31/10/2007 - BJJ (Advanced)

Class #99



Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Roger Gracie, London, UK - 31/10/2007 – Advanced

My first experience teaching an academic seminar earlier this week went ok: I had the usual problems of getting people to talk and then the same people speaking up each time, but that’s to be expected. Next time, I think I’ll bring in more quotes to hopefully kick-start discussion. However, the next one is about two of the most famous poets of the 20th Century, Sylvia Plath and Robert Lowell, so I’m expecting the students to already have some ideas about their work. Or at least more familiarity than they might be expected to have with a poet like Peter Reading. ;)

I bought myself some Compeed (apparently I spelled it wrong earlier) after the seminar from the university pharmacy (which reassuringly hasn’t changed at all since I started way back in 1999, unlike almost everything else). They’re normally used for blisters, and were the first thing my sister recommended when I mentioned I was looking for a heavy duty plaster. That went on (though probably not as securely as it should have been, given I was doing it myself and its an awkward place on my back) in the afternoon, so its supposed to now last for two to three days. We’ll see how it copes with BJJ.

Class today was with Roger, and was probably the most knackered I’ve been in a long time. Things kicked off with a sprawl drill, where one person dived for the other’s legs, they sprawled, then moved round to take their back. Important point to note here was keeping your weight down by dropping your hips, as well as staying back: if you weight is too far forward, they have an opportunity to flip you over their head or shoulder.

That then moved to maintaining back mount. If the person underneath you tries to roll out, follow them round with your legs. Then if they’ve managed to turn to one side, you can put them in side control. If they then try to turn back, you can try and get your far leg in and hook a leg. Triangle that with your other leg, then work for the second hook. You may need to roll onto your back first, then go for a choke to occupy their arms, leaving you with less resistance to put in a hook. Also note that when you’ve take their back, you can also slip in that hook when they try and push up, as that should leave a gap for you to exploit.

That was pretty much it for the technical side of things: rest of class was all about sparring. We kicked off, unsurprisingly, with specific sparring from back mount. I was with Tom (I’m guessing that’s short for a non-English name, judging by the accent, but could be wrong) who looked big and strong, but proved nonetheless to be fairly genial and helpful. I couldn’t do much either on his back or underneath, although in his back mount I could at least go for the escape from a RNC. Not that it was especially successful, as I couldn’t bridge up enough or trap his arms, but nevertheless always good to work a technique. We then did more from back mount, but this time with hooks already in: in Tom’s back mount I got smashed, whereas when he was in mine, I just couldn’t get that forearm into his neck, getting eventually swept every time.

That meant it was time for free sparring, starting with Christina, Unusually (and I’d guess the reason we ended up there was because she wanted to work the position), I spent most of it in her guard. My passing is bad enough against other white belts, so I didn’t get anywhere, but that still meant I could test out my submissions escapes. I pulled out of a couple of armbars (though rather sloppily), and also used that escape where you grab a knee a push to get out of a triangle (though she told me afterwards she didn’t really have it on anyway, so that obviously helped!) Christina gave me some advice on escaping cross-chokes, which I understood correctly was to just cross your arms over theirs, as well as an armbar defence. Again presuming I didn’t misinterpret what she said, you simply bring your elbows down by their hips before they can swing themselves into position.

With Pippa, I immediately found myself in the familiar situation of being squashed under side control. Although Pippa is small (about comparable to Aika, maybe a little smaller), I found that because she didn’t leave any space and distributed her weight well, there were no gaps for me to exploit. That negated my attempts to step the far leg over for half guard, and while I had a forearm firmly into her throat, I struggled to make space to shrimp. Eventually I got on top in guard, which I spent mainly resisting her attempts to choke me with my own gi.

I thought that was it, as I was really feeling my crap cardio at this point, but I wasn’t getting off that easy. There was yet more specific sparring from back mount, where again I worked with Pippa. I generally had more success underneath than on top, reversing her once or twice, like when it went to mount, but only due to size: having said that, she choked sub me a few times, which reminded me to defend my neck more carefully. On top I had trouble getting my hooks in, and when I did, she often got back to guard or half guard.

Still wasn’t over, as there was time for yet another spar with Tom, changing to mount. I got thoroughly squashed, even tapping at one point because I was submerged in his armpit and had a face full of gi. In fact, that almost happened twice, but the second one just rubbed painfully against my eye rather than choking me. On top, I couldn’t do anything, but Tom did give me a useful tip that if I’m staying close with an arm under his head and he’s trapped it, I should bring the other arm across for balance.

Crawling back to the changing room, I checked to see how the Compeed plaster was doing. At first I thought it had fallen off, but on closer inspection (difficult when twisted round in a mirror in such a way that I could only just see it), that was a bit of packaging I must have forgotten to remove. So hopefully this will last through Thursday’s training.

