Reilly Bodycomb Seminar Review

This seminar review has been a long time coming.  I was fortunate enough to train with Reilly about a year ago during one of his visits to the Dallas area.  I've managed to stay in contact with Reilly since then and was able to help coordinate a seminar at our newly opened gym in June.  If you are not familiar with Reilly he is primarily a nogi grappler with a big concentration in sambo and leg locks.  He offers a very fresh point of view when it comes to grappling as I personally am very gi oriented and more accustomed to competing under a more strict rule set than he prefers.

The subject material for the seminar focused on leg locks and attacking the seated guard.  Reilly has a very cerebral approach to instruction that I can appreciate.  Rather than diving right into the "legal leg locks" most of us wanted to see he spent a good deal of time teaching "illegal" leg locks.  Why might you ask?  Well it's important to understand what makes them illegal in most BJJ competitions and why they are effective. Reaping ankle locks and heel hooks.  Explanation and demonstration about inside versus outside heel hooks were covered.  To finish up leg locks he showed us how to escape the positions which was refreshing.  Lots of time was allotted to drill and explore the positions/attacks.

Moving on from here Reilly showed various ways to attack with straight ankle locks over a seated opponent in open guard and the De La Riva guard (belly down ankle lock).  I can attest this is very effective.  I have seen him and his students pull these off in competitions.  I've also had good luck using the belly down ankle lock against teammates in rolling sessions to counter the De La Riva.

Reilly has a pretty interesting philosophy about guard passing and attacking.  He states that 'there are guards worth passing and guards not worth passing.'

"The purpose of a guard is to defend yourself against attack.  This is true for any combat sport if it's boxing, fencing, or grappling.  If a boxer leaves their hands to high or too low, then it is obvious for their opponent to attack them when they are open.  This is true for grappling in a way."

"Many guards that people employ are designed to stop the pass but not to stop the submission attacks on the legs.  The natural conclusion is that if the guard is not protecting the legs then there is no point to go out of your way for a pass when the nearest submission is right there."

"So I break guards up into three categories:
1. Guards that you pass
2. Guards not worth passing
3. Better guards that require an attack to see what opens up first...the pass or the leg lock"

So moving on from the leg attacks Reilly showed an excellent way to attack for the kimura over a seated opponent.  Specifically if the opponent attempts a single leg from the seated guard.  The situation sets up perfectly for a kimura from the standing position.  Even if the kimura cannot be finished a quality passing opportunity/scramble is initiated and option to get the back of your opponent.

Reilly has an excellent DVD on leg locks "Sambo Leg Locks for Nogi Grappling" that has been around for years.  You can purchase it directly at his website: http://www.rdojo.com/.

He also has digital downloads that you can purchase from his site.  The cool thing is you can pay what you want.  That is a pretty innovative offer you don't see very often.  That being said if you download I do recommend paying what you feel is fair as the material covered is very good.  Something worth noting is that Reilly only shows techniques that are functional and have been competition tested.  I have rolled with him and can tell you that he doesn't waste time on techniques he doesn't use himself.  Reilly is very open-minded when it comes to grappling as he cross-trains in various arts and is always looking to add tools to his unique and effective style.  If you get the opportunity to train with him or at a minimum study/train his instructional videos I highly recommend it.

Reilly's newest offering coming in September 2014:  "No Kurtka"
Purchase here: http://www.rdojo.com/dvds.html
& here: http://www.budovideos.com/no-kurtka-dvd-by-reilly-bodycomb.html

(Link for mobile users: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x32RdqMjyAA)

Still not convinced?  Reilly recently won gold at an ADCC event in New York's Pro Division.
Here is a highlight of his matches from a month ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5R5Ocm7cW8

Reilly's Top Rock

(Link for mobile users: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdncXVGr_so)

Sean Roberts Seminar Review

Our gym was fortunate enough to bring in Sean Roberts for a seminar Saturday, January 25th of this year. Unless you've been living under a rock Sean has become a very familiar name within the Jiu-Jitsu community after his participation in the brown belt kumite not that long ago.  At least for me, I didn't know of Sean until that tournament but he certainly caught my eye as an excellent competitor.

The Ralph Gracie black belt has been traveling all over the U.S. with his fiancee (also an excellent grappler) for seminars at a very reasonable rate...far less (a fraction) than average especially when you consider the fact that he's a high level competitor with a great deal of knowledge.  I have been to many seminars with world renowned grapplers and have always come away with the hope that if I can gain a little bit of knowledge, a concept or two then I'm doing pretty well.  One can't expect to implement every single detailed shown at most seminars into their game.

Sean showed up and was very pleasant to talk to.  He asked everyone to grab a partner and roll at about 50-60% intensity, play your game if you will.  He walked around and observed everyone periodically stopping and chatting with each person and asking what aspects of our game we want to improve, what difficulties we run across, etc.  Rather than focus on one particular area for the duration of the seminar Sean showed us many different parts of his own game that he felt would answer some of the questions people were asking him during the early, rolling portion.

