Checkmat Bjj - 9/10/12

With Chico away in Greece for the week, Ian Rossiter was left to do the Tuesday Checkmat Bjj Gi session for Bristol Combat Legion at La Gym Bristol.

Venue: LA Gym, Bristol, Uk.
Instructor: Ian Rossiter (Black Belt - Checkmat)

Warm up:

Laps of the mat with knee ups, ass kicks, face in for a lap then out for a lap. Then we did lengths of the mat doing Forward rolls, backward rolls and leap frogs (2 lengths each). After that we did some stretching and then paired up to do 30 Push ups off your partners back, then 20 Closed Guard situps.



Techniques:

Ian decided to start by doing some of the self defence aspect of Bjj for this lesson, starting with the defence against a headlock. This is where an opponent has wrapped one of his arms around your neck and has secured that arm in place by gripping hands together. However, the inexperienced opponent has absolutely no body control on you so you are able to move to his side as in this image;

From here, you use both of your hands to secured his outside arm to his side (stunting his ability to punch you in the face),and then extend your left leg behind the opponent. All you need do then is sit down and the guy should fall back and go over onto his side. If he's persistent and keeps the head lock you can now drive your forearm down into his neck using your other arm to brace it and add to the power load. Start at the base of the neck and use a scooping sort of motion, pushing up the neck, for maximum pain. This is legal in Bjj competition but at the end of the day you're unlikely to get a tap from it as all it's really for is to get the guy to let go of your neck. Once he releases you can grip the arm that was around your neck (his right), bring your right knee up and push it against his rib high on the nearside, then drop backwards, passing your left leg over his chest/face as you go, finishing with the arm bar.
This has always been a favourite of mine. I can't tell you the number of beered up tussles I've had where a guy's grabbed me in a headlock like this. If only I knew then what I know now ;o)
I was training all of the nights techniques with Tom Hill.



The next technique is a defence against someone pushing against your upper body with one hand.For this example they are using their right hand to push against your left shoulder. Using your left hand you first strike their arm away by knocking it across them so it has passed your body. Then you bring your right arm up under that arm and pass it over their left shoulder, wrapping it around their neck, securing it in place by gable gripping your hands together(their right arm at this point should be discomforting them as it's crushed up between your shoulder and their face). It's possible to finish from this position by just pulling the choking arm as if you're trying to get it toward your chest. However, you can also use this position to easily take your opponent down by stepping your right foot behind his right and tripping him while pulling him off balance with the hold. He'll go down onto his back with you coming down with the head and arm choke side control. To finish the choke tight, you put the hand of the choking arm in to the elbow crook of the bracing arm, closing that arm around it. Then with that hand you just reach for your ear and try to lay you body flat to the floor.  This should put severe pressure on the neck for the head and arm triangle choke.
Sometimes if you haven't got the opponent's trapped arm at the correct angle across their neck it will take some time for you to get the tap.




Ian's next technique was just a basic Rear Naked Choke putting emphasis on Ian's favourite little detail, the clenching down with the elbow into the opponent's chest. In seated rear mount  you bring your right arm around the opponents neck and ensure you bring that elbow down hard into his chest. You put the hand of that choking arm into the elbow crook of your left arm and then close that arm and pass the forearm behind the head and pressure the head forward. Most guys will tap at this point if you have the technique in tight but if not you just need to lean back while bending forward.




We then repeated both of the rear mount escapes from Ronan's class last friday.


Next up was the Half Nelson choke into Armbar. From the seated rear mount you have the seat belt grip (left arm under, right over). You pass you right arm across his neck and put it in the crook of the left arm, then close the left arm and pass that arm behind his head as you would for a normal rear naked. As you had the underhook though, the opponent's left arm is brought up with it. This in itself is a finishing technique called the Half Nelson Choke. Often though, the guy will bring the left shoulder down making space and preventing the choke from being successfully applied. For this situation you can secure his left arm with your left, then remove your right arm and bring it around to the left side of his face to push the face in the opposite direction. When doing this you can quickly release you right leg hook, pass your left leg hook fully across his body and then bring the right leg around and over his head, leaning back to finish with an arm bar. An old favourite of mine which I haven't hit in absolutely years. Hmmmmm I think I'm gonna have to make that a mini aim soon.



