I’ve said this before and I stick to it:
The greatest value of a seminar for me is the social aspect.
Seminars are generally an opportunity for me to get our community together so they can learn as well as an opportunity for me to go and support friends and the communities they’ve built.
I do learn at seminars but I tend to be a bit scatter-brained in class formats so I tend to forget everything I learn.
There have been some seminars, however, where I’ve taken immense value from. One of those seminars was when I was a blue belt. I attended one with Romulo Barral and the one thing (the only thing) I remember was how to get into Single Leg X guard from spider guard (which I use to this day).
As a brown belt, I attended a seminar with Felipe Pena and the one thing I recall was single Leg X to a bear trap. I use it a TON but that is about all I remember from that seminar.
I also recall as a black belt attending a seminar with some old friends and training partners of mine where I learned an amazing defense to the guard pull. I use it all the time. At this same seminar (4 day long camp), I also learned a heel hook defense that still serves me well.
So with this said, don’t get confused; there is always something to learn at seminars but for me, it’s few and far between. Even then, it’s worth it because if you can learn one thing from a piece of instruction (like this newsletter(!!!)), it pays itself off 100X.
This past week, I had a chance to attend a seminar with Romulo Barral. I was supporting a friend’s academy and dropped by at his invitation. The seminar, for me was interesting. It was on Spider Guard, which I’m terrible at, so it gave me an opportunity to practice a weakness.
The techniques shown weren’t so much as techniques as they were drills. There were a couple of techniques sprinkled in at the end but for the most part, the seminar itself consisted of an “evolution” of his spider guard game.
What I took from this seminar wasn’t technical. Instead, I took something else away.
Romulo said at one point, “Everyone sees my highlights and they see all these cool spider guard techniques. What they don’t see is the bottom of the pyramid and how I built the foundation for my game”.
What he meant here was the defense of his spider guard position. In other words, how he worked on his guard retention first in order to build better attacks.
In today’s post, I’m going to add a supplement to my training journal from a few days ago.
The supplement is a sparring narration for the spider guard concepts I learned at the seminar and how I plan on building this game going forward.
In it, you’ll see how I’m challenging myself to stay playing this guard that I’ve neglected (purposely) for the last 10 years or so.
After the jump, you’ll also see how I plan to implement the next “phase” of the pyramid once I’ve figured out the first.
Let’s dive in.
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