Gi Review - Flow Hemp (Flow Kimonos)

Short Review: Stylish Boston-based brand Flow Kimonos have joined the growing number of companies offering a hemp gi. The appropriately named 'Flow Hemp' has a relatively beefy 550gsm jacket and 11oz (376gsm) trousers, both 100% hemp. Flow do not overdo their designs, stripping it back even further here: there are no big patches, just a few splashes of subtle embroidery in a pleasing green, black and white colour scheme.

As with their Pro Series 2.0, Flow Kimonos cater to a broader range of body types than some gi companies, with L (Long) and H (Heavy) on offer in addition to the standard A sizes. The main negative is the price, an unavoidable problem with hemp, though in comparison to the rest of the hemp market the Flow Hemp is among the most affordable. Available to buy here for $199.

Full Review: When I last reviewed a gi from Flow Kimonos (the Pro Series 2.0), I was excited by the news of another prospective hemp gi on the market. That gi has since arrived, the simply named Flow Hemp. The hemp gi market into which it has entered is growing gradually, with multiple choices now available in what was once a very narrow field. The first ever hemp gi was probably from Ground Force around 2005, judging by old threads like this, with a 2006 review of the gi here.

That 2006 review thread included a certain Chris Odell looking to buy a Ground Force gi in March 2007: he would go on to found Datsusara that same year. Odell's company is now arguably the market leader in hemp equipment for BJJ and MMA, justifiably able to take the credit for popularising hemp within BJJ, or at least proving the viability of creating BJJ equipment with hemp. After beginning in 2007, Datsusara released their first gi in 2008, the HCG-01. I reviewed the HCG-02 here, then most recently their third release, the HCG-03. Odell is currently up to the HCG-05.

A post shared by Can (Jun) (@slideyfoot) on Apr 18, 2014 at 9:13am PDT

The Green Gi (referring to their ethical stance, not the colour of their gi) have been around almost as long as Datsusra, when founder Adrienne Adams hand made her own prototype gi and promptly won a blue belt middleweight gold at the Mundials in it: I'm wearing that same gi in the picture. After a long build up, Adams recently released her first gi from The Green Gi, dubbed the Blue Dream (sold out at present). I have a factory reject Blue Dream jacket, picked up when I visited Adams a few months ago. Although it isn't the finished article - and I therefore won't be reviewing it, as that wouldn't be fair - it does provide a useful point of comparison. I'll talk a lot more about The Green Gi when I review their hemp belt: I've been testing that for around a year now.

Along with The Green Gi and Datsusara, the hemp gi market includes Lucky Gi, then finally there is the gi I'm reviewing today from Flow Kimonos. Surprisingly, both Flow and Lucky worked closely with Odell, despite the fact they are all technically competitors. That kind of community amongst business rivals is rare, though I don't know the exact details of the relationship between them. One issue where all these companies appear to agree is that they must not let fake hemp in the gi market go unchallenged. Chris Odell eventually released this video, as according to lab tests he had paid for, Submission FC were selling a 'hemp blend' that the reports seemed to show did not in fact contain any hemp whatsoever.

Each company is positioning itself slightly differently, though they all tend to comment on environmental issues (The Green Gi is probably the front-runner in that category). Lucky Gi, an old stalwart of the industry led by veteran grappler Scotty Nelson, have decided to follow the clunky 'squeeze page' online marketing of the '90s to sell its 'Hempire' model. That's a strategy popularised in BJJ circles by the distasteful antics of Lloyd Irvin, in stark contrast to the subtler approach adopted by other hemp gi companies. Lucky is also charging a massive $420 for its hemp offering, almost twice as much as any of its competitors. Then again, I haven't tried the Hempire, so perhaps it manages to live up to that hefty whack of cash. The Green Gi comes in at $239 (although I think that includes shipping: the $200 pre-order price did) and Datsusara at $230. The Flow Kimonos 'Flow Hemp' comes in next at $199, with shipping at around $13 to the US and $55 to the UK.

Like Datsusara, Flow have attempted to present a scientific basis for the benefits of hemp (for much more on the alleged benefits of hemp, see my review of the Datsusara HCG-02). However, they want to harvest your email before you get access (here). I'm intrigued that the bait on this occasion is a scientific report: normally it would be "for your chance to win a free gi!" or something along those lines. While it would be cool if people got equally excited about the chance to educate themselves, I imagine free stuff still ranks higher for most people. ;)

Anyway, the report itself isn't the usual pdf sent to your inbox. Instead, verifying your subscription to a mailing list gets you access to a page on the Flow Kimonos website (where there's an embedded pdf, so you can download that for later reading if you want). I can't be certain of the scientific veracity, as that's outside my old academic area (knowledge of post-war poetry doesn't come up much in BJJ reviewing), but it made for interesting reading. For those who do have the relevant academic background, on the fifth and final page there are eight references to look up (I'm guessing a few are biased, such as the one from something called 'Hemptech'). If true, then it further establishes the positive impact greater use of hemp could have. For example:

After cultivation [of hemp], the soil is left in optimum conditions (tilth) due to the complete weed suppression following from the high shading capacity of hemp. A study by Bócsa and Karus 1998 reports 10–20 percent higher wheat yields after the cultivation of hemp. [...]

Due to its vigorous growth, shading capacity and disease resistance, hemp can be grown without the use of herbicides, pesticides or fungicides. Hemp therefore easily complies with requirements of organic farming and is suitable for cultivation near surface water. The crop leaves the soil virtually weed-free

That fits with Flow Kimonos' old mission statement of sustainability, slightly updated on the current version, as there is now no mention of organic cotton (understandable, as the commitment to hemp demonstrates it better). A perhaps more significant change in the wording between the two versions is in the 'community service' section. At the time I reviewed the Pro Series, it read "We pride ourselves on contributing to as many projects as possible. We’re an American company based in Boston, MA and we love that the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu community is so strong. If you’re out there doing good for others, we want to help you FLOW. Seriously, if you know of a great cause hit us up and we’ll see what we can do to help."

As I said in the review, I liked the emphasis on building the BJJ community through projects, with the implication that charitable efforts and doing good would be an important goal for Flow. The current version of the statement reads quite differently. It appears to indicate a shift to athlete sponsorship rather than the charitable work that the old mission seemed to point towards: "We pride ourselves on supporting athletes and contributing to the BJJ community. We love that the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu community is so strong and want to do our part in growing the community."

Asking Flow's founder Jonathan Leung about this, he clarified that change of wording:

There's been no change of heart: I'm always looking to contribute to the community :)

When an individual or organization is trying to make a difference in their community I try to pitch in however I can. The business is still in startup stages, which necessitates that I run a tight ship, so I'm pretty selective about who I help out and to what extent.

Getting on to the actual gi, at this point, I've had the opportunity to train in four hemp gis. That includes two from Datsusara (the HCG-02 and the HCG-03), the 'Flow Hemp' from Flow Kimonos and a factory reject jacket from The Green Gi's 'Blue Dream'. Given the level of collaboration between Datsusara and Flow, you would expect some similarities between their gis. They both use a basket weave, whereas The Green Gi has gone for more of a pearl weave (if you don't know what I'm talking about, there is a primer on a few different weaves over on the Fenom Kimonos blog).

The Flow Hemp has not had any of the lint-shedding issues I've had with both of the Datsusara gis, possibly something solved in more recent editions of the Datsusara. I've been using the Flow Hemp regularly for a month, washing it five times over that period (three times at 40 degrees celsius, twice at 30) and drying it in the sun. Pre-washing, the trousers were 93cm long, shrinking to 89cm after their trips to the washing machine. The jacket started off with a wingspan of 158cm and 75cm shoulder to hem: that's dropped to 153cm on the wingspan, but stayed the same shoulder to hem.

In terms of weight, my A1 Flow Hemp jacket comes in at 800g, the same as my A1 The Green Gi jacket. When you add in the trousers, the Flow Hemp weight goes up to 1.6kg. Compare that to my HCG-03 (also A1), which is 1.1kg with just the jacket, increasing to 1.8kg with the trousers. The Flow Hemp jacket is 550gsm, while the trousers are 11oz (376gsm) hemp twill. Comparing the collars of my hemp gis, The Green Gi and Flow look similar, though the covering material has some differences in texture. On the Flow, you can see those diagonal lines I'm used to from cotton twill trousers, whereas the Datsusara has an entirely different bobbled pattern.

The cut of the Flow Hemp jacket is much tighter than the HCG-03, though there is still some give in the chest. In terms of hemp gis, the best fitting jacket I've got is from The Green Gi. Having said that, I do have narrow shoulders for a guy: as you can see from the comparative picture, the A2 Fenom jacket - which is cut for a woman - fits me quite well (for reference, I'm 5'7 and around 145lbs). As with any hemp, the white is a 'natural white', as bleach would damage it: if like me you dry the gi in the sun, that will lighten it somewhat, but not much. Having said that, I can't personally see a huge difference between the white of the Flow Hemp and the white of the cotton Fenom Lotus. The HCG-03 picture was taken indoors last year, but the Fenom and Flow Hemp pictures were taken in my garden, minutes after each other.

