DV8 3/1/13

Holy shit! Thought I'd posted this last week but just looked on my log board to see it was still in draft format. Bugger! Ah well, here it is.


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/

Favoured Positions: Ezekiel Choke.

No training this week due to some night time works I've been supervising. I haven't really even had a chance to get on my computer to update.

The next in my line of "Favoured Techniques" is what I consider to be my really lazy top move. If my Cardio is starting to flag and my creativity gone out the window and no is arm being freely offered for an armbar attempt I will invariably fall back on the Ezekiel Choke. It is a move which is both at the same time easy to pull off and leaves you feeling a little bit cheap. By this I mean if you get the tap using this move, its easiness makes you feel like you haven't tried hard enough.

The technique was originally a judo submission called Sode guruma jime and was brought over into the world of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu by a Brazilian Judo practitioner called Ezekiel (first name I believe). For some bizarre reason I cannot recall when I was taught this move. My first recollection of the move was what seems like ages ago now, driving up to Trojan Bristol with Ian (Rossiter) and my long time training partner Marcus (Hedley), with Ian saying that Marcus had got his first tap the week previous up at Trojan using the Ezekiel. I wasn't familiar with the name so asked what it was, Ian explained and I remember thinking that I knew and had used the move but can't remember from when (probably old Burnham days).

Anyway, the Technique is most effective from full mount but can also garner results from half guard and side mount and is even one of the rare chokes that can occasionally be effective from inside an opponents guard. I have tapped people using this move from all of these positions so can definitely confirm that it is an effective sub. From Mount make sure you have established a strong mount position where you are not prone to being thrown off. Lay down onto your opponent and wrap one of your arms around his neck. Using the hand of that arm grab inside the sleeve of the opposite arm using a four figured grip. Then pass the sleeve arm over the top of the opponents neck placing the forearm directly across the throat and push down with both arms. This will put an intense choke onto your opponent which, if got right first time, can usually earn a panic tap, but even if the guy holds on he will eventually choke out.


Here is the technique demonstrated by Daniel Moraes.

 
It's also worth noting that the Ezekiel Choke can be a very handy move to distract your opponent or to set up other techniques, particularly the triangle choke from mount. All in all it's a great move but one that starts to become a bit of a habit, leading the rest of your game to stagnate sometimes. This is why I've recently made a conscious decision to stop using the technique for a while. Plus I've seen an awesome omoplata from the mount that I've been dying to hit.