26/8/17: Patello Jiu Jitsu (nogi)

Today was my first session at a newly established BJJ club in Chessington called Patello Jiu Jitsu. The teacher is Master Rodolfo Patello was is currently the rank of 3rd degree black belt. The club is full of great people wanting to learn and support and they could not have been more welcoming and friendly.

WARM UP
15 minute jog followed by stretching and mobilising routine of the main joints and muscle groups.

DRILL
The focus at the moment is submissions from side control and chaining them together in a series.
Person A starts in turtle as Person B side back control. From here Person A grips to the body (using the upper arm) Peron B's arm and rolls for the sweep and move into side control. Each submission always started in side control.

The series was:
Americana (Back of his palm down, elbow to hip) pull the elbow tight to his hip the lift off the floor ensuring that the back of the palm stays on the floor.

Arm bar: stretching the arm long perpendicular to their body and sliding your forearm under the elbow as the fulcrum.

Kimura: (palm of his hand down, palm to the same plane as his shoulder) Have it tight then step a foot over the head to raise the shoulders off the floor then rotate to put the torque on their shoulder.

Arm bar: secure the far side shoulder and upper arm, pull it into their centre (as much as it will go), put the head side palm down next to their head (far side) as you step up with the same side foot on the near side of their head. Continue the motion by sitting around and over the head and placing the stepping foot tight to and under their lat and leaning back with the arm for the arm bar.

Head and arm: they go to defend and escape by using an arm to move your head. Help them by continuing the motion and pushing it with your left then putting the right side of your head on their upper arm. Left arm slides under their head and feeds into the crook of the right arm as apply pressure to the forehead with the right palm. Once secure, knees slide the right shin across the belly followed by the left. However, ensure pressure through the legs on their hips or lower abdomen. Now on the other side of their body, bring the near side hip and through. Your legs will look like you’re in scarf hold control. From here, hug into yourself to finish off the submission.

SPAR
4 rounds, each lasting 10 minutes. Yes, I had forgotten the exhaustion, the pain and grind on the body, the discomfort, the post rolling shakes as the muscles were so depleted. My focus today was about trying to stay relaxed as possible, breath awareness and control and endeavouring to flow. In addition, if something was not there, then moving on. I also forgot how thoroughly addictive live grappling sparring is. What a bloody buzz.


DRILL
Going back over the series of submissions from side control taught earlier in the class.

Class notes; 23/2/15 pushing beyond your limits

Milzy took the class tonight.

Warm up was push ups, sit ups, squats and sprawls.

Knee tap sparring, sprawl when the back of your knee is tapped.

Elbow extension drilling from centre control (mount).

Elbow extension drilling from bottom control (guard).

Escaping the bottom control drilling.

Fighting with gloves on to escape bottom control, bottom control can submit x2 rounds.

Greco takedowns - hips and above.

Freestyle wrestling takedowns then pin for 3 seconds

Takedown from the knees to shoulder pinning.

Free form grappling x3 rounds.

I called this pushing beyond your limits as this was the most exhausting session I have had in many years. As I type my forearms feel like jelly, my head feels like it is till stuck in a vice and sunburned at the same time. But without hardship, challenge and struggle there will be no progress.

In the words of the great Sam Elliot, playing Wade Garrett in Roadhouse (possibly one of the finest 80's mullet-laden movies) "I'll rest when I'm dead", well I am at least half way there and have no plans to rest yet!

class notes: submissions from centre control

Free form warm up

Side control escapes drilling x 4 individual and then chaining them in sets of 3
1: knee escape
2: hip up and roll
3: swim under the lat and swim out
4: inverted under the belly spin and escape

Submissions from centre control (mount)

Leg suppression (triangle)

Not quite the way Lee showed but the final finish is the same





With fist suppression (pulse side of the neck) from triangle

Fist choke (fist to centre of throat) from triangle

Here is a video of Lee finishing from his back but a main theme from tonight was translation of mount attacks to bottom control position



Shin choke (gogoplata)

Elbow extension (arm bar)

Here is video Lee created showing the shin choke to elbow extension



Submission from side control: downward shoulder rotation with leg trap on the head

Attacks from centre control (mount) translate to bottom control (guard)

Free form grappling

Eyes closed grappling for position and submission

class notes: GSP's takedowns and side control submissions

GSP's takdowns chaining

Lee has done extensive research and found the following pattern or theme to his takedowns.

Double leg
Single leg drag
Knee pick and drive
Shoulder drive

We looked at chaining them as a series but also as possible individual takedowns. I guess we need to be solid with each one. If each one works then use it but if not it can set up the next one. The subtle thing about this series is just that, each one leads to the next.




Submissions from inverted side control - using the legs.

inverted side control whilst holding your own leg

switching positions from side to inverted

Elbow extension by hooking with the top leg

Shoulder rotation

Elbow extension as he escapes the shoulder rotation by crossing the legs

Attacking the elbow extension straight away from inverted by hooking your ankle over the wrist

free form with Craig and Patrick (beared)
This was my first roll with Patrick and was, with all the lads at Promai, most enjoyable and a great learning experience. For me tonight I learned not to panic as Patrick went for knee bar after knee bar. He also gave me great feedback on with my inner forearm choke from bottom control did not succeed. Verbal feedback is a key part of the learning process for me and will help me to limit the mistakes of today the next time I am on the matts.

Class notes: creative takedowns, chaining escapes and submission attacks from your back.

