Article - The Importance of Training Partners

Article #18, by guest writer Chrissy Linzy

Last month, I attended another amazing women’s grappling camp in Toronto, Ontario. This was my second week long camp, and it proved to me yet again the importance of seeking out different training partners. Even if you have three or four other people your size to train with on a regular basis, it’s really important to get out there and meet other grapplers to find the holes in your game before you find them at Mundials.

This doesn’t just apply to women, though. There are always outliers. Think about the people that train in your gym. Do you have a man training there that’s under 130 lbs? What about a man over 300 lbs? Are they always paired up with the closest person to their size, but still training with a size disparity? Sure, maybe the big guy is on the winning end in the gym but what do you think will happen the first time he has to compete against someone who is actually his size, or even bigger? He is probably going to find that his technique might not be as solid as he thought because he’s been relying on his size advantage for the last year.

Maybe you do have partners that are your size and skill. It’s the perfect scenario for great training, right? Maybe, but think about the last five or ten rounds with those partners. Did they all go about the same way? You pulled guard. Your partner passed your guard. You recomposed guard and tried to sweep with your favorite sweep (that your partner knows is your favorite sweep, so she defends it). If this (or some variation) is what every roll looks like, you just might benefit from finding some new training partners once in a while.

I know that I tend to fall back on what is comfortable, or on techniques that I have had success with in the past. For me, a great example of this is spider guard. That doesn’t work so well if I’m at a no gi class, or if I drop in to train at a school where everyone works low passes instead of standing to pass the guard. By forcing myself out of my comfort zone and training with a different style of jiu jitsu, I’m ultimately opening myself up to learn more and to improve. Sure, that learning curve is probably going to start with me playing a different guard that gets passed, but it’s all part of the journey.

The moral of the story is to seek out new and different training partners, especially ones that will push you to try new things or play a different game. As much as I love my teammates, I make it a point to train with other people at least once a month, just so that I can experience a different style of jiu jitsu, and to make sure I’m not developing any bad habits. I think women’s open mats are a great way to do this, especially if a week-long camp isn’t in your budget (or on your continent). Where I live, there are also open mats where men that are over 250 lbs (I think that’s their cutoff, anyway) get together to train. I know that sometimes it’s hard to get beyond the politics of an area to set these sorts of things up, but in the end, it will only make everyone better.

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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27/09/2010 - BJJ (Advanced)

Class #346
Gracie Barra Birmingham, (BJJ), Norby Nowak, Birmingham, UK – 27/09/2010

Before I get onto the advanced class, I just wanted to offer my congratulations to Steve Greenaway, who recently received his purple belt from Roy Dean. Steve heads up Roy’s first affiliate, which happens to be here in the UK, down in Poole. I had the privilege of attending the inaugural Roy Dean seminar in the UK last year (Steve kindly invited me), and again this year. I look forward to hearing about how Steve’s club, the Poole Martial Arts Academy, keeps growing in the future. See the vid below for what a purple belt under Roy Dean looks like: beautiful as always:



Another Roy Dean UK student who I trained with at that seminar a couple of years ago, Kirsty, also got promoted during the trip over to the US. That makes her the first female blue belt under Roy Dean in the UK: check out the video here. So, congrats to her too! :)
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Norby had some new butterfly passes to show us tonight. The first one assumes that they have managed to sit up and are about to go for the sweep. Reach over their arm and back, hugging them in tight, then drive forward to put them on the mat. That hand will stay ready to loop their arm, meaning that you can potentially set up an armbar if they turn in the wrong direction. Your leg positioning is important: one leg is going to be out for base, while the one they’ve hooked will have a knee close to their bum.

The essential detail that stops them lifting you for the sweep is your hip. On the knee side, turn the hip in towards them, dropping your weight and bending their toes down, which makes it really hard for them to generate any leverage. They will probably try to go for half guard, so to prevent that, first you want to try and trap what would become their outside foot with your hip.

Their inside foot will be looking to wrap around the back of your leg. Prevent that by reaching back with your free arm, gripping their trouser leg and pinning it to the mat. Finally, make sure that the heel of the leg they want to trap is raised up so that it is touching your leg. This stops them slipping their leg around the crook of your knee.

From here, it is a relatively simple matter to lift that same knee over their pinned leg, moving through to side control. If they try to lift your leg, they basically do the job for you, so it becomes even simpler to hop over their leg and switch to side control.

If they do manage to lock their legs, then you can use a half guard pass, based around your head, specifically the top of it. You’re going to drive that directly under their chin, then raise your butt into the air. That means you’re putting your whole body weight through the top of your head into their skull. Not comfortable.

To facilitate the pass, grind it past and towards their face, so that you turn their head to one side. They should now be sufficiently distracted that the last thing they’re thinking about is their half guard lock. Free your leg and pass.

During specific sparring, I was still struggling on top, and not doing a whole lot better underneath. I was managing to connect to their legs with my hooks a little better, but nevertheless getting passed pretty quickly. I also wanted to try and work that half guard sprawl pass Norby showed us (which I think is in Stephan Keasting’s DVD too), but couldn’t seem to get them into the right position. Possibly need to get them more on their back and sort out my leg positioning.

There wasn’t too much time left for free sparring, so I just went the one round with my drilling partner, Ram. I had a few attempts at attacking the back, but failed to break through her defences: she was successfully blocking my efforts to get at her neck by crossing her arms. Instead I tried to switch to an armbar (initially I kept getting stuck in half guard during the transition, so I need to watch my lower leg), gripping the one arm with both of mine before moving into position, but again wasn’t doing too well in terms of dislodging her grip.

I was trying to move round in a semi-circle, but wasn't doing it very well: I've been shown a bunch of different ways to break the grip, but it's been so long since I found myself in a position to actually use them my memory failed me. The arm did eventually come loose, but I think that was down to force and exhaustion rather than technique.

This session is my last at Gracie Barra Birmingham, unless my girlfriend and I happen to move back to Brum at some point in the future (which is certainly possible, as we liked it when we lived in Kings Norton a couple of years ago). Norby made a point earlier of checking when I was leaving GB Brum, and then went out of his way to do a little speech at the end of class to say goodbye.

