used RG for the first time

[Craig Murray]

Open mat tonight. After drilling everything on my curriculum for my first stripe I asked my partner to let me try to put him in Hindu control. I can't get it on my grappling dummy because it's too wide. I was unable to achieve the position without my partner really helping me to get into it. But while playing around I ended up in Jiu Claw and sat up for Omoplata.

The coach saw this and came over to my partner and I and corrected my technique to try to finish the omo. Then he asked me how I got into it in the first place. I told him Rubber Guard, and asked if he ever messed around with it. He trains and competes strictly in gi and told me that RG would be harder because of the added friction of the gi... but then he said "although Eddie Bravo wears gi pants and he pulls it off". Then he tells me it's going to be hard for me to break my opponent down in a gi.

He gets into my guard to show me. Grabs my lapel, and postures up strong. So I start fighting with his arms, swimming under and all that. After about 5 seconds of this, my gi kind of comes open and his arms are wide so he looses the pressure on my chest.

I sit up, clinch him, and sit back.

The moment my back hits the mat the hundreds of reps I've put in on the grappling dummy kick in and in one fluid motion I have him in crackhead, before I even realized what I was doing! I squeeze. He starts trying to posture out of it as I continue to squeeze him. More resisting, more squeezing. Eventually I feel his resistance weaken a little bit and I start thinking about clearing his neck, but I'm scared. I have him controlled and I really like that feeling, so I don't want to lose it. My partner who's watching even says something like "now what" and I say "I'm just going to keep him here and grind on him to wear him out". After about 15-20 seconds of this, the coach says "ok, ok, ok" and I release the guard. He looks up at me and smiles.

I can't describe how excited and elated I felt from that. Outside of RG there is literally NOTHING I could have done to him. He could submit me repeatedly at will and I would not even be able to survive it or fight him off. But I had him frozen solid with crackhead.

I'm a whitebelt. And not just a whitebelt, I'm a complete newbie. EVERYTHING they teach me I am clumsy and slow at. I'm a total mess. Except for the RG.

I still can't believe how strong it felt having him in crackhead. It was awesome.

Thank you 10p, and thank you Eddie!

(disclaimer, this coach is a bluebelt and is in my weight class, and has probably never been in a RG before)

[Enrique "Kiko"]

I still can't believe how strong it felt having him in crackhead. It was awesome.

So basically you went Tyrone Biggums on him.

[Arman Fathi]

Sounds like you basically went full retard control on him. Let me give you some advice on that. Check it out. Dustin Hoffman, "Rain Man", looked retarded, act retarded, not retarded. Count toothpicks, cheat at cards. Autistic, sure. Not retarded. Then you got Tom Hanks, "Forrest Gump". Slow, yes, retarded, maybe, braces on his legs. But he charmed the pants off Nixon, and he won a Ping-Pong competition. That ain't retarded. Peter Sellers, "Being There", infantile? Yes. Retarded? No. You went full retard, man. Never go full retard. You don't buy that? Ask Sean Penn, 2001, "I Am Sam". Remember? Went full retard? Went home empty-handed.

[Troy Yang]

Open mat tonight. After drilling everything on my curriculum for my first stripe I asked my partner to let me try to put him in Hindu control. I can't get it on my grappling dummy because it's too wide. I was unable to achieve the position without my partner really helping me to get into it. But while playing around I ended up in Jiu Claw and sat up for Omoplata.

The coach saw this and came over to my partner and I and corrected my technique to try to finish the omo. Then he asked me how I got into it in the first place. I told him Rubber Guard, and asked if he ever messed around with it. He trains and competes strictly in gi and told me that RG would be harder because of the added friction of the gi... but then he said "although Eddie Bravo wears gi pants and he pulls it off". Then he tells me it's going to be hard for me to break my opponent down in a gi.

He gets into my guard to show me. Grabs my lapel, and postures up strong. So I start fighting with his arms, swimming under and all that. After about 5 seconds of this, my gi kind of comes open and his arms are wide so he looses the pressure on my chest.

I sit up, clinch him, and sit back.

