So last week it was just me and Andy in gi club. We covered a TON of arm bars, and after a crazy .busy work week, I am going to do a little something different, I am adding a link to a fantastic youtube video by Jason Scully. It is simply astounding how many arm bar entries there are. We covered. a small fraction of these, but I intend to watch this video once a day until I have landed each one at least once. Going to take a while...
Pulled double duty today getting in some rolling with Coach Riley at Alderwood MMA. Worked on some guard passing as well, which was awesome, since I need to work on that big time. First was the cartwheel pass. After opening your opponents guard, keep your hands on the chest, and drop your head to the mat on either side (here we will use the left) using your feet to kick yourself up to nearly a headstand, and while up on your head, twist to the side and land in side control on the side opposite of your head, finishing with under hooking their head with your right arm, and C blocking their legs with your left.
Next was a two arm in pressure pass. I don't know the exact term, so I am using this. You pop their guard open again, using whatever technique you prefer. Swim both your hands inside their legs, clasp them together, and either pull their hips in tight, or run up on them, and stack their hips on top of them, using your chest to create pressure. From here, it is a simple matter of pressing them down, and turning your shoulder until both of their legs are to the side, and you land in side control. From there, all you do is under hook the head and C block the legs and you are past the guard.
Last we worked on something called the combat position. From the opened guard, slide one of your knees up in between theirs, and then slide it across to either side, getting the knee all the way to the mat, while keeping the foot on the inside of the leg, trapping it to the mat. From here you have what is technically called, a shit load of options. To keep it simple, if you bring your knee (right for this explanation) to the outside, you can crawl up to mount, or windshield wiper your legs and slip to high judo or side control. If you go to the inside, you can go right to side control, or flip to low judo. So many options its scary!!
Thank you Riley for a great class, and then it was time for a short trip to Shoreline MMA.
I took part in the tail end of boxing, which involved some bag work, some abs, and many rounds of sparring. With some good sweat going, it was time for grappling.
We began with our usual rolling, shrimping, cartwheels, and other warm ups before getting down to business. We worked a lot on the far side arm bar from knee on belly, which starts from, wait for it.....KNEE ON BELLY! When you are in this position, you have a far side under hook, and it is very uncomfortable for the bottom man, so he shrimps to push your knee off. keeping the far side under hook, cup their head with your free arm, and bring your other leg around to keep the head tucked into their chest. From here, all you have to do, is grab the elbow with your under hooking arm, and spin around to the far side, keeping your foot of the leg that was trapping their head under their body, scoot your hips in tight, and go through your arm bar checklist.
Next we switched to the arm bar from back mount. With a seat belt grip (one over one under) get the under arm hooked deep, use your other arm to cup and push their head away, creating separation of the head and shoulder. Next, release your leg opposite the under hook, and take a couple of little hop steps around towards the under hook, and then lean back, swinging your leg around their head for the arm bar.
We finished with a little rolling, and then some MMA sparring to help Corby get ready for his fight on Saturday. Great (exhausting!) day, and I can't wait for tomorrow!
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Thursday, October 25, 2012
MMA and me; day 271
We continued to work on the S mount arm bar, but we also focused on the arm bar check list, and pulling an arm bar from guard as well. From The bottom, with your opponent in your closed guard, reach across with your left arm, and grab their left elbow, pinning their arms in tight. Open your guard, placing your left foot on the mat, and swivel your head off to the right at a 90 degree angle, keeping the boot on, on your right foot, and pinning it tight against their back, as close to their head as possible.Under hook their left leg with your right hand, and swing your left leg out and around their head, while using your right leg to press them over onto their back. Pinch your knees together, and come around the outside of their far side elbow, lean over to your left as far above their head as you can, and then drop back for the arm bar. You can instead under hook the near side arm, as an alternative to hooking both arms, but I kinda like trapping both, as it prevents them from defending as easily.
We also worked on a step over arm bar from back mount. While standing, bring one of your legs up above the shoulder, keeping the other inside their hip, while facing away from your opponent. With your top side arm, reach inside their near side arm, going elbow pit deep, and securing a rear naked choke grip. Lifting your leg side foot off the mat, tuck your head and front roll, using your foot against their stomach to finish the roll, and as you come to your back, switch to a right under hook and lean up towards the head as you fall back into the arm bar.
