Favoured Techniques: Calf Slicer

I've had virtually no time for anything Bjj related or anything else that doesn't involve work this week. I work as a Highways Inspector for the local Council (North Somerset) and part of this job requires me to work on call to cover any out of hours emergencies every 1 in 9 weeks. I am on call this week and we have had some heavy rainfall and high winds in the South West of England meaning that I have been called out A LOT to flooding issues, trees down in the road and various pieces of traffic management blown into roads. Glamorous much?

All this adds up to the fact the I've had virtually no time to train, read or watch anything Bjj related (except for the odd blog on my feed reader at work) and I'm a bit bummed out. This is the first opportunity to sit down at the computer for any length of time so I figured I'd do a quick update of my blog.

The subject is a technique that I don't use any more due to taking leg locks out of my game for the time being (not allowed in comps remember) but while I was using it I found it a very handy move to have in the arsenal. The Calf Slicer is a move that I found on Sherdog.com as the Technique of the Week back in September 2010 as shown by Former UFC fighter Gabe Ruediger and a rather despondent looking Mac Danzig.

The technique starts when attacking someone who has gone to turtle. This is the underlying reason why I loved this technique so much as there's a guy at our SJJA club who has a very effective turtle defence. Neil Owen (formerly called "Tank" but more recently rebranded as "the Turtle") is a former Judo practitioner and for some reason has a very very good turtle. He's a big, heavy, squat type of guy giving him a very good base that has proved nearly impossible to pull him over. Couple this with his near non-existent neck and very good collar up-head down position and it also becomes ridiculously difficult to get any form of purchase on his neck or lapel. Generally you'd end up getting bucked over the top whilst struggling to find his neck and you've lost your good position.

So when I saw this technique I couldn't wait to try it. The very next time in training it came to my turn to spar with Neil, I inevitably came to a position where I was to pass his guard and he rolled over into the turtle.This was my chance.

Move Description: 

I put pressure down on the opponents back from a rear side mount position and used a seat belt style grip around his body to secure him in position and make him think you're going for the neck or collar. You then tuck your leg that is closer to the opponents head, through the space between the guys arm and leg (as if to get the hook in). Then push that leg through further and pull it over the lower part of the guys nearside leg and reach down for the guys foot/ankle and pull it up so the leg pulled closed with your leg inside around the crook. You then fall backwards - forcing the guy to roll over onto his back - and wrap your other leg over the top of the first leg (as if you've got his leg in a triangle). Then just pull on his leg a little bit harder (not too hard though if it's just training) to clamp his leg shut with your leg still inside, to put very painful pressure on the calf. I have never seen seen anyone not tap to this sub when it's locked on.

Here's the vid of the move.

See what I mean about Mac.

So anyway, I hit the move on Neil first time and he tapped straight away. And told me it was a nice move. And called me a bastard. I used that move, or a variation of it, a few more times before hanging it up and I must confess that I really enjoyed landing it. One day I may dust it off if I ever have need but until that day I'll just consign it to the archives.

If anyone reading this has a reason to use it (they do MMA) or hold less guilt about non IBJJF legal moves in training, go ahead and have a crack. It's a fun move that yields instant results and gives you a nice warm chuffed feeling inside when you hit it.

Cheers now. I'm back to work. \m/

UFC 138

Well, last nights UFC card, the 138th of their numbered shows was staged in Birmingham, England, and what a show it was.

I was foolish enough to look at Joe Silva's fight selection for this event and decide not to go. In hind sight that is a decision I will regret. The UFC doesn't come to the UK very often and I'd gone to the last event here back in October 2010 at UFC 120 at the O2, London. Seeing what I thought to be a lower quality card for star power and given the fact that I am extremely broke at the moment, I made the bold statement that I would not go to another UFC in England unless it had some real big names on the bill. Let me officially go on the record as saying I now rescind that previous (and very stupid) statement.

I have just got done watching the show from last night that I Sky Plus'd off of ESPN and I was pretty blown away. The main card fights were absolutely first class. Terry Etim, Liverpudlian UK MMA superstar, back from a 19 month break due to a rib injury absolutely stole the show with his 17 second submission finish of Edward Faaloloto by a fantastic jumping guillotine to his standing opponent, pulling him to the ground and drawing the tap. With this victory Etim equals Damian Maia for Submission of the Night awards with 4. An amazing return for one of the UK's top prospects.

