With listening to Eddie about the importance of flexibility. Ryan Hall, Keenan, Miyao's are all naturally flexible. My question as I lot of it is genetic are there any world class grappler's people have trained with, with average flexibility, people like Marcelo, Malfacine, Lister etc do not rely on ultra flexible games.
I don't know about limited flexibility because they all seem to have a good range of motion. There's bound to be someone that doesn't fit the mold of flexibile though. Hmmm
I can't think of any, if there were, I would think of older heavyweights
Jeff Monson
Lister is flexible for sure
Completely adapted his body type to his own unique style of grappling, he isn't stiff but he isn't throwing up triangles any time soon, I don't really see him playing closed guard ever. I think he relies on crushing top game and if he winds up on bottom he looks to sweep reset and start over. Probably habits he learned from collegiate wrestling. One of my favorite grapplers though and interesting dude.Quote:
Originally Posted by Eric Perez
Yeah interesting as 10P is one of the only systems I see preaching flexibility in a big way. I guess a better question is are all the top guys ultra flexible e.g. Miyao level. Certain games can only be accessible to certain flexibility types.
I think flexibility is one of the of those things that you need to truly master aspects of Jiu Jitsu, even Rickson said I want to be a balance of strong, flexible with good technique. Jeff Monson was the exception to rule.
I would say Buchecha isn't super flexible, but he kills it because he is capable of moving like and keeping the pace of a lightweight
Paul harris
Gordo
hughes had a freaky solid grappling game and not sure he could even touch his own toes though .. haha
Tom Ryan the Head Coach for Ohio State wrestling has been quoted as saying he looks for Flexibility first and technique a close second.
I think to say they are naturally flexible is a huge assumption. They very well could have worked their asses off to gain that level of flexibity which would support the work ethic that got them to the level they are at. I think there is less a correlation of flexibility that equals success, but rather crazy work ethic.
One time David Garmo (one of the most bad ass competitors from my affiliation, just went to worlds last year) told my coach and a few of us that were there:
"You want to know what makes me good? I'm not the strongest person, you all are probably stronger than me. I'm not the fastest person either. I'm not even that flexible, but you know what I do have? I've been to 70-80+ tournaments and have been put in every situation you can imagine."
I thought that was a very interesting thing to hear from a high level competitor because sometimes it can feel intimidating when we aren't as physically gifted/conditioned as other people in our craft, but hard work and experience can overcome any physical advantage :)
P.S. That doesn't mean working on our physical attributes won't help, its just a piece of the puzzle!
Everyone is born super flexible. Some use it so it stays, some don't so it doesn't. But you can always get it back unless you have some kind of serious injury
This is great to hear what you and Herzog said, I guess it is a matter of real hard work and dedicated time.Quote:
Originally Posted by Eddie Bravo
Flexibility makes everything better :) My game would be far less effective without it and I still have room to work on it!
If you can play tornado guarch you're pretty damn flexible.Quote:
Originally Posted by BJ Searle