Lastly, the arm bar checklist
knees pinched
heels in tight
arm secured with an elbow pit (don't hold it like a...you know)
thumb pointed at the ceiling (or at least put the pressure on the joint, away from the thumb)
hips taking off like an airplane
extend the arm while pulling
If you keep your details precise, you'll likely get the finish before you even get to the end. Another great day of classes!!
We also worked on a step over arm bar from back mount. While standing, bring one of your legs up above the shoulder, keeping the other inside their hip, while facing away from your opponent. With your top side arm, reach inside their near side arm, going elbow pit deep, and securing a rear naked choke grip. Lifting your leg side foot off the mat, tuck your head and front roll, using your foot against their stomach to finish the roll, and as you come to your back, switch to a right under hook and lean up towards the head as you fall back into the arm bar.
Lastly, the arm bar checklist
knees pinched
heels in tight
arm secured with an elbow pit (don't hold it like a...you know)
thumb pointed at the ceiling (or at least put the pressure on the joint, away from the thumb)
hips taking off like an airplane
extend the arm while pulling
If you keep your details precise, you'll likely get the finish before you even get to the end. Another great day of classes!!
Monday, October 22, 2012
MMA and me; day 270
We were back at the arm bar from S mount, and we added a LOT of new wrinkles to it. Starting from mount, you start pressing on their arms, trying to get resistance, which will help push one of their arms across their chest to move up to the S mount. Release the pressure on their right arm, and their pushing back into it will pop their arm up, and by cupping behind the elbow of the right arm, you can shove it all the way across their chest. Now you have to utilize some pressure to keep the arm in place, and the easiest way to do this is to slide your knees up to a high mount, and drop your head to a point on the mat, high above and to right side of their body (your left), using your chest to pin their arm in place. Keeping your chest pressure on, slide your left knee up to a few inches past the top of their head, and flick your left foot out, just a bit, This will help provide stability to straighten out your right leg, for the S mount position, and give you one of your posts to prevent getting bumped off, or swept. Using your left arm, secure an elbow pit deep over hook from the top side (making sure to sit VERY heavy on your right leg across their chest) and lean over just a bit forward and to the right, to allow your left leg to swing around and over their head, as you fall back into the arm bar.
As you fall back, under hook the near side knee (their right) with your right hand, to take away one of their posts, and prevent them from using it to kick free and turn over. One way to hold them down, but still keep pressure on their body, is to relieve your left leg from over their head, and prop it up under the back of their neck with your foot on the mat, like a kickstand. Combining this with a straight press of your right leg will hold them in place, and allow you to continue to work on the arm bar, which you can revert to whenever you want by swinging your left leg back over their head and leaning back. If their hands are clasped, and you cannot break the grip, sit up, and dig your right arm elbow pit deep by digging your wrist bone into their hands, and then driving them towards your opponents head. While doing this, also drop your head to your left, twisting their arm upwards, almost like a key lock. If you still cannot break their grip, dig the heel of your left arm into their far side elbow pit, and kick until their grip pops open. Once it does, X the top of your feet around their far side arm, and even if they do get their hands back together, all it takes is a small series of kicks to pop them back open. One of my favorite things to do from here, is to relieve the left leg from the top of their head after sliding the right leg across their face. This usually gets them to try and sit up, which lets you continue to slide the right leg around their neck into a triangle choke.
We went a little further into the S mount, expanding it into the Z mount, where you curl your right leg under their far side arm, and get to work for all sorts of neck cranks and top side triangles. So from S mount, bring your right heel in tight to their body, while keeping your left knee in tight to their head. Reach your left arm under the crown of their head and grab your shin, or the inside of their arm pit, and from there it's a simple triceps extension to get the neck crank. Now if they try to under hook your right leg with your far side arm, scoop their head up and slide your right foot underneath it, pushing the head all the way into the pit of your knee. Now, all you have to do is roll over your right shoulder, and lock up the triangle. In fact, you can lean forward and secure the triangle from the top side, and then all you have to do is sit back and wait for the tap. If they happen to be particularly tough, you can attack their right arm with arm bars or kimuras as well, good fun!!! Can't wait to get back into the gym this week!!!
