GracieMag Blog at ADCC

A great resource in the run-up to the ADCC is the Gracie Magazine blog at ADCC, which includes a lot of interviews with competitors like Xande Ribeiro.

Blog: what has changed in relation to training for a Jiu-Jitsu championship?

Xande: The big difference in relation to Jiu-Jitsu is that the ADCC is a very physical tournament. To dispute it, one needs to train a lot of wrestling. Although the ADCC gives a greater chance of winning to wrestlers and “stallers” who like to run from the action, at the end of the day the ones with sharper Jiu-Jitsu wear themselves out less. Even more so when you think of how the champion has to fight for a minimum of 50 minutes, not including overtimes. That’s why one needs to have a lot of mental fortitude and stamina.

Excerpt from "Saulo Ribeiro: Lessons from a Champion"

Training Day: Wednesday

What was most interesting about Wednesday's training was that the main instructional part was based on the de la Riva guard, a guard I use virtually never. But the more I worked with it, the more I saw a potential role for the DLR sweep series that Rodrigo was showing us in my half guard, particularly as a counter to knee cross passes.

There were three main sweeps - which we did after a basic morote seionage warm-up. Starting from the DLR guard, with the heel or pants cuff grip, the same side leg cocked under the thigh, the off leg pushing back against the opponent at the far knee and a grip on the sleeve on that side, as well, the # 1 sweep had us pull on the sleeve until your elbow reached the mat. Then, turning on your side and lifting with the DLR hook, you tip the guy over onto his side. The guy should struggle to defend with a post, because you've got the would-be posting sleeve.

If the guy does manage to keep his balance, then the #2 sweep, has you keep both grips (IMPORTANT) and continue turning into the guy. What you will do is use your head and shoulder to essentially bull the guy over. As Rodrigo put it, jiu jitus isn't always pretty. What's important is getting back on top.

There was a final sweep out of the DLR that Rodrigo showed us. Actually, he didn't show us the entire sweep, just the basic initial motion to get the sweep started. The #3 DLR sweep is especially useful if the guy tries to put his weight on you, for example, by backstepping out of your DLR hook. Here, as you feel his weight coming forward, you want to pull the sleeve over your head and lift up on the heel and with the DLR hook. What you do is a backroll, using his forward pressure to provide momentum for the roll.

You can either stop the roll midway and turn into the guy, likely ending up in half guard. Or you can continue the move all the way over, with the opportunity to land in mount.

After class, I got to train with Clint for a good long while, maybe 20 minutes of straight rolling. I found myself working for a lot of kimuras, both from the bottom half guard and from the top. Late in the sparring, Clint caught me with a perfect scissor style sweep and moved to mount and eventually to the back. I spent the rest of the session defending chokes.

Speaking of choke defense, Clint had a really good brabo attack going early in my standard half guard attack. I noticed that every time I lengthened my body and got out of my half guard crouch, the choke got infinitely worse. That's definitely something to keep in mind going forward. I'm really starting to feel as if guys are catching up with my half guard - which makes these sweeps out of the DLR guard a welcome arrival, especially if I can work transitions from half guard to DLR to sitting guard and so on.

Training Day: Tuesday

Not a bad night of training, though the same problems remain.

There's no point in getting glum two days into an eight-week training camp. With any luck, I'll be on the mat at least two more times this week, so there is plenty of time even this week to start getting on a plan to fix what ails. But, for now, I'm a little annoyed, a little impatient and a little worn out.

We worked on the morote seionage, the one-arm shoulder throw as the takedown warmup/instructional. The set up was a counter to the lapel grab. You reach up and grab the attacking arm (the one that has the lapel) right at the triceps. Step back with your outside foot and lean your attacked shoulder forward to whizzer the situation a little bit and to keep him from getting access to your body or far leg (for a Jacare type takedown).

With that outside foot, you step in deep to a reverse pivot, swinging your free/outside arm under the guy's attacking arm (the lapel grab arm and squatting down as your turn your back to the guy and go for the throw.

I worked this at top speed with Shawn, who was hanging out but not training. Shawn was great to help me out - training me both left and right, which was very helpful.

After quite a while with that, we worked on the 180 drill just like Monday night. I was able to mix in with Connor and Juan, and got some good work in here.

