Checkmat Bristol 17-1-12

Venue: LA Gym, Bristol
Instructor: Chico Mendes

Can't go to Bjj Thursday (that's today, Wow you're behind Mart) at Sweat FA so met up with Ian and Marcus on Tuesday to go to Chico's class at LA Gym, Bristol. My body was still protesting a bit after the extended service it gave me at the Checkmat Training Camp/Seminar on Sunday and to make matters worse there had been an accident on the Long Ashton Bypass (our regular route into Bristol) so we had to go through Long Ashton, adding about 10 minutes plus to the journey. Consequentially, when we got there the warm up had been and gone and Chico was getting into the first technique. Triffic! I knew going in that it was a mistake to not warm up (at my ripe old age of 34) or I would be regretting it the next day (or two), but I wanted to ensure I got the most out of the lesson so did some stretches (not enough) whilst watching Chico demo the first move.

On the plus side I was totally chuffed to see that Chico was continuing the Half Guard theme from the Seminar so my new aim in life has taken a step forward. Chico started with a lengthy explanation of different tactics to use while playing Half Guard. Things he touched upon were foot/leg positioning, hand positioning, controlling the direction of the opponents head (don't let him start moving over your top shoulder or you risk being flattened out), avoiding being cross faced, escaping hips so as to be laying on your side (very important!).

He then had us drill various tactics, along with opponent head control from the Half Guard. You've got you're opponent in a half guard with the controlling leg going through between his legs and wrapping around his near side leg. You other leg is posted upward against your bottom leg and put up as a block to his body. Your near side hand is pushing his arm in toward his body (Chico demonstrated this at length, why it was important, why it's better to grab the wrist than the sleeve), You outside hand has a loose grip on the opponents nearside arm. Then you sit there and wait, bide your time until the opponent reacts with a pass attempt. From this position the opponent to do anything, generally pushes forward with his head. All you need do to counter this is use your outside hand that was previously on his arm, to flat hand push his face in the opposite direction so he stays on your strong side.

We paired up and drilled these different tweaks to half guard to see what we were comfortable with. I was with Marcus, who has been in an increasingly upbeat mood since his entry into the world of employment. We tried out all the different aspects of leg positioning, talking through a lot of them to decide which felt better and more controlling.

Chico then moved us on to a nifty half guard sweep. Over wrap the opponents nearside arm (whizzer style), push the other arm into his torso (as above). Release the outside leg figure four  (ensure your inside leg is firmly crossed over his near side leg for control) then put hook against his near side inside thigh (same as Neto taught us at the seminar on Sunday). Then, wait for the opponent to make a move. As soon as he attempts to pass or flatten you out you can push up with the hook and sweep him over onto his back usually landing in side control but if the opponent is fast (Marcus is very fast) and your technique is sloppy/timing is off,  they can scramble to secure half guard bottom. We drilled this move for a short time and found it very effective and easy to get to grips with.

From there, Chico moved us on to a very tasty omoplata from that same set up. You're in position where you're waiting for the opponent to react. From here there's this additional option. Pull your bottom leg (the one that's wrapped around his nearside leg) out and up a bit so it’s between you and the opponent, then release the guys outside hand and use your hand to push the guys face away whilst posturing yourself backward. Then you can swing your hook leg out and over the shoulder for the omoplata. Chico pointed out that laying the leg flat instead of bending it round decreases chances of the guy powering out. *Also, when using your free hand to clamp down the opponents body so he can't roll over, ensure you don't just secure a leg or something by accident as the opponent can then, not only roll out of the move, but also roll into a position where you are left in the exact same hold. (Bloody awesome!!)

After drilling these moves for a short while we were moved on to situational Half Guard sparring. I  quickly ran off the mat to grab my gum shield and by the time I got back Chico had stolen Marcus off me so I managed to pick up a stray Josh Kersey and roll with him. The roll was fairly good for me as I managed to get into deep half (for the first time ever in an intended situation) and used the pull out the back door shrug sweep to rear mount. I was more chuffed for that one moment than for any submission I've pulled off in a long time. Doing something for the first time always feels good and this felt special as it's working towards my Half Guard goals. 

After Josh I managed to get a situational roll in with Marcus and actually managed to tap him out with a Kimura from Half Guard. Talk about on a roll. Marcus managed to pass my guard at one point though and we both managed to reclaim guard at one point.

