07/09/2011 – More Q & A at Gracie Barra Bristol
Posted: 07/09/2011 Filed under: BJJ, Brazilian jiu jitsu, Bristol, Gracie Barra Bristol, guard pass, guard pass defence, Nicolai 'Geeza' Holt, takedowns Leave a commentClass #417
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Nicolai ‘Geeza’ Holt, Bristol, UK – 07/09/2011
As on Monday, I was again in two minds about heading to training due to that annoying sun burn, but then a gi arrived this morning (at the moment, I’m dealing with four requests to do a review, so that should mean several other packages arriving in the next few weeks). I like to provide a fast turn-around on reviews, so that immediately meant I wanted to give the gi its first test run that night. Should have the first of those reviews up in a couple of weeks.
In his text message before class, Geeza said tonight was going to be sacrifice throws, where you drop back on one knee, roll back looking over the shoulder on that side, lift them with your other leg and pop up in mount. However, as people were having trouble with it, he stopped at just the one technique.
The advantage of being an experienced instructor like Geeza is that you can switch your lesson plan with relative ease. Instead of continuing with takedowns, he then changed the lesson into another Q & A session: in my class I’d find that much tougher, as I wouldn’t be confident I could properly answer any question. The first query put forward was a good one from Donal, about the best option if you’re passing and have trapped both their legs to the mat, but you’re being blocked. This prompted a cool bit of principle based teaching from Geeza, on the topic of guard passing.
The first principle is that to block a pass, you want to push their head in the direction they want to pass. Demian Maia explores that same principle, which he calls ‘head control theory’, in his DVD set. However, while pushing their head to the passing side helps block off one route, it makes it easier for the person on top to pass to the other side: they are already being rotated in that direction. If they quickly switch, it is difficult for the person being passed to quickly adjust and push the head the other way.
In a related principle (which I remember Geeza telling me early on, after he had easily blocked my passing attempts last year during one of our first spars), you should also pass to their strongest grip, using the grip like a hinge. The reason is that if you pass to the other side, you are going to get stuck, because whatever limb is trapped in that strong grip will be left behind. Instead, if they have a solid spider guard on your right and are also grabbing your right foot, pass around that point.
There wasn’t a chance to drill it, perhaps due to time constraints. After a question from Arnaud about leglock options (which are pretty limited until brown belt, so that was a relatively easy question), it was straight into twenty minutes of sparring. That started with specific sparring from guard, where I was with a white belt who had just come back from an injury.
That would explain why I had an unusually successful time on top. Normally, as regular readers will know, I would be telling you I need to stand up, I have to stop being so passive, my passing went nowhere. Not this time: I found that immediately going to grab an arm (especially when they gripped me on that side) then standing worked well. This is what I’ve been meaning to do, but one of the few times I’ve actually been able to pull it off. From there, I was able to get a deep single underhook, reach to grab their collar and drive through.
I was also finding that going the other way worked a few times too, stepping over their other leg and pushing through to pass half guard. That was made easier by the fact I still had control of their leg, which makes it tough for them to lock a half guard. To my surprise, I even got the pass when you step back, drive their legs to the mat and move around. So that was nice, even though there were various mitigating factors like injury, time off, experience difference etc. I’ll take what I can get when it comes to passing. 😉
Due to grabbing the arms, and initiating successful passes that way, it also made my partner more wary and less likely to attack. On the downside, I was still tending to lean forward too much when standing due to holding on to the collar grip unnecessarily. My hold on the sleeve could also do with some work, as it wasn’t as solid as it should have been. Not to mention that when I tried to do the same single underhook pass on my next partner (we had now moved on to free sparring), a blue belt, it didn’t work anywhere near as well.
I was able to push through to half guard again by switching to the other side, but they pulled off a nicely time sweep just as I thought I was passing, putting me underneath. We then spent the majority of the roll in my open and closed guard, where as ever I was looking to break their posture, control the head, and keep my legs in play at all times.
My last roll was with that same white belt again. He’s a good bit stronger than me, so as I was getting pretty tired by that point, I pulled up on the leg to pass, got to half guard, drove through to low mount with grapevines and then just stayed there the whole roll. I went for the ezequiel repeatedly, but I’m making the same mistake of raising up too high. That gives them to opportunity to get their other arm in the way and block my chopping hand from getting to the other side of the neck. I need to remember to stay low and tight, blocking that defensive hand from scuppering the submission attempt.
07/09/2011 – More Q & A at Gracie Barra Bristol
Posted: 07/09/2011 Filed under: BJJ, Brazilian jiu jitsu, Bristol, Gracie Barra Bristol, guard pass, guard pass defence, Nicolai 'Geeza' Holt, takedowns Leave a commentClass #418
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Nicolai ‘Geeza’ Holt, Bristol, UK – 07/09/2011
As on Monday, I was again in two minds about heading to training due to that annoying sun burn, but then a gi arrived this morning (at the moment, I’m dealing with four requests to do a review, so that should mean several other packages arriving in the next few weeks). I like to provide a fast turn-around on reviews, so that immediately meant I wanted to give the gi its first test run that night. Should have the first of those reviews up in a couple of weeks.