Rodrigo finished things off with a guard pass. He used the basic opening on knees, one hand grabbing the lapels, one hand on the hip bone, one knee pinches in toward the middle and the other knee goes out perpendicular. Bow your back out and pop the guard open.

From here, Rodrigo had us crouch down low with your hands between the guy's legs but no deeper that the wrist or forearm to avoid being drawn into a triangle choke. From here you do a basic underhook pass, stepping up with your back foot to give your the mobility to move forward and put your other knee behind the guy's back.

What you want to be careful of is "reaching" for the collar. Instead, you want to move your body up so that you can do a very short T-Rex style grab for the far collar. Maintain your posture, using your hips and chest to press the up leg forward and away from you as you pass.

The variation on this was in case the guy was able to heavy leg you and prevent you from getting around the leg. Here, then, you want to swing around the other way, clamping the guy's other leg down on the mat with your kneed, hooking the head and backstepping around the other side.

Tatame was a mixed bag. I struggled mightily against Connor in both the side control specific (me on bottom) and in passing his guard. I still don't have a routine when it comes to passing the guard. Daniel Coyle would say that my guard passing circuitry is slow where it is not entirely non-existent. Again, there is plenty of time to fix these problems (I'm giving myself four weeks or the first half of my training camp.

As I said at the outset, I need to be wary of making premature evaluations of what I'm doing. I should probably consider myself lucky in that I am able to identify what is holding me back pretty accurately. The challenge now, of course, is to figure out a path beyond it - and the sooner the better.

No scale, but about 152 when I got home. That includes some rehydration, but I think the number is pretty legit. I'm not necessarily trying to drop any lower than 150 this far out. For the first time in a long time, I might actually have to start making sure I take in enough "quality" calories every couple of days.

A short practice on the schedule tomorrow. I'd toyed with the idea of taking Wednesday off and training Thursday, but in all likelihood it will be the other way around.

Training Day: Monday

Out of the sick bed and on to the mat.

My first day back (I missed about six classes or a week and a half) wasn't nearly as difficult cardio-wise as I'd feared. Rodrigo is restructuring the classes to both make sharper distinctions between new students, advanced beginners, and advanced, as well as to emphasize what are going to be the 20 Fundamentals of Jiu Jitsu from a Gracie Barra perspective.

We did a bit of it today: a 180 drill (half of the 360 drill) and that Machida/Jacare combination that we've been working on for weeks (and damn me to hell if I don't attack with the Machida/Jacare in November ...). I think this is going to be a great development, even though the schedule re-arrangement also means that the Monday and Wednesday sessions will be back to 5:30 instead of 5:45. I'll have to get my act together that much sooner in the day.

Cramps and fatigue caught up with me. I managed to roll through an Achilles tendon cramp (?!) when sparring with Andrew, but needed to break for a few minutes when rolling with Stephen, who had an injury of his own. Even though I faded pretty quickly , I'm glad I waited the cramp out instead of just calling it a night as I have in the past.

Hopefully my cardio will catch up fairly quickly. Every night there is a brown or black belt in the Live Session and I'd love to be able to start having that final roll of the day with someone who will probably be my most difficult challenge. Daniel Coyle talks about the importance of focusing on error when it comes to achieving greatness. Ending the evening or afternoon with a roll with some of our best guys (and gal) could provide plenty of error for me to focus on.

153.8 on the scale, post-train. A crazy number given how long I've been off the mat. Then again, there's probably some sort of ill health discount that I need to be wary of as I move back towards 100%.

Speaking of which - the GB Seattle Invitational was moved from this weekend to the third weekend in October (the 17th, I think, the week after the Oregon Open). That's perfectly fine with me. I didn't embarrass myself tonight on the mat, but I'm hardly competition ready - even for a Friendly.

Rodrigo also announced a tournament in Fife on December 13th - my Dad's birthday, ironically enough. It's a gi only, "traditional jiu jitsu" tournament with only 8 schools involved.

I have to admit that I like new events like this. With Sub League allegedly starting a gi division, it could be that we get five major gi-based events a year in within an hour's drive from Seattle, with almost as many intramural tournaments in on the Eastside. While I know that there is more to jiu jitsu than competition, I can't help but think that more tournaments - especially for the gi - are a great thing for jiu jitsu in Western Washington.

