Thursday, November 29, 2012

KOB

11/29 - Valley
My body is not pleased. I had an hour and a half of BJJ yesterday plus a strenuous Crossfit workout that was about another hour, and then today I had a big dose of knee-on-belly and knee-on-chest with guys who out-weigh me by ~50lb. Dudes weren't going light on me either b/c the local head instructor (T) was there.

I had to peel myself off of the mat on several occasions, and at one point I was light-headed enough that I had to take a minute to clear the cobwebs. We worked on several different set-ups to get from cross-body to KOB. I'm going to record as best I can, but to be honest, everything is a little hazy. No rolling at the end, which came as a relief. My body felt like it had been pummeled with a meat tenderizer.

Setup:
You are in top cross-face side-control on opponent's right side.

1. Move right hand to their left hip, grip their pants at the waist, make a fist and drive it to the mat. Thumb-in grip with left hand in the lapel on the back of their neck, pop up and slide right knee through.

2. If they have their right knee up, grip their pants at the knee, drive it to the mat and do the same as #1.

3. Sprawl out, switch hips toward head (kesa gatame), base right hand out parallel with their head, slide right knee up. This one is tricky, b/c you need to have your hips far enough off the ground to get your knee up and over. A little awkward the first couple of times, but got it after awhile.

T gave us some pointers on the grips as you're coming up...i.e. sometimes it doesn't make sense to get the sleeve grip, and you might be better off using your right hand on their left lapel and setting up for a cross choke, depending on how you got there.

T showed us a slick wrist lock... you have KOB, and opponent pushes on your knee. Underhook their arm with your right hand, ensure their palm is against your knee and gable grip your right and left hand together. Bring their elbow up and into you.

I might need to get some chocolate or some other kind of treat today.

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Regaining Back-Mount and Submissions from Back-Mount

11/28 - Downtown
I thought it was going to be a small class, but more and more folks strolled in and we ended up with about 8 or so. Our warm-up was two 5min rounds of flow-rolling. I had terrible flow to start with...would think of techniques that I wanted to execute but couldn't do them, or did them very poorly. Felt like a total n00b. The second one went a little better. I kept trying for the flower sweep, but wasn't having much success with it. Did the scissor sweep over and over again instead of pulling something else out. Meh.

Stretched, and then rolled for a solid half hour. Sara (twice?), James, Antone, Wayne(?), guy who's name I don't remember. Kept nailing Sara in the head, once pretty hard with my own head. I was apologizing pretty much the entire roll. Had good rolls with her, did a good job of staying in advantageous positions. Good roll with Wayne, tried very hard to stay out of bad positions and did a fairly good job of that. Guys bait me into the triangle so they can push my leg down and pass...I need to learn what I'm doing wrong there. Antone had me in knots, as per usual. Got me in a slick sub...don't remember what it was, but good. When I was rolling with James, he gave me a tip on passing the guard for points. I was passing his guard and ended up with my butt on the mat instead of pressure on him. You get points for passing the guard, so finish it. I think that's what he was trying to say...

Set-up:
You have opponent in back-mount, with right arm over, left arm under and left hand over the top of your right hand. Your head is tight to theirs, almost ear-to-ear.

1. Regaining Back-Mount
Opponent attempts to escape back-mount by turning to their left side, holding your left leg down and clearing their legs, ending up perpendicular to you. Maintain your grip with your arms, and rotate your lower body to the left and get flat on your stomach. You want to end up with your body in line with theirs, so that by pushing forward you roll them up. Chop your right leg all the way across their body, fall to your right side and get your left hook back in. The chop across the body isn't a violent motion, but rather a cue to get your right foot all the way to their left hip instead of just to the inside of their right thigh.

If, as they are escaping, they try to roll up on you (i.e. their back is on your stomach and they are putting weight on you as they move into the perpendicular position), you can hip out to get to the in-line, stomach down position. However, it would be even better if you kick off their right leg with your right leg as they are clearing their hips/legs. This always you to initiate the movement to line up with them before they get their weight on you.

