Robson Moura is coming to the UK!!!

Man I am so pumped to soon meet the legend that is Robson Moura. Every BJJ aficionado worth their salt will have heard of Robson. Even if you have not, then you will have used techniques he has popularised at some point - I know I have. BJJ Heroes captures a summary of this amazing man's career here: http://www.bjjheroes.com/bjj-fighters/robson-moura-bjj-fighter
I mean come on...SIX GOLD MEDALS AT THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS AT BLACK BELT!
Robson is to the half guard like what Mozzarella is to pizza. My game is all about the half guard and I want a little bit of that Robson magic.

 I wanted to know a little more about Robson before I meet him and grilled my good buddy Jay from the F4 Martial Arts Academy over in Arkansas. They are a Robson Moura affiliate school and I always read such high praise on their Facebook comments. So I asked Jay to tell me, what is it that makes Robson so awesome???


ROBSON MOURA by Jay Beard, F4 Martial Arts Academy

My impression of Robson is from the perspective of a "new" student. Since our gym joined his association a little over a year ago, I have had the pleasure of training directly under Profesor Moura a few times. I can honestly say that if I had to come up with one word to describe Robson as a BJJ practitioner, instructor and mentor that word would be, "humility".

He is one of the most humble, quiet, reserved, and generally just plain old good people that I have met. I don't just mean in BJJ, I mean in real life.

I could sit here and spout off any number of his accomplishments. He has a ton of 'em, but I will leave it to you to read his resume on wikipedia, or any number of other websites.
But to me, what makes Professor Moura such a good teacher, is that he has never ever lost sight of the fact that he started as a white belt and had to work his tail off to make it to the point where he is now. To hear him tell it, he never really went into a tournament just absolutely knowing that he was going to win it all. The confidence was there, sure, but so was the humility and respect for the opponent which brought a sense of calm to the matches. In the end, he was stuck with preparing as best he could, playing his game and if the result was victory, then it was meant to be. It was meant to be 7 times over.

As a result of his competition philosophy, there is no pressure on any of his students to compete to win, win, win at all costs. In fact, the last time he spoke to all of us, Robson encouraged us to compete to further our games, make friends and learn from our mistakes. If we won, great...we won, but that was just a bonus to competing, not the reason for it. See? Humility.
As far as being on the mat with him...he is a definite believer of an open guard game (the 93 guard is one of the ones he really works quite a bit, but his half guard game is right up there too), or at the very least, staying away from that vice-clamped-oh-god-please-don't-let-them-pass, half or closed guard style. Robson, in the few times I have trained with him, instead encouraged a "rounder" more open BJJ game, one that focused on opening up the guard quickly and attacking at not-thought-of but also not-outer-worldly angles, resulting in unique openings and what I call "gift" submissions.

The emphasis is absolutely on movement and attacking, not defense and counter-attacking, (though as a black belt worth his salt he has shown us a moderate amount of this as well). From my past experience of a more traditional, locked-down closed and half guard philosophy, Robson's techniques almost appear to be of the "flippy dippy" new school BJJ variety - a sure turn off for a guy with my size and flexibility (heavyweight). They aren't. Putting all of the Multi-Time World Champion athleticism aside, 95% of what Robson teaches is absolutely available for any Average Jiu Jitsu Joe to grab, regardless of size and BJJ acumen. And that is what makes it so much fun to learn under him.

I have never left a lesson and gone into sparring where I haven't immediately used something that he taught that very day and most days thereafter.

Just my opinion. Have a great time!

ENDS




:)