Steve's BJJ Blog

I’m slowly coming to terms with the reality of my situation. That little 20 lbs bundle of slobber pictured above is making it very difficult to get any time at the computer to write. I think that for at least the next while I’m going to take some of the pressure off of myself. Part of my problem posting has been in trying to get enough uninterrupted computer time to draft a post. I think that, if I want to continue posting to the blog, I will need to be satisfied with shorter articles, and stick in some cases, to simply posting the techniques I’m working on.

So, with that said, I’m continuing to work on that modified Bullfighter pass I mentioned in my last post. It’s going okay, and I’ve found that even on guys with really strong legs, I can get around at least one and secure a solid half guard.

So, finding myself more often in people’s half-guard, I’m working on a few different posts. I’ve learned a few ways to pass half guard that I’m pretty comfortable with. The usual half-guard passes that involve walking my foot up to clear my knee, and then driving it to the mat on one side or the other. What I’ve been playing with lately are a few I’ve picked up from videos where I focus more on stretching my opponent out than bringing my leg up. I’ve seen a couple different approaches to this, once on an Andre Galvao tape and on another one by Damian Maia.

Technique yesterday involved working from under side mount. We started in good position, so one hand (say my right) blocking his hip, and then my left arm cupping his shoulder with the blade of my forearm in his throat. In this way, I can create space for myself using very little strength by widening my left elbow out. The harder he drives into me, the more pressure he puts on his own throat.

From here, James emphasized bridging constructively. Often, we bridge straight back, which keeps all of my opponent’s weight right on top of me. What I need to do is bridge over one shoulder. In this case, I would bridge over my right shoulder.

The goal in this particular case was to create space to swim my left arm around into a deep underhook.

At this point, we worked two different techniques. The first was to simply bridge once again to create space in which to bring in my right knee and then regain guard. One detail here that I appreciated was to bring my knee in kind of high. The point was that, often, people will try to get their knee in by sliding it along the mat. It’s much easier if I bring my knee up and aim for his hip. That’s where the space is… not on the floor.

The other technique was a reversal. With that deep underhook in place, I’m going to bridge once again to my right should. This time, I’m going to take my right foot and swing it under my left so that my hips basically turn over. Then drive in towards my opponent’s far knee toward his dead angle, using my right arm to block that knee from sliding out… sort of like an ankle pick takedown, but this time from the knees. I’m not pulling on his knee; rather, just blocking it from moving.

Keys to this one are to set up the right angle. If I am too close to him, I’m in danger of getting whizzered. Too far to the other angle and I’ll end up losing the position or at best, find myself in his guard.

Ideally, I’m at the right angle and can sit through into a scarf hold position.

Sparring was actually really good. I’m still fighting a particularly virulent cold, but I had decent wind and felt really good after class.

Okay. So, Friday’s class sucked for me. I entered the school in a funk, and as much as I tried to shake it off, I left in an even deeper funk. I felt slow and weak and couldn’t seem to work any technique. It was a bad day. Which is in large part why I wrote the review of the Mundial #7 and the Pearl on Saturday. I just didn’t want to think about class the evening before.

The high point of the class was rolling with Chirofit. He’s a tall white belt, but a smart guy who picks things up very quickly. I enjoy rolling with him because the things he does well are the things I really need to work on. For example, he’s tall and strong, so passing his guard is a problem for me. Defending his triangle is another problem. And so on.

Part of my recent funk is, undoubtedly, my lack of sleep. While Lily the Grappler (my 7 week old baby) is a VERY good baby, sleeping well, getting chubby, smiling and rolling and doing all of the things she should be doing, she’s not going to bed early. Within the last week, she’s started going to sleep at night around 12:30am… and then waking up at about 7am. Now, don’t get me wrong. That’s awesome… except that I still have to wake up for work. Over time, I’m just getting worn down and it’s affecting my mood. So, I’m really going to try and catch up on some zzz’s this weekend and see if I can be my normal, chipper self come Sunday’s class.

In the meantime, I’m just going to press on and keep training.

