08.06.05 - 2nd Annual West Coast Kenpo Confederation
Beginner’s Jujitsu - Grappling
I took this class for a couple reasons but largely because I have always been curious about grappling & ground fighting. He was my chance for a taste of it flavored with Kenpo and I took advantage of it. The class was led by Shawn Monday and was from 9:00 to 11:00 am. I must say that I have a whole new appreciation for ground fighting than I did before taking this class. Shawn is as comfortable on the ground in just about any position as he is standing vertical on his feet. He was amazing to watch and made everything look very easy.
The biggest thing he stressed before we even got started is that it can be very easy to hurt or get hurt on the ground. With your body horizontal and being used as a lever in several of these moves, it is easy to break things (bones) or hyperextend an arm or leg. With this in mind, we partnered up and started learning some of the basics. Since we didn’t have time to get into a full retinue of moves, we basically started on the ground in a ‘weak position’ and took turns with our partners getting into and out of trouble. The fist maneuver had one partner on his back on the ground, and the other was astride him, feet tucked under his legs, right arm reaching under his neck and grabbing hold of his own gi sleeve on the other side, effectively locking the head in place. The free left arm of the man on top was used to pin down the right arm of the guy on the bottom. The first part of this exercise was to show the control of being on top in this position. The second part was how to get out of it if you find yourself in this sort of weak position. To get out, you either tie up or buckle the left arm of the guy on top, grab and pull his gi with the same arm while pushing up with your feet. This effectively rolls you over to become the person in the top position putting the other guy in trouble.
This was fun to practice and Shawn encouraged us to experiment and see if there was any way to stop the maneuver from taking place in the strong position. I managed to keep my partner pinned down by not allowing him the ability to get his feet under him. Basically, I was wrapping up his legs and straightening them out with my own, effectively taking away his leverage. Shawn spotted this from across the room and came over to us to investigate. He said that the maneuver I was doing was known as ‘tripodding’ and that it was a favorite among wrestlers. The way to thwart my maneuver was for the man on the bottom to arch his back and then push off quickly. By doing so, it takes away the ability of the man on top to ‘tripod’, effectively rendering the technique useless. My partner did as he was instructed and sure enough, I was spun over and was on my back in a flash. I had a good 30-40 lbs. on the guy I was partnered with and was amazed to see how easily I was maneuvered by applying the correct leverage at the right spot. Very cool.
The next maneuver was interesting as it incorporated some pressure points in the inner leg between the muscles. Shawn used Eli to demonstrate on first. Eli was on his back and Shawn was between his legs facing him. Eli’s legs were wrapped around Shawn at the waist, giving him some good leverage to squeeze on the kidneys and floating ribs. Shawn simply reached for the knot on Eli’s gi and first torqued his thumbs into Eli’s abdomen. Eli winced a little bit but didn’t let go, clearly thinking he could take this discomfort. But Shawn was only using the knot on the belt as a measuring point and simply lowered the points of his elbows into the muscle bands near the inside of Eli’s legs. The response was immediate as Eli howled in pain, legs flinging opened wide and his hands tapping like crazy! It happened so fast, it was like Shawn hit some sort of magic button or something! I think Eli was just as amazed at the sudden change in things but was a good sport as Shawn had released the pressure as soon as he got the reaction he was looking for. Shawn explained that the points of the elbow were in effect rolling one part of the muscle mass in the leg under another muscle – which happens to reside right over a major pressure point. He lectured again about safety and then we broke off with our partners again to practice.
The next move was a spider trap. Again, this involved getting yourself out of a weak position, in this case you are on your back and your opponent is attacking from on top of you. This maneuver was freakishly simple and very effective, leaving you several choices as to which way to go. It does work best though if your opponent is wearing a gi or at least clothes as you need to grab hold of him to make this effective. The weak position has a guy on his back with the man in the strong position between his legs raining down punches against your face. You grab a hand full of gi on the right and left side of the lapels while bring the feet up and resting them against the pelvis of the attacker. It was amazing how well you could control the movements of the attacker from this position! If he throws a left punch, push your hand that is hold the gi on his left side away while pushing away on the opposite foot, effectively torquing his body and taking away any power or range he may have. If the opponent has long arms or is overpowering you, just push off with both feet and he will slide right out of the way and become the one in the weak position for an ensuing leg maneuver or kick. Again, I was struck by the simplicity of a few basic items used together for a greater effect.
We did several other things in this class, including some other holds like the scarf lock, figure four lock (in several places) and some basic arm bars. One of the things that Shawn keyed in on was that many of these moves were the same moves, just used in different positions. He used the figure four lock as an example and showed how it could be used against the ankle, arm, wrist, and shoulder. I would write a longer description but I don’t know if I could do justice with a verbal explanation of what he did. I think I took several things away from this class that I wasn’t really expecting to:
I took this class for a couple reasons but largely because I have always been curious about grappling & ground fighting. He was my chance for a taste of it flavored with Kenpo and I took advantage of it. The class was led by Shawn Monday and was from 9:00 to 11:00 am. I must say that I have a whole new appreciation for ground fighting than I did before taking this class. Shawn is as comfortable on the ground in just about any position as he is standing vertical on his feet. He was amazing to watch and made everything look very easy.
