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| 'Coffee and Chokes' A pre-workout coffee before a great drill session with Dennis. |
Every week I seem to comment on how
great the training has been, or some new awesome opportunity I have
had here in Rio. I know it can get a little repetitious, but that's
just the kind of place Rio is. With top-notch gyms and world class
fighters seemingly around every corner you never know what
opportunity will pop up. Back home in the U.S. promoters will bring
in UFC fighters/World Champions to make guest appearances, but here
you train alongside members of the UFC/BJJ World Champions, or you
talk to them briefly as you both enjoy an Acai in a local restaurant.
Week in training
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| Some of the CR Crew. Photo by H. Moosbauer |
With
the start of the new month, came a start of a new focus for BJJ
technique. For the next month or so anytime I am drilling technique
the focus will be on 100 kilos (side control) and knee mount attacks.
For the last week or so I have been working various techniques and
drills with Dennis and Nabas. One of the more common drills we do is
a knee mount flow drill where we are constantly moving and shifting
our weight on our opponent for a set time. It's an exhausting (and
sometimes frustrating) drill, but I am already beginning to see
benefits from it. When rolling this week my movement and flow felt
better from all positions. I am also noticing openings for attack
more, and when the opportunity presents itself I am attacking with
more aggression and confidence. One of the more memorable rolls of
the week came on Wednesday at Nova Uniao against one of the many
talented purple belts who train there. We started rolling and he
quickly pulled me into his closed guard. I went for a standing guard
pass, he switched his grips to spyder guard and hit a nice sweep. He
pounced on me and during a scramble he took my back; I spent the next
few minutes moving and defending RNC's and bow and arrow choke
attempts. When he switched his positioning to try to use his lapel
for a choke I was able to scoot underneath him and come out the back
door. I quickly scrambled up, hit a spiral ride to break down his four
point positioning, and stepped in a hook. I faked trying to get the
second hook in and as he lowered his hand to defend I was able to hit
an Ezekiel choke for the submission. We continued to roll for another
minute or two before the round ended. I have been drilling the
Ezekiel from the back a lot over the course of the last few months
and it felt great to be able to apply it while rolling.
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| Showing some wrestling technique. Photo by vitophotography.com |
Training
hard all week I felt a bit beat up and tired by the time Friday came
around; but often times when I am tired I think of this quote “it's
not the days you put in when you want to workout that matter---it's
the days you don't want to work but still do that matter.” Anyone
can workout when they feel great but where the champions set
themselves apart is when they are a little tired and sore they will
still put work in. I went into boxing on Friday, telling my self
every second that I felt great and loved that I was at
training....and soon enough my sluggish feet started to perk up and I
started to move. I am glad they did, we started with 6 or 7 rounds of
dirty boxing sparring with only body shots and finished with 6 or 7
rounds of normal boxing sparring. It would have been easy to try and
coast through the rounds taking it easy but I picked the hardest line
up of guys I could to spar. Whether they were bigger, stronger, or
just plain better boxers/strikers I didn't care, I picked them in
between rounds and we went to war sparring. When the going got tough
I gritted my teeth, put on a smile went forward behind my punches. By
the time sparring was done I had a nice black eye and a small cut,
but I wasn't done yet. I put in another round on the bag, just with
speed and a high volume of punches and finished with a run. By the
time I got on the bus back to the house I felt ready to collapse, but
I felt good. I got a conditioning workout in later in the evening and
called it a day.
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| Just a little of all the food we had for the house BBQ. |
The
weather the last week has been a bit atypical for Rio, it has been
overcast or rainy for much of the time. But Sunday was the exception,
with the normal beautiful Rio weather making a great comeback. So we
at CR do what we do best on a sunny day in Rio- beach, BJJ, and BBQ.
Some of the guys got some great nogi work in on the house mats in
preparation for the upcoming nogi national championships coming up
this month. Others spent the day at the beach soaking up the sun and
trying to surf. In the evening we all got together chipped in and had
a massive house BBQ. Nothing is more relaxing than eating delicious
food pool side, listening to reggae, and having fun with friends.
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