Martial Arts Wellington and Lower Hutt GSW BJJ NZ

Archive for December, 2007

Well that’s another mammoth year out of the way.
GSW will be closed until January the 7th 2008.
Merry Christmas and a happy new year to all students and friends.

Tonight we looked at sweeping using the hooks guard with some options for when it all goes wrong…

 Remember, the basic position for hooks guard is:

• both feet ‘hooking’ inside your opponent’s thighs (if they’re kneeling) or knees if they’re standing

Grips can vary, but a solid default option is:

• one arm underhooking (reaching under) their armpit, your hand pulling down on the top of their shoulder
• clasp their other arm to your ribs at the elbow,  with your armpit or elbow controlling their forearm/wrist – this is the side you’ll sweep to, so you’re making sure they can’t post out with that hand

Additional points:

You want to keep your head under the level of your opponent’s head. You need to get your body under their weight to sweep them successfully and you can pretty much guarantee if your head is above theirs that this isn’t the case.

Hooks Guard Drill

One person takes hooks guard, the other kneeling

The object is for the person in guard to stop their partner passing using only their hooks.  Once they’ve been passed or swept their partner, the drill restarts.

i)The person passing has to pass without coming up onto either foot. Neither person can use their arms.

ii) Repeat, but this time each person can use one arm and the attacker can come up onto one knee

iii) Pass or sweep using whatever limbs you like.

Basic Hooks Sweep

With your hooks in and grips as described above (let’s say right arm underhook, left arm overhook):

• fall back toward your left shoulder
• pull your right hook toward you and then lift toward your left
• disengage your hook as they begin to fall
• take side control

 You can choose not to disengage your hook and instead follow through to the mount position, but your momentum can be used by your opponent to counter-sweep you.

 Losing the Angle

A common mistake with the hooks sweep is to lie straight back bringing your opponents weight onto you. Sweeping from here is a challenge, so a good strategy is to reset in some way or transition to another position.

Here are 3 options:

i) If at once you don’t succeed…

• sit up 
• scoot your hips in
• re-establish your grips if you need to
• take them back on the correct angle to sweep them properly this time

ii) Rock-up

• sit up and re-set your grips if necessary
• fold your left leg* in front you you – knee pointing to the left
• drive your right knee forward and across your opponent’s right hip to the floor
• pull on their right arm
• apply your weight to take side control as their back hits the mat

* this (and the steps that follow) assumes you’re intending to sweep to the left.

NB: The success of this move relies a lot on momentum, so as you sit back up, the next steps occur pretty much simultaneously with your forward movement rather than sequentially.

Also, be careful to drive off on an angle rather than straight back – if your partner doesn’t have time to react and you drive straight back over them, you could injure their ankles as your combined bodyweight forces them to fold over backwards. Ouch.

iii) Disengage

• sit back up
• push their legs back with your hooks, pitching their weight forward
• get to your knees
• pull them forward under you with your underhook
• switch to an under-over grip – underhooking hand goes under their armpit to grip your other wrist which snakes in front of their neck. There are several finishes from here, a few which were covered in John’s most recent seminar.

This Sunday 16 Dec 2007 directly after the ‘Fundamentals’ class we will be having a little xmas do. Nothing flash just some pizzas and drinkies to say thanks. If anyone wants to pitch in I think Shano has been nominated to take the $$ offerings.

Also next Thursday the 20th will be the last ‘official’ class for the year.

This weeks Monday and Wed classes are Gi optional to combat the heat and take some of the washing out of the basket.

If I don’t see you before then, have a happy and safe Christmas and  well see you on the mat in early January for some bigger and better things at GSW.

Geoff

Tonight we looked at defending the mount and working through some escape options.

A basic defensive approach when you’re underneath the mount:

• keep your elbows tucked in and your hands defending your neck
• use your elbows to stop your opponent moving further up your body
• use your hips to destabilise your opponent
• create a reaction and exploit that reaction

Bridging escape

In this escape we take away our opponents balancing options on one side and send them in that direction.

