On the Mat Day 197: Mount Escapes (with notes)

Monkey transition to inverted guard

I have come to realize that more than anything, jiu-jitsu is an art that teaches you about movement. Movement in a 3D environment that was once perhaps the norm for us when our ancestors were apes, but is now unfamiliar. It also teaches you to use each limb separately to push and pull in opposite directions. Most people think in terms of upper body and lower body as separate entities and never use them in combination, but BJJ shows you how to use the left hand and right leg together to perform a sweep, how to lift a person from the floor with your legs and then manipulate them with all four limbs to rotate them into an armbar. Have you ever seen a non-BJJ practitioner stand up? They push themselves forward or tuck their feet under them and stand up while swaying with poor balance. The technical standup taught in BJJ is so much more efficient. One hand, one leg posted, backside out and stand up in a fraction of that time with a low possibility of losing balance or getting kicked in the face. The technical standup should be required learning for all drunks to ensure they make it out of the gutter after a late night of binge drinking. Have you also noticed how even after a few months of BJJ, you will shrimp in bed? I want to turn over to see the alarm clock. Do I simply roll over like a log? Nope. I shrimp and scoot my backside away from the clock to turn to face it. Weird...but efficient and fast.

Don't let this be you. Learn the technical standup.

Last night's training was the best in a long time. A lot of guys came who were training as a white belt the same time as me. In fact the room felt like nearly 2 years ago but white belts replaced with blue. Atsushi, Akira and Kensuke. It felt like old times. Atsushi is on leave from the Police Academy where he trains judo 2 hours a day Monday to Friday. The beneits of that were clear during sparring. He was pretty much the champion of our dojo even at white belt. He would win everything. With him training judo now he is even tougher to go against. During our sparring session I noticed that his side control is crushingly strong and he leaves little room to maneuver but I did manage to hip escape a few pins. He has good technique though and was always very diligent about training at our school (5 x per week). It was good to see him again. One thing he told me about the Police Judo club that made my eyes go wide was that he was not allowed to release chokes after the opponent tapped. He said the instructors told him to choke until they lost consciousness. Which to me sounds really fucking stupid. Imagine the number of brain cells these guys are killing off in each other. Many of the older generation in Japan still have too much of that old school mentality about things, be it sport or business. I can just see the Police instructor smacking Atsushi with a bamboo stick for releasing the choke. In fact I know he was even hit in the leg with a keibo (police baton) because I saw the ugly purple welt on his leg last year. Thank god I found BJJ first. Respect the tap Judo police instructors!

During sparring I used inverted guard a hell of a lot. I have noticed that most people are very wary of coming close when I do invert. They suddenly step back and wait until I spin back around to sit. As far as I can see the main attack from inverted guard is the triangle. There is also a sweep but that seems to be launched from half-guard. I am still researching how to attack with this guard.

I asked Atsushi to show me a lapel arm wrap to choke that he was always good at. I think I can use it. Also, Akira and I had a bit of fun in between sparring by drilling an inverted guard drill. It goes like this. One of you stands with legs further apart than shoulder width. The other is on the floor sitting with one of the standing persons legs in between theirs. They invert and spin around to the persons rear and then back to the front. Rinse repeat. The diziness effect from this is worse than spinning around on your feet but it's a great drill for switching from inverted to sitting guard. F-sensei also drilled into us the importance of choking correctly. He told us not to allow the wrist to move in the wrong direction during chokes because it created space for the opponent to free their neck. Chokes should always be done with the wrist bent down and the fist pointing towards the pinky finger. This helps the edge of your bone move against his neck as well.

Normal grip with fist

Bend wrist down

Then bend wrist towards pinky finger

Sparring time: 5 x 6 mins = 30 mins (was going to be 6 but after a minute of sparring with Kawai my knee twisted uncomfortable between his legs and I had to stop for ice)

Knee injury: 90% > 70% efficiency now :(

Memorable moments: Sitting guard to successful armdrag (but too slow to take the back)


Mount Escapes -