10th Planet Watch – 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu Van Nuys Blog

Eddie Bravo once again breaking it down for the kids. 10th Planet for the children ya’ll.

I’m definitely not the most flexible dude on the planet, but recently I’ve been able to make rubber guard work for me much better. Eddie has been on my case for a while now about working on my flexibility. He’s put me on blast in class and used me as an example for guys with bad flexibility. I’ll admit, in the past I’ve been lazy when it comes to stretching. It’s not been until recently, that I started to work a bit harder on it. I’m noticing a huge difference.

I’m not going to lie, the more flexible you are, the easier Rubber Guard is going to be for you. There are a lot of rumors and myths going around about how only the super-flexible can use these moves without being injured. NOT TRUE. Just like anything, it takes practice. We don’t show up to Tae Kwon Do class and expect to be pulling off 360 spinning jumping kicks right off the bat. We don’t show up to Muy Thai class and expect to have devastating head kicks all of the sudden. We have to work up to that. Rubber Guard is no exception, it takes time to develop the squeezing endurance and flexibility required to utilize it effectively.

My suggestion, if it doesn’t work for you immediately, have a little faith and patience. Stretch, put in the repetitions, and I can guarantee you will see results. Good luck

Eddie breaks it down. If i were a hater, I wouldn’t have a whole lot to work with there =)

The Pump is the first choice for arm bars from the rubber guard. If you’re unable to get the hand to the mat, we move into crackhead control to start setting up the arm bar.

Here’s a video of Eddie teaching “The Pump” at a Seminar at John Botello’s 10PJJ Phoenix.

Here’s another Video of Eddie teaching it but this time you get to see me and Alex 4sakensoul performing it. Now that’s worth its weight in gold.

Here’s another instance of Rubber Guard from UFC 86. Justin Buchholz pulls guard to avoid getting slammed and goes straight into mission control @ 4:32 of the video. He controls Hill’s posture, and hits him with several body shots before giving up the position. Buchholz goes to Rubber Guard again at 10:28 of the video. This time he gets Hill’s hand to the mat and get’s “New York”. He then moves back a step into retard control. He wasn’t able to mount any offense with his guard, but if nothing else, he avoided damage.

Renzo Gracie black belt and all around badass, Ricardo Almeida uses rubber guard! In round 1 it’s at 1:35 of the video. He also gets “Crackhead” control in round 2 at 8:46 of the video. Almeida is a highly decorated Gracie blackbelt, who obviously has seen the light. To avoid punishment and work and an effective offense off your back in MMA, Rubber Guard, is where it’s at. We also saw one of Almeida’s students, Dante Rivera, use rubber guard in his fight versus Matt Riddle a few weeks prior. I predict It will be the standard in the near future. Until then, work on your flexibility!

Eddie Bravo/Hiro bjj blue belt – Miki Takahashi v.s. a brown belt. The footage is taken from a japanese mma/grappling magazine: Submission Spirits.

Miki is out in Hollywood training with us for the next few months. It’s been a pleasure to have her. In the video, right off the bat, Miki goes for the “Mikiplata”. She has an aggressive style, it’s exciting to watch.

K-1 Max and Dream’s Akasaka Fight Festival: Shinya Aoki, Kawajiri and Masakazu Imanari took to the mat for a grappling exhibition. Shinya Aoki pulls off a nice twister in there.

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I’m going with an attacks from the mount theme today. Here’s how Aoki destroyed lil’ Nagata in dreams last month. The whole fight is posted on the blog as well if you’re interested click here. Edwin Dean, a brown belt from the Hollywood school, has a really good set up variation for this as well. Not only is he a fantastic Jiu Jitsu player, but also a fantastic hair stylist. I’ll see if I can get him on video doing it and post it.

Here’s a couple of vids on the gangsta lean to the slo triangle. I’m working on my mount game right now so I thought, if for nothing else, it’s gonna help my game =) ENJOY!

Mastering the Twister Book by Eddie Bravo

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