Opponent has mount

• control their right arm, pinning their forearm to your chest with both your hands
• block their right ankle with your left ankle – this is to stop them using their foot as a post
• bridge your hips forward taking your opponent’s weight over your head
• roll to the left and sit up in good posture

Further points on the bridging escape:

• Line

You want your opponent to be in line with your head or offline toward the sweeping side. Otherwise their weight will be a supreme effort to shift.

So, you can let them do the job for you:

If they have half a choke, wait until they get tempted to cross your centre-line to get their second grip. As they shift their weight, bridge and roll them. Don’t wait until they have the choke on though, they’ll be able to finish it from underneath when you reverse them!

Alternatively, you can try another option such as the:

Elbow escape

• Turn your body to the left
• Block the inside of your opponent’s right thigh with your left elbow
• Plant your feet flat on the floor and drive your hips into their left leg (this is just a plain old hip escape)
• This creates the space to bring your left knee through
• Turn onto your right side and repeat the same steps on the other side

E.g.

• Block the inside of your opponent’s left thigh with your left elbow
• etc etc

Extra points to consider:

If you realise you’re opponent is going to get mount, you can make this escape easier by getting into a slightly more favourable position as they transition. Let’s say they had side control on your left side and were about to step their left leg over for mount.

You would:

• turn slightly onto your right side keeping your elbows in
• bend your right leg and bring it up to meet your right elbow
• turn your little toe into the mat with your heel off the mat – this should have the effect of keeping your knee flat on the mat
• keeping the outside of the knee flat to the mat prevents them from sliding their leg under to gain a stable mount position

This gives you a head start on your escape because:

• your opponent’s left leg lands on an unstable surface – your knee
• your right elbow is already in position to block their left leg

Elbow escape variation

• turn toward your left side
• block your opponent’s right thigh with your left elbow
• drop your left leg to the mat
• bring your right foot to the outside of their right leg
• pull your heel toward their shin, taking their foot up onto your thigh
• slide your left knee underneath their right knee

The rest of the escape is the same as the regular elbow escape – turn to the other side, block the thigh, bring the other leg through.

Using the escapes in combination

Using the bridge to get the elbow escape

• Get your grips for the bridging escape
• Bridge
• To avoid rolling, they may stick their leg out
• bring the knee through the space created
• turn to the other side, block the knee and bring the other leg through

Alternatively (& more commonly) they’ll bring their other hand across to post as you bridge

As soon as you feel the momentum stop, go straight to the elbow escape

Tonight we covered three finishes from closed guard

Opening points:

For all of the following finishes, Geoff emphasised the importance of breaking down your opponent’s posture first. We covered a session on this a few weeks back, but a basic way of doing this is:

• grip your opponent’s collar deep so you control their head and neck, not just their gi
• control their sleeve on the same side as the collar grip
• pull down with your collar grip and pull in with your legs to break their posture down

Armbar from guard

• grip your opponent’s sleeve with your hand on the same side e.g. left hand grabs their right sleeve

• reach across the front of their right arm with your right hand and grip their tricep – your arm forms a kind of s-shape.

• bring your left knee up in a straight line to rest on their hip – this helps prevent them from pulling their trapped arm back

Now – pushing off your left foot, you do three things simultaneously

• sit up

• raise your right leg and cut it toward your opponent in an arc

• turn your upper body off to the right so you’re at or close to 90 degrees to your opponent*

Then:

• bring your left leg in front of your opponent’s head

• pull both your heels toward your butt, toes curled back

• raise your hips slowly to put pressure on the elbow for the tap

 * Keep your hips facing up throughout the movement, from the cut through to shifting off to 90 degrees. If you turn your hips you’ll find it difficult to bring your leg over their head. 

Figure four from guard

Your opponent is in your closed guard and has made the mistake of supporting their weight with their hands either side of you.

