Ryan Hall
Ryan Hall is a 3rd degree Black Belt under 2-time world champion Felipe Costa
BJJ & MMA Ace Ryan Hall Interview
Ryan, thanks for taking the time to do this interview. How did you first get into jiu-jitsu?
Sure. Well, I was going to school for electrical engineering up in the Bronx, New York City. I played baseball my entire life and realized that there was no way I was going to start on the team in college so I didn’t want to worry about sitting on the bench the entire season even if I managed to get on the team, so I figured that I’d give jiu-jitsu a shot. Based on what I’d been exposed to in the past, I had always thought martial arts were kind of dumb because they were generally focused more on form than function. At Jiu-Jitsu, though, I walked in and I got absolutely beaten up by this dude, Erik Ryerson, who weighed about 40 lbs less than I did. I thought that was just about the coolest thing ever next to having super powers, so it became my life’s goal to figure out how to do the same thing. Slowly but surely, over the next 3 or 4 months, my grades tanked and I started doing nothing but jiu-jitsu. I ended up moving back home and kind of went from there.
You have progressed to a very high-level of jiu-jitsu in a relatively short period of time. What do you think are the keys to your success?
Well, basically the key to almost anyone’s success is going to be consistency. Quality coaching and instruction are also definitely important, but nothing is really going to help to a great degree unless you are constantly practicing and learning. As for my situation, I can only talk about being at a certain level obviously, not the top level, but as you get better and better, it’s more often that you learn from your peers rather than being directly coached. In the end, I think that if you enjoy jiu-jitsu a lot, you’ll be willing to spend the time and mental energy to figure things out.
I think a lot of my success comes from being willing to sit down and figure out why things work, how things work, and trying to figure out different moves and positions on a conceptual and theoretical basis. Thinking of jiu-jitsu on a more global level rather than looking at jiu-jitsu by a technique to technique basis has made the biggest difference for me.
What is something you wish you could go back and change when you were a lower rank?
I wish I would have wrestled before getting into jiu-jitsu. It would have been fun (and challenging, obviously) to wrestle in college.
Other than that, there are some things that I definitely would have changed. For the most part, though, I feel like I am fortunate to have progressed the way that I have. Even though I started off using a lot of the “wacky” and lower percentage stuff that I’m not a huge fan of now, I learned a lot by focusing so heavily on the triangle choke. Even though it might not have been the best thing for my jiu-jitsu as a whole, it really taught me how to break down a technique and position and really understand it. In a way, it’s allowed me to do the same thing with other positions. It wasn’t a positive thing in the short term, but it appears to have been a benefit in the long term because it encouraged critical thinking.
You are primarily known for your guard play. Do you feel it is better for white and blue belts to focus on developing one aspect of the game (such as guard, half guard, or top game) or do you think it is better to train to be well-rounded from the start?
Well, I think it varies based on your goals. If your goal is to compete and win at the white and blue belt level, then absolutely be heavily focused on one thing. You will probably smoke all of the white and blue belts just because you have developed such a high degree of proficiency at something. For instance, if you can get your closed guard triangle to a brown or black belt level by the time you are a blue belt, you will be able to finish almost everyone. At a certain point, though, you are going to run into a level of opponent that is going to deny you the situation you require to hit that move and your game may or may not fall apart as a result. Being ultra vested in one avenue of attack is never a good thing.
Actually, a lot of the guys at Fifty/50 BJJ (Ryan’s school) are almost all top players. For fighting MMA, self-defense, or winning tournaments, it’s a much better idea to be on top (provided you know how to use the physics advantages that the position affords you). That said, I think starting from the guard really helps because everyone ends up on their back at some point. Developing a degree of comfort there early on is never a bad thing.
On the other hand, there is no such thing as a well-rounded grappler who has been training for six months. It’s just not realistic. So, I’d say begin with the end in mind. Focus on being well-rounded in the long run but at the same time be realistic and understand that you have to go “micro” to get “macro”. You are going to want to start focusing on a few of the more manageable aspects at first. You have to start out with something more manageable than just saying, “I’m going to be a well-rounded grappler.” It’s just not realistic…it takes years and years.
Many schools frown upon training leg locks, because they feel they are dangerous. Can you explain how you trained to become so devastating at the 50/50 heel hook and how others can safely train leg locks?
Truthfully, leg locks are only as dangerous as the person applying them. Almost everyone who says that they are (aside from the heel hook) inherently more dangerous than upper-body submissions is misguided. Like all other aspects of grappling or fighting, what it really comes down to is that if one understands the position, they can train safely. If we can train safely and without hurting one another, we can get to a high degree of proficiency with these attacks very quickly. As long as you are willing to let people go if they don’t tap (out of ignorance to the danger or simple stubbornness), you will always be able to train footlocks.
