27/09/2010 - BJJ (Advanced)

Class #346
Gracie Barra Birmingham, (BJJ), Norby Nowak, Birmingham, UK – 27/09/2010

Before I get onto the advanced class, I just wanted to offer my congratulations to Steve Greenaway, who recently received his purple belt from Roy Dean. Steve heads up Roy’s first affiliate, which happens to be here in the UK, down in Poole. I had the privilege of attending the inaugural Roy Dean seminar in the UK last year (Steve kindly invited me), and again this year. I look forward to hearing about how Steve’s club, the Poole Martial Arts Academy, keeps growing in the future. See the vid below for what a purple belt under Roy Dean looks like: beautiful as always:



Another Roy Dean UK student who I trained with at that seminar a couple of years ago, Kirsty, also got promoted during the trip over to the US. That makes her the first female blue belt under Roy Dean in the UK: check out the video here. So, congrats to her too! :)
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Norby had some new butterfly passes to show us tonight. The first one assumes that they have managed to sit up and are about to go for the sweep. Reach over their arm and back, hugging them in tight, then drive forward to put them on the mat. That hand will stay ready to loop their arm, meaning that you can potentially set up an armbar if they turn in the wrong direction. Your leg positioning is important: one leg is going to be out for base, while the one they’ve hooked will have a knee close to their bum.

The essential detail that stops them lifting you for the sweep is your hip. On the knee side, turn the hip in towards them, dropping your weight and bending their toes down, which makes it really hard for them to generate any leverage. They will probably try to go for half guard, so to prevent that, first you want to try and trap what would become their outside foot with your hip.

Their inside foot will be looking to wrap around the back of your leg. Prevent that by reaching back with your free arm, gripping their trouser leg and pinning it to the mat. Finally, make sure that the heel of the leg they want to trap is raised up so that it is touching your leg. This stops them slipping their leg around the crook of your knee.

From here, it is a relatively simple matter to lift that same knee over their pinned leg, moving through to side control. If they try to lift your leg, they basically do the job for you, so it becomes even simpler to hop over their leg and switch to side control.

If they do manage to lock their legs, then you can use a half guard pass, based around your head, specifically the top of it. You’re going to drive that directly under their chin, then raise your butt into the air. That means you’re putting your whole body weight through the top of your head into their skull. Not comfortable.

To facilitate the pass, grind it past and towards their face, so that you turn their head to one side. They should now be sufficiently distracted that the last thing they’re thinking about is their half guard lock. Free your leg and pass.

During specific sparring, I was still struggling on top, and not doing a whole lot better underneath. I was managing to connect to their legs with my hooks a little better, but nevertheless getting passed pretty quickly. I also wanted to try and work that half guard sprawl pass Norby showed us (which I think is in Stephan Keasting’s DVD too), but couldn’t seem to get them into the right position. Possibly need to get them more on their back and sort out my leg positioning.

There wasn’t too much time left for free sparring, so I just went the one round with my drilling partner, Ram. I had a few attempts at attacking the back, but failed to break through her defences: she was successfully blocking my efforts to get at her neck by crossing her arms. Instead I tried to switch to an armbar (initially I kept getting stuck in half guard during the transition, so I need to watch my lower leg), gripping the one arm with both of mine before moving into position, but again wasn’t doing too well in terms of dislodging her grip.

I was trying to move round in a semi-circle, but wasn't doing it very well: I've been shown a bunch of different ways to break the grip, but it's been so long since I found myself in a position to actually use them my memory failed me. The arm did eventually come loose, but I think that was down to force and exhaustion rather than technique.

This session is my last at Gracie Barra Birmingham, unless my girlfriend and I happen to move back to Brum at some point in the future (which is certainly possible, as we liked it when we lived in Kings Norton a couple of years ago). Norby made a point earlier of checking when I was leaving GB Brum, and then went out of his way to do a little speech at the end of class to say goodbye.

It has been really good training at the club, and gestures like Norby’s farewell speech are typical of the welcoming atmosphere. I can’t think of any other academy that better embodies the ‘family’ part of the Gracie Barra motto, particularly as Braulio’s infant son was running around the mat again. Great place to learn BJJ, which I highly recommend to anyone in the area: well-structured syllabus, awesome range of skilful training partners and attentive, generous instructors.

20/09/2010 - BJJ (Advanced)

Class #344
Gracie Barra Birmingham, (BJJ), Norby Nowak, Birmingham, UK – 20/09/2010

If anyone happens to have any interest in the Poetry and Medicine symposium I mentioned a while back, this is a video of me giving my paper. The main page for the symposium itself is here (scroll down a bit): there is going to be another one next year, which I’ll probably look to speak at again, as it was a great experience back in April.

