Professor Barata is Back!

Get the lowdown here.

Prof Otavio Has Landed

I can't think of a better way to celebrate the end of my eighth year in jiu-jitsu and the beginning of my ninth.

Better Not Pout I'm Tellin' You Why ...

Caio Terra's Comin' to Town

Feitosa, Almeida, Joca: Coming to GB Seattle in September

Training Day: Saturday

Today was the seminar for Prof Christiano. It was great to see the entire academy packed - both mats - with students from white belt all the way up.

I got there a little late. But it seemed as if they had some of the brown belts helping the lower belts with some of the techniques the black belts were sharing. Rather than try and steal a partner from some pair, I figured I'd just go ahead and follow Jeff B.'s lead and help some of the guys - mostly the white belts - with the new moves.

That was a lot of fun. Having been off the mats for a week, just being back in the "ocean" again was incredibly refreshing. Seminars are as much opportunities for reunion as they are anything else, IMO, so any technical tips I pick up are often just a bonus. It's nice a great opportunity to feel the energy and to be reminded of being a part of something that is in many ways just in its infancy (at least here in the U.S.).

I got a chance to get a little rolling in, training for about 15-20 minutes or so with Daniel. He showed me a nice Andre Galvao move to combat the knee cross pass that is a bit less complex than some of the versions I've been working with lately that involve a lot of lapel control. I'll have to make sure to work on it some the next time the opportunity comes up.

165.0 on the scale in the gi, post-train. And while there is a part of me that would love to knock another five pounds off that number, there's nothing not to like about being 2.5 pounds under more than a month out.

Spring Seminar and Training Camp at GB Seattle

1st 2011 Jiu-Jitsu Seminar and Training Camp

We will be having a special training camp and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Seminar. Over ten black belts will each be presenting on a topic. This is a great opportunity to learn new moves and re-learn some trusty old ones. We will have the mats and facility open for training after the seminar and expect to have some good live training available to practice some of this things you just learned.

Only $30 for what sounds like a mind-melting amount of jiu jitsu in a single afternoon.

Cachorrinho is Coming to Gracie Barra Seattle

June 18, 2011, Gracie Barra Seattle will host Gracie Barra black belt, Flavio "Cachorrinho" Almeida. Professor Almeida will be in town for a seminar on Saturday. The date is definite, but times are still being worked out.

If you don't know much about Flavio Almeida (other than the fact that he runs Gracie Barra and is the younger brother of recently-retired Ricardo Almeida), I've found a few nice links to help you get acquainted.

Learn a little about Flavio in this interview from the spring of 2008 with The Fightworks Podcast.

#106 Flavio Almeida and Gracie Barra

Here is an interview from 2007 from OntheMat.

Flavio “Cachorrinho” Almeida Interview

And here is Flavio writing about his thoughts on teaching BJJ

Why Do I Teach

Seminar Review: Welcome to Barataplata!

Even in a space as familiar as GB Seattle 3.0, there is still a special feeling whenever there's a big seminar that is almost disorienting in its sentimentality. However much seminars are a great opportunity to learn techniques from a new professor, there are also every bit as much an chance for the local jiu jitsu and grappling community to come together in a family-like, non-competitive environment.

Again, that's no slight to the technique. In addition to a surprisingly straightforward sweep from the closed guard that Prof Freitas showed us, it was a true journey deep into the heart of barataplataville. From entries from the closed guard to entries from standing and the mount position, Friday night's seminar was an up-close-n-personal look at how the basic kimura-lock on the shoulder can be applied with more control and more overall power with the legs and hips. I especially appreciated how Prof Freitas pointed out that the kimura lock was one of the most powerful submissions in jiu jitsu. "After all," Prof Freitas said, "It was the kimura that defeated Master Helio. And it was a kimura that defeated Renzo and Royler."

