DV8 Bjj. 19/9/13

I've had another fairly packed week of training this week with Tuesday to Thursday lunch times all taken up with some very hard situational sparring and hard rolling with Marcus Hedley. After three days of side control escapes, mount escapes and guard work practice I was fairly aching like a bastard. It's all very much appreciated and necessary though as I'm up in London on the 29th Sept for the Checkmat UK Interclub comp. Can't friggin wait. I want to be as prepared as I've ever been.

As for Thursday's lesson under Ian Rossiter at Sweat FA, Weston Super Mare, the numbers we had were massive. We've had a real influx in new guys recently, most of which have stuck around for a more of the same. Always a relief when you get a new guy come back as it feels like our job of promoting Bjj that little bit more has been a success.


As the class was so big Ian separated us up into the newer guys and more experienced guys. Ian took the newbies off and gave them a lot of attention on the basics while me and Marcus took the more advanced guys along a path that Ian started us off on.


Ian started us with a basic defensive concept. Your opponent is in your closed guard. He manages to break the guard open and force your leg (right, for the example) to the mat. He then starts to pass your guard by
passing over the leg, trying to come to side control. As he has one leg through and is coming up you push his head away while shrimping out. As the general rule of thumb is that where the head goes, the body follows, the opponent is pushed out away leaving you an excellent opportunity to counter attack or at least recover guard.


From this defense we were allowed to continue along with various counters and submissions. The first was the Omoplata. You've got to the point where the opponent is passing and you're pushing his head away. For the particular technique the opponent was attempting to pass with an underhook in place. This is ideal because as he's passing you push the head and escape your hips away from him and there is a decent amount of space for you to clamp his arm down to your offside then spin round, bringing your offside (left) leg over his shoulder. Making sure you grab on to his belt or across his lower back you pull yourself side on to him, pulling your bottom leg out as you go. You then switch your legs so they are pointing away from the guy. If he's up on his knees still at this point you can just shift away from him until it collapses his base to lay him out on his front. You can then grab his farside shoulder and use it to pull you body forward over him to apply a really tight omoplata.


We then ran through an underhook to back control. Nice easy transition from the pass. The guy is still using the underhook. You've pushed his head away and hip escaped creating a decent size gap in between you. You can now bring your left arm (the one he had underhooked) under his arm so you now have the underhook. Try to reach as far under as possible so you're grabbing for his opposite side shoulder. You now use the usual shift out, duck and shrug move that helps you claim the back control (one hook in) with him turtling. Don't try and immediately jump across him to get the other hook in for rear mount or he'll just drop down at the front and shrug you off. Instead reach over him (but under his arm) and grab his opposite side lapel. Using your other hand, push his near side elbow in toward him, then drop down to the floor rolling on your shoulder using your momentum to pull him over. As you'd previously reached under his arm for the lapel, that arm blocks him from bringing his knee and arm close together so you can easily get your second hook in for the seated rear mount. Excellent transition to full control.

A great lesson we had and a real pleasure to be allowed the opportunity to teach once again. I've got another full week of training coming up now ahead of Sunday's (29th) Interclub in London. I CAN NOT WAIT!!!! ¬m/  

Roll on.

Checkmat BCL 10/9/13

I've had a fairly full week of training this week. I've hit the lunch time training with Marcus (Hedley) Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and I also took a trip up to Bristol Combat Legion to Chico Mendes' class on the Tuesday evening.

Training in the week with Marcus was very varied. We did stand up on Tuesday, focusing on Uchi Mata throws, trips and double and single leg takedowns.

On Wednesday we recapped on a load of the X Guard stuff we studied during one of our past sessions. It was pretty awesome going back over that as I'd forgotten a lot of the set ups. Strange that I've remembered the sweeps really well and have hit a couple of them in active sparring but only when I've basically been awarded the X Guard position by fluke as I'd nearly totally forgotten the set ups. Glad we went back over them.

Thursday was a bit of a mix of some gi chokes and a lot of sparring. Good hard session. We were both totally done after.


Highlight of the week though was going up to Bristol Combat Legion in Bristol, to Chico's new Checkmat class up there. And I have to say, the set up they have going on up there is amazing. The matted area is so smooth and all one peace, it's like grappling on a mattress. Brilliant.

Chico ran us through a basic Butterfly Guard Sweep. First solo drilling the fall sideway, kick up motion. Then going on to the live opponent drilling. Oddly, we were only using one hook in (right) while the other leg (left) was folded in and tucked behind the first leg. Grabbing a hold of the opponent's right wrist with your left hand and underhooking the guys left with your right, keeping your head ducked down inside toward the guy's chest, you now pull his right arm in (to stop him basing out) and fall sideways using the underhook to take him with you. As you are falling you kick up with your right hook to turn the guy over onto his side, with you coming over into top control. You can often get side control here but your opponent has a fleeting opportunity to recover guard in the transition.


Chico then ran us through a drill where you hit the sweep, come over into your partner's guard, then lean forward to force him into the ground. He then using both of his forearms to push against your shoulder, pushing you down his body until he can kick out with his legs and recover to Butterfly Guard. At which point he does the same thing over and you both continue on in a flow drill.