It has been really good training at the club, and gestures like Norby’s farewell speech are typical of the welcoming atmosphere. I can’t think of any other academy that better embodies the ‘family’ part of the Gracie Barra motto, particularly as Braulio’s infant son was running around the mat again. Great place to learn BJJ, which I highly recommend to anyone in the area: well-structured syllabus, awesome range of skilful training partners and attentive, generous instructors.

27/09/2010 - BJJ (Basics)

Class #345
Gracie Barra Birmingham, (BJJ), Dave Iverson, Birmingham, UK – 27/09/2010

Now that I’ve got lots more time to play on the internet again, I had a chance to update my blog list, thanks to the always excellent BJJ Grrl, who keeps lists here and here. Bunch of blogs I hadn’t seen before by female BJJers, like Shakia, Amy and Val.

I’d also like to give a shout-out to fellow BJJ blogger Dev Kostal, who recently received his purple over in Peru. Very cool: I imagine he is going to do a longer write-up in the future, but some pics on Dev’s blog, here.

Due to the trains acting up, I almost didn’t make it to the beginner class. Instead of stopping at Acocks Green, the train from Dorridge decided to go right through to Birmingham. Fortunately, I was able to grab one back the other way not long after, then sprinted to the gym. It goes to show how short a walk it is to the train station that I was able to run there, get changed, grab my card and get on the mat in under four minutes. Made the warm-up tougher, but at least I arrived in time.

Dave ran through the same two passes Norby showed last week, where the idea is to treat your partner as a steering wheel. Dave emphasised staying tight with the grips, so always clamp your elbow down when gripping over their back. He also pointed out that when you’ve spun them onto their back, try to switch your knee, so that the one nearest their legs is tight against their hip. That will prevent them from shrimping in that direction, giving you time to put your hand there.

On the second pass (which Norby demonstrated during last Monday’s advanced class), where you pivot on your foot and drive your raised knee into their leg, shoving their knees together with your hand and step around, Dave noted you need to have a grip by their back too. That will help control their upper body, and means you can slip your arm around to a strong side control position as you step around behind them.

There was no sparring again, as we spent a good long time drilling. That works well when I want to double up, as it means I can concentrate on technique. It is especially good when Norby runs the double, as he tends to teach the same techniques in both classes. This is ideal, because you first get a basic version, with the broad outline, followed by the more detailed explanation in the advanced class. Perfect for when you don’t have time to scribble notes down on a pad. ;)

At some point, I managed to inadvertently demote myself to two stripes, as it must have fallen off during class: it’s been gradually ripping in half over the past few months, so not a big surprise. Useful reminder that stripes are often pretty meaningless. ;p

Interview - Romulo Barral on BJJ in the Olympics

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Last week, Romulo talked about BJJ in the UK, online training and his favourite DVDs. In the fifth and final part of the interview, Romulo discusses the Olympics, before we wrap things up.

slideyfoot.com: Do you think it would be a good thing – and this has been mentioned quite a lot recently - if BJJ somehow managed to get into the Olympics, or could that result in watering down the sport due to rules changes?

Romulo Barral: Yeah man, that’s a good question too, you know? [laughs] Everybody wants to see BJJ in the Olympics, who wouldn’t. But at the same time, I think it would change a lot of rules. I want to see BJJ, because it would be a big sport, because I think everybody knows what it takes to become an Olympic sport, so when jiu jitsu becomes an Olympics sport, for sure it’s gonna be very big.

But, I don’t know, I’m a little bit scared about the rules, like what are they going to change. I hope if it goes to the Olympics, they don’t change too much, so it can be a fun sport to compete and to do as well.

slideyfoot.com: Yeah: when I’ve thought about this question, there’s the other option, which is FILA trying to get what they just call ‘grappling’ into the Olympics. So, that wouldn’t be as BJJ, it would just be a grappling event that BJJers could enter, along with people that do judo, do wrestling etc. That would seem a bit safer, because you wouldn’t have this danger of changing the rules, because it wouldn’t be BJJ, it would be ‘grappling’.

Romulo Barral: Yeah, I’ve heard of that: that’s good it’s not BJJ, because I don’t like it at all. [laughs] It’s like a very weird sport man, I don’t like it. People, they invite me to compete in this stuff, but I say, you know what, I don’t know, I never train this thing, so what am I going to compete? So, I'm going to stick with my jiu jitsu. [laughs]

slideyfoot.com: Do you have any interests outside of jiu jitsu, or does that completely consume you?

Romulo Barral: Like outside of fighting, something like that?

slideyfoot.com: Yeah: for example, Cobrinha is known for his love of baking. So do you have something, that’s nothing to do with jiu jitsu, but you enjoy doing?

Romulo Barral.com: Oh man, that’s a tough question. You can ask my wife this one! [laughs] I think I like, it’s just BJJ. It is so hard for me to do something that is not jiu jitsu, even like the small things. I don’t know man, I enjoy the jiu jitsu. It’s not just the competing, I enjoy, it's great, you know? Besides doing that, just relaxing: I save my energy to do jiu jitsu, nothing else besides that. [laughs]

slideyfoot.com: Before we end, is there anything else you’d like to say to the readers?

Romulo Barral: I think we did a great interview, so I’d just like to say, to the people from the UK, it was a great pleasure to be there, great people, and I hope in the future, when I come back to the UK, they will be better, and then the jiu jitsu will be bigger. That’s especially for people from the UK. I had a great time there, I have a couple of students, I had a great time with Braulio, and then in a lot of places.

I hope in the future when I come back, probably next year, I will see everybody much better and then I will see jiu jitsu, BJJ, much bigger in England.

slideyfoot.com: Thanks very much, Romulo.

Romulo Barral: Thank you my friend, my pleasure, and thanks for the interview.



Thanks again to Romulo, I very much enjoyed the chance to speak with him. He’s not only an elite competitor, but a really nice guy. If you're interested in doing an interview with me too, or just having a chat about BJJ, feel free to drop me an email. Finally, if you haven’t already, be sure to check out RomuloBarral.com, and you can also follow Romulo on Facebook and Twitter

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20/09/2010 - BJJ (Advanced)

Class #344
Gracie Barra Birmingham, (BJJ), Norby Nowak, Birmingham, UK – 20/09/2010

If anyone happens to have any interest in the Poetry and Medicine symposium I mentioned a while back, this is a video of me giving my paper. The main page for the symposium itself is here (scroll down a bit): there is going to be another one next year, which I’ll probably look to speak at again, as it was a great experience back in April.

