Festival de Lutas Contra O Crack

So last week I talked about the importance of healing and recovering after an injury, this week I kind of threw that out of the window. I didn’t train recklessly or do things I know would hurt me but I did get back to some training and I did compete. I’m still taking care of the ankle and being smart, it’s all about finding a balance of knowing when to push yourself and when to back off to recover.

Festival de Lutas at Tijuca Tennis Clube. http://www.rj.gov.br

Festival de Lutas Contra o Crack

On Sunday I participated in the Festival de Lutas Contra o Crack, which translated means festival of fights against crack. It was a multi-sport show to raise money and awareness for the fight against crack cocaine in Rio de Janeiro. The event was put on by BTT founder (and former UFC Champ) Murilo Bustamante. Working with Rio Sports Officials, Murilo set up 18 different fights in boxing, bjj, judo, mma and wrestling. Before I had injured my leg Antoine had asked if I would like to participate in a wrestling match at the even. I agreed and began training hard (which was how I had hurt my leg). After being hurt my main concern was recovering and I wasn’t sure if I would be participating. In the end I felt good enough to compete, especially for such a good cause. In the days leading up to the competition I drilled lightly to find out what I could and couldn’t do with my ankle.

The wrestlers with Antoine Jaoude Murilo Bustamante,
 and Rio's Secretary of Sport. http://www.rj.gov.br

On Sunday morning I headed to the Tijuca Tenis Clube to compete. The gymnasium was set up with a boxing ring and judo/bjj mat on one end, the cage in the middle, and the newly donated FILA mat at the other end. Wrestling was the first sport to be displayed with three matches. The other two matches featured a South American Games Medalist, and also a women's match between Brazil's Olympic Wrestling Representative in London and a woman from the Argentinian National Team. My match was against Felipe, who is a member of the Brazilian National Greco-Roman Team, and was the last match for wrestling. After warming up on the mats we were sent backstage under the arena and waited to be announced out. I heard my name called off and walked out to the mat. There was a ton of press and being announced as an American Wrestler a lot of eyes were on me. I went out calm and ready to have some fun. While it was a good natured and friendly match for a good cause it was still a match. Felipe was strong and tied up with me and snapped me down to a front headlock. I tried to defend but was unable to escape and he forced me out of bounds, which gave him a 1-0 lead. We restarted and I shot in on a head outside single, I cut the angle low and got the takedown. It's been years since I have done either Freestyle or Greco and I didn't even come to turning him. I was able to use angles and hit some nice shots. As the period ended I was up 7-1. In the corner Pirata, who was coaching me, told me to be careful because he was a Greco guy and not to go upper body with him. We came back out for the second period and Felipe surprised me with a quick low single, which I just barely defended. I tied up and tried a slide-by, but he defended, countered, and scored on me. I scored a takedown off a scramble, which Felipe answered back with a takedown of his own off another scramble. By this time I played it smart choosing my ties and being careful not to hurt my ankle. I saw an opening and hit a nice hard double which I finished on the edge. Time was short and in the last few seconds during a scramble I tweaked my ankle- nothing serious but it still hurt like hell. The match was over and I won 10-5. I want to say I'm glad it was a freestyle match. If it had been greco it would have been tougher and things could have easily gone the other way. They had a nice medal ceremony after and then I watched the rest of the event. It was great! I saw some awesome action in the other events, especially in a nice approximately 20 sec arm bar by one of the guys from BTT. In what I found to be humorous I had a bit of celeb status as a group of tweens wanted to get their picture with me and having never met an American they wanted to practice their English on me...that was definitley a new experience for me. I also didn't realize just how many people I know in the fight game as I saw a large number of people I have trained with, to my happiness after talking with them they all asked when I was going to be coming into train again with them. It's always nice to know your thought of in a positive light.

