Dv8 Bjj 23/5/13

Good numbers again. Things seem to be picking up at our little club which is exciting stuff. The more the merrier in my opinion. Now if I can convince a few of them to start competing we could have the beginnings of a decent comp team.

Venue: Sweat FA, Weston Super Mare, Uk
Instructor: Ian Rossiter (Black belt, Checkmat)

(As usual I will describe each technique from the side I initially learnt it)

First move we hit this sesh was the Arm Drag to back control. You're sat down as if in Butterfly Guard but the opponent has secured a grip of your ankles (or gi pants near the ankles) and stepped back as if to start a pass. What you have to remember here is that your legs are (nearly) always going to be stronger than his arms. All you have to do is step your right leg out to the side, taking his left arm with it, whilst quickly gripping his left arm at the triceps with your left and taking a grip of his gi jacket on the left arm at the triceps or wrist with your right. With this newly acquired grip you then lean back hard using the strength of your back to yank the opponent's grip free and pull him off to your left hand side (all this is done really quickly as it's a move that really telegraphs itself if you do it slowly). Once the guy is dragged off to your left you can then go round to his back and secure his left leg with you legs wrapped around it. Leaning you hips into him helps maintain him in a turtle position.


From the above it's just a simple matter of passing your left arm over his left shoulder and your right arm under his right arm and gripping your hands together to form a seat belt style control of his upper body. You can now step your right leg over near to his right hip in preparation for the back take. From here you just need to lean out hard to your left, rolling over to your back and swinging your opponent over also. This movement also opens the gap wide between his right elbow and knee so you can neatly slot in your second hook and wrap up a very tidy back control. Marcelo Garcia himself would be proud of you.


After that with did a simple flow drill of Arm Bar from guard, countered, to Omoplata, to triangle. This was the same as was covered a few months ago so I won't rehash.


I was quite on fire this week rolling. I got all my opponents but most noticeably, I managed to get Tom Hill with and omoplata and a kimura. It's been ages since I got anything on Tom so either I was on a rich vein of form or Tom was on an off day.

Today (the day I type this) is the Chico Mendes Seminar down at Sweat FA. I'm really pumped for this. I cannot feckin wait.!!! I'll give you a full write up on it this week. ¬m/