[Aesopian]

The seminar that Carlos Gracie Jr. gave at Gracie Barra Tampa this last Sunday was excellent. It's always a pleasure to hear Carlos talk about BJJ, its history, its future, the growth of Gracie Barra, growth of the sport, teaching, coaching and pretty much anything.

Someone asked him if he's trying to get BJJ in the Olympics, and I know this is common question online, so I'll share his answer. He said he doesn't plan on getting it into the Games since the requirements call for the sport to be represented in about 70 countries, with each country having full black belt teams, both male and female. He left it open as a possibilty, but didn't see it happening until further down the line.

The instruction was very clear and detailed, as always. He did a good job of explaining the strategy behind the technique, and each move tended to naturally follow into the next. He didn't just show a bunch of flashy moves isolation or try to overload us with "advanced" techniques. He said he likes to use seminars to share techniques between the different Gracie Barras, and that he always makes it a point to find a black belt who is doing something well and sharing his way of doing a technique. You can see this in what he taught below.

Techniques:

• Gripping and sitting to triangle (like Roger vs Xande)
• Uchimata to sacrifice throw (Carlinhos' favorite)
• Uchimata to ankle pick (Marcio Feitosa's favorite)
• Grip break to omoplata from standing
• Omoplata to triangle, counter defense with backwards triangle
• Sitting armbar from standing (that one of his black belts won 80% of his fights using)
• Recovering from being flattened out in butterfly guard to sweep
• Countering underhook with armdrag and sweep from butterfly guard
• Countering hook sweep defense (posting leg) with another sweep

Unless I'm forgetting some, I thought it was interesting how many of the techniques started standing.

You'd almost call them a "flying" triangle, omoplata and armbar, but it was more of a sitting or "pulling guard" motion, not jumping up to them. The triangle from standing was similar to the one Roger used to beat Xande, and he used the same grip for the uchimata variations. The grip for all of these was interesting enough that I made sure to get a photo for reference:



It's surprisingly easy to get a triangle off this grip by just putting a foot on the hip and pulling spider guard.

Overall, a great seminar by a friendly and skilled instructor. Definitely get to one if you have a chance.

[Sherdog_Mutt]

Carlinhos is a great guy and, in my opinion, one of the best BJJ instructors ever. He has definitely been one of the most influential figures in my BJJ development. I'm glad to hear that you had such a good time at the seminar. I'd be interested in a description of the triangle move that Roger used on Xande (as taught by Carlinhos).

Originally Posted by Aesopian

[*]Sitting armbar from standing (that one of his black belts won 80% of his fights using)

haha... the black belt he's referring to is Joao "Big Head" Salgado. Joao won at the mundials in the late 90's (including logging one of the quickest submissions ever) predominantly using a sitting armbar from standing. I remember attending a Joao seminar where he decided to have everyone line up as he armbarred everyone at the seminar one by one (so that we can all "feel" his armbar). Good times.

[jadizm]

Looked fun!

[tudor_bjj]

Hey, Aesopian can you give a short description of these:
Omoplata to triangle, counter defense with backwards triangle
Sitting armbar from standing (that one of his black belts won 80% of his fights using)
Recovering from being flattened out in butterfly guard to sweep
Countering hook sweep defense (posting leg) with another sweep?

[Aesopian]

Mutt,

You're right -- Joao is exactly who he was talking about. My Brazilian Nickname Memory is not refined yet.

I think you'll love this setup, because if it fails you're just left playing spider guard. It starts like this:

1. He grabs my lapel with his left hand.
2. I reach under his arm with my right hand and grab his opposite lapel. My left hands opens the collar and feeds it deeper.
3. My left hand grabs his left sleeve and pulls his arm to me. His arm will feel "secured" once you get your right elbow behind his.

That's the end of gripping aspect. You end up here:



Notice how the grip has turned his shoulder towards me, and I'm now standing sideways to him.

For the triangle, I continue by:

1. Stepping on his left hip (same side as the trapped arm) with my right foot to stretch him back as...
2. I sit down. My hips spin to the left and my left leg swings out.
3. Now I can quickly throw my left leg around his head for the triangle. Or if he grabs my left knee to prevent the triangle, I just circle my foot to his biceps to break his grip then throw the leg over for the triangle.
4. My right hand comes off the collar to grab my left ankle, as I quickly take my right foot off the hip and lock the triangle. My left hand pulls the arm to cross it.
5. Squeeze knees and all that jazz to finish the choke.

Make sure you stretch him out with your foot on his hip as you sit. This will make getting the triangle easier and make it harder for him to use the other arm to grab defend.

What's so surprising about this setup is that while you're standing, you'd never expect it ending in a triangle so quickly.

Give it a try and let me know what you think.

I'll get to the other techniques later.

[Aesopian]

tudor,

I'll drop "Recovering from being flattened out in butterfly guard to sweep" real quick...

1. You have butterfly guard, but they have flattened you out, have underhooks (or at least denied you underhooks of your own) and have their head buried in your chest/stomach. So a fucked up place to be. You want to get your forearm against their throat to create a frame and make space, but you can't get your arm under their head no matter how hard to dig.
2. Do a quick, sharp bridge and put a forearm across their neck as they head pops up. Grab their opposite shoulder, and put your free hand on top of the other to reenforce the frame across the neck.
3. Lift your elbow to drive your forearm against their throat to lift their head as you escape your hips to the same side as the framing arm.
4. Keep lifting your elbow and framing their head up as you put your other elbow on the ground. Sit up until you can post your hand on the mat behind you.
5. Get into a good sitting position. The arm that's framing the neck rotates down and swims for the underhook.
6. Grab the belt, trap the far arm, hook sweep like normal.

Make sense?

[ironneck]

Nice! Really deatailed and well written. Thanks for sharing.

[Sixth]

I would have loved to be there when the gi part was over. Or was it all gi? Either way, though, I'm sure it was fun for work with Carlinho.

[Aesopian]

It was all gi. Only about two of the techniques would work no-gi.

[Sixth]

Originally Posted by Aesopian

It was all gi. Only about two of the techniques would work no-gi.

Ah, well. Not quite my game, then.