After playing with my camera and writing the review on Saturday, I went out and started cleaning up my garage. That’s always fun. I managed to take a two car garage in which I could only park one car and turn it into a two car garage in which I could park NO cars. That’s right. My garage is a pit now. But it’s a work in progress and I’m actually looking forward to going out this coming weekend, turning on the radio and getting it all fixed up. The goal would be to park both cars inside… we’ll see.

On Sunday, I went up to Ballard with my family to visit my parents. Marcelo Alonzo opened his school up for Jeff so that he could have a Referee’s meeting for the upcoming Revolution tournament happening down in Bonnie Lake on November 8th. While I’m going to be running a clipboard this tournament, I’m very interested in refereeing in the future, so I definitely wanted to make it. Well, that and Jeff brought a cheese ball and a fruit tray. Hell, who wouldn’t want to be there!

The meeting is interesting. Jeff really tries to put on a professional, safe tournament for the guys in the PNW, and his tournaments seem to improve every time. We have a lot of guys competing, including, I think Bill, a brown belt. James Foster, the guy I frequently refer to as Coach, is also participating in a Super Fight against Fabiano Scherner. Fabiano Scherner is currently the Gi BJJ coach at Team Quest in Portland, OR. This will be a 10 minute gi match between two LARGE but very technical Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belts. I know a lot of you guys down in SoCal and over on the East Coast have been to the big tournaments, but around these parts, to see BJJ at that level is a rare thing indeed. I’m really looking forward to it.

I went to class yesterday and had a good time. I tried to push the guys who are competing. I have a lot of holes in my game which bums me out, but I’m going to have to take a couple steps back and figure out what I can fix now. One thing I’m going to work on is escaping side control. Bingo had me in side control, and I just couldn’t get back to guard. It was frustrating and definitely is something I’m going to work on beginning now. So, for a while, I think I’m going to start sparring under side control and just work from there.

Sundays are always great classes. We had lots of new guys in class today, which is always fun to see, and we reviewed the techniques from the week. As usual, lots of time to spar, both in class and after in open mat.

I was really glad to see Keoni back in class today. What a sight for sore eyes. He’s a crazy dude and I’m glad to see that he’s recovering very well from his knee surgery!

Instead of rehashing the techniques I outlined previously, I thought I’d go over the two techniques that the new guys were drilling in open mat: guard pass #1 and the basic scissor sweep.

Coach calls the following Guard Pass #1. It’s a very basic knee slide guard pass, outlined below passing to my right side.

1. Open Guard.
2. Bring right knee up and establish position, good base.
3. Control opponent’s left leg.
4. Drive right knee over opponent’s thigh, keeping hook.
5. Stay low and control opponent’s head with my right arm.
6. Step out with my left leg, turning hips so that my left leg plants firmly on the mat.
7. Move to side control.

1: Open guard. There are lots of ways to do this. We’re taught first, if I’m passing to right, to move my right knee out (widening my base to that side). Then, bring my left knee in line with my opponent’s tailbone, widening out my right knee a touch more. My elbows are in tight, and my hands are on the shelf of my opponent’s ribcage, or if gi, I can grab my opponent’s belt. From here, I can round out my back to break the guard. If this doesn’t work, I can move my right hand back a bit to help control my opponent’s hips, scoot back just a few inches and once again round out my back to break open the guard.
2: Once the guard is open, I’m going to bring my knee up inside my opponent’s legs. This keeps him from closing his guard. I should have a good base from here… pretty neutral position, from which I need to 3: control one of my opponent’s right leg. I need to do this so that he doesn’t simply hook my leg to keep me from stepping out to pass. I can do this by underhooking that leg, or if I’m worried about the triangle choke (and it’s gi), I can grab some fabric inside the knee and control the leg that way.
4: Once I’ve got good control of my opponent’s right leg, I’m going to drive my right knee to the mat over my opponent’s left thigh. I HAVE to keep the hook, or I’ll end up caught in half guard, so I’ll use the contour of my shin to keep pressure on that leg, and at the same time, 5: stay low and control my opponent’s head.
6: Step out with my left leg, and then 7: Move to side control. There are a lot of ways to safely get to side control from here. One way is to release my opponent’s left leg and use that hand to block the hip. Then bring my left leg to my opponent’s knee and get good control. I prefer to maintain control of my opponent’s left leg, and just focus on keeping my left knee in tight to my opponent’s hip while I move into a good side mount.

