*Watch out for the speed cameras in and around Bradford!!
Start time: 12:00 noon Finish time: 4:00pm
Cost: Minimum £10 donation, all funds raised to go to local charity tbd
Combat Base members and extended family only, open to all grades and levels
Proposed Workshops
Yoga For BJJ - Lloyd Cooper
Half Guard - Nam Hoang
Side Control - Josh Dilcock
I have purposely only gone for 3 workshops this time so there is more time to drill and roll. It is not often that there are so many black belts and brown belts at any one time so a perfect opportunity for anyone that doesn't regularly roll with higher grades to get schooled.
I often hear that chess and jiu jitsu are similar.
In one respect they are not; in chess you get a move each in turn, not simultaneously, in chess you get time to consider your next move whereas in jiu jitsu if you stop to consider a move, you get killed!
There are similarities in each game that are worthy of study. Of course, both are games of strategy, of in game tactics and ultimately submitting the opponent.
Chess, as jiu jitsu, I see as being a game of 3 distinct sections. In both, you need a strong opening, a middle game and the end game.
You need a well drilled opening then a middle game that causes chaos for your opponent then you are in for the kill in the end game.
The middle and the end are full of tactics and in-fight decision making but, for me, the opening is key to getting you ahead. You don't want the early part of the match to be playing catch up.
If you walk up to a game of chess knowing that your opening is a classic pawn to king 4, you have a well drilled considered opening but I see in a lot of cases where people enter jiu jitsu matches with no clear opening strategy and are just going to "see what happens" or "go with the flow".
I don't this this is the best strategy, immediately you are reactive rather than proactive.
If your game plan is to start strong, get your preferred grips and then either throw, take down or pull guard, you are getting to where you want to be to get the rest of your game going. If you just wait and see, then who knows!
Sometimes things don't go your way and your opponent has a stronger opening than you, that's just one of those things, we all experience that at some point.
So, in conclusion, if you are one of those people that doesn't have a pre-determined game or just want to wait and see what you are given, I would strongly advise having an opening gambit, however small it may be, maybe just get your grips then I believe you are putting yourself in the strongest position possible to help you chase victory.
Coming next, the chaotic middle game and the critical path.
Just a reminder of the class as promised, see notes below to accompany video. Please note this is not meant to be instructional just a reminder of techniques covered.
Thursday no gi class 28th May 2015
Take down techniques worked from typical pummel position
Revision
Hip toss / koshi guruma – details
·Good control of the head, drop centre of gravity
·Pull the arm across your body
·Push the hips through
·Load them onto you before completing the throw
Finishing options – Americana with legs, diaphragm compression, arm triangle
·When you catch the Americana with your legs, pull your hips down before lifting for the finish. To intensify, put on a little neck crank too.
·To make effective pressure with the diaphragm compression, loosen the grip and ‘stir’ to tighten up before putting on the pressure.
·Also need to ‘stir’ to get good pressure on the arm triangle. Pay attention to the trapped arm, this needs to be into the neck not face.
Hip toss / koshi guruma against leg drag position
·Catch the nearest wrist
·Elbow their hand off you ribs if required
·Control the head, break the posture
·As you pull your elbow under you it brings their arm around and loads them so you can complete the roll
Introduction of techniques
Single leg from clinch - details
·change the angle against the under hook
·change your head position and use your head to prevent partner following you
·level change by dropping laterally
·block the other leg to avoid them stepping around the single
Finish the single into BJ Penn pass position
Hook sweep against BJ Penn pass position – details
·over hook
·pull the hook in towards you before lifting for the sweep
·use your free hand if you need to
Knee bar from hook sweep – details
·use the scissoring of the legs to isolate partners bottom leg
·move yourself to the knee bar position
·head on top of the foot and control the heel
·curl your heels up against your partners butt to emphasise the hip pressure
IMPORTANT - watch out for the speed
cameras in and around Bradford!!
Start time: 12:00 noon
Cost: Minimum £10
donation, all funds raised to go to local charity tbd
Invited: Combat Base members only, open to all grades and levels
Proposed
Schedule
12:00 - A brief warm up session of Yoga For BJJ taken by the Yorkshire
Gripper himself, Lloyd Cooper. Lloyd has been studying Yoga for a while now and
has taught for me at HQ, this can really help your Jiu Jitsu. Lloyd has used
this in his training to help him achieve excellent competition results starting
as a purple belt and now at brown belt. Anyone who wants any longevity in Jiu
Jitsu should supplement with Yoga.
