Saturday was an amazing day for me. For the second time I had the opportunity to go and train under the Legendary Checkmat Head, Leo Vieira. Leo is over in the UK to help train his good friend and student (and incidentally one of my instructors) Chico Mendes for his upcoming MMA debut. But it wouldn't have been fair on the members of Checkmat UK if Leo visited and didn't do a seminar so Saturday was the day. The location was the awesomely kitted out, yet slightly chilly, Trojan Freefighters Gym in Cheltenham Gloucester. The attendance was very good without being too packed. And the techniques taught were brilliant.
First up we lined up for the introductions. Chico took the lead with a little speech and introduction for Leo. He also introduced another Brazilian Black Belt Amaury Pugliese, Brown Belt and Checkmat MMA representative Mauro Xuxa, and Checkmat Bristol regular Rafael Heck.
The first portion of the seminar was No Gi, only my second time of actually training No Gi. Leo ran us through a quick warm up and then we went into techniques.
First technique (well drill really) had us pummelling then one guy drops down for the double leg takedown and the other guy sprawls, securing the first guy around the chest. We drilled this for a couple of minutes then moved on. I was drilling through the No Gi part with Dan 'Grizzly' Adams, an old training buddy from the Burnham Class where I first started Jiu Jitsu.
The next technique was started from the sprawl. You're leaning on the shoulders/back of the guy after he'd tried a double leg on you and you've reach over his arms and around his torso to grip him around the chest. From here you take the guys chin in one hand for control and reach down and grab the same side arm of the guy with the other hand. Then pass the arm up the other hand and secure it in close to the guys body so you can then transition around the guys undefended side to get to rear side mount. We drilled this a few time time then moved on.
Next up starting from the sprawl position again, cup the guys chin with one hand, then with your other arm reach inside for the underhook and pass your arm through the gap and then over his back and use the leverage you gain to pry his arm up. From there you can turn the guy over into side control using the arm to control his body, but ensure you press your weight against him at all times so he has absolutely no space to shrimp out. Really liked this as a simple method of attacking a guy in the turtle. Drilled the move for a bit then moved on.
The next set of techniques were from Butterfly Guard which was amazing for me as I am really developing a love for this guard set and I've been working on trying to improve this part of my game loads lately.
First off Leo focused on recovering to Butterfly and included a nifty sweep in there. From attempting the sprawl the opponent either manages to pull your legs in or you have attempted to pull guard (you have still managed to overhook the back and secure the guy around the chest). The guy starts to pass around to side control but you've still got that vital grip. From there you can hit a cool sweep. Raising the near side leg against the guys side, push off with the other leg and pull the guy over using the torso grip. From this point Leo showed us a few things to do depending on what happens from there. If you get a good bit of momentum on it you can sweep the guy right over and roll over backwards to land in side control or better still, mount. Alternatively you release the chest grip and push off the guys shoulder while turning your body to face down so you can push up onto you feet (handy for MMA or if you just wanted to reset and start from standing). Lastly, if the guy manages to push himself back over and around the worst that can happen is that you land with both Butterfly hooks in and you've still got the overhook chest hold. Now you can fire the guy backwards with your legs and sit up into a very commanding Butterfly position. We drilled these over and over for a while. I particularly loved the sweep but the reset to Butterfly was also a favourite.
Next up we worked on the Butterfly Guard proper. Starting from the Butterfly Guard with overhook, the guy either manages to get his head out or you let it pop out but keep a grip on the arms. A very strong grip. From there you lay backward so the guy is forced to catch both of your body weights on his hands. From here you can twist over to one side and back and kick out with the leg on the opposite side to flip the guys over and land in mount (with the guys arms still gripped to your sides). Leo also showed us a way around if the guy is quick and manages to base out with his outside leg. Simply kick it away using your other leg. Fairly obvious really but very handy and the sweep is amazing. This was probably my favourite technique of the day. Me and Dan drilled the move to death and tried to theorise on whether it would be possible for the guy getting swept to react quickly and upa escape back round. We established that it was fairly unlikely as the sweep exerts a fair bit of pain on the ribs of the guy on the receiving end and you're too busy thinking about alleviating that squeeze on the ribs before you even consider busting out of the mount.
