Niel Melanson's New Book and Style

[Zach Enlow]

Has anyone checked it out besides me? I don't quite understand this guys history, but some of his stuff looks pretty legit. He also speaks a lot about Rubber Guard and his particular take on it. Just curious to hear thoughts.

[Kyle Spalla]

He bases a lot of stuff off Catch Wrestling and is black belt in Judo under Gokor/Gene Lebell. He has a very unique approach to triangles and rubber guard spins are effective in certain areas but I like Eddie's take more of course, they go well with 10th Planet because both systems emphasize a clinch base. He has some crafty arm-triangle and triangle set ups which I want to look more into.

[Tony Toffolo]

i got it day one. i really like his layout and theory.

i'm a really big fan of k-control and i'm surprised it hasn't caught on (which i'm happy about since nobody knows what i'm doing) but i've been pretty happy with his take on other positions on the bottom as well.

while a lot of what he is doing works well considering he is used to being larger and longer than his opponents, i think his triangle finishing and the sankaku triangle finish is useful for people of any size.

[Kurzy]

The only book I can find is Mastering Triangle Chokes. Is that what you guys are talking about?

[Brent Smith]

I didnt realize his book had been released. Sounded like it was getting the ARG treatment

[Eddie Bravo]

What does he say about rubber guard?

And post pics of this k-control please :-)

[Mike Dewitt Jr]

Joe haven't heard a thing.

[Zach Enlow]

I agree with you. his approach reminds of eddie's a bit, very technical and highly offensive off his back. i have been playing around with k-control for over a year and i totally agree; when the opponent beats your posture control and hips in, i switch to k-control and try to break him back down. ive never been hit substantially from there and i can usually get back into mission control if not new york from there.

[Zach Enlow]

And Eddie, he comments on it a few times throughout some of his videos. He has one variation of guard control that he calls the "Irish Collar" which is similar to one of your techniques to break someones posture, but he doesn't switch to mission control. Here is a video of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nD2Goq33yw

In that video and, if i recall correctly, another video, he talks about what he feels being a problem with the rubber guard in that it allows people to "back out." When they back out, they have a great ability to come forward to throw a bomb from inside your guard. I have personally never had any issue with someone "backing out" of my rubber guard, but I have normal length in my legs with a lot of flexibility while Melanson has extra long legs - i think hes around 6'5 or so. He does comment on how the best RG players (he cites Bollinger specifically) don't let the "back out" happen b/c they are so quick in transition, however.

[Zach Enlow]

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