29/09/2014 - Teaching | The Back | Turtle Wing Escape (Leg)

Teaching #202
Artemis BJJ (Bristol Sports Centre), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 29/09/2014

Last time, we looked at escaping when they're attacking your turtle from the front. If they are moving to the side from behind you, then a different turtle escape comes into play. The idea is similar, but this time rather than blocking their hip with your arm, you're going to use your leg. Place your instep/shin by their opposite hip: it will be the near side hip for whichever side they're moving towards (i.e., if they're moving to your right, use your right leg to hook their opposite hip). Though you don't have to wait for them to move to your side, as you can move into this position if they're directly behind you too.

Once you have that foot in place, you have two options. The simple version is to swivel underneath, towards the side they're trying to reach, putting you right into a strong open guard. Your knee will already be in place to block them and provide some distance control, then you can back that up by framing your arms and bringing your other leg to bear. The more complex option is a bit higher risk, but you get higher potential reward.

This time, grab their trouser leg on the inside, reaching through your own legs (this is key: if you don't get that grip, they can avoid this technique fairly easily). You can then swing your non-hooking leg over the top, so swivelling in the other direction compared to the previous guard recovery. That ends up potentially putting them right into your triangle, but on the downside if you mess it up, they're now in a good spot to pass.
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Teaching Notes: This one was a little trickier than the arm wing from last week, though the principle is much the same. I'm not sure which leg is best to grab on the second method: we experimented with both, but I'll keep playing with that. Although personally I still don't tend to use it as much when sparring, as I prefer the lazier strategy of waiting for an opening, then spinning into it.

Next time we go through turtle, I might teach a really basic class, showing how to stay tight, look for space and then exploit it (e.g., rolling over your shoulder, swivelling into half guard, etc). This will be the last class on the back for a while, as October starts on Wednesday, when the position of the month will be the mount. Should work well, as we started at our new second location in Kingswood on Thursday, where I'd be expecting most of the people there will be beginners. So, perfect time to review the basics of mount. :)

27/09/2014 - Artemis BJJ Available Soon In Kingswood, Bristol | Open Mat

Class #596
Artemis BJJ (Impact Gym), Open Mat, Bristol, UK - 27/09/2014

I was re-reading Rachael's blog this morning (the same Rachael who came along to class on Wednesday): her post on nutrition reminded me I should get back into taking fish oil supplements. My fingers have been quite painful recently, as my training has become more regular than usual. So it was a good thing that I did some nogi rolling today, with Gina: she had good pressure and has taken the guard passing tips to heart. Very coachable student, so I look forward to seeing how she does at the upcoming Grapplers Heart tournament. :)

That increased training frequency is going to continue, as I'll be taking on more teaching starting for next week. We're also going to be adding a new location, which is cool. Bristol Sports Centre is continuing as normal (Mondays & Wednesday 19:30-20:30, along with the free women's class on Wednesdays from 18:30-19:30), but there will be some changes over at our East Bristol spot.

For the last couple of months, the second venue has been in Staple Hill. Starting on Thursday 2nd October onwards, it's going to be in Kingswood instead, at PHNX Fitness. That's the new gym run by two of my students, Dean and Freya. Times will be the same as usual, so Tuesdays from 20:00-21:15, Thursdays from 20:15-21:15, then open mat on Saturdays from 10:00-12:00. Here's the address:

PHNX Fitness
Unit 7, Two Mile Hill Commercial Centre,
Two Mile Hill Road,
Kingswood,
Bristol, BS15 1AZ

There's a map with the address up on the Artemis BJJ locations page: if you can get to Kingswood (or our existing venue in central Bristol), it would be cool to meet you. First week of training is free, while the women's class on Wednesdays is free until the end of the year! I'm excited at the prospect of possibly starting up a second free women's class over at PHNX, but we'll see how the timetable goes. :D

25/09/2014 - Artemis BJJ | The Back | Turtle Escapes To Half Guard & Gi Tail Choke Details

Class #595
Artemis BJJ (Impact Gym), Dónal Carmody, Bristol, UK - 25/09/2014

Fairly straightforward class tonight, with an escape from turtle that essentially involved turning to half guard. I'm not sure I quite got all the details, especially as I'm writing this up a few days later, but the situation is that they have one hook in. First, be careful to block their other hook creeping in, keeping your elbow tight.Turn towards the side they've hooked, spinning towards the floor rather than towards the ceiling. Immediately secure an underhook, putting you into half guard.

In sparring, I was with a strong white belt, playing around with the back take option Dónal showed earlier. I was a bit uncertain about it on Tuesday, but it was working great today. However, I need to grip higher. I was just grabbing whatever bits of gi I could and then rolling over their shoulder. I should have been grabbing right under their armpits and pulling the gi in tight there before rolling, so I'll work on that next time.

Underneath, I went for the wing escape a few times, but generally stayed lazy and just clamped in tight. Once he gave me some space, I grabbed the leg and went to half guard. A few times, I ended up wrapping the bottom of both his legs with mine and then wriggling back into guard, which was a bit random.

With Rafal, I got into the gi tail grip nice and deep, but wasn't able to do much with it. I looked for the choke, then I thought about sweeping, failing to get the post/posture/leverage thing yet again. Finally I thought maybe a triangle, perhaps by digging my leg in and then kicking out. I got confused as to grips: fortunately for me, all was about to become clear.

Dónal had been watching, so I got a quick refresher on the private he taught me a while back about gi tail attacks, with some extra details. The main addition was using their arm to choke them when you can't get into the standard gi tail choke. Reach across with your free hand to grab their elbow, pulling that across your body. I had tried to do that in sparring, but I was just pulling the elbow backwards, thinking about triangles without being in position.

Instead, you do pull it back, but you're just opening it. You've reached right across to grab it. Turn, moving that elbow to your other hip, where you can clamp in with your body to keep it in place. Push off their arm-side hip to scoot your hips out, which will enable you to trap their arm even more. At that point, pulling on the gi tail should result in a choke, combined with pressing into their trapped arm.

The triangle is an option too, but rather than pulling the arm out to get my knee in, you can instead kick the leg down, then swing it around. They aren't normally defending against the leg in that direction, so it's a higher percentage approach.

24/09/2014 - Teaching | The Back | Turtle Wing Escape

Teaching #201
Artemis BJJ (Bristol Sports Centre), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 24/09/2014

Essentially, as they try to move to your side from the front of your turtle, all you do is stick out an arm (your 'wing') on that side, thumb pointing down. Hold it around the level of their hip and don't straighten it. That motion reminds me a bit of how Braulio finishes his running escape, though for this turtle escape, your 'wing' is considerably lower. Also, don't try to wrap up their leg with that arm, keep it straight. By this point, they're already by your side, so single leg attempts etc will likely just put your arm in danger of getting attacked.

That outstretched arm acts as a barrier, preventing them from establishing hip-to-hip contact. As with side control as various other positions, if they can't get their hip next to yours (or alternatively, a knee/elbow/hand by your hip), it considerably reduces their control. You can then do the same motion as in that earlier drill, bringing your leg through to establish a hook. Even better, your arm is already in place to immediately become an underhook, meaning you move right into a strong half guard.
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Teaching Notes: The main things to emphasise next time are keeping that arm straight, as it is hard to overcome the natural tendency to try and grab the leg as they move around to your side. I thought about adding in the second part of the technique, where you use your leg to counter them as they move from behind you, but I'll save that for next week.

I was super-pleased that there were two women in the class, coming over from the women's class directly before. The main reason I set up a women's class was to provide beginners with an access route into the mixed classes (as per Chrissy's sensible advice: this is how she ran her women's classes too), so hopefully this is the start of a trend. The more women there are in the mixed class, the easier the transition from the women's class. :)

Of course, one of those women was not a beginner, she's a three-stripe purple belt. Which was cool in a whole other way, as firstly it is always brilliant to have high-level visitors, secondly she's a perfect training partner for me, as Rachael is around the same size and more experienced. Yay! I've followed her blog for a few years now: you can check it out here.

