17/01/2008 - BJJ (Beginners)

Class #114



Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Gustavo Dos Santos Pires & Luciano Cristovam, London, UK - 17/01/2008 – Beginner

I decided I wasn’t feeling well enough for the no-gi, as my head got increasingly woozy throughout Thursday 3rd: still felt crappy the following week. Its very frustrating when you almost feel well enough to train, but not quite: having weeks with no classes is not how I planned to start off the year, but then probably my fault for having a terrible diet.

I’m fed up of missing training through illness, but fortunately I seem to have almost shaken off this cold, meaning I decided I should be ok for the beginners class tonight. I’ll keep it to just the one session this week, as there’s no need to push my luck, and hopefully I’ll be fully fit next week. As I’m popping off to Bristol at the weekend rather than going up to Brum, that will give me four days in which to train. If I’m feeling sufficiently healthy, four classes would make up for missing last week and most of the week before.

In other news, Zaf mentioned on Facebook that one of the RGA guys, Goran Reljic, has signed with the UFC, which is pretty cool.

I think Will may have changed the URL of his blog, unless its been changed for ages and I just missed it. Anyway, check out his excellent blog here.

Finally, looks like Padilla & Son have got in some new stock, which is cool: hopefully that will still be the case when I next need a gi. Been very happy with my white gold weave so far.

At first I thought Luciano was going to be taking the session, but it turned out that he was in fact acting as a sort of hands on translator for Gustavo, a visiting black belt. Gustavo didn’t speak any English, so needed Luciano to both demonstrate and translate simultaneously: goes to show just how good Luciano’s English is that he could translate off the cuff.

Class began, as normal, with a throw. I hadn’t seen it before – some kind of trip (no idea what the judo name would be, but maybe someone can recognise it from this description?). Starting from the usual grip on the arm and collar, step to the left, pulling them towards you. That should leave your right foot between their legs: bring your left foot next to it, then hook their leg with your right foot (toes on the ground). Finally, push on their shoulder and pull back with your other arm to drop them to the floor.

Next Gustavo, through Luciano, demonstrated a self defence technique – that’s something we haven’t done for some time, which is fine by me (I’m in this for sport, not self defence). However, makes for a nice change, and as I wanted to take it easy this lesson, ideal timing. Your attacker has put you in a standing guillotine. Grab their hand, and with your other arm, reach over their far shoulder. Step round to that side, knock their leg forward by bashing your knee into the back of their knee, finally bringing them to the ground.

Last bit of technique for today was especially useful: escape from knee on belly. With the same side arm as the knee on your belly, grab their belt and push forward into their stomach. Shrimp out and come up on your elbow, then bring your same side leg through. Raising up – maintaining your grip on their belt – grab the back of their ankle. Push on their belt and pull back on the ankle to take them down.

After another drill for knee-on-belly (one escapes, goes to knee on belly, then the other escapes, knee-on-belly, and so on), we reached the specific sparring section of class. On top in side control, I held Tanvir in scarf hold, trying to think of how I could step over and go for a submission (I had in mind that triangle position from a while back, but couldn’t remember it properly). Eventually I overbalanced, and Tanvir was able to roll me over. I also found that, as seems to often happen, I wasn’t too effective at stopping my opponent from simply locking their arm out and pushing up when I had them under side control. I tried swimming my arm in, but ended up generally just pressing my weight down and moving my legs towards their head (moving into scarf hold). Kinda sloppy. Although not as sloppy as effectively putting myself in side control when going for an armbar: still not quite sure how I ended up there.

Underneath, I got a solid grip on Tanvir’s collar in order to keep up the pressure, but didn’t really do anything with it. I should have pushed up and tried to shrimp, but instead I concentrated too much on getting my knee under, failing to get space first. I did manage to recover guard at one point, but most of the time I was fairly inactive (largely because I was trying to take it easy, due that lingering headache rather than pure laziness. For a change. :p). Tanvir did a good job of keeping his leg away from my half guard attempt, which is normally my preferred side control escape. Must remember to use escapes in combination.

