[Aesopian]

I attended the Marcelo Garcia seminar at St. Augustine Combat Club this weekend of August 26-27, 2006. It was 3 hours per day, with gi on Saturday and no-gi on Sunday.

I had the flu and a fever for the entire week leading up to the seminar, but I started anti-biotics on Friday and felt well enough to attempt the seminar, since I'd already paid $140 for it. But I was really, really exhausted the entire time and didn't spar with anyone (including Marcelo) since I didn't want to shock my system.

Marcelo opened the seminar by telling how he thinks Americans may worry that they aren't getting the best training if they can't train with a black belt, but he said that they shouldn't worry. When he started BJJ, he used to have to drive hours to train with a blue belt, and he still valued the training he got.

He started us with some light warm ups and stretches. Twisting at the hips and swinging your arms; hands on hips, gyrate like your doing an invisible hula hoop; feet shoulder-width apart, touch the ground; sit with knees up, twist legs so knees touch the floor; sit and hug your knees and rock front to back; rock back and touch a knee on the mat over your head, alternate side; belly down, push straight off the ground, lift hips, stretch stomach; lay flat, arm out, opposite foot crosses back and touches hand; lay on your back, flip and lower head; turn head left and right; circle head left and right.

On to the techniques.

1) Pulling guard

From standing, grab their right wrist with your left hand and pass it to your right hand. Twist their sleeve with your fingers as you grab it. This gives you a joystick grip on the gi and a cupping grip under their wrist.

Step on their right hip with your left foot and sit down, keeping space by pushing their hip. Turn your hips and "hang" your right leg in the air away from them.

Don't let them grab your lapels or your belt by keeping their grips away from it. You can brace your elbows on your hips to create a frame that doesn't let them come nearer.

If they grab your pants with their free hand, bring your right foot to their left biceps and shove it back as your turn your hips to the left and kick your leg to break the grip. Your right foot now goes to their left hip and your left leg hands out away from them.

Now, if they grab your right leg with their free hand, you bring your left foot back and step on their chest, then stretch them away as you turn your hips to the right and kick your right leg out to break the grip.

2) Tripod sweep

Starting with the same guard pull, you will land on your back within reach of their right ankle. Your left hand releases it cupping grip on the arm (but your right hand keeps the pistol grip) and you grab behind their ankle.

Pull their heel to you as you scoot your hips under them and turn your hips to the right slightly, then bring your left knee behind their knee. This was a unique knee placement since it felt less like spider guard and more like De la Riva or x-guard, since you are coming under them and lifting their leg with your knee and by their heel, but you were still pushing on their hip with your foot and pulling their sleeve.

With your hips somewhat suspended by the foot on the hip, the knee under their knee and their heel lifted, bring your right leg behind their free leg and chop it out as your shove their hips back and pull their heel to you.

When they fall backwards, pull your hook off them before you try to get up. If you try to magically float over them during the sweep you'll end up in a scramble. Come up into combat base and begin passing.

3) Hilarious sweep

You're setting up the last sweep and get to the point of being under their knee with your knee and lifting their ankle. They counter by grabbing your right leg by the pants so you can't bring it down and chop out their base. But you've still got enough slack with their grip to put your right hook under their left thigh.

Your left hand, which is cupping their heel, lifts their foot as passes it over your body, so it is now standing outside your right arm. You open your right elbow, blocking the back of their calf so they can't bring their foot back. And you are still holding their sleeve, so their arm is now being hilariously pulled between their legs.

Your left foot comes off their hip and hook their far leg, a la x-guard.

This position probably makes no sense in text. So here's a picture:



Rock up and reach into their armpit with your left hand and grab their biceps. Or if you can't reach that high, just grab the top of their thigh.

Now rock back, pulling them down, as your lift them with both leg and try to roll backwards over your shoulder. Don't just roll to the side. As they come down, get to your knees and immediately take side control before they can recover.