We're shifting into mount next week, after a final class on the back on Wednesday. Also next week, we're making an exciting move from our current Staple Hill venue (no change at the original Artemis BJJ location in Bristol Sports Centre, where we've been since the beginning) to Dean's new place in Kingswood: the times at Kingswood will be exactly the same as the current Staple Hill times. I'll be putting up full details on the website once we switch, but I am fairly sure it will be from Thursday 2nd October. I'll check tomorrow at the Staple Hill venue to clarify. :)

Update: Matt Freedman put up a helpful comment, featuring two videos that show a variation of this defence. The difference is they put you on top: I like the sound of that, as I'm much happier on top. Something to try next time, and interesting in the context of Chris' question about single legs and the like.

24/09/2014 - Teaching | Women's Class | Standing Guard Break & Leg Pin Pass

Teaching #200
Artemis BJJ (Bristol Sports Centre), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 24/09/2014

Having covered a few options from the bottom of guard (so far, the triangle and the elevator sweep: there will be more fun with guard later), tonight we added in something for the person on top. Start by shoving their sleeve/wrist into their belt knot/belly button. With your other hand, push into their sternum, but be careful you aren't tempted to lean forward as a result. Keep your posture upright.

Raise your knee on the same side as your sleeve/wrist gripping arm, stepping forward with that foot. Basing off your hands (again, don't lean forwards), stand up into a crouch, then stand right up, thrusting your hips forward. Pull up on their sleeve/wrist (if you've lost it, grab their collar, if they are wearing a gi). You then want to push their knee off your hip on the other side, stepping back with your leg on the non-sleeve/wrist gripping side to help.

If you're having trouble getting that knee off, try bouncing your hips to open their ankles, like you were struggling to take off a tight pair of jeans. At the same time, splay your hand by the knee you want to shove (Roger Gracie calls this 'making his hand big') in order to help push down. Immediately as their leg hits the mat, trap their lower leg with your same side shin by sliding it over, driving your knee into their same side hip. Hook your instep around their leg near the crook of their knee. Also shift the foot of your non-sliding leg closer to your bum, so they can't hook it.

The hand which was pushing on the knee now goes to wrap under their head, looking to get your shoulder next to their jaw. I'd suggest switching the other hand (which was gripping on their sleeve/collar/wrist) to behind their leg to stop them bridging and rolling you during the pass attempt. You could also try blocking their near hip with that hand, though that isn't an option I normally use. This also puts you in a powerful guard position, should you need to switch mid-pass if they resist your initial passing attempt.

To finish, swing your non-sliding leg all the way over, so your back is pointing at their head, in a sort of reverse scarf hold: you're sat next to them, facing their legs, sole of your non-sliding leg foot on the floor. You should still have their leg trapped at this point with your hooking foot. Finally, switch your hips, sliding that hooking leg under the back step leg, settling into side control.
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Teaching Notes: A little more complex in terms of technique tonight, but everybody picked it up really well. I went with both the standing break from guard into a leg pin pass, along with a kneeling guard break into a knee cut, to give people who had back issues an alternative. I'm a firm believer that BJJ is for everyone, it's just a matter of adapting BJJ to your body type into a game that works for you. :)

I could perhaps add in some more drills to make that easier. I put in the 'standing in guard' drill, which hopefully helped. I could potentially start adding the knee cut drill as well, like I do in the mixed classes, but will see if that confuses people in future classes (especially if they weren't in this one). Tonight also meant I could introduce side control: next week, I'm planning to do some escapes, shrimping back to guard. That will also mean I can start adding in side control drills in the warm-up too. Yay!

Also, it was really cool to have a purple belt visit today, who was in town for work. I've followed Rachael's blog for a few years: there are few things I enjoy than meeting up with fellow BJJ bloggers. Even better, both she and another experienced grappler stayed on after the women's class to also check out the mixed class. Brilliant! :D

23/09/2014 - Artemis BJJ | The Back | Magic Irish Turtle Escapes

Class #594
Artemis BJJ (Impact Gym), Dónal Carmody, Bristol, UK - 23/09/2014

Turtle escapes today and as ever, Dónal had some useful drills in the warm-up. To simulate trapping the arm and rolling, reach your elbow back and clamp from turtle, then kick back your same side leg and roll through. For a motion directly related to the technique today, again start in turtle. This time, base on your elbow, then step up your opposite side leg. Kick your other leg through, as if going to half guard. To make the drill flow, swivel through back to turtle, facing the other way compared to before.

Dónal also ran through a simple back take, though I think it may be a little hard on the neck (at least when drilling: may have been something else, but my neck was sore afterwards). Clamp onto their back, squeezing your knees to their hips. Reach in to grab both their collars, quickly pulling back so they can't hook an arm. Roll over their shoulder, then pull them over the top. You'd think that would require lots of strength, but the leverage makes it surprisingly easy.

The main techniques for tonight were some magical Irish ways to escape the turtle. Or at least, they seemed pretty magical: I think I may have seen it before, but couldn't find anything in the slideyfoot.com archives. Normally in turtle, my approach is to stay really tight and basically just wait until there is some space. Dónal's method was a great pro-active alternative. It feels counter-intuitive, but works really well.

Essentially, as they try to move to your side from the front of your turtle, all you do is stick out an arm (your 'wing') on that side, thumb pointing down. Hold it around the level of their hip and don't straighten it. That motion reminds me a bit of how Braulio finishes his running escape, though for this turtle escape, your 'wing' is considerably lower. Also, don't try to wrap up their leg with that arm, keep it straight. By this point, they're already by your side, so single leg attempts etc will likely just put your arm in danger of getting attacked.

That outstretched arm acts as a barrier, preventing them from establishing hip-to-hip contact. As with side control as various other positions, if they can't get their hip next to yours (or alternatively, a knee/elbow/hand by your hip), it considerably reduces their control. You can then do the same motion as in that earlier drill, bringing your leg through to establish a hook. Even better, your arm is already in place to immediately become an underhook, meaning you move right into a strong half guard.

If they are moving to the side from behind you, then a different turtle escape comes into play. The idea is similar, but this time rather than blocking their hip with your arm, you're going to use your leg. Place your instep/shin by their opposite hip: it will be the near side hip for whichever side they're moving towards (i.e., if they're moving to your right, use your right leg to hook their opposite hip). Though you don't have to wait for them to move to your side, as you can move into this position if they're directly behind you too.

Once you have that foot in place, you have two options. The simple version is to swivel underneath, towards the side they're trying to reach, putting you right into a strong open guard. Your knee will already be in place to block them and provide some distance control, then you can back that up by framing your arms and bringing your other leg to bear. The more complex option is a bit higher risk, but you get higher potential reward.

This time, grab their trouser leg on the inside, reaching through your own legs (this is key: if you don't get that grip, they can avoid this technique fairly easily). You can then swing your non-hooking leg over the top, so swivelling in the other direction compared to the previous guard recovery. That ends up potentially putting them right into your triangle, but on the downside if you mess it up, they're now in a good spot to pass.

Sparring started off with a white belt who has a fairly intense style, so I went with my usual approach in that situation, aiming to lock him down from guard (ideally I want to get on top and smother them in side control, but that's not always easy with strong, aggressive training partners). I was able to get the overhook guard, clamping down. I had a look for some kind of sweep (again, that post/posture/leverage idea from the Gregoriades/Dale instructional) or choke, but mainly focusing on containing them inside the guard.

In the second roll, I did manage to get on top, so as this was a strong white belt, I moved into my favourite place in BJJ, a heavy side control. Although he wasn't going full force, when I had that crossface, I felt very comfortable holding them there on top. He was able to make some space a bit later on: as soon as you get that separation between your chest and theirs, side control gets harder to maintain. I tried to switch into scarf hold, but ended up getting rolled over. I moved straight back into guard during the transition, but that's a good reminder to make the switch from side control to scarf hold smoother. Also, I need to make the switch on my terms, rather than letting them dictate the pace by making all that space under side control.

