Classes 418-420...

A Gi class in which we did some did some work on positional escapes. These were as follows: 

Mount Escape Snag and Drag to Half Guard: You are mounted on the bottom; use one arm to frame against your opponent's hips and stop his hips sitting up, then use the other to defend against chokes; turn slightly to one side and turn your bottom knee to face away from you; then use your top leg to hook and snag the leg of the opponent and turn back into half guard.

Bottom Side Control Escape Mount Snag and Drag: Wasn't quite sure how this worked but I'll fins it online. 

We also did some work on North-South basics and attacking for a pull-up kimura from this position, then transitioning to an armbar and a scissor choke. 

Next up was a No Gi class in which we worked on positional transitions and a couple of sweeps. These were: 
Butterfly to Shin on Shin Guard

Shin on Shin Sweep to Single X

Single X to X Guard

X guard to X guard Ankle Grab Sweep

X guard to X guard Trip Sweep
I need to learn the Shin on Shin position as this is a transitional and attacking position from open guard and half guard. 

Next was a Gi class in which we worked on: 
Half Guard to Half Butterfly Sweep

Bullfighter Guard Pass

Elbow Flare Guard Pass

Stack pass with Trouser Hold
Power Knee Slide

The half butterfly position in particular is something I need to add to my game. It relies on moving from Half guard to inserting a hook into that sort of rests on your foot. position between half guard and half 

I aso had a play with some standing wrist locks. A fun few weeks.

Competition Time: Part II...

A day after competing and I am less angry with myself. But that would not be hard considering the foul fucking mood I left the venue in. I basically lost all discipline and hit the self-destruct button at the tournament. 

The truth is that I've been here before when I crashed and burnt at a big national pool event a few years ago. What I did after that was stew for a few days, then dissect, dismantle and rebuild my entire single-frame game. Result: I've regularly performed at every big tournament since under the pressure of not letting my team-mates down. 

So I clearly need to adopt a similar policy here. 

My best strategy at BJJ is always to pull guard, get my opponent in my closed guard, secure an overhook and attack from there with omoplatas, chokes and wrist locks. I have been trying to add half guard into this mix for a while, too, and it's sort of coming along. 

So I need to build in more strategies to get opponents into this place where I feel I operate best and I need to build in more failsafes to avoid making myself vulnerable when this doesn't happen. 

So my four priorities for the next few months need to be: 

i) drill mount and side control escape combinations so I can escape bad positions and either establish or re-establish half or full guard 

ii) drill pulling guard or throwing using the Greco throw I like to get on top of an opponent 

iii) drill butterfly, shin-on-shin or single x to defend bad positions when I am fighting a standing opponent from the floor 

iv) drill breaking and passing guard to establish a better position 

Any other fancy shit can wait. I think that's a decent plan.

Competition Time: Part I...

A return to competing at BJJ but an utter disaster of a day. I'd trained harder for this event than ever before and I was fucking awful. The only thing I did right was make weight.

Fight number one was No Gi and, because there was nobody else in my age category, I was thrown in with fighters 15 years younger. That's not normally a massive issue, but I ran up against someone who was also just better in every department and was much stronger as well. Result: I made a half-arsed attempt to pull guard but ended up getting passed and tapped to an Americana that badly wrenched my rotator cuff in about 30 seconds.

I had higher hopes in gi with four of us in the category, namely myself, another 50-year-old and two 40-year-olds. I tried to pull guard in my first fight, again made a mess of it and got trapped in side control for five minutes and lost. I then fought for bronze and tried to pull guard again, fucked it up and ended up in a weird butterfly position that took absolutely no passing. I nearly got a sweep but ended up tapping to a footlock.

The gi fights were both winnable but I didn't do the basics right in either and got entirely what I deserved. My coach told me that I should have mixed side control escapes up in my first and secured a guard in the second. I had options to go to single x and de la Riva but basically did nothing. And these are not things I don't know either.

There are no good philosophical take homes from this. I was utterly rubbish. I genuinely may as well not have bothered. I needed to be more focused and I needed to have a clearer plan. I also need to drill bread-and-butter positions and techniques I don't drill with much more regularity. 

PS: just when I thought the day could not get any worse, my train home was cancelled.

Classes 415-417...

