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!’

Classes 288, 289 & 290...

Three classes and some good stuff in all three.

First up was a seminar with Sidney Silva, who taught a basic butterfly sweep that then transitioned into a bridge and roll escape for the swept man, which then ended in a foot lock.

In the second and third classes, we continued to work on sweeps from the bottom in half guard with a high frame. 

My favourite one of these involved the opponent collapsing the frame of the man on the bottom, then the bottom man attacking for an omoplata. Failing that the right arm and leg of the opponent becomes trapped and your right foot hooks on the inside thigh of the opponent's left leg, then you drop back and use the hook to lift him up and sweep him to the side he has no base.

I am starting to experiment with butterfly guard a lot, but I often get lazy and forget to keep the hooks active. I cannot afford to do this. 

I did OK in sparring but I went far too hard for too long and exhausted myself. I need to get better at retaining my frame to fend off the opponent and helping to conserve my energy. 

Things to remember: Keep butterfly hooks active; focus on frame retention.

Private Class No.18...

Today something new as I'm toying with the idea of adding a few no-gi classes into my BJJ studies next year. So we started with some basic positional stuff.

Pummelling: In an ideal world, you are looking for double underhooks on a standing opponent. But this rarely happens, so you generally want head control and bicep control with the opponent's head sandwiched between your head and arm. In terms of movement, this means you can drive the opponent to the side and expose a leg for the single leg takedown. You are also looking to deny the opponent inside space.

Attacks: collar chokes are out but armbars, triangles and omoplatas are good to use. Leg locks and wristlocks are also a decent option if you can catch them quickly enough.

Butterfly guard: is a good option for no-gi because it transfers quite easily from gi to no-gi. You can use most of the same attacks from butterfly and also use the overhook guard. You must keep hooks active, though.

Things to remember: Deny opponent inside space when pummelling; keep hooks active in butterfly guard.

Classes 285, 286 & 287...

Three morning classes in quick succession, which all focused on attacking from, escaping from and sweeping from half guard.

The half guard escape involved the man on the top grabbing collar and pant control at the bottom knee, then hopping to his feet and knee slicing.

The sweep involved the man on the bottom grabbing the knee control hand and sweeping the opponent onto the side he can't base. 

The takehomes from this were:
Retain a strong frame and stay on one hip if you are on the bottom defending the position. 
Break down the opponent frame and get him on his back if you are trying to break guard and pass.

Sparring was OK and I'm pretty much doing what I should be doing.

Private Class No.17...

We worked on the following:

i) Wrist lock from standing collar grab.

ii) Butterfly sweep with emphasis on driving off base leg and kicking hook foot. Variation when they defend by tapping the knee.

iii) Butterfly arm drag with emphasis on attacking back and pulling opponent into you.

Another excellent class. I am adding some more basics to my game.