Next was Jason Brookbanks. And he hasn't let up on his air tight guard yet. I managed to get a sweep on him when I was on bottom and he managed to reclaim guard once on me but neither of us managed a pass. After that we had a five minute roll and I stayed on with Jase. As mentioned before, sparring with Jase is fun because he goes at quite a hard, intense pace without doing it like an uncontrolled spaz whose trying to use all his strength at all times. You leave a roll with Jase knowing you've been pushed hard and feeling like he's demanded your full attention and ability. During the roll I managed to take Jason's back and the last 2 and half minutes featured me trying to submit him with him exhibiting some of the most stubborn and energetic rear mount defence I have rolled against. I had him in a bow and arrow at one point but he executed some brilliant moves to ensure I didn't get the tap from him and just as the session was called to an end he managed to escape and turn into my guard. Well done Jase. Top moves.

With that the class was over and so was my instalment of Bjj for another week. Loved the lesson, enjoyed practising half guard. Can't wait for more. Think I'm going to go home and take out the Ed Beneville books on the guard as they both have a healthy section on the half guard in them (1 for passing, 1 for sweeping). See ya Later \m/.

Checkmat Seminar 16-1-12 Part 2

Continuing on from my write-up on the Checkmat Seminar I attended on Sunday at the Trojan Free Fighters MMA Gym in Cheltenham, Gloucester. In the last post I explained what happened in the No Gi segment of the training camp. This time I'll tell you what happened (from my perspective) in the Gi part of the day.  As mentioned previously, the day was attended by Checkmat Bjj Black Belts Chico Mendes, Rafael Heck and the visiting Valmyr Neto from Kent.

After the half hour interval (just enough time to zip down the local Co-op and buy some bananas) we quickly got changed into our GIs and hit the mats. We went straight into techniques this time. Once again Valmyr was demonstrating and talking through the technique using Chico as his grappling dummy. Keeping with the Half Guard theme, this time we hit the Deep Half but as a twist the focus was on attacking/passing Deep Half.

Deep guard break to arm bar
Neto showed us this first technique starting from in Chico's Deep half guard, so that's Neto in a kind of scissor split with one leg extended, the other bent. Chico is lying on his side facing the same direction as Neto, with his legs wrapping around Neto's extended leg and his top arm wrapped around Neto's bent leg. From there, Neto ensures his extended leg is out of Chico's locked legs to past his knee, grips Chico's sleeve at the wrist and falls forward onto his knee and front bringing Chico's arm forward extended, then grips around the arm, turns the knee inwards so your weight is pressing your side on his arm and pulls back on the hyper extended arm for the arm bar submission.

I was fortunate enough to drill this move with Dan 'Grizzly' Adams, from our (SJJA) Taunton/Wellington class. Dan is an old training partner of mine, we started Jiu Jitsu in the same month and always used to drill the techniques at the old Burnham class together. Training with Dan was a good opportunity to catch up on stuff and have a laugh and we both found the technique fairly easy, although we seemed to be drilling it for a spectacular amount of time with Neto going around each pair to ensure they both had the technique right.


Deep half break to armbar attempt to rear mount
From the same position, the exact same manoeuvres all the way up to pulling the arm forward when you fall forward but in this variation Chico manages to free the arm at the last second. Neto then reaches around with his hand (the one that had just been holding Chico's sleeve) and grabs Chico's gi pant leg at the knee. Using the leverage from this, Neto can kick his leg (the one secured by Chico's arm not his legs) out from Chico's grip and swivels his body around at a 90 degree angle facing Chico's side. Neto and Chico then sshowed us that the natural reaction to this move from the position Chico was is was to come up on his knees. At this point you have an ideal opportunity to take his back with either side rear mount with arm over back, or a full rear mount. Neto explained that while attaining the rear mount position it is best to go to a seat belt style grip of the opponents torso for maximum control as your leg hooks are not guaranteed. Sometimes you may get this position with a kind of half guard from behind style leg lock. Keep this for control until you can risk releasing it to attain both hooks for the full rear mount.

Once again we drilled this move to death for a very long time. After that we were, as with the no gi, put into situational sparring. Half guard, top and then bottom for 2 minutes against each opponent with the object being to sweep or submit from the bottom or pass or submit from the top. Once again I will overstate the fact that this drill only proved one thing to me.

I MUST GET BETTER AT HALF GUARD!!
 
