BJJ Zero

After spending far too much time researching UK based BJJ Gi suppliers , as well as soliciting advice from several people, I plumped for a Tatami Nova as my first real Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Gi. The Nova is, by all accounts, one of the most dependable inexpensive gi on the market. I've only racked up about 15 hours of jiu jitsu mat time and given that I only train once a week, the Nova seemed to be a sensible choice. I wanted something friendly on the wallet as well as relatively plain. The Nova ticked the boxes, though it does come with patches on the shoulders and trousers (which I have subsequently removed). On paper, the Tatami Nova looks like the perfect beginner Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Gi; maybe even the perfect gi for the occasional student - you know, the one who isn't on the mat every day. How does it perform? I've got an old Shogun gi from about 10 years ago. I've long since forgotten what size it was (and the label has faded past the point of recognition). I

Today we worked on the arm-bar. Here's what I remember. From the guard, keep the knees tight - cue bad joke about the German Guard (gudentight). You need to basically get yourself 90 degrees to your opponent to get a good arm-bar. That's a lot of movement, so you want to push him a little and move yourself a little. Put one foot on the hip. Whichever foot goes on the hip is the side of the arm that will be arm-barred. At the same time, make your body slightly U shaped. Bring the hips off the ground and the upper back off the ground. That way you have less surface area against the mat to move. So, right foot on the hip, hips up, head up. Left leg squeezes and pushes opponent slightly towards the right as you spin slightly towards the left. Right foot comes up and over their head, knees together and squeeze tight. Reach over and get their left hand and arm-bar. From there we worked on a transition, should they escape their arm which involved taking your right leg, w

It's inevitable that pretty much every new BJJ blogger writes a "Buying my first gi" post. So here's mine. Up until now, I've been training in an old gi that I got when I was training Aikido about 10 years ago. It's pretty solid - an "old school Shogun". It seems tough as nails, but it is heavy as hell with a skirt longer than most young ladies wear and sleeves wide enough to accommodate Napoleon's armies. From what I can see of BJJ that puts me at a disadvantage. There's more material to hold onto, more gi skirt to wrap around my neck and more grips than any of the guys at my gym need to thrash me on the mat. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that I have the gi- I made the mistake of going to my first class in tracksuit trousers which for some reason chaffed my knees and left them completely raw (my gi was drying from being washed after being in storage). Since then, though, I've been using the gi. First night wearing it and rol

I've spent the past few weeks doing a bit of stand up MMA work. Been enjoying the combination of putting together all the striking, takedowns and grappling and learned a ton. Big things for me were learning a proper shoot - this is something that always looks easy when you see it live, but actually doing it right is more tricky. I'm pretty bad at shooting to be honest. It hasn't clicked for me yet and isn't really "there" when I'm under the stress of actually sparring. Next week I'm back to BJJ. Grappling is probably still my weakest link so eat bitter as they say.

Taking a small break from BJJ to do some MMA training. Some basic drills Jab and parry - you jab, opponent parries and returns the jab, you parry, continue. Cross and parry - as above with cross. Jab and parry and cross - as above, throw in a cross now and then. Double leg takedown Start with a hook - this gets you in range for takedown - one arm's length. Change height - i.e. drop your hips and shoot in Bring the back leg up so you are almost in a squat. Drive 45 towards his rear leg, lifting the front and subsequently the back leg. The concepts are - to throw, get your hips lower than his. To shoot, get in one arm's length. Defence - guillotine He shoots to your left, your left arm goes down round his neck, right hand snakes between your body and his shoulder to grab your left wrist. Drop left shoulder and pull with your right hand upwards. Stop the guillotine from stopping your take down Keep driving and pick him up, both legs, take him down, gain side con

Technique we drilled last time - starting in guard, go for the armbar but you find he is too strong or you just don't get it, omoplata, hook your hand under his leg closest to you, and roll over. Opponent gets rolled onto his back and you go in for side control getting hands on either side of his hips. Rolling with a friendly blue belt who encouraged me into side control and then helped me tune up a figure 4 lock - keys were to get the elbow down close to his body to really accentuate the angle before putting it on - I have no idea if this is technically a kimura since the arm isn't going behind his back, instead it is the other way up as if raising your hands. Generally rolling was good. I managed to keep my cool with the white belts I rolled with. Rolled with three blue belts as well. One tall guy with very active legs, like a spider - I find it difficult to figure out what to do. I'm working on trying to flow a bit, not get locked up and stuck and if I can pass the g