22/09/2014 - Teaching | The Back | Crucifix Rolling Shoulder Lock (Reverse Omoplata)

Teaching #199
Artemis BJJ (Bristol Sports Centre), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 22/09/2014

When teaching the Dave Jacobs shoulder lock last week, one of the points that came up is people bending their trapped arm back around your leg as soon as you secure the crucifix. That makes it tough to finish the Jacobs lock, but it sets you up for another shoulder lock, the reverse omoplata. The situation is therefore that you've already got into the crucifix (like this, if you missed the previous lessons), with their arm bent around your leg.

Base out on your far arm, then do a tight roll over your near shoulder, similar to breakfalling. You aren't looking to travel forward much with that roll: attempt to roll underneath yourself. As you roll, reach your near arm under their shoulder, aiming to grab their near leg. Continue the roll, making sure you still have their arm and leg trapped. They will normally roll too, due to the pressure on their shoulder. Be careful, as if you're too explosive you may put excessive strain on their shoulder: stay controlled throughout your rolling motion.

That roll should result with you in an upright position, while they are lying next to you. It's essential that you still have both their leg and their arm trapped. Continuing to lean into them, switch the arm you have controlling their leg, enabling you to move the other arm over their body. I'd suggest putting your elbow into their far armpit for control, as you want to prevent their ability to move.

Base on your far leg, keeping your near leg closely wrapped on their arm: if they are able to unbend their arm at any point, it's going to be really hard to finish the submission. If are able to straighten their arm, it's not disastrous as that puts you in side control with their arm trapped, a great position from which to launch a range of attacks. Assuming you have managed to keep their arm bent with your near leg, use the base from your far leg to keep bringing your hips back. This should eventually torque their arm to the point that they tap.

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Teaching Notes: This class marks the culmination of my Mastering the Crucifix teaching experiment. That's because the reverse omoplata is something that the author of that book, Matt 'Aesopian' Kirtley, has been championing on Aesopian.com for a long time, with some notable success stories (like a guy who managed to learn the technique from Kirtley's site to the extent that he's even won MMA fights with it). He's always said that it is unfairly seen as complex, because it's something he learned on his first day and has been using ever since. I am very keen on basics: up until tonight, the reverse omoplata has been firmly in the "too complex for me" category.

However, I think I'm finally starting to come around to Aesopian's way of thinking, now that I've drilled the technique at open mat and taught a class of mostly beginners a few days later. I'd agree with him that it would be useful to "de-stigmatize the name", as he puts it in Mastering the Crucifix. I'd probably describe this as a 'crucifix rolling shoulder lock', which may or may not be less scary than 'reverse omoplata'. Either way, the mechanics are not as difficult as you might expect, especially if you're already familiar with the crucifix.

Aesopian teaches this with the assumption that you have to force their arm backwards. I simplified it by assuming they've already done that for you, in order to escape that Jacobs shoulder lock I went through before (Aesopian shows something similar in his troubleshooting section, as a way of baiting them into bringing their arm back). That meant I didn't have to teach the part about getting their arm into position, a good thing as there are a fair few moving parts to this technique already.

Everyone in class managed to get the concept ok, even the person who was having his first class (if he decides to stick with BJJ, I'll be very curious to see if he has the same experience as Aesopian, with the reverse omoplata becoming a long-standing part of his arsenal). The main point of difficulty was keeping the arm bent as you moved your hips back, so that's something I'll focus on whenever I next come to teach this. Another related problem is lifting your hips to get that torque without letting them free their arm. But as Aesopian mentions in his instructional, losing the arm means you're in a strong side control position, so all is far from lost.

There are probably some other drills I could use to help with the motion. I tried using breakfalling as a way of getting the motion down, as I think it's similar. I don't generally do much breakfalling, based on my girlfriend and a few others telling me that they found it off-putting in warm-ups. But it would be good to add in some kind of takedown element to the warm-up, at least occasionally, as a few people have asked for that. I'll have a think about the most widely applicable takedown: maybe a single leg? Something else for me to think about. I'll have a look on BJJ Library and see what Saulo recommends, as that's invariably a good supplement.

On a random note, until I was doing the blog labels for my open mat post from Saturday, I had completely forgotten that I've been taught the reverse omoplata before. Turns out I first learned it at RGA Bucks back in 2011. :)

20/09/2014 - Open Mat | The Back | Reverse Omoplata

Class #593
Artemis BJJ (Impact Gym), Open Mat, Bristol, UK - 20/09/2014

Once again, I used the open mat as an opportunity to practice what I wanted to teach next week. Today that was especially important, as I wanted to work on a technique I've been building towards the whole month: the reverse omoplata. I'll talk more about this in the lesson plan write-up on Monday, but this was the culmination of my Mastering the Crucifix teaching experiment, which has gone well so far. I was especially curious to see how students would deal with the reverse omoplata, given Aesopian's evangelising about its inflated perception as complex and difficult.

Practicing it at open mat, I found myself agreeing with Aesopian. The basic mechanics aren't too difficult, especially if you're already familiar with the crucifix. In short, get into the crucifix as normal, base out on your far arm, then do a tight roll over your shoulder, similar to breakfalling. Reach your near arm past their shoulder, aiming to grab their leg. Continue the roll, making sure you still have their arm and leg trapped. They will roll too, due to the pressure on their shoulder.

When you come up, switch the arm you have gripping their leg, putting your original arm over their body for control. Base on your far leg, keeping your near leg closely wrapped on their arm, then bring your hips back. That should torque their arm for the submission. Not a simple technique, but not super-complicated either. We'll see how that goes on Monday: I'm looking forward to it. :)

17/09/2014 - Teaching | The Back | Crucifix Armbar

Teaching #198
Artemis BJJ (Bristol Sports Centre), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 17/09/2014

I've gone through a few chokes from the crucifix, so now I wanted to add in an armbar: that means you can attack with both submissions simultaneously. The entry is the same as before. Starting from the side ride, dig your near knee next to their hip. You're aiming to shove that as deep as you can behind their arm. Once it is in deep, flare the knee out towards you, which should make their arm available for your other heel to hook. Drag it back over your other leg and use your legs to lock that arm in place.

At this point, you've already got a bunch of attacks available to you, but we want to get them face-up. You'll probably be grabbing their wrist, their bicep, their sleeve or something else with your arm on the near side. With your other arm, reach under their far armpit and grab their shoulder. They could trap your elbow and try to roll you at this point, but that puts you where you want to be anyway. In the likely event they aren't foolish enough to do that, you have a few entries to the face-up crucifix available to you.

The one I prefer is from the Dave Jacobs seminar, where you walk backwards until you can get them face-up. The other option, which I included tonight, is to jump and roll over their shoulder, on the non-trapped arm side. This is a bit more acrobatic, so not something I use as often, but it is a viable alternative to the Jacobs method.

Once they're face-up, you don't want their weight too far on top of you, as again that can help them escape: if that happens, shrimp your hips slightly to bring them down again. However, you don't want them to slip too far down to the mat, as there's another escape they can do in that situation. So, if they're too far down, scoop under them to prevent that escape.

For the armbar, find their wrist with the back of your calf. When you get the right spot, flare your knee out, then bridge up into their arm. If they turn their hand, you'll need to follow their elbow with your hips, adjusting your position as necessary. If they manage to bend their arm, you can straighten it back out by 'walking' your feet up their arm. Making sure you still have one leg hooked over their arm (as soon as you don't, they'll free their arm and move to side control), bring the other foot behind and slide it up their arm. You can keep doing that until the arm is straight: this takes a bit of dexterity, but when you get used to the motion, it considerably improves your control.

Keep in mind that all the way through, you should be threatening a choke. That will keep their attention divided between the two submissions, increasing the efficacy of both.

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Teaching Notes: My continuing experiment to show techniques from Mastering the Crucifix has gone well so far. I think I'll emphasise that 'walking' thing with the feet next time, which is something I got from the Dave Jacobs seminar. This also inspires me to try armbars from crucifix more often, as previously I've focused heavily on the choke when attacking from the crucifix in sparring.

