Posts Tagged ‘Members’

BJJ

Codz ran us through a warm up with a few differences including wheel barrow races to get those arms going.

Warren continued our charge through the blue belt syllabus with figure 4 from guard, from mount and in side control.

We drilled 50 times each side the movement from guard. From the open guard, shifting onto our side gripping the wrist. Sitting up and reaching over the shoulder and back under the arm we are already gripping. Grasping our own wrist and forming the “figure 4” then sitting back, cutting with our leg on the same side over their back to prevent them rolling. We got the tap once and then focused on repping out the positional shifts.

After that we moved to mount and drilled the top figure 4 50 times on each arm alternately. Using straight and locked arms we pushed our opponent’s arm to the floor, slipped our arm on the side under theirs and gripped our own wrist in the figure 4. Then we pulled the lock down into position by our knee before applying the torque for the tap. Again we didn’t get the tap just the position after first one.

Then we moved to side control. We started as if we had already locked the top figure 4 and they straightened their arm out of it. Our goal was to control their transition and, at the right moment, apply an arm bar then as it moved through the full rotation to the down facing position we pulled our arm through and applied the bottom figure 4. We drilled this 50 times as well.
With the bottom figure 4, it is necessary to switch our knee over their head and pin them down in order to apply the tap.

We then rolled two quick rounds to finish the class

MMA

Unfortunately I couldn’t make this class but Mark had them getting out the Thai pads as I left so I am sure it was awesome. It always is if I don’t go…

Cam D

BJJ

Dane’s summary of training on face book which made me laugh:

Tonight’s training summary:
• Arm dips ’til your triceps fail
• Top Mount to Arm bar x 30
• Basic sweep x 100
• Knee Ride to Arm Bar x 100…
• There, saved you a novel Cam!

He glossed over the rest of a very tough warm up before the arm dips…

In thinking about last night’s training, technically the above sums it up, but, what was Warren trying to teach us?

I think

1. Strength and endurance matter
2. Correct technique is good, lots of reps of technique is AWESOME!

Warren talked about body memory, getting your body to learn the movements so they become automatic, happening without your brain controlling every little part of them. When you first start to drive you think about every movement of your hands and feet on the controls and watch the road consciously examining every thing. Once you have driven a lot you don’t think “foot off accelerator, foot on clutch all the way down, move the stick” etc. You just think “I want to go up this hill faster” and your body does whatever it needs to do to make that happen, adjusting gear changes and everything else to get you where you want to go. In BJJ, Warren is telling us that we can train our bodies to do the thinking for us while we start thinking big picture not individual movements.

MMA

We did 3 2min rounds to warm up. We were shadow boxing all our techniques with Warren calling “Shoot” (shoot as if for a take down), “Sprawl” (as if to prevent a take down), “Backs” (as if we have been knocked down or stumbled to the ground) intermittently.

After that we rolled no-gi for most of the class in 5 minute rounds, two rounds positional work only, then submissions.

Warren stopped us and showed us an escape from half guard which we then drilled in pairs to end the class.

The escape was, as you snag half guard you shoot your arm closest to their centre around the legs and hug it to your body tight, scrunching yourself as close as possible to your opponent. You have to stay tight to avoid the under hook counter. Then, as they scramble, wait for the right moment and grab the outside of their other foot down near the toes and pull it into their other leg. Then bridge and roll at the right time, bringing them over onto their back and scramble for side control.

Cam D

BJJ

Warren got us started with a tough warm up. There was a lot of jumping press-upping and crunching with some burpees thrown in for good luck. After simmering us nicely though this stage he finished us off with shrimping drills.

Tonight Warren started us on the fast review of the blue belt syllabus. We drilled for the whole class. With a large chunk of the class still learning these fundamental patterns, we covered Top Control drill, Basic Guard drill, Basic Circuit and Mount to Back Drill.

We worked on each of these individually, switching sides, then drilled through them all from the start again with our partner. It was a long, hot, tiring class but it felt great to work really hard on building a strong foundation. I refined a lot of what I was doing and even better pushed the reps and worked hard to keep the form and technique good. There’s nothing like the satisfaction of doing a technique well and with the minimum effort while really knackered.

