Introduction

What simple and easy to miss concepts are elite level black belts applying in order to maximize their chances and ultimately securing the win?

In this Article we will discuss 4 of these invisible concepts. A lot of these concepts are actually fairly easy to understand and apply, no matter what your current level is. The hard part is mastering them so perfectly that you are able to execute them against other top level competitors under the immense pressure of competition.

So stick in there!

I’m sure, by now, you know who Paulo Miyao (Cicero Costa) is. He is a black belt world champion and has won many other titles both in his weight and the open class. He doesn’t really like to talk though so without an eagle eye for detail it is incredibly hard to see what he is actually doing.

A little bit less known is the absolute beast called Gabriel “Palito” Rollo (Checkmat). Some of his achievements: Abu Dhabi World Pro Championship 2nd Place (2015), South American Champion (2014) and beating Michael Liera Jr. in the 2015 ibjjf world championships.

He is particular known for his reverse de la Riva guard and his fast knee slides. I have personally rolled with this man and I, a full time purple belt competitor, could hardly do anything at all.

The video

Difference tactic and concept

Before we can really start our analysis it is important to explain in short what concepts and tactics are.

A concept is a general idea about something that can be applied to everything that has to do with it, in this case: Jiu jitsu. A tactic is the application of a concept for a specific action for a specific action.

Recon

“If you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles” – Sun Tzu

Concept

According to the “art of war” by Sun Tzu it is of the utmost importance to know both yourself and the enemy.

Obviously both Gabriel and Paulo know who they are dealing with here. Both know that Paulo has a virtually impassable guard and that he always sits down at the beginning of the fight. Gabriel is known to time guard pulls with a quick take down and is known to have a pretty much impassable guard as well.

Tactic

If you look at the beginning of the match you see that Gabriel is trying to go for the take down right when he thinks Paulo is about to pull guard. Paulo is wise to this however and blocks Palito as he is shooting and pulls guard straight after, thus avoiding giving up the points. In this way he gets to the position where he is most effective.

Invincibility

“The good fighters of old first put themselves beyond the possibility of defeat, and then waited for an opportunity of defeating the enemy”– Sun Tzu

Concept

In order to win a fight, one must first make sure that he cannot lose. In jiu jitsu this can mean that you never allow your opponent to pass or to sweep.

Tactic

When Paulo first pulls guard, the first thing he does is starting to apply the leg lasso on his right side, opening up the gi and starting to wrap Pailito up in the gi. Both of these positions are known to be notoriously hard to pass. Only after he applies these shields he starts with his offense.

Palito on the other hand starts the fight by going for the takedown, if he had succeeded he would be ahead two points which would have meant he would have almost certainly been ahead on points for the whole match. Another thing he did was sweeping back immediately every time he got swept in order to keep the score as even as possible.

Entanglement

Concept

 In a previous article we have already done an in depth description of the entanglement principle so we won’t repeat ourselves. 

Tactic

As soon as Paulo pulls guard he starts to look for all kinds of complicated entanglements. He uses the lasso guard and the lapel (specifically all kinds of worm guard variations). This is partly because these are harder to pass as they require very specific passing skills and this ties back to our previous concept.

But also because he is very used to attacking with these specific lapel grips. In the end of the match Paulo was able to sweep Gabriel and then able to prevent him from getting back up because of the entanglement thus winning the match.

Angle control

Concept

In general we need to face our opponent or the part of the body we are attacking in order to be able to attack. We are talking about facing them with the direction of our spine, chest or hips. Think about any of your favorite positions and you will find this to be true. When you apply a triangle, are in the mount or have the back you will always be facing your opponent.

Conversely preventing your opponent to face you is a powerful attack and defense concept. When you have the back you are effectively blocking your opponent from facing you and when push a guy’s face away when he is trying to pass you are doing the same thing.

Tactic

At 1:25 we see Paulo trying to use the lapel to change his angle towards Gabriel to try and attack his back. But Gabriel skillfully gets a grip on Paul’s lapel as well thus locking down the face to face angle.

As you can see most of the match the angle is pretty head to head, with their spines pretty much in the same direction this is because they are both masters and controlling the angle. This also implies that in order for Palito to try to pass he would have to go straight through the guard (for example a knee slide pass) instead of around the guard (for example a toreando pass). Paulo knows that his guard is very hard to pass this way which is probably why he keeps his hips squared up any time Gabriel has good posture.

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