AlfaBarra Submission and BJJ Tournament--Competing in Rio

The days are flying by as we are nearing the end of our first year in Rio. With the year closing out, I have found myself looking back on some of the goals I had set at the start of Nicole and I's great adventure to Brazil. Some I have absolutely crushed, but some I still have on my list. One of my goals was to compete often. Unfortunately on that goal I fell a bit short. It wasn't intended, but I was focused on other things and it was easy to just say “I'll do the next tournament.” Well this last week I got back on the mat to compete in the AlfaBarra Submission and BJJ Tournament.

I decided to compete on short notice and got my registration done on Tuesday (which was surprisingly easy to do). The week was filled with a ton of training, a lot of live rolling nogi and drilling in the kimono. I made sure to not only drill the techniques that I use often, but also drill positions that I was not comfortable in such as escaping back, or working so escape/reverse from side control. On Wednesday (which was a Brazilian holiday) a large group of us in the house decided to get some good gi training in on the house mats. In my second roll, my partner tried to take my back launched into a deep choke using his kimono. I felt comfortable and was defending, then next thing I know I was back at home in Michigan dreaming of being out in the woods.....then suddenly I was back on the CR mats with a group of guys standing around me. I asked what happened and they told me I got put to sleep. I laughed, fixed my kimono and continued the roll. The rest of my rolling felt great I was incredibly relaxed and felt good in my transitions and guard passes. After training a few of us hoped in the pool and relaxed under the Rio night's sky. The rest of the weeks training sessions went good and I couldn't wait to step onto the mat on Sunday.

Skating in Flamengo in between training sessions.

Soon enough the week of training ended and the tournament arrived. For the submission category white and blues were together and purple, brown, and black belts were lumped into another category. There were seven guys in my weight, so in order to win it all I had to win three matches. In my first match, against a long and lanky opponent I locked up a body lock and took him down about a minute into the match. The rest of the match I played top and worked to pass. I bypassed his guard several times but my opponent was able to keep me from stabilizing the position, preventing my from scoring. In the end I won the fight 2-0. I didn't grapple bad, but I just didn't feel like myself in the roll. My next matched was much the same I had a couple of takedowns, and I few good scrambles but I just couldn't seem to get in my rhythm. I had a chance to watch my opponent for the finals, he played a good top game, but also had some great sweeps from bottom and overall seemed comfortable where ever the match went. As I started to warm up for my match I felt more relaxed, and started to remember my old pre-match rituals and warm up. I step out onto the mat feeling good, relaxed and ready to go. I quickly hit an elbow post to a double leg takedown right into the pass. I controlled the position and started to set up a cross side arm bar and then switched to a kimura attempt. He defended and tried to escape with a low single. I saw the opening and locked up a tight anaconda choke. I pressured the choke and felt him tap. The ref was on the other side and didn't see the tap, so I kept the lock (slightly lessening the pressure) and told the ref he tapped to which my opponent said he didn't. So I really really put the choke on, felt him tap again and waited or the ref to say stop. I finally felt like I hit my groove and rolled how I should have.

I tried to enter into the white and blue absolute but I apparently missed the sign up time, so I jumped into the purple, brown, and black absolute instead. In the first round my opponent was a muscle bound blackbelt who outweighed my by a bit, but I didn't care. I felt ready and was soon on the mat. I tied up with him, felt how he reacted, and broke away. I tied up again, knowing how he was going to react I quickly hit a Russian tie to a double leg. I cut the angle, finished the takedown and passed his guard....right into an anaconda choke. I hold was tight but I worked to defend, I could feel my neck cracking and popping and started to see darkness close in so I tapped. As I stood up and walked off the mats my friends Reyzinho and Humberto reminded me that we had worked escaping the choke from that position a couple of weeks ago, I completely forgot it in the heat of the moment