As you fall back, under hook the near side knee (their right) with your right hand, to take away one of their posts, and prevent them from using it to kick free and turn over. One way to hold them down, but still keep pressure on their body, is to relieve your left leg from over their head, and prop it up under the back of their neck with your foot on the mat, like a kickstand. Combining this with a straight press of your right leg will hold them in place, and allow you to continue to work on the arm bar, which you can revert to whenever you want by swinging your left leg back over their head and leaning back. If their hands are clasped, and you cannot break the grip, sit up, and dig your right arm elbow pit deep by digging your wrist bone into their hands, and then driving them towards your opponents head. While doing this, also drop your head to your left, twisting their arm upwards, almost like a key lock. If you still cannot break their grip, dig the heel of your left arm into their far side elbow pit, and kick until their grip pops open. Once it does, X the top of your feet around their far side arm, and even if they do get their hands back together, all it takes is a small series of kicks to pop them back open. One of my favorite things to do from here, is to relieve the left leg from the top of their head after sliding the right leg across their face. This usually gets them to try and sit up, which lets you continue to slide the right leg around their neck into a triangle choke.
We went a little further into the S mount, expanding it into the Z mount, where you curl your right leg under their far side arm, and get to work for all sorts of neck cranks and top side triangles. So from S mount, bring your right heel in tight to their body, while keeping your left knee in tight to their head. Reach your left arm under the crown of their head and grab your shin, or the inside of their arm pit, and from there it's a simple triceps extension to get the neck crank. Now if they try to under hook your right leg with your far side arm, scoop their head up and slide your right foot underneath it, pushing the head all the way into the pit of your knee. Now, all you have to do is roll over your right shoulder, and lock up the triangle. In fact, you can lean forward and secure the triangle from the top side, and then all you have to do is sit back and wait for the tap. If they happen to be particularly tough, you can attack their right arm with arm bars or kimuras as well, good fun!!! Can't wait to get back into the gym this week!!!
Thursday, October 18, 2012
MMA and me; day 269
Got into the gym on a wednesday, and was treated to a couple classes I don't normally get to participate in. Kickboxing was first, and after jumping rope, a round of skippies, and a couple rounds of knees and low kicks on kick shields. We moved on to combos on the thai pads, first keeping things simple, then moving on to hitting the ones coach called out that were more elaborate. We did several rounds of that, then moved on to bump drills. We finished with boxer sit ups (and these things kicked my ass!) I tried to keep things simple and light during these drills. Not hitting hard, but trying to be accurate, and consistent. Also, don't get kicked by Corby, it doesn't feel good... :)
In jiu jitsu, we worked on some grappling drills. Some old favorites like the S mount arm bar, positioning drills, and the key lock/straight arm lock/kimura flow. We worked on a very cool version of the S mount drill. We had two people lay 4-5 feet apart face up on the mat, and I would hit the S mount arm bar on one of them, and finish the arm bar on the side that the other person was laying on, then back roll and land in mount on the other person. From there, I hit the S mount arm bar again, but reverse of before, because I had to roll back in the opposite direction to make it back to the first person. I liked this drill a lot, mostly because it forced me to think about where I was in relation to my partners were at all times, and was very helpful in recognizing space.
A good day of hard work in the gym, looking forward to another one tonight!
In jiu jitsu, we worked on some grappling drills. Some old favorites like the S mount arm bar, positioning drills, and the key lock/straight arm lock/kimura flow. We worked on a very cool version of the S mount drill. We had two people lay 4-5 feet apart face up on the mat, and I would hit the S mount arm bar on one of them, and finish the arm bar on the side that the other person was laying on, then back roll and land in mount on the other person. From there, I hit the S mount arm bar again, but reverse of before, because I had to roll back in the opposite direction to make it back to the first person. I liked this drill a lot, mostly because it forced me to think about where I was in relation to my partners were at all times, and was very helpful in recognizing space.
A good day of hard work in the gym, looking forward to another one tonight!
Saturday, October 13, 2012
MMA and me; day 268
Gi chokes are cool, we covered this earlier in the week. They also cause your neck to be rubbed raw from drilling them over and over. Hazards of having jiu jitsu as an interest I suppose. Anyways, we worked on a lot more of them on Thursday. First, we went over the Brabo/D'Arce choke that I had a hard time with on Tuesday, again. From top side control, pull open your opponents jacket, having a big portion of the corner sticking out, and wrap up their far side arm. With your top side arm, reach under their head to grab the hunk of jacket from your other hand, and pull the jacket behind their head. With your bottom side hand free, bring it back to the near side of the body, and swim it under your body to reach up and grab the jacket, now on the near side of their head. Keeping a firm grip on the jacket, swim your other arm underneath the chin to grab behind their far side shoulder, and them simultaneously pull their jacket, while dropping the shoulder of the arm across their throat for the tap.