In his text message before class, Geeza said tonight was going to be sacrifice throws, where you drop back on one knee, roll back looking over the shoulder on that side, lift them with your other leg and pop up in mount. However, as people were having trouble with it, he stopped at just the one technique.
The advantage of being an experienced instructor like Geeza is that you can switch your lesson plan with relative ease. Instead of continuing with takedowns, he then changed the lesson into another Q & A session: in my class I’d find that much tougher, as I wouldn’t be confident I could properly answer any question. The first query put forward was a good one from Donal, about the best option if you’re passing and have trapped both their legs to the mat, but you’re being blocked. This prompted a cool bit of principle based teaching from Geeza, on the topic of guard passing.
The first principle is that to block a pass, you want to push their head in the direction they want to pass. Demian Maia explores that same principle, which he calls ‘head control theory’, in his DVD set. However, while pushing their head to the passing side helps block off one route, it makes it easier for the person on top to pass to the other side: they are already being rotated in that direction. If they quickly switch, it is difficult for the person being passed to quickly adjust and push the head the other way.
In a related principle (which I remember Geeza telling me early on, after he had easily blocked my passing attempts last year during one of our first spars), you should also pass to their strongest grip, using the grip like a hinge. The reason is that if you pass to the other side, you are going to get stuck, because whatever limb is trapped in that strong grip will be left behind. Instead, if they have a solid spider guard on your right and are also grabbing your right foot, pass around that point.
There wasn’t a chance to drill it, perhaps due to time constraints. After a question from Arnaud about leglock options (which are pretty limited until brown belt, so that was a relatively easy question), it was straight into twenty minutes of sparring. That started with specific sparring from guard, where I was with a white belt who had just come back from an injury.
That would explain why I had an unusually successful time on top. Normally, as regular readers will know, I would be telling you I need to stand up, I have to stop being so passive, my passing went nowhere. Not this time: I found that immediately going to grab an arm (especially when they gripped me on that side) then standing worked well. This is what I’ve been meaning to do, but one of the few times I’ve actually been able to pull it off. From there, I was able to get a deep single underhook, reach to grab their collar and drive through.
I was also finding that going the other way worked a few times too, stepping over their other leg and pushing through to pass half guard. That was made easier by the fact I still had control of their leg, which makes it tough for them to lock a half guard. To my surprise, I even got the pass when you step back, drive their legs to the mat and move around. So that was nice, even though there were various mitigating factors like injury, time off, experience difference etc. I’ll take what I can get when it comes to passing. 😉
Due to grabbing the arms, and initiating successful passes that way, it also made my partner more wary and less likely to attack. On the downside, I was still tending to lean forward too much when standing due to holding on to the collar grip unnecessarily. My hold on the sleeve could also do with some work, as it wasn’t as solid as it should have been. Not to mention that when I tried to do the same single underhook pass on my next partner (we had now moved on to free sparring), a blue belt, it didn’t work anywhere near as well.
I was able to push through to half guard again by switching to the other side, but they pulled off a nicely time sweep just as I thought I was passing, putting me underneath. We then spent the majority of the roll in my open and closed guard, where as ever I was looking to break their posture, control the head, and keep my legs in play at all times.
My last roll was with that same white belt again. He’s a good bit stronger than me, so as I was getting pretty tired by that point, I pulled up on the leg to pass, got to half guard, drove through to low mount with grapevines and then just stayed there the whole roll. I went for the ezequiel repeatedly, but I’m making the same mistake of raising up too high. That gives them to opportunity to get their other arm in the way and block my chopping hand from getting to the other side of the neck. I need to remember to stay low and tight, blocking that defensive hand from scuppering the submission attempt.
26/08/2011 – Gracie Barra Fundamentals (Closed Guard)
Posted: 26/08/2011 Filed under: BJJ, Brazilian jiu jitsu, Bristol, Gracie Barra Bristol, guard pass defence, Nicolai 'Geeza' Holt, triangle escape 2 CommentsClass #414
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Nicolai ‘Geeza’ Holt, Bristol, UK – 26/08/2011
Randomly, a Sherdog thread threw up this pretty cool link. It’s a manga about a guy training at a shooto club, but with lots of technical BJJ on display. I presume the person behind it, Hiroki Endo, trains in something. He’s also done good previous work, which I’m reading my way through at the moment: Eden: It’s An Endless World.
Tonight Geeza went through a couple of triangle escapes, starting with a late escape. They are about to lock in the triangle. Your counter is to bring the elbow of your trapped arm to the mat. Make sure your arm is tucked behind, as they are able to grab it and pull towards their head, you’ll get stuck in a bent armlock. Geeza stopped there, but to break free you could try driving with legs.
Next, they don’t have the triangle quite there, so this is a slightly earlier escape. Before they can fully lock their legs, posture up. With the leg on the same side as the arm you have inside, step over their head. To finish, drop back, then cross your legs to provide the leverage to slip free.
Interestingly, for the triangle set-up on all of these, Geeza grabbed the hand by the hips and shoved it low, popping over to get the triangle. That’s different to what I’ve seen before, which is to take the hand on the collar, shove it to their chest, then lift your hips up over the top for the triangle.
