Training with Injuries can lead to Innovation

So I’m starting to get a bit bruised and battered with all the training I’m doing.  My finger is broken and my ribs on one side are very tender and sore.  The ribs are what really worry me.  It’s my Achilles heel of injuries. Previously I’ve been sidelined for 2 stints of 3 months because of the ribs. Having a separated rib is not a pleasant experience – anyone who has felt the pop and tear will attest to this.  The recovery is very slow and the mobility you have is very limited.  The current injury is in the same area as the previous ones, however for now it’s not as serious.

There are certain injuries that are easy to work around, and others that aren’t.  The broken finger for example was remarkable easy.  I’d just tape the thing up to another finger nice and tight and not use too many grips.  I used it as an opportunity to work on alternate methods for controlling such as underhooks and overhooks.

The ribs, well, they are more insidious.  Everything in BJJ is connected to your core body movement.  The ribs are central in that they are affected by anything your core does like twist, hip escape, turn.   Once injured they become the weak link in the chain for your body.

On the flip side I don’t want to go for weeks without training.  This injury probably will take me about 3 weeks to fully recover and if I’m not careful I could be out for another 3 months.  So, with that in mind I once again will have to modify my training.

I haven’t got any concrete ideas yet on what I should be doing but I’ve got some initial thoughts on it.

• Limit live sparring
• Turn live sparring into a positional drill
• Tell my partners “No Knee Rides”, “Knee-In armbars” or rib pressure.
• Ask to improve my top attack game, to limit the pressure on my ribs.  In the hole training…

I like the last point.  Anything underneath is going to hurt quite a bit and potential lead to a greater injury.  Still I understand that some people don’t like to have it all one way.  Hopefully some people will like the challenge of escaping to a better position and starting again. While I will have the challenge of start in side control and submit or get and control the back for 20 seconds.

I want to have goals that progress my BJJ and give me something to work for each class. The nice thing about being restricted in what I can and can’t do is it gives you an opportunity to innovate and become creative.  You can actually incorporate these restrictions into your goals.  Having restrictions is a good thing for BJJ and life.  

So my opponent can’t knee ride and arm bar.  Okay, so they have to innovate and come up with different attacks and controls.  I can’t be on bottom.  Okay, so I’ll make goals such as taking the back.  I’ll work on submissions and attacks that don’t increase the injury to my ribs.  My finger is broken,  okay so I’ll work on controls that don’t use Gi grips. 

So with these restrictions I’m going to look forward to training. As long as I have supportive partners and I obey the restrictions I’ve imposed I’m sure I can still improve my BJJ in a safe manner.

Time to put on the problem solving hat.

Dan

Rickson Gracie Arm Bar Grip Analysis

The last week  I’ve made some great strides in the entries and finishes for arm bars.  In particular the finer details with which grip to use in the setup.  I was watching an old Rickson Gracie video and I noticed how he was setting up his grips for the arm bar.  The other points I noticed was how when finishing the arm bar he would get on his side slightly, always facing towards the opponents head.  It didn’t seem to matter about being perfectly perpendicular to the opponent,  sometimes it appeared he would even have the arm stretched out past that 90 degree point, more towards the opponents head.  I hope that makes sense.

So with these in mind I tried to apply some of the concepts to how I apply arm bars.  The most critical part is the grip he achieves.  It’s far superior to other grips I’ve seen and tried to use. 

1. Grab their wrist with the hand nearest their head and get the other hand underneath their armpit and connect into a figure four grip by holding your wrist.  Never let your wrists bend backward once you’ve achieved this grip.
2. Jump up, around or whatever variation you are currently doing.  Aim to get your hip behind their elbow near the shoulder.
3. Try to “fall” onto your side slightly.  You should be on your hip/butt check nearest their head.
4. This angle, with this grip enables you to pry open most grips. 
5. Don’t be afraid to roll with the person, just don’t let go of the grip.

I’ve got this from a lot of setups over the last couple of days. Which is surprising given I never get arm bars at all!  Ever.  I’m sure their are issues, but now I’m getting 3-4 arm bars on each person I roll with!

I’m sure I was shown something like this when I first started, but honestly it’s all the little details that this grip delivers that make the big difference. I see people grabbing the grips the wrong way around, or using the forearm up near the bicep instead of the the wrist, or not using leverage by falling slightly away from the opponents strong resistance point.

 

Rickson Gracie demonstrating the grips for arm bar from side control

My Love Affair with Sweeps

Part of the last few days I’ve spent a fair bit of time drilling my guard sweeps and going over the basics of them.  The basics are fair from simple when it comes to sweeps.  You can’t really force a sweep. I want to make my sweeps feel effortless for me and my partner - I’m finding the best time is in the transitions of attacking and defending from guard.  Feeling where their weight is committed.

So with that in mind I’ve gone through the basics again of Scissor Sweep, Sitting Rollover sweep, Rolling Shoulder sweep and the Hook Sweep with all starting from closed guard.  They all have advantages and difficult timings.  I’m trying to identify for myself the exact timings to use on each one and also the likely blockages when I’m not doing the technique correctly.

