05/08/2011 – Gracie Barra Advanced
Posted: 05/08/2011 Filed under: BJJ, Brazilian jiu jitsu, Bristol, clock choke, Gracie Barra Bristol, Nicolai 'Geeza' Holt Leave a commentClass #412
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Nicolai ‘Geeza’ Holt, Bristol, UK – 05/08/2011
I added the 500th blog to my blog index today (TwinJitsu, which is pretty cool, but unfortunately hasn’t been updated for a while). As is so often the case, I found it by clicking through a comment TwinJitsu’s author made on another blog: sometimes it feels that BJJ goes hand in hand with blogging these days. When I started blogging regularly in 2006, a few months before starting BJJ and first meeting Dom (I had been writing up classes since 2004 in other martial arts, but not systematically), there wasn’t much out there. In the UK, it may have even just been me and Seymour. Needless to say, that has definitely changed over the last five years, which is awesome.
Class continued with attacks against the turtle, this time more specifically clock chokes. Geeza began with the basic set-up, where you reach through for their collar and get a deep grip (to expose their neck, he grabbed their far ankle and leaned on their lower back). Your other arm goes over their body, as you then slide down their back. Start walking your legs around as if they the hands of a clock while pulling on the collar, until you can secure the submission.
Darren then taught a variation on the clock choke, which I seem to remember Felipe teaching us. The set-up is the same as the previous choke, except this time, you bring the elbow of your free arm to the opposite side of their head. Slide down their body and step through. You can then pull with your choking hand, also benefitting from the increased leverage provided by your elbow.
Finally, there was a particularly flashy clock choke from Geeza, which he aptly described as “one for the highlight reel.” Same set-up, but once you’ve got that grip into the collar, step your foot up on the same side as your gripping hand. Your other leg is going to swing right over their body and their head, so that it is behind your choking arm. Dive over their body (so, towards the non-choking side). As you roll, secure their arm with your own free arm, then complete the choke from there.
Class finished with a few rounds of free sparring, where I had the pleasure of sparring Dom once again after all these years. I know Dom is fond of chokes (just like she was at that first class!), so I was being especially careful of my neck, particularly as the Datsusara is so baggy. Most of the time, I was in the running escape, trying to recover guard. However, I wasn’t able to hook a leg, or prevent Dom from continuing to move around towards my head. As usual, my attempts to spin back to guard just resulted in being back under side control: I definitely need to take another look at how Saulo does it, as I never seem to do that right.
Donal gave me a good smashing, which tends to happen every time we spar. My back defence got a particularly good work out, though again I’m making a recurring error there, which I’ve mentioned before. When I’m trying to escape and have their back on the mat, I’ll often look to secure their arm to try and turn to top half guard. That rarely gets me anywhere, as normally just the arm isn’t secure enough, given that their hips are still free to move. Last time I grabbed their head and managed to get where I wanted, but it was sloppy and low percentage.
I don’t think I quite understood properly (as we didn’t have time to chat about it properly), but Donal mentioned that he likes to block the leg as he turns to escape. I’ll have to remember to pick his brain on that next time, as I need to work on that switch to half guard. I’ll be looking to get more practice in the position over the next few weeks anyway, as I’ll be teaching half guard for the rest of the month.
05/08/2011 – Gracie Barra Advanced
Posted: 05/08/2011 Filed under: BJJ, Brazilian jiu jitsu, Bristol, clock choke, Gracie Barra Bristol, Nicolai 'Geeza' Holt Leave a commentClass #413
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Nicolai ‘Geeza’ Holt, Bristol, UK – 05/08/2011
I added the 500th blog to my blog index today (TwinJitsu, which is pretty cool, but unfortunately hasn’t been updated for a while). As is so often the case, I found it by clicking through a comment TwinJitsu’s author made on another blog: sometimes it feels that BJJ goes hand in hand with blogging these days. When I started blogging regularly in 2006, a few months before starting BJJ and first meeting Dom (I had been writing up classes since 2004 in other martial arts, but not systematically), there wasn’t much out there. In the UK, it may have even just been me and Seymour. Needless to say, that has definitely changed over the last five years, which is awesome.
Class continued with attacks against the turtle, this time more specifically clock chokes. Geeza began with the basic set-up, where you reach through for their collar and get a deep grip (to expose their neck, he grabbed their far ankle and leaned on their lower back). Your other arm goes over their body, as you then slide down their back. Start walking your legs around as if they the hands of a clock while pulling on the collar, until you can secure the submission.
Darren then taught a variation on the clock choke, which I seem to remember Felipe teaching us. The set-up is the same as the previous choke, except this time, you bring the elbow of your free arm to the opposite side of their head. Slide down their body and step through. You can then pull with your choking hand, also benefitting from the increased leverage provided by your elbow.
Finally, there was a particularly flashy clock choke from Geeza, which he aptly described as “one for the highlight reel.” Same set-up, but once you’ve got that grip into the collar, step your foot up on the same side as your gripping hand. Your other leg is going to swing right over their body and their head, so that it is behind your choking arm. Dive over their body (so, towards the non-choking side). As you roll, secure their arm with your own free arm, then complete the choke from there.
Class finished with a few rounds of free sparring, where I had the pleasure of sparring Dom once again after all these years. I know Dom is fond of chokes (just like she was at that first class!), so I was being especially careful of my neck, particularly as the Datsusara is so baggy. Most of the time, I was in the running escape, trying to recover guard. However, I wasn’t able to hook a leg, or prevent Dom from continuing to move around towards my head. As usual, my attempts to spin back to guard just resulted in being back under side control: I definitely need to take another look at how Saulo does it, as I never seem to do that right.