I sat in the tailbone break (my knee pressed into their tailbone, the other behind, trying to push my hip into their crossed ankles) position on top in guard passage, which didn’t set anything much up, but did mean I wasn’t expending too much effort. Tanvir went for an armbar, but as I had my free hand already behind his knee in place to defend, I was able to slip round to side control. Then again, the way in which I threw him over to pass from there meant there was loads of space, so if he’d been less knackered, Tanvir could probably have got to his knees (as Chris always does when I try and pass his guard). I also tried standing, which I think is where I got a leg pin pass after Tanvir relaxed his guard.

In my guard, I immediately jumped up and landed the sit-up sweep, then having got that, started playing with submissions (if I get a technique I’m going for, I like to try something else after sparring restarts). Going for the sit-up sweep again, I tried falling back for the kimura, but couldn’t bend the arm. When I did manage to get the figure four grip, Tanvir was able to grab his gi: even when I got that released, Tanvir was able to straighten his arm again. So, definitely something major I’m doing wrong there.

I did later get an armbar, but I think that was probably more due to Tanvir getting tired by that point. Also, possible he was going lighter, as I’d mentioned I was still ill while talking before the lesson.

Shortly after typing that up, I had the dubious pleasure of my inaugural baby-vomit down my shoulder and arm. Not that I was too bothered, as I’ve been sick down myself plenty of times back in my undergraduate days, but does remind me: always put the muslin down before bouncing babies on your shoulder!

Presuming I’m fit next week, hopefully get in four classes, but as ever, we shall see.

14/09/2007 - BJJ (Beginners)

Class #87
Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Luciano Cristovam, London, UK - 14/09/2007 – Beginners

Unusually for me, I’m not going up until Birmingham til next week, as my sister’s 30th is this weekend so I’m staying at home. That meant I had the opportunity to give the new Friday class a try, as well as give my Padilla & Sons gold weave gi a test run.

The excellent Smash Pass review served as a very convincing advertisement, having been alerted initially by a post over on MAP. That convinced me to go for this gi as my next purchase: originally I’d planned to get a super lightweight Vulkan, but I no longer care about weight so much, as I don’t plan to drop down a category again (seeing how badly that seemed to fuck up my immune system and general health over August). My full review up here.

It was thinner and lighter than I expected, and also comfortable – there was none of the abrasion I get from the Katama Kimono (though that's just the gi you get when you sign up, so presumably isn't all that high quality). Class started with osoto gari (that basic trip where you pull them off balance then sweep the leg), so that was a good test of the fabric strength. Seemed to hold up fine, but then that’s just one lesson.

Luciano then moved on to what proved to be the only other drill of the lesson, a transition from side control to mount. Move your arm under their head and use your other hand to control their hip, grabbing their gi trouser. Bring your knees in and immediately shove the knee nearest their head under their elbow, pushing that right up onto your hip. Make sure you crush their face and ear with your shoulder, which will push their head to one side and make it difficult for them to being an escape (certainly felt immobilising when I was on the receiving end). Switch your base, making sure that you don’t allow them the space to get their elbow free, then grab the fabric by their knee, push it to the floor and swing your leg over into mount.

We followed that up with specific sparring, split into weight categories, which this time were under and over 79kg. Shame there weren’t more smaller people in the class, as that meant plenty of heavy people, with the exception of me, Nathan and Tamvir (he’s been off for a while due to holiday and sickness, so good to see him back).

First up was guard passage, where I had a rather strange roll with Nathan. I was attempting my normal approach, which wasn’t working, so switched to standing. That didn’t function too well either, and I ended up trying to stack Nathan as much as possible, but without a clear plan of exactly what I was aiming for. He started to turn, so I ended up sort of taking his back, not quite securing it because I was too far forward to get my hooks in properly. So as my legs were there and his arm and head seemed to be between them, I ended up trying to triangle him from behind. Emphasis definitely on the ‘try’: I really wasn’t sure what to do.

Luciano noticed the position and started coaching me through what was no doubt an awesome reverse triangle thingamajig, but I remained totally clueless, randomly pulling on Nathan’s head and arm. Luciano then said go for a kimura, so I again tried to get into the figure four position, but I don’t think I had it the right way round: Nathan certainly didn’t look like he was in danger of tapping. However, Luciano must have seen something, as he called a halt to the confusion. So would appear that when Luciano doesn’t run a complicated lesson, I subconsciously inject my own complexity in which to get thoroughly lost.

