Everything Has Changed Part 2

Posted by Marshal Carper

Mon Nov 16, 2009 8:04 am

Marcelo Garcia's guard game, in Hall's opinion, is the correct way to use the guard.

Hall cited Marcelo Garcia’s guard game as an effective use of the guard position because Garcia uses the guard in the way that a wrestler uses a shot: to get a leg and score a takedown.

“The way Marcelo Garcia plays guard, is, in my opinion, how it should be done,” Hall said. “Your whole job is to pull them off of you and stand up into a single leg. I’m finding more and more that the traditional sweeps don’t really work at the high level, at least not in the way that you normally think of them: you cut me over, and I fall like kaboom right on my back. That doesn’t really happen. It’s like a 20 point touchdown. It just doesn’t usually work like that when both guys are at a truly elite level... I guess I’d say my approach to the guard has changed drastically. It isn’t to pull some whacky sweep or triangle out of my ass anymore. My whole goal is to just make you off balance to the point that you can’t, for a moment, stop me from standing up—and now I finish from a positional advantage. I feel that’s the truly reliable way to do it. You can replicate it against a high-level opponent who knows what you’re doing. That’s when you know you’ve got something.

“People come to me all the time and say, ‘Teach me the inverted guard.” I’ll show them if they really want to know, but I generally prefer not to. Instead, I’ll try to sell them on this: learn how to wrestle a little bit, and I’ll show you how to pass. The guard is an important position, but the purpose of the guard is not so that I can triangle you; the purpose of the guard is so that I can get on top. It’s the proper strategic choice, seeking the mechanical advantage.”

Be like Roger Gracie: get on top, pass the guard, mount, and secure a choke.

The mechanical advantage: the absolute best option backed by the strongest, most-perfect technique. As Hall has focused on dissecting what makes basic movements like a cross-collar choke from mount most effective, Roger Gracie effective, his perception of how to learn and teach Jiu-Jitsu has changed.

“What I really believe helps me the most is that I try to break Jiu-Jitsu down to a fundamental level and really work to understand what determines success and failure, kind of on a body mechanics level, to really understand that there are correct and incorrect ways to do things,” Hall said. “The idea is that if you can get down to a fundamental level of body mechanics and understanding and you can kind of distill your Jiu-Jitsu down to something that’s very direct, very simple, allowing you to be able to operate on a higher level of efficiency in many, many positions, all positions really, instead of just drilling just one series or just a couple series of moves and becoming very strong [in that particular area] while neglecting other areas.”

The danger of learning a multitude of techniques, Hall said, is that a fighter will only be good at certain positions. When a fighter is dragged away from that position, his comfort zone, he crumbles. Hall’s focus is now on learning fundamental movements and principles that are universal. And he’s seen a difference both in himself and in his students. Even something as seemingly basic as the shrimp, in Hall’s mind, needs to be re-evaluated.

“The reason I don’t shrimp is not that it’s garbage or that it doesn’t work, but there are problems with the way it’s taught,” Hall said. “Say for instance you have side control, and I manage to get an underhook, and I start shrimping away from you. When I’m initially in side control, I’m kind of glued to you and as a result, I’m relatively stable. My feet are wide. My hips are back. When I shrimp, I put my feet together and I scoot and my profile goes from this to this, for a moment, and then I reset.”

At this point, Hall held his hand out with his fingers spread into a square and brought them together into a single cluster to demonstrate what happens when you shrimp.

Hall continued, “And then I go again. I’m pushing you away. Reset. Pushing away, scooting away, reset. The serious problem with the bottom is that you’re not only pinned in place by the person’s weight, but you’re also controlled because the person on top has the ability to move very quickly. You should probably act accordingly.”

What Hall has replaced the shrimp with is what he calls a “trade secret,” a result of high-level, intense analysis that he’s not willing to give away, much in the same way that Roger Gracie is not willing to give away what makes his moves so effective. Unlike Gracie, however, Hall doesn’t call his movements “basic.” They are fundamental, but far from basic. The mechanics at work are actually quite complex and incredibly specific, and they work.

Hall offered this advice: “The whole key is saying, ‘Look. I don’t want to beat regular people. I don’t want to beat guys that are kind of good. I don’t want to beat hobbyists. I don’t want to pull out a sweet highlight reel full of backflips and wacky nonsense.’ You know who has a sweet highlight reel? Roger Gracie. If something doesn’t work against the top 1% of competitors, I don’t want to do it. If you fight for a living and you have a lower standard than that, you have to be out of your mind.”

So, be like Roger Gracie; that’s what Ryan Hall is trying to do.

If you’d like to know more about Ryan Hall or his school, go to 5050bjj.com or visit his school in Arlington, VA.



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