Almost two years ago, I attended one of Renato Tavares’ seminars.
And on that day, he brought a special guest. It was a guy whose name you probably won’t know. His name isn’t often written on the web, and he’s no darling of social media.
(If you want to look him up though, his name is Fabricio “Bicudo” Medeiros. And he even has a few competition videos out there.)
I had no idea who he was when I met him.
But I was shocked, shocked when I discovered how long he’s been training. Over 30 years. Imagine that.
That’s a wealth of experience.
And I picked up something special from him on that day.
It was a grip.
Yup, just that. But it’s VICIOUS. He showed it towards the end of the seminar, during a Q&A session, when someone asked him about his favorite way to pass the closed guard.
It blew my mind.
I started playing with it right away. And when set up right, it’s just straight up ridiculous. In fact, I learned that lesson the hard way once. I remember distinctly when it happened. At the time, I had been showing it to all my training partners, and one of them actually used it against me….
First off, he broke one of the cardinal rules.
If I show you something cool, you must not, under any circumstances, use it against me (I really should write up a formal contract and make everyone sign it).
It showed me though, in no uncertain terms, how powerful the grip was though.
Why?
Because I couldn’t break it. And I tried. I TRIED. It was frustrating. And it’s hard to stop the pass once it’s set.
Lately though, I’ve been using it not only to pass but also to take the back and immediately threaten the choke. And that transition is what I plan to cover in the next micro adjustment lesson.
You can find out more about that course here:
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