Checkmat Bjj - 29-5-12

Tuesday night was a very hot, very muggy night out at La Gym, Bristol, to train under the returning Chico Mendes (2nd Grade Black Belt). It was great to train back under Chico again after his looooong trip away, first to Brazil, to see his family, then to the USA, to train with a whole host of people, including Dan Henderson (lucky bast).

It's good to have Chico back though as his level of training and instruction is just phenomenal, his attention to fine details is first class. In fact I think it would be safe to say that Chico's knowledge of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is close to encyclopaedic and to have access to that level of expertise is a real gift.

Venue: LA Gym, Bristol, Uk - Bristol Combat Legion
Instructor: Chico Mendes - Checkmat.

Warm up:
We started with laps of the mat with butt kicks and knee ups, facing in for a lap and facing out for a lap, then 3 steps facing in, 3 steps facing out for a lap, then mat touches for a few laps. We then did two lengths of the mat with hip escapes, one length of front rolls and one length of back rolls.


Techniques:

First thing we were started on was stand up techniques for grips and shooting. Chico ran us through a few tips for stand up including how best to grip the collar - using the elbow down into opponents chest technique so he can't duck under your arm and take your back - and to not let the opponent get the grips he wants.
We drilled the first few things in pairs before moving on. I was paired with Marcus.


Moving us on from there, Chico showed us his preferred Pulling guard technique. When you collar and elbow tie up together, your opponent has one arm extended, most likely gripping your collar. You are to be gripping that extended arm at the elbow. That is the side of your opponents body you should be concentrating on for your guard pull. You can use your foot on that side of you to push against his hip and then sit back and off side slightly. Your foot on his hip will stop him from passing on that side and basically helps to control his whole position in relation to you. Your other foot is off to the side  and can be hung out wide to stop any pass attempts or be ready to use for a sweep attempt or sub attempt. The triangle is a particularly good attack from this position.



Next up was the Shoot for Takedown into Pull guard. While you're collar and elbow tied, fire the guys arm up so you can shoot in for the takedown as usual. Whilst in the shoot position the guys sprawls, you need to bring your outer leg back in to either go between the opponents leg and bring him down in your half guard or hook the leg and bring the other inside too, to get the butterfly.


The next couple of techniques work if you've gone for the shoot takedown and the guy sprawls well to put you in the Turtle (Guard) position. The first of the two move had you put you head out of the turtle near his lower ribs and then base your leg out on that same side - leg needs to be braced at a right angle so the knee is underneath you arm, so the opponent can't collapse you in your turtle. You can now sit out under with your other leg and come out at the side, the arm that was braced by your outside leg can now be used to push the guys to the side so you can take his back. Beautiful technique this one.
The second one involves you putting your head at one side the same as before, but this time the basing leg goes out at the other side. You can now use your other leg to sit in to half guard, with a strong underhook in place. Now if you use the your outside leg to trap his secured leg and pull it out and away, it makes it easy for you to use the underhook to shunt the guy up so you can duck under and take his back. Another nice move.
I loved both of these techniques and will definitely be trying to push them in to my standard game. Brilliant.




Situational Rolling:

Next up was a bit of situational rolling. In pairs for 6 minutes. We did 2 minutes of stand up, the object being to takedown of successfully pull guard. 2 minutes of one guy in closed guard, then another two with the other guy in closed, object there for the top guy to pass, bottom guy to sweep. It was so friggin' hot though that I was running on fumes so I really don't remember much for a blow by blow account.
I paired off with Marcus first. Don't remember much about it.

Second was with the returning and recently renamed Jason Brooksbank. Why he wanted to move the S in his name I have no idea, :o))   (I'm such a dillon).
Think Jase got a decent takedown on me. Jase is quite a short guy but he's freakishly strong for his size and I was already gassed to fuck by this time so I was not having a good time in the stand up. I managed to pass his guard effectively though which was a bonus though. I can't remember if I swept him or not, or if he passed my guard or not. Good roll though. Always is with Jase.


At that point I flaked a bit and sat out a round as I was seriously over heating. The airflow in that gym is tragic at best and I needed to pound back a massive amount of water and stand next to the fan to cool off for a bit. I wasn't alone though as Mario Saeed kept me company next to the fan and we bantered about the recent UFC event (Dos Santos v Mir) a bit to kill the six minutes.