Norby went through the same butterfly pass we just did in the basics, then added on a second butterfly pass. He said this one was his favourite, and I can see why as it looks like an effective technique. Again, they’ve sat up, ready to sweep with one knee raised and the other on the floor. They’ve grabbed your arm and are about to send you over.

With the hand of the arm they’re gripping, shove down onto their knee. Your other arm goes over their back. Put your knee against the knee they have raised up, then twist your knee inwards. This should collapse their knees together, and also drive your knee into the middle of their upper leg, which can be quite painful if you put any force into it.

Your grip will switch from their knee to the trousers of their top leg, shoving the fabric down to the floor to stop them moving their legs and hips. You’ll also be holding their upper body down with that grip on their back: with your knee into their leg, you’ve got a good base to keep your weight into them, driving it through your arms. Maintaining the pressure with your arms, walk your legs up behind them, moving to side control.

Specific sparring went just as badly as in the basics class, but this time, I was attempting to focus on sitting up when underneath. That meant I was able to vaguely flail at getting hooks, but perhaps wasn’t thinking enough about grips with my hands and arms. People weren’t having too much trouble moving past my legs, or sweeping me over when I was on top. Being small doesn’t help, but it definitely wasn’t just a size issue.

I could only think of two passes, neither of which I managed to progress. The starting position for specific sparring was again on top with my head down and elbows in. I tried pulling out their lapel and tucking it round, but couldn’t seem to get the lapel loose before they already were well into their sweep. Alternatively, I was looking to bring my leg back and trap a shin against my knee. Must have been missing a bunch of steps, as against blues and up, their hook was generally stopping me, while with whites I could at least get the leg trapped, but then failed to progress round to the side properly.

Another option, once you've brought your knee across, is to drop back. Bring the knee behind their arm and your leg over their back, swinging your other leg by their neck. From there, you can tighten up into a triangle choke. You can also jump rather than drop back, depending on how comfortable you feel with the technique. It reminded me a little of Demian Maia's triangle attacks, although he doesn't show one specifically from here.

Free sparring fell into familiar underneath side control territory with the two blue belts I rolled with, staying tight and looking to keep my knees in tight to avoid submissions. I was able to stay safe, but on the other hand, but my opponents were bigger and taking it pretty easy. One of them had a choke on, but they must have eased off or something, as I don’t think my defence was doing all that much to prevent them finishing.

I also had a roll with a green belt, so that gave me a chance to work lightly on top, and let him try stuff, while also attempting to distribute my weight and see if I could maintain the position. Made a nice change from getting smashed. ;)

Next week will be my last class at GB Brum (I plan to do another double on the Monday), so I must remember to cancel my direct debit: need to give Norby a ring tomorrow morning.

20/09/2010 - BJJ (Basics)

Class #343
Gracie Barra Birmingham, (BJJ), Norby Nowak, Birmingham, UK – 20/09/2010

It was my last day at work today, and I got my favourite kind of present, a gift voucher. Ideal, because it means I know I can then get something I want, so I picked up two more 33 1/3 books from WH Smiths (the ones on Abba Gold and Led Zeppelin IV). If they’re as good as the two on Low and Pet Sounds, should be awesome. I’m also very intrigued by the last one I bought but have been saving up, which strangely is on Celine Dion. Don’t let that put you off though, as apparently it's a very interesting exploration of taste (the subtitle is ‘A Journey to the End of Taste’). The guy who wrote it unsurprisingly went in hating the album, so came up with a great angle.

I won’t actually be leaving my flat until next week, after which I’ll be looking to train at RGA Wycombe again, which should be cool. Before that, I’ve got some more time to work on my butterfly guard at GB Brum. Judging by my performance tonight, I need a lot of improvement, as my sparring was absolutely terrible.

The butterfly pass starts when they have their knees raised and are sitting up. This can work if they have both knees up, but normally there will just be one, with the other on the floor. Push that knee down with your same side hand, then reach your other arm underneath their knee, reaching for the cuff of their opposite trouser leg (so, the one you’re already holding down with your other hand).

Your can then remove your hand from their knee and reach over their back, grabbing a handful of gi, keeping them tight towards you. The idea of the sweep is to treat them like a steering wheel, pulling their leg back under their raised knee, while yanking your hold on their back in the opposite direction. To do that, you’ll need to move your leg back, as otherwise you’ll just be whacking their foot into your own knee.

Make sure you really pull their leg out, so they can’t try to bring a knee in. It should be a simple matter to move into side control from there. If they give you any trouble by posting behind themselves with an arm, simply switch your grip on their back to that elbow instead, yanking it forward and removing their base. In that situation, you’ll also need to drive forward a bit with either your head or your shoulder.

Specific sparring didn’t go too well for me, as passing I was getting swept, and underneath I was getting passed, by pretty much everyone. So, clearly I’m missing a load of details from the position where the person on top has their elbows tucked in and head down into your stomach. That would continue into the advanced class, as we did the same specific sparring, but at least I could try to work on some small details, like trying to sit up.

Interview - Romulo Barral on Instructionals & UK BJJ

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Last week, Romulo discussed spider guard and injuries. This week, he considers UK BJJ, online training and his favourite instructional DVDs

slideyfoot.com: You’ve been to the UK a few times now, training with Braulio at his academy in Birmingham. What do you think of the jiu jitsu in this country?

Romulo Barral: Braulio, he’s doing a good job, I think, of spreading jiu jitsu in the UK. I was with Braulio for three or four months, I’m not sure, and Braulio was travelling, like almost all the weekends, to spread jiu jitsu, to teach at different places in the UK. He had a lot of people come from all over the UK to his academy.

I think the UK is going to be the next United States. You remember when jiu jitsu came to the United States, a long time ago? It was small, but look how big it is now. I think the next country is going to be the UK. I think it will grow and grow, and then in like five more years, it must be the same as the United States.

slideyfoot.com: Are you planning to hold any future seminars here in the UK?