I waited for about four hours, cheering on my friends, until it was time to compete in the gi. My opponent quickly got his grips and jumped guard, hitting a sweep before I could set my base. To make matters worse in a scramble he got one hook in and locked in a rear naked choke. As I defended he got the other hook in scoring more. My main concern was the choke though, I defended as he squeezed, tried to improve the lock and then squeezed again. I kept defending, escaped the choke and escaped to my feet, as he stood I hit a lapel drag and attempted a back take, I scored a takedown but he was able to secure bottom half, the rest of the match was me, working to pass and score and him defending, blocking, and stalling with the lead. In the end I came up short. I was not happy (honestly as I am writing this I can feel the fire in my gut). Look, my opponent was good, he went on to win the division in a very dominating manner; but I didn't perform my best and I feel that if I had things would have gone differently. Afterward the match I threw on my shorts and went for a run down the beach analyzing my match as I ran... I came out slow and let him play his game instead of imposing mine. That's what pissed me off the most. I know I won a gold medal and I hit some new techniques I have been working on, but man finishing off the day with a loss leaves a bitter taste in your mouth.

Thank you to both Connection Rio and Senki for the great training gear
and opportunities in Rio!

It felt great to compete again though, to break off the rust and enjoy the feeling of winning, be pissed about the losses, and feel that overall rush of competition. I am ready to embrace training with a renewed vigor and purpose. Any stagnation I may have felt is gone and my motivation is stronger than ever. I can't wait to start get back on the mat and continue on my journey.

I would like to say thank you to my sponsors Connection Rio and Senki Kimonos. Senki has been providing me with great kimonos and other training gear, and I am proud to represent such a great company (www.senki.com/br). Also without the help of CR and Dennis Asche both on and off the mat, our (Nicole and I's) Brazilian adventure would have been much more difficult. Also I would like to say thank you to Professor John Machado, for allowing me to represent his team (RCJ Machado) in competition. I am thankful for the opportunity and look forward to representing the academy and my sponsors in future competitions.Ossss.

CR BBQ and Working My Guard Game

Just some of the people at Saturday's BBQ. Photo by vitophotography.com

It's been a busy week down here in Rio at the CR house. Since the start of the week the house has been full with BJJ enthusiasts from all over the world. Currently we have people staying here from the U.S., Canada, Ireland, France, the UK, Jordan, Germany, Netherlands and Poland. The belt levels in the house are as diverse as the people; there is a mixture of white, blue, purple, one brown and two blackbelts. With so much diversity we are constantly being exposed to new concepts and ideas involving both BJJ and life in general.

Because of the BJJ diversity in the house I spent a good portion of this week training with guys in the house. I got in several good drill sessions in with Mike, spending a lot of time on my guard game. Most of my game is either top or scramble oriented, so my technique from guard isn't as strong as it could be. It's not that I feel uncomfortable from guard its just that I tend to create scrambles to either escape to my feet or reverse, instead of using technical sweeps or working for submissions. While I have pretty good success with it, I recently realized I need to build a more technical guard game and show a little more diversity from bottom. Honestly some (and by that I mean a lot) of my technique felt loose and sloppy, which was both frustrating eye opening. That said I realize I need to work hard on it to turn the corner on my training. To make improvements you need to get out of your comfort zone, and that is what I am doing.

In my wrestling class I covered some techniques from the underhook series. I went through a basic snatch single, an ankle pick, and a knee tap attack. The nice thing about the series of attack is that it works great in both gi and nogi grappling. We spent a good hour and a half in the Rio sun drilling each attack. On Friday and Saturday a group of us got together and rolled nogi. We divided into groups some inside, some outside and we rolled 6 minute rounds for the better part of an hour. Overall I felt great, my cardio was strong (thanks to my recent sprint work), my top game and scrambles felt good, and I even played a little guard. With my guard I found varying success; I was able to hit a couple of nice sweeps, but I couple of times I got my guard passed and found myself getting smashed. In the end though it will only make me better.