Sean was up front and said we were more than welcome to take pictures and video of the techniques but did reserve the right on a couple to be shown towards the end.  As soon as he said that almost everyone grabbed their phones and were promptly recording.  It's not often that guest instructors allow this so it was definitely a bonus.

He started by showing an interesting sleeve grip break from the standing position that I had not seen before and was very effective.  He moved on to show a couple ways to pass the spider guard that were familiar with some new wrinkles added. They were simple and very effective.  Sean at one point stopped to say that he feels like his game isn't overly fancy but simple.  At about the mid-point of the seminar we switched from focusing on guard passing (top side) to the guard game.  Sean showed us one of his preferred methods for setting up the omoplata from open guard.  From here he showed a sneaky sweep when the opponent tries to hop over into side mount on top to escape the omoplata.  Sean also showed a couple ways to better maintain control from the shoulder lock position and finish with a couple different submissions (shoulder lock/armbar).

During the last two techniques Sean did ask that no one record them as he preferred to keep them a bit secretive.  I won't go into detail but will say that one was an excellent half guard sweep and the other was an escape from a nearly back mounted position.  Both were very good and I can understand wanting to keep some things off the web.

At the end of the seminar Sean opened up for a Q&A on pretty much anything.  He has a great sense of humor and was fun to talk to.  Sean then rolled with every single person that was interested in a 5-6 minute rounds. He methodically picked his way through all of us upper belts until he finished up with the last willing participant.  I think Sean took one, 5 minute break for a drink of water during this. It's no wonder his cardio was so good for those ridiculously long matches at the brown belt kumite.  Sean was able to repeatedly hit some of the techniques (particularly the secret sweep) over and over again on everyone. People were literally laughing because this sweep was seemingly unstoppable.  You could tell that he had perfected the timing and just hit it at will.  I can personally say that Sean doesn't dilly-dally with what he wants to do.  I know there were times where he gave up a little space for me to recover but when he wanted to pass he didn't waste anytime passing the guard if that is what he wanted to do.  His size definitely put me at a disadvantage combined with his skill set was fairly overwhelming.  It was a great roll and a good reminder that he is on a whole different level than most people.  I did have the pleasure of rolling with his fiancee, Elizabeth, who is about a 115lb purple belt.  She was super technical and had a great open guard game.  It's not often I get to roll with smaller, technical people as I'm usually one of the smallest guys at my own gym.

Overall this was probably the best seminar I have attended in terms of value.  The techniques Sean covered were not overly difficult for an experienced white belt all the way to black belt.  I spoke with almost everyone after the seminar and got the impression that everyone left with some knowledge and nothing but good things to say about Sean.

Metamoris 3 is right around the corner and will be featuring Sean Roberts vs Zak Maxwell on the PPV card.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeVdxeOxqoU&feature=share

Caio Terra Seminar Review

Caio Terra is easily one of the most visible and vocal competitors in recent years.  His gym, Institute of Martial Arts is based in San Jose, California.  He has not only built a gym with excellent competitors and instructors but he has been spending a great deal of his time traveling the globe giving seminars.  In addition to this he has established over a dozen affiliates throughout the country.

I have been following Caio Terra for the last 4 years both in competitions and his instructional DVD's.  Being a small grappler myself, I can relate to a lot of the techniques that Caio teaches and uses with a a lot of success.  His dominance in major tournaments speaks volumes about his abilities and I have found his teaching methodology to be fairly easy to follow.

When I heard a local gym would be bringing him in for a two day seminar I jumped at the opportunity.  Caio has never visited Texas for seminars and considered myself lucky that he would be in my own backyard.

Day 1 (Gi portion)
Caio gave our group about seven topics of things we could focus on for the gi portion of the seminar. The majority vote would decide on the focus for the techniques he would show.  We chose to work the De La Riva/Berimbolo stuff.  Caio made a comment about this before starting.  He said, "most of the time everyone wants to work really hard techniques because they think they are better...the reality is they are just harder." That seemed funny at the time but was a great point.  I think sometimes we tend to over-complicate Jiu-Jitsu and lose sight of the importance of executing clean, basic techniques that are high percentage...or at a minimum easier to achieve a higher level of understanding.

