The next part of our 4 Top games was the Underhook Sit-out position, or a modified Scarf hold. The name 'Sandbag' comes from Matt Thornton the head of SBGi, and relates to the kind of relaxing pressure that the top person puts onto the bottom. It isn't a strength holding game, but more of a relaxing and moving into the empty spaces game.
As with the Cross-sides position, we started this game from position and had the bottom person feed us pressures to identify and come up with solutions to. This list is the material we worked on when I travelled to visit my coaches in Montana a few weeks ago. Matt taught this section on the top game.
Position: Here we are using our hip to block out the guard, and holding our opponent close to us by using the far side underhook. The near side arm digs under the head for a prybar on the collar grip (no-gi we would join our hands from the underhook and prybar to achieve the same energy). Relax and let your weight settle onto your opponent. Legs wide for base and movement as necessary.
The List:
P: Bottom person moves away, creates space between their body and your hip
A: Move with them, follow with your hip.
P: Turns towards you to begin shrimping away
A: Use the damn Prybar! Force them to look opposite direction as with cross-face.
P: Gets near elbow to the mat, begins to go to 1/4 escape or shrimping
A: Switch legs to post with your top side foot at the top (head) end of their body, use the two grips (underhook and collar) to lift opponents body up (shoulder off the ground), slide you bottom leg under the near side shoulder to recapture the near side arm (elbow is on your thigh)
P: Far arm digs for underhook
A: Shut down the attempt by dropping shoulder to chest (close off space), by rotating hand from underhook to palm on the bicep (pummel), by reaching back behind yourself to hip (remove the arm - remove the underhook). Reset to underhook once opponent re-sets for another movement.
P: Far arm pushes on face (usually to upright frame / attempt legs around the head)
A: Battle it with your head position. Duck chin to far side shoulder (as in shutting down underhook), and use your forehead (as in clinch fighting) to battle the arm to the mat.
P: Hug and Roll attempt
A: Drop your head to the same side of your opponent as your body. Weight the near side.
P: Near arm pushes on prybar
A: Resist (pressure) to have the opponent commit to the push, then let it go and follow with your hips to kill the arm hip style - transition to new position
I think that's it for what we worked on that day. Again its the way we played with it that makes the big difference. The bottom guy has to work with the top guy to coach him on the pressures, and gradually increase frequency- not strength or speed. learn to recognise the pressure and battle it smartly. We had a high degree of success with holding the top position after this. It was great to see, and a lot of fun.
Friday, September 17, 2010
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Cross-Sides Top - Technical Curriculum
Moving through our technical curriculum we have 4 main position that we are working with right now as far as Top game goes. Shortly after the previous post, we began working on our Cross-Sides position. We dedicated a class to see what we could come up with as far the kinds of pressures that the bottom person could apply to us as we were attempting to hold the position. Then, after identifying a list of different pressures, we came up with our solutions for them one at a time. The final product was watching the top person holding position and responding to the pressures that were being fed by the bottom.
Position (as described from the top) - Cross-Sides with SOJ Cross-face.
So in short, this position comes up when we are using our knee against the opponents hip to block out the guard. Our arm attachments are near-side cross-face, and drop the shoulder in low on the jawline area (good pressure here), while the far side arm digs for the underhook. Relax and settle your weight just on the near side of the opponents centre-line, chest to chest contact. The bottom person feeds the pressures from here.
Here's the list: (P: Pressure, A: Answer)
P: Move away, shrimp, bridge + shrimp create space between hip and knee to pull guard
A: Follow with the knee, keep body position. Movement.
P: Inside arm frames on the hips to create space, near arm elbow to mat
A: Kill the arm using the Hip, Knee, or Hand.
P: Far arm digs under chin to push on face (usually if your head is up anyways)
A: Chin to same-side shoulder (near), use head to battle the arm back to the mat
P: Far arm digs for underhook
A: Shut down the space by dropping shoulder to body, Pummel hand in to frame against bicep, or Reach back to near side hip with arm to take away the underhook option.
P: Homer Simpson and roll away to 1/4 position
A: Control the far elbow to hold in place
P: Hug and dump rolling attempt
A: Settle weight back onto mat, make sure your chest to chest pressure is slightly on the near side of opponent's body. Smear pressure & get heavy (head down, flatten spine into opponent)
P: Change angle to sit-up, Change angle to gator-roll
A: Keep the angle of alignment. You want 90 Degrees on the bottom person. Keep you knee against their hip to block guard.
P: Near arm underhooks the hip to spin out
A: Use the SOJ, or get it back if in different position (as in going for submission)
That pretty much covers it as far as what we came up with. These 8 pressures provided us with enough to worry about and deal with during the roll. As we became more familiar with identifying which pressure the bottom person was using, we made the drill more athletic not by going harder and faster, but by transitioning through the pressures more frequently. Starting one, and going through 2 or 3 more together, rather than 1 at a time as when we were just learning what each one feels like alone. This was the key to staying on top, early identification. Have fun in the roll.
