The Power of Drilling

Connection Rio Crew surf outing with Master Sylvio Berhing. Picture by Hywel Teague

 
Brief week in Review
The time is flying by down here in Brazil, new faces have arrived this week and friends that have been down here our entire trip have gone home. Unfortunately this week I didn’t get in as much training as I would have liked because I had a few important things I had to get finished up. While I didn’t make it much into formal classes I did get a lot of reps in outside of class.



Hard sparring with Connection Rio's Dennis Asche.
Picture by bjjpix.com

Dennis’ class was, as always an intense training. What I really enjoy about the class is that it is the perfect blend of functional drills, technique, and live rolls. He (Dennis) pushes each person to find their niche and develop it into a strong game. With me being a wrestler at heart Dennis pushes me to always pick up the pace, remain in the offense, and initiate scrambles. Sometimes this is easier said than done, especially when you roll against another offensive player such as Dennis. This week however I was bound and determined to take the offensive to him. Time started and I gripped Dennis’ lapel and ripped it down waiting for his reaction so I could shoot for a takedown. Instead Dennis wrist locked me and made me tap…all in about 15 seconds. Well, they say BJJ is all about humility. The rest of the roll was great and intense with a flurry of scrambles, and fast paced rolling. The other rolls all went good, though I tweaked my knee a bit defending a sweep. Though it was nothing serious my knee was stiff and a little tender for a couple of days. During this time I spent time on the mat drilling passes and takedowns, breaking them down and focusing on the little things that make them work. Also this week I got some great mitt work in with Austin, who is from Canada. After second his second trip to Phuket Thailand, he went home for three days and headed down here to Brazil to train with coral belt Master Sylvio Behring down at X-Gym. It felt good to work my boxing, plus mix some more mma minded striking to takedowns in. Speaking of Sylvio Behring in addition to being a coral belt he is also an avid surfer, and on Friday morning a big group from CR headed down to Barra Beach where we met Sylvio and spent the morning surfing (or at least trying to). Nicole was a natural at surfing. She got up on the board and road a wave on her first try and had continued success. I didn’t take to it quite as fast. It was however a very fun time and I hope to be able to try it again soon (Nicole is sold on surfing, and now wants a board). I rounded out the week with a run to ship rock, cutting 3 minutes off my time. Even though the run is exhausting, I enjoy being pushed both mentally and physically. The best part of the run though is cooling down on top of ship rock. Over looking Barra, hearing birds, insects and water running off rocks it really sets things in perspective and allows me to enjoy where I am and think about where I want to go in life. This week Nicole accompanied me and has her set time mark and I think she is going to try to run to ship rock once a week as well.


Drilling Heel Hooks with Dawud at the in house training session with Edson Diniz.
 photo by bjjpix.com

　
The power of drilling

In my wrestling career drilling was essential my success, looking back you would be hard pressed to find a practice that didn’t involve some sort of drilling exercise. In order to progress we must be able to internalize and master the techniques and concepts that we learned. I believe that in the U.S. there is a large focus on drilling and repetition of new techniques, with sparring coming in closer to the tail end of the session (not to say that there isn’t hard sparring). In Brazil, while techniques are drilled, I feel like there is a greater emphasis on the live rolling. Down here the idea of gameness and love for competition fuels a desire to live roll for hours (seriously just go to a Brazilian open mat session and you will see black belts rolling the whole time with smiles on their faces). A balance between the two is ideal, because not only must you internalize technique, but you must also be able to hit these techniques while someone is resisting, or trying to bring the offense to you.

“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”-----Bruce Lee


Being involved in martial arts and combat sports we are exposed to a vast quantity of techniques in a relatively short amount of time. Down here people generally train 5-8 times a week. If you learn two techniques per class that’s 10-16 a week, totaling 40-64 new moves a month! Unless you are some sort of prodigy, learning a new technique and practicing it for 15-20 minutes then rolling live isn’t enough time to internalize the technique. Within a week of learning and practicing that one move from last week most likely one of two things happened either 1. You forget the move entirely or 2. While you might remember the jist of the technique you may forget a small yet key part that is necessary to finish the move.

Think back to some of your first experiences in your art, chances are the first week you were completely lost, struggling through technique that seemed near impossible, and now seem elementary. For instance in BJJ one of the first movements learned is shrimping out; so your first class you learned it, and it was clunky and awkward. The next time you went to class you now knew what shrimping was, but you probably couldn’t remember all the fine points your instructor told you and you again felt clunky. Overtime drilling the shrimping motion to warm up and in sparring it began to flow more naturally and felt like second nature. This isn’t because a magic switch was flipped at a certain time and you new all the keys to shrimping, rather it was due to repetition. If you were to have learned shrimping and hardly ever worked at it and never focused on perfecting it you would never climb the BJJ ladder.