Hemp is significantly more comfortable than cotton, the one alleged benefit of hemp I can easily confirm. It also gets softer with each wash. There is lots of reinforcement on the Flow Hemp, with plenty of stitching at the bottom of the trousers (six rows). The sleeve cuffs are well reinforced too, with four rows. As is the case with several more recent gis I've looked at, there is no reinforcement inside the armpits (perhaps to cut down on weight), though the standard bulking up with extra material can be seen by the side vents. Leung had this to say about the gi:

The hemp gi is designed to be heavier and take the abuse of daily training while remaining super soft and comfortable. My intention was not produce a light competition hemp gi although the gi is tournament legal. Since it costs a good chunk of change, I want customers to feel the quality the second they lay hands on it.

The additional panel of fabric on the Datsusara trousers goes from just above the knee right down to the bottom of the trousers, whereas the Flow finishes midway down the shin. That's just enough to cover the knee when you're sitting on your heels (e.g., when you're on top in closed guard). It would therefore benefit from a little more length, but it does the job. On the plus side, that makes the trousers slightly lighter: this is another area where the Datsusara has some extra weight. The Flow is bulkier when it comes to belt loops though, boasting six of them grouped in pairs. The HCG-03 only has two, right at the front.

The drawstring is unusual: I can't remember seeing anything similar on another gi. It is bright red and branded with 'Flow Kimonos' in white text, made from some kind of elastic. Thankfully this drawstring is a good bit shorter than the bungee cord I'm used to from other brands, so does not dangle down to your knees. Note that the ends aren't sealed in place, it's just a knot: it can therefore come undone. A few minor dents have developed from tying it tightly, something which I haven't noticed with bungee cords, but as it doesn't affect drawstring functionality it doesn't matter. :)

The Flow Hemp gi design is similar to the Pro Series 2.0, with embroidered text in the same places. I am not a fan of text on a gi, but it is less obtrusive this time round. 'Flow Hemp', embroidered in black, green and white on the bottom of the jacket and the right trouser leg, is only eight letters (further minimised by varying the size of the two words: 'hemp' is in a much smaller font underneath 'flow'). The Pro Series 2.0 embroidery had an excessive twenty characters, due to spelling out 'Flow Kimonos Pro Series' in full. There's another small logo in green on the back of the left trouser leg, along with the upper back of the jacket.

Either way, the Flow Hemp is certainly flashier than the Datsusara. In addition to that green, black and white, plus red on the drawstring and some yellow on the patches, there is dark grey too (or is it black? I'm not always great a distinguishing finer differences between shades) contrast stitching. The same colour is used for taping on the side vents, sleeve and trouser cuffs. Much to my pleasure, the patches on the leg from the Pro Series 2.0 have not been carried over: in fact, the Flow Hemp ornamentation is almost all embroidery. The only patches are those typical to most gis, at the bottom of the collar and the top of the trousers.

On balance, the Flow Kimonos 'Flow Hemp' is the best hemp gi I have tried to date (although I should note that I haven't had a chance to try a finished gi product from The Green Gi yet, just that factory reject jacket, plus I haven't experienced the Lucky Gi Hempire). It's comfortable, stylish and durable. The drawstring has the advantages of not getting tangled as can sometimes happen with flat versions, as well as avoiding the irritating length of so many bungee cords. The Flow Hemp isn't excessively blingy, but it's got enough touches of colour to appeal to those with more flamboyant gi tastes. It is also currently the best value hemp gi on the market, available to buy here for $199.99. In general terms, that's still an expensive gi, but put against its competitors (especially the ridiculous $420 price tag for the Hempire), it's affordable, particularly if claims about hemp's durability are well-founded.

29/07/2014 - Artemis BJJ | Open Guard | Passing Combinations vs Knee Shield

Class #583
Artemis BJJ (Impact Gym), Dónal Carmody, Bristol, UK - 29/07/2014

Dónal started off with a simplified knee cut, stepping between their legs, then driving your shin across diagonally, keeping your elbow in tight and hips close to theirs. The most common problem with that is you leave too much space, whereupon they manage to slip a knee in front of you. Knee shield can be a real pain to pass.

From a failed knee cut, the leg squash comes in handy. Grab the knee of the leg you're trying to slide across (Dónal prefers to cup under the knee, but you can also grab the trouser material: the problem is that may move and give them room to adjust enough to establish spider guard or something like that). Lift and move it across to the opposite side. To do that effectively, you'll need to turn your non-knee sliding foot so that the toes are pointing in the direction you want to move. Bend the knee and shift in that direction. Also, don't use your arm at the end, or you'll end up lying on it. Instead, as you move them across, rely more on your chest to move them over, meaning your arm is free to hook around the hip and block their shrimp.

As you slide across, you're going to break what is normally a cardinal rule of BJJ: putting your hands on the mat. This is for base, with one by their same side armpit, while your remaining hand posts on the other side. The intention is to end up sprawled on top of their legs. More specifically, your groin is by the back of their knees, ideally with the point of your hip pressing into the middle of their thigh. Although it feels counter-intuitive, don't go up on your toes. Sink your weight through your hips into their legs, with your own legs draped on either side.

Almost certainly they are going to move, especially if you're being mean and digging the point of your hip into the 'dead leg' point of their thigh. Once they do, backstep and pass around the other side. This feeds smoothly into mount, pulling their knees towards you and wrapping your leg behind their knees. If you like, you can also lock your legs as you wrap them, making the transition to mount particularly secure.

If you can't get that, there is the hip slide pass against knee shield (no idea if it has a name, as I just made that up). You have a grip on their collar. Put your elbow by their hip, using it as a means of driving your weight through them, as opposed to being a white belt and trying to dig into them with the elbow. Lean through and slide over their knee with your hip until you can slip through. To finish , shove their legs back with your hips, secure side control.

In specific sparring from open guard, I worked more on the knee cut rather than the bullfighter from last week, seeing as we'd just been practicing the knee cut. Fellow RGA Bucks purple belt Gareth was visiting, which was very cool. That also meant I had a higher calibre of training partner than normal, immediately demonstrated when unlike everybody else, he went to deep half. I tried holding that off by underhooking his arm to stop him from turning and rolling me over, then attempted to get into a position where I could exert some pressure, controlling the arm (again, to stop his turn). I need to review my deep half passes, as I only remember that first part about underhooking the arm: this is why it's useful to have purple belts there, they can put in stuff like that. ;)

I think I sort of passed at one point but then got reversed. I may be mixing together a few rolls though. With the next guy, I clamped his shin to his leg by wrapping it up, then simply swinging to other leg back to pass, but that wouldn't normally work. I'm sure once he's seen that a few times, that passing route will be gone. Underneath, I wanted to go into the cross-grip guard to practice the techniques I'm teaching this week, along as the ankle pick I taught yesterday. I couldn't get into position, or they put up the other knee. Thinking back, that should really be a good set-up for a scissor sweep: I tried it once, but sloppily and I don't think I pulled them into me enough with the collar grip to control their weight. I'll have another look at the version Kid Peligro shows in his book, supposedly a variation he learned from Rickson.

I hit the tripod at one point, but generally I'm not making a smooth enough transition to the sickle when that doesn't work. It's too telegraphed and too clunky, so more drilling required on that. While generally this week I felt that I've been better at conserving my energy in closed guard, I did have a roll where I fell into that enervating pattern of clamping down in closed guard. I eventually got the sit-up sweep, but that method of closed guard (grabbing them and pretty much trying to hold them down with an arm or two) is terrible for me. I don't have the strength, and even if I did, I'd burn out quickly. So, deep collar grip more often, timing, better sensitivity to their body movement.

Class finished up with a purple belt spar. I was looking to block the pass, where normally I could get back to half guard at worst. I sort of got the toe grab sweep, but I made a silly error of grabbing the toes after reaching under his legs, rather than over the butt and around the legs. Although I was able to come up and drive through, due to my poor grip, I got reversed straight away.

Loads of teaching for the next few months, as it will be just me teaching every class until 16th August (apart from this Thursday). Most exciting is that the women's class begins tomorrow! Yay! :D

28/07/2014 - Teaching | Cross Grip Guard | Ankle Pick Sweep

Teaching #170
Artemis BJJ (Bristol Sports Centre), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 28/07/2014

Moving back to sweeps, I wanted to cover what Xande calls the get-up sweep, which I first learned from Kev as the ankle pick sweep. Though I prefer ankle pick sweep as a name, the good thing about Xande's term is that it emphasises how standing up is a central part of this sweep, rather than simply driving forwards and muscling them over.

