he’s a funny guy
(funny how?)
Funny but right on the money
Here’s Eddie BRavo being attacked by some random guy in the gym.
More people should listen to Eddie Bravo. He’s a guy from no real background and who did not hit the genetic lottery who accomplished much through hours and hours of training.
In a sense, he’s my “master,” though I do not train with him.
What’s Mark Colemn going to tell me? Really. What is someone like Randleman going to offer me? These guys are just freaks who won the lottery upon birth. That ain’t me.
Give me some guy like Bravo who has the shittiest genetics out there, and I’ll listen.
I got a good compliment the other day. I was training with a good purple that I almost omo’ed who said, “You don’t roll like a big guy. You do a lot of shit only little guys do.” That’s because I’m always trying rubber guard shit, going for omo sweeps, recovering guard. I rarely even play a top game.
I always be stretching. Right now my hip is in a funky position while I type this shit. I got that from Bravo. You don’t set aside time to stretch during the day. You ALWAYS stretch.
Today I pulled off some fucking weird ass sweep. I figure foured the guys with my legs, pulled on his head, and got a sweep. Only because of some weird flexibility.
And I am still not super flexible. Shit takes years.
Most people just do not stretch enough. Either they are genetic freaks who don’t have to put in the time, or they are just losers who won’t put in the time.
[quote]CaliforniaLaw wrote:
Most people just do not stretch enough. Either they are genetic freaks who don’t have to put in the time, or they are just losers who won’t put in the time.[/quote]
You’re right in that more people do need to stretch more; especially those that train any form of martial art. But, to call those that don’t losers is a bit extreme.
Why? People who won’t even put in the effort will never be champions. That makes them…
… exactly.
We candy-coat too much shit in society. That ain’t me. Hell, I ask myself every day, “Did you do everything you could to become as good as you can become?” If not, then that day I was a loser.
[quote]CaliforniaLaw wrote:
Most people just do not stretch enough. Either they are genetic freaks who don’t have to put in the time, or they are just losers who won’t put in the time.[/quote]
Stretching makes you weak, duh.
[quote]CaliforniaLaw wrote:
Djwlfpack wrote: You’re right in that more people do need to stretch more; especially those that train any form of martial art. But, to call those that don’t losers is a bit extreme.
Why? People who won’t even put in the effort will never be champions. That makes them…
… exactly.
We candy-coat too much shit in society. That ain’t me. Hell, I ask myself every day, “Did you do everything you could to become as good as you can become?” If not, then that day I was a loser.[/quote]
Well, I guess it comes down to what we discussed before.
If you’re doing BJJ as a hobby, then perhaps doing a ton of stretching isn’t a priority. But, if you are training to compete in BJJ tourneys or training BJJ as part of your MMA toolbox, then yes, not stretching is setting yourself up for failure.
[quote]CaliforniaLaw wrote:
Djwlfpack wrote: You’re right in that more people do need to stretch more; especially those that train any form of martial art. But, to call those that don’t losers is a bit extreme.
Why? People who won’t even put in the effort will never be champions. That makes them…
… exactly.
We candy-coat too much shit in society. That ain’t me. Hell, I ask myself every day, “Did you do everything you could to become as good as you can become?” If not, then that day I was a loser.[/quote]
And I could just as easily say that Bravo, with his vegan vampire look, is a loser because he doesn’t lift weights. I have news for you: being more flexible is good but just being more flexible than the other guy doesn’t mean you’ll win. If that were the case Bravo would have actually won a significant event.
[quote]zecarlo wrote:
And I could just as easily say that Bravo, with his vegan vampire look, is a loser because he doesn’t lift weights. I have news for you: being more flexible is good but just being more flexible than the other guy doesn’t mean you’ll win. If that were the case Bravo would have actually won a significant event. [/quote]
you know I’m generally the nice guy here but wow please just shut the fuck up.
Eddie Bravo…
He is most famous for his win as a brown belt against Royler Gracie by triangle choke in the Abu Dhabi Submission Wrestling championships the year 2003.
ABU …motherfucking… DHABI
Responding to complaints that Rubber Guard requires a much higher degree of flexibility than conventional guard, due to the closer position of the legs and knees to the competitor’s own head, Bravo explained that a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu player who expects to be good at his (or her) game just needs to accept the fact that stretching is a very important part of training. By analogy, “No Muay Thai beginner would start out by saying he can’t kick to the head because he isn’t limber enough … it’s just accepted that if you want to play Muay Thai, you’d better stretch so you can kick to the head.” One test of suppleness for applying Rubber Guard effortlessly is the ability to place your own leg behind the arm and head on the same side of your own body (similar to a Yoga asana).
