27/04/2009 - BJJ (RGA Kilburn)

Class #222



Roger Gracie Academy Kilburn (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK - 27/04/2009 - Beginner

Almost forgot to mention: there is a throwdown in Farnborough this Sunday, with a nominal £5 mat fee. So, if anybody fancies meeting up for a roll, now's your chance. Would be great to see people, if there's anyone reading this blog who can make it down to spar (or just drill: I normally spend a good chunk of throwdowns drilling stuff I've not had a chance to practice much in class). Full details on Jadon's Bullshido thread.

This will be my last week training at Kilburn, so I plan to train Monday and Wednesday (tomorrow I've got some work I need to get sorted). I'll be sad to leave, as its been a great few months continuing to learn from Jude. Hopefully I'll get back to London at some point in the future, but no idea when that will be, especially as my gf hates the idea of living in the capital (expensive, dangerous, commuting on the Tube is horrible, etc).

During guard passage, I was having a play with the triangle, thought my set-ups remain terrible and my execution sufficiently sloppy that I can never secure the submission. With my first training partner, a white belt called Ben, I had my legs up and crossed, but didn't underhook the leg, so he could happily stand up with me sitting by his head. Fortunately he's one of the more sensible white belts, so didn't Rampage-slam me, instead carefully kneeling back down.

Similarly with Rodrigo, I again couldn't lock the triangle properly. I got a bit further this time, having managed to get into position with my legs secured by his head and arm through, but still couldn't finish. Of course he's much bigger than me, but there was clearly something wrong with my mechanics given how easily he escaped.

Finally, I went with Rich, but was thinking too much about trying out the reverse De La Riva I'd wanted to attempt last lesson. What I should have been concentrating on instead was making sure I pushed his hips away with my legs as soon as my guard was open, as otherwise its a simple matter for him to pass.

Jude then went through the same underhook cross choke and triangle combination from last week, then moved on to a triangle from spider guard. From closed guard, you uncross your legs and put your feet on their hips. Grab their sleeves, then shrimp out to make enough space for your foot onto their same side bicep. The other foot stays on their hip.

You're now going to pull them in, kicking the foot on their bicep through to instead go over the back of their neck. You can now bring your other leg up for the triangle position, keeping their other arm by your chest and inside your leg.

That's what I should have been doing when sparring Rodrigo and Ben earlier, so its handy to see the set-up. I also think I may be too bunched up, meaning I'm already half-stacked, whereas I should be scooting back and swivelling for better leverage. I'm keen to improve submissions that use my legs rather than my arms, given that my arms are puny (not that my legs are much better, but still much stronger than my upper body).

In free sparring I ended up against Ben twice. The first time I spent most of it in an Americana, but fortunately for me, Ben was trying to apply it with one of his arms still under my head. I felt fairly safe, as he didn't have the leverage from there, but a good reminder to be more careful with my arm when I'm under half guard or side control. I made sure to tell him, so I doubt I'll get off that lightly if there's a next time. ;)

Our second spar was the other way round, where instead I was in top half-guard for much of the time. I was looking for the kimura, but couldn't get into position. I then saw a possible opportunity for that whizzer armbar I saw Saulo do on his DVD, but again I didn't quite get in the proper place. Still, as I often find myself with a whizzer in top half guard, its something I'd like to try again.

Same thing happened with Rich, with the difference that it happened right at the end of the spar. Previously, he'd got me into high mount yet again, and I'd also been under side control for a while. As he was passing I threw my legs up by his legs, but while I was able to triangle them, I don't think I had anything so soon let go. Like always, basics must remain the focus: I definitely need to follow my own advice on that in guard, making sure I'm using my legs a lot more to off-balance and break posture.

22/04/2009 - BJJ (RGA Kilburn)

Class #221



Roger Gracie Academy Kilburn (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK - 22/04/2009 - Beginner

There wasn't a lot of technique today, just the half-guard choke from yesterday. Sparring started with guard passage, where I had the interesting experience of rolling with somebody smaller than me, which doesn't happen often. As ever, I spent most of my time on the bottom in half guard, aiming to shrimp in order to recover full guard.

I'm trying to rely less on having my legs closed all the time, instead just hooking their outside leg and using that as a base to shrimp. Got back to full guard a few times that way, but as my partner wasn't locking my upper body, that was probably less difficult than it would normally be.

My next partner was a high level blue belt, who is always really helpful. This time, they gave me various tips based on what they've observed from rolling with me, which is awesome: I don't think anyone has done that for me before.

Main thing was to react to what they were doing, rather than have something in mind that I then constantly look to apply. Related to that, I need to use my legs a lot more when in guard, pulling them in, and also pushing them away once my guard is opened.

Finally for guard passage, I went with the teenager again, so this time I was the one giving advice. As with most people who are still fairly new, that was largely related to not leaving space when on top, using your hips and making sure that you trap the leg all the way through the knee pin pass. She was repeatedly easing the pressure midway through her passing, which meant my knee was free. Its something I do too: that's one of the great things about helping others, as it helps you realise your mistakes in turn.

Free sparring was up next, where I return to spar with the blue belt from earlier. That proved to be a continuation of guard passage, as they urged me to react to their positioning. For example, when they're crouched in front of you without good base, simply push them over with your legs and pop up to mount. I'm prone to staying on my back and waiting, rather than seizing opportunities like that.

Class finished with another spar with the teenager, after which I got a load of useful advice from the blue belt. I'd said I was having trouble with passing the spider guard, so they showed me three ways of passing, depending on what the leg is doing.

If its completely straight – a mistake – your hand circles underneath to break the grip, then you drive your hips into the leg and slide down to side control. If its bent, you again circle your arm to break the grip, then bring your same side knee into the back of their leg. Use that to press down and trap the limb, after which you can initiate your pass.

Finally, there was a reminder of Jude's pass, where you get both hands on the leg, yank up, then slide your knee into their ribs. Very helpful to have a reminder on all of those, so now I just need to make sure I remember to try them when I'm caught in spider guard.

20/04/2009 - BJJ (RGA Kilburn)

Class #219



Roger Gracie Academy Kilburn (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK - 20/04/2009 - Beginner

Tonight's class focused on takedowns: as most of the people training had little familiarity with bringing someone down to the mat, Jude introduced various drills to ingrain the concept of getting underneath. First it was basic wrestling, shooting in and going for the legs, then shuttle runs in groups of three, where the person in the middle did ten hip throws on each of their partners before swapping.

Rest of class was given over to sparring, beginning with guard passage. I started on my back, which isn't often the case, so that gave me a chance to try and work some attacks and sweeps. Emphasis on 'try': I keep letting myself get into the old passive mentality and wait for my partner to do something. That can be of some use with the blue belts, but with a white belt, they're liable to sit there straining.

Also, I'm not capitalising on what I'm being given by my partner. The first white belt I went with was pushing as hard as he could with his arms, leaning back at various points, then standing and leaning all the way forward. I'm sure I'm supposed to be able to use that, but I'm still bad at reacting to force.

When I try for the sit up sweep, the arms are there shoving me back. It is also probably that I'm not being proactive enough, and attempting something like putting my foot on their hip to swivel to a better attacking angle. Definitely need to open my guard more, rather than just lying there in closed guard waiting to see what happens. Kintanon had some ideas a while back, which I think I've also seen on Saulo's set, so will take another look at the attacks on there.

As ever, I'm also stalling a lot in half guard. Like with closed guard, I need to open up more, using one foot to lock their leg and then shrimping onto my side. Getting the diagonal half guard recovery back to full guard would be good too, but I've been struggling with that so far. Rich got it perfectly when I was watching him spar later on, which reminds me I should be going for it more.

That white belt eventually passed, meaning I was back on top with my next partner, John. For once, it was pretty straightforward, as he went for an armbar but left too much space. That meant I could just move around to the side, pressuring with my hips and shoulders to drive into side control. Rare I get that opportunity, but good to practice taking it when somebody presents it to me.

Finally for guard passage, I was with one of the big guys, about the same size as Rodrigo. Also like Rodrigo, he was careful not to use his considerable strength: always great to see a white belt who understands that its about technique, not power.

