The Fifty/50 crew put on an impressive performance at the Copa Nova in Ashburn, VA, dominating the competition. Newcomers made some impressive debuts, regulars continued to clean up their games in preparation for the upcoming ADCC Regionals and IBJJF No-Gi Pan Am’s, and two teen phenoms made a dent in the adult divisions. [...]
I’ve really enjoyed training without a competition focus the last few weeks. I kid that my game is the “inverted smash”– i.e. I’m smashing you while on the bottom, har har– but when I’m not thinking about “beating” my opponent, it frees me up to focus on more individual elements of each roll and keeps me from getting frustrated. My big picture looks at connection, center, and hip movement, while a more specific focus is, as always, on sweeps and lately on remembering when I need the underhook and why. Last night Mike G. taught a nifty sweep from bottom half guard when you don’t have the underhook that was so easy-peasy I almost peed my pants with excitement. And then this morning rolling with Jim reminded me that if I do have the underhook in bottom half guard, my first first FIRST thought has to be taking their back, not this sweep stuff. So lots to think about and lots to work on as always.
It’s not been as hot lately– 99, barely 100, and we even got a brief sprinkle yesterday. This has been a great week so far… I’m training twice, usually three times a day (if you count lunchtime crossfit as training) and Tues-Wed I was in Dallas for a hearing. Still got to train Tues morning and lunch, and Wed night class though, which was awesome. Then I took Thurs and today off, and I’ve been training, running errands, reading (I’m on a Vietnam war kick lately) and even considering a pedicure.
If you enjoy reading, you definitely should try “A Rumor of War” by Philip Caputo. I just finished it and “The Fall of Saigon” and now I’m working my way through a series of combat diaries. Good stuff.
Don’t ask me how the weight loss competition is going, though. I think my metabolism crashdived from the “cutting weight” philosophy of eating sub-900 calories a day, so I’ve been trying the “6 mini meals a day/~1200 cal./day” approach. At first my body was like whoohoo– finally the famine is over! I’m back to losing but I don’t even count on having lost 10% by August 14th. We’ll see.
As mentioned in an earlier post, one guy from Estonia had a very cool way to pass the guard, which completely shut down my own game. Normally I think I can defend my guard pretty well, but against this pressure I was totally lost.
Thanks to Martin for letting me shoot this video, which is exposing all his secrets!!
Just came back to Denmark after spending 6 days in London, training in Roger Gracie Academy and Team Carlson Gracie. Got to train every day, some days both afternoon and evening. It was good to get some flighthours in with some people I am not used to roll with.
(Team Carlson Gracie)
I still wanna continue my project of looking around Europe for different places to train. Estonia was really awesome, the level there was quite high for most guys and the mentality and approach to train was as close to my own gyms as it gets. Breaking down techniques into concepts, using modern and proven teaching systems and understand how people learn and acquire physical skills are essential teaching skills in my opinion. The gyms in London had a more “traditional” approach to teaching methods and training, which does not really appeal to me in the long run (show technique, drill 5-10 minutes, then spar). Sparring was tough though, and that was mostly what I came for anyways
(Roger Gracie Academy)
Now I am back in CSA and the summer vacation is soon over for most people, so I am really looking forward to some super hard training over the coming period. We have some guys fighting MMA and I am looking to take my kids class to about 4-5 tournaments before the year is over. For the adults, we will pick one or two big tournaments to focus on so we can make sure everyone has the same goal in training. Last time, we had about 30 competitiors at the Nordic Open BJJ tournament and it was a great experience.
We skipped the running because of the heat and went straight to the gymnastic calisthenics her warm-ups always include.The instruction was pretty much classic stuff: the arm stuff triangle, the transition to omoplata if he hides his arm to avoid having…
Combat Athletics, (BJJ), Rich Green, Coventry, UK - 30/07/2009
I had thought I’d get one more session in at Nova Força, but turns out my sister needed me for slightly less time than she’d originally thought. That means I’ll be up in Coventry now until the end of August, except for a final weekend to pop down and look after my niece (which also means I’ll have the dubious pleasure of watching her overnight: sleepless nights, where you’re woken repeatedly by baby-powered alarm clocks, have been something I’ve been able to avoid up until now).
