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| Post training in Rocinha. |
The cool “winter” weather of Rio is
gone and the sun has been out all week without a cloud in the sky. In
our down time here at CR everyone has been out working on their tan
at the beach or poolside here at the house. The warm weather at night
has been perfect for grilling food out on the barbeque and enjoying a
meal under the stars. Just because it was beautiful out doesn't mean
we didn't spend plenty of time in the gym. The house is currently
filled with dedicated athletes and competitors....so dedicated that a
couple of guys chose to integrate low single leg attacks to their
dance moves at a club here in Barra—that was impressive.
Week in Training
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| Escola de Boxe in Rocinha is a top notch gym to improve your boxing. |
This week I went into Escola da Boxe
Jorge Oliviera in Rocinha to train both muay thai and boxing. For
those who don't know, Rocinha is a large favela located near Sao
Conrado. Jorge Oliviera, one of my boxing coaches, runs the school
teaching all levels of fighters. The gym is located in the Complexo
Esportivo, which is a government funded sports complex. The complex
has free training in everything from judo to surfing for members of
the Rocinha community. The boxing training area is located on the
lower floor, and is a no frills training area (just the way I like
it). Mirrors line the walls, multiple heavy bags hang, and in the
middle of the training facility is the boxing ring. We warmed up with
some light muay thai shadow boxing and worked into light technical
sparring; one guy moving in for attacks and the other countering and
moving. After a couple of rounds one of my boxing coaches Jean had us
throw on some headgear and spar a few rounds of boxing. It was my
first time sparring since hurting my ankle, but I felt great. My
movement and defense felt good. I am working more slips to counters,
but I really need to focus on letting my hands go. I was throwing my
punches one or two at a time, and not mixing it up like I should. As
other guys finished their sparring I did some hard bag work drills
and hit mitts. We finished the training of with some technical muay
thai work, because I don't have any fights lined up we focused on
more traditional MT (instead of MT for mma) and we spent a lot of
time working kick defense and counters plus short elbow work.
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| Some of the guys sparring. |
On Friday afternoon I headed into Nova
Uniao for bjj training. At the 4p.m. session we covered two sweeps
from half guard. Rolling went good, but I have a bad habit of
stopping in certain positions. I will flow and battle then get into a
position and stop for a few moments and then start again. The problem
is, against good grapplers it allows them to catch up and start
improving their positions. It allows them to change from reacting to
acting offensively. One of the black belts and I had an intense roll
filled with a ton of scrambles. At one point while he was in open
guard I managed to quickly hit a standing pass, as he scrambled I
took his back and cranked a power half over and was threatening with
a choke. He found a gap in my technique and eventually scrambled out,
as he did the intensity elevated. He came at me with an aggressive
flurry of attacks, fighting hard for chokes (and getting a couple). I
used my wrestling in the scrambles trying to cut angles working to
get my offense going again. While some may view his aggression and
hard attacks as a negative, for me it was a compliment. I put him in
a position where he felt like he had to go hard and attack hard. I
enjoy the hard rolling and battling. To me it acts like a test of
ones gameness; battling to overcome tough situations and adversity.
After class we talked for a bit and he was a nice guy and I look
forward to rolling with him more. After class Dennis offered some
good pointers on technique and theories.
I grabbed an acai and espresso and
headed back to NU, threw on a dry kimono and trained in the night
class. We covered a nice choke and far side armbar from knee on
belly. I felt good rolling, I focused on continual movement and
opening up to go for submissions. One position I actively worked from
was turtle instead of just blocking and defending I took more of a
wrestling thought process and got hand control and worked sit-outs,
hip-heists, and other wrestling techniques. While rolling with a good
purple belt I hit a sit-out to a high turn in. Instead of finishing
the entire technique I tried to transition to the kimura. I gave too
much space and didn't secure the position first which allowed him to
hip over and take side control. It's a work in process, but there is
a lot more room to add in more of my wrestling for bjj. During that
roll the guy sunk in a deep bow and arrow choke, I was just able to
get my hands in to protect my neck, but it was tight. He kept
adjusting and trying to get the finish, a couple times I would see a
bit of black creeping in, but I was able to adjustment to survive and
eventually escape as he transitioned to another attack. He looked at
me and said in broken English, “strong neck” and we got back to
grappling. In the roll I was able to work a nice armbar from the
back. As I was cranking it and he was fighting it, he tried to roll
through but I adjusted and got it in deeper; he didn't tap but the
instructor gave a warning for safety and I let it go. It had to be
deep and there was no point in risking injury. After I caught the bus
back into Barra, thinking about training and admiring the scenery I
couldn't help but think of how fortunate I am to be here in Rio. I
really do love this place and it's feeling more and more like home.
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