He was so big I could only just get my guard closed, so almost immediately went to open guard instead. Although Jude tried coaching me through proper spider guard control, I wasn't able to keep the white belt at bay, so they eventually passed. Again, I need to actually go for something from open guard, as I can't afford to be as passive as in closed guard. It becomes a far more dynamic position when your ankles aren't locked together.

First free spar was with John, where yet again I was in half-guard most of the time, occasionally recovering back to half-guard if he managed to get to side control or mount. Same points as earlier, which is that I need to be a bit more open and get onto my side, rather than using a lockdown to push their leg back, adjust to a more secure half-guard, they get a bit forward, lockdown, adjust...over and over again.

Last spar of the class was with Rich. He keeps catching me in Ezequiel chokes: I asked if I was doing something to make that easier, and Rich said I've been lifting my head when under mount. That gives him plenty of space to get an arm underneath to set up the choke.

So, obvious lesson there is to keep my head glued to the floor to leave no room for the cross face. I remembered to do that under side control, as per Saulo's advice on his DVD, but clearly forgot when it came to mount.

I'm also constantly finding myself under high mount with Rich, which is definitely not a good place to be. Its useful to work my escapes from there, but there must also be some mistake I'm making which enables him to keep getting there. I'll have to pay more attention next time, and defend more carefully from mount.

In the changing rooms after class, the aforementioned big guy gave me a nice compliment: he commented how Rodrigo had said I'm a good person to roll with, because I stay relaxed and don't use strength. That was great to hear, as being a person people want to spar is a major goal for me. Of course, I don't have the option of using strength anyway, but its still gratifying to hear that somebody finds me a useful training partner.

15/04/2009 - BJJ (Beginner)

Class #218



Roger Gracie Academy Kilburn (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK - 15/04/2009 - Beginner

The weather in Looe turned out to be pretty good, at least for the first three days. Lots of sunshine and no rain, though unfortunately that also meant it was busy. Swarming with chavs too, for some reason: I guess they like Cornwall. Despite that, Looe is a beautiful place, with a gorgeous harbour and plenty of pleasant walks around the area. There is also a Rail Ale Trail you can do, where you pop into various pubs near the train line to get your leaflet stamped, sampling real ale along the way. I'm not generally a big beer drinker (I prefer wine, and sherry if I can get it), but fun nonetheless.

While I was away, Oli G very helpfully annotated one of his videos: hopefully that's going to be the start of a trend. Best of all would be audio commentaries, but not sure how easy that is to do. Either way, here's the vid:



I'd been ill last Wednesday, so as I only got back to London this Wednesday, that meant I only made the one session. Class tonight kicked off with guard passing, both from the same standing break. First secure the usual grip on both their lapels with one hand, pressing the other into their hip, aiming to hinder their movement. Step up the knee opposite to the hand on the hip, then stand up, switching your double lapel grip to a single lapel you can yank up with you.

Next, reach back with the other hand, wedge it between your back and their crossed ankles, then twist forward to break their legs open. Jude covered two options from here: first, you can reach to grab their collar and press your forearm into their neck, keeping the other elbow back as you drive your hips forward, pushing their legs out of the way for side control. Second possibility is a stack pass, so once you've opened their guard, hook round their legs and clasp your hands, stack them and gradually walk round to side control.

Jude had a slight variation on that stack pass, which was to do with the position of your knees. Once you've got a hold around both their legs and pulled them towards you, go to one knee. As you pass, ram that knee into their side, bringing the other knee up as you do so. This keeps you tight, and also adds greater pressure, which should aid your transition to side control.

Finally, Jude showed a baseball bat choke from knee-on-belly. At least I think it was a baseball bat choke, going by the grip, but then I've never done that choke before. Anyway, starts as normal: hop up to knee-on-belly from side control, using a grip on their collar and hip then doing a push up.

From here, you want to get your far hand into their far collar, thumb on top and palm up. The other grabs their near collar, this time palm down: this is where the baseball bat reference comes in, as your hands are now in the same position as if you were grasping a bat.

Sprawl back from knee-on-belly, dropping the elbow of your far arm across their throat. Walk round towards north-south, which should cause the choke to tighten and result in a tap.

Guard passing was the same old story, where I went with a couple of white belts and relaxed, waiting for them to do something. Both of them were gripping as hard as they could, meaning that the first one still held on to a sleeve he'd managed to get under my leg as I passed to top half guard. Easy enough to just pause until they got tired, putting my weight onto their face.

While it was certainly restful, it didn't help me to secure side control. As ever, I left too much space when attempting to secure a kimura, and they managed to reverse and go into my guard. I had thought that bringing my knee to the head might help, but I must have left too little pressure on their hips.

The second white belt was a little faster, as this time I made some other mistake that resulted in them being able to sit right up and go for a single leg. Again, not controlling the hips properly: I should have just stood up to try and work the standing pass, rather than going into defensive mode.

Having said that, not expending much energy meant I wasn't too tired before free sparring, which was useful as I ended up doing four in a row. That isn't normally the case, as I'll almost always sit out a few, but I kept being asked by people I wanted to spar, so that resulted in only one rest. Very rare for a wimp like me! ;p

Started with one of the blue belts, where I had a play with spider guard, but wasn't able to control them all that well. They had a knee up, so I found it difficult to off-balance them. Or rather, more difficult than usual, as my spider guard is pretty bad. My main problem with it, I think, is that I don't normally have a clear aim, as I always forget the basic sweep from there.

I also spent plenty of time under knee-on-belly and side control, which along with bottom half-guard and under mount have constituted the majority of my sparring for the past couple of years. Saulo has some interesting ideas on escaping, which I've been trying to incorporate recently, but need plenty more work. Hip movement is something I want to improve, and also avoid ending up flat on my back, which I give up far too easily.

Ben, a white belt, was next. With him, it was almost entirely half-guard, using the lockdown to push his leg back, while trying to then open up slightly to shrimp and escape. I got back to closed guard a couple of times, but like my other escapes, I have to stop being so flat. Ben eventually got through to side control towards the end: I recovered half guard again, but really should be trying to go to my knees more often from under side control, especially as I'd already spent so long in half guard already.

Up next was J-Sho, somebody I think I've only done guard passage with before, so was pleased to get a chance to roll with him. Like me, he's a fellow internet BJJ geek, but unlike me, he can back that up with a high level of BJJ, given that he's an experienced purple belt. I again ran through the usual sequence of attempting to get to guard, fail, they pass to side control, then either I get into half guard or they go to knee on belly.

I presume he was taking it fairly easy, due to being way better than me. Also, if he hadn't been testing out some kind of submission that involves wrapping my gi around my arm, most likely I would have spent a lot more time under knee-on-belly. Instead, I was trying to gradually work my arm free and get back to half-guard, normally ending up under side control instead.

Finally, I was back with the earlier blue belt again, finding myself under knee-on-belly yet again. I tried to keep in mind the principle of getting my elbow to my knee when under side control to stop them getting the knee through. This helped, but they still got their knee through plenty of times, leaving me to squirm away trying to shrimp out. Saulo has some escapes for this I've been trying, but not drilled them enough yet: hopefully with more mat time I'll start to get the hang of it.

This month is unfortunately going to be my last at RGA Kilburn, as my sister is moving again at the start of May to Cobham. I've been looking around at alternatives, because Kilburn will be too far, and there appear to be three. Nova Forca is closest, at around 5.5 miles, but the timetable doesn't quite fit. I'd also very much like to stay with RGA, so I was pleased to see that contrary to what I'd thought at first, there was an affiliate not too far away.

RGA Wimbledon (which incidentally was the first club on fellow blogger Jadon’s BJJ Pilgrimage) is about 9.5 miles, so its worth the slightly longer journey to stay with the RGA family. There is also Andy Roberts' place in Farnborough, which would be cool as then I could train with Jadon, but that's more like 20 miles I think, so probably too far.

If anyone knows buses from Cobham to any of those, I'd be interested to hear what the best routes are: I'm currently going by trains, for which it looks like RGA Wimbledon would be a 10 minute walk to Cobham station, then 34 minutes to Raynes Park, and finally a 25 minute walk to Ray Stevens club. £69 unlimited sounds reasonable, as I could make three classes from Mon-Weds, same as I've been trying to do at Jude's in Kilburn.

