Seminar - 25/5/13

Well, this'll go down in my Bjj history as "one of those days that didn't go to plan".

Firstly, it's a bank holiday weekend here in the UK and the weather was threatening to look quite nice (an uncommon occurrence here). This meant that traffic was absolutely choca-block. Concerns were first raised when my wife had left her friends house in Bristol at 10 o clock and was still not even halfway back by half 11. Fortunately my mother in law was kind enough to look after the kids while I went to the seminar.

When I got there the numbers were really low. Seems like loads of people either struggled to beat the traffic or just gave up. Chico himself (it was supposed to be his seminar) ended up arriving 2 hours late, taking 3 and a half hours to get from Cheltenham. A journey that usually only takes an hour.

Anyway, Ian stepped up and took the No Gi part of the class and we did some Leo Vieira style pummeling to takedowns and back takes. All stuff that Leo had previously referenced as the deciding factor in Demian Maia's recent UFC grappling domination of John Fitch (Leo is Demian's head bjj for mma instructor).

That all went well and everything was good. At the end of that hour and a half we did some No Gi rolling. Not a specialty of mine it has to be said. I've only grappled No Gi about maybe 10 times. First round went well against a guy from Dorset. Took his back and was a hairs width away from locking up a RNC as the round closed out.

Second round was against Marc Aplin who managed to duck around me to take a high back control (as I said in my last post, he's fast). I felt comfortable though and with the lesser friction of a rash guard in comparison to my gi, I was able to curl up reach under his right leg and pull it up to duck out and pop up in his guard. All well there. Unfortunately, and to absolutely no fault of Marc's, (I emphasize that because he was feeling guilty and it's in no way his fault) something moved painfully at the lower left frontal area of my rib cage. Very painfully. While curling up I obviously went too tight and managed to crush something together in there. Christ it hurt. We initially thought I'd either popped or cracked a rib. Marc was good enough to supply me with some painkillers and I quickly got off the mat.

Ironically, Chico turned up just after that so I had time to quickly say hello before disappearing home in a world of pain. Got home and me and my wife went down to A and E under her mother's advice (Pat's a nurse) to get an X Ray. The whole process was relatively quick and I was pleased to find out that nothing was broken OR out of position and the doctor also told me I had a nice, healthy set of lungs. That's a relief after the pain I was going through with them at the beginning of the year. She said the problem was that a muscle had popped through my rib cage. Causes a lot of pain and discomfort but generally heals after a week of rest.

Thank god it's not worse. Hopefully I'll still be able to compete at Hereford next month. We'll see how I go over the next 2 weeks and I'll make my decision then. Anyway, that certainly wasn't the ending to day I was hoping for but it definitely could've been much worse. I'll keep you updated on what happens.

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Chico Mendes Seminar 3/11/12

I was fortunate enough on Saturday, to be able to attend a fantastic Chico Mendes seminar down at Sweat FA, Weston Super Mare. The first of many to come we hope. The attendance was pretty good. Better than Ian (Rossiter) expected for the first time out, with a lot of our guys and the guys from Bristol attending, along with some of the Wednesday night MMA class guys and some other random Jiu Jitsu enthusiasts.

As usual, Chico's teaching was absolutely first class, striking the right combination of technical instruction, coupled with a good dose of humour to make people feel at home and comfortable. I've never found my attention slipping in a Chico class or seminar.

No Gi Techniques:

We started off with a couple of techniques for passing a seated opponents guard from a standing position. For the first you are to wait back and let the opponent come to you using their legs to drag them forward. As he's come toward you and ready to pull forward again you quickly step forward and pull his leg up high toward you so he goes down on his back. You secure his leg by kneeling into him so your knees are either side of his leg and you fold his leg over your leg nearside leg and "put his foot in your pocket". You should be facing him head on for this not off to the side. With his leg clamped between your legs you have a teasing leg lock finish although that's not what we were being taught. You basically sit there and wait for the guy on bottom to act first (usually by trying to push you away using his leg so he can recover guard) so you can push his leg out of the way and step around and come down into side control.
I was fortunate enough to be Chico's demonstration dummy for this move so got to see if fresh and first hand. One specific thing I remember that Chico showed us as a tip was that when you first grab the leg and pull it up so the guy's back goes flat to the floor, a common thing for the guy on the ground to do is attempt to cross over his free leg to hold you off. However, if you hold the secured leg forward and stand off until you've found your position you can actually use that leg to block the guy from crossing over his free leg to regain some semblance of guard.

All photos come courtesy of Chico's Facebook page.

The second technique along the standing pass line involved finding the seated opponent's stronger side. You do this by stand in front of him, both feet level to give him the option of which side to attack. When he presents himself in a seated combat posture, where one leg is forward and he's leaning his elbow on that leg for base, you know that is his stronger, preferred side (unless he's poker playing, bluffing genius) and you can then switch your stance so your leg that is directly opposite his forward leg is now stepped back whilst your other leg is forward. With this stance he cannot get and easy grab of the preferred leg. From this position you should be stood crouched, with your head in line with your lower body so as to not be easily unbalanced. From here you once again wait for the opponent to make a move forward then drive froward yourself, simultaneously pushing on the inside knee of his forward raised leg with one hand (left hand for right leg or vice versa) and your other hand presses against his waist on the other side of him, using this position to push his leg down to the ground so he turns on his side. Whilst doing this you should be stood fully away from him so he can't recover by getting hold of a leg somehow. You can finish the pass by walking out around the leg that is secured down and then dropping into side control (keeping the legs held away all the while). This is a move that I learned ages ago but have never actually put into good use which is pretty criminal really given the amount of opportunities I've had to do so. Gotta try and use it a bit more.

I was drilling both of the above with Rich Presley.

