Making progress: This weekend, talented apprentice(kohai), jason rau competed in a local submission event, Rise Submission Invitational at 170 pounds with ebi rules. Mr Rau is a student of one of my mentors, Matt Serra. He came just a short time ago to begin training in our method and has made great progress. This weekend he won every match by heel hook submission to take first place and impress the crowd. He is a fine example of someone who already had a certain skill set, and adding to it in new directions to create positive change in his jiu jitsu. So often I hear people say that some part of jiu jitsu is not for them, or that they have their way of doing things and they are not interested in some other part. Mr Rau is a fine example of what is possible when you add new skills to an already developed game. It's never too late. Even if you never actually end up favoring those skills, you will at the very least have a much better idea of how to defend if someone should use them against you. In addition you will learn new ways of using and moving the body that will help you in other aspects of the sport. Here, Mr Rau begins a nice heel hook sequence out of his opponents offense, but a quick counterattack creates opportunities for his own offense through to the win.