I rolled like this against Dan first who enjoyed great success passing my very weak half guard and managed to sweep me a couple of times to boot. I would now very much like to spar normally against Dan just to prove I'm not a total pushover. Next time I hope.

I also rolled against a few other guys with this situational half guard style. There was one guy called Paul, a white belt from Kent, who I managed to sweep and Shabbi, one of our Checkmat guys from the Bristol class, I managed to get a sweep and pass against. Other than that though I pretty much had a hard time. I was relieved at the end when the said we could go for a straight face to face roll. In fact I kind of took my frustrations out a bit on poor Dwaine by tapping him 3 times in about 5 minutes. I was hoping for a roll against Dan too but we were only given the opportunity to roll the once.

After all that we had a piccie taken then had a little chat whilst getting changed, thanked Neto for the awesome instruction and said our goodbyes to the Kent lot (who all seemed like a great bunch of lads) and left.

I'm the muppet in the middle who couldn't look the right way when the picture was taken.

All in all a great seminar that gave me some good techniques to work with but also asked as many questions of me as were answered. Yes, I need to learn more half guard techniques. Yes, I need to learn how to pass half guard better. Yes, my half guard currently sucks. At least it gives me a clear learning goal.

I MUST GET BETTER AT HALF GUARD!!

At least I learnt something really big I can take home with me! \m/

Checkmat Seminar 15th Jan 2012. Part 1

I attended the latest Checkmat/Trojan Freefighters seminar yesterday at the excellently kitted out, though slightly cold, Trojan Gym in Cheltenham, Gloucester and I have to see that the day was brilliant. I now regret not being able to go for the entire weekend although frankly, my body is thankful that I didn't.

The journey up was pretty good, though I didn't drive so it took a lot longer than it usually would have. Dan 'Grizzly' Adams did the honours on the driving taking me, Ian and Dwaine up. Dan and Dwaine are from the Taunton/Wellington classes so it was good to catch up with them and the discussion mostly settled around club news and the UFC 142 that had taken place the night before (awesome head kick by Edson Barbosa).

When we got there we had a bit of a chat and inter mingle with the guys from the other clubs whilst getting changed and waiting for everyone to turn up. I got changed into my No Gi get up which was a nice rash guard I was given by BJJHQ.com, that I'm sure fit me before Christmas, and some fight shorts I'd "borrowed" from Sweat FA a while back and still haven't got round to giving back. Then we were lined up and Chico introduced us to Valmyr Neto, a Checkmat Black Belt instructor from the Kent area. From there we had a short warm up, more of a limber up really and then we were straight into the techniques of my first No Gi lesson.

I was quite surprised that the lead on the techniques this time was taken by Neto as I thought it was going to be a Chico Seminar, but I found Valmyr's instruction to be first class and he had no problems communicating what the technique was as his command over the English language was brilliant.

Half guard to knee bar or heel hook
First Technique was from the Half Guard. You got the opponent in your half guard and you're on your side, hips out to one side. Bring the outside knee up to your opponents shoulder and grip the back of his head with the same side hand (use the cup grip not a claw grip) a keep the arm of that hand inside your knee to ensure the opponent doesn't pass your guard (which becomes easy if you don't keep the arm inside). Then, pass your free arm underneath his free leg at the knee pit and pull his leg up toward your head (be sure to use the crook of your arm or your forearm for maximum strength and be sure to pull at the back of the knee for minimal resistance) then pull the guy over the top of you, balancing his weight so he almost floats over. As he's passed over the top he'll instinctively post his arms out to balance himself and avoid the full sweep. At this point you can pull what was your outside leg out from underneath him and simultaneously drop your arm (the one that was on his free leg) further down his leg so your legs have room to encase his.You can then turn your body so it's positioned inside his legs and thrust out with your hips for the knee bar. A very tasty move which in normal circumstances I would not use as I've don't hit the leg locks (I a bit of a purest Bjj-er) but I was happy to train this as a change is definitely as good as a rest.

The second part of the first technique was done in exactly the same way up until the guy has floated over you and you've gone down to the leg. In the second part the opponent passes the knee over and puts it on the ground too so the knee bar becomes unattainable. In this instance you turn on the leg your holding so you can put the foot into your arm pit, wrap your arm around the heel while you gable grip your hands together so your forearm is able to pull on the heel for the Heel Hook. *It's worth mentioning at this point that the Heel Hook is an exceptionally painful submission technique which is generally not drilled in most gyms. The utmost care is to be taken with this move as to much pressure applied to it could seriously injure your opponent, causing severe ligament damage and putting them on crutches for up to 6 months. This technique is not to be taken lightly. If you have a fear that your drilling partner may be a bit of a meat head who likes to go for it and slap subs on hard, I would sincerely suggest you don't bother drilling this move with them*.