How to Drill
Drilling is about much more than just hitting a move. It’s about working a move in a way so that in competition (or live sparring) you will be able to correctly execute it. While coaching we had a saying, ‘practice doesn’t make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect’. It does you no good to work a move half assed or cut corners, because when push comes to shove, half assed doesn’t cut it. When you first begin to work a technique you have to break down each little part and make sure you doing it right. In the beginning it is a slow process, but as your muscle memory picks up the movements you will be able to practice the move at a faster pace. As with everything you must crawl before you walk, and walk before you run.

Being a good partner in drilling is just as important as working technique. You have to give your partner a “good look”. You can’t be a “limp noodle” falling over and offering as much resistance as a feather in the wind. Conversely, the focus is on getting better at technique so you don’t want to be going all out and prevent the person from being able to hit a move correctly. Your job is to hold good position and give realistic pressure and feels so that your partner can work the techniques in the most beneficial way possible.

Once you get techniques down, you must continue to drill these techniques because in this case the quote “if you don’t use it, you lose it” is true. Since these techniques are already internalized you can drill them at a faster more intense pace, but never so fast that you lose technique. This hard drilling is a workout of its own and will not only aide technique, but also build strength and stamina. The biggest benefit of this hard drilling is that if you can hit moves perfectly under fatigue in practice you will be able to hit in in the intense realm of competition.

Injury Prevention
Drilling and practicing techniques also helps stave off unwanted injury. While accidents can always happen, your chances of injury is much higher in live goes and sparring. The toll only sparring can take will drain you not only physically but mentally as well, leading you to total fatigue. Stepping back and focusing on technique can workout soreness and clear the mind as well, helping to rejuvenate you. This great quote from legendary wrestler and coach John Smith says it all:

“Drilling is the key to wrestling success and to longevity in the sport. Drilling has to become habit forming. Drilling wasn’t natural for more, I’d rather just go in a room and spar hard. I just wanted to shake hands and go! But drilling has to take place for you to get better. I couldn’t do a better leg lace or gut wrench without breaking down the move, seeing how it works, studying it and drilling it, over and over and over.

That’s when you improve your techniques. Someone who doesn’t spend time doing that and drilling isn’t going to improve. For longevity, drilling is very important, if you want to stay in the sport for many years, then you have to stay healthy. Constant sparring and live goes can beat your body up pretty bad. After the world championships, I would drill for three months, with very little sparring. That’s when I got better, and I also stayed injury free"” The people staying here at CR have taken the necessity of drilling to heart. Everyday someone is going into the gym early or stepping on the mats here at the house to get extra reps in. With the many different people here it is a great way to drill technique with variety of people ranging in size and strength. In fact as I am writing this I am preparing to throw on the gi and drill some technique with Nicole, Dawud (from Canada), and Austin. Like I said above, perfect practice makes perfect!

Copa Podio, BJJ, and Strength Training in Rio

Overlooking Barra from Ship Rock

Another week down in the Ciudad Maravillosa and another great week of training and new experiences! I was able to watch some of the best in the world compete, got some excellent training both in the kimono and nogi, had some fun times with the housemates, and went for a run up a mountain. In addition to all of this I am also going to talk about some of the strength training I do down here to build a better foundation for my grappling game.

Copa Podio
On Sunday the whole CR crew went out to watch the Copa Podio Heavy Weight Grand Prix. It was a 10 man tournament consisting of two pools of five competitors, the top two finishers in each pool moved on to the tournament semi-finals to determine who would fight in the championship finals. That's six wins, against some of the best in the world, in one night! The BJJ was excellent, featuring legends such as Xande Ribeiro, and the next wave of BJJ greats such as Keenan Cornelius. In the end GFT fighter Rodolfo Vieira came away with the victory. One of the most interesting matches was a husband and wife" tag team" match. First the two husbands squared off, then the two wives. The score was rolled over from one match to the next to determine which couple was the toughest. Interesting concept and great matches, but what was probably the coolest thing about it was watching the couples root for one another, console in defeat, and celebrate in their win. For the rest of the night all anyone could talk about was the great display of jiu-jitsu, strategy, and athleticism we had all just witnessed.

Weekly Training
Typically on Sunday I rest and recoup to get ready for the week of training, but this Sunday was a little different. Nicole (my girlfriend) went to a women’s only Leticia Ribeiro seminar on Saturday with the other CR girls, so on Sunday we drilled several of the moves she learned. Also William Burkhardt, founder of bjjpix.com, was doing a photo session with a talented women’s blue belt competitor from GFT. We all got some rolls in, and the girl from GFT worked a bit with Nicole on some positional stuff.