Next few rolls against other white belts didn’t go anywhere. Someone called Steve (I think) who I haven’t sparred before had little trouble passing my guard into side control. He was followed by a Polish guy called Yuri (or something like that), who quickly moved into butterfly guard and swept me over by lifting one of my legs up, with what looked like a similar principle to the elevator sweep. My favoured tailbone break was having no effect, so like I’ve said before, must concentrate more on the other methods of passing guard, particularly standing.

Luciano then changed it to side control sparring, where I again started with Nathan. As before, I ended up in weird positions. He was getting his arm solidly between his body and me, so I tried to move into scarf hold but couldn’t quite hold it properly. I noticed his arm was drifting towards one of my legs, so thought there might be an opportunity for an armbar if I stepped over. On the second attempt, I did indeed step over and grab his arm, but couldn’t get my other leg into position. So instead, I once again found myself in a ridiculous backwards triangle, though this time I didn’t even have the arm. In fact, I had no idea where I was gripping, except that it was somewhere around Nathan’s head. Not sure what else to do, I squeezed, looking around to see if there was anything to grab. I sort of succeeded in returning Nathan to his back (I say sort of because he pretty much put himself there without any help from me), after which I again tried to go for his arm. I still didn’t have position for an armbar, so tried for a kimura instead, but couldn’t break Nathan’s grip.

Finally, Nathan managed to slip out, though it had been a comparatively long roll. Apparently, I’d been gripping somewhere near his face, which had been painful but I don’t think enough to make somebody tap. Also, I had no idea what I was doing, so definitely not something I plan to get into a habit of testing out in sparring: getting basic defences sorted are infinitely more important than freaky triangle action. Still, fun to do every once in a while if the opportunity presents itself.

Things finished off with a roll against a Korean guy, whose name was something like ‘Seon’ or possibly ‘Sen’. Again, I had trouble keeping him in place and made a failed attempt to get scarf hold, meaning he steadily moved round until he escaped. Come to think of it, he’s probably my size too, so would be good to get to know him better: the more training partners of my build and weight the better!

I wasn’t in a rush to get home, so could enjoy something I’ve always really liked about martial arts training ever since uni: socialising. Herman, Nathan and I were all hanging around with no intention of doubling up classes (sorry Zaf :p), so instead had a long chat, which was cool. My Padilla & Sons gi held up well that session, but I’ll have to wait a few months at least to see what the quality is like – I can at least say it was comfortable to wear, as well as pleasant to roll in due to the light weight. I’d thought it would be heavier, but felt about the same as my Blitz judo gi.

Next week I’ll aim to do a minimum of three again, although I should make that two advanced and one beginner rather than the other way round. We’ll see how it goes. Also, before I forget, Nathan mentioned a kimura (or was it Americana?) escape Felipe showed him. From what I understand, its basically a matter of coming up on your side and driving the shoulder of your trapped arm into the floor. Sounds worth a try next time I find myself in the that position.

13/09/2007 - BJJ (No-Gi)

Class #86



Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Luciano Cristovam, London, UK - 13/09/2007 – No-Gi

I had assumed tonight’s class would be taken by Felipe as usual, given that he was teaching the kids session beforehand, but instead Luciano was in charge of training. It seems Luciano has a penchant for the complex, as well as being keen to get everyone sparring as much as possible: even part of the drilling involved a fair bit of resistance. We did some pummelling (which I think is the right term when you both start in a clinch, then fight for the double underhooks), which was then immediately followed by takedown specific sparring.

As ever when we do takedowns, I wasn’t really going for takedowns myself: I’m pretty much clueless standing up, particularly no-gi, so I took it slow and tried to take in what the other person was doing. I tried to get to a clinch position and stop them grabbing a leg, and also had a brief attempt at one of the moves we were shown a while back, where you push on their hips. Didn’t quite remember what to do, unfortunately, but still good to do at least one proactive thing. Generally my attempt to observe weren’t all that successful, as I often wasn’t able to follow how they got the takedown due to the speed. Still, I’m starting to get some idea of footwork and the like when standing up, in a very very limited sense, so that’s progress.

