Checkmat Bjj - 5/10/12

I've had a double great day today.  Not only did I get some lunchtime No-Gi training in down Sweat FA in Weston, I also managed to get up to Ronan Fleming's  Checkmat Bjj class up at Bristol Combat Legion.

The session was very good. Ronan demo'd a couple of techniques then we got a shit load of sparring in. When I'm next training for a competition, I will definitely be going to Ronan's class for a bit of extra sparring and to build up my match ready grappling fitness. The guys up there set a good pace and keep it up all the way through.




Venue: Bristol Combat Legion, LA Gym, Bristol, Uk.
Instructor: Ronan Fleming (Purple Belt - Checkmat).



Warm Up:
For the warm up we started with laps of the mat whilst doing knee ups, butt kicks, inward facing sidesteps, outward facing sidesteps, then two in two out sidesteps. We then did lengths of the mat, doing forward rolls (X 2 Lengths), backward rolls (X 2 Lengths) and Spiderman Crawls (X 2 Lengths).



Techniques:
(I will describe each technique using the method I originally learned it. ie. left or right grips etc. for ease of description)


For the techniques, Ronan started us off with some escapes from Rear Mount. Starting with your opponent having your back in seated rear mount with both hooks in. You defend your neck with both your hands and plant both feet flat on the ground to push yourself back into your opponent, flattening his back to the floor. You then shift your hips out to the right, moving your back out also, to get it to the floor. During this movement, the weight of your lower body should press against the opponent's right inside leg, knocking the hook out and leaving you the opportunity to use both of your legs to trap the guy's left leg (as if for half guard). At this point, if he's sensible, he'll accept that he's lost the position and try to limit his losses by coming over on top of you into your half guard. However, if he tries to hold on for dear life and not accept that he lost the back control, you'll find it easy to roll over on to him, bringing you up into half guard top.
Working under the assumption that the guy is going to take the sensible option and roll on you for half guard top, Ronan had us drill practice two different methods of ensuring you come up in as favourable a position as possible. The first being the side half guard with deep under hook that I've covered here a lot recently. The second being a cool underhook for deep half guard. The guys (Ronan and Josh Kersey) also showed me a nifty little deep half sweep for if the guy tries to base out using his left leg.


The second rear mount escape was the more common butt scooth, leg drop and hip shift method that I have written up many times before. A great basic staple move that everyone practising Bjj should know.



Moving on from there, Ronan ran us through some good basic finishes for if you have the guy's back. He hit us with three nice easy ones in quick succession and then had us drill all three together. All of these are from the full seated rear mount position.

First was a variation from the rear naked choke for if you're finding it too hard to get your (right)arm buried all the way in under his chin so you can apply the rear naked properly. Instead, you can finish the choke using the forearm/wrist under the chin, angling it just so that the flattest part is crushing the opponent's throat. To finish this you only need to pull the right arm up into the opponent's throat using a no thumb grip down over the hand with your free left hand. If applied correctly the choke comes on quick.

The second and third were two variations of the rear mounted ezekiel.
From a seated rear mount with seat belt control, your right arm is over the top of his right arm (as if to attack the neck), your left arm is under his left. You reach up in front of him with your left arm and put the fingers of your right hand into the sleeve of the left arm. You then pass the left hand behind the guy's head, with the right hand nestling neatly into the opponent's throat. The finish this you just need to lean your body weight backward which seems to naturally push your arms out. Very tight choke.
The alternate method is where you push your left arm fully under his arm and through so it is past the right side of his head. You then put the fingers of your left hand into the sleeve cuff of your right and pass the right arm behind the opponent's head so the blade of your right hand can be pushed into the left side of his neck. Once again, finish by laying backward and pushing your arms out.
Two real eye waterers there.


Sparring:

We kicked off with some situational sparring. Attacking the back. The guy with the back has to submit. The guy whose trapped has to escape to either top control or guard.

We rolled with loads of guys through this and as mentioned before, the pace was really high. Some great rolling. I didn't get tapped out through any of the situational stuff and managed to get a couple of taps.

For the full sparring I had a turn against Tom Kocur first, who was really on his game. Although he didn't finish me, he basically controlled me for 85%  of the round, quite a lot of it in a triangle choke attempt. It was a real tough round and by the end I fel totally beasted.

Then my second round was against Matt Sellars. A long standing brown belt who, quite frankly, is waaaaay out of my league. Every once in a while you have a roll against someone who reminds you just how very far you have to go in your Bjj development. Matt Sellars was that guy for me. I held him off with my guard for about a minute at the start but he pretty soon found a way to glide past and once in side control it was pretty much all over. He tapped me first with forearm choke from side control, then we pretty much repeated the transitioning and he got me with an Americana. Thoroughly handled but Matt's a very humble and friendly guy and tried to give me pointers on how to tighten up my game.

I very briefly had a roll against Ronan who also managed to pass my guard before the bell saved me from some form of pain.

My last roll was against a guy named Ben, a white belt who was showing some really good movement and strength. I got some sweeps on him and got to mount once but he recovered quite nicely each time. I eventually managed to get him with an ezekiel from mount.

For my first taster of a Friday sesh under Ronan I had a bloody good time and really loved the masses of rolling. I shall definitely be attending some more if time allows. ¬m/