4) Hilarious sweep to single leg

You are going through the steps of the last sweep, but as you pass their leg over, they turn to their right and escape your hooks, freeing them to try to turn into you and take side control.

As they step around and turn into you, twist your hips to roll belly down. Hug their right leg with your left arm as you stand, lifting their leg. Both of your arms are lifting under their leg, and your right hand is still holding their sleeve. Take your left hand and reach through their armpit to grab their biceps. Circle and pull back to take them down and come into side control.

5) Pulling guard to armdrag

Standing again. Pull guard like in the first move. Only this time, once you go down, they start trying to back up and pull their arm out.

When they pull back the first time, sit up and put your left foot way to the outside and your right foot kinda close to your butt.

When they pull again, go up a little, then escape your hips far to the left, then fall back and pull them down into the mat by their arm.

As they come to hands and knees, post your right hand on the mat to lift yourself up, and reach over their back and under their armpit with your left hand. Then release your grip on their sleeve and bring your hands together, grabbing your right hand with your left (the one under the armpit always grabs).

Marcelo made a big point about posting with the hand and never the elbow when getting up to take the back. He said that you're cutting out parts of the best technique, since you can't keep your full weight on the grip if you're only getting to your elbow. He also said you need to lift your hips off the ground so that weight is also in the posting arm, not just laying on the ground.

Once you've got the harness, fall to the right and put your hooks in. If it all worked out well during the move, your right hook may already be in. If they fall past it and it's not, that's fine, since you'll be able to put it in when you roll to the right.

6) Hook sweep

You pull guard again, only this time they go to their knees and are able to grab your lapel. Sit up and put both feet on their hips (this means taking out your butterfly hooks if you put them in instinctually). Straight your leg to push them back and break their grip off your lapel.

Now pull their arm across your body as you put your hooks in and reach of their back with your left hand. Grab their belt as far to the opposite side as possible. Do not reach over their shoulder, but around their waist. Your elbow should be low on their side even though your reach around behind them.

When they try to pull their right arm out to uncross it, bring your head in and put it under theirs, coming to the inside. Rock back, lifting them with your left hook and pushing off the mat with your right foot.

As they flip over you, keep ahold of their belt and sleeve so they can't easily run away. While you're still laying on your back, turn your head and press it against their shoulder/chest to prevent them from turning away. Roll to your knees and come into side control.

7) Stuffed hook sweep to taking the back

While setting up the previous sweep, they drive their weight into you and start trying to pass to your right side. Their weight is now to the opposite side of the sweep. But try to do it anyway, just enough to lift their one side, then take your butterfly hook out and put your other leg in its place.

Post your right hand on the mat as you rock up and take the harness. Take the back like in the earlier move.

8) Straight elbow lock from crucifix on knees

Starting from sideride with the harness, try to rock them to the right to take their back. But they post with their right hand to base out. Drive your left knee up under their armpit and elbow, then step over their forearm with your right foot and hook their arm with your heel. Drag their arm back and take the crucifix from knees.

Triangle your legs so your right ankle is behind your left knee. You want to put the triangle on the same side as their legs.

To do the elbow lock, open your knees wide and drop your hips. You need to make sure you don't move your hips away while you're doing this or their arm with slip out. You also need to get a feel for where and how to keep their wrist trapped against your shin.

9) Straight elbow lock from crucifix on back

You've got sideride on their right side, but they trap your left arm and roll over their left shoulder to take your over.

As you come over, trap their arm with your legs for the crucifix, digging your heel into their elbow/forearm if needed.

Triangle your legs around the arm, with the triangle on the same side as the legs. Arch your hips and stretch your legs back for the elbow lock.

10) Mean RNC

You have sideride again, and they do you a favor by grab your right leg, putting themselves in the crucifix. But then they join their hands and actually get a strong enough grip that you're not going to be able to do any of the other armlocks. So just triangle their arm anyway and do this instead:

They are turtled tightly with their chin tucked to defend the choke. Your left hand comes out from under their armpit and grabs their forehead, pulling their head back. Your right hand chops up into their neck, if just enough to get the "blade of your thumb" under their jaw. Your right hand grabs their far shoulder, and you walk it up with this grip to get it deeper and deeper.