CR BBQ

Photo by vitophotography.com

On this past Saturday CR had a huge sponsored BBQ, with many members of the BJJ and MMA community in attendance. Some of the guests included coral belt Sylvio Behring, Gordo, Terere, Liuz Dias, Cleiber Maia, Antoine Jaoude, and Claudinha Gagelha. Starting at noon we fired up the grill and continually had food cooking until after 6 p.m.. It was great to have so many members of the community here together with the guests here at CR, talking BJJ, swimming, laughing, and eating delicious food.

Also Bossa Boards founder Nicolai came over with some of his different designs and taught longboarding techniques. The road along the house was filled with gringos riding longboards with varying success. Having the different boards designs let people see just how each style handles and rides differently from the others. He even took a minute to switch out the bushings on my board and make a couple of small adjustments to make boarding better. Thanks Nicolai!

One of our guests Nico riding a Bossa longboard.
Photo by vitophotography.com

To finish the day off a group of us watched UFC 167 here at the house, while others went out to Copa to check out the nightlife. It was a great way to finish out the week, with friends, good food, and good times.

Luta Livre and Working Hard on My Portuguese

Longboarding through the streets of Barrinha.

Another week down and closing in on eleven months in Rio, and all I can say is that it just gets better and better. The weather started out a bit atypically, with several days of rain. For the weekend though the sun returned and it was perfect beach and skate weather. I just returned from skating though the streets of Barrinha (the neighborhood where the house is located). The temperature is about 73F (about 23) and the nights sky is clear, perfect for a relaxing longboarding session.

Rolling Luta Livre

After training at Equipe Pequeno

One of the highlights of this week was going with Alexander Pequeno Nogueira to his luta livre academy near Complexo de Alemao. On Thursday afternoon several of us met up, piled into Pequeno's car, and headed to train. Pequeno showed some great attacks from multiple positions from leg locks to a really nice armlock from top half. Some of the leg lock positions were a bit difficult for me (because I have a basic leglock game at best), but I really enjoyed the armlock from half. With the technique you bait the deep half, trap the arm that shoots under your leg, and attack arm lock.

After training pizza

The rolling was intense, not mean or ill spirited, but intense. It's been a while since I have rolled with pure luta livre guys, and I forgot just how fast paced they roll. The first roll I did, I initially approached it a bit too lax. Before I knew it I got snapped into an anaconda, defended, then got my back taken and got caught in a deep rear naked choke and was forced to tap. Getting my back taken and submitted so fast is something I am not used too, and I ramped up my intensity as well. I hit a double from the knees, passed into side control and went for a cross side arm bar. He defended and we ended up on our knees again. I hit a slide by, took his back and hit a choke of my own. The rest of the rolls were much the same, hard fast paced sparring, with a constant change of positions. Besides the more active rolling pace another difference was the types attacks the luta livre guys were going for. I found myself defending leg locks, bicep slicers, and shoulder locks. I had a ton of fun rolling, and after training I hit the sauna to relax and stretch.

A large group from the gym headed out to get pizza after the training and asked if I wanted to go, it was a great opportunity to relax and get to know the guys better. I have been working hard and speaking more Portuguese, so it was great to talk only in Portuguese and get to know the guys I was training with more.

While it's not essential to know speak the language down here in Rio, knowing a little bit will go a long way. A fairly large number of people speak at least a little English. Most academies will have at least one person on the mat who can speak to you. That said knowing even a little Portuguese will take you a long way. The Brazilian people are incredibly helpful and nice people, so making an effort to know your basic, greetings/please and thank yous will make any person here more willing to go that extra mile to make sure you get what you need or where you want to go. 

Working Through Frustrations in Training and Longboarding Through Rio---BJJ Lifestyle at its Best!

You would be hard pressed to find a better place to live and train than Rio de Janiero. After training with world class athletes, you can sit back and enjoy a cold acai or fresh agua de coco. In your down time you can swim in the pool or head to the beach and soak up some sun. If you feel like being more active you can go for a hike along Pedra de Gavea's jungle path, or hop on your bike or longboard and ride along the city streets and beach side bike paths. Nicole and I were talking today and she brought up a great point; back in the U.S. everything was done with thoughts/plans for the future, but here in Rio you focus more on the present. You can just enjoy what you are doing at that moment take everything one day at a time.