Caio began by showing how to initiate and maintain the DLR guard.  He also pointed out that dragging your opponent to the ground for Berimbolo can be very laborious (which I totally agree with) and that it is vital to break down your opponent in order to get it.  One might not necessarily go straight for it by pulling/yanking on them and trying to force but first to hide your intentions with lapel and/or sleeve grips.  His methods for initiating the sweep were a bit different than what I have previously studied.  I have spent a great deal of time utilizing the Mendes brothers stuff so it was good to see a different perspective.  In some ways it was a challenge to execute his technique as I tended to get confused on occasion due to my muscle memory.  So over the course of day one we covered the following from DLR guard:

1. Back take (Babybolo)
2. Leg drag from Berimbolo (probably my favorite)
3. Back take from Berimbolo
4. Mount from Berimbolo

This may not sound like a lot of techniques but it really was.  The amount of detail Caio shows could be overwhelming for a white belt but necessary.  We ended the day with Q&A over anything we wanted, even techniques which were not covered during the seminar.  This was excellent as he showed us how he sets up and finishes his secret ankle lock attack from DLR guard.  Video below shows him hitting this same ankle lock in a recent IBJJF tournament.  He has used this same submission against Fabio Passos (Cobrinha black belt) in competition a little about a year ago.

Caio Terra vs Fabio Passos

Caio rolled with pretty much everyone that was interested after pictures were taken.  It was apparent pretty quickly he intended to triangle choke every single victim opponent.  When it was my turn we exchanged some pleasantries.  I attempted a sitting guard-->single leg technical stand-up which he quickly shut down.  I joked about it and he actually allowed me to attempt it again which I managed to get and sweep he let me. As I was attempting to pass towards the back he started to invert a bit and forced me into 50/50 guard (see exhibit A):

Exhibit A

That week I had been working on some 50/50 guard stuff from his half-guard DVD (specifically the ankle lock) and was pretty nervous in this position with him as he's known to be a killer with leg locks.  As I was battling for grips he stood up and began removing the 50/50 guard and moved quickly into side mount.  As I was preventing the cross-face he slid into mount, trapped an arm, and threw up a triangle rolling to his back. This happened so quickly I really didn't see any of it coming.  I defended pretty well but he transitioned into an armbar to finish the roll.  I lasted maybe 2 minutes.  I can honestly say that he is the smoothest I have ever rolled against.  I have experienced world class black belts pressure, explosiveness, etc. but Caio never exhibited any of those traits.  He was just smooth as can be.  There was nothing wasted...simply efficient.

Day 2 (Nogi portion)
At the beginning of the second day, Caio reiterated that we chose a difficult topic the day prior and he would pick for the second day...something much easier.  We spent the entire second day working from the side mount.  The focus was on moving to north-south, trapping the far side arm with an over hook and moving into side mount on the far side to eventually finish the armbar.  We worked the following scenarios:

1. Finishing same side armbar (2 different methods)
2. Switching sides to far side armbar (2 different methods)
3. Finishing the armbar many different ways on the far side based on your opponents responses to defend and interlock their hands.

The nice thing about this particular series was that after each variation, he would add a layer or option depending on your opponent's response or attempt to escape the submission/position.  It is worth noting he covered the armbar he managed to finish with against Jeff Glover at Metamoris earlier this year.  (Video is linked at the bottom of this article.)

Again, it may not sound like a lot of material but it really built layer upon layer from beginning to end.  I probably got more out of the second day for some of the basic concepts that I had not seen before. There was no rolling at the end of the second day but again he allowed questions which I took full advantage.  I asked how to finish the ankle lock from 50/50 when your opponent hides their feet really well (particularly figure four).  He showed multiple ways to attack the non-hidden foot by way of ankle lock and toe-holds. One of the great concepts I took away from it was almost anytime your are working the 50/50 guard...if you want to sweep, submit, escape you have to be willing to make space with your hips.

Overall I think it was a very good seminar.  Caio showed some excellent techniques and details. I do get the impression that Caio is a perfectionist while showing technique.  There were some moments when he appeared to get a little frustrated with his training partner while trying to show technique.  Some positives to take away from those moments that should be applied during training are the following:

1. The training partner should never feed any moves; don't make the technique easy because the reality is most techniques will not be easy to apply on a resisting opponent.
2. The training partner should react naturally (not necessarily defend) but use good posture when stuck in DLR guard rather than slumping over, don't just lay flat on your back while your partner attempts Berimbolo, etc.  These are not natural during a live roll so why would you do this while training?  Giving that much natural resistance makes it more real for the person attempting the techniques.

Something else worth noting.  After circling up to review some of the covered techniques, if someone had a question about a detail he would have them perform the move in front of the group and then correct the issue.  This is good for both the people directly involved and also the group.  Being able to evaluate what others are doing or having issues with may answer some questions for everyone involved.

All in all it was an excellent two days of training.  I might not recommend a Caio Terra seminar to a white belt but every one's learning curves are different.  I've seen my fair share of blue belts that have a hard time keeping up with the level of techniques during some seminars.


Things Caio has upcoming:
1. World Jiu-Jitsu Expo in November.  I asked him if he had an opponent and he said that had not been determined yet.  Stay up to date on this event here: https://www.facebook.com/worldjiujitsuexpo
2. Pan Jiu-Jitsu Nogi Championships the last weekend of September.
3. Rumor has it that Caio will be launching an online training site.  I confirmed with him via Facebook that he indeed plans to launch the site.  No target date was provided.

