01/08/2013 - No Gi (Passing Quarter Guard)

Class #514
Gracie Barra Bristol, (No-Gi), Miles Pearson, Bristol, UK - 01/08/2013

The schedule for nogi has changed slightly, as classes are now 19:30-21:00 rather than 19:00-20:30. That works out quite nicely, as it means I can eat with my girlfriend rather than having to eat sandwiches on my own to make sure I'm leaving enough time between eating and training (I like to leave at least an hour, preferably two). Tonight we were continuing on top mount, but interestingly due to the position Miles picked, it combined elements of passing half guard as well, along with back control.

That's because both techniques were based around quarter guard, which is a common term for when they've trying to get half guard, but have only managed to trap your foot (as per the picture, although most often, you would be in more of a mount position with both knees on the mat: Saulo is most of the way through a half guard pass). This is BJJ, so I'm sure there are a bunch of other names for the same thing. It is something I first encountered as a new blue belt, back in August 2008, when Rob T mentioned it as a way to escape knee-on-belly.

The basic quarter guard pass (which you could argue is also part of maintaining mount), begins by reaching under the armpit on the same side as your trapped knee. Grab their same side shoulder, locking it in, then complete the immobilisation of their skull by clamping your head to the other side. This should stop them being able to turn. Raise up your legs (maintaining plenty of pressure on their upper body: you have the control points of their head and at least one shoulder, making it tough for them), then slide your trapped knee to the other side of their body. From here you should be able to slide free. If you need to create more space to extricate your trapped foot, use your free leg to kick their upper knee.

Miles followed up with a far more complicated and lower percentage response, where you end up taking the back. I would never use this in sparring, but as I very frequently use the heel drag escape from mount (which begins with quarter guard), it is good to know that the person on top might attempt this. After they put you in quarter guard, adjust your foot so you're hooking over their top foot with your shin. The idea is to keep it in place, as if they can uncross their legs, the back take will fail.

Next, turn your body towards their legs, away from your trapped side, pushing your free foot into the heel/ankle of your trapped foot. Do a static forward roll motion, bringing your arm between your legs (as much as you can do while sat astride somebody). Reach for their trailing leg and grab it, then extend your legs (watch out that you don't end up doing a calf slicer, unless you're trying this technique in a competition setting that allows slicers). Hopefully this will put you into a sort of banana split position, where you immediately wrap your arms around their nearest leg, still pushing on your own foot to get the rotation. From there, you're going to try and take their back by again adjusting to grab the neck.

Sparring started off with specific from quarter guard, king of the hill, split into group. Staying on top, I found that in that position you need to immediately go for something as they have already initiated your escape. If you delay, they'll probably get at least to half guard. I therefore went straight to underhook the shoulder, or if I couldn't get that, gripping their head and/or armpit. I generally managed that, though a few times I found myself in half guard.

Underneath, I could normally finish the heel drag, as that is my favourite escape. Once or twice I ended up just opening space, but could then use the butterfly type escapes I taught last week to complete my exit from underneath them. The most complex situation was when Luke attempted the rolling back take we had just learned, but fortunately for me he didn't have control of my legs. That meant I could swivel through and end up in his guard (helped by the fact he is much bigger than me, so inevitably leaves space I can exploit, particularly in nogi).

I'm still watching the Essential Grips clip from No Gi Essentials before each nogi class, which has therefore been my focus when it came to free sparring. Previously I found it really difficult to get the wrist and elbow grip Dean advocates as everything was so sweaty, but tonight it was perhaps a bit cooler as I managed it a few times. I didn't do a whole lot with it, but just getting the grip was an improvement from before, as I could then push into their hips with my feet.

The knee cut worked a few times, helped by the slipperiness. I wasn't doing a whole lot with submissions, though I randomly ended up in a vague head and arm choke type position. Very sloppy though: the first tap was just from their arm being pressed into their mouth, so that wasn't anything to rely upon. I was in the middle of trying to set something up when that happened, so hadn't even realised they were in that position.

