good strong beginning techniques and most of the guys I was watching and drilling with were picking it all up pretty quickly.

We done to Glenn for getting this new position and I hope he enjoys teaching there for many years to come. I know I will try to attend the occasional lesson down there. ¬m/

DV8 Bjj 8/8/13

I had to miss a Thursday session last week due to being on call but I was still getting some good lunchtime drilling and sparring sessions in during the week with the rapidly improving Chris Cook and Luke Brown.

Fortunately I was back for this Thursday though as I was asked by Ian to teach the class. Once again what an honour it is to be given the opportunity to teach a class.

Venue: Sweat FA, Weston Super Mare, Uk.
Instructor: Me :0)   - Martin Eyre (Blue Belt, Checkmat).

This time around I decided to focus on Butterfly Guard. I started by explaining the basic idea behind butterfly guard , how you want your body to be ideally positioned, how you can control your opponent etc..

I then took it quickly on to a Butterfly Guard Collar and Elbow Sweep. Start by sitting in front of your opponent with your knees opened out and your feet close together, your opponent opposite you on his knees gearing up for a pass of some sort. You pull in close to your opponent to get your feet hooked outwards inbetween his legs and take a collar and elbow grip on him. That is grabbing his left collar with your right hand and grabbing his right arm sleeve at the elbow with your left hand. You then lean backward pulling him with you, breaking down his posture and stretching him out long. While doing so you alter the positioning of your left foot from inbetween his legs to foot on hip. This helps to stretch the guy out. It also frees your foot up so when the guy is leaning right over you off balanced, you can use that left leg to push his right leg away, totally destroying his balance and pulling on his elbow while pushing on his collar easily flips him over to his back with you coming over in to mount. Amazingly easy and effective butterfly sweep that I use regularly and so do a lot of the other guys with out even realising it.



The next sweep I went for was an Ankle Pick, Collar Push sweep. You're in your basic seated butterfly position once again. This time the guy is coming at you in a combat stance with right knee on floor and left leg up on foot. With you left hand you quickly grab his right collar while your left hand grabs the ankle of his upright left leg. The grip of his collar you take is a fingers in, thumb pointing down grip at about the neck line. You then simultaneously pull on his foot and push across/into his neck to tip him over onto his back. Ensure as you come up to press one of your knees down upon the pulled leg so as to initiate a pass. It doesn't matter which knee you use to clamp his leg to the floor, it usually just depends on how you land from the scramble and how you prefer to pass. I favour shutting the leg down with my right knee and then kicking my left leg over the top and pulling over in to side control like that.



The third sweep was from Double Underhook control. You're right in close with your opponent and have double underhooks (both your arms under his arms and reaching around his back) with your feet inside and your knees spread out (butterfly). You lay backward onto your shoulders pulling your opponent with you to collapse his posture. You then quickly kick out with your legs and rock back forward, coming up onto your knees as you do. You alter your arm position behind his back to grip hands at the small of his back then use this grip to pull right in tight causing a lot of discomfort to the opponent and enabling you to push him right back to back with you easily coming over into side control. A really good and surprisingly easy technique to hit.



To vary up the Butterfly Guard game a bit I moved on to a couple of subs. Beginning with a Straight armbar. Starting from the double underhook position you need adjust you arm position to fight for an overhook on his left side using you right arm. Doing this successfully will end with you having your right arm over the top over his left bicep/triceps and wrapped back through underneath, with his arm passing your side. You now lock his arm to your side using that arm levered by your other arm using a gable grip of just by pulling the forearm. Then you push away using your legs to stretch him out, letting his arm go no further than the lower triceps, whilst pushing out with your hips to apply the Straight Armbar pressure. A really painful arm lock when applied correctly and if it is the tap comes really quick.



The second sub and the last technique of the session was a Guillotine from Butterfly Guard. Starting with your legs butterflied out and sunk inside between his leg but without the upper body engaged yet. Using your left hand you grab the opponent at the back of the head/neck and pull him in hard toward you. With your right arm (palm facing up) you bring it up so the blade edge of your wrist meets up with his neck under the chin. You use this hold to pull him further in so you can lean your right shoulder on the back of his head, keeping it down in position, giving you time to take the left hand from the back of his head and gable gripping up your hands. You then only need to extend your legs a bit to stretch him out whilst arching your back and pulling up on the guillotine arm for the tight finish. This is a real eye waterer when landed and a great addition to the Butterfly Guard arsenal.



It was a great session all round and I was really pleased with how easily the guys picked up all the techniques. Being able to pass knowledge on is one of the best parts about the art of Bjj. Love it.

¬m/

DV8 - 25th July 2013.

