passing from headquarters
But my opponent keeps playing shin to shin! Now what? This:
Not headquarters, but I wanted to save this here:
passing from headquarters Read More »
But my opponent keeps playing shin to shin! Now what? This:
Not headquarters, but I wanted to save this here:
passing from headquarters Read More »
That was a long day. As a member of the Morning Crew, I naturally woke up around 6am on Friday morning. I ended up going to bed (at Hyatt Place across the street from UNLV) around 2am, which I assume is pretty normal for Las Vegas, but it was late for me. The announced tournament schedule made it pretty clear that it’d be a lengthy endeavor, so I tried to be as prepared. Still, I was at Thomas and Mack for 10.5 hours. I arrived around 2pm, matches started on-time, pretty close to 3pm, and I finally left around 12:30am. I ate lunch (at Shaq’s chicken place Big Chicken) right before I walked over. I brought in a water bottle and a protein bar. One security guard at the entrance tried to tell me that the water was prohibited but another waived him off. I refilled the water bottle at a water fountain a few times during the event, but that’s all I had until it was over. As the last match was winding down, I placed an online order on my phone for Joe’s NY Pizza so that it was ready for me to pick up on my walk back to my room. I probably should have used my early arrival to Thomas and Mack to explore their food options further, but what I saw wasn’t appealing and there were no announced intermission times, just a few minutes between each match. I didn’t want to miss any action, nor did I feel like paying $7 for a stadium hot dog. I was a tired and hungry boy eating pizza in my room at 1am, but it was worth it.
I loved The Alley. It didn’t seem to work exactly as Craig described where anyone backing up would be immediately taken down, but it is my favorite grappling setup now. It succeeded in containing the action and requiring minimal referee intervention and restarts. It created some challenges for sight lines, but the cameras and video screens did a great job of helping out whenever the action was against the wall near me. There were several interesting maneuvers and sequences involving the slanted walls that were fun to see. Although it was not the immediate takedown enabler that Craig suggested, it caused more interesting interactions than a vertical cage wall would’ve. The 80+kg division already had enough people leaning on collar ties for extended periods and having a fence to lean on might’ve made it even worse. The Alley seemed to be a good combination of safety and facilitator of action.
I was super excited for this event, so I bought the best $500 ticket I could find as soon as they went on sale. My view was great. Tickets were discounted 50% the week leading up to the event and there were enough empty seats that it would have been easy to achieve the same view for as little as $25 but I have no regrets. I want events like this to exist so I’m happy to support them. Especially with Craig’s emphasis on paying the athletes first and then contributing the rest to charity.
I was skeptical of the 5 minute rounds and 10 point must system before the event. I found that I liked it more than I thought I would. Points in the big orgs (IBJJF and ADCC) often feel arbitrary and dumb. Body triangles aren’t worth anything. Turtling negates passing and takedown points. Near submissions are an advantage but moving forward while the other guy pulls guard can be worth 2 points. Metamoris ditched points and called everything a draw if there was no submission. That was unsatisfying when it was clear that the match wasn’t even (as in the Eddie Bravo vs Royler Gracie rematch). I like EBI which resolves it on the mat with an overtime situation, which is like the BJJ equivalent of penalty kicks or college football overtime. That sometimes goes wrong when people stall for overtime to get a win by specializing in a very specific piece of the sport. At least it forces some moments of drama into every match, even if the competitors weren’t keen to create action on their own. Fight2Win judges the whole single round fight. When it’s obvious, this works fine and everyone is happy. It can be frustrating to be surprised by the decision though. CJI’s 3 rounds of open scoring improves on the judging situation. Even if there’s some disagreement, judging 5 minute sections is easier than judging a whole 15 minute match at once and it gives the athletes a chance to adapt if they aren’t impressing the judges with their first or second round action. There was one significant gaffe on day one where the scores were communicated incorrectly for the Rocha vs Andrew match after the first two rounds. The fans and athletes were told that Rocha won the first two rounds. When they read the final decision, the scores indicated that Andrew won all 3 rounds. Based on the action, I think that was the right decision, but it wasn’t fair to Rocha to be told he was winning and then surprised at the end.