Yahya v. Tudor at U.S. Nationals

Wow.

With only a few weeks to go before he defends his ADCC featherweight title, Rani Yahya is caught in a great triangle choke by Rodrigo Medeiros student, Joel Tudor.

A good friend of Rodrigo's trains with Joel and says that Joel is one of those guys who has a really deadly open guard attack. Congratulations on a tremendous victory for him. And this only adds more drama to the ADCC 2009 Barcelona event on September 26-27 (and yes, I bought the PPV).

Gracie Barra Everett!

Parabens Andrew!

Demian Maia's MMA Debut

Still feeling sluggish and gross ... looking to make it to the Academy on Friday, but we'll see.

In the meanwhile, here's a video of Demian Maia's first MMA fight in Venezuela back in 2001. He was a brown belt at the time.

Whoop! Te-re-re!

As the song goes, I'm a man of means by no means. But I decided to kick a couple of bucks to the fund for Terere that a lot of jiu jitsu folks - from Kyra Gracie to Marcelo Garcia - have been supporting.

If you feel likewise - and have a PayPal account - here's one way to help.

The Virtue of Try

From The Talent Code:

When we see people practice effectively, we usually describe it with words like willpower or concentration or focus. But those words don't quite fit, because they don't capture the ice-climbing particularity of the event. The people inside the talent hotbeds are engaged in an activity that seems, on the face of it strange and surprising. They are seeking out the slippery hills ... they are purposely operating at the edges of their ability, so they will screw up. And somehow screwing up is making them better. How?

Deep practice is built on a paradox: struggling in certain targeted ways - operating at the edges of your ability, where you make mistakes - makes you smarter. Or to put it a slightly different way, experiences where you're foced to slow down, make errors, and correct them - as you would if you were walking up an ice-covered hill, slipping and stumbling as you go - end up making you swift and graceful without your realizing it.

Nogueira!!!

A thousand apologies ...

In all my weeping and teeth-gnashing over the defeat of Demian Maia, I have not given proper due to the current king of jiu jitsu in MMA: Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira a.k.a Minotauro, for his epic battle and great victory over the legendary Randy "The Natural" Couture.
Nogueira Too Much for Couture at UFC 102

It was a dominating performance for the Brazilian heavyweight, who dropped Couture and looked close to submitting him with a D’Arce choke in the first round.

Though Nogueira controlled the majority of the match, Couture had his moments. The future Hall of Famers engaged in multiple wide-open exchanges with both fighters landing heavy blows in the center of the cage and along the fence.

Minotauro Speaks

When people say you can’t do it any more, you have to go back and prove you are still in the game and put on a great fight. That’s what I did. I worked hard, I’d never trained as much as I did for this one. I have a lot of respect for Randy, so I trained a lot.

Sherdog Grappling Forum Thread on Nog's great sweeps.

How Do You Say "Guard Pass" in Japanese?

Fedor v. Mousasi Exhibition Match

Two of the best mixed martial artists NOT fighting with the UFC ... Some very nice takedowns from Fedor, including one reverse that works very well with the latest takedown (the Machida) that Rodrigo has been emphasizing for the past several weeks.

More Post-Fight from Demian Maia

This time it's an interview with Gracie Magazine. I suspect Demian will take some flak from some for saying that he "lacked a bit of luck" in being caught flush from Marquardt's counter right. But any honest reader will understand that he's hardly taking credit away from Marquardt.

Demian Maia Talks First Loss

How are you dealing with your first MMA loss? What lessons have you learned from your defeat to Nate Marquardt?

I think I’ve already derived the personal lessons. You learn a lot from any loss. I made a technical mistake, there was a bit of a bad-luck factor too, and a strategic one. There were several things involved. I don’t think there were any mistakes in my training, the mistake came when I got to fighting. I had an excellent training camp for this fight and ended up in a mixture of strategic mistakes and poor luck and was unable to show my best.

Summer's Almost Gone

And I'm already catching my first autumn cold ... No training tonight and, from the looks and feels of it, none tomorrow either.

