Flavio Canto won the Bronze Medal in the Olympics in 2004. He was ranked number one in the world in 2005 in his weight category.Flavio Canto won the Bronze Medal in the Olympics in 2004. He was ranked number one in the world in 2005 in his weight category. He is one of the most dominating mat technicians that Judo has ever seen. His unique style, as non-traditional as they come, has revolutionized the Tachi-Waza-Ne Waza transition game in World competition. His drive to compete and win at an elite level is only bested by his incredible humbleness. He is the greatest representative, both on and off the mat, that the Art of Judo has ever produced. And oh yea, he is a good teacher too.
On May 17th and 18th MMAINSTRUCTIONAL.COM brought Flavio Canto out for a two-day Judo seminar at the American Kickboxing Academy. It was one of the best seminars I have ever experienced. His philosophy and approach to teaching blew me away. He breaks techniques down further than I have ever seen. He focuses on teaching the fundamental movement before teaching the technique. Judo and Jiu-Jitsu stems from moving your body into positions. Those positions make up techniques of the art. Instead of just learning the technique at the seminar, we learned how to apply proper movement of our body to allow us to pull off the positions of Judo Ne-Waza (ground work). We basically were learning how to walk before we ran!
His non-traditional approach to Judo was not only surprising, but it was extremely informative. His transition from Tachi-Waza to Ne-Waza started from Ne-Waza. This is groundbreaking (no pun intended). He constructed techniques that started on the ground and worked themselves up to the standing Tachi-Waza position. I myself have had a lot of success with quick transitions to Ne-Waza but I never realized this great perspective of how to learn it. With my experience as a Judo and Jiu-Jitsu coach I feel this is very important to both arts. For Judo because in many circles Ne-Waza is not just taught as a secondary means of winning in competition, but is most of the time neglected. And in Jiu-Jitsu, the transition is almost non-existent.
Before the seminar I looked up Flavio on youtube (he is so humble that he hasn’t put out a Canto highlight). I saw a few Judo matches of his and quickly realized that he is one of the most incredible Tachi-Waza Ne Waza guys on the planet. His ferocious ability to grip, throw and snap into a submission is the best I have ever seen. He does this with great speed and immense precision. And his seminar was an approach to pass on all of that ability to us. And he did with great care. Those two days made me feel like we took a short trip into the mind of a champion. And we left with some of the skill that makes his game so potent.
The seminar gave me a revolutionary way of looking at how to teach. It immensely added to the repertoire of techniques I use to mesh the arts Judo and Jiu-Jitsu. It was easy to understand and had a powerful message. I have always felt that a student should leave a lesson not only understanding good technique, but also gaining the ability to develop and apply it, in a specific context. Leaving Flavio’s seminar I not only gained knowledge, I yearned for more. He is easily one of the greatest gi-grappling artists of our time.
Flavio Canto is a World Class Judoka. He is an instructor at www.mmainstructional.com. He teaches seminars around the world. If you are interested in setting up a seminar you can contact info@mmainstructional.com.
This seminar and his 52-lesson curriculum will be available shortly at www.mmainstrcutional.com.