Donal gave me a good smashing, which tends to happen every time we spar. My back defence got a particularly good work out, though again I’m making a recurring error there, which I’ve mentioned before. When I’m trying to escape and have their back on the mat, I’ll often look to secure their arm to try and turn to top half guard. That rarely gets me anywhere, as normally just the arm isn’t secure enough, given that their hips are still free to move. Last time I grabbed their head and managed to get where I wanted, but it was sloppy and low percentage.
I don’t think I quite understood properly (as we didn’t have time to chat about it properly), but Donal mentioned that he likes to block the leg as he turns to escape. I’ll have to remember to pick his brain on that next time, as I need to work on that switch to half guard. I’ll be looking to get more practice in the position over the next few weeks anyway, as I’ll be teaching half guard for the rest of the month.
20/03/2011 – RGA Aylesbury (Beginner)
Posted: 20/03/2011 Filed under: BJJ, Brazilian jiu jitsu, Buckinghamshire, clock choke, clock choke defence, Kev Capel, RGA Aylesbury Leave a commentClass #380
RGA Aylesbury, (BJJ), Kev Capel, Aylesbury, UK – 20/03/2011
Chrissy, a regular contributor to this site (see her articles here), has put up a great post on her own blog, here, about ‘winning’ in the gym. Go check it out.
I’m continuing to be careful of my leg, but it is definitely improving as I took part in drilling the takedowns. I was taking it very easy and there wasn’t any lifting, but it is still a good sign. The takedown today starts from the basic collar and sleeve grip. You bring your elbow over and inside their collar grabbing arm, then circle your arm underneath. Drop to their legs, encircling behind both their knees with your arms.
Hook your same side leg around whichever leg they have forward, then drive forwards to put them on their back. Kev advised putting your instep on the floor, rather than driving over your toes. If they don’t manage to immediately go to half guard or closed guard, you can base on your shoulders, arms and head, then hop your legs over to side control.
The rest of the session focused on the clock choke. They have turtled up, so you move to their side, keeping your weight on them with your legs sprawled back (so that you don’t relieve any of the pressure by supporting some of it with your knees). Your far arm is going to reach across their body and chop by their knee.
Your aim is to slip your hand inside: this won’t be easy, as they will probably be tucking their elbows by their knees. You also need to be aware that even if you do get your hand inside, if you’re not careful they may wrap your elbow and roll, putting them in the top position.
While being careful to avoid that trap, use your hand to grab their collar and open it up. Your other hand goes over their shoulder and past their neck, sliding along their jaw line. Feed the collar you’ve grabbed to that shoulder hand, getting a tight grip. That leaves your feeding hand free to switch to their same side wrist, pulling it towards their body.
Put your head on the mat, then walk your legs around to the other side of the body one at a time. The motion is as if your legs were the hands of a clock face: hence the name of the choke. Make sure you keep your weight on them to prevent their escape, being careful that you aren’t too far forward or back. That should eventually get the tap, as the choke gets tighter each time you step around.
Kev then moved into a variation on the clock choke he was shown by Felipe Souza. You’re still attacking the turtle, but this time you can’t chop your hand through: their defence is too secure. So instead, grip their trouser leg, by the knee, using that for control along with your weight on their back.
You are also going to grab their collar as before, except that this time you won’t be able to feed it to your hand. Once you have a deep grip, bring the arm that was controlling their trouser leg to the other side of their head.
Pressing that arm into their skull produces a fair bit of pressure in conjunction with your collar grip. Increase it by leaning back slightly, while walking your legs around as before. This should result in a choke.
Finally, the clock choke defence involves blocking their arm early. Don’t let them chop their hand through, instead controlling their arm at the wrist and locking it to your side. Raise your bum in order to knock them forwards, then hook over their near leg with the foot you have closest to that leg. Reach your free hand through to grab their other leg.
Bring your shoulder towards them, while also moving your knee in the same direction. The idea is to get your hips underneath them, rolling through the motion: be sure that you’re using leverage not strength, as the latter will only work against people smaller than you.
If you can get that right, you should be able to swing their body right over yours, coming up on top with your back facing their head. Keep moving your hips towards their head, after which you can transition to side control.
I decided against joining in specific sparring from the back, as I didn’t think my leg was up to it. As at the Roger seminar, there was a good turnout of women today, so hopefully I’ll get a chance to do some light sparring with them next week. I have a lot more confidence in the control and consideration of white belt women as opposed to men, and they’re also smaller.
After sitting on the sidelines writing up my notes, I had a chance to ask Kev about leg locks before class finished. Lower body submissions are something I need to better understand now that I’m a purple. I’ll go into what he said in the open mat post, although it was only a brief summary, as there wasn’t enough time left to go through them all fully.
20/03/2011 – RGA Aylesbury (Beginner)
Posted: 20/03/2011 Filed under: BJJ, Brazilian jiu jitsu, Buckinghamshire, clock choke, clock choke defence, Kev Capel, RGA Aylesbury Leave a commentClass #381
RGA Aylesbury, (BJJ), Kev Capel, Aylesbury, UK – 20/03/2011
Chrissy, a regular contributor to this site (see her articles here), has put up a great post on her own blog, here, about ‘winning’ in the gym. Go check it out.
I’m continuing to be careful of my leg, but it is definitely improving as I took part in drilling the takedowns. I was taking it very easy and there wasn’t any lifting, but it is still a good sign. The takedown today starts from the basic collar and sleeve grip. You bring your elbow over and inside their collar grabbing arm, then circle your arm underneath. Drop to their legs, encircling behind both their knees with your arms.
Hook your same side leg around whichever leg they have forward, then drive forwards to put them on their back. Kev advised putting your instep on the floor, rather than driving over your toes. If they don’t manage to immediately go to half guard or closed guard, you can base on your shoulders, arms and head, then hop your legs over to side control.
