30/06/2014 - Teaching | Half Guard | Shoulder Pressure Pass

Teaching #162
Artemis BJJ (Bristol Sports Centre), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 30/06/2014

Your opening goal is to get them flat on the mat: there are passes you can do while they are on their side, but generally speaking it is much easier if their back is pinned to the floor. A simple method, drawing on the Ribeiro brothers, is to drive your free knee into their hip, block their head with your same side arm, then step your trapped leg up and away from you. Having generated some space, drive the trapped knee forwards as your return it to the mat, which should also help you drive your opponent to the mat as well.

If you are able to get the cross-face and an underhook, there is now the option of generating lots of shoulder pressure. This is my favourite way to pass the half guard: both Saulo and his brother refer to this as the 'esgrima pass', but I call it the shoulder pressure pass in the interests of clarity. Cross-face their head, so that they can't turn in that direction. Put your own head on the other side, locking their head into place: your shoulder and head work together to form a vice. It should now become hard for them to move, because their head is stuck.

From here, come up on your feet so that all your weight is driving through your shoulder. Even if you're small, this should maximise your weight. I'm only 66kgs, but if I can get all of that weight against somebody's head, it becomes more significant. From there, bounce your trapped knee to wriggle it free. As soon as it is clear of their legs, twist in the direction of your cross-facing arm and put that knee on the mat. You can then kick their leg off your foot: some people prefer to kick the top leg, but I would generally go for the bottom leg. Turning your hips to the ceiling can also help if you're struggling to get that foot loose.
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Teaching Notes: A few people were putting their head next to an arm rather than directly next to their partner's head. That method looks like it works too: I prefer putting my head right next to theirs, as I find that is better for immobilising, but that's just my preference. When half guard comes round again, I'll add in the opposite side pass, along with the variation on the shoulder pressure pass I was practicing at open mat a couple of days ago.

There wasn't as much emphasis on the underhook as I remember from last time, which is important to prevent them taking your back. However, could be that the head (or arm, for some people) pressure acts in the same way. You could also pull up on their other arm, or perhaps grab their gi, as a few people were doing.

I'm still not sparring much (if at all) on Mondays. I need to remember to do a bit of king of the hill so I can jump in. I also keep forgetting to take pictures for the Artemis BJJ Facebook page: I'll set a reminder or something next time. :)

28/06/2014 - Open Mat | Half Guard Shoulder Pressure Pass

Class #576
Artemis BJJ (Impact Gym), Open Mat, Bristol, UK - 28/06/2014

Next Monday is my final bit of half guard teaching for this month, before we move on to open guard. I therefore wanted to cover passing. My favourite passes are the opposite side pass and the pressure pass, also known as the esgrima pass (or at least that's what Xande and Saulo Ribeiro call it). Judging by the Ribeiro brothers' instruction, 'esgrima' is something to do with the initial underhook you get on the top. Unless you're Brazilian, it probably isn't that descriptive, so I've normally called it the half guard pressure pass, or shoulder pressure pass.

The way the Ribeiro brothers have taught this pass has changed over the years. Initially, their version looked much like the one I'm familiar with, as per the picture of Xande on the left. Looking at more recent videos on BJJ Library, where both brothers cover this pass a few times, their thinking has changed since then. Saulo specifically refers to that high hips variation as 'the old way'. His 'new' (or at least, newer) way involves lower hips and a lower position on the body. I practiced that version today, though I'm not sure if that's the one I will teach on Monday, as I think it requires a bit more sensitivity than the raised hips option I'm more familiar with.

Anyway, the high hips pressure pass starts by locking up their head and arm with a gable grip, ideally shoving your head next to theirs as well. All your weight drives through those base points, jamming their shoulders and head to the mat. This should mean you can raise your hips up high without too much worry, bouncing your knee until it's free, then knee cut through. However, like Saulo rightly says in his BJJ Library vids on the esgrima pass, that does mean there is a chance they can wriggle their legs in the way and generally be annoying with their hips. Previously I've tended to feel that immobilising their upper body so much means the legs are less of a worry, but Saulo makes a good point.

His version starts in much the same way, with them flat on their back. That's something I wanted to practice too, flattening them out. Xande has a nice video on this on BJJ Library: dig your free knee into their same side hip, block their head with your arm on that side, then step your trapped leg up slightly in order to drop your knee sideways and forwards (you can also just 'crab walk' that trapped knee to the side). Once they are flat, Saulo then brings his head over to the side, around their chest. The exact position depends on how low you need to be in order to get a good hold on their same side knee with your non-underhooking hand.

You aren't gripping the knee: instead, you are pushing into the top of it, on the inside, aiming to shove it outwards rather than just straight down. I was drilling with somebody who wasn't wearing a gi, helpful in this instance as that meant I couldn't grab cloth even if I wanted to. Having brought his head across, Saulo drives his shoulder into their sternum or stomach, again depending how low you are. He mentions three different grips you can do with your underhooking arm.

The natural one is to grab the back of their collar, locking the grip. If you've got shorter arms, you may find it is easier to just put your hand on the mat and slide your arm into a locking grip, or there is Saulo's favourite option. He brings his hand back to grab their belt, clamping his arm in tight to their body so they can't reach for their own underhook. Testing this in drilling, if you get the shoulder in the right spot (the combination of height, weight and arm length between me and my drilling partner seemed to indicate that this right spot was their sternum, but I imagine it would vary with taller/shorter opponents), you can pin their back to the mat.

Saulo keeps his head relatively low, on their arm. I found that I could comfortably have my head next to theirs, acting as a cross-face, while still being able to reach for their knee and pin that down. He angles his hips in the direction he wants his trapped knee to go, then wriggles that out. He stays much lower with his hips than the 'old way', making it harder for them to try and get butterfly hooks or otherwise mess up the pass.

The key areas, based on drilling and then doing some specific sparring, seem to be:

1. Get them flat. If they are on their side, this isn't going to work. That also means they can start to attack.

2. Get the underhook. If they can block this and get their own underhook, they can get on their side. I managed that a few times when I was on the bottom testing the weak points in the pass, meaning I could then progress to grabbing the toes and moving into the toe grab sweep. I also managed to switch into the whizzer counter roll when they blocked my underhook, but they adjusted their weight well and stopped me getting underneath. Also, I didn't put my head in the gap, so didn't dive under properly.

