I first saw the Beeimbolo when I fought in the 2008 World Championships.
There were these two kids tearing through my division. They kept doing this weird upside-down-spinny-thing that left their confused opponents and defending their backs.
It was a pleasure to watch them destroy the competition and I made a mental note to watch their development.
Those kids were the Mendes Bros.
It wasn’t until a year or so later after they’d wrecked many seasoned competitors that I saw a video of them demonstrating the berimbolo.
I immediately grabbed a friend and hit the mats to practise it.
We spent about an hour playing with it but just couldn’t figure out how to make it work.
I played around with it for a few more weeks with little success, so I decided to put it on the back-burner and just kind of forgot about it.
Fast-forward a few more years to 2012 and there’s Berimbolo’s everywhere. The Miyao’s are doing them, Buchecha’s doing them, even the kids are doing them, and I lost a couple of matches because of them.
At that point, I realised I needed to play catch up with my berimbolo game and I’d missed an opportunity. I could’ve had a 4-year head start on my Berimbolo game, but I stayed within my comfort zone and I didn’t see the opportunity.
I was a skeptic.
In life, you can either be a skeptic or an early adopter. In my experience, early adopters win the game.
With Berimbolo’s, I was a skeptic and it cost me.
Don’t be like me, be an earlier adopter and look for the opportunities around you that can maximise your results and give you the edge.
Not every opportunity will be like the berimbolo, but every now and again the new idea or technique you put some energy into mastering can put your streets ahead of your competition.
Until next time,
– Tom
Leave a Reply