Therefore I needed somewhere to train in Coventry, or more specifically, Canley, which is about twenty to thirty minutes walk from Warwick Uni campus. Fortunately for me, there is a club close by, called Combat Athletics. It is run by Rich Green, who received his blue belt from John Will last April, which looks to be a regular seminar slot. Rich also has a wealth of other martial arts experience (JKD, kali, boxing etc), and mentioned the club has links to SBG. So, sounds like an interesting set of affiliations.
Best of all, the price is very reasonable at £5 a session. Definitely something I want to mention to the students over at Warwick, as while Braulio is the number one option in the area, it tends be outside the budget of hard-up students. As I’m still job-hunting, its also outside of my own resources at the moment, particularly with the transport costs (to Rich’s gym at the Canley Sports and Social Club, its a couple of minutes walk, so rather easier).
As I walked through the double doors round the back, it looked like a typical MMA gym: punchbags, guys in rashguards, and part of a cage wall (presumably for fighters to practice against). However, from 20:00-21:00 on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, its a BJJ class, though judging by today at least, people prefer nogi. Rich did mention at several points everyone should feel free to put on a gi, so we’ll see if anyone does next time I’m along (I brought my gi in case, so will do that again).
After an informal warm-up, where the stretching was left down to us, Rich moved on to shrimping. This proved to be the start of a nicely constructed theme for the lesson. After shrimping, then shrimping and stepping over, we went into pairs. One person stepped round the others open guard, while the person on the floor shrimped away and reached around for their ankle.
The purpose soon became clear, as it grew into a drill on guard retention. As they step around your open guard, shrimp away, reach around their outside leg and grab the ankle. Come to your knees as they try to move into north-south, then block their other knee with your same side hand and take them down. You can then circle around to their back, making sure to control their elbow so they can’t simply spin out.
Resistance gradually increased, before moving on to a comparable drill, but this time with your partner passing directly through your guard. They are in combat base, then drive over one of your legs with their shin. As they do so, you again turn into them, grabbing the ankle, and aim to repeat the previous process.
That became a little more difficult as other guard passes were added into the mix, like the double-underhooks, but the principle remained the same. I was with a guy named Yanek (not sure on the spelling), who I think is an MMA fighter, going by what he said. Either way, he seemed to know what he was doing, so through his actions gently reminded me a few times I was being sloppy: I need to react quicker, keep my head in and be sure to drive through.
Specific sparring from guard followed, where this time I was partnered up with Brad, a guy roughly my own size. Underneath I was happy enough, although the lack of a gi meant that my ability to hold onto triangles was even worse than usual. I got into position a few times, but Brad was able to simply shrug it off. Not having a gi is probably a good way for me to see my mistakes more clearly, as I’m not getting sufficiently firm control: underhooking an arm as per Ryan Hall might also help.
That lack of a gi was also noticeable when I went for a standing sweep (I think it was here, and not later). I could knock Brad down, but there was no handy sleeve to pull myself up, something I normally rely on. Definitely an error in this situation, as that leaves me on my back scrambling to drive forward, too slow to secure the position.
On top, my woeful guard passing was exposed as completely useless in nogi. I made a brief unsuccessful attempt at controlling the biceps and digging my knee into the tailbone, as Roy showed me at the weekend, then settled into the usual pattern of effectively waiting. Brad offered some advice, and Rich also popped over to demonstrate one possibility.
It was the tailbone break I’ve seen before, but looking at how Rich did it, I think hunching over and shrugging might be a better strategy for me: I haven’t been doing that properly in the past. My concentration has always been on trying to extend my body to put pressure on their ankles, which I’ve yet to master. Hunching up and using the knee to split the guard open, as per Roy’s technique and the similar tactic Rich showed, could be a preferable solution.