2. Ezekiel from Back-Mount
Put the four fingers from your left hand into your right sleeve at the bottom of the wrist. Kick your feet out to the right (left foot should end up on their right hip, right foot on the floor?), push them down and bring your right hand around their head so that you are making a fist in the crook of the left side of their neck. This one is going to take a lot more practice to understand.

3. Head-and-Arm from Back-Mount
The set-up is that you are going for the ezekiel and they flatten out. Bring your left arm around the back of their head as deep as you can. Deep, deep deep. Flatten out to your stomach, get your head LOW and CLOSE to their head. Work that arm around, taking your time to get it deep. Once it's set, gable grip your left hand over your right hand and squeeze your arms. If needed, stay very flat and walk your legs to the right.

Some basics from this...  to escape the ezekiel (in this case), flatten out. To escape the head-and-arm, move to your side. James showed us a slick modification if you have a head-and-arm and the opponent attempts to block by putting their elbow in the air and their hand on their ear (like they're talking into a phone). Keep your left hand on the mat, use your right hand to move their right arm across your head and then back for a kimura. Bomb. Probably didn't explain it well, but it looked evil.

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Arm Over Side Control Pass & Subs

11/27
Valley

I think we did four of each but I can only remember three. Terrible memory. Didn't even roll, so can't use exhaustion as an excuse for forgetting.

Arm-Over Side Control Passes
Set-up:
You have side control on opponent's right side. They put up their right knee.

1. Use your right hand to grip their gi at the knee and drive it across their other knee to the mat. Grip should remain or release and place hand on the mat. Should be on the inside of their knee to keep them from straightening their leg and foiling the pass. Sprawl, switch your hips toward their legs, swing right leg over and replace your right hand with your right foot. Rotate your ankle out (to the right) a bit so that you can slide your knee down over their thigh and onto the mat. Once the knee hits the mat, you can pull your foot out. At this point, you should be able to trap their left arm as you slide up into mount.

2. Instead of driving their knee to the side, drive the knee down, sprawl, switch hips toward their legs, swing right foot over, hook under their left thigh and mount.

3. If their knee is really driving into you, use your right hand and slide it under their right calf, just above their ankle. Their knee should be trapped between your side and your upper arm. Hand should be on their left thigh. Base out with your left hand to the side of their head. Slide your left knee onto their belly, pull their right leg up and toward you a bit, bring your right leg to their left thigh. Fall back toward their head and then off to the right. Extend your right leg (will keep them from rolling up on you to defend against the knee bar) and grip the back of their heel with both hands for the knee bar.

Arm-Over Side Control Submissions

1. Raise up a bit, slide your right hand palm up along their right lapel as deep as you can get. Doesn't need to be as deep as normal cross collar chokes. Scrape your left arm across their face toward you, grip their shoulder, sprawl one of your legs back (left seems to provide more pressure) as you flare your elbows.

2. Slide toward north-south, move right hand under their back and grip the back of their lapel at the neck from behind (four fingers should be in). Slide back to side control, scrape left hand across their face and get a thumb in grip on their left lapel. Make a tent with your wrist, sprawl left leg back.

3. Opponent turns into you. Bring right arm up, wrap over their head (reverse guillotine?), left arm bases out, sprawl, switch hips toward their head.

Monday, November 26, 2012

KOB Escapes

11/24
Valley

We drilled the KOB escapes again. Several times. Also an escape from the double-under guard pass. Similar to what I learned downtown earlier in the week but a bit different (this escape ends up in a triangle). Dive under their right armpit with your left hand, gable grip with your right hand, put your right elbow in their face, kick your left leg straight back to free it, then up and over for a triangle.

No rolling, just an hour of drilling.

I was thinking of doing the noon class downtown afterwards but my body decided that it had had enough for one week. Five classes this week...happy about that.
 