25/10/2007 - BJJ (No-Gi)

Class #98



Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Felipe Souza, London, UK - 25/10/2007 – No-Gi

I’ve been rather light on training this week, with just one session. Probably a good thing too, as I’ve got two niggling injuries at the moment: first that elbow (which I think is probably RSI), and secondly the mole removal scar. I thought the burn mark had healed up by now, but this session proved it was still fairly raw.

Still no Chris, or indeed any of the people I normally chat to before the session: maybe the cold is tempting people to stay at home? So instead, I paired up with one of the guys from the beginners class, Tomasz (if I’m spelling that right), who recently got his third stripe. After going through the takedowns from last week, we moved on to passing the half guard.

Underhook the opposite arm to your trapped leg, securing their head with your other arm so they can’t turn, also driving your shoulder into their face. Move your free leg to the side, also shifting your weight, until you drive their knee to the floor. Once you can reach, use foot of your free leg to grip inside the calf (or was it knee?) of the leg they’re trapping you with. Push off, raising your hips slightly, until you can pull your leg out of the half guard. As soon as your knee is free, aim to drive it to the ground and get mount.

While you will have to raise your hips to get that leg out, you don’t want to stay in that position long as there is the danger of being swept. So, get your hips back down quickly. If they try to block your knee as you bring it through, switch to side control instead of mount.

Most of the session was taken up by sparring, beginning with specific work from half guard. As seems to often happen in the advanced class, unsurprisingly given my limited technique and even more limited strength, I’m almost immediately swept every time. Therefore I’ve been trying to focus closely on what they’re doing, but still need to pay more attention as I don’t always understand why I’m suddenly on my back. I did try the half guard pass we just learned, but couldn’t manage to move my leg to the side so that their knee gets driven to the floor. Felipe advised that I should be locking up their leg more when on top: I need to improve my mobility when doing that, as at present when locking my legs around theirs on top, I end up getting stuck in position.

Free sparring tends to provide plenty of handy tips, which was especially true today as we did a fair bit of it. I spent most of my time underneath either mount, side control or knee on belly, beginning with Christina. She gave me the useful advice that when trying to escape knee on belly, I should be both bridging and attempting to push the knee off the side: I was tending to do either one or the other.

Nick (the guy I drilled with last week) literally flung me backwards at one point when I was flailing about from knees. That dominance continued into the spar, where I was often struggling to breath under knee on belly with a forearm thrust across my neck. Repeated bridging helped up to a point, but eventually Nick was in such a high mount with solid control of my arms that I ran out of options.

Romulo, who I’m guessing is Brazilian, went a little easier on me. He also gave some good advice on being careful of my arms: at one point I reached over with my far arm, which was foolish as that is pretty much asking to be choked.

Alex, one of the brown belts, also took it easy on me, meaning that I could pop out the back a couple of times. Not sure if that’s something to be investigating, given that people are going to increasingly go harder on me (though as a white belt, an occasional advantage is that people will be nice to you. Well, some people ;p). Continuing to bridge every time they looked like they were about to work a position helped my escapes, but not really my position.

My final spar provided some advice on that problem. Connor reminded me that when bridging, you should take the opportunity to shrimp while your opponent is off balance. I’ve been focusing too much on just bridging repeatedly to try and stop them getting a firm hold, rather than counter-attacking: I’m not an aggressive person and I’m also small, meaning I naturally fall into a defensive mode. While I’m perfectly happy to remain defensive, I still need to try and react when defending rather than just trying to stay in a neutral position.

I noticed shortly before sparring Connor that the scab on my back was coming off, so decided that going on to the beginners probably wouldn’t be a good move. I’d been chatting to a guy on Sherdog about trying out RGA, but not sure whether or not he made it: either way, didn’t much fancy bleeding all over my gi again. ;)

My sister mentioned some kind of silicon plaster called Compede I’ll have to check out: not only was my back already sore from the burn mark getting rubbed raw, but it also didn’t much like water. The few drops that got onto it in the shower noticeably stung, so a decent heavy-duty water-proof plaster is going to be essential if I want to keep training while my back heals.

18/10/2007 - BJJ (Beginners)

Class #97



Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Felipe Souza, London, UK - 18/10/2007 – Beginners

Having had my usual three spars and finishing with a rest, I felt ok for the beginners. I noticed there was a new girl in class: any reduction in the machismo level is always excellent news (though having said that, RGA has a very good atmosphere, perhaps because its got a fairly high number of women training). Turns out she was Chet’s cousin and Tamvin’s sister, which is kinda cool: nice to see more of the family getting into the BJJ.

It was only Navreet’s third lesson, so that gave me a chance to try and act as teacher. Attempting to demonstrate a technique to someone else is a good way of thinking more carefully about it yourself, and considering October is teaching month for me anyway with all those seminars, I can do with the practice.

