2009-02-21 Sat AM BJJ Class

Cassio Werneck BJJ - Sacramento CA - Cassio Werneck

Worked some nice kimura attacks and attack response counters from the bottom today. After drilling the standard kimura form the bottom we got into the techniques proper.

The first was good basic information about just being in half guard. Keeping your edge. Defending your upper body from anyone grabbing your lapel or arm. Keeping your body extended away from your opponent. Keeping your knee up and across their body. It's so easy to get away from these core things sometimes.

We worked attacking the kimura while fighting that grip then he had the top guy defend the attack by burying the hand inside his own leg. The response was pretty simple. Let go your grip and post up on your bottom elbow, keeping your over hooked arm in place. Then hip over hard like a sitting up sweep. It was nice. Now if they post their leg out to counter the sweep just go back to the kimura since they've effectivly removed their hiding place.

Now rather than hiding their arm they could posture up. I see this in the more advanced guys I roll with. the response to this counter was interesting, and kinda difficult for me. As they posture up you swing your outside leg over their head and plant your foot on their near side hip, then attack the kimura and if they straighten out their arm maintain control of the wrist and finish with a NASTY shoulder lock / arm bar.

I was able to try some of these in our rolling sessons, not all that successfully but I tried them ;)

Rolled:
rolled four 9(?) min rounds
Dan (bb), Mike (teen), Marcos, rest (last round damnit)

It's been a while since I rolled with Dan and I have a few years mat experience on him. He's put in a lot more time lately, really slimmed down, and his game has really improved. He attacked me once with the kimura attack we reviewed in class that day, I postured up and I could feel his hip coming up. I limp armed out luckily or I don't thin it was going to go well for me soon. He also just about ran around once forcing me to go turtle to prevent side control. His choke attempt wasnt bad but I didnt feel like I was in danger. So imagine my surprise when he suddenly let go. He thought I had tapped when it was the guys behind us. I appreciated his caution. I did pull some closed guard with some success. Attacked the arm bar as he was getting up. Couldnt get my leg over the head so I tried something new from here and did that tight head and shoulder clamp Cassio teaches once in a while. he was pretty stuck there with his elbow buried deep. I grabbed his hand and pused it laterally outwards and caught him with the shoulder lock. I'm going to try that head / shoulder vice from there more often.

The roll with Mike was good. It gave me a bit of a rest and also let me give him a bit of help. I try to keep it too the simple stuff I know I'm getting right; elbows in, posture, stuff like that. there was a pretty big size difference and he worked pretty hard.

Then there was Marcos. That was a traffic accident. Since he's not feeling gracious enough to let me pull closed guard anymore I have to try to keep him at bay with my open guard. Not so much. He did counter my back attack in an interesting way that I asked him about after class. He turtled up briefly and I attacked trying to get my near side hook in. He proceeded to do a half shoulder rol, then sit his hips out and come over the top. I've seen this before in Telles's turtle guard video and I've even done it before but it was a trip to have it happen in real time and I didn't even recognize what was going on. Strange how the mental camera doesn't work right sometimes.

2009-02-18 Wed PM BJJ Class

Cassio Werneck BJJ - Sacramento CA - Cassio Werneck

Late to class tonight, damn day job! Came in at the end of warm ups. I always feel kinda vulnerable when I start drilling or rolling without warm ups. Like I'm one stuped move from injury.

We're working some kimura attacks tonight, from the top while in half guard specifically. This counterpoints very nicely to some of the deep half guard sweeps we learned in the last few weeks.

The firt technique was from half guard facing the legs, your opponent has an underhook on your arm closest to the legs. This is a pretty standard technique, slide the hand up the arm. secure the kimura. The part that was different from me was the response to the inevitable death grip your partner gets on their belt. You post off your elbow/forearm and head, sliding your body out a bit. this should make room for our leg to get over their head. once hear reposition them into a vertical position. then apply the standard 'sitting on their head' kimura.

The second was a little more acrobatic. We started from a knee across pass position but rather than driving the knee through you change directions. Grabbing the kimura as you roll over your shoulder. If your driving your right knee through you would attack their exposed left arm and then dive over their arm and across your left shoulder. if they sit up you just us it to pivot yourself around for the armbar. was easier than it looked.

Rolled:
rolled four 8 min rounds
DJ, rest, Toby, rest, Dan(?,wb), Adrian

My rolls with DJ and a white belt named Dan(I think that's his name, I really need to work on the name thing). Good rolls, Dan moved around and attacked a lot. He suprised me with an omaplata. If I didn't have 40+ lbs on him I might have been in some real trouble. I've been trying to give people more pointers while we roll. Especially the white belts. I hope it doesn't come across poorly. I really don't wanna be that guy that talks all the time or seems to think he knows it all. I feel like nothing could be farther from the truth. I do remember a lot of the things I wish I knew when I was a white belt so I try to get some of those things across.

My rolls with Toby and Adrian were both pretty frustrating. Not that I expect a bunch of success against either of them. It's just that I seem to fall into the same patterns. I try some seated or foot on hip open guard, trying to pull closed guard. I get passed pretty easily. I then get handled on the way to getting submitted. I made Toby change attacks a few times but could never get back to a real guard replace. And I couldn't get an inch of space on Adrian.

Maybe it's time to forgo to closed guard focus and spend more time NOT getting passed.