Mizblog

Greggo taught this Tuesday morning class. We had a couple of Kyokushin champions on the mat for an intro to BJJ today.

We did the lesson on cross collar choke from the guard, where you get that deep cross-collar grip on the gi, then reach UNDER that hand to get the second collar grip, hang your weight off them with your legs and arms as you row them into your belly button, scissoring your hands to pull the gi fabric tight behind their neck, and digging your wrists into their neck to tighten the choke.

Next method was to counter the situation where your opponent blocked that hand from coming underneath to get the second grip. In this case, you pull them down to you and reach over their back to get an overhand grip on their gi, on the other side of your existing cross-grip. Then you use your legs and arm to shuck them across as you bring that arm around tight and cross your forearms in front of them to finish the choke same as before.

But what if they block that second hand preemptively, like at the elbow? In that case, you open your guard (keeping knees pinched) to put the foot on the floor on the other side of your blocked hand, and move your hips away from that free hand, then slip that knee up across their chest so that it touches the wrist of your cross-gripped hand. The other leg blocks their far knee on the mat as you pull them toward you, then twist them over on their side using both arms and legs to do the scissor sweep. If they counter this with a wide base, then instead of blocking that far knee, you can use your foot to push it out from under them as you pull them over.

After finishing the sweep, you end up in the mount with a cross collar grip. To finish this, you reach your free hand over and slide your elbow/forearm across their jaw to turn their head away, leaving you with a clean grip on their gi shoulder material. You ground your head on the mat on the same side as that second grip, establish a wide base with your knees, and use your toes to push your hips forward for the finish. I think the forward hips gives your hands a better choking angle.

Then we rolled. My rolling partners were Jen, Jeremy, Aiden, Greggo, and lastly coach Mark asked me to roll easy with the karate black belt guy. That was an ego boost, that Mark can count on me to kind of know what I’m doing and not risk injuring someone who’s vulnerable. Anyway, I felt I did kind of okay in every roll. I managed to avoid all of Greggo’s submission attempts, and nobody else really threatened me. The inexperienced people kept trying to do the cross collar choke from inside my guard, and I kept teaching them why that was both useless and dangerous, because I can use my legs to keep them from the finish, and I can tip them over and take their back.

I brought Christian a big kukhri tonight before 6pm nogi class. He was happy.

Class started with a normal warm up. I was fast and ignored the small pains in my foot.

Next we did guard passing drills as a warm up. I slotted in well, dominating the smaller white belts or orange belts and getting chewed up by the more advanced, athletic students.

Then it was Q&A time. I asked how to react when I realized my guard was getting passed. Greggo used the knee slice pass as an example, and showed how you can use your underhook and knee to push them past you and take their back. Christian showed that they’re fighting for the space next to your hip, so you can block them with your head, hip escape to a tactical temporary turtle, and use that to re-establish your guard further back. Greggo also showed putting the top knee across, or using the bottom leg as a distraction as you attack their arm or back during the pass.

Another question was on finishing the D’Arce by switching to the anaconda. Neither instructor liked that option, preferring to get a shallow forearm grip, pressing the head forward, and using that space to force your arm farther through.

Then we rolled.

Mark and Christian taught this Saturday morning class. I’d been out for about a month because of my stupid toes, but I’d had much reduced pain for 2 days and saw an opportunity to come back and train.

I was scared of the warm up, but for some reason I don’t feel as much pain when I’m on the mat. The side shuffle on my left foot was pretty painful but I angled my toes away so that instead of tugging my big toe sideways, it pulled it away from the foot. That was much less painful.

We started with Christian teaching the Koshi Guruma technique, which is where you wrap up a headlock as you’re turning to do a hip toss. Starting from a shoulder and sleeve grip, you pull up the sleeve as they’re pushing into you, and you slip your shoulder gripping hand over their shoulder and around their neck as you step in and get your hips under theirs. Load them up on your hip and squat lift them, then dump them off the side. As you go down, maintain the headlock and assume kesa gatame position.

From kesa gatame, you reach your free hand back and peel their trapped arm off your waist with a C-grip, keeping their thumb pointing up. You then force it out straight and trip it with your lower knee. Scissor your legs to get the tap.

