Who I'm watching, What I'm learning, What I'm training....

Been studying a lot of Lucas Lepri and his passing lately. In fact, I've watched every match of his I can find on youtube/the internet. In particular looking at how it's changed from his worst appearance in the finals of the mundials (2007 against Vinicius I think), his repeated matches over several years with JT Torres, and culminating with his matches against Satoshi and JT at this years Mundials. He's become far more insistent in how he passes and his passing game appears relatively narrow (in a good way) with the positions he gets to and the manner in which he breaks down the open guards of those he faces.

I've been working on my mentality toward competing by watching a lot of Malcolm Gladwell and reading research regarding expert/skill acquisition.

Ericcson in addition elaborates on the tenants of what that 10,000 hours actually means: notably things like desire, time spent honing your craft consistently, and deliberate practice (along with expert feedback/mentorship).

The takeaways (among others) are that mindlessly training hard is not the best use of training time. Forming a systematic approach to training and being open to feedback and match analysis, however, are ways to optimize training. Training one way, or just grinding in the same drills are also not the most effective use of your training time.

I've been going back and rewatching matches for my entire year at purple belt. Looking not only for mistakes but also where I've been effective: namely with a few exceptions my open guard sweeps have been considerably more consistent than my open guard passing. Where I've gotten caught and/or where I've lost matches has begun with being swept while passing with only about 3-4 matches where I was not able to get the sweep. In the matches where I couldn't get the sweep, I didn't chain together my open guard sweeps and various types of open guard, ala DLR, Reverse DLR, deep half, spider, et cetera.

I made some hard choices and quit my weekend job to be most rested for my referee and competition opportunities and also not mix up my sleep schedule by working downtown weekends then back to my full-time job during the week.
I've begun drilling 3-4 days a week in the morning for about 90 minutes in addition to training at night and on the weekends.

Phsycially, I've been drilling my guard passing and combining my knee through guard passing with a backstep pass and some other nuances to my guard passing. I've been logging anywhere from 60-80-100 reps at a time in sets of 20. 

My Next Superfight Booked: February 28th Toro Cup - Durham, NC

Details being ironed out, but I'm on the card. Something along the lines of 15 minutes submission only, points or submission for 5 minutes if no submission in the first 15.

Pretty *(&% excited. Want to give a big thanks to Cageside MMA/Toro BJJ for the awesome opportunity.

Happy Thanksgiving! Backstep Pass from Roy Marsh

Roy is the guy who actually started my passing game.
He showed me a head down, very pressure-driven knee through guard pass.
This pretty much was the first pass I could hit with any regularity and now I don't even know how people pass if they don't do some variation of this.

At any rate, enjoy.

Kron Gracie MMA Debut Set for December 23rd in Japan

Well, the Rickson progeny will make his debut. 

Both Kron and his opponent will be making their MMA debuts. 

"Kron Gracie, Son of MMA and jiu-jitsu legend Rickson Gracie, will meet Hyung Soo Kim in a lightweight bout at Real Fight Championship 1 on Dec. 23 in Japan, the promotion announced."

It looks like they're adopting the Royce Gracie attitude toward MMA - which is to eschew crosstraining.

"'He’s focused, he wants to bring jiu-jitsu back to MMA," Gracie said. "He’s not doing crosstraining to work on his weaknesses. He won’t start boxing, kickboxing, wrestling. He will use his jiu-jitsu to neutralize the wrestler, the striker, and work on his expertise.'"

"Roberto Satoshi, who competed against Jake Shields at Metamoris 5’s secret match, will also compete at the event, facing Jeong Doo-Jae in a lightweight contest. BJJ champion Gabi Garcia is also expected to make her MMA debut at the event, but her opponent is still yet to be announced."

"Do they have Donkeys in Australia?": Metamoris 5 & Copa Podio Monday Morning Hangover

Copa Podio and it's streaming issues will make sure no on trusts ordering their show.
Seriously.

An hour of ankle grabbing by Miyao and Grippo was what I feared, and had I been able to watch it, I'm sure the Leandro Lo/Durinho match was awesome.

Leandro finished with a cross collar choke and Preguica beat a ridiculous list of names.