To clarify the drills:

Top Control Drill
Starting from short-base side control (SB side control) knees to hip and shoulder, elbow to head and hip weight on our chest down on our opponent. From there, we move our right hand to the near hip to stop our opponent pulling guard and we base out to side control. Our legs are sprawled hips to the floor, we are up on our toes weight driven down through our chest onto our opponent. We then base in again and establish SB side control and then back to side control. Then we walk our legs around to north south position, keeping our weight down on our opponent at all times. Then we base in, arms over the top of their arms and weight still down hard. We then base out and move clockwise round to the other side and then base in to SB side control. Base out, and then switch base, bringing our leg closest to our opponent’s head through under the other one, shifting our weight onto our hip, placing our knee next to our opponent’s hip. Our outside leg is posted at 90 degrees and our knee is pointed at the ceiling ready to move to mount and bracing against our opponent’s hip. We then reach across and grab the pants at the far knee and pull the leg toward us. This allows us to shoot our leg across more easily, stomping our foot down to aim for a solid base. Then we transition to mount. From mount, we put our left elbow onto the right side of their head and then drop our left hip to the floor, then we move our leg rapidly to a switch base position. We finish by switching back to side control. That is one circuit.

Having written that one in lots of detail, for the sake of time and to try and create the possibility that you actually read this, these next ones are the short version.

Basic Guard Drill
Starting with one person in mount, the person on the bottom completes bridge trap and roll. From in guard then you pass guard using the basic pass, move to side control and regain mount. Moving through this twice allows the circular drill.

Basic Circuit
Starting from being in full guard, you pass guard using the basic guard pass to side control to short base side control. Then the person on the ground does escape from side control and pulls full guard again. This drill allows one person to practice guard passing and the other to practice escaping side control and regaining guard.

Mount to Back Drill
Starting from mount, the person on the bottom bridges to the left, the right and then forward. The person in mount posts correctly for each of these and then floats their right leg to create a little space, the person on the bottom rolls to their side and is put in side mount by their opponent. From there the bottom person rolls to their knees and their back is taken by their opponent, hooks in. Then they roll the person over to their master side and control them fully.

MMA

We did a full class of no-gi grappling in rounds. The first two rounds just position and the last two we wore gloves and added light strikes to integrate them with our submission game.

Cam D

BJJ

Mark took us through a basic warm up and then introduced the first technique for the class, The Lapel Half Nelson Choke. He explained that this is that last technique to finish our run through the blue belt syllabus that we have been doing over the last couple of months.

The choke is done from sidemount but we started from mount. This allowed us to get the feel for giving our opponent some space and letting them roll into a side position for us to take sidemount. As they rolled, our first priority is to under hook the near arm. This is a starting position that lets us control our opponent and presents us with several possibilities to exploit depending on our opponent’s response.

In the situation of the half nelson choke we have a good under hook but maybe not a perfect locked down control of the arm. Using the under hooking hand we grab the near (or top) lapel a fist distance or so down from their jaw and pull the jacket open. Sliding our left hand around and under the head, we feed the top lapel into it. Our top hand is still under our opponent’s arm and we slide it on top and behind our opponent’s head. Then we pull back and up with our bottom hand and press down on the back of the head with our top forearm in a scissoring motion bringing the choke on as the lapel wraps around the throat and neck.

We drilled this and then Mark got us to work from mount, to sidemount, to back control, making sure to get our seatbelt grip and applying the back choke as described in more detail here. We defended the attacking hand and used the resistance to tighten the choke before applying it.

He then got us to do a drill where the defender went 30% resting and getting the attacker to apply the technique appropriate to the opportunities presented. Those of us that knew the arm bar relevant to the situation could do that technique as well. This drill is all about practicing seeing the opening and grabbing the opportunity to apply a technique.

We then rolled for 30 minutes to finish the class. Next week Mark told us we we’ll be running through all the techniques in the blue belt syllabus and seeing what people know, so revise your techniques and be ready.

MMA

We started off doing grappling to warm up, light work with gloves on to get the feel for it.

Warren walked us through escape from mount and guard while being ground and pounded.

First he walked us through the elbow escape from mount. Those of us on the bottom then got to shell up while keeping our head off the floor, while our partners gave us reasonably firm ground and pound to make us feel the strength of the shell and add realism to the escape.

From that position we first did bridge trap and roll. In this MMA variation we made sure we shelled up and then bridged hard throwing our opponent forward. Reaching back and linking our fingers around an arm, we waited for them to move it back and then sucked it hard into our chest. We then waited for them to try and sit up or withdraw the arm and then bridged hard straight and then rolled over into the guard position.