Moving away from the standing passing but staying with the passing theme, Chico next showed us a Half Guard pass. The first thing about passing half guard that he drilled into us was the importance of getting the knee up. You must bring the knee of the trapped leg off of the ground and preferably out of the leg trap. To do this you can turn to your side and rest on your non trapped leg so you can bring the other leg up. You may also encounter half guard users who love using the leg trapping method (lock down - urgh) in which case you rest your weight forward whilst you use your other leg to push open the trap so you can bring the first leg out and bend it to an untrappable position. You then once again work at popping the knee up through.
Another very important point was that when the opponent on the bottom is using the strong half guard style of laying out to one side of you, always ensure you have the underhook there to stop him from going to your back. If not the underhook then an over-underhook like a whizzer.
We drilled around with these tips to begin with, trying to get the leg out/up, un-trapping where necessary, just so we get well used to the idea of getting that knee up. I drilled this with a young lad called Sean Errock, who trains a bit of gi but is a very talented young No Gi grappler. We drilled quite hard in the end, with the guy on bottom really trying to stop the knee escape or keep the leg trapped. I found it remarkable that when you're not thinking about trying to submit the guy from half guard top, it actually proves quite easy to blast past his half guard.

For an actual half guard pass from here, Chico then ran us through one of his main thoughts from this position. Always use your head! It's like a third limb that you can use for pushing. When the guy has a strong side control position on your and you want to flatten him out, use your head against his shoulder or neck, to push him down so his back's to the floor. From here, to help with your pass and also to assist in bringing the knee up if necessary (if the guy is really persistent or tenacious), your head by his so you can bring your free (outside) arm up behind his head to tak a grab of the material at his shoulder on the other side. With that position correct you can now drive your shoulder forward to painfully push his head to the side, effectively cutting down half the escape possibilities for him (if his head can't turn back toward me, neither can the rest of his body). From this position you can walk your nearside underhooked arm up the mat a bit to bring the opponent's arm up (up the mat not up in the air). you can now bring both of your arms together so your arm passed behind the head can reach to grab the wrist of the one that has walked up the mat. You now have the opponent in a very uncomfortable position with his offside arm trapped above his head so as to not interfere with anything. The opponent will generally want to release your leg at that point just to get out of this position but if he's really stubborn it proves quite easy to flatten your offside to the ground so you can bring the trapped knee up now. Once up and out of the trap it's just a decision at the whether you want to slide the knee over and go to mount or slide it across and come to side control. We drilled the mount version which would usually be a no brainer as it's worth more points, but maybe some people are more confident with their side control or use it better fro MMA. Or they might even be confident that they can then easily pass to mount from side thus getting extra points. Lots of reasons for going to side then. If you go to mount though you've got a nice set up for an arm bar right there too.

After a quick group photo and change to Gi we were quickly into a bit of Closed guard work. The first move was a handy little sweep if your opponent puts his leg forward in your guard. So he's put the left leg forward and has a grip of your left lapel with his right hand. Now this is to good an opportunity to miss. You need to chop his leg out by bringing your right arm underneath it and chopping upward toward you at about the ankle. Make sure to hold on to the leg in the crook of your elbow. Now with your free left hand you grab his right hand to keep it secure near you so he can't base out. To hit the sweep you lean forward pushing the leg forward with you, so he tips to his back on the side where he has no basing arm. As he's tipping you need to open your guard and ensure you straighten out your left leg so when he flattens to the ground you can switch the leg out and come to your knees in the mount. This is a pretty good sweep variation from closed guard that will add another dimension to my game.

Next up was a sweep variation for if the guy traps your arm. He's in your closed guard and baited you with the open left leg. You reach under to take it but he's too quick and clamps his leg back down shut again, trapping your right arm in there and cutting off one side of your upper body defence. However this is not the end of the world. In fact after a short while of drilling this move I felt this was an amazing turn of events. All you need to do is ensure he can't move his right hand from your waist at this point then you can sweep him over to your left (his right) side. To do this you open your guard and drop the left foot to the floor and can basically roll him over to his back using a flower sweep style right leg up, kicking him (not proper kicking, it's just a description) at the left under arm to flip him over and come up comfortably in mount. I absolutely LOVE this sweep as a cool variation on the Flower Sweep. I've already hit it a few times in rolling since. Love it!!
You can even just slot your arm inside when he hasn't opened the leg. Works the same way. Amazing sweep.
I was drilling this one with young Paddy.

A quick alternative to the above sweep was to turn it into an arm bar. You have your right arm trapped under his leg as above. You also have his right arm trapped secured with your left hand. You need a bit more of the arm trapped here though so most of his forearm is on your chest/stomach. From here you shift your hips out left and use the arm under leg hold to shift you position so you can open your guard and bring your left leg up and over his head. You can finish the arm bar here with him sat up but most likely the superior strength of your legs and the hold you have on his leg will push him down to the mat  so he's flat on his back and you have the arm bar like that. This is a very common finish for me and one of my most frequent methods of tapping people out these days.
Alternatively with this, if the guys retracts the elbow just enough that the arm bar doesn't hit, at least with the arm in leg you've swept them to their back and can come up into technical or s-mount.

Chico then ran us through some tips for enhancing your Arm Bar from Guard. From closed guard you have the right arm secured with your right hand. Grip it at the upper forearm or elbow to start, by cupping your hand across the top of the arm and having the cupped hand go under on the other side. You then escape your hips left as standard arm bar practice. Now pull the arm tight inside so the elbow is uncomfortably pulled in at an angle. Reach over with your free left hand and grab his free left arm on the gi material at his upper arm/triceps. You use this grip to help you turn into position and get the leg over the head. When you are finishing, bring your left hand back down to help with the control of the wrist. Whilst extending the hips, if you point your heels down and flex your feet up it adds extra tension to the hold.
The feet pointing up tip was a particular eye opener because you wouldn't suspect it would make much difference but you really feel it when it's on.

The last technique I was in attendance for was an amazing Gi choke. From closed guard you open your opponent's Gi for ease of access. Using your knees to brings him towards you, you drive your right hand fairly deep into his right collar and grip tight. Shift your body around to that side (your left) to create the opening for your other hand. He'll instinctively be trying to pull away at this point so you just need to use your knees again to pull him back and pass your left hand UNDER your right arm to slip into his left collar. Shifting back to head on position you clamp your arms shut around his neck (like a scissor motion) to hold him in place and OPEN your hand grips slightly. Now using the knees to keep him closed you drive the hands ridiculously deep into his collar and then close them. At this point the guys eyes are already watering in anticipation of what is about to come. To painfully finish you just pull your elbows in tight to your ribs and then outwardly flex with your hands. Christ this is painful. Brilliant move.

