Renzo Gracie dropped by Hollywood BJJ today for an impromptu seminar.  It was awesome.  BTW - Shawn Williams is a Renzo Gracie black belt and Hollywood BJJ is part of the Renzo Gracie association.  Anyway, Renzo taught us a few techniques and then we drilled.  I hadn’t seen any of the techniques before so it was really a great learning experience.  In addition to being a two-fisted ass kicker, Renzo Gracie is a really funny guy.  He was cracking jokes and fooling around with Shawn and overall kept everyone focused and positive.  He was totally gracious and signed autographs and took pictures with everyone.  It was a lot of fun.

I made it to class today - my first class since busting my MCL.  I’m wearing this ridiculous brace that only allows my leg to bend in one direction.  The warm-ups were kind of tough.  I can’t run right as I still have a pronounced limp.  However, I got through it and the drills were a lot easier.  I had a dream of competing in the upcoming Pan-Ams, but that’s going to have to wait.  I think I’ll go to all the open mats between now and then and give my tournament-bound teammates someone to beat up on.

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.

This week Shawn Williams taught us some cool butterfly guard passes. Back in November Sean Flannery taught some butterfly passes but they were completely different. Unfortunately…I went to two classes and open mat today and I think I’m pretty tired because my pea brain can simply not remember two out of the three passes we learned today. Here’s the one I do remember.

Leg Spring

1. Rest your head on your opponent’s chest looking off to one side
2. Kick up with the leg on the same side that you’re looking
3. With your other leg jump up and over your opponent’s butterfly hook away from where you’re looking
4. Land on your feet, not your knees
5. Establish side control

When Shawn demonstrated this, he was almost vertical on step 3 with all his weight driving straight down. When I tried this move, I could tell my weight was way off to the side and I wasn’t heavy on my partner at all. Gotta work on that.