The seminar was held at Chris Burns’ Zero Point Gracie Jiu-jitsu academy in Brookvale.
James is the teaching assistant and uke for Rickson Gracie. A third degree black belt under Rickson.
Base
James got us all in a fighting base. We played a “Water and Rock” game where one partner tests the other by saying “Water”, then stepping toward, away, to the side, cirling the other. The student being tested must try to keep the same distance from his opponent, and stay in base. When the tester says “Rock”, the other student should freeze. The tester tests his base by pushing to each side and directly forward. The testee should find keeping base effortless, with no need to engage the core or other muscles. Change roles. Repeat.
Similar to Chris Burns’ “Water and Stone” game, though there is not the same emphasis on distance management.
The feet in the base should form the corners of a square, not any sort of oblong.
The Pisão
The pisão is a stomp side kick delivered with the flat of the foot with bodyweight behind it, usually to the knee of the opponent’s lead leg. The defensive pisão is always performed on an advancing opponent from out leading leg, we do not go to them. The plan is either to hyperextend the opponent’s knee or have them step back, stopping their forward momentum andallowing us to clinch.
The pisão must have your weight behind it so that contact with the opponent does not result in you being driven backwards. Were the pisão to miss, you should end up stomping the floor with your weight going forward, ready to clinch. You contact with the sole of your foot with the foot turned in, not with the blade of the foot or the toes. If you miss the knee you want your foot to land outside his lead foot so you can flank him for the follow up clinch.
Practice by having a partner shuffling towards you with their lead knee ahead of their toes for safety, and stomping (lightly!) above their knee so that your bodyweight goes forward into them. You can practice the full movement by brushing their knee with your toes. or have them hold the same side hand as the lead knee outside of it, and you stomp their hand all the way to the floor.
You can practice solo against the wall, or James recommends swinging a heavy bag and hitting it with the pisão as it comes towards you. You should not be knocked backwards, you should stop the bag.
Generally Rickson and James (and Chris) recommend, for beginners, leading with your strong side forward and using that to kick with the pisão, not caring which side he leads with. James said you can consider switching feet to if you have those skills from kickboxing or something else
Pisão to Side Clinch
If your planets are aligned and your technique is correct, You either stop their forward momentum with the pisão, or they pull their lead leg back to avoid it. Clinch from here as directly as possible, without unnecessary footwork, and staying in base. Come around to the siade he was leading with and get the side clinch, head on the cross hairs in front. (TBH I am a little hazy on what to do here depending what stances you both led with, don’t want to say obvious rubbish in an attempt to convince you I know what I’m on about).
If he gets a side clinch with the right foot forward, James wants his right arm around the back of the opponent with his R hand on the outside top of his R butt cheek. Chris would go for the hip bone, of course. Your R elbow is pressing on his hip bone. doble up on your R hand with your L (you could go for a C clamp on his R arm with your L, but that will not serve as well for what comes next, the body fold takedown).
Side Clinch to Body Fold Takedown
You have the side clinch to his L, your R foot forward. Connect tightly with your arms to his hips/pelvis in the side clinch. Your head is on his chest, connect from the ground up to your R ear, driving up under his chin so he is arched backward and out of base.
Do not be tempted to push into him from here. That gives him the opportunity to use your forward momentum and perhaps hit you with an uchimata.
Instead use your weight and your arms to drive his hips across the front of yours (don’t pull him into you) as you push his chest back with your head, scooping your arms in a sort of U shape, so his stance is broken and his hips drop straight down and he pretty much collapses backward in place.
Mount Escape
If he is mounted on you, and his hands are on the mat, the upa should be your first choice of escape.
If he is sitting up with his weight back and not allowing you to bump his forward, you need to use the hip escape.
First, get him on your hips. If he is up on your chest, connect to his thighs with your elbows, bridge, and shoulder walk back until he is on your hips, your elbows preventing him from coming forward again.
Assume you are going to turn to your R to escape. Straighten your R leg and use James’ “earthquake” strategy to get it flat on the mat between his feet if necessary. Your L foot is flat on the mat, with the knee outside the hip per the standard hip escape frame drill.