Romulo Barral: Oh definitely. I’m probably going to have a trip to Europe in January, and I’ll try to go to as many places as I can, and also compete at the European Championship. For sure, if I go to Europe, I will be stopping by the UK. I teach a few times in the UK, so I have a couple of students, I want to see them, how they’re doing, I want to stop by Braulio’s academy. For sure, I’ll be stopping in the UK, it’s going to be like my main place to stop by for my seminars in Europe.

slideyfoot.com: What do you think of online training, like Gracie University, or the website your own instructor, Draculino, has set up?

Romulo Barral: I think the online training, it can help you get close to very good people, like Draculino. I’m too far from him: I watch Draculino’s class – I have an account there – I watch, because you can see different ways to teach, a couple of different details. I think they can help a lot. Of course, you need somebody good to teach you.

I think it’s really good for you to learn things, you can learn how to teach, and then I think it can be good for everybody, as long as you go to the mat and then you try to apply, it can be great. You cannot be a black belt from online training, you know, but it can help you a lot to develop your game.

You cannot go there and train with Draculino, but you can go online and train with him on his website. I think that’s awesome. You just need to do same thing as if you go train, you learn the position, and then you go and try to apply it, but I think it’s awesome, a good idea. I’m happy I can see Draculino teach a different position every day.

slideyfoot.com: Have you ever used DVDs and books to help your own training?

Romulo Barral: Yes, I have watched a couple of DVDs – I think it is a little bit hard to learn from DVDs, but anyways, I try. [laughs] I have a lot of DVDs, you know, like fighter’s DVDs, like my favourite fighters. So I have of course Draculino, it’s my favourite one. I really like Braulio, the way he teaches, he’s a very good teacher.

Then I have a couple of guys, I like to watch their fights, I like to know what kind of positions they do. Great fighters, good guys, like Cobrinha - he has a pretty good DVD. Andre Galvao, I like his DVD too. My favourite DVD is Draculino, and Braulio, I like a lot the way he teaches closed guard, I like Cobrinha and yeah, I like Galvao. I think in my mind now, as I remember, those are my favourite DVDs.

But, the DVDs I really learn, is like when I watch a World Championship, Pan-Ams, learn the position in real-time, you know? So I can figure out when is the best time to apply the position. On a DVD, you can learn the position, but it is a little bit hard to understand out how to apply, it takes a while. When I watch a DVD of fights, I learn faster.

slideyfoot.com: I’ve heard a few people say that. So do you think that’s something you need quite a lot of experience, to learn from watching competition, or can it help at any level?

Romulo Barral: Yes man, I think you need a little bit of experience, it cannot be like “ok, let me just watch this and then I’m gonna see.” It takes a little bit of experience, like...I cannot tell how much experience, but you need a little bit, you cannot just go there and see all the details. You’ve gotta have good experience to learn this way.

slideyfoot.com: Yeah, I guess a beginner would miss details, they wouldn’t understand the position, it would go too fast, that kind of thing.

Romulo Barral: Exactly.

In the final instalment next week, Romulo has some comments on BJJ in the Olympics, then we wrap things up. To read more about Romulo, check out RomuloBarral.com, and you can also follow him on Facebook and Twitter

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13/09/2010 - BJJ (Advanced)

Class #342
Gracie Barra Birmingham, (BJJ), Norby Nowak, Birmingham, UK – 13/09/2010

Norby covered off the same two techniques for the advanced class, after running a tough warm-up exercise. In the basics, I found myself running the early part of the warm-up, as I was the highest grade there aside from Norby (but only because of those stripes, which are fairly meaningless). I just did the basic running round, knees up, heels up etc, before going through two guard passing drills. First standing up in someone’s guard, then the toreador drill Chiu did last week. May have taken a bit long on stretching though, so if I do it again, might cut that down a little.

Norby added in a guard jumping exercise, which turned out to be quite painful. You are in groups of three, standing in a line across the room. The person in the middle runs to either end, jumping into guard on their respective partners. After two and a half minutes, they switch. That definitely works your cardio, particularly when you’re in the middle, but also when you have to support your partner’s weight. It wasn’t too bad in the basics, as I was with two people around my weight, but Norby then repeated the exercise for the advanced, where I had rather larger people to work with. Knackering!

Specific sparring was from that same butterfly position, where the person on top has their head down and elbows tucked against the hips. We were split into ones two and threes again, and each round one person stayed on top against the people coming in from the line.

I was as usual far happier on the bottom. I managed to land a kimura, which was nice, but only because my partner made the mistake of leaving their arm out too long when loosening my gi lapel. Generally I couldn’t get a whole lot to work, though I was trying to get to that side on position Chiu showed us. I also looked to get the arms up for Chiu’s sweep, but that was tough from their already strong position. Still, I at least had a couple of things to go for, as previously in that position I’ve felt a bit lost.

On top, I wasn’t able to get the gi lapel, and also wasn’t much good at working out the balance and weight to pass. I tried bringing my leg back to trap theirs, without much luck: they could generally keep their hooks in place. The few times I did pass, it tended to be a sloppy squashing slide past, without any real technique. So, I need to work harder on that pass, and also consider a few back up options (I imagine we’ll see a few more before the month is up).

Just one round of free sparring, where I didn’t get very far either. I started off by almost heel hooking someone unintentionally: I had my legs in a weird position and wanted to sweep, but let go after Norby noted I was in an illegal footlock type set-up. Not somewhere I ever want to be – way too dangerous, and I’ve got no idea what I’m doing with footlocks anyway, legal or not. I’ll be sticking with working the defence to them rather than playing footsie. ;p

Most of the spar I was under side control, looking to spin out or try that Braulio escape where you shift back and straight arm into their armpit. Still not quite getting that, but I am finding myself in the position more often. So, something to keep on working: I think the first thing I need to improve is getting my hips back so I’m in a more stable position for the reversal, then work on getting the arm straight for the necessary pressure.

At the end of class, Norby had a long chat about the new gym Gracie Barra Birmingham is moving to on the 4th October, near Five Ways in central Birmingham. The payment programs are going to be slightly different, if I understood correctly, but still pretty cheap: £75 all inclusive, I think, along with options of MMA, using the gym etc. Sounds pretty cool, though unfortunately I’ll have left by then. My rental lease technically goes until the 16th October, so I’m tempted to pop up to check out the new gym, but should probably save my cash – no idea how long I’ll be unemployed this time, after all. ;)

Still, tempted...

