31/07/2010 - BJJ (1st Class with Braulio Estima)

Class #328
Gracie Barra Birmingham, (BJJ), Braulio Estima, Birmingham, UK – 31/07/2010

If you haven't already, check out Chrissy Linzy's piece on teaching a women's BJJ class, here: part two is on its way for next week. Also, Matt has put up another great interview in his Grappling Dummy series, this time with Roger Gracie black belt Nic Gregoriades, one of my old instructors, who also runs the excellent Jiu Jitsu Brotherhood site. Finally in blog news, Meg Smitley’s site has moved to a new address, so update your bookmarks.

It has been a little over three months since I started training at Gracie Barra Birmingham, and while he’s been present a couple of times over that period, today was the first time I was part of a class taught by Braulio Estima. His young son was there too, which made for a refreshing family atmosphere: the giggling child was being bounced on his father’s feet in a game before class. Braulio was clearly enjoying playing with his son, even walking the little blonde toddler round the no-gi session to wave at all the students.

Class began with the usual running warm-up, though interestingly Braulio uses forward rolls instead of breakfalls (or at least did today). That moved straight into some stand up drilling: like Roger Gracie, it would appear Braulio likes to use throwing drills to get the blood flowing and joints loosened up.

His instruction was quite quick, focusing on principles, with the techniques tonight connected together. It took me a while to get my head round some of them, though that may be because he has been teaching these earlier in the week, so presumably a lot of the class had seen them already.

Braulio began by moving from north-south to wrist control. At least I think so: I had trouble with this one. The idea was that you start from north-south, having already got your elbows into their armpits. You switch around to their side, backstepping as your bring your far elbow back and your other arm around. The intention is to end up with either one of their arms pulled across their neck and the other gripped around the elbow, or the same position but with both hands around that elbow. However, I must have been missing some detail, as I had difficulty getting to the right place.

I found the next technique much easier to do. This time, you’re going to move from side control to scarf hold, as a counter to their escape attempt. They bridge to make space and swim under your arm, aiming to go to their knees and try for a single leg. Overhook their arm (with what’s called a ‘whizzer’ in wrestling, IIRC), then step over their head. Without ever losing contact with their arm, backstep to move to their other side, rolling your arm on theirs, ending up in scarf hold (you essentially roll your arm in place, using your elbow to keep control). Your other arm will settle into a grip underneath their far armpit, for a strong scarf hold.

The same principle can work as a defence to a single leg. If this time they’ve managed to get that grip on your leg, sprawl your leg back. Again you’re going to overhook an arm and catch it with your elbow. In this case, it will be the arm they’ve grabbed your leg with. As before, swivel and backstep, aiming to move into scarf. If you can’t get the leverage, you should at least be able to move to a stable position from which to attack their turtle.

You don’t even have to break their grip: if your sprawl isn’t quick enough, continue as before. Once you’ve backstepped around to their other side, that hold they have on your leg isn’t going to do them any good. From here, you’re in a relatively dominant position.

Sparring followed on directly, and like last week I started off with Christian. He wanted to work his game from inside somebody’s guard, which was fine by me: makes a nice change from under side control. It also reminded me that I still get rather stuck if the person inside my guard is being defensive and curled up: I need to work out how to pry loose an arm or initiate some kind of choke (I seem to remember that either The Guard or Strategic Guard have some options for attacking defensive posture).

Alex was down this weekend too, who I haven’t seen since he left for the Lake District (he kindly gave me a lift to my first lesson at GB Brum). I think he was taking it relatively easy, as we had a pleasantly relaxed roll. As with Christian I was in the guard, looking to attack. I played around with his lapel, wrapping it around his arm, then briefly considered trying to use it in a choke. That wasn’t going anywhere, but it did at least give me a bit of control.

I still need to watch my feet, as Alex went for a footlock, but fortunately I was able to grab his gi and step forward into it to free myself (though again, I don’t think he was going very hard, so might have been easing off anyway). That meant I could move through into side control. I noticed I had a leg by his armpit, so took the opportunity to wriggle into my favourite position from side control, the step-over triangle. Time ran out before I could do much with it, but it felt as if his head had some space, so he might well have slipped out. I was attacking to arm too, but again it felt like he had that covered, as I wasn’t getting it into the figure-four position I wanted.

