Carlinhos Seminar A Huge Success
Update: Photos are up now! View the gallery here ยป
Carlos Gracie Jr. gave an excellent seminar this last Sunday. It’s always a pleasure to hear Carlos talk about BJJ, its history, its future, the growth of Gracie Barra, growth of the sport, teaching, coaching and pretty much anything.
Someone asked him if he’s trying to get BJJ in the Olympics, and I know this is common question online, so I’ll share his answer. He said he doesn’t plan on getting it into the Games since the requirements call for the sport to be represented in about 70 countries, with each country having full black belt teams, both male and female. He left it open as a possibilty, but didn’t see it happening until further down the line.
The instruction was very clear and detailed, as always. He did a good job of explaining the strategy behind the technique, and each move tended to naturally follow into the next. He didn’t just show a bunch of flashy moves isolation or try to overload us with “advanced” techniques. He said he likes to use seminars to share techniques between the different Gracie Barras, and that he always makes it a point to find a black belt who is doing something well and sharing his way of doing a technique. You can see this in what he taught below.
Techniques:
- Gripping and sitting to triangle (like Roger vs Xande)
- Uchimata to sacrifice throw (Carlinhos’ favorite)
- Uchimata to ankle pick (Marcio Feitosa’s favorite)
- Grip break to omoplata from standing
- Omoplata to triangle, counter defense with backwards triangle
- Sitting armbar from standing (that Joao “Big Head” Salgado won 80% of his fights using)
- Recovering from being flattened out in butterfly guard to sweep
- Countering underhook with armdrag and sweep from butterfly guard
- Countering hook sweep defense (posting leg) with another sweep
The triangle from standing was similar to the one Roger used to beat Xande, and he used the same grip for the uchimata variations.
Overall, a great seminar by a friendly and skilled instructor.