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02/02/2010 - BJJ (Advanced)

slideyfoot — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 18:10:00 +0000

Class #282

RGA High Wycombe, (BJJ), Kev Capel, High Wycombe, UK - 02/02/2010

Kev went over some points about maintaining the mount to begin the lesson, commenting that shifting to technical mount is a good option if they being to escape. He also noted that if they manage to get their knee through and under your leg, you've pretty much lost mount. At that point, it would be sensible to shift into a pass, rather than struggling to get back to mount and probably getting reversed.

The technique he showed was a choke from technical mount, much the same as one he has shown before. As they elbow escape, shift into technical mount. Reach under their top arm and open up the collar, feeding it to your other hand, which will be around their head. Bring your top arm behind their head, then knife hand downwards while straightening your arm. That should put on the choke, presuming you've got a decent grip on their collar with your other hand.

Next was something rather more unorthodox, a shoulder lock from mount. This is a bit low percentage, but Kev mentioned he has managed to land it on people who are being especially defensive, clamming up with their arms crossed. Start by pulling out one side of their gi on the same side as the arm they have on top. Bring that gi lapel over their arm, towards the elbow. Feed it through to your same side hand, then bring your opposite hand over and underneath, switching your grip.

You are now simply going to gradually tighten that lapel, pulling the material with the lower hand, locking it in place with the upper hand, then pulling it again. As you do so, their arm will be twisted in an increasingly painful fashion, until eventually they're put in a shoulder lock.

After submitting me later in class, Kev also showed me a straightforward escape from a bow and arrow choke. All you do if reach under your leg and grab the same side lapel their holding for the choke. Push with your leg to straighten it out, which will mean they are no longer able to pull the collar into your neck. That should give you some time to work your way free: it's effectively a stalling tactic for breathing room.

During free sparring, I found myself under side control a lot. I'm happy under orthodox side control, but I run into trouble when they shift their base. I think it's modified scarf hold, because they don't have control of my arm, so must have reached under the far arm. Either way, I find that a lot more problematic to escape, so definitely need to review my scarf hold escapes. I was shifting my legs towards their head, to try and bring a leg round, but I think I'm still missing a few elements.

I'm also still playing around with the triangle position under side control. Not everyone puts themselves in position for me to try it, but there are a few who keep their head low, meaning that I can trap it with my leg. It doesn't normally go anywhere as an attack, but I found tonight it definitely helped me escape, as it distracted them from maintaining their position.

With Callum, I've been ending up in the exact same position for months. We start from our knees, I move to pass, he goes up on his side. I'm sort of in his half guard, but I can't secure an underhook, his knee is in the way of my torso, and I can't get much of a grip with my other arm.

I want to try and flatten him out, but that knee stops me coming forward. The other option I've been trying to push his knees together, control the hips, then move round. So far, that hasn't been working for me, but then I think I'm still doing it wrong: as I end up there so often with Callum, should have plenty of opportunity to practice.

I'm also still not threatening properly in open guard. I have some idea of what to do when I have my legs hooked, such as going for a tripod sweep, but I'm far less active in spider guard. I can get the grips, but then I normally find myself just maintaining the position, circling my legs, pushing them back as they try to pass.

I need to threaten a sweep, so that the initiative isn't completely with my partner. Again, something I'll have to review, as I'm sure I've been shown various spider guard sweeps over the years: Gustavo was also teaching open guard sweeps at RGA, so I'll check back in my notes.

I won't be training on Thursday again, as I'm visiting my gf down in Bristol: it's becoming a relatively regular pattern of every two weeks or so (though that will change once one or both of us settle into a proper job).

02/02/2010 - BJJ (Beginner)

slideyfoot — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 20:00:00 +0000

Class #281

RGA High Wycombe, (BJJ), Kev Capel, High Wycombe, UK - 02/02/2010

Two great posts on the BJJ blogosphere recently. First one is NinjaEditor interviewing BJJ Grrl, running through the typical list of questions that might be on the mind of a woman looking to get on the mats for the first time. Secondly, fellow UK and RGA BJJer Meerkatsu put together a thorough piece on buying a gi.

My instructor Kev Capel won silver at the Europeans, in his brown belt featherweight masters category. Even better, the guy he lost to is also RGA: judging by the results, it was a pretty good result for the UK. Oli Geddes naturally won his division yet again, and I saw on the EFN that while I was training tonight, he got his brown belt from Roger down in London. Which is very cool: Oli has been tearing up the competition scene at every belt level, so definitely well-deserved.