Bradley was up next, which was a much more active spar, though it still felt flowing rather than lots of squishing and smashing. I was mostly under side control looking to spin free (thanks yet again to jnp’s ‘ ball technique’), concentrating on keeping my knees to my chest. That wasn’t entirely successful, as I kept finding I just had one knee up in time, but it did seem to help. At one point I found myself dangling from his head and shoulders as he sat up, but it wasn’t in the right place for a triangle. I’m not quite sure what I was doing, as I vaguely had an arm, without any real idea of how to capitalise.

Finally I rolled twice with a big white belt I recognise from the basics class. He’s polite and considerate, which is always good to see in someone who hasn’t been training long, even asking if his hand was hurting my back when he had it underneath at one point. I moved through to the top position a few times, getting into mount, but as ever not doing a whole lot from there. I moved through to a sort of technical mount a couple of times when he turned, but again couldn’t secure anything (I briefly tried to step into an armbar, but not tight enough).

During the second roll, I went to guard, and tried first for a triangle, then an omoplata. I failed to get the right angle on the first, and couldn’t flatten him out on the second, so he was able to slip free. However, I was pleased that when we moved into scarf hold, I got the chance to use a technique I’d seen on Renzo’s DVD a while back. That’s because my partner’s arm was bent and hovering by my legs, so I could push it down, hook it with my leg, then raise my hips for an americana.

I’ll be training again on Tuesday, and possibly Monday or Wednesday, depending on if my girlfriend can make it for a visit next weekend. Otherwise I’ll be going for Saturday again. That problem I’ve been having with trains and buses should be resolved soon, as GB Brum is moving to a more central Birmingham location, near Five Ways train station. It will cost a bit more on the train, but they are much more regular to Birmingham, and I won’t have to change at Dorridge or Solihull for Acocks Green.

Article - A Women's BJJ Class (1)

One woman's journey into creating a women's jiu jitsu program
Article #15, by guest writer Chrissy Linzy [FAQ Entry]
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The Setup

About 3 months ago, using what must have been some sort of black belt trickery, Klint Radwani (my instructor) convinced me to teach a women’s class at our academy. I hesitantly agreed once I was absolutely sure that there was no way our purple belt woman could do it. Of course, when I agreed, I was sort of banking on this class starting sometime in the future. The distant future. Instead, it would start on the first Tuesday of May. I had two weeks. Crap.

So, I did what any panic-stricken gal would do – I dashed off an email to friends of mine who teach women’s classes and begged for help. Adrienne Adams (Yamasaki), Jen Flannery (Fifty/50), and Alaina Hardie (MECCA MMA) all started teaching women’s classes back when they were blue belts, and were kind enough to talk me off of the proverbial ledge and back onto the mats where I belong.

With some excellent advice from them, I got my head back into the game and got to work on my game plan. Common themes from all of the women – develop consistent patterns, show movements that the women can build on from class to class, and reinforce what they already know. With these things in mind, I developed lesson plans for May and June, starting with the positions that I always wished I had spent more time working when I first started jiu jitsu.

The Requirements

Klint wanted to ensure that any women who were only attending this class would be getting self-defense techniques, so each class would need to include at least one of those. I have eight self-defense techniques that relate directly to jiu jitsu that cycle through the classes, and I tie them to the lesson for each week. Other than that, I could teach whatever I thought would be most beneficial. Knowing that I would have a mix of experience levels (including women that outrank me on occasion), I started working on a curriculum that would be scalable enough for beginners to jump in, but would also offer a challenging session for the more experienced women as well.

After I had the first nine sessions outlined, I asked for feedback from everyone I’ve already mentioned, plus Valerie Worthington (Carlson Gracie/New Breed). Val has a background in both BJJ and education, and among other things, she recommended being prepared to handle the “But What Ifs” (aka Mission Creep) in each class. I tried to do this by teaching both sides of each technique. For example, if I teach a submission, I will also teach the defense. I’ve used this format since the first night. This way, the students all know that they don’t need to ask how to defend that cross choke because I’m going to show them in the next section. Then, they’re going to start sparring from that position so that they can work on the submission and the defense. I like to make sure the women are getting some sparring time in during each class, and to see that there is a practical application for these techniques.

In the next installment, you’ll hear about the first week of classes, and what I hope the future will bring for the Yamasaki Jiu Jitsu women’s classes.