A No Gi seminar of sorts in which we did some work on using the overhook to secure a guillotine and also worked on recovery from mount. These techniques went something like this: 

Escape from Mount: Protect neck with left hand and use right hand to frame against hips of opponent;  turn to face left side and ensure left leg is inside leg of opponent and stretched out with kneecap angled towards floor; use right leg to snag right leg of opponent and drag it to quarter guard; lock leg of opponent up and use this lever to road him away; push knee down to secure half guard; fight for left side underhook and come to knees; then knee tap for sweep. 

Standing Overhook to Guillotine: Head and arm tie from standing; step out and use overhook to drive opponent down at an angle; use head control arm to swim in for guillotine; connect arms for arm in guillotine or spike opponent to floor and attack for back. 

A No Gi class in which we did some work on the guillotine and also worked on the following sequence: 

Standing Ten Finger Choke
Standing Guillotine from Head and Arm Control
Standing Guillotine to Arm In Guillotine 
Arm in Guillotine to Spiking Opponent 

We also did a nice set-up to standing guillotine from a faked shot. 

Standing Guillotine from Fake Shot: Face opponent and drop down to shoot and force opponent to change levels; fake a shot and drop down again but spring up as opponent drops down; your back hand catches the back of his neck and pulls it down; your front hand attacks for the guillotine as the back hand passes the neck under your arm. 

I am trying to play half guard in King of the Guard and I am having some success some of the time.

I also did a class on all things guillotine where we worked on the following:

Ten Finger Choke Against a Down Opponent Grabbing a Leg
Standing Guillotine from Head and Arm Control
Standing Guillotine to Arm In Guillotine 
Arm in Guillotine to Spiking Opponent
Guillotine from Butterfly Guard

Sparring was also fine. I am feeling quite relaxed about the competition I have in four days.

Classes 413-414...

First up, a Gi class in which we worked on some Butterfly Guard techniques. 

Escape from Bottom Side Control: establish frame, use the frame to create space, insert knee and insert other leg as hook and come up to Butterfly Guard.

Butterfly Double Unders Sweep: establish Butterfly Guard, attack for double unders, pull opponent on top of you, pick a side and use the hook on that side to dump him over. 

Butterfly Double Overs Sweep: establish Butterfly Guard, opponent attacks for double unders, establish double overs, pull opponent on top of you, pick a side and use the hook on that side to dump him over. 

Butterfly Arm Drag to Back Take: establish Butterfly Guard, attack for arm drag, pull opponent to side, attack for back 

Butterfly Sweep to Side Control: establish Butterfly Guard with an over-under control, the overhook side is the side the opponent is being swept to, the overhook side leg goes flat to the floor, the hook drives up and the flat foot pushes off the floor to sweep. 

Sparring was tough but I am persevering with the Stack Pass.

Followed by another No Gi class in which we worked on variations of attacking for the Omoplata from Guard. 

Omoplata from Guard: right hand reaches across to grab opponent's right hand at sleeve; left hand grabs bottom of opponent's gi trousers; closed guard opens and right leg goes onto hip of opponent or on floor; left leg swoops over; keep opponent's arm secure' then sit up and hand wraps opponent's waist to prevent him rolling free; then legs move to alter base; apply pressure down onto arm; then swoop forward to whisper into opponent's far ear to apply pressure.

This included a cool inversion technique I forgot the details of. But I'll ask about this and get it down on here.

Classes 409-412...

First up a Gi class in which we worked on Attacks from Double Wrist Control. 

Double Wrist Control: opponent inside closed guard; secure wrist control, then place feet on hips and bring your knees inside his arms and stretch to create tension. 
Place one foot in the elbow joint f the opponent and stretch him out, then use Scissor Sweep.
Place one knee outside of one of the opponent's arms and attack for Leg Triangle. 
Place one foot on bicep of opponent and make him stand and switch to De La Riva Guard. From here, switch from De la Riva to Single X, and from Single X to X Guard. 

Other options include: 
Kick hook through in De la Riva to attack for Back Take.

Tripod Sweep from De la Riva and Single X Sweep into Rolling Front Armbar. There is also the X Guard Sweep to Standing Pass.

Sparring was decent and I did OK. 

Next up was a Gi Beginners class in which we focused on several bits and pieces. 

Standing Guard Pass: Leg trapped against seated opponent, grip his pants at knees and push his knees forward while kicking trapped leg back, side step to knee on belly then go to full mount. 