The final technique was a guard recovery for when they are passing you with a single underhook. Grab their collar, then with your free leg, push off their same side hip. That should help you produce some space for your underhooked foot to push off their shoulder. Once you’ve managed that, swivel the foot around to hook their armpit, then pull them back into closed guard.
For specific sparring, it was guard passage, but they already have one of your legs up on their shoulder. On top, I was therefore looking for the basic single underhooked, reaching to grab their collar and drive forward. I also found that at one point the tip from the triangle escape, where you step over their head, helped provide some additional control for me to pass.
However, you also need to be careful of getting swept: Oli got a nice technique on me, where I think he basically pushed into my arm to bring me over. He also managed to shrimp out and get to his knees at one point, which I need to watch out for: other times I was able to get a solid grip around his head and shoulders, then push forward to put him on his back. That can work, but it’s a bit sloppy, and will be rather less effective if they’re at all bigger than you.
Underneath, I think I was mostly with either children or fairly new white belts, so I was trying to let them practice the technique. My main goal was to see if I could recover from bad positions: there is no point just spinning quickly back to full guard simply because you can, as you’re not going to learn anything that way with less experienced (or much smaller, as is the case with children) training partners.
Just so I don’t forget, I’m going to note down that I need to start marking cards now on Thursdays (which wasn’t previously the case). The pen is in the box lid, so I can do that at the start during the warm-up when they’re running round the mats. It normally isn’t more than ten people anyway, so that won’t take long.
26/08/2011 – Gracie Barra Fundamentals (Closed Guard)
Posted: 26/08/2011 Filed under: BJJ, Brazilian jiu jitsu, Bristol, Gracie Barra Bristol, guard pass defence, Nicolai 'Geeza' Holt, triangle escape 2 CommentsClass #415
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Nicolai ‘Geeza’ Holt, Bristol, UK – 26/08/2011
Randomly, a Sherdog thread threw up this pretty cool link. It’s a manga about a guy training at a shooto club, but with lots of technical BJJ on display. I presume the person behind it, Hiroki Endo, trains in something. He’s also done good previous work, which I’m reading my way through at the moment: Eden: It’s An Endless World.
Tonight Geeza went through a couple of triangle escapes, starting with a late escape. They are about to lock in the triangle. Your counter is to bring the elbow of your trapped arm to the mat. Make sure your arm is tucked behind, as they are able to grab it and pull towards their head, you’ll get stuck in a bent armlock. Geeza stopped there, but to break free you could try driving with legs.
Next, they don’t have the triangle quite there, so this is a slightly earlier escape. Before they can fully lock their legs, posture up. With the leg on the same side as the arm you have inside, step over their head. To finish, drop back, then cross your legs to provide the leverage to slip free.
Interestingly, for the triangle set-up on all of these, Geeza grabbed the hand by the hips and shoved it low, popping over to get the triangle. That’s different to what I’ve seen before, which is to take the hand on the collar, shove it to their chest, then lift your hips up over the top for the triangle.
The final technique was a guard recovery for when they are passing you with a single underhook. Grab their collar, then with your free leg, push off their same side hip. That should help you produce some space for your underhooked foot to push off their shoulder. Once you’ve managed that, swivel the foot around to hook their armpit, then pull them back into closed guard.
For specific sparring, it was guard passage, but they already have one of your legs up on their shoulder. On top, I was therefore looking for the basic single underhooked, reaching to grab their collar and drive forward. I also found that at one point the tip from the triangle escape, where you step over their head, helped provide some additional control for me to pass.
However, you also need to be careful of getting swept: Oli got a nice technique on me, where I think he basically pushed into my arm to bring me over. He also managed to shrimp out and get to his knees at one point, which I need to watch out for: other times I was able to get a solid grip around his head and shoulders, then push forward to put him on his back. That can work, but it’s a bit sloppy, and will be rather less effective if they’re at all bigger than you.
Underneath, I think I was mostly with either children or fairly new white belts, so I was trying to let them practice the technique. My main goal was to see if I could recover from bad positions: there is no point just spinning quickly back to full guard simply because you can, as you’re not going to learn anything that way with less experienced (or much smaller, as is the case with children) training partners.
Just so I don’t forget, I’m going to note down that I need to start marking cards now on Thursdays (which wasn’t previously the case). The pen is in the box lid, so I can do that at the start during the warm-up when they’re running round the mats. It normally isn’t more than ten people anyway, so that won’t take long.
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.
26/06/2008 – BJJ (Advanced)
Posted: 26/06/2008 Filed under: advanced class, BJJ, Brazilian jiu jitsu, guard pass defence, Gustavo Dos Santos Pires, London, Roger Gracie Academy 4 CommentsClass #157
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Gustavo Dos Santos Pires, London, UK – 26/06/2008 – Advanced
Not too much to report this lesson, as we did the same technique as yesterday. However, that did mean that I now know you definitely come up on that knee, as I wasn’t sure last night. Also emphasised that you straighten your legs out first on their biceps, grab their sleeves and shrimp out: I didn’t note the sleeve grabbing clearly enough previously.
Christina wasn’t there, but fortunately for me, Christy was, so I still had a good drilling partner. On the down side, she mentioned that she’ll be returning to Australia in a few months, which is a shame: I’ve enjoyed our rolls, as she’s close to my size and has a style distinct from everyone else I spar regularly.
