Monday night's class was about chokes again: lapel half nelson, RNC and double lapel from the rear. We also went over the points that make up a good seat belt grip and how to effectively control someone from side mount using shoulder pressure.
To get the chokes from the rear, we looked at the transition from side mount to back control. I like the name for this transition: the boat ramp. I must admit I struggle with this, and I always end up with my partner stuck too much on one side. Something I'll need to perfect. However, as most people are heavier than I am, I'm not fond of pulling them on top of me, even to get to back control, and I'd probably be inclined to attack from side mount instead.
For a change, we had another female being on the mat for the night, and aside from a a few drills which were part of the warmup, I was partnered with her.
After the drills, we rolled from harness grip on in side mount start to submission. Well, we had fun. We didn't giggle, we laughed. She is a bit rusty with her stuff, so I could have pushed for submissions, but instead, I set stuff up and then let it go so she could work some as well. I was in stitches though, whenever she lost a position, she would say "Oh crap!" or "Oh No!" several times in a row and we would laugh. It was nice to not have to go balls out and just enjoy the roll. Ok, that happens when I roll with some of the senior guys, too, but with them it's not so cruisy for me, and I can't make mistakes, or they'll have me... So this was good fun as well a leaning for both of us. At the end, someone started to count down from thirty seconds to go. I'd just let her pass my guard and she had scarf hold. So we turned on the juice. And to the sounds of "oh no!", I got my elbow to the floor, took her back and went for an armbar :-). With 3 seconds to spare! The worst part was breathing while laughing.
And at the end, our instructor commented on everyone doing good work and how good it was that people were enjoying themselves, for BJJ should be fun. And fun it was :-))
Showing posts with label RNC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label RNC. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Monday, August 2, 2010
Friday & Saturday
Friday evening's class was mostly just wrestling.
It was good, I had lengthy rolls with a couple of the senior guys. I managed a couple of hooking sweeps and had the opportunity to hunt for things. I spent a lot of time escaping and defending, but at least it was mostly successful. I feel that I am making progress.
I fared less well with a very large white belt guy (he's nearly blue). He hasn't been in for a while, and it was good to see him back for a change. With him, my game is defense only. However, he had to work longer and harder to catch me than what I remember from earlier days. He said that, too. So that is progress as well.
Saturday's class was very small. There were four of us on the mat only, and one guy watching from the sidelines with an injured thumb. I took the warm up. I amused the guys with asking for more complicated hip movements than simple circles. And then confused/amused them further with arm exercises that move all the joints, with to them looked like crazy dancing moves :-). I find they do my shoulders and neck good and lubricate the joints before activity.
We worked on chokes again: the cross lapel choke from mount and guard and the lapel half nelson from side mount. Also, the RNC. For something different, we practiced the RNC from standing, and then letting our partner down slowly and gently. Like you would if they really went out and you didn't want them to fall forward and hurt themselves.
After that, we looked at some takedowns from clinch. Starting position: he has his hands on my lapels, I have my left hand cupping his right bicep (or grabbing his gi behind his elbow), and my right hand is cupping his neck. From there, I push his right elbow across his centreline and push his neck to his right (my left). I step back and to my left and this breaks his posture and makes him fall to his right. Ideally, I hold on to his right arm and can go straigth to knee on belly position. An alternative, if he resists having his elbow pushed across, and he pulls away from my trying to posture up: I hold on to his right elbow and move my right hand off his neck to his left shoulder, palm out. I shove on his shoulder while pulling on his right arm. This also off balances him and he falls the same way as in the first type of takedown.
We drilled that a few times, including going to kneeride and straight to a submission. My partner (largish new whitebelt) didn't know armbar from knee ride so he did the lapel half nelson from side mount. I alternated between the choke and the armbar.
It was good, I had lengthy rolls with a couple of the senior guys. I managed a couple of hooking sweeps and had the opportunity to hunt for things. I spent a lot of time escaping and defending, but at least it was mostly successful. I feel that I am making progress.
I fared less well with a very large white belt guy (he's nearly blue). He hasn't been in for a while, and it was good to see him back for a change. With him, my game is defense only. However, he had to work longer and harder to catch me than what I remember from earlier days. He said that, too. So that is progress as well.
Saturday's class was very small. There were four of us on the mat only, and one guy watching from the sidelines with an injured thumb. I took the warm up. I amused the guys with asking for more complicated hip movements than simple circles. And then confused/amused them further with arm exercises that move all the joints, with to them looked like crazy dancing moves :-). I find they do my shoulders and neck good and lubricate the joints before activity.
We worked on chokes again: the cross lapel choke from mount and guard and the lapel half nelson from side mount. Also, the RNC. For something different, we practiced the RNC from standing, and then letting our partner down slowly and gently. Like you would if they really went out and you didn't want them to fall forward and hurt themselves.
