Around The "Machado" World This Week...

I have been away to Ohio for a few days. While I was down there, I took the opportunity to train at Jorge Gurgel's MMA. While Professor Jorge is a accomplished MMA fighter and Jiu Jitsu wizard (see season 2 of The Ultimate Fighter), the gym is probably best know as where Rich Franklin trains. I had a blast and will elaborate on my experiences there in a separate blog post. When I came back, I was surprised to find several new videos and news from around the "Machado World"

First and foremost I heard about the news of Joe Rogan's Black belt promotion in 10th planet Jiu Jitsu. 

"I just gave @joerogan his 10th Planet black belt... Here's the pic of @joerogan getting his black belt :)" -Eddie Bravo
 

 

Eddie Bravo presented Joe with his new belt on Tuesday night (June 26th). It was an emotional moment for Joe, and my respect goes out to him. Congratulations.

Joe and Jean Jacques Machado

While not technically a Machado black belt, I know Joe received his brown belt from Professor Jean Jacques, and Eddie Bravo is a two stripe Black bel under Professor Machado. I am a dedicated listener of The Joe Rogan Experience and have really come to enjoy Joe's insight and candor into the world of MMA and jiu Jitsu. 
Joe has the ability to sum up the reasons why I do Jiu Jitsu nicely with rants such as this:

"[There’s] something that my Tae Kwon Do teacher told me when I was a little kid that I never forgot was that Martial Arts are a vehicle for developing your human potential, and nothing in my life has ever put me in face with reality better than Jiu-Jitsu, ‘cause I think in life we can all distort our perceptions of things in order to make ourselves more comfortable, in order to except where we are, and there are a lot of people out there running around life full of s—t. You can’t be full of s—t when you do Jiu-Jitsu,” he said. When you do Jiu-Jitsu, it’s impossible to be full of s—t, because reality comes at you in the purest form possible. A life or death struggle using your determination, your focus, your techniques, your mind, and your training over and over again. And its reality, and if you f—k up, and you get caught in a triangle, you gotta tap and that is the end of the story. It’s as real as it can get, and that has made me a better person. It’s made me a better man, it’s made me understand myself, my weaknesses, my strengths, the s—t I need to work on. Jiu-Jitsu has been one of the most valuable tools that I have ever had in my life.”

You can check the video of his promotion here...

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 My fellow blogger "Jake" over at The Ground Never Misses published an excellent interview with John Will, one of BJJ's "Dirty Dozen". John is a Rigan Machado Black Belt and has some great stories about traveling to Brazil for the first time with Professor Rigan.

Click here to get to read Jake's excellent post and interview, as well as see some cool vintage footage of tournaments.

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It also seems that Jean Jacques Machado  has been traveling and has done another couple of techniques and interview for Jiu Jitsu Mania (a-la-Jits Magazine when Professor Machado came to our school)
 

It is always interesting to hear what Professor Machado is doing and what his opinion is on different topics.

The first technique video goes over a killer "Loop Choke" from Halfguard. My half guard is rarely an offensive position for me, I generally focus all of my energy to passing. I really like this technique and can see some real possibilities, though I feel like surprise is a considerably advantage when trying it out in rolling.

The second technique is a "crucifix" set-up from the butterfly guard. When I watch these techniques, Professor Machado moves so fluid. When I try these techniques, I feel clunky and robotic...something to work on for sure.

Awesome stuff,

Hope you enjoyed it

Mike.