3. Grip on the knee. This must be in place until you've got your shin over, as if they can move that knee around, they can wriggle their foot in, push, perhaps even get some kind of hook. Jam it to the mat and don't give them any room.

4. Transition to Saulo's shoulder in the chest/stomach. It was at this point I lost the pass a few times, in that transition from having them flat and moving my head across, driving the shoulder in. If I could get the shoulder in place and keep the knee flat, the rest of the pass was easy enough.

Lots of stuff to play with for Monday. I will probably end up teaching the 'old way', having that 'newer way' in reserve. It will be interesting to see if anybody does find that raising their hips up high means the pass gets scuppered, in which case I can bring in that variation.

25/06/2014 - Teaching | Whizzer Counter Roll

Teaching #161
Artemis BJJ (Bristol Sports Centre), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 25/06/2014

It's almost the last week of half guard month, though as Monday is still June, that gives me a lesson to cover some passing. This week, I continued with simple sweeps from underneath. A couple of days ago I went through the toe grab sweep, so today I'm following up with what Gordo (the guy who effectively created the half guard as a viable position) calls 'Plan B'. I don't think that's very descriptive, so I'm going with whizzer counter roll.

The situation is that you've managed to get the underhook under half guard, but they've threaded their arm through in what's called a 'whizzer'. That ruins your back take, but it doesn't stop you sweeping them. Indrek Reiland shows how you can still do the toe grab, or you can do a counter roll movement. With your free hand, push their knee outwards to disrupt their base: you can also underhook that leg if you prefer. Dive your body underneath them, putting your head into the gap between their arm and their leg.

Finally, bring your whizzered elbow back towards their head, aiming to clamp your elbow to your side (as much as you can in that position). From here you should be able to roll them over fairly easily. If you need some additional help, try tweaking their leg out like you do with the toe grab sweep.
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Teaching Notes: I went through that half guard back take drill I wanted, which seemed to be better understood than I expected. Both the experienced and beginner students appeared to manage it ok. I'd like to add in recovering full guard to the drill as well, so next week I'll see if that can be done in a way that makes sense. That way I can get in several important skills into the one drill: taking the back, maintaining half guard and recovering full guard. I could even add in a pass to side control, but that might be getting too complicated.

Technique tonight also went well, with no major problems cropping up in drilling. Chris suggested underhooking the leg, so I'll be adding that in when I teach it next time, as practicing it myself that seemed to work just as well as pushing the knee. The main area I'd like to play around with in more depth is the leg configuration as you're rolling them over. Tweaking the leg is one option, but I'm sure there must be other variations that could potentially increase leverage.

24/06/2014 - Leg Squash Pass from Half Guard

Class #575
Artemis BJJ (Impact Gym), Dónal Carmody, Bristol, UK - 24/06/2014

Really well structured class tonight from Dónal, where the warm-up fed perfectly into drills and then the technique. One of Dónal's favourite warm-ups is the 'gorilla', where you post on your fists, squatting low in a crouch, then hop sideways pushing off your knuckles. He added in a variation on that, sliding through, along with the similar 'duck walk', where you're walking forwards in the same crouched position. That was followed by guard pass drilling, where Dónal made a point of telling everyone to crouch low as you passed: this improves your base, as if you rise up and try to drive into them, it is easier for them to shove their feet into your hips and lift you over their head. That's impossible if you're in a crouch.

The technique continue the same principles. I've seen the leg squash pass a few times now, beginning with a private Dónal taught last year. That time it was in combination with a knee cut, whereas tonight Dónal was demonstrating it from half guard. Pop your trapped knee up and slide it over their leg slightly. Grab the knee of their other leg, cupping underneath. Lift and move it across to the opposite side. This is where the drilling from earlier comes in, using that sideways motion to bring their legs across.

Sprawl back on top of their legs. More specifically, your groin is by the back of their knees, ideally with the point of your hip pressing into the middle of their thigh. Although it feels counter-intuitive, don't go up on your toes. Sink your weight through your hips into their legs, with your own legs draped on either side. Almost certainly they are going to move, especially if you're being mean and digging the point of your hip into the 'dead leg' point of their thigh. Once they do, backstep and pass around the other side.

If they don't move, then you could bring your lower leg back to hold their legs in place as you backstep. That has the disadvantage of slightly easing off the pressure, so Dónal suggests simply swinging that backstepping leg up, which keeps the weight through the point of your hip.

Sparring was mostly with beginners, starting off with a brief bit of nogi (which I wouldn't normally do, but it was really hot, so as I had my spats on anyway, I just took my gi off and threw on a shirt). I put my gi back on for the next couple of rolls, working on top control and eventually moving in to an omoplata (though I don't think I would have got that on someone more experienced: he left his arm in as he was trying to escape from a previous position). Last roll was with a more experienced white belt. I tried the same two sweeps from the open mat, looking for the underhook. He immediately put in a whizzer, which was perfect as that meant I could try the whizzer counter roll.

However, he was wise to it, so released the whizzer. I attempted to switch to the toe grab, but couldn't quite get it in position. I think I then sloppily knocked him over somehow, ending up on his back to wriggle through the rear naked choke. I used the thing Rickson taught at his seminar last year, where you blocking their defending hand while pushing your choking arm through. Seemed to work well.

23/06/2014 - Teaching | Toe Grab Sweep from Half Guard (Old School)

Teaching #160
Artemis BJJ (Bristol Sports Centre), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 23/06/2014

This week marks the beginning of that shift in the timetable Dónal and I agreed before I went on holiday, which is that I will now be taking all the classes at Bristol Sports Centre (soon to be renamed 'MyGym'), while Dónal is in charge of the Artemis BJJ classes over in East Bristol at Impact Gym. Exciting stuff, as I haven't had a chance to build up a more integrated set of classes before, as while I've been teaching multiple classes a week for a good while now, I've only ever taught once per location. :)

Continuing with our month of half guard, I progressed to sweeps from half guard. This week it will be the same sweeps I was practicing last week at the open mat, the toe grab and the whizzer counter roll. To kick off with the toe grab, after recovering closed guard and taking the back this is probably the most fundamental offensive option from under half guard.

