Contributor: Ben Kohn
Yesterday evening, I had the pleasure of taking part in the advanced no-gi class that was very special. The reason it was special was because we had a very special guest instructor that you may have heard of. I speak of course of our General and Commander Fabio Gurgel. The entire class from warm-up all the way through the live rolling was focused on wrestling and stand-up skills. The warm-ups he made us do were something fresh and new and despite being difficult were really enjoyable. Knowing it was a wrestling class, I immediately went to a fellow named Chris whom, from previous rolls, I knew was a D-III wrestler who had wrestled since he was a kid. He did not disappoint and gave me many tips and pointers that I would not have gotten had I paired with any of the other BJJ guys. The knowledge he gave me was invaluable and I really appreciated it. Once we broke for water and begin the live stand-up is when things became really interesting, and tiring, for me.
For a 2-minute round, we had to try and control the stand-up by controlling the arms, head, neck, or grabbing a leg or body lock. However, you could not take your partner down. Despite being of similar size and both of us being blue belts, the vast skillset difference between us was immediately apparent as everything I tried was easily countered while he grabbed a hold of my leg numerous times. It was an excellent learning experience for me but I was not done with Chris yet. I wanted to roll with him and try and see how I can do off my back against a lifelong wrestler. As I mentioned, I had rolled with him previously but he was on bottom as it was a rotational roll (pass, sweep, or sub and then the loser switches with someone while the winner, if on top, switches to bottom and vice versa) so I never had him on top for extended periods of time. Fabio however made the rolls 10 minutes, which is the time limit for IBJJF blackbelt matches. As the roll began, I could tell how heavy he was in the hips as I immediately got my guard game working. My sweep and sub attempts from the guard were good and I was being as careful and technical as I could. I was able to control him for the most part but on a pendulum sweep attempt, we ended up separating as I tried bringing him over which landed us in a neutral position. At that point he didn’t play games and got into my half-guard which is nowhere near as good as my full-guard game. At this point, I was able to tell the difference between a wrestler with BJJ, and just plain BJJ. He completely and utterly dominated me as I could not move him and quickly locked in a D’arce choke that I tapped too (first D’arce I’ve ever been caught in btw). He told me that choke is his favorite because of his long arms and control from half-guard. We continued to roll and he passed me again getting to side control. I tried literally everything I knew but couldn’t move him at all. I eventually turned in trying to grab his leg and he sprawled so hard, my face and chest were pinned to the mat completely. He then spun and rode my back with such fluidity and ease; I was literally at a loss of what to do. He then caught me in something I need to learn because it was friggin’ awesome.
Chris had full back mount with the hooks in and I wouldn’t give him the choke. I was tight and tried to pull his hook out with my left hand which he immediately grabbed and twisted behind my back into a police style armlock/armbar. He then flattened me out and I was stuck with nothing to do. Instead of just yanking my arm up painfully, he transitioned beautifully to and armbar ON MY RIGHT ARM while STILL holding my left in the police armlock. I had zero possible defenses and tapped immediately. It was an excellent move that I hope he can show me next time I see him at the gym.
The final move I want to mention was that he was standing with his legs fully extended while I was turtled up. I tried to grab a hold of his leg and drive but he pinned me in the most interesting way as I’ve never seen it before in BJJ. He used his left hand to pin my head on my right cheek to the mat really hard. I couldn’t turn towards him and he carefully waited for me to stop moving before establishing back control again. I don’t know if I was just deficient or he was so good at that move but it worked very well for him.
Overall, I really enjoyed the roll with Chris and appreciate everything he helped me with. I hope to roll with him again soon so I can work my guard against him and try to improve against such a great top player. Until next time, this has been a fighter diary by Ben Kohn. Keep training hard ya’ll.
-Ben can be reached [email protected], or @agentbenten.
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