The last technique is a personal favourite. Ian's disco move of the day was a Rear Triangle/Armbar option from Rear Mount (with kick out). From the start up, you reach up to the shoulder as for the Rear Mount Arm Bar and the opponent tries to escape using the drive back method from Ronan's lesson. To counter this, you remove your foot hooks and put your feet under his legs in the crooks of his knees and kick out firing the guy back forward to the seated position with the additional bonus of his underhooked arm pulled right up toward you. Now you just need to wrap your leg (the one on the other side to his raised arm) over the shoulder and past his head and raised arm. You then escape your hip slightly to the other side and use the leg on that side to wrap around your first leg forming the triangle. Finish the technique by dragging yourself backward on your butt. Great move.




Rolling:


We didn't have a lot of time at all for rolling so it was just 2 x 3 minute rounds.

I rolled against Tom first. It was a good round. Tom's guard is very tight as usual, I managed to pass it once but he recovered. That was pretty much the highlight of a round that was over much to quickly.


Next up was the first time I'd properly rolled with Josh Kersey in a long time. It was a fast paced effort tight effort with not a lot of ground gained from either side. I managed a pass at one point which was easily recovered by Josh. He played with a lot of high guard and showed a much improved flexibility from the last times I've rolled with him. Josh threatened a triangle at one point but I had it well scouted and broke out (something I've been working on). Other than that it was just a "try to find an opening" type of roll with neither of us getting very far. Once again the 3 minutes went far too quickly and time was called.

So it was another great session up at Bristol Combat Legion. I'm really enjoying the hard sparring and good work ethic they've got up there.  Now unfortunately I've got no Bjj until next Thursday :o(  Apart from a No-Gi session with Matt Martin down Sweat FA Friday lunchtime. Oh well. Competition time will come soon enough.

¬m/

Checkmat Bjj - 5/10/12

I've had a double great day today.  Not only did I get some lunchtime No-Gi training in down Sweat FA in Weston, I also managed to get up to Ronan Fleming's  Checkmat Bjj class up at Bristol Combat Legion.

The session was very good. Ronan demo'd a couple of techniques then we got a shit load of sparring in. When I'm next training for a competition, I will definitely be going to Ronan's class for a bit of extra sparring and to build up my match ready grappling fitness. The guys up there set a good pace and keep it up all the way through.




Venue: Bristol Combat Legion, LA Gym, Bristol, Uk.
Instructor: Ronan Fleming (Purple Belt - Checkmat).



Warm Up:
For the warm up we started with laps of the mat whilst doing knee ups, butt kicks, inward facing sidesteps, outward facing sidesteps, then two in two out sidesteps. We then did lengths of the mat, doing forward rolls (X 2 Lengths), backward rolls (X 2 Lengths) and Spiderman Crawls (X 2 Lengths).



Techniques:
(I will describe each technique using the method I originally learned it. ie. left or right grips etc. for ease of description)


For the techniques, Ronan started us off with some escapes from Rear Mount. Starting with your opponent having your back in seated rear mount with both hooks in. You defend your neck with both your hands and plant both feet flat on the ground to push yourself back into your opponent, flattening his back to the floor. You then shift your hips out to the right, moving your back out also, to get it to the floor. During this movement, the weight of your lower body should press against the opponent's right inside leg, knocking the hook out and leaving you the opportunity to use both of your legs to trap the guy's left leg (as if for half guard). At this point, if he's sensible, he'll accept that he's lost the position and try to limit his losses by coming over on top of you into your half guard. However, if he tries to hold on for dear life and not accept that he lost the back control, you'll find it easy to roll over on to him, bringing you up into half guard top.
Working under the assumption that the guy is going to take the sensible option and roll on you for half guard top, Ronan had us drill practice two different methods of ensuring you come up in as favourable a position as possible. The first being the side half guard with deep under hook that I've covered here a lot recently. The second being a cool underhook for deep half guard. The guys (Ronan and Josh Kersey) also showed me a nifty little deep half sweep for if the guy tries to base out using his left leg.


The second rear mount escape was the more common butt scooth, leg drop and hip shift method that I have written up many times before. A great basic staple move that everyone practising Bjj should know.



Moving on from there, Ronan ran us through some good basic finishes for if you have the guy's back. He hit us with three nice easy ones in quick succession and then had us drill all three together. All of these are from the full seated rear mount position.

First was a variation from the rear naked choke for if you're finding it too hard to get your (right)arm buried all the way in under his chin so you can apply the rear naked properly. Instead, you can finish the choke using the forearm/wrist under the chin, angling it just so that the flattest part is crushing the opponent's throat. To finish this you only need to pull the right arm up into the opponent's throat using a no thumb grip down over the hand with your free left hand. If applied correctly the choke comes on quick.