I call it the toe grab sweep, like Indrek Reiland does in his classic 'Functional Half Guard' video. Eddie Bravo's name for it - 'old school' - is common too, but his version is slightly less effective in my opinion, though it is similar. I was mainly following the way Jason Scully teaches it, over on the Grapplers Guide. I've also been taught it in the past, back when I was training at RGA High Wycombe with Kev.

So, the Scully version begins from the basic half guard position I taught before leaving for Croatia earlier this month, where you're on your side with an underhook. Use your underhook to bump yourself down closer to their legs, curling your head into towards their far knee. With your non-underhooking arm, reach for their far toes. Grab them and then shove their heel into their thigh. Make sure you are grabbing their toes: if you grip their ankle or higher, they will find it easier to kick their leg back and scupper your sweep.

Bring your underhook arm down past their bum, then switch the toe grab grip from your non-underhook hand to your underhook hand. Bring your non-underhook elbow and then hand out for base, also turning to slide out your inside leg. Your outside leg tweaks their lower leg to further disrupt their base, then drive with your head and shoulder to move on top. Keep hold of the toes until you're past to side control. If they stay on their hands and knees, you can also just take their back instead.

Keep in mind that it is possible to get this sweep with various leg configurations. Eddie Bravo does it from the lockdown, 'whipping up' to get on his side after being flat on his back (interestingly, he doesn't switch his grip on the toes, leaving the underhook in place all the way through). My preference is to use the kickstand, as I find that provides the best base for getting on your side, but it's certainly not the only option.
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Teaching Notes: I want to do a drill where you start in half guard, take the back, spin over to the other side, recover full guard, then back to half guard and start again. I'm not sure if that is too complex for beginners, but I'll be trying it on Wednesday as a test (especially as we've got quite a lot of blue belts at Artemis BJJ).

Class structure went fairly well tonight: I was thinking about teaching the basic back take, but there were a lot of blues so the toe grab made most sense. So instead I put in a drill on getting the underhook. Hopefully that helped introduce the technique.

I could perhaps emphasise getting on your side more, along with some tips for reaching the toes. I like to stay low, which is what I said when Berry asked, but rewatching the video, I notice that Scully's version has him come up on his elbow to increase the range of his reach. As always, there is no one 'right' way to do a technique in BJJ, which I really like about this martial art. There's a choice of several ways that you can then adapt to your own body type and preferences. BJJ must be one of the more customisable martial arts again, with immense scope for developing an individual style. :)

21/06/2014 - Artemis BJJ (Open Mat) | Basic Half Guard Sweeps

Class #574
Artemis BJJ (Impact Gym), Open Mat, Bristol, UK - 21/06/2014

This is the first time I've been down to the open mat at Impact Gym, as I was off on holiday in Croatia right after our classes kicked off in East Bristol earlier this month. The open mat is right after our nogi class (which I won't be attending often, as I've never been a nogi fan), which means that a lot of the people who stay on for the open mat aren't wearing a gi. It's also relatively hot in the UK at the moment, further discouraging people from putting on a heavy piece of cotton (or in my case, hemp, as I was in my The Green Gi factory reject).

I'm never discouraged from wearing a gi: I don't care if I'm training in the Sahara, I'd still be doing gi. Fortunately for me, Rich was also well up for gi, so I had a drilling partner. I wanted to work on half guard today, as I always like the practice what I'm planning to teach the following week. Open mat also often helps me work out the shape of my lessons: now that I'm going to be regularly teaching twice a week (hopefully more in the future, once Artemis brings in enough money that I can afford to go part-time at my current 'put food on the table' job and dedicate that free time to more BJJ).

Today, that meant I was deciding what half guard attacks to go over next week. I want it to be the absolute basics of half guard, so that effectively means recovering full guard, back take and the toe grab sweep. I had a play with another straightforward sweep for countering the whizzer too, as I'd be watching that in the morning on BJJ Library: they've got a cool Gordo seminar on half guard which had a lot of useful pointers.

Starting with the toe grab sweep (Eddie Bravo's name for it, 'old school', is common too), I was mainly following the way Jason Scully teaches it, over on the Grapplers Guide. I have never really done this sweep in sparring and it's high time I started using it, given it's both basic and high percentage. Apparently I have been taught it in the past, but I'd completely forgotten until I was putting in labels for this post. ;)

So, the Scully version begins from the basic half guard position I taught before leaving for Croatia earlier this month, where you're on your side with an underhook. Use your underhook to bump yourself down closer to their legs, curling your head into towards them. With your non-underhooking arm, reach for their far toes. Grab them and then shove their heel into their thigh.

Bring your underhook arm down past their bum, then switch the toe grab from your non-underhook hand to your underhook hand. Bring your non-underhook hand out for base, also turning to slide out your inside leg. Your outside leg tweaks their lower leg, then drive with your head and shoulder to move on top. Keep hold of the toes until you're past to side control.

I'm not sure if it is better to do the leg tweaking before or after you've established the toe grab: I think probably after, judging by drilling with Rich, but something I'll continue playing with. You can do it from lockdown too, which I ran through briefly, but that's not a half guard I tend to use unless I've messed up and I'm carrying all of their weight.

I then also ran through what Gordo calls the Plan B sweep, but as that isn't descriptive enough for me, I'm going to refer to it as the whizzer counter roll. You've got the underhook, but they've threaded their arm through in what's called a 'whizzer'. That ruins your back take, but it doesn't stop you sweeping them. Indrek Reiland shows how you can still do the toe grab, or there is the option I watched from Gordo on BJJ Library.

With your same side hand, push their knee out. Bring your whizzered elbow back towards your head, clamping it to your side, then just roll them over. I found tweaking their leg helped a bit, but as ever I'll keep playing with it to see the best way to increase leverage. I initially felt like it involved too much force, then I starting tweaking the leg. That helps, but I think I can get a lot more leverage once I work out the right leg positions and hip movement. Obviously watching the Gordo vid a bunch more times will be the best way to progress, as then I can see exactly what he's doing to generate that leverage.