You're going to be in a position sometimes referred to as 'cross grip guard'. That essentially just means you have a grip of their opposite collar, then your other hand is normally either based behind you or hooking an ankle (e.g., for the tripod and sickle sweep combination, high percentage from this guard). If your hand is behind, keep it where you can't see it. The only time it should be in view, according to Xande. To enter into the guard, grab their same side collar while putting your opposite foot on their opposite hip. Open up the collar and switch to your other hand. If you're greedy and start off with the cross-grip, that may leave you vulnerable to getting passed, according to Xande.

If they are on their knees and then start to stand up (you can also do this if they're already standing, in combination with the tripod and sickle), the ankle pick sweep becomes available. Follow them up into a sort of combat base position, grab their leg, then use your collar grip to direct them to the mat as you pull back on their leg. You can grab the heel/ankle for an ankle pick type takedown (hence the sweep name, which Xande also calls the 'get up' sweep), or the material somewhere on their trouser leg (e.g., by their knee).

Xande emphasises that the leverage doesn't come from trying to muscle them to the ground. It comes from your action of standing up. So, concentrate on getting the grips and then getting up, rather than getting the grips and driving forward before you've stood up. Xande also notes that you want to be careful of your momentum, as it's easy to fall forwards if you aren't careful of posture. Lean back slightly instead as you knock them down, getting into a secure guard passing posture, then do a knee cut. Your knee should already be forward and in place, making this straightforward.
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Teaching & Sparring Notes: I tried to match up the drills as much as I could with the technique, mainly the hip thrust drill where you have one knee out and the other forward, then rise into a knee-forward crouch without using your hands. I considered having the technical stand-up in there, but decided to stick with the hip thrust. I also put in a knee cut drill, as I find that's the natural pass to follow up this technique.

With the technique itself, the main thing I want to note for next time is that if they've stood up, you might end up holding a leg as they hop to keep their balance. From there, you can of course go for any of a number of single leg takedowns. I would probably go for the one I learned from Kev a while ago, where you move to the outside of their leg, lift them slightly and drop them. So, putting in some kind of super-simple single leg drill into the warm-up would be a good idea.

I asked if people had questions a few times, which I try to do if there's a bit of time. It's really good that questions are coming back more frequently now: hopefully everyone can get into that inquisitive, technical mindset. I may have done it a few too many times though (I think three?), as some of that time could have been given over to a bit more sparring. Hard to know the best balance: maybe just asking once, twice if the first time doesn't take long? Something for me to think about.

In sparring, I was trying to practice a technique from something I'll be reviewing shortly, Aesopian's Mastering the Crucifix. I won't be able to properly test it until we get onto another month where we look at the back, but I could at least practice spinning to the turtle side ride from side control. I wasn't very successful at it, because I couldn't get behind them. Even that brief attempt did at least give me a different perspective on side control, seeing it as a position to go for attacks like the crucifix. So that was fun. :)

26/07/2014 - FREE Women's Class Starts Next Week! | Open Mat | Cross Grip Guard | Ankle Pick & Collar Drag

Class #582
Artemis BJJ (Impact Gym), Open Mat, Bristol, UK - 26/07/2014

The FREE women's class starts next week on Wednesday! So, I'll put up the poster on this post. If anybody wants to share that around (hey, you never know), feel free: after all it's a free class. I've stuck up a few of these posters around town, so will be looking for other places to put them. As the class has funding until the end of the year, that gives me lots of time to build it up. Hooray! All women welcome! Lots more info on this exciting new Bristol BJJ class here. :D
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As usual, I had a specific goal in mind for the open mat today, drilling the technique I wanted to teach next week in order to work out any kinks. The only downside of open mat at the moment is that because it directly follows the nogi class, the majority of class tends not to have a gi on (especially in the current hot weather). Fortunately for me, there were two others with a gi, so I had someone to drill with after they finished rolling.

I was looking at two techniques from cross grip guard (I don't know how popular that term is: I'm going off BJJ Library and Jiu Jitsu University. In other words, open guard where you have grabbed the opposite collar). I frequently get into this position in open guard, both because I always go for the tripod/sickle sweep combination and due to Kev's recommendation from that private lesson. Building on what I learned from Kev, I've also been looking at a couple of videos Xande did on BJJ Library, where he goes into considerable detail on the cross grip guard and attacks from it.

First off, keep your basing hand behind you where you can't see it. The only time it should be in view, according to Xande, is when you are shifting off to the side for a collar drag, pulling them by the collar into the space you just vacated. You can then take their back. From the same grip, you can go for the tripod and sickle combination. To enter into the guard, grab their same side collar while putting your opposite foot on their opposite hip. Open up the collar and switch to your other hand. If you're greedy and start off with the cross-grip, that may leave you vulnerable to getting passed, according to Xande.

You can also go for the ankle pick sweep I learned from Kev last year, where again Xande has a bunch of tips. If they begin to stand up when you have the cross grip guard, follow them up into a sort of combat base position, grab their leg, then use your collar grip to direct them to the mat as you pull back on their leg. You can grab the heel/ankle for an ankle pick type takedown (hence the sweep name, which Xande also calls the 'get up' sweep), or the material somewhere on their trouser leg (e.g., by their knee).

Xande emphasises that the leverage doesn't come from trying to muscle them to the ground. It comes from your action of standing up. So, concentrate on getting the grips and then getting up, rather than getting the grips and driving forward before you've stood up. Xande also notes that you want to be careful of your momentum, as it's easy to fall forwards if you aren't careful of posture. Lean back slightly instead as you knock them down, getting into a secure guard passing posture, then do a knee cut. Your knee should already be forward and in place, making this straightforward.

It was very useful drilling that with the two blue belts in gis, as that helped me practice my teaching and indeed modified my intended structure. I had thought to start off with some technical stand up drills, but actually the hip thrust may be more useful. By telling them it was like a technical stand up, that just confused one of them, whereas he found the hip thrust made much more sense. That may well vary by person, but it's extremely useful to know that the technical stand up might confuse some people in the context of this technique. I may still put it in the warm-up, but I'll now be considering how to contextualise it more carefully.

24/07/2014 - Artemis BJJ | Open Guard | Maintaining

Class #581
Artemis BJJ (Impact Gym), Dónal Carmody, Bristol, UK - 24/07/2014

Useful drilling tonight, which gave me something I could add to my maintaining open guard drilling sequences. I normally have them pass, you bring your outside leg over to hook and recover, then with a shrimp, then with either a spin or a running escape. Dónal has another step I can now add, bringing that outside foot all the way over to the opposite hip to push against it. Flare the knee up to make it harder for them to push it down and backstep pass the other way, also hooking the outside of their nearest leg with your other foot to further prevent that backstep.

That was the technique for tonight, with the rest of class dedicated to sparring. As I mentioned last week, it has been super hot (for the UK) this summer, just like last year. I therefore prepared carefully this time, bringing my lightest, most breathable gi (the Gimono) and not wearing my usual spats (I missed the compression, but it was worth it for less heat). I also made a point of conserving my energy in sparring, so no techniques that required lots of running around or straining.

In specific sparring, I was surprised at how effective that bullfighter pass I've been teaching this week proved to be. Essentially just the principle of dropping your shoulder into their hips as soon as you are past their knees meant I was able to pass almost every time, very unusual for me even when it's white and blue belts. It was also low energy: with my usual knee cut, that can take a bit more shoving and pushing. With the bullfighter, I just dropped and flopped, using my hips to shove their knee further out of the way if they were trying to block.

Having said that, against more experienced opponents this would of course be less effective. Everybody was defending the bullfighter by trying to stiff arm me as I passed, but they weren't engaging their legs and hips. That meant I could take my time, control their far hip with my arm (I wasn't bringing my knee into the near hip every time though, so need to remember that), moving comfortably into side control. If they had managed to shrimp away before I could do that, it would have been much tougher. The one time I varied it up with a knee cut, I also got swept right away because I was being lazy and not pressuring down enough, or getting an underhook.

In free sparring I was similarly lazy: I just went to closed guard and locked it up. Rather than looping their head with my arm, I relied on a deep collar grip. As a result, I didn't have any soreness in my bicep and I wasn't all that tired afterwards. I also wasn't doing a whole lot though, so it wasn't proactive enough. I tried the windscreen wiper sweep a few times, but I didn't have the angle. If I'd been less cautious I would have swivelled and opened up a bit, but decided with the heat I was going to be la: opening up means more chance of landing the sweep, but also more chance of getting into a scramble.

My laziness and heat-avoidance also meant I wasn't trying the techniques I'd meant to attempt beforehand, as they also require opening up and energy. But I'll have a play with them at the open mat on Saturday, as long as there is at least one person with a gi willing to drill. :)

23/07/2014 - Teaching | Open Guard | Bullfighter Pass (Variation)

Teaching #169
Artemis BJJ (Bristol Sports Centre), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 23/07/2014

I went with what I think is the most simple version of the bullfighter on Monday, but there are lots of variations. Monday's version was about moving backwards and pinning their legs to the mat. Tonight, the focus was driving forwards into them, after you've established your grips inside their knees. That should generate a reaction, as they will kick back. Direct that kick to your side as you step around. Saulo likes to open out their far leg while pulling their near leg across his body. That motion should swivel them in place for an easy pass. Even simpler, as you drive in and they react, fire their legs out to the side as you step around.