The second and third were two variations of the rear mounted ezekiel.
From a seated rear mount with seat belt control, your right arm is over the top of his right arm (as if to attack the neck), your left arm is under his left. You reach up in front of him with your left arm and put the fingers of your right hand into the sleeve of the left arm. You then pass the left hand behind the guy's head, with the right hand nestling neatly into the opponent's throat. The finish this you just need to lean your body weight backward which seems to naturally push your arms out. Very tight choke.
The alternate method is where you push your left arm fully under his arm and through so it is past the right side of his head. You then put the fingers of your left hand into the sleeve cuff of your right and pass the right arm behind the opponent's head so the blade of your right hand can be pushed into the left side of his neck. Once again, finish by laying backward and pushing your arms out.
Two real eye waterers there.


Sparring:

We kicked off with some situational sparring. Attacking the back. The guy with the back has to submit. The guy whose trapped has to escape to either top control or guard.

We rolled with loads of guys through this and as mentioned before, the pace was really high. Some great rolling. I didn't get tapped out through any of the situational stuff and managed to get a couple of taps.

For the full sparring I had a turn against Tom Kocur first, who was really on his game. Although he didn't finish me, he basically controlled me for 85%  of the round, quite a lot of it in a triangle choke attempt. It was a real tough round and by the end I fel totally beasted.

Then my second round was against Matt Sellars. A long standing brown belt who, quite frankly, is waaaaay out of my league. Every once in a while you have a roll against someone who reminds you just how very far you have to go in your Bjj development. Matt Sellars was that guy for me. I held him off with my guard for about a minute at the start but he pretty soon found a way to glide past and once in side control it was pretty much all over. He tapped me first with forearm choke from side control, then we pretty much repeated the transitioning and he got me with an Americana. Thoroughly handled but Matt's a very humble and friendly guy and tried to give me pointers on how to tighten up my game.

I very briefly had a roll against Ronan who also managed to pass my guard before the bell saved me from some form of pain.

My last roll was against a guy named Ben, a white belt who was showing some really good movement and strength. I got some sweeps on him and got to mount once but he recovered quite nicely each time. I eventually managed to get him with an ezekiel from mount.

For my first taster of a Friday sesh under Ronan I had a bloody good time and really loved the masses of rolling. I shall definitely be attending some more if time allows. ¬m/

Checkmat Bjj - 2/10/12

It's been a while since I've managed to get up to train with the guys at Checkmat Bjj Bristol and I've definitely missed it. They've got a well attended class up there with a few new guys I've not seen before, mixed in with the regular old faces. Great atmosphere with lots of camaraderie but also a good batch of guys who take their training relatively seriously.

Venue: Bristol Combat Legion, LA Gym, Bristol, Uk
Instructor: Chico Mendes (Grade 2 Black Belt, Checkmat Bjj)


Techniques:
(I will describe each technique using the method I originally learned it. ie. left and right grips etc. for ease of description)

Chico started off by running through a couple of the techniques he did last week (which was good for me as I wasn't there last week). Seems last week he was dealing with various methods for breaking the closed guard of which he re-demonstrated 3 quickly and had us run through them quickly a couple of times.

1/. In opponent's closed guard, right hand gripping the lapels of his jacket together, left hand gripping the material of his gi pants right around his pelvis region and pushing your knuckles into said pelvis region in an attempt to keep his hips pinned to the floor. From there you bring your right leg up and forward on the outside, so you can press that shin/knee against the opponent's side. From there you can increase the pressure on his side as if you are turning in towards him (sometimes this can break a guy's guard) or you can stand in this position, increase the pressure on the side and use you left hand to lightly push away his right, easily breaking the guard.

2/. In opponent's closed guard, using your right hand, grab his left and push it hard into his pelvis area to achieve the same sort of pinning as in the first method. With your left hand on his knee you raise your left leg outside of him to apply pressure in his side. The just use your right elbow to push against his left inside leg to achieve the easy guard break.

3/. In opponent's closed guard, both hands gripping the gi pant material at the pelvis and pushing down. With this one you just lean off to your left slightly and use your left elbow to push hard into his right inside left until he eventually lets his guard go just to relieve the pressure.
It's worth noting that this technique is not the same as the one where the guy in guard postures up and deliberately digs his elbows callously into your quad muscles just about halfway up your upper leg. The former technique is a good and legitimate way of passing guard. The latter is a bit of a fuck wits move to callously and intentionally hurt the sparring partner until they let go of their guard in agony and will probably be left with heavy bruising for the next week. Don't be that guy.