For instance what I’m working on mainly is Scissor Sweep.  I picked this sweep specifically because:

1. I like it
2. I can get it but not as often as other sweeps
3. Rickson Gracie likes it, and there is a good chance he will be teaching it in his seminar soon.

So what are some of the challenges I face for the Scissor Sweep?

1. Partner puts all his weight down very low, to stop me from getting his weight onto my shin
2. Opponent pushes down the knee the is across the belly pinning it
3. Opponent doesn’t open his leg to the side that benefits me transitioning from closed guard to Scissor Sweep.

Still with these challenges I’ve also had some good wins with it.  Mainly the following little tips

1. Grip, get it first before anything.
2. Timing – Anticipate and feel their reaction
3. Space,  don’t get cramped and have no room to move.
4. Push Pull action to load up their weight onto your shin.
5. Feel where their weight and posture is, understand it
6. Drive with your grip hand and commit to coming up onto your knees into mount.
7. All sweeps have a window of opportunity,  transition once that window is gone.

Denial vs Permission

One of the main things I’ve been looking at is the ability to use my grips effectively.  It’s tough to break someone down in the guard.  Naively we start out trying to pull the person down, then pull the person down while disrupting their posts, finally pull the person down while disrupting their posts and using your legs. I was okay at this, generally I was strong than most people, and all those three things made it easy for me.  However it’s a hard fight, and I’m trying to re-assess every part about how I think and perform in Jiu-Jitsu.

So I give them what they want now. I saw a very nice video of Renzo Gracie showing how to get a really deep grip from guard – unfortunately I can’t find it anymore! In essence the technique was to get up on one elbow and straight-arm push the persons shoulder with your other arm.  They react by pushing back, which in turns gives you the nice deep grip from guard. 

The principal behind the technique is more interesting though. He wants the deep grip, he them what they want to actually get what he wants…the deep grip.  So for me I’ve found pushing the person away, and threatening to do a sitting roll over sweep or switch out really forces them to willing come forward breaking their own posture.  Even once I’ve got the grip now, I try threaten their posture in all other directions including back, left and right.  If they aren’t stable, they fall over and I get an easy sweep.  Generally though, they have to react to keep stable, and that reaction is what I’m learning to exploit.

I guess what I’m trying to say is, once you’ve got the grip attack their base with it.  Don’t resist what they are doing, but take it to the extreme end of what they are doing.  If they want to try to break your grip, no problem as they push your hand away, you can release your grip and pull their arm for an arm drag.  If they sit back, no problem go with it and push them backwards.  If they try to hunker down, no problem…pull them in tight and attempt to submit them, above all force a reaction game to occur. 

Don’t fight in the opposite direction, use what they are giving you.  If the person really wants to sit up well you might as well give him what he wants and more – it’s not like you are easily going to be able to break that guys posture down as he will try to deny you that.  Instead don’t deny him the ability to keep posturing up,  give him permission by pushing him away in such a way that he no longer wants to sit up.  Guarantee they won’t expect it, as our natural reaction is one of denial and not permission.

Get a Grip

Sometimes choice is a bad thing.  Ever gone to an ice-cream store and been inundated by choice,  so many flavours and textures.  The saturation of choice often leaves me confused,  over-whelmed and unable to make a decision.  Needless to say I’ll branch out to include chocolate and occasionally mango or a berry flavours…and that’s it. What you won’t get out of me is choosing the pineapple chunks with Rhubarb choice! So I choose chocolate except there are 5 different types of chocolate which involves even more choices and decisions,  if I take the “World Class” one I’m then left feeling that I might have missed the better “traditional” choice..

As you can see, where I’m from ice-cream selection is serious business.  Jui-Jitsu is similar,  often times I will flounder in guard trying to break the guy down and just not get anywhere.  I was taught this was step 1, but my breaking down had zero focus on grips and so I floundered.  I didn’t think about grips or have a go to grip, and because of that I stalled and never committed to one. I was left with whatever grips fell into my hands so to speak.  This lead me to have a very hard game for me to analyse and improve on.  I had zero consistency and for a long time couldn’t figure out why.

As such, I’ve gone back to basics in this area.  That is I will try to get either the same gi or no-gi grip and that’s it. I only train with Gi btw.  I am slowly finding this is a good way to really delve deeply into the details.  It’s far less confusing as I know what my choice is and I can focus on getting it reliably and what the likely problems are that I will encounter.  The great thing about this is, if a person is really stuffing my grip I’ll ask them to show me what they are doing and can we drill it, then I ask them to help find the counter to the counter!

It’s slow work for me,  I don’t have time to dedicate to BJJ every day but I do want to improve.   Another aspect is that I previously thought of grips as just my hands/arms.  Also, I now realise that my legs/feet are grips too, often equally if not more important than my hands.  I now look at closed guard as a grip with my legs, or mount as a grip with my legs and feet. 

So my basic tip is this.  Pick a grip, a fundamental and basic grip and make it your go to grip. Use it, explore and understand every nuance of it and every counter to the counter-grips people might employ.  Above all else, get a grip!

Dan