Alternatively, if they don't react, you can still pass after having driven their knees towards their chest. Thrust one leg forward, then step back, pulling the other leg with you. Drive that leg into the mat with a straight arm and your body weight, then pass around on that side.

To finish the pass there are two main options. Either you can drop your shoulder into their hip, falling forward like in Monday's version. If the position you're in doesn't lend itself to that, then simply moving into knee on belly may make more sense. Experiment with both: it will depend on the configuration of your body once you pass their legs.

Also, to keep mentioning this, the Artemis BJJ FREE women's class starts next week on Wednesday, 18:30-19:30 at Bristol Sports Centre! Hooray! Full details here.
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Teaching & Sparring Notes: I wasn't certain which variation would be best to show tonight, so I had four or five in my head to play with. As it turned out, I ended up showing three. My intention was to go with the Saulo method of opening up the far leg then pushing the near leg across, then I found myself throwing in the other option where you fire their legs off to the side. During progressive resistance, some people were getting very low and having some problems finishing off the pass. I therefore added in yet another pass, as it seemed to fit well with that position.

It's one from the excellent Passing the Guard book by Beneville and Cartmell, in the standing passes section. If you've got that grip on the inside of the knees and you've dipped low, you may be able to hook your elbow under their leg. Lean into that leg, shoving the other leg to the mat. You can now move around their legs in a similar motion to underhook passes you might be familiar with when passing closed guard.

Another one I could have shown would be another Saulo option, where you start by grabbing the belt and putting your weight through that arm. Use our elbow to block their leg coming over for a lasso style spider guard. Your other hand is gripping their other leg. Lean on your belt arm, moving around, then when you feel the opportunity, shove their leg across with your trouser grip as you drop your shoulder into them to pass.

So, next time I'll try to stick with just one pass and see how that goes. It's difficult to overcome the compulsion to throw in more details, especially when it's an area I'm less confident about, like passing. Then again, it depends on the student: some people want more details. Saving them up for during drilling and the like is probably better though, instead of complicating the main demonstration.

I was able to fit in some sparring, which was cool. I kept things relatively light to give people a chance to practice the passes (although my open guard isn't great anyway), seeing if they would be able to block my legs as I attempted to circle them round. I managed to do a butterfly sweep from a random position, where I had my shins against theirs. I haven't really looked into the guard associated with that, but it worked well that time (although that was mainly just down to luck in terms of being in the right place).

There was some very nice passing movements going on, like Rafal's nifty backstep mid-pass to spin to the other side. I wasn't doing anything as swish as that on top, playing around with different movements, like that low percentage "shove their legs down and pop straight over to mount" move. Rather than smoothly moving into mount, I stepped right into a double-ankle grab sweep, which serves me right for being cheeky. ;)

21/07/2014 - Teaching | Open Guard | Bullfighter Pass

Teaching #168
Artemis BJJ (Bristol Sports Centre), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 21/07/2014

Quick announcement before I start: the FREE women's class starts next week on Wednesday, 18:30-19:30 at Bristol Sports Centre! Hooray! Full details here. :D
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To pass the open guard, it is advisable to grip on the inside of both their knees for control (though not everyone would agree on that: others suggest gripping lower on the trousers by their shin, knuckles facing forward, or even at the bottom of the trousers). The main danger is that they will try to loop their leg over your arm, which you can mitigate by gripping a little lower than the knee. If their legs are raised, twist your elbows in, so that your forearms are parallel to their lower legs. Be sure to keep your elbows inside their knees: if they do manage to loop an arm, you may need to release and then regrip back inside their knee.

That means you can then start to move their legs in several directions. There are many variations of the bullfighter pass (also called the toreador, toreana, toreada, toreando and matador, among other names. Google tells me the Portuguese for bullfighter is in fact 'toureiro'), but I think the simplest is to step back when you have that grip, so that the soles of their feet press into the floor. Straighten your arms and lean through them, so that all your weight is punching downwards towards the mat.

The aim is to prevent them being able to move their legs, so that you can now walk around before they are able to recover. As soon as you get past their knees, drop your leading shoulder into their hip, falling forward. Maintain at least one grip on their leg, as otherwise they may be able to start to recover by getting a leg in the way. Your next priority is to block their hips, so release one grip in order to bring an elbow around their far hip. Drive your near knee into their near hip, then move up into side control.

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Teaching Notes: I think this is probably the simplest version to teach, but there are a lot of variations to choose from. I was aiming to pick something that was easy to pick up, which people could then hopefully build on, based on their own game. The more difficult choice will be what variation to add on Wednesday: I have one in mind, but I'll be checking through my notes again to see if that follows on best. I need something that shows a different way of using the bullfighter pass, so people can see different principles.

It was good to see that people were getting the idea and successfully using the pass in sparring. Also great that people were managing to switch between the bullfighter and the knee cut we did last week. :)

I found when drilling this in progressive resistance (as it was odd numbers) that the option of driving one leg to the floor and moving around worked a few times, as did shifting directions. Combining it with the knee cut can work too, though I wasn't doing that all that well myself. I think I'm probably going to go with the option of pushing forwards into them to get them to kick back, then redirecting their legs to pass. Even that has a bunch of variations, so again I'll need to think what the best option is. I'm looking forward to exploring it some more on Wednesday. :)

17/07/2014 - Artemis BJJ | de la Riva Guard | Sweep

Class #580
Artemis BJJ (Impact Gym), Dónal Carmody, Bristol, UK -17/07/2014

Dónal announced we were having flying lessons, which meant some flashy sweeps on the horizon. He started off with a drill to help work on our ability to balance somebody's weight on our legs. Feet on their hips, grabbing both sleeves, then lifting them up into the air, like you would with a small child.

That progressed to a de la Riva sweep. Starting from the de la Riva, you again lift them into the air, pulling on their sleeve. This time, you've only got one sleeve, as your other hand is grabbing the heel, in order to secure your de la Riva hook. They are probably going to pull back on the sleeve, whereupon you switch to grabbing high on their collar. Pull your arm right back, flaring the elbow, then lifting slightly with your legs, flip them over and roll into mount. Not a high percentage option, but fun if you can land it. :)

Today was, for the UK at least, hot. That was exacerbated by the gym itself: Impact gets really hot, as it's in an old warehouse with a glass roof. As a result, I was completely exhausted after training. Sparring wasn't especially intense and the warm-up wasn't too bad, it was just the heat and dehydration. I normally have a very passive style of rolling, but coupled with that exhaustion, I was about as active as a dead fish.

Rolling against someone who didn't have a gi, that took away my safety grips. I therefore spent the roll flopping around underneath without being able to get much control, until eventually I made a mistake when I somehow got on top and started to pass. I was going for a stack pass, but made the basic error of leaving an arm in without pulling the elbow back. That put me right in a triangle: as I tried to pop out, the armbar was right there. No gi is bad enough when I can move, but in the heat I was completely incapable of doing anything.

The other two rolls were against people with a gi, so I was able to clamp on to a collar and stall (I did get mount at one point, where again you can just lie on them without having to move all that much). I attempted to kick out their leg and sweep once or twice, either in an elevator or scissor style, but I'm forgetting to pull them up into me first. That was about the most attacking move I managed all day.

Despite guzzling a big bottle of water, I still felt destroyed at the end of class. Almost certainly the slowest cycle home I've ever done. If this is what I'm like after a mere British hot day, then clearly I shouldn't even consider training in Brazil! ;)

16/07/2014 - Teaching | Open Guard | Knee Cut

Teaching #167
Artemis BJJ (Bristol Sports Centre), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 16/07/2014

With the knee cut pass, the basic idea is to step between their legs in open guard, with one leg on the outside. Of course, most people aren't going to just let you cut across their leg, so you'll need to get into a solid position to do it. A while back, Dónal showed me a good option for this, which he in turn learned from his instructor.

First off, you want to get a good grip on their legs, to limit their mobility: grabbing the material by their knees tends to be a good option. Next, you want a grip on their collar. If you simply reach for it, you're asking to get triangled. So, being careful to keep your elbows inside their legs, drive your leg forwards into theirs. Keep driving forward until you can safely grip high on their same side collar, pulling them back towards you as much as possible. You want to curl their body, so their shoulders are off the ground. This makes it much harder for them to sweep you.

Drop into a relatively low crouch, legs apart for base. They will probably have a foot on your hip at this point: if they do, your grip with be on the trouser material by their shin. Turn your leg inwards slightly, pressing into their foot. With the grip you have on their trousers, shove their leg down, swinging your own leg backwards, then stepping over their leg. The grip you have on their trousers is important here: you're going to roll your knuckles down so that they are pressing into the shin, straightening your arm. This provides a firm control.

