Classes 52 & 53...

The first class was another session with Rodrigo Cavaca and continued the guard-passing ideas of his previous class, but this time using similar set-ups to get sweeps. A lot of the finer details were lost on me but the two sweeps I remembered went something like this:

Ankle grab sweep: You are on the floor with your opponent standing over you; use your left leg to trap his standing right leg by hooking it on the outside; then using your left arm, secure his trapped leg by grabbing the gi pants at the ankle with your hand placed inbetween your legs; using your right leg stretch his left leg by pushing at the knee; then switch you hands so your right hand secures his trapped left leg and your left hand secures the gi sleeve on his left arm; then extend your right leg and drag his right arm down so he collapses and you go into side control.

Ankle grab kick up the arse sweep: there was also a version of this sweep that used a similar set-up and grips where you elevate the opponent by getting your right leg under his groin. The main point of both sweeps, however, was to trap and take your opponent’s posts out so he couldn’t rebalance himself when you got him moving.

We also did a sparring drill where the bottom person had to score points or submit the standing person and I did OK in this and survived a while with a few more senior belts and even passed a purple belt. This was clearly down to his fatigue more than any skill on my part, though.

I also had a brief roll with one of the visiting brown belts and he encouraged me to try and pass the guard at the start rather than let myself be trapped in it and have to fight my way out. I realised that rather stupidly this was a simple tactic I'd been neglecting as I've been intentionally putting myself in bad positions to experiment with guard breaks and escapes and the like.

The second class was run by the visiting brown belt and he demonstrated a way to avoid getting trapped in your seated opponent’s guard and pass into side control when you are standing. This went something like this:

Knee crunch guard pass: Your opponent is on his back with his feet on your hips and his hands on your gi sleeves as you stand; keep your feet back to avoid getting them trapped and keep your posture up; move your hands so your hands are on the inside of your opponent’s thighs with your elbows pinching the opponent’s legs together; step backwards until the tension from you opponent’s legs goes; then collapse your opponent’s knees to one side and keep a grip of the opponent’s gi pants; then drop into side control and secure the position.

Knee split guard pass to back: Your opponent is on his back with his feet on your hips and his hands on your gi sleeves as you stand; keep your feet back to avoid getting them trapped and keep your posture up; move your hands so your hands are on the inside of your opponent’s thighs with your elbows pinching the opponent’s legs together; step backwards until the tension from you opponent’s legs goes; then collapse one of your opponent’s knees to one side and keep a grip of the opponent’s gi pants; secure the dropped knee by bringing you knee through; then drop into back control and secure the position.

Knee split guard pass to side: Your opponent is on his back with his feet on your hips and his hands on your gi sleeves as you stand; keep your feet back to avoid getting them trapped and keep your posture up; move your hands so your hands are on the inside of your opponent’s thighs with your elbows pinching the opponent’s legs together; step backwards until the tension from you opponent’s legs goes; then collapse one of your opponent’s knees to one side and keep a grip of the opponent’s gi pants; secure the dropped knee by bringing you knee through; then drop through into side control and secure the position.

We then sparred for a while and this was tough. I held my own for a while and escaped some bad positions but I was too fatigued in the final round and just got tapped all over the place. A fab class, though.

LESSON FROM TODAY: Never surrender and just accept the opponent's guard as a starting point; always try to pass on the outside.

Class 51...

A real treat today and a dinner-time class with visiting instructor and former BJJ World Champion Rodrigo Cavaca.

After the usual warm-up routine, we got straight into drills about passing and defending guard with one player seated and the other on his feet. Key points emphasised here were always connecting elbows to knees to close the space down, and making yourself a compact unit to not allow the opponent a place to secure grips, plus distancing feet if you are attacking to avoid the opponent catching them and trapping your opponent's feet if you are sitting.

We then worked on a guard pass where the standing player moves from in front of his opponent into North-South control. This went something like this:
i) Pick a side you're going to attack and place your left hand on the gi trouser leg at the ankle of the opponent's right side.
ii) With your right hand pin his hip and apply pressure with both hands to secure the opponent in position. Remember to keep your posture up and you legs at a safe distance.
iii) Then move past his legs to the right side of the opponent. Keep applying the pressure and keep the grips in place, then step your right leg in front of your left and move your left leg out so you've moved 180 degrees to the opponent's head from his feet.
iv) Now drop down into North-South and remove the grips and secure the position.