The other competitors in wrestling and I after receiving our Medals. http://www.rj.gov.br

It felt great to get on the mat and compete again. I hadn't wrestled competitively since my senior year in college, and it was awesome to be able to have the experience the thrill of a tough match again. It help reminds me why I fell in love with the sport. Also  it got my competitive juices flowing. Now that I am able to get back on the mat I am starting to prep for the Rio Open and the  end of July. I was able to get a couple of good training sessions in this week in Dennis' Class. My ankle is getting better and I am looking forward to gradually increasing my training and stepping back on the mat.

How to Cope With an Injury

Using my monkey feet to take the back. Photo by bjjpix.com

Unfortunately right now I am dealing with a bad ankle sprain and a twisted knee I got while wrestling last week. While it is getting better I still am limited in what I can do. This week I would like to spend some time talking about recovery, work outs, and still trying to progress in BJJ/MMA while out with an injury.

Having an injury is never fun; nobody wants or expects to have to deal with them. That said, just because you are injured doesn't mean you can't grow in your sport or that you can't still get some good training in. The first most important thing to remember when injured is that it's about recovery. You're number one goal is to get healed up so you can get back to training. Sometimes that mean's taking some time and doing nothing but healing. For the first 36 hours after my injury I spent most of my time in bed or on the couch using the RICE method-- Rest, Ice, Compress, Elevate. I put very little to no weight on my leg and just let it rest.

Nabas and I drilling armdrags . Photo by bjjpix.com

After a couple of days (and a doctors visit to make sure nothing was broken). I began to move around and started to get some light workouts in. This brings me to my second point; just because you are injured doesn't mean you can't workout. My ankle may be injured, but that didn't take my whole body out. Throughout the week I was able to do countless push-ups, pull ups, and resistance band exercises. Also as time went by and my ankle felt a little better I was able to start riding bike (thanks to Nabas for loaning me his bike) and swimming (with minimal kicking), and light drilling. Being able to keep up with some sort of exercise while out will do two things....1. Keep you from going mad from no training and 2. Allow for a easier transition when you get back to normal training. Keep in mind though your primary goal is recovery, it's ok to sometimes push yourself, but don't go beyond your limits; as the old saying goes it's better to be safe then sorry.

Open-guard work. Photo by bjjpix.com

The third thing that is important to remember while out with an injury is; Just because you can't train doesn't mean you can't learn. Typically when most people get hurt they won't go to training sessions they will just sit at home sulking. This week I made the effort to still go into training just to watch class and the techniques. Being able to see other people work on techniques and watching how they correct certain issues gave me a better insight to how the moves are done. For instance I have been having trouble with the transitioning of a cross-side armbars Dennis showed. It wasn't until I could sit back and watch others hit it (and Dennis' corrections) that I was able to understand how to do it. Sometimes looking at things from an outside perspective can give you the insight that you need. 

Six Months in Rio! Training with BOPE, Dennis Asche, and UFC Fighters

Nabas, Dennis, and I after a technique photo shoot. Photo by Hywel Teague

This week was the six month mark of living in Rio and with each passing day Nicole and I are enjoying Brazil more and more. We celebrated by going to a local sushi restaurant for their delicious all you can eat sushi. As with every week here in Rio I had some amazing opportunities, including going to BOPE training HQ and helping train some of the elite soldiers. Unfortunately my training was cut a bit short because of an injury, but I still got some awesome work in.

Week of Training

Drilling takedowns during Gringo Class. Photo by bjjpix.com

On Monday I got the week started off right. The mornings wrestling training was an intense drill session, with a little bit of live wrestling at the end. We were joined by UFC lightweight Gleison Tibau who came in to train with us while he is in Brazil. First off I don't know how that guy ever makes 155, he is the biggest lightweight I have ever seen; he easily walks around at 185-190lbs. Despite his bulk he is incredibly light on his feet, he moves quickly and precisely. When I had a chance to wrestle with him he didn't use his strength, he used technique. We went back and forth for a couple of minutes with shot attempts but finally he set up a double leg and used his explosiveness to drive me half way across the mat. I was still defending, but when he pushed me against the cage it was all over, he popped in his hips and lifted me like I weighed nothing, then took me down. Gleison is a super nice guy who stepped in to offer some great pointers on mma wrestling techniques. After class we were talking and he said he really enjoyed how I taught the class (the drills, details, explanations, etc.) and techniques that I used. It made my day. If there is one thing my time here in Brazil has taught me, it's that I deserve to be here with some of the best in the world. In the afternoon the other guys from the apartment (our two new guests Vlad and Berry) and I went to Dennis' Gringo Class. We worked some excellent armbars from side control

and as always the live rolling was competitive and fast paced.