The moment my back hits the mat the hundreds of reps I've put in on the grappling dummy kick in and in one fluid motion I have him in crackhead, before I even realized what I was doing! I squeeze. He starts trying to posture out of it as I continue to squeeze him. More resisting, more squeezing. Eventually I feel his resistance weaken a little bit and I start thinking about clearing his neck, but I'm scared. I have him controlled and I really like that feeling, so I don't want to lose it. My partner who's watching even says something like "now what" and I say "I'm just going to keep him here and grind on him to wear him out". After about 15-20 seconds of this, the coach says "ok, ok, ok" and I release the guard. He looks up at me and smiles.

I can't describe how excited and elated I felt from that. Outside of RG there is literally NOTHING I could have done to him. He could submit me repeatedly at will and I would not even be able to survive it or fight him off. But I had him frozen solid with crackhead.

I'm a whitebelt. And not just a whitebelt, I'm a complete newbie. EVERYTHING they teach me I am clumsy and slow at. I'm a total mess. Except for the RG.

I still can't believe how strong it felt having him in crackhead. It was awesome.

Thank you 10p, and thank you Eddie!

(disclaimer, this coach is a bluebelt and is in my weight class, and has probably never been in a RG before)

It's great you show him respect but I wouldn't exactly call a blue belt coach... before you know it you'll hang with blue belts just fine with regular technique, but of course he could give you a lot of useful advice

[Craig Murray]

It's great you show him respect but I wouldn't exactly call a blue belt coach... before you know it you'll hang with blue belts just fine with regular technique, but of course he could give you a lot of useful advice

He's an assistant coach, and is helping instruct in pretty much every class I take. Calling him coach is required at my gym, since he's helping to teach. They gave him that position with good reason though, his technique is twice as sharp as any of the other blue bets I've watched.

Most of the fundamental classes at Lovato's are taught by a purple with a blue helping. Both are to be referred to as coach. But honestly, this guy is more helpful at correcting my technique and explaining than any of the purple belts who've taught me.

[Arman Fathi]

How often does Lovato teach?

[Craig Murray]

How often does Lovato teach?

From what I can tell he teaches all the advanced classes when he's not out of town for competition. I'm assuming he teaches the competition classes as well, but I have not seen one in person.

Rader teaches all the kids classes. Lovato Senior teaches a "executive" class a couple times a week for 35+ years old students.

This is based on a month being there though, so it's just rough guesses based on what I've seen so far.

[Arman Fathi]

From what I can tell he teaches all the advanced classes when he's not out of town for competition. I'm assuming he teaches the competition classes as well, but I have not seen one in person.

Rader teaches all the kids classes. Lovato Senior teaches a "executive" class a couple times a week for 35+ years old students.

This is based on a month being there though, so it's just rough guesses based on what I've seen so far.

Cool thx.

[Arman Fathi]

After about 15-20 seconds of this, the coach says "ok, ok, ok" and I release the guard. He looks up at me and smiles.

I can't describe how excited and elated I felt from that. Outside of RG there is literally NOTHING I could have done to him. He could submit me repeatedly at will and I would not even be able to survive it or fight him off. But I had him frozen solid with crackhead.

Similar thing happened to me the other day, but from the other side. New guy comes in, Brazilian, say about same age, +20 pounds on me. Says he did a little judo back in Brazil. We're doing side-mount positional sparring and the orders are to either control, mount, or take the back; no submissions. He gets north-south to me, sprawls out, and pins my chest and squeezes his elbows in tight. There was literally nothing I could do. The round ended that way. I was under him like Royler under Eddie in top-stoner. I was waving my hands and everything. Now was I in danger of a submission? Who knew what the guys sensitivity to that was, and similar to you. Perhaps he had a penchant to detect armbars or triangles better than your penchant to deliver, or maybe not. With the difference in mat time, smart money's on the blue belt. Or maybe not. But to get into that control position first was the first step. From my perspective, I was literally immobilized and the only way I'd get submitted was if the guy could detect my 'movements out of frustration' and capitalize.

Keep at it, get in a lot of mat time, stay consistent, keep it playful, stay healthy. The pieces will come together as they may. But if jiu-jitsu were a 3000 piece puzzle, you may have just found a corner piece.

Or maybe not;p

[Eddie Bravo]

Cool story bro :-)