Once you've got it high and deep enough on their neck, grab your left biceps with your right hand, then put your left hand behind their head if possible. Then the key to finishing here is to drive your weight into them like you want to put your head on the mat.

====

Oh, the gym was hot as balls. Like tortuously hot. I thought I must still just have a fever and was worried I was going to pass out, but everyone I asked also thought they were going to die too.

No-gi notes coming up next.

[LCDforMe]

Wow...sounds like a good seminar.

Thanks a ton for the notes, Aesopian.

Did you watch Marcelo roll at all?

[qiksilverman]

can't wait for the no-gi notes thanx

[Aesopian]

I got to watch him roll for over an hour and found it very educating in itself. I think that as his English improves he'll be able to communicate more details, but I when he is rolling or even just demonstrating a move, I noticed that he'll do little movements that he didn't explain that really help flesh out the technique once you'e spotted them.

Here's what I noticed:

While he is on the back, he is constantly bringing up his top hook (since he rolls them to one side) and dragging his heel down their body to try to catch their arm. He'll just keep doing this over and over again and eventually trap their arm.

As a friend had told me, from the back he only really cares about keeping the hook on the side of the choking arm. His other hook will be doing different things like stepping on their hip, trying to hook the arm (as above), stepping on the ground to adjust his hips, joining the other hook to triangle behind one leg, etc. In particular, I noticed he was taking this hook out and putting it behind their knee and stretching their leg out and up, to keep them from being able to turn.

I noticed that he was trying to sweep people over his head so they'd post their arms, then take the reverse armbars by hugging the elbows to his shoulder. He wasn't aggressively finishing these with anyone that I saw, but he got a couple. I think I saw him let people try to turn their arms out of these so he could throw his leg up into an omoplata.

During no-gi, he was very aggressive with guillotines whenever he was against a wrestler or someone who would come in with their head low. He didn't seem to be really trying to finish most of them at first, but I saw him start to really lay into them on one particularly aggressive guy.

He got a lot of omoplatas, from guard but also from the top, particularly when people tried to escape mount or side control with underhooks. I didn't see him finish a lot of them the traditional way, but instead would make/let them roll and come up into a position where he could straightened the arm into his armpit for an armbar of sorts.

[Jiu-Jitsu Cop]

Let me know if you have any no-gi techniques. Thanks for the post.

[Aesopian]

Here is the first batch of no-gi notes. More to come.

As you'll find repeated by anyone who has trained with Marcelo, he stresses very heavily the importance of imposing your game, fighting on your terms and always initiating the action. The lessons from the seminar where to built around aggressively and purposefully engaging the opponent, starting with pulling guard (day 1) or going for the takedown (day 2).

1) Single leg from clinch

You and your opponent are standing mostly upright. He may have a neck grip but don't worry about it much. Focus on keeping elbow control, pummeling to grip his elbows if he tries to dominately grip yours.

One time when you feel him pull back to try to free his elbow, drop down and hug his leg. So if he pulled back to his left, take his right leg. Go to your left knee and keep your right leg up. Hug his leg extremely tightly, grabbing your opposite elbows/triceps if possible.

There should be absolutely no space around the leg like there would be if you just used a gable grip. Make sure your head is inside (so you don't get crucifix or guillotined), with your forehead pressed firmly into his side. Keep a strong neck and good posture so they can't bend you over by pushing on the back of your head. Marcelo said that hugging the leg extremely tightly like this is important when submission are in the game, which is why he does it differently than in wrestling.

With the leg trapped, stand up. Your leg that is to their rear, the left, swings back and you turn to the left. Then you sprawl, dropping your chest and hips all at once, bringing them to the ground. You only need to go to your knees, not completely straighten your legs.