13/09/2010 - BJJ (Basics)

Class #341
Gracie Barra Birmingham, (BJJ), Norby Nowak, Birmingham, UK – 13/09/2010

I thought I’d try something different tonight with my belt. Normally, I do the usual under the belt loopy thing, which tends to fall off under any kind of strain, so you’re doing it back up every ten minutes. The video I saw on the Grapplers Guide a while back (I’m sure its been posted elsewhere, but that’s where I first saw it) has several other options, I think from a judoka. The one I liked the look of was simply called ‘unbreakable’.

Easiest to watch the video (at 00:46), but to describe it: wrap your belt around your waist as normal, pulling one of the belt ends up underneath. Loop the other belt end over the top and behind, so it is dangling down. It will also leave a little loop around the main belt: feed the first belt end through. As you feed it, make sure you leave yet another loop, which is what you’ll pull the second belt end through. Took a little while to work out the right lengths so it wouldn’t look weird, but it was indeed unbreakable: didn’t even loosen during the two and a half hours of training.



Technique tonight shifted from sweeps to passing the butterfly guard. Again this is similar to what I saw Kev show at Wycombe, with a couple of differences. Start by staying low on them, your head in their stomach and elbows clamped to their hips. With the same side hand, pull out their lapel (easiest to go for the one on top). Yank it right out to the side, then quickly bring your elbow back in, so they can’t kimura you.

Feed the end of that lapel under their legs towards their bum, where your other hand is waiting. This may be more difficult if their gi is a bit short, in which case you might need to lean to the opposite side slightly to get the space. Be careful if you do that, as leaning too far will set them up for an easy sweep.

Once you’ve got that lapel, grab their gi with your free hand, on their side (which again will be the same side as the lapel you yanked loose). Still on the same side, kick your leg back, then bring your knee past their foot, so you end up with their leg trapped against your stomach.

You can now rotate your hips over their knee, then move into either side control or knee on belly. Make sure you maintain your grips on the gi and lapel, as these will make it really hard for them to move anywhere. They can’t shrimp, as you have a gi wrapped around their hips, and if they turn the other way, you’ve got a grip on the other side too. They can’t turtle either, as with those grips, you’ll have little trouble taking their back.

The second pass is for if they manage to snatch half guard as you try to trap that leg against your stomach. You have the same grips as before. Instead of grabbing the gi jacket with your free hand, grab the top of their gi trousers and push up, to stop them moving. Then sprawl your leg backwards to break their hold, after which your can move round to side control: either step the leg over, or rotate your hips like before.

No sparring in the basics tonight, but I was feeling ok for the advanced, where I expected to get some rolling time.

Interview - Romulo Barral on Spider Guard & Injuries

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Last week, Romulo spoke with me about competition. In part three, he talks about spider guard and the scourge of elite competitors, injuries.

slideyfoot.com: Speaking of spider guard, it can often cause a lot of strain on your fingers. Do you have any tips on how to toughen them up, or specific grips that you use to minimise damage?

Romulo Barral: That’s a funny thing, a lot of people ask me that, because they see I play spider guard for a long time. I answer this question a couple of times, you know, “I do pull ups with the gi, I climb the rope.” All this, it helps you develop a strong grip. But, for the real thing – I think I have really strong grips, my fingers are really strong, and then I develop this – it’s like, play spider guard.

I realise this when I started to teach, because when I teach spider guard, when I travel and do seminars, I get people to do spider guard drills, for one minute. Hold the sleeve, and then do simple drills. Like eighty five percent of the people, after a minute, they have weakness on the grips, on the fingers, the forearms, this type of thing, you know. They’re not used to holding a grip for more than a few seconds.

It’s because when you climb a rope, you climb the rope to the top, in maybe ten seconds, twenty seconds. When you do pull ups with the gi, you do ten reps, or fifteen, or twenty. So it’s like, thirty seconds. When you play spider guard, sometimes you need to play for ten minutes. That’s what makes your grip strong.

Same thing to put somebody to run a track, a hundred yards, and somebody to run a marathon. That’s the difference between somebody who uses a normal grip, and then somebody who uses spider guard. I use spider guard, I can hold my grip for an hour. If you don’t, if you just play half guard, closed guard, something like that, you’re not going to be able to do the same thing.

slideyfoot.com: So it’s just a matter of doing it more and building the endurance, there’s not any particular route other than time?

Romulo Barral: Yeah. They have a couple of things that help, you’ll have a strong grip, but to last, strong grip, it means it’s hard to break. A good grip, you can break, but you’re going to make the grip again and then you’re going to last for a long time.

slideyfoot.com: You’ve had a number of injuries in your competition career, most recently on your knee: do you have any tips for recovery?

Romulo Barral: My first tip, take care of your body. When you get the small injuries, make sure you take care of your body. How to recover fast, after injury, you need to do good rehab, don’t rush, don’t try to step on the mats soon. But the most important thing is to take care of your body, you have a small injury, you take care.

Then in another way, you know what? I have injuries because I train really hard. I never give time to my body, to heal up after small injuries. So, if I have small injuries, I don’t let my body heal, then I become a big injury. But that’s the price you pay, to become good. Everybody good, top athletes, they have the same problem. I guess, it’s really hard to become a top athlete without getting injured

slideyfoot.com: Do you try to train around your injuries? Like say you’ve hurt one hand, so you just train with one hand, or would you stay off the mat completely?

Romulo Barral: I had surgery in my shoulder, 2008, and then I had a little complication in my surgery, the doctors, they stretch my nerves. I was not able to move my arm for six months, but I step on the mat one month after my surgery. I start to do my training with one arm, doing drills. Then in two or three months, I was training full power, with one arm.

I train with the one arm, I think, for almost a year, you know? Then a funny thing: 2008, for the Worlds, I came here to train at the Gracie Barra, just to train, to watch the Worlds, at Gracie Barra headquarters. Then I was training with one arm, with a lot of black belts. Master Carlos Gracie Jr – I don’t know if he was joking or if he was serious – he came to me, and then he told me, “Hey Romulo, I think you should compete with one arm.”

I look at him, and then I say, “No, you’re kidding me, Master.”