Also, I should be doing a major overhaul of the BJJ map soon. Simon Hayes, who has been very helpful in providing information about the Carlson Gracie clubs, suggested I split it by county, as there are now so many schools. It’s a good idea, but will take a fair bit of work, particularly as I’ve always been really, really bad at geography. Fortunately for me, unlike at school, I now have Google Maps! ;)

07/04/2009 - BJJ (Beginner)

Class #217



Roger Gracie Academy Kilburn (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK - 07/04/2009 - Beginner

I was still feeling a bit sore from yesterday, after all that half-guarding, but fortunately Tuesdays are only an hour. Technique started the same as yesterday, with a half guard pass. Jude mentioned a useful additional tip when I asked, which was to push your body forward if you're having trouble getting the shoulder under their chin. That will result in pressure on their face, which will have a similar distracting result.

Also slightly different from yesterday was the option of passing to side control rather than mount. Before passing, bring your legs towards the side you want to reach. Once you've freed your leg by prying it loose, your knee should point off to the side: you then slip through into side control.

The cross choke from mount was the same as usual, with points like bringing your head down to the same side as your top arm. Jude also demonstrated two different grips for the second hand: either palm down with the thumb in their collar, then dropping the elbow across, or alternately knife-handing your way down their face to reach the collar. There was also a third, where you lift up their head, grip behind then loop your arm over into place, but Jude noted that required a fair bit of strength.

While sparring from mount I concentrated on maintaining my position, using my feet and knees to squeeze my way up their body. Normally I wrap my arm under their head and then cling on there, so I wanted to try a more upright posture this time, working my knees under their armpits.

I still couldn't get anything, as I wasn't able to dig my way past Rich's clamped arms. There was the option of shoving my gi in his face, which Rich suggested, but that is purely about causing your partner pain, with the coarse gi material acting as sandpaper. Not very pleasant, and not something I'm willing to do to a training partner. I'd much rather develop a 'clean' method of getting past the arms, rather than relying on their pain tolerance being low.

To that end, I tried Roger's technique, where you put your hand in front of the arms, then drive it through with your hip on the elbow. That sort of worked, though I generally either got swept, couldn't get a deep enough hold, or wasn't able to secure the second grip. Spent both rounds on top, as Rich has hurt his thigh.

Next was guard passage, with one of the white belts. I was looking for collar chokes, but I'm bad at setting them. Simply grabbing a collar and hoping is not too productive, so I'll need to think carefully about how I can work the submission. Same goes for triangle chokes, though I at least have some vague idea of how I want to enter into those (e.g., spider guard, like Renzo shows).

I'm also not getting my sweeps when they stand in my guard: relying too heavily on the handstand, which they're generally avoiding by basing forward. That should mean I can then pull their torso down for chokes and armbars, but again that would require some actual submission skills on my part. ;)

On their knees, I need to be more explosive with my sit-up sweep. Back as a white belt, that used to be my highest percentage attack, but only very rarely land it these days. I could try going for the elbow rather than the shoulder, like Saulo shows it (IIRC), or just greater commitment when driving for the reversal.

My first free spar was with a white belt named Fabio, who for once is closer to my size. That meant I had a lot more options, so tried a bunch of different attacks. Still mainly looking at cross-chokes and triangles, with a brief attempt at a guillotine. As ever I spent some of it in half-guard, almost taking his back but then somehow ending up underneath him with my head by his legs. My back control remains terrible: almost always find myself on the bottom in some ridiculous position, or just guard.

Finally, there was a much bigger white belt, Rodrigo. However, he didn't use his size advantage, instead trying to stay technical, which was good to see. Though he was going very light, I still wasn't able to do all that much. I had a go at a triangle and armbar from mount, but on both occasions left way too much space, so it was a simple matter for Rodrigo to escape.

I had intended to train on Wednesday, but writing this up Wednesday morning, I feel like crap. So, won't be training again until I get back from Cornwall, next Wednesday. Shame to not make my intended three a week, but if I tried tonight, I would feel much, much worse, even assuming I made it through the session pumped up on medication.

06/04/2009 - BJJ (Beginner)

Class #216



Roger Gracie Academy Kilburn (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK - 06/04/2009 - Beginner

Tonight's class was perfect for me, as Jude went through several basic half guard techniques. I wasn't expecting to see that for a while, as Kilburn is mostly beginners, but nevertheless very useful stuff from my perspective.

Jude began with the fundamental half guard pass where you squeeze your knee through by trapping their leg. Start by getting one arm under their head and the other past their armpit, gable gripping your hands. Having secured that grip, drive your shoulder under their chin: this is essential, as the pass will be difficult without that heavy pressure.

Slide your free knee towards their other armpit, while coming up on the toes of your trapped foot. Once your free foot has enough space, bring it over their leg and push into their calf. At the same time, try to squeeze your trapped leg out of their half-guard, shoving your shoving under their chin the whole time.

I've always had trouble with this escape, but the way Jude showed this as really shoving that leg off of yours was helpful. Previously I thought the foot on the calf was more of a block, but I see now its a push. The combination of that push with the pull of your trapped leg is one of the important details I'd been missing.

Next, Jude demonstrated recovering guard from half-guard. That is something I've been trying to do for a while, so was especially pleased to see it broken down. You're underneath half guard, with your head on the opposite side to the leg you've trapped, with your forearm pressing into their throat.

Clamp down on their calf with your inside leg. Bring your other foot out slightly to bridge, then block their hip with your hand. Using space you've just created, bring your inside knee through and replace guard. In other words, this is exactly like recovering guard from mount, in terms of mechanics, in that the shrimp is all-important. As ever, its in the hips.

That then moved on to taking the back from half guard, using what I've seen referred to as 'deep half-guard'. You'll be shrimping again, same as before, but this time, you aren't aiming to recover guard. Instead, once you've made space with your bridge, swim the arm you have against their throat under their armpit instead, securing the underhook.

You can now knock them forward with that arm, aiming to slip down towards their leg, coming onto your side. Make sure your head is also free, on the same side as their trapped leg. To finish, link both arms behind their trapped knee and knock them forward again. That should kill their balance, leaving you to move to your knees, then take their back.

Sparring from half-guard I didn't have much success applying the technique, but then that's to be expected when everybody knows what you're going for. I'm still tending to stall in half-guard, but at least I now have some further options, which don't require me to get my head on the same side as their trapped leg. I'm getting too flattened out, and being too cautious about controlling them with just one leg (which would give me the option of bridging off the other).

On top, I'm leaving too much space and not getting my hips down enough. I'm also having trouble dealing with the arm in my throat: that is currently preventing me putting enough pressure with my shoulder into their throat. I repeatedly found that Rich opened up space with his forearm, then got to his side. From there it was a simple matter for him to either reach his knees or reverse me.

Guard passage also followed a typical pattern, though again, I do now have clearer goals thanks to Jude's help last week. Getting the knee up and hips forward is the first aim, then I need to establish better base when I stand. I also need to do a much better job of stripping their grips, or preventing them altogether. My posture must improve for that, as currently I'm being broken down too easily.

Underneath guard, I was trying cross-chokes and triangles, but without being sufficiently tight. With the triangle, I couldn't lock my legs properly, swiftly getting stacked and losing the position. I also had a quick go at a guillotine from half-guard top, in the hope that might help the pass, but again that didn't go anywhere. Not to mention my sparring partner, a relatively stocky white belt, was taking it easy anyway, as he was concerned about the size difference.

Full sparring with Rich led to yet more stalling in half-guard, and I'm also giving up mount way too easily. I need to get into a better defensive posture quicker, rather than looking to snatch half-guard, ending up flat and without many options if I miss it.

Finally, I was with another big white belt looking to try and avoid using his considerable weight advantage. This time I was quite happy to at least have half guard to keep some kind of control, and after a cycle of him making a few steps towards passing before I readjusted to regain a more solid half-guard, I managed to get on top. After passing to side control, I was looking to switch to half-guard and step over for an armbar, but time ran out. Doubtful I would have got anything anyway, but always fun to try.