The next variation was the person in guard then sat up and landed shots on the person holding them in guard while they shelled up protecting themselves. While shelling, they pulled their opponent forward and down with their legs and, when they fell forward, controlled them with double over hooks. Then we broke our guard, shuffling our butt back to create space. Using our legs still in open guard, we wrapped our feet under our opponent’s shins and used that control to stretch them out flat. We then unhooked our right leg pulled it back and under our opponent’s leg, inserting our hook under their knee. Pulling our knee towards our head and taking their weight off the floor, we then rolled to our right, sweeping them over and putting us in mount again.

We drilled this cyclically for a while.

Then Warren demonstrated elbow escape from mount. In MMA we are being punched by our opponent so you are a lot more cautious about protect yourself than a grappling tournament. So while shelling we bridged hard then used our elbows to shove our opponent into a low mount. From there, we insert our elbow between their knee and our body and then shrimp to our side, pushing with our body away from our elbow and at the same time bringing our same side knee up to meet our elbow. This pops our leg out on that side. In the first version of this we fully cleared our leg out and then switched to our other hip allowing us to pull our other leg out, switching our hips back to clear the leg completely and regain full guard.

Version two had us leave our hook under the back of their knee and then switch hips to get the other hook in. Getting double under hooks with our arms, we can then pull our opponent’s weight forward onto us using our hooks and arms and then sweep them over.

This was a really great class for some core technique which is essential knowledge for MMA, but also for the fundamentals of hip movement and creating space which are so core to a BJJ approach to MMA.

Cam D

Ok, so I haven’t managed to make it to a seminar yet for various reasons so today was my first experience of one. Will-Machado black belt Geoff Grant from GSW in Wellington came up to the humidity of Auckland to teach us some new techniques, but more importantly developing our ways of thinking and being while doing BJJ. A lot of them Mark and Warren have told us before but today they were highlighted really clearly in the middle of having a crack at very advanced technique that contained animal words like Anaconda and Spider, as well as descriptors like spinning, inverted and triangle.

A lot of today though I felt like the real lesson was learning how to learn BJJ.
Starting with basic understanding of what it is in brief terms and then teaching us what frame of mind and body we need to be in, in order to learn technique effectively and develop our overall game.

These are some of the ideas Geoff talked about that are standing out to me at the moment.

Almost the first thing Geoff talked about was Basics vs. Fundamentals. These are different. Basic is like a Basic figure 4 from mount, it’s a straight forward version of the technique and is one of the early things you learn. Fundamentals are the underpinning little things your do which, when added together, result in achieving control of your opponent: e.g. how you shift your weight, position your hips, hip escape or move from one position to another keeping your weight down but still moving lightly. If you master these fundamentals, then submissions and other techniques, basic or advanced, flow from that control.

The idea that was emphasised over and over again by Geoff was Flow. Being relaxed in rolling is something I have fought very hard to learn since starting BJJ under the guidance of Mark and Warren. Geoff re-emphasised this idea and the way it applies to your learning in BJJ and your technique in rolling. Flowing techniques as you learn them means not being herky jerky or trying too hard to push through a technique or finish the submission, it’s about slowly and smoothly getting it right step by step, flowing from one step to another. It’s also about making sure you are applying the technique for the tap the first couple of times and then working through the grips and positions that resulted in the tap with out worrying about getting the tap. Slow, smooth flowing reps and lots of them is the best way to learn and get really good at it.

This is the math of it according to Geoff (paraphrased by me)

Flow = good BJJ
Flow + speed, strength = AWESOME BJJ
Jerky, poor technique + speed and strength = Munter with jerky poor technique

From the very start of the day, Geoff told us we were going to do stuff way over our level, crazy messy Rigan stuff that would be hard and probably impossible to pull off rolling. The point was to bust us out of our boxes…to have a crack at this stuff and see what we get, what we don’t get and what new paths to techniques we already do get opened. He was teaching us the mindset of training, try stuff, think, reflect on what you learned from what you got; examining what works for you and developing your game. These are questions we can use for all our rolling not just the things from this seminar.

The last point I will discuss here is the idea of your own game. I had understood this from classes so far and at an instinctive level about what I liked about BJJ. Geoff really solidified this for me. One of the core concepts of BJJ is that BJJ uses what works and not what doesn’t. At a personal level this means we work on a technique to find out how it works for us, with our body shape and abilities. We are not cookie cut physically and in BJJ it’s not expected that our technique and strategy will be the same as everyone else’s. It’s also our responsibility not our instructor’s to work this out, to analyse what’s working and not working for us. Sure we can go to them and say hey X is not working for me at point Y in this technique, but is up to us to have figured that out and go and ask, not to put the responsibility on them by asking “what do I need to work on”. This means that in training we find people that are good at what we’re bad at and learn from them and we find people that are good at what we suck at defending and roll with them.

