I attended the Eddie Bravo seminar at Pinecrest Training Center in Miami, FL last weekend and thought I'd write a quick review.
The seminar started late because the weather and traffic were horrible and Eddie had trouble getting to the gym. He was only going to be able to teach for 1 1/2 hours instead of 2 since he and Joe needed to get to a show, so one of the first things he did when he got in was give everyone half off. Very classy.
I had three basic questions about rubber guard that I wanted to ask. They were the same common concerns/criticisms I had seen others make:
1. How do you defend being stacked?
2. How do you defend them passing over the free leg?
3. How do you turn your hips out for the omoplata?
Oh, and I meant to ask why he started using New York instead of London.
But I never had a chance to ask these since all of them were addressed and answered through the normal course of instruction. He taught and stressed important aspects of the rubber guard that you can't really get from from still pictures, and showed how there is a deeper strategy to it than you'd get from just reading his first book and looking at photos online or in magazines. He made points about breaking posture, grips, leg position, applying pressure, hip movement, etc. that all changed how I thought about rubber guard and gave me more faith in it.
The goofy terms (and there were a lot) actually helped the learning process. They may sound funny but they give names to things that would otherwise be nameless and helped me remember the moves later when I went to write notes. If I remember them all, I heard: Misson Control, Retard Control, Crackhead Control, Invisible Collar, Chill Dog, New York, Kung Fu Move, Ju Claw, Lockdown, The Pump, Spider Web, and Zombie.
So rather than having to say "Do that crap where you punch your hand under his elbow and stretch it up to get the overhook then grab behind your knee" you could just yell "ZOMBIE!" And I can appreciate that.
I also liked his drill sergeant method of calling out each step while you do repssince it did a lot to firmly plant the steps in my mind. He was very attentive and walked around making sure everyone was doing the moves right.
Since it was relatively short, I wasn't sure how much I really got out of this seminar until I sat down and wrote notes on it. Only then did I really just how much Eddie had shown. While he didn't teach a ton of moves (we only really drilled like three), the ones he did teach were solid and laid the base for what I can see as a much bigger game. I'm looking forward to Mastering Rubber Guard when he releases the book later this year, and I'd love to get to another seminar when he's not pressed for time.
I'd always heard that he runs some of the best seminars, and now I can see why. Definitely get to one if you get a chance.
The seminar started late because the weather and traffic were horrible and Eddie had trouble getting to the gym. He was only going to be able to teach for 1 1/2 hours instead of 2 since he and Joe needed to get to a show, so one of the first things he did when he got in was give everyone half off. Very classy.
I had three basic questions about rubber guard that I wanted to ask. They were the same common concerns/criticisms I had seen others make:
1. How do you defend being stacked?
2. How do you defend them passing over the free leg?
3. How do you turn your hips out for the omoplata?
Oh, and I meant to ask why he started using New York instead of London.
But I never had a chance to ask these since all of them were addressed and answered through the normal course of instruction. He taught and stressed important aspects of the rubber guard that you can't really get from from still pictures, and showed how there is a deeper strategy to it than you'd get from just reading his first book and looking at photos online or in magazines. He made points about breaking posture, grips, leg position, applying pressure, hip movement, etc. that all changed how I thought about rubber guard and gave me more faith in it.
The goofy terms (and there were a lot) actually helped the learning process. They may sound funny but they give names to things that would otherwise be nameless and helped me remember the moves later when I went to write notes. If I remember them all, I heard: Misson Control, Retard Control, Crackhead Control, Invisible Collar, Chill Dog, New York, Kung Fu Move, Ju Claw, Lockdown, The Pump, Spider Web, and Zombie.
So rather than having to say "Do that crap where you punch your hand under his elbow and stretch it up to get the overhook then grab behind your knee" you could just yell "ZOMBIE!" And I can appreciate that.
I also liked his drill sergeant method of calling out each step while you do repssince it did a lot to firmly plant the steps in my mind. He was very attentive and walked around making sure everyone was doing the moves right.
Since it was relatively short, I wasn't sure how much I really got out of this seminar until I sat down and wrote notes on it. Only then did I really just how much Eddie had shown. While he didn't teach a ton of moves (we only really drilled like three), the ones he did teach were solid and laid the base for what I can see as a much bigger game. I'm looking forward to Mastering Rubber Guard when he releases the book later this year, and I'd love to get to another seminar when he's not pressed for time.
I'd always heard that he runs some of the best seminars, and now I can see why. Definitely get to one if you get a chance.