Fortunately, I drilled this technique and all the others for the No Gi part of the class with a guy called Ben who is one of Neto's pupils from Kent. Ben was a really nice guy who was not prone to bouts of spazzing or big headed-ness and was really easy to roll with and explore moves with. We both found the knee bar fairly easily but Ben struggled at first finding the correct positioning for the Heel Hook. Neto is very active while you are drilling, trying to visit with each pair once for each technique to ensure they have the manoeuvre correctly down to pat. For us, he gave us some pointers on leg positioning for the Heel Hook, telling us to ensure you wrap your top leg over his to ensure the best control for the move.

Half guard sweep to mount
For the second technique Neto started with opponent in Half Guard once again. This time he had the guys near side arm wrapped up with his arm in a near whizzer, and put his free hand on the bicep on the guys the free arm. Then he escaped his hips out to the side with the arm whizzer'd, vined the leg he had going between the opponents legs around the nearside leg to reduce mobility and then pulled his outside leg out and tucked it inside in the form of a butterfly style hook on the opponents nearside thigh. From there he bridged the guys weight up while taking the guys base arm away by underhooking it with his arm (the one that had secured that bicep) and pulling up toward his head. With the guy turning over you can just hang on him and use his momentum to pull you over on to him into a tidy mount position. Net emphasized the control with this mount, squeezing the legs tight quite high on his chest, maintaining the whizzer and basing yourself out over his head using your free arm on one side and your head at the other.

Me and Ben both had problems with this one at first, solidifying in my mind at that early point in the seminar that Half Guard definitely isn't my strong point. It took many attempts and a visit from Neto to get it right.

Half guard to split sweep into side control
The next technique was another sweep from the half guard, this time using an at times painful splits method for the sweep. The move starts in nearly the same position but this time the opponent has based himself out by going up on both legs. On this one Neto hooks his arm underneath the freeside leg, pulls it up to his shoulder putting his opponent in an, as mentioned, quite painful splits and then just has to roll over pulling the arm (the whizzer'd one) underneath him, turning the guy onto his back. Neto made a point of ensuring we all knew to pull the vined leg out while the guy was going over to avoid the move be just a trading of half guard positions. With the leg out you are neatly in side control.

I found this technique a fair bit easier than the last and had it down to pat quite early. Ben said he was having problems with the move but seemed to land it well each time so I didn't see anything wrong.

The next move was just a variation on the above with but for if the guys stands up on just one foot (the outside one). This basically makes the sweep even easier with the opponent going over as if they weigh nothing. A nice technique.

From here Neto had us rolling for a short while but not proper start on your knees rolling, this was start in halg guard. Guy on top has to pass or submit, guy on bottom has to sweep or submit. Here was where I had problems. For starters this was my first lesson so I really found it difficult as I was like "hey, where the fuck's my grips?".  I had an alright roll with Ben, who passed my guard first, but then I was able to get a sweep on him. Then I was on top and I managed a couple of passes. That was where my good luck ended as my next opponent was Paul Severn. Now I think Paul is worth a hell of a lot more than the Blue Belt around his waist when he's wearing a Gi and he really proved it to me here, passing my guard a couple of times when he was on top and sweeping me twice when he was on the bottom (taking my back one of those times). Paul has a competition coming up soon at Hereford and I truly would stick at tenner on him coming away with gold if there was a bookmaker that took bets on Bjj comps.

 We had a few more of these situational rolls with fairly mixed results. A guy called Paul from Kent (who I, in error, assumed was a White Belt) issued me another toasting (I later found out he was a Purple Belt and one of Ben's instructors) and Dwaine from our club who I managed a couple of passes and a sweep against although he pass me quite neatly at one point too.

What I learned from this was that my Half Guard is fairly shit and that I haven't trained it nearly enough so the mantra I am adopting as a result of this seminar is;

I MUST GET BETTER AT HALF GUARD!!

 

I may as well include passing half guard in on it too as I wasn't setting the world alight from the top either. I did enjoy my first No Gi class though, although I was surprised by just how painful frappling without the protection of the gi is. I will do it again though and I think I can safely say that everyone in attendance enjoyed themselves and Valmyr Neto's teaching.

