On the Mat Day 352: Marco Barbosa Seminar Part 1

Marco Barbosa, the instructor who gave my instructor his black belt, taught a seminar at my club last night. The turnout of people was phenomenal. Most of our guys came along with a couple from GSB and NOS. Totalling something like 40 people at a guess. Marco speaks some Japanese since he lived here for a couple of years way back but he asked Christiano to translate to Japanese most of the time. I know how hard translating can be so must remember to thank him next time I see him. Barbosa-sensei taught us very basic movements and emphasized the importance of mastering the basics before doing other things. Before he started showing the technique he said that most people are too focused on the result, the outcome of the roll and do not concentrate on the technique. Concentrate on the technique and the results in your favour will come. I'm guilty of this.

The first technique he showed was a closed guard, both feet on the hips, one leg over the shoulder, very tight grip with the legs and work into the armbar. No using hands, legs only. After doing this for a lot of reps I found my legs tired fast - not good. He continued with transitions to armbar -> triangle ->omoplata. All with no hands and very tight legs locking onto the opponent. After this he showed us how to submit opponents who are stalling. Again both feet on the hips, push hips up, lock one arm into your side, switch to omoplata position and roll them to armbar if necessary. Always, emphasizing tight control with the legs. Very smooth, tight movements but with minimum effort, just pure technique. It was very enlightening.

Below is an old video of Marco Barbosa with my instructor showing ude-gaeshi.


After the seminar which lasted about 1.5 hours we sparred for about an hour. I purposefully picked guys who I had never sparred with. 2 blue belts, 1 purple, 3 black belts. I actually got to spar with Marco Barbosa whose style was so similar to F-sensei. Heavy passing, 100kg side control, submitting me numerous times with tight armbars. Later on one of the guys who has met him before said that he was shocked to note that Barbosa had not changed his technique since 10 years ago. No berimbolo, no x-guard, no fancy stuff. Just basic techniques but perfect timing and accuracy.

I woke up this morning with my head buzzing full of jiu-jitsu thoughts. So much so that I could not wait for my alarm to go off. Instead I went downstairs and foam rolled the kinks out with my big roller and a tennis ball. I'm currently working on more hip flexibility to prevent further groin injuries.

Sparring time: 6 x 5 mins = 30 mins

Things to work on:

• Better turtle to not allow hooks by using my elbows on my hips (ask Tete how he avoids hooks)
• Transition faster from turtle to half-guard or look to sweep, don't just wait
• Kesa-gatame escapes. I need to work on arm underhook kesagatame escape
• Sitting guard. Look for more variations instead of far arm trap. Also, what to do when I cannot reach my leg to their knee.
• Rear mount escape, also protect my neck better. Chin down, arms in very tight because I allow them to put arm in collar too easily.
• Failed to capitalize on old school straight leg sweep on standing opponent. He stood back up, ask K-sensei advice.
• Prevent grips versus Bullfighter pass. Also, work pass prevention when I am late such as Saulo Ribeiro tech and collar or sleeve with butt scoot out.