 Etim choking out Faalolott

The second televised fight was a classic example of the striker vs grappler debate. Australian Jiu Jitsu Black Belt, Antony Perosh fought French kickboxer, Cyrille Diabate in a good paced two round affair where who controlled the balance of the action was basically dictated by where the action took place. At the beginning of both rounds there was a spell where the fight was carried out standing and Diabate showed his obvious class and out struck the Aussie (hate the way Mike Goldberg says that) using his Muay Thai talent. Unfortunately for "The Snake", the action in both rounds didn't stay on the feet. Perosh managing to secure some fairly scrappy takedowns, in the first he got to mount but didn't manage to finish the fight, in the second he got to mount and decided to soften Diabate up with some ground and pound. As a result of this, Diabate gave up his back to protect himself which was a written invitation for the Bjj ace to slap on the Rear Naked Choke for the sub victory.

 Perosh finishing Diabate via RNC.

Now the third fight shown on tv was actually the second prelim fight of the night, and this was really the fight I was wanting to see. Ché Mills, former Cage Rage Champion, who happens to train with Trojan Freefighters and Checkmat BJJ, was on his UFC début taking on former Tough Enough season 13 alumni Chris Cope. And what a welcoming to the promotion it was for the Brit. Mills issued a 40 second beatdown on the American punctuated by two particularly violent knees, one that started Cope's down fall, the other that finished it. A couple of follow up punches to his downed opponent were all but immaterial as the damage had already been done, the ref stepped in to stop the fight and I was jumping out of my chair. Ché looked over the moon with his performance and the British crowd were really popping loud for him. He was also lucky enough to be awarded the $70,000 dollar bonus for KO of the night for his performance.

The pleasing sight of Ché Mills tko-ing Chris Cope.

After the fight as Ché was exiting the Cage, who should be the first to congratulate him, Chico (Mendes) my Bristol instructor. I was like "hey, that's Chico!!!" to my five year old son who really didn't care one bit.

With the fourth fight (3rd Mian card bout) came another quick submission victory, this time at the unlikely hands of Thiago Alves against Papy Adebi. Alves, predominantly known for being a Muay Thai wrecking machine showed off his immense MT skills from the start, eventually hitting Adebi with a two punch combo that dropped him to the floor. Jumping into mount, Alves then peppered his opponent with punches and elbows, one of the latter of which bust Adebi open somewhat. None of this served to finish the bout though and Adebi rather unwisely gave up his back then eventually succumbed to a rear naked choke. This submission marks Alves' first tapout in the UFC and his first career sub that wasn't due to strikes showing that he's really trying to develop his game.

 Alves closing out play with a text book RNC.

The Co-Main event was a Bantamweight throw down between Brad "One Punch" Pickett and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Black Belt, Renan Barão. The fight was a lightning paced punch up between the two, with the Brazilian looking more technical but the Brit landing some heavy blows and tasty combos. It was all academic once it hit the ground though courtesy of a combination from Barão, the talented grappler easily taking the back and then locking in a RNC with minimum effort at just over the four minute mark. A great match with both guys earning themselves bonuses for fight of the night. During Barão's interview with Joe Rogan after the match there was a great cameo appearance from Braulio Estima acting as the in ring translater and doing about as good a job in the role as anyone I've ever seen do it. Much better than some (cough cough Ed Soares!).

Yet another Rear Naked, this time Renan Barôa over Brad Pickett.

The Main Event was another good punch up between Chris Leben and Mark Muñoz. Both came out aggressive but "The Filipino Wrecking Machine" taking the upper hand due to his wrestling and Leben didn't look himself cardio-wise. The action carried over to the second round though with Muñoz going on to severely batter Leben's face down the left side during a positive bit of ground and pound. Referee Mark Goddard gave Leben the opportunity to call it when he stopped the action to ask if he could see alright. Leben said he could so the bout continued but the damage had been done. After the second round Leben's corner threw in the towel saying their guy couldn't see out of his left eye. Leben didn't seem to argue with this decision.

 

As I said earlier, the bout didn't look the prettiest on paper but action-wise it was a scorcher and from a Bjj fan's perspective it was the best UFC in a long while. Looks like I best go to the next one in the UK then.


