Vinicius Magalhães “Draculino” explains that after his students learn the fundamentals to a level he is satisfied with, he exposes them to everything in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, allowing them t develop a game specific to themselves.
Draculino is one of the best BJJ professors in the world, and arguably, apart from Danaher, the BJJ professor with the highest number of Jiu-Jitsu World Champions. He has awarded over 100 black belts in his years of teaching, and his stables include the likes of Romulo Barral, Samuel Braga, Marcelo Azevedo, and Brandon Mullins to mention just a few.
So what is the secret that Draculino uses to be so successful as a professor in creating world champion after world champion?
As the Carlos Gracie Jr. black belt explains it himself:
“I am really big on getting down and mastering the fundamentals of BJJ. A lot of people think that they know the basics, but they really don’t.
If you have a really solid and complete foundation in Jiu Jitsu yourself, I think that you will be able to expose your students to everything. If you give them the foundations first, then – depending on their body type and physical abilities, as well as on their individual preferences – from there they can start developing their own specialties and a type of the game that they want to have.”
Unless his students really understand the fundamentals, he keeps them working on them until he is satisfied with their progress. Then, Draculino applies his own way of teaching each student individually:
“I try to expose my students to everything, so they can branch out towards what they prefer.
Samuel Braga is a good example. He is a multiple-time world champion, plus he’s the creator of the Berimbolo – since he has always been very flexible, he was able to develop this position from the De la Riva guard and it turned out to be very handy for him.
Then, Romulo Barral and his killer spider guard. Erik Wanderley, one of my first World Champions, has a killer half-guard and really, really good pressure…
I taught them everything they needed to know in order to have a solid foundation, from which they could, as I said, branch out and do their own thing.”
So, when your coach says to focus on the fundamentals and do your reps, listen, because that is exactly what the best in the business, like Draculino, teach their students.
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