He say, “No, I think you compete with one arm, you can win this thing, you can make history.” [laughs]

It was very funny, you know, to hear that from him, but of course, I was not gonna go compete, because in training, it’s different. Nobody was going to pull my arm, nobody was going hard. In the tournament, people would go for my injured arm, pull, do something like that, and then go full power. So I don’t think it would be fun. But it was good to hear this from him.

I was training really hard, to try to improve my game, even without one arm, and then I improve a lot, you know. My right shoulder hurt, so I improved a lot on my left side. Right now, it’s kinda a little bit hard, because it’s my knee. It’s different, but very soon I’m going to start doing specific training. I’m going to wrap my knee, without move, maybe do like side control specific training, back specific, make people attack me, so I can get as soon as possible on the mat and start my training again.

In the next instalment, Romulo talks about BJJ in the UK, online training and his favourites DVDs. For part one of this five part series, click here, and here for part two. To read more about Romulo, check out RomuloBarral.com, and you can also follow him on Facebook and Twitter

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10/09/2010 - BJJ (Basics)

Class #340
Gracie Barra Birmingham, (BJJ), Chiu Kwong Man, Birmingham, UK – 10/09/2010

Moving onto the gi class, Chiu added some more details to the toreador pass he’d been drilling as a warm-up for no-gi. With the addition of trousers to grip, Chiu advised to grip midway on the inside of the lower leg. Keeping a low stance, lean into that grip to squish their knees up by their chest.

Step diagonally across with your leg: this is the knee you’ll be putting into their stomach. The other foot goes out wide for base, and also so that they can’t hook your leg. You’ll also be pushing into their far leg with your grip, while pulling the near leg behind you. That will make it tough for them to try and bring their knees in to block your pass.

Should they try to hook your leg before you pass, shove that leg away from you, while swinging your other leg back. By pushing their leg, you’ve created a space: bring the leg you swung back to fill it, moving straight into knee on belly. Depending on the size of your partner, you’ll either knock them slightly out of the way, or potentially swivel them perpendicular.

The main technique was again butterfly guard, going through similar sweeps to no-gi. However, as with that pass, the gi provides helpful grips. Now rather than just hooking their lat, you can grab a handful of gi. Ideally, you want to shove their lapel with your free hand, feeding it around their back to your other hand. This makes for a really tight grip.

As before, drive your shoulder into their near armpit as you also pull your arm in, chest close to the mat, putting them in an awkward position. Should they try for a whizzer, you simply raise your elbow. For the sweep this time, Chiu went through a technique similar to what I saw Kev demonstrate at RGA Wycombe a while back. Twisting as you drop back, lift them with your hook: your leg will be in a position that can only be describing as a dog urinating.

From there, you can bring your other leg through, then push off that foot. This will give you extra power to drive them to their back. If you want to go to mount, keep driving and follow through with your knee. If you prefer to go to side control, you do more of a flick with your hooking leg, then slide into scarf or side.

Worth noting here that you can do various things with your legs and feet. For example, you could push on their knee to collapse it to help your bring them over. That may be of a particular use if they’re using it to base and resist your sweep. IIRC, you can also try bringing the knee high, if you’re finding that you’re getting stuck on their legs as you move to the top (though I might be remembering that wrong: I didn’t have my notebook at the side, so may have missed some details over the course of the two lessons).

No sparring again, though it looked as if Chiu had a sort of specific spar to finish off, but it was already past eight, and I had a train connection to make later. So I rushed off for the train, got there with a minute to spare...but of course that just meant when I arrived, the train was cancelled anyway. Sod’s law. I guess that running at least helps a bit with fitness, but always annoying when you miss out on something for no good reason. Bleh.

Anyway, should be back for another double on Monday next week, then probably my last lesson at GB Brum the week after. I’m intending to move out at the end of the month, so training at GB Brum will most likely be the last thing I do before heading off.

10/09/2010 - BJJ (No Gi)

Class #339
Gracie Barra Birmingham, (BJJ), Chiu Kwong Man, Birmingham, UK – 10/09/2010

Dolph has put up an interview with a Muslim teammate of his, about his thoughts on training while fasting for Ramadan. Check it out here: I’m guessing that’s probably a first – I certainly can’t remember seeing anyone else ever cover that topic, and it makes for an interesting read.

The DIY course was useful, although I was a bit tired by the time I got there. Some friends kindly let my gf and I stay round, although they happened to be out at a party on Friday, so we only got back to the house around 2am (as I knew I’d have to get across London for 8am the next day, I wasn’t drinking, so randomly spent a good chunk of the night reading a great history of the Impressionists. Not exactly party animal behaviour, but hey).

Those same friends happen to be awesome cooks. If you’re into your food, then be sure to check out their blog, The Keston Kitchen. Loads of unusual recipes beautifully executed, and I can personally vouch for the results! Meal time is always a highlight when staying with the women of Keston. ;)

There were some interesting warm-up drills tonight, one of which took a bit of getting used to. The idea is that you’re on your back, keeping your legs off the floor. Twist your knees in the direction you want to move, then rock forwards and twist your upper body the other way. Keep repeating that to gradually bounce your hips down the mat. I just about got the motion, but it took me ages to get all the way down the mat.

I can’t remember where I first read it, or perhaps someone told me, but allegedly butterfly guard is good for small guys with short legs, like me. I’ve wanted to improve it for some time, which is also why I’ve been trying to pull butterfly guard whenever possible (not to mention it’s way better than my previous ‘flop back and wait’ tactic).

So, I was pleased that tonight focused on improving butterfly, with numerous top tips for maintaining butterfly guard and keeping your partner off-balance. Establish hooks under their legs, sitting up. You don’t want to be straight on, but instead move around slightly to the side. Hook your near arm around their back, reaching around to grip: this was a nogi class, so you can either go for their far lat, or under their far armpit. Keep your head on your gripping arm side, pressing into their head.

The essential detail Chiu emphasised here is to drive your shoulder into their near armpit, while also pulling inwards with your arm. It should now be very difficult for them to flatten you out on your back. To make it even harder, bring your chest close to the floor with your other elbow as base, in a sort of ‘spiderman’ pose. That means there is a line going from one arm across your back to the other.

