Classes 93 & 94...

Two classes in the same week!

The beginners class was all about avoiding guard and moving into side control and securing side control. For the man on the bottom, it was all about recovering guard.

The mixed class was all about guard passes and sweeping drills. 

I did OK in the sparring with my fellow white belts at the end of the class, but I fatigued quite badly in the last ten minutes.

More training and stamina needed methinks.

Things to remember: Off-balancing and hip escapes are basic tools. Drill them over and over again.

Class 92...

Today was an open-mat session. It was also my first class for about two weeks and my body felt it afterwards. 

We spent a while playing with a few no-gi hip throws, then I got to roll with one of my very good blue belt friends. I got nowhere near tapping him, but I did survive for lengthy periods until he finally got something locked in. I fell for a few triangle chokes that I didn't have enough time to escape from but I could have postured up in. 

I then got to roll with a relatively new white belt. This was quite a good experience because I was suddenly the senior belt and I knew what I was doing to escape his positions and launch my own attacks. I obviously didn't go crazy and spent some time showing him a few positional escapes. 

Then it was back to rolling with another very good blue belt, who was all over me. I did manage to defend myself for periods but he was just too slick and too strong. He did, however, show me how to increase the efficacy of a basic guard break by grabbing his belt line and rolling my knuckles into his stomach then driving the elbows into the pressure points inside his thighs.

Things to remember: React don't think; roll the knuckles into the opponents stomach to increase pressure on the pressure point in the opponent's thighs.

Classes 90 & 91...

This week it was an open-mat session followed by a beginners class. 

The open mat session was great fun as I spent some time doing some no-gi sparring, which I'm increasingly liking as there are no gi attacks to worry about and it's harder for an opponent to land handles on you. I'm also allowed to use wrist locks and leg locks so I get to play with more toys. 

I also used the session to pick the brains of a very helpful purple belt when it came to drilling guard breaks. I went through the three breaks that I use most commonly and he showed me another one that relies on just controlling one hip by applying huge downward pressure, then stepping back and cracking the legs open. The main lesson he emphasises, though was to always apply downward pressure on the opponent's hips. 

The beginners class was all about drilling guard passes and moving around a grounded opponent. The key move here was your right hand on the opponent's left knee and moving round to your right side, then pulling down the knee, moving the left hand to the stomach, moving the knee forward and dropping down into side control. 

Things to remember: Play with new guard break and remember to avoid opponent's legs when moving around the opponent's guard.

Class 89…

Tonight was an intermediate class and we worked on strategies for maintaining and breaking guard. 

Standing guard break from top in guard: grab opponent's hand, drag his hand to opposite side; stand up on side of grabbed hand; stand other leg up; switch hands and hold onto hand; then use free hand to push down on knee on safe side; pass knee over and secure side control with seatbelt control.

Sitting guard break from top in guard: grab belt, elbows in thighs of opponent on inside; knee in arse; other leg extended back to side and twist hips to open guard; then pass knee over and secure side control with seatbelt control.

Attacking opponent trying break guard bottom: secure sleeve control; one foot on hip with other leg wrapping round back of knee and going into sweep.

We then did some sparring and I was paired with somebody on the same belt level as me. He was stronger and faster than I was but I did OK. I was constantly defending but I escaped some pretty tricky positions and didn't get tapped. A minor victory. 

Things to remember: Utilise attacking options from both bottom and top; it pays to be proactive rather than reactive or 'Attack is the best form of defence'.

Class 88…

A beginners class and some work on off-balancing and closed guard positions.

The basic rule of defending your position on top in closed guard is maintaining good posture, with your weight balanced and one hand on the opponent’s gi and the other on his hip, with elbows tucked inside his legs, ready to break guard when the opportunity arises.

The man on the bottom who has guard has to collapse the man on the top’s posture to move or sweep him. This involves collapsing his arms at the elbows, confirming grips on his gi and using your legs to pull him forward.

One of the sweeps from this position involves grabbing one sleeve at the wrist and grabbing his opposite side trouser leg. The same side as the grabbed trouser leg sees your nearest leg chop into his side and your opposite leg plant on the floor to generate the leverage, then you use the wrist grip to collapse his other side and ensure he can’t post. The grip on the gi trousers helps move him over as you follow his trajectory and end up on top.

Another option is to open you guard and get your feet on his hips and, with sleeve control, off-balance the opponent and set up a sweep from there.

Things to remember: Off-balancing and attacking posture of opponent from guard; maintaining balance and posture from in guard.

Classes 86 & 87…

I double-banked two classes in one session today. I knew this would be hard on my body, but I figured if I’m going to do this and fulfill my ambition to compete next year, then a bit of altitude training in terms of body fatigue was no bad thing. And fatiguing it bloody well was…

The first was a beginners class in which we focused on securing a choke from the side with the opponent turtled and the aggressor in side control. This went something like this:

i) Reach over the shoulder of the opponent with your furthest hand and loosen his collar, then thread the nearest hand over his shoulder and underneath his neck, confirming the collar grip with your thumb deep into his collar at his carotid and four fingers outside.

ii) With your non-choking hand, grip his hand nearest you and stuff it between his legs.

iii) Kick your nearest-to-opponent leg out, then walk you other leg out and move your other leg out next. This tightens the choke until the opponent taps.

