BJJ Class 120 – Seminar
Went to my first BJJ Seminar today. It was crowded with too many people on the mat. It’s a good thing it was all technique, it would’ve been real bad rolling as it was full. At one point, the guy I was doing techniques with was involved in a three-person armbar pile-up: they all landed on each other as they finished their armbars!
Seminar was taught by a well decorated Gracie Barra black belt who is also a World and Pan-Am champion, and who I believe also taught my instructor. I went back and forth with myself whether I should name him and stuff, but I don’t really name anyone in this blog. I probably should start to be more open about it and start revealing more about myself, where I train, and who I train with (it’ll help me remember names too). In any case, I should start with myself first before I go ahead and start naming others. So until I get to that, no names in this blog.
Anyway, there wasn’t as many techniques taught as I expected, but we got the chance to really try the techniques out and try to get them right.
Techniques were a guard pass, a variation of the pass if your opponent gets half-guard which leads to an armbar, and two crazy (read: fancy) techniques that starts with guard, goes to upside-down guard, then ends in submissions. Needless to say, I had a hard time with the fancy stuff. The passes on the other hand, looked simple but were very effective.
Somewhere in the middle he went into triangle defense. Basically, the best time to defend it is before it gets sunk. If it gets in deep, the chances to defend and escape become very, very slim. Posture is the best way to defend, then get a thumb-only grip with your free arm in your opponents lapel near the neck, stack and use the grip to choke your opponent and pass to side control. He was also telling us that he has the best triangle defense in the business (that’s BJJ business) and that the guy with the best triangle in Brazil (Pe de pano or something, I didn’t get the name) couldn’t even triangle him.
Anyway, I’ll try to illustrate the passes soon – those were techniques I’d really like to remember.
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