Next, you're going to cut across their thigh (still on the leg you just stuffed with your grip), using your opposite knee. As you do, also be sure to yank them towards that side with your collar grip, again to prevent sweeps. Drop in low, trying to secure an underhook, also keeping your head in tight. To get the underhook, put your elbow on their side, then circle your arm around, rather than diving straight for the underhook. You can also just maintain your grip on their collar.

Either way, it is essential that you have your elbow inside. You don't want them to either be able to bring their arm inside for an underhook, or insert their knee in front of you. If they can manage the knee or the underhook, the pass isn't impossible, but it makes it a lot more difficult to finish.

When you've pinned their leg with your shin, you can switch your grip from their leg to their arm (or even better, just below their elbow) and pull up. To further establish control, you could try shoving your head next to theirs, like in the picture on the right. To finish, you'll slide through over their thigh. To secure your position, walk your hips back before you settle (there is a good Mendes brothers video on this), getting your hips underneath them to shove their legs out of the way. That's when you can then solidify your side control.
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Teaching Notes: I've taught the knee cut before, when I split it into a basic and then a more detailed version. I wanted to try and condense that into one class this time, refining it to the most important details. There are three key details to emphasise: your initial grip, cutting your knee across and establishing control of the upper body.

I'm not sure I condensed it all that well: it still felt like there were a lot of details, rather than concise summary of key points I was aiming for. Then again, I don't think I was going over the top with details like I sometimes have in the past: either way, I'd like to refine the structure next time. It was especially cool to see a lot of people using the knee cut later in sparring, which hopefully indicates those details were useful. :)

14/07/2014 - Teaching | Open Guard | Back Take from de la Riva

Teaching #166
Artemis BJJ (Bristol Sports Centre), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 14/07/2014

The tripod and sickle sweeps I taught last week work well together. There is a third option too, if your partner steps back to avoid those sweeps, putting themself into a sideways-on stance. Although that means they can probably avoid your earlier sweeps, they are now vulnerable to a back take. You can of course also do this technique to start with, if they give you the position, but I normally find it becomes available as a follow up.

Starts off from a de la Riva hook, where you are threading your leg from the outside of theirs to the inside, so that you can wrap your instep by their inner thigh. If they're standing sideways, then after securing your de la Riva hook, it should be possible to bring your other leg around behind the same leg you're hooking (kicking your de a Riva hook through to their far hip can help too). Use your second leg to pull yourself around to their back: this is a good application of the warm-up drill where you use your legs to circle around your partner, pushing and pulling yourself around their legs.

If you're holding their sleeve, switch your hand to their belt as you shift your position. This will give you control and it will also provide something you can pull to finish the technique. You could try grabbing their gi, especially if the belt is loose, but the belt is probably the strongest grip as long as they still have it tied. Put both your insteps or shins behind both their knees. From there, kick out your legs and pull on their belt. This should drop them directly into back mount, whereupon you immediately secure your preferred grip with the arms (I'd recommend the seat-belt, which I last taught here).
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Teaching & Sparring Notes: Building up to the technique via several related drills, like the circling round with your legs and the guard recovering as they pass, seemed to fit together fairly well. I could perhaps emphasise kicking the de la Riva hook deeper, along with the importance of hip movement, but that facility with the legs tends to be something that develops over time.

It was odd numbers, so I jumped in to the sparring at the end. I'm still not combining attacks well enough and I'm also not shoulder walking as quickly as I should, though it's improving. I am throwing in that windscreen wiper sweep, which is good, but it isn't yet instinctive (I keep forgetting about their arm, for a start) and I'm again not flowing on to anything else very well from it. Switching into butterfly is something I should be thinking about more, as well as breaking grips more readily.

09/07/2014 - Teaching | Open Guard | Sickle Sweep

Teaching #165
Artemis BJJ (Bristol Sports Centre), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 09/07/2014

The tripod sweep I taught on Monday combines well with the similar sickle sweep: as always in BJJ, that almost certainly has other names (the most common alternative is 'hook sweep'), but I'm using the term from Theory & Technique (page 226). A good time to try this is if when you attempt the tripod sweep, they kick their leg free from your hooking hand. You could attempt to readjust to recover your position, but it is probably easier to pull yourself towards their other leg with your hooking foot, grabbing the heel on that side and changing your feet position to go for the sickle.

Of course, the sickle works on its own too. Indeed, Rener teaches this before the tripod on Gracie University. The entry he shows is to hook their leg, pulling yourself in to grab their ankle, then switching into the sickle position: foot on the ankle-grabbed side hip, then chopping low on their other leg with your other leg, using your calf or possibly your heel.

If you're following on from the tripod, you're basically going to switch your feet so that they're performing the opposite role they did before. Remove the foot your had pushing into their hip, replacing it with the foot previously hooking behind their leg. That foot which was on their hip now goes behind their other foot (not the knee, so it isn't an exact mirror of the tripod. You could try the knee, but it isn't as effective). From there, you can again push on the hip and pull back with your hook.

In order to get the angle, you'll have to turn towards them (or like Rener shows, hook their leg to pull yourself in. If you're going from the tripod, you'll already have their leg hooked). Note that when you follow them up this time, your other knee will be raised. That means you'll need to make sure to shove their leg down and step over, enabling you to complete your knee slide. Remember, there is also the other option of trying the technical stand up instead.
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Teaching & Sparring Notes: Like with the tripod, I think people had a little bit of trouble popping up after the sweep. The knee cut feels like the most intuitive option with the sickle, as you end up with your foot behind their leg, perfect to drive straight into the knee cut. Or rather, I end up with my foot behind their leg. A few people when drilling had the foot in front of the leg, which was interesting: different people, different body types, different ways of executing the sweep and different finishing positions. Something I need to keep in mind and adjust for. Also, I forgot to do that knee thrust drill again - next time, must remember!

I fit in a quick roll with Dónal at the end, always useful because I know that he can not only smash me, he's also going to have good advice. I was mostly on the defensive as usual, trying to wriggle out of a choke. I often find myself in a situation where I'm staying slightly ahead, but rapidly losing ground: somebody more experienced will tend to catch up and finish the submission.

It's interesting to see if I can free myself. This time, I was trying to both spin in a direction that would relieve choking pressure, also reaching back for the elbow to pull the arm off. I held off that choke for a little while, but eventually Dónal blocked my escape route by shifting his grip and finishing off the submission. When we restarted I had a brief attempt at some kind of sweep, wrapping the gi over his back and lifting his leg, but didn't get the angle or the leverage (and Dónal's base is obviously very good).

08/07/2014 - Artemis BJJ | de la Riva Guard | Removing the Hook & Passing

Class #579
Artemis BJJ (Impact Gym), Dónal Carmody, Bristol, UK - 08/07/2014

More de la Riva tonight, this time looking at passing. The first thing you want to do is get rid of that hook. Drive your leg into the back of theirs so that you can bring your heel back slightly, then flare your leg out to pop their hook off. Grab their other leg, pushing their knee towards their chest. That should make it easier to shove their leg across your body, going into a squat and pushing their leg over so you're right into a leg drag position.

The second passing option was essentially the one that Dónal showed me in a private last year. Again free your leg of their de la Riva hook, then shove their other foot down by pushing with your hand (specifically, with the v of your finger and thumb) into the part where their leg joins their instep. If they are pushing into your leg, turn it inwards to reduce the pressure. When you've pushed their leg down, swing your own leg up, pushing their leg across underneath your other leg, so you can sit on it.

In specific sparring, I was being too lazy with sparring, as I wasn't popping their hook off. Instead, I was shoving their other leg down and moving straight into the knee cut. That worked a few times, but the problem is that if it doesn't entirely work and they still have that hook, you might find yourself getting swept mid-pass. I need to make popping off that hook instinctive and natural, which at the moment it isn't. Getting into free sparring, I fit in a few sweeps, going off what Josh said in his comment recently (I think? Can't quite remember how I knocked them over). Useful principle to keep in mind.

After class finished, Dónal was showing Paul a nifty looking choke from top half guard. Reach your top hand to their opposite collar, getting a deep grip. Your top hand grips around their shoulder on the other side, dropping your elbow down and bringing your weight to bear for the choke. I think. Something to play with. :)

07/07/2014 - Teaching | Open Guard | Tripod Sweep

Teaching #164
Artemis BJJ (Bristol Sports Centre), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 07/07/2014

We've covered maintaining open guard, so next I wanted to add in two basic, high percentage sweeps. They are each known by a whole variety of different names: I'll use the terms I'm familiar with. They also both start from the same position, which is apparently known as 'cross-guard'. As with the previous lesson, this owes a lot to Kev Capel, who taught several excellent classes at RGA Bucks on the topic I'm about to cover.