After this we did lots of situational butterfly guard rolling which was awesome. The class ended with the 2 in 1 out for a minute rolling (or mugging as I like to call it). Loads of rolling and loads of fun. A brilliant class to attend in a spanking new gym. Now I've got a ton of training to get to for an upcoming interclub on the 29th Sept. ¬m/

DV8 Bjj 5/9/13

Just got back from a pretty awesome lesson down Ian Rossiter's  DV8 Bjj at Sweat FA, Weston, and I'm on a real Bjj high! I've managed to get a good week of training in hitting Glenn's class on Monday, then getting two lunchtimes sessions in with the returning Marcus Hedley, and tonight at Ian's too. May even get some in tomorrow lunchtime too.

Techniques we learn tonight were :

Baseball Bat Choke from Guard.

Baseball Bat Choke from Half Guard.

Counter the Half Guard Baseball Bat Choke to Kesa Gatame Side Control.

Counter the Half Guard Baseball Bat Choke to Straight Arm Bar in Side Control.

Counter the Half Guard Baseball Bat Choke to Normal Arm Bar from Side Control.

Baseball Bat Choke from Knee on Belly.

Counter Baseball Bat Choke from Knee on Belly - into Arm Bar.

Holy shit did we really cover that much tonight?! And we still got some good rolling in too. Good time management there.



So first the Baseball Bat Choke from Closed Guard. You got the opponent in your closed guard. You reach up with your right hand and grab his LEFT collar (not cross collar) with a fingers in, thumb out grip. You also reach forward with your left hand and grab deep into his right lapel collar with a thumb in, fingers out grip. Your hands should nearly touch around the back of his neck. As the grip control is not a threatening as a cross collar grip the opponent feels a bit more confident to carry on working. So if you then open your guard and drop your right leg as if working for a sweep, the guy will try to pass right over on that side. As he does you just roll away left keeping the collar grip to close off the choke. Lovely and painful. A real game winner if you land it.


The move basically works the same with half guard.


Ian then went on to show us how to block the Half Guard variant. The guy underneath has you in his half guard and has the grips in place. You need to reach under his left arm with your right and grab his shoulder. You also grab his right arm at the triceps to release all tension. Now work your trapped leg out and kick through to seated kesa gatame side control position.

The second counter to the Half Guard BBB Choke was using the same restraint to ease the pressure but then pulling the leg through into side control with knee hard into his right ribs. You then clamp your head right so as to trap his left arm in between your head and shoulder whilsts holding the your left arm tight to you to keep his other arm in place. Next pass your right arm over the top of his left and make a gable grip with your left to secure it in place. You then tightly pull your forearm down (up) his arm until it find the sweet spot at his elbow to put on the really tight straight arm bar. Really painful if caught right but easy to lose if your technique is slightly wrong.

Fortunately, if you didn't get the first arm bar you still have the right arm there. Ensuring the right knee is still hard in his ribs and that foot is tucked under him, you can step over his head with your left foot and sit back to take the arm bar. The problem with this type of arm bar however is that you have to hit it fast over the opponent can roll out. So make sure you keep those knees tight together and extend the hips quickly or you'll lose the hold.



Next up we ran over the BBB Choke from Knee on Belly which I'm sure we did a few months ago but I can't seem to find the write up. Start from tight knee on belly control, right knee on, copying the grip method from earlier. To finish the choke you just step through forward with your right foot, leaning all your weight on the tightened choke around his throat.


To counter this you (as the guy on the bottom) straight arm out with your right arm into his hips to stop him from stepping through. With your left you grab his extended right arm. You then move your hips out left to make space then bring your right knee up tight in front of you while your left leg pass up and over his head for the lovely arm bar from bottom. Brilliant counter.


Wow. Once again that was a feck load of stuff we covered and we even had time for some situational rolling and some normal rolling. Good effort. Roll on next week for more of the same.

¬m/

Bridgwater Combat Club. 2/9/13

Ok so I've missed out a couple of weeks worth of blogs. I've got the notes for it but I haven't really got time to go back and type it out.

Anyhow, I thought I'd do a quick entry about my good buddy Glenn Cutter's new gig as Bjj Coach down in Bridgwater, Somerset, UK.  Glenn has taken the spot training the club on their ground work as of Monday 2nd September and I had the pleasure of attending his first class.

The Bridgwater Combat Club is a tidy little unit around the back of Deniz Kebab House on St John's Street in Bridgwater and it is decked out very well with a cage wall down the side and a fully matted floor. The all white finish gives the place a cool, fresh feel to it as well.

As the Bridgwater club is relatively new, most of the guys in attendance were fairly new to the Bjj and groundwork game. There weren't many training in the gi to start except for a couple of guys that have come up from Glenn's regular training venue at Sweat FA, Weston Super Mare (under Ian Rossiters tutelage), me being one of those. The rest of the guys were in combat shorts and rash guards or t shirts.

Glenn ran the class through the very basics to begin starting with the theory behind basic closed guard and posture control, then going on to guard breaking and a basic smash pass to side control. He then ran everyone through a rear naked choke from behind (un mounted) and then showed it with the full rear mount with hooks in. He finished off the class with the traditional staple escape from rear mount. All good strong beginning techniques and most of the guys I was watching and drilling with were picking it all up pretty quickly.

We done to Glenn for getting this new position and I hope he enjoys teaching there for many years to come. I know I will try to attend the occasional lesson down there. ¬m/