One of the greatest misconceptions about BJ Penn's jiu-jitsu is that, due to his exceptional lower body flexibility and control, Penn's bottom game is more advanced than his top game.
If anything, Penn's top control - guard passing and finishes from dominant positions - better characterize his jiu-jitsu than submissions from the guard.
Here's a sample of the former. A great insight into guard passing fundamentals.
Here I'm sampling some of the more interesting contests. I'm especially highlighting some of the top competitors that DIDN'T make the podium, let alone the finals. This is all the more unfortunate insofar as the division suffered one of the event's infamous first place close-outs with Alexssandro Pinto Sodre of Nova Uniao and Raimundo Diego Pinto Sodre of Nova Uniao taking first and second respectively without contest.
Richard Emiliano Nogueira and teammate Thiago Augusto Araujo Macedo closed out third place
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Kennedy Leonardo Maciel v Richard Emiliano Nogueira
Richard Emiliano Nogueira v. Shane Jamil Hill-Taylor
Isaac Doederlein v. Alexsssandro Pinto Sodre
Raimundo Diego Pinto Sodre v. Richard Emiliano Nogueira
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| Photo Credit: RVCA |
Tainan Dalpra (Art of Jiu-Jitsu) was one of the biggest sensations at the Pan American championships this year. He won the World championship last year, and did not disappoint with his performance this year at the Pan.
Here's a look at his gold medal winning campaign this spring as he won the Middleweight division at the IBJJF Pan. (FloGrappling subscription required).
Finals
TAINAN DALPRA VS JEFERSON GUARESI
Semifinals
TAINAN DALPRA COSTA vs RONALDO PEREIRA DE SOUZA JÚNIOR
Quaterfinals
TAINAN DALPRA COSTA vs EDUARDO AVELAR DE CARVALHO
Elimination
ROBERTO FRANCISCO JIMENEZ vs TAINAN DALPRA COSTA
First up is "my" division: Black Belt Featherweight | Master 5. I always want to see what competitors my size and rank are up to first.
Black Belt Feather | Master 5
Finals
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| 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.
Mike DeWitt of 10th Planet Springfield hits this takedown in a couple of these 10th Planet Qualifier competitions that I've watched. Nevertheless seeing it yesterday while doing cardio film study reminded me of how much I like the set-up. The footsweep attack incentivizes the opponent to lift his feet and remain as vertical as possible, opening up both the space and the timing for the double leg.
DeWitt has a nice double leg without it. But with the setup, it looks like an especially potent way to get the fight to the floor.
Celebrated the occasion by watching the finale of the 10th Planet Middleweight combat jiu-jitsu qualifiers. 11/12 is the closest thing combat sport athletes and martial artists have for an international holiday.
“Just as a man walking in a forest without a compass will inevitably end up walking in a useless circle, so too, a years worth of training sessions without direction will end up with you at the same point you started.”
-John Danaher, The Danaher Diaries
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.
The deeper we get into October, the more likely the next big regional competition (I'm looking at you, Revolution) will be in 2022 rather than the fall of 2021.
In a normal year, February would be the earliest for an event to take place. The latest anti-COVID mandate, as it applies to gyms, runs through late March. Best case scenario is a successful spring event that paves the way for a summer event and, ideally, getting the whole show back on track.
So, with six months to go ...
He didn't win the tournament. But with his armbar victory over a guy who repeatedly went to the "limit his ability to breathe" technique of putting his hands over his opponent's mouth from inside the closed guard, he has won my heart.
The most fascinating thing about the incredible show that was the WNO Championships this past weekend was the way that the victorious competitors were able to leverage specialization instead of being limited by it.
On one hand, you had the predictable-but-unstoppable head and arm (okay, d'arce) chokes of the Ruotolo brothers and the wisdom and strategic intelligence of a non leg locker like Tim Spriggs to make the still-common vulnerability of most no-gi grapplers a major part of his, 3-day-a-week training in preparation for the event.
On the other hand, we have the inability of veteran leg lockers like Tex Johnson and Elizabeth Clay to lure their opponents into their game - to say nothing of Michael Musumeci's inability to defend himself effectively once his notoriously tough-to-pass guard was, in fact, passed.
So many great performances! And many takeaways, as always. If you haven't watched the event, then browse on over to FloGrappling and treat yourself to some very entertaining jiu-jitsu.
Honorable mention to both Amanda Leve and Kendall Reusing who were also especially impressive.
The conversation starts at 27:20 minutes and runs for about 11-12 minutes. Some valuable truth-telling.
Over or under?
Inside or outside?
Through or around?
Clockwise or counter-clockwise?
Smash or float?
Parallel or crosswise?
Did a wingspan measurement this evening after doing some research on bicep/tricep hypertrophy strategies. Turns out that at 65" tall, I have a pretty outsized reach at 71".
This has me thinking about some additional adjustments to my post-pandemic jiu-jitsu game. With regard to submissions, I'm a lot more interested in arm triangles than I used to be and am looking forward to spending a little time studying Ryan Hall's work in this regard.
There are also some interesting implications for passing. I've been inclined lately toward a tripod-float-smash hybrid / Demian Maia + Murilo Santana / wide base game. I don't see myself departing from that anytime soon. But the idea that I might have the attributes to incorporate a torreando-style passing attack a la Leandro Lo is pretty attractive. I'd been very interested in Lo back in the fall of 2019, but focused more on the ferocity of his attack than its technical merits. May be time to bring his beat back.
One of the benefits of becoming a bodybuilding fan during the pandemic has been learning a lot more about performance enhancing substances than ever. Among the curators of this exhibition has been "Derek" a guy who runs a supplement company and YouTube channel called "More Plates More Dates."
Derek provides a ton of information on steroids and other performance enhancers, and uses self-described "clickbait" videos on celebrity transformation to help bring folks into his more scientific content. I've watched his video takes on everyone from actor/comedian Kumail Nanjiani to UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya. And now, apparently by popular request, he's turned his sights on "The King" - Gordon Ryan.
This video has been available for a long time. But I'm only now getting around to studying it. Shame on me.
I've had the idea for a book on American Jiu-Jitsu for a long time. A lot of people talk about "American Jiu-Jitsu" but I've yet to hear anyone that gets at the heart of what American Jiu-Jitsu really is, what's so ironic about it, and why the top American Jiu-Jitsu schools embody it and continue to turn out some of the country's - and the world's - greatest jiu-jitsu artists because of it.
It's also an incredible story about America, and the different types of Americans we've come to spend a lot of time talking about these days. I've always hesitated to talk about it because I've thought it was such an obviously fascinating topic that someone with more time and talent than I've got would scoop it up in a second.
Failing that, the project will probably have to wait until I retire in another 15-odd years. Nevertheless, a large part of my return to the mat in 2021 is predicated on taking advantage of what American Jiu-Jitsu - or more accurately, the American approach to Jiu-Jitsu - can do to elevate my performance on the mat.
Photo by Thought Catalog from Pexels
