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Tag: positive psychology jiu jitsu
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZtTRrBPDOA?rel=0&w=560&h=315]
Welcome to another episode of “It’s Science”. We continue our 2013 season with a quick look at Guilherme Mendes (2011-2013). Now on to the fun stuff…
Abstract: All matches observed of Guilherme Mendes used in this small sample occurred at IBJJF events, inside his weight division, and between 2011-2013. Only techniques, occurrences, and outcomes that were recorded are displayed in the data below (i.e. if no butterfly sweeps occurred, there will not be a representation of that in the sample data). Matches were selected at random based on available matches – selected using a random generator from 18 total available IBJJF matches matches between 2011-2013. This is a limited sample – but given the estimated amount of matches in this time period – it is well above the percentage necessary to create a scientifically validated trend sampling.
So what did we learn?: Guilherme Mendes is an impressive competitor. Much like his brother, he is quite good at avoiding defeat. Inside this study – which took place between 2011 and 2013 – there was only one loss on his record. The best way to describe his style is, “insistent”. He insisted upon a handful of techniques, and was able to put himself in the exact position to execute these moves with absolute precision. Approximately 81% of his passes were executed in a very similar fashion – Half-Guard, knee slide, and nearly 88% of his sweep came from a De La Riva to berimbolo-style of attack. His game was very effective. It saw him finish almost 60% of his matches by submission, and it him in position to be the first to score in 100% of the matches in that he was the victor. In observing his style and performance, I believe this is a very important metric for Guilherme. By being the first to score in his matches, he immediately put his opponent on defense, and was able to stay ahead and inside his own comfort zone. In his sole loss he did not score first, and was unable to build his normal momentum through out the match.
There is a lot that the average competitor can learn from Guilherme Mendes style and approach. While the techniques are far from “simple”, his approach and execution is very basic. He kept his attacks to a handful of techniques, and insisted upon them from the beginning. One thing to learn from his competitive approach, is that by building a match around your strengths from the start, you can put yourself in a consistently offensive game. This can help reduce hesitation and can ensure that techniques are executed properly under pressure.
Notable Stats:
- 7:15 was his average match length
- Won 58% of his matches by submission
- Scored first in 100% of his wins (91% total)
- Passed from the half-guard 81.5% of the time
- 88% of sweeps occured from the De La Riva guard
- He preferred knee-cut passes to leg drag passes 13/2
- Approximately 77% of his submissions were from the side control position
- When on the feet he preferred pulling guard – as he did so 85% of the time
| Top Competitor | Guilherme Mendes |
| Successes | Side Control Submissions |
| Avoided… | Mount |
| Top Technique 1 | Knee Through Pass From Half-Guard |
| Top Technique 2 | Berimbolo |
| Number of Matches Observed | 12 |
| Submits Opponent | 7 |
| Wins by Points | 4 |
| Minutes of footage watched | 87 |
| Scores First | 11 |
| Total Wins | 11 |
| Total Loses | 1 |
| Sweeps (Position) | |
| De la Riva Sweeps | 7 |
| 50/50 | 1 |
| Sweeps (Type) | |
| Ankle Pick sweep | 1 |
| Berimbolo-style (kiss of the dragon, etc.) | 7 |
| Total Sweeps | 8 |
| Passes (Position) | |
| On Knees | 1 |
| Half-Guard | 13 |
| Standing | 2 |
| Passes (Type) | |
| leg drag | 2 |
| knee through | 13 |
| x-pass | 1 |
| Total Passes | 16 |
| Taking the Back | |
| side control | 4 |
| Total Back-Takes | 4 |
| Submissions (Position) | |
| Back | 2 |
| Side Control | 5 |
| Submissions (Type) | |
| choke from back | 2 |
| gi choke (Guilitine, Brabo, Basball Bat) | 5 |
| Total Subs: | 7 |
| Takedown/ Ground Establishment | |
| Double-Guard Pull | 3 |
| Guard Pull | 9 |
| ankle pick | 2 |
Categories
2013 Pan Jiu Jitsu Predictions
We watch a lot of film at BishopBjj.com. In fact, whilst studying the 2012 World Championships for our study, we watched over 200 matches in a 2 week period of time. That certainly doesn’t make us experts, but it does make our opinions a little bit more informed than the average guy. Based on our knowledge, here are Tyler’s adult male picks for the 2013 Pan Jiu Jitsu Championship.
Rooster: It’s hard to envision a scenario in which Caio Terra and Bruno Malfacine don’t meet in the finals. With Bruno coming off of injury Caio is the popular choice, but if Bruno has been able to maintain his physical abilities it is hard to see him losing
Bruno Malficine
Light-Feather: Let’s be honest, with only 11 guys in the division it looks as though Gui Mendes will probably clean up. His only recent loss is to Bruno – who moved down again to rooster again this year – so I predict an easy road for Gui Mendes.
