Brief Braulio Estima BJJ Seminar Write Up 02/04/2015

Group photo following the seminar 02/04/15 (I am kneeling 2nd row 6th from the right)

What an excellent night of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Southend, Essex..the home of Gracie Barra Essex run by Black Belt Professor Lee Catling and taught by multiple World Champion in Gi and No-Gi Jiu Jitsu Braulio Estima (pictured centre in blue Gi)

Out of the 45 people who trained tonight I had the least experience and skill level in BJJ so was very much out of my comfort zone but made to feel welcome by Lee and his regular students.
I had not trained in BJJ for over 5 years so was more than a little a rusty but the drills were so expertly explained and demonstrated by Braulio with the aid of Lee that I managed just as well as my training partners and worked hard to get the details and concept behind the seminar.

We were showed drills to transition from an open guard position called "De la Riva" named after a BJJ fighter Ricardo de la Riva who developed a method of using his open guard (legs uncrossed while seated) by using his feet as hooks around his opponents ankles or knees to break posture or sweep...something he needed to develop to counter bigger stronger opponents trying to power through his guard to take a dominant position, as he was slight of build.

Then this developed into various grips whilst using this guard including the wrist, sleeve, lapel, trousers of the Gi to facilitate various sweeps to take the partners balance and take a poor position into one of dominance and control.
I was fortunately partnered by an experienced blue belt and together we figured out the best ways to learn the drills taking two goes each (lots of standing up, sitting down over and over)

In time the group was split with 8 people on the mats and everyone else one at a time testing the drills under pressure with those on the mat with a constant rotation of partners until we had all been on the mat and had our turn (like a sparring drill from a set position and as soon as someone gained a dominant role the partner changed)

After a quick sip of water we finished the seminar with free sparring where you get partnered up with someone of a similar level, start from the knees and keep going until one person taps the other to signal either they are going to be choked or something is about to break (ankle/knee/arm/shoulder/neck/back/toe/wrist)

My partner was also a white belt but had 18 months of consistent training and eventually got the better of me four times while we sparred getting me in 3 arm bars and one arm triangle..but I also escaped many more and I was happy my stamina held up...my partner complained that he hadn't trained for 5 days hence why he was so out of breath..and I told him I hadn't trained for 5 years and was 12 years older!! ;)

My relaxation under pressure from years of Wing Chun certainly helped as well as keeping my elbow to hip connection and explosive use of energy..also highly promoted in BJJ as essential factors for improvement (read survival)


Overall I was elated to be back training hard on the mats again and will certainly begin steps to get back to regular cross training in Jiu Jitsu - my old bones ached that night (couldn't even turn over in bed) and the following two days..but its amazing how our bodies adapt to whatever you put it through. I guess it felt like I had run 15 miles but stopped every 20 feet to do 10 push ups and 10 sit ups and at the end did 6 minutes of burpees :)

Thanks to all I had the pleasure to train with and learn from and also to Lee Catling and Braulio Estima who are both very professional and excellent coaches. My BJJ passion has certainly been reignited!

The compulsory fun choke group photo ;)