My first week of teaching twice at Bristol Sports Centre kicks off on Monday: exciting stuff! I'm looking forward to being able to string together a progression, something that is really tough to do when you're only teaching one class a week (or as was the case previously, two classes but at two different locations).

19/06/2014 - Back from Croatia | Passing Knee Shield

Class #573
Artemis BJJ (Impact Gym), Dónal Carmody, Bristol, UK - 19/06/2014

My flight back from Croatia arrived in good time (much more on that trip later, though it will probably take a good while to get it all written, judging by how long it took me to finish the Paris write-up ;D), so I was able to head down to the class at Impact Gym. While I was away, I tried out the 'schedule post' option for this website so there would be content whilst I was away, which seems to have worked ok. In case you missed it, the two part interview I did with the excellent blogger BJJ Grrl can be found here and here.
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Following on directly from the previous time I was at Impact, Dónal was continuing with knee shield, moving on to passing that position. Dónal also chatted a bit before the lesson about dealing with that bugbear of old school BJJ fans like me, the berimbolo (*shudder*). In contrast to the flashiness of the technique, there is a very simple method for countering the berimbolo, at least in principle (application is a whole other thing in BJJ, as anyone reading this will know). Basically, you just stiff arm their free leg as they try to swing around into the technique, then do a technical stand up to back away and initiate your pass.


The knee shield pass was quite simple too. If they are on their side (very likely), to get them flat again, stiff-arm into their same side armpit and pull back on their other sleeve. Should they be wearing a gi, make sure that if you're gripping the gi material, you shove it right into their armpit. If you just grab the collar, when you try to push, you'll end up shoving their gi to the mat rather than their shoulder. Without a gi, shove into their armpit and grab their wrist: note that may need to swivel your armpit-hand to their shoulder to keep them flat.

From here, cut your knee through. It will help if you're able to raise your trapped knee, but you can still try and pass without (harder, but possible). Slide through on your hip, keeping your weight on them as you aim to surf over their knee. As soon as your leg is free and you're past that knee, shove your hips back into their leg and establish side control.

Sparring was fun, after being off the mats for two weeks. On top I tried to maintain heavy pressure and gradually work my leg free, which generally worked, but I often being sloppy rather than going for a specific technique. When I did try and do something specific, my staple pass attempt ended up getting me swept. I need to take another look at that: it would be worth teaching it next week as well to really solidify it back in my head. I'm not sure whether I'm going to go for stuff on the bottom or focus on passing, so I'll see what I reckon after having a play at open mat on Saturday.

Underneath, I vaguely managed the roll-back sweep from knee shield, although I ended up a bit low when I got to the top position. Also, I wasn't pulling out the sleeve, having grabbed the collar instead. It still seemed to work, but probably not as good control as a result of where I was gripping. That's something else I could consider teaching again to work out the kinks.

'Game of Thrones' Trip to Croatia, 5th-19th June 2014

Both my friend and I are Game of Thrones fans, like pretty much everyone else in the world. Although the violence is frequently over the top and the 'sexposition' is irritating, it's carried through by a great plot. It's also full of beautiful locations. Partly that's down to CGI, but the series also draws on the wealth of historic cities around the world that look much the same today as they did hundreds of years ago. Arguably the most important city for the show is Dubrovnik in Croatia, which has doubled as Kings Landing from the second series onwards (the first series relied on Malta, where I went a few years ago.

Therefore when my friend booked a holiday to Croatia, I was keen to check out the Game of Thrones filming sites. I assumed there would be loads of guidebooks and official series companions telling you exactly where it all was. To my surprise, I found nothing when I looked around in 2014. There were a few guided tours, but they didn't seem good value-for-money. So we decided we'd just do it ourselves, taking it on as a project.

As it took a lot of work, I thought I'd try sticking everything we had done into a short Kindle book, considerably bolstered by my friend's photography and editing skills. I've no idea if anybody will ever buy it, but that will be sitting on Amazon (in the US, you can pick it up here). It covers off places like where Jamie trained with Bronn, the arena in which the Mountain and Oberyn fought, the gardens in Qarth and lots of other filming locations. If it does ever sell enough (only £1.99! Ooo) to fund another Croatia trip, I'll do an update, but that's a huge if. ;)

Dubrovnik

Although the majority of the content I'd normally put in a travel write-up is therefore in that book, I still wanted to do a quick summary on the blog. Flying in from Birmingham with Monarch Airlines on a 14:25 flight, we arrived roughly two hours later. The airport in Dubrovnik is pretty small, so getting through was straightforward. Head out of the exit doors past baggage claim, then if you turn to your right you should find a shuttle bus. Tickets are available from the Atlas desk inside, which in June 2014 cost 35HRK each. After around fifteen to twenty minutes, we arrived at the Pile Gate, the main entrance to the old city.

From there, we walked up to our accommodation at Room Kala (£100 total for three nights). It has a great terrace looking out at the medieval city walls, plus you get your own bathroom and a hallway with a large sink for washing up (handy for breakfast too). The only downside was a climbing all those steps to get back there every night, but then that's why you end up with such a great view. ;)

Dubrovnik isn't huge and all the large towers make it easy to orient yourself. I particularly enjoyed strolling along the medieval city walls (much more on that in the book), which like most of Dubrovnik are incredibly well preserved. I'm not surprised the Game of Thrones crew picked it, managing to match their previous choice of Malta. As you would expect, Dubrovnik is rammed with tourists (no doubt increased by the GOT factor), so you'll want to get up early.

We also popped over to the nearby island of Lokrum, a short ferry ride away. They regularly leave from the harbour. There are the ruins of a monastery there, along with Napoleonic era fort: note that is a bit of an uphill walk. It was virtually deserted when we arrived, adding to the atmosphere. You get a fine view from the top as well, kept company by a cannon, still complete with a track, enabling it to be easily moved for firing at various vantage points. There was a guard (I assume?) chilling out on a deckchair, as I guess he liked the view too.

Croatia has everything you could want in a destination, as not only was there lots of history for me, there were also beaches for my friend. We took a sea kayaking trip from Banje Beach, one of the more popular spots, also spending some time on St Joseph's Beach. The food in Dubrovnik was lovely too, with a strong Italian influence. Again I was reminded a little of Malta, though Croatia couldn't compete with those delicious pastizzi.