I'll type up part 2, the Gi seminar, probably tomorrow or Wednesday. 

\m/

Chico Seminar.

Great weekend of Bjj this Sat/Sun as Chico Mendes (2nd Degree Black Belt) is holding another Checkmat seminar weekend at Trojan Cheltenham. I am only able to go to the Sunday but that is still very pleasing for me. Some lucky bastards I know actually get to go to both days which would be absolutely phenomenal but is, alas, a pipe dream for a family guy like me.

I am going on the Sunday with a few of the guys from our SJJA club and can't wait. I love these club days out we have occasionally. It's always good to see some of the guys from the Taunton Club and there's usually a good bit of banter on the journey or while we're there. The seminar start time for Sunday is approx. 10:30 - That's a 9:30 journey start, no heavy drinkin' Saturday night then - and features 2 hours of No Gi Bjj, a half hour break and then straight on to 2 hours of Bjj in a Gi (urgh, that last 5 letters brings the horrible Rener Gracie rap tune to mind).

I'm quite full of nervous anticipation for the No Gi portion of the seminar as I haven't trained Sans Gi since the day I got my first (horrible, thick Adidas thing that shrunk unbelievably) and almost feel like I'm stepping on the mat as a white belt again. This will probably lead to me getting owned all over the mat during the sparring as even the static punch bag at the side of the matt gets a tap out of me. Look forward to learning though and a humbling experience every once in a while is character building.

The main reason why I'm going though of course is for the Gi part of the seminar as I can't wait to see what stuff Chico's got planned for the Techniques and drilling part. Chico never fails to show some pretty advanced and yet attainable techniques that can actually find a place in your Bjj arsenal. Some seminars you go to, you find that the stuff being shown is stuff that's so advanced or so specific that you wouldn't use it in your average everyday Blue Belt journey. Chico's stuff is always usable from a fairly early grade but a lot of it is stuff you haven't really seen before (from my point of view) or helps to polish/perfect the stuff that you already know with little tips that round off your technique.

Also, as this is Checkmat, we are going to be graced with the presence of a number of other Black Belts including Leonardo "Bomba" Queiroz, Luiz Neto, Marcus Canha and Rafael Heck. That's what I love about these Checkmat seminars. They tend to bring in loads of Black Belts so they can all train together too, but this benefits us all as, when we're practising techniques, you'll often get a stray Black Belt stop you and give you a few pointers to nail the move correctly. That's the beauty of the Checkmat family, they all pool together for things like this so we get a more complete experience.

We will undoubtedly also get the opportunity to roll inter club with some of the guys from Cheltenham and Worcester, which is always a good litmus test for how your skills are coming along against guys you've never or rarely rolled against. All in all, good times ahead.

Can't wait 'til Sunday. \m/.

Checkmat Bristol 10-1-12

Got to go up to Checkmat Bristol tonight and train and spar with the guys there. They're a great bunch at Checkmat Bristol, some really class characters and the numbers are always impressive too. Tonights class was taken by the outstanding Rafael Heck (Black Belt under Leo Vieira) who, when I first met him on the 17 Sept 2011(Blue Belt day), could barely speak a word of English. Now he has absolutely no problem communicating with a whole class of English speaking people. Fair play to him, according to many linguists, English is one of the hardest languages to pick up.

Venue: LA Gym, Bristol
Instructor: Rafael Heck


Warm Up :
Me, Ian and Marcus arrived a touch late to the class so they were into the warm up by the time we were changed (a fact of which my neck is now reminding me), but they did some stretches and and star jumps and the like. Then on to the jogging round the mats, a couple of laps facing in, couple of laps facing out (it was at this point I join in - half a job Eyre), couple of laps running backwards, then a couple of laps doing this weird stagger step thing which managed to make everyone in the class look like they were born defective. After that we were on the floor, first doing standard crunches then to push ups, next were lateral crunches on one side, push ups, lat crunches on other side, push ups, then seated cross collar style crunches, then push ups and lastly standard crunches again. Finally we did a healthy round of hip escapes. Hmmmm.... Maybe Raf thought we were all still carrying a bit too much Christmas weight.