Monday started the week off right with great training at Gordo's. Now that tournament season has started more time is devoted to working takedowns. While still not a huge in-depth focus, we are now drilling both takedown entries and finishes. A lot of the focus this week was on top control. Mondays techniques were the Americana and a tight triangle choke from side control. As always the rolling was good natured yet highly competitive. I have noticed that various competitors and serious BJJ practitioners from academies friendly to Gordo come in to help prepare for competition. This week Clark Gracie was in with a couple of Americans from Texas, I believe. Clark is an aggressive fighter, and while I didn’t have the opportunity to roll with him it was fun to watch him spar. Even though I didn't get a chance to roll with Clark, I did roll with Gordo's younger brother Rafael 'Gordinho'- a world champion. He is a very technical fighter who keeps the pressure on you the entire time you spar. So needless to say he pretty effortlessly mopped the mats with me. After the roll he gave some quick advice and then complimented me on my game. It's a great feeling, even though I got tooled upon, to receive a compliment from a world class jiu-jitsu instructor.

Tuesday was a hard pressed two training sessions, combined with a hard strength workout. First I hit the morning session with Gordo, the highlight of which was for the entire sparring I only rolled with black belt, you would be hard pressed to do that. After class I quickly busted out some strength training. In the early afternoon I was back on the mat for Dennis's class. We finished the rest of a drill progression which really helps to form chain attacks, making your game much more dynamic.

On Wednesday morning I did a fast paced KB and body weight Crossfit workout, and trained hard in the evening at Gordo's. Gordo went over some great armbar techniques from side control, each depending on your opponents arm and body positions. The rolls were tough, both the competition was hard, but I just felt off. My flow wasn't what it normally was, and I was giving up positions that I normally wouldn't. But I kept my head up and tried my best knowing that we all have tough days (though I was extremely frustrated). For the rest of the night I was just exhausted. The next day was rainy and I still felt really off. I took Thursdays off the mat and instead did some light cardio and worked shadow boxing and wrestling positioning.

Friday I felt good and decided to go for a run. Just as I was starting out I decided to go for a run up to ship rock. Ship rock is about the halfway point between the base of Pedra and its peak. It's a rock outcropping that looks over Barra. I thought to myself, after a couple days in a funk going for a run and enjoying a nice view would be refreshing. So I grabbed my timer and set off. There were two things I failed to consider: 1. It had been raining for the last day and a half, 2. The last time I was up near ship rock was in 2010, so I was a bit unsure of how far/where exactly it was. The path was wet and the parts where you have to climb/pull yourself up rocks was slick, making the run even more difficult. I first started out at a fast pace but quickly slowed, soon my legs and lungs where burning, then I wanted to puke, but I just kept telling myself not to stop and that I was almost there. Just about the time I didn't think I was going to ever get there I reached ship rock. I arrived in just over 25 minutes, not great but a good starting point. I want to try to run up there once a week, and improve on my time. The view and positive feeling from pushing myself were worth the work and reminded me of just how beautiful this place is. As a side note if you ever climb Pedra after a rain BE CAREFUL! I went to snap a picture from ship rock, slipped on some wet moss and baseball slid to the edge. Luckily I was able to stop myself by grabbing a branch and using my feet to stop me. But I do have a nice little road rash on my ass to show for it. What goes up must go down and after a few minutes I jogged back down and to the house. In the afternoon I grabbed a boxing workout, which felt good as a change of pace.

Saturday we had another great training opportunity here at the CR house. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Black Belt and MMA fighter Edson Diniz came in to teach a NoGi session. Edson has won a ton a grappling tournaments and was a MMA fighter and trainer at the famed American Top Team. Having recently moved back to Rio, Edson is going to be teaching a nogi class here at the house once every month. Having done extensive nogi and MMA his philosophy on the ground game is very open. He believes that what a fighter does outside of the gi is not BJJ but grappling. As such it is a fighters duty to encompass all ground aspects such as BJJ, wrestling, sambo, judo, etc. into your game. We started by working pummeling and takedowns, and when we went to the mat we went over leg locks. Leg locks are often not covered in BJJ, or in a lot of ground training period because of the injury taboo that hangs around them. I admit they make me nervous. By having a pro go into the details of the variations and counters it really helped shed some light on an area where I had little to no experience. After the class, we all hopped in the pool and talked shop.