The rest of the session focused on the clock choke. They have turtled up, so you move to their side, keeping your weight on them with your legs sprawled back (so that you don’t relieve any of the pressure by supporting some of it with your knees). Your far arm is going to reach across their body and chop by their knee.
Your aim is to slip your hand inside: this won’t be easy, as they will probably be tucking their elbows by their knees. You also need to be aware that even if you do get your hand inside, if you’re not careful they may wrap your elbow and roll, putting them in the top position.
While being careful to avoid that trap, use your hand to grab their collar and open it up. Your other hand goes over their shoulder and past their neck, sliding along their jaw line. Feed the collar you’ve grabbed to that shoulder hand, getting a tight grip. That leaves your feeding hand free to switch to their same side wrist, pulling it towards their body.
Put your head on the mat, then walk your legs around to the other side of the body one at a time. The motion is as if your legs were the hands of a clock face: hence the name of the choke. Make sure you keep your weight on them to prevent their escape, being careful that you aren’t too far forward or back. That should eventually get the tap, as the choke gets tighter each time you step around.
Kev then moved into a variation on the clock choke he was shown by Felipe Souza. You’re still attacking the turtle, but this time you can’t chop your hand through: their defence is too secure. So instead, grip their trouser leg, by the knee, using that for control along with your weight on their back.
You are also going to grab their collar as before, except that this time you won’t be able to feed it to your hand. Once you have a deep grip, bring the arm that was controlling their trouser leg to the other side of their head.
Pressing that arm into their skull produces a fair bit of pressure in conjunction with your collar grip. Increase it by leaning back slightly, while walking your legs around as before. This should result in a choke.
Finally, the clock choke defence involves blocking their arm early. Don’t let them chop their hand through, instead controlling their arm at the wrist and locking it to your side. Raise your bum in order to knock them forwards, then hook over their near leg with the foot you have closest to that leg. Reach your free hand through to grab their other leg.
Bring your shoulder towards them, while also moving your knee in the same direction. The idea is to get your hips underneath them, rolling through the motion: be sure that you’re using leverage not strength, as the latter will only work against people smaller than you.
If you can get that right, you should be able to swing their body right over yours, coming up on top with your back facing their head. Keep moving your hips towards their head, after which you can transition to side control.
I decided against joining in specific sparring from the back, as I didn’t think my leg was up to it. As at the Roger seminar, there was a good turnout of women today, so hopefully I’ll get a chance to do some light sparring with them next week. I have a lot more confidence in the control and consideration of white belt women as opposed to men, and they’re also smaller.
After sitting on the sidelines writing up my notes, I had a chance to ask Kev about leg locks before class finished. Lower body submissions are something I need to better understand now that I’m a purple. I’ll go into what he said in the open mat post, although it was only a brief summary, as there wasn’t enough time left to go through them all fully.
19/11/2009 – BJJ
Posted: 19/11/2009 Filed under: BJJ, Brazilian jiu jitsu, Buckinghamshire, clock choke, escaping from turtle, Kev Capel, RGA High Wycombe Leave a commentClass #262
RGA High Wycombe, (BJJ), Kev Capel, High Wycombe, UK – 19/11/2009
I haven’t been to a Thursday session in a couple of weeks, and I’d forgotten that sometimes there aren’t many blue belts present. Tonight, as has happened before, I was the only non-white belt student there, which was unfortunate. On the other hand, that had the fantastic side-effect of getting Kev as my training partner, which was awesome. Like I said in my article a little while ago, nothing beats having your instructor as a training partner: sort of like a private lesson within a group lesson. 😀
Kev’s turtle theme continued, with the same drill on maintaining chest to back contact starting off the lesson. That was followed by one of the defences I used on Tuesday, trapping the arm and escaping from the turtle. It’s very simple: if they reach too far with their arm while you’re in turtle, wrap your arm behind the elbow, also securing their wrist or sleeve with your other hand. You then roll in the direction of their trapped arm, flipping them over your back, meaning you end up on top in side control.
To aid that roll, you can kick your leg nearest to them backwards, dropping that side towards the floor. As they are effectively using you for base, that knock their balance, making it easier to bring them over you. For further assistance, you can also use your other arm to shove them as they go over. Essentially, you’re spinning on the spot, rather than a big roll to the side.
Also, make sure that when you move to side control, turn towards their legs, not their head. If you turn towards their head, you’ll roll yourself right off their body, and they might even have a chance to take your back. So instead, keep your weight pressed into them, then turn towards their legs.
Kev’s choice of counterpoint tonight was a clock choke, using a version he learned from Felipe Souza. Reach under their same side armpit with your far arm and open up their same side collar. Feed that to your other hand, after you’ve reached over their near shoulder to get it into position. With your far side arm, grab their collar, meaning that you have the same kind of grip as a lapel choke.
Keeping your weight down, switch your hips and walk towards their head, in a repeating process of bringing one leg under, then the over leg over (hence the name ‘clock choke’, where you act as one of the hands on the clock face). If they somehow manage to roll you over, because you have that lapel choke grip, you may still be able to finish the submission.
In specific sparring, I unsurprisingly didn’t have a great deal of success against Kev, but I did get plenty of success. On top, I need to try attacking more, rather than just switching position. I also need to be careful of getting my knee anywhere near the middle of his legs (as that results in a kneebar opportunity), and it is also dangerous to have them facing your legs. That’s because they are then better able to go for a double leg, or various other escapes Kev used on me (like the one where you get your head between their legs and flip them up and off into side control).
Underneath, I felt more comfortable, but again got repeatedly rolled and my back taken. However, I was at least doing the right thing. I asked Kev if I should be trying to turn to face his legs, and he agreed that was a sensible defensive strategy. Firstly it means they can’t insert their hooks, and secondly (as above) you can attack with double legs, as well as having a greater chance to roll back into guard.
