John Combs was born in Cleveland, but grew up in California and then went to college in Boulder Colorado. Although prominent in BJJ, he has a strong background in wrestling and started grappling at 14 years old during a high school summer wrestling program. He continued to wrestle in college for CU Boulder where he became an All-American wrestler at the NCWA national championship in 2011. With BJJ concerned, he also states “I found BJJ in 2010 when I signed up at Easton Training Center in Boulder Colorado. I received my black belt June 18th 2016 under Amal Easton. Since then I have competed and taught around the world from Guatemala to the UAE”.
He is also known for his use of Guillotine chokes, or as he calls them – the Combatine. We asked how he developed such as strong Guillotine game and if his wrestling background had an impact on his use of the submission – Combs answered by saying “I began studying Jiu-Jitsu after four years of high school wrestling. As such I would often find myself either on top of half guard or in some terrible position on the bottom. From the bottom, I’d panic and reach for one or both of my partner’s legs in an attempt to get back to safety. This would almost guarantee that I’d find myself inside of a guillotine choke. So, in the beginning, I would be the victim of 5 to 10 guillotine chokes a practice back in my white and blue belt days, 2010 – 2013. After getting guillotined a lot I began to use them against others and I started to get a lot of positive feedback after I began to attack a high wrist arm-in guillotine, aka the Combatine. So after I was choked by it a ton I began to wield the guillotine choke. I have observed that many former wrestlers have a strong chin strap grip on their front headlocks that eventually lead to a strong guillotine choke.”
When asked about the differences between wrestling and BJJ, Combs is like many in claiming that wrestling adds mental resilience which isn’t as easily found in BJJ – he adds “I argue in the majority of situations that an athlete can get mentally pushed further in a wrestling room than during a BJJ practice. Wrestlers do not try to break or strangle rather they try to force someone onto their back to win their contest. I think wrestling is quite a bit simpler than BJJ
because most elements of wrestling can be found in BJJ and not vice versa. I have observed that wrestling draws in a tougher crowd than those that are drawn to the infinite puzzle of Jiu-Jitsu. Studying wrestling helps develop mentally strong grapplers that are more resistant to breaking under fatigue and pressure than the average BJJ player. Most people train both today and I think that’s for the better. I think wrestling gave me an athletic and mental edge over most
of my fellow competitors. Also consider that the number one and number two 77 kg grapplers both wrestled in Garry T and JT Torres.”
With this said, it’s clear Combs is a thinking man’s grappler and has given a lot of thought to both practices. Interestingly, the acknowledgment of wrestling’s impact in BJJ is ever-growing with more and more beginning to accept its importance and how the pair cross over very well.
Combs is also a big believer in using DVD’s and videos to improve your training, also claiming “I’d suggest that someone gets a strong fundamentals program from whichever instructor they prefer. Most of us have something like this. I’d start with the basics and then move out from there. John Danaher’s six submission systems are excellent media for more experienced grapplers to begin their study of the submission game. Once you get some experience I’d
suggest studying as many DVDs as you can because knowledge is power, especially in this”
Again, this is also an area of huge influence on recent BJJ culture. Both high-level competitors and hobbyists and turning towards DVDs to supplement their game. In some ways, BJJ is behind in this sense, as studying tape has been a key part of sports for many years and has been used in other mainstream sports for years now.
Overall, it’s interesting to see into the mind of someone who studies the craft and clearly thinks about how the technical side of BJJ applies at the highest levels. With this in mind, it could be argued that Combs is ahead of his time in terms of his mentality and approach to training.
