North South Reverse Arm Triangle

North South Reverse Arm Triangle:
  - Start on top in side control
  - Switch to scarf hold to work opponent's arm up higher
  - Lock back in to side control with opponent's arm starting to cross their body
  - Prepare to move to North South by dropping your far arm under your opponent's head and blocking his hip
  - Move to North South.  Keep your hips low, keep your head tight to the opponent's body.
  - Drive your arm as far through as possible.  Either S-grip, Gable grip, or Triangle your arms while keeping shoulders/head tight against your opponent to complete the choke.

Half and half sweep, Two on One Butterfly Pass

Productive night last night . . . rolled with a bunch of different guys and was focusing on learning some stuff that was causing me problems (not knowing exactly what to do in the dogfight position, trouble using my two on one butterfly guard pass).

Start of the dogfight position.  Notice that the guy in the white gi hasn't hooked his opponent's leg with his left leg.  To do this properly the opponent's right leg should be between the white gi guy's thigh and calf, and he should be sitting on the leg to prevent escape.

Here we have the actual dogfight sweep.  To make the sweep less strength based, the guy in white should put his head to the other guys chest and base his right leg straight out.  This helps you to push your opponent over.

Half and Half Sweep from Half Guard:

-         Start in half guard with your opponent on top

-         Get lockdown and double underhooks

-         Bump up to your elbow

-         Twist to your knees, releasing the lockdown.  (It’s important that you keep your leg nearest to the opponent hooked around their leg . . . this prevents them from just pulling out and escaping the sweep).  This is what Eddie Bravo calls the 'Dogfight' position.

-         Take your other leg and base it out

-         Put your head to the opponent’s chest and cup their far knee with your non-underhooking hand.

-         Push with your head and pull with your hand to sweep.

-         Take your leg that was based out and step far back (keeping your hips low).  Then slide your other leg over to complete the pass and end up in side mount.

Flatten the guy out in and then keep your elbows tight to trap his legs.

Put your head down to one side, then step a foot back to get two legs on one.  Reach underneath (with the right hand in this case) to grab opponent's ankle.

Complete the pass in side control after moving your hips over the trapped knee.

Two on One Butterfly Pass:

-         Start in your opponent’s butterfly guard (they have both hooks in under your thighs, you are on your knees)

-         Put your arms over their legs and push the opponent forward until they are on their back.

-         Tuck your elbows very tight towards your hips (but still over the opponent’s legs) lock their legs in position.

-         Pick a side and put your head to the mat next to the opponent’s hips.

-         Take your leg on the side that you’ve put your head and step it far back (to escape the butterfly hook that’s on it).  Bring it tight against their other hooking leg (you should now have two legs pressing against one of theirs).

-         Reach your arm that’s on the same side as your head under the opponent’s body and grab their ankle or pants.

-         Scoot your hips over to the side that your head is not on.  Pull on the opponent’s trapped leg, and use your free arm to push it down if necessary to pass.

Countering Head Push While Two On One Butterfly Passing:

-         When you have trapped your opponent’s leg and have your head down, the opponent starts pushing your head over to the opposite side . . . blocking the pass.

-         As your opponent pushes your head, allow your head to go to the other side.

-         Simultaneously move your hips to the side that your head was originally on (hopping over your opponent’s legs).

No gi application of Spider Guard and Spider Guard Bicep Slicer

In no gi - Grab the wrist rather than the sleeve, then use your arm to lock the opponent behind his bicep

No-Gi Spider Guard:

-         Opponent is in your closed guard.  Open the guard and put both feet on his hips.

-         Grab one of his arms with your same side arm.  Pull his arm out.

-         Take your same side leg and wrap it over the opponent’s arm.

-         Switch your grip on the opponent’s arm from the same side to the opposite side hand.

-         Take your same side hand and overhook the opponent’s tricep, pinning his arm between your shin (on his bicep) and your arm.  This prevents him from easily pulling his arm out.

You're going to kick the foot on his hip under his arm and triangle your leg, locking his arm to your chest to complete this slicer.