I first learned the 50/50 heelhook from Brandon Vera at a seminar of his. He got it from Dean Lister who used it on Alexandre Cacarecoat the 2003 Abu Dhabi tournament. I trained leg locks a lot when I was with Lloyd Irvin’s team. In particular, I picked up a lot of things from one of my current training partners, Seph Smith. Seph is a Sambo black belt who’s very sharp with lower body attacks. As a result of training with them, I feel very, very comfortable with leg locks and naturally gravitated towards them because of the way that my guard developed. The reality is that almost anyone can get good quickly [at leg locks] because almost everyone else (even at the high competitive levels) is so ignorant of them (particularly the 50/50). It’s just like knowing Jiu-Jitsu when someone else doesn’t--you don’t even need to be good at it to beat almost everyone who doesn’t know any.
Do you prefer no-gi or gi?
I love them both. Obviously I have a long way to go and need a lot of work on both of them. It kind of goes back and forth to which one is more enjoyable at a given moment. I remember Marcelo Garcia saying something that goes along the lines of, “you will excel at what you enjoy.” Each of them has something to offer. As long as you are having fun with whatever you are training and continue doing it, you will probably end up being pretty good.
You have been out of competition for awhile now, what happened?
Yea, I had 3 surgeries starting in August 2008. My right arm, my elbow scoped, and I had a pretty serious surgery where I tore a ligament. In my last match (a superfight against ATT black belt, Renato Tavares) I only had the use of one hand and I got pretty lucky to squeak by on that one. I was forced to stop competing immediately thereafter to have it repaired.
I was out for 6 months and wasn’t able to train at all. But I’ll be fighting in the New York Open, hopefully the Brasilero, and then definitely the Abu Dhabi trials and Mundial this year. After that…pretty much anything else that comes up.
You recently started your own school Fifty/50 BJJ, can you tell us a little bit about it?
Fifty/50 BJJ is located in Arlington, Virginia which is right outside of D.C. You can basically throw a rock and hit Washington. Everyone is doing really, really well at the school so far. Our goal setting out was to create an open training atmosphere where anyone from any affiliation can come anytime and train. We tried to eliminate the things that we felt were negative influences on our past training situations and we have the motivation, contacts, and resources to accomplish this.
For whatever reason, the martial arts tend to breed an atmosphere where people get really weird and almost deify their instructors. They will say, “You’re not doing this technique exactly how so-and-so said to.” It stops being about training, growth, and fun and it becomes an unhealthy cult of personality. No environment like that can be a healthy one. I admire guys like Saulo Ribiero, Rafael Lovato, Felipe Costa, etc. who get out there and compete in front of their students. They have plenty of titles and name recognition to sit on the sidelines if they were so inclined, but that’s not the way they do things.
I ended up being the head coach. But there are a lot of really high level people training here on a regular basis. Paul Schreiner (Claudio Franca black belt and Cung Le’s MMA coach), Aaron Riley (from the UFC), Dave Jacobs (Yamasaki black belt), David Bass (Alliance purple belt phenom) are a few guys that we have had come by to roll and share information. Brown and black belts come through all the time. We are pretty fortunate to have such high level friends to train with and learn from, and we recognize that a lot of our success is due to that. At Fifty/50 we go out of our way to make sure that everyone has a great time when they come train. We like to train hard and be ego-free. Top guys can come through the gym without worrying about some numbnuts running their mouth on the interweb about who tapped who.
In the end, though, it’s just about the training and not any one person or any one way of doing things. We don’t teach “Ryan Hall Jiu-Jitsu” or anyone else Jiu-Jitsu. We just create an environment where people can work hard and have fun while having access to some of the best training partners in the country. The ultimate goal is just to get better every day and I guess it’s working out pretty well so far.
Are you affiliated with any other schools?
I’m sure at some point we may end up doing that but like I said it has been working so far. I’m obviously not a black belt and I certainly can’t promote myself nor would I want to. But that really isn’t a concern for me right now. We will cross that bridge when we get to it. We’re way more concerned with learning and improving right now. And at this point, I don’t feel that affiliation is that big of a deal. Really we have friends in every affiliation…Brasa, I met some good friends when I was down there in 2008…Comprido, Felipe Costa….and some others from Alliance, Gracie Barra, you name it. When the time comes, we will make a decision.
Now that you are teaching more, do you find it hard to focus on your own training?