I'm looking to get in three again this week, especially as I'll only have one evening free next week. We'll see how my body holds up, and if my sister has to work late on Tuesday or Wednesday.

01/04/2009 - BJJ (Beginner)

Class #215



Roger Gracie Academy Kilburn (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK - 01/04/2009 - Beginner

Mark has announced the Belfast Throwdown for this year, which should be awesome. I loved it the past two times, so I'd expect it to be just as good in 2009. Of course, getting made redundant last year and still job hunting does mean I have to be a little careful with things like holidays, but I'm sure I can at least make the short hop to Northern Ireland. Please post on the thread if you're interested in coming along too, particularly as we still need to set a date: everyone welcome! :D

My ear appears to have got bashed up either yesterday or the day before, but not cauliflower: the bit between the lope and my skull was cut (by the time I noticed it, there was a scab). This would therefore be the perfect time to wear my headgear, but I've cleverly left that in Coventry. So instead, I sported some zinc oxide tape around my lower ear.

Guard passage went pretty badly, as usual. I was almost past twice in a row against white belts, but on both occasions couldn't capitalise on a good position with sufficient pressure to get to side control. First I was on top of half guard, but then somehow gave up my back, then I had my partner's legs over their head and was trying to squeeze past, but managed to get reversed under side control. The only successful pass was with a blue belt who was going for an armbar, but even that was mainly because time was running out so he wasn't really pushing it.

Technique tonight, presumably because of a competition on Saturday, was how to correctly pull guard (the Kilburn branch of RGA is still very new, so the beginners haven't got to grips with takedowns yet. However, there is a wrestling class on Saturdays, so you'd hope the people seriously interested in competing will take advantage of that).

Having got a grip on their lapel and sleeve, start by putting your foot on their same side hip, keeping the leg straight. Drop to your back, swivelling as you go and keeping your leg rigid. This should knock them sideways, so that they essentially slip down a groove right into your guard, making it easy for you to wrap your legs into position.

That was followed by how to go straight into an armbar (as you already begin with a grip on their arm). This involves more swivelling: try to put your head by their leg. Finally, bring the other leg over their neck instead of around their torso. From there, raise your hips and go for the armbar.

Last technique was the clock choke again, then a variation, where you get the same choke off a kimura from side control. If when going for the kimura they manage to resist and go to their knees, follow them round. As you'll still have your arm inside, you're in perfect position to grab their lapel, open it out, then go for the clock choke as usual (feed lapel to other hand, use first hand to grab remaining lapel, shift hips onto their neck, head on floor, then walk round for the submission).

Sparring with Rich, I managed to get the Tran side control escape where you bridge as they go for mount, which is still working well for me. My escapes from the mounted triangle have been considerably less successful: I can never get my foot onto their arm in order to push my way free, though admittedly its a tough position to reverse.

A bigger blue belt called Alan was next. I again landed Tran's escape, but I think Alan was going light, due to that size difference. I was unable to extricate myself from his scarf hold or knee-on-belly, though with the latter, I did have a go at wrapping his foot and grabbing behind his gi. Didn't stop me getting choked.

I was chatting to Jude about how I didn't feel any need to compete, because I still have so much to work on just sparring in class. I mentioned how my guard passing in particular was terrible, so Jude, being the awesome instructor he is, offered to run through some tips after tonight's session ended. That also meant I could help out one of the white belts who is competing, acting as a training dummy so he could better prepare for a tournament this weekend.

The major point I've been missing, which should hopefully make a big different to my guard passing, is that I need to get my hips forward as soon as a I raise a leg. So far, I've been thinking about driving the hips once I've stood up (though I've not even been doing that well), which means that as I try to get to my feet, my posture has been poor, leaning forward too much.

Jude also showed a slightly different way of opening the guard from standing. Normally, I try to step back and push their leg to the mat, aiming to hold it in place with my arm before replacing that pressure with my leg, moving on to the leg pin pass.

Jude noted the basic principle that a leg is always stronger than an arm, so instead of prising the leg free with an arm, he instead broke the guard with his knee. I'm not sure I quite got the details, but it involved bending your knee into their leg, so that you gradually broke the guard open, also leaving you in position where your knee was already on the mat over their leg (so again, set up for the leg pin pass).

John, a purple who wasn't training that night, prefers to either step back and push the leg off, or alternately, Mauricio's version where you put your knee right in their tailbone, then sit back down. If you get your knee in just the right spot, that will then force their guard open around your knee: their simply isn't enough space for them to keep a closed guard once your knee is wedged through.

John also emphasised getting a cross-grip on their arm, or in other words, grabbing their opposite sleeve. That means you can then put your leg forward on that side with impunity, as they'll have nothing to hook it with. John also said that after you've secured that hold, use your free arm to make certain they don't get any grip with their other arm.

All great advice, which should definitely make a different to my guard passing. Even at the most pessimistic level, it sure can't get any worse! ;)

As I was heading to the changing rooms, one of the regulars addressed me as slideyfoot, because he recognised me from the blog. Always cool when that happens (and if they're reading, the link for Passing the Guard is here: new revised edition which I'm very much looking forward to, having long wanted to get hold of the original due to the extremely high regard it appears to have generated).

31/03/2009 - BJJ (Beginner)

Class #214



Roger Gracie Academy Kilburn (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK - 31/03/2009 - Beginner

Fellow UK blogger Jadon announced a great idea for a trip: travelling to every BJJ club in the country (so if you're a club owner in the UK, would be cool if you could help him out). He's dubbing it 'The Great BJJ Pilgrimage', meaning you'll know what to look for if he ever releases a book.

It is something I'm sure most of us would love to do, including me. I'd head for the US rather than the UK: once I finally get myself a job and feel financially secure again, I'm planning to get some training in around California. The history of international BJJ starts there, so I'd enjoy taking a look at the Gracie Museum, then somewhere like Hollywood BJJ.

Admittedly, it also interests me because going by my blog stats, I get the most US hits from California, followed by New York and Texas, so would be especially cool to roll with anyone who reads this. It will only be brief (week or two), and certainly not going to be checking out every club. Maybe three or four at most, depending on how much sweaty man-rolling action my gf lets me get away with. ;p

I'm glad to see that my map is proving of use: once the Pilgrimage gets started, I'll stick in links on the map to Jadon's blog posts for each club. If I can work it out, would be nice to get some kind of 'follow Jadon' thing going: will have a play when he starts it.

Tonight's class followed on directly from yesterday. Jude kicked off with a turnover from turtle he showed the white belts yesterday (higher belts were told to drill something else, so I didn't have a chance to try it until today). Lapel choke again: arms straighten. You start on the side of their turtle, knee up behind and other knee in close to their near side, to stop them rolling out. Grab their gi lapel on the near side and yank it loose, then feed that through to your other hand. Make sure that as you do that, you don't reach your other hand in underneath their body: otherwise, they can overhook it and roll into a dominant position.

Once you've secured a grip on the gi, you'll now have a useful handle strapped across their waist. Grab their near-side elbow, then step your rear leg over to the far side. Roll them back towards the near side, get your hooks in, and move to rear mount. From here, rear naked choke.

After we'd gone through the lapel choke again, time for guard passage. I went with Rich, who is becoming a regular training partner (mainly because he's one of the few other blues at Kilburn, and therefore much less of an injury risk). Yet again I tried the star sweep off the handstand sweep, and yet again I got armbarred for my trouble. Still not staying tight enough, and I think I'm also rushing it, which means its sufficiently sloppy that my arm is left ripe for the bending.

On top, I'm continuing to force myself to stand up. Keep getting swept shortly afterwards, but then I'm never going to get it unless I work through that significant obstacle first. The problem is to do with my legs getting hooked, as is so often the difficulty with standing in guard. If I don't put my leg forward, its tough to stand up, but if I do, its easy to hook and initiate a sweep. Ideally I'd grab the sleeve on that side so I remove to risk of getting my leg hooked, but I've been finding it tough to secure the arm so far. Practice makes perfect, as ever.

Much the same thing with my next partner, another blue belt. I also still need to work on recovering closed guard from half guard, where the problem this time is getting a grip on the sleeve and opposite knee, then my foot under their trapped knee with the other foot pressing on their calf. I should also be mixing that up with some other options, like maybe the old school, along with my favoured functional half guard from Indrek Reiland.

