Musings from the BJJ Gi #4; Lesson 2

Just a brief one to keep the blog updated before I start accruing a backlog of lessons to write about. My second lesson at the new academy, within the Gracie Combatives curriculum, featured the punch block series stage 5, and the rollover technique. Punch block series stage 5 involves tracking a standing opponent who is moving side to side trying to get around your legs while you are on your back, and kicking at their knees when they get too close. The important details to remember, are to follow your opponent’s direction by propelling yourself left or right using the foot of the direction you are turning in, and keeping the other foot up off the ground ready to kick. In the drills we obviously only lightly kick at our training partner’s thighs, where as in a self defence scenario, you would be kicking with full force at the knee joints, groin, and even up-kicking at the face if it’s within reach, a very powerful and dangerous kick. The rollover technique covers a good response for if your opponent grabs one of your feet/legs (when you are lying on your back/using open guard) and pulls it to one side in order to get around your legs and attack your head. You keep your core tight, so the pulling on your leg doesn’t spread you out or turn you over, and you kind of ab crunch towards the direction that your opponent is trying to come around. You then block their approach by putting your outer foot on their outer hip, then replace that foot with your inner foot, and straighten out your torso, so you now have both of your feet on their hips, and are essentially back to the starting position from where they initially grabbed your foot, and you resume kicking at their legs. I know that description is a little bit unclear, but where I say ‘inner foot’, I mean the foot closest to the opponent, given that they are at either your left or right hand side at that time, and where I say ‘outer foot/hip’, I accordingly mean the foot or hip furthest away from your opponent in that same position.
These techniques and drills were almost identical to the versions that I’ve previously done via the Gracie University online curriculum, so I felt that I got the hang of it again reasonably quickly.
That’s all for this one, but hopefully going to bump up the training frequency to twice a week soon, which should allow for some quicker growth and improvement. Cheers,

• David.