 

Friday, November 23, 2012

Half Guard Pass and KOB Escapes

11/21
Downtown
A truly forgettable day at class. I was emotionally ill-equipped to deal with grappling. Not a frequent occurrence, but when it does happen it's miserable. I couldn't wrap my head around the warm-ups, and from the very beginning I felt way out my depth. I'm not even sure what we worked on. I do remember getting worked in the rolls, and tapping at one point when I was in bottom side control. It was very heavy side control, but still. Gross.

Oh yeah, I do remember working on breaking grips that an opponent may have on your gi at the knees. Get sleeve control on them, bring your knee in to you, turn away from the leg you are trying to break on, and kick out and up. If they have a grip on your right knee, get a sleeve grip on their left arm with your right hand, bring your knee into you, turn toward your left and kick your right leg up and out.

11/23

Morning - Downtown
Today went MUCH better, as I figured it would. We worked on passing half guard. Coming in from a crouch or standing, your right hand on their left ribs, left hand on their right knee. Get up in their grill, and move your right hand so that it's more of a fist on their shoulder. Keep holding their right knee with your left hand, then move your left knee over their right knee and pass to the left (their right). Another variation if you can't get your knee through is to kick back over to the right (their left), switch hips and get side control from that way.

A slick way to take the back from mount is if they get one leg almost out, i.e. just their calf is pinched between your legs. Sit on them, turn away from their knee, bring your other leg behind and cross over their top of their ankles, and then forward roll over their butt (not their back). Keep rolling and you'll have them in back mount. If you roll more towards their back, you won't be able to roll them over you. Full scenario: Opponent is mounted, and tries to elbow-to-knee escape to the left and only gets their upper left leg out, leaving the rest of it trapped. Turn and lean toward the left, bring your left leg back and cross your left ankle over the top of their ankles. Forward roll over their butt and take the back.

Rolled with Antone, James, and a guy I knew from my first school once. Rolled with another guy that I knew from my first school twice. All of them decent rolls, got caught in stuff a couple of times that frustrated me b/c I should know better. After the rolls, the guy I rolled with twice commented that I was pretty solid, and should learn shin guard (?) b/c of my strengths. James said that I was doing well too and should focus on fighting to get my feet on the hips.

Evening - Valley
Worked on the four KOB escapes:
1. Grab their belt at their right hip with your left hand and the inside of their knee with your right hand, bump high up to get them off balance, shrimp to the left, slide your right leg under you, come up on your right elbow and use your right hand under their foot to dump them as you continue pushing into their hip with your left hand. Move to side control.

2. Bump up, make a C cup with your left hand and push their ankle backwards so that you can hook it over the top of your left ankle. Bring your right knee through to the top of their left thigh, grip their gi under the right knee with your right hand and the side of their upper left arm with your right hand. Pull them over you a bit to get their weight off and then pull down on your left hand while rotating your right hand with their knee over to your left side.

3. Bump up and slide your right knee through so that it essentially traps their right leg. Bring them forward a bit, grip their upper right arm with your left hand and under their left knee with your right hand. Roll them in the direction their knee is pointing.

4. Use left hand under their right knee to post, bump up and pull yourself underneath them. Grab their belt near their right hip with your right hand and their left leg sleeve with your left hand. Pull them toward your hips, then dump them to the right.

One thing to keep in mind is to keep your head on their shoulder for 2 & 3 so that you stay close to them and can end up in kesa gatame.

One roll each with Scott and Gary. I did fairly well against them, but kept ending up in leg lock territory.

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Journey to Pan Ams 2013

I've joined a new BJJ school and after a couple of discussions with the instructor, have decided to throw my hat in the ring for the 2013 Pan Ams. I've been wanting to compete at a large tournament, and if this doesn't fit the bill, I don't know what would.

Currently I'm a one stripe blue, and don't foresee that changing anytime soon. Today I felt like a white belt in class. I'm way outside my comfort zone in this new school as far as technique is concerned. They do a lot of advanced guard work of which I have zero knowledge. My basic survival is ok, but that's all I do, is survive. I feel exactly like I did when I was a white belt years ago. At the end of class today I was sorely tempted to demote myself to white because I felt ridiculously out of my depth. I need to just chill though, and go to class again. And again. And again.