Norby went through the same butterfly pass we just did in the basics, then added on a second butterfly pass. He said this one was his favourite, and I can see why as it looks like an effective technique. Again, they’ve sat up, ready to sweep with one knee raised and the other on the floor. They’ve grabbed your arm and are about to send you over.

With the hand of the arm they’re gripping, shove down onto their knee. Your other arm goes over their back. Put your knee against the knee they have raised up, then twist your knee inwards. This should collapse their knees together, and also drive your knee into the middle of their upper leg, which can be quite painful if you put any force into it.

Your grip will switch from their knee to the trousers of their top leg, shoving the fabric down to the floor to stop them moving their legs and hips. You’ll also be holding their upper body down with that grip on their back: with your knee into their leg, you’ve got a good base to keep your weight into them, driving it through your arms. Maintaining the pressure with your arms, walk your legs up behind them, moving to side control.

Specific sparring went just as badly as in the basics class, but this time, I was attempting to focus on sitting up when underneath. That meant I was able to vaguely flail at getting hooks, but perhaps wasn’t thinking enough about grips with my hands and arms. People weren’t having too much trouble moving past my legs, or sweeping me over when I was on top. Being small doesn’t help, but it definitely wasn’t just a size issue.

I could only think of two passes, neither of which I managed to progress. The starting position for specific sparring was again on top with my head down and elbows in. I tried pulling out their lapel and tucking it round, but couldn’t seem to get the lapel loose before they already were well into their sweep. Alternatively, I was looking to bring my leg back and trap a shin against my knee. Must have been missing a bunch of steps, as against blues and up, their hook was generally stopping me, while with whites I could at least get the leg trapped, but then failed to progress round to the side properly.

Another option, once you've brought your knee across, is to drop back. Bring the knee behind their arm and your leg over their back, swinging your other leg by their neck. From there, you can tighten up into a triangle choke. You can also jump rather than drop back, depending on how comfortable you feel with the technique. It reminded me a little of Demian Maia's triangle attacks, although he doesn't show one specifically from here.

Free sparring fell into familiar underneath side control territory with the two blue belts I rolled with, staying tight and looking to keep my knees in tight to avoid submissions. I was able to stay safe, but on the other hand, but my opponents were bigger and taking it pretty easy. One of them had a choke on, but they must have eased off or something, as I don’t think my defence was doing all that much to prevent them finishing.

I also had a roll with a green belt, so that gave me a chance to work lightly on top, and let him try stuff, while also attempting to distribute my weight and see if I could maintain the position. Made a nice change from getting smashed. ;)

Next week will be my last class at GB Brum (I plan to do another double on the Monday), so I must remember to cancel my direct debit: need to give Norby a ring tomorrow morning.

20/09/2010 - BJJ (Basics)

Class #343
Gracie Barra Birmingham, (BJJ), Norby Nowak, Birmingham, UK – 20/09/2010

It was my last day at work today, and I got my favourite kind of present, a gift voucher. Ideal, because it means I know I can then get something I want, so I picked up two more 33 1/3 books from WH Smiths (the ones on Abba Gold and Led Zeppelin IV). If they’re as good as the two on Low and Pet Sounds, should be awesome. I’m also very intrigued by the last one I bought but have been saving up, which strangely is on Celine Dion. Don’t let that put you off though, as apparently it's a very interesting exploration of taste (the subtitle is ‘A Journey to the End of Taste’). The guy who wrote it unsurprisingly went in hating the album, so came up with a great angle.

I won’t actually be leaving my flat until next week, after which I’ll be looking to train at RGA Wycombe again, which should be cool. Before that, I’ve got some more time to work on my butterfly guard at GB Brum. Judging by my performance tonight, I need a lot of improvement, as my sparring was absolutely terrible.

The butterfly pass starts when they have their knees raised and are sitting up. This can work if they have both knees up, but normally there will just be one, with the other on the floor. Push that knee down with your same side hand, then reach your other arm underneath their knee, reaching for the cuff of their opposite trouser leg (so, the one you’re already holding down with your other hand).

Your can then remove your hand from their knee and reach over their back, grabbing a handful of gi, keeping them tight towards you. The idea of the sweep is to treat them like a steering wheel, pulling their leg back under their raised knee, while yanking your hold on their back in the opposite direction. To do that, you’ll need to move your leg back, as otherwise you’ll just be whacking their foot into your own knee.

Make sure you really pull their leg out, so they can’t try to bring a knee in. It should be a simple matter to move into side control from there. If they give you any trouble by posting behind themselves with an arm, simply switch your grip on their back to that elbow instead, yanking it forward and removing their base. In that situation, you’ll also need to drive forward a bit with either your head or your shoulder.

Specific sparring didn’t go too well for me, as passing I was getting swept, and underneath I was getting passed, by pretty much everyone. So, clearly I’m missing a load of details from the position where the person on top has their elbows tucked in and head down into your stomach. That would continue into the advanced class, as we did the same specific sparring, but at least I could try to work on some small details, like trying to sit up.

