Training Diary continued

Dynamic Grip Breaks

The smaller person would be wise to try to avoid a 'strength' type grip strip, where you grab the hand and try to pull off the grip, strength versus strength rarely works for the smaller guy, we need to consider hitting the grip off. Less strength and more dynamic.

In the video above you will see how the sleeve is pulled down to take the slack out of it then as the shoulder is pulled back you slap off the grip. Make sure you are slapping in the direction of the weakest part of the grip.

When you have stripped the grip do NOT let them have the hand back or they will simply re-grip, palm their hand away setting up a clear path for you to take control.

The same with the no gi version. Attacking the weak part of the grip is something I was taught in traditional jiu jitsu but works equally well for Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

The key to the grip break is timing, make sure you are working in synergy, every part works together.

Let me know how you get on.

Helen

De La Riva Guard Grip Strip

Following on from the previous post about the ankle grip, this short clip covers removing the grip.

Make sure that you lower your weight by squatting and not leaning over. 

Reach down outside the leg and grip the lower edge of the hand, right by the little finger.

Curl the hand upwards, don't pull. It is a manipulation of the hand not a strength move.

Don't release the hand until you have started the pass and broken the structure of the guard otherwise they will just re-grip.

Remember, think 'curl' not 'pull'.

Let me know if it works for you.

De La Riva Guard Details

The guard player is playing guard with a shallow De La Riva hook, the guard passer is looking to pressure the guard position.

At 0.12 notice that the hand is cupping the calf and the guard player’s butt is inside the foot making it easy for the guard passer to point the toes outside which allows the knee to turn out, effectively killing the hook. The guard passer can then collapse the guard structure and step over to pass.

At 0.18 the guard player cups the heel keeping the elbow close to their body and low to the floor.

At 0.19 the guard player lifts their hips and sits on the foot. This action coupled with pulling the heel in a slight circular motion towards them makes it almost impossible to turn the toes outward therefore unable to turn the knee outwards so the guard structure remains strong.

Combat Base Uk Official Black Belts

Helen Currie 2^nd degree (05/13)

Darren Currie 1^st degree (07/12)

Ryan Hunter - (11/2010)

Steve Muckle - (09/2011)

Ed Drysdale - (02/2013)

Graeme Allsopp - (02/2013)

Danny Mitchell - (06/2013)

Combat Base Uk Official Brown Belts

Mark Spencer - (10/2008)

Rob Lawlor - (02/2008)

Adam Adshead - (09/2010)

Ian Jones – (05/2011)

Carl Fisher – (09/2011)

James Nardone - (09/2011)

Antony Griffiths - (09/2011)

Chris McIntyre - (09/2011)

Pete Guest - (10/2011)

Combat Base Uk Official Purple Belts

I have only specifically included grades from Combat Base. Members of CB UK who have transferred from other teams will not have their grades listed here as they weren't promoted by us.

Andy Pyle - (02/2006)

Ben Mallows - (12/2007)

Chris Campbell – (12/2007)

Ian ‘Doug’ Mochen - (10/2008)

Luke Young - (05/2008)

Brendan Chaplin - (?/2008)

Tomasz Winconek - (02/2010)

John Sherwood - (03/2010)

Kam Patel - (03/2010)

Dave Hirst - (03/2010)

Steve Paynter – (10/2010)

Drew Christie – (10/2010)

Kris Brotherton – (10/2010)

John Goodliffe – (05/2011)

Nick Goodliffe - (05/2011)

Jay Furness - (05/2011)

Mark Richards - (05/2011)

Leroy Holcroft - (08/2011)

Simon Ball – (09/2011)

Dan Boyle - (09/2011)

Dave Vincent – (09/2011)

Laurie Major – (10/2011)

Chris Eastwood - (10/2011)

Roberto Barbieiro – (11/2011)

Karl MacLean - (01/2012)

Phil Ounsley – (03/2012)

John Allen - (03/2012)

Lloyd Cooper – (04/2012)

Adam Simpson – (04/2012)

Nam Hoang - (08/2012)

Brett Smart – (08/2012)

Rogan Tonks - (03/2013)

Aldo Di Giorgi - (04/2013)

Tony Riley - (06/2013)

Dave Kari - (08/2013)

Combat Base Uk Official Blue Belts

I have only specifically included grades from Combat Base and not included any of the grades from SBG. Members of CB UK who have transferred from other teams will not have their grades listed here as they weren't promoted by us.

