Wednesday night was pretty exciting. We had a few guys from other schools come in to our BJJ class to teach us a some things and then spar with us later on. There were three guys; two brown belts and a purple belt. Names aren’t important. In Jiu Jitsu class, all I see is belt color. (haha)
We had a really good time. One of the guys showed us a few nice sweeps and a couple of submissions. I can remember some of it, but unfortunately the rest escapes me. That’s to be expected. Jiu Jitsu is a whole bunch of good moves created by a whole bunch of really talented people. We can’t be expected to remember all of it.
My instructor tells us to learn the moves, but to use what works for us. We all have different body styles and prefer different things. Jiu Jitsu encourages flexibility with how you do things. Chances are, if you change something up and do things differently, you’ll either get copied or at the very least a “cool.”
As I mentioned above, I got to spar with a few guys…two to be exact. The first guy is a purple belt and I did well with him. I rolled with him in the past and got clobbered. He drove past me like I was standing still. This time, I used patience and a bit more skill than I used in the past. Though he tapped me out a few times, I still did well.
The great part about rolling with guys more senior than me is that they offer advice on what to improve. This guy was helpful in that he picked up on one of my strengths – my guard. He said that my guard is really good and that I should develop my Spider Guard Sweep. He thought it would be powerful. I tend to agree.
So, what’s the Spider Guard? Well, it’s a control position for the guy on the bottom. It’s when the guard player wraps one of his legs around the top player’s arm and hooks his foot behind the armpit. The guard player’s other foot can remain on the top player’s hip. As long as the guard player has good control of the arm the leg is wrapped around, the control is pretty strong.
The sweep part of the Spider Guard Sweep comes in when the top player attempts to pass guard. At this point, the guard player takes his lower foot off the hip and bends his knee so his shin lays across the belly of the top player. As the top player moves around to pass guard, the guard player sweeps him by stretching his leg and lifting the top player’s opposing leg. The guard player finishes with a bicep slicer. You’ll see in the video below.
BJJ Instruction: Spider Guard Sweep
There is also a finish from the bottom without sweeping your opponent. It’s called the “Bicep Slicer from Spider Guard.” This is an especially effective submission because it’s very sneaky. I can imagine submitting a lot of players with this move. Instead of explaining the technique, I’ll just post the video below.
BJJ Techniques: Bicep Slicer from Spider Guard
I actually caught a guy in this move right after I learned it on Wednesday night. He was annoyed because he watched me learn it. Too funny.
After that, I rolled with the brown belt. That didn’t fare too well for me. How should I explain it…ummm…it was kind of like me standing on train tracks with a freight train coming. You know the ending to that story. The unfortunate thing is that the brown belt was my Muay Thai instructor from my other school. It actually wasn’t unfortunate because these are all really good learning experiences that I enjoy immensely.
There is a guard pass that I learned a while ago that was used on me during that match. I don’t know the name of it, so I’ll have to post that in a new video later on.
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