Saturday 13 September 2008

Putting it together and being sneaky

Friday was Ollies 2nd out of the 3 lessons his doing with us till Andy gets back. We did some good work. Before we started the guys and myself were shooting the breeze talking about random techniques, I show them my new enhanced reverse triangle but it isnt on quite right. Ollie quickly corrects me on making sure to get behind their tricep when pulling it in rather than just holding the gi at the elbow. We then go for a nice warm up with plenty of push ups, I think I do something to my big toe as it starts to ache for some reason.

We do some quick sparring starting from within guard, I find it very hard to pull off any sweeps. Not for lack of trying either. My leg breaking really does suck balls. I find myself just avoiding subs and sweeps till they get frustrated enough to open their guard. I get one or 2 armbars which is nice as they have been on the backburner for a while. I teepee a new guy!, what a dick I am. Dont teepee new guys. To his credit I had to do it as he was keeping good posture so I couldnt lock in the triangle. Tried for an omoplata and got it 80% of the way but my friend had to tap out as we were getting into a dangerous situation where it could suddenly just crank on fully very quickly. Problem was is I couldnt properly triangle my legs round the elbow and I was trying to sit up. Always best to be very cautious with these things, our no gi wizard Ryan caught me in an armbar later in the session and I surrendered way before it was straight because I knew he had it and if I let go to tap it would crank on fast.

Back to techniques!

Ollie shows us an alternative grip for holding side control, we practise keeping it and trying to escape it from bottom (this is mauricio side control!, arm closest to their hip is on it, other hand is over the other side of their neck). Its pretty solid. He then shows us a nice transition from this side control into mount, whilst keeping the opponent under control. We practise, I keep on kneeing my friend in the head! :( . But its a really nice transition as you sit right up with your knees under their armpits. Armbar town.

We were then shown another alternative side control grip. This involved sneakily getting your hand into their lapel closest to you, with your fingertips facing up and switching your legs so you are facing them. This completely pinned their shoulder, and actually gave you quite abit of room on top and freed up an arm. I tried escaping from bottom and it just wasnt gonna happen. It didnt rely on top pressure.

Nicholas at Jiu jitsu brotherhood (link in my sidebar), recently made a vid talking about keeping the shoulder pinned to nullify their attempts at escaping side control.



The next thing ollie showed was a very nice choke (larynxe crush?) from this Mauricio side control, very simple. Get your free hand put it in their lapel so your elbow is facing you. Have the grip not to far in and not to loose. Just passed their chin I would say. Then simply put that elbow to the ground, it comes on fast and very strong. Lots of coughing and clearing of throats when we drilled this.

We then do some sparring starting from under side control. I quite like this position for sparring as I feel you can be sneaky underneath if you can find the room. And I also have a plan, as I remember Andy showing a very slick armbar from here.

So we start and I feel for room, I snake about abit trying to get my knee under his chest for the armbar, but instead my far leg ends up on the side of his head. Hang on a mo... other leg triangles my instep and hey presto reverse triangle!. I get his tricep and pull it in while I straighten myself out to make it tight, I get the beautifull feeling of tappery.

I manage another reverse triangle later on, and an armbar from a failed triangle position. One of my buddies mounts me for the win! which I didnt see coming, I was so preoccupied being cocky and looking for the sub I didnt sense him sneaking into position. Beautifull. I put guard back on a few guys, and a few guys also beat me by position.

We go onto full sparring. As mentioned before Ryan armbars me, he also kneebars me but doesnt crank it as his a nice man. Then we had a good spar where I kept side control for a while but he kept mobile and out of danger. At one point I have a good kimura grip but he advances his position and gets himself out of danger.

I spar one of the big guys and he very nearly almost made me tap just from his leg pressure on my ribs from within his guard, he plays a good tight game and sets up an armbar beautifully. He also does a perfect pendelum sweep on me, so good I mentally take notes. I could feel it coming but couldnt do anything about it as he was so tight. Still no sweeps for me today :( . I get to play some knee on belly, toes off the floor, piling on the pain mauricio style. But I dont do it for to long as its mean :P , worked a treat though.

During the night someone kicks me hard in the ear with their heel, it hurt alot and it swells up. And still is abit sore while I write this. I dont fucking want cauliflower ear.

I think I really have to be abit more sneeky with my sweeps, especially now that everyone has been exposed to them, taught them and knows how to do them. I have to make the grips abit less obvious and make sure everything is good before launching it. A few times I went for sweeps today and I just didnt control their arm enough so they just based out, but they were on the ball enough to avoid leaving the arm there for a sub. Sneakyness is the next big step I think, after I tighten everything up abit. Not just in terms of sweeps bit in setting up subs as well, when your mounted you are VERY aware of armbar potential.

Talking of sweeps and things, its time for another sweep of the week!. So this time its the gracefull and soul crushing pendelum sweep.



Its a good thing I rewatched that vid, now I can see how to properly control that arm.

Another great 2 hour lesson from Ollie covering some great new stuff for us, everyone enjoyed it. He gave some good comments on how our clubs structure of sorts is very good for our level, which Ill talk about more in the next post.

(Edited as Oli pointed out I incorrectly labeled the side control variants)

5 comments:

Philpot Lane said...

>>Another great 2 hour lesson from Ollie covering some great new stuff for us, everyone enjoyed it. He gave some good comments on how our clubs structure of sorts is very good for our level, which Ill talk about more in the next post.

Hurry up and put up the next post!

Unknown said...

Just to clarify, the position with the hand on the hip is Mauricio side control, not the collar grip. Or at least in my terminology. ^_^

Take care,

Oli

slideyfoot said...

Nice flower sweep vid: I like the ones from Abhaya and the Grapplers Guide, but this provides another handy perspective.

Main reason I wanted to stick up a comment was to ask a gi question, however. IIRC, you said your first gi was a Black Eagle judo one (if that's the same one?). As I'm thinking of getting back to the judo club at uni, I reckon I could do with another judo gi (so I can do both lessons with a clean gi): was the Black Eagle one any good?

Jadon Ortlepp said...

Yeah that looks like it. Its light, after 10 months ( give or take) Ive got no rips or tears. Main differences from a bJJ gi is the sleeves are abit bigger and the collar thinner. Its quite a light gi.

Only annoying issue Ive had with it is that it shrank a fair bit on me. But I still find it good to use every week. I wore it in my Brighton comp vids so you can see it there, if you wanna get an idea on the shrinkage and dimensions. Its an A2.

It is cheap mind you, so I would say its good value for money.

slideyfoot said...

Cool - do you remember if you washed it on a high heat, or spun dry it much? Though I could probably handle a bit of shrinkage, as I prefer a fairly tight fit anyway.