Alright folks, let me tell you about my deep dive into…well, let’s just say it involves Mackenzie Dern and Wesley Santos. No, not like that! I’m talking about their BJJ game.
It all started with me being stuck at home on a rainy Saturday. I was scrolling through YouTube, trying to find some interesting grappling matches to study. I stumbled upon a bunch of Mackenzie Dern highlight reels, and I was like, “Okay, this girl is legit.” Her aggressive guard and relentless submission attempts are insane. Then, I saw some stuff with Wesley Santos – his pressure passing is just brutal. I figured, why not try to combine some of their techniques?
So, I started with Dern’s guard. I drilled her basic scissor sweep and armbar setup like a madman. I mean, seriously, I spent a good hour just repeating the movements. It felt awkward at first, but eventually, I started to get the hang of the timing and leverage. The key, I found, was to really commit to the sweep, even if it meant almost losing position. That’s when the armbar opportunity opens up.
Next up was Santos’s passing. Man, this guy is a beast. I focused on his knee cut pass and his toreando pass. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how he maintains so much pressure while moving. I realized it’s all about controlling the hips and keeping your weight forward. I started drilling these passes on my training dummy (poor thing), focusing on getting the angle right and keeping my elbows tight.
The real fun started when I tried to put it all together. I’d start in my guard, try to bait a pass, then hit the scissor sweep. If they defended, I’d transition to the armbar. If that failed, I’d work back to guard and try again. It was messy, let me tell you. A lot of failed sweeps, missed armbars, and getting my guard passed. But slowly, things started to click.
Then, I started incorporating Santos’s passing. After a failed submission attempt, I’d try to explode into a knee cut pass, using the momentum to drive through their guard. It was like a chaotic dance of sweeps, submissions, and passes. I felt like I was constantly attacking and defending.
I’m still far from mastering either Dern’s guard or Santos’s passing, but I’ve definitely learned a lot by studying their games. It’s made my BJJ more dynamic and aggressive, which is exactly what I was going for. Plus, it’s just plain fun to try new things and see what works. Now, I’m off to the gym to get my butt kicked by some training partners!