We next worked a choke from bottom side control. You pull open their jacket to the far side, and feed it around the back of their head to your other hand. You then reach up with your bottom side hand to grab as far behind their shoulder (even grabbing a hunk of gi if you are so inclined) and slide your bottom side knee in between yourselves. Use your knee, and the grips with your hands to leverage them over your body towards your head, to make gravity and body weight do all the work. The cool thing is, if they try and escape and roll over, if you hang on and get to top control, you can lean on them with your weight and still finish the choke!!
Lastly, we covered a couple of old favorites. The clock choke, and the baseball choke from knee ride. We have gone over these many times before, so I will touch on the basics for both.
Clock choke - From mount, get a cross lapel grip, and make it nice and deep on both sides. Flare your elbows out, trying to touch the mat on either side of the head, and round your back to reach your head to the mat, as far above theirs as you can get it. Twist your hands in a motorcycle grip to help tighten the choke.
Baseball choke from knee ride - From the knee ride position, grab a hold of a baseball grip, top side hand with four fingers out of the near side lapel, bottom side hand with four fingers in the far side lapel, and slide the knee to the near side of the mat. From hear, walk around on your knees to the top side of the head, and flare your elbows out (much like in the clock choke) and sprawl your legs back to create more pressure. From here, you really want to shrug your shoulders and implode inward to help finish the choke, and also like the clock choke, motorcycle grip your hands.
Another day come and gone. Another day of rubbed raw skin and cramping hands. I LOVE IT!!!
We next worked a choke from bottom side control. You pull open their jacket to the far side, and feed it around the back of their head to your other hand. You then reach up with your bottom side hand to grab as far behind their shoulder (even grabbing a hunk of gi if you are so inclined) and slide your bottom side knee in between yourselves. Use your knee, and the grips with your hands to leverage them over your body towards your head, to make gravity and body weight do all the work. The cool thing is, if they try and escape and roll over, if you hang on and get to top control, you can lean on them with your weight and still finish the choke!!
Lastly, we covered a couple of old favorites. The clock choke, and the baseball choke from knee ride. We have gone over these many times before, so I will touch on the basics for both.
Clock choke - From mount, get a cross lapel grip, and make it nice and deep on both sides. Flare your elbows out, trying to touch the mat on either side of the head, and round your back to reach your head to the mat, as far above theirs as you can get it. Twist your hands in a motorcycle grip to help tighten the choke.
Baseball choke from knee ride - From the knee ride position, grab a hold of a baseball grip, top side hand with four fingers out of the near side lapel, bottom side hand with four fingers in the far side lapel, and slide the knee to the near side of the mat. From hear, walk around on your knees to the top side of the head, and flare your elbows out (much like in the clock choke) and sprawl your legs back to create more pressure. From here, you really want to shrug your shoulders and implode inward to help finish the choke, and also like the clock choke, motorcycle grip your hands.
Another day come and gone. Another day of rubbed raw skin and cramping hands. I LOVE IT!!!
Thursday, October 11, 2012
MMA and me; day 267
Gi chokes are so much fun!!! We worked on several different ones, and I gotta say, I really dig jiu jitsu in the gi. First, we drilled the whizzer choke. A whizzer is a defensive move in wrestling when someone attempts a take down on you. You over hook their outside arm, and sprawl out. Well that is the very basic, simplified version at least. For the choke, from side control, our opponent will try to under hook your arm with their far side arm. As they do, over hook their arm, and reach for the opposite side lapel, but don't try to grab it too deep, like you usually do with lapel chokes. From here, with your other hand, reach across their neck, and grab as far behind their far side shoulder as you can, while keeping tight pressure on the far side of their neck, and flatten them to their back. From here it's a simple matter of pulling the lapel, and leaning with your forearm for the tap.