From Full Mount, go high then use both hands to pin an arm and set up the kimura; use this to pull opponent up and sit on his side with one heel in his stomach and the other knee against his head, either use kimura or transition to armbar.

If opponent Spider Webs to prevent armbar, let him come up into guard and then attack for armbar. 

Set-up Tip for Armbar: secure arm in usual way, then use other hand to go for cross collar choke. With opponent distracted, attack for the armbar.

Next up was an Advanced Gi Class in which we worked on a pass in which the seats opponent controls your sleeves and has you in Spider Guard you controlling his pant legs. 

Standing Pass Against Seated Opponent in Spider Guard: Opponent has you in spider guard, you have grips on his pants; walk backwards and bring opponent's feet back to floor; step round to side then use pants grip to lift opponent's legs; take side control; furthest away hand grabs under arm of opponent, other hand connects for kimura grip and pull opponent up; leg over opponent with heel in his stomach, other leg slides behind neck of opponent. 

Options from here include:

Kimura and Armbar

We also did some work on the Power Knee Slice, which involves going shin to shin with your opponent and walking one of his legs in to kill his movement. Then you push him back and knee slice with your other leg and pass. 

Sparring was hard work. I am struggling to contain younger opponents. I feel like I need to tighten everything up.

Next up was a Beginners No Gi class in which we worked on attacks from Top Side Control. 

Setting up Attacks from Top Side Control 1: opponent fishes for far side underhook, you beat him to it, trap and pinch his arm using your underhook and pull him up to you using his trapped arm, push his head down and step over his head and swap sides while keeping the arm, then drop down for armbar, kimura or set up leg triangle.

Setting up Attacks from Top Side Control 2: pponent fishes for far side underhook, you trap his arm using an overhook, trap and pinch his arm using your overhook, attack for chin strap with other arm, roll and connect arms and attack for arm-in guillotine.

Sparring was tough as I was playing guard passing from standing against a variety of guards. I had some success, however, using the stack pass.

Class 408...

First up, a No Gi beginners class in which we worked on Leg Triangle Set-ups. These went something like this: 

Leg Triangle from Full Guard: Opponent is in my full guard so I secure wrist control. I shove one arm out and keep the other in and I climb my legs so they cross around the high back of my opponent. I  drag his captured arm across then I collapse his frame, then I connect one hand and the horizontal leg together, then I angle out by using either the foot on the hip of my opponent or underhooking his arm with my other arm. Once angled off, I connect my legs and swing back in to tighten the angle. Then I pull his head down and squeeze everything together for the tap. 

Defence for opponent is to hide his arm, then you swap the sides of the triangle, hip up to to collect the hidden arm, and reconnect to the original position.

Leg Triangle from Half Guard: From half guard bottom, secure an overhook, then angle out onto your hip and move to leg over head of opponent and hips facing out to trap arm; push the free arm of the opponent away and use the free leg to that arm away, then that leg collects the head of the opponent as you swing back in to connect the legs and then connect the triangle.  

Leg Triangle from Full Mount: From full mount, move up the body so it's a high full mount, then lift the head of the opponent with your left arm and bring the right knee in line with his neck; then swap the hands controlling the head and with the free hand, use you arm and your body weight to pin his hand to his chest; swing the leg that side over and get it behind the neck of the opponent and ensure your knee and your heel are connected; roll to the right and lock in and squeeze.

Sparring wasn't great as I felt a bit off the pace. I am also trying to work on my Half Guard and my Standing Guard Passes and get these up to a decent level. I'm struggling with these a bit at the moment but that could also be fatigue because I'm training an hour every morning to add muscle and make weight for a tournament in three weeks. 

Classes 406-407...

A Gi class working on lasso guard. This went something like this:

Getting Lasso Position from Full Guard: secure double wrist control of opponent via sleeve grip, then open guard and get feet on hips with knees inside stretching opponent's arms out; shrimp to the side, then take opposite foot off hip and loop foot outside and thread back inside while retaining wrist control.

Lasso Guard Sweeps: These involve inserting hook and elevating opponent onto arm trapped side. Also bait the opponent into standing, then pull him onto your feet and flip towards the trapped arm side. 

Sparring was OK and I felt a bit more with it.

Next up was another Gi class working on cross collar chokes. This involved: 

Shave Choke: Opponent is in your full guard; insert one hand palm up in a tight cross grip under his collar; bring the other other hand over his head palm down and grab his gi over the shoulder and connect when the knife blade of your arm is against his carotid; then bring him down and tighten the choke. 

