10/08/2016 - Teaching | Closed Guard | Pressing Armbar (Shoulder Clamp)

Teaching #544
Artemis BJJ (MYGYM Bristol), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 10/08/2016

More #ShoulderClamp tonight @mygym_bristol, adding in the #omoplata to the #PressingArmbar we did on Wednesday #BJJ #BrazilianJiuJitsu #ArtemisBJJ #ClosedGuard

A photo posted by Artemis BJJ (@artemisbjj) on Jan 8, 2016 at 1:37am PST

For the pressing armbar, break their posture by pulling your knees to your chest, then wrap up their head with an arm. Reach your other arm under their same side armpit, clasping your hands together palm to palm and locking on their shoulder. Get your hips out to the side and extend their arm. Firmly lock their wrist between your head and shoulder, as if you were talking on your phone with your hands full. With your armpit arm, slide that up their arm, staying tight so they have no room to move.

Bring your leg up their back, aiming to squash them into the floor. If they are able to stay upright, they can drive back into you to square up, weakening your control. Push their head away with what was your head wrapping arm if you need to. Your goal is to smush their head into the mat, down and away from you. Relock your gable grip, pulling your arm over their elbow to roll it up if it's in the wrong position. That makes it hard for them to escape, as they need to get their elbow down to pull the arm free. To finish, pull (or push, depending on your grip and configuration) down on their elbow.

Keep in mind that there needs to be some space to pull down into. If you haven't gotten enough onto your side and you're holding too low with your head and shoulder clamp, you might end up just shoving their arm into your own chest. Pull your bottom shoulder back to make sure there is that space. It's also important to secure both their wrist and their shoulder for this to succeed. Nathan Leverton had a name for this at his LSG seminar: 'stick theory'. In other words, to snap a stick across your knee, you hold it at both ends, not just one. Please don't snap anybody's arm though! ;)
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Teaching Notes: This felt pretty good today, I didn't see too many issues. Usual things came up, which I'm already emphasising. Stay on your side, get the knees right down to the shoulder, keep your head up. The big problem is almost always finding the right spot on the elbow. Everybody managed it eventually, but it's not a major problem as the omoplata is right there. That's what I'll be teaching on Friday. :)

06/01/2016 - Teaching | Closed Guard | Shoulder Clamp & Pressing Armbar

Teaching #445
Artemis BJJ (MYGYM Bristol), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 06/01/2016

More #ShoulderClamp tonight @mygym_bristol, adding in the #omoplata to the #PressingArmbar we did on Wednesday #BJJ #BrazilianJiuJitsu #ArtemisBJJ #ClosedGuard

A photo posted by Artemis BJJ (@artemisbjj) on Jan 8, 2016 at 1:37am PST

For the pressing armbar, break their posture by pulling your knees to your chest, then wrap up their head with an arm. Reach your other arm under their same side armpit, clasping your hands together palm to palm and locking on their shoulder. Get your hips out to the side and extend their arm. Firmly lock their wrist between your head and shoulder, as if you were talking on your phone with your hands full. With your armpit arm, slide that up their arm, staying tight so they have no room to move.

Bring your leg up their back, aiming to squash them into the floor. If they are able to stay upright, they can drive back into you to square up, weakening your control. Push their head away with what was your head wrapping arm if you need to. Your goal is to smush their head into the mat, down and away from you. Relock your gable grip, pulling your arm over their elbow to roll it up if it's in the wrong position. That makes it hard for them to escape, as they need to get their elbow down to pull the arm free. To finish, pull (or push, depending on your grip and configuration) down on their elbow.

Keep in mind that there needs to be some space to pull down into. If you haven't gotten enough onto your side and you're holding too low with your head and shoulder clamp, you might end up just shoving their arm into your own chest. Pull your bottom shoulder back to make sure there is that space. It's also important to secure both their wrist and their shoulder for this to succeed. Nathan Leverton had a name for this at his LSG seminar: 'stick theory'. In other words, to snap a stick across your knee, you hold it at both ends, not just one.
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Teaching & Sparring Notes: Making enough space to get onto your side caused problem for a few people. I think the main way to resolve that was pulling the bottom shoulder back. At the same time, you need to keep their arm tucked by your head, so you might have to curl in towards them too. A few of the the taller, longer-limbed people had a bit of trouble with that, especially as if you get too far up their arm, you might lose your control over their shoulder.

Finding the elbow can be tricky too, which is why this is easier to do nogi. As long as you stay tight that shouldn't be a major problem though, because that should give you time to find the right spot. There's always the option of taking their back instead, or potentially moving into an omoplata, like I'm planning to show on friday. I could probably have talked more about rolling their elbow up, that's a handy tip. Also stops them pulling their arm up by getting their elbow down.