So it was only fair that me and Mario paired off after that. Unfortunately for me (or fortunately for Mario), Chico decided to make it 2 minutes stand up, 2 minutes guard, then another 2 minutes stand up. Now Mario regularly trains MMA so his wrestling is pretty shit hot. I didn't give it enough credit to begin with as he dummied me then shot in for a takedown that was so fast I didn't even get close to sprawling. I was flat on my back before I knew it. The rest of the round involved me either pulling guard or, on one occasion, letting him attempt the trip takedown and then over balancing him to land on top. For the guard play we had a damn good round with me sweeping Mario early, then him going all out trying to pass my guard and getting to side control, but he was unable to hold it for more than a second as I was able to break out and return to guard. From there Mario was trying to lean in on me so In Tomoe nage'd (monkey flipped) him over my head and landed in mount. I was particularly chuffed with this as it's the first time I can ever remember hitting this move in full strength sparring.


To finish up the session we had a free roll. I rolled against Marcus. He pulled guard first and I managed to pass to half guard top. From there I was able to gift wrap his arm across his face and use it to pull him up and take back. From there I struggled for quite some time before I was able to hit a Bow and Arrow on him. Next off I pulled guard. We struggled for a while in that position but I was eventually able to hit the very same Tomoe Nage on Marcus, flipping over and immediately hitting the arm bar. I think I hit another arm bar on him from somewhere else too but I can't for the life of me remember where. I'm fairly certain I faired so well because Marcus didn't sit out a round and was looking absolutely roasted.

That was the end of the session and to be honest I was a bit gutted. I would've loved to roll againat that point but alas, it was not meant to be. Great session though. Shame that's it for me now for about 9 days due to the stupid smelly bank holiday and the fact that I'm on call. Ah well. Let's me rest up and heal a bit. Can't get enough of this amazing art/sport though. ¬m/

Two Man Training. 21-22/5/12

I've had another amazing couple of training sessions at lunchtimes on Monday and Tuesday this week. My good buddy, Marcus (Hedley) and I have really beaten the shite out of each other for the sakes of sharpening up our skill sets at our favourite form of martial art. As we plan to be continuing on with, Monday was Gi day and Tuesday was No Gi.

Monday:

After my total planning failure last week in the technique department, relying on Marcus to do it all, this week I planned ahead fantastically. I decided to theme the session on Guard Passing as it's an area that can get quite rusty if not practised and drilled suitably (which is true of all aspects of the game really, I've just found passing to be the most rust gaining).

First off we started with basic methods to break closed guard. Getting the knee inside was first. On your knees with the opponent's closed guard tight around your waist. You get a double grip on his belt and push yourself back, sprawling your legs out behind to make the space in his closed guard for you to bring one leg forward and put the knee in. Now you can sit back down and the knee inside takes up to much space for the closed guard to be kept by all but the lankiest of guys.

Next guard break method was to stand. You're kneeling in his closed guard. Grab one of his arms at the sleeve cuff and force it down to his waist. The other hand grabs his belt or his gi at the waist. You can then push down on this hold to lift your hind quarters up enough to jump your legs back to a standing position.. From there it's just a simple matter of using one of your hands (either will do) to push down on one of his legs at the knee to break the closed guard. Usually very easy but if your opponent has Herculean leg strength you can push down with both hands on the same knee. This will work every time.

Another one using the standing position. On knees in closed guard. Put both your hands on the opponents hips and use the same motion as before to get to your feet (legs going back stops the guy from securing one of your legs). This time, reach back with a hand and force it between the opponents crossed feet and your back and push your arm deep in then forward (leaning your weight against his leg whilst doing this) to easily break open the guard and start into the smash pass.

The last guard break we hit was a new one on me. On knees in closed guard. Stand using one of the methods from before, and press both of your knees into the opponent's butt, then squat. The pressure of the knees in his rear whilst you squat to make space, should open his guard quite easily.

We drilled all those pretty quickly, both acknowledging that it's pretty rare to find yourself in closed guard these days.


