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Like the title states. I went to a 10th Planet seminar in Yokoyama Japan. It was held at 8 on a Monday evening. Lots of people there.
Before the review, a little background on me to help put things in context.
I do gi and nogi grappling and spend about equal amount of time in both.
I have been practicing for almost 8 years now and I am a purple belt (gi obviously)
I have decent strength and can be fast, but I may be the most UNFLEXIBLE person I know.
I own mastering the rubber guard and studied it almost religously for years, so I am pretty good with the terms, etc.
I can be pretty critical of 10th planet sometimes.
My goal in this seminar was to learn new chains, get "dog fight" tips, watch to see how Eddie flows, and see where "the constantly evolving" 10th planet system has come in the almost 4 years since MTRG.
The seminar was about 45 dollars American.
On to the review. We spend about the first 5 minutes doing individual streching in a group, if that makes any sense. Afterwards we got started and circled up. He gave an overview on what we were going to cover. A guard for the less flexible and a guard for the really flexible. I thought giving the overview was cool.
He than gets started and alternates between monologuing and showing the typical rubberguard positions. Breakdown, Mission control, New York, Chill dog, Kung Fu move, etc. He harps on about getting the hand down on the mat, and blazes through a bunch of ways you can do this. He doesn't repeat them, and he doesnt give us a chance to try them out. He just goes. He stops to have some of his phrases translated, but those about the only pauses he makes. He also goes shows (I won't use the phrase "goes over" ) the "double bagger" this is supposed to be the guard for flexible people. He than shows off chains from that including a move called the sorcerer, which I have never seen before, but wouldnt be able to do because he never gave us a chance to try it out. Anyway, he spent about 50 minutes showing off techniques and different ways to get the hands on the mat, and than sends us off. Everyone kind of laughs because they've pretty much just been overwhelmed with a bunch of random moves.
So we get to try the stuff out for a little under 10 minutes. Everyone is going through the basic rubber guard path and trying to finish with the invisible collar. Eddie walks around assisting some people when he can, but there really isnt much time to talk to many people.
We circle up again and move on to the next bit.
Part II
Eddie starts talking about different ways to pull guard and to get to a closed guard to start working a rubber guard game. This kind of annoys me. He shows the butterfly guard with the overhook. And than when he reviews the move he shows the half guard version instead. And than he shows it one more time with the butterfly with an overhook like before. He chains a bunch of subs from there while saying the names, but if I hadn't read the books I would be completely lost. This demo is only 10 minutes, and there isnt as much so its a lot easier to work, but this through me and my partner off because we didnt know if we were working a butterfly rubberguard setup or a halfguard rubberguard set up. To me, it just seemed like the stuff that was being shown was decided on the fly. We worked the butterfly guard/half guard entries and subs and than went back for the next bit.
Part III.
Eddie has us sit down and grab our ankles. He than has us rotate our hand around our shin and verbally guides us through what it is supposed to be like. This is his introduction to the kung fu move, and when he explains that this omplata setup is supposed to look like you are one of those old school Shaolin monks from TV everyones eyes light up with understanding. We go through the omoplata and options for when the opponent rolls and than we work for ten minutes. I wish more of his seminar had interaction like the kung fu move/jiu claw explanation did.
Part IV
Eddie has his partner show off "the stomp (super stomp)" from half guard. His partner shows it a few times and than we work it for a little under 10 minutes. At this point time has run down and Eddie starts wrapping things up. He lets us know that we are free to use what we have recorded however we like and shills his books a little bit. We than take group photos and stays for individual photos.
OVERALL{/B]
This seminar might seem lame, but I have been to worse seminars with bigger names that charged more money. 45 dollars wasnt much to me. I got to meet Eddie, and now I can say I have experienced training with him first hand. Almost everything he showed I have seen from his books or his youtube vids. The only thing he showed that I knew almost nothing about was the "double bagger", which he didn't even touch on much at all even though he said he would at the start of the seminar. I actually enjoyed the seminar because I got to be close to Bravo and see how he performs his move. He enters positions with a purpose and latches on to his opponent almost violently. The best way I could describe it is the motion/feeling that handcuffs have when they are being snapped on. It's just this really fast *click click* and he is stuck to you. His collar/tie set ups looked brutal and it was something I really never got from his vids.
Who should attend this seminar
People who have only skimmed MTRG/MTTW and havent watched his DVD yet who have an interest in 10th planet stuff. I didnt learn much, but at 45 dollars I still think the experience justified the cost. Also, if you just want to say you met Eddie Bravo, def check it out. Of course you dont need this review to tell you that.
People attend this seminar
People who are only concerned with gi work, obviously. People who own MTRG/MTT and his DVDs since there is nothing that he went over that he hasnt covered in those. People who know nothing about 10th plnaet or his books. Seriously, I knew his stuff pretty well before hand, and I could barely keep up with the jargon. I guarantee at LEAST 50% of the audience was completely overwhelmed by what they saw, and they never really got a chance to practice it. If this is the kind of seminar Bravo makes on the regular, than stay far far away until you brush up on his stuff and know this is what you want to do. To me, the seminar came across as a well worn routine. I don't think he took his audience into account at all.
Despite all that, Eddie was super approachable unlike a some big name guys. I felt like I could have gone up and asked him about his last prostate exam and he would have given a straight forward answer. He was nice enough to talk to everyone who approached him and he stayed as long as he could. He obviously likes talking about Jiu jitsu, and has a lot of good information, which makes it a damn shame that the seminar was more one-way communication than interactive communication.
I will pass on the next Eddie Bravo 10th planet seminar, but I MIGHT pay money to go to a seminar from one of his upper level students, since I am interested in how they adapt Bravo's game to their body type.