12:20 - Wrestling For Gi taken by Kam
Atakuru.A lot of you know Kam already but for the ones that don't Kam has
worked extensively with the Combat Base group helping people prepare for gi and
no gi competition plus MMA matches right from local shows to UFC level. Kam is
head coach at ASW plus a BJJ brown belt, pro MMA fighter and excellent
competitor.
12:50 - Drill, roll, relax
1:00 - Passing the open guard with James
Nardone. Another excellent brown belt competitor will take you through his
passing game, one that has allowed him to win numerous matches and medal at
tournaments at brown belt level. James is a great coach and will break down in
detail his hard earned knowledge to pass on to you.
1:30 - Drill, roll, relax
2:00
- Leg locks with Adam Simpson, yet another excellent brown belt competitor,
Judo black belt and NAGA no gi elite champion. Adam will share the set ups,
strategies and details for finishing your leg locks in the most painful but
efficient way.
2:30 - Drill, roll, relax
3:00 - Taking a break from the physical
aspects of training, performance specialist Rich Cadden will give a talk on
mental preparation. As well as being a Jiu Jitsu competitor and twice Muay Thai
World Champion, Rich is in demand for his work through Star Performance
Mind Coaching. He has helped people with performance anxiety, confidence,
self esteem, goal setting, fears and phobias, fitness programmes & even
diet plans. Rich also worked with the British Olympic Squad prior to the last
games.
I recently watched a world renowned black belt
teach a double underpass that was supposed to have amazing details but I thought
he missed out quite a bit of important information.
Then I watched another world renowned
black belt teaching a scissor sweep and again I didn’t think it was that great,
some critical details missing.
I wondered if I had developed some kind of
arrogance where I know better than world renowned black belts but maybe it’s not
arrogance, maybe I do know better.
If so, then why and how?
I think it is down to not having a resident teacher
which was a curse and a blessing back in the day. I saw Chris Haueter once or
twice a year and did a few seminars but ultimately playing trial and error with
my training partners was the way I learned.
If I was totally baffled, I would wait until
Haueter came over, he would give me one of the light bulb moments and I was back
on track.
Although we always need direction and a healthy
training environment from people that are more experienced, I wondered if you
learn better when you are taught or when you figure something out for yourself.
When you find things for yourself instead of being
told, you instantly have the how, when and why feedback so you retain the
information better.
I now realise that Haueter taught me so much by not
teaching me so much.
I know some people see it as a waste of time and
think they are re-discovering the wheel as they could have just asked their
instructor but we are still developing new stuff even now thanks to this
idea.
Which do you think will give the best
results?
Years later when we trained with SBGi, Matt
Thornton always pushed the ‘Inquiry method’ which is basically what we were
doing and probably why I liked his approach. Not surprising Matt thought this
way as Chris was instrumental in helping Matt form SBGi.
We developed so much Jiu Jitsu training this way.
There would just be a few of us exchanging ideas “if I do this, what would you
do” put in 10 reps while we got the basic idea then tried it against a little
resistance building up until you can do it against full
resistance.
While Lloyd Irvin and his medal chasers were
micro-drilling 1000s of reps of a real small part of the puzzle, Cobrinha was on
the other side doing what we had been doing. He told me that he would do 10 reps
of a technique then straight into drilling against resistance building up to
restricted sparring, this suited me personally because I always hated specific
drilling and always loved situation sparring.
I'm not saying one way is
better than the other across the board, you have to find what works for you
personally. Some people explore and others have to be told. Pick the one that
suits you.
Ironic that when I tell people they should question things,
they never ask why :0)
DC P.S. The Socratic Method is relatively similar to this
approach and fits quite well with this concept.
Socratic method (also known as method of
elenchus, elenctic method, or Socratic debate), named after the
classical
GreekphilosopherSocrates, is a form of inquiry and discussion between
individuals, based on asking and answering questions to stimulate
critical
thinking and to illuminate
ideas. It is a dialectical method, often involving a discussion in which the
defense of one point of view is questioned; one participant may lead another to
contradict himself in some way, thus strengthening the inquirer's own
point.