I also again landed the Henry Akins sweep, this time without them putting their knee in my tailbone. I'm liking the mechanics of it, so plan to keep on testing it whenever I'm in closed guard, gi or nogi.

18/07/2013 - No Gi (Side Control to Mount)

Class #510
Gracie Barra Bristol, (No-Gi), Miles Pearson, Bristol, UK - 18/07/2013

There was an impressive turn-out for the nogi class tonight, with thirteen hardy souls braving the heat. The ridiculous temperatures (for the UK) have continued, with upwards of 30 degree Celsius. Miles was covering some basic transitions from side control to mount, beginning with the Gracie Barra Fundamentals syllabus method. Get a secure gable grip and cross-face as normal, bringing your knees in tight. You're then going to try and slip under the near arm with your knee. The GB Fundamentals version involves turning your knees towards their legs, then shifting back to dig under their elbow with the outside of your nearest knee.

You're then going to walk your far hand up past their head, creeping up the mat with your fingers until their arm is squished by their face. If you can, put your head next to it as well for additional control and the potential of switching to a head and arm triangle. Having dealt with the near arm, you should be able to get your hips high up by their head. That gives you loads of room to slide your knee over. To go to mount, drive that knee up into their far armpit, to avoid giving them a chance to snatch half guard.

The second version starts the same, except this time you switch your hips towards their head to get that near arm. The idea is to scoop it up with your hip, grabbing their far shoulder and pulling yourself up their body if necessary. You then twist them up like before, but instead of driving your knee into the armpit, drive it to their hip and push back. That should give you the space to 'fishtail' (turning your body and slapping your lower leg to the mat), after which you immediately bring your leg into their armpit for control.

My main goal for sparring was continuing to work on my nogi grips, following my own advice to focus on small components of techniques. I had another watch of the 'Essential Grips' section from Roy Dean's excellent No Gi Essentials (Black Belt Requirements is coming soon: I'm looking forward to reviewing it!). He shows the same shoulder grip I've seen from Levo and the Carlos Machado butterfly sweep DVD, which I still have trouble landing. It feels like something that needs to be set-up, as a second option based on their attempt to escape something else, rather than a grip I should be going for initially.

I also tried Dean's suggested wrist and elbow control, but had real trouble getting any kind of purchase on their arm. The humidity certainly didn't help with that, but Dean repeatedly stated how good a grip it was, so I don't plan to give up on it just yet. The most successful grip for me tonight was the armpits. That was generally from reaching around their back and hooking my hand into the far armpit, but I managed to somehow anchor myself on Mike's armpit to avoid getting swept and instead take mount at one point (though I'm pretty sure he swept me later, as Mike's x-guard is tough to stop ;D).

Once in mount I wanted to try Dónal's ezequiel series from yesterday. The ezequiel isn't really workable in nogi (though I have heard of people using it: I guess they have weird arms?), but the tight, high-mount americana remains viable, as does the back take. I started with the americana, which Mike avoided because I couldn't get him squashed enough. I transitioned to the back take, grabbing the wrist (only just though, as Mike was wise to it and defending), but nothing came of it.

I went for the same back take with Roli, attempting to switch into the short choke from Dónal's series. I probably over-focused on it, as the rear naked choke was likely there too. I briefly went to Kesting's palm-to-palm grip to secure my arm behind the back, but wasn't able to maintain the back long enough. I squeezed briefly, but I don't think there was anything there so didn't push it (like I was saying on reddit recently, I subscribe to Cane Prevost's 70% approach). On the plus side, I landed the Akins sweep, which is fun: so, that therefore works in nogi too (although I didn't pull him forward first, which makes the sweep easier). :)

There was also a load of specific sparring from side control earlier, where I was trying for the running escape, but wasn't able to get their arms out of the way to move into position. I was able to lock on a triangle from under side control, but not tight enough and I also failed to isolate the other arm for an attack. On top, I did the usual maintaining, while hunting for the same Roy Dean lockflow. I tried it on Mike, but wasn't able to clamp his arm sufficiently when switching through the three attacks. I think I also need to prepare the ground better, putting my hand in place to move directly into the submission, as well as more use of my head to control the arm. That kind of tightness is much harder in nogi, but that difficulty also means it is a great way to refine your control.

