2009-02-25 Wed PM BJJ Class

Cassio Werneck BJJ - Sacramento CA - Cassio Werneck

Worked more reactions to people turtling. This time we covered the arm between the legs attacks.

Opponent is on their left side rolling towards you to turtle. You keep good pressure as they roll and slide their near side arm between your legs as they come to their knees. Their arm should be bent towards their feet. With your hps pressing down you straighten out their arm across the back of your calf. Their wrist should be on the back of your leg. From here you can left your left hip slightly and get the tap. Totally a finesse and feel move. I used to really struggle with this one, and still do to my right side. If they happen to bend their arm forward you can turn your body forward a bit, grab their wrist and pull it up for the shoulder lock. You could also pass their hand to your other leg by sliding your calf beneath the other.

The second technique was a response to someone protecting their arm by grabbing their belt. Little bit acrobatic. Once they have come up to their knees and grabbed their belt (their arm wrapped around your leg). You should be parallel to them. Take your arm nearest to them and drive it down and across their body. Then roll over that same shoulder. They MUST follow your roll or their going to seriously jack up their shoulder. That arm you stuck through is now very important as it will be preventing them from coming up and over you. Finally from here sit up in a sort of a reverse omaplata.

Rolled:
rolled three 8 or 9(?) min rounds
(wb that always calls me sir, punk ;) ), rest, rest, Brian, John

Rolling was good. Was able to switch to DLR guard when Brian and John stood up in my guard. Swept with varying degree of success. I really need to figure out how to recover guard when John passes. I didn't recover once.

2009-02-23 Mon PM BJJ Class

Cassio Werneck BJJ - Sacramento CA - Cassio Werneck

Worked some responses to the turtle. In in things to do when your opponent decides he's about to get passed or that he's sick of being under your half guard and he goes to all fours.

This is a favourite technique of mine, turtling up that is. Getting my hips around has always been a problem for me, the knees just don't want to come up. I've gotten better at it but still it's not good. I usually end up turtling up to avoid the pass.

With that in mind it was good to see things from the other side. The first was just a discussion of body position and how to move, keeping your pressure on the hip / lower back and not on the upper back and attacking the far side to put a hook in.

The fun stuff started next. He showed a choke where as you opponent begins to roll towards you to turtle you reach under their top arm with your near arm (like your going to go for a whizzer) and grab the NEAR SIDE collar. As they continue to roll over reach around their head (front head lock style) with your other arm and hand that lapel off. Get a deep grip.

now dive your head 'into the hole' as you slide your now free arm behind their head. roll them over if you need to, just be sure to keep the arm. Nasty choke.

Rolled:
rolled four 8 or 9(?) min rounds
Mike (? bb), Dustin, rest, tony, Dan (brb)

The first roll was pretty good. I felt under control but kinda stiff, like I was muscling things. The second was with a new guy I haven't seen before. I sat out for seated guard, he grabbed one ankle and damn near slid me across the floor. He didnt really need to 'pass' my guard much since this put my head about next to his hips. Um, little strong. I felt like I pulled guard out of survival mode, controlled things mostly. A few more months and he'll be a real pain in the ass to roll with. I heard he wrestled in college. Yep, thats gonna be fun stuff.

My roll with tony was good, I tried that high closed / knee pinch guard again and managed to catch him just before he backed out. That was nice. I tried some of the spider guard he's been pulling on me for years now. He passed it pretty handedly and then discussed what I did wrong. That was even nicer.

I was really trying to keep my defense together vs. Dan. It was crazy how when I focused on keeping my elbows in and tight and not opening up, he really seemed to get slowed down. Then as soon as i lost focus on that type of tight defense I'd get caught. I really need to be thinking that all the time till it gets automatic.