I did all my drilling with Tom "Medal Collector" Hill.

Chico then took us through some methods of passing the guard after you have broken it open.

The first passing method was the knee slide. You've just broken the guard open. You now need to press your left leg into the guy's inside leg, pushing it out ward to keep the leg at bay so as to not allow the guy to recover guard. With your right arm you push the guys left leg down to the floor and quickly hop your right leg over it. You then quickly slide your knee over the top of his left leg until gets to the ground one the other side of him. Whilst doing that you also underhook the guys right arm with your left, lay your down either to the mat on the left of him or pressing hard against his chin/neck area, and also overhook his left arm with your right so you can pull that arm behind you to stop him from blocking your pass. Once in this position you can bring yourself further over him and then work to pull your trailing leg through too. Then scissor your legs to switch over into side control.


The second pass demonstrated was basically exactly the same as the last but against the De La Riva guard.


Next up was a variation of the smash pass. You've broke the opponent's guard open and have your left leg pressing against his right inside leg. Your left hand is grabbing his gi pants at the right knee. Your right is gripping his gi front/lapel/belt. You now reach under his left leg with your right arm and then push your arm under as far as it will go so you can grab his right lapel. This enables you to bring the leg right up on your shoulder, leaning your weight against the leg to make it quite uncomfortable for the opponent. You also need to make sure you've kept your left leg in place and brace it there with your left hand. This stops the guy from being able to hit a triangle on you.
From this position we were shown two passes. The basic smash pass and a variation. For the basic smash pass you heavily press your weight up against the guy's left leg until it's basically pushed across his body. When it's forced as far as it'll go you can just turn your upper body slightly (the right shoulder goes forward) so the leg flies right by you and you can pass comfortably into side control.

For the second variation, you're in the smash set up position with the guy's left leg pressured. Instead of trying for the first smash pass, you can use your left hand to wrap around the guy's left leg, then roll left and forward while bringing your right leg up high and over, passing the guy's right leg. If done correctly, when you rolled forward, your knee at his inside leg would've passed over as well leaving only that foot left to pass. Once there you just switch your hips to gain a strong side control position.
I was really impressed with this move. When you drill it repeatedly you can really make it flow. I could easily see it becoming a go to pass of choice.





Situational rolling:

We started off the sparring with some situational stuff. You each get a couple of minutes in guard. Guy on top has to pass. Guy on bottom has to sweep or submit.

I went first against Tom with him going on the bottom first. I managed to pass his guard twice and then swept him once during my guard time.


Next up was Tom Kocur. I have a lot of respect for Tom's guard game. He's definitely a dangerous guard player, so during the course of this session I was very mindful of Tom's ability to whip out some sneaky subs. I did however use his sub hunting skills against his to get passed his guard as I lured him into trying for an arm bar, then turned the arm up so he couldn't hyper-extend it while I just passed around the open side. I was really chuffed with this. Tom is one of those guys that is pretty damn slick, so when i get anything on him it feels like I'm progressing. We restarted back in guard and before long Tom was threatening, first with and arm bar, which I switch out of again, then with an omoplata, which I managed to extend my arm to keep out of. It was during this second escape/block that Tom managed to switch on me getting the sweep. Very slick.
during my guard with the guard, neither of use managed to accomplish anything of noted. I threatened a couple of subs but he easily blocked them. He didn't manage to pass my guard.


Last guy I did the situational against was Mark Acton. Mark is a very wiley opponent who brought it too me straight from the off. He broke my guard using one of the techniques from the beginning of the evening, then after a good struggle and a few well varied attempts, he managed to pass my guard using a Toreando pass. we were both pretty gassed after the struggle mind and basically killed off the rest of my round with stalling play.
My time in Mark's guard was horrendous. I don't know it it was due to me gassing in the round before or what, but I couldn't summon up the strength to break open Mark's guard. I was throwing a lot of stuff at him but he was resisting fantastically. The only plus I take away from that was the fact that Mark didn't manage to sweep me either.


Rolling: 7 Minutes rounds.


