side control to triangle

Ok, this is the move from BJJ Class 67. It’s really cool because it involves a few baits and traps. As with the other moves I’ve (and will) illustrate, I feel like this move clicked with me and I see myself realistically adding the technique/s to my present game.

Boarder starts in side control.

Here is another view of the same position. Nogi’s inner arm is inside the position and Boarder will have to remove the arm first to make his side control tighter and more secure – harder for Nogi to escape from.

To do this, Boarder switches his base, using his hips to push Nogi’s arm up and out.

Boarder pulls on Nogi’s arm…

…and settles back into side control, with Nogi’s arm outside. Nogi brings his inner leg up and does a figure four. This removes space that Boarder can use and also keeps Boarder from easily mounting.

Boarder sees this and puts his nearest arm through the figure-four and grabs onto Nogi’s outer thigh.

Boarder pushes on Nogi’s legs using his shoulder, driving Nogi’s legs to the floor

In both pictures, Boarder steps his closest leg between both of Nogi’s legs.

Nogi sees that he is about to be mounted, so he defends his position and pushes out on boarders knee…

…but boarder pulls up on the arm…

…and transitions to mount.

Boarder positions his right knee high, just above Nogi’s shoulder. Boarder also starts a choke using his left forearm on Nogi’s neck.

This is the same step as the last pic, just a better picture of it.

In the two pix, Nogi brings his arm in to help defend his neck.

Boarder grabs Nogi’s arm and traps it on Nogi’s chest. Boarder also places his free hand under Nogi’s head.

All (or almost all) at the same time, Boarder leans slightly back, lifts Nogis’s head, and swings his left leg over Nogi’s shoulder…

…and under his head.

Boarder begins a shoulder roll. (It might be best to lock the legs in position before rolling, because an aware opponent will likely posture up and out of the triangle)

The roll is complete. Boarder locks and tightens the triangle.

Boarder finishes Nogi with an armbar…

…or a triangle choke.

Simple spider guard pass

As I said back in BJJ Class 64, here is the illustration of the guard pass learned that day.

Boarder gets caught in no-gi’s spider guard. Boarder keeps his posture up

Boarder gets up on his feet and with both hands grabs the the pants of no-gi at the bottom near the ankles. Boarder uses good base so as not to get swept or pulled in

Boarder steps back, still maintaining his base

In one swift motion, boarder pulls on no-gi’s pants, bringing no-gi closer. At the same time boarder raises no-gis legs and stacks him. The swift motion releases no-gi’s grips and footholds. Boarder is in a good position to pass

Boarder passes and settles into side control

Hope I didn’t miss any details, class 64 was about two weeks ago…

And wow, it’s hard working with them toys!! I wonder how long it takes the Robot Chicken people to do their shows

Open guard to single leg. Or something

Here’s the move I learned from BJJ Class 60. I thought at first that I wouldn’t use it much, but after thinking about how much I use (or at least try to use) a similar take down from seated guard, I think I actually will. So I’ll use my still new snowboard instructors to help in illustrating and describing the technique.

Move starts with boarder trying to pass no-gi’s guard. He tries to control no-gi’s knees with his hands.

All at the same time, no-gi grabs boarders right wrist with his right and pulls to help him scoot in towards boarder’s right leg.

No-gi repositions his left leg so that it wraps around boarder’s right leg. I don’t remember how to best do this step, or if this is where it should be.

Boarder senses that he may be swept, so he tries to pull his arm free from no-gi’s grip. No gi capitalizes on this on this, and uses the boarder’s pull to help him sit up. No-gi can post on his elbow or arm to further facilitate sitting up.

No-gi is now seated. Note that no-gi’s butt should never leave the mat, he has to stay low to keep the takedown effective. Also, no-gi should reposition his right leg as he sits up, so it is off to the side. The left leg should stay in place, and even wrap around boarder’s right foot tighter if possible.

With boarder’s right foot trapped, no-gi pushes forward with his shoulder (head tucked to the right) to take boarder to the mat. Note that this step can be done without using the arms – only the locked foot and shoulder are necessary for this single leg.

Here is another view of the last picture, giving a better look at what makes the take-down work: the trapped foot and using the shoulder to push around the knee.

Depending on how boarder falls down, no-gi will have several options of how to proceed. In the pic, no-gi has cleared his right leg over boarders and is trying to control boarders knee as he transitions into side control.

Visualization

I collect toy snowboards. My newest board came with the snowboard instructor from FreestyleMax. The figurine has the most realistic joints of all the action figures I had growing up. You can shrug the shoulders, pull em back, rotate the forearm and thighs – it can move in most of the ways that humans can. Well, it’s head doesn’t move in all directions, but that’s ok.

Here’s a pic of my board collection. If it looks like it could be part of an office – it is, it takes up one of the panels of my work cubicle. The right side are pins from the different mountains I’ve been to. The X’ed lift ticket is from Camelback last season when the Ski Patrol caught me going on a closed trail (It was well worth it – near the end of the day and there was untracked pow to be poached).

Anyway, I while back I blogged that it can be difficult to explain the many BJJ moves that am learning about. Words can only say so much – and not as much as pictures and video. So when I decided to order myself a FreestyleMax Snowboard Instructor so I could add the board to my collection – I made sure I got two. I’ll use the two figurines to illustrate BJJ moves that I learn and like.

So here are some pix of my Snowboard instructors in action:

mute

melon

indie

method

boarder triangles no-gi

boarder armbars no-gi

no-gi armbars boarder

no-gi grabs onto boarders shoulder as he passes the guard

boarder cranks the kimura on no-gi

Names are subject to change. That’s my messy home desk in the background.