I'm still keen to attempt teaching the reverse omoplata, but I'll see how drilling that on Saturday goes (presuming I can make it to the open mat on Saturday). If not, there are several escapes I could show next week instead, from crucifix, the turtle and orthodox back control.

17/09/2014 - Teaching | Women's Class | Triangle Choke

Teaching #197
Artemis BJJ (Bristol Sports Centre), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 17/09/2014

There are lots of ways to set up the triangle, which is one of the fundamental submissions in BJJ. The name comes from the 'triangle' shape you form with your legs, capturing their neck and one arm inside that structure. The basic process is:

1. Get their head and one of their arms inside your legs
2. Put your ankle behind your knee to 'lock' the triangle
3. Squeeze your legs into their carotid arteries on either side of their neck.

Of course, there is much more detail to a successful triangle than that, which I'll break down in the rest of this post.

For the first stage (entry), the simplest option is probably to grab both their wrists (or you could try their forearms) with your same side hands. Push their arm into their stomach, while clamping the other to your chest. You can then bring your hips up in order to fling your leg (on the same side as the arm you've pushed back) over their shoulder, locking your feet by the top of their back. The important thing is to clear that hand and arm you've shoved into their stomach, so that you're ready to move into the triangle.

If you can drive your knee into the inside of the arm you want to clear, that can work too: in Gracie Combatives, Rener pushes into their bicep/crook of their elbow with his knee, grabs the wrist, then kicks over to get into position. Alternatively, he also shows how you can circle your leg around the arm to get your leg past. There are many other entries and not just from guard: the triangle is possible from pretty much every other position in BJJ too, whether that's the back, mount or side control.

Once you've got their head and arm trapped between your legs, it's also helpful to move their arm across your body, though not essential. You can still choke them without that arm across, it just tends to be more difficult. Triangle expert Ryan Hall repeatedly states that it isn't necessary, because you're choking them by pressing their shoulder into their neck, not the lower part of their arm (remember, to choke you are pressing into both carotid arteries on either side of the neck. With the triangle, on one side their shoulder blocks the artery, the other is blocked by your leg).

He demonstrates how you can still choke them even if their arm is on the other side. Still, it isn't 'wrong' to bring the arm across, particularly if you are going for a choke where you're square-on, as per the traditional triangle method. The point Hall makes is that you should never prioritise pulling the arm across rather than controlling the head.

That's because controlling the head is absolutely key. Ideally, you want to pull their head into your belly button rather than your chest, to really break down their posture. If they are able to lift their head up, they can regain an upright posture. So, be sure you have some kind of control over their posture before you attempt the triangle. If they are sat fully upright with strong posture, you're going to struggle to get a triangle from there: a different technique would be advisable.

Once you have their posture broken down and their head and arm between your legs, you want to lock that in place. When locking your legs in this second stage (locking), you can sometimes move straight into a locked triangle. If not, especially if you have shorter legs like me, stick with a secure 'diamond' leg formation rather than a sloppy half-locked triangle. From there, pull on your shin to bring your ankle behind your knee, swivelling off at an angle if necessary. Be sure you don't lock over your toes: it must be your ankle. If your leg is locked on your toes, they have a chance to knock your leg off them. More importantly, if you press down while locked over you toes, you're in danger of injuring your ankle.

You might well find you need to adjust to get your legs locked. Opening your guard to do that is easier, which will enable you to push off their hip with your locking leg foot. However, be careful that you don't give them space to escape when you open. You can maintain control by grabbing the leg you have over the back of their head, meaning that you are replacing the control your leg provided with equivalent control from your arm. Ryan Hall doesn't like to unlock his legs at all, but then he has long legs.

You also need to have your neck leg right across the back of their neck, rather than angling down their back. If it is part way down their back, you are no longer pressing into their neck: their body will get in the way of your choke. Similarly, your locking leg does not want to be obstructed by their shoulder. You therefore don't want to see their shoulder once the triangle is locked in: try and get your leg past it, or simply push their trapped shoulder back a little, in order to get your legs more tightly on their carotid arteries. If they have a lot of shoulder inside your legs, that's a chance for them to drive forward and dig out some room to breathe.

Having locked the triangle, you now have two main options for the third stage (finishing). The traditional way to complete the choke is to squeeze your abductors (i.e., the muscles of your inner thighs) into their neck. At this point, you might also want to raise your hips and/or pull down on their head for some extra pressure. Other little details that can help are pulling your toes back to tense your calves, meaning more pressure on their carotid arteries. Angling your locking leg outwards can also help increase that pressure, a nifty tip from Mike Fowler.

The other main option, which again comes from Ryan Hall, is to instead use what he calls the 'stomp and curl' method. The reason for his preference is that he says this uses larger muscle groups than the abductors, which tend to be comparatively weak. First, he attains a perpendicular angle, meaning he is looking at his opponent's ear rather than their face. From there, he can now kick forwards with his neck leg (the stomp) while pulling down with his locking leg (the curl).

Perpendicular angles are good for smaller people too, as it makes it harder for the opponent to stack you (I'll talk more about stacking in a moment) because you aren't straight on. The easiest way to get a perpendicular angle is hooking under their free arm, then grabbing around your own knee. This also has the advantage of clamping you in place: should they try to square back up, you'll stay where you are as they move. There's a second benefit too in that they can no longer use that arm to create a frame by linking their hands, which they could otherwise use to press into your hips and make space.

You can also grab right under their body and link your hands, though it is unlikely you'll be able to get to that extreme position. Hooking under their leg is another option, but normally you won't have the space to do that. However, it is important to remember the leg grabbing option. That is the best way to stop yourself from being slammed when triangling, so should you want to use a triangle in a situation where slamming might take place, it would be very advisable to hook a leg.

You may find you keep getting stacked, particularly if you are square on. However, as Renzo Gracie teaches, even with that style of triangle you can submit a larger opponent. The key is preventing them from driving into you and curling your body. Renzo's method is to brace his arms against his knee and shin, something I was first shown by my old training partner, Howard. Should they continue to drive forward, all they are doing is extending themselves, which makes it easier for you to choke them.

BJ Penn teaches something similar, which he refers to as the 'triangle sprawl out'. This time, instead of straight-arming into your own leg, you're going to wriggle back, then come up on your elbows and finally your hands. From here, keep moving backwards until they are almost lying down in front of you, making sure your triangle lock around their head is still tight. To apply the submission, drive your legs down as your lean your upper body forwards.

Generating that habit of moving backwards to stop yourself being crunched up is a good habit in general for the triangle, whether or not you're going for the Renzo or BJ Penn finishes above. It is less of an issue if you have attained a perpendicular angle, but sometimes you might find you need to shoulder-walk back in order to get the space to create that angle.
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Teaching Notes: There are three main things I'd like to emphasise next time, as they came up during drilling. First is getting that leg right across the back of the neck, often a point that comes up when learning the triangle. It's natural to put it across the back at an angle, so worth re-emphasising that it needs to be straight across the back of the neck. Connected to that is turning to create an angle, especially if you're struggling to get that leg straight and to lock your legs.

I was focusing on opening the guard and pushing off their hip with your foot. I think next time I might instead focus more on underhooking the free arm and pulling yourself round: that may or may not make it clearer and easier. I did mention it as an option, but without much emphasis.

Finally - and again this kinda connects to the other too - shoulder walking backwards. People getting squished up onto their shoulders is probably the most common issue with triangles, as that makes it hard to finish. The solve that problem, you want to get your shoulders back, so that you extend your body and put your opponent further down. Shoulder walking is the simplest method, I think, which can be helped by stuff like Renzo's bracing against your knee.