Especially when you include mixed martial arts competition, it is clear that the kimura is among the highest percentage submissions. In fact, it could be argued that if you could only master three submissions, you could do a lot worse than to master the triangle from the bottom, the choke from the back, and the kimura from on top. It doesn't surprise me for a moment that of the main prodigies of someone like Lloyd Irvin, who has done some work quantifying submissions in jiu jitsu, one was known for his triangles and the other for his back control and finish.

So the barataplata is an extension of this in some ways. Taking the edge that is the kimura (compared to, maybe, the lower finishing rates of the americana or the straight armbar) and then finding new ways to secure that same control. I remember a class with Cindy a few years back when she insisted that you should never let a kimura grip go if you get it - the grip just provides too much control and eventually will lead to a submission opportunity if you keep it. The idea of combining that tenacity when it comes to the grip in general with Prof Freitas' re-interpretation of the control of the shoulder, elbow and wrist, is something I think could really work well for a game like mine - one that is not especially heavy on triangle nor back control.

162 and change post-seminar. I would have liked to have rolled some, but I was feeling a little sluggish having trained during the early class on Friday. That said, a great night of training and a very nice start to the three-day weekend.

"Barata" Freitas at GB Seattle This Friday

As excited as I am about the seminar tomorrow night with Professor Rafael "Barata" Freitas, a part of me is just as giddy at the prospect of training on a Friday night, including/especially the open mat from 8-9 p.m. afterwards.

Seminar starts at 6 p.m. But registration is more like 5:30 p.m. so be early if you're planning to be there.

Barata MMA-nia

Friday night seminar at Gracie Barra Seattle, February 18th. $30. More info here.

Come for the Barataplata ...

But stay for the great toreano passing, tales from the IBJJF competition circuit and the hour-long open mat that begins right after the seminar. Having trained with Prof. Freitas last year, I can say that $30 for his seminar is a steal.

Giva Santana Seminar and Foster BJJ/Lotus Club Open House

Quite a day at Foster BJJ/Lotus Club on Saturday: a new, more spacious academy, two new black belts, three new brown belts and a handful of moves from Giva Santana, who heads Lotus Club out of Irvine, California in town to celebrate the new location.

Jeff B. was among the new brown belts, and you could tell that it was an emotional moment for him. They even did the "run the whipping belt gauntlet" thing, which was quite the spectacle of flagellation.

I think half the people at the academy were Gracie Barra folks from Ballard, Seattle and Buckley. It was good to see David from Buckley, who was very good to work with (and by now, I take my seminar training partners pretty seriously).

The moves from the seminar that stuck with me most were the guard pass and the moves to the back. The guard pass had you pin the same side shoulder by gripping both lapels low and driving them in that direction with a straight arm. With the back arm, you want to grip right on the knee, and then tuck your elbow. To open the guard, you sway back and forth for a little momentum, and then sprawl out, pinning the knee to the mat and using your hip on the other side to brace and keep the guard open. From here, step through and do a knee cross pass with the opposite leg to get to the side.

This pass reminded David of the Flat Pass, which I'm not sure I would have thought of if he hadn't mentioned it. It's got a similar, basic determination, and the idea of maximizing the angle as a way of opening the guard.

The other interesting moves were from the back. Giva liked a deep grip under the chest to the opposite lapel with the one hand, and a four-finger grip right behind the neck on the collar. These grips provided a lot of control and good choke set-ups.

The lapel grip is similar to something Rodrigo has shown us, using that grip as a pull to roll the guy out of turtle and into a position where you can take the back. One key is to get your knee in deep to block off the side you are pulling and rolling to.

There were two variations. The one had you take the back from here, and then attacking with the Ezekiel from the back. The second one had you drag the guy back into to you, as you settled into a half-side control/half north-south position with your head on the inside shoulder controling the arm. From here, you can choke by turning away and facing the legs. Make sure the behind the neck grip is good - you can afford to be patient and wait for it while you are keeping the head pressure on the near shoulder.

