Eddie Bravo vs. Naoya Uematsu

Now this is an interesting video.

Only available as far as I know on the Jiu Jitsu Legends mook, only available in Japan.

Naoya Uematsu is basically considered one of the top grapplers in Japan. He also reffed a couple of my fights.

I haven’t got my hands on the DVD long enough to know the story, but I think Uematsu basically goes around the east west coast of the USA rolling at the various jiu jitsu schools.

Check the video out. For want of a better word, Bravo basically owns him. Two times real quick, then just completely neutralises him before choking him out. All this with what looks like an injured or out of commission arm.

Now that is impressive. I want Bravo to compete again! It would be really exciting.

Uematsu almost seems like “Dude, can you stop doing that rubber guard stuff so that I can have a chance to grapple with you?”

Good training

Training update:
BJJ and Judo are going good. BJJ two times a week, judo once a week, and at least one good hard round on my chin up bar and free weights at home, and I’m really seeing a difference.

Judo
I need to: practice my drills. I have learnt an inside sweep, outside sweep, and an over-the-back throw. Crap, my mind is all fuzzy at the moment but when I get back to judo, I will remember the names and write an outline here for myself, to help me remember.

Jiu Jitsu 
Training is going good. Today I rolled with a pro-shooto fighter who was in town for something or other. He Darce choked me about eight times in a row, ankle-locked, kneebarred heel hooked my face off. The only thing I managed to do was pass his guard, keep side position for about a minute, then transition to knee on belly and go for the baseball bat choke. It was really fun though, and, like many Japanese fighters, he was super-humble, and knew when he had a submission–he didn’t need to crank anything, so I didn’t get injured.

Random thoughts:

– My triangle choke wasn’t working lately. I figured out how to cinch it now, though. Always hide my opponent’s shoulder under my thigh. If I can see their shoulder, they have breathing space. Also, until now, I’ve been getting into position, and then just squeezing, which usually doesn’t work. What I need to do is get into the best position, squeeze, then adjust my legs tighter, squeeze again, and keep adjusting until it is cinched as deep as possible. Then raise the hips and pull down on the head. It’s all things together, not just squeezing.

– Passing: For example, passing from standing, to my left (opponent on the ground, their right.) Until now I have been passing by pushing their legs to the right, then circle stepping in with my right leg, jamming their legs and transitioning to side or knee on belly. My coach has changed the sequence now, so that as soon as we are clear of the legs, we switch our hips and put the left leg forwards, ideally to knee on belly. Then, sit on their chest, facing away from them. Keep hold of the legs so that they cannot shrimp or sit up.

– Using the half guard on judo people. From half guard, instead of going for butterfly or sweeps, I’ve found that half guard attacks and sweeps work better. X-guard (mine sucks), so that I control one of their legs with my legs, and the other, I hook my arm under their knee. Pass their hand to mine and hold there, take the balance and sweep.

– Been trying to use some Eddie Bravo stuff. I’m not ready to plunge into the rubber guard yet… after all, I can use the gi to control people and I am still working on my traditional guard and open guard. But I like the lockdown, whip up, and half guard work from there. I’ve been able to make use of old school.

BJJ thoughts

I bought that magazine, with the DVD with the Eddie Bravo Rubber Guard seminar.

I tried to understand what Eddie was talking about and to be honest, it sounded pretty good, and watching the other instructionals from different instructors after, I felt that they all had holes that Eddie’s system could exploit somehow. Interesting.

I want to try to add elements of Bravo’s rubber guard to my game but I know it’s a long and difficult process so I’m starting off slowly and with the very basics. I started just by trying to break the posture of whoever is in my guard, and then creeping my legs up to a high guard. It worked well against a blue belt (although he was a bit rusty having taken a 2-month break), and especially when I gripped my ankle with my wrist, I was able to shut him down completely. I was happy with that as a first attempt. I was totally not confident transitioning into omoplata / jiu claw, so that may be the next step for me to add to my to-do list of Bravo moves to practice.

I really like the butterfly guard sweep where you roll to your shoulder and kick your leg high in the air. I have some success with that lately, and even managed to pull off a variation of it on the same blue belt above (after 4 attempts. Once I got into the swing of it, he couldn’t stop it–the 5th time.)

Experimenting with this transition: from full guard, break the posture, buttscoot left a little, trap their right arm somehow (overhook or just between my leg and arm, underhook my right arm, then sneak my right foot into half butterfly guard (basically hook my foot under their left thigh) and sweep. Careful not to grip too tightly with the right arm so I can base out after the sweep.

Also the Saulo Ribeiro sweep from full guard (kicking the leg over the shoulder while gripping the arm and the knee) is great as an attack. Even if you don’t sweep, you can force them to deal with it, which puts them on the defensive, and allows you to move onto the next thing.

Marcelo Garcia said on “Arte Suave”, you have to always be attacking in jiu-jitsu. If you aren’t attacking, you’re defending. On the back foot. At the moment, I agree with him.