Rolling with Marcelo Garcia - 1/2012

Here's a cut and paste of 2 posts I made about my experience rolling with Marcelo Garcia this week:

"Back in NYC!

I had the pleasure of rolling with Marcelo today. I usually play a more stalling, non dynamic, bottom half guard type of game (to conserve energy because of my sucky cardio and sporadic asthmatic condition).

Even though this is exactly the opposite type of game Marcelo's preaches to do (stalling and bottom half guard)- it's served me well many times- and I have prided myself in being able to roll pretty relaxed for long periods of time by conserving my energy, and having a hard half guard to pass (even if it is not the most offensive based at times).

However, this roll was a complete mess.

Since I don't get to visit NYC too much, when I get to roll with Marcelo, I try to move more than I usually do. He has preached to me for years about resting on top, not on bottom- he would say, "Kon, why do you stop moving when you are in bottom half guard".

I would reply, "Because I'm too tired and am resting". Which he would counter back with, "Always move and work hard to get out of the bad position, and then rest on top".

So now, in addition from already being winded from his warm ups (I'm not used to warm ups too much these days), trying to move more during the roll, and being anxious in general because I haven't really rolled with MG in awhile, I was gassed out within 25 seconds or so.

Thank god, this was only a 5 minute round, as he is fond of changing the round lengths, and I've also been "stuck" in 10 minute rounds with him.

Like usual with me, he went probably around 30%. However, like usual, he was going to teach me a lesson during this roll.

When I visited 1.5 weeks back, I told him that I hadn't felt his guillotine before. On top of that, I told him I wanted to see how quickly he could pass my "dreaded" half guard (lol).

He was kind enough to let me lock in my half guard. (In the past, when he wanted to, his legs are so dynamic, I cannot even lock in a solid half guard without him already hiding his leg and passing my guard).

However, once locked, I was so intent on holding his leg in, he decided to tap me with his guillotine- the one I told him I never felt before during a live roll with him.

Then this proceeded to happen for the entire round, with me tapping to another 10-15 more guillotines from bottom half guard position.

There was a point where he just locked on the position, and didnt squeeze. I tapped because I knew he had the move, and he just looked and said, "I didnt even squeeze, you should have escaped and moved"...here he was letting me escape, but I was a broken man by now haha.

On top of my tap from a phantom submission, Marcelo told me the dreaded sentence that all practioners don't want to hear (especially if you have been training for over a few months).

He said, "You have to breathe". Haha, I haven't been told this in ages, as I'm usually much more relaxed. However, here I was forgetting to do something that should have been ingrained in me since I started training in 2000.

After the roll I apologized for being so sucky, and he just smiled and told me not to apologize and I did good (hahaha).

(PS- As always, after the class ended, a bunch of us ended up staying a bit later on the mats to ask him ?'s. One of mine was how I should protect my neck better in bottom half- he told me I have to alway be aware of the choke, and have my chin down and my neck tense)."

"(The following occurred during yesterday's class)

I realized my mistake right when I said Marcelo's name.

We had just finished the technique portion of class, and Marcelo told us it was time to roll.

He looked around the room, and began pairing people up - I suppose he does this based on size, experience, etc.

One of the last people to be paired up was a lighter weight beginner who Marcelo had just asked how long he had been training. (He said something like 6 months or so.)

I called out Marcelo's name. I wanted to get his attention and let him know that I would be happy to roll with the beginner.

However, Marcelo paired him up with another person...and it was now time to roll.

Shit, I had just realized that maybe Marcelo thought I was calling his name so I could get in a first roll with him.

(If you dont understand my apprehension, read my message a few posts back- it has to do with moving a lot, gassing a lot, and trying not to have an anxiety attack while rolling with him).

He smiled and called my name. Oh crap, I'm rolling with him again.

First things first, I look at the timer, and see how much time he put on it. I almost died during the other day's 5 minute round with him.. Shit, 7 minutes this time.

Right away I start off in sitting guard (See, I'm trying to get away from my half guard game and play his game). We hand fight for a few seconds, he gets his nice head and elbow control (this is no gi), and does his awesome knee slide pass.

I immediately abandon all things MG style, and go back to my half guard to stop his pass.

Yesterday, he was teaching me a lesson- how I can still get guillotined a million times when I play my bottom half guard position.

Today's lesson- how I can get kimura'd a million times when I play bottom half.

This was an interesting lesson, as Marcelo does not feel the kimura is very efficient, and rarely teaches it. He says it is based a lot on strength, and if you go against a much stronger person, it will be hard to kimura them.

So, in a strange way, it was (almost) an honor that he was doing a move that he doesnt like, just to show me another lesson.

Of course, I didnt realize he was going to teach me this lesson until midway through our roll.

Since he had told me to protect my chin and stiffen my neck more to prevent the guillotine while in bottom half- this was what I was trying to do.

Ahh, a couple seconds have already gone by and he hasn't reached for my neck- I must be defending it well, so I stupidly thought.

Nope, he wasn't going for my neck this roll, just kimuras.

During the next 7 minutes, the same thing would happen. I would start in sitting guard, hand fight, he would knee slide pass, I would grab half guard (he would let me of course- if he was going hard, he would have sliced through me for the pass in a second)

As we were now playing my half guard game, he would just kimura me. Then we would repeat the cycle again.

After the round, he smiled and thanked me for the roll. He then said, "See Kon, I just want to show you that even if you roll with a less technical person, he can just kimura you a lot if he is much stronger than you".

After our roll, I paired up with another partner. During our roll, I heard Marcelo yell out to him (I was in half guard again)..."Go for Kimuras". The next 7 minutes, I had to defend my arms like crazy from another onslaught of kimura attacks haha.

I wonder what today's lesson will teach me!"

Lol awesome. Good luck for today's onslaught. :-)

dope. I like reading stuff like this. you have a blog?

Cool read, keep it up bud!

That was fantastic

Quote:

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Originally Posted by David Rosado

dope. I like reading stuff like this. you have a blog?

---

Thanks! I actually had one at:

http://rockstarjiujitsu.wordpress.com/

But I only wrote about it during my trip to Los Angeles for the BJJ worlds in June. However, 10th Planet and Eddie Bravo make a special appearance in one of my entries, as I went to HQ to train for 1 class.

Here's another one:

"
Outside the academy anecdotes:

These illustrate why I admire and like Marcelo so much (not the fact that he is a great bjj competitor and teacher)

***

After class last night, Marcelo and I were walking to dinner.

Marcelo noticed walking next to us was a bjj student, that was visiting the academy from Italy for the week.

With a big smile, Marcelo asked him if he wanted to join us for dinner.

We ended up having a great time, although there was quite a language barrier. As he spoke very little English, and neither of us spoke Italian.

***

During today's afternoon class, we had a visitor try out his free trial class (offered to people living in the area- I think). He had already taken the earlier fundamentals class, but I had told him to stay around as Marcelo was teaching the class right afterwards (and he could watch Marcelo train and roll).

Although Marcelo was teaching the Advanced Gi class (blue belts and higher), he invited the visitor to stay and partcipate in class.

While he had only been training for 6 months, he quickly picked up the moves Marcelo was teaching (Butterfly sweep to X-guard if opponent bases out, to standing single leg take down and/or back attack.

During rolling time, because I had paired up with the visitor during techniques, he rolled with me first.

After our roll, Marcelo called him over to roll with him.

After that roll, he got to roll with 2 other black belts at the school (Josh Waitzkin and Paul Schreiner).

The visitor was all smiles after class.

I think he had a pretty decent time with some pretty good rolls haha. "