As I mentioned last time, Tuesday now starts with a 'fundamentals' section based around self defence. It isn't something I'm keen on, but if I'm going to do it, I'm glad Kev is the one teaching. Before saying anything else, he makes clear that for self-defence you need to cross-train striking. He also emphasised that the haymaker defence we did today was quite specific: anybody who has a clue about striking wouldn't throw a punch like that.

Techniques today were all very basic, but that's good: you can never drill the basics too much. This week, it's mount, so Kev showed the trap and roll followed by the elbow escape. When Howard and I drill basic moves, we like to make it continuous, so rather than just doing the escape then resetting or having the other person get up and go on top, we'll practicing passing the guard into mount. That meant that along with developing my mount escapes, I also had a chance to play with some guard breaks and passes, or sweeps to mount after elbow escaping back to guard.

Sparring from mount I'm continuing to try and maintain the position, by staying low and grapevining the legs. I'm also trying to always swim with the arms to stop them getting trapped, and seeing if I can attack with an Ezequiel. I moved into place a few times, but on each occasion I stopped. That's because in order to attempt the submission, I would have to shove my hand down my training partner's head, crushing their face until I can reach the neck. At the moment, I'm not willing to do that. So, either I need to come up with a different set-up, or get over my discomfort with being mean.

I also found that I was sometimes getting my arms grabbed and shoved downwards, which hasn't happened much before. I get the feeling that I'm missing some obvious submission opportunity, but last night, I was just shifting down to grapevines in order to regain my posture when that happened. One of the white belts also made the classic error of pushing up, leaving his arms vulnerable. My armbar from mount was pretty sloppy, but I was keen to make certain he understood it was a bad idea to try and bench press, so focused on landing the submission.

Kev asked me to go with a white belt during the specific sparring, as this white belt had been relying too much on strength: Kev wanted to encourage him to be more technical. I'm not sure if he picked me because I'm small, or because I was one or only three blue belts there. Either way, it made me think of this thread, as I noticed I was talking too much in my efforts to help. While I was trying to explain how he needed to be careful of leaving space for me to shrimp, I got a blank look. That made me stop and realise I was babbling. It is important to be concise when giving advice, rather than overloading with details as more and more spring to mind.

Underneath, I could normally get back to guard, but I'm relying too much on that one escape. I did bridge and roll at one point, because I saw the opportunity, but stepping over to trap the leg, go to half guard, then shrimp to full guard is my bread and butter. I need to improve my ability to combine the two escapes, especially against higher level belts.

“Any Excuses Tonight Roy?”

jiujitsu365 — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 15:28:25 +0000

*Boxing note: First, let me say that I am and always will be a major Roy Jones, Jr. fan. I think Antonio Tarver just had Roy’s number and if it would have been earlier in Jones’ career he would have destroyed Tarver. That being said, you couldn’t help but enjoy Tarver’s taunt of Roy Jones before their fight.

How does this relate to me? Well, I attended a tap clinic that was held by Art last Friday. He totally shut down my guard, nullified my side control and tapped me out. But I’ll talk about that in a second.

Warm-ups

Although the warm-up period was shorter than the Wednesday night class it still was pretty intense. After jogging and shrimping we performed animal drills again; duck walks, jumping duck walks, variations of bear crawls, gorilla crawls, etc. My breathing was labored but I made it through.

Drills

We performed a drop version of ippon seo-nage, which is a shoulder throw. I accidently hurt Dan because I didn’t drop to my knees and performed the throw standing. I tried to do the throw as softly as possible, but later on he was complaining of his back hurting. I felt terrible. I know how it feels to be hurt by another person’s carelessness. I am always railing against this behavior and now look who’s guilty.

Sorry Dan.

We also drilled a version of the flower sweep and reviewed a butterfly guard sweep we worked on Wednesday too.

Rolling

My first roll was against ______ (I want to say Dustin). I need to find out and remember, but he is a young guy with a beard. He’s a white belt and a regular. Since he didn’t have a gi, I took my gi top off. As we pummeled for position, I gained an overhook/under-hook, placed my left leg behind his legs and twisted him backwards onto the mat. The last time I rolled with him I had my gi on and we played that game where he grabbed onto my sleeves and collar and I had to keep breaking grips and make sure I was always square. This time it was different, but only a little because he has an incredibly strong grip. I was able to posture more and eventually broke his grips and split his guard. After opening his guard, he was able to scramble to his knees and then he stopped.