If they bend and turn their arm upwards, you can tuck it under your top leg and just push your calf down to the mat for the tap, raising your hips if you need a little extra travel to finish it.

We did top-bottom-out then. Me, Jose, and the deaf fellow. Jose started on top of me, and I was able to roll him over me and get on top.

I then went out, then got on top of deaf fellow, who I just pressured for the full round because he had his arm bent over across his face. I didn’t feel confident in switching to regular side control or flipping it about to go for an arm triangle or a kimura, so I just sat there. Great.

Jose started on top of me again, and this time I snuck out behind him and took him down, eventually sliding my ears out of his headlock with a little bit of pain. Jose needs to work on his basic kesa gatame position.

Then I started on top of deaf guy again, but this time I mounted him and collar choked him hard until he tapped. The high point of my day. Mark then switched Jose to another group and brought Sean in, so I got to have Sean on top of me. Great. He’s smooth, but he just about took my head off in transition before he lost his grips. I remember that sucked a lot, but I did prevent him from getting his mounted triangle on me again, which frustrated him.

I bowed out early before the stand-up round.

All we did is roll. I got chain submitted by the black belts (Greggo and Scott), and Andrew pretty much dominated me. Even Jeremy was a handful, so I had to slow him down by reminding him to breathe and focus on his technique.

Now my foot hurts and my neck is tweaked.

Christian is back! He taught this Tuesday morning class.

Warm up started with simple gripping, sticky hands, and grip breaks, interspersed with a normal warm up’s drills. Then we circled up and learned the Tarzan single leg takedown. From a high lapel grip, drop step the opposite side knee while maintaining a HARD downward pressure on the lapel. Hook the other hand behind the knee, get to your feet while lifting their leg, and then drive them toward their planted leg while maintaining the downward pressure on the lapel, keeping it firmly planted and taking them over. Be mindful of how you finish, avoiding their legs and getting to side control. If you have trouble getting them down, or if you lose your lapel grip, you can reach your lapel hand across to the far knee and go for a double leg.

We did a randori with our 6 classmates, going with each opponent twice. My first with everybody I basically was defensive, stuffing their takedown attempts and then getting behind their resultant turtle. The second time through I got aggressive, dropping Phil with an uchimata, and wrecking Jose freelance. Christian said I was finally coming into my time, and I finished the sentiment “…after years of sucking!” “You have to be the nail before you can become the hammer.”

Next we did some guard drills. These are drills I think we should be doing all the time, but we really don’t. From closed guard, setting up the arm bar, triangle, and omoplata.

Then we had some rolls. I rolled with Phil first, starting in closed guard. He passed my guard slowly, and I did the chewjitsu side control sweep on him, dumping him up against the pole. We kept working, and I tried to fend off his kimura from the bottom and pass his half guard, only to run out of time. It was a good contest.

Next I rolled with Matt, who’s coming back after 3 weeks of recovering from “getting snipped.” I passed his guard and got on top of him in side control, and was chasing submissions for the rest of the round, but he was able to escape them all.

Next I rolled with Jose. He started in my guard. I locked up a triangle and he tried to stack me. I fought the stack and kept cinching up the legs, because they started out barely connected. Each adjustment got them a little tighter. I finally tapped him, then showed him how to keep the triangle from getting locked up, OR how to stack really brutally in a race to pressure the bottom guy enough to want to bail out of his triangle attempt.

EDIT: I really wrecked my left toe in this class. A week later and it’s getting worse when I walk.

After I watched the entire kids’ class, it was my turn. We did a standard TJ warmup and then learned the stack pass. Essentially it starts with the guard break. Step a foot back to get your body long enough to break open the guard. From there, you’re underhooking the leg you broke open, and tucking it up onto your shoulder while the other elbow holds down the hips. With this locked in place, you step forward with the foot you stepped back with as you reach your guard breaking hand up to a deep far collar grip (assisted by your tuxedo gripping hand) and you simultaneously drive their trapped knee to their nose. You can kneel with the forward leg and bring the rear leg up to boost their butt higher and put more pressure on their neck. It’s a lot of pressure, and they’ll usually help you with the pass just to relieve the pressure. You can also just smash down on their neck with the paper cutter choke set up by the far hand.

