Held at George Adams’ gym in West Pennant Hills.
Emphasis on fundamentals.
Basic guard pass
Grip both collars with R hand, turn the fist up, elbow in, “packing” the R shoulder. L hand is on the hip, gripping the material of the pants, driving down. Some of your bodyweight should be on the L hand. Holding the hip down prevents armbars and triangles.
L knee moves out to the side, and your bodyweight with it. This will make it difficult for him to sweep you to your R when you bring your R knee to the centre. Look UP, not at him, for proper posture. Sit back to break his ankle grip. Underhook his R leg, get the calf on your shoulder, L hand coming across to keep his leg held tight. Stack him up on his neck, L hand driving deep into his collar, R hand coming out to grip his belt behind him near his R hip. You may be able to forearm choke him here or at least threaten him with it. Hips low, sprawl in him. Slide the L elbow on the far side of his neck and push his head back toward you with it. R hand covers his hip. Consolidate side control.
Double under pass
Break open the closed guard as before. Scoop both arms under his legs and get a tight gable grip as low as possible around the tops of his thighs / hips. Jump to your feet and stack him. Your L foot should be in line with his shoulders out to the L, your R knee in his back keeping him stacked. L hand in the collar for a forearm choke, R hand grabs his belt from behind. Drive your L knee into the side of his R hip and use your R foot to scoot around clockwise, keeping his hips pinned between the knee and the belt grip until you are ready to flatten him out and get side control as above.
Instead of using the knee to flatten him out, you can use the belt grip to run around to his L and roll him over his R shoulder to his knees. Then grab his collar with your L and roll him to the R over his shins and into your seated back control.
Knee through pass
Break open the close guard as before. Push his R knee to the floor with your L hand. Slide your R shin over his thigh, step your L leg out wide. Keep the grip on his L collar and stiff arm it to the floor near his L armpit. Ensure you keep your weight over to your L so you do not get swept to the R. Slide over the leg on your R hip, almost facing away.
Cross face him as you turn face down to shortbase side control. Pass his lapel from your R hand to the L hand under his L arm keeping him flat. Also grab under his L elbow with your R so he can’t roll away.
OR
Grab his R sleeve near the elbow with your L hand as you slide the knee and hip through, going to a switchbase side control. Your R knee must be under his R elbow and preferably his R shoulder, pulling up so his shoulder is off the ground. Keep your torso leaning forward, do not lean back. Weight on his ribs, use your feet to push in and chase him if necessary. Put your L knee near his R ear and keep pulling up on the arm as you switch to face down short base, killing the near side arm. Control the far elbow as before.
Standing pass
Collar grips with R as before Get a grip on his R sleeve with your L. Turn your l palm up, fist on his body under his forearm, and elbow jammed in his R hip. This stops him from circling his hand under your arm and breaking the grip. Stand up with your L leg, same side as his trapped hand. Look up and keep good posture. Once on both feet, get both knees behind his back and stand straight up, hips driving forward, looking up. Use your R hand to shake his leg grip off. Push his R knee to the floor and get a kneeslide position with your L shin across his L leg, using a step or windshield wiper move to get your R foot over his R leg. Drive your L fist, with the sleeve grip, to the floor near his L hip, between the two of you. Keep the grip until you have crossfaced, switched base and consolidated your shortbase side control, trapping his R arm between your bodies.
Going to mount from Side Control
From any of the moves above, you have side control on his R. After switching base, get your L knee between his R hip and foot, and hook his L thigh (fairly close to the hip) with your R heel as you move to mount, entrapping his legs. Prof. Norton says side control is his goto position rather than mount, but different strokes.
Back Sweep
From closed guard. Nothing remarkable here technically for me. Professor seemed happy when he watched me sweep. It is important to keep trying to disrupt his balance in multiple directions. You can back sweep with your feet on his hips.
A combatives version has you starting the sweep with feet in his hips, grasping the ankles. As he starts to fall, push him away hard with both feet. You should now have plenty of room to do a technical stand up to a good combat stance.
Front sweep
If you try the back sweep and he drops his weight forward, you can sweep him forward using your shins and insteps. Grab his sleeves and sweep him forward over your shoulder. Cross his arms with yours to stop him posting and steer him. To be honest I had trouble with this and need to drill it.
With the feet on hips, sleeve grips, lift him up on your feet. Push with your R foot and tap his R thigh near his hip to spin him anti clockwise and put him down to your L. Keep the sleeve grips and hook his R knee with your L instep as he comes down, these will help you control him as you move to side control
Side Control Escape
He has a crossface and shortbase side control on your R pinning your hips between his R knee on your R hip and R elbow on your L hip. Frame with your elbows in near your hips, keeping his weight down toward your hips rather than up on your chest, and mitigating the crossface pressure. Your R knee tracks his R hip.Take your L foot out to the L, like Pedro Sauer’s kickstand, giving you extra leverage to bridge toward him. Bridge toward him and create space to get your R knee in and shin across his hips. The R foot hooks his R hip. If his R foot is out, hook it with your R heel. You are now in a pretty good position to set up hooking sweeps, etc.
If he is hiding his R foot under his butt, get the R instep hook in in front of his R thigh. Work to a hooks in guard, sweeps, etc. from here.
If he is really tight on your R hip with his R elbow, lift your hips and try to slide your hips under his elbow, then get the knee in.
If his R hand is blocking the R hip instead, the above escape will not work. If you turn away from him that may encourage him to move his R hand to the other side, which then allow you to do the above movements.
Side Control Escape to Omoplata
Get your R shin across his hips as before. This time bring your L knee over and pinch his R shoulder between your knees. Use your L hand and elbow to hold his R elbow and trap his R wrist near your L hip. Get your L foot over his shoulder and near his R ear, hooking his neck with your instep. Get your hips out and push his head away with your legs until you can triangle them with your R knee over your L instep. Change hands on his R arm so you can grab his legs or belt and stop him rolling out of the omoplata. Sit up, take your feet put to the right sitting on your R hip, grip his collar with your R (or various other grips) and finish the omoplata.
If he does roll out, let him go and just keep the grip on his R shoulder with your legs, sitting on it. From her move to side control.
Team Norton had several blue and purple belt promotions. The Prof is strong on etiquette, respect ,and titles (Coach, Professor, Master, etc.). Attitude and time on the mat are more important to him than performance.
A very nice man with great Jiu Jitsu. A privilege and an honour to meet such a famous and accomplished martial artist and actor.
