Farewell from Italy

Tomaso

Well wishes.

Despite the injuries, which stop me from going to classes from time tot time, I enjoy learning how to hurt, and like yourself, I hope I’ll never need to use it.

Something else we have in common. I’m also an English major.

Good work!

Cris

Quite right on your footnote regarding BJJ fighters vulnerability on the ground in a real fight. As I have told Steve Tozer many times while holding him in my guard: the guard is not a safe place. It’s begging my opponent to nail me in the head and especially the gonads. Get out of it as soon as possible or submit as soon as possible from it.

Tran

Kung fu isn’t very good for fighting but you have to look at the history of China and the Boxer Rebellion in particular to understand why. In short, to prevent it from being used in an uprising ever again, the government quite literally took the martial out of the art of Kung Fu which is why wushu is an official sport and kung fu is not.

That said, sanshou, wing chun and jeet kune do have preserved some of the great martial fighting aspects of kung fu. I would’ve agreed that Capoiera is useless until I saw it used in MMA on YouTube. Again, like judo itself, any art can be used martially if adapted properly.

In regards to the intertwined history of judo and jiu jitsu, Dan and David Camarillo are two excellent jiu-jitsu and judo fighters who also pay great respect to the heritage of both arts.

Tran

Your intro to wraps had me howling with laughter. I also think you’re totally biased. I love wraps. That’s because they are perfect throws for a smaller guy like me to do on bigger guys like you and if they fail well I ripped your shoulder to pieces anyway.

In all seriousness, they are more appropriate for self-defense than they are for randori fighting but I have pulled one off at the studio a couple of times.

In regards to size, you call it like it is brother: size DOES matter and the only people who say otherwise are those who have never actually been in a real fight, either competitively or for self-defense.

But here’s the catch: size matters ONLY IF YOU KNOW WHAT DO WITH YOUR GIVEN SIZE. A big fellow who has no clue how to move or deal with a judoka will always get thrown by a smaller person. A big fellow who knows judo will always be a problem for a smaller judoka though not necessarily more impossible to throw.

As for speed, it’s funny you write about this because I see the same thing in striking. The biggest mistake smaller faster fighters make is they assume that if they strike more or attempt more throws, they will land more shots on their opponent or increase their chances of a successful throw.

In other words, if we fight faster, we have a fighting chance against a big person. Wrong. Patently and absurdly wrong. Being faster often times means we also gas ourselves out faster or get thrown faster or knocked out faster if we use our speed incorrectly. We have to fight not just faster, but also SMARTER.

The key is to use speed in bursts or sprints and subtly mess up the timing of the other judoka and not let them get used to a rhythm in your fighting. A perfect example is the way both Marcus and I use combinations, particularly the ippon seoi nage/kouchi gake combo you wrote about earlier. We use our speed to rapidly launch an ippon seoi nage and then as your brain registers it, we use our speed to go into a kouchi gake before your brain can register a change.

Perfect example, my last randori with Marcus where I went guns blazing after him and he took me down. (This was intentional, as Marcus was working on something for a tournament and Tammy taught him a counter for it so I emulated the situation for him as best I could. That’s why his father thanked me afterwards. I don’t think Elmer was aware this was actually going on. ) I was just attacking, but Marcus was using combinations.

Though I was fast, his brain could register every attack because there was no strategy to them. When he did his combos, even with my speed, I fell prey to them because he outsped my mind, not my body.

It comes down to these two tenets: Speed outsmarts power. Power and size crush speed dead in its tracks. So choose your tactics wisely and appropriately for your size, regardless of whether you are big or small. And don’t assume that just because a person is bigger, they have no speed. They’ve got PROPORTIONAL SPEED and it may be enough to smash someone who’s faster than them.

Tran

With Morote Gari II, I have found that it is not always necessary to pivot as this fellow does and then run sideways. You can run sideways immediately and achieve the same result. The principle is what one of my MMA instructors called “Beat the Feet.” If you beat your opponent’s feet by stepping faster than they can restep to rebalance themselves you have them thrown. I can show you in the studio next time we see each other.

Tran