Take a look through the television guides these days and you
will see MMA on mainstream TV, not just the flagship events but local shows
too, something many of us thought we would never see especially with the
attitude of the media back in the day but as Bob Dylan prophesised “the times,
they are a changing”
Our story begins not too many years ago in the ancient
borough of Pontefract when a wise young man with a full head of hair decided to
organise an MMA show to try to highlight a fledgling new sport but was not
really available outside of the big smoke and certainly nothing like it around
us. Our hero and his partner had indeed frequented these things in the borough
of London and were such fun, a really good test of your all round martial
artistry.
We had introduced this style of fighting as an after
Taekwondo class activity and the guys seemed to really like it. We had no mats
and didn’t know what we were doing but it was fun and double legging someone
onto a hardwood floor just seemed so right.
Our hero approached various fighters that were prepared to
compete in this new and exciting format and was met with a lot of enthusiasm,
it all looked very promising.
The local rugby club was to be hired to showcase this event,
talks had gone well and an agreement reached, the ring had been measured and
all extra seating was sorted so a date was set. Was all set to be the first MMA
show in God’s own county of Yorkshire then everyone’s favourite 2 things got
involved; the media and the church. The countdown to destruction had begun.
First of all, a TV show named Calendar interviewed our hero
at his place of work and were thoroughly excited about the new venture, the TV
employees asked if they could have tickets to the show for a little publicity
so was agreed.
The very same evening the interview with the hero of the
piece was actually on Calendar but had been edited so it sounded a LOT
different to what had actually been said. Add to this that the TV show had
researchers up in the old town of Pontefract showing UFC 1 to old ladies who
were out shopping because it was pension day; the old ladies verily agreed that
this type of fighting was indeed barbaric and would not be going to the rugby
club to partake in the fight night.
Calendar invited noted pacifist Brendan Ingle to comment, he
was outraged that guys were actually trying to hit each other. This was around
the time that Paul Ingle was put into a coma from a beating received in a
boxing match. He received severe brain and head injuries in a 12 round title
defence. “You do know what irony is, don’t you Baldrick?” “Yes, it’s like tinny
or coppery but iron instead”
To quote a scientific formula of the time, one heavily
edited interview + one disgruntled boxing coach + countless outraged old ladies
= not looking good for yours truly.
All the offended people immediately flocked to church for a
good cleansing and upon hearing that such sorcery and brutality was due to take
place in his parish, the priest started proceedings to have our hero removed
from his parish (I swear that the local
church wanted to get me thrown out of the parish, they actually thought they
had the power to get me to move house!) At one point I swear I could see
the dim glow of torches as the flock went for their pitchforks.
The might of the church came down upon the rugby club who
then had a change of heart; they sent a letter to our hero explaining that they
would have to retract their offer as “they didn’t want rugby being associated
with a violent sport”. Seriously!
Everywhere our hero went the common people did ask of the
show and were disappointed to find out that it wouldn’t be happening just yet.
Even the wonderful serving girls of Greggs, where our hero would procure
provisions, were looking forward to a night out at the rugby club. The bad
publicity had actually attracted more people than it had detracted, I guess
they didn’t realise the mentality of the population of the mighty borough of
Pontefract. This is a town that Shakespeare wrote of in Richard III because
unfortunately King Richard II had met his fate in Pontefract; some say in the
castle, some say on a night out but never the less we celebrate regicide.
Bloody Pomfret as Shakey called it.
Alas there was nowhere else to go. The Council wouldn’t
allow sporting contests in its facilities so couldn’t get an entertainment
licence, even though I had seen Giant Haystacks wrestling at the Town Hall
previously.
And so, faithful readers, that was the end of the first
attempt to organise a legal MMA show in Pontefract. We would have to take our
new found sport underground for a while so watch out for more devilishly
entertaining tales coming to these pages.
With all the reviews and follow on
from Metamoris 3 one of our guys, Andy Whitelam, asked me to do a ‘Currie
Breakdown’ of the Bravo v Gracie match. This is not an depth review, there's guys who can do than better than me so it won't be too technical but it's the key points as I remember it. Most of my observations are focussed on
Eddie for 2 reasons; I must admit to being a bit of a fan of Eddie and having
trained with him a bunch of times I understand his game a little. Secondly I
don’t really think Royler did that much to review apart from hold on and not
get submitted.