Dubrovnik's building are in demand, so be aware that sometimes you won't be able to go in due to private parties. We weren't able to visit Fort Lawrence (again, lots more in the book ;D) on our first attempt because of a rich New Yorker (I think?) hiring it out for their daughter's birthday. Something similar happened when we tried to go into the Sponza Palace, where there was a wedding: it seems to be an annoyingly frequent occurrence in Dubrovnik. I'm not sure if you can check that in advance, but if there is some kind of calendar available, it would be well worth examining before you head off.

Along with the history of centuries past, Dubrovnik has numerous poignant reminders of the far more recent siege during the Balkan Wars. That conflict, which still has repercussions today (in Serbian politics, for example), is commemorated in museums, but I found the most interesting and touching memorial was on a shop front. The owner had put up photos and text talking about his experience during the siege, especially what he lost.

Korcula

There are lots of attractive islands off the coast of Croatia in the Adriatic, which was the main reason my friend wanted to go to the country in the first place. To visit Korcula, the sixth largest, you can take the 1A or 1B bus to the central Dubrovnik station (in the sprawling new town). Be prepared for an unruly scrum to get onto the bus, as there is no concept of queuing. From the bus station you can head onwards to Korcula. There is no number on the bus, but it does have a bit of paper at the front that says Korcula, at stop number two (it's the Dubrovnik-Split bus).You'll have to put luggage underneath, costing you HRK8. The bus will take around three hours to get to the ferry station, where it boards a ferry and discharges you after that.

Once we got to Korcula there was a lot of island hopping and outdoor activities, like bike hire. Or at least there was for my friend. I spent most of that section of the holiday in bed. I'm not sure what triggered it, but I made friends with the toilet right before I got off the ferry and my stomach didn't settle for several days. On the plus side, I did finally get to read all the original Dune books by Frank Herbert, something I've been meaning to do for at least twenty years. I though the first book was good, the second and third were rather bogged down in pretentious waffle, but then it really picked up with the last three volumes. Each one was better than the last, in my opinion, reaching a high point with the sixth: it even delved into cyberpunk territory, much to my pleasure.

Split

Split is a very different prospect to Dubrovnik. In some senses the history is even more impressive, as this dates back to the Roman Emperor Diocletian. Yet it is an unusually living history, because Diocletian's Palace has for most of its existence been a part of daily life in Split. Houses, shops and streets have therefore all grown up around and through the ancient buildings, absorbed by the structure of the city. If you're looking for authenticity, then your best bet is probably to wander down into the basement, the most atmospheric part of the Palace. The middle has been taken over by market stalls (it reminded me strongly of the Kapalı Çarşı in Istanbul, a regular part of my family holidays back to the fatherland), but the rooms to either side have managed to avoid encroachment by the modern city. A range of sculptures were dotted throughout when I was there, which were interesting in themselves, but other than that the rooms were left bare.

My favourite part of our time in Split was a day trip out to a nearby castle, Klis. I talk about that a lot more in the book, but it's easy to get to on a local bus (we took the 22, which dropped us right outside). I especially liked the armoury, though I'm not sure if that is a temporary exhibit or not. There were lots of swords on display, with a guy on hand to tell you more about the history, with a chance to swing some (replica) swords too.

Interview - BlogChat #2: BJJ Grrl Talks About On/Offline Communities

Here's the second part of my interview with BJJ Grrl. This time, she talks about the amazing community of bloggers in BJJ, which crosses over with the equally amazing community of women in the sport.

Can: Yeah, I am always telling people there is a really awesome community of female bloggers online. You mention the women training page – which is amazing by the way, I love that page.

BJJ Grrl: I should probably revisit it, I would have more to say now.

Can: Yeah, definitely! Again, out of all the bloggers on the internet, you are the one who I think has the closest mindset to my own. The same kind of idea, putting all your experience down.

BJJ Grrl: Some days there are things I don't want to talk about, but maybe it will help somebody. Suck it up and write it down anyway. But yeah, I definitely need to revisit that page, especially the aggression section, because I need to talk about the new thing I'm going through in my head. If I did the technique right and it sucks for you, well, I did the technique right. It's supposed to suck for you. Instead of, "Oh, I don't want to hurt you. Is that uncomfortable? I'm sorry. I'm supposed to be choking you unconscious right now, but if it hurts you I'm not going to do it." I've got to get past that. Still working on it.

Can: Have you thought of building that page up into a more expansive FAQ, like the one I did, or was it that you had a specific set of questions you were interested in answering and you've achieved that?

BJJ Grrl: I kinda just wanted to do it very general questions, the big ones that come up, especially for new women that start training. But yeah, I do need to revisit that one, I'll probably make a list.

Can: A number of bloggers have found they've gone from doing those kind of blogs, the articles you've done, they've proven popular – and I know you've gotten a lot of hits on that page, a ridiculous number of comments – then the blogger has progressed from that to writing articles for websites, magazines etc. Is that something that interests you?

BJJ Grrl: I guess I would kind of like to, but I haven't gone looking for it. I guess for the most part, I still think "Nobody else feels about this the same way I do, no-one else will have this experience," then of course they all say, "I felt exactly the same thing." But I still feel like the oddball out.

Can: Have you had any internet fame, as 'BJJ Grrl'?

BJJ Grrl: Sometimes. I've shown up at women's open mats and people have gone "Gasp! You're BJJ Grrl!" Occasionally somebody from my academy, I'll say something, and they'll be "Oh yeah, I read that on your blog last week." They read it too: crap! It's not anonymous! [Laughs]

I can totally get how people go on the internet and post terrible things, because when they're posting, they're thinking "These aren't real people. They don't know who I am, I'll never meet them." But people are real. I've had people at tournaments come up to me and be like "Oh hey, I commented on your blog!"

Can: Do you see a separation then, between your online and offline life?

BJJ Grrl: I think it's just my brain is kinda weird.

Can: For example, a number of times online friends have become offline friends, like in my case and indeed this trip and this conversation we're having now, with Adrienne sitting right there next to us.