• grip their left wrist with your right hand, keeping your arm straight
• move your torso offline to the left if you have to
• roll over your arm to the right and sit up*
• reach over the behind their tricep with your left arm and grab your own wrist
• cut across their back with your right leg and turn off 90 degrees to the right
• keep their elbow welded to your chest, creating a 90 degree angle between their shoulder and forearm
• raise their wrist toward the ceiling, rotating it as far left as necessary to get the tap

* you roll over your arm rather than bracing on your elbow for two reasons:

• it puts your shoulders offline from the direction of their weight so they can’t drive you back down to the mat easily
• it takes less effort

Guillotine

• drop your feet to the mat
• sit up
• bring the back your right arm over the back of your opponent’s neck to stop them posturing up
• use your other arm to post and shift your hips back a bit to create space
• turn your elbow and reach in front of their neck with your wrist*
• grab the blade of your right hand with your left

Now:

• scoot your hips back in close
• close your legs to take guard again
• lie back and slowly raise your hands toward your chin in a straight line

Sunday 25th November – Fundamentals

Tonight we looked at some fundamental escapes from common positions : side control, mount and knee-ride

Escape from side control

One person takes side control

• left arm controlling their opponent’s far shoulder
• right arm blocking the opponent’s hip on the near side
• legs out straight, balancing on the balls of the feet
• weight centred chest to chest

To escape, the person underneath

• bridges the hips
• reaches under the opponent’s right armpit with their left arm (underhook)*
• plants their feet and shifts their hips out away from their opponent
• keeps hipping away until they’re practically in line with their opponent
• scissors their legs to turn onto their front
• bring the knees in and drive straight into your opponents belly

*as you reach for the ‘underhook’ turn towards your opponent far enough that they can’t just push you back by driving into your shoulder

Rather than achieve this in one hernia-inducing move, you’re more likely to have success by making smaller repeated movements. For example, you might have to make several smaller bridging movements to create enough space to reach your arm through for the underhook.

Elbow escape from mount

• Block the inside of your opponent’s left thigh with your right elbow
• Plant your feet flat on the floor and drive your hips into their right leg (this is just a plain old hip escape)
• This creates the space to bring your right knee through
• Turn onto your other side and repeat the same steps on the other side

E.g.

• Block the inside of your opponent’s right thigh with your left elbow
• etc etc

Extra points to consider:

If you realise you’re opponent is going to get mount, you can make this escape easier by getting into a slightly more favourable position as they transition. Let’s say they had side control on your left side and were about to step their left leg over for mount.

You would:

• turn slightly onto your right side keeping your elbows in
• bend your right leg and bring it up to meet your right elbow
•  turn your little toe into the mat with your heel off the mat – this should have the effect of keeping your knee flat on the mat
• keeping the outside of the knee flat to the mat prevents them from sliding their leg under to gain a stable mount position

This gives you a head start on your escape because:

• your opponent’s left leg lands on an unstable surface – your knee
• your right elbow is already in position to block their left leg

Knee ride escape to knees

Your opponent has taken the knee-ride position. Their right knee is in your belly and their left leg is posted out for balance.

• grab their gi pants at the right knee with your right arm
• use your left arm to grab their belt, keeping your arm locked straight – if they don’t have a belt, push into their hips with your fist
• bring your knees close to your butt, raise your hips then move them away to your left (basic hip escape movement) creating a space for your opponent’s knee to drop to the mat
• let go of their their pants with your right arm
• bring your right elbow behind you so you can rest your weight on your forearm
• back away to your knees so you’re facing your opponent – keep your left arm straight throughout!

Further points to consider:

Make sure you grab their pants leg before your grab their belt. If you grab the belt without securing their leg, they can step that free leg around your head to arm bar you.

It’s vital that you keep the arm controlling the belt locked straight. A bent arm is not going to be a match for your opponent driving their weight forward through their hips.