This was the last move I got to see as I (unfortunately) had to leave a little early to get my kids :o(. Fantastic seminar though. It fact I'd go out on a limb and say it was one of the best I've been to. Chico is an amazing instructor for this sort of setting. Very entertaining and the whole class was entranced throughout. I really hope we get another again real soon.

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Leo Vieira Seminar. 27/10/12

Wow I'm behind with these write ups at the moment. I've just got so much on, actually getting in time to train at the moment is hard enough. Finding time to blog about it after is proving very difficult. But I will persist as, first and foremost, this blog is a memory aid to me, for all stuff I've attended and what I've learned while I was there.


On then to the subject matter for this blog. I have once again been given the opportunity to trained under the Legendary Head of the Worldwide Checkmat organisation, Leo Vieira at the Bristol Combat Legion, LA Gym in Bristol. Leo is an amazing guy and a brilliant and very thorough teacher. It never ceases to amaze me how much of a down to earth dude he is too. Before the seminar started I had a quick chat with him about the recent Metamoris event and his opinions on it. He thought it was a very well staged event and great for Bjj as a whole. When I asked him if he would ever fight in one if asked he replied that he was asked to do the first one, in a match up with Jean Jacques Machado, but unfortunately he was already committed to training Demian Maia for his recent UFC fight. He said it may well go ahead for a second event as there is already noise that the event will return in the future. Great stuff!!

Anyway, on to the matter at hand. The format for Leo's seminar this time around was an hour and a half MMA grappling and an hour and a half Bjj in the gi. Now I have to confess that I am definitely no MMA competitor and some of the MMA stuff I found little use for in application to my Bjj game as a lot of it was involving clinching against the cage fence/wall and pummelling for position, then going to back or getting the takedown. All very good stuff and all very well taught but as there is a complete lack of wall on a Bjj comp mat there is no practical application for it in my game. I'm pushing on in years now and, although I'm a big fan of MMA, I think any possibility I had of going into it to compete or even just train as a hobby is well behind me now.

That being said, Leo did add a ground technique at the end where you're on the ground with the opponent in your closed guard and you've managed to achieve double overhooks on both his arms, but wrapped your arms underneath to lock them together using a double forearm grip. You should have your opponent trapped close to you, posture broken down, with his arms both bent so he is leaning on his forearms. From here a quick open of the guard and a shift of the hips with allow you to make enough space to get your hooks in for a very close in Butterfly Guard. Leo seems to like this double overhook butterfly guard position as he based a lot of a previous No-Gi seminar around it. To finish this move you just need to choose which way you are going to sweep and use your double underhook to push the guy in that direction while kicking up with the leg (i.e if you're pushing him over to your left you will kick out with your right foot). This is quite an easy sweep to perform if you've managed to get everything in place. The one thing you need to watch out for is if the guy bases out with his leg to defend against the sweep. If he does this though you just use the non sweeping hook to kick that leg out of the way and the guy goes over even easier. Cool move.
I was training this with Chris Cook from our Weston club. It's worth mentioning that Chris had some trouble making space for getting the hooks in with this technique. Guys with longer legs have to shift the hips out a bit more to make the space.


Leo managed to overrun the MMA section of the seminar by nearly an hour so it actually closer to 2 and a half hours.


The gi portion of the seminar had some very useful techniques. Leo concentrated on escapes, the first couple being from the mount.

The first was a pretty cool move where you push the right leg of the opponent down (I'll explain it how I learnt it) using both your hands while shrimping your butt out to your own right so you can bring your left leg up and inside (as for the first part of the standard  double shrimp escape) but you keep the knee inside and pressing against the guy's right inside leg/groin to make enough space so you can bring your right leg up and over the outside of his left to press against your knee. You will be left in a position where the guy's leg almost looks like you have it reaped. From this position there are a couple of good sweeps available or an ankle lock, toe hold or even a good transition to knee bar. Of course in a No Holds Barred situation you would have the Heel Hook right there from the off. A good escape from mount which I'd never seen before.

The second was the standard Upa escape which I really don't need to explain again.

Next up was an escape from side control which was also new on me. The opponent has a strong control position on you and you can't get a full shrimp to recover guard. In this situation you use a shimmy move where you first escape your lower body out a bit, then your upper body by shimmying out your shoulders, all the while holding him off with your arm at the hips. You will probably need to repeat this a couple or few times to get the required amount of space but when you do have it you can bring your nearside knee up inside against his torso and use that to make additional space. Now from here there were a few options. The obvious one is to do a standard recovery to butterfly or closed guard but that's a bit unadventurous. Another was to then use your free arm to push against the side of his face/neck to force him away to the point where he's far enough for you to switch on your legs and stand. The third, and always my favourite, is to trap the guy's arm that is nearer to your lower body using your free arm, then swing your outside leg up over and around his head to secure a pretty special arm bar. Very nice move.


Moving on Leo showed us a good escape from if the guy has started to transition to Knee on Belly. He's got his side control and he's put the knee up on your gut but is still crouched in low on you. From here you grab the ankle of the leg he's KOB'd you with, with your nearside arm and pull it toward you, then you can push the knee on your belly away taking away the good base the opponent has for his KOB. You can now turn the guy over the top of you to sweep him over to his back using a combination of your shoulder and torso movement. Not entirely sure I got the explanation of that one right but that's what I remember.


Keeping the side control theme, Leo showed us an escape from when the guy is making a transition to North South from side. The crucial part to this one is that you have to reach your free (outside) arm down and through the gap in the crook of his arm to grip his triceps. This means that when he transitions around you to get to North South you will already be in the process of pushing him away from you. By the time he's in North South you can push him off and either recover guard, push off to stand or go in for the single leg and take him down to his back. Another good alternative to the usual moves I use. One I will try and get in to my game I think.


That is, I'm afraid, as much as my crap memory and even crapper notes will allow me to remember of this seminar. I'm very sure I missed out loads but as I mentioned earlier, I've been so busy with family stuff at the moment I didn't get the chance to type this up straight away. Now I've still got a Chico class from Tuesday to type up. Preferably before Saturday as we have the pleasure of hosting a Chico Mendes seminar down at Sweat FA Weston Super Mare before going out on the piss after. I will really need to write good notes for that one. :oD

Oh yeah, as an additional bonus, Raj Bista was awarded his purple belt at the end of this seminar so we all got to beat him thoroughly about the shoulders with our belts in the name of camaraderie. Fun stuff.

