Integrated grappling: At the ADCC world Championships, Garry Tonon hits a nice variation of Ouchi Gari, one of his favorite takedowns, on the very talented Dillon Dannis, a fine student of Marcelo Garcia. This takedown set up what would prove to be the decisive finish to the match, a powerful inverted heel hook. It represents a good example of skills taken from judo and wrestling integrated into the submission wrestling game with very positive results. What good are powerful submissions on the floor without the ability to bring the fight to the mat? Conversely, what good are throws and takedowns if you cannot do anything effective to a grounded opponent? Only when the two are merged do you get a truly effective fighter. I have never seen a jiu jitsu fighter get worse by adding judo and wrestling to his or her study, but I have seen many limit their development by failing to do so. Photo by Tiago Molinos