Vince Moran - (01/2005)

Will Harrison - (01/2005)

Kaeshi Maeda - (11/2005)

Allan Butler - (01/2006)

James Carrington - (01/2006)

Anthony Doyle - (01/2006

Ian 'Pud' Barnfather - (date?)

Drew Hopkinson - (date?)

Pete Forster - (date?)

Jim Burman - (02/2006)

Saif Khan - (02/2006)

Adrian Quinn - (2006)

Neil Hall – (02/2006)

Ian Lorentz - ( 02/2006)

Pete Hill – (2006)

James Orr - (03/2007)

Andy Krlic - (06/2007)

James Canavan - (10/2008)

James Parker - ( 10/2008)

Shane Cartwright - (05/2008) 

James Hoye - (05/2009)

Paul Keegans - (09/2009)

Gaz Vause -(09/2009)    

Craig Lawrence - (03/2010)

Richard Lander - (01/2010)   

Joe Borek - (03/2010)

Gareth Price - (03/2010)               

Gary Hoyle - (03/2010)

Nate Simpson - (03/2010)            

John Harrison - (05/2010)

Max Ramsden - (03/2010)           

Dane Mitchell – (07/2010)

Adam ‘GSP’ Ross - (06/2010)      

Romin Partovnia – (10/2010)

Shaun Killelea – (10/2010)           

Mike Ng – (01/2011)

Lee Whitehead – (10/2010)        

Beau Maclean - (03/2011) 

Steve Handford – (10/2010)       

Mick Hardaker - (03/2011)

Russ Gates – (01/2011) 

Graham Ponsonby - (05/2011)

Jack Waldron - (03/2011)             

Catriona Barkley - (09/2011)

Craig Burke - (05/2011) 

Ty Harrison - (09/2011)

Michael Holling - (05/2011)         

Andrew Whitelam - (09/2011)

Josh Dilcock - (09/2011)

Andrew Morris - (09/2011)

Jody Clark - (09/2011)    

Will Aston - (09/2011)

Lee Gilmore - (09/2011)               

Adam Lowes - (09/2011)

Steve Murgatroyd – (10/2011)  

Barry Blackburn – (10/2011)

Linden Clark – (10/2011)              

Lee James – (11/2011)

Chris Lewis – (11/2011) 

Jamie Lester - (12/2011)

Gaz Firm – (12/2011)     

Danny Mason – (01/2012)

Paul Roberts – (02/2012)             

Ben Royle – (02/2012)

Jake Mallalieu – (02/2012)           

Marc Chesworth - (02/2012)

Caz Grayson – (02/2012)              

Wajad ‘Wax’ Sadiq – (02/2012)

Lee Carr - (02/2012)       

Andy Ferris – (04/2012)

Matt Greenwood - (04/2012)    

Gary Tasker – (04/2012)

Paul Iredale – (04/2012)               

Neil Audsley – (05/2012)

Alex Cannon - (05/2012)              

Amir Sajid - (05/2012)

Kevin Mullen - (05/2012)             

Anthony Smith - (05/2012)

Harry Lockwood - (05/2012)       

Neil Blanshard - (06/2012)

Daniel Cocker - (05/2012)            

Will Cleary – (07/2012)

Guy Farrow – (08/2012)               

Adam Russell – (09/2012)

Danny Missin – (08/2012)            

Kristof Golec – (11/2012)

Dan Hall – (11/2012)       

Neil Gee – (12/2012)

Lee Wallace – (12/2012)               

Jordan Uddin – (12/2012)

Jack England – (12/2012)              

Ryan Broomhall – (12/2012)

Diana Gonzalez – (12/2012)        

Gareth Yates  – (12/2012)

Isaac Shaw  – (12/2012)

Norman Campbell - (12/2012)

Andrew Mulvey  – (12/2012)     

Paul Genge - (12/2012)

Aggie Drozdzik (03/2013)             

Andy Shields (03/2013)

Liam Holt (03/2013)        

Steve Holt (03/2013)

Lee Jones (03/2013)       

Tim Wilson (03/2013)

Brendan Gallagher (03/2013)     

Reece Potts - (04/2013)

Vitor Ferreira - (04/2013)             

