My photographer friend Ron took this picture of me stretching between matches at the South Bay Open this weekend. I lost my first match in overtime. I’m not sure how points were awarded, I just know I lost. I won my second match by kimura. Then I lost my third match on points. I got tooled in my third match actually. My teacher Shawn Williams was there and his coaching probably saved me from getting submitted a couple of times in the third match when I got a step behind.

In between my matches these two huge Samoan guys fought. They probably weighed 400 pounds each. It was awesome to behold. It was like watching two shaved grizzlies put on kimonos and then smash each other.

I missed yesterday’s no-gi class because I got totally jacked-up at work. I didn’t get back home until midnight. It was such a stressful day but for some reason I couldn’t sleep. I woke up at 5 am and started watching Marcelo Garcia videos on YouTube. Marcelo Garcia is the shiznit. I like his arm-drags.

Anyway, the point is I hate missing no-gi classes because I think I prefer no-gi now. It’s much faster and more fun for me somehow. But I must say, I feel sorry for the poor saps who have to roll with me because I am the sweatiest person alive. It’s weird and disgusting. I’m sweating right now as a matter of fact.

After tonight’s class I decided I’m going to avoid blogging about technique. It’s too hard to not be prescriptive, and as a white belt and all-around scrub I have no place writing prescriptively about BJJ technique. The more classes I go to the more I realize I don’t know what the hell I’m talking about. And I don’t want to write something that inadvertently misrepresents Shawn or the academy.

One thing I did realize tonight is that you can transition to arm-bar from the cradle. How do I know? Because Alex arm-barred me three times tonight after cradling me in back-mount. I couldn’t really see how he did it so I’ll have to ask about it later.

When I first started going to Hollywood BJJ seven months ago Shawn Williams taught us some techniques from back mount. Back then I wasn’t writing everything down so all of that technique disappeared into the sucking vortex of my memory. Regardless, my back-mount game sucks ass, kind of like the rest of my game. I basically just try to do the collar choke or rear-naked choke. I actually can’t remember how to do collar chokes correctly but I think I have a grasp of the rear-naked choke. Luckily I think we’re going to start covering back-mount curriculum again so I can harden the many soft spots in my back-mount.

What do you do with your feet?
The last time I rolled at Minnesota Martial Arts Academy I kept crossing my ankles in back-mount. My partner would hang his calf across my ankles and it was very painful. I used to wrestle and I think the ankle-crossing habit is a hold-over from my wrestling days.

Another thing I do is get a figure-four around my opponent’s middle. Shawn showed us a counter to the figure-four that was very simple and effective. I guess the figure-four isn’t as good a technique as I thought. Also, sometimes when I do the figure-four the dude just rolls over and my ankle gets crushed underneath the combined weight of our bodies.

What Shawn recommended was just plain old heel hooks. The other foot technique he recommends is a belt-line hook. When he demonstrated it it looked like his other foot was resting on top of the other guy’s thigh.

As I walked home I was pondering why heel-hooks are better than a figure-four body lock. I think the reason is that heel-hooks give you control plus mobility whereas a figure-four only gives you control (which can be easily compromised as Shawn demonstrated). For instance, with heel-hooks you can just use your feet to push down on your opponent’s thighs to get him over onto whichever side you want. With a figure-four once you’re on your side, it’s pretty hard to get over onto the other side. If you can’t finish you’d have to somehow get your bottom leg free and try to scramble for dominant position.

What do you do with your hands?
This was pretty simple. Basically you should have one arm under your opponent’s arm and the other arm over his shoulder in choking position. The under-hook arm should “hide” the choking arm because your opponent will try to attack your choking arm. When Shawn demonstrated this he just grabbed the forearm of the choking arm. It’s pretty hard to get a monkey grip on your opponent’s choking arm if his hand is in the way. It’s like trying to palm a big lumpy volleyball that’s been coated in baby oil.

What do you do with your head?
Shawn really emphasized the importance of head placement. If you have your head in close to your opponent’s head it really hampers his mobility. Basically, if he tries to turn into you he can’t because your head is in the way. Also, it kind of hurts to have someone’s skull grinding into your ear. Another aspect of head placement is that if you have someone’s back, you want your opponent’s head below your head, otherwise you can’t really choke them effectively. The converse of this is that if your opponent has your back, you want to get your head above his head to make it harder for him to choke you.

How to counter a back-mount escape
The way I know to get out of back control is to

1. drive back on your heels until your head is above your opponent’s head
2. get your shoulders on the mat
3. when your opponent tries to mount by swinging his leg over, hook the leg and get half-guard

Shawn taught us a cool counter to this escape which allows you to maintain back-mount. I like this technique because you aren’t vulnerable to getting stuck in half guard as you are in step 3 above.

1. when your opponent starts step 2 above…
2. while keeping your hands clasped do the Homer Simpson walk backwards until your hips are facing the mat and your opponent is on his side
3. bring your shin against your opponent’s back
4. pull his torso up onto your thigh as though you’re cradling him
5. get a heel hook over your opponent’s body with your free leg
6. pull him back into back-control

As I’m writing this it occurs to me that after step 5 you’re also in position for an armbar, since he’s lying on his side and you have an underhook on the arm farthest from the mat. On second thought you would only have an underhook on his upper arm if he turned towards your choking arm which he probably wouldn’t do. I guess it’s time for bed.