After class and a quick lunch a big group of us headed down to the beach sit under the umbrellas, sip agua de coco, body surf, and people watch. Not a bad way to cap off a great training session. Saturday night was the UFC in Sao Paulo, we spent part of the time watching it down at Bar do Oswalds and finished watching the main card via projector at the premiere house. With all the training of course your going to make acquaintances meet new people, but it is the down time, laughing and joking around the house that really builds friendships.

Strength Training in Brazil
I really like lifting, I do. Back at home (Michigan) I typically lift 3-4 times a week. Down here in Brazil there are plenty of gyms (by this I mean weight training) and fitness centers, but unfortunately the fees for these gyms are not cheap. There is free gym in the Ipanema, though I am not sure where. The high cost of gym memberships along trying to fit the time to go to a gym and train in an already packed training schedule can make keeping up with your traditional (Olympic lifts, barbell work, etc.) lifting hard. Thankfully there are plenty of alternatives to maintain or gain strength while in Brazil, which in the end will only help your BJJ training. The lifting that I do (and most of the CR guys) is geared towards athletics and sports as opposed to bodybuilding/packing on serious mass. This means that most of the workouts and lifts are designed to be functional and work muscle groups that are utilized in BJJ and MMA.

Typically at home I will either work through Jim Wendler’s 5/3/1 Program, or one of Martin Rooney’s Training For Warriors. Both are excellent programs and I highly recommend looking into them.

Down here in Rio, like I said, I don’t necessarily have access to fully use these great programs. What I do have is a 20kg kettle bell, a 100lb heavy bag, and resistance bands here at the house. These plus body weight exercises can give you a great workout. With these stripped down barebones training tools I have adopted the principals of the great strength coach Dan John: 1. Pick Stuff Off the Ground 2.Put Stuff overhead 3. Carry Stuff for Time and Distance. Simple principals giving great results. Here are just some of the exercises I do for each principal.

Principal 1. Pick Stuff Off the Ground

KB deadlift, pushups, Turkish getups, pullups, reverse grip heavy bag deadlift, sit up to stand up, KB clean, Reverse body lock partner lifts, Heavy bag lift and slam, partner lifts.

Principal 2. Put Stuff overhead

KB snatch, KB clean and press, KB military press, hand-stand pushups, resistance band shoulder press, overhead squat.

Principal 3. Carry Stuff for Time and Distance

KB overhead carry, KB front carry, KB back carry, KB suitcase carry, heavy bag shoulder carry, heavy bag cradle carry, heavy bag gable grip carry, buddy carries (fireman, piggy back, wedding, dead man’s). Done using various distances or times kept on a timer.

I also typically do one crossfit style bodyweight workout a week to push muscular endurance and cardio. Throughout the week I will try to also get either a longer distance or sprint work in, either using a set time (ex Tabata sprints) or set point. The beaches down here are great places to grab a workout as well. There are workout stations along the beach that allow for dips, pushups, and pull up variations. One of my favorite cardio/strength training workouts is running down to the beach hitting the various stations down the beach, then take a quick dip in the ocean before running back to the house. Also right down the road is a park which allows for various playground style workout (pull-ups, dips, etc.). I then try to finish every workout with just a couple of laps in the pool. Nothing hard or strenuous just to push the lactic acid out. While it might sound like a lot, varying the times, intensities, and exercise pairing generally helps to avoid fatigue; and if I do start to feel worn down I’ll back away for a few days, because the most important thing to do down here is train Jiu-jitsu and have fun!

　

Crossover From Wrestling To Bjj

This week I am going to talk a bit about how my wrestling has helped and molded my BJJ game. Having wrestled for 13+ years, it would be impossible to say that my wrestling has not helped or shaped my style of jiu-jitsu. I started Bjj two days after my last collegiate wrestling match and as time has progressed I have tried to build my game in a way that will use my wrestling strengths to aid me. Before I get into how wrestling has helped me in jiu-jitsu, I want to review the week in training.