Carlos, who was watching asked him what was wrong. ‘Dustin’ explained that he was holding me so tightly with his legs that he needed a small break.

When we started again, I was able to pass and I gained side control for a little while but he was able to get to his knees. I jumped guard and after a few moments used the flower sweep we had been working on earlier. I ended up in the mount from the sweep and eventually jumped to knee on belly using a technique I have been working on at home. He pushed me off, we scrambled, I jumped guard and that’s how we ended.

My next roll was with Art. Art started off by asking me if I wanted to be on the top or the bottom. Since I usually end up on top with Art (and most people) I chose bottom. Long story short, Art used the Toreando pass and basically stapled me to the ground. Usually I can get a hand on the hip and a forearm on the neck before whoever I am grappling against settles, but this time both of my hands were ‘out of position.’ He tapped me twice using that pass.

But that’s not the end of it. He tapped me also when I landed in his guard. I asked a lot of questions after we rolled because I wanted to know what technique he used and how.

Following that I rolled with Carlos (Brown Belt, 1 stripe/Congrats Carlos!). He tapped me at the very end of a 3 minute roll.

Lessons Learned

I found out how to use the Toreando Pass effectively and that I need to shore up my defense on passes. I was able to use a knee on belly technique I have been solo drilling so that’s a plus as well.

Glover’s Travels

jiujitsu365 — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 05:26:36 +0000

I just bumped into these videos tonight. Jeff Glover, Budovideos and Nogi have teamed up to create a small 20 minute show called Glover’s Travels. It is a entertaining and pretty laid back show with interviews, technique and BJJ action w/top level grapplers. Above is Ep.1, part 2.

BJJ Heart Break

jonna — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 10:08:36 +0000

This is probably one of the saddest moments in my BJJ life. A lot of people have been switching teams lately, but I have a bunch of guys whom I used to think would be the last people to leave our team. They are like brothers to me, and we happily laugh on and off the mat like one crazy family. Well, used to be. I guess people really just come and go.

It was so sudden, to me at least. One moment I was with them on the mat, the next moment, they were saying their goodbyes to my coach. I felt bad because they are almost like my brothers, and we’ve had so many fun times together that I just can’t accept the fact that they won’t be there anymore the next time I’m on the mat. I sound like I’m having a bad breakup, but I really see it as such. They’re more than just teammates: they’re my family, my brothers. But what can I do. Just move on, I guess. And keep on training.

So long, brothers.

Article - BJJ Belts: What’s the Point?

slideyfoot — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 09:19:00 +0000

Article #10, by Can Sönmez [FAQ Entry]

As far as I'm aware, the idea of using belts to reflect rank was first popularised by Jigoro Kano, who is easily among the most important figures in modern martial arts. According to JudoInfo, Kano's senior students began wearing black belts in 1886, signifying their higher status. It took until 1930 to bring in another colour, an alternating red-and-white belt. BJJ was once similarly sparse on rank, as Royce Gracie explained in a recent interview:

In my father's old days, in the beginning, the history of jiu jitsu let's say, there was a white belt, a blue belt, and a navy blue belt for the instructors. That was very hard to get, it wasn't just anybody could get it. There were no stripes, just plain blue belt. That's what my father used to use for the longest time, until about 1970s, when people create the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Federation. Under pressure, my father kinda give in, and told the people, "Go ahead, do the Federation." That's when they came up with all kinds of different belt colours, and they award him red belt, ten stripes.

The JudoInfo article goes on to state that in 1935, Mikonosuke Kawaishi introduced a more extensive system in Europe, ten years after Carlos Gracie opened his Rio academy. The reason is telling: "[Kawaishi] felt that western students would show greater progress if they had a visible system of many coloured belts recognizing achievement and providing regular incentives."

This continues to be a major factor in why people like to get new belts. It is human to crave praise, from your mother smiling at some abstract scribble you produced at the nursery, right through to your boss congratulating you on a job well done. In BJJ, belts are supposed to be a direct reflection of ability, meaning that in a legitimate school, promotion can be a cause for great pride. You've accomplished something, and are now being recognised.