The first pass we did was the Single Stack Pass. You're kneeling in his open guard. Reach behind one of his legs and up and across to his opposite side collar (as if for a smash pass). It can help to distract the opponent if you grab quite deep and press the forearm against his neck. Now push your weight forward against his raised leg and reach back with your other hand to grab his belt or gi pants near the small of his back and pull up so as to stack him up. Now you can push even further against his raised leg, turning his legs to the side (away from the passing side) and then duck your head around his leg and come over into side control.

We also did a pretty cool alternative to that one where the guy resists against the full stack or manages to keep moving away from your passing side (or you could even go for this cause it looks cooler). Same set up but when you reach down for the belt and pull him up, put a bit of welly into it and flip the guy over to turtle. In the scramble you can easily take his back or at least get a rear mounted half hook and seat belt control. I loved this move and will definitely be trying to add it to my Adrenalin Brain repertoire. A great way to skip a few steps in your guard passing game.


Next pass was a Double Stack. In open guard and you get both of your arms under his legs (so only your head is inside). You then stack the guy up using your body weight so his legs are crushed toward him and smash pass as usual. Remember to crush the forearm into the neck as a distraction whilst doing this.

From the same sort of set up comes the Over Under Pass from Double Underhooks. You've got the both arms under the opponent's legs. Bring one of your legs up and out and then press the shin of that leg against his same side shin to trap his leg in that position. Now bring your arm underhook on that side, out and overhook the leg. Now crescent kick your other leg up and over the top to land on your back, quickly scissor switching your legs then, to get to side control. This pass sounds more complex than it is and once you've go it, it's quite a handy little number to know.

Another little variant from the double underhook set up is the sit out pass. You've got the double underhook position and you push both the opponents legs in one direction (left or right) then, using your leg on the side you've pushed the legs toward, sit out in the other direction effectively ducking under the legs and shrug the legs away so you can pop up into side control. I absolutely loved the simplicity of this pass. Another for the insta-memory.


The next up was a nice flashy looking pass. In open guard, both your knees are inside forcing his legs apart. Have one hand grabbing his gi front at the waist, the other hand grabs his gi pants at the knee. Then, duck your head down toward his midriff and off to one side (the side with the gi front grip). Now roll onto your shoulder (right on his belly) firing your legs up in the air and over the top of the leg that you have held down with the gi pant grip, taking you over into side control. Ace pass. Looks cool. I will be hitting this a lot in the future.


The last few passes were for against ButterFly Guard. First up was a kick out pass. In the guys butterfly guard and you've managed to push his back to the ground. Holding his gi pants at both knees you kick one of your legs far back and then bring it in close to the other leg so it's passed around it's respective hook. You should now be in butterfly half guard with the hook clenched between your leg and your arm on the off side restrain the passed leg away. Now pushing away against the remaining hook while you kick out and over with the same leg as before you should be able to neatly pass into side control. Now I know exactly what I was talking about there but reading it back makes it sound quite complicated. Basically, you're doing a kick out to pass one leg, then the same again to pass the second. It's a reliable move and I was able to use it later in rolling against Marcus.

There was another Butterfly Guard pass after which was essentially the same flip pass as before, applied to the Butterfly. Hands gripping his knees. Lay in close and put your head against his lower ribs on one side, then roll your shoulder into his gut and kick your legs in the air and flip over his hook on the other side. Got to kick up really high though so he can't stick his legs in the air to follow you and maintain guard.


Last one was a real gem. The Cradle Pass of Butterfly Guard. The opponent is in a sit up butterfly guard position. You grab his head in a near guillotine style, cupping his chin. With your other arm you grab under his leg on the other side. Now you can roll him over in a cradle style, turning over onto on to your back in the process. A quick rotation of your hips and using your arm (the under leg cradle arm) to push his legs away you can come up neatly into North South. Lovely move.


After all that we found there wasn't a lot of time for rolling. we only managed to get about 10 - 15 minutes in but it was pretty intense and I found myself trying out a lot of the stuff I'd been drilling that day. A good packed session.


Tuesday:

Moving back to No-Gi for Tuesday, we decided to do some takedowns into leg locks. For this I'd basically watched a shit load of YouTube footage and copy and pasted some links to an email sent to my Iphone so I could re-watch them as we need them. Technology these days is friggin' amazing isn't it? If you told me 15 years ago when I was waiting about 5 minutes for one web page to load to my desktop PC (which incidently took up about a fifth of my bedroom space), that one day I'd be able to load video clips to a mobile hand held device in a matter of seconds, I'd probably think you were mad.