Chrissy Linzy has been training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu for 5 years, and is one of the owners of US Grappling, a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and submission grappling tournament circuit that travels across most of the United States for events. She (rarely) blogs at www.clinzy.com.

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27/07/2010 - BJJ (Basics)

Class #327
Gracie Barra Birmingham, (BJJ), Nathan Roberts, Birmingham, UK – 27/07/2010

Two new, well-written blogs popped up this week, from my two favourite BJJ demographics: women and black belts. Angelo Popofski, a black belt under Caique, has started up The Mental Dojo, where he’s already put up some thought-provoking articles taking a more philosophical angle on BJJ, rather than technical. Julia Johansen, who has just started out in BJJ at John Frankl’s school in South Korea, brings the perspective of a woman training abroad (like Rachel over in the Middle East). Check them out.

Also, I was pleased to see Kev Webb back on the mats before class today, which I presume means he is on the road to recovery. Hopefully he’ll be teaching class again in the not-too-distant future, as I rate his instruction very highly.

Nathan was picking out some fine details today, which is one of the main advantages of focusing on one area over a long period. We’re still working on side control, but because we’ve been through so many drills now where you’re either escaping from underneath or maintaining control on top, the basic movements have been thoroughly covered. That meant that Nathan could go through three especially useful concepts tonight.

The first was when moving from side control to scarf hold. As ever, you start in a tight side control, having already cleared their near elbow. Pulling them in tight towards you with a gable grip under their head and armpit, dig your shoulder into their face and drive into them to turn them slightly. Slip your hand back to control their near arm as you switch your base.

The detail here is not to simply keep your head low, as I thought. That can help with control, but it also means that with a strong opponent, they can rock you back and forth and make space. It is better to instead thrust your hip into them, driving your ribs into theirs. You can feel the difference if you have someone on top of you in scarf hold, and they drop their head low, then drive their ribs. The pressure into your torso is much greater with the latter option, whereas dropping your head automatically curves your body, so you can’t apply that same pressure to their ribcage.

The next was moving from side control to reverse scarf hold. Again, you’re in that same tight side control with the near elbow cleared. This time bring your arm over their head, then slide your elbow back to their skull. You want to keep sliding, until you’ve pushed their head right up onto your knee. This will have the added bonus of putting their near arm up high and vulnerable. Your other arm will switch under their armpit, to control their far arm.

Put your free hand either by their near hip, palm down and sliding towards them, or grab their pant leg. Either way, you want to block their hip movement. The important detail this time is to roll your hips onto their arm as you switch your base for reverse scarf, keeping a leg back for base. That’s as opposed to what I’m used to, which is simply dropping your hips alongside them. If you roll your hips onto their arm, this does a much better job of killing that near arm. If you merely plop your bum on the ground and slide back, they can still grab your belt and try for an escape.

Finally, Nathan gave us a third option, going from side control to knee on belly. As I’ve said before, I have never used knee-on-belly in sparring, so this was a useful lesson for me. Still from the tight side control with a cleared elbow, lean forward into your gable grip, shoulder pressure into them, raising up on your legs. Move straight into knee-on-belly, sliding your shin into their stomach, slipping one hand by their near collar (you can then straighten your arm to act as a bar if they try to turn towards your). Your free hand will either be grabbing their far leg, or attacking their far arm.

Make sure that the foot of the leg you have on their belly is curled by their hip: don’t leave any space for them to try and hook under with their arm. Your other leg is based back, at roughly forty-five degrees. It shouldn’t be so close that they can hook it with their other arm, but also not so far that it doesn’t give you a solid base.

The important detail I wanted to remember for knee-on-belly was to thrust your hips, rather than driving with your knee. You stay relatively upright, the hip thrust creating pressure on their belly (or sternum, if you’re Maurição Motta Gomes). I still don’t feel at all secure in this position, but with more lessons like this, that should slowly change.

Sparring started with Gary, the other blue belt who regularly attends the basics class on Tuesday. Not long into the spar, he managed to snake his arm around my neck to initiate a choke. I didn’t lean my head back in time to block the grip, and I felt too squished to get a decent purchase on his arm with my knee (trying for Nathan’s shin escape from last week).

I did at least have a solid grip on his leg from half guard, which gave me a bit of breathing room, as well as pulling down on my own gi to loosen up the choking pressure. That gave me time to think where I wanted to be, which was obviously with my head on the other side, so that I wasn’t being choke. Once I eventually got free, I was still thinking about the shin escape, but perhaps the variation from Strategic Guard would have worked better here.

