The REAL Horizontal Samba

Big thanks to Seymour Yang, formerly of this parish, for coming down last night to run a ground-work session.

As expected it was hard work but great fun, with an emphasis on the real-world permutations of simple techniques. Best of luck to Seymour for his BJJ tournament next month and we look forward to seeing him in another eye-wateringly colourful gi in the not-too-distant future.

A BJJer walked into a dojo one day...

By Seymour Yang

I had the honour last night of popping down to my old traditional/Japanese ju-jitsu club, the Imperial Jikishin Ju-Jitsu Club, to teach a session of ground-fighting. Now it's not cool to call it Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu whenever you visit a trad dojo - there's just too much style versus style baggage whenever a BJJer walks in, so I always refer to it as ground-fighting. It's simpler, less of a mouthful and does what it says on the tin, so all the participants can understand the basic intention for the night.

The last time I popped down (which I criminally forgot to blog about) I ran through a series of tactics and strategies designed to handle an opponent during the scramble for position and grips when fighting off of the knees. Tonight I began with a selection of the animal drills that are a fun, but exhausting, way to condition the body in readiness for a good ole grapple.

I began the technical portion of the class with a simple double leg takedown drill from standing (because somebody asked for this) and continued the sequence with a series of side mount pins, knee on belly attacks and escapes from the side mount. It was just fundamental, simple but workable techniques that I've been taught myself and I know work really well. We finished the evening with five or six rounds of position-based sparring (no submissions): top guy attempts to go from side mount to full mount, bottom guy tries to escape, sweep or block the top guy. Despite not utilising submissions, just playing positional sparring was enough to wipe out my comrades and we all ended with one of those brilliant 'I've just done a lunatic session' type faces!

I always enjoy catching up with my Imperial JJ buddies and I hope to pop down again early next year to maintain the ground fighting ethic that I believe is an important part of any ju-jitsuka's arsenal, traditional or not.
 
Seymour Yang trains in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu at the Mill Hill BJJ Academy. He is a purple belt under Nick Brooks and is a regular visitor to the Imperial Ju-Jitsu Club to run ground fighting sessions.