Rodrigo called Saulo Ribeiro one of the best teachers in jiu jitsu. After spending four hours at Saulo's seminar today in Fife, I see exactly what Rodrigo meant.
I've always been a fan of Saulo and his approach to jiu jitsu. His outlook, which I think was really forged during the months he spent with Rickson Gracie as a brown belt, is all about getting to the fundamentals of what jiu jitsu is about: survival, "blocking" rather than merely "defending", escapes that take true advantages of the weaknesses inherent in any attack and - perhaps more important for me - passes that force your opponent to defend with fewer tools and less room to use them.
It would be very easy to go on and on about today's session. Even the drive down I-5 to still yet another part of Western Washington that I've never really been to was an enjoyable ride. I got to train with Pat for the whole session, which was a nice bonus - not the least of which because he had a copy of Saulo's book also, and was noting which moves were in the book and which weren't (I was doing the same thing.).
Some of the details were priceless. I have a better understanding of how I want to escape the mount, turning more by a quarter than a half. I have a better understanding how to both be on top in half guard - driving the outside knee into the hip, and how to walk the guy over to get him flat before passing - as well as how to have greater mobility and agility on the bottom. Thanks to a question from Professor Alonso, I have a better idea of how to escape the legs when using the watchdog half guard pass with crossface (i.e., pull the knees toward you instead of away, and then hipscape back away from him).
And, dare I say it, I think I might have finally figured out a Unified Field Theory for passing the guard from standing. We'll have to see what comes of it in training next week. But Saulo's "Shield and Sword" concept of attacking the guard alone may end up being worth the cost of the seminar. That, and his consistent theme of locking your opponent's body and attacking him with your superior ability to move. When you think about it, it is classic military attack strategy: pin them down, then mow them down.
It was a long day (two two-hour sessions with about a 45 minute lunch break). But it ended up being a perfect length. It will almost be strange to only train for two hours tomorrow for the no gi session. That's the thing about jiu jitsu. When you start to really turn toward it, it becomes so easy to start to orient yourself around it - to the point where you wish you could be training twice a day every day. It's really something else.
A couple of things that stood out. Saulo made the same point about training partners that Rodrigo did a few weeks ago. Clearly, it's a big deal. Also I was impressed at how much time Saulo spent encouraging people to wear the "flag" of their school on their back. "You don't train with Vulcan or Koral or Atama," Saulo said, adding that he felt that he could tell a little about a person by the way he wore his "flag". "And not on the leg or on the sleeve or on the collar. On the back," he emphasized. "Because it says, 'this is where I come from. This who's got my back.'" It might have seemed old-fashioned, but I'll admit that I loved every bit of it.
Another interesting thing was Saulo's take on competition. On the one hand, he de-emphasized it greatly, saying it was 1% of jiu jitsu and that competition did not make him a better teacher, for example. But on the other hand, he said that when it came time to compete, he considered it an opportunity to put his "heart and soul" out there and see if someone "could push me back." Maybe he'll talk a little more about that tomorrow, but it was an interesting way of putting it. Obviously, Saulo is geared to win - you don't become a six-time world champion otherwise. But he doesn't describe it in terms of winning, Instead he describes the challenge in a much more general, primal way. For Saulo, it seemed that competition was an issue not of technique and not even of strategy, per se. But of desire. Of will. Moving forward and daring to be turned back.
A pretty awesome day on the mat. I'm looking forward to tomorrow for sure.
