Class 59...

Today was a beginners class and I was raring to go. Then five minutes into stretching out before the class started I got sudden chest pains and struggled to breathe.

It may have been an allergy attack and it may have been some over-stretched or strained muscles. But it hurt and was a tad worrying so class 59 was curtailed before it even started.

Rest and recovery time...

Class 58...

Today was an open mat class so it was very much an odds and ends sort of session.

I spent some time with two other white belts doing guard escape and retention exercises. I'm not very good at either of these yet but I am trying to do the basics, such as control the opponent's legs and secure good grips when trying to pass and securing grips then trying to trap the opponent's legs when attacking from the ground.

I then spent some time sparring and got smashed by one much better white belt but held my own with a much more experienced one. I defended myself from his attacks for some considerable time but his better technique and my fatigue eventually won through.

I then had a roll with two good blue belts and got ruined by one very explosive and fast-moving blue belt who emphasised fighting for grips and not surrendering position at the start. He was also very good at using his legs to strip any grips I'd managed to secure.

I then had a roll with another blue belt who kept getting his foot onto one of my hips to unbalance me when I was struggling to stabilise my base in full the open guard.

It was a very tough class with no victory of any description in sparring but at least I'm trying to do the right things, like recovering guard, or bridging when I'm mounted, or breaking guard when I'm trapped, and defending bad positions when I'm under attack.

I still have a long way to go before I'm competent at even the most basic level of BJJ, though. But there's no rush...

LESSON FROM TODAY: Fight for grips to pass the opponent's guard at the start; learn to use your legs like your hands.

Class 57...

My first class back after a week off and another guest black belt teacher from Brazil.

After the usual warm-up, we started out in closed guard and applied an armbar (right hand secures opponent's right arm and drags it across his body, left knee blocks opponent's right elbow and left arm reaches into collar and collapses opponent's posture, then left arm pushes opponent's head and left leg comes over the opponent's head to complete the armbar), which the person in guard defends by grabbing his bicep and stacking the opponent.

From here, the opponent on the bottom switches hands so the armbar is secured with the left hand hand and the right hand reaches underneath the opponent's legs and grabs opponent's right leg. The person in guard then stretches his opponent out and has the choice of either sweeping his opponent down and finishing the armbar in side control or sweeping him down and moving into mount.

There was also a variation on this technique where the armbar attempt was blocked when the second leg comes across from the opponent in guard. The technique here involved moving the closed guard further up the opponent's back and letting the opponent stand, then capturing his same-side leg and arm by wrapping his leg then grabbing the sleeve of his gi so both posts on one side are taken out of the equation. You then collapse the opponent into an omoplata or collapse him then stretch him out and roll him over you by dragging his light leg over you.

I remain hazy on the details of the latter techniques but the principles seem to be based on collapsing your opponent's posture, switching grips to secure the post leg while keeping his posture collapsed via his arm and your leg pressure, then switching the hips to create the momentum to move the opponent and reverse the positions to get the submission.

In sparring, we did an exercise where the man on the bottom had to either submit or sweep the man in closed guard, while the man in closed guard had to escape guard and pass into side control or full mount. I was paired with two newish white belts and did better than hold my own, even though one was physically much stronger than me.

When it was open sparring, I was paired with a very good white belt and, rather than surrendering closed guard, I fought for the opening position, shot a single leg and secured side control before eventually turning a holding position into a submission. Sadly I cranked this on harder than I anticpated and caused him some discomfort. He ws OK, although I need to remember to control my strength in dangerous positions.

But it was a minor victory with some lessons of sorts starting to be learnt about fighting for a dominant opening position.

LESSON FROM TODAY: Use the armbar attack as an opening gambit then have the sweep options to back it up when it is defended; continue to fight for a dominant opening position.

Class 56...

A tough class today but a very good one as it mainly involved exercises and drills about passing the guard.