13/09/2010 - BJJ (Advanced)

Class #342
Gracie Barra Birmingham, (BJJ), Norby Nowak, Birmingham, UK – 13/09/2010

Norby covered off the same two techniques for the advanced class, after running a tough warm-up exercise. In the basics, I found myself running the early part of the warm-up, as I was the highest grade there aside from Norby (but only because of those stripes, which are fairly meaningless). I just did the basic running round, knees up, heels up etc, before going through two guard passing drills. First standing up in someone’s guard, then the toreador drill Chiu did last week. May have taken a bit long on stretching though, so if I do it again, might cut that down a little.

Norby added in a guard jumping exercise, which turned out to be quite painful. You are in groups of three, standing in a line across the room. The person in the middle runs to either end, jumping into guard on their respective partners. After two and a half minutes, they switch. That definitely works your cardio, particularly when you’re in the middle, but also when you have to support your partner’s weight. It wasn’t too bad in the basics, as I was with two people around my weight, but Norby then repeated the exercise for the advanced, where I had rather larger people to work with. Knackering!

Specific sparring was from that same butterfly position, where the person on top has their head down and elbows tucked against the hips. We were split into ones two and threes again, and each round one person stayed on top against the people coming in from the line.

I was as usual far happier on the bottom. I managed to land a kimura, which was nice, but only because my partner made the mistake of leaving their arm out too long when loosening my gi lapel. Generally I couldn’t get a whole lot to work, though I was trying to get to that side on position Chiu showed us. I also looked to get the arms up for Chiu’s sweep, but that was tough from their already strong position. Still, I at least had a couple of things to go for, as previously in that position I’ve felt a bit lost.

On top, I wasn’t able to get the gi lapel, and also wasn’t much good at working out the balance and weight to pass. I tried bringing my leg back to trap theirs, without much luck: they could generally keep their hooks in place. The few times I did pass, it tended to be a sloppy squashing slide past, without any real technique. So, I need to work harder on that pass, and also consider a few back up options (I imagine we’ll see a few more before the month is up).

Just one round of free sparring, where I didn’t get very far either. I started off by almost heel hooking someone unintentionally: I had my legs in a weird position and wanted to sweep, but let go after Norby noted I was in an illegal footlock type set-up. Not somewhere I ever want to be – way too dangerous, and I’ve got no idea what I’m doing with footlocks anyway, legal or not. I’ll be sticking with working the defence to them rather than playing footsie. ;p

Most of the spar I was under side control, looking to spin out or try that Braulio escape where you shift back and straight arm into their armpit. Still not quite getting that, but I am finding myself in the position more often. So, something to keep on working: I think the first thing I need to improve is getting my hips back so I’m in a more stable position for the reversal, then work on getting the arm straight for the necessary pressure.

At the end of class, Norby had a long chat about the new gym Gracie Barra Birmingham is moving to on the 4th October, near Five Ways in central Birmingham. The payment programs are going to be slightly different, if I understood correctly, but still pretty cheap: £75 all inclusive, I think, along with options of MMA, using the gym etc. Sounds pretty cool, though unfortunately I’ll have left by then. My rental lease technically goes until the 16th October, so I’m tempted to pop up to check out the new gym, but should probably save my cash – no idea how long I’ll be unemployed this time, after all. ;)

Still, tempted...

13/09/2010 - BJJ (Basics)

Class #341
Gracie Barra Birmingham, (BJJ), Norby Nowak, Birmingham, UK – 13/09/2010

I thought I’d try something different tonight with my belt. Normally, I do the usual under the belt loopy thing, which tends to fall off under any kind of strain, so you’re doing it back up every ten minutes. The video I saw on the Grapplers Guide a while back (I’m sure its been posted elsewhere, but that’s where I first saw it) has several other options, I think from a judoka. The one I liked the look of was simply called ‘unbreakable’.

Easiest to watch the video (at 00:46), but to describe it: wrap your belt around your waist as normal, pulling one of the belt ends up underneath. Loop the other belt end over the top and behind, so it is dangling down. It will also leave a little loop around the main belt: feed the first belt end through. As you feed it, make sure you leave yet another loop, which is what you’ll pull the second belt end through. Took a little while to work out the right lengths so it wouldn’t look weird, but it was indeed unbreakable: didn’t even loosen during the two and a half hours of training.



Technique tonight shifted from sweeps to passing the butterfly guard. Again this is similar to what I saw Kev show at Wycombe, with a couple of differences. Start by staying low on them, your head in their stomach and elbows clamped to their hips. With the same side hand, pull out their lapel (easiest to go for the one on top). Yank it right out to the side, then quickly bring your elbow back in, so they can’t kimura you.

