A good stance and posture reflect a proper state of mind.

Thursday with Dante. More people in today compared to yesterday. I guess many are busy with holidays and stuff this summer, including Kevin. Two women graced our mats today, I believe one of them is Dante’s daughter. Welcome.

After warm up, Dante demonstrated another judo takedown that involves a form of ankle reaping. Quite effective and easy but for some reason it felt awkward to me. Falling down  is more awkward ad slightly disconcerting as you fall backwards and not forwards nor sidewards  as in the other  takedowns I’ve learned. I think I sprained my groin muscle during that drilling. Ouch.

Afterwards , drilling a kimura from north-south position. I tell you, this is one nasty position if done correctly. In the north-south position, the top guy gets his arms underneath the bottom guy’s shoulders and reach to grab his belt by his sides. Top guy pushes hips forwards and downwards towards the floor to effectively distribute weight and smother the bottom guy. Real NAS-TEY!

Then once you’re bored being nasty, one arm comes across bottom guy’s chest to grab opposite lapel and then come up to knees.  Turn bottom guy on his side and top guy’s shin comes across bottom guy’s back to prevent him from rolling back. Top guy’s farthest hand grabs bottom guy’s top wrist, the releases lapel to grab own wrist. Turn bottom guy’s hand towards his back for a kimura.

After drilling this several times, we also did kimura from  side control as done in previous classes to familiarise ourselves with kimura from various positions.

Sparring time.  As it has always been in Dante’s class, he would pick couple of guys (usually 4-5) with advance/solid skills (in my opinion) to remain on the mats for the duration of the sparring time. Then the rest would rotate amongst them every 5 minutes, alternating sparring and resting. I‘ve always joked to guys like Big Steve, Keith,  Elliott, Gerry and others who always get picked by Dante  is that the problem with getting good at BJJ is that you get less rest during sparring.

Today, this opinion was crushed as Dante picked me to remain on the mats. Now, I KNOW I don’t have solid BJJ skills – my neck and joints would attest to it. What I can say is that my survival skills are  getting better – this is not about holding out on chokes and joint locks but about preventing myself from being in the position in the first place and awareness when I get myself in such positions to enable me to attempt to get out of it (sometimes).

But I am not one to complain for the honour and did my best for 25 minutes. At least I know my cardio is getting better...

Important point to note:

Big Steve complimented me on my burgeoning skills (gee thanks, Steve) but noted that my posture could be improved. I admit, I round my back on top position often and lean forwards too much. I need to be more mindful of this in the future.

Post title taken from one of the quotes of Morihei Ueshiba, founder of Aikido.

Busy week...

Been very busy these past several days both at work and at home, hence this late post.  School holidays have always been a busy time in my line of work and I have a couple of much-delayed tasks at home that needed to get done.

Decided to install a different car stereo in my car over the weekend. What I thought to be a 30-minute job turned out to be two hours! This particular car entailed removing the WHOLE dashboard front just to change the stereo.  Well, after two hours and bloody fingers and arms, I managed to do what I set out to do. Have also managed to leave 2 screws and a fridge magnet (used to try and pick up THE two screws) rattling inside the dashboard.  And then I found out that I couldn’t get a radio signal because I forgot to plug the antenna. Oh well...

Last week, Kevi n drilled the S mount and how to get an arm bar from it. Also further drilling on double leg takedowns and sweeping.  This takedown variation requires the front/lead leg to come in deep between your partner’s legs for the takedown sweep.  Same procedure as before, i.e., grabbing the back of the legs and driving forward. This is good because I wasn’t able to attend the previous week when Kevin first taught it.

Thursday, Dante took the class, and as par normal in his class, we spent some time in learning judo takedowns. He taught the concept of “Judo eyes”, wherein you keep your eyes on your partner’s base of throat as you manoeuvre for a better position/set up for takedown. This way, your partner will not be aware of your intentions and keeping  your eyes focused on this location allows you to see your partner’s movements (limbs, body) as a whole.

We also did arm bar drills, which is always good. Drilling makes the techniques more familiar to your musculoskeletal and cognitive system.

At the end of the class, I found myself stuck in the parking lot again. The Croydon Martial Arts Academy is housed in a building that is shared by the supermarket chain, Lidl. The academy is upstairs and Lidl is downstairs, and uses the parking area as a loading bay for deliveries, which happens every Wednesdays and Thursdays (probably everyday but I only use the parking  lot on these days when I go to class) AT AROUND  9 pm. Elliot tells me that he found about this the hard way and decided then to shell out £2.50 to park on the road. I’m too stingy for that so I pay the price – every single time...

