2024: Operation Omoplata

Masterful Meregali

I have been obsessing over Nicholas Meregali's performance at the 2023 IBJJF Pan American Championship for days. I knew about his decision to work with John Danaher and Gordon Ryan of late, so he has definitely been on my radar. But his accomplishment at this year's Pan - winning both weight and open divisions AND finishing the vast majority of his opponents - has been truly one for the history books.

FloGrappling's All Access coverage of Meregali's journey is as good as anything they've put together. It's available for free on YouTube. I've long been a fan of FloGrappling's work. Take a look for yourself and see why.

Now Playing: Leandro Lo's Spider de la Riva X Guard

With apologies to Michael Ondaatje, here's the latest "trick with a knife I'm learning to do" for 2023.

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Gordon Ryan: This Is My Game on Gi

Days before the greatest no-gi grappling competition, and I'm fascinated by Gordon's thoughts about how his game translates into the gi. 

"My entire game is like, if you're standing and I'm on bottom, you go into ashi garame. Well, if I have pants to grab, then it's going to be easier to knock you down. If you're on your knees, then I go into butterfly sweeps with sumi gaeshis. If I can get to a belt, and pull you on to me, sumi gaeshis is easier. Then it's forcing half guard from top position. And if I can get to half guard and I can feed a lapel and use a stronger crossface, I can pass your guard easier. And then mount and back, there's just more friction to hold people and more collars to strangle with ..."

Maps and Territories: Half Guard Top Edition

Start Your Training Sessions With a Sense of Purpose: Guard Pass Edition

"Only effort expended in a positive direction gets you to where you wish to be." -- John Danaher

FloGrappling Recaps the IBJJF World Championships

From the Meregali victory in the absolute to the immortal Leandro Lo to the incomparable performances of Mica Galvao and Tainan Dalpra, this year's IBJJF World Championships were among the most exciting in years. Victor Hugo's spectacular comeback win! The U.K.'s first female IBJJF world champion Ffion Davis! The dominance of Gabi Pessanha!

Be sure to catch up with FloGrappling for a great IBFFJ World championship review - as well as updates on the new faces coming to ADCC 2022 later this year.

My Top Three Stories from the 2021 IBJJF Mundial

 

Photo courtesy of Flograppling / IBJJF

Apologies for being more than a little late to the IBJJF World Championship conversation ... I've finally gotten around to checking out some of the many matches I missed. And while there are several more to go, there are a handful of contests that I managed to watch that were especially remarkable.

First, the controversy of the Meregali DQ is probably the biggest story to come out of the event. No sense in crying over spilled milk; and I don't think anyone should be surprised that the IBJJF would decide to be strict about its sportsmanship rules even at the cost of potentially diminishing the legacy of its championship series. That said, the decision to involve representatives of other competitors to help decide who should replace Meregali was disappointing - and only darkens the cloud that hangs over the event. Coupled with the fact that Meregali's challenger, Felipe Pena, announced that he was retiring from gi competition and it's hard not to be all the more bummed out that we missed an opportunity to see what would have likely been an epic contest between top competitors.

Here's Flograppling's take on the DQ and here's Pena discussing the DQ and his own decision to step away from gi competition.

That said, there was much to enjoy about this year's championships - not the least of which was the fact that more new champions were crowned this year than at any Mundial in recent memory. This leads me to the second big story, at least for me, coming out of the event: Fabricio Andrey's victory over 2018 Mundial featherweight champion Shane Jamil Hill-Taylor by submission (triangle). I'm partial to the division as a sub-150 pound person myself, even though the style of jiu-jitsu common to the lighter weights is typically less to my liking. And that's probably why the contest - and its conclusion in particular - was so rewarding. Add to this the fact that the contest between Andrey and Hill-Taylor was a rematch from their meet up at the Pans earlier this year (which Andrey won by advantage), and you easily have a strong contender for "Best Gold Medal Match" of the event.

My third favorite story of the 2021 Mundial is the run by Art of Jiu-Jitsu (AOJ) Middleweight Tainan Dalpra. En route to taking home the gold in his division, Dalpra took out Ronaldo Jr. and Isaac Bahiense - two of the division's toughest - as well as besting both Tommy Langaker and Jeferson Guaresi by submission (choke and toehold, respectively). No wonder Dalpra has earned the #1 P4P spot in the gi rankings.

