29/01/2012 - Teaching (Open Mat)

Teaching #039
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 29/01/2012

Reading the forums and Facebook, it sounds like the UK BJJ contingent at the Euros has been getting some incredible results. Top UK brown belt competitor Luke Costello didn't just win his weight category, he won gold in the absolute as well. More results have been coming in steadily over on the EFN, so I look forward to hearing more. In terms of the GB Bristol team, there were some great results there too: Geeza won the silver medal in the ultra heavy brown belt division, an age division or two below his usual, which makes it even more impressive. Well done Geeza!

As Geeza was busy winning medals, I ran the open mat today. That's the easiest class to run, as all you have to do is go through the warm-up, pair people up, make sure nobody crashes into each other, then stretch out at the end. It also meant I could get in a few rolls myself, which is always nice. I was intending to try and work some spider guard sweeps, as that's what I'm teaching next week, but once again found myself working from top half guard much of the time.

That seems to be my go-to position at the moment (or at least it is when I'm sparring someone around my size), but still plenty of kinks to work out. I forgot to follow my own advice at one point, when I went for the inverted half guard pass, but didn't take enough care to prevent the recounter. Mike got a smooth sweep on me off that, which is a good reminder to always be ready for them flipping you over as you try to pass to side control.

I sort of got a sloppy roll back sweep from half guard, after trying to scissor, but I think I had a kilo or two on my training partner (amazingly, there are a few people slightly smaller than me at the club), so I probably wouldn't have got it without that weight advantage. It's definitely something I want to practice more often in sparring, especially as that will mean I can teach the sweep much more effectively.

I also ran the nogi open mat, which was significantly smaller. Almost everybody had left, leaving just Ben, Martin and Dónal. Due to the tiny numbers, I used a specific sparring set-up I quite like from previous lessons: one person on the mat for six minutes in one position, with the other two cycling in whenever that one person achieves their goal. I started it off with the person on the mat staying under mount for six minutes, then guard (only closed or open, rather than getting into half) and finally back mount.

I didn't spar nogi myself, as no-gi is not something I normally enjoy. I never go to the nogi class, unless I'm needed there to run it. However, I was thinking about nogi recently, because I see that veteran nogi coach Nathan 'Levo' Leverton is codifying his own nogi system. He's calling it 'Leverage Submission Grappling' (nice play on his surname ;D), with ranks, affiliation options, seminars etc. Although I've never met Levo in person, he's earned my respect from the posts he's made on the internet over the years, which are always insightful, mature and intelligent. So, despite the fact I'm not a big fan of training nogi, I'm intrigued to see what Levo has come up with and how it develops. The new LSG website is here.

26/01/2012 - Teaching (Maintaining Open Guard)

Teaching #038
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 26/01/2012

There are three main variants of spider guard, all of which require you to grab both sleeves: this guard isn't commonly used in nogi for that reason, though it is possible to adapt. You will also normally have your feet curled around their biceps. For the most common variant, put your feet on their same side biceps, pulling their sleeves towards you, then push one leg straight, while keeping the other leg bent. This is intended to break their posture, keeping them off balance.

That is true whether or not they are standing up. There are several basic spider guard sweeps, which begin by pushing one arm out to the side, that work in either situation. You also don't have to push your feet into both biceps. There are numerous spider guard variations, such as pushing into one arm while also hooking behind their same side leg, or pushing into an arm and also holding a collar, which can set you up nicely for a triangle or omoplata.

A second option is to use your knees rather than your feet. While you could use this when they stand, it is more typical to do so when they're sat in your guard, given the obvious point that you've got a much smaller tool to work with when using your knees rather than the full length of your legs. The same sweeps can work here too, except that you're shoving their arm out to the side with your knee rather than your foot.

In nogi, you could grab around the back of their arms, just behind the elbow. In gi, you can grab the sleeves. This is something that you'll see pop up in Gracie Combatives, where it is part of the punch block series. I don't really use this one, but it's an option, and there is a bunch of stuff you can do from here: for example, the series Big Mick taught when he was visiting us.