I would have liked to stick around a little longer, but there were so many people that it looked like it might be a battle for space during the open mat. But it was nice to see the new place, to be there to congratulate Jeff and the other guys who got promoted, and to learn a few nice new techniques and details. Suspecting that the seminar might not provide the most vigorous workout in the world, I managed to get in a make-up Threshold Training session this morning before the event. A good day of training and conditioning all around.

Renzo!

What in the world can be said about Master Renzo Gracie that hasn't been said?

The seminar with Renzo was incredible. In some ways, it reminded me of Saulo's seminar, Cobrinha's seminar and Christiano's seminar all rolled up into one. Like Saulo's there was a depth of knowledge and a history that could not be denied. Like Cobrinha, the techniques were all easy to remember and flowed from basic situations like pulling guard (or faking a guard pull) and passing the spider guard. And like Christiano's seminar, it was a total outpouring of support from the Gracie Barra Washington family. I've never seen so many Gracie Barra gis in one place!

Another note on this: it was great to see so many folks I haven't seen since I changed my schedule to train during the day - as well as many folks from Ballard I haven't seen since the last tournament. Very much a homecoming feel.

The techniques. Renzo showed us an armlock from standing that he called "the Tasmanian Devil". Like all the moves Renzo showed, "the Taz" had a great story behind it. What I especially liked about the Tasmanian Devil is that it can be used to go for an armlock as well as to take the back from a standing jiu jitsu clinch situation. I bet there will be a lot of GB'ers trying this at the next couple of tournaments!

From here Renzo showed us three different chokes. He went through some key details in the basic collar choke, including many things I had begun to think about/consider as I explore the submission. The work Renzo did in showing us how to be effective with the Ezekiel ("put a bag over his head, scratch your nose, then close the choke") was worth the price of the seminar alone.

Renzo also showed us that sneaky gi choke from side control where you bring up the tip of the lapel hidden in your hand, feed it to your other hand and then turn away and down for a reverse Frankenstein choke. This one was very similar to a choke that Christiano showed us in his seminar some time ago.

One of the things that was especially fun was a Q&A that Renzo did at the end, asking people what situations they were having difficulties with. Renzo provided some tips on being heavy in side control, dealing with spider guard grips without having to break them, how to triangle big guys by bracing your knee and moving backwards and, my personal favorite, a variation on the slingshot sweep that allows you to get to the top without having to risk bringing the guy's entire weight on top of you.

A lot to say. But the bottom line was that it was a great, great event and just what I needed to get started for the next two and a half months of preparation for the July Revolution.

Renzo Seminar Saturday in Fife

Renzo Gracie's seminar has been rescheduled for this Saturday. If you are reading this, are planning on going, and haven't yet finalized your reservations, then you need to talk to Rodrigo by tomorrow.

In preparation for Renzo's visit - and in my sincere hope that he shares a few details about his signature arm-in-guillotine - here's some footage of Renzo rolling with Maurcio Gomes, father of Roger Gracie. Renzo is in the black shorts and black knee braces.

Weekend Update w/ Cobrinha

For an unfortunately long stretch of time last fall, I fell into the notion that I was putting more into jiu jitsu than I was getting out.

I'm not sure how I ended up shaking off that sensation - attrition, most likely. Some of the worst aspect of training late in 2009 disappeared on their own, others - well, I just don't know what happened. I just stopped feeling that way.

That sensation has started to return - punctuated by three-hours of utter exasperation at the Cobrinha seminar today. I don't want to go into it. But it was like a flashback to some of the worst training sessions I had in the fall of 2009.

Grif noted that since the new program was launched at Gracie Barra, my blog posts had become shorter and - I'm inferring a bit here - significantly less interesting. I think I've put a least a little sugar in the bowl as far as March posts go, for example. But his point is very well taken.

With any luck, this is just the early spring lull before a productive summer. But there are some signs in my training that are starting to remind me of the Jiu Jitsu Heart of Darkness I experienced last fall. And I have no interest in repeating any of that again.