You also need to maintain tension with your hooking feet, as otherwise they can try to just bring their legs around and pass. Even if it feels like they’re moving you to your back, you may well be able to shift your hips and switch your other arm around their back: don’t give up because it feels like you’re about to be flattened out.

If they do manage to flatten you out, you can still go for a sweep. As soon as you start being moved flat, bring both arms around their back, clasping your hands, and bring them up high. You’re aiming to trap their arms: don’t allow them to bring their elbows back down by your hips.

Once you’ve got their arms up high and out of commission, you can work on their legs. Stretch them out, kicking one leg flat, then use your other hook to lift. You’re also going to use your grip on their upper body, twisting your arms to help drive them to the side. You don’t necessarily need both of their arms: you could also lock both of your arms around one of theirs, with an elbow into their throat, a handy leverage point for the sweep.

There wasn’t any sparring, but we did do some progressive resistance on maintaining butterfly guard. The person on top tried to flatten out their partner, while the person underneath just looked to hold their position, adjusting their hips, keeping their hooks in and securing that grip over the back.

Interview - Romulo Barral on Competition

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Last week, Romulo discussed his thoughts on teaching. In part two, he talks about competition.

slideyfoot.com: You began competing quite early in your training: how would you advise a new student coming to you saying “I want to compete”?

Romulo Barral: I have a lot of people who do that, and my advice is like this: the competition needs to be something natural. For example, I don’t push my students to compete. If I have somebody come to me and ask me how to compete, it’s become easy for me to advise them. My advice is always the same. The competition, it’s good to test yourself, you know, it’s a good feeling for most of the people, even if they don’t want to become professional.

The only thing I like to say to everybody, to my students – or everybody else, not only myself, all professional people – what matters for the competition is that you step on the mat and give a hundred percent, you leave everything on the mat. When you do that, win or lose, you’re going to be happy, because you put everything, you give everything you had. So that’s always my advice for people, if they want to compete.

It’s small advice, but it can be big, you know. Then of course, for people that really want to compete, it can take a little while. They first come to me, as a white belt, “I want to compete,” and that’s my advice, because I cannot put something on their head. Then they would be “oh, I’ve got to think about this, think about that,” I have different advice. So, this one, it’s general advice, I tell people to give a hundred percent, leave everything on that mat, and then you’ll be happy, no matter what.

I have different advice, for example, for people who want to be a competitor and they are a black belt already, so I have my own thoughts about competing. So if somebody ask me, some black belt, I can explain a big plan to do and then be successful.

slideyfoot.com: So you have black belts coming up to you and asking for your experience, if they’re a less experienced black belt, seeking out your advice?

Romulo Barral: Oh yes, a lot, I have a lot of people, they ask me what I do to be good, you know, but it’s hard for people to be focused and follow you. So that’s why I keep this, for when people ask me, what’s your advice. So, I give this one, and then I see, what they can get. If they really give a hundred percent, and then they ask me the next time, what’s my advice, I can give him a little bit more.

But I cannot just tell him everything for him, what to do, because otherwise, if they don’t do it, I will be like a bit disappointed [laughs]. Because I want everybody to be like me, not good, but to do everything as I want to be, to become good, you know. I don’t think I’m good or the best or something like that. For me, it doesn’t matter: if they work hard, that’s how good you’re going to be.

slideyfoot.com: There’s been a lot of talk recently about ‘self defence’ jiu jitsu, with groups like the Gracie Academy saying “Gracie Combatives, this is self defence, we don’t teach sport.” But do you think there really is that split between ‘self defence’ jiu jitsu and ‘sport’ jiu jitsu, or is it all just jiu jitsu?

Romulo Barral: I think it’s just jiu jitsu, you know, because if you want to do self defence, you can go do krav maga. So jiu jitsu is like a complete art, you learn how to punch. People think in jiu jitsu, it doesn’t have a punch, doesn’t have a kick, but jiu jitsu is a complete martial art. You learn how to punch, you learn how to kick, you learn how to have good distance, if you need self defence. It’s a martial art that involves everything. I don’t think they have jiu jitsu for self defence, you know, Gracie Academy, I think it is all the same. Everybody learns the same, at the end of the day, everybody is going to learn the same thing.

slideyfoot.com: Relson Gracie has recently set up a new tournament, the Gracie Pro Am Circuit, which he believes is closer to the original ideals of his father Helio. I’m not sure if you’ve had a chance to look at the rules, but one of them forbids gripping both your opponent’s sleeves for more than 10 seconds. As you’re famous for your spider guard, I was wondering if you had any thoughts on that?

Romulo Barral: Man, it’s the first time I heard about it, but I don’t like it all, really. How am I going to play my spider guard? [laughs] I want to stick my hands on their sleeve and not let go for nothing. It’s not only me, actually, you know? I don’t know, it’s a pretty new thing for me, but if somebody doesn’t want to let you grab their sleeve for more than ten seconds, make a no-gi tournament. I don’t think because you hold the sleeve for ten seconds you’re stalling the fight or something like that, you know? So if you want to do something like that, just do a no-gi tournament, it would be better.

I like the IBJJF rules. That’s the guys, like Master Carlos Gracie, that have worked on this for a long time, to become a better sport. Whatever they change their rule, I will agree, because I know that these guys, they work really hard to make BJJ bigger and bigger, as a sport, everything.

In the next instalment, Romulo talks about spider guard, and his opinions on dealing with injuries. For part one of this five part series, click here. To read more about Romulo, check out RomuloBarral.com, and you can also follow him on Facebook and Twitter

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01/09/2010 - BJJ (Advanced)

Class #338
Gracie Barra Birmingham, (BJJ), Norby Nowak, Birmingham, UK – 01/09/2010

As at RGA Wycombe, I tried to scribble some notes down, as otherwise I’d probably struggle to remember the techniques from both sessions. At Wycombe, I felt particularly comfortable, so I’d happily just sit out some sparring to take notes. I’m not quite at that stage with GB Brum, so instead I did what I used to do at RGA HQ, which is write up notes during the warm-up for the second class (seeing as I’d already be pretty warm from doing the whole beginners class).

