BJJ 26.11.2009

The bear hugger strikes again!

This time the hug came from the front, and the hip throw escape began a three move drill:

• Hip throw to side mount
• Shrimp escape to closed guard
• Kimura sweep to mount
  

The hip throw counter to the bear hug:


After the huggy drill, Juha showed us another sequence as an alternative ending to the first one. This time, the top guy in the guard defended the kimura sweep by posting his hand firmly on the floor, leading to a kimura arm lock. Once again, Juha gave the lecture about the importance of the monkey grip (with his signature mock Brazilian accent: "We have a saying in Brazil, always keep your brothers together") before letting us work on the six step drill:

• Starting from guard, the bottom guy goes for a kimura and releases it after getting the tap
• The top guy breaks the guard by standing up, holding the defender's collars and pants
• Bottom guy switches to open guard
• Guard pass by grabbing the pants at the knees and twisting one leg down
• Transition to mount by inching the knee across the belly (from a proper side mount)
• As the top guy starts a choke, the bottom guy does a basic sweep by holding the arm and bridging

Both of the drills were basically chainings of techniques we already knew, and Juha didn't introduce any new moves. I guess he wasn't lying when he first told that the second round of the basic course was about repeating and honing the essential skills. No complaints, though; I was happy to practice the kimura sweep/lock combo.

As a bonus clip, here's an interesting variation on getting the kimura:


At the end of the class, we had two 5 minute rounds of free rolling. Juho and I had a nice sustained dynamic roll with lots of sweeps and passes, and only one submission (Juho choked me beautifully from my hideously ugly guard pass attempt). There's definitely less chaotic thrashing and more technique in our rolls every time. Less spazz, more jazz!