BJJ - RGA VIE Farringdon 20/01/10

I don't normally make the late classes so it was good to train with a different group of people for a change. The Beast will be upset that he's not mentioned in today's entry so here's a mention just for you dude. Class started with the usual warm ups, running, circuits, rolls etc. During the warm up my muscles were feeling fatigued, a pretty bad sign when you've got at least forty minutes of sparring ahead of you. Despite the aching I was actually feeling good and up for a hard session so I decided to employ the typical male technique of ignoring it and pretending it's not there.

Cesar them mentioned that some people seem to be forgetting basic escapes so we'd be drilling them today instead of anything advanced. Personally I couldn't be happier drilling basic escapes, I'm not interested in learning advanced flashy sweeps or inverse fucking upside triangles until I can escape properly every time. A lot of people, more so at White belt level seem to want to jump straight to the impressive stuff without building a good foundation of basics first. I tried to do a flying armbar once, I thought I was Sakuraba but I ended up seeing stars on my back with all the wind knocked out of me.

The first escape was in Turtle position with someone on your back. They have both hooks in and pass an arm around your neck for the choke. You need to grab the choking arm at the elbow and stretch your opposite leg as far back as possible to release the hook and starting to make the attacker off balance. The leg that just released the hook them comes up beside your other leg and in doing so, pushes the foot that was hooking forward so that it is across your thighs/top the knees. It's then an easy matter to pull the person over your shoulder and end up in Side Control.

The second escape was a totally new way (to me at least) of passing Half Guard. You start with an arm behind the head and underhook on the other side. Firstly, you move your far side leg up to their body for base. You then push their arm up the mat to their head and then duck your head under so that you're in the arm triangle position. next, feed their lapel through to the hand behind their head and pull while at the same time keeping shoulder pressure. This is very tight and uncomfortable as it is but to help the pass further you then lean over them, moving your base to the other side. This is really quite painful for the other person and it's almost impossible to stop the leg from being passed through.

We then moved onto specific sparring for the positions we'd been drilling. I was with Adam for the rear mount escape and he's a big boy. I tried to use an escape that I'd seen in Jiu Jitsu University that enables you to roll them over and land in an advantageous position. I couldn't remember exactly how to do it but did roll him over posting on one leg. I also found Saulo's advice of having both hands on one side of your neck when on your knees to be very useful when defending against chokes. Once we had rolled over I went straight to the survival posture, again from Saulo's coveted book of awesomeness, fought off a hook and turned towards Adam to get half guard. After swapping position, on his back, I managed to get my hooks deep enough to make it very hard for him to get me off. After having a hard time getting a choke in, I chose to roll to my side and go for a lapel choke which I had position for but his chin was firmly stuck to his body. We somehow got back to him being in turtle and I tried to flatten him out but we had to stop as there was too much pressure on his lower spine.

Half Guard specific sparring was with Andy, who must be giving away 20-30kg. We started with me on top and I manged to get to the control position. I tried for an arm triangle here but couldn't make it work from half guard. Andy was moving very well and managed to escape his head. His arm was out so I pretended be trying for an Americana to take his attention from my leg which enabled me to pass. After switching positions, I tried to go for the sweep where you reach through their legs, hold onto their far side foot and sweep them over to that side which worked but only because of the weight disparity. I'm doing something wrong and I suspect it's with my legs. Andy caught me in a couple of guillotines during this, the first of which was on tight. But for some reason he didn't put the choke on and I eventually got my head out. If he'd have just put the choke on a little, it would have been game over.

We then moved onto free sparring. My first partner was my old buddy Steve. He's very strong and solid and is training at another club on Sundays so it's always fun to see what new tricks he comes out with. He stood in my guard and lifted me up with him, stopping me from being able to sweep him over. I really don't know what to do when put in this position other than release my legs and go to standing. He managed to pass and get to Mount. I remembered Saulo's survival posture and wanted to try it but Steve was almost laying flat on me and I couldn't get my arms in. When he moved up for the armbar, I got hold of his lapel and rolled him over his head. This is a pretty way of giving your back but it worked for me this time. Must try not to do it though if I can help it. I managed to take Steve's back and flattened him out. I lifted his head to sink my arm in for a choke and he verbally stopped. We restarted and I attempted to kick one of his legs out and flip him over but he didn't roll enough and ended up in my guard.

I then rolled with Dave who I've not seen in quite some time. Dave has been playing a lot of Open Guard over the last few months and today wasn't an exception. I managed to use Eddie's tip of thrusting my hips forward when standing to remove their foot from my Bicep to much success today. The only problem is, I don't know what to do after. My Open Guard passes are pretty non existent and although I found that I could control the legs, I didn't really know what to do with them. I eventually managed to pass by giving up the standing passing, keeping my hips close to him and moving around the legs. His Side Control defence is very good and he managed to stop me from getting my arm round the back of his head. I also managed to get into the mounted triangle position with Dave but something wasn't right because he managed to push me forward and escape out the back door (fnar fnar).

I was going to rest after this but remembered my own advice to Can about training even when exhausted and partnered up with Adam. His size makes him a veritable smashing machine and I pulled guard as quickly as possible. I tried to open my guard several times as open guard is still something I constantly forget to do. I had moderate success in setting up triangles using wrist control but every time my leg would go around his neck, he would stack and I had to give it up or be passed. This seems to happen with most of the triangles I try nowadays. Adam passed from a triangle and I found myself in Side Control, however as he attempted to pass to mount, his weight came off me and I managed to get to my knees and drive him backwards. I also managed to attack for an Omoplata but he jumped over me. Again, something that keeps happening to me.

My last roll was with Basil, the Side Control > Kimura man. No matter what position you have on the guy, somehow you'll find your self in Side Control and being kimura'd and won't quite know how it happened. This is exactly what happened the first roll. After that I concentrated on trying to keep him in my guard but when pulling guard I keep on getting on of my legs trapped. It happens almost every single time I pull guard and makes it much easier for my partners to pass. I did manage to take Basil's back once but again found myself under Side Control before I could even mentally pat myself on the back.

I practiced Saulo's survival posture of Mount with Steve after I finished sparring as I hadn't had a chance to apply it during sparring. I'm pleased that I'm moving more now rather than just laying there like a corpse when my partners manage to pass. It's much easier to escape if you've already started moving as opposed to having to escape once you're already flattened out. This seems pretty obvious but not moving seems to be something I'm really guilty of. Overall it was a good class and I'll definitely be trying to add the back mount escape to my game.