BJJ Grrl: I'm trying to think how I even heard about that first open mat, when I met Chrissy, Adrienne and the others. I don't even know now. I may have read it on a forum, maybe NHB Gear. I think I had done a tournament, with US Grappling, and Chrissy had invited me to the forum. Once I met everybody and kept coming to tournaments, that's how I met most of the women around here.

Although there was a funny incident, a women posted on my blog. It was a comment, asking for advice. So I gave her some advice, then she made another comment about where she trained. It turned out she was thirty minutes from me. I was like, "Come up on Saturday! We'll hang out, do jiu jitsu."

That actually happened twice, from opposite directions. Two different women came in, because they'd found me on the internet, then found out I lived very close to them. "Oh, I'll come train with you."

Antwain: Did they ask you for a lot of pointers?

BJJ Grrl: They were both beginners in jiu jitsu, so asked things like "How do you deal with guys that go way too easy on you and you know they are going too easy? How do you get them to see that you want to train?" Or one of them, I think she didn't know what to do, she was getting beat up all the time, because they were all bigger than her: they were going too hard.

It's weird when people ask me advice, because when I need advice, I'll ask Chrissy mostly, or Addy, or Val. So I ask questions: why are people asking me questions? Ask the people who know these things. [Laughs]

Can: That's a good point: do you guys have any questions?

Adrienne: Actually yeah, I do. How much time a week do you spend? Training is one thing, but then taking your experiences and putting it down in blogs, this and that, I'm just curious to know how much that hobby takes over your other time. To me it seems very consuming.

BJJ Grrl: And it used to be, I used to spend a whole lot more time on it. I would agonise over my post, it had to follow almost a format but not quite. I'd need to talk about this, get the whole class in there, did I miss a technique, did I miss this. Now I do it when I get to work the next morning and I'm drinking my coffee. I'll write it up. That's one of the reasons they are so much shorter now, because I'm writing them at work as I'm drinking my coffee.

But yeah, I was spending a whole lot of time doing it. I would do it immediately after class, so I was staying up until midnight, writing posts. This is kinda silly. So, now I agonise over it far less. Sometimes I look over it after I've posted it and find a glaring typo...meh. Whereas before, I'd re-edit it, I've thought of something else, I should add that.

Adrienne: Like over-analysing it?

BJJ Grrl: Yeah, though it seems to me I haven't been doing it as much now, over-analysing. In fact, last week I trained on Friday, I completely forgot to write anything until Monday. Part of it was that I'd been out of the habit because I'd been injured, so kinda forgot about it.

Adrienne: So have you always blogged? I know you talked about the weightlifting, but is that something which accidentally happened? Or did you set out with "You know what, I want to start blogging," an active decision?

BJJ Grrl: Total accident. Yeah. Just that the online journal for the weightlifting program I was doing led to it. Although I've always written, so it's a natural thing. I also learn really well when I write things down. It helped me, going back after class and writing down everything that I'd done.

Can: Do you ever revisit posts?

BJJ Grrl: I do sometimes. If I feel like I'm having trouble with something that I've had trouble with before, I'll see what happened the last time. [Laughs] Or if I notice a spike in traffic on a certain post, I'll go back and read it. Sometimes it's interesting, I'll think "Oh, that's why somebody might be reading it."

Can: So you're not obsessive about stats, checking page views and the like?

BJJ Grrl: I used to. I really used to, but I made myself stop doing that. It just seemed silly. I'm competing to be best blog? I should be training jiu jitsu, or working or whatever I'm supposed to be doing at the time. That was part of the staying up til midnight thing, obsessing about "well, if I said it this way, would more people come?" At some point I decided, that's just silly. [Laughs]

Interview - BlogChat #1: BJJ Grrl On Her Blog Beginnings

I have 'known' the blogger BJJ Grrl for many years, having first encountered her online back when she was still writing a weightlifting blog. Since then, she has become one of the most important people in the BJJ blogosphere, consistently putting out posts every week. Leslie was a big part of the reason that Virginia was high on my list of places to visit in the US, so I was thrilled to get the chance to finally speak to her during my trip last month. I'll be putting up this interview in two parts, kicking off this week with a chat about how Leslie got started in both blogging and BJJ.

Can: How did you first get into martial arts and jiu jitsu?

BJJ Grrl: I started doing taekwondo in college, because I'd always been interested in doing martial arts. I got injured playing soccer and couldn't play soccer anymore, so a friend of mine offered to beat me up.

Can: [Laughs] Literally like that?

BJJ Grrl: Yeah: "Come to my apartment and I can beat you up, or you can come to taekwondo class with me." She needed a sparring partner her size. So, this was how we were going to get started. Of course eventually she quit, but I kept going. Through the taekwondo, I found jiu jitsu.

One of the guys from the club came back to do a self-defence seminar. After the seminar, he taught a short jiu jitsu seminar – he was a blue belt at the time. I actually really liked it. At the end, he said "Does anybody want to try rolling?" I said "Sure!" and rolled with another guy who was my size. I usually can't tell if somebody is my size, but he was really my size.

We rolled and I was able to sweep him, so I was thinking "I'm able to do this stuff, this is awesome!" Around that same time, I had started lifting: in my parents' basement they had some weights. I began blogging work-outs from that. I was following a program and a lot of people were doing it, so that was my online journal along with all of them.

But I was starting to outgrow the weights, there weren't enough plates for me. I looked around for something else to do and decided I'd probably go do CrossFit. It was coming up to the end of the week: on Monday, I was going to start CrossFit. Saturday was the seminar. I got introduced to jiu jitsu and thought "this is really fun."

Then my Dad came home that night and said he meant a fella named Tim Mannon, who was a black belt in Brazilian jiu jitsu and they were moving into an academy just down the street. So my Dad said "I know you like martial arts, what do you think about that?" So I replied, "I'm going there instead."

I already had the online journal for lifting, so I started added my jiu jitsu work-outs on there: we were supposed to track everything we did. I began phasing out taekwondo, as it wasn't nearly as much fun. Then as I was doing jiu jitsu more, we actually started lifting. The first gym we were in had some decent weights and a big tyre out back. As we were lifting there, I stopped lifting at home: I'd get home, do one dead-lift, I'm done.