The techniques almost went straight over my head, kicking off with Aesopian’s favourite, the reverse omoplata. As they go for your legs, you sprawl back and move round to their back. Bring your right arm underneath and grab their right wrist, then slip your left hand under their left armpit to grab your own wrist. Your right knee then slides in close to their arm, after which you then use that to push their arm out. Wrap your left leg round to pull it back, then triangle that arm making sure your left leg is on top (I think: this part especially kept confusing me).

You then release your grip on their arm and roll over your right shoulder. They’ll have to roll with you, or be forced to tap there and then. Make sure you get your arm (right, I think) across them so they can’t just sit up, then come to you knees. I think you then continue the motion twisting their arm until they tap from the pressure on their shoulder, but again, not too clear on the mechanics.

The next technique, to my surprise, was even more complicated. This time Luciano showed us a rolling footlock, in which you’re standing in their open guard. Grab one of their feet, thumb on top and figures on their sole. Trap their other leg between your own legs: its important that stays secured. You then roll over your shoulder, keep the hold on the foot (which I found difficult: it was hard to stop myself instinctively letting go of the foot to put an arm down for the roll). You should now be triangling their leg with a firm grip on their foot. Bring your other hand in to grasp your own wrist, making a figure four, then push their toes away from you for the tap.

I kept pushing in the wrong direction: I can remember that pushing up or down was wrong, so I think it was a sort of twisting motion where their toes go forward and heel back. I also wasn’t securing the ankle properly, so need to remember to keep that tight.

As with the takedown sparring, we then lined up against the wall again, and for a moment I thought Luciano might do specific footlock sparring or something, which would be terrifying. However, turned out that it was already time for full free sparring: there was still half the lesson (45 minutes) to go at this point. Fortunately, the class was also sufficiently large that no everyone could spar at the same time, meaning we did it in shifts. There were seven rounds in total, and I alternated between sitting out and sparring, getting three spars overall.

Things kicked off with Chris, who as I’ve mentioned a few times I’ve been wanting to spar more frequently. As ever, I ended up in half-guard, from which I still found I was basically just clinging on. I can get a fairly strong triangle on the leg, but not much else. I also got double underhooks, but couldn’t really do much with it. My aim was to try and get my head to the same side as the isolated leg in order to take the back, but like every other time, my head was on the opposite side. From there I should be able to sweep by coming up on my elbow, but I tended to be low on their body and quite flat, which made it difficult.

Chris said afterwards that his preferred method of getting past half-guard was to underhook, bring the hip in, and then move past the hip. Or something like that: I’ll need to drill it with him some time to get the technique right, which is unfortunately difficult as I’m never about after training.

After sitting out, I then followed my plan of next going with somebody my own weight, rolling with Nathan. Again, I spent a lot of it in half-guard, but also had a drawn out open guard battle, which was good to work. I was able to prevent Nathan passing for a fair while, slipping my knee into his stomach or getting my hands onto his side and armpit (though that isn’t quite so effective without a gi to grab). However, he did eventually get through to mount, where I did the step over thing from Belfast to recover my half-guard.

Nathan had a hold of my arm a few times, but due to the sweat I was able to slide out each time. That’s something I’m beginning to rely on in no-gi, so I’ll have to watch that: while the slicker bodies in no-gi certainly makes escapes from that kind of thing easier, I should still be concentrating on proper arm positioning and escapes, not just sweat.

Finally, I went with Gavin, a quiet blue belt whose name I only found out at the Bristol Open. He was unsurprisingly more technical than either Chris or Nathan, and it was rather harder to maintain the half-guard on him. In particular, he did something where he was able to get the knee of the leg I was triangling right up underneath me, meaning that I either had to let go of my half-guard or get passed: I should have done the former, but ended up with the latter. Gavin was going pretty easy on me, so only submitted me twice, which gave me a chance to try defending from the bottom. Not sure if I was especially successful, as I can’t tell how much he was letting me get away with. Still, felt like a productive spar, and I’ll have to be careful of that knee when in half-guard.

