My friend Can Sonmez, who writes the Slideyfoot Blogsite, runs the Bristol Grapplethon and runs Artemis BJJ, invited me down to his first ever Artemis BJJ Training Camp - a weekend long series of seminars with BJJ, judo and yoga instructors. Can's idea was to replicate a smaller version of the very successful BJJ Globetrotter events that he regularly attends. Can wanted his version to run over a shorter time period than the week long Globetrotter events and become a more reachable event for those who are unwilling or unable to travel abroad. I was only there for the Saturday to teach a one hour slot and the rest of the day was taught by Tom Barlow and Chelsea Bainbridge-Donner. On the Sunday session, there were sessions taught by three more BJJ black belt instructors.
Location
The Exercise Club on Whiteladies Road in Clifton is actually some sort of converted Church building. It's wonderful here. Everything inside is wooden and there are multiple stairs and levels. It looks like the kind of place where kids could have hours of fun playing hide and seek. The main training room is upstairs with jigsaw mats covering enough of an area for around 30 students on the mat...which is around the number who turned up today.
Spinal twists, Strong Shape, Weak Shape
The session I taught was built around the concept that Nic Gregoriades teaches which he calls 'strong shape, weak shape'. It's one of the simplest concepts in BJJ. It is so fundamental to so many positions and techniques yet it is not really given much mention by other instructors or students. When Nic first showed this concept in his DVD (read my review) I immediately began examining everything I did when rolling and it completely transformed the way I executed my techniques. I've been applying this concept ever since and I wanted to share my own interpretations and experiences when viewing BJJ through the eyes of spinal alignment.
I began the session by getting everyone to lie on their backs and sitting up trying to simulate a cross collar choke. It's a simple warm up exercise. I then asked everyone to scissor their legs so the top leg was lying over their bottom leg - all while still keeping shoulders flat on the ground. In this twisted position most people found the attempt to sit up and cross collar choke very difficult. The same concept was applied but this time lying on their belly and performing a dorsal raise. Reasonably easy to do when flat on the ground, but if one leg was crossed beneath the other, much much harder to do.
I then took two defensive positions: defending back control and escaping from under mount position - and applied the strong shape weak shape concept. My goal wasn't to teach the actual techniques on how to escape but to ask people to monitor how out of alignment their hips were in comparison to their shoulders.
I then applied the same concept to some guard play: in closed guard your opponent faces very squarely on to you but apply a sleeve drag and you'll notice how it twists up your opponent's shoulders. This makes him vulnerable to subsequent attacks and sweeps (I showed the gift wrap and pendulum sweep). From half guard, I showed why letting your opponent get the underhook and crossface was a bad idea: because it twists your body up with shoulders facing one way and hips another.
I finished off my set using the half guard pass and a smash pass as an illustration of applying the weak shape on your opponent to get to where you want.
An hour flew by and it was perhaps too short a time for me to cover all the areas I wanted. However, it was really fun to be able to reach out to lots of new faces with my own interpretations of familiar themes and concepts.
Chelsea Bainbridge-Donner
Chelsea is a World Champion at brown belt and has placed at multiple major events at black belt. A graduate from Atos gym she was awarded her black belt by Andre Galvao.
Chelsea began her session showing us the kimura finish from seated north south position starting from side control (and uke does not have a frame under your chin). The key take away for me was the detail on how Chelsea placed her knee as a wedge against the back of her uke, but her foot was planted some distance away. It created a powerful and stable base from which to sit on her uke and apply the kimura. Tom Barlow also added a very useful tip where you push your uke's head down just before you step over the head. This push on the head as you isolate the arm being attacked created a lovely strong tension (and a bit of pain!)
Chelsea then moved on to a series of attacks based around the kimura trap - something I've only recently started learning and practising myself. Chelsea began her sequences from the top half guard and showed how to extract her trapped leg using the kimura trap principle. Once freed she showed several scenarios and finishes including: moving to the top seated north south kimura (as per the previous technique), taking the back when uke tries to sit up...and finally the armbar when uke sits up.
Tom Barlow
Tom is a black belt under Braulio Estima and is also a World Champion. He began his session on how he likes to control the back position: seatbelt grip placed very high up on uke's body, elbows wedged in tight, hooks embedded very tightly. He asked us to try this holding position for a minute each while uke tried to move around and escape. We had to feel the burn in our arms such was the tightness Tom implored! This exercise then progressed to holding on to the back with just seatbelt grip. Finally we drilled the chair sit as uke rolled from one side to the other.
Tom then taught two seemingly basic attacks from the back - but loaded with superb high level details that instantly improved my knowledge of them. The first was the lapel choke from the back after falling on to the 'wrong' side in back control. Tom's version had a very interesting and useful tip on that first lapel grip. He likes to avoid placing the choking grip very high up the collar, preferring a lower position and fist placed flat onto uke's chest. Another great tip was squeezing ones own thighs tight when finishing the choke. It made the finish a hundred times more powerful!
Tom also showed the kimura grip from back control, how one could convert that into a wristlock and or an armbar. When gripping like this, Tom prefers to hold the fleshy part of uke's palm rather than the wrist. It gives him more attacking options and denies his opponent the ability to defend. All fantastic details that helped me a ton.
BTW you really ought to catch up on the technique videos Tom posts on his website as they're very good: https://tombarlowonline.com/
Q&A
Tom and Chelsea completed their session by offering to answer any questions. The audience were not shy and they fielded many technique based and preparation based questions. I liked Tom's thoughts on how to attack a flying armbar (he suggests not to go for the armbar at first, but go for a flying triangle and then convert to an armbar - as the flying armbar was more risky - also you need to make sure to break uke's posture and carry your weight). Chelsea answer a question about the over/under pass. Her version she does not lie flat on the bottom leg because it was still too easy for uke to remove it and triangle you back. With Chelsea's version drives she stays active on her feet, drives forward and picks up uke's bottom leg and traps it between her own legs. I've not seen this version before but it made instant sense to me. The two answered further questions, one memory for me was watching Tom demonstrate how Chelsea's kimura trap techniques and his back attack techniques from today could happily all link together as a non stop attacking system which would inevitable catch your opponent. He also showed just s snippet of his reverse triangle from the kimura trap which I really liked the look of. He suggests it's a much higher percentage finish than the head scissors.
Final word
I really enjoyed teaching and learning at the Artemis camp. I think the format worked perfectly and the vibe was fantastic. There was time to roll in between teaching slots or if preferred, time to chat and make new friends. For the cost of just £50, students were able to train over two days with up to six BJJ black belts plus the addition of judo and yoga added into the mix. My only minor criticism is that the room was just a touch too crowded and bodies were clashing on some of the more wide ranging sweeping techniques. But that's a nice issue to have as it shows how popular this event was. I look forward to this becoming a regular fixture in the UK BJJ calendar.
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