Friday 6/3/17
BJJ 120 min
Today we had 6th Degree black belt Marcelo Alonso at our gym to teach a seminar. Marcelo is my instructor’s instructor. Also in attendance were two black belts from the NH affiliate, along with some accomplished guests. I was one of only four white belts in the room.
Learning from Marcelo was described to me as “drinking from the source”. Marcelo Alonso studied under Carlson Gracie. Carlson Gracie is the son of Helio Gracie, the originator of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Marcelo Alonso was also the head instructor at the Carlson Gracie School in Rio, Brazil for over a decade. He now runs his own gym in Seattle and a dozen or so affiliate gyms around the country. It was a joy and a privilege to be taught by this man.
We started with an attack sequence from standing. Our opponent would try to sweep our knees with his hands, and we’d begin the whole sequence by trapping him in a guillotine choke, falling backwards, pulling guard and then finishing the choke. I sank this choke easily.
Next we’d start from the same position, with our opponent escaping the choke. In response, we slide the knee into his arm and PUSH, making him want to let go. That allows us to set up the triangle choke, which is where you choke them out with your legs. My legs are pretty thick but I was able to sink this pretty effectively.
From that position we moved on to an omaplata, which is a joint submission on the arm using the legs and torque from rotating the body. Its hard to describe without seeing it. Again, this begins from the same position you’d be in if your opponent escaped your triangle attempt. My leg size and strength really seemed to work to my advantage here.
From there our opponent would roll to escape the omaplata. We would quickly take side mount in response, then move right to mount. From the mount we’d move to the bow-and-arrow choke. I won’t even try to describe this, google a picture or watch it on youtube if you want to see it. I was able to sink this pretty well too. It is nasty when you do it fast.
We drilled this many times. Move move move. No downtime. That took about 50 minutes. We got a five minute water break.
Next up were the baseball bat submissions. These I did not take to as well as the previous sequence, but I didn’t get as much time as I should have to work on them. I let my partner go first so I could rest on my back while he choked the shit out of me. My neck is a bit thicker than average, so he was having trouble sinking them. This didn’t leave me as much time to practice them, but there is plenty of value in enduring the onslaught of a senior blue belt. I don’t feel cheated. I’ll be able to work on them more in the future, and I was able to sink a few of them really fast.
We went out for dinner afterwards and had a few drinks. My instructor friended me on the facebooks and welcomed me to the family. Everyone I met was so chill and easy to talk to. I attribute this to the brutal honesty of rolling on the mat. There’s not much point in posturing or talking shit when you will just get repeatedly exposed on the mat. These very chill and relaxed people can put their skills into practice with vicious intent and a drive to endure as much misery as they possibly can before tapping. My kinda people.
I feel like I’m joining a cult, but a helpful and friendly cult that just wants to see you become an efficient killer with your bare hands and reap the benefits associated with those abilities. I also have about 30 bruises on my body right now, including one really sweet one on my neck. I think I ruptured a blood vessel!