No-Gi Spider Guard Bicep Slicer:

-         Start In No-Gi Spider Guard

-         Take your foot that is not circling your opponent’s arm off his hips and kick it deep under the arm that you have trapped.  This action will make you fall onto your back.

-         Triangle this leg overtop of your entangled leg.

-         Release the opponent’s hand and grasp your other hand in a gable grip.  Opponent’s hand should be trapped to your chest at this point.

-         Pull down with the gable grip and push your hips up to lock in the bicep slicer.

2011 Provincial Championship

Haven't been blogging much this month due to the fact that I've been spending every free moment training for the 2011 Provincial Championship (which were yesterday).  The tournament went well and I was able to stick to my basic game plan (Secure take down with Tai Otoshi or a leg sweep, get side control, look for submission, move to scarf hold, look for submission, move to N-S, look for submission).  I made it to the finals.  My last match went something like this:
- Opponent pulls guard, I manage to stuff their leg as they're doing it so that his right leg is stuck under me, and the left leg is wrapped behind me.
- I put my head down towards the mat on the side of the left leg, push my left hand onto his right knee, and use my right hand to pin his hips to the mat.  Then I bring my right leg back (keeping hims low) and pass to side control.
- In side control we battle for a bit, and I'm trying to work his right arm up higher so that his elbow's off the mat.  I move back and forth between regular side control and scarf hold, and the whole time he is battling me for my right arm underhook.  I threatened and nearly got an arm lock on his right arm with my legs (while in scarfhold), but he saw it at the last second and managed to get free.
- Finally, he bridges and frames and I have my hips up too high . . . losing side control.  There's a bit of a scramble and I end up in his guard.
- Opponent puts on the pressure threatens a couple of sweeps.  I get distracted and too loose (elbows not tight enough).
- With less than a minute left the opponent grabs one of my arms and pops on a triangle.  I panic my mind blanks for a second and I don't posture up enough.  The triangle sinks in and I have to tap.

Ah well, going to focus on drilling a few triangle escapes until they're second nature.  I'm also going to really focus on keeping tighter (elbows in) and better posture.  Can't be unhappy with the silver though, and it was awesome that I could stick to my game plan.  Our team seemed to be doing pretty well, I saw a bunch of guys win medals in different categories . . . so that's cool.  Time to go and eat my way back to 190lbs!

Effortless Butterfly Guard Pass

Effortless Butterfly Guard Pass:
  - Start in opponent's butterfly guard.
  - Push the opponent's head under one arm.  Cup with your hand and grab under their chin.
  - Put your free hand over the opponent's underhooking arm, between their legs, and flat on the ground.
  - Step the leg nearest to your hand on the floor far back.
  - Use your hand on the mat to twist your opponent's legs away from you.
  - Establish side control.

Controlling the head

Putting other hand to floor

Stepping leg back

Twisting opponent's legs away from you

Twisting Triangle Escape, Standing Butterfly Guard Pass, Single Leg Defense

Arm through is kept tight to your body, free hand should be pulling down on the opponent's choking leg, and the walk towards the trapped arm has already begun here.

Twisting Triangle Escape:

-         Start with opponent locking in a triangle.

-         Take your free arm and grab up high (near the knees) on the pants of the opponent’s leg next to your neck.  Pull the material down to force the leg off your neck and get some breathing room.

-         Take the arm that is through the triangle bring it close to your opponent’s crotch, keeping your elbow tight (preventing an easy arm bar).  Use this hand to help your other hand pull the leg off of your neck..

-         Start to walk yourself to the side that your trapped arm is on.  At the same time, lower your head/shoulder to the ground.  (You can step over your opponent if you need more of a twist to break the hold.)

Rather than grab the lower leg as in this picture, push the lower knee away with your far hand.

Outside (Standing) Butterfly Guard Pass:

-         You are standing, opponent is in front of you in butterfly position.

-         Fake to one side, then move to the other.

-         Cross your far arm over and push his close leg back.  (You might also need to use your close arm to push his far leg back.)  At the same time, advance with your close leg and slide the knee towards your opponents body.

-         Drop onto that knee, keep head down, establish side control.

Push opponent's head away, try to under-hook his close arm, work your trapped leg to the other side of the opponent's body.

