Victor Estima and Daniel Gracie Jiu Jitsu Seminar: A Day as a White Belt.

by cory hedgepeth – Having never attended a Jiu Jitsu seminar, I was more a blank canvas in terms of what I’d be learning and how I’d be learning it. In the Renzo Gracie Pittsburgh chapter, I’m a 4 strip white belt and felt that my having never attended a seminar was potentially harmful to my Jiu Jitsu journey, so when Stout Training Pittsburgh announced that Victor Estima and Daniel Gracie were coming to town for a day of instruction, I knew it was to my greatest benefit to sign up and attend. Not attending seminars shouldn’t be considered “harmful,” for sake of clarification, but missing a seminar being led by some of the best Jiu Jitsu talent the world knows, when given such opportunity, just might be.

The weeks before the seminar, most of the exchanges between students serving to describe seminar experiences came down to “they’re great, you should do them.” The non-descript yet positive accolades were fuel to the fire of my excitement for the upcoming seminar. As a white belt, there isn’t anything I couldn’t improve upon, or in many cases, revamp, in concern with my Jiu Jitsu game. Having the opportunity to do so with the fresh eyes of the best in the world was something to look forward to being a part of.

Victor Estima is a second degree Carlos Gracie Jr. black belt, he has won at the highest of levels and is considered to be the best NoGi Jiu Jitsu male competitor in the world. Like Estima, Daniel Gracie has also won at the highest levels of the sport, including PRIDE Fighting Championships and Abu Dhabi Combat Club. For the sake of the seminar, Estima ran the NoGi aspect and Gracie the Gi. The day of the seminar, things were divided up in the most logical and practical way possible: White Belts and Upper Belts were split up; Gi and NoGi were split up. To start the day off, Daniel took the white belt Gi (which I was a part of) and Victor began with the Upper Belt NoGi participants.

Daniel began our training by giving us some of his personal insights on how Jiu Jitsu is a very personal experience for all. He told us that not every move is for every person and that just because you don’t master a certain aspect, not to feel discouraged. He also spoke strongly about mastering the fundamentals, something that had been high on my list of priorities since receiving my 4th strip. For me, my 4th strip was a symbol of trying to become great at the fundamental aspects of the game, as opposed to trying to make the game too big for me. When I was a 3 stripper, I noticed my focus slightly fell away from fundamentals as I began my mental shift into “submissions.” The time of this seminar, however, my mentality was shifted into a place of wanting to be a sound player using the guard, half-guard, and passing guard. With that said, Daniel’s words resonated deeply with me. Daniel went over several fundamental positions, but the one that stood out for me was how to handle being stuck in someone’s half guard. For this, Daniel gave us a unique alternative to passing. Commonly, when I’ve been in someone’s half guard, I typically have tried to bury my head to the matt near my opponent’s head, arch my back, and pull my leg out forcefully. This method worked “ok” at first, but as time went on, developed into more of a transparent maneuver on my end. With Daniel’s method, you make sure you are closing / pinching your knees so as not to expose any space between your legs. This was a huge revelation for me as often times when I am presented with the exact same scenario, my opponents tend to get their arms inside that space and work into a sweep. This concept, when he explained it, of shutting off that access point was incredibly simple, brilliant by design,

and insanely effective. If we would have just stopped right here, I would have already told you that the seminar was more than beneficial as those are the little things that can take your game to the next level. The next portion of the move involved shifting your hips to the mat and relieving your opponents lock on your leg. When your hips shift to the mat in the way Daniel described, your leg almost automatically becomes more free and able. At this juncture, you should just have your foot and ankle trapped, so you move back towards a mount position and if need be, you use your free foot to pry your opponents grasp from your ankle and move into a full mount position.

Victor’s NoGi course began with him, like Daniel, equally emphasizing the fundamentals. He started off by showing us the power of grips via a seated guard. Listening to him discuss the philosophy of this position was nothing short of brilliant and savvy. For me personally, this has always been a favorite position of mine, yet at the same time, one that’s given me the most trouble. In addition, the guard position for me had been one that had been causing me all kinds of troubles. Suffice to say, I was extremely excited to discover this would be his discourse for the afternoon. He began our activity by putting us with our partners, mine was Brian, and having us work from the seated guard position to manage grips. In other words, one partner was standing, the other was in the seated guard, both were fighting for grips. As Victor went around the room helping us all, I was stunned by how little I actually knew about grips. I’d always taken them for granted, so this activity was extraordinarily eye opening for me. For Victor, he felt you could use this battle for grips as not only a way to get a more dominant position via the actual grips, but a way to frustrate your opponent into making rash decisions. In other words, we were also now learning a very mental part of the game. He worked diligently to make sure that our actual seated guard was well maintained (feet never past the shoulders, arms never too extended) and he also emphasized similarly for the person in the standing position. Once we got this down, he introduced ways for us to pull our opponent down to the mat after obtaining grips. And then after that, and my favorite I might add, he introduced how allowing your opponent to get the grip could be used against him / her. From the seated guard, I could bait my opponent into grabbing my wrist, once he grips it, he naturally pulls: I just go up with it, get his tricep with my other arm, shift my hips outside of that arm, and pull him down for a take down. At the end of this training, I was tired, we went over numerous take downs and sweeps from this position. When Estima summarized the day’s work, he did so by concluding that we’d really only worked on one thing: The Arm Drag. Everyone thought it was brilliant, and it was, because a day’s complex activity had been now simplified into a basic, fundamental maneuver.

In returning to training during the weeks following, there is no question that my guard was a stronger, more efficient position for me, which was directly related to the seminar. Being in a seated guard is now a much more comfortable, confident place for me. I also have enjoyed the luxury of being multidimensional while in someone’s half guard.