This page uses content from the Eddie Bravo biography page on the English version of Wikipedia and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. This list of authors can be seen in the page history. Rotten Tomatoes disclaims any and all warranties as to the accuracy or reliability of the content.
Eddie "The Twister" Bravo is an American practitioner of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu who holds a black belt under Jean Jacques Machado. He is most famous for his victories in submission wrestling, especially his tapout of Royler Gracie by triangle choke in the Abu Dhabi Submission Wrestling championships, and his unique style of no-gi Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He is also known for his mixed martial arts commentating on the Ultimate Fighting Championship and music composition. He lives in Hollywood, California and runs the 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu dojo there.
In 2005, McGraw Hill published Bravo's first martial arts instructional book entitled Jiu-Jitsu Unleashed (ISBN 0-07-144811-X). In Jiu-Jitsu Unleashed, Bravo laid out the fundamentals of his unorthodox gi-less Brazilian jiu jitsu style and explained why he came up with it - in his view, early 1990's Brazilian jiu jitsu successes in MMA (mixed martial arts) competitions had turned into drawn-out stalemates and even losses by the end of the '90s, as opponents formerly held safely in guard (locked between the defender's legs while the defender lay on his back) were now raining down punches freely while avoiding the formerly successful Brazilian jiu jitsu submission moves applied from guard.
In Jiu Jitsu Unleashed, Bravo blames the stalemates on over-dependence on gi-based techniques which require a sleeve, collar, or pants leg to grab to initiate a submission or sweep. In his book Bravo advocates "throwing out the gi" from the start for MMA and submission grappling fighters. In a September 2006 seminar (San Carlos, California), Eddie described this style of gi-less Brazilian jiu jitsu style as "greco-roman jiu-jitsu" due to its introduction of clinches, hooks, and head controls - drawn from wrestling - that don't rely on the gi to get and hold a grip. At the same time, Bravo modified the traditional guard and half guard positions and attacks, calling his new gi-less guard position "Rubber Guard" in deference to the high degree of flexibility required to apply it.
Jiu Jitsu Unleashed was published as a trade paperback at a popular price. In response to criticisms that its black and white illustrations on uncoated paper were murky, and that the moves weren't broken down into enough steps with enough angles to readily follow, Bravo turned to a non-mass market publisher for his second book, released on September 15, 2006, Mastering the Rubber Guard: Jiu-jitsu for Mixed Martial Arts Competition (ISBN 0-9777315-9-6), and early reviews indicate that Mastering the Rubber Guard is a much better as an instructional manual. Jiu Jitsu Unleashed remains of interest due to the background material included in it, and due to its lower price.
Although Bravo published early explanations of Rubber Guard on his web pages, Bravo explained (San Carlos seminar, September 2006) that he is surprised that MMA fighters still rely too much on "hand control" (trying to grab and hold the mounted opponent's hands) to protect themselves from punches while holding their opponent in guard, and on throwing unsuccessful traditional triangle chokes. (Hand control is criticized for two reasons: it is relatively easy to break a handgrip under the best of circumstances, and in an actual MMA match sweat makes it even more difficult to get and hold a grip.)
At the September 2006 seminar, Bravo explained that Rubber Guard is a good alternative to trying to block punches or maintaining hand control, but when MMA fighters seem to try to use it, they don't carry it through. Thus opponents of Rubber Guard say "see it doesn't work". But Bravo explained that even conventional guard doesn't have a very high success rate (perhaps 20% leading directly to a submission without a sweep) and Rubber Guard is intended to provide additional techniques, not become a "miracle guard" with a 100% success rate. In addition, as with all techniques in Brazilian jiu jitsu, at each point in the application there are varitions, counters, and recounters. Bravo predicted that as more details of Rubber Guard are published and more people train with it, it will start to show up more widely, and more successfully, in MMA competition and eventually also in "traditional" Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and eventually become one of the many accepted variants of guard positions.
Responding to complaints that Rubber Guard requires a much higher degree of flexibility than conventional guard, due to the closer position of the legs and knees to the competitor's own head, Bravo explained that a Brazilian jiu-jitsu player who expects to be good at his (or her) game just needs to accept the fact that stretching is a very important part of training. By analogy, "No Muay Thai beginner would start out by saying he can't kick to the head because he isn't limber enough...it's just accepted that if you want to play Muay Thai, you'd better stretch so you can kick to the head." One test of limberness for applying Rubber Guard effortlessly is the ability to place your own leg behind the arm and head on the same side of your own body (similar to a Yoga asana).
Although Bravo is a controversial figure for both "inventing" new moves and for his anti-gi stance, Bravo is a strong advocate of drilling in addition to "rolling" or free sparring. At the September 2006 seminar, he complained that Brazilian jiu jitsu players are a little addicted to free sparring and often view "boring drills" as a distraction from the adrenaline high of rolling. He stated that any serious practitioner needs to spend at least an hour per week drilling essential moves so they become as natural as tying a shoelace, which is a lot harder than it looks if you were to break it down into "moves." Yet, by the time we are adults we can all routinely tie our shoe laces even while looking away and carrying on a conversation with a friend. The core Rubber Guard moves need to become just as second nature, otherwise the reaction speed required to apply them will always stand in the way of their effectiveness.
Joe Rogan of Fear Factor, who is a student and personal friend of Bravo, appears in Jiu Jitsu Unleashed as a demonstration partner, and is credited in the introduction with providing much needed support to Eddie's development of 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu.
External links
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