Naturally this worked a lot better when I was with the white belts, as they leave much more space than brown belts like Kev. So, I was able to roll back into guard a few times, but a little sloppy on several occasions. With someone more experience, I think they probably would have been able to get into side control before I could re-establish closed guard.
I decided to stick around for the hour of sparring tonight, as I wasn’t able to make the advanced class on Tuesday. Kev began with a brief bit of guard passage, where one of the white belts kept trying to go into rubber guard. Posturing up seemed to neutralise that threat, but again, with someone more experienced (especially with the rubber guard), I’d run into problems, as I’m not used to facing it.
I also sparred that same white belt a bit later in free sparring, and was able to control him in his guard, and also passed to half guard and then mount a couple of times. Using shoulder pressure definitely helped, as long as I made sure to stop any underhooks. However, I did have the rare advantage of size, which definitely made a difference: with somebody bigger, I’d have a much tougher time pressing them back down when they tried to sit up in guard.
I wanted to give the advice from David Onuma’s great instructional video a try, as it looked like a handy grip from the guard. I didn’t get very far though, as I didn’t do a good enough job of breaking down my partner’s posture when in my guard. Still, it did at least inspire me to try an armbar, which I hardly ever attempt: definitely something I need to go for more often, as it is such an important submission from the guard.
Kev added in a bit of grip fighting, then I had another chance to spar the instructor, which is always great. That mostly stayed in his guard, while I attempted to maintain good posture and not get swept. As ever, I have to try standing up more often, rather than relying on the safety of my knees.
Last spar was with Trev, whose long, flexible legs are always dangerous. I was just about able to fend him off, trying to keep my knees near my chest when he moved into my open guard. When he did eventually pass into half guard, I managed to get an underhook on the same side as the trapped leg, but couldn’t quite manage to get up onto my side (I tried bumping him forward with the underhook, but without much luck).
I also narrowly avoided getting triangled once he got to mount: only my knee and framing arms stopped him, as when he tried to roll into a triangle from guard, I was in position to break free. However, in mount, it was just that wedged in knee, so no real technique on my part. Had the spar gone on longer, I’m sure he would have eventually landed that triangle.
24/07/2009 – Roy Dean Class
Posted: 24/07/2009 Filed under: armbar escape, armbar from knee on belly, BJJ, Brazilian jiu jitsu, choke from the back, clock choke, Drop-In, Drop-In UK, footlock, lower body submission, Poole, Roy Dean, Roy Dean UK Leave a commentClass #234
Uplands School, (BJJ), Roy Dean, Poole, UK – 24/07/2009
I was pleasantly surprised a while ago by an email asking if I’d be interested in attending a Roy Dean seminar, so of course jumped at the chance. £30 for two days with an instructor I very much admire was a great opportunity. I’ve been looking forward to this weekend of training for several months now.
Kirsty, Steve and Paul very generously allowed me to stay at their home, and proved to be excellent hosts, laying on food, and even washing and drying one of the two gis I’d brought. There was also a rather nice present waiting for me, which was an early release copy of Roy Dean’s new DVD, Purple Belt Requirements. I will of course have a review up shortly. 😉
As I was there the day before the seminar, I was able to head down to a class Roy held at Uplands School. He didn’t waste much time on the warm-up, using the armbar from guard as a way of getting the blood flowing. After that, it was straight into technique. A lot of technique.
Roy’s theme tonight was countering submissions, ending up with a submission of your own. That kicked off with a counter to the armbar from guard. As you feel them moving into the armbar, get your forearm behind their leg. Press that hand down to the floor on the far side, then swing your arms through, thrusting your chest out to get past the legs into side control.
Roy followed that with an additional option. Having blocked the leg with your forearm, you can push them to the side, grabbing their trousers or belt to help. The idea is to roll them into the turtle position.
Once there, you can attack with a sliding choke. Start by getting one arm under their same side armpit, grabbing the same side collar. Open it up, bringing your other arm over their same side shoulder. You can now feed that open collar to your second hand, securing a deep grip.
The other grips lower down, on the opposite lapel. To secure the choke, pull down on that lapel, while twisting the other hand and pulling back. Alternately, you can also executed a clock choke, from the same position. Instead of tightening with your hands, walk your legs gradually around past their head, dropping your head towards their neck. This will tighten the choke for you, until you get the tap.
Yet another option is to move into a crucifix, again starting from the turtle. As before, you’ve reached under their armpit, opened the same side collar and fed it to the other hand, which comes over the shoulder. Your free hand goes under their armpit again, but this time grabs the wrist, pulling it inwards.
This will break their posture. Making sure you have their other arm trapped between you legs, you can now roll over your shoulder in the direction of your grips. That puts your partner in a crucifix. From here, release the hold on the wrist, instead moving your arm out along their arm up to the crook of their elbow. Controlling their arm, bring your hand behind their head. You can now go for the submission, in conjunction with that grip on their collar you still have from earlier.
Roy then demonstrated an armbar from knee-on-belly, followed by a defence. Once you’ve secured knee on belly, often your opponent will push on the knee with their hand to relieve the pressure. That opens up an opportunity for a submission. Reach through the frame formed by their arm, gripping underneath, then post your other hand for base near their head.
You can then spin, bringing your leg over their head, continuing until your knee is pointing up beside their arm, on the side nearest their knees. You should also have you other leg over their throat, after which you can drop down and back for the armbar, keeping your knees pinched.
The counter to a knee-on-belly armbar is comparatively simple. First, you need to turn your hand so that your thumb is no longer pointing to the ceiling. This will give you a moment to escape, as they will either have to get your thumb back up, or shift into a position where they can still hyperextend your arm in a different direction.
Look towards their feet, also gripping their nearest leg. From here, kick your legs up and back, rolling over your shoulder. Now you can move into your own knee-on-belly, ready to launch an attack.