First Technique of the night was halting someone trying to pass your Butterfly Guard. Opponent has wrapped his arms around your legs at the knees and squeezed them together. He then steps over attempting to pass with his head to one side of you whilst his body goes the other to take side control. To stop this you just push the guys head by the face (not comfortable) back to the same side as his body is passing and you can easily hip escape out of the knee grip. As an alternative you can also pull his head over using a crossface forearm style grip which is also very unpleasant for the recipient. We just drill the blocking of the pass first. I was training with Marcus tonight which is always a pleasure as he is not prone to bouts of spazzing out or trying to hard when you're just drilling but he will correct you on sloppy technique.

Raf moved us on from there to the actual escape from the pass. The guy's tried to pass, you've pushed his head back over the other side. Now he gave us two options here. First if you hip escape and pull the bottom leg out you can rest your body weight on the guys back and come into rear side mount. The second one was if you hip escape and pull the top leg out make sure you push on his head (keeping him to the ground), stand and yank your other leg out and climb on top to take the back (yippee ki yay). While me and Marcus drilled this one we found that another amazing way to go would be if during the escape you pull the bottom leg out and you're side ways on to the opponent, you can duck your head between the legs and forward roll into the dream omoplata (see the last part of this to fully appreciate the dynamic, death defying, dream omoplata). We had fun with this then Raf moved us on.

Next, we started doing some Butterfly sweeps which were freakin' awesome. Especially given that I've been reading the phenomenal X-Guard manual by Marcelo Garcia, which heavily features the Butterfly Guard. This meant I could practice a lot of the stuff I'd been reading about without having to totally change what I was supposed to be drilling. Great stuff.

First Butterfly sweep, Raf held his opponent (it's worth mentioning at this point that Raf demonstrated everything tonight against Ronan Fleming, a mountain of a man and probably the heaviest and strongest guy in the class) with a standard collar and elbow tie-up, then pull in his arm that has the elbow secured, thus trapping the opponents arm, then fell back and to the side (side with trapped arm) and kicked up and over using the off side butterfly hook. The opponent flips over onto their back and you can fellow them over into many different positions depending on your size, speed and the luck of the scramble. I most frequently land in Kesa Gatame side control but got the occasional knee of belly or mount. Mind you, Marcus managed to claim half guard on more than one occasion too.

The next sweep was very similar but if your opponent resists the easy flip you can lean back onto you shoulder (the one on the side you intend to sweep to) whilst having your knee of your opposite leg stuck up at a right angle to knock the opponent off of their balance, then you can flip them over fairly easily. It would be prudent for me to mention at this point though, that you need to exaggerate the hooks you have in at the opponents legs (with your feet) otherwise the guy finds it kind of easy to just step over your leg and the whole position is lost and you're in side control bottom (as Marcus demonstrated to me a few times :o| ).

To further emphasize how much it felt like tonight's class was aimed at me, we then went on to Butterfly Guard arm drags which was amazing because the arm drag was one of the other things I have been pining after learning and drilling recently. From Butterfly guard, secure the opponents wrist at the gi with the near side hand then reach across with other hand and grab opponent around the tricep from the inside of his arm space. Then use both arms to yank the guy over toward the off side, you can then reach over the back of the guy, using the hand that had previously been securing his wrist, and grab his belt. From here you simultaneously pull down on the arm, pull over on the belt, fall backwards and kick up with your off side hook, neatly flipping the guys over onto his back. I found the opponent was flipping with such force on this that they were virtually giving up their backs once swept. A little bit of pummelling and you could quite easily get the seat belt grip on their back and then it's just waiting for opportunities to get the hooks in.


Sparring:

We started off with situational sparring. Start in Closed Guard, guy on the bottom has to sweep or submit, guys on top has to pass (or submit but that's very unlikely from that position). 2 minutes each then change partner. I situation-ally sparred with Marcus, then Jason Brookbanks -a lightweight Blue Belt who is truly one of the nicest guys I've ever met- and finally Mark Acton - an experienced Blue Belt who has trained for years, used to be a Brown Belt in Traditional JJ under Ian before he gave it up for Bjj. I had some very good sparring sessions with these guys and was very pleased that my guard was not passed a single time. I had to invert a few times and do a very quick hip escape to recover guard against Mark but my guard remained in tact. Also, I managed to pass Marcus and Mark's guards which was a bonus. Jason fought like a demon tonight and wouldn't let a bead of sweat pass his guard let alone a fully grown (and possibly still sporting a bit of Christmas weight) man.