Feed the end of that lapel under their legs towards their bum, where your other hand is waiting. This may be more difficult if their gi is a bit short, in which case you might need to lean to the opposite side slightly to get the space. Be careful if you do that, as leaning too far will set them up for an easy sweep.

Once you’ve got that lapel, grab their gi with your free hand, on their side (which again will be the same side as the lapel you yanked loose). Still on the same side, kick your leg back, then bring your knee past their foot, so you end up with their leg trapped against your stomach.

You can now rotate your hips over their knee, then move into either side control or knee on belly. Make sure you maintain your grips on the gi and lapel, as these will make it really hard for them to move anywhere. They can’t shrimp, as you have a gi wrapped around their hips, and if they turn the other way, you’ve got a grip on the other side too. They can’t turtle either, as with those grips, you’ll have little trouble taking their back.

The second pass is for if they manage to snatch half guard as you try to trap that leg against your stomach. You have the same grips as before. Instead of grabbing the gi jacket with your free hand, grab the top of their gi trousers and push up, to stop them moving. Then sprawl your leg backwards to break their hold, after which your can move round to side control: either step the leg over, or rotate your hips like before.

No sparring in the basics tonight, but I was feeling ok for the advanced, where I expected to get some rolling time.

01/09/2010 - BJJ (Advanced)

Class #338
Gracie Barra Birmingham, (BJJ), Norby Nowak, Birmingham, UK – 01/09/2010

As at RGA Wycombe, I tried to scribble some notes down, as otherwise I’d probably struggle to remember the techniques from both sessions. At Wycombe, I felt particularly comfortable, so I’d happily just sit out some sparring to take notes. I’m not quite at that stage with GB Brum, so instead I did what I used to do at RGA HQ, which is write up notes during the warm-up for the second class (seeing as I’d already be pretty warm from doing the whole beginners class).

Speaking of the Roger Gracie Academy, a new affiliate is opening up soon, and they’re holding a seminar this Saturday at 12:00 to celebrate. Better yet, it’s going to be completely free and open to anyone. Unfortunately, although I will be in London, I’m at a training course (for home maintenance, randomly), so can’t attend. Still, sounds like it should be a good event: further details here.

As this is the last week of De La Riva, Norby went through some more complicated techniques, with legs in all sorts of complicated tangles. He began with something relatively simple, in order to introduce the first technique. You’re in De La Riva, but they point out the knee of the leg you’ve hooked, popping your foot free. So instead, you swing your leg around, then bring it back sharply, bumping their leg. Your foot comes around the front, to push on their hip: make sure you don’t bring it further across, or you’re in danger of getting disqualified (due to the potential danger to their knee.)

This sets you up for an x-guard sweep. From the previous position, either grip their foot on the hooked side, or wrap your hand behind their foot. Your other foot, which was pushing on the inside of their other leg, now hooks behind their knee. The first foot is going to go behind their leg, so that the foot is on the other leg. However, the knee remains behind the first leg: this is important, as otherwise they can just push it out of the way. Finally, your free hand is going to grab the bottom of their same side gi trousers.

After all of that intricate leg work, the sweep is nice and simple. You just extend their legs to knock them to the floor. From their, you can either stand up and initiate a pass, or go for a footlock. If understood correctly (I’m not big on footlocks, so I may well have missed details), the key there is to keep your forehead on the mat, with the blade of your forearm pressing into their Achilles. Keep shifting your upper body towards their other leg, arching your back in order to get the submission.

Another sweep without the spaghetti legs starts similarly, with a leg looped behind theirs, the foot on their hip. This time, you have your other foot on their other hip, still with a grip on the foot of the leg you’ve trapped. Simply raise your hips, pinch your knees on their trapped leg, and drive them to the mat with your knees and the pushing of your feet. Again, you can either stand for the pass or try for a footlock.

Specific sparring was De La Riva, so I was looking to pass in the same way as before, grabbing a leg and moving around. I also tried to concentrate on getting my hips to theirs, sprawling my legs and staying tight. That sometimes worked, but sometimes I also ended up leaving too much space, so it became more of a scramble to get their back, or with them on their side. Also, I need to remember to break their grips, instead of just trying to work with them still in place.

Underneath, I had a mixture of either getting passed easily, or some random sweeps where I didn’t really know what I was doing. That was quite fun, as I managed to knock a few people over, including somebody much bigger. However, as I wasn’t working off any technique, it felt more like a succession of random flukes than anything I could build upon. Still, sometimes I was at least trying to apply some of the principles of the techniques I’d been learning, so that’s a vague plus.

Free sparring was only one round, where I spent the first half trying to avoid getting my back taken, clinging on tightly to their arm while also keeping my elbow and knee tight, to stop them securing both hooks. Holding that arm eventually paid off, as I managed to drive through, flip them over and get to side control. That wouldn’t have worked on anybody much bigger, but fortunately they’re around the same size as me. I then moved on to my favourite attack position, the step over triangle.