The biggest thing he stressed before we even got started is that it can be very easy to hurt or get hurt on the ground. With your body horizontal and being used as a lever in several of these moves, it is easy to break things (bones) or hyperextend an arm or leg. With this in mind, we partnered up and started learning some of the basics. Since we didn’t have time to get into a full retinue of moves, we basically started on the ground in a ‘weak position’ and took turns with our partners getting into and out of trouble. The fist maneuver had one partner on his back on the ground, and the other was astride him, feet tucked under his legs, right arm reaching under his neck and grabbing hold of his own gi sleeve on the other side, effectively locking the head in place. The free left arm of the man on top was used to pin down the right arm of the guy on the bottom. The first part of this exercise was to show the control of being on top in this position. The second part was how to get out of it if you find yourself in this sort of weak position. To get out, you either tie up or buckle the left arm of the guy on top, grab and pull his gi with the same arm while pushing up with your feet. This effectively rolls you over to become the person in the top position putting the other guy in trouble.
This was fun to practice and Shawn encouraged us to experiment and see if there was any way to stop the maneuver from taking place in the strong position. I managed to keep my partner pinned down by not allowing him the ability to get his feet under him. Basically, I was wrapping up his legs and straightening them out with my own, effectively taking away his leverage. Shawn spotted this from across the room and came over to us to investigate. He said that the maneuver I was doing was known as ‘tripodding’ and that it was a favorite among wrestlers. The way to thwart my maneuver was for the man on the bottom to arch his back and then push off quickly. By doing so, it takes away the ability of the man on top to ‘tripod’, effectively rendering the technique useless. My partner did as he was instructed and sure enough, I was spun over and was on my back in a flash. I had a good 30-40 lbs. on the guy I was partnered with and was amazed to see how easily I was maneuvered by applying the correct leverage at the right spot. Very cool.
The next maneuver was interesting as it incorporated some pressure points in the inner leg between the muscles. Shawn used Eli to demonstrate on first. Eli was on his back and Shawn was between his legs facing him. Eli’s legs were wrapped around Shawn at the waist, giving him some good leverage to squeeze on the kidneys and floating ribs. Shawn simply reached for the knot on Eli’s gi and first torqued his thumbs into Eli’s abdomen. Eli winced a little bit but didn’t let go, clearly thinking he could take this discomfort. But Shawn was only using the knot on the belt as a measuring point and simply lowered the points of his elbows into the muscle bands near the inside of Eli’s legs. The response was immediate as Eli howled in pain, legs flinging opened wide and his hands tapping like crazy! It happened so fast, it was like Shawn hit some sort of magic button or something! I think Eli was just as amazed at the sudden change in things but was a good sport as Shawn had released the pressure as soon as he got the reaction he was looking for. Shawn explained that the points of the elbow were in effect rolling one part of the muscle mass in the leg under another muscle – which happens to reside right over a major pressure point. He lectured again about safety and then we broke off with our partners again to practice.
The next move was a spider trap. Again, this involved getting yourself out of a weak position, in this case you are on your back and your opponent is attacking from on top of you. This maneuver was freakishly simple and very effective, leaving you several choices as to which way to go. It does work best though if your opponent is wearing a gi or at least clothes as you need to grab hold of him to make this effective. The weak position has a guy on his back with the man in the strong position between his legs raining down punches against your face. You grab a hand full of gi on the right and left side of the lapels while bring the feet up and resting them against the pelvis of the attacker. It was amazing how well you could control the movements of the attacker from this position! If he throws a left punch, push your hand that is hold the gi on his left side away while pushing away on the opposite foot, effectively torquing his body and taking away any power or range he may have. If the opponent has long arms or is overpowering you, just push off with both feet and he will slide right out of the way and become the one in the weak position for an ensuing leg maneuver or kick. Again, I was struck by the simplicity of a few basic items used together for a greater effect.
We did several other things in this class, including some other holds like the scarf lock, figure four lock (in several places) and some basic arm bars. One of the things that Shawn keyed in on was that many of these moves were the same moves, just used in different positions. He used the figure four lock as an example and showed how it could be used against the ankle, arm, wrist, and shoulder. I would write a longer description but I don’t know if I could do justice with a verbal explanation of what he did. I think I took several things away from this class that I wasn’t really expecting to:
- Ground fighting is something you hope you don’t have to do but it sure does fill out your skills being able to maneuver yourself out of a tight spot on the ground.
- Leverage beats muscle every time it is applied correctly. Shawn had some very large men afraid to be his test dummy. The pain they felt was real and Shawn used very little effort to inflict it – even when he was ‘out of position’ and ‘hopelessly tied up’.
- I have a whole new respect for the Gracie crew and their methods of grappling.
- Grappling was surprisingly fun to do. Using just a few basic maneuvers can get you out of a lot of difficult positions.
posted by Bonzai at 8/06/2005 11:04:00 AM
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