Missed a week on the diary. Last lesson though, we worked a wing sweep. From the back, opponent standing, hook a left leg outside his right, right foot in his hip. Half turn onto your left side and pivot the right hip so the knee comes to his chest, foot goes under his leg. Right hand digs deep into his right lapel. Left hand grabs his left and pulls it across towards your left shoulder. Release the right hand. Sit up a bit and put the right hand over to grab his back - belt, gi, anything. Lie back down in an arc as you pull with the arm and sweep with the leg describing a nice big circle. He will come off the ground and land next to you. You use the momentum to come up into side control. Rolling was tough. I alternated rolling and sitting out over the rounds. I think after a few lessons, at least I can sort of make out what people are doing, but trying to pick out techniques from watching is difficult. Rolled with a blue belt who was super kind - he was rolling slow, giving me tim

Three black belts on the mat at last class. How cool is that? Started with warm up - basic arm bar rapidly from side to side. Just getting position. I worked with a blue belt. Hint of the day was to snake an arm underneath his arms and grab his bicep, using that to manoeuvre myself around. Ten per side, followed by the Kimura - ten per side. Noticed that when he was warming up, as he sits up and turns his body slightly, he bumps me with his hip. Going to try that next time since it seems to be good to take attention and off balance you a bit. Then from side control, lift the body and bring a knee up to the solar plexus. Drills - we worked from half guard. So if it's on my right leg, grab the lapel with my right hand and tuck the head towards his shoulder. Keep the right elbow in and dig a little into his inner thigh. Grab the cuff of his right hand with my left and pull into position flat on the floor. Put the knee on the wrist on the inside. Place a small wrist lock to get

I heard a story once of a martial art teacher who was very accomplished. Every year, he would go somewhere he wouldn't be known, put on a white belt and join some dojos, just to learn something new, pick up a new skill, without prejudice or preconceptions. It's a funny business having belts. I'm two lessons into BJJ. I joined to learn something new, gain some skill in something I'm not at all good at. It's easy to say I don't care about belt colour because I know I'm at the bottom. I wonder if I'll loose sight of that as I train and start chasing belts? I hope not. I hope I'm old enough to train for myself and not care about chasing external signs of validation. That's not to say that skill should be untested, just that owning a skill is not something someone else gives you. I liked what my teacher (can you call them that after only two lessons? I don't know) said at the last class when talking about an upcoming grading : If you don't

Two weeks since my first Brazillian Jiu Jitsu class, my skinned knees finally healed up enough to get back on the mats (not to noobs, don't try a class in tracksuit trousers - get some gi trousers or spats or just wear some knees guards - tracksuit cotton seems to rip up your skin something terrible). Last night was a big class. We began with a warmup - working with a partner and doing some basic movement - get the hips away, climb the legs up into arm bar. No need to actually make the other guy tap, just get into position rapidly. Then a similar thing - from guard, his/her hands on either side of your torso on the floor. Grab the wrist, sit up and snake your opposite hand over his arm and around to grab your wrist. Again, no tapping. Then technique time - we did two techniques: Passing the guard with a leg drag Standing with opponent on his back trying to get you in guard. Grab his left leg with your right hand and drag it to the left. This turns his body to his right sid

My first class in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu was probably the hardest I've trained in five years. It went like this: Brief warm up - not too bad - my body still remembers roughly how to roll. I pick up shrimping - pretty sure I'm not elegant, but at least I can do the basic movement. Some hindu pushups (glad I've been doing these anyway) Drill a technique - an armbar of sorts. Basically, from guard with opponent grabbing lapel, you break his grip, get opposite hand under his/her lapel, put one foot on his/her hip to create some space, get the opposite foot high on opponents back then bring the hip pushing foot up over the neck their shoulder. Don't cross the feet, but rather squeeze the knees together. I'm pretty useless, slow, just trying to remember the technique. The guard feels alien. I've done some striking arts and it just isn't something I've ever worked with. We worked some basic takedowns that a couple of the guys wanted to cover for an upcoming tou