Luta Livre Spirit 2 : Roberto Leitao. Stan and Wladek Zbyszko were major influences on the development of luta livre
Training with Leitão one morning, having no idea who he was, is still my all time favorite day of training I've ever had. Just brilliant, and hilarious
I'd love to hear more about that.
So I was visiting Nova União with my first instructor and a buddy in the summer of 2005. I was still on my collegiate sleep schedule and having a hard time getting up before 10 on most of the days we were there, so one day my buddy comes back from an early morning session at NU and is raving about 1) training with the Turkish national wrestling team and 2) some really old dude that was running the show and showing him all of this mind blowing stuff. So naturally I have to check this out, so I suck it up and roll out of bed at 6:30 the next morning and hop on the subway. We get to NU, and sure enough, the old man is there, pretty much by himself. My instructor had tagged along as well, as pedernieras had told him about Leitão and referred to him as both the father of Luta Livre and the King of leg locks. So anyway, Leitão was really excited that anybody was there, let alone two gringos, and jumped right into showing us how he liked to attack guards, catching us with the nastiest wrist and foot locks my blue belt self had ever seen. His English made him sound like yoda to me whenever he would get really animated while explaining something which added to the fun. My buddy had never seen empire or Jedi though so it was completely lost on him. Most of the time was spent just working on principles.... How small movements expose vulnerabilities and how attacking the head and neck can disrupt nerve pathways to the limbs making them weaker and easier to isolate. It was pretty mind blowing stuff to me at the time, and even my instructor was really impressed. He then went on to tell us a bit about his educational background and a story about tapping Kevin randleman that included a hilarious impression of mark Coleman. I ended up training with Leitão every chance I got, which I think was 4-5 more times when I went back in 2008. We still chat on Facebook once in awhile. Such a cool dude, and he just lost his wife recently.
Luta Livre Spirit 2 : Roberto Leitao. Stan and Wladek Zbyszko were major influences on the development of luta livre
Training with Leitão one morning, having no idea who he was, is still my all time favorite day of training I've ever had. Just brilliant, and hilarious
I'd love to hear more about that.
So I was visiting Nova União with my first instructor and a buddy in the summer of 2005. I was still on my collegiate sleep schedule and having a hard time getting up before 10 on most of the days we were there, so one day my buddy comes back from an early morning session at NU and is raving about 1) training with the Turkish national wrestling team and 2) some really old dude that was running the show and showing him all of this mind blowing stuff. So naturally I have to check this out, so I suck it up and roll out of bed at 6:30 the next morning and hop on the subway. We get to NU, and sure enough, the old man is there, pretty much by himself. My instructor had tagged along as well, as pedernieras had told him about Leitão and referred to him as both the father of Luta Livre and the King of leg locks. So anyway, Leitão was really excited that anybody was there, let alone two gringos, and jumped right into showing us how he liked to attack guards, catching us with the nastiest wrist and foot locks my blue belt self had ever seen. His English made him sound like yoda to me whenever he would get really animated while explaining something which added to the fun. My buddy had never seen empire or Jedi though so it was completely lost on him. Most of the time was spent just working on principles.... How small movements expose vulnerabilities and how attacking the head and neck can disrupt nerve pathways to the limbs making them weaker and easier to isolate. It was pretty mind blowing stuff to me at the time, and even my instructor was really impressed. He then went on to tell us a bit about his educational background and a story about tapping Kevin randleman that included a hilarious impression of mark Coleman. I ended up training with Leitão every chance I got, which I think was 4-5 more times when I went back in 2008. We still chat on Facebook once in awhile. Such a cool dude, and he just lost his wife recently.
I remember Lucero from Lapendas first WVC ppv where he fought Chuck Kim, I vacillated on buying the wrestler killer set for 6 or 7 months, but then the manic episode passed. I've regreted not getting them and haven't ran across them on ebay yet. I think i went with the walt bayless tapes instead.
Walt's tapes were better overall. But Lucero showed a couple cool things from De La Riva --for short guys in particular, as I mentioned.