27/06/2013 - No Gi (Omoplata Sweep to Armbar)

Class #506
Gracie Barra Bristol, (No-Gi), Miles Pearson, Bristol, UK - 27/06/2013

Back to the nogi tonight with Miles, working from closed guard. It's been very muggy today, which made for an extremely sweaty session, but that's great for working control. The topic was closed guard, more specifically the omoplata sweep. Grab their opposite wrist, with your thumb towards them, clamping their hand to their own torso. Swivel and kick into their trapped arm with your legs (try to get the back of your knee right into their armpit), at the same time shooting your free hand underneath their same side leg. Bring that in as close to your body as possible.

Stretch them out with your legs, then get your hip slightly underneath them. This should enable you to roll them directly over you. Maintaining control of their arm, turn towards their legs. As you establish control with your bodyweight and by putting your free elbow into their far hip, you can let go of their arm and either continue into side control, or shift your hips back for reverse scarf, then mount.

There is also the option of transitioning to an armbar. As you turn and come up, instead of looking to get side control, focus on grabbing just below the elbow of their trapped arm and pulling up and in towards your body. Sit on their chest, then wait for their reaction. If they try and roll you over, there is the option of still going for the omoplata.

If they raise their head, stick the leg you have nearest to that head underneath it, so their head is on top of your calf. You then want to adjust and turn until your instep is under their head. Quickly swing the other leg over the top (if you are too slow with this, they can grab it and stop your submission). Wrap their arm tightly with one of yours, while the other arm grasps their leg to stop them scampering away. Finish the armbar from there.

Sparring started from closed guard, with the proviso that you had to stay on your knees when passing, with no submissions from the bottom, just sweeps. On the bottom, I went for sit-up sweeps, though I was generally with less experienced people. On top, again I was with someone less experienced. I wasn't able to open the guard with the classic knee in the tailbone break, unable to get sufficient leverage (which I can never manage in the gi either: I struggle to get the necessary extension).

Waiting for my moment, I snuck my arm underneath, clamped their hip in close and looked for the single underhook pass. To stop them spinning away, I reached around the outside with my free arm, grabbing the far side of their neck, using that to complete the pass. However, I suspect a higher belt wouldn't have let me do that.

With free sparring, I started off with Liam, a fellow purple who is also bigger. He was going fairly light, otherwise I would have been choked out several times. As it was, he didn't cinch it in tightly, meaning I could sneak my arms in and make some space. That's a false sense of security though, because he wasn't going full pelt. I kept failing to overwrap his arm when slipping out too, ending up right back in choking range.

On top, where I briefly manage to stay at the start, I used my favoured half guard control people often give me when we go from the knees. That translates relatively well to nogi, as I put one elbow into the back of the head, the other arm wrapping up one of theirs. However, I don't really do anything with it. I need to work out how to turn that into a submission or setting up a pass. At the moment, what I mainly try to do is work to flatten them out, which doesn't always work that well.

However, sometimes it does, like when I was sparring somebody less experienced, getting me to mount. I again used what I'm familiar with from the gi, which is Kev's mount control where you cross your feet. I was attempting to walk up with my feet and work under the arm for an americana, but the lack of friction in nogi made that rather more difficult.

He escaped, which gave me another chance to work on controls from closed guard. Before the lesson I rewatched the nogi-applicable segment from Carlos Machado's excellent butterfly sweep dissection, Unstoppable. I didn't expect to get anywhere near a sweep, so followed my own advice and looked for a specific component of the sweep: the initial control gripping the shoulder with a gable grip. That turned out to be hard enough, as with almost everybody I struggled to secure the initial underhook I needed.

