Eddie Bravo

Infobox_martial_artist
name = Eddie Bravo
residence = Hollywood, California, United States
birth_date = birth date and age|1970|05|15
birth_place = Los Angeles, California, USA
martial_art = Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
teacher = Jean-Jacques Machado
rank = Black Belt
students = Joe Rogan, Jason Chambers, Shinya Aoki, Dean Lister, Gerald Strebendt
website =
footnotes =

Eddie "The Twister" Bravo (birth name Edgar Cano), is an American practitioner of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu who holds a black belt under Jean-Jacques Machado. He is most famous for his win as a brown belt against Royler Gracie by triangle choke in the Abu Dhabi Submission Wrestling championships the year 2003, and his unique style of no-gi Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, called 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu. He is also known for his mixed martial arts commentating on the Ultimate Fighting Championship, music composition, and strong marijuana advocacy. He lives in Hollywood, California, where he runs his "10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu" school out of "Legends MMA".

Books on Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

In 2004, 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 no gi (uniform) 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 no-gi 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 no-gi guard position the Rubber Guard in reference to the high degree of flexibility required to apply it.

Joe Rogan of Fear Factor, and post-fight interviewer and color commentator for the Ultimate Fighting Championship, is a student and personal friend of Bravo. He 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".

"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" published by Victory Belt Publishing is much better as an instructional manual. "Jiu-Jitsu Unleashed" remains of interest due to the background material included in it, its lower price, and inclusion of some of Bravo's techniques from a top position.

2007 saw the release of "Mastering the Twister", a book detailing Bravo's top game, by the same publisher, Victory Belt Publishing, as for "Mastering the Rubber Guard".

The Rubber Guard

Although Bravo published early explanations of his Rubber Guard on his web pages, Bravo explained (at the 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 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 hand-grip 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 variations, counters, and re-counters. 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. It is interesting to note that Shinya Aoki won at PRIDE Shockwave 2006 by a gogoplata choke from the Rubber Guard. A few months later, Nick Diaz successfully executed a similar technique at Pride 33.

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 suppleness 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 which shows he is still traditional in some aspects. 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.

10th Planet Jiu Jitsu

Eddie Bravo created a Gi-less style of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu called 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu after defeating Royler Gracie via triangle choke in the ADCC 2003. The style is a no-gi form of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu that focuses on constant pressure from unorthodox positions such as the Rubber Guard, Twister Side Control, Monkey Mount (Gangsta Lean) and the half guard position known as the "Lock Down." The main premise behind 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu (10thPJJ) is that the art should keep evolving, finding new ways to attack and counter. Eddie believes that standard Brazilian Jiu Jitsu has become boring and predictable.

The 10thpjj system is also known for very unorthodox names for techniques and positions. This is due in part as a memory tool for the practitioners of the art as well as a competitive strategy in competition. By yelling out technique names which the opposing team is unaware of, this gives the 10thPJJ player a secret code while grappling on the mat and able to attack without his opponent knowing what he/she is going for next. Some examples of technique names would include: DPO, Crack Head Control, The Carni, Straight Jacket, Jiu Claw, and Silverado to name a few.

In 2007, 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu began to expand out side of Hollywood California where Eddie's main school is. As of 2008, he has satellite schools in the following locations: Canada: Toronto Ont, Victoria BC, Vancouver BC & Montreal Que. In the US: Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas; Rochester, New York; Phoenix, Arizona; and San Francisco, California. These 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu schools are run by some of Eddie's most dedicated students who are constantly evolving the game and adding to the system as a whole.

Marijuana Advocacy

In his book "Mastering the Rubber Guard", Bravo includes a lengthy section crediting marijuana for stimulating creativity in both his music and jiu-jitsu. He states a strong support of Jack Herer's work and ideas on marijuana and advocates the legalization of marijuana. He says that it does not make us happy or sad but only what we want it to, and that it was not originally banned for health reasons but to stop the hemp trade. He thinks some plants "nourish our souls." ["RealFighter" Issue 16, 2007: 74.]

Music

Bravo also is involved in numerous musical endeavors, in addition to many years of performing and recording himself he also produces Temple of Mir, Compella and the Twister, and numerous other groups.

Animation

In 2007 it was announced that Eddie would be producing a full length animation based on the "Quatoof" character.

References

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External links

* [http://www.myspace.com/thetwister The Twister] - Myspace Page
* [http://www.submissions101.com/eddiebravo.htm 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu Techniques] - Eddie Bravo Videos and Techniques
* [http://www.subfighter.com/ftopict-41320.html Subfighter Forum] - Forum review of "Mastering the Rubber Guard"
* [http://tkoxtreme.com/2007/12/18/interview-with-eddie-bravo/ Eddie Bravo Interview] - TKO Xtreme
* [http://www.themmadigest.com/2008/03/interview-eddie-bravo-his-music/ Eddie Bravo on his Music] - the MMA digest