Class 309...

Another gruelling dinner-time class, but it was massively enjoyable as I was partnered with an old friend and there was quite a bit of drilling basic techniques involved. These included kimuras, omoplatas, armbars and triangles. Note to self: I should use triangles a lot more as I have long legs and I should employ these offensively. 

We were shown a couple of techniques and one of them was a basic leg triangle set-up for open guard that I really liked. It went something like this: 
Ensure opponent's hands are inside of guard and his elbows are down; secure collar and arm control one side of opponent; open guard and bring opposite knee across in a sort of z guard; kick z leg up to beat arm and attack for triangle. 

I got murdered in sparring. I ended up on bottom in side control against a couple of bigger and stronger white belts but I managed to fend them off, I even swept one of them at the end. I then got roundly murdered by two good purple belts. One of them has a side control that is exhausting to try and escape. I got a chance to relax against a junior white belt, but I could tell he's going to be good and causing me issues within three months...

Things to remember: Attack for triangles; triangle set-up from knee shield;  work on side control escapes.

Classes 307 & 308...

First, I threw myself into a 90-minute lunchtime class and it was gruelling. But I survived.

The two techniques we worked on involved a takedown from a trip/leg block, then a sweep on a standing opponent that moved into an armbar. These went something like this:

Takedown: you are standing facing an opponent; you have collar and sleeve control and so does he; you angle out and pull down his sleeve control side so he reacts; then you drag his collar side down and step back to 90 degrees but your same side collar leg blocks the movement of his leg; continue the rotation and drop back and down to complete the circle for the throw; to make it easier, you can use your other leg to hook inside his other leg and sweep.

Sweep into inverted armbar: This involved  moving from an open guard to moving into some type of single leg, then tipping the opponent over and dropping into an inverted armbar. I tried to take notes but this sort of ultra connected technique is so far out of my skill sets and competencies that I can't recall most of the details. 

We then did some specific sparring. I sucked at this. We then did proper sparring and I rolled with three good purple belts and a black belt. I was exhausted by this time, so I put up very little resistance.

The major mistake I kept making was not having the foot in the hip when trying to pull guard. This cost me time and time again. I also kept getting my half guard smashed before I had time to put my frame in place. 

The one thing I did get right, though, was using a lockdown escape that I chanced upon yesterday.

It was good to be back. And I survived.

Following on, I did an open mat and I did OK against sparring against higher belts. The threat of my wrist locks does buy a bit of time and I need to use that threat to set up other things. 

I am currently persevering with the half guard and the butterfly guard because I want to develop a more open and offensive guard. The full guard and the overhook guard I rely on are OK and I have options with them, but I need to give myself some more offensive and sweeping options. Sadly the type of tight clamping guards I favour don't really offer this, so I need to expand and try to learn, even though it will make me even more vulnerable to savvy opponents for a bit. 

Things to remember: get frame in place when using half guard; work on guard pulls with foot in hip.

Class 306...

Today was my second BJJ class since returning from injury (or 'ninja-ry' as the Missus calls it) and it was another open mat.

I rolled with a couple of very good blue belts and had a roll with a purple belt who's also very good. I am still a way off the pace, but I didn't disgrace myself either and I nearly hit a couple of nice wrist locks and a reverse triangle choke from bottom side control.

At the end of the class, a white belt sought some advice on what to do if he was getting smashed on the bottom in half guard. I suggested a couple of things, such as getting a frame in place on the throat and hip of the opponent to relieve pressure, then recover guard.

I then feared that I wasn't really qualified to give advice, so I asked a purple belt to help out. He offered the same advice, which made me realise I maybe have learnt some key lessons somewhere along the way. Then the purple belt also showed a few sweeps from bottom position when the frame is in place.

I end up in half guard bottom a lot, so it was good to see what somebody better does.

Things to remember: establish frame on bottom in half guard; use back attack from knee and also learn hook and roll sweep.

Class 305...

It's been a largely frustrating past three months on the martial arts training front. I've kept in touch with some form of light hapkido training and I've also done some boxing and some sparring drills, but BJJ has been a non-starter. A dodgy fall at hapkido saw a neck and shoulder injury, then another incident saw me tear some intercostal muscles. 

