Incredible.................................................................. end of.

New Blue Belt at Factory BJJ!

After much deliberation and an afternoon of hard rolling (around in the snow,) my snowman was awarded his blue belt, by some other snowmen on my street who run a McDojo.

A productive day off work, I'm sure you'll agree.

Snow stops play.

Now here’s a long/short story of just how far-fetched my current enjoyment of training has become.

Factory BJJ is 26.1 miles from my house – according to Google Maps.
We have just had about 8 inches of snow in the area where I live.
I’ve held a driving license approximately 10 weeks and drive a 1.1 Fiesta.

Already you can see that Real Life is doing all it can to make sure I appreciate the time I actually manage to spend within the four walls of the gym.

It takes me ages to get there on a good day, and as a new driver, I’m not the most confident behind the wheel.

Eight inches of snow adds a certain element of danger to this, and I should clearly know what to expect, especially following an afternoon watching countless boneheads sliding up and down our street like it was an oversized curling rink.
Despite warnings from relatives/ friends/ people on the telly/ voices in my head - I want to go training.

Feeling like a budget-Bear-Grylls, I decide to set off early, giving myself a whole extra half an hour to knock the snow off the car and create a little clear track up the drive. Simples.

35 minutes later, my car is finally clear, but the driveway looks like its been untouched by human hand, and the miniscule wheels on my Ford Meander are churning up snow like they’re on commission, with not even a suggestion of forward movement. But I want to go training.

With snow in my shoes and socks, wet legs and a default facial expression like Dolph in Universal Soldier, I spend the next ten minutes knelt on the ground digging out snow from under my chariot.
Only to find that it would still rather stay in sunny Bolton.

Um….. Grit.
I need grit.
Because I want to go training.

After foraging in the shed, grit in hand, I scatter like the village idiot feeding the pigeons. For nowt.
Still no love from any of four potentially forgiving wheels.

As I slowly go snow blind, and the start of training, which is still 26 miles away, becomes imminent, I have a sudden flash of genius: “Twin sister. Never driven in her life – she’ll sort it.”

With said 8-stone sister, cutting a dash in a fleece dressing gown, pushing on the boot, my car finally motivates itself to leave the driveway.

I’m going training.

Approximately two minutes into my 10mph journey, convinced I can almost feel the cold of Factory’s mats through my shoes, nature intervenes and the back end of my car is thrown out on a patch of ice and I skid towards a corner at a glacial pace – hardly moving in real life, but positive in my new-driver-hat that I’m about to eat it like Ayrton Senna in an oversized golf buggy. It’d be worth it for Jiu Jitsu.

After my nowhere-near-death experience, I realise there’s still approximately 25.9 miles of motorway, roundabouts and, God forbid, other drivers to encounter, and it dawns on me there’s no way I’m even going to nearly make it for half seven.

As the Scots would say - Bawbag. I neeeeed to go training.

I aim for the end of the street I started at, hoping that this side is less treacherous. Not as daft as I look, me.
In attempting my well-drilled, go-to panic move (a turn in the road) I successfully mount the pavement, get firmly stuck and set up my very own Miami Vice-style roadblock. Now I’m ready to halt any felons/all my neighbours in their tracks. Ideal.

Cue an awkward 15 minutes of shouting at next-door neighbour and sister as they try in vain to dig/ grit/ push my car closer to my intended destination - and out of the way of the entire population of my street.

Two tea-towels-under-the-front-wheels-later and we’re facing the right way, well past the start of training. I might make it for the warm-down, if I charter a jet.

I’m now yards from my front door, abandoning the car, well brassed-off, the neighbours think I’m a berk, and my belt remains in my bag, undisturbed, unworn and untied.

I text Adam, informing him of my troubles. He replies:

“Fair play. Stay warm dude!”

Now why didn’t I think of that?


Probably because I want to go training.

Fiending for jiu jitsu!!!!