 

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Checkmat Seminar and Grading 19/8/12

It never ceases to amaze me the emotions that this Martial Art I love can bring forth in myself and my friends.

On Sunday I was fortunate enough to attend another Checkmat seminar at Trojan Freefighters Gym in Cheltenham. As is the norm with these Grading seminars that our instructor, Chico Mendes puts on, we were spoiled with the talent that was brought to us, to impart on us some of their Jiu Jitsu knowledge. Attending the seminar alongside Chico (Black Belt Grade two), were Valmyr Neto (Black Belt Grade two), Marco Canha (Black Belt Grade 1) and Luiz Ribiero (Black Belt). We were also graced with the presence of Walter "Broca" Pinto da Silva Jr (Black Belt Grade 3). The Bjj coach of none other than former UFC Light Heavyweight world champion, Lyoto Machida. That's a whole lot of Black Belt on the mats for us right there.

All photos supplied from Chico's Facebook album, shot by Paul Benjiman- paul@Strikingshots.com

The event was exceptionally well attended by Checkmat students from all over the Uk with guys travelling from London, Kent, The Midlands and even from as far north as South Shields. This was great for the Checkmat organisation in England as a whole, not so good for the guys that got graded. Hehe.

We were first treated to something a little different with a Wrestling for Bjj seminar by Marc "Suplex" Allen. Marc showed us a lot of tricks and some pretty slick takedowns to compliment the standing start part of our games for use in competition. The move that I was particularly chuffed with in that segment was a single leg lift up-fall back takedown. About as close as you could probably get to a suplex in a proper Bjj comp. Real great move that I think I will cover in another entry along with a few of the other things Marc taught us.

After the wrestling segment the Black Belt instructors took the mats for the No Gi portion of the day. This was pretty cool as each visiting instructor in turn(except for Broca for some reason) demonstrated a technique and then walked the mats while the students attending drilled it, helping and correcting where necessary. This gave the students a taste of each instructor's style and how they like to work and I have to say, all three instructors really are first class. It's an absolute privilege to train under these guys, it's just a shame Chico didn't get in on the instructional act. Chico's teaching is also amazing and it'd be cool to experience some more of his seminar level techniques.

For drilling all of these techniques I paired off with a nice guy called Jamie Berry from Checkmat South Shields (near Newcastle). I have to say I am very impressed with how far these guys travelled for this seminar. That's commitment for you.

Techniques: No- Gi
(I will describe this moves from the position I initially learned them).

The first technique of the day was demo'd by Valmyr Neto and was a Triangle from Butterfly Guard. You have your opponent in your Butterfly guard (seated with underhooks). The idea of this move is to force a reaction from your opponent by leaning him over toward his left side. To do this you need to release your right underhook use that hand to base out a little behind you while pushing him left (your right) using your left underhook. This should force the guy to put his left hand out to stop the sweep at which point you can push away from him a bit with your legs while keeping him pressured with your left arm. Now you can push yourself away further using your feet on his hips then bring your right leg out (keeping the left in place at his hip) and use it to overwrap around his left shoulder/behind his head and bring the left leg up to lock it up for the tight triangle. Neto added some little bits to tighten the triangle or to turn it into and arm bar but it was all pretty obvious stuff from there. The magic is in getting there and that is a move I could definitely get on board with.
He also showed us a variation on that move that got to a really slick shoulder lock too (like an upright omoplata). When you reach behind and force the opponent over to his left so he extends the hand, keep a tight grip on the left underhook and bring your left knee up over his shoulder and lay yourself forwards on the floor. If done correctly you should be able to roll further over on your left side to increase pressure to the lock.
Both of these were pretty goochy moves that came quite natural with just a little bit of drilling.

The second technique was from Marco Cahna. Again from Butterfly guard but this time it was a sweep. From seated butterfly with the left underhook in and the right arm pulling the opponents left arm in tight, kick your right leg under your left leg (through the gap between your foot and your ass) and lean out right, kicking with your left leg to bring the guy over with you easily. This felt like a really natural butterfly sweep and I found myself easily sweeping Jamie over and coming up in side control. However. Marco also pointed out that if you were in a sport Jiu Jitsu match and trying to maximise your points you would be best served leaving your left foot in between the opponent's legs allowing him to close up for a really feeble half guard. That way you can lean over to the guys left side (so your left leg is flat to the floor except for the trapped part, you still have the left underhook to stop him from taking your back) and push your right foot against his right leg so you can easily pull your left leg out. From there you must stay tight to him and hip switch to a strong side control position.

Third move was from Luiz Ribiero and was a half guard sweep. It was very similar to the one demonstrated  by Leo Vieira at his last seminar over here except you have your left arm over the opponent's right and across his shoulders/back a little. You have the opponent's right leg in your half with your right leg securing. You are leant up on your right side a little but the opponent has a good underhook on your top (left arm) and is confident of a pass. You have your right hand on his bicep and wait for the guys momentum to shift forward. It doesn't even have to be a lot, just an ever so slight shift and you can use it to twist over to the left with your legs, whilst rolling over that way using the right arm on the bicep to assist in the very effective sweep. Although you invariably come up in half guard top you have good head control and can crush the opponent's face sideways to limit his manoeuvrability and assist you with the pass.
A great variation on what was already my favourite half guard sweep.

The last technique in the No Gi portion was another Marco Cahna move and felt quite familiar as it was a transition from the Butterfly Guard to X Guard then finish with a knee bar or toe hold. Starting for the same position as for Marco's previous move, you attempt the same sweep but the opponent anticipates it and brings his left leg out and bases with it to block the sweep. From here you pass your right arm under his left leg (low to the ankle or foot) and chop it out and up to your shoulder pulling down tight on it with a double wrapped arm grip to keep it in place), whilst at the same time bringing your left hook high in his inside (right) leg and your right hook back and putting in underneath the your left at about the knee. This is the X Guard position. From here you use your left leg to push his right leg away at the knee which forces the opponent to turn away from you slightly allowing you to turn him around so his knee is facing down into your stomach. You now just pass your right leg out and over the top of his upper leg and triangle it on the other side of him with your other leg, but then hide the lower of part of the securing leg above him to avoid a toe hold counter. From that position you just need to extend your hips into his knee while pushing your legs into his butt/lower back for the knee bar.
If for whatever reason it's not coming on, a slight adjustment turns it into a painful toe hold.

