Nino Schembri uses inverted guard, rubber guard in 1997

[Spazzmaster]

I mean, it's not refined at all compared to today. This was 16 years ago, after all.

But it shows the ideas were there, ripe for development.
"Elvis" Schembri should get more credit for his sport innovations.



The uploader Chris Savarese has several interesting (to me) old school matches on his channel.

 

[Spazzmaster]

 

[The Coolman]

I'm sure that there's a undiscovered ancient civilization that has a lot of these grappling moves. We're just the latest incarnation.

 

[GracieMMABarra]

"Elvis" Schembri should get more credit for his sport innovations.

He gets a shit ton of credit for those of us who have grappled for a long time.

We know he's the man. He knows we know he's the man. Wish he still posted here.

This exact recognizance has been done to death on this board.

 

[Spazzmaster]

^ I would bet you dollars to donuts there is an entire generation of BJJ players who don't know who Nino Schembri is.

Just the other day on this board there was a poster saying he never paid attention to Dean Lister before. I've heard guys at my gym calling Cobrinha "old school."

It's a natural thing, sports progress, the kids care about what's hot, not history. But I think you assume too much if you believe everyone knows what you know

 

[GracieMMABarra]

But I think you assume too much if you believe everyone knows what you know

We could say the same for people who believe an entire BJJ generation doesn't know older BJJers. But hey, just assumptions.

 

[Spazzmaster]

You remind me of the "Asshole Top Team" guys who used to post here years ago.

They were so jaded and elitist that eventually all they did was shit on other people's threads.

What are you contributing here?

 

[GracieMMABarra]

You remind me of the "Asshole Top Team" guys who used to post here years ago.

They were so jaded and elitist that eventually all they did was shit on other people's threads.

Ok...awesome?

What are you contributing here?

Anyways, it's a shame there's no videos of when Roleta and Nino trained together. Can you imagine watching those rolls and the positions that were happening? Hurts my back thinking about it.

 

[Strange Shadows]

lol

 

[BJJArsenal]

I think GMB is right though. Anyone who's spent a decent amount of time watching/researching/discussing BJJ will know Nino Schembri.

 

[Einarr]

I don't see how you can train BJJ for a year and not know who Nino Schembri is.

 

[Solidus Snake]

Agreed, Nino Schembri is still pretty popular.

 

[SuperSuperRambo]

I love how in the older BJJ competitions the captions just said their nicknames, like you're expected to know who it is. Just "Nino."

Rickson said back in the day that if someone was going to beat him it would be Nino Schembri, because of his flexibility and innovative positions (and of course he was very skilled). People used to say that he could just whip his leg over into an omoplata (kind of like BJ Penn) without pulling the leg, and he was really one of the innovators of that move as well.

 

[HHJ]

i actually only knew him from MMA until i started training. Even then though,he was always touted as a brilliant grappler..just wasnt able to see much of it in his fights.

 

[BJJ_Rage]

^ I would bet you dollars to donuts there is an entire generation of BJJ players who don't know who Nino Schembri is.

Just the other day on this board there was a poster saying he never paid attention to Dean Lister before. I've heard guys at my gym calling Cobrinha "old school."

It's a natural thing, sports progress, the kids care about what's hot, not history. But I think you assume too much if you believe everyone knows what you know

dont be an ass, I said im going to pay more attention to lister, he was not one of my favorite grapplers... thus was never really looking for his matches, techniques or anything like that.

in this forum, every body knows who nino is, and you posted nothing new, nino was and is given credit for high guard, even eddie talks about it, he does it in a different way though.

 

[Nozza]

Never heard of him to be honest!

Sounds like I need to check him out.

 

[Cash Bill 52]

Nino was my day 1 lesson 1 instructor. Kindest killer I ever met.

 

[gorillajump]

Dang, dude. I clicked on that jpg to see it on photobucket and it's still in an unzoomable size for ants.

I suppose that could be Nino in there, but I'll have to take your word for it.

 

[Title Fight Productions]

Haha! Awesome! My current instructor is always going on and on about how there is nothing new.

"Berimbolo!?!? Da fawk dis? Dis not knew my friends! Dis guy used to do dis so much back the day, man! Is called the Hotdog! Dis not knew my friend, nothing's knew!!!! Now forget this fance shiet, we going to learn base-ics technique!!"

 

[ASMBJJ]

I think GMB is right though. Anyone who's spent a decent amount of time watching/researching/discussing BJJ will know Nino Schembri.

Yes, you're right, but not everybody who starts BJJ gets on google and does a search on BJJ history and all the grapplers that have influenced the game. I bet if you polled 100 BJJ practitioners, all belts included, slightly less than half would know who he is nowadays.

As far as not knowing about Dean Lister, I find that more surprising as Dean is still a top competitor and a two time ADCC champ. As a leg lock guy, Dean is one of my favorites.