The third option, and the one I and Dónal prefer, is known as the lasso grip. Circle your leg around the outside of their arm, so that your lower leg is on the inside, then wrap your foot so that it hooks the outside of their arm. You can then either keep your foot there, or Dónal's option of going deeper, hooking it under their armpit and around their back. That gives you a bit more control over their posture.

In terms of your sleeve grip, it's important to get that fabric as far round the front of your thigh as you can, clamping your elbow tight to your side. Braulio uses the metaphor of tying up a boat at the harbour: to pull their arm free, they have to not only fight your grip strength, but your thigh and your elbow as well.

As before, you don't have to keep both feet against their arms. You can also switch grip on their non-lassoed arm from the sleeve to their collar, slide your foot to their shoulder, or indeed push on the hip. That's useful if you find that you want to create some distance, as well as keep them off-balance. Pushing into their non-lasso side knee is another option to disrupt their base.

One warning about spider guard is that it is liable to bust up your fingers. As I've mentioned a few times in the past, a black belt once told me he doesn't use spider much for that very reason. So, be careful with your grips, and know when to disengage and re-grip. Speaking of which, next time I might try adding in more about grip fighting, and possibly things like recovering spider guard from a guard pass. The technical instruction didn't take up much time: tonight's lesson was more about giving everybody plenty of opportunity to play around with the spider guard position. I may well shift things around next time, as I look to refine my lesson plans.

24/01/2012 - Gracie Barra Bristol (Butterfly Sweep)

Class #442
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Dónal Carmody, Bristol, UK - 24/01/2012

More drilling with Mike before class started, working on an interesting quarter-guard sweep from Caio Terra's DVD. It's been useful for passing to keep working on specific positions like that, and hopefully has been useful for Mike too (in sparring, he swept me with the exact butterfly sweep we drilled a while ago, which was cool ;D).

Tonight's lesson went through the basic butterfly sweep. Dónal's variation was a little different, as you start from further out than normal. That means you're too far to get the usual deep underhook. Instead, you're going to grip on the back of their head, slightly higher up on the skull for better control (like a muay thai plum clinch, but with one hand).

Other than that, the sweep is the same. One foot is hooked underneath their thigh, while your opposite side hand grabs their same side sleeve. From there, lift with your foot on the head grab side, pulling the sleeve grip towards the hooked leg (you need to make sure they can't post with this). Your other leg threads underneath the underhook side leg, as you continue to drive their weight through their knee. Bring them to the mat, then transition to knee on belly. Normally it would be side control or scarf hold, but due to that increased distance, knee on belly feels more natural from here.

Specific sparring went as poorly as usual for my butterfly guard, which is a really weak position for me. My go-to guard is either cross-grip or spider, which are both long-distance, so the close-up nature of butterfly guard is still a struggle. I've said it before, but something I need to work on. Generally, they just stand up and we end up in one of the two aforementioned guards. I was trying to go to sitting guard instead, to stick with something at least related to butterfly guard, but that's even less familiar. So yeah, I didn't get too far on the bottom.

On top, I looked to pass the same way as when drilling with Mike a while back: stay low, get a strong grip on the collar, try to drive my knee through and get past their leg. I also had a go at the one Kev showed me a year or two ago, where you kick your leg back and bring both your knees against one of theirs. I think I forgot a few details though, as I was having trouble isolating the leg properly.

Good luck to Geeza and all the GB Bristol students competing at the Europeans! :)

19/01/2012 - Teaching (Passing Half Guard)

Teaching #037
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 19/01/2012

Today I wanted to take a look at a position Ed Beneville and Tim Cartmell refer to as 'inverted half guard' in their book. The orthodox method is to get a similar 'super-hold' (as Xande calls it) to side control, then use shoulder pressure to hold them in place as you bounce your leg free and slide through.

With inverted half guard, you're using a different kind of pressure. For this pass, you will start off by controlling their head, where you have a broad choice of grips. Option one is to reach under their head with the arm on the same side as your trapped leg: that may feel counter-intuitive, as normally that is the arm you would use to underhook (it will make sense in a moment). Option two, still with that trapped-side arm, is to grab their opposite shoulder.