Some great and easily attainable techniques for the No Gi part. After a very short break and a quick change into something a little less sweaty we were back for the Gi portion of the day.


Techniques: Gi


The first gi technique was almost like an old friend to me as it was the Flower Sweep from closed guard as demo'd by Luiz Ribiero. Luiz did show it with a couple of obvious differences to how I usually do it. From closed guard you grab the opponent's left gi sleeve at the cuff and pull it in towards you, whilst at the same time you reach down a grab his left pant leg as low as possible. Now opening your guard, your drop your left leg low to his side whilst kicking up high into his shoulder with your right leg and at the same time pulling up on the left pant leg. At this point though was the main difference between how I usually do it and how Luiz taught it. Luiz had us pull the leg as high up towards our heads as possible to totally destroy the opponent's balance and easily tip him over into side control. Very effective but at the time I was thinking there wasn't much difference between it and the method I usually use.
However. After playing around with that for a while, Luiz showed a counter for if the opponent manages to block the sweep (usually by bringing their left arm across to act as a large ditch base out). This is where having the opponent's left leg held high comes in. With your strong grip on the leg you turn your right elbow underneath the leg so you can turn the arm fully under that leg and have it tightly secured at your shoulder. You can now bring yourself back to a seated position and close the guard with the slight difference that you have his leg trapped rather uncomfortably (for him) up at your shoulder.

Now for the first move from here (you've still got his right sleeve gripped right?) you can just shift your hips out to your left a little and swing your left leg up and over for quite a tight arm bar.

The second move from here you keep the arm grip and swing you leg up and roll over on your right (taking him with you). He instinctively bases out with his left hand leaving you perfectly set up to pull on his right arm using your lower body as a fulcrum for one of the tightest arm bars you can get on a guy.

If all this looks like failing you can switch your left hand grip of his right sleeve over to pull on his left sleeve and you can sweep him over the other way coming up into mount as you would have for the original sweep.

Exceptionally cool options from the flower sweep using that leg pulled high.


Next up was Valmyr Neto showing us a cool pass for Butterfly guard. The opponent has done everything right with his butterfly guard, he's sat up with full double underhook control and both hooks in. You are on your knees postured up. From here you reach over the opponent's shoulder with your left hand to grab at the guys belt or gi at the lower back. Next you use your right hand to reach inside the opponent's left leg at the knee crook and bend your hand back to hook out around the leg. Now you just kick backwards with your right leg and use your belt control and leg control to tilt and turn the guy so you land neatly in side control. As a little addition, Neto landed in side with you shoulder crushing into the opponent's face quite heavily, leaving the opponent no choice but to attempt to relieve pressure on his face by bringing his arms up then eventually bridging up, by which time you have all the space in the world to transition to mount.
Another very slick, very easy to learn move.

The last technique for the Gi portion of the seminar was another Marco Canha one and was perhaps the most tricky move of the day. Mainly because there seemed to be so much to it. Starting from your opponent's Spider Guard with you standing, you manage to pull your right arm free. you reach inside and grab a hold of the opponent's gi then collapse his guard and quick step around his right leg to land knee on belly. From there the opponent reacts by trying to get up on his side and pushing against your knee with his hand. You rotate yourself around him, stepping up past his head to come back around into side control the other side,  but you have the guy tilted up on his side slightly with his back to you a little. You need to use your downward pressure against his side/shoulder to keep him in position while you thread your right arm under his head and initiate a seat belt grip in front of him. You must keep you upper body tight to him at all times from here but you can give the opponent a little space at his lower body to "invite" him to attempt to turtle. Should he take you up on this you have space to quickly thrust your right hook in and quickly pull him back down. At this point you may be able to get the left hook in too. If not, you need to lock up your one hook using a sort of rear mount half guard style to maintain maximum control. The finish Marco showed us from here was very similar to Lucas Leite's. You open the guys left collar using your left hand by putting you thumb on top of the collar and turning it proper inside out. This allows you to bring right hand across in front of him and get sooo deep in at the collar that the choke is virtually on already. Now you can grab the guys right lapel quite low with your land and finish by applying the choke. Interesting detail here was instead of just yanking away to finish, lift yourself up on your right elbow and turn and the choke apply much tighter anyway.
Some nice parts to the move and I might have lost a couple of details here as this was one of those techniques where the demo was very long and descriptive. Works well though.

Rolling:

We all had a little roll at the end. I rolled with Jamie, who I had trained with all day, first. I basically just played around with my guard for this one. Trying to submit off my back and moving him a round a little. Jamie managed to pass my guard handily at one point but I was able to recover it quite well. That's about as much of it as I remember to be frank. He seemed to have some good movement and held me quite tight, not leaving much space. For a white belt he had a pretty damn good game and I can't imagine that he's too far off his blue belt.


Next up was my annual thrashing from Paul Severn, although I was pleased to see that I was holding my own a bit better this time. We played with some good guard work back and forth before he cleverly passed my guard to side control. I managed to escape his side control using the Lucas Leite set up to the inverted Anaconda but turned his lower body toward me before I could try and tighen it fully and recovered guard. From there he managed to cinch on a nice tight arm bar which "convinced" me to tap after a brief struggle. Can't remember the rest of it except for that I played it quite safe after that.


My last roll was where I made a massive mistake. I was against quite a big heavy guy called Wayne. We started with a little knee to knee grapple where he got such a tight hold on both my lapels that I had to struggle to loosen it or risk going out. From there I pushed him over and got in his closed guard with him working the collar still and me bringing the knee in for the pass. At this point we clashed with another pair on the mat and in my Herculean stupidity I tried to move Wayne across using the pull him across by the gi jacket method that you can generally get away with when grappling a guy of similar or smaller size. Oh my god did something go in my back at that point. I carried on the roll with some twinges of pain there, passed his guard and attempted a bow and arrow from top but I really couldn't focus on anything other than the pain. I welcomed the end of that roll and was actually glad when it was over. I also sat out the rest of the rolling to stretch out my back. It has healed over the last few days but the Sunday night at home was sheer agony.