Anyway, I started this session straight into the marquee move as I'd been dying to try this one for ages. The Leg Scissor Takedown into Heel Hook is a move made famous by (not created by, but hit in such a dramatic fashion) MMA fighter Ryo Chonan against "The Spider" Anderson Silva, earlier in his career. The move is the leg lock equivalent of a flying arm bar and can turn the tide of a fight to victory in a heartbeat.

Now this was the ultimate aim of our training of this move, obviously without torquing the Heel Hook (never a good idea in training as it's a dangerous move), but the vid I used to help train this from was this next one demonstrated by AJ of Fade MMA. He shows the takedown and detail and then finishes with a different leg lock. We explored all the takedown moves to see which subs came naturally from them. In this vid, AJ shows that you grab the opponent around the back of the head with one hand and then twist around and back step behind your opponent before putting your other hand on the ground and using what was your front leg to scissor takedown the guy. Once he hits the ground it's easy to hit either a Heel Hook, Knee Bar or Toe Hold.

I feared after the sheer awesomeness of that move that I might have peaked to early but there was more to come. The next one we tackled was advertised as a "Palhares style takedown to Heel Hook". Now that title alone says enough for me as Rousimar "Paul Harris" Palhares is the king of the Heel Hook in MMA and one of my favourite fighters. After the way he decimated his opposition at the ADCC (only losing to eventual winner in his weight class, Andre Galvao on points) I have become a bit of a fan. This next vid is a demo by Ken Primola. From a standing back take, you throw one of your legs through his legs and swing it up and over his near side leg as you fall out to the side one your back. This action takes the opponent down into a fantastic position to hit a Heel Hook, but can also set up a nice Toe Hold.

The next video is so fast that you really need to watch in a few times to see what happens. The move is effective though. It works under the premise that you're on your back being attacked by a standing opponent. What you do is attack one leg by wrapping an outside leg around it quite low, then using the knee of your other leg to push against that secured leg to take him down. As he's going down though, the leg you used to push him has hooked behind his other leg and pulls it out so you can roll over coming up with the knee. As I said, it really needs a few watches to get it. Great move though.

The next load of leg locks all came from one vid and were all from one set up. This next vid from Erik Paulson starts from a failed arm bar attempt (from guard) against you. Follow the vid closely to try out each of these locks. I really can't be bothered to type all this out but needless to say, when trying these techniques it's amazing how easy they come on. Me and Marcus both were truly amazed by the simplicity and painfulness of these locks.

The last move we tried out did not feature a takedown but I included it anyway as it looks pretty cool. I saw this in vid of a No Gi grappling match between Vinny Magalhaes and Daniel Gracie. Vinny manages to get Gracie turtled on the floor with one hook in. He crosses his other leg over that hook so he's got a sort of Rear Mount Half Guard control on him. He then reaches across and secures the other leg and rolls over (rolling forward) see he ends on his back and pulls his legs in opposite directions for the "Banana Split". And yes, it's as painful as it sounds when hit tight. Great move though. The move is on the last minute of this following vid.

We followed all these techniques up with a healthier dose of rolling this time and I was quite pleased to see how naturally the leg locks come on. Great days training there, I look forward to the next No Gi sesh as it's really starting to expand my game.

Looking forward to Thursday now for the Ian's DV8 class in Weston. \m/

Two Man Training 30th April and 1 May.

In between dealing with Highways Issues caused by the horrendous weather we're having here in the South West of England, I have managed to get a little bit of lunchtime Jiu Jitsu in with my good buddy, Marcus, down at Sweat FA Weston Super Mare over the last two days.

This week we came more prepared for our Monday session and after a vigorous warm up we went into some pre-thought out techniques.

We started off by doing a few sweeps from different types of guard. The first one was from an open guard against an opponent who has stood up with your legs riding up high on him (as if he stood in closed guard, then broke the legs apart). You secure one of his legs by underhooking it with your same side arm, then you roll backward to come up on your feet with his leg in your hand. I've kind of simplified the description, but to be honest, it is remarkably simple to pull off as long as you're agile enough to get the backward roll at a decent speed. For such a simple move it looks really disco too.