Things kicked off with passing the guard. Felipe started with the one where you grab both collars with one hand, the other low, with elbow in. Put your knee into their tailbone then push backwards to open up the guard (stepping back with the other leg), slip a hand under, stack them then move round for the pass. That was followed up by the other option, which is to put your knee up – this will either give you the required space to move your arm in, or sufficient leverage to push their leg down and break the guard.

Important points to note are keeping your elbows in tight: with elbows out, you become much easier to sweep and/or pull down. Usual points about using your weight effectively and solidly securing the collar also worth going over again.

Next were a few basic submissions, starting with the collar choke. Get a deep grip on their opposite collar, palm up with thumb gripping outside and fingers in, then get the same grip with your other arm, slipping it under the first. Pull them in, twisting your hands so the thumbs come towards you, while at the same time sitting up to increase the pressure.

A variation if you couldn’t quite get that second grip was to come over and grab the shoulder instead. Not sure I understood it properly, though: as far as I could tell, it was just grab shoulder and use that to press the forearm into their neck, but I think I may well have misinterpreted. Will have to ask about that one.

Finally, if they push your bicep down to prevent you getting your second grip, swivel the trapped arm inside theirs, free it and grab their wrist, pinning their hand to the floor. Release the grip on the shoulder, then go for the kimura from guard.

I kicked off sparring with Navreet, and as this was only her third class and she’d seen a guard pass for the first time that day, I wasn’t going too hard (especially as she’s quite a bit smaller than me). Its really pointless imposing yourself on new people, and probably very off-putting for them – I’d much rather go easier at first, which would then hopefully result in a better training partner down the line. Not that I completely stopped resisting, and I did go for a sweep a couple of times when on the bottom.

I was surprised to get some passes against Chet, as I’ve really been struggling on top in guard recently in both the beginners and advanced. Then again, it was mainly when he was going for something that meant he gave me enough space to get double underhooks. That tailbone pass remains the only one I’m having any success with, on the rare occasion I’m able to pass: absolutely must put more work into the standing pass. I did try it a few times today, but to little effect.

Underneath, I found Chet a lot tougher. I managed to get a decent scissor sweep at one point, but again I think that was because Chet was moving his weight forward. I repeatedly tried to do that sweep Grant showed me, but I’m clearly still missing some important details, as Chet didn’t budge.

Generally, I think underneath I need to pull people in tight, using my legs, rather than just sitting there with a collar and sleeve grip. I also want to concentrate harder on my sit-up sweep. There was a private lesson before the no-gi Roger was taking, in which he went through the sit-up: that reminded me I’m not raising my hips anywhere near enough. I tend to just shove with my leg, which unsurprisingly doesn’t get me too far.

I finished up sparring with Yuvi, where it largely ended up in stalemate (IIRC). On top I had great trouble loosening his guard, although I did get double underhooks once. Underneath, I tried a bunch of sweeps, but again didn’t pull him in close like I should. That meant my attempt at an elevator went nowhere, though I had a firm hook, and my sit-up sweep was especially poor. I ended up pitting my weedy calf against all of Yuvi’s weight and muscle. My calf lost: almost immediately after the shoddy sweep effort, my muscle completely cramped up, so that it felt like a small rodent was stuck inside my leg. I had to stop sparring at that point, and spent the rest of the day limping, entirely due to my own crappy technique. Hence why a lift from Chet was especially appreciated! :D

18/10/2007 - BJJ (No-Gi)

Class #96



Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Felipe Souza, London, UK - 18/10/2007 – No-Gi

To start with medical matters, finally had that mole (or rather, ‘tag’: think I’ve been using ‘mole’ incorrectly) removed yesterday. Straightforward process, beginning with an anaesthetic injection, which did sting a bit but nothing too unbearable. The doctor then used a hot wire to literally burn the tag off my back: I could hear the sizzle as it sliced through, but fortunately the anaesthetic did its job. The wound seems to have healed up ok – doctor said my painkiller would wear off in three hours, so should take some paracetemol, as I’ve basically got a burn mark on my back. Despite its many problems, still good to know that the NHS is capable of providing really simple procedures like mole/tag removal for free and without a long wait. Giving that wound time to heal was why I didn't train yesterday.

My left elbow has also been giving me trouble for a while, but I think that’s probably due to my seating position when typing. KPMG has occupational people that should be able to give me some advice on that kind of thing, so I’ll give them a try when I’m next in the office.

Oh, and in case anyone is wondering, work presentation last week went fine. The food at the conference centre was also much better than last year, which provided something tasty to look forward to. That same conference has been held in the UK for the past three years, so hopefully next time we’ll get the chance to go to the US. Getting in some BJJ, or maybe even a US throwdown, would be awesome.

Onto training: my regular training partner Chris wasn’t there, which was a shame, so I ended up with a guy I’ve never trained with before. I didn’t catch his name, but he was a fairly muscular looking bloke. Proved to have some useful tips later on.