Simon Barritt - (04/2013)

Pardeep Singh - (04/2013)           

Josh Moorby - (06/2013)

Rich Cadden - (06/2013)               

Hannah Young - (08/2013)

Sam Archer - (08/2013) 

Serguis Pawlowski - (08/2013)

Jonathan Krylczuk - (08/2013)    

Joe Katterfield - (08/2013)
Josh Collins - (09/2013)

Injury is the mother of invention

During one of my injured phases, there have been many, the list is long and distinguished, my knee was bust but whilst rehabbing I wanted to start drilling again. I spent weeks having my guard passed so I could work half guard retrieval as was the vogue at the time.

This injury phase has been spent thinking about turning a perceived bad position into one of attack. Why bother retrieving half guard when I can get top? Time to short cut the process.

What even is a bad position? Consider the dynamic of yourself in relation to your partner, side control is side control whether you are on top or underneath, your position in relation to your partner doesn't change only the position of both of you in relation to the universe changes, wow, trippy!

Remember Danny Mitchell explaining "guard is mount" at one of the team training days, his is exactly the same thing. By the way Danny's spider mount is genius, I've worked this and it is awesome. Needs a DVD out.

So my first phase of training under side control to attacking position consists of 2 elements:

Keeping the hips free
Keeping out the cross face

First one, being under side control means your hips are free and can move around.if your side control escape is to get back to half guard, all you have done at that point is still be in a kind of side control but now you are attached. When I am looking to choke someone from half guard top I purposely don't pass guard, if I don't pass I am attached whereas if I pass your hips are free.

Second point, if I keep out the crossface you are not going to get flattened and can then look to deflect and control the arm they are looking to cross face you with. This is where the kimura grip becomes invaluable.

So now, we are still under side control, our hips are free and we are uncrossfaceable (is that even a word, I would be fabulous at Scrabble, Scrabulous even).

You start looking for the kimura grip. There is so much you can do with this grip, just don't hang out there too long as your partner can hit the spinning arm bar if you are not careful.

We now have a position which can lead to hip heist sweep as video above, can spin to arm bar, can take the back or get on top, a whole game.

The question is WHY go this way rather than the more traditional method? The simple answer is........shortcut.

Lets look at Marcelo no surname necessary with his arm drag to back. Which is the most efficient use of your time and energy?
Arm drag to back or
Arm drag to takedown to pass guard to side control to back

Why does Rafael Mendes use berimbolo to back? Same answer, it's a shortcut.

Consider berimbolo to back as opposed to guard to sweep to pass guard to side to back. Shortcut. In case you hadn't noticed, all the answers are shortcut.

Under side control to top or back is simply a shortcut. If you want a more traditional way, then go for it, I'll see you when you get there.

Combat Base UK Team Training Day 02/06/2013

The latest instalment of the popular team training day was held in Rotherham this time, at the impressive VS Gym generously hosted by Dave Keeley.

As always the format would be 4 workshops with time for extra drilling, rolling, catching up with old friends in between but this time we added the Absolute White Belt Death Match Tournament which pitted 8 fighters from 8 different clubs against each other to give some guys a little extra of the tournament experience.

The tournament was absolute, so no weight categories and to their eternal credit Josh Heston from NGT and Stephen Hant from CB both wanted to fight despite being only 60kg and 61kg respectively. I decided to just let them fight each other and not join the tournament because of the big weight difference, great warrior attitude though.

Helen Currie got the ball rolling with her 3 part warm up; On The Minute Every Minute for the general warm up, joint rotations and movement then onto the sport specific drills that she swears by that have given her the kind of body control and movement that I can only dream about.

With everyone warmed and loosened the first competitive matches started.

First up were Stephan Hant and Josh Heston with Stephen taking the win by Ezekiel choke but as was agreed beforehand the winner would grant the other a rematch so these 2 would meet each other again later.

As the 8 man tournament started Rich Cadden got off to a winning start to meet Brandon Guest in the first semi.

The second semi was decided as Josh Moorby and Big Mo progressed too.

The scene was then set for workshop #2 in the capable hands of purple belt instructor Lloyd Cooper who taught leg drags. I was very impressed how everything was really broken down, the techniques were great but the attention to pressure and weight distribution was excellent and as we know, makes all the difference.