It was easier to wrap the head, though I think I'm doing something drastically wrong there. I keep having a sore right arm, a clear indication I'm using too much force. Using my legs more would make sense, or even better if I could bring my skeletal structure into play somehow.

Another control I was working was reaching further to grab their far armpit, which seemed relatively stable. Not that I was able to do much with it, but for nogi, getting any kind of control is my current goal, as I can't do anything until I've got a handle on that.

I eventually got a sit-up sweep again to put them back in mount, where it repeated the earlier slow lack of submission. He was able to get out this time by being energetic, where again the lack of friction was noticeable. Having no gi material to grab makes it harder to stop them wriggling free, which is good practice for my mount control: it has to be tighter to function in nogi.

I also had a roll with Oli, one of the better blue belts. He has a relaxed approach to sparring and often likes to try out random stuff. He's therefore fun to roll with, as he doesn't take it too seriously. I played around with triangles from under side control: I had one locked in and wanted to isolate the non trapped arm, but Oli was wise to it and immediately hid his elbow.

He managed to escape and started going for my back, using the Marcelo Garcia tactic of locking in the seatbelt grip, then manoeuvring around behind me. By the time he got to a good position, the timer rang, though I suspect I would have ended up in a similar situation to Liam earlier, defending and failing to escape.

23/05/2013 - No-Gi (Side Control Figure-Four Lockflow)

Class #501
Gracie Barra Bristol, (No-Gi), Miles Pearson, Bristol, UK - 23/05/2013

I'm continuing to struggle to fit in regular training. I've been teaching consistently every week, but I haven't been getting as much time as I'd like as a student. The private lessons have been on hiatus while Dónal gets his exams sorted, which leaves Thursdays as my main option. That's therefore what I've been aiming to make, finally managing it again this week.

Tonight, Miles was demonstrating some attacks from the top of side control. He kicked off with a handy drill, where they are escaping and about to establish an underhook. You whizzer in return, reaching further until you can put the back of your hand on their neck, then swivel around to the other side, where you repeat the process.

The first technique of the night was a kimura from side control, predicated off a similar scenario. They are going for the underhook, whereupon you switch your base, into a sort of scarf hold facing their legs. Your foot is back for base, looking to lock up the kimura position as quickly as you can, to avoid being bridged off. The first part of that is slipping your arm underneath theirs, which further stops their bridging potential.

Push the arm back down to the mat, switch your base back the other way, facing their head. Step over their head, then twist so that you're sitting on their head, like you had gone for the kimura off the north-south transition. Ideally, you want to scoop up their other arm with your leg, further securing your position and also preventing their ability to turn and escape. From there, turn your body and apply the submission.

That lends itself to a lockflow from side control, which I first learned from Roy Dean. This flows from a kimura to a straight armbar to americana, then back again: I think Miles taught it pretty much the same way I've learned it in the past. The main thing Miles added was blocking off the other arm, either with the knee, or even better, fishtailing and trapping that arm with your shin. There was another nice point he mentioned, relating to the americana: get your elbow into the armpit gap, stopping them from bringing their elbow and initiating and escape.

With sparring, I was looking to try Levo's control from closed guard again, grabbing the head and underhooking, which I'm still not doing very well. Along with that I wanted to attempt to work on butterfly, particularly as I'm reviewing a really good Carlos Machado instructional for JJS at the moment. That didn't go well either, as instead of establishing guard, I was getting passed, then working from under side control.

It's interesting when they don't have that friction, which makes escapes easier. I was pushing on the head, messing around with the arm, and of course didn't have to worry so much about chokes and all the fun stuff you can do with a gi lapel. Final roll wasn't really a roll, as AJ was leaving for the army so had the dubious pleasure of a 'shark tank', where fresh people are jumping in every couple of minutes.