I had to make sure I wasn’t home too late tonight, as there is some early morning training at work I can’t afford to miss, so didn’t do the beginners session. Having trouble doubling up, but then as long as I get two classes in, I’m not too bothered: anything from two to four is fine. Also, I may well get the chance to train on Friday too, so that would be at least three.

Generally, same points from yesterday apply: must work those few fundamental sweeps and escapes from half-guard, and also concentrate on recovering full guard. In addition I shouldn’t neglect the top game, so it would be worth attempting to get on top occasionally: I did that briefly with Gavin, so need to keep varying like that. Overall I’m pleased that I went with three spars of respectively someone bigger, someone the same size and someone much more skilled (i.e., a blue), which was my stated intention yesterday. Hopefully I’ll be able to keep that up.

15/03/2007 - BJJ

Class #39


Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Luciano Cristovam, London, UK - 15/03/2007

No Felipe today, as he left after the advanced class, meaning I had my third ever lesson under a purple belt. Luciano ran a more fitness intensive class than Felipe, adding in a bunch of star jumps, sit-ups, press-ups, squats etc to the usual running round warm-up.

Technique-wise, however, things continued where Jude and Felipe had left off, focusing on the guard. After going through the double-leg again, Luciano showed us the sit-up sweep, which is always good to drill. Points I need to keep in mind are getting my arm-pit right up to their shoulder and pushing up with the hips. I almost never go for the sit-up in sparring, as I keep being too worried that I can’t raise up far enough and quick enough before I get passed.

Keeping the kimura (which Luciano demonstrated next) in mind may help me overcome that niggling fear of raising up. I must remember to push the arm out and away from easy handholds – Chris helped to drum that into my skull by grabbing onto my gi if I didn’t get his arm out far enough. I also found that I had trouble bending his arm: I kept putting the figure four on too loosely, and sometimes even forgetting because I was concentrating on getting the arm out to the side. Another tip is how to break Person A’s grip if they are holding you down in guard by both lapels: simply reach underneath with both hands and push upwards against the inside of their wrists.

Finally, Luciano went through the armbar from guard, which I’ll write down here again to remind myself. Person B isolates an arm, grabbing the wrist with their same side arm, then coming underneath Person A’s other arm to grip the elbow. Importantly, Person B then drags that arm right over to the opposite side. Next, Person B puts their foot on the same hip as the isolated arm, pushing off that so they can make room for their other leg. This pushes down on Person A, aiming to break their posture, so it becomes easier to bring the leg which was on a hip round Person A’s head, then secure the armbar, remembering not to cross the legs.

Luciano didn’t mention raising the hips by pushing off Person A’s hip, but that may be because he prefers a slightly different set-up (or perhaps he thought it was obvious).

Sparring was with just the one person, which I prefer. I started off with a guy called Jude (not the instructor, obviously!), who has a bit of a size advantage. This showed when he was in my guard, as I had real trouble pulling him down, meaning I couldn’t get off the scissor and flower sweeps I wanted to try. What I should have done was do that grip break Luciano showed us (coming up underneath and in-between the hands), then gone for a sit-up sweep and/or kimura. Alternately, I could have tried an armbar, but wasn’t brave enough: I absolutely must get more comfortable with opening my guard, as its acting as a hindrance to certain techniques.

I didn’t manage anything from the bottom, merely resisting for a while before getting passed, but I did have some success on top. Jude was really working for the ankle grab sweep when I stood up, but I didn’t have too much trouble maintaining base – it could just be us beginners haven’t sufficiently familiarised ourselves with standing sweeps, but so far I haven’t found it overly difficult to resist. I was eventually able to get round into side control, as Jude gave me sufficient space to move round his legs.

It seems I’m still waiting for mistakes when passing, however, when I should be forcing the issue. I need to work on my guard breaks, although I am at least standing up more readily now, so that’s progress from my previous hesitancy. Something else I need to be careful of is, conversely, letting my opponent too close I’m in their guard. At one point, Jude was able to put on a fairly uncomfortable crush against my face – though I managed to escape after some struggling, I can see that being a potential submission if I’m not careful and don’t remain calm.