I could also talk more about the finish, as a couple of people were having trouble at that point, but I think emphasising angling off would help there. If you can get your legs tighter around their neck and arm, that should end up making the submission easier: creating an angle is a straightforward way of getting that tightness. :)

15/09/2014 - Teaching | The Back | Crucifix (Kneeling) Shoulder Lock

Teaching #196
Artemis BJJ (Bristol Sports Centre), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 15/09/2014

Tonight I shared another technique from the Dave Jacobs seminar, this time from the kneeling crucifix (as Aesopian dubs it in Mastering the Crucifix). Secure the crucifix by driving your knee in from the side ride, flaring your knee out, then hooking their arm with your other heel. Drag their arm back and make sure it stays trapped between your legs.

Put the knee nearest their head slightly forward, still controlling their arm. Turn to face their legs, grabbing their ankle to anchor yourself in place. At this point you will probably need to switch your legs, so that you can get the leg further away from their head closer to their wrist. Twist your body and swing the leg furthest from their head backwards, still hooking the arm. Do this movement gradually, as that shoulder lock can come on quickly, depending on their flexibility.
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Teaching Notes: Interestingly, it seemed people were finding that sometimes this was a shoulder lock, sometimes it ended up attacking the elbow as with an armbar, depending on leg and arm configuration. Chris had a little addition, as he said he liked to be able to see what he was doing when submitting. So, he kept his legs together and twisted back to look at them. He also grabbed their wrist when switching legs, to make sure they can't wriggle their arm free.

Next time, I should probably mention that you can switch legs during the transition, though I'm not sure if that makes it easier. I had a play with the crucifix in sparring, especially the armbar I think I'll teach on Wednesday. I'm not big on armbars, but this is an important one to add into the mix, as it means you can attack with a choke and an armbar simultaneously: Aesopian makes a point of that when he teaches it on Mastering the Crucifix.

I'm also continuing to play with the 'post, posture, leverage' tip on sweeps from Beyond Technique. Although it hasn't yet led me to a sweep, it is useful to have it in mind as a goal when in guard.

13/09/2014 - RGA Bucks | Closed Guard | Roger Gracie Armbar Setups

Class #592
RGA Aylesbury, (BJJ), Sahid Khamlichi & Dan Lewis, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, UK - 13/09/2014

Kev wasn't there tonight, but RGA Bucks has plenty of other excellent instructors: there were two examples providing fantastic technique tonight, Sahid and Dan. Both of them recently returned from a BJJ camp were Roger Gracie in Spain recently, meaning their jiu jitsu power supplies were primed and ready.

It was all armbars from closed guard today, a submission I've never really gotten to grips with, both literally and figuratively. I tend to go for chokes rather than armbars, because I always feel that I leave too much space when I try to armbar and therefore risk losing position. RGA Bucks to the rescue, as the armbars Sahid and Dan showed were super-tight.

Sahid was up first, dividing his armbar sequence into three sections. First up, the legs. You're in closed guard. For the purposes of this drill (this could work nicely as a warm-up too), they are going to help you by putting their elbow on the opposite side of your belt knot. Bring your leg on the same side as that arm up, so you can pin your knee against their shoulder. Your other leg kicks up into their armpit. Use that to turn your own body, also bringing their body down with the armpit leg. You can now bring your first leg over their head, keeping your heels pointing down (don't cross your legs).

Next, you're going to add in one of your arms. They aren't generally going to give you their arm, so you'll have to drag it across yourself. Reach across with your opposite side arm and grab slightly above their elbow. Still keeping your ankles crossed, lift your hips, then as you drop them, pull the arm across your body. You want to end up with their arm between your forearm and bicep, enabling you to clamp your elbow to your side while also pinning their arm. Your hand goes to your chest.

Step your knee up on their trapped-arm side, again pressing it into their shoulder. Make sure you don't raise that knee before you've pinned the arm, as opening your guard at that point may give them enough space to start escaping. Then finish as before, kicking your other leg up into their armpit, swivelling, bringing your first leg over their head and completing the submissions.

The third and final stage adds in a collar grip with your free hand. Reach for their collar after you've pinned their arm, then pull them down. You can also use the elbow of that collar gripping arm to block the elbow of their trapped arm. That prevents them from trying to bring the elbow of their trapped arm to your other side hip, as that would scupper your armbar attempt.

Dan took over for the second armbar variation, which has some similarities but does not build off reaching across the body and pulling their elbow across. Instead, it starts with a grip break, as they've grasped your collar in the standard guard passing position. This is the classic two-on-one grip break where you grab their sleeve on top with one hand, then reach underneath their arm and grab your own wrist. You need to make sure that your grabbing the sleeve with the opposite side arm.

A handy tip Dan added for the grip break is to roll your wrists as high up their arm as you can before punching upwards to break the grip. Maintain your hold on the sleeve, then pull your elbow back. Rather than bringing it to your side, get your elbow high by your head, as far back as you can. This strangely makes the hold harder to break: you can test that out by getting your partner to try pulling their arm back when you have your elbow by your side and when it is up high past your head. That makes me wonder if that would work in other situations, like when holding a lasso spider guard.

Grab their collar with your free hand, doing a small shrimp in the direction of their trapped arm side to get a better angle. then use the high elbow as base to come up and get an even deeper grip. When you move back down, you can use that motion to get gravity on your side to help break their posture. My training partner had a detail on this, as he likes to drive his knuckles into their neck when you have that grip: I probably wouldn't use that personally, but it is definitely effective. I could feel a choke starting to come on during drilling!

Relock your guard up over their shoulder on the trapped arm side, almost as if you're doing a triangle. Push their head away with your gripping hand, then bring your leg over their head. Angle that leg away slightly (so it is a line across the back of their head), to make it harder for them to drive into you, like on Adam Adshead's DVD from a couple of years ago.

Sparring started off with me getting stuck under side control. I was trying to stay tight, move around a make space, but didn't pay enough attention to his arm reaching underneath. Too late, I realised he was setting up a baseball bat choke. I attempted to defend by spinning and underhooking his leg, but he already had that in tight for the submission. Good reminder to watch their arms!

In my next roll I had a go at getting some of the armbar set-ups but couldn't isolate the arm properly. I also tried practicing a principle from Beyond Technique, which I'm reviewing at the moment. It's the most useful one I've seen so far on the DVD, related to sweeps, but I didn't have too much luck. The idea is to have post, posture and leverage: I think I keep missing leverage.

Final roll was with one of my favourite training partners at RGA Bucks, which was cool. We had a flow roll to end, always a great way to cool down from training. I had loads of good chats as well, catching up with Stuart, Sahid and others. I look forward to my next RGA Bucks visit, either in late October or early November. :)
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In keeping with previous visits to my parents, they took me down to London right after I got back and showered from training. I started off by heading with my father to the Tate Britain, to take a look at the exhibition on Turner's late works. As I've mentioned before on here, my tastes in art are fairly narrow: there isn't a lot I enjoy outside of 1400-1700. I'm therefore not a fan of Turner's work, especially as he is best known for his landscape painting and veering towards impressionism and even abstraction in some of his later stuff. If it isn't figurative, then I'm unlikely to be a fan, though I'm nevertheless interested in learning more about it. I think it's important to understand why you don't like something, rather than just dismissing it out of hand, and of course keeping an open mind can turn apathy into appreciation.

So, I was still looking forward to checking it out. I'll watch documentaries on anything (from shipping containers to heavy metal to German Romanticism), whether I'm a big fan or not. Tickets are £16.50, while the audio guide is about £3.50. That's well worth it, as the guide is well presented and packed with enlightening information. Considering that I'm not keen on Turner, I especially enjoyed the context provided by the commentary , both about Turner's life, his environment and his style. Best of all, it got into the nitty-gritty of exactly how he worked. There are six rooms of Turner's paintings (including other bits and pieces, like his glasses and sketch books), of which the audio guide covers 22, IIRC.

I whizzed round the exhibition, only really looking at the paintings covered by the guide, so it took about an hour and a half. Normally, I would have spent at least twice that looking intently at every painting, but that's when it's something I particularly relish (e.g., the 16th century German art at 'Strange Beauty' back in March). You could probably spend a good two or three hours if you wanted to, though I'd avoid Saturdays if you can as that's going to be more crowded.