Position (as described from the top) - Cross-Sides with SOJ Cross-face.
So in short, this position comes up when we are using our knee against the opponents hip to block out the guard. Our arm attachments are near-side cross-face, and drop the shoulder in low on the jawline area (good pressure here), while the far side arm digs for the underhook. Relax and settle your weight just on the near side of the opponents centre-line, chest to chest contact. The bottom person feeds the pressures from here.
Here's the list: (P: Pressure, A: Answer)
P: Move away, shrimp, bridge + shrimp create space between hip and knee to pull guard
A: Follow with the knee, keep body position. Movement.
P: Inside arm frames on the hips to create space, near arm elbow to mat
A: Kill the arm using the Hip, Knee, or Hand.
P: Far arm digs under chin to push on face (usually if your head is up anyways)
A: Chin to same-side shoulder (near), use head to battle the arm back to the mat
P: Far arm digs for underhook
A: Shut down the space by dropping shoulder to body, Pummel hand in to frame against bicep, or Reach back to near side hip with arm to take away the underhook option.
P: Homer Simpson and roll away to 1/4 position
A: Control the far elbow to hold in place
P: Hug and dump rolling attempt
A: Settle weight back onto mat, make sure your chest to chest pressure is slightly on the near side of opponent's body. Smear pressure & get heavy (head down, flatten spine into opponent)
P: Change angle to sit-up, Change angle to gator-roll
A: Keep the angle of alignment. You want 90 Degrees on the bottom person. Keep you knee against their hip to block guard.
P: Near arm underhooks the hip to spin out
A: Use the SOJ, or get it back if in different position (as in going for submission)
That pretty much covers it as far as what we came up with. These 8 pressures provided us with enough to worry about and deal with during the roll. As we became more familiar with identifying which pressure the bottom person was using, we made the drill more athletic not by going harder and faster, but by transitioning through the pressures more frequently. Starting one, and going through 2 or 3 more together, rather than 1 at a time as when we were just learning what each one feels like alone. This was the key to staying on top, early identification. Have fun in the roll.
Friday, September 3, 2010
Top Game Month Begins - Fundamentals
Last night was the start of our Top Game month. That's right, September is fully devoted to the top game. In this first class of the month, I reversed how we usually do things at the club, namely Thursdays are usually our Technical days and Sundays are usually our Fundamental days -but not this week.
So we started this week and month off with the top game focus. Namely we began our introduction of the SOJ cross-sides ideas, but again we were very light on the detail of technique, spending all of our time on the details of the Fundamentals of the top game in general. I was trying to pass along the progression of when the top game fits into your guard pass, and when the defenses need to be in place to shut down the escape routes. As almost always whenever I am teaching, I can hear my own coaches in my head as I review the lessons learned from them, and in turn pass along the lessons as I have absorbed them.
Class started with general warm-ups in the way of line drills of shrimping and other movement exercises across the mats. Sometimes we run, sometimes we move in drills, sometimes we slow-roll. Today we did line drills for a couple minutes. Then we proceeded to the real warming of our Ju-Jitsu, and began light guard surfing drills incorporating 4 of the call-out pressures against an open guard. The bottom opponent's task was to hold the open guard, and reacquire guard if it is passed. We were going at 50%, meaning in pace and tempo, as well as grip strength. If either opponent attempted to break a grip, or step out of a hold, or re pummel for position, they should be able to achieve their goal without having to escalate the tempo and pace or speed of the match. It is more about using angle and timing to stay ahead of your opponent in the drill. The top person was reacting to the call out from the coach, and attempting to adjust as fast as possible (meaning change to the pressure being call-out, not in term of speed) to move with the new pressure.
As we were working through the drill, I noticed a couple of different ways in which we were adjusting to the call-outs. One observation is that upon hearing the new call out, the student would have quite a lag in changing to the new pressure. Some of this lag-time could be attributed to processing time. Needing to hear the call, recognise what the call meant, orienting to the new movement mentally, and then giving the directions to the body to move as desired. In a beginner athlete this process takes time, in someone who has been training their body to take commands from the brain, much less time is required. Take a look at athletes adjusting within the split seconds of their sport to get the win. In our case, even if some of this lag-time was attributed to mental processing, what we were observing in class was also the effect of waiting for a perfect time to change pressures. The drill is supposed to allow the student to witness the effects of changing pressures rapidly or frequently. Creating combinations that they otherwise might not put together themselves. We corrected this after speaking about it, so the students were changing the pressure when they heard the call, attempting to not wait until they felt good about the change but responding more rapidly. This is when the second of our observations came about. The students although they were now changing pressure more rapidly, were in the habit of re-setting, and moving back to a place where they started the drill from as the transitioned to the new pressure. Instead of using the combinations of pressure to advance their position from where ever they found themselves, they would reset and use the new pressure to try to advance their position from the beginning, then reset and use the new pressure. This was corrected by again, drawing our attention to it, and by also changing the pressures more frequently, using more call-outs. I think in the future with students who have never experienced this drill I will bring attention to these details before we begin, maybe these reactions are all my fault as a coach.