Just before the start of the afternoon BJJ training at NU. Photo by
JFC Jarutas

Week in Training

Me next to my seminar flyer in N. Friburgo.

I started my training this week a day later than normal (on Tuesday), because of a skin infection that showed up on Friday. Despite the late start to the week I still got in 10 training and /or conditioning workouts in. With striking training I learned some great Thai combos, involving work from the clinch. My training partner for much of the time was Milton Vieira. As we trained we played around with possible grappling transitions from the clinch work. Later in the week, while teaching, I was able to incorporate the muay Thai techniques into wrestling takedowns for MMA. The new position in striking led to a personal revelation on new ways to work wrestling. That is one of the great benefits of having great instructors and having a mind opened to learning new things.

After one of the training sessions Milton asked if I wanted to roll. Of course I said yes. We spend the next 15-20 minutes rolling. I felt great—my movement and transitions were smooth. I was able to work some offense and force Milton to react to my game, for a couple of moments that is. Any attack I made was quickly defended and countered. He is a world class grappler and the positions he was able to launch submissions from was mind boggling. After our roll Milton spend another 15-20 minutes showing counters to several submissions that he had tapped me with. All this just because he is a nice guy who likes training with me, you can't ask for anything better.

Me with Reyzinho Duarte who fought at Bitetti 18.

Training in the kimono at Nova Uniao also went good this week. I got in some good drilling with Dennis and some other guys, and also some great afternoon training under Fernando Bruno as well. With training everyday multiple times a day it is sometimes easy to get frustrated with your performance at any given training. This was the case earlier this week with one of my trainings. I set high expectations for myself in training, so when I felt a little rigid and stuttering in my game and not performing how I would like I walked from training frustrated. But on the bus ride home and later that night I was able to look back on that training, and pull away positives from my training. Yes I may have felt slower and rigid, but I saw openings and tried several different submissions I have been drilling and I was able to hit this certain pass I have been working on. Also even though I might now have rolled the best I trained hard and didn't give up. It's important to realize that just because a training session doesn't go the way you want it to doesn't mean that there was no positives to take away. It's all a matter of perspective and sometimes you have to look at things from a different angle. Doing this will help you continue past frustrations and in the end become better. This can be easier said then done. One of the things I have started to do is write my thoughts and ideas after my training sessions down. I'm not consistent with it 100% of the time, but when I sit down and write my thoughts on individual training sessions it helps me to analyze and reflect on my game more, and will hopefully lead to greater and faster improvement.

Bitetti Combat and Longboarding Through Rio

This past Thursday was Bitetti Combat 18 in Botafogo and large group from CR was in attendance. The fights were action packed and technical, with a fast paced main event ending in a nasty KO. There is something to be said for the crowds at MMA events here in Brazil, chants of team names, and cries of “Jiu-Jitsu” or “Luta Livre” often fill the air. You never know who will be in attendance at the fights either. I was able to meet MMA legend Paulo Filho, and see him give fight advice and tips to some of the guys backstage. Often times famous coaches, such a Murilo Bustamante of BTT, will be in attendance to corner members of their teams.

Longboarding along the beach, with Sugar Loaf in the background.
Photo by Dennis Asche.

This past week I was also able to start up a new hobby, one that I wanted to start for a long time,-- longboarding. Connection Rio is working with Bossa Boards to soon bring another aspect of the BJJ lifestyle to people staying here. This past Monday I received one of the newly made boards. The style of board responds similar to how a snowboard responds and after a little bit of practice and help from Dennis I was skating along Flamengo park. The rest of the week I took any opportunity I could to get out and skate throughout the streets of Barra and along Rio's beach side bike paths. It not only has been fun learning to skate this past week but it also has saved me a ton of time traveling from one training to the next. Just writing about longboarding is making me anxious to be able to get out and skate tomorrow in the hot Rio sun.