BJJ 1.12.2009

This time we started out with a rather thorough conditioning routine. After a light regular warm-up of jumping jacks and stationary running we faced a seemingly never-ending batch of hard labor. First 80 throw repeats, followed by 20 guard deadlifts, finishing up with 50 burpees. Juha made it look rather easy, but I already lost my will to live halfway through the deadlifts.

After a quick drink break we concentrated on two self-defense techniques, one against a surprise choke from behind and another against a headlock from the side.

The choke was countered (again) by grabbing the choking arm with boths hands, stepping behind the attacker's foot, and throwing him down from there. We continued the throw by not letting go of the arm, landing to a knee-on-ribs mount, and pulling an arm bar in one fluidish motion.

The headlock escape was something we have done before: drop your hips a little to form a good base, bring your hand to the attacker's chin from behind his back, push on the chin to create room for movement, step in front of the attacker, and finally pick him up by scooping a leg. When you get tired of carrying your opponent like you were just married, throw him down on the ground for domestic violence points.

From the self-defense drills we moved on to escaping and attacking from side mount.

The escape was based on a side mount position where the top guy had one arm over the defender's head and the other arm blocking his hips on the near side. From the bottom, bridge to make some room and shoot your far-side arm under the attacker's thigh. Then turn on your belly to lie face down on the floor and connect your hands. Post one foot on the ground to create a solid base and push with your head and shoulder while pulling the attacker's leg for a sweep. I've had some trouble with this technique before, but this time I felt like I realized the right direction where to drive the sweep. I'll have to try it out in sparring before making any promises of success, though; I feel really vulnerable to attacks while building up the base. If I tried it against Juho, I'm pretty sure I'd end up with a hopelessly unergonomic human backpack around me.

In addition to the escape, we went through two different variations of an attack from the side mount. Both depended on the defender making a mistake and not keeping his arms tucked in. Juha showed a couple of ways to hold on to the loose arm by trapping it with your hand and neck. After securing the arm, you rotate to the north/south position and pull up on the arm, lifting the defender's shoulder off the mat.

From there on, you have two choices. If the arm stays straight, you post one foot right behind his back and fall on your butt for an easy arm bar. Your other hand should be on the mat in front of the defender's body for support while preparing for the fall. If the arm tries to escape by bending (and holding on to something, like the belt), you step your knee over his other biceps and sit on his face. This way you have a pretty trouble-free position to force the hand into a kimura lock.

Paulo Guillobel demonstrates the complete attack from side mount to arm bar:


We had one round of free rolling at the end of the class. Me and Juho were matched against each other, yet again. This time, I had youtube-studied a couple of chokes from the north/south position (where I seemed to end up quite often last time) and was quite eager to try them out. I barely managed to get into the position once by giving up a hard-earned mount, but the round ended before I even had time to think about going for a submission. Maybe next time? In the end, we both managed to get one successful tap during the round with almost identical Ezekiel chokes. It was the first time I tried it, and it was uplifting to see the choke work as advertised.