You sound as bad as me. I was out of my mind at one point getting instructionals. Spent thousands of dollars --which back then was not hard to do.
Like, for instance, I had ALL of he Joe Moreira tapes (27 tapes?). It was just nuts. A few like the Women's self-defense were just pure filler, but there was some very good fundamental stuff buried deep in those tapes that I never saw anyone else teach, especially at that time. I think his tapes were kind of unfairly trashed. Well most of them. A few were terrible.
Eventually, I went through a process where I watched ALL of my tapes for a final time and wrote down anything I thought was useful, then sold all of them online. I haven't bought one since.
I'd love to take a look at the Rick Lucero tapes. Dude had a pretty cool blend of wrestling & BJJ.
can I request the Darrel Gholar wrestling instructionals?
I have one that i purchased from Gene Lebells company a long time ago. If it's not available any longer, when i come across it, i'll upload it for sure.
another discontinued and unavailable set from 2000/01. These rustled some jimmies.
Pretty cool that this was way back in 2000, features Dan Henderson, Rob Follis ( i think) and made by SBG, all of which are still very prominent in modern day MMA
I remember Lucero from Lapendas first WVC ppv where he fought Chuck Kim, I vacillated on buying the wrestler killer set for 6 or 7 months, but then the manic episode passed. I've regreted not getting them and haven't ran across them on ebay yet. I think i went with the walt bayless tapes instead.
Walt's tapes were better overall. But Lucero showed a couple cool things from De La Riva --for short guys in particular, as I mentioned.
You sound as bad as me. I was out of my mind at one point getting instructionals. Spent thousands of dollars --which back then was not hard to do.
Like, for instance, I had ALL of he Joe Moreira tapes (27 tapes?). It was just nuts. A few like the Women's self-defense were just pure filler, but there was some very good fundamental stuff buried deep in those tapes that I never saw anyone else teach, especially at that time. I think his tapes were kind of unfairly trashed. Well most of them. A few were terrible.
Eventually, I went through a process where I watched ALL of my tapes for a final time and wrote down anything I thought was useful, then sold all of them online. I haven't bought one since.
The Joe moreira 5 tape set that was ALL on the single under / Gracie gift pass is like some kind of hermetic induction that was probably understood by .... no one. The sheer depth of instruction was one thing, Joe's English and the terrible sound quality was another.
I'd still love to get those tapes again and have another crack at them.
the first and second set fit onto one dvd so i only scanned the first tapes box to make a case cover. I got the description on this one all wonky and not symetrical. OCD emergency!!
I remember Lucero from Lapendas first WVC ppv where he fought Chuck Kim, I vacillated on buying the wrestler killer set for 6 or 7 months, but then the manic episode passed. I've regreted not getting them and haven't ran across them on ebay yet. I think i went with the walt bayless tapes instead.
Walt's tapes were better overall. But Lucero showed a couple cool things from De La Riva --for short guys in particular, as I mentioned.
You sound as bad as me. I was out of my mind at one point getting instructionals. Spent thousands of dollars --which back then was not hard to do.
Like, for instance, I had ALL of he Joe Moreira tapes (27 tapes?). It was just nuts. A few like the Women's self-defense were just pure filler, but there was some very good fundamental stuff buried deep in those tapes that I never saw anyone else teach, especially at that time. I think his tapes were kind of unfairly trashed. Well most of them. A few were terrible.
Eventually, I went through a process where I watched ALL of my tapes for a final time and wrote down anything I thought was useful, then sold all of them online. I haven't bought one since.
I remember watching Joe's self defense tape. Where he showed multiple hair grab defenses. He was near bald at the time. His uke just grabbed imaginary hair while Joe whipped out multiple ways to defend imaginary hair grab defenses. Hilarous
The old secrets of the octagon set from 95'. I had to trim the 2 minute intro to bypass the zuffa blockade since it had a few seconds of fight clips from the four instructors.These were filmed in David James vee-jitsu school.