After the restart, it was mostly squirming around under side control, looking to attack the arm, before finally getting a leg free and moving back into guard. I’m still too complacent under side control, and I ended up some unfamiliar positions, like really low right down by their legs. Not sure if that’s better or worse for me defensively.

Oh, and in case anyone missed it, I did an interview with multiple world champ Romulo Barral over the Bank Holiday weekend: part one is up now, and I’ll be putting up part two tomorrow. There will be five parts in total, spread out over the next month or so. This weekend, I won’t be on the internet at all, as I’m at that home maintenance course, randomly (which I’ll probably write up, but not on this blog: I’ve got a spare one I hardly ever use).

18/08/2010 - BJJ (Advanced)

Class #334
Gracie Barra Birmingham, (BJJ), Norby Nowak, Birmingham, UK – 18/08/2010

Yep, more De La Riva sweeps tonight. We began by reviewing the options from last week. All of them begin by holding both sleeves, then establishing the De La Riva hook (wrapping your same leg behind their knee, hooking their inner thigh with your instep). Grab their heel, then push on their far leg and simultaneously sit up. Move your same side hand from their heel to wrap behind their knee, then transfer the other sleeve to that hand behind the knee.

From here, the first sweep is to grab their far collar with your free hand, still pushing with your leg on their leg, then pull them down and out, rolling on top. From here, maintaining your grips, pass the guard. Note that even should they try and block your hips with their hands, your can roll over the top, twisting your body.

The second sweep starts the same, but this time, when you switch their sleeve to your knee hand, they push down with their free hand to release the grip. You switch your grip to that hand instead, then swivelling through, reach for their far leg with your arm (wrapping around the outside), then roll them in the direction they’re facing to coming up on top.

The third sweep was one we hadn’t covered before. This time, they manage to free both of their hands. As this is gi, you still have the option of grabbing their belt and pulling it tight with the hand your have behind their knee (or if their gi has a long skirt, like the judogi I wear, you can grab that instead).

You are now going to switch the position of your legs, so that the one closest to their leg wraps around, your foot pointing backwards. This will be on the side they’re facing, Your other leg also curls back, so that your knee is touching your other foot. In other words, it is the same position as a common stretch for your legs. Finally, grab the gi material by their far knee with your other hand.

Maintaining both grips, drive forward into their leg, making sure your head is on the inside of their hip (so, like a single leg takedown). Due to your grip on their far knee, they can’t just step back. Once they fall, lock out your arm to stop them moving that leg. From here, you should be able to easily pass, as one leg is immobilised by their belt, the other by your hand.

The next sweep follows on from that. Should you find your leg position, you can try it with your legs wrapped around the other way (so, your foot with be touching your knee, but behind them). You probably won’t have enough leverage, but this does put you in position for a similar sweep to before, where you swivel to your back, then roll them over in the direction their facing, using your grip on their knee to help.

They have both their hands free, so may well try to base out. That isn’t a problem: all you do is kick your legs up to disrupt their balance, then roll in the other direction (i.e, the direction opposite to the way they’re facing), pulling that far knee away from you as you do so, in the direction it is pointing. From here, you should be able to pass as before.

I felt my wrist was sufficiently rested to try specific sparring today, although that didn’t go too well. I either got passed very quickly, or ended up fighting from half-guard. I managed to sweep a couple of white belts, but in a fairly sloppy fashion. Passing didn’t work too well, as while I was circling my leg back and around then trying to pass, I’m missing some details, as I was often still struggling to pass their knee. I also got caught by a lovely sweep from one of those same white belts, who got a grip on the back of my gi and rolled me right over.

There was a large French contingent visiting today, which made for an interesting change: most of the people I sparred were from that group (several brown and purple belts, plus a couple of whites). However, during free sparring, I ended up with two regular GB Brum members. First was a big blue belt I’ve rolled with before, who tends to take things fairly easy, so I thought that would be a good idea given my wrist.

The second was a white belt I haven’t sparred before, where the pace was also relatively relaxed. He must be fairly new, as I kept getting into position for a triangle. Having said that, I failed to finish any of them, as often happens. While I could lock my legs, I was normally either too stacked, or couldn’t slide my legs into a proper triangle: presumably I wasn’t scooting back enough, or creating a sufficiently decent angle.

I had a go at switching to an armbar a few times, but he immediately got a secure grip by clasping his hands. I’ve got some idea of how to break that from mount, but was at a bit of a loss from guard. Something to work on, though I’m not normally going to get the time to sit there and ponder like today, as the pace wasn’t too quick.

I’m off to Wales tomorrow, but should be training again on Tuesday, as normal.