Although Bravo is a controversial figure for both inventing new moves and for his anti-gi stance, Bravo is a strong advocate of drilling in addition to “rolling” or free sparring which shows he is still traditional in some aspects. At the September 2006 seminar, he complained that Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu players are a little addicted to free sparring and often view “boring drills” as a distraction from the adrenaline high of rolling. He stated that any serious practitioner needs to spend at least an hour per week drilling essential moves so they become as natural as tying a shoelace, which is a lot harder than it looks if you were to break it down into moves. Yet, by the time we are adults we can all routinely tie our shoe laces even while looking away and carrying on a conversation with a friend. The core Rubber Guard moves need to become just as second nature, otherwise the reaction speed required to apply them will always stand in the way of their effectiveness.
For what it’s worth Rocky Marciano, Joe Fraizer, and Muhammed Ali didn’t lift weights either… and recommended that you DON’T.
You know, not to knock on Eddie Bravo at all, And my limited understanding of the sub grappling game precludes me from commenting on the soundness of the techniques.
But I don’t quite understand why he is such a “name”. Yes, Abu Dhabi is VERY impressive. You don’t get to ADCC without any credentials. With that said, I don’t think it is quite right to have a reputation built off of any single win, no matter how great the competitor (and Royler is a great BJJ practitioner). He went on to lose in the semis and lose in the 3rd place match. As far as I know he never competed in ADCC again.
Being accepted to abu dhabi means you’re one of the top grapplers in the world period. thats enough, then he goes on to defeat a gracie?
Impressive enough.
Besides I’d rather listen to the guy who has little to no athletic ability to that turned himself into something special and his techniques for making fighting easier than the uber athletic guy.
[quote]Xen Nova wrote:
Being accepted to abu dhabi means you’re one of the top grapplers in the world period. thats enough, then he goes on to defeat a gracie?
[/quote]
No, it doesn’t mean that. Do the top sprinters in the world go to the Olympics or the top from each country? Look at the list of competitors in ADCC and you’ll see many who are not as deserving as some who were not invited. Marcelo Garcia, who would toy with Eddie, only got in as a last minute alternate.
He is not the first guy to beat a Gracie. Yes, it’s an accomplishment but when you see what happened in his following matches it almost looks like a fluke.
Anyway, my problem is with a poster saying you’re a loser if you don’t stretch (like Bravo) and I was pointing out that he doesn’t lift so it’s not like he’s so fantastically thorough with his training.
The rubber guard is not the Holy Grail. It’s just another tool. Gracia has proven the effectiveness of the X-Guard under real world conditions. Eddie has not done that but he talks as though his opinion of the rubber guard is not opinion but fact. He’s no different than the McDojo black belt who says his strikes can kill even though he has never hit anything more than a board.
[quote]zecarlo wrote:
The rubber guard is not the Holy Grail. It’s just another tool. Gracia has proven the effectiveness of the X-Guard under real world conditions. Eddie has not done that but he talks as though his opinion of the rubber guard is not opinion but fact. [/quote]
I dunno, Aoki has been pretty successful with it. And Bravo said in the above video that he thinks all guards should be studied, because sometimes the rubber guard can’t be utilized, and other guards can provide options that the rubber guard can’t.
[quote]Fiction wrote:
zecarlo wrote:
The rubber guard is not the Holy Grail. It’s just another tool. Gracia has proven the effectiveness of the X-Guard under real world conditions. Eddie has not done that but he talks as though his opinion of the rubber guard is not opinion but fact.
I dunno, Aoki has been pretty successful with it. And Bravo said in the above video that he thinks all guards should be studied, because sometimes the rubber guard can’t be utilized, and other guards can provide options that the rubber guard can’t. [/quote]
Aoki is one guy and in ADCC 2005 Garcia tooled him and subbed him in under two minutes. I’m not saying the rubber guard is crap, just that it’s another technique. Some guys can make it work, depending on the opponent of course, while others can’t and in the end it won’t make a difference as people gravitate towards what they can make work most of the time for a variety of reasons. Ricardo De La Riva made good use of the guard that bears his name but others have been as successful without it.
Garcia uses the X-guard because he found his legs were too short to do certain moves, he always fought in the open weight classes against much bigger guys, for example. Bravo admits the rubber guard isn’t perfect and has its limitations. It’s nice to know but it is more important to learn the moves that you can use on the widest variety of people before you learn moves that you can only do on people who are weak and small.