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FIGHTER INTERVIEWS:
STAFF> Vince now you are not a traditional bjj type guy, tell
me about your backbround....
VINCE> I began wrestling in first grade and have never
stopped. When I was 14 and entering high school I began training
in Mixed Martial Arts. I trained with one of the late great Guru Ted Lucay lucay's students. I was
lucky to have a good place to train in my small Southern IL hometown. We trained
JKD concepts, kickboxing, kali, and a mixed bag of grappling. Being
there training kept of out of a lot of trouble through those tough years.
It was during that time that I also began studying from video tapes.
Any and everything that I could get my hands on. BJJ, Sambo, Muay
Thai, Judo, knife fighting, you name it I've got a tape about it. There are
so many great instructors in the world and you wont have the chance to train
with all personally, so through tapes you can bring them right into your
living room.
After high school I went into the Marines and was stationed in Japan
for 2 years. I taught the Marines and Japanese police how to fight and
apprehend people. This was my first time teaching and I couldn't believe
what a learning experience that was. I regularly trained with some
submission grapplers and some kick boxers, and we helped each other out a lot.
I did some NHB fights over there, but at that time hardly anyone knew much
about grappling so it was pretty easy to submit those guys quickly. Wow
have things changed dramatically in a short time!
Eventually I discovered Gokor Chivichyan in LA. This man makes
every other grappler I've ever rolled with seem like a small child. Even
though I'm almost a hundred pounds more than him, you would think it was the other
way around by watching us grapple. I can barely tap fast enough!
Every time we train together I learn something and improve, almost noticeably. and
that's why I'll keep training with him. You'll hear a lot of people talk
trash about him over the internet, but I don't care about any of that.
He makes me a better grappler and that's the bottom line for me. He has
taught me more about grappling and how to do it right than anyone else. I
still fly out to train with him 4 months out of the year.
I've been in college now for 3 years and running a MMA club the whole
time. I've had over 150 students in this time. We train very hard and
compete in anything we can. We host a small Submission Grappling tournament
twice a year that usually has about 50 competitors. We get together
outside of class for movie nights, picnics, and other social events. We have
a great time in and out of class. My time is divided between school,
training, teaching private lessons, and trying to enjoy life in the meantime.
I've got a year left until I graduate and then I'll get job in Law
Enforcement.
STAFF> How do you see Jiujitsu evolving and do you see leg
locks being used more today.
VINCE >Certainly BJJ has a lot to offer as far as positional control
and upper body submission, but stereotypically they are lacking in the leg lock
area. I don't know if it's BJJ itself that is evolving, or just that certain
BJJ instructors are realizing that they need to add leg locks to their and
their students game. Either way I don't find near as many students
wearing the "BJJ" lable that are as untrained in leg locks as they used
to be. It's like for No Holds Barred fighting you can't train in just one style.
You add Muay Thai to BJJ, Sambo, Wrestling, etc, and it becomes much more
effective and complete. Grapplers all over are adding leg locks to their
game and making it much more complete as well.
STAFF > On your tape you talk about catching people with
transitional leg lock attacks. That is basically my style I like to catch
people on the in-between moves. Tell me more about this.
VINCE > A leg lock is like any other submission. you flow into
it if that's what your opponent gives you. Many people understand how to defend
submissions from certain positions that they can easily define and understand, but there
are just as many submission opportunities in the "in-between"
places between standard positions. Training and drilling in those areas is just
part of being a well rounded grappler.
STAFF > Now you do a lot of seminars, tell the readers what they can
expect at one of them.
VINCE> I really enjoy teaching seminars, traveling to new
schools and getting to know other Martial Arts enthusiasts. I don't charge much for a
seminar and I make sure to give the participants much more than their money's
worth. After all, anyone that is into the Marital Arts to get rich is in the
wrong business. I do this out of a passion for it. I cater my seminars
to whatever the particular schools wants to learn, within my ability of
course. I have given seminars on No Holds Barred Fighting, Beginner's
Submission Grappling, Advanced Submission Grappling, Fighting within the Muay Thai
Clinch, Street Self Defense, and one seminar entirely on leg locks.
That seminar on leg locks was recorded and it is available for sale (I will
be recording all future seminars in the future). It has over 100 leg locks
on it and is $40, which was the price of the seminar. Anyone can
read product reviews of it at;
http://www.mixedmartialarts.com/P_review/details.cfm?eq_id=99
STAFF > Tell me the type of leg attacks that you use in your
competitions and for your students.
VINCE > My students and I will use any attack that works,
including leg locks. I try to be well rounded in all areas of
combat. If someone presents the opportunity for a nice elbow or
knee from the clinch I'll take it. If they are unfamiliar with
leg attacks, their counters or their defenses, I'll try to take
advantage of that. Nobody is a master of it all, myself included.
I just try to turn my weaknesses into my strengths. I try to keep an open mind to other ways of doing
things and add to my skills whenever possible. Through constant re-evaluation,
lessons learned through competition, and training with great martial artists, I
try to make myself and my students as well rounded as possible.
STAFF > Give the readers a no-BS tip that they can use on the
mat today.
VINCE > There are far too many injuries that could be avoided
happening in grappling training around the world. Everyone that
is training in submission grappling should be sure that they are tapping out before the pain from
any submission hits them. If your feeling a little pain, your
suffering a little damage, and that adds up. Also when your waiting to the
last minute to tap your bringing it too close to the edge of serious injury.
Often times grapplers don't have enough control not to hurt you and they go
too far too fast when they are executing their submission. Don't even
give them the chance to hurt you. just tap out and evaluate what you did wrong to
get caught in the first place. Work on not getting put in that
vulnerable situation instead of trying to get out when your already caught.
You want to be able to train this stuff when your old and gray, so don't let
your ego cause your own injury. In training, have fun, tap quick and
often. I make sure that all of my students tap me out regularly when were just
grappling. It's not a competition or a real fight anyway. Even when you are
grappling very hard in training, when you get caught it's time to give up and go
back to the drawing board.
STAFF > How do you drill leg locks do you have any favorite
drills.
VINCE > I like to isolate every position and work leg locks
(and any other submission you can get) from there. For example,
both myself and my training partner will lace our right legs together
and have our right foot next to each others right hip. This position of the leg gives each other an
easy reverse heel hook. Then we will put our right feet under our left calf's
to defend that reverse heel hook. Now our left foot is in a position to be
straight ankle locked, have the Achilles tendon crushed, have a reverse
ankle lock applied, and many more submissions. There are many ways to attack
either foot from here and expose opportunities for submissions. We'll
then start and I will be the only one attacking for 1 minute while my partner only defends. Then we'll switch roles and I will be completely on the defense
for 1 minute. They we'll both go on the offence and the defense
simultaneously for 1 minute. After that we'll switch legs and
start over. Often people forget to defend their selves as they are making their own submission attempt. We'll do this type of drill for every
position imaginable and come up with lots of effective options for attacking,
defending, and countering every imaginable submission, as well as
quickly gaining proficiency in putting the submissions on against a resisting
opponent.
STAFF > Thank you Vincent.
VINCE > Thank you for inviting me to do this interview.
Best of luck in all that you do. Train safe and hard, and be blessed.
To contact Vince to set up a seminar, to buy tapes, or for further
information, e-mail him at vincentfields@hotmail.com.
The website for the Southern Illinois University Martial Arts Club is
WWW.GO.TO/SIUMAC
AS
ALWAYS.........TRAIN HARD and NEVER QUIT
A.J. Comparetto
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