I wanted to go against someone my own weight and build next, so made a beeline for Nathan. We had switched from guard-passing to side control sparring, where I had some success. As in the past, I was getting the Americana repeatedly, though I need to remember to shrimp away from the head, then grab the wrist with my hand nearest their head (I think: occasionally mix those up). At one point I thought Nathan was going to get out of it, but I kept cranking and got the sub. Not sure if that would have worked against somebody stronger, and I also think I need to think more carefully about how to get the Americana from a tighter twist, such as when my opponent has managed to turn to their side and brought their arm in close.

I wanted to try something else after getting the Americana, as otherwise I wasn’t learning anything. Unfortunately, my mind went completely blank when trying to remember any other submissions, though that meant I could go for the mount instead. As with the guard, I found I was waiting for mistakes, although I was able to maintain my position when Nathan went for sweeps.

Underneath side control, I attempted the push up and shrimp out escape. However, Nathan was good at stopping that by moving round quickly and going for scarf hold. He also attempted some kind of twisting collar choke that involved stepping round into North/South – this is something Jeff also went for some time ago. I was able to stop him (only just, though) by keeping a firm grip on his gi and moving round in the same direction, so the choke could never quite go on. Probably due to fatigue, Nathan left space each time, meaning that I was able to come to my knees the first time and push down into side control. On the second occasion I was much more sloppy: when I found some space, I basically rushed forward and ended up in Nathan’s guard. Not exactly sure how that happened, but it definitely wouldn’t work against anybody either stronger than me or good at keeping their weight down in side control. I also need to get better at stopping the guy on top moving round – I don’t think I was getting my knee in the way as much as I should, although grabbing onto a hip seemed to have some effect.

Plan to train again on Saturday, which means I’ll get in four lessons this week. More than makes up for the crappy trains last Wednesday, so I’m glad my gf’s travel arrangements mean I have the opportunity!

04/01/2007 - BJJ

Class #18



Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Luciano Cristovam, London, UK – 04/01/2007

When I arrived, I was rather surprised to see the advanced class still getting changed. For a moment I thought the class times might have changed or something, but turns out the power only came back on 10 minutes before I got there, having been off since 16:30. This meant that the advanced class and the beginners class were running side by side for about 40mins with a few belts down the middle to divide the groups. A little cramped, to say the least, but we mainly did warm-ups, so wasn’t too bad.

Luciano ran class again, which pleased me because it meant I should have another chance to drill the omoplata. He began with the ‘self-defence’ thing again, which I’m not too keen on, but moved swiftly on to the kimura. I’ve done this before in MMA, but quite some time ago, and the set-up this time was much better. Person B grabs Person A’s right wrist with their left hand, sitting up and bringing their right hand thumb-first round the back of Person A’s right arm. Person B then grabs their own left wrist with their right hand, using the leverage this creates (i.e., the right arm wrapped round isolates Person A’s joint) to push Person’s arm with their left hand. Person B continues pushing with their left hand, also using their leg to further drive Person A downwards, until Person A taps.

As I’d hoped, Luciano then demonstrated the omoplata again. This time, however, it was much simpler (though perhaps the previous lesson helped, despite my inability to remember the set-up properly). If the kimura failed, Person A managing to straighten out his arm, Person B brings their right leg out under Person A’s head. Person B then moves their left leg over the top of Person A’s right arm, the foot near Person A’s head, using their right leg to secure a triangle on the arm. Keeping Person A’s right arm bent round the leg, Person B sits up and grabs hold of Person A’s far side (the left, in this case). Person B then tries to improve their position by pulling Person A out to the right, aiming to drive Person A’s shoulder down and eventually flatten them out. This makes it easier to thrust the hips forward at a forty-five degree angle in the direction of Person A, until they tap from the pain in their shoulder.

Unlike last session, I was able to at least drill the technique, though I still had some trouble getting the right angle with my hips for the tap. Oli G came over to give me further advice: as I’d been going the wrong way, his correction certainly helped!

Sparring was as usual passing and sweeping, though I didn’t have too much success. I was up against Paul, who I think is an Aussie (had a Gracie Barra Sydney gi on, IIRC), and has plenty more experience than normal for a beginner. If I understood him correctly, he’s been going off and on to BJJ for years, just never consistently enough to progress up the ranks. Still, it was clearly sufficient to deal with my mediocre efforts. I couldn’t get anything on him, as he had no problem blocking my attempts to scissor and sit-up sweep. I probably should have tried to go for the flower sweep too, and as I keep finding myself in a position where I have one leg between theirs as they’re rising up, learning the elevator (which frankly I’ve only heard of due to Jeff Blatnick commentating on the early UFCs) might be useful too. I did at least resist his pass for a while, though I think he may have been going easy on me.