I'm all over the Airborne, chicken soup, zinc pils and garlic Arugula salad. With any luck, I can blast this rhinovirus out of my system in time to get in some good training next week.

Gracie Camp

Here's an old, but interesting write-up/review of the Gracie Barra Training Camp offered by Gracie Barra in Rio de Janeiro.

Gracie Camp Review

Lots of people would like to train in BJJ in Brazil, and there are plenty of different gyms to go to, but it can be a little overwhelming to try and arrange a trip yourself, even with available time and money. Finding somewhere to stay, locating a good quality gym, paying training fees, language barriers and transport problems all conspire to make it a pipedream for many people.

For that reason, some of the gyms have set up camps specifically for foreigners so that all the hassle of organising a trip is already done for you. There are pros and cons to staying at these camps. They nearly always work out a lot more expensive than organising things for yourself, and they aren't everyone's cup of tea. If you only want to train a little bit and party a lot, or mostly sightsee, then this probably isn't the way to do things.

One such camp is the one for the Gracie Barra academy in Rio, and its called Gracie Camp. I stayed at the camp for three weeks this year, so I thought I'd do a review of the camp for those of you who are thinking about a trip abroad for training ...

I think the author does a great job of breaking down what the camp is about and what his experiences were. Definitely gets my mind thinking about a three-week "working" jiu jitsu vacation in Rio one of these years. In another post, the guy says that three weeks of training cost him about $1200-$1300 or about $85 a day.

Thought-provoking, to be sure. Here's a link to the Gracie Camp website. I'll have to remember to ask Rodrigo what he thinks about it.

Demian Maia - Postfight Interview

5 Questions with Demian Maia

Sherdog: How do you feel after your first loss?

Maia: I knew the first loss would come one day because I intend to fight for many years. As a matter of fact, though, it happened in a pretty unexpected manner because I was a little bit casual in the stand-up fight. I repeated two kicks. He got my timing down, and, the third time, he came with a straight punch and knocked me down. At the beginning of the fight, everyone is really strong, and I think the referee was right to stop the fight. I stood up well. I had no damage, and that’s most important. I pretty much believe that some things must happen in your life. For some reason, God prepares surprises for you, and that’s life. Maybe it was not the right time for me to challenge for the belt, but I’m very calm and will keep going.

Same clarity and intelligence I've always appreciated from Demian. Of course, the bad news is that he won't be competing at ADCC later this month. But it is great to hear that his spirits are still up and that he's getting ready to get back into action.

Training Day: Tuesday

Tuesday night was a smaller class compared to Monday night's bonanza. We focused on passing the sitting guard - mostly by converting it to butterfly guard with the guy's back on the mat. One thing that is interesting about all of this training is that I have lately been thinking about whether or not the optimal guard passing strategy is simply to be familiar with all types of guards (and all types of guard passes that might be available) or if instead a guard passer - like a takedown artist - should try and lure the other guy into playing the kind of guard that you actually WANT to pass.

Personally, I feel most comfortable passing butterfly guard because my mortal enemy, the triangle choke, is not an option. At worst, it is a contest of balance and I feel like I've always got at least a 50/50 shot in a balance contest against most.

So it interesting to be training right now techniques that from my perspective turn an open or spider guard into a sitting guard (much better for me) and a sitting guard into a butterfly guard (even better still for me).

Tuesday's technique had us hop down with both knees on the outside of the legs, closing the legs together as much as possible and bringing them as tight against the guy's butt as possible. "Head butt" the guy in the chest to get his back to the mat and bring your arms up against his sides with elbows tight, further locking his legs as tight as possible.

Open up on one side just enough to slide your arm underneath the guy's leg. It should be easy to do because the guy will likely try to follow your leg with a hook, creating the space for you. Underhook the leg and grip the belt or the gi near the back.

Make sure to keep pressure on the other knee! There is a triangle choke danger here as you hoist the leg up on your shoulder. If you keep your weight on the off leg, then you should be fine. From here you want to take a big step with the leg that is on the same side as the leg underhook. You should step to about right under the guy's armpit on that side.

As you do this, you can use your other hand to feed the collar to the hand of your leg-underhooking arm. Get nice and high near the neck. From here it is a basic underhook pass.

