Venue: Bristol Combat Legion, LA Gym, Bristol, Uk
Instructor: Chico Mendes - Checkmat (Grade 2 Black Belt)
As is the norm for us we arrived a little late so we were getting changed while the rest of the guys were doing the warm up. From where I joined in we did laps of the mat with knee ups, butt kicks and mat touches. Hips escapes for 2 lengths then we partnered up and did a length of mat in wheel barrow each, ending with 20 Push ups, then we carried our partners 1 length each, then carried backward 1 length each. I was with some MMA dude for this who seemed about my size. Didn't think it would be fair to team with Marcus on that one. Hehehe.
Techniques:
Chico started us off with the fairly basic Closed Guard Hip Bump Sweep. Your opponent is kneeling in your closed guard. Chico demo'd this with a guy trying to break closed guard using his elbows on against the inside leg whilst holding his belt. Chico first dummies one way, as if to attack the arm on one side, then throws himself the other way. He opens his guard but ensures his knees are clenched together to control the opponent, then, picking a side, he bases out with his arm on that same side then throws his other side arm up and over the guys head and shoulder and grabs the guys arms at the triceps on the selected side and then hip bumps and pulls the guy over. You flip the opponent easily over so you have him mounted and in a great position for attacking.
I drilled all the techniques that night with Marcus as both of us were a bit knackered so we went a bit easier on each other.
The next move was the Closed Guard Kimura. Chico just showed us this as an option off the blocked Hip Bump Sweep. As you're hitting with the hip bump the opponents uses the arm you are grabbing to base out on the mat so as to block the sweep. Using the arm you had based out with, grab HIS basing arm at the wrist and release the triceps with your other hand and reach further over and inside the arm to grab your own wrist. Then bend the opponents arm up and back using the superior strength afforded you by the double grip and move yourself out to the side so you are perpendicular to him. For additional pressure on the hold, when you bring the guys arm up high, pull your supporting arm (the one that is reaching around and grabbing the your other wrist) in tight against the opponents shoulder.
Very painful. I'm still feeling tight now and that's two days after.
Next up was a Closed Guard Flower Sweep variation. An old favourite of mine, Chico's version worked for when you opponent is grabbing your lapel high on one side. You grab the cuff of the high arm with a pistol style grip and reach down to the guys other side leg and grab a hand of gi pant around the lower leg. Then, open the guard but as before, keep the legs clenched at the knees and swing the guy over by pulling up on the guys leg and raising your same side leg slightly (whilst keeping it tight) and dropping the other side leg slightly (also keeping it tight) to sweep him over on to his back, once again mounted for a great attacking position.
It struck me during the drilling of this move, that I haven't used move in ages and I think that's because I nearly never use closed guard any more. Weird that my old go to moves have been left behind since I've been trying to evolve my game.
The last move we were shown I have just spent the best part of 10 minutes trying to remember as I was quite shagged by that time and my head wouldn't have been working at a hundred percent. Stupidly, the only notes I left for myself on this was "Closed Guard Foot Out Sweep and Arm Bar" which was particularly useless and left me racking my brain in the effort to conjure up what the hell it was.
Starting off in closed guard, you've grabbed the opponent's wrist at your lapel, as for the flower sweep, so the opponent bases his leg up on the other side as if to try for a guard break. From there you "chop up" with your arm, under the opponent's leg preferably as low as possible to knock the guy off his base and bring his leg up so his foot is near your head. You bend your arm at the elbow and keep you arm raised above your head, so his leg is secured and stretched out next to you. From there you can hit and arm bar if you manage to keep the guys arm stretched out. The point of the move was for the sweeps though. You need to gage which way the opponent is resting his weight so you can sweep him with his over balance. You sweep him the same way as the side of the arm you've grabbed by twisting your legs that way and leaning forward and to that side, lifting the leg as you go. To go the other way you quickly grab the opponents other arm and twisting your legs toward that direction and sit forward, this time holding the leg out of the way.
We were trying those moves for quite a while before Chico called time for some rolling,
Rolling:
I can not remember much at all about the rolling except for who I rolled with and some very vague details. Oh and that it was 6 minute rounds.
I rolled with Marcus first and as we were both knackered it was just a very sloppy back and forth affair.
Next I rolled with Jase BrookSbank in a very good roll where I remember hitting a semi decent half guard sweep. I also took his back at one point but he shook it off quite easily. It ended with me in his half guard trying to pass or hit a kimura, until Jase at the very end (and with some advice from Ronan) got a pretty sweet sweep.
The next was Judo Andy (as I've taken to calling him, even though I am unsure his name is Andy and he hasn't done Judo in many years), a very strong and advanced white belt with a tight holding game. I was really feeling the pain by this time so I just jumped guard and attempted to sloppily throw up subs against him whilst fending his attempts at passing. I have become reasonably proficient at using my legs and arms to block out attempts at passing my open guard and just rolling away from the pass. This was frustrating Andy somewhat, who was trying to grab both my legs and then throw them out of the way to jump past. This was fended off easily and I even threw in a couple of choke attempts (pace, cross and even a gogoplata). That was pretty much the roll.
Next up I went against a girl called Leigh, who is relatively new to Bjj and is focused more on MMA so she only really grapples no gi. As she isn't very experienced at all I mainly just showed her how to break a closed guard, how to pass guard, how to escape mount and a half guard sweep. Just some functional stuff she could use, instead of just smashing her up and destroying her confidence.
Last roll was against Rich long and it was pretty much identical to the Andy roll. I basically did the guard defence bit and various sub attempts, with absolutely no sweeping attempts. I was even managing to do the turtle-ing up and inverting stuff to defend the guard pass. I'm particularly chuffed with the turtle as it's never really been part of my game before but it's coming along nicely. I was close to a gogoplata at one point (I WILL hit that move one day) but Rich defended it well. Rich managed to pass to my half guard at one point to which I rolled him over using a kimura sweep, which he defended and then rolled me back over using a similar sweep before I recovered guard which is where we ended. A really good roll with Rich there.
A great class there from Chico with a good, yet sloppy (on my side), rolling session at the end. And I also got a couple of good Jiu Jitsu T-Shirts while I was there. One I had pre-ordered through Ian, from Tatami and the other was the new Bristol Combat Legion/ Checkmat T, which is awesome ¬m/
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