Defense, Inception style

[Arman Fathi]

Hey all,

Over the past couple weeks, there were a couple videos of Jean Jacques Machado relating to defense that has had me itching to post. I understand that this is the next topic of discussion for Eddie's book(s), but I felt to post anyway. When I mention defense "Inception style" in the title, for those of you that have seen the movie Inception and know how it is all about dreams, dreams within a dream, and even dreams within dreams WITHIN dreams, I think about all of jiu-jitsu in this manner, how jiu jitsu is made up of moves & positions, positions within positions, positions within positions within positions, etc. It's like the Matrix. It blows my mind every day...

Anywho, the videos below are on Youtube. The first is Jean Jacque talking with Eddie on a podcast about Rickson, but about 5:45 in he starts talking about 'feeling' jiu-jitsu, how "in order to do less, you need to learn more" (Eddie: 'That's some Yoda shit right there'), how there are specific things one can do to preemptively counter any submissions that someone throws at them. As a case study, I watched the second link below of Jean Jacques and Eddie sparring. At precisely 49 seconds in, Eddie sits up to try to sweep Jean Jacque, catches his wrist, and goes for a Kimura. What fascinated me (and I rewinded this at least a dozen times) was how Jean Jacques arm and elbow were conformed in a position that would make it impossible to bring his arm around his back and get finished. It's as if he didn't mind being on his side because it allowed him to use his gravity to make his elbow extremely heavy, preventing any submission potential. The whole sequence lasts about ten seconds, but it blew my mind in the sense that Jean Jacques really probably did not feel in any danger from the submission, even though Eddie had the kimura grip. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I feel that this principle with the arm could work if someone got the grip in full guard as well. He didn't have a need to grab his leg or anything (i.e. further lines of defense); it just seemed like it was angled with enough weight on it to give him the surefire confidence to assure that he wouldn't be tapped....something we always hear in dieting about how "an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure."

On the podcast, Eddie was asking Jean Jacques to 'not worry about getting too technical on this podcast', even going as far to apologize to some listeners that wouldn't understand some of the things. Jean Jacques mentioned some general defensive thought processes, but he didn't get extremely technical on the podcast. I though I'd use this opportunity to reach out to anyone to discuss any very, very technical positions that they've seen or used to preemptively take options away for being submitted, specifically (for what I need most) pertaining to being in bottom half-guard and not getting darced/neck-tied. That seems to be my biggest issue lately, though I've had much improvement just by learning to duck my head in, establish the clinch, and have a high elbow on my underhook. Any and all discussion would be greatly appreciated, even about not getting triangled, armbarred, you name it...anything that anyone has dealt with recently and has fresh on their mind. ) oss

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNzQkLfCnOo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXcWVz9OCfw

[brianspinaltap]

Thing I'm working on recently - 'you defend the arm bar (from the guard) with the hips'

Also the three timings:

Defend at the start of their attack before it has really got started, as they do their attack or flow with their attack and defend right at the end.

[Josh Passini]

Jean Jacques is mind blowing. I watched a room full of blacks mind blown along with the rest of us the last time JJM was in town.

[Brent Smith]

Jean Jacques is mind blowing. I watched a room full of blacks mind blown along with the rest of us the last time JJM was in town.

Why do they gotta be black? That's racist

[Pan]

Why do they gotta be black? That's racist

hahahaha

[Sam Davis]

hopefully this thread will force Matt Skaff to reveal some of his defensive knowledge

[bobby rivers]

Never let your opponent connect their hands.

[Arman Fathi]

This is awesome, thanks. Yea just that idea of not learning moves moreso than we are concepts. I learned from Rhalan Gracie (son of Relson) that he likes to play this handsie battle in his closed guard (is that a word? I consider it so if footsie is one). But he's got a wicked closed guard and has wasted guys in it at the black belt level. But rolling with him is weird cuz there's literally tollways on the highway that are shut down toward the middle of his body, so you can't establish great posture or move to open his guard that easily. Actually, it's pretty damn hard just to do that. But it's clearly a bigger picture movement of 'doing less.' He knows that he'd only need to do more if the guy connected his hands. But being aware of all these ways to OPEN and PASS guard makes him summarize it all up into, "Don't let him connect with his hands." Man what a trip....