The defence for this choke involves the opponent putting a hand inside your first choking arm. This, however traps is arm for a pendulum sweep by grabbing his lat and opening your guard, or taking his back.

Goodbye Choke: Opponent is in your full guard; insert a loose cross-collar palm-up grip on the collar of the opponent; bring him down and lop your choking arm over; then insert the other hand to lock the choke in.

Baseball Bat Choke: Opponent is in your full guard; insert a same side palm-up grip on his collar; the other hand is palm-down and grabs his collar material behind the head of the opponent. Then bait him to escape and tighten the choke.

Sparring fine. I was attacking for leg triangles with limited success.

Class 405...

A No Gi Beginners class on passing guard. We played with the following:

Butterfly Guard Pass: opponent's butterfly hooks are under your legs, force opponent back by driving your hands under his armpits and get his back to the floor; your head goes to his stomach and your elbows cage his hips. Move one knee across so both your knees are trapping one knee of the opponent, hand grabs opposite shoulder, pressure down and pass to side.

Over Under Pass from Full Guard: posture up in guard of opponent and pin his body to the mat by controlling his hips with your hands; force your knee between his bum cheeks, then open hips by stepping back on one leg; push that leg of opponent down and pin it to the floor; scoop the other leg of opponent and take it on your shoulder; then grab the opposite shoulder of the opponent and pass to side.

Standing Pass in Full Guard: Pin hand of opponent to his stomach; stand up on the safe side where his hand is pinned and open his hips by opening your own leg and pushing his leg down; move your hips up and pass leg to other side; then drop down and pin his knee in knee slide position. Pass to side or go mount.

Double Under pass Against Open Guard: Secure control of both legs; push knee in; drop down and use double unders; pull opponent's hips to your knees, grab opposite collar and pass to side.

Playing King of the Guard was poor today. My sparring was also poor. I felt miles off the pace today. The only good bit of news is that I am experimenting with handgun chokes.

Classes 403-404...

A Gi Beginners Class in which we worked on the armbar, omoplata and leg triangle attack combination.
Double Armbar from Closed Guard: opponent is in your closed guard, go for cross collar choke, hip escape body out, opponent places both hands on your hips to escape choke, grab his hands, cross your legs behind his head in a high guard, close knees on his elbows for tap.

We also worked on a Hip Bump Sweep to Arm-in Guillotine to Leg Triangle.

Next up was a Gi Advanced Class. We worked on three passes from top half half guard. 

Tripod Pass from Half Guard: Flatten opponent and collect near-side arm and pull it up; move head to other side of opponent's head; tripod up using head, free leg and free arm, work leg free using other leg, pass to side.

Leg Untangle Pass from Half Guard: Flatten opponent out, come to side with your back facing opponent and isolate his arm, grab his belt and pants, bring leg out to knee, switch hips and the direction you face, kick leg off and come to side

Armbar from Reverse Scarfhold: grab your own pant leg or belt to secure isolated arm, then using your other arm to push the trapped hand of the opponent away for the tap.

Stretch Out Leg Untangle Pass from Half Guard: Flatten opponent out, come to side with your back facing opponent and isolate his arm, grab his belt and pants, edge yourself backwards to create space for leg to escape past knee, switch hips and go to quarter guard, then go to mount.

Sparring was fine but it got worse as I got more tired. I got tapped by a decent white belt who got me in a head and arm triangle when I had him in lockdown. It was a good move by him, but I was too tired to defend it. On the plus side, it made me go home and look up escapes from arm triangles. 

Class 402...

A No Gi Beginners class where we went through one of the cook's favourite submission sequences:

Ten-finger Choke: Head and arm control from standing; bring outside hand in to push head down, head hand moves under throat for chin strap, chest on top of head of opponent, connect hands and pull up hands up and press chest down for tap.

High Elbow Guillotine: push head under arm pit, connect hands for the Marcellotine, and pull choking arm up for tap.

Arm In Guillotine: Non-choking arm goes under armpit of opponent and hands connect, use this control to take opponent to floor.

From here, move to side and punch arm through to create Neck Clamp and drive opponent over, then use Darce Choke or Anaconda to tap.

Ten-finger Choke, High Elbow Guillotine and Arm-in Guillotine also an option from Butterfly Guard, then sweep also an option using hooks. This leads to Neck Clamp, Darce Choke or Anaconda set-up.

