Exercises - The bible

Not the actual Bible, but I thought I'd detail the exercise for anyone wanting to try it at home. Troy Flugge (one of the founders of the Submission Factory) was a huge fan of this exercise and would go through it every time there was a new beginner in the club.

All you need is a deck of cards and 20-30 minutes.

Shuffle the cards. Work through the deck of cards with the following rules:
Black card - Push ups
Red card - Squats

Number 2-10 - number of the above exercise
Jack = 11
Queen = 12
King = 13
Ace = 15
Joker = 20

Work through the deck until you're done! (My legs feel like they're about to fall off after this is done).

You can also vary the exercises if you'd prefer crunches or something along those lines.

I also realise I haven't updated in a while. Feels like my BJJ is...not progressing. Seem to have hit that hump and just get stuck with the same problems over and over again...

Kenpo – Orange belt grading

Last Thursday (30^th August 2012) I graded for my Kenpo Karate orange belt and was successful! I graded with Phil (going for his brown belt) and Mike (going for his orange belt too).

It’s the 2^nd Kenpo grading that I’ve done and I felt a lot more nervous this time around. I’m not sure why, but there were quite a few more things which I had to know and work on that it seemed like it was going to be much harder than I thought.

A quick summary of the items I had to work through:

·         Recitation of the Kenpo creed;
·         Demo Defence (defence against a set of pre arranged attacks);
·         Push drag footwork theory and demonstration;
·         Forearm pad round (demonstrating push drag footwork);
·         Kick shield round;
·         Yellow belt master techniques;
·         2 x random yellow belt reference techniques;
·         Orange belt master techniques;
·         2 x chosen orange belt reference techniques;
·         4 x 1 minute rounds of sparring;
·         Master Technique Scenario (Demonstrating Orange belt masters techniques)
·         Defence scenario

Overall, the main feedback that I received was that my technique was sharp and concise, but my sparring could definitely use some work.

The most significant feedback that I received was that I tend to drop my hands and that I look too low when I’m sparring.  Therefore, I tend to get hit a fair bit after I’ve thrown a kick or something.

Also got a few more items to cover, will do so in later posts!

Half Guard and progress

Starting to feel like I'm getting the hang of things a bit better, switching hips, moving position and developing a bit more of a strategy. I've been working a lot more on position than anything else and I think that if I tend to focus more on that than getting a submission, it actually makes the game a lot more fun.

Anyways, a couple of things that we worked on recently include passing half guard position from the top (that is, one of your legs is trapped between their legs).

Half guard pass 1 - You get the underhook
Seek the opposite underhook and post your head on the other side of their head so you have a stronger base. Work your trapped foot up towards their butt so your hips are raised (like a tripod) and once your knee is through, switch your hips so that your knee hits the floor. Keep your hips low and close to theirs and transition through to side control. Keeping your hips low is really good at stopping them from inserting their knee back in to regain the half guard or the guard.  Keeping the hips close to them as well is much more effective than trying to keep your knee near their hips.

Half guard pass 2 - You get the underhook
Similar to the above, instead  of  creating a tripod, set up like before, underhook and head on opposite side and step to the side with your free leg. This creates a better angle to move your knee up past their thighs and pass the half guard.

Half guard pass 3 - You can't get the underhook
If you can't get the underhook, control their head by catching it with the original underhooking arm and push your shoulder into their neck/jaw and proceed to pass the guard like the first half guard pass described.

Half guard pass 4 - They have the underhook
If they get the underhook from below, control their head like above and instead of following through like in the first guard pass, step your free leg back and over their body to the opposite side of their body. From there, keep your butt to the floor and hip escape up towards their head to shift your trapped leg higher. Keep the free leg a bit bent to make sure they can't sweep you either way. From there, you can also use your free leg to push their leg and free your trapped leg. Shift into side control.

Half guard pass 5 - Neither of you can get the underhook
If you can't get the underhook, an option is to reach down and grab their belt on their opposite side. So if your right leg is stuck, using your left hand, grab their belt on their left side with your elbow in their arm pit. Sink your weight down on your butt and work your leg free and move into side control.

Hip bump sweep
Another thing I've been really working on and getting is my hip bump sweep. I'm actually really surprised how well it works and I seem to get a lot of people with it really easily. I find that when they're breaking my guard, if I sit up and cross reach over their opposite shoulder, grab their arm or just tuck it close to my body and hip bump, I can get the sweep a majority of the time. I think I've been pretty lazy with my guard so being active and getting these sweeps is really encouraging, especially as I don't seem to be able to hit the scissor sweep too often.I need to tell myself constantly that not having them in my closed guard is fine and playing an open guard is a lot more dynamic and fun, regardless of if they pass.But definitely been hitting this sweep, at least 5 times tonight!

Breaking out of Guard
I've been finding this is starting to get easier, as long as I have proper grips on their gi, their sleeve and my elbows are in the right place. Putting my hand under their leg isn't so much of an issue, as long as my arm is controlling their other leg. Still a lot to work on here though.


