#marcelomonth

[davetrains]

Taking notes helps me remember. So y'all just sit down and listen, or not, because it doesn't matter, the good has already been done.

Enrique says my toreando issue, wherein I get stalemated with a half-passed and my opponent half-Marcelbowing me, would best be resolved by controlling the hips, going to my knees, and ripping my arm free. Circling to the head just creates a scramble.

He also shared these techniques, for which I thank him.

They turtled. We have the harness, our rear knee inserted between their elbow and knee, and our front knee up, foot posted on the floor.

Clock choke, similar to judo's koshijime: open the collar, get a double collar grip like okuri-eri-jime (surpisingly), move my posted foot forward, move my ribs to the back of their neck/head, sit the hips through with the rear/bottom leg so that foot rests on its outside edge, and if necessary walk the feet around like a clock.

They might try to roll you. A judoka or wrestler would do a Peterson roll, whereas apparently a jiujitsiero would grab the choking arm, sprawl the near leg flat, and bring the far knee in. In this case, simply jump over to your knees, staying behind them. Insert the easy hook, and if they defend the other one, figure four your legs and stretch them out so you can insert the other hook. Get your forearm to the ground so you can see their face, do NOT extend your arms, and wait for the tap.

They might roll such that you can't get the hooks because they are on their side. No matter; step the hip-side foot over so that you have almost an S-mount, and choke them with gusto. If necessary, release the okuri-eri-jime grip to go for the hell strangle, jigoku-jime the cradle choke. NB: release the hand first to go for the leg, and only once that is secure shall you move your leg under their head for the choke.

[davetrains]

BJJ notes 7-28-2011

The best stuff is in between the main courses.

We drilled "generic pass" to "they turn towards you and hide the shoulder" to "use the shin to block their leg as they turtle" to "spin to the far-side seatbelt" as well as "spin to the far-side knee on belly when they flatten out instead of finishing the turtling". But that's not what I got from class. 

1) For no-gi knee on belly, for Pete's sake don't underhook. Don't even grab. Just post your hands on the mat against hip and neck.

2) Omoplata defense: near side leg comes up first, while defending the arm entanglement just like one would a Kimura. (We judoka don't even know they're different techniques, right?) Then the far side foot posts and we stand and shake, thumb down. Preventative defense is Marcelo's practice.

3) The over-under pass was a red herring. Don't do it.

[davetrains]

BJJ notes 7-21-2011

We're on the top of side control, but we don't have the near-side arm killed. We do have both the far arm and the head underhooked.

They turn away, in an effort to turtle or take the single leg. Switch to a Kimura grip on the near arm and throw the head-side leg, then the leg-side leg over for the near-side armbar.

They preempt (1) by turning back towards us. Catch them while they are flat on their back: immediately switch to the north-south choke. 

They avoid (2) by getting on their side facing us through strength or speed. Abandon the north-south choke and insist on the far-side underhook. Keep them on their side with the head-side arm clamping their shoulderblade while the underhook controls that tricep. Step over with hips low, get the head-side leg situated, then throw the leg-side leg over and finish the far-side armbar.

They manage to get their shoulders to the floor. Abandon the far-side armbar and go back to the north-south choke.

Holy Rickson, it's Rot out today. I got anxious about the puddles of sweat I left everywhere after class. I had to move around every thirty seconds lest I cause a slipping hazard.

[davetrains]

BJJ notes 7-21-2011

Marcelo's omoplata is different. Or at least new to me.

Pinch knees, not half-swastika legs.

Straight leg swings over for a bigger hinge. No weaving the arm.

Between over-the-hips/belt grip and around-the-far-shoulder there is grabbing-the-gi-behind-the-far-shoulder.

Feet come underneath butt to sit forward. 

...? Update: figured it out. Deeeeep double pull-up grip rolls their arm towards yourself. Don't just haul their shoulder to the mat--though that's great--but turn their elbow.

I also got hit with the same cross-sleeve-grip rolling sweep by every non-white belt that I rolled with. So today's lesson is also "Posture up and make distance instead of pressuring in with the shoulder when they get the cross-sleeve grip in half guard." (Trying to get the underhook back just got me swept. Again and again.)

