Submission escapes are an integral part of being “unbeatable” in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Submission Grappling matches. A good example of this is Roger Gracie. The most striking aspect of Roger’s game seems to be his insanely “simple” insanely “basic” top game that allows him to pass and finish mostly everyone he faces.
However, Roger is also a master of escapes and has had to exhibit them quite a few times in his early Black Belt days. According to Gracie Magazine, Roger has not tapped in a tournament since he was competing in Juvenile Blue Belt but lucky for students of Crazy 88 BJJ, he has been put in quite a few hairy situations that we can learn from.
A few memorable ones include having his back taken by Marcelo Garcia and Terere; to this day, the # of people that have escaped Marcelo taking their back is probably two (I can’t remember anyone other than Roger but there probably is one). He also escaped a tight triangle choke by Xande Ribeiro at Abu Dhabi and also a nasty choke at this year’s Mundial put on my “Demente”. He came back to win all those matches.
There is some truth to the old Gracie Jiu Jitsu adage that the longer you are in the match, the more time you have to submit your opponent!
Note: All Children’s Martial Arts Classes are cancelled for Wed, Dec 23, 2009. HCPSS is playing it super-safe with the snow.
