DV8 Bjj - 9/5/13

Ok, so I'm quite far behind on writing this up. As I sit here and type this it's the week AFTER the session that I'm writing about and I've just got back from another awesome sesh. 

You see, what I've been doing lately that's taken my time away from blogging and generally obsessing about Bjj is that I am currently learning two new subjects. Firstly, I have developed a taste for Web Design and programming and wish to learn much more about it so I can maybe earn some extra cash doing up some inexpensive web solutions for people (it's a long way off but you gotta have a dream right?) and secondly, I've been learning Spanish, as I am planning a family holiday to Spain in August and I feel like I'm a particularly uncultured fuckwit. Let's face it, us English rarely learn another language so I'd like to be one of the minority rather than the average on this.

Anyway, to help stay on track on this I'm gonna have to dedicate a bit more time to that and a little less time to blogging so basically I'm gonna reformat the style with which I write up a week/lesson/article. I'm going to dispense with the amount of detail I go into on things like warm up and sparring and maybe see where I can shrink down my technical explanations as well. Sorry if you read this and previously enjoy all the extra shit I usually put in (although I can't imagine there's anyone out there who suddenly thought that) but I really need to trim the amount of time I spend blogging down for a while.

Ok so for this entry I'm going straight into the technical bump. Oh wait,

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

Techniques.
 (I'm still going to be explaining these techniques from the position I initially learnt them).


For the first technique, Ian let Rich Presley demo a Kimura from guard while he talked through it. I was Rich's demo partner for this.
From a good closed guard, the opponent's hands are braced against your abdomen, you reach down so your arms are under his arms and you put your hands together (as if praying). You then (keeping both hands together) push your arms up and outwards, breaking the guy's grips and driving his arms to either side of you. Quickly reaching down with your right hand you take a grip across his left wrist and force his hand to the floor. You then open your guard and lunge your left arm forward over his left shoulder (sitting up with your whole body) and reach over behind his left arm to take a grip of your own right wrist. Using your left bicep to bring the opponent's upper arm/shoulder into your chest so it's nice and secure, you fall to you back  out at a perpendicular angle to the guy, bringing him right down close to you and push his arm up straight at a 90° angle, closing up the guard as you go. If executed right this move doesn't fail to earn a tap.


The second technique I demo'd, against Rich. I was a Kimura from side control to North South grip break. 
You have a nice strong side control on the opponent (lying so you head is to his left) and have managed to isolate his left arm to the floor, pointing toward his feet. You grip his left wrist with your right hand and pass your left arm underneath his arm to grab your right wrist (forming the figure four). The opponent at this point, if he's any good, will grab something down at his waist with his left hand. It might be his gi pants, his jacket or most commonly his belt. From here you step up over his head with your left leg and then transition up to to North South. From there you use the grip you have on the guy's arm to pull him up on his side and squeeze your legs together around his head to keep him in this position. Now, leaning forward so your chest is tight against his the upper part of his left arm, you can use the strength of your back to drive yourself up straight, ripping his grip open and then finish the sub by turning the arm backwards through 90°.

Next Ian demo'd a move that was totally new to me. A Kimura variation from side control. You have arrived at the position where you've threatened the Kimura and he's grabbed his belt. As an alternative, you can now release the grip on his wrist ((and your grip on your wrist) and reach around his arm with your right to grip his elbow. With your left arm you switch your grip to grab your bicep (your arm is still under his). Now, making sure your left forearm is close to his elbow, you tilt your left arm elbow up to apply immense pressure to the guy's shoulder. It really is a total beauty.



We also rocked a Kimura from half guard bottom which is pretty much the same as the one from guard, except from half guard.



Last technique was the Kimura from half guard top. You have your right leg secured between his legs and you've managed to flatten him out and lay across him. You've flattened his arm into the Kimura position and reach under and then roll over forward, taking the opponent with you (so you've basically given up position to half bottom) and drive the arm upward in a Kimura. Sleek and sexy move. 

See, that wasn't so bad was it? Only took me an hour and a half to write and I didn't haze on too much. Now I've got to write the next one up.

