The other guys to be graded were Josh Kersey, Shabba Vaithianathan (yes I did just copy and paste that from Facebook), Richard Long and Mario Saeed. Well done to you all guys. You all looked suitably chuffed and I imagine you've spent the best part of today trying to find out where you can get a new blue belt from and how long it'll take to get to you.
Going in to last nights class I was (and still am) carrying a bit of a brutal injury. My legs, yes both of them, are absolutely killing me. Once again. I spent Monday afternoon in the gym with my buddy Steve and we did a "bit of a leg workout". Or 'Big Legs Monday' as Steve's trying to call it although I'm fairly insistent that it's not going to become a weekly thing. Going through a pretty intense workout of Leg Presses, Squats and Weighted Lunges, I could actually barely walk after the session so I knew the next couple of days were gonna be painful. By yesterday morning I was struggling to walk up and down stairs. By last night I was in tatters. Muppet.
Still, I knew there was a grading on and I had a feeling it might be Marcus' night and I wanted to be there to see it so I struggled on (like a soldier ;op) through the training and rolling.
Venue - LA Gym, Bristol, UK
Instructor - Chico Mendes.
With all these grading shenanigans going on I almost forgot how good it was to have Chico back teaching us. Since his fight training and his post fight relaxing it seems like ages since I'd actually been taught by Chico. It certainly was brilliant to have Chico back.
Warm Up.
The guys started with laps of the class (I was kind of getting dressed really slow for this bit) with laps doing various different steps. Then we did some sit ups, some cross choke sit ups, some hip escapes and that was about it. I was pretty happy about that as I wasn't quite ready for standing squats or star jumps. Sometimes a quick warm up is good.
For the techniques Chico ran us through some methods of breaking closed guard. For the first one you're in closed guard with a grip on both of the opponents lapel (both hand gripping both lapels-as if holding them together). Then bring one leg up outside of the opponents leg and bring the knee in toward your elbow to put pressure on the guys trapped leg. Now with the other leg you move the leg straight backward and then use it to stand up (it looks like you're doing a lunge) and then use your body to pull backwards breaking the closed guard grip.
For the next technique, you're in the opponents closed guard, you push up under the armpits to keep the guys arms away from you. Then you jump up to your feet in one motion (you release the under armpit grip at this point) and stack the guy using hip pressure. Now with both arms you can attack one leg, pushing down to break the closed guard (quite easily too).
Me and Marcus drilled these techniques. Both felt relatively easy and were pretty similar to the stuff Rafael had been teach the last couple of weeks.
For the next closed guard break method Chico showed his preferred way of securing the opponents arm. In closed guard, you've got a single hand grip on both lapels. With the other hand you grab the cuff of the opponents sleeve on the same side. Grabbing a handful of the sleeve without any fingers or thumbs in is preferable so the material is gripped in your clenched fist (wankers grip). Now pull the opponents arm down and push it into his abdomen, at the same time moving the knee on that same side up and then pressuring inwards so the knee in closing with your elbow for maximum control. From there you force the secured arm over his body toward the ground while your lower body is pushing the guy almost on his side. From that position you can let go of the lapel double grip and use that arm to push on his free leg to open the guard and then go straight into the knee pass while keep foot hook in (as per a lot of Rafael's recent techniques).
For the last one Chico actually used me to demonstrate the technique. Under normal circumstances that's a cool thing and a bit of an honour but this particular move was started by him showing how most people use the elbows to dig into peoples inside legs to break closed guard. OW the pain. Then Chico showed how he prefers to see the elbows used for breaking guard. First get a good grip of the guys Gi pants just below the drawstring and push down, use both hands for this to keep the guy secure without being able to shrimp in either direction. Then angle one leg out at an angle slightly and use you elbow to push the opponents leg on that side outwards to break the guard. Very easily in my case.
After that we did some situational sparring. Closed guard bottom needs to sweep or submit. Closed guard top needs to pass.
I went with Marcus, Jason, Long Tall Mike, Mario Saeed and Mark Aston. Had an ok time of it given that my legs were murder. Found it trickier to pass the guard than I did to sweep. Didn't get any subs but managed to sweep most guys.
After that Chico did the grading and then we all got to join in for the traditional beating of the newly raised. Some put a bit more vigour into it than others but a good time seemed to be had by all. Shabba and Mario were particularly stupid and elected to go without a gi jacket on. Not clever. Looked really painful. Bet they were laying awkward that night. The rest of the guys took it well and then we all lined up for some snaps.
Chico and Shabba (with Josh lurking)
Chico and Josh
Chico and Rich
Chico and Marcus
Chico and Mario
Once again, well done to all the guys who were graded. \m/
2 comments:
The popularity of mixed martial arts has led to an increasing number of people being aware of Brazilian jiu jitsu, as it has become an increasingly popular sport.
keiko gi
Thanks.
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