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| Nicole and I on Ipanema beach. |
Yesterday may have been the most
relaxing/fun day so far of the new year so far. It was a beautiful
sunny day here in Rio and Nicole and I decided to make the most of
it. After our normal Sunday breakfast and trip to the farmers market,
we headed into Ipanema for the day. On Sundays (and holidays) they
close a large stretch of the road going along the beach for people to
bike, skate, or board along. It is a smooth road perfect for cruising
along on our Bossa Boards. We skated all the way down to Aporoador
where I grabbed a quick lift at the outdoor “flinstone's” gym and
then headed back along the beach. We cut into Ipanema grabbed some
acai and went into the “hippie fair” that takes place every
Sunday. The fair has a mixture of paintings, carvings, jewelery,
clothing, and other nicknacks (I was VERY tempted to by a small blow
gun). From there we skated back to the beach and headed to Post 10
where every weekend until February 9th they have free
concerts on the beach. We relaxed and took a nap in the shade of the
stage until the music started. There was a DJ playing a mix of songs
and then a Brazilian rock band (no idea who) played. The beach was
packed with a few thousand people everyone having a great time
dancing and enjoying the music. Rio does a great job with putting on
free to the public events like this and Nicole and I are definitely
going to try to make it again next week.
Week in Training
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| Teaching at Rio Fighters. Thanks to Senki for all your support! |
It's
been a busy week on the mats down here in Rio filled with wrestling,
MMA, nogi, BJJ, and drilling. On Wednesday a group of us got up early
and visited X-gym for their morning class. When I say got up early I
mean we were all up around 6 am to eat and pack for the 7:30 class.
The warm up was an extensive calisthenics and gimnastica natural
movements and by the time we were down I was finally fully awake. We
covered a nice butterfly sweep into an arm triangle, really focusing
on the little details. When the class first started it was a very
small class (composed of mostly the guys from the house) but they
quickly started to file in. Soon we started rolling. As the rounds
went on more and more blackbelts stepped onto the mats....and we just
kept rolling. After a roll almost every blackbelt I rolled with
stopped to take a minute (or more) to explain to me something that
they noticed I had to work on or correct. It was awesome that they
would take the extra time helping someone they just met to make
improvements. There was an older 3rd
degree black belt, whom after thoroughly destroying me took about 10
minutes to give me some technique advice. Round after round ticked by
and soon we looked up and saw it was 10 a.m.--- we had been on the
mats for 2 ½ hours! Class ended shortly afterwords and after a quick
acai headed back to CR.
On
Friday I headed into Laranjeras to train with Professor Cleiber Maia
at his gym Equipe LPM. I messed up the time of training and arrived
WAY early so Cleiber came to the academy picked me up and took me to
his house. There we spent an hour or so talking BJJ technique,
philosophy, and history. I learned a lot through our conversation. We
headed down to training, where we covered a judo technique and a
really interesting pass that I had never seen. Cleiber teaches a
really active and physical style combining it with his refined
knowledge of technique. The rolling was competitive and I felt pretty
good, I was able to hit a few techniques that I have been drilling.
It's always nice to start hitting new things that you have been
repping and trying to refine. It helps to give you a real feeling of
improvement. After rolling the Professor took about 15 minutes to
work with me on things he noticed I had to work on. Again to have a
high caliber black belt there to help out is just an awesome thing.
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| Equipe LPM |
This
past week I have also started training more regularly at Milton
Veiera's Rio Fighters.
As I said last week, Rio
Fighters
is a new gym in Humaita, with great facilities and training. I will
be both training and teaching wrestling there. Milton's dynamic and
aggressive style plays well into my nogi game and I am excited to
continue to work with him. His thoughts and techniques for attacking
the anaconda is mind blowing, he even has a back escape to anaconda
from seat belt position (which I have seen him hit on good black
belts). Right now I am training mainly during the MMA pro training.
Without being officially open there are around 20+ experienced pro
fighters already training there regularly it will be interesting to
see how things pick up when it officially opens. I also spent a lot
of time drilling my takedowns this week. My timing has been a bit off
on my offense, which has made me play a more conservative game. I
don't like that. It's frustrating seeing openings and missing them,
so I have been drilling my setups and timing for my attacks. I still
have a ways to go to get back to form, but things are already feeling
better and smoother. I have high expectations for 2014, but I can't
sit back and hope to hit my goals. I have to MAKE them happen; it's a
long road, but one I am happy to be going down.
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