We started with a single leg takedown from the clinch. Step back with your left, then when they’re put their leg out as they’re pulled towards you, wrap your right leg around that leg, also grabbing their other leg with your same side hand. Drive forward, throwing your free leg out to land in half guard.

If that didn’t work, another single leg option was to step sideways inside their legs, then drop your leading knee to the ground, also wrapping that over their leg (which is behind instead of in front as with the previous example). Again grabbing their other leg, lift it and drive forward, but this time you end up in their closed guard.

Felipe followed that with demonstrating three techniques off an omoplata from the guard. You start with a tight guard, one arm wrapped firmly around their’s, your other arm securing their head. Move the arm round their head to their free arm, then push off their same side hip with your leg, aiming to push the knee past the arm you just grabbed. Keep tight: I repeatedly made the mistake of scooting out, which merely gives your opponent the space to pass.

Having got your knee past, keep pushing off the hip (maintaining your grip on their other arm), until you can bring your other leg over their shoulder and past their near side cheek. That then means your can triangle your legs to secure the grip, then getting a good hold around their back to keep the lock on, shift to the side away from them to flatten your opponent out. To finish, having moved your legs round, move your hips forward until they tap.

If they roll before you can get the omoplata, one option is to grab a leg as they come over, jam your knee past, then wrap up their foot (high by the ankle, or your leverage will be weak) with the back of your arm. Making sure their knee is higher than yours, press for the kneebar.

Finally, you can grab their foot instead as they come over, get a figure four grip and twist for the sub. If they kick your grip away with their other foot, you can still move through into scarf hold or side control.

Class then moved straight into free sparring. I looked around for someone lighter, but ended up with my partner from drilling. As expected, I got good and smashed, mostly sitting under side control or mount. I learned once again that I need to be careful when leaning in or I’m asking to get guillotined. I’m also having a bit of trouble escaping the knee on belly. Everyone who’s done it to me so far has followed up with the same technique, an armbar attempt (just like Colin did back at Birmingham 2). Normally I can defend by just moving round quickly to stop them stepping over, but didn’t work this time.

My next spar was one of my more usual opponents, Christina. She’s stronger and a little bigger than me, but always helpful to roll with because she maintains control, so doesn’t crank anything. Again, I pulled half guard (meant to go for full, but keep ending up with half), struggled for a bit, then found myself under side. I escaped a few times back to half guard, which Christina passed back to side control. That pretty much covers the whole roll: half guard, side control, half guard, side control, along with repeated attempts by Christina to get my arm.

She gave me a useful tip about being under side control, which was that it’s a good idea to touch your elbow and knee together, forming a barrier and making space for your escape. Though I didn’t quite get this against my third and final sparring partner, Joanna, it was a useful to have that to go for. As with Christina, I again ended up shifting from half guard to side control, also spending some time under mount. I began the spar in open guard, so that’s something I need to work: in particular, automatically framing my arms against their armpit and side to prepare for recovering guard.

10/10/2007 - BJJ (Beginners)

Class #95



Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK - 10/10/2007 – Beginners

My normal train was cancelled, but I was able to take a Euston train instead, so that worked out ok because the Virgin train is faster anyway. I wasn’t going to be doing the advanced today, as I wanted to make the social – due to that work presentation, I could only stay briefly at the start, but still thought it worthwhile. I’ve been hoping for an RGA social ever since I began training here, so certainly wasn’t going to miss this opportunity even if I couldn’t make the whole night.

Its been almost a year now since I started, and while I don’t think there’s a specific year syllabus, tonight’s class wasn’t too dissimilar from the first sessions I attended. We began with the basic standing pass, where you stand up and push the leg away, then drive your knee through, swing the other leg over and switch into side control.

That was followed by a kneeling pass using my favoured tailbone break. Jam your knee into their tailbone, bringing the other knee out at a right angle, cutting your hip into their crossed ankles to break the guard. You then have two main options (that I've been shown, at least), the first of which is to do the same leg pin pass as when standing. Alternately, you can go underneath the leg (making sure your knee is up and you put your arm low: putting your arm up high near their foot is likely to put you in a triangle). Once you have the leg, reach round for their lapel and press your forearm into their throat, pushing a knee toward their head, while bringing your other foot tight into their bottom to both raise and trap their hips (meaning they can’t shrimp properly). Having got them in that vulnerable position, you can move round into side control, driving your hips forward with your back straight (don’t just lift your head: have to push with hips) to make the space.

Jude also showed us the proper way to pull guard. With the usual grip on an arm and lapel, put your foot into their hip. Drop down to the floor and swivel in the direction of your foot, pulling them down as you do so. Bring that foot back and then back out, securing closed guard. The swivel seemed to help, though the natural tendency is to simply fall back: presumably that swivel gives you more control or something along those lines. In drilling it did feel as if that foot gave me a bit more control, but may have been imagining it.

