The run up to my Blue. Rollin' with Chico.

In the period of time running up to my Blue Belt promotion on 17th Sept, I was a very focused student of Bjj. I was attending as many training sessions as I could, I also attended a pretty amazing Checkmat seminar up at Trojan Cheltenham, Chico's first for Trojan. The seminar was great mainly because before that point I had only been in the same room as 1 Bjj black at any one time, at this seminar were 4!!! Chico (black 2 stripe) was there with fellow Checkmat representatives Eduardo Azevedo (black 1 stripe), Leonardo Queiroz (black 2 stripe) and the mighty Thiago "Monstro" Borges (black 2 stripe). The feeling of so much black beltery in one place was awesome. It was also a great opportunity to see some very high level grappling very close up. Until the ADCC in Nottingham last month (Sept 24 and 25) this occasion was the highest level bjj event I'd been to (sadly, but I'm going to correct that this year, trust me) and I loved it.

Chico, as usual, was a master instructor and showed off his knowledge with some escapes from back control, an escape from triangle and some guard pulling stuff mixed in with some chokes, while the other guys walked around during our drills and helped us out with hints and techniques to polish up our skills. Some of the guys even got to roll with the black belts, with very little luck. I managed to get to roll with a tall guy called Dwayne who'd come up from our Taunton class. The thing I enjoyed about the roll was that as mat space was at a bit of a premium due to numbers, we rolled in the cage. It was the first (and only) time I'd ever stepped into a cage and the feeling was pretty cool. And I managed to tap Dwayne out a few times too. He seemed particularly susceptible to the Ezekial choke, almost to the point of me feeling guilty about using it on him again. I think I got him with an armbar as well (long time ago so I can't remember).

On that day I also rolled with a guy called Paul Severn from the Cheltenham class of Trojan Free Fighters. Now Paul is a blue belt but I would consider his skill level to be at the very high end of the blue belt range. As I said, at the time I was a white belt who was eagerly hunting his blue. I rarely had a problem rolling against other white belts and more often than not came out with a tap or two against fellow white belt opponents. I was also rolling against blue belts on occasion and rarely getting tapped out which I saw as a good indication that I was on my way. When I rolled with Paul though it was a different story. Paul's control is very tight and he flipped me over in sweeps a couple of times. I managed to flip him once which I was quite happy with but much of the rest of the roll was a lesson in fighting against the armbar. He got one from a guard set up where he flipped me over to my back with the armbar locked in. I did the old twist my elbow to take the pressure off then tried to turn in to shake off the hold and come up in his guard. Unfortunately, he had other ideas and kept a heavy downward pressure with his legs so I could roll out, then adjusted himself and his grip and slapped the move on tighter which got him the tap. The second armbar was from mount. I was powering out of mount with an upa bridge and had my arm slightly to high. He dropped back in to the armbar and we pretty much replayed the 30 seconds that lead up to my first tap.

All in all, rolling with Paul served to knock my confidence in my ability and my preparedness (it's a word, I checked) for my blue. A little later though I saw him rolling with other blue belts and he was handling them with equal ease so I guessed he was just a very good blue belt.

Now I have rolled with guys higher level than myself on occasion, most frequently Gary Davies, who is a Purple Belt in Bjj (should probably be Brown by now but doesn't actually go to a class where he can be graded), a Black Belt 3 Dan in Traditional JJ and an instructor of combat sambo. I've also rolled less frequently with Ian Rossiter (Brown bjj, Black 4th traditional). When rolling against both of these guys they tend to go a bit easier on the lower belts to see how you've progressed and also to practice their less used stuff. Gary in particular likes to dust off his less frequently used guards for our sparring sessions.

I've also rolled with Nathan "Matrix" Moore Pointing a Bjj Purple belt under Pedro Bessa, who is a very technical guy and has polished off moves that the rest of us see as possibly unobtainable super disco stuff. Rolling with Nathan is difficult experience in that he is a highly competitive guy, not in the sense that he turns it up to 110% every time but rather that he is a common sight in the UK competition scene. Nathan trains about 5 times a week and is pretty awesome. He fires some shit out of nowhere and you're tapping before you know it. I've rolled with him about 6 times on the odd occasion that he used to turn up at Ian's classes and he invariably ended up tapping me out using something I've not seen before. I think I managed to roll with him on only two of those occasions where I resisted being tapped out.

Now, easily the highest grade person I have ever rolled against was Chico Mendes. Rolling against Chico was like nothing I'd experienced before. Going in I already had that feeling of trepidation knowing that Chico was where I am today, over fifteen years ago. Chico has forgotten more about Bjj than I know (actually that's a total lie, I doubt Chico has forgotten anything about Bjj, ever) and it was this knowledge that made me revert straight back to a first day novice white belt who tried to use all his strength to do everything and gave up simple positions. I though I was having some luck smashing past his guard until I realised he was just allowing me to do so so he could sweep me in some disco fashion. He then quickly obtained side control to mount and locked in a very basic arm triangle. All my defence had left my mind and he was so damn fast that the move was locked in before I had time to "answer the phone". I tapped. We reset. Chico pulled guard instantly, I attempted to break guard for a pass and bam! Chico swept me again and landed in half guard. Actually I'm not sure if he landed in half guard or side control and I recovered half guard. I'm going with landed in because at this time I have great doubt that I managed to do anything positive at all against him. From half guard Chico quick as a flash locked in another arm triangle.

My rolling experience against Chico went pretty much how you would expect a not quite blue belt (at the time) would go. But I will hold my hand up right now and say I've have never experienced someone with such a tight and fast game as Chico's. The little things he did, the technique he displayed and the natural strength he exhibited which can only come from thousands upon thousands of hours of mat time. I am in awe of his skill level and very much hope (though severely doubt) that one day I will be near to his skill level. Though by that time I imagine he will be a red and black belt :o)

Anyway, I've got my blue belt now, I just need to spend the next few years polishing the hell out of my game and get that "tightness" that the higher level guys seem to have so naturally.

Til next time \m/