And that’s it. Guard Pass #1.

The other technique the new guys all drilled was a Basic Scissor Sweep, where I’ve got my opponent in my closed guard and I’m going to roll him to my right side.

1. Get a good cross lapel grip with my left hand.
2. Control opponent’s left arm with my right (behind elbow, wrist control… doesn’t matter).
3. Open guard, bringing my left knee inside and contouring my opponent’s waist/ribs with my shin.
4. My right leg is up off the mat to keep my opponent from stepping over to pass. I tend to either plant my foot on my opponent’s hip or keeping my heel behind his knee.
5. As I pull with my right arm and push with my left arm, I’m going to scissor my legs, driving my left knee across and kicking my right leg under.
6. Ride the train, next stop: Mount.

Both of these techniques are very fundamental, but good to have in the tool box. I use the scissor sweep all the time, as a way to set up other techniques even when the sweep doesn’t work.

Sparring and open mat were really fun. I spent a few minutes working to pass Josh’s guard. While I wasn’t entirely successful, I managed to avoid being swept or submitted. I also rolled with Bing, who got me into some weird positions. In that match, as is usual when I roll with Bing, I am constantly defending. Tonight, I was working to pass guard, and ended up over-committing to the pass. I defended an armbar, tried to reset and when I did, ended up off to the side and trying to keep him off my back. Then I was defending the RNC… and then the armbar. It wasn’t good, but I managed to hold out.

All in all, a good class. The only down side is that I have a pretty bad gi burn on my right eye. That’s going to be fun at work tomorrow.

Sunday’s class was good. I didn’t go to the competition class. Instead, I took it easy and made it in for the regular BJJ class at 3:30.

Often after a competition Coach will go over something that he noticed a lot of people having problems with at the tournament. Usually, it’s a fundamental. After the tournament last July, we reviewed clearing your leg from someone’s half-guard. Today, we went over how to reestablish guard from under side mount. So, I’ll do my best to outline this technique.

We broke it up into two drills, but for the sake of simplicity, I’m going to start from the worst case scenario, where I’m flat on my back. My opponent has me in side mount with both arms isolated. It looks exactly like this picture borrowed from 3peaksfitness.com (which hopefully they won’t get mad about my using… but if you do, I’m happy to remove it). This sucks. Both of his knees are up tight to her body. He’s got a strong gable grip, isolating her left arm on the topside of his head. This exposes that arm to keylocks or armbars. Her right arm is trapped high between his body and his leg. If he keeps his hips low and drives his shoulder into her jaw, she is definitely a very unhappy camper.

What she wants to do from this position is reestablish guard. To do that, she will need to get space, and to do THAT, she needs to get up on her right side, get her left arm UNDER his head so she can keep that arm safe and use her left elbow to help create space. Her right arm need to block his hip, and to do that, she needs to bring that elbow in and down, with her right hand cupping his hip. This is Stage 1, which returns her to a solid defensive posture from which she can regain guard, which is Stage 2.

So, the following is the outline of the techniques starting from the above picture:

Stage 1:

1. Bridge INTO my opponent while simultaneously
2. Bringing my right elbow inside with my hand cupping my opponent’s hip.
3. At the same time, reaching with my left hand back driving my opponent’s head back.
4. I should now be able to bring that arm back in and under his head. If he’s really stubborn, I’ll need to persuade him a little by grinding my elbow under his jawline.
5. I may still be flat on my back, but now I’ve got my elbows in tight and I’m ready for stage 2.

Stage 2:

1. Once again, I need to bridge INTO my opponent
2. while widening out my left elbow (this makes it very uncomfortable for my opponent to drive in, as the more he drives in, the more pressure on his own throat he’s creating)
3. and this time, I’m going to hip escape/shrimp out,
   **DETAIL: I need to hip escape BEFORE my hips hit the mat. It’s common for new guys to bridge up, then drop the hips back down to the mats and THEN try to hip escape. Doesn’t do me any good to do that.
4. locking out my arms (not all the way straight, but strong)
5. bringing my right knee to my right elbow
6. then driving back to create space enough to bring the leg through for guard.