Those things started phasing out, so I was just doing jiu jitsu on my blog, on the weightlifting blog. I realised I should switch it to a jiu jitsu blog.

Can: What was the incentive to do it online, rather than just keeping your journal in a book?

BJJ Grrl: When I started, it was with an online community of people who were lifting, so we were all posting on our threads. I couldn't always log into the site, so I would keep it in a Wordpress site, just for me.

Can: How have you found that has influenced your training, in either positive or negative ways?

BJJ Grrl: I'm not sure if it's either, but I think about what I'm going to write, particularly when I was writing more of the technique down. I would have to think through it, line by line, how am I going to write this, explain this, remember where that goes. How can I remember this by the time I get home so I can write it down.
I think it helped me pay a lot of attention to what I was doing, as I was basically going to have to reteach myself when I got home so I could write it down. But then there were times when I'm rolling with someone and I'm thinking how I'm going to write it down: I'm not paying attention to the fact that he's about to choke me. [Laughs]

Can: This is why I wanted to talk to you, this is like hearing myself. That's exactly the kind of thing that I'm thinking! [Laughs]

BJJ Grrl: Sometimes I'm thinking "Just shut-up in there and roll, we'll dissect it later."

Can: When I'm watching a demonstration, when they're teaching technique, I'm thinking "Ok, their hand is there, so what do I describe that as? Far arm, the opposite arm, right arm?"

BJJ Grrl: Yeah, I think it helps sometimes with technique too, taking notes. The seminar today [with Dave Jacobs, back in April], I'm really thinking of things like 'far side armbar', or 'far side arm', not just watching him do it. You know those people, I see this in class all the time, they will watch it, they go back to do it, and then they're "Wait, which arm do we start with?"

I'll answer, "We start with this one," because I've already written it down in my head. So in that respect I think it really does help. But yeah, the part where you're writing the roll in your head as it happens? Trying to remember the cool things?

Can: I find when I write it down, I want to have something to work on. I'll normally have a specific goal in mind, thinking about how I can progress that and what can I take from the roll. So you're finding it's more just interesting stuff that sticks in your head, it's not particularly "I did this, and it helped me with this technique"?

BJJ Grrl: Yeah, it's usually things that happened, or "I hit this armbar we drilled this morning, isn't that awesome?"

Can: Your blog, and we've talked about this before, does a great job of building a community. It seems a lot of people really felt engaged in your journey through jiu jitsu, which also helped them: you were saying things that they related to. Did that act as a motivator to change the blog or indeed just keep it going?

BJJ Grrl: To keep it going, as sometimes I would say things on that blog and think "I am on the only person in the world who ever has this problem. No one else ever gets in this situation, everyone else is breezing right through it."

But so many people would come back and say "That's exactly what is happening to me too!" So, I'm like "really, I'm not the only one who has that problem? Ok." Especially when it comes back from higher ranks who've been through it sometimes.

When I first put up the training with women page, so many people, like Jen Flannery and a couple of black belts even, Hillary Williams commented on it. There were a whole bunch of women commenting on it, saying "That is exactly what it's like."

"It is? Ok. I was right, it's not just me!" That's why sometimes I will post about how I had an absolutely horrible day, totally could not get this one technique to work. People will post comments, "I have days like that." People who have been training longer still have days like that. We all have days where we think, "Why don't I take up table tennis, this sucks!"

Part Two now up, here

03/06/2014 - Artemis BJJ Starts at Impact Gym | Maintaining Half Guard with Knee Shield

Class #572
Artemis BJJ (Impact Gym), Dónal Carmody, Bristol, UK - 03/06/2014

In an exciting move for Artemis BJJ, we're now teaching at the massive Impact Gym over in the Kingswood/Staple Hill area of Bristol. It's a professional venue, with a huge space, front desk, pro shop, showers, changing rooms, lots of matted areas and a whole ton of different classes. There's some space for bikes when you come in, under the stairs. You then head right up to the top of the stairs, where you'll come out into the main space. We're in the matted room off to the side, through the double doors just down from the reception desk. Full details on our Locations page:



View Locations in a larger map

All this month, we're working on the half guard. Dónal decided to go through a version known as the knee shield or z-guard tonight. Essentially it was the same kind of thing I taught yesterday about maintaining half guard, except that you bring your knee across into their hip. That enables you to create distance as well as stopping them from bringing their weight down and/or forward, messing up their ability to pass.

Dónal likes to lock his feet, which makes it harder for them to pull their leg free. However, a lot of people struggle with that, especially if they have short legs like me: the alternative is to shove your knee up into their chest, with your feet open. But be aware you don't let their leg free, meaning you need to keep hold of it with your hooking leg. If they are pushing down on your knee, flare your knee out into their arm. That should open up a gap: reach through it with your free arm to get an underhook around their back. As you do, pop up on your knee, sliding it out so you're on your kneecap. That should make it harder for them to drive into you and push you down.

For specific sparring, I was mainly with beginners, but that was still useful for playing with technique, especially as my half guard is pretty bad. I messed around with the old school sweep, starting off with Jason Scully's leg tweak detail to get in position. I'm not sure if I'm grabbing with the right hand, as I didn't feel like I had much leverage to drive forward. I'm probably also missing a switch of grip somewhere, so I'll need to go review my notes from the last time I learned this. Something to keep playing with. :)

02/06/2014 - Teaching (Maintaining Half Guard)

Teaching #159
Artemis BJJ (Bristol Sports Centre), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 02/06/2014

We're kicking off a month of half guard today, begin with maintaining the position. Your first concern is to stop them flattening you out and starting their pass. They are generally going to want to establish an underhook on their trapped leg side, using the other arm to control under your head. In many ways, it is a similar position to standard side control. That will enable them to crush you to the mat, then exert lots of shoulder pressure to kill your mobility. Many of the same attacks from side control can also be viable from here, like an americana.

Naturally, you don't want them to reach that dominant position. Your goal is to get up on your side, with your own underhook around their back, on your trapped leg side. That is one of the main fights you'll have in half guard, so it is essential that you get used to working for that underhook. If you can't, frame against their neck, then look for the double-paw (which I'll talk about later in this post).

