Technique Talk: Dave Camarillo explains judo success of Kayla Harrison, Travis Stevens

At the Rio Olympic Games, two Americans – Travis Stevens and Kayla Harrison – will walk home with medals in judo. Stevens adds a silver medal to his resume while Harrison, who became the first American judoka to earn a gold medal at the London Games in 2012, earned a consecutive gold medal.

The United States may earn more medals aggregately than other countries at the Summer Games, but it has historically not been strong performers in judo. Instead, nations like Russia, Cuba, France and Japan have dominated the sport across both genders and multiple weight classes.

Now, however, the tide might be turning, if perhaps just a little bit. Dave Camarillo – a decorated grappler, black belt in both judo and jiu-jitsu and MMA coach – observed the success of Harrison and Stevens in Brazil and believes their success is not accidental, but the product of more modern, adaptive thinking about grappling success. The Americans, he argues, are winning in judo not by trying to beat the judo world at its game, but thinking about what it means to be well-rounded, borrowing from jiu-jitsu and creating a winning style despite long odds against the American’s program’s chances of success.

Full audio and partial transcript is available below:

If someone asked you describe Travis Stevens’ style of judo and the way he wins matches, what would you say?

He’s kind of a brute, to be honest. He walks forward. He’s very strong on gripping. Especially at that weight category, a lot of those guys are like that. A lot of times when you see judo, the weight category kind of defines the style.

Just underneath his weight category is 73kg, which is what I competed at. Those guys are much faster, more dynamic and then the smaller you get, the faster [they are]. 81kg is a division where guys are imposing their will and kind of grinding grips, bullying their way into throw opportunities.

He’s kind of that guy, but at the same time, he differs because he’s a two-sport animal. He’s two dimensional, he’s not one dimensional. Most judoka, even today, are one dimensional.

He was able to win in a number of ways. One way was with a yuko into what appeared to be an over-under pass. How often do you see something like that at the elite level?

I don’t think it happens much in terms of the outcome. You might see little spurts of passing, but most people that pass guard in judo don’t do a good enough job controlling the upper body, therefore, allowing their opponent to turn on them. He did an amazing job of controlling the collar, near the neck, as he’s passing; perfect timing to pull him back down to a flat position. There’s no points at all for getting the back.

Again, I’m talking as if most people understand jiu-jitsu rules and MMA, those are very vulnerable positions. In MMA, they’re not. They allow for a halt in the match. If you take my back, I can stall things out.

Well, he’s a really good passer because he doesn’t let you get out that easy. He doesn’t let you turn your body away from the pass, giving all fours. He just pulls you down and pins both shoulders to the mat.

You can say that’s a mixture of his BJJ knowledge and training with jiu-jitsu stylists, but also, using that knowledge to fit the rules of judo. It was brilliant.

One of his wins came from bow and arrow choke, but from turtle in a rolling movement, where judoka seem to have so many attacks. Is that the kind of thing you’re talking about where he’s blending the two arts?

The bow and arrow choke is something I used a lot. You see it in jiu-jitsu, but not as much as in judo. The reason why is there’s a sense of urgency in judo that doesn’t exist in BJJ. It’s not as evident, meaning, I don’t have a lot of time on the ground. Some referees don’t even like ground work. All those variables are kind of the culture that force you to move. You don’t have time. You have a sense of urgency.

If I grab your collar and we’re standing, which is the tachi waza, and then we go on the ground, I’m going to use that initial collar grip to try to choke you. So, your submission setups are actually standing. That wasn’t maybe exactly what happened, I gotta really look at the video, but your transitions are from what happened previously, which is the standing technique.

He avoided a throw on that no.1-ranked judoka on the semifinal. He wasn’t supposed to beat that guy. Well, he transitioned from the grip into the choke. So, the guy didn’t have time – and I think this is an ignorance on his part – to understand that tachi waza can easily turn into newaza and those transitions are there.

When you talk about the difference between judo and jiu-jitsu, you don’t see the bow and arrow a whole lot in jiu-jitsu. You see it, but you see it more in judo because I don’t have time to put my hooks in, to score four points because those four points don’t exist in judo. The way we approach attacking the back differs depending on what rule sets we’re up against, IBJJF or International Judo Federation (IJF).

For example, you’re going to see a lot more clock [choke], bow and arrow and juji-gatame roll, which is cross body where I have your back. I put a belt line hook in, I trap one arm, I flip you over and I armbar you. Those are the three main attacks you’re going to see in judo that you don’t see a whole lot in jiu-jitsu. They still exist, but in terms of ratio, those are the top three you’re going to see in a judo competition because I don’t have time to set up all those nifty back attacks.

We’ve discussed previously the gap on the ground between elite BJJ practitioners and judoka. However, we’ve also noted black belts like Flavio Canto are as good as any on the ground. Why is what Stevens is doing unique and exciting?

Because he understands the full spectrum of ground work, whereas a judoka only understands one side of the spectrum and a BJJ stylist only understands the opposite side of the spectrum. When you’re blending the two and you take the time to be technical, which a lot of judoka don’t. Even the high-level newaza guys, I wouldn’t even call them super technical. They’re definitely good and they’re definitely technical, but they’re not like a Rafa Mendes.

You grab Travis Stevens, who’s got the heart of a lion and he’s very disciplined, and he’s only there to win. You get that kind of student and give him an opportunity to study Brazilian jiu-jitsu, put him in an academy like Renzo Gracie, he’s going to understand the full spectrum.

When you talk about transitional ability, you can transition between tempos, between arts – even though you’re not looking at it that, it’s all grappling – but he moves appropriately for the situation at hand. That’s what makes him so dangerous and that’s why he has blended the two so well and he’s the best in the world at it.

He’s taking advantage of the ignorance that still exists on the ground in judo competitions. For example, I don’t know his name, but there was a judoka ranked 125th in …

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