Drinking the Kool Aid

Bravo doing what Bravo does

Rubber guard. Lockdown. Mission control. Alcatraz. The Zombie. Dead Pussy Order. All names concocted by cult leader Edgar ‘Eddie Bravo’ Cano.

If you’re into MMA or BJJ, the chances are you’ve encountered Eddie’s 10th Planet Jiu- Jitsu system. If you’re on the mat you might have had someone slap a twister or a funky gogoplata on you. If you’re a fan, you’ll have heard Joe Rogan (Eddie’s best friend) talk nonstop on-air about the effectiveness of this style of jiu-jitsu.

Personally, in all honesty, I dislike much of Eddie’s ’system’. My first bugbear is that it is NOT a system. It is a set of rules and strategy within a system. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) is the system, not Eddie’s 10th Planet JJ (The fundamental rules and precepts of Eddie’s style comes from BJJ, of which Eddie studied for 10 years or more).

What I don’t get is why 10th Planet JJ is quite so popular at the moment. Almost everyone I know owns at least one of Eddie’s books (I’ll admit, I own one too). It seems de rigeur right now to be busting out rubber guard when rolling or sparring. Everyone is hunting for gogoplatas, twisters and the like.

What really bugs me is that guys with only a basic level of jiu-jitsu are going out, buying the books and / or the DVDs and then coming into class expecting to make it work. It does work, I can attest to that, but one thing that is glossed over by Mr Bravo is that it is only one part of the puzzle.

I asked Eddie how people rolled in his gym. I asked him, “do people have their own games, or does everyone roll like you?” “Well sure they roll like me,” he replied. “If they wanna roll the right way.”

The arrogance, the haughtiness, the bombasity - the sheer egotistical nerve of Mr Bravo hit me like a hammer.

But I can’t fault him too much for saying it, we were in a public place after all - and Bravo is and always has been about marketing himself. He needs people to believe in what he is selling. He wants us to drink the Kool Aid. It’s understandable when you’ve based your whole career on one thing - teaching people how to triangle, omoplata, googplata, calf crush or twister someone isn’t exactly a job for life… If I was him, I’d milk that win over Royler for all it’s worth and set myself up as an authority on no-gi jiu-jitsu. Oh, wait… What? He already did? Ahh.

I’m not set on the whole Bravo thing. I don’t disagree with the fact it works, in fact, I have even been known to bust it out myself once in a while (much to the chagrin of people I tell it is a bunch of shit, muahaha).

My problem is that what Eddie Bravo does is tell you how to roll like Eddie Bravo. Marcelo Garcia plays a great X-guard game, and sold a truckload of DVDs that teach it. But he doesn’t tout it as the be-all and end-all. Telles’ turtle guard is an interesting concept, one he has had plenty of success with, but again, he doesn’t neglect the basics of ‘boring’ everyday jiu-jitsu.

Eddie doesn’t teach a system. Eddie teaches you his game. I’ve got my game. You’ve got your game. In fact, we’ve all got our different games. What works for one person in jiu-jitsu or MMa may not work for another, so we all find our own way.

But Eddie wants everyone to roll like him. Why? Because he’s convinced it’s the only ‘right’ way to roll? Or it’s because it’s what he’s good at, and that’s what he can sell… I mean come on, who would buy a DVD on bottom escapes… Nah, you want to learn that funky shit, right? Oh yeah.

This is why people have bought into the cult of Eddie Bravo. They’ve drunk the Kool Aid not because they’ve been told to, but because they’ve been told it’s good for them.

You know what’s good? Buy, beg, borrow or steal any of his books for one reason and one reason alone. If you understand the ’system’, you can defeat it. I studied the rubber guard book from start to finish at least three times without ever trying a single move. All I did was go into other people’s rubber guard and survive. Then nullify. Then counter. Then I turned it back on them. It was their turn. Guess what? They had no answer. They couldn’t defend it. The reason why? They concentrated so much on he techniques, believing them to be giant-slaying magical get-out-of-jail-free cards that they forgot there is much more to rolling than what Eddie Bravo tells you.

My advice is this: Study it, but don’t neglect your main game. if all you play is Bravo jiu-jitsu from top half guard, what happens when someone bridges and rolls? You got swept. If all you play is rubber guard, what happens when someone defends it? How do you go from there? You open your guard to get it passed, simply because you never took the time to work it.

This not an anti-Eddie Bravo blog. This is a blog about basics. If you concentrate on them, you’ll never lack in any area. Don’t look for quick fixes or magical solutions - they don’t exist.