After that, we looked at some takedowns from clinch. Starting position: he has his hands on my lapels, I have my left hand cupping his right bicep (or grabbing his gi behind his elbow), and my right hand is cupping his neck. From there, I push his right elbow across his centreline and push his neck to his right (my left). I step back and to my left and this breaks his posture and makes him fall to his right. Ideally, I hold on to his right arm and can go straigth to knee on belly position. An alternative, if he resists having his elbow pushed across, and he pulls away from my trying to posture up: I hold on to his right elbow and move my right hand off his neck to his left shoulder, palm out. I shove on his shoulder while pulling on his right arm. This also off balances him and he falls the same way as in the first type of takedown.
We drilled that a few times, including going to kneeride and straight to a submission. My partner (largish new whitebelt) didn't know armbar from knee ride so he did the lapel half nelson from side mount. I alternated between the choke and the armbar.
Friday, July 30, 2010
open mat
After nearly six straight hours of lectures and lab sessions at uni, I was ready for some physical activity by the end of the day.
I'm still working on not giving my back and avoiding going to turtle. That's working pretty well now, and it's making me more active in re-guarding. Of course it means I get flattened more often. But that's a great incentive to get out, isn't it ;-) I have no choice but to have active hips. Interesting to see that I lacked strength there so I didn't ever use them effectively for shrimping and bridging. I don't know if they got strong first and so I improved my technique, or whether using better technique made them stronger. Probably both. Anyway, I feel much more effective now.
Yeah, so as usual I spent a fair bit of time under large white belts. Mostly, they get nothing on me, but every time I finally escape and get somewhere, I tend to get swept or otherwise manhandled and dragged floorside. I had a brief moment of frustration and had to remind myself sternly that BJJ = FUN. And that the only pressure is the pressure I put on myself. After that: cool. I even swept my large nemesis. Twice. I know I frustrate him endlessly, because he can't get much, and he pins me because that's what he knows. But once, he set up a figure four from mount with good base. I could not roll him and I couldn't get my arm back, and he really did it with perfect pressure. I absolutely complimented him for it!!
A bit later, he tried to triangle me, but as always, I just pass him at that point. So we worked on his triangles for a bit, which I think will help him.
I had several rolls with a purple belt. As always, I still walk into traps. I do recognise them a bit earlier now, so sometimes I can get out. But woe betide if he gets an underhook, no matter where you start, it's a one way street to an armbar.... I got swept and hated myself for being so easy to sweep. That was the bad bits. The good bits were me getting out of some armbar attempts. One roll started with him in my guard and as he was stepping over my leg, I snared his arm behind his back. I held on doggedly and we rolled twice, but I did pull off the figure four from half guard eventually. Then I had to tap to a few more armbars. A couple of times we stopped when he pointed out something. Like a sweep I just didn't see. Oh yeah, I did manage another submission. Can't remember how it came about, I think I was in sidemount and attacking his arm when I realised his neck was exposed. I moved more behind and put on an RNC. I think it's great that I sometimes see an alternative. Evidently, some things got stuck in the sieve which is called my brain.
As always, rolling with this guy is just the best thing. He had some time off, and I'm so glad he's back.
I was alternatively armbarred or triangled by our longlegged bluebelted king of triangles. I don't know, I'd recently been doing pretty good defending his triangles, but he has now found other ways of making them work. So I have to work out more ways of defending. Or better, not getting in there in the first place. But sheesh, he just has a knack of grabbing an arm and shove!, it's moved and his leg is over your shoulder and you just think: how in hell did he do that?? But in any case, I did thwart him several times, and once I had him in my guard, the boot was on the other foot. I can break him down well but I wasn't confident to try an armbar. So mission control worked a treat, then I went for omoplata. He tried to roll out. I decided to stop that and keep trying for the finish instead of allowing the roll and then sitting on his shoulder. But I stuffed up and then he stepped over and after some weird position I found myself in an ever so familiar triangle :-). One of the purple belts was watching and gave me a couple of pointers in finishing the omoplata. Also he said that while you should let go of stuff, sometimes it's good to keep trying because it helps you troubleshoot and work out how to finish. Basically, you have to make mistakes in learning how to make it perfect. And that's what open mat is perfect for.
I'm still working on not giving my back and avoiding going to turtle. That's working pretty well now, and it's making me more active in re-guarding. Of course it means I get flattened more often. But that's a great incentive to get out, isn't it ;-) I have no choice but to have active hips. Interesting to see that I lacked strength there so I didn't ever use them effectively for shrimping and bridging. I don't know if they got strong first and so I improved my technique, or whether using better technique made them stronger. Probably both. Anyway, I feel much more effective now.
Yeah, so as usual I spent a fair bit of time under large white belts. Mostly, they get nothing on me, but every time I finally escape and get somewhere, I tend to get swept or otherwise manhandled and dragged floorside. I had a brief moment of frustration and had to remind myself sternly that BJJ = FUN. And that the only pressure is the pressure I put on myself. After that: cool. I even swept my large nemesis. Twice. I know I frustrate him endlessly, because he can't get much, and he pins me because that's what he knows. But once, he set up a figure four from mount with good base. I could not roll him and I couldn't get my arm back, and he really did it with perfect pressure. I absolutely complimented him for it!!