Managed to get in a couple of good sessions on the mats with Chris Cook this week. Chris's game is really coming along with him trying out loads of new stuff I've never seen from him before and really tightening up his defense too.

At Ian's class this week there was once again quite a good turn out with some new guys coming along for the session. It's always good to see new young guys turning up and lately a lot of them have been sticking to it as semi regulars. Promising things for a potential strong future team. Keep it going.

Venue: Sweat FA, Weston Super Mare. Uk (Possibly for one of the last times as we're supposed to be moving in August sometime).
Instructor: Ian Rossiter (Checkmat Black Belt).


Ian started us off with some Spider Guard drilling for positioning and how to improve your spider guard grips and how to maintain it under duress. Starting out with you on your back and the opponent standing, you have grips of the opponents cuffs and feet on hips, you can transfer the feet to the arms or the shoulders. When the opponent is trying to pass your guard on one side of you, you extend your leg on that side, keeping him at bay. We drilled this with your opponent lazily trying to pass you while you practice the motions of keeping him away.


From there we use the feet on hips Spider Guard to unbalance the opponent pushing him backward then, when he tries to push back forward you use his momentum to kick your legs up and flip him over the top of you. This is remarkably easy to pull off in rolling when everything is random and yet, when a training partner knows it's coming they sometimes have a problem giving it up for practice sakes and end up squatting a bit to much stopping you from landing it. It's just instinct that you don't want to be flipped on your ass I suppose. Great move when you land it though.


We then mess about a bit with a Spider Guard Helicopter Arm Bar. When you're got the position for the flip, instead of flipping the opponent over you hold them up in the air so your legs are extended up and the guy is being balance on your feet (with you still gripping his arms at the cuffs). Now, dropping your left leg out to the side while simultaneously pulling the guy's left arm in close to your body and pushing his right over the top of it, the guy should neatly deposit to the south of you. With a quick adjustment your right leg is in tight below his arm and you pass your left leg over his head for a nice arm bar.



Last up was a Clock Choke on Turtle. The guy is huddled up in his turtle with you out to left side leaning across him, keeping him down in turtle using your body weight. You reach through under his neck with your left hand to grab his collar quite deep, then reach over his back and under his right arm with your right arm to grab his forearm. Pulling this forearm in whilst putting body weight on him will push his elbow out so he can't roll you over at this point. Now you switch your legs so your whole body is facing north of him by kicking your right leg through under you and out. You now apply wicked pressure to this move by walking yourself around his head. This is a great move when you land it (which I never have properly in sparring or comp). Very tight. I just never find myself remembering it when I'm in that position. I will have to make it one of my aims for the next few months.


Good session in all and I am happy that I'm now back to full rolling with the rib injury a distant memory. Let the good times roll (sic). ¬m/

DV8 18/7/13

Well I've had a week off from Ian's class last week as it was my Birthday. I've managed to get some lunchtime sessions in though. Most notably with my very good buddy Marcus Hedley, who graced me with his presence on Monday. We just mucked about showing each other a few techniques then sparred the crap out of each other until we were both fit to pass out. Good times :0)

Anyway. This week at Ian's class at Sweat FA (that name took on a whole new meaning this week!) was down in numbers. To be expected really in this heat but I love training so no one else has an excuse!!!

Ian started us off this week with a cool overhook drop knee throw (there's probably some funky Judo name for this but I'm not really up with that stuff). Standing face to with left hand gripping the opponents right arm sleeve and your right hand gripping his left collar you step in and pass your right hand over his left shoulder. As you do this you turn to your left whilst wrapping the right arm around the back of his head and holding his right arm off. Once turned you bend your knees and push your butt in tight to him pulling him over your back, then straighten you knees lifting him off the ground. Pulling his right arm in tight to you drop to your right knee and throw him over your back. This throw lends itself well to practicing with a partner you like as you can go easy on it or you land it like a bodyslam. Good takedown.



Once you've taken the guy down using that throw you should land in a kesa gatame side control with his right arm still secure. You can push this arm right across his upper body then drive your right shoulder into the triceps of that arm, keeping your right arm wrapped around his neck. Now you can either gable grip your hands together OR put your right hand in the crook of your left arm to tighten the arm around the neck, then you lay over flat on your front to maximise the pressure and get an easy tap. Nice transition to the Head and Arm Triangle.




Another transition from the throw was to pop up into knee on belly. With the knee on belly quite high on the chest and the right arm still secure you just lean forward a touch while passing your left leg around over his head then fall back while tightening your knees together for a nice tight arm bar. Got to make sure you come in to the body tight though. If your butt isn't right in close to his shoulder he can escape if he's quick enough.


