Marc Laimon's Mundial 2000 Remix Tapes Vols. 1-3
starring: Comprido, Jamelao, Flavio Alemeda, Nino, Charuto, Shaolin, Terere, Leo Santos, Saulo Riberio, Margardia, BJ Penn, and... Marc Laimon.
Have you ever noticed how impossible Jiu-Jitsu is to talk about?
That glazed look in the eye that comes over your audience is a sure sign you have lost them in a tangled description of limbs, directions, and psychology.
Even if you were to make yourself understood, you would likely get the mercy killing response of : 'Oh yeah. I know that one.'
Perhaps, in the future, man will meet the language that captures the essence, the weight, the drama, the power of a Jiu-Jitsu match. Until that day, there are the Marc Liamon remix tapes.
Ordinary tournament tapes are hard to watch sometimes; the mind wanders. "Where does it go?" someone asked me once, and I couldn't answer, but, I know now. It goes to training.
I'm overwhelming my opponent with multidimensional combinations. It's a little fuzzy around the edges (all right, a lot fuzzy), but I think I'm on the verge of a new technique, until I realize I'm no longer watching the screen.
Enter, the Marc Liamon remix tapes. A disceptivly simple idea of taking a particularly tactical moment in a match, and repeating it over and over and over again, in both slow motion and regular speed.
There are no guys walking in front of the camera, or fighters disappearing behind someone's head. No dull matches, or familiar faces on the sidelines are shown. Not even girls with long curly shoulder length hair and tight jeans make the cut.
There is no need for a remote control either, and the difference in not waiting through a rewind is huge.
You get only the highlights, the cream: Strong moves, one after another, over and over. And, it flows.
I just have to step back and admire how cool these tapes are. It's one thing to professionally tape a tournament, then another to pick out the wheat from the chafe, but to then combine it all so effectively with music is entirely rare.
In volume 2, it all comes together with Nino passing open guard in time to Notorious B.I.G. After that , the tape takes over, and you are swept into a Jiu-Jitsu vortex until the end.
Like a good conversation; a welter of new ideas, understandings, inspirations, combinations, forms, connections, and appreciation present themselves.
'How did he do that? It's all about that grip,huh? How did he set that up? Oh. I don't even understand that!'
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