A bit later, he tried to triangle me, but as always, I just pass him at that point. So we worked on his triangles for a bit, which I think will help him.
I had several rolls with a purple belt. As always, I still walk into traps. I do recognise them a bit earlier now, so sometimes I can get out. But woe betide if he gets an underhook, no matter where you start, it's a one way street to an armbar.... I got swept and hated myself for being so easy to sweep. That was the bad bits. The good bits were me getting out of some armbar attempts. One roll started with him in my guard and as he was stepping over my leg, I snared his arm behind his back. I held on doggedly and we rolled twice, but I did pull off the figure four from half guard eventually. Then I had to tap to a few more armbars. A couple of times we stopped when he pointed out something. Like a sweep I just didn't see. Oh yeah, I did manage another submission. Can't remember how it came about, I think I was in sidemount and attacking his arm when I realised his neck was exposed. I moved more behind and put on an RNC. I think it's great that I sometimes see an alternative. Evidently, some things got stuck in the sieve which is called my brain.
As always, rolling with this guy is just the best thing. He had some time off, and I'm so glad he's back.
I was alternatively armbarred or triangled by our longlegged bluebelted king of triangles. I don't know, I'd recently been doing pretty good defending his triangles, but he has now found other ways of making them work. So I have to work out more ways of defending. Or better, not getting in there in the first place. But sheesh, he just has a knack of grabbing an arm and shove!, it's moved and his leg is over your shoulder and you just think: how in hell did he do that?? But in any case, I did thwart him several times, and once I had him in my guard, the boot was on the other foot. I can break him down well but I wasn't confident to try an armbar. So mission control worked a treat, then I went for omoplata. He tried to roll out. I decided to stop that and keep trying for the finish instead of allowing the roll and then sitting on his shoulder. But I stuffed up and then he stepped over and after some weird position I found myself in an ever so familiar triangle :-). One of the purple belts was watching and gave me a couple of pointers in finishing the omoplata. Also he said that while you should let go of stuff, sometimes it's good to keep trying because it helps you troubleshoot and work out how to finish. Basically, you have to make mistakes in learning how to make it perfect. And that's what open mat is perfect for.
Friday, May 7, 2010
John Campbell seminar
I've returned home from a seminar. It was the second no-gi seminar held at our school by John Campbell. He's recently come back from another trip to the States where he trained, so we were bound to get some new stuff.
He emphasised that his game and the stuff he teaches is a mix of old and new, and that three people have mainly influenced him recently. Unfortuantely, I can't recall the name of his wrestling coach, but the other two are Eddie Bravo and Marcelo Garcia. Using Bruce Lee'e maxim: use what works, discard what doesn't, he's picked the elements from different schools which suit his game.
Later on, he elaborated on this a little. Among other things he said that while a lot of people have success with the 10th Planet stuff, it suits flexible people more. But that the rubber guard is but one type of guard which can be used offensively, in conjunction with other guard types, giving you a bigger arsenal. No system or guard type is invincible. Therefore, the best grapplers know when and how to go from one to the other.
Personally, I was very glad to hear that. I'm getting tired of the eternal and emotional 10th Planet vs standard BJJ discussions on Sherdog, the Underground forum and some of the Australian lists. If found John's open minded attitude refeshing. Let's see if it works for us, let's see if it integrates with our game. If yes, then use it, otherwise, use something else. Quite simple, free of politics and almost boringly common sense....
Anyway, I digress :-) Back to tonight's seminar!
Firstly an open guard pass. John called it the Marcelo pass. I'm on my feet, good base, on the balls of my feet for mobility. Opponent is on the ground, sitting and facing us. First, I shove his shoulder, pick up his feet if needed, to push his back to the floor. As soon as his back hits the floor, I put my hands on his knees to control them. Then I step in with my right foot and move my right hand from his knee to his belly or hip and lean on it. The weight on it will help control his hip. We want enough weight to stop him fom hip escaping. Then I kick my right leg back and up (he called it a mule kick), to free it. If he uses hooks, I might need to kick more than once. As soon as I feel my right leg coming free, I bring it forward while using my left hand on his right kne to shove it away, so I can bring my right leg forward unimpeded. I go straight to knee ride with my right knee and cup the back of his neck with my left hand. The right hand can grab his left knee or be on his left hip or even clasp my left behind his head. So now we're in good solid knee ride position.
Alternative: (note to self - do this with care, kneeing your partner in the groin is not polite, though it might be useful in a self defence situation...). Say we tried the aforementioned pass and he managed to trap my right leg in half guard. My goal is to get my right knee to the floor on his right side. If I can do it, good. But if I can't, because he's too string, then keeping my right hand on his abdomen, I bring my left foot close to his right thigh, so I've got a foot each side of his right leg, tight. Then I turn my left knee across him and threaten a knee ride with my left knee. As he adjusts, I drive my right knee to the floor. I need to get my left arm around the back of his head and get an underhook with my right. I want to gable grip my hands together behind his neck, near his left shoulder. I stick my left shoulder into him, try to crossface him and in the meantime, I kick at his legs with my free left foot until I can free my right leg, which means I can consolidate to short base side control. All I need now is to post my right hand on the floor, cup the back of his neck and pop up into knee ride.