I guess as a consolation, some of the other guys and Dante were stuck, as well, and we just chatted away until the delivery guys finished their business.  Good conversation we had, though, with topics ranging from Kevin being likened to a modern-day Bruce Lee by Dante himself,  about resilience, and to how martial arts in general is perceived by different people.  Guy asks about spirituality in martial arts and Dante replied, “There is no spirituality in smashing someone’s face in. That is brutality. Spirituality comes from the years of doing martial arts but choosing not to use those knowledge and skills you have learned unless you truly have to.”

As a bonus, Dante demonstrated some Temeki  Aikido techniques that would be handy against someone with a knife. I found this interesting as a lot of these moves are similar to Escrima, which I have done in the past.

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?

Gas. Good for cars, not for BJJ

Thursday training with Dante. Because of the influx of new people yesterday and today, he focused on fundamentals together with sports-specific exercises. We then did double-leg takedowns transitioning to knee on chest. After that, an escape technique from it. Another one is controlling the legs from standing and moving on to knee on chest. Strung together, this makes for nice transition drilling.

During technique-sparring, Dante lines up the more experienced players to take on the newer ones, as he is wont to do, before swapping places. He states that under no circumstances should the lower belt/level practice a technique before a higher one. By letting the higher belt/level try the technique first, the higher belt effectively demonstrates the technique to the lower belt, which grants more opportunity to see the technique done correctly before trying it on himself. Makes sense. Elliott, Keith, Gerry, and the two Steves really helped me on getting my technique half-decent.

One thing that Dante said before the sparring sessions that made everyone chuckle, he said, "When your opponent is hell-bent on doing something, it's best to let them do it. It strokes their ego hopefully they'll won't be so hell-bent the next time."My sparring performance was marginally better than last Wednesday. I only gassed on the last match :(  I really need to work on my cardio. On the last match, I was letting my training partner slap on his submissions, as I was too tired to move. I also need to work on my takedown techniques from kneeling and need to be more assertive. Either that, or I really need to get my bottom game better.

By the way, props to Peter, who helped me a lot during the technique-drilling earlier. Quite a friendly and helpful chap. He emphasised the need to get a deep collar hold during knee on chest, coupled with controlling the outside knee to be more effective in controlling your opponent. I've only seen him today, but judging on the reception he received with the regulars, it seems that he used to train regularly before and is a popular guy. Looking forward to train with him.

Transition drilling

Training yesterday with Dante doing the class. Quite personable – makes it a point of chatting to everyone individually and making introductions to new students.

Because of his judo background, he always would have judo techniques as part of drilling. On this class it was over the shoulder takedowns and “the thing where you cross the arms before you trip them backwards” takedown. With the first one, the tip is to lower your centre of gravity as you turn around then connect your hips to your partner. With the second one, it’s about controlling the posture thru crossing your partner’s arms across his body, as pointed out by George, my drilling partner. George is a massive guy but uses technique, rather than strength in sparring.

Afterwards, we did transition drills. This starts off from turtle position, then into closed guard or butterfly guard, then reversal into mount. The transition from turtle to guard is interesting. The key is to immediately control the far leg/knee by grabbing cloth using your inside hand. Afterwards, extend the inside leg and scoop hips to feed through the outside knee, going into either a closed guard or a butterfly guard.

To drill the movement, the one being mounted needs to get his elbow in between partner’s knee and your body. The key is to scoot your hip on the opposite side as you dig your elbow/push the knee away to create space and force your partner to spread his legs more, making the mount unstable. Once this is achieved, bring the knee into the space and rest foot on your partner’s hip. Then scoot to the other side to get the other knee out. You can now choose to implement closed guard or butterfly guard.

Sparring came next with Dante, Jaffer, and Steve. I survived most of the time and nearly got caught in a tight arm bar by Steve but thankfully time ran out. Whew. I did attempt the Ezekiel upon gaining positional dominance but wasn’t successful again. I managed to employ the Scoop and the Turtle defense from Saulo Ribeiro’s JiuJitsu University, so I was able to thwart any attempt to RNC me – good thing as my throat is still sore from last week.

Towards the end, we played King of the Circle, where we made a small circle on the mats from our gi jackets rolled and placed side-by-side. The object of the game is to move your enemy out of  the circle, sumo-style, or if any part of  his upper torso touches the area inside the circle. Good game and we had fun. The morale of the game is aggressiveness if you manage to find yourself in a street fight. Your martial art would not save you if you get pushed onto an oncoming vehicle. Aggressiveness and using your environment to your advantage is the key in a street fight, where no rules apply. Or fast legs for running away.

Good training all in all but I have niggling injuries that have been bothering me for the last couple of weeks. My dodgy left shoulder is acting up again, and a localised upper back pain. I was complaining to my doctor colleague about the pain I feel whenever I have deep breaths or a sudden sharp intake of breath such as sneezing or coughing. He said it could be pleurisy, wherein the outer lining of the lung is filled with air or fluid and is inflamed. That or I could have a busted rib. Either way, DAMN.

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.