Single Leg Defense:

-         Opponent shoots and grabs a single, standing back up.

-         Work your leg out from between opponent’s legs to the outside of his body.

-         Push opponent’s head hard to the opposite side of your leg.

-         Under-hook opponent’s arm and kick your leg through to break the hold.

Controlling Opponent in Closed Guard (Breaking Posture / Arm Drag)

OK, he's in guard.  Now what?

 Breaking Opponent’s Posture in Guard:

-         Start with opponent in your guard

-         Grab both of your opponent’s lapels and pull him down

-         When you feel your opponent start to push into your hips with his hands, pull both of your knees up as close to your forehead as you can.  At the same time, pull both lapels up as high as you can.

-         Opponent should fall forward with both hands on the ground.

Yay, broken posture!

Arm Dragging Opponent in Guard:

-         Start with opponent in your guard

-         Grab both of your opponent’s lapels and pull down as a distraction

-         Slide one hand down to opponent’s wrist, put the other behind opponent’s elbow (of the same arm).

-         Pull opponent’s arm up over your head, to the opposite side (opponent’s right arm moves to your right side, etc).  It seems more natural to just pull to the side that you want, but then you end up in a tug of war that a stronger opponent will win.

-         Bring your legs up high to keep opponent’s posture broken for this movement

-         From here look for arm bar and triangle setups.

Pulling Guard to De La Riva:

De La Riva guard, rear sweep position

Pulling Guard to De La Riva:

-         Grab low on opponent’s collar with opposite side hand.  Pull collar open.  Use same side hand to secure a high collar grip.  Release low collar grip.

-         Using free hand, secure four finger grip on opponent’s sleeve near their wrist.

-         Pull opponent towards you.  Use leg on the side of the sleeve grip against the front of your opponent’s hip.

-         Use the leg on the side of the collar grip to go in between the opponent’s legs and hook up under the inside of his lead leg.  (Half spider guard.)  You should now be on your side.

-         Bring both feet to the front of your opponent’s hip.  If possible, release collar grip and use the 4 finger grip on your opponent’s other sleeve.

-         Take one leg and hook up under the outside of your opponent’s lead leg.  Use your other leg to push on your opponent’s inner thigh to spread him out.

-         Take your hooking leg and push it deeper to hook on your opponent’s far leg.  Use your other under the hooking one and cross them to make an X.

Both feet on hips and both sleeves grabbed when transitioning to the DLR guard.

Gi Wrap Cross-Choke From Guard

Image shows your regular cross choke.  In the gi wrap version the lower hand in this choke will be gripping the left jacket lapel that has been fed up and over the opponent's shoulder, the upper hand will have a solid grip on the material at the left shoulder or the left lapel.

Gi wrap cross-choke:

-         When pulling guard, try to kick opponent’s gi behind him.

-         Break opponent’s posture, pulling him close to you.

-         Take the hand that is on the same side as the free gi collar and grab it (or grab with opposite hand and feed to same side hand).

-         Use this collar to keep opponent’s posture broken by pulling down.

-         Take your free hand, reach behind the opponent’s head, gripping on his shoulder.

-         Move the shoulder gripping forearm under your opponent’s chin, flare out both elbows and pull your opponent down towards your head for the tap.

Defense Soap Review (An ongoing effort)

Skin infections and BJJ are just a fact of life (I may do a blog entry on them later).  I don't care how clean you keep the mats at your gym.  Thirty minutes into a hard class and there's sweat, blood, spit, and scraped skin somewhere on them.  It helps to keep your gear clean, shower immediately after each class, and always try to keep the mats clean of course . . . but sometimes infection is unavoidable.

Diseases in grapping come in three basic forms: Bacterial (including MRSA, regular staph, impetago, etc), Fungal (ringworm), and Viral (herpes).  Defense soap claims to work against all three on their website.  The big question of course, is does it work?  Defense soap is expensive to buy (6 - 7$ per bar) and pretty hard to find in local stores.  I found out that it's much cheaper to buy if you get several bars . . . so I'm the proud new owner of 12 bars of defense soap.