Next step: I pressure him with my knee. The hoped for response is that he turns into me while pushing my knee with his left arm. This of course could the cue for the vanilla armbar from kneeride. However, instead, I slip my left hand from around his head to under his left arm, so that I end up with an underhook on that side. My right hand pushes off. The idea is to bring my left knee to the left side of his head while my righ leg steps backwards in a big arc, bringing me to a sitting position behind his head and shoulders with good base. Next step is a good tight seat belt grip. As I already have a left underhook, it's relatively eassy to bring my right hand over his right shoulder to get that grip. Once I have it, I consolidated to short base side control, with him still on his right hand side, and me having good control via that grip.
Next step: I step my left foot over his midde and put my heel against his belly. If need be, I can sit up on my right knee for this. From there, I sit back and fall over to my left side, taking him with me by way of pinning him to me tightly with the seat belt grip. As he rolls over with me, I make sure that my right leg goes through under him and comes free behind his back. My left lower leg goes across his middle, and by the time he reaches the floor on my left, I've establised a body triangle. I found that I had a bit of trouble as my partner was heavier and bigger than myself, but I still got the foot locked, though it took some wriggling and adjusting. With someone my size, this would work a treat all in one move. The last part of this was to lock my righ hook under his right leg. This provides additional leverage to the body lock and is hard to shake off.
Next step: as he defends my arms by pulling down, I rotate my left wrist to grab hold of his left wrist and push it towards his hips. With one arm, he can't defend me sliding my right arm around his neck. As soon as the right arm is in position and my fingers hooked on his scapula, I pull out me left arm. From here, I have a couple of choking options. Either I gable grip over his left shoulder and put my left forearm parallel to his spine. Then I flex my bicep, drive down the left elbow and puff my chest out. Or I go for the rear naked choke. On that, John showed us an alternative setup, which will also work in mma (meaning you wear gloves). I sneak my left hand across the top of his shoulders. If need be, I arch my back to make space between him and I. Once I'm across and form a blade with my left hand, I work the fingers of my right hand into the crook of my left elbow. Once I've grabbed my left bicep, it's down to squeezing with my right bicep, if need be, push forward with my left hand. I found it took no strength at all to bring on a nasty choke.
Alternative: I have the position behind my opponent, with established grips and I've stepped over him with my left foot as before. But now I don't want to try to take the back. I swap my left arm with my right by sliding my left hand along my right forearm, until I have his left arm in the crook of my right elbow, with my right hand on my left hip. I grab under his left leg and cup over the top of his right thigh and sit down. From here, I swing my right leg over his head. If his left arm is free, the armbar is there. If he holds on with the other arm, I cross my ankles. With the hold of his legs, this position is very hard to escape. I think it's called the spiderweb.
Final armbar: I lean forward and slide my right arm towards his wrist. This creates space between me and his wrist. Now I let go of his legs wit my left and stick my left elbow into that space and make a gable grip over his wrist. Next, I turn to my right and twist my arms, which puts a lot of pressure on his wrist. As he lets go, I fall over backwards, keeping hold of his forearm with my right arm (I pin it against my chest), and grab hold of his legs again. The whole time, it puts pressure on his elbow and extends his arm in a way that pretty much sets it up so he can't turn it. Armbar done.
I generally don't do a lot of knee ride stuff, because I find it hard to get the position. And I've not had much luck in getting any subs from there. Drilling the transition to knee ride and learning a transition to back control has opened up new possibilities for me. I was actually surprised how easy it was to get to knee ride from the pass.
Anyway, much to think about. I'm looking forward to spending more time on this, which I'm sure we'll do tomorrow and in the next few sessions.
Great seminar, really enjoyed it :-)
He emphasised that his game and the stuff he teaches is a mix of old and new, and that three people have mainly influenced him recently. Unfortuantely, I can't recall the name of his wrestling coach, but the other two are Eddie Bravo and Marcelo Garcia. Using Bruce Lee'e maxim: use what works, discard what doesn't, he's picked the elements from different schools which suit his game.
Later on, he elaborated on this a little. Among other things he said that while a lot of people have success with the 10th Planet stuff, it suits flexible people more. But that the rubber guard is but one type of guard which can be used offensively, in conjunction with other guard types, giving you a bigger arsenal. No system or guard type is invincible. Therefore, the best grapplers know when and how to go from one to the other.
Personally, I was very glad to hear that. I'm getting tired of the eternal and emotional 10th Planet vs standard BJJ discussions on Sherdog, the Underground forum and some of the Australian lists. If found John's open minded attitude refeshing. Let's see if it works for us, let's see if it integrates with our game. If yes, then use it, otherwise, use something else. Quite simple, free of politics and almost boringly common sense....
