Detail on Seatbelt Grip From Behind

Brazilian black belt Alex gave me an Brian a tip last night for Seatbelt Grip from behind. The arm that is under your opponent's armpit grips on top of the hand/arm that is over your opponent's shoulder. The reason is that your opponent will likely push off your top gripping hand, in which case you can continue your hand/arm above their shoulder for a choke. This tip was like a light bulb moment.

In class yesterday, Justin went over the following:

• Fireman's Carry (Throw)
• Bow and Arrow Choke (without foot over opponent's shoulder)
• Bow and Arrow Choke with shin to back of opponent's head.
• Brazilian black belt Alex showed a modified Bow and Arrow Choke where you remove your leg from underneath your opponent but without putting your foot on your opponent's shoulder. The key is to remove your leg as you're laying your opponent down.

Seminar with AJ Agazarm at Gracie Barra Mission Viejo

Wayne and I went to an AJ Agazarm seminar at Gracie Barra Mission Viejo. Here are his notes:

• Defense to single leg-over hook (half wizer and wrist control. 
• Loop choke from sprawl-feed cross collar, weave wizer hand to back of head, tuck head roll to superman.
• Single leg takedown- wrist control, step if needed to shoot for front leg clamp leg with knees, foot sweep.
• Sweet spot, step over back leg bend over leg clamp leg with chest, flare knee to feed collar to hand pop up, drive forward
• sweet spot-guy kicks out leg break down pull back up, Thai clench drive forward.
• Open guard pass-grab belt with same side arm with knee in middle, grab knee from underside switch to top grip, kick trap leg out go into side control, grab back neck lapel after letting go of knee.
• Baseball bat-elbow pressure, trap arm on ground windshield wiper it to keep trapped and choke.

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)

Dominic is back teaching

Professor Dominic is back teaching because Professor Steve is away on vacationing in China. Dominic has been teaching half-guard techniques for the last 2 weeks. He says that the half-guard techniques will continue for several weeks. So far the focus of the techniques are from the bottom of half.

Techniques that we learned are:

1. Leg lift to regain full-guard.
2. Leg lift to opposite site to the back.
3. Frame and shrimp out to pummel under your opponent's armpit, then underhook their ankle and pass it to your arm that is pummelled under their arm around their butt, once the other hand is holding their ankle, drive into their body to sweep them (hook their knee if needed).
4. Frame and shrimp out to pummel under your opponent's armpit, now instead of passing their ankle to your other hand behind their butt, pass their gi skirt or belt (this is referred to as diaper grip), and finish the same as the sweep with their ankle.
5. Frame and shrimp out to pummel under your opponent's armpit, if your opponent wizards your arm, try to grab their pants at the knee or you can underhook the knee and sweep them backwards over their trapped arm.

Some things I learned from wrestling:

1. The side you sit out to is the side that your opponent is applying the less amount of weight too.
2. Single leg defence = wizard your arm in between their arms to grab your own leg, make sure to apply shoulder pressure, push their temple away. try Now try to pull your leg out or you can roll them.
3. When I shoot for the sweep single, I should go for their left leg.

More Wrestling - Hands

Setting up Takedowns:

1. Noah uses the head press, but don't fully extend their arm, instead use more of the Praying Mantis arm.
2. Coach Mike uses more like an eye poke distraction. His hand comes from the bottom up and when the opponent blinks (can't see), shoot!

Takedowns:

1. Your arms: 1 in, 1 out = high crotch (put opponent's hand in your pocket) to the side that your arm is out.
2. Your arms: both in = high level (spin) single
3. Your arms: slap your opponent's hands DOWN and out of the way to shoot for a double leg.

Coach Mike noticed that I did a good job of getting a single leg but I let go to try to get a double. He says I should have kept the single and took the opponent down by either stepping back and lowering down or shoot for the double. However, if I plan to shoot for the double leg, I need to push my opponent, then pull, then shoot!

Opponent is sprawled on you:

1. Your opponent has one under-hook = whichever side they are under-hooking is the side you want to sit out to.
2. Your opponent has two under-hook = you want to get out by shooting back outwards, standing up, or etc.

 For when your opponent has a single on you:

1. You should wizard their arm and push their head away from you to get your leg back.
2. Push their head to the outside of your leg and look for the guillotine.
3. ?

A tip from Brain L. about wrestling and takedowns in general: have your hips under your opponent. This makes your opponent more light and gives you more leverage.

Things To Think About

• How to defend against Luis' deep half guard? Everything I get on top, he grabs deep half and sweeps me.
• How to maintain a better side control? Some people when I have in side control and shrimp out really easily. What do I need to improve my control over them? Better pressure? Control the head? Knee to butt?
• I need to improve on my single leg takedowns. I usually can grab a single leg, but I can't seem to get them down. Maybe I need to improve my lower back muscle?

Gi and No-gi Takedowns by J. Scully

1st Stripe - Blue Belt!

Alex awarded me with my first stripe for my blue belt. Alex has been teaching class this week because both Professor Dominic Parker and Steve Gable are out due to broken legs. Dominic was in an motorcycle accident and Steve fought in Bellator 55 against Ricardo Tirloni.

Here's a link to the fight.

What we learned this week:

• "Steering Wheel" one leg takedown
• Half-guard escape to side control.
• North-South choke

Simple Judo - Arm Drag To Uchimata

Dave Camarillo and Matt Darcy show a simple way to incorporate judo into your BJJ game. The arm drag grip is an excellent way to gain an angle cutting off your opponents offense and ability to pull guard.

Things I Learned July 2, 2011

• De La Riva Sweep - This one you get under your opponent and use your leg to pendulum forward while holding onto their arm so they can't post.

• Double Leg Takedown from Brian (wrestler) - lower your level, shoot, hook behind their knees, then start moving sideways. Tip is don't shoot unless you can touch them.

Double Leg Takedown and Another Standing Guard Pass

Double Leg Takedown:

• Lift up opponent
• Side step
• Dive in with double behind the calfs (make sure to keep body upright)

Another Standing Guard Pass (used when opponent keeps closed guard):

• To Open Guard
• If opponent has hand gripping on your lapel, straight arm them on the same side
• With your opposite hand, grab their wrist
• Step up with your leg on the side of the arm that is being controlled
• Keep holding onto the wrist grip and let go of the lapel grip to press down on their leg
• As make sure to take a step back with the side you are pressing down
• To Pass
• Put your your inner knee down and press down on their inner thigh
• Put your elbow down
• Pressure and pass
• Look for video 

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.

The Art Of Killing

Some nice throws in this video: Budo: the art of killing (1978)

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!

Back From Europe

So I'm back from Europe and just trying to get back into competitive shape. Today we learned another hip throw and how to escape from a high mount. The one we learned was feet to opponent's armpit then roll them to the side. Which is almost like the 3 high mount that is shown in this video (but the video shows ending up on the opponent's back):