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 - 9/5/13

Ok, so I'm quite far behind on writing this up. As I sit here and type this it's the week AFTER the session that I'm writing about and I've just got back from another awesome sesh. 

You see, what I've been doing lately that's taken my time away from blogging and generally obsessing about Bjj is that I am currently learning two new subjects. Firstly, I have developed a taste for Web Design and programming and wish to learn much more about it so I can maybe earn some extra cash doing up some inexpensive web solutions for people (it's a long way off but you gotta have a dream right?) and secondly, I've been learning Spanish, as I am planning a family holiday to Spain in August and I feel like I'm a particularly uncultured fuckwit. Let's face it, us English rarely learn another language so I'd like to be one of the minority rather than the average on this.

Anyway, to help stay on track on this I'm gonna have to dedicate a bit more time to that and a little less time to blogging so basically I'm gonna reformat the style with which I write up a week/lesson/article. I'm going to dispense with the amount of detail I go into on things like warm up and sparring and maybe see where I can shrink down my technical explanations as well. Sorry if you read this and previously enjoy all the extra shit I usually put in (although I can't imagine there's anyone out there who suddenly thought that) but I really need to trim the amount of time I spend blogging down for a while.

Ok so for this entry I'm going straight into the technical bump. Oh wait,

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

Techniques.
 (I'm still going to be explaining these techniques from the position I initially learnt them).


For the first technique, Ian let Rich Presley demo a Kimura from guard while he talked through it. I was Rich's demo partner for this.
From a good closed guard, the opponent's hands are braced against your abdomen, you reach down so your arms are under his arms and you put your hands together (as if praying). You then (keeping both hands together) push your arms up and outwards, breaking the guy's grips and driving his arms to either side of you. Quickly reaching down with your right hand you take a grip across his left wrist and force his hand to the floor. You then open your guard and lunge your left arm forward over his left shoulder (sitting up with your whole body) and reach over behind his left arm to take a grip of your own right wrist. Using your left bicep to bring the opponent's upper arm/shoulder into your chest so it's nice and secure, you fall to you back  out at a perpendicular angle to the guy, bringing him right down close to you and push his arm up straight at a 90° angle, closing up the guard as you go. If executed right this move doesn't fail to earn a tap.


The second technique I demo'd, against Rich. I was a Kimura from side control to North South grip break. 
You have a nice strong side control on the opponent (lying so you head is to his left) and have managed to isolate his left arm to the floor, pointing toward his feet. You grip his left wrist with your right hand and pass your left arm underneath his arm to grab your right wrist (forming the figure four). The opponent at this point, if he's any good, will grab something down at his waist with his left hand. It might be his gi pants, his jacket or most commonly his belt. From here you step up over his head with your left leg and then transition up to to North South. From there you use the grip you have on the guy's arm to pull him up on his side and squeeze your legs together around his head to keep him in this position. Now, leaning forward so your chest is tight against his the upper part of his left arm, you can use the strength of your back to drive yourself up straight, ripping his grip open and then finish the sub by turning the arm backwards through 90°.

Next Ian demo'd a move that was totally new to me. A Kimura variation from side control. You have arrived at the position where you've threatened the Kimura and he's grabbed his belt. As an alternative, you can now release the grip on his wrist ((and your grip on your wrist) and reach around his arm with your right to grip his elbow. With your left arm you switch your grip to grab your bicep (your arm is still under his). Now, making sure your left forearm is close to his elbow, you tilt your left arm elbow up to apply immense pressure to the guy's shoulder. It really is a total beauty.



We also rocked a Kimura from half guard bottom which is pretty much the same as the one from guard, except from half guard.



Last technique was the Kimura from half guard top. You have your right leg secured between his legs and you've managed to flatten him out and lay across him. You've flattened his arm into the Kimura position and reach under and then roll over forward, taking the opponent with you (so you've basically given up position to half bottom) and drive the arm upward in a Kimura. Sleek and sexy move. 

See, that wasn't so bad was it? Only took me an hour and a half to write and I didn't haze on too much. Now I've got to write the next one up.

¬m/

DV8 Bjj 14/2/13

This was my last training session before the Hereford Open 16. I've been fortunate enough to get some mid-week lunch time training in with the always improving and helpful Luke Brown (cheers buddy).