Finally, Roy progressed to footlocks, which fits with the pattern he sets in Blue Belt Requirements. First off was a straight footlock (I think an Achilles lock, but not sure on the correct terminology).
From standing, you step your foot across to the opposite bum cheek. Wrap an arm around their Achilles, pressing into the tendon with your wrist. Hold their knee with your other hand to keep their leg tight, then sit down. You other leg comes over the top, then in a sort of guillotine hold on the Achilles, drop back, squeeze and thrust your hips up for the tap. Alternately you can also roll to your side to get more leverage.
The footlock counter begins by getting their foot off your hip, also bringing your toes back on the trapped foot to tense the tendon, buying you a brief bit of time to escape. Having dislodged their foot from the hip, reach for their opposite knee, your free hand going back for balance. From there, you can move through to mount.
If they roll to the side for the footlock, you can use a similar strategy. Clearing their foot is still the essential detail, but this time that means bringing your body over the top, so you just bring your hips to the other side of the foot. Once again, you now move through to mount. Must have been a grip of some sort involved in there, but its been submerged in my mountain of notes (possibly that’s where you move into knee on belly and armbar, so I may have got the order of class mixed up).
Sparring was done in long rounds, which I didn’t realise at first. I started off with a big white belt called Gareth, where I basically stayed squashed underneath, looking to go to half guard. I made some vague attempts at a triangle, but I’m not getting sufficient head control, and also get immediately stacked, preventing me achieving the right position.
Next up was Kirsty, one of the small UK group who has travelled out to Bend in order to train at Roy’s academy there. She was able to hold a solid side control, so again I found myself stuck underneath. I probably should have bumped more to make space for an escape, or at least get onto my side. However, as I knew I had to keep going for rather longer than I’m used to, I gave in the laziness and just waited.
I did eventually find myself with the opportunity to go for a triangle a couple of times, but on each occasion, Kirsty shrugged it off and moved right back into side control. Later I managed to move into her guard, where again I took the strategy of waiting for an opportunity.
That led to getting top half guard, though I think that was quite possibly a matter of boring my training partner into opening some space, which is a crappy tactic. As ever, I need to be more proactive.
Looking forward to the main seminar tomorrow, which is going to be intense: four hours of training, followed by another four the next day. My notebook is going to be rammed with technique: I was surprised by just how much Roy packed into the lesson. Pretty much every other lesson I’ve been to at other BJJ schools teaches no more than three or four techniques at most.
However, chatting to Roy afterwards, I can see why he takes this route instead. This is his first visit to the UK, brought out by Steve and the other UK residents who fly out to Bend in order to train. Therefore Roy wanted to get as much technique in as possible, making the most out of the brief time he has here with his British students.
After the class, we headed back to the flat for an extremely tasty barbecue (again, supplied by our generous hosts), while watching the entirety of UFC Ultimate 100: Greatest Fights. Of course, that title is a misnomer, given that there are several glaring omissions like Frank Shamrock, but it was entertaining nonetheless.
I also got to chat at length to Roy, his students, and the UK crew, which was really cool. Great food, great company, and a great seminar to forward to the next day.
01/04/2009 – BJJ (Beginner)
Posted: 01/04/2009 Filed under: armbar from pulling guard, beginners class, BJJ, Brazilian jiu jitsu, clock choke, guard pass, Jude Samuel, London, pulling guard, Roger Gracie Academy Kilburn Leave a commentClass #215
Roger Gracie Academy Kilburn (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK – 01/04/2009 – Beginner
Mark has announced the Belfast Throwdown for this year, which should be awesome. I loved it the past two times, so I’d expect it to be just as good in 2009. Of course, getting made redundant last year and still job hunting does mean I have to be a little careful with things like holidays, but I’m sure I can at least make the short hop to Northern Ireland. Please post on the thread if you’re interested in coming along too, particularly as we still need to set a date: everyone welcome! 😀
My ear appears to have got bashed up either yesterday or the day before, but not cauliflower: the bit between the lope and my skull was cut (by the time I noticed it, there was a scab). This would therefore be the perfect time to wear my headgear, but I’ve cleverly left that in Coventry. So instead, I sported some zinc oxide tape around my lower ear.
Guard passage went pretty badly, as usual. I was almost past twice in a row against white belts, but on both occasions couldn’t capitalise on a good position with sufficient pressure to get to side control. First I was on top of half guard, but then somehow gave up my back, then I had my partner’s legs over their head and was trying to squeeze past, but managed to get reversed under side control. The only successful pass was with a blue belt who was going for an armbar, but even that was mainly because time was running out so he wasn’t really pushing it.
Technique tonight, presumably because of a competition on Saturday, was how to correctly pull guard (the Kilburn branch of RGA is still very new, so the beginners haven’t got to grips with takedowns yet. However, there is a wrestling class on Saturdays, so you’d hope the people seriously interested in competing will take advantage of that).
Having got a grip on their lapel and sleeve, start by putting your foot on their same side hip, keeping the leg straight. Drop to your back, swivelling as you go and keeping your leg rigid. This should knock them sideways, so that they essentially slip down a groove right into your guard, making it easy for you to wrap your legs into position.
That was followed by how to go straight into an armbar (as you already begin with a grip on their arm). This involves more swivelling: try to put your head by their leg. Finally, bring the other leg over their neck instead of around their torso. From there, raise your hips and go for the armbar.
Last technique was the clock choke again, then a variation, where you get the same choke off a kimura from side control. If when going for the kimura they manage to resist and go to their knees, follow them round. As you’ll still have your arm inside, you’re in perfect position to grab their lapel, open it out, then go for the clock choke as usual (feed lapel to other hand, use first hand to grab remaining lapel, shift hips onto their neck, head on floor, then walk round for the submission).