WEEK IN TRAINING
With the holidays over, training has definitely ramped up down here in Rio! The mats have filled with even more avid BJJ practitioners ready to role. Monday morning I busted out a tough cross fit body weight workout, and at night Weber (one of the instructors at Gordo’s) taught some excellent standing guard passes. They fit nicely into my game and I have hit them a couple of times throughout the week. As always the rolling was great. One memorable roll from the night is when I was rolling against Thiago, one of the many black belts at Gordo’s. He is a great guy super nice and a great technician. While we were rolling he got me in some kind of crazy gi choke (not even sure what) I was defending (barely) and next thing I knew Gordo and several others were yelling for him to stop; apparently from the angle they had it looked like I went out. After assuring everyone I was fine we continued to roll. Tuesday was Dennis’ Connection Rio class, which is always fast paced and filled with great technique and drill work. This week my girlfriend Nicole started her TEFL course in Centro, so I have been getting up earlier with her. On Wednesday I managed to drag myself out of bed for the morning class at Gordo’s. I am sure glad I did! I walk in and class was huge, 14 black belts, 6 browns, another 5 or 6 purples, 5 blues, and 3 white belts. Gordo taught some excellent guard passes from our opponents butterfly guard. When it came to live sparring I rolled with two purple belts and the rest of the time was with brown or black belts, trust me this is every blue belts dream (or at least should be). When class was done I quickly hopped into the pool grabbed an apple and toast, and prepared for the next training. Normally on Wednesdays the CR crew goes on an academy visit to one of the many fantastic training camps here in Rio. This week, however, we had a special treat. Two time world champion Felipe Costa came in to teach a class at the Connection Rio Premier House. We laid mats on the main balcony of the house and practiced under the hot Brazilian sun. Felipe is a smaller guy, so his game was an excellent fit with mine. He taught on attacking the back. The series of technique was great, but what made such it an awesome experience was the concepts he enlightened us to. Being able to pick a world champions brain and having him to discuss the little ideas and details is nothing short of amazing. We had some great rolling after and Felipe made sure to have at least one five minute sparring session with everyone who trained. The game he plays is super relaxed and it felt, even as he is sweeping or submitting you, like he was putting no strength or effort into it at all. William from BJJpix.com was there to take photos, some of which are at the bottom of the this blog. After the class Felipe hung with us and the pool and discussed more BJJ and just about where we were all from.

This last fact is what makes staying at Connection Rio and training here so much fun. Over the course of the last month we have seen around 30 people from all over the world come stay and train here. It makes for great discussions, both BJJ related and not. Added to the discussion is that not everyone here trains at the academy, so a lot of talk is about the different training styles, etiquette, and people we see and meet. Currently there are guys training at Gordo’s, Checkmat, Escola De Jiu-Jitsu, and X-gym. In the last two weeks alone some of the big names that have been training or around include Jacare, Anderson Silva, Erick Silva, Antonio Braga Neto, and Big Nog.

Thursday was kind of a lighter day to help me get over a nasty cold. I have a bad habit of getting sick, still training hard and then getting sicker so I erred on the side of caution. I did some tabata hill sprints (8 rounds of 20 second goes with 10 second rest), shadow boxed and wrestled. Later some of the guys and I drilled a few techniques from the seminar. Most of the day I spent working on a wrestling curriculum for coaching; setting up series of techniques to flow from one to the other.

To round out the week I finished with another 2- BJJ training sessions. First the a.m. session: I got up and headed to Gordo’s, when I got there found out there was no power (storm hit the night before). That did not stop us however and in early morning light we trained. On Fridays the classes typically consist of extensive warm up and live rolling. Sometimes there is just a bunch of king of the mat and free training and sometimes there are “marathon” rolls. We had a 20, 15, and 10 minute sparring matches. You first start out with the 20 minute as a warm up, starting slow/flowing then gradually picking up the intensity. The other rolls are your typical speed and intensity just for longer than normal. The last roll of the morning was against a very solid purple belt, who in addition to good technique, was fast and strong. Our spar was filled with scramble after scramble, one guy getting the advantage and the other countering to the advantage. In the middle of the roll I was in an awkward top half guard type position trying to keep from getting swept and better control when I hear Antonio Braga Neto shout some pointers on where to set my grips and what to do to secure. It’s an awesome feeling knowing that a multi-time world champion was watching you roll and wanted to lend some pointers to you. Sparring finished and we lined up and bowed out and everyone shook hand and left the still dim gym chatting and smiling. In the afternoon we had Dennis’ class. We reviewed one of the sweeps he taught earlier, which was nice because it really helped it “click” for me. Then we worked on several techniques that lead into a submission and sweep series. The various series that Dennis has created are a great way to not only master technique, but to develop a sense of chain jiu-jitsu allowing for you to transition effortlessly from on technique to another until something works. Learning and Drilling these moves are a great way to send your game to the next level. We finished out the session with our normal sparring which is a great way to finish out the day/week of training.

WRESTLING AND BJJ

Having wrestled for the past 13 years or so, one of the biggest questions I get from guys in the BJJ world is, ‘How do you feel your wrestling has carried over to your jiu-jitsu?’ It’s a pretty broad question which, at the time, is hard to fully go into. Here I am going to try to go more in-depth at answering it.