I went straight to mount and looked to see if I could isolate the arm, either for an americana or a head and arm choke. Neither got anywhere close, though I suppose I at least managed to hold mount, so that's something. ;)

18/04/2013 - No Gi (Turtle Escapes)

Class #499
Gracie Barra Bristol, (No-Gi), Miles Pearson, Bristol, UK - 18/04/2013

I've mentioned numerous times in the past that I'm not a big fan of nogi. Out of the 500 lessons of BJJ I've taken over the years, a mere 30 of them have been nogi. When I've gone to nogi, it has normally been because I had no choice as I couldn't make any other class in the schedule. That's exactly why I find myself in the GB Bristol nogi class: Thursdays and Tuesdays are still by far the best days for me to train, so as I now teach on Tuesdays, it looks like I'll be taking off the gi on Thursdays.

This time, I do at least have a new element to make it interesting: Leverage Submission Grappling. I've been to two of Nathan 'Levo' Leverton's seminars so far, which I will be using as a nogi syllabus to work through. Every time I train nogi, my main focus will be LSG techniques. Fortunately for me, tonight was straight out of the LSG playbook, with several techniques Levo taught back at the Leverage Grappling Seminar #03. Miles kicked off with the wrestler's sit-out (which Levo calls the 'peek out'). They are in front of you, with their arms past your armpits but not locked. Base on an elbow and the opposite foot, then knock back their same side arm with your non-basing elbow.

Bring your non-basing foot through right across to the opposite corner, getting your head up, then spin behind them. Your inside hand stays by the leg in case they try to run behind. Also make sure you are putting your weight onto them when you bring your head through. If your weight is sat on the floor, the person on top can simply put their head on the floor, bring their leg over and mount.

Miles combined this with the arm roll, which applies when they lock their arms around you. Of course, a good grappler isn't going to give you their arm like that when you're in turtle, but it is still worth knowing. Same position, but this time you reach back and lock their arm. Look in the direction of the wrapped arm, then drop your same side shoulder to the mat and roll them onto their back. Turn towards their legs to come on top (if you turn towards their head, they can take your back).

Miles finished off with defending the over-under. This is when you have a more knowledgeable opponent, who reaches under your neck with one arm and your armpit with the other. From there, they can move into chokes, so you don't want to hang around. Miles said that some people advocate the usual sit-out, but that he finds it doesn't work well for him. His preference is to drop to the mat, firmly gripping their arm, one leg back and the other curled up high.

That should mean you are now heavy because your centre of gravity is low, hopefully giving you time to work free of their grip. When drilling, Liam tested out some variations on the Peruvian neck tie (although I've heard of it, that was the first time I'd seen it in the flesh), which he thought might make that defence problematic, although trouble-shooting with Miles, the defence seemed sound.

I was nervous about sparring, as my groin injury decided to flare up again due to Tuesday (I didn't restrict myself as much, which was a mistake), but it turned out ok. Specific sparring from turtle gave me the chance to try and shift into Levo's front headlock position, but I was having trouble because we all had to start with that arm-wrapping grip. Although even if we hadn't started there, I would still have run into difficulty: I'm not settling my shoulder into their upper back properly, meaning they can still move forward and take out my legs.

Underneath I also had problems, again partially due to the grip. Normally if I'm in turtle I would be trying very hard to prevent them getting any kind of grip, with my elbows in tight. What I should have done was practice the escapes we'd learned, but I got overly fixated in attempting some tips from LSG #03, particularly the point on always shifting backwards to make them follow you then go for a leg.

Moving into free sparring, I was reminded yet again just how little I know about nogi. I really struggle to get any sort of grip in guard: not having lots of gi to grab makes a massive difference. That meant that instead, I was grabbing the head and failing to get over and underhooks. Keeping them tight is another high priority, which I need to work on. I have been to Levo's closed guard seminar, but would benefit from going again, along with his session on open guard.


