Guard passing - Lovato Jr Style!

The BJJ Gods have well and truly lined up the stars for me this week :) I had the pleasure of Darren and Helen Currie teaching at my gym at the weekend just gone, going through the finer points of guard passing and if that wasn't enough I was down the Big Smoke yesterday to train with Eddie Kone and Rafael Lovato Jr and as luck would have it, Rafael gave a seminar on guard passing!

Group photo

Rafael was in London after the Euros for a few days to hang out and train with Eddie and I was lucky enough to grab a few minutes with Rafael out of his busy schedule and interviewed him, so keep your eyes peeled when it goes online.

With Rafael and Eddie

Rafael showed the class his favourite way of passing guard and linked a handful of passes from this position, as well as 'what ifs' from each position and showed that all passes can be linked and chained together, giving you the upper hand when playing the top game.  Every technique came with a few pointers to make each one more or less unstoppable and every pass ended you up in mount, seven points in the bag!

From the mount position, Rafael showed his favourite go to submissions, again packed with lots of useful tips, so I am looking forward to trying these out in class, you have been warned :) 

After the teaching, Rafael took a number of questions and gave his thoughts on the importance of drilling techniques and his love for competing and the fact that he a BJJ geek, which he is unashamed to admit.  This part of the class was very motivating and inspiring, as it gave an insight into the mind set of an elite level athlete and how they prepare for high level competitions, as well as how they deal with injuries, losses and plateaux.

Thanks to Eddie Kone for arranging the seminar and Rafael for taking time out for the interview.

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