Anyway, I digress :-) Back to tonight's seminar!
Firstly an open guard pass. John called it the Marcelo pass. I'm on my feet, good base, on the balls of my feet for mobility. Opponent is on the ground, sitting and facing us. First, I shove his shoulder, pick up his feet if needed, to push his back to the floor. As soon as his back hits the floor, I put my hands on his knees to control them. Then I step in with my right foot and move my right hand from his knee to his belly or hip and lean on it. The weight on it will help control his hip. We want enough weight to stop him fom hip escaping. Then I kick my right leg back and up (he called it a mule kick), to free it. If he uses hooks, I might need to kick more than once. As soon as I feel my right leg coming free, I bring it forward while using my left hand on his right kne to shove it away, so I can bring my right leg forward unimpeded. I go straight to knee ride with my right knee and cup the back of his neck with my left hand. The right hand can grab his left knee or be on his left hip or even clasp my left behind his head. So now we're in good solid knee ride position.
Alternative: (note to self - do this with care, kneeing your partner in the groin is not polite, though it might be useful in a self defence situation...). Say we tried the aforementioned pass and he managed to trap my right leg in half guard. My goal is to get my right knee to the floor on his right side. If I can do it, good. But if I can't, because he's too string, then keeping my right hand on his abdomen, I bring my left foot close to his right thigh, so I've got a foot each side of his right leg, tight. Then I turn my left knee across him and threaten a knee ride with my left knee. As he adjusts, I drive my right knee to the floor. I need to get my left arm around the back of his head and get an underhook with my right. I want to gable grip my hands together behind his neck, near his left shoulder. I stick my left shoulder into him, try to crossface him and in the meantime, I kick at his legs with my free left foot until I can free my right leg, which means I can consolidate to short base side control. All I need now is to post my right hand on the floor, cup the back of his neck and pop up into knee ride.
Next step: I pressure him with my knee. The hoped for response is that he turns into me while pushing my knee with his left arm. This of course could the cue for the vanilla armbar from kneeride. However, instead, I slip my left hand from around his head to under his left arm, so that I end up with an underhook on that side. My right hand pushes off. The idea is to bring my left knee to the left side of his head while my righ leg steps backwards in a big arc, bringing me to a sitting position behind his head and shoulders with good base. Next step is a good tight seat belt grip. As I already have a left underhook, it's relatively eassy to bring my right hand over his right shoulder to get that grip. Once I have it, I consolidated to short base side control, with him still on his right hand side, and me having good control via that grip.
Next step: I step my left foot over his midde and put my heel against his belly. If need be, I can sit up on my right knee for this. From there, I sit back and fall over to my left side, taking him with me by way of pinning him to me tightly with the seat belt grip. As he rolls over with me, I make sure that my right leg goes through under him and comes free behind his back. My left lower leg goes across his middle, and by the time he reaches the floor on my left, I've establised a body triangle. I found that I had a bit of trouble as my partner was heavier and bigger than myself, but I still got the foot locked, though it took some wriggling and adjusting. With someone my size, this would work a treat all in one move. The last part of this was to lock my righ hook under his right leg. This provides additional leverage to the body lock and is hard to shake off.
Next step: as he defends my arms by pulling down, I rotate my left wrist to grab hold of his left wrist and push it towards his hips. With one arm, he can't defend me sliding my right arm around his neck. As soon as the right arm is in position and my fingers hooked on his scapula, I pull out me left arm. From here, I have a couple of choking options. Either I gable grip over his left shoulder and put my left forearm parallel to his spine. Then I flex my bicep, drive down the left elbow and puff my chest out. Or I go for the rear naked choke. On that, John showed us an alternative setup, which will also work in mma (meaning you wear gloves). I sneak my left hand across the top of his shoulders. If need be, I arch my back to make space between him and I. Once I'm across and form a blade with my left hand, I work the fingers of my right hand into the crook of my left elbow. Once I've grabbed my left bicep, it's down to squeezing with my right bicep, if need be, push forward with my left hand. I found it took no strength at all to bring on a nasty choke.
Alternative: I have the position behind my opponent, with established grips and I've stepped over him with my left foot as before. But now I don't want to try to take the back. I swap my left arm with my right by sliding my left hand along my right forearm, until I have his left arm in the crook of my right elbow, with my right hand on my left hip. I grab under his left leg and cup over the top of his right thigh and sit down. From here, I swing my right leg over his head. If his left arm is free, the armbar is there. If he holds on with the other arm, I cross my ankles. With the hold of his legs, this position is very hard to escape. I think it's called the spiderweb.