11/08/2010 - BJJ (Advanced)

Class #332
Gracie Barra Birmingham, (BJJ), Norby Nowak, Birmingham, UK – 11/08/2010

There was more De La Riva action tonight, beginning with the same sweep Nathan taught yesterday. I felt it more on my wrist today, so had to make sure I was sweeping the other side to avoid too much strain. A key point I hadn’t been doing enough last time was keeping the leg straight all the way through, rather than straightening as you pull them other. That means their posture remains broken, making it easier to roll them to the mat. Also, I found myself ending up in a better position for some reason, as I didn’t have to clear the leg in the same way.

The second De La Riva sweep was a little different. This time, once you get to the point where you’re sitting up and switching their sleeve to your arm under their leg, they use their other hand to push down, then yank their trapped arm free. In response, you grab the sleeve of that other hand instead, which sets up you for a different sweep.

Having secured that grip, swivel towards their other leg and reach through with your free arm, so that you’re gripping around their inner thigh. Your legs will now be on either side of the first leg you attacked, meaning you can now lock them together, clamping your knees tight. Continue the spin to knock them over, so that you end up on top.

There isn’t much they can do to block you except swing one leg over. You can pass under the leg, shoving through with your shoulder, as if you were executing a single underhook pass. Alternatively, go in the other direction, twisting so that you legs touch the floor and you’re facing the ceiling. This clears their leg by spinning over the top of it.

One thing to note is that you maintain that grip on their sleeve throughout. That means that if you use the usual grip, where you make a pocket of their sleeve with your thumb and hook it round your fingers, it can be painful as you spin and roll with the sweep. A pistol grip is much kinder on your fingers, but less secure.

That also meant I was feeling the strain in my wrist even more with the second sweep. Either side involved some tension on both wrists, so I had to be careful. It also showed me that it hadn’t sufficiently recovered to risk in sparring. So, I sat out of specific De La Riva rolling, instead watching how people swept and passed. Bradley was particularly instructive, as his passing functioned by swinging his leg backwards, looking to step through, with smooth technique. I tend to try and stay close and crush forward, but watching other people try that, Bradley’s approach appeared to be far more successful.

When it came to free sparring, I could guard my wrist more carefully, so did a few rolls with people I felt I could trust not to slam into my injury. That automatically meant they were going light, but it was still a useful exercise, as like yesterday I had to rely on my legs to try and control my partner. I was also even more conscious of keeping my knees close to my chest to stop them passing, and attempted to keep in mind the option of rolling backwards over my shoulder to recover guard (though that didn’t work too well).

In open guard, that was ok, and I also found I could still work to try and escape from side control with just the one arm too, as long as I pre-emptively made enough space with my knee. However, when I ended up on top in half guard, it was much tougher without the use of both arms, as normally I’d lock them around the head and armpit and use shoulder pressure to try and pass. Still, that did mean I was more relaxed, jumping over to see if I could dislodge my leg by moving to the other side (though again, that wasn’t particularly successful).

I also had a good long chat with Christian, who had some interesting info about the new central location for Gracie Barra Birmingham. Apparently, it’s huge, on two floors, with the top floor featuring a mat triple the size of the one at Stevie B’s (which isn’t exactly small). There’s also going to be a cage, and various martial arts on offer, like muay thai, wrestling and MMA besides the core of BJJ. It will also be right by Five Ways station, which is very handy.

Hopefully my wrist has now been sufficiently rested, although given that I have to do a lot of typing both for my job and writing commitments after work, I’m never going to be able to avoid using it completely. So, we’ll see if it’s any better by next Tuesday.

06/08/2010 - BJJ (Basics)

Class #330
Gracie Barra Birmingham, (BJJ), Norby Nowak, Birmingham, UK – 06/08/2010

Didn’t make it back in time for the cinema, but I did get out Hiroshima, Mon Amour from the library (which strangely enough relates to my interest in AIDS and cancer in poetry) before training. So, should make for interesting viewing: I don’t know much about it, but that’s how I prefer to watch films. I’d be much happier in a world where trailers were just the title of the film, that didn’t tell you anything about it at all (though I guess that might make it a bit tough to work out whether you might like it or not. But hey).

Also, I see from Matt’s blog that my first ever BJJ instructor, Oli Geddes, has a few instructional clips up, such as this one on his infamous loop choke:



I’m looking forward to seeing what he pops up with next.

It was another basics class tonight, this time with Norby. His focus was on passing the guard, easily the weakest part of my game. We began by drilling the orthodox standing guard break, from the standard grip where you hold both their collars in one hand (straightening your arm to keep their back on the mat), then grab their sleeve with the other (make sure you aren’t too obvious, so don’t just stare at their arm before trying to grab it). Finally, the elbow of your sleeve-grabbing arm must be braced inside your knee: if it is outside, then you're vulnerable to an omoplata.

