Sweeps are sweet!

Dante's class.

I was running a bit late, as a meeting at work took longer than expected. After which, I needed to pick my daughter up at school, grab a quick bite at home, before going to class. I don't like being late at anything, if I can help it. I always try to come at least 30 minutes early to class so I could leisurely get myself prepared and catch up with the guys before it gets too busy. No one could beat Elliott, though. Personally, I think he sleeps in the gym and only pretends to leave at the end of the classes...

I was really knackered. My work can be really mentally draining, and I have missed classes before due to work commitments. But then I remembered what Gerry said the other day, "Better be knackered at class, than be knackered at home." So here I am.

Nice to see familiar faces back in training - John, who had a whale of a time being Derren Brown's audience assistant (!!!) and Jack, who came to train yesterday, albeit still nursing an injured shoulder. We were asking around where Keith was, as it was very odd not to see him in class. We found out later that he was stuck at work, getting really pissed for not having the other half of his weekly dose of BJJ.

After the warm up and leg stretches that I think only Dante can do (amazing flexibility for his age), he then proceeded to teach variations of gaining positional dominance starting from bottom guard. Dante counts them as four sweep variations but I think (with all due respect) that there were only two - the other two were adaptive counter techniques in case the first two did not work.

These techniques are best employed if your opponent is just sitting on your guard and not actively controlling your body. For all the subsequent techniques, they involve grabbing his wrists and holding them against the sides of your hips using a thumbless grip.

 First technique: From the bottom, come up towards your opponent, bringing one arm diagonally across and over his shoulder to secure the opposite tricep. Check the knee on this side using your legs and continue securing the wrist against your hip to prevent him from adjusting his base. Pivot on the aforementioned leg to  complete the sweep, transitioning to a full mount.

If this does not work, e.g., failure to prevent adjusting base or opponent drives you backward, release the tricep and wrap your arm around your opponent's neck guillottine style - the object is to be able to secure a hold against his lapel on his opposite side. Control his posture by coming back down and employing a closed guard whilst securing a lapel choke.

Second technique: Come up as before and arm diagonally across and over opposite shoulder. This time, snake your arm (over and under) and grab your own wrist to effect a figure-of-four key lock (Kimura). Come back down, post opposite foot against hip whilst one leg comes across his back perpendicular to his spine (45 degree rule) to control his posture.

If you are not able to secure a key  lock in the first instance, e.g., arm was able to base forward to prevent you from grabbing your own wrist, use his movement to further extend his arm towards you and instead of trying to grab your wrist, secure his triceps as before and sweep to a full mount. Voila!

Sparring with Big Steve and Gerry. I've been  noticing that I have been getting paired with Big Steve a lot. I could see a twinkle in Kevin's eye as he scours the mats to look for me to partner up with big 'ol Steve. Not that I mind, of course, as big as Steve is (probably 20-odd stone, and I 13 stones) , he never uses his strength to bull-charge his way to a dominant position and always mindful of his partner's safety. On the other hand, Gerry is quite an enthusiastic player. You need sharp skills and match his enthusiasm to survive rolling with him.

I wonder what instructors think of when they pair partners with each other - size, ability, style?

Other points to note:

A blue belt Brazilian came to class with us and introduced himself as Wagner. Trains regularly at the BJJ School in Battersea. Quite friendly. Showed Gerry a tip to execute a kimura from mount. This entails sacrificing the mount to move to a far side control to be able to bring  your opponent's elbow down towards his hips so you can torque the lock better.

My ADCC ticket has come through the post the other day. I wonder if any of my BJJ brothers are going to Nottingham to watch in September as well?

Does your game flow?

Wednesday class with Kevin.

After a light stretch to warm our muscles up for the forthcoming pain later, Kevin then proceeded to demonstrate and teach an escape and reversal technique from side control. This involves positioning your hands/arms across your opponent's hips and shoulders and pushing away at a 45 degree angle whilst shrimping out. The key action in this techique is the ability to get a deep underhook using your far arm and getting to your knees to provide base and leverage. From this position, grab opponent's knee (underhook side) using a monkey grip to establish your new position. After this, you could either check the farther knee with one hand to prevent him from basing or ankle pick the farthest ankle, as you drive your body forwards to attain side control position. A variation of this technique is to pop your head on the opposite side of your underhook and execute a single leg TD.

What I love about this particular class is that after being taught the technique, Kevin the proceeds to teach how to counter THAT technique. How cool is that?!

Basically, this entails applying enough force on the back of your opponent's head to pin it on the ground. Then snake your opposite armover and under his shoulder to grab your opposite wrist and cinch it close as tight as possible. This would naturally enable you to move towards your snaked arm and apply enough leverage to flip him over on his back, effectively transitioning to a side control position.

After some drilling on this technique, Kevin demonstrated leg triangle from bottom guard. Apparently, he taught this the other week but as I wasn't present then, I welcomed the chance to learn it  from him but from my partners who have practiced it before. Fortunately for myself and Big Steve, purple belt Steve was warming up beside us and gave us essential 1:1 tutoring regarding this. Massive props to him!

Sparring with Keith, Guy, and James. I have to ask Keith at some point to give me pointers on TDs from kneeling. His was definitely very effective. I'm also starting to survive longer against Keith, which I hope is a good one.

Interestingly  enough, as soon as I met up with Guy, he immediately told me that he had no submission skills. I told him, "Great! Neither have I!" That didn't prevent him from trying a couple out, though.;)

James and I agreed to do a light rolling, as we were both tired at this point. With light rolling, there is a deliberate consciousness of your actions and reactions to keep it at a light level - something that higher belts seem to do with ease and white belts seem to struggle with. I believe it has something to do with having a greater awareness of the techniques and your body's position in space in relation to your partner's. This enables you to just apply the requisite amount of force to either counter your partner's action or to establish a more dominant position. This is what I'd like to call FLOWING.

Mestre Kevin Chan

So... I've started going to class for two weeks now. Everyone there was very welcoming and I was made to feel at home. The structure of the classes run like this:

General warm up (stretching, pulse raisers)

Grappling-specific warm up (shrimping, rolling, pummeling, core exercises)

Techniques

Technique-specific rolling

3 to 4 x 5-minute sparring

Cool down

Since then,we've drilled the following:

Armbar from Guard (Bottom)

Kimura from Side control

Americana from Side Control

Guard Passing ( 2 variations)

Takedowns (Body lock and Judo throws)

Takedown transition to armbar

Butterfly guard and Sweep

Omoplata

Collar Choke from Guard (Bottom)

The classes are being run by Mestre Kevin Chan or Brown belt Dante or Purple belt Big Steve. Slightly different styles in teaching, wherein Dante and Big Steve are more technique-oriented whilst Kevin is more concept-oriented.

Case in point, in Kevin's class, he showed the concept of sensitivity thru pummeling and butterfly guard. He said that it's about being sensitive to your partners's actions and molding your body to conform to his body whilst adjusting your own body. It's about being loose enough to feel your partner, but maintaining sticky limbs.The sticky limbs concept is prevalent in a lot of martial arts disciplines. I can remember doing sensitivity drills in Escrima and in Jeet Kune Do.

In the butterfly guard, your legs are able to sense your partner's actions, and thru manipulation of your centre of gravity in relation to his,you are able to effectively execute a sweep/reversal without putting excessive force in the action. For a lot of beginners, strength becomes a substitute for technique,though this is only going to work if you are stronger than your partner.What if it's the other way around?

I've got notes on how to execute the above techniques. I just need to type and create links.

I'm going to sleep now.I'm tired and I've pulled a couple of muscles from yesterday and today. Oh, well.