“If you’re training Jiu-Jitsu with most people they’re always finding a position and holding it,”
Waitzkin explains.
“Marcelo, one of the unique things about his training life for most of his life was that he never held positions, he was always moving, he was always in the in between.”
Understanding the Space Between
According to Waitzkin, who co-owned a school with the nine-time world champion, Garcia’s genius lies not in the positions themselves but in his mastery of transitions. Where most practitioners see Jiu-Jitsu as a series of static positions with limited frames between them, Garcia operates in what Waitzkin describes as “100 frames in between,” allowing him to play in pockets that others don’t even perceive.
“Marcelo Garcia, who is known as the King of the Scramble, spends his entire time in transition. If you’re training Jiu-Jitsu with most people, they’re always looking for a position and then holding it. Marcelo, however, never held positions. One of the unique aspects of his training life is that he was always moving, always in the in-between.
If your life and training process are focused on the in-between and the transitions—if you’re always moving rather than holding static positions—you spend all your time developing this fluidity. In practice, this means you’re not holding positions; you’re constantly moving. Most people who hold positions are static, while you are gaining exposure to endless transitions.”
Waitzkin elaborates:
“If you go to a Jiu-Jitsu school and sit to watch, notice this one thing: the amount of time spent static versus in motion. Marcelo was always in motion. There’s a beautiful clip of him in an old documentary called Suave. It’s about 25 years old and available on YouTube. It’s an 8-minute clip of Marcelo training as an 18-year-old, and you can watch him learning this transitional approach even then. He’s never stopping, always allowing his opponent to move, and living in the transitions.”
“However, to train this way, you have to get past the egoic dynamics. You can’t focus on dominating your partner all the time. In Jiu-Jitsu, when you’re in a dominant position, you want to hold it because you’ve “won.” There’s a dynamic between opponents—a need to dominate. But if you release that and focus on the learning process, you stop holding and start moving. By doing so, you get constant exposure to the in-between.”
This approach is documented in what Waitzkin refers to as “a beautiful clip” from an old documentary called Suave, available on YouTube. The eight-minute segment shows an 18-year-old Garcia already developing his revolutionary transitional approach, “never stopping, always allowing the person” to move.
Breaking Free from Ego
Perhaps most crucially, Waitzkin emphasizes that Garcia’s approach requires transcending traditional ego-driven training mentalities.
“You have to get past the egoic dynamics because you can’t like you’re giving up on dominating people all the time,”
he explains.
“When you’re in a dominant position in Jiu-Jitsu you want to hold it cuz you’ve won.”
This willingness to release the need for constant dominance in favor of movement and learning sets Garcia apart. By focusing on the process rather than the outcome, he developed a deeper understanding of the art’s subtleties.
A Legacy of Innovation
Waitzkin, who trained with Garcia at “a really high level” before a career-ending back injury, describes him as “perhaps the greatest Grappler pound-for-pound to ever live.” This assessment comes not just from Garcia’s competitive accomplishments, but from his revolutionary approach to training and fighting.
If you visit a typical Jiu-Jitsu school, Waitzkin suggests observing “the amount of time static versus in motion.” The contrast with Garcia’s constant movement philosophy becomes immediately apparent. This commitment to perpetual motion and transition mastery has not only defined Garcia’s career but has influenced a new generation of grapplers who understand that true mastery lies in the spaces between established techniques.
