Feed LA Seminar At Gracie Barra Mission Viejo

Wayne, his cousin, and I attended this seminar.

Budo Jake taught techniques from turtle position:

• Crucifix from top of turtle
• RNC-crucifix from top of turle

AJ Agazarm taught techniques from half-guard:

• Tripod to side control from top of half
• Tripod to reverse side control from top of half
• Tripod to reverse side control to knee-on-belly to arm-bar (top of half)

Kayron Gracie taught techniques from guard:

• Breaking the straight arm collar grip to wrapping their arm (key elements include: bending opponent's wrist and using your leg to bring them in for the wrap)
• Wrapping their arm to triangle
• Kimura when opponent is defending their arm in the triangle choke. Switch folding legs to alternate triangle, then bridge and frame their defending arm. The bridge makes room for you to sneak in your second arm.

Pic or it didn't happen :P

Tips from Alby

• If you cross your legs wrong in half guard, you can get kneebar-ed. If the outside leg is straight, your opponent can grab it roll over and finish with a kneebar. Therefore, you have to prevent your outside leg from being straight and tuck the ankle into the other leg.
• Triangles are everywhere. He got me in the inverted triangle twice!

Advice from Alex

Don't waste energy defending (being passive), keep attacking, it's the same amount of energy but it keeps your opponent's weight off you.

For the leg that needs to shoot up for a triangle, PIN IT DOWN! Overhook like Sam showed and pin the leg down so your opponent doesn't kick it up for the triangle.

Reflections

I had a great roll with Justin this Sunday before Memorial Day. Justin taught the Sunday class in which he showed many arm bars and variations resulting from an arm bar setup.

• Justin's advice to me after rolling is don't flare out my knee to much when I open guard.
• When someone stacks my triangle, try to finish with a collar choke. This works for when someone does a double leg stack pass too.
• When working a trip, bait them with a tap to their front foot fist, when they step back sweep/trip the front leg. (Sam)

Rat Guard?

Renzo Gracie Shows How To Traingle A Larger Opponent

Renzo shows how to triangle much larger opponents and prevent the stack pass. The key part is to "not smell your knee."

Kurt Osiander's Armbar & Triangle Defense

Armbar Defense


Triangle Defense

Upside Down X-Guard

Upside Down X-Guard

Can roll and get opponent back into guard or even triangle.

Things I Need To Work On

Yesterday was my first time rolling with Professor Dominic. I could tell he was going easy on me. He kicked my ass twice and after the roll he said, "Good hip movement though."

I got caught in a Triangle and Armbar while trying to escape from guard. So I need to work on the following:

1. Triangle Escapes
2. Armbar Escapes

Knee-On-Belly To Triangle & The Angle in Triangle

In the following video, Jeff Glover shows how to transition from knee-on-belly to triangle and also emphasizes the "angle" in triangle.

Rolled Up - Ep. 25

Open Mat

Today I went to open mat with Glenn and Justin. I don't usually go to Friday's open mat but wanted to put in some training time before I drown white water rafting over the weekend. :P

Anyway, I tapped out Glenn with a Bow & Arrow choke and an arm bar. Glenn's was sure working his cardio and has got mass heart. Justin tapped me twice with an Ezekiel choke and choke from the back. I wonder if I'm focusing so much on offensive that my defensive is slipping.

I was working with Glenn on some submissions. We were working on the triangle and Mark stopped us. I was teaching Glenn to grab the back of the neck, but Mark said it was unnecessary if you have the correct angle. He said to have no space where you clamp your knee and be at an angle where you can look into your opponent's ear. The triangle was a lot tighter, and this technique is a lot more applicable for a person with short legs like me.

