Comparing Saito Sensei with Sugano Sensei – Freestyle 1

Nathalis is the star of this video:

He was trained extensively by Sugano Sensei for many years. You can see in this video elements of the timing that Sugano Sensei taught. However, from time to time in the freestyle he found himself with two attackers grabbing him at the same time.

These attackers, as was discussed in the videos on attacking, were not there to cooperate and throw themselves once Nathalis directed them. Their intent was to lock him up so they could gang up on him. Nathalis had to generate the power to move two attackers simultaneously, or shove one into another so their attack was disabled.

So by using the timing he learned from Sugano Sensei, and then merging in the practice of strong hips, he was easily able to handle the problem as you can see.

Sugano Sensei did find himself dealing with two attackers simultaneously from time to time. At the moment of contact, typically any attacker would be caught off guard and off balance. I am familiar with the tactic from years of taking ukemi from him. Escaping a multiple grab in that environment was not difficult. But he also showed strong hips and had the ability to move people as needed. However, many senior students of his did have difficulty when faced with this kind of situation.  Nathalis, however, was easily able to escape by applying the strong hips he learned in the Iwama style to complement what he learned from Sugano Sensei.