Before the review, a little background on me to help put things in context.
I do gi and nogi grappling and spend about equal amount of time in both.
I have been practicing for almost 8 years now and I am a purple belt (gi obviously)
I have decent strength and can be fast, but I may be the most UNFLEXIBLE person I know.
I own mastering the rubber guard and studied it almost religously for years, so I am pretty good with the terms, etc.
I can be pretty critical of 10th planet sometimes.
My goal in this seminar was to learn new chains, get "dog fight" tips, watch to see how Eddie flows, and see where "the constantly evolving" 10th planet system has come in the almost 4 years since MTRG.
The seminar was about 45 dollars American.
On to the review. We spend about the first 5 minutes doing individual streching in a group, if that makes any sense. Afterwards we got started and circled up. He gave an overview on what we were going to cover. A guard for the less flexible and a guard for the really flexible. I thought giving the overview was cool.
He than gets started and alternates between monologuing and showing the typical rubberguard positions. Breakdown, Mission control, New York, Chill dog, Kung Fu move, etc. He harps on about getting the hand down on the mat, and blazes through a bunch of ways you can do this. He doesn't repeat them, and he doesnt give us a chance to try them out. He just goes. He stops to have some of his phrases translated, but those about the only pauses he makes. He also goes shows (I won't use the phrase "goes over" ) the "double bagger" this is supposed to be the guard for flexible people. He than shows off chains from that including a move called the sorcerer, which I have never seen before, but wouldnt be able to do because he never gave us a chance to try it out. Anyway, he spent about 50 minutes showing off techniques and different ways to get the hands on the mat, and than sends us off. Everyone kind of laughs because they've pretty much just been overwhelmed with a bunch of random moves.
So we get to try the stuff out for a little under 10 minutes. Everyone is going through the basic rubber guard path and trying to finish with the invisible collar. Eddie walks around assisting some people when he can, but there really isnt much time to talk to many people.
We circle up again and move on to the next bit.
Part II
Eddie starts talking about different ways to pull guard and to get to a closed guard to start working a rubber guard game. This kind of annoys me. He shows the butterfly guard with the overhook. And than when he reviews the move he shows the half guard version instead. And than he shows it one more time with the butterfly with an overhook like before. He chains a bunch of subs from there while saying the names, but if I hadn't read the books I would be completely lost. This demo is only 10 minutes, and there isnt as much so its a lot easier to work, but this through me and my partner off because we didnt know if we were working a butterfly rubberguard setup or a halfguard rubberguard set up. To me, it just seemed like the stuff that was being shown was decided on the fly. We worked the butterfly guard/half guard entries and subs and than went back for the next bit.
Part III.
Eddie has us sit down and grab our ankles. He than has us rotate our hand around our shin and verbally guides us through what it is supposed to be like. This is his introduction to the kung fu move, and when he explains that this omplata setup is supposed to look like you are one of those old school Shaolin monks from TV everyones eyes light up with understanding. We go through the omoplata and options for when the opponent rolls and than we work for ten minutes. I wish more of his seminar had interaction like the kung fu move/jiu claw explanation did.
Part IV
Eddie has his partner show off "the stomp (super stomp)" from half guard. His partner shows it a few times and than we work it for a little under 10 minutes. At this point time has run down and Eddie starts wrapping things up. He lets us know that we are free to use what we have recorded however we like and shills his books a little bit. We than take group photos and stays for individual photos.
OVERALL{/B]
This seminar might seem lame, but I have been to worse seminars with bigger names that charged more money. 45 dollars wasnt much to me. I got to meet Eddie, and now I can say I have experienced training with him first hand. Almost everything he showed I have seen from his books or his youtube vids. The only thing he showed that I knew almost nothing about was the "double bagger", which he didn't even touch on much at all even though he said he would at the start of the seminar. I actually enjoyed the seminar because I got to be close to Bravo and see how he performs his move. He enters positions with a purpose and latches on to his opponent almost violently. The best way I could describe it is the motion/feeling that handcuffs have when they are being snapped on. It's just this really fast *click click* and he is stuck to you. His collar/tie set ups looked brutal and it was something I really never got from his vids.
Who should attend this seminar
People who have only skimmed MTRG/MTTW and havent watched his DVD yet who have an interest in 10th planet stuff. I didnt learn much, but at 45 dollars I still think the experience justified the cost. Also, if you just want to say you met Eddie Bravo, def check it out. Of course you dont need this review to tell you that.
People attend this seminar
People who are only concerned with gi work, obviously. People who own MTRG/MTT and his DVDs since there is nothing that he went over that he hasnt covered in those. People who know nothing about 10th plnaet or his books. Seriously, I knew his stuff pretty well before hand, and I could barely keep up with the jargon. I guarantee at LEAST 50% of the audience was completely overwhelmed by what they saw, and they never really got a chance to practice it. If this is the kind of seminar Bravo makes on the regular, than stay far far away until you brush up on his stuff and know this is what you want to do. To me, the seminar came across as a well worn routine. I don't think he took his audience into account at all.
Despite all that, Eddie was super approachable unlike a some big name guys. I felt like I could have gone up and asked him about his last prostate exam and he would have given a straight forward answer. He was nice enough to talk to everyone who approached him and he stayed as long as he could. He obviously likes talking about Jiu jitsu, and has a lot of good information, which makes it a damn shame that the seminar was more one-way communication than interactive communication.
I will pass on the next Eddie Bravo 10th planet seminar, but I MIGHT pay money to go to a seminar from one of his upper level students, since I am interested in how they adapt Bravo's game to their body type.