You can either step up your leg on the trapped sleeve side, or slide your double collar grip up towards their head, using that as a post to jump up to your feet. As you raise up, let go of the collars, thrust forwards with your hips, while simultaneously yanking up their sleeve. To finish, push their same side knee off your hips with your free hand (which is often easier said than done, but at least this puts you in a good position to do it).

Next, Norby went through a variation on the leg pin pass. Instead of just dropping your knee other and keeping your shin on their leg, drop your knee as close as you can to their ribs. Keep your foot hooked under their leg, so it raises it up slightly. You’re also going to bring your same side arm under their head, driving your shoulder into their neck.

From here, you can exert a great deal of pressure on their legs, stretching them out until they’re liable to give up the pass just to relieve the strain on their inner thighs. Even if they’re flexible enough to resist that, you’re in an excellent position to complete the leg pin pass as usual, swinging your free leg right over to the floor past their legs, then switching the other leg underneath to establish side control.

Sparring was guard passage, with the class split up into ones, twos and three. The chosen group stayed on the mat, trying to pass the guard of everyone else. I was in the first group, and stayed very defensive. I had the excuse of my busted up wrist, but still, I should have been much more proactive. It’s very easy to slip into a defensive posture, just maintaining my base or tucking my elbows to my knees, which isn’t really the idea.

Underneath, in my comfort zone, I was a little more active, although as my first partner was pretty big, I was still fairly defensive, waiting for them to make a move. I thought I was going to get passed in short order as a result, because in flinging my legs up for a triangle, I went too high and immediately got stacked. However, for some reason he didn’t continue to push through and pass as I’d expected, so that eventually gave me the chance to move to half guard, reverse him and pass through to side control.

I asked later, and it seems that they were concerned about that triangle attempt. I doubt very much he was in much danger had he pushed through to go for a pass, but it’s interesting that proved a sufficient distraction to stop them completing the motion. Of course, this is the basics class: no way would I get away with that against blues or higher.

With somebody smaller, I was trying to be helpful, as they kept leaning forward when going to stand up, meaning it was a simple matter for me to pull in my legs and break their posture. I’m not sure if it is patronising to let them keep on making the same mistake and seeing if they correct it, or if perhaps I should have said something during the spar rather than after. It gave me a chance to practice the flower sweep, which I normally never get, but again, they were a good bit smaller than me, so it doesn’t really count.

I was reminded of reality again during an unsurprisingly brief specific spar with Norby. He easily opened my guard, then moved round to side control: I briefly tried to switch into butterfly guard, keeping my knees in tight, but too slow and without sufficient control.

A lot of people were trying to elbow dig to open the guard, which I really hate (also one of the reasons I like Saulo’s instructionals so much, as he targets plenty of scorn at that particular technique) . One of these days I’m going to have to spend a few hours drilling the triangle counter for that, as I still don’t have the timing down.

12/06/2010 - BJJ (Advanced)

Class #318
Gracie Barra Birmingham, (BJJ), Norby Nowak, Birmingham, UK - 12/06/2010

Apparently some blokes were kicking a ball round a field somewhere, which meant that class tonight was nice and quiet. With a good instructor, that is always a boon: Norby ran an awesome session today, benefitting a relatively small number of us. I especially enjoyed it due the focus on what remains one of my favourite areas to work: escaping side control. Better still, Norby spent a lot of time on drilling, and also connected moves together, covering ‘what if’ scenarios.

The situation for this escape from side control sequence is that you’ve been put in a terrible position. They’ve managed to both get your elbow away from their hip, and they’ve also got your other arm to the dangerous side of their head. You need to get that arm out of there, as otherwise it is very vulnerable to attack. You also want to get your other elbow by their hip.

So, reminiscent of a principle seen on Demian Maia’s Science of Jiu Jitsu, the first thing you do is bridge, punching through with the arm by their head. It is important that you’re pressing their head to their shoulder, knocking your arm towards the upper part of their skull. Combined with your bridge and twist to the side, that should enable you to bring your elbow to their hip.

However, don’t bring it all the way through. Otherwise, you’re still in trouble, because they can still crush their weight down onto you, especially as your arm by their head is still in danger. Instead, the elbow by their hip is going to stay pressed against the hip, rather than using your forearm to brace their hip.

That means they now can’t press forward, because your elbow is in the way. Your next task is to get your head arm safe. To do that, dig your hand under their neck, until you can get your fingers around their shoulder (so that they’re touching the shoulder blade at the top of their back, not around the side of their upper arm). You can now bend your wrist up, which drives your forearm into their neck.

This is not only uncomfortable, it also makes it next to impossible for them to push their weight back down. That should mean you can now bring your knee inside, across their stomach. Get your other foot inside their hip (next to your first foot). From there, you can recover butterfly guard, or even go for a sweep.