I worked with Brock - who is looking pretty slim and trim these days as he moves from over 200 to under 185. Brock is one of those guys who started training a few months after I did and it's always interesting to think of those guys I remember training with as white belts literally years ago who've continued to train. One of these days, these same guys (and gals) that I started training with at more or less the same time will be black belts: the Brocks, the Angelas ... And it is crazy to think that, if I keep improving as they have, one day I'll be standing there right alongside them wearing a black belt of my own.

If part of getting better is learning how to get better then I think I'm getting better. Thursday morning for The Daily Planet, I'm interviewing this guy Daniel Coyle who wrote a book called, The Talent Code. His thesis is that "greatness isn't born, it's grown" and he does a fascinating job of showing how a certain kind of experience in the material world, a certain kind of training, tends to lead to the kind of chemical and biological adaptations in the brain that lead to almost stunning acceleration in performance in a variety of fields.

And without getting too far ahead of myself, the training that I've been able to do - the sparring in particular - over the past few days, starting with Ro on Saturday, then with Connor on Monday and Angela on Tuesday - I think is exactly what Coyle is talking about. I'm already starting to feel a shift in attitude about passing the guard (which has been my focus for the past week) from standing. The fear is starting to fade and the idea of trying to pass from standing has started to feel more like the default mode. If I'm understanding Coyle, this willingness to fail over and over again that I'm courting by trying to pass on the feet is the first step in the right process. We'll see how it goes (though I don't think I'll be bringing up jiu jitsu in the interview - at least not specifically.

Training Day: Monday

Huge class Monday - maybe 30 folks or more, with half of them very, very new. Lindsey led the warmups, but Rodrigo was there to teach the class.

After some stand-up (the Machida) for about 10 minutes we went into the instructional, which was more work out of and against the sitting/butterfly guard. We continued working on passing the sitting guard by grabbing the knees and leaning in with the shoulder, the "stiff-arm toreano" so to speak. The guy on the bottom's job was to rotate, with one hand planted behind him, keeping the guy from getting to your side.

We also worked on an armlock from the sitting guard when the guard passer sits down and traps your legs. The trick is to get one leg out at a time, then to underhook the guy's arm with a yoke grip, pulling on that arm and strteching him out with a foot in the hip. Slide your head along the length of the arm to keep the pressure tight. Rotate toward face down to put on the pressure for the straight armlock.

Tatame was interesting to say the least. Rodrigo got more than a little concerned about the some of the sparring by the blue and even purple belts in the first group. Without naming names, Rodrigo was mostly worried about the example being set for all the new folks - like I said, I can't remember the last time I saw so many new students at one class. "If somebody didn't know better, they would think you guys were really fighting," he said.

Yikes. Fortunately, I was in the second group, matched up with Connor. I decided it was an excellent opportunity to continue working on the kind of "deep practice" I've been reading about in Daniel Coyle's book, The Talent Code. I focused exclusively on standing to pass the guard and, rather than commit to passing, I committed to trying to avoid being swept and maintain at least a minimum pressure for the entire time without pause.

The idea is to habituate myself to standing against the guard: discover where the hooks go and how to defeat them, learn where and how my balance is most likely to be tested, explore how different avenue for passing actually open up (instead of me forcing them). I should be able to make the guy on the bottom work hard - too hard - to deal with my passing pressure. My jiu jitsu is largely an attrition game, where the goal is to induce a sense of despair and inevitability as I go for the sweep or the pass or the finish. And in the long run, I think I'm going to have more success in passing the guard and creating this pressure if I attack from standing. So I might as well get used to it.

Training Day: Saturday

Saturday training turned out to be an open mat. Rodrigo got an opportunity to go to Portland to see UFC 102, so he had Pete open up the academy for about seven or eight of us who showed up to train.

I spent almost the entire time rolling with Ro. It was one of the best open mat training sessions I've had in a long while. I got a chance to really focus on not so much standing to pass the guard, but more just standing to test my balance, my grips, how to step and apply pressure. I swear, if I could spend two hours every Saturday in a nice, extended, focused medium speed training like that I'm convinced it would do amazing things for my jiu jitsu. No doubt whatsoever.

