Monday 29th October
We spent the first 45 mins working through the fundamental sweeps, figure-4s, chokes and armbars of the blue belt syllabus. These were put together in a series of drills.
If I go into detail for all of these it’s going to be a very long read (and write!), so I’ll just list the techniques here and save the specifics for when they come up in the fundamentals class. For further explanation take a look at John Will’s BJJ Fundamentals book – all of the techniques we drilled are explained in detail with the helpful addition of photos.
Armbar Drill
Start with mount, smothering your opponent
Give them a little space to encourage them to push you off with straight arms
- Armbar from mount
Take side control, transition to knee ride with control of the near elbow
- Near armbar from knee-ride
Take knee ride, opponent tries to push you knee off with their far hand
Underhook their far arm, step over and spin for the
- Far armbar from knee-ride
Opponent performs an arm-bar escape into your closed guard
- Basic arm-bar from closed guard
Sweep Drill
Start in closed guard
Opponent initiates a single leg guard pass
- Scissor sweep
Roll back to guard, opponent goes to pass again
- Hooking sweep
Roll back to guard, opponent stands up in guard, posturing up
- Back sweep
Roll back to guard, opponent stands up again, this time with their weight forward
- Front sweep
Figure-4 Drill
Start in closed guard
Opponent makes a mistake and puts their hand on the mat
- Figure-4 from guard
Sweep them to mount
Opponent keeps their elbows in close to defend chokes
- Figure-4 from mount
Transition to side-control
Opponent attempts the underhook
- Lower figure-4 from side control
Transition to Front Control/North-South
- Figure-4 from front control
Choke Drill
Start in closed guard
- Cross lapel choke
Let go of the choke
Sit up for the
- Front choke
Sweep your opponent to mount. Let them turn away on their side, take side mount.
- Lapel 1/2 Nelson choke
Let it go and let them turn onto all fours and take hooks in back control
- Back choke/Rear naked
Alternatively, you can drill this one with your partner kneeling.