Next up is if the opponent blocks the previous arm bar by gripping his hands together. In this situation you can just pass your right hand inside the crook of his left arm and pull that arm in hard so it's close to your upper body. This will tilt him on his side. You can now pass your left leg over his head to his now tilted up shoulder and turn your whole body around with it so you're now facing the other way. Secure the guy's left arm properly and fall back into the same style arm bar but on the other side of his body. I use this submission a lot and have managed to get quite quick with the turn, using a sort of cork screw motion to get into the position quickly so as to minimise the amount of time the opponent has to react and block the arm bar.


Great sesh. As per the norm lately I have typed this out horrendously late. Been very busy with other stuff but I will try and get back on track.

Train hard  ¬m/

DV8 4/7/13

This last week has been brilliant for me. I've been back to sparring and managed to get three sessions training in. Great stuff. Can't argue with that. Tuesday was Lunchtime with Chris Cook, Thursday lunch was with Marc Aplin and Thursday evening was down at Ian's class. Got some good techniques from all of it but I'll be focusing on what I learnt at DV8 for this log.


Once again we picked up good numbers for Ian's class this week and there were quite a few off too so it leaves me wondering just how many attend on and off these days. If everyone was to attend one class together would we pack the mats out? It's bound to happen soon.

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


We started off the lesson recapping the Side control forearm choke which we covered here so no need for me to rehashed.



We then went on to Side control to knee on belly to north south choke. From in side control you pop of to Knee on belly (well duh) and take a thumb in grip of the opponent's far collar with your offside hand and a fingers in grip of the nearside collar with your near hand. Then opening the elbow of the near arm you pass it over his face as you transition to North South so you now have a cross collar on him with one of your elbows past each of his shoulders. To finish you lean your body over to the side you have just come from so your head is at his side and bring your elbows in tight around yourself to apply the pressure (as you would for a standard cross collar).



From back to the knee on belly, your right knee on his belly, left leg out straight. This time the guy puts his offside hand on your knee to push it away. With your right hand you reach inside then under his left (defending) arm and cup/grip at above the elbow. You then pull him in tight to your body so he's up at an angle and step your left foot over his head. You can now corkscrew turn and come down on your butt bringing his left arm in with you. Clench your knees together and extend hips to finish the arm bar. This is a technique I've been loving for a while now.



Last move of the night was one that I really enjoyed. The opponent has you in a typical american wrestler style pin for side control with his right arm hooking your leg. This is blatantly a stalling tactic as there aren't really many good places to go with the arm under the leg and he hasn't got the points for a pass if the arm hasn't first come through. You grab the arm that is under your leg and pull it right down so the hand is somewhere near your ass. Try to secure that hand there by getting a bit of your body weight on it. You then (quickly or you'll lose the position) release your grip on the secure arm and quickly use your left forearm or hand to push the guy's face/head away so you can quickly kick your left leg up and over the top of his head, pressing that leg down across his back. You then close up the triangle with your right leg and pull the secured arm down across your back/butt for the triangle choke. Voila!! Triangle choke finish from THE BOTTOM of side control. NICE.
It's worth noting that I have now almost hit that move when the guy wasn't even trying to pin me. I just pushed his arm through of my own accord and nearly got the triangle. It's only (probably) because I'd just shown him the move about 10 minutes before that he blocked the finish but I still used it as a fine escape from side control.


Great lesson overall. It's worth mentioning that between the time of this lesson (and me starting this log) to now, 2 weeks have passed. I've been off celebrating my birthday and learning stuff with my other project etc. So I've slacked off. I've been getting in my Bjj though which is really the important thing. More to come real soon as the Summer Bjj bug has really bitten me.

¬m/

DV8 Bjj 27/6/13

So this week I was feeling a bit better in the rib department. Not fully healed up by a long shot but I definitely wanted to have a crack at rolling. Due to work commitments however, I did not have the chance to train and spar at all during the week so come Thursday I was gagging to hit the mats.

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



First technique Ian ran us through this week was a Standard guard break. The good old knee up backside guard break that has been covered many times before so I won't go over it again.


He followed it up with a standing guard break. In your opponent's guard on your knees you grab his right hand with your left and force it in towards his groin area straightening your arm to hold it in place. You then push your right knee in against his ass and step out to the side with your left leg (he can't punish you for this by grabbing your leg as you have his right arm secured) and use that leg to stand to your feet in a squat position. Now using your right arm you grip the opponent's gi pants high up (or low down as he's essentially upside down) near the groin on his left leg and drive your elbow into his lower quad to break the guard and push the guy's leg down your leg all the way to the floor, at which point you can pin that leg down just above the knee by passing your knee over top but keeping your foot back (this enbles you to pin his leg down with your leg). Keeping his other leg pushed away using your left arm you can now lean through and press your upper body against his midriff to pin him to the floor, resting all your weight on him, then high crescent kick your trailing (left) leg over and through to finish the pass into side control.