I worked with Mark (purple belt) on some takedown techniques. I was never able to successfully take him down and was taken down several times. The two that still stick in my mind are:

•  Variant of Drop and Roll on shoulder
• start with grabbing your opponent's lapel
• stiff arm and lock their shoulder
• once you have this setup you can roll onto your other shoulder and basically roll your opponent
• i did not find this drop and roll as easy as the one David (purple belt) showed me, but this one is probably more effective if done right
• Arm grab to back to trip your opponent backwards 
•  when your opponent starts to go for your lapel, you swat their hand and do a bicep grab.
• at this point you have a very good opportunity to grab their back, however if you don't the arm that grab their becip now moves over to the opposite shoulder and you square up with them and trip their closet leg
• if done right you can end up in knee on belly when the opponent falls

Another valuable tip that Mark gave me was something to help me escape from an opponent's side control. He saw that I had problems replacing my knee when he had me in side control. The key is to move your legs to the side then hip out quickly and replace your knee. Moving your legs out creates the space needed to replace your knee. If done too slowing your opponent will close the space back again.

Advancing Position While Opponent Is In Turtle Position

Mark taught class today because Dominic was out of town. Mark taught some very moves when the opponent is in the Turtle Position.

1. Rolling forward and putting in your hooks:
1. Start out behind your opponent. Make sure to keep your hips close and apply weight near your opponent's hips.
2. Double under hooks and grab your opponent's gi collar with each hand.
3. Force your opponent's head down by grabbing their collar deep.
4. Now start applying pressure across your opponent's back with your head diagonal across their body. Your head should be close to their head if not more over.
5. Tuck your chin in and roll forward diagonally.
6. While your opponent is in mid-air put in your hooks.
2. Chest bump to side control:
1. Start out with your body perpendicular across their back.
2. Grab your opponent's arm and ankle farthest away from you. Note that your knuckles are faced up. Also, you are NOT reaching around their head and butt; and you are not reaching under their arm and leg. You are reach across their arm and legs.
3. Pull their arm and leg towards you and use your chest to bump and roll your opponent over. Do not let go of the ankle, use this to obtain side control.
3. From behind to North-South to arm bar:
1. Start from behind.
2. Under hook grab your opponent's closest arm.
3. Now start to go perpendicular to your opponent.
4. Now get your opponent to lay down on their side by collapsing the arm.
5. Continue into North-South position.
6. Place your knee on their rib while hanging onto their arm.
7. Finish with arm bar (knee in arm pit).
4. Roll opponent over knee:
1. Start by pressuring down on one of your opponent's shoulders across back.
2. Grab your opponent's belt with arm parallel to your opponent's spine.
3. With your other hand grab your opponent's ankle. The grab is more like an upwards cup.
4. Put your leg straight on top of their head. It's kind of like help tucking in their head.
5. Next, roll back and use your momentum to roll your opponent over your leg.
6. Take side control.

Learned 2 takedowns from "Russian" David.

1. Single leg takedown:
1. Start by going for a double or single leg take down. Mostlikely you will end up with only one leg.
2. Now trap their leg in between your legs. Also hold onto their leg with your arms.
3. When ready, shoot down for their other leg while keeping the trapped leg in between your legs.
4. This should take them down because both legs are trapped.
2. Drop and roll:
1. Start by trapping your opponent's arm. Almost like in a figure-4 grip, but not necessary.
2. You can try to step in and go for a single leg hook sweep. Usually this does not work, but it gets them to square up with you.
3. Once they are squared up with you, you can drop the other leg in and lay down, pull and roll them. You will mostlikely end up in side control. What you are basically doing is blocking their arm so they can't post and using your body to break down your opponent's dead zone.

David also offered me another tip. He said to control your opponent's wrist as much as you can. Especially, when they have you in side control. Don't let the opponent control your head, but instead grab their gi/wrist and push it across their chest (i.e. push their arm to your side) and hip escape outward.

Tip from Mark. I had the Omoplata on Dan but couldn't sit up and finished. Mark walked by and shook his head then said, "change into a triangle." I totally forgot that you should use your opponent's momentum when trying to sit up preventing the Omoplata as a transition into a triangle. I need to remember this!