Reflections on my sensei: Innovation in jiu jitsu: My sensei, Renzo Gracie had a very broad repertoire of technique and always sought to add new moves to his arsenal. Like all jiu jitsu players however, he had his tokui-waza (favorite moves) that he would call upon in critical situations. There is no question that the move he is best known for is his arm in guillotine. It allowed him to prevail in two of the most defining moments of his career – against the much larger Sanae Kikuta in a 52 minute battle in Japan, and against the great Pat Militich. When I consider my sensei's version of the versatile guillotine strangle, I am always deeply impressed by its mechanical perfection and the smoothness and subtlety of his set ups. I believe the development of Mr Gracie's arm in guillotine can teach us much about the nature of innovation in an art where almost everything has been done by people before us. When Mr Gracie arrived in the US in 1995, he rarely used any form of guillotine and certainly did not have any arm in guillotine – so clearly it was not something he learned in Brazil with the rest of his jiu jitsu. Nor was he the first person to employ the arm in guillotine – the first time I saw it done was by Oleg Taktarov in UFC 6 in his first match with Steve Beneteau, and I am sure there are probably examples before that which I am not aware of. Nonetheless, in the mid 1990's, the arm in guillotine was rarely seen and certainly not a standard technique in the sport. As his professional career developed and more of his training time was spent in no gi training, Mr Gracie played with many ways to grip opponents in ways that allowed submissions and sweeps from bottom position. One of his favorites became the front headlock position. As he played with it he had some initial success from that position and thus began his investigation into the arm in guillotine. As months became years he built a game around the position, entries, control and finishes, that covered every possible reaction an opponent could make. MOST INNOVATION IN JIU JITSU IS NOT BEING THE FIRST, BUT IN ADVANCING OUR UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT HAS ALREADY BEEN DONE IN WAYS THAT improve performance