The techniques we did today I am sure we will all be having a crack at pulling off in rolling, but what we really learned was how to posture ourselves to learn effectively, how to be effective in our technique, and to take responsibility for learning and developing our own game.

Cam D

BJJ

We started out with light positional rolling to warm up.

Then Warren picked up where he left off on Tuesday, quickly running through what we had done then, and went on to show us how the far side arm bar fitted within the game plan from the knee ride position.

We partnered up with the first side starting with revisiting knee ride position. Then Warren took us step by step through the technique.

From the knee ride position we make sure we are putting our weight firmly down on our opponent, trying to get a reaction from them we can work with. We use the far side arm bar when our opponent uses their free (far) arm to push on the knee that’s crushing their stomach. As soon as they present that arm, we let go with the rear hand that was holding the pants leg (or elbow in the nogi technique) and shot it under the arm they are attacking our knee with, gaining strong under-hook grip. We then pull up on that arm, letting go of our grip on the near arm, and partially stand up while still keeping our weight low. We continue while doing this motion, to pull our opponent onto their side, using the far arm we have under hooked, until they are against the shin of our leg closest to their feet. We then in one motion kick our leg closest to their head all the way around their head and down to the small of their back in a circular movement, pivoting on our other foot. Once there, we apply the knee squeeze and sit back to arm bar, making sure to keep our butt as close to our opponent as possible.

After drilling the technique in steps, we ran all the way through it to the count. 5 on both sides and then they did 5 on each side 1 for 1. Having completed these reps the first side swapped out and we did it all again. I found that it was great to do the continuous repetitions; you could really start to get the movement flowing without over-thinking it.

We then rolled for 45 minutes in 5 minute rounds to finish the class with a lot of people working on their technique with Sunday’s ICNZ Contender in mind.

We are all looking forward to the Geoff Grant seminar this Saturday as well! It’s going to be a great weekend!

MMA

Tonight Mark decided that we would work on our take downs and grappling to help those of us competing tune up for ICNZ Contender. We spent the first half of the class doing 5 minute rounds with different partners doing 1 for 1 take down techniques lightly, refining and practicing the take downs we knew.

The second half we went to full grappling rounds but standing up again after a couple of minutes if no submission had been achieved. This was great for those of us with less experience to practice putting it all together from standing, as you have to in competition.

A great class for learning more about what you already knew tonight. Good luck to everyone who’s competing on Sunday!

Cam D

Good luck to the Crew from Submission who will be competing in ICNZ’s Contender Series 2 Tournament on Sunday.  Special mention to Andrew who is coming up from Porirua Submission to enter the Auckland Comp!

BJJ

A solid warm up started the night, with our legs and arms getting a good work out.

Tonight Warren explained that we have been working through the blue belt syllabus on Tuesdays for the last couple of months and that soon we would have completed it and there will be training reviewing it all.

With that in mind tonight we did knee ride position, near arm bar from knee ride and then setting up a situation where you can apply a choke or a near side arm bar depending on the response of your opponent.

We started in short base side control. We then made a bit of space between our knee closest to our opponent’s head, which allowed us to slide our left hand in and grip the opponent’s gi just above the elbow. Then we moved our right hand and put it on the floor next to our opponent’s hip and used it to post up and slide our knee into position on the centre of their stomach. As we did this we were popping up, putting our full weight on our knee, sliding our left leg out to post lightly and keeping the toes of our right leg off the floor. We maintain the grip on our opponent’s near arm pulling up, lifting their shoulder off the ground. The other hand grips their pants at the far knee, again pulling up, lifting their leg off the floor and adding our weight down. Warren pointed out that, in this position it’s important to look up keeping your back straight and your weight focused down on your opponent. After explaining this he channelled Cath and Kim and repeated “look at moi, look at moi, look at moi” over and over again.

After drilling us through getting and holding the position, Warren demonstrated the near side arm bar from the knee ride. From the knee ride position we stepped our leg closest to their head over their head and then slid our other leg up so our lower leg is against their arm, while still kneeling on our opponent. Then, squeezing our legs together, we slid down their arm and moved back into the arm bar. Keeping our opponent’s arm with the thumb pointed at the ceiling, we lifted our hips and applied the arm bar.