The next sweep we hit was from Spider Guard. From the standard Spider Guard position (both cuffs secured, both feet at elbow crooks), drop one of your feet from it's position and press it on the opponents opposite side hip so the top of your foot is against or just above his hip bone. Use this to swivel away from the opponent so your body is perpendicular to him. Then you simultaneously release the cuff of the arm that you've just removed the foot from and reach down and grab the near side leg (by gi or underhook), whilst pulling the still secured cuff with that hand and pushing away with the leg that's still securing that arm to stretch the opponents body out a bit. To finish the sweep you just need to pull/push down with the arm and leg on his secured arm while guiding/assisting his body over with your other leg and your other arm. The opponent flips neatly over on to his back and you come up in a position that lends itself to a knee on belly opportunity.


We then worked on a  De La Riva sweep as shown in a video on YouTube by the man himself, Ricardo De La Riva. You need to have the De La Riva hook push far through to hook around the outside of the opponents far side hip. You then secure the gi at the knee with your hook side hand whilst gripping the near side collar lapel with your other hand. From there you just pull hard toward you with both hands while kicking out with your hook. Your opponent is deposited on his back with you just having to pop up into a top position. This is one of those scramble for advantage sweeps where if your quick you can jump to mount or side control, if the opponent is quick you could end up in just going into his guard.


Moving away from guard work for the next technique we drilled a Monoplata from Mount. Quite similar to a Marcelo Garcia sub we were drilling last week, you start off by forcing your way inside the opponents arms and crouching in close so he ends up in a position where he's hugging you. You then bring a leg up and trap the arm on that side deep behind you. Use the raised leg to push into the opponent so he raises up on his side facing away from you pushing his face down away from you, then whilst falling backward, move your raised leg up to press the top of the foot against his head (need to ensure everything is held in tight or the whole move falls apart). To finish the hold you press the trapping leg in against the shoulder, pushing down to increase the pressure and get the tap. It took us quite a while to get this move to work, more often it was feeling like an arm bar, until we worked out foot positioning and stuff. Nice move, doubt I'll ever hit it.


We moved on to polishing up on Gogoplata's. Starting from a failed omoplata attempt due to the opponent posturing up so you can't push him down to the floor, you thread the leg that's over his shoulder, under his chin and reach over the top of his head for the toes with the near side arm to clamp his head inside your leg and arm combination. To finish the hold you use your other hand to push against your heel and pull the foot toward you with your hand whilst pressing down with that arm to choke him for the tap. Me and Marcus absolutely loved this move and I hope that I can pull it off one day in sparring.
We also did a variation where, instead of reaching over the top of the head with your hand, you lean back and bring your other leg up and over the top of the head to press down putting an immense amount of pressure on. Another excellent move. Can't wait to try it Thursday.


That was as many of the techniques from Monday as I can remember. Marcus'll probably tell me what I forgot if he bothers to read this but we had a very healthy dose of sparring directly after and it kind of blew the mind out a bit.


As for Tuesday, we decided to do a bit of No-Gi work as it's a part of our game that's severely lacking. In fact I have only had 2 No-Gi lessons in my entire time training and they were both at seminars. So to say I need to work on my No-Gi may be a massive understatement but it is something I need to work on if I want to be a more complete Bjj disciple. At the end of the day if I was attacked at a bus stop by some nut case, I don't think he's going to be nice enough as to put on a Gi jacket first so I need to get experience sans uniform.


We started out with some takedowns including the double leg takedown, the single leg takedown and two other single leg takedowns with trips.  We then worked on sprawling against the double leg, then against the single leg and then we did the single leg sprawl to super disco front roll to omoplata (a personal favourite of mine :o).

After that we were working on arm switching, where you're in the position for the arm bar but the opponent's got it blocked well by holding with his other arm. From there you maintain the hold on his arm with your head side arm (the arm closer to his head) and lean forward pushing your weight down on him, focus additional weight by straight arming with your other arm and pushing it against his far shoulder. Then, very quickly, swivel your body around so you turn toward away from his legs and carry on around to face the direction opposite that which you started in and secure the arm on that side with your arm that was previously pressing on his shoulder. Fall back as usual and extend hips to finish.

