📰 Only dummies still drill bro

Who’s On Top This Week:

We interrupt our usual rankings programming 📺 this week to bring you all the winners of last weekend’s European ADCC trials 🔥 

The male athletes on this list have instantly punched their ticket to ADCC 2024 and can now breathe easy 😮‍💨  - while the women’s winners now move on to the second ADCC European trial to try and get their entry spot 🤷‍♀️ #wedontmaketherules

This particular event is always billed as one of the biggest on the ADCC trials circuit - and just like your trusty and ever-reliable local postie - it delivered 📬

Some big names fell short, new blood prevailed and the European grappling scene showed its strength with a run of super exciting matches and some serious highlight reel submissions 🎞

You should watch this breakdown of the event, but if you’re too damn lazy or allergic to clicking links - here are the Tap Nap & Snap highlights:

• Jozef Chen channels Neo from The Matrix and takes out ADCC veterans Oliver Taza, Tommy Langaker (watch this!) & Matheus Szczeciński … in one day 🤯 

• The near unknown 19 year old purple belt Owen Jones takes out the decorated Ashley Williams to win the 66kg division 💪

• Luke Griffith submits everyone he touches ☠️

• Big Dan Manasoiu cements his position as an eternal New Wave Junior by failing to win the +99kg division 👦 

• Overall - more coloured belts than black belts won their bracket #myblackbeltisbroken

As we all know, you either win or you learn 🫠 , so here are the athletes that simply refused to learn ⬇️ How ignorant.

What’s Happening On The Mats:

Craig Gets His Thong Dirty

If you pay any attention whatsoever to the BJJ world, this one probably won’t be news to you - but it’s just too good to not put up again! ⬆️

Brimming with confidence after their impressive win at the recent Quintet event in Tokyo - The B-Teams’ Craig Jones & Nicky Rod took their celebrations to the nearest sumo stable to get their cheeks out and try their luck with the big lads.

‘How’d they go’ you might ask? 🧐 

On the sumo side of things - can’t exactly say they won it. But as the clip above shows, sumo’s seem to still ignore at least 50% of the body 💪 

I for one, am ready to see the launch of the official Sumo X BJJ combined ruleset 🤼 

If you can’t be the best, you should watch the best!

Gordon Ryan. A man that’s far from winning any popularity contests, but too busy winning everything in jiu-jitsu to care 🤷‍♂️

Even his closest rivals begrudgingly admit that he is as good as they come - and have probably all watched the video above ⬆️ to see what they can pick up from the self-proclaimed ‘King’ of the sport 👑 

This clip shows Gordon getting a 10-minute round-in at New Wave in preparation for his upcoming WNO match against Patrick Gaudio.

His opponent weights about as much as his beard 🧔 , but there are still some great sequences from both of them and some nifty details to pick up from Gordo if you’re watching with a keen 👁

Is Drilling Just For BJJ Dummies?

Drilling is as common as fresh blue belts quitting in nearly every BJJ gym around the world - but not at Greg Souder’s gym - Standard Jiu-Jitsu (Blue Belts still probably quit though, they can’t help it 🤷‍♂️)

Taking what he calls an ‘ecological approach’ - Greg doesn’t get his students to punch out rep after rep of single techniques - he instead gets them to play games that emphasise certain goals without teaching any specific movements.

Many argue that this is in fact a form of ‘specific drilling’ and I’d have to agree, however, I’d say it is leagues ahead of many approaches and definitely makes for an interesting training room 🔥 

Do Less. No, Wait, Do More:

The Good Option: De-close Open the close guard

Getting stuck in a good opponent's closed guard is a real draaaaag 😡 

Not only can it feel like your literally glued in place, but a good opponent will have no trouble sweeping you, taking the back or finishing you (possibly all 3 in that sequence)

This clip will not only show you some great survival tips but also give you some pointers on getting the pass so you can get your own back too! 😎 

The Not-So-Good Option: Getting your toes touched

Understanding where your feet are in this game becomes increasingly more important as you progress through your belts.

What feels like a strong hook position from your end can become a toe-hold opportunity for your opponent if they get a good grab 🦶 

The black belt in this match honestly looked a bit bored 🥱 and probably had somewhere else to be - so he slapped on a quick finish and hit the road 👋 

Obviously, the white belts out there don’t need to worry too much about this … yet. But it’s good practice to start thinking about where your feet are and what can happen to them!

Things That Keep You Up At 2 AM:

To drill or not to drill? That is the question…

Is it better to shrimp up and down the mats 1000 times until you know how to hip escape? 🍤 

Or better to play a game that requires you to learn to move your hips away from your opponent? (i.e. positional training)

Well - you tell me! 👈

And again - there’s no neutral option, you have to pick one - I demand a result!

This week’s big question: ⬇️

Last week’s results:

Last week we asked you - “Gi vs No-Gi: You can only pick one for the rest of your life”

• 60% of you said - 🥋 It's the Gi for me. Never gonna give grips up

• 40% of you said - 🥷 No-Gi no problem. Call me Captain Underhook

Looks like the Gi-players have just edged out a win here. As the great Eddie Bravo said though - ‘Gi is just No-Gi, with a Gi on’ 🤯 We are truly all the same.

The Meme Open Mat:

Can’t wait to see what the 6’7 junior will be like when he grows up! 🌳 

Think you’ve got the spiciest BJJ memes going around? Hit reply, send them through to get them featured 🔥 

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