My next two spars were with the two women present tonight, Alexandra (I think?) and Sofya. I was again attempting to keep in mind Roy Dean’s advice to “let people into your game,” rather than just using my weight (they’re both quite small). Sofya was doing a good job of bridging from under mount, but wasn’t shrimping into the space she created. I left an opening, to see if that would help, then mentioned it to her afterwards. Hopefully that was useful, rather than patronising: it can be hard to tell, especially as I’m only a blue belt (and a crappy one at that).

I plan to train at the weekend, before then popping over on Sunday to see my gf after she’s finished teaching her course. IIRC there is some kind of open mat thingy on Sundays now, but I’m guessing that’s only available to those on the next payment level up (I’m on the £60 programme that gets you two lessons a week), not to mention I’ll have already done two lessons by then anyway.

24/07/2010 - BJJ (Advanced)

Class #326
Gracie Barra Birmingham, (BJJ), Chiu Kwong Man, Birmingham, UK – 24/07/2010

After about a month, I finally made it to another advanced class, as this weekend my gf isn’t around. She’s teaching a course next weekend, so I should be able to make a Saturday or Friday class, and I’ve got some time in lieu I can use to make classes in the two weeks after that. So, this should hopefully mark at least a month of normal training (which for me is twice a week). Should also give me time to polish off some reviews I’m doing for a periodical (nothing to do with BJJ, though: poetry).

That black eye didn’t happen either, which is good: instead, I’ve just got an angry red mark underneath the eye, which is presumably burst blood vessels or something. It looks unpleasant, but hasn’t caused me any pain up until now, so I’d hope that will just gradually fade. Having said that, the last time I had something similar, it took months and months to go away. Bleh.

Chiu kicked off with some work on breaking grips from standing. Interestingly, Dan from Warwick Judo (who I’ve met a few times now at various grapples at Warwick Uni) was there, and even more interestingly, Chiu drew on Dan’s judo experience to offer some more grip-breaking options. When I said hi to him later on, Dan mentioned he’s been practicing for his 1st Dan, which is cool: clearly he’s been working hard on his judo since I last saw him.

Chiu’s class followed up nicely on what Nathan taught earlier in the week, as after the stand-up, he went straight into attacks from scarf hold. There was a little more detail about getting to scarf hold, as usual from when they shove up into your neck. Chiu emphasised that you want to tuck your chin and use your shoulder, to strengthen the position of your neck. When they push up on your neck, take that opportunity to pull up on their near arm and switch your hips. From here, you can settle into a solid scarf hold, keeping your head low and a tight grasp on their arm.

Alternatively, you don’t have to settle into the classic scarf hold/kesa gatame, with one knee up and the other leg stretched out past their head. Instead, Chiu showed how after pulling up their arm, you switch your hips, but then immediately switch them again, bringing your knee right to their head. Your other leg goes straight back for balance, and it is essential that you clamp your arm in tight to trap their arm. An armbar from scarf hold is now within your grasp.

To further isolate their arm, you want to turn your knee towards their legs. Wrap your arm around your knee, still with the elbow in. The idea is that you don’t leave any space for them to pull their elbow free. This is going to depend on your opponent’s body type, as Chiu noted. With a big, powerful guy like Beton, who has thick, muscular arms, it is in a sense going to be easier to trap them, due their sheer girth (though naturally a strong person can generate more pulling force to free the arm).

A small, weedy person like me has scrawny arms, which means I find it easier to wriggle my arm free, due to the additional space. To prevent that arm slipping free, you simply drive your knee further forward and in, leaving no wiggle-room. Push on their head and step over (or as in Nathan’s version, push their face towards you), foot by their neck.

From here, if you’ve got their arm straightened out and their elbow in the right spot on your hip, you can bring your elbow back and thrust your hips forward for the tap. If it isn’t quite in the right spot, an alternative is to bring your head to the mat and knee down, then again thrust your hips forward and lengthen your body.

If that still isn’t working, other options remain available. There is Nathan’s pressing armbar from Tuesday, or you can drop back alongside them for an armbar. The key here is to stop them getting up by wrapping your arm around a leg. They may be able to raise their torso, and it feels as if they’re going to escape, but your weight and grip on the leg means they’re stuck. Lean back for the submission.