Our fearless leader, Ian Rossiter, and his trusty sidekick, Glenn Cutter, were back for this lesson, fresh from a Bjj related trip to Greece under the awe-inspiring tutelage of Checkmat head, Leo Vieira (lucky bastards). And they were both bursting with great stories and cool Bjj drills, techniques and ideas.

Warm up:
We started off with basic stretching of the neck, shoulders, arms and legs to prepare us for what was to come.

Then Ian put us through a Cardio circuit done in unison. This featured;

Everyone doing 20 seconds of high knee running on spot

then 10 seconds of pausing in squat

20 seconds of press ups

10 seconds paused in plank

20 seconds of crunches

10 seconds paused in a v sit up

20 seconds of jump high on spot

10 seconds of pause in squat

Then do the same circuit again.



We then did a Bjj technique specific circuit featuring:

Mount escaping/maintaining.

Side control escaping/maintaining.

Turtle transition to rear mount/turtle defense.

Takedown positioning/defending.

Guard passing/maintaining.

All of this was drilled at 100% or close to in 20 second rounds over two sets and was really enjoyable, although I'd prefer a little longer on each round. Good stuff though.



Technqiues:
(As usual I will describe techniques from the side I initially learnt them).

To start off Ian repeated the Arm bar from guard stuff that has been covered over the last couple of weeks.
I was practising techniques this week with a guy who recently returned to Bjj after a long hiatus. Gary Batten used to train with Ian in the old days (hehe) when they were training under Carlos Lemos jr. He seems a very nice friendly guy and is a pretty damn good blue belt if he "rusty" state was anything to go by. I hope Gary sticks around to help our team grow in the future. He'd be a great addition to the team.


The next move Ian ran us through was the Kimura from guard. Starting with the opponent in your closed guard using his hands gripping on your legs or side (you rarely get an opponent putting there hand to the floor these days so there's not really any point in drilling it as if it's going to happen that way) so there's a small gap between his arm and his body. Grabbing his left wrist with your right hand using a no thumb grip, you open your guard and shift your hips out to the left slightly so you can lean up and forward passing your left hand over the top of his right arm and reach through the gap between his body and arm to grab your own wrist, using the same no thumb grip. Once this is secure you can pull the guys elbow in tight to your chest and fall back with your entire body weight and closing the guard back up as you go. When flat to the floor you can either; push the guys left arm to a ninety degree upward angle using your arm strength, or, turn your entire upper body to your left, taking the guys arm with it and piling on massive pressure.


Ian ran us through the Triangle from guard after that which has been covered frequently recently so no need to rewrite.


Next up we did a little drill for seated feet on hips guard. You lay on your back with your feet on the hips of a standing training partner and they quite aggressively walk from left to right, increasing and decreasing pressure and you have to keep the feet on hips guard maintained. It is best if you try and keep a minimal surface contact with your body on the mat.


The above lead us on to the last technique which I really enjoyed. From the feet on hips guard you hook your left foot under the guys right inside leg and use this to pull yourself toward his lower right leg to grab that leg with both hands.You then (keeping your right foot against his hip) swing your left leg down and across to chop his left leg out toward you giving him absolutely no base left to stand on. The guy should fall backward like a sack of shit leaving you to come up into top position. Interestingly, if you try to jump straight on top you'll most likely end up in half guard top which is not ideal if your opponent is an awesome half guard player. A preferable idea is to come up to a combat stance with a grip on both of the opponent's legs and push them down to one side to try for a full pass from a strong position.



Sparring:

For sparring this week I had a good roll with Gary Batten who was a very good technical opponent. Neither of us really got anything on the other. I look forward to some good hard sparring sessions with Gary in the future.


For the second roll I was against Jay Curtis and managed to hit him with a Gogoplata which I was particularly chuffed with as it's only the second time I remember pulling one off.


My last two rounds we against Luke Brown who is improving every session. I managed to get him with something in the first round (can't remember what) but the second round he stayed a lot more alert and gave me a good tussle. 