Side note; may just be me but I think a few of the Gracies on
the Metamoris shows have tried to just not lose rather than win. Royler, Clark
against Rafa, Roger against Buchecha and maybe even Ryron against
Galvao….maybe.
I read a conspiracy theory that the Gracie Brothers are
feeding their “sport” relations to world class competitors to show that the
“sport” is not as effective as the “art” saying that the purpose of sport is to
win but the purpose of the art is to survive. Ryron surviving against a bigger,
stronger opponent shows how “effective” their system is. And their student
Schuass drew with Cyborg. The Gracie infomercial of getting beasted while
viewing as success rolls on.
Back to Metamoris 3 and the much awaited re-match starts as
Eddie shoots a vicious double leg……….
Ok, time for real review;
This is quite possibly the most important match that these 2
will ever compete in; Royler to prove that Eddie’s previous win was a fluke and
Eddie to prove that his system is legit. What followed was almost like a 10th
Planet instructional.
Eddie pulls quarter guard right off the bat and immediately
kills Royler’s angle for the knee cut pass that is probably his most formidable
weapon. The quarter guard is a non-loadbearing guard, you are not carrying your
opponent’s weight so you can keep it for a long time if you require, that
allows you a lot of movement and gives you the option to bail quickly if you
need to and is one of my favourite guards. Eddie has a ridiculous ‘squeeze’ in
his legs so knew Royler would have a tough time passing. [I’ve been in his half guard and it is tight]
Eddie works very patiently while Royler tries to pour on the
pressure; Royler can’t seem to progress the position as Eddie is being very
patient, a trait he has shown in all his matches, he’s not going to move unless
he has his grips absolutely locked in.
The first 6 minutes or so are just jockeying for position,
trying to establish grips, trying to get a slight advantage over the other
before launching their attack. I’m kind of surprised that Royler is trying the
same thing whilst getting nowhere; I thought he might have switched his pass by
now unless maybe he can’t or thought it was working. It’s different when you
are in the moment rather than detached and watching.
So, the most crucial point of the match occurs at around
13:40 on the clock, Eddie gets the grips he requires and switches to lockdown
so you know he is now set to hit his sweep.
At roughly 13:05 a big mistake from Royler as he pulls out
his overhook allowing Eddie to rotate his legs that is key to the Electric
Chair (a mistake made sometimes with Electric Chair is people try to use the
arms to pull the leg into position but it’s all in the legs) Once this sweep is
set it is pretty unstoppable, best you can hope for is a re-roll but that
wasn’t happening this time.
Eddie tests Royler’s flexibility until 12:30ish but what
looks like Royler rolling him back, to me is Eddie rolling back to better
secure position before going fully to top. [I
remember Eddie saying on more than one occasion to test their flexibility]
By keeping the lockdown even whilst on top it becomes a very
strong position, it’s kind of like having a half mount with grapevines. It is
also a very strong position to pass from as one of your legs has passed already
and makes a barrier for the other one to pass which is achieved at 11:50ish.
Royler for some reason is making hand gestures, don’t know
if he is trying a little ‘sportsmanship’ or is frustrated.
Eddie using the wrestlers cradle and cross face really well
so when he starts to switch to north/south Royler recognises the escape route
and fall into yet another trap.
[This was something
Eddie taught us, to create a ton of pressure then release it in one place thus
providing the only means of escape so you have to go that way and of course they
have let you do this so you have usually escaped into something worse. My
coach, Chris Haueter, is a master of this]
As Royler takes the bait, Eddie rolls for the back but his
hook is just a little too shallow. He still attacks the neck crank really well
but his position seems a little off otherwise I believe he would have had the
submission right there. The hook being too shallow is then evidenced at 10:20
as Royler managed to escape the attempted back take during the transition.
Royler gets back on top in Eddie’s half guard and attempts
to do something that had not worked for him previously in the match, he doesn’t
seem to know how to escape this position and is kind of lost.
Eddie now knows his way to win and immediately looks to
utilise lockdown again.
8:00 to go and Eddie hits the Electric Chair again and holds
position for a while, Royler looks to roll Eddie and get back on top, Eddie
doesn’t seem to fight this too hard, maybe saving his energy for his final
attack, maybe a little fatigued or setting up something else..
5:55 another Electric Chair from same set up but not quite
settled, again Royler rolls to top but Eddie resets and Electric Chair’s to top
again. 5:30 to 5:15ish you see Eddie start to look to Royler’s feet, giving a
glimpse of him looking to finish now.