There was another load of specific sparring straight after the warm-up, moving through side control, then mount, finishing with rear mount. I think my most comfortable position was side control, as I had an idea of what to do both from underneath and on top. I spent most of the first part on top trying to get into that judo scarf hold again, but once I got there was swept. Aside from my lack of technique, might also be what Dan was telling me about at the Warwick Uni BJJ training group. His comparison for weight distribution in scarf hold was that its worse to be like a plank, even though that control might be tight and heavy: sinking into them like a sack of potatoes is preferable, as that way you’re harder to sweep. I’m not quite certain how to achieve the latter, but the analogy seemed apt.
Underneath, I as ever was working to try and go to half guard, and also see if I could get my knee through. I need to bridge and shrimp more, as currently I’m not making much space, relying instead too heavily on going to half-guard. Alternately, I’m waiting til they make a mistake in going to knee on belly, or try and swing the leg over for the Tran escape. The latter didn’t work for me today, as Christy got the leg through quickly, and also tended to have control of my hips and/or legs.
On top of mount I was pretty terrible. Christy was having no trouble rolling me off, even getting her legs right up so I was squished onto my front, leaving my leg exposed for a lock (or I assume so: foot locks scare me, so I tend to tap very quickly, particularly in specific sparring when there is a predetermined end goal anyway). Christy mentioned that if she’s about to sweep me, I should try counterbalancing by putting my bodyweight to the other side, leading with my head.
Underneath I felt a lot more comfortable, going to half guard even more than with side control. I tried the step-over foot drag, which worked several times, although I need to be a lot more proactive in half-guard. Christy was often raising up her trapped leg, making it difficult to maintain control. I was able to just about get it to the floor again and shift my hips around, but normally that would end up with her knee being much further through than before.
Worst of all without any doubt was my woeful attempt to hold rear mount. Every single time, as has happened with all my previous partners from this position, Christy simply bridged and moved to one side. I had no idea how to stop her: couldn’t seem to get my hips back under to follow. The only time I got any kind of control was when I moved to a body triangle, but I didn’t quite have it locked in, Christy eventually making space to get out.
Escaping rear mount was much easier. I tried the ‘Shirley Temple’ defence Ais showed me at the Belfast Throwdown last weekend. Clamping my hands to my jaw helped prevent the choke, but I was less successful moving down towards Christy’s leg to try and spin round to her guard. A combination of sweat and fatigue meant I made it in the end, but it wasn’t especially technical on my part.
Free sparring started with Tanvir, where I was determined to try and avoid using my arms too much. I’m not sure that entirely worked, but I at least wasn’t sitting in guard clinging on with my arms. I got through to side control after Tanvir tried a submission, then pushed his knees down to one side to pass. However, I was sloppy, so Tanvir very almost got his knee back through: must keep better control of the knees if I want to mount like that.
Finally, rolled with Christy, and yet again spent most of it in half guard. I really, really need to work out more options than holding onto the leg looking to slip back to full guard. I remember getting one sweep, but that was only because Christy raised her knee near my arm, so I could lift that up to come out on top. Like Tran suggested to me yesterday, working to get up on my side could be a useful goal for me in half-guard, so I’ll think I try and work on that.
I also still want to improve my open guard. I think once I feel comfortable there, I’ll be a lot happier trying submissions, as then I’ll be able to recover when I mess up. Closest I came to anything like that today was from scarf hold, where I was trying to trap Christy’s arm. I did eventually get my leg on top of it, but she successfully worked her way free, so I clearly didn’t have my weight down properly.
My right bicep is now very sore, possibly in part due to the awkward position in which that stack pass defence puts it. Still, I’ll glad I trained, as I had been feeling a little crappy earlier today: I’ve now got until next Tuesday to recover, when I’ll hopefully have a working pair of arms again.
25/06/2008 – BJJ (Advanced)
Posted: 25/06/2008 Filed under: advanced class, BJJ, Brazilian jiu jitsu, guard pass defence, Gustavo Dos Santos Pires, London, Roger Gracie Academy Leave a commentClass #156
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Gustavo Dos Santos Pires, London, UK – 25/06/2008 – Advanced
First outing for my new Padilla & Sons single weave gi, which felt relatively comfortable. I’ve only washed it once and in the spin-drier for ten minutes on a low heat, so will be shrinking it a bit more with further washes. Extremely cheap at a mere £52, which combined with the quality and customer service is why I keep going back to Padilla. Will have a proper review up in a few months, after I’ve got some experience rolling in the single weave.
Tonight was all focused on defending against the stack pass, from two positions your partner might reach before locking their hands together and pulling your in. The first guard pass defence was from when they have a grip on the fabric by your thighs. Shrimp, then use that space to bring a leg around and under their arm, pressing your shin into their stomach with the foot hooked round the far side (reminiscent of the scissor sweep position). Shrimp again, and this time get your other leg inside their arm, coming up on your knee (I think: might be that the leg stays flat). Holding their arm, you then roll them over and come up on top, still maintaining a grip on both their sleeves.