Sparring was fun, but I’m glad to be home resting tonight. Tomorrow’s a big day at work, so I’m going to try and get a good night’s sleep!

I don’t know whether it was the humidity in the school or just my irregular attendance at class, but I was very tired all class long. Low energy. It was really good to be at the school, though, and lots of people were there who I haven’t seen in a while.

First, less than a week into the month and I’ve already blown the one post per day thing. I stink. Sorry!

Technique started with a way to take someone’s back when you’ve got them in your half guard and then a technique to deal with a common counter. Then sparring, 2 minute rounds again because the class was large.

The technique starts with me on the bottom. My opponent is in my half guard and I’m going to take his back. The starting position is always up on my side. If this is my right side, I’ll have my right (bottom) leg hooked around his right leg, my right (bottom) hand posted on his hip to help create space and my left (top) hand on his left shoulder, or gripping his lapel if it’s available, with my forearm in his neck. Being in this position gives me a lot of options and creates space. Also, having my forearm in his neck as described makes it uncomfortable for him to create lots of pressure. The more he pushes into me, the more pressure he creates on his own neck. Also, I can widen my elbow out to drive him off balance.

That last is exactly the first step in this technique. If he’s trying to pass my half guard or just trying to make me uncomfortable in a control position, he’s probably going to have an over/under grip and try to get his head in close, creating lots of shoulder pressure. Often, the first step in trying to pass someone’s half-guard is to flatten him out. So, as he drives in trying to flatten me out, I’m going to use my control of his head through my forearm on his neck to drive him off balance. I do this by widening out my elbow… basically, just trying to point my elbow toward the ceiling. Next, I’m going to swim this top arm (my left if I’m on my right side) through and get an underhook. I’m still on my side.

The next step is to shuck his right arm over. I can do this in one of several different ways. I can simply reach as far out past my head as I can with my left arm, bringing my shoulder into my ear. I can also get a grip in his armpit and push from there. I’m sure there are a lot of other ways. I think Coach Foster showed us another way, as well. The main thing is that you’re going to drive him foward, off balance and bring your head under his arm. At the same time as I shuck that arm over my head, I’m going to pull myself down with my feet. This can be done in one of several ways, too. The ones that worked for me were to pull myself at the same time, and to kick strongly, causing me to scoot a few inches in that direction.

Now my opponent is screwed. The next step is to establish my position. I’ll start by reaching all the way over with my left arm, and then widening out my knee to strengthen my base. I’ll get a good over/under control and either step into the second hook, or if I can’t, I’ll stay tight to his back and pull him over so I can get the second hook in.

The second technique is a sweep that is available from a common counter. All things are the same. I have my opponent in my half guard and I swim for the underhook. He immediately counters by attempting to whizzer my arm. This is a very simple control/submission where my opponent basically reaches inside with his right arm and creates a lot of pressure on my elbow. Picture my elbow being caught between my shoulder and on his back, and then my opponent pulling my elbow sideways. Ouch. As Bill would say, “That just pisses me off. Now it’s go time.” If I leave my arm out, I’m going to tap out or get injured, so I want to swim my arm inside, pinching my elbow in tight and grabbing his hand or wrist if possible. I want to take his base away on that side. Next, I’m going to hook his left leg with my right arm and turn into the sweep. The harder he tries to create pressure, the easier this sweep will be to execute. After taking him over, I’m going to keep the hook on his right leg until I can step back and establish side control

Sparring was exhausting. I was really having trouble catching my breath. I’m also quite sore today, so maybe I worked harder than I thought. I didn’t feel like I was putting out all that much, and yet I was exhausted after every match. As we were doing 2 minute rounds, I think I was able to roll 6 different times.

Not sure what my work schedule is like this week, but this is my last month working downtown, so I’ll be able to get back to a normal schedule before too long, and hopefully get back into class 3 or 4 days per week.