For proper rolling I had a go against Rich Long first. Rich's game is ever improving and once again he used some really good techniques to get out of some tricky spots. It was a very back and forth roll with each of us getting a good amount of time on top and on back. I found myself attacking Rich's turtle twice. The first time he executed and immediate escape recovering to half guard. The second time I just marginally missed taking his back. I did manage a pretty cool half guard sweep on him at one point, but then he managed to burst out of a flattened half guard (using the very recognisable Lucas Leite technique) to recover to full guard. During one of my times on the bottom he made the mistake of presenting too much arm while postured up trying to break my guard. I bluffed him by pretending I was going for a gi choke while sneakily pulling myself in to position, where I managed to hit an arm bar on him. All in all it was a great roll. 


My last roll was against a new guy I'd never met before (Chris?) who said he'd only been going 2 months. I went very easy on him and talked him through some escapes from some of the tougher situations. I also tried to talk him through some of the basic mistakes he was making but as is always the case with new guys, no matter what I said I couldn't get him to stop trying to push away using his extended arms whilst in my guard. To his credit though, he had a contingency plan for when I went for the arm bar, using his other arm to block. From there though I threatened the omoplata, making him extend the arm, leaving me in the position where I just had to kneel upright and extend his arm straight to get the tap. It still didn't ram the point home though as he went straight back to arm extending in my guard after the reset. I was just about to hit him with another arm bar when time was called. I guess he's gonna need to be arm barred a few times before he learns. Oh well, we were all beginners once.

That ended a really cool session in Bristol. It was great to be back up there with those guys I hope to get back there really soon. At the end, Chico gave a quick talk about the London Open and European No Gi Championships being held in London at the end of the month, of which Chico himself is entering. Should be good fun but the prices are astronomical so I will not be able to participate myself. Ah well. Stick to training hard and hopefully good things will come. ¬m/

DV8 Academia de Jiu Jitsu 20-9-12

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

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


Warm Up:

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


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


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



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


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

This clip comes courtesy of ExpertVillage

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

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

Vid uploaded by StevenPourciau

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

 

 Video courtesy of GGBJJ

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

This vid was uploaded by sirzig

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

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



Sparring:

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



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

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

2 Man Training 18/9/12

As mentioned last week, I have managed to get a session of lunch time grappling training in with one of the regulars down the gym (Sweat FA, Weston Super Mare).

Tom is a brown belt in Judo and is soon to go pro as a boxer. He also works full time as a doorman up in Bristol, so often has to use his Judo training to eject troublesome patrons or break up incidents.

It is Tom's knowledge of Judo that I am trying to leech upon during these sessions (not really overly bothered with Boxing) and it really is helping my stand up improve no end. We've generally just been drilling a couple of throws each week, then stand up sparring for about 10 to 15 minutes.

Previous weeks we've done the old faithful Seoi Nage shoulder throw, the O soto Otoshi hard trip and the O goshi hip throw (Glenn Cutter will be elated that I have actually bothered to learn those names :o).  This week we worked on a trip where you do a little skip step forward and take out the guy's opposite leg.
I have found out that this technique is called Ko Uchi Gari and thanks to the joys of Youtube, I'll never have to write up a lengthy Judo description. Yay.

Video courtesy of Matt Brink, Youtube.

We drilled this both sides and then threw in a variation where you don't hit the first trip so you switch the position of your leg and trip his second leg instead. Very cool move.

We then did about 10 minutes of stand up sparring during which time he managed to take me down about a half dozen times. I managed to get in three myself which was an improvement over the total bitching he gave me last week.

For the portion of the session where I taught him, I showed some simple chokes from guard that can also be adjusted to use from standing. The Loop Choke that we did in Ian's class a couple of Thursdays ago was one and the Cross Choke using the Fist on one side was the other. 

After that we hit the mats for a bit of ground sparring which went pretty much the way you'd expect it to although his escaping techniques are improving and I can definitely see him attempting some of the moves I've taught him. I'll just need to drill with him more so he can get to the subs more naturally with out tipping me off way in advance as to what he's going for. 

To make matters even better, a boxing trainer named Matt, who has been training a lot of young guys in boxing while I've been there grappling in recent months has asked me if I fancy doing a bit of No Gi training with him on a day or two a week. Could be good. Well all mat time is good really.  