The next guard pass defence is a little more straightforward, and this time starts from when they’ve grabbed your belt, coming round either side of your legs with their arms. Take a deep grip on their collar, then come up on your elbow. Your other arm will reach all the way over to their belt, grabbing it palm up. Bring your elbow to the other side of their head, bracing it against their back. Squeeze for the submission.
Guard passage started with Christina, where I immediately gave the pass from Vitor’s seminar a go, but couldn’t get into position. Even posturing up proved difficult: holding the sleeve didn’t help much when I was unable to stay upright. Still, as we’d been saying earlier, just have to keep on trying these things until you get them right.
Underneath, I attempted to be a little more varied than just going for that sit-up sweep/kimura combo, seeing how the takedown Jude showed us yesterday might work. I was in position, but Christina knew exactly what I was going for, so easily countered it, meaning I was the one to end up on my back.
We then switched partners, so I had a chance to go with Herman, which is always cool as he’s not only my weight, but similar in style. This time, I did get the takedown from yesterday, though it was fairly sloppy and I relied way too much on my arms (though I guess you kinda have to in order to get up close when they stand in your guard).
I also again tried Vitor’s pass, running into a problem I’d encountered when drilling with Conor back in Belfast. While this time I got further along than with Christina, having stood up and twisted, Herman was able to shift away. I had difficulty controlling the hips in Belfast, for which Vitor’s answer (if I understood correctly) was basically to put more pressure on that one side with your knee, also making good use of the control on their sleeve. I think my leg could do with being tighter too when I stand up, bringing it to their bum straight after coming to my feet. I got the stack pass a few times, but again a bit sloppy. It was from a more sideways position than usual, so I think I was probably at risk of a guillotine.
Continuing to roll with Herman in free sparring, I was definitely using my arms too much, as evidence by the fact my biceps are a bit sore now. I was holding him down in my guard, attempting to go for the butterfly guard stuff Waqi showed me at the Belfast TD. That was nogi: much harder to slip the arm through when there’s the friction of all that coarse cotton. I couldn’t get the sweep either, eventually switching to an elevator, which did eventually work, but once again rather sloppy.
I slowly worked from half-guard, having left a trailing leg, until I just reached that judo scarf hold before time ran out. Most important lesson for me to take from that roll, and the sparring overall, is to keep in mind Nick Gregoriades’ advice: the arms are the steering wheel, the legs and hips are your engine. That reminds me to go back to working on the flower sweep, which I never really got down back when I was trying it in the beginners: legs and hips needs to be my focus. Also ties in with what Roy Harris said about the use of the legs rather than the arms being one of the big differences between purple and blue belts.
Next up was Tran, who was looking to work on flow, so rolled out when he inevitably got mount. He gave me yet another handy tip, which was when trying to free a trapped arm if they’ve pushed one of yours across in their guard. Bring the same side leg up to make space to get it free. If you bring the opposite leg up, you’re both asking to be swept and making their control tighter. I was previously trying to counterbalance, but as Tran demonstrated, I can see how much more effective it is to bring up the same side knee. Also need to watch out for the armbar by keeping your elbow in close.
Finally, I had a light roll with Zaf – I was planning on sitting it out, having turned down Kevin (reminds me I should definitely roll with him again, as he’s got good control and is around my size), but Zaf’s powers of persuasion got me back to the mat. I passed with the thing where you push their legs one way, then swing in the other direction and step through (toreador? Something like that), after which I played around on top. Zaf was watching me work, though I couldn’t really do anything: he rolled to his back, but despite having hooks, I was totally incapable of getting my arms into position for a choke.
Should be ok for tomorrow, when my sore arms will serve as an important reminder that power is in the lower body, not the upper. Shall have to review the flower sweep when I get the chance: Roy Dean covers it on Blue Belt Requirements, so I’ll take another look at the sweeps section.
30/08/2007 – BJJ (No-Gi)
Posted: 30/08/2007 Filed under: advanced class, BJJ, Brazilian jiu jitsu, double underhooks defence, Felipe Souza, guard pass defence, London, no-gi, Roger Gracie Academy, triangle from guard Leave a commentClass #84
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Felipe Souza, London, UK – 30/08/2007 – No-Gi
Basic point Felipe reminded me of today, which was to always grip under the head and arm when sprawling, as otherwise they can shift round to your back due to the space you’re leaving.
That was followed by more work on the clinch, with some interesting defence against double underhooks. First position Felipe showed us was when they try to get double underhooks, before they can come in close and break your posture, you push back on their hips. Keep doing that until you make sufficient space to slip in an arm and recover your underhook.
The second option was when they’ve got double underhooks and have moved round to the side. Put your left hand on their head, then with your right arm come underneath their armpit and grab your own wrist. Sprawling backwards, push their head down right to the floor. Once their, you have several options, two of which I drilled with Chris. Having got a secure grip, move round to their back (with one arm under their neck, the other coming underneath their armpit), then roll over and pull them into back mount. Alternately, maintaining that earlier grip on the head, push their head down towards their knee, rolling them into side control with a firm grip on their arm – I felt very vulnerable to submission when Chris demonstrated the technique. If you’re having trouble moving them over, use your head to drive under their side.