There was quite a bit of sparring today. I started off with my drilling partner Christian, who tends to be quite energetic. When we roll, I often find myself struggling to catch up as he quickly moves through to side control. This time, however, I was able to keep him in closed guard for a while, looking to get that orthodox collar and elbow grip. I wasn’t able to do a whole lot with it, especially as Christian had little trouble circling his head free.

I also tried to get the overhook, but I wasn’t in a proper closed guard at the time: he soon wriggled free. I was pleased to later get the handstand sweep, but rather less pleased that I completely failed to follow up by driving my hips forward into mount. Instead, I managed to hopelessly lose a dominant position, ending up under side control.

For a while now, I’ve been attempting to straight arm into their armpit when they have both arms over, and finally it seemed to work, though I think I was a bit sloppy. That meant I could eventually reverse through into side control and mount (after narrowly avoiding getting pulled back into half guard). I had his arm over, but messed up the arm triangle attempt, as I didn’t have the arm at all in the right position by his neck. I should have squirmed around with my shoulder to adjust.

I had a couple of rolls with a friendly white belt called John, who has been training for about three months. He’s a fairly beefy guy, but showed good control. Of course, that also meant that there were points were he could have smashed his way into a dominant position, particularly when he had his arms wrapped around my legs, so probably could have stacked and passed.

I played around with triangle attempts, trying to use my legs against his arms as much as possible, but on the few occasions I got into position, I couldn’t stop John wedging his other arm in and shrugging free of my legs. I attempted a quick switch to an armbar, but didn’t have the arm sufficiently isolated or controlled, so ended up back in guard. I did at least remember to try and get some head control, but failed to shoulder-walk back properly, or keep his posture broken and head sufficiently trapped.

Still, I was happy to get a scissor sweep, as it’s been a while: John came up on one knee while I had a grip on the collar and arm, setting up the technique. Nevertheless, as with Christian, I’m not doing enough with that grip after securing it. With both of them, I was half-heartedly flailing at chokes, but nowhere near the correct position. I guess it can function as a distraction, but I need to sharpen those choke attacks so they’re a genuine threat.

Dan rolled with me too, who is an even bigger guy than Jon, but again was nice enough not to simply crush me. We generally moved between guard and half guard. At one point I thought I was about to get squished in scarf hold (exactly where you don’t want to be with a judoka), but Dan was keeping things relatively light and flowing.

Chiu was my last sparring partner: naturally there isn’t much I can do against someone of that high a skill level, so I just tried to keep my knees close to my chest, as per jnp’s ‘ ball technique’ I mentioned in my last entry. I presume Chiu was looking to see what I did in open guard, which unfortunately for me wasn’t much. I flapped at his gi to get some kind of grip, but couldn’t maintain a hold of his legs. So, I soon found myself getting surfed by knee-on-belly, side control, mount, half guard etc. Good way to get plenty of practice on my defence, attempting to stay tight and spin out of danger (though I think Chiu was taking it fairly easy, and intentionally left some space).

When he dropped into combat base, I found I didn’t really know what to do. Normally I try to scoot forward into butterfly from the knees, but that didn’t lead anywhere in this situation. Roger’s sweep popped into my head, where you lock around combat base and lean to one side, but for that you need closed guard first (IIRC). So instead I spent the concluding part of the roll floating over Chiu as he put me wherever he wanted with his hooks (normally under side control or mount), before time ran out.

I should be in again on Tuesday, then probably Saturday again. I could do Friday, but Saturday gives me an extra half an hour, as it’s advanced rather than basics.

20/07/2010 - BJJ (Basics)

Class #325
Gracie Barra Birmingham, (BJJ), Nathan Roberts, Birmingham, UK – 20/07/2010

Unfortunately, buses meant that yet again I didn’t make it in time for Wednesday last week. Especially annoying was that I did risk trying the 17:57 train, but as is almost always the case, it got delayed so I missed my connection to Acocks Green. It is frustrating to spend £5.90 on a ticket, only to head straight back to Leamington without having down any training. Gah. Still, this weekend my gf is off at a hen night, so I should be able to train on Saturday.

