N10 BJJ visited club HQ in Leyton to attend a seminar with World and ADCC Champion, Roger Gracie.
Seven us journeyed over to East London and we weren't disappointed. This was also a chance for us to meet and train with a clubs other students plus there was a final grading for the year, as if we needed an extra incentive!
Roger introduced himself and the session began with a very light warm up and a stretch to prevent any injuries, then it was straight into the action.
We began from standing and looked at a couple of counters to a single legs takedown. The first was if your opponents head is inside your body, the counter of choice was the uchi-mata.
The key points here were to ensure you grip the belt at a point closest to your own body whilst positioning yourself parallel to your opponent. Dragging the arm across your body and lifting your opponents belt really helped finish the throw.
We also practised a counter if your opponents body is outside your body, the sumi-gaeshi. This is a judo throw which sees you sacrifice yourself whilst throwing your opponent over your head. Key points here are to ensure you grab your opponents leg instead of his belt. Use momentum to pull your opponent of balance and your leg and grips to ensure he lands on his back.
Whilst we were drilling, Roger came round and correct students technique, any input from the great man was appreciated by all.
Roger then called time and we then moved to the ground. The first thing we practised was simply maintaining your posture in whilst in your opponents guard. Roger stressed not applying any pressure but simply using physics to keep prevent your opponent breaking your posture. Key points here are to use your arm and the heel of your palm to keep control your opponent.
We then practised this rising to a stand and stopping your opponent from sweeping you.
Roger then showed the standing guard break whilst grabbing the sleeve of your opponent. This is a very common guard break but Roger demonstrated it with the emphasis on maintaining your posture throughout.
From here we worked a guard pass, the emphasis on maintaining your posture and exerting pressure on your opponent.
We then practised a standing guard break, but this time holding the sleeve of your opponent.
Here, Roger is illustrating the right and wrong way to break the guard, utilising the heel of the palm to open the guard rather than using gi or the elbow.
We then practised a series of pass, blocks and counters.
The traditional pass is too open the guard, slide the knee through, take neck control, swing the rear leg behind you and take side control.
Here the pass of the break is blocked by Henrique's arms and knee/shin.
Roger, reaches behind scoops the blocking leg and takes it over his shoulder. He then passes the on the opposite side.
This blocking leg can also lead to your opponent pulling half guard.
The pass here is to weave your arm through your opponents half guard, take control of your opponents arm or collar, apply pressure to your opponents legs through your shoulder and walk on your toes to pass.
We then worked at maintaining side control by breaking your opponents tucked in arm defence.
The first method is to use your leg to bring your opponents arm out from him chest.
You'll see that Roger then immediately releases collar control and puts him arm on the opposite side of his opponent head to keep the side control tight.
The second method is to utilise the scarf hold to bring the arm away from your opponents body.
From here Roger then introduced an excellent method for taking the mount position.
Here you can see him utilising the reverse scarf hold, an important detail that Roger emphasised was controlling your opponents hip via his belt.
Roger illustrated two ways to take the mount from this position. The first was controlling your opponents legs by effectively pushing them out the way.
The second method is create space by moving as far up your opponents body as possible, grabbing your foot and slipping it through to take the mount.
Finally Roger then illustrated the arm bar from the mount position. Here Henrique is blocking the Roger from arm barring and choking him.
Rogers first instinct is to create some space by using the heels of his palm against Henriques arm.
Sometimes your opponent will give you the kimura, if so, take it. If not, you can break his defence by faking the kimura, and setting up a wristlock.
Once you have the grip secure you raise your knee of the floor as your opponent will find it very difficult to escape.
After achieving this positon, Roger then sits back, swings his rear leg over and sets up the arm bar.
He then showed two options to break the grip. Either thread the inside arm through or apply pressure on the wrist before leaning back and finishing the submission.
After a few rounds of sparring, Roger called time and we then had a very insightful question and answer session with him. This presented the group with an chance to get to know Roger that little bit better. For all his accomplishments, he really comes across as incredibly humble and down to earth.
The seminar ended with a couple of students getting promoted and other being awarded stripes, well done all!
