Saturday we had a seminar with Benardo rather than our usual open mat. He broke it up into two parts, some bottom techniques, and some top techniques.

We started off with a technique to pull half guard from the standing position. Now, I’m generally anti-guard pulling. I see it as passive, and unrealistic. In a fight, you’re never going to voluntarily be on the bottom. This technique though led immediately into the next, which was a sweep. So with the two together, it could almost be classified as a takedown.

We then did another half guard sweep, for situations where our opponents have head control. This one was a little complicated, and it took most of us a bit to get it down, but I really liked it.

After a break, we switched things up, and did some top game techniques. The first was a pass. It was a little unusual, because we started with one arm in and one out…which generally is a recipie to get triangle choked. But Benardo showed us how to block one hip to prevent that. Then we can tripod up, grip and stuff a knee and pass. We did a variation of the same starting from within spider guard as well that worked the same way.

Then we did two submissions. The first was a reverse knee bar, which is an odd thing to teach a bunch of lower belts, because it’s illegal to use in competition. As we’re doing either of the two passes, we can pause and attempt the submission with very little risk of loosing the position. The second submission started from side control. Jack up his inside arm, use his lapel to overwrap and immobilize his other arm, mount and then triangle.

We had a packed house for Lucas’s seminar on Saturday. Made the warm ups challenging due to a lack of space! I’m starting to warm up (*rimshot*) to his style of warming up. Today it was very functionally based. We’d do twenty triangle setups, alternating sided. Then twenty omaplata setups, again alternating sides. Then twenty more omaplatas, with our partners rolling out and reestablishing top control, and then we’d omaplata again. Damian has done similar things in the past…it’s not so much a matter of warming or loosing up…it’s a matter of unconsciously learning how to move better and more smoothly.

Class was three techniques, each unrelated. I thought it was an odd structure for a seminar, as in the past the covered techniques have been related or a chained sequence.

The first was a De La Riva guard pass, which was easily the most complicated guard pass that I’ve seen. Brandon and I drilled it, but I’m not sure that I could reproduce it now. It’s certianly something I could use, but it’s going to require a lot of practice!

The second was a deep half guard pass. Deep half guard is a style of guard that’s new-ish in sport BJJ. Since it’s a newer development, none of use really know or use that style of guard in our game.

And since none of use really use it….we (as a team) have generally had problems when someone runs into it at a tournament. So this pass technique is probably a pretty welcome lesson to some.

The last was a super slick ezekiel choke attack against the turtle guard. JP was grinning ear to ear and pointing at me. He’s a big ezekiel fan, and he knows that I turtle up on a regular basis. I might have to watch out!

We rounded things off with a few rounds of sparring. I paired up with Tall Josh and did well. I used the half guard sequence Damian showed me during our private, and got on his back. He escaped and I transitioned right into an arm triangle. Second round was with Purple Belt Tim. I’ve been on a self imposed break from rolling with Tim for a couple of months now. He choked me twice, but it took him longer than usual.

I just got back from Dave’s seminar, and jumping right into documenting it all while it’s still fresh in my head. Big crowd today, there probably was 50 or 60 of us, so the mat was pretty crowded. All of the usual characters were there, plus some rarely seen ones, plus some complete strangers.

The techniques of the day were a combination of things. We started with the stack pass, the very first pass most jiu-jitsu students learn. As with everything Dave does, he’s added his own twists and optimizations on it. Instead of using a gable grip when passing, he just cups the thighs, keeping compact and tight on the bottom guy, posts up with one leg, and just slides the hips along to pass to side control.

From there, he taught us a really slick technique to take the back. He talked about the two types of control…the type where you prevent any movement, and the type where you only allow one type, the type you’re expecting. So from standard side control, we learned to switch our hips to neutralize the inside arm of the bottom guy, grip his near side knee, circle our head side hand around and grab his collar, and then pressure into him. His only option here is to attempt to get to his knees, so when he rolls away, we can shoot our bottom leg in and get the first hook. Dave spent alot of time demonstrating the next step, the correct hand position. The hand that was on the collar now circles the neck, and in a “vampire stabbing motion” establishes itself on his shoulder. Then we move the other hook in, and grab our own hand. We then learned some subtleties of the rear naked choke, and two variations of it.

Next up was what to do if he actually does make it to his knees, or if you’re attacking the turtle position. With one hook in, and using your other knee pinch his hip, you use one forearm to push his forehead to the mat, loop your other under his armpit, and gable grip on top of his shoulder. You can open your elbow and push down with your forearm as you roll back, and he can’t defend the second hook going in. Establish your vampire stake grip, and you’re good.

Lastly we chained it all together. Stack pass, take the back, choke. Very good stuff.

Dave’s a very good teacher, plus he had Damian, Klint and Brock Larson (with his brand new black belt!) roaming around fixing all of our mistakes.

What a great class! Looked like everyone turned out, I counted 30-something of us. Including Tom and Matt who I haven’t seen in a month.

Dave seemed like a pretty nice guy. Sure knew what he was talking about. Just watching him showing the techniques, he seemed super smooth. And the couple of times I asked a question he took the time to answer and demonstrate where I was going wrong.

We started off with a simple judo foot sweep. Dave was a long time judo player (starting at age 5) and a black belt before he started doing jiu-jitsu. He’s undeniably the top guy that has combined the two. He teaches a very agressive & offensive style of both. The following foot sweep we warmed up with was just the right combo of simple and effective that appeals to me. I always like doing take down stuff, so this was perfect. Ethan and I drilled it away. The first couple of times were pretty awkward, and Dave overheard me telling Ethan how it must pain him seeing us butcher his art. He laughed and told us we needed to start somewhere.

The meat of the class was Dave’s “system” from closed guard. He has developed a strategy for each of the main positions, a default plan. And then relies on experience if and when things go awry from his plan. The first part of the system was the snake move. You release closed guard, and end up on your side with your bottom foot on his hip, and your other foot hooking his other hip, knee across his belly. From there we moved to the scissor sweep, drop your low foot, pull with it, kick with the high one and you’re in mount. Very similar to the simple sweep, but with your knee horizontal on his chest rather than at 45. I LOVE this sweep. It’ll get alot of use I think.

From the same position, we transitioned into an armlock. And then into a triangle if he defends. And then back into closed guard if things go really wrong. We worked various combos of going between these positions and attacks over and over. Good stuff. Dave spent the hours walking around, spending a little time with each of the pairs. At the end there were a few general questions. He emphasized the importance of grip fighting.

We had a couple of promotions yesterday too. Couple of guys got a stripe, and two new purple belts were handed out. One to a guy that’s been doing martial arts of one sort or another since 1967. 42 years! I hope I can keep going when I’m his age.

All in all a great class. Well worth the extra expense and time.