Here’s  Nick Ovens using a version of it to win a fight in a Gi comp last year. Yes, you did just see that pure awesomeness.  credit to Mel for the music (or is that a disclaimer from me….).

We also drilled the no-gi version of this, where you get a hold on your opponent’s wrist instead of gi and then control the elbow of the raised arm with the other hand.

For the last setup, we worked on creating reaction from our opponent that would allow us to arm bar or apply a choke.

We set up the knee ride but then use our rear hand to insert a grip deep in the near side collar of our opponent, while still maintaining a strong knee ride. If our opponent turns away from us we apply the near side arm bar. If he turns toward us we let go of the arm and quickly slap our hand on their far shoulder, grabbing a hand full of gi. We then sprawl down hard, bringing the same arm back across the neck of the opponent and complete a cross lapel choke.

We drilled this thoroughly and then moved to rolling.

There are 10 members from the club looking to enter ICNZ’s Contender submission wrestling tournament this weekend so there were a lot of people working on the No Gi technique in rolling.

Another very full Tuesday mat which is great!

MMA

Sorry, I didn’t make it to this class. I am sure it was awesome, because it always is when I am not there. I may attempt to interview someone that did make it and enlighten you as to the awesomeness that happened. Watch this space.

If you’ve been watching this space, sorry,  no one  will talk….. because it was so awesome…..(or maybe i haven’t asked?). Either way, we’re all missing out!  The lesson is… go to training.

Cam D

BJJ

Tonight we started by rolling lightly just doing positional work to warm up, swapping partners several times.

Warren introduced  the crucifix position in this class.

Starting from turtle and side back control, we first learnt and drilled three ways to snag the near arm and drag it back to being locked between our legs.

First, we placed our right leg out to tempt them into grabbing it, then dragging the arm back with the same leg. Then our opponent left this arm exposed so we snagged with our right hand, hooked it with the right leg and dragged it back into position. Finally we drove our left knee (that was floating under the opponent’s body in side back control) forward towards the head and under their arm, bumping it out and allowing us to then hook with leg again.

We learnt and drilled these one at a time and then finished by drilling in our own time trying all three alternately.

Warren then showed us the first transition into the crucifix position, the Rollover. Having snagged and dragged the near arm we under hooked the opponent’s far arm and gripped their shoulder or forearm. Next we posted our right hand out forwards, and then stood up, keeping our knees and legs squeezed together. Then we hopped our weight forward into our opponent moving our feet closer and then tucked our head and rolled forward, bring our partner over with us. As we landed, we made sure to slide our left arm up our opponent’s arm and tuck our hand behind our head, locking their arm in the crucifix.

The second entry was the 7-11. Getting to the same under-hook position, we then shift our legs towards our opponent’s head (7 o’clock) and then sit back onto our left hip shifting our weight back to 11 o’clock, pulling our opponent over and back into the crucifix.

Finally we did 11-7 where we reversed the former technique: moving our legs to 11 down our opponent’s body and shifting our weight back to 7 o’clock. As you did this you needed to create cylinder with your body, extending your legs to allow the opponent to roll over you with minimal effort.

We were also shown how to apply a single side cross lapel choke while in crucifix. We began by reaching with our free right arm around the far side of the opponent’s head and back deep into their near collar. Then we moved our body in close to our opponent and under a bit as well. From there, we stretched our opponent out while pulling our choking arm (and our opponent) back and down to the floor, bringing the choke on across the windpipe.

We drilled for the whole class switching one for one with our partner and running through all the variations we had learnt, getting used to moving through the whole process. When it was our turn to be practiced on we were thinking of and trying ways to make it difficult for our opponent and attempting to escape from the transition or position.

MMA

Mark decided tonight was going to be a spin class. No, not that kind of spin class, we’re talking about spinning back kick, spinning elbow and spinning back fist. Now you wish you were there, don’t you?

Personally, I had nil experience in martial arts before I joined this club last year and spinning back kick is one of the most awkward techniques to initially learn that I have come across. However even doing my basic and slowly improving attempts I could feel the power you could generate in your strike.

Mark broke it down slowly for us. He started us in our fighting stance. From there we stepped our front foot across the tracks and pivoted on both feet to face away from our opponent with our weight low and posture straight. Then we looked back across our right shoulder, lifted our knee up and forward and then delivered the kick straight back, keeping our toes pointed down and heel forward. Finally, we retracted the kick all the way back, swivelling into our fighting stance again.

We drilled this solo and then with a partner holding a kick pad.

