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 16/3/15: Top control escapes and fighting from disadvantaged positions.

Escapes from top control (mount)
First 3, practise in any order for a few rounds then looked at chaining any 3 motions together. Time to explore and experiment. The first 2 attempts 'fail' and the 3rd is a successful escape.
1: hip up and roll (blocking the arm in the direction you want to roll them).
2: hands on hips and lower knee out to full leg trap.
3: hand under armpits to elevate (as if you are sliding under them).

Technique 4: shrimping. This was practised as a solo drill moving around the floor then with our partners.

Other combination escapes from top control:
Elevation escape - they sit back - use this momentum to push on his hips for the shrimping escape.

Hip up and roll escape - drop hips to the floor and fall to the side and shrimp out. We did this in without our partners to drill the motion then with our partners.

Reversal from bottom control (guard) using the shoulder and bicep suppression (head and arm triangle):
Pass an arm across your centreline, sink in the bicep and shoulder - maintain control with your arms and head as you scoot the hips out from underneath him. You need to lower his centre of gravity from off you to make the several as smooth and efficient as possible. Whichever arm is passed across his centreline, that is the way his base is weak and therefore the way you will be reversing him. If right arm is across his centre that means I will be rolling to my left. Hips out to the right lie on your side - work the right foot into his inner thigh - maintain the leg position - now move the left elbow to the floor and pull your head out - he should rotate on to his back. This was quite tricky to get but for me, one the head was being pulled out then the reversal seemed effortless. Before then I was trying to elevate with my leg, wrench the reversal. The key seems to be that his being pulled out. When reversed you end up in side control (on top).

Free form sparring:
Rolled with Mishel, we tangled for time over a downward shoulder rotation (him on top and me underneath).

Limited positional sparring:

One person has to keep their back on the mat, other can go to any position. If the person on their back escapes then switch. Both can look for submissions.

One person starts with sitting back control, can move to any orientation so long as back control is maintained. Th gaining of a submission signals the end of the round and switch.

No arm control: anything goes except no manipulation or control of the arms allowed, going for the submission.

Sprint sparring - normal pace then 3 rounds of 20-second high intensity motion, dominance and submission if possible. Almost Tabaata protocol, almost.

Class notes 9/3/15 leg submission focus

Wall wrestling into takedowns:
Person with back against the wall defends, attacker attempts to get the takedown. Head pressure is key as is a positive spine. If he drops his head, don't match it; either get on top of his shoulders and neck or change levels and drop to attack his knees and hips whilst maintaining correct posture and structure.

Ankle extension against sitting back control:
Sitting on the floor, partner takes your back and wraps his legs around your body, feet resting at groin crease. He makes the error of crossing his legs at the ankles. Pull his feet away but keep them crossed and over hook your same side leg as the leg he has on top. Lever your knee to the floor as you raise your hips fro the finish.

Ankle rotation from side control into 3 variants:
Basic:
Side control - he defends the pass by crossing his legs - reach with the head side arm for the outside edge of his foot the is crossed on the knee. Insert your other hand as if to DWL the ankle - turn his ankle towards his chest for the rotation finish.

Square to him:
As above but move so that you're facing him with his shin across your belly, finish by turning that little toe towards his chest.

Sitting on his leg:
As above bit sit on the leg that is not being controlled. This will greatly limit his ability to move or escape.

Fake the ankle rotation to set up for full mount:
Lee said this was something Rickson used to do attack the foot in side control, as if going for the submission, his opponent would feel this and pull the leg away thus setting themselves up to be easily passed from side control into centre control (mount)

Knee extension from side control:
Person on their back recovers for a full leg trap (half guard) - press down on the face to stop the body turning - step over and sit on his torso - underhook his knee and hug it to your chest - keeping it tight lean back and lie next to him (bring the leg with you) - squeeze your knee together - head next to his foot - look back over your head as you push your hips for the finish.

Calf compression from side control:
Lee did this to me several weeks ago, it took two weeks for the bruising to go down after the 2 days of swelling on the leg!)
Find yourself in a similar position (sitting on his belly as above) - underhook the leg behind the knee so the hand is just past. You want ultimately to rotate the wrist bones into the top of the calf. Before the rotation you need to trap his leg, fall to your side, figure four your legs then turn the wrist for the finish. This one is tricky for me to articulate, I can visualise it just struggle to put it down into words that make sense.

Free form grappling x3 rounds

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.