Koko and Koala

This week Koko and I have been working hard on a thing I shall call, “deep half guard.”

Different people think part of what our style of Jiu-Jitsu calls, “deep half guard” isn't anything at all, but is just a transition into it. I am going to stick to that name for all of the stuff I'm talking about.

Part of it is review. We learned the early part as a string of moves and options performed when underneath an opponent when you have one of his legs trapped between yours. It was both interesting and useful, but not revolutionary in any why, nor inspiring. It was our first scratching of the surface of “deep half guard”. We learned what was presented to us, and moved on to other stuff.

Just recently, new material was released to us, including stuff which builds upon our earlier “deep half guard.” It started with a surprising move that took our earlier “deep half guard” into something we'd never seen before, at least on purpose. You end up with your head sort of nestled in your opponent's lap, while all of your arms and legs cling tightly to one of his legs. Did I mention that he's sitting on top of you? From that position, you can fling him off in a shockingly large number of directions.

At that point, both of us were intrigued, but we needed some kind of terminology to distinguish what we'd been calling “deep half guard” for several years from the new four-limbed cling on the opponent's leg. I forget which of us said it, but the word “koala” was thrown out, and stuck. We now can't call it anything else.

So we had our “koala” position, and the sweeps and throws and escapes it gave us. In no time we were doing it with astounding speed.

“Look at me trapped underneath this big lug, and now my-arm-moves-and-my-legs-whip-and-I-cling-and-throw-you-to-the-side-and-am-on-top-of-you bitch.....”

Then the lessons showed us how to get the same effect when underneath a full mount, or an opponent has us pinned by knee-on-stomach. BANG-on-top-of-you and you don't know what we did.

Overnight I studied the ways that the Gracies provided to defeat our new, cunning “koala” moves. We worked them a little, mostly to understand the weaknesses of what we'd been learning. Together again we worked on minimizing the risks to our “koalas” from those same highly-effective defences.

If it sounds stupid, it really is. Doing it in any real fight will get you killed unless they have a deep religious conviction against smashing your face in with their fists or elbows. That doesn't really matter when we roll with each other, and it's just so darn much fun.

For me, discovering and loving a technique like this can be a game changer. They have come for me every great once in a while, but for about the last six months the rate has greatly increased.

We've had the first level of advanced material since before I was a Blue Belt, so I've never know a time without it being around. A few things in there set off my fireworks, but not many. It was mostly a slow process to learn it and make it work.

The second level has been around for about two years, and again it was mostly slow and steady, with only a very few revolutions.

This year, we've also had level three, and it is packed with stardust. I've hit explosion after explosion of inspiration. Over and over I've radically changed how I do things. It has been wonderful.

Also interesting, is that I've found it so exciting that I literally can't wait for the lessons to be presented in class. I push ahead, and learn them ahead of time. Much of the time it's been hard, with nobody to work with.

I got lucky, as about 4 months ago Koko was around for a few weeks exactly when I needed a partner who was eager to work on whatever I wanted. It was time to work the new bottom-of-side-mount stuff. Fireworks all over and a huge reconstruction of both my game and hers. Lucky again this week, as it was exactly the time when a partner was crucial to work up the “koala.”

A true partnership. Both times I would learn it the best that I could solo, then show Koko, and then we'd work it until we were both fluent. We would both find things, and holes, and strengths.

An example happened a couple of days ago. Koko was doing things faster and tighter than me, over and over. She saw a pattern towards the end of the sweep resembling a leg-lock submission, but one of her own legs was positioned in a way that made the move impossible, and fixing it at that point would be much too slow. She saw the move, but not quite how to get there.

As I'd been the victim a whole bunch of times, I'd been observing her moving into that spot over and over. Instead of trying to figure out how to get where she wanted to be, I got her to get into her desired finish and then pulled her backwards through the move until almost the beginning. At that point, we could both see a spot where her offending leg could be simply moved a few inches to end up precisely where desired when going in the original direction. We ran the move a bunch of times forward, and it worked just fine. Neither of us would have been able to figure that out alone.

Part of the fallout of all this is that I've offered to teach this section to the class when the right time rolls around. Scott would do it fine, but will not have had all the repetitions, and fun, and excitement with the moves that I will have had. He's said it's OK with him.

Will try and spread the enthusiasm and fireworks.