This meant I also missed a hapkido grading I was aiming to attend, which would have put me a step closer to my second dan grading, and it also meant a chance to compete at BJJ was not happening. 

This week, however, I have finally completed the triumvirate of hapkido, boxing and BJJ, and my body doesn't seem to be in too much agony, This is hopeful as it suggests I'll be back in full training mode within a few weeks as long as I don't do anything too stupid or push my body to quickly. 

At BJJ, I also did some no-gi with a very helpful and lightning fast no-gi competitor. If I end up not working in London next year, I'll be moving my BJJ training to a gym nearer home. I am also planning on doing no-gi instead of gi for a while, so it was good to have a chance to do some of it.

Class 304...

The first class was all about half guard attacks and sweeps. The takehome when defending on the bottom involved: deny your opponent the underhook on their near side so they can't apply pressure on your jaw; fend them off with your arms while staying on one side; and not getting flattened out. 

Conversely, the takehome for attacking from top was: pass by using the knee slice knee; Secure the underhook so you can apply old-school pressure. 

Sparring was fine. I got schooled by a brown belt and did OK against bigger, younger and stronger blue belts. I am aware I am using wrist locks and ezekiel chokes too much at the moment, though, so I am trying to go old school and use the trio of armbar, leg triangle and omoplata and work those back in.

It's good to be back. 

Things to remember: Deny underhook and use frame to defend when in half guard on bottom.

Classes 301-303…

I am finally back training after a two-month lay-off because of a broken toe. Sadly, injury is part and parcel of training martial arts and, even more annoyingly, it becomes more of a factor for any wannabe Bruce Lees who are in their forties and looking nervously on as their half century approaches.

Still, it’s good to be training again at both Hapkido, which I made a tentative return to about four weeks ago, and BJJ. I don’t expect to make major leaps at either of these martial arts because I’m essentially a hobby martial artist and my goal has never been to compete, even though I have dabbled and not entirely disgraced myself. I just want to have solid fundamentals and be a little more consistently average at both.

Onto class and the first BJJ class was all about escaping and maintaining various types of guard. My full guard escaping and attacking was actually not awful and I found myself going back to my tried and tested double unders pass. I didn’t get it to work all the time, but I was pleased I actually recalled that bit of my skill set!

Sparring was OK and I hit a couple of wrist locks. It was exhausting but it was also great to be back.

The second class was all about escaping and retaining De Riva guard. I was spectacularly awful at this, then sparring was pretty grim, too. Afterwards, I spent some time on the train reminding myself about what I should be doing in this position and reminding myself about the Ball and Chain sweep courtesy of a Stephan Kesting phone app. I did make a very cool connection, though, which is to drop into the De La Riva guard when an opponent stands in my full guard. This may seem obvious to most BJJ students but that penny has taken considerable time to drop for me. D’oh!

Class three was all about single leg x guard and I was equally awful at this. My main takehome was the positional set-up from both legs inside the opponent’s feet and climbing one inside leg to outside the opponent’s hip with the other inside attacking his knee. The other takehome was to ensure the untrapped leg stays well away from the reach of you opponent or your balance is truly under attack.

Sparring was OK and I hit a couple of Ezekiel chokes from inside an opponent’s guard. It’s sneaky and it won’t work against a more skilled and less tired opponent, but I catch a surprising amount of people with this. I also hit a single hook sweep at one point.

My return underlined how far off the pace I am. But it wasn’t as grim as it could have been and, surprisingly, my fitness was actually OK. It’s good to be back.

Things to remember: Link the De La Riva position into the full guard position when opponents stand up.

Class 300...

Hurray! I may not be a very good blue belt, but today I have made it to 300 classes at BJJ. Sadly, I hadn't trained for about two weeks because of work and I was well off the pace. 

We did some work on takedown to attack from the DLR position. The basic one we used was: 
i) From standing, grip opponent's left collar with own right hand; pull down the collar and spiral out to your left as you insert your left leg behind the right leg of the opponent; then insert DLR hook and attack from there.

The variations from this involved the standing man stepping back and dropping down into base position while ensuring there was no space under the right arm for the opponent to insert a knee shield of some description; then it's a matter of securing a grip on the opponent's collar or arm, knee slicing, and dropping into side control. The man on the bottom also has the option of trapping the stand man's knee and using this to destablisie him. 

