16 April 2014

16/04/2014 - Flying to USA Tomorrow | Teaching (Retake the Back)

Teaching #149
Bristol Sports Centre (Artemis BJJ), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 16/04/2014

I'm catching a plane tomorrow morning to the USA, starting with Virginia. After that I'll be heading to Texas and Florida. As always, the main point of the trip is to meet up with some cool BJJ blogger friends. Yay! I get back to the UK in May: Dónal will be covering the two Wednesdays until I get back, showing Artemis BJJ students the mysteries of the back position.

Hopefully I'll be able to catch up on my sleep at some point soon, as with the GrappleThon last weekend, it's been a busy last few days! The event went really well, with over £5,000 raised so far! My write-up can be found here. ;)
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I briefly covered technical mount a couple of weeks ago, as part of maintaining high mount, so I thought that moving on to a back take that starts from technical mount would make sense. At the same time, this is also a method of retaking the back if you lose one hook, so it has some versatility.

In the context of retaking the back, the time to use this is before they get their shoulders to the mat. They've managed to clear one of your hooks and started bringing their hips over. Before they can get their shoulders to the mat, press your chest into their shoulder and roll them onto their side, in the direction they were escaping. You'll probably need to balance on your shoulder and head to get into the right position.

As they have cleared one of your legs, you should be able to then slide that knee behind their head (you might need to post on an arm, but see if you can do it without releasing your seatbelt grip). Sit back and roll them over your knee, then re-establish your second hook (note that in sparring, this will almost certainly be blocked, but that's for another class). You can keep doing that from side to side as a drill.

To go from technical mount to the back, the motion is the same, but you are in a more stable starting position. Simply drop back from technical mount, rolling them over the knee you have near your head. The foot you had by their hip becomes your first hook, so you just need to bring the second hook over. That can be easier said than done, which is why we'll be discussing some methods on getting that second hook into play as part of a future lesson.
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Teaching Notes: I feel relatively happy with this lesson, though I'm not sure it's essential to add in the "and here's how it fits with technical mount" part. Then again, it didn't seem to detract from the main thrust of the lesson: hopefully having that extra bit acts as a useful context, showing that the technique is applicable in multiple situations.

The main thing people were having trouble with is basing on their shoulder and head as they wiggle their knee up. Walking round and demonstrating it as they were drilling seemed to do the trick, but perhaps I should be modifying it somehow to make it more clear when I'm initially demonstrating.

I also added the 'turn to technical mount' side to side into the warm-up again, especially as it's very applicable to today's lesson. That warm-up structure remains fluid. At the moment, my thinking is something like this:

1. Shrimps
2. Shrimp to knees
3. Bridge & Shrimp
4. Continuous side control escape
5. Technical mount side to side

I'd also like to add in stand up in guard sit-ups and Bullfighter pass drilling, then perhaps builds up to a few sequences (e.g., elbow escape > sit up sweep > elbow escape > repeat; Stand up in guard > break guard > bullfighter pass > reverse half guard to mount > upa > repeat; Back > bridging escape > reverse half guard to mount > technical mount > back > repeat), but that might be both too complex and take too long. I'll see how it goes over the next few months. Might get some ideas when I'm in the US too. :)

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