I have had a shit hot Christmas Time and, as is the norm for me, an over indulgent holiday period. I have probably eaten my body weight in Chocolate, biscuits and cakes and imbibed an incredible amount of alcohol. Consequentially, I have put on quite a bit of weight since my beginning of December weigh in of 13st 2lb. As of Thursday morning I was a scale busting 14st 4lb. Ouch.
So for a new year I need to hit the diet and work out hard if I'm to make the 13st 7lb I need to be to weigh in for the next Hereford Open in Feb. That meant straight back to the gym for lunch time work outs this week. A bit of interval cross training and some weights. And of course back to Thursday nights at DV8 Bjj.
It was truly brilliant being back to training after a couple of weeks lay off, even though we didn't really have a massive turn out. Seemed like there were still quite a few guys celebrating new year or something as it was a pretty flimsy turn out of regulars along with two new guys.
Venue: Sweat FA, Weston Super Mare, Uk
Instructor: Ian Rossiter (Black Belt, Checkmat).
Techniques:
(For simplicity, I always explain techniques from the side and using the grips that I initially learned them)
After the usual brief warm up we got down to business. We started off pretty basic as we had the two new guys so Ian kicked us off with a Scissor sweep from guard. This was the very first sweep I ever learned back in the old days down at Burnham. With your opponent in your closed guard you grab his right arm sleeve at the elbow with your left hand and grab his left collar with your right. Opening your guard you shift your butt out to the right side so that you are lying partially on your side, bringing you right leg up so the shin is pushed into his chest/left ribcage and dropping your left leg down flat to the mat next to his right leg. Using your grips to "steer" him over to his right you scissor your legs, kicking out with your right leg while drawing your left leg back. Your opponent will flip over onto their back with you coming up into mount.
This technique has taken me quite a lot of training over my first year of bjj to get good at. I think it was because I used to be a bit heavier but I was never really good at the shifting hips to the side bit. Now it's second nature, dropping out into position to hit the move quickly against a weary opponent. This is a move that you definitely get better at with years of drilling and practice.
The next technique lead on from from the first. You've just swept the opponent over into mount and you still have hold of his right sleeve at the elbow. You push the opponent's right arm across his face and then lean on it to keep it in position with your right shoulder. You then pass your right arm behind his head so your hand comes out from behind his head in front of your face. You then grab your right hand with your left hand and close the arm tight to increase pressure. To finish the move you then bring your right leg over the guy (giving up mount) so your legs are both stretched out to his right side and you are lying flat on the mat.
That in itself is not a fool proof version of the head and arm triangle but it helps to get the positioning right. Taking the technique back to the point where you've passed the arm under the head and grabbed the hand. To improve the technique you use that grip to pull the arm further under the guy's head, closing off the space. This time you tuck your right hand into the crook of your left arm and then cup the back of your head with your left hand. Finish the move in the same way, stepping over and laying out flat. That version of the head and arm triangle will deliver a tap a hell of a lot quicker.
The next technique Ian let me show as it's an old one of my favourites. I still hit this one from time to time but it used to be my go to move from top control. As I've previously explained this one as a favourite technique I figured I'd just link the old blog post here.
Rolling.
I sparred first with Sean Errock, an athletic young lad whose been training a lot of no-gi with Steve Keen's MMA class and does the Gi class occasionally. He's got some very good wrestling ability because of this and I think if he really applied himself he'd become a very polished Bjj practitioner. In our roll with started off with a lot of grip fighting and jockeying for position. I managed to over balance him toward me first then take him down into mount. I quickly dispatched him from there with an Ezekiel choke which is fairly ironic.After the restart however, he came back very strong and got a damn good arm drag on me, forcing me to turtle. The round ended there with him trying to get my back properly. As I said, he's got a lot of potential.
Next up was a round against Rich Presley which was one of our usual back and forth affairs with both of us having some guard time and some top game. Neither of us threatened any kind of sub though but it was a good technical roll.
My next opponent was Chris Cook who is getting better every week and skinnier every time I see him. Training for the marines he's become a bit of a cardio machine and, as I was pretty much hanging out of my proverbial by the time we rolled, it was a lot tougher than it should of been. I controlled most of the play but at one point Chris pulled off a good guard pass and attacked from side control for a bit so there's definitely some improvement there.
My last roll of the night was with Dan Foster who was on a bit of a mission to say the least. He was trying to blast past my guard with a vengeance and by this point in the night it was all I could do to hold on to him. Dan managed to pass guard and got mount at one point before I was able to upa him on and attack his guard. I got close to a pass of my own before he pushed away and got back to his knees so we were reset. After that he bowled me over with another takedown with me just able to get a weak half guard in there. He nearly passed this twice before I was able to drop my shoulder under his raised off side leg and take deep half (I was chuffed with that as I rarely get to use deep half). From there I was in the process of popping out the back and trying to take his back when the round ended. I was well and truly done in by this time.
It was a great first session back. I just hope more guys turn up next week as the new guys stick around. ¬m/
No comments:
Post a Comment