My first comp - Copa Nova 10/22/2011

[Luis Candelas, BCG]

COPA NOVA Ashburn, VA
166-179lb beginners cruiser weight division

i friggin lost 5-6, would have been 9-6 if i had one more second. please teach me how to pass the guard, i'm a little embarrassed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7_Uz...e_gdata_player

[Angel"EL DIABLO"Diaz]

Im still just a lowly white belt but the best advice I can give you on guard passing is to work many different guard passes style for example :standard knee cut or slice ,hand in back pocket or standing up breaks, there are some guard passes where you bait your foot and while they underhook you can sort of spin out in side control hard to explain. Mainly Im saying you should have a bread and butter pass (maybe the knee slice) but start getting good at other passes so you can constanstly get your opponent off guard of slipping

I saw towards the end (4:15)when you stood up and he tried to sweep but you stayed heavy and ended up passing keep work on those kind of passes where you stand up forcing the opponent to either attempt to sweep or something I personally like those better than the knee slice but of course you still need to know your options, as for your first competition I think you did good but its funny I had similar problems in my first matches dealing with peoples guards , anyways hoped that helped at least a little

[Luis Candelas, BCG]

^thanks for the tips, i gave him that sweep early just to get him to do something but i ended up shooting myself in the foot and losing. next time i'm staying patient and not being so aggressive when i'm up 2-0.

[Bryan From DC]

It's great you went out to compete. That was a great showing for the Beginners division. Considering you posted the video I assume you're looking for some critiques. The main critique I would have is guard posture. While controlling the armpits is good, you make really no attempt to pin his hip and reclaim your posture. Breaking guard without controlling the hip or having a strong posture is not advisable. Standing is a good option, the reason it was getting you into some issues was two fold. First, you were keeping your head down (bad posture) and standing. The second the one time you did successfully get your posture and stand, you were squared up with him making it very easy to sweep and take mount. If you choose to stand, step up with one foot first and second foot angled back out of reach.

A couple of minor things. Your head was down on your single leg, a more experienced wrestler would take advantage of that. Be careful with that mount escape you attempted at 2:35, its a simple transition to a triangle. Lastly, let go of the guillotine after he reestablishes his guard, you aren't going to finish it and you are just wasting energy. Overall great showing.

[robert gero]

great job...just remember you was up 2-0 he pulled guard so just take ur time and posture,balance,stall and try ur money passes when u fell like it...

[WilliamGunter]

don't worry my vids are worse lol. they will be up soon

[Luis Candelas, BCG]

It's great you went out to compete. That was a great showing for the Beginners division. Considering you posted the video I assume you're looking for some critiques. The main critique I would have is guard posture. While controlling the armpits is good, you make really no attempt to pin his hip and reclaim your posture. Breaking guard without controlling the hip or having a strong posture is not advisable. Standing is a good option, the reason it was getting you into some issues was two fold. First, you were keeping your head down (bad posture) and standing. The second the one time you did successfully get your posture and stand, you were squared up with him making it very easy to sweep and take mount. If you choose to stand, step up with one foot first and second foot angled back out of reach.

A couple of minor things. Your head was down on your single leg, a more experienced wrestler would take advantage of that. Be careful with that mount escape you attempted at 2:35, its a simple transition to a triangle. Lastly, let go of the guillotine after he reestablishes his guard, you aren't going to finish it and you are just wasting energy. Overall great showing.

thanks for the tips, i'll be watching the mts episode on the cruise where they teach how to pass again, what a dumb problem to have.

[Luis Candelas, BCG]

don't worry my vids are worse lol. they will be up soon

dude you went home with 2 medals, couldn't be that bad.

[Bryan From DC]

Don't beat yourself up over it. Guard passing is probably the single toughest aspect of Jiu Jitsu.

[Eddie Bravo]

Work on controlling your opponent's armpits, palms down, while slicing your knee up his crotch, that's a good one, watch MTS 27.

Thank you very much for representing 10th Planet, in my eyes you won, I would've given you the points at the end