After the warm-up for the basics class today, another brown belt appeared alongside Nathan, to help out with instruction. He was wearing a patch for Victor’s academy (the green one that looks similar to GB Brum), so I’m not sure if he’s just visiting, or will be a permanent fixture from now on. At first I thought he was French, as Nathan called him ‘Beton’, but it turns own he’s actually a Brazilian called Roberto. As is so common over there, he’s known by a nickname instead, in a typically ironic sense: ‘Beton’ is the diminutive form of ‘Beto’, I think, but he’s a pretty big guy.

It wasn’t escaping this week, but attacks. He started by running through the drill to get into scarf hold from side control. You’ve already cleared their near elbow, and you’rve got one arm behind their head, the other under their far arm. Lean into them, driving your shoulder into their face, then sprawl your legs back slightly and switch your hips. Make sure you keep pressure on their ribs the whole time.

As you switch to face their head, scoop up their near arm. You can grip on the tricep, or nearer the shoulder: it’s a matter of preference, as long as that limb is trapped. Your other arm maintains control over their far arm, gripping underneath. This will set you up for two linked attacks, beginning with an armbar from scarf hold (similar to what Craig Kukuk shows on the Renzo DVD, and it also features as the first part of an extended attack sequence on Cindy Omatsu’s hard-to-find set).

Having got that control over their near arm, keep pinching it between your elbow and knee. That should leave you free to use your hand to turn their face towards your leg. This will make it difficult for them to bridge, and also make it easier for you to step your foot over their head, sliding it back to their skull. It will help if you’ve made sure to leave no space with your scarf hold, as otherwise you’ll have to step a long way with that foot.

With the same leg, twist your knee to the floor, basing with your forehead (keeping the next technique in mind, try to keep your head against their arm so they can’t bring it loose). Bring the elbow by their near arm backwards and thrust your hips forward. For this to get the tap, you need to have their elbow pinned against your hip.

If that doesn’t work, or they manage to get their near arm free, you can still get an armbar on their far arm. However, you need to have maintained control with your other arm, and you also must further control their arm with your head. Get in the same position as before, with a knee to the ground and head on the floor, but this time, bring the wrist you have underneath their far arm to just above their elbow.

Reach over with your other arm and lock your hands together. To finish, pull up with your joined hands (palm to palm, though it can work with other grips), while again thrusting with your hips. That again will bend their arm the wrong way, getting the tap. If they manage to twist their wrist, you simply need to follow their elbow with your joined hands, and pull in whatever direction their elbow doesn’t want to go.

Sparring wasn’t specific tonight, instead split into three rounds of free sparring. I started off with my training partner Sofya, who is a fair bit smaller than me, so I could practice things like guard passing and the like. I find I often end up on top with her, whereas I should instead be trying to put myself in her guard to practice more guard passing. Still, the little bit I did meant I could practice some of the details from Kev Capel’s private lesson a while back, such as shoving their leg down and behind you, while doing a big step with your own leg.

The next two spars were rather different, as first Nathan then Beton pulled me over for a roll. Naturally I got crushed by both, though I did at least get another chance to try out jnp’s ‘ball’ defence (access to his excellent training log is one very good reason to get yourself a Supporting Membership on Bullshido). I’ve been attempting it intermittently since first reading that post a few years ago. Basically, the idea is to always keep your knees close to your chest and round your back to swivel more easily, so that even when your opponent thinks they’ve past, you can try to spin back into guard. Not that I’ve got the hang of it yet, but I’ve found it a useful concept to keep in mind.

Similarly, I was also trying to keep shins and feet into arms, to help push away and recover guard. Again, that seemed to help a little, but hard to tell as higher belts tend to let you try stuff out a little (especially if you’re small like me). I still need to watch out for footlocks, as I’m not careful enough with my feet, and think about the escapes when I’m about to get caught. Not many people try them, which is good in the sense that they’re dangerous, but it does mean I’m not used to defending them. Of course, I barely compete, so things like that aren’t such a concern in my case.

I was also attempting to use Nathan’s side control escape from last lesson, but I found it difficult to get my knee into the crook of the elbow. It’s going to take some more practice to work out how to manoeuvre their arm into position around your knee when you’re all curled up on your side under side control. Leaning my head back (again, as Nathan taught last lesson) may have helped prevent getting choked, but either way, good habit to get into from that position.