After this we had a proper face to face roll. 5 minute rounds. Rolled against 3 opponents. Got a couple of subs. A particular highlight was locking in a tasty Triangle Choke from Spider Guard against Marcus. Also got Jason with a straight Achilles leg lock, which was pleasing as he was going for the same thing on me at the time too.

In summary that was a great lesson to come back to at Checkmat and I wait to roll with those guys for the rest of the year. \m/

SJJA 5/1/12

Venue: Sweat FA

Instructor: Ian Rossiter.  (SJJA)

 

 

It was amazing going back training last night. Dusting myself off after an entertaining yet self abusive December holiday period I ventured down to Sweat FA in Weston Super Mare for the Thursday night BJJ sesh. Had a bit of a false start as I discovered that I'd forgot my Gi pants when I got there so had to zip back home and get them but fortunately, due to my ability to drive at near light speeds, I managed to make it back in time for the class without missing a second.

The warm up was pretty much as expected with me feeling totally shagged and out of breath after the initial run (damn you stamina) but I managed to recover quickly during the squats, push ups and sit ups. Something to build off I suppose. I have to get back down the gym daily during the week and get on that cross trainer. I know I said previously that I'd be doing that this week but I've been really busy at work and eating chocolate. You know, important stuff.

The numbers at class last night were brilliant, no new faces just lots of guys returning for a fresh new year start. It would be great if it stays like that for a while and we get a good, strong, consistently attended class going. The better they get, the better I can get through sparring with them. And that prospect makes me happy.




Warm Up: Laps of the mat, including ass kicks, knee ups, facing inward for a lap, facing out for a lap. Neck, Arm and Shoulder stretching. Push ups 10 x 4, Squats 10x 4, Crunches 10 x 4, then a round of seated knee tucks X 5 per person (14 guys) and then some leg stretching.




For the first technique of the year Ian decided to take us right back to basics in posturing in your opponents guard. Ian showed us the basic premise, in opponents guard. They try various different ways of sweeping you and you just grip their gi front and keep your arms in and posture up with your back strength. Ensure you are comfortable with how you have your legs based out and you can effectively maintain the position for a while with your opponent trying all sorts of sweeps and you just posturing and resisting them. We drilled this for a few minutes with opponents of different sizes and then moved on.


Next Ian showed us a decent defence for if the guy has you in his guard and tries a cross collar choke. He's reached and taken your collars and is in the process of attempting the choke on you. You then reach down and grab his lapel (if you use your left hand, grab his right collar or vice versa) with quite a low grip. Your hand should be positioned with thumb down and in a monkey grip style so you can then push the collar into your opponents throat, raise your leg (the leg on the opposite side to the arm you're using), push down on his hip with the other arm and postured up while push down on his throat. The opponent will let go very quickly unless he's stupid. It's very doubtful you'd get a tap from this but stranger things have happened. Once again we drilled this a few times, changing partners during that time.


Ian moved us swiftly on from here with a the standard knee up ass guard pass. Ensuring you have downward pressure on the opponents hips, push your knee into his ass and put the other leg out and behind you slightly with the foot flat on the floor and shift your weight backwards so your hips move back to your rear leg. This action should drive your knee into him (not literally you sick people) while the rest of your bodyweight rips open his guard. You then, using the hand that was holding his arm down, reach back behind the leg on that side and scoop the leg up, then reach up to his opposite shoulder and push your weight down on the leg and slide across making sure to clear your head. Then just bump his leg down so you land in side control. We carried on the drilling and swapping partners to get a full variety of opponent sizes and styles.


Ian finished the session off with the variation where you haven't maintained enough downward pressure on the hips. The opponent has ridden up your leg when you thrust your knee forward, consequentially the closed guard didn't break. From here you bring your outside leg back and hold it tight against the side of the opponents leg. Then use the leg that was applying the pressure to the opponents butt to stand whilst grabbing the pant legs of your opponent at the knees. From there you force the knee back up against the guys rear end and by that point the closed guard is usually broken. If your opponent has ridiculously long limbs or is a monkey or something then all you need do is step back with the free leg and guard breaks open easily. At this point you push down on the opponents knee that is on the same side as your forward leg (left to right, right to left), pressing it to the ground whilst still holding the other leg off to avoid triangle attempts. Here you can use your forward leg to press up against the inside of the opponents knee to help keep that leg pressured to the ground while you reach back with your opposite hand to go under the other leg and pass in the same way as before. I really like this pass as in the heat of the moment your opponent often finds an opportunity to ride up the leg on the seated version. The standing variation is an easy and effective way to open up someone who has a very strong closed guard game. One to remember.