Kenpo wise, I should be going for my grading on the 30th August. Need to work a lot on some of the reference techniques and come up with theories of push drag, 60 second functional fitness exercises as well as memorise the creed. So much to do!

brief notes for myself

Too many things that have been learnt recently! Trying to remember them all, things that stand out and that I'll do a more detailed write up on later.

Standing guard trip 1. Snag leg from opponent standing in their guard, let go of the guard roll over your shoulder towards the snagged leg so you land on your knees and with the snagged leg, trip them by picking it up and leveraging at 2 points on the shin. From there, keep pressure on and move into side control. Actually managed to snag one in sparring today!

Standing guard trip 2 - drop down, leaving your legs open like a V, (hanging onto their sleeves) and bring it closed around their knees. Pull their weight forward and drop them to the side.

Standing guard trip 3 - Drop down, snag their leg with an arm underhook. Get your hip inside their knee, push up and to the side with your free hand and buckle the leg. Follow in a clockwise (or anti clockwise) to follow up for the mount control.

Standing guard trip 4 - Drop down, holding onto their lapel and sleeve. Release the lapel, pass the sleeve to the free hand and underhook their leg with the new free hand. Pass the sleeve back to the underhooking hand and release your guard and triangle your legs trapping the arm. This should result in them tripping and you ending up in a side control position (potentially mount).


Bread knife choke - from side control, move into front control. Get your arm under their armpit and towards their neck to grab the lapel, but mainly keeping their arm pinned to your body. Move back to side control with the pinned arm, reach through and grab the opposite lapel with thumb in, deep as you can get. From there, use the sharp part of your wrist to push down on their neck, whilst simultaneously raising their shoulder to get the choke. Tried this one in sparring today (no gi), was much harder to get the actual choke without the lapel, though you could theoretically get it with the hand behind their shoulder instead of grabbing the lapel. 

Notes to self
Keep good posture, head up
Both hands in, or both hands out, not one in and one out...ever.
Don't let them control your wrists, or you won't be able to pass the guard.

Hopefully going for my Kenpo Orange belt at the end of the month...still a bit to learn, but there should be enough time to learn it all properly!

Guillotine defense

Tonight was a tough night, got submitted so many times, didn't get any submissions and ran out of gas quickly. Anyways, learnt a few things tonight about Guillotine defense.

Basic guillotine defense from standing

When your opponent attempts to get a guillotine on you when standing and they have their hands around your neck, with your arm closest to their body, throw it over their opposite shoulder as far as you can with the inside of your arm against their body. When they try to raise their hips and lock the choke in, your arm over their shoulder should raise you up and foil the choke. However, you obviously want to get out of this position as soon as possible.

As a follow on from this, if step around their body towards your arm around their shoulder, buckle their knee and with your other arm, pull their far leg up to take them down. This is likely to end up with you in side control and if they're trying to keep the guillotine, a good position to transition into one of a few moves.

From Guillotine side control
There are several transitions you can seek from being in a guillotine from side control. Generally someone trying to keep you in guillotine does not have much leverage and ability to close off the choke.

Arm bar
First way to deal with it is to walk your legs around to front control. They are likely to be on their side at this point and if you bring your leg around behind their shoulder, snag their arm and leave your other leg on the original side of their head, you can lean back and get the arm bar. Make sure to pinch your knees.

Kimura Lock v1
Second option is to walk around like before to front control. As you reach front control, pass their arm over your head with the arm that was lower on their body, grabbing the wrist. Put your knee on their arm closest to the floor to pin their shoulder to the floor. With your free hand, snake it under their arm that you are grabbing and grab your wrist in the Kimura lock. Rotate their arm towards their back, maintaining the 90 degree angle for the lock.

Kimura Lock v2 - Loosening guillotine
A third option is that if they are realising they can't get the Kimura lock and are starting to loosen it, you can slip their arm over your head with the arm that is lower on their body, snake your upper arm under their arm pit and throw your upper leg over their head to get a Kimura.

Shoulder crush - Loosening guillotine
Another option if they are starting to loosen their guillotine grip is to reach around their head with your upper arm like in side control. Withyour lower arm, reach it back and then bring it back around their back, trapping their attacking guillotine arm. From here, clasp both of your hands together in a gable grip. Shuffle your shoulder under their neck and tripod on your legs with your weight going into your shoulder and into their neck. Raise your other shoulder so your weight is going through your shoulder. Even if they have their hands in place and chin down, it can still be a pretty nasty submission and can crush their jaw. Our instructor called it the shoulder crush choke and it was a pretty nasty one.

Anyways, will try to keep updating regularly!

On Saturday we worked a couple of combinations and things in MMA. I haven't updated in a while...not sure why. I guess I've been pretty busy, things have been hectic and though there have been things learnt, I didn't really feel like writing about them. Anyways, will be trying to get back into it!