First impressions . . . well, it looks like soap.  Kinda has a medicinal stinky sort of smell that's not awful but not really awesome either.  Lathers up pretty well, and seems like it's a little less drying to the skin than the Dial antibacterial soap that I had been using.  So far I've used it after one class.  This is where the 'ongoing effort' comes in.  Every couple months I'll update this article to let people know if I've caught anything or noticed anything different about the soap.  Just to have some full disclosure here . . . I use KS Skin Cream, wash my gear immediately after every class, and shower before going home after each training session.  (You would think that that alone would keep me from getting infections . . . sigh.  Why does this awesome sport have to be so gross sometimes?)

Rear Naked Choke and Mount Escapes

Turning to the side and pulling the choking arm

Basic Rear Naked Choke Escape:
- Turn your head so that the chin is in line with the choking elbow.
- Put both hands on the choking arm and pull down for space.
- Bridge up and onto your opponent's chest, then turn to the side that the choking arm is on.  Try to get on your shoulder and one foot.
- Use your higher foot to push the opponents lower hooking leg off of you and to the ground.  Keep your weight on it.
- Slide your lower leg through the space created between your upper leg and the opponent's pinned leg.
- Push your weight back and onto the opponent's chest while walking both legs around and towards the opponent's head.
- Once your body is perpendicular to the opponent, spin towards his legs and land in side control.

Be aware that when attempting this escape if the opponent grabs your hand he will likely throw a leg over your and attempt to mount.

Hooking the leg with your heel

Hooking Leg Mount Escape:
- If your opponent has high mount on you, put both elbows against his thighs and push down.  Walk up with your legs at the same time.
- Once your opponent is closer to your hips, Upa to one side.  Using the space created by the Upa, turn slightly to one side.
- Reach your higher leg over your opponent's leg and drag the leg back towards you using your heel.
- Once the opponent's leg is caught between your legs, frame hard on your opponent and switch your hips over to get to half guard.

Open Guard: Guillotine to Head and Arm Control

Yesterday we were working more of a wrestling move than a Jiu-Jitsu one.  This technique is used to transition from a defensive position (you sitting in butterfly or on your side with your opponent standing and free of your guard, trying to pass) into an offensive one.

You want to keep a more upright posture than the guy on the bottom here

Snap Down to Guillotine
- Use one arm to stiff arm and push your opponent away, pushing around the shoulder area.
- If your opponent starts to lean in to grab your feet or to collapse down on you, use this pushing arm to cup the back of his head.
- Pull his head straight down.  Take your other arm and place the edge of your wrist under his neck (thumb up).
- Lock the technique in by grabbing your wrist and pulling up, while pushing his head into your chest.

Typically you would start to fall back for the guillotine at this point, but keep yourself more upright.  The goal of this neck attack is to surprise your opponent and get them to raise their hands to defend the choke.  Once their hands start rising:

Pushing the choking arm through and locking it - Just like working an anaconda

Guillotine to Head and Arm control:
- Push your choking hand deep under the opponent's neck and past his arm.
- Use the bend in your other elbow to lock in the choking hand (as if you were attempting an anaconda choke)
- Lean your chest pressure on your opponent and escape your legs so that you can come up to your knees
- Twist the elbow/hand that you have locked together deep under your opponent and walk backwards to flatten your opponent out.
- Now you can work towards his side or back from a more dominant position.

Eddie Bravo's Half Guard Game (Old School + Electric Chair)

Yesterday in our nogi class we went over the first set of moves in the half guard chapter of Eddie Bravo's 'Mastering the Rubber Guard'.  There are definitely some little things that aren't well explained in the book that you need to figure out to do the moves.  By the end of class stuff started to make a whole lot more sense to me.

Lockdown (pulling opponent back)

Lockdown: 
- You're in half guard and have been completely flattened out, opponent is putting pressure on your jaw.
- Clamp your knees together around the opponent's trapped leg and square up your hips (without squaring up your hips sometimes it can be really hard to wrap your legs to the lockdown position.
- Take your outside leg and wrap it over the opponent's trapped leg.
- Take your inside leg, and wrap it over the opponent's trapped leg and your other leg.
- Hook your inside leg under the opponent's ankle.
- Squeeze your legs tight together

Jaws of Life:
- You have the lockdown on your opponent and only one underhook.
- Take your (not underhooked) arm and frame it in front of your opponent's face
- Push up and quickly drop your elbow down into the free space created to secure your other underhook.

