Jake Mackenzie in action / Personal archive photo
Canadian GFTeam black belt Jake Mackenzie added another gold medal to his collection last weekend at the Brasília Open, as you previously found out here on GRACIEMAG.com.
“I had two matches in Brasília. I tapped out my first opponent in the middleweight division with a forearm choke from back control. Now, I fought a really tough opponent in the final–Pedro Jordão. We’ve fought a number of times this year, and each time it gets more difficult. This time it was 2-2, and I won via referee decision,” he told GRACIEMAG.com.
“My master Julio Cesar has been helping me a lot at the academy every day. With his help and my training partners’, I’ve been feeling really confident at all the tournaments I’ve been in this year. This week I already got back to working hard to improve and not make the same mistakes I did last weekend at the South American Championship in Florianópolis,” recalled the half-guard specialist.
“I feel every fighter should know how to play half-guard on both sides. It’s something I neglected when I was a purple and brown belt. At black belt, among the elite, you have to be able to reproduce the moves on both sides,” he said in closing.
Check out Jake Mackenzie teaching an attack from 50/50 guard in the video below. You can either finish with a calf-crunch or move to back control. Which do you prefer?
