Turtle Master Eduardo Telles Breaks the Rules

By Fanatics Authors, September 13, 2018

Everything You've Been Told Not to Do, He Does

When you first start BJJ and you're watching all of the higher belts train, it's easy to be amazed by the perceived level of skill you will see. The techniques seem like magic, especially when they're happening to you. As a new white belt, the first time I had an opportunity to train with a purple belt, I thought he was a wizard. Over the past 10 years, gaining some good general familiarity with lots of positions, things have a little less mystique in some cases.

The game of Eduardo Telles takes me back to that feeling. As I watch his techniques and approach to jiu jitsu, it gives me that same feeling of awe that I had as a new white belt. I am seeing something completely foreign that seems to defy the laws and rules that we've accepted as.

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Never Give Your Back. He Gives His Back

One of the most fundamental rules we are told over and over in our jiu jitsu training is to avoid showing our back and potentially allowing a back take and subsequent submission attempt. Telles turns this rule on its head and has create a complete game based on variations of the Turtle position where he will sit up and expose his back, to lure and trap his opponent with the back as his bait.

In the video below Eduardo Telles shares his Butterfly Trap Kimura from the Turtle Guard with Bernardo Faria. Watch this one a few times, as it's deceptively simple and will have your opponents salivating as you expose your back and slamming the mat when you lock on the kimura.