All Access: Dorian Olivarez Is Hunting For Absolute Gold

In the gym at 10th Planet Austin for a grueling ADCC training session with Dorian Olivarez, the Sainz brothers, Jay Rod and more.

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Video Transcript

Guys, this is Joe Gilbert from Flow Grappling.

We have a crazy practice going on today with a bunch of guys who are gonna be at the ADCC World Championships going on live on Flow Grappling September 12th through the 13th.

Three guys who are gonna be at the ADCC Worlds, and then a room full of really tough guys.

Practice is being run by Dorian Olivares and his father, Michael.

Let's go ahead and take a look.

What's up, guys?

Let's go, baby.

Last day in Austin.

There's gonna be a squad here today.

Like, this is gonna be Today's gonna be crazy, man.

Be ready.

Hollywood Trei, where you at, dawg?

I'm here, you're not.

It's really cool.

So my dad, Michael Olivares, is running the, the training camp.

We were able to, you know, bring in some really good guys for this camp.

We have, the Saenz brothers, Tristan, Michael, Chingy, basically doing a training camp for ADCC, so it's really good rounds.

A lot of it is r- very wrestling specific, situational type training.

But it's really good.

I, I really like the flow of the training.

And then, because we're doing it in, 10th Planet, there's a lot of mat space to work with, so we're able to get some good, wrestling goes.

So it's just, it's really nice.

We're here in 10th Planet Austin, and we're training with Dorian Olivares.

The dad reached out to us, and we were like, "All right, let's go."

You know, what's not a better training than training with the best in the world, you know?

So it's been awesome here, man.

You know, everything's bigger in Texas, and just getting together as a group, like a family, it's great.

All right, let's form three lines right here.

Shot, roll, jump, and then sprawl.

So shot, roll, jump, sprawl all the way from there and back.

Yeah, so the way my, my dad runs the trainings is it's, they're, like, kinda task-orientated- Yo but a lot, it's basically designed to simulate, like, a live, match.

Right?

So we're doing, specific positions that we think will happen in ADCC, as well as, like, positions that, you know, worst case scenario positions you- Roll so I can work on, positions that I'm not normally in.

This is a great part of doing this type of training, is if you just do live rounds, sometimes you're not, you're, when you're playing your A-game, you don't end up in those bad positions.

So this train- type of training is, I feel like, very useful.

So yeah, really, really, different compared to how most people do it.

Most people it's, you know, drilling and then, you know, maybe a couple live rounds.

Here, the way we do it is it's, you know, a little bit more focused on, on positional type grappling.

All right.

Right now we're in Austin, Texas, here at 10th Planet.

We're getting some good training, and some of the best guys in the world are in this room.

We're scrapping it out.

It's been a week of nonstop hard work.

So, you know, we're getting ready, we're getting prepared for Poland, and we're ready to go show what we do.

Yeah.

Look, look.

Sweep.

John wants to add something to what we just did, that's, related to scoring criteria for ADCC.

One of the great things that you guys are doing is you're not settling for your hips on the ground.

So when someone takes you down, you guys getting out within three seconds is important.

But just as important is don't fight.

When you Let's say your hip hits the ground, don't use this time to fight from here to get your hip off the ground, because the moment your hip hits the ground, he's on top, I'm starting my count.

So if you take a moment to, like, turn one way, turn the other, he grabs your legs, you might have already eaten a two point loss.

Okay?

So what all you guys are doing really well, I only saw a couple instances of that, is you're working into turtle, forcing out, doing your, your kramps, whatever, to get out of the game.

So really good.

The next thing we're gonna do is, seated versus standing.

The bottom person will choose an entanglement of their choice.

He's gonna start in any entanglement.

Single legs, 50/50.

Sure, yeah.

Now, from here, I'm looking to either clear basically my job is to clear the entanglement.

I need to look to pass or get to a position where, I've almost passed.

Basically looking for either an init- a strong initiation or a pass.

So let's say I cleared, cleared, his entanglement.

Now from here, if I go here and he puts me off right away, that's basically, an initiation, and then we would reset.

In, in general, Dorian's practices, particularly in Houston, are very different in nature than what I see most, jujitsu people, competitors doing.

He spends three, four days max doing jujitsu.