I feel that wrestling is a great accompaniment with jiu-jitsu. One of the biggest positives is that coming into the sport of BJJ from my wrestling background I already had a knowledge of body pressure, leverage, and distribution of weigh. The intense push-pull of wrestling, along with the need to either keep an opponent on the mat or pin him gives a wrestler a leg up on those just starting BJJ from no other grappling background. This is because while a BJJ newbie may spend weeks or months learning how to distribute getting a feel for pressures, the wrestler already has that down and can focus on other aspects of the game. To illustrate my point one of the biggest comments I hear is people saying, “man wrestlers have the best base, and they are hard to knock of their base”. Wrestling also gives a new BJJ practitioner a leg up by allowing them to already be familiar with one aspect of BJJ, top control. In wrestling the overall goal is to pin your opponents shoulders to the mat and keep them there in a variety of positions and moves. So while the wrestler may not yet now any submissions, controlling from side control, half guard, the back, and the mount positions are all familiar to the wrestler. I have found that since having a wide variety of wrestling breakdowns it has allowed me to at least get one hook in when my opponent is in turtle. An added benefit I have found is carrying over wrestling moves to aid in my BJJ. For instance I have found great success using the ¾ Nelson from a sprawled position to bypass my opponents back and guard and go straight from a sprawl into side control. One of the biggest benefits is the advantage in takedowns. While most BJJ sparring starts from the knees, most wrestling sparring starts from the feet. To go along with that drilling takedowns from start to finish at great length everyday hones the technique and knowledge of angle of attack far faster than in BJJ. I think if you are seriously looking into competing in BJJ working with a wrestler is a must to help hone and perfect your game on your feet. Don’t just take my word for it, an example far greater than my advice can be seen if you were to look back at Rolls Gracie Sr. was regarded as one of the great innovators of BJJ, he actively trained and competed in wrestling tournaments believing that it was only going to strengthen and add new dimensions to his game.

The biggest contribution that wrestling has made to my jiu-jitsu game in on the mental side. After years of being a wrestler I have gained the knowledge of how to learn technique. I know it sounds weird, but having to learn how to learn is one of the hardest things to do. Over time your mind learns how to absorb info then transferring it into motor skills through repetition. The mental toughness also comes into play. In wrestling you are pushed to your physical and mental limits, this builds a toughness creating the ‘never say die, I can do this’ that comes in handy when things get tough.

For all the positives of wrestling for BJJ, there are a few areas where wrestling can hinder your jiu-jitsu game. First one of the man things wrestlers are taught to do when they feel off balance and need to secure a position is to post an arm out on the mat. In BJJ this can leave you open for armbars and kimuras (trust me when I first started training in the gi it was armbar city for people on me). While the grinding, pressuring, offensive nature of wrestling can help you. It will leave you open for other submissions as well. A wrestler trying to power in a double and leaving a neck exposed will quickly feel a guillotine choke get slapped on. (on a side note, my last trip to Rio Mario Sperry taught an mma class on beating American wrestlers filled with guillotine variations) The number one submission wrestlers fall into, in my opinion, are triangle chokes. Because wrestlers are taught to smother and cover there opponent, when in guard they tend to keep there head down and weight heavy, this coupled with the posting on the mat essentially give away the choke. (see Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen 1, or Royce Gracie vs. Dan Severn). In the beginning for wrestlers learning to get comfortable and developing your guard game is difficult. For wrestlers being on your back is the ultimate sin. I was always taught to matter what you do get off your back, AT ALL COSTS. This mentality still at times can be difficult to advance my guard game. While it is my guard is getting better flow, it is by no means as natural or as fluid as my top game.

Lastly I want to say that BJJ has improved areas of my wrestling as well. Because of no fear to the pin its made me a lot more comfortable to engage in scrambles on the mat. In wrestling this was never my strong point. But because of the constant ebb and flow of BJJ on the mat, I feel much more relaxed and calm in precarious situations and flowing out of them. My leg riding in wrestling has become much better, because of the high emphasis on taking the back as a dominate BJJ position.






Rolling monday night at Gordo's (photo by bjjpix.com)



Rolliing with Felipe Costa (photo by bjjpix.com)

Taking a quick breather waiting for the next round to start (Photo by bjjpix.com)










 

Don't Be Afraid To Swim In Deep Water

First off I want to say thank you to Dennis Asche and Connection Rio. Seriously I cannot stress how helpful they are to making this life changing journey a possibility. If you have any questions or interest in training in Rio please contact the great people at Connection Rio.