For the tripod sweep, you can set it up in lots of ways. I went for the simple option of hooking their leg, using that to pull yourself in towards them and grab their other leg with your other hand. When you grab for the ankle, you can control it in two main ways. Simply grabbing their heel is the quickest, but that means there is a chance the can kick their foot forwards and dislodge your grip. If you grab the trouser cuff instead, that escape becomes much harder for them.

With the heel grab, a good tip from Kev is to pull that ankle onto your hip, clamping it there. This should also help with off-balancing them. You can also simply sit on it. Either way, remember to keep your other hook behind their knee tense, as you don't want them to free that leg and step around, because that will enable them to regain their balance. You can also put it lower on the leg, or even right behind their foot, but be careful, as just like the heel grip, that can increase the risk that they'll step out and avoid your control.

Once you knock them down, because you have that grip on their sleeve, you can pull yourself up as they go back, moving through into side control. It also stops them basing with that hand, as you're sweeping in that direction (which is why you use a cross grip, rather than same side). Should you lose your sleeve grip, the sweep is still there, but it will be harder to sit up and move through to side control.

If you're having trouble knocking them down, angle the direction of your push a little, in the direction you want them to fall. It is important that you react decisively after you've knocked them down. Otherwise, they'll simply get up first, returning to your guard. That would mean you were back where you started.

As ever, there are a couple of options. My preference is to come up and slide your inside knee over their leg, leaning your body towards them: you may find it useful to keep hold of their foot (which means you are both basing on your hand and maintaining control of their leg) to stop them moving, but you can still pass without doing so. Your other foot will step over their other leg, like a typical knee slide pass. From there, you can grab their sleeve, underhook their far armpit, them slide through into modified scarf hold. If for some reason you get your knee stuck in their gi, which has happened to me in the past, change your grip to their elbow, drop your bodyweight and move into side control. Here's my instructor at RGA Bucks, Kev Capel, demonstrating the full sweep:



You'll notice the finish is different in that video: instead of the tight knee slide, you can do a sort of technical stand-up which ends up with a looser pass. This is the option I went with tonight, as I thought that might be easier, but both options are equally good. For the stand-up, after you've knocked them down, put your hooking foot on the floor, bringing your other leg behind you.

From there, stand up, still holding on to their trouser leg (you could also keep hold of the sleeve, which will enable you to pull on both limbs for the pass, but it makes it harder to stand up), pulling up. That will make it difficult for them to recover, as you move around to a dominant position like side control or knee on belly. Standing up when someone has your foot in the air is hard.
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Teaching Notes: I went with the technical stand-up option tonight, but I think next time, I'll go with the knee cut option. It seems that people had an easier time understanding that one than the technical stand up. I should also explain it more carefully, along with the drill. So, the hand that was grabbing the heel now pushes into their leg, pinning it to the floor and becoming your basing hand. Your other leg becomes your second base point, then you stand up from there. You remaining hand may or may not be gripping their sleeve, but this works either way.

Next time I'll also add in a drill to help people get used to thrusting their hips forward, as that's useful for the knee cut option. You start sat on the floor, one leg curled in front, the other foot out forwards. Raise yourself up with the curled foot, then thrust your hips forward. As you sink back down, switch your legs and repeat the motion for the opposite side.

I also put in that drill from the weekend, where you spin around to guard. It's possibly a bit complex, but a fun one to try. Bring your outside leg over, putting your shin on their near side thigh. That leg is going to stay in place for the rest of the drill.

With your nearest hand, reach to their far leg: you can either hook behind or grab the trouser leg. Raise your hips and swivel, using your shin on their thigh as the pivot point. Keep spinning until you return to a guard position in front of them. You'll probably need to pull yourself across a little with that gripping/hooking hand.

There were a bunch of extra things I could have put in here from the last time I taught it. I might add them in next time, so I'll leave them in this bit for the moment -

Saulo shows the tripod sweep a little differently in his excellent book, Jiu Jitsu University. On page 163, you can see that he starts from the foot in bicep open guard I'm fond of myself. I notice that in the picture, there is also a variation in gripping that ankle: Xande is holding the front of the bottom trouser leg, rather than the back. On Xande's DVD, he also uses a different grip for the tripod, grabbing high on their collar rather than controlling the arm. If you can get it, this has the advantage of breaking their posture even more than the sleeve grip.

[...] the easiest way to start off is probably grabbing their sleeve with both hands, pulling it in tight, locking your elbows to your sides. Put your feet on your hips to control the distance. You are looking to now block off one side, so put your foot on their hip and grab their same side ankle. This should leave you gripping their sleeve with your opposite hand. On that opposite side, hook behind their knee. From here, you're going to push with your hip foot, pull with your knee foot and block with your foot hand. That should knock them over, meaning you can come on top.

Interview - BlogChat #3: Val Worthington

Continuing with my selection of "cool BJJ people I met in Virginia and interviewed", next up is the mighty Val Worthington. As I told her, although she may not personally claim the title of BJJ historian, she is herself an important part of BJJ history, particularly the online community this BlogChat interview series is focused upon.

I remember reading Val's excellent blog back when I started. She was also all over the forums, always putting out great advice. Val has since become a hugely influential figure in the development of the sport, perhaps most notably through the Women's Grappling Camps she's been running alongside a number of other female instructors for the last few years (which have recently grown further into a co-ed model, as of last month, run through Groundswell Grappling Concepts).

I managed to grab Val for around thirty minutes just before she was due to head home, providing me with plenty of content. The first part is up on Megan's (who will be appearing in a BlogChat of her own later) site, Groundwork BJJ. Part two will be appearing in issue #21 of Jiu Jitsu Style. Finally, this is part three, covering Val's thoughts on blogging and the online BJJ community.

Can: Having started training in 1998, you were also around at the beginnings of the online BJJ community, especially sites like NHBGear. What importance do you think online forums and the like have had both in your personal jiu jitsu journey and on jiu jitsu in general?

Val Worthington: The impact of the forum and the opportunity to communicate online with people was huge, in my personal development. I mentioned earlier that I had an insular experience, but when I got on the forums, I realised that there were tonnes of people, relatively speaking, doing jiu jitsu, that they were far flung and that there were women doing jiu jitsu. Some of the people that I would consider to be my best friends in jiu jitsu now are people that I got to know on the forum before I ever met them in person.

Being connected to that community was incredibly helpful for me, because it helped me see that even if I was insane, there were other insane people like me. They would accept what I was doing, support it and help me find ways to pursue it.

In terms of the sport itself, my perception is that the phenomenon which happened to me, of being able to connect with people, also happened with many other people. It also seems like it made jiu jitsu more open source. Way back in the day, I've come to learn subsequently, people didn't train at other schools, they didn't share their technique, they would keep it very close to their chest until they were competing.

So, there were lots of particular personalities from academy to academy. The internet has facilitated, with things like MGinAction, the sharing of knowledge. I personally think that is good for the sport, as it pushes the sport forward. If everybody knows how to counter a certain set of sequences, then the person who likes those sequences has to figure out a way to counter the counter.

It also just makes things more interesting. You can see live streaming video, you can look at technique online. When I first met Andrew Smith, he had a library of VHS tapes – I'm not sure he still has or needs them – but there is so much footage online, so many ways you can educate yourself. You also have people thinking about the lifestyle side of things, which is one of the areas I like to contribute to.

Can: The other part of the online question I'd like to ask you relates to your blog, which you started in around 2006. That proved very popular: could you talk about how that came about?

Val Worthington: 2006 was the culmination of a set of decisions I had set in motion probably a year earlier. I was living and training in Chicago, when I came to the realisation – I was around 35 at the time – that I was unhappy in my job and unhappy in my life. The only thing that made me happy, apart from the people I love, was jiu jitsu. I took what for me was the drastic step of quitting my job and selling the condo that I owned to fund a trip around the country training jiu jitsu.

I knew that it would be a singular experience in my life. I didn't know quite how singular, how much it would push me forward as a person and where it would take me. But I knew that I wanted to capture it in some way. The blog that I wrote was for me, initially. It was a way for me to chronicle what I was going through in a way that I could go back and review. My thought at first was that it would be for my family and friends, who were thinking "Ok, so where is she now?"

What ended up happening was that as I got more and more into the journey, more and more people came along with me. When I went for a couple of days without writing, there would be readers who I guess had started to take an interest in what I was doing – even though I didn't really know what I was doing yet [laughs] – and sent me messages asking "Where are you? What are you doing? Update us!"

I feel like I was tapping into some sort of secret desire that a lot of people have to chuck it all and do something completely different. That's how the title of the blog came about. A friend of mine talked about how I was going to be prancing around the country and that I sucked for having the opportunity to do it. So, my blog became known as 'Prancing and Sucking'.