We spent a lot of time on an exercise where the bottom man had to get a standing opponent into his guard or sweep him, while the standing man had to pass the man on the bottom's open guard then get into side control or full mount. The standing man's job was to bypass the man on the bottom's legs and, even though I knew to do this I needed leg control and I needed to make sure I operated at a safe distance, I found it quite tough trapping the opponent's legs together and passing without getting caught. When I was on the bottom I found it even harder to trap my opponents and get any form of grips or control.

This is a very basic thing and I really struggled today but it's something I obviously need to work at because if I end up in the guard of an opponent who is in any way more experienced than me then I'm in trouble as I can't stabilise my base for long enough and I invariably get swept. So avoiding the guard is something I now need to work on alongside sometimes accepting guard then working my way out of it.

Sparring was quite relaxed and I did OK against more experienced people and I managed to sweep then get into side control against a decent white belt. I'm also starting to connect my elbow and knee and getting up onto one hip to try to sweep and recover guard when I'm in trouble, but it was essentially a day of limited success and heavy toil. But that's OK. Some days will be like this and I'll have worse days than this. But I just need to keep turning up...

LESSON FROM TODAY: Practise, practise and practise again basic guard breaks and basic guard passes.

Class 55...

Today was an open mat session and first up I was paired with the very good white belt I had a particularly gruelling roll with on Monday.

We kept matters quite gentle but he was curious as to why I readily accepted entering somebody's closed guard rather than fighting for position or passing the guard at the start by controlling the opponent's legs or posture. I explained to him that it was something of an intentional tactic at the moment because I wasn't yet good enough to avoid the guard of anyone who was more experienced than me and because it also forced me to work on stabilising my base while under attack, which meant I had to get used to breaking guard. I demonstrated my two quite poor guard escapes (posture up, move back and break then posture up and commit both arms under the opponent's legs) then he very helpfully showed me two guard escapes.

These went something like this:
Guard escape from in closed guard of opponent: hands get wrist control on opponent and arms and elbows cage the hips with head on chest/stomach of opponent; up onto your toes and sprawl out and push backward to break the guard; then pin one knee and move to side control.

Guard escape from half guard:
Guard escape from half guard on top: hands getting wrist control on opponent and arms and elbows caging the hips and head on chest/stomach of opponent; up onto your toes and sprawl out and push backwards; then wrap your arms around the opponent's legs and squeeze them together and use one hand to push his knee down and break his half guard; then pin one knee and move to side control.

I then rolled with a blue belt I've never met before and I held my own for some time while in his guard. At one point I even managed to sweep him and secure side control but his movement was very slick. I did manage to recover half-guard from a mounted position on a few occasions, too.

I then rolled with a blue belt I know quite well who's very good and he tapped me a few times, but I managed to hold on and defend myself against a choke and an armbar when I was in real trouble. His movement and knowledge is far superior to mine, though, so holding on and defending for any length of time is something I consider a minor victory. We also worked on a few sweeps, which was very helpful.

Last up was a roll with a purple belt who's very good. On the plus side I managed to defend myself against his chokes for a good while and this is something I'm usually quite weak on. But I couldn't break his guard and every time I tried to use both hands to get some control on him I was under threat from something yet again. I managed to hold on for what seemed like a long time and defend myself but it was always inevitable that at some point I'd move somewhere bad or do something that exposed me to an attack I couldn't defend and that's pretty much what happened. Very sweetly he did take me to one side at the end of the class and showed me how to do the guard break I'd been unsuccessfully trying against him during our roll.

But a good class and lots learnt. I feel like a few things are starting to sink in and I'm now doing some of the basic stuff (keeping both arms together and not allowing one arm to get isolated, connecting knees and elbows to form a defensive wall when I'm on the bottom, hip escaping to at least try to recover guard, etc) at least some of the time.

LESSON FROM TODAY: Remember to use your knee and arm to create a defensive frame against an opponent on top; practise, practise and practise again basic guard breaks and basic guard passes.

Class 54...

A particularly gruelling class today that started off by focusing on drills designed to pass the guard.