There were some boring matches. That may be an inevitable circumstance of sport. During long, unproductive stand up, I found myself wishing for Bravo’s get-down rule. I want to see Jiu Jitsu guys do Jiu Jitsu, not bad wrestling. That’s not a cure-all though. There were also matches with wrestlers who were stable enough to hold top position and shut down the bottom guy without threatening anything themselves. That wasn’t really any more fun. Maybe more aggressive stalling calls or excitement based compensation?
Bravo said he would stop inviting people to EBI if they didn’t go for it. I haven’t tracked it closely enough to know how that’s played out, but maybe that’s the real secret: the invitations. If it’s too hard to create the perfect rule set that rewards what we really want to be rewarded, then hopefully folks like Craig and Eddie can tip the scales toward fun by curating the competitor lists wisely. I see how that starts to diverge from objective competition criteria, but people can always go back to IBJJF and ADCC if they want to assert their dominance of exploiting an objective rule set.
The long, uninterrupted, Friday schedule definitely tested the stamina and patience of even the hardcore fans. It was wise to have the big boys go first. If the under 80kg division went first and the big boys were leaning on each other until after midnight, the crowd would’ve fallen asleep or left. There were 24 matches on Friday. There are 8 scheduled for Saturday (3 matches per division and 2 super fights). I don’t know if there’s a way to even that out better with a two division setup. If they did only the opening round on day 1 and then quarters, semis, and finals on day 2, the match count would be evenly divided but it would be tougher on the athletes having to have 3 matches on the second day. It would have been nice if they started earlier and put a break in the middle. Run the 80+ division in the morning for a few hours. Have a long intermission, then run 80- in the afternoon. Maybe that’s too much coming and going for the venue. I really like the way EBI does it. Just one division at a time. The 80- division was stacked. If it was only that and some more super fights, that would’ve been cool. I wish they could’ve trimmed time between matches, but there needs to be time somewhere for the biological requirements of living. I think fewer, longer pauses in action would’ve been nicer than frequent 5 minute pauses.
I am nitpicking a bit though. It was fun. From my perspective, it’s already at the top tier of BJJ events for a spectator. One match at a time is all a person can actually watch. That’s the way even though it’ll always run long.
Nicky Rod vs Gimenis: This was a fun start to the event. Nicky came out and handled his business. At one point he got thrown up against the wall and his feet went over the wall. It was a wild introduction to The Alley. It ended with one of the few submissions of the night.
Owen Livesey vs. Mahamed Aly: Aly didn’t seem like he was fully in it. He got warn down by wrestling and started pulling half guard and did nothing with it.
Adam Bradley vs. Kyle Boehm: Boehm went for leglocks aggressively from the jump. It looked like he might get a quick submission, but Bradley got out. As the match went on, Boehm kept hunting for legs but didn’t appear to get as close as he did in the early moments. This permitted Bradley to stay on top. Boehm’s insistence on laying down, even when some sweep opportunities appeared to be available seemed to cost him with the judges. It was close. I wouldn’t have been shocked if the decision went the other way but I also would’ve liked Boehm to get on top and press forward after the leg lock plan got shut down.
Luke Rockhold vs. Pat Downey: Downey wrestled Rockhold. It wasn’t very interesting or competitive. During the match, Rockhold reached out and tagged Demetrious Johnson who was sitting in the front row. It might’ve been fun if Mighty Mouse jumped in and participated in the action, WWE-style, but without that, this match had nothing going on.
Victor Hugo vs. Lucas Kanard: Hugo was a popular choice to win the division. It was going to be him or Nicky Rod. Welp. Hugo got submitted with a leg lock almost immediately. Upset of the night. Quickest submission of the night. Only 80+ submission from someone other than Nicky Rod.
Inacio Santos vs. Pedro Alex: Big boys leaning on each other. It’s apparently the tax you must pay for watching too much jiu jitsu.
Fellipe Andrew vs. Daniel Greg Kerkvliet: Pure, high level wrestler versus a jiu jitsu guy. Andrew executed some cool things in this match. Kerkvliet was just too strong for Andrew to finish anything.