We did a pair of takedowns: a guard pull fake to a single leg setup that resembled my Rip Cord takedown a bit. A collar drag takedown. Cobrinha also did a lot of work on passing the spider guard, which is always good stuff. His key points were in (1) squating and standing as you circle your hand to break the spider grip and (2) packing both knees in one direction and using your knee between those legs to pin the hips. Most of the moves were variations on those. My efforts to drill these techniques on Saturday was subpar due to circumstances beyond my control. But hopefully I'll remember them enough to work on them next week.

Many thanks to Griff for the photo. Standing next to Cobrinha, I look old and fat. My wife suggested otherwise, but I'm not having it - even if she is the best training partner I've got in the only thing that really counts.

Enter the Cobrinha

More information available here.

Between Renzo's seminar in May and this event in April, my jiu jitsu seminar budget is pretty much occupied for the first half of the year.

Renzo in Seattle

More Saulo

I didn't ask Saulo exactly how he crawled into the half guard as a way of getting the guy flat - the only way to properly pass the half guard. Saulo had made an interesting point about the brabo choke on Saturday, alluding to the fact that the development of the brabo choke from the top in half guard was an evolution based on persistent, and persistently failing, attempts to deal with someone in the half guard who is able to get to his side.

I also didn't ask him what his thoughts were about preparing for competition. Although his reputation as a great teacher will undoubtedly grow, he is also jiu jitsu's greatest competitor, being a six-time world champion. With two major local tournaments coming up in early November and mid-December, I thought it would be great to hear how he prepared for competition, how he developed a strategy, whether he did outside conditioning or focused mostly on skill-enhancement. But there never really seemed to be an opportunity for that kind of Q&A.

Which was too bad, generally and selfishly. Saulo is very good spokesman for jiu jitsu, and I suspect he would have been more than happy to answer a question or two - especially one that might relate to a lot of people there attending the seminar.

Sunday was no gi. As you might imagine, Saulo places a minimum on "training" no gi. He tends to see no gi the same way that I do: as a sort of recreation, a "day off" from regular jiu jitsu, like those days late in the summer back in elementary school when they let you have class outside. He made a lot of interesting points on no gi or submission wrestling, pointing out that the only one that has established submission wrestling as anything other than no gi jiu jitsu is the sheik who funds Abu Dhabi. Every other no gi / submission wrestling even merely borrows the point system from jiu jitsu - adding, of course, some wrinkles of its own.

Techniques. We started with a step back move off the clinch, pinching down on trapped elbow by leaning in with shoulder pressure, a sort of whizzer move. From here, swing around and get the front headlock with your free arm, reaching under to connect with a gable grip. Before cinching the grip, push the arm in as if going for the anaconda. If nothing else, it will set up a very tight guillotine as you drop back into half guard.. You would to use your inside leg to also help keep the pushed-in arm to the inside, instead of relying on your grip alone. If you have the grip, all you need to do is stretch the legs to get the submission.

Thai plum escape. Turn. Hug. Shoulder Pop. Dip. Single. Double.

General standup tips. Don't attack the head for the colllar tie. Instead, attack the bicepts, working for inside control. When he rotates to combat your inside control, pop his elbow in and attack. You can shoot, move for the back, whatever. The point is that by pushing his elbow in, you've got a clear shot to his side before he can react by bringing it back and putting it in front of you as some kind of block.

Saulo talked about an attack from the back from one of his Abu Dhabi fights. From the back standing, with a body lock, reach over and do a sort of inverted high crotch grab around the thigh. Insert hook behind his leg with the outermost leg, planting the inner leg for leverage, and take him backwards for the sweep.

Shin-pin sweep. Against standing opponent. Left hand around knee, left shin against lower shin. Rock to inside and lift with shin-pin. Underhook other leg and rock ALL THE WAY back the other way. Reset legs for Eddie Bravo style double-X guard and roll back in other direction.

Escape front headlock. Protect the neck. Reach behind back to butt with other hand. Step up with leg on protect/neck side . Sit back/Sit through. Turn into guy toward legs, reaching across body with protect/neck grip.