King of the guard was fine. I played Full Guard and I fought to Hip Bump Sweep a bigger opponent, then held on for a few more rounds.

Sparring was OK. I tried to pace myself and did fine. In other news, I am also trying to learn the Imanara Roll.

Classes 399-401...

First up a No Gi Beginners Class where we went through some of the basic positions and escapes.

Bridge and Roll v Full Mount: Man in bottom is in full mount, grabs and traps one arm of the man on top in full mount, pull own feet up towards backside of opponent to create leverage, bridge up and roll opponent over so you end up in full mount.

Standing Guard Break v Full Guard: pin arm of opponent with both your hands and push it into the opponent and use it as a base to stand, foot on side of trapped arm can go closer to opponent, use nearest hand to break guard of opponent. 

Passing Legs v Opponent on Back: take nearest side leg of opponent and pass it over, drop down and use knee cut pass set up to pin leg, secure head and arm control then pass outside leg to knee cut leg and pass kneecut leg to other side of opponent, then come into mount.

Bridge v Armbar Set-up: Opponent goes to bridge, you go to s-mount and use his arm hooks to secure the opponent's arm, swap hands and use the other hand to base, leg over head of opponent, then sit back for armbar

Spider Web v Armbar: use spider web to prevent armbar if on bottom, use spider web arm to push leg of opponent back and come up to guard of opponent

Hip Bump Sweep to Full Mount

Sparring was OK. I am experimenting with half gaudy when play king of the guard. It is getting better and I am switching between full guard, half guard, lockdown and back takes when possible.

Next up was a No Gi Advanced Class. We did a lot of work on Quarter Guard and securing head and arm control to drive pressure into the head and neck of the opponent, then free the trapped leg using he other leg or bring knee of trapped leg to mat 

We also played with setting up a arm triangle from half guard top.

My favourite move of the day was the Ninja Roll. This went some like this:

Ninja Roll Top v Quarter Guard Bottom: opponent on bottom has quarter guard on man on top, move to the side so you are 90 degrees away from the opponent, use quarter guard foot as foot behind own knee in lockdown, use other foot to collect and undertook the legs of the opponent. The granby roll away from him towards his feet and come up into a 90 degree position. This offers the calf slicer or use triangle or lockdown to stretch opponent out and take back

Sparring was tiring. But it was ok. At some points I was just too tired and I fell for stuff I would not have fallen for if I was less knackered. But it was two 90-minute classes back-to back. i fiord I had a right to be tired.

Finally was a gi class working on some more basics: 

Dominating Side Control from Top: man on top drives knee into hip of opponent to prevent hip escape on one side, elbow on opposite side pinches in to prevent hip escape on the other way, switch to scarf hold then come back to side control but collect the arm of the opponent so it is isolated.

Leg Weave to Dominate Side Control from Top: once side control is established, the man on top can weave his arm through the legs of the opponent on the bottom and use this to drive his hip towards the floor. To escape from this, he has to kicks his legs out.

Arm Weave to Dominate Side Control from Top: once side control is established, the man on top can weave his arm through the arm of the opponent on the bottom and punch his fist to the floor and exert pressure in the form of a neck crank.

Attacks from Side Control from Top: Attack for the Americana by driving through horizontally in side control to stretch out the arm of the opponent, then link grips for Americana attack, opponent stretches his arm out to defend then attack for the straight arm lock, if he grabs his belt, push the arm up and place the head in-between, then attack for the kimura. 

Sparring was fine. It was pretty much a white belt class so I played defence for most of it. Pretty much everyone there was bigger and stronger so I focused on frame.

In other news, I have now done more than 400 classes at BJJ. Not bad for an old bloke who found it relatively late in life. 

Classes 397-398...

My final session of the year was a No-Gi Open Mat and I sparred with pretty much everyone and I felt like I did OK. My cardio was decent and I kept going long after it felt awful. I also hit a couple of baseball bat chokes, kimuras, guillotines and omoplatas, all of which I am trying to add to my game.

Fast-forward nine days and my first training session of 2020 and I felt slow and massively off the pace. I did some OK stuff and I feel like my guard passing is OK-ish, but I was largely not very good. 

On the plus side, my not-very-good at the start of 2020 is better than my good at the start of 2019. So reasons to be cheerful.