Another way of countering the arm bar block was to thread your leg side leg (your leg that is nearer his legs) through between his arms and up over his shoulder so it's near his head. Then reach under his head with your head-side arm to grab your leg the other side of his head. It's possible to finish the move from there by pulling on the leg, for a leg and arm triangle but the preferred (and tighter) way of finishing the sub is to use your hand to pull the leg around and wrap your other leg around the first to finish the triangle. Brilliant.


Once again, we ended the session with a healthy amount of rolling. I have to admit that the No-Gi rolling is a lot faster paced and controlling your opponent's position from top control is really hard. Especially against Marcus who is one slippery git to pin down. We've both agreed though, that we'll try and fit a No-Gi session in regularly. I let the gym buzzing and dying for more action. I can't wait until Ian's class Thursday \m/

Sjja 15-3-12

It was my first class in Weston for a few weeks as I was attending the Bristol class for the last three weeks waiting to see if Marcus got graded. So the class down at Sweat FA, Weston, this week was a bit of a surprise. I didn't realise Ian was going to be giving out some stripes to his white belts in the class, which was a very nice touch for some of the guys who've been coming for quite a while as it's always nice to have a bit of a progression indicator. The numbers for this weeks class were really good too with lots of old faces and regulars and a new guy (Ed; seems like a nice bloke) in attendance.

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


Warm up:

Laps of the mat, including, ass kicks, knee ups, facing inward for 2 laps, facing out for 2 lap and arm windmilling for a couple of laps. Neck, Arm and Shoulder stretching. Push ups 10 x 4, Squats 10x 4, Crunches 10 x 3. Then a round of the seated leg extension crunches and then some leg stretching.


Techniques:

Ian's first technique of the night was a takedown. He started off by drilling us on the set up which has you standing face to face with your opponent. He goes to grab you by the lapel and you block and circle your arm over the top of his and grab the guys belt at the back. At this point you're in a kind of clinch, with you having the dominant positional advantage. After we'd drilled the set up for a bit Ian showed us the finish to the manoeuvre. You simply lift your leg on the other side of your body from the encircled arm up to the opponents inside leg and hook your foot. You then just sit down and use the hooked leg and overhook belt grip to pull your opponent over and to the side with you rolling over after him to land in a top control position (mount, side control or half guard top depending on how the scramble goes).
I drilled this and all the other techniques with Marcus (Hedley) and his spiffy new Koral blue belt. We both found this move quite fun and a little bit flashy. It was pointed out at one point that we (and everyone else it seemed) was doing the technique a little bit wrong where we were throwing straight back over the shoulders instead of off to one side. Ian corrected us all on this and the rest seemed simple.

The next technique was another takedown, this time from a standing grip battle scenario. You and your opponent have a grip on each others gi at the sleeves. From there you fiercely pull one of your arms away so the guy loses the grip he had on that arm, then quickly bring that arm back in and over his shoulder and around the back of his head/shoulders. Then, turning your ass in towards hips, you pull on the arm that you maintained grip on while twisting your body and using the arm around the head to throw his over your hips onto his back. Due to the rock hard nature of the mats at Sweat FA we weren't smashing the hell out of this move, instead we were taking the guy down quite gently and focusing on control, coming down on one knee beside the guy and immediately dropping your ass onto the mat in kesa gatame side control to avoid the guy being able to use the momentum to roll you over the top.


As a natural progression from that Ian added a finish from that position, using the standard head and arm triangle set up. From the kesa gatame set up, push the guys nearside arm across his face and pass your head to the outside of it to secure it in place. Then place the hand of the arm wrapped around the guys neck into the crook of your other arm to lock the triangle up. From there you need to scissor switch your legs over so your body is facing toward the ground to pile on the pressure.


The next move Ian gave us was from a closed guard set up. The opponent's in your closed guard, has both hands gripped on your gi front. Using both of your hands on one of his sleeve cuffs, yank that arm off your gi and up over your head so the guys body is drawn out long, use your legs while you yank to pull up to add to the momentum of the yank. Then, whilst keeping that arm up there with one hand (the one on the other side of the body to the side the arms pulled up), use the other arm to encircle over the top of the guys arm and then back around underneath to take a grip on the guys lapel. This secures the opponent in quite a tight controlling hold with lots of options. The one Ian demonstrated was the standard shoudler grip cross choke where you use your free hand to take a grip of the opponents gi at the shoulder, then sort of scissor your arm toward the guys neck to apply pressure. This is quite a strong and reliable choke when his right.
Me and Marcus also drilled some Rickson Armbars (as demonstrated in the Saulo Ribiero Jiu Jitsu University book) and some omoplatas, moves that are all pretty easy to hit from that controlling position.

