guard–passing drills.

Will the conference report ever appear?  Don't hold your breath, I got lazy last week and have lots of writing on my digital video chapter to do this week.  I'm trying to get a lot of sleep tonight, but I just wanted to quickly note today's class so I don't forget.

At BJJ class today, Chiu taught us a basic guard passing drill that is designed to practice the appropriate movements.  I haven't been taught this elementary pass before, so I was also learning the pass itself. 

Standing before your opponent, you should take control of both their legs by tightly gripping their gi somewhere around or beneath the knee.  If you push their legs towards them (moving your hips forward for additional pressure), then should push back and you can step around them.  Move your outside leg first, and effectively glue that to the side of their knee.  Then move your inside leg even further forward - taking your entire body outside of their legs.  Whilst you are doing this, DON'T let go of your grip on your opponent's legs (otherwise they will simply turn with you, and your body won't be free of their legs).  Pull the leg that you hold with your outside arm with you, and push the other leg in the opposite direction - crossing their legs if necessary.  That's the basic drill - just perfecting that movement.

If you opponent tries to resist by straightening out a leg, to block you from moving around them you can perform a 'sliding' pass.  Push the straightened leg down whilst, on the opposite side, slide your arm through the inside of their knee towards the floor (you need to be close with this, to restrict their movement in the bent leg with your forearm).  Your legs should be stretched outside behind you, creating a tripod-like stance.  Aim your head towards their chest or stomach.  From there you should be able to quite easily pass their guard.

We also did a knee-on-stomach drill.   Start with your right knee in your opponent's stomach, with your left leg out in front of you.  Control their hip with your right hand, and control their head or shoulder with your left hand.  For the drill, smoothly replace your right knee with your left knee on their stomach (they shouldn't not have a knee in their stomach at any point).  Control their head or shoulder with your right hand, and their hip with your left hand. 

Just wanted to note all this down before I forgot.  I even had to quickly borrow Rosie in the process of writing to remember the knee-on-stomach drill.

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And here are some links you may or may not find interesting:

'Is this the big one?' by Jeff Faux (I recently discovered The Nation website, and think that it is quite brilliant).

'Crumbs from the SLIFR notebook' by Dennis Cozzalio - I really, really enjoyed this post by Dennis who I think is the one of the best film writers on the Internet.

And, because it's the start of the baseball season today, check out Fish Chunks - which will be my guide to Florida Marlins news this year, although as I write they've already conceded a depressing 6 runs in the 4th inning.

: 31 Mar 2008 23:03 |  Tags: Bjj |  Comments (2) |  Report a problem