Final armbar: I lean forward and slide my right arm towards his wrist. This creates space between me and his wrist. Now I let go of his legs wit my left and stick my left elbow into that space and make a gable grip over his wrist. Next, I turn to my right and twist my arms, which puts a lot of pressure on his wrist. As he lets go, I fall over backwards, keeping hold of his forearm with my right arm (I pin it against my chest), and grab hold of his legs again. The whole time, it puts pressure on his elbow and extends his arm in a way that pretty much sets it up so he can't turn it. Armbar done.
I generally don't do a lot of knee ride stuff, because I find it hard to get the position. And I've not had much luck in getting any subs from there. Drilling the transition to knee ride and learning a transition to back control has opened up new possibilities for me. I was actually surprised how easy it was to get to knee ride from the pass.
Anyway, much to think about. I'm looking forward to spending more time on this, which I'm sure we'll do tomorrow and in the next few sessions.
Great seminar, really enjoyed it :-)
Friday, February 12, 2010
midweek
On Wednesday, in the small lunchtime class, we went trough attacks from side control.
We assumed the common scenario, where the far arm is around the back of our neck. We are in short base. Firstly, having established the postion, I could sit there for a second or two, with my left hand on my left ear, in case my opponent brings his right hand around the front of my face to push me off. In that case, I can just slam down my left to the floor, trapping his wrist and I'm set up perfectly for a figure four.
Alternatively, I can slide my right forearm under his left arm, making sure I'm high up in his armpit. I sit up and pull, so that he is on his right side. Immediately, I move my left knee over his head and push my shoulder down on his left arm. That pressure pushes his arm against the side of his ribcage, made worse by the fact that my forearm is in his armpit. It's not comfortable!
From there I have two options: armbar or figure four/kimura.
This makes a neat three option attack combination. I like it as I'm not a speed wiz, and it enables me to set up a nice tight armbar or figure four whilst staying in good base the whole time. I like it :-)
Did a brief free wrestle and was partnered with Sensei for the first time in a long time. Didn't take long before he had my back. I went for some time avoiding a RNC, but none of my usual escapes from back control worked. Just as I thought I finally could get out, I realised the little opening was just so he could get the other arm in. After I tapped and we talked about it, I realised that our time would have been better spent tapping earlier and spending time on other stuff. Like as in: as soon as I realised I couldn't get out of back control. Duh. So the only good thing that came out of it was that my defence is improving.
The second session was a brief rehearsal of the butterfly sweep we worked on a couple of classes ago. Then we were shown a cutting armbar from butterfly guard.
That though was only the lead-in or fake to get the opponent to turn his arm and leave it exposed for a sweep. I don't know what it was called, but it involved hipping out the the side opposite the trapped arm, cupping his chin and then hipping back in under him before rolling him over for the sweep. Don't know if I'll be pulling this one of in free wrestling for a while yet... But I'm only beginning to realise how many ways a person can get swept!
For the rest of the class, we did some free guard passing first. Had one of the bigger guys for a partner. Couldn't pass his guard for the life of me, and he swept me every which way. :-((
Then we did some free wrestling. Had a young guy with some grappling experience. I suppose it was unfair that some of us had taken the gi off (including mysef), and he still wore his gi top. We tumbled and rolled some with several interesting postions
here and there. My closed guard gave him a lot of grief :-). But in the end I did some fancy move from bottom turtle and got to switch back side control where an armbar did the trick. Don't ask me how that happened. I only remembered that I looked up at one of the guys who was watching and said: now was that an inspired move or what?? I'm such an idiot at times ;-)
Last guy was a very new guy, it was only his fourth class or so. So I ended ups showing him stuff and pointing out the danger of triangles during guard passes etc.
It doesn't seem so long ago that I was where he was :-)
We assumed the common scenario, where the far arm is around the back of our neck. We are in short base. Firstly, having established the postion, I could sit there for a second or two, with my left hand on my left ear, in case my opponent brings his right hand around the front of my face to push me off. In that case, I can just slam down my left to the floor, trapping his wrist and I'm set up perfectly for a figure four.
Alternatively, I can slide my right forearm under his left arm, making sure I'm high up in his armpit. I sit up and pull, so that he is on his right side. Immediately, I move my left knee over his head and push my shoulder down on his left arm. That pressure pushes his arm against the side of his ribcage, made worse by the fact that my forearm is in his armpit. It's not comfortable!
From there I have two options: armbar or figure four/kimura.
This makes a neat three option attack combination. I like it as I'm not a speed wiz, and it enables me to set up a nice tight armbar or figure four whilst staying in good base the whole time. I like it :-)
Did a brief free wrestle and was partnered with Sensei for the first time in a long time. Didn't take long before he had my back. I went for some time avoiding a RNC, but none of my usual escapes from back control worked. Just as I thought I finally could get out, I realised the little opening was just so he could get the other arm in. After I tapped and we talked about it, I realised that our time would have been better spent tapping earlier and spending time on other stuff. Like as in: as soon as I realised I couldn't get out of back control. Duh. So the only good thing that came out of it was that my defence is improving.
The second session was a brief rehearsal of the butterfly sweep we worked on a couple of classes ago. Then we were shown a cutting armbar from butterfly guard.