I vaguely looked for deep half at one point, but as I don't use that in gi either, I just ended up curled close to their legs. That curled up position featured heavily when I sparred Luke too, this time facing the other way, in the running escape survival posture. I could defend from there, but because I was squashed on the mat, I couldn't do much else except work to block arms digging in. I was impressed by Luke's control, as despite being a huge guy, he took it nice and easy, staying technical even though I'm sure he could have just picked me up and thrown me across the room. ;)

31/05/2011 - Gracie Barra Bristol

Class #401
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Miles Pearson, Bristol, UK - 31/05/2011

A carpenter is coming at 8am tomorrow morning, which meant that tonight was going to be my first night spent sleeping at the new house. We don't have any curtains up yet, so that meant I'd have a natural alarm clock. We also don't have a bed, so I was using an air bed (which has a really, really loud electrical thing to blow it up: I felt too bad for the neighbours to actually wait for the damn thing to finish, so just made do with something half-inflated). Then of course there was the biggest drawback, which is that I wouldn't be able to see my gf in the evening, or wake up with her the next morning.

Despite those discomforts, there was still a big plus. Staying overnight meant that, at last, I didn't have to rush off to jump on a bike and cycle the forty minutes or so back to Downend. Instead, I only had a seven minute walk around the corner. So, I could finally stay a bit later to get in some more sparring, and even more valuable, pick Geeza's brain.

Before that, however, there was of course Miles' class. He takes a different approach to me, as the techniques are a little more complex, with a greater focus on submissions. Last time I popped down to a Tuesday, it was the gift wrap and various attacks. This week, Miles wanted to cover the crucifix position, followed again by a number of submissions.

First, you have to get there. To transition to the crucifix, Miles had us enter against them turtling. You're on their side, looking to dig your knee inside. Pull back on their collar to make a little space, then insert your near knee. With your other leg, step over their near arm, then drag it back over your other arm, triangling your legs.

Reach through with your far arm, to thread inside their far arm and grab their wrist. Bring that towards their body to stop them using it to post. Push off your feet, then roll over your shoulder, moving over their body. You should end up on your back, with them perpendicular to you. One of their arms will be trapped by your triangled legs, while you have the other wrapped. Secure it by bringing your hand to the back of your head, as if you were combing your hair.

From here, you can effect a choke. With your free arm, reach over for their far collar and get a deep grip. Twist your wrist up and raise your hips, in order to press into their neck for the choke. You're aiming to squeeze both sides of their neck here, so your arm needs to also be pressing into their neck. It is possible you can choke them by just pressing into their windpipe, but that's less efficient than cutting off their blood flow.

If they're sufficiently strong to break their arm free of your arm wrap, they will probably pull on their collar or otherwise remove your grip. You can still get a choke, by simply reaching a bit further, past their collar and to the shoulder. The point of your elbow should now be just under their chin. You'll probably need to roll towards them and onto your side to reach in deep enough.

Create a backstop by gable gripping your other hand (so, palm to palm). Also keep your head in close to theirs, as with a rear naked choke. If this was a rear naked choke, you'd finish by expanding your chest and squeezing. That isn't convenient from this position, so instead, roll away from them slightly to pull them up onto your hips to increase your leverage, then bridge.

Finally, you could go for a shoulder submission off a triangle. From the crucifix, press on the side of their head with your arm, so that you can step your leg over their head. Put that foot into their far armpit, then lock the triangle. It is unlikely you'll be able to actually submit them with just that, so it is more of a controlling hold. The submission will come from bringing your other arm over their near armpit, then bridging up and twisting to apply pressure to their shoulder.

Miles left plenty of time to fit in a good bit of free sparring. I started with Monica, who had been my drilling partner today: it was good to see her in class again, as that hopefully means she will become a regular. I look forward to the day we reach a critical mass of women at GB Bristol, so that other women are encouraged to join, especially once the women progress to higher ranks.

Monica mentioned yesterday she'd done a few months of BJJ in the past, which is possibly why it turned out her ability to maintain side control was pretty good. She was able to generate a decent bit of pressure, without leaving much space for me to escape. Good stuff. She also reacted well to my attempts to recover guard, quickly moving around to pass and re-establish side control.