Grading:

On to the final part of the event. And what a climax it was. Chico started off the proceedings by issuing the Blue Belts out. Notable among them were Bristol Class regulars, Andy "Ginge" Bremerkamp (he didn't know that was his nickname and evidently neither did Chico when he was reading the names on the belts out :oD) and Martin (Late show) Rose, and DV8 and Bristol regular Tom Hill. There were a few other guys who scooped Blues as well. Good stuff all of them. It's a great feeling getting your first awarded belt as it's a long journey with few stops along the way.

Next up were the Purple Belt guys and this was quite a big moment for the South West Branch of the Checkmat family as, up until now the highest rankers were all Blue Belts, except for a very light smattering of Brown Belts that have been training for ages and landed in Checkmat recently. Notable amongst the Purples were Ronan Fleming of the Bristol Club and Paul Severn of the Cheltenham and Worcester Clubs, as these guys have been training for a fair old while and it was universally felt that their promotions were a necessity by this time. Other guys I've rolled with who scooped their purples were Stuart Austin and Antanas Jazbutis. Both very worthy guys. Well done the lot of them. They've done theirselves and their team-mates proud.

The last and most special award of the day to be given out was a big moment for Checkmat Uk as a whole and for our little DV8 club in particular, as my Instructor, Ian Rossiter, was presented with the monumental honour of being the first home grown Checkmat Black Belt in the West of England. And a very emotional time for him it was too. It truly was priceless to see Ian's jaw drop and to have him stand up in front of the gathering getting his pristine new Black Belt tied around his waist and giving his speech, whilst choking back his Tears of joy. I can honestly say that, looking at Ian come the journeys end, the final big step makes all the hard work, the training and learning, the niggling little injuries, the long distances travelled and the hardships endured all seem worthwhile for that one moment of elation when you get exactly what you've worked these long years for. Congratulations Boss. You thoroughly deserve it.

¬m/

Lucas Leite Seminar 15/7/12

On Sunday morning, I was fortunate enough to attend a seminar with Checkmat's highly decorated Brazilian Jiu Jitsu world champion, Lucas Leite. The seminar took place at the brilliantly kitted out Trojan Free Fighters HQ in Cheltenham, Gloucester, and was attended by a large contingent of Chico Mendes Bjj students from his various classes across the West Country of the Uk.

It's always good to attend these big seminar occasions that Chico arranges for us, not only for the wicked techniques we learn but also for the fact that Chico is bringing over internationally famous, World Championship calibre Bjj players for us to meet and learn under. Honestly, it's a Bjj geek fan boy's dream.

Photos courtesy of Chicopics ;o)

After a very brief warm up of some laps and stretching, Lucas went straight into the Techniques. Apart from the first technique that he showed with Chico, he demonstrated all of his Gi techniques on the two Brown Belts, Ian Rossiter and Matt Sellars. For ease of explanation I will describe these moves from the sides that I have learned them.

Gi

The first technique was a very nice transition to back from Half Spider Guard. It started from the full guard position and then you switch to a transitional open guard position where you have grips on the opponent's sleeve cuffs and are pulling the arm in close to you with your knees being pushed into the elbow crooks to hold the guy in place. Drop the right leg down and putting it through the opponents legs to wrap around his right leg whilst pulling his right arm closer so your left knee can be pressed against the right side of his upper chest. Now use a slight extending of your left leg to push the opponent's body slightly left whilst lifting his arm out of the way so you can use your left arm (you've just released his sleeve cuff) to quickly and forcefully go under the arm to wrap around his back and take a grip of his gi pants. You now use your left leg to hook over his right leg and pull it off to the side so part of his base is gone and you can shrug right under his right arm and get to his back. At that point, if you reach down and take a grab of the gi pants at either the inside hip or the knee on the left side of the guy, you can roll back down to seated position, pulling him with you and easily getting your left hook in (remember your right hook was already in thanks to the half spider) all ready for the seated rear mount attack. 

I paired off with Glenn Cutter for all of the techniques for this seminar and we had a great laugh as well as learning a great deal of cool new techniques.

Next move was a pretty cool Half Guard Sweep that starts from a position I have often found myself in. No one likes being in half guard bottom when you've unfortunately given the guy on top enough time to flatten you out and lay across you. This one is a cool technique to help you out there. So you've got the opponent's left leg trapped but he has laid diagonally across you with his left arm wrapped around your head and grabbed by the other arm on the other side, for control. Now you bring your arms up - the right hand grabs the material below his left arm pit, with the left you grab the material at his left shoulder (so your hands are grabbing his gi above and below his left shoulder) with your left forearm pressing into his throat. Interestingly, I found your left arm can come over or under his right arm for this bit. With both arms in place you push up and get first your head under, into his chest, then you can make enough space to bring you left knee up into the mix and get lots of space for the half guard. From there, as before, you can grab around the back again to the gi pants and pull the leg out using your left leg. This time however, he's stopping you from going to back (maybe he's grabbed the back of your gi, maybe he's got a whizzer) you bring your body upright a bit, so your pushing against him - tip for doing this, instead of trying to push yourself up using main strength on your right hand, bring your right elbow in close to your stomach and push up using more of your arm and shoulder - until you can draw your right leg out a bit and rest on that. You can now reach under the opponent's left leg a fall/pull back and roll over on your left shoulder to flip the opponent up over you head and onto his back. Your free leg (right) would most likely have been used to plant on the mat to push off, can now be brought up and you can knee slide across the opponents body to land in mount (have to do that last bit fast though or I'm pretty sure a wily opponent will manage to at least recover to half guard in the scramble).