Finally, Jude ran a useful drill where one person pulls guard, whereupon their partner immediately does a standing pass. This was intended to get us used to passing as someone was trying to pull guard: much easier to pass when they only have it partially secured.

Sparring was guard passage once again, where I started with Dominique. I wanted to try and work the flower sweep from an armbar set-up, but didn’t have too much success. Instead, I ended up working my open guard, trying to defend against the passing. Went ok, as I was able to test my hip mobility and getting my arms in position to hold off the pass, though I generally was passed eventually. Did end up in a strange stalemate with Dominique at one point, where she had a collar choke locked in, but I was past her legs. Eventually we just let go: not quite sure what I’d do if that happened in competition. Jude’s advice was that I should keep driving with my hips to loosen the collar grip and pass.

On top, I didn’t have too much luck, still relying too much on the tailbone break (with which I’m ever less successful). Having said that, I am making sure I at least attempt the standing break, but that’s currently even more sloppy (though at least I’m not getting swept repeatedly or just knocked back down when standing up, which has happened plenty of times before). With Chet, I was able to fling him right over and pass, but that’s only because he was knackered and is still comparatively new.

I also had a roll with Grant, which underneath was fairly similar to the open guard against Dominique. On top, I was completely unsuccessful, getting swept in a variety of ways. I did manage to escape some kind of armlock thingy he was going for (or perhaps triangle?) by curling my arm round and moving with it, though that merely put me back in guard rather than resulting in a pass. Grant also mentioned that I’d got that sweep he showed me last week wrong: hopefully he’ll stick up a comment so I can correct it in my earlier entry.

With Chet in my guard, I had a go at the kimura: he slapped my back, which I thought meant it had somehow gone on early, so released immediately. Turned out he was just trying to get a grip on my back to help his escape – nevertheless, definitely far better (at least in class) to let go of a sub attempt too early rather than too late. Chet asked how he should be escaping the kimura, to which Jude responded that you need to sit back up, twisting away in order to free the arm.

Not many people appeared keen to head to the club straight after. I asked around the changing room, but none of the beginners who trained that session were going direct. So ended up just being me, having very helpfully got some directions off Pippa (who had a quick look on Google Local). When I arrived, Greg and Radek were already there, so got to have a good chat with them (Greg in particular has had a pretty interesting career background in sound engineering). Everyone else started trickling in rather later, meaning I also had a chance to talk with Joelma, Ben and then right near the end, Joanna and Pippa. To my surprise Roger got there comparatively early (some time around 22:00, I think), with Jude arriving just as I was leaving (by which time most people had got there). Real shame I couldn’t stay longer, but giving a presentation tired and hungover in front of a large international group of colleagues wouldn’t have been much fun. ;)

04/10/2007 - BJJ (Beginners)

Class #94



Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Felipe Souza, London, UK - 04/10/2007 – Beginners

I had been expecting another spar in the no-gi, so was feeling entirely fresh for the beginners, especially as there is that period while you wait for them to warm-up. I joined in for the throws, introducing myself to a newish guy going by the distinctive moniker of Abs. However, as he’s a fair bit heavier than me (85kg), I was happy enough to later switch to Rohit, who’s 73kg.

First technique Felipe showed us was taking the back from guard. If they have an arm gripping your lapel, break that hold, maintaining your own grasp on their arm. Pull that arm right across your body, then reach all the way over their back to the far armpit. Having secured that hold, open your guard and base out on your other arm. Use that to swivel up towards their back, bringing your leg out and in to hook their leg. Make sure that as you do this you maintain the pressure with your shoulder into their arm, so they can’t spin back to guard. Having got one hook in and your other leg across, establish both hooks, and as you’ve already got an arm by their armpit, you can transition to an over-under grip (at least I think that’s what its called: under the armpit, then with the other arm come under the neck). Stretch them out by pushing your hips into the centre of their back, then go for the rear naked choke.

A variation on that is if when you try to pull their arm across and go for the back, they manage to get their other arm onto your neck. That stops you taking their back, but you can instead go for an armbar. Pushing off the same hip as the arm you’ve gripped, swivel in the direction of their hand (so opposite to how you’d normally swivel with armbar from guard). Push on their head, then bring your other leg over to get into position for the sub. That should then leave you set to put on the armbar.

Sparring was guard passage, split into groups of over 82kg and under. That meant there were a fair few bigger guys in my group, who had up 17 or so kilograms on me. There are a couple of people who are strong and aggressive, so I normally just relax and see what they do: I’ve no wish to get injured by enthusiastic beginners. Seon is always good to spar with, as while he’s very aggressive, he’s not that big, so there’s not so much chance of injury. He’s also pretty good – I’ve yet to pass his guard (although I am crap at passing, so that’s not saying all that much :p). I occasionally come close, but can never secure it – in effect, the specific sparring was similar to yesterday’s session.

