Timur Ouzlaner is from Haifa, Israel and started training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu at age 14 years old. In his own words, he says “I was always interested in martial arts. I got into Judo via a friend’s recommendation when I was 12. Later, in the same place I trained Judo someone started teaching BJJ there, I joined the class and fell in love with the art.”. 11 years later aged 25 he achieved his black belt. He currently trains at Timura BJJ after originating from Gracie Humaita.
We asked Ouzlaner about his favorite positions when playing BJJ. He claimed his favorite position is the closed guard and uses the wing sweep, whilst his main submission is the triangle. When passing he favors the knee cut combined with the back step. Overall, he claims Marcelo Garcia had the biggest influence on his style. Although more of a teacher these days, back when he competed his weight was around 61KG – although he is slightly heavier now. He also adds “Years ago I was the Israeli champion at my weight, but that was when the BJJ in Israel was in its diapers”. He claims black belt Yinon Avni, was his toughest ever opponent and is one of the toughest guys he knows. However, like many veterans of the sport, Ouzlaner is not without injury and claims his worst was his back at 16 years old, something which he still suffers from to this day.
Next, we asked him about his videos. Ouzlaner is a video editor and is known for having stylish camera angles and a mixture of different speeds whilst filming. This was his response: “About my videos, I am glad that people like them, I’ve put a lot of thought into making them intuitive and easy to learn from, with the angles and the slow motion. I really feel I’ve had an impact on the BJJ community in that regard because I saw even high profile guys starting to use my methods of editing. I teach everyone that asks me how to do it. This is my small contribution to the BJJ video world. I am actually working as a full time professional video editor. I am only a part time BJJ teacher for now. I managed to mix my two passions and make something people love.”
He goes on to add “The secret is in the camera work. You start filming the technique and when it’s time to change the angle, the guys that demonstrate the technique freeze in place. You slowly walk with the camera to the new angle while keeping the two guys centered and try to be as stable as you can. When you get to the new angle, you tell them to finish the move. Then, in the editing software (I use Adobe after effects, but it can be done with other software) you speed up the movement with Time Warp effect and stabilize the footage with Warp Stabilizer effect (especially the camera movement).”
Following on from this, we asked whether he would ever consider shooting instructional videos, as his clips are often a lot more interesting and easier to learn from compared to conventional videos, he replied “I would love to get into instructional videos someday, I have some good ideas for it as well (instructional videos not only for BJJ students but also for new teachers that want to learn how to teach and what to teach). But for now, because I work in two jobs and have a baby at home, it’s a bit difficult to start that process. I have a lot of interests and side projects so it’s hard to commit to something like that. But in the future, it is definitely something I want to do. I want to work on my YouTube channel as well, but the same excuse applies here too haha”
Being from Israel, it’s also well known that the country has its own martial art, Krav Maga. This is based around extreme self-defense and uses tactics such as groin kicks and bending fingers to subdue opponents. We asked him his thoughts on the art and how Israelis thought about it as a combat style. This was his answer: “I have mixed feelings about the subject. In terms of “Survival mindset” – I think it is great. Especially for soldiers that need to disable a threat as fast as possible. But I have a few problems when it comes to civilians training Krav Maga. It is not always smart to crush someone’s windpipe with a deadly blow. That can get you in jail, even if it was self defense. BJJ is better for self defense in my opinion because it focuses on control and not deadly strikes. If you can control something you CAN be deadly, but you can also not be deadly. You can hold him until the police arrive, or reason with him while in control. Krav Maga offers no control, only survival (which maybe is good for a soldier, but not for civilians). Furthermore, sparring is the most important thing you need to do to get better, that’s why BJJ, judo, wrestling, boxing, muay thai, kickboxing are so good. Live sparring, every class. In Krav Maga you learn how to kick the balls, crush the windpipe, gauge the eyes. How can you drill that in sparring? You can’t. So what do they do? Gear up and spar just like in kickboxing, minus the technique. So if you try to kickbox while learning Krav Maga, you might as well learn kickbox from someone that is actually good at it.”
Lastly, we talked about the growth of BJJ in Israel and thoughts about the sport in the future. Here he claimed “Jiu Jitsu is growing rapidly in Israel. When I started training when I was 14, all the teachers in Israel were blue belts at best. Now there are teams that regularly get great places in competitions. We have more black belts than most countries in Europe I believe. It is still less popular than Krav Maga because most of the Israeli BJJ schools focus on the sport and don’t offer a self defense program, but thanks to the rapidly growing MMA, we have lots of traffic. BJJ is for adults that want to do MMA and don’t want to get punched in the face. It is the best closest thing. We had our first official IBJJF tournament in Israel last year. Things are happening and we slowly get on the map. We have great teachers and competitors and Israel.”. With this said, like many countries across the globe it seems Israel’s BJJ scene is starting to take off.
Interestingly, this is the most common response we get from various people regarding BJJ in their country.
Finally, in terms of future plans, he adds “I want to be the best teacher I can be. I was never interested in competition but in BJJ as a martial art. I plan to keep creating new content and try to expand my reach, so I could influence the world of BJJ as much as I can”
You can find more about Timur Ouzlaner in the following links:
https://www.instagram.com/timura_bjj
https://www.facebook.com/BJJ.Haifa
https://www.youtube.com/timurabjj
