23 May 2007, 23:11 in Martial Arts
John Will seminar (May 2007)
John Will was in Perth and gave a BJJ seminar at our club on Sunday. A few of us received new belts… Jut received his purple belt, and Ryan, Alex, Leigh, and I received our blue belts. Belts don’t come easily in BJJ and represent a lot of hard work and learning, so it was a proud moment for us! :)
Here’s a photo of those of us that got a new belt. From left to right: me, Leigh, John Will, Ryan, Jut.
Here is a very basic rundown of what we covered. It probably won’t make much sense unless you’re into grappling. I intend to go into more detail on some of these techniques in the near future.
After a warm up we started some standup grappling stuff:
- Pummeling drill – semi-cooperative drill starting in over-under-position (one underhook one overhook) and fighting for double underhooks.
- Keeping the blind leg back to prevent your opponent from scooping it up. By blind I mean the side of your body where you do not have the underhook.
- From over-under-position, how to use your overhook hand to pull their head down and gain a dominant control position (similar to a guillotine but with your hand around their chin).
- Three takedowns from this control position (i.e. when you’ve pulled their head down) – turning in a tight circle and throwing them, a far leg shoot, and a near leg shoot.
Then we did some groundwork focused on the hooking guard and split leg guard. This was the first time I’ve played with either hooking guard or split leg guard so it was quite a lot for me to take in.
- Hooking guard (also known as butterfly guard I believe) is where you are facing your opponent, and you hook both of your feet under your opponents legs (underneath their knees).
- Split leg guard is when your opponent is standing and you are on the ground. E.g. on your left side, with your right hand claiming your opponent’s left leg (can pull their shin against your chest/shoulder), and your left hook (foot) pressing in behind their right knee.
We learnt four ways to get from hooking guard to split leg sideways guard:
- From double underhooks – roll back onto your left side, while keeping your left foot hook in behind their knee. At the same time straighten your right leg vertically in the air like a flagpole. Their left leg should slide down the flagpole to near your head; grab it at the knee with your right arm. It is important to get onto your side and not be flat on your back.
- From double overhooks – roll back and try to sweep them to your right, when they post out with their left leg, hook onto it with your arm.
- Big step – drop your left foot to their right ankle, overhooking their right leg with your left arm, roll backwards over your right shoulder and end up almost facing backwards in position.
- Arm drag – replace your right foot hook (on their left leg) with your left arm and pull yourself into position, then switch to holding their left leg with your right arm.
Then we did some attacks from split leg guard. Again here I am assuming we are on our left side, with the opponents left leg near our head.
- Sweep from from split leg guard. Put your right knee in and use it push their right leg away from; as their foot is sliding, sweep with your left leg. Requires precise timing – you must sweep as the foot is sliding. You usually only get one attempt at this because you run out of reach with your legs.
- If the sweep fails, go to x-guard… This involves removing your right knee so that it is no longer sticking through their legs, and replacing it with just the right foot, top of your foot pressed against their thigh above your left foot.
- From x-guard can take them down by straightening your legs and going to a kind of right side kick, while controlling their left leg at the knee with your right arm.
John talked about some of the differences between champion fighters and good teachers, and why they are not necessarily the same thing. Champion fighters are obviously very good at what they do, but they can’t necessarily explain or teach how or why they do it. They often have a small arsenal of moves that they are incredibly good at, and use a very specific strategy. Unless you happen to suit their style of game, their teaching will not be very useful to you. On the other hand, a good teacher forces themselves to learn all aspects of the game and all techniques, even those that don’t really suit them, and thus broaden their knowledge, enabling them to help students improve no matter what their style is.
John is an incredible teacher, always striving to improve himself and the people around him. I recommend checking out his blog. Even if you have no interest in BJJ or martial arts, he is a very smart switched on guy and a lot of the stuff he talks about can be applied to anything in life.
Updated 30 May 2007: added photo.
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