However, the important difference today was that I felt I was focusing better on working technique rather than just reacting. Admittedly this was more the case in the no-gi class, as I took a very relaxed approach to sparring in the beginners, but I still learned several useful things. In particular, I asked Oli about making that final transition from almost-past to side control, and he suggested that in order to pass the guard (when I’m nearly through), I could shove a knee tight across their bottom, then putting an arm on the other side. That way, I can trap both their hips and prevent shrimping, meaning that its then easier to switch base into scarf hold and pass.

Grant also showed me something handy after class, which he wanted to demonstrate because he’d been getting a sweep regularly on me and others. This looked like a variation on the flower sweep, for use when your opponent is attempting the tailbone break. Grab the arm they got on your chest, putting your foot by the knee they’re trying to press into you, and finally grab their other leg. You should then be able to move your leg up into their armpit as usual with the flower, pulling on the leg and arm to roll them other and get mount. Looks like its something worth practicing, and also something I should learn to defend (I guess by keeping my elbows tight and as far back as possible).

A couple of stripes were awarded at the end: they’ve been coming thick and fast with all the new people joining up. As normal when I’m about to leave, I was trying to loosen the drawstring on my gi trousers so I could get into the shower quicker, when I noticed that the last person Felipe had announced wasn’t moving forward to pick up their stripe. Following his gaze, I realised that person was me, so the fourth stripe must be down to time, as with the other three (I'll have been here a year next month). Still nice to get it of course, but I’m a long way off blue belt – my top game sucks (both mount and side control), I don’t have any submissions (except occasionally if I have a significant weight advantage, and even then only a handful sloppily executed), I struggle to pass and I have absolutely no stand-up. Not that my bottom game is much better, but I do feel a little more comfortable there, which seems to often be the case with smaller people – we spend most of our time there!

Due to the Wednesday social, I'll just train the beginners next week. On Thursday and Friday I'll be at that work conference, so can't make the normal no-gi and beginners double. Still, one class is better than none, though it does mean yet again I'm not making the advanced gi session.

04/10/2007 - BJJ (No-Gi)

Class #93



Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Felipe Souza, London, UK - 04/10/2007 – No-Gi

There’s a social next Wednesday I thought I wouldn’t be able to make, but as it turns out I should be able to make the conference to give my presentation on time. That does mean I won’t be able to stay too late, so I’m not sure many people will be there during the time I spend at the club: it starts at 20:00 and training is still on, so will most likely just be a few beginners. Nevertheless, I’ve been hoping for a social ever since I started, so will make the effort to attend this.

Tonight was also the first time I’ve seen Chris since his tournament performance: from what he said, definitely sounds like he had the same weight-cutting problem I did and felt awful. However, he managed to win, and only lost the next one narrowly on points, so that goes to show how good his BJJ has got in the last few months.

He was keen to work on a butterfly sweep, which we worked a little before class got going, and also went through at the end of class too. Get to butterfly guard, which means you feet are hooked round the inside of their legs, your knees splayed (a defence against butterfly guard is to push those knees together), head further forward than your hips, overhooking one arm by the tricep and underhooking the other, gripping round the back. Switch your left leg under your right, pull them in, then with your other leg flick their leg right up in the air, also twisting over with your body. That should end with you in mount, though you have to be careful to avoid getting trapped in their half guard.

Technique today was rather nasty looking, as it was a triangle from side control, leading to all sorts of painful submission options. Grab the elbow of their near arm, push it up, then simultaneously switch your base and slide your knee underneath. Having got scarf hold, pull their arm down and step your leg right over their head. As you do so, slip the stepping leg underneath their head, triangling that with your other leg, leaving their arm trapped against their neck. From there you can squeeze to get the triangle, pulling their arm over if its not quite on.

Even if you don’t get them to tap from that, their other arm is now in an extremely vulnerable position, exacerbated by the considerable discomfort they should be feeling from your triangle attempt. You have a range of options to attack their arm – a straight armbar can be applied by getting a figure-four pressing against their elbow, pulling down on the wrist with the palm facing up. Alternately, there are the usual kimura and Americana subs, depending on which way their arm is pointing, or even a wrist lock, where you figure-four pressing on their wrist with their fingers pointing down.

Sparring went much better than yesterday, I think because its continuous, so when I made a mistake, I still had a chance to work technique. The main problem with my sparring yesterday was that I wasn’t focusing on specific things I wanted to do, which I rectified today. Rolling for me was going to be all about getting the knee through from half guard in order to get to full-guard, and that clear aim definitely helped me get more out of sparring.

