The journey up was pretty good, though I didn't drive so it took a lot longer than it usually would have. Dan 'Grizzly' Adams did the honours on the driving taking me, Ian and Dwaine up. Dan and Dwaine are from the Taunton/Wellington classes so it was good to catch up with them and the discussion mostly settled around club news and the UFC 142 that had taken place the night before (awesome head kick by Edson Barbosa).
When we got there we had a bit of a chat and inter mingle with the guys from the other clubs whilst getting changed and waiting for everyone to turn up. I got changed into my No Gi get up which was a nice rash guard I was given by BJJHQ.com, that I'm sure fit me before Christmas, and some fight shorts I'd "borrowed" from Sweat FA a while back and still haven't got round to giving back. Then we were lined up and Chico introduced us to Valmyr Neto, a Checkmat Black Belt instructor from the Kent area. From there we had a short warm up, more of a limber up really and then we were straight into the techniques of my first No Gi lesson.
I was quite surprised that the lead on the techniques this time was taken by Neto as I thought it was going to be a Chico Seminar, but I found Valmyr's instruction to be first class and he had no problems communicating what the technique was as his command over the English language was brilliant.
Half guard to knee bar or heel hook
First Technique was from the Half Guard. You got the opponent in your half guard and you're on your side, hips out to one side. Bring the outside knee up to your opponents shoulder and grip the back of his head with the same side hand (use the cup grip not a claw grip) a keep the arm of that hand inside your knee to ensure the opponent doesn't pass your guard (which becomes easy if you don't keep the arm inside). Then, pass your free arm underneath his free leg at the knee pit and pull his leg up toward your head (be sure to use the crook of your arm or your forearm for maximum strength and be sure to pull at the back of the knee for minimal resistance) then pull the guy over the top of you, balancing his weight so he almost floats over. As he's passed over the top he'll instinctively post his arms out to balance himself and avoid the full sweep. At this point you can pull what was your outside leg out from underneath him and simultaneously drop your arm (the one that was on his free leg) further down his leg so your legs have room to encase his.You can then turn your body so it's positioned inside his legs and thrust out with your hips for the knee bar. A very tasty move which in normal circumstances I would not use as I've don't hit the leg locks (I a bit of a purest Bjj-er) but I was happy to train this as a change is definitely as good as a rest.
The second part of the first technique was done in exactly the same way up until the guy has floated over you and you've gone down to the leg. In the second part the opponent passes the knee over and puts it on the ground too so the knee bar becomes unattainable. In this instance you turn on the leg your holding so you can put the foot into your arm pit, wrap your arm around the heel while you gable grip your hands together so your forearm is able to pull on the heel for the Heel Hook. *It's worth mentioning at this point that the Heel Hook is an exceptionally painful submission technique which is generally not drilled in most gyms. The utmost care is to be taken with this move as to much pressure applied to it could seriously injure your opponent, causing severe ligament damage and putting them on crutches for up to 6 months. This technique is not to be taken lightly. If you have a fear that your drilling partner may be a bit of a meat head who likes to go for it and slap subs on hard, I would sincerely suggest you don't bother drilling this move with them*.
Fortunately, I drilled this technique and all the others for the No Gi part of the class with a guy called Ben who is one of Neto's pupils from Kent. Ben was a really nice guy who was not prone to bouts of spazzing or big headed-ness and was really easy to roll with and explore moves with. We both found the knee bar fairly easily but Ben struggled at first finding the correct positioning for the Heel Hook. Neto is very active while you are drilling, trying to visit with each pair once for each technique to ensure they have the manoeuvre correctly down to pat. For us, he gave us some pointers on leg positioning for the Heel Hook, telling us to ensure you wrap your top leg over his to ensure the best control for the move.
Half guard sweep to mount
For the second technique Neto started with opponent in Half Guard once again. This time he had the guys near side arm wrapped up with his arm in a near whizzer, and put his free hand on the bicep on the guys the free arm. Then he escaped his hips out to the side with the arm whizzer'd, vined the leg he had going between the opponents legs around the nearside leg to reduce mobility and then pulled his outside leg out and tucked it inside in the form of a butterfly style hook on the opponents nearside thigh. From there he bridged the guys weight up while taking the guys base arm away by underhooking it with his arm (the one that had secured that bicep) and pulling up toward his head. With the guy turning over you can just hang on him and use his momentum to pull you over on to him into a tidy mount position. Net emphasized the control with this mount, squeezing the legs tight quite high on his chest, maintaining the whizzer and basing yourself out over his head using your free arm on one side and your head at the other.
Me and Ben both had problems with this one at first, solidifying in my mind at that early point in the seminar that Half Guard definitely isn't my strong point. It took many attempts and a visit from Neto to get it right.
Half guard to split sweep into side control
The next technique was another sweep from the half guard, this time using an at times painful splits method for the sweep. The move starts in nearly the same position but this time the opponent has based himself out by going up on both legs. On this one Neto hooks his arm underneath the freeside leg, pulls it up to his shoulder putting his opponent in an, as mentioned, quite painful splits and then just has to roll over pulling the arm (the whizzer'd one) underneath him, turning the guy onto his back. Neto made a point of ensuring we all knew to pull the vined leg out while the guy was going over to avoid the move be just a trading of half guard positions. With the leg out you are neatly in side control.
I found this technique a fair bit easier than the last and had it down to pat quite early. Ben said he was having problems with the move but seemed to land it well each time so I didn't see anything wrong.
The next move was just a variation on the above with but for if the guys stands up on just one foot (the outside one). This basically makes the sweep even easier with the opponent going over as if they weigh nothing. A nice technique.
From here Neto had us rolling for a short while but not proper start on your knees rolling, this was start in halg guard. Guy on top has to pass or submit, guy on bottom has to sweep or submit. Here was where I had problems. For starters this was my first lesson so I really found it difficult as I was like "hey, where the fuck's my grips?". I had an alright roll with Ben, who passed my guard first, but then I was able to get a sweep on him. Then I was on top and I managed a couple of passes. That was where my good luck ended as my next opponent was Paul Severn. Now I think Paul is worth a hell of a lot more than the Blue Belt around his waist when he's wearing a Gi and he really proved it to me here, passing my guard a couple of times when he was on top and sweeping me twice when he was on the bottom (taking my back one of those times). Paul has a competition coming up soon at Hereford and I truly would stick at tenner on him coming away with gold if there was a bookmaker that took bets on Bjj comps.
We had a few more of these situational rolls with fairly mixed results. A guy called Paul from Kent (who I, in error, assumed was a White Belt) issued me another toasting (I later found out he was a Purple Belt and one of Ben's instructors) and Dwaine from our club who I managed a couple of passes and a sweep against although he pass me quite neatly at one point too.
What I learned from this was that my Half Guard is fairly shit and that I haven't trained it nearly enough so the mantra I am adopting as a result of this seminar is;
I MUST GET BETTER AT HALF GUARD!!
I may as well include passing half guard in on it too as I wasn't setting the world alight from the top either. I did enjoy my first No Gi class though, although I was surprised by just how painful frappling without the protection of the gi is. I will do it again though and I think I can safely say that everyone in attendance enjoyed themselves and Valmyr Neto's teaching.
I'll type up part 2, the Gi seminar, probably tomorrow or Wednesday.
\m/
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