Held at Ultimate Fighting Arts, Penrith (nice gym, lots of steel and glass). Mostly black, brown and purple belts. Anthony Lange, Peter King, Elvis Sinosic, Anthony Perosh, Luke Pezzuti, Darko Zaric were all there.
The techniques covered were almost exclusively sweeps.
Sweeps
- You are sitting, he is standing with his R foot between your legs. Your R hand grabs his L sleeve. Your L arm goes around the back of his R hamstring. Pass his L sleeve from your R to your L hand between his legs. Grab his L collar with your R hand to stop him posturing up and breaking your L grip. Push his L knee with your R foot, forcing him to fall to your R. Come up to side control, keeping hold of his sleeve until you have cleared his R leg with your R leg. (according to Carlos Machado, using a karate side kick style “knife foot” is very effective for pushing at the knee or shin or ankle in this way).
- Same starting position as 1. You miss grabbing his L sleeve. Instead grab his R sleeve with your R hand. Your L arm goes around the back of his R hamstring. Pass his R sleeve from your R to your L hand between his legs. Pull it tight. Your R foot goes between his feet, spin to your left and grab his L pants cuff with your R hand. Fall to your back and roll to your left, lift his L leg using your R hand and R shin and sweep him to your left, a bit like a reverse hook sweep. Consolidate side control.
- Same start as 1 and 2. You try for his L sleeve, fail, R sleeve, fail. Grab the tips of his belt or the skirt of the gi with your R hand. Your L arm goes around the back of his R hamstring. Pass the belt or skirt from your L to your R hand between his legs. Post to your right rear with your R hand and swing your R leg back until you are in a 3 point position on L foot, R knee and R hand. You may be able to sweep his R leg with your R leg as you get up and knock him over; to avoid this he can circle his R foot clockwise so it is in front of your R leg. Either way, if he is still on his feet, grab his R heel with your R hand, and stand up so his thigh is across your chest, like a high single leg with both your legs outside his. Push down on his leg with your L shoulder and turn to your L to take him down. Grab the HEEL, so that you can keep his toes pointing up – if he can rotate his leg inwards, he can maybe flip it outside your L leg and counter the takedown.
- How do we get to the starting position for the above 3 techniques?
- Start from open guard, he is standing, you have grips on both sleeves and feet in his hips. Take your left foot off his hip and swing it out to the left and around the back of his legs, using the energy to sit up and spin clockwise on your butt. Wrap your left foot in tight to his R foot, and your right lower leg between his feet. Ideally you have grips on both sleeves still and can choose to try either 1 or 2 above.
- He is in your guard, up on his L foot and R knee (what Matt Thornton calls “combat base”), with his L foot between your legs. Turn on your R side and thread your R leg around his L leg so his L foot is in the crook of your R knee and your R instep is on the front of his R thigh, a type of outside hook. Your L hand grabs his L sleeve. Turn left toward his feet, and grab the pants cuff at his R ankle. Pull his L hand way out to the left with your L hand, roll onto your back, pulling him over the top of you, using your L shin on his chest, to pull him over as well. Keep rolling backward over your L shoulder and over the top of him, finishing in a sort of side control / half guard top. “Helicopter sweep”, also called “Roleta sweep” (Roleta is pronounced like Rigan).
- A Jean Jacques special. He is standing, you have both hooks behind his knees. Sit up, slide your hooks down to his ankles and push at each knee with one hand. Knock him over and roll up over one shin to finish in his guard. Simple, but as they say, if it’s stupid but it works, it isn’t stupid.
- He is on his knees. You are in your R side. Your R leg is between his, the lower R leg hooked over the top of his R calf. Your L shin is across his torso, similar to basic sweep. Sometimes called a “quarter guard”. Your L hand grabs his L sleeve. Dive you head toward his L shin and grab the pants at his L knee with your R hand. Pull hard to the L with your L hand, roll onto your back and stretch him out so he is suspended over your L knee, in a position similar to the butterfly sweep. Roll backwards over your L shoulder, pulling him over the top of you, finishing on top.
- Same starting position as 6, but you find it hard to pull him off his base. Instead, block his L knee with your R hand, drive his L arm straight and hard out to your R with your L hand and push with your L shin (like basic sweep) to sweep him to your R . Keep stretching his L arm straight to control him.
- (The next few are quite complicated – still not sure I’ve got the setup right).
- Start in a kind of crossed guard – Your R instep is on his R hip, your L instep in his L armpit, so L leg is crossed over R. You have his L sleeve in your L hand. Come up on your R elbow or hand and turn to your R. Your L shin goes over his L arm, and you come to your knees with your L shin pinning his L forearm to the mat. Keep spinning R and roll across your shoulders, the back of your R leg passing in front of his face and around to hook inside his L knee as your L hook goes inside your L knee. You finish with both hooks in, his L arm going between your legs and under your L knee, trapped there by your L arm holding his L sleeve. Sit up and grab his belt with your R hand, shimmy underneath him and sweep him to your right using your R hand on his belt and your L hook.
- You do 8 but he posts on his L foot to stop the sweep. Encircle his L shin with both your legs, so you have him in a kind of half guard, now blocking his foot so you can now sweep him to the R.
- You do 8, he grabs your collar with his R hand in an attempt to block the sweep. Release his L arm, latch onto his R and triangle him from here.
- Start like 8, but instead of going to hooks in, turn more on your L side and get your L shin next to his L hip. R shin on the outside. Squeeze or triangle your thighs, grab his belt or back, post on your L elbow or hand (keep the grip on his sleeve as long as possible and come to your knees, his L arm trapped between your thighs. You are now in a position to underhook his R arm with your R and roll over the top of him, pulling him into a crucifix choke or similar.
- He is in your guard, your L arm controlling his R sleeve (standard, not cross, grip). Weave your L foot outside and over his R arm tucking it deep under his R armpit. Move your R shin outside his R hip. It appears to him that he can move around to your R and achieve side control; but as he moves in you grab his pants at the L knee, elevate it and roll him to your L. His R arm is trapped so if you can get his shoulder on the ground he is gone.
Grip Breaks
- He grips your lapel. Grab the underside of his sleeve tight with one hand, the wrist itself with the other. Push it away from you with both hands, Move your torso away at the same time if you can.
- He grabs your sleeve. Grab his wrist with the free hand, get the elbow of the trapped hand to your ribs and pull away.
- Drill. He has spider/lasso guard. His R foot in your L bicep, his L shin looped over the top of your R arm with the foot in the armpit. Move to your L so he falls onto his R side. Push his R thigh to the floor with your L shin. You can now get your L elbow off his R foot as he cannot follow you with his foot. he still has his R grip on your L sleeve. Use the L heel of the hand to push on the fingers of his L hand as you pull your R hand out of his grip (your R hamstring restricts the movement of his L hand as well). Now grab his R wrist with your R hand and pull your L hand out of that grip. Move back and get controls on his legs in preparation to pass.
That’s it.