Now to the part people want to hear about....the training! These past couple of weeks have been a bit atypical due to the holidays, but great none the less. It was a short week of training at Gordo's due to the new year, but training picked back up on Wednesday. When I arrived in class, the first thing I noticed was the extremely large class size. Now that people are getting back from vacations everyone is ready to train. I would estimate the number the black belts around 12, probably 5-7 browns, and an even sprinkling of purple, blue, and white belts (between 4-6 each). Gordo showed a really slick little sweep from butterfly guard, which we drilled intensely. While butterfly isn't a position I tend to operate from I still made still made sure to get as many quality reps in as possible. The reason you ask? While coaching wrestling we (being my good friend Coach Lovendusky and I) like to refer to a persons cache of moves as your "toolbox", and you always want your tool box full of useful items because you never know when you are going to need to pull it out to "fix" something. The drilling ended and we went into king of the mat style sparring. This consists of a group of higher rank belts starting in the guard and then people filling in on top. Bottom man's objective is to sweep or submit, top man's is to pass the guard and whomever wins stays in. This style of grappling is a great way to see many different styles in a relatively short amount of time. To start out I wasn't grappling well, not bad, but still not where I wanted to be; grips were not coming, I was slow to react, and the overall flow was just not there. This then carried over to free training (both guys starting on the knees for 5-7 minute rolls). Again it was frustrating....very frustrating. But as with everything when things get tough or doesn't go your way you have two options....1. Get down on yourself and get the "I suck, I can't do this" mentality....Or 2. Suck it the F*ck up, bear down and realize that everyday is a learning experience and continue trying to improve. I am not one to go with the first option, you have to be MENTALLY stronger than that. Well I went on to finish the night with one of the best rolls I have ever had. It was against a guy a higher rank then me (no need for belt details) he was around my size and quick. We both started slow getting a feel and working for our grips from our knees. Soon he pulled me into his guard and we worked for position. As I tried to pass he quickly locked in a deep gi choke, the kind that not only chokes but just hurts like hell as well. The lock was tight, my head felt ready to burst, but I managed little by little to sneak a hand in and start to defend. I felt like I fought it off for a couple of minutes but in reality it was only probably about 20-30 secs of me slowly defending and improving, and him improving and working for the tap. I finally managed to escape and we were back on our knees again. I began to realize that as I reached in for his lapel with my left he would very lazily reach his right arm outside and to my lapel, so I baited him. I faked reaching for the lapel and when he reached I arm dragged and bootscooted around to his back. This erupted a furious flurry of scrambling across the mat, me trying to dig the hooks and ride and him trying to defend and reguard. He worked to half guard and went for a choke, I had it deep but he defended well and escaped. Another scrambling, he begins to escape out to his knees, I hit a single and switch to the double, to which he replied with a deep guillotine. As I am defending he is cranking, and then I smile. I realize he is straining to try and finish, there is no longer the methodical tempered JiuJitsu but rather muscling cranking and trying to force the finish. To me, knowing that I had taken him out of his comfort so far that he felt he HAD to finish, was to me, empowering. I escaped the choke, passed, and he got back into side, another scramble. I take his back and go for a choke, he defends and begins to escape. I try to bait into another choke I recently learned from Dennis and time runs out with him on the defensive. I'm not telling this in detail because I want to seem like a badass (trust me I tap way more down here than I tap people) I am telling this because just because something doesn't go your way doesn't mean you toss in the towel it means its time to bear down get to work and above all HAVE FUN!

Thursday was Dennis's class specifically for the CR house guests. It's a great class with tons of quality drilling and technique, and again lots of hard sparring. The great thing is everyone here is here for the same overall reason, to get better at BJJ. It really creates an ego free training environment where everyone is willing to share ideas, tips, and techniques.

Yesterdays training was very sparring oriented. Right after drilling warm ups we into king of the mat sparring, then free sparring, equaling in total a little over an hour of live rolls. Very intense and very fun. The evening was again filled with good rolls with intensity, and no matter what improving and having fun. On a quick note, that sweep I learned on Wednesday; the one that didn't really fit in my game, I used to sweep somebody in an intense roll...that's why you want to drill and work on things, you never know what tool your going to have to pull out of your toolbox.

These last couple of weeks I have had the great privilege to train on the same mat as multiple time world champion Antonio BragaNeto as he trains for the upcoming Copa Podio Tournament. It is amazing to be able to sit back and watch such a great practitioner of the Arte Suave. Its not that his game is super advanced (I'm sure he has things I have never seen or thought of) but it's the little things- placement of the arm here to keep it from being blocked, pressure here to keep your opponent flat. It's amazing Even watching film you will never get the insight you gain from watching it in person.