Now I haven't updated this blog for quite some time - nigh on four whole months - and there's numerous reasons for this - all of which relate to the epic perpetual battle between BJJ and real life.
(Broken computers, relocating, busiest time of year at work, blah, blah…excuses)

However, I’m glad to report that one of the roadblocks to my blogging has been training itself.
Having passed my driving test, after countless attempts (I drive like I grapple – eratically) I have actually been able to commit to training a little more, which has meant less time thinking about jiu jitsu and marginally more time trying to actually improve at it.

Over the last sixteen weeks or so, I feel like I have made definite and noticeable improvements in my game – so much so, that I feel I’ve entered a new stage in my Jiu Jitsu – actually recognising what I want to work for, understanding how to go about it and then achieving it

This conceptual progress, although relatively small, has helped me to improve my guard passing no-end, added a few new submissions to my arsenal and seen me able to escape from and consolidate positions with far more success than ever before.

But along with this has come an unwelcome monster – a facet of my personality that can make me irrational, selfish and a complete nuisance - the untameable and unrelenting desire to be in a gi, on a mat, all the time.

I feel as if I have begun BJJ all over again, so to speak - and to a certain extent I have.
Each new sparring session at Factory brings with it a new set of tips from coaches and team-mates, and where I would have traditionally nodded and then immediately failed to implement said hints, I now feel that I’m being given an extra piece of the ever-growing (and never-ending) puzzle – and more importantly – I can see where it fits.

That’s not to say I’m moving on in leaps and bounds – its baby steps all the way – but this gradually evolving understanding of what I’m trying to achieve has renewed the buzz that initially made me stick at Jiu Jitsu in the first place – and there’s no chance of it waning any time soon.

Esther Tang sums it up - Insist!

I was reading Esther Tang's BJJ blog "Postura" and came across this nugget of wisdom:

"My blue belt was defined by the word 'insist'. One of the most important things I learnt as a blue belt was that I had to always insist on positions, believe in them and execute them with a 'full heart'. If I'm going for a pass, keep pressuring until I've established it; if I'm going for a choke keep holding until my opponent taps. Never stop until the position has been conquered."


A perfect quote to sum up my latest aim of staying on top and maintaining the attack.
I don't know Esther, and I hope she doesn't mind my borrowing of her words, but she has eloquently condensed my current vein of BJJ thinking into a single inspirational word. Thanks!

The rest of Esther's blog entry discusses her own approach to applying this in training. Read it!
http://esthertangbjj.blogspot.com/2009/07/insist.html

Stay on top!

I've recently had my eyes opened (through training at Factory) as to what type of Jiu Jitsu player I am.
And it turns out I'm a counter-fighter - usually letting any opponent/sparring partner dictate the positional outcome of any roll - albeit subconsciously - and reacting to their choices rather than insisting on a dominant position.
I had never really thought about my game at this level before - I was just happy to roll, see what my partner did, and look for opportunities.

But having been comprehensively tooled twice in the past fortnight by James Nardone and his trapped-under-the-wheels-of-a-transit-van pressure game, I'm realising that I need to act rather than react and limit people's options.

I play a defensive game on the whole, because in the past I've always been outweighed in training and largely out-muscled, so rather than burn-out in an uneven fight for top position, I've been guilty of being conservative and playing a waiting game from my back.

This has left little room for any real development of my top game, and combined with any opponent whose top game outweighs my defence, I'm left with little in the way of advantage.

After sparring with James, he put it simply: "Your defence is great, but you need to be more pro-active - I didn't feel threatened at all. You need to put the pressure on me and shut my game down."

I suppose its a case of the age-old theory of removing yourself from your comfort zone to progress, but from now on I'll be aiming to stay on top and attack like a B-movie zombie on e-numbers.

For inspiration, I'll be applying the words of Chris Haueter at a recent seminar - "If I find myself on the bottom, it's usually 'cause I've screwed something up."

Improving on bad habits - Escaping side control

Being laid up with an injury is no fun. Having been out of action for almost two months with a trapped nerve in my shoulder, I have, frustratingly, had untold time to reflect on the aspects of my Jiu Jitsu that could do with a nip and tuck.