The repechage finalists were decided as Krysztof Kaminski and Marc Crowther both scored victories in their respective semis to progress to the finals.

The tournament finalists were decided as Rich Cadden progressed to meet Josh Moorby in the absolute finals, this becoming very interesting as Rich, being the lightest entrant in the tournament made the final.  

 Workshop #3 then got under as purple belt instructor Roberto Barbiero taught his proven system for defeating the half guard specifically dealing with the pesky knee shield situation. Again this was broken down to such a degree that every specific piece of the puzzle was covered allowing for the destruction of said shield.

I was really interested in what Roberto was going to teach as I play this position so need to know what guys are going to start doing to me so I can get some counters ready for them :0)

Again the importance of pressure and posture whilst passing was really emphasised. There seems to be a pattern emerging here from the higher grades!!

The final matches from the tournament were now to be decided, Krysztof proved a little too much for Marc who fought valiantly but had to settle for 2^nd as Krysztof took the match in fine fashion.

Then the anticipated rematch of the ridiculously light guys took place. This time it was Josh’s turn to administer the Ezekiel choke for the finish, ending 1 match each and a rubber match in the pipeline somewhere down the line.

I was really impressed with Stephen as he said to me that the first match he won quite quickly so wanted to try something different this time even if it meant him losing. A lot of guys want to win at all costs so was refreshing hearing him say he wanted to test something else instead.

The tournament final was a great match with Josh showing his excellent jiu jitsu from top and Rich working from bottom against the bigger guy. Josh went on to take the match but both guys did themselves proud.

The final workshop was a master class in detail as brown belt instructor James Nardone broke down the entry, taking the back and the finish whilst there. James gave everyone a disclaimer before he started saying there wasn’t much movement involved in his section and by the looks of the level of control he had over his demo partner he was right. An excellent way to control and finish.

What impressed me most about all the technical sections was the attention to detail, before we moved on to a following technique the instructor made sure to address and correct any mistakes that had been made on the previous technique right down to the smallest detail, this allowed everyone to have a solid base before moving on. No flashy showing off techniques just good solid jiu jitsu that anyone at any level could use.

Following the obligatory photos courtesy of Mr Fisher, we moved on to the final bit, there were a few promotions that needed to be made, one especially giving me great pleasure and made me emotional yet again.

Danny Mitchell started off the awards by calling up his AVT team member Josh Moorby who has a solid jiu jitsu game, demonstrated by his faultless performance in the tournament. Josh has put in a lot of time to his gi game with Danny and it really shows. Danny presented the blue belt on the behalf of Combat Base.

Danny then called up another one of his students, Rich Cadden, for his blue belt. For those of you that maybe don’t know Rich is a real Muay Thai champion winning the world title twice in Thailand amongst other accolades. Rich had set the bar high for himself but has medalled at all the tournaments he has fought in so the time had come for the blue to be awarded and for the bar to be raised a little higher.

Next, NGT head coach, James Nardone had the pleasure to promote Tony Riley to purple belt. Tony’s game has sky rocketed of late and is a solid competitor as well as being a great coach and much respected NGT team member. We wondered if James would get through the ceremony without getting too emotional which he (just about) did.

Final promotion was very special to me as we were tasked with presenting Danny Mitchell with his black belt on behalf of Combat Base UK and Chris Haueter. There is so much I could say about Danny but don’t want it written down in case it is ever used in evidence but what I will say is that this guy can do everything, he is the consummate professional, will fight anyone at anything and is as humble as ever. His fighting skill is also matched by his coaching skills and has coached guys that have won titles in BJJ, no gi, MMA and more as well as winning all these things himself too. Excellent competitor, fighter and coach.

 

His popularity is reinforced by the fact that Twitter and Facebook lit up with messages of congratulations.

 

I wasn’t as brave as James and admit to having tears in my eyes all through the promotion. Helen tied the belt around his waist and made it official.

I am extremely proud of what we have here, we had 70+ guys turn up to train, all contributed to charity and had fun whilst helping support people not as fortunate, raising about £700 for children’s cancer charity in Rotherham.

I am so proud of all you guys, we have something special here.

Finally shout out goes to Cat who is still the best brownie maker in the UK, you’re a lucky man James, no wonder you are marrying her :0)

Thanks for the support everyone, it means the world to me.

Darren