Many thanks, a bit of backstory and a great night of 10th P JJ
Congratulations Eddie, and thank you so much for the experience I have gotten directly and vicariously from you.
TLDR: Thanks, and had fun serving crow for dinner last night.
I am a white belt currently in the midwest training at a BJJ school that is under Royler's system. I started there about 8 months ago, but my previous off an on again exposure to BJj covers a few years (with long gaps).
Before I moved to the midwest, I had the fantastic opportunity to train for about 2 months at 10th Planet Hollywood in 2008. I was incredibly impressed with the welcoming nature of the guys there, and of course with the totally novel techniques.
After my first exploratory visit to the 10th P gym in Hollywood Eddie saw me in the parking lot, talked a bit with me and gave me a DVD to watch. I was touched by his caring and personable nature and joined for the time I had left before I had to move to go to my first job out of grad school. I had a great time rolling there, got to meet some cool dudes, rolled with Rogan, got put up on the web in a video as a victim of Einstein's flying triangle, and learned how organized/rational jiu jitsu can be.
I have followed the 10 P system at a distance since then, collecting the instructional books, DVDs and trying the techniques in class at traditional BJJ schools when I was training.
Most recently, at my current school under a talented brown belt who is under Royler (once removed) and is very brand-loyal. I have been excited since I heard about the rematch being real, and definitely made my feelings known that I was expecting Bravo to win when the school got together to watch the match last night... it wasn't the most popular sentiment in the room.
I was feeling pretty confident, so as some folks talked smack about Eddie before the match, I just reminded them that if they disparaged Bravo, then that would just mean that their hero Royler was going to be beaten by someone they didn't consider to be very good. ;-) The back and forth got to be pretty fun... but I was vindicated and served them up crow for dinner thanks to Eddie's awesome, strategic performance!
The irony of Eddie dominating the match with the lockdown and electric chair/stoner control was that out of the whole 10th P system, this series is one of the few that I was able to get pretty good at... and this is the one that I use on guys at my current gym. No one knows what is going on, despite me describing the move, I think they just consider it as me somehow scooting out underneath to their back or leg drag position. Some times I hear: "no knee torquing allowed", or "whu? huh? hey, you can't do that" (referring to my lockdown as I go to electric chair).
So when Eddie ran that series on Royler I was describing in intimate detail what was going on onscreen to the dudes at the gym, and providing them the names of the moves I had previously subjected them to. :-) It was fantastic.
Bottom line, after the fight most of them gained a new (grudging) respect for Eddie and the 10th P system. And I will be trying to get out of my comfort zone even more at gym and experimenting with even more goodies as I roll traditional BJJ.
Many thanks Eddie and other denizens of the 10th planet... I guess I've learned more than I thought I did.
