| Sparring at Rio Fighters, while wearing my favorite Senki rashguard. |
It's been a busy week here in Rio, full
of fun, good laughs, and great training. Last weekend we had a huge
house BBQ full of steaks, burgers, sausages and different salads.
Everyone chipped in about 15R and we ate like kings for hours. When
the BBQ finally died down we settled around the TV to watch UFC
Shogun vs Henderson 2. Watching exciting fights with a group is
always a ton of fun because everyone always gets into it and there is
a ton of crap talking. This was especially the case this past weekend
for Metamoris 3. Everyone chipped in and ordered the live stream of
Metamoris, one of our guests has a portable projector which we used
to project the event on the back wall of the living room. We
rearranged the couches, chairs, and made space on the mats. Guys
chipped in for snacks, chips, cookies, pizza, bacon wrapped
hotdogs--- you know all the stuff that would fit right in with the
Gracie Diet. Kevin, a guest from 10th planet JJ, created a
very in-depth betting system and just about everyone threw in there
picks, for winners, submission types, and even what position the
submission was hit from. In the end the pool was 55R and Irish John
had a come from behind win to get the pot of cash. The event itself
was entertaining but what made it was the in house commentary from
people hoping to win the cash.
Nicole and I also had a chance to
explore a bit more of Rio. On Saturday afternoon, we went to Parque
de Lage in Jardim Botanico. The park is a huge estate built in the
late 1800's by a wealthy European who had immigrated to Brazil. The
grounds of the estate is filled with lush green plants, huge trees
and quite a few monkeys. The main house is a massive stone building,
with huge archways and marble flooring. The center of the house opens
into a large courtyard, with big swimming pool in the middle. The old
kitchen has been converted into a cafe/restaurant and the rest of the
house is used by one of the local university's art program so as you
drink your coffee you can watch aspiring artists paint. We got there
about 45 minutes before they closed, but we really enjoyed it. After
the park closed we walked a bit to the Jockey Club and caught a
couple of horse races before heading back to Barra. Even after living
in Rio for well over a year, there is still a ton of great new things
to experience.
| The manor house in Parque de Lage |
Training
Over the course
of the last week or two I have really started to ramp up my training,
getting two sometimes three sessions in daily. A lot of it is
official classes, but I am spending more and more time on refining
and drilling technique both in grappling and striking. I've been
working a lot on my butterfly guard and developing ways that I can
using my wrestling to aid and strengthen my submission game. It's a
trial and error process on my part, some things work great, others I
get burnt on and find my self in a horrible positions or caught in a
submission. A lot of the time though I am seeing the potential for
things, I have to refine the techniques and mold them into something
that will work for me.
| Rolling with Milton. |
With my
striking, I am finally feeling comfortable again. I went through a
long period of just feeling out of rhythm when sparring. My feet
might work well, but my hands wouldn't release combos. I might be
throwing a lot of strikes but my distance was off and I was loosing
position. Things like that. It was getting frustrating, but I have
been putting in a lot of extra time shadow boxing, doing bag work,
and hitting pads, and things are starting to feel good again. I still
have a ton to work on, but I am making improvements. After a
particularly hard sparring session, consisting of about 6 rounds of
kickboxing, some grappling, and two rounds in the cage, Milton said I
had sparred the best he had ever seen me spar. That's a great thing
to hear after you feel exhausted from leaving it all out on the mats,
it makes you hungrier and want to work harder because you know you
are making the right improvements.
Lately a lot of
my grappling training has been luta livre and wrestling, but in the
last couple of weeks I have been making the effort to train more in
the kimono. I've been drilling in the gi and on Saturday's I have
been going into open mats and sparring the tough blackbelts at
Gordo's. The intensity is high and I have been having a great time. I
am looking to train in the kimono more and more, because I want to
compete as much as possible. I feel great and I really have the
competitive hunger again. I am planning on competing in two weeks in
the SJJAF Pan Americano Championships. The next couple of weeks I am
going to be putting in a ton of work and I can't wait to step back
out on the mat and get some hardware.
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