Then we learned the spinning back elbow, using the same foot work to swivel around and look for our target but then stepping our front foot all the way back into our original fighting stance and striking either with point or back of the elbow depending on where our opponent was. Our partner held the kick pad horizontally and perpendicular to their body at head height as we drilled. This drill was the most memorable for me as we all learnt why you have to keep good space between you and be careful where you roam while drilling, as I stepped through my strike, felt my elbow hit the pad and then collide with a much more solid object. It turned out that Mike had drifted into my blind spot and within my range as I drilled, and I caught him on the side of the head. It was a moment that was a bit funny (in a relieved way) in retrospect, but a shock in the moment. He was fine and we all chalked the lesson up for the future.

We next drilled spinning back fist, using the same foot work and aiming to connect with our opponent with the knuckles of the hand, being very careful not to straighten our striking arm. This was after Mark explained what would happen to your arm if your opponent closed the distance and you connected with your elbow joint on a straight arm (my mind saw images of a broken, dislocated and flailing around arm). Not Good!

We finished the class strongly by rolling though all three strikes in sequence with our partner as fast as we could for a three minute round. This was aimed at getting us used to the movement and starting to relax into the technique.

Wow! Looking back on this blog, I see that I learnt a lot tonight! It was a very cool class and interesting to learn some very different and new techniques.

Cam D

BJJ

We had another really full mat tonight. It’s great seeing a lot of new people getting involved and learning.

After a basic warm-up, Mark showed us the Cross Lapel Choke we would be working on.

The first entry to it was starting with our opponent in our full guard. We broke our opponent down and controlled their posture with our left arm on the back of their head.  Keeping that control, we threaded our right hand in and gripped deep in their right collar.  Using our left hand we gripped the collar behind the neck (thumb in). Moving to our right we brought our left arm over their head and down to the left side of their neck, pulling our elbows down to the floor past our lats to bring the choke on.

The next entry was again breaking down our opponent and following the same steps until we had the same right hand grip and head control. But we waited for our opponent to try and sit up and then allowed him to do so, using the opportunity to slip our left hand under our right and take the cross grip (fingers in). Then we finished the choke in the same way.

Mark then demonstrated applying the guillotine choke from the same starting position. After breaking down our opponent we swung our right arm across to the right side of our opponent’s head and placed it on their back. This allowed us to open our guard, post on our left elbow and escape backward until we were in a sitting position, wrapping our right arm around and under our opponent’s neck as we did so. We then gripped our right wrist, regained full guard and stretched back into the choke.

With all of this we had extensive practice at what it felt like to have a) the blood start to be squeezed out of our heads and b) our wind pipes constricted.  I particularly found myself coughing, throat clearing and talking in raspy voice after my partner had set up the guillotine just right, even at very slow speed.

We then rolled for 45 minutes, no submissions one stripe and below.  It was a very full mat so everyone took turns walking, keeping people safe and being the “chill out” police.

MMA

Warren started us off practicing our sprawl technique solo, trying to get our forearms being the first point of contact with the floor, arching our back and clearing our legs behind us. We started from a running on the spot situation and sprawled on the call form Warren.

We then partnered up with our opponent, simulating shooting at our leg by dropping to a turtle position at our feet.  We had to make sure we sprawled on them correctly.  From there we drilled moving to side back mount correctly from the sprawled position.

The next stage was to add the seat belt grip from side back control, then allowing our opponent to roll us over to our backs. We then hooked their right leg with our right, put our head on the floor and posted on our left shoulder while keeping the seat belt grip tight at all times. Then we brought our knee up into their back and rolled them over it onto their right side, hooking their left leg with our left leg. We made sure to keep our head beside and on top of their head pressing them down to the floor, establishing a strong control position.

Warren then added the Back Choke to finish. We waited for our opponent to attack our left hand that was protecting our choking arm. As they attacked the left we slipped the right up to choke position, snake biting our hand in. Then, as they attacked our right, we defended with our left and used the resistance and opportunity to take out the space with our right arm until we had the choke deep. Then we moved our right arm until our left was holding our bicep and then pushed our elbows together to finish the choke.

We the drilled this all the way through from our opponent shooting at us, with the shoot attempt being more aggressive. We had to start from our fighting stance, moving around as we would in a fight – well, at least until Warren made the defender dance (literally dance) on the spot so they had to sprawl quickly from wherever they were when the opponent shot in.

Finishing the class with a full on round for both sides, you could see everyone had really progressed a lot.

Cam D