Of course, your partner is unlikely to make it that easy for you in sparring. Most likely, as soon as you try to shove on their neck, they will switch their hips, sliding through to scarf hold. This happens to me all the time. To escape scarf hold, you’re going to switch from pressing their neck to grabbing their lapel.

So, the hand which was on their shoulder now slides to grab their nearest lapel instead. Again, you’re going to shove into their neck, but this time, you’ll be doing it with their gi instead of your forearm. Keep your arm straight, and you’ll also want to bring your other arm next to it, pushing as well.

Shrimp out slightly, but keep the inside leg out flat. The reason is so that you can keep pressing their lapel into their neck, shoving directly towards your legs. With that leg out flat, they aren’t going to squish their weight onto your thigh. Instead, you can keep driving them backwards, switching your hips to come up in side control. If you end up in scarf hold, be careful that they don’t use the same escape on you: keep your head low.

What if they post with their hand to stop you pushing them over? If they post near your legs, your escape is still good to go: in fact, you can change to a submission. Start by hooking their bicep with your outside foot. Make sure to curl your toes, and also angle your knee towards them. This is to make sure there is enough tension on the arm: otherwise, they’ll just circle it free and come back to side control or scarf hold.

You aren’t going to leave it at that. Having secured their arm with one foot, you’re now going to switch it to your other leg, by bringing that leg over the top. That means you can triangle your legs, putting your partner into the crucifix. From there, you can pretty much do what you want: bring the leg nearest their head over for an armbar, sit up and establish a choke, pick up their leg and go to the back...various options.

If they are more careful and don’t post their arm near your legs, you can’t hook it. Also, it is more likely that instead of posting, they’ll be trying their best to push back into you, to re-establish scarf hold or side control. That’s fine: you’re going to let them do it. The timing of your next move is very important, because you’re going to let the hand nearest their head drop.

If you release the pressure too early, they may catch on that you’re escaping. Instead, you want to make it appear that your arm has just got tired, and they have managed to bend it back to your torso. The other arm should stay straight as long as possible, or they will simply trap your hands with their chest.

As soon as their chest touches yours, they’ll have opened up a small gap by their armpit, right where your hand is waiting. Until they try and push into you, that gap is filled with gi material, both yours and the loose fabric between their arm and side. When the gap appears, reach through.

You can now forcefully bridge, whacking your arm up into their armpit, in the direction of your head. This should fling them forwards, enabling you to scoot down and either take their back, or go for their leg and then drive through for side control.

Norby then spent the rest of the class on specific sparring from side control, which was another cool part of the class. Loads of drilling, followed by the same thing with much more resistance. Like Rob, Norby did king of the hill where one group of people stayed on the mat, instead of whoever was successful switching to take their place.

I prefer Rob and Norby’s method, as it provides a lot more opportunity for practice, instead of just the most skilled people staying on the mat the whole time. Norby didn’t count us off into ones, twos and three, instead leaving it up to us as to who was going to stay on their back. Everyone eventually had a go, but it worked out that I was in the last group of people on their back.

On top, we started in the ideal side control, so as with drilling, the top person already had the elbow cleared from the hip and the other arm past their head. That meant I could work on maintaining the position, blocking the arm from getting to my neck by dipping my head, and switching my hips and adjusting my weight to keep side control.

What I had trouble doing was the next step: going for an attack. I did manage to sneak my knee through to mount on a fellow blue, probably because after all that drilling, people might have been a little less wary of the knee slide. However, that only worked once: also, all but one person in the class was a good bit bigger than me.

That turned out to be a good thing though, as it was a useful test of my pressure from the top (though of course you can never be sure if people are holding back, when they could simply bench press you). I generally could hold the top position with a reasonable degree of consistency, but whenever I looked to attack the far arm, I got rolled. I was trying to base with my head, but without much success. Something to work on, along with combining that distracting attack with attempts to switch to mount.

I also got a good tip from Norby, who I happened to be sparring in front of at one point. I was losing the top position, and attempting to move round to get back in place. They got a knee in the way, in a sort of z-guard position, with the shin manoeuvring for my stomach. What Norby advised I do at this point is switch my base around that knee, so that I’m facing their legs. You can then switch back, recovering side control.

On the bottom, I was able to dig my elbow into place by bridging and pressing the head, but digging the hand past the neck was more difficult. Generally, I got it through when they went for an attack. I was also trying to be careful of my arms, not leaving them out there to get pulled free, and trying to thread my knees to get to turtle. While I found my way there a few times, I couldn’t manage to secure and leg and push through into a takedown (unsurprising, as my wrestling sucks, as does my judo, given that I hate doing takedowns and almost never spar from standing, if I can avoid it).

Great class: I should be training again on Monday, presuming no writing commitments come up. I’ll be doing something rather different tomorrow, which should be fun. Or at least, it seems completely different at first, but I’ll get into that on Sunday. ;)