I was pretty ropey in sparring but I had enough muscle memory to at least be compact and not leave arms poking out for massively easy submissions. I am also getting a tiny bit better at using my legs as a barrier and not letting people pass me as easily. I sort of managed to keep my hooks active today. 

It was a gruelling class, though, with lots of additional press-ups, star jumps, burpees and squats thrown in. It was good to be back, though. After 300 classes, I should probably be a lot better. But I'd be much worse if I hadn't started at all.

Things to remember: Keep hooks active; drill takedown.

Class 299...

Some exercises on passing open guard and attacking from open guard. The standing man has to bypass the legs, while the defending man has to get his hooks in or latch on to some type of guard.

I am not utterly hopeless at this because keeping hooks active is something I have been working on as part of my attempts to develop butterfly guard. 

Sparring was OK and I tried to use the arm drag to wrist lock and hit an armbar from it. On another occasion, I hit an omaplata from it. I need to play with this because even if the wrist lock fails, there are other possibilities. 

Things to remember: Keep hooks active.

Class 298...

A quick bit of pre-class homework with two escapes from knee mount:

I) Man on top has knee mount, so bridge up slightly away from opponent and circle elbow nearest his knee to the outside, then use that as a wedge and hip escape out so you face him on your side.

II) Man on top has knee mount, so sweep him by bringing knee up and using nearest leg to sweep his standing foot. 

Onto class and more DLR drilling. I really like the double unders pass for most guard escapes but I struggled to hit both that and the leg drag today. I have found a decent counter to it, though, which involves using the momentum of the pushed-aside legs as you push the upper arm of the opponent as he tries to move the legs out of the the way, then you come up onto your knees and attack from there. 

Normal Sparring was OK but I am poor at DLR. I did roll with a high purple belt today, though, and noticed his DLR priority when in that guard was to remove the hook by moving the foot and himself. I may well borrow that.

Class 296 & 297...

A few classes on the De La Riva guard...

De La Riva Guard: control opponent's near ankle and secure opponent's opposite collar; own left leg is DLR hook; hip escape and own right leg extends opponent's far leg; stretch unbalanced opponent and drive up as he goes down and secure position.

Variations on this included using unbalancing to create space to remove DLR hook and insert as a butterfly hook; then use it for a balloon sweep or as the entry into an x-guard sweep.

I am really bad at DLR but that's also because I don't really use it. I sort of like the x-guard, though, and I have long and strong legs, so I should persevere with this.

The second class continued the DLR guard, but looked at the options for the standing opponent. These included:

I) Leg drag the non-hooking leg in between your legs, then turn and knee slice with the trapped leg, then pass to either side. 

ii) Leg drag the non-hooking leg to the outside of your non-trapped leg, then drop down and attack for the double unders pass. 

iii) Leg drag the non-hooking leg to the outside of your trapped leg, then drop down and pass into side control. 

Specific sparring was ropey, but general sparring was OK. 

Things to remember: Use DLR to attack opponent's base, keep hooks active.

Demian Maia Seminar: Part I...

Here are a few of the quick takehomes from a seminar with Demian Maia. 

i) Tighten armbar from side mount by grabbing arm and trapping with shoulder when in tripod; leaves options for straight armbar.

ii) Push arm across opponent's chest via elbow to weaken muscle strength when opponent is gripping gi and defending armbar attack.

iii) North-south choke from tripod; trap opponent's head between rib cage and arm after securing opponent's arm in armbar attack; then reach under opponent's neck and use own ribcage and bicep to apply choke.

There were also a few things on generally tightening the armbar attack by denying the opponent space and ensuring you apply your weight to his body. 

There will be other things I recall but I am still digesting the wealth of information and processing it!

Classes 296 & 297...

A couple more classes working on full guard with an overhook. 

Overhook closed guard options included: omaplata, triangle, then kick arm up and hook with other leg for kimura. 

Important details of the two hands pulling arm of opponent in guard to collapse opponent also using knees.

Sparring was OK, but I am missing a definite game plan with butterfly guard because I am no staying connected. 

I also seriously gassed in the second class. But I am into my third straight 50-hour week at work so fatigue was going to hit at some point! 

Things to remember: Frame and keep hooks active!

Class 294 & 295...

