Takeaways from Rodolfo Viera, Bernardo Faria, and the Euro 2012 Final

Kid Peligro posted a link to Rodolfo Viera (GF Team) and Bernardo Faria (Alliance) in the final of the Euro 2012.

A quick summary of the takeaways:
Faria initially tries a slingshot/armdrag  which misses and he then resorts to pulling half-guard or single leg attempts for most of the match.

Rodolfo points out Faria repeatedly hiking up/pulling up his sleeves to prevent Rodolfo from getting a sleeve grip and the refs call Faria on it.

A good bit of the match is Faria’s single leg/leg grab being stuffed by good balance and takedown defense by Rodolfo. On the way out of bounds, Rodolfo hits at least 1 uchimata turnover/counter to the single leg and what may be a haraigoshi or an uchimata (can’t tell due to the camera’s angle) again later against Faria holding the grip as they move toward the edge.

Incidentally, this grip on the leg, which Faria hangs on for waaaaay too long is how we teach kids to do uchimata to get the motion correct.

It’s a gimmie when you see someone hang onto the leg like that. I often hit this, or grip the far arm and hit a kimura turnover as a counter to the single leg. I've done this in Judo, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Wrestling, NoGi, and the like. It's an effective counter everyone should practice.

At one point, Rodolfo loses position to a single/double leg transition (a similar takedown Claudio Calasans scored on Rodolfo in the Abu Dhabi Pro in one of the few moments Rodolfo’s looked human as of late).

At any rate, Rodolfo eventually settles into a half-guard position and without the underhook he clamps down on the belt then tries to cut through and pass. This fails, and he ends up back in half-guard or quarter guard…gets the underhook….and makes his way to mount.

At that level, it’s interesting to see how fundamentals are still every bit as important.

Happy Trainingz!