The next technique shown was a couple of cool subs. From the Butterfly Guard but with only one of the overhooks. Make sure there's a bit of space between yourself and your opponent and that your leg on the opposite side to the secured arm is in a position to stop any possibility of passing. Now use your free arm to push the other guys free arm out of the way and you can fire the leg on that side up and over the shoulder and bring the other leg up to wrap around the first for the triangle. I found that you need to thrust up with your hips to make space to pull the guys trapped arm into the correct position. Either that or switch it to an armbar.
The alternative that was shown at the same time was instead of firing the leg up for the triangle, pull the other leg up and around across the underside of the guys face to turn into the omoplata.
Both great moves. Really enjoyed drilling these subs as I'm always on the look out for new ways to hit an Omoplata or Triangle.
Last technique for the No Gi part was from the Half Guard but similar to the Butterfly (almost as if the guy managed to pass one leg over your Butterfly Hook), the arm is overhooked. You must ensure that your inside leg is up out past the knee pressing into the guys gut so he can't pass. From there you can press the foot of your outside leg up against his knee on the same side. Now you can press your inside leg knee into the guys near inside thigh and twist into him whilst pulling the trapped arm and push him over with the free arm.
At first I was really uncertain about this sweep, not being sure if I could get enough power to flip the guy over but after a few attempts and a handy pointer from Amaury Pugliese I found the move fairly reeking of awesome.
To close the No Gi part of the seminar out we had some situational rolling. Starting from some of the various positions we'd practised today. One guy had to try and hit the move, other guys has to pass or break out of position. We changed partners after 3 or 4 minutes. I really enjoyed this rolling as I was hitting just about everything I was trying and it really gave me a confidence in the stuff I had learned so far that day. Awesome first part of the seminar.
We quickly had a drink and changed into our Gis for the second part of the seminar. None of the usual half hour to an hour break that we often have with Checkmat seminars. We went straight into the Gi portion of the day with no preamble.
For this segment of the day I had the fortune of training with Gary Davies, Ian's long time SJJA instruction partner who has a dearth of helpful tips and tricks to help improve your game. Whenever I train with Gary I never fail to learn at least something new to improve my game.
For the first Gi technique of the day, Leo showed us a really cool little Gi choke that goes against most of your conventional Gi chokes from Guard. Start with the guy in your closed guard. Reach up for the cross collar grip deep into his collar. Then with the other hand, reach to the other collar (going over the top of the first arm) and grip the collar deep using a kind of upside down (thumb pointing downward) grip. Then you simply scissor you hands together whilst pushing up (that's right, up?!). We really loved the simplicity of this move and I have no doubt that Gary is trying to tap someone out with this sub as I type (he runs a Monday class in Taunton). I must admit though I was finding it hard to land at first as I couldn't get past the urge to pull down. Also, I wasn't driving my top hand into the collar far enough for a while.
Leo moved this technique on by having the guy getting choked attempt to resist by pushing on the choking arm. When he does this you can just escape your hips to the side of the arm he's using to block, swing your leg up and over the top of his arm and across his chest for a really tight armbar. The arm actually lands in a position very low on your crotch so the falcrum of the armbar is really tight on.
Next Leo took us through some Half Guard tactics. Things to improve your basic Half Guard. He started by putting us in the basic Half Guard with your butt out to one side (the strong side, where your leg is on the outside). You then put your outside arm across to push against the guys shoulder (the shoulder on the opposite side, so your left hand pushes his left shoulder or right for right). Your outside leg hooks the guy around the outside but the knee points up inside at the shoulder. From there you secure the guys outside arm at the wrist with your free hand, then base up on your elbow and windmill your other arm (the one that was previously cross bodying him) under his nearside arm then around his back. You then drive your shoulder up whilst basing out with your free hand, forcing your opponent down using your bodyweight (so he's on three points with your underhook pushing him down at the fourth point). You have still got your inside leg tucked in and wrapped over the guys near leg. From this basic position came pretty much every other technique we did that day.