A few classes on involving overhook attacks from closed guard. 

i) Overhooks from closed guard: gives you instant omaplata and triangle options; there is also a surprise kimura option by kicking the opponent's arm up and hooking it with the other leg for the kimura. 

ii) The detail of using two hands to pull the arm of the opponent in guard and collapsing his posture with the two-handed grab and the knees is important.

Sparring was OK but I was a bit haphazard. I was just rolling with little purpose, apart from simply defending.

The second class saw us work on a takedown from standing using an opposite collar grab and sleeve control. This went something like this: 

i) Secure opposite collar and sleeve control; drop to side of opponent and pull him down; then leave left foot for opponent to trip over; scramble to position on top and secure combat base or pass to side. 

Specific sparring was OK in this class once I remembered to get a frame in place. Normal sparring was fine, too, and I hit a wrist lock and a nice omoplata.I only got these once I secured superior position, though.

Things to remember: Drill frame basics and work on side control escapes.

Class 291, 292, 293...

I am back from holiday and I've managed three classes in quick succession. 

Class one was about half guard retention and escape. In this, we covered: 

Lockdown for man on bottom, who interlaces legs in figure four lock with the inside foot hooking onto the opponent's leg and prevents opponent from escaping position easily.

 

The second and third classes were all about takedowns with same side collar grip, pull opponent down on the gripped side, then attack opposite leg for single leg takedown. You end up in half guard and pass to side mount. 

Things to remember: keep hooks active and whip up in lockdown.

Demian Maia Seminar: Part II...

I recently attended a BJJ seminar with Demian Maia. 

For those unfamiliar with Maia, he's a welterweight title contender in the UFC, an ADCC champion and a high-level BJJ competitor with various titles under his belt. Interesting Wikipedia-discovered fact: he also did a journalism degree. We could have ended up in the same industry!

The seminar was fun as two very good white belts I know got promoted to blue belt, then a very high-level blue belt got promoted to purple belt later in the week. All three got their belts for Maia, which is a great story to tell the grandkids! On a selfish note, it was particularly reassuring to see the blue belt get his purple belt because he ruined me without trying the last time we rolled and the gap between us was so massive I feared I was getting worse! But big differentials in skill levels within the same belt can happen at BJJ because the belts are so deep, with three years plus between promotions.

The teaching bit of the seminar was the most impressive bit, though, not only because of how it was taught but because of what was taught. So what do you imagine a top-of-the-food-chain BJJ competitor and UFC fighter was teaching? Some fancy reverse De La Riva sweep or a complex new attack from some funky new guard? 

No. Maia spent a couple of hours dismantling a basic armbar attack from side mount, which is something most white belts learn in the first few months, and he showed how he's worked on refining and tightening up the attack from this position. It may not sound that impressive, but the depth of knowledge and the detail he delivered was hugely impressive. 

In my other martial arts life as a hapkido student, the head of the school, an astonishing man from Korea who's been training in hapkido for about 60 years, is always saying 'Basics!' As a lower belt, I was sometimes annoyed about this because I always wanted to learn the next new thing. But now I've been around a bit longer, I fully appreciate the sentiment. Knowledge and learning can be horizontal to cover lots of ground, but real learning has to be vertical. It has to contain a depth of knowledge that is continually excavated and re-examined.

The Maia seminar had lots of genuinely nice moments, but that was probably my key takehome from it because it was a point when my hapkido training and my BJJ training connected. As I get older in martial arts years, I realise it’s better to have a smaller and more refined skill set than a larger and less developed one. You can know lots of stuff, but you rely on your go-to moves and combinations. Seeing Maia dismantle this technique and demonstrate that depth of knowledge helped make me feel better about not wanting to know more but to know less more thoroughly. 

I realised some time ago that my BJJ ‘game’, if such a thing ever materialises, will never be a complex thing. It will be based on simple and solid fundamentals that are drilled and continually refined over time. This is a development that started to happen in my hapkido, which I now see as a small skill set based on key principles that adapts to different circumstances and entry points, a few years ago. 

So it was nice to sort of have this approach also demonstrated by a high-level grappler like Maia. The lessons on leverage and keeping things together and closing down space were about attacking the armbar from side mount. But they were also applicable to everything else. 

To quote another martials arts man, one Miyamoto Musushi, ‘From one thing know ten thousand things!’