That was confirmed when we changed positions. I was struggling yet again with the tailbone pass, so Paul advised me to drive my elbows into his inner thighs. I think I’ve been gripping too high for the pass, up on the lower part of the gi jacket when I should be going for the top of the trousers close to the hips: that should help with leverage. I wasn’t able to get my knee through like I did yesterday against Herman (turns out Herman trains every day, which would explain his improvement, but tends to have long gaps), as Paul’s closed guard was too tight. Standing up I’m still entirely ineffectual, generally ending back down on my knees.

This was followed by an ego boost against Basil, though the specific sparring was now from side control rather than guard. I had little trouble switching to guard when underneath, and similarly found it fairly straightforward to move into mount when on top - he left plenty of space, unsurprising considering he's never been in side control before. In hindsight, I probably should have gone for something else, like an Americana, as I don’t think I really learned too much simply passing and getting into guard (would that still be pulling guard, if I’m shifting into it from under side control?) against somebody new to the position.

On the other hand, it did give me a chance to teach, as Basil had only been to four classes whereas this was my twentieth. It also confirms what I think one of the quality BJJ posters on Bullshido (NSLightsOut, jnp, Yrkoon9 etc) said about it being in your interest to help out the less experienced as much as possible, as this results in better training partners for you. Having advised Basil to put his knee into my side when he’s underneath, I did indeed find it more difficult to mount and therefore got more out of the roll. A low-level but nonetheless quantifiable example.

Tonight was the first time I’d worn my gum shield when rolling, having been inspired by a chat to Daniel about him getting whacked in the teeth a few lessons back. Needless to say, he now wears a gum shield every spar. Basil noticed there was a bit of blood in my gum shield, which often happens as my teeth are crappy. Turns out the guy is a dentist, who then proceeded to give me a lecture about flossing, once we'd finished and were in the changing rooms. Fair enough, though, as I’m far too lazy with that kind of thing – you only get one set of teeth, after all.

I asked Luciano about prices for the Carlinhos seminar, but he didn’t know. Oli G, on the other hand, said he’d heard it was £15 for RGA students, though £25 was more likely. Should be training next Wednesday as normal, with the first ZSK session of 2007 on Tuesday. There is supposed to be a ‘taster session’ on Sunday, which I suggested a few months back, but don’t think I’ll be needed to attend. Could be that BJJ is already improving my fitness, as I spent five minutes sprinting from Edgware Road to Marylebone, just managing to catch my train back to Amersham. Being a wimp, normally I’d get a stitch.

03/01/2007 - BJJ

Class #17



Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Luciano Cristovam, London, UK – 03/01/2007

The black belts were all still on holiday, apparently, which meant Luciano (a purple belt) took both the beginner and advanced classes, helped by Oli G as usual. I’d found him helpful when he assisted at previous lessons, so knew he’d be a good substitute for Felipe and Jude. I think his surname is Cristovam, though I've also seen a Luciano Cristocam when googling 'Luciano' and 'Roger Gracie Academy' - as vam gets more hits than cam, I'm assuming the latter is a typo. Then again, Oli G can tell me for certain.

Mungkorn Dam had PMed me earlier mentioning he was keen to try out the armless triangle, having come across the move in a book recently. Fortunately for us, there was no kids class today, meaning the mats were free for drilling. As Person A underhooks both legs in an attempt to pass the guard, Person B brings their left leg up behind Person A’s head. Instead of trapping an arm and bringing the other leg over, Person B wedges their own left arm into Person A’s throat, gripping their own left leg to secure the hold (I can’t remember if the grip is on top of the leg or underneath: will have to check a video or wait for MD to respond). Person B then brings their other leg across into the usual triangle position, squeezing for the choke.