We then reviewed the standard Smash pass which I've covered here a few times too.



Next up was the good old standing opponent sweep from closed guard. You've got your guard closed on him and he's managed to get to his feet. Unfortunately for him in this position his legs are to far forward enabling you to grab him around the ankles with your hands, open your guard dropping your hips to the floor and then bend your knees in together and push outward with your legs tipping the opponent down to his ass. With a quick enough scramble you can't sit up and instantly pass to mount. Unfortunately, if your opponent is quick enough you can end up in his guard so you'd only swapped positions but it's still 2 points for a sweep.



To follow up on the above technique, you hit the sweep and the guy's gone to his ass. As you scramble forward to get to mount he extends one of his arms, placing a hand on your chest, to keep you away. To counter this and land yourself and awesome finish you just grab the wrist of the extended arm and keep it close to you while you drive your butt toward his body passing one of your legs over the top of the arm and around the head for the arm bar. A nifty finish.

Last up was the Ezekiel but I've covered that quite a few times here too.


To finish of the lesson I indulged in a bit of light sparring. I did quite well and left in relatively good shape with minimal side pain. A good lesson and getting back to health. What could be better?

DV8 20th June 2013

So once again, I'm writing this out a week behind. Anything you read here actually applies to last week.

Still injured. Shit ribs. :0(  Although it's slowly getting better. I can do some really light sit ups now and I've been doing some technique training mid week at lunch time to help one of the lads whose just started up at our club, Marc Aplin, get ready for competition. That's been going pretty well and it is great to be doing something on the mat but I don't half miss sparring. I've been told by everyone that I talk to though that I absolutely must let the intercostal muscle heal properly before hard sparring or it'll just result in further injury time. Fucking thing.

Anyway, on to this week at Ian's class.

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



Ian started us off this lesson with the excellent Brabo Choke from closed guard. Starting with the opponent in your closed guard you break his posture down and bring him in close to you, reaching over his back with your left arm and grabbing his gi at his left shoulder blade. This will help you keep him down while your right hand pulls his left gi lapel out of his belt. With this gi lapel in the right hand, you pass the end of it over his back to near his right shoulder. Once it's there you can release your left hand grip on his gi and grab the end of the lapel, using that to keep him down in position. You now pass your right hand under his face/neck and grab the proffered gi lapel over his right shoulder with that hand. This should now be quite tight around his neck with your wrist pressuring his throat somewhat. To finish you now bring your left hand over the top to reach for the tightened gi material at his left shoulder and drawn the opponent in tight to you, closing the choke on his throat and earning a pained tap. Nice move to start the lesson.




Moving it on from there, you've got the guy to the above position but for some reason - be it a hand in or the gi being slack in the wrong place - you can't finish the Brabo. You can vary the move by opening your guard up and swinging your left leg out and over the top of the opponent's head (your body will now be out right perpendicular to the position it was in previously) and then drive the foot down whilst maintaining the pulling pressure on the gi. Another awesome choking move and one that I have liked for a long time.



Alternatively, instead of going for the leg over choke, you can keep the Brabo grip on the over shoulder lapel and rotate out right (as above) but this time keeping your left leg in tight to ensure he can't remove his right arm from the set up . Once you've done this the right arm will be neatly in position for you to hold to your chest with your left hand, giving you time to remove your right hand grip from his lapel and pull it out of the way, so you can pass your left leg up over his head and extend the hips for a brilliant and painfully tight arm bar.



Now if you get to the above arm bar position but the guy has managed to pull his arm out enough to stop the threat you can change to concentrating on his right arm. From that angle (given the slightly twisted angle the opponent would be in at that point) It's an easy matter to pull his left arm onto you so his wrist is resting at about your right shoulder. Now ensuring that his thumb is pointing downward, you can press your right forearm on the back of his arm at just a fraction above elbow and use your left hand to gable grip the right, piling on the pressure for the extremely painful Straight Arm Bar finish. Jesus H Christ does that one hurt when put on right. You certainly want to be careful with that move and be sure you release AS SOON as the opponent taps. This is a move that can cause some pretty decent injuries if not carefully applied.



We finished of with a fairly standard switch from that last move to an Omoplata. Easy, obvious and not really worth explaining.


After that I got the opportunity to watch the guys roll again while I had to sit out. I took this chance to practice my cornering by verbally trying to assist someone to better their positions etc by shouting advice. A tactic that would help me out well for Sunday when I go up to Hereford to support Marc.

Injuries gotta be over soon. Pleeeeeeease!!!

¬m/