The purpose of a belt is to mark your progress. That makes it easier for the instructor, if they're looking for an uke, or if they want to match people up during sparring. It also grants you greater access to competition: if you've spent the past year or two smashing your way through all the white belt tournaments, then you're going to get a lot more out of competing at a higher level against challenging opposition.

Yet many people feel undeserving upon promotion. What if you haven't been dominating at competition? What about that one girl in class who always manages to pass your guard? Or the big white belt who tapped you with an Americana yesterday: why isn't he getting promoted?

The only absolute is your instructor's faith in your ability. BJJ leaves you in no doubt about your failings, as the mat is a harsh critic. There are always areas to work on and people who can painfully expose those mistakes. In BJJ's highly subjective ranking system, it is essential you feel able to trust your instructor's opinion.

If the instructor is worthy of a student's trust, due to their honestly earned rank, then BJJ's meritocratic grading process falls into place. This is why it is so important to maintain the direct link between ability and status in BJJ belts: any frauds who seek to debase rank must be exposed. Many other martial arts have lost all credibility due to compliant belt examinations, where the candidate is never truly tested. If performance against full resistance is not a central part of promotion, the belt becomes meaningless.

At the same time, obsessing over a piece of cloth instead of concentrating on your actual ability is detrimental. After all, Hélio eventually gave up his impressive red belt with ten stripes, preferring instead to wear one of those old blue belts. He didn't need a belt to demonstrate his skills: he already had incontrovertible proof, in the ring and on the mat.

< Previous Article :::

If you’re tired, it doesn’t matter what you know!

jiujitsu365 — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 01:35:10 +0000

Night Class – Wednesday

The academy was packed. About 20 people were in the boxing room and 30 to 40 training in the Muy Thai/Kickboxing class. I observed for about 15 minutes before BJJ class and briefly chatted with Josh and Polar Bear.

Class began with a light jog, shrimping and a few rolls. Then it became clear that this was no ordinary warm-up. We performed duckwalks, duckwalks with hops, military type pushups while crawling, a number of bear crawls, body drags, etc. Warmup was at least 30 minutes. I was exhausted before we began drilling.

Drill

We worked on a sweep from sitting up guard and a sweep from butterfly guard.

Rolling

After drill we began rolling but with a twist. Prof. Smiley had us rolling for flow and without submissions – just technique. Although I was exhausted I was immediately happy. I have been working on certain techniques for weeks and have not been able to try any of them in the gi class because, well they are gi classes. As one who wants to become proficient in the gi I spend way too much time grip fighting and defending submissions.

I first rolled with Robert (Frosty). He seemed to be relatively new. I decided to work on an escape from turtle position that I have been experimenting with at home and have been taught a few times in class but never pulled off in a roll. I baited him to take my back and when he would get to the side I would roll and put him back into my guard. I nailed it the first time out. I was so excited I tried it at least four more times. The fifth time I learned an important lesson. Don’t use the same technique too often. He timed me and gained side control. As we were going back and forth it really didn’t matter though and we just worked on changing positions.

The next guy I rolled with was definitely a new guy. We traded positions and once again I couldn’t resist baiting him to take my back and then hitting the roll to escape and place him in my guard.

After this roll I thought we were through. However, Prof. Smiley had a different plan for us and we had to continue to spar. I don’t remember who I rolled with next but following that I partnered with a white belt who seemed pretty sure of himself. I had that sense of dread that comes when you are facing a guy with a high energy level and you know that you have little in the tank. All through class I had seen him and a couple of others who seemed to be bouncing off the walls with energy.

We began with him sitting down in BFG. I initially passed his guard but he did a good job of not remaining flat and was able to shrimp away. I sat back and immediately regretted it. He jumped up in a fury and garnered a knee on belly. I didn’t have the energy to respond. My goal at that point was just to keep him from getting the submission. During the remainder of our roll I saw many opportunities that I had to shut down his game but I didn’t have the energy to do so. We ended up with me in his guard.

After that I rolled with Jaime (blue belt). I tried to pass his butterfly guard and ended up in his guard. He was able to get a sweep but in the process my foot became entangled with his legs and immediately cramped into an L position. I yelled tap. I sat out for a minute and we began to grapple again. A few seconds into it, Prof Smiley stopped us to show us a technique (I didn’t mind) and that was the end of class.