Referee stops the match to reset in the middle, there’s some
Gracie drama (isn’t there always) but after protests and a picture is provided
the referee resets them in the correct position. This is probably the last bit
of motivation that Eddie needs, he knows Royler has no idea of how to beat him
and trying to ‘improve’ your position in the reset seems a little weak. [Apparently one of the other Gracies
shouted at the referee from the side-lines to “stand them back up” for the
restart}
Referee is having none of it, stays strong and restarts from
the correct position [I guess he’s out of
Metamoris 4]
Eddie had the Electric Chair position but got rid of the leg
so he has some kind of lockdown/rewind the hips/leg drag/stoner control
position. I’ve seen him hit arm triangles and twisters from here so looks to be
a good strong finishing position but you saw his intentions just before the
restart.
As Eddie continues to work the lockdown, I swear I saw
Royler tap, Glover said he saw it too but thought he must be tripping, think
I’m tripping too.
Royler starts pushing Eddie’s face away or looks like Eddie
is being pushed away but at 3:58 he uses that momentum to reach down for the
foot and roll.
Eddie looking to finalise his ‘Vaporiser’ which is not just
a calf crank but a calf crank with a twisting foot lock too. At 2:26 you
can just about see Eddie’s right hand pushing down Royler’s foot creating a
calf cranking, toe holding, foot locking bag of pain [I know, he showed me then Helen did it to me too and it hurts like
hell] Royler must be tough as hell to not tap because it looks on or maybe
he has the mentality that he doesn’t care if it busts something as long as he
doesn’t lose.
From 1:15, looks like Eddie is going for a modified heel
hook, same again at 0:40 and time “runs out” or should it?
0:00 Metamoris guys stop the match even though it said in
the rules that if one guy has a near submission they will let time continue
until the submission is finalised or the opponent escapes. Guess it wasn't close enough.
11 years in the making and within 20 minutes it’s all over.
My Conclusion
Eddie performed better on the night, he had a plan and stuck
to it, taking his opportunities at the right time.
Royler was never in the game, he seemed totally unprepared
for Eddie’s ½ guard game which is the foundation of 10th Planet Jiu
Jitsu. In fact it seemed as though he had never seen Eddie Bravo grapple before.
Maybe the Gracie camp didn’t expect ½ guard and there isn’t much about Eddie on
the internet either…….
Eddie told us something along the lines of “don’t even think
about rubber guard until you ½ guard game is down”
Hindsight is a wonderful thing but if I personally was
involved in Royler’s camp, I would have specifically looked at a couple of
things.
*Watch the roll Eddie had with Marcelo, see how Marcelo
handles distance and angles
*Read any of Eddie’s books or watch any of his speeches, he
pretty much gives away the basis of his system
*Look at this picture on Eddie’s FB page. There is Eddie, a
guy who says his entire system is built on a good ½ guard, training with ½
guard master JJ Machado and ½ guard pioneer Gordo.
But now the dust has settled, life is back to normal and
nothing has changed. Maybe Eddie gets a more students, keeps his legacy intact
and cements his undeniable place in history. The Gracies already have their
legacy and place in history. Both will continue to have the nut-huggers and the
haters. Someone on the net called it the greatest match in the
history of Jiu Jitsu, give me a break, it wasn’t even the best match that
night, performance of the night for me was Gui Mendes, he absolutely killed it.
If you think this Metamoris was hyped, wait until they tempt
Marcelo out of retirement!
I have been studying new ways to apply the basic arm bar and delved into the world of meridian lines and pressure points.
After years of detailed research, mainly hidden away in a cave, I found that at the junction of meridians I8U and 4Q2 there lies a spot that causes immediate paralysis and causes the arms to stiffen.
Once I have activated this I set up the regular arm bar.
I tricked Ryan "Jiu Jitsu Turtle" Hunter into sparring with me, he wishes he hadn't now. I hope he gets well soon.
I then got to thinking that if it works on arms maybe I could go double tap and incorporate the legs too. The results are amazing.
Here's the proof.
You just saw the results, results don't lie. We will be adding this into our syllabus right away so get practicing. We will be adding a 5th stripe to belts for anyone who masters this.
I thought about challenging people to a match or compete or something but I believe this is too deadly, what's point having a gold medal when you're looking at a 20 stretch?