Option three is grabbing the back of their gi. Option four comes from the Beneville book: if you can get this one, it's probably the tightest option. Before you swing over, open up their lapel on the free leg side. Pass the end of their gi to the hand you have under their head and feed it through. Push their head slightly towards the trapped leg side, then shove your head there.

Whichever hold you've gone for (there are more, but we'll stick with four for now), the next step is to swing your free leg over to the trapped-leg side, so you're lying next to your opponent. This is where that grip comes in, as if you don't have one of those grips, they would be able to simply turn and take the top position. If you've gone with option two, in the process of swinging over, you'll bring your arm across their throat. That is therefore probably the least pleasant of the four options.

You need to be careful of their leg, as you don't want them to bridge. Grab their far knee to keep them in place. You can then kick their other leg off and free your foot. At this point, watch out for a counter they may try, which is to lift up your leg with their foot, flipping you over. To re-counter that, immediately switch from holding the knee to hooking behind their knee with your arm. That should stop them lifting for the sweep.

Also, very cool that there were two women in my class tonight. The number of female students regularly attending class at GB Bristol is about three at the moment, so I'm hoping that number continues to grow.

17/01/12 - Brown Belt Requirements Teaser & GB Bristol (DLR Back Take)

Class #441
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Dónal Carmody, Bristol, UK - 17/01/2012

I'm among the fortunate group of people who received a pre-release teaser of Roy Dean's latest instructional, Brown Belt Requirements. So far, that just means the first DVD: judging by the outline I was sent, the set will be in four parts, with two DVDs of instruction, another with high quality versions of Dean's famous belt demonstrations (unsurprisingly the focus is on purple belts), then finally what looks to be a more artistic disc to finish off.

If you were a fan of 2009's Purple Belt Requirements, the new set looks like it will be following a comparable format. Again, the technical instruction is not in-depth, instead picking out details, almost always extending into combinations. There is coverage of the top and bottom game, generally finishing with a submission. You'll also get some insight into passing, but best of all, there is an extended discussion about pressure.

I'm looking forward to the full release, as there was a lot of content that would fit right into my game: I've been playing a lot more top game over the last few months, attempting to build up controlled pressure. That's exactly what Dean investigates, with his trademark smooth transitions. It's a DVD directed at senior belts, but not necessarily because of the techniques. I'm not talented or flashy, so to me, a lot of DVDs look cool, yet leave me thinking it's restricted to the latest Brazilian whizz-kid sensation, not me.

This DVD is advanced, but it didn't feel out of reach in the same way: to pull these moves off takes experience and timing rather than incredible athleticism. As in Purple Belt Requirements, the instruction is rapid, but there is more than enough detail if you've got the necessary mat time to recognise what's happening. Dean's selection is even more of an overview than Purple Belt Requirements, providing you with options and ideas rather than a carefully mapped out game plan.

It feels a bit like when you have a few higher belts on the mat before or after class, having a technical exchange. "Yeah, you could do that, but how about I go here?" "That looks good, but what about this?" I'm intrigued to see what else Dean is going to be sharing with the class, as he progresses to the undergraduate level of BJJ instructional.

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Tonight's class was a de la Riva back take I've seen before, but with a few different details, as Dónal has his own way of doing things. You're in de la Riva, hooked around one leg and holding the bottom of their trousers with your same side hand. Your other foot is pushing into their other leg, while your free hand is looking to grab a sleeve. They aren't letting you get the far arm, so instead, you grab their near arm. Swivel off to the side, lift your hips up, then kick your hooking leg through, so you can curl your instep all the way around their far hip.

Swing your other leg over their arm, trapping their limb, getting your foot behind their leg. Shimmy your hips to get square behind them, or alternatively, using your hooking leg to twist their knee, so they are presenting you with their back. When you're behind them, switch your grip on their trousers to the other trouser leg, then switch your sleeve grip to the back of their belt. With both feet behind their knees, kick forward to drop them in front of you and take the back.

I did some drilling and focused light sparring with Mike before class again, which proved useful for sparring, as it meant I did a lot of passing butterfly guard. I was tending to secure a collar, lock my elbow inside my knee, then work to shove down their leg and step over, or crush down with my hips. I was doing something similar during class, when specific sparring de la Riva. I definitely prefer to force half guard in order to pass, which in the past I've worried is something I rely upon.