The third technique of the session Lucas showed, offered us a pretty cool escape from side control bottom. You are on you back and your opponent is laying across you in a side control position (I was practising this mainly with Glenn's legs on my right side with him laying across so his head is to my left) with your head secured. You reach down with you left hand to his right leg (this bit can be quite tight but if you work for it you'll get there in the end) and push it down so your left leg can bend in and hook it and pull it off down and then to the left into an uncomfortable position. From there you can either: a/ pull the opponent's right arm in tight with your left while your right hand reaches down and under his left leg. Then using your right (free) leg as a plant you can bridge over flipping the opponent over and coming up in side control top. Or b/ reach around with the underhooking left hand to the back of the opponent's gi pants and bring your free leg up through a bit so you have space to base up and you're back in the original strong Half Guard position to take back. Two very good options from the one disadvantageous position.

The last part of this first set of techniques Lucas demonstrated was once again from the Half Guard with the opponent's trapped right leg hooked off by your left leg and you with the left arm under hook reach around (oo-er) to gi pants at back. You have the strong half guard position basically. This time though, instead of going meekly to your impending doom the opponent has over hooked your left arm into a whizzer and is blocking your attempts to take his back or overhead sweep him. This time, you can sit up as in the second technique so you're both pushing weight against each other, then you reach your right hand over and pull on his left leg at the knee whilst continuing to push your weight forward. The result is (or should be) that your opponent topples to his back with you able to push forward past his right leg into side control.

We then messed about with all four of those techniques, mix and matching the lot so you eventually work out that have just learnt an option for just about every counter he can think of when you're trying to sweep him from your strong half guard.


Moving us away from the Half Guard, Lucas' next technique was attacking the opponent's turtle (so you have rear side mount on him basically). The opponent is turtled up with both hands blocking his collar so you can't get an easy lapel grip for a super quick finish. For this I was at Glenn's right side. Whilst putting your weight against his back (so he cannot easily move out of his turtle) you reach over his back and around under his arm on his left side to grab his right lapel at about the bottom of his chest. Now you position your right knee into his side at the space where he is connecting his left elbow and knee together. If you now fall backward while pushing out with your leg the opponent will come over with you, neatly giving you space to slot first your right hook in, then your left hook in. You now have a perfect seated rear mount. With the left hand that is on his right lapel, hold out the lapel so you can grab it with your right hand to hold it open and slide your left hand up to take a very deep grip at his right collar. Now your right hand can cross over and grab his left lapel low and you can lean back for the very tight choke. This would almost definitely finish a sparring round or a competition match by itself but Lucas also added in your right leg releasing from it's hooking position and going over his shoulder to be used to pull the guy's right arm away. This choke is pretty sick. great stuff.



Another move when you're attacking an opponent's turtle was started by pulling the guy down on his side with you next to him in a combat stance with your right leg flat on the floor with knee in back (he has his back to you at this point). There was two variations to this move: The first had you reaching your right arm under the guys head to make a play for his arm, reacting to this he attempts to turn back down and turtle again. To stop this you grab your right hand with your left. Your right forearm is underneath his face at that moment so you can easily pull the arm, painfully crossfacing your opponent and forcing him back over. The magic of this move though, is that when you're pulling him back with your crossface, you have created enough space to slip your left hook in and you are pulling him over with enough momentum to end up laying over on you other (left) side and you can slip the right hook in nice and easy too. You have now beautifully taken the opponent's back and can slap a decent rear naked choke on or whatever your poison.
The second variation to this move was if the guy on his side didn't turtle back up so you are able to grab his wrist with your right hand (remember it was going under his head) and under hook his left arm with your left, reaching up through to take your own wrist (like for a kimura). You now use the additional strength of this two armed grip to bring the guy over to the left where you slip you right arm over his head (still maintaining the grip on his wrist) and drive that forearm up against the side of his head/neck. This makes space for you to bring your right hook up and around over the top of the face to finish with and arm bar.


The last move in the gi session was a cool Ezekiel to back. You have got both hooks in but the opponent has laid over on his right side. You drive your left arm up underneath his left arm so it pops out at the opponent's right shoulder. You then use that hand to grab in the sleeve of your right arm and bring the blade of the right arm down across his neck, going under the chin with your right hand. Push outwards with both arms to finish. Very tasty. Works well.


As a really cool touch then, Lucas ran through all the techniques again and got us to do the all a few times each once more. This really helped with my ability to remember specific points about the techniques which is pretty cool. To be honest I only had a little bit of difficulty remembering the moves for the gi portion of the seminar which is unusual for me as I suffer from severely crap memory syndrome most of the time. Oh, plus I wrote a lot of notes ;o)

No - Gi

After a very brief drinks break and change in to shorts and rash guard, we were quickly brought back on the mats for the No-Gi portion of the seminar. And this too did not disappoint. 

Lucas said straight off the bat that for Gi seminars he has a tendency to work a lot of control and positional stuff, where as when doing a No-Gi seminar, he very much likes it to be submission heavy. So lots of cool finishes were the order of the day here. (Big smiles all round).

The first move he showed was a where you are seated on the floor with an opponent standing in front of you. (For the sakes of my training and so for this description) The opponents left leg is slightly forward in a sort of wrestler's stance. You pull yourself right in to his legs using a butt scoot, so you are nearly in between his leg. Pass your right leg in between his legs then snake it out and around the opponent's left leg whilst pressing your left foot into his hip. Ensure that your hips are raised off the ground for this for manoeuvrability in case the guy tries to move around you for a pass. From here you can just grab the back of his left ankle and pull on it whilst pushing forward with your legs to drop him down to the floor on his butt. From there you reach over and then under the secured left leg at the ankle  (so your forearm is pressed against his achilles tendon) with your right arm and gable grip that hand with your other hand for pressure. To finish (and this is an awesome tip), pull the leg a little under you and then lean back and tense on it to apply the pain. It really is a great finish and I've always been a fan of the achilles lock. This little tip has really added to my application of this technique. I've used it twice already since the seminar.

For the second technique we were offered a little bit of the forbidden. You don't often get taught heel hooks and for very good reason as they are an extremely dangerous move that can essentially put someone out of action for up to six months due to severe ligament damage in the legs. You really need to guy lightly with this move if practising it and it's probably a good idea to have a confident trust in anyone who is practising the move on you.