Warm-up over, we reviewed our guard passing fundamentals with no resistance. A plain walk through of the steps along the way. we began at the feet/leg passing the open guard, so our first step was keeping the legs open (opposed to opening the legs). As we went through the steps of passing the guard, it also introduces the first motions of our Fundamental Top game. Stopping the bottom person from pulling guard again, and attaching to the upper body, in this case we were using the cross-sides position with attention to the cross-face. During our walk through, we were stopping at each step along the way, and drilling a quick isolation round at that position, then moving to the next step and drilling for a moment. We were able to progress right through to Holding position in this stop and drill manner. Once there, we took it back to guard passing, and did a walk-through of the complete guard pass to top game holding position. And then we drilled the top game a little more completely, using all the steps along the way in motion, without stopping until cross-sides and holding position.
Wow, an hour and a half went fast today. See you Sunday...
So we started this week and month off with the top game focus. Namely we began our introduction of the SOJ cross-sides ideas, but again we were very light on the detail of technique, spending all of our time on the details of the Fundamentals of the top game in general. I was trying to pass along the progression of when the top game fits into your guard pass, and when the defenses need to be in place to shut down the escape routes. As almost always whenever I am teaching, I can hear my own coaches in my head as I review the lessons learned from them, and in turn pass along the lessons as I have absorbed them.
Class started with general warm-ups in the way of line drills of shrimping and other movement exercises across the mats. Sometimes we run, sometimes we move in drills, sometimes we slow-roll. Today we did line drills for a couple minutes. Then we proceeded to the real warming of our Ju-Jitsu, and began light guard surfing drills incorporating 4 of the call-out pressures against an open guard. The bottom opponent's task was to hold the open guard, and reacquire guard if it is passed. We were going at 50%, meaning in pace and tempo, as well as grip strength. If either opponent attempted to break a grip, or step out of a hold, or re pummel for position, they should be able to achieve their goal without having to escalate the tempo and pace or speed of the match. It is more about using angle and timing to stay ahead of your opponent in the drill. The top person was reacting to the call out from the coach, and attempting to adjust as fast as possible (meaning change to the pressure being call-out, not in term of speed) to move with the new pressure.
As we were working through the drill, I noticed a couple of different ways in which we were adjusting to the call-outs. One observation is that upon hearing the new call out, the student would have quite a lag in changing to the new pressure. Some of this lag-time could be attributed to processing time. Needing to hear the call, recognise what the call meant, orienting to the new movement mentally, and then giving the directions to the body to move as desired. In a beginner athlete this process takes time, in someone who has been training their body to take commands from the brain, much less time is required. Take a look at athletes adjusting within the split seconds of their sport to get the win. In our case, even if some of this lag-time was attributed to mental processing, what we were observing in class was also the effect of waiting for a perfect time to change pressures. The drill is supposed to allow the student to witness the effects of changing pressures rapidly or frequently. Creating combinations that they otherwise might not put together themselves. We corrected this after speaking about it, so the students were changing the pressure when they heard the call, attempting to not wait until they felt good about the change but responding more rapidly. This is when the second of our observations came about. The students although they were now changing pressure more rapidly, were in the habit of re-setting, and moving back to a place where they started the drill from as the transitioned to the new pressure. Instead of using the combinations of pressure to advance their position from where ever they found themselves, they would reset and use the new pressure to try to advance their position from the beginning, then reset and use the new pressure. This was corrected by again, drawing our attention to it, and by also changing the pressures more frequently, using more call-outs. I think in the future with students who have never experienced this drill I will bring attention to these details before we begin, maybe these reactions are all my fault as a coach.
Warm-up over, we reviewed our guard passing fundamentals with no resistance. A plain walk through of the steps along the way. we began at the feet/leg passing the open guard, so our first step was keeping the legs open (opposed to opening the legs). As we went through the steps of passing the guard, it also introduces the first motions of our Fundamental Top game. Stopping the bottom person from pulling guard again, and attaching to the upper body, in this case we were using the cross-sides position with attention to the cross-face. During our walk through, we were stopping at each step along the way, and drilling a quick isolation round at that position, then moving to the next step and drilling for a moment. We were able to progress right through to Holding position in this stop and drill manner. Once there, we took it back to guard passing, and did a walk-through of the complete guard pass to top game holding position. And then we drilled the top game a little more completely, using all the steps along the way in motion, without stopping until cross-sides and holding position.
Wow, an hour and a half went fast today. See you Sunday...
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