Hiding an ace up your sleeve: An odd thing about many great jiu jitsu players is that very often they are known primarily through their favorite moves (tokui-waza). People expect to see them in competition and they become that athletes signature move. Many great athletes however, are also extremely good at other moves and often use them in the gym with great success but for some reason the opportunity to use them under the lights on the big stage just never seems to arise and that move just never gets used publicly. This is often a good thing for an athlete, for it means they have a highly refined and developed weapon that no one knows about and which thus has great surprise value. A good example occurred in the recent ADCC world championships in Finland. Gordon Ryan has one of the most devastating guillotine strangles I have ever seen. Every day in the gym I see him use it to great effect – yet in competition his leg locks and back strangles are so successful he does not get many opportunities to use it. In fact he never used his guillotine in a high profile event previously. In the finals of the 88kg division Gordon came up against the great keenan cornelius. The two had met before in a very different rules format and Mr Ryan had won via concentrated leg attacks leading to a final breakthrough. This time it would be very different. Mr Ryan focused upon controlling the head and shoulders rather than the legs and hips and sank his guillotine from a standing start and controlled it to the ground for the win. His teammates always knew he had a world class guillotine- but few others did. The excellence of his execution combined with the surprise of its use got the breakthrough when Mr Ryan needed it most – giving him the rare honor of winning gold in a debut performance. We all have our favorite moves – just because you have a reputation for some moves does not limit you to those. Keep developing more and who knows – when you really need them they will be there for you to get the breakthrough that your usual big guns may not be able to secure. Photo @banejitsu