After drilling some throws and a ‘self defence’ thing (when grabbed from behind, circle round the arm, pushing against the elbow, gripping your own hand and twisting up for a standing Americana), the first technique we worked in the actual class was the flower sweep, which I’d somehow managed to forget over Christmas. Luciano followed Felipe’s method rather than Jude’s, isolating an arm rather than grabbing behind the head. One thing I need to remember is that you underhook the opposite leg to the arm you’re isolating – kept getting that mixed up, meaning the sweep doesn’t work as your training partner can still base out with their arm.

Having had sufficient trouble with a technique I’d covered before, Luciano then sprung something rather more complex on us: the omoplata. I’ve seen the term used repeatedly on Bullshido without ever knowing what it was beyond some kind of shoulder lock, so it was good to finally drill it.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t even get the technique right when drilling with no resistance, which is probably why I’m having difficulty remembering exactly how the omoplata is supposed to work. I think this is a different set-up, but here’s how Rowan Cunningham shows it in one of the Abhaya videos. My main problem was pulling the arm through properly, as I kept ending up in a position where I’d triangled the arm, but it wasn’t bent backwards as shown in that video. Looking round the rest of the room, I could see I wasn’t alone: Luciano stopped us drilling to repeat his demonstration of the technique twice, the first time I can remember that happening. Here's another set-up, this time from open guard, by Cindy Omatsu:



Then it was time for specific sparring, as usual Person A trying to pass and Person B trying to sweep. I was with Herman again, but things didn’t go quite as easily as last time. He had a much more solid posture, my attempts to scissor sweep falling flat. With hindsight, I can see that my problem was a failure to move from sweep to sweep like I did previously, instead getting into a stalemate, going for the same technique rather than pressuring with several different manoeuvres. I should have been able to try the sit-up sweep, as Herman was often sitting back in my guard, but as before I forgot to go up on my elbow. That meant that Herman had no problem readjusting when I went to isolate one side, as it took me so long to get there. I did eventually sweep Herman, due to him putting too much weight forward (I think as has happened before in sparring, I basically rolled him with my knee), but it took almost the entire first spar.

Sparring in general proved useful in helping my passing. I managed to remember Marcio’s advice on getting the knee in between my partner’s legs, but that was about as far as my memory went. Nevertheless, it did enable me to break Herman’s guard (or he opened it), meaning that I was standing up gripping his trouser legs. As I tried to pass by switching my base, I didn’t defend properly, meaning Herman got my back.

Seeing my noob mistake, Luciano gave me the very useful tip to keep my elbows tight and inside Herman’s legs – I had left too much space, which meant Herman could get his foot to my bicep and generally hamper my movement. I did better on the second attempt, effectively driving straight through Herman’s guard with my knee and into side control, though no doubt fatigue on Herman’s part was a major factor.

Finally, I rolled with Basil, for whom this was his third lesson. If he had any more experience, I’m pretty sure he would have taken my back. Basil was keeping a tight grip on both my lapels, but had opened his guard sufficiently that I was able to get round his leg. Again, if he wasn’t so new, I imagine he would have capitalised on the fact he was still gripping my lapels while I was trying to pass. However, I was able to push round his leg to almost get side control, ending up in the familiar situation where my training partner is on their side trying to move back into guard. Luciano was watching, and shouted out the blindingly obvious next move: mount him. Simple, but I was so busy concentrating on getting side control I didn’t consider the much easier option of throwing my leg over until Luciano’s observation.

I still need to be quicker, and must remember to keep flowing from technique to technique rather than getting into a stalemate of failing at one move repeatedly. If I mess up the scissor, I should go for an armbar, possibly move on to flower sweep or try a sit-up sweep depending on the position. Also need to keep my elbows in tight when I’ve got the trouser legs, and be more careful of my back when attempting to pass by switching my base. Hopefully I’ll get the chance to test this out tomorrow, but we’ll see if it ends up being more guard passing and sweeping.

Chatting to Michael and Oli on the train, they confirmed the stripes are based on time rather than ability, which would make sense. If that’s the case, then I need to be careful if and when I get my third stripe and can move up to the advanced class, as it wouldn’t be an indication of my skill level. They also commented that there may be an intermediate class consisting of third/fourth stripe whites and blues in the future, which would tally with what Oli G said to me a while back.