All three drills involved gripping the opponent's gi pants and knees to secure leg control and moving swiftly around to bypass the legs and avoid getting stuck in the guard of your opponent... so you end up in a position where you can drop down into side control. These had to be done at speed and needed to be in a regular rhythm and your feet needed to operate in unison. I found this really tough.

We then went into a sparring drill where the person on the bottom had to catch his standing opponent in half-guard while the standing man had to pass and drop into side control. We worked our way though a line of opponents, then when we came back to our original opponent it was time to swap... so the person on the bottom then became the person standing and had to work his way down the line again. I did OK at passing but I sucked when it came to defending from a seated position. These drills need much more work.

When paired up for sparring we had different goals: in the first five-minute round I had to submit my much better white belt opponent while he had to score a certain number of points. I held on and just managed to deprive him of the number of points he needed. In reality he battered me and passed and swept me far too easily but when I was about to lose I really kicked in and got some stubborn defence in. A victory of sorts.

In the next five-minute round I got utterly booted by a very good white belt whose hip and general mobility was superb, then a spar with a very big purple belt saw me gently but comprehensively out-classed. I did manage to nearly sink an arm triangle in at one point but he saw the danger coming and it quickly passed as he escaped. On the plus side I am now trying to hip escape and recover guard much more than I used to but I'm still not fluid enough at it.

I also had a roll with a new white belt and just relaxed and got into the positions. I did gently try a few single legs from the knees and these came off. I even remembered to put my head in the correct position and grab the opponent's seated leg and pull it through to help establish side control. It was a nice end to a very demanding but excellent class.

But here are some things I had underlined today:
i) I'm still not connecting the knee and elbow enough when I'm defending myself on my back but I'm now aware of this and I am at least fighting to get onto a hip when mounted so I can start the process of recovering guard.
ii) The very friendly and very good visiting brown belt encouraged me to keep knee and leg control when I'm passing guard. Again, this is something I should know but it's tough to remember when you're really tired.
iii) The purple belt gave me a good tip on defending when the kimura is locked in and that is to bury your elbow in your hip so it makes it much harder for the opponent to yank your attacked arm out and complete the submission.

LESSON FROM TODAY: Remember to use your knee and arm to create a defensive frame against an opponent on top; controlling the knees and legs of the opponent makes guard passing much easier.

Class 53...

Today's class started with quite a light warm-up but the rest of it was quite demanding as we were drilling basic control positions from half guard and this was tough.

We were split into threes and we did two sets of three five-minute rounds so the first guy in the middle essentially stayed there and on the bottom for the full five minutes while the other two people alternated in attacking him from half guard. The second guy of the three then went in for five minutes and so on. The winner was the guy who secured head control or who swept or submitted his opponent.

I was OK at the attacking part of this... once I figured out that head control was the thing we were drilling and once we'd established this it made sweeping or submitting or escaping guard much easier. But my defending wasn't great and too often I'd allow myself to be in a bad position before really trying to act or escape, which was then obviously too late.

It was a great exercise, though, as it exposed a key thing I need to work on: defending a neutral position and not surrendering it too easily for a worse one. One thing one of my opponents did was use his head to push down to help him secure head and arm control whne he was attacking, while the other one was very good at getting his knee and arm between me when I was attacking and using this as a frame to defend himself.

In sparring I go paired with two newish people and I suddenly found that I had been making some progress as I relaxed and quite gently rolled and just let them put themselves into bad positions, which allowed me to apply a guillotine choke from half-guard, an armbar from mount, a kimura from full guard, an Americana from side mount and two kimura sweeps from open guard in quick succession.

Obviously this was no type of victory as it was against relatively inexperienced people and I wasn't going out to defeat people but just to see what happened, but it maybe also means I'm not quite so inexperienced and not quite as bad as I think when rolling with more experienced students and higher belts. And that's good to know as it means I'm not totally wasting my time doing this...

LESSON FROM TODAY: Fight for head control; use your knee and arm to create a defensive frame against an opponent on top; use your head to pressure an opponent down.