22/03/2007 – BJJ
Posted: 22/03/2007 Filed under: armbar escape, armbar from guard, armbar from standing guard, beginners class, BJJ, Brazilian jiu jitsu, Felipe Souza, London, Roger Gracie Academy 1 CommentClass #43
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Felipe Souza, London, UK – 22/03/2007
Maurição took the warm-up, which was the same as Saturday, but Felipe ran the rest of class. As with previous lessons this week, everything was based around the armbar from guard.
Felipe began with an armbar from standing guard, by which I mean an armbar applied after your opponent has stood up in your guard. Seeing Person A is leaning forward too much, Person B grips both arms tightly. Person B then walks their guard up high on Person A’s back and swivels to one side, underhooking a leg to better facilitate that turn. Switching their grip back to the arm they wish to isolate, Person B brings their leg around Person A’s head (the other staying by his shoulder) and secures the armbar.
Felipe shows the armbar from guard a little differently to Jude, as he doesn’t emphasise raising the hips, instead focusing on turning 90 degrees and pushing your opponent as off-balance as possible with your leg. I think I prefer raising the hips, as I find that makes getting the leg over easier, but tried doing it Felipe’s way: after a bit of experimentation, it seemed a combination of the two worked best. Of course, I’ve never got an armbar from guard in sparring, so hard to know for certain what the ‘best’ method is – I guess in the end, it’s the one that you get to function on a regular basis.
Finally, the armbar escape was also demonstrated a bit differently. Unlike Jude, Felipe didn’t make a point of getting the knee up to your opponent’s shoulder, instead leaving it further back. Again, I think I find it easier Jude’s way, though I don’t think I’ve put it into effect yet when trying to escape armbars in sparring.
Something else Jude mentioned that proved useful was his advice on getting an arm under the neck close to your body when someone is going for your legs. I didn’t apply it in that situation, but instead when I was attempting to pass the guard over a knee. As often happens, I found that both Chris and Anne locked me into their half-guard, but getting that arm into their neck on the side nearest my body gave me sufficient leverage to push through into side control. I’m still not entirely sure how I can most usefully employ my other arm – I tried grabbing the knee, and also pushing into the hip. Grabbing the knee seemed to help prevent my partner recovering guard, but I think it may have left me a little vulnerable given the awkward position, perhaps setting me up for a sweep.
I had a refreshing spar against a new guy, Paxton. The reason it was refreshing is because its been some time since I last sparred somebody with significantly less experience than me. That meant that I could take it a lot slower, and try to see if I could set him up for sweeps, perhaps attempt open guard, or even go for submissions. I tried to elevator sweep a few times but couldn’t quite hook his leg, and also couldn’t get enough space for a scissor sweep – Paxton was staying very close, which made it difficult for me to do a great deal. I could possibly have pushed harder for the collar choke, but preferred to take the opportunity to work sweeps.
Eventually I found myself presented with a triangle, but struggled to finish. I always have problems completing a triangle, which normally results in my opponent slipping their head out, stacking me and passing, which is what happened here. Paxton also went for the Americana a few times, although when I said afterwards that its unlikely he’s going to get that from within guard, he responded that he didn’t really know what he was going for, which is entirely possible.
I had little success on the bottom, yet again failing to get the sit-up sweep against Chris. He sat back, so was in position for it, but I couldn’t force it through. I did at least remember to try for the kimura as I fell back, but went for it too late: I barely had the arm, which Chris easily pulled out, proceeding to pass my guard.
So, I really need to work timing on my sweeps, and I also need to think more carefully about follow ups. For the scissor I must remember to make space first by shrimping, and I also should take greater care when attempting a triangle. As I’m planning to book a private with Jude in May after I get back from my holiday, I want to start considering now the kind of things I’d especially like to cover: at the moment, I think I’d be choosing from passing the guard, submissions from mount, sweeps and triangles.
On a transportation note, I realised after standing about waiting for the 23 bus to Westbourne Park for ages (missing my train to Amersham despite panting my way to Marylebone from Edgware Road) that it would be much more sensible to do as Chris suggested and go the other direction, to Ladbroke Grove. That’s because pretty much all the buses on the other side of the road go to the station, whereas on the side I was standing, its only the 23.
Next week, I’ll be staying at my sisters again, so this time I want to make sure I get some extra drilling in after the late session finishes. Looking forward to working some stuff with Chris on Tuesday and Thursday night.
01/03/2007 – BJJ
Posted: 01/03/2007 Filed under: armbar from standing guard, beginners class, BJJ, Brazilian jiu jitsu, Felipe Souza, London, Roger Gracie Academy, standing guard sweep Leave a commentClass #34
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Felipe Souza, London, UK – 01/03/2007
I didn’t get the chance to drill the scissor and sit-up as I’d hoped today, but instead I was surprised to see Felipe go through the exact same sweep I’d unsuccessfully tried on Dominique yesterday. Not sure what it’s called, but I’ll refer to it as the standing guard sweep. When Person A stands up to pass, Person B hooks an arm around Person A’s leg, gripping their own collar (an important detail I missed yesterday). They then push up off their other arm, drive their hips into their opponent and attempt to knock Person A to the ground. Here‘s the Paulo Guillobel video I saw a few days ago, which starts with the same technique.