I’m pretty fortunate because we have some really, really good students. We have purple belts that are beating black belts and white belts winning advanced divisions at all the regional (NAGA/GQ) tournaments. We also make a point of training with people from the other major gyms in the area almost every day of the week. Dave Jacobs, Sal Sangunietti, Klint Radwani, and Luis Pantoja from Yamasaki (there’s a lot of international medals between them all), Andrew Smith (black belt and multiple time CBJJ medalist from BJJ Revolution)…really, I get great training all the time.
To be honest, I thought it would be more of a problem. I think it just comes down to balancing things. When you think about it, jiu-jitsu isn’t a real job—at least not in the normal sense of working 9-5 every single day. Teaching class 2 hours a day is not a big deal. I hear some instructors complaining that they can’t train because they are teaching, but that’s more a function of their horrible time management skills than anything else. It takes a little work and some discipline, but it can definitely be done. The big key is to avoid isolating yourself others who can challenge you. So often, instructors develop the attitude that they have to be infallible or unbeatable in order to maintain the respect of their students (which in turn affects their bank account). Not only is that psychologically unhealthy and unrealistic, all it does is kill you in the long run. Everyone around you is developing daily. You may be an instructor for a few hours a day, but you are a student for your whole life. Act like it.
You have been involved in several instructionals in the past, do you have any book or DVD plans for the future?
Actually, I can’t really talk about it too much until it’s final but yes. I will be coming out with an instructional on the 50/50 heelhook… how to use it as a sweep, guard pass, and submission. I’ve worked really hard on it and I think it’ll be really good. With any kind of luck, others will agree. Haha. There are definitely a couple other people out there that are also really, really good at it but hopefully people will want to see what I have to offer.
I will also be doing another instructional on the triangle. I’ve gotten a ton of requests for copies of the old triangle course, but it’s been discontinued. To be honest, the old triangle instructional was alright but I shot that 2.5 years ago. I was a blue belt or had just gotten my purple belt for most of the footage. I have evolved a lot since then both in technical execution as well as ability to articulate my thoughts. The new one will be a much better set because 1. it will be a lot cheaper and 2. it will have greatly improved content with vastly superior production quality.
Who have been some of the biggest influences on your jiu-jitsu game?
A huge influence is Bruno Frazatto. Every time I’m asked this question, I say Bruno Frazatto. I’m a huge fan of Cobrinha, as well. Bruno and Cobrinha have been neck and neck for the last few years but Cobrinha has always edged him out. I trained with Bruno for about a month and I had never trained with anyone on that level before. Just being able to train everyday and learn from someone who is at such a high level was amazing. I had never had that opportunity before. Almost all of the guard passing approach that I have now is heavily influenced by Bruno.
Lloyd Irvin was definitely an influence. Danny Ives was a huge, huge influence. Danny Ives was originally a Renzo Gracie student and is currently a black belt under Lloyd. At my time at Lloyd’s, I probably learned more from Danny than anyone else, as he was the daily instructor. A lot of my game reflects his coaching.
What else can we expect from you in the future?
Hopefully no tragedies, no more injuries, and lots of tournament wins. I really want to get into Abu Dhabi this year. It’s been a dream of mine since I started competing and I was really worried that I wouldn’t have a chance as a result of the surgeries and the time off last year. I was fortunate enough to get in as an alternate last time and win a match there. In the past, that has gotten people in but I don’t want to sit here and cross my fingers, so I will definitely be competing at the Trials. I also will be fighting at the Worlds and probably a few superfights here and there.
I’m looking forward to getting back to fighting MMA again. I have been working on my wrestling a lot and my boxing a fair amount. Fighting is more fun than Jiu-Jitsu anyway, so it’ll be a good time and a great opportunity to learn how to take the things I’m learning about Jiu-Jitsu and apply them to situation with more variables and fewer limitations.
Thanks for doing this interview, any last comments?
No problem, man! Thanks a lot for giving me the opportunity to do the interview. If anyone wants more info about the school, go to www.fifty50bjj.com Anyone, any time, from anywhere is more than welcome to come train with us. And anyone who wants more info can email me at [email protected], I’ll make sure to respond to you.
Quick Hits
Favorite Takedown: Drag to single
Favorite Submission: Rear naked choke
How many days a week do you train? 6
Favorite music to train to: Cindy Lauper
Ratio of drilling to sparring you recommend? 2:1
Favorite thing to do outside of grappling: Baseball
Favorite jiu-jitsu guys to watch: Cobrinha, Bruno Frazatto, Leo Vieira, Jacare
Biggest mistake that new grapplers make: Mortgaging long-term development for short-term success by focusing on low-percentage, wacky stuff instead of sound fundamental movements and attacks
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