Sparring was useful if brief. With Matt I couldn't block him standing and opening too well, he did a good job of controlling my sleeve. However, I did manage to move into the shoulder clamp(ish) butterfly sweep, as I maintained some control over his head after he stood up, getting him back down into butterfly guard. I was mainly pushing down on head with my elbow, rather than the full clamp. I didn't get the sweep initially, relying too much on my back. Once I got the other arm hooked in though, it became much easier: I need to remember to make sure both arms are in place before I try to move somebody's weight.

I'm also continuing to play with the Sao Paulo pass variation off Margarida's DVD, but only managing it on the less experienced beginners at this stage. Still, good to practice, particularly as it's something new to me so that makes it sufficiently challenging that it's a good one to try when there's an experience/size gap. :)

11/12/2014 - Teaching | Closed Guard | Pressing Armbar

Teaching #248
Artemis BJJ (PHNX Fitness), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 11/12/2014

For the pressing armbar, start by breaking their posture, then get an over-under grip (wrapping one arm around their head, the other under their arm). Get a gable grip (palm to palm) and then clamp down firmly on their shoulder.

Break their posture by pulling your knees to your chest, then wrap up their head with an arm. Reach your other arm under their same side armpit, clasping your hands together palm to palm and locking on their shoulder. Get your hips out to the side and extend their arm. Clamp their wrist between your head and shoulder. With your armpit arm, slide that up their arm, staying tight so they have no room to move.

Bring your leg up their back, aiming to squash them into the floor. If they are able to stay upright, they can drive into your and weaken your control. Push their head away with what was your head wrapping arm if you need to. Relock your gable grip, pulling your arm over their elbow to roll it up. That makes it hard for them to escape, as they need to get their elbow down to pull the arm free. To finish, pull down on their elbow.

Keep in mind that there needs to be some space to pull down into. If you haven't got enough on your side and you're holding too low with your head and shoulder clamp, you might end up just shoving their arm into your own chest. It's important to secure both their wrist and their shoulder for this to success. Nathan Leverton had a name for this at his LSG seminar: 'stick theory'. In other words, to snap a stick across your knee, you hold it at both ends, not just one.
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Teaching Notes: Similar things came up as to when I taught this at our central location last week, like making sure people got on their side and created some space into which to pull the arm. I risked joining in a bit with sparring this time, but mainly staying on top in guard. On the bottom I resisted the temptation to do much with my injured leg, meaning I got passed a lot and stuck under side control. But that's ok, at least I get to move a bit. In future, probably best for me to stick with specific sparring, maybe work on my passing. I'm thinking half guard might be an option too, or maybe open guard. Very frustrating either way, as I was just starting to feel like I was making a breakthrough with my guard problems. Grr.

03/12/2014 - Teaching | Closed Guard | Pressing Armbar

Teaching #243
Artemis BJJ (Bristol Sports Centre/MyGym), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 03/12/2014

Thinking about grips on Monday, I decided that the pressing armbar would flow well as a next step, confirmed by doing a bunch of drilling with Chris. I therefore wanted to have a play with it during the open mat session with Chris. Start by breaking their posture, then get an over-under grip (wrapping one arm around their head, the other under their arm). Get a gable grip (palm to palm) and then clamp down firmly on their shoulder.

Break their posture by pulling your knees to your chest, then wrap up their head with an arm. Reach your other arm under their same side armpit, clasping your hands together palm to palm and locking on their shoulder. Get your hips out to the side and extend their arm. Clamp their wrist between your head and shoulder. With your armpit arm, slide that up their arm, staying tight so they have no room to move.

Bring your leg up their back, aiming to squash them into the floor. If they are able to stay upright, they can drive into your and weaken your control. Push their head away with what was your head wrapping arm if you need to. Relock your gable grip, pulling your arm over their elbow to roll it up. That makes it hard for them to escape, as they need to get their elbow down to pull the arm free. To finish, pull down on their elbow.

Keep in mind that there needs to be some space to pull down into. If you haven't got enough on your side and you're holding too low with your head and shoulder clamp, you might end up just shoving their arm into your own chest. It's important to secure both their wrist and their shoulder for this to success. Nathan Leverton had a name for this at his LSG seminar: 'stick theory'. In other words, to snap a stick across your knee, you hold it at both ends, not just one.
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Teaching Notes: The two parts people find hard is firstly keeping that arm locked and extended, then secondly creating space underneath the elbow in order to push down for the submission. Next time, I'll emphasise getting onto your side and sliding enough to create that space. Generally though it went fairly well, especially as that's the first time I've taught the pressing armbar.

It could fit nicely into a sequence, with the omoplata and 'standard' armbar from guard, so I may teach those next week. I'd also like to fit in a sequence of sit-up sweep, kimura and guillotine, then there's the scissor sweep too. I'll have to think how much I can pack into December, given I also need to cover breaking the guard open and a couple of passes. Still, three weeks left, so that should be enough time.