Class 74…

A beginners class taught by the MMA pro at the gym, who’s a purple belt, very dynamic and makes everything look pretty effortless.

He also kept to the theme of the past few weeks with the armbar, omoplata and triangle drill.

Beforehand, though, we did a series of basic exercises designed to improve passing the opponent’s guard. These involved the opponent with his back on the floor and his knees up and you grabbing his gi at the knees to pin his legs and moving to the side, then returning to the centre and moving to the other side. There were a few variation on this, with placing one hand on the floor, then diving over one of the opponent’s flat legs while diving under his raised leg. It sounds simple but it was pretty tough work.

The bulk of the class, however, was spent drilling the trinity of armbar, opponent escapes by pulling his arm out, omoplata on the other arm, opponent postures up, rise hips and chop leg down for leg triangle choke.

I could quite happily spend a lot of time doing this. It’s strong basics I need and these are pretty basic and pretty necessary.

LESSON FROM TODAY: Same as before: practise basic drills and ensure you keep good grips.

Class 73...

A relatively light warm-up of squats, press-ups, hip swivels and triangles today, and it was only when I got to about the 25 press-ups mark that I realised I wasn't quite as bad at them as I was a year ago. A small victory.

We then did a similar drill to the one we'd done a week before, where the person on the bottom has the man on top in full guard, then opens his guard and attacks for an armbar, a leg triangle and an omaplata.

Key points I'd missed on this in the previous session were:
* Maintain keeping strong grips on the attacked arms at all times.
* Using the knee from open guard to move inside the opponent's chest then sweeping it out to remove one arm so the trapped arm is isolated for the triangle.
* Using the free leg from North-South like a pendulum to help raise yourself to finalise position an upright position to complete the omaplata.

A good class doing the type of basic drills I need to repeat and keep repeating.

LESSON FROM TODAY: Same as before: practise basic movement drills and ensure you keep good grips.

Class 72...

My first class back after two weeks away and a tough-ish warm-up of belt jumps and squats for ten minutes.

We then went into a drill where the person on the bottom has the man on top in full guard then attacks for an armbar; the opponent pulls his arm out of danger so the man on the bottom rolls to north-south and attacks the opponent's other arm with an omoplata; the opponent postures up with one arm still in and the man on the bottom attacks for a leg triangle; the man on top then puts both his arms in and the sequence begins again.

Key points from this involved keeping strong grips on the attacked arms and the opponent to prevent him from escaping or rolling out; and collapsing the opponent's posture to aid attacking and moving around him.

A good class and good to be back.

LESSON FROM TODAY: Practise basic movement drills and ensure you keep good grips.

Class 71...

My final class before a two-week holiday was a beginners class working on securing leg control and avoiding the opponent's legs.

It was also a chance to take stock: I'm enjoying these classes and slowly learning a few bits and pieces. My teachers and fellow students are also encouraging, but I need to start making serious progress so I'm thinking about grading. Even if it's only getting a stripe or two on my white belt, it will give me an impetus to train and a goal and I tend to better organised and driven if I'm goal-orientated.

There's a grading in October so I'm going to aim to train for and attend that. So here goes. Time to attend more classes and train harder...

LESSON FROM TODAY: Work out a training routine for the next few months and stick to it.

Classes 68, 69 & 70...

I've had very little spare time of late so BJJ classes have been few and far between. The three I've managed to fit in, however, were all beginners classes and good fun.

In the first class, we worked on a scissor sweep from open guard. This went like this:
i) Opponent is in your closed guard so secure a grip on his left lapel with your left hand, then open your guard and pull him towards you.
ii) Move up onto your right hip and collapse your right leg so it's horizontal on the floor.
iii) Hook your left foot under his right armpit and pull him to the right as your left leg kicks him in that direction and follow him over.
iv) The opponent is swept and you end up in guard, mount or side control, depending on what you do afterwards.

We then added a Kimura lock to this when the opponent uses his left hand to brace himself.

The second and third classes were all about collapsing the opponent and wrestling for top position. Both classes emphasised the importance of using your head to drive the opponent back and getting control of your opponent's head to make controlling him easier.

There was also emphasis on having 'mobile hips' and using a leg control where you grab the opponent's bottom leg near the knee to pin his leg to the ground to make passing easier. The importance of 'active toes' to drive through an opponent was also emphasised. And we did more work on establishing underhooks.

LESSON FROM TODAY: Underhook, mobile hips and active toes.

Class 67...

Today was an open-mat session and I was cannon fodder for most of it as I rolled with a high-level brown belt, two blue belts and a white belt.

The bad news was that I was way out of my class against every single opponent but the good news was I'm still starting to do the basic stuff, like defend myself and hip escape to recover guard, or turtle and go to my knees when I'm in trouble, or keep my arms together and not allow them to get isolated.

I even managed a few sweeps and reversals, but for most of the class I was just defending. Some days will be like this, though. It's part of the learning curve.

In other news, though, Jackson Souza, a visiting brown belt from Brazil who trains at our gym, won the World Championships last week in Brazil. I'm delighted for him. He's a tiger waiting to pounce on the competition mat, taking his time and stalking his prey until he gets the opening he wants, and his training work ethic is frightening, but he's also kind, patient and encouraging as a teacher. Oooos Jackson!

LESSON FROM TODAY: Hip escape, hip escape, hip escape.

Class 66...

A Wednesday afternoon session and a bit of a test-run for me to see how badly injured my injured knee is. I survive the usual warm-up of running, falling, ab exercises and press-ups then it's onto technique.

Today we're working from side control and escaping from side control. Before we go into specific drills, however, we have a bit of a reminder on what we should be doing:

If we're on the bottom in side control, we should be using the hand nearest the opponent's hips to block the hip to prevent the opponent from going to north-south. The other hand should be gripping the shoulder or, even better, securing an underhook. The knee nearest the opponent's hips should be elevated and resting on the other leg to form a barrier to ensure he can't go to full mount.

If we're on the top in side control, we should be closing the space and driving our knees into the opponent to shut down any wriggle room. The elbow nearest the hips should be tucked in to prevent wriggle room. The hand nearest the head should be trying to isolate the arm with the elbow making a frame by the head.

The opening technique was a hip escape from side control. This involved bridging and hip escaping to get the knee in, then using the elbow to move the the opponent's head to create the space to drive the leg further in and get half guard or even full guard.

The second technique was a hip escape and a drive forward to secure a single leg. This essentially involved the same hip escape and elbow movement but with an underhook. You then switch your legs so you come into turtle and drive forwards into the opponent.

We then did some technique sparring with the man on the bottom defending against the man on top attacking. My defence isn't great but I experimented a bit with spider guard and had some grasping and not particularly competent success so I may play with this a bit more.

In sparring, I did OK and my defence was decent and I even got a few submissions in with another white belt. A good class, even if my knee felt it afterwards.

LESSON FROM TODAY: Bridge and hip escape, bridge and hip escape, bridge and hip escape.