Getting better faster: Coming full circle?
In jiu-jitsu in my opinion to be great or one of the best in the world, and you can check out any past world champion and look at them and see that they are a well rounded Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu fighter. I am sure you can find one or two who exclusively played guard, one being Pe de Pano who he himself said all he did was pull guard and win championships like that, but thats another post. What I am getting at is, the more i train the more I realize that you have to come full circle as soon as possible. I dont mean in the sense that you have to be great fast but that you have to have an idea from everywhere I believe. Meaning that, if you are under 3 years of bjj experience, then you should try and be good on top, good on bottom, and just basically have a good understanding of everything. A lot of times people just want to be on top or on bottom.
Look at the greats! They had top games and bottom games. Ryan Hall said something to this effect in an interview in the past, where he was discussing how he was just a bottom guy in the beginning when he was triangling everyone it seemed, and how that completely messed up his ascension to the top of the mountain in jiu-jitsu.
Me personally I believe I have taking gigantic strides in this aspect, where the first 12-15 months I was predominantly a bottom guy. During the last 7 months or so, I have become pretty good at passing. Honestly I pass pretty well, but I know i have a tremendous ways to go in improving my passing ability. I pass so well in fact that coupled with my improved conditioning, I feel more comfortable on top these days.
My school is predominantly top driven, so I have been getting remarkable help and instruction from Tim Burrill, he is the master of passing. I will be great at it as well!
Back to competition…<3 new projects
I wont be able to compete in this weeks No-Gi pan ams but i will however be involved in everything there after. Financially speaking things are better then before and now i feel comfortable enough to at the very least travel to regional events, and finally get out to those schools. I’ve been saying I’m going to visit all these different schools forever. We’ll see how it goes, maybe i can go for a weekend to NY/NJ area schools. Now that its possible that i can get to compete, I’ve been doing some extra gym work. I’ve been doing a bit of roadwork, and some dumbbell stuff. I really would like to get my legs up as far as conditioning goes. As the tournaments change a little more from gi to nogi, so has my emphasis and how i think about things. With nogi on my mind more I have been thinking i need to add and improve my attacks. I’ve been tinkering (as Micro would say) with chokes and improving the ones I have. And of course I have been playing around with footlocks. I can honestly say i have a way way way better understanding and appreciation for them these days. Its definitely a whole different world but something I’m looking to make as tight as i can before the end of the year. And as always I have been trying to make sure the details are where they need to be at. So far Daymon’s helped me out a bunch with different aspects of nogi. Tim and Matt have helped a ridiculous amount on foot locks.
I feel good where im going in terms of the projects i just completed. Guard passing has been looking good. I think i have enough tools to be successful against really good grappler’s. So just spent a great amount of time on Guard passing. I spent a little bit of time on bottom half guard for the prospect of using it nogi. and of course foot locks. Now i think I’m going to spend a great amount of time on my nogi half guard and looking into mounting people =D.
Another little mini mini project I’ve been doing all along was the use of the 50/50. Its soo vastly interesting to me. I cant get my mind off of it. When i say 50/50, i mean it as a guard and as a form of attacking. People know this guard because Rafael Mendes used this to defeat Cobrinha at the Gi Abu Dhabi and at the Pan Ams. Bruno Frazzato uses this game as well. Ryan Hall is probably the best I’ve at this game. JT Torres recently just got stalled out at the American Nationals. The fact that it stumped so many jiujitsu greats is very interesting. My take on the 50/50 is that like any other position in jiujitsu, its just that, a position. We have to learn how to master it just like any other. Being in the 50/50 against some who thinks its just a leg lock battle is great! Ive used this position as a guard passing tool against peoples whos guards are really tough. So the 50/50 has many great uses. Some people say the person whos better at foot locks or a better sweeper will usually win. But i disagree, I believe the person who is most proficient at the 50/50 will win 80 percent of the time. LOL We have to account for luck and scrambles =D Here’s to hoping jiujitsu brings us more interestingly mind bending positions.
My imagination is always exploding with crazy freaky wonderful ideas.”imagination is [way] more important then knowledge” -Albert Einstein
Its back to serious time.
CUDDLE FUDDLE customized by Paulo Canabarro