Both Connor and Alex were there on Saturday and a part of me misses getting a chance to roll with either or both of them. That said, I can't get over how productive my training with Ro was. Lately I've been thinking about the idea of passing the guard like the idea of takedowns. In other words, how to I get the guy to give me the position I want, the guard that I want to attack as opposed to the guard I don't want to attack. So on Saturday I was 100% standing guard passes, with an attitude of trying to force the sitting guard response.

I've got two main ways of attacking the sitting guard. I like the right grip on the collar with a pull and a left grip on the same side knee as a starting point. I'm either looking to backstep, swiveling my trapped leg in out and around his leg if I can, or to rotate clockwise, stepping up with my left leg and getting the angle on him. That angle should give me a shot at an underhook on the far side and a nice move to the half guard if not mount.

The big danger to avoid, and Ro was doing a good job attacking this vulnerability, is your free hand (left in this case). You don't want him to have control over that arm, at all.

Very nice training, like I said. And 153.4 on the scale afterwards, to boot. Next week starts a little pre-training cardio to get myself ready for the 8 Weeks Out. I've decided to add in another three week block to my training, but I'm not sure if I want to focus on lactic or alactic conditioning. The problem with alactic work is that I don't have access to enough iron to be able to really do the max effort phase of that kind of conditioning.

Actually, I've started to think that in the same way that Joel explains MMA as a aerobic-alactic sport, I think jiu jitsu may be more along the lines of aerobic-lactic. While there is room for the explosiveness of alactic conditioning, it seems to me that jiu jitsu operates more under a situation where it is rare that any sort of max effort can be applied (because of the ominpresence of gi grips). This both slows things down and intensifies them - making lactic and isometric work more important than they might be for both the MMA athlete and the no gi submission grappler.

Training Day: Friday

Friday's instruction, among other things, has added a new routine for my conditioning work. Rodrigo showed us a butterfly guard counter - my favorite one, the Wallid Ishmael one - that will fit in nicely as a number #3 butterfly guard drill (with #1 being the hook sweep drill and #2 being the sit 'n' kick counter to the hook sweep.

Details. Bring the guy's heels in as tight as possible against his butt before attacking with the pass. Put your head down to the mat on the side of the leg that you are going to kick back. Rodrigo emphasized really opening up the hip and turning to your side rather than trying to jump/hop your way over. I was working with Alex and when he turned it up a little, I had a hard time getting around his hook. It may be his guard - and it may be that I'm just not opening up enough on the turn.

By the way, the warm-up was the Machida takedown. Really, really starting to enjoy this one. Combined with the Jacare, I think it's definitely a keeper.

More details: Kick the leg open and back. As you do this, pinch in with the ground knee to make it a little easier to bring your kicked knee back down to pin the opposite leg and the ankle.

From here, you want to step over the knee with your pass side leg. Actually, it's more of a knee over than a step over, in large part because you want to make sure that your knee is tight against the guy's hip after you've brought it up and over. It is a very tight little move.

Grab the gi collar or hook the head - just be sure to keep your elbow in tight. With your other hand, reach down and cup the ankle of the inside, trapped hook as you pass all the way around the leg/knee. Alex recommended grabbing the gi of the other leg underneath the ankle as a way of keeping control of that potential hook, and that made sense.

My tatame was a little rough. I was able to do some good collar and sleeve work from the guard, focusing on putting the sleeve-side foot in the hip rather than the other way around. And I'm focusing more and more on armlocks from side control - both the spinning and walkaround. But I got caught under Bryan's mount late in our session and couldn't get any kind of escape going. As with the guard pass, I need to do a better job of picking an approach and refining it. I have a bad habit of wandering from solution to solution when trying to solve a new problem instead of just mastering a certain rule.

Started to feel a little more winded than I would have liked. But that might be more a credit to Bryan insofar as I felt pretty okay during my second roll with a white belt I didn't recognize. Still I'll be glad when this week off is over and I can get back to boosting things cardio-wise.

On that note I managed to completely map out my conditioning program for the 8 weeks leading to the November Revolution. I've had to make some significant changes, but what was great about it was the 6-week "trial camp" I did provided me with lots of data to work with in term of different exercises, drills, durations and intensities. I'm really looking forward to it.