Then lined up against the wall and arranged ourselves by size. I somehow got paired up with Ted and Jose, who are both a lot smaller than I am. We drilled very short sessions starting from all sorts of bad positions – mount, back mount with choke grips in, turtle with seat belt and hooks, and full guard, and standing. Top bottom out. Poor Jose. But I got the worst of the standing, as they were both able to take me down.

After that we lined up on the wall by weight, and we did a Kohaku takedown tournament. Logan was honored for his performance on Thursday, but Ted stole the show today. I got 0 takedowns but gave a good fight both times I went out. Ted got several wins and finished the line. Double win!

I got to class just as they bowed in and started to warm up. I changed and jumped in just as they started running backward. TJ did warm ups, then we got down to Mark teaching us some closed guard passing basics.

The first technique was to get from fully broken down to postured up in a broken guard. Grip the gi in the arm pits and push up while you knee them in the groin (I’m not making this up) and slide your body back, hopefully breaking open the guard. Once you’re back, you sit up quickly, moving one hand to the belt and the other to the knee away from the one you’ve still got shoved into their butt crack (again, not making this up) and you pop that knee down to open their guard. From there you can pass.

Next, Mark taught us a pass. From the broken guard, you lace your arm around one leg and take a double-hand-grip on their lower leg’s pants. Sprawl out your legs, leaving your chest to press their knees together, and work your way around until you can slide into side control.

Then we learned the bull rider break, which is just a different way of controlling the guard player’s upper body as you break their guard. From broken posture in someone’s closed guard, collect their two lapels at breastbone level, grip them in one hand, and tuck that elbow into their gut. Put the other hand on their belt right next to your other elbow. If they try to sit up, you can straight arm them in their neck (I am still not making this up) and then go back to your bull rider grip. Slide your body back as you knee them in the ass crack (still not making it up) and simultaneously move your bull rider grip hand to the belt knot as the other comes down to pop the knee and open the guard.

We also learned half guard passing again. Basically, when you’re in the half guard, you jam your knee into the outside of their hip, then lean your whole body across their face to keep them on their back. Grip their top pants leg, and mule kick their bottom leg out. Once you’re free of their half guard, secure side control.

Then we rolled. I started the session with John, who has been training a couple of weeks. He started in my guard, and I triangled him but let it go as I swept him and secured side control. I taught him how to recover guard. I let him pass and then I recovered guard. I broke his guard and passed to side control, then had him recover guard again.

Next was Randall. I got him in my guard, and played with him there. He was able to break out and almost pass a few times, but I recovered. He tried to smash me while in my guard but I was able to move him off to the side.

Next was Jeremy. He was trying so hard that I became alarmed. I told him he needs to calm down, because his instincts are telling him he needs to try as hard as he can, but that’s a recipe for exhaustion. Later, TJ and Andrew told him the same message.

Next was Chris, the black belt from HQ. He went to half guard and grabbed my cross face sleeve and shoved it to his belt. I knew he was going for the sweep but I couldn’t extract my hand and he moved into the sweep and got it. Then I spent the remaining 3 minutes of the round trying not to let him take my arms off. He would get hold of one of my arms and he’d yell at me to protect it and to not give up, and it was exhausting but by the end I had recovered guard and we were both panting.

Next round was with Phil. I was able to pass his guard into half guard, and he locked up a kimura but I was able to keep space and posture, preventing him from using it and forcing him to let it go. It was a good roll.

Next was TJ. We started neutral, he took me down and got on side control, and tried to do the paper cutter choke that Mark taught us a couple weeks ago. I turned on my side and grabbed his shoulder to limit his mobility, and he was not able to lock it up. I survived!

Last was Andrew. He started in my guard. He postured up, slowly broke the guard, and started passing. I tried to break his elbow knee wall but that didn’t work. I scrambled out and he tried to take my back but I was sideways. I tried to turn in but he got my arm twisted up. I slowly managed to untwist my arm but had to give up the mount to do it. Eventually I was able to upa him over very slowly, and ended the roll in his guard. Good roll!

Here’s a picture of me falling asleep in Phil’s half guard. Embarrassing!