Now onto the title of this entry "Don't be afraid to swim in deep waters". When in the ocean you often hear people who are afraid of the water remark "stay out of the deep waters, you'll either drown or get eaten by a shark" This is the thought process of many either new to any combat sport or just plain tired. They look at someone and say "these guys are to good for me to try to compete with" or "I'm just too tired to keep up." What people need to realize is this is exactly what you want, especially here in Brazil. You don't come down to train with white and blue belts, you come down to learn great technique and roll with the huge selections of browns and blacks (not taking away from the lower belts because these guys are good too). You want to get in there and swim with the sharks and take everything they have to offer. The reason is if you can defend yourself and survive against the biggest, fastest, or smartest sharks, the smaller sharks don't seem too bad at all. As far as being too tired to go into the deep- as a wrestler, conditioning is key. Conditioning is the one variable that you yourself can control. Pushing your physical and mental limits is what you want. Last night I rolled against a Brazilian my same belt level, whom I will freely admit has a greater technical game than I do. I watch him hit some pretty slick stuff and we had a very fast and intense sparring round. The key was I kept pressure on him, not just weight wise but always working, always advancing, and soon he began to wilt. First he looked tired in the face, then his body, and then after I got a tap, he was done for the rest of the round. This is a guy whom is very technically sound and very fast, but I took him out into deep waters, and when he began to struggle, instead of trying to swim he let himself drown. I mean no disrespect for him like I said he is an incredible grappler and has put it to me more than once. In combat sports, and in life, we must be prepared to go into these deep waters, knowing that while we may struggle when we get back to shore we will be tougher ment.ally and physically

Here and Now, Why Brazil?

On 12-12-12 my girlfriend, Nicole and I arrived in Rio de Janeiro Brazil. My friends and family have a good idea why but for those of you that don't here is the scoop.

For the past 13 years I have been involved in the sport of wrestling, from middle school all the way through college and then transitioning to coaching soon after. Around the time I finished my collegiate career (two days to be exact) I took up the sport of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. That then carried me over into training Mixed Martial Arts and Boxing. Two years ago I found myself in Brazil training and staying with Connection Rio, now I am back down here on a more permanent basis, managing a house for Connection Rio, with the goal of branching out and coaching wrestling in the city.

First for anyone who is interested in training in Rio, please visit www.ConnectionRio.com. Dennis Asche and the CR crew is the BEST way of hooking up a place to stay (currently with 2 houses and a 3rd opening soon) and access to all the best training in Rio. Currently there are guys training At Gordo JiuJitsu, De la Riva, Checkmat, and X-gym. Its by far the best place to get the most out of a training experience in Rio.

Anyway, Over the course of my life I have developed a love for training. To the uninitiated combat sports (or sports in general) is a purely physical activity. Don't get me wrong I love the feeling of being pushed physically, being drained, looking good, getting stronger and faster. But its VASTLY underestimated mental side that is most important to me. Being pushed through mental barriers, building of confidence, but one of the most important thing, for me, is the learning. Learning new lifts, workouts, techniques, approaches of angles, and philosophies is an amazing way to expand not only yourself but of things around you.

Hence part of the reason for Brazil. Rio de Janeiro is the birthplace of Brazilian JiuJitsu. JiuJitsu Itself has been around for centuries in Japan as a closely associated grappling with Judo, both were developed as a martial art by the Samurai for close quarter hand to hand combat. In the Early to mid 1900's a Judo practitioner by the name of Mitsuyo Maeda Decided to Settle in Brazil, to repay a man who helped him get settled in he taught the mans Carlos, who in turn taught his brothers who all played and developed new ideas and techniques (going back to the learning thing) and thus creating Gracie JiuJitsu and then as it spread became known as Brazilian JiuJitsu. To be in the birthplace of a martial art and be able to meet and train with legends of the sport is an opportunity to good to pass up.

Also Brazil is in an extraordinary time right now, with the preparation for the Olympics and just growth overall there are opportunities abound if you have the desire. To be able to work down here teaching wrestling and working with kids and adults and be able to share my knowledge and make a difference, is an opportunity that I will always look back to and smile. and Besides IT'S FREAKING BRAZIL!

So in the coming months, perhaps longer, I am going to be sharing stories on training, workouts, nutrition thoughts, training philosophies, and info in general of my pursuit of my dreams here in Rio.

Purpose of this blog

Last time I was in Rio, I used my other blog to keep my friends and family up to date about both training and the day to day life in Brazil. This time around, I would rather focus my efforts on relaying stories more strict to my training both on and off the mat, as well as tips, thoughts, articles, and philosophies. For stories about our day to day lives and adventures please go to my lovely girlfriend Nicole's blog www.rioderubia.blogspot.com, she is doing a great job of posting  on our adventure.