Congratulations

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Hi

Just a quick note to say big congratulations to Hayden.

Tonight , Hayden put in a massive effort to pass his Black Belt grading and achieve the rank of Sho Dan Ho in the junior section of our Enso Ryu JuJitsu.

No small feat, in the years I have been teaching I have only promoted 2 students in the juniors to this grade, so a big achievement.

Well Done

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Does The Ego Have a Place in The Martial Arts?

Ego - an inflated feeling of pride in your own superiority to others!

So how many of you have turned up to a club, training night or seminar and come across an instructor or a student that is full of themself? You know what I mean, they are not open to new ideas, their technique is better than the one been shown. I have had so many stories of people who have gone to have a look at a class, then been battered around the room in sparring.

Why would anyone do that, Ego, it’s the only thing I can think of, the “I’m better than you ” syndrome, it’s surprising how common it is. Of course they’re going to be better at it than you, you’ve only just walked through the door!

If they need to prove themselves like that then that to me is a seriously over inflated ego that has no place in Martial Arts, I mean, how to put someone off from learning?!!

Confidence on the other hand, that is good, it can sometimes be mis-interpreted as arrogance and ego, two things that I totally abhore! Confidence is good, in life as well as the Martial Arts, just don’t let it spill over to the dark side!

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How To Counter The Straight Arm Bar?

Countering a move is not about waiting for it to go on and then doing something else, to counter a move properly, you should be feeling it going on and then doing something to stop it progressing further.

This is probably true as much in the cross over arm bar is it is in any other move you’ll do.If you get to a point where your arm is straight and they are sat back, that’s it, you’re in a lot of trouble. What you should be doing is feeling what is going on then attempting to counter, before it actually gets to them swivelling into position, or at the latest as they are moving.

We have gone through one way of getting into cross over arm lock, there are others, and in time we’ll have a play with some of those as well, however, one step at a time. So, you should, if you have practised these previous moves thoroughly, when someone is going to try and get this move on, if you feel one hand trapped, then prepare for a cross over arm lock coming, done right, this is a very fast transition. There are a number of things you can do to try to prevent it.

Firstly, try taking hold of your own wrist, arm or hand, you have something then to stop your arm being straightened. Not a particularly good counter, it’s very passive and easy to counter in itself…!You can try grabbing your own Gi with your defensive hand, it can give you a couple of seconds relief whilst you think and break their flow, however, it becomes a contest of strength, and relativly easy to counter as well!

A Third option, and my preferred one, hence the new paragraph! As they move to get their legs around your arm, push your head through as well, this gives you a bit of breathing space, but we’re not quite finished, what you should find is that you’ve given yourself a bit of slack, use that and push upwards towards your attacker with your elbow, aiming to move your elbow to their side, increasing the bend in your arm, closes the distance between the two of you and makes it harder for them to apply the lock.

If you are both on the floor, it is possible at this point, to turn into them and move into their guard turning a defensive position into an attackign position.

Have a play, and for future reference I’ll see if I can get some videos put together on it, always helps as sometimes these descriptions can be hard to visualise.

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Problem Over!!

Hi All

Sorry, we’ve been having some technical problems with the web site the last few days.

All working again now and we should be back to normal.

Ian

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How To Transition From The Mount To Arm Bar?

OK, so we’ve described the mount as being a good position to be in, we’ve also described the Cross Over Arm Bar and what a good finisher it is, but how to get from one strong position to another strong position?

First off, it’s all about looking for the right opening, over the course of the sites development I’ll go through a number of moves and different ways of getting into them and then you can train them so that you can react when the appropriate opening presents itself.

The first thing then is to look for them pushing you off, you are bound to get it, especially if you give them the opening, for example by raising up higher instead of keeping your weight low, this will allow them to get their hands in and the natural instinct to take over and stop you invading their personal space by pushing back.

Once you have their hands up, or even just one hand, you have something to work with, if they push the right hand up, then using your left arm, trap their arm to your chest, you can do this by taking hold of your Gi with your left hand and dropping your elbow, you don’t need to keep hold for long. With your right hand, push down on their chest, this serves two purposes, it lifts you up, and it distracts them and causes pain/discomfort.

Once you have lifted yourself, you need to move your left leg over the top of their head and push your body weight up and over to your left and on to your back, taking their arm with you so you finish up on your back at their right hand side, with your left leg over them neck and your right leg over their body, keep your shoulders back, your knees together and raise your hips off the floor as you pull their arm across your right thigh.

If you get your timing right and your technique right, its a very slick, fast move, I’ve seen it work quite a few times, and used it myself to good effect.

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How To Perform Cross Over Arm Bar

Hi, this is an excellent finishing technique in ground work, you’ll often see people trying to go for this move, most often performed with Uke on their back however I’ve also seen it done with Uke standing!

There are so many variations on how to get into this move that to cover them all would take a long time and I’d never get any posts out, so what I’ll do is break it down so that this, the first post covers how to actually put the lock on, and what it is.

Cross Over arm lock, I’ve heard it called Step Over lock as well, but I’ll continue as Cross Over! I normally start to teach it from a throw, as it gets them in the right position to learn it all in the best order. The best order in my opinion with this throw is to have Uke on their side, then, if they are on their left hand side you pull up on their right arm and with your right foot, kick them in the kidneys, and leave your foot there. .(Some clubs do this differently and this foot goes over the top, I don’t like it that way, it’s too easy for Uke to turn and face you, so starting to attack you, this way they have to roll up your leg if they want to turn and that puts an extra obstacle in the way) With your left foot you now stamp through Uke’s face/throat, sounds nasty, and it would be. Pull your left foot back into Uke’s throat now you are going to sit down with your backside as close to Uke’s shoulder as possible, when you go down you go down at a 45 degree angle to Uke going out above their head. With their elbow on or above your leg you pull back now on Uke’s trapped arm over your right thigh, as you do this you squeeze your knees together and raise your hips off the ground, Note: keep your shoulders back and resting on the ground. Also squeeze it on, if you just pull back in training then you’ll damage your partner, it’s surprising how quickly it goes on if you get all the bits right.
You’ve not finished, remember this is a practical martial art not a sport and in reality people bite! Your calf is very close to Uke’s mouth, reach down with your left hand, put your fingers underneath Uke’s jaw at the front, as you pull up keeping the mouth closed the heel of your hand should fall nicely onto Uke’s nose, press it down it’s very uncomfortable and restricts breathing.

This is the ideal way I would go about doing it, I know in reality nothing ever actually works like that, and quite often you don’t get at 45 degrees, the biggest thing is that in a roll around you don’t often get your leg under their back, and you end up with them turning on to you and rolling into your guard. There are some really good continuous flow excercises around this and we’ll go through those in time.

Have a try and we’ll go through some other ways to get into it.

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