Whip Up:
-You have both underhooks and the lockdown on your opponent
- Release the underhooks and bring your hands to your opponent's armpits, rib cage, or (if you're really deep) waist)
- Try to lift your lockdown as high as possible in one quick jerk (knees to your head if possible).  At the same time, push up and over your head with your hands.
- In the space created, secure a deep underhook, and turn up on your other elbow.

You usually want your head tighter to the guys chest than in this picture.

Now you can either ditch the lockdown and go to the Old School sweep, or maintain the lockdown and go to the Electric Chair sweep/submission.

Foot grabbing action

Old School Sweep:
- You're in half guard, with lockdown and a deep underhook.
- Reach under your opponent and grab under his foot (palm up)
- Put your head to the ground.  Use it to base and stick your ass up in the air.  This allows you to get to your knees.
- Pull the leg towards you and push with your head towards the opponent's chest to complete the sweep.

Electric Chair submission position

Electric Chair Submission/Sweep:
- You're in half guard, with lockdown and a deep underhook.
- You reach for the Old School sweep, but the opponent bases his leg out wide.
- Dive your head in towards the leg that's based out.  Grab under it with the hand that's on that side.
- Take your other hand and grab under the opponent's rib cage and pull him up on top of you.
- Wrap one arm around his leg and squish it to your ear, while stretching your opponent out with the lockdown.  This is the electric chair submission.
- If that doesn't work, unhook the lockdown and keep driving forwards towards your opponent until you have his back pinned to the mat with the leg you've trapped next to your ear.  You should be able to step over his remaining leg easily into side control.

Overtraining

Like most guys involved in our sport, I like to stay pretty active.  I lift weights twice a week, do BJJ classes 3-4 times a week (for 2-3 hours a session), and go jogging.  When the summer rolls around I like to play some soccer now and again and go biking too.  There's always something to do.  Like most of us in Jiu Jitsu, I like to push myself hard when working out.  It's not a rare occurance to have aching muscles and some pains when getting out of bed in the morning.  How do you know when you really have to take note of those little aches and pains, and how do you know that you're just being a pussy?  If I spend a couple weeks without exhausting myself I'll have trouble sleeping and tend to get bummed out a lot.  My wife thinks that I'm kinda crazy. 

No doubt exercise is definitely good for you.  The flip side of this, of course, is that too much exercise without enough rest will slowly wear you down.  Many people I've talked to about this have experienced 'overtraining' - that burned out feeling that you sometimes get.  It's an occupational hazard when you're trying to push yourself.

1. Check your Performance - When you lift weights, track your numbers.  If they're steadily going down then you're pushing too hard.  I like to climb 12 flights of stairs every morning to get to my desk at work.  When I start to feel exhausted on the 5th floor, I know that I need to take it easy.
2. Check your Attitude - Going to Jits is normally a blast for me.  If I'm dreading it, or dragging my ass around the house to get ready, there's definitely something up.  Also, if I'm in class and I start to feel very frustrated . . . usually it's because I'm not thinking properly.  When that happens it's usually because I'm exhausted and am having trouble fitting together the little pieces of a particular move.
3. Check your resting heart rate and weight - I run between 40 - 45 bpm and about 185-190lbs.  When it starts to hit closer to 55 or so, or if my weight starts to drop down to 180lbs I know there's a problem.

So, OK . . . you've diagnosed that you're starting to push to hard.  What do you do?

