Classes 30-31...

First up a beginners’ class with a warm-up of belt jumps interspersed with sprawled press-ups.

Doing belt jumps is awful. It’s essentially like sideways skipping where you lay your belt on the floor then have to leap two-footed over it and back again. You then change into belt jumps that have a press-up attached to them either time you land on either side of the line. It’s agony on the calves.

In class proper we reworked on attacking the turtle from the back and using kimura control to establish hooks and spin out for armbars. It was a sort of repeat of a class from a week earlier with a visiting black belt but at any level it’s always good to repeat technique as many times as possible.

In the open mat session the following day I trained with my new white belt friend and we drilled armbars and armbar escapes, triangles and triangle escapes, and kimuras and hip buck sweeps. We rolled for a while, too, and he got the better of me but I managed to escape a few times from tricky positions and am no longer such an easy target.

I then got the chance to work with a very helpful purple belt. He spent some time drilling the importance of defending the choke and showed me a very nifty defence on defending the choke from the back.

This essentially involved placing the nearest hand on the opponent’s elbow then placing the furthest hand on the gi sleeve and grabbing and driving the choking arm to the side to relieve pressure on the neck. When the opponent goes to place the arm back to where it was you simply throw the elbow forward and keep the sleeve in position and escape your head out so the opponent’s arm is sort of in a kimura position. It’s very nifty. I’m drilling this.

LESSON FROM TODAY: The kimura-style defence against the choke.

Classes 28-29...

In class 28, the chance to learn from a world champion BJJ expert. And it was the second world champion BJJ expert visiting the school in two weeks. That's pretty impressive and it's also one of the reasons I really like the school. It regularly attracts that calibre of visiting teacher.

The two techniques he demonstrated in the class I saw involved attacking the turtle position. And these went something like this:

Opponent in turtle:
To attack the turtle, close the space and hold the back, then reach under the opponent's left armpit with your left hand and grab the right-side collar of his gi jacket, then post out on your right arm and drag him over into a sort of side control with your knee up against his back; then shoot your left leg over his body and he should be open enough to get the left side hook in from that position; if you can't get the right side hook as well in the you can use this as a holding position by triangling your legs; if you can get the other hook in then you can go crossface and stretch him out and start attacking for the choke.

Using kimura control to attack the opponent in turtle:
It's the same start as before: to attack the turtle, close the space and hold the back, then reach under the opponent's left armpit with your left hand and grab the right-side collar of his gi jacket, then post out on your right arm and drag him over into a sort of side control with your knee up against his back.

It changes here, though:
To obtain the kimura you shoot your right arm over his right shoulder to grab his left arm; your left arm which is already under his armpit grabs your own wrist in a figure-four lock to secure the kimura; you then pull the kimura over his head and work the kimura; or let him try to roll out and go for the armbar as you have his arm already trapped.

Keys to both these techniques, however, are to keep in really tight so he has no room to manoeuvre.

Class 29 was a free mat session and this was great fun as I got paired with a very good white belt who was happy to let me go through some very basic armbar, kimura, hip buck sweep and triangle drills. In sparring he absolutely murdered me but there were a few times I managed to get in his guard and stay in his guard and not get swept. I even managed a few armbar escapes and one triangle escape. I also tried the guard escpae I learnt last week and nearly had some success with it, but I was aware I was second best for most of the session. On the plus side I am recognising the positions and the dangers but I'm not reacting quickly enough to defend them. Yet. But that will come...

LESSON FROM TODAY: Breaking turtle and using kimura control; I also need another strategy to escape mount if the bridge and roll escape isn't working.

Classes 26-27...

Two classes in one week and both were thoroughly enjoyable and, even more pleasing, my body coped with the demands.

In the opening class we did the usual gruelling warm-up then worked on a choke from rear mount then used the same choke from rear mount to move into an armbar.

Key details from the rear choke involved placing my right hand across my opponent's chest and under his chin and getting the right hand as deep as possible into the back of his gi on the left side towards the back of his neck before confirming the grip. The left hand goes under the left side of the opponent under his armpit. First it helps loosen the gi collar for the right hand to go in, then it it secures the gi on the right side. Once in position the right arm pulls back to tighten the forearm bone across the carotid artery and the throat and the left pulls the gi collar down to apply more pressure and the choke should come on.

We then set this choke up again and the opponent rolled out onto the right hand side to relieve the pressure from the choke. The left underhook, however, helps secure then grab the opponent's left arm and you secure the arm with both hands and drop back for an armbar with the knees squeezing tightly together.

The second class was an open mat session and this involved spending time rolling and drilling techniques with whoever was present. A very helpful white belt showed me a few sweeps he'd learnt but these seemed far beyond me at the moment: too many fine motor skills when what I need is the gross motor skills. When we rolled together, though, I did OK and held my own and even escaped a very dicy side control position using a bridge and move escape I borrowed from Stephan Kesting.

The highlight of the class, though, was the chance to roll with a much stronger and heavier purple belt and pick his brains for half an hour. Some of the key bits I learnt were to keep my head down in side control so I couldn't be pushed back and rolled, an idea for attacking turtle, and he also showed me his favourite guard escape, which I intend to drill and use.

This went as follows: you are in your opponent's closed guard so posture up and grab his pants at the belt line and, with your hands on his hips, push his hips to the floor; once here wedge your left knee under the opponent's bum and pull the other leg back to base out; then lean backwards and break the guard while keeping his hips pinned; then pin the leg nearest you and pass over it and end up in side control.

LESSON FROM TODAY: Drill the guard escape and keep drilling it.