2 takedowns to counter the single leg:
As inspired by the recent Invicta 10 card, we looked at a couple of takedown when the opponent is initiating a single leg takedown.

scissor leg takedown:



Sit and roll:



Chaining escapes from side control:
hip up: block an arm/elbow, thrust your hips up as you push him up and away. Essentially create a gap between you and him.

knee replacement: get those hips moving and slide a knee in for a half butterfly bottom control (guard).

pummel under for lat grab: create the space to come under his arm with your head to reach around and grab the lat to get to side back control.

spin out: the following might sound complicated but is much easier in practise... You need to watch the third escape on this video:

http://www.howcast.com/videos/501860-How-to-Do-3-Side-Control-Escapes-MMA-Fighting

Chaining submissions from bottom control (guard)

downward shoulder rotation (double wrist lock) to
leg and shoulder suppression (triangle) to
elbow extension (arm bar)

Head and torso positioning is key to being successful in these submissions. My partner Craig reported that things were much tighter, especially the elbow extension when I was perpendicular to him.

Free form grappling: Tried to 'let go' tonight and not go for my favourite attacks - leg and shoulder suppression (triangle), bicep and shoulder suppression (head and arm choke). Instead I was trying to be more creative. I found the shin choke (gogoplata) after failing to secure the elbow extension. Something in me clicked as I remembered a video Lee had posted about that very technique.



Mine was slightly different in that I slid the shin across the neck as moving to centre control (mount) and then cradled the back of my partner's head to create a compression style finish. I also managed to get an elbow extension from what felt like no where. I also played with attacking the legs to create a scramble. True to form, myself included, when the legs are attacked I try to recover them straight away. So by going for the legs makes your partner move and maybe open new possibilities of movement and attack.

Eyes closed grappling: develop feel. Most people had similar weights to their partner, mine was a 20kg deficit not in my favour. But it enabled me to think about my body, what i could and could not move, where I could or could not create gaps.

All against all grappling: fun chaos

I will end with a quote I saw on the internet recently.

People often quit because they are making slow progress. They fail to recognise that this is still progress.

Ronda Rousey's arm bar set up

http://www.mma121.com | In this video you will learn how to do one of the Elbow Extension (Arm Bar) set ups that Ronda Rousey used on Miesha Tate in their bantam weight title battle at Strikeforce. This was the first of two arm bars that Ronda Rousey went for in the fight, she almost won it with this one but Miesha Tate managed to escape despite her arm being badly hyper extended. This Arm Bar set up started when Miesha Tate was doing up kicks towards Ronda Rousey before Ronda span past the legs and took a knee on belly position and cleverly held on to the leg while going for the submission. It's a great set up that can be used in MMA or BJJ but it does leave some defensive opportunities because of the knee on stomach start position.



www.promai.com/mma

Arm bar to triangle choke

http://www.mma121.com | In this video you will learn how to switch your attack to a Leg Suppression / Traingle Choke when your opponent defends the Elbow Extension / Arm Bar. It's very common for an opponent to defend the Arm Bar by pulling their arm back through the hips before the submission is locked in. When this happens there is an opportunity to retain control and chain the submission into a Triangle Choke. This requires the person applying the submission to think ahead, react fast and control well with the legs.

This submission combination is great for chaining together in MMA competition or BJJ matches



www.promai.com/mma

Arm bar with your legs

http://www.mma121.com | In this video you will learn how to apply an Elbow Extension (Arm Bar) From Invert Side Control (Scarf Hold). This is an advanced submission attack that also gives you great opportunities to strike once the leg trap is achieved. The finish is quite difficult because it requires an acute understanding of the angles needed to finish the arm bar submission and you need to feel these angles through your legs. But it's a low risk attack that can be incredibly effective if you get it right.

An advanced submission that's great for MMA competition and BJJ matches.



www.promai.com/mma

Class notes: elbow and ankle extension, inner forearm and bicep suppression

Elbow extension (arm bar)
Overhook an arm.
Stand on the foot so the foot is under the shoulder and near the head.
Swing other leg over the head.
Sit hips close to his shoulder and pull the arm up.
Keep his elbow tight to your chest.
Squeeze knees together.
Lie back with his arm wrapped, push the knees and heels down.
Now lift the hips.

The following videos just because the quality of her rolling and set ups are outstanding.



Inner forearm and bicep suppression - the bulldog and ninja choke

More details to follow. Lee made a video going through thme.

Ankle extension (straight ankle lock)

Lee talked about several steps of the ladder to get a secure ankle extension:
Wrap the lower leg so the top of the foot is against your lat.
No gaps between you and his foot and the wrapping of the foot.
Place the wrapping hand high on your chest to close the gaps.
Use the bones of the forearm on the Achilles area.
Squeeze the knees together.
Fall to either side.
look 'up'/away by arching.
Common errors are when people lie straight back - this leads to a much greater percentage that the submission will fail.

Dean Lister's approach:


Lister talks about tightness.

Stephan Kesting's 3 common errors:


The fist 2 applied to our learning: no gaps and squeeze the knees together.

How to...


Key tips from this clip are the tightness and going to your side.

Post class I was talking to Lee. One of the tips was about open legs. In UFC 1 Ken Shamrock beat Pat Smith with an ankle submission.

As you can see his knees are miles apart. I do remember him having to adjust to a modification as it never worked first time, probably as Lee said, the knees weren't tight. He then appears to turn it into some type of ankle rotation.

The fight begins at 33.07. Decide for yourself and see how far the technical quality of the sport has evolved over the 20+ years.

http://vimeo.com/45287348

The whole main card is on this video