Training with BOPE

At BOPE HQ.

On Monday night Antoine called and asked if I wanted to go with him to help train members of Rio's elite BOPE, and of course I jumped at the opportunity. So Tuesday morning Antoine picked me up and we headed across town to BOPE HQ. I had been there once before, for a CR visit, but this trip had a bit different feel as I wasn't there to tour, but rather work out with and help train some of the members of BOPE in wrestling. The base was alive and bustling. A large group of soldiers were in the briefing area getting briefed for some sort of mission. There was also a good deal of political activity going on as well. Several politicians from the prefecture were there to watch a judo demonstration by children who had suffered from crack addiction in the favelas. I know to most the idea of teens and children dealing with addiction of a drug like crack is a completely foreign idea, but it is an unfortunate issue that has to be dealt with in the impoverished areas of Rio. Luckily programs such as these, that work hand in hand with the UPP, help kids who have suffered one way or another from drugs, gangs, and violence. The programs offer structure, support, and a feeling of family. I have to say I was really impressed by the kids, they were all disciplined and worked incredibly hard. It was an awesome opportunity to watch them put there techniques on display. We headed down to the gym, which has a large mat space and began to train. There were four members of BOPE training with Antoine and I (normally there numbers are larger, but there were guys prepping for missions). They were all serious athletes who when not training for missions are training to fight or compete. On of the guys, Jayson, even spent time in the U.S training wrestling. I got a chance to show them some boxing for MMA takedowns and we had a chance to do some live wrestling. It was a ton of fun the guys were all in great shape and aggressive which always makes for fun training. By the time we finished there was a group of BOPE watching and I was introduced to them. They all were super friendly and excited to have me there. One of the guys, Richardo, spoke English and invited me back to train whenever I was able to and said if I had any questions about Rio to let him know. He then finished by asking me this question, “Have you ever trained parachuting?” To my response of “No” he said, “Well we'll change that.” An interesting statement to say the least. One of the members of the group I was introduced to was 01, the Commander of the BOPE. He was a very nice guy who was enthused to have me there working with some of his troops who were preparing to compete. As we left, passing by BOPE suiting up to go on patrol and various other members cleaning weapons, Antoine explained some of the rigorous training of the BOPE. Of the last class of 100 only three made it through the training to become members of the elite BOPE force. In the last three days the trainees go with no sleep, incredibly limited food and water; they spend the days running countless simulated missions and physical tests. The final step is running up the large hill (closer to a mountain) that BOPE HQ is on and performing tasks along the way; at three stages trainees must fight in hand to hand combat. The first stop is an all out MMA style fight (no protection gear) against a single opponent. Farther up the hill they have to fight multiple opponents at the same time, and at the final stage they have to battle armed opponents and disarm and “pacify” them. With training like that I can see why the BOPE are regarded as some of the best in the world. From BOPE HQ we headed over to Brazilian Top Team, where Antoine helps the MMA fighters train wrestling. There must have been 30-40 guys in there training. We finished the session out with about a half hour of live goes and hard drills. My take downs were feeling great, my flow started coming back strong and I started to use setups and take downs I hadn't attempted in a while. The guys at BTT are friendly and with my ever improving Portuguese I was able to talk and interact more after training. After a quick and delicious lunch at Bibi's with Maurilo Bustamante (former UFC Champion, one of the founders and head coach of BTT) and some BTT guys we headed back to Barra.

Some of the judoaka students at BOPE.