At the end of the day, my parents treated me to a posh meal at the Ham Yard Hotel. I'm not sure what the rooms are like (they start at £400!), but the food in the restaurant is excellent and the service is fantastic. Perhaps unsurprising: the waiter told us that she was one of 5,000 people interviewed, of which only 38 were successful. If that's true, then it would explain why every single member of staff was so attentive, friendly and capable. But then it's not cheap, so you'd expect decent service. Another big plus is that they serve Pedro Ximénez, my favourite tipple: I don't drink often (this is probably the third alcoholic drink I've had in six months), but when I do, I look for syrupy sweet sherry. ;)

11/09/2014 - Artemis BJJ | The Back | Turtle To Standard Back Control

Class #591
Artemis BJJ (Impact Gym), Dónal Carmody, Bristol, UK - 11/09/2014

Progressing from his series on maintaining the turtle, Dónal showed a simple option for moving to orthodox back control. You're behind them: on one side, you stick your arm in up to the wrist by their hip, where it stays in as a hook. Leave a leg behind on that side too, still tight to their body. Your remaining arm reaches for their arm on the other side, joined by your other knee.

If there is space, you can just replace your forearm with your leg to insert your hooks. Note that for the second hook, you will have to turn your body before you can insert it, or you'll find the motion awkward. Pull them to to the side, rolling them over the knee you had on the arm-gripping side, ideally straight into back mount. You'll also want to establish a harness/seat-belt grip, with an arm over the shoulder and the other under the armpit.

In specific sparring, I had a play with the back take I learned from Rickson, where he takes a leaf out of Marcelo Garcia's Advanced Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Just like Marcelo, Rickson showed how if you have that seatbelt, you can maintain the back even without having your hooks in place. If your opponent is in the turtle, you can simply establish your seat belt, then leap over and roll them into place. I managed it once or twice, but I need to be tighter. Also, this was against a beginner (he had some other grappling experience, but not BJJ).

That was followed by some free sparring with Gina: I gave her a few tips on passing (my usual thing, where I tell them to pin my legs and walk round). She picked it up quickly, which is always cool to see. I'm looking forward to hearing how she does over at the Grappler's Heart tournament (scroll down here for more info) Jon Gelber emailed me about a while ago. Looks like an awesome competition, so check out that entry info if you are a (or know any) disabled grappler. :)

10/09/2014 - Teaching | The Back | Crucifix Single Collar Choke

Teaching #195
Artemis BJJ (Bristol Sports Centre), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 10/09/2014

A photo posted by Artemis BJJ (@artemisbjj) on Sep 9, 2014 at 8:04pm PDT

Tonight I went with another choke from the crucifix. It begins in a very similar way to yesterday's class, but this time you use the gi so the finish is slightly different.

Starting from the side ride, dig your near knee next to their hip. You're aiming to shove that as deep as you can behind their arm. Once it is in deep, flare the knee out towards you, which should make their arm available for your other heel to hook. Drag it back over your other leg and use your legs to lock that arm in place. At this point, you've already got a bunch of attacks available to you, but we want to get them face-up.

You'll probably be grabbing their wrist, their bicep, their sleeve or something else with your arm on the near side. With your other arm, reach under their far armpit and grab their shoulder. They could trap your elbow and try to roll you at this point, but that puts you where you want to be anyway. In the likely event they aren't foolish enough to do that, you have a few entries to the face-up crucifix available to you.

The one I prefer is from the Dave Jacobs seminar. Walk your feet back towards their bum, staying low and tight. Keep walking until you roll over their leg, putting them face-up. As you move into that position, make sure that your far arm is hooking back behind your head: otherwise, they can wriggle their arm free without too much trouble, enabling them to turn and escape. You can also begin to establish your grip mid-roll, reaching for the collar with your free arm.

You don't want their weight too far on top of you, as again that can help them escape: if that happens, shrimp your hips slightly to bring them down again. However, you don't want them to slip too far down to the mat, as there's another escape they can do in that situation. So, if they're too far down, scoop under them to prevent that escape.

You're now ready for the choke, which is nice and simple. With your free arm, reach around their neck and get a deep grip on their collar. Pull that around the neck as you would in a bow and arrow choke, getting additional leverage due to the way you've trapped their arm with your non-choking hand. For another boost of leverage, Aesopian's tip from Mastering the Crucifix is handy: bring their weight slightly onto you and bridge up into them.
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Teaching Notes: Not too much to add in, except I could perhaps talk more about getting your free arm into place as you transition. Teaching the crucifix has gone well so far and proved to be a good test of the instructionals I'm reviewing at the moment (or at least, two of them, as I haven't finished watching the third one for Nic Gregoriades and Kit Dale, or indeed the fourth one from Roy Dean. Lots in the pipeline at the moment!) I could potentially repeat a lesson on Monday, depending on who shows up, but I'd like to give the reverse omoplata a try.

I would never normally teach something like that, but a central pillar of Mastering the Crucifix - and Aesopian's online output generally over the last decade - is that the reverse omoplata can be effectively picked up and used by beginners. I'll make sure to test it out on a beginner at open mat first. Either way, I'm curious to see how it goes. It's also a handy option when they've curled their arm back in the crucifix, IIRC.

10/09/2014 - Teaching | Women's Class | Elevator Sweep

Teaching #194
Artemis BJJ (Bristol Sports Centre), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 10/09/2014

I introduced the important concept of shrimping tonight, via the elevator sweep. This follows on from the upa we learned in the first Artemis BJJ women's class, as if you're rolled over from mount with that technique, you can move right into closed guard. This is perhaps the signature position in BJJ, which you can see in the picture. 'Closed guard' is when you are wrapping your legs around their hips, then 'closing' the position by crossing your ankles behind their back. Here's some more info about closed guard, over on the Artemis BJJ website.

From here, you need to break their posture: if they are upright, the sweep will be difficult (that's where techniques like the sit-up sweep come in). Overhook one of their arms (i.e., wrap your arm over the top), reaching through to the other side of your chest to lock that in place. Your other arm is going to underhook (the opposite of overhook: you're reaching underneath this time) their same side arm pit, pulling them down towards you.

They are probably going to try and drive into your with their full weight, often stepping out a leg to add more power. In this scenario, they've stepped up their leg on the underhook side. In response, you're going to move your hips out (what in BJJ is called shrimping) in the direction of your underhook. Uncross your legs, then circle the leg on the underhook side around, until you can hook behind their knee. You might need to shrimp out further if you're finding it hard to get your foot in place. Your other leg slides down to the outside of their same side leg.

From here, you can now sweep them. Bump them with your underhook, whacking their armpit with your bicep. Your aim is to knock them forwards: that disrupts their balance, making it easier for you to sweep. Lift with your hooking foot, using your other leg to chop into their leg. Simultaneously turn towards them, continuing the motion until your end up on top. Be sure to drive your leg through into mount: if you leave a leg between their legs, they will be able to trap it (putting you in what's called 'half guard').

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Teaching Notes: I thought long and hard about what to show tonight. I knew I wanted something that could introduce the concept of shrimping, as that's really important to learn early on, but there were lots of choices. At the moment, I've built up about 24 classes that flow together, which I'm intending to use as a flexible curriculum for the women's class. I began with the upa, then a few sessions on mount, flowing into the back. The next big thing I wanted to cover was shrimping, building up to the shrimp escape from mount.

I decided tonight was going to be something from closed guard, where again there are lots of options. At first I thought armbar, but then decided to have a look at what Gracie Combatives picked as their first technique from guard that involved a shrimping motion somewhere. That turns out to be the elevator sweep, a simple technique I can remember playing with early in my jiu jitsu, but haven't used much since (I think because the butterfly sweep does something similar but much more effectively. That's probably too complex to show as an initial introduction to guard, but then again, could be an option: Jason Scully has been discussing how he likes to show open guard before closed guard when he teaches, which is interesting).

