So I’m training with Joe Lauzon, and he tells me “You’ve got to meet this guy, he’s training UFC fighters like Frank Mir, and he’s a total Jiu Jitsu nerd like you.”
That was at least enough to peak my interest.
This was one of the first things I heard from Joe when I went up to train with him after he had met Ricky Lundell in Las Vegas for some big UFC gathering. The name “Ricky Lundell” rang a bell in my mind (probably from my old days watching too much Youtube), but I didn’t exactly remember the details.
Here’s a video of Ricky tapping BIG MAN Brandon Ruiz, just to give you an idea:
I came to find out that Ricky is literally one of the best light weight BJJ players in the world. Attaining his black belt at only 20 years old, Ricky has notable wins over names like Alberto Crane, Ryan Hall, Jeff Glover, and more – in addition to being FILA World Champion in Submission Grappling. This is in addition to working individually with UFC fighters on their group games.
When Ricky came up to help Joe for UFC 136… I kinda HAD to get in a private lesson with the guy – and besides getting beat up and learning a ton on the mat, I was also able to glean some of Ricky’s insights on grappling in general:
Ricky Lundell on: Small Man BJJ Game
Ricky bring up a pretty interesting point with regard to the “why” of the little man BJJ game.
Everyone knows that the smaller grapplers tend to be more guard oriented, that there tends to be less passing and more sweeping. Little guys seem to roll up into a ball and it almost ambiguous who’s on top and who’s on bottom sometimes.
Ricky believes that part of these differences in “trends” between weight classes is in the “nurture” element of their grappling upbringing, so to speak.
In other words, we tell the little guys “You’re little so that means you’ll be quick and hard to tire out…” or “As a light weight grappler you should focus on guard so that you can fight the bigger guys…”
These messages are reversed on the bigger BJJ players with messages like “You’re big, so don’t move around too crazy or you’ll get tired.”
In Ricky’s mind, these stereotypes of grappling don’t do anything but limit people’s games and convince them of the style them need to play – Ricky doesn’t think that we should do this in BJJ, wrestling, boxing, or any other sport.
Ricky Lundell on BJJ, Wrestling, and the Evolution of Grappling
Ricky is (amongst other accomplishments which I don’t have the space to list out) a fantastic wrestler as well as BJJ player.
At 20 years old (technically a college senior), Ricky was recruited by Cael and Cody Sanderson (undefeated NCAA legend and Olympic gold medalist) at Iowa State University – the first person to ever be recruited to D1 Wrestling with only grappling and BJJ experience and no wrestling experience.
Ricky’s combination of wrestling and BJJ is one of the elements that makes his game so strong. He believes that by learning from the training strategies and techniques of wrestlers, BJJ guys can become better at what they do, and vice versa.
Ricky is the youngest American to receive a BJJ black belt, in addition to being one of the most decorated / experienced little-guy BJJ players.
However, he believes that there is almost a dogma developing in the BJJ world, where people are refusing to think outside the box.
“A good D2 wrestler might join up at a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu academy, and because he’s a wrestler people say ‘You’re using too much strength, you need to practice closed guard for a few years,’ as though this is the best way to train wrestlers to be grapplers.”
And its that term, “grappler,” that Ricky uses to describe himself – because he doesn’t have an attachment to one style, but just to effective technique and strategy in general.
Why not use that wrestlers heavy pressure, takedown ability, and base to make him all the more effective on the ground? Why not leverage those strengths rather than letting them wither because they don’t look like ‘BJJ‘?
Ricky now runs his “University of Grappling” facility in Utah, and still actively works with Cael Sanderson in addition to flying all over the country to teach grappling to UFC fighters (like Frank Mir, Joe Lauzon, etc..).
As our interview came to a close, I asked Ricky about his greatest aspirations at this point in life. He response:
“To teach and develop the best grappling in the world.”
Awesome – I’ll be looking forward to it…!
-Daniel
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February 5, 2012 at 3:56 pm
The “nurture” element that Ricky talks about definitely has me rethinking how I think about teaching students, and it has me reconsidering my own evolution as a grappler. While I can see his point that telling certain people to grapple a certain way based on their body type could pigeon hole that person into a certain style, these sorts of recommendations are founded on practical wisdom.
For example, it might be a bit easy for Ricky, an experienced and accomplished wrestler, to say that a “small man” doesn’t have to be a guard player, but for a small man like me that came in to BJJ with no wrestling experience I had no choice but to play guard. I had not spent a lifetime refining a certain skill set that would allow me to protect myself without guard techniques. And I don’t think that any instructor would say that a small man should only be working guard. The guard is just part of the game, and if you’re going to be bowled over by big guys for a few years, you might as well work on the guard while you’re on your back.
Great article by the way. Love your stuff.
-Marshal
mcarper@gmail.com
marshaldcarper.com
February 25, 2012 at 7:45 am
Hey Marshal,
Thanks for the comment!
I think what he means is that closed guard isn’t as important in small man game as at bigger weights, which is definitely true from my experience.
None the less, guard is important, and relevant; but not the best place to be against a bigger grappler. I show a lot of this in the free content at MicroBjj.com – but the BEST place to be on a bigger guy is backmount which is the King. A quicker roadmap to backmount is halfguard, xguard or other more esoteric guards, not traditional closed guard.
Glad you like the stuff. Subscribe via Rss!
Cheers
Ed – SOS staff.