As always, Chris was great at pointing out errors I was making during drilling and had lots of pointers. I really must remember to roll with him more often, even though his considerable muscle can be a little intimidating. He continued providing advice during the next three drills, which were variations on triangle from guard. This started off from a guard pass defence we’ve done before in gi, but I’d not seen in no-gi. As they try to pass, you put a hand on their head and armpit to push off their body and make space, shrimp away from them, then come back in with one leg over their head, the other shin pressing into their stomach. Felipe showed how to drill this, with one person repeatedly going for the pass on each side with their partner went through the guard pass defence.
The first triangle was the usual method. From the position where you have one leg over their head and one into their stomach, isolate their arm with a firm grip. Then bring the stomach leg out and over your ankle, then secure the triangle by squeezing your legs and raising your hips.
The second variation was if you got them into a triangle position, but they managed to get their arm wrapped back around your leg (but still between your legs). Maintaining good head control with your legs, bring your arms around your legs and grip behind. Raise your legs straight up, squeezing your knees together and also using your arms to further tighten that grip. Leaning back also seemed to help: in combination, that should result in a submission.
I think its supposed to be a choke, but when Chris did it to me I’m not sure exactly where the pain came from. Nevertheless, definitely enough to make me tap. I had some problems making sure I was both raising my legs and leaning back, but after some pointers from Chris seemed to perform the technique better.
Finally, from the guard pass defence position where you’ve got one leg over their head and the other by their stomach, grab an outside arm. Shift your hips, then bring the leg by their stomach past their armpit and wrap it over your other leg, in a triangle grip. Roll them towards the floor controlling their arm and squeeze for the submission.
We then moved on to guard passage. I had a tough time passing Chris’ guard, so instead of straining uselessly I tried to be patient, maintain posture and wait for an opportunity. That sort of worked a couple of times, as due to it being no-gi I was able to slip my arms out and go for a stack pass. However, while I managed to throw his legs over once or twice, as always seems to happen with Chris, I couldn’t get my weight down so he simply got to his knees and stood up.
I also had trouble stopping Chris passing my guard, generally ending up, yet again, in half guard. I had a go at the half-guard sweep I’ve seen willyboy do, which as far as I can tell is to grab underneath the far arm and use that to roll them over, but didn’t manage to pull it off. I also tried to drive my knee through to recover guard, which sort of worked, but Chris managed to catch me midway a couple of times and either return to half guard or get through to side control.
He also tried a lot of brabo chokes (although I’m going by his description there, as I can never remember exactly what they look like), though I just about managed to resist. Chris said the I was leaving myself open to that submission because I wasn’t securing the underhook on him with my arm: that’s something to keep in mind, as it would make sweeping more productive. It would also provide the opportunity to take his back, which I keep forgetting about.
Sparring at the end of class was a little slack for me, as I wasn’t grabbing people to spar with like I should have been – I missed the opportunity to go with Aika and then with Chris, meaning that I ended up only sparring once. Still, that was at least a good roll with Nathan, where for once I wasn’t constantly sitting in half guard. Instead, I was either trying to work open guard, in his guard, or going for his back. I slipped round to rear mount several times, and it was very much slipped: the amount of sweat both on us and the floor made grips a lot harder to maintain, and therefore more difficult for Nathan to defend.
He almost swivelled round to guard from my back mount several times, but due to the lack of a gi and copious sweat, I was able to regain the position. I eventually managed to sink a rear naked choke, which was gratifying, but fairly meaningless as I think the main reason was all that sweat – that made it much easier to slide my arms through. Just before I had been trying to choke from mount, and again found it far simpler than usual to slip my arms across the throat (though I wasn’t able to secure it). I also had a go for armbars again, but couldn’t secure a proper grip.
So, still need work on half-guard: moving to rear mount from getting the underhook is something else for me to consider. I forgot to try the sweep I mentioned yesterday that Maurição showed us, so that’s another technique I want to attempt. Also, must roll more – I think you basically need to book people by eye contact, so I’ll have to remember to jump up and grab sparring partners next time.
I decided to wimp out of the beginners tonight, partly because I’m a wuss (especially seeing how I’d only sparred twice, so was comparatively fresh), but also because I really need to get more sleep. I keep getting home too late then going to bed around midnight, which wouldn’t be so bad if I didn’t then have to get up again at 06:50. Ideally I’d get eight hours, but if I could at least get to bed around 23:00, that would be a big improvement.
I’m hoping to get my gf to try out BJJ soon, though we’ll need to go to Gracie Barra Birmingham for that, as unlike me she’s in Brum all week (I only go up there half the week). The beginners classes at Brum are inconvenient for me, but should work out ok for her: I’ll have to pop down with her the first time, but my hope is that she’ll have a good experience and then be happy to start going on her own from then on. Having a training partner at home would be great, and getting my gf into my main hobby would be beyond awesome. If I can make the time to get her down there and she actually enjoys training, which is an enormous if.
No training next week as my gf and I are off to the Lake District, which should be cool: last time we went we didn’t have National Trust membership or a car, so looking forward to checking out more of the cultural heritage this time round.