The last technique of the day shown to us was from Nathan Moore-Pointing(as Ian had gone over to the White Belts to put them through their paces for their stripes). From the closed guard again and using the same two arms yanks on one sleeve approach but this time when the arm was extended above the head Nathan passed his nearside arm under then over (all the while maintaining the sleeve grip with the other hand) so your arm is passed over the top then back in to grip the opponents gi at the lapel or far shoulder. At this point the guy is pressed/pulled face down to the floor. From here you edge your hips out to the side and release the sleeve grip you previously had to change to a grip on the opponents gi pants, using this to pull the guy in to you thus gaining his back (easy to get hooks in from here). Also, your arm is already in position for a Rear Naked Choke but for some reason the opponents neck seems left extra specially exposed and it doesn't even take much pressure to slap the choke on. Cool move. It's worth mentioning that the back take all occurs with both guys lying on the mat on theirs sides. Resist the temptation to pull the guy over so you're both sat up as the choke is sitting there waiting and is more effective from the position you are in to begin with.


Rolling:
The sparring for the night was against the guys who were getting striped. I rolled against Big Justin, Rich 2.0 and Large Steve (would've been big but I'd already used it).

Against Justin after a bit of a tussle I pulled guard and tried various different ways to sub him from closed. It's a testament to how far Justin's come along that I didn't get an arm bar on him as he always used to fall for that. Justin's freekishly strong too so he's hard to control at the sleeves.

Against Rich, he pulled guard. After a couple of failed pass attempts and a failed sweep attempt from him I managed to finally pass guard to side control and then passed to s-mount (Rich is partial to shrimping as you pass the leg over so it's hard to get the full mount on him). Fortunately with a grip on his collar I was able to swing over and pull him up to take the back. The rest of the roll was me attacking his back with RNC, collar choke and bow and arrow attempts with Rich clamping his chin down and defending quite admirably.

Against Steve I pulled guard then attempted an arm bar, which I though t I had. Ian was standing nearby and said something which I thought was and indication that Steve had tapped. When I released though Steve carried on and later told me he hadn't tapped. From there, I went into an omoplata attempt and then gained mount and attacked with a couple of arm bar attempts. Steve used the standard double grip both times to stop the hold, one time I tried to turn it into a triangle but had to abort to keep top position. Roll ended with Steve defending a last arm bar attempt.


At the end of the class Ian awarded stripes to some of the guys with Big Justin getting one stripe, Large Steve and Neil (the Turtle King) getting two stripes each and Rich 2.0 Presley getting three stripes. Well done guys.

Good class all round. Gotta love this art. \m/

SJJA 24-11-11

Totally contravening what I said on Tuesday night, I was actually able to go to Bjj on Thursday. Cool Beans (it's a saying my missus keeps coming out with and it's starting to get in my head). This was mostly due to my previous family commitment not being needed any more and my wife being absolutely amazing and just coming out and suggesting I go to Jiu Jitsu instead (bless 'er). On top of that we had a good turn out tonight with a guest appearance from Nathan "Matrix" Moore Pointing who is trying to get in as much training as possible for Sundays English Open so all the best of luck to him on that.

Venue: Sweat FA

Instructor: Ian Rossiter.  (SJJA)

Warm up: Laps of the mat, including ass kicks, knee ups, facing inward for a lap, facing out for a lap. Neck, Arm and Shoulder stretching. Push ups 10 x 3, Squats 10 x 3, Crunches 10 x 3, then a shitload of seated knee tucks and then some leg stretching.