Mark was there for this class, but Greggo actually taught it. Standard warm up led straight into Mark’s motivation for teaching side control escapes. This is great for me because I keep ending up here and it sucks.

The first technique is just framing, shrimping, and recovering guard. The key here is to make the frame, MOVE YOUR FEET AWAY, move your hips out from there as you push with the frame, and insert your bottom knee and then recover full guard.

Greggo taught this Saturday morning class. We warmed up with a flow roll. Professor Pat paired up with me and did some ankle locks and leg locks. He said that you can defend an ankle lock by planting your weight on that foot and sticking it to the mat. Anyway, Greggo then went into the sequence of submissions he did last Tuesday morning, and I was able to try them out on Pat, who is much shorter than I am, and with a much more muscular neck and arms. Quite a change from doing them to whoever I did them to on Tuesday. Anyway, I learned some refinements and I also lost confidence in my ability to ever do those moves.

Then we did a side control drill. I won two battles and lost about 8.

Then we free rolled. I got tapped out 3 or 4 times, didn’t get injured, and kind of did okay.

Greggo’s Thursday morning class. We warmed up with a cooperative roll. I took turns doing two position advances with Daniel, who returned after a long absence.

Then we learned how to remove the kick stand. Double sleeve grip, raise hips, punch both hands away while lowering the hips, then pull the arm across their body. At the same time, you’re hipping out away from that arm, reaching a hand over to grab their lat and hold them down. Once they’re down, they aren’t getting that arm back, so you can get up to your elbow, then up to your hand, and elevate your hips. With your far leg blocking their far leg at mat level, you use your near foot and arm to hip bump them over, keeping pressure to keep that arm across their body.

From there, you can do an arm bar. Reach your lat-holding hand over to grab their crossed-over arm’s wrist, then slip your near hand under that arm to grab your own arm in a figure-4 grip. Bring your back knee to pillow their head, and tuck your other foot into their armpit. You can pull up while scissoring your forearms together for a neck crank, or you can clear your lower arm from around their head and use it to push their head down as you lean your weight onto their chest to get your foot from behind their head around to the front, hooking their face/neck and squeezing your knees together on their trapped arm. Then you simply unfold it and hyper-extend the elbow for the tap.

If the hip bump doesn’t work, there’s a complex move that takes the momentum generated by their resistance to sweep them the other way. For this one, you do the same setup as before and try the hip bump sweep. If it doesn’t work, reach the lat hand around to grab their near collar at the neck. With that grip secured, you dive your shoulder under them and grab for their near leg, essentially doing a pendulum sweep on them, coming up in an S-mount with the near collar of their gi wrapped around their neck and held by the hand under the neck. Hook their far arm with your foot as you maintain control of their near leg with your pendulum sweep grip. You can choke them by simply pulling the collar, or you can get the arm bar while holding their far leg.

We rolled after that. I started with Daniel, who promptly took my back and choked me out. Then we started over and I struggled to pass his guard, got on top of him, and almost finished a kimura on him. I should have held his head down to keep him from turning in, I guess.

Next I rolled with Pat. I felt like I did pretty good at maintaining my guard. I kept a pretty good elbow-knee frame to keep him from securing side control, and went for a kimura from the bottom, but he defended and I let it go. I was able to recover guard twice (though I’m sure he let me – he was not working hard) and mostly felt pretty good.

Next I rolled with Greggo, who wanted to try the move of the day on me. I was able to defend it by putting both of my arms on one of his, and eventually stifled his attempt. He reset his guard and again controlled my sleeve. This time he swept me, but I was able to (he let me) sweep him. From side control, I gripped his far elbow like we learned on Tuesday, and he was about to talk me through the straight arm bar when I stepped over for the step-over arm bar. He was impressed. :)

Next I went with Jeremy, who was having his 6th class. I asked him to show me what he knows, and he started applying an Americana from my closed guard. I showed him why that was a bad idea by sweeping out his leg and taking his back. I showed him how to do that, then how to apply pressure from the back, and how to do a RNC.

Next round I sat out, and the following round I went with Andrew. We had a good roll but he got my neck. I tried to get a Von Flue choke but he turned under and cranked the choke. As I was tapping, my neck cracked and the muscles spasmed. I had to sit out the rest of the roll and put ice on my neck.