As we lined up at the end, Nathan pointed at my face and said “I hope I didn’t do that.” At first I thought I might have got a cut or something, but apparently there’s a swelling under my left eye. If that blooms into a black eye, should make for an interesting impression when I help out with the degree congregation at Warwick again tomorrow! ;p

13/07/2010 - BJJ (Basics)

Class #324
Gracie Barra Birmingham, (BJJ), Nathan Roberts, Birmingham, UK – 13/07/2010

July hasn’t been a good month for BJJ so far, due to the buses. For the second week in a row, I only managed to make it to Tuesday because that is the only class that starts late enough and finishes sufficiently early. This class may make it three weeks in a row, unless I can find a way to get to the station in time tomorrow (even more unlikely now that there are a second set of roadworks on the bus route).

However, putting that into perspective, Kevin Webb came down with a serious medical condition in the last couple of weeks. I hope he makes a full and swift recovery: not only is he an excellent instructor, but a really nice guy, with great jiu jitsu too. It will be good to see him back on the mats.

Class tonight was, again, side control escapes. This time, it was even more useful than usual, because Nathan was looking at just the sort of position I frequently get stuck in. To start with, Nathan drilled a side control escape from when they have both their hands on the near side. Turn so that you’re on your side, then try to keep turning to your knees. It is essential that you keep your lower elbow tucked, ready to block any attempt by them to establish a hook, and similarly defend with your upper elbow. You also need to keep it close, so it isn’t vulnerable to attacks.

Having drilled that a few times, Nathan progressed to slightly different position, which is the one I often end up in. You are underneath side control, on your side. They have one arm under your neck, trying to reach for your collar. The other is looking to move past your hip, and possible isolate your arm for a submission.

To stop them getting your collar, arch your head back. You also need to make sure that your upper elbow stays by your hip, blocking any attempt by them to wriggle them arm through. Also bring your top knee up to your hip, which should both limit their movement and help prevent them sliding a knee through.

The next step is to grab the arm they have by your hip with both your hands, pushing it down, straightening your arms. Shrimp your hips into them to make space, then bring your top knee under their arm, so that your shin is pressing firmly into the crook of their elbow. You can now just hold with your bottom arm, pulling their sleeve towards you, so you’re creating enough tension on their arm that they can’t circle it free.

Keep shrimping back into them and pressing with your shin, until you can bring your other foot to the crook of their elbow. Once you’ve got that secured, you can push them even further, shoving on their head too if you need to make further space. This should enable you to slip your top knee past their hip. From there, you can establish guard, or possibly even go for a triangle.

This reminded me a bit of the ‘shin-in-elbow trick’ from Beneville’s Strategic Guard, which I brought up from home when I visited my parents last weekend. I’ll have to look that over again, and see if it helps ingrain the technique into my memory.

During specific sparring, I was still getting stuck underneath in a similar position. I was trying to be proactive, bridging and shrimping, but my timing is off, and I don’t think I’m adjusting as well as I should to their movements on top. I’m not getting that scarf hold escape at all: I think I might be failing to combine the shrimp with the straight-arming into their collar, and I also think I’m continuing to push to the side too much rather than straight up.

On top, I’m not getting that near elbow back when they free it. I had a go at collapsing my weight onto it, but I think I ended up just shifting off to the side instead, which wasn’t a whole lot of use. Also, I got straight-armed when I tried to shift to scarf hold, and eventually rolled. That happens quite often too.

So, I took the opportunity to ask Nathan what he tended to do in that situation. His response turned out to be relatively simple: grab their far elbow with the hand closest to their head, gripping around the elbow joint, so that your knuckles are facing away, fingers clasping around to the crook of their elbow. Twist and pull that towards you, while stepping over their head. From here, you can continue to attack the arm, or move round to establish side control on the other side.

When I saw Nathan demonstrate this on somebody else later on, he walked right round, scooping up their other arm to go for an arm triangle. Looks like a nifty response, so something I’d like to drill if I get the chance.

Hopefully I’ll be training tomorrow, but if not, I guess it will be next Tuesday again. There is a different bus that leaves ten minutes earlier, so I’ll give that a go. Annoyingly I’ll have to pay extra, as it isn’t covered by my bus pass (different bus company), but worth it if it means I can regularly make the Wednesday or Monday again. £60 for four lessons a month isn’t great, and only an hour a week is certainly far from ideal. So, fingers crossed I can get it back up to two a week and a least two and a half hours.