We then worked a variation of this same pass but where the hand on the hip secures the opponent's collar on the left side and you use these two handles to collapse the opponent. This went something like this:
i) Pick a side you're going to attack and place your left hand on the gi trouser leg at the ankle of the opponent's right side.
ii) With your right hand, secure a grip on his left-hand gi collar. Remember to keep your posture up and you legs at a safe distance while pressuring down.
iii) Collapse the seated opponent by pulling down with your right hand to collapse his posture and dragging your left hand on the floor towards your right so the opponent effectively curls into a foetal position. As this happens you use the momentum created to move to your right to secure his back.

This was then adapted to give attacking options: 
iv) When you have him curled up and you are in position, prop your right knee up against his back to prevent him moving.
v) Secure an over-under seatbelt control by driving your left hand under his neck and your right hand under his armpit so you have an underhook nearest you. Use this to secure the position.
vi) Move you left arm from under his neck and prop his head on your knee and trap it between you left arm and knee. Grab the opponent's right arm at the wrist, then grab your wrist with you right arm to secure kimura control.
vii) From here, you posture up to secure the kimura control, then drop you right leg over and pull him backwards so you have his back and one hook in with your right leg. Then fight to secure the other hook with your left leg.

We then did another passing and defence drill where the seated player had to score points or successfully take guard to win and the oncoming standing player had to pass guard or score points to win.

We then went onto sparring where one of my blue belt friends caught me again and again in basic submissions. On the plus side I knew what was going on and had half an idea on how to defend myself, but he was just too fast and the submissions were too fast. But he's very good. I then got to roll with another blue belt and fell for one choke but managed to defend myself and my position for the rest of the time.

Another great class.

LESSON FROM TODAY: Keys to passing guard include posture, commitment, and limiting the opponent's ability to move by pinning his limbs

Class 50...

An open mat session today and I made a return to sparring and got tapped all over the place. I forgot to do basic stuff like keep my arms together and defend collar chokes and keep things tight and use my weight properly.

But it was a good class and I managed to hold my own with a very strong white belt for some of the time and I also had a roll with a very helpful purple belt, who encouraged me to keep hip-escaping and try to recapture half-guard then guard when I was mounted.

I also managed my first sweep from the bottom in half-guard today and I even turned an armbar into an omoplata at one point. And I actually meant to do them! So even though I got tapped all over the place I had a few moments of success.

But with recent injuries and a month away from sparring it was just to be back on the mat and rolling. Very happy.

LESSON FROM TODAY: Improving at sparring takes time. Don't worry about tapping. It's how you learn.

Class 49...

Today was a beginners' class. The warm-up wasn't too bad so either the instructor was feeling generous or my strength and stamina are improving. We then worked on two techniques.

The first was an armlock from closed guard which went something like this:
i) The opponent sits in your closed guard and postures up. Break his posture using your guard or by collapsing his arms at the elbows.
ii) Using your right arm, get an underhook and rotate his arm and lock it in place so your arm can drop pressure on his fully extended elbow. Use your left hand to push the opponent's head away. Drop your head onto his hand/wrist to help lock his arm in place. Ensure everything is locked up.
iii) Hip escape onto your right hip and bring you left leg over so your knee is tucked to prevent his head coming forward and breaking your position. Then apply the armlock using both hands to get the tap.

The variation from this is moving into an omoplata. This goes something like this:
i-iii) These steps are the same.
v) Take his arm and use it to 'wipe your arse' or place it on your right buttock so it's bent in an Americana armlock position.
vi) Then bring out the right leg under the opponent and sit out and up so you figure four your legs together with his arm trapped inbetween. Hold his back with you left arm and lean forward to apply the lock.

LESSON FROM TODAY: Keep everything tight when trapping limbs; keep working on hip escaping.

Class 48...

A new year and a not-too-promising start thanks mainly to an ongoing hamstring injury. I still, however, braved a beginners class as I figured there was more control in this environment and therefore less chance of re-injuring myself.

We started with the usual warm-up but my new year campaign of doing press-ups in the morning is obviously helping my arm strength as this wasn’t too bad at all. We also did some movement drils to simulate passing the guard and avoiding the oponent re-establishing guard.

