As I write this, I'm sat at the PC on a Friday night with my sweat soaked t shirt stuck to my exhausted body, and I feel GREAT. I'm not long home from the Nick Brooks and David Onuma seminar at BKK Fighters in Colchester, Essex, in aid of Clinton Combats Cancer For Cash and Cancer Research UK I'm very pleased to say that we managed to raise £180, and everyone walked away from this special class with a massive grin after grappling with two very awesome teachers (and a very talented brown belt in Chris Hearn!)
The techniques demonstrated were pretty much whatever we wanted to learn. Nick asked the class if there was anything in particular we wanted to work on, so after one of the group volunteered half guard escapes, that's exactly what Nick showed us.
I won't go into great detail as to the escapes, as written word doesn't adequately convey the intricacies of the techniques and may even lead to confusion, but rest assured, they were all effective. One day I'll sort out a video camera to film some techniques for this blog, so until then, please be patient with me. Aww, thanks for being so understanding - mwah! xx
Anyway... The gist of what Nick demonstrated was basically the use of misdirection, much like a Las Vegas illusionist (he is a wizard on the mats, after all.) Whilst on top in one's opponent's half guard (yes, I used the pronoun 'one,' as one should in these blogs), the trick is to apply a cross choke so that one's partner panics and concentrates on defending the choke. During which time, you, my sneaky friend, will be snaking your trapped leg out of their guard to pass and take the mount, the side, or whatever takes your fancy and as the specific situation allows. Yes, both simple AND clever. I won't go into the specifics, you can google that shit (so to speak), but it is the concept of misdirection that is important.
Nick then handed the class over to David, who also asked the class what troubled us on the mats. This time, the super-human William Wayland queried how one (I'm really getting self-conscious about using that word) might go on to finish one's (bloody hell...) opponent after taking side control. David, being the generous and talented man that he is, imparted a nifty little trick that not only restricts your opponent's movement, but can make them very uncomfortable as well. It involves using the arm that is wrapped under your partner's head grabbing the material of their gi in the armpit/latissimus dorsi area, pulling on it tightly as digging your shoulder of that same arm into their neck. And hard. I guarantee that if they don't tap (which is possible), they certainly won't like it in the slightest. Then, with your free hand and whilst keeping your weight on them heavy, start pulling out the lapel of their gi on the same side of the armpit your grabbing, then pass this under said armpit to your other hand. then pull tight on this, so as to effectively restrict their movement and help prevent their going for an underhook to escape. The important thing here is to take your time when freeing their lapel before passing it to your other hand. You want to make sure there is now slack WHATSOEVER. In fact, it's so important that I felt compelled to CAPITALIZE the last word in that sentence.
Now, when you have pulled tight on that lapel, pull HARD and up onto your thigh (damn, some photos would really help here). From this point, David showed us two submissions we could go for: a kind of clock choke, and an armbar. And boy, do they work. But in the interest of time (ie. 1. I have no photos, 2. you know you have too short an attention span to read paragraphs of explanations, and 3. I'm just too lazy), I shall leave it to the reader's discretion whether they should contact David Onuma himself for a private lesson on these specific techniques.
After this, Nick left it too us whether we wanted to learn some more techniques or if we would rather spar. The decision was unanimous: "LET'S ROLL!"
Nick graciously had a roll with me, which was a great experience. It's always a pleasure to grapple with someone of his calibre, because you know that what your opponent is doing is pure jiu jitsu and not brute strength. And being that Nick is so tall and thin, he has to rely on extremely tight technique so as to beat larger opponents. He was very generous with his advice the first time he tapped me, explaining that I was far too tense and so would be less receptive to his (or any other opponent's) movement. The second time we rolled, I made a concerted effort to relax (which in itself is a contradiction, ie. relax/effort), but we did notice a marked improvement upon the previous bout.
We all swapped partners a few times until time was getting on and we called it a night. We huddled together for a group photo and gave Nick and David a well deserved applause for a great seminar.
After getting changed, I counted up the donations for the night and I'm happy to say we raised £180, taking the current total of Clinton Combats Cancer For Cash to £520, surpassing my initial target of £500! I'm thrilled to bits, but there is still 4 months to go until I fight in my pink gi and matching mohawk at the South East BJJ Open in October, so I still hope to raise loads more between now and then.
So I'd like to say a massive thank you to Nick Brooks, David 'Malandro' Onuma, Chris Hearn, BKK Fighters, and of course to everyone that came and donated. I'm pleased as punch, and strongly recommend that you check out Nick classes at the Mill Hill BJJ Academy, and David classes, a timetable of which can be found at http://combinedfightingsystems.blogspot.com/.
If you do go to one of their classes, or even see them on the street, please buy them a bottle (or more) of Desperados. Damn it, they deserve it.
Ciao for now
Fat Flamingo
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