If you can get the underhook, that accomplishes two things. First, it prevents them crushing their chest into yours, which would help them flatten you out. Second, it means you can press into their armpit to help disrupt their base, as well as help you get up onto your side. You can use your knee knocking into their bum at the same time to help with this too, as that should bump them forward.

For your leg positioning, the standard half guard is to have the inside leg wrapped around with your foot on the outside. Your other leg triangles over your ankle. This provides you with what SBG refer to as a 'kickstand': that outside leg is useful for bridging and general leverage. It's harder for them to flatten you out if you can resist with that kickstand structure.

After you've controlled a leg, got the underhook and onto your side, you want to block their arms. Almost a decade ago, Indrek Reiland put together an awesome video (made even more awesome by being free) about the fundamentals of half guard. The main principle I use from Reiland is what he calls the 'paw'.

By that, he means hooking your hand around their bicep, just above the elbow. You aren't gripping with your thumb: this is just a block, to prevent them getting a cross-face. Reiland emphasises that preventing that cross-face is the main principle. Therefore, if you can feel they are about to remove your paw by swimming their arm around, bring your underhooking hand through to replace your first paw with a second: this is what Reiland calls the 'double-paw' (as he says in the video, it's an approach he learned from SBG black belt John Frankl).

Similarly, if they manage to underhook your underhook, bring that arm over for a double-paw (this is also applicable from the start, if you're framing against their neck), then work to recover your underhook. Keep in mind with the double-paw that you need to make sure you don't leave space under your elbow. Otherwise, as Reiland demonstrates, they can they go for a brabo choke. Get the elbow of your top double-pawing arm to their nearest armpit, as that makes it easier to circle your arm around to their back.
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Teaching Notes: I've cut the lesson down a bit, on my general 'simplicity' kick, but I'll include the bits I chopped here so I have them for later. First, a couple of other leg positions (I could also talk about knee shield and lockdown, among others):

An alternative is to rely mainly on your outside leg for control. To do that, bring your outside leg across, then hook your foot under. This provides you with some of the advantages of a lockdown but without immobilising your hips. It is a good option if you're looking to recover closed guard, as you can then work to bring your inside leg out between theirs, but I wouldn't recommend it if you're still trying to get up on your side. For that, the 'kickstand' grip is much better to create base and leverage.

Yet another variation, which I first saw while checking out the half guard section on Jason Scully's 'Grappler's Guide', starts like the kickstand. However, rather than having that kickstand leg outside for base, use it to hook their lower leg and drag it outwards. That sets you up nicely for the old school sweep, as well as messing up their base.

Few other bits on controlling with the paw:

Saulo does something similar in Jiu Jitsu Revolution 1, as he also uses the 'paw'. However, the posture of his other arm is different, and very simple. He just puts it by his side, with the hand reaching over to his opposite hip. He then uses the shoulder and elbow to wriggle towards the underhook, where he notes to grip by the belt rather than high on the back.

An alternative option is to put your hand on your head (which I'd forgotten I taught last time until Nick mentioned the technique during drilling), then curl in tight to their leg. Again, that stops them getting the underhook. If you can get to their leg, it becomes difficult for them to dig your head free. Should the opportunity present itself from any of those positions, you can momentarily move your paw to their knee. Push on their knee and slide your knee through. From there, you can work to recover full guard.

01/06/2014 - Artemis BJJ (Open Mat)

Class #571
Artemis BJJ (Bristol Sports Centre), Open Mat, Bristol, UK - 01/06/2014

The usual open mat venue was closed at short notice today, though at least a couple of us were able to cycle over to Bristol Sports Centre instead. Once we arrived and had warmed up (though I guess we were already warm from all that cycling ;D), things kicked off by working on the guard break I taught on Wednesday. It was interesting to play around with resistance on that: I can resist it for a while, by popping up onto their leg and/or moving my hips around, but tends to put plenty of strain on my ankles.

When it came to my choice of drill, I wanted to work on half guard, as that's the focus for next month. I played around with some ideas for how I'm going to teach it on Monday, when I'll be starting off with the basics as usual, in this case maintaining the position. I'd been watching some videos on Jason Scully's site earlier, where he talks about tweaking out their leg with your lower leg. That works nicely when you're aiming to switch into the old school sweep.

My personal preference is still the standard kickstand, but there are about five different variations for leg positioning in half guard. Well, there are probably loads more complex ones, but there are five I use: the kickstand, outside wrap, Scully's leg tweak, knee shield and lockdown. I'll stick with the kickstand for tomorrow, to avoid confusing people, but the others will be popping up in future lessons (e.g., I think the outside wrap is useful for recovering full guard, whereas the kickstand is better for when you need to get up on your side after being flattened out).

We went through passing knee shield too, where I showed the staple pass from Jason Scully. Although I'm not sure I remember it properly: if Chris is reading this, the pic I was referring to is on the right. My write-up of last time I taught this pass is here (and incidentally, those side control chokes are here). What I was showing worked, but I think I missed some details.

I also went through the crucifix stuff from the Dave Jacobs seminar again, which is proving by far the best "hey, have you seen this before?" set of techniques in my toolbox. Quite possibly the most productive seminar I've ever been to, in terms of showing what I learned to other people afterwards. They've almost never seen it before too, which goes to show how rare the crucifix is (then again, my BJJ circle is currently made up mostly of white and blue belts, with a smattering of purples).

We finished off with some specific sparring from half guard. On top, I wasn't doing too well on stopping them getting onto their side, even though I was starting from an ideal heavy cross-face. As soon as they can get those hips out I start losing the position, it seems. I'm sure I used to be more comfortable holding half guard, so this next month should be really handy for my half guard top control. I'm not much cop from bottom half guard either, so I'm looking forward to exploring that some more too. Still, I did get some sweeps from there today, off the kimura grip.

Also, when we were playing with leg positioning earlier, I found that if they load up their weight when you try the leg tweak, that can lead right into a sweep. They went heavy when I tried to pull the leg out, which enabled me to simply scoop under with an arm and roll them right over. I need to play with the old school more: Bravo may have lots of over-reliance on flexibility in his game (I have zero interest in rubber guard), but his simpler half guard stuff is well worth checking out, as he proved again at Metamoris.