Keepin' it real!

Had a lot of fun teaching last night, now we are back in the Gi and getting ready for the LFF Interclub in May; in class I like to show as many techniques as possible from my many years training in various grappling arts, many of which the IBJJF would frown upon if they were attempted at white belt level, resulting in a DQ.

Jiu Jitsu is bigger than the limitations the IBJJF impose along the belt levels and back in the day when I was first starting out and training, pretty much all submissions were valid, be they heel hooks, toe holds, neck cranks, bicep slicers and much more and I am still here today and able to type this article without any assistance and with my own fingers.

Last night I brought my old friend the face bar to the group, a lovely technique that separates the wheat from the chaff so to speak; slap one of these beauties on when some one covers up when their back is taken, instead of fighting the position and they learn very quickly not to cover up. 

Really digging in down across the ear and along the line of the cheek bone to sink in the face bar, or grinding in across the cheek and onto the the nose, to get them to expose their neck is very satisfying when attacking and for the recipient, it's what they describe in the Armed Forces as 'character building'.

Sure, the move is illegal in IBJJF comps, but just rolling to their rules and not doing a wrist lock when rolling in class until blue belt and worse, waiting until brown belt before you can knee bar is detrimental to a student's progression. Most people are lucky if they stick it out after they get a blue belt or even make it to blue belt, never mind making it to brown or black belt, so why limit their submission options and only roll to their belt limits as per the IBJJF rules?

In sparring my white belts use heel hooks...in a BJJ class - there I said it! 

I can hear the pitchforks rattling already, but it ain't rocket science when applying one, we use catch and release and carry on with the roll; no need to sink the heel hook in for dear life and have the other guy spaz out and roll the wrong way into the move and blow out their knee. 

It all boils down to the ego and having enough common sense to realise that you have been caught in whatever submission you are in, you've tried your escape and still they have the move locked in, so tap out, do another fist bump and carry on rolling and at the end of class, you can walk home instead of spending the rest of the night in A+E.

After typing this, I bet the new school guys will think my classes are something akin to the last days of Sodom and Gomorrah, arms and legs flailing around in the air, blood on the mats, the walls and ceiling, pure pandemonium.  

Far from it...

We're just regular guys training every week to be the best we can and having fun along the way; I'm constantly on their backs to get them to relax when rolling and to use common sense when applying all subs and knowing when to tap out to prevent serious injury.  If they ignore me, hell, I'm already on their back and I just drop a face bar in and they soon get the message...

If anyone uses face bars and other IBJJF none friendly moves, then drop me a message on here, let's see how many are still keepin' it real...

The face bar is your friend...