30/08/2007 – BJJ (No-Gi)
Posted: 30/08/2007 Filed under: advanced class, BJJ, Brazilian jiu jitsu, double underhooks defence, Felipe Souza, guard pass defence, London, no-gi, Roger Gracie Academy, triangle from guard Leave a commentClass #84
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Felipe Souza, London, UK – 30/08/2007 – No-Gi
Basic point Felipe reminded me of today, which was to always grip under the head and arm when sprawling, as otherwise they can shift round to your back due to the space you’re leaving.
That was followed by more work on the clinch, with some interesting defence against double underhooks. First position Felipe showed us was when they try to get double underhooks, before they can come in close and break your posture, you push back on their hips. Keep doing that until you make sufficient space to slip in an arm and recover your underhook.
The second option was when they’ve got double underhooks and have moved round to the side. Put your left hand on their head, then with your right arm come underneath their armpit and grab your own wrist. Sprawling backwards, push their head down right to the floor. Once their, you have several options, two of which I drilled with Chris. Having got a secure grip, move round to their back (with one arm under their neck, the other coming underneath their armpit), then roll over and pull them into back mount. Alternately, maintaining that earlier grip on the head, push their head down towards their knee, rolling them into side control with a firm grip on their arm – I felt very vulnerable to submission when Chris demonstrated the technique. If you’re having trouble moving them over, use your head to drive under their side.
As always, Chris was great at pointing out errors I was making during drilling and had lots of pointers. I really must remember to roll with him more often, even though his considerable muscle can be a little intimidating. He continued providing advice during the next three drills, which were variations on triangle from guard. This started off from a guard pass defence we’ve done before in gi, but I’d not seen in no-gi. As they try to pass, you put a hand on their head and armpit to push off their body and make space, shrimp away from them, then come back in with one leg over their head, the other shin pressing into their stomach. Felipe showed how to drill this, with one person repeatedly going for the pass on each side with their partner went through the guard pass defence.
The first triangle was the usual method. From the position where you have one leg over their head and one into their stomach, isolate their arm with a firm grip. Then bring the stomach leg out and over your ankle, then secure the triangle by squeezing your legs and raising your hips.
The second variation was if you got them into a triangle position, but they managed to get their arm wrapped back around your leg (but still between your legs). Maintaining good head control with your legs, bring your arms around your legs and grip behind. Raise your legs straight up, squeezing your knees together and also using your arms to further tighten that grip. Leaning back also seemed to help: in combination, that should result in a submission.
I think its supposed to be a choke, but when Chris did it to me I’m not sure exactly where the pain came from. Nevertheless, definitely enough to make me tap. I had some problems making sure I was both raising my legs and leaning back, but after some pointers from Chris seemed to perform the technique better.
Finally, from the guard pass defence position where you’ve got one leg over their head and the other by their stomach, grab an outside arm. Shift your hips, then bring the leg by their stomach past their armpit and wrap it over your other leg, in a triangle grip. Roll them towards the floor controlling their arm and squeeze for the submission.
We then moved on to guard passage. I had a tough time passing Chris’ guard, so instead of straining uselessly I tried to be patient, maintain posture and wait for an opportunity. That sort of worked a couple of times, as due to it being no-gi I was able to slip my arms out and go for a stack pass. However, while I managed to throw his legs over once or twice, as always seems to happen with Chris, I couldn’t get my weight down so he simply got to his knees and stood up.
I also had trouble stopping Chris passing my guard, generally ending up, yet again, in half guard. I had a go at the half-guard sweep I’ve seen willyboy do, which as far as I can tell is to grab underneath the far arm and use that to roll them over, but didn’t manage to pull it off. I also tried to drive my knee through to recover guard, which sort of worked, but Chris managed to catch me midway a couple of times and either return to half guard or get through to side control.
He also tried a lot of brabo chokes (although I’m going by his description there, as I can never remember exactly what they look like), though I just about managed to resist. Chris said the I was leaving myself open to that submission because I wasn’t securing the underhook on him with my arm: that’s something to keep in mind, as it would make sweeping more productive. It would also provide the opportunity to take his back, which I keep forgetting about.
Sparring at the end of class was a little slack for me, as I wasn’t grabbing people to spar with like I should have been – I missed the opportunity to go with Aika and then with Chris, meaning that I ended up only sparring once. Still, that was at least a good roll with Nathan, where for once I wasn’t constantly sitting in half guard. Instead, I was either trying to work open guard, in his guard, or going for his back. I slipped round to rear mount several times, and it was very much slipped: the amount of sweat both on us and the floor made grips a lot harder to maintain, and therefore more difficult for Nathan to defend.
He almost swivelled round to guard from my back mount several times, but due to the lack of a gi and copious sweat, I was able to regain the position. I eventually managed to sink a rear naked choke, which was gratifying, but fairly meaningless as I think the main reason was all that sweat – that made it much easier to slide my arms through. Just before I had been trying to choke from mount, and again found it far simpler than usual to slip my arms across the throat (though I wasn’t able to secure it). I also had a go for armbars again, but couldn’t secure a proper grip.
So, still need work on half-guard: moving to rear mount from getting the underhook is something else for me to consider. I forgot to try the sweep I mentioned yesterday that Maurição showed us, so that’s another technique I want to attempt. Also, must roll more – I think you basically need to book people by eye contact, so I’ll have to remember to jump up and grab sparring partners next time.
