Machado Grappling?

[red5angel]

Can anyone tell me about this? Anything really, details on what you know, opinions, etc....

[HighRoller]

The Machado's are a large BJJ organization mostly in california I think. I've never trained with them but they have a real good reputation. I believe the Machado family are cousins of the Gracie family.

[ShaolinTiger00]

The Machados are the cousins of the Gracie family and some of the worlds best grapplers. (brazillian jiujutsu)

Rigan and Jean-Jaques are legends.

[Ford Prefect]

Yup. The Machado's know their stuff. They are black belts under Carlos Gracie (Renzo's dad) from the Gracie Barra school. My old bjj instructor is a blck belt from the same school and grew up with those guys.

[red5angel]

Is there much of a difference between what they teach and what others teach, like the gracies?

[ShaolinTiger00]

not really. some bjj guys will be more geared towards vale tudo, others will be more into sport bjj. (don't take that as sport being weaker - its more technical.)

no difference unless you like paying more for your "pure water". (bjj inside joke)

[Losttrak]

I train with Carlos Machado in Dallas... he has a bunch of schools around the US. I have only been there for a bit but he seems to really have a knack for teaching and I enjoy the casual atmosphere of the class. Also its one of the few places where I have seen people as big as I am. It will be good to have some peeps push me to the limits.

[red5angel]

losttrak - could you do me a favor and PM me? I would like to ask you a few questions if possible. I know you are new to your school but you still might be able to help.....

[Ford Prefect]

Red,

The Machado's teach BJJ. They kind of put their own spin on it as most intructors will, but you'll learn the same BJJ basics at most schools.

[red5angel]

Thanks Ford! I am mainly trying to find out a little bit about the style itself, and it sounds like it is much like other BJJ families and trying to find out how involved they are with the school I am attending. The grappling instructor has been out so I havent had time to talk to him in depth but they have a whole lot of magazine covers and signs with Machado stamped all over it!

Basically I want to make sure I am getting quality grappling training since I wouldn't know quiality grappling from a chi blast ;)

[FatherDog]

I don't really know the lineage (G'heh) of most of the BJJ guys I grapple with. There's Gracie stuff and Machado stuff very nearby to me, though, so I've probably grappled with both of them.

From what I've heard from folks that know their stuff (and there are a lot of those in my gym... makes rolling at OpenMats a depressing and frustrating experience for poor beginner me) the Gracie schools tend to emphasize self-defense a little more than the Machados, who are a little more sport-oriented... and the Machados tend to use the open guard more than the Gracies. These are just tendencies, and will vary by individual schools.

Overall, the Machados have a very good reputation, as previously noted, both as grapplers and as teachers. You're probably getting quality there.

[red5angel]

What is an open guard?

[Ford Prefect]

Red,

The beautiful thing about the grappling world is that there are really no secret techniques or anything like that. Lots of independent groups have taken their progress pretty far and competed well by just watching tapes and rolling with each other. I believe Jesus is Lord (a grappling/MMA team; not a proclamation ;) ) is a self-taught team and they do well. The key is just rolling as much as possible. It's the only way to develop the sensitivity, timing, and technqiue.

Another nice thing is that BJJ is still in it's infancy here, so teachers and students are easy to track. If you could provide the head instructors name or the name and location of the club, we could find out where the instructor trained.

[carly]

soon enough - as soon as you meet a good grappler on the matt you'll know exactly how good he is - that's the beauty of it.

[ShaolinTiger00]

open guard - your ankles are not hooked together behind his back. That is called the closed guard. If you're in a closed guard and have over-hooked both his arms in the attempt to protect yourself -that's a full guard.

The open guard is the most used part of the guard family because you often have to have your legs free to sweep him to the ground or move into a position where you can apply a submission.

(I don't think I even use the closed guard anymore unless I'm outweighed by >50 lbs.)

Newbie question: If your legs aren't locked around him, why doesn't he just back away from you?

answer- Because you should be controlling his arms an your now free feet should be controling his hips.

[red5angel]

Ford, here is the school -

www.mnkali.com

carly - there appear to be a few good grapplers there, I see then every night I am there and they are constantly rolling so I imagine it is probably a good group. I just don't know anything about grappling so for all I know it could just be a place for gay men to roll around and pick each other up while pretending to be grappling.

ST00 - thanks, thats what I thought!

[Ford Prefect]

I perused the site and I didn't see any mention of BJJ. I did see that Rick Faye was an assistant for Larry Hartsell, who does quite a bit of varied grappling. One of Hartsells old top students (Jason something. I can't remember his last name right now) teaches in Massachusetts, and two of my old roommates trained with him at the same time I was training stricly in BJJ.

I gotta say that they were pretty grapplers for the amount of time that they spent on ground work, which was obviously a lot less time than me. From my impressions of their curriculum, you couldn't go wrong training there. Good luck!

[red5angel]

Thanks Ford, the impression you got is pretty much the impression I got so far. Ultimately the only way I am going to find out is to do it, just thought I would do some recon first.

[TaoBoy]

I train under a Machado black belt and let me tell you - they know their stuff. If you can find a Machado school - give it a try.