Speaking of the Roger Gracie Academy, a new affiliate is opening up soon, and they’re holding a seminar this Saturday at 12:00 to celebrate. Better yet, it’s going to be completely free and open to anyone. Unfortunately, although I will be in London, I’m at a training course (for home maintenance, randomly), so can’t attend. Still, sounds like it should be a good event: further details here.

As this is the last week of De La Riva, Norby went through some more complicated techniques, with legs in all sorts of complicated tangles. He began with something relatively simple, in order to introduce the first technique. You’re in De La Riva, but they point out the knee of the leg you’ve hooked, popping your foot free. So instead, you swing your leg around, then bring it back sharply, bumping their leg. Your foot comes around the front, to push on their hip: make sure you don’t bring it further across, or you’re in danger of getting disqualified (due to the potential danger to their knee.)

This sets you up for an x-guard sweep. From the previous position, either grip their foot on the hooked side, or wrap your hand behind their foot. Your other foot, which was pushing on the inside of their other leg, now hooks behind their knee. The first foot is going to go behind their leg, so that the foot is on the other leg. However, the knee remains behind the first leg: this is important, as otherwise they can just push it out of the way. Finally, your free hand is going to grab the bottom of their same side gi trousers.

After all of that intricate leg work, the sweep is nice and simple. You just extend their legs to knock them to the floor. From their, you can either stand up and initiate a pass, or go for a footlock. If understood correctly (I’m not big on footlocks, so I may well have missed details), the key there is to keep your forehead on the mat, with the blade of your forearm pressing into their Achilles. Keep shifting your upper body towards their other leg, arching your back in order to get the submission.

Another sweep without the spaghetti legs starts similarly, with a leg looped behind theirs, the foot on their hip. This time, you have your other foot on their other hip, still with a grip on the foot of the leg you’ve trapped. Simply raise your hips, pinch your knees on their trapped leg, and drive them to the mat with your knees and the pushing of your feet. Again, you can either stand for the pass or try for a footlock.

Specific sparring was De La Riva, so I was looking to pass in the same way as before, grabbing a leg and moving around. I also tried to concentrate on getting my hips to theirs, sprawling my legs and staying tight. That sometimes worked, but sometimes I also ended up leaving too much space, so it became more of a scramble to get their back, or with them on their side. Also, I need to remember to break their grips, instead of just trying to work with them still in place.

Underneath, I had a mixture of either getting passed easily, or some random sweeps where I didn’t really know what I was doing. That was quite fun, as I managed to knock a few people over, including somebody much bigger. However, as I wasn’t working off any technique, it felt more like a succession of random flukes than anything I could build upon. Still, sometimes I was at least trying to apply some of the principles of the techniques I’d been learning, so that’s a vague plus.

Free sparring was only one round, where I spent the first half trying to avoid getting my back taken, clinging on tightly to their arm while also keeping my elbow and knee tight, to stop them securing both hooks. Holding that arm eventually paid off, as I managed to drive through, flip them over and get to side control. That wouldn’t have worked on anybody much bigger, but fortunately they’re around the same size as me. I then moved on to my favourite attack position, the step over triangle.

After the restart, it was mostly squirming around under side control, looking to attack the arm, before finally getting a leg free and moving back into guard. I’m still too complacent under side control, and I ended up some unfamiliar positions, like really low right down by their legs. Not sure if that’s better or worse for me defensively.

Oh, and in case anyone missed it, I did an interview with multiple world champ Romulo Barral over the Bank Holiday weekend: part one is up now, and I’ll be putting up part two tomorrow. There will be five parts in total, spread out over the next month or so. This weekend, I won’t be on the internet at all, as I’m at that home maintenance course, randomly (which I’ll probably write up, but not on this blog: I’ve got a spare one I hardly ever use).

01/09/2010 - BJJ (Basics)

Class #337
Gracie Barra Birmingham, (BJJ), Dave Iverson, Birmingham, UK – 01/09/2010

I had an appointment that ran over last night, so couldn’t make it to my usual Tuesday basics class. So instead, as I have a half-day today, I’ll be doubling up the Wednesday class. Most likely I’ll be doing that for the next few weeks too, doubling up on Monday classes. I’ll be leaving Leamington around the end of the month, after which I’ll be at home for a while (which means I can go back to training with Kev at RGA Wycombe, which should be cool). The eventual goal is to head to Bristol, where it seems the main choice for training is Pedro Bessa. No idea how long that will take though: might be as late as next year, but we’ll see. Bristol also has the advantage that Donal from GB Brum is there already, and apparently has mats at his place for rolling, which sounds awesome.

Anyway, class tonight was more on De La Riva, going back to the initial couple of sweeps we did back at the beginning of this round of classes. For the first technique (where you pull them over your leg with their lapel) Dave added in two useful details on the foot grip, where he said it depended on if they were gunning for passing with the knee out, or driving it in and across. If they go to turn it out, grab the heel. If they try to drive it across, grab their pant leg.

Dave then moved on to the second sweep, where you spin underneath them and loop their other leg, then roll to come out on top. It was that passing element once you’re on top that was especially good this time round, as Dave added in plenty of details. He was also very helpful when I called him over to check I was doing it properly, walking me through the technique a couple of times, as well as demonstrating it again himself.

As you come on top, make sure you’re sprawled on their leg, so they can’t move into a triangle. You have your same side arm wrapped under that squashed leg, while your free arm is hooked around their other leg. Your head position is also important: this is by that other leg, facing the floor rather than looking side ways, clamped tight.

To pass, punch the arm you have under their trapped leg towards them, twisting so you drive your shoulder into them, and also bring your back leg over in a big circle. There is no need to rush this, as you can use slow, steady pressure to pass. Ideally, you’ll be driving all your weight into your shoulder, which will focus the force into their stomach.

Unfortunately there wasn’t a chance to write up much in the way of notes, as there wasn’t any pause between the classes, as I’d hoped, or a chance to sit out the warm-up of the second one. Instead, I was scribbling a couple of things down while going to get my gumshield in the next class, or when we headed over to drink water. I’ll see what its like on Monday, but might have to continue splitting the two classes across the week if I’m not able to take any decent notes.

Then again, because we did so much drilling today in the basics, that really helped keep the details in my mind. In fact, that drilling was so extensive that it took up the rest of the lesson: there wasn’t any sparring in the basics today. So, if Monday is like that, shouldn’t be a problem.