Next was the belt grab, which is one we have worked with before. With your opponent in your guard, make an attempt to over hook one of the arms, and while doing so, grab a semi deep grip on the far side lapel. Next, work a little hip bump, like you might think about going for a kimura, and hopefully they will post an arm to keep from falling over. If not, it's not the end of the world. So you get on the hip opposite from the side of the lapel you grabbed, open your guard just enough to reach over their back, and grab their belt. Close your guard back up, nice and tight, keeping the arm across their back bent, and keeping the back of their neck in tight to your arm pit as much as possible. From here you want to pull the lapel towards the arm holding it, pull their belt towards the arm holding it, and twist with your hips away from the belt grabbing arm, while compressing with your legs. It is a very similar motion to a guillotine choke.
Lastly we worked on the Watts choke. This is just a super sneaky, incredibly basic, but effective submission. From having your opponent in your guard, grab a baseball grip on either side of the neck. The baseball grip is thumb in on the left, back of the hand facing the ceiling, four fingers in on the right, back of the hand facing the mat. If you could touch your hands together, it would look like the grip you use to hold a baseball bat. From here, and though it sounds counter intuitive, you let them pass your guard (over your left leg for the grip described), and start walking around to your left, until you can flatten to your belly. You want to stay on the bottom, and keep that grip tight, and you will get the tap. As you walk around and then belly down, you keep tightening, and tightening the choke. It's simple, and very effective.
There was one more that we worked on, but I had some trouble with it, and I am hoping to go back over it tonight. I can't wait to do more work with the gi, it is a ton of fun!!
Next was the belt grab, which is one we have worked with before. With your opponent in your guard, make an attempt to over hook one of the arms, and while doing so, grab a semi deep grip on the far side lapel. Next, work a little hip bump, like you might think about going for a kimura, and hopefully they will post an arm to keep from falling over. If not, it's not the end of the world. So you get on the hip opposite from the side of the lapel you grabbed, open your guard just enough to reach over their back, and grab their belt. Close your guard back up, nice and tight, keeping the arm across their back bent, and keeping the back of their neck in tight to your arm pit as much as possible. From here you want to pull the lapel towards the arm holding it, pull their belt towards the arm holding it, and twist with your hips away from the belt grabbing arm, while compressing with your legs. It is a very similar motion to a guillotine choke.
Lastly we worked on the Watts choke. This is just a super sneaky, incredibly basic, but effective submission. From having your opponent in your guard, grab a baseball grip on either side of the neck. The baseball grip is thumb in on the left, back of the hand facing the ceiling, four fingers in on the right, back of the hand facing the mat. If you could touch your hands together, it would look like the grip you use to hold a baseball bat. From here, and though it sounds counter intuitive, you let them pass your guard (over your left leg for the grip described), and start walking around to your left, until you can flatten to your belly. You want to stay on the bottom, and keep that grip tight, and you will get the tap. As you walk around and then belly down, you keep tightening, and tightening the choke. It's simple, and very effective.
There was one more that we worked on, but I had some trouble with it, and I am hoping to go back over it tonight. I can't wait to do more work with the gi, it is a ton of fun!!
Friday, October 5, 2012
MMA and me; day 265/266
Man alive, it feels good to be back in the gym, getting my roll on. Tuesday, we worked on a lot of neck strengthening, drills, bridges, shoulder rolls, and stretching in plow position to prepare for the work we were doing with the inverted guard. We first partnered up and sat on our butts as our partner stood over us. With one of their legs in between yours, and facing them, you reach under your leg on the inside, and place the back of the hand on the outside of their leg. Next, you shoulder roll over your inside shoulder onto your neck and shoulders, bringing your outside leg to the inside of their opposite side knee, and get your hooks in on both of their legs. Now you can hang out here, work for a take down, or possibly go for a submission, but for the purposes of this drill, we relieved the leg on the side we had rolled from, finished the roll, and ended up in the same position we started out in, just on the opposite leg of our partner. We drilled this for a bit, mixing in take downs from the inverted position, going all around them instead of back and forth, working with our partner on their knees and throwing up a triangle from the inverted position. Very cool stuff. My favorite part of the class, was getting to grapple over the last hour or so. I usually like this part a lot anyways, but this was the first time since my rib injury that I have been able to roll, and it felt awesome! I'm still not at 100%, and due to other small injuries my cardio has slipped a bit, but this was day one at getting back where I need to be. Actually, last night (Thursday) was a day of all grappling.For dang near two hours, I rolled with any and everybody who was willing to get their grapple on. Sore, tired, sweaty, and loving it. So glad to be back, so happy to be a part of the gym again. No specific goals in mind right now, just getting back to where I need to be to start thinking about them. I love this stuff!!!
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