BJJ Zero

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...

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...