Originally Posted by
Arman Fathi
I've been watching MG in Action a lot lately and I've been noticing Marcelo just lets his students attack and a fair number of good purple or browns have put him deep enough in a hole that he's forced to tap. In no way do I believe this is truly indicative of who'd win if they were playing for keeps, however. It just seems to me that it's a testament to evaluating how some higher belts are progressing, that they have the ability to put pressure on a guy for a sub. Experiencing and feeling that type of pressure could just be a way of an instructor observing how dangerous some of his/her students are getting. To be fair, this is all my general observation and perspective. I'd be curious as to what a black belt with students would say.
I was going to reply with the exact same example. Marcelo seems to put himself in a position where the opponent has a 70% / 30% advantage and then Marcelo works to get out of it and into an advantageous position. Once in a good position he looks to attack and get a sub then at the reset he will sometimes do the above, sometimes not.
Again, as the above says, Marcelo doesn't fight once a position is put on: he just taps. I guess that in his mind if a purple/brown belt gets him into a bad position that is the problem he needs to fix, not the defence of the actual sub. Rafael Mendes, for example, wouldn't be letting you get out of an anaconda choke, so whether you can get out or not against a lower level competitor is meaningless.
So, essentially, I guess what Marcelo is doing when rolling with students is looking to practice the transitional game and test that of his students. Whether you can hold on against an armbar being cranked or whether you have the willingness to break a training partner's arm during sparring doesn't matter to him.
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