What I found was, again, this sense of not being alone. I'd been terrified to take that step, trying to do something completely different with my life. I thought I was insane, I thought I had been making mistakes all along in my life: how could I get to the point where I really needed to take such a drastic step? But it turned out to be the best thing that's ever happened to me in many ways. One of the most gratifying things about the blog was that I got so much support and so much non-judgement.

The blog posts that I wrote, the most raw, where I really exposed myself about some horrible day I was having or a deep-seated insecurity, I would close my eyes and click send. I would wait for feedback, or no feedback, but the feedback I got was always "Thank you so much for sharing this. I know it was difficult, but it made a difference in my life: I'm glad that I'm not alone." It was the first time that I realised that I had something to say. Even though it was about this niche hobby, the things that I was experiencing, when I wrote about them authentically, they resonated with people who did all different kinds of things.

That was incredibly important to me. As I got more confidence in my writing and in the idea that I had something to share, writing became one of the main ways I would like to be able to give back to the jiu jitsu that has given me so much.

Can: Your blog was one of the pioneering works in this semi-genre of a 'jiu jitsu travelogue', best exemplified more recently by The BJJ Globetrotter. Are you planning to follow that model and turn your experiences into a book?

Val Worthington: I am, I'm working on that right now. It's taken me a while to find a book length voice, if that makes sense. I am working with some people now to help me shape that. I'm in the throes of doing that, trying to hone in on which aspects of my experience are really relevant. I've been trying to take a look at the entirety of my experiences and figure out what pieces hang together, what I should share first and what I should share further down the road.

I've written and discarded probably hundreds of pages [laughs], hoping to retain some better pages. It's in the works right now.

Pictures courtesy of Val Worthington

05/07/2014 - RGA Aylesbury (Knee Cut & Knee Shield Pass)

Class #578
RGA Aylesbury, (BJJ), Kev Capel, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, UK - 05/07/2014

It's another family birthday, which means I'm returning not just to my family home, but to my jiu jitsu home as well, up in Aylesbury at RGA Bucks. Kev began with a very familiar drilling sequence: it's the same one I've been teaching for several years now, after Kev taught it to me earlier. That begins with them stepping to the level of your hip, then you recover your guard by shrimping and bringing your outside leg over to hook, pulling yourself square on to them.

The next step is to do a running escape type hip swing, although I normally do this from knee on belly; Kev did it from the same position as the previous technique. Useful variation to know, as then I don't have to explain what knee on belly is. Although if somebody doesn't know what knee on belly is, that could indicate they are too new to easily perform this drill. I'm still not sure if it counts as an advanced move or if it is suitable for beginners.

That same question sprang to mind with the new drill (or at least, new to me, as I can't remember having seen it before, though it's entirely possible I've seen it in an earlier Kev class). Again they have passed to the level of your hip. Bring your outside leg over, putting your shin on their near side thigh. That leg is going to stay in place for the rest of the drill.

With your nearest hand, reach to their far leg: you can either hook behind or grab the trouser leg. Raise your hips and swivel, using your shin on their thigh as the pivot point. Keep spinning until you return to a guard position in front of them. You'll probably need to pull yourself across a little with that gripping/hooking hand.

As is common to Kev's classes (and completely alien to mine), he added in a couple of takedowns. Like I've said before, Kev is not only a champion BJJ black belt, he's got a judo black belt as well. The takedown option he showed was directly in response to some typically dubious rule changes by the IBJJF (fortunately there are many other competition companies you can go to, though the IBJJF is influential). I haven't competed since 2007, so sometimes forget the impact that IBJJF rule changes can have.

The one pertinent to this technique is that now when you are being single legged and they have their head on the outsie, you apparently can no longer do the obvious counter, dropping back and rolling them over your head with your trapped leg (in judo, this is a 'sumi-gaeshi', I think). That means that when somebody tries to single leg you, they can feel a lot less in danger if they put their head on the outside than before.

Due to that rule, it means the takedown becomes easier. You start with a Russian grip (I think that's what it is called), where you are grabbing one of their arms with both of yours, a bit like you would in an armdrag. Your first hand is holding their wrist, the other is grabbing higher up and underneath their arm. When you get that grip, they will often pull their arm out.

Immediately drop and grab their leg instead, made vulnerable due to their sudden pulling back of their arm and accompanying shift in balance. Once you've grabbed it with both your arms, reach underneath their leg and grab some marterial, either their gi or their belt. Pull down on that like it was an old-style toilet chain and drop your hips, knocking them to the floor and putting you in a good guard passing position.

Alternatively, if they don't pull their arm away, dig your shoulder in behind theirs (getting the sweet spot isn't easy: it's roughly on the bottom of their shoulder blade on the side nearest to you, I think). Drop your hips and angle your body to knock them down, kicking their supporting leg away to make sure. I had some trouble getting the right angle: I think you're going a little forwards, but I'm not sure.

Moving on to the fun part with groundwork, Kev picked a couple of passes that relate to both half guard and open guard. The first was when they are in a sort of open half guard, with details on the knee cut that would also apply to a standard open guard. Grab their collar and follow it in with your body. You want to make sure you are not giving them any space to insert their knee under your arm as you do this. Also grip their knee and shove it to the mat, driving your own knee over their trapped shin.

On the other side, try to get an underhook: you may have to raise up slightly. The aim is to get your shoulder under theirs, so they can't pummel to get their own underhook. If the underhook isn't there, a good plan b is to drop the elbow of the collar-gripping arm and put your weight behind that. Use your head to push theirs out the way and with your free arm, pull up on their same-side elbow. This is better than pulling up on the sleeve, because if you grab the sleeve, their elbow is still potentially a risk (e.g., they can try to pop your knee off with their elbow, use it as a base point for shrimping, make space, etc). Slide through to finish the knee cut.

If they do get their knee in, you can try Kev's knee shield pass. Grab their collar and pull them in towards you, bringing your other arm around their lower back to block their hips. Step your leg up and sprawl back to pop your leg free (or do you step your leg up after? Can't quire remember). The lower part of the leg that was trapped now swings back (Kev refers to this as a windscreen wiper), pinning their leg to the mat.

From that position, Kev offered two ways to pass. My preference was the first, where you grab their trouser leg and shove it down to staple their legs in place. Shove down with your collar grip too, using those two grips as your base points to then walk around into north-south or side control, depending on how they react.

The other option is to reach through their legs diagonally, gripping the bottom leg to stop them recovering guard. Pull their legs out of your way and pass, without moving your hips too much in order to maintain the pressure.

My sparring today was all with larger blue belts, or at least blue belts bigger than me. I'm not sure how experienced they were, but their levels of intensity varied from fairly relaxed (I think because he was conscious of the size difference) to carefully measured bursts of speed (e.g., one of them tried shooting up their arm to grab mine when I was in mount and my arm came in range).

I was looking for the tripod/sickle sweep combo, as that's what I'm teaching next week. I sometimes have problems applying it because my arm or leg gets grabbed: I either need to consider how best to break those grips without giving them a pass (e.g., if I should do the hook behind and kick one or something else), or adjust to sweep them despite their grips, or indeed something else entirely.

I did eventually manage the tripod, but I need to get better at transitioning to the sickle. It isn't smooth enough on my part, as I'm pausing to think what foot goes where. I should try keeping in mind that whatever leg I've grabbed the heel/trouser, that's for pushing, the other is for pulling. I also need to be changing my body position for the sickle, swivelling my body.

My deep collar grip also keeps getting stuffed, normally because I can't get it in deep enough and/or they swivel their head around. I had the same problem last time I was sparring at RGA Bucks, so that's something to ask Kev and Donal about to see what solutions they try. I'm also continuing to play with the lapel guard type thing, although in my case it is more "grab the lapel and see what they do" rather than any kind of guard. Everything I've seen from lapel guard so far looks way too complicated, so I'll keep playing to see if I can find anything more mechanically simple and with fewer steps.

One thing along those lines is the mawashi grip, but I wasn't able to shove the lapel under their legs before they got deep in their pass. They did have a fairly tight gi, but still, I want to get better at using that grip, as Kev totally killed me with it a while ago. Very effective, judging by being on the receiving end.

I'm repeatedly going for the crucifix when they turtle, since that Dave Jacobs seminar. I started walking back to knock them over, but their base was too good, so they ended up almost just sitting up with me on their back. Squirming around a bit, I got a more orthodox back control instead, but wasn't able to finish, despite having an arm around the neck. Earlier on he was able to pull my arm over his head in one of the classic escape. I'm not sure exactly what grip I had, but pulling up on their gi and anchoring with my elbow seemed to at least hold me in place, which is better than losing the back (advancing to some kind of submission would be better, of course).

I continue to rely far, far too much on wrapping up with my left arm in closed guard. I can tell when I'm doing that, as my arm gets sore and I use way more energy. I need to come up with a better approach to closed guard when I've got someone big and powerful, as holding them down that way is not effective in the long term. Pulling their gi over their back could be one option, or simply be more proactive on sweeps rather than waiting for the perfect position. I managed to do that in a later roll, where again I had someone bigger wrapped up, but transitioned into the windscreen wiper sweep. I think I keep not swivelling my body enough on that, but must have been in the right spot this time as it felt like a smooth roll into mount.

