Foot Sweep Saturday

Two of my foot sweeps from US Grappling Raleigh this past Saturday. When in doubt, foot sweep him.
Low risk, don't expose the back or commit too heavily.

 AND

Post-Tournament Thoughts

Spent the day reffing and got to watch a good bit of black belt matches and catch up with old friends and familiar faces. 

I lost my first match at weight by points, then my second match by a slick armbar because I was lazy and paid the price for leaving it out there. I had a rematch with my first opponent from my weight class in the first round of the absolute and again lost by points. 

My second match in the absolute I lost by armbar in the closed guard for not squaring up my hips to my opponents'. As usual I have to keep it in perspective rather than make it more than it is: after a four month layoff, I knew parts of my game would be rusty. I'm no Dominic Cruz (haha). There's a fine line between rationalizing losses and mistakes and becoming completely outcome dependent. Obsession with winning and more often (for me) fear of losing can be every bit as detrimental as blaming everything else out there for your loss(es).

  When you train 5-6 days a week, have no other substantive hobbies, enjoying the process isn't always possible but over-internalizing failures makes for a tough, tough road to tow day in and day out. Before my hiatus from jiujitsu I had pretty much hated training 3/4 of the time. Almost every day was a grind for the previous 6 months. It took awhile but come December I missed training and was glad to just be back on the mats again. Burnout and diminishing returns are real phenomena. 

  Silver lining: I stuck to the gameplan. I stayed on my feet and fought for the takedown. I managed to score with some foot sweeps which I'll post shortly but I stuck to my grip fighting, avoided the guard pull until my last match of the day against a much taller opponent, and ignored the quiet voice in my head telling me that we were tired and should just pull guard rather than fight for top position. Win or learn. 

  I'm reffing for Newbreed in Charlotte at the end of the month on the 30th which hopefully means I can go out there a day early and train as well. 

  I'd like to thank my coaches at Gracie Raleigh and my training partners. I felt pretty in shape despite the short turnaround from getting back on the mats in late December and competing midway through January and that is solely due to the tough training in class. I knew I could expect some losses in pursuing a new gameplan and especially after a long layoff, but nothing worth easy is worth doing and the NASA rocket program didn't work on the first try. 

  

UFC 196 Extended Preview - Werdum vs Velasquez 2, Hendricks vs Thompson

I won $60 betting against the oddsmakers on Dominic Cruz. Their rationale that the ring rust would be a factor I felt was negated by how sharp he looked in that Mizugaki fight and simply his career of always showing up in shape. In watching Dillashaw's previous wins I also felt he only looked good bc the guys he fought were foils for his high volume style: they had plodding, march  into the barrage flat-footed styles (Soto and Barao) that made Dillashaw look better than he was. His face compared to Cruz's at the post-fight spoke volumes, Cruz made him miss time after time despite a few errant good shots and Cruz  mixed in some early round takedowns along with crisper combinations landing at times to take the decision. 

As for the Fabricio/Cain rematch, I will post my picks soon. I made a good bit of loot betting on Fabricio last time bc historically Cain falters after long layoffs, and once I saw he showed up just a couple weeks to Mexico City I was tripping over myself to get my bet placed. This time, however, history resides ok Cain's side as he's never lost a rematch. Like I said, I'll post my picks soon. 

http://youtu.be/hDpdapYGQhM

Pre-Tournament Thoughts

Disclaimer- Posted from my iPhone: Competing and reffing for the fine folks at US Grappling in Raleigh, NC tomorrow. It's my first time competing since the end of August. I took a full hiatus from Jiu-Jitsu. No training, no watching matches, zilch. I got back on the mats toward the end of last month and have grinded back into shape. I've been playing Judo again as my tournament gameplan this year has changed. I went back and reviewed the matches which I had won and matches where I had performed more to my potential and it's time to approach competing from another gameplan. 

I've heard it said in many ways by many top level guys but with the exception of perhaps Kron Gracie, they all say something like the guy who gets to where he wants to be first usually wins. I reference Kron here because he is statistically an exception in that he has won many times despite not being the first to score. I would hazard a guess that when you grow up on the mats with Rickson and his black belts...well, you too can be the exception. 

At any rate, failing to prepare is preparing to fail and if my gameplan is to be on top and pass, my training has to reflect that. Friend of mine and now Zenith

Black belt Cody Maltais recently blogged briefly about market inefficiency and utilizing for example foot locks because so many competitors frown on them/the disdain for them in more traditional jiu-jitsu school. 