Overall: I was glad to see that my solo drills continue to pay off. But, I was definitely unhappy about my cardio level. It doesn’t matter what you know if you are too tired to use that knowledge.

28/01/2010 - BJJ (Beginner)

slideyfoot — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 21:33:00 +0000

Class #280

RGA High Wycombe, (BJJ), Matty Burn, High Wycombe, UK - 28/01/2010

Kev is away competing at the European Championships this weekend. I've seen that tournament getting a fair bit of criticism on forums, but nevertheless, it is still the most prestigious BJJ event easily reachable from the UK. Then again, the arguments about organisational problems and price seem fair enough, from what I've read.

Anyway, one of Kev's blue belts from Aylesbury took the class, Matt Burn (which come to think of it is a pretty cool name for a BJJ instructor). I'm not sure if Kev advised what he should teach, but Matt continued the side control theme from Tuesday, running through some important basics.

He kicked off with the usual way to transition from side control to mount, followed by the two fundamental escapes, to the knees and back to guard. I am used to swimming the arm through when going to the knees (though I still don't automatically go for that, much preferring guard recovery), but interestingly Matt also used that swim when recovering guard.

Sparring was naturally from side control, and again I had the chance to go with a white belt, though I'm not sure on his size. Either way, he was pretty new, so on top I was looking to try out some of the techniques from Tuesday, like the choke with the lapel. However, he grabbed my far arm, which stymied that particular technique. So instead, I went for scarf hold, and eventually moved into the step-over triangle.

When I went to attack the arm, it had already gone limp. For a moment I thought maybe I'd accidentally choked him out, but looking back, he was fine. What actually happened was that he gave up as soon as I got the triangle position. Shortly afterwards he tapped, saying there was nothing he could do. I was so surprised I didn't think to make the obvious response, which was "you should still try and escape, as you might be able to get free."

Then again, I can understand it would be annoying to be put into some random position by a blue belt when you haven't been training very long. The triangle wasn't an option with the other blue belt who was training, as I couldn't even keep him under control. I tried to switch to north-south, but he already had his knee in place and recovered guard.

Underneath the white belt, I wanted to see if I could play with armbars and triangles again, but he was a bit more savvy with his defence than the last white belt I rolled with. So instead, I just practiced escaping as normal. Again, no such luck with the blue belt, who was able to work through to mount after a bit of a struggle. He's a bit bigger, but that should serve to encourage me to be less passive: I'm still too complacent under side control, as I've gradually grown comfortable with just lying there and waiting for the opportunity to sneak my knee in. I keep saying it, but must bridge more!

I've got loads of books in the pipeline to review, as I received about five of them at Christmas. I normally send a list to my mum, so she can pick something from it, but this year, she got everything on the list. Which is kinda cool, so I'm certainly not complaining. Couple of DVDs to cover as well: about halfway through reviewing one of them. :)

“HOMECOMING”

jonna — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 10:36:34 +0000

I have started embracing sweaty men again, as of last week. I spent over five (5) months of BJJ holiday, from the time when my interest in training started waning up to the time when I actually stepped off the mat. I am happy to be back.

During the first week, I was sore all over. My muscles have become so used to not being used, that they were complaining blatantly when I started moving my butt again. And of course, the added weight (7kg!) really made everything worse than it already is. I was having a hard time moving on the mat, and I was panting like a car that’s about to conk out. But I loved every moment of it.

What I noticed is that I am more receptive now to new moves, and I learn quickly than how I was before I stopped. I guess the vacation freed my mind of the bad habits I used to have. My refreshed take on my training also allows me to focus more on the things that I want/need to work on. The best part is, my muscles still seem to remember my bread & butter moves (armbars form different positions) that I was able to pull it off against a guy, transitioning from triangle to armbar. This made me realize that BJJ is really about muscle memory, so that you react by impulse on every opportunity, rather than executing a move based on step-by-step thinking and execution.

On a side note, I enjoyed taking photos during the Philippine International BJJ Competition in Manila. I also got a lot of “rave” comments made by competitors from different parts of the world, so I think I’ll keep on taking action shots during tourneys

Here are the links to the albums, and some of the photos I took:

NO GI

Fabio Gurgel and a young Leo Vieira – 1997

jiujitsu365 — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 03:10:57 +0000

The fluid nature of their grappling is amazing!

*The funny thing about this video is that no one in the background is paying them any attention.