Still, it is better than having no passing option at all, which is how I frequently feel in open guard. If I can develop a method of getting to top half from most open guard positions, then that means I can move into a situation I understand how to pass. It would be better to be able to pass a greater variety of guards with confidence, of course, but I'll take what I can get.

Also as has been the case over the last few months, I was spending a lot of time in top half or side control. Partially that's because I've been avoiding anything that puts strain on my neck, but I would also assume that it's because at GB Bristol the instructor almost always pairs you up for sparring. That means I'm normally with people about my own size, so I don't get squished on the bottom as often (unless I'm with somebody much better than me, like Dónal).

Even though I can get to those dominant positions, I continue to fail to launch much of an attack from there. Again, need to think about combinations, rather than just going for an americana over and over again, or always looking for my step over triangle positions. From what I've seen, it could be that Brown Belt Requirements is coming along at just the right time, as it deals with the same kind of positions I've been reaching. Handy. :)

12/01/2012 - Teaching (Attacking Half Guard)

Teaching #036
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 12/01/2012

Continuing with the knee shield, I wanted to start with a simple sweep I learned from Nick Brooks. Having watched the Caio Terra DVD since then, I've been able to pick up a few more details: Terra refers to it as the 'half guard scissor'. Nicks version is from the knee shield with your feet locked, which I personally find more difficult to use (as I always get my knee shoved to the ground), but may work well for those with longer legs, or who are simply better at this position.

As I mentioned last week, the reason you lock your feet is so they can't raise their trapped leg and pivot, bringing their lower leg through the gap between your feet. If you're using the Terra version, you'll still need to drop your drop so that it is across their stomach, as with a scissor sweep from guard. In either position, always aim to prevent them getting a cross-face, as otherwise they will have a very strong position to work from on top. Therefore you need to block that arm, either with one or both hands, using the 'paw' grip.

For Nick's sweep, grip the sleeve of the arm with which they want to cross-face you with your opposite arm (i.e., the arm that would be on top if you were blocking with both hands). Your other hand reaches under their same side leg, grabbing the bottom of their trousers (not inside the cuff though, as that is illegal). Alternatively, Terra grabs the outside of the knee. In both cases, it is to block them posting out with that leg.

Pull their sleeve across your body so they can't post out on their hand. If you're having trouble getting that arm, push them a little first to lighten their arm, then pull it across to the other side. To finish, you want to do a scissor sweep motion, except that instead of chopping their knee with your leg, you're pulling it in with your arm. It also means you have both legs to lift and drive, rather than just one. Make sure you maintain the grips you have with your hands: this is key.

Also, don't get over-excited and try and jump right into side control. Instead, a great tip from Nick was to just roll your hips over, staying low and pressed into them the whole time, hip to hip. As you are still holding their leg, they can't re-lock their half guard. You can simply move your trapped leg backwards to stretch out their leg, then circle it free, moving into side control.

You also still have that grip on the sleeve, which sets you up immediately for an americana. You have a number of options to secure the figure four, depending on how you're holding that sleeve. One way is to control their arm with the other hand to then re-establish a better grip on the wrist with your first hand. Another is to roll your hand forward or backwards to change from the sleeve to the wrist. Or you could try pressing your head into their arm, and use that to hold it in place while you get the proper grips.


There is a handy follow-up if they shift their base to prevent the sweep, which Terra calls the back roll (I can't remember if Nick had a name for it, but 'back roll' is a rational choice). For example, you've gone for the scissor motion, but they have moved their head in the opposite direction your knee shield is pointing. You can no longer get the half guard scissor, but in changing their weight distribution, they have opened up an alternative.

Open up their arm with the sleeve grip, so that they move perpendicular to your body, using your leg grip to help (you may find the knee grip easier for this one, but experiment). This also means you can shift your knee shield so that they are balanced on the shin. If you get it right, they should feel fairly weightless. All you need to do now is roll backwards over your shoulder, still holding on to that sleeve grip. As before, you'll end up in side control with the americana ready to be applied.

