[VIDEOS] codemonkey76 competition videos

[codemonkey76]

Hey Guys,

I competed in the 2011 Kapai Puku Pan Pacific Championships over the weekend and had a pretty poor showing with 4 fights and 4 losses.

I competed in the following divisions:

• Under 79KG Adult Purple Belt Gi
• Under 79KG Adult Purple Belt No-Gi
• Openweight Masters Purple Belt Gi
• Openweight Masters Purple Belt No-Gi

I unfortunately didn't get video of my No-gi match in my weight, but it went like this:

I got taken down, had my guard passed (i turtled to stop him scoring points), and got RNC'd for my trouble (accross the jaw) with no hooks.

Here was my other matches.

 

[DevinTheDewd]

Good fights, nice technique. You definitely should have won that first one you posted. I think you need to get more aggressive on finishing your sweeps, especially from X-Guard. You should also practice a couple other options from ther XG because your opponent was defending that one sweep pretty well. Just my thought, thanks for the post.

 

[BeRGLeZ]

"I got taken down, had my guard passed (i turtled to stop him scoring points)"
-this undid me in my semi-final I got 2 points scored on me for going to turtle!

I thought you looked really good (watched in person). The 79 division was extremely stacked.. lots of the guys I knew competing in it had been purples for a longggg time. Can't view your videos now (Streaming media blocked! ) but I will at home...

I noticed your a little too nice Shane... lol. Bit of tenacity might do you well...

 

[codemonkey76]

"I got taken down, had my guard passed (i turtled to stop him scoring points)"
-this undid me in my semi-final I got 2 points scored on me for going to turtle!

I thought you looked really good (watched in person). The 79 division was extremely stacked.. lots of the guys I knew competing in it had been purples for a longggg time. Can't view your videos now (Streaming media blocked! ) but I will at home...

I noticed your a little too nice Shane... lol. Bit of tenacity might do you well...

some ref's are retards, there is no 2 points for going to turtle, unless you were on top in your opp's guard, and guy he came to the top of your turtle.

I agree, I am way too "nice" when I roll, i should have knelt on my opp's neck when I had him stacked up when he was attempting to armbar me in the gi match, it would have allowed me to pin the head and free my arm. :-(

I don't know how to become more agressive / nasty, it's not in my nature and I need some one to remind me to be nasty cos it's not my natural state.

 

[segfault]

I thought you looked good, the first guy was obviously tough and the second guy was just plain big.

In the first video, I notice you have some of the same issues I have with X-guard and passing a mostly closed guard.

With the X-guard, you are having some problems stretching him out and breaking his posture. You might consider something my coach suggested to me. With your right arm (supposing you are controlling his left leg with your right arm), try strongly cupping the inside of his knee with your right hand. Then think of opening his left knee as much as possible with that cup grip, bringing your right elbow in close to your ribs to strengthen the open. At the same time, keep his left ankle trapped better by strongly pinching his ankle between your right ear and right shoulder, like an inverted/straight armlock.

In his guard, after you survived the triangle at 4:16 or so, you seemed to relax and let your arms become extended over his chest (where he took advantage). I'm sure you were tired and maybe it was a natural lapse at that point. Instead, perhaps you could establish your combat base, posture and get into a solid passing structure.

 

[wildrussian]

Good matches man! I have the same problem with being too nice when I roll so I know what you mean.

 

[segfault]

Being nice is a great thing, because it translates into training safe. It probably means in the future you'll be a happy blackbelt rolling for a long, long time rather than burning out from injuries.

A quick thought on going to turtle -- as you go to turtle, you would be well-served to try to establish a block on the opponent. Maybe you already do this, but I didn't spot it in the videos.

Robson Moura has a great DVD on this concept, which he calls the turtle hook



Leo Vieira also uses this, even from standing



You can also create a block on his hip with your inside arm, but I don't have any good video clips showing it. I think the shin works better, though.

 

[hocky]

One word of advice:if all foot attacks are legal try to close guard immediately to protect your foot on the side you do hook!

 

[BIGthingsSON]

Man that first guy was just plain old , in good shape.

 

[Jiu Jitsuka]

Great technique as per usual Shane. I always enjoy watching your competition footage. Thank you for posting your videos.

P.S. the accents of your support group are always entertaining to me. Keep up the good work.

 

[codemonkey76]

I thought you looked good, the first guy was obviously tough and the second guy was just plain big.

In the first video, I notice you have some of the same issues I have with X-guard and passing a mostly closed guard.

With the X-guard, you are having some problems stretching him out and breaking his posture. You might consider something my coach suggested to me. With your right arm (supposing you are controlling his left leg with your right arm), try strongly cupping the inside of his knee with your right hand. Then think of opening his left knee as much as possible with that cup grip, bringing your right elbow in close to your ribs to strengthen the open. At the same time, keep his left ankle trapped better by strongly pinching his ankle between your right ear and right shoulder, like an inverted/straight armlock.

In his guard, after you survived the triangle at 4:16 or so, you seemed to relax and let your arms become extended over his chest (where he took advantage). I'm sure you were tired and maybe it was a natural lapse at that point. Instead, perhaps you could establish your combat base, posture and get into a solid passing structure.

Great advice, will do

 

[codemonkey76]

Being nice is a great thing, because it translates into training safe. It probably means in the future you'll be a happy blackbelt rolling for a long, long time rather than burning out from injuries.

A quick thought on going to turtle -- as you go to turtle, you would be well-served to try to establish a block on the opponent. Maybe you already do this, but I didn't spot it in the videos.

