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This website is about Brazilian jiu jitsu (BJJ). I'm a black belt who started in 2006, teaching and training at Artemis BJJ in Bristol, UK. All content ©Can Sönmez

24 September 2009

24/09/2009 - RGA Wycombe

Class #243



RGA High Wycombe, (BJJ), Kev Capel, High Wycombe, UK - 24/09/2009

Continuing the lessons from Tuesday, Kev added in some more work on the butterfly guard. He also repeated the drill where you lift up your partner then put them back, but with a twist. This time the point was for the person on top to sink their weight and prevent being lifted. I was pretty crap at that, which is partially because I'm small and light, but also because I'm still poor at dropping my hips down.

That was followed by a butterfly pass. You begin by threading your arm through their legs. Push their knees to one side, crushing down with your body weight to help your arm. If their arm is in range, grab it and feed the sleeve to the hand you now have between their legs.

With your other hand, reach for the back of collar: you could also secure a grip over their shoulder. Drive your head into their stomach, using that for base, then raise your hips and walk around.

Once again, Kev then showed the counter, with a butterfly sweep. As soon as they try to thread their arm through, stiffen your legs. That should give you enough time to grasp the sleeve of that threading arm with your opposite hand. Reach over their back with your other hand and grasp some gi fabric.

Next, turn and bring your hooking foot from the threading arm side to their other leg. Your free foot can be used for additional power, as you now lean back and lift, simultaneously pulling with the grip you have on their back. Done right, that should flip them into your side control (make sure you keep your head close, so they don't land too far away). There are submission opportunities here too, but as a beginner class, we stuck with the basics.

Specific sparring from butterfly guard again didn't yield much success, as my training partner Sam had little difficulty passing. Hopefully it still helped me to familiarise myself with the position, but clearly I need lots of work for both the bottom and the top of butterfly guard.

After that, it was straight into the hour of sparring, though I ended up only going three rounds. I tried to be more aggressive, especially with collar chokes, particularly the one where you get a deep grip, then sneak your other hand around the back and wait to try and loop it round. I wasn't get close to choking anyone, but it did seem to work to a degree as a distraction.

I later managed to get something I've been trying for a while, where you first underhook an arm in guard and grab their collar, then use your other arm against their neck for the choke. However, I think that was mainly because my sparring partner had just got choked the previous round, so was being especially careful. I need to be tighter, set it up better and secure a tighter grip.

Guard passing was improved from yesterday, as I wasn't so bent over once I stood up, but I nevertheless kept sitting back down. I tried to achieve a straighter posture, and successfully got the cross-grip I've been looking for to help me pass. However, didn't manage to capitalise, as he still hooked my other leg. I need to stagger my legs more carefully, and also improve my balance and posture.

Another thing I'm still attempting is the triangle. I was especially looking for the spider guard set up, but too obvious. On one of the white belts he could see it a mile off, whereas on another guy I had a leg over his neck, but couldn't fully close the lock. I tried hooking the arm and swivelling to make more of an angle, but was too stacked by that point. Seeing he was standing at this point, I then looked to switch to an armbar, but too late, as I no longer had enough control.

Remembering what Dolph mentioned in a comment last time, I focused on getting an underhook from under half guard, also thinking about what Brad suggested (on Facebook, so can't link to that, unfortunately) in regards to Eddie Bravo's approach (the half guard is one of the few sufficiently basic parts of Mastering the Rubber Guard I'm therefore willing to try). Again, attacking the neck seemed to help as a distraction.

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