Be careful of your head. Lift it a little off the ground and look in the direction their head is pointing. You obviously don't want to roll straight back over your head, or you're liable to hurt yourself. So, make sure it is out of the way and you instead roll over your shoulder, like when you do a basic backwards breakfall during drilling.

10/01/2012 - Gracie Barra Bristol (Side Control Choke)

Class #440
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Dónal Carmody, Bristol, UK - 10/01/2012

Dónal is now back from Austria, which meant more cool drills to work body movement and weight distribution. They fit in particularly well tonight, as I spent about 30 mins with Mike before the lesson started drilling and then testing a butterfly sweep he wanted to practice. Dónal's drills were related to that baseball slide he has shown in the past, where you bring your knee out underneath your other leg. That has since increased in complexity to doing it from all fours, as well as doing a little hop and changing sides.

Dónal added on yet another layer of complexity with tonight's lesson. First off, he had us go on all fours, then fling our legs in the air, trying to land softly on one foot. The next stage was to do the same thing, but this time you switch your hips in mid-airs, bringing one leg underneath the other. That means you land with your legs splayed, like you would if you were dropping your hips low in scarf hold or something like that.

Even better, Dónal showed the application. As Miles attempted to butterfly sweep him, Dónal switched his hips. For the sweep, Miles had hooked under one leg: Dónal therefore swung his other leg over the top, which not only switched his hips, but also meant that he slid off Miles' hooking foot and into side control. Nice.

However, the main technique for tonight (and there was only one, which is good) was a choke from side control. This is the same thing I learned from Matt Burn a while back at RGA Bucks, but Dónal had a few more details to add. The basic idea is to open up your far lapel with your far hand, bunching it in your fist. Punch that past their arm so that your fist is next to their neck.

Your other hand should be underneath their neck, meaning you can then feed the lapel from your far hand to your near side arm hand. Straighten your near arm into their neck, then gradually bring your head to their near side hip. Keeping your arm straight as you turn should cause the pressure on the sides of their neck to increase until you land the choke.

Dónal suggested that you not only pull your lapel out of your gi, you also twist it up into a rope. Twist the gi towards your feet, until you have what is effectively a coil of rope. Hide that in your hand and punch it through as before. This rope should make the choke noticeably more effective at digging into the carotid arteries: keep in mind the choke is around the back of the neck and side, not the front or the throat.

Rather than simply straightening your arm, you also want to drop your shoulder and across. You can either sprawl as you move around, or you can raise your bum in the air to drive your weight through a smaller area. If you need some extra pressure when you're in that finishing position, Dónal moved his choking arm elbow across, which seemed to be a useful way to finish off a stubborn opponent.

Dónal also holds side control a bit differently. I normally bring my knees in tight, as I like that feeling of security: other people like to sprawl back, as they feel they can drive more weight through their opponent that way. Dónal sort of did both. He folded the leg nearest their hip right back, so that his heel was touching the back of his own leg, while still keeping the knee of that leg pressed into their side. His other leg was sprawled behind him.

Sparring started off with specific sparring from side control, which all of a sudden made me realise I haven't been under side control as much as usual (mainly because I've been either starting from or working towards the top due to that neck injury). Still, when I am underneath, I'm making the same mistakes, relying too much on stalling with the running escape position and either getting my back taken or getting passed.

I still feel relatively comfortable under there, when I look to recover guard with the basic shrimp escape, but as ever I need to be more proactive. Fortunately I'm teaching side control in a few weeks, so I can focus on revisiting those fundamentals again. Hence why I also started under side control in free sparring a few times too.

On top, also as ever, I'm mostly maintaining, failing to launch any real attacks aside from a transition to mount (which is useful, but not the same thing as improving my submissions). I had some relaxing technical rolls with the other two purples at GB Bristol, Miles and Dónal, which was cool as Miles isn't normally at the same classes as me.

With some of the blues, I was looking to work my guard passing and particular trying to get to the back, neither of which I did particularly well: I could start the movement, but not actually get to where I want to go (i.e., I was flailing around looking to break down their turtle, but didn't manage to get both my hooks in). Long term goal.