I fell asleep at about 9:30 p.m. the other night. I can't remember the last time I fell asleep that early. One thing I think that can really be a difference maker this fall is getting the rest I need. A 9:30 p.m. lights out would give me that coveted eight hours a night. Crazy as it sounds given my historic nightowl-dom, it might be worth thinking about.

Flashback: Demian Maia Interview Before the Sonnen Fight

On the eve of Demian Maia's greatest challenge as a mixed martial artist, I wanted to bring back this outstanding, 90-minute interview he did with the guys from Tagg Radio (currently MMA Junkie Radio).

Demian Maia with Tagg Radio

Why Jiu Jitsu Will Never Die

A Mendes and the 50/50

Winner of the South American tryouts for the ADCC 2009, featherweight Rafael Mendes saw one of his inventions, the 50/50 guard, become easily the most bombarded of the year. Bombarded both in theory and in practice, with Alliance coming up with counter-attacks especially for it, to untie the knot the position has become.

But he doesn’t want to hear of controversy. In preparation for the ADCC 2009, Rafael commented to GRACIEMAG.com about his training, new inventions and even praised the antidotes for the “dastardly” guard. But the counter-attack, as he himself reveals, is already in the works.

If you're not already thinking about the jiu jitsu ecstasy that will be the War of the 50/50 this year at the ADCC in Barcelona, then think again.

Kesting: Competition in Jiu Jitsu 101

A great interview on the role of competition and competing in Brazilian jiu jitsu with Stephan Kesting of Grapple Arts and David Meyer, Machado black belt and author of Training for Competition: Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Submission Grappling.

BJJ & Submission Grappling Competition: Everything You Ever Wanted To Know!

We cover a TON of ground in this interview, ranging from why you might want to compete at all, to physical conditioning for competition, to specific strategies you can use against certain types of opponents.

This is one of the best interviews I've ever done. There is so much good information here that it'll be very useful for anyone who trains in BJJ or another grappling art, even if they don't compete.

And all the better to be listening to this now, almost a month away from the GB Invitational and more than two months out from the next Revolution. It is stuff we all know to some degree or another. But it's a great conversation to be able to sit back and listen to, nonetheless.

Jeff Glover's Marcelo-like Guillotine

Note the snapdown on the head. Glover goes for the guillotine a couple of times before they spill out of bounds. He waits for the guy not just to go head-to-head with him, but for the guy to be leaning forward. The guy doesn't realize that he's sticking his neck out, but he is. And when Glover gets the arm under the chin and then snaps down on the head, the guillotine is perfectly set. Very fast.

Need More Maia?

Who doesn't these days? Here's another interview/profile on Demian Maia from Sherdog.com

'Great' Threat Awaits Maia at UFC 102

Nate has a lot of good features as a fighter and deserves all respect,” Maia says. “He has a good stand-up game, is very aggressive and strong, has endurance and is also a black belt who has a dangerous guillotine. In theory, he is the biggest challenge of my career, but a fight is always a fight. I may take him down and submit him, but, theoretically speaking, he is the most complete fighter I’ve ever faced.”

Tomorrow I'll repost that unbelievable, 90-minute interview that Demian Maia did with MMA Junkie radio earlier this year.

Amaury Bitetti Interview with GracieMag

A Chat with Amaury Bitetti

Portal das Lutas – What is different about the Minotauro to fight Couture compared to the one who lost to Frank Mir?

Amaury Bitetti – The difference is that in the other fight he was injured and I think he wasn’t as focused as he is now. This time we did a lot of work and I’ve even been telling him to not overdo it in training. Now it’s time to rest, assimilate what he’s trained and brush up on some details based on what may happen in the fight. Rodrigo likes training a lot, but in this final stretch things have to be done in such a way that he won’t get worn out and will be more objective.

PDL – And what’s the word on the fight?

AB – He has to keep in the middle of the ring. The fencing is Couture’s place and he can’t get taken there. To work on the ground, the middle of the octagon is where it’s easier to sweep or go for submissions, triangles and armbars, which he does really well. At the fencing the guy circles and pummels well, so he’s dangerous. We’ve told him that, Anderson Silva was there too and agreed. We have to make things as hard as possible for Couture and not use force, just skill.