In sparring with the same two partners, similar problems with half-guard, and I also need to watch for chokes from mount. I had thought Rich was going for a normal cross choke, which would mean when I rolled to guard, defending would be fairly straightforward: posture, squish elbows together, strip top arm away. However, it was actually an ezequiel, which meant that rolling to guard didn't help at all, as he already had it locked on.

Class is only an hour on Tuesdays and Thursday, so that wrapped up things for tonight. Should be training again on Wednesday: I plan to continue three times a week until I get my average back up to at least twice a week, as per my very geeky spreadsheet (the offline version is even geekier than the one I have up on Google Docs, which doesn't quite get to that level of detail).

30/03/2009 - BJJ (Beginner)

Class #213



Roger Gracie Academy Kilburn (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK - 30/03/2009 - Beginner

I had an interesting chat with Bryan Hogeveen this weekend, a name Fightworks Podcast listeners might recognise from his interview a while back. If you missed that episode, Bryan is an academic currently conducting a BJJ study, for which he's asking people to fill in a survey (one for women and one for men).

Bryan is also looking to interview those who are willing to give a bit more time. I love talking about BJJ, so I was happy to get the chance to babble at length (like I mentioned during the conversation, this is ideal for bloggers, who are always looking to share their thoughts about BJJ anyway). It doesn't matter if you're nowhere near Canada, where Bryan is based, as he'll phone you from his university. It sounds like a great project, so definitely deserving of your support: for further details, check out Bryan's blog.

On a different topic, it looks as if Eddie Bravo is gearing up to follow in the Gracie Academy's footsteps, with his own version of online training, complete with the ability to gain rank through video. It should make for a revealing comparison with the Gracie University: I'm particularly intrigued as to whether or not Bravo manages to avoid the criticism Gracie University has received (which I listed back here). I've long thought that the Gracie Academy and Bravo have a lot in common, given that they both rely on sometimes controversial marketing to maintain their reputation, rather than major current competitive success (as opposed to, say, Gracie Barra with Roger Gracie, Alliance with Cobrinha or Gracie Humaitá with Xande Ribeiro, to cite just a few examples from those powerhouse teams).

Also, just noticed as I was writing this that Oli G, the undisputed king of competing at every competition ever, has set up a swish looking new site to showcase his competition videos. Check it out here.

Jude focused on chokes for tonight's session. First the basic rear naked choke. Put your arm around their neck, pressing the bony part of your forearm into their throat. Grab the bicep of your other arm, making sure not to bring the bicep arm out straight (otherwise they could potentially grip your wrist and submit you, using their shoulder to bend your arm the wrong way). Finally, the hand of the bicep arm goes to the back of their head, then you squeeze their neck between your two arms.

The RNC was followed by a lapel choke. From rear mount, reach over their shoulder and grab deep in their collar. Your other hand comes under their armpit and grabs the other collar. To finish, straighten out your arms, pushing forward and thereby squeezing your partner's neck between their lapels.

Finally, Jude went through the clock choke. This is similar to the lapel choke, except that it is applied when your partner is turtled up, and the execution is with your bodyweight rather than pulling on the collars. Once you have the grip on their lapels, drop your weight onto their neck, staying tight. In order to secure your base, put your forehead to the floor on the other side, then slowly walk round, one leg at a time, starting with the bottom leg. Your legs are acting as the hands of a clock, hence the name.

In guard passage, I kept trying the Saulo guard break without much success: still not controlling the hips well enough, which I think continues to be my main problem in somebody else's guard. I also tried standing guard breaks, getting to my feet while holding their sleeve, but need more work on establishing base and being careful with my legs, avoiding sweeps.

Underneath, I again attempted the combination of handstand sweep with star sweep. Swinging both legs to the same side works ok, but I'm not staying close enough to the leg. I need to knock them off balance by getting in tight to their thigh. At the moment, I'm leaving too much space, which is why last week I basically ended up under side control, while this week Rich caught me in a randomly positioned armbar.

Another thing I wanted to work today was replacing full guard from half guard. My aim was to grab their shoulder and leg, then get my same side leg under their knee, while the other foot trapped their calf. I'd then lift them up and drop them back into full guard. However, the problem was firstly getting that foot under their knee: can be awkward depending on how I've locked the half-guard. I'm also not getting a good grip on the arm, and when trying to grab onto the knee, my arm is too loose.

When sparring with one of the white belts, that meant I was sitting there working my way of an Americana from much of the spar. Fortunately for me, they didn't know how to finish it, but that's the only thing that meant I was able to avoid the submission. So much like last lesson, I was underneath a white belt in half-guard, though at least this time, I was working towards something specific.

It was good to see John there, who is a purple belt that weighs the same as me. I've sparred with him once before, back at RGA HQ: hopefully he'll be at Jude's regularly. He had lots of advice, such as trying Saulo's running escape under side control. I had thought that was only useful for when they had both arms on the near side of your body, but John mentioned that you could often direct their arm to where you wanted. Gave it a try in sparring and it worked ok, though obviously John was letting me have it (he took on an instructor role for everyone he sparred with: IIRC, though he's still a purple, he's been training for a looooong time).

Finished off class by buying myself one of the snazzy new RGA branded t-shirts. I've generally avoided buying stuff, given continuing lack of job, but as its almost my birthday, I thought I'd treat myself. :)

25/03/2009 - BJJ (Beginner)

Class #212



Roger Gracie Academy Kilburn (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK - 25/03/2009 - Beginner

Annoyingly came down with something last week, which meant I wasn't able to finally get into a regular pattern of BJJ as I'd hoped. 2009 in general has been pretty poor so far in terms of consistent grappling, but I'm aiming to train three times a week next month, so I get back to my preferred average of at least twice a week (yay for spreadsheets which make that easy to work out).

I read an excellent blog yesterday, called The Manly Odyssey. It is by a guy who trains with Pedro Bessa in Bristol, and in it he talks about a long trip he took through Asia. The reason this was so awesome is that he and his friend George did plenty of training on the way through, meaning this effectively becomes an improved version of The Last Wrestlers: no weird sexist theories about women, just lots of grappling and entertaining travel anecdotes.

Class tonight was on knee-on-belly, though things started with three rounds of guard passage. I started with one of the blue belts, and again tried to get into the habit of standing up to pass. Obviously didn't pass, but its getting more natural now to get onto my feet. Also spent lots of time in my usual passive position defending chokes, but hopefully I can gradually either steer into standing up, or somehow get better at passing on the knees (the latter is rather unlikely at the moment. Would be great to have a private lesson on it some time, so once I get a job, will probably try and do that).

With the white belts, things got more entertaining. As Jude's academy only opened this year, there are lots of absolute beginners. That meant I could work on my weaknesses, like submissions. I played around with the loop choke from Renzo's DVD a few times, where I think my problem is that I'm not getting enough gi material to pull across, and I'm also not managing to get it into the throat properly.

I also had a go at some of his triangle set-ups, which did get me in position, but then my foot kept cramping up when I tried to lock it in. Presumably a combination of bad technique and poor diet or something: I wasn't getting my shin sufficiently far back either. There was an opportunity to play with one of stranger options from Kukuk, which I think is a double armbar (starts by locking legs around their shoulders), but needless to say that didn't go anywhere.

Jude then demonstrated the kimura from knee on belly, which also brought up lots of useful tips on the position itself. First you need to get there: from side control, grab the back of their collar, your other hand on their hip. Press-up and drive your knee through, keeping the toes of that leg off the floor. You can now put pressure on your partner, by pulling up on their collar and their knee.

In order to give their stomach some relief, their natural reaction is to put their hands on your knee. As soon as they do that, push their hand to the floor and sprawl backwards. It is important here to keep your weight on them, so twist your hips and get into a diagonal position on their shoulder. Next, step the leg nearest their head over, bringing your foot to their face.

As my partner said, this is the essential part: concentrate on getting that heavy pressure, rather than focusing on the submission and thereby losing your positional control. Once you've got them trapped underneath you, apply the kimura by twisting their arm and slightly raising their body up.