Your R hand connects to him either on his belt line or just below his navel. Your elbow is slightly bent, and your wrist pretty much straight ,in the “katana” position, wrist must not be ben forward or back as you risk damaging it. You must connect STRONGLY to him here or the escape will not be effective. That hand should be driving into his spine or hips from the front.
Do the hip escape drill, reaching with your L hand towards your R pinky toe. All you need to do is get his weight from 50/50 in both knees to 80/20 with 80 on his R knee. Then you can continue escaping your hips away under his light L leg until you can reclaim guard by leading with your top L leg and getting a hook, go to a footloock by leading with your R knee in front, you R foot on his R hip, and going to a footlock on his R leg. Or you could just stand up, though never in a situation where strikes are permitted.
Why should the R leg be flat before the escape? If he can join his toes or feet together under your legs, he can prevent the escape.
James demonstrated with Will Feyen. Will held his hands in front of him at chest level, palms facing each other. James could easily pull his hands apart. If he allowed Will to just touch the fingers of both hands together, pulling them apart became practically impossible. The same is true with the top person’s feet in the mount position. There are various technical ways to separate the feet, get rid of hooks, etc. on several Zero Point Connection videos (aand maybe BJJ Project videos), but suffice to say you just bump, pressure and “earthquake” your way to getting that leg flat on the mat between his feet.
The majority of mount escapes should be hip bump or upa. The elbow/knee escape is also essential, but James regards it more as a follow up or counter to the counter type of escape, for example if the opponent sees your hip escape coming and puts his weight into the knee you are attempting to lift. The other knee will them becume light, allowing you to elbow/knee escape. It is useful also on some grapevine or other leg hook situations. But James reckons it only comes in handy less than 10% of the time, and that the upa and hip escape should be your bread and butter.
Collar Choke from the Back
You have his back, sitting up with hooks in, R arm to be the choking srm. L arm under his L armpit. You want to grip his collar, not with a fist but with either the thumb and top two fingers, and thumb and bottom three fingers. You need to be able to rotate the forearm and flex the wrist, which is hard with a “fist” grip.
You want your R thumb in deep. it can help to get a better grip if you fold the collar outward and grip over the top of it. your L hand can assist in both a deep grip and the fold. Turn your forearm so you are “looking at your watch”. Some encourage you to turn tohe other way and get the blade of your forearm across his trachea, but this will be a pain compliance movement which could cause some damage. You should be able to do this as a blood choke/strangle hardly touching his trachea. Your hand on one carotid and forearm on the other are what allow this to work. Your L hand grabs his right collar to take out the slack in the collar.
To apply the choke, you drive your L heel away from you and down inside his L leg, while pulling your R elbow back behind you bringing your R hand and the collar with it. Your body is connecting to his hips from your L heel to your R elbow in a hip escape frame. The movement is like starting a lawnmover or doing a flying sidekick. Even if he hangs off your choking arm with both hands the power of your whole body connection can overpower him.
Ramping
Rather than apply the choke 100% straight off the bat, experiment by applying it maybe ten percent, then ramping to 20% after a second or so, then 30%, 40% etc. Thuis conserves your energy and in training will give you a better appreciation of the mechanics of the choke.
Avoid trying to readjust the grip on the middle of the choke, rather stick with the grip you have and ramp it up. If you readjust, the opponent gets a rush of blood, like if you kinked a garden hose and released it after a short while, there will be an initial strong burst of water. Your opponent gets that rush of blood and oxygen and another chance to escape.
I guess if your grip was never good enough to finish the choke, it was never good enough and it is time to move on and practice more later.
Getting the Choke / the Ratchet
Commonly the opponent is resisting the choke with both hands. Many will try to get one hand in, run into resistance, and then try the other side, flipping from one side to the other but continuing to run into the same problems over and over.
Instead, pick one hand to get the choke with, and one hand to remove the opponent’s resistance. Put your R hand in, he grabs your R wrist with one or both hands. Use your L hand to keep peeling those hands off as you ratchet that R hand in centimeter by centimeter until you can grab his collar or get it deep enough for the RNC. Done properly
James Driskill is a nice man and excellent Gracie Jiu-Jitsu instructor. Find him on Instagram.