Here is a chat I had with a good man with a good mind,
Neil Melanson. If you are unfamiliar with Neil’s exemplary work he has coached
at Xtreme Couture, Alliance MMA, and a HC with the Blackzilians. He is now at
gym Genesis Training Academy and Coach of the Filthy Few MMA team.
-DVDs out are: Head Hunter, Catchwrestling, and Ground
Marshal guard basics
-book Mastering Triangle Chokes
-black belt under Karo Parisyan in the Hayastan
Grappling System
First things first, Brother Neil, thanks
for taking the time to have this chat.
Allow me to get another thing out of the
way, your book Mastering Triangle Chokes, top-notch. This is high-speed,
low-drag stuff all the way. Often there is chaff to be culled through, but you
have a linear approach that appeals to the pragmatic streak in me. Excellent
work.
Thanks a lot man. You
are a real articulate and detailed coach so that means a lot coming from you.
Your approach to grappling appeals to my
expansive tastes. Often, we see tribal separation of BJJ, Catch, Sambo, Judo,
what have you with “What do you mean your style is best? Why my monkey style
can defeat all kung fu.” It would be comical if it weren’t so commonly
encountered. Do you find that this tribal separation is a bit of a problem? If
I’m off-base set me straight.
I agree. Grappling and
mma belongs to many different styles of martial arts and wrestling. When it
comes to grappling, people tend to follow the herd and train according to 1
discipline which to me is a big mistake. I train with everyone and I take
techniques, tactics, drills, and concepts and then apply it to my own
training/coaching. I didn’t choose catch wrestling, catch wrestling chose me.
Even though I’m a catch style top position, I’m mainly a guard player. On the
surface that looks like a dichotomy of principles, but it’s not at all. I
studied the BJJ guard like crazy! You can’t let a style or discipline dictate
your learning curve. A true master trains everything. A good example of that is
yourself Mark. Your bottom foot and leg control is outstanding. I even use some
of terms you do when describing principles for winning off your back. The
pissing match on which style works the best is a waste of air. That is taught
from instructors to students as a way of controlling their gym membership to
keep students paying their monthly dues.
In a recent conversation you mentioned to
me that you and Jake Shields were ballparking on the term American Jiu-Jitsu as
a sort of bridging the gap or fence-mending among grappling neighbors. I think
that is an excellent idea. May I ask what made you decide on the phrase
American Jiu-Jitsu?
Jake is the one that started
that for sure. I was using the term to describe the future of grappling and
once I heard Jake was pushing the same thing, I had to jump on board.
There will be push back from the community that makes money selling gi’s and
wants to keep the bureaucracy going strong. AJJ is BJJ combined with the grind
of American style wrestling and catch wrestling. I am the biggest believe in
Funk and mat wrestling, I feel it is way underutilized in the game of
submission grappling. It’s a definitely different style from your traditional
BJJ. The popularity of no gi style grappling has grown immensely and with that
comes different styles and techniques. Grappling is becoming what it should be
and that its own unique sport birthed from BJJ and wrestling. There are many Jiu
Jitsu and Grappling coaches as well as myself, handing out belt style rank
system of mastery. I hope more people embrace this. I would love people of
other no gi styles like “10th planet” to follow the charge into the future as
well. I see things changing and with the popularity of mma the way that it is,
I believe American Jiu Jitsu and Combat Jiu Jitsu are the future of submission
grappling. Good Ole American Rough and Tumble.
Have you encountered any pushback from
those who quibble with the term?
No, I haven’t really. Maybe some people left some comments here or there
on one of my posts but most people I talk with love the idea of it.
When you do encounter such quibbling, do
you not see it as a sign of the very thing you are seeking to dispel—this compartmentalization
and fragmentation of what is essentially all one thing, I mean, after all,
rolling around on the mat with another human being doesn’t really require
absurd levels of fealty.
No, it doesn’t. That’s that silly martial artist mentality where people
think they’re more superior than others. If you have an ego that keeps you from
seeing the good qualities of each discipline than you’re doomed to succumb to
them. What you don’t know WILL hurt you. You have to cross train and be willing
lose to learn. For example, It was Greco that helped my hand fighting improve
tremendously. Now most people wouldn’t think to train Greco to get better at
Jiu Jitsu but it sure as hell helped me. Another example is a friend of mine
who is a grand slammer BJJ champ and he has these amazing wrist locks from some
many positions from studying aikido and systema. You never know what you can
learn and apply if you never give something a chance. I study GI BJJ and I’ve
never put a Gi on in my whole career. I don’t want to miss an opportunity at
learning something that could maybe make me better grappler or coach.
You recently left your coaching position
with the Blackzilians and made the move to Colorado. What’s next for Neil
Melanson?
Yes, I have moved on from the Blackzilians. I had a good time there and
got a ton more experience, but I wanted to move on with my life. Colorado was
just a place myself and a few other guys wanted to go check out. All of us were
done with Florida and the Denver area just seemed like the right place to go
tryout. It’s beautiful country out here. I was originally planning on Nashville
but Denver just seemed like the right move. I’m currently building a great new
team with Jake Ramos at the Genesis Fight Academy. Right now we have athletes like
Pat Cummins, Carrington Banks, Abel Trujillo, Justin Gaethje, Brandon Girtz,
and Matt Lopez all gearing up for a fight. Good things to come for sure. I’m
still working on my affiliation program that I’m hoping to launch sooner rather
than later where people can run my Ground Marshal system out of their own gym.
I can’t wait for that. The other big thing that just happened is my “Head
Hunter” dvd set is out and available at BJJFanatics.com . It’s packed with a
ton of different guillotine and Head/Arm chokes and strangles. There will be
more dvd sets to follow in the next few months.
Neil, thanks again for taking the time to
have this chat. In all my dealings with you, you have been nothing but a
gracious gentleman-a sometimes rarity in the world. All the best to you, sir!
Thank you my man. Anytime whatsoever my friend.
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