We were a bit down to the wire toward the end so only had limited time for sparring. We had some quick rounds, swapping opponents four times. I managed to use a little bit of the butterfly guard stuff I've been learning in my new Marcelo Garcia - X Guard manual, pulling off a butterfly double underhook sweep and a decent arm drag to take the back and finish with a bow and arrow choke. I spent most of my sparring time with guys in my guard using mostly butterfly guard or feet on hips though I also inverted a couple of times against big Steve. I had to give myself a big mental slap every time I was trying to revert to closed guard and it seemed to work. I've gotta find decent ways to push the bigger guys off though as they have a habit of pancaking you to the mat to try and take a rest and gain control (hence the feet on hips). I was trying for all sorts of arm bars, omoplatas and even a gogoplata at one point against Steve but didn't manage to land any of that.Next week I'll be back on my game hopefully and next weekend (Sunday 15/1/12) there's a Chico Mendes seminar up at Trojan Cheltenham which I intend to go to. Apparently Chico's bringing 4 other black belts along with him so there's going to be a wealth of experience to draw knowledge from.

Can't friggin' wait \m/

BJJ = Life.

New Years Resolutions.

Happy New Year people. I've had a pretty insane Christmas and New Year period and have basically ignored blogland all together. I've just been catching up on some stuff via my feed reader and figured that I should probably post something for the New Year too.

First for a quick update on my general well being. Christmas was brilliant but really did a number on my fitness. I have not done any training at all since my last BJJ class on the 22nd of December and yet I have eaten enough for twelve men over the festive period (particularly choccies which are my personal weakness) which all adds up to me gaining (re-gaining?) a pretty impressive pot belly. My lung capacity is also resisting excessive brisk movement which is a bit alarming and I am increasingly glad that our household scales have broken in a somewhat suspiciously timed incident. In short, I have (as usual) loved Christmas but now it is fading in the rear-view mirror I am feeling some regret and guilt for my largess.

So for Bjj New Years Resolutions the first thing I need to deal with is getting back in shape again (if this blog continues on 'til next year I imagine you'll notice some sort of theme here). I will be hitting the treadmill daily for a few weeks and also busting out the weights with my good buddy Steve at the gym (Sweat FA for anyone who lives in Weston and is looking for a good gym). On top of this I will be trying to train BJJ as much as I can and going back to emergency diet mode on the food I'm eating. I should be back in shape by the end of January following this routine which is good as there is a Bjj Comp coming up sometime in March or April which I'd love to be in prime shape for.

Which brings me neatly on to my second resolution which is to compete more in 2012. Now this one is a bit easy as I've only competed in one event so I've set the bar nice and low for myself but I would ideally like to compete in at least 3 tournaments this year. I am intentionally leaving out possible achievements in competitions as I'm only 4 months in on my Blue Belt and don't give myself any chance of medalling (is that a word?), maybe just to win a couple of fights.

Things I want to achieve this year with my training:

I'd really like to polish up my guard game so I am resolving to attempt to spend at least fifty percent of my sparring time using some form of guard or another. I'd particularly like to brush up on my Half Guard (learn more sweeps) and my Butterfly Guard (learn anything I can) and steer away from trying to close my guard at every opportunity.

I'm also going to practice, practice, practice hitting triangles from whatever position I feel comfortable with. I'm going to read/watch as much as I can on hitting triangles from wherever possible and try to translate it into my game using the ones that work best with my body type (I'm quite short but also quite flexible). I hope to have tapped people out with a triangle over 5 times by the end of February in free sparring.

Another resolution is I still want to discipline myself to stop going for Ezekiel Chokes every time I get to mount. I've been getting better at this but the urge is still there. I need to stop this if I'm going to advance my game.

My last Bjj resolution is to intentionally try to take the back more often. Usually I'm happy to attack from side control or mount and take the back only if it comes. This year I want to actively seek the back and utilize my back attack game more often (which I actually feel is quite a strong part of my repertoire).

Other than all that I intent to absorb as much Bjj knowledge as I can and extend my technical skill set as much as possible. I read somewhere that the Blue Belt is where you learn the majority of your techniques. I will take this to heart and learn and perfect as much as my meagre brain will allow.

I cannot wait to train in 2012 and already feel that it will be my best and most productive year yet.

See you on the mats! Osssss! \m/