Techniques:

Takedowns:

Started off tonight by re-drilling the takedowns from 27th-Oct Class, the walking forward tipping your opponent to the ground; the same again but with a sweep; then the arm bump to double leg and this time we added the single leg variation where you bump the guys arms up then shoot in for a single, figure four your arms high around his leg (like RNCing) and stand up raising the opponents leg. You then just turn and corkscrew the guy to his back. I was drilling with Marcus for most of these which was cool as Marcus is a good drilling partner who puts in the right amount of effort, never gives anything away too easily and always picks you up on something if you're getting it slightly wrong. At one point though (on the sweeps) we were swapped and I was with Big Steve. Big Steve is, as the name suggests, quite big. And when he sweeps you and lands on you it's not the most pleasurable of experiences. Regardless of that though it's always good to try your stuff out on people who are quite a bit larger that you as you will always find someone who is bigger than you and if you've never experienced what it's like to grapple against someone like that you'll just be crushed and laid on when you eventually do. Not a pleasant experience at all.

Guard passing:

Ian swiftly moved us on to some guard passing, starting with the basic pass from kneeling in a closed guard. In closed guard, secure guys arm to the front of him and put weight down on his hips using the other arm ( a combination of grabbing his gi and driving down with your elbow). Then, drive the same side knee as the hand that is gripping his gi, into his ass. Now put the other leg out and behind you slightly with the foot flat on the floor and shift your weight backwards so your hips move back to your rear leg. This action should drive your knee into him (not literally you sick people) while the rest of your bodyweight rips open his guard. You then, using the hand that was holding his arm down, reach back behind the leg on that side and scoop the leg up, then reach up to his opposite shoulder and push your weight down on the leg and slide across making sure to clear your head. Then just bump his leg down so you land in side control. Me and Marcus drilled this a few times.

The next technique was just a variation on the last. If, as you're sliding past his leg, the guy on the floor posts his arm out into your side to stop you from completing the pass, all you have to do is bring your nearside knee in and up toward you then tuck it inside his posted arm and turn the leg to push it back out again. This easily upsets the post and all you have to do is fall neatly into side control. I drill this with another big lad called Justin. If I was being honest I found it hard to close my guard on Justin anyway so I do not think I would be using a closed guard on a guys his side. He could break the guard just by inhaling so I don't think that's the way to go.

Ian then moved us on to another pass. On this one you are kneeling and had broken the guard and managed to get both arms around the back of the guys legs so his knees are near your face. Then, pulling the guys hips into you so his back is riding up your legs, simply push one of his legs down on the floor and then continue as if for the other pass, forcing his leg up and smashing passed in to side control. A nice user friendly little pass that I shall definitely remember for future. I drilled this with Nathan and Gary, both purple belts which was fun as they both give you a few tips to help improve your moves.

The last move of the night Ian showed us was without a doubt my favourite. Ian showed the technique as if the opponent was about to try for the previously shown arms behind legs pass. While the guys got your hips up and pulled in, you slot an arm under his armpit on the facing side (left to right, right to left) and reach over the top with your other arm and grab your hands together. You can then pull on the tucked under arm which forces the opponents arm to pop out from under your leg and leaves you in the most delightful position to fire your leg up around his neck for the triangle. I practised this sub with my brace of purple belts and they started to vary it going into straight arm locks and arm bars too. Nice stuff. A favourite was when you popped the arm out it naturally lands laying flat on you. If you literally just hug his arm at the elbow and move as if you're performing a crunch it earns you a nice cheeky tap. Amazing move. Triangle and straight arm lock. Cool beans (argh).

Rolling:

We rolled using the 3 guys, two in one out system. Unfortunately I was with the Purples at the end of drill time and got landed with sparring with them. I say unfortunately but I love the challenge really. Admittedly with Nathan in pre Tournament mode he really wasn't giving much away and he managed to pull off some fantastic escapes. His turtle has always been a thing of beauty, just when you think your got him and can work his back he pulls off some wizardry and you end up in guard. I managed to sweep him once and pass his guard once (maybe twice, unsure about the second) and even nearly accomplished a sweep from half guard on him which is amazing given how badly my half guard game sucks. Still, I managed to come out of it recovering guard which if is worth it. All in all I was only tapped once, by Nathan via triangle which he'd turned over and ended up on top with, so I walked away feeling pretty good about the whole affair. It's always good surviving higher belts and even though I didn't get to fire off any sub attempts myself I survived most of it which is important. Especially as on one of change overs, Gary jumped straight on my back into bow and arrow and I managed to escape it. That deserves a back pat in itself considering how much Gary loves that sub :o)

Anyway, it was a great surprise Jiu Jitsu sesh tonight and I can't wait for next week.
Til next time \m/