The defence from this sees the opponent bring his hands up to his neck to prevent the opponent confirming the choke grip.

The counter to this sees you turn 90 degrees from your opponent into a sort of side control and swim your hand near his head underneath to grab his furthest knee and your hand furthest away over to control his foot. With active toes you then drive into him, keeping control of the knee and the foot until you have secured your own knee closest to his hip to prevent him recovering guard. Then drive into him and pancake him out.

The second class was mainly sparring with good white belts or coloured belts.

We did start off with one warm-up drill for passing half-guard. In this, the trapped man:

i) Stood on the trapped leg.

ii) Stood on the non-trapped leg.

iii) Slid the trapped leg through onto the floor

iv) Turned the trapped leg 90 degrees so it is free.

v) Drive into the opponent.

It was then all sparring. I did OK against the other white belts and defended OK, then survived against a very tired blue belt. I also got to spar with a purple belt, who was astonishingly fluid. I lost count of the number of times he passed me or could have tapped me in a five-minute round.

But two classes, one after the other, is a sort of victory. And the plan is this is how I now train at BJJ at least once a week. It’s a plan, Stan.

Things to remember: Choke from side, defending the choke, the drill for escaping half-guard.

Grading...

My first BJJ grading and I went in with no expectations of getting anything. I also didn't know what the format was so I arrived early, warmed up and got my head in the right place.

But the grading was a presentation ceremony rather than the type of grading I'm used to, where you are tested then get the results at a later date. There was then an open mat session after the grading and the chance to roll with new people.

It was a very energising experience. Several of my friends who've really grafted changed belt colours and went from white to blue, while several senior belts I know were also promoted to the next colour up or got stripes.

I went in genuinely expecting nothing so I was delighted to get not one but two stripes on my white belt. My teacher did, however, tell me that I needed to get to more of the intermediate classes because, if I want to move up and get my blue belt, then he needs to see me spar, which is something we don't do in the beginner's classes.

Fortunately, I'm already on the case with this and I'm currently working out a new timetable to fit around my other commitments to ensure this happens. I'm also looking at competing in a few events next year, too, to make me really focus on my game.

It's taken me 84 classes over 22 months to get here. I need to do double that amount of classes in the next year alone to get to where I want to be. Time to commit properly methinks...

Class 85...

Another beginner's class focusing on defending knee on belly.

The key points to this were to bridge while using the nearest hand to push the knee and hip escape to the side. The hip escape, however, turns into a scissor escape as your bottom leg kicks under you body and your top leg spins over so you end up in the position for a single leg takedown as you drive into the opponent.

There was a variation of defending a choke from this position, which involved the opponent securing a grip on your collar and you bringing your hand to your ear so your elbow can apply pressure on his elbow.

I didn't get all the details of this variation but the hand position is similar to a lock I use in another martial art so I'll make a point of remembering this – and using it regularly as I struggle defending against chokes.

LESSON FROM TODAY: Scissor kick of legs to go into single leg takedown is key move. Allows you to switch from defence into attack. The choke defence allowing you to attack the elbow joint is useful.

Classes 83 & 84…

Two beginners classes this week and some good stuff at both. Also, on the exercise front, I’m no longer quite so awful at doing press-ups and can bang 20-30 out without worrying too much. It’s progress. Of sorts.

In the first class, we worked on getting the armbar from side control. The first involved prising the opponent’s arm from his body, then ensuring your legs are in position to fall back while taking the opponent’s arm with you. Key points here are being close to the opponent before dropping back and extending the hips to get the tap, and holding the opponent’s trouser leg so he can’t spin out.

The variation on this armbar is when the opponent defends. This sees you attack the same arm of the opponent but spin around and move to the opponent’s other side in three steps. Then, with your outside leg under his body and you inside leg over his head, attack the other arm that is caught up in the mix, before dropping back to secure the tap.

The third variation is a horrible neck choke. This sees the opponent defend the second armbar by holding onto his belt. An answer to this is to scoop the hand holding the trousers inside the elbow of the opponent’s grabbing-belt arm and also grab his belt with your palm facing up. You snake your other hand around his neck and grab his collar with four fingers out. Then bring your knee into play and apply pressure by pressing your knee against the back of his neck and pulling your hands in.

In the second class, it was all work about avoiding your opponent’s guard and we did various exercises about standing passes and preventing passes, preventing versus turtling or recovering guard from side control, and preventing versus turtling or recovering guard from north-south. Key points here are to control the escaping man by wedging your elbow to cut off one of his escape routes, and to trap one of the opponent’s arms using a kimura grip.

LESSON FROM TODAY: Bridge explosively to create the space to turtle or recover guard; and stay close to your work when applying armlocks.

Class 82...

A special seminar today with Jackson Souza, a multiple BJJ championship winner and one of the best brown belts in the world, who’s been teaching at our school for about a year and a half while living in London, competing in Europe and beyond, and adding more titles to his already impressive CV.

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.