If they manage to resist the kimura by grabbing onto their belt or gi, you can change your position to still land the submission. Maintaining your kimura grip, twist your body and pull them up, bringing your legs around their head as you do so. That will mean you are now sitting on their head with your feet crossed underneath it.

Now you're ready to break their grip. Keeping their arm tight to your chest, release the hold you have on your own wrist and instead grasp your own collar (you're still be controlling their arm with your forearm). To weaken their hold, turn their wrist clockwise, using the hand holding their wrist as well as brining your forearm up. With their wrist turned, they will only be able to hold on with a finger and thumb rather than their whole fist, meaning that you can now pull the arm free and push their wrist down and to the side for the tap.

Once we got to sparring, I was with a typically eager white belt. Almost the whole time, I was lying under half guard, where I so frequently end up. The recurring problem is that I tend to have my head on one side and my legs on the other. That limits my technique, as the only sweep I know (the basic 'pull their arm over' from here) requires your head to be on the same side as the trapped leg, as would taking their back. I'm still looking to recover guard from here as my first option, so need to review the technique for that.

It is a bit pointless just flopping around in their half guard, so I tried giving my partner mount. Almost immediately ended up back in half guard. Next time I find myself in that situation, I think I'll need to make a conscious effort to completely avoid using half guard, and instead focus on the bridge and roll from under mount, or wedge myself under side control so I can work escapes from there.

Next week should be three sessions, but that depends on if I manage to stay healthy. My niece has come down with conjunctivitis, which is contagious, so not sure if I'll be able to avoid it (trying to just wash my hands a lot, but I've read the bacteria is airborne, so that may not help much. But hey, at least I'll have really clean hands).

16/03/2009 - BJJ (RGA Kilburn)

Class #211



Roger Gracie Academy Kilburn (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK - 16/03/2009 - Beginner

As of this week, I'm finally getting back to regular training at a proper BJJ school. I haven't been on the mats for a while, so plenty of stuff to talk about since January.

To start with more mundane matters, I'm still job hunting (if anyone knows of anybody around Coventry or Birmingham who could use somebody with four years experience number-crunching in Excel, let me know), but on the writing side of things, its been a lot more positive. That is largely thanks to Dolph: I've been looking for a particular text for ages, which Dolph was able to resolve with one email. Very awesome. That kick-started my research, which had been languishing a bit recently, so I've been delving into the history and context of AIDS.

Most recently, Randy Shilts' And The Band Played On has been an excellent and informative read, though I'll of course need to check through lots of other sources before I can get a true picture of the period. US Government archives have been handy for corroborating some of what Shilts' mentions, like the shocking lack of official action on AIDS during the 1980s, both in terms of policy and budget, by the Reagan administration.

In terms of BJJ, there has been some big news this month. The Gracie Academy, where it all started, has now taken a step further than its already controversial Gracie Combatives program. Previously, you were able to test for a 'combatives blue belt' after completing the 36 lesson syllabus. That brought up the possibility of people with only a few months (or even weeks, with intensive courses) training being able to claim they were qualified to teach (whether or not they would make the distinction between Gracie Combatives and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu was an especially important issue).

The Gracie Academy's argument was that a Gracie Combatives blue belt was not the same as a BJJ blue belt: Rener, Ryron and Rorion have been making an increasing distinction between self defence orientated Gracie jiu jitsu and the 'sport' jiu jitsu of other BJJ schools. The new Gracie University (also available on DVD) does a whole lot more. Not only is it now possible to get blue, purple, brown and even black belts in Gracie Combatives, but you can both learn and test for those belts through video submission.

Needless to say, that's been all over the net: EFN, NHBGear, Sherdog, The Underground etc. I go into more detail on my own opinion in the Bullshido thread, here. Note the similarity to the earlier debate about Gracie Combatives: Sherdog, NHBGear, Bullshido and EFN.

I'll be reviewing developments with interest: from what I can tell (e.g., there's a free sample showing the kimura), Rener and Ryron's level of instruction is excellent. Also, the Gracie Combatives DVD set itself is comparatively reasonably priced, at $119 for 13 DVDs and over 18 hours of instruction. By comparison, Saulo Ribeiro's excellent Jiu Jitsu Revolution commonly retails for around $150, getting you 6 DVDs and slightly less than 6 hours of instruction.

The controversial part, the online grading, is where the cost begins to add up. On top of the learning material ($144 for online or $119 for the aforementioned DVDs), to test costs $85, and there are then four stripes per level. Still, it does apparently stay at $85 for testing, judging by the response on the GU forum (which is in a pure question and answer format, rather than the normal bulletin board set-up). The big question is whether or not you can really evaluate somebody's jiu-jitsu purely through video, without having observed the student for a long period of training month in, month out.

As to the BJJ class I attended tonight (I'll type up a fuller review of the facilities, environment etc a bit later), techniques stayed fairly basic, as it is mostly white belts. That is one of the best things about this class: I'm really enjoying the chance to work my fundamentals. Jude starts that right from the drilling, with standing up in guard, side control escapes and cross choke from the guard.

In the technical section, the focus today was the armbar from guard, followed by armbar from standing guard and finally armbar defence. Jude clarified a point I've wondered about in the past, which is crossing your feet when doing an armbar.

If they're in your guard on still on their knees, crossing your feet will put weight down their spine. That is to your disadvantage, as it will naturally lean their body in the wrong direction. Instead, you want to keep your feet uncrossed, so you can push down behind their neck. This will keep them off-balance in the direction you want, breaking their posture.

However, once they've stood up, it doesn't matter if you keep your feet crossed or uncrossed. What is important is that you drive your heels down whether or not your feet are crossed, to keep their arm trapped and prevent them pulling up to make space.

There was also a slightly more advanced technique, but Jude still managed to keep it relatively straightforward. For a basic spider guard pass, first step to the side, past their straightened leg. At the same time, bring your hand on top of their other leg, then drive that arm diagonally across and down.

You can now grip their straightened leg with one hand high, the other low by their inner thigh. Step the foot nearest their head next to their ribs. Yank their leg up, pushing your hips forward. Finally, drop into side control, replacing your blocking foot with a knee.

Sparring was guard passage, where as ever I wasn't too successful on top. However, I did at least manage to stand, which as I've been saying for ages, is a habit I need to get used to. Underneath I was a bit more active: the main thing I wanted to try was following up a handstand sweep with a star sweep. In short, the latter technique is swinging your leg around to the same side, roll to your knees, then pull up on their leg to drop them to the floor.

It sort of worked, but the problem I have is that I'm concerned about my training partner's knee when I do that. It looks as if I'm not careful, that could tweak their knee, so definitely need to watch it when practicing the star sweep. No point in doing a technique if its likely to cause injury.

Free sparring was as ever lots of escaping from side control and knee on belly. I keep forgetting to really bridge into them, like Saulo shows in his DVD set, so that's a habit I'm trying to build. Had a quick BJJ session with my gf last week, so hopefully we can make that a regular thing again. Only going through a quick warm-up at home, using techniques for drills, but still helpful to run through side control escape repeatedly.

My sister is away, so I'm probably not going to be able to make any other classes this week, as I need to be there to look after my niece (my brother-in-law came back early today, so I can get in some BJJ). Might try and do three lessons next week to make up for it, but depends on how quick my sister gets back from work.

14/02/2008 - BJJ (Beginners)

Class #119



Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK - 14/02/2008 – Beginners

My flight from Sevilla got delayed, so although I'd been thinking about training last night, I arrived into the UK too late. I'll write up something about Spain later (it'll be the entry before this one, as I always fiddle the date in order to put it in the right place, so it doesn't always match the date I actually wrote it), but in short, I went to Jerez, Cádiz, El Puerto de Santa Maria and Sevilla, drinking lots of sherry on the way. :D

Speaking of which, that diet of Pedro Ximénez and various combinations of cheese and meat probably wasn't too healthy, so yet again I wasn't feeling 100% tonight. Still, I wanted to at least make a beginner class: hopefully this isn't the start of a similar run of flu that ruined my January training. Does at least give me another kick up the arse to implement my eat-lots-of-soup plan to try and regain my apparently errant immune system.