06/07/2010 - BJJ (Basics)

Class #323
Gracie Barra Birmingham, (BJJ), Nathan Roberts, Birmingham, UK - 06/07/2010

Good article by Krista Scott-Dixon up on Grapplearts, here. She tackles the essential topic of attracting women to your BJJ school, and perhaps just as important, retaining them as members.

Speaking of women, a new one joined my family today, as my sister gave birth to her second daughter (so far, no nephews, which pleases me). As I don’t intend to have any kids myself, I’ve enjoyed being an uncle. I spent eight months looking after my first niece back when I was unemployed, so it will be interesting to see how she reacts to having a sister.

Getting back to training, as ever I couldn’t make the Monday, this time because I was visiting my girlfriend in Bristol. The buses have also changed now that it’s out of term time, so Wednesdays are going to be much tougher to make: it could be that I’ll be limited to just Tuesdays, but hopefully not.

Nathan continued his coverage of side control today. Having gone through the usual drill where we go from side control to mount to side control, he then showed us another method for moving from side control to mount. You start with a tight mount, having already cleared the elbow. First, bring your elbow over their head and slide it back, so that their skull is squished between your elbow and knee. You also want to make sure you’re controlling their far arm, so they can’t get their elbow to the mat and turn.

Instead, you’re going to turn, switching your base so you’re facing their legs. Grab their leg to limit their mobility, while also pushing back into their armpit with your hips, until you’re effectively sitting on their face. Having made all that space, you can bring your foot over to their far hip, without putting it on the floor. Instead, you’re going to use that hook on their hip to twist into mount.

Nathan then progressed to the bottom perspective, with an escape from side control, in that same position. If you’re on the bottom and they bring their arm over, you want to do two things. First, you’re going to grip around the back of their gi so that you’re grabbing the material behind their neck. Pull it tight, so that they can’t possibly attack your arm: if you leave the elbow expose, they’ll either move round to eventually go for a kimura, or potentially just raise up and attack the straightened arm.

If instead you’re pulling them down, with your elbow up high by their shoulder, there isn’t much they can do. This is made safer by ‘chicken dancing’ your other elbow against their knee, to wriggle your back up the mat. That elbow by their knee means they can’t move to north-south, and they also can’t re-establish a tight side control by moving back up under your armpit. You are also going to grab that knee, for reasons which will become clear in a moment.

The main thing they’ll probably do from here is switch their hips, looking to get into some kind of scarf hold to restore their previous control. You’ll be waiting for the moment they switch their hips: if you time it right, you can bridge up into them, switching your hips over as you do, so that you end up rolling them onto their back. Due to your high elbow position, you can slide that around their head, while keeping your own head low.

This should result in a solid arm triangle position. You can increase the pressure by coming up on your toes slightly and driving your shoulder into them, solidifying your position further as you do. Either go for the submission from there, or alternatively use it as a firm controlling point to move into mount. You could also reach around to grab wrist control, then shift to take their back.

If they should happen to get half guard in the midst of that, it doesn’t really matter. You can still work the submission, or just keep up the pressure with your shoulder, slide your knee through and establish mount. They’ll find it difficult to get a secure half guard if you’ve got that control around their head and arm.

Specific sparring went as it often does from side control, where I found I could normally escape from side control eventually, either by recovering half guard or slowly working my knee through for full guard. However, I’m still not getting that scarf hold escape properly, where you brace their lapel against their neck: one thing I think I’m doing wrong is not pushing up enough. I tried to get into place to push on the back of the elbow when they put both arms over too, but that’s also something where I need a lot more work to get used to the principle and iron out the details.

On top, I struggled to keep the position: my training partner had clearly paid attention to Nathan’s repeated advice to get that elbow to the mat, as it was tough to stop him doing it. I tried moving to scarf and north-south, but that elbow kept slipping free. I could possibly try collapsing my weight on that arm more, or be more pro-active about attacking the far arm to distract them, or perhaps even the neck with some kind of choke.

Moving to mount by quickly sliding my knee over did work at one point, but probably because he was expecting another extended battle of the knees and elbows. I also almost made it to the back at one point, but he was wise to it, getting half guard and spinning to face me before I could establish both my hooks.

Getting into free sparring, there was a bit more of that side control, though I also found myself in his guard at one point. It seems like ages since I’ve been in a position to practice passing, and as ever I was too passive and slow to react. Some specific work on guard would definitely be handy, as much as I’ve enjoyed the intense focus on side control over the last couple of months.