[davetrains]

BJJ notes 7-7-2011

The man is back from vacation. Incredibly, he remembers my face through 6 months of beard and hair changes. He teaches us X-guard entries today.

Be warned: the title of the post should indicate to you that this is more for me to remember than for you to be interested. I'm also fully capable of being wrong in my transcription of techniques.

Uno. We are sitting and they are standing. They refuse to engage their legs with ours, so we grab their wrists. Hopefully their feet are square, and we can hook both their ankles with our feet (from the inside). If so, sweep. You can see Marcelo do this constantly in many of his matches on YouTube. He doesn't always get it, and it doesn't always stick, but it's a constant threat.

If their feet aren't square, hook one ankle from the inside and grab it from the outside with the hand. Scoot in and hit the x-guard or one-leg-x-guard. (Do I have to capitalize it? X-guard?)

X-guard

Top leg extends instead of lifting. 

Their knee that's on our shoulder should point to the sky.

Knee of my top leg presses into their near thigh.

Grab their wrist for great justice.

1-Leg-X-Guard

Hips up off the ground, foo'.

Top foot must point outwards, only making contact with the heel, which is on their hip. 

Overhook, do not underhook, their ankle. Grab own thigh and squeeze the elbow (like in kesagatame).

Squeeze knees together. Tighter.

Dos. Our opponent is now refusing to engage even with their hands. Sit with one knee up and one knee down, facing their forward leg. Distract them, scoot in and towards their rear leg, hook/kick their front ankle from the inside with your bottom foot, and enter into the X-guard or 1-leg-X-guard as before.

[davetrains]

Define "Back Mount"

Hooks doth not make the back mount at Marcelo's. They value a good shoulder harness (seatbelt) more, but even that doesn't get to the essence of back mount. 

Back mount at this academy is my chest aligned with their back, with control. (I guess that means the seatbelt.) I can be off to their side with a pseudo-seatbelt that'll go nowhere, or have shitty hooks while falling off the top, but if the planes of my chest and their back largely overlap they're in trouble.

In other news: Somehow the message I got from my own RNC/seatbelt-grip post from early June was totally, completely, entirely wrong. I was envisioning the choking arm being hooked from below by the under-shoulder hand. It should be that the choking arm is hooked/held from above--much tighter, and prevents them from blocking with good leverage at the end of the choking arm.

So, our Lesson of The Day is to do this:

...and stop reverse-engineering our jiu-jitsu from the tubes.

[davetrains]

Training log 6-29-2011

Two no-gi techniques with Enrique today.

From the butterfly guard, suppose we are slacking and our opponent gets us flat on our back and starts an over-under pass: stacking our left leg with an underhook and trapping over right leg between theirs. 

Push on the overhook shoulder to make space and time. Get on your side facing that way.

ASAP, get an over-the-shoulder armpit hook with the left hand. This is used in the next part, and also blocks their head from pushing your hip or leg. Other hand posts behind us like a technical stand. Left foot posts on the ground.

Pull hard on the armpit hook as you bridge into them with a turning motion. Force their head to the floor.

Get on your right knee (foot still between theirs, and trapping their arm) and establish the harness/seatbelt.

Roll to get the hooks. RNC. Boom shakka lakka!

If, during 3, they expose their neck, guillotine. They'll try to pass, which means you'd better have the elbow over the shoulder. If you do, they choke. If you don't, they pass. Choose Your Own Adventure (TM).

No-gi rolling feels good. Half-guard passing is still a mystery.

[davetrains]

Marcelo Month Prep 1

It's nearly June, which means it's nearly July, which means I need to get ready for my Marcelo Month. I need to be ready with questions and with my conditioning. I know I've already posted a couple thoughts, so I'll need to backtrack and find them. 

Right now, I want to cement my intellectual understanding of the moves I want to work on while I'm in town, so that I don't waste time on things I could've learned while up here. You know: homework.

That means really ingraining the progression for back control and the arm-drag. Which hook goes first? How are the hands? 

I also must ready myself for multiple rounds of hard rolling without rest. Hear this well: recreational judo is nowhere close to competitive judo or BJJ in terms of training intensity.