Is the berimbolo still king?

[yetanother]

People on the interwebs are claiming it's an old fad while Mikey wrecked everybody at it at the worlds.

 

[mataleaos]

To me it just speaks to the cyclical nature of the sport. It never stopped being an amazing technique. It was SO popular that everyone had to learn it and adapt to it. But it's never gone away, and it will always be effective. In a couple years we'll see someone doing another previously hot trendy technique and we'll ask ourselves if that's on the comeback, or ask about how effective it's always been.

It's definitely not an old fad. It has proved itself at the highest levels of the sport by multiple grapplers. Anything that works that well will never just be a 'fad'. I think the berimbolo has been a fantastic position since its inception and I think Mikey is one of the best in the world at using it.

Z-guard with Craig Jones is an example. I remember people talking about knee shield and Z guard being dead but here comes Craig Jones murdering the scene with it and getting people interested in it again.

 

[efficientjudo]

Anything that works that well will never just be a 'fad'.

I think it was a fad - but that doesn't mean it isn't a good technique - it had a explosion in popularity and started trending, proved effective in competition, people adapted, now its not being talked about anywhere near as much. This will be the pattern with BJJ as the sport develops and grows.

 

[mataleaos]

I think it was a fad - but that doesn't mean it isn't a good technique - it had a explosion in popularity and started trending, proved effective in competition, people adapted, now its not being talked about anywhere near as much. This will be the pattern with BJJ as the sport develops and grows.

Not to be too much of a dork but I think my issue is with the word fad. To me a fad is something that doesn't have a lot of quality. If it were just "was the berimbolo highly popular' then yeah I'd agree. But there's also an element to the word fad that indicates a sharp decline, or something that never had a lot of quality to begin with, or something where the popularity of the thing wasn't its actual value.

That's where I say it wasn't a fad because it's a very high quality technique. So much so that everyone was forced to learn it, if only to be able to defend it. It's now a fundamental Delariva technique. It was a game changer.

To me a fad technique would be more like an ezekiel choke from inside someone's guard. If someone saw that done in a high level match and everyone was practicing ezekiels from inside the guard for a few months and then gave up on it...that to me would be more of a fad. The donkey guard is a fad technique to me. And that doesn't mean it can't work but it became a household name and a lot of people played around with it, but it never became something that held its place in the game because it was actually wasn't all that great at the end of the day.

But I'm getting into the weeds and probably being too literal.

 

[cjd]

I think the berimbolo is still a very high-percentage, effective technique and a fairly indispensable part of a good DLR guard (or at the very least, a certain style thereof). That having been said, people are much, much better at defending it than they used to be, so in general (1) knocking people down is much harder, (2) taking the back is much harder and (3) people are very good at countering if you overextend yourself.

That having been said, the people who are high-level at it - and you could certainly argue Mikey Musumeci is the most sophisticated bolo-er ever - are still having success with it, even if it's not the myopic focus of their games anymore (Miyao bros).

 

[Uchi Mata]

It's still a very legitimate technique/strategy, especially at the lower weights. All this stuff starts off as an arms race where someone develops a new idea and everyone else rushes to copy, but eventually if just becomes part of the standard repertoire. Not everyone is going to be using it because you're not going to surprise anyone with it anymore, but everyone will know it and some will specialize in it and have success like Mikey does. I'd say the days of it being the only game you see played below LW are gone, but it'll always be around like deep half and X guard before it (both of which were super trendy when first introduced and are now just part of what everyone learns).

 

[andrewm2211]

Now it’s all leg locks and mispronouncing 8 syllable Japanese words for positions like “side control”.

 

[Quebec Nick]

Funky becomes the norm, the norm becomes boring, people who actually want to have a complete and effective style will take what they need and will be very happy that somehow, back in the day it was a trend and that there's a shit load of content about it.

 

[yetanother]

Now it’s all leg locks and mispronouncing 8 syllable Japanese words for positions like “side control”.

Leg locks (heel hooks) are a game for a different rule set. OTOH if they where legal in the gi it seem likely they would be a part of the spinning shit and berimbolos game.

 

[EndlessCritic]

I've never trained with anyone who actually played a berimbolo game.

Such a shame I've wasted my years of BJJ learning other pointless stuff.

 

[berimBOWLoh]

I like the non invert bolo. Super effective too

 

[MaxMMA]

Im a Brown, been Training since 2003, and im not ashamed to say I have never even drilled the berimbolo much less hit it live.

This fancy shit is for the bjj nerds imo.

 

[rmongler]

The berimbolo is a basic fundamental move.

You know whats complicated? Arm bars from guard.

 

[JustTheTip]

1- People got better at defending it.
2- The rules changed which hampered it a bit.
3- Alot of people that played the berimbolo game are injured now.

IMO the biggest advantage the Berimbolo game had was that the Berimbolo player could force his opponent to play it with relative ease. Kind of the same as the Leg entanglement game in NoGi.

 

[leaf22]

1- People got better at defending it.
2- The rules changed which hampered it a bit.
3- Alot of people that played the berimbolo game are injured now.

IMO the biggest advantage the Berimbolo game had was that the Berimbolo player could force his opponent to play it with relative ease. Kind of the same as the Leg entanglement game in NoGi.

What rule change hurt it?

 

[yetanother]

3- Alot of people that played the berimbolo game are injured now.

Isn't the berimbolo game only more dangerous for people so extremely stiff that any sort of jiu jitsu is a lethal danger to them?

 

[yetanother]

You know whats complicated? Arm bars from guard.

Closed guard armbars are a complex moves. Super powerful when done correctly but a detail sensitive move that often requires harder inversion than the berimbolo to finish. The traditional way being utter cargo cult trash doesn't help.

 

[MaxMMA]

The berimbolo is a basic fundamental move.

You know whats complicated? Arm bars from guard.

Uhhhhhhhhhh what

 

[yetanother]

Im a Brown, been Training since 2003, and im not ashamed to say I have never even drilled the berimbolo much less hit it live.

This fancy shit is for the bjj nerds imo.

It's your loss berimbolos are fun to drill and do.

 

[mataleaos]

What rule change hurt it?

I know in the early days people doing berimbolos would often underhook the leg instead of overhook it and there was an IBJJF rule change around 2011 maybe that considered that reaping in some cases so a lot of the early berimbolo guys for example stopped doing them that way. I'm guessing that's what @JustTheTip is talking about.