1. Sleep - This is often my number one problem.  Many of my classes are late at night, and I've got to be up early to beat traffic and get in to the office.  I aim for eight hours minimum during a night, but not being able to sleep because of being too pumped up or waking up several times to relieve all that water that I was chugging in class is a normal occurrence.  My advice, spend at least a half hour reading to calm your mind before bed.  Keep to a sleeping schedule as much as possible so your body's natural rhythm will tell you when it's time to sleep.  Don't drink or eat anything with caffeine within 5 hours of your bed time.
2. Nutrition - I try to eat a pretty clean diet, so this is not usually my problem.  Back in my university days though . . . holy crap.  Yes, you can survive on ramen noodles and apples for six months at a time.  Yes, it will seriously hurt your athletic performance.  No surprises in this category.  Eat lots of fruit and veggies each day (roughly half of each meal), eat protein (cottage cheese, yogurt, quinoa, chicken breast, fish, are all great), eat good fats regularly (almonds, walnuts, sunflower seeds, a little dark chocolate, etc.).
3. Resting Your Body - Marathon day in/day out sessions will wear anybody down.  I've tried a couple approaches to solve this problem, each has it's benefit/disadvantage.
  A - Dedicate at least one day a week off as a rest day.  This lets you go pretty hard on your other days and then just snooze/read/watch TV and do some light stretching on your day off.  (Also, use that day off to sleep in a little bit).
  B - Pace yourself.  Basically when you start feeling tired the idea is to reduce your weights, roll for 3 rounds rather than six after class, or sub off more in soccer.  You really have to be on the ball to make this work for you . . . when I'm in class, I'm pumped up and just want to keep going and going.  You have to learn to feel if you're really tired or not.

Hope this helps!

Half Guard Passing Tip - Flattening Out Your Opponent

It was a rough night last night at the tournament training class.  Was still sore from weights on Monday, and tired from no-gi class on Tuesday.  When I started training again after my break I decided to spend some time focusing on parts of my game that have always been weak, and half guard is right at the top of that list.  I can mow through pretty much all of the white belts half guards, and usually do OK from the bottom when they’re trying to pass . . . the blue belts are really on a different level though, and I’m happy whenever I can get a pass from one.  On the bottom of half I’m getting steamrolled by them.

Anyways, I got some advice from a friendly purple belt regarding passing half guard.  See, I have some good passes that I know, but am having trouble flattening guys out to the point that I can start to use them.  He showed me the following technique which should help me with some of the pesky deep half guard players:

Half Guard Passing – Flattening Out Opponent:

-         Opponent is starting with you in half guard, they have knee up and blocking your upper body, they have the underhook, and they are deep (maybe reaching under your legs with the other hand)
-    Use your top arm to shove the blocking knee a couple inches back to take the frame away.

-         Now it's time to fight for the underhook.  Take the arm that’s being hooked and use the elbow to wedge it under their arm.

-         If this doesn’t work, take the hand of the arm that’s being underhooked, and grab your opponent’s bicep.  Push the bicep back towards the mat to flatten your opponent out.

-         Next replace the top hand that’s pushing on the bicep with your bottom hand (and continue to push them back/down).  Work the top hand under your opponent’s arm and secure the underhook.

Taking the Back When Opponent Turtles Up

We did mostly free sparring yesterday, but spent some time covering the following:

Fighting For Rear Naked Choke:

-         From rear mount, slide one arm under the opponent’s jaw, and try to pull their chin up.

-         Immediately slide your opposite hand into the space created by this movement

-         Continue to do this back and forth until you sink one arm in deeply.

Taking the Back When Opponent Turtles Up:

-         Opponent starts turtled up with their head directly infront of you.

-         Put your chest on their shoulders and sprawl back with both legs out straight (so they can’t grab a leg)

-         Spin to one side, keeping pressure on their shoulders with your chest, stop when you get almost behind them.

-         Grab their close wrist with your close arm, hook your far arm under their far shoulder, and pull them up until you’re in a squatting position.

-         Hook your leg in under the wrist that you’ve grabbed.  Fall to that side.

-         Hook your other leg in on the other side.

-         Work one arm across for the choke

Strength Training - Routine #2

Front Squat                  160               1:30

Bench   Press               157               1:30

Bent OverRow            140                0:45

Military Press             100                1:30

Deadlift                       245                 1:30

A buddy at my old gym convinced me to try this barbell workout out, and it seemed to work pretty well.  It’s a pretty simple powerlifting kind of thing – five exercises and you do five sets of five reps for each one.  I leave about a minute and a half between sets (except for the bent over row, which I leave only 45 seconds for at the moment).  This routine is designed specifically for full body bursts of power, and you will quickly notice a lot more strength on the mats a couple weeks after starting it.