The rest of the time is devoted to wrestling, and then doing strength and conditioning sessions throughout the week.

There are about three, sometimes four days in a seven-day time period where he'll do two-a-days.

But yeah, it's different.

This training is different.

We structure it a lot more like a wrestling practice because that's Dorian's base.

The majority of the guys that were here today, J-Dog, J-Rod, the Saenz brothers, all have wrestling backgrounds, which is why it was, important to bring those kind of guys in for a camp like this.

Dorian has been doing, you know, what we call mat conditioning.

So he does it two, two different ways, the first of which is what you saw today, where he'll do anywhere between 10 to 15 minutes worth of warmup.

It's all mat conditioning.

It's very similar to what wrestlers do when they warm up.

And then he goes right into his mobility.

So that's part of his daily normal routine.

But we do it at the beginning of our trainings when we're back home.

And so, yeah, you're just looking at what he normally does.

My job is to look to create angles or even distance, wait for him to come in, and look for my attacks.

So- So essentially, the one guy's trying to stay away from you.

He's Let's say an example would be m- maybe Tristan's up on points, and there's 30 seconds left in this match, and he sa- he wants to hang on to his lead, so he just tries to stay away from Dorian one more time.

I haven't looked at the 66 division, but man, he's so, so tough to deal with, especially in the ADCC rule set.

He's just like, any time you get any sort of close to any sort of connection on him, that's somewhat valuable, he is out and then immediately reattacking.

It's a, it's a talent, but it's just like a habit that he's created over just, like, years of, of grinding, and it's, it's really, really effective.

So I would assume he's gonna do very, very well.

The biggest issue in scoring takedowns in ADCC is the criteria of scoring, okay?

The biggest score you can make, the one with the greatest reward, is to stick your opponent, put 75% of his back on the ground for three seconds.

If you do this, it's literally the bigge- it scores more than the mounted position, the rear mounted position, anything else in the sport.

It's the biggest score you can make.

But it's also the hardest score.

It's the most difficult to do.

As you can see in that drill, it's extremely difficult to get someone's back on the ground for, for the required three seconds.

Sometimes you're gonna have to make the, the on-the-spot assessment.

Will we go for the big score of four points, or will we throw in a leg twerk or a hand twerk and settle for a two-point score?

Would you rather have two certain points on the board, or would you rather have four points?

That's gotta be that down to where you are in the match.

Okay?

Maybe you need big points.

Maybe there's limited time left.

That's something you're gonna have to assess.

And there is always the most likely way to score.

Your opponent tries to avoid either form of score, turns his back, and you get hooks in, you score three points.

So if we have two athletes, we're gonna start one athlete on the knees, one athlete on the knees, and one athlete standing.

One guy starts with a locked double leg.

When you take the man up and touch his buttocks on the ground, the second his buttocks touch the ground, it becomes live.

Dorian has to make a s- a, a tactical assessment.

Will he try for four points?

If he wants a four-point score, he's gotta go from the hips to the shoulders.

That's a big, big That's a big ask on our part, and it's pretty easy for our opponent to turn out, prevent the score.

So Dorian's other option is to throw in a leg.

Good.

As a, for now- Like a twerk.

Like a twerk.

Good.

Now this is gonna get a two-point score almost every time, okay?

You can throw over two legs and cuff his two ankles together.

That's guaranteed to put two buttocks on the mat and a two-point score.

If your opponent turns inside your legs, he's gonna expose his back.

We get two hooks in and we're aligned with his lower back, we get a three-point score.

Your goal in the time available is to make a snap assessment.

Will you take the big risk for four points?

Will you take the lower risk for two points?

Or will you get the reaction score of three points?

And you have to learn to make that tactical decision based on what's unfolding in front of you.

But it all starts with locked double.

When his butt touched the ground, it becomes live.

Your goal is to break away.

Your goal is to assess which score will I go for, okay?

Go.

I'm feeling really good.

I'm excited for this one.

I feel like, I feel like this is gonna be my year to, to really shine.

I feel like, I'm, I'm gonna be making history, by winning the, the ADCC's, 66 kg, division.

And then hopefully, I The really big one that I would also like is the absolute.

No, no 66 kg, athlete has ever medaled or won.

So that, that would be a, a really big win for me.

I'm really looking forward to that too.

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