However, once in mount I wasn't finishing. I was able to walk up into their armpits and hold them there, but not much else. I remembered to look for the switch into technical mount attacking for the bow and arrow choke, but couldn't get the handful of gi I needed to launch into that. So, more work required on what to do when I'm struggling to get their arms past horizontal in mount. I guess I could have looked more for the back by walking them over, or that tip Dónal had on moving your whole body around to the other side of their arm then squaring back up to trap it.

Sparring with Kev, I got stuck under his favoured kimura attack from north-south and side control. I went for the wriggling escape under north-south where you then try and swing your legs back over, which almost worked, but I couldn't quite establish the hook. Kev had two points to make on that: first, it's worth going for, though I could also be looking for half guard rather than all the way to the back. Second, although it does take more energy, you should consider whether you want to try for three escapes at 20% effort, or one attempt at a more effective escape at 60% effort. Seemed like a reasonable argument to keep in mind. :)

02/07/2014 - Teaching | Open Guard | Maintaining

Teaching #163
Artemis BJJ (Bristol Sports Centre), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 02/07/2014

Using your legs is key in closed guard, and perhaps even more so with open guard, our new Position of the Month at Artemis BJJ. To help develop that ability to use the legs, I wanted to start with the great drilling sequence I learned from Kev Capel up at RGA Bucks. The idea is to improve your guard recovery. It begins on your back, while they pass your legs, but only to the level of your knees. Bring your outside foot over and hook inside their nearest leg.

Use that to pull yourself back into position, bringing your other leg through to re-establish a square-on open guard. For the next stage of the drill, they pass to your hip rather than your knee. That requires you to frame your hands against their leg and shrimp out, before recovering guard as before.

Finally, they pass through to knee on belly. Here, you're going to use a running escape motion, which I've taught a few times now. The motion takes a bit of getting used to. Put your near hand (not far, as there's an armbar risk) on their knee, then turn your hips away, so that your bum is in the air. You then swing your legs over back to guard, as per the screen cap from Jiu Jitsu Revolution 2.

In open guard, your feet can be used both for creating distance and for maintaining control. In terms of pushing, the main areas are on the knees, the hips and in the biceps (as you would with spider guard). You can also hook behind the knee with your feet, which is part of many open guard sweeps. Make sure that you always have both your feet on them, rather than the floor. There are also little tricks you can use here, like sitting on their foot.

If they're standing, then grabbing behind their foot is the main grip you'll look for with your hand. I've heard conflicting reports from black belts on whether it is better to grip the bottom of the trouser leg or the heel, so I'd suggest experimenting with both (unless you don't have a gi, in which case you're stuck with grabbing the heel). Generally speaking, you always want to be grabbing something with at least one of your hands: as with your feet, keep them engaged on your opponent, rather than on the floor.

Kev has a great tweak on grabbing with the heel, where you pull that heel into your hip. That makes it harder for them to do the classic escape of kicking their foot out in a circle to break your hold. Even better, try to pull the foot off the floor slightly as you clamp it to your hip. That will unbalance them, setting you up perfectly for the tripod/sickle sweep combination (which I cover in another lesson I'll be teaching next week).

If they're on their knees, then your own knees come more into play. You can use those for control in a similar way to your feet, again putting them into their biceps and hips, along with areas like their chest and shoulder, depending on their positioning.

Your arms are of particular importance if they are trying to pass. Use them to create a barrier, straight-arming into their bicep, shoulder and/or hip. That pits your skeletal structure against them rather than just your muscle. Drive your knee across for further support, also pushing on their hip to create space to recover guard. You can also push on their head. Finally, you can also use your arms to break their grips on your trousers: wrap an arm behind their gripping wrist and kick your leg between their legs. Make sure you are kicking straight on: if you kick off to one side, that may set up their pass as you'll be moving sideways.

I finished with more sparring than usual, as I think the method I learned from Kev is really useful for maintaining open guard. As before, the idea is to build up leg movement. To do that, the first round is sparring open guard, but only using your legs: both of your hands are tucked into your belt, whether you're on top or on the bottom (make sure to pull them back out if you're about to fall on your face!). That's followed by sparring with legs and one hand, then finally normal open guard sparring, with the proviso that you aren't allowed to close your guard.
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Teaching Notes: This is very much a class focused on drills, so I'm still working out how best (or indeed whether or not) to include a brief bit of technical discussion about placing your arms and legs, along with grips. I think it is worth at least briefly running through the point that you want to be engaging your legs and hands at all times, as well as that quick list of hooking, pushing and pulling with the feet. Grips are important too, especially on the foot as that's the main grip when they are standing up.

That did generate a bit of discussion tonight, leading me to think that I could teach it slightly differently. Normally I just say "you can grab the trouser leg or the heel, but if you do the latter be aware they can kick it free." However, it is worth emphasising Kev's tips for the heel grip (pulling their foot onto your hip), as well as simply sitting on their foot, which I've been doing recently. I could go into detail on gripping the sleeve too, with pocket grips and pistol grips. The problem I'm having is how best to organise that info, in a way that's both memorable and useful. Something for me to think about some more.

Also, Dónal added in some useful ideas at the end, when I asked if there were any questions. Chris mentioned two that he had, regarding what to do when being stacked. That's definitely something worth covering: you could probably do a whole lesson just on that, or at least some drills. My response is normally to shoulder walk backwards to make space, as well as framing on their head if they're stacking especially close. Dónal suggested pushing off firmly with the back of your upper leg on their shoulder, along with a cool triangle set-up if they were going for the double unders (basically gable-gripping on the arm and using that to kick your leg free and move into the submission).

Unrelated to that, Dónal had some funky side control things he was playing with at the end, pulling them up by wrapping their gi under their arm. Looked useful, so I'll have to try that next time I'm on top in side control. ;)

01/07/2014 - Artemis BJJ | de la Riva Guard | Omoplata & Threaded Arm Sweep

Class #577
Artemis BJJ (Impact Gym), Dónal Carmody, Bristol, UK - 01/07/2014

Having already covered closed and half, in July we're moving on to open guard at Artemis BJJ. Dónal started things off with de la Riva, as most of the students at Impact Gym now have a gi. Wearing a gi is not absolutely essential for de la Riva, but it certainly makes things easier. Dónal started with a few drills, first the one where you spin around their legs using only your legs, then practicing having at least three points of contact (e.g., hook behind the leg, push on the hip, grab a sleeve).

Next up, we moved into the entry for various de la Riva attacks. You've got your de la Riva hook (wrapping around the outside of their leg, hooking inside with your instep), grabbing their trouser leg with your same side hand. Your other hand is going to grab their opposite arm (called a 'cross-grip'). The first drill was to practice grabbing their opposite arm as they reached forward to get a grip, then push into the knee of their non-hooked leg to disrupt their balance. Sit up at the same time.

From that position, you can go for an omoplata. Pull their gripped sleeve back, by bringing your own elbow back towards your head. That exposes their elbow. Push off their knee with your non-hooking foot, raising your hips. You can then release your de la Riva hook, swinging that leg just behind their elbow. Bend their arm around your leg as you bring them down to the mat. You can then process to the submission as normal, although Dónal kept things simple and just stuck with the entry.

He also added in a second technique, which is the first de la Riva sweep I learned back at Gracie Barra Birmingham. You're in a similar position as before, diverging when you get to the part when you push into their knee and sit up. Shove the arm you've gripped down and behind their hooked leg. If you use a pocket grip, pointing your knuckles at the floor, it should be harder for them to disengage. Release your grip on their trouser leg and put that hand behind their leg. They will probably try to pull up, whereupon you feed their sleeve to that hand waiting behind their leg.

You can now grab the back of their collar with your free hand. Pull down with that hand, while lifting slightly with your de la Riva hook. That should roll them over their shoulder, meaning you can switch to side control. You will probably end up in top half guard first, so don't release your grips until you've cleared their leg.

I didn't do any drilling, as it was odd numbers (including me), so I was mostly wandering around helping people out. A few people were doing some interesting variations, like backstepping into mount when they swept rather than turning to side control. As Dónal pointed out, the reason for that was when they sat up and brought their trouser-hand to grip around the back of the leg, their arm was going around their own leg rather than above it. That tangled up their arm in such a way that they couldn't easily swivel into top half guard/side control, presenting the backstep into mount instead.

There was some sparring at the end, where I was with a few beginners. In specifics, I was looking for the tripod/sickle sweep combination, but they kept going to combat base. I thought about trying Josh's tactic of knocking out the leg, but didn't manage to quite get in position: I think my grips were getting in the way of that particular technique. Another reminder I should get more comfortable with butterfly, perhaps better suited for that position. I'm still not great at attacking when they are crouching down with a knee up.