I decided to wimp out of the beginners tonight, partly because I’m a wuss (especially seeing how I’d only sparred twice, so was comparatively fresh), but also because I really need to get more sleep. I keep getting home too late then going to bed around midnight, which wouldn’t be so bad if I didn’t then have to get up again at 06:50. Ideally I’d get eight hours, but if I could at least get to bed around 23:00, that would be a big improvement.
I’m hoping to get my gf to try out BJJ soon, though we’ll need to go to Gracie Barra Birmingham for that, as unlike me she’s in Brum all week (I only go up there half the week). The beginners classes at Brum are inconvenient for me, but should work out ok for her: I’ll have to pop down with her the first time, but my hope is that she’ll have a good experience and then be happy to start going on her own from then on. Having a training partner at home would be great, and getting my gf into my main hobby would be beyond awesome. If I can make the time to get her down there and she actually enjoys training, which is an enormous if.
No training next week as my gf and I are off to the Lake District, which should be cool: last time we went we didn’t have National Trust membership or a car, so looking forward to checking out more of the cultural heritage this time round.
19/04/2007 – BJJ
Posted: 19/04/2007 Filed under: beginners class, BJJ, Brazilian jiu jitsu, guard pass defence, London, Nic Gregoriades, Nick Gregoriades, Roger Gracie Academy Leave a commentClass #55
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Nick Gregoriades, London, UK – 19/04/2007
Another class with an instructor I’ve not experienced before, this time one of the brown belts, Nick Gregoriades (be sure to check out his blog). Instead of side control, his focus was on guard pass defence. The first one was slightly similar to what we’ve done before, but different set-up. Person A goes for the guard pass, and as they reach to grab the gi collar, Person B blocks their wrist, taking a firm hold of the fabric by Person A’s elbow at the same time. Person B then pushes that arm right down between their legs, comes up slightly on the same side elbow, then shrimps out. Having made space, Person B then brings their outside leg back in, swivelling into guard.
I felt I wasn’t being quite tight enough with this, and also needed to shrimp more. Could probably do with pushing further on that arm as well, so as to better facilitate the sweep. Kourosh had done the technique on Tuesday, so was able to offer some helpful tips on positioning, which was also true of our next drill.
The second guard pass defence was entirely different. As Person A comes round to pass, pushing under the leg, Person B grabs their own knee with the same side arm to block Person A, also raising their hips right up. As Person A continues to push, Person B uses that momentum to roll over their opposite shoulder (the motion is exactly like a backwards breakfall), coming to their knees. As they roll, Nick noted its important to keep the arms out to the side, to stop Person A taking your back. It also means you’re ready to go for a leg when you come up to your knees, doing the usual grab, yank and move into side control. I keep going for the wrong side with the single leg, so that’s something I’ll need to drill some more.
Sparring, which unsurprisingly was guard passage, went pretty well today. I started off with Kourosh, and had some success with the elevator sweep. I don’t think I was doing the technique quite right though, as I was still having to use a fair bit of force to get him over. I also need to remember to trap his arm, as I kept forgetting, meaning that he could simply base out to resist my sweep attempts. I had a few attempts at the push sweep too, which didn’t come off but I think did help prepare a follow-up sweep. Flower sweep continues to be a problem, though I made a small bit of progress as I got in position and lifted my partner off the ground (although Kourosh recovered his position fairly easily, his base being sufficiently steady).
I passed with the technique from BJ Penn’s site again, which is working well for me. While on the one hand that’s good, on the other I need to be careful I don’t start to rely on it too much, as otherwise I’ll find anyone proficient at the defence impossible to pass. With Kourosh I got round his guard a few times, but with Chris I continue to leave too much space when coming past, meaning he can get to his knees and escape. I tried to grab the head as I was getting the legs out the way, but I think I keep raising up and round the legs rather than driving down and pushing into side control. That’s even more the case when I’m trying to escape an armbar, which happened with Chris a few times.
When Chris was in my guard, something very weird happened. He had me stacked and almost got through, but I managed to get a knee into his stomach before he could pass. After a bit of swivelling, I somehow went from being underneath to side control, and I’m still not sure quite how. I realised afterwards Nick had been telling me to try the guard pass defence he’d shown us earlier in class, which I didn’t think to attempt. As he said, that would have been the intelligent thing to do, so I must keep in mind that its rather pointless to learn a technique in class but then never test it out in sparring. I then tried butterfly guard, but time ran out before I had the opportunity to see how it went.
Unusually, class finished off with some breathing exercises, with Nick telling us to sit cross-legged, close our eyes and concentrate on the air flowing in and out. Judging by his blog, meditative practice of this nature is something he’s personally found helpful with his BJJ. In addition, he told us to visualise the techniques we’d just learned in class, which was a different approach to other instructors I’ve had. Also thought it was nice of him to ask my name as we did the hand shaking thing at the end of the class – I presume he did that to all the people he didn’t recognise, but it’s a pleasant personal touch.
Back to term-time next week, so I’ll only get to train twice, then off to Barbados. Will be painful not training BJJ again until 6th June, but then I’m going on a Caribbean holiday instead, so not exactly a cause for complaint!
slideyfoot.com [back-up] 