It seems a difficult sweep to get, as in drilling the person standing generally had to let their partner knock them down rather than being forced to do so through technique. Then again, when drilling you’re expecting it, so I assume this sweep is one that needs the right timing, such as when your opponent is just about to pass and perhaps has their feet close together, or has overbalanced for some reason. That’s just conjecture on my part, though.
I preferred the follow up, an armbar from standing guard. When Person A successfully resists the sweep attempt, Person B grabs their arm (which would normally be gripping Person B’s collar in preparation for a pass). Pulling down and across, Person B walks their guard up high on Person A’s back. At the same time, they need to keep their hips raised so Person A can’t pull out the arm, and also maintain their grip on Person A’s leg, in order to improve control. Once Person B has achieved a sufficiently high guard, they swivel and bring the leg round, staying tight on Person A’s back, then go for the armbar.
Chris reminded me once again how good a training partner he is, constantly providing useful tips. He also always provides the right level of resistant to pick up my mistakes: in this case, I kept forgetting to keep my hips raised up, meaning he could pull his arm out. If I was with somebody who ignored my mistake, then I’d end up using sloppy technique in sparring and have no chance of getting the sub (presuming I found myself in position to go for it).
Sparring went pretty well for me today, as IIRC, I managed to sweep or pass consistently. However, my technique was a bit crappy, and I get the impression that there was probably some simple counter to what I was doing, especially as I wasn’t doing the motion right. Sparring was initially split into weight groups, which I definitely prefer to king of the hill, with my first spar turning out to be a long one. I was with a guy called Jonathan I’ve not sparred before, who was making all the attacks at first. With a bit of wriggling and pushing I was able to resist his attempts at collar chokes and sit-up sweeps, but not able to do much more than that. When I finally picked my moment to stand up, he unsurprisingly went for the sweeps we’d just been shown. However, I had little trouble maintaining my base, and eventually got control of his leg, trapped it with my shin and passed to side control. Getting the pass is always nice, but I really need to stop getting stuck in these long wars of attrition and be more proactive. That old fear of standing up is still lingering, so looks like I have a bit more work to do before I can overcome it after all.
I had to sit out for a bit before my next spar, as my left foot had completely cramped up. Once that relented, I had a similar roll against Anne, although this time I stood up sooner. With Del, I managed to turn him over from underneath – I think from a failed kimura attempt, but not sure. Whichever, I ended up in a sort of side control (he was turned to his side with an arm round my neck), but as Del is one of the more aggressively competitive members of class, he wasn’t keen to stop. However, as its specific sparring, getting on top from having been on the bottom signalled the end point.
Sparring then switched to just working with one person, which for me turned out to be Nathan, who I’ve sparred a number of times now. I had a chance to work my open guard as he tried to pass, seeing how my control was if I had one leg in, or both legs around his inner thighs. Seemed to function ok, but on the other hand we were both pretty knackered, so he may have been able to easily clear my legs if he’d been fresher. I found success in keeping him close with my legs, then going for a kimura on his arm. I didn’t get the kimura, but I did keep ending up with a solid grip on his arm. Coupled with my firm lock around his back, this meant I had enough control that I could execute a sit-up sweep, albeit poorly. The reason it was especially poor is because I was exerting a lot of effort to put him on his back – I’m definitely missing a step of the sweep, possibly not isolating his supporting leg enough. I swept like this several times in the course of our spar, but my technique was crappy, so needs plenty of work.
Success in passing, as before, mainly came from trapping a leg with me knee. I need to improve my ability to force the guard open, because at the moment I’m normally getting the pass when they choose to relax their guard. While that works too, I’d rather be using good technique on my part as opposed to waiting for them to make a mistake.
My cardio sucks arse, as I was completely knackered during sparring. I’m clearly going have to really improve before I have a hope of making it through an advanced class, as at present I’ll simply drown in my own sweat. Another thing that annoyed me, totally unrelated to class, is that I’ve missed the train I wanted to get twice now. Need to start taking the bus instead of walking to the station!
Still, can’t pretend it isn’t satisfying to get lots of passes and sweeps in sparring, even if the technique wasn’t anywhere near as polished as I’d like. Something else that pleases me is a confirmation of the rumour I heard about RGA moving to a new location. Felipe was talking about going to a bigger venue next year, when we’d be able to have more classes due to a split level mat, with two running concurrently. If I understood him correctly, the plan is to have beginner (up to third stripe white), intermediate (third stripe white and blues) and advanced (senior blues and up), which sounds promising.
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