That though was only the lead-in or fake to get the opponent to turn his arm and leave it exposed for a sweep. I don't know what it was called, but it involved hipping out the the side opposite the trapped arm, cupping his chin and then hipping back in under him before rolling him over for the sweep. Don't know if I'll be pulling this one of in free wrestling for a while yet... But I'm only beginning to realise how many ways a person can get swept!
For the rest of the class, we did some free guard passing first. Had one of the bigger guys for a partner. Couldn't pass his guard for the life of me, and he swept me every which way. :-((
Then we did some free wrestling. Had a young guy with some grappling experience. I suppose it was unfair that some of us had taken the gi off (including mysef), and he still wore his gi top. We tumbled and rolled some with several interesting postions
here and there. My closed guard gave him a lot of grief :-). But in the end I did some fancy move from bottom turtle and got to switch back side control where an armbar did the trick. Don't ask me how that happened. I only remembered that I looked up at one of the guys who was watching and said: now was that an inspired move or what?? I'm such an idiot at times ;-)
Last guy was a very new guy, it was only his fourth class or so. So I ended ups showing him stuff and pointing out the danger of triangles during guard passes etc.
It doesn't seem so long ago that I was where he was :-)
Monday, February 1, 2010
gimme your back!
Saturday class. As usual, a small but intensive class. We worked on getting and retaining back control.
The crucial part is the seat belt grip, the hooks help. Sometimes we have to relinquish a hook so we can use a foot for pushing off to help our goal of keeping our chest glued to our opponent's back. Having a good grip is important, with correct hand placement. But the trick is to go with him to maintain the chest/back connection, rather than stiffly trying to use our grip to pin him to us.
With that in mind, we took turns one one another's back. Goal was for the partner in back control to escape and for the other one to keep it. I'm sure that was quite amusing to watch, particularly when my partner stood up at one stage, with his hands on the floor, trying to shake me off over his head. But we really did some pretty creative rolling.
The trick is to stay loose and maintain that chest/back connection with as little energy as possible. It was soon obvious that the person in back control trying to escape was expending a lot more energy than the one maintaining back control.
Then we worked on maintaining and regaining position if we have someone's back and he is on top of us. To escape, he would try to get his back to the floor. To keep him square on us or a bit off to the other side, we can take out a hook, put the foot on the floor and push off with it while scooting our hips back under him. That was very effective.
Finally, we worked on changing grips from seat belt to RNC.
And at the end, some free rolling. But this time, any sub was good, but first person to get an RNC was promised a Mars bar :-). I was partnered with someone my size, less experienced but faster and more flexible (who usually subs me). I don't know, but with a clear goal in his mind, I went him, got his back and had an arm around his throat. Mars bar in reach! And then... He defended by tucking his chin and I couldn't get under it. Waah! So close. Sensei said I should've had that three times over. I just couldn't think of a way to get him choked, even thought he couldn't get out of my back control. How stupid was that?? So Sensei showed me a couple of little tricks to make that neck more accessible, which I'm sure I won't forget |-).
Had another start. Wiser to my arm drag to neck snapdown attack, I couldn't get the back right away. But in some scramble, I got him in my guard and was busy breaking him down. I was actually making inroads into an armdrag to getting his back, when it was time out. So no Mars bar, but I was happy to find myself being aggressive, and being so close to my goal. I even rated a "well done" at the end. I went home a happy girl :-)
The crucial part is the seat belt grip, the hooks help. Sometimes we have to relinquish a hook so we can use a foot for pushing off to help our goal of keeping our chest glued to our opponent's back. Having a good grip is important, with correct hand placement. But the trick is to go with him to maintain the chest/back connection, rather than stiffly trying to use our grip to pin him to us.
With that in mind, we took turns one one another's back. Goal was for the partner in back control to escape and for the other one to keep it. I'm sure that was quite amusing to watch, particularly when my partner stood up at one stage, with his hands on the floor, trying to shake me off over his head. But we really did some pretty creative rolling.
The trick is to stay loose and maintain that chest/back connection with as little energy as possible. It was soon obvious that the person in back control trying to escape was expending a lot more energy than the one maintaining back control.
Then we worked on maintaining and regaining position if we have someone's back and he is on top of us. To escape, he would try to get his back to the floor. To keep him square on us or a bit off to the other side, we can take out a hook, put the foot on the floor and push off with it while scooting our hips back under him. That was very effective.
Finally, we worked on changing grips from seat belt to RNC.
And at the end, some free rolling. But this time, any sub was good, but first person to get an RNC was promised a Mars bar :-). I was partnered with someone my size, less experienced but faster and more flexible (who usually subs me). I don't know, but with a clear goal in his mind, I went him, got his back and had an arm around his throat. Mars bar in reach! And then... He defended by tucking his chin and I couldn't get under it. Waah! So close. Sensei said I should've had that three times over. I just couldn't think of a way to get him choked, even thought he couldn't get out of my back control. How stupid was that?? So Sensei showed me a couple of little tricks to make that neck more accessible, which I'm sure I won't forget |-).