Til next time \m/

Tonights action.

Ok. Taking a break from the story telling aspect of this blog I just wanna take this opportunity to point out that there is an MMA event on tonight. Strikeforce World Heavyweight Grand Prix: Barnett vs. Kharitonov will feature two of the most stellar BJJ practitioners in the world today.


Roger Gracie, mutli time BJJ and ADCC world champion will face off against "King" Mo Lawal.

And Strikeforce Middleweight Champion Ronaldo "Jacaré" Souza will defend against Luke Rockhold.

I can't wait for these matches more than any others on the card but I also have a certain trepidation for them too. You see I have tickets for the ADCC in Nottingham in two weeks time and both Roger Gracie and Jacaré are strong fixtures on the competitors list with Jacaré headlining against Braulio Estima!!! and Roger a firm favourite for a big win. If either of these guys can't attend through injury I will be gutted!

Good luck guys. A couple of slick subs in the first minutes of your respective matches would be great.

Second lesson and pain.

So Thursday came around again and I'd stopped aching by about Tuesday so I was ready for my second Jiu Jitsu class. I made the quick trip down the M5 to junction 22, Burnham, to King Alfred's Sport Centre nice and early to help get the mats out. Ian's assistant instructor, Gary, was also there nice and early and we were having a good chat and a laugh. Gary asked me whether I'd ached on the weekend after my first session to which (for reasons I will never work out) I lied and said I'd ached a bit on the Friday but was fine all weekend. That one little white lie was possibly the stupidest lie I've ever told as not only did Gary not believe me but he decided that the sessions warm up and pre lesson drills would be extra special, just for me.

There were many laps of the mats, sprints, press ups, sit ups, squats, two man back to back stand ups, break falls and the lessons novelty drill, which was first shrimping up and down the mats, then shoot drills up and down the mats and finally Jacare style crawling up and down. After all this my unfit 15 stone fat turd of a body was well and truly knackered. I was literally sweating out of every pore in my body. I could barely open my eyes for the sweat pouring down my forehead, stinging my eyes.

Taking a looooonngggg drink of water while everyone paired off, I was left to pair off with a fairly short, italian looking dude whose name I cannot remember. Now I had not seen him the week before and from the reaction Ian gave him when he'd come in the guy was not a regular but he was a former student at the club. He was not wearing a gi or anything so I was unsure of how much training he'd had (not that a gi would've been much of a tell tale sign anyway) so I asked him straight out how much he'd done. He said he used to come a year before for a few months but never got a gi or a belt or anything. We did the first few training exercises, me with a total lack of skill which gave him to confidence to try and "show me" how. Then we did some ground work which he also "helped" me with. By the end of our technique training I had in no uncertain terms proved to him that I was as clueless about ground techniques as nearly anyone he was like to meet, where as he had done his best to attempt to prove to me that he was a long lost Gracie, with knowledge that I would probably never obtain.

So when I got up to get a drink before the rolling I figured he would do as everyone I had rolled against the previous week had done and just lightly roll against me whilst trying to actually teach me some stuff. How wrong could I be? Not this little dude. No. He proceeded to use every single technique in his arsenal to tap me out issuing a master class in pain like I have never received since that day. He was cranking on some armbars, squeezing my head off with a particularly tight rear naked (I didn't even know what that was at the time), nearly choking me unconcious with an arm triangle and his pièce de résistance, an americana cranked on so hard my shoulder nearly popped out. 6 times he tapped me out in 3 minutes, all the while saying things like "I'm just seeing how much I can remember" and "see if this works as I remember it" and "oh sorry I'm just trying to get the technique right".

In my previous post I said that I'd never ached more than after my first JJ lesson but that isn't entirely true. It was after my second lesson with Gary's monster warm up and the little idiots Americana cranking demonstration that I truly ached like never before. I could barely move come Saturday morning and come Sunday I was trying to remove four shrub stumps from my garden in total agony. I still to this day feel weary about the shoulder that the little prick nearly popped out on that session. I related the story to Gary the next week and he said he'd have a word with the guy but we never saw him again. And all the pain still didn't put me off.

To be continued.

Introduce myself.