Each lift should be done quickly and smoothly.  I started out doing half of my max weight for each lift (to perfect my form for each), and added about 5lbs to each lift every week.  Remember to squat ass to the ground, touch the bench press to your chest before raising it, and keep your back straight for the bent over row.  This routine takes me about 80 minutes depending on energy levels.

I haven’t been able to add 5 lbs for most of the lifts in a while, but I’m still hoping for another 5 on the military press and bent over row before I switch this routine out for something different.

Half Guard Sweep and Lazy Half Guard Pass

We were building on the half guard again yesterday in class and we learned a kind of 1-2 combo.  The basic sweep from your half guard takes you on top and usually into your opponent's half guard.  Then you work the lazy pass to get side control.  I really liked this pass.  You keep solid weight on your opponent the whole time, and don't have to spend much strength to keep him held down tightly.

Basic 1/2 Guard Sweeps:
- Start with your opponent's leg trapped and your shin pressed against his hips/torso to keep him from advancing.

- Immediately kick the leg that's on your opponent's torso up as high as possible.  This should give you enough space to get your arm in for an underhook.
- Using the underhook (and keeping your head tight to your opponent's chest) unlock your legs and come to your knees.
- If your opponent pushes into you to try and flatten you out, grab under their thigh and pull them hard in the direction they're pushing you.  Ideally they should go right over top and be swept.
- If your opponent tries to regain his base, grab his far foot and pull it towards you as you push into him (Old School sweep).

In case you get trapped in your opponent's half guard after sweeping:


Lazy Half Guard Pass:
- Start with your opponent locking your right leg and their shin pushing on your right side.

- Push their shin back to your right so you can collapse onto your opponent.
- Take your left arm and reach deep under your opponent's left shoulder, tight to their body.
- Take your right hand and grab under their left leg, pull it up towards their head to lock them in position
- Move your hips off the opponent momentarily to slide your left knee across the opponent's stomach.
- Free your right leg by pushing with the left and pulling with your right arm (this is the arm under your opponent's leg)
- Keep your left leg tight against the opponent's side and follow them as they try to shrimp away once you've freed your leg.

Half Guard Basics

Today in class we reviewed some of the basics behind the basic half guard position, then we spent most of the rest of class rolling and getting our partners to make sure that we're not forgetting anything obvious.  This refresher has been much appreciated since I've managed to forget everything about half guard since my break.


Half Guard Tips:
- Triangle your legs (at least initially) around the other guys legs to keep your opponent from easily stepping out from your half guard.
- Always fight for the underhook.  When you get the underhook, keep it held as high as possible under your opponent's arm.  A lazy underhook can lead to a Darce choke, and just makes it easier for your opponent to work.
- Use the hand that you're not underhooking with to block your opponent's free hand.  (This is used to prevent the crossface and to just generally control him better.)
- Always keep on the side of your hip.
- Keep your head against your opponent's chest.  (Ear to his heart).  This gives your opponent less room to manouver with, and makes it a little harder to set up chokes against you.

Back Door Escape:
- Secure half guard (legs triangled, high underhook, on your side, head to opponent's chest)
- Open your leg triangle.
- Take your outside leg and hook it around your opponent's trapped leg.  Pull this leg out.
- Use the space you just made to get to your knees.

Additional Half Guard tips:

-         Always use your free hand to control the opponent’s hands.  This can be very effective in preventing them from passing 
-         Be very careful about chokes (guillotine, d’arce) if you’re sitting up and pressing your head against your opponent’s chest.  If you get to that position, work on your sweep or escape quickly.

Strength Training - Routine #1

I know that strength training and BJJ can be a contentious issue.  I've heard many "Don't do it because. . ." arguments.  It'll slow you down, it'll make you too heavy, you'll use your strength not your technique.  Personally, I've tried doing BJJ with weight lifting and without.  Without lifting I tend to lose muscle mass very quickly.  With no weight lifting I was competing at 175lbs and always felt like the people I fought against were way stronger than me.  With weight lifting I'm walking around at about 185-190.  I've noticed that I get fewer injuries when carrying around a little extra muscle and in my mind, more mat time means better Jiu-Jitsu.  That said, there are good and bad ways to lift weights, and I've tried to develop a strategy that seems to work for me the most in my BJJ.  For me this involves compound lifts and lots of leg work.

