Marvin Castelle is a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu athlete who originally hails from Flint, Michigan. He began training BJJ aged 16 years old after being inspired from MMA and watching videos on Youtube. Since then, he has gone on to achieve his black belt at age 26 under master Eddie Bravo at the 10th Planet HQ in California and lists Jean Jacques Machado as being the most influential on his grappling style. Castelle is also known as ‘Cerberus’ – a nickname he claims that was given to him as a purple belt by a yellow belt at the time.
We asked him about his favorite BJJ positions. He claimed his main guard was the three quarter guard position and his best sweep was the Imanari sweep which he is well known for. He also added his favorite submission was the Estima lock. Castelle is a regular on the competition and superfight scene and typically competes at around the 145lbs mark. He lists his best competition achievement as doing the double Imanari Roll at ADCC trials and in Fight2win which helped put his name on the map. On the subject of competition, he states Joao Miayo as his toughest opponent and that winning the IBJJF black belt No gi Worlds and ADCC are his future goals in the sport.
Q&A
Regarding 10th Planet warm-ups, 10th Planet warm up seem to be a lot better from a movement perspective as they give beginners basic motion. I feel this helps them understand and retain them in their head. Why do you think other gyms don’t do 10th Planet warm-ups and was it Eddie Bravo or someone else who came up with the warm-up system?
“The warm-ups are strictly built for beginners to learn and connect all submissions, transitions and concepts together so they can constantly drill, constantly understand and constantly learn. It can’t be like a seminar every day for beginners. It has to be focused, tactical, strategic drills focused on them to learn from. It’s all Eddie Bravo, he’s the mastermind behind the warm-ups. Not all 10th Planet’s do the warm-ups. I believe it’s an obvious choice. I feel like in the beginning, they should be on the warm-ups 100% in my eyes. It’s really my choice but I feel it helps guide people in the right direction.”
It’s fair to say you’re best known for the Imanari roll. Why don’t we see it quite as much today in grappling? There’s a lot of other saddle entries that have become more popular. Are there any mistakes that people make in general when attempting the Imanari roll?
“Yeah, I feel the Imanari is definitely like a creative sweep. I feel there’s a lot of things that can wrong and there’s a lot of things that go right. But there’s a lot of injury things that can go wrong, espeically if the dude’s going rapid fast into the guys knee. I feel like a lot of the entries nowadays, the elevation entries into the saddle are easier and it’s not from standing. The Imanari entry can be from standing or the bottom. The saddle entry is from clinching so it has a little better play-out.”
I think a lot of people would agree that maybe 4-5 years ago 10th Planet was really far ahead in leg locks. Now it seems the Danaher death squad has overtaken 10th Planet at leg locks. Do you think 10th Planet will make a comeback or is there a new meta style away from leg locks that has become more popular now?
“I definitely feel like our leg lock game is exploding every day, the leg lock game is changing every day. I think 10th Planet is going to make a comeback with our whole game, not just leg locks. We do not just practice leg locks, we practice literally everything…passing, smashing, destruction of arms, head, legs, twister. It doesn’t matter we’re coming full-fledged 2021, you’re about to see the new 10th Planet, 100%”
If you could tell us a bit about training with Eddie Bravo, I’ve heard he’s a really nice guy and a genius at Jiu Jitsu. He’s also kind of known for crazy conspiracy theories. Does he come into the gym and talk about conspiracies or is that kind of over-rated and is he more of Jiu Jitsu guy whose been painted as a conspiracy theorist?
“Eddie is completely a conspiracy theorist, but so is everyone who goes against the government. He’s one of the nicest, most humble dudes I’ve ever met. He’s so nice, it hurts my feelings, I’m not that nice dude. I’m serious, I’m very militant, lets get fucking this work in. If you want to play around we can go and play golf or something you know? For Jiu Jitsu it’s about learning, learning how to be safe, how to be technical, tenacious, understand the timing of Jiu Jitsu. Eddie’s taught me all of that, he constantly teaches me this. He teaches me something new different every day. He’s also just a funny guy. Funny, friendly, happy. He doesn’t want drama or people to hate him or nothing like that, he wants people of Jiu Jitsu of all gyms, ranks and entities to be cool.”
Lastly, you’ve done seminars in the past called dark arts seminars. Are you referring to leg locks or is there more to it than that and what should people look out for if they’re going to one of your seminars in the future?
“Well, dark arts is obviously just drill-based understanding of no gi Jiu Jitsu. If you’re going to go to one of my camps it’s literally everything. We cover everything in Jiu Jitsu, trying to make you the best no gi grappler and understand what and when you should be moving and when you shouldn’t be moving and defending so you can get the concept of your timing, so we could flow together like a dance and it looks beautiful to people who don’t know Jiu Jitsu and to people who do know Jiu Jitsu. I would say think, hard drills, cardio, focus, running it back, bring your notebook and then more cardio and then maybe an open mat. But for me, I’m not really tripping about rolling with a bunch of people from different places. I’m more interested in you learning what I’m teaching and applying it to competition and your game. It’s really about you, it’s not really about me and my Jiu Jitsu.”
You can find Marvin Castelle on Instagram here as well as his Dark Arts training camps here
You can also get his Imanari instructional here