Before the free rolling, we did specific from side control. Underneath, I managed to switch to half guard a few times, aiming for full guard (not always quite making it, but at least getting a leg in position a few times). On top, I was completely useless, getting swept in rapid succession.

Moving on to continuous sparring with Chris, I immediately pulled full guard. I tried the technique from yesterday, where you bump them forward, grab behind the head, then try to armbar as they move up, but couldn’t quite get it: I think I need to control that arm more and gain a better position with my hips before I attempt to swing the legs and go for the sub. As always I was often in half guard, but worked to get the knee through. I pushed it through a couple of times (though going to rubber guard wasn’t working so well for me), though Chris was generally able to pass into either mount or side control. I was also getting back to half guard when under side control, though I found it a little easier to do that from under mount (because under side control, I have to bring my far leg way over to trap the leg, whereas with mount the stepover is much closer).

Chris had a solid grip on my arm at a couple of points. The first time, after a bit of a struggled, I was able to lock my arms, and then use that strong position to sweep him from half guard. The second time was tougher, as Chris was close to getting me in position for a kimura or Americana, but I managed to lock my arms again. Eventually his grip loosened and I escaped (though he might have given it up to break the stalemate – I asked afterward, and he reckoned he couldn’t have got it as my defensive grip was too tightly cinched in).

I made a bee-line for Aika after sitting the next round out, as she’s always good to spar with due to her much higher skill, but lower weight. I started off underneath, again working the half guard, along with the sit-up sweep from full guard. She tends to pass standing up, so I tried a lot of armbars from standing guard, but couldn’t get the arm straightened out. I walked my legs up her back and hooked her leg, but probably should have pulled her down more, and also used my hips to help.

I also got a chance to see how my open guard defence functioned: at one point I was trying the classic defensive stance of arms and one knee up, which proved a fairly useful base to block her legs with mine. She did eventually get me into side control, but I flipped her over (that weight difference factoring into it more than skill, I’m sure). That left me in the same position I often end up with her in side control, trying to go for scarf hold. Struggling for a while, I decided I really didn’t want to waste the spar that way, so had a go at moving into north south. Aika shrimped out, I tried to move round to get into position for a kimura, which didn’t work but did leave me set up to pull guard rather than get mounted or something.

That meant I could again try for the sit-up sweep. This time, I did remember to keep the kimura from guard, partly because Aika had been careful to get her arm to safety when I tried the sit-up earlier. However, I was looking for the arm and managed to grab it, opening my guard and sliding my leg over her back to get into position for the kimura. She was tapping quicker than I expected, so hopefully that wasn’t an injured arm or something! Also, as with my escape from her side control, I think the weight discrepancy made a big difference: if it had been Chris, he might well have been able to muscle his arm away from me before I could go for the kimura.

I then sat on again, doing some drilling with Chris on the butterfly sweep. Looks useful, so I should give that a try some time. That proved to be the end of class, so just two free spars today rather than the usual three.

03/10/2007 - BJJ (Beginners)

Class #92



Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Roger Gracie, London, UK - 03/10/2007 – Beginner

Someone from Gracie Barra Calgary bumped into my blog earlier this week, presumably while Googling BJJ terms, as my glossary has appeared on their site. Cool. :D

However, that does remind me to ask that if anyone notices I’m talking rubbish anywhere in the glossary, please stick up a comment correcting me. The instructor over at GB Calgary mentioned that he’s cast an eye over it and it seems ok (very helpful to have someone of that level check for errors), but as I intermittently update that glossary, I’m always grateful for constructive advice. I’m merely a white belt, after all!

I wasn’t able to train last Thursday as I’d intended, because the trains messed up yet again. Not only did they screw my journey back on the Wednesday, but when I arrived at Farringdon on the Thursday ready to go train, I was greeted by a sign telling me there was no Hammersmith & City line service. What was especially annoying was that I hadn’t had any warning – if this had been a strike, then it would have been announced in advance. However, because this was apparently due to concerns over ‘safety issues’, the line shut down rather more suddenly. On the other hand, I should have checked for disruption before leaving anyway, so will have to remember to do that next time.

Like I said, this October is largely devoted to teaching (Excel and academic stuff), so training is going to suffer. Normally, I would have come down late tonight, if at all, so I could fit in some more work, but as my gf is visiting her parents this weekend, I can spend the Saturday getting my seminars prepared instead. That’s especially handy, because that gave me the hope I could make four sessions this week, which would make up for potentially missing BJJ entirely next week due to a conference my department is attending and at which I’ll be presenting.

Anyway, on to the training: tonight we kicked off with the osoto-gari trip as is fairly common, this time Roger showing us a set up in which you aimed to sweep the leg with your foot first. When they step back to stop you doing that, you then keep your sweeping foot in the same place, step forward, then swing the other leg forward for the osoto-gari. If they don’t move their foot, you can continue with the foot sweep.