Guard combination – Arm bar to triangle choke to arm bar

From guard position, set up for an arm bar, if they pull their arm out, switch your leg onto the other side of their head and set up the triangle. If they post off your chest and look up at the ceiling, swing your leg around for an arm bar on the other arm. Both of your legs will be on the same side of their head to get the final arm bar.

A really good video breakdown of it.

Guard combination – Triangle to Kimura

If they try to defend the triangle by pushing their arm around the other side, switch the triangle with your legs to the opposite side in order to reach that arm and put on the Kimura lock.

Guard Guillotine

From Guard, reach up and over your opponent’s opposite shoulder like when reaching for an Omo Plata. Instead of grabbing over their arm, bring your tricep down back against your opponent’s neck. If the opponent sits back, use the arm on their neck to lift you up (so they are doing all the work). Create space between your chests, then bring the same arm’s forearm around their neck, keeping it tight. Creating the space is integral to ensuring that your forearm gets under their chin. Bring your other hand underneath the fist in a cup and saucer sort of gesture and tighten. Pull your legs and straighten them out with their head on the floor to tighten the guillotine. Another way to think about tightening this choke is to uppercut with the choking arm.

If they try to fight the choking arm, loop your other arm in under their neck and close like in a rear naked choke.

Mount combination – Side Mount, Kimura, cutting arm bar, Figure 4 and Head arm choke

From mount, swim your hand inside your opponents arm and put your hand on your opponents shoulder, leverage with your elbow so their arm moves away from their body. Squirrel their forearm so it’s behind you and around your body. Bring your knee up under their arm pit and hop up to side mount, catching their wrist and reaching underneath with the other arm to get the Kimura lock. Your thigh can be used to bend their arm or even get the Kimura. The following video is a pretty good breakdown and though isn’t exactly the same, is pretty close.

If the Kimura lock doesn’t work and they straighten their arm, slide it up to your neck and close the cutting arm bar. If that doesn’t work, pass it past your neck to your opposite hand and reach your other arm around to your wrist to get the Figure 4 lock. If the Figure 4 lock doesn’t work and they bring their arm across, lean down (your chest on their tricep) and close off a head arm choke.

Headlock Control combination – Kimura, cutting arm bar and Figure 4

Similar combos to the above except from headlock control. A huge factor to getting the lock is to bring your top thigh up as the bracing. If their arm is around your body, you can reach around and push it down and bring your knee up to get a Kimura lock. If it’s straight, you can push the arm down to get the cutting arm bar on your knee. If that doesn’t work and they raise their arm up, you can get the Figure 4 lock from behind their head.

Passing an Open Guard

One way to pass the guard is to under hook one of their legs and with the other arm, keep their other leg pinned down so they can’t complete a triangle choke. Stand up, then cross step over their pinned leg and you can go straight into knee ride or side control.

Key thing is to ensure that their leg is pinned down, or they will be able to lock down the triangle.

Some of this is off the top of my head from the other day...so yeah, they may not be 100% correct, but they should be pretty close.

Couple of new things tonight

A few new things tonight, but nothing really requiring a long post.

1. From knee ride, trap their arm closest to you at the bicep if possible, put your foot over their head and sit back for arm bar.
2. When attempting the sweep in which you push their knee back, make sure their weight is forward by controlling their arm or they will be able to post with that arm.
3. When trying for the scissor sweep, make sure the bottom leg is low enough to catch their leg.
4. When in someones guard, if you decide to stand up, make sure your legs are out of reach. This may mean that you are bent at a 90 degree angle, but it means you're less likely to be swept. From there, if you control their knees, you can step back and out of their guard and slide into knee ride or side control.


Triangle choke from Guard
From guard, punch one of their hands so you trap one arm and their head between your legs. From there, close your legs like in closed guard. Simple breakdown.
1. From the guard in which you have one arm and their head in, lift your hips up and push their trapped arm across your body. Make sure you lift your hips.
2. Pull their head down towards you whilst you push off their hip. Change your angle with the hip push to allow for a better angle to get your other leg across the back of their neck.
3. Hook the leg on the back of their neck with your other leg. Make sure it goes across the back of their neck. Pull that leg from the shin or the foot so your foot sits in the crook of your knee.
4. Raise your hips and pull their head down to get the triangle. You should only see their arm and their head from where you are. If you can see more, angle away a bit more to tighten it.

So from the right side, punch their left hand (on your right side) through your legs and close your guard so you trap their right arm and their head. Lift your hips and push their right arm across to your right (across your hips). Pull down on their head, push with your left leg off their hip and bring your right leg down behind their head. Keep hold of the head so they don't escape. Once you've pushed off their hip and angle to your right, hook your right foot into the crook of your left knee and tighten. Lift your hips, pull their head down and if it's not finishing, angle more to your right to try and get the 90 degree angle.

An alternative as well to this is if they have your lapel, attack their left hand to release the grip, put it to the ground and over hook it. Grab their lapel with your over hooked hand to keep them down. From there, grab their other hand at the knuckle to loosen their grip and punch it through your legs to set it up as above.