IT was great to get back to Ian's Thursday night class at Sweat FA, Weston Super Mare tonight after missing 2 weeks straight. Numbers were pretty good too and we had two enthusiastic newcomers who have done a bit of BJJ years ago and are looking to get back into it. Their names elude me but hopefully they'll return and feature on this blog at some point in the future.
We were also graced with the presence of Nathan Moore-Pointing, elite level Purple Belt who trains under Pedro Bessa, but also takes a class for SJJA down in Taunton on a Wednesday. Also good to see Nathan and get tied in knots during the sparring.
Venue: Sweat FA
Instructor: Ian Rossiter. (SJJA)
Warm Up: Laps of the mat, including arm windmills forward and back, ass kicks, knee ups, facing inward for a lap, facing out for a lap. Neck, Arm and Shoulder stretching. Push ups 10 x 4, Squats 10x 4, Crunches 10 x 3,a round of seated knee tucks X 5 per person and then some leg stretching.
Ian split the class up today as there were students of a significantly different level in attendance. The higher level guys started on wrist/sleeve control triangle from guard. You've got the opponent in your guard, you get a tight grip on his sleeves, open your guard and put one foot on the opponents opposite hip (left for right, right for left). Then with the strong sleeve grip, push the guys arm that's not on the side with the foot on hip into his stomach whilst pulling the other arm up towards you. Now fire your other leg up in the air then down across his shoulders (you may need a hip shift and rotation of the your body out to the side to accomplish this) and lock your other leg over the first to form a figure four around the guys head and forward arm.
Additional tactics to get this locked in and earning a tap are:
1/ When the leg is over the shoulder, secure it in place by pulling down on it with your same side arm until you feel comfortable that the leg will go over adequately.
2/ Ensure the arm of the opponent that is through the figure four gap has been pulled right across your body, raising your hips and the moving the arm can help with this.
3/ Pull down on the head when it's locked in to add extra constriction to the choke (I personally don't like this method as I'm a bit of a jiu jitsu snob and I feel that if the you have the technique correct you shouldn't need to pull down on the head).
I drilled all tonight's stuff with a returning Craig Webber, one of the old guys from Sjja's Burnham days.It was good to see him but man that dude's strong as an ox. With all that marine training he is far stringer that I am.
We moved on from there with a triangle escape demonstrated by Nathan. As the opponent is going for the triangle you have to lift your head up a bit so he can't get it lock properly and his leg forms into what Nathan calls a diamond. Also, ensure the arm that is through the triangle hole is braced against the opponents hips, using your other hand reached around the outside of his leg and pressing down on the through arm for additional strength on the brace. Making sure your head is back as far as it will go (even going as far as to roll eyes back to emphasize the upward head motion) and the hips are braced down, you can then come up onto your knees (the triangle will break here if the guys got little legs and you have big shoulders) and then further up to your feet. From here the hold should break easily and you can step over into whatever position the scramble will allow (usually side control).
The next technique was a variation of the last. From the point where the opponents got the diamond round you, just posture up and step over the guys body on with the leg on the same side as the through arm. Turning you body round as you guy the guy easily lets go of the hold and you can swing the other leg over to land in side control.
We carried on with this them with Nathan showing us another Triangle escape. This time you're in the diamond on you knees, you bring your leg on the opposite side to the through arm up and back so you're on one knee and one foot (slightly off to the side and rear of you). Then pivot your whole body away from the opponent, towards the rear leg and you effectively step out of the hold. This move looks like you are giving them the omoplata but we worked out that the likeliness of them realising they had before you'd stepped over into side control was virtually none.
We drilled these for a while and then Ian moved us on to some Butterfly guard stuff (excellent). He started us off with a quick drill to obtain a proper butterfly guard. When the opponent has got you flattened down on the floor with his arm to your side and his head on your chest (as if he's got a strong position and he's taking a breather) you push his head to one side using both your hands then push those hands down into his shoulder whilst simultaneously kicking out with your legs. The opponents flies backward and you can moved toward him in sitting up butterfly.
Ian moved us from there to the back take. The opponents instinctive thing to do from there is attempt to secure your legs (a hand grabbing each leg) so you can freely cross grip his lapel and step the leg on the same side as the lapel out (your legs are much stronger than his arms remember). You fire your other leg deep between his legs and yank on his lapel while turning on your side. The opponent has generally gone to turtle from here and all you need do is obtain some control. Suggested methods were; reaching over (but underhooking) and grabbing the lapel, reach over then securing the seat belt grip, and push your through leg in quite far and leaning your weight against his hips.
Me and Craig drilled this for a while, with Craig's testosterone levels starting to rage out of control always trying to compete for full back control or rear mount to the point where we were basically having a mini sparring sesh. I have to admit to getting sucked in to his little games a couple of times until I mentally berated myself for wasting good drilling time.
For the very last technique, Nathan chucked in a bit of disco with a really cool follow up move. When you've got the opponent in the turtle with the nearside hook in deep and strong hip control, you can then turn your body so you're facing away from the opponent (South to his North) reach down and grab his secure leg and roll forward. Your weight and momentum should take the opponent over with you. You can then reach over and grab the opponents arm and kick with your leg and the guy land neatly into your seated up back control. This move was amazing but extremely hard to explain from the point where the guy has flipped over with you. Basically it's a move that once you've seen you'll remember how to pull it off but the explaining of it is difficult. Felt really good when I nailed it though.
From here we had some rolling.
I got the big gun out the way first and went against Nathan. As per usually he did his sort of attacking butterfly guard start, which I'm pleased to say he didn't manage to sweep me with. He did manage to end up in a strong kesa gatame though and then went into a mount. He then got into the armbar position with me defending it for about a minute. Inevitably though, he managed to find a way to break my grip and sunk in the arm bar. Now, from that position usually I have found due to my flexibility and technique I have a better than 50% chance of escaping the hold but on this occasion I had no chance. Nathan's grips and clenched legs were so tight that I had absolutely no room to move and I was forced to tap. Reset and Nathan went straight back to the attacking butterfly but I managed to avoid it, we scrambled and tussled for a bit, then I was on my back in half guard. Nathan took my back from here but managed to turn round to present my front to him. Unfortunately he had me mounted though and went straight back for the arm bar. I did manage to scout this one and roll out of it though (see, 50%) , coming up in Nathan's guard. From there though he hit me in a tight triangle and while I was thinking of all the cool escapes I'd just learned I had no chance of pulling any of them out of the bag as Nathan had it locked in tight. A second tap. We rolled a bit more then time was called. I enjoyed that roll with Nathan more than when I get to steam roll guys because I learnt a lot more about the weak point of my game against a much better opponent. Thanks Nath.
I had a couple more rolls after that where I basically played from the bottom. Quite badly. Craig "The Blanket" Webber basically laid on me for 3 minutes while I fended off his weak submission attempts and Big Justin managed to get side control on me and threaten with a couple of chokes before I regained half guard. After a long half guard battle I managed to get a sweep off on his which was a small consolation but all in all my tonight's performance was pretty weak. Ah well. Some times you have off days.
After class the new guys were really excited and raving about how they loved it and wished the class had been longer (we'll see if they think that after a couple of days of aching). Hope they come back cause they seem like good guys.
\m/
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