Rafael Mendes rolling with Bill Cooper

http://youtu.be/u35BL8S3aO0

Abu Dhabi WP 2011 - Mendes Brothers Final

I watched the whole video and there was no sign of Morpheus... wtf?!

Insane Jiu claw control and even more insane set up to the inverted triangle, Rafa vs Marcelo would rule!!

I also wanna see bill and Rafa roll nogi, that's where bill shines the most :-)

Man, I just don't know how guys can stand doing Jiu Jitsu in a Gi. That would frustrate me beyond words. Everywhere on your body there is a piece of fabric that they can grab and hang onto. I would go nuts.

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Originally Posted by Kurzy

Man, I just don't know how guys can stand doing Jiu Jitsu in a Gi. That would frustrate me beyond words. Everywhere on your body there is a piece of fabric that they can grab and hang onto. I would go nuts.

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Yeah man I did no-gi for almost 2 years before I ever trained in the gi. It took a good year to get used to. Collar chokes and spider guard were the most frustrating things ever.

I love doing both now though. They each are a lot of fun to me.

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Originally Posted by Eddie Bravo

Insane Jiu claw control and even more insane set up to the inverted triangle, Rafa vs Marcelo would rule!!

I also wanna see bill and Rafa roll nogi, that's where bill shines the most :-)

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For sure. I'm hoping if they rolled no-gi the footage wil come out. Rafa is gonna be scary at adcc this year. Hope Cooper gets an invite this year.

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Originally Posted by Mike Nall

I love doing both now though. They each are a lot of fun to me.

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You do enjoy it? I guess I would have to get used to it, but I just can't imagine it. All my moves get stuffed often enough already, nevermind if I was wearing giant cloth handle all over my body! lol

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Originally Posted by Kurzy

You do enjoy it? I guess I would have to get used to it, but I just can't imagine it. All my moves get stuffed often enough already, nevermind if I was wearing giant cloth handle all over my body! lol

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I don't know. It's hard to explain. I started wearing it just because the place I moved and I would not have ever been able to get any ranks or progress if I only did no-gi. On top of that the classes were half gi and half no-gi so I figured I'd try both. I stuck with it at first because I was determined to make a lot of the no-gi style chokes and leglocks work in the gi. And they do but it took a while.

I see them as the same thing, but I enjoy them for very different reasons. I see them as the same in like a big picture way. You're trying to use use positional control and leverage to dominate someone until they submit. You're just going about it in different ways. Once you get used to the gi the grips become more fun and seem less random. You start to figure out where you're in danger of being gripped from. Good people usually don't just grab in random places. So that makes it easier. The game is a bit slower, so you can think a little bit more. When I take off the gi I feel like I'm able to think and move way faster.

What I'm trying to figure out now is how different should my game be in both. Right now they're pretty similar and some people seem to have the same games (Marcelo Garcia, Jeff Glover) while others have different games between the two. (Rafa Mendes)

I hope I'm explaining it okay I feel like it's not making sense. Maybe it really doesn't haha. I'm not trying to tell anyone to do it or not to do it. For me I love improving in both. Life is short. train what you wanna train.

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Originally Posted by Slick Rick

Part of the reason why they are so good is because they travel and train so much.. They get to see so many different looks and see what works amongst the different grapplers and jj players around the world. It's like they're a traveling tournament duo.. A tournament just for them.

What makes 10th Planet pretty awesome is that we too travel everywhere and train with so many folks, that when we come back to HQ, we can see how it fits in the game and add it to the system.. In the end, the entire jits community benefits. It's a collective.

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agreed Slick