Reilly Bodycomb is both a BJJ and Sambo practitioner who specialises in leg locks. Bodycomb comes from Fort Worth, Texas but began training sambo aged 24 in New York city under Stephen Koepfer. He mentions that he didn’t train BJJ formally until 29 years old when he moved to New Orleans. Prior to this, he had both trained and competed against BJJ athletes in various grappling competitions, but never properly trained the art. Currently Bodycomb holds a black belt under Stephan Goyne of Bay Jiu-Jitsu, which he received in 2017.
Bodycomb entered the world of grappling through training karate at college. The school happened to train some Judo, which he enjoyed more than karate, thus opening the door of grappling.
When training BJJ, Bodycomb mentions that he does not really play guard and will usually try to either wrestle back up to a good position or look for a leg entanglement into a leglock. Understandably, this is his area of expertise in grappling.
From top position he does not have a preferred style of passing and likes to mix up his gameplan between pressure and backstep style float passing. His favorite submission is to tap opponents from the pressure of mount.
In terms of his early career, Bodycomb lists many grapplers as influencing his style such as Rumina Sato, Mazakzu Iminari, Megumi Fuji and Satoko Shinashi. For his stand up game he says Igor Kruinnoy and Carey Kolat have greatly influenced him. Although in terms of training he mentions Ryan Hall and states “every time I train with him my understanding of the martial arts grows significantly”.
Q & A
What is your best achievement to date?
“I won the Pan-Am Sambo championships in 2016 in Paraguay which put me on the international ranking for Sambo for the first time. It was a really cool experience to have the USA flag lifted and have the national anthem playing while I was on the top of that podium.”
Who is the hardest opponent you’ve ever fought?
“I got destroyed by Rafik Manukyan from Armenia in the 2016 Sambo World Championships in Bulgaria. He has a signature 2 on 1 fireman’s carry he hits on everyone and he got me with it really quick. When I tried to stop the pin afterwards he threw on a tight armbar. It was a tough match that showed me my limits as an athlete.”
What are your plans for the future?
“Besides grappling, I am also a competitive action pistol shooter, and have run combo competitions for action shooting and grappling in the past before COVID. When COVID clears up, I plan on running long multi-day camps that include action shooting, grappling, clay shooting, hiking, camping, hunting, and other fun outdoor activities. I am working on developing property right now near Yosemite for this purpose.”
You were rank #1 sambo USA and #5 sambo in the world. How did you get in to this and how were you so good at what we think is pretty much a soviet union sport?
“As far as the Sambo rankings go, I achieved those in 2016. I’m not ranked that this year, as I have not competed. But to get there was just a slow grind and lots of travel over the years. There are not very many US based Sambo competitions so i had to fly all around the world to build experience since I started in 2005. Another factor was seeking out many different sources of information and training with lots of great grapplers from all disciplines to build the skills I needed.”
Following on from that, do you think that the leg locks in sambo are out of date and unsophisticated?
“As far as leg locks go, the rules dictate how much people work on them. Heel hooks and toe holds are not legal in most Sambo competitions so people won’t work on those when training for matches. At the high level, however, you will see a lot of well delivered ankle locks, kneebars, and calf slicers.”
“As far as popularity goes, the international events are still very large with full crowds during the finals, and the governing body runs events around the world. The sport is on tv in several countries. Here is just a sample of what one of these events looks like: https://youtu.be/msp1_HerXNs “
Do you think BJJ in the Gi is bad at leglocks? There are some no-gi specialists who pretty much only focus on leglocks, but sometimes leglocks are still badly defended at a reasonably high level.
“Again, the rules dictate behavior for the most part. Fewer leg locks are legal in gi. I’m sure if the rules change, the black belt division would look different as people would adjust to develop those skills. There will always be special people who drive innovation, but the masses will follow suit if the end result is more wins. Right now, gi rules do not incentivise leg locks the way sub-only rules do.“
Lastly I’ve also seen you are a pistol or general firearms instructor. Is this easier to learn than grappling? Is there any natural talent to shooting? Or is there a John Danaher of guns who has some kind of systematic methods of what you should and shouldn’t be doing?
“There are very few sports as technically complicated as grappling. Shooting, of course, still requires a lot of practice and good technique. I’m sure talent helps, but just like anything, dedication and really enjoying the process can make you better. There are several really good shooters to watch when learning. I would watch Max Michelle, Lena Miculek, JJ Racaza and several other top shooters to learn the craft. Because shooting is an equipment intensive sport, there are also a lot of ancillary aspects one has to learn like hand loading ammunition to meet the required specifications for your sport, and tuning your choice of firearm and gear to best suit your competitive division. It has a lot in common with bike or car racing in that sense.“
For Those who are interested to learn more from Reilly Bodycomb, he says:
Check out bayjiujitsu.com to learn how you can train with us in the Bay Area.
Check rdojo.com to get grappling instructionals from me.
If you are interested in firearms instruction in the Bay Area check out guidancesteel.com