Robson Moura has a great DVD on this concept, which he calls the turtle hook

I have the Robson set and have played with the leg block, but it's not something I use unconsciously at this stage.

 

[codemonkey76]

One word of advice:if all foot attacks are legal try to close guard immediately to protect your foot on the side you do hook!

Purple belt IBJJF rules, i.e. only straight foot ankle locks.

 

[segfault]

One other thing you might consider is rather than going to half, try going to butterfly.

For instance, at 2:15 of your no-gi match with the big guy, you might have inserted your left hook rather than going to halfguard (with some Z guard mixed in). Although you eventually recovered full guard, there were two minutes of squishing and near-passing that looked painfully familiar to my experience.

I played a ton of halfguard for about two years, mainly because my instructor at that time was a halfguard specialist (Lucas Leite style).

Now, I also tried a lot of butterfly at times, but always got destroyed because I tried to use the Marcelo style (like in his book). I characterize this style as being square to the opponent, having fantastic grip fighting skills (I didn't), and being able to scoot in under the opponent's center of gravity quickly and trigger the sweep quickly using treetrunk legs (which I didn't have). This Marcelo style did not favor my build, speed, grip-fighting ability, attributes, or the large size of many of my training partners. This is no knock on Marcelo of course, just my poor interpretation of his techniques.

Meanwhile, the halfguard worked OK with no-gi smaller guys, but in the gi and with big guys, even if I got the sweep or took the back, I was exhausted and it looked a lot like what you went through from 2:15-4:15 of your video 2.

About 9-12 months ago, I started playing more of the Carlos Machado style hookflip. This is better than the Marcelo style for people like me (weak and slow). I was training a lot at that point with an instructor that trained up through purple with Carlos, and he understood how to make it more safe, no squishing with lots of strong frames and angles.

Several months ago, I got the Carlos Machado Unstoppable hookflip DVD and since then, it's become my best style of guard. The grip he uses at :39 of the preview works great with big guys in no-gi:

Budovideos.com - Unstoppable: Secrets of the Hook Flip DVD with Carlos Machado


I can't recommend it highly enough. I can now easily flip guys 100 lbs heavier than me, as well as quick and technical guys. There are a lot of holes in my hookflip of course, but at least I'm not suffering all the time like I did with getting squished in the halfguard or the Marcelo butterfly.

Probably more suggestions and personal anecdotes than you wanted to hear. I want to say most of all I admire you competing and sharing your footage, you looked tough as nails!

 

[slickster]

No shame in the way you competed dude... you were obviously competing against LEGIT purple belts and it wasn't like any of them blew past you. Although you didn't win, you are a legit purple bro.

 

[codemonkey76]

One other thing you might consider is rather than going to half, try going to butterfly.

For instance, at 2:15 of your no-gi match with the big guy, you might have inserted your left hook rather than going to halfguard (with some Z guard mixed in). Although you eventually recovered full guard, there were two minutes of squishing and near-passing that looked painfully familiar to my experience.

I played a ton of halfguard for about two years, mainly because my instructor at that time was a halfguard specialist (Lucas Leite style).

Now, I also tried a lot of butterfly at times, but always got destroyed because I tried to use the Marcelo style (like in his book). I characterize this style as being square to the opponent, having fantastic grip fighting skills (I didn't), and being able to scoot in under the opponent's center of gravity quickly and trigger the sweep quickly using treetrunk legs (which I didn't have). This Marcelo style did not favor my build, speed, grip-fighting ability, attributes, or the large size of many of my training partners. This is no knock on Marcelo of course, just my poor interpretation of his techniques.

Meanwhile, the halfguard worked OK with no-gi smaller guys, but in the gi and with big guys, even if I got the sweep or took the back, I was exhausted and it looked a lot like what you went through from 2:15-4:15 of your video 2.

About 9-12 months ago, I started playing more of the Carlos Machado style hookflip. This is better than the Marcelo style for people like me (weak and slow). I was training a lot at that point with an instructor that trained up through purple with Carlos, and he understood how to make it more safe, no squishing with lots of strong frames and angles.

Several months ago, I got the Carlos Machado Unstoppable hookflip DVD and since then, it's become my best style of guard. The grip he uses at :39 of the preview works great with big guys in no-gi:

Budovideos.com - Unstoppable: Secrets of the Hook Flip DVD with Carlos Machado


I can't recommend it highly enough. I can now easily flip guys 100 lbs heavier than me, as well as quick and technical guys. There are a lot of holes in my hookflip of course, but at least I'm not suffering all the time like I did with getting squished in the halfguard or the Marcelo butterfly.

Probably more suggestions and personal anecdotes than you wanted to hear. I want to say most of all I admire you competing and sharing your footage, you looked tough as nails!

Actually in the gym, my hook sweep is my money sweep, sometimes in the moment you don't pick the right technique for the right time. I play a lot of butterfly and X as the 2 interplay very nicely

 

[segfault]

Actually in the gym, my hook sweep is my money sweep, sometimes in the moment you don't pick the right technique for the right time. I play a lot of butterfly and X as the 2 interplay very nicely

Cool, I agree about them working well together.

I think another opportunity for the hooks is from 1:55-2:15 of the third match. Since the guy was so sprawled out, you might could have either flipped him or caused him to lay off the pressure he was giving you.

Around 2:15, his left arm was available for that grip Carlos uses at :39 of his preview. Here's a nice breakdown of the grip which turns a crossface into a liability