¬m/

DV8 Academia de Jiu Jitsu - 13/9/12

This blog is a land mark for me in my Bjj Obsession for 2 reasons. Firstly, it's my one hundredth blog entry, which is pretty special in it's own right. Secondly, and more importantly in my eyes, it's the first opportunity I've had to teach this martial art that I love so much. Yes, that's right, I am chuffed to fuck because I was allowed by my long time instructor, Ian Rossiter, to instruct part of this nights class in his absence. I say part of as I shared the instruction privilege with Glenn Cutter, who for half of the class, ran us through some very handy throwing techniques.

Wahooo, I finally found a program that will make transparent backgrounds for my pictures :o)

 

Venue: Sweat FA, Weston Super Mare, Uk.
Instructors: Martin Eyre (Blue Belt, Hey that's me :oD), Glenn Cutter (Blue Belt).


Warm Up:
 I started the warm up with the usual laps of the mat with arms windmilling, then butt kicks, then knee ups, side steps facing in, side step facing out. We then stopped for some arm stretching and neck stretching. Then some leg stretching. Then, at the request of Rich Presley before the class, we changed it up a bit and paired off for some no handed guard passing/sweeping, then some guard pulling (10 each). We then did some break falling up the mat. First forward rolls. Then forward rolls into backward rolls. Then another which I can't remember (d'oh). Everybody was breathing fairly heavy after all that.




Techniques:
(I will explain the movements from the perspective that I first learned them for ease of description)

For the techniques this week, Glenn Cutter took the first half of the class and showed us some pretty excellent takedowns. He demonstrated techniques that lent themselves well to Bjj stand up, particularly against a resisting opponent.



 First up was a pretty cool method of getting a trip takedown against an opponent's guard pull attempt. So your facing off against the opponent, both collar and elbow grappling for position to initiate a throw, with your right hand on his collar and left at his elbow. The opponent decides to pull guard and you are quick enough to see this happening. As he's raised his right leg up and started to wrap it around you, you twist your grip on his lapel about a quarter turn clockwise whilst pushing that fist against him to bring him off balance. You then step forward to bring your right leg behind his left and then pull back with it whilst simultaneously pushing forward with your clenched right fist. The guy should go flat (and quite hard) down on his back with you following him down to land with your right knee across his left inside thigh - to close it down from any counter attacking or defensive movement - and a large part of the rest of your body weight leaning against his other leg. The pass should come very easy from there.
I drilled this and all other moves with Rich. We both enjoyed this move and indeed the whole takedown segment of this class.



Next up we did the same but without the guard pull attempt. So basically, you push him away with your clenched fist grip, then step in and try for the trip. This version, as Glenn pointed out, can be a lot scrappier and no where near as clean, as you go into a kind of locked legs struggle, but as long as you persevere you can get the guy down eventually by waiting for him to try and turn his weight against you then just taking him down the opposite way.



The third takedown of the night was one I really enjoyed. Taking a grip of the opponent's right sleeve cuff with left hand and a grip of his collar (either side) with your right, step away from the opponent to the opposite side from which of his hands you have - in my case I had his right so I stand away from him to his left . You then quickly turn away (turning left) from him whilst pulling him around in that direction rapidly as if to swing him over. Consequentially, his body moves at a much faster rate than his legs can carry him and he goes over on to his back with the arm you had originally secured presenting itself neatly for the arm bar finish.

While doing this move I commented to Rich about how friggin awesome it would be to pull the whole lot of it off in a competition. The swing takedown into arm bar. The would be up there with flying arm bars for silky smooth finishes.



For the last move Glenn demonstrated a step in for O Soto Gari, then turning it into a Seio Nage. You're standing facing your opponent with left hand grip on his right cuff, and a right hand grip of his right collar. You then step your left leg out slightly left so you can bring your right leg forward to the outside of his right leg. This is where you'd usually go for the O Soto Gari. That's exactly what the opponent will be expecting too so for this move, Glenn showed us a slick way to turn it into a Seio Nage. By then swinging your left leg back and around in a sweeping motion, so you have essentially turned you back on him, you can extend your right left straight and flip the guy over your shoulder, hard to the mat and end neatly in side control.
I found this move difficult at first because I kept bending the right leg right at the end taking away my power to throw him over the shoulder and basically turning it into a trip. Got it ok in the end though.

Some great moves there from Glenn and a lot of the guys commented that we could maybe do a a regular half class of takedowns, maybe on a monthly basis. I'll have to put that to Ian and see what he says.