They do show the triangle before that, which I'm probably going to do next week, but that's not something where shrimping is a big factor (I think? I haven't taught it in a while, so perhaps it's more helpful for shrimping that I'm imagining). The elevator requires you to shrimp your hips out for the angle, which is why I picked it. That was where a number of people were having problems, as you'd expect: it's easy to end up flat if you're not used to martial arts where you move on your back (so, that's most people).

However, I think on reflection the armbar from guard might have worked better to highlight shrimping. There's also the scissor sweep, but that's a bit more awkward without a gi. You can grab behind the head instead of a collar I guess, so that's another one I could try at some point.

I still haven't put in any takedowns to the class, but I'm intending to do the really simple body fold they show on Gracie Combatives. I had another look at it before class, which confirms it's a good option. I wouldn't want to do a whole class on takedowns just yet, so this would be as part of the warm-up. The advantage of that body fold is it can be done with control all the way down to the floor. That means that breakfalling and the like isn't as essential as it normally is when learning takedowns.

I'll give it a try when I teach the triangle, I think. I may do that next week, but ideally I'd like to have Christine, Alex or my girlfriend there to demonstrate. It's much easier when I have somebody with a bit of experience as uke, though fortunately I have several regulars at the class, so they are becoming experienced too. Cool! Hopefully they'll feel ready to try out the mixed classes in the future (there's one right after the women's class, so I'm guessing that would be the most convenient one for them to check out). :)

09/09/2014 - Teaching | The Back | Crucifix Single Arm Choke

Teaching #193
Artemis BJJ (Impact Gym), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 09/09/2014

My gf and I headed to Devon last Friday, stopping in at Sidmouth along the way to visit a friend who has moved over from Northern Ireland after 12 years away. Our main destination was Lyme Regis, to enjoy the lovely weather (it was consistently 19 degrees C until Tuesday, thankfully) and a number of events that were taking place. On a totally unrelated note, if you missed it, my Saulo Ribeiro and Fabio Santos interviews can be found here: go read them! :)

[To skip right to the BJJ, click here]

The Guitars on the Beach festival in Lyme Regis was going for a world record attempt for the greatest number of guitarists simultaneously playing the same song (or something like that). Unfortunately it was a bit boring because of the PA system: despite the fact that there were almost four thousands people playing at the same time, it didn't sound any different than one because the PA system drowned it out. But meh, Ian Gillan made an appearance to join in with Smoke on the Water, so that was cool.

More exciting was the 'Food Rocks' festival. I'm very far from a foodie (I have the taste buds and diet of a five year old), but there was an enjoyable series of talks taking place as part of the event. I really enjoyed learning more about tea (I don't drink it) and chocolate (I eat FAR too much of it). The Comins Tea House talk was especially interesting, given that I know nothing about tea as I never drink tea nor coffee. However, I have been intrigued by green tea, as I've heard about the health benefits from Eddie Goldman on NHB News.

Apparently, to make green tea, you should always use 80 degree C water, not boiled: otherwise, it gets bitter. Tea bags are a bit rubbish too, as they're made with the discarded tea dust. That used to be put back on the field as fertiliser: it was only when somebody accidentally invented the tea bag (a merchant who gave out samples in little bags: his customers started dunking the whole thing in their drink and asking for more bags, so he jumped on it) that they sold it instead.

At the chocolate talk from Chococo, I got to try loads of super tasty stuff, especially my favourite, mega dark chocolate. Despite the low opinion the Chococo rep had for mainstream cheap stuff, I like ALL chocolate, so everything tasted good to me (she was trying to indicate that it was cheap for a good reason, but it made no difference to my belly). However, I didn't know Cadburys apparently use palm oil in their products, so that's off-putting. Even Cadbury's Fair Trade stuff is suspect, according to Chococo. Educational day!

Aside from food, we also did a load of walks. The best was saved for last, on our way back to Bristol. Stopping off at Beer (the place in Devon, not the drink!), we headed to an area called The Undercliff. This was formed in 1790, when the original cliffs had a huge landslide. The result was a new area of 10 acres underneath the cliffs. As you can see from the pic at the top of this post, it's gotten rather overgrown in the ensuing couple of centuries, making for an excellent walk with spectacular views. A few hours later, I was packing my gi, ready to teach the crucifix at Artemis BJJ.

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Tonight I wanted to move into a technique I've been playing with since I first learned it earlier this year at the Dave Jacobs seminar in Virginia: the crucifix. My desire to work more on the crucifix is the main reason I wanted to pick turtle as our Artemis BJJ position of the month for September.

Starting from the side ride, dig your near knee next to their hip. You're aiming to shove that as deep as you can behind their arm. Once it is in deep, flare the knee out towards you, which should make their arm available for your other heel to hook. Drag it back over your other leg and use your legs to lock that arm in place. At this point, you've already got a bunch of attacks available to you, but we want to get them face-up.

You'll probably be grabbing their wrist, their bicep, their sleeve or something else with your arm on the near side. With your other arm, reach under their far armpit and grab their shoulder. They could trap your elbow and try to roll you at this point, but that puts you where you want to be anyway. In the likely event they aren't foolish enough to do that, you have a few entries to the face-up crucifix available to you.

The one I prefer is from that Jacobs seminar. Walk your feet back towards their bum, staying low and tight. Keep walking until you roll over their leg, putting them face-up. As you move into that position, make sure that your far arm is hooking back behind your head: otherwise, they can wriggle their arm free without too much trouble, enabling them to turn and escape.

You don't want their weight too far on top of you, as again that can help them escape: if that happens, shrimp your hips slightly to bring them down again. However, you don't want them to slip too far down to the mat, as there's another escape they can do in that situation. So, if they're too far down, scoop under them to prevent that escape.

You're now ready for the choke, which is nice and simple. With your free arm, reach around their neck, aligning your elbow with their chin. Grab their shoulder-blade with the hand of that arm. Put your head tightly next to theirs, then squeeze your arm slightly and drive the shoulder of that arm into their head, as if you were trying to push through it. That should make them tap.
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Teaching Notes: This is the first time I've taught the crucifix, drawing on the Dave Jacobs seminar, along with two of the various instructionals I'm reviewing at the moment: Mastering the Crucifix by Aesopian and a video on the turtle by Nathan Leverton. Since the seminar in April, the crucifix has been my go-to "cool move to show somebody at open mat" position. So, in a sense I have taught it before, but only in terms of sharing it on a one-to-one or one-to-two basis.

I therefore wasn't sure how complicated people were going to find it. Bearing out what Aesopian argues all the way through his instructional, nobody had any major problems with the technique, including somebody whose first ever class of BJJ was with me last week. Still, there were a few recurring errors I'll know to look out for next time. The most common was people ending up too far on the arm, past the elbow. If you do that, it's easy for them to slip their arm free.

Secondly, a number of people weren't getting their elbow all the way around to the chin. You can still finish the choke from there, but it tends to hit the windpipe more than the sides of theneck that way. Finally, and less importantly, some people weren't clamping their head right next to the other person's head. You don't have to do that to finish the choke, but it helps.

I wasn't sure if it was best to go with the crucifix entry I like, which is the walking backwards towards their legs option that Jacobs taught. The standard entry is rolling over the top of them: that's a bit acrobatic for me, but I mentioned it to a couple of people who were semi-jumping to enter already.

A few other points I want to think about for next time (which would be tomorrow, after the women's class) are: sliding the knee in to get their arm free (specifically how to dig in if super tight), the best option for that second grip (I was going under the armpit and around the shoulder, but you could also go for the wrist, the sleeve, the collar etc).

04/09/2014 - Artemis BJJ | The Back | Unwrapping the Turtle

Class #590
Artemis BJJ (Impact Gym), Dónal Carmody, Bristol, UK - 04/09/2014

Quick update from the Artemis BJJ website: the interview I did with Saulo Ribeiro is now up here. In regards to class tonight, I didn't get in much training, as I was helping out with teaching. Attendance was huge today, so we thought two instructors would be better than one (seeing as we were both there).