Today we did a fun flow. I’ve had exposure to all of these techniques before but as per usual, I identified dozens of things I’ve been doing wrong. I’m just going to jot down the pointers I need to remember, rather than go through some long-winded explanation of each move.

Standing Guard Pass

• When you step up with the first leg, keep your foot close to your opponent’s body and engage your hip-drive so your back is very straight.
• Swivel the second foot out at an angle and twist your hips forcefully when you step up.
• Don’t just lean on your hand.  Your opponent can knock your hand away and force your posture down.  Hold your arm straight with light pressure so if he tries to sit up he has to sit up through your arm.

Head and Hip Side Control

When you complete the guard pass you naturally end up in head-and-hip side control. Rather than scoop the head and go knee-on-belly you can just

• Place your bicep over your opponent’s far bicep (this keeps you heavy on his chest)
• Scoot your hips back to isolate his near arm
• Push down on his knees
• “Stomp a bug” on the far side of his body to complete the mount.
• Walk your hands over to stabilize the mount

Mount

• When you scoop under your opponent’s head, then also shift your weight to crank his head over
• Pry his arm up by walking your hand up underneath it with little movements rather than a violent jerk

S-Mount

• Your knee has to be at least as high as your opponent’s head
• If you straighten your arms you will lift up your opponent’s head preventing a bridge. This also makes it easier to get your other knee under his shoulder. Make sure to get the knee under and not just your calf or foot
• Don’t be afraid to just sit on your opponent’s chest to stabilize the S mount

Arm Bar 1

• Lean towards your opponent’s feet to make it easy to swing your leg over his head
• Do not try to straighten his arm unless you can get your foot over his face. Otherwise he’ll just sit up in your guard.
• Try to touch the soles of your feet to the mat

Arm Bar 2

• If he counters arm-bar #1 by grabbing a bicep then snake your hand over his arms and grab the other arm at the elbow
• Lean way forward and stabilize by putting your hand on the mat
• Pendulum your hips by kick-standing up on your foot so that you are facing the other direction. Swing your other leg over your opponent’s face. Then arm-bar the other arm.

One of the things I enjoy about Hollywood BJJ is Shawn Williams’ ability to make me comprehend “simple” techniques on a whole new level. We’ve been doing mount drills all week which seems about as exciting as a stick in the mud. But Shawn keeps dropping little biomechanical tips that have enabled me to keep my mount much better. This is not a glib statement. Last week I was being bucked and swept on a regular basis by guys who weigh 50 pounds less than I do. (I weigh 215 today) Today I managed to keep mounted on a guy who weighs 250. That’s progress!

Chest on Chest/Hip on Hip
I had a tendency to support my weight on my arms making me “light” on top of my opponent. It’s okay to posture up if you’re going for a submission but if you are trying to maintain mount you should place your chest squarely on your opponent’s chest and your hips squarely on his hips. Your hands should be above your opponent’s arms spread wide but with elbows slightly bent. I started doing this and immediately felt the difference. My partner’s breath started to grow labored and he was plainly in discomfort.

Knees Wide
I tend to keep my knees close to my opponent’s body in mount. I started doing this under the misguided notion that it was helping me to track my opponent’s body. The unfortunate result of this is that if your opponent tries to bridge your knee can get trapped between his hip and the mat. You are deprived of a fulcrum and you go over more easily. Shawn taught me to keep your knees wide apart like the hulls of a catamaran. Catamarans are incredibly hard to capsize.

Hook Feet…sometimes
Shawn showed three different ways to touch your feet. Ordinarily you can just touch your feet together or lay one on top of the other. If your opponent controls your hips and tries an uppa you can hook your feet which makes you “stick” to him. If you keep chest-on-chest contact, it’s very difficult for your opponent to finish the uppa.

Grapevine
If your opponent gets an overhook and tries to bridge you over, you can grapevine his power leg (the one on the opposite side of the overhook) and stretch it out. This effectively takes the power out of his bridge. If you 1) shift your head across your opponent’s head on the opposite side of the overhook and 2) stretch out your hand on that side as far as it will go you will multiply the weight your opponent is trying to lift. Combined with the grapevine this is an awesome counter to a bridge attempt.

Knees + Crossface
Sometimes your opponent will get a gable grip around your back and keep your posture down. Matt Hughes just did this to Georges St. Pierre in the last UFC. If you just push yourself up you’re basically doing a combined benchpress of your weight + your opponent’s weight. If you try to use your lower back muscles, you can’t match your opponent’s arm power. Instead, if you scooch your knees forward a little you can straighten your back by driving your hips into your opponent’s hips. Then you can cross-face and push down on your opponent’s trap and re-establish mount.

After today’s class I noticed that I basically never utilize hip-drive to exert downward pressure in mount. I am going to work on that tomorrow and see if I can do any better.  By the way, I cut the end off my mouthpiece so my bad tooth doesn’t come into contact with anything.  This has enabled me to resume classwork.  Also I’m taking a lot of ibuprofen which is probably killing my liver but what can I say, I heart BJJ.