In Metamoris results, Tonon got the tap but what followed was not a fire and brimstone string of submissions.

Jake Shields also had an impressive match with Satoshi who looked a bit sheepish afterward. I thought it was an exciting match and Jake Shields shows he's an MMA fighter with legit credentials (not that anyone doubted that before).

The Rory and JT match had it's moments but what's with these MMA guys showing up in poorly chosen grappling shorts and looking flabby as all get out?

The big winner of the event was Matheus Diniz who really put the work to Vinny Magalhaes. I don't see and don't want to see Magalhaes on another Metamoris card.

As a sport Jiu-Jitsu enthusiast watching part 5 or 6 or of however many matches Keenan and Yuri have had was exciting. Keenan looked like perhaps he'd overtrained a bit for this one and was not as fresh looking early on, but that training at Atos that looks like a room full of killers paid off and Keenan looked better and better as the match wore on.

Anyhow, somehow, I was left a bit disappointed.
Watching Saku and Renzo, and Renzo redeeming himself was powerful, but perhaps I just wasn't in the mood for a night of submission grappling and sport Jiu-Jitsu. I'm unable to ascertain what specifically about the show was lacking. The production was good. The pacing also felt streamlined. The matches were close and had a lot of back and forth by and large.

I'm left with Jeff Glover's voice in my ear asking Kit Dale, "Do they have Donkeys in Australia?"

Metamoris 5/Copa Podio Predictions

 I'll zip through Copa Podio:

I think Gianni takes it over Miyao which actually goes against the conventional wisdom I'm seeing online.

I think Leandro beat Durinho despite the fact that Durinho has edged him out in their previous matches. I think Leandro's newfound "size" and every increasing strength plus Durinho's MMA focus will see a more athletic/more powerful Leandro get to Durinho's back. I've read interview where Durinho at least in words seems dismissive of Leandro, but Leandro has looked great, only barely being edged out by Keenan in the absolute at Mundials then recently coming back to defeat him at the NY BJJ Pro.

I see no reason why Preguica won't recapture his title. 


Metamoris 5:

I think the Secret Match will be.....drumroll please.......Kenny Florian versus Sean Roberts
Garry TOnon will likely finish Zak Maxwell. Zak is tough and in the gi I would predict a draw, but Garry in the NoGi is no joke. I think Garry takes this one by toehold off of a heel hook set up.

Some random guy versus Vinny? I think Vinny wins this unless he gets frustrated and breaks mentally like he did down the stretch against Keenan who frustrated him just enough to see Vinny begin to crack.

Yuri now faces Keenan and as much as Yuri has been on a tear, I see nothing from Yuri's recent matches to make me believe he'll pass Keenan's myriad of guard/lapel/whatever-you-call-it maze of legs and lapels and hooks and feet and grips.
I see this one going to distance as all of their encounters have been close.

JT vs Rory is interesting in that Rory is considerably heavier than JT. JT if he had a sharper leg lock game I would actually be picking to win, but I think Rory's beast mode size and strength will thwart much of JT's game until perhaps the last 4-5 minutes.

Kazushi "The Gracie Hunter" Sakuraba versus Renzo?
This is honestly which guy has more mileage left in the old man gas tank.
Kazushi's frightening losses at the end of his career to guys the size of Wanderlei and others....I just...it's hard to say. I think also, Renzo has a better stable of competitors and guys with which to prepare.
That being said....Kazushi is mercurial and unpredictable.
I mean, who do you find that rolls like that guy?
I'll go with Kazushi by unconventionality with some bizarre submission most of us have never seen before.

The (Re)Dawn of Low Guard Passing: Paulo Miyao vs Leonardo Saggioro - Rio BJJ Pro 2014

With the advent of the Berimbolo and other standing guard pass dangers, it always seemed predictable that low/knee down guard passing would become the norm.
Even for a hardcore sport Jiu-Jitsu fan/follower, it's not the most exciting Jiu-Jitsu match to watch.
The relentless pressure, patience, and insistence needed to impose this type of game, particularly against a wily and crafty bottom player like Paulo is a protracted and tense but visually perhaps boring 10 minute display.