I'd love to see a Minotauro victory, but I think Randy is the favorite for good reason.

Randy has struggled against larger submission wrestlers like Josh Barnett and Ricco Rodriguez - neither of whom have especially impressive striking. Potential advantage: Nog. Then again, Nog's striking has been suspect against non-K-1 caliber strikers like Heath Herring and Frank Mir. Couture outstrikes both those guys. Potential advantage: Randy.

One thing I've always disagreed with people about is that Nog's best jiu jitsu is off his back. I think he's more effective working a sweep game and getting to the top - as most jiu jitsu players in MMA tend to be. Randy is very confident ground-n-pounding from the half guard. There may be an opportunity to trap Randy in his own comfort zone.

Batucada!

Among the fondest memories from my desperado days in Tucson was playing batucada on the picnic tables of the Chicago Bar out on Speedway Avenue just after midnight with a group of Brazilian exchange students from the University.

Totally organic. Totally spontaneous. Summer in Southern Arizona at its best.

Training Day: Tuesday

A relatively modest sized class today - given the turnout on Monday. There were also about three new (pre-gi) folks and a purple belt visiting from Ralph Gracie's academy who I did drills with (but did not get to roll with).

The instructional started with the Machida takedown from standing. Here, we just focused on the entry, without taking the guy all the way to the mat. As my partner from Ralph Gracie pointed out, the Machida provides entry for the Jacare (and vice versa, I'd add). The funny thing is that I had just seen that combination done in on Arte Suave, which I just got in the mail from Budo Videos.

The rest of the instructional was focused on sitting guard. We've been working on sitting guard - both for the gi and no gi - for the past week. Here, Rodrigo had us palm the mat relatively deep between the sitting guy's legs. With your other hand, you stuffed the other leg at the knee and dropped to put your chest on the outside of the knee, pressuring in. We drilled it going both ways - unsurprisingly, my better side was going to my left.

We did some specific sparring - guard/pass guard - and then some general sparring. I got to roll with Scott, Benny and Lance - as well as a talented blue belt I've seen around but whose name I can't recall. I feel like I might be leaving one roll out. But it was a pretty full night all thing considered. I had plenty of cardio left at the end of the night, which is a testament to the conditioning routine I've been on for the past month and a half.

155.6 on the scale post-train. A perfect number with more than two months to go. My assumption is that if I can stay within 2% of my target weight (which would mean a maximum of 158), then the simple increase in activity during my training camp will take care of any weight issues. My thinking is that I should be regularly "making weight" after every training session once the 8 weeks starts (September 13).

Training Day: Monday

Lindsey led the warm-up tonight, but Rodrigo was there to lead the class. The instructional was more work out of sitting guard, particularly for the guy on the bottom. Rodrigo had the top guy work on controlling the pants at the knees and, in stepping around to the side, changing levels to lower the shoulder into the guy and putting his back on the mat. To avoid the pass, Rodrigo has the guy on the bottom stiff-arm the forward arm - the arm that is most forward on the side the guy is trying to pass on - and then move the hips back and away. Use your free hand and arm as a post to help you move.

I worked with both Jason/Garcia and Lindsey, particularly with the second move, which was a counter to the guy closing his knees around your legs if you are in a sitting or butterfly guard. The trick here was to get double sleeve control, then quickly pull your left leg out. Put your left foot on the hip and use that as a lever to get your other leg free.

From here, Rodrigo had us attack with the same armlock that we used last week on Thursday. Dive in and underhook the guy's left arm with your head very close so that you get a good trap. Only after you have the trap set should you slide back and turn your body in toward the guy, bringing your outside knee up, over and tight under his armpit to keep the armlock tight as you lean back and your head slides back along his arm to his wrist.

A pretty good night of sparring on Monday. I got to work with some smaller folks, which allowed me to really open up as I have been needing to for weeks if not months. With August fading, I'm starting to get a little of that "summer's almost gone" angst about my areas of improvement. But my thinking is that I'm already competitive at my current level and, with some extra work and focus on my weak spots like passing the guard, there's every reason to think that that competitiveness might eventually work its way toward putting me on the podium with some hardware and points for the school.