Training with an Olympic legend

Last night I was lucky enough to attend a seminar given by Neil Adams. For those that don’t know Neil he was a two time Olympic games silver medallist, three time world champion, 5 time European gold medallist and former coach to the British team.

What struck me when talking to him was the gulf between the talent pool in No gi grappling and judo at the highest levels, heck even between BJJ and judo. Every country seems to have a national association, with most having clubs in every major town. Just to become a national judo champion means you have to beat a deep talent pool of talent. Most top countries have full time national squads and full time national training centres where these guys are paid to do nothing but train against each other, which again drives the talent pool through the roof. Hence when someone like ronda roosey enters MMA the girls she is fighting simply don’t have anywhere near her experience with competing against world class people

Back to the seminar, Neil has been a national level full time coach for years and it showed: his ability to get across important tactical points simply and in a manner which everyone can understand was outstanding. I watched everyone from first time grapplers to national level grapplers and pro MMA fighters all improve their games in a two hour slot under his teaching.

Some of the specific things he taught were how to control balance and centre without the gi, where to look and put the head when throwing, how to take their balance in one of three directions depending on their reaction. On the ground he taught his rolling arm bar (obviously its what he is famous for) how to set up the opponent to give you the arm no matter how hard they defend, the correct way to break a strong grip (which with 10 years of grappling I and other were still impressed by and adopted into our games straight away) He also taught several strangles when the defend the arm (one of which was totally new to me), and how to use the single leg hook to control them and keep contact with them. Balance on the ground was also stressed

Tactically he stressed the following over and over: keeping balance at all times and knowing where you opponents balance is at all times, keep balance after the throw and not falling with them, the importance of the transition between throw and the ground (90% of all control is lost in the transition and the ability to control and dominate this transition is the difference between a good national judo guy and a great international fighter)

Once on the ground have a game plan: Know what you want and hunt it down, the best fighters know what they want and go for it regardless and bully you into giving it up. And finally he covered the one thing he felt the books dvds etc never coach or get across: the shear brutality of grappling at a high level and how you have to stop being nice and be brutal in order to win

Its great to get coaching from someone that has "been there and done that" at the highest level possible.
It's a whole new world.
What has always amazed me is that, no matter what, it's still all about the basics.
Sure they are done on a whole other level and that is what makes them "advanced" but still basics.
I am curious, what choke did he show you guys?

Yep all about the basics and making them so good you can apply them to anyone: everyone knew he wanted the arm bar he was famous for it but he still hit it in every competition even the finals of the worlds
Ill try to find a video of the choke, but basically if you had his back (and on your back) and had your left hook in and your right leg free to spin for the left arm for an arm bar and the back of his head was on your right shoulder you gripped his left hand (which you had been controlling in a figure four lock with your arms) with your right hand wehich you then slipped over his head and jammed into the right side if his nexk.
you then snaked your left arm under and through his trapped left arm and grabbed your right tricep (so your arms were on either side of his neck) and put pressure on both sides of the neck .

Basically if he pushed into you you spun for the arm bar, if he rolled to the right away from your arm bar attempt you went for the choke and had your whole bodyweight on the arms to finish it, and if he kept rolling onto his belly you slipped your arm all the way through for an arm triangle

Ive seen variations of the choke using the gi etc and without it but it was a nice variation which went with his idea of hunting for the submission and knowing what you want: you attacked