We drilled getting to this basic position a few times before being moved on. It was during this time that Gary imparted upon me one of the most basic yet important pieces of Half Guard knowledge I have heard. It's almost so simple I'm surprised I've never heard it before but there you go. Whilst drilling the basic Half Guard I was initially forgetting to put my cross arm up sometimes going for an underhook or something. Gary kept reminding me and eventually told me that the FIRST thing he does when hitting Half Guard is to get the hips to the outside and put the arm across. Why had I never seen it before? So simple. Arm across stops the guy passing while you set yourself up for other stuff. Epiphany.
Moving the series on Leo showed us two sweeps from that basic start position. The first was simply whilst leaning into the guy you grab his knee with your free hand or pull his gi pants at the knee and he just collapses on the floor with you quickly pulling your leg out to jump into side control. The second was very similar but pulling the ankle instead. Nice easy moves to start with. Easily drilled.
The next move Leo demonstrated from the initial basic position had you pressing down on the opponents head as if tying to tuck in underneath him. You then lean your hips into him whilst freeing the tangled leg and the guy goes first inverted, then flips over for you to land in side control or North South. Drilling this one was a bit fiddly and I got it wrong a few times. The inversion part of it is not comfortable either when you're the guy getting swept over.
Next up was another easy one. From the basic position you reach up to his collar with your free hand and use it and your arm around the opponents back/shoulders to shunt the guy forward so you can pop your head out and take the back or at least rear side mount. See, nice and simple yet very effective.
Another one, this time a little bit more fiddly, can happen if the opponent tries to stand from the basic position by basing out on his outside leg and getting a whizzer on the arm you have him underhooked with. What you do is keep your nearside leg (not the one that's entangled with his nearside leg) pressed tight to the back of his nearside leg so he can't pull away and grip his gi at the shoulder with your tangled arm. Then with you free hand, reach down and grab the guys gi pants near the very bottom (don't use the illegal fingers in grip) and stand so his leg is now parallel to the floor and he's hoping on one foot, still with your arm around his back, gi clutched at the shoulder. Now all you need do is walk forward whilst pulling back on his gi. Even guys with the best balance will go down to this eventually.
The final move of the day (that I remember) was for if the guys manages to get to feet or knees and escapes his tangled leg. So he has the whizzer and has escaped his foot but your shoulder is still up behind his back. Just quickly shift your hip in toward him and turn him over you for the flashy judo style throw. For extra assistance pull on his outside arm. This move can be done equally easily from the knees.
After all the techniques were done we did some situational rolling. First, we started from what I've been calling the basic position and the one guy tried to sweep or advance position while the other guys tried to break or gain position. This very quickly deteriorated into a Half Guard situational roll though as most guys just seemed to be tapping hands then going balls to the wall from a half guard start. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was doing really well in all this. I managed to hit quite a few sweeps and not get swept much at all. I know! Me. Hitting half guard sweeps. Cool.
Seeing this was just breaking down into Half Guard rolling Leo stopped it and put a load of pairs on the mat. Then lined the remaining guys at the side. The deal was that the guy on the bottom stays on the mat for 5 rolls. The object is to start from Half Guard with the guy on the bottom trying to sweep or regain full guard, the guy on top has to pass. Once the objective has been completed, regardless of who won, the guys on bottom stays on until he's had 5 goes, then swaps with his last opponent. I loved this style of training and was experiencing some really cool results. I managed to sweep quite a few people, twice hitting the twisting half guard sweep from the No Gi part of the seminar. I was also passing well too though my sweeping game was better than my passing game.
I think on reflection this had been the best seminar I have been to for stuff I've learnt that has been relevant to my current goals in Bjj. We covered Butterfly Guard stuff and Half Guard stuff. I had a fruitful day in the situational sparring. Things were working for me. Some days you feel good about your game.
Chico only gave out two belts on the day as most of the other guys he was ready to promote were in competition the next day so he said he'd save it for in the week. I have high hopes for a couple of the guys at the Bristol club this Tuesday and am warming my belt whipping arm in anticipation.
As an amusing ending to the day, Chico had us all do some weird dance moves on the mat so he could upload them to some weird website that makes it into a video. The results are pretty funny but unfortunately I can't put them up here as the flash video is not downloadable so you'll have to take my word for it.
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