On Wednesday I had another tough Gringo class with Dennis. Nabas and I drilled hard takedown work during the warm up before we reviewed and drilled the armbars Dennis had shown on Monday. We then learned some great sweeps as our opponent stands in our guard. During the rolls I was able to work some new techniques into my game. It's a great testament to the power of drilling a technique. Even though I have learned some of the moves in the previous few training sessions, the high amount of reps drilled every session added them to muscle memory and allowed me to try them in live rolling. I'm starting to really get more comfortable with my own style of BJJ and finding things that work well for me.

On Thursday I had happen what nobody ever wants to deal with...injury. While drilling takedowns with Nabas and Vlad I landed wrong on a trip and twisted my knee and heard a pop accompanied by searing pain in my ankle. Nabas quickly ran and got ice and I immediately started to ice my leg. They helped me back to the house where I continued and wrapped my leg. On Friday my leg still hurt and as a result I had to spend most of the day in bed. Saturday morning I headed into the public hospital to get x-rays, thankfully they showed no broken bones—which was a huge relief. Hopefully my ankle will heal quickly and I'll be able to get back on the mat noon.

Focusing Hard on BJJ

Another week down here in beautiful Rio de Janiero, it's hard to believe that we are coming up on six months in Rio already. The time has flown by, I have a had a great time training, hitting the beach, and exploring what Rio offers. While I still trained striking and wrestling the main focus this week was training in the kimono.

After a great CR Gringo Class taught by Dennis.

Week in Training

Monday mornings wrestling class we reviewed and added some technique to shot defense. In addition to the normal defense of sprawling, whizzering, and working to go behind, we spend time focusing on using motion and hand positioning from blocking their opponents initial attack. We then broke into groups of four and did rotations. Monday afternoon was Gringo Class taught by Dennis. Dennis runs a great class with heavy emphasis on hard drilling and hard rolling. We started with guard passing drills, performing a number of movements and sequences to help create more flow in our passing. Dennis then showed a couple of ways to pass the spider guard. We then moved into live situational sparring. To start Dennis had one guy shoot takedown entries for 30 seconds non-stop, after 30 seconds the guy would finish his takedown and then we would spar from open guard. After 2 and a half minutes the cycle would be repeated, and then again it was the other guys turn. I was working with Nabas, a great purple belt from Jordan who is the CR house manager for HQ and Premiere. Nabas is incredibly technical and flexible and offers a good style to counteract by grinding game. Our roll was filled with scrambles and positional changes with both of us battling hard. The free training went good as well, there are some great grapplers in the houses right now and the level of training is high.

Some of our guests L to R Kim, Arild, and Stefan drilling in the apartment.

On Tuesday's striking training we focused on muay thai. The team has a new muay thai instructor. Both him and his son have spent years in the sport and have excellent technique. Almost as exciting is that his son speaks good English. While I can grasp general concepts and some details in Portuguese, it is nice to be coached and corrected in English. I could really focus on the details and ask questions as they came up. My flow and mixing of punches to kicks is getting better, but I still really need to work on the idea of using my hips more and kicking “through” my opponent.

Wednesday and Thursday were filled with grappling of various sorts. We had another excellent Gringo Class with Dennis, covering rolling loop choke and specific training from the sprawl position. Like Monday the training consisted of 2 cycles each person of 30 seconds continuous sprawls and then 2 and a half minutes of sparring from the sprawl position. On both Wednesday and Thursday I got some great nogi work in with Dennis. He was doing a technique shoot for a BJJ magazine and wanted to sharpen it up so on both days we spent an hour + drilling. For anyone staying at CR if you have the opportunity to be taught by or work with Dennis do so. His techniques are incredibly solid and he thinks about little details most people over look. He also has the great ability to see the areas in peoples games where improvement can be made and help you to correct them. Thursday also had a great wrestling session covering countering kicks with takedowns and wrestling against the cage.

Chilling out in between rolls during an academy visit. Photo by bjjpix.com

On Friday I woke up feeling great, I'm talking the best I have felt in a long time. In striking during the footwork drills I felt light on my feet and was cutting good angles. During the pad work (both boxing and muay thai) I was moving good, keeping good distance, and snapping my punches and kicks. After my rounds I talked with Jean Pierre, the boxing coach about my striking and some concepts to work on.

