Mario Esquivies has been training Jiu Jitsu at The Arena under Baret Yoshida for five years now. He is an avid competitor and is know in the gym for his unique submission, the Robin lock. In this video he talks about his time training here and how Baret helped him develop and fine tune the Robin lock.
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:
Mario Esquivies:
My name is Mario Esquivies and I’m 25 years old and I’ve been training at The Arena under Baret for five years now. My father he used to do martial arts, and he actually introduced me into martial arts and eventually I found my way into the arena. I was always looking for a more complete program like that they have boxing, jiu-jitsu, wrestling and all that stuff. I found everything that I needed here. I came in at the same time when Baret was coming in and I started training with him and immediately I fell in love with his class.
One of the main things that I like about Baret is that he’s my same size and then whenever I see him roll with bigger people and the way that he is just able to control them and just able to submit them, that’s really what drew me a lot. Cause I know that whenever he teaches something he has to use the proper technique, otherwise, it’s not going to work. And with him it works.
So the Robin lock is pretty much a straight on key lock and the turtle position is the main attack that I usually catch it from, but I have different variations now, and Baret was actually the one that saw me hit it a couple times, especially in a couple of tournaments. And then from there he was actually the one that started telling me, “Okay like maybe try positioning your hands this way and maybe try arching your back this way”. And then eventually it’s just been my staple move. It’s won me a lot of tournaments and it’s obviously evolved under Baret’s guidance really well.
Baret Yoshida:
He was always into Kimuras. He just started finding different trigger points and I gave him some ideas maybe and he just went with it and developed his whole style from that.
He’ll shoot almost like a fake shot and guys will try to counter him and that’s like the opening for his Robin lock, and he’ll like wrap up their arm and he’ll twist was all kinds of ways and even guys know it’s coming and he still gets guys.
Mario Esquivies:
I like to compete at least once every month. It really gives me like a goal to strive for. One of the main tournaments that I’ve won, I actually just won it recently again, is Jiu-Jitsu League Worlds. I actually was able to win all my matches via submission via the Robin lock and it’s another one coming up next week. Actually, it’s SJJIF World, so I’m preparing myself for that one as well. I usually try to be in here twice a day, about five times a week if I can. I’m really excited for and I’m feeling pretty good, pretty confident. I always feel pretty confident after I put on a good camp.