Sparring with Rich, I managed to get the Tran side control escape where you bridge as they go for mount, which is still working well for me. My escapes from the mounted triangle have been considerably less successful: I can never get my foot onto their arm in order to push my way free, though admittedly its a tough position to reverse.
A bigger blue belt called Alan was next. I again landed Tran’s escape, but I think Alan was going light, due to that size difference. I was unable to extricate myself from his scarf hold or knee-on-belly, though with the latter, I did have a go at wrapping his foot and grabbing behind his gi. Didn’t stop me getting choked.
I was chatting to Jude about how I didn’t feel any need to compete, because I still have so much to work on just sparring in class. I mentioned how my guard passing in particular was terrible, so Jude, being the awesome instructor he is, offered to run through some tips after tonight’s session ended. That also meant I could help out one of the white belts who is competing, acting as a training dummy so he could better prepare for a tournament this weekend.
The major point I’ve been missing, which should hopefully make a big different to my guard passing, is that I need to get my hips forward as soon as a I raise a leg. So far, I’ve been thinking about driving the hips once I’ve stood up (though I’ve not even been doing that well), which means that as I try to get to my feet, my posture has been poor, leaning forward too much.
Jude also showed a slightly different way of opening the guard from standing. Normally, I try to step back and push their leg to the mat, aiming to hold it in place with my arm before replacing that pressure with my leg, moving on to the leg pin pass.
Jude noted the basic principle that a leg is always stronger than an arm, so instead of prising the leg free with an arm, he instead broke the guard with his knee. I’m not sure I quite got the details, but it involved bending your knee into their leg, so that you gradually broke the guard open, also leaving you in position where your knee was already on the mat over their leg (so again, set up for the leg pin pass).
John, a purple who wasn’t training that night, prefers to either step back and push the leg off, or alternately, Mauricio’s version where you put your knee right in their tailbone, then sit back down. If you get your knee in just the right spot, that will then force their guard open around your knee: their simply isn’t enough space for them to keep a closed guard once your knee is wedged through.
John also emphasised getting a cross-grip on their arm, or in other words, grabbing their opposite sleeve. That means you can then put your leg forward on that side with impunity, as they’ll have nothing to hook it with. John also said that after you’ve secured that hold, use your free arm to make certain they don’t get any grip with their other arm.
All great advice, which should definitely make a different to my guard passing. Even at the most pessimistic level, it sure can’t get any worse! 😉
As I was heading to the changing rooms, one of the regulars addressed me as slideyfoot, because he recognised me from the blog. Always cool when that happens (and if they’re reading, the link for Passing the Guard is here: new revised edition which I’m very much looking forward to, having long wanted to get hold of the original due to the extremely high regard it appears to have generated).
30/03/2009 – BJJ (Beginner)
Posted: 30/03/2009 Filed under: beginners class, BJJ, Brazilian jiu jitsu, clock choke, Jude Samuel, lapel choke, London, RNC, Roger Gracie Academy Kilburn Leave a commentClass #213
Roger Gracie Academy Kilburn (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK – 30/03/2009 – Beginner
I had an interesting chat with Bryan Hogeveen this weekend, a name Fightworks Podcast listeners might recognise from his interview a while back. If you missed that episode, Bryan is an academic currently conducting a BJJ study, for which he’s asking people to fill in a survey (one for women and one for men).
Bryan is also looking to interview those who are willing to give a bit more time. I love talking about BJJ, so I was happy to get the chance to babble at length (like I mentioned during the conversation, this is ideal for bloggers, who are always looking to share their thoughts about BJJ anyway). It doesn’t matter if you’re nowhere near Canada, where Bryan is based, as he’ll phone you from his university. It sounds like a great project, so definitely deserving of your support: for further details, check out Bryan’s blog.
On a different topic, it looks as if Eddie Bravo is gearing up to follow in the Gracie Academy’s footsteps, with his own version of online training, complete with the ability to gain rank through video. It should make for a revealing comparison with the Gracie University: I’m particularly intrigued as to whether or not Bravo manages to avoid the criticism Gracie University has received (which I listed back here). I’ve long thought that the Gracie Academy and Bravo have a lot in common, given that they both rely on sometimes controversial marketing to maintain their reputation, rather than major current competitive success (as opposed to, say, Gracie Barra with Roger Gracie, Alliance with Cobrinha or Gracie Humaitá with Xande Ribeiro, to cite just a few examples from those powerhouse teams).
Also, just noticed as I was writing this that Oli G, the undisputed king of competing at every competition ever, has set up a swish looking new site to showcase his competition videos. Check it out here.
Jude focused on chokes for tonight’s session. First the basic rear naked choke. Put your arm around their neck, pressing the bony part of your forearm into their throat. Grab the bicep of your other arm, making sure not to bring the bicep arm out straight (otherwise they could potentially grip your wrist and submit you, using their shoulder to bend your arm the wrong way). Finally, the hand of the bicep arm goes to the back of their head, then you squeeze their neck between your two arms.
The RNC was followed by a lapel choke. From rear mount, reach over their shoulder and grab deep in their collar. Your other hand comes under their armpit and grabs the other collar. To finish, straighten out your arms, pushing forward and thereby squeezing your partner’s neck between their lapels.
Finally, Jude went through the clock choke. This is similar to the lapel choke, except that it is applied when your partner is turtled up, and the execution is with your bodyweight rather than pulling on the collars. Once you have the grip on their lapels, drop your weight onto their neck, staying tight. In order to secure your base, put your forehead to the floor on the other side, then slowly walk round, one leg at a time, starting with the bottom leg. Your legs are acting as the hands of a clock, hence the name.
In guard passage, I kept trying the Saulo guard break without much success: still not controlling the hips well enough, which I think continues to be my main problem in somebody else’s guard. I also tried standing guard breaks, getting to my feet while holding their sleeve, but need more work on establishing base and being careful with my legs, avoiding sweeps.