Still, while I didn't get to drill or spar, I was able to feel the technique in my usual role as Dónal's uke. You're on their back, attacking the turtle. When directly behind them, clamp your knees by their hips, then taking your feet off the floor, 'sit' on their thighs and sink your weight down and back (staying tight). That should cause their head to raise slightly, opening them up for attacks and your grips. Shifting to put your knee next to theirs, move round to the side and yank them towards you.

If they try to roll out over their shoulder and recover guard, reach through to far hip like last time. That escape motion was my main bit of drilling, while demonstrating it with Dónal : roll over your shoulder to get your guard back, swinging your legs in front of them. You're effectively rolling on the spot (pretty much the same motion as a breakfall, without the hand slapping part), as tight a turn as possible to recover your guard.

03/09/2014 - Teaching | The Back | Clock Choke

Teaching #192
Artemis BJJ (Bristol Sports Centre), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 03/09/2014

After the women's class, we continued with our position of the month. I went with the simplest attack I know from turtle, the clock choke. Personally I have never had much luck with the standard version, so I use an 'elbow wedge' variation I learned from my instructor Kev Capel (and he in turn learned it from Felipe Souza, who we both used to train with at RGA HQ).

From the side ride, move from grabbing their arm to reaching through for a grip on their far collar. To enhance that grip, there is the option of reaching under their arm with your far arm and opening up the collar, then feeding it to your other hand. Be aware that there is a danger of them reaching back to trap your elbow if you do that. Either way, once you have a deep grip, bring the arm that was by their far leg to the near side of their head. Use your elbow as a wedge against their skull, giving you a sort of 'backstop' to pull their collar through.

Pressing that arm into their skull produces a fair bit of leverage in conjunction with your collar grip. Increase it by leaning back slightly, while walking your legs around towards their head (but maintain your weight on their shoulders, or you'll relieve the pressure). This should result in a choke.
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Teaching Notes: It's worth pointing out that if the grip isn't quite right on the far collar, this can end up being an air choke rather than a blood choke. So, worth considering that: I think the air choke can happen when your grip is too shallow. It also depends on the positioning of your wrist, as depending on how bent it is, that can cause your forearm to drive into their windpipe.

03/09/2014 - Teaching | Women's Class | Bridging Back Escape

Teaching #191
Artemis BJJ (Bristol Sports Centre), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 03/09/2014

The first rule of the back position is protect your neck. There are lots of ways of doing that, but my preference is the Saulo Ribeiro method. One hand is in your opposite collar, the other hand floats, ready to block their incoming grips. Don't reach too far with that arm or you'll leave space: keep it near your chest. Your elbows are inside their knees, ready to pop off their hooks if the opportunity presents itself.

Next, bring your knee up on their choking arm side (so, the arm that is reaching over your shoulder and trying to wrap your neck, rather than the arm coming under your armpit). Angle your knee inwards, to prevent them from rolling you back the other way: they will find it easy to choke you if they can roll you in the direction of their choking arm. In one quick motion, move your head forwards and simultaneously shove their head sideways (this is presuming they know what they are doing and have their head tight to yours for control). Look towards them, keeping your head and neck firm in order to stop them moving their head back into place.

Push off your leg and bridge back, aiming to get your shoulders and spine to the mat. If you aren't able to get your head past theirs, still push off your leg. Put your head on the mat and then grind it underneath their head. This isn't pleasant for either of you, but it is generally effective: preferably you can get your head past theirs in the gentler method above. If you can, clamp your arm that is nearest the mat to your side, aiming to trap their arm. To really immobilise them, see if you can use that same arm to grab their opposite sleeve/wrist, meaning you're using one arm to control both of theirs.

With your near arm, grab their trousers by their top leg (either by the knee or a bit lower). When you have the opportunity, switch to grip with the other hand. There are several options at this point. I like to either reach across their neck and grab the gi, or better, reach under their head, grip the far armpit then lock my shoulder into their head and shoulder. Either way, push off your free leg and turn to try and come on top. With your grip on the knee, stiff-arm so they can't lock their half-guard (if they do lock their half guard, this puts you in the opposite side half guard pass position, so proceed from there). Free your leg (pushing on their leg if you need to) and move into side control.

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Teaching Notes: From this lesson onwards, I'll be deviating from the Gracie Combatives structure I've drawn upon up until now, as it doesn't have enough positional coverage for my purposes (e.g., I want to make sure I'm including attacking, defending and maintaining for side control, mount, side control and guard, keeping it relatively clumped together for each position).

One thing I haven't included yet is any takedowns: one of the students asked about how you get things to the ground, so it would be worth maybe including some kind of super-basic, high percentage takedown in the warm-up. I wouldn't want a high amplitude throw, as I'm not sure I want to get in depth on stuff like breakfalls just yet. Something for me to think about: maybe the body fold? Or a simple single leg? Lots of options, though personally I'm not big on takedowns.

Tonight is probably the most complex technique I've taught so far in the women's class, especially the latter section. Teaching something to absolute beginners who have either never seen that position before or sparred from it really makes it clear when something has a lot of moving parts!

The bits that seemed to confuse people were stiff-arming into the leg using your far arm rather than the near arm. That's counter-intuitive and takes some getting used to. Reaching under the head for the cross-face control also took some time: it makes sense if you're used to cross-facing from side control and the like, but feels odd if not. The simpler drop the elbow and turn was easier to comprehend, but that did mean I also had to describe top half guard (though I think everybody picked it up: that also helped show why the cross-facing option is useful, due to the superior control it offers, at least IMO).

Looking at the picture of Xande doing a similar escape above reminds me that there is an option where you can use your near arm to grab their leg, if you're happy to move into guard rather than get on top. I prefer working for the dominant position, but going to guard is totally legitimate too. Once people have an understanding of guard, then that could be a good one to throw in. I could also try teaching that version next time, as it might reduce confusion due to using the intuitive arm.

In the interests of simplifying this particular technique further (it was even more confusing in previous lessons ;D), I've cut out a number of details from the main demonstration, saving them for drilling in case anyone needs extra pointers. So, to repaste them here, especially the second part about dealing with people remounting (I'm still not sure whether that should be in a separate lesson or not):

Due to your body slipping off to the side, they are probably going to try and come on top. To do that, they need to be able to turn their legs down and then away from you. Keep your legs in tight to block them: with your leg back, that forms an effective barrier to their efforts to turn. There are a couple of ways you can do that. The first one is hooking their top leg (if they're trying to turn on top, they'll be on their side) with your near leg. Get your foot towards your bum to lock their leg in place. Alternatively, step your near leg behind the knee of their bottom leg and pinch your own knees together.

When you are in the process of escaping, an alternative to the cross-face option I like is bringing your near elbow down past their body, on the inside. At this point, make sure you've got your outside knee angled towards them, once again for base. Shrimp away, get your near arm back, then turn straight into the leg squash pass position. I prefer to get control of the shoulder and head, so went with that option instead.

If you find they keep moving through to mount, the first option is to make sure you've got a really firm grip on their leg. You may be able to use that grip to prevent them getting to mount, as well as using it as a base point. Shrimp back and go to open guard. Alternatively, try shifting to deep half. I am not a big fan of deep half, as it is getting into the more complex territory I strive to avoid in BJJ. However, it's undeniably a useful option in this scenario.

You're attempting the escape as above, but they have managed to get their heel to your hip and you can't prevent them moving towards mount. Instead, shove their lower leg between yours, then reach underneath their bum with your near arm, reaching up and shoving their far butt cheek. That should knock them forward while simultaneously dragging you underneath.

Wrap around the outside of their leg with your bum-shoving arm, just below the knee. Hide your other arm underneath their leg, or at least tuck the elbow in tight: if their sleeve is in reach, grab it. The first thing they will try to do when you put them in deep half is underhook that hidden arm, meaning you want to take away any space for them to wedge in their arm. From there, pull their knee outwards and spin in that direction, in order to come on top and pass.

Next up in the mixed class right after, clock choke.