The second half of the class was taught by me. It was a real land mark in my Jiu Jitsu progress that I was allowed to take this and I was really chuffed. So I decided to do the segment on my old personal nemesis, The Half Guard. I used to find the half guard a real problem when i first started Jiu Jitsu, seeing it as more of a position I was trapped in and must escape from, rather than a position where I could easily transition to rear mount, sweep or submit an opponent. The key thing I have found is to make the space to get off you back  so you are turned onto your side facing in to your opponent, preferably with an underhook in too.

With this in mind, the first technique I demonstrated was a method of breaking free from the flattened out half guard bottom, to get to the attacking half guard on you side. Starting with my opponent laying flat on top of me with his right leg trapped in my half guard (his left leg basing off to my right side), lying diagonally across me so his left arm has wrapped around under my head and his right arm is under hooking my left and reached up to grip his other hand to the left of my head. He's rather fiendishly using this position to stall, maybe because he's short of breath, maybe the times nearly up and he's ahead on points. What you need to do first is make some space for yourself. You do this by reaching up with your right hand to take a grip of gi underneath his left arm pit, and reach up over the top of his right arm with your left, sliding the arm under his face/neck, to grab a handful of his gi  at the top of his left shoulder (your hands should be framing his shoulder, one above, one below). You can now bridge up using your legs to assist you, pushing out with your hands to make enough space to get your head in under his head/upper chest. Once it's in there you can quickly swing your left hand down then up to go under his right arm and reach around to take a grip of his gi or belt as far as you can reach around. You can now bring your right elbow in close to your lower stomach, until you can get it under you. You can now use the combined strength of your arm, shoulder and body, to move yourself into a more upright position. This is now a much more attacking Half Guard position, giving you a good set up for a transition to rear mount or some good sweeps.
I had the class just practise getting themselves out of the troubling flattened position first.


Moving on from there I added a sweep to it. You've got yourself to the attacking Half Guard set up position above. To pre-empt any attempted moves to back, the opponent quickly gets the whizzer on your deep under hooking left arm. From here you start to push your weight into him, sitting up very slightly as you go. When the guy inevitably starts to push his weight back against you, you quickly reach down to grip his gi pants at the left knee with your right hand, then quickly fall/turn backwards while pulling him over with your deep left under hook and then pushing him over with the pant knee grip. If executed correctly you should be able to easily sweep even a much heavier opponent to his back and come up in side control.
I seemed to get a fairly good reaction for this sweep which was good.



The last move i demonstrated was the Half Guard Twist Sweep. You've managed to get slightly upright on to your side with your half guard ( the guys right leg is trapped) but he's clapped pushing your left arm at the bicep to stop you from getting the under hook. You must ensure at this point, that you are trapping his right leg using your right leg wrapped over it so your right foot ends up on the outside of his right leg. You must position your right knee so it is pressed against his inside right thigh and then quickly move your left foot to press against the outside of his right knee. From here you use your left hand to ensure he can't base out and stop the move with his right arm, by gripping it in close. Then twisting your lower body left, you push your right knee against his inside right leg, which pushes him over your left foot, sweeping him over onto his back with you coming up neatly into side control. The move is easier if you get it set up and then wait for your opponent to push forward, then use their momentum to help you, but it's a very doable sweep even with out the additional help.
This is easily one of my favourite half guard sweeps.



Sparring:

For the sparring this session I had a fairly mediocre night. I got a couple of subs but nothing that will set the world alight.

I rolled with Rich, Glenn'son, Sean Errock, 'Big' Justin Thomas and Tommy Hill.


That was it for the week for training. I was hoping to get a session in with my mate Tom Gifford but unfortunately it didn't happen. I shall try and coax him into some for next week. Gotta get the mat time in :o)

DV8 Academia de Jiu Jitsu 6/9/12

During the course of this week I have managed to get some training in with a new guy from our Gym (Sweat FA, Weston). A few weeks ago, after I'd had a lunchtime training session with Marcus Hedley, I was approached by a big lad called Tom, who asked what kind of stuff I'd been doing? He said he used to do a bit of Judo when he lived in France and had got to Brown Belt, but gave it up when he moved back to England. Tom asked if I would ever be interested in doing a bit of a cross training thing. He'd show me some stand up and I'd show him some ground grappling.