The renovations at RGA are continuing apace. When I first noticed the building work some time ago, I thought they were replacing that room at the back with some mats, but I see instead that’s making space to move reception – its now in the entrance. The main mat area is being extended to where reception used to be. For a long time I had been under the impression that RGA might be moving premises, as that was mentioned in the changing rooms, but I'm told RGA is definitely staying put for a few more years. So, the extension of the mats makes a lot of sense, given the rapid growth rate in membership.

Another change is that the class schedule has finished. I don't think there are major shifts in time – chatting to Paxton, he mentioned that on Tuesday the advanced class is back to being 1.5hrs – but the one major difference is the no gi class. Or rather, major for me, as its now on Friday rather than Thursday, which means I won't be making many anymore. Will have to check the timetable to clarify.

Tonight's session focused on chokes from the guard. Jude started with the basic cross choke from guard. Feed one hand into their opposite collar, then slide your other hand underneath, gripping as deeply as you can. Twist your grip, pull them towards you whilst simultaneously raising up, then squeeze to finish the choke.

The two main things that I noted which I hadn't been doing enough before was pulling your opponent towards you once you have that first grip, then shifting your closed guard up their back and breaking their posture by bringing them forward with your knees.

A variation on the cross choke, if they've grabbed your gi with an arm, is to first grip the fabric by their wrist with your opposite arm. Bring your same side arm underneath, holding your other wrist (making a figure-four, as with kimuras, Americanas etc). Push up to release their grasp on your gi, then maintaining your own grip on their sleeve, pull that arm behind your head. At the same time, let go of the figure four and slide the same side arm underneath, until you can reach for the overhook on their arm. Drive right through with your same side hand and get a hold on their opposite lapel.

As their arm is under your armpit, you can't go for the usual cross choke, so instead Jude demonstrated three options. First, you can dig your thumb around the back of their gi and get it into their collar, then bring the arm to the same side as the overhook, sliding against their ear and trying to get under the chin. You can then secure the choke by pulling on both your grips.

Alternately to that grip, you could try to get your fingers in behind their collar and follow the same approach as above to complete the choke. Another option is to grab the back of their gi before bringing your arm around.

Jude then showed us some defences against the choke. Again, there were three variations. First, when they go for that initial grip, bring your opposite hand to your cheek before they can bring their other arm into play. You have to be careful, as there is an opportunity for them to push on your elbow and take your back. Second option is to block in the same way, but with your same side hand: this doesn't leave the elbow open. Assuming I haven't mixed those two up.

Finally, there was the option I'm most familiar with, as its what I've been using to block cross chokes. If they get both grips, bring your arms over the top of their and grab your own sleeves. At the same time, look up in order to prevent your opponent pressing into your neck. Bringing your elbows together and pressing down, while also sitting back on your heels and posturing up, will give your breathing space. Eventually, you should also be able to push their hands down your gi and break the grip.

I found that while I could hold off the choke, it became something of a stalemate. I need to remember to sit back on my heels and posture, as that should help facilitate breaking the grip: its good to have breathing space, but much better to completely remove their hold.

Sparring was initially very specific, in that we were just going for chokes or defending against them. I was with Amy again, and found that neither of us was able to secure a choke, as we could both defend successfully against the other. I'm sure that's partly because the drill was so specific and we both knew we didn't have to defend against anything else, but nevertheless, goes to show that the defence is effective.

Class ended with guard passage, where I was paired up with somebody I realised I'd encountered before on Facebook. I didn't recognise him until he mentioned his name was Brian, then made the connection with a guy who'd messaged me earlier about RGA – nice to meet him in person. On top, I was able to resist choke attempts and maintain my posture, but it was largely a stalemate. I eventually managed to slip my knee past when Brian loosened his guard (think he was going for a sweep, but not sure), but ended up in half guard. Eventually managed to free my other leg and go to side control, but found it fairly difficult: also, I don't think Brian was too familiar with the position, which obviously helps me pass.

Underneath, I went for an armbar a few times, as Brian seemed to be shifting his weight to one side and presenting me with his arm. However, as soon as I got into position, he was able to immediately get ready to escape, so I switched back to guard. I also tried the sit-up sweep a few times and switching to a kimura when that didn't work, but wasn't able to isolate his arm. I think there is a sweep which involves a kimura grip, but couldn't remember it. Also, Brian was able to keep his weight forward, so I had trouble setting up a sweep. When in that situation, I need to concentrate on shrimping out to make space for the sweep attempt and breaking their posture, rather than just clinging on to the arm.

Class finished up with a few people getting stripes, including Paxton, which was cool: he's been waiting for that third stripe for some time now. Jude then pulled a blue belt from inside his gi, and called my name, which was a bit of a surprise. On the one hand, it’s a proud moment for me, as this is what every white belt is waiting for. Its also particularly pleasing to get it from Jude, as he is the only black belt who has rolled with me, so presumably has the best understanding of my current level. On the other hand, that belt feels pretty heavy: I've still got a great deal I need to work on, especially my top game, and I now no longer have the protection of a white belt (not to mention I now can't attend the beginners classes). Sparring in the advanced class is probably about to become a whole lot more painful!

Then again, that does at least give me the chance to put into practice my oft-repeated assertion that training is about learning, not winning and losing, so all that matters is improving technique. We'll see how my ego handles being tapped by a white belt (and there are plenty of white belts at RGA I think are significantly better than I am). Hopefully I won't succumb to pride, as its something I've been determined to ignore ever since I started (not to mention I'm not magically better than yesterday just because my belt colour has changed), but I'm now in a situation where its finally going to be tested.

Oh, and in case anyone is wondering, my gf and I had our romantic meal a couple of days ago in Spain. I'm not quite forgetful enough to blithely train through Valentines Day: tend to do something during the week rather than the specific date. ;)

31/01/2008 - BJJ (Beginners)

Class #118



Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Gustavo Dos Santos Pires & Luciano Cristovam, London, UK - 31/01/2008 – Beginner

Beginners was a significantly larger class than no-gi, where there were only about ten of us. Gustavo was teaching through Luciano's translation again, and as before started off with some self-defence, both against bear hugs.

First, the escape from a front bear hug. The person in front of you has wrapped your arms against your side. Put your hands into their hips, push, and shove your hips back to make space. Shift your hand around their back, the other gripping their arm, then step in front. Dip, thrust your hip into them, then pick them up, in the same manner as for a hip throw.

Escaping a rear bear hug is a little different. A person behind you has now wrapped up your arms. Bend your arms straight up, drop, twist, then step a leg behind. Grab the back of their knees (going round the front), then lift them up. From there you could dump them on the floor, or end in side control.

Finally, we did a spider guard sweep. As they step round, your shin is against the leg they're leading with, while your other leg is shove straight into their bicep. You also pull them down on their leading side with your arm (like the last time I had a lesson with Gustavo). From this position, you can use their momentum to sweep: grab their rear leg at the bottom of their gi pants, bend your previously straight leg, then pull them down with your other hand. Simultaneously push with your bicep leg and the other shin, levering them over you and onto their back. Maintain your grip, which enables you to move straight to knee on belly.

I was working with Amy, who had only had four classes up til now. So, when it came to guard passage and side control sparring, I tried to be helpful. However, I'm not sure I was too useful, as I was probably bombarding her with too much information: control the hips, drive a shoulder into my face, make space, shrimp, press and arm into my neck, keep your weight down when on top…and so on. Particularly considering my side control is poo (especially on top), I'm not really in a position to give out decent advice, although hopefully the general idea was of some use. Next time, I think I'll just focus on one thing if I'm training with someone very new, and try to help them with that: going back over what I should be doing benefits my woeful side control too.

Definitely preferable rolling with a female noob than a male noob. The latter, as I found in my last beginner lesson, tends to get all macho and treat the sparring as life or death, while women are often more sensible. Most importantly, they don't end up injuring you, an ever-present risk with the more aggressive of the male noobs.

I'm off on holiday to Spain tomorrow, so won't be able to train again until mid February. Shame, as I'll miss the big group photo on Saturday, which would have been nice to make.