We then worked a guard break, which went something like this:

i) You are caught in your opponent’s closed guard so posture up and place your right hand on his chest and your left hand on his belt or trousers to frame. Note: keep elbow in tight to the inside of his thigh so he can’t collapse your frame by grabbing the back of your gi at the elbow.

ii) Then with your right hand, grab his right hand and pull it across his body and start to stand by placing your left foot on the floor.

iii) Fully stand up by standing on both feet and drawing your left leg back so it’s out of reach. Also change your grip by grabbing his trousers at the waist band. The opponent will grab your right leg as it’s now closest to him. Fully extend backwards using your arms against his thighs and his own waist line to break his guard as you step backwards.

iv) Use your right hand to break his final grip on your right leg then change your controlling grips on his waist to grabbing his gi at the knees and push back using his knees for leverage.

v) Then jump around his broken guard either side and drop down to establish side control.

We then worked on a variation of this technique where the man on the bottom rolls the would-be guard-breaker into an omoplata. This went something like this:

i-iv) Exactly the same.

v) Grab his other ankle and let him bring his hand down to break the grip. When he does the bottom man forgets about the leg and switches his grips to grabs the grabbing hand with both hand.

vi) The leg nearest his arm wraps around as the other foot goes his hip. The foot on the hip collapses the opponent’s posture while the other leg kicks over and drives the opponent’s head to the mat while locking his shoulder in an omoplata. It is key to move onto your hip to generate this momentum.

vii) To secure the position you grab his belt or drop your arm and your weight on his back so he cannot roll out. The bring the loose leg back and confirm the positon. The lean forward to over-rotate the rotator cup at the elbow for the tap.

Lesson from today: Basic drills on movement and hip movement are key. Keep working on them. 

Thoughts on BJJ Year One...

Several years ago I promised myself BJJ was something I was going to study at some point and in 2012 I made it happen.

I may have only made 47 classes and got in about 65 hours of total mat time, but I can see this is something I'll stay with and I've already worked out how I can attend double that amount of classes in 2013 without compromising the other martial art I study or jeopardising any other commitments.

Later this year I'd also like to compete so I'm including a regular schedule of press-ups, sit-ups and neck-strengthening exercises. It's not much but a little a few times every week will add up when coupled with the other training I'm doing.

I learnt lots of techniques and bits of techniques in class in 2012 but the main BJJ principles I learnt were:
i) Position before submission. It speaks for itself but there's no point applying a slick joint lock if your opponent is not pinned and can move before you apply it.
ii) Mobile hips. Lots of things happen through the hips in BJJ, from setting up armbars and triangles, to escaping mount and re-establishing guard, to sweeping. Good hip mobility creates leverage and is a key to success in BJJ. Also, in a related point, never be flat on your back. Ever. This is a bad position. Always get up onto a hip and create space and fight for space to apply leverage.
iii) Isolated arms. In sparring don't allow your arms to get isolated. An isolated arm can be trapped and can be used to choke you. When you are battling for position both arms must operate together and either be inside an opponent's guard or outside an opponent's guard. This simple rule makes you a less easy target for all manner of bad stuff.
iv) Posture. When in your opponent's guard, you want to be posturing up to help escape. If you have an opponent in your guard, you want his posture collapsed. And remember the elbow gi pull to collapse a locked elbow. This is a goodie.
v) Weight. Make sure the opponent is carrying your weight when you are on top in any position. This makes it harder for him to control and move you. Use your weight.
vi) Grip. Grip fighting and securing handles is very important. I need to learn more about this but grip-strengthening is something I can always work on by myself.
vii) Kuzushi. This is the judo theory of off-balancing and it's used a lot in the other martial art I study and it's invaluable in BJJ, too. If you understand how kuzushi works then it can help you a lot in the takedown, sweeping or wrestling part of BJJ.

All in all it's been a fab year. Roll on 2013...

Class 47...

Today a class with a new teacher who was guesting while our regular teacher was training in Brazil and visiting his family.

Today's class started with three escapes from North-South:
i) Step out with left leg and and shoulder bump the opponent under the armpit then take the back.
ii) Jump knees back and shoot backwards to create space and distance and escape.
iii) Drive forward between the opponent's legs and posture up then use both hands on one leg and throw opponent down.

We then did some work on an armdrag from seated butterfly guard with the opponent on his knees. The details of this remain sketchy but it went something like this:
i) Left hand secures the opponent's gi at the right wrist and the right hand secures the back of the opponent's right arm under the bicep.
ii) Then step out on the left leg and post with the left arm and use the leverage of you moving to push the opponent forward with your right hand into the space you have just created.
iii) Keep the right foot hook in and close down the space so you are applying pressure with your head on his shoulder to secure the position.

I was carrying a shoulder injury so I didn't get the chance to spar but the third North-South technique (nicknamed the Submarine) will stay with me.

LESSON FROM TODAY: Remember the Submarine if you are on the bottom in North-South.