Having just lost my regular week day training partner (Marcus) I was all over this idea. I've now had 3 lunchtime sessions with Tom and I've gotta say, it's well cool having a regular lunch time training partner again. We've been teaching each other some stuff starting pretty basic. Tom's been showing me some cool trips and over shoulder throws - I was already reasonably educated in some of it but Tom's really help me get the techniques nailed down and we're doing tons of sparring to help with my Bjj standing starts. For my part of the bargain I've been starting him off fairly basic too, showing how to get himself out of tough situations to begin. A basic flower sweep from closed guard, and Upa escape from being mounted and the bridge and shrimp to guard recovery from side control bottom. I also chucked in a couple of basic finishes, Americana, Kimura, Arm bar.

In all it's really been helping me with both my standing game - which has needed a bit of work lately - and my ability to teach and transfer techniques to other people. This will prove invaluable to me for the future as I have every intention of teaching classes one day. I will start to once again blog my "Two Man Training", maybe under a different name, I haven't decided yet.

As for this week at Ian's class, the numbers were a little lower than previous weeks but there's still the regular faces coming in which is good.

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


Warm Up:
The usual laps of the mat with arm wind milling, knee ups, butt kicks and side steps. Then on to arm, neck and shoulder stretching, Squat (3 x 10), push ups (3 x 10) and sit ups (3 x 10). We finished up with some leg stretching and the weird torso twisty thing where you sit down and turn you legs one way and twist your bother 'tother.




Techniques:
(I will describe the techniques from the side I initially learnt them on for ease of description).

This week  Ian started us off with the Loop Choke from Closed Guard. With the opponent in your closed guard attempting to posture up and break your guard, you reach up to grab deep inside his right collar with your right hand. You then pull him in close to you (your legs can help with this) and wrap your left arm over his shoulder and around his back, tucking the hand into the crook of your other arm. Ensure that the wrist of the hand holding his collar is taught rather than limp and turn the whole hold anti clockwise as if it was like a steering wheel and you were turning left.
I drilled this and all other techniques with Rich Presley. We've found with this move, that the hold when applied right comes on very strong but even if it doesn't come on you can fall back with using it to sweep your opponent over so you can gain a top control position. I have used this in sparring many times before.




Next up was another method of breaking down a postured opponent in your guard (someone might get a bit suspicious that these moves were geared at his recent disappointment in competition). Once again the guy's in your closed guard and again your get the right cross collar grip. This time though you fall out to the left side, pulling the opponent with you and using your legs to escort him down also. From there you just need to cross grab him at the left shoulder with your free left hand (going over the top of your other arm) and finish as for a standard cross choke, pulling your arms in tight to you body and letting the angle that is formed with your arms as they go around your ribs bring the pressure on.
A handy variation on the cross choke there and a good way to break that posture.


Next up we re-did the Rickson Arm Bar from last week. Handy. Means less typing.


After that we were shown a Figure Four Arm Lock from Guard. We started off by drilling the way to get the Figure Four Arm Lock from standing. Your opponent places a hand on your shoulder (Rich's right on my left shoulder) to which you overwrap it with your left arm by sweeping your arm inside, up, over the top of his arm and then around and back under, clasping the arm tight to your side. Your forearm needs to be quite high up and his arm. With your right hand you press it against his right shoulder, then grab the wrist of that arm with your left hand (to form the figure four shape with your arms). To apply pressure you push on his shoulder while extending that arm  and leaning your body slightly back to hyper extend the trapped arm. Unpleasant.
This is basically exactly the same as from the guard. As long as you manage to get an overwrap on the arm, with your forearm sufficiently far enough up the arm, the move finishes itself.


A little bonus for the lesson that Ian showed me and Rich, was a cool little way to apply a kind of "Elbow Hook" move from a blocked triangle choke attempt. You've basically got the guy in an amazing triangle set up (with your right leg over his shoulder and your left closed over it for the pressure. His right arm is inside). From here, the guy has blocked it by wrapping his arm down and around your left leg. However, this leaves his elbow sticking out and exposed. All you need to do is use your left arm to wrap around the end of the exposed elbow (from under side to above), securing it with a gable grip at the top. You then turn your arm outward (similar to how you would for a heel hook) to put on a shite load of pain and finish the move.
We were both pretty blown away and chuffed with this technique and I can image it will come in handy in the future.


Sparring:

This week I sparred with Rich, Chris Whiting, Old Rob and Chris Cook. Surprisingly, the only one of them I didn't tap out was Old Rob who showed some amazing defence, first from being mounted, then from being rear mounted. Very impressive.

So that's it for another very good week of training. Next week, I have been asked by Ian to take part of the class in his absence (he's on holiday) which should be pretty cool as it's the first time I've instructed a class of people. I very much look forward to it.

¬m/