Underneath, I again attempted the combination of handstand sweep with star sweep. Swinging both legs to the same side works ok, but I’m not staying close enough to the leg. I need to knock them off balance by getting in tight to their thigh. At the moment, I’m leaving too much space, which is why last week I basically ended up under side control, while this week Rich caught me in a randomly positioned armbar.
Another thing I wanted to work today was replacing full guard from half guard. My aim was to grab their shoulder and leg, then get my same side leg under their knee, while the other foot trapped their calf. I’d then lift them up and drop them back into full guard. However, the problem was firstly getting that foot under their knee: can be awkward depending on how I’ve locked the half-guard. I’m also not getting a good grip on the arm, and when trying to grab onto the knee, my arm is too loose.
When sparring with one of the white belts, that meant I was sitting there working my way of an Americana from much of the spar. Fortunately for me, they didn’t know how to finish it, but that’s the only thing that meant I was able to avoid the submission. So much like last lesson, I was underneath a white belt in half-guard, though at least this time, I was working towards something specific.
It was good to see John there, who is a purple belt that weighs the same as me. I’ve sparred with him once before, back at RGA HQ: hopefully he’ll be at Jude’s regularly. He had lots of advice, such as trying Saulo’s running escape under side control. I had thought that was only useful for when they had both arms on the near side of your body, but John mentioned that you could often direct their arm to where you wanted. Gave it a try in sparring and it worked ok, though obviously John was letting me have it (he took on an instructor role for everyone he sparred with: IIRC, though he’s still a purple, he’s been training for a looooong time).
Finished off class by buying myself one of the snazzy new RGA branded t-shirts. I’ve generally avoided buying stuff, given continuing lack of job, but as its almost my birthday, I thought I’d treat myself. 🙂
03/12/2008 – BJJ (Advanced)
Posted: 03/12/2008 Filed under: advanced class, BJJ, Brazilian jiu jitsu, clock choke, London, Nic Gregoriades, Roger Gracie Academy Leave a commentClass #200
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Nick Gregoriades, London, UK – 03/12/2008 – Advanced
I’m probably not going to get all that much BJJ in over December, as I’m off to Amsterdam next week (I had wanted to go a bit later, to coincide with a trip Christina said she was planning with a bunch of other people, but unfortunately next week is the only time both my gf and I can make), and my usual training days of Wednesday and Thursday are also where Christmas falls this year. Depends when the Academy is open too, but I’m guessing I’ll make seven classes at most this month. We’ll see: hopefully I’ll make more, but that’s already a best case scenario. Then again, December is always a lean month, like February, so can’t be helped.
Class tonight kicked off with some side control sparring. I was able to stay on top of Indra, but found it difficult to deal with her arms pushing me away. My solution was to try and shift through to north-south, but I’m not sure how securely I was holding her. I also wasn’t doing anything except maintaining my position, rather than moving through for a submission, or transitioning to mount. Being able to stay in control isn’t a bad thing, but I need to be more pro-active, as it isn’t enough: if I’m not able to submit or move to a more dominant position, then I’m simply delaying their escape and forcing a stalemate, rather than doing anything useful.
Underneath, I worked my way to half-guard, then eventually managed to recover full guard. Indra had my arm trapped, which meant I couldn’t shift through to the other side properly, but once I got that arm free I was able to wriggle my legs into position. I’m still staying too flat under side control: I want to improve my bridge, such as with a tip I heard earlier about pushing at an angle rather than just straight up.
Nick’s technique was based around your opponent trying to escape to their knees from under side control. He first showed two basic ways to recounter a side control escape: either get their shoulders flat to the mat, or cup the elbow on which they’re posting and pull back with both hands. If they do manage to get to your knee, immediately sprawl the other leg back to make sure they can’t grab it.
You are now in position to make a submission attempt, the clock choke. Sprawling with your legs, put your hips directly onto the back of their neck, and sink your weight down as much as possible, making it difficult for them to raise their head. Next, bring your arm over their back and grip their collar, opening it up. Be careful when you bring your arm through that you don’t go too far underneath them: there is a risk that they could trap your elbow and try to roll you.
Once you’ve opened up the collar, you can feed it to your other hand, which you bring around their neck. Your grip shouldn’t be too deep on the collar, as you want to bring that collar across their neck, using it as a blade to dig into their neck. Your other hand grabs their wrist, threading it around their arm.
Here is where the clock analogy comes in: your legs will form the hands, while their turtled body is the clock face. Step over with your top leg, slip your other leg underneath, then step over again, repeating the process until you get the tap. The choke is created by the weight of your body pressing their neck into that stretch of fabric you’ve brought across their throat. While you need to keep that taut, as with so many situations in BJJ, it is your body weight which effects the submission, not the strength of your arm pulling up on their collar.
An alternative is to transition, using a kimura grip on their arm. You’re in the same sprawled position as before, but this time thread your arm around their to grab their wrist, then bring your other arm over their face and grab your own wrist. Pull up and trap their shoulder against your chest as tightly as possible, then fall back, rolling them towards you at the same time.
To complete the transition, shrimp away, switch your hips by sliding one leg under the other, then move your knee onto their stomach. From here, you have numerous options, such as going for an armbar, stepping over their head to go for a kimura, or possibly move through to mount, depending on their defence. I personally found the switch to getting a knee onto the stomach difficult: it felt as if I had to struggle to get onto my knee, leaving way too much space in the process. Clearly I have work to do on improving my balance, shrimping and shifting my hips.
Nick demonstrated once again that he is a forward thinking instructor, stopping the class to show a different grip one of the purple belts tried immediately after drilling that technique. Instead of going over their face, you can also go under their neck and grab your own wrist.