Again, I've got more matches to watch, and there's a chance that I'll see something that may challenge these three tales from Anaheim in terms of my opinion as the most consequential. But, for now, there are few things I'm looking forward to more than seeing what comes next from Andrey and Dalpra - as well as Meregali and Pena - in 2022.

Otavio in Action: Pan 2020

Spent my cardio session today watching a couple of competition videos of Gracie Barra competitor Otavio Sousa. He's been one of my favorite guys to watch for awhile. I've been fortunate to attend one of his seminars at Gracie Barra Seattle years ago, and studying his sitting guard game (courtesy of BJJ Scout's excellent video on that position) led the way to one of the last Great Leaps Forward in my jiu-jitsu career.

He favors a closed guard attack more these days. But you can still see him working from the sitting guard a little from time to time. I've liked to watch his game because although he's a stockier guy than I am, we're both on the short side relative to our weight (especially in jiu-jitsu). He's also heavier - competing at medium heavyweight of late - which makes him less acrobatic, less reliant on extreme flexibility, etc.

Profesor Carlos Sievert Dominates at SUG 7

Skip to 5:25:00 for Professor Carlos' match against Straight Blast Gym's John Diggins

The Euros Are Here!

Just a reminder that the first of the Big Four Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu tournaments, the IBJJF European Championship, got underway earlier this week. That means this weekend will feature the black belt divisions, including the Absolute on Sunday.

Flograppling has you covered for all the action live from Lisbon, Portugal. Here's a primer on the event, with a focus on the black belt divisions. Note that since that primer was posted, Leandro Lo has withdrawn from the medium-heavy / meio-pesado division.

I always like to take a look at the division I'd compete in if I were eligible (as if that were the only barrier!).

It almost makes me think that it's my destiny (if I choose it) to one day get the chance to square off against the legendary Wellington Dias. 

Sunday Tape Study: Top of the Clock Toreando Entry

Studying Leandro Lo's torreano guard pass, specifically the high angle of entry (between 10 and 2 on the clock), finishing in north-south, or even on the opposite side after moving through north-south.

Dope Mount from Side Control

This is one of the best demonstrations of this "legendary" attack popularized by B.J. Penn that I've come across.

Omoplata from Spider Guard

Love the omoplata, but lacking a high percentage set-up? You're in luck!

Whoop! Terere Knee Shield Pass!

Grips

"I think what's stopping the sport is the grips. Guys will get a grip and then they'll stop when they want to. It's very easy to do that and it's really hard to break the grips. Guys are taking steroids, guys are really strong, it's hard to break those grips.

So, I think when the guy grabs a grip and he stops and his intention is to hold those grips and not intend to go to the next move, I think that's the problem. So if you just take away the-- you know in Judo, guys only have 20 seconds with a grip or 15 seconds with a special grip or they have to let go.

I think that should be the rule in jiu jitsu. The guy should have a special grip, you can do what you want to do, but if you don't do it then you gotta let go. You can't just hold the fight and stop the fight. I think jiu jitsu has great rules, great time. Ten minutes is enough time if the guys are not holding and stopping the position."

--Kron Gracie

Galvao, Cornelius, Training

Ralph Gracie in Action

There are a few people whom I've never seen footage of in training. Ralph Gracie, a legendary Gracie especially here on the West Coast, is one of them.

 Not sure what it means that my first jiu-jitsu post of 2014 is of Ralph Gracie. But I'm going with it.

Buy One, Get One

A little over three years ago, I posted a modest piece of snark about the lack of commercial incentives to support otherwise mandatory consumption of a particular product during a time when such incentives were, if not ubiquitous, then at least quite common.

Sad to say that little has changed in the time since.

The Sitting Up Guard: A BJJ Scout Analysis of Rodolfo, Cobrinha, and Otavio

There have been a few "eureka" moments for me when it comes to the sitting guard. One was while watching an instructional DVD from Stephan Kesting. Another one came while watching a recent competition between Cobrinha and Rafa. But the one that is still fresh happened during the seminar by Prof Otavio Sousa just a few weeks ago here at Gracie Barra Seattle.

BJJ Scout explains why my "eurkea" reaction may be fairly common in another great analysis of a great jiu-jitsu technique.