Unsurprisingly, these are basic nuts and bolts techniques. Bread and Butter concepts.
I’ve realised that throughout my time on the mat, I appear to have picked up some less-than-desirable habits in certain positions, which have left me wide open to attack.

I'm no stranger to mistakes – I make many. At home, in training and invariably, at work. The differences being that at home I have a girlfriend to politely point out my errors.
At work I have 34 pupils eager to revel in my misfortune, en masse.

On the mat, namely in competition, I simply have my opponent. The one person who is in no way keen to lend a helping hand or give a guiding nudge. Unless you count a rear naked choke as a polite pointer.

Evidently I do as little as possible to give an opponent any advantage. Or at least I used to.

These days I’m overly keen to wave a free arm about, half-heartedly shoot for a takedown and give up my back, or explore the rich possibilities of getting choked out after kindly letting an opponent pass my guard.

I’ve noticed several things in this vein which I continue to do even though I’m apparently fully aware of the dangers.
The first of these is in trying to escape an indefinite sentence in side control. Once or twice, I’ve instinctively worked to free my near-side arm from under my foe’s torso, skilfully snaking the offending limb out between their shoulder and head, into perfect position for a head and arm triangle. On myself.

Lord only knows why.

I have successfully managed to apply this technique twice in smaller competitions, to be swiftly and thoroughly tapped with said submission. Bloodshot eyes and spots around the T-zone from a lack of oxygen are fine post-match reminders of this particular foolish move.
The results are illustrated perfectly above - in a shot of Jay Furness expertly exposing my BJJ faux pas.

Thanks Jay.

Having discussed this little cavity in my game, Factory BJJ’s Adam Adshead advised some pointers, some of which are relevant from many positions. These are his wise words:

1. Escape the hips but also the shoulders

Creating distance with your hips is great for trying to retain guard, but canny grapplers will find 1001 different ways to block your hip, stopping you from doing this.

So if you are going to play an escaping the hip game, make sure you're aware of how much people will kill your escape with said hip control.

To supercharge your side control escape, also look at escaping your shoulders as well. The majority of failed side control escapes aren't because of a bad hip escape. Instead they fail because people escape their hips, but then then an opponent just sucks you back in as they have control of your upper body - it's like breaking free from the shackles and trying to escape when you're still handcuffed, you're not going to get too far!

Look at it this way, escaping side control in my view is a two part movement and most people only ever work the first part (hips), so will only get it with brute strength or only manage to capitalise on the mistakes of the person on top. They try again and again and again, inefficiently wasting energy and time when patiently escaping your hips and shoulders will get you out, more successfully.

2. Using head control and the V's of elbows to aid your escape.

Escaping side control can be the hardest part of grappling so although step one is good you'll need some trusty accomplices to help you along the way and this is where head and elbow control come in.

Head control

Using the Galvao bridge, where you place your forearm under their head to one - stop you getting side choked and two - to trigger the bridge escape. Remember work a diagonal bridge with your heels spring loaded close to your backside, then once you've pushed their head across your body, make sure you capitalise by stuffing it away and into the mat if possible.

The benefits of using head control are that it limits their sight, weakens their posture/structure and allows you the space and time to make your escape.

Elbow Control

Using the V's of your hand in the V of someone’s elbow is a great way to take away their ability to pin or regain their control over your upper body.As simple as catching a rat with a forked twig (actually it's a lot easier) you want to ideally pin their arms to their body but as long it's not controlling you, it's all good and will help you escape side control.

Recap

· Keep on your side
· Escape your hips
· Escape your shoulders
· Aid your escape with head control and elbow control
· All can be worked conceptually in no set order and mixing them up will stop you building a predictable escaping game.

I've also been running through this, from Aesopian's instructional section.
Admittedly in my head, as I've been injured, but still..............

http://www.aesopian.com/73/heel-drag-side-control-escape/