For free sparring my first partner was an experienced purple belt called Paul, though he clearly was going easy. At one point he was in my guard and not really resisting, so I had a vague attempt at a loop choke, but it felt a bit stupid to aggressively try and shove it on: after all, he was letting me have it. Next time I’m in that situation, I need to remember to try and do the submission as technically as I can, then see how they manage to block it, rather than just flail about in confusion, as I seem to do at the moment.
My second and last roll was with Tran, who squished me under his knee-on-belly. He had me that choke where you move around and submit them by twist the collars in the process (so sort of like the clock choke, though I’m assuming its got a different name). I was being too complacent in my defence, because I had an arm in between his, but I should have been thinking more about tucking my chin.
I also made a sloppy attempt at emulating something I’d seen on a clip of Saulo Ribeiro’s highly regarded Jiu Jitsu Revolution, where you trap one leg from a kneeling position, but clearly need to watch it again. I merely ended up giving Tran a sweep repeatedly: I have to keep my weight on him and apply pressure. Still, clip looked useful (when its done right, which I very obviously wasn’t), as I really struggle with my guard passing, so am keen to develop basics from that situation.
There were a lot of world-class black belts in the room, with one corner of the mats occupied by Braulio, Lagarto and Roger sparring each other. On top of that, Maurição is back in the country: I think he’s only just arrived, as there were a load of suitcases in the entrance hall. Hopefully I’ll get the chance to be taught by him again before he heads back to Brazil, as his classes are always interesting, due to his vast experience.
13/11/2008 – BJJ (Advanced)
Posted: 13/11/2008 Filed under: advanced class, BJJ, Brazilian jiu jitsu, clock choke, guard pass defence, Jude Samuel, London, Roger Gracie Academy 2 CommentsClass #194
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK – 13/11/2008 – Advanced
Training is likely to be a bit abnormal over the next couple of weeks, as next week, my gf is going to be popping down on the train with me (she has a conference thingy to go to in London), so no training Wednesday. However, the week after she’s visiting friends, which should mean I could potentially get in four sessions. That would be handy as we’re off on holiday in December, which naturally will cause me to miss a load more sessions (plus December tends to be a lean month anyway, due to RGA closing in over xmas). As long as it all works out to an at least twice a week average, I’m happy.
In case people have already seen this on BJJ forums (I saw it on EFN, where J-Sho posted a link, there is apparently going to be compulsory BJJ at schools in Abu Dhabi: story here. There has long been a strong association between Abu Dhabi and BJJ, due to the ruling family’s interest in the sport: its interesting to see what happens when BJJ is coupled with large amounts of cash and executive power.
Tonight Jude went through a defence against the stack pass, which turned out to be quite complicated. You start by pushing off their hips with your feet, so they can’t continue stacking you and getting your hips off the floor. Grab their same side sleeve, then hook the inside of their leg with your same side foot. Having stabilised your position, grip their collar with your opposite hand and sit-up.
With your same side hand, take hold of their belt, with your palm facing downwards. Push their head down to the floor, then switch grips again, so that you’re now holding the belt with the other hand, palm facing up. This means that you can use that grasp to bring your elbow into play, stopping them from raising up.
That will help with your next motion, which is to bring your same side leg under the belt-gripping arm and over their head. To finish, drive your hips forward and post on your free hand slightly (I think), spinning to their back. I found this final part rather awkward, especially struggling to keep my weight on my partner: as ever, maintaining pressure remains a problem.
Jude then followed this up with a clock choke. Having spun to their back, bring your feet back so that you can press as much weight down on them as possible (I kept instinctively going to my knees, which relieves the pressure and therefore messes up the technique). Circle your right arm over their shoulder and grab their far collar, then bring the other arm underneath, holding the opposite collar. Post your forehead on the mat, and then shuffle your feet past their head to get the submission.
Specific sparring from guard reminded me just how terrible my guard passing is: if I ever take a private lesson, that will have to be the focus. I’m trying to stand up, but as we haven’t done guard passage for a little while, think I’ve regressed a bit on that front, returning to the defensive mode that simply delays the inevitable submission or sweep.
Free sparring began with an old training partner, Dominique, who was down for a rare visit to RGA. Very nice to see her on the mats again, as she’s the first person I ever rolled with at RGA, and remained a great person to train with throughout her time at the club (she does her BJJ at the affiliate in Mill Hill these days). She’s got noticeably quicker since I last rolled with her: I found it tough to get into any kind of controlling position with my open guard.
That’s also due to my ongoing problem of not being proactive enough in open guard, which is a position you can’t really sit and wait. I kept Nick’s advice about always having your feet off the floor and on your opponent in mind, but think I should be bending my partner’s over more (by pushing into their hip and pulling on their sleeve or collar), so they’re too off-balance to attack.
I then went with Helen, where I was trying to apply the tips I’d learned about escaping knee on belly, but think I still left my arm dangling too much. I also almost got caught in a footlock, and I’m not sure if I escaped (keeping my foot flat on the floor then pushing on Helen with my other foot to free the first), or if Helen just let go. Either way, must stay aware of footlock defences, even if I’m not keen on using them myself (too injurious, so I’d be too worried about causing somebody long-term damage).
Finished up by rolling with Dominique again, this time having a chance to further practice my half-guard. My main goal was to shift around the leg I’d trapped to secure the grip, so concentrated on getting my hips over. That’s obviously easier when your partner is lighter than you, although I was trying not to get into situation where I was clearly just using force rather than technique.
Similarly under side control, I didn’t want to try and just fling Dominique over me, as that would be purely a matter of size advantage. While its possible I might get it (I used to go for that as a white belt, IIRC, digging my elbow in and lifting her straight over me), its pretty pointless as that mainly relies on muscle, which in my case is in very short supply. Silly to practice something that only works on a very small group of people, so I wanted to focus on technical bridge and shrimp escapes instead, looking for the half-guard.
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