This is more of a question for those who train with Marcelo regularly (not sure how many of those people are on here) or guys who have MGinaction.
How much does Marcelo experiment with new stuff in his rolls?
Most of what I have seen of him rolling on youtube is him rolling with upper and elite level people. For the most part, his rolls are his A game stuff (x guard, butterfly, north/south, etc). I know that he has to roll with lower belts and try new stuff but I never see it. Just wondering how frequently he experiments.
Great question. I look forward to Delicious Bass and others responding.
Anecdotally, I remember his saying he worked his (now famous) north-south choke in the academy for 2 years before debuting it in competition.
Another question might be how long his experimentation period is...
A lot of his "A" game now- 1 Leg X, Guillotines, North South Chokes, are techniques he was not using 8+ years ago.
Maybe he is still "experimenting" with these moves to fine tune them? IE- when he taught the guillotine in 2007-8 in his 4th DVD series (distributed by Paul Viele), I don't recall him talking much about a high elbow finish- now that's essentially the only way he finishes them.
kying418 - Another question might be how long his experimentation period is...
A lot of his "A" game now- 1 Leg X, Guillotines, North South Chokes, are techniques he was not using 8+ years ago.
Maybe he is still "experimenting" with these moves to fine tune them? IE- when he taught the guillotine in 2007-8 in his 4th DVD series (distributed by Paul Viele), I don't recall him talking much about a high elbow finish- now that's essentially the only way he finishes them.
The reason I ask this is because I saw a video yesterday of his high guard or rubber guard pass. I know Marcelo is very well rounded and has answers for things that are not in his game. I'm just wondering if he goofs around in rolls and plays a high guard or tries to berimbolo.
I also wonder, like you say kying, what new things he is tweaking in his A game. I don't have a great knowledge of x or single x to be able to recognize that something he is doing is different. I know guys like you and Delicious Bass would having spent many hours on the mats with him.
If anybody has or finds a roll with Marcelo playing around, please post it.
I will gladly defer to Delicious Bass and others, as they spend way more time on the mat with MG than I do.
I do recall a couple of videos on MGinaction where he goes inverted when he is sparring Gianni Grippo (who specializes in that sort of game)- and to no surprise, Marcelo is excellent at that game as well.
There was a good chunk of time where Marcelo hit omoplata and monoplata from everywhere. Don't see that as much.
kying418 - Another question might be how long his experimentation period is...You sure? IIRC that dvd was all about the high elbow finish...
A lot of his "A" game now- 1 Leg X, Guillotines, North South Chokes, are techniques he was not using 8+ years ago.
Maybe he is still "experimenting" with these moves to fine tune them? IE- when he taught the guillotine in 2007-8 in his 4th DVD series (distributed by Paul Viele), I don't recall him talking much about a high elbow finish- now that's essentially the only way he finishes them.
A lot from what I see on MGinaction. I'll try to find links later this week, but there's a roll with Gianni Grippo where he plays a lot of berimbolos, and he does some really cool ones. You can see him doing a lot arm triangles, especially the Rafa Mendes style rolling anaconda chokes using the inner thigh to trap their arm deeper into the choke. He had a recent roll on there with Dillon Danis where he got into a nice leg lock exchange and got a heel hook or two. There are some old Ryan Hall rolls on there where Marcelo gets really creative. There were some rolls of him doing a lot of waki gatame style Judo armlocks but on the ground and as an escape from side control or while being passed.
Josh Waitzkin was saying in the last Marcelo book that he often just does things on the fly without having to really study it. He can feel a technique and start to do it automatically. He said even though Marcelo doesn't prefer kimuras or arm triangles like the darce, that Marcelo darce choked him twice and they were the 2 strongest ones he's ever felt.
That's a big reason why I like MGinaction. I've had it since 2009, and I mostly just watch a few rolls on there every week, and in his own gym it's really cool to see top guys experimenting and trying things that they don't always do in competition.