After that good last session I felt pretty prepared for the comp on Sunday. I'll give you a write up on how I did next time. ¬m/

DV8 Academia de Jiu Jitsu 20-9-12

It was quite a small turn out this week at Sweat FA, Weston Super Mare. Didn't matter much though as we still had a good session with some frantic rolling at the end which is pretty much what you want out of a session really.

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


Warm Up:

Laps of the mat with arm windmills, butt kicks, knee ups and side steps. Shoulder, arm and neck stretching. 15 x 2 Squats, 15 x 2 Press ups and 15 x 2 Sit ups followed by 10 x 7 Reverse crunches. Finished off with some leg stretching.


Techniques:
(For ease of description I will explain a technique using the sides (left/right) whichI initially learned them from)


The theme for this lesson was a bit of an amusing coincidence as, just before the lesson, I had chatted with Dan Foster about incorporating more combinations into my game. This is where you try for a sub or a sweep and the opponent blocks it, but you then alter the attack for a different sub or sweep attempt. So when Ian announced his plan to feature a string of techniques I was pleasantly surprised and a bit smug.



The combination string, starting from closed guard, was a Kimura from closed guard, then a guillotine from closed guard, then to hip bump sweep, to kimura from top and then take the back to finish with the rear naked choke.  So a nice long string with a good bit of variation.


We started with the basic Kimura from the guard. Due to the joys of Youtube  I will not have to explain some of the easier moves. (Great Stuff)

This clip comes courtesy of ExpertVillage

So we drilled the move first to finish. I was partnered with Chris Whiting first off. I also ran Chris through a bit of the old "Kimuras from anywhere" stuff from the Jason Scully clips.

Next up we acted as though the guys blocks the initial Kimura attempt by wrapping his arm around your back and grabbing a handful of gi. This brought us neatly into a Guilottine attempt from guard. And another Youtube clip for you.

Vid uploaded by StevenPourciau

We drilled this one for a bit then carried it on as if the guy had managed to get a hand in to block the choke and put his free hand out as if to block being immediately turned over. This brings us neatly on to the Hip Bump Sweep from closed guard.

 

 Video courtesy of GGBJJ

We drilled this going all the way through from the beginning with the Kimura attempt, to getting the Hip Bump Sweep and coming over into Mount. From there, Ian took it on to the Kimura from top control, first demonstrating why it's not easy to get a Kimura from mount, then taking us through to the Kimura from top control which essentially has you giving up mount for side control.

This vid was uploaded by sirzig

The final part of this string occurs when the opponent grabs his belt or gi to block the kimura attempt. Releasing the opponent's wrist, but keeping hold of your own wrist so he's still trapped on your arms, you step your leg back from his head, then bring your elbow out so you can wrap it under the guys head. Then you can step your right leg (the one that is closer to his lower body) in between his legs to put the first hook in place and pull the guy up toward you and roll over onto your right side, bringing the second hook in as you go. You can then finish this with a nice Rear Naked Choke or whatever rear mount technique is your favourite.

A nice string of techniques with alternates there to give you options.



Sparring:

For the sparring we seperated in to threes and did the 2 grapple for a minute then the third guy jumps on the guy with the commanding position and then it carrys on in that order. I was with Dan Foster and Justin Thomas. This set up is pretty intense and you can't shake the feeling that you're getting mugged when the new guy jumps in on you. It went Justin jumps in on Dan, Me on Justin, then Dan on Me. And it pretty much went as the game dictates. I got a Bow and Arrow Choke on Justin, Justin hit Dan with a Kimura from top and Dan got me with a Triangle from guard. Other than those subs the pace was fairly frantic and all around a pretty good roll. Of particular note to me was that Justin's game has vastly improved (to tap Dan is a big achievement in itself) with him showing some great skill to complement his giants strength. I managed to hit a cool half guard sweep on Dan, although it resulted in me getting to confident in a pass attempt to get tapped out via the above mentioned Triangle from Guard. Dan has a pretty shit hot guard game that I really need to remember when I roll against him. Every time I forget that he ends up tapping me.



We've got some good stuff coming up soon. Leo Vieira's back at the end of October for a seminar and Chico's doing a seminar down in Weston. Cool stuff to look forward too. I also need to polish up my game for my next competitive outing at the Hereford Open in December.

Lot's of Bjj loveliness to look forward to. ¬m/