After striking I went down to the beach with Nicole and had a quick swim in the ocean. From there I went back to the apartment grabbed my kimono and nogi stuff, had a quick coffee from the bakery down stairs and headed off to Gringo Class. The drilling was fast paced, and flowed good, we spent time doing guard replacement and sit-out drills, and then repped out the techniques we learned throughout the week. Dennis showed the roll through anaconda choke from a front headlock, which works hand in hand with the rolling loop choke he had shown earlier in the week. We then moved into specific training. First we did the takedown to open guard training that we did on Monday, then we switched and did the 30 second sprawl and turtle cycle we did on Wednesday. I worked with Arild during the specific training; he is a talented grappler who is continually on the move/offense. It made for great training because we worked at a high speed the entire time with neither of us letting up. To finish a couple of us were placed in the center of the mat for eight minutes with fresh people working in every two minutes. I was tired physically, but mentally I felt determined. I continually rolled hard and didn't have time to think about things only act and react. As a result I hit some beautiful sweeps and reversals as well as offensively advance positions. Dennis really encouraged me to push the pace during the cycles and rolling, never allowing me to slow down and think. As a competitor, having an instructor there who is pushing me mentally and physically is phenomenal. It really helps to bring out the best not only in myself but everyone else as well. After the class Hwyel (who is the creator of BJJHacks.com Check it out for awesome videos) showed me a very smooth way to take the back that fed right into a flower sweep if my opponent defends.

Nicole and I at the Lapa Arches

After the class Nabas, Dennis and I changed into our nogi gear for the technique photo shoot. I was an interesting experience and cool to see how much work and detail goes into capturing the technique photo series for a magazine. You take a look at something in the magazine and you don't really think about how the photos have to capture the angles and flow, from step to step, to capture the details of a technique.

The weekend was, as always, a nice and relaxing way to round out the week. My time consisted of drilling some technique, eating good food, watching UFC with friends, and relaxing at the beach. Life in Rio consists training hard, playing hard, and enjoying life---and that's what it's all about.

Stand up work at Nova Uniao, Tropa Thai Social Program, and Exploring Rio

After Muay Thai training at Nova Uniao

This past week had its ups and downs. At the start of the week brought the usual great training, then I had a few days of being sick and then rounded the week off by getting out and experiencing more of what Rio has to offer. Even though it is never fun being sick I still had a chance to learn a lot.

Week in training

Getting some sparring in while visiting the Tropa Thai social program.

Monday morning I worked on wrestling, focusing on drilling takedowns to counter various kicks. After wrestling I met up with Simeon and headed into Nova Uniao for the afternoon. The first session I caught was nogi grappling. The class was very drill heavy, the warm up was completely sport specific movements. Some of the drills included swinging armbar drills and triangle drills. Each guy would quickly (and correctly) hit 10 reps to each side, switch with their partner, and then rep out another set. The live rolling was great. It seemed like every person I rolled against had a completely different style, which was awesome because it really forced me to adapt quickly and work my game. Immediately after Nogi I threw on the gloves and shin pads and did the Pro Muay Thai class. The instructor was a phenomenal coach and by watching him it was quickly apparent he has spend decades in the sport. He ran us through multiple combos. At first we would work a combo slowly and technically, and then we would switch to fast paced rounds with movement and speed. After about 45 minutes of fast paced drilling we did specific technical sparring. One guy could only spend the round throwing punches while the other guy could only throw kicks. This would go on for a three minute round and then you would switch rolls with your partner. The drill really allowed you to see more openings and work counters. We finished the session with free sparring and core work.

Melanie, one the the CR guests, training at Tropa Thai.