¬m/

DV8 Academia de Jiu Jitsu 20-9-12

It was quite a small turn out this week at Sweat FA, Weston Super Mare. Didn't matter much though as we still had a good session with some frantic rolling at the end which is pretty much what you want out of a session really.

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


Warm Up:

Laps of the mat with arm windmills, butt kicks, knee ups and side steps. Shoulder, arm and neck stretching. 15 x 2 Squats, 15 x 2 Press ups and 15 x 2 Sit ups followed by 10 x 7 Reverse crunches. Finished off with some leg stretching.


Techniques:
(For ease of description I will explain a technique using the sides (left/right) whichI initially learned them from)


The theme for this lesson was a bit of an amusing coincidence as, just before the lesson, I had chatted with Dan Foster about incorporating more combinations into my game. This is where you try for a sub or a sweep and the opponent blocks it, but you then alter the attack for a different sub or sweep attempt. So when Ian announced his plan to feature a string of techniques I was pleasantly surprised and a bit smug.



The combination string, starting from closed guard, was a Kimura from closed guard, then a guillotine from closed guard, then to hip bump sweep, to kimura from top and then take the back to finish with the rear naked choke.  So a nice long string with a good bit of variation.


We started with the basic Kimura from the guard. Due to the joys of Youtube  I will not have to explain some of the easier moves. (Great Stuff)

This clip comes courtesy of ExpertVillage

So we drilled the move first to finish. I was partnered with Chris Whiting first off. I also ran Chris through a bit of the old "Kimuras from anywhere" stuff from the Jason Scully clips.

Next up we acted as though the guys blocks the initial Kimura attempt by wrapping his arm around your back and grabbing a handful of gi. This brought us neatly into a Guilottine attempt from guard. And another Youtube clip for you.

Vid uploaded by StevenPourciau

We drilled this one for a bit then carried it on as if the guy had managed to get a hand in to block the choke and put his free hand out as if to block being immediately turned over. This brings us neatly on to the Hip Bump Sweep from closed guard.

 

 Video courtesy of GGBJJ

We drilled this going all the way through from the beginning with the Kimura attempt, to getting the Hip Bump Sweep and coming over into Mount. From there, Ian took it on to the Kimura from top control, first demonstrating why it's not easy to get a Kimura from mount, then taking us through to the Kimura from top control which essentially has you giving up mount for side control.

This vid was uploaded by sirzig

The final part of this string occurs when the opponent grabs his belt or gi to block the kimura attempt. Releasing the opponent's wrist, but keeping hold of your own wrist so he's still trapped on your arms, you step your leg back from his head, then bring your elbow out so you can wrap it under the guys head. Then you can step your right leg (the one that is closer to his lower body) in between his legs to put the first hook in place and pull the guy up toward you and roll over onto your right side, bringing the second hook in as you go. You can then finish this with a nice Rear Naked Choke or whatever rear mount technique is your favourite.

A nice string of techniques with alternates there to give you options.



Sparring:

For the sparring we seperated in to threes and did the 2 grapple for a minute then the third guy jumps on the guy with the commanding position and then it carrys on in that order. I was with Dan Foster and Justin Thomas. This set up is pretty intense and you can't shake the feeling that you're getting mugged when the new guy jumps in on you. It went Justin jumps in on Dan, Me on Justin, then Dan on Me. And it pretty much went as the game dictates. I got a Bow and Arrow Choke on Justin, Justin hit Dan with a Kimura from top and Dan got me with a Triangle from guard. Other than those subs the pace was fairly frantic and all around a pretty good roll. Of particular note to me was that Justin's game has vastly improved (to tap Dan is a big achievement in itself) with him showing some great skill to complement his giants strength. I managed to hit a cool half guard sweep on Dan, although it resulted in me getting to confident in a pass attempt to get tapped out via the above mentioned Triangle from Guard. Dan has a pretty shit hot guard game that I really need to remember when I roll against him. Every time I forget that he ends up tapping me.



We've got some good stuff coming up soon. Leo Vieira's back at the end of October for a seminar and Chico's doing a seminar down in Weston. Cool stuff to look forward too. I also need to polish up my game for my next competitive outing at the Hereford Open in December.

Lot's of Bjj loveliness to look forward to. ¬m/