Next up, Roger showed us some useful things to do in closed guard. First of all, he demonstrated that the best position you could be in on the bottom was with your opponent pulled in tight. In order to get them there, bump them forward with your hips and wrap up their head. Alternately, you can lift up with your legs until you can break their posture. Once you’ve got them down close, they have to somehow push themselves back up. Generally, that’s going to involve pushing on your chest, meaning that you can grab their arm. As they then try to raise up by basing off your chest, you can swing into an armbar.

Another option is once you’ve got them in tight, slip one of your hands deep into their opposite collar. Bring your other hand around the back of their gi, getting a thumb in. As they raise up this time, bring that other hand around their head and across their throat, setting you up for the cross choke. I found I had some trouble with the thumb grip, as first of all I found it difficult to dig that thumb in, then secondly when I had it, the grip was often loose. I think a way to rectify this would be get that thumb in deep as soon as you’ve pulled them in tight: that becomes easier if they have a particularly stiff gi, meaning it would stand away from their neck if you pull their head down.

Roger followed this up with some work from side control. To begin with, he ran through the kimura from side control, which Jude apparently taught earlier in the week. From side control, you need to get their far arm by your head, trapped against your shoulder (which I guess you’d either do by grabbing, or when they try and get their forearm into your throat). Keeping one hand by their near hip, move round to their head until you’re in north-south (i.e., facing their knees). Pull them onto their side, bringing a knee up tight against their back, also shifting your grip on their arm to a figure four (not sure if that step comes earlier?). If they grab onto their gi, tug in the direction your elbow is pointing behind you, then pull them arm back into position, where you can apply the sub.

If they manage to get a firm hold by wrapping their hands together, preventing your kimura, you can instead go for an armbar. Bring the knee that is against their back in tight, dropping back into the armbar position with your other knee over their neck. Switch an arm under their wrist, then lean towards their head in order to loosen their grip. Finally, complete the semi-circle by moving back into position, dropping back for the sub.

Sparring I wasn’t managing to get anywhere in particular. I started off with Nathan in closed guard. On top, I persevered with my usual tailbone break, which did eventually loosen his guard, but I was constantly leaving too much space to close in and move to side control. Like Chris, Nathan simply went to his knees. I had a stack pass secured at one point, but couldn’t close in tight enough to stop Nathan again escaping to his knees.

In my guard, I had a quick go at the sit-up sweep, where I yet again forgot to try the kimura from guard after it failed. MUST remember to attempt that sub! As has been happening repeatedly for the past two months or so, I ended up moving between open and half guard, but Nathan was simply too mobile for me to stop him passing. I need to move my hips more, and faster, as well as get those legs into position to prevent the pass. I still don’t want to get into a situation where I’m expending lots of energy and straining away in a macho battle of pride, but I should at least be using my small size to get up a bit of speed.

I had a similar spar with Seon, this time from side control. On top, I went to scarf hold a few times as I could feel him escaping, but couldn’t keep him down, and also couldn’t stop him getting his legs over and rolling me into his side control. Underneath, I managed to get to half guard, but then kinda sat there while he attempted chokes and then eventually passed. Oli was telling me to move my hips out and shrimp more, which is good advice: I should focus on doing that when in half guard. I tried moving to rubber guard to help get the knee through, as worked a while back, but this time to no success.

So, key things are the old problem of closing the distance so that I’m not leaving them space to escape, and to capitalise on my small size and speed. I have to move my hips more, and I also need to come into sparring with a clear idea of how I’m going to shrimp and escape from half guard, rather than just clinging on pointlessly.

I felt absolutely terrible after sparring, but I’d set out from Birmingham determined to make two classes. I was all ready to go, sitting by the mat writing down my notes so I could get on to the advanced, but continued to feel crap. So yet again, I left before the advanced, repeating my Wednesday pattern of coming in all keen then failing miserably to make two classes. I think I’m just going to have to accept the fact that fitness or willpower is going to let me down every time I want to double up on Wednesdays, so instead I should skip the beginners and only do the advanced. Otherwise I’m going to continue this pattern of one or two beginner classes along with no-gi each week, whereas I should be making two advanced and one beginner. Not that I don’t get my arse kicked enough by the other white belts (as happened today), but the more comprehensive arse-kicking I’ll receive from advanced should hopefully result in greater improvement. So: no more ambitious attempts to double up on Wednesdays until I feel a shitload fitter!

Something else I should start doing is make a sandwich for the train on the way down. Nathan suggested, as I told him I was wimping out for the millionth time, that I should probably eat more, and he’s absolutely right: clearly the two cereal bars I munch on the Chiltern Line aren’t enough to fuel my weedy frame. To finish on a somewhat random note, I went to the doctors today for the introductory health check, and apparently I'm 5'8. Always thought I was 5'7 - maybe I'm just under? Either way: meh.