Tuesday morning I headed into Nova Uniao and got some great boxing training in. The main focus was aimed at head movement and countering (both things I need to work on). The coach would show three or four possible slips or counters and then we would alternate rounds with one guy throwing and the other guy working on the techniques. We finished up with a final 3 minute round with our hands behind our backs and all we could use was head movement and footwork to evade punches; it was a great drill and even at a slower pace a difficult one. After doing the drills I can see why Nova Uniao's Top level fighters, such as Jose Aldo, can be do dangerous and elusive on the feet.

One of the talented students at Tropa Thai

On Tuesday night a group of us went out to Tijuquinha and checked out Eduardo “Edu” Pachu's social program Tropa Thai. Edu, an accomplished muay thai and MMA fighter, has been running a free muay thai program for kids in a small favela for many years. Twice a week the concrete basketball courts behind a local school fill with kids of all ages who come in to learn muay thai from some of the best in Rio. The training is broken into two classes, one for younger children and one for teens on up to adults who have worked with Edu. The kids were very good technically and had a lot of spunk. Not only that but they are tough as well, not being able to train in a gym these kids make do training barefoot on rough concrete flooring, I know a lot of adults in the states that wouldn't have the mental toughness to do that. While most of the group watched, Melanie a guest from Boston, and I participated in the second class for teens and adults.

We did a lot of technical sparring and I had a lot of fun working new stuff against the kids (and they had fun getting to punch and kick a gringo). In addition I got some great tips from the instructor, who was able to spot some holes offense and defense. While the training was great, I have to say the most enjoyable part of going was watching the kids train and learn. Social programs like Tropa Thai offer the kids something constructive that will build character and create opportunities for them. My Portuguese is getting good enough to where I could talk to some of the kids and explain to them who we (the CR Gringos) were and what we are doing here. When I told some of them that we were from across the word, train martial arts and we came to watch them train the kids faces beamed and they worked extra hard to make good impressions on us. I really enjoyed going and I hope to make it back Tropa Thai in the future.

On Wednesday I woke up feeling pretty crappy. I was dead tired and just felt sick. I went in and sparred. It was not the best sparring session ever. My striking felt slow and I just couldn't seem to get into the rhythm of things on the feet. When I got to the ground though I felt good. I was able to work good top control and land some nice strikes. Unfortunately I also slightly reopened the cut from last week, not badly but it still kept it from healing up.

Out in Rio

The view from inside Sao Sebastian Cathedral.

For the next few days I did not feel well at all. I spent most of the time sleeping. I decided to take a long weekend, just relax and get better. By Saturday afternoon I was finally feeling better, so Nicole and I headed out into Rio. We first headed to Lapa, which first took a bit longer than expected due to a difference in bus routes (thanks Google Maps), but we made it none the less. On the first Saturday of every month Lapa hosts a huge flea market along one of the streets. While some of the stuff was pretty touristy, there was also a lot of cool antiques and trinkets. While walking there were various people singing or playing music so it made for a very festive and enjoyable time. While in Lapa we also went and saw the famous Lapa Arches and The Sao Sebastian Cathedral. The cathedral was really unique because it is a giant cylindrical pyramid. To look at it from the outside you wouldn't have any idea it was a church. Inside though you are able to see the beautiful stained glass artwork in the window and tons of beautiful church artwork. Originally we were going hike up Morro de Urca (the large hill next to Sugar Loaf) and catch the sunset, but we ran a little late to make the hike in time. Instead of stressing we did the Carioca thing and just walked a long the water until we came up to Bar Urca. Bar Urca was featured in Anthony Bourdain's “No Reservations” as a great place to snack and watch the sunset. It is. While the bar was busy and a bit chaotic, once we got our food and drinks we headed to the break wall and watched the fishermen come in for the day. After we finished we walked through the neighborhood of Urca. It was very nice place filled with beautiful houses. I really recommend if you head to Sugar Loaf take the time to walk down to Urca and walk along the water. It's really relaxing, which iswhat you want your trip to Rio to be.

The view from Bar Urca overlooking the bay.

While it definitely not fun being sick the time off did allow me to heal up on a few bumps, bruises, and aches that my body had developed. Now I am feeling good and ready to jump back into training and start the week off right!