Dave Camarillo

This week, I'd like to discuss one of the most important grapplers around today.

Dave Camarillo.

If you're not familiar with him then you'll want to read this week's post carefully because in it I'll go over one of the key strategies he uses,(among many) to develop a well rounded game.

Mr. Camarillo calls this The hybrid game or ‘A” game

He has identified three types of training where many people are only interested in one of two.

The first is Controlled Training where you control your opponent through technique, using technique to control the position and the opponents movement.
This is also known as the Positional Approach.

The next type is the Mobility Approach, this is where your strategy is based on using technique through constant movement.
Basically, don't stop moving until you can set up a submission and tap your opponent out or until you get submitted.
This approach is favored by younger, more athletic grapplers.

This is where Dave Camarillo's approach comes in.
He calls this the hybrid game or ‘A” game.
Basically, this is a mixture of both the Positional Approach and the Mobility Approach.

What's great about this idea is that you can develop the best of both world's and remove the limitations involved by focusing on one approach.

The focus is to develop proper Positional Control and skill in the positions of Jiujitsu and also develop the athleticism involved to use speed, strength and endurance to both counter and dominate the scrambles for position that can happen when you lose control of the position, enabling you to use the Mobility Approach when needed and giving you a more well rounded and complete game.

He calls this the Hybrid Game or the "A" game for the simple reasons that it is a combination of both approaches and results in a higher level of performance.

Mr. Camarillo has taken this approach to an Elite level and I believe this approach will become more and more popular.

I believe that the earlier in your training you take this approach the better off your performance will be for it. That is the best time to get into the habit of developing your game to a higher level.

So if you concentrate your game on one of these areas, start making it a habit right now to work not only positional skills but also mobility skills and vice versa.

You'll end up a more complete grappler with your "A" game and you'll have Dave Camarillo to thank.

Demian Maia

In a continuing look at some of the best BJJ players around today, this week, I'd like to discuss this video by Demian Maia.
Demian has made a huge impact on MMA with his BJJ style that he has very well adapted to MMA competition.
One look at his dominant performance against Nate Quarry in their UFC match, and it's obvious how skilled Maia is.

One definite focus of his excellent Instructional series The Science of Jiujitsu, is on the biomechanical details that enable him to fully control and dominate his opponents.

In this excellent short clip on counters, he goes over great detail on techniques on setting up counters your opponent doesn't expect.

Check it out!

As usual just click on the link to view.

Marcelo Garcia's Arm Drag

Over the next few weeks I'll be looking at some of the top grapplers in the world and examining a key part of their game.

This week we'll be looking at Marcelo Garcia.

The following video demonstrates a key technique that Marcelo has popularized; the arm drag. He shows how to use the arm drag to smoothly take your opponents back.
Pay special attention to how he applies the grip to use the arm drag effectively and take his opponent off balance.

Just click on the link to view the video.

10 Things Every Grappler Should Know; Part 10

In this last installment of this 10 part article I want to address an extremely important part of effective grappling training, that is making sure you are continually improving.
After so many years training it still amazes me to see how so many people still think there instructor is solely responsible for their improvement just because they pay him.

The truth is that if you want to continuously improve then it is completely up to you.

Do yourself a huge favor and write that last sentence in your training logbook, and if you don't keep one then do us both a favor and unsubscribe to and stop reading my posts because you won't be doing any good and my posts here will be wasted.
That's right, you have to take complete responsibility for your efforts and your results.
If you don't then you will always find someone else to blame when you fail.

So what is the final piece of advice in this 10 part article?

Make a decision to continually improve and take complete responsibility for your improvement and training! It's really that simple.

What are some of the steps you can take?

-Keep a training log! This will eventually become worth it's weight in gold to you and your development.

-Ask questions! Whenever you aren't sure of something or what to do ask. Ask your instructor or your training partners, just make sure you get the answer and act on it. Implement it in your training. For example, let's say you always get caught in armlocks. Find out exactly where you are going wrong, learn the counters and implement them in your training. Make an effort to turn your failures into points of improvement.

-Take notes on all the training info you can find and continually implement it into your training.

-Never accept that you will remain at the same level and ALWAYS look to learn from your mistakes. If you never accept mediocrity from yourself and your performance and always strive for improvement, then I can guarantee you one thing, you will eventually arrive at your goal!

-Buy supplemental instructional material. There are tons of phenomenal instructors putting material out. If I could make just a few suggestions, Demian Maia, Marcelo Garcia, and Saulo Ribiero offer some great instructionals. If you can't afford them, then pool together with some training partners to share the material.

Continual improvement is up to you. Know this and act on it!

Well, I hope you enjoyed this article and feel free to send in your comments, results and thoughts, I'd love to hear from you.

Next week we'll be looking at more video footage.