25/01/2008 - BJJ (Beginners)

Class #116



Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Gustavo Dos Santos Pires & Luciano Cristovam, London, UK - 25/01/2008 – Beginner

Exciting news for any fellow history fans: Isabelle Pafford, who did the awesome Ancient Mediterranean lectures last term is returning with a series on the Roman Empire. Reason that excites me is because when I emailed her at the end of last term to ask if she'd be webcasting the course the following year, it sounded as if History 4a wasn't happening again in 2008. So I'm thrilled to see 'Roman Empire' pop up on the Berkeley webcast list - more than adequate substitute! :D

As has been the case all this month, I'm just going to beginners this week. I'm still feeling a bit hot in the head and slightly achy at work, so will continue taking it easy in class, making sure I hydrate.

Gustavo and Luciano were taking class again tonight, starting off with a throw I've not seen before. Starting from the arm and collar grip, the hand that’s grabbing the collar moves under their armpit and grabs the gi fabric. The other arm lifts up their elbow and pulls them in, as you step your left leg back. This should put them up on their toes, whereupon you sweep their leg by swinging your foot, finally bringing them over your hip (at least I think you use your hip somewhere in the motion, but got a little confused, as one of my training partners was almost exclusively using his hip. At first Luciano nodded approvingly, but then told him to use his leg – presumably the guy was either throwing slightly differently before, or his hip wasn't quite so noticeable).

We followed that up with lots of work from the spider guard (where you have your feet pressed into their biceps, grabbing both their sleeves with both your hands). First, passing the spider guard, which begins by gripping the bottom of their gi trousers. Bring your hands together and downwards to get their legs close to each other, then step backwards and put their feet on the floor. As they sit up, push their legs to one side, step round and go into knee on belly (so if you stepped round with your left, you'd put your right knee into their stomach). Having asked, you apparently don't need to break their grip on your gi first.

If they manage to stop you from pulling their feet to the floor, there's a variation to pass the spider guard. Instead of gripping the bottom of their gi trousers with your hands on top, move underneath their legs and grip the fabric at the bottom of their gi trousers there. Again, bring their legs together, but this time move forward and push out your hips, shoving their legs towards their head. That leaves their bottom and the back of their upper legs for you to sit on: drop your weight on there, then slip into side control, wrapping up their head and their legs with your arms.

Finally for technique, Gustavo showed us (through Luciano's translation, as before) how to maintain spider guard. If they try to pass, straighten out one leg into their biceps, while blocking their other leg with your shin (low on their leg, with your foot ready to hook). For example, when they step to your left, you'll block that leg with your left shin and foot, shoving your right leg straight into their biceps.

At first, I wasn't quite sure how that worked: am I supposed to hook round their leg with my blocking foot? Should I be coming in close? Luciano then explained that the important point here was the straightened leg with the foot pressing into the biceps. That sets you up for several sweeps – he quickly showed me a variation to make the point, though I didn't quite catch exactly what he did, but I ended up on the floor (I think from my weight being forward, meaning he could carry my motion through behind him by using his foot). Another guy then asked what would happen if he just stepped over the blocking foot - he also ended up on the floor for his troubles. So, stepping over their foot can also set the bottom person up for a sweep.

Sparring turned out to be brief. We went from spider guard, and were expressly told not to move into closed guard. My natural instinct is to move to half guard and then work back to closed guard, playing with open guard along the way, so this felt a little weird. I was with a rather enthusiastic noob, who at some point brought his weight down on my arm as he passed. My arm must have been in an awkward position at the time, as I felt a sharp twinge somewhere in my upper arm (or possibly shoulder). Last time I injured my left shoulder, I was out for seven months, so taking no chances I sat out the rest of sparring. Whether or not it was serious, I didn't want to take the chance of making things worse.

Hopefully I'll be ok to train another beginner class tomorrow (and this time my excuse won't be illness, but the train I need to catch soon after). However, as both Zaf and Christina urged, I really must get back to the advanced class! If that lingering illness hasn't gone by then, I may have to take some more time off to make certain. I'll soon be on holiday in Spain anyway, which will mean I miss at least a week of training either way.

24/01/2008 - BJJ (Beginners)

Class #115



Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK - 24/01/2008 – Beginner

If, like me, a worryingly significant proportion of your DVDs are made up of 80s cartoons, then check out this site. My current main nostalgia trip has been Thundercats, which aside from having an awesome logo also had some of the most magnificently illogical recurring plot points (like the Thundercats can happily float unaided in the vacuum of space, as well as reaching absolutely ANYWHERE – even the centre of the planet – in a matter of seconds after seeing the old Thundersignal). I don't care: remains a great cartoon! Be sure to have a look at the Memorabilia bit (loads of stuff in there), especially the 'other clips'.

I'm still not feeling quite right: this is probably yet another reminder that I really need to get my diet in order (which currently is total crap, mostly consisting of cheese sandwiches and cereal). Not to mention failing to get eight hours sleep when I'm in Bucks. So, that needs to change, although I've been telling myself that for years.

So I was hoping to take it easy tonight, following on from above whining. Surprisingly enough, class wasn't too intense, which is normally almost a guarantee with Jude. We worked escapes from scarf hold for most of it, then finished off with a comparatively brief bit of specific sparring, working guard passage.

The first scarf hold escape was the one I'm most familiar with. First, move your legs close to them, then drive your trapped elbow to the ground. With the hand of that same elbow, grab their biceps (something I've not been doing up until now), then bring the other forearm round and press it into their neck. Take your hand off their biceps and push it into your other wrist, making a frame to shove their head back.

While you're grinding into their neck, move your legs towards their head. Combined with your arms, that should put you in position to bring your legs up and over, grabbing their head (make sure to lock your legs together). Roll them over onto their side, immediately stepping your leg over and bringing it tight to their stomach. To free your head (presuming they've maintained their hold, which in drilling people sometimes forget – bad habit to get used to, as in sparring people don't tend to be so accommodating), again make a frame on their neck and push off that, driving your head and body forward rather than straight up. Finally, that should leave them open to an armbar, so step over their head, secure the arm, squeeze your knees and go for the sub.

I find the other variation on the scarf hold escape much more difficult. It starts similar to the previous example, but this time, their pressing their head into yours and preventing you getting that forearm into their neck. So instead, grip your hands together and drive a fist into their floating rib. That should cause them to raise up: your leg comes in underneath, then roll them over your body, leaving you on top.

The problem I have is getting the right position on the rib. Invariably I'm not pressing in the right place, meaning that if I then try to pull them over, it’s a matter of straining with my meagre muscle power: unless my opponent is significantly smaller than me, that's never going to get me anywhere. Jude did come over and demonstrate, but I'm still having difficult with the technique.

This was driven home when we then did some resistance training, where one person holds the other down in scarf hold so they can try the technique. I struggled to get Herman off me with the second technique, and even with the first I found I was sometimes prematurely bringing the legs over to roll him, meaning that again I was straining because I hadn't got into the proper position first.

Class ended with guard passage – Herman is lighter than he used to be, so instead of being 70 something kilos, he's now around my weight (about 65kg). I've been looking through the scissor sweep section of Beneville's The Guard, so wanted to give that a go. In particular, Beneville emphasises bringing your torso off centre in comparison to your opponent's, so effectively your moving your body at a slight angle. I gave this a go, but think I again forgot another essential component of a scissor, which is bringing them in close to lift them off their base.

I was able to retain my guard, though, trying to hook Herman's legs, which put me in butterfly guard. When Herman back away, I tried keeping my legs in contact with his: I had read some single leg sweeps in the bonus material for The Guard that's up on Beneville's website, but couldn't quite remember it. However, I somehow ended up in side anyway after Herman went down into my half-guard. I attempted taking the back earlier, but that didn't work. So, managed a reversal, but not sure how useful that is when I'm not certain how I got there.

On top, I sat with my knee pressed into Herman's tailbone as usual, and after a bit of a struggle, I eventually managed to push my knee through. I almost got swept at that point, but held my balance and ended on top in half-guard. I tried bringing my foot in tight to his tailbone and pressing forward, but time ran out before either of us was able to do anything (though I certainly wasn't on the verge of passing or anything).

Hopefully train again tomorrow, when I really want to make the advanced class for the first time this year, but will have to see how I feel. Beginners would still be better than not training.

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.