Guilherme Mendes
Feather: This is such a tough weight class that likely comes down to the big 4 – Tanquinho, Cobrinha, Mario Reis, and Rafael Mendes. Mendes will be tough to beat, and there is strong chance he will meet Tanquinho or Cobrinha in the finals.
Cobrinha
Light: This weight class is full of talent, and with the exit of Leandro Lo, the field is wide open. The door is open for JT Torres to finally nab his title, but it’s likely that the current going-on’s of his former team have affected his training, so it’s probably safer to go with one of the boys from Alliannce (Lucas Lepri, or Micheal Langhi)
Close out – Langhi and Lepri
Middle: Possibly the toughest of weight classes, it is truly up for grabs. Leandro Lo will give everyone in the division a tough time, and suspect he makes it into the finals. However; Kayron Gracie always seems to come out of nowhere for at least one event a year.
Kayron Gracie
Middle-Heavy: This is going to be Galvao and Barral’s division to lose. I expect an epic rematch in the finals
Romulo Barral
Heavy: No Rodolfo, no problem. Expect a war in the division.
Roberto Alencar
Super-Heavy: Unfortunately, we’ve seen this before. It’s hard to imagine anyone in this division dethroning Faria or Nogueira.
Close out Faria and Nogueira
Ultra-Heavy: Buchecha is certainly the favorite, but don’t sleep on Orlando Sanchez. Sanchez looked hard to beat in Chicago earlier this year. Also, athletes like Alexander Trans and Gustavo Dias will not make it easy for the young Checkmat competitor.
Buchecha
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rb6VY3U8S-Y&w=560&h=315]
That’s right, we’re back with a brand new edition of “It’s Science”. In this particular case, we did a small – very limited – sample of the popular new prevalence of submission only jiu jitsu tournaments. We wanted to look at the high level black belts and break down some of the numbers that may go otherwise unnoticed. For this study the only events we looked at were Gracie Worlds 2012 and Metamoris Pro. We only included matches that ended in submission, and tracked only a few stats we thought were significant. The results were very interesting.
We found that even though no points were awarded, that the competitors who accessed the first IBJJF recognized points would win 70% of the time. We also noticed that an overwhelming majority of the submissions were initiated from a top position. This again was very intriguing since a guard pull occurred in 70% of the matches ( with the puller winning on top 5 out of 7 times). Armlocks and chokes accounted for 80% of submissions leaving shoulder locks and leg locks with a measly 20% combined. Finally, in the instances that a takedown did occur, the competitor who scored the takedown won in every observed match.
The raw data is below. We recognize that this is an extremely limited sample. But this does help establish some initial baseline trends that will have to be studied in further detail as more of these events begin to take place. It is also fair to mention that matches included in this study ranged from 140lbs to 220+ lbs.
For the very first time ever we are making our Revised 2012 World Jiu Jitsu Case study available for free online (which includes our additional stats from the December issue of Jiu jitsu Magazine), and are providing unbridled access below. We don’t need an e-mail, name, phone number… nothing! You just click the report below, and pages of unprecedented jiu jitsu knowledge will be at your fingertips.
2012 World Jiu Jitsu Case Study
This entire project took Jena and I months of planning, film watching, and research to complete. The report itself still doesn’t accurately reflect all the intricacies of jiu jitsu competition that we learned while completing this project. However, our hope is that the 2013 studies will be even bigger and more powerful, with greater in-depth analysis. We’ve appreciated the tremendous feedback we’ve received from researchers that work for major universities, Google, Adobe, the government, scientific journals, and more. Neither Jena nor myself have degrees that merit true scientific study. This is a passion, and we originally started it to provide ourselves with an edge in competition strategies. The entire process got out of hand, and three months later we completed the Pan study – which we used to prepare for the 2012 Worlds. I can say unequivocally that using the information in this study has improved our competition jiu jitsu seven-fold.
In 2013 we plan to return to the “It’s Science” series with more in-depth competitor breakdowns along with several other new series that will focus on the statistical elements of jiu jitsu. Obviously, our largest projects this year will be the new studies. We want them to be bigger and better than ever – which means they will take even more time and energy than they did this year. We have had a ton of people that are far more qualified than ourselves volunteer to help us work on these projects (which is fantastic!!!). But, this all takes a lot of time and effort, so all of your feedback, support, and attention makes it fun to do what we do. Thank you for all of your support from the bottom of our hearts.
If you haven’t already, you are going to want to check out our 4-page article in this months Jiu-Jitsu Magazine. It has a lot of breakdowns from our Worlds study that we did not include in the original copy. So if you want to see a lot of cool stats that are just now being released, you will have to get a copy of this months issue.