I then went with Luke, who as always maintained a relaxed, technical pace. I was looking for the spider guard sweep again, without much luck. I can't remember how I got there, but at some point I ended up on top in north south looking for an attack. The opportunity to work on my offence is one of the nicest things about a relaxed roll, although on the other hand, I'm not sure if that means I'm taking advantage of somebody's kindness. I guess it depends on if you go nuts with the attack, rather than keeping it steady and gradual.

Geeza was up next, who made a quick point about side control maintenance before we got going (something he wanted to mention after my class a couple of weeks ago, but as usual I had to leave early). In short, it is important to be aware that you need different types of control for different types of escape: although you might block their guard recovery, that could open up an opportunity for them to go to their knees. You need to be aware of both.

The roll itself led on from that, as Geeza asked to start under side control so he could take a look at my game from top side control. Naturally he was taking it easy as a result, so I tried to move around to north south, seeing if I could isolate an arm (I tend to go for the kimura from north south). At another point, I went to the step-over triangle, then again looked to see if I could get hold of an arm. I wasn't able to isolate the non-triangled arm, so attempted to switch to pushing on the trapped arm instead, going for a bent armlock by bending it over my hips. Something I need to keep in mind, as I haven't tried it much from that triangle position.

Finally, I had a roll with Oli, seeing if I could go for the spider guard attack. I also wanted to keep in mind more basic open guard options, like the tripod sweep. For once, I remembered to switch to the sickle sweep if I couldn't get the tripod, but didn't drive my hips through properly. That meant I ended up in a crappy pseudo-mount, which was soon reversed, putting me back under guard.

Class finished, but because I could stay late, that meant I was able to hang around and chat, as well as get in some more sparring with Geeza. As with previous rolls, he tried to work my passing game, going to his back and inviting me to try and get past. Also as with previous rolls, I flopped to my back at the first opportunity, then played defence. This is a bad habit, which I find I particularly do with instructors who are looking to help my game. Rather counterproductive on my part.

Unsurprisingly, Geeza finished up with the sensible advice I've also had (among others) from Kev and Nick Brooks: my defence is ok, so now I need to really focus in on going for some kind of attack. My intention pretty much since I started has been to develop a good defence so that I can take risks with my offence. I’ll throw in a quote, in case anyone still hasn’t read the best thread ever (which you really, really should). This is what I’ve been aiming for:

JohnnyS: We had John Will teaching us on Monday which is always enlightening. Before class we (the brown belts and myself) had a private with John and he recommended we work on our defence. He said the number one way to work on your confidence is to work your defence. When you are certain that no-one can tap you, what do you have to fear? You can work any attack you want because if you stuff it up, you don't have to fear being caught in a bad position.

From what several instructors have said, I've shifted more towards the negative side of that mindset, which is clamming up to avoid being submitted, rather than going for a submission of my own. Rolling not to tap is only going to lead to stagnation. I've been trying to avoid doing that, but it definitely happens a lot with higher level sparring partners. Something I need to stop: perhaps if I keep saying it on my blog enough, it will finally sink into my thick skull. ;)

Geeza also had some good tips on the basic guard break he showed yesterday, which I made sure to ask him about as I've been having problems with it for so long. He emphasised controlling the hips by pressing all your weight through the hand you have pressed into their hip. To get the guard open, aim to slide your own hip bone down their shin, making yourself too broad for them to keep their guard closed.

17/05/2011 - GB Bristol

Class #398
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Miles Pearson, Bristol, UK - 17/05/2011

There are two purple belts currently at Gracie Barra Bristol: I'm one, and Miles is the other. We've both been asked to teach by Geeza, with my class on the Thursdays, Miles' class on the Tuesday. I'm obviously interested in what my fellow purple is teaching (although he's a more experienced purple, and a more experienced instructor: he has a background in primary school teaching), so I was keen to pop along for the Tuesday class. It's impressive Miles is teaching at all, as his wife recently gave birth: congrats to both of them. :)

Miles runs a comparatively long warm-up, following up the usual running round the room with various drills, like partner hip lifting, gi pull ups, belt sprints etc. He then moved into the technical portion, which was all going to be based around the 'gift wrap' made famous by Rickson Gracie. It's a bit like Lesson 35 from Gracie Combatives, which Rener calls 'twisting arm control' (except that he has his foot over by their hip, rather than both knees behind their back). The set up Miles showed started in scarf hold.

