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 a lap, facing out for a lap and arm windmilling for a couple of laps. Neck, Arm and Shoulder stretching. Push ups 15x3, Squats 15x 3, Crunches 15 x 3, then some leg stretching.
Technique:
First technique of the night Ian demonstrated was a transition from Side Control to Mount. From a basic strong Side Control with the opponent well flattened out, use your near side hand (the one closer to his head) to grab over his shoulder and secure the gi at the under arm pit (the arm that is nearer your head- the top arm). With your other arm, reach down and brace the side of the opponent (the side that is closer to your legs) to stop him making space from you when you move. Next, switch your legs over so you're sort of facing his legs (ensuring you keep downward pressure on his torso) and bring your bottom leg in close to the opponent to replace your low arm bracing at his side. That arm can now either grab one of his legs or grab the arm opponents top arm to stop his defence of the transition. Now you can easily kick your top leg up and over the guy in a crescent kick style, to come over the top of him into mount regardless of whether or not he has a knee up to defend. If you've maintained your grip of the guys top arm you have a good starting point for attacks on a shoulder lock or arm lock.
I drilled this transition with Tom Hill. I find this move particularly easy due to my flexibility and I generally use it as my Side Control to Mount transition of choice.
Next Technique Ian demo'd was another Side Control to Mount Technique. This time it was a knee slide method. Using the same start with the under arm pit control and the hand brace at the opponents side, this time, bring your far side knee up (the knee farthest from his head) inside your bracing arm and on to his belly. Now you can remove the bracing arm from his side and use it to push off his top leg to help you turn yourself up to mount whilst simultaneously sliding the knee up so you can bring the rest of that leg over.
I drilled this move and the rest of the techniques this lesson with the late arriving Dan Foster. I find this transition a little more awkward than the last but still pull it off fairly regularly in sparring, although if you are not careful you can land yourself in a very loose but annoying half guard if the guy on bottom manages to push your sliding leg through between his legs to stop the mount.
To take the movement further, Ian showed what happens if the guy on the bottom tries to block the knee sliding through with his top arm hand. Using your far side arm (arm furthest from guys head), thread the arm through the gap at the elbow of the opponents blocking arm and then start walking up the arm up the mat using your hand, to pull the blocking arm up with it and get the pass to mount. You've also got a handy start on a mounted Kimura lock or Americana lock from the resulting position.
Drilling this move demonstrates that if the guy on the bottom has fairly strong shoulders the walk the hand up the mat action is a bit of a struggle. If the guy is much stronger than you I can easily imagine the move being impossible.
Ian had already thought of all this though and the next move was specifically for if you cannot move the guys arm up. Instead, when you reach through the elbow gap, pull the arm toward your body and step your near side leg (leg closer to opponents head) over his head to rest behind his head giving a minimum of space for him to move. Now, leaning forward, you just switch around on your legs (leaving one leg laying across his body) and then fall backwards to pull his arm back for the arm bar. You can grab a hold of the opponents gi pants or belt for additional control when falling back, to keep him pulled toward you for a tight arm bar.
When using this technique in sparring you should be mindful that if you pull back hard on the arm as you fall you risk damaging your opponents arm. On the other hand, if you don't pull the arm back quick enough, the opponent may block the move by gripping his arms together.
For the last technique of the night Ian showed the same Kimura from side control that he showed last week and then showed the variation for it, for if the opponent blocks the standard kimura by grabbing his belt.
Last weeks Kimura: You establish a strong side control on your opponent with lots of downward pressure on his torso. Next you push his far side arm out at a 90 degree angle to his body, then bend his arm at the elbow so it's pointing south from his upper arm, also at a 90 degree angle, and secure the arm in that position by grabbing his wrist with your far side hand (the one closer to his legs). Now take your other arm and thread it underneath your opponents upper arm, reaching to grab your own wrist forming a figure four and massively strengthening your hold. From there you switch your legs so they are turned toward his head and then step over his head with your top leg. Applying the sub now is a simple matter off pulling up and toward you on the arm that's threaded underneath while keeping the opponents wrist held down. This move is not one that your training partner will thank you for if you hammer the technique on as it is quite an intense shoulder lock.
Variation: If by the time you've formed your figure four, he has grabbed his belt, pull the arm hard toward you and then step over his head and clench together hard with your knees to secure him in place in a North South position. You should now have his arm upright 90 degrees from his body with it still secured for the kimura attempt but he is blocking the move with the belt grip. From here you can push the opponents arm out and away from his grip using all the strength of both your arms and your back, easily breaking the grip, then pull the arm back to the 90 degrees and rotate the lower arm backwards applying pressure for the Kimura.
We drilled this move for a short time before rolling.
Rolling:
My first roll of the night was against Big Steve. I didn't bother to resist for too long in the knee to knee start jumping to guard . From there I threw up a few choke attempts and then went into a seated sweep attempt which Steve based out to block. It was an easy transition to and omoplata from there though and I didn't really even have the move sunk in properly before Steve was tapping.
Had the opportunity to roll against Ian next and after some initial grip fighting I managed to land in Ian's guard. After a long struggle I was able to pass to side control and from there I used the crescent transition to mount. I tried a cheeky ezekial which Ian easily blocked. I then passed my arm under Ian's neck and fed his far gi lapel into my hand and switched to an S mount to reach back and grab Ian's knee for a Bow and Arrow choke variation. Ian managed to impressively block this as well and the round ended with me first trying to torque the hell out of it, then realising what Ian was doing and trying to transition to an arm bar instead.
Next up was a roll with Dan. This time I managed to get the advantage from the knee to knee, taking him down into guard. After a long period of trying switch side and re-trying, I managed to pass his guard into side control. From there I went to S mount and went for the Bow and Arrow choke again. This time I didn't have managed to get my leg up around his neck and shoulder and he managed to get a little space and roll out.
Fourth roll was against a very intense occasional trainer, Chris Hardaway. Chris has been training for years but due to his work commitments has never had the time to dedicate to grading or anything. On top of that he's athletic as hell and strong as a guy twice his size and he never grapples at anything less than 100%. From the knee to knee I jumped into guard but Chris quickly managed an athletic pass into Kesa Gatame side control where he tried to focus on attacking my nearside arm so I well able to bridge out of the hold and get to top control. From there I was able to pass Chris' guard and finished the round attacking at side control myself. A good hard paced round there.
Last roll was against returning gold medalist, Tom Hill. I jumped to guard for this one and mostly tried gi chokes against him. Eventually though I had to settle for a sweep and then passed to side control. I then used the gift wrap arm hold around the neck to pull him over and take his back. The round played out with me attacking Tom's back for a rear naked.
A good session of Bjj this week with a good bit of rolling at the end. Can't wait for next week. \m/
No comments:
Post a Comment