William Tackett vs. Joao Gabriel Rocha: Tackett came out like a wild man. The arena went nuts. Many of us in the stands thought he did enough in the first two rounds to get the decision. Judges gave Rocha the second round. Rocha won with bigness. Tackett just ran out of steam trying to move around a much larger guy. Rocha laid on him for the entire 3rd. The crowd was admonished for booing Rocha and reminded that he overcame cancer. The booing was not really for Rocha, it was for the decision that removed Tackett from the tournament since he was the most entertaining grappler we had seen to that point in the evening.
Nicky Rodriguez vs. Owen Livesey: Nicky Rod took care of business again. People talk about his wrestling base and I’ve seen it suggested that he only wins because of a wet blanket strategy. That’s just wrong. He was the only person to get 2 submissions on Friday. There weren’t many submissions overall. Also, we saw several other wrestlers apply wet blanket strategies and it was clear Nicky Rod is a different beast.
Adam Bradley vs. Pat Downey: Speaking of boring wrestlers, Pat Downey lost. Good. He did his best to prevent anything from happening. Bradley made some attempts but was shut down. I’m glad Downey wasn’t rewarded for that. I don’t want to watch him grapple.
Lucas Kanard vs. Inacio Santos: Kanard came out hot again. We were excited for the Cinderella story to continue. Alas, it was not to be. If I remember it correctly, it was a bit like Boehm’s loss. He really wanted legs but spent too much time under top pressure to be given the win. Santos wasn’t as frustrating as Downey, but I recall a sense of disappointment to see him advance instead of Kanard.
Fellipe Andrew vs. Joao Gabriel Rocha: This one got weird. Fellipe was attacking from the bottom the whole match. Rocha was on top, not doing much. After each of the first two rounds, they announced that the judges had favored Rocha. There was some booing (again, not at cancer survivor Rocha, but unsatisfying judging). Finally, after a third round that was the same as the first two, they said there was a unanimous decision 30-27 for the winner… Fellipe Andrew. We were confused. If you watch their faces, the athletes were confused. Andrew says so in his post-fight speech.
Tye Ruotolo vs. Jason Nolf: Happy to see 80- get started. Ruotolo showed why we were waiting to see him. A surprising amount of wrestling engagement against an accomplished wrestler. Although the amount of stand up was similar to earlier 80+ matches that I complained about, the intensity and speed of the movements made this fun rather than boring. They were being very aggressive. Eventually, Ruotolo won by submission. Fun start to 80-.
Levi Jones-Leary vs. Roberto Jimenez: Pretty quick leg lock win for Jones-Leary.
Lucas Barbosa vs. Kenta Iwamoto: A lot of pressure. Not a lot of sub attempts. This felt like an 80+ match. Barbosa moved on.
Jozef Chen vs. Andy Varela: I was hoping for more, although at this point I should mention that it was getting late and I was hungry and tired. Chen was more aggressive but I don’t remember many highlights.
Kade Ruotolo vs. Matheus Diniz: Started with a little bit of kickboxing. The ref cooled them down and then it continued as a grappling match. It was intense. Ruotolo eventually found an interesting leg entry and got the submission.
Tommy Langaker vs. Renato Canuto: Langaker really controlled this one. Canuto didn’t have much for him.
Magid Hage vs. Eoghan O’Flanagan: O’Flanagan is one of the guys who is all-in for leg locks. This time it worked. He went for it right away and got it.
Nicky Ryan vs. Andrew Tackett: Tackett breakdanced on Ryan for 3 rounds. Ryan had nothing. Tackett fixed his hair and played to the crown. It was kinda funny, it was kinda sad, it was not at all competitive.
Tye Ruotolo vs Levi Jones-Leary: Jones-Leary is all about the legs. He did damage with a heel hook in the first round. Ruotolo pulled out of it and ended up winning the round, but when the round ended, Ruotolo limped back to his corner. Ruotolo was not the same for the rest of the match. He was obviously affected by the bad leg. This reduced his offense, so Jones-Leary’s attacks from the bottom got him the decision. I was nervous that Ruotolo would find a way to win the decision but would be in bad shape to continue in the tournament. Fortunately, the judges gave the nod to the guy who did the damage.