To transition to the gift wrap (or twisting arm control, if you prefer that term), step the leg nearest their head over their face. That will push their trapped arm across their body. Grab it with the arm you have over their body, also bringing your other hand under their head. You can then feed their wrist to that other hand, pulling it in tight to establish the gift wrap.

There is a chance you might be able to get a wristlock here, if they don't make a fist with their trapped hand. You want to hold their wrist as high as you can, also controlling that arm with your other hand. Bring their arm out slightly, making sure that their fingers are pointing towards their head. Put your sternum on their elbow, then apply pressure for the wristlock.

As that is low percentage, like Miles mentioned, you can also go for a choke. Loosen up their arm enough that you can slip your other arm through, then reach for your shoulder or bicep. Tighten their arm back up: you're looking to block off one side of their neck with their own arm, and the other with your arm. Once you're in position, pull them up slightly towards you, then straighten your arms, pressing forward.

From the same position, you can also switch to an armbar. Again you want your arm through, but this time grab your wrist, to establish a figure four. Bring your knees up, shift your arm over their head, then get one leg over their head as well, dropping back for the armbar. Make sure to also grab their trouser leg, as otherwise they'll be able to turn and use the hitchhiker escape, because you don't have both legs over.

Miles then showed the same gift wrap/twisting arm control from mount. To transition to the gift wrap, move into a high mount. It will be tough to simply shove their arm over, so instead block it with your hand. Move your upper torso to the side, then pressing your side into their elbow, put your whole body into the action. With that weight, you should be able to slide their arm across their neck, then slip your arm under their head to grab their wrist and enter the gift wrap.

You can now shift into s-mount, where you can go for an armbar in the usual fashion. You can also take the back, by getting a figure four grip again, then dropping towards one side. This will end up being your weak side in terms of the choke, so you'll want to push off with your leg to roll them over to the other side. You're now in a strong position to set up your favourite choke from the back.

Miles finished up by having everyone line up against the wall, where he paired people up for free sparring. I started off with Miles, who was taking it relatively easy with me (possibly because he's a fair bit bigger). I was mostly going to the running escape, trying to spin around back to guard, which he largely let me do.

Next was Geeza, who dropped to his back and waited to see how I'd try to pass his guard. As ever, my answer was mainly to stare at him in confusion, vaguely flailing at his legs before getting swept. My guard passing remains really, really bad: I sometimes forget just how bad, because normally I'll mercifully get put on my back somehow, meaning I can then work my guard.

However, being a good instructor, Geeza kept returning to his back after he landed a sweep, meaning I had to keep on attempting (and failing) to pass. Afterwards, he suggested that instead of trying to push forward and drive with my hips, I should move back and push the legs down. I'm small and weedy, so the second option is a better fit for my body type. Something I need to keep in mind for next time.

Finally, I had a roll with Luke. As always when I roll with Luke, he shows an impressive level of calm control, never using strength, meaning sparring with him is always enjoyably technical. I tried for that lasso spider guard sweep, and set it up just right: I had the lasso, he was passing...but I didn't grab the leg and push, leaving it too late. Luke could see what I was trying to do, so had no problem basing out and preventing the sweep.

I did manage to then bring my legs up for the triangle and roll on top, but that was mostly down to flexibility and the light pace of the roll, rather than solid technique on my part. Still, worth trying that kind of thing when I can, as it's a handy thing to spring on people: they aren't normally expecting to be attacked from under side control. At the same time, it's low percentage stuff (on top of side control is a dominant position for a reason, after all), so definitely not something to rely on.