Had another start. Wiser to my arm drag to neck snapdown attack, I couldn't get the back right away. But in some scramble, I got him in my guard and was busy breaking him down. I was actually making inroads into an armdrag to getting his back, when it was time out. So no Mars bar, but I was happy to find myself being aggressive, and being so close to my goal. I even rated a "well done" at the end. I went home a happy girl :-)
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Friday night
In our Friday night class we added onto stuff we learned at the seminar last week.
Starting from mount, we have our partner's left arm in an upward figure 4. Instead of going for that submission (of if we can't get it), we bring our arms across his neck, block his elbow with our chest and then reach around the back of his neck with our right hand for an armwrap. We dismount into a low kneeride. Then we reposition our left hand to also grab his trapped forearm. Then we do the boat ramp: as we sit on our but, we pull him up towards our chest and across our right leg and end up in back control with both hooks in.
From there, we look for the RNC. However, if he tries to pull our right arm down (for the drill that's what our partner did), we use our right leg to clamp over the arm to trap it. If possible, we cross the left leg over the right at the ankles. Now it's possible to use both of our arms against his left arm. Bringing our right arm to the left side of his neck, we grab his left wrist and figure four it with our left arm. Once that's in place, we can push on his head with our right hand while pushing down with our legs. This will push him down and across. Lastly, we bring our right leg across the front of his face, and as his left arm is already trapped in the crook of our left elbow, an armbar is easy.
A new guy turned up, and we took turns in pairs to show him basic drills. Watching him struggle and sweat reminded me of how hard I found it when I started :-).
We mostly drilled this set, first in stages, then the whole thing. After that, we did a bit of free rolling. I wasn't very successful, getting caught in an armbar, a triangle, a figure four from headlock etc. Nothing seemed to work for me. The best thing that happened was when I managed one escape from a bad position under a heavy blue belt guy, who commented "good!" for my effort. Only to regain his position and squash the breath out of me while he casually put on a figure four...
I was not impressed with myself, feeling like I was walking into the same submissions and not doing as well as I should. Near the end of open mat, one of the senior guys asked me for a roll. He asked if there was something specific I wanted to work on. Feeling down, I said I was getting stuck in stuff over and over but not to worry. We had a bit of a chat where I'm at. Most others had left by then and another guy came over. Then they spent the next 20 minutes giving me advice and examples on starting from knees and turtle escapes and attacks. That was terrific. I felt terribly guilty taking their time and I would have been happy to watch them roll and learn from watching. But I really appreciate their help. It is fantastic to see how much interest people take in helping others in our school. I guess as we all get better together, we enhance each other's learning. And I get my turns helping others with less experience.
Starting from mount, we have our partner's left arm in an upward figure 4. Instead of going for that submission (of if we can't get it), we bring our arms across his neck, block his elbow with our chest and then reach around the back of his neck with our right hand for an armwrap. We dismount into a low kneeride. Then we reposition our left hand to also grab his trapped forearm. Then we do the boat ramp: as we sit on our but, we pull him up towards our chest and across our right leg and end up in back control with both hooks in.
From there, we look for the RNC. However, if he tries to pull our right arm down (for the drill that's what our partner did), we use our right leg to clamp over the arm to trap it. If possible, we cross the left leg over the right at the ankles. Now it's possible to use both of our arms against his left arm. Bringing our right arm to the left side of his neck, we grab his left wrist and figure four it with our left arm. Once that's in place, we can push on his head with our right hand while pushing down with our legs. This will push him down and across. Lastly, we bring our right leg across the front of his face, and as his left arm is already trapped in the crook of our left elbow, an armbar is easy.
A new guy turned up, and we took turns in pairs to show him basic drills. Watching him struggle and sweat reminded me of how hard I found it when I started :-).
We mostly drilled this set, first in stages, then the whole thing. After that, we did a bit of free rolling. I wasn't very successful, getting caught in an armbar, a triangle, a figure four from headlock etc. Nothing seemed to work for me. The best thing that happened was when I managed one escape from a bad position under a heavy blue belt guy, who commented "good!" for my effort. Only to regain his position and squash the breath out of me while he casually put on a figure four...
I was not impressed with myself, feeling like I was walking into the same submissions and not doing as well as I should. Near the end of open mat, one of the senior guys asked me for a roll. He asked if there was something specific I wanted to work on. Feeling down, I said I was getting stuck in stuff over and over but not to worry. We had a bit of a chat where I'm at. Most others had left by then and another guy came over. Then they spent the next 20 minutes giving me advice and examples on starting from knees and turtle escapes and attacks. That was terrific. I felt terribly guilty taking their time and I would have been happy to watch them roll and learn from watching. But I really appreciate their help. It is fantastic to see how much interest people take in helping others in our school. I guess as we all get better together, we enhance each other's learning. And I get my turns helping others with less experience.
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