Kade Ruotolo vs. Tommy Langaker: A convincing win for Ruotolo over Langaker who looked just as good in his prior match.
Andrew Tackett vs. Eoghan O’Flanagan: Tackett did the same thing to O’Flanagan that he did to Nicky Ryan earlier. It was impressive, although a little disappointing that he dominated 6 rounds of submission grappling and didn’t get any submissions. Someone from the crowd yelled during this match: “Andrew, do you know any submissions?” As the final seconds ticked down, I ran out of the arena to retrieve my pizza. That was more than enough for one day.
Craig Jones Invitational Day 1 Read More »
We’ve previously addressed turtle attacks here:https://halfguardlife.com/attacking-turtle/
Keenan has an interesting twist on the kneebar that I’ve been hitting in the mornings. I have not held onto the second leg, but I like that idea.
A defense from Coach Brian:
The same thing, but shorter:
Bodoni alternate:
escape body triangles Read More »
I started using the octopus moves shown in this video when people turned to face my legs in my halfguard. I didn’t really want to be there, but I needed some answer when the usual lockdown and underhook sequences were denied to me.
Craig Jones has some cheeky explanations of the reach around guard. He also takes a moment to remind you of the importance of rabbit season vs duck season:
Here’s a more complete take. He’s using some of the same moves as Jones, but explained in more detail. Burrito grip!
We played with the first techniques during class on Wednesday (2/28/24) but the baby bridge near the end might be the most interesting addition:
We talked about this one but didn’t spend time on it because we’ve had enough neck issues in the morning class:
We tried to work on Keenan’s concept. Results weren’t great so far.
Here are some nogi ideas:
Here’s Dean Lister using Keenan to explain the defense he used on Keenan at ADCC:
Their match:
Here’s what Chewy says:
Galvao’s version:
Galvao said you need to step over first with the leg on the same side as the arm that’s stuck inside. Here’s a famous example of stepping with the wrong leg first:
Coach Brian:
Royler failing to step over Eddie Bravo to sit back:
We’ve touched on s-mount a little bit before. See S-Mount Warm Up Drill and Mounted Armbar. We’ll start with the s-mount warmup shown in the first post, and work on some attacks.
Here’s some quick and simple advice for advancing your mount position. What if your opponent has tight, defensive arm position?
If you don’t have a collar to grab, can’t fit your hand in to grab a collar, can’t separate an arm for an armbar attack, and can’t get your knees up into the armpits, start by forcing their arm into an Americana position.
Here’s a longer explanation of protecting the mount from Roger Gracie:
I strongly prefer Roger’s insistence on keeping weight on his opponent, but as an entry to s-mount, this is a nice start. Note how Jean Jacques isn’t opening any space for his opponent to sneak out the back:
His arms are too low to force over his head and you can’t slide your knees up? Trap the arm down and step over:
This is probably the most like what I do from this position. I love starting with a cross choke grip and using that to turn to the side:
By request, we’ve spent some time recently working on movements in this video:
I like elements of it, and have issues with some others. I still don’t believe in the sweep at 4:45. I think it requires too much cooperation from the top player. If he sat back or posted with his right arm, it wouldn’t work. I didn’t like it in Lachlan’s video and I still don’t. I am open to the idea that I’m missing something important here, but my experience is that the Hughes arm bar of GSP is the more likely outcome.
I forgot how poor GSP’s grip was, but I still don’t like it. We played with variations based on the hip bump advice in the next video, but that still didn’t resolve it for me:
If you can explain to me how to turn the kimura grip into a reliable sweep from a position where the top player is passing the guard, I’m interested. I’m not knocking the half butterfly sweep though. I’ve hit this one a lot:
Back to the shoulder. Here’s a useful explanation of Tarikoplata vs the Baratoplata:
There will probably be another post following this to investigate more of the entries to ‘platas.
This looks pretty agreeable to me:
Here is a better explanation than I’m capable of writing right now: https://thegrapplingconjecture.blogspot.com/2023/01/z-lock.html