I'd like to extend a huge amount of thanks to Collin Grayson for hosting the seminar.  He provided most of the pictures for this article.  He is also now the first and ONLY Caio Terra affiliate in Texas!
http://www.ctarockwall.com/

http://caioterra.com/

Related Blog Posts:
http://ifightinpajamas.blogspot.com/2012/06/interview-with-caio-terra.html
http://ifightinpajamas.blogspot.com/2013/05/flashback-friday-caio-terra-vs-jeff.html

Nogi Volt 2.0 Grappling Shorts Review

I've been meaning to do a review on these shorts for quite some time now.  I have been a customer of Nogi Industries since 2006 and own a few older pairs that still held up well to this day.

Nogi Industries has been on the cutting edge of manufacturing grappling shorts for some time now.  The brand was originally founded by MMA fighter Chris Brennan back in 2003.  Back then, Nogi was one of the first companies to utilize stretchable fabrics that lent themselves well to the sport of grappling.  My first pair of Nogi shorts were the OE model that I still train in to this day.  One of the reasons I have been a fan of the shorts produced by this company is not only for grappling but they work well in other areas such as working out in the gym and even for casual activities like swimming.  They are versatile to say the least.  Today Nogi has become a pretty main staple in the grappling apparel business and a big sponsor/contributor to Budovideos during IBJJF pay per view events.  The Nogi brand has really set the standard for "ranked gear" consisting of rash guards and grappling shorts.  In addition to the training gear Nogi Industries has to offer, they also have a nice selection of outerwear such as hoodies, t-shirts, and hats.

Old faithful pairs of Nogi shorts

Design
One of things that has always attracted me to the Nogi Industries brand is the simplicity of their designs. I have never been a fan of designs featuring blood, skulls...you get the idea. These shorts feature some well thought out embroidery vertically along the side, and horizontally along the bottoms (front right panel and back left panel).  The font of the embroidery resembles a cross between Gothic and Old English font and looks nice.  Black piping is utilized on both the front and back panels and gives the shorts are very clean look.  I also like to use these shorts to lift weights at the gym so the clean design is nice and avoids unnecessary conversation from people I typically try to avoid while working out.

Construction
The quality of construction seems very good which has been pretty typical of past Nogi shorts that I have owned.  The stitching does have one spot that isn't perfect but doesn't seem to be enough to affect the long term durability of the shorts.  Other than this one spot, the stitching throughout the shorts is very good.  Not much has changed with the enclosure system and it is pretty par for the course with respect to their older models.  The hook and loop enclosure coupled with a draw string help ensure that the shorts have a secure and comfortable fit in the waistline.  The crotch area boasts a super stretchable material that seems to be very durable.  I've become a big fan of embroidery over laminated logos and Nogi has upgraded in this area.  The rigors of grappling combined with regular trips through the washing machine take their toll on laminated logos.  For this reason I prefer shorts with embroidery like that used on the Volt 2.0's and these have proven to be durable so far.

Black portion features stretchable material

Inner drawstring + enclosure system

Velcro stitching failed here

Fit + Rolling Impressions
The overall fit of these shorts doesn't disappoint.  They are by far the most comfortable pair of Nogi shorts I've owned.  The 30" waist size I ordered fit very well.  The amount of leg room is impressive and don't leave the feeling that they are restrictive.  The stretchy fabric used in the interior panels and crotch area is a big upgrade over the older model shorts.  This is very important for me as I am primarily a guard player and need the freedom in the leg and crotch area.  The material feels nice and light and don't feel laborious to train in.  They are sturdy enough to feel durable but not overly stiff like some shorts that use rip-stop material.  My only gripe about these shorts is a mishap I had while putting them on after I had them for a couple months. While opening the Velcro enclosure, the portion that is stitched into the shorts came apart.  It seems the stitching that holds the Velcro simply gave way.  I'm sure these can be fixed fairly easily but I was surprised to see this happen.  It either says something about the strength of the Velcro or lack of good stitching holding the Velcro onto the shorts.  I doubt this is a common problem with these shorts as my other three pairs have never done this.

Measurements

Closing Thoughts

Nogi Industries really hit the mark with the Volt 2.0 grappling shorts.  They continue to set a high standard in grappling apparel creating designs that are nice and not overly gaudy.  Out of all the grappling shorts I have owned over the years the Nogi brand shorts seem to hold up the best and look less worn than other brands making them a very good investment.  Nogi Industries products can be purchased through various online vendors including their homepage.  I do recommend checking out their homepage as they tend to offer some nice sales throughout the year.  Since we are in nogi season I hope to have some more reviews on shorts and rash guards soon.

www.nogi.com