Guard pass: Crab pass and 1 on 1. Fight legs with legs and arms with arms. Get close with no gi. Crab pass = inside control: Block one side. Smash, Cut, Scoop or Skirt other leg. 1 on 1 = one leg in and one leg out. If knee goes wide, look to get to Crab pass. If knee comes in, pinch with outside knee just enough to cross center line, then use your body weight to press leg down and pancake the legs to the side. There's also a Cut option to the other direction.

I've been wanting to attack the guard more to guy's left side ever since hearing Saulo make the point that the fact that Demian Maia was left handed made his especially tricky to deal with. I still like my Flat Pass to the right. Even if it is most guy's stong side, it's my strong side, too, so it's iron against iron and I've got to always be willing to go with that. But the new guard pass approaches from this weekend are new enough - or feel new enough - that I can start trying them (Shield and Sword for gi; Crab Pass and 1 on 1 for no gi) to the left - or both - immediately. I'll take guard pass ambidexterity over guard pass hit-or-miss-riocrity any day.

Another thought on the half guad pass and leaning the legs toward you as you back out of the half guard. This one from Saturday works because you are in crossface watchdog and are forcing him to look away while bringing the knees toward you. Unable to face you, he can't turn.

An excellent weekend. I could have spent a week like this, especially that long session on Saturday. I was a little surprised at how few Gracie Barra folks there were - I think there were maybe three of us on Saturday and and only two of us on Sunday. In any event, it was an incredible experience. And I'm openly hoping that this experience has provided me with just the base camp I need to launch the next leg of the ascent.

Saulo: Day One With the Champion

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.

Training Day: Friday

Ended up taking Thursday night off, as well. I figured that training today, and then all weekend at the Saulo seminar, I'd get in plenty of mat time - if not the conditioning.

Rodrigo is really turning up the temperature in the warmups. The Friday warmup - to which I arrived late - was a bruising circuit of pushups, situps, sitouts, sprawls, chokes, squats and high knees. You can tell it's tournament time.

I'm not convinced I would have made it all the way if I'd been there on time. If I have one goal between now and November, it's to get back in some halfway decent shape. I really feel as if I lost most of whatever I had been building on this score with my double dip cold. And I'm not likely to get all that back in what are now three weeks. But it will be interesting to see how far down the line I can get.

We started off with alternating takedowns. I worked with a new, 6-month white belt whose name I can't remember right now. I focused on breaking the collar grip more than anything, which will be key to any ability to attack with a single or double leg from a tie-up.

One thing I'm not practicing is much as I should is pulling half guard. I had great success with that in the spring - even more than my success with the Jacare in the summer. I don't know how much I want to go with it. But I should definitely make sure that it is sharp.

The first half of the instructional was the same side control escape we worked on back on Tuesday. It was very nice to work on the same technique again. Rodrigo emphasized avoiding "holding down" the guy when doing the double underhooks, and in getting maximum control of the arm in the "arm drag" portion of the escape.

The second half was the collar drag escape from rear mount. Some of the key details here were in rotating over to your side, planting the far knee as you step over, elevating your hips to create space to turn into the guy and, finally and most importantly, to turn your head into the guy. This last step is really critical in helping you drive yourself back into the guy's rear mount.

I got to roll with both Shawn and Bryan. I've pretty much abandoned standing guard passes against anyone my level or better for now, and instead of focused on both the Flat Pass as well as trying to bait the guy into attacking with a butterfly guard and then using the Wallid Ishmael pass. I don't know how much I will be able to make out of this over the next few weeks. I would like to incorporate the Leo Viera pass that resembles the one Rodrigo showed us the day (!) before the summer Revolution event - the pass that's half leg rope, half Jack pass. But I don't have all the time in the world ...

I'd love for Saulo to include the leg rope pass in his seminar tomorrow. There's going to be four hours of gi instruction, so there's plenty of room. In any event, I want to make sure that I'm well-nourished so as to make the most out of the day. Rodrigo said that there were only about 8 Gracie Barra guys going - which surprises me a little. But it will be interesting to see who shows up.