Hi Guys. I say that confidently like I know people will be reading this even though I kind of doubt it. This is the first and introductory blog that I will be writing on my favourite sport and pastime, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.


First I'll explain a little about how I got into BJJ. I have to admit to having a bit of a stereotypical reason for originally finding the the Martial Art Form of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu interesting. Back in about 1999 I borrowed a video (yes, video) off of my mate Dave (yes we've all got one). This video was the about the second Vale Tudo Tournament, an eight fighter elimination tournament focusing in part on the time leading up to the tournament of one Mr Rickson Gracie. Now although impressive of physique he was no where near the largest person with regards to stature standing in the ring during that competition introduction. And yet the video was promoting Rickson as the winner of the last tournament, back to defend his title. Looking at some of the other competitors, and coming from a lifetime of believing that the Heavyweight boxing champion of the World was the best fighter in the world (yeah I know, I was stupid), I thought this was gonna be one of those stories where the guy loses of something.

How wrong could I be? Through the video it also showed scenes of a young American Kickboxer called Todd Hayes who obviously, mainly through the hype of his mouthpiece manager, was regarded as a serious contender to stop Rickson gaining the title for a second year in a row. I ashamedly admit that I thought this guy was going to demolish all in his path. Rickson Gracie tore through his opponents, controlling them, then submitting them easily without getting a mark on him. The little guy, Yuki Nakai, who Rickson fought in the final looked like a blood splattered scene from a horror film with one eye swollen up so he could barely see out of it. And Rickson was unmarked. Both had fought 2 fighters before this. Only Rickson had dominated his opponents, Nakai had recieved much damage a won with last ditch submission efforts.

Seeing Rickson dominate his opponents on the ground and submit them all, my first introduction to submissions outside of the laughable "sleeper" attempts and such the like employed in Wrestling, I wanted to learn more. Unfortunately, back then the internet was only just taking of its training wheels and I wasn't one of the people blessed with a connection so all I could do was ask around and check the yellow pages to find there were no BJJ or even TJJ classes local to where I grew up. Dream crushed.

It wasn't until I had moved, got married, had a kid, gone through six jobs and 3 cars that I finally got in a profession where I had free time in the evenings and was in a place where I could do something. It was also around this time that I'd rekindled my yearning for BJJ after finally managing to find a Sky channel that showed MMA matches. So in early 2008 I checked the information highway for any local Jiu Jitsu classes and found one on a Thursday down in Burnham on Sea just a few miles away from where I live. A quick email to the instructor and I was on my journey. It should be worth explaining at this point that I was a brutally out of shape 15 stone 4 ex chef who hadn't done any serious cardiovascular activity for many many years.

March 2008 I had my first Traditional Jiu Jitsu class in King Alfred Sport Centre, Burnham on Sea with the Somerset Jiu Jitsu Alliance under instructor Ian Rossiter and his ever present assistant instructor Gary Davies. They were/are both Black Belts in Traditional JJ with Ian being a fourth dan and Gary a second, but their lessons tended to lean away from traditional standards and veer more towards BJJ lessons. Ian and Gary were both, at that time, Purple Belts in BJJ and their affection had been leaning toward the ground elements of the Brazilian art form which was reflected in their methods of teaching. Classes always began with the traditional warm up, stretches and break fall practice, usually including some sort of novelty warm exercise too, and then started with some kind of stand up technique with a throw or takedown or two and then we went on to the ground techniques. We usually covered about 3 or 4 ground techniques with repeated drilling and then we rolled. Now coming back to my first lesson I remember when Ian told everyone to get a drink and get ready for rolling I had no idea what he was talking about. When I asked he explained that everyone takes part in the sparring at the end to which my ass nearly fell out. I said "what? this is only my first lesson". To which someone told me not to worry as no one would come in too hard on a new guy. True to their word everybody I rolled with that day was really easy on me and generally just tried to show me some techniques and ways of getting out of them in lieu of any real sparring.

I left that day feeling totally exhausted, aching like crazy and craving more as if it was the best new drug on the market. My body has never hurt so much as it did the three days after that lesson. It was nearly a deal killer. My body was regretting it, my wife was telling me I was crazy to do it again if it made me hurt so much and it drove home just how completely unfit I was. In fact thinking back to it I'm surprised I ever went back. But I did cause I loved it.

Continued next time.