Thus, in a division like mine (featherweight) where the majority pull guard, the exception is the guard passer. I recall an Instagram post where Gui Mendes paraphrased this, and said something like early on his coach told him that in a division of guard players, his pressure and passing would carry him through. This is big generalization, I'm aware, but you get my drift. Leandro Lo's passing game, Rodolfo Vieira's takedowns and passing, Lucas Lepri's pressure passing and takedowns et cetera. It's akin to basketball teams that play the full court press and don't honor the gentleman's agreement to play a low defense/high offense style of play on basketball (thanks Malcolm Gladwell). 

At any rate, with changes in direction, there will be kinks to work out. I have to spend time potentially losing matches and getting swept/submitted while competing and training to develop this game and it's precision under pressure. I see Purple belt and Brown belt as the minor league to prepare for a game I want well on its way to being developed by the time I approach black belt. I see the Miyaos and Gianni Grippo having to work those parts of their game now (passing, top position) in competition and at smaller tournaments (not the Worlds or Pans et cetera) in an effort to play catch-up in that area of their game. I'm generalizing but their tournament game against Rafa and Malfacine last year failed in that they're route to the back against such experience guys wasn't bolstered by other facets of their game which could threaten. I'm over generalizing here but as close as they came, it's a matter of IF a Miyao gets to your back it's over; however, if they don't, against the very top % they don't have another bullet in the gun. 

If your opponent simply knows you will pull guard in order to sweep/submit you are more predictable than if you can fight for the takedown and pass or get to your feet during the match and restart in a sense. It's the ability to add another dimension to your game of which he/she has to be aware/consider. It's also more tiring to not only attempt to pass, not get submitted, and keep him/her from getting back to his feet than simply trying to pass  while defending sweeps and submissions. 

Bernardo Faria has some interviews where he discuss his blue belt half-guard game and the 10,000 hour rule of mastery. His game only works at

Black belt because he's been sharpening that sword since blue belt. Now in the last year or two he's tweaked it and added that kneebar from top half-guard-passing and some other fine details (I suspect from his training with Marcelo in NYC.  But overall his game has its home base on a position he started as blue belt. I'm rambling, weigh-ins are later tonight, if you're in the area tomorrow come by Dorton Arena in Raleigh and watch, say hey, support NC grappling and the very cool folks that run US Grappling. 

Tanquinho out of UFC Debut wi/ Rib Injury

Read it over at Graciemag. Not sure what he was training or how this close to the fight that he hurt his ribs but weird things inadvertently happen. It's a combat sport. I'm slightly less excited for this card than I was before but getting to see Dominic Cruz back in action is priceless. I bet a solid amount of cash on him to expose Dillashaw as a pretender and a poor man's version of Cruz so we'll see how the layoff affects Cruz/ring rust et cetera. In other news Travis Browne and Matt Mitrione will give one another brain damage. Alvarez faces his third former world champion (Pettis) in as many fights (the Ryan Bader career plan), Ross Pearson looks to get back on track because despite a split decision W over Felder he's been inconsistent across his last 4 fights even against mid-range opposition. Felder himself despite entertaining fights with Pearson and Barboza has also been around the .500 mark in his UFC stint despite a crowd-pleasing style of stand and bang. 

US Grappling - Raleigh, NC this weekend

Come to Dorton Arena for some NC Jiujitsu this Saturday. I'll be reffing and competing for the first time in over four months. U.S. grappling runs a great, on time, professional tournament. 

UFC Fight Nicks Picks for this weekend

I think Dillashaw is a poor man's Dominic Cruz. I think the stand-up Dillashaw showed against Soto and Barao won't win him the fight against Cruz. Normally I would never bet money on a man with so much layoff time as Cruz but 4 fights ago Dillashaw was losing to Raphael Assuncao and 3 fights ago was taking Mike Easton to a decision and yes he made the most of his shot against Barao but I think Barao's classic Muay Thai stance and non-existent footwork made him tailor made for Dillashaw. Cruz has only lost to Faber not in his natural weight class and I refuse to believe Cruz shows up not in shape for this fight. I think Cruz actually batters Dillashaw and stops him in the 4th round. 

I've got the at times unreliable Saunders stopping the shopworn Cote by Tko in the 3rd round.

I think Pettis decisions Alvarez who has not impressed me in his UFC time. Browne takes a split decision over Mitrione though normally I'd bet on a finish in a HW fight. 

Tim Boetsch is tough enough and wilt enough to survive until Herman's gas tank runs empty and I think Cruickshank beats Felder based on Felder's typically one-dimensional gameplan.