Class finished with a round of free sparring, where I again went with Brad. I squirmed around underneath as ever, looking for guard, and again seeing if I could get into position for triangles. Eventually managed to sweep and get on top, using Roy Dean’s advice on maintaining the mount, and also slipping into side control and scarf hold a couple of times.
I had a chance to try the step-over triangle from side control (or scarf, one of the two), but wasn’t able to properly trap the arm. Ended up swivelling to north-south without much success. Losing the friction of the gi definitely makes a difference, which helps to fully reveal the flaws in my mediocre offensive ability. Training nogi (or mostly nogi, depending on if others start bringing their jackets with them) for the next month should prove educational.
I also need to watch out for leg locks, something which I’m not used to. It happened a bit more often at Nova Força, but in nogi its quite common. Brad tried it while I was looking to play guard, but fortunately didn’t have a foot crossed over, so I could roll over and eventually work my leg free. However, I need to be a lot more careful where I put my feet, and also watch I don’t let myself get caught and then tap too late.
I’ve got the activities room at the Warwick Uni sports centre booked tomorrow, from 17:00 to 19:00, so hopefully get in some more drilling and sparring there before I head down to my sisters. Would be good to work some of the things from the seminar, along with a few sequences I liked from Purple Belt Requirements (especially the two additional options Roy showed from the overhook in guard).
I don’t even know what happened. I had to have other people tell me what they saw and then piece the story together.
It was about 7 of us. We jogged, stretched, performed some calisthenics and then I decided that I would demonstrate some take-downs. I showed the guys a double-overhook outside leg trip, a version [...]
There’s a lot of buzz in MMA circles over the past few days at the grappling prowess of Satoru Kitaoka, lightweight champion for Sengoku, who is defending his belt against Mizuoto Hirota this weekend.Get more pictures like this from SHERDOG.COMHere’s a…
Over the next few weeks in the advance class and No Gi class we will be working on the knee mount. This is a video I found a while back and shows some nice attacks from a variation of the knee mount.
Keith Owens Sitting Mount
I will also be posting a video of the techniques we are working on soon. Cheers Tom
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Ryan Hall is in Crystal Lake, IL this week to help MMA superstar Jeff “The Big Frog” Curran as he prepares to take on dangerous Japanese fighter, Tomohiko Hori, in XFO 34.
Coming off of a first round TKO of Dustin Neace at Strikeforce only 2 weeks ago, Jeff is looking to notch another victory and [...]
FORT BENNING, Ga. — The U.S. Army Combatives School has adopted a new teaching plan.
The Army is revamping the curriculum to take lessons learned from Iraq and Afghanistan and build more effective close-quarters fighters, said Matt Larsen, the school’s director. The goal is to push advanced techniques down to the small-unit level, including basic training.
Read [...]
Update from Spain: A wild turn of events ends with Ryan Hall taking the bronze medal at the Abu Dhabi Submission Wrestling World Championship!
Read on for more information…
Barcelona, Spain
9/27/09
After winning the ADCC West Coast qualifier in Carson, CA earlier this year, Ryan was invited to compete in the most prestigious no-gi grappling tournament in the [...]
As many of you are aware, 50/50 guard has come under fire recently from many in the Jiu-Jitsu community, in large part for its use in the Pan and Mundial tournaments as an attempted strategy to dethrone 4-time consecutive featherweight champion Rubens “Cobrinha” Charles. It has been hotly discussed and has [...]
World Martial Arts once again delivers the goods with the most highly anticipated DVD series in years, the 50/50 guard with Ryan Hall! This new guard position is so effective and dangerous to its unsuspecting opponent’s, that many competitions are now considering banning it all together!
Ryan Hall, one of the most active and successful Jiu-Jitsu [...]