I've broken up my weightlifting into two full body routines.  I like to hit 3-4 jits classes a week, and when you throw in some jogging, the occasional soccer game, and some Muay Thai now and again there's I don't feel like there's enough time to add more sessions than that.  Last night I completed my workout #1 . . . the goal of this workout is to develop power and some weightlifting endurance.  My other workout is completely about generating power.

What I did last night (takes a little under an hour):
Clean and Squat (170lbs)    3 sets of 3 and 1 of 1
Bench (155lbs)    1 set of 10, 1 set of 7
Front Squat (155lbs)    2 sets of 5
1 Arm Row (80lbs)    1 set of 12, both sides
Standing Press (60lbs each hand)    2 sets of 5
Shrug (60lbs each hand)    1 set of 20
Pull-Ups (BW)    1 set of 12
Lunges (60lbs each hand)    1 set of 10, both sides

The clean and squat is a great exercise.  For each rep you power clean a weight from the floor up into the front squat racking position, then you do a front squat (all the way down to the bottom - don't get lazy), then lower the weight down to the floor.  The exercise is done quickly and smoothly with about a minute and a half between sets.  This exercises works a ton of the muscles in your body.  It's especially great for your quads, hips, and traps . . . and these muscles get heavy use in most of your BJJ exercises (bridging, pulling the guy towards you, driving forward while standing, etc).

The bench is done with endurance in mind.  I'm aiming to get two sets of 10 out, but I'm still working towards that mark with this weight (I can do it with 150).  I take about a minute between sets.  Applicability: Framing when you're on the bottom!

Ass To Grass Front Squats . . . pure awesome.

The front squat is thrown in to add some extra work for the legs.  Make sure it's a smooth, quick down and up motion, don't lean too far forwards, and squat ass to the grass.  I like the front squat for a two reasons . . . it seems to really work your stomach and back muscles more than the back squat, and it's an easy lift to bail from (just throw the weight forward if it's too heavy).  Bailing from the lift is important since I do my workouts in the basement without a spotter most of the time.  About a minute and a half between sets seems good for this lift.  Applicability: almost everything that the clean/squat is good for.

The 1-arm row motion is probably the most fundamental movement that you do in BJJ.  Grabbing a guy's sleeve and pulling is used all the time be it arm drags, better positioning while standing, or setting up an armbar from guard.

The standing press is the kind of exercise that lets you know how in shape you are.  You start out with both dumbbells on the floor, then you grip them, drive your heels into the ground, and in one fluid motion push the weights up over your head.  When you do them explosively you can feel your whole body working hard.  It's kinda like doing a weighted burpee.  Applicability:  Well, it's got the squatting motion in there and you're using lighter weights so it's easier to explode quickly.  I also like this one for the ab/back strength that you need as you're lifting the dumbbell up over your head.

The shrug is something I'm thinking of taking out of my routine.  I don't remember why started doing it originally . . . probably because it's a pulling motion.  I'll be playing with taking it out and replacing with something better at some point in the future.  I start standing with both dumbbells at my sides and raise them up as close to my armpits as possible.

Pull-ups.  Everybody likes these.  Palms towards your face, for some added grip (finger) strength I do these from a steel I-Beam in the basement.  Since I can't grip the I-beam it forces me to hold my fingers at about 90 degrees to complete the pull-up.  I tell myself that this is hardcore, but really I'm too cheap to buy a pull-up bar.  :P

Finally the lunges . . . if there were ever an exercise tailor made for doing a single leg, it's this one.  Start standing with both feet apart, bring one leg out, and bring the rear leg knee down until it's just brushing the floor.  Then step forward.


Important Note: Remember to always stretch after lifting!  Stretch your legs, hips, arms, and back after each session and you will GAIN flexibility, not lose it.  Flexibility + Power = Awesome in Jiu Jitsu.  All the usual other disclaimers apply as well.  Start with low weight and perfect your form, then gradually ramp up from there.