Flea on the Dog

I couldn't train last night because I'm sick, but I did turn up at the gym to watch a few more promotions to blue belt. One guy who we call Salsa John was promoted to blue belt and he definitely deserved it. I know tournaments alone don't warrant a belt promotion, but he won his division at NAGA almost effortlessly. During one of the matches I watched, he ran the score up 21 to 0. Congrats Salsa John!!

Since I couldn't train last night, I had the chance to watch how some other people roll. Someone that I love watching is one of our purple belts, Brian Morgan. He's not a big guy, only a little bit taller than me and maybe 15 pounds heavier. But he moves like his opponents weigh nothing, even when--like last night--the guy he's rolling with weighs almost 100 lbs more.

There were several times last night when I though his opponent was about to take the dominant position. They were basically moving on top and were almost all the way over. And then, out of nowhere, Brian would somehow slide out from under and end up back on top.

One of the keys, I think, is that Brian never stops moving. He's a good example of the metaphor Fabio likes to use called "Flea on the Dog." The dog is much bigger than the flea, but the flea keeps biting the dog and winning. Why? Because no matter how much the dog tries to bite the flea, the flea keeps moving out of the way. That definitely describes Brian. He's always moving out of the way. At least he is until he gets where he wants to be and then he's the one putting on the pain.

Here's an old video highlight reel of Brian's. I think it was made a few years ago when he was still a white belt, but I'm not sure.