From a standing position with the opponent on the floor with legs up (as if you're readying to pass his open guard), offer your left leg for his de la Riva hook and while he's taking that bait with his right leg, (he should also have his left leg up) reach over his left leg as if to secure the achilles and drop backward to the floor. The move was shown to us as if the achilles lock was unattainable for whatever reason so instead you use your left leg to push his right leg to the side, so you can pass your right leg over the top over his left and have enough space to tuck it underneath your left leg so you have a triangle around his leg. With this motion however, you will also have reaped his knee inward so his foot is tucked up at your armpit with his heel out to the side, while his knee is pointing inward toward his other leg. From there you just need to tuck your right forearm underneath his heel (you can use your hands to pull it up to get the position with little worry of loosing it from here) and then gable grip your hands together and raised your right elbow to apply the pressure. REMEMBER, do this very lightly so your opponent only just feels it. It you ram this on you risk seriously damaging your training partner. Every class I have ever been too does not allow this move in open sparring. There is a reason.

The third move in the No-Gi was from the same set up as the first. Seated on floor, opponent standing as if to pass guard, you pull close in between his legs and snake right leg out and around his left. This time however, you pass your right leg over the top of his left and under your own left to form the triangle. You can now reap (turn inward) the guy's left leg to take him down and leave you already perfectly set up for the Heel Hook. In some cases the opponent may try to power his leg straight moving the angle away from you but a simple twist of your body inward toward his leg while you bend back a little bring the position back. You essentially hold all the cards in that position. Lucas also showed that if the opponent attempts to roll away from the move you just roll with him and when you land back straight, it's still easily applied. Simple and exceptionally dangerous.

Moving away from leg locks, Lucas moved on to a Guillotine from Half Guard top. The guy has the strong half guard position on you but you have reached your right arm over his left and back inside to stop the back take. From here you bring your left arm around the guy's head (the head is off to the side of you) and under his chin (across his throat, use the blade of the forearm for maximum effect) and gable grip it with your other hand. To finish this, pull you left arm up into his throat with your right arm. Another fantastic little tip Lucas showed was that if you bring the left elbow in to your side and lean that way a little it piles on the pressure, taking away most peoples resolve to fight the choke. 

He also showed another finished from there though. You get all the way to the guillotine but can't be arsed with the possible gassing out of your arms, instead, you roll over forward to land on you back, with the opponent facing up in the air, fully secured in your grip with his arm in. Now, using your right elbow you can push the guy's left arm out of the way and the release your gable grip and fully push your left arm over, so you can wrap your right arm around it. You are now in the position for the Anaconda choke. You just need to walk your body around toward him to apply the finishing pressure. Brilliant. 

Next was from Side Control Top. I was working on this as if I was laying across my opponent with his head to my left. Your opponent is working hard to escape your side control so you offer up your right leg as if you're going for a lazy transition to knee on belly. The opponent sits up a little and grabs around the leg with his left arm as if for a single leg transition. The space between his arm and torso lends itself perfectly for going for the Darce Choke. Drive your right arm in between that gap, past his head (at about the chin) and out the other side. You can now wrap your other (left) arm around the first, on the other side of his head. You can clench this tight here but will rarely get the tap just like that. Lucas showed us three ways to finish this hold:

The first was to roll forward (almost like the Anaconda, but you don't need to move you body round after that) and clench the arms in tight. This finished the move well but was a questionable risk because if the opponent does manage to buck the move you're in a really bad position.

The second was to lean froward into the opponent (as if to sprawl) and kick out of the single leg grip he has, then lower your hip close to the floor to apply the pressure.
The third was to curl him into you as if you're pulling guard.
All three methods work well. Awesomely in fact :oD

The next technique was my personal favourite for the No-Gi portion of the seminar as it forms part of an amazing Escape from Side Control. Your opponent is laying across you, your head is to his left. To initiate this move you may need to pummel your hands it the correct positions a bit which may take some effort but it is thoroughly worth it. You need to have your right arm down below, against his right side, and your left arm should be across his throat with hand passing his left shoulder. Use this position to bump up to make space as usual for a side control escape, but use your arm positions along with the strength of your legs, to rotate underneath him, moving you in a sort of North South bottom position. The difference being though, that your right arm should have moved his right arm up (from his perspective) and out of the way, and your left arm would have shot over and wrapped around his head, moving into position to be over wrapped by your right arm for a very beautiful Inverted Anaconda Choke. That move is priceless. Me and Glenn were both raving about this move. Couldn't practice it enough.

The last set of moves Lucas demonstrated to us were from a double leg takedown defence position. They were all pretty simple and obvious though, being a transition to Guilltine, a Darce Choke and an Anaconda Choke. I won't write these up as they were fairly straight forward anyway.

The same as with the Gi, Lucas ended by running us through ALL the techniques again and then had us drill them all in succession a couple more times each. Good trick that.

So that was it. Some brilliant techniques learned. Lucas was a class guy and a fantastic teacher through out the entire seminar. Very friendly, very chatty, extremely helpful. And, such as is always the case with Checkmat instructors as I've found, he was constantly watching his students and picking people up where their technique had gone awry, making sure they we had the moves perfectly. It really was a pleasure to learn under this guy, even if just for a day. Who knows? Maybe one day he'll come back again. One can only hope. ¬m/

Lucas Leite

We've just heard the news today from our fantastic instructor, Chico Mendes, that he has managed to convince multi time World Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Champion, Lucas Leite to come and do a seminar for us out here in the West Country. I cannot emphasize how massive this is. Lucas Leite is phenomenal. Your Bjj game will instantly improve just by being in the same room as him. I fully expect to be amazing after one session under his awesome tutelage.

Lucas Leite's credentials include:

2x World Champion (2007, 2005)
2x World Nogi Champion (2009, 2011)
3x Pan American Champion (2012, 2009, 2007)
3x Grapplers Quest Pro Division 1st Place (Del Mar 2009, 2007)
Sao Paulo State Champion (2006)
European Champion (2006)
World Silver Medallist (2011)
World Pro Cup Silver Medallist (2012)
Pan American Silver Medallist (2011)
World Bronze Medallist (2012)

 

And here's a pretty cool highlight vid of Lucas in action.

 He is well recognised as being one of the best practitioners of the Half Guard in the world and given my current leanings towards learning Half Guard I think this could well be one of the most useful seminars I've attended (trusting he goes with Half Guard as his subject). Can't wait. ¬m/