From here, start passing however you want, probably hopping over the leg to side control.

2) Shaking the single leg to rear bodylock

Marcelo admitted that he's no stellar wrestler and that as a jiu-jitsu guy he's going to have trouble taking down experienced wrestlers. He'll get the single leg and they'll be able to hop around on one foot and keep their balance. This is what he does in those cases.

Hugging the leg and standing with good base, he'll turn hard to one side and make them hop backwards. Then he'll turn hard to the other side and make them hop forwards. He is standing in relatively the same spot and turning at the waist to swing them around; he's not trying to run around them. If he was, they'd just stand in one place and not have to hop around on one foot.

While he's shaking them back and forth, he'll feel for when they go off balance. This can be when they're moving in either direction. When they do, he'll release the leg and quickly grab around the waist and spin to their back. He gets directly behind them, so his head is not still on their side where it can be grabbed. His arms hug tighly by the hips, and he puts his head to one side of their back.

He stands on his toes so he can stay light on his feet. He doesn't bring his hips too close or put his leg where they can grab and kneebar it. He also doesn't put his hips too far away where he'll lose balance. Find a nice spot in between.

I was making the mistake of putting one of my arms deeper than the other, and he told me not to do this since guys can trap it and toss you over his hips.

3) Jumping to the back from rear bodylock

When the opponent is about the same size as you, you can release the bodylock and throw on a harness as you jump and put both hooks in. This is as simple as it sounds. Basically just jump up on his back. Make sure you grab your hand with the arm that's under the armpit and that you get your chest in the middle of his shoulders, not too high or too low.

4) Forcing the fall from standing rear mount

So you're now hanging from rear mount with them standing. Let's say they are grabbing your wrists to defend the choke and have straightened their back so they are upright. When they stand like this, you have to expend a lot of energy to keep your harness tight enough to not fall off, so you don't want to hang out here long.

To take them down, simply stretch your hooks and arch your back, pulling their chest, forcing them off balance. This is basically the same as you'd do to break someone down when you've got rear mount on the ground. As they start falling backwards, twist to the right so they fall to their side, and so you are able to roll out of the fall more (not landing flat on your back).

People were worried about "But what if he leans forward so you can't force him back?" Marcelo said that it doesn't matter at that point since then he's carrying your weight and you're not wasting energy. This came with a great demo of Marcelo doing a bellyspin on someone's back to show that he doesn't need any grips at that point to stay on.

5) Rear bodylock to the Ricco Toppler

You'll recognize this from Marcelo's match with Ricco. He said he does this when the person is too tall for him to just jump up on their back. He said he might do that if they are tired and he thinks he can be fast enough, but this is the standard move.

From the rear bearhug, keep your grip tight and scoot your hip back then jump up and plant both of your feet in the back of their knees. Straighten your legs and pull back to make them fall backwards.

Make sure you get your foot in the middle of the bend of the knee, not to the side, or it will slide off or you'll kick and hurt their knee.

As they fall, keep tension in your stomach so you don't fall to your back. You want to end sitting up. Keep your feet on the back of their knees, stretching their legs away. If you let your legs go wide and lose contact, or if you fall backwards, they'll have a better chance of scrambling or rolling out.

Release the bodylock and take the harness. Now put your hooks in. Marcelo made a point of following that order, since he said that putting the hooks in without the upper body control still gave them a chance to escape.

[kuroMaguro]

Any chance you could post pictures of the tripod sweep? Can't quite visualize it in your description.

[qiksilverman]

when you say
"As a friend had told me, from the back he only really cares about keeping the hook on the side of the choking arm. "

if you have over control with your left armand under control with your right arm which hook would you only really care about (just to clarify)

[Aesopian]

So you have your left arm over their shoulder and your right hand under their armpit? Then you want to roll them on their left side, and you want to keep your left hook.

[KentPeters]

Thanks alot Aesopian, great post ... sounds like it was a killer seminar