Turtle Sweep and triangle attack against turtles opponent

Stephan Kesting of grapplearts.com and Mike Lee show some turtle techniques. I really like the judo tie in here. Judo and bjj are two sides of a coin and really complete each other.

Daily Submission

Yesterday we worked on a few different things. We learned an Octopus guard like move from half guard. I really like Octopus guard and I have a feeling it will start to show up more and more in my game. I also learned a sweep from half butterfly guard which is kind of cool. Essentially it is exactly the same as a typical butterfly sweep but you do it from half butterfly. Half Butterfly is simple when you take the outside leg from half guard and hook it inside his leg like a butterfly hook. I found that I could do it easy with my right leg then my left. I think this has to do with my left knee still being weak from the injury. Finally, Adam showed the Electric Chair sweep, or as he calls it the hog tie. Why the Hog tie? Apparently, he was witness to an argument between Marc Laimon and Eddie Bravo as to who invented it. He chose a side and it wasn't Eddie's. In my opinion none of them invented it. The lockdown is old school judo, Eddie himself says he learned it from Judo Gene Lebell. Other than the lockdown it is simply a half guard rollover sweep into a groin stretch or banana split. To prevent confusion I am going to simply call it varredura da separação de banana which is Portuguese for Banana Split Sweep (at least according to Babelfish). Or whatever I feel like calling it an that particular moment.

During free roll, I worked my sitting guard and my turtle guard a lot. My background is wrestling and judo. When I scramble I tend to turn to my stomach and get to my knees. Unlike most pure BJJ guys, I haven't developed that natural roll to guard. I am not sure I want to. In the gym or a tournament pulling guard is fine but my main focus is outside the gym. Ideally, I want to be able to secure that leg and transition to a takedown. I working at hit those faster. Since, I turtle anyway and feel comfortable there, I figured why fight it. I have been watch some video of Eduardo Telles who is a turtle guard master (he is also the Octopus Guard guy) as well as a lot of wrestling videos from that position. I am going to really work it for awhile.

The first time I transitioned to turtle, I did it when he started to pass my guard. I let him and just turned into him and came to my knees. I had a deep cross grip on his lapel and as I rolled I ended up throwing him over my shoulder like a seoi nage. I use a lot of judo like throws from turtle. I also hit my armspin about 4 times in a row. It was nice to work it against a guy who knew it was coming. I gained some confidence to continue with the sit out even if it feels like it isn't there. I have also been finishing better lately. A lot of it has come down to just smoother transistions and little things like a tighter squeeze with my knees.

Daily submission

Yesterday, we went back to the basics a bit. We worked on re guarding from side control, the mount and turtled. With the exception of the re guard from the mount, they all involved some sort of roll. I am not so good with the rolls. I can roll forward back or even on an angle but alot of these involved a roll with a spin, while spreading the legs to catch the guy in your guard. I still need a lot of work on this type of thing. If I roll or otherwise scramble, I tend to square up to the guy and go for the single or double. I turtle a lot as well. That is the wrestling and judo background, I feel comfortable there. Unfortunately, against really good jiu jitsu players, it is a bad place to spend much time. However, I do have a couple of go to moves from here. I use an armspin, peterson roll, granby rolls and a few others. I will try to find some video to post or maybe make it up myself if I have to.

Daily Submission

Last nights class was run by one of the blue belts while Adam is away in Edmonton, cornering one of the guys at HCF on Friday. We worked three options off of an over hook while grabbing the opposite side lapel. The first was hiza gatame, and two gi chokes. My partner today was massive. He outweighed me by 45 pounds. I couldn't even get a true closed guard on him. I think I could cross my big toes, HA! He was just come back off a layoff after surgery. He tore up both his shoulders practicing for strongman competitions.

Because he was pretty out of shape, we didn't go all out. That suited me fine, it was hard enough work just moving the weight. As has been my pattern lately, I pulled half guard and worked from there. I secured lockdown and used my legs to push him up to get double under hooks and whip up to my side. I was very surprised just how easy that was. When you try to use your arms alone it is next to impossible but with the legs it was very easy. I managed a few sweeps and to take is back a couple of times. Even going at a fairly low intensity, I was tired as hell. Just moving the weight was a good work out. Towards the end of the roll, I ended up turtling. He reach over my back and under my arm to grab my collar and start working for a choke. A lot of the time people do this, they over commit and I can wrap their elbow, then I can sweep. The sweep I use looks a lot like Soto makikomi, just from the turtle. I wrapped his elbow and I think I could have said out loud, "This could hurt" and went for the sweep. This particular sweep has all his weight over your back for awhile. It took a lot of energy. You know how sometimes you will give a yell to get the last little bit of power? Well, not only did I do that, it was loud enough that every one in the gym pause to look over at us. Good thing I don't embarrass easy. We had to call it quits shortly after that because he cramped up. Couldn't blame him because a few weeks ago I felt the same way.

My half guard game seems to be revolving around a few options at this point: Old School, a driving sweep, plan B, the electric chair sweep and taking the back. I think I will stay with those options for awhile and just drill the hell out of them until I get nail them all high percentage.