Why is he so good - BJ Penn

[Nathan Teodoro]

I saw this at SuperJudo.TV Watch:


Any ideas as to what makes him so good?

[Dave Chesser]

Haha. It's "BJ" not "PJ." I was wondering if he had a brother or something. :)

First, many judo schools just don't do much ne-waza. We don't in my school. I train some BJJ on the side now and I've found that BJJ positional theory and transitional techniques allow a quality of movement that is hard to develop in judo. Judo tends more towards power and speed when we do get around to some ne-waza, meaning it's sometimes hard to slow it down and work on quality transitions. Even a BJJ white belt like Penn has better ground movement skills in the clip than the judo BB's.

Second, he's thinking outside the box. BJJ seems to not suffer from the tunnel vision we sometimes see in judo, but then it's a much younger art with Brazilian influence. They're a bit more open to different throws from wrestling and stuff. For example, Penn makes an excellent transition at the beginning of the second match from a failed uchimata directly into taking the back. I've never seen that before. Excellent strategy and completely unexpected.

Finally, it doesn't hurt to be good friends with Dave and Dan Camarillo. Dave was a fellow student with BJ under Ralph Gracie.

[Nathan Teodoro]

Doh! Thanks for catching the misspelling before anyone else noticed, Dave. ;-). I can never show my face around here again.

My question was actually not related to the contrasts between BJJ and Judo on the ground, but on what qualities make Penn (see how I avoid making the mistake again?!) seem so much better than other BJJ competitors.

Being a novice in Judo and BJJ, but with an appreciation for both, I also see something special and more creative in him. Any other thoughts?

[Dave Chesser]

Well i'm not sure that he was that much better than other BJJ white belts back then. I thought you were making a comparison between him and the judo BBs in the vid.

BTW just being a white belt in BJJ might not be all there is to it. I'm hearing that in Japan, 3rd dans or so in judo sometimes switch over to BJJ and wear the white belt. A famous judo champ walked into one BJJ place in Tokyo and was handed a brown belt. This stuff makes competing in Japan a nightmare but it goes to show that sometimes the belt doesn't represent the level.