The Theory of Evolution

After a great training session at Rio Fighters.

It's a breezy lazy Sunday here in Rio. Right now I am lazily rocking in a hammock in the CR garden listening to music and and reflecting on this past week. Besides writing up this blog todays only major task is to go to one of the local restaurant/bar and listen to some reggae. Relaxing days like this are what recharges me for the upcoming grind of training.

As I have been thinking about my training this week a saying that is on the wall of where I trained boxing in Michigan (Trigger Boxing) keeps coming to mind--It's not the strongest that survives, but the most adaptable. In order to succeed the world of bjj/mma a person needs to constantly evolve into the best possible version of themselves. This evolution and adaptation is what will carry you through an unforeseen situation and to new heights.

Just like there is in the biological sense, I believe there are two types of evolution in marital art-- Macro (large scale) and Micro (small scale). When I am thinking of the macro level I think along the lines of how your overall game evolves over time. It's the adding in of new techniques and theories that will transform and bring you to another level. A prime example is the work I have been putting on on refining my BJJ. I have been working on adding new passes into my top game and fine tuning the details of some of the passes I have been familiar with. The new techniques are making me approach positions with a different mentality that opens my game. Where I may have before been content to solely secure a dominate position or stopped thinking offensively, I now approach with the intent of constantly moving to a more dominate position and getting the finish. Speaking of evolution on a large scale, I am now even sometimes committing to playing guard. I even went so far as to choose working from guard with a 100 kilo 4th degree black belt while at the CR academy visit to De La Riva's. My thought was if I can get used to defending passes and working escapes, sweeps, or submissions against a large stronger and more technical opponent when I go against someone my own size and strength I'll feel even more comfortable. Well, in short I spent most of the round getting pummeled, passed, and submitted by this black belt. I never said macroevolution was a quick process.

With Professor De La Riva, at the CR academy visit.

Microevolution of your game involves how you make changes in you game in a given situation. It's how you adapt to a given situation in the moment. Say during a roll your partner keeps burning you with a certain pass, what changes are you going to make in your positioning to stop or counter the pass. A great example would be from my MMA sparring this week. During the spar I noticed that after throwing an inside leg kick he would back out at the same angle and keep his hands a little low. Knowing he would do this, I took the center of the cage and walked him back. After he threw his kick, he had nowhere to back up and I was able to cut him off, land a counter, and then work a takedown off the cage. After a couple of times countering him, he adapted his game and made adjustments, now instead of backing up, he stepped in with punches, catching me good and I had to adapt to his new strategy. Sometimes in competition you can take control from the start, but other times (especially at high levels) this won't work. In these cases you can't keep trying to fit a square beg in a round hole, you have to try something new; you have to adapt.  

Closing out this weeks blog (I have to get going to listen to those irie beats), I am happy to say I am getting back into competition in the coming weeks. Next weekend I will be competing in the kimono at the SJJSAF Sul Americano Championships, and plan on competing in the Rio International Submission Cup. I am also hoping on closing out 2015 with another MMA fight. I really have the competitive drive that I had with wrestling, and I am looking forward to representing Rio Fighters, Connection Rio, Senki Kimonos, and most importantly myself in competition.

Enjoying the Process

Working for the double. photo by mma4ever.

So it's been awhile since my last blog, sorry about that. I have been having a few issues with my laptop which I believe is in its final stages of life. When it takes you well over an hour just to to start up, plug in a spare keyboard, upload, add photos, and post a blog it saps your motivation to do so. Add to that the amazing Brazilian spring and that motivation goes to zero. BUT i figured out a solution (one that didn't include me using Nicole's most prized possession, her macbook) and I am back at it. I am sure most all of you know I won my MMA debut a few weeks ago. Leading up to the fight I had trained so hard and had done visualization work twice a day everyday that when the fight came I was totally relaxed and in another place mentally. Instead of feeling like it was my first fight it felt as if it were my 100th because I had done it all before so many times in my mind. I truly cannot thank my coaches/trainers Dennis and Milton, my teammates at Rio Fighters, my sponsors Senki Kimonos and Connection Rio, and Nicole enough.

It was great to throw on my Senki Kimono and get
some excellent work in with Dennis. Photo by D. Asche

The week after my fight I trained very relaxed and enjoyed eating just about whatever sounded good. It was a great way to rejuvenate my body and mind. Over the last couple of weeks we have had many guys fight both in amateur and professional MMA bouts and we have had a great showing. Win or lose everyone is showcasing great techniques and mental toughness. I think after the month we have had a lot of people have taken notice of Rio Fighters many good things are to come. On a personal note is was great to see many of the guys who fought either show excellent takedowns or takedown defense during their fights. It is a definite reaffirmation that what I have been teaching is working and that the guys are grasping things both technically and conceptually. I got back to 2 training sessions a day this week, but the focus is more on  improving technique and enjoying training. Don't get me wrong I am training hard, but I am working on adding new skills into all areas. During my training camp it was about improving what skills I had and working towards the single goal of winning, so I wasn't working on brand new concepts and ideas. Now I can open up my game, try new things and drill new techniques. Right now is very much a "time spend in the laboratory"  trying to discover new aspects of martial arts. Included in this is a return to training in the kimono. Four of the 11 sessions I got in this week were on the mat with the kimono on. After about 8 weeks of training without a kimono the grip game felt foreign to me, and I frustratingly got my butt kicked most of the week during specific positional training. That said by the end of the week things began to click a bit more.

photo by mma4ever

As I said above I have been making sure that I have just been having fun with my training. I am trying new things and enjoying the process of making improvements. If something doesn't work or I get in a bad position/submitted, it's not a "I have to close up this weakness or avoid doing this because in a few weeks I can't make that mistake" moment but now I have time to reflect on what I did wrong and what I can do in the future. There is no immediate rush, at this point I can just enjoy the process and carry on down the path. Which in my opinion is what being a martial artist is all about.