You’d expect a man nicknamed ‘The Beast’ to be quite a
fearsome prospect, but he’s always positive, humble, upbeat, encouraging and
kind, factors that also make him a fantastic teacher.
The three-hour session whizzed by and, even though some
of the techniques were above my skill level, I managed to catch some of the
basics involved.
We had 90 minutes of no-gi, then had 90 minutes of gi,
and we spent most of that time working on defensive posture, escapes and sweeps
from half-guard.
The starting position for the man on the bottom in
half-guard was always the same: driving in with butterflies underneath and my
left hand cross-collar gripping and my right hand grabbing the opponent’s left
hand; then it’s up on one hip (the right in my case) with my left arm grabbing
the opponent’s collar and my left knee across his chest, with my left foot
hooking under his armpit and my left arm inside my knee to add stability to
this defensive frame. My right hand is cupping the back of his left elbow/bicep
to prevent him getting control of my right hand or moving in for head control,
and my right foot is controlling his right leg in a sort of loose half-guard.
From this starting position there was then a back-climb
as the man on the bottom tried a butterfly sweep by raising the legs and
clasping the hand behind the opponent’s back and pulling him in, but instead
using it to come to the side and secure a position at the side. The variations
from here that I can remember went something like this:
i) From side position, control his right arm and drag him
backwards and over you
so you end up on top.
ii) From side position, do a knee grab with
your hand and drive into him and over him into side control.
iii) From side position, he extends his leg to leg to
avoid the knee grab, so hook under his extended leg with your right arm and
roll him under you so you come out on top.
There was also this variation from the initial butterfly
sweep attempt:
iv) The opponent tries to prevent the sweep and secure
his base by standing, so hip escape to the side and swim underneath his left
leg with your right arm and trap it. At the same time, cross over your right
leg so it’s on top of your left leg hook at the back of his leg and your legs
form an ‘x’ around his right leg. Then extend your legs and body length to take
his balance and drop him backwards or forward.
There’s lots of information I’ve forgotten here but some
of it may resurface when I’m in those positions again. For example, there was a
really cool sweep that involved starting off on one hip and getting both knees
under the opponent’s body, then dropping to your back, before hip escaping onto
the opposite hip to throw the opponent over your head as you follow him through
and end up in side control. There were also details about controlling the
opponent’s hands using sleeve grips on the gi and stuffing the hand so the
opponent can’t post out.
But it was a great three hours. So thank-you. Jackson,
and come back soon!
LESSON FROM TODAY: Defensive position from
half-guard and staying on one hip with feet hooks, arm underhook and knee and
hand position; the sweeps involving you off-balancing an opponent by taking him
over you; the x-guard and arm underhook stretch to off-balance a standing opponent.
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